FicWad

The Valley of the End is a massive valley close to the border of the Land of Sound and the Land Of Fire. There was two giant statures of the two men that was the cause of the valley, Madara Uchiha and Hashirama Senju. Madara Uchiha wanted to defect and destroy the home he had helped build with the unwilling aid of one of the gigantic Tailed Beasts the Nine Tailed Fox. Their battle had destroyed and reshaped much of the land, making it as the valley is known as now.

To symbolise this Hashirama's statue was on the right side, representing the Land of Fire, and Madara was on the left to symbolise his defection. Of course much of the valley was destroyed by two young boys which is almost a reply of the famous battle.

“NARUTO!!!!”

“SASUKE!!!!”

Two thirteen year old boys shouted out at the same time before they clashed in mid-air. One boy has his voice filled with desperation and pain, and the other was filled with desperation and anger.

The first boy, a spiky blonde haired, blue eyed boy with whisker birthmarks on his cheeks is clad in a bright blue and orange jump suit and had a forehead protector with the emblem of a spiralling leaf on it. The other was a dark haired boy, who wore a navy blue shirt with a high collar and white shorts who also wore a forehead protector with the same symbol as Naruto's.

These children are Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha in that order. Sasuke wanted to defect to the enemy in order to gain more power and Naruto was trying to bring him back. While the two were in mid-air, the boy's pulled their right arms back. A spiralling sphere of pure energy, known as the Rasengan, was in Naruto's palm. Surrounding Sasuke's hand is a high concentration of lightning, known as the Chidori, that was making crackling sounds as if a thousand birds were chirping all at once.

However Naruto was covered in a dark red cloak that was in the shape of a fox and Sasuke had two gigantic flesh-like wings spouting from his shoulder blades.

As the two boys reached each other they threw their arms forward and their techniques connected. The grinding, rotating power of Naruto's spiralling sphere and the penetration and overall speed of Sasuke's cackling lightning formed a massive dome of pure energy around the two, destroying the environment around them both.

Within the dome Naruto and Sasuke were seemingly hovering in mid-air the two of them trying their damn best to overcome each other's techniques. Naruto was aiming to subdue Sasuke and was not putting his all into his sphere of chakra. Sasuke on the other hand was aiming to kill.

Unfortunately because he wasn't putting his all into his attack, Naruto lost the clash and his Rasengan failed him but not before redirecting his attack to Sasuke's forehead protector and scratching across it. Sasuke with a determined yell pushed forward with his Chidori and pierced through Naruto's chest. Completely destroying a small portion of his rib, liquidizing his lung, and destroying his heart.

Naruto widened his eyes in shocked agony as he felt a sharp pain on his chest. As the life left his eyes, the last thing he saw before darkness consumed his vision was the glint of pure insanity induced glee.

X.X.X.X

Blinking as his vision returned to him Naruto quickly looked down to see if he was in one piece, only to wince in pain when he saw the hole that Sasuke's chidori made. The wound was surprisingly dry and there was no blood pouring out of it, it didn't hurt either much to his surprise.
Blinking the boy looked up and around to get a sense of where he was.

He saw... nothing. He saw blackness everywhere that he looked. Looking down the boy blinked in astonishment when he found a small patch of land that was green green, white, light grey and finally dark grey.

Naruto stiffened in alarm when he heard an unfamiliar masculine voice behind him.

“Well whaddya know?”

The boy quickly turned around and took a defensive stance, and recoiled in surprise when he saw a someone who's a few years older than him walking out of the darkness, as if there was water parting as he walked out of it.

This young adult was completely decked out in all black with a tattered red scarf loosely wrapped around his shoulder and neck. The teen wore a thick hooded black coat, a pair of matching coloured shoes and trousers. He had his hands in his coat pockets.

The black clothed arrival stopped on the dark grey layer of the ground and stood lazily.

“This is quite the predicament we got ourselves here.” The young adult said as he rocked on his feet while tilting his head to the side with... amusement? “I never thought I would see a Naruto here of all places.”

“Where is here exactly...?” Naruto questioned. before he registered what the teenager in front of him had said. “And what do you mean 'a Naruto'? I'm the only Naruto! And how do you know my name?!”

The hooded man shook his head as he tutted scoldingly at the boy. “You're wrong there, actually. There are in fact an finite amount of timelines; and the ones I saw have a Naruto in them.”

During his second sentence, Naruto narrowed his eyes when the man motioned behind him with his head. Frowningly warily Naruto slowly turned around, keeping his eyes on the dark clothed man before tearing his gaze away from the man entirely to look behind him and almost stumbled back out of sheer surprise.

A seemingly endless row of television screens and they were stacked up. Strangely, the boy could see different colours of auras surrounding the monitor's. Green. Black. Grey. And on those screens was himself.

Ranging from young to old. Naruto could see these television screens had these Naruto's wearing different, altered or the same clothing.

These were... different versions of himself.

“Amazing, isn't it?” Naruto leaned to the side when he heard the young adult talk beside of him. He turned his head to look at him warily. “Seeing so many different versions of yourself in one place. Even if it is just on a screen. Seeing what you could have become if the circumstances around you, or, your very own ancestry, were different from what was given to you. And as for where we are, well, we are currently in a dimensional gap; a place where all the timelines can currently be viewed.”

Naruto gave the stranger a wary once over. For some reason this stranger felt... off, yet, oddly familiar to him. But he never saw him before, so he didn't understand why the familiarity was there.

Hold on a minute. Naruto looked at the stranger from the corner of his eyes. Did he mishear, or was that longing in the stranger's voice?

The boy wet his bottom lip and asked, “Are you... are you 'a Naruto' as well?”

The hooded person tilted his head slightly to the side as he hummed thoughtfully thought. “You, uh, caught on quick.” Naruto could almost hear the grin in the revealed alternate Naruto's voice. “That's very perceptive of you.”

Young-Naruto looked at the older-Naruto with curiosity showing on his face. “How did you get here? Did you...” He paused hesitantly, thinking of a way to phrase what he wanted to say.

“...Die?” Older-Naruto provided.

“Yeah...that... Did you die?”

“Well...” The hooded man chucked, as he slowly pulled his right hand out of his coat pocket. Young-Naruto recoiled in horrified shock and disgust when the hand was revealed to be without any skin, muscle or vein. All there was left of the hand was the bones. The other Naruto reached up and pulled back his hood and scarf revealing a bare human skull underneath freaking out Young-Naruto even more.

“I'm not exactly alive as you can see.” He said with his jaw unmoving. His tone was filled with amusement when he heard the frightened yelp coming from the boy beside him. He turned his head slightly to the right so he could see Young-Naruto from the corner of his eye-socket. “But I'm not dead either. So I guess you can say I am somewhere in between life and death.”

“What the hell happened that made you end up like THAT!?”

The skeleton didn't answer immediately as he was contemplating on how he was going to answer. “Let's just say... I had a really bad time in my timeline that ended up with me becoming like this and leave it at that. Capiche?” He said after a full minute of consideration.

Naruto noticed the tone the skeleton Naruto had and wisely dropped other questions he had in relation to him becoming a skeleton. The two Naruto's stood side by side and watching the television screens of the other alternate Naruto's with interest, not that you could tell with the skeleton because he is incapable of forming expressions.

“So what happens now?” Naruto asked his skeleton counter part.

“Now? Well...that entirely depends on you.” The other Naruto replied with a shrug before adding, “If you so choose, I can use my power to return you to the living so you can start anew. However the only downside to that is you cannot return to the timeline you just came from.”

“What? Why?!”

The skeleton sighed and with a wave of his hand a television appeared from the black void. The young-Naruto was surprised to see his mentor Kakashi depressingly making his way back to Konohagakure with his bloodied body in his hands.

“Because you died to Sasuke, genius. And because of your connection with the death god in your timeline the second you go back there, your soul will automatically be taken by it.”

With another wave of the hand the television went back to where it came from.

Another reason is because the boy's timeline has a very, very high chance of getting screwed over without him around. With the boy dead the destruction of humanity is now almost a certainty within a few years. And with the boy not being able to be revived until someone finds a way to get him out of the Death God's stomach, then he won't be making any life changing choices there any time soon.

Eyes flicking left and right the young Naruto slumped dismally knowing that the Skeleton-Naruto was right. He was surprised to find himself easily accepting of it.

Well... If he couldn't go back... Maybe... Maybe he can find a timeline that is much better than the one he originally came from. With that thought, the boy began to carefully think what type of timeline he wants to live in from now on.

The other Naruto shoved his hands back into his coat pockets and lazily looked up at the many, many screens in front of him.

After several minutes of silent thinking on the younger Naruto's part, the other Naruto said. “Seeing you're not saying anything, I, uh, guess you're stumped on what you want?”

The boy nodded in verification. “Yeah. I'm having a little trouble deciding on what I want.” He looked up at the older boy and asked. “What do you recommend?”

The older Naruto tilted his head as he let out a thoughtful sound. “My recommendation? Well you share the same past with most of the other Naruto's; I would say you go for a more peaceful timeline. You know, where you won't get yourself involved with a lot of events that don't concern you. But... that's just my advice.” The skeleton concluded with a shrug.

“...Peaceful? That sounds nice.” He said wistfully, as living a peaceful life was something he had wanted before wanting to become Hokage.

The skeleton looked at the pre-teen. “Well, I'll give you some time to think on it.” He said as he patted the boy on the shoulder and then he turned around and walked away. “Call me when you've reached a decision.”

The young Naruto nodded absent-mindedly before question came to him. “Wait!” The boy cried out as he turned around, prompting the skeleton version of himself to stop walking and to look back at him. “Do you have any other name I can call you by? It will get confusing if I were to keep on calling you Naruto.”

Skeleton Naruto looked down at the ground thoughtfully before looking up at the other Naruto. “Yeah, I have another name. You can call me, 'Geno'.” He said to the boy, before continuing to walk away and he vanished just as the way he had appeared, the blackness submerging him until there was nothing left to be seen.

As the newly dubbed 'Geno' left him to his own thoughts, Naruto couldn't help but feel a twinge of wariness crawling up his spine.

Geno...that name...was really unsettling to him.

Something in his gut told him there was more to the name Geno than meets the eye and that he wouldn't like it if he tried out find out the meaning behind it.

X.X.X.X

After discovering what kind of timeline he wanted to be in Naruto called out to Geno so he could tell him his decision. Suffice to say Geno was concerned when he had learned what timeline Naruto wanted to go to.

In front of the two was a floating television screen with several places and people appearing on the monitor in quick succession. While he was concerned over Geno's words, Naruto couldn't see anything wrong with this tineline. A lot of the buildings in this timeline were made out of metal and could seemingly reach the skies, metal contraptions that can move by themselves and advanced technologies he wouldn't have DREAMED to be possible.

“Are you absolutely sure you want to be in that timeline? While it may look like a normal place to live, there is a lot of events that is going on in the background. If you get discovered then you will never get a moments peace.” Geno said to the young boy.

The skeleton knew EXACTLY what is going on in that particular timeline, he knows just how dangerous that place is behind the scenes. A lot of people with white wings, black wings and bat like wings, and the people with black and white wings being able to use light of all things in their attacks.

Not to mention there are dragons, monsters and gods living in that timeline. If Naruto were to get discovered because of his impulsiveness, then he will be involved in that world's supernatural with or without his consent.

Naruto however was very determined about his choice. “No worries! I'll just keep to myself! That way no one will ever know about me!” He exclaimed with great enthusiasm.

If he could Geno would be giving Naruto a flat look right about now, but he can't thanks to the lack of muscle and skin that should be surrounding his skeleton; and knowing the boy as well as he did, he knew the child would not be able to keep to himself for long.

Seeing Naruto wasn't going to change his decision any time soon Geno let out an exasperated sigh and reached into his pocket to pull out a necklace with the design being a swirl.

“Here. Take this.” Geno said as he tossed Naruto the necklace. The living skeleton put a small portion of his essence in it; enough for it to act as a beacon for him; for the two of them to contact one another, and, finally, for him to be able to teleport in his vicinity in the case something were to go wrong.

And with Naruto being in this world something is bound to go wrong for him sooner rather than later.

Naruto looked down to get a good look at the necklace. “What's the necklace for?” He asked examining the jewellery with squinted eyes.

“That necklace is for the two of us to keep in contact, and, if you will yourself then your mind will be brought back here.” Geno told the boy, while keeping the information on teleporting to the pre-teens vicinity to himself.

He would let his alternate self know when the time comes. Aka: when the boy gets himself knee deep in trouble that he can't get himself out of it. He was confident on that, because he was pretty much the same a dozen or so decades ago.

After hearing the explanation Naruto hurriedly slipped his head through the necklace chain and let it hang from his neck.

“You seem ready and eager to get going now.” Geno said, and Naruto could almost feel the amused, and sly smirk from the way he spoke. Nevertheless Naruto ignored that and gave Geno an eager nod to show he was ready. “Alright.” Geno raised a skeleton hand in front of him and looked Naruto in the eyes. “I'll see you on the other side, kiddo.”

With a snap of his fingers Geno watched as Naruto, who was looking over at himself with surprised eyes, fazed out of the dimensional gap. When the boy was gone completely Geno slowly fell down to one knee and held his stomach area as he let out a stress filled groan.

“Huh.” He grunted. “I never thought that would take a lot out of me.”

After taking a minute to re-cooperate himself Geno slowly stood back up and put his hood and scarf back over his head and mouth. With a wave of his hand Geno watched as a single television screen appeared out from the darkness and floated in front of him.

Sitting cross-legged on the ground Geno shoved his hands in his pockets and watched the television screen. On the monitor was the boy he just sent away on it. He was in a park, alone, with nothing more than the clothes on his back. Clothes mind you, that still has his blood and a large hole where Sasuke shoved an electric covered hand through.

“Well. I wonder how long it'll take for me to bail him out of trouble?”

X.X.X.X

Author's Notes

This one shot is an idea I had in my head for a long time, and is one that has a lot of potential.

Naruto dies at the Valley of the End during the 'Sasuke Retreval Mission. Then after he dies, Naruto finds himself in a dimensional gap that is seperated from all other dimensions. Here he encounters another very dead version of himself who goes by the name of Geno.

Geno-Naruto/Skeleton-Naruto/Older-Naruto, after an event that occoured in his own timeline has been reduced to being a walking, talking skeleton in clothes. He is very laid back, and is seemingly a very kind person. The key word here is "seemingly". There is a reason he goes by "Geno" after all. Geno had spent several decades (around 50 years) in the dimensional gap, and has been looking over timelines where there are different versions of himself in them.

Geno is intended to be portrayed as a lazy iindividual; but can be pretty serious when he needs to. And when he gets really angry, angry enough for him to get off his backside, he get's dangerous.