Flee into the Dunes!

[Naruto Uzumaki]

Naruto exited the gate and was met with a wall of hot air. A quick examination of his surroundings showed that he had came out into some sort of savanna. However before he could take in the view any further, white boots stepped through the gate. Lasers whizzed past his head, causing Naruto to turn and flee. "Okay, shuriken did nothing to these guys. So how about some Kunai?" he thought to himself. Naruto stopped and quickly spun around, pulling a few kunai from his side pouch. "Eat this!" he shouted at his pursuers before throwing the sharpened knives at them.

One kunai managed to hit a trooper in the gap between his shoulder pad and chest plate, piercing the man's shoulder joint. His arm fell limp, causing his aim to veer dangerously off course and hit a fellow trooper point blank with a stun round. The stunned trooper fell the ground hard, tripping a trooper behind him in the process. The remaining kunai embedded themselves into the armor of the other troopers, but seemed to do them no harm. Two troopers stayed behind to help the one who had fallen while the final three maintained chase.

"Ha ha! Gotcha!" He shouted. Naruto couldn't help but smile at the chaos he caused, in one foul swoop he had managed to reduce the number of his pursuers to three. Plus now that there was fewer of them, he would have a much easier time giving them the slip. But where would he escape to? There didn't seem to be any good places to lose them in this savanna, nor any place to hide. Looking around, he finally spotted something in the distance. Lights! That could only mean a town or city was in that direction! Naruto turned and sprinted as hard as he could towards them. There was still the problem of the guys in white shooting at him, but at least now he had a clear destination in this strange new world.

[Naruto Uzumaki]

A basic skill for a ninja is to conceal his presence and hide, this rule has been passed onto new ninja for generations.

"TOO BAD THE PEOPLE WHO THOUGHT THAT UP FORGOT ABOUT THE TIMES WHEN THERE ARE NO PLACES TO HIDE!", Naruto yelled at the top of his lungs. He had been running for the past hour, and only now was the town within eyesight. Naruto squinted towards the edge of town, looking for easy places to lose his pursuers in. He spots an alleyway to the left and gets an idea.

***

"He went down that alley! After him!" the trooper yells, making a hand gesture to signal his remaining squad-mates.

As the troopers run down the alleyway, a shadowy figure peeks over the side of a rooftop overlooking it. "Hehehee... Hook, line, and sinker! Those dumb armored guys will never think to look for me up here!" Naruto said with glee. "Now, time to figure out where I am!" he thought. Naruto rolls over and sits up to see the muzzles of two guns pointing right at him.

"Stay right where you are." the trooper said.

"Wha-?! But how did they get up here?!" Naruto thought.

"Radio in to the others that we've caught the guy they've been chasing." the trooper on the left says.

"Roger." the other trooper says in confirmation. He raises his had to the side of his helmet and activates the transceiver inside, "TK-421 to Nexus Watch, we've apprehended your target in Sector 2. He jumped up right onto where we were standing watch."

"Roger TK-421, rendezvous at Sector 3 for drop off." the radio crackles.

"Acknowledged." The trooper shuts off his radio and turns back to his partner, "We have to take him to Sector 3 for drop off."

The trooper with his gun still trained on Naruto nods and reaches behind his back to grab a pair of hand-cuffs.

Naruto scowled at himself, "At least Sasuke isn't here. He wouldn't let me hear the of this of this one." he thought.

[Naruto Uzumaki]

Naruto could just picture Sasuke's smug face now, "You got captured so easily? You're such a loser, Naruto." he would say. "You're not hurt are you?" he'd say in a mocking tone. It drove Naruto insane, and made him want to surpass Sasuke even more.

The stormtrooper lowered his gun to put the cuffs on Naruto, "You're coming with us kid." he said. The trooper reached for Naruto and quickly found himself pulled forward by the boy.

Naruto quickly pulled the handcuffs out of the troopers hand and slapped them around his wrists. TK-421 fires at Naruto, hitting him in the arm with a stun blast. The ninja's arm goes numb, and he soon loses all control over it. Using his still functional arm, Naruto pulls the cuffed storm trooper in front of him as a shield from the remaining shots. The trooper goes limp and falls to the ground, leaving Naruto open for another attack. Naruto closes the distance between the two and delivers a kick to TK-421.

The trooper stumbles backwards and backs into a railing, losing his balance and falling over the edge.

Naruto quickly makes a break for it over the rooftops, looking for a new place to hide out while his arm gets better. If it'll get better. He wasn't exactly sure how the weapons these people used actually worked, for all he knew his arm was permanently useless now. It was then that another thought came to him, "Wait, if I can't use my arm, then I'm not gonna be able to use jutsu anymore!" he yelled.

While Naruto was distracted with the fear of never being able to use his jutsu ever again, he failed to realize just how far the next jump was, and went straight into an open window. The orange ninja crashed into a shelf full of machinery, creating a glorious explosion of machine parts and splinters. "Owww." Naruto moaned from underneath a pile of now broken parts.

"What the hell was- AAUHHGGH!" A female voice cried out in terror. "Everything's ruined!" they said. "Wait, is that a hand?! Oh my gosh, when mom said my hobby would be harmful in the future, I didn't think it'd actually KILL someone!" The new person continued to hysterically ramble on.

Naruto's muffled voice rode up from the wreckage, "Ahm still alife in here..." he said.

After a few seconds, the girl ceased her hysterics. "Oh, sorry about that." she said apologetically. The girl pulls Naruto out of the broken machinery and drags him into another room. "Here uh...just stay here while I go clean up." she says before running off to clean up the mess.

"At least she didn't call the police." Naruto thought. He sat up and looked around the room, he seemed to be in an apartment. An extremely messy one at that. Kind of like how his is, only with a bunch of computer stuff everywhere. Come to think of it, there was a lot of computer stuff. Wires were going every which way, screens littered the walls, program boxes neatly organized inside a bookcase, a half eaten plate of food, among other things. "The heck's with all this stuff?" he say aloud.

"Don't touch anything else! You've already broken enough of my things today!" the girl yells from the room he crashed in.

"Hey that wasn't my fault!" Naruto yells back.

"Like hell it wasn't! My only prototype is destroyed and you were underneath its shattered remains! You'd better be able to pay for what you destroyed!"

"I think I liked her better when she was freaked out." Naruto mumbles. "Wait, PAY?!"

[Naruto Uzumaki]

"Did you expect me to let you go scott free after destroying my stuff and ruining the project I've been working so hard on?! Nuh-uh buster! You're staying here until you pay off every single cent you owe me!" the girl yells from the other room.

"GAAAAH" Naruto screamed before slumping to back down to the floor. "So much for finding a way home." he mumbled.

After a while, the girl finally came out of the room, done with cleaning everything up. "The name is Ayla by the way. Ayla Kita." she says.

Naruto looked over at Ayla, this was the first time he was able to get a good look at her. She had long purple hair with teal eyes. She didn't have much of a tan for being in such a hot climate, Naruto took it as her not going outside a whole lot. She also seemed to be taller than Naruto was, which was a bit of a confidence killer. Quickly jumping back to his feet, Naruto introduced himself, "And I'm Naruto Uzumaki!" he said.

"A pleasure. Now, about the money you owe me for the damages..." Ayla said, returning to the topic of money.

Naruto tensed up, but finally gave in to the inevitable and pulled out his toad shaped wallet Gama-Chan. He opened it up and dumped out all of the Ryo he had onto a table, "Is this enough?" Naruto sadly said, looking at his now emaciated wallet.

Ayla picked up a Ryo coin and examined it, "Wait, which type of currency is this?" She asked.

"What, you don't know what Ryo are?" Naruto bluntly replied back.

Ayla smacked Naruto upside the head, causing the boy to grab his head in pain. "Of course I don't you idiot! You think I'd memorize every form of currency people bring with them into this screwed up place?!"

"Gaaaah, she hits like Sakura does..." Naruto thought nervously.

"Anyway, this stuff looks like real gold, so I'll probably be able to sell it for quite a bit." Ayla continued.

"Great, I'll just be on my way then." Naruto quickly turned around and began to walk for the door. Suddenly though, he felt a tug on the back of his collar.

"We aren't done here yet blondie!" Ayla shouts as she pulls him back. "Your debt is paid when I say it's paid!"

"Ah come on! I gave you all of my money so you can replace all those stupid computer parts. What else do you want from me!?" Naruto yelled.

"Well I'm going to need someone to help me carry all of that stuff back with me, not to mention help me look for it all, protect me from any muggers and other criminals..."

"What am I your boyfriend?! I'm not doing that stuff for you!" Naruto yelled.

"Of course, I suppose I could just call the cops to come and arrest the person who broke into my home and damaged my property." Ayla said.

Naruto was on his knees in an instant, "Your wish is my command."

"Thank you." Ayla said with an evil grin.


[spoiler]

Yes, Gama-Chan is the official name of his wallet.

[/spoiler]

[Naruto Uzumaki]

As the two prepared to leave, Naruto remembered the reason he crashed into Ayla's home in the first place. He explained the situation to Ayla, who was naturally a bit angry that he didn't tell her sooner. The troopers were most likely already searching people's homes looking for him, and if they found Ayla "protecting" Naruto then she'd be arrested alongside him. Ayla suggested he summon a disguise with omnillium to wear for the time being so they could move around freely.

"Um...Just one question." Naruto said.


"Huh? What's that?"


"The heck is an omnillizum?" he asked.

Ayla sighed, "Alright, pay attention okay? I'm not going to repeat myself with this."

***

Naruto couldn't help but feel a bit overwhelmed by Ayla's explanation, all he asked her was about omnillium but instead she decided to give him an entire lesson about how the world works. Finally he had enough and interrupted her, "I don't care about any of that stuff, just tell me what I gotta do to make a disguise and I'll do it!"

"Fine," she huffed "but you just missed out on the best damn tutorial in the Omniverse. Now close your eyes and focus on the objects you wish to appear."

Naruto shut his eyes tight and focused on something he would look inconspicuous in. "Let's see...this place looked like a savanna when I came in right? What the heck would fit in around here... Wait! I know exactly what to use!" he thought.

After a few minutes, Naruto opened his eyes to see the clothes he pictured in his head folded neatly in front of him. "Hey it worked!" he shouted in excitement.

"Alright, now put them on and let's go." Ayla said

Naruto picked up his new clothes and entered the other room.

***

Finally changed into his new disguise, Naruto hid his clothes in the back of a closet and stepped back out in the living room wearing an orange cowboy outfit. "So, whaddya think?" he said to Ayla.

Ayla looked him over and began to laugh, "Wha- What the heck are you supposed to be?! Ranger Carrot?!" she said, referring to his color choice.

Naruto scowled and went back into the other room with Ayla still in hysterics. He walked back out wearing a more brown outfit, closer to how cowboys used to actually look. "There, are ya happy now?"

"Aw come on Mr. Shine, no need to be so dark now that you're outfit isn't so sunny!" Ayla joked.

"Alright alright, let's just go already." Naruto groaned as he walked past a still laughing Ayla.

[Naruto Uzumaki]

Naruto and Ayla exited the apartment building and made their way to Carrefore's market street. Thanks to the troopers patrolling the area, they had to make a few detours along the way. "Well, at least we know the disguise is working." Naruto said.

"I think it's because you aren't wearing that silly bright orange outfit anymore." Ayla said. "You stand out like a sore thumb with that thing on."

"Can we please get off the subject of my choice of clothes already." Naruto said.

Ayla snickered, "Oh cheer up, at least you won't be arrested now. Plus now you're helping me do some good."

Naruto looked back at Ayla, "Huh? Whaddya mean?" he asked.

"Ah, I guess I never did mention what it was I was doing all the way out here. Let's see, you know how this place is called the Endless Dunes right?" Ayla said

"Yeah, though come to think of it, I didn't see a whole lot of sand when I got here." he said.

"That's because where we're at right now is all that's left of the original verse before it became the dunes. Now remember the Empire I told you about?"

"That's the thing those guys in white are apart of right?"

"Correct, that empire is the reason the verse is the way it is now. After they drained it of resources, they just picked up and left, leaving everyone outside of Carrefore to fend for themselves. Things got worse here after that, and nowadays bandits have pretty much taken over the mountains and places that were abandoned after the Empire left." She explained.

"Alright, so what's this got to do with computer parts?" Naruto asked

"I'm getting to that." Ayla said. She clears her throat and continues, "Now enters a new arrival to this place we call the Omniverse, a smart and beautiful woman known as Ayla. She hears about the situation in the dunes, and immediately sets out to help make things better for everyone here."

"I think I'm failing to see the beautiful part." Naruto said without thinking.

Ayla quickly bops him upside the head and continues, "But how could this girl do such a task? Why with science of course! So she quickly began work on a machine that would terraform the desert! She worked and she worked, and when she was finally close to a breakthrough...AN IDIOT IN ORANGE DECIDED TO CRASH INTO THE ROOM HOUSING THE PARTS SHE NEEDED."

[Naruto Uzumaki]

***

They didn't talk much after that, making the rest of the trip in awkward silence. Once they finally reached the vendor, Ayla had Naruto wait outside while she looked around for the parts she needed. The place was about the size of a corner store, at least it looked to be about that size to Naruto. Figuring he was going to be waiting a while, Naruto decided to take a break and sat down on a nearby bench and began to drift to sleep. During his travel between the sleeping world and waking world, Naruto couldn't help but overhear parts of a nearby conversation;

"A battle? Out here in the dunes?"

"Yeah! It was those New Babylon people against-..."

"LAW? The hell kinda name is-..."

"...-ound to be plenty of stuff around there that we could salvage! Let's go man!"

"Are you listening to yourself? This is New Babylon we're talking abou-...."

"...-It's not like that Uchiha kid is there."

Naruto's muscles went stiff when he heard that name. Could he have heard that right? Uchiha?
Whatever sleep that had overtaken Naruto earlier disappeared in an instant, he jumped off the bench and spun around to face the two men. "Uchiha? Did you just say Uchiha?" he asked with eagerness in his voice.

"Huh? Yeah, Sasuke Uchiha. Why? Ya looking for a bounty on him or somethin'?" one of the men said.

"That doesn't matter, do you know where he is right now?" Naruto asked, going straight to the point.

"Ehhh, not really, no. Last I heard he was somewhere in the desert heading away from New Babylon."

"Good enough for me!" Naruto yelled, before taking off in the opposite direction, heading back to the vendor Ayla was at. "Sasuke's here too! Which means Sakura, Kakshi-Sensei, Lee, and maybe even Iruka-Sensei might be here!" he thought as tears began to well up in his eyes. He wiped them away with his sleeve and continued on, "Everyone...Wait for me!"

***

"Alright, we're all done here. Let's head back Naruto." Ayla said as she walked out carrying two large boxes. "...Naruto? Where the heck did he go?" she said. Ayla set the boxes down and looked around, finally spotting Naruto running towards her. He looked oddly happy, more than when she last saw him. She waved to him and, just as she was about to yell something to him, felt something push against her side. Ayla fell over, hitting her head against the wall. In a daze, she looked up saw a person dressed in black running off with something...something familiar. She turned her head to her left and saw that one of the boxes she just brought out was missing, and so were the credits she had sitting on top of them.

Naruto finally arrived and helped Ayla up, "Are you alright?" he asked.

"I'll be fine...But that guy, he stole the stuff I need!" She said, still dizzy from the hit to the head.

"Stay here! I'll get them back!" Naruto said before chasing after the thief.

[Naruto Uzumaki]

Pursuing the man proved to be a somewhat difficult task thanks to the large lead he had over Naruto. The crowded streets also helped to hinder Naruto's view of the man, almost losing him a few times. Naruto followed the man down a long alleyway, opening up into what was to be an enclosed courtyard of abandoned apartments. Looking around, Naruto caught a glimpse of the man walking into one of the buildings. 

"HEY! Come back here you damn thief!" He yelled.

The figure stopped and took a look back outside, "Oh, it's just a kid. You guys deal with him, I'll install the parts." he said nonchalantly. The man disappeared into the building while four brutish people took his place.

"Alright kid, times ta go back to mommy." the middle one said.

"...Kid, huh?" Naruto said in an incredibly annoyed tone of voice.  

***

"Finally, it's finished!" the thief says as he lifts a large rifle-like weapons in his hands, "With this, we'll be able to take out the stormtroopers in the dunes and rule Carrefore as our gang's turf! Once I make some for the rest of the guys of course." He turns and walks out the door, "You guys done with that kid ye- WHA?!" He yells is shock as he sees his fellow gangsters sprawled out all over the ground. The kid was still standing there, and not a scratch was on him. "D-don't tell me, you did this?"

"Yeah, so what if I did?" Naruto asked.

The man raised the rifle and pulled the trigger, letting out a large energy blast straight towards Naruto.

Naruto rolled out of the way, just barley escaping the blast's radius. "GAH! What the hell was that?!"

"It's my gang's new weapon, it doesn't have a name yet unfortunately. However with this we'll be taking over around here, but for now I'll settle for taking your life instead!" the thief shouted before shooting again. 

Naruto dodged again, however he wasn't as lucky as the last time. The blast caused by the laser threw him through the air and into a wall. "Dammit that smarts", Naruto thought, "No way am I gonna survive getting hit head on with that thing. Plus with him shooting like that, I can't get close to knock his block off! ...Waaait a second, if he's using a gun then that means..." 

Naruto got to his feet and pulled a kunai from his pocket. He threw the kunai at the man, and as he expected, it was shot down before it was able to reach its target. The thief quickly readjusted his aim back to Naruto and prepared yet another shot. This time however, Naruto pulled out another Kunai and began a charge  straight at the man.

"He can't be serious, this is just giving me an easier target!  Oh well, I'm not complaining." The man thought as he pulled the trigger. Another energy blast shoots out of the gun, causing it to recoil in his hands.

At that instant, Naruto stopped his charge and rolled to the left to dodge the oncoming blast. "He has to redo his aim every time he shoots, which means I have an opening!" he thought.

"Oh no you don't!" the man yells as he quickly tries  to readjust his aim.

As he recovers from the roll, Naruto forms a hand sign. "It better work this time! SHADOW CLONE JUTSU!" he shouts.  Like magic, multiple copies of Naruto appeared out of thin air and ran straight for the man. Clone One punches the man, knocking him off his feet. Clones Two through Four kick the man into the air while shouting "NA-RU-TO" in unison. The original then jumps off of Clone One's  back and high into the sky above the now airborne thief. "UZUMAKI BARRAGE!" Naruto yells before delivering a hard flying curbstomp to his enemies face. 

***

"Ow! That stings you know!" Ayla whined. 

"You have a huge cut on your forehead, of course it's gonna sting when I put antibiotics on it. There, all done." Says the vendor, closing up a medical bag.

Ayla stood up and stretched, "Thanks Marko, you're the best."

"Well I can't let my favorite customer get hurt on my property and not do a thing about it. You're also damn lucky that I know first aid!" Marko said, "I gotta get back to the shop now, take care of yourself!" he finished before walking back inside.

"Sheesh, what a day." she thought.

"Hey, I'm back." a familiar voice said.

Ayla looked up and saw Naruto standing in front of her with the missing box and her credits. Ayla jumped up with joy and took the box off Naruto's hands, "You did it! ...Whoaaa..." She exclaimed before falling back into her seat out of nausea. "I think I got up too fast."

"Maaaybe we should get you back to your apartment." Naruto suggested.

"Yeah, good idea. Hey, what did you do with the thief?" Ayla asked.

"Oh don't worry about him, I left him occupied!" Naruto said.

*~meanwhile~*

"LN-423 requesting transport for five criminals to T.E.D. Prision." The trooper said into his radio. 

"Copy that LN-423, transport on its way." the radio crackled.

The trooper turned to the five whining men tied up on the ground, "Hey, quiet down over there!"

"I'm never joining another gang again..." moaned the smallest one, whose face had swelled up exponentially. 

***

The trip back to Ayla's home was uneventful, it also seemed that the storm troopers had given up searching for Naruto. Ayla opened the door and went to lie down in her room, she wasn't in the condition do do anything else tonight. Naruto meanwhile, changed back to his normal clothes and sat near a window looking out over the verse. "Sasuke's out there..." he thought, "...and everyone else could be too. No matter how long it takes, I need to find them all. Then we can go home together, that's a promise!"

[spoiler]BELIEVE IT


What? Did you expect me NOT to use that?[/spoiler]

[Naruto Uzumaki]

The next day, Ayla quickly went to work on her machine, fixing the damage Naruto accidentally caused previously. With nothing to do, Naruto went to the roof to practice summoning items and figure out what jutsu he was able to perform. Performing the shadow clone jutsu yesterday got him wondering just how things worked in this strange world. Summoning a training dummy took him what felt like five minutes of concentration, something Naruto wasn't the best at.  Kunai and shuriken on the other hand, took him about thirty seconds to create. As for his jutsu, nothing seemed to work. 

"But wait." Naruto thought, "If I was able to use clones yesterday, why can't I do it now?" 

Naruto went over the events of the previous day over and over in his head, what was he doing now that's different than before? From the nexus up to using the Uzumaki Barrage with the thieves, nothing seemed to fit. 

The Uzumaki Barrage...

"Wait a minute....Don't tell me..." Naruto groaned, "It couldn't possibly be that picky, could it?"

He turned to face the newly summoned training dummy and made a hand-sign. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" he shouted. Four clones appeared in a puff of smoke, and ran towards the dummy. The clones went through the motions for the move, kicking the dummy up into the air for Naruto to smack down. Afterwards, they all vanished in the same way they had been summoned. Naruto stood there in disbelief as the dummy landed on its side. 

"WHAT KIND OF IDIOT MADE IT SO I COULD ONLY USE THEM FOR THAT SPECIFIC MOVE?!" Naruto yelled at the top of his lungs before kicking the dummy off the building out of rage.

~~~

"Phew, just a couple more parts and we can move this baby out to my testing area!" Ayla said with glee, brushing the hair out of her eyes. Suddenly at the moment, a person shaped object flew by the window , causing Ayla to jump. "What the hell was that?!" she yelled before running to the window. She opened it and looked down, seeing a broken dummy on the ground. "What the..." 

~~~

"So I can only use clones where the move specifically calls for them, okay. That's really inconvenient." Naruto said, talking to himself. "Which means I'm gonna have to try and make some new ones that don't relay on my clones as much." he sighed. "Great, my signature jutsu and I can't use it when I want to." His thoughts drifted to the Rasengan, the jutsu he learned in a week thanks to his clones. "Well, I don't have a time limit this time around. I could learn how to do that without clones this time around." he thought. It would save time, and cut his reliance on clones down as well. 

"Hey Naruto! Get down here! I'm almost done!" Ayla called up.

"Ah screw it, I'll deal with it later." Naruto said, heading for the stairs.

***

 Once finished, Ayla had Naruto assist her in taking the machine to her testing site on the outside of town. The area itself was a large fenced in 50 x 50 square plot of desert sand. The sand, according to Ayla, went down about 100 feet in order to simulate a real desert. Naruto helped position the machine just inside the perimeter on the north side. Ayla then instructed him to step back while she prepped it for the experiment. 

The machine quickly sprang to life, giving off a sound similar to that of a gas-powered generator. Ayla pressed a button and stepped back to Naruto's side. 

"So, what happens now?" Naruto asked.

"Now, the machine will start taking in the sand, and use its contents as an ingredient for clay. Afterwards, it'll reintroduce the clay back into the desert, along with water that it collects from the air, and organic matter stored in a separate tank." Ayla said. "However, since the organic part is hard to come by in the desert, it will need to be restocked every few days. Even more so once we get a whole lot of these babies in the field!" she finished.

"We?" Naruto thought. Just as Naruto was about to respond, the machine began to make strange noises. Then spark began to fly off it, finally catching fire!

Ayla ran over and quickly extinguished the fire, looking extremely distraught over her machine failing. "No no no, this wasn't supposed to happen this time! Where did I go wrong!?" she moaned.

"Well, did it at least work a little bit?" Naruto asked

Ayla stopped, realizing she hadn't checked. As she moved the machine, her face lit up. Underneath the machine was definite signs of soil mixed in with the sand. "It did! It did work! I just need to fix the machine a bit, but the process works! We won't have to start over!" Ayla shouted, jumping up and down. 

Naruto stiffened at the 'we' part again. He knew what Ayla was thinking, but it wasn't possible. Not while knowing his friends were here in this world. "Say...Ayla, I think it's about time I leave." he said.

Ayla stopped jumping and looked at Naruto, "Oh...yeah. That's right, you're debt was paid after we got back from the market." Her voice had changed, now having somewhat of a sad tone added to it, "Sorry, I guess it's been a while since I worked with another person, and I got caught up in the moment. You're free to go." She finished, going back to her working on her creation.

"Ah jeeze." Naruto thought. "Well, maybe I could stick around a few more days and help out." he barely managed to say before Ayla cut in;

"You will?! That's perfect! Come on let's get back home!" She said, pulling him by the arm.

"Hey, wait a minute! That was too fast of a mood change! I think I've just been duped! AAAAAAAUGH!" He shouted in his mind.

***

Days later, having finally managed to secure his freedom, Naruto bids Ayla a farewell. Passing the city limits, Naruto gets an idea. "Hm, according to the info I got from around town, Sasuke is apart of a guild or something that has residence in this verse. Which means there's a chance he'll come by here! I should leave something behind to show him I'm in the place too!" Naruto thought. Looking around, Naruto spotted a billboard close by and made his way towards it. 

"This outta get his attention!" Naruto said, before summoning a can of paint and a brush. Before long, a large and crude drawing of the Leaf Village symbol and the words 'NARUTO UZUMAKI WAS HERE!' alongside it had now covered the billboard front and back. Satisfied with his work, Naruto began his walk towards the Nexus gate.

Flee into the Dunes!

END

[spoiler]

And so ends that trainwreck of a plotline. Now I'm off to work on Gin's next story arc, and plan out Naruto's next arc too. I'm sure as hell not winging it with him again.

 [/spoiler]