Chapter 6: Finding Home

The puppets Alice used for tea creation held a special place in her heart. Maybe not as much as Shanghai and the other named puppets, but they were some of the puppets she liked most. It was due in large part to the amount of care and attention they needed.

Processing tea was a difficult job. It was even more difficult for a puppet, considering the heat, the moisture, and the physical labor involved. Each and every one of the puppets tasked with tea processing wore heavy gloves and other protective gear, but they still received substantially more wear and tear than the average puppet who cleaned her house, watched the area for intruders, or did whatever other miscellaneous tasks Alice needed to have done. As a result, it meant that Alice had to perform more work on the tea processors to maintain them and ensure they stayed in a happy place. It would have been easy for their joints to swell up and seize, or for some mold to start growing unnoticed on them, or for any number of other problems to appear if Alice wasn't careful.

Alice's appreciation of the tea they prepared combined both with her familiarity of the puppets from her frequent contact with them as well as with the sympathy for the trying environment they worked in to result in her generally liking them more than the average puppet who sat along the shelves in her house.

The current phase of tea creation found the majority of the tea processing puppets withering the leaves in the warm sunlight outside. Alice took the opportunity to relax and watch them operate. They would take the freshly plucked tea leaves one at a time and deliberately place them out to dry. It was fun. It was like watching a well choreographed show put on just for her. It was like watching the operation of a miniature town. It was very much like playing house with a bunch of dolls, only much more sophisticated and with much more delicious outcomes.

Her introspection was interrupted when one of the sentry puppets spotted the approach of Naruto.

"I think we have company," Alice said to Shanghai.

Shanghai flew ahead, back towards the house to greet Naruto. Alice followed at a more leisurely pace. The puppets involved with the tea processing continued with their work, irrespective of her departure.

Alice heard Naruto before she saw him in person. He was saying, "I still don't understand why you like hanging." It was obvious to whom he was speaking.

Hourai had taken advantage of the perfect day just as much as Alice, Shanghai, and the tea processors had. She just did so in a different way. She had migrated to a perch on the outside of the house to bask in a ray of sunshine.

At Naruto's prompt, Hourai started swinging back and forth in her noose. It wasn't a gentle swing, either. She swung as energetically and as hard as any child on a more traditional swing set trying to flip in a full circle over the crossbar above. It looked incredibly cute, albeit in a way substantially more morbid than a traditional swing set.

"You can do that sitting down, too!" Naruto protested.

Hourai continued to swing, ignoring Naruto's argument.

"It's just what she likes to do. There doesn't need to be a reason," Alice said. "I could just as easily ask you why you want to be a ninja."

"That's easy. I want to be a ninja so I'll be acknowledged," Naruto said.

"But there are other ways to get attention," Alice said. She thought about the various jobs she knew in light of Naruto's goal to be acknowledged. Everybody in Gensokyo knew of Aya Shameimaru and her Bunbunmaru Newspaper, and Naruto had at least as much energy and enthusiasm as The Traditional Reporter of Fantasy did. "You could be a reporter. You could start publishing Naruto Uzumaki Newspaper." Whirlpool Whirlpool Newspaper wasn't quite as catchy a name as Bunbunmaru Newspaper was, but it was still distinctive and easy to remember.

"That sounds boring. If I'm a ninja, I get do super cool missions," Naruto said.

"Like the ones you've been doing so far? I don't see how weeding gardens will get you acknowledged," Alice said. They were certainly good deeds, but they were also not the type of thing that really got that much attention from people.

"Yeah. Well... no... but this time we got a really super cool one," Naruto said.

"Like what? Building a fence?" Alice asked.

"No. We finally got a C-Rank mission. We're going to the Land of Waves," Naruto said.

"Land of Waves? What's that?" Alice asked.

"It's another country, to the south," Naruto said. "It's about a week away. Somebody hired us to escort him back to his village there."

"A week away? That far?" Alice asked. She was dumbfounded. She didn't think anywhere in Gensokyo was that far away. That was as far away as when Remilia and Reimu and everybody had invaded the moon. And Naruto acted like that distance was unremarkable. It was hard for Alice to imagine a world so large that that kind of distance could be treated so casually.

"I'm leaving tomorrow. That's why I came here today. I have this super cool awesome new technique. I can't wait that long to try it out," Naruto said.

Alice didn't need to be asked twice. Alice was rarely the one who started a danmaku battle in Gensokyo, but she loved fighting them nonetheless.

Their danmaku battle was fairly standard. Naruto had improved a great deal since they had started years earlier. He had gotten to the point that he could consistently dodge spell cards like "White Sign 'Chalk-White Russian Dolls.'" He was far from perfect at it, but much more often than not he would escape unscathed, and usually with a couple of grazes too.

The commonality of the battle vanished when Naruto pulled out one of the scrolls he used for his seal skills. The timing was all off. It was too early in the battle for him to need to resupply. In a new twist, he threw the scroll high into the air. That took Alice by surprise. Despite the commonality of flying in Gensokyo, it seemed liked most danmaku battles were fought in what was effectively two dimensions. Going vertical was rather unusual.

"Seal Skill 'Awesome Mega Destruction.'"

The scroll in the air burst into a large cloud of smoke. Rocks came pelting down in all directions.

Alice's eyes darted around in search of a gap, but she saw none which were large enough for her to dodge through. She flew backward to try to get a bit more time to analyze and let the projectiles disperse a bit more, but it was no good. She got pelted several times by the falling debris.

She looked over at Naruto with some amount of admiration. This quickly turned to fury as she noticed he was shrugging off the scattered pellets as well. It wasn't an issue of injury. Each stone plinked with barely enough force to maybe leave a bruise. It was more an issue of principle. He had broken the spell card system. Knowingly or not, Naruto had cheated.

Alice had assumed at first that Naruto had developed a clever new attack. She didn't recognize any pattern within the seal skill, but Alice's own first spell cards had been clumsy as well. With Naruto being pelted just as much as she had, though, Alice realized that her initial assessment of the attack as being impossible to dodge through hadn't just been a bad assessment in the heat of the moment; it really was impossible to dodge through.

"What was that!" Alice shouted. She tried to quell her anger and be patient.

"Like it? It's my new ultimate attack," Naruto said.

"And how is somebody supposed to dodge it?" Alice asked.

"They aren't," Naruto boasted. "It supposed to be a super awesome unbeatable attack."

Alice tried to keep her temper. She said, "That's not the point of danmaku. You're supposed to make beautiful patterns that skilled people can get around. To do anything else is unfair and defeats the purpose of the game."

"Why's that? If I can win then I'm going to do it. I'm the best. Believe it," Naruto said.

Alice gave up. It would only work if she demonstrated. She said, "Okay. Let's have a rematch."

"Yeah," Naruto said. "I'm going to beat you again."

Only a moment after the next match started, Alice pointed her hand at Naruto and sent a laser beam straight at him. It hit him square in the chest and caused him to stagger. She announced, "I win. Rematch?"

"Yeah," Naruto said.

It was an exact repeat of before. Naruto was fast, but there was no way to dodge Alice's almost instantaneous laser.

"Again?" Alice offered.

"Sure," Naruto said. He sounded more hesitant than before.

Alice shot him with another laser right at the start yet again. The three rounds had taken less time than the first volley of a real game of danmaku.

"Now do you get it? It's not very fun, is it? That's why danmaku was created, so that even the weakest youkai could have a level playing field against the most powerful ones," Alice said.

"But that's makes no sense. In a fight you need to do everything you can to win," Naruto said.

"Danmaku isn't a fight. If I fought for real against somebody, we would probably destroy the whole forest," Alice said. She might even need to go all out in that case, and she had no desire to do that. Throwing around raw power was just not fun. She rather preferred danmaku, where she could keep a little in reserve, safe in the knowledge that the worst that could happen was that she lose the game.

Naruto was looking dejected by this point. Alice tried to console him.

"Your attack might not be good for danmaku, but it's pretty good for a real fight," Alice said. It would probably need something more dangerous than some river rocks, but she had seen several things which could qualify in this outside world. Some kunai or those exploding things would severely increase the danger of the technique, both for the target as well as for the user of the seal skill.

"I'm sorry," Naruto said.

"That's okay. Let's have some tea and we can talk about how to make you a good attack for danmaku," Alice said.

The battle had been weird, but that was no reason to not enjoy a cup of tea afterwards.

Alice had never really understood Naruto's excitement and yearning to be acknowledged, but she knew he had it. It was likely his nature.

Youkai had things which defined them as being youkai. It was why Remilia had only forbidden youkai from eating the humans in the Human Village but had said nothing about annoying, terrifying, and attacking them. If youkai stopped being youkai, then they would lose the meaning of their existence and no longer be youkai. If Patchouli Knowledge stopped spending all of her time in the library, she would no longer be Patchouli. If Suwako Moriya was no longer believed to be a goddess, she would no longer be a goddess. And it seemed like if Naruto stopped being the forefront of attention, he would no longer be Naruto. It seemed like his ability was getting noticed.

Naruto was probably well on his way to that Land of Waves he had been so excited about. It had been a few days since he had last visited. One thing Alice was certain of, though, was that Naruto was in the center of events wherever he was. He might be in the middle of a brand new country, but a little thing like that wouldn't stop Naruto.

While Naruto had been gone Alice had spent a lot of time thinking.

Thus far she had spent her entire time in this outside world thinking it was like Gensokyo. There was the magic, which they called jutsu. There was the human village, more like a city. There were the mountains, some of which had faces carved in it. Overall she pictured it as a relatively small and self-contained place, very much like Gensokyo was.

Now that Naruto had mentioned an entirely new territory, even an entirely different human village several days away, that mental picture of this outside world had been shattered. It wasn't at all like Gensokyo. This outside world was huge. It was so far outside of Alice's experiences that she had a hard time comprehending it all.

"Can you believe it? There's an entire bigger world out there, with other cities and everything," Alice said to Shanghai. "This outside world is quite a place, isn't it."

Shanghai nodded back. Hourai was listening too as she hung from her favorite noose at the side of the room.

"I think maybe we should go. Who knows what we'll find out there? Maybe we'll find some other youkai. Maybe we'll find some other magicians," Alice said.

Shanghai pointed over at one particular puppet. It was the puppet Alice had created with the expectation that she would lead them back to Gensokyo. Alice agreed, "That too. Maybe we can find something to power Shimon."

"And maybe I can find out more about that Shadow Clone technique. Or maybe something better to make some fully autonomous puppets. If this outside world is that big then there needs to be something out there, right?" Alice asked.

Shanghai nodded again. Hourai also gave a wave of encouragement.

"On the other hand, we would be leaving all this behind. No more bed. No more food. No more tea," Alice said. She could bring some supplies with her, but if the world was as large as Naruto had said then there was no way she could bring enough with her to last. It would be inevitable that she run out at some point.

Shanghai floated behind Alice and patted her back in consolation and sympathy.

"You're right. If I'm going to be stuck in this outside world then there's no reason to miss this opportunity," Alice said.

Shanghai raised her arm in a cheer of agreement. Hourai looked supportive as well, albeit not as energetically. It wasn't hard to imagine why. Leaving meant that Hourai would lose her favorite perch, but that was like Alice losing her bed. It would be a disappointment and it would be somewhat annoying, but ultimately it shouldn't signify that much.

Several of the other unnamed puppets reacted to Alice's decision as well. They ranged from enthusiastic approval to resigned encouragement. She could and would bring several of them with her, but there was no way she could bring them all.

"So we wait until Naruto comes back and tell him then?" Alice asked. She was tempted to leave immediately, but she could only imagine his reaction on his next visit if she was just gone.

All of the various puppets around her supported her decision.

"But there's no reason to not start getting ready. Let's get packing," Alice said.

Shanghai gave another cheer of support, and Hourai let herself out of her noose to help direct the multitude of puppets and their frenzy of activity all around the house.

It had been close to a month since Naruto had last visited. It had been far too long, considering the trip of Naruto's had been planned to last about two weeks. Alice expected Naruto to have visited after maybe three weeks or so at most. It was in his nature to want to brag about his latest exploits and adventures, and she was sure he would visit her within days of returning.

Maybe something had happened during his mission. He had said it was C-Rank one. She wasn't sure what that meant, but it did sound serious.

Alice tried to not worry.

She was all packed. Everything important she would be bringing with her was ready to go. The last thing needed to do was bid her goodbyes to Naruto, and then she would be off.

There was one nice effect of the limited amount of stuff she could bring with her. Most of her things, including her furniture, kitchen supplies, garden, and everything else, were still unpacked. It let her continue on with her life as semi-normal, even as she was ready to leave at a moment's notice. She still had her garden tended, her meals cooked, and her tea prepared.

But it just wasn't the same.

Alice knew she would be abandoning her home some time within the next two months, so it all felt a bit superficial. Two months was her time limit. It was more than enough time. Alice figured if Naruto hadn't returned in two months then he would be gone, possibly for good. She would write a note explaining what had happened, but she would otherwise just leave.

In addition to her garden and her tea, Alice's sentries were still set up. This meant she did have some warning when her waiting came to an end. About 30 seconds of warning. Naruto came storming into the clearing and up to her house.

Alice barely had time to give a greeting, and had no chance at all to mention her plans to leave, before Naruto growled out, "You. Me. Danmaku. Now."

Without waiting for a response, Naruto threw a rock at her. He threw it extremely forcefully. It was all Alice could do to get out of the way. It was a reflexive action. Countless years of practice served her well.

Shanghai quickly left the arena and flew into an out of the way observation point.

The danmaku battle was unusual. Naruto was much more aggressive than normal. He threw each of his projectiles violently. It made them noticeably faster than usual, but it also much his aim much worse than usual. The two effects combined to result in making it a bit harder to dodge overall.

Alice could tell that Naruto had been frustrated when he had entered her clearing, and the continued game was only making him more so. She decided that she would let Naruto win this one to see if it would help. She waited for one of Naruto's better set up attack combinations before she dodged left, right, and then just missed the follow up and got hit. The pellet stung fiercely.

"Nice shot," she said.

Naruto gave a growl of frustration and then threw a handful of rocks into a nearby tree. They impacted with a loud thunk and left deep divots embedded in the wood.

"I take it the mission didn't go well?" Alice asked.

"No. We completed it successfully. We escorted the bridge builder home and protected him while he finished the bridge. We killed a rogue ninja, and saved the village from an evil merchant. Mission accomplished," Naruto bit out.

"That's good, right?" Alice asked.

"Yeah, that's good," Naruto snapped out.

"Then what's wrong?" Alice asked.

"What's wrong is that nobody in Konoha seems to care at all. What do I need to do to get somebody to acknowledge me? We save a village, and nobody notices. A bunch of beginner ninja finish a B-Rank mission, and nobody notices. We kill a rogue ninja listed in the bingo books, and nobody notices. The only people who care are the other ninja, and they're obsessed over Sasuke. He almost gets himself killed, and everybody's falling over themselves because he's the last of the Uchiha clan. I save everybody and nobody cares, just because I got a youkai sealed inside of me," Naruto said.

"Wait. What? You have a youkai sealed inside of you? They sealed a youkai inside another youkai?" Alice asked. It sounded a bit crazy, but stranger things had happened before.

"No. It turns out I'm not a youkai. I'm human," Naruto said.

Alice was even more disbelieving of Naruto then when he had said he was a demon in the first place. She might have mis-estimated his strength, but there was no way she had mistaken the inhuman presence she detected from him.

But the more she thought about it, the more sense it made. Naruto's youkai presence was minuscule. It was far less than even a weak youkai who was only a few years old. She had already made the analogy to the youkai sealed in scrolls and books. What was the difference if the youkai was sealed in a human? Never mind that it was impossible; it was equally impossible to seal a youkai but have the youkai walking around at the same time.

"How did you find that out?" Alice asked.

"I met him. Inside here," Naruto said. He lifted up his shirt to show the lines and swirls drawn in a complex pattern on his stomach. Alice couldn't make heads or tails of it, but it did vaguely remind her of the seal skill scrolls Naruto used in danmaku. "He's like a giant fox with nine tales. He says he can level mountains and make tsunami, and he doesn't hide his power like you do. He's intense, but he's still way better than most of the humans I know. Are all youkai like that?"

Alice's head was spinning. The series of revelations was too much for her. She needed time to digest it all, possibly with the assistance of a nice cup of tea. She said, "Wait, wait. Back up. Why don't you start from the beginning?" She led him into her house. Some puppets had already put some water to boil and were searching the pantry for some suitable snacks.

"The mission started real easy. Tazuna, he was our escort, was a bit jerk. But things started to go bad right at the beginning, when we got attacked by some ninja on the way there," Naruto started his story.

Naruto proceeded to spin a tale which was as exciting as any Incident Alice knew of. Two ninja had attacked and killed Kakashi, which had terrified Naruto and the other members of his team. They managed to fight off the ninja, only to find out that Kakashi was still alive and had tricked them all.

That had been the first indication the mission was not a simple escort. There was a wealthy merchant named Gato who was trying to have Tazuna killed to prevent him from building a giant bridge which would threaten his business. Despite that, Naruto and the group had proceeded on. They neared the village Tazuna was trying to reach. That's when Zabuza, the rogue ninja Naruto had mentioned earlier, showed up. He had been hired by Gato to kill Tazuna. The rogue ninja had captured Kakashi, which was no small task and which showed how dangerous he was.

"That's when I pulled out that that 'Seal Skill "Awesome Mega Destruction -Ninja-,"'" Naruto said.

As Naruto spoke, some puppets served some tea to him and Alice. Naruto barely noticed at all. The cup in front of him remained practically untouched as it slowly cooled to room temperature.

"That's that scroll attack you used before you left, right?" Alice asked. She sipped at her tea, but she was more engrossed with the wild adventure Naruto was describing.

"Yeah, that's right," Naruto said.

"What's that '-Ninja-' in its name mean?" Alice asked. She knew "-Easy-" and "-Hard-", and sometimes "-Lunatic-" for the most extreme versions of spell cards. She had never heard of a "-Ninja-" modifier before.

"I made it much more dangerous, for real fights. I put in extra explosive tags, and some kunai, and used sharper rocks and stuff," Naruto said.

Alice considered the safety behind that. If Naruto mixed up his seal scrolls in the middle of a danmaku battle then the results could be quite dangerous. On the other hand, Alice as relatively sure that Naruto wouldn't be using that particular seal scroll in a danmaku battle again after the discussion they had had. She decided to let it go for now and instead asked, "So what happened?"

"It worked great. Believe it. It didn't hurt him very much, but it made him drop his water prison and let Kakashi go," Naruto said. He was talking with more enthusiasm now. He was obviously feeling better too. Tea and cake always made people feel better, although Naruto focused more on the cake than the tea.

Naruto continued weaving his story. Another masked ninja named Haku showed up to supposedly kill Zabuza. In actuality he had been an ally who came to save the ninja, but they hadn't known that at the time. After he was out of sight, Kakashi had suffered something caused chakra exhaustion. Whatever it was, it had disabled their instructor for a few days.

They had spent the next few days training. Apparently Naruto could climb up trees now. It was nothing like flying, but it was a start. In between their training sessions, the team had learned about the village and had protected Tazuna while he worked on his bridge. Naruto had also met several interesting people, including Haku in civilian form and an annoying kid name Inari.

Things reached a climax when the bridge was almost completed. Zabuza and a masked Haku, attacked their group. Zabuza re-fought Kakashi, which left Haku for Naruto and his fellow beginner ninja to confront.

"So then Haku trapped Sasuke into this big dome of ice. He was surrounded and getting all beaten up. I tried to break him out, but my 'Seal Skill "Awesome Mega Destruction -Ninja-"' didn't do anything. Sasuke kept getting hit. Eventually that bastard takes too much and gets knocked out," Naruto said.

"So what did you do?" Alice asked.

"What else could I do? Those mirrors took everything I had. I had tried my fuinjutsu, but it wasn't strong enough to break through. I'll need more explosive tags next time. Anyway, Sasuke's bleeding everywhere," Naruto said. "That's when it happened. Next thing I knew, I was in this giant tunnel."

"You went from a field to a tunnel?" Alice asked.

"That's what I was wondering. I started running around until I found this giant gate, and this huge fox-thing behind it," Naruto said. "That's when I found out about that demon sealed inside me. He told me that really he was the one who attacked Konoha, and how he's all sealed up inside of me. And he was huge. That reminds me. He told me to tell you that he's totally stronger than you."

"Okay," Alice said. She wasn't fazed in the least by the challenge. She knew she wasn't the strongest person out there. She didn't need to be, and she didn't want to be.

"You don't want to fight him for it?" Naruto asked.

"Not really. If he wants the title of strongest, then he can have it," Alice said. Nobody in Gensokyo was really that concerned with relative power levels, except for a certain ice fairy. The cautionary tale that that 9-ball represented was enough for everybody else to realize the idiocy of trying to claim that unique title outside of specific fields. If the youkai within Naruto had tried to claim he was a better puppeteer than Alice then she would have been forced to prove otherwise, but if he just wanted the title of being the strongest then Alice didn't care.

"Okay," Naruto said, confused. "Anyway, he loans me some of his power. It was amazing. I was able to block all of Haku's needles like you do when you use your spell cards just by shouting. I felt like I could cause an earthquake just by jumping. I broke the ice prison like it was nothing."

"Impressive," Alice said. She looked down and noticed that one of the puppets had dutifully refilled her cup.

The rest of the story completed in short order. Naruto defeated Haku, only to find out that he was the boy Naruto had met earlier. Kakashi and Zabazu finished their fight. Gato betrayed the rogue ninja and hired some mercenaries to kill Zabazu and Haku. Zabuza had a heroic stand to avenge the death of Haku. The bridge was completed. The town's fighting spirit was revived. The townspeople rallied to fight off the last of the mercenaries.

Ultimately, the mission was successfully completed.

"When I got back to Konoha, I was expecting... I don't know what I was expecting. A parade for us. People to come and ask if it was real. Just a thank you for a job well done. But none of that happened. It was just like before we left. Most of the stores refuse to even sell me anything. What good is the money I get from the missions if I can't even buy anything?" Naruto asked.

"I don't know," Alice said.

"But they're just civilians, I think, right? They don't know what ninja really do. But it's the ninja too. The other rookies, and even the higher ups. They don't care either. They all still ignore me, except when they want to ask one of 'Sasuke's teammates' how he's doing, or if it's true he unlocked his family's special powers, or to say how we were so lucky to have him there to finish the mission. All he did was almost get himself killed, but just because he's the last of the Uchiha clan everybody's falling over themselves to treat him like a hero. I bet if I was the son of somebody famous they'd acknowledge me too. But I'm not. I just got this youkai in me so nobody will ever care about me. How's that fair?" Naruto asked.

"That sounds bad," Alice said. She thought for a few seconds before coming to a conclusion. "You know, I was actually waiting to tell you something."

"What's that?" Naruto asked.

"I was planning on leaving here for a while. You said that this world is pretty big, and it got me thinking. I want to explore it and see what else I can find," Alice said. Before Naruto could repeat the protestations he had had before she had left Konoha, she added, "But I was thinking. You could come too. You said that the people in Konoha all hate you, right? Why don't you leave too? Maybe you'll have more luck in a new place where nobody knows about you and the demon. You can just be Naruto."

"I can't do that," Naruto said. "I'm a ninja. I can't just go missing."

"You said you're just a beginner, right? How much trouble would they give a beginner?" Alice asked.

"Yeah," Naruto said slowly. More enthusiastically, he said, "And even if they did add me to the missing ninja list, I'd get to have my super cool official picture in all the bingo books. That'd be awesome."

"That's right. Maybe you can find a new home and maybe I can find a way to create some fully autonomous puppets like I've been dreaming about. Or maybe I can find a way to get home, too," Alice said.

Alice abruptly froze. At the thought of returning to Gensokyo, an idea just struck her. A big one at that. It was so obvious that she wasn't sure why it had taken her so long to make the connection.

"Are you okay?" Naruto asked.

"Wait a second. Go back a bit. Back when you were fighting in the Land of Waves, you said that that demon inside you lent you some of his power, right?" Alice asked.

"Yeah. He did. Believe it," Naruto said.

"I believe you," Alice said. "And how strong is he? You said he says he's way stronger than me, right? How much power does he have?"

"I don't know. A lot," Naruto said. "He said he only gave me a bit of it, but I broke through that ice real easy and could block all those flying needles just by shouting. He said he was strong enough to level mountains and raise tsunami."

"That actually may be enough," Alice mused. "Can you do it again?"

"Maybe. I'd have to ask him," Naruto said. "Why?"

Alice pulled out Shimon. The puppet was fairly ordinary except for two things. The first was her slightly small stature. The second was the large drill she carried in her hand.

"Remember I was telling you about me trying to get home?" Alice asked.

"Yeah. That Land of Fantasy place. That's the place full of youkai where everybody is so strong that they can destroy villages, right?" Naruto asked.

"That's right. This here is Shimon. I think she can actually help me get there, but I haven't been able to find anything strong enough to power her to break the barrier surrounding Gensokyo," Alice said.

"Okay. Uhh... nice to meet you, Shimon?" Naruto asked.

"No, not that. You said that demon inside of you is strong, right? If he's as strong as he says he is then he might be strong enough to power Shimon and open a gap to Gensokyo," Alice said.

"I guess I can ask," Naruto said. "But what if she succeeds? That means you'll be leaving for good, right?"

"That's right," Alice said.

"You said that youkai are common there, right? Nobody will think anything weird about a demon or a human with a demon sealed inside him?" Naruto asked.

"That's right. I know a lot of demons. And we have people like a half-ghost swordswoman and an immortal princess of the moon. A boy with a demon sealed inside him is downright ordinary," Alice said.

Naruto asked, "And nobody tries to," he paused for a moment, "control the demons to do things and stuff?"

"No," Alice said.

Naruto thought through it. He asked, "Do they have ramen there?"

"Yes, they have ramen there," Alice answered. She had to suppress a laugh at the question.

"Then I'm coming too," Naruto said. "I was about to leave for another country, but if I'm going to leave then I'm going to make it the biggest, most amazing leaving ever. Naruto doesn't do things in half-measures. Believe it. So what do you need me to do?"

"Do you need to get anything before we leave?" Alice asked.

"I have Sakura and Hokage here. I don't need anything else," Naruto said.

"Okay. First you talk to that demon and see if he's willing to help," Alice said.

"I already did. He was the one asking about the demons in Gensokyo," Naruto said.

"Okay," Alice said. She didn't know when Naruto could have done the asking. She hadn't seen him move or anything. Still, he had no reason to lie, and if he was lying then she would find out soon enough. She continued, "In that case wait here. I need to set Shimon up. It'll just take a second."

The problem of piercing the barrier to Gensokyo was two-fold. Beyond the issue of raw power, which she might have just found a solution for, there was also the question of direction. Gensokyo wasn't in any traditional direction. All the power in the world would do no good if it wasn't properly applied. But Alice had already long solved that problem. She cast the spell she needed to locate the various puppets she crafted. In addition to the collection in her house and the scattered puppets around Konoha, the concentrated collection of them out but not up was still present. She used that beacon to appropriately position Shimon.

"She's all ready. All we need to do now is give her the power she needs. I'll be doing what I can but the bulk is going to be on you two, okay?" Alice asked.

"Okay. No problem. I can handle it. Believe it," Naruto said. "Here I go."

Nothing happened for a few seconds. Then right in front of Alice's eyes, Naruto started to glow. It was a fierce, violent, red glow. It was enough to cause her to flinch away, but she forced herself to stand her ground as he approached. Alice contributed what she could to Shimon, but most of her energy was focused only on directing her.

The red energy blasted into Shimon, and the drill in her hands started to spin at a mystic speed. It grew faster and faster. Long after Alice herself would have been spent, Naruto kept going, pumping more and more energy into Shimon with no sign of slowing down. It was enough to give Alice hope that it would actually work.

The red aura surrounding Naruto grew brighter and stronger as he continued. A couple of more defined tendrils started to appear and flail around like giant whips.

"Let's go, Shimon," Alice cheered the puppet on.

Responding to both her words and the magical control Alice still maintained, Shimon jabbed her drill into the air in front. It impacted something impossible to see, impossible to touch, impossible to even sense, but still very present. It would have been impossible to interact with at all except that Alice had known exactly where it was.

Shimon pressed forward into the seam of reality, even as the strain grew impossibly large for her, for Alice, and for Naruto. The drill crept slower than a snail's pace, bit by bit, fiercely fighting for each iota of progress.

With a burst of effort, Shimon broke through.

The pressure from the barrier decreased from impossible to merely unbearable. Alice couldn't see anything yet, but she just knew that she was through to her home in Gensokyo.

"Shanghai. Hourai. Leave everything and come on. We're going through," Alice called out. The two puppets dropped the bags they had been trying to collect and clutched onto Alice's arms.

The gap Shimon had created was growing larger. Alice could now see through it to the dusty room surrounded by puppets that was her home in Gensokyo. In a few more moments it would be large enough to cross through.

"This is it, Naruto. Last chance to change your mind," Alice said.

"Let's go," Naruto said.

And with that, Alice and Naruto pushed behind Shimon and vanished into the gap.

Moments later the gap in space disappeared, taking with it the last trace of the Show-Off Number One Unpredictable Noisy Ninja and the Seven-Colored Puppeteer in the Land of Fire.

Omake:

Naruto was in trouble. Not from the masked ninja. In a straight up fight, Naruto would have won. He could have dodged the senbon the ninja was throwing without issue. They were far easier to avoid than the numerous spell scrolls that he faced from Alice so frequently.

The problem was his teammate. Sasuke was not nearly in as good a shape. He was unconscious and bleeding out. If Sasuke wasn't already dead then he would likely be soon. Senbon weren't that deadly, but when struck a few dozen times even small things became dangerous.

Kurama was torn. Humans everywhere wanted to control the power of the biju. They only looked at them as weapons to dominate and control. The ninja of Konoha were especially bad. They were the ones who had sealed him so long ago. They were the ones who kept him trapped.

But this Naruto was different. His interactions with that piddly, tiny, youkai showed none of that. It was beneath contempt to compare that tea-obsessed youkai with himself, but she was undeniably a youkai. And Naruto hadn't shown any sort of sign of trying to seize her power, or take control of her, or anything.

It was enough. Maybe. Kurama would test the waters. Maybe he could work with Naruto. Maybe his unwitting jail-keeper was different. Maybe.

Naruto's consciousness entered the strange non-space of the seal.

The boy bewilderedly looked around before he started running. The direction didn't matter. All paths in the seal led to Kurama eventually.

"Ahahahaha! At last we meet face-to-face," Kurama said to Naruto.

"Who are you? What are you?" Naruto asked. He showed no sign of intimidation despite being in an unfamiliar area faced with the massive form of Kurama. The fox-demon was hunched over, but he was still several times taller than Naruto. Even each of his nine long whipping tails was larger than Naruto.

"You don't know, do you? Let me tell you a secret," the Kurama said. He brought his head forward until he was right next to the gate. Naruto approached as well. "I'm the demon who attacked Konoha!"

Rather than startle at the shout or scramble back in fear, Naruto just asked, "You're a youkai too? Like me?"

"You fool! You aren't a demon, no matter what all those fools think. You're human," Kurama said. He had known the speculations of Alice after she had discovered him. The grandeur of Kurama couldn't be blocked with a mere seal. Her interpretation was reasonable enough, if thoroughly wrong.

"But you're like Alice? That's great! You're the only youkai I've met besides her. Wait until I tell her there's another one," Naruto said. "Want to have a danmaku battle? Do you have any tea around here?"

"I'm not just a youkai, I'm the great nine-tailed demon! I can level mountains. I can raise tsunami. I am the strongest of them all. When you get out there, tell that tea-obsessed youkai that," Kurama said.

"Out there? Where is this?" Naruto asked.

"We're inside the seal on your belly, but you aren't asking the important thing. You're teammate is going to die. You should be asking how you're going to save him?" Kurama asked. It was the crux of the situation and the whole reason for this meeting.

"No! That bastard. I need to get out there and save him," Naruto said. He frantically looked around for an exit.

"Ahahaha! What do you think you'll do out there? You can't beat that ninja in time," Kurama said.

"I'll figure something out. Believe it," Naruto said. And Kurama actually believed it. He had watched as Naruto had pulled off too many implausible things in his short life to simply dismiss his boasting.

"There is another way," Kurama said.

"What's that?" Naruto asked.

"I'll lend you some of my power. Consider it a test," Kurama said. "I'll be watching."

He released some of his chakra to bleed out of the cage like a living shadow into Naruto.

Life for the three genin under Kakashi's command had been rough after the Land of Waves. It was to be expected. As far as Kakashi knew, it was the first time the three of them had been forced to kill. The first time was always painful, and that wasn't counting the tragedy of Haku and Zabuza.

They had spent a couple of weeks in the Land of Waves before returning to Konoha. This served several purposes. It gave Kakashi and especially Sasuke a chance to recover from their injuries. The Land of Waves was by no means a hostile nation, but traveling any sort of distance while hurt was just asking for trouble. The break also allowed Kakashi to arrange a small funeral for Haku and Zabuza. He wasn't sure how much it helped, but it was all he could do.

The trip back to Konoha and the days after returning did little to improve things. Everybody put on a brave front, but underneath it all Kakashi could see the hurt. It made him worry for them.

Sasuke was the one Kakashi was most worried about. So much of his character was built on being the prodigy rookie of the year, holding up the standard as the last loyal Uchiha. He was brilliant, but Haku had been far more experienced. Sasuke had performed better than any genin who wasn't a jinchuiki could have been expected to, but it hadn't been enough.

Sakura was the next most worrisome student. Her civilian background left her more sheltered than Sasuke. Beyond being the first time she had killed, it was the first time she had even encountered death. Academically she was outstanding, but her practical application was far less advanced. Between that and her crush, Sasuke, being so injured left her in a perilous state.

It would have been a toss up between Sakura and Naruto for the number two position on Kakashi's worry list, except Naruto seemed basically unfazed by the events in the Land of Waves. If anything, the death of Haku and Zabuza only served to make him more determined. He had given an impassioned speech during the funeral condemning a world which treated anybody like disposable tools. It was a optimistic sentiment and one worthy of the Hokage. Kakashi was still worried for him, but it was overshadowed by his worry for Sakura, and in turn for Sasuke.

When they returned to Konoha, Kakashi treated each of the three in order. Sasuke required the most attention. Unlike Sakura, Sasuke had no family to assist him. Kakashi made sure to watch the boy, both overtly and covertly. It was a tricky line to walk. He had to support Sasuke and bolster his self-esteem, but not get so close as to smother the boy and get pushed away. A couple of chance comments to some curious ninja could help with that, but he would need to be careful.

For the short term, Sakura was somewhat easier. Kakashi left her to return to her family. A loving mother and father would do a lot to help Sakura recover. It would have been much better if they had been ninja too so Sakura could really unburden herself, but a civilian family was far better than no family. As far as an immediate need, they would do. Kakashi still needed to check up on her from time to time, but not to the same extent as Sasuke.

Which left Naruto. The physically and emotionally resilient boy. Kakashi was far from confident that he was coping, but the boy could fend for himself for a few days. He would need to. Kakashi had his hands full with Sasuke, Sakura, and the bureaucracy after the fight.

Kakashi's abbreviated check on Sakura from the shadows showed her to be doing well. He planned on checking in with her in person in the next day or two to make sure.

The check with Sasuke was more prolonged. He was improving as well. Kakashi planned to be "stumbled across" by the boy at some point later in the day just in case, but in the meantime he was doing as well as could be expected.

What really worried Kakashi was when he went to check on Naruto for the first time since returning to Konoha. He wasn't at his apartment, or at the academy. Iruka had suggested that Kakashi check Ramen Ichiraku and the Hokage Monument, but Naruto wasn't to be found at either of those places either. It had only been a few days, and the boy couldn't have gotten into that much trouble. He had even stopped pranking.

Kakashi re-reviewed his last thought. That was a problem. His worry spiked, not that any trace of that was visible in his apparently lazy bearing.

There was an easy way to handle things.

"Yo, boss," Pakkun said after Kakashi had summoned him. They stood inside Naruto's apartment.

"I need you to track where the boy who lives here went," Kakashi said.

"Sure thing, boss," Pakkun said. And they were off.

The small pug was fast. Faster than a civilian at any rate. That combined well with his acute sense of smell to rapidly locate fleeing targets.

They jumped from rooftop to rooftop. And then down to street level. The path was semi-erratic. They went into a quiet alley.

"The trail ends here," Pakkun said.

"Where? Is there a passage or something?" Kakashi asked. He automatically started searching the walls, the floor, and the sky for signs that anything was amiss.

"No idea. It just ends here," Pakkun said.

Kakashi thought about it. He asked, "Do you smell anybody else? Maybe a woman?" Naruto had shown a great deal of proficiency with henge jutsu, and with a certain one in particular. Kakashi wanted to make no assumptions.

"Yeah. There's one. Her trail also just vanishes here," Pakkun said.

"Follow that one. I think it's Naruto," Kakashi said.

The continued on, strictly on the ground now, into the main thoroughfares and busy crowds of Konoha. Kakashi had the utmost confidence in Pakkun despite that. There was a reason Kakashi used him so frequently to track.

They neared one of the gates of Konoha. In the past, during the Second Great Shinobi War, the gate would have been shut against all intruders. In this time of peace, the opening was rarely even guarded. That was a great thing. It was the job of the ninja, plus the samurai and everybody else, to maintain that peace. However it was also very inconvenient. It meant that Konoha's jinchuiki could leave without even being challenged.

They were well out of sight of Konoha when Pakkun said, "The woman's gone and the boy's back again."

"Do you smell anybody else?" Kakashi asked.

"No, boss," Pakkun said.

That was a relief at least. It appeared that Naruto was acting on his own volition. If he had been kidnapped or otherwise taken by force it would have been a very bad situation.

"After him," Kakashi said.

They took to the air again, this time jumping from treetop to treetop.

Kakashi was more leading now with Pakkun providing validation of the path. The high trees didn't carry very much smell, but it was far easier for Kakashi to track by sight here than in the featureless Konoha streets. There would be broken leaves, footprints, and other small traces of where Naruto had passed. They were difficult to spot. Naruto was good. But Kakashi was better.

It was a long trip. It gave plenty of time for Kakashi to worry about what had happened. Naruto didn't appear to be under duress, but he was also outside of Konoha. True he wasn't on a mission so technically he could go anywhere within the Land of Fire he wanted to, but as a general rule ninja never left Konoha without reason.

"Tsss," Kakashi hissed to Pakkun, drawing the dog to a halt.

Up ahead Kakashi saw something which stood out to his discerning eyes searching for clues. Up on one of the trees was what appeared to be something like a large bird feeder or something. It was designed like a mini-sentry tower. It had a roof and was square-ish shaped, with a rail surrounding the platform in the middle. Within it, and much more ominously, some puppets had been set up. They were positioned with their hands over their foreheads as if to block the sun, and they were scanning the horizon back and forth.

"Naruto went that way?" Kakashi asked.

"Yeah, boss," Pakkun confirmed.

Kakashi's worry spiked yet higher. There was only one unknown puppet user in Konoha's recent past. It had been assumed that that S-Class ninja had fled the Land of Fire. It appeared that this assumption might have been in error. The assumption that Naruto was acting on his own was in question too. A master of genjutsu could get a person to do almost anything.

It was enough for Kakashi to take precautions. He summoned Akino and instructed him to go back to the Hokage with a warning message. In the meantime time was at a premium. There was no way Kakashi could just stand around and wait for instructions or reinforcements. He pressed on.

"Let's go around. Keep a lookout for any other guards," Kakashi said.

He led Pakkun as they gave the guard tower a wide berth. As he traveled he kept his eyes peeled looking for other sentries. It was a good thing. There was another one in short sight. And another. They overlapped fairly closely making it almost impossible for somebody to find a hole in the sight lines. They formed a rough circle. Some quick calculations suggested that the center of it wasn't too much further beyond. If Kakashi could get past the line then there was a strong chance that Kakashi would find Naruto just behind.

Kakashi kept circling until he reached a cliff face. It would have been a daunting climb for a civilian. For a ninja it was trivial. He pooled some chakra into his feet and simply walked up the surface. He could have run, but walking was quieter and harder to notice.

Once he had finished climbing Kakashi paused and took stock of the situation. There were no sentries nearby from what he could see. He still kept a careful watch. It was possible for a ninja to not have prepared for an approach from the cliff, but it was unlikely. All advanced genin, let alone chunin, wouldn't have been put off by anything as simple as a cliff face.

Kakashi sneaked forward. If he was right, he would be able to overlook the rough center of the perimeter of guards at the edge of the cliff.

Down below, right where he expected it to be, was a house. There was something like a farm next to it with some sort of activity going on around it. At first sight it looked like some people were working the fields, but they looked far too distant. It confused his depth perception until he figured out that it was really puppets who were moving things around.

And then Kakashi felt a tsunami of demonic chakra.

It was massive. It wasn't anything like during the fight with Zabuza. That had been worrisome. This was terrifying. He had only felt something close to this once before, back on that unfortunate day the Kyubi had devastated Konoha. And it was coming straight from the house below.

Kakashi fought against the urge to flee. The smart thing to do would have been to run back to Konoha. There was nothing Kakashi could do on his own against the Kyubi, and they needed to be warned. That was if they hadn't already sensed the massive presence.

But those who abandoned their teammates were worse than trash, and Naruto was there. He was in massive trouble too. His seal must have failed, possibly due to the actions of one S-Class ninja. Waiting for reinforcements was just not an option.

The only compromise Kakashi made to his principles was when he summoned Guruko and ordered him back to Konoha with an urgent request for as many reinforcements as possible. It was literally impossible to overstate the danger or urgency.

Kakashi then quickly made his way forward. Stealth was no longer an issue. Against the backdrop of the Kyubi's chakra all senses would be muted. Short of being seen directly he was sure he wouldn't be noticed. Even if he were seen he still wasn't sure he would be noticed.

It felt like swimming against a raging river. There was nothing in front of him but he still felt like he had to claw and scrap and pull himself forward. He continued to ford against the tremendous rage pushing him back.

And then it vanished.

The house was silent. All movement on the farm had ceased. Something felt wrong.

Kakashi kept himself on guard. Of the potential explanations, a trap was the most likely one.

With much more stealth than before, Kakashi continued on his way to the house. He was thankful that he wouldn't need to face an unleashed Kyubi, but on the other hand any other explanation he could think of seemed far more dangerous.

When he got close, Kakashi uncovered his sharingan. He would need to be extremely careful with his chakra use. Konoha was a long way away, and reinforcements were incoming but an unknown distance away. He couldn't afford to waste all his chakra and be left defenseless.

The puppets at the farm had all fallen down. It was as if a cloud had descended and smothered them in an instant. They had fallen where they were, some of them covered by the various vegetables and leaves they had been harvesting.

Kakashi didn't let that stop him.

The house was almost identical to Alice's house in Konoha. That wasn't just an impression. The sharingan proved it. Excepting the entrance, within minor tolerances the building was the exact same building. With one key difference.

Puppets were everywhere.

They were on shelves. They were on tables. They were on chairs. They were on windowsills. They were on beds. They were underfoot.

They were next to shattered teapots and cups. They were covered with trays and plates. They were haphazardly scattered between doors.

It all raised the hackles of Kakashi. He was incredibly on edge. He felt like he was surrounded by the enemy. In a very real way, he was surrounded by the enemy. He kept a keen eye on the nearest exit and readied himself to cast a fire jutsu in case he needed to burn a path clear.

The house as a whole presented an incredible paradox to him. He wasn't an infiltration expert, but one didn't become an ANBU without some experience with information gathering. And the bits he saw presented a complex and irreconcilable bit of detective work.

Half-eaten cake and cold tea were set on a table next to a fallen puppet. It suggested that somehow Alice had been taken by surprise. However there were numerous packed bags, suggesting that Alice had been planning on leaving. However those packed bags were still present, suggesting again she had been taken by surprise.

The puppets along the shelves were organized and well kept, suggesting that Alice cared deeply for them. However the ones littering the tables and floors were a mishmash as if they had been thrown around at random, suggesting she could scarcely care less.

And the big contradiction. The trail of Naruto approached, but it didn't leave. Kakashi would have seen somebody flying away, but there had been nothing. Self-evidently somebody must have been there, but there wasn't. There was nobody present that he could find.

"Do you smell anything?" Kakashi asked.

"The boy came in here. He sat down over at that table, then walked here. After that he vanishes."

"Do you smell anything else? Any chance he transformed?"

"Nope. The only thing I smell from the past few weeks besides him is some woman. She's all over the place here. I think she's the owner."

Kakashi did one last check with his Sharingan to make sure he hadn't missed some genjutsu or something else more mundane, but then covered his eye to conserve his chakra.

"Let's get out of here. I'm sure reinforcements are on their way and they'll want an explanation," Kakashi said.

As was fitting of a jounin, he didn't lower his guard until he was well away from the house and back on the cliffside. And even then he didn't really relax.

Kakashi wasn't an detective, but things simply didn't add up in his head. The only thing he knew for certain was that something big must have happened. There was too much contradictory evidence to draw any other more specific conclusion. The things he knew didn't fit in with any theory he could put together of a kidnapping, an assault, a theft, an escape, a trap, or pretty much anything an enemy ninja would be involved in.

For the first time, Kakashi started to wonder if somehow they had gotten it all wrong.

End Omake.

Authors Notes:

It would seem like Konoha is in a bit of a predicament, now that Naruto is no longer around to protect it. I would guess that the Allied Shinobi Forces could be in trouble too, for the exact same reason. Then again, the Eye of the Moon Plan isn't looking too healthy either. Overall, I think it's fair to say that the Naruto canon plot is thoroughly derailed at this point.

But that's no longer Naruto's or Alice's problem. They are gone and they aren't coming back. Unless they have a change of heart. Or the ninja of the Naruto universe figure out a way to break the space-time barrier. Or Yukari Yakumo has some designs. Or... Well, it's possible that it really could become Naruto's and Alice's problem rather quickly.

This story was a bit odd for me in that it is the most branching one I've written yet. In almost every chapter I could see a "little" change which would have completely changed the entire plot. Alice could have joined the Konoha ninja. Naruto could have decided to learn puppetry. Alice and Naruto could have merely left the Land of Fire rather than have found a way to Gensokyo. I have no doubt there are at least five other very viable stories which could have been written based on this exact same starting point.

It might be hard to believe, but this story actually began as a Touhou-Harry Potter crossover. It's changed so much by now that almost all of the vestiges of the Harry Potter are gone, but that is its origins. About the only traces I still see remaining of that original crossover are the same problems which had prevented me from writing that crossover to begin with, albeit much less pronounced in this particular manifestation.

The first problem is the issue of point of view. If I want to keep things limited to Alice's point of view then there are several things which happen in the background which the reader simply can't see occurring. In my Touhou-Harry Potter idea that would have been an overwhelming number of things. Here it is merely a noticeable amount. It's an unfortunate side effect of the point of view I used when writing this. I ended up having fun writing some small side stories to explore those other plot points, and these became the various omake scattered around. Originally and for over a year I had not included them due to the point of view clash. However the more I thought about it the more I realized that I really liked those scenes, so I went ahead and re-added them back in. I considered instead putting them all as a new Chapter 7, as I really don't like how the real ending of this story is in the middle of the text of this chapter, but as you can see I decided to keep things distributed by chapter so it would be easier to place the context of each scene.

The second problem is the issue of timing. The setting of this story is very precise. I would have loved to have gone further in the general plot, but this is about the latest in the Naruto canon I thought I could go and still see Naruto legitimately getting fed up with being mistreated and being willing to leave. Konoha isn't in the middle of a war, so Naruto won't feel obligated as such to stay around and try to protect it. The village and the various ninja are still completely neglecting him, so he is more willing to leave them behind in a really big way. It would have been fun to have continued further to the chunin exam and beyond, but given the expansive world of Naruto I don't think it's really practical to explore the entire universe. Moreover, I expect that the story would have just stopped in an abandoned state if I had tried to go on much further. I definitely feel having an ending is better than just stopping, and this is one of the few endings I could envision.

Speaking of which, that's another story complete. I love the feeling of being able to mark a story as "complete," even if it is a bit bittersweet as well. It's hard to put into words. There is one thing I know for sure, though. I had a great deal of fun writing this, and I hope you enjoyed reading it just as much.

Thank you for sticking around, and may you also find a place that can accept you for who you are.

Last Updated: February 15, 2019