A/N: Bad news guys and gals. I'm sick. REALLY sick. I won't go into details, but, in part of my illness, I felt obligated to give you all a little something something to show that, despite my degenerating health, my mind is still as sharp as ever. I really hope you enjoy this, and, I apologize if any of you get lost in translation.

Emergence

The dreams churned in fits and spurts as he slept in the coffin.

'Wake...

Flashes of lightning, peals of thunder. Blood on his hands, drenching the deck of a boat that defied nature; a ship that soared through the skies. He rememebered the pale faced man who sat aboard the throne of that ship, after all how could he not? He remembered the sick satisfaction as he drove the dagger home, wrenching it through bone and flesh and sinew until it finally found his heart.

...up.'

He remembered darkness for a time thereafter. He remembered a sudden loss of gravity, of vertigo, followed by blackness. The man of thunder and lightning was dead; because his dream-self knew this to be true. Just as he knew that his power, the power of the heavens, was now free to be claimed as his own. Power sought. Power granted. Such were the machinations of fate; set into motion by that perculair lad with the hat of straw.

'Right...

He held the fruit in his hand and savored his victory, a sick and twisted satisfaction. His dream-self bit into the fruit without hesistation and savored that sweet, bitter nectar. For an instant, the world burned a cold, terrible white, as he was bathed within a curtain of indigo. He cared little for the man's vessel; for it had already served its purpose. Like any tool that no longer had any worth, he, the stowaway on that great and terrible skyark, cast that flying carriage down. Thrust it deep into the depths of the cloud ocean. It would trouble those of the land of sky no longer.

...now.'

In retrospect, he wanted to thank the boy with the strawhat. Were it not for him, had he not weakened that vain and deluded "god" of the sky, then heaven would eventually quake wherever he resided, that powerful, deluded man of the sky. To the remorseless clouds that followed he would respond in kind, smiling all the way. He had a new goal, so it would seem, and it was to these thoughts that his body began to stir from the slumber into which it had been so inadvertantly thrust.

'Get the fuck up!'

His hand lurched upward. His head slammed against a low ceiling and kissed the iron clasp of his coffin. The rattling of chains, coupled with the not-so-subtle swaying of his strange abode proved to be some cause for alarm and rememberance. He vaguely recalled his departure from the land of cloud and sky; forsaking the realm he'd sought so feverishly before in his travels, descending in a light skiff provided for him by the inhabitants of that land.

'UP!'

He remembered...little after the splashdown. The opening of the barrel, that white-hot flare of crimson and scarlet struck a chord in his mind, true, but this was not the reason for which blood soaked into his blond bangs. Frustrated, both by memory loss and his unsupposing captivity, a stray spark escaped the cofines of his prison. It was enough. It took little more than that dim ember of curent to settle on the rotted drywood...

..until the strength surged through his limbs once more.

His body strained against the ties that bound it, and sparks sprayed themselves about. No webbing could hold him! No bonds of heaven nor earth could hope to restrain such a force; such a being! Naturally, the wood could not. Instead of containing his power, as it had been meant, the coffin shattered. Stale air burst from his lungs, replaced by a cool breeze that soon covered the sky in grayish layer.

The strange mouse-like spider that had captured him shrieked in protest. And with good measure. There were dozens of them! They poured from every nook and cranny, their tendrils of mist and webbing seeking to capture him once more. He swatted and them, crushed them beneath his fingers, but for every one he quashed, another of its strange and stitched bretheren was there to replace it.

"He's loose!" One of the filthy things shrieked! "Quickly! Someone! Anyone! We must report this to Moria-sama at-

The name struck a chord deep within the amnesiac, and he smiled.

He smiled; completely aware that the smallest muscle spasm could send his coffin teetering over the chain and into oblivion. But he did not waver. Instead, he pushed against the remaining netting, brushing aside the groping threads and wisps that swiftly wound themselves around his arms and legs; even as he struggled to stand. It did naught but delay the inevitable, in the end.

"What the hell is this?" The blond exhaled sharply,extracting his remaining limb from the rotted timber. "WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?"

He stretched his hand to the heavens and gave a fearful cry. Sure enough, a bolt of luminescent blue came down from the stratosphere and struck him. Yet he did not feel pain. Far from it, he felt invigorated by it. The dancing energy that had manifested inside him increased in fervor, coursing through his veins at a vastly accelerated rate. It pushed at his innards wanting release, wanting to escape him.

So he let it do just that.

Soon, it started to rain. It was very unusual to have this much rain poured in Thriller Bark. But rain kept on pouring sorely. It looked as if the mist would be driven away at the rain strengthened, building into a strange semblance of weeping...

It was sorrowful mourning.

Tendrils of azure light burst forth from his body as his once captors cringed in fear. Trees, animals and zombies alike, were caught in a furious maelstrom of indigo. Many writhed uncontrollably in cerulean tendrils of light and energy. Others caught fire, mingling flickering hues of red and orange with that of the blue that pervaded the scene. With the chain serving as the conduit, the coffin inexplicably detonated and exploded.

Not quietly.

Somehow, in the chaos, the blond managed to extricate himself from the pile of burning timber. Unharmed, unhindered, sparks crackled across his form; brilliants cords that were both of white and blue stretching across the horizon to form a brilliantly deafening peal of thunder. When the deep reverberations at last subsided, the blond reached a hand up towards a whiskered cheek, in an attempt to push some semblance of warmth back into his cheeks.

"Naruto." He murmurred numbly to himself, a snatch of memory coming back to the castaway as he peered upward at the grand mansion that loomed before him. "My name is Uzumaki...Naruto." Satisfied with having at least acquired a name to which he could be called, the former captive took a shuffling step forward. His tattered cargo jeans did him little service as he edged a step northward; the material was frayed around the seams with burns, and all but falling apart.

The same could be said for the ruffled oranged vest he had once worn. Mingled with the like of a black captain's coat, it too, had suffered under the wrath of the Goro Goro no mi and its explosive power. Reduced to little more than burning cinders, the blond let slide his ruffled vest and jacket; those garments smoldering away from him even as that thought occurred to him that he might find answers in the mansion over yonder.

"EEEEEEEEEEYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

A bloodcurdling scream, a woman's shriek followed by two others, suddenly split the night before him.

"Huh." With a muffled grunt, the erstwhile Logia-user staggered three steps forward. The scream had put him on edge, leaving him tense and hesistant as he scooted those few precious feet forward and toward the stairwell. Now, as he neared the staircaise-the mist fled from his approach as if it were tangible-he permitted himself a sman smile that bespoke solely of sadness and loneliness.

After awhile, he realized he was shaking.

"Where the hell...am I?"

A/N: Meh, tis a result of reading the Skypiea Arc. For those of you who wonder, yes, Naruto does have amnesia. Yes, he did Kill Enel. YES, he had the powers of the Goro Goro no mi, and as a result is slightly , he is on thriller bark, but broke out before his shadow could be nabbed. Timewise, this takes place while the Strawhats are wandering the island, (After Luffy, Sanji, and Zoro have been nabbed) And if any of you are wondering about that little burst of OOC back there, hey, After all, wouldn't you be a bit confused if you suddenly woke up and couldn't remember anything? I know I (cough) would! Hehehe, I can promise that, come the Sabaody Archipeligo arc, things will be most interesting...