Paths Ever Crossed

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, Kaze no Stigma, or 47 Ronin.

AN/ Thought about a Naruto x Kaze no Stigma crossover off and on, but still haven't even seen the second season. Was actually inspired to write this intro after watching the movie 47 Ronin. I like thinking up ways to introduce characters into different worlds. Plausible ways within the set universes. In fact, I think this one can even be edited for other possible stories if the Kaze no Stigma angle doesn't pan out. I'm planning this out to be a NaruHina family kind of fic.

PROLOGUE: My Hand Was Meant To Hold Yours

Time is a cruel thing. In the end, it takes everything.

All that we've earned.

All that we've learned.

…All that we've loved.

But, it was fair in its cruelty. It showed no favor or ill will. Good, evil, indifferent. All are equal in its gaze.

You can cheat it, sometimes, but, in the end, it comes for you all the same.

The sad irony is that so few recognize how precious it is…until it slips away, or when it takes something from you. It is then that you realize how selfish you have been, squandering your time, never considering how easily it can be unappreciated.

He knew that feeling all too well.

Many times throughout his life, he'd cursed himself. For not being fast enough. For not being strong enough. Often enough, for simply not being there. That was his selfishness, in thinking that he had to be everywhere and do everything.

For one hundred and fifty years, and a little change, he had lived with that knowledge, that shame, that aching acceptance.

FLASHBACK

"It's not fair," he mumbled, tears clouding his vision. Held delicately in his arms, as if she might break like glass at any moment, she just smiled up at him. There was sadness, but also contentment.

A pale hand, now uncharacteristically cold, came up to trace his cheek. "Shh… I'm glad…for all the time I had."

"Time I wasted," he bit out. "I-I only just realized-" He looked away. "I ruined everything." That same soft hand pulled his face gently back around.

Tears now rimmed her own soft, pale eyes. Tears of happiness. Many years she'd waited to hear what he was saying. "The fault…was mine as well," she countered weakly. "I should have been braver."

"I was a fool."

"The best ones are." She could feel the cold spreading through her. A sign that her time was growing increasingly short. Expending Hamura's chakra as she had…there was never any other outcome. But she had managed to stand and fight to the end, until all was done. "Naruto-kun… My mother once told me…that this life is…meant to prepare us for the next. That all we can ask is to leave it having loved…and being loved. And I have…even if the time was short." The tears that once brimmed began to fall. "We will meet again. I know it."

Choking on his own sorrow, "…I…I will search for you…through a thousand worlds, and ten thousand lifetimes, until I find you."

"…And I will wait for you…in all of them. My love."

That was how it happened.

That was how love came into his life and left it.

That was how the love of his life died. In his arms, smiling. At peace.

FLASHBACK END

It had broken him inside.

Knowing…truly knowing, understanding…that she loved him, had changed him. For just a few hours, he had felt something he hadn't for anyone else. He had crushed on Sakura for near-on a decade, but even her making him promise to return Sasuke had never hurt as much as the thought of Hinata's shutting him out to go with Toneri.

He knew then, truly knew it.

She had loved him. Deeply.

And it was with bitter realization that he came to see that she had done so for years. Years that he had been too oblivious…no, stupid…too stupid to see.

And no other pain in his life had ever compared to her fading away in his very arms. He had held her in his arms, someone who had cared so much for him, the life fading from her while all he could do was watch.

Strong arms, so full of power…

So useless when it really mattered.

Time.

It was unbiased, sure enough. But no-one ever mentioned how much it seemed to enjoy the use of cruel irony.

From then on, he was a ghost. With her last breath, his heart had stopped beating. He ate, he breathed, he slept. He existed. But he did not live.

He did what he set out to, in his master's memory…and hers…to further peace in the world. He watched two generations of shinobi around the world grow in an era of peace. But when the moment was afforded him…when he felt he could do no more, he vanished, retreating from the world. For sixty odd years, he went into a quiet, voluntary exile among the summons and the biju.

From then on, he simply waited for time to come one last time and collect its due.

Until then, all he could do was suffer…willingly…in memory of his own foolishness…and that brief, gentle love…but with the hope that someday, sometime, in another life…

…They would be together.

Bustling crowds passed through the streets of Tokyo. In fact, it was just about shoulder to shoulder as far anyone could see. So it wasn't that odd to bump into the people around you on a regular basis, so much so that everyone took it in stride.

The trains were even worse. If you weren't shuffling through a crowded station, you were stuck jammed into a train car with dozens of other passengers for prolonged periods of time.

He at least showered and brushed his teeth beforehand. Some of his fellow passengers didn't seem to follow that same etiquette.

He wasn't a fan of Tokyo.

Too close to the past really.

That, and he'd wandered around enough that he'd come to appreciate a larger personal space. Hokkaido was cold, but at least you didn't get jostled around in the daily commute. Still, he had to endure it. Business was business, and during these summer months he needed to rack up as much money for school and living expenses as he could. A few more years of odd jobs and schooling and he could leave the island entirely.

A time that couldn't come fast enough for his taste.

He recognized the existence of a little plastic friend in his wallet that could remedy his situation, but he refused to use it. He had only used it for those first two years. Now though, he only carried it around as a reminder. Proof of just where he stood in the world…and with a family that could find nothing but shame in his existence. A family that felt so disgraced by their child that they cast him out of their house at age twelve.

Sighing as the train came to a stop, he squeezed his way off the car and through the crowd. Experience had made him agile, but there were still the odd bumps here and there.

Body jerking, he staggered and came to a sudden stop, immediately feeling his jacket come snagged.

Turning, his vision filled with dark blue hair. "Hey, um-"

Oh. Why did the train have to run so late? She had left early to ensure that she didn't miss it, only to be left waiting for several minutes.

No, she couldn't blame the train. She should've left a little earlier and gotten on the previous train. That would've been a much smarter plan.

Mrs. Fumio would be expecting her to help with the morning deliveries, and she had never…ever…been late. Not in the last two summers since she'd started at the flower shop.

Her father didn't quite approve. It was his position that his firm, that he was a partner in, was doing well enough on its own that his eldest daughter shouldn't have to work a part-time job. He was however torn as he himself had worked during college to pay bills, leading him to the more or less self-made man that he was today. Her mother was the deciding vote, urging him to let their daughter spread her wings.

It was only a part-time job. Mrs. Kairi Fumio was a college friend of her mother who owned a flower shop on the edge of town.

She'd had to prove herself at first, but the woman's critiquing had softened over time, and she now welcomed the girl in her shop. Hours were longer in the summer, but she was on-call during the rest of the year. But she enjoyed it. She enjoyed working, getting dirty even, and earning her own way in some small way.

It was a friendship that she held dear and did her best not to neglect by always being prompt and working hard.

"Excuse me… Pardon me." Polite words with any and every bump as she sidled her way through the people that were trying to get onto the train as she was trying to leave it. Finally though, purple sneakers hit the station floor as she peeled herself out of the masses.

Just in time to collide with someone. Stopping at the tugging sensation of her sleeve, "Excuse me-"

Jerked to a stop, momentum arrested without warning, heads turned in a mix of confusion and annoyance. One pair radiant blue and one pair soft indigo.

Each wondered immediately what was going on. Noticing first and foremost the other's hand gripping tightly to their clothes: her to the hem of his jacket and he to her sleeve. And then the eyes met.

"Excuse me-" the young woman spoke, her voice as soft and gentle as the overall appearance she bore.

"Hey, um-" while his own retort was much less formal and reflected a tone of lackadaisical energy that radiated off him.

And yet, neither managed more than a few words before whatever they intended to say dried up in their throats. They just stood there, lost, intently so, in each other's presence.

Only tears showed the magnitude of emotions passing between the two.

Between these strangers.

It was inexplicable. As if finding for the first time that there was something wrong…something missing. Something so important that you just couldn't fathom how you could ever forget it in the first place, and feeling profoundly pained at recognizing it had been absent.

Recognition.

An impossible recognition.

"…You found me," she whispered. Free hand coming up to cover her trembling lips, her eyes overflowed with unshed tears.

"I said I would, didn't I?" and yet there was no hiding the tremble in his own voice as the first tears started trailing down his own cheeks.

Shakily, she reached out, as if he was an illusion, both hands against his chest, resting a moment to feel his heartbeat before she fell against him, sobbing.

To which his own arms wrapped around her like steel, strong and unrelenting. His own face buried in her hair hid his tears from the world around them.

Years untold peeled away in their eyes. A young man in burnt orange. A young woman in light purple.

"T-Took you long enough," she hiccupped into his blazer. Oh, she was so sad, but also overjoyed.

"I can't argue with that," he whispered into their embrace. "…Hinata."

Sniffing happily at hearing her name, spoken with that voice, where is shouldn't be possible. "Naruto-kun," she mumbled back, tears pouring anew. Pulling away, she met his eyes once more, this time with full realized recognition. Sniffling, she reached up her hands to caress his face.

"You have whisker marks," she choked, smiling, alerting him.

"And your eyes, they're changing," he retorted bluntly enough as the purple of her irises continued to lighten. "Heh…" His shoulders shook a little, and, despite the seconds-ago mood, a smile split his face, blue eyes suddenly alight. "Heh…Hahaha!" Hands snaring her by the waist, he lifted her off the ground and, after an admittedly pointless twirl, stared up at her, now offering her own sweet smile. Her own free hands caressed his face, gently pulling against him to lower her down, just so she could once again be closer to him.

Elsewhere…

Deep, even breathing in the dark.

Breaths that spoke of the deepest of sleeps.

And, for one moment, the pattern changed. There was a pause, only a few seconds long, but it was there, and then the breathing continued. A large eyelid cracked open. Within, a crimson, almond-shaped eye, reflected sleepiness before coming into focus…into wakefulness. The pupil, round at first, thinning to a slit.

What was that?

Just now… He felt…

Could he have imagined it?

Opening previously closed channels to the world…searching for that odd, familiar feeling…

Blinking dumbly, lips pulled back into a broad, amused, sharp-toothed smile.

"Well, now."

Naruto (16yo)
Hinata (16yo)

AN/ Naruto's been on his own for 4 years at this point. At this time, isn't officially going by the name "Naruto Uzumaki" yet, as he was born Kazama Kanagi. Hinata was born Hina Hosho (if anyone can think of a better last name for her, let me know. Though by Chapter 3, all is set in stone.)

I was originally thinking about making him a Wind user, and Hinata a Water user. Then, it struck me that they could also become the first, new wielders of chakra in the modern world, reintroducing it.