Chapter 4

The flames flickered in Naruto's eyes as he stood before the furnace. The flame leapt about its cage, brushing against the ceiling, almost frustrated at being contained. Tongues of flame darted out the open grate, only to retreat back or burn out before getting anywhere. The sight brought a smile to Naruto's lips.

"It's beautiful, isn't it," Naruto said softly, eyes still glued to the flames, but knowing that Sasuke could hear him.

"Yeah, it's great," Sasuke replied dryly. "Now get to the point already." Something about him seemed very familiar, but he just couldn't place his finger on it, and this feeling, combined with his unexplained surroundings left Sasuke tense.

"Blunt and to the point are we?" Naruto questioned, mirth permeating his voice. "Alright Sasuke, now I'm sure that you've noticed some strange things happening to you, you were stronger and tougher than you remembered, am I wrong?" Finally, Naruto turned to face Sasuke, the fire still burning strong behind him, the shadows flickering in sync with it.

"How the Hell do you know that?" Sasuke demanded angrily, his temper really starting to simmer.

"I have my ways," Naruto seemed to draw great amusement from Sasuke's frustration.

"Enough," Sasuke roared. "No more of your games!" Sasuke lunged forward, grabbing Naruto. He spun Naruto around and slammed Naruto against the hot metal of the furnace. Sasuke could feel the intense heat on his hands as he tightened his grip on Naruto's throat and the wrist of the glove on his right hand. For Naruto, it must have been scorching, but his grin showed no discomfort. "Now, you are going to answer me! Who are you? Where am I? And what do you know about what's been happening to me?"

If it were possible, this seemed to make Naruto's smirk grow wider still. He looked Sasuke square in the eye, cheerful madness meeting unending determination and strength. And he then dissolved into smoke. And as Sasuke's hands slammed against the hot metal, the laughter began, echoing from all around him.

"You're an impatient one, aren't you?" Naruto questioned, his voice still coming from everywhere and nowhere. "Very well then, to start, I am Naruto Uzumaki, and I'll cut short some of my theatrics, despite how much it pains me."

"Now to begin, a story," Naruto announced as he walked out of the darkness from which Sasuke emerged. "And before you even start, this story is important. You see, these abilities you are developing are the result of an ancient bloodline, passed down through the generations. It has gone unnoticed for unimaginable lengths of time due to the requirements of awakening it. In fact, you are the second person to ever awaken it. The first was a distant ancestor of yours. His name was JasonVoorhees."

As those words rang out, the reaction was immediate. The shadows which had previously danced in sync with the flickering flames all darted forward, consuming all, including the two boys and the flames which had held them at bay. Sasuke blinked in confusion, not having time to process or respond to such a rapid and drastic change. However, his body decided on his reaction for him. He stood straight, casual and at-ease, but tensed and ready to act at a moment's notice.

And then, shafts of silver light penetrated the darkness and Sasuke discovered the metamorphosis that had occurred around him without his notice. Gone was the pipes and furnaces and in their stead were majestic trees (not as large as the ones surrounding Konoha, but none the less) and a large lake could be perceived through the trees.

Sasuke stood still amidst the grass, eyes slowly shifting as he took in his moonlit surroundings. It didn't appear to be much interesting, a clam edge of the wilderness on the side of a lake, nothing truly remarkable. Sasuke wanted to remark on this, but something stopped him. Something about this place seemed . . . strange, and different. But, try as he might, Sasuke simply could put a name to the sensation.

And then the hairs on the back of Sasuke's neck stood on end as he whipped about, and saw him. His visage was that of an average sized man, garbed in average work cloths, similar to what he had seen on many civilians, but in far better condition. These were jagged and torn, seemingly little more than rags, yet revealed nothing of the man beneath. And then Sasuke's eyes reached his face and found only more questions. His mask greatly resembled those of the hunter ninjas, a largely blank slate with occasional red markings and no other features, unlike the animal themed masks of the ANBU.

But it was what the figure held in his hand that intrigued Sasuke most. In his right hand he held a blade of medium length, with a plane wooden hilt, no guard, and grew thicker towards the top. The blade seemed extremely simple, if a bit unorthodox, especially for a ninja. But, like the mask, something about it just seemed to resonate within Sasuke, seeming familiar.

Sasuke stood stone still, his eyes locked on the now departing figure. So entranced was he that he forgot about his companion. That was until he felt something, four somethings in fact, slide into his back. He froze further still, feeling the cold metal all the way inside his stomach. Smoothly, they were retracted, and that's when Sasuke acted.

"BASTARD!" he roared as he spun around, his fist just missing the boy's face. Sasuke charged forward and grabbed Naruto by the front of the shirt and slammed him back. But, instead of being against a tree, Sasuke found Naruto pressed against the pipes, the transition back to the original setting to smooth and sudden for the enraged Sasuke to notice. His left arm barred across Naruto's torso, he reeled back his right fist and struck. Naruto replied only with laughter. Sasuke struck again, and again, and still the laughter echoed all around him, even as the pipes rang slightly from the impacts.

"You know," Naruto finally said, ending his laughter but still grinning like a Cheshire cat, "You're pretty strong for someone with such a wound." And

Sasuke still had his arm pulled back; ready to continue his assault, but Naruto's words gave him pause. He glanced down at his clothes, marred with an enormous and spreading patch of red. And he felt nothing. He felt real pain when the blades entered him, and even now, the only indication that he was wounded was in the growing field of red.

Naruto saw his confusion, and casually raised his right hand, regarding the stained blades with minor interest. Then he leaned in, and whispered in Sasuke's ear, "Want to know why?"

Wordlessly Sasuke released him, stepping back and regarding him.

"Good answer."

Naruto stood there for a moment, taking the time to smooth out his shirt and even pulling out a brown fedora hat, seeming to appear in his left hand. And as he balanced the hat on his head, his smirk still had yet to waver, and looking at him, Sasuke could almost forget that he had just taken a small beating. But, Sasuke was beginning to grow accustomed to his companion's mannerisms.

"Now then, your ancestor Jason was an interesting, if extremely quiet, individual. You see, he simply did not know how to die, no matter what they did to him, it barely slowed him down. Stabbing him, drowning him, and even burning him alive, they were all futile gestures. Jason was simply immortal, and his form of immortality manifested in his near indestructible nature. And since he could never die, he could never be stopped, so he just kept on and on with his self-appointed task, guarding the lake where his mother was murdered against everyone who might enter. And while Jason never had any kids, he did have relatives who did reproduce, and their too cared the same genes necessary to make another incarnation of Jason. They were passed on and on, just taking up space for so many generations, until they reached the Uchiha clan, and thus you."

Sasuke snorted. "Yeah, my clan was immortal all right. I think I'd have heard of a clan of immortals."

"Tell me Sasuke, how does one activate the Sharingan? Through a life or death situation, right? Being an Uchiha doesn't mean you're born with the Sharingan, just that you are born with the potential to have one. It's the same with being descended from Jason, you can become immortal, doesn't mean you necessarily are one. You need the right trigger. For the Sharingan it is fear of imminent death, for be face to face with your own frailty and mortality. For the Voorhees immortality, it is loss. You have to watch your entire world be torn apart before your very eyes, wrenched from your grasp. Jason experienced this when he saw his mother die, and you born witness to the Uchiha massacre. That is what did it."

"Okay assuming I did believe you," and Sasuke was beginning to, Naruto's words just made sense to him. Farfetched as it was, he had four wounds clean through his stomach that testified to it. "How the hell would you know all of this?"

"You think that Jason was the only immortal in existence? There was another, a man by the name of Freddy Kruger who cheated death by entering the realm of dreams; creating his own little dimension where he could survive between his excursions into the minds of the living. And again, his bloodline was passed down to me. Now, I have the ability to create and control reality within these dreams, even drawing in others, such as you."

"Okay, highly unlikely, but no more so than everything else," and truthfully, everything Naruto said just felt right. He almost found it hard not to believe. "But why are you telling me all of this, I can already tell it's not out of the goodness of your heart." Sasuke was raised in a ninja clan. Even if he did want to believe what he was being told, he'd been raised to always hold suspicion close.

"Even immortals cannot stand alone. Our ancestors tried and for their efforts, they suffered fates equivocal to death. Jason guarded his lake for countless years. And people slowly stopped coming. And between the more and more distant arrivals, Jason fell deeper and deeper into his sleep. Finally, he reached the point where became completely comatose. He's forgotten the world and how to wake up; even I could never reach him. He is forever dead to the world. As for Freddy, time passed, and while he remained untouched, the world did not. Slowly, his every tie to it was eroded. It became harder and harder for him to return, until it became impossible. He was then completely devoured by the dreams he had so long commanded. He faded away into oblivion. I however, don't intend to share his fate, and I doubt you intend to share Jason's. That is why I have brought you here. I wish to form a partnership with you."

Finally Naruto removed himself from the pipes he had been resting against and moved directly in front of Sasuke. "Sasuke, we are not like other people, and we can never be like them. We will inevitably outlive them and we will always stand above them. They'll never be able to understand us or compare to us. You want revenge against your brother right? Well I can help you. With your powers, you can follow him to the ends of the earth. And with mine, there is nowhere he can hide. Between the two of us, he would never no rest or respite, awake or asleep. We will hunt him down and slaughter him like cattle, him and everyone else that stands in our way. Greatness belongs to those with the strength and will to take it! And together, we could be greater than anyone could ever dream of being! So Sasuke, what do you say?" And with that Naruto extended his right hand, blades and all.

Sasuke regarded the offered hand stoically for a moment, before reaching out and grasping it firmly, heedless of the blades.

Naruto's grin grew wider still, and as the two shook he spoke, "Sasuke, I can already tell that we will go far together."

Meanwhile, back in Konoha, a young girl lay face up upon her bed, staring up at nothing. She lay there in the perfect darkness reflecting on her life. She thought of the family that all but shunned her, of her dead mother and distant father, of the little sister she so fear for, and of the great expectations everyone had for her, expectations she feared she could never meet. All these things ran through her mind, each competing for her attention. These burdens and difficulties felt as overbearing and crushing as they always had. But, for a brief moment, it all just vanished from her mind, suppressed by raw and primal instincts that she could not understand, before they all flooded back and her moment of peace evaporated. But in that instant, Hinata's pale eyes were darker and deeper than the void that surrounded her.

Sorry it took so long. Tell me what you think. And sorry it took so long, I get writer's block some times, other times I'm just too busy to even think about it, you know how it is. Still, I'm trying and I'll do everything I can to avoid abandoning any of my stories.