Coping with Reality

A Naruto & Negima crossover challenge fanfic

Yo! Ultima-kun here with a new fic. I've been taking it pretty easy these past couple years, reading my fill of fanfiction. However, nothing had the right touch. Every one of the fics bothered me in one way or another.

Finally, another author issued a challenge to write a fanfic that didn't have a few of these issues in them. I accepted. I hope you all enjoy this because I'm giving my all to write this. Thanks for reading, now I give you the first chapter to "Coping with Reality".

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Naruto, Negima or any other source I may use.

Chapter 1: A challenger appears!

Tsunade was in her office doing paperwork when suddenly, the double doors were pushed open and slammed against the wall, creating a loud bang that made the Hokage slightly jump in her seat and look up in surprise.

"Lady Tsunade! Sasuke has left the village!" one Sakura Haruno yelled in despair as she ran up to the Hokages desk with tears in her eyes. She had only just woken up from getting knocked out by the Uchiha minutes prior. "What!" Tsunade yelled as she stood up, her shock and anger being evidant on her face.

-Ten minutes later-

"Hey Naruto!" yelled Shikamaru, a chuunin with his hair tied into a pineapple ponytail. "Troublesome….HEY NARUTO!" Shikamaru called out again, only louder this time and started banging on the door. Suddenly, there was a clicking noise as a lock was unlocked and the door opened. "Huh? Shikamaru? What are you doing here?" Naruto asked as he fully opened the door, expecting the chuunin to enter his apartment. Shikamaru did not though.

"Bad news. Sasuke has left the village." Shikamaru said in his regular bored tone. "WHAT? WHY?" Naruto shouted in disbelief. "No clue. I'm getting a squad together to go save him. Are you in?"

"Of course I'm in!" Naruto said as he locked his door behind him and followed after the chuunin. They suddenly stopped at Chouji's house where Shikamaru promptly sat down and took out a bag of potato chips. "Join in if you want." Shikamaru said and started eating quickly.

Naruto was confused why Shikamaru was sitting here when Sasuke had defected when suddenly, the last chip was in the bag. Shikamaru held up the chip and was getting ready to bite into it when suddenly a blur, faster than either could see zoomed passed them and the chip was gone from Shikamaru's hand.

"The last potato chip is mine!" Chouji yelled triumphantly before gulping down the lone chip. "Now that you're here, we're going on a mission to get Sasuke. You in?" Shikamaru asked. "You don't need to ask me twice." Chouji said before he ran back inside and put on some decent clothing, seeing as he ran outside in his boxers and a shirt.

The trio eventually went to the Hyuuga estate where they asked the guards for Neji. "He's in the back, training with his squad." One of the guards had said. With a nod and a thanks, the three went to the back of the mansion where they found Neji, Tenten and Lee (Who had snuck out of the hospital.) training.

"Lee? What are you doing here?" Naruto asked as they came into view. Neji was the first to answer though. "We tried to convince him to return to the hospital, but we agreed he could stay so long as he didn't do anything too extreme." The Hyuuga explained.

"However, he shouldn't even be doing any training whatsoever!" Tenten stated as she looked over at their teammate, who was looking sheepish. "Whatever. Look, Sasuke Uchiha has defected. I'm setting a team together to go after him by the Hokage's orders."

Tenten and Neji looked at each other before nodding. "We're in." Lee stepped forward. "I'm coming too!" he declared loudly. "No Lee! You're in no shape to go on a mission, let alone even be training!" Tenten said.

"Agreed. You should stay back and rest." Neji stated as he folded his arms and closed his eyes, signifying that he was finished with the argument. "But I am ready to go! My youthful spirit is burning hotter than ever! I promise I will not do anything drastic and only offer support!" Lee had shouted out as he clenched his fist and his eyes burned with intensity.

Shikamaru let out a sigh. "So troublesome. So long as you don't do anything reckless I don't mind. But only jump in if you absolutely have to." Shikamaru ordered. Tenten looked dumbfounded and unsure. Neji just "Hmph"ed and Lee gave an enthusiastic nod.

"Now let's get going. We're wasting time standing around." Shikamaru said as he turned and leapt off, the others following after. The group shortly arrived at the Inuzuka compound and knocked on the door.

"Yeah, yeah, I hear ya. Hang on." Kiba's voice rang out from inside before he suddenly opened the door. "Hey guys, what's up?" he asked, surprised at the number of people here. "Sasuke left the village. We're going after him." Shikamaru said. Kiba's eyes widened before he suddenly slammed the door shut.

Shikamaru pulled his face back a bit when the door slammed shut. "Guess he doesn't care…" Tenten said, only for the door to open and Kiba was in his hoodie and he had Akamaru with him. "I stand corrected."

With that, the group took off to the main gate. "Alright, Kiba will be in front doing the tracking. Neji will follow him and keep a lookout with his Byakugan with Tenten right behind him. Naruto will be in the center, followed by Lee and Chouji and I will bring up the rear." Shikamaru explained their formation to them and everyone gave a nod, showing that they understood.

With that, the group took off towards the forest, but suddenly they were stopped by a certain toad hermit. "Hey, hey…where's the fire?" Jiraiya asked. "I was just on my way out of town. Where are you all headed?" the toad sage questioned as he gave the group a small smile. "Pervy sage! Sasuke's left the village!" Naruto said.

Jiraiya's face turned serious for a minute. "The Uchiha? He must be going to Orochimaru." Jiraiya said, his frown deepening. "Orochimaru? Why?" Shikamaru asked aloud, somewhat confused as to why Sasuke would join the snake sennin. "I'm coming with you guys. I'll explain along the way." Jiraiya said, and with that they took off after Sasuke.

Jiraiya then explained how the curse seal works and how Orochimaru most likely wanted Sasuke for the Sharingan and had plans on taking over his body.

The entire group was appalled at the sound of it and only helped to make them move quicker. Jiraiya was coming along for two reasons. Reason one was because of the seal. Jiraiya wanted a good look at it so he could learn more and possibly do something about it. The second reason was, if his ex-teammate is involved, he didn't want a group of genin being stuck alone fighting the sennin.

Suddenly, Neji's eyes widened. "I've found five chakra signatures up ahead in a clearing." He stated, his Byakugan had been active for some time while Kiba and Akamaru had been tracking Sasuke by smell.

The group stopped a short distance away and slowly crept in towards the group. There were four of ninja sitting in the clearing with a barrel in the center. "Somethings wrong here…" Jiraiya whispered to himself. Suddenly, the group jumped out from their hiding spot and had the four ninja and the barrel surrounded.

"Now we've got you!" Naruto shouted as everyone got ready to fight, however, the four ninja weren't moving and Jiraiya slowly walked into the clearing. "Wait a second…" he said, walking up to one of the ninja. He was about to grab one of them when suddenly, the one he was closest to fell over to reveal a straw dummy.

"They tricked us!" Shikamaru shouted, turning around to see if they were going to get attacked. "Correct." A voice said from the shadows, when suddenly the barrel began to glow and a blue light shot out from it and covered the entire area. The light was giving out enough to see through the darkness of the wooded area and the four ninja were around the group, their hands held in a seal.

"Lord Orochimaru only told us to use this technique if we were heavily outclassed. With Jiraiya the toad sage here, I'd say that's reason enough." One of the four ninja said, he had blue hair and pale skin. "The unforunate part though is we're all going to be hit with it, including Sasuke." The tall guy with the orange hair said.

"We hope Lord Orochimaru understands. Under different circumstances, we wouldn't have resorted to this." The blue haired boy said again. Suddenly the light began to glow brighter, nearly blinding anyone who was looking.

"Wait! What are you doing?" Naruto shouted out, his voice suddenly sounding distant. "Forbidden technique, plane banishment jutsu!" the four cried out. Suddenly the light seemed to explode and to the ninja caught in the blast, all they saw was white. To those outside the blast, it was like a massive monstrous scream was heard as a giant beam of light flew off into the sky.

-Naruto's Mindscape-

"Kit" a voice said. Naruto's eyes fluttered and he let out a small groan. "Kit." The voice repeated. Naruto slowly opened his fully and sat up quickly. "What the? What happened? Where am I?" he asked as he looked around quickly.

"Forgot about me so soon?" the figure of the Kyuubi said as its eyes narrowed. "Not that! I mean what happened to my body! What about everyone else?" he asked frantically.

"The technique that those four did was extremely dangerous. I doubt they realized it, but they ripped open a way to another dimension and the lot of you got sucked into it. Right now, you're all unconscious in some new world." The giant fox explained calmly as its tails swished about behind it.

"What? Dimension? " Naruto asked. The demon fox however, simply closed its eyes. "I'm not going to explain it to you. But right now you all need to wake up. You're in an alien world, there's no telling what dangers await you." The fox said, and with that, it let out a roar and Naruto felt himself getting pushed before he suddenly regained consciousness.

-?-

Naruto suddenly sat up with a gasp and quickly looked around. Trees, that's all he could see around him. He slowly stood up and gave a sigh of relief. Everyone was here, but they were unconscious still yet. "You need to get them out of here, quickly." The Kyuubi's voice rang in Naruto's head suddenly.

With a nod, Naruto quickly formed a hand seal. "Shadow clone jutsu!" he said and with a poof of smoke, there were suddenly fourteen clones standing with him. "Each of you, pick someone up and one of you grab the barrel Sasuke is in. We gotta move!" he said. The group quickly went to work and with a quick glance to make sure everyone was accounted for, they took off in some random direction in the woods.

After five minutes of running, everyone started to groan and come to. The small group halted and placed everyone down to let them get their bearings. "What just happened?" Chouji asked as he stood up.

"Apparently, we're in some other world." Naruto said as his clones helped a few of them stand up. "Another world? How do you know that?" Kiba asked as he quickly checked over Akamaru. "He's right. This area is completely different from where we were in the woods." Jiraiya cut in as he took a look around.

"Wait, another world?" the six armed ninja asked aloud. "I thought that move was going to kill us all." He stated. "Wait…you four would willingly kill yourselves for Orochimaru?" Kiba asked, quite shocked at what he was hearing.

"Of course they would, they're under the influence of his curse seal." Jiraiya explained as he turned and looked at them. "However, I can probably stop the seals influence if I can get a look at it." He said. Without a word, the four were getting ready to dash away before Lee suddenly appeared by the barrel that held Sasuke so they couldn't take it.

The four instead, bolted off in another direction once they saw that they weren't going to be able to take back Sasuke…right now anyways.

"Let them go." Jiraiya said as he held his arm out, since he knew Naruto and a couple others were getting ready to give chase. "We got Sasuke back. Our top priority right now is figuring out where we are." He stated.

"He's right. With no knowledge of this area, we don't even know if there are enemies that will kill us on sight." Shikamaru stated. "I say we send two people to scout the area while we hold out here. If you find anything, come back. If you are found and attacked, try to give us some kind of warning." Shikamaru said.

With a nod, the group quickly decided that Neji and Tenten would go out and scout while the everyone else stayed. They kept Kiba in case someone tried to sneak up on them. The two shinobi were quickly leaping tree to tree heading in one direction with Neji keeping his Byakugan activated.

"Up ahead, I see a lot of people. It appears to be a town." Neji informed Tenten who only nodded. Getting closer, the two saw that indeed, it was a town. However, the fact that there were no ninja to be seen was making Neji nervous. "This place is not guarded or patrolled at all by any ninja or any guards of some kind that I can see. Inf act, everyone in this town has little to no chakra in them at all." He said.

The two quickly turned and reported back to their friends and told them what they had seen. "Their clothes are odd, everything in the area is different and…" at this Neji stopped and now noticed the unconscious Uchiha laying on the ground.

"What happened to him?" Tenten asked. "He emerged from the barrel covered in dark chakra. I quickly knocked him out and sealed up his curse seal." Jiraiya explained. "Anyways…there appear to be no ninja in the area. I suggest we find a hotel or something and keep a low profile." Neji said. With a nod, the group picked up the knocked out Sasuke and proceeded into town.

Will the group find out where they are? Will they suffer culture shock? Find out next time!