Darkest Before the Dawn

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Twilight.

Chapter 1: The Eternal Shinobi.

Rain was pouring.

All around, all he could see were craters and bodies left over from the battle that had ended just a few minutes ago. No one was alive, not one of his allies, not the leaders…Not his friends.

Why? Why hadn't he been able to do it? The plan was perfect, foolproof. So why had they all died?

He heard a coughing noise a little bit away. Walking over to it he found her, the Godaime Hokage of Konohagakure no Sato, Tsunade Senju. The once proud leader of his village looked like she was on the edge of death and didn't have a lot of time.

Walking over, he dropped down next to her looking at her dying face, "It's done." He said in a hollow voice.

Hearing the voice roused her from her exhaustion, and looking over to him lifted her hand lightly off the ground. When he saw that, he knew what she was asking and reached over to hold her hand. She knew she was dying and she didn't want to be alone in her final moments.

"Na…ruto?" She asked lightly, around the edges of her vision she saw black. "Thank you."

Looking at her confused, he had to ask, "For what? I got everyone killed with this stupid plan. Sakura, Ino, Shikamaru, Hinata." He listed the names of those who had died believing he would save everyone.

"They…may have died, but they died believing in you. Do not make their sacrifices in vain, brat." She told him firmly in her quiet voice, her vision getting darker. "We'll meet again one day, in the next life. So for now, let me rest. I can hear them, my family; they're calling me over."

His hair covered his eyes but the tears were clearly visible, "Well don't keep them waiting; go to them." He told her.

Almost everything was black yet she could still clearly see him, and with the last of her strength reached up and cupped his cheek, "Live on, Naruto, and goodbye." She told him, and with that her hand fell away and he body fell slack as she succumbed to death.

Looking down at the woman who was almost like a mother to him, dead. She had told him to live on? Everything he ever cared about was gone, what was he going to do now?

Looking around as his tears fell, he looked around at all the people who had believed in him, who had died for his foolishness. There was no comfort for him, not even from Kurama who no longer existed. They were all dead and it was all his fault.

Finally, his hair covering his eyes parted, revealing not a pair of electric blue eyes, but eyes a metallic purple covering even the sclera, with a dot in the center surrounded by rings giving them a distinct ripple like pattern.

Feeling all the pain and anger, he let out a cry of the purest heartache, one that would break even the coldest of hearts. And with that cry, there was an explosion of outward gravitational force destroying everything caught in its path.

Electric blue eyes snapped open as someone shook their owner awake. The blonde haired man they belonged to looked at the one who had woken him from his tormented dreams to see a mildly attractive flight attendant with a concerned look on her face. He must have been talking in his sleep again.

"I'm sorry sir, but you were starting to scare the other passengers." She relayed to him. He wasn't surprised, this sort of thing had happened before and most certainly happen again, so he only gave her a reassuring smile and cast a slight genjutsu, so she would just walk away and not ask any questions.

He really didn't want to talk about the past; he still had the flashes of those he cared about dying around him. In the end, he had brought peace like the prophecy had said, but at the cost of everything he held dear. The peace however, had not been permanent and a couple of centuries later the whole of the Elemental Nations had sank into the depths of the ocean because a foreign army had come to the continent and started killing everyone.

He had gathered everyone he could find from the nations and led them to Nami no Kuni (Land of Waves), where he had several of his friend, Inari's, generations of grandchildren prepare ships to evacuate the civilians, while he and the Samurai army held the invaders back to give the civilians time to get away. The army was very strange to say the least, they used no weapons and moved as fast as shinobi, and while they looked human, their skin was cold to the touch and their bodies as hard as stone. They were hard to kill but in the end they were defeated for they were an unorganized fighting force and Naruto had luckily discovered their weakness to fire. When the samurai started to get tired he sent them away and activated several seals all across the nations that caused a great earthquake which destroyed the continent and sank the pieces to the bottom of the oceans.

What had happened to the invading army, he had no idea, nor did he care. The sealing formula he had created to destroy the Nations he had made sure could never be replicated. He had also taken precautions with himself in case of the off chance someone caught him.

After that, Naruto met the samurai on their own ship and caught up with the droves of ships carrying the civilians. After a few days out at sea, they found a chain of islands that in that time had had the name Yamato and was later renamed Japan. The people there were not as advanced as the Elemental Nations but the refugees and warriors had made due and later the samurai commander, Mitsuhide, took control as the leader of the nation with his army taking apprentices, forging weapons, and teaching the people of Japan the way of the Bushido.

After ten years, Naruto left the nation, saying goodbye to his friend's grandchildren and Mitsuhide, with a new sword given to him by the commander as a sign of their eternal friendship.

His immortality had come as a surprise to him. After the war had ended, he had waited to die, but the creator must have wanted to play one last cosmic joke on him; give the guy who never wanted it immortality. Whoever said immortality was the greatest gift of all could shove their head up their ass. Kami was a very, very spiteful bitch.

He was forced to watch as any friends he made withered, grew old, and died. He watched figures in history make amazing changes to the world, wars occur, peaceful times, and watched those events be recorded and eventually forgotten. It was a cycle, always repeated, and destined to occur again. And all he ever was was a sideline player always there but never participating.

Those who had wanted immortality never thought about what they would do after they had gained it, immortality was boring. Humans were never meant to live as long as he did, they were meant to live relatively short lives and make an impact. Living forever was nothing but a curse.

But what was worse than the boredom was the loneliness…

Thinking back to the source of his immortality, he brought up the image of a giant ten tailed beast. The Juubi, after it had been sealed into Naruto, it had unleashed a concentrated blast of demonic energy throughout his body. The blast had forced his body to absorb all of the energy with Naruto thinking that it was nothing more than an attempt at freedom. Instead, as he discovered many decades later, when he still looked like a teenager he came to the conclusion that the beast had enhanced his Uzumaki blood to the point where his strong life force was damn near undying and the insane healing factor that came along with being a jinchuriki was super charged where he had ceased to age.

The Juubi made sure it would not be split up again.

After coming to terms with being immortal, Naruto became a drifter, and after leaving Japan, traveled the world. In his travels he made many friends, had many lovers, and overall watched over the world; making sure it never destroyed itself.

Never once did he come across those creatures again and eventually he forgot about them.

Now he was on a cross country flight to the Olympic Peninsula to check out the rumors of the murder spree going on in Seattle. Something about the rumors was scratching at his memory, but no matter how much he tried he couldn't think why. He did not want to live in a bustling city so he would take up residence n a small town only a hundred miles away from it called Forks.

Forks, he snorted at the name. Who names a town after silverware?

He suddenly felt a tap on his shoulder which made him turn around. When he looked back, he saw a rather cutely attractive teenage girl who looked to be around eighteen or maybe nineteen years old with dark brown hair that went past her shoulders and went down past her chest almost to mid-back. Her eyes which were chocolate brown looked at him in a concerned manner.

"Are you alright? It looked like you were having a pretty bad dream." She said worriedly. Wow, he had thought all compassion had died out of humanity a long time ago but this girl seemed to be part of that rare sliver of humans that genuinely cared about people. He could just tell that she was truly sincere.

However, thinking back to the genjutsu from earlier, he remembered that it was a wide area compulsion genjutsu that made people follow a small suggestion to do something minute, like ignore someone who had been having a nightmare. So why wasn't this girl affected by it?

Seeing her apprehensive face, he decided to answer and try the genjutsu again. "I'm fine miss…" he left the statement unfinished, silently asking for her name.

"Bella." She answered the silent question, "Bella Swan."

"I'm fine Bella, It's just a nightmare." He reassured her and cast the genjutsu once more, hoping for that to be the last of the conversation.

Turning back to his seat he was about to relax but the girl he had cast the genjutsu shocked him once more by saying, "Yeah, I know what that's like, having nightmares where you're crying and screaming I mean."

When he heard her talk he turned around so fast, he was surprised he didn't break his neck. This girl had just shrugged off a genjutsu like it didn't affect her. Something like that hadn't occurred in the last few centuries since the Samurai had all but died out. Did this girl have a large amount of chakra that she instinctively tapped into whenever someone tried to trap her in an illusion? No. To be able to do that would take years of training and lots of chakra, more chakra than a human these days had the ability to produce without extensive training and meditation.

It had to be something else but just to be safe, he sensed out her chakra. Feeling it, he deduced that her chakra coils were fully matured and she had the same amount of chakra as a regular person, so the instinctive chakra usage theory was out. So what was allowing her to be unaffected by the genjutsu?

Noticing her simultaneous blush and jump of surprise, he put on a sheepish smile, "Sorry about that. I'm just use to people ignoring me most of the time." He told her to keep her from getting nervous. Maybe if the mental manipulation didn't work, he should try to just change the subject. "So, are you flying alone?"

Flummoxed by the change of subject, Bella just went along with it, "Uh, no. I'm just flying back home with my boyfriend, Edward, from Florida. What about you?" she asked

Coming up with a plausible lie Naruto said, "I'm just moving into a small town near Seattle for the last stretch of the school year so I can graduate." Short, sweet, simple and most of all, believable, that's what made the best lie. "And where is this boyfriend of yours?"

"He's-" She started, only to be cut off by a smooth and somewhat sophisticated voice.

"-Just got back with a drink for his beautiful girlfriend." Looking around Naruto found that the voice came from a rather pale amber eyed, red haired boy who had the aura around him that just screamed pretty-boy.

Naruto looked back to Bella and smiled at her, "Good catch. I bet you're the envy of just about every girl in your school." He teased the already blushing girl. Ah, to be young and in love. Well physically age wise he was young but mentally…

He decided not to go there and instead turned to who he presumed to be Edward and stuck out his hand. "Nice to meet you, I'm Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze."

"Likewise, I'm Edward Cullen." The red haired boy introduced himself to the waiting blond, grabbing his hand, which he immediately regretted when he saw Naruto yank his hand back. Remembering his lower than humanly possible body temperature he came out with a short and simple lie. "I'm sorry, I just washed my hands. I prefer to use cold water." To see if his lie worked, he tried to listen in on his thoughts, only to come up against a wall.

If he could compare Bella's mind block to a fortress, he could compare the one he felt now to more of a filter, only allowing certain things through but not things of great importance. It was more like his girlfriend's father, Charlie, his mind block didn't let out coherent thoughts, only jumbled up emotions that could possibly give Jasper headaches with their intensity. But with this Naruto, only certain thoughts got through and most of the time they were only half thoughts some more complete than others. The one thought he was able to pick up was '…cold to the touch…" confirming his assumption that this block only let out incomplete thoughts. He'd have to look into this later.

"It's okay; you just caught me off guard with the cold." He said while in his thoughts 'His hand was…cold to the touch…why does that seem so familiar?'

Bella seeing the small moment of tension decided to intervene, "So, you mentioned moving to a small town near Seattle, what's it called?" She asked referring to their previous conversation.

"Oh, yeah I think the place is called Silverware? No, Spoons! No no, it's definitely Sporks!" He decided to go along with her plan of action and settled on being funny.

Getting an entertained chuckle from Edward and an amused giggle from Bella, Edward decided to chip in, "I believe the place you're referring to is called Forks." And got a wide eyed, faux, thankful look from the eccentric blond who liked messing with the name of the place he lived.

"Thanks! I knew it had something to do with cutlery." Naruto said, staying with the pun on his new, temporary, home.

"So, why are you moving to a new school to graduate high school this late in the year?" Bella asked. It really was strange to switch schools now.

Naruto decided to play on the lie he had told earlier, "Well, you see, I've been in the foster system since I was six years old. I turned eighteen last October and filed for emancipation, because my foster mother," he said with adamant disgust, "wasn't a very nice woman. She was only part of that system to get that big fat check the government sent her for taking care of a 'disturbed' child. The people who wrote that report only said it because I was a notorious prankster."

"So after I turned eighteen, I filed for emancipation, and to prevent someone else from getting her as a foster parent, I took some photos of her on one of her all night drinking binges, showed the judge where all the money she was sent actually went and showed some pictures that I took with a hidden camera, of her beating me. Basically, I made sure there was no chance in hell that she would ever be called upon to take care of a ward of the state, again."

"And after that, grabbed all the money I had, filed for my high school transcripts to be copied and transferred to the physically farthest possible place away from Florida in the continental U.S., hopped on this plane and am now talking to you." He finished of his tale. Being a shinobi and immortal made you a good liar when it came to inexplicable changes that made no sense to anybody.

He looked at the two passengers and their reactions. While Bella looked sympathetic to him as being forced to move to a small town, Edward looked at him curiously. When he looked like he was about to ask something, the flight attendant in charge came over the speaker's asking them to prepare for landing in the Seattle airport.

Smiling towards the couple, Naruto said, "Another time then." Before he turned around and buckled himself in, unaware of the looks he was receiving from the couple.

The drive home for Edward and Bella, though fast, was rather uneventful until Bella brought up the strange blond from the plane.

"So what did you think of Naruto?" She asked her boyfriend. She was rather curious about why he was so quiet.

"Confusing." He answered Bella.

"What do you mean?"

"I couldn't get a read on his mind." He admitted in a rather dejected sort of way. He'd never say it to her but the fact that he couldn't read her mind frustrated him. He wanted to know every little thing about the girl who had captured his unbeating heart, but that frustration didn't affect the happiness he felt when he was with her.

"You mean like you can't read me?" She asked intrigued by his answer.

"No. with you there's total silence, like there's nothing there," He chuckled when he felt her give a light slap on the shoulder for that one, "But with him, it was like a filter, only allowing some things through but not everything. In fact, with all the random thoughts coming out of his mind passively, I might not have picked up on it." He finished his explanation.

"So someone else with a block is coming to Forks." Bella sighed out, "We sure do attract strange company huh?"

Lifting her hand up to his mouth, Edward gently kissed her knuckles before saying, "I honestly have no idea what you're talking about, sweet Bella." He finished with a chuckle.

"Of course you don't."

After Edward and Bella had left, Naruto fell out of his nice guy act. Looking around he made his way to the gates of the airport and put his hand to it. After removing his hand a sealing array was visible, though barely with the graffiti and all. If he was going to keep up his act of a graduating student in a small town and complete his investigation, he needed quick transportation and this specific seal would help with that particular objective, as well as keep suspicion away from him by taking regular trips to Seattle.

He didn't want to be accused of being a mass murderer based off of circumstantial evidence.

After placing his seal, Naruto went out for a couple of hours in the city. Aside from a couple of dumpster fires and a group of partiers there didn't seem to be anything suspicious going on. He'd pick up something in a couple of days.

At eight, he decided to call it a night. So, heading to the edge of the city, he found some woods that seemed to head in the direction of Forks. Jumping up into the trees, he made a mad dash for the small town he would call home.

In the woods surrounding the small, wet town of Forks, Washington, there was a large white wolf standing off in a clearing. This wolf was a female that was surrounded on all sides by other, larger wolves that were part of the shape shifting clan of Indians known as the Quileutes. All the male wolves stood around her projecting their thoughts to her trying to calm her down from her three day straight panic about transforming into a giant wolf.

Finally she calmed down enough to revert into her human form of a naked and surprisingly warm woman on the ground.

As soon as she reverted, all of the wolves let out a huff of exertion; it was cool that they could communicate anytime they wanted as long as they were in their wolf form, but when someone has a panic attack for three straight days, it tended to give a horrible migraine.

The woman's name was Leah Clearwater. After Her father's death and subsequent funeral, her emotions had been all over the place. She had just thought that she was taking her father's death really hard. That was until she was walking across the reservation and saw her ex, Sam, with his fiancé, her own cousin, Emily hanging off his arm, and all of a sudden, all the pain, the sadness, the anger she felt was unleashed and she started to shake.

She had moved fast to get out of sight, and as soon as she was sure no one would see or hear her she let out a scream. The scream started out angry and heartbroken, but soon transformed into complete agony as he body stated to slowly shift, and the feeling of your bones restructuring themselves by breaking and refitting themselves that slowly was one of the most painful things that nobody should go through.

All the wolves suddenly reverted into their human forms. They were guys she had seen on the rez, some of which she had babysat when she was younger. Looking around confused she saw that like her they were all naked. What the hell was going on?

Suddenly the oldest looking one walked forward and when she saw his face she felt like she wanted to kill somebody as her body started to shake. Standing in front of her was her ex, and the root of all her pent up aggression. Sam was in on this nightmare?

"Leah, we need to talk." He said in an authoritative tone that pissed her off, which was the straw that broke the camel's back.

Jumping forward in a rage, Leah transformed into her wolf form. It took Sam and three other wolves two hours and several busted ribs before she calmed back down and reverted back into her human form.