Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Danganronpa.


Prologue:
A Ninja's Escapade

Let it be known that Naruto never considered theft to be the first crime he would ever commit in his life. If he was going down the dark path, he'd rather do something more grand than just steal some stuff. Not that Naruto wanted to commit a crime in the first place mind you. But ya know. If he was going to do it, might as well have some fun with it.

Seriously. How did he get into situations like this?

That's the question Naruto had been asking himself for the past thirty minutes as he ran through the unrecognizable hallways of the building he was in, wherever it was. He didn't know how he had gotten here. One moment he had been fighting Madara alongside Sasuke. The next, he was here.

'Maybe it's because of that weird explosion?'

And by explosion, Naruto meant what Black Zetsu had done to Madara. The guy had betrayed the resurrected Uchiha at the last second and had used him as a literal "chakra vacuum" to suck up the chakra of everyone connected to the Shinju. It was a lot of people. During the whole ordeal, Madara had swelled up like some kind of pufferfish before exploding. The resulting explosion had blinded Naruto for a few minutes. When he came to, he found that he was now in these strange hallways. But more important than that…..

He couldn't use chakra anymore.

Naruto being Naruto, he'd panicked and tried to contact Kurama and the other bijuu but to no avail. That had put him off. With no other options, the blond tried to look around. It was then that he had ran into a man in a weird uniform carrying a flashlight. At first, Naruto had been relieved. He finally found someone! But he had no chance to get a word in before the man was shouting at him to get down on the ground for trespassing and that he was a thief.

Naruto….had no idea what the man was talking about.

After the man tried to forcefully subdue him, Naruto made a break for it. The man came running after him, shouting thief the whole time. Still, even with no chakra, Naruto retained his physical prowess.

The blond was just too fast for the man in the strange uniform.

This brought Naruto to the present, where he was running aimlessly through the dark halls of this strange building. He saw weird objects in display cases, as well as statues and elaborate paintings. Some items he recognized, like poems on scrolls. But for the most part, it was all bizarre to him.

'What is this place?' he wondered as he stepped inside one of the larger rooms. He had to stop to marvel at some of the paintings. He had never considered himself much of an artist. That was Sai's thing. But even he could appreciate the beauty in art from time to time.

Surprising, right?

But his gawking soon came to a close when he noticed the man from before running into the room at top speed. Not only that, but two other men, both dressed in similar uniforms, entered the room from a different doorway.

He was surrounded.

Naruto silently cursed. 'I never should have stopped for the art!'

Art had not been kind to him today.

As the whiskered blond thought of his next move, the first guard pointed at him with sweat dripping down from his brow.

"Hold it! You're under arrest!"

"Yeah! We already called the cops!" another said. "It won't take them long to get here! You might as well give it up!"

Weighing his options, Naruto noticed a window to his right. A part of him knew that running away just made him look even more guilty, but at the same time, he had no idea what they were accusing him of in the first place!

'Stupid Madara….'

Once he was out of this mess, Naruto swore to get to the bottom of this. And to stick a kunai so far Madara's ass, the old Uchiha would never sit right again.

With this in mind, Naruto charged the two men blocking his path, breaking past them without trouble. The other one tried to tackle him but missed and hit the ground instead.

Triumphantly, Naruto leapt out through the window, smashing through the glass. It came raining down alongside the Uzumaki, whose tattered orange jacket fluttered in the night wind.

Taking in the breeze, Naruto felt victorious for a split second. Having the cool wind wash over him did wonders to calm his nerves. But of course, this didn't last for too long.

As he landed on the ground, Naruto was bombarded with unfamiliar sights to him. Tall buildings, bigger than anything back home, greenery that resembled nothing to the forests back in Konoha or anywhere in the Land of Fire. Heck, the trees here looked nothing like the ones Bee had obliterated.

And there was a grand fountain….?

Naruto gulped. He suddenly realized that this was a far bigger problem than he had first assumed...

Just where was he?


Jin Kirigiri was not a man who liked to be awake this late. Given his position as headmaster of Hope's Peak, however, he found his nights being cut shorter and shorter.

'Why did I ever take this job?' he thought to himself, holding back his sigh. He wanted nothing more than to take off his suit and finally lie comfortably in his soft bed. It's what he deserved after a long day at work. Running a school filled with Ultimates just wasn't easy. The staff also had their weird quirks that were on par with the students.

Not an easy job to put up with.

And here he was, following after Tengan who led him to one of the interrogation rooms in the police station in Tokyo. Having to drive out here, especially at this hour, hadn't left him in the best of moods.

"Just what is this about, Tengan?"

He respected the man, he really did. But he also didn't want to be involved in something pointless.

The former headmaster chuckled lightly.

"You seem annoyed. I'm guessing I must have kept you up from going home. I apologize for that."

At least he was aware of it.

"But this is something that cannot wait I'm afraid."

"What are you talking about? What are we doing here?"

A police station wasn't exactly a normal place to meet up.

"The board has caught wind of a very interesting fellow. Normally, Kizakura-kun would handle something like this. But given the circumstances, I thought it best to have you handle this matter personally."

Jin raised an eyebrow at this. Based on the context here, he gleamed that this had something to do with a new student. This only raised further questions, though. Like, why was a mere high school student being held in a police station?

Before Jin could ask his questions, though, Tengan motioned for him to enter the observation room next to the interrogation room. Stepping inside, Jin saw the teen in question through the one-way mirror, his eyes studying the blond. The boy was seated in the middle of the room with a simple table in front of him, staring blankly at the wall. What caught Jin's interest at first was the boy's getup. It was some sort of jumpsuit, with the jacket having seen better days, and open-toe sandals. He wore a mesh shirt underneath that. He also had a headband with a strange symbol on it.

All in all, it wasn't the typical style of a teenager this day and age.

Tengan chuckled. "Seems he's caught your interest, aye?"

Jin had to shake his head. "How can he not? What…..what is he wearing?"

It almost looked like some sort of cosplay or something.

"That's not the most interesting part in all of this, though."

Jin's eyes went to his colleague. "Meaning?"

"This young boy right here just broke into the Tokyo National Museum. He made the guards look like fools."

Jin had to admit….his curiosity had been piqued.

"This young teenager managed to pull that off?" But then he remembered where they were. "How was he caught? What did he steal?"

Tengan shook his head. "He stole nothing. The only possessions on his person were some weapons. Outdated ones at that."

"Such as?"

"Kunais and shurikens." Tengan looked amused. "It was almost like he was a ninja with the way he broke in. The only thing that breaks that image is the orange."

True enough. Orange just wasn't very…...stealthy. Regardless, the boy had still managed to pull off a potential heist, and all on his own. Orange or not, it was nothing to scoff at.

"He was only captured after he stopped running once he was out of the museum," Tengan explained. "Something made him freeze up. Without that miracle, the cops were certain they wouldn't have been able to get to him in time. Not just that, but it seems like the boy appeared out of thin air. No records of him exist. Not in Japan at least. The police want to widen their search radius, but that's going to take some time."

Interesting…..

Adjusting his tie, Jin said, "I understand the fascination with this boy. However…..what does this have to do with me?"

And with the board.

"The board wants the boy to come to Hope's Peak in order to study his skills."

Jin's eyes widened. "What!? But that's-!"

Tengan raised his hand. "I felt the same way as you. Especially since he was in police custody. But given that the boy didn't steal anything, the board was able to…...persuade the police into turning him over to us without much trouble."

Jin was aware of the political clout the board of trustees had at their disposal. It wasn't just their control of Hope's Peak Academy that made them dangerous. It the influence they held on the country.

"But if they're willing to go this far, does this mean that….."

Jin trailed off, not daring to finish that statement.

Tengan understood him well enough. "Yes. It's for that project."

The Izuru Kamukura Project. In order to create the perfect hope, Hope's Peak needed to research the talents of the Ultimates extensively. No shortcuts could be taken. Not if they wanted to succeed.

"What title is this boy to be given?"

Tengan merely grinned some.

Hearing what the man had to say, Jin felt like smacking his head against the wall.

"They can't be serious…..."

"It was necessary. It went a long way to make the police understand that the boy meant no harm," Tengan said, shaking his head. "Of course, we still have to explain the details to him. Given that he hasn't said a word since he got here, I don't think that's going to be an easy thing."

"So we are to bring a boy we know nothing about into the school with the other students?"

That was basically a recipe for disaster.

"He has talent. That's all we need to know."

Jin shot the old man an incredulous look.

Talent. It was all the school cared about. Jin was aware of this course. He wouldn't be headmaster if he didn't.

It didn't mean he supported the decision, though.

Regardless, it seemed like his hands were tied here. Now that the board of trustees had spoken, there was little Jin could do. If they were standing together on this issue, then not even his position as headmaster could stop the boy's admission.

That was the state of the current Hope's Peak Academy.

Tengan turned to him.

"Let's go greet him, shall we?"


Naruto's mind was still numb. How couldn't it be? He was trying to wrap his head around everything that had happened to him in the past several hours. Suddenly being in that building, finding himself in a strange new place he'd never seen, transported to this facility. No matter how much he thought about it, his mind drew a blank.

'Where…...am I?'

It was all Naruto could ask himself, over and over again.

He wasn't in the middle of the war. Not anymore. He wasn't even in the Land of Fire for that matter. Not only that, but he had no chakra.

And no Kurama.

His situation was looking rather grim, he had to admit.

Naruto didn't even care to know why he had been brought here. That could come later. Right now…..he just needed to be calm and try to find some answers. However he could.

'But how am I going to do that?'

He had no place to go, no one he knew. All he had were the clothes on him and whatever natural instincts he had developed over the years in his training.

With his mind so embroiled in these thoughts, Naruto didn't notice the two men who walked inside the room a moment later. His attention only went to them when the younger of the two sat on the other side of the table, his arms folded.

"It seems like you've been through a lot tonight, young man," the man spoke carefully, choosing his words with great care. "I can't even begin to imagine what must be going through your mind right now."

Naruto said nothing to this. He could tell that this guy had a better attitude than those other men in the strange outfits from before. At the very least, he wasn't yelling at him.

"However, there is an offer that we want to extend to you, no strings attached."

Despite himself, Naruto perked up when he heard this.

An offer? What kind of offer?

"How would you like to attend Hope's Peak Academy?"


I genuinely don't know if there are flashlights in the Naruto-verse. Given that they have stuff like computers and street lights, I took a guess and assumed that they did. But I could be wrong about that. Don't judge me too harshly if I am.

Anyway. I wrote this on a whim since the idea had been bugging me for a while. That, and I find the lack of Naruto/Danganronpa crossover stories to be…..disturbing. So I decided to write one myself.

So here it is. The prologue. Thoughts and comments would be very much appreciated.

Till next time.