Alternate Universe- Not Gone

Whoever said death was nothing to be afraid of—Wait, didn't I do this bit already? Aw man, did I die again? Why does this keep happening to me?

If you don't already know who I am, allow me to introduce myself. I'm Kasa Mon, the idiot that won't stay dead. With how often I die, I should really get a frequent visitor's pass or a free ice cream cone at least.

Some of you are probably lost, so I should probably backtrack a bit… but where should I begin?

Right, back to when I thought I died. What was I doing again?

Let's see… I was finishing grading papers at the Academy. Going home after said grading. Ran into a heavily injured Shisui. Then… somehow I got brainwashed into murdering most of the Uchiha Clan.

...Okay?

What happened next? Uh… Naori broke me out of the brainwashing… I ran to Itachi's place to warn Mikoto only for Shisui to skewer her… and then… I got… mind crushed? By someone who looks like a Minato zombie of all things.

….Not cool.

Then I was falling… into the darkness that I assume is death, but… I'm not… dead?

Wait—WHAT!? I'M NOT DEAD?

The reality of my position dragged me kicking and screaming into the world of the living. My body ached and throbbed with pain and exhaustion. Everything was cold and wet. Why the hell am I alive? What the hell is with my luck with death? Who did I piss off to deserve this?

"Hey! If you're going to take a nap, you shouldn't be doing it in the rain. You could get sick like that," said a boyish voice as a finger poked at my side.

"Ugh…" I croaked, the world spun as I cracked my eyes open to the wet blades of grass in front of my face and a small blurry figure in yellow, red and white. My clothes were drenched by the rain and the chill was quickly seeping into my body.

"Did you run into a monster or something? You totally look like you got your ass kicked," commented the boy curiously as he crouched over me.

"A monster would be considerate and make sure to eat me so I'd stay dead." I bit back the bile that threatened to rise out up my throat. "I'm going to be sick…"

"That must've been one heck of a fight!"

I closed my eyes, trying to will away the nausea, but as I did so, I slowly realized the boy spoke in western common, English. The Elemental Nation spoke predominantly eastern common and the only other person I knew that understood it was Naruto's calligraphy sensei. For a child to casually converse with me in western common must mean she was nowhere near home.

"Where am I?" I groaned, clenching my fists over the blades of wet grass beneath me as I tried to stop the world from spinning.

"Uh… not really sure where though, I kind of got lost a while ago," noted the boy.

"Wonderful." I groaned miserably. Not only am I hurt, I'm also lost.

Craning my head, I glanced up at the vague silhouette of a boy crouching over me, barely seeing through the haze of pain and exhaustion. Everything was a blur, the ground, the sky, everything was barely discernable at this point. I must be suffering from severe chakra exhaustion and quite possibly a concussion.

"Hey, you don't look so good. Are you okay?" asked the boy in concern as he reached out to help me up. Despite the chill from the rain, I could still feel the enormous amount of heat emitting from the boy.

Try as I may, I latched onto his offered hand, hoping to use him as a leverage to pull myself up. Unfortunately, the world spun and my grip slackened.

"Hey!" shouted the boy in alarm. He caught me by the shoulder, grunting with effort to keep me seated in an upright position. "C-come on. Don't pass out on me!"

"Thanks…" I murmured. My vision blurred, drifting dangerously at the edge of losing consciousness.

"You might need to go see doctor," suggested the boy. He let out an exhausted huff when he was certain I was not in danger of falling over again. "Can you walk? I can run and get someone if you can't."

"No—" I shook my head, but regretted it immediately as I planted a hand to my face to stop the headaches. "I—just help me get my pills. I can fix my own injuries."

"You can?" said the boy in surprise.

"I'm a medic." I grunted, furrowing my brows together, trying to keep myself alert and awake. "In my back pouch, there should be a glass bottle. Get me three pills."

"Okay," agreed the boy without question as he knelt behind me. He used his shoulder to keep me propped up while rummaging through my back pouch for what I asked.

"Wow, you have a lot of weird stuff," murmured the boy before he let out an excited shout. He found the bottle. The sound of the cork popping and the jiggling of the pills jostling in the bottle could be heard before he snaked an arm over my shoulder to hand me the pills. "These, right?"

"Yeah..." I breathed out with difficulty before grabbing the pills and popping them into my mouth.

At the first crunch, an acrid bitterness hit my tongue. As I continued to chew, the taste only worsened. By the time I swallowed the disgusting pills the fog in my mind slowly cleared, but I was still heavily injured. With some chakra replenished, I took a deep breath, holding my hands to my face as I concentrated ample amounts of healing chakra to my hands.

The first priority was to clear up the mind fog and get rid of the lingering sense of vertigo and nausea. Ideally, I should have someone else heal me. Concussions has a way with disrupting a medic's level of control and finesse in healing. However, since there were no other medics around, I had to work with what I could. With slow and even breaths, I healed what I could and avoided any that I couldn't. I rather not test my luck in such a condition. To my surprise, the boy waited until I was done before he bombarded me with a slew of questions in a manner known only to young children.

"Wow, I've never seen healing magic before. How does it work? You didn't use any magic circles. Did you use an item? Or is it some new special technique?" asked the boy excitedly, his dark eyes lighting up with innocent glee as he bounced from one foot to the other. "Is healing the only thing you can do? Or can you fight too? What kind of combat magic do healers use?"

I blinked in surprise when I finally took in the bright pink hair atop the boy's head. There was only one other child I knew with that shade of pink for hair, but she was definitely a girl. It's quite possible that this boy may be related to her, unlikely. However, something about him felt… strangely different but familiar at the same time.

"And what about—"

"Breathe!" I immediately cut the boy off when it seemed like he was turning blue from his long winded rambling without a breath.

Immediately, he stopped with a coughing fit before taking deep wheezing breathes to make up for the lack of air he's taken in the duration of his incessant questions. I shook my head in exasperation as I moved to rub his back to ease his struggles. Children could be such a pain.

"So… who did you piss off to get beaten up like that?" The boy asked the moment he caught his breath. Ignoring that he's forgotten to breathe out of his excitement.

"Someone you don't want to get yourself tangled with." I sighed.

"That must've been a one-sided fight, if you ended up looking like that," sniggered the boy.

"Gee thanks." I droned. "I'm so glad my defeat amuses you."

"But, you must've put up a good fight, right?" continued the boy with a bright grin.

"What… makes you say that?" I frowned in confusion.

"Because you don't sound all that angry or scared," quipped the boy. "If I lost, I'd be hopping mad! And since… you're kind of meh about it. I'm thinking you probably did something even though you lost."

Despite the boy's callous words, there was something about that luminescent smile and air-headed delight that made it difficult to dislike him.

"I guess you can say that." I murmured, thinking back to the encounter I faced against my assailant. "If he knew I was alive… he'd probably…"

"Goodbye Miss Oracle," whispered the man who called himself Naki.

My face paled, so distracted by the fact that I cheated death that I didn't think about the strange zombie. Since he was dead, I can't force his cells to reproduce in a rapid rate until he explodes, he had no living cells to work with. While I have no clue how I ended up here, I still have to go back to Konoha. He may not be Madara, but that doesn't mean he's not just as bad. There's no telling what will happen when I find my way back there since I've killed so many Uchihas, but…

"Wow, your face changed color. This guy must be crazy strong." The boy's voice snapped my attention back to him.

"…Understatement of the year." I muttered, dragging a wet hand over my face. "Why are you still here? Don't you know anything about not talking to strangers?"

"What are you going to do? Spank me?" scoffed the boy. "You can't even move without throwing up."

"…Fair point." I ran a hand through my wet locks. "No point in crying over spilled milk… I do like milk though…"

"Pft," snorted the boy as he leaned against me sniggering. "You're weird."

A wry grin touched my lips as a planted a hand over his head and ruffled his hair. "Well, my wise pink-haired one, what do you suggest I do? I got my ass beaten. I'm out of energy. I'm quite sure I'm not even in the same country as my home. And to top it off, I'll get killed if the guy who kicked my ass finds out I'm alive."

"Well, you could stick with me for a while until you get better," offered the boy.

"And why would I do that?" I raised a brow. "You're a little pipsqueak. You'll get destroyed if you face the man I faced."

"I'll last longer than you!" growled the boy. "I bet even a squirrel can kick your ass right now."

"…Fair enough." I hummed thoughtfully. "…But he might kill the both of us if he finds me."

"Hmm?" The boy crossed his arms with a thoughtful frown, but it didn't last long as he snapped his fingers with a bright grin. "Then just hide until you get strong enough! You can change your name and make a whole other secret identity! He can't find you if you're not you right?"

"That's a…" I paused halfway through before taking in the boy's insight. "…Actually, that's not a bad idea."

As long I don't draw too much attention to myself, theoretically I could make my way back to Konoha without being seen or heard.

"…But it's going to be hard, considering I have no money and it's going to be near impossible to find a job in my sorry state." I sighed.

"Then join a guild!" suggested the boy as he hopped to his feet.

"Hmm?" I glanced back at him.

"You're a wizard right?" noted the pink-haired boy. "Igneel said people join guilds to find work and make money. I've never been to one before, but we could probably go and find one right?"

"You're just brimming with good ideas, aren't you?" I noted dryly.

"Of course!" chirped the boy.

Normally, I would question any sort of good fortune that comes my way, especially when it just after escaping death's door. However, something about this boy that just put me at ease. I couldn't imagine why, maybe the fates have finally taking pity on me and decided to give me a break.

"We should probably get out of the rain," said the boy as he grabbed onto my hand and helped me to my feet.

"Whatever you said." I allowed him drag me through the forest.

"Oh yeah! I don't even know what to call you," said the boy as he glanced back at me, our pace remained unchanging as we walked through the rain. "Since you're going into hiding you're going to need a new name. Do you have something in mind?"

"Not really." I gave a careless shrug. "My brain is practically mush now. How about I let you choose? Try to not pick something stupid."

"You're going to let me choose?" said the boy in surprise. "Really?"

"Knock yourself out." I said. Even if he picked something weird, I could always change it. It's not like anyone knows who I am here anyway.

"Hmm…" hummed the boy thoughtfully. It was almost cute how serious he was taking this naming thing. "A name is important, so it should have some meaning. Right?"

"Sure." I agreed.

"How about… Ella?" suggested the boy.

"…Any particular reason why?" I frowned at the suggestion.

"Because it's raining and we really need an umbrella," reasoned the boy.

"…Seriously?" I turned to him in disbelief. So much for trusting a child to choose my name!

"Well, it was that or Rayne," repeated the boy. "You fell out of the sky and nearly landed on me."

"…Wait what?" I immediately stopped him, ignoring the fact that he almost named me after the dark entity that was in my head. "What do you mean I fell out of the sky?"

"I dunno, you just… did!" shrugged the boy. "If you don't like the name you can change it. Yeesh."

"No, no, Ella's fine." I muttered. "So, you got a name? Or are you picking a new one for yourself too?"

"I don't need a secret identity," scoffed the boy as if it was the most ridiculous thing. "If I go by another name, how would Igneel find me if he comes back?"

"Igneel?" I repeated. The name sounding awfully familiar for some reason. "You mentioned him earlier, who is he?"

"My dad!" The boy grinned brightly. "He's technically a dragon, but he's still my dad."

"Your dad's a dragon?" I said in surprise, not because of the dragon bit, but rather the part where it's his father of all things.

"What? You don't believe me?" grumbled the boy. "Igneel's real you know! I'm not lying!"

"I didn't say you were." I said. "It's just… not every day someone tells you their dad is a freaking dragon."

"I know! Awesome right?" cackled the boy with his head held high.

"Sure… whatever kid," I said dismissively, too tired to care anymore.

"Don't call me kid! I have a name! It's Natsu, Natsu Dragneel!"

"Natsu?" I paused, my brain finally catching up to his words.

"Yep. That's my name," grinned the boy.

Disbelief crossed my face as my mind went a mile a minute, trying to make sense of everything. The pink-hair, the white scarf and the unending bright smiles, no wonder he seemed so familiar in the beginning. I should've noticed earlier, but something wasn't adding up.

"…Hey, Natsu. What year is it?" I asked.

He gave me an odd look. "That's a weird thing to ask. I get it if you don't know what today is… but year?"

"I fell out of the sky, it's hard to tell what year it is up there. Just humor me." I grumbled.

"…You're really weird." Natsu shrugged. "It's July 7th, year x777."

"…Year x777? Are you sure?" I asked, not trusting my own ears.

"Yeah," said Natsu with a frown. "What year do you think it is?"

"Nothing, it doesn't matter." I lied.

Now, I'll admit, I'm bad with remembering dates as it is useless to me for the most part unless I have an assignment due. Not to mention, the Elemental Nations' dating system didn't follow the one in the western continent. However, between Natsu's name, his brief mention of wizards and guilds, along with the year format… I'm quite certain I had somehow ended up in the world of Fairytail.

How? I have no clue, considering I was certain Naki had killed me. To escape death's door once more shouldn't surprise me… but it did. How the hell am I getting back? Will I be able to get back?

So much for the fates finally giving me a break.

Author's Notes: So… several chapters before the story ended, I put up a poll for what you guys wanted after the story was done. Most of you voted for an alternate outcome to the Uchiha Massacre where Kasa kept her memories.

By the time I finished the story, I was burnt out and really didn't want to write it. I said I'm not likely going to come back to Kasa, but while I was reorganizing my old files I came across this weird… draft? Not sure what to call this, but since it was a decent length and most of you seem to miss the old Kasa. So, I thought… why not post it?

I'm occupied with writing Untold Omens, a Final Fantasy OC-SI, nowadays, so it's unlikely I'll visit Kasa again anytime soon… but… I might think about writing Rayne's story in Fairytail if I do decide to come back this world again.

So… yeah. Hope you enjoyed this visit back.