Sage of Hearts

Disclaimer: I certainly don't own Naruto, Disney or any of its affiliated properties. If I did, I wouldn't be writing this now would I?

"The connection of our hearts…" : Speech (Bold for yelling ,Bijuu, or massive creatures)

'The connection of our hearts…' : Thought

The entrance to Wonderland, the Rabbit Hole…

Naruto wasted no time in leaping after Alice when he saw her fall into the massive burrow (it looked normal a few seconds ago but as soon as Alice approached it, it swallowed her up in its cavernous depths. Pausing to glance at Dinah as she meowed at him mournfully, Naruto's view was quickly taken over by the tenebrous depths. Even with his changed form, he still couldn't fall fast enough to catch up with Alice and he was forced to watch her fall – thankfully the frilly froufrou dresses of the Victorian age that Naruto always thought were so impractical came to the rescue.

"Well I'll be a monkey's uncle! Alice's dress is actually acting like a magical umbrella and slowing down her fall (parachutes didn't exist yet you see, and he did know of the magical properties umbrellas could be enchanted to have included limited flight and gliding)! I'll never complain about women and their fashion ever again – I just need to avoid mentioning this to Snow or Ella or they'll never let me hear the end of it…" Naruto said as he yipped in surprise when he noticed Alice's slow fall and the various doohickeys floating around the girl.

Recomposing himself, he then began to 'air swim' his way to Alice – as best as a four foot humanoid fox could at least. It wasn't too difficult since the hole seemed to go on for eternity and the girl even lost her initial fear of falling and was simply pondering whether she'd even land at all.

"Oh dear me! This burrow seems to have no bottom to speak of! Will I even land or just fall forever? How did even such a thing come to happen? And now there are assorted items and even furniture floating around with me – my word, there's even a book here I could read to pass the time…" Alice said as she grabbed a book floating past her (for those curious, it was a manuscript expounding on the merits of various pastries and when best consumed during tea time – with illustrations!). She then began reading and was just about to start an interesting section on the finer details on the differences between crepes and crumpets and why they shouldn't be equated to scones, she was jolted out of her reading by a small fluffy body colliding with her (it was a gentle jostle given the strange gravity of the burrow though).

"Alice! Thank goodness I finally caught up with you – I couldn't fall fast enough so I had to take some drastic measures to get to you!" Naruto said, yipping in excitement as Alice looked at him surprise.

"N-naruto? Is it that you? What happened to you? You are a fox all of a sudden – how did you find me in this place?" She asked as she watched Naruto start to explain how he found her. While it was interesting that he found her while she was sleeping and that this was all a massive dream, she had two things on her mind. The first and most obvious one was just how Naruto was able to enter her dream (he could just be an elaborate imitation of Naruto fabricated by her mind after all). The second one was completely irrelevant but she couldn't help herself – she just had to see how fluffy Naruto's fur was since he was just so cute in this form.

"So you see, I think your dream reacted to my energy and pulled meee toooo ….*prrrrrr* mmm…stop it Alice, I'm trying to be serious here…"Naruto said as he yipped and purred when Alice started to rub his ears and cheeks with a childish look on her face.

"Oh, I am sorry – I just couldn't help myself. I really just wanted to feel your fur! It's so cute that you can purr in this form though! I didn't know foxes could do that…" Alice said as Naruto huffed at her.

While they were talking though, they finally finished falling and landed without any issue. Looking around the empty space, Naruto was trying to get his bearings so he could possibly climb up out of the hole. Unfortunately it looked like that wouldn't be possible – the walls of the burrow were very far away and looked very smooth (he wasn't sure that his chakra control in his new form would let him scale the walls, especially when having to carry Alice as well). Looking back to see where Alice got to, he was shocked to see Alice simply try to pursue a rabbit and travelling farther away from their landing site.

"Hey! We need to get back home – Alice! Get back here young lady!" Naruto said as he ran off after the girl, a little irked with how she was giggling at him, treating this situation as a harmless jaunt. To be completely fair, Naruto figured that he shouldn't have told her that this was all a dream since she now had little to no self preservation instincts. He followed Alice as she stopped in a massive, cavernous room, looking a little lost.

"Finally. Now can we…get…going…great heavens!" Naruto said as he beheld the huge room with doors everywhere – he couldn't even recognize the door they came from. While he was disoriented from the magnitude of the problem before him, Alice was checking every door, wondering which one was the door the White Rabbit passed through. One door in particular looked rabbit sized but as one might expect, was too small for Alice (Naruto could pass through just fine given his new height).

"Oh Naruto, come look at this door! I think the Rabbit passed through here to leave this place so maybe we could use it too!" She said as Naruto loped over to her.

"That's sound reasoning since I have no idea where to go from here. One problem though – I don't think the door is meant for someone of your size…" Naruto said as he crouched on all-fours to scrutinize the door(the doorknob had a surprisingly expressive face carved onto it and it really caught his eye). Just a second later, he got quite the shock when the doorknob literally came to life when Alice tried to turn it.

"Oh hello there darling~ Do you want to get through my door? I can't blame you for that dearie but there's just the small matter of your size. You're too big sweetling – perhaps you can look around the room and find something that could help!" The doorknob said, its happy and energetic energy infecting both Alice and Naruto who couldn't help but smile back at it.

When the two of them looked around the room again, they saw a table materialize out of thin air in the middle of the chamber, with a large box on it. When Alice opened the box (under Naruto's watchful eyes), she was delighted to find cookies and a bottle filled with some unidentified liquid.

"Ooh…cookies! Let me try one!" Alice said as she took a chocolate chip cookie and took a big bite out of it, humming happily at the rush of endorphins the chocolate gave her (she couldn't help herself – girls can't resist good chocolate after all…). Naruto was about to sample some too but figured he should be a gentleman and let Alice pick the cookies she wanted – it was a good thing he did too as Alice suddenly began growing at an alarming rate, taking up most of the space in the room.

"Alice! Are you okay?! Has the growing stopped? Is the room's roof hitting your head?" Naruto asked as he leapt onto Alice's shoulder (now the size of a respectable boulder).

"I-I don't know! I don't feel bad but I don't like this! I want to turn back! Waah!" Alice said as she began to cry uncontrollably despite Naruto attempts to console her. Given her new size, her teardrops were now massive raindrops, quickly filling up the room in a flood of her tears. Looking down from his position on her shoulder, Naruto's eyes bugged out at the rate the room was filling up with her tears.

"Calm down Alice! You're filling the room with your tears and soon we'll both drown in this flood!" Naruto said as he jumped over to try and cup Alice's chin with his forepaws, looking up at the girl pleadingly.

Alice was well aware of their predicament as well. However, something strange must have been in the cookies because she couldn't stop the waterworks.

"I-I know! I just can't stop crying for some reason – Doorknob! How can I stop this?!" She said as she looked over to the doorknob, which was looking at the box (now floating in the sea of Alice's tears).

"Oh dear! This is quite the pickle – quickly take the bottle in the box and drink it contents. Make sure to share it with your foxy friend – that should shrink the both of you to fit through my door!" It said as Alice grabbed the box and pulled out the bottle before uncorking it.

"Alright – Naruto, take a sip first and I'll do the same…" Alice said as she saw Naruto take a swig of the bottle's contents before shrinking out of her sight. Heartened by these results, she then took a drink as well, shrinking to the point where she could see Naruto standing on the rim of the bottle's neck waiting to catch her before she fell into her ocean of tears.

"Alright Alice – the room is inundated in your tears. Let's use this bottle as an improvised boat until everything settles down!" Naruto said as Alice nodded at him, the two of them climbing into the empty bottle, unaware that the bottle was suddenly small enough to pass through the keyhole, officially transporting the two of them into Wonderland.

A few minutes later, unnamed shores of Wonderland…

Naruto and Alice made landfall without much incident – the bottle served as an impromptu boat to an exemplary degree. When Naruto sensed that the bottle had finally come to a stop, he turned and nudged her sides (he was really getting into the humanoid fox role – moving on all-fours, not really using his opposable thumbs…).

"Hey Alice – I think the bottle has finally stopped moving so we should leave this thing and see where we've ended up…" Naruto said as he poked his snout out of the bottle and took a few cautious sniffs (he smelled petrichor, wildflowers and… poutry??).

"Oh that's right! Thank goodness that dreadful situation with the cookies was resolved – now that I am normal sized…at least I think I am…we can continue exploring this place!" She said as she excitedly squeezed her way out of the bottle, her earlier debacle now a distant (and repressed) memory.

Naruto chuckled at her peppiness and followed after her. When they left the bottle, they were immediately met with quite the curious sight.

"I-is that a dodo?! I am no biology buff but I could have sworn that Grimhilde had a stuffed replica of the bird as an exhibit in her lab! Isn't it supposed to be extinct?" Naruto said as he rubbed his eyes in disbelief, while simultaneously reigning in his instinct to pounce on the bird and eat it(you could say he was feeling a little 'peckish'…hehe…).

"You aren't mistaken Naruto, it is a dodo! But what is he doing?" Alice said as she approached the fowl, while Naruto cautiously followed, wary of any foul play. The bird appeared to be conducting some type of rally with its friends (a pelican, starfishes, a parrot, a crow and some fish), as it was wearing a formal waistcoat and a suit while smoking a pipe to boot.

When they got close enough to the group, Alice went to the Dodo to ask him questions about what they were all doing (she was rather enjoying the silliness of the situation as it was a breath of fresh air to her…).

"Um, excuse me…what are you all doing?" She asked, the Dodo turning to regard her from his elevated position on the rock he was on.

"Young lady, this is a caucus race that is being conducted – matters of administration far beyond your ken I am afraid. I trust you can keep your companion under control? I am not sure I like the looks he's been giving me and my friends…" The dodo said, giving Naruto a wary look (he was a fox after all).

"Don't worry about that – I am not going to come up and eat all of you. I am a civilized person!" Naruto said, coming up to Alice before standing on his hind legs to gesture towards himself, trying to show that he was more than a mere animal.

"Yes, this is Naruto – he is my caretaker most of the time when my sister isn't around so you can trust him." Alice said as the Dodo hummed in thought before turning back to the race he was conducting.

"Yes, well, one must always err on the side of caution after all…now back to the campaigning!" He said, as Naruto and Alice sat down on the sand to watch him and his friends sing a caucus song. Apparently, this business had been going on for a while and had not borne any fruit – this time was no different. Despite all the pomp and spectacle, the race had an inconclusive result and in the end, Alice had to share some of her personal candies with the inconsolable animals as Naruto roared with laughter in the background.

Once Alice was done distributing candy to the animals, a flash of white caught her eye. It was the White Rabbit again and this time, he appeared to be dashing into the nearby forest at the edge of the beach. Turning to look at Naruto, who rushed to her side upon noticing her meaningful stare, the two of them began to give chase, eventually entering the forest where Alice quickly found herself with yet another distraction in the form of two twin brothers, who later introduced themselves as Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumb.

"Oh! Who are you girlie? Up for a game of 'Who's got the Button'?" T.Dee said as Alice looked at them askance while Naruto was sizing up the twins, feeling something a little off about them.

"Yes, yes! If games aren't to your liking, then perhaps we could have a little show of fisticuffs! It's been so long since we've had one!" T.Dumb said as Naruto growled at the brothers, his eyes flashing gold for second while he picked up a rock from the ground and pulverized it in his fist (the brothers went as pale as a sheet at that particular display of strength).

"That sounds lovely and all but I am rather busy you see. My companion and I are trying to find the White Rabbit – did you see where he went?" Alice said as she moved closer to Naruto and patted his head, his raised hackles smoothing out under her gentle caresses while he purred in content.

"Ah, a curious one eh – well we know what happens to curious ones, don't we Dumb?"

"Yes, yes – reminds me of a story about some curious oysters this does! Remember the tale of the Walrus and the Carpenter?" T.Dumb said as T.Dee nodded with a grin on his face before looking back to Alice and Naruto.

"How about it lass – do you want to hear the sad tale of the little oysters who stuck their noses where they didn't belong?" The brothers said as Alice thought it over for a few seconds before agreeing to stay to hear the story (Naruto already knew where this was going so he just got comfortable and waited for Alice to grow bored of the many distractions before her and actually start chasing the Rabbit again).

As the brothers mentioned, the tale was a sad one. There was once was a group of young oysters who were lured away from their mother for dinner by a carpenter and his walrus in the middle of the night (Naruto was left scratching his head at this – who in blazes ate dinner at midnight?! The oysters were truly gullible…). Upon arriving at the carpenter's abode, the carpenter left to get the victuals for the meal. The walrus, sensing the opportunity laid out before him, proceeded to eat all the little oysters before his friend returned. When the carpenter returned, he was furious to see the oysters all eaten by the walrus and chased the beast away.

"That wasn't very nice. Those poor little oysters were bound to be gobbled up once they went with the carpenter and the walrus…so sad." Alice said as the brothers nodded and began a merry jig.

"Yes. And there's a moral to it."

"Oh yes, a very good moral. If you happen to be an oyster!"

Alice, now thoroughly exhausted with the brothers and their behavior, began to walk in the direction she last saw the rabbit, only to be interrupted by the brothers, who now wanted her to hear the tale of Father William. Seeing that Alice was in a bit of a bind, Naruto decided to spare her the hassle of looking for an opportunity to sneak off and ran towards the brothers, who turned to look at him with a strange expression on their faces.

"Hey- stop bothering Alice! She doesn't have anymore time for your shenanigans so bugger off!" Naruto said as he launched the brothers into the treetops with a mighty kick to their keisters, the twins yowling in pain while Alice giggled at the comical sight of Naruto's impatience with this wacky world.

Now that they were finally free to look for the rabbit, Naruto then turned to look at Alice, wondering why she was so hell bent on finding this rodent.

"Hey Alice?"

"Hmmm? Yes Naruto?"

"What are you going to do when you even find this rabbit anyway? What makes it so special?"

"Oh! I wanted to know what a rabbit could possibly be late to since I espied the Rabbit hopping in a hurry while looking at his pocket watch!" She said as Naruto looked at her with a hanging jaw before resigning himself to his fate(this was just a dream after all anyway…).

After a few minutes of pleasant walking and conversation, they finally made it to a cozy little dwelling.

"Oh! This must be where the Rabbit lives! Let me go knock on his door!" Alice said as Naruto grunted and followed.

Just as she was about to knock on the door however, the Rabbit opened the door himself – looking quite frazzled to say the least.

"Oh there you are Mary Ann! I was just looking around to find you – come, there are many tasks you have to do…" The Rabbit said as Alice was confused at what he called her.

Naruto, who was watching the proceedings from a distance since he didn't want to spook the prey animal, face palmed at this turn of events.

'Oh boy, here we go again…' 

And that wraps up chapter 21! I was originally thinking of finishing the arc here but I got interested reading about the Mary Ann/Alice dimension dilemma and thought it would be interesting to explore it. In any case, you guys get more stuff to read – this chapter is a big one (I usually write anything from 1700-2500 words and this bad boy is 3.5k words long).

If you'd like to support me you can find me on Patreon on the 'search for creators' bar under DudeWithaMac (I only get free time on Sundays since money's extremely tight-details on Panacea chapter 14). Alternatively, you guys can follow this link: p#at#re#on.#com/DudeWithaMac (remove the hash tags). Reviews and comments are always welcome!