Naruto and Hinata: Stories After "The Last"! (Bi-weekly Updates)

Back to the Past: Part Two

**unedited. sorry, I wanted to get it up asap! sorry if anything's wrong!

Needless to say, Naruto rushed to his master to see his face, regardless of if this was all making sense or not. It would be good to see his face again. Through the trees he went, leaves rustling passed him until he came to a clearing where he spotted that signature way hair – he seemed to be peeking through some brush, a rather goofy laughter emitting from him.

"Jiraiya sensei." Naruto said. This is what seemed like the dream... Not the future life he remembered. Jiraiya turned around to his pupil.

"All right, just what are you up to? Since when do you call me anything but "pervy sage"?" The sannin's mighty hands found his hips, as he looked down at Naruto. It certainly struck a chord in the young shinobi. He supposed he'd dropped that old nickname later in life. Naruto's eyes flickered over to the bushes, a small opening was apparent, and he saw some familiar hair flutter past. His eyes widened slightly.

"What are you –" Jiraiya barely had a chance to interject before Naruto found his way over to the gap. Spying through with one eye, surely enough on the other side stood – Hinata –, her familiar old purple suit that covered her modestly, her stature a bit shorter, and her cheeks with a young roundness. She was reaching upward on the tips of her toes to pick cherry blossoms as Shino had mentioned, putting them into a basket. Naruto's face first went a bit red on the notion that he was spying on her, and secondly in anger. Steam seemed to admit from him as narrow I shifted over to his master.

"Hey kid, what's your –"

once more Jiraiya was cut off, as Naruto shifted a punch in his direction which was quickly to be deflected by the toad sage who took Naruto's arm and bent it behind his back.

"All right, start talking. What's going on with you today?" The master was a bit more serious, as Naruto scowled over his shoulder.

"You were peeping on Hinata??" He growled.

"Hmmm? That Hyuga girl?" Jiraiya seemed innocently surprised by the sentiment, glancing over the Bush at Hinata, picking her flowers. And then, he huffed out a 'pssh'. "Her? No, of course not. She's a bit too young for me. However, and a couple of years, maybe..." A bit of jewel escaped his lower lip as he laughed that perverted laugh that signaled his mind was up to no good. Naruto shut his eyes, spawning a clone beside Jiraiya that thrusted offense that him again only to be caught by his opposite hand.

"Okay, okay. Yeesh. I get it, she's off limits. But why the sudden interest? Finally following in my footsteps the ladies? I can run you my book, even though it's for 18+ I guess I can make an exception..."

"No, it's not that..." Naruto relaxed his guard, his shadow clone disappearing.

"Oh, I see now. You love this girl." Master Jiraiya speculated, a coy smile on his lips. Naruto couldn't deny it... He did love Hinata, he could feel it just looking at her now. And even if everything he'd thought to experience was false, he wasn't sure if he could ever look at her differently again. Naruto sank to the forest floor, sitting Indian style with his shoulder lurched forward defeatedly.

"I had this dream..." he explained, as Jiraiya too his own seat beside him. He couldn't help but feel genuinely concerned about Naruto in this moment. He was acting so out of character. It was like he'd aged a few years somehow in the span of the couple days since he'd last seen him. That meant he had to hear him out to get to the bottom of this. He indeed listened intently as Naruto explained things that just sounded crazy, like going to the moon and beyond.

"Well...that's quite a doozy you have on your hands there." Jiraiya lifted his hands to grasp his own chin in thought. "It sounds like you really do love this girl. Pah. Who woulda thunk it?" he smiled. "The question is, if she loves you, too."

It drudged up a memory long forgotten or stored away by this shinobi of the leaf. Something specific. It was her proclamation of love, during his fight with Pain. The proclamation that had gone unanswered for so very long...one of his regrets in life, he'd come to realize.

"She...told me she loved me, once before. It was when I was fighting pain, she-"

"Wait a second." Jiraiya stopped him, his face was grave as if he'd just seen a ghost and Naruto could tell the intensity just in his infliction. "What do you know about "Pain"?"

Naruto gazed at his master, it had taken him a whole second to realize the grave nature of what he'd just said.

"Y-you mean..." he put the pieces of the puzzle, realizing the question he was just about to ask made not a shred of sense to anyone but him in that moment. "That hasn't happened yet..." his glance fell back to the ground. Had it happened at all, was the question? Yes, clearly – Jiraiya had recognized the name, somehow.

"Naruto, I don't think these were any normal dreams..." he speculated, with a bit more seriousness. Clearly the name had struck a chord in him. "I think these are regular memories. I don't know how it's done, but I think that you're a you from the future..."

From...the future?

"Sounds crazy, I know, but there's no other explanation. I've heard crazier things in my lifetime, believe you me." he added. If this really was a visit to the past, that meant that everything he'd gone through truly was real. It wasn't a dream at all. And if he was correct, the last thing he was doing before waking up was continuing his mission to find Konsuru.

And then it hit him like a ton of bricks.

Konsuru...he must be behind this. But how the hell was Naruto going to get back to the future? He wasn't even sure how he got here in the first place. And like a second ton of bricks, as he looked back at the white-haired sage, another dawning came.

"I-if I'm really from the future, that means the things I know are true." He deduced. Jiraiya blinked, having no idea where he was going with this. "Jiray- I mean, pervy sage, there's something extremely important I have to tell you! You have to listen to me!" Naruto lunged toward the Sannin to grab him by the scruff of his shirt in pleading. "Don't go to fight-"

"Get off me, kid. Here comes your girl." He brushed Naruto away speaking in a hushed voice. It was true, the sound of footsteps snapping twigs underfoot was evidently getting closer, and without another opportunity to urge his master to change his fate, Jiraiya was gone in a flash – leaving Naruto there alone, sitting by himself on the ground. His expression was certainly grave, as he couldn't decide on his next move quick enough before a pair of pale hands parted the bushed he was so awkwardly perched behind to see through. Naruto's eyes flickered over to hers, his body was so still it could have been lifeless. It was indeed Hinata, who initially adorned a content expression....but as her eyes met Naruto's, her face nearly instantly was enveloped in a red hue, her expression going completely bewildered.

"Oh, uh....hi there."

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Stay tuned for another update next Saturday!

Sneak peek:

Naruto has no idea how to act toward this incarnation of Hinata any longer.

Hinata: Were you...watching me?

See you next time ~