Falling In Reverse

Chapter 1: Displacement

"Kurama!" Naruto exclaimed happily, relief washing over him. With a few wide strides, he crossed the distance between them and jumped on the fox's muzzle, burying his face into the soft fur and squeezing it like his life depended on it. "I thought I'd never see you again!"

Kurama huffed in a mild annoyance, but made no action to remove the clingy human from his person. In the past year, he got used to the little blond's affection. Living in a war-torn world among merely a handful of survivors and with only one of them actually alive would have made even the coldest individual seek out any kind of friendly companionship. It just happened that Naruto didn't have to look far for one; he had it literally in his guts.

A muffled careful voice woke Kurama from his musings.

"What happened?"

"Truth be told, I am not sure," the great fox replied, intently watching his human. "Yet," he added. Crimson eyes narrowed a bit at the slight tension of the boy's shoulders.

"The others?" Naruto asked quietly. "Dad and Kakashi, and..." He suddenly whipped his head up to look at his friend, usually bright blue eyes now filled with horror and fear, standing out in his ghostly pale complexion. "I can't just lie around, I need to help them!" The teen scrambled on his feet. He felt only a small fraction of the pain his real body, currently controlled by Kurama, was enduring, but even that made Naruto flinch at even the smallest motion. "Madara, and Obito, and Juubi, and–" he rambled non-stop in panic as he slid from the fox's muzzle and almost planted face first into the water when his knees threatened to buckle. "They can't– Dad and sensei– Sasuke is– They–"

"Easy, Naruto," Kurama soothed. He wrapped one of his tails around the panicked boy and pulled him closer. "They are not here. Your body is a mess and needs to heal. You should stay here until I deem that it is painless enough for your fragile human's mind."

"But–"

"They are not here," the beast repeated patiently. "There is no one around us."

Naruto ceased his weak struggle and laid there in silence for a while. "So, where are they?" he put forward a question, his voice just above the whisper, broken and full of pain.

Kurama's eyes softened. "I do not know," he confessed. "Something happened when Juubi's bijuudama collided with us. We were... thrown somewhere else."

The Jinchuuriki blinked in surprise, turning his head to look into his friend's eyes with a small frown. "Thrown somewhere else?"

"I had lost connection with you for a while after the collision, so I am not completely sure what exactly had transpired," the Kyuubi explained. "But you and I somehow survived. We are safe for the time being."

The implication of 'you and I' wasn't lost on Naruto. He closed his eyes and took a shaky breath. A tear slid across his cheek, but he did nothing to hide it.

"Rest, Naruto," Kurama urged softly. "And then, we shall figure it out together."

"Thanks, Kurama," the teen murmured. His hand's fingers curled around the fistful of the fox's fur, anchoring him to probably his last friend left, and he sunk into uneasy sleep.

xxx

Naruto woke to a world of aches and pains shooting through his body, though it was nothing compared to the agony Kurama had saved him from.

Groaning, the Jinchuuriki carefully rolled from his back and onto his stomach so that he could begin the painstaking effort of rising himself from the surface he was lying on. His muscles quivered under the strain as he used his arms to push himself up.

Even before Naruto's eyes opened, an approaching whizz suddenly sent an alarm throughout his whole being. The blond barely had the presence of mind to process exactly what it was, when he was already moving, his body acting on pure instincts, engraved into him during the war. He jumped backward, clenching his teeth as not to let out a scream when hot pain shot through his still numerous wounds. There was not enough time, injuries were too severe, and Kurama was yet too drained to fully heal them all.

There was a sudden displacement of air, a flash of yellow hair, and a person appeared in front of Naruto. A rapid spinning sound reached the latter's ears, but he completely disregarded it as his gaze landed on the man. Happiness swelled inside his chest. "Dad..." the teen exhaled out with a small smile curling on his lips, all of his relief crammed into that one word.

Those familiar bright cerulean eyes widened, an utter shock crossing the older blond's features.

"Watch out!"

Naruto's irises flashed red as the Kyuubi forcefully took control for a brief moment, flinging his human's body out of harm's way. A Rasengan dispersed into nothingness, and the attacker leaped back, creating a bigger distance between them, to stand with his two companions.

Naruto groaned where he hit the ground, already pushing himself into sitting position with his arm around his aching ribs. "Dammit, Kurama," he cursed quietly. "Humans are not supposed to move like that when they're hurt so much."

A growl came from the back of his mind. "Look more carefully, Naruto," the great fox urged.

"What do you mean?" the Jinchuuriki questioned in confusion as he lifted his head and quickly looked over the three men on the other side of the clearing, made by his crashing into the forest floor. "It's just dad, Kakashi-sensei, and–" the words died in his throat as what he was seeing finally caught up with his brains.

There was no doubt in Naruto's mind that the first man was Minato Namikaze. He saw the same sunshine yellow mop and the same color eyes every time when he looked at his own reflection, being a little carbon copy of his father. Hashirama teased them to no end about it during their one year hide and seek game with the Uchihas, especially after the teen let his front locks grow longer on either side of his face.

But the usually warm and loving blue eyes were now giving a glare that was freezing Naruto's flesh, bones, and soul, and he felt like standing nude in the middle of a hailstorm, where every chunk of ice was a frosted dagger cutting into his skin. His father seemed older; the teen noticed a few wrinkles around his eyes, which had nothing to do with a hard scowl etched on his features, and weary – more so than he had ever seen him. The black sclera was gone, meaning that the man was truly alive, not just brought back with a Reanimation jutsu.

Kakashi who was standing on Minato's left looked almost the same with his spiky gravity defying silver hair, his mask firmly in place, covering his lower part of his face. The man was alert, his stance ready to spring into action at any given second, as both his dark gray eyes scanned the clearing before eventually settling on stunned Naruto, fixing him with a sharp, measuring gaze. There was no vertical scar running over his left eye, no Sharingan spinning in that socket, not even his forehead protector slanted over it.

But it was the shinobi taking a position on the Yondaime's right who made Naruto's hair stand on the back of his neck and his muscle tense up the moment his eyes met the pair of the red ones with three tomoes swirling around the pupils. Obito Uchiha. He would never forget the person who sent the world into madness and chaos, who unleashed the raging inferno to devour forests and fauna and to cover the sky with its smoke, who slaughtered his friends and allies, who painted the young blond's life in blood, grief, and pain...

However, now Obito didn't give the same malicious feeling as the last time Naruto had seen him. He didn't have any scarring on his face either, which was beyond strange. Many things in this picture were wrong, but this particular Uchiha standing alongside his father and sensei topped it all.

Maybe not, for there was one more detail that made Naruto question his grip on the reality.

All three men had shinobi headbands tightly wrapped around their heads. All three headbands depicted a leaf with a swirl inside it, showing their allegiance with Konohagakure. And all three Konoha's symbols had glaring deep slashes across each of them.