Naruto woke up to the sound of an alarm clock. The sound of his old alarm clock, to be exact. He opened his eyes to the familiar blue ceiling of his old apartment, before everything turned to shit. He sat up and saw that he was still the same height as he was before waking up, what was this?
Did he travel back in time again? The thought caused his stomach to plunge even further down. It was too much for him to handle, too much. . .
Sasuke wasn't dead, but was in fact the masked man who organized the very same thing Obito had done and had carried on Madara's will. That fact alone weighed heavily down in his mind.
"Naruto Uzumaki was a boy filled with hope!"
Those words burned into Naruto's brain. He stood up and walked through the familiar apartment before opening the door, the smell of fresh air reaching his nose. He didn't bother to idle in the serenity and pushed forward. Leaping off of the third story his apartment was located on, the blond landed gracefully on the dirt roads of Konoha.
Was it the same situation? Had he been teleported after his graduation? What was different?
As he walked forward, his thoughts began branching out. 'I still have the same amount of chakra as I did before the Totsuka Blade,' He thought, ignoring the memory that it had been Sasuke to stab him. 'And I'm the same size and as far as I can tell, my strength wasn't reset like last time.'
The last two words of that thought caused Naruto's permanent impassive face to turn sour. It shouldn't have been like this. He should be dead, not here.
Unless. . .
Naruto threw his head back up, his hood falling off as he began laughing hysterically. "Ahahahahahahahaaha!" He got out as he fell to his knees, his fingers digging into the dirt as tears began leaving his eyes. "Hahahahaha! I knew it! I can't die!" The mad grin on his face turned into a snarl as he bared his teeth. "It was so simple," He let out another fit of laughter and began to bring his head up. "I'm in hell." He finished, a broken smile on his tear-stained face.
He saw a pair of emerald green eyes looking at him curiously and watched as the owner of the said eyes flushed red and immediately backed up, her hands waving furiously in the air. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to get in your bubble!" She said quickly.
It was Sakura, he realized, from when she was a Genin. On her left was a younger version of Sasuke, who was looking at him as if he had grown another head. On her right, was the younger version of himself, a concerned but curious look on his face.
And behind them was. . .
"You know," Kakashi began, looking at the stranger. "I usually mind my own business, but after seeing you laugh like a madman while crying your eyes, I don't think I'd be able to sleep too much."
"Kakashi. . ." Naruto said, seeing the silver-haired ninja for the first time since he died. His eyes trailed to Sasuke, who had his arms crossed over his chest with a scowl on his face. "What's different about this one, huh?"
"Huh?" The younger version of himself spoke rather loudly. "Are you talking about the bastard?!" He began laughing loudly, a laughter filled with pure happiness and amusement. He pointed at the Uchiha, who was glaring at his teammate with his eye twitching slightly. "Hahahahaha! I knew people thought you were weird!"
"Don't call Sasuke-kun weird!" Sakura shouted as she punched Naruto in the face, sending him flying into one of the walls of the shops, making a crack appear.
"You should be a bit nicer to him," Naruto said as he stood up, wiping the dust off of his clothes as he met Kakashi's eyes. "You never know who they'll become." As if to demonstrate his point, his lone blue eye transformed into a vermillion red as his Rinnegan glowed in sync. The children may not know the eyes of the Nine-Tails, but Kakashi would.
In an instant, Kakashi put himself between Naruto and his three Genin, a kunai immediately in his hand. "Who are you?"
"There's no point," Naruto shook his head. "Why would there be if I just kill myself and get transported to a different universe or go back in time?" He saw Kakashi reveal his Sharingan and send a pulse of chakra as a signal for the other shinobi in the Hidden Village. He sighed. "Very well. . ."
He held out his right hand. "Universal Pull," He didn't put too much chakra in it due to the fact that he didn't want to cause any unneeded destruction, but just enough to pull the younger blond out of his dazed state and fly into the older Naruto's grasp, who held him by the back of his collar.
"Let him go!" Kakashi ordered at once, but stayed deathly still. The younger Naruto struggled futilely to escape.
"Hey! Let go of me you creep!" He cried out. Naruto used his free hand to pluck the younger blond in the forehead, causing him to fall silent. He met Kakashi's eyes once again and held the younger Naruto up so that both of their faces were next to each other.
"Are you satisfied with my answer? Or would you prefer I spell it out to you, Kaka-sensei?" Naruto watched as Kakashi's eyes grew to the size of saucers and with a satisfied smirk, dropped the younger Naruto on the ground.
"N-Naruto?" It was a question, of course it was, Naruto thought. Who wouldn't be skeptical of that? Hell, the Third Hokage had a hard time believing him when it was just one. How could he convince them that he Naruto from a different future?
"Yes,"
"Naruto Uzumaki was a boy filled with hope!"
"And no." He finished cryptically. He looked down at his younger self and watched as the boy just looked at him with wide eyes.
"Uh, did this guy just say he was me, Kaka-sensei?" He whispered loudly.
"What's the point of whispering if everyone can hear you, dobe." Naruto chided himself. Sasuke's eyes narrowed at the selected insult, something that both Kakashi and Sakura picked up on too.
"Not you too," Naruto said almost sadly, causing the smallest twinge of guilt to build up in Naruto's heart.
"Stand up," He ordered as he pulled the orange-clad Genin up to his feet. "Your future is too malleable to let words get to you." Naruto's eyes brightened at the words before a yellow flash appeared right next to Kakashi, revealing Minato Namikaze with a serious expression spread across his features as he looked at the older Naruto, wearing his Hokage garments.
"Get away from my son!" He shouted, a Rasengan forming in his right hand and a Flying Thunder God kunai in his left.
"Dad don't!" The younger Naruto cried out, spreading his arms and legs out in order to cover up the older Naruto as much as he could. "He's a good guy!"
"Get away from him, Naruto!" Minato shouted. "You don't know him!" He saw Naruto's Rinnegan and his face seemed to darken considerably. "Who are you?"
"Sensei," Kakashi began, his eyes not leaving on the man who claimed to be an older version of Naruto. "He hasn't tried anything yet." Naruto, who had been quiet since Minato had arrived, spoke three words that caused everything to stand still.
"Where is she?"
"What?"
"Who?"
Naruto couldn't hear himself think. His heart was beating too fast, pounding in his ears as he felt the blood rushing through his veins. He closed his eyes, feeling all of the chakra signatures in the village before he opened his eyes again, his destination found.
Naruto disappeared in a flash of speed, causing everyone present to shout. Minato immediately ran up to Naruto and grabbed him in a hug. "He didn't hurt you, did he?" Naruto shook his head.
"No! I told you he was a good guy!"
Naruto appeared in the backyard of a large house, a large garden filled with a variety of vegetables and fruits, creating a beautiful scenery of colors. At the end of the garden, was a woman who was carrying a basket of fruit, her back faced towards him.
Naruto tore his cloak off, letting it fall to the grass as if it were nothing. He felt his hands shaking and he unconsciously swallowed the saliva that had gathered in his throat. He felt his body move forward toward the woman and he saw the features he hadn't seen in a long time.
She had on an orange t-shirt with a pair of black shorts that reached down to just below her knees with a pink apron wrapped around her waist, her bright red hair shining beautifully in the light that was brushed and worn straight down, reaching her waist.
She turned around and met Naruto's eyes and let out a gasp, the basket of fruit falling to the ground and causing the collection of fruits to roll across the ground. "Who are. . ." She trailed off as she saw the man's face.
Tears crawled down Naruto's face as he smiled at the woman. His shoulders sagged and it became apparent just how roughed up and exhausted the man looked. His voice was shaky and he took another step forward, but for the life of her, she couldn't take a step back. His smile grew as the tears began coming in like a flood as he uttered one word.
"Mom."
And done. Late. short. Yeah, my apologies. Life has just been kicking my ass lately, but hopefully this'll breathe a bit more life into the story that had been previously stomped out.
Let me make this clear
THE UNIVERSE WHERE NARUTO FIRST TRANSPORTED TO STILL EXISTS AND IS STILL PART OF THIS STORY! So yeah, not ducking out of a corner I wrote myself into. This arc, while unplanned, is something that I realized this Naruto needed to develop any further.
I toyed with the idea of his joining Sasuke and ruling the Shinobi World together in order to ensure peace, but I scrapped it because that is literal dog water after everything I've built up so far. So yeah...
Til next time my lil demons!