This idea has been spinning in my head for days now. I know it's really late and cliche to do something like this but here it is. I needed to get it out and unleash it on the internet. Read at your own risk and blame certain 90s movies and the fact that the end of the manga left so many fans frustrated with numerous elements. Because of this, I felt the need to throw this out for them (even though personally I'm content with ending). Also, as I had originally intended this to be quick indulging one-shot, the writing reflects that.
THE DREAM
Part 1: the Awakening
Man, he was living the dream.
Naruto couldn't help think this as he sat in his office chair, staring out the window. It was a beautiful day, as usual. Unfortunately, like usual, there were also hordes of paperwork to go through. With the end of the Chunin Exams, things were busier than ever.
He smiled, swiveling his chair around to face his desk. On it were numerous picture frames. Centermost was a picture of his family. His loving wife and two adorable children. Himawari, the youngest and most adorable of them all. And his son. It was almost like looking into a mirror.
My son, he beamed. A Chunin!
True things had started off rocky, but Boruto was following his daddy's footsteps and he couldn't be prouder.
Behind their first child, his wife smiled back at him in the picture. Hair still long then. He still couldn't fathom how he had ended up with such a wonderful woman. And from the backgrounds they had come from. His friends used to joke that in the village's old days, their relationship was the equivalent of Lady and the Tramp. She the lady and he obviously the tramp who had no wealth or good background.
He chuckled thinking how much more miraculous it was for Sakura to have gotten Sasuke. Now that was an interesting story...
Now that he thought of it, he couldn't exactly recall how it happened. As if there were gaps in his memory.
"That's odd," he muttered, rubbing his head.
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He didn't know why, but the lack of memory kept bothering him.
And not knowing something only wanted to make him search for answers.
He had started in the Hokage's Library, where nearly everything was documented in scrolls and files. Physical copies were much more protected than digital ones. As the Hokage, only he had access to them.
One there, he began searching the files. He found a few notes, but they were very brief, and not thorough enough to be content. What's more, some accounts were missing. Like Sasuke's trial. He couldn't remember it and there was no way on earth he would have spaced on something like that.
Frantically he tore through the shelf, and the next one, and the next one after that but still found no documentation for it whatsoever. Only one brief note and it was extremely vague.
"Someone stole them," he concluded. But why? And who would have had access?
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He had the surveillance tapes for the library brought to him. He must have spent hours fast-forwarding through them, hoping for some answers. But still, thievery didn't explain the gaps in his memory.
"You're being ridiculous, Naruto," his assistant insisted, seated beside him and watching his quest in disapproval.
Naruto answered, not lifting his eyes from the TV screen. "I know I am but...It just bothers me, Shikamaru."
It was as if he was possessed. He wasn't going to stop until he got to the end of it.
Shikamaru sighed and rubbed at his goatee boredly. "You're wasting time."
You're one to talk. You're the king of dozing off.
"Perhaps, but perhaps not. This could be important."
"How so?"
"Because I can't remember them. How funky is that?" The tape automatically ejected from the VCR, having run to the end. No results whatsoever. Only he had stepped in that library since his inauguration as Hokage and he certainly hadn't tampered with anything. If no one had stolen them...They hadn't been filed in the first place.
"You're thinking too hard."
Now Shikamaru was starting to frustrate him.
"I swear," he said. "There's things missing. There's gaps from after the war that just don't make sense! Why is that?"
"Naruto," Shikamaru said, placing his hands on his shoulders. "It's only because you've always been the slacker and have never payed close attention to political affairs."
"I'm not that bad," he whined. "And now that I think about it, why are all the files missing from after the war? And not just files, people too! Whatever happened to the village elders, Homura Mitokado and Koharu Utatane?"
He could never forget the three stooges that had triggered one of the most horrible events in Konoha history. The ones who had approved the Uchiha Massacre. The ones who deserved to face justice for it.
"Naruto..." Shikamaru said, tone one of warning.
"Tell me!"
Shikamaru shook his head. "I don't know those people."
"How could you not! They were part of the old council!"
"I'm the Council."
Naruto's teeth gritted. Shikamaru's part of this!
"How was Orochimaru pardoned for his crimes?! And S-Sasuke?"
"You don't want to follow this rabbit, Naruto."
"Yes, I do."
"Trust me. You don't."
"Shikamaru, I'm serious. Something is wrong, I can feel it in my gut and I have to trust this instinct!"
"You speak nonsense, Naruto." His tone was almost robotic. "Besides, if this is a false world, would you want to go back to the real one? Everything you've ever wanted is here."
"I..."
Wait, he used the words "false world"...I've heard those words before.
Echoes of memory reverberated in his head.
The Fourth War...
Madara...Sasuke...and the Moon.
His assistant lifted a set of paperwork and held it out to him. "Just do your work. Your family is waiting for you."
Narrowing his eyes, Naruto stepped back.
"I...I need to take the night off."
"The Hokage can't take a night off."
What?!
Now something definitely was up—how had he not noticed before? How many nights had he spent in these walls, or in others, constantly working. Enough that he barely got to time to himself. This mantle of being Hokage had become a distraction, a prison. A grand one, but still a distraction. Madara's or his. It didn't matter.
In all his life, he never remembered the Hokage being as made busy as he had been.
And he couldn't afford to let it wall him anymore, so he ran.
Shikamaru rushed in front of the door, blocking him. "It's not time to leave the office yet! There's still work for you to do!"
"I'm the freakin' Hokage," he exclaimed, slamming his elbow into the man's face. "I'm going home!"
The form of Shikamaru doubled back...and began morphing. Colors faded. Faded into white. Features blended in, giving shape to a genderless and indistinguishable form.
A Zetsu.
"Shikamaru!" He bent down, shaking it. "Man, get up! If this is a joke it's not funny!"
But Shikamaru's psyche was no more.
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He ran home as fast as he could.
Crashed through the house, screaming his wife's name. She was slumped on the couch, a wet cloth placed on her forehead.
"Hinata!" He kneeled beside the couch, hugging her. "Thank goodness you're here. Something bad is happening and...What's wrong?"
"Oh," she moaned. "I feel odd..."
Her aura...He could feel it fading from him.
"Not you too!"
Like Shikamaru, her form gave in to a spasm and morphed. Her metamorphosis complete, a Zetsu lay where she had been.
"NO!" he screamed, trying to grasp her body but his wife no longer existed, and what remained withered like a fallen leaf.
"Cripes," he cried. "Not like this! Ugh!"
He crumbled to the floor, pounding his fist against it.
He didn't need to see the rest of the house to know that their precious children weren't there.
They had only been his projections.
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He walked along the now-bleak streets, head pointed downward. And for the first time in a very long time, the throngs of people did not take notice of him as he passed by.
"How could this have happened?"
It was like they had been a dream. And now the two dreams had been shattered.
Being Hokage. Married to the Hyuuga's Heiress.
It was like when he had acknowledged something was odd, the illusion of them broke.
He was afraid to meet with Sakura to see what this world would do to her. Afraid to see everyone else for that matter.
But. He had to talk to someone. This had to be just some elaborate Genjutsu he had been trapped in. And he knew one person who could clear him up on this.
Sasuke.
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No matter how hard he looked, Sasuke wasn't there. And no one had seen him at all. It was like he had disappeared off the face of the earth. Just like the elders from the old council.
But somehow, though Naruto couldn't explain it, he knew Sasuke had not fallen victim to the strange Zetsu metamorphosis. He just wasn't here anymore.
Or maybe he had never been in the first place.
Maybe, like the children, the pardoned Sasuke from after the war had just been his projection of his best friend all this time.
He ran for the village gates, the run the only thing keeping him sane.
'Kurama!' he mentally cried to the beast dwelling inside him. 'I can't break myself out of this! I need your Bijuu chakra!'
'You are speaking nonsense, Naruto.'
'You're a part of this too!'
'This is the real world,' the fox answered quietly. Too quietly. When had been the last time the fox had scorned him for something?
'Then how do you explain the Zetsu and the fact no one on the street has once acknowledged me!?'
'...'
'Send your chakra through me as if to break Genjutsu, and if nothing changes, I really am wrong and am probably asleep at the office and having a nightmare.'
'Are you sure you want me to do this?'
Shikamaru's words came back to him. "Besides, if this is a false world, would you want to go back to the real one? Everything you've ever wanted is here."
He swallowed hard. 'This dream may be what I want but, morally, if this is all fake I can't stay here. Deep down I could never forgive myself.'
He wanted the truth. Even if it might be bitter. A world of war. Hate.
And love.
The real world could be beautiful, even with the many ugly things in it. It was the ugly things that made the beautiful all the more precious. Made it worth fighting for.
Peace from a real victory. He'd take that over any illusion any day.
'Kurama' he said firmly. 'Break me free!'
The strong chakra that could only be the source of one of the Bijuu swam through him, shaking him to his very core. And the world. It flashed out. Lights changed, and he was suddenly in pitch black.
He gasped, his breath lost to him as if he was breathing for the first time.
Smothered, he clawed. He clawed and clawed for life, ripping the substance around him to shreds.
And they peeled away like layers of flesh. Fluttered away like old newspapers.
And then he was falling.
Landing.
Dirt.
Pain.
He cracked his eyes open, white piercing them.
Too white. He lowered his gaze, avoiding the great orb of white centered in the sky.
"Isn't that the moon for Infinite Tsukuyomi?" he uttered, voice cracked. "But how...?"
Thinking back real hard he did remember Madara successfully triggering it...But hadn't Sasuke's Susanoo protected them? And that's when they fought Kaguya and won the war?
Keeping his gaze down, he carefully looked around.
The world was just white and carnage, blowing away dust. Including the dust of a skeleton, lain beside a gunbai...
Then there were giant roots all over the place. As if a great tree had taken hold of the entire world. Ah, yes, he remembered its name now.
The Divine Tree.
Behind him, the great tree. Filled with many suspended bodies attached to it. Prisoners just as he had been.
And too many to loosen with Kurama's chakra. It would take more than that. Their bodies were way too far in their dreamworld and conversion to be broken out like he had.
A few of them had fallen, and Zetsu were left in their place. Walking along the cracked earth, one of the bland beings noticed him sitting there, free from his dreamland prison. It cocked its head to the side, eyes narrowing threateningly.
Gasping he tried leaping back only to buckle back to the dirt, collapsing and panting. His legs weren't working!
"Oh, shi—"
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TO BE CONTINUED IN:
Part 2 the Rabbit Hole
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As requested, I will continue this indulgment for the unsatisfied people who would like the story to continue differently. And when I do I'll have it revealed just what had happened before...and where Sasuke and other select few like the Hokage are in the real world. This will mean playing around with Kaguya and Toneri too...
But I doubt I'll go through the trouble. Just watch the Matrix or the Truman Show if you like this kind of story. Incepetion's good too.