Rebuilding the Past

By: Tenstar12

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Chapter 1

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Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

AN: Inspiration has struck once again, and the sequel to What the Future Holds is born! Once again, I give a disclaimer on my Japanese. I use very literal translations for my original Jutsu provided by a translation website, so the grammar will be horrible. I just use it because it sounds cool and I don't expect it to be proper grammar. Anyway, here goes the second part of Kai's story. Enjoy!

Additional AN: By the way, if you haven't read my first fic, What the Future Holds, you really should. This fic is the sequel to that one, so a lot of what happens in this story won't make as much sense if you don't. I will be restating a few things from the first fic, but not enough for anyone to use as a basis to understand everything.

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"Come on Kai, keep up!"

Wareta Kai panted slightly as he heaved himself further up the path, trying to catch up with his sensei, Seijitsu Yue. They had escaped Konoha about a month earlier; leaving behind all Kai had known and loved to avoid the council of Konoha, who wanted to enslave Kai due to his bloodline, the Miraigan. They had traveled quickly, heading toward the village that Kai was originally taken from about four months earlier, but the rapid pace eventually began taking its toll on Kai.

They had been in the mountains north of Fire country for the past few days, and the gradually thinning air was starting to weaken the young Shinobi. Groaning, Kai struggled up the mountain path, gasping in pain as he stubbed his toe for the millionth time due to failing to lift his fatigue heavy feet over a stone. Grunting in pain and exertion, Kai continued trudging after the red haired kunoichi, hoping that they would stop soon.

Yue smiled sympathetically as Kai continued up the path. She had known that this would be the hardest part of the journey for her young student. It was hard on her as well, but since she had lived most of her life in these mountains and had only been gone for a few months, while Kai had been missing for twice as long and had spent most of his time in their village, her body was more accustomed to the thinner air. But soon they would reach the top of this last hill and Kai would be able to look out over the home he didn't remember once again.

Glancing back, Yue decided that it would have to wait though. Kai was barely able to keep up at this point and they still had at least ten minutes before they got to the crest of the hill. Sighing, Yue stopped and turned back to Kai. "Alright kid," she said, "let's take a break."

Kai gave her a look of extreme gratitude and collapsed onto a large rock on the side of the path, sighing as his legs and feet were finally given some long sought after relief. Yue smiled and made her way over to another rock that was large enough to sit on. "So," Yue said once she had settled onto her improvised seat, "what are you thinking?"

"That my legs hurt," Kai responded immediately before chuckling and looking up at his sensei. Yue stared back at him, pushing her shoulder length red hair out of her face. She was wearing the same clothes that she had had ever since she showed up in Konoha: a dark red shirt underneath a deep brown vest with matching brown pants and ninja sandals with her weapon pouch on her right hip. Swung across her back was a large shuriken in a harness, which had mysteriously disappeared after she arrived in Konoha. "In all honesty," Kai said, "I'm really nervous. I'm about to meet people that knew me before, but I won't be able to remember. It was hard enough dealing with you and your reactions to that. I don't know how I'm going to stay calm with a village full of people."

Yue smiled sadly, looking toward her student. He was wearing a loose pair of black pants that were tucked into his lightweight boots, which were black with dark purple stripes running up the side, with a weapon pouch hanging off his right hip and a deep pocket on his left shin. He had a black long-sleeved shirt with dark purple trim at his collar and running down his sleeves until they disappeared under his black wrist bands and down his sides in a wider stripe that stretched around to the front and back a few inches before disappearing where his shirt was tucked into his pants with a black belt and black and purple vest holding it all in place and his stolen ANBU katana strapped across his back. "I know it will be hard Kai," Yue said, "but I'll take care of the talking. You just have to stay with me until we get back to your old house."

Kai smiled weakly, "Thanks Yue, it means a lot…"

Yue returned his smile with a mischievous glint in her eye, "No problem Kai, but we really need to get going again if we're going to get to the village before sundown."

Kai's smile turned into a look of dismay before he forced his fatigued muscles into action once more and continued following Yue.

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"There it is Kai," Yue said, "our home…" Kai was several feet behind Yue, and so was unable see the village or what had caused Yue to trail off the way she did. Curiously, Kai forced himself to stagger the rest of the way up to the crest of the hill. What he saw took his breath away. He was looking down into a narrow valley among the mountains. It had a very secluded feel to it, as if it was completely cut off from the world, which it probably was, giving off a feeling of secrecy that Kai had never felt before. He looked out over the valley floor and saw numerous fields growing the vegetables that the village would need to survive, along with a dense forest that stretched off into the distance, following the valley out of Kai's sight. Finally, Kai found the small village nestled at the base of the hill they were standing on, and why Yue had trailed off. The village was smoking.

It wasn't too much smoke, not as if the entire place was on fire, but there was too much for it to be coming from a cook fire or something like that. Come to think of it, Kai didn't know if this village used cook fires or stoves to make their food. It was entirely possible that being isolated as they were, they wouldn't have the technological advancements that Konoha had.

Pushing out that train of though, Kai turned to Yue, "What's up?"

Yue's face had hardened, "disable your weights Kai, we may have a bit of a fight on our hands." Looking back down toward the village, Kai formed a quick chain of seals and felt his protesting muscles relax once again as he removed seventy pounds of additional weight from his body. Stretching slowly, Kai worked out the last bits of lingering soreness before nodding to Yue and activating his second level Miraigan, he was as ready for battle as he could be.

"Let's go," Yue said, hitting the downward slope at a sprint, knowing that Kai would be able to keep up now that his weights were off. Wincing slightly, Kai followed her, running low to the ground with his arms spread to each side. Now that his Miraigan was active, he was able to avoid stubbing his toes on irregular rocks by paying attention to any tingling feelings his bloodline gave him, warning him of an upcoming injury. In less than a minute, the two Shinobi had covered a distance that would have taken them a few hours if they had walked.

Still following his sensei, Kai slowed down and took shelter with her behind a large boulder. "Alright Kai," Yue said, "I don't know what's going on here, but that was far too much smoke coming out of the village. There could be trouble, so I want you to follow my lead. It's possible that it's nothing, but just in case, I want you on your guard."

"Hai," Kai nodded as Yue moved out from behind the boulder and started toward the now visible gates to the village at a normal walking pace. Kai followed her, imitating his closest friend from Konoha by placing his hands behind his head as he walked, betraying his nerves to anyone who knew what to look for.

As the two approached the village, a voice called out from the guardhouse beside the gates, "Halt, who goes there?"

Yue's face hardened, that was not a voice she recognized, "Just a pair of travelers seeking shelter for the night."

"Stop where you are," a man stepped out of the guard house with a crossbow pointed towards them, forcing them to stop, "you look like ninja to me."

Yue gave out a fake, but believable, laugh as she rested a hand on Kai's shoulder, "And looking like this helped my son and I bluff our way out of a bandit attack before we entered the mountains a few days ago." Kai's eyes widened slightly at Yue's 'son and I' comment, but they were too far from the guard for the man to notice.

The man seemed to relax a little and lowered his weapon, "Alright, come along then, I'll call for someone to take you to the inn."

Yue gave a fake smile as she led Kai closer to the guard booth. Everything seemed fine. The gates weren't damaged, and the guard seemed normal enough, albeit a bit jumpy. If it weren't for the smoke and the unfamiliar face and voice, Yue would have felt immediately at home.

Kai was just confused. He had no memory of this village, thanks to Hito, but he could tell Yue was uneasy about the whole situation, despite how normal it seemed.

Finally, their guide showed up. He was a man who looked to be about twenty years old who was wearing a simple outfit made up of brown pants and a brown shirt, both of which were slightly worn around the edges. "Greetings travelers," he said, bowing slightly as he approached, "if you will follow me, I will escort you to the village inn."

"Thank you," Yue said with another fake smile. Something about this situation just didn't seem right. Getting Kai's attention, Yue gave him a quick series of hand-signals. Over their month of traveling together, Yue and Kai had worked out a way to communicate with speaking. It was very basic, only allowing them to give each other vague directions based on what they had worked out and memorized so far, but it was better than betraying themselves to a potential enemy. Yue had told him to use his first level Miraigan so they could have a little forewarning of any potential trouble.

Nodding slightly, Kai shifted his chakra flow to allow him to view the future with his bloodline ability. The Miraigan was a powerful kekkei genkai, although not many people knew about it. The Wareta Clan was very powerful when they were at their strongest, mostly because of the Miraigan, and that power had frightened the other major clans in the world before the establishment of the ninja villages. They had been frightened so much, that several clans, some of which had been bitter enemies, had taken up arms against the Wareta Clan, annihilating them through sheer numbers. That had been almost five hundred years ago.

Somehow, a small remnant of the Wareta clan had survived, and lived in secrecy until Kai and his mother were discovered by a madman named Zanbifushi Hito. He had killed Kai's mother and kidnapped him in order to use him in a ritual that used a forbidden Jutsu to transfer the soul of the user into the body of the target, thus granting the user a new life. Kai had been saved, however, by the timely interference of Hatake Kakashi, a Konoha Jonin who had been passing by on his way home from a mission.

Kai had lost his memories due to a Jutsu Hito had used to prepare him for the soul transfer, but he had still managed to make living in Konoha. During his stay there, he was able to unlock the first two levels of his bloodline, the first of which allowed him to see the future of whatever he was looking at, at the cost of not being able to see what was going on in the present. The second was more defensive in that it allowed him to feel the future, giving him the foresight needed to dodge most attacks. Kai could use both levels at the same time, as he was now, but it was more draining on his chakra, which was forever limited to that of a high level Chunin due to the aftermath of Hito's ritual.

Kai looked around the village as he approached, slowly increasing his chakra levels as Yue placed a guiding hand on his shoulder so he wouldn't run into anything in his temporary blindness. Finally, Kai found the right level of chakra, seeing himself and Yue fighting against dozens of men wielding battered and bloodstained weapons. Frowning, Kai deactivated the first level before looking back to Yue and nodding, giving her some additional hand signals to show that they would be attacked in about two minutes.

Yue looked ahead again and grimly dropped her hand so it rested closer to her weapon pouch. She was going to be ready to face whoever had desecrated her home. But what had happened to the villagers she had known?

Their guide, oblivious to the suspicions of the two he was leading, took them to a building clearly marked as the village inn, a building that was situated in the exact center of the village. "Here we are," he said, spreading his arms as he turned to face them. As he completed his gesture, doors were flung open all around the village square, allowing dozens of men to spill out into the streets. Each man was fairly well armed, either holding a sword or a spear while several men emerged from the rooftops holding drawn bows and crossbows, all of which were aimed toward Yue and Kai.

"What is the meaning of this?" Yue exclaimed, feigning surprise as she glared around at the armed men around them, noticing the bloodstains on some of the blades and wondering if it was the blood of her friends and family.

"We'll be the ones asking the questions I think,"

Kai and Yue's attention was drawn back to the Inn as the large double doors swung open to reveal a huge brute of a man with an over sized axe strapped to his back. The man easily stood seven feet tall and looked as though he was strong enough to rip an average person in half. He wore no shirt, only a pair of dark brown pants that were tucked in to huge brown boots. The giant stomped forward, making Kai swear he felt the ground quake with each step, and stood in front of the two Shinobi with his hands on his hips.

"Travelers huh?" the man let out a huge bark of laughter, "I am not as easy to fool as my gate guard. Who are you really?"

Yue decided she may as well buy them some time, "You're right, we're not just travelers…and these weapons aren't just for decoration."

"You cannot intimidate me woman," the man said with scorn, "I am Genbu, the mightiest warrior in these parts. I can rip you in half with my bare hands if I wanted, and your son would be forced to watch before he suffered the same fate."

"Is that so?" Yue questioned, quickly forming a plan, "Then if you can kill us so easily, then would you mind sating a little curiosity first?"

The man smirked, "Why not, what do you want to know?"

"What happened to the villagers here?"

The man humphed, "How the hell should I know? We came traveling down the valley, hoping to stage a successful raid on this village, only to find it abandoned with all but the least useful items already taken. I just decided to move in. The fields were already almost ready to harvest and my men knew enough about farming to finish the job, so there was no reason to let the mountains reclaim such a prize without getting my use out of it first."

"Everyone was gone?" Kai blurted out, confused.

The man rounded on Kai, "You should learn to keep your mouth shut when your elders are talking boy!"

Kai caught Yue signaling that she had gotten all she wanted out of the man and smirked, "You can't scare me big guy; I've done more than my share of killing in my life, just the same as you."

The man let out another huge barking laugh which the rest of the bandits join in on, "That's rich boy. You can't be more than twelve."

Kai smirked again, "That's true, but maybe I can give you some proof. Have you heard of Gato, the crime lord who was setting up in wave country?"

The man paused slightly, "Yeah…"

"Then, judging by your reaction, "I'm sure you heard about the massacre on the bridge in Wave Country. The massacre where Gato was killed." Kai didn't remember much from that battle after the mercenaries had charged, but it was apparent to him that the large man had heard stories.

"They say that most of his mercenary army was killed by a boy before the same boy got to him," Kai could see unease growing in the man's eyes now.

Nodding with a sickeningly-sweet smile, Kai drew his katana and took a fighting stance, "And who do you think that boy was?"

Yue had heard from Kakashi about Kai's exploits in Wave, but knew from the boy himself that he didn't remember much from the battle. He was taking a risk, but it looked as though it was going to pay of. Many of the bandits surrounding them were shifting uneasily. It seemed Kai had become something of a legend among them, although they didn't know who he was.

The big man recovered with another huge laugh, "You expect me to believe that you did it?"

Kai kept his face even, hoping this wouldn't backfire on them, "Try me and find out."

The big man's face fell again, but this time into a sneer, "Alright then," I'll call your bluff!" Grunting slightly, the man hefted his huge axe off his back and swung it around toward Kai, but the Genin easily dodged it and the barrage of arrows that followed.

Acting quickly, Yue reached around her back and freed her over-sized shuriken while drawing a kunai with her free hand. With a surge of chakra, Yue started spinning the shuriken while she cupped her hand through the hole in the center. Then, with a grunt of effort, she flung the huge blade, controlling it with her chakra, and sent it flying around to behead the archers standing on top of the inn before catching it and replacing it in its holster once more.

The bandits just stood there, watching as the woman killed several of their comrades before crying out as one and charging. The battle had begun.

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Following the prompts from the Miraigan, Kai easily dodged another of the huge axe's swipes and leapt into the crowd of bandits that had surrounded them. Swiping his sword in an arc, Kai beheaded two of them in mid-air and rolled past a third before pivoting to cut across the back of his legs, sending him down to the ground before Kai pierced the back of his skull with his sword, ending his life as well.

"Stand still damn you!" The large axe-wielder shouted as he charged toward the boy, scattering his men as he went. Kai looked toward him before he began running away, toward a building that was marked as a bakery. He slowed down enough to allow the man to get close to him before jumping and running up the side of the building only to flip off and land behind the man, striking out with his blade as he passed and leaving a thin slice along the bandit's left shoulder as the man shifted slightly, which was the only thing that kept him from losing his arm.

"Damn it!" the brute shouted, continuing to chase after Kai as he once again charged away, toward the rest of the bandits who were gathering around Yue.

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This was almost too easy. It was clear to Yue that most of these bandits weren't used to fighting. They probably just let their boss's size and strength intimidate anyone they ran into. Because of that, they were pitifully simple to eliminate.

Yue flipped over a bandit who had tried to skewer her on his spear and drove a kunai into the back of his skull, drawing another one while still in the air. After landing, she lashed out with her two kunai, slashing another man across his knees and sending him screaming to the ground where she killed him as well.

Then, she heard the fearsome cry of the bandit's boss and looked up to see Kai dashing toward them with a small smile on his face as he lead the enraged man toward the men gathered around her, who seemed oblivious to his approach.

Yue jumped into the air and sheathed her kunai before pulling out a flash bomb and throwing it down, blinding the bandits below her and allowing Kai to move through them uninterrupted, beheading a few as he went while the hulking brute behind him bowled a few more over in his furious state.

Laughing at her student as he toyed with his opponent, Yue drew her kunai once more and proceeded to finish off the rest of her attackers, they still had work to do in the village, although she didn't think they would be staying too long afterward.

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Kai knew he shouldn't have been playing with the oversized bandit, but he just couldn't help it. Without his weights on, he felt so much happier, almost as if his troubles left with the extra weight. The fact that he was fast enough to avoid any attacks that the much slower man tried to throw at him may have had something to do with it as well.

Finally, Kai saw that Yue was finishing off the rest of the bandits and decided that he should finish off his opponent as well. Sighing, Kai stopped suddenly and sidestepped the charging man before taking a fighting stance once again.

"So," Genbu panted as he turned back toward the Shinobi, "have you…decided…to fight me…face to face…now?"

Kai gave the man an amused look, "You should have worked on your endurance as well as your muscles; maybe then you wouldn't have been so easily outmatched today."

The man growled, "I'll show you outmatched!" He charged toward Kai once more, quickly closing the distance between them, too enraged to notice the light glow that was emanating from Kai's blade as he charged it with chakra.

Kai sighed as the huge axe swept toward him from the side in an attempt to remove his head. Moving swiftly, Kai ducked, bringing his katana up to his shoulder, before plunging his blade into Genbu's stomach. In shock, Genbu lost his grip on his axe, which was sent flying into a shop where it drove itself into the doorframe.

"H…H…How?" Genbu stuttered as he felt his strength leaving him, "W…Why?"

"Because you tried to take my home," Kai said before rotating his katana and jerking it up, cleanly slicing through Genbu's torso and out of his shoulder, sending a shower of blood everywhere as the man's head jerked back before fell to the ground, very dead. Sighing, Kai cleaned off the blade on the dead giant's pants and re-sheathed it, promising himself a shower later to remove the rest of the blood coating his skin and clothes.

"You alright Kai," Yue said coming up behind him and taking in his bloodstained appearance.

"I'll be better once I've had a shower," Kai laughed lightly as he turned toward Yue.

"Uh…Kai," Yue said, suddenly a little uneasy.

"What is it," Kai said, looking around, expecting another attack.

"Uh…How did you manage that?" Yue said, pointing toward the dead man behind him, "How can a boy your age kill so efficiently. I'm sorry if this is a tender subject, but I guess it never really occurred to me that you would have no trouble with killing anyone."

Kai sighed and formed a quick chain of seals, slumping a little as his weights re-activated, "I think it has something to do with Hito and the memories he left with me. His influence made it easier for me to kill. In Wave, I don't remember killing those mercenaries, but there were two samurai I fought before I even got to the bridge. I killed them and barely felt anything at all. Since Hito had killed so many times, his experience I received through the memories may have made it easier for me to deal with the shock of my first real kills."

Yue nodded sadly, "I guess that makes sense, but…"

She was suddenly interrupted by a hesitant voice from the inn, "Is…is it over?"

Looking over toward the still open doors, Kai and Yue saw a girl with red hair who looked to be about seventeen peeking warily around the door frame, "A…Are they all dead?"

"Who are you?" Yue said, taking charge once more.

"I…I…I'm Mika," The girl stuttered, obviously terrified, "Did you kill the bandits?"

"That was us," Kai said, smiling at the frightened girl.

Mika stepped out, revealing that she was wearing an outfit similar to that of the bandits, only in much worse condition, "So…We're free?"

Yue was a little shocked, but nodded, "Yes."

Mika began crying tears of joy and turned back to the inn, "Genbu's dead! We're free again!" Kai watched as four more girls, all of whom were wearing the same thing as Mika, the youngest of which looked to be ten while Mika seemed to be the oldest, slowly emerged from the inn with looks of fear on their faces.

"Did Genbu capture you all?" Yue said, anger and concern written across her face.

Mika, seeming to be the only one who could speak, nodded, "Yes, we were all taken from our villages as payment to Genbu so he would leave our homes alone."

"That's terrible," Kai gasped, glancing toward the mutilated body of the giant with hatred.

"And what's worse," a girl who looked about twelve said tearfully, "is that they destroyed and raided our towns anyway. They…They…They killed everyone!" The girl broke into sobs and was comforted by once of the others.

Yue's face firmed up, "We need to talk, but first, let's get away from this bloody place. It's depressing." With that Yue turned and walked down one of the streets, while Kai followed close behind with the five girls trailing him, trying not to look at the scene of gore that used to be their captors.

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AN: Chapter one completed. I had to do a little backtracking to get the descriptions for my character's clothing when I read about Yue having a shuriken strapped across her back… A shuriken that I had forgotten about… I had to cover my tracks there a little, but other than that, no real trouble with getting back into the swing of things.

I tried to give enough background to remind my loyal readers, while still leaving enough blank spots to get others to read the prequel. I hope it wasn't too much for those of you who have already ready my first fic; I did my very best not to overdo it, but I still have my worries.

No Jutsu in this chapter, they didn't need to waste any extra chakra on a bunch of bandits.

Please review, I want to know who is still reading and if I have any new ones.