Naruto wakes up in the middle of the Leaf forest without a clue on what happened to him, and he soon learns of some confusing and shocking events that lead to this situation.

"Ugghh... Ugghh my head..." Naruto Uzumaki groans as he wakes up from the ground in the middle of the hidden Leaf forest, regaining his conciousness. He sits up, and looks around, noticing the forest was familiar to him.

Naruto holds his head, "... What happened?"

He looks at himself, and notices something different about him.

"What the-... Where'd the different clothes come from? And... why are they damaged? Where the hell was I!?"

Naruto was currently wearing an open orange vintage kimono robe with black flames on it. However, there was dirt and cuts on it, and was missing the right sleeve. He had bandages under the kimono, which also took damage, black hakama pants that were ripped from the bottom, and dirty all over. Lastly, he was wearing geta sandals. Naruto himself wasn't any better. His mouth was bleeding, his right arm had some cuts on it, and he had a mild left black eye.

He holds his side in pain. "Aghh... Seriously, what the hell happened!? I can't remember anything about what happened!" He slowly starts to get up from the ground, "I better go back to the village and see grandma Tsunade."

Naruto starts limping his way back to the village, while still holding his side.

"Dammit it hurts..."

What would normaly be a five-minute walk from his position to the village took him twenty minutes due to his condition. As he approached the village gate, Izumo and Kotetsu, who, as always, are on guard duty, notice the familiar teen coming their way.

Kotetsu asks, "Is that Naruto? He doesn't look too good."

Izumo says, "And what's up with the clothing?"

"We better go help him. He could had gotten ambushed."

"And suddenly wear such fancy clothing?"

"Let's just go help him. We can ask him later."

The two friends stand up from where they were sitting, and approach the blonde.

Naruto notices them coming his way, "Oh, hey guys."

Kotetsu asks, "Are you alright Naruto? Who did this to you?"

Izumo also asks, "And what's with your change of attire?"

Naruto answers, "Believe me, I have no idea myself. I was just on my way to the hospital and see grandma Tsunade, if she's not burried under all that paperwork at the Hokage tower."

Kotetsu asks, "You need us to escort you? You don't look like you're in the best condition."

Naruto answers, "Yeah I guess. Emm, this is gonna sound stupid but, how long ago was I gone?"

"Just about thirty minutes."

Izumo crosses his arms, "Is that really enough time to get ambushed and have a change of wardrobe?"

Annoyed, Kotetsu looks at his friend, "Will you stop it with his clothes!?" He looks back at Naruto, "Come on, Naruto, we're taking you to Lady Tsunade. And you're in luck, she just started her work there."

Naruto smiles, "Cool, thanks guys."

The three Leaf ninja proceed making their way to the Leaf hospital. It was a lengthy walk due to Naruto going at a snail's pace, but eventually they made it. Kotetsu and Izumo dropped off Naruto at the hospital, then two nurses came in and took him to a room.

Naruto was slowly being laid on the bed by one of the nurses, "Ugghhh... it hurts so much... When's grandma Tsunade gonna get here?"

The first nurse says, "She's currently taking care of a patient with Sakura, but we've informed her of your arrival. She should be here in at least ten minutes."

"Ten minutes!? Why can't she come here now!?"

The same nurse says, "She'll be here, don't worry. Just let her finish what she has to do."

The second nurse says "In the meanwhile," she lightly blushes, "You'll have to take off your robe and bandages to see if there are any serious inguries on your torso."

Naruto shrugs, "I guess I can do that. But could you help me? My arms are burning."

The second nurse nods, and slowly starts to take off his robe, starting with his left sleeve, as his right one seemed to had been ripped off. As it comes off, all that was left were his bandages, and since they took some heavy damage, the nurse grabs a pair of scissors, and cuts them open, being careful of not cutting Naruto. The bandages were off, and thrown into a trash can near by, but both nurses were left with blushes on their faces at what they saw.

Despite having a few cuts and bruises, Naruto's torso was very well defined and toned. He had a nice six pack, and great pecks. He was by no means buff or ripped, his muscles were still the same size, just a bit bigger and more defined. The nurses nearly had nosebleeds as they saw the knucklehead's defined torso.

Naruto notices the look on their faces, "What?"

The second nurse asks, "Na- Naruto? ... Where did-... all that come from?"

Naruto lightly tilts his head to the left, "All what?"

The nurse aims her hand at his torso, "Th- that!"

Naruto looks down, and sees the vast improvement on him. It almost made his jaw drop. He sits up, and looks around his body, only to be even more surprised.

"Woah! Wh-... when did I get so... so tough!?"

The first nurse asks, "Okay, now I REALLY need to know what happend with you, Naruto."

"I've been trying to figure that out for the last half an hour!" He crosses his arms, "I just want grandma Tsunade to get here so she can help me figure this out!"

Just then, the room door opens, and two people coming inside.

The oldest of the two says, "She's already here."

Naruto looks towards the new arrivals, "Grandma Tsunade! Sakura! You're finally here!"

Tsunade walks up to him, stops in front his bed, and looks at the two nurses, "You two can go back to your duties. I'll take care of him."

Both nurses nod, and make their way out of the room, but not before they took one last look at the new and improved Naruto. They walk away gliggling and blushing.

Tsunade speaks, "I got done with my patient early, so I thought I'd come see you for whatever problem you had. And I have to say, you look... different..."

Sakura speaks, "What happened to you, Naruto!?"

"I have no idea! I woke up in the middle of the forest in different clothing and all banged up, and I don't know why!"

Tsunade asks, "What was the last thing you remembered?"

"I was going out to test out the chakra blade you gave me but-... wait..." He looks all around him to see if he had his chakra blade on him.

Tsunade looks at him in question, "The 'chakra blade'?"

Despite his arms still burning, Naruto slowly grabs his robe, and looks through it, "Yeah, you know, that blade you gave me to find and fight whatshisface. But I can't find it!" He looks at Sakura in fear, and puts his hands up in front of him to defend himself, "Please don't hit me Sakura!"

Sakura was just as confused as lady Hokage, "Naruto what are you blabbering about?"

When he noticed Sakura wasn't going to strike him, he lowers his hands, "What do you mean 'what am I blabbering about'? Don't you two remember? We're supposed to go on that mission in an hour to the land of wind and find that guy!"

Tsunade says, "Naruto, I never assigned a mission to the land of wind."

Sakura says, "Maybe it's just one of those crazy dreams of yours. Or whoever attacked you must had hit you harder than you thought."

Naruto argues, "I'm telling you! We're supposed to go on a mission to find that guy!"

Tsunade asks, "And what's the name of this "guy"?

"Em... Uhh..." He scratches his right cheek, "I can't remember his name... But-"

Tsunade interrupts, "If you can't at least remember the name of the man you're talking about, then what you're saying about this "mission" is irrelevant."

"You have to believe me, grandma Tsunade! This guy is dangerous, and-"

Tsunade interrupts him again, "Naruto, forget about this man, and tell us the story of how you got attacked."

Naruto sighs in defeat, "Fine... Where was I? Umm..."

Tsunade reminds him, "The last thing you remember before you were attacked."

"Oh yeah! I was going to test out the chakra blade for today's mission, but suddenly, these puppet things surrounded me, and knocked me unconsious. I couldn't fight them off because they caught me by surprise, and it was too late to fight back. The next thing I remembered was waking up in the same spot I was ambushed, wearing these strange clothes. It doesn't make any sense if you ask me."

Tsunade asks, "Puppets?"

"Well, they looked like puppets to me."

Sakura was in thoughts, "This story of him is not making any sort of sense at all."

"Hmmm..."The Hokage looks at the blonde teen's torso and arms, "Naruto? Was your body always this... built?"

"No not really. I just found out about this sudden improvement today."

Sakura was suspicious, "Hm. You come into the village all beat up, in different clothing, a story that make zero sense, and with a sudden improvement on your body. You could be an impostor!"

"What!? Me an impostor!? Come on Sakura!"

Sakura crosses her arms, "And not only that, but you look a year older than the Naruto I know!"

"Sakura you have to-... wait, what?"

The pink haired girl puts her hand on her forehead, "You might be even stupider than Naruto..."

Tsunade says, "Sakura's right."

"Yeah even Naruto isn't this stupid to not notice his appearance."

" No not that, I mean," She looks at the whiskered teen, "Naruto, you look at least a year older."

"I... I do? I haven't looked in a mirror yet to notice."

Tsunade takes out a mirror from a desk next to her, and hands it to the teen, "Have a look."

Naruto grabs the mirror, and takes a good look at himself. He did indeed seem slightly older. His eyes were somewhat sharper and more defined, his cheeks no longer had baby fat on them, his hair was slightly longer, and had a light amount of sideburns on both sides of his head.

Naruto was caught by surprise, "Woah... I do look a bit older..."

Sakura crosses her arms, "Yeah we can see that, but I still don't believe you're the real Naruto if you don't give us the proper information."

Naruto begs, "Sakura, I don't know what happened, and I really wanna know myself!"

The pink head looks at her master again, "What do you think, Lady Tsunade?"

Tsunade answers, "Hmm... In a world full of chakra, jutsu, and all sorts of nearly-endless abilities and posibilities, anything could had happened. Your story makes little sense, and we have no idea who is this man you're talking about, or what this chakra blade is. But let's not jump into conclusions just yet. Naruto, you will stay here in the hospital until your wounds are healed."

Naruto was unamused, "Yeah I kind of figured."

"If anything, the fox will help speed up the healing of your wounds, but I'll come see you once in a while to see your process. Now get some rest. You'll need it."

Naruto asks, "Wait, what's going to happen to today's if I'm going to stay here at the hospital?"

Sakura nearly yells at him, "Didn't you hear!? There's no such mission today! Stop confusing your dreams with reality!"

"But- It wasn't-..."

Tsunade ends the conversation by saying, "Get your rest, Naruto. We'll see you later."

Lady Hokage turns towards the door, with Sakura following her. The door is shut closed, and only Naruto was in the room, in deep thought.

He lays his back against the bed, "Why don't they believe me? And I don't know why I suddenly got older and how my body changed. Not only that, but sakura doesn't even believe I'm the real Naruto..." He lays on his right side, "What's going on here...?"

As he wonders that, his eyes close, and he slowly drifts to sleep. Outside the room, Sakura starts talking to Tsunade about the situation.

Sakura says, "Lady Tsunade, you don't believe what this Naruto is saying, do you? Who is this man and what's this blade he's talking about? And I don't believe he's the real Naruto. How did he go through such a drastic change in under an hour?"

"We can't just say he's an impostor without knowing what really happened. I don't entirely believe his story either, but anything is possible in today's ninja world. After he recovers, we'll do some investigating. But in the meanwhile, don't do anything that could make you look bad in the end."

Sakura nods, "Yes lady Tsunade."

Tsunade lightly smiles, "Good. You may go back to your duties."

With that, both medics part their ways, and head to different sides of the hospital.

The day passes by, and some of the Leaf peers knew about his stay at the hospital, so he got visits from Tenten and Lee, and Shizune, the day he arrived to the hospital. Ino only passed by to take notes on his recovery. All of them asked the same questions, which Naruto started to grow tired of, especially when having to tell them the same "I don't know" answer, and them ending up not believing his story. But he did really appreciate their company. He wouldn't want to spent the day alone in bed.

The next day, Naruto had finished recovering by the time it was morning. The scratches were gone, his black eye had returned to its normal skin color, and his bruises were no longer there. But he was not allowed to leave until the nurses made sure he was completely patched. Later in the morning, Kiba, Chouji, and Shikamaru came by together to visit their whiskered friend, only to ask him the same repatitive questions. Shikamaru however, gained an interesting theory on Naruto's sudden change, but he didn't talk about it with him or anybody else until he completely put the theory together. And even if he did, there would still be missing pieces, such as why it happened, and who made it happened.

The afternoon had arrived, and the three peers had left the teen alone to do their own bussinesses. Naruto was laying his chin down against the open window, with a really bored look on his face. Sakura, Sai, and captain Yamato are probably already on their mission, and he's there in the hospital, not able to leave until he gets the approval to do so.

"I don't know what's taking these people so long to let me leave. I'm feeling much better now, and I really wanna go out for some ramen too." He sighs, "I bet the other leaf peers are having fun hanging out together... They should be at the training ground by now."

He thinks about the sudden improvement and aging of his body, and what could had caused it. Naruto is not familiar with any sort of jutsu that permanently buffs up a person's body or age, but even if he did, why would these attackers want to improve his body, and forward his age by a year? It's all still confusing to him, too confusing to even come up with a theory. He gets up from his spot, and heads to the bathroom in the room. When he enters, he takes off his hospital gown to look at his body. Again, he was not buff or had big muscles, they were toned and much more defined than before. Not to mention his six pack and pecks. He turns his body to see his left side, and then his right side. Then he grins, and starts flexing, and making random strong guy poses, including the firepower pose.

He laughs, "Man, now that I have this body, I'm gonna do all I can to keep it!"

Though he still wonders how he gained this update, he was happy with such an improvement. He puts on his hospital gown, and exits the bathroom, just when Tsunade walks in, holding a bag.

"Oh hey grandma Tsunade."

"Hey Naruto. Using that dumb surname as usual. I noticed you were just putting on your gown." She smirks, "I hope you weren't doing some dumb flexing with your new body."

Naruto blushes out of embarrassment, "What!? No! That's stupid! Why would I do that?"

Tsunade lightly laughs, and Naruto pouts, "Anyway, am I finally going to leave now?"

"Yes, the doctors said your wounds have been completely healed, and you are free to leave."

Naruto grins happily, "Great! Finally I get to leave for some ramen!"

Naruto starts walking out the door, and passes by Tsunade, "Well I'll see you later grandma! Gotta stuff my belly with some Ichiraku!"

When Naruto starts walking through the hospital hallway, Tsunade calls him, "Naruto! You're not going to walk around the village in just your hospital gown and underwear, right!?"

Then the blonde stops, turns around, and rubs the back of his head, "Heheheh... sorry, I got too excited to leave..."

The Hokage toses the bag she was holding to the teen, "Here, I asked Shizune to go to your house and pick out your clothes. Your little frog wallet is in there too, since I figured you were going to Ichiraku's. Now put them on before you continue making a fool of yourself."

Naruto chuckles, "Heheh, right..."

He goes back into the room, and Tsunade leaves to do her own work. A few minutes later, Naruto comes out wearing his traditional orange and black outfit, and with his frog wallet in his pocket. The only thing he was missing was his black headband.

He pats his chest with his hands, "It's good to be back inside my favorite clothes! Now to go get me some ramen!"

With that, he marches his way down the hallway, and makes his way out of the building.

He was already walking in the main street of the village, but he goes back to his thoughts, "Hmm... I don't know why but... I feel like I've been gone for a while..." He looks at the other villagers walking by him, "Like a year or so..."

He got a quick thought as to why he's a year older, and why he feels like he was gone for a year, but the thought didn't stay on his mind long enough for him to work out a theory. All he wanted right now was Ichiraku ramen to get away from all the confusion. He eventually found his destination, and entered his all-time favorite place. He was happy to see old man Teuchi cooking the delicious noodles.

When Teuchi hears someone come in, he turns around, "Naruto! It's good to see-"

The Ichiraku notices the sudden facial change on Naruto, and was about to question it, but Naruto speaks before he had the time to ask, "Please don't ask why I suddenly look a year old. I'll just have the usual."

"Emm... coming right up, Naruto."

Naruto takes a seat, and waits for his meal to be prepared. As Teuchi makes the teen's food, he asks, "so, I heard you were at the hospital. What happened?"

Naruto rests his chin against his right hand, unamused, "I really don't feel like explaining the whole thing. I just want something to eat."

Just when he thought that ramen would take everything off his mind, all those thoughts came back to his head again.

He says in his thoughts, "Damn it... Everything that's going on with me isn't letting me think straight... Maybe old man Ichiraku isn't the best person I can talk to about this... And even though I told my leaf friends everything I needed to tell them, I still feel like I need to talk to them again... Maybe they'll tell me more of their thoughts..." "He speaks, "Hey old man? Can you make that to go? I just realized I have somewhere to be right now."

Old man Ichiraku was almost finished prepairing Naruto's meal, and says kindly, "Sure Naruto. Whatever is best for you."

About half a minute passes, and Teuchi had bagged Naruto's ramen inside a sealed cup, and in a bag, then hands it to Naruto.

Naruto grabs the bag, some chopsticks, and pays for the food, "Thanks, old man. I'll see you around!"

Teuchi smiles, and crosses his arms, "Take care of yourself, Naruto!"

Naruto waves goodbye to the owner of the ramen stand, then begins making his way out of the village, and towards the training ground. He was still trying to connect the dots about his situation, but everything was too confusing at the moment. He cursed himself for not having an IQ high enough to solve at least two or three parts of the situation, so right now, he admittedly needed help from others. A few minutes passed, and he made it to the main gate of the village. Kotetsu and Izumo notice their fellow blonde walking.

Kotetsu calls him, "Hey Naruto!"

Naruto turns to them, "Oh hey guys!"

Izumo asks, "How are you feeling? You look good as new."

Naruto answers, "I feel a whole lot better now! I was just going to give a visit to my friend at the training field. I need to get going, so I'll see you later!"

With that, Naruto starts running towards his location, and being careful not to spill or drop his ramen. However, he failed to noticed there was someone approaching the village.

After just a minute run, Naruto arrives towards the training field, and he was happy to see that all of his friends were there. At this time of this specific day in the week, the leaf peers agreed to train together in this specific training area, whenever they were not on missions, or had to handle personal/family bussinesses, or jobs. Sakura was an example of this, as she was absent, since this week, her shift at the hospital was around this time.

Whenever they were there, they would either be practicing in taijutsu, kenjutsu (In Tenten's case), having a casual chat, or just relaxing. Hinata and Ino were having a taijutsu spar, Kiba and Akamaru were having a race around the forest, Guy's three students were arguing on what their training could be while Chouji was waiting for them to come to an agreement so that he could train with one of them (Thankfully their argument was not heated), and others were doing what they liked to do. Like Shino interracting with his insects, Shikamaru napping (Do we really need to say it), and Sai drawing. To be more specific, he was drawing a more humorous and cartoonish version of Team Guy's disagreement.

Oddly enough, Hinata, Ino, Kiba, and Akamaru were the only ones who were really training. Team Guy's disagreement most likely lead to Shino, Shikamaru, and Sai to do their own stuff while they waited for the argument to end.

Tenten argues, "I'm serious! You guys need to do some more training with weapons! Lee, you only follow Guy-sensei's outrageous training sessions, and Neji, you only want to improve your defenses! Try something different for once, both of you!"

Lee counters, "We should always follow Guy-sensei's training sessions! They have made us faster, stronger, and much more suitable for hand-to-hand combat!"

Tenten puts her hands on her hips, "You mean it's made YOU more suitable for that!"

Chouji asks, "Can't you guys just agree to something quickly? If you won't agree to the training, or how I'm going to help, I'm gonna go get some barbeque."

Neji shares his thoughts about the training, as calmly as always, "Tenten is right, Lee. We have already received intense training from Guy-sensei, which has you satisfied. It's only fair if we do training that suits me and Tenten."

Tenten responds, "Thank you, Neji. Something that'll get through Lee's thick head. "She looks at Lee, "I swear, Lee. your head is probably just as thick as Naruto's."

"I heard that!"

All four of them turn to where the voice came from, and it was Naruto coming in through the training ground's gate. Hinata also heard him, and stopped sparing with Ino for a second to look at the blonde teen.

"N- Naruto, He's-"

She however, accidentally got a punch to her face from Ino, who couldn't stop her punch in time. Hinata ends up falling on the floor with her eyes spinning around in circles.

Ino gasps, "Hinata! I'm so sorry I'm so sorry!"

She kneels down on the floor to help her Hyuuga friend. But back with Naruto...

Lee shouts, "Naruto! I am glad you are here! Join us in one of the most youthful training sessions that Guy-sensei has taught us!"

Tenten looks back at Lee, "Lee, we already agreed that we weren't going to do that training!"

Naruto shrugs, "I just wanted to talk for a while, and eat the meal I brought from Ichiraku's."

Tenten asks, "Is it about this crazy vision you had?"

Naruto argues, "I'm telling you! It's not a vision, a dream, my imagination, or anything like that! I know it's real!"

Ino and Hinata, who was holding her right cheek, walk up to the group, and Neji asks, "What do you mean?"

Tenten explains, "Naruto told us about this supposed story he went through."

Naruto argues again, "What do you mean "supposed"!? It was REAL! I know it was!" His last sentence sounded in defeat.

Ino asks, "You mean that fake story you made up!?"

Naruto holds his head with both hands, almost dropping his bag of ramen, "Grrrr! It's NOT fake!"

Hinata says in her mind, "Naruto? ... He really does look a year older..." She asks, "What story do you mean, Naruto?"

Naruto removes his hands from his head, "It's... long and confusing. Even I don't have all the details to it."

Chouji and Neji notice there was someone approaching them.

Chouji says, "Guys, I don't want to interrupt, but I think we have company."

The group looks towards the direction of the training ground's gate, and Naruto turns around to see who was approaching them. When he sees who it was, he lightly gasps. It was a beautiful girl, about Naruto's age. Her skin was light, her hair was dark-red, tied into a pony tail, and two long bangs on each side of her front, which were tied onto her ponytail. She was wearing a dark-purple and black dress, top and skirt separated, light-brown low heels.

Naruto was in thoughts once more, "She-... she looks familiar... where have I seen her?"

The girl holds her hands in front of her, speaks, "I'm very sorry for interrupting your group activity, but..." She says shyly, "I'm looking for... Naruto Uzumaki."

The group behind Naruto look at each other, wondering why this girl was asking for the blonde.

Naruto smiles, "That's me." He takes two steps towards her, "So, how can I help? You don't look like you're from the Leaf village."

The girl's eyes widen in happiness as she sees the blonde introduce himself, and holds her hands in front of her chest "A-... Are you... Are you really... Naruto Uzumaki? THE Naruto Uzumaki?"

Naruto shrugs, "Well I don't know about THE, there's probably hundreds of people around the world that have the same name I do, but imy/i name is Naruto Uzumaki, so I hope that helps." He grins.

The girl keeps staring at him in happiness, which was confusing Naruto. Then, her eyes shed tears, and immediatelly hugs the whiskered teen. It only confuses Naruto even more. The girl raised the curiosity of the group behind Naruto, now she had their attention.

Naruto awkweardly says, "Uhhh... Are you alright?"

The red-haired girl continues shedding joyful tears, and hugs him for a few seconds. While the girl was happily in her own world by hugging Naruto, for him and the group behind him, it was only a few seconds of awkward silence.

The girl, still in tears, raises her head towards Naruto, and smiles, "I've been wanting to meet you for so long... I've been on this quest to find you for a while... and I finally found you...

.

.

.

.

.

... Father..."