The Moon's Eye Plan has succeeded, the Jinchuriki have been captured, Uzumaki Naruto has been captured. He survived extraction and is now hidden away, being tortured. The world is a delusion, trapped within an illusion, his illusion, the illusion of peace. Of love. Now, just one question remains.
"What is your name?"
+==ooOOOoo==+
"Naruto hurry up, you'll be late for school!"
"Sure thing mom!" Namikaze Naruto called back to his mother Kushina, as he climbed out of his bed and began to prepare for the day ahead. The teen groggily moved his closet and pulled on the uniform of Kohona Academy, a simple white collared shirt and black slacks. He pulled them on before making his way out of his bedroom and into the hallway, moving to the restroom to make use of its facilities.
Soon after, Naruto made his way down to the kitchen where Kushina was sitting evenly at the table eating the breakfast that she prepared herself. The two Namikaze said nothing as they ate in a genial silence, both intent on enjoying the food in front of them.
Soon Kushina broke the silence. "So, how are you liking the classes you're taking honey? Are they too your liking?"
Naruto couldn't help but shrug, an action that didn't draw the attention of his mother. "Yeah, its all right, just...boring." The blonde shrugged again as he tried to voice his feelings. "It just seems so...I dunno, pointless I guess."
"What are you talking about sweetie? School is important."
Naruto just sighed as he looked into is plate on more time, letting silence fill the room once more. He understood what his mother meant of course, school was really important for the future. On a logical level Naruto understood that, but that didn't mean he really agreed with it.
Maybe it was just because adulthood felt so far off to the blonde, some sort of distant future. Nothing in life ever seemed to change, the same routine day in and day out. Get up, go to school, joke with his friends during class. Then came lunch, finish off the rest of his school day, hang out after school until 9 pm, then come home.
After getting home, Naruto would greet his father and then his mother. Both of them will answer with a 'hey tiger, how's life hittin' ya?' and 'its good to see you home honey' respectively. Naruto will respond with a 'like a kitten Mufasa' and 'it's great to see you too ma,' to their queries.
They will then sit down to dinner, which will be a meal that they would all love no matter what. All three of them will be so focused on eating that they'll slip into a silence like the one Naruto was currently in right now. Of course, attempts to clear the silence will be made. Kushina will ask Minato about his work and he'll reply with a 'its fine' and won't say any more on the subject.
Then Minato will ask about how Naruto's day went. The younger blonde will answer with something along the lines of 'same old, same old' and he'll receive a nod in return. After Naruto was supposed to asked his mother about what happened to her during the day.
But he wouldn't, and the conversation will become stilted and then would stop. As though both parents lost their train of thought and spent the entire rest of the dinner to find it. If Naruto asked something else other than what happened during the day he'll get half answers or no answers depending on his question.
Life, for Namikaze Naruto was just too normal.
No, that isn't right. Naruto thought to himself as he speared his pancakes with his fork. Life wasn't too boring, he actually learned a lot and had a lot of fun during his day. Then after that he came home for nice quality family time. Life wasn't too boring, too much went on for that.
Life was just too structured, too perfect, too...planned.
Naruto never really wanted for much. He had great friends, did pretty well in school, and had a family that most people would die for. His mother and father cared for him a great deal, the were well off and never had a problem of getting Naruto what he needed.
But for all of the comforts that Naruto had provided for him by his parents, he never truly felt comfortable. The blonde never really felt at home in his own home, his things never felt like they truly belonged to him; even if they had his name on them.
Naruto sighed once more. Why was life so pointless?
+==ooOOOoo==+
The stone room was horrible dirty, with blood and grim caked to its four was like paint of a second skin, but even the wall seemed clean in comparison to the floor. The floor was covered in fresh blood, and an abundance of human waste.
In the middle of all this was a figure held into a standing-like position by a chain that was wrapped around his neck and connected to the ceiling of the room. The young man was covered in welts, both old and new as well as a thick layer of bright red blood and brown crusted blood.
His arms were held over his head by the chain as his body hung limply, showing just how deep into unconsciousness he truly was. His blonde hair covered head fell forward with an unseeing expression on its face, his blue eyes almost colorless as they stared into the floor despondently.
This was Uzumaki Naruto, a young man more dead than alive.
The unholy silence that hung about in the room was soon penetrated by the sound of footsteps as someone else entered the torture chamber. His long black hair swung slightly with his movements and he steeped carefully, making sure his feet did not steep into puddle of blood or waste.
As the man reached the prisoner he studied him for a moment, before one of his pale hands reached forward and rubbed dry blood from the blonde's face with the cuff of his long sleeved white shirt. His black eyes stared into unseeing blue one for a moment before they seemed to harden in resolve.
The newcomer lifted the blonde's head and turned it so his ear was turned towards him, the newcomer lowered himself so he could begin to whisper into the ear of the person that he used to hate most in the world. But even before that hatred, there was friendship.
"Remember who you are..." The man muttered harshly, attempting to get through the Genjutsu induced coma. "Remember who you are, what you stood for. Your dream. Me, Team 7, Kakashi, Sakura, Iruka. Remember who you are..."
Sadness warred with anger on the man's face as none of his words had any effect, still he carried on. He could not, would not fail this task. Too many people counted on him being able to accomplish what he had came here for.
"Sasuke, me. Remember me, dobe. Your promise, home. Remember Konoha, remember Tsunade. Jiraiya." Sasuke began to growl as he continued, his anxiousness converting into anger as he carried on without seeing any changes in his friend.
"Goddammit Naruto. Do you even remember who you are? What you stood for? What you represent to everyone? Dammit Naruto, can you even remember your name! Uzumaki Naruto. Uzumaki Naruto!"
+==ooOOOoo==+
Namikaze Naruto frowned a little as he scratched the back of his head, breakfast had just finished and he was helping out by clearing the table. A small thought had just flicked across his mind for a second as he realized something that he didn't know before.
"Hey, ma? Can I ask you something?"
Kushina stopped in her washing of the dishes as she turned to her son, "Of course sweetie. You can ask me anything, you know that."
Naruto nodded, a sheepish smile on his face as he began talking. "Umm, I know that this may seem random, but I just realized something...I don't know your maiden name." The blonde looked away, embarrassed at the odd look his mother gave him. "Umm...what is it?"
Kushina shook her head as she looked at a clock that rested on the kitchen wall. "Honey, we'll have to talk about this later, you're five minutes late already." The housewife began drying her hands on a green towel as she gave her son a look. "You're gong to have to ask me later."
"What? No I still have time..." Naruto's face scrunched as he looked at the clock, the blonde could have sworn that it had said he still had ten minutes to go a couple seconds before. Now it was saying he was five minutes behind schedule for school.
Which was impossible. Naruto had looked at the clock right before he had asked his mother about her maiden name. He had only asked because he knew that there was enough time before school to have a small discussion like that. How had time gone so fast.
But, Naruto could dwell on it as his mother all but forced him out of the house. She grabbed his school bag and jostled him out the door quicker then he thought was humanly possible. "You have to hurry up sweetie. You can't be too late!"
"Ugh, sure. Whatever..." Naruto muttered as he moved down the front steps of their home, fully aware of eyes that were drilling into his back. The blonde dutifully picked up speed as he jumped over the white picket fence surrounding his family's property.
Waving lazily at his mother, Naruto sprinted down the street of his neighborhood. Ignoring the calls for him to slow down from old lady Koharu and old man Homura. But he did wave happily back at old man Sarutobi as he saw the man dealing with his grandson Konohamaru on the porch of their house.
A couple blocks later the blonde was joined by an old friend of his Kiba. Both boys high-fived each other as they met, but neither stopped running even as they began top talk.
"Man, Kiba! You're late too?" Naruto breathed out as he felt Kiba fall into step beside him.
The Inuzuka nodded as he picked up speed, and smiled as he felt his friend match it. "Yeah, last night I was up all night with my mom. I was trying to get her to get me a dog, but I don't think she will..."
"Don't give up yet dude! Show her how serious about it you are, by, I dunno...telling her what you'd name him."
Kiba scoffed at the suggestion. "Yeah..." began the Inuzuka, his voice dripping with sarcasm as he spoke. "That'll do it. Naming the dog will help. What name would I say anyway? Sparky? Bowser?"
Naruto shook his head quickly even as he felt himself begin to huff at the because of the strain that he was feeling because of the run. "No, no. I has to be different unique. How...about...Akamaru? That's cool."
"Ha! Yeah right I'd pick that. Where you think of a name that dumb anyway?"
Naruto ignored his friend as he focused more on keeping his feet moving. The blonde couldn't even began to guess where he had picked that name up, it had just come to him. Quiet suddenly too, the name had caught in his throat right when he considered another.
Naruto just shook his head as Konoha Academy came into view.
+==ooOOOoo==+
Uchiha Sasuke was all but panicking as he began shaking his best friend, causing the blonde man's head to flop forward and backward lifelessly. But no matter how much physical punishment he inflicted upon the blonde (though it wasn't very much, Naruto was hurt already) the idiot refused to open his eyes.
"Koharu, Homura, Sarutobi, Konohamaru, Kiba, Akamaru!" Sasuke had begun to just fling names out there, hoping that one would get some kind of result. "Shikamaru! C'mon dobe! C'mon! Tsunade! remember her! The lady in charge? Gaara!"
"Gaara! Remember him! He died for you Naruto! He died for you! Remember that! You were his best friend, he modeled his entire life after your ideals!"
But nothing changed, Naruto was still unresponsive. Sasuke blinked rapidly as he gazed at the scene in pure hopelessness. This whole thing was wrong, this life is wrong. Naruto should never be so still, or hurt, or weak.
He was always full of life, so bright and happy that he was almost hard to look at sometimes. But now, now the blonde was hard to look at. Naruto had gone from being too full of life to having none at all, the shinobi was just a former shell of himself.
Sasuke sighed. Nothing had changed.
+==ooOOOoo==+
Naruto split up from Kiba as he made his way to his Art class, still hurrying so he could make it in without being late. Kakashi, his teacher was usually late as well, so it gave him some time to get there without getting in any kind of trouble.
Soon enough, Naruto made it through the door to the class to crash into his seat beside Nara Shikamaru, the laziest person the blonde had ever meet. He was even worse then their teacher, which was saying a lot.
"Uggh, Naruto..." Whined Shikamaru. "Did you have to just barge in here like that? I was trying to sleep here..."
The blonde could help but grin at his friend's irate expression. "Well, did you want me to be late? If I'm late, I'll get a bad grade." Naruto's face turned jokingly horrified, an expression that caused Shikamaru to roll his eyes. "You want me to fail! How could you! I thought we were friends!"
"Dammit man..." Mutter the genius as his head fell into his hands. "You're such a dobe..."
"'Dobe'? Damn Shikamaru, you've never called me that before..." Naruto gave his friend a weird look, and received one in return. Shikamaru looked as confused as he felt, since it was true, the Nara had never called his friend that before.
To a regular person's life, something as little as this would've gone unnoticed by everyone, but to Naruto this wasn't really small. Just like with ever other part of his life, his conversation with Shikamaru was part of the routine.
The Nara was supposed to say 'we are friends, but that doesn't mean you have to be so damn loud' or just 'troublesome'. Never, never had Shikamaru said 'dobe', it was something completely different. Naruto never even heard the genius say the word before, forget say it right now.
It didn't help matters that Shikamaru looked as bewildered as he did. The Nara had a really odd look on his face before it seemed to be wiped of rather quickly. Then the genius just settled his head back onto the desk, and let a silence settle between him and Naruto.
The blonde frowned, this is just like what happen at home. Whenever he (or in this situation, Shikamaru) broke the routine, they got a really odd look on their faces before becoming quiet. He probably wouldn't speak for a while...
In fact, Naruto could help but notice how silent the whole room had gotten, for a class of at least twenty students. They didn't stop talking (well, not all of them) but they really didn't sound like a class full of people. They also spoke in what looked like a rhythm, the blonde couldn't help but notice how no one really interrupted someone else. Everyone took turns in their conversations.
Which was really odd in itself. It all looked so mechanical, so perfect, orderly...too orderly for a room full of what was supposed to be hormone controlled teenagers. But before Naruto could dwell on this too much, an adult walked into the classroom.
Naruto had been expecting Kakashi, but he had gotten a real surprise in seeing Tsunade of all people strolling to the front of the class. Tsunade was the principal of the school, so it probably wasn't a good thing that she was here. The lady in charge didn't come into a class for nothing.
Her movements didn't look so hot either, she was walking very stiff-like. As if she had just injured both of her knees but decided to keep walking despite the pain. But with a quick glance to her face, Naruto could conform that the head woman wasn't in any pain. In fact, her face didn't have any expression at all.
The blonde could only shake his head in wonderment as Tsunade began to speak to the assembled class. "Well, brats. Your teacher is out for today he is...not in. I will be teaching in his place..."
Naruto gulped. Everything had changed.
+==ooOOOoo==+
"Now, now Sasuke. You know that won't work." A smooth voice answered, causing Sasuke to whirl around to face the speaker; his ancestor Uchiha Madara. The man was equal to Sasuke in height, but covered himself completely in a black robe.
"Shut up you bastard..." Sasuke snarled at the man he once worked with, the man that he used to follow around like some sort of lapdog.
"Come now Sasuke. Is that anyway to treat family?" Although no smirk could be seen because of the man's full face mask, it easily reverberated though his words. "Why the hostility Sasuke?" Madara asked as he began to move forward. "Don't you miss the old times? You killing Itachi, you killing Danzo, me killing his lackeys..."
"You trying to kill me..."
"Oh, please. You really didn't think that I was going to huh? It was a test. One that you passed too, I must say, I taught you well."
Anger shone on Sasuke's face as he glared at the so called peacemaker in front of him as he drew his sword from its sheath at his side. "Yeah right. You only call it that because I got away. You also didn't teach me anything, I stole it all from you."
Madara nodded as his voice took on a tone of false heartbreak. "I know Sasuke! I can't believe you did that, you even took my disappearing trick with you!" Then in a flash Madara's voice deepened and took on a tone that revealed nothing as he questioned the man in front of him. "Is that how you got here Sasuke? Got passed my guards?"
Sasuke's face revealed nothing as he glared silently at the monster in front of him, but Madara didn't seem to notice as he began speaking once more.
"I know this isn't the first time you've been here Sasuke. You've tried...what, four times already to wake Naruto up?" The aged Uchiha enjoyed to flinch that ran across his clansman's face. "He isn't waking up Sasuke, you're really only making things worse. Because after you come here without visiting me I get jealous. So, to get over it a just decide to rearranged your old friend's face. I think 'maybe if he's nice and ugly Sasuke won't visit him'. But it never works..."
"YOU SICK FREAK!" Sasuke snarled at Madara, he would have killed the man if he had the ability. But Sasuke wasn't a fool anymore, he knew just how much more Madara outclassed him. Fighting the man would be suicide.
"Shhh Sasuke. You'll wake up Naruto." The elder Uchiha laughed at his own little joke, he knew that nothing could wake the blonde up. "But really, what are you trying to accomplish? Get your old team back together? Not going to happen, especially after what I did to Kakashi..."
+==ooOOOoo==+
"Now, now, Naruto. You know that would work, it never works."
"I know Ino, but I always try to wake Shikamaru up when school ends." Which was true, Naruto always attempting to wake up Shikamaru at the end of the day, but he never succeeds. The first time he tried he had thought the Nara had died because he wouldn't wake up no matter what.
Ino scratched her head. "You do? I..guess you do. But come on, we need to go!" The girl grabbed her fellow blonde and dragged him out of the room, leaving their sleeping friend behind. Then the two of them fell into step as they walked down the halls of their school.
Naruto was starting to feel better already. Things had settled down back to normal after the very weird first period. No more teacher were gone, and none of his friends were acting weird and sluggish like Tsunade did when she entered the room. It was a comfortable day, just like any other.
Of course, Naruto only spoke or asked about safe topics, things that he and his friends talked about everyday. The same inside jokes and goofs that they all knew and repeated to each other like some kind of secret handshake.
Soon the duo was out of the school and was joined by Gaara, adding another member to the conversation. Like always, Gaara waited for them right outside the main door of the school, with his schoolbag slung over only one of his shoulders.
"Soo, you two wanna go get some pizza?" Again like normal, Gaara would ask this. Though on some days he asked if the wanted to get some hamburgers. Once he asked for Chinese. That day freaked Naruto out.
"Uhh, yeah, su-" The words choked in the blonde's throat as he turned to answer his friend, for a second Naruto could have sworn Gaara had a tattoo on his forehead and thick inky black bags under his eyes. But they were gone the minute he blinked in shock.
So now both of his friends stared at him in confusion, before going that strange sort of quiet that everyone else does when a conversation falls out. Naruto was too freaked out to attempt to change anything, so they continued on in silence.
But soon Gaara spoke again, and his voice didn't sound so damn dead. "Naruto...you know that, your my...best..friend, right?"
Naruto looked on in surprise, but not disdain. The Namikaze considered Gaara one of his good friends too, but it was unlike the redhead to be so open. Well, not open exactly, just so touchy feely. The blonde would've answered back with a happy 'yes' if a savage gash didn't just tear itself on Gaara's chest.
But Gaara didn't even scream as it happen, he just looked dumbly at the blood before a sad, tired smile overcame his features. But Naruto started screaming bloody murder. "HOLY SHIT! GAARA! GAARA!"
The redhead toppled over, causing Naruto to move forward and catch him before he fell, the blonde ignored the redhead as he stared onto his face. Watching as more and more cuts appeared on it, causing Gaara to become red with blood even though he had begun to pale.
"GAARA! GAARA HOLD ON MAN! INO WHAT ARE DOING! GET HELP YOU MORON!" But the female just began walking away, talking and chatting as though he and Gaara were still right beside her. Laughing as invisible versions of her two friends make jokes as they made way to the hamburger joint.
Gaara reached forward to grab his friend's shoulder shakily, even as Naruto watched the light dim in his eyes. "I...am g-glad. That I died saving y-you." A weak smile, so like the one Naruto always used slowly came upon Gaara's face. "You...were my first friend. The only one...that..underst...ood...me."
"What? Gaara what are you talking about?" The blonde stopped panicking as tears sprang to his eyes and ran down his non-whiskered cheeks. "W-what? Gaara you aren't gonna die! And you have so many other friends, we only met here in Kohona..." Naruto head to pause as a huge headache began to over taken his mind. "G-Gaara!"
The blonde was so distraught he didn't even notice that he wasn't in Kohona anymore, that the pavement underneath his feet had turned into blackened and burnt grass. He didn't either of their clothes change from their school uniform into a battle one.
Gaara didn't seem to notice either, as he kept on talking."Don't...let Mada...ra...get...you..." The redhead let out a wet, hacking cough that chilled Naruto to the bone. "...Take...c-care...my...sib...lings."
With those final words Gaara died.
And Naruto's world exploded.
+==ooOOOoo==+
Sasuke's world was exploding.
The young Uchiha didn't have any idea about what to do. If he tried to take Naruto by force then he'll end up being killed, which wouldn't help anyone. If he grabbed his best friend and teleport out of there then he could just lead Madara to everyone else. That wasn't an option unless Naruto was awake, Sasuke couldn't drag everyone else into this without some kind of results.
But if he just left without Naruto then Madara would probably kill him. The whole reason why Naruto was alive was to just show that Madara had won. To the psychotic mastermind, the blonde in such a state was a trophy, and as much as Sasuke knew Madara liked keeping him around to abuse, he knew that the blonde could be killed any minute.
Madara seemed to pick up on his internal struggle. "Well, Sasuke. I must say, I'm growing very tired of you visiting so much and always avoiding me. It really hurts my feelings, and when I'm hurt I'm not as careful as I should be. Sometimes I even...break things by accident."
The younger Uchiha had to stop himself from cringing at the statement, so there was a good chance that Madara was going to kill Naruto. This wasn't good, Sasuke would have never came if he had known that Madara had knew he was came here before.
"You know what they say..." Sasuke muttered weakly. "Fifth times the charm..." The teen shook himself internally at his stupid attempt to make light of the situation. If he didn't take this seriously he'd die, an that would be worse since he had basically condemned his best friend to death.
"Indeed...very well." Madara clapped his hands together, causing Sasuke to jump violently at the movement. "This is your forth correct? Then you'll have one more try! I'll even give you a little time before I come here to make it fair!"
Sasuke was confused. Why would Madara let him come? Was this just some sick twisted trick? "What? Why? You know that I'll get him far away from here...I won't bring him to everyone else, you won't be able to use him to track them..."
"Sasuke, Sasuke, Sasuke. What makes you think that I don't already know where everyone else is? I've taken over the entire world Sasuke, the very air that you breathe is my eyes. The dirt you walk upon is my ears, I know everything."
The younger Uchiha didn't know what scared him more, the fact that Madara was telling the truth, or the fact that he might be lying. He soon decided that it was both. This whole meeting was terrifying him.
Soon Madara spoke again. "So go on my young friend, I'll give you one more chance. Maybe you'll succeed and brighten my week, or maybe you'll fail and brighten my day. Either way, I've still won."
Sasuke gulped but nodded as he turned his head slightly to look back at his best friend, the person that never gave up on him even when he tried to kill him. The friend that stood by him even when he pushed the whole world away in his hate. The person that tried so hard to bring Sasuke home.
Sasuke had never forgotten this, and he would do anything to bring Naruto home. "Naruto...I'll come back for you. I promise I'll bring you back, I swear." Chakra and air began to swirl around Sasuke and Madara as they prepared their space-time ninjutsu, each of them planning different destinations.
"I'll bring you home. It's the promise of a lifetime."
As the two enemies disappeared from the room, neither of them noticed that Naruto gave a large bodily jerk as he heard Sasuke's words.
+==ooOOOoo==+
"Naruto hurry up, you'll be late for school!"
Woooo! There you go! Popped this baby out super quick. The idea would leave me alone and I'd been thinking about it ever since I saw the DMC 5 trailer. This whole thing was based off of it.
Yup, this is my oneshot. I could turn it into a actual story if enough people want me too, since there is a junkload of things that aren't really explained. Like how Gaara died in real life or how Sasuke telling things to Naruto was changing the Genjutsu world.
Ever noticed that a lot of the names Sasuke called out were names of people Naruto ran into? Or how Gaara only died because Sasuke mentioned him? Or how when Sasuke told him his name was Uzumaki Naruto Naruto asked Kushina what her maiden name was?
No this isn't yaoi for the people asking, since I know that people would bring it up. But if you want it to be it could. In the beginning I only brought Sasuke into the story since I had him figure out how to do the whole teleporting thing. But if you go that way then sure...this could be yaoi.
So yeah, like I said. If enough people like this and review then I could turn it into a story, if you guys don't then it stays a oneshot.
REVIEW! YOU DON'T EVEN HAVE TO READ, I NICER THAN OTHER AUTHORS.
I'M SUCH A REVIEW LOVER! I LOVE THEM!