Rituals
Naruto has a nightly ritual, one that he never lets Jiraya see. Every night, when his body's shaking from chakra exhaustion and his skin's cracking from the abuse he's put it through he retires to his room and begins. For one moment he's alone in the dark room, but then two more people flicker into existence. His hands reach out and take one perfectly smooth hand, and one calloused and scarred one.
This is the most important part, the part still performed in the dark. If he gets it wrong and grabs onto two hands that have not yet turned into the right ones, then the other two bodies disappear, and he's left alone until the next night. But once he has a hold of the two hands from his memory then, and only then, he'll turn on the lamp. Naruto can never sleep in complete darkness.
Then he'll snuggle down into his bed and the other two will curl around him. This is the part that keeps him sane, the part that keeps him going throughout the years. His talent means they are warm, and breathing. They are alive, his memories of the past, and press up against him as their counterparts never did.
That's all he needs them to do. To hold him, to be there, and to feel their hands in his. Soon, he tells himself, very soon, he will be strong enough to replace his illusions with reality. Soon he will be strong enough to correct the mistake that took them away in the first place.
But until then, he sticks to his ritual, and holds his memories' hands.