Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. Copyright to Kishimoto Masashi. If I do, Naruto would be very different. In fact, you're viewing the result.
Full summary:
Slow development!
Be warned! This is a L-O-N-G project. Like A Dream is only the first of the three volumes. This story is an attempt to fill the untold bits and pieces of Naruto—a work to fill the plot holes. If you would put it into a category, it is a massive interquel of the series. It is intended to stay as canon as possible (until manga chapter 664) with minor changes throughout. This fic intertwines the combination of manga, anime and the movies with few exceptions of ignored scenes. 80% of fillers are ignored. By Madara's revival, the story will have taken a completely different route. All the extra details added into the original storyline are to make this AU a convincing possibility.
Romance, drama, tragedy, angst, family, friendship, suspense, humour, and adventure. You name it, this has it. It contains OCs. Original materials are based on the Japanese language, history, and folklore.
"If the facts don't fit the theory, change the facts." - Albert Einstein
I play by this rule: please be very aware. Please take note of the rating!
This series begins when a four-year-old wartime orphan is adopted by Naruto's parents. When Yuna is left alone on the battlefield, about to give up all hopes and dreams, she is saved by none other than the Yellow Flash of Konoha, Namikaze Minato. She then starts a new life with her foster parents. At first, Yuna thinks isolating herself from the world is the way to move forward. She learns how to express emotions with them. Sadly, her life is full of ups and downs. The happiness she finds in life only highlight the abyss of her tragedy. The bane of her existence is most certainly falling in love with Uchiha Itachi.
The first volume is set towards the end of the Third War. It is about the growth of the characters as we know them in the canon's original descriptions.
What if Minato and Kushina had another child before Naruto? What if Naruto had a loving childhood and Sasuke grew up with him, but they mustn't recall? What actually happened to Itachi which made him into the man we know? What if Kakashi knew more but chose to keep his mouth shut to protect a blurry truth lying beyond the horizon?
She thought she had escaped her destiny, being the last of a vanished dynasty. Starting another life with her distant relatives, Minato and Kushina led her to defrost her feelings. For a short time, living with them, being their daughter, having a new beginning made her forget who she really was.
Being an orphan once was bad enough, but twice? She experienced it. Love hurt more than anything and she had to learn it the hard way. When the Fourth Hokage and his wife died valiantly protecting Konohagakure no Sato on October the tenth, holding her tight in his embrace was all he could do for her. Over time, they saw more in their relationship but were scared to lose a best friend. They fell blindly in love for each other.
The Uchiha Massacre, Akatsuki, Bijū hunt... If he had known it all, which he didn't, just maybe being the peace seeker he was, he should have let her die on that fateful night.
Could he?
In the end, what he did out of his selfish love became the first chapter of a global catastrophe. After all, they were the reason all that could happen and they didn't even know it.
A/N:
The work is written over a time span within the fictional word to create a realistic sense of timing. You'll need a lot of patience with this work to digest the plot progress. If you find it difficult to follow suspense sequence piling one after another until the very end, I'm afraid this isn't for you.
Feel free to make any comment. I value all opinions because "you're worth it". (L'Oréal Paris ;D) Any constructive criticism is much appreciated! The first few chapters are very short because they are introductory. You'll have to read on, and perhaps get past chapter 12 to see where this story is heading.
We hope you enjoy reading.
- Athrna and the Beta Team
Chapter 1 - Warzone
Why do people live in this world? Life is just a bad dream.
Yuna was four years old when she first set foot into Konohagakure.
Crimson soared above the few clouds at daybreak, marking the end of another intense battle during the Third Shinobi World War. Everywhere in the forest reeked of rotting flesh.
Amidst all the corpses of those who failed to defeat their enemies, a play age child emerged from the mist of blood. She woke up to find this perishing stillness. For a while, she kept screaming helplessly and shook people who had fallen before her.
No reaction.
With wide eyes and tears running down her cheeks, she looked up into the seemingly endless, blood-stained sky, startled. She was surrounded by many. Parents, relatives, servants, and countless shinobi…. Acquaintances or strangers, not one had a single breath could only hear her own accelerating heartbeat and the crows' shrill cries through the merciless wind.
She could only hear her own accelerating heartbeat and the crows' shrill cries through the merciless wind.
After what felt like an eternity, the girl saw a pair of welcoming hands reaching out to her. They were the hands of a handsome young man. He had gentle facial features, blond hair which shone like the ray of dawn, and sapphire blue eyes which were of a lighter colour than her own hair. The smile he had was like the lisianthus flowers that her mother used to keep by the window. It was calming and heart-warming.
"Will you come with me?"
She did not know what made her think she could trust this man. In a perplexed state of mind, she instinctively nodded, nimbly and timidly, afraid of her own notion. As soon as her tiny hand was clasped within the soothing hand of the man, the warmth of his palm reached the young girl's heart.
She felt safe.
Throughout the journey, the little girl did not speak a word. She was still trying to comprehend what had happened. Slowly sinking back to reality, broken pieces of her nightmare replayed again and again in her head. She could see those glassy eyes, those crimson, mangled limbs. Trembling, she shut her eyes in the vain hope that doing so would block out that field of lifeless bodies. The eery silence, the faces contorted in agony, the overpowering stench of decay—it all came flooding back. She curled into a ball and became trapped in her mind, hoping those images would just fly away. Minato lightly patted her back as she bent down to catch her hastening breaths. There was no need to press on, he thought. He stayed in silence, too.
She will speak when the time comes.
After a long week journey, they reached a grand wall travelling across rivers and through forests. Cutting through the trees, it seemed to stretch endlessly into the dense vegetation, and its curving surface only interrupted by an enormous pair of green doors. She could make out the characters "あん (hiragana an)" printed on them as they drew close. The doors were open wide as if to welcome the two weary travellers in. She caught a glimpse of a sprawling village enveloped on all sides by the encircling wall, perfectly hidden from the outside world. Standing before the entrance gate, the man kneeled down to the girl's height.
"My name is Namikaze Minato. What's yours?" he spoke soothingly with an encouraging smile.
She blinked. In her emerald green eyes, Minato could see how grief and sorrow were feeding on her soul. The instant she was aware her eyes were locked with his, she faced down.
"Yuna."
