Here I am. Writing and what-not. This probably isn't the best time to post a time travel fic, since Naruto is ending in 5 chapters, but hey, the muse hit me. This will eventually be Akatsuki/Naruto, but it will tale sometime before he even sees the Akatsuki.
NarutoNarutoNaruto
It was strange, Naruto couldn't help but muse. Madara had never held back, ruthlessly massacring all of his friends. Aside from himself, Sasuke, and Kakashi everyone he cared for was dead. Heck he was practically dead himself, all he could do was watch with ragged breaths as Kakashi and Madara fought it out. And again all Naruto could think about was how strange it was, Madara never held back. Never, not once before.
He turned to Gaara's deformed, and very much unrecognizable, body. Tears escaped as his gut and heart clenched. Madara hadn't held back for anybody, he should know, he had cried for each one.
This was why this fight confused him so much, he was so confused that he couldn't help but be a little scared of the reason Madara seemed to be...even though he couldn't be... holding back against Kakashi. No, holding back was the wrong phrase. It was more like when he and Sasuke fought back when they were genin. Going all out against each other, putting everything they had into the fights to prove themselves to each other, but not trying to kill one another.
He wondered if Kakashi could tell. The logic here seemed kind of strange, Kakashi was going completely for the kill, whilst Madara seemed to just be dodging and weakening him. It was the only fight he had ever watched of Madara's where he didn't feel truly fearful that one of his friends would lose his or her life.
And this was why he couldn't explain the fear budding in his heart, couldn't explain the horrific sense of foreboding he felt. Why is he holding back?And Naruto couldn't help but panic when he didn't come up with a plausible answer. Well a favorable answer anyway.
He could feel himself dieing, he could feel residue of the Kyuubi's completely exhausted power trying feebly to heal him, but only managing to lick his wounds.
He missed Kurama. At the time, he hadn't known Uzumakis could survive losing their bijuu. But They had gotten close and he even found himself missing the nagging that came with the great fox.
Kakashi's back slammed into a boulder, rocks tumbled around him. He couldn't even find any strength left to stand. Naruto's eyes widened when he saw Madara's hesitation, the guy had practically flinched. Actually, he probably did under that mask of his.
Madara slowly kneed down to Kakashi, knocking a rock off of him before lifting him by his neck, "Fitting isn't it?"
Naruto scrunched his eyes, trying to see better through his blurry vision. He frowned as he realized how melancholy the guy sounded underneath his presentation voice. Naruto surprised himself by how much he wanted to see the face that produced such a sad sound.
"I d-don't," Kakashi gasped as he lifted his arms to try to loosen Madara's grip, "Know what y-you're talking about."
Madara snarled and dropped him. Kakashi held a hand to his neck coughing. Naruto cringed at the sound.
"Pathetic." Madara glared, "I expected more from the son of Konoha's White Fang."
The silver head's eyes were defiant daggers as his voice rasped, "Don't you dare talk about him like you know him!"
"A little late to be defending him now don't you think?" Madara's words rang with a bitter edge.
Naruto looked to his sensei for guidance only to discover a face more bewildered than his own.
Madara scratched his forehead in irritation, "If I'd of known killing you would be so difficult I would of just made you join me." It seemed that he hadn't even meant to say it but the longing in his voice gave away his true feelings on the matter.
Naruto's heart skipped a beat, No, nononononono NO! He gathered as much air as he could, this wasn't happening! Madara didn't want to kill Kakashi, he wanted him to join him? Why? He knew he was only still alive by pure will power, but he begged his mouth to open. Unfortunately when it cracked open all that came out was a tiny coarse 'n'.
"Like hell I would. Not after everything you've done." Kakashi denied, but for some reason Naruto didn't feel any relief.
"But wouldn't you have more chances to kill me? I'm pretty sure it's somewhere in the shinobi rulebook that if you are going to die anyway then you're supposed to take down your enemies with you." Madara was practically pleading.
Kakashi frowned not knowing why this seemed to be so important to him, "Why?"
Madara took off his mask, and bent down to Kakashi's level. Naruto didn't recognize the face or its importance, but it seemed to mean the world to Kakashi. Madara frowned, a light blush tinting his checks, "I guess, I guess I needed you after all."
Naruto didn't have the energy to comprehend the complete personality switch Madara seemed to go through. He did however understand the different emotions flickering through his sensei's eyes, surprise, disbelief, affection, loss, guilt, remorse.
"Y-You can't be..." Kakashi's voice flowed with warmth as he whispered, "Obito."
The panic Naruto felt was overwhelming him. He knew that name, but he couldn't place where he had heard it before.
Obito smiled bashfully, "I couldn't save Rin by myself after all, I'm sorry."
"No..." Kakashi felt so much was wrong with that statement, "You didn't do anything wrong, that was my fault." He clenched his teeth, "But the things you have done since then are unforgivable, that isn't what you should be apologizing for."
Obito held out a hand, "No, that's the only thing I'm sorry for." He let out a horrific laugh, "Shinobi teachings are those of betrayal and destruction, teaching even kids that missions are more important than lives, telling them to abandon their comrades if it means a successful mission." Obito's voice was laced with insanity, "All the Hidden Villages, every shinobi, all the teachings, everything... should be destroyed!"
Kakashi was torn as he looked at the hand extended to him. This was his friend, what was left of him anyway. He bit his lip knowing he had caused this. Everyones' death was his fault. He turned to Naruto seeing the desperate plea in his eyes. He shook his head, this was all his fault, he would be the one to fix it. There was a soft apologetic smile he sent to Naruto. That was when he took the hand. He let it help him up. The very same hand that had torn through their friends mercilessly.
Naruto's body completely gave out. His eyes closed in resigned anguish, his last living friend...had left him. He felt his awareness leaving him. He didn't care about anything anymore. His last friend had betrayed him, and he felt this fight was no longer his. The only reason he fought was for his friends. Now he had none.
NarutoNarutoNaruto
He found himself in his mind scape, he knew that Kyuubi was no longer here and almost started crying again if not for the other presence that was here in his place. Kushina smiled at him, "You know that's not true. You aren't alone."
Naruto shook his head, "Everyone's dead. Kakashi..." Naruto frowned, not sure how he should address his former teacher, leader, comrade, friend, traitor. Though he didn't understand why he didn't think any less of him. In his heart he would always be Kakashi-sensei, just like how Sasuke will always be his teme best friend.
Kushina wrapped her arms around him, "No, they continue to live on in your heart, as long as you believe in what they stood for they are alive." Her face warmed with love and understanding added, "Not only that but Kakashi is a good man, you were right to trust in him. There is no doubt that he has his reasons."
Naruto sighed, of course he must have a reason, but that didn't exactly make him feel better about it. Kushina let go and Naruto found himself missing her warmth. She then put her fist up and a smirk lifted the corner of her mouth, "But that idiot is definitely gonna pay! No matter what the reason, making my boy sad is the same as signing a death contract, bayo!"
"Haha!" Naruto clutched his stomach unable to contain his laughter, he wondered if she knew how much he needed that right now. He put his fingers to his throat as he realized just how long it has been since he last laughed and the laughter died instantly. "I'm not going to let him betray me. No matter what Kakashi does, he's still my friend. I don't ever give up on my friends." Not now, not ever.
Naruto let out a sad smile, "And even though the others are dead, they're my friends too. I won't give up on them either."
"Now that's what I wanted to hear!" Kushina slapped Naruto on the back in approval.
Naruto tumbled forward, not able to be truly mad at his mother, and mumbled out in mock irritation, 'Hey, what was that for?' Only to find he made no noise
"Naruto." He looked up at the sudden seriousness in her voice. Questioning her with his eyes.
Kushina started drawling Hidden Village symbols in the air, "Listen to me and don't speak until I'm done."
Naruto opened his mouth to say something but no sound came out.
"I just told you not to say anything!" Kushina yelled as she started to redraw a symbol, "Don't move either, if this jutsu is messed up in anyway you might end up stuck in time forever."
Naruto wanted to tell her that she could have told him that before she started whatever it was she was doing.
"Now I know you think we can talk here forever but that's not true." Kushina frowned as she drew a large circle around the symbols.
Naruto looked up wondering what she meant.
She looked him straight in the eyes, "You're dying, Naruto. This place resides in your mind, if you die we'll disappear." She started to inscribe a yin symbol on his left hand and continued with a yang symbol on his right, "We're not about to let you die though. Minato and I are both seal masters, we've been working on this ever since the Forth War turned sour."
Naruto wanted to tell her that wars start sour.
"This is a time manipulation jutsu. It costs an insane amount of chakra to do, and it can only be done to someone once." She started drawling on his face and down his arms, "And it only works on you." She paused for it to sink in, "Your father can teleport to places that he puts a special seal. It's a special technique that only works for his blood. We messed around with ideas regarding it until we discovered a combination of symbols that have the potential to send someone back in time, but only by spirit."
Kushina put a three pointed weapon in each of his hands, "Lucky for you, you have a body waiting for you before the start of the Forth War, unfortunately we can't send you too far back but this will do." She drew symbols on the wrappings of the weapons, "Since your past body has your spirit already, you will merely merge. Nothing much should change since the spirits are the same, well other than the fact that you will have enormous chakra reserves."
She looked him in his eyes, "Your Kyuubi is no longer sealed in you, however your younger self does have a Kyuubi. Your younger body won't be able to handle that much chakra." She added small lines under and above the yin and yang symbols on his hands, "That is what these are for. The yin symbol will store your younger spirit's chakra, the yang symbol will store your current spirit's chakra. These are the only symbols that will stay on your body when you return. Don't let anyone see them."
She drew 6 cut triangles on the outside of the circle in the air, "If anyone finds out you are from the future, you will have no free will. You won't be able to do anything but be stuck in an interrogation room for the rest of your life. You can't help your friends in there. Knowledge of the future scares people, but what scares them the most is abuse of that knowledge."
Naruto frowned, he knew that his friends wouldn't ever do anything like that, he knew he'd probably end up telling them pretty fast. He wanted to defend his friends but he also knew he couldn't without worrying about messing up the jutsu.
"You may find yourself in a situation where you feel you have to tell someone, but there is no situation where you have to tell someone. Lie if you must, just avoid telling the truth no matter what. If they find out, you are doomed. If Madara finds out you are worse than doomed, your friends will be too."
Naruto hated not being able to talk. He wanted to tell his mom that he had recently discovered that 'Madara' was actually 'Obito'. He also wanted to tell her that she sounded a little like Kakashi when she was being serious. He wanted to tell her how cool she looked right now.
Kushina drew swirls on the edges of all the triangles, "You're pretty much the same as you used to be just stronger and with knowledge of the future. You won't have to worry about pretending so much as long as you don't let them know just how powerful you are. You probably think that we have lots of chakra in our spirit forms but we only have the amount of chakra we had before death. Once that runs out we cease to exist."
She frowned tears forming in the corners of her eyes, "We're running out of time," She started panicking. Preparing another three pointed weapon, "I'm going to be fine I think I have just enough chakra to make it out of this after the seal is activated. Your dad is working on something else for you but... I don't exactly know how that will work out considering where your going..." She set the weapon to the side and started connecting the symbols in the circle to each other and connecting them to the middle of the cut triangles.
"Remember that we'll always love you no matter what happens. Your our child after all, bayo!" She smiled sweetly though it was obvious she was crying.
Naruto had started to cry too.
Kushina drew more swirls in all the spaces separated by the newly formed lines, "Don't forget your friends and dreams. They're important, bayo." She smiled a devious smile as she picked up the weapon, "This may hurt a bit." She stabbed him in the forehead with it before pushing him into the circle.
Naruto would have screamed if he could.
"I wish I had more time to explain things to you. Good luck, bayo!" Kushina's eyes widened as she realized that in her haste she forgot to tell him one of the most important things, and yelled, desperately hoping it would reach him, "You won't be sent directly to your body! You need to reunite with it within-" The seal closed and she started to disappear, she started bawling, "Within two days!"
She brought her hands to her eyes, "Good luck...I love you, bayo."
And then she disappeared.
NarutoNarutoNaruto
I kind of wanted to make this chapter longer, but I thought this was the perfect ending point. Byebye.