A/N Whaddya know? A new story! I have so many ideas to write down for about three stories more, so maybe I'll just post the first chapter of all and then see which is the best. And yes, this IS NaruSaku, even though it seems to be NaruHina in the beginning.
Better Summary: It was the death of Naruto so long ago that brought Konoha's destruction. Based on the legend that Jinchuuriki have their beasts reincarnted into the next body, Konoha waited for him...but he never came back. Reincarnated many years later as a high-school senior named Uzuto Naruhiko, his class visits the ancient remains of Konoha. There, he is sucked into a time loop that brings him back to Konoha between the time he died and the day Konoha fell. Everybody knows him, he knows nobody. At the same time, terrorist bombings are occuring in Japan. Naruhiko/Naruto finds himself in a dilemma--to save Konoha means advancing modern technology and possibly worsening the warfare. To destroy Konoha means destroying his past and his current family of friends. Between the finicky time loop distortion and rivals for his love, Naruhiko/Naruto must beat the clock and find a solution to his problem.
Chapter 1: Death
"NARUTOOOOOO!!!"
He clutched his stomach area, his orange and black jumpsuit tattered and torn to the point where he was just wearing rags. The only warmth he could feel in the freezing weather was the warmth of his own blood spilling over his hands and coursing down his chin. With half-closed eyes, he scanned the scene—two newbie-Akatsuki dead and tracks from five other Akatsuki members who'd fled the scene.
The mission had failed.
He tottered forward a few steps towards Sakura who was running with all her might to treat him as soon as possible. He took a glimpse of Kakashi-sensei, Yamato-taichou, Sai, Team Gai, Team 10, and Team 8—all covered in crusting blood of the enemy, but unharmed. The Kyuubi had exploded at the last moment of desperation to attempt to fend off attacks, but in blind rage, he was unaware of all the attacks he'd taken in. He keeled over just as Sakura reached him.
The green ropes and threads of chakra were biting nips of cold that cooled his temper. As the chakra was stitching over his burst spleen and torn intestines, but he could not help but feel that he would not make it. He had hope, however, that the best iryou ninja in all the ninja villages next to Tsunade-sama would be able to save him.
The foggy mist characteristic to Kirigakure was playing illusions on him. He could not tell if his mind was clouding over, or if the ambient area was just like that. He could not move, he could barely think, but he said…
"Please don't kill my dream…Don't let me die, Sakura-chan…"
It was too young to die at age seventeen, no?
He did not hear her piercing scream that echoed for miles when he exhaled for the last time.
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A lone, marble headstone reflected the flashing lightning and seemingly countered the guttural low tones of thunder that followed. Drops of rain came down soft to the skin, but then became small, piercing senbon. Why it always rained when a person of importance in Konohagakure died, nobody would ever understand, but the weather did not detract the ragged population of Konoha from mourning.
A rosette stood alone at the edge of the crowd, gazing blankly at the marble tombstone that marked a man she could not save; more importantly, she could not save his dream. She would not be able to playful (and sometimes forcefully) reject a date from him, or hear his childish "Dattebayo!". All she could do was continue playing through her mind a poem of Jinchuuriki she had read from an ancient book that had fallen off its shelf in the library.
He may Die young or old,
But the One with the Beast of Konoha
Will Return again,
Stronger than before to
Save the village
That raised him so.
The rest of Konoha would wait for him, knowing that he was a powerful man who would lead the Will of Fire as the proudest citizen. He was an important asset to the village, both in defense and offense. He would come back someday to bring peace to the world.
But she, Haruno Sakura, would wait for him, Uzumaki Naruto, for a totally different reason: to confess and apologize of what she could not do. For her inability to save his life and dream, she wished she would die.
In the next few weeks, Konoha's defenses declined severely even with the lack of that one ninja, as fast a stone tossed up and falling back down to earth; a short time later, Konoha was annihilated by a strengthened Akatsuki force, the village's power and greatness reduced to only rubble and smoke.
His reincarnation failed the village.
Two-thousand Years into the Future
Seventeen-year-old Uzuto Naruhiko hated several things in his life: his cold-bastard classmates which included (but were not limited to) Uchiha Sasuke and Hyuuga Nejiro, the lack of at least one bowl of ramen (preferably Ichiraku's "Sapporo Ichiban" Miso Ramen) per day, and goddamn it, ALARM CLOCKS.
The city of Sapporo, Japan, was a difficult place to wake up in, but it wasn't because a day was painfully annoying to look forward to. In fact, it was because the city was so exciting that one just had to stay up until wee hours enjoying every single second, and then crashing, completely exhausted into bed. Yesterday, Naruhiko had spent the rest of the day after school perusing the streets with his girlfriend, Hyuuga Hinami, and eating bowl after bowl of ramen until 11:30 P.M.
He had no choice today, however. Naruhiko could not ditch school today (as he sometimes did when he was too tired)—the senior-class mandatory field trip to the legendary Konohagakure ruins was today, and by mandatory, his school literally meant "rain-or-shine-sick-or-healthy-you-have-to-come" mandatory. The punishment was supposed to be extremely cruel, but Naruhiko had never heard anyone tell the tale—everyone was so obedient and scared that no one had ever suffered the consequences.
The last subway to school left at 7:00 A.M., and even waking up at 5:45 A.M. wasn't enough time, especially since Naruhiko shared the public bathroom with some bathroom-hogs in his apartment. His father died a year ago in a car accident, and his mother committed suicide the year before; they didn't leave much behind for him. Naruhiko wasn't rich or wealthy (unlike the Hyuuga's), but working part-time at the Ichiraku Ramen Bar did help him get by, somewhat. It was actually mostly thanks to Teuchi, the owner of the bar, who allowed Naruhiko to eat all he wanted at the bar for no cost.
Struggling out of bed with his blond hair tousled, he grabbed a disposable toothbrush and comb and headed down to the bathroom quickly. If he didn't get there quickly enough, Yamanaka Inoue-san would beat him there. She was infamous for taking more than fifteen minutes in the bathroom each time she entered.
After his trip, he headed back to his cramped apartment room and pulled on the school's uniform of a white-Oxford shirt and navy-blue pants. Then, he casually looped a loose tie around the casually-buttoned shirt and thrust open the curtains, welcoming the sun into his face. Stepping out onto the balcony, he gazed out into the rising sun, taking in as much of the horizon scene as his sky-blue eyes could absorb. Even though Sapporo was hell waking up in, a beautiful sunrise was always a reward for the early-birds.
Satisfied with his "eye-candy", Naruhiko backed up into his bedroom, not taking an eye off the sunrise. He was going to shut the curtains when his eye caught rosy pink clouds—and a screaming voice from within his mind almost split his head open. He tripped from the shock of the scream and almost pulled the curtains down with him as he fell to his floor.
You could say that was another thing worse than the alarm clocks that Naruhiko hated: that voice of despair that would sometimes randomly echo in his head—especially whenever he saw the color pink. Or those nightmares that started appearing just when he turned seventeen, comprising of strangely clad people with olive green vests and headbands of cloth and metal, surrounding him as he lay on the floor panting, his blood oozing out in a pool.
Or maybe he was officially going mad like his mother, Uzuto Kushina, who eventually hanged herself from their house's balcony across the city, where the Uzuto family first lived. Naruhiko never forgot the swinging body and how his eyes were transfixed on her red hair, which everyone praised for its rare beauty.
He gave an involuntary shiver and looked at himself in the mirror. The spitting image of his father, yet the hyper temperament of his mother—at least that was what everybody said. Naruhiko could never afford to be depressed (and he found that he almost could never be depressed), lest he wished to go the "emo" path as his classmate, Sasuke, whose entire family was deliberately killed by a mentally-ill older cousin, Itano.
At the thought of Sasuke, Naruhiko thought of school, and the time he'd wasted. He checked his watch: 6:30 A.M. Kuso. He would have to sprint to the subway station for at least twenty minutes non-stop now. Grabbing an Instant-Ramen package, Naruhiko prayed to kami-sama that there would be some hot water in the teacher's staff room today.
Halfway to the subway, Naruhiko cursed again. He'd forgotten to write down a pre-lab for the field trip to the Konohagakure ruins they were going on today. He would have to ask Nara Shikamura, school genius, whether he could copy the work. But then again, Shikamura was so lazy and such a sleepy person that Naruhiko doubted that he would notice if Naruhiko just took the pre-lab in its entirety.
A/N Yes, I purposely changed the names of everybody in here, OK? Hope this is good for everybody! When I picked the city of Sapporo (to be different from the cliché Tokyo), I actually had no idea that the city WAS famous for its ramen until I did research on it! Well, jya! I'm going to be working on my "Date Showdown" (DS) story now :D! So for now, RIO ("Rebirth into Oblivion") will be slowly worked on when I have the time…yea.
Edit: Changed "Narumaki" to "Naruhiko". The latter flows better, and the meaning fits Naruto better. (Thank you, Naomi-Yoko!) Also changed "Itamo" to "Itano" (The meaning fits better as well.) Changed back to "Sasuke" (Easier for plot later). I will not use the same first names for reincarnations--the whole point is to be different. (Like in Pita-Ten)