Inconsistent Doppelganger

Synopsis: Have you ever wondered if there are other worlds, or timelines, out there? Where there could be a 'you' that isn't exactly you? Many would probably think it's a ludicrous idea… or at the very least believe there to be no point in actually spending much time considering it. After all, it's not like one could actually go to an alternative universe if there was one… or meet a different version of themselves.

Through the Course of his life, Naruto gradually begins to think that maybe there really are alternative universes out there. At first, even he thinks it's a ludicrous idea… but the possibility continues to nag at him as he is presented with more evidence in the form of dreams. But like most sane people, even when he comes to the realization that there definitely are other worlds out there, he resigns himself to the fact that he'll never actually meet a counterpart to himself.

Until he does.

A/N: Hello readers~

First off I do want to let everyone know that I don't have a Beta (because I've been away from the site for so long (long enough just to make a new account) and I've never been very good at trying to find one), but I usually manage to catch any jarring mistakes. If you do find anything I missed, let me know and I'll go back and fix them whenever I have the chance.

This Fic is sort of a Mash between an AU Naruto fanfiction, and a Canon one. On one hand we have the Naruto we all know from the manga/anime (I intend to use at least some of the filler content from the anime for some characters, so I guess that makes the 'canon' part sort of AU in a sense), and on the other we have a sort of Parallel world, which is the real AU portion. However there won't be any moving of characters between the two universes... more a telling (or dream) of events that happened in one or the other. I have a few 'stories' already to put in, but I'd very much like to know what the readers want to find out about! so please do let me know. The more you guys want to know, the more content this fic will get!

I'll also be posting a companion AU Naruto fic, Extraneous, which will be coming after (or simultaneously to) the third chapter of this one, as the first three chapters sort of set up for it.

Disclaimer: Naruto does not belong to me, but to Kishimoto. Nor do I own the image used for the cover... I wasn't able to find the creator, but if they see it and don't want me to use it I will gladly take it off. All I can claim is my own plot.

Prologue I: Naruto

The first time Naruto had considered the possibility of there being separate 'worlds' out there with alternative time lines he scoffed at the idea, because Madara… or rather Obito playing the role of Madara, had been the cause of it all. Yet the idea still sort of lingered, because it was strange that so many of his friends had completely different personalities inside the genjutsu. And there was also the fact that there had been another him there… with a different name. Still trying to figure out why the genjutsu world had been so weird that way made the blonde's head hurt. So even with the lingering feeling that maybe it wasn't exactly a genjutsu (and actually somehow did involve an alternate world were things weren't quite the same), Naruto more or less forgot all about it soon enough. After all he'd had more important concerns at the time.

Namely stopping Madara's plans (since he didn't know it was actually Obito yet) and finding a way to bring Sasuke home…Or die trying.

When the possibility of such a thing came up again, he actually dismissed the idea the moment he had it. Naruto more thought it was all a delusional dream brought on by the exhaustion and blood-loss that was a result of his and Sasuke's final, pivotal battle. After all they'd blown off an arm each with their last chidori vs. rasengan clash. He'd been pretty sure they'd ended up killing each other; After all it was like moments of his life were flashing before his eyes. Although the flashbacks hadn't quite been right, admittedly. In many he was more of a bystander, standing off to the side rather than actually seeing things from his perspective when they'd actually happened. That wasn't the super weird part about it though. In some of these (specifically the ones after he'd lost consciousness again following the revelation that he and Sasuke were actually alive) the younger him that he was watching was for some reason a she. Still giving the state he was in, it was only natural to think it had been strange delusions. So the idea was once again forgotten quickly. Besides, after being healed up enough to move, Naruto's first priority had been to end that dumb genjutsu with Sasuke.

After that he'd been way too busy dealing with the various repercussions of the war to think of the idea again until things started to calm down.

The next time the possibility came to mind was the first time he seriously considered it for any length of time. Somehow or another they'd gotten onto a conversation about the various genjutsu dreams that those caught up in the Mugen Tsukuyomi had had. It was TenTen's in particular that did it… and then the following strange tale that it had reminded Ino of. After all the personalities that TenTen had described of everyone in her dream matched almost perfectly with the genjutsu Naruto and Sakura had been flung into by Madara that had momentarily made the idea cross his mind the first time.

Most of the others had dismissed TenTen's 'dream' as being a result of the strange day with Sakura where she'd lost her memory and had everyone acting rather peculiar to try and jog it. But even if that was the case, that Sakura had never said the name Menma in association with Naruto; So there was no way TenTen could have known the name that fit into a fake world where Naruto had met people like the ones she described. That was only one of the points that made him consider the idea though. Secondly TenTen said that at the beginning of her dream she'd remembered all about the war and her actual life and realized she was in a genjutsu. No one else he knew made the same claim. Finally there was the fact that Sakura had no idea what everyone was talking about, and Ino had said something about clearly seeing the Sakura of that day disappear in a strange light. The idea would come to mind again from time to time after that… but it often left Naruto with a headache whenever he tried to really think about it.

He'd been busy with all that damned studying to prepare him for being Hokage in the future anyway. So even though the idea was now truly there, he didn't spend much time on it.

The first time he actually sat down and really attempted to dissect the idea was after a series of dreams that reminded him of the weird flashbacks that he'd seen when he was lying next to Sasuke, lacking the better portion of his right arm. The first dream had been about Pain's attack on Konoha… only things didn't look quite right, and it wasn't just the fact that Pain was fighting what almost looked like Naruto's Orioke no jutsu form (her hair was in choppy, off centered ponytail rather than pigtails). There was also Sakura's hair for one, which was long… longer than it had been when they'd first been made a genin team. Then there was the fact that Sakura didn't call him (well, her) Naruto, but Naruko; which certainly made it clear that it wasn't a henge'd Naruto fighting but an actual female version of himself. The sequence of the battle wasn't the same either… although it did eventually come to a point where Naruko was pinned down by the black rods. Just like what actually happened, Hinata tried to save Naruko… but the scene had lacked the love confession.

Not that that had stopped Naruko from going Kyuubi on the Yahiko-Pain. Although the conversation with the Yondiame in the seal was a bit different, and he looked a bit older, it seemed he was still the father of this female version of Naruto. But the most striking difference had been Nagato… or rather, it seemed, Nanako. Naruto had woken up at that point, but he couldn't get the dream out of his head. Why would he be dreaming about his past as if he were a woman? And why so many other differences? He honestly didn't connect the dream to the thought of there being other wolds at first though… until they kept happening. All of them were memories of things that had happened, but changed to fit the dream world where he was Naruko instead of Naruto. They revealed things here and there that made some of those little differences make sense. Examining the dreams and these changes just made him feel like it was all too complex to be a simple dream world born only from his subconscious. How could his subconscious come up with all of it? It was just weird.

After that Naruto found himself entertaining the idea that somehow he was seeing the life of a female counterpart to himself in another world, whenever he had these dreams.

When the dreams lulled he'd start convincing himself he was being ridiculous… but then they would come back and he'd find himself thinking seriously about the idea all over again. They were never gone for more than a couple months, with the exception of Hinata's first pregnancy with Boruto, when Naruto was rather distracted with the fact he was going to be a parent soon. After the birth of his son though, the dreams slowly started to come back, painting more of a strange parallel to his life. At this point though, the dream world had 'caught up' more or less to his life, and he was dreaming of things that had happened no more than a month prior. Naruko had a first born child… a son who looked strikingly like his own, except he had brown hair rather than blonde. Her husband was Neji who apparently didn't have the curse seal, and clearly somehow didn't die during the war, although Naruto knew he'd seen the man struck down in one of the earlier dreams. Still, he wasn't completely convinced that there really were alternative worlds out there, even though he couldn't outright dismiss the possibility anymore.

And then he had the first dream that was ahead of his own life.

Hinata was pregnant for the second time, the due date very close at hand. They had no idea what the baby was going to be this time around, not that they really cared. They just wanted a healthy child. Still, when he first had the dream, Naruto had thought that maybe subconsciously he was hoping for a girl. In the dream Naruko was in labor… much to Naruto's distress, as he didn't really like the idea of seeing a female version of himself like that. Thankfully he didn't have to see much of it as it seemed the dream had started only moments before the actual birth. It wasn't long before he found out the baby was a girl, with a small tuft of blonde hair. Just before he'd woken up, Naruto had seen the date, but he hadn't thought much about it at the time. Not until Hinata had gone into labor in the wee morning hours on that very same date and he found himself holding a black haired baby girl in his arms before the day was out. It was at that point that he knew there were alternative worlds out there. Now the ridiculous of it was more focused on why the hell would he be dreaming about one of these other worlds?

Not long after that he'd decided to talk to Kurama about it; Having finally realized that the Kyuubi had never once made mention of knowing about these dreams. He knew that Kurama, since they'd become friends, actually saw bits and pieces of what he dreamed. Kurama, to his surprise, immediately confirmed that there were indeed other worlds out there, and he was most definitely dreaming about one. He even had an answer as to why. According to the Fox, Naruto had these dreams of another world as a result of being a reincarnation of Ashura, as Hagoromo and Hamura were evidently able to forge connections with alternate version of themselves from many different worlds at some point after sealing Kaguya. Kurama had gone on to say that if Naruto had never encountered Hagoromo and inherited some of the Sage's chakra, the dreams likely would have never focused in on one specific world, and probably would have stopped altogether eventually.

Apparently, since the first time Naruto had dreamed of Naruko's world was not that long after receiving Hagoromo's power, a sort of half-baked connection had been formed right then. At least, that's what Kurama figured was the reason Naruto kept dreaming about Naruko's world. When asked how the hell he knew all this, the Kyuubi had simply said he'd remembered dreaming about many different version of himself when he was still part of the Sage with his brothers, and after asking the old man had explained it to him just like that. Naruto had demanded to know why Kurama had never told him. The fox had simply said he didn't know Naruto had such a connection with another world until the man had dreamed of Naruko giving birth to her second child… at which time Kurama had had a dream of the other Kurama while Naruko was in labor.

After that Naruto found himself wondering if he could somehow come into contact with Naruko, the way Kurama described the Rikudo Sennin doing with his own alternative personas. Unfortunately Kurama had no insight on how Naruto could go about trying, so over the next few years Naruto eventually gave up on the idea, figuring he should be more focused on his upcoming inauguration as Hokage. Along with the responsibilities he would have shoulder following.

The dreams grew more vivid the closer it came to his inauguration though, right up to the day of. Although, it wasn't a dream like any of the others that had greeted him after he'd been knocked unconscious by his darling Himawari.

It was his own Mindscape, standing in front of a none too pleased, and barely conscious Kurama. As he dazedly took in this fact, and pondered at how Himawari had managed the feat, Kurama had let out a sort of mix between a displeased growl and a disoriented groan. Then He'd felt another set of eyes on him, prompting him to look to his left.

And there she was.

Word Count: 2075