Chapter 2: Alone again?

I don't own Naruto, any of its characters, or any references in this story. If I did, horrible things would happen. I do own all OCs in the story.

This is my first fanfic, blah blah blah. Lots of spoilers, but I refuse to acknowledge the existence of the fillers. If you think I copied something from another fic, it depends. A small fact or trick probably is copied by accident, but big changes or powers are all me.

This is a Naru/Hina fic, but I might add another one or two girls in the mix, not Sakura. Any real form of romance won't show for a while though, and there is only a small chance of any lemon appearing ever so don't get your hopes up.

Blah blah: normal text

"blah blah": someone normal…ish talking

"blah blah" : demon or someone really pissed/overpowered talking

Blah blah: someone thinking or flashback

o. o. o.

Naruto awoke in a room too large for his own comfort. Pictures of ramen littered the walls, and a target board with the face of a certain Uchiha stuck on it was mounted on the back of the door. The floor was littered with the trademark orange jumpsuits that he was known for, and the bed he was on had more than enough lumps to feel uncomfortable. The only thing that registered with Naruto was that he was back.

Elated that he was back in a time where Konoha wasn't a hole in the ground and where the old man was still alive, Naruto cheered at the top of his lungs. "Oh yeah! I'm back, baby! WAHOOOOO!"

Of course, that was when the cold hand of reality bitch slapped our foxy hero upside the head. "Shut up, you damn demon! No one cares about you! Some people are trying to sleep!"

Yes, Naruto was back. Back before he won anyone's respect. Back before anyone truly saw him for him and not for the demon. No friends, no Kakashi, no Jiraiya, no acknowledgement, nothing.

"Sucks, doesn't it. All that hard work and no one remembers a damn thing."

Snapping out of his stupor, Naruto swung his head around, where the black and white clad immortal was lounging on the floor with his hands behind his head, seemingly staring at the ceiling.

"Don't think it's over yet. There's still something else that you have to deal with before you start to try to change the world for the better." Ghost said with an unsettling smile. "Ah, I love this part. Everyone that goes through this gets so pissed when they realize what they have to do first. Such vocabulary coming out of mouths so young. It just brightens my day."

Naruto, irritated that one of the first things that he has to deal with is Ghost, flung himself out of bed to deal with the unwanted guest.

Keyword: flung. The poor boy unintentionally threw himself into his wall, effectively imprinting his face in the plaster.

"What the hell?!" Naruto roared before he let out an impressive string of cusses while Ghost merely laughed and held his side. Who wouldn't after seeing a 12 year old throw himself into a wall face first?

"That my friend, is what happens when you stick an overpowered teenager's mind into the body of a weak pre-adolescent." Ghost explained between breaths.

"Your mind commands like you're fully-grown, but your body moves like a kid, so all the signals you give your muscles are overkill. That means that the first thing on your list of things to do is to get your motor functions working properly. Same goes for your chakra control. Your mind is used to manipulating more chakra than your current body is, so no Sage Mode and no Rasenshuriken until we get you back to peak condition. Now, I don't know what your schedule is like, but I'm pretty sure that you have to go to the academy pretty soon. Go to class, but don't change anything yet. Tell Shikamaru to meet up after school at Ichiraku's, say you know a guy that wants to play against a good shōgi player or something. I'll see you there, right now I gotta rest. Screwing around with the fabric of time and space is pretty tiring."

Naruto, regaining feeling in his face, sighed. He could tell this was going to be a long day, and was kicking himself for not seeing something like this happening sooner. No muscle control, stuck again in a village that would like nothing more than for him to disappear, taking classes with people that he once called friends now thinking he's a useless waste of space. Oh yeah, time travel kicks ass. At least by the end of the day, Shikamaru will remember. True, the guy will probably do absolutely nothing about most things, but at least Shika would treat him like a human being. Lazy bastard.

After putting on his clothes and eating breakfast (endeavors which provided Ghost with an uncomfortable amount of entertainment), Naruto managed to leave his apartment for the academy, an hour and a half late. As soon as the door closed behind him, Ghost sighed. After making sure Naruto was out of hearing range, which was pretty much after the sounds of said blonde falling down the stairs outside stopped, he spoke up.

"Glad you chose not to show up in front of him. Kid has enough on his plate right now. Having a second god-level existence in his apartment might be overkill on his brain."

Right in the middle of the kitchen, a pale spirit materialized out of thin air three feet above the ground. With a demonic face and beads in its hand, a native of this universe could easily identify the apparition as the Shinigami. The air itself became stagnant and damp, and the temperature dropped to almost freezing despite the fact that it was already in the upper seventies outside.

You have tampered in realms you should not have, mortal.

"Yes, yes, you're pissed that a crapton of souls disappeared from your realm and a few of your special trophies from your overextending gut went missing. Big whoop." Ghost replied in a bored tone, not caring at all that he was insulting the god of death to his face.

"All you afterlife types are the same. 'Oh, look at me, I control the dead! I have first dibs on all souls no questions asked. Worship the air I take place in. WORSHIP IT!' Heavens forbid I try to make things easier for you by preventing Armageddon and controlling the flow of people dying for the next century so that you won't explode from the extra work. By the way, I'm only barely mortal in any definition of the term, thanks to Zuzushi, so my soul is pretty much untouchable." At this he raised his right arm a few feet from his face, and the abyss like flame flared from it. "'Sides, it's not like I can't kick your ass if I needed to anyway."

Ghost's little tirade - while still lying down, as the lazy bastard hadn't moved a bit since Naruto woke up - shook the Shinigami up, if you consider shaken up stopping in mid-air, not growing at all, and a small twitch in its demonic face. At the mention of the name Zuzushi, the deity even stumbled back a few feet. Even if one is a god of death, being on a first name basis with the being that put pretty much all physical creation into existence was essentially impossible.

Knowing her name was one thing; to talk about her like an acquaintance, let alone receiving any sort of gift or blessing from her was in another realm of imagination. He had heard of overconfident gods from other realms that had made the mistake of speaking of her familiarly; they tended to turn up missing by the end of the century.

That, and … that fire the man was conjuring was nothing like Amaterasu's fire. Not even close. He could tell that it was something that should be avoided at any cost. Mortal, demon, god … nothing could be saved from this cursed inferno. He could tell that the person in front of him was human… but also that he was extremely powerful, in a number of ways. In short, this…being, was not one to piss off. Ever. By anyone.

Shaking his head to regain composure - something that any person or bijū would never claim to witness - the god of death continued, albeit a bit more carefully.

Be that as it may, many souls will not come to existence due to your… stunt. I demand compensation for such a travesty.

Ghost laughed, "I'm sorry, I thought you wanted a shot at finally getting that guy's soul. You would never get another chance to get your hands on the bastard the way things were going earlier, so I decided to… press the reset button, for lack of a better term. If it makes you feel any better, I'll give you a couple hundred of my links in compensation for what I did as an 'I'm sorry' gift, but that's it." As he spoke this last part, a coil of chain, despite being made of some sort of metal, quietly slithered out of the palm of his hand into a neat pile in front of the visiting god. Picking up one end of the chain the Shinigami gasped.

You… You're…

"Yes, I am. And I would appreciate it if word of me being here doesn't reach anyone's ears." The man interrupted sternly, which was out of his relaxed character, before calming down again and relaxing on the ground. "If that is all the business you have, you may go. But before you do… whatever the hell you omnipotent types do, tell me the foundation of the seal you put on the kid. Rumor has it that it's supposed to leak the fur ball's chakra into his system in small increments, but something seems kinda off to me. All the other jinchūriki that I've seen or heard about had at least some control of what they were doing while using their tenant's power, and a couple had some nice secondary abilities."

The ghost-like apparition nodded slowly before answering.

Your concerns are well founded. The seal is not supposed to leak chakra into the child's system. It is supposed to filter the chakra into the boy. Unfortunately, both the mortal known as the Fourth Hokage and, by association I, were pressed for time, and were rushed when conducting the ritual.

"Haha, you suck." Ghost chuckled childishly.

Quiet, you. The god of death chided before continuing. The result of our mistake was an inefficient filtering system that stopped working properly years ago, an error subtle enough that it can be easily overlooked by even the most experienced seal masters in this realm. The child would not have survived if it failed even a month earlier.

Unexpectedly, as a result of his body adapting to the demonic taint in the unfiltered chakra, his already impressive reserves are several times larger than they were originally supposed to be. So for example, where a normal ninja his age would have 100 units of chakra, his chakra was supposed to be 250 units without the Kyūbi, due to his genetics and current lifestyle. With a working seal, it would be roughly 500 units of chakra, which is already quite high. But with his seal the way it is, his reserves are currently at 2000 units, if not higher, which would roughly be the level of an elite jōnin. Unfortunately, this long-term, direct exposure to demonic chakra has had an adverse effect on his intelligence, which in turn affected his ability to control his chakra adequately.

Ghost nodded in comprehension before motioning for the god to continue his explanation.

His 'power', as you should have guessed by now, is his increased healing rate. However, it is nothing compared to what it should be. Its true potential is being restrained by the unfiltered taint in his system. Mere scratches should be healed in seconds, if not in a second. Poisons and chemicals of a similar nature would have little to no effect on his body. Broken limbs would be healed within hours, missing limbs would regenerate within days, and only the most grievous of mortal wounds would be able to kill the boy. The rate of healing would increase even further if he applied more chakra to the general area of the wound. Now, this power only truly activates when he is relying on the fox's chakra in large quantities, and even then the dense concentrations of corrupted chakra poison him, trading short term healing for long term cellular damage. In addition to that, with a fixed seal his eyesight and sense of smell might develop to better match the potency of its prisoner.

As for why the chakra is so corrupted compared to the other beasts, I believe you already have some sort of idea.

Ghost chuckled. "Damn, I knew the kid had messed up luck in general, but this just is nuts. Even without a bloodline he still ends out on top, yet is cursed at the same time. I honestly think he might be related to me in some distant way. Anyone who wins and loses that badly at the same time has to be. The second the seal is set straight, the kid will be a powerhouse compared to the standard in this world. Change his clothing a little bit and give him a bit more social experience and the lucky bastard will be picking up girls left and right." He paused before putting on a perverted grin. "You just can't find women who do more kinky stuff than a kunoichi these days. I mean there was this one time a couple centuries ago where a few ninja chicks and I got together, snagged a shit ton of silk rope, a few knives, and…"

Stop! I don't want to know. The god shouted in a rather panicked tone. Ghost chuckled. If you can fix the seal, do as you wish. It does not concern me anymore. As for your… tribute, I will accept it. Farewell… envoy of Zuzushi... it was interesting to finally meet the Cursed Memory in person.

As the pale god faded from view, Ghost sighed and turned to his side, and instantly fell asleep.

o. o. o.

At the Hyūga estate:

Hinata woke up in her bed, sweating profusely. Most dreams, she could only remember bits and pieces, melting away like so many snowflakes. This time was different. What she could remember was that unlike most of her dreams about Naruto, which left her hot and sweaty (Oh, the possibilities …), this one was terrifying. Getting her dream journal out from under her bed, she turned to the last page, desperately trying to remember the few facts that remained in her head and even more desperately trying not to read earlier… submissions.

Grabbing a pen, the heiress quickly jotted down what she remembered.

Red clouds under a black sky surrounded a nine tailed fox, ripping it out of its cage. The fox and the cage both were screaming in pain as an eye in the clouds laughed in victory before turning its attention to the moon. Suddenly, a black fire claimed all, and nothing remained as an infinite number of swords chained together danced in the abyss. Naruto was in this dream, but he was in danger for some reason. Can't remember why. This dream was different. Look into this later.

Sighing, Hinata hid her book again between the mattresses of her bed. She had some special privacy seals that she had managed to copy from the clan's storage building set up on the four corners of the bed and the book so that she wouldn't have to worry about someone from her family sneaking into her room and 'accidentally' finding it, much less reading the pages. If word got out that the Hyūga heiress was having such… detailed dreams, much less with the boy that everyone in the village seems to hate, she would get the Caged Bird Seal slapped on her forehead in an hour.

Getting into her usual attire, black skintight shorts that go down to her knees, a mesh-wire shirt under a black tee shirt under a large tan baggy sweater, the young heiress sighed as she took in her mature figure for not the first time. The sweater she started to wear after she started to develop in the chest area, being very self-conscious about her physical appearance, and scared that if boys start to ask her out that she wouldn't have a chance at getting Naruto later. Not that being a 'princess' in a family of people who did nothing but stare at everyone menacingly all day with intimidating eyes didn't deter enough boys as it is.

The morning was the usual routine, despite the odd dream she initially had: wake up, take shower, get dressed, eat breakfast and ignore the menacing glares from the main house and elders, walk to the main entrance while ignoring the depressing stares from the branch house, leave the compound of hell with her escort Kurenai, who had apparently just been promoted to jōnin, and go to the academy.

Hinata was still mulling over her nightmare and Naruto. The exams were the previous day and he had failed for a second time, barely producing a single zombie-like clone, let alone three functional ones. Even though he grinned like it was a joke afterwards and shrugged it off as a 'mere setback for the future Hokage', she could tell he was taking it hard. Hinata long ago discovered that her crush's happy go lucky attitude was merely a mask to hide his real emotions.

The things a person can discover from stalking… er… observing, yeah, observing. There's nothing illegal about observing.

On his way back home from the academy, when he thought no one was watching, Naruto dropped his mask. There were no tears. For as long as she could remember Hinata had never seen him cry, but there was a sadness and depression in his eyes that could not be mistaken for anything else. Hinata could only watch as he continued his way back to his rundown apartment, not even bothering to go train his usual daily five hours in one of the abandoned training grounds. She did not want to intrude on one of his private moments, yet she cursed herself for not being strong enough to help him.

Arriving at school, Hinata got to her place in the back of the classroom to avoid attention, being the first person there aside from some random civilian students (cough*cannon fodder*cough) and Shino. Slowly, the classroom filled out. Sasuke took his seat by the window and assumed his 'I don't care about anything' ™ pose, while Shikamaru and Chōji came in soon after and sat next to each other a few rows down. Soon afterwards, Kiba came in, yelling almost as loudly as Naruto would. While Hinata liked Kiba as a friend and thought that his puppy Akamaru was cute, the Inuzuka went overboard with his confidence more often than not and got into too many people's faces too often. That and he recently seemed to hit puberty (and noticed women existed) and was often having trouble keeping his 'dog' in check. It took two weeks for Hinata to get the idea through that she was not interested in the Inuzuka heir before he turned his sights on Ino. That courting attempt ended in three hours and an assault from the furious blonde and her group of friends. Poor fool had to spend the rest of the week recovering in the hospital from that incident and listening to his mother and sister chew him out about how to treat women.

The room was almost full when said blonde and her pink haired rival/compatriot burst through the doors screaming at the top of their lungs about who got in first. Since Sasuke sat at the end of a row, there was only one chair next to him, so it became the prize of his official fan girl club every day for the leading member who got to class first. (Yes, official. They have t-shirts, bi-weekly meetings and events, sign in slips with their pictures on it, and the annual Sasuke fantasy story contest). Of course, the only members who were recognized as the leaders were Sakura and Ino, as anyone else was too scared to try to go up against them, but that's beside the point.

Hinata had mixed feelings about Sakura. On one hand, the pink head was loud, confident, smart, and popular, yet she was never mean to Hinata and would sometimes chat with her. She knew of Hinata's crush on Naruto, yet never really said anything about it. This could be interpreted either way, but Hinata was willing to give Sakura the benefit of the doubt. On the other hand, the large foreheaded bitch had the love of her crush and didn't really do anything about it aside from give him a concussion several times a day. Hinata was pretty sure that Naruto suffered some sort of brain damage after the years of constant beatings, which resulted in his inability to pass the exams. Once again, Hinata felt incompetent for the fact that she did nothing while Naruto took beating after beating and yet kept coming for more.

Hinata was stewing in her guilt when Iruka and Mizuki stepped into the classroom.

Naruto wasn't there.

o. o. o.

With Naruto:

Yep, he called it. So far, this day sucked. After falling down the stairs outside his apartment complex, Naruto struggled to get up with his 'short' limbs and his more than shoddy sense of balance.

After re-learning how to walk, an endeavor that took over twenty minutes with a crowd of people watching him with uncomfortable looks on their faces, Naruto slowly made his way to the academy taking steps that were way too big for someone his size. This resulted in several falls into alleyways and trash cans.

By the time he actually made it to the classroom, he was over three hours late and smelled like a cross between a dirty diaper and compost, both of which (and more) he'd managed to roll around in by accident at one point that morning. Needless to say, he wasn't the only one in a sour mood when he walked in the classroom. Surprisingly enough, he was so pissed at that point that he didn't really care that Sasuke was in the classroom and not as evil as he was the last time Naruto saw him. Of course that was a given, with time traveling and all, but Naruto was more preoccupied with trying to move his body in an agreeable manner, smelling like a conglomerate of dead… everything than marvel that his (ex?) teammate wasn't trying to kill him.

The rest of the class didn't fare much better. Everyone stayed as far away as possible from the orange clad loudmouth situated in the back row - who was surprisingly quiet for once It took thirty minutes for Iruka (bless his naive heart) to finally lose his patience and throw Naruto into one of the gym showers with a bar of soap and tell him that he wasn't allowed back in the classroom until he and his clothes smelled remotely decent.

Which of course took another hour and a half to accomplish.

By the time he got out, half the lunch period had passed, Naruto remembered that he didn't bring any food or money, and he couldn't find Shikamaru, not like he was trying to at this point. While this wasn't the first time such an event had happened to the blonde, it did nothing to help his mood, so he just walked/fell towards one of the trees on the grounds and closed his eyes before he killed someone (Mizuki).

By the time lunch was over, Naruto's mood had slightly improved. Not smelling like multiple versions of death anymore and a decent nap can do that to a person. He was still hungry though.

Waddling into the classroom again, he finally got a good look around the classroom and thought somewhat clearly about his current situation. In this point in time, Sakura, Ino and Sasuke wouldn't give him the right time of day even if he tried to be polite, which made him slightly wince in emotional pain. Shino would think something was wrong the second Naruto tried to strike up a conversation with him, and would try to figure out why since the two never really hung out much, even in the future. That would probably change something too early for Naruto's comfort.

Looking around, he spotted Kiba. Dog breath was all right, but he was too loud and annoying to deal with at the moment. Plus, the mutt's sensitive nose probably still smells some diaper residue on his jumpsuit, so interaction with the Inuzuka is currently on hold until further notice. A row below the dog lover was the day's target and his fa-… significantly larger friend. Thinking about it now, Naruto realized that the Nara and the Akimichi weren't all that bad during childhood. Even before he started to evolve into the awesome ninja that he is/was/will be, Shikamaru and Chōji never really gave him that much crap about something unless he deserved it, and even then it wasn't really that bad. Hell, the two occasionally provided a distraction when he was running from some ANBU after a major prank. He occasionally tried to get them to help him in one of his works of art (somewhere in Iwa, a blonde missing-nin sneezed from several places, causing the hotel that he was in to explode violently), but the two always would decline and get back to watching clouds.

Snapping out of his stupor, Naruto realized that almost all the seats were gone, minus some in the back row (a few of the chairs still smelled from being around Naruto so long). The only chairs that were safe were the two in the back right corner. Situated in one was of course, Hinata.

Naruto's relationship with Hinata had taken its first few steps after the fight with Pain. To be perfectly honest, the jinchūriki was not taking things well with Danzō as Hokage and Sasuke being Sasuke. He had been restricted to being staying inside the village, which meant that the only missions he could do were D-ranks and some very rare C-ranks that dealt with some reasonably classified information. Hinata pretty much became his anchor to reality and stability as soon as their relationship finally got off the ground, which was to say after their first date at the recently remade Ichiraku's. Due to his newfound status as the village hero, gaining permission from the Hyūga elders to court Hinata was only slightly less difficult than trying to keep Tsunade from her morning booze. Painful and extremely dangerous, but definitely doable. While their relationship in that time did not get that far, due the chaos that was pretty much happening 24/7, their trust and love for each other grew to, in many eyes, uncomfortable levels.

Starting from square one again with Hinata was pretty much the worst thing for Naruto, but he remembered what Ghost said about Hinata and reluctantly agreed. Showing any sort of real interest in the Hyūga Heiress in public right now would screw everything up and would result in an unnecessary amount of suffering and stress for the both of them. Hinata had told him in the future about how the elders and her father would demean her and often threaten her with the Caged Bird Seal if she did not improve. It was only after Naruto beat her cousin Neji in the Chūnin Exams that her father started to lighten up on her and teach her effectively, as well as protect her somewhat from the other elders, and even then it was difficult to deal with the overall situation at times. Because of that, and being her inspiration for improving herself, Hinata told him she felt like she'd won the lottery. Seeing her suffer, and actually knowing she was suffering this time around was going to be too much for him to bear had Naruto not remembered what Ghost said earlier.

"Hell, I'll even make it so that you get that Hyūga chick and not get in trouble with the councils for it. Girl has a figure to kill for, and it was obvious that she has the hots for you."

Ignoring that side comment, Naruto had to put faith into Ghost. The guy already turned back time for him, how much harder was it for the guy to get his girlfriend back?

As he sat himself next to Hinata, he turned to her and smiled. A real smile. Hinata in turn did a wonderful imitation of a tomato and proceeded to pass out.

The blonde chuckled to himself before telling Iruka that Hinata had fainted 'for no reason at all'. Maybe this time around, things wouldn't be as bad as he thought.

o. o. o.

Back in Naruto's apartment:

Ghost groaned as he picked himself off of the floor and rubbed the sides of his head before going over everything he knew about the new world he was visiting in his head. "Even gods make mistakes. Ngh. Fixing a filter seal, okay, no problem. That's easy for my level of sealing with my other skills. The kid is seriously lucky that the Shinigami was the one that made his seal, otherwise I would have had to get Scab or Crypt here to look at him in order to fix it… and I seriously doubt that them being here so early would make things easier for any of us. Seeing as he has more chakra than he originally was supposed to, I suppose I can make it filter more chakra than it is now to compensate a little bit. That's easy. As for dealing with the missing half of the fur ball, and giving the kid a few additional foxy features… that's Crypt's job. After that, Blondie can be introduced to the training called 'stay away from the Midget', heheh."

Ghost then sighed, "No way I'm good enough to deal with that level of sealing, though. Harnessing and fusing energy and genetic material from an incomplete spiritual holy class deity to a human container? That's level 8 stuff at least. No way am I touching that." Looking at the nearby clock that Naruto had more than likely chucked against the wall several times, Ghost saw it was an hour 'til it was time to meet Naruto at Ichiraku's.

Getting up and walking to the door, Ghost could only chuckle to himself. "It's almost time."

He opened the door and basked in the sunlight. As he did so, his elongated image on the floor took the form of a reptile like being with bone wings.

"May the game of shadows begin."

o. o. o.

A/N: If anyone wants to beta this, please let me know. I already have several other chaps made, but I need another proofreader to make sure the job is done right.

Bonus points to anyone who can guess what that last line is based off of.