Posted: May 15, 2012
Last Updated: May 15, 2012
Word Count: 1,685

Summary: Naruto is given a second chance by death and finds himself in a world both intimately familiar, and strikingly different.

This is a collection of story ideas, not a chapter fic. Each chapter is a different story.

Parallel: Naruto

Blood and Honor

It was a rare day when Death visited the mortal plane. It stood in silence surrounded by a vast, multitude of energy, moving under It, towering above, stretching across the entire world. Energy, life, was everywhere. Laying on the energy before It was a Prison—one of the last remaining. It could feel the Beast thrashing desperately against its bonds as the Prison's energy slowly faded away. Soon the Prison would join It.

The Prison was releasing a series of sounds from its mouth, speaking at though It could hear. It stared curiously at the Prison. It could not feel anger or sadness or fear from the Prison. That how most humans died. Why did this one did not feel that way?

There was, however, one strong emotion that hung around the Prison: regret. It was not the regret of a deed left undone, as most humans had, or the regret of dying too early. No, the Prison was content in those areas. But this single regret was so strong that it rose up from the Prison like an aura, its energy humming so loudly it was almost singing. Curious, It leaned down closer to the Prison and the emotion began to condense in Its mind into words It understood.

My only regret is never having a family.

How curious. It was not a new concept to It, though admittedly for It there are no new concepts, or even old ones. Orphans were far from uncommon in the violent land that humans created, and many of them had the same regret. But It had never felt it in a strong, unwavering form as the emotion that the Prison was emitting.

This human was interesting. It bared further observation. As It watched, It could see the Prison's life force attempting to spread out and escape even as it faded away. The Beast was held tight, but it too would start to fade soon. Reaching out, It touched the Prison's energy, and felt it instantly expand and grow like a wildfire. The energy latched onto to something in another plane, something familiar to it.

Death laid both hands on the mass of energy and, with a twist, removed its attachment to this plane and let it go free.

o-O-o

After everything he'd been through, there was very little that could surprise Naruto anymore. This was one of those things.

He gripped the doorframe tightly enough that the wood began to creak beneath his fingers. Fingers that were too small to be his. But that little surprise paled in comparison to the sight before him.

Uzumaki Kushina. Alive and well, and flitting about the small, unfamiliar kitchen without a care in the world as to exactly how she was alive.

She looked older than the picture of her that Naruto had seen, he noted as he watched her with an intense, unblinking gaze, drinking in all of her movements like a man dying of thirst. She moved like a seasoned kunoichi, deftly slicing up a vegetable that Naruto didn't recognize. She was in civilian clothes, but was also wearing a forehead protector, marking her as being on active duty. She flicked her long hair back with a single smooth motion. There was a bracelet on her left wrist. It was crudely made from clay, as though crafted by a child.

At last Kushina pushed all of the vegetables off the cutting board and into a pot. Then, abruptly, she whirled around to face him, pointing the knife at him while her other hand rested on her hip. "Brat! Why don't you help me instead of just standing there staring!" she demanded. But when she caught sight of the stupefied look on Naruto's face, her stern gaze fell away and her arm slowly dropped until the knife was at her side. "Naruto-kun?"

Naruto opened his mouth to say something, anything, but found that his voice was caught in his throat. He stared at her, wide-eyed and open-mouthed, unable to think, let alone move.

She crossed the distance between them in an instant. He flinched as she placed her hands gently on his shoulders. "Naruto-kun?" she repeated, concern lacing her voice. "Are you alright?"

Alright? Alright? He'd never felt so shocked, confused, lost, or so damn happy before. But he couldn't tell her that. He didn't know what he'd do if this turned out to be some demented dream and she just disappeared before his eyes. So instead he did what he always did when he wasn't sure what to do: He smiled a wide, brilliant smile.

"Of course!" he said cheerfully. "I just had a bad dream, that's all."

Kushina looked dubious, but she let her hands drop from his shoulders and nodded. Naruto doubted that she was going to let it go, but as he watched her turn back to the kitchen, he couldn't bring himself to care. She was saying something to him, probably carrying on the conversation, but his heart was pounding so loudly that he couldn't hear a word she said.

The Shinigami had done something. That was all he knew.

He'd been dying, that much he was sure of. Slowly bleeding out on the edge of a battlefield in the middle of nowhere, with no one around for miles. Not even the Kyuubi could have healed him, though it certainly had been trying. For the first time in his life though, he hadn't been afraid of death. He didn't want to die, but he had been…content. Uchiha Madara was dead and, at long last, the shinobi world had had a true chance at peace. He would have died a good death, having accomplished just about everything he wanted.

And then the Shinigami had been there, staring down at him with that ghastly face, its white robes flowing around it despite the lack of any breeze. Its black eyes had been like endless pits that Naruto was sure were going to consume him. To his mounting horror, the Shinigami had reached out to touch him, only to stop short about a foot away. And then Naruto had woken up in an unfamiliar bed in and unfamiliar house, looking as though he was twelve.

Or perhaps eleven, he thought as he caught site of a calendar hanging on the wall. Judging by the date, this was just over a year before he became a Genin. How had the Shinigami sent him here? And why?Was it punishment for being a Jinchuuriki? Or perhaps a reward, he thought as he stared at his mother.

Suddenly Naruto remembered the last words he'd spoken, just before the Shinigami had appeared. He had wished for a family, hadn't he? Had the Shinigami granted his wish?

Naruto was broken from his thoughts as his mother abruptly dropped a bowl of soup onto the table in front of him. "Eat up quickly or you'll be late for your meeting with your Genin team," she said. "You know Kakashi-kun will make your run laps if you're late again!" Naruto opened his mouth, more out of surprise than a desire to say anything, and Kushina spun around, her eyes narrowing. "And don't complain about the vegetables! They're healthy. And no, you can't eat ramen all the time."

Closing his mouth with an audible click, Naruto quickly began to down the soup, part of his mind relishing in eating a meal cooked by his mother—how could he ever complain about that?—While the rest ran quickly through the information he'd just been given. He was on a Genin team already, despite his age? Were things different in this…world, since he had a family?

A family… Naruto's eyes darted about the house, looking at the pictures on the walls. They were all of him and his mother… But not a single one of them contained the Yondaime Hokage, or any other father figure for that matter. Naruto hid his frown by lifting up his bowl and drinking straight from it. What exactly was going on?

"Done!" Naruto announced as he put the bowl back down. "I'm going to go get ready."

"Good," Kushina said. "I leave for my mission this afternoon, so I'll see you in a few days." She passed by him and casually kissed him on the cheek, a practiced motion that she'd probably done a thousand times before. But as she disappeared upstairs, Naruto was left standing frozen in shock, his mind having once again ground to a halting stop.

o-O-o

"Eh?"

Red. His hair was red. Naruto wasn't sure how many more shocks he could take this day. He stared at the mirror, turning his head back and forth to get a good look at his hair. It wasn't even a dark red like Gaara had, but bright, flaming red like his mother's hair. Naruto tugged on his hair as though to make sure it was real.

"No way!" he exclaimed. "I can't—" He stopped suddenly, frowning, and peered closer at the mirror. He could just see the red of his hair fading into blond at the roots. "My hair is…dyed?" he asked himself incredulously. Why the hell would he dye his hair?

Naruto shoved the oddity from his mind as he hurriedly finished gathering his gear and left the house. It felt weird to be wearing more "normal" shinobi gear, instead of the jumpsuits he had always worn at this age. He would have to see if he could get an orange jacket, at the very least. He would also have to figure out where to buy a jacket from, he thought as he walked down the street. Konoha was the same as he remembered, and yet so different. But he had to admit that it felt incredible to walk down its streets again.

He flinched as a vision of the ruined village as it had been after Pein's attack flashed before his eyes. He pushed the memory down with a shake of his head, and then put a bounce in his step. Whether it was his Konoha or not didn't matter, so long as it was a Konoha.

o-O-o

A/N: Very short this time. The idea is a basic canon-Naruto winding up in another universe storyline (opposite of the first story idea, actually), except that in the alternate universe the 3rd Great Shinobi War lasted nearly a decade longer than in canon, Kushina and Minato never died, and the Kyuubi was never released. Also, due to a series of events related to the war, Naruto's existence as the Yondaime's son is hidden so he lives alone with his mother, dies his hair red like hers, and has pretty limited contact with his father. I had a few different storylines planned out of this idea and I might come back to it another time. But for now… Eh.

Happy reading.

-S.R.