Homunculus
Note: After posting the prologue, I felt inspired, and immediately started working on this chapter. I hope you like it.
As Naruto jumped from building to building he couldn't help but smile. He loved feeling young, that was perhaps the only nice thing every time he woke up 12 years old again. Going to sleep as a tired and aching old man then waking up in a vigorous young body was pleasing in a way that you really had to live several times to appreciate.
As he drew close to the Academy, Naruto jumped down into the street and began walking down the familiar path, almost cheery. He went through cycles. Some lives he felt very jaded and tired, and others he felt fresh, like a painter in front of a new canvas. That thought made him perk up. Maybe he'd take up painting this time, it'd been a while since he'd been a painter...
Without really paying that much attention, Naruto walked into the classroom and took a seat.
"Oi," he heard Kiba from across the room. "Only people that passed were supposed to come today Naruto." He turned and smiled at the boy. Kiba was a good friend, just a bit difficult to get close to.
"That's why I'm here!" he said, flashing the boy a smile and adjusting his forehead protector.
"But..." Kiba began to sputter, "you failed the exam yesterday!" Everyone in the room was looking at Naruto now, some with curious expressions and others with disgust. Ah, yeah, always with the disgust this early in life.
Kiba felt a tap on his shoulder and turned around only to see a smiling Naruto. He recoiled.
"When did you get behind me!?" He looked back at the Naruto across the classroom. "Clone?"
Naruto just smiled wider.
"Nope! I'm the real one! That's the clone!"
Kiba turned back around and cautiously touched the clone, only to feel a solid Naruto.
"What kind... of clone is this?" Kiba asked, a bit in awe. "It's solid." That got everyone's attention. Even Sasuke glanced up from the front of the room.
"Shadow Clone," Naruto replied. "They're solid but one good hit dispels them. Go ahead and punch it." Kiba hesitated for a moment before giving the clone a solid blow. It disappeared in a puff of smoke.
"Last night," Naruto started, "there was... a special set of circumstances. Anyway, it led to me learning the Shadow Clone technique, but it's such a dangerous technique that the Hokage made me promise to never tell anyone how I learned it." He was stretching the truth just a bit, but that was okay.
Kiba chuckled a bit. "Why would learning a clone technique of all things be dangerous?"
"Because," Naruto said, "this one uses so much chakra that even jounin have trouble making more than 2 or 3 at a time. For most ninja at our skill level, trying would kill them."
"Well how can you make one then?" Shikamaru asked, jumping in. That boy was sharp, it wouldn't be long without any help before he figured quite a bit out. Naruto was passed trying to hide much though. These days he just sort of went with the flow.
"There are some special reasons that I have a lot of a chakra. More than... well more than anyone else in the village." Naruto grinned.
Shikamaru raised an eyebrow, and everyone else was silent. These kinds of outlandish claims were pretty common for Naruto, but today... today he was so calm, so collected and so eloquent, that it seemed to everyone like he might be telling the truth.
"I don't suppose you want to tell us about those special reasons?" Kiba asked, more curious now than anything.
"Another time," Naruto said. "Iruka is about to get here."
As soon as he finished his sentence, before anyone could even say anything, the door opened and Iruka walked in. Everyone stared at Iruka for a few moments than looked at Naruto with a wide variety of expressions; most of them simply surprised.
Naruto chuckled as he turned toward the first person to ever truly believe in him. Well, that he knew about at the time that is. Hinata was an entirely different matter.
"Why don't you guys start off by introducing yourselves?" Kakashi said dully. "Your likes, dislikes, hobbies and dreams."
"Um, sensei," Sakura spoke up right on cue, "could you go first to show us how it's done?"
"Sure. My name is Hatake Kakashi. I like... hmm, I dislike... my hobbies... there, now you guys go." He pointed at Sakura. "You first, pinkie."
Sakura went through the same introduction she always did. Naruto grinned. She really turns into a powerful and independent kunoichi, but you'd never guess it from their first day.
"And you, the orange one."
"My name is Uzumaki Naruto," he started. "I like many things, but mostly what I like is being surprised. I dislike..." he paused. He always had to catch himself here. Saying 'I dislike living' didn't exactly go over well with anyone. "I guess what I dislike is sameness. Monotony. That sort of thing. My hobbies include, well... lots of things. And I suppose that my dream is to live past the age of 87."
Sakura and Sasuke both looked at him strangely but Kakashi, in true shinobi fashion, showed no outward response.
"And you," Kakashi said, pointing to Sasuke, who as always went through his rather gloomy self-assessment. "Wonderful," Kakashi said, smiling under his mask. "I sure have an interesting batch of genin this year. Meet tomorrow at Training Ground 7 and be there by 8 AM. Oh and one more thing... don't eat any breakfast, you'll just throw it up."
And with that he was gone. Naruto sighed. He could never really introduce much variety into the first day, at least before the team meeting, but now that it was over... Sakura and Sasuke both got up to leave, and Naruto quickly debated about just what sort of life he wanted to craft this time through.
Well, it had been a while since he'd done what he liked to call an "honest" run. Maybe it was time for one of those.
"Sakura, Sasuke. Let's go get some lunch, my treat."
"Tchya," Sakura scoffed, "Why would we want to come eat lunch with you, loser!" Sasuke just stared at him intently. No doubt the way he had behaved so far today was piquing Sasuke's interest.
"Because, Sakura, I have a story to tell both of you. We're teammates now, and that means we shouldn't have many secrets." Naruto grinned confidently. The ease that he exuded really threw both of the others off. "Trust me, you'll be glad that you listened to what I have to say."
Sakura turned to check with Sasuke, but the raven-haired boy was completely focused on Naruto now.
"Alright," he finally said. With him going Sakura agreed quickly, and they walked down the street. After a few minutes of walking in silence, Sakura finally couldn't take it anymore.
"So where are we going Naruto?" she asked. They weren't headed towards any restaurants that she knew of, and they weren't even heading to that stupid ramen shack that the blond hung out at all the time.
"Ah, well you see, I'm kind of poor. Being an orphan does that. It doesn't help that all the villagers hate me quite a bit, so we're going to my place. I sent out some Shadow Clones this morning while we were waiting for Kakashi to do some grocery shopping, and they should have lunch ready by the time we get there." They both stared at him with various degrees of incredulity flitting across their faces. He smiled. "Besides, what I'm going to tell you guys today includes two S-class village secrets. We can't have anyone eavesdropping, and I can secure my apartment."
That put an end to any other questions or conversation, but they were definitely interested. They always were when he did one of these, Naruto reflected.
As they came to the front door Sakura reached for the handle, but Naruto grabbed her wrist to stop her.
"No, let me," he said. He bit his thumb and went through several hand seals before pressing his palm against the door. A large seal array burned black, then red, then white, before fading away. He turned and smiled at her. "It wouldn't have been very pleasant for you if you'd activated the security seals."
"Where did you learn that?" Sasuke asked pointedly. That had been some very advanced seal work.
"Wait until we're sitting down," Naruto replied, ushering them into the apartment. They walked in and glanced around. It was a fairly normal, small apartment, except for the three Naruto clones over by the stove. Whatever they were cooking though smelled amazing.
The original walked over to the small table and pulled out two chairs.
"Come, sit down. Lunch is almost ready."
They cautiously took their seats, and a few moments of silence passed before Sakura finally spoke up.
"What's going on Naruto? You're acting strange." She sounded much less sure of herself than before.
"He might not be Naruto," Sasuke offered. "He might be a spy."
"Young people are always so impatient," Naruto said, seemingly to no one. Before either of them could protest though, the three clones placed three separate dishes in front of each of them.
Sakura was served a Strawberry Glazed Salmon with an herb salad, Sasuke got a big bowl of Tomato Bisk with Cheese Bread, and in front of Naruto the clones placed a plate of what looked like assorted sushi.
"This..." Sakura looked at the plate in front of her, stunned. "This is my favorite dish. Exactly the way my mom makes it!" She grabbed a fork, took a quick bite and her eyes bulged. "This is the best I've ever tasted!"
"How did you know I like tomato?" Sasuke asked quietly. He seemed much more hesitant to touch the meal. Naruto swallowed the sushi piece in his mouth.
"It's not poisoned, Sasuke. Go ahead and eat, it's time for me to tell both you my story." Without any movement or indication three brand new clones popped into existence and went to different parts of the room, activating some seals that had been hidden. Within moments they were finished, and immediately Naruto's expression relaxed into what could only be described as bored indifference.
"The first secret that I have to tell you," Naruto began as the other two ate, "is one that only I can tell you. Well, me or the Hokage. If anyone else were to tell either of you, they would be subject to execution." Both of them stopped eating at that.
"I'm a jinchuuriki," he started, "which means I have one of the Tailed Beasts sealed inside of me." He lifted up his shirt and channeled some chakra, exposing the seal on his stomach. "The Fourth, for some reasons I won't go into right now, didn't have the energy to properly seal the Kyuubi, so he used a forbidden sealing technique that cost him is life, and sealed the demon into me."
He paused to give them a moment to jump in, but they just sat there, shocked. So he continued.
"Because of the death of the Fourth, things were very chaotic right after the sealing, and a proper explanation was never given to the village. Many of them view me as the Kyuubi itself, although if that were true I would have destroyed this village long ago." He waved his hand in a dismissive manner. "But anyway, in order to protect me, or at least try to give me something like a normal life, the Third passed a law after becoming Hokage again forbidding anyone except for the Hokage or me to reveal that I was a jinchuuriki. That meant that no one in our generation knew why everyone hated me... but a lot of them disliked me anyway.
"I guess it was the right decision. It was the best that Jii-san could do, anyway. But because of that my whole life I've dealt with things like running from mobs of people trying to capture me, not being able to buy things from stores... stuff like that. I'm not allowed in most restaurants." Naruto's expression hardened. "Neither of you may ever tell anyone about this though. The law is still in effect, and you'll be executed if you do."
The room was silent and still for several moments.
"I see," Sasuke said. "That... makes some sense."
"Is that why you were always pulling pranks?" Sakura asked. The follow up question that she didn't ask hung in the air where everyone heard it, even though it hadn't been said: 'is that why you're so annoying all the time?'
Naruto chuckled.
"For most of my life I didn't know about the Kyuubi either. Not until, relatively, last night. I pulled pranks because... well because it sucks growing up so alone, with no friends. A lot the time people just pretended I didn't exist. But everyone stopped pretending I didn't exist when I pulled a good prank!" His smile faded. "But yeah, indirectly, that's why I was always pulling pranks."
"Oh," Sakura replied, looking down at her plate and poking at her food. She felt sort of bad for how hard she'd been on him all these years now.
"Is that why you have all that chakra you were talking about?" Sasuke asked pointedly. Sakura looked back up at Naruto, curious about the answer.
"Sort of," he said. "Having the Kyuubi sealed inside me gives me a lot of extra chakra, yes, and the seal is designed to allow me to pull some chakra out. But I'm also an Uzumaki. You guys probably don't know much about the Uzumaki, but they were a clan from Hidden Whirlpool, back before the Second Shinobi War, and they were known for many things, one of them being their very large chakra reserves." Naruto took out a kunai and sliced his hand, channeling chakra to close it. "Another being their amazing healing abilities. Having the Kyuubi makes my healing abilities even stronger. It would take quite a bit to kill me."
Naruto glanced between them.
"Why are you telling us all of this?" Sasuke asked.
"Well..." Naruto started, drawing the word out. "The short answer to that is that we are on a team now, and knowing about me will help both of you stay alive and succeed. Any time you don't know something important about your allies, lives can easily be lost."
Sasuke nodded.
"Naruto?" Sakura said softly. "What happened last night? You're so... different. It's like you're a completely different person now."
Naruto's face instantly fell into his ninja mask of calm, startling both of his teammates. He looked between them.
"Last night, from your perspective, I stole the Forbidden Scroll from the Hokage Tower under orders from Mizuki, the academy teacher. He told me that if I could steal it without being caught and learn one technique from it, that I could become a ninja even though I failed the genin exam.
"It was from that scroll that I learned the Shadow Clone. I didn't realize at the time just how difficult the technique was supposed to be. It usually takes experienced ninja quite a while to learn the technique, but I learned it in a few hours, only to discover that Mizuki was a traitor, and that there was no extra test. He had me steal the scroll so that he could take it from me and defect from the village with it, delivering it to Orochimaru, a Konoha Missing Nin."
He let that sink in, and seeing no objections from them, continued.
"But that actually isn't the reason that I seem so different. This brings me to the second S-Class secret. This is a secret that no one else knows right now. Not Kakashi-sensei, not the Hokage... no one. And for now, it needs to stay that way.
"I am not the Naruto that you went to school with yesterday. I am a Naruto from the future... sort of."
"You can't be serious," Sasuke interjected with a groan. "From the future? C'mon Naruto, you've pulled better pranks than this."
"Let me finish," Naruto said simply, his face completely serious. Neither of his teammates said anything for a few seconds so he pressed on. "I'm not exactly from the future. I've simply lived many lifetimes. You see, every time my life ends, whether it's in a battle of some kind, because I get sick and die, or because I just grow old, I wake up again on this morning. I'm not exactly from the future. I've just lived thousands of different futures."
Sasuke's eyes widened. "The seal..." he muttered. "That's how you knew the seal on your apartment door."
Naruto nodded. "It's difficult to really express to you how much time I've lived through. I've experienced more years during my lifetimes than humans have existed. I've lived hundreds of thousands of years worth of lives. Over and over. Sometimes I decide to be a ninja, sometimes I don't. This time I did."
They both looked at him with the most shocked expressions on their faces.
"Doesn't..." Sakura started. "Doesn't that get... boring?"
"Of course. Remember what I said at the team introductions? I hate experiencing the same things over and over and over."
"Why do you keep doing it then? Going back I mean."
Naruto looked at her annoyed for a second before sighing and relaxing. "I've spent thousands of years trying to figure out why this is happening to me. As far as I can tell there's no reason, it just happens, and it always will happen. I've tried to end it." He paused. "Nothing stops it. I gave up even trying so long ago that I don't even know the number of lifetimes. At this point I've seen and done just about everything. Who knows? Maybe I'm actually in hell, and a literal eternity without rest is my punishment. I haven't given it much thought in millennia."
"How can you prove that what you're saying is true?" Sasuke asked, still sounding skeptical. Naruto turned and stared directly at him.
"After a while it will become the only thing you can really think of that explains all of the skills and knowledge that I have. At that point, you won't even have a shred of doubt. But from experience, Sasuke, I know that this is the thing that is most convincing to you:
"Itachi, when he spared you, told you to hate him and one day when you were strong enough, to come kill him. Since then you've spent your entire life trying to gain power in order to kill your brother that killed your clan."
The look of utter and pure shock on Sasuke's face was fixed like a mask.
"But that's something that several people in this village could tell you, because they know about it. So instead, I'll add this: despite the intense amount of loathing you have for your brother, at this moment your greatest fear is that you'll never be able to hate him enough to kill him."
Sasuke stood up and stumbled backward as if he'd been struck, before turning around and running out of the apartment, his half-finished meal completely forgotten. Sakura was shocked on so many levels that she couldn't react immediately, and by the time she could, she wasn't even sure how to react.
"Naruto?" she asked quietly. "Do... you know something about me? That would guarantee I believe you?"
Naruto turned to her, his blue eyes seeming to pierce through her, before he replied.
"Your father used to call you kitten when you were very little, and you hated the nickname, but ever since your brother was killed on a mission when you were five, a brother you've never told anyone else about, he hasn't called you by that name, and secretly you wish that he would call you kitten again, even just once."
Sakura's reaction wasn't much better than Sasuke's as she reeled back before crumpling to the floor, crying. Her brother. No one talked about her brother, not even her parents. Especially not her parents. Naruto grimaced and got up, walking over towards her.
"I'm sorry Sakura. I know that you don't like thinking about your brother much, but he was the original reason you wanted to become a ninja, and I know this is the only way you'll believe me right away."
She looked up at him through her tears and saw the genuine compassion on his face, and for her she immediately knew he was telling the truth. She reached out and grabbed him, sobbing into his shoulders for a few minutes, before quieting down and slowly letting go.
"Naruto..."
"No, Sakura. Right now talking to me isn't what you need. Stand up, walk out the door and enjoy the rest of the day to yourself. Tomorrow we can talk more if you want, but for today I know that you'll be better off if you have some alone time."
Her mouth snapped shut and she nodded dumbly. She stood up in a daze and walked over to his front door before stopping and turning back to face him.
"Naruto, I'm sorry," she said. "For... how I treated you. All these years."
To her utter amazement he laughed and just shook his head.
"Thank you, Sakura, but at the time I really deserved it. Go on, I'll see you tomorrow."
She nodded, closing the door behind her as she left. Naruto went back over to the table and started eating his sushi again.
"I guess tomorrow I'll decide about what to tell Kakashi," he mused out loud. "Although... it's always so much more fun when it's just the three of us."
Note: Reviews and comments appreciated. This really is a very different take on time-travel than most Naruto stories. He's not too concerned with how particular events play out inherently, just if he's trying to do something specific with a particular life. From his perspective everyone else gets to make the choices they want to make, and they end up having multiple chances to make those choices.
Sasuke, Haku, Sarutobi... sometimes they live and sometimes they die. But from his timeless perspective that's how it works for everyone. He's even joined the bad guys before, just for variety. So don't expect this to be a story about me having Naruto "fix" his mistakes.
As I noted in the prologue, Naruto already successfully lived a life where he fixed everything that he wanted to.