AN: Alright, first update to Chaos! Please note the time skip, this chapter will be mostly explaining what has happened and the characters now. I hope you enjoy the first actual chapter of Chaos.
Chapter 1: Changes of Time
Naruto Uzumaki walked down the streets of Konoha with a smile on his face and his hands in his pockets. Every once and a while a person would pass by and say a kind hello, to which Naruto always responded in kind. He walked right past the ramen stand he had once ate every meal at, giving a fond wave to the old man who ran it and his daughter. He whistled a tune as he walked through the village. It was a beautiful day. The birds were chirping, the sun was shining, large fluffy clouds that wouldn't produce rain flew lazily through the sky, and Naruto had just returned from another mission, a success as usual.
The simple C and B missions Tsunade was giving him he did single handedly these days, which was good, because he didn't have a team anyway. Six years changes things…
Naruto Uzumaki had grown up in the six years since the destruction of the Akatsuki and Orochimaru. Now, at the still young age of twenty two, he was over six foot tall and more muscular. Of course, the muscles came from his training. Lee and Naruto had grown to be close friends over the past six years and Naruto had learned many things from him, ways to train, ways to fight, how to win without ninjutsu or genjutsu. It had been an uphill battle, but only one year ago Naruto had regained his jonin status using only taijutsu and left handed rasengans.
Left handed rasengans were all he managed to come by. Everything else he did, besides putting chakra into his legs, came from pure physical ability. It had been difficult to relearn the rasengan… especially without the aid of kage bunshins, but he had done it. Ninjutsu was out of his abilities now, not able to put chakra into his right arm meant hand signs were meaningless. Actually, they were worse then meaningless. He had once, in the weeks after the incident, forgotten his injury and attempted to summon a frog. He had been put in the hospital for days due to the pain; causing him to not be able to sleep for days. To put it mildly, attempting ninjutsu had almost killed him. The pain had been similar to having his arm on fire, frozen, being stuck with needles, cut off, made to explode, and being crushed at the same time. It had been so much pain he thought that he should have died, or at least passed out, but unconsciousness did not grace him until the fourth day. He had learned that lesson the hard way.
But that was behind him. He had come to accept his limitations. No longer being nearly invincible due to the Kyuubi forced him to learn how to dodge. No longer being able to use his best jutsu forced him to become a master of taijutsu. No longer being able to become Hokage based on his previous power made him create a new power, a new Naruto, that had a chance at becoming Hokage. He used to claim that he would be the youngest Hokage ever, but his new saying was that he would be the first Hokage with only one ninjutsu and nothing else but taijutsu. Originally, though, that had not been his plan…
Naruto trudged home from the training grounds. He had been given his inheritance as the Hokage's son, so he could afford an actual "home", not the apartment he had heard compared to a closet with a bathroom. His trademark smile no longer graced his face, but it wasn't exactly a frown either. He had just finished learning how to open the first gate, but after learning the principles behind it, learned that it would most likely put him in the hospital for months. The chakra would probably cause his arm to explode…
Naruto passed by the ramen stand, knowing that he had to actually make something healthy to eat. He smiled a little at the thought. If there had been one thing about his new life that he loved, it was her. The little girl he had saved from the Akatsuki had been told that she would be sent to an orphanage, which, naturally, caused her to cry. Naruto had been there, being that he was the only person she really knew besides Hinata and "Kakashi-oji-san".
And everyone knew how crying girls made Naruto feel. Tears in general needed to be stopped at every turn, they were worse enemies to Naruto then the Akatsuki had been. So… he had told Tsunade that he would take care of her. This, of course, caused the girl to jump around in joy and Tsunade to smile, which made Naruto realize that his response was exactly what she had wanted from him. So now Naruto was the proud adopted father of a eight year old girl, and he was just eighteen. The girl's name had been decided by both her and Tsunade. And so, Naruto Uzumaki was now the parental guardian of Momoko Uzumaki.
He had learned early on that having a kid was a lot of responsibility. But with the help from various kind people, such as Hinata and Kakashi, he had learned to keep a good house. Whenever he was on a mission he would leave Momo with Hinata or, only rarely, Kakashi. He just didn't need to explain to Momo why her adopted uncle had books containing images of naked women and men in interesting poses. No, that would be very… very... bad…
He found himself in front of the house he had been given by the city, telling him that it had been his father's. It felt more like a home then anywhere else he had ever been. Even more so with Momoko there. Naruto opened the door, expecting to be attacked by the girl he had come to think of as his daughter. Instead, he found Momo asleep with her head in Hinata's lap. Naruto smiled wearily, after a long day of learning how to do something and then finding out that using it could kill him… well, he needed sights like this. Hinata looked up at him with a small blush. She had been getting better at that, he had noticed. Sometimes, when Hinata had no training or missions and Naruto was out, Hinata would come over to keep Momo company. He knew Momoko enjoyed having another girl around and was very happy every time she came over.
"Naruto-kun, welcome back!"
"Thank you, Hinata. I was training late… though it wasn't very helpful…" Hinata's smile dropped when she saw Naruto's frown. He never used to frown.
"Naruto-kun, wha…what do you mean?"
"I spent all day having Lee teach me how to open the gates, but only after I had learned how and was about to practice did he bother to tell me what they actually did…"
"Oh…"
"Yeah… a whole day wasted…"
"N…Naruto-kun, the day wasn't wasted. You learned something, right?"
"Yeah… I guess. Damn, it was so much easier when I had a goal to get to and a way to get there, you know?"
"Ano… m…my goal has n…never had a way to get to it…"
"Huh? Must be hard to achieve, then."
"Y…you have no idea…"
"Huh?"
"Nothing… Naruto-kun."
"Sometimes I wish I could turn back time…" Naruto had walked over to the couch his daughter slept on. He ran his hand through her hair and smiled. "But then I wouldn't have her, would I?"
"N…Naruto-kun, you are a very good father."
"You think so? I still think you would be a very good mother." Hinata blushed at the compliment. "I don't even know if I will ever be strong enough to reach jonin again. I don't even know if I want to reach it again…"
"Don't say that, Naruto-kun! Just because you can't use ninjutsu anymore doesn't mean anything!"
"What?"
"Naruto-kun, you told me once to never give up! It is your nindo, you said, the way you live your life. Your goal was to become Hokage, so be Hokage."
"But…"
"No buts. Naruto-kun, you once went around telling everyone that you would be Hokage. You told everyone you ever met, "My name is Naruto Uzumaki, and I am going to be Hokage one day!" It didn't matter that you held the fiercest demon in the world in your stomach. It didn't matter that you could barely do a bunshin or a henge. It didn't even matter that half the population hated you. You were going to become Hokage. Why should this stop you? Instead of becoming the first Hokage with a demon inside of you, now you have the privilege and challenge of becoming the first Hokage with only one jutsu to his name! All of your friends believe in you, Momo would believe you could go to hell and kill the death god, and I know you can do it."
"Hinata…"
"Here, I'll make you a promise. If you promise me you won't give up on your dream… then I promise I won't give up on m… mine."
"Hinata. I…"
"Otou-san?" Momoko was waking up. All the talking had brought her out of her beautiful dreams where her and her otou-san and okaa-san lived in a house in the woods and they had picnics in fields with flowers all around her… it was heaven. She had a younger sister and they all lived happily. "Otou-san… I had a good dream."
"What kind of dream, Momo?"
"A good one, with you and okaa-san and me and we were happy… I'm tired…" Naruto smiled and picked the little girl up in his arms and took her to her bed where he tucked her in. His face was serene, but his mind was in turmoil. Everything Hinata had said had made sense. She was right… no, she wasn't just right, she was absolutely flawless. Naruto had a burning desire to smack himself upside the head. Where had his dreams gone? Why had he just given up? Why hadn't he been working towards becoming a jonin and then more? Why did it take the woman who his daughter loved as a mother and he thought of as one of his best friends to drive it into him how much he had changed for the worse.
"Hinata."
"Yes, N… Naruto-kun?"
"You're right. I don't know what I have been doing for two years mourning over the loss of my jutsu… this isn't like me, is it?" He turned to face Hinata, who was still on his couch. "I used to be the crazy kid who could and would accomplish anything. I beat a Hyuga prodigy, I beat a demon, I fought with the three legendary sennin, I defeated the Akatsuki and Orochimaru in the same day. If I could do all that… why can't I be Hokage? So, yes, I will take you up on your deal. I will accomplish my dream and you will accomplish your, it is that simple. You won't give up and neither will I, ok?" Hinata smiled at him, the biggest and most meaningful smile he had seen from her in two years.
"Hai!"
Naruto finally reached the gates of the Hyuga complex. The day was indeed a good one. After the guards determined that he was, indeed, Naruto Uzumaki, they opened the gate. He knew where he was heading. Hinata and Momo would often be found in the official Hyuga training grounds, practicing with kunai and shurikin. As he entered the area he was forced catch a kunai that was rebounding off of one of the most amazing and weird moves he had ever seen. If there was one thing Naruto thought of Hinata besides the obvious "kind and peaceful", it was weird. She reminded him of a much quieter and shy himself. She had invented the jutsu he was watching at work all by herself to prove to herself and her family that she wasn't weak. No, Hinata wasn't weak. She could hold up her version of the "perfect defense" for much longer then a kaiten could be held, and she could attack with it, too. But, even the strengths of the attack could not draw attention away from the fact that it looked like she was just swinging her arms around like windmills… it made Naruto laugh every time he saw it.
"Hey, Hinata, Neji. Hold your fire." Naruto walked over as Neji stopped his assault on Hinata's Protection of the Eight Trigrams: Sixty Four Palms, holding the last kunai as Hinata's arms slowed to a stop before she turned to Naruto. She had grown into a woman, her hair reached down to below her waist. Her ninja outfit was still conservative, but less so then her previous ones. She wore mostly black, loose fitting clothes, that hid her figure. Naruto had no idea why she would do so, he had watched her go swimming with Momoko once and the result had given Naruto a nose bleed… something that he was deeply embarrassed about to that day. After all, a guy getting a nose bleed from his best friend…
Naruto, on the other hand, had changed his look a great deal. He wore black pants with many pockets for his weapons. He wore white leg warmers that hid his weights that he wore, thanks to Lee's teaching. They weren't as big as Lee's were, just enough to cover from the ankle to half way to his knee. He also wore weights on his wrists, upper arms, and upper legs, but they were hidden from sight by the rest of his clothes. On his arms, he wore bracers made of leather and metal, capable of stopping katana blades, as Ten-ten had so generously tested in one of their spars. His shirt was as black as his pants, short sleeved and loose enough to not hinder his movement. He wore a jonin's vest over the shirt, replacing the orange and black jacket he had worn until he had become a jonin the second time. The most noticeable change to Naruto's features was the headband that now hung over his left eye at all times. Not even Hinata had seen what was underneath it. She assumed Momo hadn't either.
"Hello, Naruto-kun. What brings you here today?" Naruto froze. Wasn't Momo supposed to be here today? What day was it? Two days ago was… "Naruto-kun?"
"Hinata-san, I think he forgot about the genin exams today." Naruto suddenly remembered exactly what today was. Today was the day Momo took the test to see if she became a genin. She had shown a lot of potential and he knew she could pass. She had shown him her henge and bunshin the day before. Naruto looked quickly at his watch. He had three minutes until the test was over.
"Hey, Hinata. I'll race you to the academy. Loser buys ramen for my daughter." Hinata grimaced. Momo had shown the same love for ramen that Naruto had. And, while he no longer at twenty bowls per sitting, his daughter could race through that much in minutes.
"Ok, you're on." Hinata vanished. Naruto let his mouth hang open as he saw Hinata reappear on a rooftop fifty meters away.
"Hey, no fair! Head start!" Naruto dropped his weights completely and raced after her, not caring as the road behind him was ripped up by his passing.
"YES! I WON! I WON! I WON! IWON! IWONIWONIWONIWONIWON"
"Ok, we get it. You got genin, so did we."
"Yeah, I got genin! Oh, there's otou-san and okaa-san. Bye friends!"
"Bye, Momo." Momoko Uzumaki was the epitome of twelve year old beauty. Her long hair was a golden light brown, her eyes were nearly the same color. Her hair today was being held up by a headband with a metal forehead protector. Her pride and joy, the thing she had been training for almost four years for. She had already polished it twice in the few minutes she had had it. Now, she ran over to her two favorite people in the world. Her otou-san, and the woman who wasn't officially her okaa-san, but could have been.
"Otou-san! Okaa-san! I got my headband! I'm a ninja now!" She ran up to Naruto who swung her around before placing her on his shoulders. She giggled. No matter how old she got, it seemed like Naruto would always be able to carry her on his shoulders and she would always like it. She planted her own head on top of his and smiled as his spiky hair, which was actually comfortable, brushed against her chin.
"That's great, Momo! What say we celebrate, eh?"
"YES! RAMEN!"
"Yep, your father said you could get as much as you want." Hinata smiled as Naruto gave a nearly imperceptible groan. It was obvious who had won the race. He had forgoten that the academy was only a block away from the Hyuga manor. Hinata had been there before he had finished removing his weights.
"Hurray! Let's go!" She pointed in the direction of everyone's favorite ramen bar.
"Ok, ok. So you are a ninja now, did they tell you who's team you're on?"
"Nope, they said they would tell me tomorrow. I hope I am on yours, otou-san."
"No luck there, they haven't told me anything about being a jonin instructor yet."
"Momo-chan, even if you aren't on Naruto-kun's team, you might be on mine." Naruto looked over at Hinata. She had become a jonin a year before him. This would be her first team of chunin.
"Really Hinata? You are going to be a jonin instructor?"
"Yes, though if my team doesn't pass my test, I guess not. I find out who is on my team tomorrow. Maybe you will be on it, Momo-chan."
"That would be the greatest thing ever! You are an awesome teacher, okaa-san."
"Thank you, Momo-chan."
"You should marry otou-san, then I wouldn't need to always go over to your place to learn from you."
Naruto tripped and Hinata almost fell on her face. She turned her face away with a bright blush on it. Momo giggled at her and her otou-san. She could see that they liked each other. Hell(naughty girl, cursing at such a young age), okaa-san had once told her when she thought she was asleep that she loved her otou-san as much as she loved her. And she knew okaa-san loved her a lot. And whenever otou-san would hear her talk about okaa-san he would get all glassy eyed and smiled a weird smile. It was almost like the two people who she loved most liked each other but didn't want to tell each other. So, for the past six years, Momo had been working on bringing up their feelings in conversation. It was fun to watch them act like kids. She saw kids in her class act the same way her adopted parents did.
"M…Momo-chan, I… I think…"
"Oh, look, we're here!" Naruto spared Hinata from any more embarrassment and himself from potential rejection with the statement that they had arrived at the ramen stand. Momo giggled as Naruto threw her into the air off of his shoulders and then caught her on the way down. Hinata managed to remove most of the blush from her face as they walked into the stand that hadn't changed one bit. Naruto ordered some ramen for himself, just one bowl because he was paying for three. Momo stood up on her stool and announced to Ayame and the old man that she was now a ninja before ordering the usual. Ayame and the old man smiled at her and her father. The Uzumaki's had literally kept the small stand running for years. They had both watched Naruto grow up, and now his adopted daughter acted exactly like him, except they could tell that she was much slyer, and hardly ever pulled pranks on anyone unless they absolutely deserved it. Bullies at the academy had learned to fear the name Uzumaki.
Ayame looked over at Hinata, expecting an order, what she got was a view of Hinata staring at Momoko and Naruto with a wistful smile on her face. Damn it, girl. You loved the man since he was seven and now, fifteen years later, you still love him and haven't told him. Good thing you have friends like me and Momo.
Momo had talked a lot about hooking up her okaa-san and otou-san while eating at the ramen bar alone. Ayame had listened to her and had agreed, telling her about how her okaa-san had loved her otou-san for years, but was still too shy. Momo had stared at her with noodles hanging out of her mouth, having never thought of her okaa-san as shy. Powerful, kind, and peace-loving, but never shy. But, she still wouldn't marry otou-san… so Momo and Ayame had agreed that it was their sacred duty to bring the two together.
"What would the proud mother want?" Ayame smiled an evil smile as Hinata went from smiling to blushing and looking away from the two people she loved most.
"Ano… a… I…"
"Gotcha, one special on the house." Ayame walked away about to burst out laughing. There was no such thing as a special, but Hinata didn't know that. There was, on the other hand, a bowl made to be used by two. She filled it with Naruto's order and brought out two pairs of chopsticks. She set it between the two "parents" and then set the chopsticks down.
"Don't forget to share, Naruto."
Naruto stared at Ayame, the old man trying to contain his laughter, his daughter engulfing her third bowl, and then at Hinata, who looked like the heat was getting to her. Was the entire world trying to embarrass him?
After the delightful dinner the trio took a walk in the park, ending up on the top of the Hokage monument. Naruto loved this spot, and, because he loved it, Hinata and Momoko loved it too. Hinata loved Naruto and everything about Naruto, so how could she not love some place Naruto loved. Momoko loved her otou-san, and she loved the place the same as him. It was a place to enjoy the beauty of the city of Konoha and have some peace amongst the life of a student, and now a ninja.
They sat there, Naruto and Hinata on either side of Momo, looking out at the sunset and Konoha. It was an awesome sight. If anyone else had seen the trio they would have thought "perfect family". They looked to be perfectly at home with each other, each one had a content smile on their face. Momoko gave out a contented belch. Yep, just like her father. Hinata just giggled at the girl. Naruto half expected to get smacked in the head by Hinata, a habit formed from countless blows to the head by Sakura. Sakura… now there was a name he hadn't bothered to think about in a long time. He heard she was the head medic in the hospital now. That was nice for her. He had seen her every so often walking through the village, but she would ignore him completely. He had stopped trying to talk to her after a while. She would probably never forgive him for killing Sasuke.
Naruto began to think about all of his friends. It was almost comical how they had all gotten paired together exactly as one would have expected. Everyone had seen Shikamaru getting together with Temari, even when he kept saying having a girlfriend was too troublesome. Bold words for a man who now lives in Suna as a permanent diplomat from Konoha and has a one year old boy with blond hair.
Choji and Ino, the pair that no one would have though of. The super skinny beauty nut and the man who would have been ashamed to be seen without a bag of potato chips. True, Choji was now a wall of solid muscle, and Ino had figured out that "paper thin" wasn't attractive, but it was still a shocker when they announced that they were dating. Hinata had said something about butterflies and flowers, but Naruto just laughed at the pair. They were so in love it was funny. She was literally a quarter of his size and weight, but they seemed to be the perfect couple for each other. It really put new meaning to the words "opposites attract".
Lee was dating Sakura from what he told Naruto in their training. Naruto wasn't that interested in the relationship, but figured things were pretty serious went Lee announced that he was considering asking her to marry him. Naruto still cared for Sakura a little, not like a boyfriend or lover, but more like a rejected older brother. He hoped they would be happy if Lee ever got up the courage to ask her. He could rant for hours, and had, about the fires of youth, but went it came to his feelings about women he went mute.
Neji and Ten-ten were pretty involved… Naruto thought. At least Hinata said they were. Neji was as hard to read as a concrete wall in the dark. Hinata said she could read him like a book, and Ten-ten was obviously in love with him. They had gone out on a few dates, according to Hinata and Neji would always come back to the clan's complex with lips slightly redder then when he had left. Naruto couldn't imagine Neji kissing Ten-ten. The girl who tried to take his head off in every battle kissing the guy who was one of the head ANBU in the village. Nope, couldn't see it. Maybe the red was the blood from their spars. Yeah, that made more sense.
Strangely, as much as Hinata talked about Neji's love life, whenever Naruto would ask her who she was interested in she would clam up and blush and stutter. Something that she had never been able to work out of. Naruto liked it though, she was cute when she did that. Naruto's own feelings… well, they were as confusing to himself as they were unapparent to others. He tried not to think about things like who he liked. He had a daughter and a best friend that… he didn't want to lose because he made the relationship uncomfortable for her.
Naruto sneaked a glance at Hinata. She had grown up into a woman, and this was apparent to everyone. Naruto would have taken it a step more and called her a beautiful woman who was an amazing person. Hell, he wouldn't have hesitated to ask the girl on a date if he was still twelve. Now, she was his best friend and the transition from best friend into girlfriend was not one he wanted to tread on yet. Still, if she ever decided to just give him a hint…
Hinata was thinking the same thing, ironically. She hadn't lost any of the love she had felt for Naruto all those years ago. But, while she wasn't exactly content with her current position of "close friend", she was certainly happy that it wasn't "weird acquaintance". She gave a small sigh. There were so many times she just wanted to look him in the eyes and just say, "Naruto Uzumaki, I love you." And then kiss him till she couldn't breathe. At the age of twenty two she still hadn't had her first kiss. She was saving it for Naruto. Naruto, on the other hand, had accidentally kissed one Sasuke Uchiha when he had been twelve. She was willing to overlook that, though.
Momo sat between her two most precious people in the world with a smile on her face. Inside, though, she was groaning at the two and mentally yelling at them to get a grip and tell each other they loved each other and then kiss so she could yell, "Eew, gross!" and then her favorite dreams would come true. But she knew that they should figure it out for themselves or okaa-san might pass out. She did that every once and a while when otou-san was involved. Momo was an intelligent girl, more so then many her age. She never showed it off, though. She liked being the normal girl who was a good ninja, like she had heard her okaa-san was like. She just couldn't do "shy".
The sun was dipping down and out of sight while the makeshift family sat and enjoyed the view and each others company. Each one thinking the same thing. It's times like this that make life worth living.
AN: So, what do you think? I like this. It is less heavy to write then Blind. More... fluffy... less killing. But both stories need to be shared and I know that this one is going to take a turn towards... the darker side later. But enjoy the lighheartedness while it lasts, ok? Thanks for the reviews.
