Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. It belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.
Back to Basics,
By DarkLordRising
Prologue II: Lethargy
Pain shot through my arm as my father dragged it along. Before long, we came to rest beside an enormous gorse bush, taking cover from whoever were making these small explosions and such noises across from us.
"What the hell is going on?" I asked again. The field had just been peaceful moments ago. The other four ignored me.
"We have to get back as soon as we can." Minato said. It had to be my dad. It just had to be.
"Yeah, the village must be warned that we're at war." The only woman in the squad said.
"What do we do about this guy?" Kakashi said, nodding his head towards me. He didn't recognize me. My dad was still alive. Kyubi really had been telling the truth when it said that it could bend time to it's will. I had really traveled back in time. It didn't seem to hit me a lot right then.
"He could be a spy..." The woman said, a bit wistfully.
"I don't know...I don't think so. T-There's something about him." The third man said, polishing his goggles. I looked up at him. He and the other girl were the only ones whom I didn't recognize. Yet, I think I knew all the faces of the ninja in our village as of now. It was strange.
"I agree...Let's bring him back to Konoha." Kakashi said. I turned to him in surprise and a bit of gratefulness. The girl on the other hand turned to my dad. It was quite clear that he was the leader of this team. I distinctly remember that Kakashi-sensei said that he was taught by my dad once. It was all falling into place. I just had to make sure that I wasn't dreaming.
"Kakashi!" The woman and the man gasped in surprise.
"So that we can interrogate him." Kakashi finished. "It is standard Shinobi Protocol when dealing with a spy. He may know some damaging secrets about the village he comes from." He added. This seemed to quell the surprise Kakashi-sensei's first reply had ignited. I did not like this version of sensei at all.
Before I knew what was happening, the woman and the man grabbed me by the shoulders and I was trapped. Tangled in a hefty net, I struggled helplessly as I was dragged along towards a small path. All my weapons had been found and taken away. Except for a small kunai I stored behind my forehead protector. I could get out whenever I wanted but I was not sure that I could take on Kakashi-sensei and his friends and my dad at the same time when I was in this weakened state.
"Stay alert. Those guys may still be in the perimeter." Minato said. I looked around at them. Kakashi-sensei was dragging me around whilst whistling while the other two were by his side, kunai's out, ready to move at the smallest indication. My dad scouted ahead a bit, carefully marking the area.
Kakashi-sensei stopped whistling. My dad stopped walking.
"This should be safe now. We have entered our own border's. With the current state of affair's, they wouldn't dare enter the premises..." Minato said, a bit loudly.
"How can you be so sure?" A voice whispered from behind my dad. The silent whisper echoed throughout the clearing. We froze as soon as we heard the voice. In a flash someone appeared behind my dad. An Iwa-nin. My dad's expression froze on his face as the Iwa-nin thrust the kunai into his stomach.
"Da-" I cried out in surprise. There was a puff of smoke as my dad disappeared from view. A clone. I heaved a sigh of relief as my dad appeared out of the shadows and engaged the Iwa-nin in a battle of fists. The other three were locked in similar battles. I was jostled endlessly as Kakashi refused to let go of the sack while fighting.
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique." The goggle guy said. His opponent stepped aside neatly and countered with a side-slam that sent him flying.
"Obito!" The woman cried in alarm. Obito groaned from the ground but didn't get back up. Her attention diverted, her opponent smacked her across the face, sending her down to the ground.
"Rin! Watch out!" Obito exclaimed, clutching his bleeding head.
"Earth Release: Fist Rock" Her opponent said. His hand became encased in heavy rock as it arched back. Rin shrank back a bit, holding up her arms to protect herself from the oncoming blast that would surely, if not killed her, then gravely injured her.
"You should look out for yourself, you know?" Obito's opponent said, as a wall of earth burst forth from the ground, advancing rapidly towards Obito.
I knew it was time. With a simple swipe from the kunai in fluid motion, I burst out of the net. The familiar feeling of adrenaline pumped in my veins as my heart beat increased. A hand-seal later, I had two Shadow Clones by my side. Without needing instructions, they rushed in opposite directions.
"Rasengan!" My clone cried, thrusting the swirling ball, that he had formed using Sage Mode, at Obito's opponent. Caught off guard, the man was thrown away from the force of the blast, landing several feet across from Kakashi, knocked unconscious.
The other clone dashed towards Rin's opponent. Grabbing the heavy arm encased in earth with his own arm encased in chakra, he dragged it downwards to the ground where it struck with a terrific blast. Rin's opponent tripped forward and landed straight in the path of the clone's punch which knocked it unconscious.
I grunted as the two clones dispelled and the left over chakra fueled my active Sage-Mode. These guys were amateurs. No more then small fry. Obito and Rin should have been able to take them on. At least, that was what I expected from members of the team of the future Fourth Hokage.
I pushed on as I body-flickered behind Kakashi-sensei's opponent and struck his neck with the back of my hand, knocking him unconscious without a sound. Kakashi-sensei appeared surprised as I bound his opponent's legs with the same net from which I had escaped.
I turned around, intending to help my father only to find his opponent lying on the ground, defeated. My clones rounded up the other two and together, we rounded up the four unconscious Iwa-nin's side by side.
"Well...Let's move on." Minato said. The other three members of his team gathered around him, staring at me in distrust. I made no move to speak, suddenly feeling the urge to lie down. I shrugged it away.
"What do we do with him?" Rin asked.
"The only thing we can do right now." Minato said. I looked up at him, expecting them to bind me in another net. "...Trust him." His reply left me stunned. Why?
My father's authority really showed as Rin and Obito didn't object and instead started wrapping the four captured Iwa-nin's in the hefty nets while Kakashi searched them for any weapons.
We set off into the night, making camp only when it became too dark to see the road ahead. The moon hid behind the clouds as we pitched tents, the cold, biting wind making most of us shiver. The three of them stayed as far as possible from me which was alright since I didn't wish to communicate with them at all. I had hardly said a word or two since saving Rin and Obito.
We each had our own tents and the sleeping prisoners were dumped in another extra tent without delay. I watched my dad take guard while Kakashi-sensei, Obito and Rin went to sleep. I too laid back in bed, wondering why my father had agreed to trust me so easily. Perhaps, he had no other choice right now. Yeah, that must have been it.
Unsurprisingly, I had a visitor in my tent that night.
"I don't care what Minato-sensei says about you." Kakashi whispered, pressing a kunai against my neck. "I don't trust you. One wrong move and..." He let the sentence hang in the air.
"I'll be watching." were his parting words. He was gone even before I could detect his presence.
I didn't say anything, or even move either. A sudden wave of lethargy seemed to have hit me. I didn't feel like walking or even talking for that matter. It was all a hazy blur. Maybe I shouldn't have used that much chakra in the fight. I didn't really know what was happening. I sighed and laid back to sleep.
The next day, after the tiring task of getting the tent back into Obito's backpack, I walked alongside the four. My feet seemed to drag on as the way ahead stretched on. My vision blurred as my knees buckled. Without warning, I was on the floor, unable to move.
Beads of sweat poured down my forehead. My breath came in deep gasps. I could see Rin's face examining my own as Kakashi-sensei, Obito and my dad looked on.
"...Ch-...E-..." I couldn't hear what they were saying as my heart beat increased. The sweat poured faster as I gasped for breath. Something was going to happen.
I shakily rose my arm and looked at it. It was drenched in sweat. Before I knew what was happening, my vision turned black...
A tiny beating sound awoke me.
I couldn't feel my body which made me a bit uncomfortable. What was happening to me? My breath no longer came in gasps. Actually, as far as I was concerned, I felt fine. Although a slight floating feeling did remain; the same floating feeling I had experienced when Kyubi had took me back in time.
Back in time. Had that really happened? Was this all a dream? It didn't hit me like ton of bricks. It didn't feel like something major had really happened, yet it had. It had, hadn't it?
I tried to look around but everywhere I turned darkness seemed to stretch on for infinity. I looked round and about. The only thing I could notice was the greenish, murky floor I was walking on. It was extremely wet and I had a difficult time trying not to slip.
Suddenly, it hit me where I was. This murky floor. The darkness. It was all quite familiar.
I was in the sewer.
The worse part about this simple observation? It was completely empty.
A\N: Thanks for all the amazing reviews. I hope you all liked this chapter. Read and Review.
southern hickup: Naruto can't really get away from them right now. Plus, there is some inner turmoil going on with him right now. By the way, how does every travel-back-to-daddys-time-period fic go? I seem to have read none of those, so I would appreciate a bit of detail on that comment. Thanks for reviewing.
chiichaan: The second option I think. What do you mean, "or the very least adopted?". Isn't it clear that Minato is Naruto's father in the manga? Thanks for reviewing.
Rixxell Stryfe: Naruto didn't get sent back in time to fight the war with his father. He got sent back to experience a war with or without his father. Thanks for reviewing.
Thanks to everyone else who reviewed. Hope you all liked this chapter as well.