The only reason he managed to get his ass out of bed - or tent, depending on the situation - was because of the clan… like, a clan compound filled with people that made him feel like he belonged, and no longer the memory he carried of it as it's lone survivor. Most of the time it was only… hard to gather the courage he needed to face the world on a daily basis at dawn… seeing his mother and sister was both relieving and painful at the same time, only managing to give an awkward smile and a meek "Hi" before bolting out of the house for fear of breaking down at that moment, always with the same excuse.

"Hokage-sama is waiting for me, I'll try to be early today ok?"

Then he would meet with the others and have the closest thing they would have to a peaceful breakfast, or at least as peaceful as they could manage. Each one brought back their own ghosts, and even if sharing them with the rest made it a little easier to go to bed at night, everyone knew that the nightmares would never leave.

The fact was that, after that their lives were just a routine they got used to with time. Wearing polite masks in public, protective of their friends and weary of those untrusty to them… always keeping an eye open if they could spot… something… anything! But today was just harder… three years since that day, years that they spent trying to change as much as possible to stop what they knew would eventually come should they do nothing, and yet years that felt like a waste of time because he was not here with them!

Today he had left alone - Tsunade already knew, he was sure - towards the border with what once was the land of sound, risking the trip down the memory lane as he traveled down the path he and his little group had worn down on the forest.

Every time he made this little trip he reminded himself that it was better not to rise his hopes, and every time he failed to follow his own advice, finding clues and signs hinting that someone else had traveled that very same path… just to find that everything was on his mind the whole time, and return home feeling a little more hollow than before, and deal with his guilt until the next time.

The sad thing? He would do the same again and again, because he knew he deserved it.

Apparently today it was the faint trail of that scent he knew like the palm of his hand, so like a faithful dog he followed it, hoping against his better judgement that today it would lead somewhere real.

Unsurprisingly it didn't, once again taking him towards a mirage… a ghost of the past that waved its arms and tried to get his attention, but he knew better than that by now, having lost himself in his grief in front of them enough times, so he just ignored it and kept walking.

Besides it was all wrong! Where was all the orange!?

When it looked like the imaginary person had lost its patience, as fast as the original he noted with a sad smile, it charged with the intention of pummeling him.

With a sigh, he kept walking.

Before everything went black, Kiba Inuzuka made an interesting discovery, followed by a mental note.

"Ghosts of the past pack one hell of a punch."

If his life was a joke this would have been the punchline, because seriously, he had not just gone through all that crap in Edolas just to get dumped in another strange place where people apparently likes to ignore you like you don't even exist!

(His inner Lucy was yelling at him that it was just one person, and that he looked also quite out of it.)

Having calmed a bit after hearing what everyone else called his voice of reason - Funny because it sounded just like Lucy, and Natsu says that he also hears Lissana-neesan in his head - he took the time to sit down and think about, well , all the crap he went through in Edolas, because he lost the thread somewhere between fighting the enslaved Beast-Elfman that the king took from Earthland - Lissana-neesan was so happy he was alive, and Mira would also be really happy when she sees him - and fighting that big ass robot-dragon-thingie the king pulled at the last minute, and then Natsu's plan to make Mystogan-not-Mystogan-but-Edolas-Jellal king…

Uhhh...

What was he talking about?

"Naruto! There's no way this is-"

Ah, Kurama. He would make sense of everything. He always did.

"- why is there an unconscious body next to you?"

Or he would notice the asshole who ignored him earlier.

"Ehhhh… another guy from another dimension?"

Kurama was just giving him that very same deadpan expression the old man used every time a notification came from the capital naming him or Natsu.

How he pulled that look with that tiny face was a mystery.