Blank Page

Chapter 3: Piece by Piece

"You know, when I said that you and I were similar by being students of the same teacher, I was only joking."

Konan looked at her partner aghast at his sudden change in thought. This was something she couldn't believe that she would hear from him. His tone changed and that's what scared her, "Nagato, what do you mean?"

"Naruto, you'll deal with hardships and pain that is more than you've ever dealt with before. Do you really believe that you can overcome this pain and hatred?"

The boy in question looked up to the man in the device and gave him a stern stare. It was an absolute look of determination. Without so much as a hesitation, he opened his mouth, "I will deal with anything and never give up, because I am Naruto, just like Jiraiya's book. You can count on me. I will not let you down."

Nagato looked to Naruto and only smiled lightly as he continued his jutsu, "That's good to hear. Naruto, after this jutsu, I will give my will to you. I hope that you can accomplish this task for me. I've spent most of my life in despair and hoped that there was a way to end all of this torture," Blood poured from his nostril as he continued, "I couldn't find the solution that I was looking for and my mind remained clouded from the hatred that I had for everything."

"W-What do you mean?" Naruto asked as he looked in worry, "What are you doing?"

"He's using a particular jutsu to bring people back from the dead at the cost of his life," Konan spoke as she stared down in remorse. She couldn't even look Naruto in the eye. There was more pain for her to deal with currently. Her friend was dying and was doing it from his own will. She only stared at her best friend and saw the look of determination on his face, 'He's ending his life for this boy. What does Nagato see in him to make him change so easily?'

"Naruto," Nagato wheezed, "With this jutsu, it should bring everyone back that has died since the invasion. I hope that you use this as a token for forgiveness," He chuckled as he looked down. His health deteriorated with every second that passed, "I know it's silly of me to ask for a favor even though I'm the one that was being selfish."

This peaked Naruto's curiosity as he looked at the man waiting for his response, "A favor?"

"Naruto, life will be harder from here on out. Safety isn't guaranteed for anyone, but I'm hoping that you'll take my request a little seriously. I want you to protect Konan for me."

Konan rose in disapproval, "What? Nagato, please consider what you are saying. How is that-"

"Konan, I know exactly what I'm saying," Nagato responded with blood between his lips, "He will be after you once I am gone. I'm sure that you won't be able to survive. I need you to stay close to Naruto. He will be of great use to us and this new future we're creating. I'm sure that you can help him as well along the way."

"Nagato… We can't just leave Ame," Konan said in desperation, "They will have no one to lead them. It could be taken over. There's too much of a risk in this situation."

"It's a risk we should be willing to take. It's for the sake of the entire world," Nagato replied in haste, "I… I don't want to see you in the afterlife until you've lived a long life in a world that shines brighter than our never ending rainy skies."

Konan was stifled at Nagato's words and could only look away from them both as Naruto walked up to Nagato with a small smile, "You have a deal, Nagato. I'll protect Konan with my life as long as I live."

Nagato smiled at Naruto's words. There was a sort of calming feeling to it all. Maybe he could finally feel at peace with everything now? His thoughts shifted slightly as he remembered something, "Actually, Konan, Naruto, there's something else that I will need you to do for me."

/BP

Konan shot up out of bed in a hurry as she woke up from her dream. She brought her hand up to her forehead again as she felt a wave of pain hit her. She was also slightly dizzy from the sudden rise in motion. She rubbed her eyes and looked around to see where she was, but was confused in her location. Only a moment later, her thoughts rushed back to her like a crashing ocean wave and she remembered that she was within Naruto's room, 'Actually, It's my room too.'

Her thoughts spiraled on the dream that she had. It felt too familiar to be a dream. It had to be a memory. She actually remembered something. Something that was a clue to her past that could unravel everything that was happening currently. She tried hard for a minute or two trying to think of what happened after her memory and what Nagato meant when he said that he had another thing he wanted from them both.

It was at that moment that she turned around and realized that Naruto wasn't even in the bed. His side of the bed was made up rather neatly and only left Konan's side used. She remembered everything that happened the night before and blushed a light shade of pink from her actions towards Naruto last night. How she held onto him and clung to him as if she were going to fall, "That was unbecoming of me."

Standing up straight, she wiped her hair from her brow and fixed her hair by running her hands down her strands. She noticed her brush and went over to it to run the brush down her locks. She felt a few knots loosen in her hair as she continued to brush, "I had short hair for so long, so things like this wouldn't happen," She sighed as she finished brushing her head, "I guess I will get used to it. It wouldn't be fair to my current self if I cut my hair before she remembered."

That thought left her a chuckle. She couldn't believe what she was saying. Another version of herself. Was she crazy? She sighed once more as she slightly shook her head, "I shouldn't be worrying about that. I need to worry about my recovery for now."

She dressed into something more casual for everyday wear from her clothes and proceeded to walk out of her bedroom. Her amber eyes scanned the home as she walked through the hallway, but she didn't see anything different from yesterday. She saw her daughters room empty as she walked by it. As she continued, she noticed that the kitchen and the living room was also empty.

She was alone.

She thought momentarily, 'Hanan must be at school. Then, Naruto must be at the Hokage's office. I think I will go to see him today.'

She still had so many questions that were unanswered and she needed to hear it from his mouth. It was strange knowing that all of this stuff has already happened, but, if her dream was real, then that would mean she was one step closer. She needed to hear Naruto say it.

After having Tea and breakfast, she left the home without a second thought and walked the streets. The sun was bright and unwavering. The clouds were pillowed in the blue sky. She felt the air brush her hair against her face and she pulled her loose strands behind her ear.

Beautiful

She walked silently down the street towards the Hokage Tower. She looked up and noticed the sun beaming down upon her. It must have been somewhere around mid-morning. Her eyes darted to the random passerby's that came close to her. They would smile and some would greet her as the Hokage's wife. Some would even call her Mrs. Uzumaki. That made her feel uncomfortable to a degree. She was never married and the only close person that she had was Yahiko and even then, they weren't married. They were just a couple. Being married felt like it was immediately too fast. At this moment in time, she couldn't process the thought properly.

Nonetheless she would wave and greet some people that passed her. Some children would come up to her as well. She would pat their heads or tell them something nice to make them laugh or smile. Seeing the sudden change in everyone's demeanor from the war several years ago to now was something she couldn't get used to.

"-nan. Konan?"

Thrown out of her musings, she looked up surprised at who was calling her.

"Hello, Sakura," Konan mumbled, looking down flustered, "Look, I apologize for what happened yesterday."

"It's okay, really," Sakura said while waving her hand dismissively with a smile, "It's entirely understandable. I mean, you don't even remember anything after all."

Konan frowned as she looked to Sakura again, only to turn her attention towards the person to her right, "Kakashi Hatake of the Sharingan, right?"

Kakashi only lightly chuckled, "Not of the Sharingan anymore. I lost it during the war," He pointed to his scarred eye and it was just a normal black eye, like his other one, "It is a little saddening that I don't have it anymore. I was just beginning to truly understand it too."

Konan only looked down in thought as further proof of her amnesia sank in.

"Konan, I wouldn't let it get you down," Kakashi said normally, "You'll get your memory back before you know it. Just so you know, we aren't enemies."

"Yes, I've figured that out by now," Konan said in a deadpan expression.

"See," Kakashi spoke up with a smile, "She's still Konan. Still the same no-nonsense type of humor."

Konan and Sakura rolled their eyes in unison before Sakura chipped in, "Yeah, well, I think Konan was wanting to see Naruto today. Is he too busy?"

Kakashi shrugged as he started to walk away, "I wouldn't know. I'm not the Hokage, so I don't keep tabs on anyone anymore. It's not my fault if he shirks his job."

Sakura only sighed as she started walking towards her old Sensei, "Konan, if I were you I'd go see if he's in. He always finds time to see you anyway, so even if he is busy, I don't think he will ignore you. He made that promise after all."

"What promise?" Konan asked confused.

"You'll find out. See you."

Konan watched as Sakura disappeared into the crowd with Kakashi.

/BP

Konan finally made it up the stairs and came to the door to the Hokage's office. She could hear something inside as she looked at the door in uncertainty. She didn't know if she should knock or if she should just walk in. Her heart thumped lightly against her chest as she thought with fervor.

"You can go in, Ma'am. Lord Hokage has granted you permission, no matter the circumstances."

Konan jumped as she looked behind her and noticed the assistant at her desk smiling at her. She didn't even notice the desk behind her at all. She gulped, "T-Thank you. I will see my husband now."

The woman only smiled at her as she looked down to continue whatever work she was doing at her computer.

Konan steeled her nerves as she opened the door. The light escaped the room and as her eyes adjusted, she saw her husband sitting at the desk at his computer with piles of paperwork. He had two clones at his side working on paperwork simultaneously while he worked on his PC.

"Look, I'm saying that we all need to get together and go have some fun! It's been a while since we all went out anywhere. It's not like anything bad is happening around our countries anyway. We are living in an era of peace now."

"Naruto, you must understand that we all have busy lives outside of protecting our villages and lands," Another voice spoke from the computer.

"Besides, don't you have an ill wife that you need to attend to? Shouldn't you be worrying about her instead?" A second voice spoke from the monitor, "How would she feel, knowing that you wanted to have fun and ignore your job as the Hokage, instead of doing your obligatory work like the rest of us?"

Naruto sighed in defeat, "Yeah, I guess you're right. I was just wanting us to have a good time together and just unwind a bit. It's not like we would be ignoring our work. We would just take a small break. I was going to bring her with me anyway. She's already out of the hospital."

"I'm actually in your office right now," Konan said to her husband with a look of disinterest.

"O-Oh! Konan! You came by! I'm sorry guys, I'm going to have to talk to you later. I hope you all have a good day, dattebayo!"

"Naruto, you're in trouble," A voice snickered through his computer, "Don't hurt him too bad, Konan."

Naruto quickly ended the call, as he saw his wife walk closer to the desk, "So, uh, what's up?"

"I woke up and didn't see you or anyone for that matter in the house," Konan said somewhat harshly, "You left me alone in the house when I didn't even know where I am. That was pretty irresponsible for a Hokage to do, you know?"

Naruto clapped his hands together, "I'm sorry, Konan. I totally forgot to let you know where I was going to be. I just had business to take care of. Please understand, from here on out. I won't leave without telling you where I'm going, at least until you get your memory back."

Konan leered at him a little longer before sighing, "I guess, it's okay this once. I don't know how 'your' Konan would react to this, so I shouldn't do more than what I've done now."

"She usually does what you did just now," Naruto said while rubbing the back of his head, "Well, it's part of what I love about you anyway."

Konan blushed somewhat from the sudden compliment. She didn't know how to respond to that, "W-Well, anyway, who were the people you were talking to on your computer?"

"Oh yeah, that's right," Naruto snapped his fingers, "I forgot that you forgot. Yeah, they are the other Kage from the other villages. We all talk to each other and have a discussion every morning. During the fourth war, all of our villages came together to fight the enemy. After the war, we made up and now we're all good friends."

Konan was speechless. What Nagato wanted actually happened, "You actually did it Naruto. That's… That's amazing. Nagato was right passing the will to you."

That caused Naruto to stand up from his seat with a glimmer of hope, "Konan? You remember now?"

"Well," Konan started, "I had a dream about it last night and I assumed that it was a memory. It was actually true?"

"Well yeah," Naruto replied, "Nagato sacrificed himself to revive all of the people he killed from the invasion of the Leaf Village. He also made me promise-"

"-That you'll protect me," Konan finished. Her eyes widened and so did Naruto's before he came over to her and gave her a big hug.

"Yes! You're right! Konan this is amazing! Your memory is coming back piece by piece!" He swung her around before putting her back to her feet. His smile was wide and foxy. She couldn't help but smile softly as well from the sudden revelation.

"Naruto," Konan continued, "There was still something else that he wanted you to do. When I woke up from my dream, I didn't finish the second thing that he wanted you to do."

Naruto scratched his head in minor thought before a light bulb appeared, "Oh yeah, Nagato made us promise to destroy his eyes. He said that they were too valuable to be saved. I didn't want them because I thought they wouldn't fit me, so he asked us to destroy them instead. Who would have known that those eyes would have saved us so much trouble in the end? Madara was not happy at all once he realized that his eyes were missing and he'd never get them back."

"You mean, the man in the mask?" Konan asked curiously.

"Him? No, that was Obito. Kakashi's childhood friend that was behind the mask. He just wanted people to believe he was Madara, or at least be an Homage to the real Madara. That way, no one would know who he was and therefore have the upper hand in reviving the real Madara to begin with.

This news came shocking to her. She never knew who was behind the mask, but she did know that he knew many things that he shouldn't have known and was most of the reason why this new war happened, "So, the real Madara was revived?"

"Yeah, the real Madara was revived although, he didn't survive that long," Naruto replied with a distant look in his eyes, "Everything happened so fast. You were a really big help to all of that."

Konan couldn't help but feel a somewhat warm feeling inside of her belly form from the new piece of news. She actually had a bigger help to Naruto than she thought originally, "I… never really thought that I would be as useful as you made me out to be. Thank you."

Naruto only laughed, "Hey, you don't have to thank me. If you never agreed to stay in Konoha, we probably wouldn't have made it without you. You really kicked my ass, you know?"

Konan eyed her husband oddly, "Did we fight?"

"You wouldn't stop going on about leaving to go to back to Ame. I had to keep you here, one way or another, so we settled on a fight, and I won."

Konan looked down to the floor as she processed what she just heard. It did sound like something that she would do. The more she heard about all of this, the more she felt the reality that came crashing down upon her.

"I don't know what to say about that," She replied after a few moments of silence.

"There's not much to say about it. I said that I would protect you for the rest of my life and so I did and I am still to this day," Naruto replied to her with a smile.

Suddenly, a loud noise erupted in the room. The two people in the room looked to the door and noticed an Anbu appeared.

Naruto's mouth tightened as he received a note.

Once he read it, his eyes went serious. The playful nature that Naruto had vanished as if it was never there. Something happened.

"Hey, Konan, can I ask you to go back home for a while? You still need to recuperate. I have something that I need to take care of."

Konan was mildly surprised at the change of mood that suddenly appeared. It could be anything. At times of peace, there were things that she didn't know that were going on. She had no idea. Maybe it was something that was still left over from the war, "What is it, Naruto?"

Naruto turned back to his desk and sat down, "Konan, right now. It's something that I can't discuss. I'd rather talk to you about it when I get home later today. Could you wait until then?"

Konan thought momentarily, before she sighed. If he didn't want to talk about it, then she wouldn't pry, "Okay, Naruto. I'll talk to you later about it."

"Konan… Thank you."

She smiled lightly as she walked out of the room. Her thoughts spiraled as she kept walking down the steps. For some reason, she really wanted to know what could make Naruto change so quickly. Unfortunately for her, she wouldn't like what she heard either.

Naruto laid back in his chair and sighed a long sigh as he gazed aimlessly onto the ceiling, "So, they finally found you, Ero Sennin. You've been hiding for a while, huh?"

A/N: Yes, I know. I don't update often. Sorry. That's all I can say about it. I'm still here. I do want to get stuff done for writing. I'm immediately working on the next chapter of The Last One as soon as this one goes up. I have a hard time writing when other things take priority. I wanted to update this story first before I update The Last One because I didn't want my rust to affect The Last One. Lol I've written on this chapter for about three days straight. I will do the same to The Last One. That next chapter(Chapter 24) will most likely be uploaded by Thursday. It's already halfway written anyway. Today is August 21st 2018. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter nonetheless. This is not a long story at all, so you'll probably expect about another three to four chapters before it ends. It was just a little plot bunny, so of course I had to write it.