The village was, at the very base, exactly as he remembered it before the invasion from Pein. Only a few features, mostly upon the cliff side above the city had reverted back to it's old state. He closed his eyes, inhaling the scent of the town, listening to the crowds milling around. The soft pat of a sandal beside him reminded him a few moments later that he wasn't alone. Opening his eyes, he glanced up to see the familiar shaggy white hair of Jiraiya. Beside him Shizune with Ton-Ton stood nervously looking about. To her, the city may have changed, given the war, then the Kyuubi attack.

"Should we head to the tower or to the hospital?" Tsunade remarked with a bored look on her face, ignoring the awed whisper from the civilians seeing two of the Sannin. Not even the Kyuubi brat was dampening their spirits. "Oi Hokage-gaki. You know what we should do." Naruto snarled a bit at the nickname.

"Shut up, baa-chan. Back then I was worried about Kakashi and the traitor, so I pushed you to the hospital right after you announced to the elder's you return. Let's go to the old hag and mummy first. I dunno if I am ready for seeing THEM yet. I mean. Sakura is there. This life's Sakura, not my..." He paused, before shrugging, digging his hands into his pockets. "Might as well, hell. It's not like any of this is really happening. So who cares." He began walking towards the Hokage tower, leaving the 'older' of the group watching him with mixed emotions.

"He's shutting himself off again." Jiraiya commented before starting to walk after boy.

"Tsunade-sama..." Shizune started and Tsunade shook her head.

"It's not our place just yet, come let's rewrite history."


Reality

Chapter Three: The Memories Hidden in the Leaf.

By

Hibiki

All rights to characters and places in this story belong to one Masashi Kishimoto.


"Hey Sakura-chan!" Sitting worriedly by the side of her murderer, the younger version of his beloved Sakura sat, raising her head to examine who had walked into the room.

"Naruto... Where have you been?" Naruto's old mask came up and he rubbed the back of his head to keep his hands away form his weapons.

"I was out finding the best medic in the world to help Teme, Kakashi-sensei, and Lee! Dattebayo!" From behind him strode Tsunade, getting her first view of her apprentice and her killer. Sakura's worried look changed into a smile, something that tugged at Naruto's heart.

"I've heard from Gai-sensei. Please... Do what you can to help, Sasuke-kun." Sakura begged. Naruto turned away as Tsunade nodded and placed a healing hand upon Sasuke's brow.

'Sakura... he'll just kill you... God why did I accept that stupid agreement with Jiraiya and Tsunade!'


"You need to hold off changing too much from now on, even if this is a dream, any chance you have at changing something big means some smaller events have to go as they did before. Otherwise the real events you want to stop might happen when you least expect it, or worsen." Tsunade remarked, her hand resting upon Jiraiya's notes.

"Don't you think I know that?" He shouted out. "But Kabuto did so much harm with his Edo Tensei during the war, then when he escaped Itachi he went into hiding. He was always sniping our forces from the shadows. I HAD to remove him before he became too much of a threat. Isn't that worth SOME disruption of the time space continuum?"

"Hime is right, Naruto." Jiraiya continued, refusing to allow a kid, even if he was an old man, to speak that way to his elders. "You're father once mentioned, that he had to remove parts of his and others memory from time to time due to the problems inherent with time and space jutsu for this very reason. If you know it's going to happen, you will naturally wish to alter it. But like any pebble dropped into a smooth pond. The ripples from that one little rock will expand and cross over one another, blurring out what you remember the pond initially looking like."

"Trust me I get the principle. I taught half the graduating classes that back in my sixties!"

"Then you should be understanding where we are coming from on this. I need you to promise us you won't change anything too drastic unless it's required to save someone's life directly. There is always the chance someone may end up differently than you remember, we have to give everyone the benefit of a doubt before we end any chance they have to change."


"Well. I'll see you later. Sakura." He nodded to Sakura, ignoring the confusion apparent in her eyes. "Uchiha." His voice grew decidedly hostile as he tried to hold in his killer intent. Pulling the door open so hard the bolts gave a horrendous groan and crack. The handle forced itself through the wall and he stalked out leaving a saddened Tsunade and a confused Uchiha and Haruno.


He stalked down the stairs to the small landing between floor, looking out into the city from the large picture window. But he wasn't looking out, only in.

'I almost lost control. Dammit... Dammit! I can't do anything until that son of a bitch defects. I hate this. I hate this! I swear Uchiha you step one hair out of line. I'll end you.' Naruto slammed his fist against the wall, almost cracking it. The gasp and exclaim from below him on the stairs brought him up short. Walking up to him was Team Asuma, but more importantly, Ino. Ino's cornflower blue eyes staring at him, probably witnessing his angry outburst with from the shock he could see in her eyes.

But there she was, his Ino-hime... A flashback of his adult wife, her pain filled face overlapped this younger one. His hand dropped from the wall, his eyes lowered. He had to reign himself in again.

"Is everything alight? Did Sasuke-kun wake up?" Ino's innocent question made him flinch. His mask was up again when he rose to face her.

"Y-yeah. The t-teme is awake, his usual grumpy self too. Hehe. Well I need to get going. Congratulations on your promotion, Lazy-ass. See ya Chouji." Shikamaru blinked in surprise as Naruto slipped by, he hadn't pulled out his jacket from the scroll yet, so how did Naruto know about his promotion already, when not even Chouji and Ino knew about it? Troublesome.


Ichiraku ramen was filling and friendly, just as Ayame and her old man were always in his memories. It was hard to forget the aged face of Ayame watching her husband be lowered into the earth, her tears as she was held by her son, Yusaku and his wife Rana. It was the last he saw her, until just before her death four years later. But seeing this happy, carefree Ayame was a soothing balm to the elder child. It allowed him to remember all the happiness and good times they all shared, how when he passed by the shop, just after Teuchi's passing and despite the sad tidings, it was the cries of the newborn Teuchi, her second son that brought new life to the small shop once again. Onwards he walked, rediscovering his town once more. He stopped, smiled, and waved to a young boy playing in the dirt in front of the little book store Kakashi brought Jiraiya's books from. From those doodles in the dirt, he would one day grow up to be known as Yuuen Fuu Kei, the second greatest seal master in the fire country after Naruto's own father. For now, and to Naruto's amusement, he was just little Kei from the Konoha book stand. Every turn he took brought versions of people he knew, only younger, the light in these people's eyes so similar, yet naive almost.

In a way it made him sick. How dare these people remain ignorant of their future selves sufferings, how dare they be so carefree, given how much the people HE knew had fought and earned, through so much hardship and pain, the smiles only those men and women deserved to smile. He hated it, he hated them.

Everything swayed as if drunk. The town suddenly felt a hundred times more claustrophobic, the sharp edges and rounded curved all at once pulling in down upon him in terrifying ways. He wavered, dodging desperately from this hallucinations he finally lost his nerve and leaned against a building side to try and catch his suddenly pinched breath. He had to get away. With a frantic leap he jumped up out of the street, onto the rooftops, from there he made it to the one place he always felt at peace.


The sun felt good upon his face, seeping into his face and washing away a few of the wrinkles his henge had produced. Up here, upon his father's head he felt safer, the ghosts of the future no longer pulled at him so vehemently. Down there, in the whirlpool of memories, the part of him still the teen who had lost everything, could not begin to cope with them. His body was acting differently than he remembered, but given the fifty some odd years that had gone by since his puberty, he couldn't be certain. The moment he saw them, he was quicker to anger, quicker to hate, to fear. Everything was nothing more than impulses he hadn't had to deal with in decades. It was that damned child's body was making him loose his rational mind. It had to be. Going back to that fool again would be unacceptable, so he hid himself away and changed his appearance. Even if it was nothing more than a layer of chakra, to see his hands and body the way he knew he truly looked had help sooth the panic induced terror he had succumbed to hours earlier.

"Ah so here you are, Hokage-gaki." A familiar young looking blond sat down beside him. With his Henge active he was just a few inches taller than her, but with his hands upon his raised knee and his back arched he once again looked up into her eyes. That spark of panic rose but was quick squashed before he straightened his back due to nerves.

"How did you know it was me?" Her eyes widened at his voice, perhaps uncertain why he sounded as old as he did, or rather the rasp he had gained. He rubbed a hand against the scar Kabuto's god forsaken Kusanagi had given when he and his wife had fought him. The blade had all but ripped his right shoulder from his body. The last remaining dredges of chakra that had remained in his possession from then lost Kyuubi had allowed him to heal enough to stay in the fight. To keep the snake from killing Ino outright. No all it, and thus he, had done was make her suffer in agony for three whole days before she passed on. His eyes shut tight, trying to ignore the deep seated hurt and guilt again. He tried to remind himself that she wouldn't die like that here. Perhaps also in the other world, where his body was about to pass on, if he was lucky, he'd see her and his people again. He just had to make it through this... hallucination!

"You may have your father's eyes and hair, but the rest of you, no matter how old, reminds me of Kushina." She replied once her curiosity was sedated. "You don't look bad for a 78 year old." It was pure joking, but the slight blush on her face proved that maybe... she was a little truthful. Pervy Baa-chan. He laughed a little, leaning back to pop his shoulder free of the small tension he had brought upon himself. He didn't lean down under her gaze, though.

"So says the pretty young thing looking at her grand nephew with perverted eyes." She sputtered for a moment, the Tsun in her name taking hold.

"Brat." She forced out looking away a moment, but when she turned back she had, as he called it, her Hokage face on. It usually meant she didn't like the thoughts going in her head, and that what she would say would be difficult. "I guess if I hadn't believe you before now, I would from your reaction to everything. You gave every sign of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder."

"How would you know how my dreams were?" From Sakura, he had learned of the many signs of that all to familiar affliction.

"Given you know of that I would assume you have dealt with it before." That of course was saying such to a ninja was akin to telling a fish that all fish live in water. Every Shinobi had a breaking point. "And the fact you didn't deny having it was another clue. Sakura or that Ino girl must have helped you out. I can't really see them being your type though."

"Don't put those two in the same boat as my Ino and Sakura." The worry those two... shadows had shown to the cause of their future pain, that psychopath laying in that bed back in the hospital, returned the tension from before. "And you avoided my question."

"Shizune came into your room a a few times in the night or two before we met Orochimaru again. You mentioned a few names, ones I only learned about through digging in a bingo book or active roster, and those two girls. Sakura and Ino the most. Whatever happened to all of them had you so distraught we were forced to sedate you so you would rest." The anger held in his blue eyes that despite how rude it was glared holes into her hazelnut ones. He won the stare as she once again turned away. "I'm won't say sorry for doing that. Had we awoken you, you would have just run off to train and burnt yourself out. We were already taking a risk keeping you on the battlefield as it was. Stop acting like a damn kid and use that leader brain of yours. You would have done the same for a subordinate." His standing up, fist clenched brought her up short and she quickly stood as well to try and maintain what physical presence she had.

"And that's where you are wrong." He turned to walk away but remained a moment with a few parting words. "I would have stayed and helped them, instead of deciding what was right for them then leave them in the dark."

Tsunade sighed as his figure, the child form, turned to walk down the stairs leading to the city.


He awoke with a start, the cries of his dying people fading into the dull roar crated by his heavy breathing and pounding blood. He sat up trying to wipe away the sweat that covered his face, and wipe away the guilt that was plaguing him. A soft knock on the door brought his abruptly from his funk to full alertness. Despite the clunkier body of his 13 year old self he silently slid out of bed, his left hand holding a kunai at his side, ready for use. Moving to the left of his door he called out.

"Who is there?" Silently again he moved to the right, to keep the person uncertain of his location.

"It's me." His eyes widened and he took the chance to see who was outside his door. Sure enough, there she was was, looking at him with an unreadable expression.

"Sakura..."


Next Chapter: The Midnight Reunion

I had hope of pulling Sasuke into the Magenkyou Sharingan induced genjutsu realm with the crow and Kakashi's Sharingan, but then Itachi had to go all animal hatin' and burn the crow up. It would have helped bring a more mature Naruto into Konoha. Nix that now, Damn you Itachi, I had that in my head for a YEAR man. So then I just went for it, and semi emo Naruto came out. He didn't feel like a 78 year old to me. But then I thought about it. He never really had to overcome any of these setbacks in his life. He just adapted and moved on, never really resolving any of the pain he might have felt for all of them. Suddenly thrust back he is HAS to. A clear divide between his teen self when they died, then his older self. The conflict would drive anyone batty and this Naruto has a panic attack. From there Hopefully justifying Naruto's little tantrums, I wonder who should I have come and talk to him to progress the story. Suddenly the thought hit me. Naruto henge into his adult 'just before death' form being talked to by Tsunade who uses a genjutsu to look younger. Both seem to be hurting from things beyond their control, and I thought, maybe... it'd be good character building. Naruto is still struggling, and for a moment I wanted to put Tsunade there at his door instead of Sakura.

But would that have been weird? There might just very well be some attraction, but only because the similarities between them would be intriguing. However as I had Naruto mention, it's be a bit TOO weird for my taste. But the thought that maybe Tsunade starts showing a bit of weakness to someone similar to her might appear... maybe. I dunno. Still flying by ear on this and others.

PTSD: I claim no idea how it this syndrome truly is, but looking into why I made Naruto like he was I stumbled onto a site listing symptoms, and eerily enough everything I made Naruto have rather fit. Maybe my subconscious is a better writer than I am. (Sadface)

I claim no right as to me being a high class writer, but I usually like having some more clear direction. Lately it feels like the older something is, the least interested I am in continuing it. I'm very different than the Hibiki who started this, Memories, and Return from the End.

NOTE TO MEMORIES READER: However as you have seen, this is much more open than Memories , which only has one path left it can go down on. It makes Memories a WHOLE lot less interesting to write. Because I see where I have to go there, and it's boring because I've stared at it a hundred times over. This, and the newer things I have written are so much more interesting due to the literal hundreds of directions I could go. I wish to finish Memories, but at this rate, I'm finding it harder and harder to return to it. Each new chapter of Kishimoto's canon, my own writing as well, pulls me further away from the thoughts I had when I paused on Memories. Perhaps inspiration will hit me and I'll fling out the last three chapters of it, but for now it remains sadly in a hiatus stage.

Anyways: as per usual, please read and review, as comments help me with continuing to write these stories. You're continued support helps more than you all know! Thank you all again!

Till next time: Ja-ne~!