AN: Naruto and Pearl's talks with mostly happen during the night while in private as this'll allow for little interruption unless the plot calls for it. Also the final paring and it won't be changed is going to be Naruto x Pearl x Peridot x Lapis; it's going to weird in a way, but I'll try and make it work considering recent episodes.

"Normal Talking"

"Flashback Speaking"

Chapter 4

Sometimes Naruto didn't bother questioning the missions that they went on, and thus was why he wasn't bothering to question why they were in an underwater temple looking for the Glass of Time. "Why exactly are we looking for this Glass of Time which I'm assuming can manipulate time to a certain degree?" he questioned.

"Well we need to keep it safe of course." Pearl stated.

"Hasn't it been safe here for like a hundred years now? Besides who would be crazy enough to come here without truly knowing what it looks like?"

"We are." Garnet stated.

"What about the traps?" his eyes went to the floating hourglass "Huh, there are a lot of these things." He stated while still looking for the one that they were looking for.

"What about this little one?" Steven asked looking at the small circular hourglass.

"Steven the legendary glass of time won't be nearly as small and insignificant; it'll be beautiful and grand like this one." Pearl with glee upon seeing the most elegant looking one she could find.

"I think it's this one." Garnet said though Naruto wasn't really surprised.

"The biggest one?" she questioned.

"Pretty sure getting that thing to the warp pad is gonna take a while."

"I can carry it." her knuckles cracked as a smirk graced her face.

"I'm sorry but aren't we forgetting about the massive and most obvious trap here?" the blonde questioned.

"He's right, we have to be careful which one, we touch, and you remember what happened last time we were here." Pearl said. A questionable yet slightly disturbed look took onto Naruto's face, if they'd been here before then they knew about the trap and what would happen if activated; that's when it clicked in Naruto's mind.

"This place flooded last time didn't it?" Pearl nodded with a frown "Did I ever mention that I have a severe fear of drowning?"

"Hey guys! I'm calling it" Amethyst exclaimed much to Naruto's surprise and fear "it's this janky one right here!"

"Amethyst stop—" the temple began to shake violently.

"And we are out of here folks, back to the warp pad!" the blonde exclaimed.

"Uh, so it wasn't this one." Naruto couldn't help but giver the 'WTF' look; suddenly the glass ceiling burst open allowing water to flow in. Naruto wasted no time in grabbing Steven faster than even Garnet could react.

"We don't have much time."

"Amethyst comes on!" what happened next wasn't exactly what they expected as Steven ran right toward the rushing water. "Where do you think you're going?!"

"Amethyst gets to keep hers" the young gem stated.

"Darn tootin!"

"I'm gonna get the one I picked out!" he stated before rushing to grab the tiny hourglass.

"Steven!" Pearl and Garnet exclaimed as Naruto was about to rush and grab the boy just as he was picking up the hourglass. What happened next only served to confuse the Crystal Gems even more as another Steven metearllized in front of them, but he had his hair combed forward in a way that made Naruto want to gag, it was such an overused hair style.

"Stop right there!" the new Steven exclaimed causing their Steven to turn around in confusion "Give me the time thing Steven!" he commanded, holding out his hand.

"Wait, are you future me?"

"Argh, just hurry up and give it!" the duplicate exclaimed only for two for to come out of nowhere and trip him. Now Naruto was simply backing up as to not interfere with what looked like a time phenomenon; it was about to get so weird and confusing. After a few seconds whom soon turned into a full minute there was a mob of Stevens fighting each other.

"Twenty-three in total, not counting our Steven" Naruto stated "this is why time travel/manipulation should not be allowed!" he exclaimed in frustration. One of the Stevens yelled that Naruto had already gone through an entire lecture on why he thought that, apparently it'd been six hours long.

"Stop it!" the first time duplicate exclaimed causing the many others to stop fighting and look at him with confused expressions. "Look around you, don't you see that this isn't right? When Steven fights Steven, who is the winner? What have we become?!" the others began speaking amongst themselves. Naruto looked to the others with a confused yet concerned expression.

"What's going on?" he questioned.

"I-I don't know, this is just so, random." Pearl stated.

"This is what happens when you mess with time, and this is why we shouldn't try and change the past; manipulation of the flow of time is dangerous and should never be tampered with." Garnet stated, quoting what Naruto had said before they'd come here.

"Ah, a direct quote, nice." The blonde said before looking to the mess of Stevens.

"We're not the Stevens we once were, and so I have to end it!" duplicate number one exclaimed only to smash the original Steven's Glass of Time, instantly the others followed via bursting into nothingness. However, what happened next would haunt Steven for hours on end as the other Steven began melting into what looked to be blue sand that dissolved into nothingness. The first grasped Steven by the shoulders.

"Steven, dad can't play beachapalooza with you, the boat's fat, and you've got to find another way!"

"I don't know what you're talking about!" Steven exclaimed.

"Stay cool forever Steven" he kissed Steven on the cheek "arrivederci." With that, the first duplicate was gone leaving a confused group of Crystal Gems and a traumatized Steven. Grabbing Steven and speeding back to the warp pad, they left the flooding temple in silence. They hadn't even been in there a full hour and things had gotten so messed up that time had been altered before they could even leave. What a lovely way to end a mission.

Time Skip – Beach City – Nighttime - ?

It was water and stars much like his own mindscape, but this wasn't his mindscape; no this was someone else's. The last thing he remembered was leaving Beachapalooza and laying down onto the sand, then this pain in his head until everything went dark. Now he was here inside someone else's mindscape. 'I'm gonna take a guess and say that, that's whose mindscape this is.' He mused. In the distance he could see someone, but upon getting a few feet away he saw that this person was a gem. But the gem was cracked. "Hi there." Naruto greeted with a smile. The new gem jumped up in fright at the sudden intrusion, and she didn't look happy in the least bit. Dark-blue skin and shoulder-length, navy-blue hair in a hairstyle similar to Pearl's, although her bangs are slightly longer. She wore a flowing, navy-blue skirt, knee-length with a downward-facing navy-blue triangle. She also wears a backless, dull-blue and navy-blue halter crop-top with an upward-facing dark-blue triangle that ties into a blue ribbon on the back of her shoulders, and is currently barefoot. And right now she was more than surprised. Then there were her eyes, they were dull pupil-less, mirror-like that contained no irises. "Hi, I'm Naruto." the blonde greeted once again .

"I'm Lapis, Lapis Lazuli." The now name Lapis greeted now a bit calmer "Were you imprisoned inside here too?" she asked only for Naruto to sport a confused look.

"I don't think so, and even if I was I'm sure the others would notice that I'm gone." He said.

"Others?" her gaze went to Naruto's gems. "You're a gem." She said in slight surprise.

"Correct, this is my gem." He turned around "This is my sister's gem." He said turning around to Lapis's confused look.

"So you're a fusion." Lapis stated only for Naruto to nod.

"Yes and no, for now I'm I fusion, but after a while I'll simply be one gem." He explained "Now then, you said imprisoned, where exactly are we- well you are?" he asked.

"Inside the mirror, it has my cracked gem on the back." she stated "Wait, are you a Crystal Gem?" though she couldn't actually do anything her guard was now up.

"Newest member of the Crystal Gems, I've been here for about a month now, maybe less." In truth he'd lost count of how long he'd been in Beach City. "How long have you been here anyway?" Lapis pondered this question for a few moments before answering.

"One maybe two thousand years, I lost track a long time ago." She stated. "So you really don't know where my mirror is?" Naruto nodded 'no' getting a sad sigh from the trapped Gem.

"You want freedom huh?" the blue haired Gem nodded. "Believe me, I knew that same feeling during my early years of life." Lapis simply gave him a skeptical look. "Don't believe me? Here let me show you." he sat down cross-legged and ushered for Lapis to do the same, it wasn't like she had anything else to do in this prison. "Take my hand, and let me show you the prison that was my early life." Lapis saw that Naruto was no longer smiling, no, he was dead serious now. Taking Naruto's hand, she was instantly pulled into Naruto's memories.

Naruto's Memory

Lapis found herself on what looked to be a desolate planet of some sort, the ground was barren and black while the trees were withered and dead with no chance of recovery. The sky was pitch black and a blood red. "What is this place?" she questioned as she looked around only to see nothing. Suddenly she heard it, the sound of someone yelling; it sounded like a child. She ran to the source until she was only a few feet away from the child, and what she saw shocked her.

"Hello? Anybody?" the child cried in distress, his eyes watery and red from crying so much. The boy looked to be a four year old human child, but the gem in-between his collar bone said otherwise. Those sky blue eyes, those whisker marks on both cheeks, and that spikey blonde hair; she recognized this Gem all too well. Yet on his neck, wrists, and ankles were what looked like black ethereal chains that went into the ground.

"Naruto." she silently whispered though now in distress by the sight of the first Gem she'd seen in over a thousand years. "Naruto, what happened? Where are we?" she asked, but upon trying to touch the child, her hands simply went through him like she wasn't there at all. "Memories, this must be his earliest memory; likely when he first emerged." She concluded now following the very young Naruto, but as she did she found it hard to do so as he tripped, fell, and cried out for anyone. But nobody answered, and the chains that tore into his body weren't helping in the least bit; in fact they constricted him every time he cried out. That's when they saw it, a massive Kindergarten injector, but something about it was off. It had a drill and an injector that looked used, but it looked like it could only inject a single gem into the planet; from what she could see, that had indeed been the case. Child Naruto looked to the machine in fear for a few minutes before realizing that it was dead, hesitantly he touched it and nothing happened. "It's been modified, but where's the gem that emerged…" her gaze went to Naruto as it became clear as day. One modified Kindergarten Injector and one young gem that was likely a newborn. Was it possible that while incubating, Naruto had taken up all life on the planet?

This would explain why he hadn't met any other Gems; there were no other Gems on the planet so it was just him. The scene shifted causing Lapis to become a bit disorientated before she regains her bearings. It was on fire, all of it, lava exploded from the ground as the ground began to collapse. She did what she would usually do in this situation, she ran for her life. In front of her she saw the still young Naruto running away from the collapsing ground, he was crying whilst running for his life. "You have to run faster!" she exclaimed forgetting that the young Naruto couldn't hear her. "Please, if you don't run faster then you'll die!" she wanted to save him with everything she had. That's when it happened, the chains pulled the blonde into the ground and into the lava. "Naruto!" the memory began to collapse with the last thing she hearing was a monstrous roar, Naruto screaming, and the sight of a four eyed beast that emerged from the ground.

Naruto's Memory End

Lapis knew that being trapped inside of this mirror was bad, but to endure that much loneliness and constriction without any sort of true freedom. Naruto had literal chains on his body that hurt him every time he cried. While she was simply stuck in a mirror without physical pain, but with a lot of pent up aggression against the other Crystal Gems. But Naruto wasn't just trapped, no, he'd been tortured; and for what reason, he didn't know. "My memory after that is simply not there, but I do know that at one point I was the leader of a group of Gems; sadly they were all killed except for me." Naruto stated only to pause, something about what he'd just said didn't sound accurate. "If—If you want, I can find a way to free you when I find you." Lapis turned to him in surprise.

"You'd free me?!" she exclaimed.

"If I can, then yeah I will." He said with a smirk "But if I do, can you promise me that you won't attack any of my friends?" Lapis's eyes twitched upon hearing Naruto's terms. For a few moments she thought about Naruto's terms before grumbling something under her breath, the blonde smiled deviously. "What was that, Lapis?" he smirked, she grumbled something else "Can't hear ya there sweetie." He teased.

"Alright! I agree to your terms, but only if you free me!" she exclaimed obviously upset at the terms in which she'd just agreed to. "What about you?"

"I promise that I'll be the one to free you." Naruto stated before shaking Lapis's hand "It's a date." He smirked. Suddenly he felt a pull "Well I'll see you soon Ms. Lazuli." With that he disappeared, leaving Lapis with something she hadn't had in a long time; Hope.

Chapter 4 End

AN: Will Naruto be able to keep his promise? How will Connie react to meeting Naruto for the first time (Next chapter btw)? Will Lapis keep her end of the deal? How will the other Gems react once they find out? Why the F*** am I still asking these questions? And finally, when will we see Naruto and Pearl's fusion?