Chapter 10 What Could Have Been
Naruto's and Ino's eyes were looking at everything as they walked through the gates of this universe's leaf following Ino Namikaze and Lys though the main gate of the Leaf.
"Afternoon Mrs. Namikaze." said a young jonnin who looked a lot like Neji expect with deep brown hair and brown eyes.
"Afternoon." said Ino as she walked up to the guard house where the Jonnin was standing. "When my husband gets back tell him to meet us at home."
"I will." said the ninja "By the way my mom wanted me to make sure dinner is at 6 on Saturday."
"Yes…it is." said Ino "And tell Tenten I can't wait to talk to her it's been far to long."
"I will." said the ninja
"Come on." Said Ino as the four of them walked through the streets. Naruto was looking around apart from some confused look at seeing him and a younger Ino everyone seemed to be happy to see him.
"Does everyone know about me or something?" asked Naruto
"In a way…after we got Lys message we sent Ninjas out to scout the area where you could appear and word got out that way." Explained Ino as they turned down a large road, a road that Ino had ever seen in Lys memoires. Finally the stopped in front of a large house, it was slightly different then Ino remembered from her memory walk with Lys. The tree in the front yard was bigger and some new flowers where in place and it seemed like the house had been repainted.
"Come on in." said Ino as she placed her hand by the door as a small seal appeared.
"You place a seal on the door?" asked Naruto
"Actually I did." said a new voice as Naruto turned around to see a man maybe three inches taller than he was now standing there. He was dressed in a green Jonnin uniform with a blue ninja pants on. Over his shoulders was a white jacket with orange flames running across the bottom. He had his blue leaf headband on forehead just above his deep blue eyes.
"Hello.' said Naruto
"Hello.' said Naruto Namikaze back
"DAD!" yelled Lys as she ran into her father's arm.
"How is my big girl doing?" asked Naruto with a smile as he got down on one knee to get a better look at his missing daughter.
"Good Dad, they treated me well…well apart from seeing Sakura Uchiha and someone named Fugaku Uchiha." said Lys
"Our Sakura isn't a Uchiha." said Naruto
"Sorry, force of habit." said Lys "I am just glad to be home."
"And I am sorry happy you are back." said Naruto "Your brothers may not admit it but they will be happy too."
'Why don't we take this inside." said Ino
"Actually we better be heading back to our own universe, the more time we are here the more time Madara and Sasuke can cause trouble in some other universe." said Naruto
"I don't think you can go…not for a while at least." said Naruto as Naruto looked at him.
"Are you going to stop us?" asked Naruto
"No…I am not your evil twin or something stupid like that." Answered Naruto "It is just from everything I have been able to study about this type of transportation seal…it can only be used three times every 12 hours or else the chakra holding the seal together will break apart and you will be trapped here forever and I don't think you want that."
For a long time Naruto just stood there thinking.
"Yes, I can see how that would work." said Naruto "I just can't believe I never saw that fact, if we had tried that we could have been trapped along with everyone else."
"I figured it out only an hour ago so don't go blaming yourself." said Naruto with a huge smile that matched the one that normally graced Naruto "Now when did you first use the seal?"
"Nine in the morning our time." answered Naruto
"And it is currently four our time." answered Naruto "So I would wait at least till 10 to use the seal again just be on a safe side."
"Agreed." said Naruto as he ran though hand signs before slamming his hand onto the ground as suddenly a median sized orange toad appeared.
"Wow…Gamakichi I haven't seen him in years." said Naruto as the orange toad eyes widened at the sight of two Narutos standing there along with two Inos.
"What is going on?" asked Gamakichi
"I will let Tsunade explain it, but tell her that the seal will break apart if we don't give it a break so tell her to expect us in just over six hours." said Naruto
"Alright." said Gamakichi as he disappeared in a puff of smoke.
"You know sometimes I miss the toads." said Naruto
"You don't have the toads anymore?" asked Ino
"The Toads and the Foxes both don't like to share summoners." explained Ino "Because Naruto picked the Foxes over the Toads they kind of cut contact with him."
"So they are not allies of the Leaf?" asked Naruto
"No, they just won't let me summon them, Konohamaru is there summoner now." explained Naruto
"Can we take this inside?" asked Lys
"Sure." Said Ino
Slowly they entered the house to find a large kitchen and family room, the hard wood floors where covered with a rug at the doorway with wood around the kitchen island. The living room was carpeted with one large couches and single seats with a large wooden coffee table in the center.
"Lys why don't you lye down and get some rest, I want to talk with Ino personaly." said Ino with a smile
"But mom…" said Lys
"Lys." said Ino
"Alright." said Lys as she walked down the hall
"Naruto would you come with me?" asked Naruto as Naruto followed him down stairs into the basement. What he found was a large partly finished basement with one part bar/study and other part a workshop filled with different tools. A half finished deck chair stood waiting to be finished.
"You made this?" asked Naruto
"Ya, a little hobby I picked up from Inari and Tazuna when I hired them to build this place." answered Naruto "However I am still not that good, but it helps me relax sometimes and my boys are always asking for new wooden toy weapons to play with."
"I bet." said Naruto "I must admit this place seams nice."
"Don't get me wrong Ino and I have had out problems but I love my vixen more than anything else." said Naruto
"I never asked about Ino?" said Naruto
"But you where thinking that." said the older Naruto "I am you after all."
"No offense but you aren't." said Naruto "But I understand what you mean. This is what my life could be."
"No…I don't think so." said Naruto "Because when I was your age Ino and I where two weeks away from getting married and she was a few weeks along with Lys."
"It's just Ino?" said Naruto "I just can't see it."
"I can't see being with Sakura but I am betting you do." said Naruto
"Ya, I love Sakura-chan." Said Naruto "I am just not sure she loves me."
"To me Sakura is my first childhood crush I try to remember her as that and not the evil woman I saw murder Kakashi-sensie." said Naruto
"What?" asked Naruto as his eyes widened
"You have to understand that happened maybe a year ago your time." said Naruto "Sakura had changed so much, her skin was almost as white as Orochimaru's and her eyes where cold. Sometime before she had gotten the heaven curse mark justu like Sasuke."
"In our time Orochimaru tried to take Sasuke's body but was killed by him." Said Naruto
"The same thing happened in our time only Sasuke did more than kill Orochimaru he performed some bonding justu which merged the two of them together into one body." said Naruto as he tried not to think of Sasuke with pale white skin and silted eyes before they would go Sharingan "Sasuke's personality was dominate but Orochimaru was a strong force within him."
"I see." said Naruto
"My Sakura-chan isn't like that she stayed loyal to the Leaf." said Naruto "Sasuke didn't take her and now she can't imagine being with him."
"That is where our time lines spit." said Naruto "In mine she went with Sasuke to the sound."
Meanwhile upstairs Ino Namikaze was sitting at the kitchen island with Ino explaining pretty much the same thing
"After Sakura left Naruto was devastated to say the least." said Ino "And so way I."
"You lost Sasuke." said Ino
"I will admit for a while that and losing my best friend were the main reasons why I was upset." said Ino as she drank some water. "With only a one man team Naruto had to be folded into another team. Lady Tsunade though since our team was many an intelligence gathering team that having extra fighting force would do us some good."
"So Naruto joined your team." said Ino
"Correct and at first he drove me up the wall…I hated his living guts." explained Ino as she shook her head at the idea of blaming the man she loves for things out of his control. "I mistakenly blamed him for driving both my love and my best friend away. However Naruto….is like a fungus he just keeps growing on you…and since we where both in pain we soon found ourselves hanging out laughing together and crying over the lost of our loves."
"What about when Naruto went away for training with the toad?" asked Ino
"It was when I first realized how much I really missed him….I cried and everyone thought I was still crying over the snakes when in truth I was crying about missing Naruto." said Ino before she smiled "Then he came back….then on the mission to save Gaara he told us about the burden he carried from birth."
"The Kyuubi." answered Ino
"Ya." said Ino "I felt like crying when he told me about the looks he had gotten and then I felt ashamed that I had been a part of that."
"I didn't go with him to save Gaara, that was Sakura and Kakashi." said Ino "I never learned the truth about Naruto until the war with the Akatsuki started."
"I see." said Ino
Meanwhile downstairs Naruto and Naruto had moved into the finished part of the basement. In the corner sat a chess set in the middle of a game.
"Shikamaru is teaching my youngest boy." answered Naruto
"Lys said you can summon the foxes?" asked Naruto
"Yes, I can." answered Naruto as his eyes changed, they remained blue but became silted like a fox "It happened after Asuma-sensie's death….I wanted revenge for death and then the fox offered a deal."
"A deal?" asked Naruto
"Yes, I don't know if it is the same with your Kyuubi or not." said Naruto as he ran though hand signs before slamming his hand on the ground. Instantly a large puff of smoke filled the air when the smoke cleared there standing about the size of Akamaru was the Kyuubi himself.
"So this is the Naruto from another universe." said Kyuubi in a almost kind sounding voice as he offered his tail in what seemed like a vain attempt of a hand shake.
"Sorry if I don't take your offer." said Naruto
"Understandable your Kyuubi isn't as kind as me." said Kyuubi "I can understand the lack of trust."
"I didn't trust him either and maybe because I was so upset about the loss of Asuma sensei and I wanted the power to advantage him that I took the deal." said Naruto "In the end though it was a good thing, I became the demon fox summoner, got the same power as a five tailed demon and when I married and mated with Ino she got the power of a four tailed demon."
"Wow." said Naruto
"Ya, with that power I killed Pain before he reached the leaf and then later I ripped the head of Madara Uchiha before finally killing Sasuke with a demon powered Rasengan. It was Ino that kept me grounded the entire time." said Naruto "And because of that power no one has really attacked the Leaf, true there has been a few people who tried to kidnap one of my kids."
"Like we would let that happen, family is the most important." said Naruto "I always wanted a family."
"If you learned anything from having multiple kids from different universe shows you that could easily happen with many different people." said Naruto with a smile
"I still have to deal with my Sasuke and Madara." said Naruto
"If you want I could ask your Kyuubi to make the same deal I made with my Naruto." offered Kyuubi "It should allow you to defeat them almost instantly."
"No offense I am not ready to take much in the way of help from they Kyuubi, maybe someday but not now." said Naruto
"Understandable." answered Naruto
Upstairs Ino and Ino where still talking.
"Now don't get me wrong Naruto is a great guy but I don't like him the way you like your Naruto." said Ino
"And I don't expect you too." said Ino as she looked at Ino "Let me guess Lys showed you some memoirs and you fell in love with the image."
"Ya." said Ino "I mean when I look at Lys, I just can't help but think she is my daughter."
"You could argue she is." said Ino "However she had no right to try and force you to go out with your Naruto."
"I mean I love Choji-kun, he was with me when Asuma-sensie died and comforts me and makes me feel happy but she told me about happened with your Choji, how he died of a heart condition on top of being an alcoholic." said Ino
"Have you tested your Choji for the condition?" asked Ino
"I am just afraid to bring it up, I don't want him thinking I don't love him anymore because of what Lys told me." said Ino
"Don't be afraid Ino." stated Ino with a smile "If you love Choji and from you told me he seems to have done the same thing Naruto-kun did for me when Asuma died then he probably loves you just as much as Naruto-kun loves me and you love him just as much as I love my Naruto-kun. Just because your future with Choji isn't the same future you see now doesn't mean you will not as happy as I am now and if you did try to force this future with Naruto if you two don't love each other you will not be happy."
"Thanks." said Ino "I needed that."
"Well sometimes being older makes all the difference." said Ino with a smile
A few hours later Tsunade stood waiting for the arrival of Naruto and Ino. Once again a blinding flash of light filled the room as Naruto and Ino appeared.
"Welcome back." said Tsunade
"Two down three to go." said Naruto "Who is next."
"We are." said Cena as she and Hinata stood waiting. Hinata had her bandages over her eyes removed and she had her arm around Cena with a smile on her face.
"Alright, but first everyone get some sleep." said Tsunade
"Alright." said Naruto
Well I hope you liked this chapter. Most people probably don't know about this but if Naruto couldn't end up with Sakura I would want Ino. Ya I admit it I am a slight Naru/Ino fan but I am still a Naru/Saku die hard. Now until next time please keep reading. Thanks Wilkins75.