Gonna keep this intro short and sweet. Got the itch to write again, and this is the product of that. Have had this outlined for the past couple years, but just figured now of all times was perfect to get it done. Enjoy, let me know what you think in the comments, and if I made any glaring typos or continuity errors, hit me over the head with a frying pan like ChiChi punishing Goku for letting Gohan fight in the Cell Tournament.

Chapter 2: The Endless Path Winds Through the Garden

This world began as most others do in their infancy. Blank slate. An empty page. Where there was once barren rock floating through the endless void of space, hurtling to its own unknowing demise some several billion years ago into the void of universal heat death, life had sprung against the very odds that allowed it to exist in the beginning. Life, you see, was not meant for this realm. Oh, most of the stars had been in the same place, and one insignificant rock also floated around a medium-sized yellow sun out in the boondocks of the cosmos, but not a spec of biological life was to be found.

Anywhere.

And yet, miracle of miracles, it eventually came. Water crashed on shores spotted with shrubs and skittering crab. Winds howled at mountain goats huddling for warmth against the permafrost around them. Apes flung their poo at each other with innocent glee.

And somewhere on this rock, very far away from it all, was a lonely man with a fishing rod, a line, and a shore as hard as his heart had become in recent times.

How long this man had sat in one spot without movement was anybody's guess, but as he had not taken a visitor in nearly two decades, and strictly speaking he had no pressing issues at hand, the odds were he had been there a while.

Eyes, barely cognizant of what lay before him, were crusted with seasalt and grime. Hair, long abused, flowed down his back, tangles of cord and twine in consistency and character. His body was as emaciated as a mummy's, and with so much dirt and other small debris littering his skin, his natural tone was anybody's guess. Were it not for the red rings around his eyes and their preternaturally golden hue, he might be mistaken for some tortured art left to the elements.

For far too long had the Endless Path sat by the wayside.

Those who once walked beside him would not allow his rest for much longer...

Unohana Retsu found Naruto in a strange place as she left her patient's room, several corridors away from where she had banished him. He was sitting on the wooden floor, his knees to his chest and arms around them. He was looking up at the ceiling with half-closed eyes and a frown on his usually-jovial face. He looked up at Unohana as she approached and stood. "Hey, 'Hana," he said, with that familiar nickname that would get nearly anybody else a severe beating. "How is she? Everything all right?"

"Mm. Lily is on the way to a full recovery already. I saw no remaining issues that should need my further supervision. I do suggest that she should rest for another day or two, and if you wouldn't mind finding something resembling a fruit or vegetable that is not accompanied by your horrid noodles, that would bring me endless joy."

Naruto idly waved a hand at the sarcasm. "Fine, fine, I'll take her out for some actual food later on." He ducked his head and muttered "It's not like you complained about noodles back in the day or anything..."

Unohana sighed and hopelessly massaged her forehead to stave off the headache that cropped up when talking to her friend. Did she care for him? Yes, of course. Were they close? Since the day they had formally met. Did she occasionally dream about what his component organs might look like preserved in jars and arranged neatly on a custom-made shelf in her personal office? At least once a week.

It would be arranged with flowers, which would change depending on the season.

"Uzumaki, I respect that your favorite food is a treasure to you. Prepared by a master, it can be an exquisite dining experience and a blessing to all of the senses. However, your fetish for instant, mass-produced glorified Styrofoam borders on sexual deviancy at times, and if I did not have it on good authority that separating you from them would result in property destruction on a city-wide scale-"

"Was just that one time," Naruto mumbled.

"-then I would have done so twenty minutes ago."

Naruto cracked a smile and stood. He was taller than Unohana Retsu by over a half foot, but he knew better than to talk back to her too often. If he had to make a "Top 10 Scariest Women in the Multiverse" then she would at least be in the big 3, and she knew it. "Speaking of which," he said, very obviously changing the subject, "what's your take?" He gave a not-so-subtle nod in the general direction of Lily's room.

Unohana crossed her arms and leaned against the wall beside him. "She seems... surprisingly chipper. I cannot tell at the moment if she is in some sort of emotional shock, or if it's the trademark Uzumaki clan ability to adapt. I assume that her mother has told her some things about you before now? She is not entirely ignorant of her family tree?"

Naruto frowned. "Actually, uh... she hasn't spoken to me since Lily was three." His eyes cut to Unohana with a shade of regret. "I wasn't around much then, you see. Lily, she had just had her birthday, and all seemed well, but then the war... I didn't want to, but I had to go. My place wasn't to tell her how to raise her daughter, and... she told me to stay away. I didn't want to risk her hating me forever, and I kept hoping that one day she would reach out to me, but that day never came. People were dying, Retsu. I had to help. She... wanted normal in her life, and she couldn't do that with me around."

"That is certainly a rational thing to say," she said. "Are you sure you aren't sick?"

"And fuck you too, Retsu," he said, turning to go see his granddaughter. "I've been ostracized from her for over a decade, and I'm damn sure that whatever she knows about me she got from her grandmother in bits and pieces over the years. She's gonna have a bunch of questions and I'm not sure where I'll even be able to start, much less how much of the truth she can handle right now."

Unohana's hand fell on Naruto's shoulder. He sighed and turned to see her serious eyes gazing into his. "Start with the truth," she said evenly. "You can't lie to her, not even once. If you get into that habit now, it will be easier the more you go. Tell her the truths you can. I know you don't want her to know about everything, not yet, but if you intend to have a relationship with your great-granddaughter, you should tell her enough that she can put the pieces together on her own... eventually."

"Yeah, but will I even get the chance?" he asked. "She's still seventeen. Her mother will be absolutely fucking furious."

Unohana pointed a finger in the air. "Technically, you didn't break any rules," she said. "She called out to the Pack. You happened to respond."

Naruto snorted. "Yeah, as if she'll believe that. 'Oh, hey Munchkin, funny thing happened last week, your daughter happened to be chased by a couple F5 tornadoes outside of twister season in Nebraska, came out of nowhere, and Lily just happened to know how to get in contact with me through ancient and mind-fuckery powerful magic that nobody really understands... oh hey, do I smell cookies?'"

Unohana flicked the tip of his nose, eliciting a yelp. "Sarcasm will not help you here, my friend." She cupped his cheek with a palm and forced him to look at her. "Speak from your heart. You, of all people, should know how to do that. Be cautious with what you say, and if you and she have a future together in any significant way, then be more open with your past." Her expression softened a smidge. Just a smidge. "It has been too long since your family has been together. You... you need that again."

They held that pose for a while longer than most would be comfortable with. He and Unohana had a long, complicated history with each other. Often they had been at odds in one way or another, as a matter of philosophy and morality, but by and large they had held each other in the highest esteem. The two, of all of Naruto's friends and acquaintances at this point in their lives, were probably closer to family outside of his own actual family.

Naruto closed his eyes and lowered his forehead to hers. It was a deeply intimate gesture that neither had ever allowed an outsider to witness; one could easily mistake its meaning for something else entirely. "Taichou," he whispered after some time, "Taichou, I'm fucking scared. I don't know how to do this. She, Lily, she... I'm a ghost to her. A fiction. Legend, maybe, if she knows enough from that far back. But me? I'm just the same old hyperactive knucklehead I've always been. Do I deserve to be in her life after what I did?"

Unohana palmed his other cheek, allowing Naruto to nestle and absorb her warmth. "Are you asking permission to be happy?" she said. "Of all people I know, after everything you have lost and sacrificed? I think so. It's time, Naruto. Your great-granddaughter is waiting. She's scared, too. She's lost and afraid and even if she doesn't show it, she needs guidance. The deadline is coming soon, and she needs to know her birthright. If her mother didn't tell her-"

"But it's not," Naruto interrupted. "The Uzumaki clan lives and dies with me. Every single time, I- I can't, Taichou. I can't. If I tell her my past, if I tell her what I am, what will she see? If I show her the world I've made and what it means, what will I be in her eyes?"

Unohana gently pushed Naruto's face from hers. He opened his eyes to see the woman who had been there by his side so very many times in his very long life. "She will see her great-grandfather who owes her thirteen years' worth of birthday presents and catching up. Forget about the minutia. Just go and spend time with her and let her decide for herself. Let her choices decide her future, not your past."

And just like that, Naruto felt all the tension in his body seem to lift from his shoulders. Even short talks with Unohana tended to have that effect on him. Of all the people that he had taken into his life, Unohana Retsu was the most perceptive of his soul and had a way of making complicated things as simple as bricks. He did love her, very much, and she him.

"That does leave one problem, though," he said. "Um... her mother?"

Unohana smiled again. "That, my friend, is your problem." Naruto blinked, but she was already walking away.

"Oh, come on! I could use the emotional support!"

Unohana waved a hand over her shoulder. "Get a puppy if you want emotional support, Uzumaki. I'll bandage you when she's through with you."

He stared at her retreating figure until she turned a corner, silently fuming. "Fuck you too, Retsu!" he shouted. "You're just gonna let me walk into an uncomfortable family situation without backup?!"

"That's what you get for giving my patient noodles, my dear," she called at him in her retreat. "Now, I really do have some unpleasantness to attend to, you understand. See you soon."

A sudden rap at the door made Lily's heart skip a beat. "Hey, Lily?" Naruto's voice intoned. "Can I come in?"

Some strange blend of excitement and trepidation blossomed within, but she squashed it down with several deep breaths. "Yeah, uh, come in," she replied.

The door swung inward. Naruto stood there a moment to see Lily standing there beside the bed, hospital garb discarded in favor of the clothes left behind. Save for the deliberately baggy shirt, everything looked like it fit as he thought it would. "Hey, you're up!" he said, stating the obvious. "Feeling up to getting out of here? Stretch your legs a bit?"

Lily gulped, but nodded. "Yeah. Um. Where are we going?"

Naruto's lips spread into a knowing grin. "Oh, just out," he said far too innocently. "Stroll around the garden, as it were."

"You have a garden?" she asked, the mental image of him in a wide-brimmed cap knee-deep in dirt with a trowel planting petunias coming to mind.

Naruto planted his fists on his hips in a way very reminiscent of Peter Pan. "I have several gardens."

Lily waved a hand at the door, suppressing a snort. "Lead the way, Gramps."

Naruto maturely stuck his tongue out at his descendant and blew a gloriously wet raspberry at her. "Keep calling me gramps!" he said with a laugh as Lily chased him out of the room, her fists comically pounding on his retreating back.

"You're weird," she said, massaging her hands. His back was more like a brick wall than flesh and bone. She would have done more damage to a frozen side of beef, in fact.

Naruto held a finger up. "That isn't something that I'd deny," he acknowledged. He closed the door behind her. "I've been called worse over the years."

Now in the hall, Lily looked both ways for the first time. It reminded her of a long hospital corridor, or maybe the interior of a damn near clinically clean office floor. White-walled, a ceiling made of tile, and what appeared to be marble blocks as the floor stretched several dozen meters each way. Three or four different doors identical to her own were on walls going each way, and at the end of each was a T-shaped junction leading who-knows-where. No windows were to be seen.

"Just where are we?" she asked, rubbernecking about.

"That's complicated," Naruto answered. "Simple answer would be, a combination of a medical wing, home office, and living quarters, though this isn't a permanent residence of mine. Combination of a safe house and all-purpose conference area."

Lily looked at him in alarm. "Safe house?" she squeaked. "Are we hiding from somebody? Are you hiding from somebody? Are you a criminal? Are we-"

Naruto cut her off before she could go on. "No, we're not hiding anywhere, I just wanted you someplace quiet without a commotion waking you up before you had a chance to recover." He waved a hand vaguely around them. "This is the place I bring people who need time away from what ails them, and gives them time to think. Recover. Relax. This is a sanctuary for those who have had too much of life, and need help. That's what I do these days, Lily. What I've been doing for almost a century now, in fact."

Lily gawked at him. A century. It was a word that she was familiar with, but had some difficulty processing. She knew, intellectually, that he was old, but it was hard to comprehend that this man who looked in his mid-30's at most was her great-grandfather. "Just... how old are you?" she breathed. "There's so much I don't understand right now."

Naruto placed a hand on each shoulder and smiled softly. "There's a time and place for all these questions, and I promise I'll answer you to the best of my ability. But there are some answers that you're not ready for, not yet. Every question needs appropriate context for the answer, and right now you just don't know enough to know where to begin. But you will, and soon, I promise, I'll tell you everything that I can."

"What I understand is that I was in a tornado doing a pretty good imitation of Dorothy," Lily said. "Does that make you the Wicked Witch of the West?"

Naruto laughed, shaking his head. "Nah, I'm the Good Witch Glenda," he said. He reached behind Lily to grab the doorknob of the room she had just left. "And I gotta tell you, Toto..." with a twist of the wrist, it opened. "... you ain't in Kansas no more."

The air pressure of the hall rushed through the door, dramatically billowing the two's clothing about them. Fresh air that smelled like spring assailed Lily's nostrils. Florescent lights were matched with burning sunlight falling from a bright clear sky from above. On the other side of the doorway was a grassy hilltop with a dirt path winding away through some trees about fifty yards away.

Lily walked through the door with her breath held tightly. Birds of some kind sang in the near distance; wind, the kind you get at high altitudes, the sort with the slightest edge to them, whispered at her ears. Flowers- some that she couldn't identify, but were so lovely that a funeral might be thought of as a joyous event if they were arranged properly- shared space in the grass to either side of the road. Some were grouped by species, in little beds here and there, but others had obviously migrated their seed over time, and a visual cornucopia greeted her like an old friend.

She walked forward, tentatively feeling the earth beneath her feet. This place... there was something familiar about it. This field of wonder felt more like home to Lily than any four walls ever had.

"What is this place?" Lily asked as she turned around to see Naruto closing the door. "Where are-" She stopped when she realized that he was shutting a door to a door frame that was standing alone, unsupported by any other structure, on the edge of a cliff.

"This is home," Naruto said with a smile. He walked past her, guiding her with him as he strolled. "I know you have a lot to ask me, but there will be time for all of that soon."

Lily, dumbstruck, looked over her shoulder as she walked, as if that would make a building magically appear out of thin air where it hadn't been just a few seconds ago. "That'll be the least strange thing you see all day," Naruto said without looking back himself. "Pace yourself. Do you like tea or coffee?"

"Huh? What? But- Where? How?"

"Excellent questions! I think herbal tea is called for right now."

"Oh, fuck the tea, old man! My world is being turned upside down right now and right now, I'm freaking. Where are we going? And don't you dare say something cryptic or I'll toss you off that cliff!"

Naruto turned with a huff. "I can't just tell you everything right now," he answered. "There's a lot to unpack. About me, this place. About who you, your mother, everybody in our family. Where I came from, how we got here, it's a really long story. I can tell you some of it, but you won't understand any of it without context." He extended a hand to Lily. "Please, I know we're strangers, but we're family. I... I don't have a lot of that anymore. Would you please just trust me when I say that I'll try to get around to telling you what you need to know without being a total ass about it?" He nodded his head toward the treeline behind him. "There's a cottage in there I use when I need a quiet place to talk. Let's get some tea, and we'll talk for a while."

Lily held her ground for a moment longer. "Coffee," she finally said. "I think I need the caffeine. After all, I've been in a coma for a few days and I'm kinda tweaking."

Naruto grinned. "Fine, but I hope you like hazelnut."

As cottages went, this one was nothing too special. It was constructed in a way that made Lily think of a Tolkien film; outer walls constructed of logs, caulked together with some kind of mud or basic cement, with red roof tiles to keep the elements at bay. Wide windows took up the two of the walls, green-hued sunshine streaming in through one of them as leaves high above filtered the ambiance. The inside was quite a bit more modern; while nothing to boast of, there was indeed an oven with a range, a coffeepot, and other knickknacks in the kitchen. A bookshelf crammed with various titles, a television, a small couch, and an extraordinarily plump lounge chair took up the living room. "Nice place," Lily said as she looked around. "You live here?" It was hard to believe that this was just some kind of meeting room. She could feel the life in this room. Things, events had taken place in this spot, she could just feel it.

"It's a place," Naruto said in that annoyingly cryptic way. "How do you take your coffee?"

"Excessively sweet," she answered. She walked over to the bookshelf and began thumbing through some of the spines. Arranged in no particular order, she recognized a lot of the authors, and even realized that she'd read several of these herself. Pratchett, King, Rowling... even Arthur C. Clark was represented. The bottom of five shelves had, of all things, an assortment of manga.

"Cream?"

"Cream cream or creamer cream?"

"Cream cream."

"Cream."

"You ever notice how you say a word often enough, it just stops sounding like a word and just random noise?"

He nodded sagely as he measured some coffee into a filter. "Cream." Lily snorted. "You can read if you want to," he said. "We've got all the time in the world. Pick something to take with you. Coffee won't be done for a few minutes." She blindly grabbed one of the manga and sat, or more rather sunk, into the velvet of the chair. "That's my spot," he said without turning.

"Coma!" she reminded him cheerily as she flipped it open. "Three days in a hospital bed!"

Naruto groaned. She's my granddaughter, all right, he mused. "Fine, but you've officially cashed out all of your Pity Party Points."

"Viva la revolution," was Lily's happy retort. She'd finished the first chapter of the book by the time he had gotten their drinks prepared, but as soon as he set the mugs on the coffee table the furniture was arranged around, she set it down on the armrest. "Thank you," she said, bringing it close to her nose. "Mmmm, that smells good."

"Tastes even better," Naruto promised. He settled in on the sofa kitty corner to her and crossed his legs.

Lily sipped at her cup gingerly, letting out a contented sigh as she did. "I'd say this was heaven, but I'm pretty sure I'm not dead yet. Wait." She looked at Naruto with sudden shock. "Wait, I'm not dead, am I? Am I?" She put the cup down and stood up. "If I'm dead and this is Heaven or something and you're a spook or angel or whatever I am going to flip my-"

"You're not dead!" Naruto said. "Calm down! You're alive, ,I promise!" He rubbed his face in exasperation. "Listen, calm down a bit, okay?"

"I am calm!" Lily said in a very not-calm tone.

He cocked an eyebrow at her. "Oh boy, you definitely got your temper from me."

Lily sat back down. "Very funny," she retorted. "If this isn't the afterlife, then where are we? You said we weren't in Kansas anymore, but I think you were being a little more metaphorical than you let on."

"Well... Yeah. That's one of those 'it's a long story' things, Lily." He paused to sip at his own cup, taking a moment to collect his thoughts. "I suppose I should start somewhere near the beginning of my own." It was his turn to stand. He could feel Lily's eyes on his back, but he paced around the small room a bit as he drank. "Sorry if it sounds like I'm being cryptic, but I'm not really used to telling this story to people. It's not like it's a secret, but... you know how at school, there are things that you just know about some classmates without knowing really how you know? 'She's rich, he's an asshole, that guy goes to heavy metal concerts, she's adopted,' all that? It's just something you pick up along the way? Most people I come across in my circles, they've known about my situation for so long that I don't really have to explain things, they just kinda pick it up along the way. Having the luxury of telling it from my point of view makes the story somehow stranger than I remember it."

"Hrmp. Give me the short version, then," the granddaughter said. "Fill me in along the way."

"Oh, no. The short version makes me sound like a mental patient with delusions of grandeur."

Lily spread her arms. "I'm in a cottage on a hill in a garden sipping tea with my great-grandfather who looks under 30 years old. I'm here because two tornadoes clocked me into the air. I recited a poem that somehow summoned you to save me. You were glowing. This can't get any weirder."

Naruto nodded. "Point. Okay." He sat back down and looked her in the eye. "You ready? Unbridled truth isn't something most people can take in small doses."

"Born ready, apparently."

"Heh. Fine." With one more chug, he set the cup down. "Fine. Okay." He inhaled deeply, and on the exhale, spoke his piece. "I'm a super ninja. By my count, I'm just shy of seven thousand years old, not accounting for time travel fuckery. I come from a universe extraordinarily far from any place you can imagine. Every time I die, I get reincarnated into my twelve-year old self, on the same morning I set off to learn of my first mission after graduation from ninja academy. On the day I was born, a monster about a thousand years old at the time was sealed inside of me, giving me extraordinary power. Eventually, I learned how to leave my world and travel among others, and over the centuries I learned how to modify my natural powers to mimic those I came across on other planets. Most of those were versions of Earth in one way or another, but some of them were so alien that I don't have words to describe them that you have context for. To this day I have absolutely no fucking idea why I keep coming back when I die. One of my greatest ambitions is to end the cycle, but as long as I'm around, I do my absolute best to stay alive for as long as I can and get into some trouble along the way. The last time I died and revived was almost two hundred years ago, and I'm fine with that. Immortality sucks, but I learned to make the best of it. Eventually, I became powerful enough under the right circumstances that I can basically obliterate large chunks of a standard galaxy if I know what to do, which I've only had to do once, and thankfully there wasn't any sentient life in it. As far as people born mortal go, I'm in the top one percent or so of the mightiest beings alive that don't draw their power directly from some divine being or greater concept god." He took another sip of his coffee without losing eye contact. "How's that for the short version?"

Lily nearly dropped her mug. "Um. Wow. Okay. You're a crazy person."

"That goes without saying," he replied cheerily. "Doesn't make any of the above less true, though."

"You're a... a ninja?"

"Yep."

"And immortal."

"Mhmm."

"But only kinda immortal."

"It's a technicality, but yeah."

"Seven thousand years old."

He held up a finger. "Ah, about that," he said, "I don't count times that I've been... elsewhere. Sealed away, unconscious, locked in a pit with no escape, trapped in an inescapable dimension, all that. If I did, I'd probably have to tack on a millennia or so. And seven thousand is enough to keep track of, and even that's an estimate."

"You have... a demon? Powers?"

"Super powers. Top tier. I specialize in breaking things people don't want broken."

"You're a fighter?"

Naruto shrugged. "I mean, I can fight, sure. It's easier to talk to people though. You'd be surprised how often you can avoid confrontation if you engage them in conversation."

Lily blinked rapidly. "Wait, if you're... all that. If you're an immortal super demon god ninja-"

"I am not a god," he interjected. "The last time people tried worshiping me, it didn't end well for anybody. I'm just some guy, and I try to remember that."

She recoiled a bit at that. His body language didn't change, but she could tell that it was a sensitive subject and didn't press it. "Okay, if you're... that... What does that make me? Mom?" She looked at her hands, clenching them. "Am I like you? If I die, will I..."

"You'll just die," he said bluntly. "You're a seventeen-year old girl who got into an accident. I just happened to... hear your distress call."

Lily's eyes widened. "Wait! Right! That, the... poem? That spell or whatever it was, I learned that from grandma! She told me to say it if I was ever in trouble! She knew you'd come and save me! And the others- there was somebody else there too, maybe more. Who were they? Why'd they come with you? Are you their boss or something?"

"I'm nobody's boss," Naruto insisted. "Those were friends of mine."

"But they helped because of you," she shot back.

He shrugged. "More or less, yeah."

"But why?"

"Because the Pack protects their own."

"What does that have to do... wait. Hold on." Naruto could see dots being connected in her mind, almost literally. He knew the signs; darting eyes, twitching lips, jaws shifting slightly to words spoken only in her head. "That poem. Kipling, right? 'The strength of the Pack is the... Wolf. And the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.'" Cupping her hand around her mouth, she continued, "That lady, Unohana? She said she answered the 'Call' or something. I'm guessing that the word is capitalized. Same for 'Wolf' and 'Pack', right?"

Naruto nodded, but didn't answer. She was doing well piecing things together by herself, he wanted to see where she would go with this.

"She also said that you've been friends for a long time. How long?"

"Eh... a shade over seven hundred years? Something like that."

"She's scary," Lily said bluntly.

"Oh, abso-fucking-lutely," he agreed. "Especially to those who don't adhere to her hospital protocol."

"So, the Pack... If you're a Wolf, and so is she, and you all answered... that means there's more of you, right? Some kind of group?"

"More like an alliance than anything," Naruto answered. "It's a lot to explain in few words, but the long and short of it is that it's more like living magic. Imagine a force that could be adopted under different guises. An ancient, incredibly powerful magic that spans across time and space. Nobody alive today, to my knowledge, is aware of where it comes from or who created it, if anybody did at all. It's a passive force, but those who it 'accepts' into it can call on aid in times of need to anybody else who the Pack acknowledges. That poem from Jungle Book, it's kind of like a key to access it. You aren't pack yourself- you're more like a cub. But we all adhere to a principle that we protect our own." He shrugged. "Frankly, I could have handled the disaster you were in on my own, but the fact that your familial bond with me is so strong that it didn't just reach me, but six others from six separate universes, whole different planes of reality, goes to show how eager it was to keep you alive."

"This is crazy," she said softly.

"Crazy is as crazy does," Naruto shot back.

Lily fell silent for a few moments. "If you... if you're that strong... if you can use magic, what does that really make me? Can I do what you..." Wait. Hold on. "Mom. She can do what you do too, can't she?"

Naruto kept his face neutral while carefully considering his words. "To a lesser extent, yes," he said. "She's far younger than I am, but if we're comparing her current ability to mine when I was her age- in my first run-around of life before I started playing Groundhog Day- she's about equal. Maybe stronger."

"Then... why didn't I know about it? Why didn't anybody tell me any of this?"

Naruto leaned forward and put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "She wanted you to live a normal life," he said. "Kino went through a lot with her own mother- my daughter, your grandmother- and didn't want to put you through the same life she lead. I'm sorry that she did that, but it wasn't our right to decide how she raised her own children. The last time I saw you was a very bad time in her life, and mine. You deserved better than that. I..." He sighed and hung his head, withdrawing his hand. "There was a lot of fighting. There was a war. Your mom helped a little bit, but she was so worried about you being caught in the crossfire that she decided that her priority was keeping you safe. I couldn't do anything but respect that decision, even if I disagreed with it."

"Is that why Grandma doesn't come around very much?" Lily asked.

He shrugged again. "Less that and more that she's off doing her own thing. She might be nearing sixty years old, but Uzumaki blood is strong, especially in her. Her biology, her power, it combines to physically retard her age after a certain point. All folks in our bloodline share this trait to one extent or another. I've taken certain steps to prolong my natural lifespan, which might sound vain from somebody who'll just come back to life anyway, but there are good reasons for it that I don't want to get into right now. That said, you, her, everybody in my family could live to seventy or eighty years old without appearing to age past their mid-thirties or so."

"Where is she?"

"Last I checked, couple years ago, she was playing Pokemon professionally on some world out there. No idea where she is now."

Lily snorted in disbelief. "You're fucking with me."

"No, I swear!" Naruto said with a laugh. "She got bored of fighting and decided she wanted to relax for a while. I think she's in love with this dude named Wolfe- no relation to the Pack, he's this nerd who's big in the scene."

"You've got to be fucking with me," Lily insisted.

"I'm not saying I understand it either," Naruto admitted.

Lily looked around the room in thought for a moment. "So- this place. Is it where you come from? Your... home?"

"Well... no and yes. I live here, but didn't come from here. More like, I found an empty universe with nothing in it and set up shop."

"Huh?"

"Another long story," Naruto said.

"I hate it when you say that," Lily grumbled. "You love being mysterious, don't you?"

"It's like a drug," he admitted. "I can't get enough of the intrigue."

Lily finished her coffee in deep thought. Naruto could tell that there were still many things that she wanted to ask him, but she had no idea where to begin anymore. She seemed to settle with "The things you do- the, what? Power? Magic? Can you teach me?"

"I wish I could," he said. "I really do. But your mother would kill me if I did it right now. Especially since you're still recovering. She... doesn't like me much these days, you know. She would probably forgive me bringing you here, but if I started teach you the family trade, it would make things bad for us in the long run. I don't have too much family left... I don't want to break the one I still have just by being impulsive."

"What'll she do, ground me?" Lily joked.

"No," Naruto said. "She'd try to kill me. I try to avoid dying as a general rule."

"Very funny."

"He's quite serious," a voice from the other side of the front door chimed in, startling Lily.

Naruto stood to swing it open, revealing Unohana. "Hey, Retsu," he said in greeting. "Didn't expect to see you so soon. What gives?"

"I apologize for the interruption," she said, "but I thought you might want to know that her mother is on the way here right now."

He froze in place. Lily could see his entire body stiffen. "Ah. Um. Oh. That's... bad."

Unohana, unfazed, smiled at him. "Oh, yes. In fact, she's climbing the mountain right now. On foot. Slowly. One step at a time."

Naruto gulped. "Eh. Oh. Thanks for the warning. Um, you might want to get out of here before the fireworks start. This could be trouble."

"Leave? You jest," Unohana said. Naruto could feel that quiet brand of schadenfreude his friend was so well known for, and it sent chills down his spine. She reached into her robes and withdrew a buttery-smelling paper bag. "I already prepared the popcorn. I'll sit off to the side and watch. Don't worry, I'll be sure to patch you up before you die." She put a hand on Naruto's slightly-trembling shoulder. "Good luck." With that short interlude of adorable family bonding, she about-faced and closed the door behind her.

Naruto stood in stunned silence for some time. Lily could tell that, for whatever reason, he was as surprised as she was. "Hey? Um. Grandpa? Are you going to be okay? Is she going to be that mad at you over all this?"

He let out a shaky breath. "It might be best that you stay in here when she arrives," he said. "She might not actually kill me, but she knows how much I love my garden. There's a good chance she'll start there and work her way to me."

"She wouldn't do that!" Lily protested. "How vindictive could she get? You saved my life, right?"

"Heh. Ha. Yeah. I did..."

"But?"

"...but I didn't tell her you were here three days ago. I, uh, hoped that she might not figure out by the time I took you home tomorrow."

Lily blinked. "Ooooohhhhh. So we're both dead."

"Maaaayybe. If I hurry, I might be able to stop-" A muffled explosion in the middle distance interrupted his train of thought, the floor below vibrating in protest.

"That's not a good sign," Lily whispered.

Please, don't let that be the roses.

Well, that was quite a bit of infodump. If you're interested in sticking around for the long haul, I've got plans to include quite a bit of backstory here, including several chapters at a time of stories of different times in Naruto's life.

In case you were wondering if this sounded somewhat familiar, and if you're caught up with a story written by Third Fang called "Yet Again With a Little Extra Help" then this does indeed exist in the same universe as his story. He gave me permission several years ago, but I haven't quite had the energy or motivation since then to jot anything down. I'm not going to use anything specific from his stories except the concept of Presence, but even that won't play too much a part of this tale, though some of his OCs might get name dropped here and there.

I hope everybody is staying safe during this viral pandemic. Stay healthy, wash your damn hands, and eat right.

Dattebayo.

~DeadWitch