Chapter Two: Home at Last
Naruto Uzumaki was running. His heart was pumping, and a glance back revealed there were ninjas chasing him. He was shorter now and running faster and faster.
"Why am I running?" thought Naruto to himself.
"It's Naruto, he's painted the Hokage Monument?!" said someone.
"Seriously?!" said Naruto, leaping over the head of a chunin trying to block him. "I couldn't have shown up five minutes before I did this? Now I'm going to have to clean this whole place off?"
He ran through the streets, dodging and weaving to avoid the ninja. Wherever he went, the ninja tried to pursue him. Yet Naruto was able to effortlessly outpace and outmaneuver them. It was almost fun to see the village back the way it was.
"Well... this is uh... brings back memories. Literally," said Naruto, finding himself on a roof. "This is way easier and actually pretty fun. I'm way above where I was..."
"Ahem," said a familiar voice.
And then someone grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and lifted him up. Naruto saw his first sensei. "Ah, right.
"Because no amount of ultimate power will put me on the same level as Iruka-sensei.
"Nuts."
And that was how Naruto's return journey began exactly how his first one had. With him cleaning off the Hokage monument by hand. It was a lot easier than last time, with all Naruto's experience on D ranks. He'd mostly done it for attention anyway.
Not that it really mattered; it was nice to be back—sort of.
Though he'd have to fix his reputation at some point.
"No going home until this entire place is cleaned off," said Iruka.
"Yeah, yeah, I know," said Naruto, working at it. "Some way to start a future."
"You should have thought of that before you came all the way up to paint it in the first place," said Iruka. "That's a lot of work to disgrace the memory of our founders, Naruto."
Naruto smiled despite himself. "Yeah, well, things back home were worse. Way worse."
"What happened?" asked Iruka-sensei, crossing his arms. "This isn't a repeat of the window incident? Where they uh..."
"No, nobody broke my windows. The Old Man prosecuted them hard," said Naruto, scowling as he remembered that. He'd treated what had happened to him in the village before becoming a ninja like it never happened. "Hey, you weren't my teacher when that happened?"
"I read up on all my student's histories. It helps me be a better teacher," said Iruka. "If you don't understand someone, you can't teach them.
"You're uh... working very quickly at this."
Naruto realized he'd nearly gotten the entire first face done. "Yeah, well, I've got a bit of an unfair advantage."
"What do you mean by that?" asked Iruka-sensei.
Naruto considered where to go with this. Should he tell him? It might cause problems. But Iruka was his only friend right now. "Iruka-sensei, what would you say if I told you I was from the future."
Iruka thought about it. "I'd have to assume it was a prank until proven otherwise. That's not really the sort of thing that happens every day, after all."
Oh good, he was casual about this. "Well, I am.
"The world ended three years from now."
Iruka paused. "...Is that why you were moving far faster than normal?"
Naruto nodded.
"Alright, let's say I believe you. How'd you come back?" asked Iruka.
"We used a whole bunch of Izanagi's," said Naruto.
"Okay, I'm surprised you know what an Izanagi is," said Iruka, blinking. "So if this is a prank, it's pretty well researched. Go on."
"We got the Izanagi's from a cache that was formed by Madara Uchiha," said Naruto. "Most of them came from the Uchiha massacre. And they were being used by the Akatsuki."
"That terrorist organization?" asked Iruka. "You don't do this much reading normally."
"Yeah, I know," said Naruto. "The Akatsuki were originally founded by three people, Konan, Nagato, and Yahiko. They were originally peaceful, never killing their enemies and promoting peace. However, they were ambushed and murdered by the dictator, Hanzo. He was afraid they'd stage a coup. The remnants of the Akatsuki radicalized.
"That's the official history, right?"
"That's pretty in-depth," mused Iruka. "But we did study this in history. You could have been paying attention."
Naruto sighed. This was going to take a while. Putting his hands together in jutsu signs, he spoke, "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Several dozen clones were then created. "Clean up, will you boys."
"Yes, sir!" said the clones. Then they set about work.
Iruka observed. "...Well, it's possible you've been hiding your power until now and have been training yourself up. Security at the Hokage's office has been a bit lax.
"But, you're definitely getting there."
Naruto had been hoping he'd believe him right away. But Iruka-sensei just needed more and more proof. "Ugh, what else can I do?! What, do you want me to start reciting state secrets?"
"You knew state secrets?" asked Iruka in surprise.
Naruto thought about the Uchiha massacre. "By the time I went back in time, I was in the know, yeah. Not that I went to many briefings. I wish I had."
Iruka sighed. "...Well, time-travel jutsu is theoretically possible. Tell you what, why don't you finish up here. Once you're done, you can show me all your skills, and I'll assess your skillset. If you're way stronger compared to your last test, I'll believe you until proven otherwise."
Naruto nodded. "Sounds good."
Naruto finished very quickly, and together they went to the forest. The sound of birds was a nice thing to hear, and it was nice to be in this place as well. It had all been obliterated by Pain last time.
Eventually, they stopped. Naruto began to show Iruka his moves. Iruka observed each one in action.
"...Clone jutsu is perfect," said Iruka. "Show me-"
One jutsu and technique after another was put to Naruto. As he worked, he remembered how Jiraiya had put him through the paces to relearn his basics. It was doing him excellent work now.
"Perfect," said Iruka.
"Do you believe me?" asked Naruto.
"Well, the only other explanation I can think of is that you've secretly been acting as a spy in my class for years. To assess the heirs and such," said Iruka-sensei. "But if that's the case, I'd be obligated to cooperate with you either way.
"Also, you could tell me you needed my help for whatever it was you needed doing. Or get someone else to get my help and save yourself some trouble. And time-space jutsu does exist, so...
"You being from the future isn't impossible."
"Huh," Naruto blinked. "I was kind of expecting this to be a lot harder."
Iruka laughed. "Just don't make a habit of it. I'd rather the world didn't end in three years.
"So... what is your plan?"
Naruto shifted. "I uh...
"I don't think I should talk about it. I mean, things are going one way now, and I ought to try to control events."
"I wouldn't try to change history with that attitude, Naruto," said Iruka.
"What do you mean?" asked Naruto.
Iruka sighed. "My old sensei, Orochimaru, tried to control everything. He weighed the pros and cons and assessed things to minimize risk for the maximum number of people. He made sacrifices where it was necessary, even when others said there was another way.
"But it didn't work out for him.
"You can't control people, Naruto. And history is made by people. If you try to get someone to do something by pulling levers in their mind, you'll make them hate you."
"But Iruka-sensei, I never thought anything through the first time!" said Naruto. "I just kept on charging ahead and never planned or strategized. And the world ended."
"I'm not saying you shouldn't make a plan," said Iruka. "Planing is essential, even if plans go astray. But I'm a teacher, Naruto. One of my jobs is to make sure my students become the best people they can be. And one thing I've learned is that I can't make anyone do anything. All I can do is make them want to do something."
"What's the difference?" asked Naruto, curious.
"Well, let's say I offer you a bowl of ramen if you graduate," said Iruka. "You'll want the bowl of ramen, and it can serve as motivation, right?"
"Yeah," said Naruto.
"Now, imagine that I used a genjutsu on you. I try and emotionally manipulate you to like doing schoolwork," said Iruka. "Do you think that would work?"
Naruto paused. "No."
"Why not?" asked Iruka-sensei.
"Well, because I'd be fighting against it the whole time. And it would be wrong," said Naruto.
"Exactly," said Iruka. "Giving someone an incentive to do what is best for themselves and the village is how diplomacy is done. That's why Sarutobi is the greatest Hokage we've ever had. He knew how to keep people working together to do their best.
"So uh... what plans do you have to change this future?"
"Well, uh... I didn't have time to make a plan. We were sort of in a hurry," said Naruto. "Um, the guys who sent me back suggested I help the rest of my class get a lot stronger. Most of them become prodigies and major assets. So we'd be able to fight better. And he also suggested I assassinate certain um... people who go bad once they outlive their usefulness."
"Was this person a member of the ANBU Black Ops?" asked Iruka.
"Well, he used to be," said Naruto. "Or something like it. And one of the people he wanted to be assassinated was himself."
"He asked you to kill him?" asked Iruka, voice incredulous.
"Yes, see... he started on the side of the Leaf, but then he switched sides," said Naruto. "And he switched sides over and over again while growing more powerful. Eventually, his plans failed, and the world started ending. So he became a sort of good person to help us save the world.
"But he didn't think he would ever become good in this timeline without first succeeding in his goals. And if he did that, we'd all be dead. So... so he asked me to kill him.
"I don't really think I should tell you."
Iruka sighed. "Well... I wouldn't try to assassinate anyone, Naruto. I don't think you should try to kill or hurt anyone who isn't trying to harm you, your friends, or the village.
"Maybe assassinating them will stop them from doing harm. But killing someone doesn't just hurt the person you're killing. It hurts everyone they know, all their friends, and it also hurts you. You lose a little bit of yourself when you kill another person.
"I did it once.
"After that, I stuck to support duty and did a pretty good job of it."
Naruto thought about that. He'd never killed anyone, only knocked them out or failed to save them. "So what can we do?"
Iruka sighed. "Well, I'll tell you what I can do.
"Believe it or not, I'm a lot more important than I look. I think that I could suggest to the Hokage that our new teams should be trained on a war footing."
"What do you mean?" asked Naruto.
"Well, in times of peace, there's less rush to get trained ninja out there," said Iruka. "And ninja aren't any use when they snap as Itachi Uchiha did. Something wrong?"
Naruto realized his expression had changed. Poor Itachi. The guy was completely nuts. "It's nothing I... I met Itachi Uchiha."
"Well, in any case, ninja do their best work over the longest period of time. People are more effective when they are allowed to grow up slowly," said Iruka. "But, in times of crisis, or when war is looming, the genin are trained on a war footing.
"Which basically means the teachers are expected to train them hard and get fast results."
"Well, how are you going to get the Old Man to do that?" asked Naruto.
"Easy, I'll tell the Hokage that my class has a lot of potential for greatness. Then I'll say it is being distracted by social drama," said Iruka-sensei. "It's more or less true; Sakura and Ino could be far stronger than they are now. Then I recommend that it be best if the academy students got pushed extra hard in training.
"I also bring up a few minor incidents that raised suspicions and have been overlooked. I overlooked a few of them myself.
"I'm fairly certain I can set things up.
"Meanwhile, well, you know better than I what needs work.
"Um... did any of my students die, Naruto?"
Naruto found himself unable to speak. He tried to say something, anything.
But no words came out.
"Naruto?" asked Iruka.
"All of them, sensei," said Naruto. "Everyone except me died."
Iruka paused. "...I think I'd better get that meeting. In fact, I think I should recommend all genin squads have their training increased."
"Sensei... there's something else you should know," said Naruto after a moment.
"Yeah?" asked Iruka.
"This should prove whether I'm nuts or if I'm really from the future," said Naruto. "Mizuki-sensei..."
"What about him?" asked Iruka.
"... He's a traitor, sensei," said Naruto. "He tried to steal the sacred scroll, tricked me into doing it, and then tried to kill us both."
"But why would he... I don't..." Iruka halted.
Naruto looked down sadly. "I'm sorry, sensei. I know Mizuki was your friend."
Iruka composed himself. "...I hope you're wrong about all this, Naruto."
Naruto sighed. "So do I."
Naruto had probably just killed Mizuki. Yes, Mizuki had betrayed the village, but the idea of a ninja putting a knife in him hurt. There would be an investigation in secret, and he'd disappear the next day. Nobody would know where he went, but Naruto would. And the absence made him depressed.
They were making progress.
But this was going to take a lot of work.