Falling In Reverse
Chapter 6
"You could act a bit friendlier."
"And why would I do that?"
"I don't know, Kurama. Maybe because, you know, we're not trying to make enemies here?"
"It is not my fault that those Uchiha snowflakes are so twitchy."
A few closer Uchihas shot him aggrieved looks from where they were hopping from one tree to another in front of the Jinchuuriki. The moment their eyes met with the fierce red ones and saw that cruel grin on the young blond's face, they instantly turned away.
In the sealscape, Naruto sighed, not quite sure if he felt more exasperated or amused. He was lounging on Kurama's forearm, his back leaning against the fox's shoulder and one of his hands behind his head. "Can you at least stop talking loudly?" he muttered tiredly. "You're making them uncomfortable."
"Serves them right!" the Kyuubi cheered with a deadly glee. He made absolutely no effort to lower the volume of his voice.
Still controlling Naruto's body, Kurama brought up the rear as their group of ten rushed through the forest towards the camp of rebels. Of course, that was his personal decision and his only. No one else had any say in it, Kurama simply stated that he would follow at the very back and that was it.
Being stared at the back of their heads by the being that once destroyed their lives and unwillingly hearing his one-sided conversation, every syllable oozing of his disgust for the Uchihas, did nothing to alleviate the anxiety and unease. They were all tense, nerves taut to the extreme, but in the end, crucial help from the Jinchuuriki to weed out the enemy they had no hope to even recognize outweighed this torment.
"But you're also scaring Da—uh, Minato and Kakashi."
Kurama eyed Minato, taking note of his rigid posture, tightly clenched fists, and the fact that the man never glanced behind, not even once. His brow furrowed.
"And I know for sure that you care about them quite a great dea—whoa!"
Not even an experienced ninja as Naruto was able to go from peacefully lying down to suddenly trying to stick a landing faster than a blink of an eye without a hitch. His feet slipped as it touched the branch, his balance momentarily lost. He sent more chakra than necessary to his left sole, creating a small burst that corrected the direction of his next jump and allowed him to continue tree hopping without a clumsy fall or even a pause.
Nonetheless, when everyone else came to a halt, facing him, poised and ready, and nervously reaching for their weapons, Naruto had to stop too. "Sorry about that," he said in a hurry, lips pulled into a stiff smile. "Kurama just shoved me back into controlling my body without any warning." Sheepish, he rubbed the back of his head and then mumbled, "…Jerk," under his breath.
An instant, "Snot-nosed punk," rumbled in response from the depths of his mind.
The moment the boy's explanation sunk in, everyone's shoulder visibly relaxed. Naruto tuned out Kurama's delighted cackle at the sight. After a moment, he shifted under the suspicious scrutiny of nine pairs of eyes and finally scowled.
The one who broke the silence was the one-eyed Uchiha. "Is it normal? You and, um, Kurama sharing the body?"
Not Kyuubi, not the fox, not 'it' or any other label, but Kurama. Naruto looked at the man, feeling pleasantly surprised. Shisui not only remembered the name, but didn't disregard the existence of it either. The young blond approved. Judging by the lack of insulting sneers, Kurama did too.
"Kurama already lives inside my soul," he replied. "Sharing the body isn't that strange in perspective."
"Lives inside your soul?" another Uchiha asked.
Kurama taught him the importance of names and Naruto pondered what the guy's name was. "The seal that is powerful enough to hold the Bijuu is anchored to the Jinchuuriki's soul," he explained absent-mindedly. He was sure he heard it… Touma? "Our physical body works only as a gate."
Minato observed the teen, his expression not displaying any particular emotion. When Naruto glanced at him after sensing the lingering gaze, the man immediately looked away. "Let's not waste any more time," he said as he jumped to the next tree without waiting for others.
No matter how hard Naruto tried to distance his feelings for this version of his father, he still felt a sting at such a cold dismissal. He couldn't fault the man for that, he understood. He might be Naruto, but he wasn't his Naruto. In the same way how some of these people were wearing faces of people he knew, but they were not those people.
This Minato might even think of his existence as an insult to his son's memory and might discard him once Naruto's abilities became irrelevant and he, himself, expendable.
"You are overthinking."
The bitter thoughts scattered, chased away by Kurama's soft voice. It soothed the raw emotions that threatened to overwhelm Naruto. "Yeah…" he whispered.
He knew that, yet there it was. Unbidden, unwelcome, festering inside his chest like a rot—a feeling of being unloved and unwanted. The feeling that haunted every day of his childhood, that shaped his entire personality. The feeling that was all but forgotten during his time on a run with Kakashi and three Edo Hokages. Despite dozens of other new vile feelings taking roots as he watched landscapes turn into wastelands, the sky set ablaze, soaked in the blood of people he couldn't save, despite fighting, running, hiding, surviving, and having no rest even in waking hours, for the first time in his life Naruto felt fully accepted and loved.
The irony at its best.
Instinctively, Naruto's eyes sought out the second familiar figure among these strangers, searched for Kakashi-sensei in need of comfort, of assurance, to ground him—
—and caught the sight of Obito instead.
Kurama pulsed his chakra just enough to warm Naruto's skin that suddenly felt cold.
They were traveling at a steady pace. The young Jinchuuriki stayed at the rear, finding solace in the fact that his partner's insistence on being the last in the group saved him from prying eyes.
"Rin?"
Naruto's attention snapped back to Obito, unable to stop the switch to a full-on battle mode just by hearing his voice. With a sigh, he forcefully eased his mind and body from it.
"Rin!" Obito hissed. He made a grab for a woman, only to miss her by a hair when she veered to the side.
Naruto watched her slow down until she fell into step with him and smiled, bright and kind and affectionate. He frowned. That was weird.
"Hey, I'm Rin," she greeted before she chuckled a bit awkwardly. "But you probably already know me."
Naruto focused on sticking his feet to the branch, "Not really," rather than the woman. Of course, he knew who she was. Obito made sure he would never forget Rin Nohara. In the most agonizing way possible. "You died before my birth."
In a sense, it was all her fault. Kakashi's depression and self-hate. Obito's descent into sheer madness. Becoming the Jinchuuriki might be overwhelming and scary, but not to the point where one should throw themselves on their teammate's lethal technique and condemn the said teammate for lasting years of debilitating guilt.
With a quiet, "Oh," from Rin, the conversation fizzled out before it could even start. She didn't let the uncomfortable silence last for too long. "Well, then." She smiled again. "I'm Rin Uchiha. Nice to meet you, Naruto."
Uchiha? The teen stared at her for a second before it all clicked.
Obito jerked his head forward the moment their eyes met. Kakashi murmured something to his friend and even Minato sent him a worried look.
It seemed that this Obito obtained what he desired the most. And wasn't that the greatest mockery in and of itself? He had only Kurama left, yet the person who took everything from him was surrounded by his loved ones.
Naruto hated this world.
For a moment, his face darkened like a thundercloud, anger flitting across his eyes like blue lightning. No matter how he wanted to scream and throw tantrums at the unfairness, he had to suck it up and soldier on. Like always. "I see," he breathed out and it was tainted with resentment masked as indifference.
"How are you feeling?" Rin breezed right past the tense, awkward moment. "I heard that you were severely injured when Minato-sensei and the boys found you the first time."
Naruto bit down on a scathing remark about how they attacked him despite the injuries. As he said earlier, they were not trying to make enemies out of these people. Kurama was just a bad influence on him.
The fox scoffed at that, but otherwise remained silent.
"I'm fine," the young blond replied. "I've lived through worse."
He could still sometimes feel the pain of broken wrists, arms twisted, wrenched out of their sockets, unmovable, useless, the blade sliding across his throat, Kurama's desperate roars from somewhere within him, sounding so impossibly distant, Kakashi's horrified face and Obito's sadistic grin—
"Naruto!"
Naruto jolted, hand flying up to touch his throat.
Intact. No wound, no blood, not even a scar.
Remnants of that particular memory hadn't so much disappeared as ebbed to the edges of his mind. Still there, still bleeding terrifying silhouettes behind his closed eyelids on every blink, but easily ignored for now.
The blond sucked in a ragged breath. "I freaked out again! That's the second time in a row!" he all but screamed at his partner. "It never happened so often before."
"You are stranded in another dimension, traveling with what you perceive as strangers looking like people you know. It is not surprising," Kurama said. Naruto found comfort in the soothing familiarity of his voice. "You are also not in constant danger, no matter how messed up this world is, and your mind is unwinding now. It has time to focus on other things than immediate survival."
The teen scrubbed his face, muttered, "Shit," under his breath.
"Are you alright?" Rin inquired.
Naruto could hear it all in her voice: wariness, worry, apprehension, sympathy. Maybe that was why he blurted out, "No, I'm not." On the next moment, he caught on his lapse in vigilance. He wanted to keep his vulnerability close to his person and not on full display. "I'll be fine though," Naruto assured, wincing of how unconvincing it sounded, even for his own ears. He forced a fake smile to fix the situation, the one he perfected throughout his childhood. "I can handle this much."
Rin didn't look that she believed him, but politely retained from calling him out on his lies. She matched his speed and rhythm, jumping from one tree to another in perfect sync.
Naruto wondered if the woman would leave him alone if he sped up.
Before he could go through with his plan, Rin spoke again, "Tell me something about yourself." Her tone was as gentle as before, maybe even more so in an attempt not to spook the boy. "We still have some time before we reach our camp."
"Like what?"
Rin hummed, tapping her chin with a finger. "Your genin team?" she asked. It was quite obvious that she tried to pick a safe topic to avoid setting off another landmine.
It worked. Naruto's lips stretched into a lop-sided grin as he thought about his team. It wasn't perfect, never was. They barely passed as a team most of the time, even before they all chose their path. Still. Somehow, against all odds, Team Seven managed to forge unique bonds between each other. He cherished the time they had spent together, young, carefree, and so innocent, as one of his most prized possessions. It never failed to brighten his darkest hours.
"I graduated from the Academy at twelve and was put into the Team Seven under the jounin sensei Kakashi Hatake," Naruto began. A slight straightening of their shoulders and subtly turning their heads towards the Jinchuuriki were clear signs that everyone tuned into his story. "He was such a crappy teacher, 'ttebayo!" Naruto stated cheerily and laughed when Kakashi spluttered.
"No way!" the silver-haired man protested. "I'd make a great teacher!" Rin, Obito, and even Minato shot him dubious looks. He ignored it with grace. "Surely, the other me wasn't that bad."
"Sensei was constantly late from one to three hours, read porn in public, and ditched us every time he felt that he might get attached to us."
"Doesn't sound like a reliable sensei," Obito mumbled.
Kakashi zoomed on one particular part from that list. "Read porn in public?" He was clearly intrigued by the concept.
Rin's face darkened, her eyes promising pain and misery. "I'm gonna burn every book you have if you dare to pursue that line of thought," she threatened in a no-nonsense tone.
Kakashi coughed into his fist. "Maa, maa, Rin, no need to jump to conclusions. I just wanted to say… such a shameless guy!"
Naruto chuckled at their exchange. It calmed him down, his sensei's counterpart being so similar to the one he left behind.
"What about your genin teammates?" Kakashi asked. He let out a sigh when Rin's attention moved back on the young blond.
"Sakura and Sasuke."
Itachi's head snapped to the side to look at Naruto over his shoulder, black eyes drilling into him, intense, demanding. "Sasuke?"
"Sasuke Uchiha, your younger brother," the teen confirmed. After a moment, he added in a more subdued voice, "He was the sole survivor of the massacre."
The Uchiha furrowed his brow. "What was he like?"
A smirk pulled at the corner of the blond's lips. "He was a bastard."
"Sounds like Sasuke alright!" Shisui barked out a laugh. "Don't argue, Itachi." He wiggled his finger at his fellow Uchiha who glared at him. "Your little brother can act like a bastard sometimes."
Itachi turned away with a quiet 'hn'. It sounded more petulant than anything else.
"We were sort of the rivals, I guess," Naruto reminisced. "During our first C-turned-A ranked mission, he took what could have been a lethal blow for me. He grew on me since then." He paused, thinking about that mission, seemingly so long time ago. "You were a real pain in the ass back then, Kurama."
"Ah, good old days," the Bijuu lamented. "All I had to worry about was loathing you and trying to think a way to escape the seal."
Naruto rolled his eyes. "Thanks for always being there for me." It was intended as a sarcastic retort, but it lost its vehemence halfway through to be one.
"I'm stuck with you and you would be lost without me."
"True."
Kurama huffed and settled down, feeling pleased and satisfied. Naruto grinned. Stupid fox was just too easy to appease.
"I heard that!"
"What about the girl?" Rin prompted when the teen fell silent. "Sakura?"
"Oh, Sakura. Sakura was… uhh," the ending for that sentence stuck like a hook inside Naruto's throat. The most beautiful girl he had met at that time.
Rin noticed. "Oh my," she said with a teasing lilt to her voice. "You had a crush on her?"
Naruto ducked his head, feeling a flush rise in his cheeks. It was just a foolish crush, nothing else; an embarrassing childish infatuation that eventually withered away and turned into a fierce love for a teammate, a friend, a comrade, a sister. "I liked her, she liked Sasuke," he confessed. "I grew out of it." He didn't want to think of Sakura for too long, because all he could remember was pink hair dyed red and her broken body and—
Naruto cleared his throat. "Anyway, how's Sasuke doing in this world?" Because Sasuke was safer, at least he was still alive the last time the blond had seen him.
Did it make him a bad person if he hoped that Sasuke was dead and not left all alone in the ruins of their world?
A sharp, "No," rumbled in his mind, followed by a chakra impulse. Concern was prominent, but anger also lingered.
Not at him, Naruto knew, but at what was done to him. He sent an answering impulse of his own, trying his best to convey his gratitude for Kurama's continuous support.
"Sasuke is doing well," Itachi replied. Neither he nor anyone else called the young blond on the abrupt change of topics. "It was his turn to guard the camp, so you'll meet him there. Not far now."
Naruto felt a spark of excitement go through him. How different Sasuke would have turned to be if he still had his family? A sudden thought occurred to him, "What about your parents?"
"Our father was killed eight years ago when the Uchiha clan fled the Konoha. Our mother is still alive."
"A mother and a brother. How nice," Naruto said quietly, eyes cast down and a small smile rested on his whiskered face. A tender, willowy sort of thing that reflected profound grief, loss, sorrow—an entire life lost and far out of reach—and also pure fondness, happiness, relief—for someone who didn't even know him.
In the course of this chat, Minato moved slightly to the side so that he could discreetly peer at Naruto. And now pensive blue eyes watched the boy, his chest growing tight at seeing all those heavy emotions wrapped up and tangled together. His mouth opened, words on the tip of his tongue, but then closed again, lips pulling into a grim line. Against his better judgment, Minato decided not to say anything.
Naruto's shocked, "What?!" startled not only Minato but everyone else as well.
"Shukaku is nearby," Kurama repeated. He sounded unusually somber.
"Shukaku?" Naruto blurted out loud again, forgetting to keep his conversation with the Kyuubi inside his head. It was a habit he picked up during the last year, because Kurama was a respected member of their team and the others had to know when he spoke while in the seal. "You sure?"
"I can feel him through our unique bond," Kurama replied. Then, even softer, he added, "It has been a while, but I would never mistake this feeling with anything else."
The realization hit Naruto with all subtlety of the Rasengan. He witnessed his friend mourning his siblings, cursing the cruel hand fate had dealt them. They were in a different world now and the other Bijuu should still be around.
"You can sense Shukaku?" Minato demanded, suddenly intense.
Naruto frowned, not sure what to think about this situation. "Kurama senses him through the Bijuu bond," he said. "I still can't, but Shukaku should be close."
"If Gaara is this far from the camp…" Obito trailed off, sharing a troubled glance with Kakashi before both looking back at their sensei.
"Something happened," Minato agreed. The moment his feet touched the branch, he pushed off of it with more force.
One after another, all ninjas matched their leader's increased speed.
"Whoa, wait! Wait!" Naruto shouted, caught off guard by this unexpected twist. In a blink of an eye, he passed the Uchihas and arrived next to his father.
Minato suppressed a flinch of surprise when he appeared beside him in a flash. The boy was incredibly fast and nimble.
"Gaara?! Did I hear it right, 'ttebayo?" the teen questioned, wide-eyed. "Are you talking about Gaara?"
"You know Gaara?"
"He was the Jinchuuriki of Shukaku back in my world before Shukaku got extracted and Gaara died but then he got resurrected by that crazy granny from—"
Kurama snapped, "Focus!"
Naruto took a deep breath to gather his erratic thoughts in order. "Right. Sorry."
Minato stared at him, blue eyes bright with amusement.
"Gaara is from Suna, what is he doing here?"
"Sunagakure was destroyed in the Third Ninja War. Konoha took in some of the war refugees that fled into the Fire Country. Their Jinchuuriki was among them."
Naruto's jaw dropped. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. It seemed that he greatly underestimated the differences between the two dimensions.
"And here Gaara is—"
Minato was never allowed to finish, because Naruto's head whipped up, hard lines of rage tightening his face. "Zetsu," he growled. He put his fingers into the cross handseal. "Three different places." Two shadow clones popped into existence and immediately dashed away in separate directions. The original didn't dawdle either, tree bark exploding under his feet as he propelled himself forward.
"Itachi! Rin! Take your teams and follow the clones!" Minato commanded, already speeding up after the real Naruto, Obito and Kakashi right behind him.
The other two teams disappeared into the foliage with mute affirmatives.
Naruto wasn't concerned about what the others were doing. His main concern was to kill Zetsu and save people. He was in full health and full chakra, Zetsu had no chance.
Hiraishin kunai slid from his sleeve into his palm. Having only one weapon on him wasn't something new to Naruto, the resources were scarce back in his dimension, so he would make do. He bit down on the kunai, hands already blazing through a few handseals. Two identical kunai appeared with a tiny chakra cloud that he snatched from mid-air. As he continued moving towards his target, he hid the real kunai back into his sleeve.
Once he reached the small clearing, Naruto paused for a brief moment to take in the field in front of him.
Gaara had his back turned to him, sand hovering all around him, ready to strike. Both of his siblings stood on either side of him, Temari with her battle fan out and Kankurou accompanied by the puppet Naruto had never seen before. Around thirty people stood behind the siblings, all civilians by the looks of it, adults surrounding a few elderly and children. Three ninjas protected them from the rear.
A group of eight ninjas faced them, eyes gleaming with the red of the Sharingan, weapons out, stances poised to attack, but not doing so. Not yet.
Naruto threw the two shadow kunai and shot from his spot towards the civilians.
"What are you saying?" the long-haired Uchiha in front of the Gaara snarled. "You can't trust us?"
"That's exactly what we're saying, Inabi," Temari bit back, equally furious. "We were already atta—"
A kunai embedded itself into the ground between them with a thud. Both sides stiffened before recognition fluttered across their features.
The world blurred around Naruto as he flew across the clearing, cold eyes fixed on the target. He passed the ninja guarding the rear, not even the latter's Sharingan fast enough to follow him, and by the time the guards registered his presence, Naruto was already right in the middle of the civilian's circle. The young boy stared in horror as the wind Rasengan shredded his flesh.
Masquerading as a child—White Zetsu was just as sick and twisted as he remembered.
There was no hesitation in Naruto's attack, he couldn't afford it. A single doubt could not only put him in danger, but also his allies. He learned that lesson the hard way.
Gaara turned, long red hair whipping around, teal eyes widening at the sight, sand hurling through the air.
Naruto caught the hand with a kunai aimed at his neck and twisted it, careful not to break the bones. He grabbed the falling blade, spun around, and slammed it, now coated with a wind chakra, into the old lady's throat, practically slicing her head clean off her shoulders.
Two down, one left.
Sand swirled from beneath Naruto's feet, rising, twisting, trapping him.
He vanished and appeared where Hiraishin kunai landed previously.
The long-haired Uchiha jumped back, racing through the handseals.
Gaara swiveled around again, lips pulled into a snarl. A great wave of sand surged up.
A giant fireball heated Naruto's face, quickly approaching sand cast a shadow from above. His chakra sang in its pathways, pulsed together with his heartbeat.
Naruto crossed his fingers. Two shadow clones came out, running through the different set of handseals. The original was already gone when the earth wall rose from the ground to block the fireball and a great torrent of wind tore the sand apart, the force of the impact sending both sides stumbling backward.
Another wind Rasengan formed in Naruto's hand as he approached the third Zetsu from behind, the second shadow Hiraishin kunai glistening in the sunlight not far from where. The mangled body fell and Naruto smirked, satisfaction flooding his veins.
There. Done.
He ducked under the swipe of the kunai and then dodged a barrage of shuriken. Sand slammed down where he stood before he moved out of the way. He proceeded to maneuver and weave around various attacks continuously hammering down on him.
Hmm. He didn't quite think this through when he plunged himself into this battle, did he? Kurama's impassive, "You are a reckless idiot," made him scowl.
"Wait! Stop! He's not an enemy!" Minato yelled, dropping down from the forest. "Look what he killed and you'll understand!"
Just as he was about to land on the branch of one of the surrounding trees, Naruto sighed in relief, glanced at Gaara, and froze, eyes bugging out.
Gaara looked like Gaara. Same bright red hair, same kanji for 'love' tattooed at the side of the forehead, same sharp yet distant teal eyes, same crimson coat, same huge gourd for sand strapped on the back…
…and something that was not the same at all—two obvious bumps on his chest.
Not his, her.
Gaara wasn't a he. Gaara was a she.
Utter shock short-circuited Naruto's brain and turned off the functions of his body. His feet slipped. He crashed into the ground and stayed there, barely acknowledging the voices of his father and the others discussing the situation. No one attacked him again, so he lay sprawled where he fell, dazed and stunned, and gawked at what he could see of the blue sky through the boughs and leaves.
After a moment, Naruto stammered, "G-Gaara is a girl," to himself through numb lips. And with that fact out in an open, it finally sunk in. He could feel his rationality slowly slipping away. "Gaara is a girl?! He's a girl! No, not he, she! She's a girl! How did that happen?! What the hell?! What's going on, 'ttebayo?!"
"Stop your hysterics," Kurama growled, low and menacing. "We are in the alternate dimension, have you forgotten? One of your human friends being born into a different gender is nothing out of the ordinary."
"Nothing—nothing out the ordinary, 'ttebayo?!" Naruto shrieked. "Gaara is a girl! A girl! Does that really classify as nothing out of the ordinary?!"
While the Bijuu inclined to identify themselves as one gender more than the other, they didn't attach much importance to it. Not like humans. Kurama could never understand why his Jinchuuriki was freaking out.
Naruto's mind whirred as he tried to come to terms with yet another difference between his previous reality and his current one. No wonder he could catch almost everyone off guard with his Sexy Technique. The person that was definitely a guy one moment but became a girl in the next was ought to mess with anyone's sanity. Yeah, his Sexy Technique was extremely dangerous.
His... Sexy Technique…
An image of Gaara using the Sexy Technique popped into his mind, emerging as his female version that he had just seen with his own eyes. His naked female version.
Naruto flushed deep red all the way to the roots of his hair. "Nooooooo!" he howled like a wounded beast, burying his face into his hands in a vain attempt to hide from this Juubi-sized embarrassment. All he wanted now was to dig the deepest hole in the universe and bury himself in it forever. "Don't think about it!" The more he tried not to think about it, the more he thought about it. "Go away, image! Go away!"
Kurama laughed.
Naruto despaired.
"This world is so weird, 'ttebayo! I hate it!"
A/N
I'm trying to find a comfortable style to write fight scenes, so I'm just experimenting. Tell me what you think.
Yes, Naruto is very strong. It's logical (he spent an entire year with Hashirama, Tobirama, Minato, and Kakashi in a world where one had to be at least this strong to survive) and I'm not nerfing him for the sake of fake drama. He's also a reckless little shit too.
And about Gaara. I have no regrets and I'm ready for flames and accusations about giving no warnings. Hit me with it, I dare you!
I have a discord channel now: discord. gg/a7tQPPa