Chapter 9: A path to follow.

Naruto wasn't entirely sure how long he laid on the cold concrete floor of what was a vault or library of some kind. His head ached as visions of different lives continued to flood his memories. Memories that weren't his, yet definitely were. He had never had a family, but he remembered the pride that burned in his heart when his son had become an official genin. He was a virgin but he remembered the joy he felt on he and Sakura's wedding night when they consummated their love, he also knew the shame of falling prey to some… less than consensual interactions.

Some good, some bad, different lives, and different memories swam through Naruto's head for so long that it hurt. There didn't appear to be any connecting theme among them. Other than that he had to do something… he didn't know what, but something. He had to save Sasuke, or kill Sasuke, or marry Hinata, or… or a million different things.

The waves of pain behind his eyes started to ebb as the memories began to fade. They were simply memories of memories now. With a concerted effort, Naruto sat up off of the stone floor and popped his back. With no windows or clocks in the stone vault, it was impossible for him to tell how long he had spent getting mind-fucked by the seals on the wall. Drawing his fingers together in a cross he summoned two more clones.

"Awwww, dude." One of the clones grunted, holding its head and squeezing its eyes shut. "Can't we just like… take a nap? Everything hurts."

"No," Naruto answered back with a short grunt. "we still need food, and you just volunteered to go up and gather all those roots and shoots the other clones dropped."

The clone let out a long groan before he turned away and made his way back to the surface.

"Great, and what do you want me for?" The other asked, although he already knew the answer.

"You, are going to touch everything before I do," Naruto replied. He wasn't in the mood to humor his clones right now. "I don't want a repeat of what happened this morning… yesterday morning?"

The clone sighed. "Do you want to talk about…" he paused. Some of those memories had been traumatic.

"No," Naruto answered directly and simply. He wasn't physically or emotionally ready to talk about what just happened. Maybe later, but certainly not now. He would rather explore to try and take his mind off of things.

The clone nodded before walking into the vast library that had been unlocked. "Well, I guess we can start with this." The clone mumbled as he approached what appeared to be a pedestal in the center of the large square entryway. On top of the pedestal was a large sheet of what looked like leather parchment. The clone picked the parchment up and looked at the front and back, it appeared to have been written by being burned into rather than inked.

"Well, I haven't exploded yet, so I'm assuming it's ok for you to read this. I'm gonna go start poking things."

Naruto nodded before grunting and grabbing his head, immediately regretting moving it so quickly. Naruto took the parchment and sat down on the floor, using the pedestal as a backrest to lean against as he started reading. Whatever this was it was large, pretty, and in the middle of the room, so that meant that it must be important.

UN:PoA

"I don't know what the HELL you did Kakashi, but Hinata defeating her little sister in ritualistic combat and being pronounced the 'rightful head of the Hyuuga clan' isn't exactly the de-escalation of emotions I had been hoping for when you said you would talk to her while I trained Sakura!" Kurenai yelled at her technically senior officer behind the jounin lounge. They had to scare away some chuunin that usually smoked back there to get some privacy, but Kurenai couldn't wait. When she had heard that Hinata had been declared Matriarch and would officially take the mantle within days she had gone on a warpath.

"I didn't have anything to do with that and you know it." Kakashi said calmly but seriously in response. "If we had never swapped teams this exact scenario would have played out all the same. Hiashi's motivations are as cryptic to me as they are to you. Hinata had years before she would be required to take up the role as matriarch, but Hiashi is pushing the process early for some reason. There's no way I could have predicted that!" Kakashi's voice rose slightly as he continued, offended that Kurenai thought he had something to do with Hinata's less than ideal situation.

Kurenai took a deep breath and pointed a finger at Kakashi before letting out a grunt and sliding her back down the wall and falling into a squatting position. "What do I do Kakashi?" She asked sincerely, all the rage in her voice having vanished in an instant. "This is my first genin team and I already have enough on my plate with trying to get them properly trained without worrying about politics and a very much emotionally scarred clan matriarch." She covered her face with her hands and let out another long sigh.

"That sounds like a cakewalk," Kakashi said with a dry smile under his mask as he stepped in front of Kurenai and looked down at her. "My first genin went rogue, killed the second, and now I'm scrambling to find a way to keep the third from spiraling into despair or getting herself killed without backup. It's enough stress to drive anyone mad, I recommend a hobby; have you tried porn?"

Kurenai couldn't help but laugh at the sorry state they were both in. Taking her head out of her hands she looked up at Kakashi with a grateful smile, even with the shit hitting the fan on an almost daily basis, he still managed to make a joke… at least she thought he was joking.

"Woah!" A passerby half screamed from down the ally. "I-I didn't see anything! I swear!" He shouted before bolting away.

Kurenai's face grew bright red, realizing what assumption the man had made. She and her co-worker, who had been seen eating together on several occasions, were now in a dirty back ally with her squatting down as Kakashi stood in front of her and she smiled up at him from groin level…

"… I give it half an hour before the whole village thinks we're fucking." Kakashi said dourly before walking away. "Good luck with that~"

"Shinigami, take me now." Kurenai groaned.

UN:PoA

Naruto stared at the parchment slack-jawed. If even half of what was written on here was true then the entirety of his world had been effectively shot to shit and back. Naruto took a deep breath as he began to re-read it just to try and get everything straight in his head.

Naruto, If you are reading this that means that the worst has come to pass despite our greatest efforts. My name is Uzumaki Ashina, I am the current Uzukage and, I hope, your great grandfather. In recent years the Uzumaki clan's skills in fuinjutsu have accelerated beyond what I once thought was possible, in our advances we have made a horrible and beautiful discovery. I know that a man of your status doesn't have the time or the need for a lecture on quantum chakra-energy conversion theory so I will be brief. Through the use of micro-seals and exponential seal resonance we have discovered a method of prophecy, this method is far from perfect, and even the faintest of choices can send ripples through the tides of time, but we know one thing for sure: Uzugakure will perish. The methods and causes change, but through all of the calculations and variations, we have managed this truth remains constant. We know the death of our nation is inevitable, but its rebirth hinges upon you. I cannot go into detail; Even the few things that I've written here, vague as they may be, have already changed the future in untold ways. Know this though, the people of Uzugakure know of you and their hopes and dreams ride with you alone. All that we have is now yours. We pray for you Uzukage-sama. On a more personal note, although we have never met, know that I love you and I'm proud of you.

Goodbye my great-grandson, long live Uzugakure.

Naruto sighed and ran his hand down his face. "Did… did I just inherit a country?"

UN:PoA

Sasuke took a bite of his food lazily. He and Karin had just gotten through with another training session sans Orochimaru and she had brought him some food from the cafeteria before they would split up to go to bed.

"So, Sasuke-kun, how goes the attempts to de-stress?" Karin asked, making small talk like she usually did. "Anything I can help with?"

"I'm doing fine," Sasuke lied "It's just taking a while is all."

"Uh-huh," Karin smirked, stealing a cherry tomato from Sasuke's plate and popping it in her mouth. "I noticed you took a box of light bulbs with you to bed last night; you know that pushing yourself harder when you should be resting will just have the opposite effect of what you want right?"

Sasuke grunted, it hadn't been since the Land of Waves that he'd had to work this hard to moderate his chakra levels, he tended to put a bit too much chakra into his techniques but he hadn't thought it was that big a deal. Coincidentally enough, both of the times he's had this problem an Uzumaki had been right beside him, although Karin was much more bearable than Naruto had been. She was a bit too friendly but knew when to back off.

"I'll be fine," Sasuke replied to her, finishing his meal.

"Hmmm, you sure about that? You've got bags under your eyes, and you've been slowing down during training."

"I have not!" Sasuke shouted, snapping at her angrily. "I can still kick your ass, even without the cursed seal!"

Karin raised an eyebrow, not saying anything but pursed her lips slightly. Unlike Sakura and the majority of Konoha, she didn't get intimidated by him easily. It angered him, but in a refreshing way, at least she wasn't a sycophant.

"Alright then, let's run a little experiment then," Karin said, she reached over and grabbed a bulb from the box. "Try again."

Sasuke looked at her suspiciously but took the bulb and put his goggles back on. He pushed his Chakra into the bulb, managing to make it flicker slightly before it burst. He tossed the remaining nub aside.

"Was there a point to this?" He asked Karin

"Yes." She replied with a smile. She stood up and offered a hand to help him up. He took it, standing up and looking down at her with a sour pout. "For the next 24 hours you'll do as I say, and if I'm right you'll be leaps and bounds closer to your goal. If I'm wrong, I'll stay out of your hair and stop pestering you to relax."

Sasuke squinted at her. "I'm your superior remember? Orochimaru said so, I don't have to listen to a word you say." He didn't know if he liked the idea of being subject to her whims for a day.

"That's true, and I can't make you do this, but we both know you haven't been making progress so far. How much damage could a day off do? Besides, if you're right then I'll stop bugging you~" She smiled.

Sasuke growled slightly before sighing. "Fine… but I'll make sure that you keep your word when this doesn't work. Understood?"

Karin smiled at that. "Perfect, then starting tomorrow morning we'll begin operation shut-up-and-relax-already. See you then~" She giggled in an almost evil tone as she walked away. Sasuke sighed. 24 hours... 24 hours and she'd keep her mouth shut from then on. He could manage that, right?

UN:PoA

Naruto would have loved to start dissecting every last book on all of the shelves the second that he finally understood the implications of inheriting a nation. How the hell was he supposed to rule a nation alone? How the hell was he supposed to rule a nation at all? The parchment referred to him as Uzukage-sama and said that he was a man of high status that must know about quantum whatever-the-crap, but he didn't understand seals at all! Was this really meant for him? It had his name, but maybe Naruto was a common name before their country got blown up or whatever? As Naruto rested his head in his hands and contemplated the sharp left-turn that his life had taken for the eleventy-fifth time in less than a month his stomach growled violently. He was filled with the recollection that he hadn't eaten since that bowl of rice from nearly two days ago.

"Clone-kun, go get that other clone to hurry up alright? I'm starving, and I'm not exaggerating this time." Naruto ordered, somewhat grateful for the mental break of worrying about food instead of fate and stuff.

"You realize I'm starving too right?" The clone asked from the floor. It had taken a relaxed laying position after it finished touching everything in the vault. "Can't we just wait for him?"

"You realize that you're not technically alive right? I can poof you out of existence and create a more obedient clone." Naruto threatened.

"Yeah, but we both know you'd feel like an asshole if you did that." The clone sighed as it got up. "But I'll go get him anyway. Not because you told me to, but because I feel like it."

"Whatever." Naruto groaned as his stomach rumbled again. "Look for something to drink while you're at it."

"Look for something to drink while you're at it." The clone mumbled in a mocking tone.

"We sound the same numb-nuts!" Naruto yelled out as the clone climbed back up to the Uzukage's tower.

UN:PoA

Hinata hugged her knees as she sat on her new bed. She wasn't Hinata-chan or even Hinata-hime anymore. She was Hyuuga-sama. She was now the official matriarch of the Hyuuga clan. Her father would act as her regent until she turned 16, but for all intents and purposes, the entirety of the Hyuuga clan now rested on her shoulders. Her father had taken a room near the rest of the elders, and she had taken her place in the clan head's room. Her mom's room.

It had been remodeled since her mother's death, but if she focused very carefully she could almost make out the scent of her mother's perfume in the air. Or maybe it was just her imagination. Maybe she wanted to pretend that she could still feel an inkling of a presence of her mother, something, anything to help tie her back to when life had been simpler. Back to when she could hide in her mother's hair when the house made scary noises at night. Back to when she could fall asleep in her mother's arms only to magically wake up in her own bed. Back to when all she had to worry about was that cute blond boy at school that made her tummy fill with butterflies.

Hinata looked over at the clock, it was 8 A.M. She was supposed to be meeting with Kakashi-sensei and her team right now. She wiped her face free of tears and she got off of the bed to quickly get ready, she hadn't gotten any sleep last night but she would survive. She had to, she still had her dreams to fulfill.

Kill Sasuke. Avenge Naruto. Protect Hanabi.

And the only way to do that was to get stronger. Stronger than Shino and Kiba, stronger than Sasuke, Stronger than 'Hinata-hime.' She wasn't a princess anymore, she was a queen. A queen whose king had been betrayed. She was a queen with a full house, and she didn't plan on folding any time soon.

Hinata finished getting ready and started to make her way to meet Kakashi-sensei, she needed practice fighting against an opponent with a sharingan.

UN:PoA

Sakura sent pulsating waves of chakra through her system to try and break Kurenai-sensei's most recent genjutsu, the writhing blades shimmered and faded slightly in the grass but still remained. Sakura jumped to the side as one shot up from the ground, striking like a snake it managed to graze her shoulder and she fell back, the wound started to immediately fester and her heart raced in panic.

"It's not real… it's not real." she told herself again and again as the rot from the wound started to spread and fester up her arm and to her neck. "It's not real! It's not real!" She shouted as she desperately sent more and more erratic waves of chakra through her body.

Sakura fell back onto her butt as she was tripped by one of the writhing blades, two more wrapped around her waist, pinning her to the ground as a third reeled up ready to strike.

"IT'S NOT REAL! IT'S NOT REAL!" She cried as she desperately tried to pry herself away from the blades, her now rotting body covered in cuts as she tried to grapple the cold steel. The third blade flickered only slightly before shooting forward and plunging itself into her gut. Tears flooded Sakura's eyes as she let out one last gasp before accepting her death.

Sakura sobbed as Kurenai gently rubbed her back.

"Shhhhhh~" Kurenai whispered "you're ok, you're ok. Shhhh~"

Sakura continued to cry, holding her hand to her gut to prevent blood loss from a wound that wasn't there.

"Th-there has to be a b-better way," Sakura whispered almost begging. "I c-can't keep doing th-this."

"I'm sorry Sakura-chan, this is the most efficient way to strengthen your mind and chakra network against genjutsu." Kurenai sat down and pulled Sakura into her lap, hugging her. "Trust me Sakura, I went through this when I started working on genjutsu as well."

Sakura wiped her nose and face as she slowly started to calm down, the pain having already faded away. "I… I did everything right. I did everything right and I still failed."

"You didn't fail Sakura, you only fail if you don't get back up again. Why don't we take a break from genjutsu training alright?" Kurenai smiled softly. "We'll take a 15-minute breather and then we'll just focus on taijutsu ok?"

"N-no," Sakura whispered, pulling away from Kurenai. "I-I can train my taijutsu with Kakashi-sensei, I have to take as much advantage of our time together as possible." Sakura wiped her face some more and took a few deep breaths. "I'm r-ready." She stuttered.

Kurenai shook her head. "No, 15-minute break, this isn't negotiable Sakura. We can continue training genjutsu if you want but you need to rest."

Sakura slouched and nodded, scooting over to sit next to a tree and closing her eyes. "Alright… alright I'll rest sensei. Tell me when it's been 15 minutes ok?"

Kurenai didn't even attempt to answer, Sakura was already asleep.

UN:PoA

Naruto greedily ate the pot of boiled roots and shoots that his clones had foraged for him. Normally he wasn't the biggest fan of vegetables, but hunger really was the best sauce. Once he was done he grabbed the large bowl of fresh water and chugged it quickly. Placing the bowl inside the pot he stood up and let out a proud burp as he smiled to himself.

"Alright! Stomach full, spirits charged, and brain ready, let's do this thing!" He announced to the empty room. He crossed his fingers and summoned more clones. The room puffed full of smoke before being filled with excited clones.

"I'm alive!"

"Naruto? Naruto is that you? It's me, Naruto!"

"My leg!" One shouted before poofing away.

Naruto sighed and clapped his hands to get his clones' attention.

"Alright everyone, this is our new home and we're in charge of it. So your orders are to go topside and try to clean things up as best you can. Explore, poke things, learn stuff. Do whatever you want, just don't break anything."

"Hail, wise leader!"

"Yea verily."

"My life for Naruto!"

All the clones quickly made their way up the exit and out of the vault to explore their new playground. Naruto turned to look at the vault and sighed, he had the feeling he had a lot of catching up to do. The last Uzukage expected him to know a lot about seals right? Maybe he should start by reading up on those? Pervy Sage had shown him a little bit of stuff about seals, but he had been more interested in summons at the time… wait a second, summons!

Naruto quickly bit the tip of his thumb to make it bleed; swiping the blood across the floor he slammed his hand down to summon Gamakichi or Gamatatsu and get advice! He'd have to bully them into not telling Jiraiya he was still alive, the old pervert would probably get really mad he'd chosen to run away.

… Why wasn't anyone showing up? He was pushing chakra into the summons, but nothing was happening. Why? Naruto let out a sigh and wiped his bloody thumb off on his messy brown shirt. He sucked on the wound for a second before walking towards the books. He was disappointed that the summons didn't work, but refused to mope about it. Naruto began to browse the shelf after shelf of scrolls, books, and tomes, trying to get his head around what was available.

UN:PoA

Jiraiya's eyes went wide as he pulled the toad summoning scroll from off of his back and opened it. He looked down to see his name, written in blood still as red as the day he signed it. Followed by it were the dark brown scabbed names of Minato and Naruto. Except that Naruto's scabby blood was crumbling and hot, almost smoking as flakes fell from the paper and onto the floor.

"The hell?" He mumbled to himself. The only way this could happen was if- Naruto's body wasn't just taken, it must have been resurrected. After hearing about how Minato was almost summoned during the chuunin exams he'd placed extra seals on the summoning scroll to prevent the dead from summoning. There was only one bastard that Jiraiya could think of evil enough to resurrect a child to experiment with. Orochimaru.

Jiraiya turned to the man he had been interrogating a mere moment before, a double agent for Orochimaru that had infiltrated his network. He growled and took a step towards the bound man, grabbing him by the throat and smashing him against the wall.

"No more games… Where is Orochimaru!" He shouted. "Where is he hiding!"

The man whined and whimpered, "I don't know! I swear on the gods I'm telling the truth!"

"Bullshit! He trusted you enough to let you off your leash and infiltrate my network, you know where he is!"

"I'm just an agent! I don't know I swear!" The man gurgled, the blood flow to his brain slowly being cut off as he was choked by Jiraiya.

"Then who does!? Who do you report to!?"

"T-T-Tenaka Tsuma… S-sulfur Springs… Retired-" The man struggled to say before slumping into a limp mass in Jiraiya's hands, falling unconscious.

Jiraiya sighed and tossed the man to the floor, pulling out a shuriken and flicking it into his temple, killing him instantly.

Jiraiya began to get his things together. "Looks like I'm going on vacation. Land of Hot-Springs here I come" He mumbled to himself.

UN:PoA

Kakashi let out a sigh as he walked to Hinata. The poor girl had collapsed again mid-training. He got to a knee and checked her vitals. She would be fine, but she was beyond exhausted. Even with him doing his best to be soft in their sparring she pushed until he often had no choice but to harm her. Hinata let out a soft snore as the veins around her eyes relaxed.

"Kakashi-sensei, is Hyuuga-sama well?" Shino asked, landing next to the two suddenly.

"She's fine, just overly tired. Aren't you two supposed to be practicing stealth tracking?"

"Two of us? It is only I Kakashi-sensei." Shino said in his monotone voice.

Kakashi looked at him slightly deadpanned before grabbing a rock and tossing it into the upper tree line.

"Fuck!" Kiba swore as he fell out of the tree, clutching his head. Akamaru in his hood started barking as he jumped away to safety. Kiba hit the ground with a loud thump before standing up and rubbed the goose egg that was forming on his head and walking towards Kakashi.

"How'd you know I was there?" Kiba asked.

"You forget that you're not the only one with a keen sense of smell." Kakashi tapped his nose behind his mask. "A little natural deodorant can go a long way. I recommend baking soda and doing laundry with borax."

Kiba blushed at the implication that he stank but shrugged it off as he picked up Akamaru and placed the puppy in his hoodie pocket.

"Now why the attempt at subterfuge?" Kakashi asked as he picked up Hinata, throwing her over his shoulder.

"We have grown tired of being told to repeat the same exercises," Shino explained simply.

"Yeah, it's fucking boring! We want to do some missions! We want action!" Kiba shouted, causing Hinata to shift in Kakashi's grasp.

Kakashi narrowed his eye and held a hand to his lips, signaling them to be quiet. He couldn't exactly blame them, from what Kurenai had told him they'd been doing nothing but stealth tracking for almost a month now.

"Alright… alright I'll talk to Kurenai, I'm sure she could go on a mission-"

"We would like to go on a mission with you Kakashi-sensei." Shino interrupted

Kakashi raised his one visible eyebrow at that. "Really, why's that?"

"Kurenai-sensei is focused on babying Hinata-chan. She's taking things too slow, you are too but you're not as bad and at least you can teach us new stuff." Kiba explained

Kakashi hummed to himself. "I… would have to talk to Kurenai about this, and you two would have to talk to Hinata. As she is she's a liability to the team, she'll need to calm down significantly before we go on a mission."

"This is acceptable." Shino nodded "Kiba-san and I have been wanting to talk to her about the death of Naruto the Hero for some time."

"Oh really? And what are you going to say to her?" Kakashi asked, fully aware that Hinata had woken up by now.

"Naruto was a badass, he wouldn't want her to be sad all the time!" Kiba announced "He'd want her to be a badass too, but not at the expense of her health and happiness. She needs to slow down."

"And you Shino?"

"I would inform Hyuuga-sama that even Naruto the Hero was known as a failure for most of his life. Just because she is not where she wants to be now, doesn't mean that she will never get there. Naruto the Hero was capable of many great feats by the time of his death due to his constant training, but it still takes time."

"Hmmm, so to summarize you think that Hinata is taking things too fast, and Kurenai is taking things too slow... Hinata, what do you think?" Kakashi gently placed Hinata down onto her feet, keeping her steady with his hand on her shoulder.

Kiba blushed a neon red and Shino made a point to look away.

Hinata sighed and stumbled as she tried to stay up, turning her Byakugan back on as a force of habit. "I… I understand your concern for me, but this is all I can do to show Naruto how much I loved him… I need to make things right, and I need to do it as soon as I can."

"Hyuuga-sama, Naruto the Hero is buried with his parents, there is no need to rush. You told him you loved him, he is at rest." Shino spoke softly. Hinata flinched at that, Shino and Kiba still weren't aware that Naruto's body had been stolen. Kakashi squeezed Hinata's shoulder softly to remind her that it was an S-class secret, she needed to pretend that she didn't know either.

"You're right… I'll slow down." Hinata sighed, she was still dead-set on getting stronger, but she would have to slow down enough that her teammates were no longer worried for her.

"Good… good, I'll talk to Kurenai about this at the jounin lounge tonight and get her opinion. She's still your team leader, so she gets to veto this if she wants."

"Yes, Kakashi-sensei." The three said in unison, almost creepily.

"What was… did Kurenai teach you that?" Kakashi asked

"Yes, Kakashi-sensei." They said in unison again.

"Ok, if we do go on a mission together; no more doing that."

"Yes Kakashi-sensei," Shino said.

"Sounds good boss," Kiba said

Hinata just nodded.

UN:PoA

Naruto let out a sigh as he started reading through a copy of 'Seals, what are they and how do they work!?' that he'd found in the library.

"I've run away from home, inherited a country, found my parents' identity, and literally died. The last month has been wild and what do I end up with? … fucking homework." Naruto sighed as he turned the page.

UN:PoA

Author's note

If you cared enough to stick with this fic through over a year of inactivity then you have my thanks and my apologies. I can only hope that I manage to pull through and offer you something you'll all enjoy as much as I have enjoyed your readership. Thank you.