English is not my first language and this chapter had not been betaed. This is Christmas season and I don't know when exactly I'll be able to reach my Betareader. I know my grammar sucks, 'disgusting' as one of the reviewers put it under different story, but I'm trying, okay? I never was good at learning languages (not to mention that I was always more of a math person back in school) and I think English would be considered my third one (I learned Russian before English), so if you really can't stomach any mistakes, don't read this.
No worries, as of January 9, it was betaed by DemonicWhispers!
Falling In Reverse
"Greetings, humans."
Three ninjas could only gawk at the Kyuubi, dumbfounded. His small size did nothing to lessen his presence. It was still unfathomably powerful and brutally overwhelming, pushing down on all of their senses, smothering their will to fight, and causing their hearts to race in growing dread.
None of them would ever forget this terrifying entity of pure chakra, the creature that was equivalent to a natural disaster, the beast that could reputedly be able to raise tsunamis and flatten mountains with just a single swipe of a tail, the entity that ravaged their village eight years ago and marked the end of their old lives and the start of a nightmare.
Naruto's impostor was right – there was no way that anyone could imitate the toxic chakra and that sheer immensity of the strongest Bijuu.
They were definitely not ready. Absolutely not prepared to fight the Kyuubi or his 'partner'. Kakashi was injured and Obito hung from the latter's shoulder like boneless jelly. Minato needed to bring his two students out of there as soon as an opportunity presented itself. He had lost enough already, he was not about to lose more of his loved ones.
The blond clenched his trembling hands into fists, knuckles turning white, his icy glare meeting the gaze of the fox's crimson one, steely resolve pushing any traces of fear and uncertainty out of the way.
Something in the Kyuubi's expression shifted subtly and its grin was suddenly much softer and friendlier, the maliciousness of its chakra seeping away until all that was left were soothing and gentle chakra threads, brimming with life force. The same refreshing feeling that they felt emitted from the teen's chakra shroud.
Such a change knocked the three men for a loop as their mind went into overdrive, desperately trying to figure what exactly was going on.
Obito rubbed his eyes, wondering if whatever the enemies had injected him with made him hallucinate. "…That's the Kyuubi," he breathed out when the image of the grinning nine-tailed fox didn't disappear. "Do I see that right? Tiny, tiny Kyuubi?"
Naruto snorted, but managed to hide his laughter under a well-timed cough. Though, he couldn't quite wipe clean an amused smile from his face.
The Kyuubi glared at the Uchiha, the edges of his snout now scrunched into a feral snarl that would make any other ninja wet their pants in fear. It took all the willpower of the three veteran ninjas to resist this fresh tsunami of bloodlust.
Minato inched closer to his students, ready to grab them and teleport away.
Kakashi's eyes flicked briefly at him and his hold on the incapacitated Obito tightened, understanding his sensei's plan without the need of spoken words. He wanted to hit his best friend's head badly though. Seriously, he could at least try to keep his mouth in check. Drugged or not, Obito was a dumbass.
"I do not take kindly to your insolence, Uchiha," the Bijuu said in a voice that did nothing to hide his loathing, a deep growl rumbling in the back of his throat, all his tails swishing around him with a kind of regal ferocity. However, he made no move to attack.
Minato took another small step closer to his teammates.
Naruto's look-alike looked up at his so-called partner, his lips curled into a smirk, and commented lightly, "I can't believe that you're still sulking about the size of your clone."
The Kyuubi's ear twitched. "I do not sulk," he growled in a dangerously low voice, but that just spurred the boy into a fit of chuckles. One of the tails rose up and smacked the back of his head none too gently. The young blond choked on his laugh, flailing his arms to keep his balance. "I do not sulk," the fox repeated when Naruto shot a withering look at him.
This sight was so unbelievable that even the ex-Yondaime drew a blank for a moment.
What. The. Actual. Heck? Since when was the Kyuubi so docile and civilized?
"You're definitely sulking."
Everyone kind of froze at yet another of Obito's brilliant remarks. The tense silence got broken by the fresh peals of Naruto's explosive laughter.
The Kyuubi closed his eyes and took a deep breath, painting a perfect picture of someone being surrounded by idiots and mustering all his patience to deal with them. Minato could certainly relate to the fox at this exact instant.
Seeing that the chakra monster didn't attack, Kakashi slightly relaxed and gave in to his urge to cuff his friend upside his head, eliciting a glower and a disgruntled groan of, "What?"
"This form is merely a product of the technique derived from the shadow clone jutsu, a special variation of it that Naruto and I created," the Kyuubi explained. "My real body resides inside the seal."
"The Jinchuuriki," Minato noted quietly, his features schooled into a cool and detached mask. He mercilessly stomped on the memory that slithered from the deepest part of his mind to taunt him; the memory of the nine-years-old boy lying among the rubble, unconscious and covered in his own blood, a recently placed seal glowing on his stomach. Instead, he focused on the situation at hand, but, honestly, the Kyuubi's behavior was so baffling that he couldn't help but want to stay and see what would come from it.
As if wanting to prove him right, the fox sat down, fluffy tails pooling around his legs. His murderous visage vanished without a trace, replaced by a lazy indifference. "No need to be so alarmed, humans. I will not attack unless provoked," he said slowly, almost drawling, watching the trio with half-open eyes. "This blond idiot here," a tilt of his head motioned towards Naruto, "insists on calling me his friend. Keep this in mind if you still persist on harming him. I will not allow it."
Such a roundabout way of saying that he cared caused the teen to roll his eyes. "Love ya too, Kurama," he muttered.
"Keh," the Kyuubi – or Kurama as the boy called the Bijuu – simply scoffed, but his expression was unable to hide how truly pleased he felt.
Obito rubbed his eyes again. Kakashi had an intense inner debate if he should try a genjutsu release or not. And Minato massaged his temple in an attempt to shoo an incoming headache, though his sharp gaze never left the two figures in front of him. He was already nearing the limit of how much absurdity he could handle in a day.
One of the Kyuubi's ears twisted to the side and soon his head followed the same direction, his crimson eyes suddenly sharp and alert, the previous laziness nowhere to be seen. "Naruto," he called, an urgent undertone layering his deep baritone.
The teen glanced up at the fox, then shifted his focus to where he was staring. After a moment, his eyes briefly widened before they narrowed again, turning rigid, cold, and hard.
"Be quick, brat."
The golden flames of the chakra shroud flared to life even before the Bijuu finished his sentence. "On it!" Naruto was already in motion as he exclaimed that, spinning on his heel, his outward arm outstretched and chakra starting to gather in his palm.
Surprise and something akin to awe fluttered over Minato's features as he watched the simple Rasengan in the kid's hand transform into some kind of white chakra construct in the space of a few breaths. Its shape was similar to a shuriken and it emitted a whining sound, a high pitched screeching, almost white noise.
The moment the boy ended his pivot, he flung that chakra construct into the forest. It whizzed through the trees with great momentum and disappeared out of sight in the blink of an eye. An instant later, there was a blinding flash and a huge explosion rocked the ground from that direction. A shockwave came after, sweeping through the ancient forest, a cloud of dust following suit.
The blond looked at his students to make sure they were okay. Obito was completely out of it now, snoring and drooling on Kakashi's shoulder, but otherwise seemed alright.
The white-haired man had two fingers pressed on the Uchiha's neck. Feeling his sensei's eyes on him, he whispered, "Sleeping." Then paused, shooting a cautious glance at the two figures, currently obscured by the dust. "What did he attack?"
"I don't know," Minato replied, furrowing his brow. "Maybe one of those white things again."
The Kyuubi and his Jinchuuriki stood in the same place, the attention of both zeroed on something beyond their line of sight.
"You think we got him?" Naruto asked, stretching his senses as far as he could and finding nothing.
"He retreated. For now," Kurama answered. "If it was this easy to kill him, your father and the Nidaime would not have worked so hard to make the seal to get rid of that nasty thing."
The young ninja grimaced. "Well, that's a problem then," he exhaled, letting the chakra mode go with it.
The Kyuubi pondered in silence. "I remember the seal and am certain that I can draw it. The major part of it, at the very least." He looked down at the teen. "You, humans, will have to do the rest."
"It's way beyond my level, Kurama!" Naruto exclaimed and threw his arms in the air. "You know that I'm not that good with fuuinjutsu, 'ttebayo!"
"Yes," the fox agreed, looking at Minato. "But we have your father from this alternate universe."
The ex-Yondaime's mind worked a mile a minute. Alternate universe. He had heard that term before; the possibility of other dimensions was mentioned in the Nidaime's personal journal, together with the initial idea of the Hiraishin. The previous Hokage discarded the research on that topic, focusing on the jutsu, but it was there. Just a few sentences, but Minato could understand the concept.
If other worlds truly existed somewhere out there, who was to say that people couldn't cross from one universe to another?
But that would mean– Wouldn't that imply that–
He didn't dare to allow that speculation fully develop in fear that he was simply misinterpreting the demon's words or being played by him. If he let hope take root inside his heart and it turned out to be a lie, Minato wasn't quite sure he would be able to survive the fall.
"What do you mean?" the older blond asked, stubbornly fixating his gaze solely on the Kyuubi.
Kurama's vulpine eyes pierced straight through the man, making his very soul shiver from the intensity of that gaze. Slowly, a smile pulled at the Bijuu's lips. "Don't play the fool, Minato," he said, amused. "If you are even half as smart as the Minato Namikaze we know, you have already connected the dots from that one sentence."
The blond sucked in a breath, blue eyes unconsciously moving onto the boy. He watched as Naruto's eyebrows drew together, expression hardened, his arms folded in front of his chest and was hunched slightly into himself, obviously feeling defensive, as if prepared to repel the onslaught.
"You're lying, Kyuubi," Minato hissed, glaring at the grinning fox.
His accusation earned a short bark of mocking laughter. "And why would I do that, human?" the Kyuubi jeered, all nine tails thrashing behind him in barely-contained aggression. "If not for Naruto, I would care not about your pathetic humanity's survival, let alone the three of you. Nonetheless, we had saved Kakashi and the Uchiha."
As strange as it was, Minato believed him. Such a powerful and prideful creature certainly wouldn't lower himself to lie just to deceive some humans. He had no doubts that the Kyuubi was the real one too, even if his attitude caused his head to spin in confusion.
Considering all this was true then that would mean–
His attention was inevitably drawn by the boy at the Kyuubi's side again; the boy with a familiar face, splattered with familiar faint freckles across his nose and cheekbones, familiar bright azure eyes, achingly familiar whisker-like markings…
No, not familiar, Minato realized, the same. Same hair, same eyes, same features, same mannerism. Everything was the same. Of course, this Naruto was older, more mature, and consequently different. Not a child anymore, but a young man, a capable ninja. He wasn't his Naruto, but was technically still his son.
Right?
Minato didn't quite know what to do with this epiphany.
"Sensei?" Kakashi called quietly. He was taken aback when the older man faced him, looking more lost than he had ever seen him. "What's going on?"
The blond opened his mouth to say something, but then closed it wordlessly. His jaw tightened.
The jounin decided to seek an explanation from the other party instead.
"We were not among residents of this world a day or so prior this moment," Kurama said dryly.
Naruto frowned at his friend and complained, "You're speaking in riddles now, 'ttebayo."
"Am I?" the fox questioned with a sarcastic smirk.
It took almost a minute for Kakashi's brain to filter through all the information he had at a feverish pace, trying to discern what exactly the fox meant. When the possible conclusion emerged in his mind, his eyes widened. "You came from another world?"
"More like crashed…" the teen grumbled, suppressing a wince at the memory of the gut-wrenchingly silent fall and the agonizing impact. "It wasn't by choice, 'ttebayo."
"An accidental crossing over?"
"We were in the middle of the battle," the Kyuubi clarified. "The last stand against our enemies–"
"Which we lost."
"–and at the last moment every attack and defense were accumulated into one single spot," Kurama continued, ignoring his Jinchuuriki's dejected comment. "The clash of such massive amounts of different chakras and other energies tore open the barrier between worlds. Naruto just so happened to be in the epicenter of it all and fell right through that crack." He paused, letting all that sink in. "This is my theory."
Minato's eyes narrowed. A wave of sudden anger boiled deep in his system, as hot as lava. Why would Naruto be in the epicenter of that kind of devastating showdown? What the hell was he – his version from that other world – even doing for allowing his son to be hit?
Not that he was in a position to preach on this particular topic. At least his counterpart kept his son safe for sixteen-something years. He, himself, was a much bigger failure as a father.
"Can you go back?" the older blond asked quietly.
Naruto pursed his lips. "No." His eyes were dark and haunted. "Even if we could, there's no one– no one left," his voice barely trembled, but it was enough for them to notice.
The Kyuubi lowered his head and whispered something to the boy. Naruto offered a wobbly smile in return and Minato could read his lips as he thanked the beast. The latter flashed a small grin, one of his tails casually swinging to rest on the ground around the teen's legs.
The bond between this Naruto and his Bijuu was truly mind-boggling and amazing. He would never have believed such friendship could exist had he not seen it for himself. Minato wondered if his Naruto would have managed to befriend the great fox if he had been given a chance.
"What are you planning to do now?" Kakashi broke the silence with a curious question.
The teen shrugged. He stared at the white-haired man before tapping at his own forehead protector and asking, "Why are they like that?"
"Ah, yeah, that's probably a very odd sight for you," the jounin admitted, a smile creasing his mask. "Maa, it's a long story."
"Probably as long as why yours is so strange," Minato agreed, covering his eyes with his hand to rest them for a bit. He felt as tired as he probably looked.
"Just tell me one thing – are you the bad guys?"
The older blond's hand dropped down and sky blue met the same shade of blue. "No," he replied, his voice firm and solid and absolutely confident in his truthfulness.
Naruto was silent for a bit, looking at the man's weary face, searching. "Okay," he said softly. "I, uh," he rubbed the back of his neck, "I can help you with your Zetsu problem."
"Was it one of those… Zetsu you attacked earlier?"
Naruto blinked at Kakashi. "Oh, that," he said when he realized what his sensei's counterpart was referring to. "No. Well, yeah. Sort of. That was the aloe vera guy."
Kurama sniggered at the dumbfounded expressions on the two adults.
"Aloe vera?" Kakashi echoed in disbelief.
"Yeah," Naruto huffed in confirmation. Like that made any sense. "Real bastard that one, 'ttebayo."
The Kyuubi suddenly looked up at the forest line behind the three rebels. "Naruto," he cautioned.
"I know, Kurama," the teen assured. "One of my lookout clones dispelled earlier to inform me. I'll deal with it."
Neither Minato nor Kakashi had time to react to his words before four men dropped right next to them. Three Uchihas as indicated by a small embroidered uchiwa on their attire and also companions of the ex-Yondaime, going by the slashed over Konoha's symbols on their headbands. Naruto could recognize only Itachi among them. The fourth one wore civilian clothes, but moved with the grace and lightness of a ninja.
The Bijuu tilted his head, his mouth stretching into his previous vicious, razor-sharp grin, meeting the wide eyes of the newcomers.
"Minato-san," Itachi greeted his leader respectfully and somehow managed to cram all the important questions into the same breath.
"No need to get alar–"
A copy of Naruto suddenly emerged from the forest and shot straight towards the civilian looking ninja, his arm rearing for an attack. The man only had enough time to turn around when the punch landed on his guts with the force of a small meteor. The shadow clone was instantly dispelled by the surrounding Uchihas.
The man's body got flung across the clearing, but before he could crash into the tree another copy of the young blond descended upon him with a wind Rasengan that ripped into his stomach and smashed him into the ground.
Itachi chucked a kunai at the attacking enemy who poofed out of existence before it even neared him, while the curly-haired Uchiha with an eye patch covering one eye and a brown-haired middle-aged Uchiha readied their tantos, but hands on their shoulders halted their advance.
"Stand down, Itachi, Shisui, Masaru," Minato ordered and motioned towards what probably was one of their newly recruited ally. "Look there."
They did and grimaced at the sight of an unrecognizable white carcass.
"The hell?" Shisui muttered, furrowing his brow, as he let his weapon slide back into its sheath.
"An impostor?" Itachi wondered while the third man simply clicked his tongue and also sheathed his own blade.
"There is another group approaching," the Jinchuuriki informed. "With… you know," he swiped a thumb across the 'Ninja' kanji on his headband. "No Zetsu among them this time."
Neither he nor the Kyuubi moved an inch in all this chaos, allowing his shadow clones to do all the work. Absentmindedly, Minato wondered how many of them the teen had hidden in the surrounding forest. Considering that they were in Sage mode – he noticed the yellow eyes of these two attacking clones – and blended flawlessly with nature, there was no surprise that none of them could sense them.
Kakashi let the tension bleed from his posture. "Must be Rin's team," he said, adjusting his grip on the dead-weight aka his best friend. "What happens to those whom Zetsu impersonates?"
"Dead, most likely."
Minato shook his head. Another life lost. At least now they knew who was killing their allies.
The fox hummed. "Considering that the masked man wanted to take Obito Uchiha away, it would be wise to assume that they are taking Uchihas alive in order to harvest those accursed eyes."
Itachi tilted his head slightly to the side. "The masked man? Zetsu?"
Shisui pointed his finger at the Bijuu, his innocent action earning a displeased growl from the Bijuu. "Is that the Kyuubi?"
Minato could feel a headache slowly clawing at his skull. The maddening confusion was back in full swing now that they had new people joining. "They are not hostiles," he decided to say. "Once Rin's team arrives, I'll give you a quick rundown. Masaru, can you please check on Obito?"
"What happened to him?" the man questioned, his hands igniting with the green chakra of healing as he approached.
"His vitals are normal," Kakashi noted, gently laying his friend on the ground. "We think that he was injected with a tranquilizer."
Minato beckoned Itachi closer to hear his report while Shisui kept staring at the nine-tailed beast. "Are you the real Kyuubi?" he couldn't help but ask again.
"Come closer and see for yourself if I am real or not, Uchiha."
"Erm, no thanks, I'm good."
"Shame." Kurama bared his teeth in a terrifyingly gleeful display. "I could use someone to chew on. One of my molars is getting itchy."
"Ahahaha," the man laughed stiffly. "I bet it is."
"A cheerful Uchiha," Naruto uttered, seemingly disturbed by the mere notion of that thought. "I guess there's the first time for everything. Even seeing a cheerful Uchiha."
"Hm?" Intrigued, Shisui eyed the boy, his gaze lingering on his headband for a bit longer, and grinned at him. "Never seen a cheerful Uchiha before? What, did you come from another world or something?" he joked.
"As a matter of fact, yeah."
The man blinked his single eye. "What?"
"We came from another world."
"Are you serious?"
"What do you think, 'ttebayo?"
Shisui touched his chin and stared at the blond thoughtfully. "That would perfectly explain why you look like… you."
Naruto couldn't wrap his mind around this guy. He seemed surprisingly at ease in their presence.
"So, uh, how did you know that he was," the Uchiha motioned at the dead white thing, frowning as he searched for an appropriate word, "whatever that is?"
"It's all thanks to Kurama," Naruto replied honestly.
Shisui scratched his cheek. "Who's Kurama?"
"I am Kurama."
"Oh."
Another team of three jumped down from the trees, this time two Uchiha men led by a woman who didn't look like she belonged to their clan.
The Kyuubi scrunched his nose in disgust and sneered, "There is too much Uchiha stink in the air. I'm returning to the seal, Naruto." Then he promptly vanished in a chakra cloud.
"What's wrong with Obito?" the woman asked as soon as she noticed the sleeping man and quickly made her way towards him.
"Tranquilized," Masaru gave her a clipped answer, focusing on healing Kakashi's injury.
"He'll be okay, Rin," the white-haired jounin said soothingly.
The woman knitted her brow, her glowing hands gliding up and down Obito. After a moment, she let the medical technique fade, her whole body relaxed, and she smiled. "Idiot," she murmured fondly, giving the sleeping man a slap on his arm. "How are you, Kakashi?"
Kakashi's eyes closed to match his hidden smile. "I'll be fine, too."
"Alright, now that we're all here, I'll explain a few things," Minato spoke, getting everyone's attention and they all straightened out, ready to listen to their leader. "Then we'll move back to camp."
He looked at the blond boy on the other side of the clearing, empty and lonely eyes staring somewhere into the distance, and his heart gave a painful lurch. He knew how impossibly bright those blue eyes could be, full of life and happiness, and he genuinely yearned to witness their radiance once more. But he could only stare, stare at this teenager who was his son and at the same time wasn't, and who seemed to be so much older than his physical age and so tired, tired to the bone, tired in the same way that he himself was tired.
"Will you come with us..?" Minato wanted to add his name, to call him 'Naruto', but somehow his tongue suddenly refused to cooperate and just lay uncomfortably in his mouth.
It took a few seconds for Naruto to catch on that the question was directed at him and another few to gather his scattered thoughts enough to say, "Yeah."
"Good," the ex-Yondaime accepted it and turned away and back to his people. If his voice sounded a bit strained, no one noticed. "Now, listen up!"
A/N
One big scene and a lot of talking, but, hey, these poor people have a lot of talking to do. Also, I couldn't resist adding a bit of ma boi Shisui, cause he's just awesome like that lol Hopefully, Kurama won't turn him into his chew toy.
Thanks for reading and please leave a review before leaving! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year for everyone :)