Future Memories

A Naruto fanfiction by FatefulGravy

Previously: Naruto wakes up from fighting the snake, he finds Sakura fighting the sound ninjas and fakes his own defeat. Hinata determines that she is within her soul and makes a connection to her father.

Chapter 4

Connections

"Hinata."

"Father."

Hinata and Hiashi each stood on the edge of their respective islands, staring at each other. The gulf between the islands symbolic of the relationship between the two.

"Why are you here?" Hiashi asked, "To be trapped within yourself is a sign of great weakness, weakness unheard of among the Hyuuga." Despite their positions, with Hinata's island floating above her fathers, she couldn't help but fell like her father was talking down at her.

'No, not talking down to me, he doesn't see me, to him I am only a heir.'

"You are a great disappointment to me Hinata, perhaps I should make Hanabi heir as opposed to you, she is much stronger than you after all." Next to Hiashi's island another flickered into existence, her younger sister, Hyuuga Hanabi stood upon it.

"I agree with father, the Hyuuga, as the dominant clan in Konoha, require a strong leader, and you are not capable of fulfilling that role."

'She sounds like future me, does everyone believe me weak and incapable.' Hinata collapsed to her knees, tears running down her cheeks. 'They never really cared for me, Father, sister, why? Even in-

-Hinata crept towards the front gate, carrying nothing but the few possessions she had managed to scrape together. This was her chance, a chance to escape.

"So your leaving?"

She gasped and spun round, dropping into a combat stance. Her father stood behind her, he had found her, he would force her to stay.

"Your going to join them, I suppose I should have foreseen this." He turned his back on her and walked back towards the mansion. What was going on? Was he letting her leave?

"Just stay out of our way, your not strong enough to make a difference anyhow." He continued to walk away, leaving Hinata with a path to freedom. She took-

-the future they thought I was weak. Father didn't stop me leaving because he didn't see me as a threat.' Hinata looked up at her family, they had thought nothing of her, put her down and then accepted her betrayal, as if it was of no consequence. Hinata looked down at her sister, 'Hanabi you-

-are going to die little sister, and I am going to kill you."

"As if, traitor. You are within the field of my divination, Hakkeshou: Rokujuu Yonshou." As the younger Hyuuga dashed forward to attack the older slid into an unfamiliar stance.

"Foolish move little sister, Akuma ten-

-died, I killed you.' She hadn't been weak then, she'd been ruthless, willing to kill her own sister. At that point, Hinata decided that she hated her future self. 'I wont become like her, I will not kill Hanabi-chan, I cant!' Hinata jumped up, it was her future self who had killed Hanabi, and her future self was currently in control of her body! If things went as before she would be fighting Neji in the preliminaries and who knew what her future self would do to him! She had to get out of here to escape.-

-"Perhaps I'll let you out sometime, or perhaps you'll be able to take control like I have, but the only way you'll do so is to...well that would be telling-

-So there was a way out, and it had to be possible otherwise future Hinata would not have withheld the information. Future Hinata thought she was weak, thought that she would stay in here and let her do what she wanted. Well she wasn't going to, she would prove she wasn't weak She would escape, and she would stop herself before she killed anyone.

"Hey Shino! She's waking up!" Kiba was shouting loud enough for everyone in the tower to hear, and Akamaru's excited barks weren't exactly quite either.

'Kami he's noisy!' "Hey Kiba-kun, quiet down I've got a head ache." Future Hinata was obviously not amused by Kiba's loudness.

"Err...Sorry Hinata-chan, I was just excited y'know." He did have the dignity to like slightly guilty, but it didn't last long.

"Um..sure Kiba-kun. Hey, how long was I out for?" Hinata asked, "and how long till the end of the exam." 'I cant wait to the preliminaries, haven't had a good fight in ages.'

Kiba started counting the days on his fingers, "Gah...ah...um...".

"About a day, and there are two days remaining after today," Shino interrupted Kiba's 'mental' arithmetic before Hinata decided to go back to sleep.

"Thanks Shino-kun," Hinata responded, "That leaves the rest of today and tomorrow for training." This got here a strange look from Kiba.

"Training, for what?"

'I don't know how I ever ended up liking this idiot', "Training for the third stage, didn't you ever notice the exam tournaments, wasn't your sister in one of them?"

Hinata was making Kiba feel stupid, "Um..yeah, I kinda...forgot."

Hinata sighed and whacked him on the back of the head, "Baka! Come on lets go train, I've got something I wanna try out!"

As Hinata skipped away to find somewhere to train Kiba turned to Shino, "When was Hinata every this enthusiastic about training?"

"She has been acting strange since the first day," Shino responded calmly, "She has lost her stutter, and seems much more, confident, about being a ninja."

"Perhaps we should keep an eye on her, something could be wrong," Kiba suggested, and Akamaru yipped his approval.

"A good plan," the bug user agreed, "but how come you can be intelligent about things involving Hinata, while being stupid about everything else?"

"Shut up Shino."

"Sakura-chan! Sakura-chan!"

Sakura opened one eye to see a blond haired girl shaking her awake. "Go away Ino-pig I need my rest."

"Nice to see you up forehead-girl, but you need to get out of here before the sound nins come to."

Sakura was instantly awake, jumping to her feet she looked around her. In addition to the crater caused by her explosive note several trenches scarred the ground around her, and, to her surprise, all three sound ninjas were asleep. "Er...what happened, who got the other two? Was is Sasuke-kun?"

Although Sakura had been talking to herself Ino answered her, "Hardly, Sasuke hasn't even woken up yet, he's pulling a Shikamaru."

"Then who? You?"

Ino looked at the ground sheepishly, "Na..Naruto did it, he knocked one out, than fought the other one until, well..." Ino trailed off.

'Naruto? But he hasn't been around since we were attacked.' "Where's Naruto now?" Sakura asked worriedly, Ino didn't answer.

"He was hit by that air blast attack," Shikamaru supplied, "We could only find this." He held up Naruto's ruined jacket. Both sleeves were missing and the collar was hanging on by a thread. "He took a direct hit."

Sakura took Naruto's jacket, then looked to the trees she had hid in the night before. They had taken a direct hit, and now only splinters were left. "But...what...he can't be dead."

Ino shrugged, still not looking at Sakura, "We couldn't find a body, but with all the animals in the forest that doesn't mean anything."

Sakura didn't know what to think. Yes, Naruto had been annoying and yes, they didn't get on particularly well, but having him around was how she imagined a brother would be, and when he wasn't there the night before she had felt...lonely.

"You'd better come with us," Shikamaru offered, "we'll help with Sasuke, you're in no shape to alone."

Sakura wasn't listening. She remained dazed as Chouji picked up the still comatose Sasuke, and barley noticed as Ino led her off. She still kept a grip on the destroyed orange jacket.

'Fox, I'm bored.'

'Practice.'

'I've been doing that all day.'

'Sleep.'

'Did that last night.'

'Masturb...'

'Shut up foxy.'

'You asked, and I insist you call me Foxy-sama.'

'I could always call you Foxy-tenshi.'

'You dare compare me, the greatest of all demons, to one of those wimpy guardians of Heaven!'

'You started it.'

Naruto broke off from his mental conversation to check on his surroundings. He was well hidden, and it would be dark soon. Tomorrow he would find where Sakura and Sasuke camped and lie in wait of Kabuto. Right now though, he had nothing to do.

'Fox?'

'What, brat.'

'I'm bored.'

Around midday the next day Kiba and Shino eventually found Hinata. Even with their considerable skill at tracking Hinata had given them quite the run around. They had followed her scent from the bottom of the tower to the top, then back down again. The track had crossed itself repeatedly and even led out of a window at one point. Fueling suspicions that Hinata had walked up the outer wall.

In the end they had tracked her down to one of the training rooms dotted around the tower. Kiba felt sure they had been there before, but then again, they'd seen most of the tower. As they entered Hinata was just about to start a Kata. Her left arm and leg were both fully extended and pointing down to the ground. Her right leg bent the opposite direction to her left, giving the stance a wide base, and her right arm was held defensively across her body.

Seemingly ignorant of their entrance Hinata began the Kata. Much to Kiba's surprise the movements were entirely defensive. Her hands moved fluidly in a circular motion as she moved her feet to give herself a slow spin. Her hands left chakra trails which spun around her body like blue streamers. Then, suddenly, Hinata used the momentum of her slow spin to throw first one palm thrust at stomach hight, then another at head height. Each attack gave off a blast of visible chakra, before Hinata left the stance, and straighten up.

'A Kata with only two attacks? Must be for defense, but it looked beautiful.' Kiba shook himself out of his daze just in time to see Hinata turn to them with a uncharacteristic smirk.

"So you two finally caught up to me?" She appeared amused at the shock on Kiba's face.

"What was that?" He asked, with complete disregard for her question.

"That? Um..just a little something I've been working on." She was teasing him, Kiba, however, was oblivious.

"A little something. I'd say it was a big something, it was beaut...err..amazi...really cool."

Hinata giggled, "Thanks Kiba-kun. How goes your training?"

"We have spent most of our time tracking you down," Shino responded, "There has been little time for training."

"Sorry about that Shino-kun but I thought Kiba-kun could use the exercise."

That got a rise out of Kiba, "Hey! I have good stamina!"

"I'm sure you do Kiba-kun," all cheerfulness vanished from her voice, "but you wouldn't want to lose just because your opponent could fight for longer would you?"

Kiba glanced at Shino, who shrugged. She had been so happy, and now she seemed so down, all because of one comment.

"Hey Hinata-chan, is something wrong?" asked Kiba.

Hinata walked between the two of them and headed for the exit of the training room. "I'm fine Kiba-kun, I'm just tired after all the training."

"You sure?"

"Yeah, I'm gonna go take a break, later."

She left the two of them standing there, confused as ever.

Back at the islands, present-Hinata sat and thought. Her father and sister had just stood there since there initial comments, not saying a word. Hinata figured this was because they weren't real, and could therefore only give the impression of the real people. They had said what they did because that was how Hinata thought they saw her.

'As they think I'm weak they wont be able to help me get out of here, if I could find someone who thought I was strong, they may be able to help.'

Hinata focused her thoughts on those who didn't see her as weak, who didn't see her as only the heir to the Hyuuga clan. The people she could depend on, and who would be able to depend on her.

'Naruto, Kiba, Shino.'

"Having any luck?"

Hinata opened her eyes to she future-Hinata infront of her.

"Thought I'd pop in for a visit. I see you've managed to find dear Father and dear dear Hanabi-chan. Have they helped you at all, or have they become more of a problem then they are a benefit."

"Unlike you I would never attack my own family."

"Hey! You didn't stutter! A definite improvement, perhaps your one step closer to escape. To perhaps your not. Bare in mind though, that I am you, and I did attack my own family, so perhaps you will too. After all, you know what they will do. How they will hurt the ones you love, what if the only way to save them is to kill your own family."

To the great surprise of future-Hinata, her younger self stood her ground. "I'll find away to save them all, I wont become like you, no matter what."

Future-Hinata's lips lifted in a small smile. "You may try, but you are too weak to save anyone. Only by becoming like me can you save those close to you."

'Naruto, Kiba, Shino. You don't think I'm weak, with your help, I know I could do it.'

Behind present-Hinata three new islands appeared, on the opposite side of Hinata's island to those occupied by Hiashi and Hanabi. Naruto, Kiba and Shino each stood on their own island.

"I may be too weak now, but with help, I can become stronger than you."

Future-Hinata turned her back on her past self, and unseen by present-Hinata smiled brightly.

'She's finally getting it, perhaps she can correct my mistakes.'

"So you have some friends on your side, supporting you. But you also have family against you. You could escape but you could fail. Which will it be?"

Before Hinata could respond her future self faded away.

Hinata sat up in bed, and smiled a bright smile. Her past self was doing very well indeed.

A/N

A Hinata focused chaper. I think this is much better than the previous chapter however.

SOMEBODY asked about Tsuuga, which means Piercing Fang (I think) Gatsuuga is Double Piercing Fang and is done in combination with the ninjas dog. Actually I've never seen Kiba use Tsuuga but I assume he can use it since its simpler than Gatsuuga.

The 1/10th bunshin strength refers to water clones. I think Zabuza says something about in the Wave Country arc.

Thanks for the reveiws, but usually I'll only respond to questions or queries otherwise it infaltes the word count and makes the stroy look longer than it is, and I hate it when half a fic ends up being review responses or authors notes.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any characters in it.