Future Memories

A Naruto fanfiction by FatefulGravy

Previously: Naruto defeats Kabuto and takes his scrolls before rejoining his team. Sasuke awakes, and the three of them progress to the next stage.

Chapter 6

Competition

"I think you're looking for Hinata-chan, shes not in at the minute would you like to leave a message?"

"Huh...er...how...wh...gah...what?", was Naruto's less than intelligent response.

Hinata sighed, "Naruto-sama you are still so easily surprised, I'm sure you remember me somewhere inside that head of yours. Think of allthe, things, we got up to together." She giggled as Naruto blushed.

Naruto did indeed remember Future Hinata, a rather bizarre cross between Anko's and Kakashi's personalities. An unfortunate outcome of having both as an individual sensei for a time after Kurenai, her first sensei, was killed in action. Despite recalling who she was, Naruto did not remember doing any things, with the slightly perverted and scary girl. But damn it he was still a teenager and saying things like that was bound to get a reaction.

Shaking himself out of his daze Naruto questioned Hinata, "How did this happen, I don't even remember myself in the future, how can you be here?" He was understandably confused, memory transfer through time was not his area of expertise.

"I can only guess," Hinata replied, "either myself and todays Hinata were to different to live together without significant changes, or Kyuubi screwed up when he did his, um, thing."

Naruto snorted, he didn't have a clue what exactly the fox demon had done either. "Most likely the first one," he explained, "Kyuubi said something about it earlier."

"Oh goody, that means I made the right choice," said Hinata, "I could have messed present Hinata up if it had been the other one." For something that could have done so much damage she seemed entirely unconcerned.

"What do you mean? What did you do?", asked Naruto in a loud voice.

"Why Naruto-sama you seem worried," Hinata was quickly reverting to crazy mode now she new her past self was safe, "Could you possibly be interested in little me?"

"What! No of co..."

"Cause' y'know I'm attatched, you even came to the wedding."

"I'm n..."

"And as much as I like you I couldn't go behind my future husbands back know would I?"

"Could you j..."

"You wouldn't want to disrupt the future to much, would you Naruto-sama?"

"COULD YOU JUST ANSWER THE QUESTION!" Naruto was on the verge of calling up Kyuubi's chakra, he'd forgotten how the Future Hinata could get under his skin.

"Of course Naruto-sama," Hinata replied calmly, "The younger me is currently going through the Trials."

Naruto frowned. The Trials were a self inflicted genjutsu Sakura had created to combat the Manekyou Sharingan's illusions. Be going through a number of steps the Trials would strengthen the mind, and allow a ninja to survive and continue to fight after experiencing Tsukiyomi, if not break out of it. It had been invaluable in fighting both Sasuke and Itachi, Naruto himself had been through the technique. But he failed to see why Hinata was using it on herself.

"How is that going to help," he asked, "we wont be fighting Itachi for ages."

"It has nothing to do with Sharingans Naruto-sama, it is to prepare little Hinata-chan to share her body with me."

"Huh? Share?"

"Yes, share. We are too different to merge and neither one of us can be destroyed. The only way to go is for us to be two minds in one body."

Understanding dawned on Naruto, without preparation Hinata was instinctively fight against another mind in her head, and would eventually be driven mad. This way both would survive.

Naruto nodded, "How far along is she?" he asked.

"About to start the final test, Naruto-sama."

Deep within her own mind, Hinata stood upon her island. She didn't know how long she had been there, time had no meaning on the mindscape, she could have been there for seconds or years. Time could only be measured as the gaps between events, and from Hinata's point of view, it had been a long time since anything had happened.

Standing on her island, surrounded by those of her friends and enemies, Hinata planned. Future Hinata, she deduced, had been the one who put her there, so therefore, Future Hinata should be able to get her out. To get her to do this Hinata had come up with an unbeatable, unstoppable, Naruto style plan. Beat her up.

"I know you're there."

"You felt me enter your mind, very good Hinata-chan."

Hinata turned away from gazing out at the expanse of the mindscape. "I'm ready to leave now," she told her future self, "and you cant stop me, you put me in here and you are going to let me out."

"You think you are ready? We will see, the only way to escape is to defeat me."

'Just what I wanted,' thought Hinata, as she slid into the jyuken stance.

"Very well, lets see what you have learned. Come, Hinata-chan!"

Hinata dashed at her future self, anger at being trapped fueling her attacks. She unleashed a furious jyuken combination at the older Hinata, landing several hits on key points, before unleashing a spinning heal kick, causing her tormentor to spin away from her.

"Did you even hit me, Hinata-chan?" Chuckling she turned to Hinata, "We are in your mind Hinata-chan, there is no chakra to seal, there is no body to injure. Everything here is only as real as a thought, you can see it, hear it, believe it, but you can not make it exist just because you want it to."

Hinata activated her Byakugan and charged again, collecting all of her chakra into one palm which she thrust at the older girls chest, through her chest. Hinata's entire body passed through her future self, and stumbled to the ground behind her.

"This isn't about strength," said Future Hinata, as her younger self fired off more attacks which caused no harm, "It's about knowledge." Hinata charged with another jyuken strike, passed through Future Hinata and stumbled to the ground again.

She pulled her self to her feet and swung a strong kick at Future Hinata's head, which aloud it to pass through with no resistance. "This isn't about power, it's about belief."

Hinata jumped back and took up a stance, "Hakkeshou: Rokujuu Yonshou," Hinata attacked with sixty four strikes, each aimed at a tenketsu, and each passed through Future Hinata's body. "This isn't about us," claimed Future Hinata as strikes went through her, "this is about them." She gestured at the surrounding islands, at Kiba, Shino and Naruto, at Hanabi and her Father.

Hinata jumped back, breathing heavily, "What do you mean?" she asked. She looked to her friends Islands, they stood there, looking at her as if waiting for something. She looked over to her families islands, and saw that Hanabi and her Father had, gone.

Alarmed, she turned back to Future Hinata and was surprised to see that there, standing behind her future self, stood her family. Future Hinata smirked, Hiashi and Hanabi jumped forward to attack Hinata.

Too surprised to react Hinata got caught by a low sweeping kick from her father which knocked her legs together and flipped her upside down. In mid air, with her head facing the ground, Hinata was hit in the stomach by a two handed jyuken attack from her younger sister. She was sent skidding back across the island by the blow, before coming to a stop and coughing up some blood.

Hinata coughed again, and struggled to her feet, "How," she asked, "I couldn't hit you," she coughed up some more blood, "so how could they hit me?"

"Simple Hinata-chan," Future Hinata had just appeared infront of her, "you allowed them too."

"I, what?"

"Me and you, we are real, complete personalities, we exist. They are created from our combined memories. While the real versions of them exist, the ones in here don't, they are nothing but our memories of them. Me and you, we aren't really here, we are with our body in the real world, they are only here. Memories given physical form, and if you let them, memories will hurt you forever."

Future Hinata turned away from her younger self, "You are all alone Hinata-chan, and you memories will overwhelm you."

'She doesn't understand,' thought Hinata. Ahead of her, Hiashi and Hanabi prepared for another attack.

'I'm not alone, and I'm not as weak as I appear in my memories,' her family started to dash towards her, but her eyes were closed. 'I wont be overwhelmed by bad memories.'

Her family had reached her now, each going for a high powered jyuken thrust. Hinata opened her eyes-

-'Its not about strength, its about knowledge.'-

-Knowledge, 'They are only memories, memories of what I fear most.' The attack grew closer, two palms crackled with gathered energy-

-'Its not about power, its about belief.'-

-Belief, 'My friends, Kiba, Shino, Naruto, they wouldn't let this happen, I believe in them.' Her two attackers were scant meters from her now, but still she did not move-

-'Its not about us, its about them.'-

-Them, 'They will save me.' The attack hit, there was a great flash of light, an explosion of blue and white energy, two bodies flew from it. Hyuuga Hiashi and Hyuuga Hanabi hit the ground and skidded to a stop either side of Future Hinata. The smoke around Hinata cleared, revealing her surrounded by those most dear to her. Her friends had come to her rescue.

All around Hinata the desolate wasteland of the mindscape faded away, the bodies of her memories, both good and bad vanished. Hinata found herself standing in a field of flowers under a clear blue sky along with her future self.

"Congratulations Hinata-chan, you have completed the Trials," Future Hinata bent down and picked a flower, its delicate petals a light purple.

"Trials, this was all a test?" Hinata asked.

"Several tests actually, first, you realized you biggest weakness, that you believed you were weak. Second, you confronted this weakness, and saw that it came only from others perceptions of you. Finally, you defeated your weakness and your fears through your belief in yourself and your precious people. You came to realize that true strength lies in protecting those around you," Future Hinata explained, while inspecting the flower.

Hinata wasn't shocked, she knew she had changed after all, "But why? Why did you put me through that?"

"Because Hinata-chan, I cant leave, and we cant merge like Naruto-sama has, we will have to share your body, if we are to save those precious to us."

"Share?"

"Two minds..." Future Hinata held the flower out towards her younger self.

"One body..." Hinata replied, reaching for the purple bloom.

"One goal." They said together, as the world around them faded to white.

Naruto waited for the start of the preliminaries with false interest. So far nothing had been different from how he remembered it. Even Kabuto was there, along with his team, although he had to withdraw due to lack of leg. Naruto chuckled evilly. He stole a quick glance over at Hinata as the genin stood in rows in the examination hall. Present Hinata was obviously in control, he could tell by the lack of cheeky grin on her face, but he could feel Future Hinata just below the surface, exuding confidence.

He jumped when he was nudged by Sakura, "Come on Naruto, the first match is about to start, Sasuke-kun is fighting." He looked up at the board displaying who was fighting who, Uchiha Sasuke vs Akadou Yoroi. 'Seems like everything is going to be the same as before.'

Naruto's prediction turned out to be wrong. Very wrong. It didn't take him long to figure out what had changed. Before, if he remembered correctly, Sasuke had first activated his cursed seal to end the fight against the sound ninjas in the forest. However, this time he had just slept through it, therefore no activation of the cursed seal, and therefore no one told him not to use chakra in the upcoming fight. The result? Something of a mess.

Yoroi had started the fight by jumping at Sasuke, who flipped over him and activated his sharingan. He then made the mistake of trying to perform his trademark Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu. The technique required a large amount of chakra, and caused the activation of the cursed seal. The first sign that something was wrong was when the great fireball unexpectedly doubled in size, forcing Yoroi, who had jumped out of range of the original fireball, to use Kawarimi to escape. As the smoke cleared Sasuke stood surrounded by purple chakra and with black marks spreading across his skin. What followed was a slaughter.

Sasuke appeared behind Yoroi and delivered a crushing punch to the back of his head. As he crumpled to the ground Sasuke grabbed his leg, spun around several times and then hurled the chakra absorbing ninja into the wall, the bricks crumbling under the impact. Not finished, Sasuke followed up by driving his fists repeatedly into Yoroi's stomach before he had even fallen to the ground. Now firmly embedded in the wall, Yoroi could no nothing as Sasuke made the seals for another Goukakyuu no Jutsu and fired it off at point blank range. When the flames died down, only ash remained where a ninja had been before. The ninja watching the battle looked on in shock. The time between Yoroi first move and his death had been a mere thirty seconds.

Despite the current match between Sakura and Ino, Naruto could not keep himself from thinking that he had done the wrong thing it letting Sasuke be bitten.

'Someone died because I didn't stop it happening.'

'You made your choice, now you have to live with it, you choose which of your precious people to save and which to let go. Besides, the guy who died was a traitor.'

'I know fox, but...' Naruto began to argue.

'Those who betray us should die, he was no different,' Kyuubi butted in, 'Eventually, we may have to kill Sasuke too.'

Naruto remained silent. He didn't want to kill Sasuke, he would save him if he could, but in the end he could cause more problems than he would solve.

'Snap out of it brat, were up.'

Uzumaki Naruto vs Inuzuka Kiba was displayed on the board.

Hinata broke off her conversation with herself as Kiba and Naruto made their way down from the balconies. Since they had agreed to share a body Future Hinata had explained that it was impossible for either one of them to have complete control of the body at one time. Unfortunately this resulted in several hours of arguing over who got to control which leg, before it was decided that they would agree what to do, and then both do it at the same time. So far this had worked for getting around, but was untested in battle.

Seeing the battle about to begin both Hinata's agreed that Kiba had no chance of winning, Hinata had been rather amused at Future Hinata's attempts to get Kiba to train more, but even she agreed that it would have taken a hell of a lot of work to improve Kiba enough. What interested the Hinata's more was how Naruto was going to win. He intended to get help from Jiraiya in the month break, so they thought he would use this fight to catch the attention of his future sensei. The Hinata's expected quite a show.

Down on the arena floor, Naruto was deep in conversation with Kyuubi, and therefore ignoring Kiba's insults.

'I vote trapping him in an illusion then zapping with small Raiton jutsu,' suggested Kyuubi.

'You really are sadistic, but I don't know any Raiton jutsu,' Naruto replied.

Kyuubi gave Naruto a mental grin, 'Okay then, how about this...'

Bored of Naruto ignoring him Kiba decided that the best form of attack was, oddly enough, attack, and charged him and landed a punch square on Naruto's chin. Or rather where Naruto had been. Instead of hitting said black and orange clad ninja he had whacked what appeared to be a black ceiling tile. Looking up, thinking that Naruto had used Kawarimi with something on the ceiling, Kiba was forced to dodge a rain of falling tiles, and pretty soon he found himself surrounded by tiles.

"Akamaru, lets go!" Kiba called for his dog. Akamaru faithfully leaped to his masters call, unfortunately however, the small white dog was intercepted by one of the falling ceiling tiles and knocked out. Kiba was on his own.

Up in the stands, a mental conversation was taking place between Hinata and her Future self.

'I know where this is going, Hinata-chan!' Exclaimed Future Hinata.

'Care to elaborate?'

'You remember the Uzumaki Naruto Rendan, right? This is a typical setup, most of the tiles are shadow clones using henge.'

'Really?'

Sure enough around Kiba three tiles transformed into Naruto, catching Kiba off guard. The clone infront came in with a strong right hook and a "U..", knocking Kiba back. The three clones behind each followed with a rising kick, while calling out, "Zu...Ma...Ki." Kiba was sent flying into the air.

'See! What'd I tell ya! Hinata-sama is all ways on the ball!'

'If your so great then were is the real Naruto?' replied Hinata, 'Shouldn't he be coming in with a heel kick?'

'Huh? Where...Hey there he is! Whats he doing?'

Naruto was using his chakra to cling to the roof, in place of the original tile he had actually used Kawarimi with. Kiba was flying up towards him, and a blue rasengan spun in his right hand. Letting the chakra in his feet go, Naruto allowed gravity to accelerate him towards Kiba's rising form. Eager to end the fight, he pushed his rasengan towards Kiba, "Rasengan Rendan!" Unable to avoid the final hit of the combo, Kiba was sent rapidly spinning back to the ground, hitting with enough impact to dig himself a small crater. Naruto landed beside the unconscious dog boy and looked at the referee, as every single tile dissipated in a puff of smoke. Not a single one had been real.

"Winner, Uzumaki Naruto."

'Well that was new,' said Future Hinata.

'A combination of the Naruto of today and the Naruto of the future,' Hinata explained, 'flashy, yet quick and efficient.'

'It appears he has merged completely with his future self.' Future Hinata said, with a hint of sadness.

'We are stronger together than we would be apart,' Hinata tried to cheer her other self up, 'We would give Naruto-sama a run for his money.'

'Yeah we would wouldn't we! Hey! You called him Naruto-sama! I knew I'd get through to you!'

'Shut up! It was a slip of the mental tung, Naruto would much prefer Naruto-kun to Naruto-sama.' And so the arguments continued.

On the podium the Third Hokage sat in shock. Naruto had preformed the Rasengan, the Yondaime's prized Jutsu, one handed, and without any instruction that he new of. The technique wasn't in the Forbidden Scroll, and Kyuubi, even if the Demon fox talked the boy would not be able to teach him that Jutsu. Confused, the Hokage decided that he would get Jiraiya to look at the boy.

Up in the stands Kakashi was in a similar state of shock. Naruto used his Sensei's jutsu perfectly, well the third stage at least. He could feel Sasuke's anger rising next to him.

"Keep calm Sasuke, you will be disqualified if the seal activates again," he cautioned his student.

"What was that Jutsu he used?' Sasuke asked, curious or jealous Kakashi couldn't tell.

"That was Rasengan, a Jutsu developed by the Fourth Hokage, don't worry, I can teach you a technique just as good as it," Kakashi new Rasengan was superior to his Chidori, but hey, Sasuke didn't know that.

"Hmph."

Ignoring Sasuke's general grumpiness Kakashi looked to the board for the next fight.

Hyuuga Neji vs Hyuuga Hinata

'Oh shit,' Kakashi prepared himself to stop an out of control Hyuuga prodigy.

'You have a plan past-me?'

'Yes future-me I have a plan.'

'Oh good, how does it go.'

'Quite simple, part one: confusion!'

Neji felt confident, Neji felt superior, Neji new he was going to win, it was the way of fate. Looking across the arena to his cousin though, Neji felt the smallest portion of doubt in his mind. She didn't look the timid, weak and scared little girl any more. She looked as confident as Neji had felt.

"I hope for a clean fight, Neji-dono," Hinata said, her voice that of Future Hinata, "It wouldn't do for there to be any serious injuries would there."

Neji was still hung up on the dono suffix. It showed high respect for someone who was your equal. Hinata may respect him, but socially he wasn't her equal.

"It is incorrect for you to address me as such Hinata-sama," he replied.

"I will one day be head of the clan Neji-dono, I can call you whatever I want," her voice had changed, reverting make to present Hinata's less forceful but still confident voice. Neji was stumped, as heir she could call him whatever she wanted, but still.

"None the less Hinata-sama..."

"Can we start now referee-san?" The older voice was back.

"Of course begin when you are ready."

Part one of Hinata's plan, confusion, had worked thus far. Neji was confused by Hinata's respect and voice switching. But once the fight began the plan went out the window.

Shaking off his confusion and concentrating on the fight Neji slid into his Jyuken stance and launched an attack against his cousin. Hinata, with two minds focusing on one thing easily saw the attack coming, but Hinata tried do dodge left, while Future Hinata tried to dodge right, their body didn't move at all. Realizing their mistake, each Hinata tried to correct it at the same time, resulting in the body still not moving. Finally getting the same idea, both Hinata's decided to jump back together, narrowly avoiding Neji's initial attack.

'This isn't going to work,' said Hinata to her other self, 'we haven't been together long enough to guess what the other is going to do!'

'We'll just have to LEFT!' The Hinata's body jumped to the left to avoid another attack.

'You were saying?' Hinata urged the other.

'Yeah, sorry we just have to BACK!' Hinata jumped back from a particularly viscous jyuken thrust.

'One more time.'

'We need to use a set pattern of attacks that we both know.' Future Hinata blurted out quickly.

'Akuma no Jyuken?' Hinata suggested.

'Akuma no Jyuken,' confirmed her future self. Hinata grinned, the Akuma no Jyuken was a taijutsu style developed by her and Naruto (with Kyuubi's help) specifically to fight against Jyuken. Since Jyuken was performed mainly with the palms it was slightly predictable, each strike had a counter strike. The style would greatly improve their synchronization. This would be fun.

Neji was annoyed, he had had his cousin on the run, she was barley dodging his attacks. But now she was using some style he had never seen before, but was sure it wasn't a Hyuuga style, to counter his every attack. Every chakra covered palm was met by a chakra covered fist, blocking his blow and leaving him open for rapid counter kicks. He wasn't taking much damage, but eventually Hinata would get a clear shot for a knockout blow. It was time for his trump card.

"Hakkeshou: Rokujuu Yonshou."

'He's actually going to use it?' Future Hinata commented to her younger self.

'He hasn't lived through what we have, he doesn't know the risks.' Hinata felt the need to back up her cousin.

'I s'pose, do we use it?' Questioned Future Hinata.

Hinata hesitated before answering, 'Not the final hit.'

Neji watched as the green pattern of energy, visible only through the byakugun, spread out around him. He was once again confident in his victory, he knew that Hinata had not yet begun training in this technique. Therefore he was very surprised when he saw his cousin slip into a stance very similar to his own.

'She cant be trying too...no the stance is wrong, what is she doing?'

His answer was quick in coming.

"Akuma Tentou," he heard Hinata whisper. Through his byakugun he saw the impossible. Around Hinata a bright red pattern sprang into life, similar though not identical in shape to his own green pattern. As her pattern clashed with his it disrupted the energy. His pattern flickered and distorted around him. He had to attack now, before the lattice collapsed completely.

He dashed forward to deliver his first two strikes.

FatefulGravy's Jutsu Dictionary

Goukakyuu no Jutsu (Ninjutsu)

Fire element. A gigantic ball of fire is breathed out of the ninjas mouth.

Used by: Uchiha Sasuke

Uzumaki Rasengan Rendan (Ninjutsu/Taijutsu)

Modified Uzumaki Naruto Rendan, replacing the final falling heel kick with a well placed rasengan.

Used by: Uzumaki Naruto

Akuma no Jyuken (Special Taijutsu)

Taijutsu style developed by Future Uzumaki Naruto and Hyuuga Hinata to combat Jyuken. It means Demon's Gentle Fist. (More next chapter)

Used by: Future Hyuuga Hinata, Fusion Hyuuga Hinata

Akuma Tentou (?)

Used by: Fusion Hyuuga Hinata

A/N

I'm not sure if this is my best chapter yet or my worst. I'l leave it up to you.