Nightmares and Promises

Sarutobi Hiruzen liked to think a lot of things. He liked to think he was a good man. He liked to think he was a good Hokage. He liked to think he always made choices that would benefit the village.

Today he thought none of these things. Today he was going to be slaughtering an intire clan for the good of the village. Hiruzen shivered, that last part sounded about too much like something Danzō would say for his liking. The Hokage made a mental note to take a cold shower when he got home.

Honestly Hiruzen could only blame himself for this predicament. As a ninja he had gained a habit of ignoring the actions of civilians. Often their incompetence caused ninja to forget about their existence, they've never understood ninjas and in return ninja prefer to ignore them.

It seemed that that attitude combined with the rumors circulating after the Kyubii attack have caused the civilians to act... less then civilly when it came to the Uchiha. For the millionth time in his life Hiruzen cursed his paperwork and how no matter what he did he could never escape it. If he had a nickel for every smart alec Chunin that waltzed in to his office suggesting that he could use a shadow clone to do it for him he'd be a very rich man. But even with his large chakra reserves the Shadow clone jutsu is way too taxing on his body for him to use reliably.

He really wished this wasn't the case. Despite the Hokage's role as the leader of the village he never gets the chance to interact with many of the villagers. Maybe if he had he would have noticed the tension between the Uchiha and civilians, maybe he would have been able to prevent Naruto's ostracization, maybe he wouldn't have fallen out of touch with his family. But the Hokage's role is not to be a family man, it's to be the leader of the village protecting it from any and all threats.

Even if it meant sentenceing an entire clan to death

Hiruzen took out his pipe and began to smoke. It's times like these that made him hope that Jiraya would have a change of heart and take the position from him.

(Somewhere in the Land of Earth the Toad Sannin felt the sudden urge to laugh at his old sensei)

'Pull it together Hiruzen' The Hokage thought 'Your the leader of the village, you've seen and done worse then this. Just smile and wave just like always.'

His smile wavered however when his eyes once again set themselves on the documents on his desk. Hiruzen grit his teeth as he signed the paper.

Just smile and wave

I was surrounded by darkness. A cold vast emptiness that couldn't be explained or understood. I looked down from above as I saw myself, not the me I am now but the me I was before, become surrounded by the people I loved and cared about. My family, my friends, my brother.

Then a blue light appeared in the distance and that me, that foolish old me had a stupid smug grin on his face as he walked towards it as he left everything behind. Not caring about how they might of felt without him only wishing for his own foolish desires. He dreamed of strength, he dreamed of fame, he dreamed of being acknowledged by somebody, he dreamed of his name not being one of the millions of names lost and forgotten.

Then one by one his loved ones disappeared to be replaced with his new friends in this new world. I watched as my old self took an innocent blond haired boy and shackled him to the ground. I watched as he ripped out his very soul and replaced it with his own. I tried to scream for him to stop. That I didn't mean for any of this to happen. But he kept on going, then I watched as he lit a match and set all my friends ablaze. As their eyes turned to sharingan as their skin began to burn away.

I started to hyperventilate I tried again to get him to stop, begging, screaming, pleading for him to put out the fire but he didn't. Instead he looked at me with that horrible smirk on his face "You aren't going to save them. You know it's happening yet you sit and watch. You might as well be burning them."

I begged for the nightmare to end I screamed and cried but he, I was still smirking, knowing that he wasn't wrong, enjoying his sick justice he taunted me, goaded me into trying something anything, knowing full well that I couldn't move from where I was. His grin became savage and feral "Didn't you do this to become a hero? Someone people respected?" He laughed, oh Kami how I hated his laugh "Honestly Ryan your a much better villain, you lie, you cheat, you don't care who you hurt along the way as long as things go your way. You know what the pervert always says Ryan." He/I got right into my face and grinned larger then ever before "You are truly worse then scum"

I jolted awake in a cold sweat, tears already forming in my eyes. I looked out the window and saw that it was barely sunrise. "I didn't want this." I muttered "I never wanted this..."

Hinata was worried, she didn't know why she was worried but she just was. Despite his blank expression Hinata could tell Shino was feeling antsy as well. It had been six days since Naruto last went to the Hyugga compound and four since he's last been at the academy. Everyone else had just assumed he was ditching but Hinata just couldn't shake the feeling that something was inherently wrong. Hesitantly Hinata knocked on the door to Naruto's apartment.

"Go away old man I already paid rent!"

Shino cleared his throught "It's Shino and Hinata. Could you open the door? Why, because we want to come inside."

"No"

"Could you perhaps tell me why?" Shino asked.

"I'm sick, very sick, It's uh... Bird flu."

"Naruto you never get sick." Hinata said "What's the real problem?"

The duo heard grumbling from the other side of the door as it slowly opened. "Stupid stalker tendencies." Naruto muttered.

When Naruto opened the door three things stuck out to Hinata more then anything else. One, just how dark the room was. It was as if he didn't want to be touched by the light. Two towels covered the windows to block off anything the blinds couldn't reach.

The second thing she noticed was his appearance. Now Hinata will be the first to admit that Naruto isn't exactly an attractive man. But this was a whole new kind of not okay. There were bags under his eyes, stains on his clothes, his hair was a mess, more so then usual, and he was incredibly pale, almost as if he had seen a ghost.

The third thing, and possibly the most concerning thing, that Hinata had noticed was the way he held himself. The thing Hinata admired about Naruto was that no matter how dire the situation seemed he was always confident in himself, even if he was terribly outmatches. But now he just looked, defeated, and even stranger guilty. For what she wasn't quite sure. But she could tell something was eating at him.

"Well come on in I guess." Naruto sighed. "I doubt there's much left but take whatever out of the fridge."

Hinata sat on one of the dusty couches while Shino took a look inside the fridge, inhaled once through his nose, and promptly closed it.

"So what's all this about? Can't a guy cut class every once and a while?"

"I'm inclined to agree" Shino responded "but there's a difference between cutting class and looking like you haven't bathed in five days."

"I shower" Naruto said matter of factly.

Shino might have raised an eyebrow at that but it's always kinda hard to tell with him.

"I think you might be missing the point here." Shino said "Why, because we are currently talking about your appearance instead of your recent actions."

Naruto clenched his teeth in annoyance and for a split second Hinata thought his appearance was nothing short of nasty.

"Look I'm dealing with a lot right now. I'll be back to the academy soon it's nothing you should worry about." Naruto lied.

"So essentially your about to do something reckless and stupid and want the two of us to stay out of it." Shino translated.

Even though he didn't give any verbal confirmation the way Naruto's eyes widened and his reck snapped towards Shino was telling enough. But then the question arose just what was he going to do? Hinata knee for sure that the answer lied within the Uchiha compound, anyone with a brain could tell it was a place Naruto avoided like the plague.

It didn't make any logical sense though Hinata for sure that Naruto had no qualms with passing the compound in the past. His avoidance of the place only began about two months ago. Right when everything else about him seemed to shift. Hinata looked at Naruto's eyes for an answer. Any Dojutsu user could tell you that a person's eyes could give you more information then any interrogation could possibly hope to, and right now Naruto's eyes held nothing but guilt.

So clearly Naruto was guilty about something that's going to happen at the Uchiha compound. The way the he keeps fiddling with his hands and tapping his fingers insinuates that whatever it is is going to happen soon and with how long he's been out of the academy it only makes sense that it would have to be tonight or else he'd have to go back acting like a nervous mess in front of a bunch of suspicious Chunin.

Hinata hummed in thought, she knew the when, the where, and The who, but she was still clueless about what was going to happen and why it's happening. But it was clear that Naruto was not going to drop any information on her, and staying any longer was only going to make him uncomfortable so she decided that leaving would probably be the best course of action.

As the apartment door shut behind them Shino let out a small sigh "Well that was quite unhelpful now wasn't it?"

"N-not exactly" Hinata stuttered, in her mind she sighed, she always sounded much more confident in her thoughts then her actual words.

But Shino didn't seem to mind the stuttering "Well what did you figure out then?"

"H-he'll probably be doing something at the Uchiha compound tonight." Hinata answered.

"The Uchiha compound?" Shino muttered "That's a little concerning. Why, Sasuke was just talking about how a bunch of his aunts and uncles were acting strangely."

"What do we d-do now?" Hinata asked.

"The answer is obvious" the Aburame heir said "we follow him."

"You're pathetic"

I winced at the brutal honesty of my own thoughts "This isn't what I wanted" I mumbled "this wasn't supposed to happen."

"What did you want to happen then?" I thought "You've always wanted to escape, to become a hero and now at the first sign of danger you panic."

"That's not true" I whispered "It's not that I'm scared but..."

"You knew what you were getting yourself into. You didn't care about danger then? Why start now?"

"It's reckless! I could be killled!" I tried to rationalize with myself.

"Your always so confident in front of others, why act like this alone?"

"Just shut up" I muttered.

"You know I'm right. I am You after all. You have the power to change the future why not use it?"

"I can't"

"You will"

I grit my teeth "What could I even do?"

"I think you know."

My eyes widened "Of course..."

"Are you still going to mope here now?"

A small smirk crept up to my face "Your right I've been so stupid" I muttered "I didn't throw my old life away just to sit around moping in my new one." I looked out my window at the Uchiha compound and I grinned "Shadow Clone Jutsu" A clone popped up right next to me "Stay hidden" I told it "Find Shisui and tell him there's been a change of plans."

In Shisui's humble opinion Naruto Uzumaki was an idiot. He wasn't quite sure why he agreed to the kid's plan, maybe Shisui was just desperate, Danzō has become a problem and the kid had given him a way to get rid of him, an unconventional and seemingly impossible way but Shisui had been out of options at that point.

Then when he next met the kid Shisui had to revaluate him. The kid was prepared giving him detailed notes of his opponents strengths and weaknesses. At that time Shisui thought he was a genius.

The first time he met the kid he thought he was brave, to stand up to two members of ANBU after being compromised. Then the next time he met the kid and had a clearer head did he notice that the kid was terrified.

With all the friends the kid had Shisui believed him to be social. But the way he tries to keep everyone out of his business shows that he's isolated.

When he was handed a large file of notes on Danzō Shisui thought that Naruto was careful. Then he met with his clone today. He was told of the kid's plan, his stupid, crazy, nonsensical plan that somehow sounded like it could work. Then Shisui was sure that if anything, Naruto Uzumaki was reckless.

Shisui then decided that if anything Naruto was a living Contradiction.

Try as I might I couldn't find hide nor hair of Itachi anywhere in the village. Hopefully he doesn't end up complicating things for me any further but you can never be too sure. The plan is simple I've henged myself to look like an Uchiha genin. I'll create a few shadow clones and use my 'ninja' status in order to lead them to Shisui. Who is currently waiting with a wagon we 'borrowed from a group of merchants while they were sleeping.

I saw Sasuke and Izumi leave the compound about an hour ago, so there's no chance of him being caught in the crossfire. A small smirk crossed my face as I snuck in through a crack in the wall.

Operation: Save the Ravens is a go.

Author's Note

December 25th

Alright I finally finished chapter 19 now I can play a bit of Smash Ultimate before I have to start writing again.

January 4th

Finally 100% the game, man some of those spirits were tricky but I still did it. Now I can start working on... you know I never did finish Octopath Traveller did I?

January 17th

You know I heard Red Dead Redemption 2 is pretty good.

February 23rd

Lacrimosa of Dana? Ohhh It has an Inferno mode.

March 2nd

Persona 5

March 22nd

Ok now I have to buckle down and right this chapter. How long has it been now? (Looks at calander) Yeesh.

Sorry everybody I'll try to update at least once a month from now on.