Chapter 03: Explanations

"Naruto!" Kushina shouted as she bolted up. She looked around to see that she was in the safehouse where she gave birth to Naruto. Was all of it a dream? She looked down to see that her stomach was back to a normal size, proving that she gave birth. The blood slowly rushed from her face as reality started to set in. "Minato…"

Before she completely got her thoughts in order, the door opened to reveal a man that looked eerily similar to her husband. As she recollected what happened before she lost consciousness, she remembered who this man was. "Naruto?"

"Shh," The man smiled softly, putting a finger to his lips before looking down at his arms, where he was gingerly cradling a baby. He walked over and offered little Naruto to her. "Here. He's your baby, after all."

Kushina took the baby from Naruto, tears welling up in her eyes as she looked at her son. "Why did you do it?"

"Do what?" Naruto tilted his head.

"Why did you save me?" Kushina wanted to shout but didn't want to wake the baby. Her emotions were spiraling out of control, threatening to burst through at any minute. "Why did you keep me alive and let Minato die?"

"Mom," Naruto sighed. Kushina stiffened at the word. She looked at the man to see him looking down at his hands, a defeated expression on his face. "I couldn't save him. He already sealed himself by the time I got there. All I could do was heal you and make sure that you would be alive for little me. I had a rough life, you know. Without either of you, I was completely alone."

"Alone?" Kushina almost reeled back in shock. Surely, even if the both of them died, Naruto would be hailed as a hero who sacrificed his life to contain the Kyuubi. "What do you mean? I'm sure that the Old Man wouldn't let that happen."

"The Old Man is a good person," Naruto looked Kushina dead in the eyes as he talked about the Third Hokage. "He's just misguided. The council had him wrapped around their finger, convincing him that my lineage should stay a secret. As a result, the citizens blamed me for all the lives lost. I was forced out of the orphanage at five years old and forced to live in an apartment by myself ever since then."

"What?!" Kushina audibly gasped at the words Naruto was saying.

"Now do you understand why I needed you to live?" Naruto asked. Even though Kushina was sore and her senses were still dampened by her raging headache, she could sense the pain and loss oozing out of Naruto's chakra. As an avid sensor of the Uzumaki clan, Kushina could sense the feelings and intentions of someone that was physically close enough to her just by reading their chakra. Furthermore, she could see the pain in Naruto's eyes as he spoke. "Call me selfish, but I want this Naruto to at least have one parent in his life. At least then he could possibly have a happy life."

Kushina stared at the man who was to be her son in absolute silence. Her thoughts whirled, several emotions flooding her entire being. "W-what happened in the future…?" She asked, before remembering something that happened before she passed out. The red aura that Naruto coated her with. "And that red chakra… was that the Kyuubi's power?"

"I think it would be better for me to show you," Naruto said, putting a hand on her shoulder. Kushina stiffened at the physical contact but eased when she saw Naruto's reassuring smile. Suddenly, there was a bright flash of white before Kushina's world turned dark.

Kushina awoke in something akin to a sewer. She looked around to see Naruto, but this time he wore a white cloak with red flames over his orange shirt and dark brown cargo pants. "Sorry for the mess," Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. Kushina remembered that Minato used to do that a lot. He eyes watered as memories of her husband flew through her head. "I never really got around to fixing my mindscape. Anyways, follow me."

As Kushina followed Naruto, she was able to catch a glimpse of the cloak. Her eyes widened as they rested upon the words Nanadaime Hokage. "So, you managed to become Hokage…"

"Not the best, that's for sure," Naruto's voice grew somber. "I was Hokage when the village was torn down, unable to do anything to protect it. That makes me a pretty shitty Hokage, huh?"

"I'm sure you tried your best," Kushina tried to comfort Naruto, forcing a smile.

"You really know what to say to cheer me up, huh?" Naruto stopped to turn is head to look at Kushina, a small smile on his face. "I guess you are my mother."

"I told you to let me sleep," A deep voice rumbled. Kushina paled as she recognized the voice.

"Is that… the Kyuubi…?" Kushina asked, her voice emanating pure terror, considering what happened earlier.

"Not exactly," the gigantic fox said as he made himself known, padding over to the two human, each step causing a large boom. Ten tails swished back and forth in the mindscape, causing small waves to form in the sewer water.

"Why do you have ten tails?" Kushina asked, only becoming more afraid. She knew that the tails represented power, so if the Kyuubi had ten tails now, it was more powerful than the one that Minato sacrificed his life sealing.

"First of all, I have a name," the giant fox growled. "It's Kurama. Even after being with me so long, you never cared to learn it. Your son here is objectively the better jinchuriki."

Kushina bowed her head. It was true. She was afraid of Kurama all her life, not even considering the fact that he wasn't the monster that everyone told her she was. Maybe Kurama was just a tortured being who just wanted to be free. "Anyways, to answer your question, things went really bad in the future," Kurama explained. "Naruto was the last jinchuriki alive. In a desperate attempt to make Naruto stronger, the rest of the Biju poured all their chakra into him, or me to be more specific. Because of that, I am now the Juubi, but I still go by Kurama, and the kit here isn't my jailor anymore. He's my partner."

"Partner…" Kushina tested the word. It certainly sounded weird when Kurama said it. She waved off the thought. She was finally getting a grasp on the situation. She looked up at Naruto. "So why did you come back from the future? Kurama said things went bad, but how bad did things get?"

"Everyone died," Naruto's words sent Kushina's thought process reeling. She silently waited for him to elaborate, an unreadable expression on her face. "It happened 33 years from now. The Otsutsuki clan attacked us. There weren't many of them, but all of them were super strong. One by one, all of my friends died. We tried everything. Even some… morally grey things, but it still wasn't enough. All five villages came together to fight them and all of them were destroyed. We were completely helpless."

Kushina shuddered. She didn't want to know what all five villages plus all of the Biju could go up against and still be annihilated. "What are we going to do about that, then?"

"We came back to make our younger selves stronger," Naruto said. "If our younger selves are stronger when they are kids, by the time they come, we should be strong enough to take them on."

"I see," Kushina nodded. In theory, it sounded like a good idea. The thought of keeping Kushina alive started to make a lot more sense in her head. If she could do something to help her future son better their future, then she would do it in a heartbeat. "What can I do to help?"

Fugaku heaved a sigh as he walked down the streets of the Uchiha compound. After the Kyuubi was sealed, the third Hokage immediately called a council meeting to discuss the events. According the Hiruzen, Minato used the Reaper Death Seal to seal the Kyuubi inside of him and Kushina and their son had yet to be found. What made things worse was the fact that the Kyuubi was being controlled by an Uchiha, or at least someone who wielded the Sharingan. Fugaku had kept track of every single able-bodied Uchiha shinobi during the Kyuubi attack, as the Uchiha police force was in charge of evacuating civilians and doing damage control, so he had no idea who did it. Even so, the blame was immediately put on him and his clan without any actual evidence, so he had to spend the entire meeting shouting over the civilian council who were blinded by fear and that snake Danzo. Fugaku could swear that Danzo was related to Orichimaru because being that slimy had to be a hereditary trait.

"Uchiha Fugaku," Fugaku stiffened as he heard a voice come from behind him. Fugaku tensed as he turned around. He didn't feel as much as a smidge of chakra until he heard the man's voice. He confronted the man, his sharingan flaring to life. He examined the man. The first thing that Fugaku noticed was that there was there was an abnormal amount of chakra being poured into his left eye. Fugaku tensed even more. Could this man be the culprit? Although he looked like an Uchiha, he could very well be someone who had stolen a sharingan. "We need to talk."

"Who are you?" Fugaku asked, assuming a fighting position. If he could avoid a fight, he would, but this man was exceedingly suspicious. Furthermore, he snuck into Konoha in a vulnerable time, not one person noticing. "State your purpose."

The man immediately got on one knee, bowing in respect. "Greetings to the clan leader," he said. "My name is Uchiha Raikiri, and I have come to join the Uchiha clan."

"Rise, Uchiha Raikiri," Fugaku said, examining the man as he stood up. Raikiri wore a light purple shirt covered by a black cape and black pants. His hair and right eye were black, but his left eye was covered by his hair. "I was not aware of any Uchiha that were outside the village. Are you able to prove your bloodline?

"Of course," Raikiri closed his eye for a second before opening it again. Fugaku gasped when he saw his eye. He expected a normal sharingan with three tomoe, but what he saw was completely different. Raikiri's left eye was an abnormally complex design, having six points forming a flower with three blades inside it. "Is this satisfactory?"

"Eternal…" Fugaku forced out. He didn't know much about it, only knowing things from the stone tablet and bedtime stories about Uchiha Madara. Despite that, he was absolutely certain that the eye he showed was the eternal mangekyo sharingan. But there was another thing. "What about your other eye?"

"If you insist," Raikiri moved his hand towards his left eye, brushing the hair out of the way. Fugaku thought he couldn't be more surprised about this man, but he was proven wrong when Raikiri opened his left eye, revealing a purple eye with six tomoe. That eye could only be one thing. One thing he only learned about when he unlocked his mangekyo sharingan after watching his best friend die in the Third Great Shinobi War.

"Is that… the Rennigan…?" Fugaku took a step back, his eyes wide with shock. "How did you get that eye…?"

"My father," Raikiri spat out the word, "was very keen on his experiments. I was the result."

"Who was your father, if I may ask," Fugaku asked. He had a couple theories, but he didn't want to assume anything. Raikiri's face darkened.

"Uchiha Madara."

"Someone's coming," Naruto said as he opened his eyes in the real world. He forcibly booted himself and Kushina outside of his mindscape when Kurama warned him about someone coming. As if on cue, an ANBU showed up, dashing through the broken down doors. The ANBU analyzed the situation quickly before taking out a kunai and looking straight at Naruto.

"Who are you?" The ANBU demanded, assuming a fighting stance. "You aren't a citizen of Konoha."

Naruto looked at Kushina, who nodded at him. They had already thought up of a name and a backstory for him. He turned back to the ANBU, holding his hands up in surrender. "My name is Namikaze Menma, and I originally came to look for my brother, Namikaze Minato."