Itachi walked for what felt like a very long time.
It was too dark to see anything, but he was able to keep himself oriented by stretching out his arm to touch the wall. He kept his guard up. With Orochimaru's interference, there was no way to predict where this would lead, or what the darkness would contain.
It was gradually getting dimmer. Itachi still couldn't see anything, but instead of being pitch-black, his surroundings were turning brown. Eventually the brown got lighter and had a reddish tinge to it. Itachi could see the walls and floor again.
He stepped out of the shadows and paused.
This was odd. He was in the same place as before.
The same darkness concealed the ceiling and passage behind him. The Kyuubi lifted its head to stare at him, and its gleaming eyes narrowed.
Yet—one thing was very noticeably different. The cage barring the tailed beast was red, not gold. And there was no paper tag or residual energy covering the gates' lock. Itachi walked closer with caution.
"Where the hell did you come from?" the Kyuubi asked rudely, intruding on his observations. "Don't tell me this is thanks to that crow of yours."
This place did feel subtly different. And the beast mentioned his crow… the crow he left with Naruto, containing Shisui's Sharingan.
"You're the other one," Itachi said. "The one from this time."
The great fox stared at him for several moments. Then it lifted its head and growled, deep and low. "Naruto."
Itachi looked up curiously when he heard Naruto's voice echo around the room.
"I told you, I don't have time to talk right now. I'm going to help out the war, and I don't care if you think it's stupid! We can talk later."
"It's not that!" the Kyuubi barked. "We have a guest."
Naruto, the older Naruto, appeared beside Itachi suddenly, his arms crossed and a stubborn look on his face.
"What are you talking abou—eh?! Itachi? What are you doing here? You're—" He jumped back with his arms thrown up defensively, looking nervous. "You're like those other zombie guys. How the hell did you get in here?"
"Yes, I am an Edo Tensei summon. But I am no longer under anyone's control. I'm not sure how I got here." Itachi quickly answered his questions. "It seems the two of you are connected somehow. I came from the other side." He motioned toward the expanse of darkness behind him.
"The other side?" Naruto echoed, squinting into the darkness. "I never noticed that before… what is going on, Itachi?"
"It's the other me," the Kyuubi growled, its tails waving behind it agitatedly. "It's as the Uchiha says—we must be connected. I've been able to feel his power coming from there more strongly than I can feel it outside."
Naruto looked up at the fox in surprise. "I guess that would explain why I was able to feel it more easily when I was meditating, too, but… are you seriously saying there's a whole other you out there?"
"It isn't just the Kyuubi, Naruto," Itachi said. "There is another you, as well."
"Another… me?" Naruto said uneasily. He didn't exactly look surprised. Just unnerved.
"Yes. It was part of Orochimaru's plan—though we don't know what, if anything, it has to do with him choosing to participate in this war. He summoned a version of your soul from four years ago, attaching it to a body that seals the Kyuubi so effectively no one can draw it out."
"Wait! Hold on a minute!" Naruto said, rubbing his hands through his hair agitatedly. "I thought Orochimaru was dead! Not to mention all this other crazy stuff you're saying. And I still don't understand how you got in here!"
"Sorry. It is a long story," Itachi admitted. "It would take quite a while to explain it all. As for what I'm doing here—Orochimaru is able to control his Edo Tensei summons using special seals. Apparently, he is able to do the same thing with the younger you. He planted a control tag in him, and I am trying to find and stop it. I didn't expect to end up in the Kyuubi's seal. From there, I came here. The two are connected."
"Of course we are," the Kyuubi growled. "All beasts and jinchuuriki are connected on some level. Levels even you wouldn't be able to reach, Uchiha. This may be slightly different, but it doesn't surprise me at all."
"What do you mean by, 'all the jinchuuriki are connected', Kyuubi?" Naruto asked, putting his hands in a 'time out' motion.
"Hmph... you may have gained more of my power, but you're still an idiot."
"What? Say that again."
"Nevertheless," Itachi interjected, "the younger you is in Amegakure right now. I suppose you haven't heard anything about it at all, but he was put into hiding, the same as you were. Konan has brought him into the protection of Ame for the time being. Nagato and I escaped control, we're there, too."
"Konan, huh?" Naruto's face softened into a smile. "It's good to know she and Ame are doing well. And with you and Nagato there too, I know there won't be anything to worry about. I don't like this Edo Tensei stuff, but I'm glad they got to see each other again." Suddenly he brightened. "Wait... that's right! There's something I need to ask you, Itachi. Madara told me the truth about what you did. It is true, isn't it?"
"Both of you, then?" Itachi gave a small sigh. "Damn him."
"You're not denying it," Naruto observed, walking over and examining his face closely. "Sasuke knows about it, too. You need to go talk to him! He decided to go completely against your will—he wants to destroy Konoha! Maybe you can do something—"
"No," Itachi said abruptly.
"W-What? Why not?"
"I already tried determining Sasuke's path for him. I failed miserably. I never changed, never learned to trust and leave things to him, up to the time of my death. I even intended to use you to trigger a certain jutsu against him—the Kotoamatsukami, to make him think how I wanted him to, whether he wanted it or not. The only good thing I can do for Sasuke now is get the other you back where he belongs. The Sasuke in his time will need him. And I would like to destroy the Sharingan I gave you before you meet up with Sasuke again. Let us meet in the real world soon." Itachi turned to walk back into the shadowy passage at the back of the room.
"Wait!" Naruto trotted up to the edge of the darkness and squinted into it suspiciously. "You said the other me is on the other side of this? I want to go, too."
Itachi stopped and turned to him. "I don't know if that is a good idea. It could be dangerous. There is no telling what Orochimaru has done, or how he may have altered the seal."
"Ha! I'm not afraid of the dark, or Orochimaru," Naruto said, punching one hand with the other. The bright chakra cloak flickered to life around his body, making him glow like a miniature sun. "I can see whether it's safe from right here."
He held up a glowing hand, and a bright yellow-orange claw shot out into the impenetrable darkness. Naruto watched carefully as the light from the chakra flames illuminated the hallway.
"Man, how far does this thing go?" he wondered aloud, narrowing his eyes in an effort to see farther. "I can't even see the end of it—"
Naruto's eyes widened suddenly and he gasped. Long, sharp-looking vines shot out of the darkness, crawling up the chakra arm and coming at his main body. He stepped back, but the vines hungrily wrapped from his feet up to his outstretched arm. The bright flames around his body flickered and went out.
"Gah—! It's... it's absorbing the Kyuubi Mode!" he shouted, struggling against the vines.
"Get away from there, idiot brat!" the fox called out.
Itachi ran and pulled Naruto out of the vines' toothy grasp just as they started to wind around his chest. He dragged him as far away from the darkness as possible, setting him down at the base of the fox's red gate. The lingering vines burst into black flames, writhed around as if in agony, and slunk back into the darkness again.
In the outside world, Naruto opened his eyes with a gasp. His Kyuubi Chakra Mode had been extinguished out here, too. He was was now sitting on the ground, when he had been standing a moment ago.
"Naruto-san! Are you alright?" one of the shinobi he'd saved asked urgently.
Naruto shook his head to clear it. "Damn. That was weird." He carefully got to his feet.
"Finished already?" Bee asked, crossing his arms. "We haven't even reached the real fight yet, baka yarou."
"It's nothing. Let's go!" Naruto clapped his hands together and his body was engulfed in the flames of the Kyuubi Chakra Mode once more.
Bee looked at him. It was hard to tell what the Hachibi jinchuuriki was thinking behind those dark shades. Most likely, he could sense that something unusual had happened, too. But he chose not to comment on it.
"Then, to the battlefield!" he said, throwing one of his swords up in the air and catching it with ease, holding it up in a dramatic pose. "No piss breaks! And don't pout. We're goin' full throttle from here on out. WHEE!"
"Yossha!" Naruto agreed enthusiastically, and the two blew out of there like the forces of nature they were.
They left the small group of shinobi behind them, staring in their wake amid the new trees that had just sprouted here.
Naruto and Bee had made their escape from the island too quickly for anyone to stop them, but news of the breakout got back to Headquarters shortly after the preliminary report from the Medical Corps on the autopsy findings.
It didn't take long for the Hokage and Raikage to find their jinchuuriki and confront them. Ay and Naruto bickered about whether they should fight or stay hidden. Neither of them mentioned the other problem—at least, not until Ay tried appealing to Tsunade.
"Hokage! You say something, too!" Ay barked, turning to his mostly-silent companion. "It's bad enough we let a spy slip right through our fingers! For all we know, the enemy may have already gotten their hands on some of the Nine-Tails' chakra from that little fake of theirs! The last thing we need is for the real one to roam free as well."
"Fake?" Naruto demanded. "Wait... are you talking about the other me? Why did you guys keep me in the dark about all of this, and the war? I can help! And what makes you say that that other me is a spy, anyway? Wasn't he brought here by Orochimaru?"
"Exactly!" Ay said, pointing at Naruto forcefully. "By now, you've seen the destruction caused by those plant creatures and their ability to imitate people. We just got a report from the Medic Corps. The so-called 'younger version' of you had the same body composition and underlying chakra as those creatures. Everyone including your Hokage here, the medical genius, was fooled by it—because we had never seen anything like it before. But it was brought to Konoha early on to serve as a distraction and as a spy. Now that we know what those things are capable of, there is no doubt about it."
"What?" Naruto cried. "I just found out there was another me, and now you're telling me it was a fake all along?"
"We don't know that for sure." Tsunade stepped forward for the first time. "Much of the evidence points that way, it's true, but there are other things that don't add up. The other copies imitate the person exactly as they are at the time their chakra is taken—not years younger. I doubt they would even be capable of that. And their disguise is weak. A solid hit makes them reveal their true form."
"Naturally!" the Raikage growled scornfully, turning to Tsunade. "When they are produced en masse like this, they are bound to be weaker individually. That brat not only survived, but almost instantly healed after being punched through. That's not normal, even for a jinchuuriki. If anything, it proves even more that he isn't human. Time-travel! I thought it sounded ridiculous, even the first time I heard about it."
"He had Naruto and the Kyuubi's chakra exactly as they were at that point in time, not as he is now. How could they do that?" Tsunade argued. "He knew about and remembered things only the real Naruto would know. The personality was right. He was completely devastated after learning about Sasuke. Why would a spy do that? It would have been easier to pretend it never happened."
"Oi!" Naruto said loudly. "When exactly is this other me supposed to be from? What happened with Sasuke?"
"Even if they could perfectly imitate Naruto's appearance, chakra, and memories from that time," Tsunade continued, "he also had my grandfather's necklace. That may not seem like much to you, but it shouldn't be taken lightly. That crystal would be impossible for anyone to replicate flawlessly."
"And how exactly did you find out about the other you, kid?" Ay asked Naruto with his eyes narrowed in suspicion, ignoring Tsunade in turn.
Naruto crossed his arms and tilted his head. "I don't mind telling you, but it's kind of weird. Basically, me and... the other me, we're connected. And somehow, Itachi genjutsu'd himself through that connection and told me about it."
They stared at him. Naruto scratched his cheek. He wasn't great at explaining things, especially when he didn't fully understand those things himself.
"Did you say Itachi?" Tsunade stomped up to him with a fierce look that nearly made him flinch. "Are you telling me that Itachi is with the younger you right now? Naruto, he was trying to kidnap your younger self when he first got here! I thought he was supposed to be safe in Amegakure!" She grabbed Naruto by the collar and started shaking him.
"Wait wait wait—! It isn't like that, baa-chan!" Naruto wiggled in her grasp. "Itachi escaped whatever control was over him, so he's helping out now. He and Konan are keeping the little me safe in Ame. Nagato is there, too."
"Naruto..." Tsunade was shaking. Naruto wondered if she was about to explode. "I know Konan is supposed to have reformed, and Nagato as well before he died, but you do realize this means your younger self is currently in the hands of some of the most dangerous members Akatsuki ever had?"
"Hmph," Ay said. "See? If you need any further proof they are actually working together, I don't know what to tell you."
"Look, you're wrong, okay?" Naruto backed away from Tsunade. "It's stupid to fight about this, anyway! I can sense those white things even when they are disguised. There's something about them I don't think can be found in any normal test or scan. If the younger me is on the wrong side, I'll be able to tell. I'll just go see for myself! And while I'm at it, I'll sniff out all the other white things pretending to be our shinobi."
Ay moved in front of him. "There is a problem with that plan. You're not getting past here. Not unless you're planning to beat my speed, and I doubt you're up to the task."
Naruto narrowed his eyes as a blue, crackling aura appeared around the Raikage, making the beefy man's hair stand on end. It looked like there was no choice but to make a run for it past the Raikage. No matter how fast he claimed to be, Naruto had plenty of confidence in his own speed. He reached up and tightened his headband with a smile.
Back in Ame, the younger Naruto regained consciousness with a start. The first thing he saw was Itachi's Sharingan, but it quickly faded into black, just a shade lighter than the black sclera that marked him as an Edo Tensei zombie.
"What happened?" Naruto asked, feeling woozy.
"I was not able to find the actual seal that Orochimaru planted." Itachi stood and filled a glass of water. "However, I did set a genjutsu to trigger should he try to initiate control. It will immobilize you for a little while—hopefully long enough for us to stop you from running away or doing anything else."
Naruto accepted the glass. He took a gulp of water and felt marginally refreshed. "I don't understand—you and Nagato managed to break control. Why couldn't you do it?"
"We didn't break it, we escaped," Itachi explained, sitting back down at the table. "Kabuto summoned us, and he's currently being suppressed by Orochimaru. Orochimaru can't control us unless he rewrites our tags, but if Kabuto came back, it's possible he could still control us."
Naruto took an overlarge gulp of water and started coughing. "What? You mean you guys could turn back into normal zombies at any time?"
"I don't see Orochimaru freeing Kabuto anytime soon. It wouldn't be worth it for just us two, especially when he has started resurrecting people himself for the war. But there is a way I can break myself out of it, at least. For that, we need to go see your older self."
"G-go see aniki?" Naruto shot up out of his chair. "Are you serious? When are we gonna go?"
"We should go soon," they heard Nagato's deep voice from the doorway and looked up. Nagato and Konan came in, the hems of their coats dripping water onto the stone floor. The cat, which had been napping in a corner of the kitchen, ran up to Konan and rubbed against her leg.
Konan smiled. "Apparently, he and the Hachibi's jinchuuriki have escaped from their hiding place. And... the Zetsu clones have been causing mass chaos. As we expected, Orochimaru has already started resurrecting many more people."
"I was able to intercept several messages being sent through the sensor-types at the Force's headquarters," Nagato said. "I heard them mention the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist, as well as several old Kage. There's no telling how many others."
"Have you found out what Madara is doing?" Itachi asked.
Nagato shook his head. "Kisame hasn't seen anything, and we weren't able to find any traces of him, either. We can assume he will make another move soon. He won't stay quiet, not when we're the only ones who know where the eyes are."
Itachi nodded. "Naruto has decided to stay here and help with the war for the time being." He smiled, and Naruto grinned back. "We already need to go after Orochimaru to stop his Edo Tensei, so we can get him to send Naruto home while we are at it."
"Nagato," Naruto said strongly, holding his fist up in determination. "They need you here. I don't want you to disappear for my sake. If it absolutely comes down to it, do what you have to do, but I don't mind waiting a little longer."
Nagato looked mildly surprised for a moment, but then his lips curled into a smile. "Thank you, Naruto."
"We'll gather a bit more information before leaving Ame," Itachi said. "It would be a good idea to have at least an inkling of where Madara is and what he is doing right now."
"Okay then, I'm not just gonna sit around, either," Naruto said determinedly. "Is there somewhere in this place I can train?"
Naruto opened the door to his room and Nibbles immediately waltzed in. He scratched the calico behind the ears and peered into the dark hall, listening.
Itachi had told him not to wait up for their return, so he went to sleep the same time as usual. But he woke up after just a few hours, and now he felt wide awake.
Surely they were back by now.
Naruto hesitated for a second, then walked into the hall. This wasn't Suna. Orochimaru wouldn't be able to get in unnoticed. Not even Madara, with his teleportation jutsu, could sneak into Ame.
Unfortunately, the tower was huge, and full of rooms that had probably never been used. Naruto didn't know where the others stayed. They always talked in one of the old meeting rooms or the gazebo balcony. For all he knew, Edo Tensei zombies never had to sleep.
He found himself heading toward the balcony. When he opened the sliding door, he was greeted with the sound of a heavy downpour and a waft of fresh air. The stone was cold under his bare feet.
Naruto blinked in surprise. Nagato was sitting by himself on the edge of the balcony, back turned toward the door.
"Hey!" Naruto said, half to call out, half in surprise. "How long have you guys been back?"
Nagato turned to look at him. "Not long. How long have you been awake?"
"Not long, either." Naruto padded over to sit beside him, letting his feet dangle over the edge. They were a terrifyingly long way up, but he wasn't worried. "Well? What'd you find out?"
"We know a lot about the ASF's movements right now. But nothing much about Madara or Orochimaru, I'm afraid. The only thing we know for sure is Orochimaru has started summoning Edo Tensei en masse to bolster Madara's army of Zetsu clones. The ASF expects them to arrive at the front as soon as this morning, but they're having a hard time allocating enough people to intercept them."
Naruto looked down at his clenched fists in his lap. Imagining everyone out there fighting made it feel like a great weight squeezing his chest. "Why're we still here, then? We should be helping!"
"We will," Nagato promised.
"When?"
"We don't know what Madara is doing right now. We'll leave even if no new information comes to light, but I want to be sure Ame and Konan will be safe when we go."
"What? She's gonna stay here?"
"Yes. I think we've convinced Madara what he's after isn't in Ame, but he knows what the village means to us. By now, he may be angry enough to attack it even with nothing to gain. We may have earned that outcome, but the people living here did not."
"Oh." Naruto looked down at the city below. Despite the late hour, there were still lights on in many of the buildings. They were too high up to see or hear the people down at the bottom, but signs of life were everywhere. "When you put it that way, I think maybe you should stay here too. Me and Itachi can find the older me."
Nagato gave a small smile. "Ame is in good hands now. And even if I'm not here, I'll know if someone comes in. There are a few more things to prepare, but we can leave tomorrow—the day after at the latest."
Naruto sighed, but didn't complain. At least they were letting him go. "If we can just stop Orochimaru, I'll be able to go home without regrets. The Allied Shinobi Force can handle the plant-clone things. And Madara—he's got the Five Kage and you guys going against him. I don't see how you can lose."
Nagato didn't agree or disagree. Instead, he said, "You heard the story from Konan."
"Huh? Oh. You mean everything that happened with Akatsuki?"
Nagato nodded once. "After we leave, there will be fewer chances to talk. There's no easy way to bring this up, but… when you go home, we will be enemies again. If there's anything you want to know—"
"Yeah!" Naruto blurted a little too loudly, and Nagato gave him a surprised look. "Oops. I mean, yeah, anything you can tell me would help. About your abilities. And the other people in Akatsuki. If I know it all from the start, Ero-sennin won't have to—" He froze. His mouth had gotten ahead of him.
Nagato closed his eyes for a brief moment, then looked down at the city. "I don't want to increase your burden. Even if you know everything, don't try to handle it on your own. Knowing how to defeat my Paths isn't enough. The same goes for the others."
"Okay. But I still want to know as much as I can."
"You're right. It's not the time to be holding back." Nagato reached beyond the balcony as if to catch rain in his hand, then thought better of it and withdrew. "Alright. I'll start by telling you about my Paths."
Two figures raced through the Rain countryside, creating small splashes as their swift footfalls beat into the sopping ground. They wore identical dark cloaks, and both of them had faces that looked like cracked porcelain.
One of them was tall, and had spiky orange hair. The other was shorter, with a wild tangle of black that fell messily over his face in the wind.
In another life, he'd been a little better groomed. After all, he was an Uchiha.
"Oi, Carrot-top," Shisui said, pushing his hair out of his face for the hundredth time, even as his legs disobeyed his every order to stop moving. "Do you have any idea where we're going? We've been running for a while now."
"Things are looking more familiar by the minute," the orange-haired man said grimly. "Seems like whoever called us back to this world is leading us right to Amegakure. I have a bad feeling about this..."