Disclaimer – I don't own Fate/Stay Night nor do I own Naruto
"You have the circuits, but there's absolutely no way for you to use any magic, ever."
"Damnit, Kiritsugu, you could have said that in a more hopeful way!"
"All I said was the truth, Naruto."
Naruto sighed,
"Ever? Like, not even if I try all my life?"
"Never."
"OIIIII! Naruto, wake up! It's almost time for school and you're still sleeping?"
Damn it, why did Fuji-nee have to be so loud? Didn't she know that sleep was vital to the human body?
"And don't even try to give me that excuse of sleep being vital to the human body! You slept at, like, seven last night!" Fuji-nee's voice rang out from the living room again.
Tch, well that excuse just became useless.
'Still! I refuse to wake up no matter what!'
"Come on, hurry up! Sakura even made some ramen for you!"
Change of plans.
"I'll be right there Fuji-nee!"
"Sakura, marry me."
"Eeeeh?"
Naruto slammed his empty bowl on the table,
"This is the second-best ramen I have ever tasted!"
Sakura looked downcast, "Only second-best?"
Fuji-nee took her chance and jumped into the conversation,
"You really shouldn't be eating that for breakfast though. Don't you know it's unhealthy, especially in the amounts you eat it in?"
"She's right you know?" Kurama agreed, "With most of my healing factor gone, large amounts of ramen is actually harmful for your body.
Naruto slumped to the floor,
"Why? I love ramen and ramen loves me. So why is it that we can't be together?
Tears streamed down his face.
Fuji-nee, on the other hand, gave a bright smile and clapped her hands together,
"Well the food was good and making ittle-wittle Naruto cry was even better, but I've got tests to grade so I'll be going now!"
Naruto watched her speed off and sighed,
"What's with her? Why's she so mean?"
Sakura too brushed off her gloom,
"Don't say that, Senpai. Fujimura-sensei had to actually leave much earlier to grade her tests, but she stayed behind and kept trying to wake you up because she was worried that you might oversleep and miss school."
Naruto watched her as she gathered the plates and walked through the flap separating the kitchen.
"Thanks for helping out, Sakura"
She turned on the tap and started cleaning the dishes,
"It was my pleasure, Senpai."
"Hm," Naruto responded.
He spent a few minutes in silence, watching her work until Kurama decided to ask a question,
'Whatcha lookin' at?'
'Sakura, why?' Naruto answered
'Hehe, I knew you that your perverted tendencies would resurface some day! I'm so proud of you, brat!'
'Shut up Kurama! I was just watching her work!'
'Riiiiight, sure. Anyway, come in your mindscape as soon as you have the time, there's something important I have to tell you.'
'Can't you just tell me now?'
'No. This is big and I need make sure you have no distractions nearby.'
'Gotcha, math class, then."
Sakura put the last plate on the drying rack and turned off the tap,
"Let's go, Senpai."
"Yeah."
Homurahara Academy was a school that required all students to wear their uniforms properly and did not tolerate students who did not wear them. As such, Naruto too, was forced to wear the drab brown uniform, although he did unbutton it as much as the school would allow(three buttons). Underneath the uniform, he wore a plain black shirt and below that he wore brown school pants along with grey sneakers.
Stupid teachers calling his awesome orange shirts too eyecatching. I mean- they let that one girl with the flashy red jacket do what she wanted. What was up with that? When he asked, they told him that she was one of the best students in the school, so she was allowed certain privileges.
Talk about unfair.
As the two walked through the gate, Sakura asked a question,
"Senpai, can I ask you something?"
Naruto looked at her, confused,
"Sure."
"Why did you quit the archery club, Senpai? I mean I know when you started, you were incredibly bad, but as time went on, you practiced and practiced and got to the point where could hit all the targets in record speed! You tried so hard and then… you just quit. Why?"
Naruto looked at her with a wise and serene smile, but was panicking on the inside.
Kurama roared with laughter, "Go on, tell the girl who looks up to you that you quit the club you worked so hard in because of some ramen."
'It's much more complicated than that!' Naruto retorted
'Is it? It's literally that customers who order on that time, in that restaurant, receive a massive discount on ramen.'
"Sakura, a man must pursue his passions and sometimes pursuing one passion means not pursuing another," he sagely nodded and explained.
'Don't look so smug! All you did was rip off Kiritsugu's "saving one person means not saving another" speech!'
'Shhhhh, look at her shining eyes of admiration.'
'I'm surprised you even know what "admiration" means,' Kurama muttered.
"I-I see Senpai," Sakura said with sparkling eyes,
"You're so wise in the ways of the world!" she continued.
Naruto rubbed his imaginary beard,
"I know."
Sakura bowed her head a little,
"I'll be going now, Senpai."
The blond waved his hand as she ran off,
"Yeah, see you at dinner."
Only, now it meant that he was all alone and had nothing to do.
He couldn't even go to the archery club after giving that cool speech of his.
Damnit.
The only reason he even came to school this early was because Sakura had club activities and since she made breakfast, he wanted to do something for her too.
Well, Kurama had something important to tell him, and he had nothing to do. Going to homeroom and hearing Kurama out was probably the best course of action to take right now.
"Yo, Issei," Naruto called out to his long-time friend.
"Ah, Naruto, you made it to class too early," Issei noted.
"Yeah Sakura had club activities today and I decided to leave with her," Naruto explained.
"Well I would love to stay and chat, but as the Student Council president, I have to make sure to inspect all the clubs and their activities. I'll see you later in homeroom," Issei said.
"Sure."
Issei stood up from his desk and walked out the door, giving the whiskered teen a small wave as he passed him.
Naruto watched Issei walk off for a bit before he sat down in his designated seat and put his head on the table. He closed his eyes and materialized himself inside his mindscape.
"So? What's this super important thing that you wanted me to know?" He asked impatiently.
"There's something big going on, Naruto," Kurama's voice boomed.
Said blond cleaned his ear uncaringly, "How do you figure that?"
"A few days ago, I felt a giant spike of negative emotions. A few minutes later, those very same negative emotions spread out and covered the entirety of Fuyuki. They haven't disappeared since."
Naruto grimaced, "Sounds bad, but I can't sense magic and you can only sense where it's coming from, not what it's doing, so we can't do anything for now. Rushing blindly inside an entire city, searching for anything or anyone "suspicious" won't get us any results."
"We don't need to search for anything, I'm just telling you to be on your guard since trouble always manages to find you somehow."
"You want your ass kicked again? I can arrange that for you y'know?"
Kurama grinned, "How do you propose to do that without your chakra? Do you intend to stare me to submission? Maybe cry me into submission? Plus, even with your chakra, you stand no chance against me."
Naruto's eye twitched rapidly,
"You bastard! I could totally take you down, even without my chakra!"
Kurama gave a patronizing nod,
"Suuuuure you could."
Naruto clenched his fists, but before he could do anything, Kurama abruptly started talking again,
"Anyway, be careful Naruto. All these negative emotions are blocking my senses. For now, the only time I can sense negative emotions are when you're in close proximity with the target."
Naruto thought about the fox's revelation for a while,
"That means that there's no way for me to tell whether someone's gonna try and kill me from the shadows, huh?"
"Yeah, the situation's bad, so don't let your guard down," Kurama warned.
Naruto slowly nodded then willed himself back to consciousness.
"Ah you're up! I was just about to wake you," Issei's voice called out from behind him.
"Really? What time is it?" Naruto asked, yawning.
"Almost time for Homeroom to start," Issei answered.
Naruto sighed, "Won't be long before Fuji-nee comes barreling in."
He stretched his limbs a little, which produced a bunch of satisfying cracking sounds,
"Well whatever. Let's get this day over with."
Kiritsugu and a twelve-year-old Naruto sat side-by-side on their porch and admired the shining full moon.
"You know, Naruto, when I was a kid, I wanted to be a superhero," Kiritsugu said.
Naruto was confused, "A superhero? Like what- you wanted powers or something? Cool entrances? A cape? … Background music?"
Kiritsugu chuckled, "No, none of that…okay maybe a few of those things but that wasn't what I was talking about. By superhero, I meant I wanted to save everyone in the world."
"Everyone in the world? You said used to, did you give up?" Naruto asked.
"Yes. I got older and realized it was impossible to accomplish this dream of mine," Kiritsugu explained.
Naruto raised a brow, "Did you at least try?"
Kiritsugu flashed a bitter smile, "Yeah. I tried my best to fix this world's problems. I tried my best to fix humanity's nature and their desire to kill each other, but… in the end… all I managed to do is hurt a lot of people."
Naruto let out a laugh, "Heh. Fix humanity? Is that what you were intending to do? Remove what makes us human? And what? Were you planning on changing every human yourself? To remove all the bad traits from a human means changing the person into something other than a human, Y'know."
He paused for a second,
"And who knows? Maybe that's a good thing? Change doesn't always have to be bad. The problem, on the other hand, is that we're stuck with this. A species full of flaws and imperfections."
A small smile lit up his face, "I don't hate it though. Being a human isn't so bad. Having flaws and Imperfections isn't so bad. Although, if you don't like it, then instead of trying to change them yourself, make them want to change."
He reclined backwards,
"Of course there will always be bad people who simply kill out of pleasure or let their lust get the better of them. That doesn't mean the entirety of the human race is bad. Tragedies happen and they will continue to happen, the best we can do is inspire people to limit these tragedies.
He looked at Kiritsugu with shining eyes, "Have some faith in humanity. Sometimes just having faith is enough."
The black haired man closed his eyes and pondered over his adopted son's words,
"That's a very naïve point of view."
Naruto shrugged, "What's wrong with being naïve? If everyone in the world were naïve, if everyone in the world had faith in each other, then the world be a much better place, Don't you think?"
Kiritsugu looked at the blonde child, "It would be, but this world is cruel. People don't have faith in on another. The naïve ones would be crushed instantly."
Naruto raised his arm towards the moon and clasped his fist, "Perhaps, but that's why I said what I said. If this world is cruel, if this is the kind of world where people don't have faith in one another, then inspire them to. Inspire them to better themselves and the world. It might take generations and generations and we'll probably never reach perfection, but I think that's perfectly fine."
"Why?"
Naruto looked at Kiritsugu in the eyes and gave him a bright, toothy smile,
"Because we're human."
"Naruto, NARUTO!"
Said boy blankly stared ahead before jolting,
"H-huh? Fuji-nee?"
"What were you doing, just staring at the front door?"
Naruto let out a sheepish smile and rubbed the back of his head,
"Ah, I was just reminiscing."
'Did I really just waste the whole day reminiscing?'
'I just said to not let down your guard, and what do you do? Space out five seconds after my warning! Damnit Naruto! I'm serious! Don't let down your guard like that again!' Kurama reprimanded.
'Ah, sorry.'
Fuji-nee broke up his mental conversation,
"Reminiscing? What about?"
Naruto stayed silent for a few seconds,
"…About Kiritsugu."
Fuji-nee looked surprised for a moment before she gave him a comforting smile,
"I see."
She put her hands on his back and pushed him inside,
"Don't stand out here in the cold. Let's go inside, you need to start preparing dinner,"
She said in a peppy voice, drawing out the word "dinner".
Naruto couldn't help but let out a content smile.
This was a strange world full of things he had never seen. He'd lost a lot of his abilities and he'd been stranded away from his home for a long time now, but in return he'd gained a new family member.
She was loud, annoying, infuriating, mean, a slacker, and always leeched off of him,
but…
for some reason she had still managed to find a way straight to his heart. While he'd been wary of everything and everyone in this new, foreign land, this girl had managed to bypass all his meagre defenses and made herself at home at his very core.
"Sheesh, this woman…" he whispered under his breath as they went through the door.
"Hm? What'd you say?" Fuji-nee asked curiously.
He flashed her a bright grin, "Nothing."
He paused for a second,
"Wait I need to start preparing dinner? Why?"
The next morning it was the same routine, minus the "waking up almost late" part.
Waking up early allowed Naruto to complete his everyday workout. He'd forgotten to do it yesterday but he couldn't afford to slack of today too. His physical and mental abilities were the only weapons left in his arsenal, and not only that, but apparently there was something huge going on. And he knew, that if something huge was going on, then there was no doubt that he too would somehow get involved in it. Even if he tried his best to stay out of it.
He really had no luck in these matters.
Well, whatever. All had to do now was prepare, he would deal with the rest later.
With that thought, he walked into the living room and helped set up the table before he sat down himself.
"Here you go, Senpai," Sakura set down the food with a polite smile.
"Thanks," Naruto politely replied before asking,
"By the way, where's Fuji-nee? I didn't think she had it in her to skip breakfast."
"Ah, that. She said that she had a lot of work to finish so she couldn't stay behind and eat."
Sakura too sat down and picked up her chopsticks,
"By the way, Senpai. She seemed a little angry at you today. Do you have any idea why?"
Naruto jolted and let out a sheepish smile,
"Ahh, that was my fault. During dinner she found out that I didn't pay attention in her class and completely missed her warnings about how dangerous it is to stay out late these days."
Sakura smiled and sighed at the same time,
"You really shouldn't do that, Senpai. You have to pay attention in your classes or you won't be successful in the future."
His smile turned melancholic,
"Yeah, you're right."
To be honest, that statement hit way too close to home. Mainly, it made him ask the question, what would he do when he found the way back home? This was a completely different world and he wasn't even sure he could find it again.
When he left... he would have to say goodbye to all his friends and family forever. Sakura had a family here and she and Fuji-nee had built their entire lives here. It would be cruel for him to force them to abandon all that.
He…didn't want to say goodbye though. He wanted to live with these guys till the end of his days. Why did he have to choose? Why couldn't he just live with both his families and introduce them to one another.
Fate really was cruel.
...
No.
NO!
Fate? He'd already denounced crap like that long ago! When he was twelve years old, he was much wiser than now. It didn't matter if something seemed impossible, he was Uzumaki (Emiya) Naruto! The "Number One Most Unpredictable Ninja", and he would find a way, damn it! It might take a long time, but he would find a way!
It was a promise!
And Uzumaki (Emiya) Naruto, never broke promises!
Author's Note - I know Sakura isn't really happy with her family, but Naruto doesn't know that.