Chapter 1: Weight of the World
"How was the academy today, Sasuke?" Smiling at her younger son, Mikoto Uchiha was seated in her usual place at their dining room table as Itachi sat in his own. With a simple yet delicious meal of Sushi, onigiri, and a small bowl of his favorite fruit while his younger brother had his tomatoes.
Puffing up his cheeks in childish irritation, the raven haired boy pouted before chewing and swallowing angrily. "There were a lot of pranks pulled today again, kaa-chan. These ones happened at the academy and a lot of the teachers blamed the dead last, Naruto, but she was sleeping right next to me in class all day! Some swore they saw her running away, but it was just a big waste of time each time when Miyaku-sensei was interrupted to tell them that Naruto was right there." Trying not to roll his eyes while the youngest at the table found it to be Un-Uchiha to do so, Itachi's expression turned fond towards him.
Only two days had passed since the Uchiha Heir unlocked the Mangekyou, and he had discovered quite a bit from it. Unsure on if he was seeing the future somehow or re-living memories of someone else, he began digging around in archives and only knew a few facts.
One was that there were never whisker like birth marks on any Konoha shinobi besides Academy Student Naruto Uzumaki. Second was that roughly the time he had met up with his cousin and best friend Shisui before he committed suicide, the night shift of Police were notified of a noise complaint coming from her apartment building, which would be later confirmed as her having a nightmare from her nightly ANBU guard. The next day after Sasuke had came home from school, he had complained about the pranks on his way to school. Shop keeps that were prone to kiss the behinds of Uchiha children with their parents on the Task Force were hit along with several others that could be known as snobs to those that treasured fortune over family.
All owners and employees swore they saw Naruto Uzumaki running away from the scene of the crime, except she was in her seat at the academy.
And in one of the many activation's of his advanced Sharingan, Itachi saw a slightly older version of her at maybe 12 years old, using the Kage no Bunshin jutsu.
It was the only non-threatening lead he had, and so after dinner that night, he dressed casually and began stalking the young girl from the shadows.
Unknowing to him, Naruto had much more luck with discovering information. Each time she dreamed, there would be the terrifying nightmares of a future that was cruel and disgusting. Of red clouds with silver linings, snakes that left curse marks that disfigured human nature, of a war stirring against the Rabbit Goddess. Sometimes there would be names to the people she would apparently spend a lot of time with, some that didn't need any explanation as she could look at her classmates in the Academy and know who they were with some comparison.
And if there was a technique or a shinobi tip, she was already skipping school to learn it. Hanging out in an abandoned training ground as her clones did her dirty work of petty revenge and being the alibi in class, she hated the idea of a war against a Goddess. Everything else she considered cool though, and had rented out some fantasy books underneath a henge. During her break times of training, she'd happily read about magic and gifts from above.
Oh, Naruto was more than angry inside. From all that she was learning, there was a topic that she was leaving untouched for now.
The Kyuubi that she and her classmates had grown up believing was killed by the Fourth Hokage, her hero, was still alive. And inside her stomach. It was why everyone disliked her, because they thought the Kyuubi was in control.
But Kyuubi wasn't always called the Kyuubi, but instead named Kurama by the Sage of Six Paths who had created ninshu.
And if she went into her so-called mindscape to confirm if the giant fox was there at all, then that meant everything else was going to be as well.
That her father had sealed the creature inside her before dying with his last wish of her being seen as a hero. That her knowledge of shinobi tricks weren't a gift from above, but a curse to watch the world unwind around her as everything fell into war. She wasn't a time traveler, wasn't anyone considered important enough at this time to make a difference in the world with a single shout.
If none of this was real either, then if it got mentioned to her important person who was the leader of her village, she'd be locked up.
She didn't know which would be worse, the impending doom or going crazy thinking there was.
Shaking her head clear of the negative in the whole situation, she had been sneaking out to the training grounds soon after the ANBU guard would leave for the day. She didn't want to believe that she was being watched for being a jinchuurki apparently, but the fear of being right had left her making up excuses on why else she was being watched.
Having practiced her clone jutsu, she could remember in some dreams that she'd climb trees without her hands and walked on water. Sending one group to practice water walking and the rest tree climbing with her until the sun was close to coming down, she began her trek home. Stares of dislike, pain of lost ones, and unhappiness only made her roll her eyes for once instead of cower or hurry home.
Turning around a corner and onto her already dark street, Naruto froze.
"The Uchiha's.."
Slowly spinning in her spot for the voices that sounded as though they were softly chanting, the street that lead to the worse part of Konoha was empty.
"..need you.."
Swallowing as she knew exactly what they were referring to, Naruto tensed. "No, they don't! There's nothing wrong with them, it'll never happen!" Shouting to the empty street, there was no other noise besides her echoing voice.
Being scared of ghosts, the voices sounded too otherworldly to not destroy her good mood, forcing her to begin sprinting to her apartment. Jumping at every shadow, at every flickering porch light until she could slam her door shut behind her, she slid down the door. Trembling in her spot, Naruto wanted to ignore every bad sign, every intense deja vu moment that left her unsurprised and pretend that she was finally getting an advantage.
But to be followed by voices that were reminding her of her apparent duty, guilt ate her at her.
'37 days until the Uchiha Massacre, b-but I'm just a kid.. what can I do?' Feeling tears gather at the corner of her eyes, she wrapped her arms around her legs and tried to fight off the fear. Squeezing her eyes shut, she tried to do an apparently familiar activity to finally start planning.
The cold wood that sat underneath her bottom disappeared and became ice cold water, and finally allowing a few tears to fall before she wiped them on her knees, she looked up before her.
Watching her with interest, the large crimson eyes from before were now studious and cautious. No longer smiling with sharp teeth in sick amusement, the small blonde found the eyes daunting enough without seeing the rest of his large form.
Feeling as though they were staring at each other forever, she properly unfolded herself to stand up before him.
"...Kurama?"
"Naruto."
Rubbing at her eyes once more as fear took hold of her stomach once more, the beast was quiet. "I-I don't know what to do. You're really here, so that means.. everything is real and going to happen." Closing her eyes as she took a shuttering breath, she waited awhile to see if he would say anything. Shaking her head, she looked up hopelessly at him again. "Do you.. do you know what to do, at all?"
Thinking he was going to ignore her, she was preparing to leave when his booming voice echoed throughout her mindscape. "I have been viewing all the memories that you have been receiving, and have been filtering them so you won't be overloaded. You do survive Kaguya with the help of Sasuke Uchiha, however, so you can stop panicking yourself over that." Feeling a relief fill her stomach as she hasn't seen anything that said the world would make it through that, the relief was short lived. "I am not sure what you had heard that told you to help the Uchiha's, nor do I think you should save that clan."
"What!? What the hell do you mean, you think I should just let Itachi kill off all the Uchiha's again and watch Sasuke go psycho!?"
"No. Obito Uchiha is still hiding in the shadows though. Itachi should still kill his clan, but perhaps there is another way."
Leaning back impressed as her eyes widened, she crossed her arms and considered it deeply. "Yeah, but what if Obito goes after Sasuke without Itachi distracting him in the Akatsuki? How will Konoha figure out what the Akatsuki are even about without one of our criminals in it?!"
Watching the crimson orbs roll in a familiar fashion, a strong air ruffled her hair and clothes as he sighed. "He doesn't need to now. We know the basics of who the members are and what order they want to collect the tailed beasts. All we need to do is to find a way for the Akatsuki to be mentioned so that your village will be prepared and unsuspecting to additional knowledge that happens to get around to the Toad Spy."
Frowning as Naruto thought deeply about what she had learned from watching Jiraiya's surprisingly subtle and inappropriate spy network, she could remember the members that had gone unheard of until it was too late - such as Deidara and Sasori when they had attempted to capture Gaara, and Kakuzu and Hidan until the former team captain of Team 10, Asuma Sarutobi was gone.
It was no surprise of why Sasori had gone off the radar on being a dangerous Missing-nin, alongside Kakuzu and Hidan. Anyone that could've remembered their names and faces and have their warning matter, were either sacrificed, turned into a puppet, or had their hearts stolen for their elemental affinity from a man that was well over 90 years old. To start dropping exact names was dangerous and could be followed to her, but spreading the legend of the monster who stole hearts for your affinity who was from Konoha? Jiraya would see just how true it was. It'd reveal Hidan, since they'll be partners if they already aren't.
Sasori would be more difficult to get Konoha nins interested in, unless there was a bloodline stealing scare..
That solved one problem in Naruto's eyes, that hopefully ninja would be more prepared enough that not as many would die from them, but if Itachi didn't need to join the organization to get Konoha on the trail of the Akatsuki, then what about Obito? Itachi kept him at bay, being strong enough that Obito waited until the literal second the heir dropped dead. 'How could Itachi keep him away unless he's babysitting Obito or Sasuke - oh.'
"Ya know, that's pretty clever," she admitted with a shrug as his large teeth took on a dark grin.
"Of course, you're the one who didn't think of it."
"Pfft, I only didn't 'cause I don't want to change the future so much that we won't know what will happen next!"
"Brat, you only didn't want to do anything about it and only want to now because you heard voices." Jaw dropping slightly as she stared up at him in shock at the hurtful words, she frowned to herself at the painful reminder.
'We're not time travelers, just two people that have the memories of what could happen and what could happen is us becoming friends. He's probably only being nice 'cause I'm obviously not going to make his prison-time too painful based on our future together, but if he's holding onto us not being those versions of ourselves exactly.. he's not going to make it easy for me to prove that I can get along with him naturally.' Pouting to herself to hide the hurt as she gave him the stink eye, she crossed her arms. "At least the voices encouraged me to finally face you and our reality. If I didn't hear them, I probably wouldn't have came to you until the massacre then. So maybe whoever sent all the memories back has a plan we have to follow anyways, we just have to figure it out. Starting with Itachi Uchiha.."
"The Uchiha's.."
Having tensed up and withdraw his spare kunai out, Itachi activated his Mangekyou Sharingan and observed the area looking for another chakra source besides Naruto's.
"..need you.."
"No, they don't! There's nothing wrong with them, it'll never happen!" Naruto shouted out loud, her voice echoing among the empty and dark street. Watching her sprint down the street towards her home as her form easily disappeared into the darkness, the Uchiha heir jumped down to her former spot. Cautiously spinning as he manually searched for where the voices had came from, it sounded like it was whispered right into his ears. No idea on if it was meant for him or the Uzumaki or how she had heard it so clearly, he pocketed the blade after several minutes passed.
Standing there, he felt as though a headache could easily come along. Knowing for sure now that Naruto had definitely been effected by something like him, he was relieved that it only took a few hours instead of several weeks to find a for sure fact that something was happening to her as well. Still leaving him confused on if she had been hearing voices the past two days that have been revealing events and what she had meant on what exactly would never happen, on if she had saw a coup d'tact or the results of a massacre.
Considering on if he should continue following her tonight or to leave her alone until tomorrow, he quickly summoned an elderly crow.
Petting its sleek feathers softly, the order he gave was silent before it flew towards her apartment. Knowing that the ANBU would be at his post to observe her soon if not already, a bird setting its nest close outside her window would not be odd at all.
Turning back, he returned home at a slow pace. Nodding respectfully to the Police Force patrolling, his only stop was to a 24/7 grocery store that catered to late night and early morning shifts of civilians and shinobi alike. Picking up some tomatoes and a few boxes of pocky, he felt himself pause in front of the ramen section in the junk food isle.
He didn't have an idea on how to communicate with the jinchuurki without his father's disapproval just yet, but after picking up instant cups of every type and receiving odd looks from the cashier, he figured that maybe he or Sasuke could bribe her to visit the house if they had ramen on hand that nobody else wanted to eat.
Arriving to the compound as the last of his clan members were preparing for bed, a part of him became bitter and dark as he recalled several of the clan meetings he had participated in. Even the most innocent and sweetest members were demanding to be sent to a certain section of the village if the coup d-tact went through to enact revenge that they thought they deserved. Though their compound had been moved to the outskirts by Tobirama, several of the shop owners stewed in their jealousy of the actual marketplaces having crowded busy days with encouragement from the elders.
'Which if we didn't have a gate with all the guards to keep everyone else out that you continuously vote to keep, tourists and citizens would be interested in seeing what wares the Uchiha's have,' Itachi sighed to himself as he thought of the solution to their problem.
The elderly who could remember Tobirama pushing the Uchiha to the outskirts exactly were still holding onto the unfairness that was between the Senju's and Uchiha's. Believing that Madara Uchiha himself wasn't completely wrong that their formerly rivaling family would always be favored to the point of blindlessly handing the Hokage hat to anyone that would've supported them, the heir pinched the bridge of his nose as he passed Tsubasa Uchiha who wanted to see the still living students of the man with their bodies hanging from the Hokage tower by nooses.
'There is currently only one Senju left with a massive and living clan of Uchiha. At the logic of anyone supporting Senju's or being in the line of teaching that wisdom of the Will of Fire of them blindlessly becoming Hokage by sheer luck, then the clan shouldn't have given Kakashi-senpai the cold shoulder for the tragedy of his team and instead treat him as one of the Uchiha's. Have him teach younger Uchiha's or pressure him into marrying one in the name of Obito,' feeling the urge to roll his eyes or sigh from the ridiculous situation, everyone knew that the next options of becoming Hokage if anything were to happen to Hurizen Sarutobi, one of the students of Tobirama, would be his own students Tsunade Senju or Jiraiya. Tsunade only took on one student in respect of her former lover and swore to never return, and Jiraiya had trained Minato Namikaze who in turn, trained Kakashi Hatake with two others.
There were always solutions, and Itachi could not deny that his father's orders of everyone to avoid the Kyuubi Jinchuurki Naruto Uzumaki was a thoughtful one. It prevented the rumors of the Uchiha searching to control the Kyuubi like Madara once had from growing further with the village's distrust of their clan. It did leave him extremely confused on how to contact her and to spend enough time with her for him to figure what she knew, as at night she was being watched by ANBU and during the day, all the civilians and shinobi were awake and wandering around. Someone would notice him entering her apartment complex and everyone would notice her walking into the compound.
Pausing at his doorstep, he gave a subtle frown. There was always the Tsukuyomi, but that still required being close enough to her to cast it. It did allow them a lot of time to discuss within the one second, so as long as he trapped the original Naruto in it, she may be willing to talk if she can't escape with a dispel.
Feeling his frown deepen as he felt the only awake chakra source walk around the house, he mentally prepared himself as he entered.
"Itachi, why are you out so late?"
Police reports in hand with unsavory plans for what may happen to the village if his father got his way, he felt the personalty he had formed away from the man disappear and responded as the man's prodigal and perfect son.