Naruto's Return

Chapter 3

Inoichi was immediately thrown into the memory as Naruto. From what he could see, he was running away from something or someone. Inoichi tried to figure out when this happened and where he was by taking note of his surroundings. He noticed that he was in a short hallway at the moment. The floors were wood and were slightly damaged as if they had been in use for quite some time. While taking not of his surroundings Inoichi continued to run through the memory. Finally he noticed something that could tell him about where and when he was. He turned a corner and saw many pairs of shoes in all sizes. It seemed that this memory took place while Naruto was still in the orphanage. This would suggest that Naruto was 4 years old at the absolute oldest. Now that Inoichi had an idea of where and when he was he started to pay more attention to what was going on around him.

"—back here you little brat," came a familiar voice from behind Inoichi.

"Why are you doing this, I didn't do anything. He tripped and I tried to help him," Inoichi heard himself replying.

"A likely story demon brat." Came the voice of the woman again. At this point Inoichi found himself tripping. He hit the ground and was quickly grabbed by the woman. She carried him to the basement stairs while saying, "Now here is your punishment for hurting someone else you little monster." At the end of that sentence Inoichi finally got a good look at the woman who had grabbed him.

'Well, its Koyama Mako' thought Inoichi, 'I can't believe she would do something like this to a child,' was the rest of his thought as Mako threw him down the basement stairs. At this point the memory got fuzzy and he was kicked back into the hallway full of doors to Naruto's memories.

'That had to be an isolated incident' thought Inoichi, 'There's no way he would still be alive if more than that happened, heck if he did live through a lot of that type of treatment I woud imagine that he would have run away from Konoha.' Having instilled in himself the firm belief that the previous memory was an isolated incident Inoichi opened the next door.

Outside of Naruto's mind Tsunade watched Naruto. She knew Inoichi would be essentially reliving Naruto's memories. What she didn't know was that in forcing himself into Naruto's mind, Inoichi was forcing Naruto to relive all of those memories as well. That became clear to her when, despite the coma Naruto was in, he started to thrash about and groan in a way that suggested physical pain. Tsunade just hoped that Inoichi would find what she needed real soon so that neither of them would have to suffer any more.

Back in Naruto's mind Inoichi had just entered his second memory. He had no trouble finding out where or when he was because he was immediately able to identify the front of the classroom his daughter, Ino, had attended at the academy for her first year. As the memory started it didn't seem to bad. The kids were being lectured on the defeat of the Kyuubi by the Yondaime Hokage. The lecture was pretty simple and Inoichi didn't pay much attention to the memory until the kids were allowed to ask questions. The normal academy student questions like how can I get as strong as the Yondaime or where did Kyuubi come from were asked but when Naruto went to ask a question he was accused of trying to disrupt class. All he wanted to know was how Yondaime had defeated the Kyuubi but his sensei, Kushiyama Miko, a woman who Inoichi knew very well from her almost daily stops at the Yamanaka Flower shop, refused to answer and punished him for a very logical, in Inoichi's opinion, question.

Naruto's punishment didn't seem all that bad at first because Miko just said he would be required to stay after school for sparring practice. The problem was that she set him up with the upper year students knowing that he would lose. Not only did Naruto lose every spar soundly, Miko didn't stop the spars until Naruto could barely move. She would then fix him up enough that he could try again and get beat down again. This continued for three hours until Naruto was finally knocked unconscious at the end of one spar.

Inoichi was violently flung out of this memory. 'His life couldn't really have been that bad, could it have?' Inoichi thought. 'If his life were really always like that I would have thought he would release the Kyuubi at some point. It must have gotten better when he got older.' With that thought going through his head Inoichi prepared to enter the next door down the line when he spotted an abnormally dark and damaged door. He decided to enter to find out what could have been so bad that even when he buried it, it came back to the surface. Entering the door Inoichi found out what had happened very quickly.

Upon entering this memory Inoichi was able to tell what day it was but not the year. It was October tenth, the day the Kyuubi was "killed" and Inoichi assumed if the last two memories were anything to go by that this day would have been bad. In Naruto's memory Inoichi had just been watching the window for the last 10 minutes. He figured out he had to be near the hokage tower and near the slum area of the city but that lead him to wonder why Naruto was there until he found himself speaking Naruto's lines. "This really sucks. Everyone else can go out today but if I do, people try to kill me. I wonder what I ever did to be treated so badly. Why does everyone hate me?" At this point Inoichi noticed that his eyes closed. He couldn't see anything but he started to feel his hands get wet. 'Naruto is crying' thought Inoichi. 'It seems he doesn't know about the Kyuubi yet and he just think he must have done something horrible.'

While Inoichi was thinking a newly promoted Jounin entered Naruto's apartment. He silently snuck through the hall towards the only room that Naruto could be hiding in. He silently crept into the room and watched as Naruto cried.

Inoichi was broken out of his thoughts as he heard a voice from behind himself. "Well, well, well. I never knew a demon could fake tears." The jounin chuckled at the look of fear that was plastered across Inoichi's face or rather Naruto's face. "I lost so many friends and family members when you attacked and I've waited for this day to come, the day I kill the demon and become a hero. Everyone will be glad when your gone."

"NO, it can't be true." Inoichi heard himself yell out in Naruto's voice. "What did I do, why do you hate me?" he finally asked. "I never killed ANYONE."

"Cut the crap you demon. We've had to deal with you for the last eight years. It's time for you to DIE." Screamed the jounin. He charged Naruto with a kunai in his right hand. Naruto just curled up into the fetal position waiting for the blow to come. Inoichi suddenly found himself in a world of pain. The jounin had jammed his kunai into Naruto's left leg. He felt the kunai get pulled out and then the pain came back again, this time in his left arm. Finally a third strike came and the pain that came originated just under his ribcage. The jounin just laughed at the position that Naruto still stayed in. "Well, not going to say anything? Guess I'll just finish you off."

Naruto finally looked up at the man again. His vision blurring from blood loss and asked the same questions he had kept on asking. "Why? What did I do to you?" Inoichi saw the jounin pull a second kunai from his pouch; at least he thought it was a kunai, he couldn't tell at this point. Whatever the object was it was coming at his neck now. As the kunai inched closer Inoichi heard a noise from the front of the apartment, it sounded a lot like a door being broken in. The memory seemed to slow down as the kunai inched closer and closer when Inoichi heard a yell from the hallway.

"NARUTO," it sounded like Sandaime-sama.

"At least jiji is here." Said Naruto as the kunai was just about to enter his neck. At this point the arm holding the kunai went limp and something warm splashed out over Naruto. He fell unconscious just seconds later.

Inoichi picked himself up off the ground in Naruto's mind and shuddered. He had no choice but to believe that Naruto's life was horrible. It explained all of the locked away memories he had seen before and he hopped that it had gotten better at some point. He knew it had to have gotten at least marginally better but he really believed that Naruto needed to be happy at this point.

Pulling out of his thoughts Inoichi got back to work. For the next couple hours he explored Naruto's memories trying to find the information he needed but only finding more and more reason to hate the village he lived in, he was even able to justify the aura of anger and despair that seemed to grow stronger with every passing day in the memories.

Inoichi finally found the memories he needed and he was glad that he did, it meant he was finally able to leave this tortured mind and he could report to Tsunade. As Inoichi readied to end the technique he thought 'After I report to Tsunade I'm getting a drink.' With that he jumped back to his own body.

Tsunade was getting tired. She had been putting a steady stream of chakra into the seals in the room for the last two hours. Finally she noticed movement from Inoichi's previously still body and she stopped releasing chakra into the seals. Inoichi stood up and Tsunade noticed that he had paled rather seriously. Despite her exaustion the med-nin in her jumped into action. She rushed over to Inoichi to check on him but he quickly waved her off. "I'm ok" he said, "I just never thought I would see anything that horrible."

"What do you mean?" asked Tsunade, "Were the last two years really that bad?"

"I didn't just see the last two years of his life, I saw almost all of it and it was almost all bad," Inoichi said, "I never realized his life was so bad."

"What was so bad? I know he was mistreated but it couldn't have been as horrible as you make it seem Inoichi, if it were that bad I would have thought he would have snapped at some point." Said Tsunade.

"I would have thought so as well but he hasn't. At any rate it's not my spot to tell you about his life." Started Inoichi, "I got the information you needed though."

"All I need to know is that he wasn't committing treason," said Tsunade, "He had to have been taken against his will or have been incapacitated in some form. So long as he hasn't given away any of Konoha's secrets and he didn't leave of his own free will he hasn't committed any crime."

Inoichi thought for a few seconds then looked Tsunade in the eye, "He didn't do anything treasonous, he may have wanted to at some point during the last two years but he didn't. There is one thing from his memories that you may want to know about though."

"What would that be?" Asked Tsunade.

"Well," started Inoichi, "it's about that redhead who was here with Naruto…"

"What about her?" Tsunade Interupted.

"We should talk about this somewhere else," said Inoichi, "away from prying ears and eyes." It was at this point that Tsunade noticed the presence of Hinata outside the door.

Tsunade waved Hinata into the room. "I want you to take Naruto back to the hospital," said Tsunade offhandedly, "Tell the nurses to call myself and Gaara if his condition changes. I would also like you to send Kasumi to Gaara's office so we can talk to her."

Two days later Hinata, Chouji, Shikamaru, Inoichi, and Tsunade were preparing to head back to Konoha. With them they had a small squad of med-nin and a small covered wagon just long enough for one person to lay inside of it. The group was standing at the gates of Suna waiting for them to open. Right as the gates opened Kasumi could be seen running up to the group. "Why didn't anyone tell me you were moving Naruto to Konoha," Kasumi started, "Wherever he goes I go. He said I could come with him before he passed out."

Tsunade and Inoichi looked on nervously at the declaration Kasumi made but it seemed no one else noticed. "I'm sorry but you won't be able to join us, we don't know who you really are and unless Naruto wakes up to tell me you're trustworthy I can not and will not allow you into the gates of Konoha," sighed Tsunade.

"Tsunade-sama, why won't you trust her?" asked Hinata, "From what I heard she is the reason that Naruto is alive right now. If she hadn't brought Naruto here to Suna he could be dead right now."

"Hinata, I'm sorry but I have nothing to prove that she wouldn't hurt anyone in Konoha and as such I can't let her into the village." Said a rather aggravated Tsunade, "I can't however, stop her from traveling with us. If Naruto wakes up before we reach Konoha and he says she is trustworthy then I will rethink allowing her in but until then I have no reason to trust her despite the fact that she saved Naruto."

Kasumi, realizing that Tsunade probably knew who she actually was at this point decided to stay in the back by the wagon. 'I can understand why they don't trust me if they know who I am' thought Kasumi, 'If they knew everything I did for Naruto and what he did for me though they may be more willing to accept me. I just have to get Tsunade and Inoichi away from the others so I can tell them what happened between Naruto and myself. I still doubt that they'll trust me though.

At this point the gates of Suna started to open with a loud groan. The noise of the gates masked the noise of a soft groan coming from the back of the wagon to all but one set of ears. "Naruto?" whispered Kasumi, hope in her voice. Kasumi watched him for a moment as the gates finished opening and noticed him starting to move. "Naruto," cried Kasumi as she turned to the front of the group. "Hokage-sama, I think Naruto is waking up," yelled Kasumi.

Tsunade ran to the back of the group to look in on Naruto and noticed that he was starting to move about a bit and he was groaning. "You," said Tsunade as she turned to one of the accompanying med-nin, "I want you to do a full scan and let me know if anything is wrong." The med-nin did as he was told and had finished the scan within two minutes. "Nothing seems to be wrong with him at this point in time," the med-nin said with an air of certainty, "I would say that he should fully awaken within the next ten minutes and he should be up and moving within a day." Tsunade sighed in relief and smiled for the first time since she had received the summons from Gaara. She walked back to the front of the group and yelled for everyone to move out. The trip back to Konoha looked bright.