Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Chapter 2: Heading Back Home

Hiruzen Sarutobi let out another sigh as he finally finished a third of his paperwork. He just stamped a proposal to further put more funding into the academy to get more teachers for students to graduate early because Konoha needed more troops on the ground to hold onto the deadlock with Iwa.

I wonder if Hashirama-sensei's dream will ever be realized at this rate. Three wars and yet there is still no sign of wars stopping…

The Third Hokage hated war for a multitude of reasons. He was forced to send people on missions, fully knowing they wouldn't return. He was forced to send young academy students to the deaths instead of sending them to do D-rank missions to cultivate the teamwork skills for the future. He was forced to shift the economy to focus on creating explosives and weapons and building up funds for the village to survive the war in a battle of attrition than supporting new businesses and fixing infrastructure. But most of all, he was forced to do a lot of paperwork. A lot. The white tower of doom sitting on his desk was five times bigger than he was used too.

Hiruzen swore upon his mantle of Hokage that this tower got bigger every time he wasn't looking. He wished he had the Uchiha's secret ability to set fire on anything they laid their eyes on. Then no one would accuse of him avoiding paperwork. Right?

He heard a knock on the door. Straightening his posture to look like the leader of Konoha, he composed himself before calling whoever knocked to let come in.

His heart fell as he saw Team Minato arrived without one of its members. He already knew what happened, enforced by the facts that both students had red eyes. Even Minato didn't look as chipper as he normally did.

"Team Minato, report!" Hiruzen barked, wanting to know the status of the mission. They could grieve later. He didn't like doing that, but it had to be done. Once again, he cursed his sensei for giving the job to him before dying a glorious death. He couldn't even remember the last time he practiced his jutsu for more than fifteen minutes before his secretary forced him to do paperwork.

"Hokage-sama, Team Minato was sent to Kusagakure to destroy the Kannabi Bridge. I transferred the leadership of the mission to one Jonin Kakashi Hatake and headed to the front lines to distract the Iwa forces. There, I eliminated the surviving shinobi platoon and tried to link up with my team. Genin Rin Nohara was kidnapped in my absence. Both Jonin Kakashi Hatake and Chunin Obito Uchiha followed and found her in a cave. The Iwa used a Doton: Iwayado Kuzushi (Earth Release: Rock Lodging Destruction) to cause a cave in. Chunin Obito Uchiha pushed Jonin Kakashi Hatake away from a falling rock and was buried in the cave in. Jonin Kakashi Hatake and myself eliminated the rest of the Iwa shinobi." Minato reported to his leader with a monotone, trying to hide the outburst of emotions from his next sentence. "Chunin Obito Uchiha sacrificed his life for his teammates under the ideals of the Will of Fire and is listed currently as KIA."

Hiruzen took a deep breath before looking at the remaining members of Team Minato in the eye before speaking. "Good job for completing the objective Team Minato. Have a month off to cool down and rest. Chunin Obito Uchiha will be added to the memorial stone for the sacrifices he made for Konoha. You are dismissed."

Team Minato left the Hokage Office quietly. The Kage let out another sigh before looking outside the window. He put his pipe into his mouth and inhaled the fragrance of tobacco to soothe his nerves. After a moment of silence for sending another child to his death, he forced himself to continue his paperwork.

~ o ~ X ~ o ~ X ~ o ~ X ~ o ~ X ~

When using Kamui (Authority of the Gods), Naruto felt himself being sucked into a straw before appearing in his pocket dimension. The dimension looked like a bunch of cube shaped platforms of blue floating in empty space. Sitting down on a cube, he sat in a meditative position. He had fragments of Obito's memories and knew what had happened when the Sage of Six Paths sent him to this dimension but he needed to absorb all the memories of the body for the personality to fully integrate within his head. For hours, Naruto sat with a major headache similar to the time when all 1,000 Kage Bushin deactivated at the same time and gave him the biggest migraine he ever had in his life.

Through the memories, Naruto felt everything Obito experienced in his short life. He had no idea who his parents were. His peers constantly ignored him. He wanted to be Hokage to gain respect and be remembered. He found someone at his age who didn't dismissed his dream for the first time and had a crush on her. He was the dobe of the class and everyone didn't take him seriously. He wanted to be acknowledged by Kakashi for his skill and talent. He tried to confess to Rin, only to find out she had a celebration for Kakashi becoming a Jonin. He felt the anger directed at Kakashi not attempting to rescue Rin. He found Rin alive and was very happy. He pushed Kakashi away automatically because he was a friend. He was scared to die and be forgotten by the rest of the world.

In the process of absorbing the memories, he noticed a lot of the similarities Team Minato had with Team 7.

It is scary how Obito was like myself. We wanted to be known, Kakashi and Sasuke was the cool know-it-all kid with a stick up their asses, and Rin and Sakura were the medics who kept the balance between us. Even the same love triangle existed...but not anymore.

After experiencing two worst shinobi world wars recorded in history, Naruto was disillusioned about the world and lost his dream of being Hokage. Every reason he wanted to be a Hokage, he achieved at the battlefield. He already got recognition in both wars for being a hero. He was a leader on the front lines of the Fifth World Shinobi War, leading troops into battle and had the status of Jonin Commander. He learned new devastating jutsu by shinobi from different villages that allowed him to killed hundreds that killing wasn't a problem anymore.

And most importantly, why would you want to stay in a room all day to fill out paperwork. Writing a summary of the mission is tiring enough.

No...Naruto wanted to achieve a different dream. He wanted to start a family. He wanted to have someone who would love him unconditionally and stick with him through thick and thin. He wanted someone to meet when he came home tired. He wanted children to spoil and teach ninja arts to. But most of all, he didn't want to be alone. And the Sage of Six Paths has given him a means to do so.

After living through numerous hardships in the trenches where death surrounded everyone, he started to understand women more and found that he preferred mature woman who were stronger and independent. He got over his childhood crush of Sakura. He was happy the first couple of times when he had to calm Sakura because the amount of death she had to face in the hospital but after a while, he found it really annoying to come back to rest to only to hear about her ranting about the unfairness of the world. And the couple of times when she punched him to only to land in the middle of a shooting zone. Yep. He learned the hard way.

With Kakashi's Icha Icha books that he would sometimes borrowed, he found himself looking at older women like Anko and Hana, but discreetly so Baa-chan wouldn't send him to the hospital. The only one who he didn't look at was Kurenai after seeing Ero-sennin gets hit with a genjutsu of Lee and Gai hugging while shouting about youth for a whole week.

Yeah...Ero-sennin couldn't look at another guy for more than five seconds without puking.

The more he filtered Obito's memories, the more he empathized with the Uchiha. He was an orphan like him, who wanted to be hokage so he wouldn't be forgotten by the masses. He loved doing pranks and the only one who acknowledged him was a girl on his team. He was really freaked out by how many parallels there are. He could really see why Obito decided to play the villain.

But maybe, I can gain the love both Obito and I wanted in this life. I have the skills and talent necessary. After all, Ero-sennin did teach me seduction techniques if I ever needed info from brothels...

After finishing twelve years worth of memories, Naruto spent the rest of the week in his pocket dimension to train so he could get used to his body. Starting with taijutsu, Naruto started to practice his free form style that was created from fight different types of taijutsu styles from Hyuga's Juken to Lee's Strong Fist. Naruto would spend a couple of hours fighting Kage Bunshin to get used to having a smaller reach and integrate whatever reflexes Obito had obtained in his lifetime.

Naruto would spawn fifty Kage Bushin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Technique) and command them to practice a jutsu he learned. He didn't have much success in most of his jutsu he learned except for fire, but he trained them anyway because he needed his body to get used to using all five elemental natures easily.

He also needed to train his chakra control. Even though Obito and himself had decent chakra control in comparison to their chakra levels, their control was shot to hell. When he took the first step to practice wall walking on a cube, he was sent flying fifty feet away into another cube and hitting his head. After a couple of tries, he found out that his chakra was denser and potent than ever before, similar to a Biju. He did have to give acknowledgement to the Biju who had massive chakra reservoirs yet perfect chakra control. He reflected that it might have been because of combining the Uchiha and Senju bloodlines, based on information Madara gave when he integrated Hashirama's cells into his own body.

I love Madara-teme. His evil villain rants are more interesting than Iruka-sensei!

Regardless, Naruto was determined to regain his lost chakra control. With a new generation of clones, they ran up the wall and crashed into the cube. This would go for several hours before there was progress and Naruto could fight multiple clones on walls.

He couldn't practice genjutsu because his last life had horrible chakra control and Obito himself didn't study a lot on it so he wouldn't practice it till he got back to Konoha. He remembered Sasuke saying something about a library in the Uchiha compound that was later destroyed in the war and would look there for some information of using the Sharingan on using genjutsu.

And since Naruto was on the topic of Sharingan, he needed to figure out if he would go blind from overusing the Mangekyo Sharingan. Madara, Izuna, Itachi, and Sasuke showed that overuse would go blind and were forced to switch eyes for the eternal version. But Obito and his sensei never showed that. Of course, their Mangekyo Sharingan powers were much different but he wanted to be sure he wouldn't go blind since he didn't have any family members with the upgraded Sharingan to trade with. But he would use the base Sharingan when necessary because Naruto learned the hard way that no matter how much he disliked the overpowered dojutsu in existence, he had to use all the tools he had available.

Once his days of training were up, Naruto listed his priorities. The main one was that he needed to get back to Konoha. The memories he gained from Obito would curve a lot of his suspicion. The Mangekyo Sharingan would explain his boosted levels of chakra and how he escaped safely. And the near death experience would explain why he didn't have a childish personality and would take his training more seriously. Patting himself on the back for a job well done, he sent himself back to the place he died. After looting the dead Iwa shinobi of clothes and supplies, Naruto took a direction to head to, hoping to get a clue of how to get to Konoha.

After all, the landscape was much different fifty years ago with trenches and flat lands. And Obito was more focused on important things. Like the angelic sculpture of Rin...yep, I really need to change the priorities of this body.

~ o ~ X ~ o ~ X ~ o ~ X ~ o ~ X ~

Tsunami, a beautiful woman with long flowing blue hair that went past her shoulders, was walking with a horse pulling a cart full of her belongings. This woman came from a farmer's family from Ame who was heading through Fire Country to find a better life away from the war-torn country. Her goal was to find a safe place to settle down and start a family.

She smiled as she remembered her adventures. The family decided to cut their loses and tried to move to a different country. But Ame Shinobis were preventing any emigration out so the family split up in hopes that at least one member got out of the country. They decided to meet in Fire Country in a year later. Her journey was marked with struggle, hunger, and danger. But, she was proud that she would succeed since she was near the border of Fire Country

But on the way, Tsunami was attacked by a group of bandits. The woman struggled with all her might against her smelly aggressors but it was for naught. A woman who worked on the farm could not fight ten grown up strong men.

"Well well...for a good looking bitch, you put up a pretty good fight!" One of the bandits said with a grin, showing his missing teeth.

"Do you guys wanna have some fun with the bitch? She looks real good." Tsunami's eyes widened when she heard the word "fun". She knew exactly what they wanted to do with her.

After all the bandits spoke in affirmative, a third bandit spoke, "Alright boys! We can have some fun! You two. Pin her down. Since I the boss, I'll have a go at the lass first!" Tsunami looked at the man to see that he was really ugly. He had a lot of scars on his face, yellow teeth, and a dirty beard. When she accidentally smelled the bandit's breath, she wanted to throw up.

The third bandit used a knife and started to cut pieces of her pants , revealing her light pink panty to the men. Then, he pulled his pants down. Pulling out his penis, he pulled the panty out of the way and positioned himself to enter her.

Tsunami began to cry and scream to the world and told them to stop, but the words fell dead upon the group of men.

I wanted my first time to be with someone special…

Tears streamed down her face as Tsunami was losing hope rapidly.

"Don't worry girle. The boss will use his 'boom smasher' on you. You will start enjoying it soon." A bandit jeered in the back. The rest of the men laughed loudly in response.

The refugee from Ame closed her eyes, waiting for the inevitable. Seconds passed as she didn't feel violated yet. She slowly opened her eyes to peek and saw the bandit that was going to take her virginity was missing a head. Nearby, she saw a kunai drenched in blood held by someone. She followed the arm up to see a man with long black hair that went past his shoulders, bangs that covered his right eye, and a left red eye with something black spinning in it rapidly. Tsunami stared into the man's red eye and lost herself in the crimson color that depicted strength, power and conviction. She could only stare in awe at her savior.

The man turned to look at her and gave her a disarming smile that didn't match with the liquid flowing from his weapon. He spoke in a smooth baritone voice that illustrated kindness but demanded respect, sending shivers through her body. "Close your eyes. And it will all be over."

Feeling the truthfulness in his words, Tsunami immediately closed them. For a few seconds, all she heard was the screams of bandits that were going to rape her or do worst. But she couldn't feel the need that she should care. The man's words made her feel safe.

"It's safe...you can open your eyes now." Naruto said. He tried to give his most happiest smile to make the girl feel safer after a potentially life traumatizing event. "Are you ok miss?"

Tsunami could only stare at the man who just saved her. With that smile, he looks...like an angel…

She noticed after a few moments of staring at his face, memorizing his handsome features, which he was frowning and waving a hand in her face. Realizing that she was staring, she averted her eyes to the ground and responded embarrassedly, "Ahh...Thank you sir. I-I was s-so scared that they w-were g-going to…"

Before the blue-haired woman could finish that statement, she felt two muscular arms wrap around her. Naruto whispered into her ear. "Its alright now miss...Let it out...They can't hurt you anymore."

As the severity of the situation was sinking in, Tsunami responded by pushing off the ground and tackled Naruto to the floor and cried loudly in the man's embrace.

After grunting from hitting the ground, Naruto made soothing whispers into the woman's ear and rubbing her back in circles.

Absentmindedly, Naruto used his Sharingan to look over Tsunami's body for any sign of her being a kunoichi. Lets see...the female is in her late teens. She is a little malnourished, but proper dieting would fix that. Her hands are rough and have calluses, so not a runaway noble or concubine. Bicep, quadriceps, deltoid, and rhomboid muscles have been significantly worked compared to the rest of her body so a farmer. She has a B bust size, which could grow up to DDs with proper diet. Great hips for childbearing with slender waist. Analysis complete! She would be a...bad Naruto. Bad Naruto! You should not be checking out a girl's three sizes while she is recovering from a traumatic event. Rikudo Sennin damn it! Ero-sennin...I blame you for this!

~ o ~ X ~ o ~ X ~ o ~ X ~ o ~ X ~

The person in question was busy hiding behind a wooden wall, giggling like a schoolgirl because of all the beautiful naked women bathing in the hot spring. He licked his lips and was about to write in his trusty notebook before his "Super Pervert" senses were tingling.

Forgetting about the nearby subjects of observation, he jumped onto his two feet and screamed to the sky. "Ah hah! Someone in this world is following the Path of the Sage. The Path of...The Super Pervert! I must find this person. It is a glorious day for…"

His speech to the heavens was stop by a cough behind him.

Like the good samaritan he was, the sage slowly turned around to see if someone needed help. There, he saw various women covering themselves in towels holding various weaponry.

"Hey ladies! Nice to see you here…" Jiraya let out a little laugh while sweating, realizing he was in trouble. But if I plan my cards right, then the gallant Jiraiya would be safe. If I say… "I was just passing by and…" His thought process stopped when one of the woman's towel slipped down a bit, revealing a girl's cleavage more to him. "Oh Kasumi...you've grown!" The pervert was making groping motions with his hands while panting like a bull.

"Die!" Kasumi ran towards him, waving her katana in the air. This made the other woman start attacking the self proclaimed Super Pervert.

The hot springs was filled with sounds of angry woman giving out feminine justice and girlish screams.

~ o ~ X ~ o ~ X ~ o ~ X ~ o ~ X ~

After a few minutes of crying, Tsunami's tears slowly stopped. She reluctantly pulled away from her savior's embrace.

Naruto decided to introduce himself. "Hello. My name is Obito Uchiha. Nice to meet you Miss…"

"Tsunami. Tsunami Suzuki. Thank you for protecting me against those bandits, Obito-san."

Naruto could only stare in shock as he realized whom exactly he rescued. Wait a minute...she looks familiar. If this is the same female as Tsunami-chan from Wave Country and she got raped in the Third Shinobi World War in my last life, did I just prevent Inari from being born? Her husband Kaiza was a father figure but not the biological father of Inari and she didn't really want to talk about who was the actual father of Inari. Shit! Did I just technically kill someone?

Thinking about the dilemma for another day, he needed to make sure she was safe. After all, she was the kindest woman he met for the first time in his life. "It's alright Tsunami-chan! A beautiful girl like you shouldn't experience something that horrible."

Tsunami cheeks flushed red. She liked the way he spoke of her name.

"Where are you heading Tsunami-chan? I need to get back to Konoha."

"Ahh...I was traveling through Fire Country to find a place to settle down. Can I come with you?" Tsunami said pleadingly. He might be the prince that I was looking for!

"Of course!" With a grin that made her heartbeat really fast, he took out a sealing scroll that he found on a battlefield. With a poof, he unsealed and gave some looted Iwa Shinobi clothes. While she was changing, he sent some clones to scout the area and others to seal Tsunami's belongings into the scroll.

After waiting a couple of minutes and hearing Tsunami was done changing, she took Naruto's hand. She tried to stand up until her feet gave out on her. Naruto catches her bridal style before she could hit the ground

"You can't move on your own yet. I'll carry you back to the village." When one of the clones put the scroll in Naruto's back pocket, the clones started to dispel themselves one by one. Naruto used a little chakra to jump on a tree branch and started running to Konoha.

Tsunami made herself comfortable in her savior's arms. I think...I think he is the one.

And with that decision made, Tsunami inhaled Naruto's scent and enjoyed being carried like a princess in the fairy tales.

~ o ~ X ~ o ~ X ~ o ~ X ~ o ~ X ~

It took two days to get back to Konoha with Tsunami. They finally saw the massive wooden gate and Naruto let out a grin. It's good to be home again!

"Halt! Who are you?" One of the Shinobi guards asked.

"Chunin Obito Uchiha. Exporting a refugee from Ame, Tsunami Suzuki."

The guard was muttering the name while scrolling down the list since he didn't recognize the man with a Konoha headband. He tapped the name in affirmative. "ID number?"

"010886."

"Welcome back Chunin. You team came back home two weeks ago and is currently on probation. You are listed as...KIA?" The guard was suspiciously looking at the Uchiha in question while calling for an ANBU squadron.

Tsunami looked at her savior angrily," I thought you said you were a Konoha Shinobi!" Was he going to do horrible things to me too?

"I did. It was just that in my last mission, I got stuck in a cave in. It took a while to find my way back."

Tsunami could only gasp dimly at the man. And I am already doubting him...I am a horrible person. "I'm sorry Obito-san."

"Its alright."

"Chunin Obito Uchiha." One of the ANBU said, "You and your associate are to be escorted to the Hokage's office to be questioned. Failing to agree or resisting means death." The squad surrounded the two people with hands ready to bring out their weapons.

"Troublesome...let's get this over with."