Kiyoshi woke up to find himself lying in the backyard. He yawned and looked around. Smell of something delicious was in the air; something seasoned and cooked over an open fire. He looked rolled over onto his back, to find a black, starry, night sky, and sparks rising and fading from somewhere nearby.
Kiyoshi sat up and yawned once again, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. He looked to his right and spotted Naruto, Hinata, Sakura, another Naruto, and Jiraiya sitting around a campfire, roasting something that looked like a meter long rabbit.
"What in the hell is that?" mumbled Kiyoshi, staring at the food that would soon be in his mouth.
He didn't expect anything to happen, at least not what actually had happened. The group of five people picked up the rabbit and rushed over to Kiyoshi in the blink of an eye, stuffing it into his ever-expanding mouth.
Kiyoshi tried to scream, but his mouth was full of the uncooked rabbit that still hasn't been skinned properly. The two Narutos held him down, as the other three pushed the food down his throat.
Kiyoshi woke up from the strange nightmare, and looked around.
He found himself in his backyard, under a starry sky, not too far away from an open fire roasting a meter long rabbit. He had a nasty case of deja vu for the last few days, and was wishing with all his might that it would stop before it got too ridiculous.
Hinata spotted Kiyoshi standing up, "Hey, third-wheeler, come join us!"
"Great..." thought Kiyoshi, "I got an unsanitary nickname." Kiyoshi looked around, and found himself calmly walking towards the group, not struggling against idiotic acts, not pulling patches of rabbit-fur out of his mouth, and considering how stupid he was for thinking about all of this. He kept caution however, still expecting the group to try and ambush him, but kept the cool in his face.
Kiyoshi came up to the fire and sat down. He was cold; he held his arms out over the fire to warm them up. The satisfying smell of firewood was in the air, and a crispy god-knows-what was getting nice and edible. "Why am I outside?"
Sakura shrugged, "Why not?"
"Good point."
One of the Narutos looked up at Kiyoshi, "Is Hikari around?"
"Most likely," replied Kiyoshi, "I can't always see her. But she's with me most of the time."
"Must suck..." suggested Jiraiya, "Not having any privacy at all."
Kiyoshi looked up at the old man, "Who are you?"
Jiraiya bobbed his head down in disappointment, "Nobody told you?"
Kiyoshi stared at Jiraiya, trying to remember where he saw the old man's face before. He couldn't put his finger on it, until the old man looked up and grinned. "Oh my god..." whispered Kiyoshi, then exclaimed, "You're Jiraiya-sama!"
The old man raised an eyebrow, "People usually recognize me as a sennin..."
"You're the author of 'make-out tactics'!"
A spark appeared in the old man's eyes, "So that's how you know me..."
The rest of the teens watched from aside, as Jiraiya and Kiyoshi got into a heated discussion about the old man's porno novel. "Is it possible that they're related?" asked Naruto.
Hinata knew that's impossible, but at this point she was starting to consider it, "A long bloodline of perverts?"
Sakura however, didn't care one bit about the march of the shameless; she just kept her eyes on the oversized rabbit, turning it over every few seconds. "Settle down you two. You can have an interview when nobody's around."
Hinata glanced at Sakura. She didn't know what Sakura had been going through in her line of work. The pink haired girl was constantly being hit on by perverted male patients... most of them were Jiraiya. She managed to develop a certain kind of immunity to the sort of people; she was now totally oblivious to conversations such as Kiyoshi and Jiraiya were having.
"I think it's ready," said Sakura, piercing the crispy meat with a sharp object, "Yeah, it's definitely ready."
Kiyoshi gave up on trying to convince Jiraiya in the flaw of making certain two characters fall in love, cut off the rabbit's leg, and started munching it, happily.
"When was the last time you've eaten?" asked Naruto.
Kiyoshi paused ant tried to remember for a moment. "Three hours before Sakura had punched me out of your office," he replied.
Naruto's stomach grumbled at the thought of not eating for such a long time. "Must hurt..."
"Nah," smiled Kiyoshi, "I can go on for three months without food... need drink though..."
Naruto and his clone burst into tears from the words. Three months of starvation is like eternity in hell to him. "Cut it out!"
"Hai, hai," agreed Kiyoshi, "I don't want to think about it either."
Naruto laid himself down on the grass, and looked up at the stars. The void was pitch-black and the stars were extra bright, not a single cloud to stop the stars from shining through.
Hinata came over to Naruto and lay down beside him, resting her head on his chest. "Look," said Hinata, pointing up at the stars, "Scorpio."
Naruto smiled, he didn't want the night to end, but deep down inside knew that it never would. From there on out, his life is changed; the get-together of him and his friends was the start of something big.
"There's one thing I've been meaning to ask you," said Jiraiya, "Why did Sakura call you Hokage?"
Naruto shot an evil glance at Sakura, making her fall off her chair, luckily away from the fire. He sighed; although the news of his new position had spread more than he wanted it to, the only people who knew about it were looking at him.
"I was placed as the substitute Hokage, while Tsunade went away on business," replied Naruto.
There was a moment of silence.
Jiraiya burst out laughing, "You? Hokage?"
Kiyoshi shot an apple at the old man, which whizzed through the air and planted itself neatly into Jiraiya's open mouth. The old man gagged and pulled the fruit out. "What the hell?"
Kiyoshi looked disappointed, "Aw, I thought I would cook you like a pig..."
Jiraiya summoned a frog and started chasing the longhaired teen around the yard, "I'll get you!"
Sakura laughed, and then turned to Naruto, "Naruto-kun, I'm sorry about letting it slip out, your rank."
Naruto's eyes widened, "You're talking to me?" screamed the boy, "Don't talk to me! Go make me pie!"
Sakura rushed inside the house in terror.
The boy snapped back into reality, "Whoa..." he said, rubbing his head, "What happened just now?"
Jiraiya stopped chasing Kiyoshi and stepped up to Naruto, "You were serious... you've been made Hokage."
"Hai."
Jiraiya was insulted that he wasn't offered the position. Although he would have turned it down, it would be nice to be asked.
"There is one thing that I've been meaning to ask as well," said Naruto, then turned to Kiyoshi, "Kakashi was the last one to see you before the ship blew up."
Kiyoshi groaned, he didn't want to talk about what happened the night Hikari died, the night that the old Kiyoshi died. He wanted to talk about the morning when he was reborn, when he was reunited with Hikari. The one thing that halted him from stopping the conversation, was that what he wanted, was clichИ and cheesy to talk about.
"Yeah," eventually replied Kiyoshi, "He saw me before I blew up the ship. What about it?"
Naruto rubbed his chin, he wasn't sure if he wanted to ask Kiyoshi about it, but gathered the courage and went ahead, "Kakashi told me that you were cut up, burnt, and..." Naruto hesitated for a moment, but then asked, "Your eye was missing?"
"Yeah," replied Kiyoshi without moving his sight from the fire, "My right eye is missing."
Everybody stared at him in confusion, they observed his right eye, which looked normal to some extent, but with a closer observation it looked a bit out of place. Could have been the color, or the texture or size of the iris, nobody was sure, but something was definitely out of ordinary about his teal colored right eye.
"Huh?" asked Naruto.
Kiyoshi looked away from the fire and at the spiky-haired boy lying under Hinata, "What?"
"Then what┘" asked Naruto, "You replaced it? Where's the scar?"
The longhaired teen shook his head in disbelief, "Hokage-sama... how about a closer observation?"
Naruto focused on Kiyoshi's face, forced whatever ability he had at spotting details, and then realized, "What the hell?"
"Yeah," smiled Kiyoshi, "You got it."
"Your face is not the way it should be!" exclaimed Naruto.
Kiyoshi nodded, "You wouldn't recognize me if I came into Konoha with my true face," he explained, and ran through a few hand seals, "Release!"
Everybody stared at him in deep shock, it was in fact true, they could not recognize him. It was as if he want through war; and experience was shown through the heavy look and scars on his face. There was no word for it but 'harsh', his eyelids were semi-closed as if swollen, creating a straight line that covered his eyes. His pores were visible, and a numerous small scars were on his left cheek closer to the ear. He had an eye patch that covered his right eye, and a diagonal scar that ran from his right cheekbone, under the eye-patch, and faded before it could reach the center of his forehead.
"Well then..." mumbled Naruto, eyeing Kiyoshi's neck scars, and rubbing his own neck as if trying to soothe the idea of a cut throat. He then turned to Hinata, who was petrified and speechless, "Hinata, what's your opinion on this?"
Sakura stepped out of the house with a freshly baked apple on a tray. She spotted the crude looking stranger, assumed that it's Kiyoshi, shrugged, and set the tray down on a cheap foldable table. "Did I miss something?"
Jiraiya smiled, "I'm sorry I underestimated you, kid. It looks like you have enough experience to know what you're talking about."
Hinata stared at Kiyoshi, fear, terror spreading through her very soul, "I don't get you. Why did you do that? We all know you didn't have to blow yourself up. Why would you?"
Kiyoshi looked over at Hinata; he didn't want to answer the question, so he shook his head. "I've come to realize that all actions are stupid when you look back at them. Just when you think you won't make another mistake, you go ahead and make one."
"Regrets?" asked Naruto.
Kiyoshi nodded, "Everybody has them. And if they don't, then the minor ones become big."
Naruto grinned, "I'm glad I don't have any."
Kiyoshi raised an eyebrow, "No regrets? There's nothing that you feel you could have done differently in the past?"
"Well..." said Naruto without any concern for the topic, "I guess there are things that I wish had never happened. But I know that I did my best to prevent them."
Something snapped inside Kiyoshi, "Prevent them..." he thought, "I was the cause of every regret I have... how could I prevent them when I am the cause?" He then looked back down from the stars at Naruto, with a slight hint of tears in his eyes, "I envy you."
Naruto didn't really consider the subject up until that point; he was playing with Hinata's hair. Naruto looked up at Kiyoshi in astonishment. He had never realized that he was blessed with such a strong will to live, such an instinct to do right and avoid regrets. "It's my way of the ninja," smiled Naruto.
"You were indeed born to be great. Whoever your father was, he would be proud..." Kiyoshi then turned his voice to Hinata, "Just as Hiashi should be."
Jiraiya and Sakura took the time to play sudoku, until Kiyoshi turned to them. Attention drawn away from the game of numbers, Sakura turned her glance around until it met Kiyoshi's gaze. There was a moment of silence until she eventually asked, "What?"
"Say something," explained Kiyoshi.
Jiraiya didn't turn away from his sheet of paper, and replied before Sakura could come up with the words, "Hinata has nice boobs."
This time, Kiyoshi managed to stuff an apple in the old man's mouth, tie him up, and marinate him for cooking. The old man started trying to scream, but then noticed that Naruto had gotten up to help Kiyoshi set the old man up over the fire.
After a moment of torment, they cut him loose. Jiraiya lay on the ground, panting from the near-death experience. "No sexist comments about Hinata... got it," he eventually said.
"You're lucky that I'm not angry enough to go cannibalistic on you!" exclaimed Kiyoshi. The comment drew everybody's attention. There was an awkward silence, eventually he asked, "What?"
Sakura resumed her game of sudoku, and replied, "Cannibalism isn't healthy."
"You sounded more concerned about him than me just now!" yelled Jiraiya, "Aren't you a doctor? Why didn't you stop him?"
"I'm a girl too," explained Sakura.
Naruto shook the pointless turn of events off. Instead, he turned to matters that he cared slightly more about, "Kiyoshi," he said, "Tell us more about what happened to you. Just what on earth happened to you?"
"Before I say anything, I would like to make a note," said Kiyoshi, "I am stupid."
"Note taken," replied Naruto, "Now tell us more about the life of Kiyoshi Inamotou."
Kiyoshi sat down, "Tell me what you know."
"I know about Hikari, I know about the soul-sight thigamawhosit, I know a little about your clan, and the death-god thing that followed you around."
Jiraiya stared at the two blind boys in excessive confusion, "You know what now?"
Hinata dragged Sakura and Jiraiya off to the side to explain what Kiyoshi had already told them back in the worn-out bunker. Kiyoshi felt like an old geezer for what he was about to do; he was about to start telling Naruto unbelievable and unrealistic stories about his past, which just so happened to be true.
"I don't know what's happening to me," said Kiyoshi, "And I don't know a single thing about the order that killed my clan. The order is more invisible than ghosts."
"Well what do you know?"
Kiyoshi tried to formulate a proper response, but only came up with "I know that I'm scared."
"That's all?"
"The thing that contacted me when I fought with Hiashi," started Kiyoshi, but then paused, as if searching his sanity for the right words, "It's contacted me before."
"What? When?"
Kiyoshi couldn't recall the precise moment, the memory was very blurry. It was dark, bloody, hell, "Back on our mission in the summer."
"Are you sure?"
Kiyoshi nodded, "Two times," he then felt the scars that he received in from his dreams in Inari's house. "They came to me in my dreams once... they attacked me."
Naruto lifted an eyebrow, "In your dreams? That's not too bad."
Kiyoshi showed him the scars, "The attacks were on my mind, but I suffered physically."
"Shit..." whispered Naruto, eyeing the long and deep scars. "When was the second time?"
Kiyoshi still couldn't put his finger on the second intervention, "Well, the first one was just to catch my attention," he explained, "The second one, the creature told me to get stronger. It told me that when the time came, I would have to confront them."
"Wow..." thought Naruto, "I have to consider his sanity for a moment..."
"In any case," continued Kiyoshi, "I have this legendary power, this unknown enemy, undying love for Hikari, and no desire to fight what so ever," said Kiyoshi, "The possibilities are, that I'm either totally insane, or dead in the near future."
A/N: This is getting harder with every word. I'm sorry for the slow updates, unlike I had daily ones back with "Lost Soul". I can't tell you how glad I am from the fact that you actually read this, and I can wish for nothing more.
To tell you the truth, this story is falling apart, and I'm struggling with all my efforts to keep it together. I barely know where I'm trying to go, and even less where I should go, but I have an interesting twist lined up for you. I know how much I have messed up, and I've already lost count of my mistakes, but unlike so many authors before me, I'm not going to chicken out. I'll take this story to whatever end it leads me, and won't back down no matter what. Even if this story fails, and I lose respect of many people, I won't regret the fact that I didn't back down.
That is all, thanks for reading.
-Silencer299