"Well," Kakashi said, dusting his hands off satisfyingly as he did, "that should be all of it." He turned to his former students, Sakura and Naruto, and Team Seven's temporary replacement member, Sai. "I appreciate the help, moving all of my belongings to the Hokage Residence and all. I hope it wasn't too much of a bother for all of you."

"Oh, not at all," Sai said with an unusual smile on his face. "I was glad to take time out of my day to assist the Hokage in a mundane task that he should be powerful enough to do himself! Why ever would that be a bother?"

Kakashi frowned behind the mask he wore and gave Sai a gloomy look. "Alright, I get the point. Next time I need help on something, I'll ask my actual attendants for it. Happy now?"

Sakura gave her former sensei a look of annoyance. "Of course not! After all we've been through, we've never once been to your house! Now you're Hokage and all of a sudden you're willing to ask us to handle your personal belongings? What's with that?!"

Kakashi laughed awkwardly as he waved his hand in an attempt to alleviate the younger ninjas' suspicions and animosity. "Now, now, don't be like that! I simply thought that we were at that point in our relationship, that's all!"

Naruto folded his arms as he aimed a scowl his sensei's way. "So we're close enough to carry your things for you, but not close enough to see your face after all of these years, huh? Sounds fishy if you ask me."

Kakashi let out another awkward laugh before making his way to the kitchen and saying, "I'll go make us some tea now."

"Yeah, you go do that," Sakura muttered as Kakashi went to do just that. Once he was gone, she placed her hands angrily onto her hips and said, "I just can't believe him sometimes! Who does he think we are?"

"It would seem like his inferiors," Sai replied. "No one who would view us as our equals would use such underhanded psychological responses to escape justifiable scorn otherwise."

"What?!" Sakura cried before gritting her teeth and cracking her knuckles angrily. "Why I oughta -" She then stopped once she heard the rustling of things behind her. Both she and Sai turned around and let out a surprised gasp upon witnessing Naruto frantically rummaging through the various boxes of Kakashi's belongings. "Naruto! What the heck are you doing?!"

Naruto stopped what he was doing to turn around and answer, "I'm trying to find any of Kakashi-sensei's photo albums!" He went back to rummaging through the box he was currently looking through. "I mean, he's got to have at least one, right? And if he does, then maybe there's a picture of him without his mask on!"

Sakura gasped. "Of course! Why didn't you tell us sooner?!" She then began looking through some of the boxes herself before turning back to Sai and whispering, "Come on, Sai! Grab a box and help us out!"

Sai simply watched as Sakura and Naruto frantically searched through as many boxes as he could before saying, "I had honestly considered you two a bit more mature than this. Are you two really so petty that you would search through a person's private belongings just to satisfy your childish curiosities?"

Sakura gasped before quickly backing away from the box she had been searching through and crying, "Oh my gosh! Sai's right! Naruto, what are we doing?! We need to put everything back before Kakashi-sensei gets back!"

"Found it!" Naruto cried, raising Kakashi's photo album up into the air as if it were a long sought after ancient artifact that had finally been found.

Sakura gasped and quickly made her way to him. "Well, don't just hold it!" she cried. "Open it up!"

Sai sighed. "I suppose you two really are that childish, aren't you?"

"Shut up, Sai!" Naruto and Sakura cried as they quickly skimmed through the contents of the photo album, only to look horrified upon quickly coming to a horrible realization.

"No!" Naruto cried. "That's impossible!"

"How could...," Sakura muttered in disbelief, "how could..."

"How could all of these pictures have him wearing that dumb mask?!" they both cried, causing for Sai to look over the shoulders to find that it was indeed true. Every picture in Kakashi's photo album that was of him had his iconic mask on his face.

Sai grabbed his chin curiously. "Interesting. Perhaps the traumatic events he had suffered with Obito and Rin had caused Kakashi to suffer through a stint of paranoia and social recluse?"

"Um, what are you guys doing?" Kakashi's voice said from behind them, causing Sakura and Naruto to let out yelps of surprise as they quickly stood up and tried to act normal.

"U-Um, w-well...," Sakura said, waving her hands in instinctively in an attempt to calm a potentially mad Kakashi down after catching them red-handed looking through his private photos, "w-we were just... um..."

"W-What she means is," Naruto began, holding the photo album upside down protectively in front of him, "that we saw how dirty this stuff was, so we were trying to clean all of the dust off!" He quickly turned to Sakura. "R-Right, Sakura?"

Sakura quickly nodded. "R-Right! That's it!" She then grabbed the photo album so that she could give it to Kakashi. "It's all clean now, so you can have it back now!" It was then that, due to Sakura's slight pulling and Naruto's slight pulling back, that many of Kakashi's photos fell out of the album, causing the two of them to scream as they fell to the floor. "Naruto!" Sakura instinctively screamed.

"But I didn't do anything!" Naruto cried as he and Sakura quickly got down and started to pick them up.

Kakashi chuckled heartily. "It seems that some things will never change, will they? So, why exactly were you looking through my photo album in the first place?"

Naruto and Sakura immediately froze upon hearing such a question. "Um, well, you see," Sakura began.

"They wished to know what you looked like under your mask," Sai stated simply, causing Sakura and Naruto to let out screams of surprise in response.

Kakashi blinked innocently. "Oh? Well then, why didn't you just ask?"

"Don't give us that bull!" Naruto cried, pointing an accusing finger at him. "We both know that the only thing under that mask is another mask!"

"Well, yes," Kakashi admitted, "but what about what's under THAT mask?"

Sakura gave him an angry pout. "It's probably just another mask," she grumbled.

"Actually, it isn't," Kakashi said, placing his fingers at the edge of his mask as he did. "Do you want to see what's behind it?"

Sakura and Naruto's eyes widened in surprise as they quickly crawled towards him. "R-Really?" Naruto asked.

Kakashi nodded. "Really."

"No tricks?" Sakura asked.

Kakashi shook his head. "No tricks. We're at that point in our relationship after all."

"Then what are you waiting for?" Naruto cried out excitedly as Sai sighed and continued to pick up the photos for them. "Take it off already!"

"Alright then," Kakashi said as he slowly pulled the mask down. "Here it goes." He kept going at an agonizingly slow pace, to the point where Sakura and Naruto gulped in anticipation. "Is the suspense killing you yet?"

"Just take it off already!" Sakura and Naruto cried.

"Alright, alright, I just thought I'd have some fun with it, that's all."

Just then, the three of them heard a rare gasp coming from the usually stoic and emotionless Sai's lips. "My... who is this?"

"Hmm?" Kakashi said, having stopped taking off his mask to look at what had caught Sai's attention and interest.

"Don't stop!" Sakura chided.

"Sai, don't ruin this for us!" Naruto cried, turning angrily to him as he did.

"But Naruto," Sai said, turning the photograph around for him to see, "aren't you the least bit interested in who this woman is?"

Naruto narrowed his eyes to better focus at who Sai was referring to in the photo as Sakura turned around and followed suit, the two of them letting out surprised gasps upon seeing who Sai was talking about. In the picture was a young Kakashi, Obito, and Rin being hugged by a woman who looked suspiciously like what Naruto looked like whenever he performed his Sexy Technique, which freaked Naruto a little while Sakura and Kakashi's eyes widened in surprise. "W-Who the heck is that?" Naruto asked, pointing a shaky finger at the woman in the picture, not even attempting to disguise how freaked out the woman in the photo was making him. "And why does she look exactly like my Sexy Technique?"

Kakashi's eyes widened even further as he quickly glanced at Naruto. "THAT'S what your Sexy Technique looked like?" he asked incredulously. A sickly expression then appeared onto his face. "If that's true, then maybe it's a good thing that I've never seen it."

Naruto cocked an eyebrow at him due to his strange response. "Hmm?"

"Naruko?" Sakura thoughtfully muttered, causing for Naruto's eyes to widen as he quickly turned to Sakura with a shocked look on his face.

"Naruko?" Sai calmly asked, causing Sakura to immediately realize her mistake and quickly cover her mouth. "Who is this 'Naruko'?"

Sakura quickly shook her head. "I really shouldn't."

"Yeah, well I think you really should!" Naruto countered angrily before snatching the picture from Sai and showing it to the sixth Hokage himself. "Who is she?!"

"W-Wait," Sakura said, giving Naruto an inquisitive look as she did. "You... don't remember?"

"Don't you think I would've remembered someone who looks exactly like my Sexy Technique?!" Naruto demanded. He then showed the picture to Sakura. "Now tell me, who is she?!"

"Naruto, we can't!" Sakura explained. "It's taboo!"

"I don't care!" Naruto cried, causing for Sakura to flinch and avert her eyes away from his intense gaze. Naruto gasped upon realizing that he went a little bit too hard and gently explained, "Look, I get that this might be taboo, but don't you get it, Sakura?" He looked longingly at the photo in his hands, or rather, the woman featured in it. "I could still have a family out there."

"More family?" Kakashi asked with an acknowledging nod. "Well, it IS possible, but not with her I'm afraid." He nodded towards the photo in Naruto's hand. "I'm afraid that one is no longer with us."

Naruto and Sai let out surprised gasps upon hearing this, Naruto's being slightly more devastated in comparison. Naruto turned to Kakashi. "W-What happened to her?" he asked, his fingers clutching the picture tighter as he did.

Kakashi looked at Naruto thoughtfully. "You really don't remember, do you?"

Naruto shook his head. "If I did, I wouldn't be asking you, now would I?!"

"Kakashi-sensei," Sakura said, "is it really okay for us to -?

Kakashi gave her a reassuring smile from under his mask. "Don't worry, Sakura. With the whole tailed beast incident under wraps and with me being the Hokage now, I think it's about time we lifted some of those little taboos of ours." He then turned back to Naruto. "As for how she died, I'm sorry, but I don't exactly know the details about it myself," a disappointed look spread across Naruto's face, "but from what I do know," Naruto gasped as he looked back up, his attention dead set on whatever Kakashi was going to say next, "she was apparently kidnapped by the Akatsuki back when you were still a child."

Sakura let out a horrified gasp. "R-Really? I didn't know that!"

Kakashi nodded solemnly. "I don't expect you to. I doubt the village would enforce a taboo on mentioning her if they knew that the village knew about that."

"What exactly were you told?" Sai asked Sakura.

"That Naruko died from a terrible accident and that we weren't supposed to talk about it," Sakura answered, eliciting a surprised gasp from Naruto.

Kakashi coolly took note of Naruto's surprised reaction. "Yes. The higher ups were afraid that the trauma of Naruto losing his only friend and mother figure would inadvertently release the Nine-Tailed Fox from within his body. Granted, I don't exactly know what they did to Naruto to make him forget such an important person in his life, but whatever it was, I doubt it was of his own free will."

"W-Wait," Naruto said, "she... she's only presumed dead?!" He let out an excited and relieved sigh. "Then she might still be alive!"

"I highly doubt it," Sai calmly replied. "If she was 'presumed dead' then that means that she or her body were never found. And if this is the Akatsuki that we're talking about, especially the Akatsuki back then, then they probably killed her trying to extract the Nine-Tails from out of her body or realized she wasn't the host and killed her anyway to keep from having any witnesses as to what they were trying to do. Either way, they would've probably went out of their way to dispose of the body thoroughly, otherwise they would attract unwanted attention from every village they performed their missions in."

"Yeah, but -"

"And even if, by the off chance that they let her go unharmed," Kakashi solemnly said, "then she would've come back for you. I'm certain of that. That was just the type of person that she was." Naruto's face fell upon hearing that. "I'm sorry, Naruto."

Naruto looked back at the woman in the photographer before asking, "Fine, so she was my mother figure, but who was she really though? And why did she take care of me when everyone else in the village hated my guts back then?"

"Well," Kakashi said as he nonchalantly folded his arms, "I imagine that she just couldn't leave a newly born and helpless orphan boy all by himself, especially if that particular orphan was her godson and nephew."

Naruto let out a startled gasp. "She... she was my aunt?" He looked back at the picture. "Dad... had a sister?"

Kakashi nodded. "Younger sister, to be specific."

"I didn't know that!" Sakura said. "I always just thought that Naruko was Naruto's mother!"

Kakashi chuckled good-naturedly. "I'm not surprised. The way she took care of Naruto, practically anyone would've mistaken her for his mother, especially with the outlawing of mentioning Minato and Kushina's existences beforehand."

"But this doesn't make any sense!" Naruto cried. "I've met my mom and dad! Why didn't either of them mentioned her?"

"Hmm," Kakashi said as he held his chin as he thought of the best possible explanation for Naruto's inquiry. "You met them when you were about to release all of the Nine-Tails' tails during your battle with Pain, is that right?"

Naruto nodded. "Yeah."

"And it was only because they put themselves into the seal keeping the Nine-Tailed Fox trapped in your body, is that correct?"

Naruto thought about it for a bit before nodding his head and answering, "Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's what they said."

"Well then, that's one explanation for it," Kakashi stated simply. "Those versions of Minato and Kushina couldn't have possibly known about Naruko taking you under her care, because those versions of them hadn't lived long enough to know about that."

"And with a situation as dire as Naruto threatening to release all of the Nine-Tails' power, there was really no reason to mention her at the time." Sai added.

"But what about when I told my dad that I was left all alone for all of my life?" Naruto asked. "Why wouldn't he ask why his sister didn't take care of me?"

"Well, the Nine-Tails did cause a lot of damage to the village in general," Kakashi suggested. "Maybe Minato thought that she had died in the crossfire."

"Or maybe he felt personally responsible for your loneliness," Sakura gently chimed in, "and so asking why his sister didn't take care of you would've been irrelevant."

"Either way you look at it," Kakashi said, "it wouldn't have really been the right time or very productive to mention her. Time was of the essence in that situation, wasn't it?"

Naruto bowed his head. "I guess." He the raised his head and added, "But that still doesn't explain why I can't remember her at all!"

Kakashi nodded his head. "Yes, whatever they did to you, it was certainly powerful enough to stay with you for all of this time. And you've released genjutsu techniques before, haven't you?" Naruto nodded. "Then it either isn't that, or it's a genjutsu that was so powerful that one can't release it normally."

"Maybe the trauma of what happened made Naruto mentally repress all of his memories with her?" Sakura asked.

Sai shook his head. "No. Even back then, I can tell that running away from the truth like that wouldn't fit his personality."

"Besides," Kakashi said, "with how many little friends Naruto had back then, I doubt that he would go out of the way to forget the only one he truly had."

"Then what is it?!" Naruto asked, getting increasingly impatient at all of the turned down suggestions and vague explanations that weren't going to help him solve anything. "Is it a ninja technique or is there something wrong with me?!"

"Yes, that certainly is the question, isn't it?" Kakashi remarked, holding his chin as he thought of a possible way to solve this particularly vague problem. "Well, if it really is a genjutsu, then it wouldn't hurt to ask Kurenai for her help."

Sakura nodded. "And if it has something to do with the mind or Naruto's health then it wouldn't hurt to ask Ino and Lady Tsunade for help either."

Sai nodded. "And if it involves the Akatsuki and political controversy in general, then perhaps Danzo had something to do with this as well. I will ask all of the previous Root members if they know anything about what happened to Naruto. With Danzo dead, his seals on all of us have vanished, so they will be more willing to talk than they used to."

"And I'll start using those assistants and attendants of mine to gather as much information as we can," Kakashi offered. He turned back to Naruto and gave him a reassuring smile. "Don't you worry, Naruto. We will do all that we can to help you."

Naruto smiled as he looked at all of his friends who were willing to help him. He was so lucky to have friends such as these! And if all goes well, he was going to remember another one.

"Gah!" Ino wearily cried, letting go of Naruto's head as she held her knees and began to pant heavily. "That's it. This is officially hopeless!"

"Come on, Ino!" Naruto begged, turning around in his chair to properly talk to the Yamanaka. "Can't you at least try just one more time? Please?"

Ino placed her hands onto her hips and gave him a disapproving scowl. "We've tried plenty, and I'm telling you, it's hopeless! No matter how many times I tell your brain to remember, it just seems like it can't! I can't even tell it to release whatever genjutsu was placed on it!" She frowned sadly. "I'm sorry, Naruto. I really am! But my hands are tied!"

Kurenai sighed, having stepped aside after all of her attempts to release Naruto from whatever type of possible genjutsu he was inflicted with proved futile. "Then I guess that's that," she said simply. "It's not a genjutsu, or at the very least, it's not a genjutsu that can be released normally..."

"It's not a manner of the mind," Ino continued.

"And based on all of these tests, Naruto is perfectly healthy, both mentally and physically," Tsunade finished, holding up all of the results of the test as she did. "So that can't be the problem either."

"Oink," Tonton said sadly, causing Shizune to hold her closer to her in an attempt to comfort the ninja pig.

"Is there really nothing else this could be?" Shizune asked, attempting to be the devil's advocate to keep the group going.

Tsunade grimly hummed. "If it is, then it's something that we don't know about, which doesn't help us one bit. After all, with the death of Ino's father, the three of us are literally the foremost experts in our crafts. So if we don't know what's going on in that head of his, then chances are that no one in the village does."

"So... what are we going to do if Naruto never will remember?" Sakura asked, causing everyone's expressions to glower a bit in response. Sakura bowed her head sadly. "I guess that really wasn't the best time to ask."

Kurenai let out a sad chuckle as she folded her arms. "It's a shame too. I really wanted to pay her back for that trip to the hot springs she gave me way back when."

Ino turned to her with a look of surprise on her face. "Seriously?"

Kurenai chuckled happily at the memory of it all. "Don't worry, it was a little bit more complicated than that, but the best way I can put it is that she helped me get out of a dark place. If it weren't for her, I probably wouldn't be as jolly as I am now."

Ino cocked an eyebrow at the woman's strange explanation. "That's a weird way of putting it." She then smiled. "But I guess I see where you're coming from. If it weren't for her, I probably wouldn't be the woman I am today!" she said as she placed her hands behind her head provocatively.

"You mean someone who's obsessed with her looks?" Sakura muttered.

Ino scowled at her. "Of course not, Sakura! Because of her, I realized that I shouldn't hold myself back from who I truly am anymore!" She smiled smugly. "I mean, don't get me wrong, I was pretty cool before the change too, but I was more subdued back then! Thanks to Naruko, I realized that I needed to be more forward with myself and others if I ever wanted to get anything I wanted!"

"Which is why you had no shame when it came to confessing your feelings to Sasuke?" Sakura asked, disgusted.

"Hey, at least he knew that I had feelings for him!" Ino countered. "With you, it was probably still so vague that he could never really tell! But with me?" She indicated towards herself arrogantly. "Total clarity!"

"He knew well enough!"

"Oh, I'm sure that he did!"

"There! You just admitted it!"

"It's called sarcasm, billboard brow!"

"Oh, so you've resorted to name calling, huh, Ino-Pig!?"

"Oink!" Ton-Ton cried out in offense as Shizune chuckled awkwardly.

"Even after all they've been through and how much they've matured, they still tend to slip back into the people they used to be, don't they?" Shizune asked.

Tsunade chuckled. "Yes, but don't we all? And speaking of Naruko," she turned to Naruto, "I hear that she was the one who introduced Kakashi to Jiraiya's Make-Out Paradise series."

Naruto and Sakura gaped at Tsunade incredulously. "Wait, what?!" they cried.

Tsunade nodded. "Yep. So you can thank her for that part of him too."

Naruto and Sakura didn't know what to say. "No offense, but my aunt sounds like kind of a ditz," Naruto said.

"She was nothing like a ditz!" Ino defended passionately. "It's just that she made mistakes from time to time, like all of us do!"

"Like how a rumor I overheard from her nearly ruined my friendship with Ino forever," Sakura mentally noted.

It was then that the doors to the Hokage's office opened up, letting Iruka and Yugao Uzuki in as they carried boxes into the room with them. "Hey there everybody!" Iruka greeted. "I heard from Yugao what happened, so I decided to help out with bringing all of Naruko's records over here from confinement!"

Naruto's eyes widened in surprise. "You had a special relationship with my aunt too, Iruka-sensei?"

Iruka immediately blushed. "W-Well, not like that, obviously! But she did help me get out of that prankster phase I was in after my parents died. I wouldn't be the man I am today if it wasn't for her."

Yugao nodded. "And if it wasn't for her, I wouldn't have been introduced to the love of my life."

Naruto looked at her for a moment before asking, "Um, no offense, but who are you exactly?"

"Naruto!"

Yugao chuckled and signaled for Sakura to calm down. "It's all right. We were never really formally introduced." She held out her hand to the still confused Naruto. "Yugao Uzuki. You don't know me, but you probably know my fiancé, Hayate Gekko?"

Naruto tilted his head to the side cluelessly. "Hmm?"

"Naruto!" Sakura hissed. "He was the original overseer of the third part of our very first Chunin Exams! The one with the really bad cough!"

Naruto's eyes widened upon realizing who she meant. "Oh! That guy!" He turned to Sakura. "Whatever happened to that guy?"

Sakura clobbered him on his head, earning her a yelp of pain from him. "Honestly, you are just so forgetful and thoughtless sometimes!"

Naruto released a tiny gasp. "Wait, what did you just say?"

Sakura blinked in confusion for a moment before answering, "Um, I said that you could be so thoughtless and forgetful sometimes. Why do you ask?"

Naruto bowed his head dejectedly and asked, "What if I...," he clenched his fists, "what if there's nothing wrong with me? What if I just... forgot about her?"

Everyone in the room let out a gasp of surprise. "Come on, Naruto," Sakura gently tried to comfort, "don't be like that! Of course you couldn't have naturally forgotten her! That's just not like you!"

"Yeah," Naruto quietly admitted, "but it's possible."

"No, it isn't," Iruka firmly argued. "Naruto, think back. Think back to when you were a kid and you were living on your own." He waited until Naruto complied and started doing what he instructed him before continuing. "Now tell me, aren't there any noticeable holes in your memories? Aren't there things that you remember that don't really make any sense once you really think about them? You remember living all of your early years alone, but how is that even possible for someone as young as yourself back then? Shouldn't there be a memory of SOMEONE taking care of you somewhere in there?"

Naruto gasped upon realizing that Iruka-sensei was right. "Hey... yeah!"

Iruka smiled. "Whatever happened to you may have taken the memories of Naruko away from you, but those memories make an essential part of who you are, and that's something that simply 'forgetting' can't easily take away."

Kurenai smiled and chuckled. "He's right," she said. "I may have not spent that much time with you, Naruto, but from how Hinata, Kiba, and Shino talk about you, you seem to have inherited quite a bit from her, even if you don't realize it. Just like how you inherited a bit from Minato and Kushina without even realizing it."

Tsunade nodded. "You may be a descendent of Hashirama, but even you aren't immune to taking after other people who are important in your life."

"And even if you did forget," Yugao said, walking up to the boxes she and Iruka had brought over as she did, "then we just need to jog your memory. Loved ones can never truly be forgotten."

"And even if they are," Ino said. "That doesn't mean that they suddenly never existed. They're just forgotten until they're remembered again." She turned and smiled cheekily at Sakura. "Like our friendship, right, Sakura?"

Sakura let out a tiny gasp before an embarrassed blush spread across her face. "Oh, come on, I thought that we agreed to never talk about that stuff anymore."

Ino winked playfully. "Sorry, 'never truly forgotten', you know?"

Naruto stared at everyone in awe for a moment before standing up and making his way towards the boxes. He looked at Yagao. "These are all of her records?"

Yagao nodded. "The sixth Hokage specified to hold nothing back when it came to helping you remember someone this village and you used to cherish. So I went all out."

Naruto was stunned. "Thank you," he said. "I barely know who you are, but you're willing to go through all of this trouble for me."

"Well, yes, we're not very familiar with each other, but I'm familiar enough with Naruko that I'd be willing to do this for her, but to be fair, I guess I'm doing this for her through you."

Naruto gasped before giving Yagao an understanding smile. "Yeah, I guess I can understand that." He then opened one of the boxes and began to look through it, everyone else in the room eventually following suit.

As everyone else looked at the pictures and began to laugh and happily reminisce to themselves, Naruto quickly glanced around at them with an anxious frown on his face. "Everyone I talk to who seems to know about Naruko seems to love her," he thought. "But I can't help wondering: if I finally remember her, am I going to feel the same way?" As if to prove a point, he stumbled onto his and Naruko's own personal family photo album and opened it up, looking at the contents within it by himself for a moment before the others took notice and gushed and laughed over the memories he didn't have. As everyone was enjoying their trek through memory lane around him, Naruto dejectedly continued to look through the pictures he and Naruko had apparently taken with an unavoidable sense of emptiness in his heart. Naruko was admittedly beautiful (although how much she resembled his Sexy Technique still disturbed him a little bit) and, in a way, he was admittedly happy that that he had so many happy memories to remember, but he couldn't help but feel nothing over everything he saw, and that saddened him. Here was someone who had apparently give him all of the love and attention and then some that he had always longed for, and not only did he not remember her, but he didn't feel anything for her when he saw her or saw how many happy pictures he had with her. Was this all because he couldn't remember her, or was it something else? Naruto sighed. He honestly couldn't tell.

It was then that Sai and Kakashi came into the room, drawing everyone's attention to them and everyone taking notice of the grave expressions on their faces. "Kakashi, Sai," Shizune greeted in an attempt to break the ominous tension that had suddenly broken into the room, "what did you two find out?"

Kakashi let out an exasperated sigh before answering, "We found out... that this was all Danzo's doing."

Everyone in the room either let out a gasp of surprise or anxiously narrowed their eyes upon hearing the news. "Danzo?!" Yagao cried. "What's he got to do with this?"

"Well," Tsunade muttered, "that's not the first time that man's somehow managed to be the cause of something."

"Yes, but how?" Iruka asked.

It was now time for Sai to step forward and share what he had learned from his former fellow Root members. "From what I have learned, back before the Uchiha Massacre came to be, Danzo took steps to stop the prevention of such a disaster from happening by stealing one of Shisui Uchiha's Sharingans."

Naruto gasped. "Shisui Uchiha? Itachi mentioned someone by that name!"

Sai nodded. "It wouldn't surprise me. Shisui and Itachi Uchiha were considered the best of friends back when they were alive. Regardless, however, Shisui's Sharingan apparently had the added ability to make others follow its user's will without the victim even knowing it. It was said to be considered quite powerful, and with this in mind, many Root members believe that that is what was inflicted upon Naruto to make him so effectively forget Naruko."

Naruto nodded. "Yeah, Itachi mentioned a technique like that!"

Yagao let out a gasp of surprise. "The day that Naruko was kidnapped some of the ANBU were talking about how Naruto was taken into hiding... and that Danzo wanted to make Naruko's existence taboo and make Naruto forget about her! According to the ANBU there, he had told the third that he had to perfect technique to make Naruto forget!"

"And if we couldn't restore Naruto's memory through normal means," Shizune began.

Tsunade nodded solemnly. "Then a powerful technique such is that is probably the only explanation," she finished.

Ino laughed as she ran up to Sai and gave him a great, big hug, startling everybody in the room, though the former Root member especially. "Great job, Sai!" Ino said. She then gave him a flirtatious wink. "Guess we can always count on you to get to the bottom of things, huh?"

Sai blinked in confusion. "Um, I guess?" he said before giving Sakura a confused glance, which only earned him an amused giggle in return.

"Well, now that we've got that out of the way," Kurenai said, "that still leaves the question of how to reverse it so that Naruto can get his memories back."

Kakashi nodded and looked back at Naruto. "And that means that we must turn to you, Naruto."

"Huh?" Naruto asked, pointing to himself incredulously as he did. "But why me?"

"Because," Kakashi calmly explained, "out of all of us, you were the only one that the technique was explained to. I know that remembering details such as those isn't your strong suit, but if there is any way we could reverse the effects of the technique, then the only one who would have any idea of how to figure that out is you." Naruto gasped as Kakashi walked up to him and calmly placed a hand onto one of Naruto's shoulders and gave it a firm squeeze. "Now try and remember everything Itachi told you about the technique. Can you think of any loopholes, any possible cracks in the technique that we can take advantage off?"

Naruto thought for a moment before saying, "Well, we could probably just use the technique to make me remember again," he said. "But even though I can't remember the details of it, I do know that we can't do that. Itachi made it so that it was impossible for people to misuse it, and I guess that includes people like us."

Everyone was noticeably disappointed upon hearing this unwanted revelation. "Then I'm afraid our hands are tied," Kakashi said simply. "We can keep trying, but there's no guarantee that we can find a way to dispel the technique if we don't know anything about it or how to reactivate it."

"Then I guess that's that then, huh?" Iruka said.

Kakashi nodded. "Yes, I'm afraid so."

Just then, the doors to the Hokage's office burst open and in came Anko, out of breath from apparently running so hard to get there before giving everyone a merry salute and saying, "Hey there everyone! Heard that you needed help reminding the kid about who Naruko was, so I came straight here to help!"

After she had recovered from her initial shock, which had understandably been inflicted on practically everyone in the room, Kurenai let out an amused chuckle before saying, "And just like always, you come in too late or too early."

Anko laughed as she rubbed the back of her neck bashfully and said, "Yeah, well, this time I had a reason to being late! I had to make sure that someone strong enough could take my place at guarding Orochimaru's cell for me while I was here, which, trust me, isn't easy, since, you know, I know the guy the most next to Lady Tsunade and all!" She laughed again, but stopped once she saw that no one else was laughing with her, and asked, "Um, hey, are you guys all right? You guys look like you just saw a ghost or something."

Kakashi sighed. "No," he then turned back to confirm that everyone else had the very same idea, "but we might as well be."

"Ah, yes, I see," Orochimaru calmly said from his side of the cell. "To dispel a technique as powerful as that, one needs to truly awaken the mind and all of the memories it holds."

"So you know of a technique that could help Naruto regain his memories?" Kakashi asked evenly.

Orochimaru nodded and hummed affirmatively. "Yes. You see, not that long ago, I realized that Kabuto had been made a sleeper agent by one of the Akatsuki, so I developed a technique that would open up his mind to let him remember what he had been turned to and let him once again regain his free will." He then frowned and asked, "Where is Kabuto anyway?"

"In another cell somewhere else," Anko growled as she continued to glare at the man who she once considered her teacher. "We'd be crazy to let you two be in the same jail, much less in the same cell."

Orochimaru nodded. "Yes, I suppose that makes sense."

"So... will you use that same technique on me so that I can get my memories back?" Naruto asked.

"That... is entirely up to you, Naruto," Orochimaru said.

Everyone on the other side of the cell either let out a concerned gasp of surprised or narrowed their eyes suspiciously. "What do you mean by that?" Naruto asked cautiously.

Orochimaru chuckled before calmly answering, "Opening the mind's eye is not an easy or painless process. I nearly killed Kabuto when I first used it, and Kabuto knows how to regenerate his body." He looked at Naruto. "You may have a healing factor due to the influence of your tailed beast, but it doesn't quite equate to what Kabuto has. If you let me perform the technique on you, you will most certainly be risking your life, and even if you did survive, the possible consequences it may have on the human brain is a noteworthy concern. I was able to get away with this once, but it working perfectly a second time without any repercussions whatsoever, well..." He chuckled mysteriously. "I advise that you at least sleep on this before making a decision."

Naruto nodded his head understandingly. "And what exactly would you like in return for performing a selfless deed?" Kakashi asked.

Orochimaru smiled and thought for a moment before answering, "Well, I wouldn't mind having my sentence shortened somewhat. I must say, I miss not being able to perform my experiments."

"Experiments that are so inhumane and twisted that they cause nothing but suffering!" Anko cried, grabbing a hold of some of the bars to Orochimaru's cell and glaring at him furiously.

Orochimaru frowned. "You're right, Anko," he said. "Back then, I was nothing more than a twisted man bent on using people to achieve my own ends." He looked at Anko regretfully. "But believe me, I have changed. I now know what it is like to be used and I understand now that what I used to do was wrong."

"Wrong doesn't even begin to describe it!" Anko hissed through gritted teeth.

Orochimaru nodded. "Yes, it doesn't." He placed his hands calmly behind his back. "Which is why I have decided that, in order to atone for everything that I have done, I have to be on the opposite side of this cell, otherwise I will not be able to repay the world and this village for what I have done to them." When Anko didn't immediately reply, Orochimaru added, "I hope that you can at least sympathize with that."

"Don't tell me who I should give my sympathy out to," Anko growled. She turned around. "We're done here," she said, leading everyone out of the room before closing and locking down the door behind her.

"So," Anko asked, folding her arms and looking expectantly at Naruto as she did, "you're not really going to take him in on that offer, are you?" When she was not given an immediate answer, she quickly added, "I mean, he's Orochimaru for crying out loud! He'll find a way to take advantage of this! That's just the type of snake he is!"

Tsunade sighed wearily. "Normally, I would agree with you, but we have Naruto and Naruko to think about here." She turned to Naruto and asked, "Well? Are you willing to go through with it?"

"He obviously shouldn't!" Iruka protested. "You heard what Orochimaru said, it's too dangerous! As much as we all wish for Naruto to remember Naruko, the memories aren't worth possibly losing his mind over!"

"I agree," Shizune said. "There has to be a way for Naruto to reclaim his memories without running the risk of killing himself! Yes, it may take longer for us to find, but it has to be safer than this!"

"You two are probably right," Tsunade admitted, "but..."

"This is a decision that only Naruto and Naruto alone can make," Kakashi finished. He turned to Naruto. "So? Which is it, Naruto?"

Naruto contemplated over what he should do for a moment before saying, "Thanks for all of your help, everybody. But I think I'll take Orochimaru's advice and sleep on it and see what I think about it then."

Everyone nodded their heads understandingly. "Of course," Yagao said.

"Just don't do anything stupid while you do, alright?" Ino instructed. She then groaned. "Oh, who am I kidding?" She turned to Sakura. "YOU make sure he doesn't do anything stupid while he does, alright?"

"Wait, what?!" Sakura cried. "Why me?!"

"Because he's your teammate, obviously!" Ino said matter-of-factly.

Iruka chuckled at the somewhat nostalgic sight. "Alright, settle down, you two," he said sternly. He then turned to everyone else. "For now, let's just get back with our own lives. If Naruto wants, he can tell us all his decision tomorrow, but if not, then it's his business."

Kurenai nodded. "Sounds like a plan." She then turned to Anko. "Could you mind not killing Orochimaru until then, Anko?"

Anko chuckled grimly. "Sure I can. I've kept myself from killing him up until now, haven't I?"

"Look, I don't know what he did to you," Naruto said, "and I know that he did a lot of horrible things, but he feels sorry about them and he even helped us fight in the war."

"Humph," Anko scoffed. "What are you trying to say here, squirt? That I should forgive him or something?"

"Well, yeah," Naruto said as if it were obvious. "I mean, he used to be your sensei and all, right? So there's got to be a little bit of good in him, right?"

Anko let out a tiny gasp of surprise before giving Naruto a sneer. "You sure like to open that mouth of yours when you don't know what you're talking about."

"I'm just saying -"

"Naruto," Kurenai interjected, shaking her head once Naruto looked at her. "Stay out of this. This is between Anko and Orochimaru."

"Yeah, but -"

"You may be the hero of prophecy," Kurenai said, "but there are still things that even you cannot just magically solve. You're just going to have to accept that."

Naruto bowed his head at this remark. He hated being told what he could and couldn't do, but even he had to admit that Kurenai had a bit of a point. "Yeah, I guess..." he mumbled.

Seeing this as a chance to finally end things before they got heated again, Kakashi clapped his hands and said, "Well, now that we've got that out of the way, I'd like to thank everybody for their help today and I hope that today wasn't too much of a bother. Hopefully, our efforts were not in vain." He raised his hand up and waved it. "You may all leave now." When no one did and opted to stare at him blankly, Kakashi sighed as he bowed his head and dropped his shoulders. "Well, this is going to take some getting used to."

Tsunade smirked. "Now you know how I felt the first couple of days!" She turned to Shizune. "Looks like you've got your work cut out for you, Shizune! I'm counting on you to keep him in line like you did with me, you hear?"

Shizune nodded dutifully. "Yes, Lady Tsunade!"

Tonton gave Tsunade a dutiful salute. "Oink oink!"

"So, are you really going to do it?" Sakura asked as she, Naruto, and Sai made their way back to their respective homes. "Are you really going to put your mind and life on the line just for a couple of memories?"

Naruto looked at her incredulously. "I thought you WANTED me to remember my time with Naruko?!"

Sakura blushed and averted her eyes away from him. "I'm just worried, that's all. I mean, Orochimaru has only ever done this technique once before, and it almost nearly killed Kabuto when he did it. And no matter how important we feel it is to have you remember her, your life now and in the future will always be more important, you know?" They were all silent for a moment before Sakura added, "And I'm pretty sure that Naruko would've felt the same way."

"In all honesty, I wonder why you are even going this far to remember her in the first place," Sai said, earning surprised gasps and looks from both of his friends.

"Sai, what do you mean by that?" Sakura asked.

"I'm saying," Sai explained, "that whether Naruto remembers this woman or not is completely inconsequential."

This earned him another surprised gasp from Naruto and Sakura. "Sai, how can you say that?!" Sakura cried.

"I'm just stating the facts," Sai said. "Despite the fact that Naruko truly existed, to Naruto, she simply didn't, and when you really think about it, he doesn't need her to suddenly exist in his mind to keep moving on with his life."

"You don't know that!" Sakura cried. "And what do you mean that Naruko never existed for Naruto?! Sure, Naruto doesn't remember her, but whether he realizes it or not, he takes after her, just like he probably takes after his parents!"

"Oh?" Sai asked, an impressed eyebrow cocked at Sakura's argument. "What an interesting argument."

"Well, if you had come to us sooner, you would've heard it already!"

Sai nonchalantly shrugged. "Perhaps. But that still doesn't really answer why Naruto is going through so much trouble remembering someone who he didn't know even existed until today." He then looked at Naruto. "After all, if I were in his shoes, this all would probably feel like such a chore."

"Well, that's you, and not Naruto!"

"And how would you know? Did Naruto himself tell you how much he wanted to remember this person?"

"W-Well, no."

"Well then, why don't we just ask him right now then?" They both then turned to Naruto. "Well, Naruto?"

Naruto looked at both of them for a moment before scratching the back of his head awkwardly and saying, "Well, neither of you guys are exactly wrong, you know?"

Sai and Sakura both let out a gasp of surprise. "Naruto," Sakura said.

"I mean," Naruto explained, "when you really think about it, I think the rest of you guys are more invested with getting me to remember her more than I am. And honestly, why wouldn't you? She sounds like a good person that deserves to be remembered. But at the same time, I kind of get what Sai's saying, you know? I just don't feel like I'm as invested at remembering her as the rest of you are." He let out an anxious laugh. "I guess that's what happens when you've forgotten somebody for your entire life!" He then gave Sakura a reassuring and determined smile. "Which will make it all the more important that I need to start remembering her!"

"... You're doing it again," Sai said softly.

Sakura and Naruto both looked at Sai in surprise. "Huh?" Naruto asked, a genuinely confused look on his face as he did.

"You're sacrificing your own happiness for that of everyone else's!" Sai said indignantly. "The war is over, Naruto! Sasuke has seen the error of his ways! You do not need to keep doing this to yourself anymore!"

"I'm not doing anything -"

"You gain nothing from this!" Sai continued. "If Orochimaru's technique fails, then you either die or become absolutely brain dead; and if it succeeds, you'll just remember someone who is already dead! If what everyone says about her is true, then remembering her will only bring you more sadness and pain!"

Realizing what Sai was trying to tell him, Naruto and Sakura looked at him thoughtfully before Naruto said, with a carefree smile on his face, "Thanks for thinking about me, Sai, but I think I can manage to endure at least a little bit more pain and sadness in my life."

Sai gave Naruto a look of concern. "Even if that is true, you have grown into a remarkable person regardless of whether you remember Naruko or not. Remembering her would simply be doing that, remembering her. It won't change you for the better, it won't make you into a better ninja, it'll just be you remember a dead person and a past that you never needed to look back on. If anything, remembering her could actually be a detriment to you! For someone who wishes to become Hokage someday, are you really willing to put yourself and your future at risk like this?"

Naruto considered all of Sai's points before quietly answering, "Honestly, Sai? At this point, the only reason why I'm trying to remember her is because I feel that no one should be forgotten, not like how I forgot her at least." He gave Sai a resolute look. "If I'm going to ever forget someone, it's going to be because I forgot them, not because of some technique. So don't worry about me! Whatever happens, happens. I'll take full responsibility." He then gave Sai a reassuring grin. "Alright?"

Sai nodded, though the look of concern did not disappear from his face. "If you say so."

Sakura smiled and looked at Naruto reassuringly. "Don't worry. If it works, then you're not going to regret a thing."

Sai inwardly sighed. "Let's just hope that all of you are right."

"You know, when he said for you to sleep on it, I don't think he meant go home and immediately go to bed," Kurama joked dryly as Naruto continued to lay in bed and stare at the ceiling.

Naruto sighed heavily as he turned around to his side. "Shut up, you stupid fox," he mentally chided.

"Oh?" Kurama asked. "You're not your usually spunky and idiotic self. What's wrong? I thought that you had made up your mind about this whole memory thing."

"I did," Naruto insisted. "It's just... as much as I hate to admit it, Sai had a point." He turned around on his back once again and placed his hands behind his head. "What if remembering her suddenly changes me? I mean, it was one thing finding out who my parents were, they died before we could make ANY memories together, but this? Naruko and I apparently had lots of memories together. What if it changes me?"

"Nah," Kurama nonchalantly said. "You were pretty much the same brat you were before she was kidnapped as you were after she was kidnapped."

"I guess..." It took a moment, but Naruto's eyes widened upon realizing the gravity of what Kurama had said. "Wait a minute! Did you remember her after all this time?!"

"Yeah, so?"

"So?!" Naruto mentally cried. "Why didn't you ever mention her to me before?!"

"Simple, it's because I couldn't stand you back then. And in a way, I still don't."

"But we've gotten better, haven't we?"

"Yeah," Kurama admitted. "But why give myself a headache mentioning someone you can't even remember? Because let's face it, if it weren't for what that freaky snake guy was offering, you'd never remember her in a million years."

Naruto bowed his head dejectedly. "Yeah, I guess you've got a point there." A moment of silence came between the two of them before Naruto asked, "So what was I like back then?"

"Huh? Like I said, same brat kid before, same brat kid after."

Naruto sighed. "Fine, then what was Naruko like then, do you remember?"

"Of course I remember! I was there, wasn't I?"

"Well duh! That's why I'm asking!"

"Then ask a more specific question than that, you brat! How I am supposed to give you the answers you want when you're giving me such vague questions?!"

"Fine then!" Naruto thought for a moment before asking, "What type of caretaker was she like?"

"Hmm, let's see," Kurama mumbled as he tried to recall and find the best way to describe it to his host. "Well, she likes to spoil you rotten, which is probably why you grew up to be the selfish brat you were."

Naruto's eyes widened in surprise. "I was... spoiled back then?"

Kurama nodded. "Yeah. You remember those green goggles you used to wear?"

Naruto's eyes widened even further as he nodded. "Yeah?"

"She gave those to you! Said that it was a reward for doing decently in the academy."

Naruto couldn't believe it. "Since when did I ever do decently in the academy?" he asked.

"Well, how else do you explain how you got so far in the academy?" Kurama inquired.

Naruto shrugged after trying to come up with an explanation for that particular question. "I guess I always thought that I was just good enough to just barely make it by."

"Humph. Well, news flash, kid. You were never THAT good."

It was then that Naruto got off of his bed and went rummaging through his closet, intent on looking for his old pair of goggles. When he finally found them again, he dusted them off, went to the bathroom, and put them on, looking at his reflection in the mirror as he did. It was a bit strange to say the least. Nowadays, with his now more developed body, the goggles looked extremely out of place. "Looks like I've outgrown them," he noted.

"Looks like."

Naruto took them off and looked at them thoughtfully for a while before asking, "Do you think that that's what's going to happen once I start remembering her?"

"Well, you would need to survive first," Kurama pointed out.

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Assuming that I survive and that it works," he clarified. "Do you think I'll feel like I've outgrown her too?"

"Probably."

Naruto frowned. "Do you think that's a good thing?"

"... I think it's a normal thing. I mean, nothing lasts forever, right? Even your feelings for people, they can change sometimes, you know?"

"But what about her? Does she deserve to be moved on from after what happened?"

Kurama let out a weary and exasperated sigh. "That's honestly up to you. But what I CAN tell you is that whatever you do feel after you get your memories of her back, is that those feelings are your own, and no one else's. They are right because they're your own true feelings. If anyone doesn't like how you feel about it after, then that's their problem, not yours. Just hope you survive tomorrow's encounter and just handle it like you usually do, and you should be fine."

Naruto smiled. "You really think so?"

Kurama shrugged. "Why not? It's kept you alive for this long, hasn't it?"

Naruto chuckled. "No argument there!"

"So, it seems you truly are willing to risk everything to regain that which you have lost," Orochimaru said upon seeing that Naruto, Kakashi, Sakura, Sai, and Anko had entered the room that held his cell. He then gave them all an amused smile. "But whether you all are willing to face the consequences of running that risk, that is the true question, isn't it?"

Anko scoffed. "Enough of your cryptic rambling, Orochimaru! Just do what you promised and we'll see to it that your sentence gets shortened."

"Actually," Orochimaru said, "I would like to change your end of the bargain just a little."

Anko gave Kakashi a look that screamed, "I told you so!" before Kakashi let out a weary sigh and asked, "And what is it that you'd like to change?"

Orochimaru smiled. "I would also like for you to shorten the sentences of Sasuke's other teammates." He looked up. "What were their names again?" He then smiled and looked back at them. "Oh, that's right. Suigetsu, Juugo, and Karin. Oh," he pointed his index finger up, "and Kabuto too, if you don't mind."

"Why?" Anko asked through gritted teeth as she folded her arms.

Unfortunately for her, Orochimaru was not fazed. "I want to apologize to Kabuto for everything I've done to him, and that seems like the best way for someone like me to do it. And as for the other three," he chuckled, "I'm embarrassed to admit that I've grown quite fond of them."

Anko scoffed. "'Fond of them'" she repeated incredulously before opening the door to Orochimaru's cell and allowing Kakashi, Sakura, Sai, and Naruto to go in before closing the door behind them and standing guard on the outside.

Naruto received reassuring nods from his friends before walking up to Orochimaru, who frowned and asked, "I must ask again if you are certain about this. The man I am now would not like to take this life-threatening situation lightly."

Naruto gave him a small and determined grin. "I had the time to sleep on it, remember?"

Orochimaru chuckled before nodding his head and saying, "Yes, yes you did. But if you wish for me to stop, then simply tell me. No shame in backing out to avoid death's doorstep." He then performed the necessary hand signs and declared, "Special Technique: Opening the Mind's Eye!" He then jabbed his index and middle finger against Naruto's head and kept them there as Naruto immediately began screaming out in pain as he felt his brain practically splitting in two.

"Naruto!" Sakura cried, attempting to get to him before Kakashi signaled for her to stay back with his arm. "Kakashi-sensei?"

"He warned us that this would happen," Kakashi gravely whispered. "Now it's time for us to support Naruto as he sees this through."

Sakura let out a tiny gasp upon realizing that Kakashi was right before looking back at Naruto and whispering, "I hope you know what you're doing, Naruto."

Naruto's screams of pain only grew louder as Orochimaru continued to perform his technique on him. Throughout his entire ninja career, he had been bruised, cut, burned, you name it, but this? To him, this practically trumped all of them, which made sense. He had never been very good at mind-related techniques or fighters. But this was different. If any one of those types of ninjas were going through what he was going through right now, even THEY would've probably buckled under the ludicrous amount of pain this technique could cause them. Would his healing factor even work on this type of damage done to him? He hoped so. In a way, this was the most scared he had ever been in a long time. There was nothing to truly defy here. When the enemy inflicted pain on him, he'd just inflict a thousand more on them. But this wasn't a battle. This wasn't a fight. This was him having to withstand a pain he was not used to and keep going until he either got what he wanted or gave up. He was really out of his element here.

And yet, it was working. Despite the incredible amount of pain Naruto was feeling, he could see every single memory he had ever had as clear as day. He never knew that one could remember so clearly!

And yet, none of them were memories of Naruko.

"Argh!" Naruto cried, realizing that his legs had buckled under him from lacking the required energy to support his body anymore.

"Naruto!" he heard Sakura and Sai cry.

"Don't!" he said through gritted teeth as he instinctively raised a hand up to signal them to keep their distance. "I'm not there yet! I'm still not there yet!" He could feel himself perspirating and his face growing hot. "Just a little more!"

"But any more and you could die!" Sai warned.

"I know that, Sai!" Naruto cried. "I know that!" Just then, he vaguely remembered something that he was sure had never happened before. It was still a good deal blurry, but he could tell that the memory had him seemingly playing in the park and turning his head around upon hearing a muted or muffled up voice, which his younger self responded by running up towards it. Naruto gasped. "It's working!" he cried, much to the surprise of Kakashi, Sakura, Anko, and Sai. "It's working! Keep going!"

"Are you certain?" Orochimaru cautiously asked.

Naruto forced himself to nod, despite the fact that his eyes felt like falling out of their sockets, his face felt it was going absolutely numb, and his brain felt absolutely fried. "Keep... going!" he repeated through gritted teeth.

Orochimaru nodded solemnly. "If you insist," he said, and added some more chakra into the technique for good measure.

Naruto let out a bloodcurdling scream as his entire body immediately felt weak under the technique's effects. As more and more blurry and muted memories began to flood back into his brain, the more energy the technique seemed to suck away and the more pain to his brain it seemed to cause. It got to the point where Naruto was truly considering the option of backing out, especially when the memories were not getting any clearer as time went on. But no, that wasn't how Naruto did things. He powered through, no matter how hard things were. He had done it all his life. He wasn't about to stop now. "Remember!" he cried to himself. "Remember, dang it!"

And that's when everything went white. At first, this shocked him, and as he turned around to survey his surroundings, he found that nothing besides him was there and that he could hear the sound of his footsteps and subtle movements reverberating for much longer and louder than they probably should have. He whirled around frantically looking for a way out, but to no avail. He tried calling out to Kurama, but even that seemed to be taken away from him. For all intents and purposes, he was trapped. Completely and hopelessly trapped, and in a place that was only getting creepier and creepier by the second.

"Hello!?" he cried, his voice echoing ominously after he did. He paused for a moment at the off-chance that someone would answer him. "Hello?!" he cried out once again as no one did. It was just him, the echoing of his voice, and the echoing of every single sound his body could make as he frantically searched for a way out of this strange environment. "Is anybody there?!" Still nothing. "Kakashi-sensei?! Sakura?! Sai?! Anko?! Orochimaru?! Anybody?!" The constant echoing of his voice and footsteps were maddening. "Hey! Can somebody help me?! Where is this place?!" He began to spin around frantically as he continued to cry out for nothing. "How do I get out of here?!" Nothing. Naruto shook his head hopelessly. "This is insane," he muttered to himself. "There's literally nothing here!" He then looked hopelessly on as he whispered, "I really am alone."

"Oh my gosh!" Sakura's muted voice seemed to echo all around him. "Naruto!" she cried frantically. "Naruto!"

Naruto's eyes widened in both surprise and relief upon hearing her voice. "Sakura!" He looked around. "Where are you?!"

"What have you done to him?!" he heard Sakura demand.

"If you've killed him...," he heard Kakashi threaten.

"I only did what he wanted me to do," Orochimaru calmly seemed to argue. "It was his own fault for pushing the boundaries of his body so unrealistically hard."

"You monster!" he heard Anko cry as he heard the rustling of keys. "I knew that you were up to no good!"

"Wait!" he heard Sai say. "He's still got a pulse! It's faint, but it is indeed there!"

He heard Sakura let out a tiny gasp of surprise. "Then there's still time!"

"Oh?" he heard Orochimaru say. "A medical ninja, are you? How very fortunate."

"And if she can't save him in time, then you will be very unfortunate," Kakashi growled.

"Guys!" Naruto cried, looking up into the endless white above him and cupping his mouth to better amplify his voice. "What's going on?! Did something happen?!"

"Come on, Naruto!" he heard Sakura mutter. "Don't you die out on us! Not like this!"

Naruto's eyes widened in surprise. "Dying?" he muttered incredulously to himself. "I'm dying?" It was just then that he noticed that it was getting ominously darker around him.

"His pulse is getting slower!" Sai cried.

"Sakura!"

"I'm healing him as fast as I can!"

He heard Orochimaru getting slammed into a wall. "I knew we should've finished you when we had the chance!"

"Yes, I suppose we all should have"

As this was all going on, the darkness was slowly crawling closer and closer towards Naruto, encircling him, threatening to swallow him up. "Guys?!" he cried as he was slowly beginning to panic. "Can you go a little bit faster, please?!" He whirled around to better observe the terrible situation he was in. "I don't want to die -"

And then he saw her. The woman in the picture that everyone had talked so highly about. The one who had resembled his Sexy Technique so much. The woman who had apparently given him all of the love and attention he had always yearned for. His father's sister. His mother's sister-in-law. His aunt. His godmother. Naruto held his breath upon laying eyes on her, shocked that she was there and taken by surprise to the point where he was at a loss for words.

Luckily for him, he didn't really need any. As Naruto was gaping at Naruko in shock, Naruko was staring at him in what seemed to be a mix of relief, happiness, and awe. Was this him? Was this Naruto? She couldn't believe it, and in a way, she didn't want to believe it, because if he was here, then that would mean...

She slowly began to approach him. At first, Naruto, a bit too scared about what was going to happen next, began to slowly back away, only to remember at the last second of the darkness that was surrounding him and was threatening to consume him. This caused him to immediately stop, quickly turn around, and look at the ground behind him, internally sighing in relief when he saw that he had yet to step into the ominous darkness, only to look back in front of him to notice that Naruko was standing right in front of him and slowly lifting her hand up to his face, which made Naruto gulp nervously and shut his eyes, mentally preparing himself for whatever was going to happen next.

And what happened next surprised him. When all he felt was a warm hand gently placing itself against his cheek, he slowly opened his eyes and saw that that was indeed what Naruko had done. He eyed the hand on his cheek in genuine surprise for a moment before looking into the woman's face, who let out a small, happy, and awestruck laugh before placing her other hand lovingly onto Naruto's other cheek, and hearing Sai say, "His pulse is getting faster! It's working, Sakura!"

Both Naruto and Naruko looked up. "Oh thank goodness," they heard Sakura whisper to herself. "Come on, Naruto! Just a little bit more and we'll be in the clear!"

Naruko let out a relieved laugh as she looked back at Naruto, unshed tears at the corners of her eyes. "You've made friends," she stated happily.

And it was then that Naruto remembered. He remembered the first time he had gotten hurt and she had been there to comfort him. He remembered when she had seen him off on his very first day at the academy. He remembered every time he had gotten into a fight with the other kids and every time he did, she would reprimand him for it. He remembered the time when she had made him their very own festival when he was unable to properly play in one. The time when they lit fireworks. The day when he decided to become Hokage. Every time she wanted him to make friends. Every time she said, "I love you." Every time they slept in the same bed together.

And the last thing he ever said to her before Danzo wiped his mind of her.

His eyes watered at the memory. "Mom?" he instinctively uttered, before letting out a surprised gasp upon realizing what he had just said. "I-I mean, A-Aunt Naruko?"

Naruko let out a warm-hearted giggle. "So you found out all by yourself, huh?"

Naruto lightly shook his head. "I-It was more out of luck then anything," he admitted sadly.

Naruko sighed before smiling and tilting her head to the side. "Oh well," she said. She tapped one of her index fingers against Naruto's nose playfully. "I guess I won't hold it against you." She then looked him over one more time. "You've grown," she noted happily.

Naruto gulped down his sadness and regret and nodded. "It's been a couple of years."

Naruko nodded understandingly. "I see." She took her hands off of Naruto's face and they stood there in awkward silence for a moment before she let out another giggle. "Look at us. All tongue-tied like this." She let out a small sniffle. "I wanted to see you again for so long," she said.

Naruto bowed his head dejectedly. "R-Really?"

Naruko nodded. "Of course!" she insisted, sounding offended at the very prospect that Naruto would doubt her.

Naruto averted his eyes to the side. "Even after I said all of those horrible things to you?"

"Oh, Naruto," Naruko said before grabbing both of Naruto's hands and squeezing them reassuringly. "You could say the worst possible thing a human being could say." She leaned towards him. "But you know what?" she asked in a hushed whisper.

"W-What?"

Naruko smiled radiantly. "No matter what you say to me... I will always love you more than anybody else in the world."

Naruto gasped as he felt a rare warmth swell up within his chest, a warmth that he had only felt when he had first met his real mother and father before. He smiled sheepishly at his godmother and asked, "You sure about that? Your sister-in-law might have something to say about that!"

Naruko rolled her eyes playfully. "Maybe," she said in a singsong tone of voice. "But I'm your aunt." She gave him a small peck on his cheek. "We're supposed to love our nephews more than their mothers do. It's an unwritten law."

Naruto chuckled at this. Somehow, despite having forgotten her for so long, he seemed to feel calmer and more at home with her than he did with anybody else. Even Iruka.

It was then that he realized that he was starting to disappear. His eyes widened as he gasped and looked at his hands, which were slowly beginning to fade away. "W-What the -?"

Naruko smiled sadly at him. "It looks like you're going back to your friends," she said. "Say 'hello' to them for me, alright?"

"W-What?!" Naruto shook his head. "No! We have so much more to talk about!"

Naruko nodded. "I know." She placed her hand gently onto Naruto's chest in an attempt to calm him down. "We'll finish this another time, okay?"

Naruto was now almost completely fading away from view. "Wait!" he cried, in the off-chance that his voice was slowly disappearing as well. "I need to tell you something!"

"Huh?"

"I... I miss you! And so does Iruka, Kakashi, Sakura... everyone!"

Naruko let out a small gasp of surprise before smiling and letting a few tears fall down her face. "I miss you all too," she said. "But even so, don't be in any rush to see me again, okay?" She then paused, and added, "And Naruto? You be an amazing Hokage."

Naruto nodded. "I will!"

Naruko nodded and hesitated for a moment before saying, "I love you!"

Naruto had almost completely disappeared. "... I love you t -"

And then he was gone, not that that had mattered. She had heard her nephew loud and clear. She placed her hands over her chest as the pain of missing him and everyone else in the village was already swelling up inside of her. It was ironic. Back when she was young, she had always longed for a family that she could truly call her own, but as she grew up, she realized that she had always considered everyone family, no matter how loose her relationship with certain people were. And here her nephew had been, going so far just to tell her that he was sorry and that he loved her and missed her and that everyone else in the village felt the exact same way. She wiped away some of the tears that had fallen down her face. "I really had such a lovely family."

"Guh!" Naruto cried as he suddenly woke up, immediately sitting up despite the fact that he could feel how weak his entire body felt and how much of a headache he was having.

"Naruto!" Sakura cried, wrapping her arms around him as everyone else let out a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness!"

Naruto panted heavily as he looked around the cell. Sai was kneeling down beside him as Kakashi stood at a distance while Anko held Orochimaru up against the wall by his collar. "How long was I gone?"

"Long enough to scare us half to death," Anko reprimanded before putting Orochimaru down. "Don't you dare do that to us again!" She then pointed a threatening finger at Orochimaru. "And don't think this lets you off the hook for one second."

Orochimaru nodded. "Of course."

"So," Sai said, "did it work, do you remember her?"

Naruto grinned. "I did more than just remember her, Sai," he answered. He looked around at everyone in the room. "Naruko says, 'hi'."

Author's Note: Despite the backlash and negative reviews the last chapter had, I'm still proud of it, though I took the effort to learn from them if I could. Ultimately, I've learned that people like their stories to have closure and that people hate what are essentially "filler-arcs" (and to be fair, I should've realized that the Naruto fanbase would have a much more deep-rooted hatred for that kind of stuff). In terms of the latter, that was my fault. This was always meant to be a "what-if" prologue to the original show, so the fact that I didn't specify it anywhere in the summary or in the first chapter probably meant that what happened in the last chapter took some readers by surprise and got them mad or disappointed. That was my bad. I honestly don't have a problem with filler-arcs/episodes. As long as it's interesting, fun, or I get something out of it, then I tend to be at least okay with them. Doesn't mean that everyone feels the same way though, and I should've probably specified what exactly this type of story was before getting too deep into it. Please accept my apology for that. As for the former, I actually ended up agreeing with it, so I made this epilogue. The technique Orochimaru performed in this chapter was made up, so if it, by any chance, somehow manages to be real, then I apologize for getting that wrong. I don't really expect this chapter to rebuild any bridges or alleviate some of the hate this story has gotten, but to those who wanted closure, I hope that this was enough to satisfy you, and I hope that everyone enjoys it or takes something out of it in some way. Thank you again for reading this story, I can never thank the readers of this story enough.