Chapter 4: Into the unknown or The corridor to the past

What he saw as he opened his eyes was nothing less than mind-gaping. He was standing on one side of a gigantic dome-shaped cave-room complex. In the walls were a vast amount of smaller tunnels As he looked around he noticed a large number of odd houses that were situated in strange patterns around the area. He also noticed a gigantic concrete-building with a sign that had some foreign language on it. He was amazed that something like this could exist beneath his estate. The cave must have been at least twice as big as the estate, but he just shrugged it of, as his exploration-side kicked in. As he wandered around the cave he noticed a lot of weird machines that he never in his life had seen.

There were a bunch of weird, box-shaped machines with tracks on the side and a long hollow barrel that seemed to sit on some sort of tower that was built on the machine. As he inspected it closer, he discovered that it was hollow, with some seats inside, and a lot of weird contraptions inside. But because he didn't know what they were he just shrugged and continued. "A tank, I thought that they had been destroyed at the apocalypse. I guess they had been stored somewhere hidden, but how did it get here? Oh, Arashi you sneaky…"was the thoughts that raced thru Rikka's mind when she saw the 'tank'.

As Naruto continued to scourer the cave he found some sort of gigantic metal man that was sitting, leaning against the cave-wall. It was black and white, with a scroll in its mouth. This caught Naruto's attention but when he scaled the sitting giant he saw that it was a gigantic one-side blade with a black handle. He was a little disappointed because of that but just shrugged it of, jumped down from the 28 foot goliath, and continued. 'A battlemech!! Arashi, where did you find this? They were rumered to have been destroyed at 'the last stand'' Yet again, the thoughts that raced thru Rikka's mind when she now saw the 'Mech'.

He spent an hour looking thru a large number of 'barracks'. He decided to call the barracks because the only thing in them was lockers and bunk-beds. The barrack walls on just about everyone he had inspected had small holes in them. 'That's odd, I don't think its ventilation, just seems to random' But in one of the barracks the lockers had been completely destroyed, and the bunk-beds frames had been twisted and turned in odd angles and was. He didn't know what could have caused such things and just shrugged again. 'I can't find anything. I guess I should head to that main structure at the other side of the cave' he thought as he started to walk towards the concrete structure.

As he got closer he noticed something about the place. There were holes all over the building and at some places it seemed like explosions had occurred. Shrugging he walked thru the main doors. As he entered he was met by a large metal-door with a small panel by the right side. As he got closer and started to inspect the door, a beeping sound was heard. As he looked for the source, a woman voice, like thru a com-radio, but more mechanical, was heard.

"Please enter Voice Identification Code" the woman said. "huh, what?" Naruto said, not understanding what the woman was talking about. As he said that a ripple was shown on a screen, that was on the panel "Access Denied, Please Enter Voice Identification Code For Access" she said in the same tone. Naruto, not knowing what the woman wanted him to answer just said the first thing that came to mind "Uzumaki Kazama Naruto". The line rippled again, and this time he waited for an answer, as the panel blinked in strange sequences and patterns for about a half a minute or so, before…

"Access Has Been Granted, Welcome Back Commander Kazama" the voice said. As Naruto wondered what it meant by 'commander', the door split at a 45o angle, in half. As it opened, a second set of doors opened in the same manner, but in a mirror-movement and he walked inside to find himself in a long corridor. As he walked down the hallway he noticed something that looked like a guards booth behind a think panel of glass. He walked down the corridor, and found himself at something like a crossway. Hanging from the sealing was signs with arrows. As he read them he seemed to get a feeling that he was supposed to find a certain room inside the complex. He noticed that one sign read something he seemed to understand.

"Main…con…troll…room, Main controllroom" he said, saw a arrow to the right on the sign pointing right, and walked down the right corridor. As he walked he found himself in front of a door with the same letters like the ones before. 'I guess there is something important here, if I know were to look' he thought, as he stepped in front of the door. As he did that the door moved to the side, startling the blond. As he confirmed that it was an automatic slide-door, he entered the room. Another beeping sound was heard, and then screens located on the walls where turned on. As he looked around for anything that indicated a presence, he noticed a large round table in the middle of the room, which seemed to be built into the floor. As he looked at it the top of the table started to glow. Moments later light was being emitted from it. As the blond held his hand up to cover his face from the light, a voice was heard that caused Naruto's eyes to widen. "So you were able to find this place, good work Naruto"

As Naruto lowered his arms to see the person he believed he heard, he was struck by what he saw. Standing on the glowing table was his father, in the same outfit he had seen him with in pictures. "I see you have grown, son, sad I don't have the option to be with you. If you are watching this, I guess I was forced to sacrifice my life to protect Konoha, or I have died In combat though i don't believe in the second option" he said as he smiled. Naruto was close to tears and wanted to say something, but he decided to listen to what his father had to say.

"Naruto, before I say something else I want you to know that my name, my real name isn't Kazama Arashi, but Namikaze Minato, of the Namikaze clan. I used the name Kazama to protect my family from the vast amount of enemies that I had gained during the second great shinobi war, so in truth your name would be Uzumaki Kazama Namikaze Naruto of the Namikaze clan." He said as he held his hands out in a sort of welcome manner. This revelation was new to Naruto, but he noticed something and was about to ask, when…

"If you wonder what will happen to the estate, you don't have to worry. The estate can switch clan at a moments notice, so if you want your clan name to be Namikaze, Kazama, Uzumaki or even an own personal, it will stay in your ownership." Naruto was relieved because of that.

"But back to basic, in this complex there is a room with the most powerful human technology ever created that humans can carry. I spent decades to uncover it when I heard about it. I was going to use it to protect my precious people, but it turned out to be an impossibility…" he said which made Naruto wonder what could be so hard that could make his own father say something like that "…,or at least harder than I thought would be." He deadpanned. This caused the blond to sweat-drop a bit, as his father continued

"You see it's a combat-suit, that relies on power to work properly and the only way to supply it with power is to constantly channel chakra into it to keep the energy at satisfying level. It has an abundant of functions, like boosting your speed, making you stronger, giving you protection from all sorts of attacks, and even a cloaking device, that can make you completely invisible to the eye" he said with pride in his voice.

The blond was looking at his father with the 'Is-he-joking-with-me-or-is-he-serious' look. "It also has an array of different function, like binoculars, night-vision, com-radio, holsters for weapons and so on" he continued. "There are also loads of weapons from the 'old world' that I took opportunity to repair, study and document about. If you would like to learn and use them you just have to pick them up at the armoury"

"While the suit has not been used since 'the old world' and 'the last stand' as books and logs seem to want to call it, the suit has been upgrading itself. I do not know what kind of new functions it has, but I want you to use it. If you have it, you could defeat even the hardest enemies, but i want you to work for your power. Don't ever rely on it though" Minato was looking at Naruto with serious eyes now

"Those who train until they can't move anymore are the only ones that have the right to be called geniuses because they gain true strength. Power isn't the same thing like strength. Those who believe that power can be given will never be truly strong. Train to become a person that protects what he sees important, then you will gain true power. Those people are the ones that can never be defeated, and they are the ones that become the greatest." Naruto was practically beaming now.

"I don't know what you want, but I want you to become greater than what I am." Minato said smiling with his hands on his sides. "You should always know I will be proud of you, my son. I hope you have a 'will of fire' that could burn anyone that tries to hurt anyone precious to you." Now Naruto felt warm inside. He now knew his father always was with him.

"I believe its about time I quit, I have to continue studying ancient items. Oh and before I go, tell the old man that he should use Kage bunshin to speed up his paperwork." His father said as he waved as he faded away with a few last words "See Ya" with a huge smile, and then he was gone.

Naruto just stood there, how long he didn't know, but it must have been a ¼ of an hour before he asked "hey Rikka, could you teach me Kage bunshin, it seems to be pretty useful" Naruto

heard Rikka speak "Well okay but I must say, that guy just comes and goes like he wishes." She showed him the seals in his mind and Naruto tried it outside "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu" ashe said that four small explosions of smoke appeared, and when the smoke had gone, four solid clones stood in front of the real one. "Okay, I did it, so what's so special about these guys" he asked. "Well Naruto, everything these guys learn, you will gain as they dissipate, so if you send them to scout this place, when they dissipate, you will gain all knowledge about the layout of this place" After a quick explanationhe sent a total of 20 clones,( his control is average already in my story at this point) to scout the entire complex.

"Come on Naruto, lets find this 'combat-suit' that he was talking about. I want to know what he was talking about." Rikka said impatiently. 'though I have a solid guess, I mean I was forced to fight against a sort of knockoff of the original' She thought inside the mindscape, sitting on a rock near the lake, throwing sandwiches with stones, bored beyond recognition. Why, well she sort of broke the TV inside the house because of a news interruption, in the middle of the 'The Muppets Tonight Show'. (…What? she likes the show, and so do i).

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As Naruto searched the complex, he was notified by a clone dispersing. He smiled at what it had found and headed towards the place he now knew he would go to. As he got closer to the armory, he spotted a sort of cylindrical room ahead. As he entered it, the mechanical woman voice spoke again. "Voice Identification" it said and he answered like before. The cylinder started to turn slowly as the hallway he came from disappeared as the opening showed a concrete wall, then…

He was blinded yet again by the bright lights that came from the sealing. As his eyes adjusted he started to make out that he was in a grey/white room. Benches and shelfs were lining the walls, most filled by strange items. On one of the benches were green round spheres with pins and handles. Lying on another bench were green and black tubes that also had pins and handles.

As he looked around in the, 'clinically' clean and organized room, he found a huge set of objects lying on a bench beneath a window that was on the opposite side of the door. On the other side of the pane of glass was a long room that seemed to be for some sort of target practice, because of the cardboard targets that hanged from some sort of rails on the roof. As he checked the different items he noticed scrolls and books that were lying next to the items, on with on read "To my successor, Naruto Namikaze". As Naruto read that his hand darted like automatic for the scroll, unsealed the scroll, (Bloodseal, for security, what else.), and read what was on them.

To Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze Kazama

Naruto, on this scroll is a containment seal for a set of 'Knowledge scrolls'.

They are constructed so that any information that is sealed inside the scroll, can be absorbed by the one that unseals it, though I used a bloodseal, so only you can in other words.

On one of the scrolls is my collected knowledge about the ancient language that is used in the books next to the scroll. The second one contains knowledge about ancient technology, and how to create, repair and also upgrade items. It also contains knowledge about most items inside the armory.

On a side note to enter the sealed area of the armory a voice code and eye scan is necessary, but you should not worry, because as you entered this complex your eyes were scanned and added to the databanks, so you were granted access as soon as you walked through the doors.

In the books are log's about my discoveries that I didn't want to add or couldn't to the scrolls. They have been written in ancient language so don't worry about them.

I hope you're having a good life, I just wished that I could be of more help. I wish you good luck in your travels and hope you exceeded everything a father could have hoped for.

Yours sincerely

Namikaze Minato Yondaime Hokage of Konohagakure

Naruto read the last, and rolled out the scroll so he could see the containment seals, as he bit his thumb and stroke blood over both of them. As the blood touched the seal, two small poffes were heard and two scrolls appeared over the seals. He continued to pick up the left, opened it in with blood, and opened. As he did this a wave of nausea showered over him, so he lost his footing and fell on one knee. As he gathered himself, he didn't feel like any information had entered his brain, but as he got up, he looked around and was stunned that he could understand what the signs read. One set was 'Grenades', 'Ammunition', 'Add-ons', Repair-tools' and so on. As the revelation showered over him, Rikka made an appearance in his mind.

"You know, all that information is passive, you will not notice it until you come across something from the 'old worlds', so there is no reason to scratch yourself bald over something as simple as that, otherwise your brain would have fried itself because of information-overload." she deadpanned. This calmed the blond, and he sort of became happy for what she told him. 'Thanks, Kira-chan'he said, as he felt that she was blushing.

He unsealed the other scroll in the same way, with the same effect. As he got up, he picked up the books and sealed them on a sealing-scroll that lay on the table. That is after he read a bit of each of them.

Most of the notes contained information about the different items and objects that he had seen when he came here. There were notes and a picture of the 'tank', as it was called. As Naruto read about it he discovered how powerful and dangerous the machine was, but it was nowhere near the strange metal goliath. It was called an 'Arm-Slave' or AS for short. It was capable to operate and move like a human, with a human sitting inside, controlling it. It had a huge set of armaments for long-rang and medium, but also at close combat, where it could fight with a huge sword or a chainsaw knife.

Most of the intel about most of the weapons in the armory was consistent of what they were for and what they could do. Like the M82A1, which was capable to pierce a thick metalplate form a mile and a half or so.

A second was a sort of wooden-cased rifle, a Walther WA2000 that could be disassembled with ease and upgraded with various items.

Another thing that caught his interest was a set of one handed guns. Aside from being for close-combat, they were equipped with something like long-slides, a extended clip, and loaded with something he could make out like .454 Casull bullets. As he studied the notes, he was stunned that something as small as a large thumb could cause such large holes if they hit. As he came to the book he found a small note that wasn't from the book, with a text that caused the blond to smile.

'A weapon is only as good as its wielder, and it is only evil if the wielders intentions are evil. You should always train yourself to not rely on a weapon, but of your skill to fight with and without it' As he took this to heart he stood up from the chair that he had found.

After he had picked up all the scrolls and books, he also picked up the sets of .454 Casull's, with a set of extra clips and ammunition, plus the WA2000 with extra ammunition and a rifle suitcase. He thought that he could use a long-range weapon if he ever would want to asses a situation and also kill a target from a far. A plus was that he could hide it pretty easy with the case, or just seal it in a scroll. The guns he just wanted for they seemed to be unlike the rest of handguns. He felt like they were calling for him. As he picked them up he was amazed…

"How heavy are they" he practically yelled, as he, with a lot of effort lifted them of the bench. "Damn they sure weigh a lot". He was about to give up with the attempt, when he saw two holsters that seemed to have been made for both of the .454's. He holstered both guns, hanged one on his left shoulder, and then the other on his right shoulder. 'Why doesn't he just seal them instead of carrying them around for no reason' a certain fox just thought as she watched him struggle with the items he wanted to carry. "Oh well it's not my back that's going to hurt tomorrow" she thought as she continued with what she was doing, fishing in the lake, it just happened to be one problem with that idea…

SOMEONE had forgotten to add fish to the lake, and who's heard about 'dream-fish'…

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As Naruto looked around the room again, he noticed a third door except the exit and shooting-range. He entered and started to walk down a white hallway with grey horizontal lines, three evenly placed on the walls. As he walked he came upon a new security-door. As he finished the security-check yet again, the door split open vertically, as he was welcomed by something mind gaping again. (Yes I know a lot of mind-blankouts and so on).

He had entered a large sphere-shaped room, with screens around the walls, and a large dome that was situated in the middle of the room, right over the platform he was walking out on. As he check over the sides of the platform he was met by the realization that if he slipped the fall would be long and hard. The room must have been roughly 110 yards or 330 feet in diameter. As he got closer to the center, the floor on the platforms center opened in a spiral motion outwards, just as something came out of the hole. As the blond stared at what had appeared, he was prepped for an enemy but he noticed that it didn't move, so he started to walk up to the person, slowly. As he got closer he was impressed of what he saw 'So this is what my father left to me' his thoughts were

The suit looked like it was organic, as what looked like muscles were wrapped around the body. Each of these 'muscles' were attached to different areas of the body. On the chest, a plate, just under the chest connected the torso with the lower half of the body. A armor plate sat in front of the crouch, with more 'muscles' attached with it. On the sides of the legs were gun holsters, pouches for extra ammo, and also for a set of grenades. At the shoulders the 'muscles' bulged out over the arms. At the elbows bendable plates connected the lowerarm part of the suit and the hands. The hand had armor plates over the knuckles and on the fingers. On the outside of both arms, a sort of square bulge, that started from the wrist, and up the lower arm.

But what caught Naruto's attention the most was the helmet. A metal plate ran over the skull, with more of the 'muscles', trailing over the head. Over the eyes was a blood-red visor that was held in place by a metal straps that seemed to be able to flex to be able allowed removing. A breathing-mask was over the nose and mouth, which also connected with the neck-protection. On the sides, more plating was covering where the ears should be. He guessed that the small holes over the ears were there to allow sound to come in.

As Naruto continued to inspect the suit, a voice was heard that caused the blond to jump back. "Activation sequence has been commenced, please remove any equipment and cloth to proceeding with equipping the suit" the voice said. Naruto recognized the voice as the control-panel lady (His nickname for the voice). He shrugged and reached out for the suit as he started to put it on him. (though, he had to strip. Even if there was no one around, it was a pain). As he slid into the leg parts, they seemed to shrink in size, until they were sitting tightly on him. This freaked him out first, but found it interesting indeed. As he got the rest of the suit on him he noticed that it sat snuggly on him, and still allowed incredible movement.

"Wow, I could never dream about something like this" he said as he put on the helmet, put the mask on and put the goggles on his head as he slid them in front of his eyes. As he did this everything turned black for a moment, then he only saw red, then everything returned to normal color. As it did this a female voice, not the control-panel lady's but a sweeter on. "Systems checkup, all systems are functional. No damages have been detected. System checkup complete. All systems are go" she said. Naruto wondered where the voice came from, but realized that it came from the suit as information started to pop up in front of Naruto's eyes. He recognized the information as a checkup list, and everything seemed to pass. Naruto wondered where the voice came from, but realized that it came from the suit "Nanoid effectiveness has increased by 125" the voice said again. "Excuse me what do you mean by 'Nanoid effectiveness', and who are you" Naruto asked as he was confused over what the lady said.

"All Nano robots have been upgraded. And my name is 'Eva'" 'Eva' answered like if recorded. "All functions have been upgraded, and new functions have been added" Eva continued. "What kind of functions does this suit have, I heard that my strength, speed, protection could be increased, and that you have a cloaking function, correct" he asked.

"Correct. To access any function, use the consol that is situated on you left hand. The buttons react only to your fingertips, making it impossible for anyone else to influence the suit-commands" Eva said, as she continued, "also to be noted a new set of weapons have been integrated into the suit, the first are attack-blades that are situated on the arms. These extended thru twisting your wrists. On the inside of your left arm at your wrist is a smaller blade, useful for assassinations at close range, opens when you flip your hand away from it and twist." As the voice told him this he was testing what she had told him. The blades that shot out were like a 6 sided ruby with a hole like one on the inside, giving it a dangerous look. As he shot out the smaller blade he noticed that it looked like a gigantic needle. 'Damn this one is a real killer if you don't know about it. I could lay my hand on his shoulder and be able to strike him without anyone noticing' he thought as he retracted them.

That's when he noticed what the time was and thought that it was time to go back. He picked up all the equipment, which seemed to be lighter 'must be this suit' he thought as he walked back to the stairs in the cave. That's when he noticed a set of double doors in the wall with a 2 set button panel, and a sign that showed 'Cave area' and 'Study'. That hit Naruto hard. "Why the hell didn't they show me that they had an elevator here. I mean is it to much to ask for?" He was practically yelling to himself. "Well if you ask me, I guess that they probably wanted you to walk down the stairs, just to make you drop your jaw when you came down here. Or, they just wanted to you to get angry for no reason. I actually think you're cute when you're angry" Rikka said in the back of his mind. This caused the blond to just sigh and pressed the 'Up' button, and waited.

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"Fast forwarding 8 minutes and a lot of mind killing elevator music"

As he stepped out of the elevator, he was sweating, his eyes were yanked open, and he was muttering something like "let me of" and "please let me kill myself" (Elevator-music, the most painful way of breaking down a person, Believe me)

As he regained his composer, he pulled down the mask, lifted the goggles to his forehead, and breathed in the fresh air. "Shesh, some fresh air is always good" he said. That was just when his stomach decided to announce its presents. "Ah crap, I don't have any food in neither the kitchen or the food store, and if I walk around in this people will give me a lot of strange looks, or in the worst case say that i stole it from somewhere" he said as he started to tap his finger against his chin trying to find a way to get something to eat. 'I could always wear my jumpsuit, but I guess that even that wouldn't be enough' he thought as he pondered his situation. 'Wait, maybe dad left some clothes, maybe even his trench coat, or a set of different ones. Wouldn't be smart to walk down the street with the Yondaime's coat' he thought as he scoured the dressers and closets. Sure enough, he found one of his father's trench coats. 'Bingo…' he thought as he smiled a huge grin.

He was walking down the street of Konoha in the trench coat that he had found. It was a simple black trench coat with pockets like an ordinary jacket, with a pocket on the inside. On the back there was a spiral symbolizing a whirlpool. Under it, he wore a red vest on top of a black hoody, a white shirt, and black pants. He didn't have to have shoes really but somehow he had gotten a pair of brown boots that reached up over his ankles, just to hide the suit he now was wearing. On his head he wore a bandana that he had found, with the hood over his head, covering the helmet, with the goggles hanging on his neck together with the mask

As he entered the Ramenstand he noticed that Iruka, one of the few that ever recognized him for who he was, sitting on one of the seats. "Hello, Iruka" Naruto said with a foxy grin as Iruka turned around and saw who had called "Naruto, how are you doing, I didn't recognize you in that outfit. I heard that you had been attacked again" he said as he looked at the blond concerned about his health. "Eh Yeah, im okay actually. I didn't receive any major injuries so I was let out of the hospital pretty fast, but my clothes were so damaged that I had to buy a new set" he lied as he sat down and ordered a bunch of ramen bowls.

"Eh Naruto, are you going to join the academy when your allowed" Iruka asked, anxious about his answer. What he heard only gave him a huge smile across his face. The scar across his nose wasn't intimidating, but it must have been painful when he got it. "Hell yeah, don't think that I will ever give up. I might be broken in more ways than one sometimes, but I will never give up my dream of becoming the hokage. When I join the academy I will ace it, and if I don't, it's just to boring, so I wouldn't put any effort in it" he said as he grinned and continued to eat. As he paid for his meal, he turned to Iruka. "…You see, I will train with Kakashi-sensei, so I will not be diligent in my training, and I have also been told that the old man will also teach me. I will become the greatest Iruka, so don't blame me if you're just boring when I begin the academy" he said as he ran towards the hokage tower, just in time for Iruka to understand what he had said.

"MY CLASSES AREN'T BORING, GET BACK HERE NOW, NARUTO!!!!!!!!!!" he screamed, possibly so loud that the neighboring towns and villages could hear exactly what he said.

Just outside the hotspring in Konoha, we find a certain white-haired pervert, sitting on a branch with a spyglass, studying the 'view' he had, as he took notes of the 'research' he had started after he had been discharged from the hospital. Just as a especially beautiful scene came, the loudest roar was heard, causing him to lose his foothold again, but this time he landed outside the hotspring. Just as he landed he heard a couple of voices of what he identified as angry women and kunoichi heading towards his position. He did the only thing that was honorable… he ran away. (What, I don't think its honorable to die being beaten to a pulp by a mob of women, neither does he I think… oh well)

Back with Iruka as he calmed down, he just thought about what the boy had told him and smiled. 'Yeah Naruto, you will become great, possibly the greatest ever, and I must admit that my classes can be a little boring sometimes' he thought as he scratched his backhead, and started to walk home with a smile from side to side. Yep it would become interesting to live in the village the coming years.

Next chapter is a time skip to when Naruto's 9 years and starts the academy. How much will he have learned, and how powerful will he have become with the suit and his ninja skills. Find out in the next chapter "The power to protect isn't strength, but compassion"

Author notes

Problems with my computer, it crashed, deleting my first version of this chapter. Wrote a different one after that and improved the things I remembered. I hope I haven't disappointed anyone's anticipations. If you have a hard time to picturing the 'Combat-suit', I modeled it after the 'Nano-suit' from Crysis, which I don't own. Hope you like it. Plz R&R