First off, I've written a spiel in chapter 1 about some changes I'm making, so take the time (if you wish) as it addresses some issues raised to me. Secondly, as I was writing this chapter I noticed that I changed the way that I'm writing slightly, no doubt cause of other books I'm reading, and I quite like it, so expect future chapters to follow in the same way. I won't however be changing previous chapters as I like them and they still fit with the way I'm telling this story. Lastly I want to thank everyone who has given feedback on this story so far, especially ravercozy and notgonnasay09 who have provided some helpful hints and tips.

"Speaking current tense"

"Speaking past tense"

'Thinking current tense'

This is fanfic. I don't own Naruto.

Chapter 1: A Late Realisation - Part 3

'What... what happened to me?'

Naruto shifted his body as he started to wake up only to realise he couldn't move. Stopping for a second, he started to analyse the situation as his ninja training kicked in.

'Okay, first of all, I don't know where I am. I have a dull pain throughout my body and I can't move. And there seems to be something cold underneath me, as well as cold sensations at my neck, wrists, waist and ankles.'

Attempting to open his eyes, Naruto found the exercise hard. Then the nausea hit him. The pain in his head increased and all coherent thoughts left him, with his attempt at groaning, due to the pain, resulting in a suppressed gurgle as he found he could not open his mouth. Lying still for several minutes, the nausea left him, and Naruto found that he could think clearly again.

That's when it hit him - and odd feeling of déjà-vu. Not only did he feel that he had already gone through this process before, but that it had already happened several times. Trying to focus his mind, Naruto sought out the beginnings of his journey to this point. For minutes all he could conjure to his mind were muddied pictures and incoherent words. Then he realised he should start from the beginning. There was his village, Konoha. Tsunade-baa-chan who spoke to him of some mission. And Hinata. Hinata as she laid naked in bed, the thin sheet just barely covering her torso, and doing nothing to hide the curves of her beautiful body.

As quickly as Naruto thought of the image, it disintegrated into blackness, his mind's eye being assaulted by vibrant colours and ghostly images. Men and animals of various shapes and sizes attacked him, all vying for his attention, while colours spiralled and shot past him, exploding wherever he looked, obscuring his vision. And as Naruto struggled against the imaginary bonds that were being attached to him, trying to control what he was seeing, his attackers then started to wither and disappear, leaving their ghostly images to haunt him, while others merged with those around them so as to attack him further.

He now saw his closest friends and family, standing around the Hokage's desk, Tsunade sitting proudly behind it while the others were lined up in two rows leading up to the desk. He saw her stand up, lifting the Hokage's hat, her mouth speaking inaudible words while she gestured to him to take the hat in her hand. Moving forward, Naruto reached for the hat as a proud smile came to Tsunade's face.

As he touched the brim of the hat, it caught alight, the sudden fire making him quickly retract his hand. But that was not scared him the most. As he watched, Tsunade still kept hold of the hat, and as he yelled at her to drop it, she simply frowned at his reaction, words coming from her soundless mouth that he still could not hear. Screaming at her now to drop the hat, Naruto was even more horrified as the woman he thought of as his mother slowly retracted the hat and placed it on her head. For a few seconds she stood there, the burning hat atop her head as she continued speaking, Naruto in a panic as he quickly scanned the room for help, yet no-one moved from their spots. Then, as Tsunade finished speaking, fire consumed the whole room.

The desk, chairs, walls, curtains, pictures, plaques, souvenirs and knick-knacks, were all on fire, the room becoming a furnace as everything burned. Naruto screamed at Tsunade to help, at his friends to help, yet no-one made a move. All were staring at him, and each face was sorrowful. Turning around to run out of the room, the room dissolved again, only this time to be replaced by his team's old training grounds.

Tsunade was standing in front of him again, but this time Hinata, Jiraiya, Kakashi, Sakura, Iruka, Shikamaru and Sasuke were also standing around him. Relieved to see they made it out of the fire, Naruto stepped towards the Hokage only to jump back as Tsunade exploded into millions of tiny slugs, each one slithering off in different directions into the forest.

Turning to his teachers, Naruto watched as Jiraiya, Kakashi and Iruka turned pale, their faces rotting as life slowly left them, then they fell to the ground as their bodies became dust. Unable to comprehend what was happening, Naruto started to cry. Turning to Shikamaru, Naruto watched as the lazy ninja shrugged him off, then morphed his body into that of a deer, which turned and moved off into the forest.

Unable to fathom what was happening, Naruto felt a hand on his shoulder and was spun around to face Sakura, who immediately started to yell at him. No words were heard, yet each movement of her mouth assaulted Naruto with a blast of air which battered him, until the air became rotten and pungent and Sakura's face turned inside out from the mouth to reveal a giant bird, its height towering over Naruto. The entire bird was pink, the same as Sakura's hair, with its eyes and beak being the same green as Sakura's eyes. Then it spread its enormous wings and took off into the darkness that now blanketed the area he was standing in.

Turning to the last two people standing near him, tears flowed freely from his eyes. Naruto didn't know why he was crying, just that he felt a great sense of loss, and now he sought comfort from the last two people he cared deeply for.

Sasuke and Hinata stood side by side looking at him with a deep sense of understanding. Feeling himself smile, he knew he could count on these two to help him, to give him the strength he needed in order to overcome his loss. That's when he saw it. Somehow the two had closed the distance between them and were now holding hands, their fingers interlocked. Shocked, Naruto looked up to Hinata, whose smile was so radiant it almost blinded him, then to Sasuke, who was now behind Hinata, embracing her, a smug smile on his face.

Unable to comprehend it all, Naruto watched as the two then turned to each other and kissed, timidly at first, then passionately, the kiss so deep that Naruto couldn't tell where one mouth began and the other end. Then they parted and Hinata turned to Naruto, her smile so huge and wide that it looked unnatural. The lower part of her face had morphed into that of a snake, which mirrored Sasuke's now transformed face. And that's when Naruto saw it.

Hinata's left hand was resting on her naked belly, its size and shape showing that she was pregnant. A hot, sharp pain shot through Naruto's heart as he clutched his chest at the site now before him. There was no other way to view. Sasuke and Hinata were together. They were in love, and they were having a baby.

Fresh tears ran down Naruto's cheeks as untold grief overtook him. Staggering, he saw Hinata nod her head at his thoughts, confirming that is was Sasuke's child. Then she spoke to him, however, unlike before where he couldn't hear what anyone was saying, he now heard clearly what was being said. The pain of the words was like his heart being ripped out of his chest.

Hinata smiled sweetly at him, her snake-like features heightening the effect disturbingly. "It's a boy."

Naruto screamed.

His mouth was open, the sorrowful scream piercing through the quiet of the room he was in. His eyes were wide open, unfocused, receding into his skull. He began to thrash against his bonds due to the sorrow and rage clashing in his body, but the bonds held fast keeping the young man from moving more than a few millimetres in any direction. That did not stop him from trying. As Naruto struggled against the bonds, the cold, hard metal that was the shackles stayed steadfast against his skin. Blood began to seep through the small cuts, caused by Naruto's struggling, at his neck, wrists and ankles.

In a matter of seconds blood was flowing freely against his bonds, the red liquid trailing down his neck and wrists and ankles, and was now spilling over the edge of the table he was lying on, pooling on the floor beneath, turning the tiles from white to red. And still Naruto struggled. His scream was unending as his vision was not that of the ceiling above him, but that of his love in the arms of another. And then slowly, painfully, Naruto stopped thrashing and slowly settled back against the table, thoughts of Hinata and Sasuke slowly leaving him as four words repeated in his mind.

'It's only a dream.' Then he passed out.

Regaining consciousness, Naruto struggled to organise his thoughts. 'What happened?'

At that thought a nagging sensation made itself known to him. He had already been down this path of thought. Why then couldn't he remember any of it? A feeling of déjà-vu washed over him, causing him to shiver. He was naked, strapped down to a table in a room. The dull pain that covered his body remained, as well as the nausea that clouded his mind and sought to hinder his thoughts.

That's when he realised something. He couldn't feel the fox anymore. Attempting to focus, Naruto sought to address the Kyuubi sealed within him through their mental connection, and once again the nausea hit him causing his focus to wane.

'Damn it! What the hell has happened to me?'

For a while Naruto laid still, waiting for the anger and nausea to pass. Slowly he opened his eyes, this time meeting no resistance to the action. A thick mist clouded his vision as the image of a giant flying snake with a sword for a tongue flew towards him. Blinking, as excruciating as the exercise was, cleared his vision only for Naruto to be met with a familiar sight. A white ceiling. Only it wasn't the same white ceiling of the Konoha hospital, which he had frequented so many times that he knew the standard design of the ceilings like the back of his hand. No, this ceiling was made up of white tiles, the squares at least two feet on each side.

'So I'm not in Konoha.' That thought alone demoralised him, yet for some reason the sensation was quickly superseded by the anger that he already knew this, he just hadn't caught onto that fact yet. Turning his head to the left Naruto saw that the wall was also tiled. 'I guess the whole room is the same.' Straightening his head, he stared at the ceiling for a little while as he slowly tensed and flexed what muscles he could. He was fastened tight to the table, the bonds giving little movement to his body. He could feel a sharp pain at his wrists and ankles, like he had been cut, yet he knew that he had not been attacked. 'Who did this to me?' The anger came again as he thought about it, the nagging sensation in the back of his head letting him know he was an idiot.

'Strange. Why would I think myself an idiot for not knowing something I only just found out about?'

Turning his head to the right, he saw a small bedside table positioned about three feet from where he was. It was white like the rest of the room, and stood about three feet high with two draws. On top of it was several small instruments Naruto knew nothing about, as well as a lighter, a pack of cigarettes, and ash tray. 'Well I guess I'm in a hospital, and it's no smoking laws are lax.' Smirking at his poor joke, Naruto straightened himself again, the ceiling becoming his canvas as he started to formulate an idea of where he was and what happened.

Several minutes passed as he laid still on the table. Then he heard the sound of a door opening and closing. Lifting his head a little, Naruto tried to look at the source of the sound, but the metal shackle over his neck kept his head from rising too high to look past his feet. Soft footsteps made their way around the base of the table till they stopped on Naruto's right.

Shifting his head to look at the person beside him, Naruto struggled to focus on him, and after several seconds could see the man clearly. He was dressed as a doctor, the white overcoat buttoned up and covering his body from neck to foot. He wore glasses that were sliding slowly down the bridge of his nose, which he promptly pushed back up with the pinky finger of his right hand. He was scribbling something on a notepad, the pen moving quickly in his right hand. The man was in his late forties, early fifties, judging by the grey in his short hair, which was balding along the crown of his head. There were many wrinkles on his forehead, around his eyes and his mouth, and his skin was of a pale colour, which contrasted with the dark coloured stubble on his chin.

Two scars were on his face. The first running from the corner of his left eye about halfway down his cheek in a curving fashion which would probably have ended at the left corner of his mouth. The other was running horizontally across his right cheek, about two inches long. Both scars were old, and they told Naruto one thing – while this man might appear to be a doctor, he had also seen combat, which meant his was a soldier or a ninja.

As Naruto appraised the man beside him, he noticed that the man was still scribbling intently, a slight frown upon his features as he concentrated. Though the glasses obscured his eyes a bit, Naruto noticed that while they were squinted in concentration, the man's eyes were clear, with no sign of fatigue or age showing. The eyes were a dark brown and were hard. The man was also short. Naruto didn't consider himself tall by any regards, but was at least six foot tall, while this man was at least five foot tall. What he didn't have in height Naruto saw that he made up in width. The aging man was about 190-200 kilograms. He was a bit fat, if the bulge in the overcoat was any indication, but the bulk of his fat seemed to be made up in the muscle that was his chest and arms.

The man stopped writing and carefully placed the notebook in a pocket halfway down the left side of his overcoat, while the pen was placed in a pocket on the left of his chest. Taking off his glasses, and placing them near the pen, he turned to face Naruto, a small smile on his lips.

"So have you finished appraising me Naruto?"

Shocked by the friendly attitude in the old man's voice, and at being caught, Naruto's face spoke what he couldn't say.

"Oh, don't be so surprised boy. This has gotta be the fifth time you've done that, and if I didn't know better I'd think you were infatuated with me, but that's not the case now is it?" Naruto's face betrayed him again as he quickly scanned the man's face in an attempt to recognise it. "You don't remember me, do you?" The man leaned in close so that a foot of space separated them, and stared directly into Naruto's eyes, the smile still present on his face. "You're not supposed to though. It's an effect of the stuff you've been given. Keeps you docile and messes with your brain." The smug tone in his voice told Naruto all he needed to know – this man was his captor.

"However, it seems that you're developing a bit of a resistance to the cocktail I've been giving you, and I spent so much time thinking up that nice little drink for you." Straightening himself, the smile left the man's face as he proceeded to pull a small needle from another coat pocket and examine it closely. "This should give you a nice little sleep. Let's hope it's not filled with nightmares again, eh? Don't want people running in here cause you have a fit like last time." Naruto was confused. When did he have a nightmare? The nagging sensation of déjà-vu hit him again and nausea washed over him.

"Don't remember it? That's fine, you're not meant to. You sure did scare a lot of people though, especially with all the blood on the ground. Quite a mess to clean up." The man laughed, the sound more like a bark. Obviously it was meant as a witty stab, but the humour was lost on Naruto. "Alrighty, here we go." The man placed the tip of the needle along the inside of Naruto's right arm, then pushed it into the skin.

A sharp pain shot through Naruto's arm, blinding him to everything else, and he struggled for several seconds trying to get free in order to stop the unnamed man from injecting him with whatever it was. Then the pain was gone. Naruto stopped fighting and laid still, his eyes on the man beside him. "Much better. Okay, well that shouldn't take long to put you under, so I'll see you again tomorrow. You be a good patient now and go to sleep, and remember, no nightmares."

The smile he had on his face was full of good humour, but Naruto could see the hidden malice beneath it. He then watched as his 'doctor' proceeded out of his sight at a leisurely pace, and then seconds later heard the opening and closing of the door. He was alone again. Confusion set it as he replayed several things the man said in his mind.

This had happened before, five times in fact, and each time he was becoming more resilient to whatever was being given to him. But why was he being drugged? Obviously to keep him sedated. He had also had a fit, a nightmare as the man put it. Why? And why couldn't he remember it? The nagging sensation attacked him again. He had done the same thing each time the man had come in, checking him to ascertain if he was a threat or not, as indicated by the joking manner in which it was pointed out to him. The man also said he wasn't supposed to remember it, that it was meant to mess with his memory. Obviously this was being done to him so that he would have to restart his train of thought each time, making any plans for escape pointless. The nagging feeling in his head grew larger til one thought snapped in his mind.

The Kyuubi! The drug wasn't only meant to incapacitate him, but also the fox. That was it. Now he had a better of idea what was going on. The drug kept him docile and the Kyuubi out of the picture, that way it couldn't help. But it already was. The nagging sensation, the feeling of déjà-vu made sense now. It was the fox trying to tell him something, and now he felt a huge sense of relief wash over him.

The man had said he was building up a resistance to the drug. And if the fox was starting to affect him so strongly now, that could only mean that pretty soon the drug would be ineffective. 'One or two more shots and they'll change their plans on how to keep me captive. But that also means that I have a shot or two to get back my senses and make an escape attempt.' The thought was comforting for Naruto, and he knew the Kyuubi would be ready when the time came.

That's when a thought occurred to him that he hadn't considered before. If he was being held captive with a drug that severed his connection between himself and the Kyuubi, then who was holding him prisoner?

'Akatsuki has captured me.' The thought alone struck Naruto with such dread that he felt an unsettling disconnection from reality. If Akatsuki had him, then the chance of escaping while half drugged was impossible. Even worse was that the chance of rescue was miniscule at best. There was no way out, and then the darkness settled over him and Naruto passed out.

Reviews, comments, error correction welcome. Thanks for reading.