The Future World

Chapter 3: Memories


"I guess I should put this away." Naruto said as he untied his forehead protector. "If I wear it it'll be that much easier for whoever Orochimaru sends after me to find me."

Still Naruto found it difficult to stuff his most prized possession in his pocket. To him it felt like he was abandoning the last thing that connected him to his past. Even if it was just in his pocket he felt like he was betraying Konoha.

"Alright then, I cant just dwell on this, I've got to find some place to stay for now." Naruto put his hands into a familiar seal. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

Instantly a dozen Naruto's appeared out of thin air and Naruto put his hands into a new seal. "Okay, Transform!" All of the Naruto's turned into girls, complete with double pony-tails and no whiskers.

"Alright guys….. uh girls, we need to find a village to stay at so spread out and search!"

"Right!" All the clones said at once and then sped off in different directions.

'As for me I'll just keep walking down this road.'


"Okay I'm going home now!"

"Alright Sayako, see you tomorrow!"

Sayako Fukuzawa had just finished working at her parents flower shop and was now going to her boyfriend's apartment; Sayako was a rather attractive girl with platinum blonde hair and dazzling blue eyes. She couldn't help but smile as she thought about it, they had just started living together a week ago and she couldn't be happier. Also it being spring the family flower business was doing its best. Everyone came to get flowers for their loved ones from Yamanaka Flowers.

She rounded a corner on the way to the apartment and was immediately bowled over by someone.

"Hey! What the hell!" She screamed out as she fell on her back.

"Oh sorry I didn't mean….. to….."

Sayako looked up and saw someone that could pass for her sister. She had blonde hair, although it was more golden blonde than the platinum like Sayako's, and blue eyes.

"Umm is there something wrong?" Sayako said after it appeared that the girl had blanked out.

"I-Ino?"

"Huh? My names not Ino it's Sayako."

The girl had a look of shock before she gulped nervously and rubbed the back of her neck in embarrassment. "Oh yeah haha, yeah you couldn't be Ino. Sorry for running into you." And with that the girl sped off in the direction Sayako came from.

"That was weird." Sayako got back up and kept walking along when she suddenly remembered something. "Wait a minute. Wasn't my Great-Grandmothers name Ino?"


When the clone dispelled Naruto gained all of its knowledge and almost laughed at the absurdity. Of course it couldn't be Ino, this was seventy years in the future , at least it was if Orochimaru was telling the truth, Ino and everyone else were probably dead.

……….dead.

"Oh man, everyone's dead aren't they." Naruto sat down on the side of the road and drew his knees up into his chest. "Sakura, Lee, Kiba, Ino……. Hinata. Everyone's dead."

Naruto remembered the last time he had seen any of them. It was at Sakura's birthday party, everyone was there. They had rented out a club that had been rebuilt after Pein's attack. Even Tsunade made time to come in between her work. Everyone was laughing and having a good time, after Tsunade left Kiba got out the sake and things really got out of control. He remembered a particularly drunk Neji proposing to a semi-conscious Tenten using an onion ring as an engagement ring. If Tenten wasn't so drunk she collapsed on top of him Naruto wondered what she would say.

Naruto wondered what happened to them after he disappeared. 'They probably got on with their lives.'

But then Naruto remembered what Orochimaru had said. About things becoming so bad in Konoha that they practically welcomed his return. Were his friends already dead by then? Did they die in the war against Kumo? Or did Orochimaru kill them when he came back? He said he killed Tsunade so what were the chances of him killing the rest of his important people.

He remembered the last time he had spoken to Sakura too, and it was right after that talk that he had made his decision to face Sasuke alone………

Flashback

"Okay Sakura lets get you home before you pass out." Naruto said to Sakura as he helped her get her balance. The party was over and now he was about to walk her home. Sakura had decided to have the party at a club instead of her house and it turned out to be a wise decision as much of the inside of the club was now destroyed thanks to Lee accidentally picking up a glass of sake instead of his water.

"Hey Naruto." Sakura asked in a whisper. "How comes you aint drunk?"

"I can't get drunk Sakura, Kyuubi protects against that."

"Oh…… well that blows."

"You are going to have a helluva headache tomorrow morning."

"Ah so what, I had a good time. I mean if getting drunk helps forget about whats-his-name then I could care less."

"Huh? What are you talking about?"

"That chicken butt hair, you know he's hot but I still always thought that was a weird hairdo."

"You're talking about Sasuke. Wow you must be even more drunk than I thought if you're ranting about him."

"I don't even miss him anymore. Screw him! I've got loads of guys here who would want to get with me. Like you right Naruto?"

"Uhhh."

"But whatever, It's alright that you couldn't bring him back you know? I still love you." And with that Sakura fell asleep and Naruto carried her the rest of the way to her house.

He snuck in through her window and put her sleeping form on her bed. She curled up into a ball and Naruto left without even looking back.

"Sasuke." Naruto remembered the last time he ran into Sasuke, how he almost killed him and how he would've killed Sakura too if Orochimaru hadn't stepped in. He didn't care at all. And if Naruto confronted him again would anything change? If Sakura was with him would she get killed? He knew Sasuke wouldn't think twice about it. And from what Itachi told him Sasuke would attack Konoha sometime anyways. How many of his friends would die when that happened?

"I can't let that happen. I won't let anyone die." Naruto ran to Tsunade and told her he was leaving to find and defeat Sasuke. She tried to convince him not to go, she told him that she would tell his friends and they would come after him to try and help.

Naruto simply smiled and gave her the thumbs up. "Granny Tsunade I can promise you that I'll succeed! Even if you send someone after me I'll have the head start I need. You don't have to worry about a thing! Remember I never go back on my word because that's my ninja way!"

He left without waiting for her reply. It was only a few short days later that he ran into Sasuke.

Flashback end

"I couldn't keep my promise. Again."


Shortly after Naruto picked himself up and went to the town where one of his clones ran into the Ino look-alike. He still didn't have any money so he resigned himself to sleeping on the roof of a hotel.

Or he was about to sleep when he saw two people in cloaks on the street below him run into an alleyway across the street. Thinking this was suspicious Naruto jumped across the street onto the roof across the way and peered into the alley below.

"Where's that stupid panel?" One of the people asked in a male voice. Both of them were facing a concrete wall that made up the back of the alley.

"What you're having trouble finding it again?" His companion asked in a girls voice.

"Ah, here it is." The person put their palm to a spot on the wall and pushed in.

The stone slid in easily and a hole opened up at their feet and to the right of them. Naruto looked harder and saw that there were stairs winding down the hole.

"Alright lets go." The girl said.

The two walked down the hole, which quickly covered up, leaving Naruto to wonder what was going on.

'Might as well check it out. Not like I have anything better to do.'

Naruto jumped down and searched for the hidden panel.


"My lord, does he really represent a great enough threat to bring the Overseers together? Surely just a contingent of my officers could handle this."

"Kukuku I'm sorry to say Hachibe but Naruto is an incredibly powerful ninja. Your men are all well trained but few of them have any real combat experience. An opponent like this requires someone on the level of the Overseers to be taken out."

"I'm really just surprised that you even called for Baipa and Uma."

Orochimaru smiled. "Well they are the strongest and I haven't seen them in a long while."

"That's true…….Why is this Naruto such a threat anyways lord?"

"He's not stable, he's a danger to himself and others if left untreated and I fear he may try to cause problems within the empire."

Bzzzz

"My radio." Hachibe said and then pulled a small radio out of a pocket on his hip; he brought it up to his head and answered it. "What is it?.......... Oh good, we've been expecting them, send them in." He turned off his radio and put it away. "The Overseers have arrived."


Naruto had found the hidden panel and was now walking down the winding staircase. He guessed he went down a good twenty feet before he hit the bottom. The new room he was in was lit by two torches on either side of a door that Naruto presumed the two figures from the alley must've gone through.

Naruto walked over to the door and quietly opened it just far enough so that he could slip through. He found himself in a new room that was hardly lit at all. Which as it turned out was a good thing as the other four occupants of the room most likely would have seen him if their light source was any closer.

"So how did it go." A girls voice asked.

When Naruto heard her he ducked down low and walked behind one of the many desks in the room. Naruto looked around and saw that it looked like some kind of storehouse that had been abandoned; now it was simply filled up with desks and chairs and the only source of light being a torch that the girl who had just spoken held. Naruto looked over and saw four people standing, two of them obviously girls due to the outline of their cloaks, the taller of which held the torch, and two boys, one of which was much taller than the others. Aside from that Naruto couldn't tell at all what they looked like.

"Well it worked but I still don't like the fact that it's basically a civilian target." A boy's voice, the same from the alley, answered.

"We made an oath that we would attack any target without hesitation." The same girl said. "Besides we aren't killing anyone, just making things difficult."

"As long as we're on the subject I finished my part too." A new voice said, also a boy.

"Good, then we'll activate the seals tomorrow and destroy the new generator. And it will look like an accidental overload right?" The girl asked.

"Yes." The boy from the alley replied.

"Good. Now then-."

"Wait." The girl from the alley said.

"What is it Shimako?" The other girl asked.

"Yoko….. we have an intruder."