Misplaced Time, Misplaced Body
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Obviously!
Important Author's Note: Those who just spotted this update, go back and reread the prologue. Its completely different now.
Chapter One: Answers
Naruto inspected Madara's gunbai idly. The man had used it with great effect to deflect even tailed beast balls. It would prove to be very useful, along with his kama. They somehow felt very familiar in his hands, as if he himself had trained with them for years. This eerie sense of familiarity was disconcerting. He had come to the conclusion that this body, no not this body, it was now his body; it still retained the reflexes Madara used to have. He didn't find it that hard to believe, however Naruto knew that retaining jutsu memory was simply ridiculous. Not to mention the Mangekyo Sharingan. He couldn't deny he was secretly thrilled to have such a powerful dojutsu. However, him being able to activate it also didn't make sense. That cursed ability had more to do with the mind than the body, he was sure.
What he needed now more than anything was to test what his body could do. Changing the future for the better was all well and good, but he wasn't fool enough to think it would be easy. In fact, even showing his face around pretty much anyone would result in a fight. Madara had antagonized pretty much everyone by this point in time. Why didn't you send me back to an earlier time Kurama? This would be much easier if I didn't have a reputation as a warmonger! Then he sighed glumly. His Kurama was gone. In fact, the current Kurama most certainly hated him more than anyone else in the world.
Morose, Naruto started to move in a fast series of shunshin. With his chakra nearly recovered and wounds mostly healed, he could check out this body's potential. It was going to be hard, being alone inside his head. For the longest time, he hadn't been alone and now it was all wrenched away from him in an instant. It left him feeling hollow.
He landed into a clearing a day's distance from the Valley of the End. That was fast. But not nearly as fast as he could go in tailed beast form. The hollow feeling intensified into a restless ache. He clenched his teeth, pushing the emotion to the back of his mind. Now was not the time to mope.
Naruto strode forward, letting a trickle of chakra into his eyes.
"Mangekyo Sharingan!"
The world snapped into focus and the air seemed to have filled with potential. Nature chakra glimmered all around him soft and soothing, and Naruto drew upon it as well. It rushed into him, melding with his own chakra with a little difficulty. Another anomaly of his situation. By all rights, with the toad contract lost to him, he shouldn't be able to do this. But he still clearly could, and he was beginning to give up on understanding why.
He pressed his hands together focusing, "Shadow clone jutsu!"
Two clones popped into existence and Naruto stared at them, uneasily. The two Uchiha Madara look-alikes stared back,Mangekyo eyes whirling.
"Man that's creepy, boss!" clone alpha mumbled. "Real nice, staring at that face while training. Might just try to kill you by accident you know. Eh we no longer have the toad eyes either. Wonder what happened to them." It was truly odd hearing those kind of phrases coming from Madara's mouth. At the very least he was thankful his verbal tick hadn't made a reappearance. That would have been...simply disturbing.
"Not like we know whats happening about a ton of things yeah!" clone beta looked depressed.
"Well its not like we have a choice." Naruto snapped back. "Get moving guys! We are gonna try out some of our ninjutsu and then Madara's ninjutsu. Go!"
"Yosh!"
A while later, Uzumaki-Uchiha Naruto flopped down into one decimated clearing exhausted.
"That went well," clone alpha's replacement said cheerfully. "Who would have thought the Mangekyo was so cool! No wonder so many Uchiha turn out to have a stick far up their ass. That Susanoo is freaking huge!"
"Not to mention we mastered the fire element in just an hour's time!" replacement clone beta cheered along.
Naruto raised an eyebrow at him. "I really doubt Madara could do all this you know. He was fire type and we just used wind, water and earth chakra too. Only lightning didn't trigger any response. All those jutsu...I'm sure he didn't know those."
Clone beta looked thoughtful. "That's true I suppose. Something else that's Kurama's fault, yeah. "
"Don't you think its odd, us talking to well...ourself?" clone alpha mumbled. "Sakura-chan did call it a sign of insanity once."
"Sakura-chan's not here anymore to talk sense in us so it hardly matters." Naruto said, frowning. He seemed to be doing that a lot, as if frowning were a natural expression for this face to bear. Gah he was turning into a brooding Uchiha! Even his smiles were more like smirks!
Clone beta looked at him thoughtfully. "She isn't gone, you know. She will be born someday."
"By which time we will be old or dead." muttered clone alpha, a depressed cloud hanging over him.
Naruto sweat dropped. "Whats with the random depression! We better not start acting like Hashirama now. One idiot is quite enough."
"Like Hashirama-ojisan?" clone alpha said,"Does he get randomly depressed? How do you know? I can't seem to remember..."
Naruto frowned, then looked away. "I don't know. It just came to me."
"In any case, we need to start moving. This clearing is going to draw a lot of attention and we need some answers. Its time to go get them...its time to visit Konoha."
XXXXXXX
Naruto strolled around Konoha staring around himself under his light henge. It looked so very different and yet still managed to give off a welcoming air of familiarity. He felt like running over to Ichiraku to have some blessed ramen, or visiting Konohamaru to play pranks, or bugging Kakashi-sensei for a new jutsu. There was the academy that he had studied in, just the same as always, with some kids chattering away happily, some playing around and some dedicated ones training quite seriously. He watched them with an amused smile. They seemed to be enjoying themselves. Not at all like his own childhood, always training to get better, always pushing yourself further and further because there was no choice but to be the best or watch another brother die. To be so worthless, so weak as to let his own brothers die...
Naruto started, eyes wide, the warm chakra running to his eyes cutting off abruptly. What was he thinking! He didn't have any brothers, not real ones. And he had saved the one he considered a brother. Sasuke had returned! Then who who was it that was dead? Who was...A vision flashed across his eyes, of Sasuke lying in a pool of blood, empty eye sockets staring at him, accusing him, cursing him for his failure. Naruto hissed, cradling his head in his hands, hands clenched over his burning eyes. That had never happened. Sasuke wasn't dead! He hadn't even been born yet. And yet even with the burning chakra no longer being channeled to his eyes, the burning pain, the guilt of having failed Sasuke didn't seem to recede.
"Are you okay Uchiha-san?" a cheerful voice called out to him.
Naruto looked up, trying to compose himself. He couldn't let the henge fall. That would be a disaster of epic proportions. He stared at the boy with spiky brown hair thoughtfully. He seemed very familiar...
"I'm well. It was just a headache. Hit my head rather hard in the last mission you see."
"Oh! You might want to go to the hospital then. Tobirama-sensei set it up and its amazing! He took Danzo-baka there yesterday because I punched him too hard and they healed him right away!" the brown haired kid bounced on the balls of his feet, looking eager. "I could come with you! I'm going to get him out of there right now."
Naruto stared. This kid was reminding him too much of another hyperactive brat who used to follow him around like an overeager puppy.
"What's your name kid?"
The boy pouted. "You might be a kickass ninja but that doesn't mean you can call me a kid! I'm going to be a ninja too real soon. I'm Sarutobi Hiruzen and you better learn that name, because that's going to be the name of the next Hokage! "
Naruto sweat dropped. This little Konohamaru clone was Sandaime-jiji. The same man who would sit sagely in his office and treat him with ramen whenever he was down. The same man who had given his life for his village and returned from the dead to fight for it once more. Unbelievable.
"I'm sure you will." He said dryly. Naruto couldn't help but smirk at the brat. "What are you? Six? Bit soon to aiming so high."
"Hey I'll show you Uchiha-baka! I'm eight and I can totally be Hokage!" Hiruzen pointed at him accusingly, eyes alight with fire.
Naruto's eyes gleamed and he glared at Hiruzen. "What did you just call me brat? Care to repeat that statement?"
"Eh nothing at all I'm sure," a nervous voice said, its owner clamping a hand over the kid's mouth. "He was just apologizing, weren't you Hiruzen-kun?" Senju Hashirama gave the kid a pointed look.
Naruto froze, a tide of hatred and hurt and bitter anger nearly taking him over. He wanted to leap over and thrust his hand through that man's chest and pull out his still beating heart. He wanted to rip apart that cheerful face and drink in his despair. His fingers twitched towards his kunai, aching to be used.
A sour voice broke him out of his bloodlust. "Sorry Uchiha-san."
Naruto stared at Hashirama stunned. What was that? He shouldn't be able to feel such hatred anymore. He had gotten rid of it. There was no need to hate the Shodai, none at all. He was Uzumaki Naruto, not Uchiha Madara! He looked at the Shodai to see him studying him carefully. So he hadn't missed Naruto reaching for his kunai. Of course not, the man had just fought Madara but a few days ago. He woundn't be quick to trust an Uchiha. It was time to get away from here.
"Shodai-sama," Naruto gave a small tilt of his head, his pride preventing him from bowing lower. He tilted his head towards Hiruzen."It is of no consequence."
Hashirama smiled at him disarmingly, cheerfully ruffling Hiruzen's hair. "Of course. There's no need to be so formal Uchiha-san. You can call me Hashirama."
Naruto hesitated, then inclined his head stiffly. "That would not be appropriate, Hokage-sama."
Hashirama studied him intently for a moment and then pushed Hiruzen in the direction of the hospital. "Why don't you go on to collect your friend Hiruzen-kun? I'm sure he's getting tired all cooped up in there."
"O-Okay sensei," Hiruzen turned a last frown in Naruto's direction before running off. Naruto watched him, wishing he could join him and get away from this confrontation. A part of him still felt wildly out of control and he didn't trust himself not to lash out at the man in front of him.
"I haven't seen you around before Uchiha-san." Hashirama said pleasantly, a hint of inquiry in his tone. He was asking for his name no doubt. "You do look rather familiar."
Naruto hoped that wasn't the case. His henge was based on a mix of Itachi and Sasuke, with Madara's long hair, which were difficult to hide. For some reason he was reluctant to cut them so they had ended up in a loose pony, spiking along his back in an uneven mess.
"I doubt you would remember one such as me Hokage-sama." He replied calmly, keeping his face expressionless. He felt a cold trickle of sweat run down his back. This man, if he discovered him now, could kill him easily. He could still vividly remember the sword in his chest, those cold words declaring that he wouldn't hesitate to strike down even one he considered his own brother...
"Well why don't you help me remember now?" That searching look was back. Naruto looked away from that evaluating gaze and stared over at the academy. It wasn't like he could avoid any more suspicion even if he ignored the man.
"You must have been on a mission recently. You don't look to have recovered yet. " This was said with a pointed look at Naruto's chest. Naruto frowned at that. "You don't miss much do you? How did you notice it?" He had been careful to bind the chest wound as tightly as possible so it woudn't get jostled and walked without wincing.
"You could call it a sixth sense." The Shodai shrugged, looking amused at Naruto's glare. "Hey I have to keep some secrets to myself!" He said abruptly cheerful. "I would no longer be the God if Shinobi if everyone knew everything."
"Hn," Naruto said sourly. The man had to be bipolar. No one could suddenly switch from suspicious to cheerful like that.
"Mind walking with me for a while," Hashirama asked, though really it was more of an order with the way he casually laid a hand on his arm and started dragging Naruto into moving with him. Naruto felt his eye twitch in irritation, and struggled to keep his expression blank. It seemed to be a habit in this body. Maybe all Uchiha had that irritating tick.
"Anyone would think you were ashamed of being seen with me Uchiha-san," There it was, another dig for his name. He wasn't suspicious of him any longer, Naruto was sure. That smile looked too genuine. In fact, it reminded him of the times when he had been trying to get a rise out of Sasuke. So the Hokage was bored, and decided to bug him about it. Well, two could play at this game.
"Maybe I am, Shodai-sama. I wouldn't want to be caught dead wearing those clothes. They show an appalling lack of fashion sense." That had come out of nowhere. Naruto struggled to keep his face expressionless as he contemplated the randomness of his statement. And then he stopped, staring at the Shodai Hokage, the God of Shinobi, a legend said to be unsurpassed even a hundred years after his death, hanging his head a depressed look on his face, dark clouds gathering around him. He sweat dropped.
"I hope you don't make a habit of that." Naruto muttered, "How did you become Hokage anyway with these mood swings of yours? Doesn't do much for earning respect."
Hashirama's head sunk even lower. Naruto felt vaguely guilty. "H-Hey its not that bad! I suppose your clothes are okay. A Hokage sets the fashion trends so you should be fine."
"You're just saying that to make me feel better," He still wasn't looking at Naruto. "N-no really! I take it back. I lied about your clothes because you were dragging me around just like that!"
"I knew it!" Hashirama looked smug, the depressed look fading away like nothing. Naruto's eye twitched violently. "You were just pretending." The statement came out deadly calm.
He cracked his knuckles. He didn't care if this was the Shodai, didn't care about anything more than punching that smug look off his face.
"Sorry," the Senju smiled at him, an odd look in his eyes. And just like that Naruto felt his irritation melting away. "Nevermind that. But really Hashirama I have to go. In fact I'm pretty much late already."
"Of course." That odd look lingered in his eyes. "Though I really have to have something other than Uchiha-san to call you by no? It would only be fair."
Naruto tilted his head to the side, a lock of hair falling irritably over his eye. Well he had just called him Hashirama. Still, "Maybe next time." With an idle wave he gently extracted his arm from the Senju's grasp and turned to leave. That had been almost pleasant. In fact, the murderous hatred towards the Senju had all but disappeard. He hopped onto a nearby roof, and moved onward. He had a certain person to meet.
If Naruto had glanced back, he would be jumping out of his skin at the evaluating gaze boring into him.
XXXXXXX
Author's Note: Okay something I'm getting really frustrated over. Hashirama is said to have died during "one of the many battles of that age" or something similar. How exactly did he die? How can a ridiculously powerful person like that die in a battle of all things? Anyone have any ideas? Will be really helpful if I decide to go kill him off! Kidding :)