Watsup? Did you miss me? Cause I sure missed you guys. I was rereading the previous chapters of this story and noticed that I made a lot of spelling error. I would have corrected it but I lost the documents of those chapters, so I can only live on with my shame.

Also I would like to apologize on taking too long for the update, I was actually not bring lazy this time. I was on a novel app going through other people's stories so I improve my way of writing and storytelling. Not to keep you guys waiting, here is the next chapter.

Declaimer: Do i really have to do this everytime :(

'Thoughts'

"Speech"

Flashback.

"« »"( )" I'll use this two to indicate an action taking place in the background and location.

"~" Radio communication.

You should already know the grid by now ;)

Story Begins

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Chapter 5

(Mountain Village)

(Gunshots, Arrow whistling)

"Fuck" Naruto dodged behind a barrel barely avoiding a bullet to the head. Lara was at his far right behind two iron Trunks stacked on each other, shooting bullets left and right.

After escaping from the scavengers, they had manged to find their way into the temple with a zip line leading to the other side of the mountain. The only problem was that it was heavily guarded by a number of scavengers.

The building there are in is divided into two separate parts, connected together in the middle by a short wooden bridge, and on the other side were the scavengers with the zip line behind them. There are pillars lined around the room, used to support the upper floor.

After reloading his gun, Naruto peeked out from behind the barrel, ready to take action when a man suddenly ran out from behind a pillar with a Molotov in hand.

"Oh shit"

"Hahaha, I'm gonna burn you out of there"

One of his men saw this crazy person and tried to stop him.

"What the hell are you doing? you'll burn the whole place down!"

His warning fell on deaf ears as the Molotov was already airborne by the time he finished his sentence.

Naruto moved out of the way as he shouted. "Watch out!"

The Molotov hit the ground setting it ablaze just as lara scrambled out of the way. It quickly spread like wide fire, burning everything in it path.

"Watch it! the fire is spreading"

"That idiot!"

"*Cough*cough*" The black smoke from the fire obscured their vision and made it hard for them to breathe. The man who threw the Molotov was laughing like a mad man among the chaos.

Naruto didn't hesitate to gun him down before he and Lara quickly dealt with the rest thanks to the help of the smoke.

By the time they were done, the smoke had already become thicker, making it almost unbearable to breathe or see.

Naruto had just killed the last of them when he felt someone grab his hand.

"Naruto, we have to go?"

He didn't even bother to reply and quickly run towards where he last saw the bridge to the other side with Lara a step behind him.

They were already a coughing mess by the time they reached the zip line with red puffy eyes.

They wasted no time in jumping out of the burning building and ziplined to the valley below. When their feet touched the ground, they greedily inhaled oxygen like deprived animals. Naruto managed to fill his lungs with fresh air and looked back at the building that has now been swallowed by a sea of fire.

(Heavy rainfall, Thunder booming in the sky and the wind howling)

Lara sat down on the ground trying to catch her breathe. She also looked back at the sea of fire and said. "That was intense. Any more minute and we would have been nothing more than barbeques by now".

Naruto gave a small smile at this and said. "At least I'll taste better than you"

Lara looked at him and scoffed. "Taste better my ass. I bet you'd taste like fishcake, hahaha".

Naruto pouted at her. The jab to his name kinda hurt, but it was good to hear her laugh again.

He reach out a hand and pulled her back to her feet.

"Come on, let's go"

"Hm"

They walked up the short brick stairs heading deeper into the valley till they up to a small crevice in the mountain moving up. As a professional climber, Lara didn't waste any time and quickly started scaling the crevice with her back and leg on each side.

"I'll let you know if it's safe"

"Okay"

Not long after she reached the top she called out to him and he followed suit by climbing up the same way she did. When he arrived the top of the crevice the path ahead was a small dark cave.

They exchanged glances, already knowing what the other was thinking. After all, they both have the same experience when it comes to caves.

They treaded it carefully and they eventually reach the mouth of the cave where gunshots could be heard.

"What the hell?"

"Are there still scavengers here?"

"Who are they hunting?"

"Could it be one of ours?" As soon as those words left Lara's mouth, they exchanged looks and slowly walked out of the cave, ready to take action if need be. They came out of the mouth of the cave just in time to see Roth gun down a wolf with his pistols. He fall on his behind exhausted.

It wasn't the scavengers that they had expected but rather...

"...Roth?!"

"Roth, am coming!"

Hearing someone call out his name, Roth turned to look to his left to see the two he had been talking to until recently, running towards him from the mouth of a cave.

"Lara? Naruto? You guys made it?"

Lara rushed up to his side to check out the wound on his left shin.

"Thank God you are alive"

"It's good to see you too, girl" He then turned to Naruto and smiled.

"You okay kiddo?"

Naruto scoffed and said "You are one hard to find, son of a bitch, you know that?"

Lara sighed, bandaged his shin and said "Sorry, they did a real number on your leg"

"Nah" Roth waved her off while trying to ignore the pain in his leg. "Looks worse than it is"

Lara seemed to remember something crucial at this moment and asked. "Have you heard from any of the others?"

"Nothing"

Naruto heard this, sighed and said. "Looks like we made it here first"

"Here help me up" Roth stretch out his arm which Naruto placed over his shoulder and helped him to his feet.

Lara grew confused and concerned when she saw this. "Wait, what are you doing?"

Roth steadied himself before answering. "The wolf's took my food pack. The transmitter for the life boat's in it. If we don't get that back, we're not getting off this bloody island."

"Yeah? but you need...you need bandages, morphine, antiseptic..."

"Also in the pack"

"Shit"

"Exactly"

Naruto sighed in defeat and said. "Things aren't looking good at all"

There was a brief moment silence before Roth tapped on Naruto's shoulder and gestured to the campsite a little behind them with his head, and said.

"Help me back to the camp site, will you?"

Naruto look back and nodded. "Okay"

They barely made it a few steps before Roth fainted in his arms.

"Hey Roth, are you okay?" Naruto asked as he gently placed him on the ground, his heart beat accelerating as fear grip his heart.

"No, no, no, no," Lara rushed to his side to check on his pulse and heart beat. She sighed in bliss when she heard his heart beat.

"Is he gonna be okay?"

She turned around to look at Naruto who had been standing by her side all this while, worry written all over his face.

She nodded at him, stood up and said. "He's gonna be alright. Help me carry him to the camp site".

"Okay" He nodded and lifted Roth in a fireman carry, then proceeded to the camp site with Lara behind him. He put Roth down a safe distance away from the fire in the middle of the camp. The campsite was bare with barrels and boxes arranged on the left and right sides and a dirty white blanket covering the back. There was a campfire burning in the middle of the camp with no roof.

Naruto sighed, turned to face the fidgeting Lara and asked. "So what now?"

As if to answer his question, they heard wolves howl in the distance. They both turned as one to look into the distance before exchanging looks.

"You already have your answer. We need to get Roth's pack".

"Then I'll go" Naruto immediately volunteered. He didn't doubt Lara's skills and capability, but she is his friend and he couldn't watch her go head first into danger.

Lara shake her head at this. "No, I'll go. Someone has to look after Roth".

Naruto looked puzzled at her sense of reasoning. "So? you can do that"

She looked down at Roth's body, and said. "And what if the scavengers comes back and I don't have enough strength. I'm a woman for crying out loud, I can't outwit five fully grown men" By the end of her sentence she was visibly shaking. The pressure of things she had seen and done were now weighing down on her shoulders.

Naruto grabbed her shoulders, gave her a light shake and said.

"Hey, hey, look at me. It's gonna be alright. You go and retrieve the pack"

He took his machete out of it sheath and handed it to her.

"Take it with you. I'll stay here with Roth"

Lara stared at him for a few seconds before nodding firmly. She grabbed the machete from his hand and walked pass him but he held her wrist. She looked at him in confusion. He was acting quite strange.

Naruto didn't look at her. His eyes were trained on Roth's body as he said. "Promise me that you will be safe"

Lara looked dumbfounded but eventually nodded. "I promise. Take care of Roth for me."

He let go of her wrist and watch her walk into the distance until she disappeared in-between the destroyed buildings.

"Please be safe. I can't afford to lose an important person in my life whole trying to save another."

He sighed sadly as buried memories begin to resurface. He walked back to the campsite and sat down on the opposite side of the fire from Roth with his back against a barrel.

He sat there and watched the beautiful flames dancing with the wind. The light from the fire brighten up his face and his surroundings in the dead of night. There was occasional flash of lightnings accompanied by the roar of thunder. The same thing repeated itself for an unknown amount of time until his eventually fell asleep. The exhaustion and fatigue from the previous events finally caught up to him.

When he opened his eyes again, there was a beautiful red haired woman seated behind a round table in front of him, with a blonde haired man opposite her. There were three seats around the table in a triangle formation and they occupied two of them. The man has on a black monkey suit without a jacket, a white under shirt, black tie and black shoes. He has sky blue eyes, slicked back blonde hair, lean muscular build, and a masculine face. The woman on the other hand has flowing red hair, teal colored eyes, a round face, and lean athletic build. She had on a black off shoulder frill midi dress and black high heels. There is a small silver necklace with a spiral pendant hanging around her neck and long silver earrings. All in all Naruto looked like a mix of her and the blonde haired man. On the table laid a map of the world with other mysterious objects, books and ancient artifacts. The wall opposite him was covered by a bigger version of the map on the table. There were small red pins used to Mark a few locations on the map.

The both of them were so engraved in their works that they didn't notice the 3 years old Naruto who have just woken up from his sleep.

Naruto yawned cutely as he rub the sleep out of his eyes. His baby face and big baby blue eyes made him look adorable. He got down from the bed with little struggle as it wasn't that high up and walked to the red haired woman.

Kushina namikaze held a small prism like object with ancient writings on it in her hands. To any onlooker it looked like she was looking at it intensely, when in reality, she was actually deep in thought. She was unhurriedly going through different formulas in her head on how to solve the puzzle, when she felt something tug at the helm of her dress, snapping her out of her thoughts.

She looked down to see two big baby blue eyes staring innocently at her. She smiled when she realized who it is.

"Okaa-san, am hungwy"

It took all of her will power not to jump him while screaming like an high school girl. Sometimes she just couldn't help but wonder how they had created such a beautiful angel.

After beating down her inner demon, she put down the object in her hands, lifted Naruto up and placed him on her lap.

"Just a minute naruto-kun, mama is working."

Naruto tilted his head at her in a cute manner Making him look even more adorable, which nearly set kushina's heart on fire. Minato namikaze watched in silent amusement as his wife tried to resist her urges.

He looked at the table and pointed at a weird object on the table. "What is that?"

Kushina's eyes lit up when she saw the object he was pointing at. It just so happens to be the same object that she had been studying until a while ago. She immediately grew excited and started explaining this things him, talking about a dangerous sea and a lost island. Things that normal parents wouldn't dare to say to say to a 3 years old was being explained to him by his own mother.

Minato watched the mother and son from behind his book and sighed. While the one was excitedly chirping away, the other was also excitedly asking questions every now and then even though he couldn't understand most words he heard, he was still happily listening.

Sometimes he wife gets carried away and forgets that their son was nothing but a 3 years old who could barely speak Coherently.

Having heard enough, he dropped the book in his hands and decided to intervene when a question suddenly flew his way.

"Tou-san, why do you want to find this iwlad?" (am not good with baby words, so sue me _)

Minato looked at the big blue baby eyes staring at him in anticipation. If it wasn't for the fact that this was his son, he would have thought that he was talking to an adult in a child's body. Infact, even some adults couldn't come up with such a meaningful question. Either they thought it was for the treasure, or for the fame.

He had to reexamine the question in his head and think of ways to simplify it in a way that his son could understand.

minato smiled at his son, open his mouth and started talking.

The young Naruto looked confused as he couldn't hear a word his dad was saying.

Naruto looked puzzled when he saw this. "Tou-san?"

He turned around to look at his mother who smiled lovingly at him. She cupped his face him in her hands and was about to say something when his vision suddenly turned blurry before going black.

When his eyesight recovered, he saw Lara standing in front of him with one hand on his shoulder and the other waving a pack in front of his face. He looked confused at first before his eyes light up in realization.

"You got the pack."

"You are finally awake"

He rubbed his eyes to clear the drowsiness, yearned and said. "I must have fallen asleep".

"Yeah, no shit"

"Wait.." His body froze as of he had just realized something he had neglected.

"Roth!"

He moved his gaze around to see Roth seated with his back again a wooden barrel. He looked conscious with fresh bandaged wrapped around his thigh.

Roth smiled and said. "You are finally awake. Must have been quite a sweet dream to not wake up from all the shaking and shouting Lara did".

Lara let go of his shoulders and stand to the side. lA frown was present on her face.

"You asked me to be careful, and you fell asleep?!".

Naruto scratched his face sheepishly, sighed, and said with his head bowed. "I was exhausted. Sorry"

Lara looked offended when she heard this. "Sorry? sorry! You..."

Roth watched from the side as Lara eat Naruto out with her words. He smiled at the scene. They were never this close, even when they had spent all those days on the ship. They must have gone through a lot together.

Lara continued to eat Naruto out for a good 5 minutes before finally calming down.

Naruto still had his head down when an object appeared in his line of sight. He raised his head to look at Lara but she avoided his gaze.

"Thank you. The machete came in handy"

Naruto smiled brightly when he heard this, but it soon turned sour.

You not scolding me was more that enough of a thank you.

He silently retrieved the machete from her hands, sheath it and said. "You are welcome".

"Ah ahem" Roth cleared his throat to get their attention. "The both of you should take a seat. We still have somethings to discuss"

The two of them exchanged looks before finding a place to seat. Naruto sat opposite the Roth on the other side of the fire like before while Lara sat down beside Roth.

Roth reexamined his bandaged leg, chuckled, then looked at Lara with an inquiring gaze. "It's not bad..."

"Where does a young lady like you learn to do a think like that?"

Lara chuckled, exhaled sharply and said. "Late shift at nine bells. A wolf's got nothing on a broken bottle"

"So what is it you wanted to talk about?" Naruto asked. "Although I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but this island isn't exactly an ideal location for a family vacation".

Roth nodded and decided to cut to the chase. "You are right. Since Lara got the pack we now have the transmitter"

Lara pulled out the transmitter from the pack and said. "So, I assume the plan is to take this to the radio tower?"

Roth nodded to her and continued. "Well that should give us the best shot of broadcasting a strong signal in every direction".

Naruto chided in when he heard this. "Sounds risky to me. How do we even know if this tower is still functioning?"

"We don't. But if my guess is correct then I doubt those savages will let their only hope of leaving this island be a useless scrap of metal".

Lara looked conflicted when she heard this. "So we are betting our survival on the integrity and reasoning of the murderers?"

"It's the only way" The whole campsite grew quiet at his words. The silence was a little uncomfortable so Roth tried to diffuse it.

He turned to face Lara and said. "Look, Lara. We need to send out that SOS, and am not climbing anytime soon."

Lara nodded as if what he had just said was within her expectations.

"Yeah, I was afraid you were going to say that"

Her gaze landed on Naruto who has a light frown on his face before turning back to Roth.

"You can do it Lara. After all, you are a Croft"

"I don't think am that kind of a Croft.

"Sure you are" Roth said before turning to look at Naruto, who looked confused at the sudden attention, and added. "Just like he is that type of namikaze"

Naruto frowned visibly at the mention of that name.

He grabbed a reddish orange pry axe made of steel with a piece of clothes wrapped around the handle by his side and placed it beside her. It was way better than the one she had been using.

"You just don't know it yet"

Lara looked conflicted for a brief moment before accepting her fate.

"Well, let's hope I'm a fast learner, then"

She grabbed the pry axe, and unexpectedly, Roth grabbed her wrist holding her hand in place. She looked at him only to see concern written all over his face.

"Just, be careful, Lara. He let go of her wrist, watched her pick up the pack and get up with Naruto following suit and added.

"Watch after her for me, naruto"

Naruto nodded and said with a serious face. "You don't have to tell me my plans"

"Naruto let's go"

"Take care of yourself Roth"

Roth watched them leave until he could barely make out their features.

"The two of you have grown in such a short amount of time"

He sighed like the old man he is, reminiscing. "If only your parents could see you guys now. How would Richard and Minato feel about all of this? Is this fate? if so, what kind of fate is this?".

...

Lara eyed Naruto as he jogged up to her side with a serious expression on his face and asked. "What took you so long?"

"Nothing important"

"So where to?"

Lara looked up and pointed at something in the distance beyond the mountains. "There"

Naruto trailed her finger to a tall tower with a blinking red light at the top in the distance. "That looks like a long journey"

"So why don't we start it early?"

Naruto sighed in defeat, starting to reject his decision of tagging along. If only he could go back in time and warn his past self from making the safe mistake, but alas it was impossible.

He swallowed his dissatisfaction and said. "Guess we better start climbing."

He turned to Lara and asked. "Do you have anything to climb with?"

Lara took out the pry knife Roth had given her not long ago and smiled. "I do now".

"Oh" She suddenly reached into her back pocket and retrieved a piece of paper.

Naruto looked intrigued, so he asked. "What is that?"

"It's a letter I took from an underground bunker. It was written by a man with the last name of namikaze"

Naruto's heart skipped a beat when he heard this, his expression froze. Lara didn't noticed this so she continued.

"You introduced yourself to me as uzumaki so I didn't think much about it until Roth called you by the same name. You should take a look, it might have been written by your ancestor or a family member who got lost on this island." Unbeknownst to her, the words she said last nearly gave Naruto an heart attack.

She handed him the piece of paper which he handled like a baby not because it was wet, but because he was afraid of tearing it up by accident and losing something important in the process.

Naruto slowly opened the piece of paper and read it. With each words, a piece of his heart was chipped away. By the end of the letter, he was already a crying mess.

Lara felt startled when she saw the tears streaming down his face accompanied by an heart broken expression. She felt confused and sad at seeing the same man who had been unfazed by everything so far, look so broken. She felt conflicted inside. She couldn't take his silent tears anymore so she asked.

"Naruto, what's wrong?"

The smiling face of a blonde haired man appeared in his mind for a brief moment before fading away. His heart tightened as memories of that same man invaded his mind.

To believe he had hated them for most of his life thinking they had abandoned him for their adventures. That he was unwanted.

How could he ever forgive himself for being for ignorant and doubting their love for him?

Even at his moment of darkest hour, he still had the time to think about him, and write him a letter that he would have never read, or known about in his life.

Had they expected him to come searching for them when he grew older?

"Th..this letter..." He turned to look her in the eyes as he said the next part.

" ...was written by my father..."

.

.

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"Minato namikaze"

...

The End

Authors note

And that is a wrap. What a beautiful piece of work.

what if I said I had to do baby talks before I was able to write that baby Naruto's scene, would you believe me? (-_-(.

I've noticed that my writing style has changed through out all of my chapters, the more I read people's stories the more I learn. One of the reason why I was off for a while was cause I was reading a particular story on a novel app, and the writing style kinda hit differently. I tried it out with this chapter with a blend of my own writing style inorder to...create something unique.

I won't lie, that horror scene I wrote at chapter 3 with Lara scares me a lot that I can't even bring myself to reread it. Am kinda disappointed in myself. What kind of artist fears his own art work. •_•

Anyways I'd like to apologize for my lazy ass, and for dragging my feet with the updates. I went an extra mile and edited a lot in this chapter, hope you guys don't mind. I'll try my best to drop the next chapter on time. The next one though will be a lot different. Nothing major.

Thank you all for being with me from the beginning of the story till now. Sorry about any lack of fight scenes but it's still the introductory parts, so be patient all those battle maniacs among us.

Like the earlier rituals, pls like, favorite, and review. Also recommend it to your pals, friends, lovers and family whether on fanfiction or not.

Till later,

Ja ne.