Empty

by zzzgnas

There is nothing worse in the world than the feeling of complete and utter helplessness. That empty feeling you get when you've lost everything and you know there's absolutely nothing you can do about it. Uzumaki Naruto was four when he experienced this feeling for the first time. And from then on... nothing had gone right... Strong! Naruto. Third Ninja War Timeline.

7. Chapter 7 - Memories

Chapter-7

Memories

He watched it grow larger, petrified. A more perfect picture of death could never exist.

Warning: Gore...

Unknown Location

The first thing Naruto noticed was that it all seemed familiar. He was experiencing something like déjà vu… As if he had seen all this happen before. He was tempted to puke and even tried a few times. But nothing came out. Reluctantly, he looked again at the woman on the ground. She also looked familiar, but no name came to mind. She had been stabbed through the stomach… Repeatedly. Her tears were dry on her face and her blood stained most of the surrounding floor. She had red hair.

Cautiously, Naruto stepped over her. He went up on the door leading outside the house he was in and stepped out. It smelled. Smelled of death and rot and blood. Just where was he? He gradually continued on until he tripped over something… someone. This time, it was a man. His rotting fingers were digging deep into the ground. His right leg was severed at the knee and nowhere to be found. His left leg was twisted in an unnatural angle and a kunai jutted out of his kneecap. Whoever did this had not bothered to kill him and had left him to bleed out. The trail of blood leading away from his position indicated that the man had been crawling toward the house. An agonizing slow death. He had red hair.

Naruto knelt down and yanked the kunai out of the man's leg. Whoever did this might still be waiting for someone to come out. He internally apologized to the dead man, but then mentally slapped himself. Stop wasting time. He continued on until he came upon the neighboring house. The door was open. He slowly pushed his way inside. The stench almost overwhelmed him. There was more than one dead body inside. Now he was less concerned that he was in any danger. Whatever had killed these people, was long gone. The smell clearly indicated it. He walked upstairs swiftly. There were two doors leading to two rooms. The one on the right had blood seeping through the door… The other was slightly open but otherwise fine.

He made his way to the one on the left and slowly pushed it open. It was a child's bedroom. A little girl's. The pink walls had somehow been left untouched by the disaster. He moved to the small makeshift table next to the bed. A scroll was partially rolled up. Naruto took it and unfurled it.

'Happy 5th birthday, Hayami! Now I know you expected a gift and we did buy one for you, but we've sealed it inside this scroll. If you want it, you'll have to figure out how to get into it. After all, you are an Uzumaki…'

Hayami Uzumaki… The name was familiar. Naruto read it again before realizing that there was still something inside the scroll. Whoever Hayami was, she hadn't managed to unseal her gift before the disaster hit. Bringing his palm up to the kanji, Naruto pushed chakra into it. A doll appeared in his hand in a puff of smoke. It had red hair.

Naruto sighed and sealed it back into the scroll. It was supposed to have been a birthday gift. He had no right to unseal it. He placed the scroll back on the table and turned to leave the room. Outside, in the corridor, he hesitated as the door closed behind him. Should he enter the other room? There was probably another disgusting sight waiting for him inside but he felt almost… drawn to it. The door opened slowly and Naruto stepped inside. He fell to the ground and felt bile rise up in his throat. He felt his body go through the vomiting sensation again but nothing came out.

When he was done, he raised his head to look at them again. A man and a woman, shielding their daughter from whatever it was that attacked them. A sword… A long one. It went straight through the man, then straight through the woman and then straight into the child. The 5-year old child. Hayami Uzumaki. As he walked closer, he saw the swollen belly of the woman. She had been pregnant. The sword had taken 4 lives. In one thrust. He stayed motionless for a few long moments, staring at the unnatural sight in front of him.

This felt a little too real to be a dream and if it wasn't a dream, whoever did this could still be waiting. Naruto felt sick knowing what he was about to do. He lifted a foot up and placed it on the man's back. He grabbed the sword with both hands and slowly pulled it out, grimacing when he heard the squelching sound of blood. Sword in hand, he felt relieved at having finished the inhumane task. Looking at them one last time, he turned to leave. Unfortunately, his foot hit something and the pile of bodies tumbled down.

He noticed three things. Firstly, all their eyes were open. Dark purple eyes staring off into space. He felt sick as he moved forward to close them with his free hand. Secondly, he noticed the severity of the wounds on the young girl. The sword hadn't been long enough to pierce through her, like it had her parents, so it didn't hit any vitals. But… It had been long enough to penetrate the skin and get caught in her ribcage. It had pierced clean through the hearts of both adults but it stopped before it reached hers. … Meaning that the man and woman had fallen over, dead. Onto their little girl who was still alive. She had lain there, trapped under her parents, watching the light in their eyesgo out while bleeding out herself. From the looks of things, she struggled hard to escape, unknowingly twisting and turning the sword in her chest… She bled out… Trapped under her parents… Naruto vomited again. But... Same as before, nothing came out. Now, grunting in exhaustion, Naruto stood up. The last thing he noticed was that they too, had red hair.

He suddenly heard someone call out his name. "NARUTO!"

Who was that? What did they want? How did they know his name?

"NARUTO! WAKE UP."

This time it was louder. Why? Why was it louder? He thought as he looked around desperately for the source.

"NARUTO! YOU HAVE TO WAKE UP. NOW?"

Was that… Mikoto-sensei?

Bright light engulfed him and he shut his eyes in pain. What was happening? Was he dead?

"NARUTO! WAKE UP."

Naruto slowly opened his eyes. He squinted at the light. He saw 4 people standing over him. As his eyes adjusted to the light, he started to recognize their faces… His team… and Mikoto-sensei. Mikoto and Yuna had tears in their eyes. What was that just now? Was it just a dream?

"Was I dreaming? Did I fall asleep again?" he asked as he sat up slowly, rubbing his eyes. His hands became wet with tears. He had been crying. He could faintly taste bile in his mouth.

Mikoto was still crouched over him when he sat up and his head accidentally bumped hers.

"Fall asleep? FALL ASLEEP? You weren't breathing, for fuck's sake." Surprisingly, it was Yuna who started to yell. "What the fuck were you guys even doing anyway for this to be in the realm of possible results?"

Orochimaru shot her a dirty look. "Remain calm or I'll assign you to a month of D-ranks."

Yuna did not calm down at the threat. Orochimaru turned to Anko and wordlessly asked her to lead Yuna away from there. Naruto watched the exchange. What just happened?

"Mikoto-san. I don't want to ask the same question as Yuna, but if you could tell me, what were you doing exactly?" Orochimaru calmly asked.

Mikoto wiped her tears as she stood up. "I gave him some tips on genjutsu like you asked. You were right. Even for someone with the Sharingan, he's exceptionally skilled. He's a genius in the field. He did the Tree Binding Death on the first try. That's practically unheard of. Anyway, I thought I'd show him some genjutsu cases and he took to them immediately." Orochimaru narrowed his eyes and asked her to continue.

"I showed him the False Surroundings Technique, the Descending Hell Technique and finally, the Hell Viewing Technique yesterday. He performed them all flawlessly, except the Hell Viewing technique."

Naruto nodded. He remembered that. For the past two months, whenever Mikoto was free, she would help out with their training. She had a lot of fire jutsu under her belt and Anko benefited greatly from the instructions from someone with a primary fire affinity. This also allowed Orochimaru to focus his attention on developing Yuna's secondary earth affinity. They had improved tremendously over the past two months. Now, when they sparred against Orochimaru and sometimes against Mikoto, they were able to hold their own… For a while at least…

Naruto finished the security seals for Mikoto's apartment and with the money he received from her, he took Yugao and moved out of Akira Senju's house and into the apartment complex Mikoto had moved into. Naruto copied the security seals he placed on Mikoto's apartment and installed them on his apartment as well. His seal matrix allowed only a few people to enter his apartment. There was Akira, Yuna, Anko, Orochimaru, Mikoto, Yugao and himself. Oh, and recently, when they went on missions, Yugao would be placed in the care of the civilian family living in the apartment next to them. They even had a kid Yugao's age. It was perfect. Gekko Hayate was a good kid and a good friend to Yugao.

He didn't forget about his debt to Akira. He had offered him 100000ryo, almost thrice the money he spent on him and his friends. But he refused. He told Naruto to buy something and give it to him as a gift instead. Money has no meaning when one has completed as many S-rank missions as he had. Naruto reluctantly agreed but hadn't gotten around to it yet.

Whenever Mikoto was home, she was in their apartment. She was doing a wonderful job of being the sort of mother figure Yugao needed and even Naruto, who was against it at first, had come to like her presence. It wasn't long after that, that she accompanied him to training lessons. She instructed him on the sharingan on their off days. He was not impressed with her training at first. It consisted of him keeping his eyes normal and trying to hit her. At the end of the first day, Naruto was sick of it and asked her quite plainly, what the point of the training was. She laughed lightly and asked him to activate his sharingan and repeat the exercise. He was amazed at the results.

Mikoto made it clear to him that the sharingan was an excellent tool. But it was ultimately only as strong as its wielder. If he used it all the time, he wouldn't know what it means to fight without it. The sharingan automatically memorized attack patterns and other such details. So, if someone did something unpredictable, a person experienced in fighting with the sharingan active all the time, would be caught surprised. Naruto accepted the advice. She would obviously know better than him about this.

Anyways, they had improved. For a team that has been genin for only three months and didn't take any missions at all in the first month, they had an impressive record. 53 C-rank missions and 32 D-rank ones.

D-ranks were Orochimaru's way of punishing them when they did something wrong. Only Naruto had done D-ranks so far and it annoyed him that his teammates were so well-mannered when their sensei was around. Apparently, the Hokage asked him to teach Naruto some manners in a very public forum. It did not bode well with Orochimaru. The result was Naruto running around the village, cleaning dogs, chasing cats, sweeping roads and doing other such menial tasks.

That was why he was excited when Mikoto told him that she had a week off from completing 3 A-rank missions back to back. She would be his instructor for the next week or so and that meant no D-ranks. She had started instructing him on genjutsu and how the sharingan helped to perform and detect them. Yesterday, she taught him the basic concepts of genjutsu and he had taken to it quickly, almost as if he'd done all of it before. Today, he had come prepared with the one genjutsu he wasn't able to perform the previous day.

He focused on the discussion taking place between his two instructors. "All except one? Wow." Orochimaru exclaimed.

"Yeah. Exactly and the one he failed to reproduce was the only A-rank one." Mikoto said with a hint of pride in her voice. "Anyway, I thought I'd start with Sharingan: Genjutsu Reversal. So, I told him to use a genjutsu on me so that I could demonstrate. But I think he mistook it as an invitation to perform the Hell-viewing technique that he failed to perform yesterday. I reflected it before I realized what was happening and it hit him."

So, that was the effect of the genjutsu. Naruto sighed, relieved. It was just an illusion. No need to be alarmed. But still... It just looked a bit too real...

"He started seizing and soon he was taking shallow breaths. That's when I fired the flare and you came." Mikoto finished with a worried glance his way.

"Hell-viewing technique? That sounds bad." A voice said from behind them.

"Anko?! I thought I told you to take her and calm her down." Orochimaru snapped at her.

"I did. She calmed down immediately when I told her we're much more likely to find out what was happening if we stayed hidden." Anko replied easily.

Orochimaru wanted to sentence her to a month of D-ranks, but he stopped himself when he saw the worried looks on their faces. "Alright… You can stay."

Mikoto looked at the worried faces of the three genin. "Demonic Illusion: Hell-Viewing Technique. It is one of the deadliest genjutsu techniques out there. It forces the target to relive his/her most traumatic moments in their life." Mikoto paused at the horrified looks on the girls' faces. "I suspect he may have seen Shinzo and Shizuka…"

Naruto didn't say anything and they took his silence as confirmation. But he wasn't paying attention to them anymore. This wasn't an illusion. It was real. He'd actually experienced it. But he had no memory of it. His past self, had experienced that situation in real life… When he was younger than 6 years old.

Naruto suddenly started coughing and puking on the ground. It had happened. He was a survivor of that massacre. He had red hair; just like them. He had purple eyes; just like them. This was it. A chance to see his past. No matter how horrible it was, he needed to know.

"Mikoto-sensei. Do it on me again." Naruto whispered as he tried to stand up.

"WHAT?" They yelled simultaneously.

Tears fell from Naruto's eyes. "Please, I need… I need you to do it… again. I… I need… I need to know." He choked out as his head started throbbing and his heart started breathing faster. He could hear people shouting around him, but he couldn't make out the words. He suddenly felt very tired and lightheaded. He tried to make sense of what was happening. But it was of no use. The world was spinning around him and it was fading. Fast. And all of a sudden, it was all black.

Meanwhile, With Akira

"This is… ingenious. Who did it?" Kushina questioned incredulously. She'd just arrived back from a rather hectic mission and earned a well deserved week-long break after almost two months of continuous work. That's when she saw her former sensei. He asked her back to his house to look at the security seals she installed. He said that someone had recently broken in which made Kushina laugh out loud. However, when she saw that her sensei was serious, her smile dropped. It wasn't possible. She had basically created a self-powered security system that she thought was tamper proof. Now, when she saw the single kanji drawn on top of her seal matrix, she realized her mistake.

The security system was powered by her chakra gatherer seal. The security system was heavily guarded with many fail safes acting in its defense. However, the chakra gatherer seal was a fairly recent innovation on her part and she hadn't protected it against tampering. The expertly applied negation seal was enough to completely destroy her seal system. It was amazing and ingenious, not to mention, dangerous. But, more than any of that, it was embarrassing.

"That's not important, you brat. It seems to me that I grossly overpaid for your services if a single seal was enough to bring it all down." Akira yelled at her.

Kushina glared at her sensei. "Geez. I fixed it now. You happy?"

"No. I want my money back." Akira declared adamantly.

"Good luck with that." She muttered under her breath.

Akira didn't reply. He looked worried about something. "Ne, sensei? What are you worried about? I can see something's bothering you."

Akira looked almost apologetic. "Sorry, Kushina-chan, I don't know if I should ask."

Kushina tilted her head in confusion. "Go ahead and ask, kid. I know when someone wants something from me." She said in a mock voice, using the words he'd used against her so many times, against him.

Akira deadpanned. "Very funny." But then he got serious again. "I wanted to ask about the panic attack. I'm sorry I wasn't there."

Kushina's smile faltered. "I'm sorry for worrying you, sensei but it was over two months ago. It hasn't been a problem for years but suddenly it just happened."

Akira nodded. "But what triggered it?"

"It was a silly thing." Kushina said, trying to pass it off as nothing. "Yoshino Nara, my friend, told me that she met this boy at the hospital that looked like me." Akira's eyes widened. "You know, red hair, purple eyes. She even said his name was Menma." Akira's mouth was left open in shock. "It's silly, I know. But it had so many parallels that reminded me of Naruto."

Akira was speechless. Was he mistaken? Was he her brother after all? But the sharingan… That can't be her brother. Akira filed the thought away for later. "I might know this boy you're talking about. Naruto huh? A boy with purple eyes… "

"Yeah… Purple most of the time." As soon as she said it, her hand arrived to cover her mouth. She wasn't supposed to talk about that.

Akira narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean?" he asked seriously, his sudden change in tone making Kushina frown.

"Alright geez. No need to get so serious. If I can't trust you, then who can I trust, right?" Kushina asked hoping to get a smile. Akira remained as stoic as ever. "Fine. My brother… My brother was unique. He was the only Uzumaki in the village who had the sharingan." She said sadly.

After a small pause, she turned around. "Don't tell anyone, by… the… way… Damn it." She cursed as she saw that he was already gone. "I hate it when he does that."

Konoha Hospital

Rin stared at the unconscious boy nervously. She wondered if she had done a good enough job. A panic attack was not a serious thing and they had stuck the newbie with it. Rin wasn't particularly happy about it, but she soon saw that it was Naruto. She ran some diagnostic tests and found out that his panic attack was strictly mind-related. His heart was fine and there was no damage. Sadly, more than that, she couldn't tell. Mental illness was an advanced topic and she had only ever read about it. But if she had to guess, she would call it a PTSD-induced seizure. But that was all it was. A guess.

"He's going to be up and about in a couple of hours." She declared to the worried group of shinobi waiting outside. "If you don't mind, can you tell me what happened to him? After the silent dispatch, his mental evaluation was solid. If he could handle that, he should have no mental troubles. This kind of thing shouldn't happen to him."

Orochimaru was the one who answered. "Demonic Illusion: Hell-Viewing Technique."

That was enough for her. She was familiar with the monstrous technique. With low reserves, ninjutsu was never an option for her. She had turned to genjutsu instead. She knew of the technique. She had read about it and its effects in the book about mental illness she read. Prolonged exposure to the genjutsu could drive the target mad.

"Just how big an exposure are we talking about?" she asked.

"Minimal. 1-2 minutes." Orochimaru replied, making her eyes widen.

"I wouldn't call that minimal, but it certainly shouldn't have such a drastic effect." Rin told them while deep in thought. Just what had he seen? If the death of his two best friends didn't affect him as deeply, just what could he have seen?

Elsewhere in the Hospital

"What are you doing here, Akira?" Biwako asked. "I told you I was busy. Whatever you want will have to wait till Tsunade is back to work." Akira didn't falter like he usually did. Something was wrong. "What is it?"

"You've avoided me long enough. The boy, Biwako. Tell me." Akira commanded.

Biwako's eyes went wide. This was no longer the kid she grew up with. This was the shinobi version of him. Konoha's Golden Flame. He was here for answers and he wouldn't leave without them. That much was clear.

Akira pressed on, seemingly not registering her surprise. "Tell Me."

Biwako sighed. This would not end well. For any of them. "Fine. Take a seat. This is something I've wanted to get off my chest for a while now anyway." Akira moved to the seat she pointed at and she sat across from him.

"He was deranged when he arrived, close to a panic attack. Don't know what he went through, but I put him under as fast as I could and stabilized him. He woke up briefly and tried to break through his restraints. He almost succeeded, but I sedated him again. But... But not before I saw his eyes. His eyes were burning with hatred, the kind I've never seen before. He didn't blink once until he was unconscious." Biwako paused, her face pale. "It was as if he was memorizing my face. To find and kill me when he was finally free. The boy was 6 at most, Akira. Just 6. And I was afraid of him."

"That was when he came and took him away. When he returned, he was a normal little boy with no idea where he was. And he had a burnt locket on him, which he didn't have before."

Akira leaned forward in his chair. "Who came, Biwako? Who took him away?"

Biwako hesitated. This was going to open a door to a huge… shit storm. For years, she had followed her husband's orders without question. But something was wrong with what happened that day and she knew one day, it would come back to haunt her. It didn't help at all that Akira would be the one to investigate it.

"Jiraiya. Jiraiya came to take him away."

Akira didn't stop. "Who brought him back?"

Akira already knew the answer from the way she looked away from him. "My husband… Hiruzen brought him back."

"And why did you keep it to yourself for so long?" Akira's eyes were ripping a hole into her head.

"He asked me not to say anything to anyone." Biwako said, trying to defend herself.

"You witnessed a child's memory get sealed without his consent and you ignored it?" Akira stood up. Biwako couldn't stand those eyes. Eyes so full of judgement. Eyes she had once adored. "What have you become?"

A strangled cry left Biwako's throat as soon as Akira left the room. He was right to judge her. She was no longer as innocent as she once was. She had done things in the name of Konoha that made her own skin crawl.

He was right to judge her.

With Naruto

"Rin. Come quick. He's waking up." He heard Yuna's voice yell out. His head hurt really badly. He wasn't sure why. It was as if his body was punishing itself for remembering.

When he thought it was all just part of a genjutsu, his body was fine. He was conscious. He was safe. But when he realized that they were memories of his past trauma, his mind closed up. His body shut down. Almost as if he was forbidden to remember. He forced the thoughts of that place out of his mind.

Suddenly, he saw Rin. Her hands were glowing green as it passed over him. He felt relaxed all of a sudden. His mind eased and his eyes adjusted to the light. There were 5 people in the room. Rin was right next to him, healing him up. Yuna, Anko and Mikoto were right behind her. Orochimaru was casually leaning against the door.

"What happened?" Naruto asked quietly.

Rin smiled at him slowly. "You had a panic attack."

Naruto scoffed at that. "No seriously. What happened?"

The assembled shinobi stared at him in surprise. That was not the response they had been expecting. "Why do you think it's not a panic attack?"

Naruto shrugged. "I don't know. A panic attack is because of the heart beating faster. My heart's definitely fine. But my head was killing me when I woke up."

Rin's mouth fell open. "That's not a symptom of anything I know that would cause such a collapse."

Naruto nodded his head. "Do you have some water?"

"Yeah, I got it." Yuna said and shuffled out of the room to get some water for her teammate.

"Naruto, what did you see?" Orochimaru asked quietly. Mikoto glared at him, but Orochimaru didn't pay attention to it. "Why did you ask Mikoto-san to do it again?"

His head was hurting again. He was thinking about it as a memory again. And it showed on his face in the form of a wince of pain.

Anko spoke up. "He's hurting."

Rin focused more chakra into her technique and he sighed in relief. Yuna came back with water and handed it to him. Naruto quietly drank the water as everyone waited patiently for him to start speaking. When he was done, he handed the cup back to Yuna but it slipped through his fingers and shattered on the floor.

Now, everyone was worried. "I didn't see Shinzo and Shizuka or any other thing I remember." This surprised the two jonin. The technique showed the target their worst memory. "I saw something different. Something I've experienced but can't remember. I saw something from… before…"

"Naruto…"

"Which is why you have to do it again. I can't let this chance slip away. I have to see what happened. The whole thing. I need to see my past." His head was starting to hurt again and he pressed his hand to his forehead to get some relief.

Everyone stared at him in surprise, mouths open.

"Naruto, what is happening to you?" Yuna asked, tears in her eyes. Anko and Rin were similarly shaken.

What was the problem? He took his hand off to see that it was glowing green. He had just used the mystical palm technique on himself. A very advanced medical technique. Not even some of the best medics in the village were confident enough to use the technique on themselves. He had just done it without realizing it.

Orochimaru stepped forward. "Naruto. What is a pulmonary embolism?"

"A blockage in an artery in the lungs which may cause shortness of breath, chest pains and… sometimes, regurgitation… of blood."

Orochimaru brushed past his stunned teammates and leaned on the bed. "Did you have knowledge of anatomy prior to my asking that question?"

Naruto tilted his head in confusion. "No…"

"You are remembering." Orochimaru told him. "You want to try this again? It'll probably hurt more the next time."

"I don't care. I have to know." Naruto said with conviction.

"Then, I have no choice." Orochimaru chopped him in the back of his neck. "Sleep. We'll figure it out when you're under."

The three conscious genin had no idea what was going on. But Mikoto looked horrified. "Are you thinking…"

Orochimaru nodded. "Yeah. He's had his memory sealed. And the seal is breaking. Which is hurting him. This kind of memory lock hasn't been used in a long time though." He looked grimly at his student. "Whoever sealed his memory didn't want him to remember anything and if he did, he'll die before he can reveal any of the secrets his memory got sealed for. It's a double way memory knot. If he tries to remember, he gets headaches and his mind starts to shut down. If he actually remembers, he dies."

"Are you saying that what happened to Naruto when he was 6 was no accident, but a memory seal?" Yuna asked, horrified.

Orochimaru didn't answer the question. "Until a skilled mind walker can enter a deep dive into his mind, this is how it has to be. He cannot think about what he saw as memories. He has to see them as something else. Visions, maybe. Or rather, he has to think of it as a fantasy. Not real. If he thinks they are memories, his body shuts down. His mind closes off. He dies… If no one helps him." Orochimaru finished his assessment. "Make sure he knows that when he wakes up. Someone who knows medical jutsu stay with him at all times. Don't tell him that a memory seal was placed on him. As far as he's concerned, what happened to him is still just an accident."

"Where are you going?" Anko asked him.

Orochimaru paused at the window he was just about to jump out of. "I'm going to see the Hokage. He needs to know about this. You guys take him home. I don't want anyone else, not even other medics, knowing about this. Oh and if it's not obvious by now, not a word of this to anyone."

And then, he was gone.

Mikoto looked around the room to see every open eye looking at her. "Right, let's get him home. Anko, get his legs."

Hokage's Office

"What are you doing, old man? Get your hands off me."

Hiruzen identified the voice as Jiraiya and was immediately on guard. He sounded almost… frightened. He stood up and was immediately surrounded by his guards. They had heard it too. 'Good'. Hiruzen thought as he drew a kunai.

Suddenly, the door was blasted open and a bruised and battered Jiraiya was thrown inside. Their eyes went wide. Jiraiya was one of the strongest shinobi in Konoha. Who would even be able to do something like this?

Akira Senju calmly walked inside and past the downed Jiraiya. "We need to talk", he said, looking Hiruzen directly in the eye.

"ANBU, restrain him." Jiraiya shouted. "He just started attacking me without any reason. He's gone mad."

The ANBU started to move but stopped immediately when the killing intent hit them. The only outward difference they saw in Akira was the tightening of his eyes.

"STAND DOWN." Hiruzen yelled and Akira relaxed immediately. "What the fuck do you think you're doing?"

Akira stared defiantly back at him. "The boy. Tell me about the boy."

Hiruzen paled considerably. "ANBU, leave us." His eyes narrowed at his former teammate, as the ANBU scrambled out. "What provoked this? What did she tell you?"

"ENOUGH. You are here to answer my questions. Not the other way around." Hiruzen took a step back.

In his entire life, he had only ever been truly afraid of three shinobi. The first one was Madara Uchiha. He was only a little kid when he first met him and needless to say, the man terrified him. The second one was Uzumaki Tenji, his old friend from Uzushiogakure. And the third one was standing right in front of him. The man who stood alone against an army from Iwagakure for two whole days. The man who he thought, was long gone.

"Jiraiya encountered him on a scouting mission in Kiri. He faced off against him and subdued him, but took some heavy hits in the process. He was injured and didn't know what to do. The boy was too powerful for his age and he held Konoha responsible for what happened to the Uzumaki clan. But he didn't want to kill a boy so young either. So, he brought him back to Konoha and asked to place a memory seal on him. I agreed with him when he showed me the scar the boy left on him… The scar from a wound he had to burn closed just to survive. He was too strong and would only ever grow stronger."

Hiruzen stopped talking as if it was over. Akira motioned him to continue speaking. Hiruzen tilted his head as if the rest was obvious. "Then, we sealed his memory."

"Don't talk so casually about this. You sealed the memory of a 6-year-old. A fucking kid, Hiruzen. Do you not regret it? For fuck's sake, Hiruzen. He's one of the very few survivors of our greatest ally." Akira yelled.

"You weren't there, old man. You didn't see his eyes." It was Jiraiya who spoke in a low broken voice. "I regret it every single day, Akira-sama. But you didn't see his eyes. Eyes that promised destruction and death. I asked for his memory to be sealed because no one, especially not a 6-year-old kid should shoulder that kind of hate."

Akira turned around to look at Jiraiya who was still on the ground. "Jiraiya. It doesn't matter what you saw in his eyes. Or his face. Or his body. We live by simple rules, Jiraiya. You commit a crime, you get punished. And don't, for even one second, think that what you did wasn't a crime. It's bad enough that we left them all to die. Now, you basically imprison one of them, throw him in an orphanage with no memory, no recollection of who he is or where he came from? That is not something you do to anyone, especially not our greatest ally's few living survivors."

Jiraiya stood up suddenly, making Akira raise his eyebrows. Silently, he took off his jounin vest, and then the red shirt under it.

"What if, Akira-sama, someone who was there during the massacre survived?"

He then took off his chain mail.

"What if he was the only one who did, while everyone around him died, one by one, waiting for help that would never arrive."

Finally, he took off the fishnet vest underneath, revealing his scar. The only major one he has received in his long and dangerous shinobi career.

'Konoha will burn. Konoha will burn just like Uzushio did. Its land will flow with the blood of its people and its water will turn red with blood.'

Akira's eyes went wide at what he was seeing and hearing.

'I will make sure of that.'

Jiraiya pulled his shirt down, covering his scar again. "That's what he told me right before he fell unconscious. You've heard the stories, Akira-sama. There were 500 Uzumaki warriors in the village and close to 15000 able-bodied shinobi against them. No one escaped unscathed. Uzushio was destroyed, but the ninja who survived on the other side, were no more than a 1000 and each and every one of them is a husk of their former selves."

Akira remained silent.

"An angry Uzumaki is not something we want working against us." Hiruzen added softly.

Akira sat down finally, his face pained. "Why not tell Kushina? She would have taken care of him. He would have been happy. Hell, they both would have been."

Hiruzen also sat down, seeing that his friend had finally calmed down. "I didn't want to give her hope and then have to take it away."

Akira's eyes narrowed at what he was implying.

"Don't look at me like that. You know I wouldn't hesitate even for a second. The slightest indication that he was against Konoha and I would've had him killed. Why do you think I placed him in that particular orphanage? The only one with a shinobi matron."

Akira looked around at the two of them helplessly. "He's just a kid."

"In this world, there are people younger than you and stronger than me. Or did you forget?" Hiruzen asked softly.

"Tch." Akira looked away. "What happens when he finds out? What happens then?"

"He will never find out." Hiruzen stated adamantly.

Akira frowned suspiciously. "And why is that? Why won't I just tell him?"

Hiruzen was calm. This wasn't a dispute among friends anymore. This was politics. He needed to take measures to ensure the safety of his village. "Because if you do, you'll ruin the career of the only person who can take your place as heir."

Akira fumed. "Tsunade-chan? What are you doing? She has nothing to do with this."

"From now on, you have nothing to do with this as well." Hiruzen stated calmly. "In the event that he finds out and I think you have anything to do with it, I'll tell the world that Tsunade sabotaged her brother's career from the start. She told him of the secret behind the true genin test, which enabled him to pass a test that he would surely have failed and subsequently caused the deaths of two other genin. Hell, I'll throw in a few defamation charges on behalf of the Uchiha she blackmailed and whose career is now possibly ruined. For those crimes, despite her importance to the village, she will be tried, thrown in jail and executed within a fortnight. "

Akira was now on his feet, growling at the Hokage. Jiraiya also stared at his sensei in shock. "What are you DOING?" Akira screamed at him.

"I'm protecting the village, Akira." Hiruzen said, still somehow calm.

Akira glared at him for a few long moments. Then he turned around and walked to the door. Jiraiya was the only one close enough to see his fists trembling with rage. "You know, for the longest time, I thought you were the best of us. That my father chose you as his successor because of it. Now, I realize that you've been fooling him from the start. And me. You're every bit as bad as Danzo, Hiruzen. I hope you realize that."

Hiruzen stared sadly at his former teammate and probably a former friend. "I will do what needs to be done for the greater good of this village."

Akira nodded sadly. "You will, won't you? This goes both ways Hiruzen. Something happens to that boy and I think you had something to do with it... Well, we both know the village isn't equipped to handle me, Kushina and whoever else decides to fight once the truth is out." He opened the door. "I'll stay silent about the memory tampering, Hiruzen. But I will tell you this. The truth will eventually come out. He will find out. It's only a matter of time. When he does, I hope, for your sake, that you're long dead and already passed on. Because if not, he will stop at nothing to torture you and make you suffer for every day you have left in this world."

Akira left the room, silently releasing the genjutsu he placed on the secretary as he went past her. In his office, Jiraiya looked worriedly at his sensei. This was his fault; and his sensei was taking the blame for him.

...

...

But he had to ask.

"That orphanage? The one in the red-light district?"

Hiruzen nodded sadly.

"You know what the orphans there have to go through right? Every time they leave the building? The things they see growing up?" Jiraiya blinked rapidly. "You know what I had to go through there, right? Of course you do. I told you."

Hiruzen nodded again, looking down at his desk.

"Why would you do that to him?" Jiraiya asked. "We already tortured him enough by wiping his identity and putting him in the place he hates the most. Why would you do this to him after that?"

Hiruzen met his eyes. "It was necessary."

Jiraiya blinked in surprise. When did his sensei become so… cold? Hiruzen stared defiantly back at him as if daring him to say something. He didn't. He simply turned around and walked out of the office, not taking his usual route through the window.

Hiruzen turned back to his desk. "I know you're there. You can come out now."

Orochimaru climbed in through the window just in time to see Hiruzen turn his chair around. "How did you know I was here?"

Hiruzen shrugged. "I smelled you. I'm surprised Jiraiya and Akira didn't."

Orochimaru nodded. "True about Akira at least. Maybe he did notice and just didn't care?"

Hiruzen gestured to a seat. "Take a seat, Orochimaru. Let's talk about what you just heard."

"Might as well. I came here to talk about him anyway. I found out that a memory seal was placed on him and wondered if you had any idea how that came to be." Orochimaru stated, making Hiruzen's eyes go wide. "It seems you placed it there, sensei."

Hiruzen hesitantly nodded. Why was he so calm?

Orochimaru grinned. "The one thing I can't seem to figure out is who placed it on him. I do believe young Inoichi Yamanaka's father was dead at the time Jiraiya brought him to the village and I don't think anyone else would have been skilled enough to apply a seal so thoroughly crippling to his mind... And if it was Inoichi himself, I have severely underestimated the man. I didn't think you could convince him to tamper with the memory of a child as young as that, no matter how dangerous he seemed to be." Hiruzen was unfazed.

Orochimaru sighed. "You know, you might as well just tell me now. It's only a matter of time before I find out everything."

"What do you mean?" Hiruzen asked.

Orochimaru's eyes lit up. "He's starting to remember."

"Then, he's starting to die."

Orochimaru grinned again. "It seems you're aware of the fact that it's a double memory knot as well. How the hell did you convince a shinobi of the respected Yamanaka clan of Konoha to do something like that to a kid?"

The only reaction from Hiruzen that Orochimaru could see was the tiny bead of sweat forming on his forehead. And suddenly, it all clicked into place and Orochimaru stared at his sensei, horrified.

"You- do you mean to tell me that… that he did it?"

Hiruzen did not reply. That man was long gone and his terrible techniques with him. He had been thrown in jail for his long list of crimes against humanity. But occasionally, when faced with resilient criminals and an immediate need of answers, Hiruzen used to approach him.

Hatsunori Yamanaka. The person who established the Yamanaka clan in Konoha and also Konoha's greatest traitor after Madara Uchiha himself. Inoichi Yamanaka, talented as he was, would never have been willing to seal the memory of Uzumaki Naruto. Which led him to approach the legendary Yamanaka in his cell. Two weeks after the deed was done, he visited the Yamanaka again. And the Yamanaka was delirious and incoherent. To the point that Hiruzen didn't want to involve him again.

"He will not remember." Hiruzen said with conviction.

"Tch." Orochimaru was disgusted with his sensei, for the first time in his life. Jiraiya had, of course, told him about the young boy he had encountered on his way to Kiri. But he had left out the part about sealing his memory. This was news to him and he didn't like it one bit. He turned to leave.

"Oh, I almost forgot. You and your team will accompany Danzo's shinobi team to the Kiri border."

Orochimaru whirled around with a worried expression on his face. "Why there? Are they starting something?"

Hiruzen shook his head no. "Danzo's being punished for his recent 'failure'. Be at the north gate at dawn."

Orochimaru nodded his head but said nothing more. Enough had already been said. He was supposed to be mad at him after all.

With Naruto, 3 Hours Later

He woke up to Yugao looking worriedly at him. This time, he had no trouble remembering the events that rendered him unconscious. 'That bastard.' He thought, remembering how Orochimaru got in close, asking him questions, and then chopped him in the back of his head. Naruto had let down his guard. And Orochimaru always capitalized on his mistakes.

"Yugao-chan, get off my chest. You're too heavy." Naruto whined, alerting the others as well.

Mikoto walked into the room. "Naruto. How're you feeling?"

Naruto sat up quickly. "I'm fine, Mikoto-san. What am I smelling?"

Rin, Yuna and Anko came into the room. "Someone's feeling awfully cheerful. You okay?" Anko asked, grinning at him.

"Yup. I woke up to the cutest girl in the world looking after me.", he said, tickling Yugao, making her laugh. "Why shouldn't I be cheerful?"

Mikoto smiled at him. "Come on. We fixed up some lunch. You need to eat."

They went into the larger room and soon got around to eating. Rin was surprised at the spacious apartment and asked him how he was able to afford it. Yuna told her the source of his money and she was, to say the least, surprised. She was also very surprised about how well she fit in. She had thought it would be awkward when Naruto started feeling better. She would no longer have any need to stay. It was not the case however. She was having a lot of fun.

"Say, Naruto. Do you know what happened?" Anko finally voiced the question they were all wanting to ask.

Naruto sighed. "What I saw… If I think of them as memories, it overwhelms me. My mind shuts off and I start aching all over. So, I have to force myself to consider what I saw, just a dream. Then, I'm okay."

Yuna looked at Naruto in sadness. How would someone even do that? Not think of their memories as memories. How would it even be possible? Naruto bit his teeth in pain and brought a glowing hand to his head to relieve his pain.

"Naruto…", Mikoto almost looked apologetic. "If you didn't see Shinzo and Shizuka, then what did you see?"

Naruto went pale, surprising everyone. His thoughts had immediately gone to the little girl, bleeding out trapped under her parents. Mayaki Uzumaki. "You don't want to know." He choked out. "Trust me."

Mikoto was now worried. What could he possibly have seen to get such a reaction out of him? "It's okay, Naruto. Just forget you ever saw it. We'll figure things out."

Naruto nodded. "Yeah, I know. I will get my memories back one day. I'm sure of it. It's my dream to figure out my past. Who my parents were, if they're still alive and where they are now… I'll answer those questions, no matter how long it takes.", he said with a newfound determination.

"And we'll help you, Naruto." Rin said supportively. "I work at the hospital, so, I'll take a look around the birth certificates and see if I can find a 'Naruto' in there somewhere."

Naruto looked at her in surprise. "Thank you, Rin."

She blushed but nodded to accept his thanks. A knock came at the door. "Naruto! Is everyone here?"

It was Orochimaru. Yuna went to open the door. "Come on in, sensei." Orochimaru entered and proceeded to where he knew the dining room was. Over the past two months, Naruto's place had become the unofficial hangout spot for his team members, his being the only one owned entirely by them. Orochimaru seldom accompanied them, but he still knew his way around the place.

"Naruto, you feeling okay?" Orochimaru asked as soon as he saw him.

"Yeah, I'm okay. And I'm going to get back at you for knocking me unconscious." Naruto said, trying to sound threatening.

"Pfft. Do your worst." Orochimaru muttered as he snatched the sandwich Naruto had in his hand, much to his chagrin. "It's good that you're feeling well. We have a mission first thing tomorrow."

His three students gasped in shock. "Sensei, it's too soon. We should let him rest." Yuna spoke in protest.

"I'm fine!"

"We have to go. We were specifically requested." Orochimaru said, finishing the sandwich. Still feeling a bit hungry, he snatched Yugao's sandwich next.

"Hey, what the fuck do you think you're doing?" Yugao yelled at him, making his eyes widen in surprise.

He quickly handed it back to the little girl. "Geez. Here you go. Take your sandwich. Kids these days have no respect."

Naruto frowned at the interaction. He had tried hard to get her to forget the cuss word, but it only seemed to make her use it more. So, he embraced it. He wasn't frowning about that. "That's all it took? You would've given it back?"

Orochimaru smirked. "The kid knows to stand up for herself. You were just a pussy. 'I'll get back at you for this', what a whiny bitch."

Naruto growled in anger, but it soon subsided when he felt killing intent being directed their way. Yuna and Rin were glaring at both of them. He was about to ask why when Yugao spoke. "Naruto-nii, what's a pussy?"

Naruto went white. Now, it made sense. "Er… It's a cat. You know, as in, pussy-cat."

"I thought my nickname was cat. Why did he call you a cat?" Yugao continued to question.

"Um… That's… That's a good question, Yugao-chan. He must have made a mistake…" Naruto tried to say.

"What a funny man.", Yugao giggled. "He called you a bitch as well. Doesn't he know anything?"

Naruto let out a sigh of relief when he saw that Orochimaru was no longer paying attention to the conversation and had started talking to Mikoto. "He's a very stupid person, Yugao-chan." Then, a thought came to him making him smirk evilly. "Yugao-chan, you have a book about animals, don't you? You know all the animals already, so, if we give it to him as a gift…"

Yugao leapt up from the table. "You're right. He can learn." She went running into the bedroom to retrieve the book.

Naruto turned around to see that Yuna and Rin looked angrier somehow. Anko just laughed as she watched her friend get chewed out for being a bad influence. Anko had no qualms about this kind of thing. She had grown up in a weapons shop. She had heard plenty of cuss words being thrown around easily and had picked quite a few up. There was a reason why she held the top spot for trash talking in the academy.

Meanwhile, Mikoto wasn't so easily distracted. "Who requested them so specifically?"

Orochimaru looked at his fellow jonin. He knew she had been through so much in the past few months. How she reacted to the events and the civilians' scorn had impressed him. She did everything right in Orochimaru's eyes. She didn't let random people's opinion get to her, she was a strong shinobi, the youngest one to be accepted as a jounin-sensei, in fact. She was alert, paid attention to detail, and during the missions they shared, she was never too emotional nor too aggressive. For all this, he admired her. She was a true kunoichi. Even better than his female teammate, who was too hot headed, too emotional and too overconfident.

"Danzo. He's taken an interest in the boy." He spoke plainly. He didn't know if it was a good thing or a bad thing that his student had captured Konoha's war general's attention. He would just have to wait and see.

Mikoto could only nod. "I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing.", she stated, showing Orochimaru that she was of the same opinion.

Orochimaru stood up and walked to the door to leave. "Be at the north gate at dawn, all of you… except you… Minato's brat."

"He's awfully bitchy today." Anko leaned in to whisper.

Naruto grinned as he saw Yugao run out of the bedroom with a clumsily wrapped package. "Onii-san. Wait up. Wait up."

"It's about to get worse, Anko-chan. I love her."

Orochimaru looked down at the little girl who ran up to him, holding a wrapped package. "What's this?"

"It's a book. So that you can learn."

Orochimaru looked up at Naruto to see him nod seriously. He had been persuading his only male student to write down all the details he could recall about the substitution technique he used to swap places with him during the genin exam. This was probably it. He moved to open it, but Yugao stopped him.

"Hey, you have to wait until later to open a gift. That's basic manners.", she told him while pouting.

"Alright then, thank you for the gift." Yugao smiled. "Both of you.", he added, making eye-contact with Naruto as well. He closed the door behind him, smiling fondly. It was a good day after all.

He took to the roof heading towards his lab. It was a few moments before he noticed that something was wrong. Naruto outright told him that he would get back at him and then, he had given him a gift. Now wary of the package he was carrying, he opened it up. Inside was a note written in childish scrawls.

"Hey silly man. You called Naruto a pussy as well as a bitch. He can only be one, silly. I think this book will help you."

Orochimaru pocketed the note before turning the book over. '26 Everyday Animals'… 'For Kids.'

Completely stunned, Orochimaru opened it up. 'A for Ant.' 'B for Bat.' 'C for Cat.' 'D for Dog.' …

Growling in anger, he turned around and threw the book with force through the window of Naruto's apartment, where quite a few people were watching him. God… He had never felt more humiliated. Naruto would die for this. He'd make sure of it.

Red-Light District

He hadn't been here in a long time. It had changed… Mostly for the better. There was another brothel now, which reduced the load on the girls somewhat, but also increased their customers. There were shoddy new buildings labelled apartments, which was nice. Being here alone was never a good idea, even for a shinobi of his stature.

As he passed through the place, heading for the orphanage, he heard his name being called.

"Jiraiya? Is that you?"

Jiraiya turned around in surprise. He hadn't expected to be recognized. He saw who called him and immediately saw that something was familiar. With a start, he realized it was her… Kirua. His first friend.

"Kirua? Is that you?"

She smiled at him. "You do remember me. Thank god."

Jiraiya frowned at the state of her clothes. "You still live here? After all this time?"

The smile fell from her face. "That's the first thing you wanna say to me? After all this time? Not all of us are lucky enough to catch the eye of the Hokage, you know?"

Jiraiya's frown deepened. "But…"

Kirua stopped him with a glare. "You know… I haven't seen you since that day…"

Jiraiya gulped. Not many people knew of his past. She did though. After all, she was right there with him. "I… I couldn't come back. It was just too much."

"Tch." Kirua scoffed at him. "You weren't the only one who had to go through it, you know?"

Jiraiya was getting annoyed. "I know that. But it was different for me. I was the only boy…"

'SLAPP!"

"And that makes it okay, does it? I've been dealing with that for the past 3 decades of my life and for the first half of that duration, I wasn't even getting paid for it." Jiraiya stared at her in surprise, holding his cheek instinctively. "You know what you are? You're still the same little ungrateful wimp that we tried so hard to protect. Do you know what we went through after you left? Do you know where our friends are now? Do you even care?"

Jiraiya said nothing. He knew that even if he opened his mouth, nothing would come out. He watched helplessly as she turned to leave.

"Unbelievable!" she muttered as she started to walk away, but a hand caught her wrist to stop her.

"Kirua… I wasn't there for you. I know that now. I'd be lying if I said I won't regret it every waking moment of the rest of my life." Jiraiya said softly, making eye contact with her. "But I'm different now. I'm strong. I have money. I can protect you now. All of you. Please let me do that for you."

Kirua scoffed. "All of us?" She unknowingly raised her voice. "All of US?" She yelled. "They're dead, Jiraiya. Kazane died when she was 12. A drunk ninja snapped her neck. Ren was killed by his boss in the shop he worked at, apparently over stealing money. Sara died giving birth at the age of 14. Her child died soon after." Her rant finished; she broke down in front of him. "I'm the only one left, Jiraiya.", she said, sobbing. "I'm the only one left."

Jiraiya was stunned. All of that had happened to his friends. His first friends. By their life and his, he had failed them. He reached for her shoulder to comfort her.

"Don't touch me." She snapped, batting his arm away.

"Kirua-chan. Let me help you now. I want to make up for it. I can help at least one person. One friend." He pleaded.

Kirua stood up and spat in his face. "We haven't been friends in a long time, Jiraiya. You know why?" She reached into her bag and retrieved a piece of paper. "This is a page from a bingo book I found 16 years ago."

Jiraiya stared at her in confusion.

"You want me to read it out for you." She asked sarcastically. "Alright then.
Name: Jiraiya.
Village: Konoha.
Caliber: S-Rank.
Skills: High fire affinity, holds the toad summoning contract, unleashes horribly destructive collaboration techniques, rumored to be skilled in fuinjutsu.
Achievements: Genin at 6, chunin at 7, jounin at 12; One of three people to have survived a confrontation with Sanshouo no Hanzo.

One of the most dangerous Konoha shinobi. Flee. On. Sight."

Jiraiya remained silent. He didn't know what to say.

"16 years, Jiraiya. You've been famous, rich and living the dream for at least 16 years. Do you know why I don't want your help? Because you could have saved us more than 16 years ago. You could have prevented the death of so many of our friends. You ran away 26 years ago, and this is the first time you've come back. You weren't there when I had to hold Sara's hand and lie to her face that her baby survived so that she could pass on peacefully. You weren't there when we had to bury the people we grew up with. You weren't there when the orphanage, our first home, our only one, was burned down."

Tears formed in Jiraiya's eyes. It was true. It was all true. "Kirua-"

She thrust the bingo book into his hand. "Keep your money, Jiraiya. I survived this long without it. I can survive now. I never want to see you again."

She stomped away and the crowd separated for her. They were nowhere in hearing distance but anyone could see that it was an argument. And she'd been talking with one of the legendary Sannin. Anywhere else, the crowd would be standing around for a long time, talking about what they witnessed. Here, it was nobody's business. So they continued to go about their matters.

Jiraiya just stood there, for who knows how long. Night had fallen and the air was getting chilly. His feet moved on their own to the place he had once called home, now a pile of rubble. The orphanage. The place where most of his nightmares originated. Hiruzen had seen something in him and had taken him out of there… gave him an apartment he paid for and brought him up as a shinobi. He owed all that he was to that man. On that day, when he saw Hiruzen for the first time, sitting in his hospital bed, he realized that he was a hero. That was what Jiraiya aimed to be every day since. A savior. Someone who rescues others.

That was why he stayed back for almost 3 years teaching those orphans from Amegakure to fend for themselves. That was why he brought Naruto back to the village instead of killing him on the spot. By his actions, instead of rescuing him like he intended, he had been imprisoned in the very place he hated more than anything else. He had not saved him. He had killed him and replaced him with a shell of his former self. Moreover, he had unknowingly sent him to the very place he vowed to save people from.

What happened to him on that day, 26 years ago, was horrible. That was why he had repressed it deep within his mind. He chose to never remember what happened to him. In doing so, he had forgotten more than he had ever intended to. It was just as Kirua said. The others were going through so much more than he was. He was weak. And so, he ran away. He ran away from his past, never even looking back.

He looked down at the page from the bingo book. Names were scrawled down on its other side. He scanned through the remaining names slowly, tears slowly flowing down his face.

'Kazane', the brown-haired girl who cooked delicious meals for them from what little they could scavenge from the trash.

'Setsuna', the toddler that gave them all purpose. That drove them to find a better home.

'Ren', the older boy who together with Kirua took care of all of them.

'Sara', the blonde who kept the group together through the years, through all the silly disputes and other falling outs.

'Azumi', Jiraiya didn't know that name, but something was scribbled next to the name. 'Sara's child.', it read. Jiraiya whimpered, trying to contain his cries.

'Kirua', The second last name on the list. The only one that was still alive and the only name that wasn't scratched out. How could he ever look her in the eye again? How would he live with himself and with what he had become?

He reached the last name on the list and he fell to his knees letting out an anguished cry. 'Jiraiya. He died the day he was taken from us. What remains is the monster who killed him.'

He punched the ground in frustration. When did he become so much like the people he hated growing up? The type of person that looked at malnourished kids crossing his path as a nuisance. The type of man that he hated more than anything.

How could he live with himself? In that moment, if it had been any other day, Jiraiya of the Sannin would have been no more. He would have killed himself unable to deal with the amount of guilt and shame he felt. But that day, the events of the day were still playing in his mind, and he knew it was the coward's way out. He would die at the hands of the people he wronged. He owed them that. Akira Senju's words came to his mind.

"He will find out. It's only a matter of time. When he does, I hope, for your sake, that you're long dead and already passed on. Because if not, he will stop at nothing to torture you and make you suffer for every day you have left in this world."

He would die by his hand. The boy whose life he had destroyed on a much larger scale than what happened to himself as a young boy. That would be his fate and he was happy with it.

Jiraiya stopped crying. For as long as he lived, he would never overlook anyone ever again. He didn't deserve to help Kirua. He didn't deserve to even ask for forgiveness. Kirua was right. He had forgotten who he was.

He ran through some hand-seals before slamming his hand on the ground. The ground trembled as a rock structure started rising up from the ground. The few civilians still in the streets scrambled to move out of the way. "Earth Release: Stone Castle Creation Technique."

It took a few more minutes for the ground to stop shaking. But Jiraiya was gone by the time it did. Kirua and the other workers in the brothel ran out to see what was happening. Once outside, she looked up at the majestic stone structure. Words were carved into the arch in front of the building.

'Kirua's Home for Orphans.'

Her colleagues turned to look at her in surprise. Kirua was also stunned. For a long time, she stayed motionless. Finally, a tear rolled down her cheek and a smile broke out.

'Well, it seems you are still in there somewhere, Jiraiya.' She thought as she wiped the lone tear away. 'I'm glad.'

With Mikoto, 2 AM.

She snapped awake when the seal on her arm started vibrating ever so slightly. Perhaps her idea for this particular seal was unnecessary. Naruto had told her pretty much the same thing. Well, her grandfather used to say that a paranoid ninja is a smart one and that is what she told him. He just shrugged and installed the seal.

But perhaps, she should ask for some modification. There was no need to alert her when any random person stood on the roof of the building. Now, because of the seal, she had lost some much-needed rest. Well, no problem. Naruto and his team were going on a mission. That meant that she was pretty much free for the rest of the week. She had all the time in the world to catch up on her sleep.

She walked into her kitchen and poured some water into a cup which she then heated up with her chakra. Now, she didn't mind that she woke up in the middle of the night. But it was kind of depressing for her. She was feeling a bit lonely. It had been two months since she broke up with Fugaku and she hadn't seen him during the interval. According to some of her friends, he was throwing himself into progressively harder missions. He was a man possessed. Mikoto told him that she didn't want that, but it seemed that he didn't care.

Mikoto sighed. They had been getting pretty close too. But in the end, Fugaku was not the one for her. All the Uchiha men she had ever known were cruel, prideful creatures. Fugaku was the exception. That combined with her father's disapproval of the relationship which Fugaku didn't even seem to register, was what made her love him so much. They had been together for so much time that she didn't know who she was without him.

Finishing her water, she shook herself to get rid of the depressing thoughts. Maybe it was time to go back to sleep? She mentally resigned herself to the plan. She cleaned the cup and placed it back on the cupboard.

She was far too awake to just go back to sleep. That was when her seal pulsed again. Whoever it was on the roof, hadn't left. That was when a thought occurred to her. Naruto had the same seals installed in his apartment; which meant that he would also be disturbed by the person on the roof.

She hoped that he wasn't feeling too sleepy. She needed a distraction from her depressing thoughts.

Unknown Location

Naruto woke up in the same place as before. The dead woman was in the same position as before, stabbed repeatedly through her stomach. Tears stained her face and she was covered in blood. This time, Naruto wasn't afraid to move out. He stepped over the woman and exited the house.

Outside, everything was the same as before. The man had his fingers dug into the ground, seeming to be crawling toward the house he came out of, leaving a large trail of blood in his wake. He was missing his right leg and his left leg was twisted in an unnatural angle with a kunai through his kneecap. Naruto bent down and yanked the kunai out of his leg.

As he straightened up, his gaze fell on the familiar house. 'Hayami Uzumaki'. The name passed through his mind and he immediately felt sick. 'No. The sword isn't worth seeing it again.' He thought firmly. He would not go into that house again.

...

...

Then what was he supposed to do? He warily walked past the house and saw a path leading upwards. If he reached an elevated position, he could get a better idea of what was happening or rather, what had happened. As good an idea as any. Decision made, he started up the path.

It was a well-travelled path; the grass was worn down and a visible trail existed. He walked for about 5 minutes before he came upon the first body. Severed at the waist. Naruto cringed. A painful way to die. His blood had flowed quite a distance down the slope. The smell was very strong as well. It was actually odd. One body producing this much-

Naruto rounded a corner and immediately covered his mouth in disgust. Bodies littered the ground as far up the slope as he could see. They were seemingly running up the slope when whatever it was, cut through them from behind. Naruto got his stomach under control and continued up the slope that was now stained completely red.

Now, he felt bad for pulling that kunai out of that dead man. There were plenty of weapons littered on the ground and he had a wide variety to choose from. He picked up a discarded sword with a blue handle. Testing its balance, he nodded his head, accepting the weapon. What were these people running toward? Based on the sheer number of people, he hoped that it was a sanctuary of some kind. Maybe some of them had made it to safety.

He continued up the hill, ignoring all the brutality on the way. He finally reached the summit. He almost didn't sense it. Almost. It was so small. So miniscule. But it was there. The killing intent. He was immediately on guard. No matter how small it was… it meant that he was not alone. There was someone up ahead.

Slowly and carefully, he inched his way forward, trying his best to move stealthily. He crept from tree to tree until finally he came out onto the summit. There was a house there. A huge one. Naruto instinctively knew that this is where their leader stayed. But he didn't have much time to pay attention to the house, because his eye caught a young red-haired boy sitting on the edge of the cliff. His shoulders were shaking slightly. The boy was crying.

Naruto was about to rush forward to help him but he froze mid-step because suddenly, the boy turned around looking directly at him. His eyes were bleeding and had a distinctive pentagonal pattern to it. But that wasn't what stopped Naruto in his tracks. What stopped him was the hatred in his eyes. The cold utter fury waiting to be unleashed.

He felt the air heat up around him at the same time the boy's right eye started to bleed. He looked down at his arms and screamed as black flames settled on them.

"AMATERASU!"

With Mikoto

Knock knock.

That was strange. She was sure Naruto was awake. She felt his chakra a bit earlier and was sure he was awake. This was the second time she knocked and he had not opened up. Grunting in annoyance, she prepared to knock again. But before she could, the door swung open.

But it wasn't Naruto who opened it. "Miko-chan? What are you doing here?" Yugao asked.

Mikoto was suddenly very wary. In what situation would Naruto allow Yugao to open the door in the dead of the night? Something was wrong. "Yugao-chan? Where's Naruto?"

Yugao wiped her eyes. "What do you mean? He's obviously asleep. It's late."

Mikoto's eyes widened. That was not possible. She pushed past Yugao which earned a loud yell from the young girl. She ran into the bedroom. She could see someone under the covers, but something wasn't right… She yanked the covers off the bed to reveal two pillows stacked underneath to fool them.

Yugao also reached the bedroom by then. "Um… Where's Naruto-nii?"

Mikoto's mind was running a mile a minute. Where could he be? Where could he go in the dead of the night? Did something happen to him? … Wait… The roof!

"Yugao-chan, stay here. Do not come out of the apartment. Do you understand?" Mikoto yelled urgently.

Yugao flinched back in fright. Mikoto never raised her voice. Never. She helplessly nodded her head and the next moment Mikoto disappeared. Tears formed in her eyes. What was going on?

Unknown Location

Naruto screamed as he writhed on the ground. It hurt so much. This wasn't normal fire. Rolling on the ground had no effect on it. Dimly, he remembered the Kusa jonin helplessly writhing on the ground and wondered if this was karmic justice. The boy was smiling viciously at him. Was this kid responsible for all this? This slaughter? Was he responsible?

Naruto drew the sword which he looted from the corpses and held it in front of him. His eyes widened. The sword… it was melting. What is this?

Naruto bit back his scream for a moment and tried to stand up, only succeeding in standing on his knees. This was strange. If the sword was melting, how was his body okay? Suddenly, the flames disappeared and Naruto fell on the ground. The pain had taken away his sense of balance.

He watched helplessly as the boy walked forward. A vicious kick hit him in the chest, caving in his ribcage and knocking him back to the very edge of the cliff. Naruto coughed up blood. This boy was too strong.

Naruto tried to crawl away when the boy started walking again. But he stopped when his eye caught sight of something. Something familiar...

A locket. The same one he had. The one he entrusted to Akira Senju a couple of weeks before.

This wasn't someone he didn't know. It was his past self. Was he the one responsible? Responsible for all this carnage?

Naruto turned on his stomach and finally saw what he was there to see. An aerial view of what had happened. And what he saw, chilled him to the bone.

The land below was barren. Desolate. No greenery, nothing for miles. The type of land that made you think that it could never be cultivated or inhabited. But the ruins of the houses and the small patches of green here and there suggested otherwise. This had once been a prosperous settlement.

It was no longer so. It started in the middle. The spiral. The same spiral he saw on the back of the jounin of Konoha. But this wasn't a picture. It was a spiral made of bodies with blood connecting them. This red spiral expanded outward, wider and wider until it enveloped the whole land. There was little to no separation between the rings of the spiral, making the land appear to be completely red in color.

His eyes flicked to the stagnant river cutting through the land, heading toward the ocean. There were innumerous ship-wrecks littered along the coast, preventing the river flow. Probably a good thing. The blood was seeping into the river giving it a red color.

The sheer number of ships destroyed on the coast was frightening. This was not a fight or anything comparable to a fight. It was a cold-blooded attack waged on a vastly outnumbered settlement. A massacre. A slaughter. An annihilation…

Naruto quickly turned around when he felt the familiar surge of chakra. The younger Naruto was crying blood, looking up at the sky. Naruto lay there stunned at what was happening. Clouds gathered in the sky and soon enough, it started to rain. But it wasn't water that fell from the sky. It was fire.

Black fire rained down and fell on the land below. The bodies on the ground caught fire and soon, there was a pitch-black inferno raging in the land. The river started evaporating to reveal the deep trench it once occupied. The spiral was catching fire quickly and started to spread outward.

He watched it grow larger, petrified. A more perfect picture of death could never exist.

The younger Naruto walked up to where he lay. With surprising gentleness, he turned the injured older boy onto his stomach. Grabbing his hair, he lifted his head up.

"Look at what they did to us. Our friends. Our family." The boy whispered into his ear. A tear fell down Naruto's cheek. "Can you forgive this?"

Naruto shook his head. "No…" He was internally relieved. This meant that he hadn't been the one to cause all this.

"Will you let them get away with this?"

"No!"

"If I point you in the right direction, would you kill whoever did this? Would you destroy every last person responsible?"

Naruto didn't need to think. "Yes. Who did this?" Naruto spoke with determination burning in his eyes. Such an act could never be allowed to go unpunished.

The younger Naruto let go of his hair and his face hit the ground. He wanted to look away from the burning spiral. He wanted to stop smelling the burning flesh. He wanted to wake up from this nightmare. But he couldn't. He just couldn't.

"Kumo did this by starting the war." The younger Naruto spoke, taking out a Kumo headband from his jacket. "Will you kill them for me?"

Naruto didn't hesitate. He held his hand out and the headband was placed in it. "Yes. I will kill every last one of them."

"Kiri did this by supplying the ships for this invasion." This time he took out a Kiri headband. "Will you destroy them for me?"

"Yes. They will be wiped off the face of the earth." Naruto accepted the Kiri headband.

"Iwa did this by hatching this plot to invade us and by aggressively pursuing a war they'd already lost." The Iwa headband came out and was placed into his hand. "What will you do to them?"

"They will suffer before I kill them." Naruto was now standing, looking straight down into the eyes of his younger self for what felt like an eternity. Finally, the younger Naruto looked away, seemingly convinced.

He reached into his jacket. "Lastly and most importantly, Konoha did this by doing nothing." The younger Naruto snarled in anger, his weirdly shaped sharingan spinning wildly, as he drew the Konoha symbol on the ground. "We waited and waited and waited for them to come. We waited days, days turned into weeks, weeks turned into a month. The people down there… They gave up their lives thinking that Konoha was coming to save their loved ones. That their lives had bought enough time for their precious people. How wrong they were."

Naruto took a step back at the intensity in his eyes. "Naruto, this next one is not a request. It's a declaration. A promise. You will destroy Konoha one day. You will bring to them what they brought to us. Eternal damnation awaits them for their crimes. Konoha will burn. Konoha will burn just like Uzushio did. Its land will flow with the blood of its people and its water will turn red with blood."

Naruto took another step back. "I… I can't…"

"NARUTOOO!"

"It seems it's time for you to go, Naruto. We'll meet again. Sooner than you think." The younger Naruto said darkly. "But as I said... It's not a request."

"NARUTOOOO! SNAP OUT OF IT."

"It's a promise."

With Mikoto

Mikoto ran up the side of the building as fast as she could. She was now thankful for the seal that she had Naruto place on the roof. She would've liked to tie Yugao up before jumping to the roof to prevent her from following, but she had no time. She knew what was happening. The damned brat had tricked them. He seemed sufficiently traumatized by the event that she thought he wouldn't try it again. At least not so soon. Damn him. Mikoto jumped up on the roof, her sleeping muscles protesting every strained movement.

There were three clones on the roof. Two were standing face to face and one of them stood with the mystical palm technique activated, looking worriedly at his two counterparts.

Mikoto was about to call out when a blast of chakra knocked her to the ground. She opened her eyes slowly when the wind died down. "That's… Amaterasu?" The black flames settled on one of the two clones standing face to face. They dispelled immediately, but the flames did not. It settled on the concrete and actually started to burn through.

The conscious Naruto clone tried to put it out but it dispelled as soon as it got near. Mikoto had only ever heard of the legendary black flames when her grandfather was still alive. She was stunned at the beauty of it. Luckily, her training kicked in and she didn't stand there gawking at it for too long. She unfurled a scroll and immediately started sealing the dangerous flames inside, taking care not to come in contact with it in any way. Then she looked towards Naruto. He was staring off into space, blood flowing down from his eyes.

"Mangekyou?", she thought aloud when she saw the strange pentagonal pattern in his eyes.

Suddenly, even more chakra was expelled from the raven-haired boy. More black flames came forth and settled on the ground it came into contact with.

"NARUTOOO!"

Mikoto yelled as she unfurled another scroll. She could only seal so much. If he didn't wake up, he could burn down the entire building. She sealed as much as she could into the scroll before tossing it aside and unfurling the next one.

"NARUTOOOO! SNAP OUT OF IT."

Naruto's eyes opened and some of the black flames immediately dissipated. Mikoto gasped, mentally tired from the ordeal. "Naruto, what the fuck do you-". She saw his face. "Naruto?"

He was crying. Watery tears flowed down his cheek accompanying the blood red tears he'd cried moments before, creating small valleys in his blood-covered face. Slowly, he fell forward, crashing onto the ground.

"Crap." Mikoto ran forward to help her friend. The ANBU would show up soon enough. What the fuck was she going to tell them? She didn't have to think about it too much though. Akira Senju was, for some reason, standing across from them, staring wide-eyed at the leftover black flames.

Akira felt some people coming and realized that it was the ANBU. "Get him out of here. I'll deal with them."

Mikoto nodded and disappeared with Naruto, leaving Akira alone on the rooftop. For the first time that day, he considered the possibility that Jiraiya may have been right to do what he did. That Naruto might well be dangerous to the village and to the world around him. The Mangekyou sharingan? In the hands of a 10-year-old? No. In the hands of a 6-year-old? Unheard of.

When the captivating black flames started chewing through the roof, he snapped out of it. And he cursed at himself angrily.

'No. Jiraiya was wrong. They were both wrong. Naruto… I hope you remember everything. I want to know what happened. What really happened.'

---

Dun-dun-dun!

AN0: There you have it. A small sneak peek of what really happened at Uzushio all those years ago. Hope you liked it :P. There's more to what happens but Naruto is able to find out only this much in his first official attempt at regaining his memories.

AN1: 'A more perfect picture of death could never exist' - I believe I've taken this from 'The Yellow Fang' again. (There's a Gildarts power up type thing in this which is so freaking awesome to read, so definitely check it out.)

AN2: Watched Fight Club again recently. What a fucking movie! The first time I saw it, I was perhaps too young to fully appreciate how awesome it was. But I definitely appreciate it now. Was listening to Where is my mind? on repeat for most of last week.

AN3: This chapter is a little shorter than I anticipated. That's because I pushed a lot of Kushina scenes for later. Only Akira and Naruto POV in this chapter. I had to push some other scenes for later as well. Didn't feel right when I tried squeezing in the other stuff.

AN4: I did find a nice picture of the mangekyou shape I had in mind, but I seem to have misplaced it. Will put it up when I find it. Oh and about his mangekyou, I'm not giving him all the abilities. Definitely not kamui. That's too OP. Not more than two I'm hoping. And one of them is already revealed to be Amaterasu. Hah! No fire affinity? Fuck you. I have a mangekyou.

AN5: My current semester is almost coming to an end, and that means that the crazy teachers I have are actually going to start making us do shit. I have like 3 exams this week lol. Coupled with the fact that my dad saw this story on the pc I'm forced to share with him, it might be a while before I put up the next chapter. (I was this close to convincing him that this was an essay I'd written for school when my idiot sister pointed out that 'Naruto' is a beloved anime character and the name had no part being in any of my school essays). I'll try to get it done by the weekend after the coming one :)

Anyways, hope you liked this chapter and stay tuned... for the next episode... of dragon. ball. ZZZ