Chapter 1: Trying again
The Fourth Ninja War was over. The infinite Tsukyomi had come to an end. Madara had been defeated, and Kaguya had been sealed again. The world had finally reached peace. The prophecy had been fulfilled.
But at what cost?
Thousands of people died in that war. But that wasn't all. Friends who were side by side on the battlefield died: Neji, Lee, Ten Ten, Shikamaru, Chouji, Ino, Kiba, Shino, and Sai. Even the one who loved him, Hinata, fell along with the others.
The people closest to him were no longer alive either: Tsunade, Jiraya, Kakashi, Sakura, and even Sasuke. The Uchiha resisted until the last moment to undo the split tree technique, but his body couldn't take it.
There was hardly anyone left in that war. Almost everyone died. All the people Naruto fought for and everything he wanted to protect were erased and destroyed as if they were nothing.
Even with the end of the war, the world would be in complete ruins. Many lives were lost, and there was almost no leadership left strong enough to take the world forward.
Even if everything could be rebuilt, it would only be a shadow of what it once was. A huge scar has crossed every country and is in the heart of every person who will have to live each day knowing that they no longer have the people they love by their side.
"Naruto..." A voice called out to the young blond, and he knew who it was. Even though tears were welling up in his eyes, he could recognize the voice.
"Jiji..." The blonde said she was completely depressed. "I failed..."
"You defeated Kaguya and stopped the Infinite Tsukyomi from happening." Hagoromo affirmed his point.
"But none of that matters if I lose everything in the end! To have won or lost would have brought disaster in every way." He ended up shouting, with tears falling unceasingly down his face.
"Yes, the end result really was disastrous." Hagoromo said as he hovered in front of Naruto. His body was floating just in front of his vision. "So we're going to have to correct our mistakes."
"There's no changing the past." Naruto spoke in regret.
"I can't. But you can." Hagoromo spoke, and Naruto was paralyzed for a moment, not understanding exactly what he was referring to.
"What do you mean?"
"I will send you back in time, Naruto." He spoke, and for a moment, hope seemed to return to the blonde.
"Is that... is that really possible?"
"Under normal conditions, no. But where we are, it can happen." He said.
"What do you mean, 'under normal conditions'?" Naruto asked, slightly worried by this. It seemed to be a chance to put everything right, but there seemed to be some problems with that.
"Time travel is a transgression of nature. It shouldn't happen normally, but the conditions of the place we're in are slightly conducive to a technique like this." Hagoromo explained. "The amount of space-time jutsus that has been used by Obito, Kakashi, Madara, Tobirama, your father, and my mother in this place has greatly destabilized the pillars that maintain our reality. The amount of techniques that manipulate space-time using that little space and in that short period caused a certain disturbance. Not to mention the enormous amount of chakra that surrounds us. That should allow for a passage that sends you back in time."
Naruto stared at the Sage of the Six Paths for a while as he pondered all this. If he had a chance of keeping everyone alive again, he wouldn't hesitate to try.
"I won't regret it. Please send me back in time." Naruto asked, determination returning to his gaze.
"Very well, I will. However, Naruto, understand that the world you will return to will not be the same as this one." Hagoromo said as chakra seemed to circle and stay around them. The man began to make hand signs in sequence.
"What does that mean?" Naruto asked worriedly.
"Time travel doesn't allow you to return to the same world. When you return, it will be as if this world was destroyed and then rebuilt. Most of the elements you know will remain, but some will change. Some elements will change simply, but others will change drastically and unexpectedly. Our world will undergo changes in various places throughout space and time, but it will remain that world, even if it is different. However, an event like a war is unlikely to be changed. So you'll have to prepare yourself in every way." Explained the sage as he stared at the blonde.
"I see. But it's a risk I'm willing to take if I have to save everyone."
"Good luck, Uzumaki Naruto. It was nice to meet you."
--
Something's strange...
Naruto had woken up to find that he was in his old apartment. Or he believed it to be his old apartment. As soon as he realized what had happened, he got out of bed.
Walking around the apartment, he saw that it was relatively tidy. And, going to the nearest mirror, he took a look at himself.
I'm twelve again...
With that, the blonde was sure that he really had gone back in time. However, he couldn't help feeling that something was wrong. Something seemed out of the ordinary. He knew that going back in time could affect certain things drastically. He just hoped he would soon know what it was.
"If I'm back, then... Kurama!" Naruto remembered the friend who had always been with him. At that moment, he concentrated on looking at his former self. He would need to reconnect with him again. Or not. Perhaps when they went back in time, Kurama also kept the memories from before.
The problem was that there was nothing.
"Kurama? Where are you? Hi, answer me!" Naruto was finding this strange. It had never been difficult to have any contact with the Bijuu once he found out about it. But somehow, the fox didn't seem to be there.
Naruto then opened his eyes in surprise. He then quickly took off his shirt, exposing his torso. He then put his hands together in a simple seal while trying to gather his chakra. Things seemed to be flowing well. His chakra was flowing much better than at the same age. But that wasn't what he realized at first, since he was looking at his belly.
"The seal is gone." Naruto said this in surprise. The seal that appeared on his belly whenever he used his chakra, symbolizing the sealing of the bijuu in his body, no longer appeared. "Kurama... is no longer with me." That seemed to hit the blonde harder than many punches in his life. "What the hell is going on?"
--
Naruto quickly left his apartment, realizing from the similarities with his previous one that it wasn't the same. After all, it wasn't in the same place as before.
As soon as he stepped out onto the street, he realized that he was no longer in the residential area but in Konoha's red light district. It wasn't a place he passed, but one he easily recognized when he left his apartment.
There's a lot wrong here...
Naruto then began to run towards the central part of the village, trying to understand if there was something else wrong with it all. Everything seemed stranger than it should be.
Leaving that place and going as fast as he could to the center of the village, he looked around for any kind of change. One thing he noticed was familiar, as people were giving him the same hateful looks they had before. But even if it was true, it also made him even stranger.
Why do people hate me if I no longer have Kurama? What's going on? What has changed in this world?
He looked around at the large crowd of people, seeing that they all treated him the same. But that wasn't something he had to notice at the moment. Raising his face to the Hokage mountain, he saw the same faces as the first four Hokages. Tsunade's face was not there.
I need to know what happened. If people hate me, it means that the attack still happened, but somehow Kurama isn't with me. I need to talk to the third hostage. I hope he's still alive.
Naruto needed to find out what had happened. He needed to find the third hokage. He was there when the attack happened on the day he was born. He must know what's going on.
As he was getting ready to move, Naruto noticed a person in the crowd—someone in the distance whom he recognized. Even though he had only met him once, he knew who it was. In the distance in the crowd of people.
Mother, she's alive...
Uzumaki Kushina was alive. An indescribable sensation seemed to hit his body, and the urge to tear up seemed to want to rise up in his eyes. Just as he was about to move, he noticed something else. When he saw it, he stopped moving.
Next to his mother stood a girl who was the same age as Naruto. She had the same red hair as the woman, looking like a younger copy of her. Naruto had never seen this girl before. Kushina was walking side by side with the girl and seemed to be wearing a happy smile as she followed the younger girl.
That girl... could she be my sister?
And with that, more questions popped into Naruto's head.
If I have a family and my mother is alive, then why did I wake up in an empty apartment with no one? What about my father? Is he alive too?
Naruto seemed to sink deeper and deeper into his thoughts, seeing that everything seemed to be a complete mess.
The world has undergone changes that shouldn't have happened. Hagoromo had warned him about this, but now the situation was to deal with it all.
So immersed in this information, he found himself in the same place he saw when he met Kurama. In that sewer that existed in the connection between them. Naruto seemed to cheer up a little, thinking that perhaps he could meet the Bijuu again.
However, he saw nothing. Not even the giant cell that would normally hold the giant fox. He did, however, see a shadow in the distance, slowly approaching him. Someone he recognized well, in a way.
"You're my evil version." Naruto said, looking at his own version of himself with darker, crueler eyes.
"Is that how you think of me?" The other Naruto asked as if offended. "Although you're not entirely wrong..."
"I didn't expect to meet you again." Naruto said as he narrowed his gaze.
"Neither did I. But Ashura is no longer here to keep me apart from you." He spoke, and Naruto was confused by this.
"What do you mean?"
"Tell me. Have you ever felt that you weren't complete? That the way you felt seemed to be something not quite right? Something was strange and wrong in the world, but you just let it go." The other version asked, and Naruto seemed to freeze for a moment, doubts filling his mind. He was pointing out some moments in his life when the blonde really felt strange. Moments before he spoke, he didn't sound like himself.
"What are you getting at?"
"You don't feel complete because I was separated from you. Because when Ashura's reincarnation appeared when we were born, he separated me from you." Naruto's eyes widened at this information. What the hell is going on?
"Why would he have to do something like that?"
"Because of the prophecy." The other Naruto said: "Remember Jiraya's prophecy? That you were a savior? A great trick of fate, something we hardly believed, but it was there when it made you the reincarnation of Ashura. To be a savior, you had to be a good person and not think too much about the world's problems. That's why the bad and negative thoughts were taken away from you. Me."
"But... I had moments when I got angry and lost my temper." Naruto tried to protest.
"Because of Kurama. Before she became our ally, she would try to get you out of control so that she could weaken the seal. It was in the moments when your spirit was weak that she put her hatred into you, and you thought it was yours, but it never really was. She just took advantage of the moments." The other version spoke, and Naruto seemed to tremble for a moment. "Haven't you ever wondered how Gaara became like that and you didn't? Such similar stories, identical children, and yet you didn't follow a path of blood like him. Because he didn't have the hand of fate on him the way we did."
"..."
"Of course, it was necessary that you weren't very intelligent either, in order to be a more altruistic person." The other version moved closer to Naruto. "Tell me, do you really want to become Hokage to gain people's respect? You want to gain the respect of people who treat you like dirt, have even tried to kill you, have never tried to understand us, and yet you really want to gain the respect of these people? These same people have caused countless people to suffer, and they didn't care one bit. Are you really so good as to ignore everything that's happened and just accept everyone? Do you think they deserve it as much as the people you really care about and who stood by you when you needed them?"
Naruto was in shock for a moment. The memories of everything that had happened began to hit him one moment after another. The deaths of the people he cared about. The path he had taken so far. The decisions and paths he had taken. It all seemed so premeditated and, at the same time, wrong.
"I, in this world we've returned to, am no longer the work of fate." Naruto said, looking down at the ground. "I am no longer a jinchuriki, nor am I the reincarnation of Ashura. I'm just Naruto." He then looked at his other version. "I'm no longer a piece of fate."
"Which means we can really walk our own path. Do things for what we believe we should do. And not by someone else's will." The other Naruto said.
"I want..." Naruto then raised his fist. The same way he remembered his friendship with Killer Bee, and the same way he had befriended Kurama. "I want to feel like I really am."
The other Naruto looked at that with a sense of nostalgia. And he gave a really sincere smile as he did the same thing, touching Naruto's fist.
"Me too..."
--
It's really strange talking to yourself...
Naruto finally reached the Hokage's tower. He was walking past people without even looking at them, but he didn't have time to waste on that. Even if people gave him that crooked look, he had to get what he needed.
Arriving at the Hokage's office, he knocked on the door hoping for an answer.
"Come in."
Naruto opened the door to find the third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, reading some documents on the table. The old man was a little surprised to see that the blond had entered politely, and not noisily as before.
"Naruto? What are you doing here?"
"We need to talk, Hokage." Naruto spoke seriously as he faced the man. Sarutobi was once again surprised by the seriousness, and by the way he was treating him. He had expected to be called an old man, or something similar. But that's not what he said. "It's a conversation you can't escape. Let's meet on Mount Hokage. I'll like to be somewhere open..."
--
Naruto and the Third Hokage were at the top of the mountain. The blond stared at the village as if he were admiring the scenery, and Hiruzen was really curious. Something seemed really different from the Naruto he knew. He no longer seemed to be a child, but appeared to be more mature.
"What do you want to talk about, Naruto?"
"I have a question I hope you'll answer, Hokage... No, Sarutobi Hiruzen." Naruto stared at him, and once again the Hokage sensed that something was really wrong. It was the first time the boy had called him by his full name, and in this way. "Why am I hated by the locals if I'm not the Kyuubi jinchuriki?"
Hiruzen opened his eyes in astonishment. How did this boy know about this? Had someone told him about what had happened? It didn't seem to be entirely the case, but he wanted to know about it.
"Naruto, how do you know about this?" Hiruzen asked cautiously.
"It doesn't matter. I want to know the truth, and I don't care if you forbade people to speak or not. I want to know what really happened. And I really hope you tell me." Naruto then narrowed his gaze and stared at the Hokage as if he were looking into his soul. "I wouldn't want to have to get information from someone else, like Danzou for example. I would however probably have to give my own life and become an assassin for his group for that, but I wouldn't hesitate if I had to."
Hiruzen once again seemed to shudder at hearing this, and a certain terror seemed to rise in his eyes for a moment. The mention of a former teammate walking a dark path and the way Naruto spoke seemed to wreak havoc in his mind.
You're a good person, old man, but you make the worst decisions. It's because of them that I've ended up suffering in my life, but I won't condemn you for it. I know you care about me and feel guilty about what happened. I almost feel bad for emotionally manipulating you like that, but there are risks I'm willing to take if I want to do things the right way in this world...
"All right. I'll tell you the truth, Naruto." Hiruzen said with a sad expression. "I didn't expect you to have to find out this way, but I don't think you'll change your mind."
"Yes, I won't change my mind." Naruto said with a firm look on his face.
"It all happened twelve years ago, when the Kyuubi attacked the village." Hiruzen said.
"It was the same day I was born, wasn't it? When my parents were still alive." Naruto asked more inquisitively. Hiruzen merely nodded.
"Yes. Your father was the fourth Hokage, Namikaze Minato. And your mother was the former Jinchuriki of the Kyuubi, Uzumaki Kushina." The Hokage said. Naruto already knew this, but thought it best to show some surprise to the Hokage.
"I see... those were my parents..."
"On the day, your birth would weaken the Kyuubi seal on your mother. Your father would make sure that the seal remained intact while you were born. I wasn't there when it happened, but that's how it happened. That's how you were born... and your sister." He spoke and at that I frowned.
"My sister?"
"Uzumaki Naruto and Uzumaki Natsumi. Your mother was pregnant with both of you."
So that's my sister's name. So it was that girl.
"Even with your birth, the Kyuubi broke free. And your father, to save the village and contain the creature, chose to sacrifice himself to seal the fox again. He couldn't seal it in his wife, because she was too weak after the pregnancy and the Kyuubi breaking free. So the only choice left was to seal it in one of his children." Hiruzen said. "And he chose Natsumi."
"Natsumi... is that the Jinchuriki?"
"Yes. Your father ended up dying when he did that, but he saved the village. And your sister ended up being the receptacle for the Kyuubi." Hiruzen said. "But with that, we would have to solve the problems that would come."
All this happened as Naruto knew and remembered. The Hokage didn't know that it was Obito who freed the Kyuubi because he wasn't there at the time, but the rest went on as it had in his original world. Except that he had a sister, and that his mother didn't die.
"The Kyuubi caused destruction and death in the village that has caused pain in the hearts of the villagers to this day. Fear and hatred was with them, and that was something we couldn't avoid. They would feel hatred for Natsumi, and we wanted to avoid that." Hiruzen continued. "When I talked to Kushina, she feared that her daughter would suffer in the same way that she had. And not only that, but she feared that her daughter might rebel against the village because of the hatred she would suffer. There are reports of Jinchurikis in the past in various villages who, because of the hatred they suffered, let their emotions get out of control, and the Bijuu took advantage of this opportunity to take possession of its user and wreak havoc on the villages. That was something we wanted to avoid."
That... that wasn't thought of when you went with me! Maybe it's because my mother is alive in this version of the world?
"We thought of alternatives about the Kyuubi fleeing or dying during the attack, but that would be extremely disadvantageous for the village. The world still sees Bijuus as weapons that represent the power of a village. And a response like that right after Konoha lost its Hokage would cause disastrous problems." Hiruzen said.
That makes sense. Incredibly, it makes sense.
"And with that, we came up with a terrible solution, but one that was the best we could take in the short period of time." Hiruzen said with sadness in his eyes. "To say that the Jinchuuriki was someone else." At that, it hit Naruto.
"Me." The blond spoke with a shaky voice.
"Yes. We couldn't risk Natsumi being manipulated by the Kyuubi with the hatred she would suffer. Not only that, but if it was discovered that the Hokage's daughter was the current Jinchuriki and that he was no longer there to protect his family, it would attract the attention of other villages who would see this as an opportunity to attack and kidnap the girl." Hiruzen spoke and once again Naruto was surprised. "So a lie was created for everyone, making you the Jinchuriki. But even with that, it would be a risk, as you would be linked to the Hokage's family. That's why you had to be disowned from your family."
"That..."
Naruto was in shock. In part it all made sense, but it was incredibly horrible how it had to make sense like that.
"So I've become your scapegoat?" Naruto asked staring at the ground.
"I'm sorry, Naruto. We thought of other ninjas who could take the blame for this, but there was no one. Few people were there at the time, and few people should have known what had happened. To avoid fear and panic, we had to take these drastic measures." The Hokage spoke with a sad expression.
"Does Natsumi know about this?" Naruto asked, still not looking at the man. His mind still gathering the information of what had happened.
"No. She doesn't know she have the Kyuubi, and she doesn't know about you either." Hiruzen said. "At least not yet."
"That's fucked up..." Naruto said. "I'm suffering for something I didn't do, I lost my family for something I didn't do, and I'm being blamed and hated for something I didn't do, just because it's convenient for everyone in this shitty situation."
"I'm sorry, Naruto." Hiruzen said with a weary sigh. "I imagine you'll want to go and talk to your mother about it too and put an end to this situation."
"No, I won't do that." Naruto replied quickly. "This situation sucks, but I'm not going to ruin everything. I'm doing this to protect my sister and I'll keep doing it. Even if she doesn't know about it, it would be better for her not to know. It's not time yet, and it could cause a mess. It's my duty as a brother to do something like this for my sister, even if I have no idea how to act like one and have only just discovered it."
"Naruto..."
"You owe me, Hokage." Naruto now spoke more seriously and angrily. "This situation I'm in is because of you and my mother. But since you're the Hokage, you're the one who's responsible. You created this situation, and for that you owe me." Naruto said as he pointed towards Sarutobi.
"Naruto... you... you're right. I really am responsible for this situation. If I had thought of a better solution, you wouldn't be like this." Hiruzen said with a sad expression.
"And that's why you're going to train me to become a ninja. I won't take no for an answer."