The beast within him stirred.

Naruto tossed and turned in his bed. Something was wrong. Something was very wrong tonight. His heart was in an endless pit of restlessness and there seemed to be something suffocating him. Naruto tossed and turned again. He whimpered and grunted, feeling as if he were on the edge of breaking down.

Sweat dripped off his face as, foreign but internal chakra slithered around him. Like someone holding him tight and clutching on his neck, Naruto felt the chakra drag him down and draw out his strength. He clutched on the covers and his shoulders tensed.

"UCHIHA!"

Kami, what was this? Red. Red. Red. Naruto saw nothing and he felt nothing, but hate. It consumed him and tried to overtake his heart leaving Naruto helpless. The air felt stuffy and his chest felt clogged. Voices tried to whisper insults and jeers and Naruto felt the oh so familiar scornful and disdainful feelings of the villagers and he felt his strength dissipate.

"Stop!" He yelled, but Naruto felt like someone was trapping him, trying to get him to hate them, to despise them. No. And Naruto tossed and turned as the voices grew louder. "I don't care anymore! SHUT UP!!" His body banged on the desk and Naruto felt utterly taken. He.didn't. care.anymore.

He heard the door audibly slam open, but Naruto didn't see much, but he heard soft and hurried words of how many ..two people? A boy with a mask and his... neighbor? Who were they and what where they-

"-Tenzo!"

"I got it! I got it!"

"Pakkun!"

Something crawled on his lap and Naruto couldn't help, but remember a distant memory, when he was younger, much much younger than this, he had felt so alone and so gone and he had dreamt that he had been sleeping with a pack of dogs, it had been nice, and it had been comforting.

But things were different now, something consumed him and a hand pulled him up from the bottom of the ocean.

Naruto gasped. Water. He stood up and saw himself standing on the ocean floor. It was beautiful. All wide and blue. Naruto had never seen it before and he hadn't thought, he would see it until he became a ninja and was old enough to leave the village. He stepped on the ocean floor and felt a breath of fresh air.

Free.

.

.

.

Where what this?

.

.

.

"HEY!" He turned around and looked to see four boys looking at him with large smiles on his face. "Who are you?" Naruto asked and the five grinned. "I'm Luffy!" the boy with a straw hat said, "Ichigo" the orange haired said looking away, "Gon!" the other said with a bright smile on his face, and the brunette blushed lightly, "..Eren"

"We'll see you on the other side!" They all yelled and disappeared as if it were nothing more than an illusion.

Then Naruto found a man in their stead. He stood alone, deserted and abandoned.

He stared at the man who stood on the ocean floor with his eyes on him, he looked exactly like Naruto, but with black hair and red eyes. He also looked taller, older, and not how Naruto imagined himself to grow. And even though confused, Naruto was certain that the man was himself.

The blonde stepped forward and the man looked at him with something akin to brokenness and sadness. Naruto didn't get it. But he continued walking and the man walked towards him as well, until they were mere inches apart. He was about to speak when the man bowed down on the water and took Naruto's head and bumped their foreheads. Tears fell from the man's eyes and Naruto felt deep scorching agony.

He heard voices of and felt old memories he had never known, slip from his hinges and his mind.

"Thank you, Naruto, for setting me free" and the man disappeared into nothingness.

Naruto felt pools of relief flood him, in both his heart and his soul. Tears slowly cascaded down his cheeks as Naruto looked up at the blue sky and closed his eyes.

A memory was then pushed through him and Naruto opened his mind and accepted it.

"Meh, Menma's not bad" The red haired woman muttered though it was clear she was not satisfied with it. Minato, the fourth Hokage sighed. He looked at the book beside him and he smiled as he looked at Kushina's stomach again.

"Naruto"

Kushina blinked,

"hey that's not bad at all Minato, NARUTO UZUMAKI!" Minato looked at Kushina who grinned, daring him to disagree and he anime cried. To be a slave to his wife. It did come with its disadvantages.

Although- he shushined infront of Kushina and kissed her hard making the woman melt.

"Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze, don't you think?" Kushina's blushed and her lips quirked up, "whatever dattebane" and Minato chuckled, as he brushed his hands across his wife's stomach unable to stop the soft and gentle smile on his face.

Naruto gasped.

He choked lightly and he felt tears fall down his eyes. His mother. His father.

Oh. Oh.

They had wanted him.