Naruto 1. Chapter 1

Nara Yoshino couldn't remember when exactly she found the wounded man. It might have been a day ago, perhaps half a week ago, maybe even a month. It was just a normal routine really; she would walk to the training grounds near the clan district and practice her taijutsu.

It was that day that she found the wounded blond.

Her talent in the Shadow Arts were not as good as the other children of the clan and there were quite a few people in her clan that were a bit upset at that, but what she lacked in talent she made up for in furious determination. She had a desire; a fire to do good that was very rare in girls at her age. At a young age she was never much to mince words, she was quick and brutal to the point.

Aside from Uzumaki Kushina and Inuzuka Tsume there weren't many girls with her temper either.

It did not make her many friends that were for certain and her marriage prospects outside her clan weren't looking too great either. Aside from the the laziest genius their clan had to offer (Shikaku) there weren't that many people around that could tolerate her attitude.

Well it was their problem.

She did not think there was anything wrong with her. Sure she was a bit grumpy. Maybe a bit too loud, but that was not a bad thing. Unlike other kunoichi she didn't like to keep her emotions bottled up. Emotions were powerful tools, and she used them. She was a rather furious girl in spars and in life.

She was driven.

Unlike other Naras she had a goal to achieve, she had a wish to fulfill. She was not content with just staying within the walls of these compounds. She dreamed of a better life, battling enemies in far distant lands and saving people from the war that they were currently having with Iwa and so on.

Her classmates thought she was out of her mind.

They lived in troubled times and things were only getting worse as time went on, just last week she remembered that Hiashi almost lost his right arm. They had to carry him into the gates in a stretcher while exploding notes detonated in the background. If it were not for Minato-san's quick thinking to seal the gates shut, the enemies would have battered their way in.

And she wanted to go outside the gates where the explosions just kept going?

The number of friends she had in her life were few to say the least and as the the war continued they only got smaller. She remembered her classmates graduating together. Every one of them passed their instructor's test and every one of them got a team.

At the time she didn't understand why her parents were upset that everyone got a chance to become a ninja. Shouldn't it be a good thing that all these kids in her generation got a chance to prove themselves in the battlefield? Wasn't it great that the Hidden Leaf had so many amazing students who were capable of passing the tests with ease?

It was only a few months later that she would realize what a disaster that turned out to be.

By passing everyone in the class they were never able to filter out those who might have been good shinobi to the ones who may have been bad shinobi in the end. There were kids who had the skills but lacked the teamwork, and then there were students who had the teamwork but lacked the skills. It was basically just taking a bunch of idiots and sending them off into the field of fire and knives.

Pretty much everyone got skewered in one way or another.

Three months was all it took to reduce her total number of graduating class to half a dozen. She could still remember little Akira who wanted to be a Med-nin, she remembered burning his corpse in the battlefield because his family jutsu was a valuable component of Konoha.

Then there was Hana-san, Tsume's sister who was ripped to shreds by a large Salamander as its teeth gashed into her spine and ripped it off as if it was trying to pull out a fishing hook. Zerin's headless face as it rolled to the side of the road when an enemy Nin managed to sneak past her gate Keeping defenses. Sora's eyes pulled off her head as the Cloud nin tried to run off her with Byakugan only to be skewered by Hizashi as his intense hatred fired off a long distance chakra flame.

And the list just kept going.

It was during one of her practice drills in the Nara forest that she heard a detonation the likes of which she had never heard before and that prompted her to investigate. She wasn't sure what she would find but that really didn't matter.

If it were an enemy then at the least, she would be able to delay the intruder until help arrived. Her feet ran across the green grass as fast it could take her. When she got there, she saw the trees had been torn off their roots and smoke was coming off from a crater.

At first she thought that this was a complex jutsu created for massive destruction, but that didn't really make any sense as it only destroyed trees around it. She got closer to the crater and noticed the intense heat coming off the ground.

It was then that she looked down at the smoking hole and saw a blond haired teen about a year or two older then herself. Normally this would not have surprised her but the fact that the boy's skin was literally torn to pieces gave her pause.

His face was red and she could see scars and slashes crisscrossing all over it. His blond hair looked singed at the very tips and his arms and legs looked burnt badly. It did not surprise her much that he was only clothed in a pair of burnt pants and she could see the remnants of his shirt barely being kept together at the seams.

Even so she had to be cautious

She looked around the area to see if this was some kind of trap. She tried to send a pulse and detect if this was some elaborate jutsu so that she would let her guard down. Even for an instant, it could mean the difference between life and death.

After detecting that it was safe she carefully fell down into the hole and glanced at the teen's face. What got her curious was how that bubbling hot face was shred at the side but was slowly repairing itself, the cut that she had seen from the left side of his eyebrow to the right side of his chin looked less distinct from a few moments ago.

Still this wasn't the time to be pondering such questions. She forced chakra through her system and prepared to bring the teen to her compound. She would probably have to do some explaining to her parents and Shikaku would probably mumble that she was 'troublesome' but it wasn't like Shikaku was worth a rat's ass half the time.

Feeling the hot flesh beneath her fingers Yoshino almost groaned when she realized the teen was a lot heavier than he looked. She thought that it wouldn't have been so hard to carry him because he wasn't that tall, but the sheer weight of him told her of the hard compressed muscles the boy must have contained in his body to be so gosh darn heavy!

Forcing chakra through her legs Nara Yoshino ran to her home.

-

Now after all this time she wasn't sure if it was even such a good idea to bring the boy. Her family didn't tell her much about the teen's condition, only that he seemed to be fine, yet he was unconscious for a reason they just didn't understand.

It was decided that he stayed at the hospital but after seeing that there was really nothing wrong with him it was again judged that he should stay in the compound. Thus with an IV feeding into his arm the boy was kept alive until he awakened.

There were also some other hushed whispers circulating about the teen but she paid little attention to it. What got to her was that she was sure the clan people were hiding something from her. Something about the blond haired kid she brought over.

"Dinner's ready, I would suggest you come down, granny gets pretty angry if you miss a meal, Yoshino," Shikaku grumbled as he rubbed his head and glanced away from her.

Yoshino stopped her musing for a moment and turned to face him. "Ora, I'll be there in five, tell the old crone I am coming after I am done these Katas."

"Eesh, this is going to be a pain," mumbled the black haired kid as he went off grumbling about ungrateful cousins.

Yoshino just shook her head and finished her training thinking how her cousin was getting lazier as time went on; even so he was one of the few people she could stand, partly because he didn't mind her bad attitude so much.

-

"You are going to do what?" Yoshino asked her grandparents.

"We think it is best if we temporarily take you off the Shinobi forces, there are plenty of Kunoichi active on the field as it is. I think it is for the best. Aside from that you know as well as us that the number of Nara females have been, shall we say, less than normal."

Yoshino wasn't going to argue about that. Hardly did the Nara clan have kids and when they did it was often boys, really really lazy boys. Like Shikaku who was sleeping n the corner. Honestly, she should get up and smack him for his insolence.

"So what exactly does that have to do with me?"

She already knew the answer. Their family did not have a bloodline per say, however after years of inbreeding the family intelligence has become a bloodline on itself; the chances of her birthing a smart baby were higher if she were to marry within her clan than if she married outside of it.

"As the only female Nara in your generation, it might not be a bad idea if you stayed here until the war is over. Believe me Yoshino we don't like this anymore than you do but we have to think about these things, after this conflict is over we are going to have to rebuild the clan again and that means that we are going to need as many little Naras as possible," her grandmother said sounding as determined as she had always been.

Yoshino was sure she took a lot from the female side of her family, straightforward and to the point.

"But the decision is up to you girl, if you don't want to do this we can't really force you I guess. Yawn, yeah we can't force you. But it would probably be a good idea if you listen, granny is being a huge pain lately about all this and you can really help your old granddad out if you just take a break for a little while," her grandfather said yawning and trying not to look scared at the sharp look her grandmother sent him.

Shikaku was just ignoring all this and snoring in the background.

"Just think about this, it might be for the best."

-

So Nara Yoshino sat alone in her room watching the moonlight. Seems like nighttime was the only time with any peace now a days. During the day people just kept dying. She knew she should have gotten some sleep during this time but it wasn't like anyone could blame her.

Shikaku had been gone for the past week with his team on some mission. She hoped her cousin would make it out alive; it would be depressing to have to lose him too. Despite how annoying he was he was still a good guy even if he hung out with that jerk Yamanaka.

She would have to remember to punch that narcissist blond in the face the next time the teen called her a 'bitch.' She would have to show the clown who was whose bitch wouldn't she?

Feeling restless, she walked up from her bed and headed to the spot she would go to when she got bored. She walked down the wooden confines of her large Japanese style compound until she came to the medical area.

When she entered she was greeted with the sight of the boy she had found in the forest. He looked perfectly fine. They had dressed him and put some white robes on him, and she had to admit they looked nice on his strong body. She wondered what kind of person this guy was and what his name was.

She took a seat at the chair placed next to his bed and took a good look at him.

All she knew was that he was most likely a Konoha ninja, but they couldn't tell who. They did a blood identification test and didn't find any matches to his DNA in the database and they needed authorization to see if his DNA matched with anyone in Konoha but some of the clans shut that idea whence it came.

She stared down at his face and wondered not for the first time why it was such a fascinating feature about him. He wasn't really that handsome, but he wasn't bad looking either. It was just that his features told so much about him and it drew her to the stress lines that wound around his eyes and cheeks. It looked like the boy had seen a lot in his short life and she wanted to get to know his story.

Eventually it got darker and slowly her eyes felt heavy and she closed it letting sleep take her.

It was at this time that another pair of blue eyes slowly opened to look at the ceiling above him.


	2. Chapter 2

As he opened his eyes he wasn't entirely sure what he was seeing. Above him was a wooden ceiling colored brown from age. To most people that sight would not have been much but for Uzumaki Naruto that alone was enough to cause panic.

Ceilings colored wood brown were often an indicator that he was in some person's home; hospital ceilings were white after all. Any time he was in some ones house, it was never a good thing. As a child he had never been invited to sleepovers and growing up the pattern hadn't really changed.

The only times he could recall ever waking up in a place that was not a hospital would have to be a Clan's quarters during his trips with Jiraiya where the old geezer would leave him at the mercy of enemy nins while he was off in another evening of debauchery.

The Clan whose house he would have to stay with until the Hermit arrived, often did their utmost to try and extract as much information about the Toad Sage as possible mostly because Jiraiya owed them a lot of money. Despite popular opinion, his books were not really a big seller and the old man would borrow many loans from various Ninja Clans among the elemental nations even though he still had the money to pay the debts from his career as a ninja in his younger days.

His alert eyes traced up and and down the room looking for anyone near the corner, the torturer as they would call themselves, still some of them liked to call themselves interrogators.

His gaze finally landed on a short sleeping girl with long black hair in a ponytail and a pair of silver hoop earrings on each ear. The girl had slightly thick eyebrows and an olive color to her. For some odd reason there was a vein pulsing on her left temple, Naruto really didn't want to know what she was dreaming about if dreams could make someone angry.

Aside from the somewhat cute girl next to his bed, the place looked empty. It looked clean and the room did not seem to have any devices for which to 'extract' information with.

Yet as amusing as his ramblings were the entire scenario did not make any sense.

Didn't he just die?

He was sure that when a person gets a spear shoved into his heart and eaten by a giant Hell Demon, a person died. His fight with Nagato had ended with the man in defeat, yet when he came to strike him down the Rinnegan user summoned a creature he had never seen before, capable of devouring him and the Kyuubi Chakra without much effort.

So in the end he failed.

Afterwards he was in a state of limbo in some dimension where souls were being eaten by a strange looking creature. In this realm the blind folded beast was about to eat him when the Chakra in his system acted strange and exploded into itself, tearing him apart in a molecular level.

Now he was back in the real world.

Why?

Pushing the blanket off of him he took steps out of the bed, careful not to wake the sleeping girl. It was a full moon out tonight and he strolled towards the window in an attempt to see the bright blue orb floating in the sky.

It didn't matter where he was now, the moon would always be there, a large sphere of light shining against the night. He turned to face the sleeping girl who made a slight shiver. Naruto smiled and went to his bed. He gathered up the blanket and wrapped it around the girl as she slept. The girl sighed in contentment and mumbled about 'idiot Clan people.'

Naruto snorted thinking how he wasn't the only one with people problems.

He stretched out his tired muscles and walked out of the room looking around the place he was residing in. From his observations it looked like the standard Clan housings he would find in Konoha. Maybe he was still in Fire country?

His steps led him to the kitchen where there was an old lady rolling some ramen dough to keep for storage. Naruto being somewhat of an expert in Ramen decided to watch her at work. It wasn't like he had anything better to do.

"Do you need any help?"

Naruto's words startled the poor old lady and she almost jumped at being surprised. She turned back to gaze at the man behind her, her eyes became larger for a second until she regained her bearings. "You gave me a fright young man; I didn't even hear you come in."

Naruto nodded, most people couldn't tell when he came into rooms either, he didn't make much sound due to years of sneaking into other people's houses to pull off some rather elaborate revenge pranks, of course the lady didn't need to know that. "Are you making ramen?"

The old lady, whose hair is also in a pony tail but was silver looked at Naruto curiously before saying slowly "Yes, yes I am."

Naruto did not say anything for a second. He looked thoughtful before he spoke. "Mind if I help?"

The old women's eyes looked curious at this. "You want to help me make the dough at two in the morning?"

"Yes."

The old lady wasn't sure if the blond before her was being serious, but what could it hurt if she let him help? What startled her was that the boy was offering to help out; practically every boy in her Clan had to be shouted at before they even cleaned up their room, yet this man before her was willing to aid her with her cooking.

"Roll the dough in that corner, add some flour if it is too soft," she said pointing towards a pile of ramen dough.

"Alright."

And so Naruto spent some time taking his mind off his worries as he focused on making the thin noodle strings he would need to create his most favorite of meals.

"You are pretty good at this, have you ever had any experience making Ramen dough before?"

Naruto turned to face her. "Sort of, an old Ramen vendor showed me how one time."

She looked disbelieving. "I find that hard to believe, they don't give out their trade to just anyone."

"I wasn't just anyone," Naruto replied ignoring her sly gaze.

"Was he family?"

"No, not exactly but I would like to think we were close," Naruto said as his hands worked to add more pressure into the rolls.

"Hmm, most people don't tend to have that kind of relationship with their restaurant chefs," she said offhandedly.

Naruto paused before answering. "Most people didn't have as little choices as me; the Ramen vendor was pretty kind to me as a child, unlike others."

The old lady didn't bother to hide her surprise. "What about your parents? Surely you have to admit your relation to this vendor must have made them a bit anxious."

Naruto wondered if he should even bother to say the next part, but he figured he would be out of here soon so it couldn't hurt. "I didn't have any parents growing up, I was an orphan."

The old lady looked sad. "Oh that is a shame, I am sorry to hear that. It must have been hard."

Naruto didn't say anything for a long time after that.

-

When Yoshino woke up she was greeted to a rather surprising sight. First she was pretty sure she was on a bed, and second she had a white blanket wrapped around her.

Third the bed wasn't even hers!

_Damn it, I was sleep walking again!_

She quickly got off it, ignoring the smell of musk that made her feel a bit warm. She looked around and noticed that it was the injured blond's bed. The problem was that the blonde-haired person was not anywhere to be found in the room.

Getting off the bed, she tried not to sigh thinking about how cold it was in the morning. They did not have any heating in these old-fashioned compounds so they had to make do with covering up with lots of clothes during the morning time, when it was coldest.

Shivering down the hall she glanced around the open rooms seeing her cousins all sleeping in strange angles. When she passed Shikaku's room she banged on his door to try and wake him up. The black haired boy instantly sat up looking like he just got a heart attack.

Then he just fell back down and slept.

"Idiot," Yoshino grumbled as she walked down towards the kitchen.

-

"And then she chased Tsume-chan all over the town, oh dear she was angry. She has a sailor's mouth that girl!"

Naruto laughed at that, "I bet I would probably have done the same if her dog peed on me as well."

The old lady chuckled. "Yes indeed I would have been tempted to do the same."

The two broke up in a small chuckle.

"Ahem."

The two talkers turned around from their work and saw the object of their discussion standing near the entrance with a slightly red face. Yoshino had been standing there for the past few minutes observing the two talk, it was when their discussions were reaching more embarrassing points that she decided that enough was enough.

"Ahh, and here she is Naruto-san, my granddaughter Yoshino-chan," she said pointing towards the slightly pink tinged girl.

Naruto turned to the girl and bowed his head.

"Thank you for saving me, your grandmother has told me how you found me and brought me back here. Even with all the dangers that were present at the time. I am very grateful for your help and hope to one day return the favor."

If possible the girl's pink face became even more pink as she mumbled, "You are err welcome, ummm, Naruto-san."

_Great now he thinks I am rude._

"Have you had breakfast yet?" Naruto asked curiously.

She shook her head.

Naruto went to the stove and stirred the boiling mixture, inside she was sure it was mostly Miso soup but she figured there was more within.

Naruto took out a bowl for soup from the cabinet and poured some Miso into the bowl. It was then that he added some spicy fish from one of the pans and a little bit of ramen, into the mixture.

"Try this."

Yoshino was uncertain about what she was given. It seemed like an odd mixture, spicy fish ramen soup? Well she wasn't going to be any ruder to him than she already appeared.

"Thanks, it is err smells nice?"

Naruto ignored the clear flummox the girl must have felt, she must have had a hard time talking to people. He could tell the girl was not the most social of sorts and it showed by the unintentional scowl on her face. In a few years that kind of feature would be mistaken for distaste, but it just made her look more adorable if anything at her current age.

She took a sip of the food and had to put it down. "Spicy, spicy, hot, hot!"

Naruto went over to the fridge and got some milk; he poured it into a glass, and handed it to her.

Yoshino sipped it down and almost burped, but realized that there was a guest present and so held it in. It wouldn't do to belch in front of someone who thought she was their savior. It felt nice knowing that she accomplished something, not many of her classmates could brag that they may have saved someone's life, she would have to rub this fact in Kushina-chan's face the next time they had an argument.

Though Mikoto-san would probably have pointed out that it was often the guys who did the saving, so technically Yoshino had proven once again how manly she was. Yoshino made a mental note to punch the older girl in the face also, right after she shoved a fist down the bastard Yamanaka's big mouth.

"Yoshino-san, are you alright?" Naruto asked with a baffled expression.

Yoshino almost blushed, caught her in musings. "Err, no, I was thinking about someone who really makes me mad. This girl a year or two ahead of my own class, she never said it but I am pretty sure she thought the rest of us girls were nothing compared to her."

Naruto scowled.

"Sounds like my life story," Naruto said, sighing. He wondered if every village had some conflict between the weaker kids and the genius kids of the school. He just hoped their problems wouldn't escalate to what he had with Sasuke.

He wouldn't wish that kind of twisted bond on anyone.

"Huh?" Yoshino managed to say.

Naruto shook his head. "Never mind, you were saying about this-,"

"Mikoto, her name is Mikoto. I am surprised you haven't heard of her she is pretty popular among the guys in this village."

Naruto didn't want to mention that he might not even be from this village. He didn't think that conversation would end vey well."No, I have been away most of the time, so I am far removed from the problems back here in the home base."

Yoshino looked at him strangely, and then something flashed in her eyes. "Oh, Oh, really! You must be awesome to be out in the field for so long, they usually don't send people out for such long term missions if they weren't tough!"

Naruto avoided that question. "Yeah, something like that."

"Anyway, this girl is always going on about how pretty she is, how rich her Clan is, she is such an arrogant prick," Yoshino mumbled.

Naruto frowned. "She says this in public and guys still like her?"

"Well like I said she doesn't say it, but you know that is what she means by it, she is pretty two faced. She always grasps everything really easily and always tries to deny praise sent in her way, everyone is always paying attention to her-and alright, alright, I get it, she is just good okay!"

She folded her hands over her chest and stared away from him.

_Yep, sounds familiar, _Naruto thought.

The trio spent the next few moments eating their breakfast talking about random things about the village. It was during this time that Naruto concluded that he was back in the Hidden Leaf.

But the time and place was not right. Near the end of the meal when he was joined by all her family and he saw the face of Shikaku, he came to the conclusion that:

He was in an extremely complicated Genjutsu.

or

He was in another dimension.

Choice B brought a sinking feeling to his stomach.


	3. Chapter 3

"Oi, Naruto-san you have to go see registration and get an ID tag and everything. You better not be late for that or Sensei will be on my ass for not telling ya," Shikaku mumbled not taking his eyes off his meal.

The boy certainly did not look very enthusiastic about it, despite how old the Chunin vest made him look. He looked to be a year or so younger than Naruto but that did not surprise him. Naruto was 16 heading towards 17, meaning he had the age advantage over the boy.

Naruto was amazed how the boy ate barely moving his mouth, if he thought Shikamaru was lazy; he had nothing on his father. The boy was eating his noodles in such a slow pace that he wasn't even sure the food would even reach the end of his mouth by the time breakfast was done.

He even drunk his water in the same slow place his son would later copy in the future. Nara Shikaku looked like the exact image of his son, the only difference was that his hair was a lot darker and he had even more sharp contours than his bum-like son did.

For some reason Naruto felt that he could get along with the boy just fine.

"Thank you, Shikaku-san, I'll have to keep that in mind when Yoshino shows me around the village. My memory of this place isn't like how it was in the past and things have changed a lot since the last time I was here." Naruto turned back to his meal and started taking large gulps, hoping to finish it in time to make it to his appointment.

He had been as polite as he could be in this new situation, acting like his old self was not a good idea until he could feel more comfortable with these people.

"Oi, at least look at Uzumaki-san when you tell him something, that was very rude," Yoshino said, almost choking on her food as she tried to talk and eat at the same time.

Shikaku just looked at her, and then went back to his meal. It was as if she was some kind of insect in his eyes, or at least that is what it looked like from a distance.

"Don't ignore me, oi!"

"Yoshino-chan, don't shout at the dinner table." Grandma looked mad. She did not like shouting this early in the morning it seemed. Though he figured, no one wanted to start the day cranky.

The girl had the predictable reaction.

"He started it!" She was pointing at the black haired, ponytailed boy who now that Naruto took a closer look, was blanked out and sleeping sitting down?

"Oi, wake up! You got to meet your team soon! There will be hell to pay if that fatass has to come and pick you up again." Yoshino stood up and went to wake up her cousin.

Naruto turned to face the elder in the family. "Thank you for all you have done for me. If it is alright do you mind if I stay one more night until I can get everything setup to leave?"

The old lady smiled at Naruto. "Of course you can, you can take as much time as you like. These are troubling times. Did you know last week district 12 was blown up?"

Naruto didn't make a comment; the less he said the better.

"Uzumaki-san lets go, c'mon, if you want to see the village before you have to head out to your appointment make it fast!"

Naruto nodded and got ready to leave. He wondered where she would be taking him first, perhaps to see the sights. The girl seemed to be the no nonsense type after all.

-

"There, there she is! See how she is always so smug, she thinks she is all that! Look at her throw her Kunai, without missing anything. She likes to show off, that is why she is always here in the busiest time of the day-,"

"YO YOSHINO-CHAN!"

Naruto had to cover his ears as a teenage girl a year older than the little Nara pounced on the girl with enough momentum to knock her to the dirt. The pounce was quickly followed by something heavier on both of them because a large grey dog…dog piled them.

"Tsume, you bitch! Get the dog off!"

"Ouch, damn it Kuro! Get the hell off of us; you weren't supposed to tackle me too!"

"Woof!"

Naruto sighed and went into the pile of dog, beast, and girl and pulled the three apart. No one made a comment on how he did that without even moving much of the muscle groups in his arm, but the girls might have been too preoccupied with each other, at the moment.

At least Naruto thought the thing that pounced on Yoshino was a girl?

It looked kind of like Fem-Kiba? It even had the same coat, and she was short for her age. The only thing that distinguished her from his male friend was the dog fang necklace around her neck.

Naruto tapped the Kiba-copy and she turned to face him, interrupting her angry banter with the foul mouthed Nara girl. "Oi, what is your problem, we were having a conversation here."

"No we weren't, you just interrupted us dog-bitch!" Yoshino pointed out.

"Dog-bitch! Take that back, you Vein-pulsing hag!" The dog-girl shouted.

"Bum licker!"

"14 year old granny!"

"Pussychaser!"

"OH! YOU HAVE CROSSED THE LINE!" Naruto did not even bother breaking up the catfight between the girls and just walked to the training ground where the girl "Mikoto" threw kunai, shurinken, and senbon into the targets.

Naruto noticed she had yet to miss one.

Better not say something that could get him into trouble.

Naruto was well aware he had a big mouth. Sage training had given him a better understanding about many of his flaws and he really did not want to have a repeat of what could have happened if he was still the same idiot without the training.

"Cough, cough" Naruto made some noise to get the black haired girls attention.

The girl stopped what she was doing and turned to face him. Naruto would have to admit despite how informative Yoshino was; she failed to detail him how beautiful the girl in front of him was.

Naruto knew that black hair, black eyes, a simple black short-styled kimono, with obi, and a tall athletic figure was not really that special in Konoha, but the way the girl's features mixed together to make a rather formidable sight give him the impression that the girl had style, along with class.

But it was her smile that really got to him. "Sorry, do you need to use this training ground I sometimes get carried away"

The blond haired boy shook his head. "No, not really."

The girl accepted that excuse but then scowled. "Then what are you doing here, exactly?"

Naruto thumbed the two girls fighting in the background.

Mikoto just rolled her eyes.

"They bother you much?" Naruto asked.

"You have no idea," she said bending down to gather her things. It looked like she was making her exit while the two ruffians fought.

Naruto took a moment to stare away from her bum that was pointed at his direction; he had enough of the pervert life being around Jiraiya. It was not that he was gay but it might have been the fact that the old Toad Master was a sexual harasser and that perversion might have kept the old man from ever reaching Naruto's level.

Plus the girl was a year younger than him, sure it wasn't wrong but it didn't feel right either.

Thus, Naruto avoided trying to take a sneak peak, after his training he had a reputation as a wise man to maintain after all, Hermit's were people you went to for some worldly advice.

Mikoto might have also understood that Naruto was not looking due to his head facing the fighting twins. Also the fact that her large buttox was at his direction while he was clearly trying to ignore it.

"Sorry about that, that was pretty rude just bending down like that," she said, not blushing but looking somewhat embarrassed.

"No, its fine. I am used to it," Naruto replied, taking a leap into the two fighting girls, missing the puzzled look the black haired girl gave him.

"Okay, break it up."

-

"I need to see the Hokage, it is really important. It has to do about my accident."

The two guards stared at him for a moment. They did not make a single expression on their face. They had been trained to never show any emotion, and they were doing a good job. Naruto kept looking at them and they looked back.

Yoshino was glaring at all of them.

Then the guards cracked up. Then they started coughing, after about a minute they were giving out an evil laughter and then a full blown "HAHAHAHAHA."

"What is so funny," Naruto said seriously. He really needed to see the Hokage, he had to tell him about who he was, a time traveler or dimension hopper, and it was urgent business.

The two looked at Naruto as if he was a fool, well Naruto was a fool but they did not have to show such obvious disdain like that! They sneered at him and circled him. "The Hokage, you want to see the leader of the village you say?"

"You have something urgent, eh"

"You want us to let you in?"

"Even if he is in a meeting right now?"

The two started laughing once again banging their hands on their knees looking at Naruto with tears in their eyes. It was not everyday a teenager wrapped around in bandages comes to their door and starts asking to see the leader of the Hidden Leaf.

"This is serious, you have to let me see him," Naruto pleaded.

"Right, kid. That is on the top of my to-do list," the guard chuckled, shooing Naruto away.

"Yeah, we will get right on it." The two of the guards gave each other a high five and went back to their duties.

Naruto walked down the stairs looking angry, followed by the flustered Nara girl. "I told you this would happen!"

Naruto didn't want to argue with her right now, he knew it was a long shot but he had to try it either way. "I didn't say this was going to work, but I had to try."

The girl just nodded as Naruto made his way across the street.

The girl followed him; his bulky form was parting the crowd easily while she trailed behind him hoping no one bumped into her. Unlike Naruto the girl wasn't as tall and she had to watch out for people stepping on her feet or a pervert groping her when she was unaware.

Naruto was heading towards the direction he would go when he was angry and he didn't even mind the girl screaming behind him to slow down.

He had been told that he would have to meet up with the Shinobi Registration officer to get an evaluation as well as to get his ID checked so that they could confirm that he was a member of the village.

There were a lot of Black ops in Danzo's army that many were not allowed to know about and Naruto had lied and said that he was a member of Root, thus no questions were asked about his identity. The problem was he was afraid about the time when Danzo would get wind of him and admit that there was no "Uzumaki Naruto" in the Root division, but that was a problem for another time.

He finally reached it: Ichiraku Ramen stand.

"And then I kicked her ass, you should have seen her run! Tsume's got nothing on me, haha!"

Naruto paused to look at the red haired girl sitting on his spot. IT was his spot! No one had the right to sit there. It had the best view of the kitchen and he could talk to Ayame while the meal was being finished. He was half tempted to just toss the girl away.

But when she looked up at him with a glare Naruto thought better of it. "Oi got a problem?"

Rolling his eyes Naruto turned around and sat beside the little girl, she looked to be about Yoshino's age. The only difference was that unlike the black haired girl, this girl stood out like a bonfire on a dark evening.

She had short red hair that spiked similar to his hairstyle when he was a kid. That to him was unusual as it was a boy's haircut and he didn't expect any girl to try and imitate it. As far as he knew he was the only person in Konoha who ever had his hairstyle as a child, the other being the Fourth but her hair was a lot shorter.

The other thing was that the girl was tanned!

Normally that would not have bothered him, but as far as he was aware Uzumaki Naruto was the only occupant of Konoha who had tanned skin, no one else could claim his complexion. At first he thought it might have been the sunlight that caused his breed of skin pigment, but it really was his natural skin tone! It was in his genes and it wasn't just sunlight that caused him to look the way he did.

The darker tanned skin, along with the red hair and lastly the deep green eyes really threw him off for a loop. People always said there was something deeply fascinating about his eyes, as if they could see hope, love, dreams, and desires.

Up until now he thought that was just bullshit.

Now looking into her own he thought maybe they might be onto something.

"Quit staring! I don't come into your meal and start looking at you," she said banging her fist on the table. "And where the hell is my Ramen!"

Yoshino came by the girl looking angry. "Kushina that wasn't nice!"

The read haired girl just raised an angry red eyebrow. "And I have been nice since…?"

"You shouldn't just start spewing bullshit like that when you meet people, haven't you ever heard of manners before."

"Ora, Ora, And you are supposed to be that creep Hiashi now?" she asked, still banging her fist on the table to get the waiter to hurry up.

From the corner of his eye Naruto could see a growling young man who was glaring at the red haired girl. As the man got closer he could see that he resembled Teuchi very clearly, only a lot more youthful and he had hair!

He looked so flustered Naruto was sure he was just going to toss the Ramen at the kid; Naruto would have paid to watch.

He dumped the ramen onto the table and that got the red haired girl out of Yoshino's hair. She broke her chopsticks and tried to dig into her meal, but was stopped easily by the Nara girl who stole it away.

"Say sorry first!" she said this while holding the sticks up in the air; Kushina was a lot more petit.

"No, I don't wanna!"

"Say it!"

"No!"

Naruto sighed and went about to break up another fight. At least this was easier to break up than Sakura and Ino's fight back when they were still after Sasuke. Though Sakura and Ino where weaklings by nature so they were not really that hard to break apart.

These two were much more ferocious Kunoichii however and he had to tread carefully. He still had those bite marks from Tsume's dog, or was it Tsume herself? He might have to inquire if the Inuzuka themselves got shot for rabies.

"Girls, you don't have to fight over this. I was in the wrong anyway, sorry but I was staring"

"Ha!" Kushina pointed at Naruto. "See I told ya!"

"It is because you are so ugly, red haired girly-boy!" Yoshino pointed out, smirking but had to duck when a bowl of ramen went past her head. "Watch it!"

"Take that back!"

"Never, you boobless wonder!"

"Well at least no one thinks I am a 50 year old, with that huge artery pumping in your side forehead!" she shouted back, clearly everyone knew Yoshinos' weakness.

"That's it, you are going down Uzumaki!"

Those words stopped Naruto in his tracks.


	4. Chapter 4

"Hey wait up, why are you walking so damn fast anyway. Hell you didn't even stick around to eat your ramen, hey listen to me, don't just ignore me!"

Naruto ignored the girl trying to catch up to him as he raced past the people in the streets. He looked like he was in a blind panic attack, more than once he bumped into someone and got a few fingers from the locals.

Yoshino had no idea how the injured boy could run so fast in his state. His face was sweating, his heartbeat racing, everything about him spoke volumes about the turmoil he was going through.

Yoshino looked worried, she didn't know Naruto very well but he didn't seem to be a bad person. If anything the only comment she could make for him was that he was a very patient guy and didn't break down when he was under pressure. He certainly was kind to her and that only meant something about his character.

Not many of the older kids would even take the time to hang around with girls like her but he didn't seem to mind one bit. It was like he was good with children or something and that was very unusual in the Ninja world.

"Hey, slow down you are going to crash into somebody!"

Naruto didn't even hear the girl behind him; he went deep into the alley and leaned against the wall. Catching his breath he relaxed and fell down on the dirty floor with sweat streams falling through his spiky hair.

He was breathing hard and fast, and it wasn't because he was tired.

His mind was racing through things that he did not want to believe in, possibilities and hopes that were within his heart, such as yearning, a deep longing. He did not want to believe it when he heard the little girl's name; he didn't want to see her, not yet, not now, perhaps not ever.

Uzumaki.

That is what Yoshino had called her; it did not take a genius to find out who she was. Naruto was no fool, despite what many people said about him. He had outgrown that phase a long time ago and if anyone still compared him to his 12-year-old self, they got a taste of what 16-year-old Naruto could really do.

Not even Sakura dared to punch him anymore, lest she wanted something harder and faster to hit her back. His punches could break through her body, right through her intestines and squeeze through her like grape flavored pulp.

He really needed something to vent out his anger right now, where was Sakura when you needed her?

Through his contemplations the girl finally caught up to the man, huddled on the floor of the alley looking scared and lost. She didn't really know what caused him to react that way, but she figured it might have something to do with his accident. "Hey didn't you hear what I said back there?"

Naruto refused to give an answer.

"You shouldn't just go charging through crowds, you could have really hurt someone," she pleaded hoping to get a response out of him. "You could have hurt somebody you know."

Naruto still wouldn't say anything; his eyes were focused elsewhere, thinking about the next action he would take, if he planned to take any action at all. What could he do? What could he say?

"_Hi I am your possible son from the future, Uzumaki Naruto. Ignore the fact that I didn't take my father's name, it doesn't mean that I am a bastard or anything"-_Yeah he did not figure she would buy that.

Naruto felt a punch connect with the top of his head; he peered up at the huffing girl who was glaring down at him. She looked familiar to another girl who would also hit him in the face and Naruto was tempted to get up and slap the girl for daring to even touch him.

The last time Sakura had done that to him, he had made her pay. She couldn't sit down for weeks after receiving Kakashi's "1000 years of Pain," sadly Naruto had to spend a few weeks in jail after that incident because it was counted as sexual harassment but he thought it was worth it.

Oddly enough Sakura didn't seem to mind the Jutsu so much.

But this girl wasn't his old teammate, she didn't' know how insecure he felt about being treated like a fool. Years of being called Dead last had taken a heavy mental toll and he rarely acted as he did as a child.

In truth, he really did want to act like his old self.

He wanted to be the carefree Uzumaki Naruto. The kid who could make anyone laugh, the boy that Hinata fell in love with. He wanted to be all those things and more, but that just wasn't possible. Time has this way of healing all wounds but there were scars that just never went away.

Trapped in his heart, trapped in his soul, was a darkness that society had created and as time went on, it festered and grew until it manifested itself into the form Of 16 year old Uzumaki Naruto: A Human sacrifice who gave up so much to achieve so little in return.

"Are you eve listening to me, please say something," the softer version of the Nara girl said.

Naruto noticed something just then, he felt something near his eyes and he could see that it was wet. There was a teardrop, he looked up at the girl and saw that she was not crying so it didn't really make sense why the water was even there.

Until he noticed that, his vision was a bit blurry.

Slowly Naruto took his large left hand and wiped it on both of his eyes. The girl beside him didn't make a comment as this went and she didn't ask him about it until Naruto was done.

The boy got and wobbled next to the girl, making his way out of the alley. That meeting with a girl who might or might not be his mother should not have bothered him he chided himself, but it did.

He knew that he might meet his parents in this timeline, but he blocked it out for the moment, intentionally of course. He didn't want to face them alive, he wasn't even prepared to face them when they were dead, he nearly killed Minato when he revealed himself in his consciousness.

Gripping his knuckles Naruto fought the impulse to go back to that girl and tell her everything, but that wasn't right. He would only make himself look like some psycho; no this was certainly not the time, yet at the same it was.

He breathed in to calm himself again. Now was not the time for the whims of an orphan.

After all, he had other things to take care of.

"Thanks," he said.

Yoshino just nodded.

"I shouldn't have done that."

Yoshino did not make any comments.

"I bet that girl thinks I am strange doesn't she?"

Yoshino nodded to that; there was no denying that the boy had ruined his reputation as a cool Nisan for Kushina, that was for certain. However, Kushina herself looked a bit hurt when Naruto just looked at her with terror and ran away down into the crowds.

Kushina had enough to deal with as it is, without wondering what she had done to upset this new person. Being an orphan was not easy and it was even harder being a girl. Kushina did not have many friends to start with and the ones she did have were not exactly the most understanding.

"I should say sorry," Naruto said. He let out a breath he was holding.

"You should, it would probably be for the best," Nara mumbled.

Naruto laughed. "Boy that was weird, eh? You must think I am strange don't ya?"

"I thought you were strange before, I don't think I changed my opinion of ya much," Yoshino said, though truth be told Naruto suddenly looked a lot less cool, but at least she was talking with him on more on an even footing.

Naruto shook his head at that. "You know where that girl lives?"

Yoshino pointed to the slum district. Naruto got a thoughtful look in his eyes before blinking. The place she lived in was the same place he did, if luck would have it it might even be his old broken down apartment.

"You want the address?"

Naruto shook his head. "No, I think I might have a hunch where she lives."

Yoshino just shrugged. She didn't want to pry as to how the boy would know that, but figured that she had learned enough about him as it was.

"Hey-Uzumaki-san, you told granny that you are leaving tonight?"

Naruto didn't answer her because he wasn't sure what she was talking about but then recalled his conversation with the Nara head. "Yes. I am causing a lot of trouble for your family being there. I was thinking about getting an apartment somewhere near the town."

Yoshino scowled. "Those are pretty cheap, but its pretty dangerous now a days, you might be safer sticking with us until you're fully healed."

"True, but I think I have overstayed my welcome."

"No way! Granny totally likes you, its Shikaku isn't it? He is an ass, just ignore him."

Naruto didn't reply to that, he didn't have a problem with the boy, he liked the boy even. The black haired youth seemed like someone he could talk to, despite how young he was. "No I have no problem with your cousin, he is good kid."

"No he is a dick; you should see how he is always doing stuff to piss me off. I'll get him someday!"

Naruto rolled his eyes. He didn't get a chance to comment though as he got to the town square because he felt an ominous feeling from up above. He looked up into the sky.

"Hey what are you seeing?"

Naruto didn't answer her and continued to look for that signature he felt in the sky, the Sage sensing ability allowed him to trace back chakra through long distances and he could feel a powerful rush of it coming quickly.

Too large.

Too fast.

Too dangerous.

Scared out of his mind Naruto jumped onto the stall of the nearest booth. Some of the people looked panicked when they saw the teen in bandages take a deep breath. Yoshino just watched in awe as his chest became larger as he breathed in deep.

He started screaming up a storm. "EVERYONE RUN! THIS PLACE IS ABOUT TO EXPLODE!"

Not one second after he said that did the crowds star running in every direction the four winds had to offer. Naruto jumped down and grabbed the Nara girl; he tossed her over his shoulder and Shunshin'ed out into the Ramen stand.

There he saw the red-head eating her heart out, without a care in the world. Despite her protest Naruto grabbed the girl and put her over his other shoulder. Quickly running through the crowds Naruto made his way out of there before the place turned to-BOOM.

Pieces of human flesh sprayed the air as screaming people were horrified by the bloody explosive carnage around them. The explosion turned into flames and consumed many of the shop owners and Naruto was glad Ichiraku Teuchi was smart enough to take his warning because he was far away from all of this.

As the fire got larger, Naruto wondered why exactly the Anbu didn't stop this, until he noticed more and more bombs falling from the sky. He was guessing there were a lot more high profile targets than just this place. No one cared for civilians after all, Naruto himself didn't care for them either, but that might have to do with a bit of a bias on his part.

"Let me go! I can run on my own! Stupid blond!" Kushina shouted as she tried to get off Naruto, only for the blond to grip her even tighter over his shoulder. He couldn't let her go; something in him told him that if he did he would regret it, especially if she died. Whether she was his mother or not didn't matter, he couldn't let a child just walk into the flames.

"Oi, I don't mind you carrying me and all, but can you run faster those fire dragons are catching up!" Yoshino was smart enough to understand the two of them weren't exactly very quick on their feet and the man who was holding them could probably shunshin out of there much faster if needed.

Yet attempting a high-speed escape with a flaying Kushina, screaming threats of near death experiences made him a bit hesitant to take any action. The fires were morphing and twisting into dragonish figures as it engulfed the district Naruto turned back to see an old man in a wheel chair pushing for dear life as his old body was burning.

He felt bad for the old figure, but there was not really much he could do except get the kids out of here. He could take care of this mess if given enough distance. As he made a sharp turn and made a leap into the building he could see more bombs drop from the sky, it looked familiar as the shapes reminded him of C2, but that couldn't be possible because the Akatsuki Bomb expert wasn't alive at this time.

The bombs made another impact and blew up a building somewhere near the Hokage tower and more burning people came running out. Dropping Yoshino on the building Naruto made a dash for the giant flames that were turning into more animal shapes. Fire dragons. Fire phoenix. Tigers. It was an assortment of gruesome jutsus he had seen manifested onto the floors of the districts and turned human flesh into charcoal.

Naruto felt something grab his arm before he leaped back to the ground. He turned to face the angry person who grabbed his shoulder. "Hey, what the hell is your problem!"

Naruto wondered if he should slap the girl for being a goddamn idiot at that moment.

But he didn't need to as Yoshino did that for him. The smack even hurt Naruto's ears, so he felt a bit of sympathy for the red head that got the full brunt of it. "WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM! PEOPLE ARE FUCKEN DYING"

"I KNOW THAT! DON'T YOU THINK I SEE THAT! BUT WHAT GIVES HIM THE RIGHT TO TOUCH ME!"

Naruto didn't wait to see how the result of this battle would turn out.

Leaving the girls on the food and dropping from the 4 storey building Naruto teleported back into the earth and saw the rampage. This planned attack was well set up. He wondered how on Earth they were able to get past the Konoha Detection Barrier Dome, but again he had other things to worry about.

Namely saving people, because that is what Naruto does best

Sometimes.

There were a lot about of people that still died despite his best efforts.

Another blast shook the earth and Naruto had to force Chakra through his feet to keep himself on the ground. His muscles still felt numb from his time travel and he knew that it would be a while before he was even back on half power but he didn't have time to worry about that.

"Help us! We are trapped!" Naruto heard, his Sage hearing was coming into full focus. Like some kind of horrible superhero Naruto could pick up the voices of people in anguish, he didn't know if this was a result of Sage Chakra turning him into some kind of living Saint.

Or if this was simply some twisted desire of his to be a hero that warped his senses into picking up any chances opportunities he could find where he would be seen as some kind of savior.

In truth, he did not want to find out which answer was true.

His feet took him to the local orphanage where he saw the kids trying to get out of there. Powering up his fists with enough to Chakra to make Tsunade shake with envy he punched a giant hole through the place, as bits of wood tore like paper. The kids immediately started running out. Naruto could see that they looked badly starved, no wonder they couldn't push out the flaming wood, wood by nature wasn't heavy after all.

Walking into the place he ran into the nursery where the smaller kids were crying, he immediately made a few clones and had them carry them out. He and the little ones got out of there in time before the places blew apart sending more flaming wood to other screaming citizens.

Naruto morbidly wondered why exactly civilians were so flammable.

Even more important why didn't they stop, drop and roll?

Though when he thought about it common sense didn't exactly rule the minds of these people, they did blame him for the Kyuubi attack and that alone said a lot about their IQ.

"Chunin-san what the hell are you doing here! Get to the gates and help defend the village, let the Genin worry about this fire!"

Naruto turned to see an angry looking man with spiky silver hair and a War-ready Anbu suit fall to his level and grab him by his collar. Before he could say anything and the Anbu slammed him through a nearby wooden wall. This young man was powerful, no question about it. His eyes conveyed danger, his sharp silver hair were like razors and his angry glare reminded him that he himself wasn't the only deadly weapon around, far from it.

"I asked you a question! What are you doing here when we are supposed to be defending the village gates; you think you could take the easy way out and not risk your life fighting the enemy!" he shouted, his face was near to his own and Naruto could only gulp thinking about his excuse.

Thankfully he was saved from another Anbu dropping next to them. "Sir, we got a serious problem, you have to come and take a look at this. There is something in the gates I don't think anyone is ready to deal with, not yet."

Naruto felt himself fall to the floor as he was let go, before walking away the man turned around to give Naruto another scowl. "This isn't over; we are going to have a talk about orders when this day is done."

Then his face became a bit softer when he saw some of the children that were shaking nearby. "Still, you did a good thing, kid. Not bad, not bad at all."

Getting up from the floor Naruto didn't have time to reply as the Ninja departed. When he though this ordeal was over he felt himself catch his breath. Only to feel an enormous amount of malicious killing intent coming from outside the gates as he heard a thunderous roar break the earth.


	5. Chapter 5

Well here is a new chapter of Time to Kill, took a while but I was being lazy.

Enjoy!!

-

Damn

This situation couldn't get any worse

Not only is he stuck in this dimension that just so happens to take place during a shinobi world war, he is still injured from his sudden travel to this place and there was nothing he could do about it until he was completely healed.

Oh, did I forget to mention that the village is currently being attacked by a crazed monster?

Uzumaki Naruto is currently in the middle of a burning street in some random sector of Konoha. There were many burning husks that once resembled people scattered around the street. The skies were dark and malevolent.

There were random burn marks on his body and he was still weak from overexerting his currently unhealed body.

All the ninjas were roof hopping on the buildings over them, rushing towards the gates to confront the biggest threat to konoha at the moment.

Yoshino and Kushina were next to him, shaking in fear and terror at the feel of the demonic killing intent in the air that surpasses any that a kage could emit. Despite them both being strong girls who are well on their way to becoming really powerful kunoichi, they were unprepared to deal with something that most jounin have trouble standing up to much less fighting.

This day just couldn't get any worse for the blond haired saviour

Naruto turns to the two girls resting against the walls and helps them up and yells, "You two, get out of here NOW and help the civilians get to safety, I'll head to the gate and help the shinobi there deal with this." Under normal circumstances where fear wasn't blinding their judgement, they might have protested to him ordering them around. However right now in their terror induced minds, they are having quite some trouble coming up with a reason to argue against him. At the moment they were both staring blankly at him.

As Naruto notices their fear, his gaze softens and he assures them, "Don't worry, konoha is strong and none of us will go down without a fight, just make sure to save as many as you can."

They turn to look at him and nod, signalling they understood. Yoshino walks up to the blond and mutters in a threatening tone with a fist in his face, "Just be careful ok Naruto-san, don't push yourself too hard, and you better drag your ass back here or I will come over there and drag you back myself, and I promise you won't like it."

Naruto smiles a little sheepishly and nods with a determined look in his eyes. Yoshino in turn nods back and Kushina and herself turn around and dash back in the other direction to help the civilians get to safety.

Naruto turns towards the direction of the gate and jumps on a rooftop and hops over in that direction.

As he is heading there, he contemplates to himself. From the feel of the killing intent, it is unmistakeably a bijuu or a really adept jinchuuriki who can control his bijuu's powers, and a pretty powerful one at that. It is very close in strength to the kyuubi, which could mean that it might be the hachibi. From what he remembers, Kumo is the village who has the jinchuuriki for the hachibi.

In his current state, it will be a pain in the ass to fight a jinchuuriki, especially one that is almost as powerful as him. He will just have to rely on his sage powers and hope for the best, there is nothing more he can do until he is fully healed. He will not fail the village like he did when he fought Nagato in his own time.

He still can't understand why the hachibi jinchuuriki is attacking the village directly? From what he can remember, the kumo jinchuuriki never attacked the village during the third ninja war during his time. So why was it attacking now?

As he stops his musings, he looks around and notices that he is nearly at the gates. There are still fires raging around him and random bodies strewn about around him. Some buildings were also toppled over with rubble where proud structures used to stand.

As Naruto approached the gates, he looks ahead of him and his eyes widen in horror and amazement. Nestled in a large crater with damaged trees surrounding it is a large accumulation of purple chakra in the shape of a colossal ox with eight tails. The bubbling mass of chakra is currently smashing its enormous tails into the ground with such force that the shockwaves could be felt miles away and causing many ninja to be pushed back, crashing into several trees around them.

Naruto watched in morbid fascination as dozens of ninja were knocked backwards simultaneously in the same direction, only to hear several painful crunching noises and screams of agony as the ninja all crashed through many trees in their path.

As Naruto looks around, he begins to notice large numbers of ninja on the ground, some injured and attempting to get up, others alive but barely clinging onto life, and a vast majority dead.

He notices many medic nin attempt to heal the injured ninja around him. However, when he looks critically at the situation he notices that the medic nin are purposefully ignoring the ninja that have fatal injuries and may die any minute and only focusing on the ninja with minor injuries.

Even the ones who were being healed were only given patch-ups and not an extensive healing job like they do in the hospital, since the ninja are expected to get up and continue the fight after being patched up.

Naruto was beginning to feel overwhelmed and experienced a strong urge to throw-up. The screams of agony all round him. The smell of blood and burning flesh assaulting his sense of smell. The sight of many mangled and unrecognizable corpses around him. The sheer amount of killer intent emanating from multiple sources.

In all his years of living, Naruto has never experienced death and tragedy at this scale. Most of his fights in the past had been isolated with no more than a dozen ninja. However war was something completely different. It truly was like being in a hellish nightmare where the only reality was death and killing. People were dying left and right and you were also killing left and right. All your senses begin to be assaulted with it and there was no escape until one side was completely annihilated. None of his fights in the past can compare to the horror he is experiencing right now.

_"The Shinobi world is a road paved in violence and death."_

Now he was beginning to understand what Nagato meant. This is the true reality of the path of a ninja. War is just the ultimate destination for this path. THIS is what Nagato was trying to prevent. His whole reason for going on and joining the Akatsuki. Nagato experienced this reality in all of his childhood to the point where it drove him to become what he was the day they fought.

However something happened on that day that not even Nagato expected.

Nagato was inspired during their brief talk. He truly believed that Naruto had the capacity to change their world. However, Nagato also realized that it was impossible for Naruto to achieve their dream if he was still ignorant to the true horrors of the ninja world. This is the reason he was sent back to this time. To truly gain a sense of understanding.

Naruto closes his eyes in sorrow and feels his whole body shaking, and a feeling of numbness took over. It suddenly dawned on him the ultimate obstacle that appeared in his way. In order for the cycle of hatred to end, everyone must learn to gain a sense of understanding and let go of the past.

Naruto cannot end it on his own though, it will not be enough.

His eyes opened and they contained a spark of determination. He will do whatever it takes to achieve peace, even if it costs his own life. He may not know the answer to this problem right now, but he will do anything to find a way.

For now he must focus on the situation in front of him, he must completely tune out everything around him and focus on his target while keeping a sense of awareness for any potential threat. He will have more time to dwell on this later.

He stares at the Hachibi container that is currently ravaging the konoha ninja and comes up with a plan to fight him. The first thing he must do is find a way to disable his access to his bijuu because in this state it's almost impossible to harm him with any jutsu he knows. At least when not in sage mode.

Just like his fight with Gaara when he was possessed with Shukaku. Block the junchuuriki's access to his bijuu chakra and he becomes vulnerable.

The problem now is how was he supposed to seal back the hachibi in his container?

Fuuinjutsu would have been useful right now, but unfortunately Naruto never took the time to learn it from Jiraiya even when Jiraiya would try to convince him to learn it back during their training trip since it would be a useful skill.

Naruto being the ignorant dumbass back then refused to learn it since to him it was boring and he was mainly interested in learning ninjutsu.

Naruto gritted his teeth in frustration for his past stupidity, and made a mental note to learn as much as he can about fuuinjutsu after this battle. If he survives that is.

Also it seems that this jinchuuriki is co-operating with his bijuu which means the bijuu can possess his own container with full access to all his bijuu chakra without fear of the container being controlled.

Since Naruto can't trust the kyuubi right now, he can't let it possess him to fight the hachibi, it would be too risky and it would draw unwanted attention to himself and questions he does not want to answer.

He will just have to come up with a different plan to lock the ox back in his container.

Sigh, it seems the only thing he can do is go into sage mode and stall for as long as he can until either Jiraiya appears to seal the hachibi back or hopefully the bijuu will use up too much chakra and be forced back in his container.

His injuries are not helping either, he will just have to hope he can stay conscious long enough for either scenario to take place.

Dispelling one of the kage bunshin he had this whole time collecting nature chakra nearby, Naruto begins the transformation into sage mode by combining the recently acquired nature chakra with his own to form sage chakra.

Getting himself prepped, he flashes near the mighty ox and yells at him to draw his attention away from the other ninja and onto him.

"Hey asshole, come over here let's see what ya got!!" The Ox's giant chakra construct of a head turned ominously to the left and looks down where it notices Naruto standing. The shinobi that were fighting the giant ox notice the blond and look at him like he was nuts. Was he trying to piss it off and get himself killed??

**RROOOAAARRRRR!!!!!**

Naruto locks his eyes above him and sees a large mass of purple about to slam over his head. The tail crashes into the ground uprooting trees and masses of them and foliage scatter around the forest sending many ninja to their knees from the force barely keeping their ground using chakra.

The 100ft long tail then slowly begins to be lifted off the ground and moved to the side in a swift jerking motion.

Standing in the middle of the crater is the figure of a panting shaking blond shinobi. Naruto glared fiercely into the hachibi's white eyes with his own sage eyes that had an additional vertical demonic slit over the horizontal one.

The tired shinobi standing nearby were staring gobsmacked at the feat that was just performed in front of them. All of them were expecting the blond to be dead after seeing that tail crashing down on him. Somehow not only was he able to survive, but he _lifted_ the tail off of him and _threw_ it to the side.

Naruto was physically exhausted.

It was bad enough that he had to fight while injured from his journey to this timeline and was unprepared to face a bijuu. Holding that tail back from crushing him took a majority of his chakra when normally it wouldn't have because of his weakened state. He would drop out of sage mode any minute.

He dispelled his last clone and gathered more nature chakra.

Naruto's face becomes impassive as he creates two large rasengans, one in each hand, and rushes towards the colossal chakra being faster than the nearby shinobi can track. As he nears the base of the demon, he extends both arms towards it and the rasengans make contact with enough force to push the large ox back a dozen feet.

One thing most people don't realize about jinchuuriki who allow bijuu to act through them is that they don't regenerate their lost chakra. Since the bijuu is tied to its host, it would need to go back into its container and recover the lost chakra there.

So when the double rasengan made contact with the ox, it howled in pain as it lost a good portion of its chakra defending against the attack.

Naruto was still panting hard and his body was protesting from the overexertion from being in sage mode while still recovering. He realized that he only had enough chakra left for one attack before he would be out.

He had to make this one count!

Summoning all the chakra he could, Naruto prepared for what he was about to do.

Meanwhile, the Hachibi was starting to get pissed at this blond that actually managed to hit him! It cost him a significant portion of his chakra to fight against that attack of his. He was determined to kill this human now! Time to get serious!

The Ox lifted its foot that was the size of the hokage tower and prepared to smash it against the human and turn him into paste!

Suddenly the giant ox felt a presence behind its head and it turned around and spotted the blond ninja it was ready to squish directly next to his head!

**FUUTON RASENSHURIKEN!!!**

The giant round orb of destruction surrounded by wind blades the size of the hachibi's head smashed into the back of its neck. The microscopic wind blades penetrated deep into the chakra of the ox and spread throughout its whole mass.

**AARRRGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!**

The hachibi lurched forward with incredible force and slammed into the ground hard creating a large shockwave that rippled for miles and covered the whole forest with dirt from where it landed. The hachibi had never felt such pain before. That one attack cost it four tails worth of chakra to defend against! Four Tails!!! Combine that with all the chakra it spent previously in the battle and it was down to two tails.

The nearby konoha nin were staring in shock at the power of this blond kid. He very nearly took out the hachibi on his own! He somehow managed to trick the demon into thinking he was infront of it, only he managed to get behind it and made a clone of his propel him straight towards the demon's head!

Naruto himself couldn't move

He was on the ground flat on his back. He had dropped out of sage mode as soon as that attack connected. His body was in incredible pain and he was gonna pass out any second.

Just before he blacked out he noticed a tall figure with long shaggy white hair standing over him.

Naruto let a small smile show on his face as the darkness overtook him.

-

Well hope you liked this chapter, even if it is really late.


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