371Summary: Naruto Uzumaki had dedicated his entire life for the sake of other people, now, Fate asked him to do it once again. Transported into a world where his parents were alive with the memories of his previous life, he thought it was the opportunity for him to shape the life he used to dream about, only to realize that things weren't as easy as he thought it to be…
Warning: Dark tone.
New Life New Journey
Chapter 1
Into the new world
It was an early morning in Konoha, the village hidden in the leaves. The sun was just starting to rise, lighting the sky in oranges and yellows. People began to slowly wake up and start yet another day of their lives, merchants getting their businesses ready, parents making breakfast for their children, and children getting ready to go to school like it had always been…
It was a normal day, and as the sun shone into his apartment, one Naruto Uzumaki groaned. As he turned over so the light wouldn't hit his eyes, trying to stay asleep.
Despite being a well trained and extremely experienced Shinobi, it took him more than just a few seconds to realise something wasn't right about him waking up in his apartment. The moment he finally noticed it, Naruto snapped his head up, fully awake and started looking around with his eyes widening in shock.
"What am I doing in my apartment...?" was the first question that raced through Naruto's head.
Beep! Beep! Beep!
Before he could come up with an answer, The alarm clock that sat on the nightstand next to his bed began blaring loudly. Groaning at the sound, Naruto shot his hand out to shut off the alarm, but soon realized it was completely out of his maximum reach. Suddenly losing his balance, Naruto fell out of his bed and landed on his head.
Groaning, Naruto sat up and lent his back against his bed, gently massaging the spot that had come into contact with the ground to ease the pain.
"Eh…" Naruto made a sound of surprise when he saw how small his legs were. Moving his hand down, Naruto looked at it and his eyes widened in shock when he saw it's small size. The hero of the fourth Shinobi war then started checking over the rest of his body and to see his entire body had shrunken ridiculously in size.
It didn't take him long to realize he was in the body of a ten-year-old boy.
"What… what's going on?" Naruto asked aloud and realized his voice was much younger. He sounded like a little kid. Doing his best to keep his composure, Naruto put his hands together and formed a seal, before channelling his chakra throughout his entire body. "Kai!" He declared, shutting his eyes tight and his chakra flared powerfully from his body, creating a small force that sent the furniture inside his bedroom flying away.
He didn't mean to use that much chakra, but it should do the trick.
However, much to his shock, nothing changed. His body was still miniscule, and he was still sitting inside his rundown apartment's bedroom. Naruto tried to release the illusion once again, but the result was still pretty much the same. Sighing in defeat, he stood up and crawled his way to the full body mirror on the wall in his room, and found himself gasping like a fish out of water when he finally got a good look at himself.
He'd actually shrunk down to the size of a little kid, but there were some very noticeable differences. First, Naruto had always been rather short for his age during his childhood, but he didn't remember being this short. He didn't know how old he was, but he was sure that no ten or eleven-year-old would have a small body like this. Second, while his features mostly stayed the same, his hair was slightly different. It was still spiky, but more tamed than how it used to be. As if it used to be straight but suddenly someone used a lot of hair gel to make his hair a mess. And last but not least, it was his face…
The whisker marks simply... weren't there.
The only conclusion he could come up with was that it was probably some sick joke, maybe he was involved in a scheme, or he just didn't know. Did someone want to fuck with him? By turning him into a midget version of his younger self? Maybe it was one of his grandchildren's pranks. Maybe they had found a way to put him under a Genjutsu. They had always wanted to mess with the strongest Shinobi in the world…
However, while they would have loved to do this to him, they knew better than anyone that as a Jinchuriki, he was completely immune to Genjutsu. Also being, the Uzumaki were no masters of the art, so none of them should be able to cast an illusion on this level. Everything felt so real that Naruto thought he had been put under the Infinite Tsukuyomi.
"Kurama…" Naruto called and reached into his mindscape, but for some reason, he couldn't go anywhere. "Kurama, can you hear me?" Strange, because he could still feel the fox's chakra and his presence within his body. It was just that he couldn't see, hear, or feel anything inside his mindscape. "Everyone, are you there?" He spoke verbally and mentally "If you hear me, can you guys do something about this?" He waited, and waited… and after a minute, everything was still pretty much the same.
Sighing for the second time, Naruto looked at himself in the mirror, trying to recall what had happened. Even for an Uzumaki like him, someone who had an extremely long lifespan, he couldn't defy the power of time and age. From a hero, a proud leader of Konoha, he had slowly grown old and tired. After retiring and passing down the seat of Hokage to the person who had rightfully earned it, the blond mostly stayed at home with the love of his life, Hinata Hyuuga and allowed his children and grandchildren to take care of him or simply be the one who took care of their sons and daughters.
The previous night, he had decided to reminisce about old times with Hinata, holding the old picture of team seven in his hand. They had talked about the past, about each other when they were younger before reminding themselves about their mistakes, the achievements they had accomplished, and what they could have done and changed if they were a little stronger. Naruto could still remember how his old wife had fallen asleep in his arms, leaning her head against his chest while he was looking at the Hokage Monument and thinking about the past. It was something he had done a lot lately because… simply put, it had been the only thing an old geezer like him could do.
Naruto Uzumaki had lived a glorious life, and while it had been very painful the first few years, he had no regrets. He only wished that he had done more, more for his precious people, for the friends who had become the strength for him to move forward and become the man he was right now…
Naruto widened his eyes slightly when he recalled that part. Did someone read his mind and grant him that wish? Was this a dream, or was he really in the past? Was that even possible? What should he do next? Looking around, Naruto noticed that his room wasn't the way he remembered it being, and his memories had never failed him before. Naruto had so many questions he wanted to have the answers in his mind that he thought it might explode momentarily.
Standing, Naruto nearly found himself falling over. He might have been right about being shrunk down to his childhood form. Because if he was really in the past with his mind and memories still intact, then he probably shouldn't be able to move in his younger body. His consciousness had already gotten used to a larger and stronger body, which also explained why his chakra control was so poor.
So one by one, Naruto moved his legs while supporting himself with his hand on the wall, making sure that he wouldn't fall over like what had happened earlier. He closed his eyes, and let his mind naturally get used to his new body. It didn't take him long to be able to move around properly. Naruto was able to get everything in place in a few minutes, and after that, he started walking around his house to check if everything was really how he remembered it to be.
"Yep, everything is still here." While rapidly spinning a chopstick between his fingers, Naruto muttered as he opened the cupboard and found several boxes of his favourite instant ramen. The pieces of furniture were still in their places but the place itself, however, was surprisingly clean.
Looking at the calendar, Naruto realized he really was in the past...
Other than that, his apartment was still pretty much the same, but… he couldn't help but that there was feel something very strange about it. He didn't have a happy childhood, but he had been a rather happy child. Filled with sadness and angst, but he had always known how to make the most out of everything. His apartment was one of them, and while it wasn't much, he had done everything to make it a lively place.
Looking around, Naruto couldn't stop himself from feeling anything but sadness. Not from him, but from the place itself, as if the owner of the place was an extremely sad person.
It was probably just his imagination.
Shaking his head, Naruto picked up one of the cups of instant ramen on the counter and poured hot water into it before waiting the three minutes for the noodles inside to become soft. Using the fork in his hand, Naruto began eating his breakfast while fixing his eyes firmly on the date on the calendar.
It actually took him half of his cup of ramen to notice it, and nearly spat everything out of his mouth after he had finally remembered what day it was.
"Oh shit…" Naruto muttered. Today was the day of the Ninja Academy's graduation exam. Looking at the year, Naruto realised it would be his second try, which he had failed miserably.
Putting his half-eaten breakfast down, Naruto hurriedly ran to his wardrobe and tried to find his clothes. Half a minute later, he left his apartment, but he was wearing a blank shirt and black pants, not the neon-orange jumpsuit.
Why? It wasn't because he didn't want to wear it. It was because it wasn't there for him to use.
He headed straight to the Academy, running as fast as his legs could carry him, without noticing the ways the villagers were looking at him. If he had looked back, he would probably see that they weren't glaring at him like they used to when he was younger.
When he was almost there, his eyes widened and a large smile appeared on his face when he saw a certain Chunin standing in front of the gate. With his arms crossing over his chest while looking around he was tapping his foot rather impatiently, probably wondering where his most troublesome student was.
He really was in the past, after all.
"Iruka-sensei," Naruto called out, waving his hand above his head.
"Naruto!" Iruka Umino immediately turned his head and saw Naruto running toward him "What's wrong? You're late for the exam." He was surprised by the way Iruka had greeted him. He had expected his first teacher to scold him like the last time "Also, what's wrong with your hair?"
"Sorry sensei, I didn't have time to brush it." He lied through his teeth. Had he ever tried to brush his hair anyway?
"Alright then, you should head inside now. The paper test will start in a minute." Nodding his head, Naruto went into the academy and quickly made his way to his classroom, missing the arrival of a man and a woman with red hair.
"Hokage-sama." Iruka greeted, bowing his head.
"Has he arrived, Iruka?" The Hokage asked softly, and Iruka nodded his head in response "Thank you." He turned to the woman next to him, and gave her a comforting smile "Let's go." She nodded her head, and together the two walked into the building.
Sitting in his classroom while waiting for the Chunin instructor to arrive, Naruto just wanted to get the day over and done with. He was sure that he could pass the first test with flying colors, unlike the last time. However, he wasn't very sure about the practical exam, because while he had gotten used to moving his body around, he wasn't sure if he could fight properly. And since his chakra control had become poor again, he would probably fail to perform a proper transformation and clone technique.
He would probably need some time alone to think about his next moves, but for the time being, he would have to stick to how it had been. If things were going to turn out exactly like before, he would need to make sure that his interventions weren't going to turn the events out of expectation zone.
Fortunately, he still had plenty of time to plan his way through his life once again. There were so many things he could do, so many events he could change… and if this was the opportunity, someone, gods or humans or fates themselves had given him the ability to change the world for the better, he was not going to waste it.
"Hey… isn't that…"
"I think it's him… his son…"
Naruto raised an eyebrow when he heard that part, and turned his head to the side to see the other students whispering to each other while looking at him. Last time he was here, he had walked into his room like a boss, ignoring everything they had said about him. He knew that he was the dead least at the academy, and it was his second try for graduation, but many students here were like him, for the same reasons, so he shouldn't be THAT popular.
Then, the door to the classroom was opened and both Iruka and Mizuki entered the room carrying a bunch of papers with them. The corners of Naruto's lips curved up slightly as he looked at the white-haired bastard. He'd enjoy beating the crap out him with his shadow clones again.
"Alright everyone, first, I want to congratulate you for getting to this stage of your Shinobi training." Iruka spoke to them while Mizuki kept a blank face as they both looked at the students "The Graduation Exam consists of 3 separated tests. The first is the written exam…" Naruto used to hate the paper test, mainly because he was bad at it. He still hated dealing with written tests, but his knowledge was vast now, so he shouldn't have a single problem with it "The second test will be all about Taijutsu. You pair randomly with your friends, and spar each other to test your fighting skill against each other." So everything was turning out exactly the same, Naruto mused thoughtfully "And last but not the least, the final exam, the Ninjutsu test. You will be asked to perform three of the basic Academy techniques, namely the Bunshin, Kawarimi, and Henge. Any questions?" Iruka looked around to see if his students had any questions. Seeing none, he instructed his co-workers to start handing out the paper test.
"Good luck Naruto. Do your best this time, okay?" Iruka smiled as he put the paper down on Naruto's table before heading to the one sitting behind him.
"Yes, thank you, sensei." Naruto smiled at him, but when he passed, the smile dropped and Naruto turned his head around to look at his old teacher weirdly. Had Iruka ever been so soft on him like that? The man was a great teacher and an even greater brother figure for him when he was still an attention seeking brat… but he couldn't remember if Iruka had ever acted like that during his academic years.
What was going on?
The written part of the Graduation exam took an hour and Naruto was confident that he had answered every question incorrectly. Looking at his test for the last time, Naruto gave it to Mizuki before leaving for the training ground with the other students.
"Naruto, you will spar with Koharu. You two get to your positions." Iruka said aloud.
He was paired with a brown haired kid he couldn't recognize. Glancing around, he was rather surprised that everyone was looking at him, once again doing something he didn't remember.
"Alright, you know what to do." Iruka spoke up as he stood on the sideline "Begin!"
"I will defeat you!" Koharu shouted and threw his punch at Naruto "Hyaa!" He could see his punch coming from a mile away, but his body couldn't react in time, so he had to raise his arms to block it.
A few tests should be fine. He needed to know how bad it was. Naruto waited for the right moment and threw his punch in return but instantly realized he had done it with too much momentum, making himself fall flat on his face. Just just like what happened that morning when he tried to turn off the alarm clock.
It was worst than he thought.
Quickly standing up, the blond moved his body out of the way when his opponent tried to kick him and raised his arm to block his foot when he spun around to deliver a roundhouse kick to the side of his head. Wincing in pain, Naruto took his hand back and sidestepped, causing the boy to miss him.
"Stop dodging and fight me seriously!" Koharu shouted in frustration "Are you looking down on me because you are the Hokage's son!?" that statement made Naruto freeze in shock. Seizing his opportunity, the kid shot forward and threw a hook at the right side of Naruto's cheek. Naruto took the blow hard and saw his vision blurring after that. Stumbling back, Naruto nearly fell, but stood his ground and snapped his head back, seeing his opponent coming at him again. Without taking a second thought, Naruto waited for the right moment to lean his body back and raised his right foot, causing the boy to trip over it and fall forward.
"Why you…"
"Time's up!" Iruka announced, ending the fight "You two, return to your positions." After saying that, the Chunin instructor sighed and shook his head in disappointment before writing something down the paper in his hand, which Naruto was sure was a big 'failed'.
However, that was not what he was worried about. He also outright ignored the look the other boy was giving him, in favor of thinking about what he had said. He had called Naruto the Hokage's son, which in his opinion wasn't possible because during this time of his childhood, no one, not even Naruto had known that he was the son of Minato Namikaze, the fourth Hokage of Konoha.
The second test passed quickly, and everyone returned to their classroom for the third test. As the others waited impatiently for their names to be called, Naruto took a spot separated from them, thinking about all the possibilities.
"Namikaze, it's your turn."
If he was really in the past, then why were many things so different?
"Namikaze Naruto, are you listening to me?"
"Huh?" Naruto snapped his head out of his musing and turned to see Mizuki standing beside him, with a scowl on his face "Yes sensei?" He asked dumbly.
"It's your turn, Namikaze Naruto. Hurry up, because you are wasting the others' time." He said and walked away, leaving Naruto with a dumbstruck expression on his face.
Namikaze Naruto? Why did Mizuki call him with his father's last name?
Just what was going on?
Hurriedly, Naruto made his way to the opposite classroom, but before he could open the door to walk in, he heard footsteps coming at him from the side and couldn't stop his head from turning to look.
His eyes became as wide as dinner plates and he froze dead in his spot when he saw them, a man and a woman.
They were his father and mother.
They were Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki.
Naruto felt his body trembling as he looked at them. They were alive, older, but very alive. His father was wearing his normal Hokage robe, while his mother dressed in her a high-collared sleeveless blouse under a long and loose-fitting dress with a wristband on her left wrist and standard Shinobi sandals.
They both had warm smiles on their faces as they looked at him. Though, his mother looked rather pale, while his father looked nervous.
"H…hey, Naruto-kun…" Kushina stated softly as she approached him with her husband.
"Son." Minato smiled at him, wrapping a hand around his wife's shoulder "Your mother and I are here to see you."
"Uhh…" Naruto said. He wasn't sure how to respond. 'It can't be possible...' Naruto thought to himself wildly.
"I want to wish you good luck." Kushina said, putting a hand on her chest "Do your best, okay?"
"Look, son, I want to… NARUTO!" Minato said, but then cried out when his son ran away.
"Naruto! Please!" his mother tried to reach out to him, but Naruto ignored her and didn't stop "I'm so…" What she wanted to say, he probably wouldn't be able to hear it anyway.
Naruto ran, ran as fast as possible. He tripped and fell, but got up quickly stood up and continued getting away from those people as far as possible, ignoring the pain. He didn't understand. He wanted to run into their arms, not away from them. For some reason, his parents were alive in the past he had been transported to.
He should feel happy but at the same time, Naruto was feeling sadness, anger, and hatred for them.
Naruto ran into a corner and stopped there to take a breath.
Naruto reached his hands up and touched his cheeks. He felt wetness and realized he had been crying, but he didn't know if they were the tears of happiness of grief. He didn't know that he could feel confused by his own emotions. Part of him was happy to see his parents again, despite not knowing why they were there or how they were alive, but another, very small part of him, unconsciously wanted to get away from them. It wasn't strong, only subconscious, like an inner desire he could choose to follow or resist.
Then, suddenly, with a loud bang, broken fragments of memories that weren't his flooded into his mind, causing Naruto to hold his head with his hands and shut his eyes tight to ease down the pain of having his mind overloaded with broken images.
"Naruto… Naruto… Naruto! Do you hear me!?" then he heard it, the voice of his partner, the voice of Kurama in his head. It brought a smile of relief to his face.
"Kurama… you're…"
"We will talk about that later, you need to get into your mindscape. Right. Now." With a nod of his head, Naruto moved his consciousness into his mindscape. He found his eyes widening in surprise when he saw the familiar sewer that had kept his tailed beast at bay before he removed it. "Finally." Kurama said in relief.
Naruto turned around with the intention to greet his partner but stopped when he saw the horrible state the nine tailed fox was in. His body was covered in bruises and claw marks. A large part of his orange fur, which was soaked in his blood, looked like it had been burned away, and three of his tails lied flat on the ground, unmoving. He was also breathing hard, with blood running down from the corner of his mouth as well as the side of his head as if he had just fought one of the toughest battles of his life.
"Kurama, what happened…?" Naruto lowered his head down and his jaw dropped in shock when he saw another nine tailed fox lying on the ground, being pinned to the ground by Kurama's tails and feet. This one, however, had the body structure of a normal fox with gold fur and nine giant fluffy tails. Though, the golden fox looked like it had been seen better days, being injured so badly Naruto thought it shouldm't be able to stay alive after taking all that damage. "Who is this!?" He asked, pointing at the fox on the ground.
"Same thing I'm wondering." Kurama said as he raised his foot up, but immediately slammed it down when the gold fox lifted it's head up, causing it to howl in pain. "Stay down vixen!" Kurama growled angrily "I've had enough of your bullshit!"
"Vixen?" Naruto asked in surprise "You mean… this is a female fox?"
"Apparently. You should hear her annoying voice, but… well, I crushed her throat so she shouldn't be able to say anything anytime soon." Kurama answered as the gold Kyuubi glared at him "But don't worry, this vixen can heal fast."
"Alright alright, time out." Naruto raised both hands and spoke up loudly "What is going on? Why is there another Kyuubi here?"
"I don't know, Naruto." Kurama shook his head "But I do know that this one probably knows something." The orange tailed beast said, tapping his counterpart on the head "She was already here when I arrived and attacked me as soon as I woke up. She put up a decent fight and for some reason the attacks she threw at me hurt a lot."
"For real?" Naruto asked, "So you have no idea what happened to us?"
"Beats me." Kurama shook his head, closing his eyes "But I'm pretty sure that it's not because of Genjutsu. Your chakra is still flowing normally."
"Is that so…" Naruto crossed his arms, nodding his head before remembering "Wait… did you see them? Did you see my parents?"
"Fool, they are not your parents." Before Kurama could say anything to answer, the vixen underneath him suddenly spoke up with a surprisingly feminine voice "They are the brat's parents."
"Who?" Naruto wondered. What the female Kyuubi growled out next caused Naruto and Kurama's eyes to widen in shock.
"Naruto Namikaze. You and this sorry excuse for a Kyuubi came from another world."
End of Chapter 1
Alright everyone! That's the end of this chapter, I hope you lot satisfied!
In case you haven't noticed, I have decided to take a darker tone from the original story. However, take note that I am not talking about a dark Naruto, his personalities will stay the same, with the maturity of someone who had experienced almost everything.
You can still give me suggestions for the way I should take this story.
Also, unlike the original, Naruto's strength will proceed through the story. He will have a lot of trouble at first, getting used to his new body and everything, but eventually he will return to his god-like power. This is the first time I have written a strong but not godlike Naruto-fic, there are going to be a lot of mistakes, but I hope you guys will support me till the end.
Read and Review!
Ja ne!
