Memories of the Future

A/N: jesus, what does a fan have to do to get a chapter around here, ne? i have no clue, but i come bearing a new chapter! and i apologize for the long wait. i had chapter 13 half way done before i took a look at it and didn't like it. and then school happened, and then i had to come up with a new idea... long story short, it's here now. i don't know how many chapters are left, but i know we're getting close to the end, which is great, because i have an idea for a sequel! yay!

anyway, thank you all for the reviews, and i hope to get the next chapter out a hell of a lot sooner than i did the last two.

Dina: you asked to be added to my mailing list, but i couldn't see your e-mail address because AFF doesn't allow us to do that anymore, i guess. so if you'd still like to be added, please leave me an e-mail addy, and i'll do that right away!

enjoy!!


same tags apply


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Memories of the Future: Chapter 13 - Family Reunion
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Naruto’s mirthless laughs died down, and he reached up to wipe the tears from his cheeks. His purple eyes caught a slight movement from Kakashi, but the jounin obviously knew better than to do anything that might get them all into a lot of trouble. He took a deep breath and returned his eyes to the glaring onyx eyes of an enraged Sasuke. The Uchiha’s jaw was clenched together so tightly, Naruto idly wondered if it hurt. Sasuke tried to open his mouth with some difficulty, and as Naruto braced to take another verbal blow, strong and nearly familiar arms wrapped around his lithe frame.

“She’s Kyuubi, just as Neji-taicho said,” Kei said softly near Naruto’s head, his jet bangs brushing teasingly against Naruto’s temple. He felt Kei’s head move slightly and saw Touya’s eyes widen minutely across the room.

“That’s impossible,” Sakura whispered frightfully. Naruto thought she was going to faint.

Sasuke’s eyes narrowed even more, and his cold voice, though soft, filled the room. “Hyuuga.” It was just the one word, but the pale-eyed ANBU captain understood and moved forward. Naruto began to panic as Neji closed his eyes in concentration. He saw the flex of muscles and definition of veins that signaled the activation of the Byakugan.

As Neji made to open his eyes, Naruto closed his, unable to look at his own death sentence. Not that he thought anyone would kill him when they found out that he was in this body, but he was sure Kyuubi would have his ethereal balls if that happened. He felt Kei’s arms squeeze him reassuringly.

It was strange, but Naruto was sure he felt a slight breeze pass in front of him at just that moment, but he didn’t open his eyes until he heard Neji calmly speak from the other side of the room.

“Step aside.”

“With all due respect, no.” The voice was the same as Kei’s, only colder, more mature.

“Touya,” he heard Sasuke growl warningly, and Naruto opened his eyes and came face to, well, back with his eldest son.

“Hokage-sama,” Kei said from behind him, “Is it not enough that she has been in our family for years? That in all that time, she has never showed any signs of malignant behavior or ill will?”

“Kei, if it’s true that she’s Kyuubi, something needs to be done,” Sakura said, more calmly than before.

“What do you mean by that, baa-chan? What cause has she given you to have to ‘do’ something with her?”

“Kei, Touya,” Sasuke said, his teeth once again grit in anger. Naruto tried to get a glimpse at his husband from around his son, and when he did, his breath caught in his throat. Sasuke was livid, though he was restraining himself for his children, but there was a light in his eyes, something painful, that tugged at Naruto’s heart. It was the same look Sasuke had every time he’d come face to face with his brother.

Naruto had always wondered how Sasuke had felt facing someone who looked so much like him, but seeing him now facing his twin sons, two faces that looked exactly like him, he finally had an idea that it must have been painful, underneath all the rage and hate. And now it just made Naruto wonder if Sasuke was reliving old memories he’d rather have kept buried.

His sons didn’t move, and Sasuke let out a troubled sigh. “Everyone get out.”

“Alright, see you later,” Naruto chirped, in true Naruto fashion, and he moved towards the door, Kei right behind him.

“Not you three,” Sasuke growled, and Naruto cursed under his breath. He and Kei moved back to where Touya still stood and watched as the others filed out of the office. The ANBU didn’t want to leave the Hokage alone with the demon fox – the bastards, Naruto thought to himself – but Sasuke told them to deal with the woman that had attacked Yuki, and Naruto had to wonder why they still cared about that if all he was now was a damn monster come back to life.

Kakashi and Gaara both gave him worried glances, as worried as either of them could ever look, that is. He smiled at them reassuringly, though he had no idea what was about to happen to him or what he would have to reveal.

When they were finally alone, Sasuke closed his eyes and bowed his head before sighing and sitting down. He opened his eyes and stared at Naruto. “You’re Kyuubi.”

“Well, now, let’s not jump to any conclusions here. I think Hyuuga-san and Kei-kun may have been a bit too hasty in their announcements,” Naruto tried to cover as best he could.

“Oto-sama, the fact remains that this is still Yuki-san, no matter what’s going on inside her.” Sasuke held up a hand to silence Touya, and he asked Naruto to explain.

Taking a deep breath, Naruto spoke. “I am not Kyuubi. I am…” he trailed off, letting his eyes wander the room. “I am his reincarnation,” he settled for, unable to think of anything else. “That incident when I fainted… I, uh, regained memories of my former life, which enabled me to tap into the chakra flow that once belonged to him. But once that happened, I couldn’t stop it from taking on a sort of consciousness of its own, so that’s why it lashed out at Sakura-san…”

Gods, that made absolutely no sense, and Naruto’s ass was about to be in so much trouble.

“And you two knew about this and never informed me?” Sasuke asked the two boys.

Surprisingly, Touya didn’t mention that he had no idea what was going on, and he and Kei merely nodded and apologized quietly. But before Sasuke could say anything to that, the door banged open, and Naruto found himself with an arm full of sunshine.

“Oto-sama, you can’t do anything to Yuki-chan!” Ayame cried loudly, clinging to Naruto and sobbing uncontrollably.

“I wasn’t going to do anything to Yuki-san, Ayame,” Sasuke said somewhat exasperated.

The tears suddenly stopped, and Ayame blinked at all of them. “Oh, well then, that’s fine.” She unwrapped herself from Naruto, and he had to stop himself from rolling his eyes. That girl…

There was silence for a time, and then Sasuke looked up from his desk and stared sadly at Naruto. “So, you remember that day, too, yes?”

There were hundreds of days, thousands, that they had spent together, so many that had held certain events, whether good or bad, but only one day could put that kind of pain and sorrow in his lover’s voice as Naruto heard now.

“Yes,” he answered quietly.

“Why?”

Naruto’s face scrunched up in confusion. Sasuke was staring at him, looking for all the world like he needed an answer to keep on living, but Naruto had no idea what he was supposed to say; he didn’t know what he was being asked.

“Where is my Naruto? Why didn’t you save Naruto?” he whispered harshly.

He heard three startled gasps behind him, but they were nearly drowned out by the frantic pounding of his heart. The teme would have to ask that question, wouldn’t he?

Naruto cleared his throat. “Hokage-sama, please keep in mind that any memories I may have, I am still not Kyuubi.” He watched Sasuke’s throat work as the other swallowed. “It’s complicated. Do you remember a point during that final battle when Naruto stopped moving?”

Sasuke’s face showed nothing, but his eyes, always more expressive than he’d liked, told Naruto that he remembered everything as clearly as if it had been yesterday.

“Something had entered his mind and paralyzed him. Whatever it was had to fight Kyuubi to take full control of Naruto. It was more powerful than anything he could have imagined. By the time it was gone from the body, Naruto was injured, and Kyuubi was too weak to do anything. And so they both died.”

“But where is Naruto?” Sasuke stood abruptly and then the desk flew into a wall. Naruto could only gape at the furious Uchiha. “Why are you here before me instead of him? Why was a demon granted a second life and not him!?”

“Oto-sama!” Ayame’s voice was a little frantic, and then Naruto was pulled into a protective circle of arms once again, this time Touya’s, and Naruto would have thought it cute had his husband not been going crazy.

Sasuke had never looked more helpless than Naruto saw him now, like he wanted to kill or destroy something and was utterly unable to do anything about it. His eyes were the blood red of nightmares, but Naruto could see the fine sheen of unshed tears there, too.

Naruto felt Kei put a reassuring hand on his shoulder that could easily be seen as support in this situation, but Naruto knew what it really was; Kei knew his Oto-san was standing in front of them and that it hurt him just as much as his Oto-sama.

Naruto decided not to stand idly by and let his lover suffer, so he reached up and patted Touya’s arm reassuringly. The boy hesitated a moment before letting go, and Naruto stepped towards Sasuke. The man didn’t move, but as Naruto’s arms went about him, he made a move as if to lash out. Naruto used a small amount of strength trying to subdue the attack until Sasuke was standing calmly within his arms.

“It’s okay, Hokage-sama. I’m sure Naruto is fine. He was the most surprising person, the one who could do anything, that would never go back on his word, because that was his way of the ninja. Wherever he is, he loves you, and he’s waiting for you, but he wants you to live first, doesn’t he?”

“Wh-what?” Sasuke whispered, confusion lacing his normally cold tone.

“You have to live because he went through too much trouble to keep your ass alive.”

There was a hitch in Sasuke’s breathing before his arms slowly rose to wrap around Naruto. He didn’t cry, but Naruto was sure Sasuke was bawling on the inside. A few tears streaked down his own cheeks, and then he heard a sob behind him before there were more arms and bodies pressing close, and it was a genuine family reunion. Sort of…

~*~

“So Sasuke’s at home ‘recovering,’ ne?”

“Shut up, Kakashi,” Naruto said. The masked man laughed as Naruto pouted, and Kei muffled a snicker by shoving ramen into his mouth. Naruto turned to glare at his son, but nearly yelped when he saw Touya and Ayame standing behind them, twin looks of annoyance on their faces, though Touya’s looked more pissed than anything.

“Would you two please care to explain what the hell happened in Oto-sama’s office?” Ayame placed her hands on her hips, her cute face scrunched in anger. “And why is Kakashi-sensei here, laughing and eating like you’re best friends?”

“Well, heh,” Naruto started, his hand rubbing the back of his head, momentarily surprised by the long hair that he came in contact with. “Kakashi wanted to know the same thing you did, so we came here to have a nice conversation over lunch.”

“Oto-san.” Naruto’s eyes widened, and he turned to Kei, who was staring into his bowl of ramen. “I don’t think it’s fair that I know and they don’t.” His son turned pleading onyx eyes on him, and Naruto felt helpless to do anything. He turned to Kakashi, his eyes pleading as well, but the man just shrugged, and his eye scrunched up in an ‘I’m sorry’ smile-thing. Naruto’s eyebrow twitched as he tried to hold back an uncharacteristic yell.

“What did you call her?” Touya’s voice was soft, but there was the clipped sound of anger underneath the calm, and Naruto saw Kei stiffen in reaction to it.

He sighed and closed his eyes. “Fine! I’ll tell them. But we’ll go somewhere else for this conversation.” He opened his eyes and made to leave the stand. Kakashi and Kei left their stools, and just as Kakashi offered Naruto his hand, the blonde turned raven swiveled around and devoured the rest of his ramen, along with Kei’s, before jumping down and smiling widely at them all. “Let’s go!”

They walked quickly and quietly toward Hokage Mountain, somewhere they’d be afforded privacy. Naruto was dreading this confrontation. Kei easily accepted the situation, but what about the other two? Well, Ayame and Kei’s personalities were almost identical, so she might take it fine. But what about Touya? The boy was head over heels for this girl, and he was about to tell him that he was his long-dead father. Then again, Naruto could always hope that Touya was so overcome with joy that he’d forget that the girl he liked has actually been his father for the past however long he’d been in this time.

They sat in a circle near the ledge, hoping the sun would keep them warm on the cold day. There was silence as Naruto tried to come up with the words to begin, and even Kakashi looked at a loss when Naruto turned to him for help. Letting out a frustrated breath, Naruto turned to Touya and Ayame and just hoped he got this right.

“About sixteen years ago, some very bad people attacked Konoha.” Naruto paused a moment, trying to think of a better way of putting Kyuubi’s story to him. “They, um, killed Kyuubi’s vessel, but Kyuubi’s soul did not die, and it anchored itself in another body. Using a time jutsu he developed himself, Kyuubi tried to fix things, but ended up, um, well, not making things worse, but kind of changed things… Urgh! This is hard! Long story short, I am Naruto.”

Kakashi and Kei had their heads in their hands, and Touya and Ayame were staring at him as if he were crazy. Well, they were perfectly in their rights to think that, seeing as how Naruto thought he was completely bonkers as well.

“What kind of sick joke is this?” Ayame was the first to speak. She looked disgusted, and Naruto swallowed before he tried to explain himself.

“Kyuubi used some time jutsu, and the result was that my soul was drawn from my body and thrust into the future. I know it’s hard to believe, but it’s true, and I don’t know anything I could say to make you understand how sorry I am for this to have happened this way.”

Naruto was on the verge of tears as the twin looks of anger and hurt still occupied his children’s faces. Touya glared at him before turning to look at Kei.

“Did you put her up to this? What the hell is wrong with you? How could you do something like this?”

“But it’s true, Touya!” Kei looked desperate to make his siblings believe him. “It’s really Oto-san! He can prove it! He knows things that only Oto-san and Oto-sama would know!”

Naruto watched helplessly as his sons argued with each other, and he couldn’t help but think how much they looked like Sasuke, how much they looked at each other. A small smile curled his lips when he thought back to when they were young and shared the same personality. Naruto could never tell them apart, and it was frustrating at the best of times. It didn’t help that the teme knew exactly which one was which and wouldn’t share his secret method of telling them apart. So he’d come up with his own way…

Naruto’s eyes widened as he realized he really could prove himself to Touya. He looked over to where the two boys were still arguing and grinned.

“Ichi!”

“Hai,” Touya said automatically, interrupting his fight, though his eyes stayed glued to his brother. But then he seemed to realize what happened, and those black eyes widened in stunned disbelief before turning slowly to take him in. “What?”

“I could never tell you two apart, so I trained you to answer to ‘one’ and Kei to ‘two.’ I remember the fights that would happen when Kei protested being second to you, even though he was born after. Sasuke was mad at me for days after that fight you two had where you ended up burning down part of his garden.”

Naruto chuckled a bit, unaware that Touya was still gaping at him. Then he opened his eyes to gaze calmly at the boy.

“Oto-san?” he whispered quietly, and Kakashi laid his hand on Naruto’s shoulder.

Naruto brought his hands together to henge into his old self, hoping maybe that would help Touya. When the smoke cleared, his eyes were blue, his hair blonde, and Touya was near tears.

“Oto-san…”

Naruto held his arms open, silently asking for the boy to come to him, and Touya did. He held the boy tightly, loving the feel of his child in his arms once again, even if Touya was taller than him and the position was somewhat uncomfortable. He saw Kei over Touya’s shoulder and beckoned him over to join the hug, which the boy did so happily.

Naruto cried tears of joy as he held his two boys, stunned beyond belief at how good it felt to tell them the truth of who he was. But then he realized that he was short one child, and he turned his tear-filled eyes to Ayame. The girl was looking on the scene somewhat suspiciously, and Naruto smiled softly at her.

“I know you never had the chance to get to know me, but I know you, Ayame. You’re the very image of me, in my sexy no jutsu form, that is. Your personality is just like mine, loud and friendly, and I couldn’t imagine a more perfect daughter. Won’t you believe who I am?”

A tear slipped down her cheek, and her lip quivered. “I don’t know my Oto-san, and you’re not Yuki-chan. But I know that voice. Somewhere deep inside, my heart is telling me that I know this voice, that I love the speaker.”

Touya and Kei turned to look at her as well. “This is our Oto-san, Aya. He’s come back to us,” Kei said gently, and Touya reached for her hand. She grabbed it and launched herself into the hug, and Naruto finally had his family reunion. All except for Sasuke, but Naruto feared that would never happen. He knew nothing he could say would convince Sasuke of who he was, and Naruto was wary of even trying.

Because… who would put Sasuke back together when Naruto’s insistence broke him even more?


TBC


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god, could this get any angstier? well... i could have naruto die in sasuke's arms again, so yes, yes it could. ^___^

but it won't, at least, i think it won't. >____>

anyway, i hoped you liked this chapter, and thank you for reading!