Memories of the Future

A/N: I'VE FINALLY FINISHED THIS STORY! ONLY BECAUSE I REALLY WANT TO WRITE THE SEQUEL! (i thought it might be strange to write the sequel without finishing the prequel.)

I WANT TO APOLOGIZE TO THE READERS WHO HAVE WAITED A REALLY LONG TIME FOR THIS. and i also want to say hi to the new readers who reap the benefits of this final post and can read the whole thing! hi!

warning: i have reread this whole thing before i finished it, and i realize it totally sucks. but so be it. the sequel will be much better. i hope. that's about it.

bye! it's been real!

enjoy!


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Memories of the Future end: Chapter 17 - Happily Ever After
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It was like being ripped in two, the way they fell out of Kyuubi’s time jutsu. Naruto’s ethereal body ached everywhere. He massaged every spot he could reach, his eyes finally opening wide when he realized he no longer housed Yuki’s soul in his womb.

“It’s about time you opened your eyes, kit.”

Naruto swung his head about, squawking in shock when he was met with a very large fox spirit, the head and front paws visible and the rest of the body extending back like vapor. Kyuubi’s actual visage was vicious and fear inducing, her massive canines protruding from her maw and her eyes red and glinting with a malicious and amused light.

“What’s going on? Where are we?” Naruto glanced around, noticing for the first time that he was suspended in midair, overlooking the forest surrounding Konoha, near the entrance gate to the village.

“We are at the site where you died, sixteen years ago. The chi masters will be here any minute, and the Konoha forces are gathering.”

Naruto’s eyes widened as he looked again, finally recognizing the place for what it was. And as he looked, it seemed as if the trees parted to reveal the chi masters that had attacked his village, followed quickly by him and the rest of Konoha’s warriors. His throat tightened when he saw Sasuke come up beside him, giving his silent support and protection. Tsunade was yelling her orders left and right, and then the enemy attacked.

Naruto watched as his friends fought bravely. He saw his Rasengan twirling in his hand to stop the invaders.

“Naruto, listen to me.” He tore his eyes away to look at Kyuubi. “When the other me comes out of the jutsu, you need to be ready to jump into your body the second your soul is taken out. Do you understand?”

Naruto hesitated. He didn’t know if he could pull this off.

“Listen, brat! If you take control of your body, then you don’t die, I don’t get released, Konoha doesn’t get destroyed, your mate won’t try to kill himself, and your whelps won’t grow up without you! Now, do you understand?” Kyuubi snarled at him.

“Y-yes,” he agreed, his determination rising as he berated himself for being a coward. Steeling himself, Naruto thought about all the people in the future who would get a new lease on life if he succeeded today. His eyes softened, and he asked as he watched the scene unfold, “How did Hinata die?”

The fox spirit growled. “She was alone when the chi masters came back. They drained her of chakra and left her injured. She died moments before someone found her, and Tsunade delivered the baby soon after.”

“Get ready, dobe!” he heard Sasuke yell.

Just behind him, the vortex opened, and something shot out, headed straight for his body.

“Go!” Kyuubi roared, and Naruto followed quickly after the other demon fox spirit. He watched as the other spirit entered his body, how his body froze. He saw the enemy headed right for him, hand covered in a soft glow that came to point, aimed at his gut.

His friends kept fighting as Sasuke cradled his injured body, blood everywhere. Naruto knew the second before the other Kyuubi left with his soul, watched as his blue eyes dimmed. When the two souls emerged and flew off, Naruto immediately dove down and entered the body.

~*~

Something wet dripped onto his face, startling Naruto awake. When he focused his eyes, he saw himself in the recesses of his mind – his mind – and he jumped up from his prone position.

“So you’re back?” a dark voice rumbled from behind him. Naruto whipped around, gaze falling upon Kyuubi’s massive form behind the bars. The fox looked angry at Naruto’s appearance. The seal upon the bars was stretched, beginning to peel from the pressure of Kyuubi’s bulk, but it was still intact.

“Yes, and now I need you to heal the wounds I’ve received so I can continue fighting.”

“And what makes you think I don’t want to go with the chi masters?” Kyuubi asked, darkly amused as he tried to push open the bars once more.

Naruto’s eyes glinted mischievously. “Let me tell you a story, fox. When they release you from my body, they won’t be able to control you, and you know that. But Konoha will be destroyed, and your soul will wander aimlessly for several years.”

Kyuubi’s barking laugh echoed through Naruto’s mind.

“Then you will stumble upon a baby whose soul is too weak to stay alive. You will enter that body, claim it as your own, and for the next sixteen years, you will suffer, because you will finally have a heart and finally know what it’s like to care for something so much that you will do anything to save it.”

Kyuubi was silent, staring at Naruto, calculating the truth of his words.

“And then you will come for me. You will enter my body, fight your old self, and rip my soul from the body, starting the whole cycle over again. You will never be free.”

“You lie,” the demon hissed.

“Try me,” Naruto hissed back, not in the mood to argue with the beast while a battle for the future was going on outside his body.

“I doubt you could stop me, human.” Kyuubi pressed against the bars again.

“Maybe. But at the moment, I am not alone.”

From outside his body, Naruto could feel a massive release of chakra, feel it wash over and envelop everything; a familiar chakra that had Kyuubi growling, red eyes warily shocked.

“Let’s wake up and find out if I’m lying,” Naruto challenged, jumping up and putting all the strength he could muster into shoving the bars closed once again. Kyuubi roared in anger and betrayal as Yondaime’s seal reaffixed itself to the bars, sealing the demon inside once again.

Kyuubi’s red chakra flared up inside the cage, but did nothing other than leak out and begin to heal Naruto’s wounds. He could feel himself floating into consciousness, and he smiled at the fox.

“Let’s go be a hero.”

~*~

Naruto opened his eyes, his ears ringing with the sound of battle all around him. He could hear the rage-filled cries of his husband mixing with the incessant chirping of a thousand birds. He smiled to himself, letting it turn into a battle-ready smirk as he stood to his feet, his wounds just a memory.

“They’ve taken the Kyuubi!” someone was yelling, and Naruto looked up to see one of the chi masters engulfed in Kyuubi’s red chakra. His form was slowly melting to be replaced by the female humanoid Kyuubi Naruto had come to know, decked out in the golden armor and red silk of battle. Bodies littered the ground at her feet, none of which were Konoha ninja.

Battle was beginning to die down, out of shock as everyone gaped at Kyuubi. Tsunade and Sasuke’s grim faces darkened further even as they paled, their battered bodies tightening and bracing for a new and more dangerous threat. One that Naruto knew was not a threat at all and braced for Kyuubi’s signal.

“Uchiha! Your Sharingan-” Tsunade began to order, but Kyuubi suddenly jumped and flipped backwards.

“Come, chi masters! You have what you came for!” Kyuubi landed on her feet and brought her arm across her body, her hand elegantly drawn to the left side of her head where one of her flaming nine tails met the fingertips. They lit and she flung her arm out, sending large spears of fire towards the ninja, forcing them to retreat or burn. They rallied around Tsunade and Sasuke, as the chi masters gathered around Kyuubi.

A ninja dropped further back than the others and landed near Naruto. Pink hair was grimy and frayed, and Naruto smiled to see Sakura was otherwise fine. Her eyes fell on him, standing and whole, and they widened. Naruto placed his finger to his lips with a grin before dropping it as he powered into Sage Mode.

After so many years, it had become a little bit easier to enter Sage Mode, for which Naruto was grateful, as he only had a small window before all hell broke loose.

Sakura realized Naruto was looking to attack the group as a whole, but also knew a concentration of chakra like Naruto’s would bring attention to his intentions. He watched motionlessly as she looked about her frantically, finally zeroing in on Shikamaru.

“Shikamaru!” she whispered urgently as she sprinted to his side. “Trap them in place with your shadow control!”

Shadows were immediately racing over the ground, anchoring the chi masters in place. The ninja and chi masters that stretched out in front of Naruto began to react to their presence, but Kyuubi paid them no mind as she stared into Naruto’s eyes.

Lifting his arm, Naruto began to gather chakra into his right hand for what he hoped was the final blow. The chi masters began to chant and draw forth their strange powers to try and break free from Shikamaru’s shadows, but Kyuubi flicked out her nine tails to wrap around the ones close to accomplishing the feat.

“Now Naruto!”

“Get down!” Naruto yelled to his fellow ninja, knowing that as long as Shikamaru stayed standing, so would the chi masters. Sakura had already erected a shield to stem the backlash Shikamaru might experience.

“Fuuton Rasen-shuriken!”

Those that had turned around in disbelief at the sound of his voice hastily dropped to the ground as Naruto deftly threw his jutsu at Kyuubi in the center of the enemy, exactly as she had planned.

As it struck, he expanded it outward to engulf all the chi masters it could before it exploded, disintegrating everything it touched. Several shinobi had also erected shields as they’d hit the ground, and Naruto hoped it had been enough to save their lives as the fires receded and the dust settled.

“Naruto!” someone was screaming, and Naruto smiled in joy as he was engulfed in Sasuke’s arms. Sasuke’s lips met his frantically before he was shoved away at arm’s length. “What the hell is going on? How did you…? Kyuubi was…”

“Naruto!” came a chorus of shouts as the rest of the ninja recognized what had just happened.

“Naruto…” came a softer, hoarser voice that still cut through the din. All eyes turned to where the rasen-shuriken had obliterated the chi masters and a good part of the earth to see a bloodied and battered Kyuubi standing at the lip of the crater.

“Kyuubi!” Naruto pulled away from Sasuke and ran towards her, catching her as she teetered and lost the battle with gravity. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fading, Naruto.”

“Fading?”

“You didn’t think that paltry jutsu of yours could take me out, did you?” She laughed harshly as Naruto began to squawk in indignation. “You’ve changed your past, Naruto. The original Kyuubi will remain sealed in your body until your death, hopefully years from now. I no longer exist in the cycle of history.”

“But… you…” Naruto couldn’t think of anything to say. He still wasn’t sure he understood everything that had happened, but he felt it was a shame to lose this wonderful version of Kyuubi. He could sense his Kyuubi growing hostile in the back of his mind.

“Goodbye, kit. I thank you for your help, and I hope your future is a happy one.”

Before his eyes, her image began to distort, and the large fox spirit that had fallen out of the vortex with him formed just above him in the air before dispersing in the wind. He stood motionless for a while before the voices of his friends began shouting for him to come back.

“I guess I should tell them what the hell just happened.” Naruto turned around and took in his friends, battered and standing in disbelief.

Tsunade, Sakura, Kakashi, Shikamaru, Kiba, Iruka, Neji…

… Hinata…

… Sasuke.

Naruto’s eyes burned with tears as he looked on his husband. The Sasuke before him was so much more alive and full of vigor than the one he had left behind in the future. And he could spend the rest of his life making sure that shadow of an Uchiha never came to be.

~ Sixteen years later ~

“Otou-san! Otou-sama! You’re late, you’re late!”

Naruto sat back in his chair, breaking his sweet kiss with his ANBU captain and husband as their youngest son bounded through the open window of the Hokage office. Kei began to playfully gag where he sat hanging half in and half out of the window, and Naruto smiled at a grumpy Sasuke.

“For what are we late, Kei?” Sasuke asked as he stood, back straight as he faced his youngest son, who had turned out Naruto in the end. Not like it was a surprise to Naruto since, even when he’d been dead, Kei had turned out like him.

“How could you forget?! Touya-nii is bringing a girl home! Aya-chan caught them kissing at the training fields the other day and said she’d tell Otou-sama if he didn’t introduce her to the family!”

“That’s right. She ended up telling us anyway when we set up the dinner,” Naruto mused. Touya had been quietly furious, and then quietly frightened when Sasuke had begun his fatherly interrogation. “I guess we’d better go.”

Sasuke nodded and reaffixed his ANBU mask, never once taking his duty to protect Naruto lightly after the incident sixteen years ago. He’d been forced to tell Tsunade, Sasuke, Sakura, and Kakashi (and through him, Iruka) the whole, confusing story, and Sasuke became strangely obsessive in making sure a future like that never came to pass.

They quickly followed Kei out of the window, and Naruto felt his chest swell with pride as they ran through his beautiful and thriving village.

He’d revealed the Akatsuki attack to the others as well, but whether by changing the future or the diligent defense, Akatsuki never attacked. Naruto was grateful for that every time he spotted Hinata and her happily glowing aura. She and Kiba had an ever-growing family, which would more than likely be shortly joined to the Uchiha clan.

Naruto smiled to himself as they reached the Uchiha compound and entered into the brightly lit mansion filled with photos. Ayame was giggling happily as they walked into the family room, and she, Touya, and a young girl quickly stood to greet the family patriarchs.

Naruto bypassed any formal introductions and drew the girl into his arms, squeezing her gently.

“Welcome to the family, Yuki-chan.”


~owari~

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see you in the sequel! thank you for reading!