Chapter 64 Shadows

Naruto awoke in his parents sleeping arms. He rubbed his eyes as he stood. This in turn caused them to wake up.

"Menma", said Kushina as she awoke.

Naruto sat down across from them and eyed them. Staring. He thought over his words carefully.

"No, not Menma. My name is Naruto Uzmaki", he took in a deep breath.

Staring at these, shadows he was not able to fully trust himself to react as he did before. So he repeated in his mind, they are just shadows.

"So, what will you do now", asked Naruto.

They remained silent. Naruto nodded.

"I thought as much", said Naruto.

"What would you do son", asked Minato.

Naruto flinched slightly at being called son, but he eventually calmed himself, still repeating those same words in his head over and over.

"If I were in your situation. I would be conflicted. Do you know of my history", asked Naruto.

They nodded, their faces showed this was a difficult situation for them.

"We have heard, that in this world, we died. You grew up alone. I'm sorry", said Minato.

"Don't be, it is not your fault. Nor is it my real parents fault. No one is to blame. These things happen. We live in the multiverse, where every single possible thing that can happen will happen, there will always be yet another Naruto who is much worse off than me. Is it fair, no. Does that matter, no. The Universe is not kind, nor is it malicious. It is apathetic. We are it's children, but it is not aware of us, nor does it care what we become. We simply are. It has no sence of fairness, because nothing is fair. Bad things happen to both Good and bad people alike, and Good things happen to both the bad and the good. My advice is to accept it, find something to occupy yourself until the end, because ending is the only thing you can be sure of", said Naruto.

The room was silent.

"You weren't wrong to come, any parent would do anything to save their child. But you cannot stay", said Naruto.

"We hoped to get to know you", said Minato.

"And I hoped to get to know my parents, but you are not them, you are but shadows of them. But you want to know what the funny thing is. Looking at you I don't know if I can believe that, and that is why you cannot stay", said Naruto.

"What are you going to do", asked Minato.

"What I've always done, find a way to save the human race", said Naruto.

"And what about after", asked Kushina.

"There might not be an after for me, but assuming there is. Maybe I'll travel, It would be nice to see what the world has to offer, and know I've done my part to keep it going", said Naruto.

"You know, you are much younger than Menma, and yet you seem much wiser", said Minato.

"I have to be, you saw the Shadowed man", said Naruto.

Minato looked to Kushina, who seemed equally conflicted by the situation they were in. Neither knew exactly how to deal with this. Minato turned to Naruto.

"Maybe I can make it up to you for this", said Minato.

Naruto raised an eyebrow. This was unexpected, though it really shouldn't have been.

"Maybe, what did you have in mind", asked Naruto.

"I hear you are trying to figure out the Flying Thunder God. Before we leave we can help in whatever way we can. You may not be Menma, but we are still related", said Minato.

Naruto tapped his finger on the table before turning away to think for a moment.

"How long would it take", asked Naruto.

"A month at the least to get the principles and basics down, after that you could figure it out easily", said Minato.

"You do know this would make it difficult for you to leave. Emotionally speaking", said Naruto.

"We couldn't say goodbye to our son, at least this way, maybe we can", said Minato.

Naruto though on that for a moment. It was not a good argument, he realized that. He was not Menma. But while it wasn't a good reason, it didn't need to be.

"One month, that's all. No more than that. We don't need this to be more difficult than it already is", Asked Naruto.

"One month, I swear", said Minato.

Naruto nodded.

"One month, I think I can do it, the question is could you", asked Naruto.

"We can", said Kushina.

Her reply was a bit to hasty, but in the end. Naruto accepted.

Sai woke up on the roof after a few hours. He slowly got up clenching his head. He looked to his hand where the vial of green glowing liquid still was. He examined it. There was no writing on it, other than a single word. Reagent. He pocketed the vial and left to Danzo. It was close to morning, and in a few hours the announcement would be made.

Danzo woke from his bed once again. Yet another night of good sleep. Though this was not always the case. Danzo looked to the side of his bed where one of his summons, a small Baku stood. As much as Danzo believed in killing a Ninja's emotions, he was never fully successful doing it himself. He was plagued by nightmares of the many horrible things he had to do throughout his career. From ordering the assassination of children to entire villages. It was one of the reasons he sought out the Baku Summoning contract. They would feed on his nightmares every night, allowing him to sleep peacefully. He nodded to the small summon, and it disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

He lifted himself from his bed and headed off to his study where the majority of his work was done. As soon as he took his seat there was a knock.

"Enter", spoke Danzo.

Sai walked into his masters chambers. He knelt down before Danzo.

"I have searched the home of Naruto Uzumaki, within there I found something he kept hidden and trapped", said Sai.

He handed Danzo the vial of green glowing fluid. Danzo took it and examined it. The only identification was the work Reagent written on it's side.

"What is this", asked Danzo.

"I am not sure, but it was well hidden, and trapped with a device that sprayed a sleeping agent into my eyes. I escaped but the poison took effect while I was on the roof. I also found several papers written in strange language", said Sai.

He handed them to Danzo. The language, if it could be called that, was unusual. He handed the papers back to Sai.

"See if you can get these translated. I will see what this Reagent is capable of", said Danzo.

Sai bowed before he left the room. Danzo once again looked at the Reagent. It was a curious chemical, that glowed a bright green color. He called in one of his doctors, who took the vial and was off to figure out what it was. Danzo noticed the time. It was close ti noon, when he would be named Hokage. He stood up and left to prepare.

After speaking with his parents, Naruto left the room to head to his office. He dropped into his chair slouching. His arms draped over the sides. He opened his eyes to look at his desk and opened a drawer. He moved a small emergency medical kit out of he way, and grabbed a copy of the picture of his real parents when he was first born. He looked at their features. They wre exact with the two who now walked the halls of Naruto's lab. He put the picture down.

"You are dead, they are just shadows. Nothing more", said Naruto.

He looked again into the desk, at the medical kit. It was a small black leather case. He lifted it out of the desk. Unzipping it he examined the contents. Bandages, Orochimaru's cream, the Reagent, syringes, various disinfectants, and Morphine.

He looked at it's contents before closing it and putting it away. He would often do this on those rare times he was conflicted about anything. Obsessively check his desk or home to see if anything was moved or touched, it helped clear his mind. Going through everything until he was finished, and often would repeat the process. After looking through some papers and files he finished the first desk.

Most of this was done absent-mindedly, his thoughts were preoccupied with other subjects, namely the two who tore through the universe to find their son. He wondered, if his own parents, his real parents were alive, would they do the same. Most likely, they would. But one could never be sure. It was better to picture them dead than it was to obsess over. That was the main reason he never resurrected them from the dead. Naruto was no fool, he recognized his poor emotional skills were his weakness, he could not really predict how he would act in situations like this. Now he knew. He had regressed to a child. He may have been young, but he was proud of his maturity. Either way after a month the shadows of his parents would leave and things would return to normal, or at least he hoped it would.

Either way that could wait. The clones had arrived and the Zero Tails was in containment. It was time to talk to Dr. Shinno and his apprentice. No doubt they were getting anxious.