Future

Tsunade and Kakashi stared at him. Neither of them said anything.

"What do you mean, future?" Naruto asked, looking back and forth between the two adults.

"What do you think?" Kakashi asked, but he was asking Tsunade. "It doesn't seem like he wants to go along with my crazy idea. Either this guy is really good, or we're dealing with the real thing."

"We can figure that out later," Tsunade said. "Right now, whatever we believe, it comes down to the same thing. Whether it is really Naruto or an exceptionally good fake, we have to assume that Madara or Kabuto is involved. We don't know anyone else that would have the power and motivation to do either."

"I believe he's real," Kakashi said. "It would be pointless for them to make a fake like this. It would make much more sense to switch him with an appropriately aged replacement, en route to the Lightning Country. Then again, I can see why they'd pull a younger and less powerful version forward."

"Don't... don't joke like that, Kakashi-sensei," Naruto said, smiling shakily. "That's impossible. You're still messing with me, aren't you?"

"Naruto, how else do you explain the village being destroyed?" Kakashi asked softly. "You said yourself the last thing you remember is right after Orochimaru's attack, and it wasn't nearly as bad as this."

"Yeah, but..." Naruto threw his arms out, eyes wide. "How? How could that be?"

"As I was saying, the only ones with the power and motivation for this are Akatsuki." Tsunade frowned. "Right now we're going to assume it was their doing. You are aware at this age that they are hunting for you, right?" She tapped her chin, trying to remember.

"Yes..." Naruto said slowly. "Uchiha Itachi and a weird fish-looking guy tried to kidnap me when we were out trying to find you, Baa-chan... and Sasuke showed up, but neither of us were any match. If Ero-sennin hadn't rescued us..." He lowered his gaze. "Ero-sennin said that they were after... after the Kyuubi." Even though he had come to accept his burden, he still didn't like saying it out loud.

Tsunade put a hand on her hip. "If you understand that much, you'll understand what is going on now, at least the basics. Shortly after that time, Akatsuki seemed to quiet down and leave us alone for a while. We aren't entirely sure why, except that you did travel with Jiraiya for a long time, and that probably had some influence. But recently, they have been going after you actively again." She bit her lip, worry clear on her face. "That is why they may have brought you here: to double their chance of catching you. But that is just a wild guess. We can't actually say until we know more."

"They're still after me... wait, is that why they destroyed the village?" Naruto croaked. "To get to me?"

Tsunade hesitated, then nodded.

"Please don't start blaming yourself for that now," Kakashi said, knowingly but a little exasperatedly. "The you in this timeline has already done that enough."

"But... how am I still alive after that? From what I saw, it looked like someone dropped a huge bomb on this place. When did they invade? How many people died?" he buried his face in his hands. "I didn't think all that out there was my fault."

"Fortunately, you weren't in the village at the time," Tsunade said. "Naruto," she added gently, stooping down in front of his chair to look him in the face, "Because of you, the village wasn't wiped out entirely—"

"What else would you call that—"

"Idiot!" Tsunade cut him off. "A village is more than a few buildings! A few years ago, we didn't fully understand how powerful Akatsuki was. What happened here wasn't an invasion. All of the destruction was done by a single shinobi. And you were the one who confronted him and made him back down. He had god-like powers of destruction and revival. He killed half the village and then turned around and sacrificed his own life to bring them all back. All because of you!"

Naruto stared at her, eyes wide. "But... wait. Am I really that strong? The villagers I met this morning were saying the same thing."

"You didn't defeat him with your fists," Kakashi said. Naruto turned to look at him, and he eye-smiled. "Though you didn't do half bad with those, either." He opened his eye and looked very serious. "I was one of the ones he had to bring back. You saved my life."

"Wait..." Naruto stared at him, trembling. "You mean you died, Kakashi-sensei?"

"Maa," Kakashi waved a hand. "That is all in the past now, for me at least, so don't worry about it—" he was cut off as Naruto, now freed from the ropes, tackled him.

"Stupid sensei! How can you say that like it doesn't matter? And why did you do something stupid and get killed in the first place! It was bad enough when you got put into a coma..."

Kakashi shuddered and gently pried Naruto off of him. "Trust me, Naruto, that time was way worse. I'd take death over that kind of torture again any day. Besides, it worked out. Ne? I'm still here."

"I think that's enough for now, Kakashi," Tsunade warned. "It's probably not a good idea to tell him too much, especially not until we understand what this is. If he's really from the past, it could alter things. Besides, I get the feeling there are quite a few things about the future that he would not like to hear."

"Like what?" Naruto said immediately, glancing at her.

"Hokage-sama is right," Kakashi rested his hand on Naruto's head. "Right now we need to figure out what we are going to do with you. Honestly, it's lucky you managed to make it back to the village before Akatsuki or whoever did this found you."

"Lucky... or it could be intentional," Tsunade considered. "We can't let our guard down." She sighed heavily. "Great. Now we have two Narutos to hide instead of one. Just when I thought this job couldn't get any harder."

"Hopefully this one will be a little more apt to listen to us, since he at least realizes he can't take on Akatsuki by himself," Kakashi said, poking Naruto's forehead.

Naruto scowled and rubbed his forehead. "Quit messing with me! Since when have you been all touchy-feely? Last time I saw you, you were like, 'good luck doing the next mission on your own!' and all that."

"Sorry, sorry," Kakashi held up his hands pacifingly. "You're just like a cute younger-brother version of the Naruto that we know now, so it's difficult. I bet Tsunade-sama's just dying to pinch your cheeks."

Naruto glanced suspiciously at her again and she looked away, neither confirming nor denying it.

"Ahem," Tsunade coughed. "I'm sorry, Naruto, but since we aren't sure whether or not this is an enemy trap, you're going to have to stick with Kakashi and stay out of sight for a while. You do understand that, right?" she leveled her amber eyes at him. "The only way we can remain convinced you aren't an enemy is to have your cooperation."

Naruto was thrown by how serious she sounded suddenly. "I... I understand."

"He'll have to stay in the village until we figure out something else. There's too much going on with the cleanup and preparations," Tsunade said in a clipped voice to Kakashi. "For now, we need to keep this to ourselves, even within the village. The less chance the enemy has of knowing where he is, the better. If it does turn out to be true, though..." She frowned. "We'll have no choice but to tell the other Kage, at least. They wouldn't appreciate me hiding Akatsuki's movements after agreeing to share, but we have some leeway until we know exactly what is going on."

"The other Kage?" Naruto said, puzzled. "You mean the Kage of other Hidden Villages? But why?"

"Enough," Tsunade said. She bent down in front of Naruto again and did a series of hand seals before poking him in the forehead, eliciting a small half-growl from him. "Get over it. I've placed one of my specialty henge on you, so it should work until I choose to take it off of you, or if your chakra can't maintain it. Considering your ridiculous reserves even at this age, I don't think that will be a problem."

Naruto felt his face. "What did you do?"

Tsunade pulled out a compact mirror from her sleeve and handed it to him. "I made you look like a generic genin for the moment. It's not a permanent solution, but it'll suffice for moving you right now."

Naruto peered at himself in the mirror. Generic was right. He had plain brown eyes and hair; longish hair that was tied back, and a hitai-ate draped around his neck. He wore a dark green square-necked tunic that closed with two ties on his right side, with standard pants and sandals. Not even a speck of orange anywhere.

"Where am I going?" he muttered unhappily.

"Mm..." Tsunade straightened up and put the mirror back in her sleeve. "In the long run, I'm not sure. But for right now, Kakashi will take you to your room, since it's vacant as of this morning. You may have noticed that our housing is... limited right now. And Kakashi is next door to you."

"Many ninja unaffiliated with any of the major clans have been put in boarding houses," Kakashi explained when Naruto looked at him in surprise. "Construction is moving along very quickly, though, so we won't be in this awkward situation forever."

"I'm counting on you, Kakashi. Naruto," Tsunade added, and Naruto looked at her. "I promise I won't forget about you being there, so try to stay put and out of sight, please?"

Naruto rubbed the back of his head. "I'll try, but you know, Baa-chan, when I get into trouble, I don't usually mean to do it..."

Tsunade's eyes flashed dangerously. "Well this time, try harder than usual. Kakashi," she commanded, and Kakashi nodded.

"Time to go," he said. He pulled out an unfamiliar, green-covered Icha Icha volume and slouched casually toward the door.

Naruto paced after him until he caught up. "You're still obsessed with those perverted books, Kakashi-sensei?"

Naruto couldn't stop himself from looking all around as they walked through the village, but he tried to keep the agitation off of his face and act natural. If he didn't know better, he'd think he'd gone back in time, not forward. He doubted the village had looked like this since the very earliest days of the Shodai Hokage.

It hurt to know what lay in store for his beloved home, and what was worse, all because of him. Or rather, the thing he had inside him. It was the complete opposite of what he wanted, of the rosy dreams he had just the previous day. How could he—the him of the future—have allowed things to stray so far from that?

They emerged out on a wide dirt thoroughfare that seemed to go right through the center of the rebuilt settlement. Naruto's eyes darted back and forth, apprehensive but curious. What assured him the village's destruction hadn't come with massive casualties was that there were people everywhere. The street was busy as a hive.

He could tell it had been long enough since the attack for the initial shock to wear off for the villagers. When he looked around, he saw everyone at work and generally happy, with shinobi and civilians and outside contractors working side-by-side. As Kakashi said, things seemed to be moving along swiftly and efficiently. It reminded Naruto very much of the reality that he had just left, except on a much grander scale. It was baffling, and the sense of pride he had felt before in Konoha's strength came back to him as he looked all around, even though it was muted somewhat by the disbelief and anger that someone would do this.

"Where is everyone staying?" Naruto asked. "There's no way there are enough houses yet for this many people, right?"

"Hm?" Kakashi said, not looking up from his book. "Most of the contracted workers are living in tents, and the clans have to tough it with all their people in a single building until they can recover their old grounds. Shinobi families with underage children and many civilians are still living in the evacuation shelter in the mountain. Most other active shinobi, like us, are out here in housing blocks grouped according to unit. Teams are in the same place whenever possible so they can react quickly if necessary. It's convenience over comfort for everybody," he explained.

"Oh."

Naruto knew one thing. If he ever made it back to his own time, this would never happen. Even if he had to leave the village. He could go into hiding somewhere. Or... try to go find Akatsuki. Maybe he'd be able to put at least a scratch on them. Even if they killed him, at least they wouldn't be hunting him down and destroying the village in the process.

He vowed right then to use any means necessary to find out the details and go back to stop this from happening. Naruto clutched at the front of his tunic, over where the seal was hidden, concealed by the henge. Kakashi looked down at him from the corner of his eye but did not comment.

"Here we are," he said lightly. They had arrived at a row of identical white houses with green tiled roofs and wood trimming. He entered one through a plain-looking wooden door and Naruto followed.

To the left was a room filled with low tables, where just a few shinobi were lounging. Naruto supposed most were out working this time of the day. They mounted a narrow wooden staircase.

"A friend of mine made this particular block of houses. It was one of the first," Kakashi said. "You know him too, in this time. He left with the future you, Gai, and some others this morning."

Naruto didn't answer. He was still preoccupied by what he'd seen.

"Hm," Kakashi said. "I wonder if the timing is a coincidence. The whole purpose of sending you to the Land of Lightning, after all, was to make it so Akatsuki couldn't find you. Maybe, instead of looking for you, someone made you come to them."

Naruto looked up sharply as they stepped out onto the second floor. "You think they already know I'm here?"

Kakashi shrugged. "You said you landed outside of here, but unless whoever brought you made a mistake, they had to know you'd try to get to Konoha as soon as possible."

"But... but then..." Naruto clutched at the front of his tunic again. "why am I still here? The village will be in danger again—"

"That's why you're disguised," Kakashi poked him in the forehead again. "And I can't say you'll be able to stay here indefinitely, but..." he rested his hand on a doorknob and turned to look at Naruto seriously. "I think you're misunderstanding something. We didn't send you off because we were worried about the village's safety. After all, there isn't much of it left right now, and our enemy doesn't care about a beat-up ruin. You were sent away to protect you."

"To protect me?"

Kakashi motioned into the room and Naruto walked in front of him.

"How do I put this... it's less along the lines of 'if you're here, Akatsuki will come here' and more along the lines of, 'if you are here, it will be easier for Akatsuki to find you."

"Huh? What's the difference?"

"Perspective," Kakashi said enigmatically, and Naruto scrunched up his face uncomprehendingly. "A lot has changed since you were just a cute little 12-year-old genin."

Naruto looked around his room slowly, almost surreptitiously—remembering suddenly that his other, older self had lived in there up until that morning. It was a very creepy feeling, yet strangely comforting at the same time.

The room was extremely basic and mostly bare, but there were one or two items he recognized. The room had all that was left from his home after the destruction of the village. There was an unfamiliar trunk, a futon folded up neatly beside it, and a duvet folded on top of that, yellow with white spirals all over it. He walked over to a small wooden bookshelf by the window (he was pretty sure he recognized), and slow smile came over his face as he picked up the picture frame sitting there. It was a familiar photo of Team 7.

"So then, how old am I now?" he set the frame down and turned to Kakashi excitedly. "How much time has it been? I'm strong, right?" He clenched his fists and gave a face-splitting grin, savoring the thought. "I bet I have some incredible jutsu by now! Hehehehe. Hey, Kakashi-sensei!"

"You will be seventeen in October," Kakashi said calmly, keeping his nose buried in his book. "And... I'd say you get by."

"Kakashi-senseiii," Naruto managed to bring some of his natural whine into the neutral voice he'd adopted along with the henge. "Show me a jutsu I can do in this time. I know you've probably copied them all. Come oooon."

"Hm," Kakashi murmured vaguely.

"Obviously, I'm not Hokage yet, but..." Naruto rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "If I can take on someone from Akatsuki, I at least have to be a jounin by now!"

Kakashi snickered.

"What?" Naruto huffed. "Come on, it can't hurt to tell me something like that! Or... what about Sasuke and Sakura-chan? And everyone else? Oh, wait, wait," Naruto held up his hands in a halting gesture, not noticing how Kakashi's posture stiffened slightly, "did I pass the Chuunin exams the first time? Or at least before Kiba did? Man, if I'd known, I would have asked him... oh, he'd be so mad... no, wait!" Naruto grasped at his hair in horrified realization, and Kakashi just watched him blankly. "Why am I worried about rankings when the village was just attacked? Kakashi-sensei, did everyone—is everyone—"

He turned suddenly to Kakashi, realizing that even though he had seen a lot of people out there, he hadn't seen any of his friends. Kakashi sighed and put Icha Icha Tactics back in his pocket.

"No significant casualties resulted from the village's destruction," he said carefully. "The results would have been catastrophic, but as you heard, the attacker was an extremely powerful shinobi who was persuaded to reverse the loss of life he caused."

Naruto gave a little uneasy laugh. "That sounds unreal."

Kakashi shrugged. "It was. But that's the kind of enemy Akatsuki is. There aren't many of them left now, but the ones that remain are just as unbelievable as that one. The ones really pulling the strings always hide until last."

Naruto sighed in relief. "But everyone made it through the attack. At least I wasn't responsible for my friends getting hurt."

"Yes, that's true, but…" Kakashi frowned. He rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortably. "I sort of agree with Tsunade-sama. We should be careful about what you know. But it's inevitable the longer you are here, the more you'll be able to piece together whether we want you to or not. Some of those things... well. Situations haven't always turned out as nicely as this one did, Naruto."

Naruto lowered his gaze. "I know."

"You do?" Kakashi raised an eyebrow.

Naruto closed his eyes and nodded. "I've seen enough of our world to know that bad, senseless things happen to people who don't deserve it. People hurt one another. Bushy-brow didn't deserve to have his arm and leg crushed by Gaara, and Gaara didn't deserve to be shunned by the Sand, but the Sand didn't deserve to be fooled by Orochimaru, either. Even Zabuza and Haku didn't really deserve to die, and you know the Sandaime didn't," he opened his eyes and slowly looked up at his teacher. "It scares me to think stuff like that has kept happening all the way 'til now, but... I'm not surprised. It's why I've continued to get stronger, in order to protect what I can, right? This time, I even managed to prevent anyone dying," he grinned suddenly. "Whatever else happened, I guess I didn't grow up too badly!"

Kakashi stared blankly at him for a long time. Then, with a soft chuckle, he stepped forward and placed a hand on top of Naruto's head. "What do you know. Maybe we should have all given you a little more credit a long time ago."

"Eh?" Naruto swatted the hand and ducked, glaring at Kakashi suspiciously.

"Anyway, I need to go see if Gai has responded yet. We can't have a basic grasp on this situation until we confirm whether the you of this time is still around, or if something happened to him."

"Can't I—"

"You stay here," Kakashi said firmly, holding up his hand as Naruto stepped forward. "I didn't bring you here just to turn around and take you back. The less you see right now, the better, at least until it's allowed. I will tell you what we find out, unless there's a really really good reason for me not to, in which case I will at least tell you that I can't tell you." He smiled cheekily.

Naruto grumbled and plopped down on the floor in front of a low wooden table. "What am I supposed to do, then?"

Kakashi sighed. "It would be difficult for anyone to stay inside knowing they've arrived in their own future, but... just try to bear with it until I find out something. If you get hungry, I'm sure you can find some ramen stashed around here somewhere. Other than that, just find a way to quietly amuse yourself... ah!" he suddenly appeared crouched on top of the table, holding up Icha Icha Tactics in Naruto's face. "Here. You wouldn't have read this one yet!"

"No thanks," Naruto said resoundingly, crossing his arms. "I don't read garbage."

"Still has no taste. Suit yourself," Kakashi said lightly before stepping out into the hall. "Later! Be good now!" he raised a hand in a lazy wave before closing the door behind him.

Naruto groaned and flopped practically face-first down on the table. He sat that way for several minutes, chin propped on the table and staring blankly at the wall. Now that he was listening, he could hear indistinct voices from somewhere below, and the sounds of distant hammering and sawing coming from out in the street.

"Just sit around? You try sitting still in a situation like this, jerk." Naruto muttered, but with no real vehemence. He'd rarely felt so far out of his depth before. The last time had been when Akatsuki had come for him. He suppressed a shudder as remembered opening the door to Uchiha Itachi, looking down at him like an ant with his murderous red eyes as if he could rip all the limbs from his body just by looking at him. He probably could have.

Pull it together, Naruto commanded himself, sitting up with a forceful shake of his head. This wasn't the time to be afraid. He needed to take this chance to learn as much as he could, whether anyone was going to help him or not.

Naruto went to the window and looked out at the street and the very open skyline, previously dominated by the sprawling, cheerful buildings he was used to in the past.

The enemy had the power to do this. One shinobi alone. He'd heard of people that strong before. It was pretty much a given that all the Hokage—and the Kage of other lands as well, he supposed—could take on whole armies or defend the hidden villages by themselves. The Shodai Hokage was known for the power to change the face of the landscape itself when he fought. And Naruto had been exposed personally to touches and glimpses of the capabilities of ridiculously powerful ninja, like the Sannin and the Sandaime Hokage, and his brief encounter with Akatsuki.

For him to face someone like that by himself like everyone said—maybe not on completely equal terms, but still—to survive, and even... win? He was plenty confident in himself, but it was hard to wrap his head around it. As messed up as some things were, that part was pretty damn awesome.

Naruto peered curiously around at his room again. There was nothing in it to suggest that its occupant had the power to go toe-to-toe with an S-rank missing-nin. There wasn't much of anything in it at all. Just four plain wooden walls, and a small alcove with a sink. The toilets and bathing areas were probably communal.

Naruto got up from the table and crouched curiously in front of the bookshelf, probably the only scrap of personality the room had. He definitely recognized it as a piece from his old room, as it was carved with various boredom-induced doodles and lines. He tried to imagine what it would be like to pick through the ruins of his home to find anything salvageable. Did it hurt? It was impossible to guess his future self's mindset at that point. It wasn't like he cared overmuch for his crappy apartment, and the fact that everyone was alive would mean a lot more. But still, everything he'd known was destroyed.

He ran a finger over the few books that the little bookcase held, looking for clues. He wondered if it could be considered snooping if it was all technically his stuff.

To his dismay, he found several volumes of Icha Icha, including the one Kakashi had shown him, Tactics. Looking closer, he saw that their spines looked new and unscuffed, and their pages were crisp and stiff. It didn't look like these particular copies had ever been read, at least.

Naruto's hand landed on a small brown paper-covered book that looked much more worn out than the others. He curiously pulled it out to look at the cover. The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi. Now that sounded like the kind of story he could like, and judging by its well-worn edges, he did. Standing, Naruto laid it down by Team 7's picture for later and turned to the wooden trunk.

"Excuse me," he mumbled as he opened the trunk, still undecided about whether this could be considered snooping. He was delighted to find several stacks of his favorite instant ramen on the left side, and clothes folded up on the right.

"Whoa." Naruto held up a mesh armor shirt that was several sizes too big for him. Below that were a few T-shirts. Below that he found a pair of standard black ninja pants, and he hopped up excitedly to hold them up to his waist. The hems trailed over his feet and he snickered gleefully, holding them at arms-length again to try to calculate how much height age would bestow upon him.

A polite knock came on the door and Naruto scrambled, nearly got tangled on his own feet while trying to stuff everything back in the trunk, realized that was stupid, finally was able to stand and not fall, then stood very still. His heart was thumping very fast.

"Naruto, are you there?" a soft, neutral male voice came from behind the door.