Regaining Loss

Naruto

It took Naruto a couple of minutes to extricate himself from the rope tying him to the wooden stump. As he rubbed his wrist, the blonde looked around at his surroundings with a look of confusion; he remembered this place. It was the training area where Team Seven had their survival test, ‘but… but that was years ago.’ Naruto turned once again and stared off into the distance, specifically at the three people walking away from him, ‘Kakashi-sensei, Sakura-chan, and…’ Naruto knew the other person was Sasuke. Sasuke when he was younger. When they were all younger. Before realizing what being a shinobi meant. But, from his own perspective, this whole situation was several years ago.

‘This has to be a genjutsu,’ Naruto thought to himself as he leaned back against the stump. Shaking his head, Naruto thought, ‘but why would Orochimaru try a genjutsu after he killed me? That doesn’t make sense.’ Closing his eyes, Naruto could see the older Sasuke staring back at him with such malice… Orochimaru’s malice. Opening his eyes once again, Naruto wondered if this could be the one thing that was supposed to be impossible. ‘There’s no reason for the snake bastard to place me under a genjutsu so… so could this be…’

No, that’s what Naruto thought to himself. It was impossible. The possibility of time travel flashed through his mind, but it was impossible. There had to be another reason why he was younger. Why Kakashi, Sakura, and Sasuke were younger. Somehow, for some unknown reason, Orochimaru must have placed him under a powerful genjutsu. ‘Maybe Orochimaru attacked the village… and after attacking he retrieved my body and revived me somehow? Maybe he’s experimenting on me? And to prevent me from retaliating against him… he put me in this genjutsu?’ Still leaning his back against the stump, Naruto knew in his gut that Orochimaru was capable of reviving him from death.

Naruto then realized something he missed earlier, ‘Orochi-bastard said he gave me something that would wreck my chakra pathways.’ So, if his pathways were ruined, why would Orochimaru revive him? Naruto needed some answers. So, he concentrated and brought himself back down to his mindscape where Kurama looked calmer than earlier. He was lying on the floor of the cage along with the balls of energy representing the power given to him by the rest of the tailed beasts.

“Kurama,” Naruto softly said as he placed his hand on the bars of the cage while the hulking mass of furry red chakra stared at him, “this has to be some kind of genjutsu, I’m trying to…”

“It’s not a genjutsu, Naruto,” Kurama said – much to Naruto’s surprise - as he shifted his body, “just now, when Orochimaru attacked, he administered something that blocked my chakra from entering your network by destroying it completely.”

“He did say that… I remember…” Naruto whispered, “but…”

“It then proceeded to lock me away within you,” Kurama said, his voice now a growl at hearing the sound of Orochimaru’s name, “Orochimaru must have created some special elixir… whatever it was… the effects were devastating. But now… now I can feel my chakra being pulled into your network slowly… just like so long ago.”

“Kurama,” Naruto shook his head. Was it really possible? Could this really be the past somehow? “if… this isn’t a genjutsu…”

“I could feel traces of my old… my previous self,” Kurama said as he looked around the cage before turning his attention to Naruto once again, “whatever happened to bring us back here… to the past…”

“The past,” Naruto whispered to himself while shaking his head, “the past… time travel?”

Kurama was now sitting on his hind legs staring down at him with an exhausted expression, “Our power – I and the other Bijuu - are part of your soul, especially after you received part of the Old Man’s chakra to seal Kaguya. Our experiences and our powers… well, they are greater than our past selves. So, when we were pulled back… or pushed back… to the past, we replaced our past selves.”

Naruto gulped, “so we killed them? Our past selves…?”

“If you mean our essences? Yes, we wiped out our essences in this timeline.” Kurama then sighed, “feels strange saying that we killed our previous souls.”

“You’re telling me…” a frustrated Naruto was rubbing his face with both hands before saying, “but who could have done this?”

“That is something I cannot answer,” Kurama replied before laying his head down across from Naruto, the bars of the prison standing between them, “now there are the powers of eight other Bijuu inside you; the seal created by your father was meant to mix our chakra’s slowly so that you would be used to it. But with more power within you, the power being mixed into your Chakra network is going to be too much… for now at least. Rest for a few weeks, let your network get used to the increase in power.”

“Yea,” Naruto whispered, nodding his head. He was still in disbelief about the whole situation. He then looked at the bars of the prison holding Kurama before turning his attention back to the nine-tails, “I’ll free you, Kurama. I promise.” Naruto gave Kurama a thumbs-up sign, to which Kurama chuckled before saying that he would be asleep for some time to rest.

Naruto opened his eyes and took a deep breath of the fresh air around him. He was in the past! The past! Naruto took a step forward, and then another, and another, as he followed his Team Seven teammates from a distance while thinking about his next steps. Should he tell the Sandaime about what happened? His breathing jumped when he realized that not only was the Sandaime alive, so was Jiraiya. Naruto increased his stride, rushing towards his team as he came to another realization; he could start getting to know Ino much earlier. Almost immediately, Naruto stopped walking.

So many thoughts swam in his mind now. How was Ino? Did she receive his mental message? If Orochimaru attacked the village, did she survive? Did everyone he knew survive? He looked at Kakashi and Sakura, ‘did Sakura-chan and Kakashi-sensei survive?’ Suddenly, the thoughts of the people he loved and cared for dying in the possible attack by an Orochimaru possessed Sasuke sent a tremble throughout his body. Naruto rushed towards the nearby tree line as a lump in his throat started to rise while images of a burning Konoha and bodies bleeding in the streets started to sear into his mind. Why did he survive? Rather, why was he sent back in time and no one else.

Reaching the first tree he could, Naruto placed his hands on the trunk and vomited onto the roots. Why was he the lucky one to survive? Why was his soul sent back? After puking his guts out for what seemed like hours, Naruto coughed and spit onto the ground before he closed his eyes and stepped away from the tree.

‘They’re all dead…’ Naruto thought to himself as he dry-heaved for a few minutes before turning away from the stench in front of him. He slowly made his way out of the tree line and towards the village while, at the same time, wiping his lips with the back of his hand. Kakashi, Sakura, and Sasuke were pretty far off now as Naruto continued walking behind them again. He was now keeping a steady pace. Even though they were pretty far off, Naruto could see Sasuke about to take off on his own… he could see Sakura stop and stare at Sasuke while clasping her hands on her chest. Naruto could make out Sasuke look at Sakura before taking off in the other direction away from her. Naruto then saw Kakashi, his back towards the Genin, wave before vanishing in a blur of leaves and dirt. It was only Sakura standing there by herself and Naruto couldn’t help but imagine the Sakura he knew; the one who grew up to be the second strongest in Konoha, the accomplished medic who became a doctor, and the one who wasn’t as love struck with Sasuke as she was when she was younger. Oh, she was still in love with the broody Uchiha, and they were due to be married after the former retuned to Konoha in another seven months, but she wasn’t as obsessed with him.

Naruto could feel tears gathering in his eyes as he watched Sakura turn towards him. He knew they were far enough to not see the tears gathering; yet, she didn’t approach him. Naruto didn’t expect her to approach him, after all they weren’t as close now as they were in the future. Instead, Sakura turned away from him and started running towards the path leading back into the village. Naruto took in a deep breath again; his first duty was to see Ino… just to see her. He just wanted to make sure that Ino was alive, even if she wasn’t his Ino. And then he would talk to the Sandaime.

Naruto sighed once again as he strode towards the path leading into the village, ‘I need to talk to Jiji; this whole time travel thing… I… I can’t…’ The scale of it all was huge. There were so many things that needed to be prevented, but then again… there were some things even he sensed would have to happen. ‘The Sand-Sound invasion… that needs to happen… I want to meet Gaara again and… and that invasion brought our villages closer than ever.’ And Naruto also wanted to prevent Sasuke’s corruption… but he didn’t know what it would mean if the so-called Avenger of the Uchiha were to know the truth.

‘Maybe if Itachi tells him the truth,’ Naruto thought as he continued walking with his hands in his pockets, ‘maybe that’s what it would take to prevent Sasuke from betraying the village. Whatever else, we cannot have that asshole Orochimaru biting him again.’ Naruto took in deep breathes as he thought about what else needed to be done; ‘use shadow clones to get my body up to speed, I don’t think I’ll need Yamato-taicho’s help this time’. Naruto then recalled that Yamato would need to suppress any clones that would go off into uncontrollable chakra cloak mode during the time he was training to hone his wind chakra by cutting a leave between the palms of his hands. Naruto looked at his hands, ‘but with the excess of chakra…I’m guessing I’ll have to start everything from the beginning, at least this time I know where to start from. But still… I may need Yamato-taicho. Just in case.’ He also knew that he needed Jiraiya’s help to unlock the cage. And that meant he needed to prove he could control Kurama’s power. ‘Kurama and I can make that happen.’

“Yes,” Kurama’s voice growled in the back of Naruto’s mind. They were partners and they were going to protect the village.

As he neared the village, Naruto could hear the sounds of men, women, and children in the distance. It was bittersweet; he and Kurama were the only survivors of a Konoha long gone where most of the residents could have died. It was then that he realized something important, ‘where can I find Ino-chan?’ Naruto stopped walking just as he reached the grey coloured path snaking into the village. The village looked so different. ‘Is she done with her survival training?’ he wondered, ‘maybe she’s at home…’ Naruto couldn’t help but form a sad smile when he recalled Ino telling him she wished her father, Inoichi, was alive to see her married.

‘Maybe… maybe if I can get Ino-chan’s attention, then that could change in… in this future.’ He knew of one way to locate her, and that was by tapping into nature energy. And just as he was about to head for a nearby tree where he could sit and centre himself so as to access the Natural Energy, Naruto noticed Shikamaru and Choji approach Sakura.

‘That’s weird,’ Naruto thought to himself, ‘the last time… the first time, I mean… when I caught up to Sakura-chan; both Choji and Shika weren’t there.’ Naruto furrowed his eyebrows as he wondered, ‘so why would they be…’ Naruto’s eyes widened at the impossible thought swimming in his mind – that maybe Chouji and Shikamaru somehow made it to the past since they did not approach Sakura during this time in the past. ‘Could…’ No, he didn’t want to hope. There could be a variety of reasons why Choji and Shikamaru would be approaching Sakura, ‘no… there must have been a change’. And as he ran towards the three of them, he once again reminded himself that this situation with Sakura, Chouji, and Shikamaru did not happen the first time.

“What do you mean she just ran away?” Naruto heard Sakura ask loudly while Shikamaru and Choji then explained they didn’t know; that ‘she’ just ran away from them. And they were unable to find her.

Naruto stopped next to Sakura, his heart was racing at the impossible thought that somehow his wife may have travelled back in time as well. It was impossible… he knew in his heart that there could be a variety of reasons why Shikamaru and Choji would want to speak to Sakura. But Naruto mentally reminded himself for the umpteenth time that this never happened in his past; in his past, he joined up with Sakura after Kakashi and Sasuke left, leaving the both of them alone with each other. And there was no Shikamaru and Choji – instead, in his past, Sakura continued growling that she would not go on a date with Naruto.

“What’s going on?”

“This is none of your business, Naruto,” Sakura said glaring at him. In any other day, he would have slunk away from that trademarked glare, but not today. Naruto looked at Sakura with a small sad smile – he could see his Sakura in his mind’s eye smiling back at him – before turning away from his one-time crush and towards Shikamaru and Choji. Naruto noticed Choji was not eating any potato chips which meant the latter was really worried about Ino.

Naruto didn’t want to get his hopes up. ‘But maybe the act of just travelling back in time could have changed events’, he thought to himself. Yes, that could be it.

Choji then spoke, and what he said made Naruto’s body stiffen.

“She was crying before leaving the restaurant,” Choji spoke after going over the events following Ino waking up after her head collapsed down onto the table in the BBQ restaurant. “We chased after her, but by the time we reached the restaurant entrance, she was gone. Asuma-sensei is worried about her and so are we. We left the restaurant and searched all the places she would go to, but we haven’t had much luck.”

Naruto thought, ‘you checked the places where she would go. If this is my Ino-chan, there are a couple of new places she’d go. Places you would not know to check.’

“You checked all her hangouts?” Naruto asked whilst trying to keep a cool voice.

Shikamaru nodded his head.

“Ichiraku’s?”

“We tried it as a last resort but the owner hasn’t seen her either.”

Sakura then huffed before saying she could not see Ino eating the fattening food at the ramen shop. Naruto shrugged at Sakura who then told Shikamaru and Choji that if she runs across Ino, she’d tell her they were searching for her. And Naruto said the same thing as well. However, as Shikamaru and Choji moved away and rushed off to continue the search for their teammate once again. Naruto had an idea where Ino could be… at least if his suspicions were correct.

Naruto turned towards Sakura and was about to open his mouth when she said, “don’t you dare ask me out on a date.”

The frown on Sakura’s face as she stared at him saddened him once again; he really wanted his Sakura back. Naruto then smiled as an idea came to his head before saying, “wasn’t going to, Sakura-chan.” And that admission surprised Sakura who arched her eyebrows – a quizzical expression forming on her face - before Naruto continued, “you know, have you ever thought about learning medical jutsu?”

“Huh?” Sakura said in surprise.

“Think about it,” Naruto said before he was about to move off towards the direction of his apartment complex, “we could need a healer on our team and… well, Sasuke would be impressed if you became one of the best medic-nin in the village.”

Sakura blushed before saying, “yea… Sasuke-kun would like that… I guess… I…”

“I heard you have really good chakra control so… I would be a good thing dattebayo.”

“Right,” Sakura whispered just before Naruto rushed off towards his apartment. Sakura remained rooted to the spot in surprise as she watched Naruto leap upwards towards one of the nearby roofs. His voice rang in her ears before she took off in another direction… towards the library. She needed to read up on medical ninjutsu; if it would bring her closer to her Sasuke-kun before anyone else, especially Ino, then it was worth learning this new skill.

Ino

As Naruto was rushing towards his apartment complex, Ino was seated on the floor of the hallway next to Naruto’s door. She was leaning back against the wall, the back of her head resting on the hard surface as tears streamed down her cheeks. The whole time she was rushing over to the apartment complex after taking to Teuchi at Ichiraku’s – she had asked the ramen shop owner to only let Naruto know she was searching for him - Ino could feel the life of her children… their energy… throbbing within her abdomen. It hurt so much emotionally as she placed her hands on her flat abdomen and cried. Their children were gone… she only just learned she was going to be a mother and within a blink of an eye they were gone. And her experimental jutsu was powerful enough to possibly send a portion of their chakra back in time with her soul. It was something she never expected. How could she? If she ever had children with Naruto in their time of peace after the Fourth Shinobi War, she expected to die of old age; not in a surprise attack by a mysterious enemy.

She wiped her tears with the back of her hands before closing her eyes and hanging her head. She didn’t know how long she would have to live with the shadow of her children’s chakra, but she would do it. And if, for some reason, her jutsu did not work on Naruto, then she would have to endure the pain on her own. Taking a deep breath, Ino turned her head to the left side upon hearing hurried footsteps coming up the stairs in the distance. She stood up upon sensing a very familiar chakra; she gasped at the sight of Naruto who was panting while staring at her upon stepping into the hallway from the stairs.

“Ino-chan?” Even though it was a whisper, Ino could still hear his voice reverberate the walls of the hallway.

Ino laughed as more tears travelled down her cheeks before dashing towards the blonde. “Dear,” was all she needed to say as Naruto stepped forward just as she hugged him. Ino felt his arms wrap around her, her hands resting on his back, her chin resting on his shoulder. She felt his chin on her shoulder, his breath brushing her neck, and his hands resting on her back.

“Ino-chan, how are you in the past...? I mean… you are my Ino-chan, right?”

“Of course,” Ino whispered as they continued their hug, “I… I know you have questions and… and I have some answers.” She pulled back and looked into his eyes, “I heard you scream out in my head, and then… then there was an attack.” Before Naruto could say anything, Ino continued, “I don’t know what or who attacked the village, but…”

“It was Orochimaru,” Naruto whispered, and Ino’s eyes went wide open at that reveal. No, it couldn’t be. He was on Konoha’s side. “Why? Why did he…” Ino still had her arms around Naruto and he had his arms around her. It was comforting. Ino closed her eyes, she needed that comfort to permeate through her for what she was to tell Naruto.

“Dear,” she whispered after slowly opening her eyes and pulling away, taking in Naruto’s gentle expression of worry; they were still holding onto each other. But their bodies were not pressed against each other, “I… we…” How could she say it? How could she say they were going to have children… children who died because of a betrayal.

“Orochimaru took over Sasuke’s body,” Naruto continued. Ino released her hold on him and stepped back, her hands coming up to cover her mouth. Oh, she felt sick. “He surprised me and…” Naruto shook his head and strode towards his future wife and pulled her in with another hug, “I don’t know why we’re here in the past. But we’ll stop Orochimaru, we’ll stop him from marking Sasuke, we’ll stop everyone who’ll hurt us.” Ino nodded her head on his shoulder.

Ino whispered, “Orochimaru… we kill him together, Naruto… he took… he took…” Ino released a sob as she tightened her hold on Naruto’s frame, “he took our babies away.” Naruto stiffened as his hold tightened around Ino.

‘What?’ Naruto thought to himself as tears gathered in his eyes.

“Ino-chan?” he whispered; his voiced already cracking.

Naruto held Ino tight as she cried with her head on his shoulders. He was tearing up as well. He was going to have children… no, he was supposed to have children. He was going to be a father. Closing his eyes, Naruto pulled her closer. Their bodies melted into one as Ino continued to sob on his shoulder. Naruto closed his eyes as tears tracked down his whiskered cheeks. He was going to be a father; he couldn’t believe it. He was going to be a father. He tightened his hold on Ino before whispering – his voice cracking – “let’s go inside, Ino-chan. Let’s…” Naruto was going to break down before he took in a deep breath to calm himself temporarily. When he spoke once again, his voice was still cracked but the feeling of crying out loud was temporarily abated. The neighbours were always suspicious of him living among them, and he didn’t want to give them a chance to bother them… or think that he was doing something untoward to Ino. If they did say something or interfere at this moment, he was afraid he would do something he would regret later.

Ino nodded her head before slowly letting him go and then backing away. Naruto gently wiped her tears away with his thumb before walking the few steps to his apartment. Taking out the key from his pocket, Naruto opened the door and stepped inside. Seeing his old room, Naruto sighed at the mess before realizing Ino had never seen his old room – after all, they started dating after Pein’s attack on the village when Naruto was living in a new temporary apartment built by Yamato’s jutsu. That apartment was new and clean, this one was slightly messy. Naruto turned towards his future wife and gently said, “it’s a bit messy, Ino-chan. I never thought I’d bring a girl back… and… yeah…”

Naruto smiled at Ino’s gentle smile. The blonde girl said, “it doesn’t matter, dear. Right now, I… I just want…” Naruto reached out for Ino, placed a hand on the small of her back, and then gently pulled her into his apartment. They needed to get their bearings, among other things. And most importantly, they needed to mourn right now. They needed to mourn the loss of their children and the loss of all those they had loved from their timeline.

“I’ll tell you what happened… why we’re in the past,” Ino whispered as Naruto closed the door behind them.

Naruto nodded his head before saying, “we rest first. You’re here so… so we rest. Everything else we can look into later.” Naruto led Ino to the fuzzy orange couch in the living room. The both of them sat down, sinking into the cushions before they held onto each other. As Ino rested her head on Naruto’s shoulder, the latter let out a sob before closing his eyes.

TBC