A Glimpse of Things to Be

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

This story inspired by Into the Future by ichilover3.

None of them knew exactly why they were gathered together in Naruto's living room, at the top of some abandoned apartment building. Well, almost none of them knew; the only person who actually knew was Neji Hyuuga, surprisingly enough the one who called them here. Neji asking all of them to meet at Naruto's place was the main reason that all of them showed up; it was very strange and seemingly out of character. It had to be for some important reason.

Naruto let the last guest into the room, all the others having been chatting away and occupying all the scarce furniture in his apartment. Naruto, Neji, Sakura, Ino, Shikamaru, Chouji, Hinata, Kiba, Shino, Rock Lee, Tenten, Sai, and even Temari. They were all deeply curious as to why someone like Neji would have asked them to be together.

"So, why exactly are we at Naruto's anyway? I didn't even know where he lived before today." Ino asked, a few people also curious but not bold enough to have asked.

"Yeah, but at least it's a bit cleaner than I imagined." Tenten said, looking around. It's not that she was some sort of high maintenance woman; she was a kunoichi and had no problem sleeping in the dirt whenever required. She just did not really like sitting around all kinds of trash when she was in a building.

Neji spoke up for the first time, having ignored all the previous questions asking what the gathering was all about. "Naruto's house is the only place where we do not risk interruption."

Temari spoke up, feeling a little bit out of place right now. "Whatever, will you just tell us what's going on already?"

Sai broke his silence, having not said a word the whole time. "Interesting you should ask. I wonder why a sand ninja would be here. Spying, perhaps?"

Shikamaru decided to interject before Temari did something violent. "She was with me when Neji invited me; didn't feel like stopping her."

Hinata decided to try to keep everything calm. "I'm sure Neji has a good reason for this. Thank you for hosting us, Naruto."

"Oh sure, you would thank Naruto wouldn't you Hinata?" Kiba teased, causing the woman to blush slightly. It was embarrassing really; blushing even when Kiba didn't really imply anything.

"No problem Hinata. Neji didn't tell me what this was about either but I realized I'd never hosted for any of you before. So anyway, Neji, we're all here. You gonna explain?"

The Hyuuga cleared his throat a bit, and everybody sat in anticipation. "I called us all here to talk about the future."

"Is that it?"

"Really?"

"Ugh, came for nothing."

"Do I need to beat the fate out of you again?"

"Please, allow me to explain." The others calmed down a bit, as Neji kept talking. "On my last team mission, we came across an elderly woman in a rundown hut at the edge of a village. While my teammates continued on, I felt drawn into it. Let me continue" he said, knowing ahead of time that everyone was getting ready to erupt at him calling him crazy. "When I approached the woman, she told me that she had an item I would be interested in. When I asked about it, she explained that it was a device that could see into a random interval at some point in the future.

Naturally I thought she was just a crazy old woman. I asked her for a demonstration, but she said that it was a one-time use per person and she had already used hers. Thinking it could be a trap, I dragged a local into the shack. I was surprised when he touched his hand to a sphere of some sort and a projection appeared above it, showing an aged person that was obviously him surrounded by family, in tears. It went on for a few minutes, everyone saying their final words. The man, who was shocked by this all, ran out of the shack cursing and claiming it was all lies. And now I have it with me."

Neji reached into his pack and pulled out a glass sphere with a stand. Moments later, everyone recovered enough from his story to start putting things together.

"So you think this thing can actually show you the future?" Sakura asked, somewhat curious as to what her life could possibly hold for her.

"That is what you were doing on that mission?" Tenten asked, to which Neji nodded. It was with a slight reluctance that she realized she was very curious what could possibly be in store for her. But she had some hesitation; what if it was bad? Unfulfilling? Would she be able to change it?"

"I don't think this is a good idea guys. This can only end badly." Shikamaru took it upon himself to try to warn his friends, but he had a feeling that they weren't going to listen to him. Everyone was always so curious, getting involved in things they didn't need to. Didn't they know curiosity killed the cat?

"Don't be such a spoil sport Shikamaru. What's the worst that could happen? If we don't like what gets shown to us we can just change it." Ino said, to which a few people agreed while others questioned it.

"That is not how the future works. We may try to change it but those decisions will find some way to work toward the same destination."

"Neji, you're not starting to talk about that fate nonsense again are you? I told you, we make our own fate."

"No Naruto, this is different. I used to think it was my fate to be a slave to the Hyuuga main family, but that perception was caused by me. The future, however, if it is accurate, is taking into account everything about our personalities and how we will react to any given situation, including viewing it now."

"I still say it can be changed, but enough of all this. Let's get started! I'm going first." Naruto was excited to get a glimpse of what his life could be like. If it was a good glimpse, he'd just keep down his current path. If it was bad, he would just change it. Nothing wrong with that at all.

Shino broke his silence, getting everyone to look at him. "Wait, Naruto. If this is a serious proposition, then the only way to assure there are no hurt feelings from whatever is shown is to promise that we will all go."

Everyone agreed, and Naruto smiled as he placed his hand on the ball. "Alright, show me what ya got. I'm ready for it, believe it!"

A/N: Reading through ichilover3's Into the Future recently, I got the idea to do my own take on a similar concept. If I had to describe what makes my story different, I would say that my story offers a brief look into plausible scenarios from canon that maybe we would have liked to see but never got the chance to or plausible alternatives to canon whereas that story tried (and succeeded) at offering a humorous alternate reality. This story is going to be rather short, with most chapters being just slightly over 1k words (but no chapters being below).

This is a side-fic that I'm mostly writing for fun. My other fic is still the main one I'm working on (as well as one other that is as of yet unpublished) but I've run into a bit of a road block and I've found this one relatively easy to write. But maybe that means the quality is a bit low; either way, I hope you'll give it a chance. Please feel free to favorite, follow, review, continue reading, or just continue on with your life. Either way, if you made it this far, thanks for reading.