"In time you will have a Student of your own. That student will become a ninja that will bring great change to the world of Shinobi. It will be of either great stability or great destruction. The kind the world has never seen. You will be the one that will guide this revolutionary (Gamamaru, the Great Toad Sage talking to Jiraiya).

Naruto startled awake to find himself in the very familiar sewer system that represented his mindscape. He never came here this early last time, but maybe at this point, he shouldn't be surprised when something was different.

He followed the familiar path to where he knew the Kyuubi was. Maybe he would have some answers, not that he would give them if he did. He was a whole other level of stubborn the last time.

Soon enough, he walked into an open room with a massive metal gate standing between himself and the infamous Kyuubi.

He tried to keep his sadness from showing when he realized that Kurama's eyes held no familiarity. He was sure of it now more than ever: His friend didn't remember anything.

"Shall I shake hands with my new jailer?" the Kyuubi asked sarcastically. "Come close and I'll show you a proper greeting."

'The fact that he's joking is a good sign…probably.' Naruto didn't flinch, recoil, or react much at all to the Kyuubi's taunt which is why said Tailed Beast furrowed his brow in confusion.

"You don't seem as afraid as you should be. If I were you, I would turn around and leave before I lose my good humor. Being trapped in a cage will do that to you."

Naruto decided then that he would tell him everything. He was the one person that he wouldn't lose anything by convincing them he was nuts and the only person he would gain from having them believe him.

"I know your name," Naruto said after several moments of silence.

A low growl built in the Kyuubi's throat. "And say I believe you. How did you come across such information? Written in a book? Etched in an ancient stone? I hate to disappoint you but knowing a demon's name does not grant you power over them."

Naruto could feel hope climb in his chest. Maybe he knew more about demons than he ever had the chance to ask. "I know your name because you gave it. I was sent back to this time by someone who calls himself Jashin. I think he's a demon like you. Or maybe a Shinigami or something."

He looked vaguely interested at that. "A distinction without a difference. Your lack of sanity means nothing to me, human. But if what you say is true, you'd best be cautious."

Apparently, he had said his fill as he laid his head on his paw, readying himself for sleep. But Naruto wasn't done. "Your name is Kurama, and you told me that because you chose to be my ally! I'm not asking for your trust, but please tell me about what you know. I have no idea what's happening, but I almost summoned a demon, I think." Desperation leaked into every syllable.

The Kyuubi looked at him with an indecipherable look. "Hmph. You're the first human to say my name in many years. Do it again and I'll rip the tongue out of your body. I killed a few Jashinists many years ago, back when there were a lot of them. The last time demons crossed from their world into this one, chakra was born. If you almost summoned a demon…" He let his words hang ominously.

He gave Naruto a look that said he was sick of him as he laid his head back down to sleep. Honestly, Naruto was surprised it went as well as it did. He must have caught him in a good mood, he reasoned. Though, he didn't feel like he got anything useful.

Walking away from the cage, the reality of his situation sunk in for Naruto for the first time. He was the only person who knew about what would happen. A terrible emotion he feared more than any other crept up on him…loneliness.

Naruto didn't notice the Kyuubi open one of its massive eyes to stare at him warily.

Naruto opened his eyes, adjusting to the sudden light. He blinked through his eyes' sensitivity and looked around the empty, familiar room. He was in Tazuna's house again.

He sat up and fought the surprising level of exhaustion. Using wind attacks no one has seen and…whatever happened after that with the blue light was bound to draw attention to him and provoke questions. Naruto let out a short breath and began searching for his team.

When Naruto walked into the hallway, he saw Kakashi leaning against a wall waiting for him. He was going to force an awkward smile and say 'Hey, Kakashi-sensei,' but the words died in his throat when he caught a glimpse of the outside world through the window.

"Kakashi-sensei, why is everything out there so...?" He wasn't sure how to describe it.

He ran up to the window and looked outside. The sky was a shade of purple and the air seemed to still under the influence of an unseen force. Most jarringly, the sky had developed long, crooked cracks that stretched and branched in every direction.

"I was hoping you would know something, actually," Kakashi said, giving Naruto a scanning look.

"What do you mean? What happened after I passed out, Kakashi-sensei!?" Naruto asked, panic overtaking him. How had events played out so differently and so quickly? The only answer he could come to was that he had caused this somehow.

Kakashi put a hand on his shoulder. "Calm down, Naruto. Everyone's fine and nothing too crazy happened yet. I just wanted to ask you some questions."

Naruto forced himself to calm down, a little embarrassed by his lack of control. "How long was I asleep?"

"A few days," Kakashi answered. "The sky has been getting more and more…odd as time goes by."

Naruto pushed down his anxiety. "What are those questions you wanted to ask?"

Kakashi looked out the window with his one eye at the state of the sky. He was trying to maintain his laid-back demeanor, probably for his sake, but he was obviously stressed.

"You started flinging wind around like you'd been training for months and you were saved by a mysterious light. Soon after, all this craziness started happening and the sky looks like it's about to fall apart. I don't suppose you have any idea what's happening?"

Naruto tried to parse his thoughts for a bit of truth that wouldn't make him sound totally insane. "A short while ago, I was saved by someone who called himself Jashin."

Kakashi raised his brow. "So, you were saved by a guy who named himself after a god of death?"

"I don't know," Naruto answered honestly. "He was able to do really crazy things that didn't seem like Jutsu at all. And afterward, I was able to do things I shouldn't be able to do. I think…he was a demon."

Kakashi's gaze sharpened. "A demon? That doesn't make sense. Did it have tails?"

Naruto shook his head. "He wasn't like a Tailed Beast at all. He looked completely human, but there was something…weird about him. His presence, ya know?"

"A demon, but not a Tailed Beast? I might have heard a couple of rumors about that sort of thing, but I never imagined…Well, at the very least you believe you're telling the truth. We'll have to look into this Jashin character after this mission."

Naruto smiled. "Thank you, Kakashi-sensei. Is the mission still ongoing?"

Kakashi sighed. "You'd think the moment the sky turned purple would be the moment Gato gave up on his scheming, but you'd be wrong. The bridge needs building and we still need to guard it. Ah, I forgot to mention that Zabuza is still on the prowl and he has a helper dressed as a hunter-nin. We'll get them next time but don't forget to train, okay?"

Naruto could feel his stomach twist. They still had to fight Zabuza and Haku. He looked up at the now cracked sky unsettled.

He sat on the ground staring at his hands and cursing himself. No matter how hard Naruto tried, his chakra was unreachable. Likewise, when he tried to form wind with magic the way he did before, he couldn't. He could still use Garu, but the power he achieved with it just the other day was out of reach. He couldn't use Magaru either, which meant he couldn't throw multiple attacks at once.

He stood and tried running up the tree again as Kakashi suggested but immediately slid off, landing on the ground awkwardly. His frustration boiled over. "Damnit!" he screamed, smashing his fist into the ground.

Kakashi took it upon himself to try and help him despite knowing it might hurt his pride, but nothing he said had gotten him any further up the tree. Sasuke tried to compete with him but the interaction didn't spark a competitive spirit in him as it had in the past. Slowly, he realized that all his bonds had changed too much for him to pretend like nothing happened.

He shifted his eyes to watch Sasuke's attempts at completing his training. At one point he would have given anything to have Sasuke train with him like old times as a Konoha Shinobi. Now, looking at him gave him an uncomfortable wariness he couldn't dispel. He supposed that he couldn't just trust Sasuke immediately after everything he had done.

Frustrated, he raked his fingers through his hair. 'That's not right. This isn't the same Sasuke that did all that stuff. Besides, I was ready to forgive him anyway, right? What was I planning to do when I saved him? I guess I would have seen him thrown in prison…'

He was broken out of his musing when Sasuke paused his training to glare at him. "What do you want, loser?"

Naruto could almost feel a retort come to him, but it was lost in his somber mood. "You should ask Sakura for help," he said seriously before picking himself up and leaving. His relationships with his precious people would never be the same even if he tried his best to change nothing.

Sasuke had formed an odd bond with his blonde teammate. It was built on them throwing insults at each other, competing too fiercely, and understanding each other's plights. Lately, however, Sasuke found that Naruto's demeanor had changed significantly. He seemed on edge most of the time like he was on the lookout for enemies. Or he was contemplative, an attribute he would have never attributed him before. Not that he would admit it, but he was worried.

Sasuke looked at the disparate people as he walked alongside Tazuna, Naruto, and Sakura. He might not admit it but seeing the starving people had touched him in a way. Whoever did this deserved punishment. No one could cause this much suffering and be allowed to walk freely. For many of these people, Gato was their Itachi; committing unimaginable acts of cruelty for their own selfish ends.

Sasuke kept the glare that often came with thinking of his brother off his face and looked at Naruto. He was scanning everyone and everything they passed with a focus he'd never seen the blonde exercise. Naruto said he was taking a break from training to escort Tazuna around for a while and Sasuke was so curious that he decided to tag along.

He had been acting…differently for the last few days. He would have thought that his teammate's first mission had scared the obnoxiousness out of him, but he was acting just as unusual right before they left. Though he was loathed to admit it, he often held a sense of kinship with the idiot, so his atypically dour disposition bothered Sasuke immensely.

Naruto and Sakura looked heartbroken when several children, dressed in rags, asked them for anything they could afford to give. "Why…?" Naruto asked.

Sasuke wasn't sure what he meant but Tazuna answered. "Gato has no decency. He'll starve, torture, or kill anyone that stands in the way of his profits. It seems you can buy anything with money, including human life. You need money to fight back, too. Thank Kami your sensei was kind enough to go over his village's head."

Kakashi put himself on the line, Sasuke realized. Tazuna spun a tale about his son and how he was brutalized by Gato set an example. Naruto stormed off and Sakura called his name weakly, looking surprisingly sympathetic.

Sasuke followed him and when he found him, he was clenching his fist, staring at a run-down building. He noticed Sasuke approaching and said, "It's all so…different than I expected."

"What's different?"

"The world," he answered. "Everything. Drugs, torture, violence. How am I supposed to be a Hokage and protect everyone if I don't even understand what I'm protecting them from?"

"You have to learn," Sasuke said, shrugging. "It's just like training, right? If there's an area you're weak in, you have work on it. You'll just have to face the bad parts of the world head-on and not back down. It sounds like something you would do."

Naruto looked surprised and he couldn't blame him. "Sasuke…"

"Never backing down despite being in-over-your-head sounds perfectly suited to an idiot like you," he finished cockily.

Naruto's face contorted into familiar agitation. "You!"

"Loser."

"Jerk!"

Sasuke was happy to note that he seemed to cheer up a bit, not that he would admit it.

On his back after intensive training he at the ever-fragmenting sky, considering what he had seen during his walk around town. So many people were starving and suffering so greatly but the second he left Wave the last time, he had forgotten the extent of their plight.

Tazuna had come to Konoha during its reconstruction with a happy grin and good news. That was the only time he had ever seen Tazuna or heard about Wave's situation in a long time and it was purely by chance.

Everything was so much worse than he ever cared to remember. The story he heard about Wave's hero, Tazuna's son, was more gruesome than he expected.

"His arms were purple; completely destroyed," said Tazuna grimly. "If by some miracle we had saved him, I don't think we could have saved his arms. Such monstrous cruelty…"

Naruto rolled on his side, trying to shake the words from his head.

'Did I turn away from these difficult things? I was worried that not saving my friend would make me an unworthy Hokage, but I might not have taken it seriously. What does it mean to be Hokage? I don't think I've thought about it enough.'

With that, Naruto slipped into unconsciousness. He was roused from his restless sleep when he could feel someone shaking him.

"Are you okay?" a sincere, girly voice asked.

He opened his eyes and saw a beautiful woman in a pink kimono staring with concern. He almost let a "pretty" slip past his lips, but he snapped awake and sat up quickly.

It was Haku! He hadn't seen him in so many years…but he would never forget his face.

"I'm okay," Naruto said with a smile more genuine than any he'd worn the last few days.

Haku relaxed a little. "You looked like you were having a bad dream." Haku paused and looked at him. "That headband…"

Naruto unconsciously played with his headband. "This? It means I'm a ninja from Konoha."

"I see…Are you out here training, perhaps?"

He nodded. "I have to get stronger." He knew this was how the conversation went last time, but he was hanging on every word.

"Why?" Haku asked simply.

Despite knowing the simple question was coming and despite its simplicity, the words gave him pause. "I…want to protect the people I care about."

A smile came to Haku's lips. "We're of like minds. When someone protects someone precious to them, they become truly strong. That's what I believe."

Naruto nodded in contentment. "So, what are you doing here, miss?" The last word slipped out despite him knowing Haku was a man. He couldn't help it. The last time he saw him, he had said Haku was 'prettier than Sakura.'

Haku lifted the basket in his hand. "I'm gathering herbs for my friend. He was hurt recently, but it isn't very bad."

Naruto could have asked about his "friend," but he knew it would be pointless, so he just nodded again. He had heard from his sensei that their battle hadn't lasted as long and neither of them was hurt as badly.

Haku stood up to leave and Naruto panicked a bit. "Wait!"

Haku stopped in surprise and his hand instinctively twitched in preparation for conflict.

"You don't have to leave right away, do you?" Naruto asked.

Haku looked surprised, then conflicted. "I suppose not."

Naruto wanted to ask what he thought about being Hokage, but he found himself more curious about Haku and what he would say. "What's your dream?"

Haku looked surprised, then conflicted again. "I…want to support the dreams of my precious person…"

"Not that!" he reprimanded. "What do you want for yourself? It doesn't have to be big. What kind of hobbies do you have? Maybe it relates to that?"

Haku glanced at the basket in his hand and with a guilty look said, "Actually, I like plants quite a bit. I've studied Herbology extensively and I- I've always wanted a private garden."

"That's awesome! I like gardening, too. I have a plant named Mr. Ukki I was planning to give to Kakashi-sensei."

His face lit up. Why did he say that? He never tells anyone about that. But the giggle that escaped Haku made the blunder worth it.

"I should be so lucky," Haku joked. "I'd love to see Mr. Ukki."

The conversation gradually de-escalated from serious topics as they talked for a while. It was difficult to keep track of time because of the sky, but he was pretty sure it had been only an hour when Haku made to leave again. "I really must be going," he said.

Naruto was sad, but he was overwhelmed by the feeling that he missed something. As Haku stood, he was struck by a memory of their first interaction.

"By the way, I'm a boy," Haku said, causing Naruto's jaw to drop.

'N-No way. He's prettier than Sakura…"

It was something like that, he recalled. Driven by a force he couldn't understand, he wanted to pay a compliment. "You're really pretty!"

Haku's face lit up as he stuttered a "W-What?"

"You're even prettier than Sakura and she's the prettiest girl I know!" Naruto had never had the chance to see Haku blush like this and he was enjoying it. "It's hard to believe you're a guy."

Suddenly, the blush left his skin and he frowned heavily. "Do I look boyish to you?"

Naruto was confused. "That's the opposite of what I said, though."

"I'm leaving!" he said, turning to walk away. "I'm a girl, by the way."

Naruto's jaw dropped. "What!?"

"Idiot," she said with no malice, only sadness. She walked off leaving Naruto reeling.

'How is that possible? Was h-she lying to me the first time? Why would she?'

Naruto was faced with the very real possibility that things had changed beyond what he had influence over.

The boundary between real and imaginary is as thin as the page, and just as easily torn (Magic: The Gathering, Into the Story card text).