※ 回想記の夢 ・ A Memoir of a Dream ※

by: Fehize

[x]

There was nothing except for the pitter patter of the late evening shower. Everywhere, and all around, there were signs of things that were coming the following morning. Some men and women were outside, fixing up the series of ladders that were meant to be used to fix wooden roofs into a manageable state. Other people were happily sitting underneath an oaken porch, admiring the dying sun's rays kiss the world around them. Such a sight was unusual, but not rare. Sometimes, a storm would end with the red and golden sun leaving it's lasting impression. However, most of the youngsters who lived in the town were too busy to lay back and watch the sunset with awe and wonder.

Most.

On a far end of the Konoha village resided the not-too progressive side. This was the area where those with a desire to achieve more never went farther than their front door. However, even these people had hope. They were a family at the very least. Yet, this air was never the same for a small child. Certainly, in the terms of this certain person's mind, he was not a child, but a full-fledged ninja! He was going to be the next biggest thing since...well, since RAMEN itself!

Yet, today was not a day to shout his proclamation to whoever wanted to hear. Today, the said child was sitting on the top of monuments that bared the faces of five, most now long since passed, rulers. The brown, worn mountain side was often the area where this child went to think by himself. Sometimes, it was about what his purpose in life was. Other times, it was to snicker at the latest victims of his practical jokes. At this hour, however, was more of the first option.

A soft wind picked up, with the drizzle still hitting the golden hair, dripping down towards the pale flesh of the small figure. To the wind itself, this child's posture was not something it normally was. In fact, there was water there on the face that had nothing to do with the falling rain. Those bright, blue eyes that were normally filled with care and determination were closed at the moment. Thoughts were screaming past the figure, more thoughts than normal. On top of that, one of his friends had disdained him for a failure that was his entire fault. He was not ready, and that enough was to cause him his own sense of mental grief.

Clenching his hand together, he rammed it against his face to hurriedly dry away any tears that were still there. Sasuke...Sakura...Even Kakashi. I'm sorry I failed. Yet, even while he was trying to make himself seem better off physically, there was still that small sense of worry in the inside. He decided not to hang around his friends or peers for a while as he had his own thoughts to think of. Even if I did fail...I...I MUST make sure that I won't fail again...My friends are like family, and...I can't bear to think of...

His thoughts trailed away at that moment as a figure managed to land right next to him with a small sigh. "Naruto...I know you are upset, but come on! Even you can't be this sad for so long, right? Where is your fire, and your dreams? It's been a few weeks already, and..."

The blond hair child - no, it was better to say 'teenager' if anything - turned around to face the other blonde woman in front of him. Her face was set in a tone of worry, but her eyes were trying to bore some of this teenager's old fire back within him. "B...But Baa-chan...I..."

"NARUTO! I, as well as everyone else you hold dear, am worried greatly about you! You haven't been accepting any missions, you've been lying around your apartment until just recently, and even I don't see you running around my room. Do you have any idea..." the woman paused for a moment before giving the boy called Naruto a smile, "...that without you there to bug me, I have managed to complete more paperwork?"

It was a start, but the woman had managed to get the unknown spirit of Konoha burning once again.

[x]

A couple of days have passed since that day, and a certain teenager was walking just outside the edges of the village. He wasn't going too far away, for the enemies from afar were always bound to be near. The biggest threat, of course, was the ones who wore black cloaks with wispy, red clouds. Those clothing styles made it seem to be as if they were one with a demonic sky and wind itself; red out of the amount of death they have brought upon.

I wonder what Baa-chan is doing? he wondered with a slight yawn. Scratching his head, he blinked a few times before deciding to head back towards the village. After all, night was beginning to fall once more and he wanted to be indoors and feel nice and safe and warm and toasty. Not to mention, think - much more determined - about how to rescue his friend from that...thing.

After placing some Chakra into his feet, he decided to go on ahead and run off towards his dorm...

Before crashing right into a figure. "OWWW!" he cried out, rubbing his head back and forth, fast, as if trying to calm himself down from a pain that won't go away with a simple rub.

"It's the Kyuubi!" came a cry out from the background. "Grab him!"

Two strong arms picked up the body of Naruto as he tried to go on off and lunge them off of him. "To think it was easier than we thought it was..."

"Shut it! Grab him!"

Something hit him at the back of the head. The last thing that he could register in his brain was black cloaks with the tinge of some color, but blackness had already claimed him.

[x]

"Ugh..." groaned a small mutter from the teenager with the blond hair and the blue eyes. Naruto opened his eyes slowly, admiring the time to take in the view all around. Slowly, the scenery was sharpening, and the dull pounding in his head slowed down just the slightest. There was still the horrible pain on the back of his head, but it seemed to be that everything was going back to normal.

Well, as normal as it can get with his body apparently lying down in a room of white that screamed out 'hospital!'

"Hey, he's awake," came the sound of someone highly amused.

With a slight moan, the teenager called Naruto turned around to face the figure that was in front of him. The man had long hair, as well as a smile that was plastered all over his face. He was rather young looking, but with a simple nod of his head, he turned around to face someone who was currently out of Naruto's line of sight. What's going on here? With a slight movement, he allowed his body to raise just a bit higher off the bedding; the white sheets being removed away at the slightest. That was when he realized that he was bandaged up his arms, but they were doing rather well. OK! What the HELL is going on here!

That was when his eyes widened up to the size of small saucers. Right in front of him was a man that had bright, hopeful eyes as his own! Pulling his gaze out, he noticed the blond hair had the same mop-like appearance as Naruto's own. A dark green vest was wrapped around his upper torso area with a dark shirt underneath. However, it was not those details that caught him off guard. It was the fact that the man was...

The...the YONDAIME! What the hell! ARGGG! This can't be happening! "Little guy, you alright? You make it seem as if you have seen a ghost, eh?" With a happy grin, the man - the YONDAIME - placed his body next to the chair that resided near the window.

"Ah, you must be confused as to where you are. You know, I have never seen your face as a Genin before..." With a little shake and another carefree smile squiggled down upon his face. "You are a very lucky person, you know. We found you right outside inside the outer wall, slumped over and almost beaten up. Those markings on your face..." he began with a little point towards Naruto's cheeks, "were pale, but freshened RIGHT up in about seven days or so."

"SEVEN DAYS!" cried out the blond teen as stunned blue eyes met calm and caring ones. AHH! First, the Yondaime is HERE, TALKING to ME, and NOW I have been out for...SEVEN DAYS! Holy KAMI! He was still panting when the adult man only gave a small chuckle.

"You know, if it wasn't for the fact we saw you injured, I wouldn't believe that you saved from near death..." The voice of THE Yondaime seemed to get serious near the end, but those eyes...Those blue, bright eyes seemed to have some sort of hidden sadness in them. Not a very keen sadness, but a more general one. Like one that was given to someone that you only slightly knew...

No DUH, Naruto! He's the YONDAIME! WHERE THE HELL AM I! It was not helping at all that the idiot of a fur ball was not talking to him, or responding to anything at all. It was odd, but then again, as was everything else that was going on in this current moment.

"The medic-nins managed to get everything all nice and cleaned up, you know. The only injuries they couldn't seem to treat were these little markings here..." the man said, pointing at the teen's face, "but, I guess it's nothing major to be worried about." A smile once more lit up the face. "I mean, you seem to have excellent healing capabilities!"

Naruto was taking this conversation in as something one-sided. The YONDAIME was still there, talking as if this was something that was known as something normal, and that there was nothing wrong. Well, nothing majorly wrong. "Y...You are the...the Y-Yondai...me..." the worked up teenager managed to stutter out. It wasn't a question. It was a matter of fact.

However, hat only brought up a moment of silence before there was the hand of a certain Yondaime, covering is mouth. After a few, crucial moments, there ensued the snickering of one person towards another. Finally, after five seconds or so, the man who Naruto had once looked up to – and still does, the man who sealed the Demon within him, laughed.

A LOT.

"Me! A Yondaime!" he chuckled; those blue eyes lightening up the room. Naruto, the blond teenager still lying down on the hospital bed, had no idea that when he laughed like that, his eyes did the same thing. "Listen, kid, I may be a Jounin, but I am not a Hokage!" Placing his hand down back towards his lap, he moved his face a bit closer to give the teenager a sighed, yet happy look. "Besides, the Sandaime hasn't even left his post yet. You are thinking a little bit too ahead of yourself, you know," the man finished. He got up, stretching his legs and nodded. "It's Minato. Minato Namikaze!"

"Oi, Minato-sensei." Naruto could only blink at the oddness of everything. The door towards his room slowly creaked open when a different figure entered the room. Silver hair spiked up in odd means and a mask was hanging around where the lower face should have been.A small mental cry echoed in his head, but Naruto's subconciousness supressed it. It was alreayd processing OTHER, important things and did not want to input new information in this crazed ordeal. "It seems that the child has awakened up," the kid stated. The new words made him jolt more so. "Now is the time to ask questions, I believe, or later if you desire. In the mean time, Minato-sensei, I will go train."

With that, he was gone, leaving Naruto confused. He could swear he looked like...Kakashi(?) - albeit, smaller - but his tone of voice hinted something like what old Sasuke was... 'I am holier than thou.' Ahhh! What's going on! he screamed, clutching his hands towards his forehead. This action, however, led to the fact that...Minato looked at him with an even more worry filling those eyes. Wh...Why does he look like me? he cried out as well in his head. "Hey, are you alright, little guy?"

With those words coming towards him, the blond teenager only gave a false smile. "Ah...a headache," he lied. He most DEFINATELY needed time to get his thoughts gathered together. He was panting and screaming in his head, and there was no Fox there to help explain at this current moment.

"Well, that's good. I'll explain what happened when we found you, and you can explain back next time." Walking towards the door, he turned around and gave a nod. "I hope you can get better soon! And I hope I can find your team sometime soon, little guy." With a little air of...something Naruto couldn't sense, the adult man reached the door and opened it with his hand. On a second thought, he turned around right before he was going to leave. "Hey, I forgot to ask something. What's your name? I can't keep on saying things like 'little kid' all the time."

Normally, Naruto would hate it if someone called him that. After all, he had someeeee little bit of growth in the past few months. However, his thoughts were occupied elsewhere. "Uh...Na...Naruto. Naruto Uzuma..." No...think! Don't use something like that! You have no idea where the hell you are! Or what's going on! "Uzumamein!" he finished with an inward sigh.

The Yondaime - no, Minato - stopped for a few moments, giving him a confused look, before giving a little nod to continue off towards the hallway. Once a couple of minutes passed in pure silence, Naruto did the next best thing one could do in a situation like this:

Bang one's head against a pillow and scream your lungs out.

[x]

A foot fell down on some grass as the figure continued to walk down an area that looked like something akin to a park. What this place was, though, was a training ground. After all, what better place to help your students? Today, however, was different. Today was the start of some new discussion that couldn't get finished in the past few days.

"So, Minato-sensei," began Kakashi with a little nod. "What did you get out of him? I already asked around, and I have yet to hear of someone who is missing a member of a squad."

"But...with all that has been going on lately, I think he could be the sole survivor of one squad..." began a female who was sitting near the edge of a training log. The bark was slightly peeled away, showing that someone before had trained on this log many, many times.

"We already went through those scenarios. It would be unreasonable if the enemies came so close towards the Konoha gates without us noticing first." This came up from the once called Obito Uchiha.

Minato gave a slight sigh. This whole troubling, yet slightly enlightening, experience was caused when they first ran into that poor figure of a child in the middle of training sessions. It was almost as if he appeared straight out of thin air! The teenager/child looked as if he was hanging on a state of near death. There were some major gashes, but not a single minor one. However, the nurses had all claimed that by the third day or so, most of them have already healed up! "His name is...Naruto Uzumamein," he responded.

Uzumamein. Now there was a name that was not to be expected. The last he heard, there was not any clan called Uzumamein living in Konoha, nor were there that many clans that had blue-eyed and sun-kiss blond hair. "It's almost as if he's a mini-me..." he muttered out, too soft for anyone else to hear.

"Anyways, I am going to go on out and check the rosters for anyone by that name. You three...just make sure not to hurt each other much..." he ended with a little sigh. However, with a smile once more on his face, he turned around and began to head towards the Hokage office. Most information about such things he needed could be found there. Uzumamein...that's sounds pretty...unique. With a name like that, it should be rather easy to see where the child came from.

[x]

What is Oyako? It stands for a father and son fluff/cuteness/stuff that makes my brain go 'D'AWWWW'.
Not inscene, or yaoi, etc. And don't espect it until...secret.

Thanks for EVERYONE who made this story have SOOO many favorites and reviews!
-Fehize

Naruto is NOT owned by me, nor do I claim it. It's owned by those people/that person...in Japan. Yeah. -sweats-

P.S. Updated again to fix what FF had done to the layout, making it almost impossible to read. -sweats-