Yellow Thread

Naruto, Sasuke, Hinata and Shikamaru have woken up in Iwa with a second set of memories. Time Travel & Parallel Universe.

They say there's a parallel universe for every variation. What could've gone differently?

There were a few things Naruto noticed when he woke up.

One, he wasn't dead. He should be dead; no one could've survived Tobi's jutsu.

Two, this was not his body. It was similar enough, the blue eyes and blonde hair, but he looked far more like his father. He was practically a replica.

Three, he was not in Kohona.

A/N: Been stuck in my head for days. Wouldn't get out until I wrote it. Papa Kakashi! Will be uploaded tomorrow. This chaper is basically an introductory chap, so you know what's going on! A lottt of conversation, not much action.

Warnings!

It will be confusing at first. Bear with it, it gets easier to understand.

This story includes a Parallel universe and time-travel.

Naruto is going to be extremely confused in distinguishing which memories are which. I'll try to make it as clear as I can.

Mizuki is 20! I did check hehe.

Naruto, although he'll still be his quirky self at times, will sometime be OOC.

In canon his personality was practically a replica of his mother's. In this he'd inherited his father's personality and the personality he's been molded to have (sociology & psychology jargon here blab la) so yeah, don't tell me he's OOC cause I know. (don't worry, he'll be his loud lovable self as well)

I, of course, do not own Naruto! Enjoy!

Chapter One- Who am I?

Naruto woke to a blinding headache. As he opened his eyes, he was thankful the room he was in was blissfully dim.

Wait, room?

The last setting he remembered was the bloody shell of Kohona...he muffled a scream into his pillow as memories, foreign memories rushed through his brain at an alarming speed. The small blonde's body was still whilst he recovered, until he felt the familiar warning signs that he was going to be sick. Speed wasn't an issue as he bolted to the toilet and tried to ignore the burning sensation from the bile. He realised he hadn't eaten in a while.

Kurama, what the hell is going on?

He blinked and ran his small hand shakily over his stomach. It was empty. Not from the lack of food, but from the missing seal. He was talking to no one. He screwed his eyes shut and concentrated over the other images. It was like shutting one file and opening another.

That right, I never had the Kyuubi.

Running a small hand over the rocky surface of the room he realised where he was; and with growing panic he realised that none of these...images were remotely similar to his own. The walls suddenly seemed smaller, even in his childhood he'd never felt so alone.

"Naruto?"

He whirled around with frightened eyes and met the sight of a familiar white-haired man.

...Mizuki?

"Tou-san?"

Tou-san? He's...my father. But I know for a fact he's not my father. What the hell is going on?

"There's a good boy. I was worried; I thought I'd taken your training too far." Naruto's 'father' tried to look worried, but Naruto knew he wasn't. Mizuki was sickeningly manipulative. Looking over his memories, he scowled as he realised he'd never suspected the man before. He'd been wonderfully naive.

How is he even alive?

"No...no, I'm okay." He frowned at the sound of his voice. It wasn't the scratchy, loud voice he was used to hearing. It was soft, almost gentle...and childish. He took a deep breath, he realised he couldn't let the man know anything was amiss. He was in an extremely dangerous position.

"That's good." The man smiled. It wasn't a nice smile. "Your little friends are fine too, if you were wondering. You're the last one to wake up."

My...friends?

Naruto's eyes widened as he remembered his three closest friends. He almost cried in relief as he realised he wasn't alone.

Sasuke...Hinata...Shikamaru...what the hell have we gotten ourselves into?

"Naruto?" Mizuki actually looked worried now. He placed a large, warm hand on the blonde's forehead. "Shit, maybe you do have somethin' wrong with your brain. I knew we pushed ya' too much." The man's hand lit up with green chakra. Naruto flinched away and his 'father' raised an eyebrow. From Naruto's second set of memories, he knew he would've jumped at any sort of affection the man gave him, but he knew Mizuki. This man wasn't his father, he was a traitorous bastard.

"N-nothing. I'm fine, just feeling a little sick." Act normal, act normal! The man sighed and pulled away.

"Well, alright. Go grab some food when you want it." He peered back and smiled again. It made Naruto's skin crawl. "We'll train tomorrow. I have a special surprise for you." Naruto suppressed a shudder.

That doesn't sound good.

"Hai, tou-san." He tried his hardest to make a smile, but it just looked like a grimace. He didn't suppress a sigh of relief as the man left. Crawling over to his bed, he tried to sort out his memories. They were disjointed and unclear, it was scary. He first looked at his hand. It was tiny.

Alright, I'm six years old. How am I six?

The last thing he remembered from his past life, as he decided to deem it, was being killed by Tobi. With a scowl of annoyance, he realised he'd never gotten to see under the mask. Hinata, Sasuke and Shikamaru had been there too. Sasuke had changed sides at the last minute; Hinata and Shikamaru were the closest members of the rookie nine. They'd tried to save him.

I wonder if they're the same as me? Or are they still normal?

He smiled slightly as he remembered this life's close relationship with Sasuke. This Sasuke was nothing like the one in his past-life. This Sasuke was nicer. This Sasuke looked after him.

Alright, enough of that. Where am I?

Iwa. It was enough to make him cry out in fear. They were still at war with Kohona, the Yondaime was his dad. This life hadn't known that, however. He had a sudden identity crisis; he'd been told Kohona was his enemy since he could speak.

Not...my memories!

His head hurt far too much to figure out anymore. His stomach growled loudly, protesting against being empty for so long. He grimaced and decided it would be a good time to get some lunch. He exited his small, barely furnished room and closed the door lightly. From experience, he knew to keep his head down and look no one in the eye. He hadn't known why the Iwa-nin disliked him so intensely, but now he knew. He was the son of the Yondaime, hated in every household in Iwa. He felt sad for a moment; it seems a good childhood just wasn't meant for him. Naruto opened to door to the kitchen and his eyes widened in delight. Only three familiar figures occupied the kitchen and dining area.

"Naruto?" The voice was familiar. The dark spiky hair was painfully familiar. Sasuke.

"Nii-san!" Naruto could barely control himself as he ran to Sasuke and gripped him in a hug. Sasuke froze and awkwardly patted his head. A meaningful look was sent to the other two presences at the table. Sasuke gripped Naruto's forearms and pushed him away; he needed to look the blonde in the eye.

"Naruto, do you remember Tobi and Akatsuki?" Sasuke was worried. Hinata and Shikamaru remembered and it had been easy to tell, but the dobe called him nii-san. Sure, he could remember fuzzy images in which it was a natural occurrence, he loved the blonde, but his first life's memories were much more prominent that Naruto's.

"Ano...yeah, I remember." The three figures let out a sigh of relief. Sasuke frowned in concern as Naruto's gentle blue eyes shadowed with sadness. "Sasuke...can I still call you nii-san?" The Uchiha froze. And then he smiled genuinely.

"Yeah. You can still call me that." He paused. "Dobe."

"Teme!"

"As touching as this reunion is, we need a game plan." Shikamaru shook his head. "Troublesome." Naruto sat at the table with the other three. He scowled upon finding out he was the smallest, his feet didn't even touch the floor.

Damn, why am I always the runt?

"Naruto, do you know what's going on?" Hinata spoke in a hushed tone. They couldn't let anyone hear their conversation. The blonde furrowed his browns in annoyance.

"No...I'm hungry though." Sasuke rolled his eyes and grabbed his adoptive brother a piece of bread.

"Here, eat that until the food cooks."

"Okay! Thanks nii-san!" Naruto smiled cutely and broke the read into small pieces before eating them. As weird as it was, Sasuke felt genuinely happy.

Hn. Must be the Jutsu- or whatever the hell this is.

"I remember dying. And pain...a lot of it." Naruto said between bites. The other three froze; their deaths were still crystal clear in their minds, whilst Naruto's was blissfully blurry.

"Um...s-so we died and ended up...here?" Hinata asked, twiddling her fingers. This caught Naruto's attention; he thought that Hinata was really cute as a kid. She looked different though, her hair was a lighter shade of blue and it was slightly wavy. He shrugged, maybe it dried weird.

"So it seems. Which bring us to the question, where exactly is here?"

"Iwa." Naruto added unhelpfully.

"Leave it to the dobe to state the obvious." Naruto thumped Sasuke's shoulder angrily.

"Troublesome." Shikamaru cradled his head, he had a headache too. "I spoke to a chunin earlier. He was surprised we were alive." This caught the other three's attention.

"Alive?" They asked simultaneously. Shikamaru nodded.

"Yeah. Can't remember what, but something went wrong in training. Apparently we were...brain dead." Everyone stopped as Naruto started shaking. Sasuke put his hand lightly on his brother's arm.

"Naruto?" Sasuke voice seemed to make Naruto snap out of it.

"I...remember the training." They looked at him expectantly. "I don't want to talk about it!" Sasuke's eyes widened at Naruto's snappy tone. The Naruto he knew and from the blurry memories hardly ever used it. He was extremely worried but didn't push the subject.

Shikamaru sighed, they weren't getting anywhere. He did have an obscure theory of what may have happened.

"Okay, so we got killed by Tobi." The other three nodded. "We technically died here too." More nods.

"So we've what, switched bodies? Travelled back in time?" Sasuke asked, but knew there was more. Why would we be in Iwa? And...What's happened to my clan?

"I think that's part of it. I also think...this may be a completely alternative timeline. A parallel universe of sorts. I have no idea how we got here though." Hinata bit her lip and nodded. She'd been having the same ideas. Shikamaru frowned in concentration.

"Naruto, do you have the Kyuubi?" Naruto froze and shook his head. "So technically, if you don't have the Kyuubi, there's a possibility it never attacked?"

"Where are you going with this, Shika?" Sasuke surprised himself by addressing the genius so familiarly. It just seemed to roll off his tongue.

"From my, well, this body's memories, I've gathered that we're at war with Kohona." His eyes widened as he realised he just referred to himself as an Iwa citizen. "I mean, we're at war with Iwa."

"Yeah, that's been worrying me too. 'm seven, the war should've ended like, nine years ago."

"I know. I think the history we know is completely useless to us now." The troubling thought made silence fall upon the table. They were just glad they had retained some memories of this life; they weren't sure what they would've done otherwise.

"Ano...what are we doing here? I-I remember being here and thinking this was home, but I don't remember why..." Hinata's soft voice spoke what the others were thinking but hadn't asked. Why weren't they in Kohona, with their parents?

"It's just a theory, but Iwa hates Kohona, right? What other way to get back at them than to steal a couple and clan kids and the Yondaime's son? Not to mention your dojutsu's." Sasuke snorted.

"Well, alright, I get Naruto, Hinata and me, but why steal a Nara?"

"Typical Uchiha attitude, how troublesome. The Nara's are influential as well, in case you've forgotten. Our intelligence is highly rated."

"Hn. Yeah, whatever." Sasuke's prideful attitude earned him a playful smack from the blonde. Shikamaru's hand clenched in anger, but it wasn't aimed at Sasuke.

"We've been trained up...to kill Kohona-nins. It's the ultimate insult, two children from Kohona's most powerful clans using their dojutsu's to kill their own people. Not to mention Naruto's presence on the battlefield would cause a stir- you're practically a replica of the hokage." Shikamaru paused to examine the blonde. "Even more so than you were...then." Sasuke turned to study his brother as well.

"I see it. Dobe, you look girly." The blonde froze and then erupted with anger.

"Nani? Who you calling girly! You're girly! You and you stupid pretty hair!" The Uchiha smirked.

"Hn? So you think my hair's pretty?" The blonde blushed in embarrassment.

"No, shut up, you're ugly."

"Che, whatever you say."

"Guys? Back to the main topic here?" Naruto and Sasuke raised a brow. For a lazy guy, Shikamaru was getting awfully worked up.

"Sorry. You're right though, Shika! I think...I think we need ta' get out of here. Before they make us kill people." Naruto whispered conspicuously. The other three children froze as more memories became clear.

"We...already have." Sasuke was quiet for a moment, until his fist connected with the table. "Dammit! Who do they think they are?" Naruto and Hinata froze from the famous Uchiha glare, Shikamaru stared, unaffected.

"Calm down, Sasuke. You'll attract attention with all the noise." The raven haired boy calmed down. "Tch, troublesome."

"Nii-san? What do you think we should do?" Sasuke turned his attention to the cute blonde. He liked Naruto calling him nii-san. He felt like an older brother, he imagined the protective impulse was what led Itachi to spare him, the whole love and affection stuff helped too.

"Get out of here, get back to Kohona. I'm not letting some Iwa scum getting their hands on my sharingan. In my body or out." Hinata nodded.

"Ano...I agree. I d-don't have the clan's seal. If I died..."

"Alright, we should start making plans. This is a big fortress; it's going to be tough." The lazy-nin groaned with the thought of the effort that would go into the operation. "While we're at it, we should write down our...this body's memories. We don't want to miss anything important." The other three nodded.

"I-I feel bad...we're taking their place. They hardly got a chance to live..." Hinata was the most troubled by the recent body switch. She found it inherently unfair she was allowed to live, whilst the alternate Hinata died.

"Don't think about that Hina-chan! It's not our fault!" The heiress blushed furiously at her crush's gentle smile. It wasn't the same as the foxy grin for her past life, but she loved it all the same. At least she didn't faint. Sasuke resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

"Ano...thank you, Naruto-kun."

"No problem!" The former vessel paused. "Do you...think our parents are waiting for us?" The heartbroken tone made the three friends freeze. Sasuke squeeze his younger brother's shoulder reassuringly. He really did like this side of himself. He might just keep it.

"I'm sure they are Naruto. I know for a fact the Yondaime's alive." Shikamaru smirked. "They don't shut up about him." Naruto chuckled.

"Yep, that's my tou-san!"

"What about me?" The adult voice made the children freeze. Naruto whirled around. Mizuki.

"Ano...we were just talking about the time you threw all those kunai dead on!" Naruto smile was forced, but thankfully Mizuki didn't notice. "It was really cool!"

"Thanks, brat. " Mizuki ruffled the blonde's hair; Sasuke barely bit back a growl. He relaxed upon the warning look sent by the Nara. "Now, I was going to tell you tomorrow, but I'm sure you're too excited to wait."

Oh, yeah, I'm so damn excited! Get off my hair, you freak!

"Y-yeah! What is it, tou-san?" Naruto hated calling this man father. This man was most likely the one who stole him from his father. A kid instead of a forbidden scroll, Naruto couldn't help his rage. Thankfully, he was better at masking his emotions.

"You have your first mission, kid." The sentence made the children's hair stand on end. Sasuke's hands were trembling underneath the table.

They're gonna' make dobe kill someone!

"O-oh." Naruto wasn't sure he could handle saying more. Mizuki raised an eyebrow.

"Just 'oh'? Aren't you excited? You get to kill Kohona scum!" He ruffled his hair again. "Just like I trained you to do."

"I-I guess I'm just nervous." Mizuki rolled his eyes. His disregard to Naruto's feelings made the blonde's blood boil in rage.

"Well, you want to make me proud don't you?" Naruto gave a small nod. "Then don't feel nervous. Nerves are for weaklings. You, Naruto are not a weakling." He smile was condescending. It screamed, 'dont mess this up.' "Are you?"

"No sir." Naruto shook his head. In his other life, he would've kicked this man's ass by now. He hated how utterly...powerless he felt against him. He hated that he used to think he loved the guy, he had been led to believe, after all, this man was his father. He feared him, hated him and...wanted to love him at the same time. It was making Naruto's head spin.

"Good boy." Mizuki started to walk out the door. "Have fun." He waved goodbye without glancing at his 'son'. Naruto knew he shouldn't be, but he was upset.

"...Hai."

Moments passed until the four made sure they were alone without any eavesdroppers, they still dropped their voice however.

"We need to get out, now! I'm not having the dobe kill someone." Sasuke hissed under his breath. Shikamaru raised an eyebrow.

Interesting. Gone from traitor and murderer to 'big brother'.

"I agree. I'll start coming up with the plan." Shikamaru stared intensely at the table. The others knew that he was thinking, going through a hundred scenarios a second. He was, after all, a genius. Hinata looked over when a bell rang. Food was ready.

"I-I'll go get that." She got up quickly, eager to escape the tension at the table. Sasuke looked in concern at Naruto. He was being uncharacteristically quiet.

"Naruto? What's wrong?" The blonde didn't glance up from the hands in his lap.

"I just...I'm just confused. I'll get over it." He flashed another gentle smile. "Mizuki just really annoys me." The made Sasuke grunt in agreement.

"I nearly ripped his arm off when he touched your hair." Naruto look surprised and then flashed a large, genuine smile. It felt nice having Sasuke concerned about him, and not trying to, well, kill him. Sasuke was apparently thinking the same thing. "Our past lives...I don't think we should talk about them." Shikamaru raised an eyebrow.

"Why? Ashamed?" Sasuke growled in anger and gripped the table.

"No! I'm just saying, if anyone hears we'll be in trouble. We shouldn't use Jutsu we shouldn't know either." Shikamaru nodded in agreement.

"That would be troublesome." The four children dug into their rice when Hinata set it on the table. It seemed she had taken the sister role. Shikamaru's eyes lit up with a sudden epiphany and he set his chopsticks down.

"We'll move before Naruto's mission. I have a plan."