Chapter 8- A walk in the woods.

Naruto was wandering around the forests surrounding Konoha. He was in a dilemma. He had left Sasuke, who had essentially become a cripple, following the complete depletion of his chakra from the time-travel jutsu.

Naruto, quite frankly, had no idea where Sasuke was, though, with Sasuke’s power being equivalent to a civilian at this point, he couldn’t have gotten too far.

That being said, Naruto, in a rare moment of salience, remembered his frantic approach to Konoha and the fight between Kurama and Minato. His ramshackle approach had carved a line of broken, uprooted trees and smashed rocks through the forest.

Once he found his trail again, he could backtrack his way to Sasuke, who should be walking the same path, as it led from their original location directly to Konoha.

Naruto was somewhat exhausted following his actions, suppressing both Kurama and Minato had taken an excessive amount of life force, but the jutsus he had envisioned prior to his journey back in time worked perfectly as theorized.

The problem was his recovery. The extensive usage of the life energy he had gained from the God Tree had left his reserves low, and though they were slowly recovering, it would take a while. Naruto could intuitively feel, however, that were he to channel the power of the God Tree, he could indiscriminately pull the life energy from surrounding lifeforms to recover his own power.

Naruto was nauseous at the thought of killing for such a selfish reason. The life energy would slowly return, and he was perfectly willing to allow time for the natural order.

The next concern Naruto had was the sleeping fox on top his head. Kurama had decided to accompany him in the name of “observation” and monitor him for “corruption” from the negative emotions Naruto had stripped from the Kyuubi and then consumed.

The presence was welcome, and Naruto was glad to have the fox nearby. Naruto had sorely missed his life-long companion during their time apart.

The problem was that Kurama had changed in an unpredictable manner. Following the removal of negative emotions from the fox, Kurama had seemingly regressed in maturity, and was, tragically, acting like a spoiled child.

Naruto, when he was younger often sought the fox out as a mentor and sounding board, but now the fox was… somewhat unreliable.

Naruto and the fox continued wandering, and sson enough, Naruto found his previous trail and started backtracking through the woods. To conserve his energy, he simply walked along the furrow. His chakra had reformed, but he found himself extremely out of practive, and should he try to employ it, it would only backfire on him.

So the only option was to walk. Though before he could travel a simple 30 minutes, a voice rang out and the gox atop his head spoke.

“Mortal, I hunger. Deliver the food I am promised.”

Naruto sighed and closed his eyes before pinching his the bridge of his nose.

“Mortal, did you not hear me? I hunger.”

Naruto tried to ignore the fox, but soon enough, Kurama was angrily swishing his tails about, smacking Naruto in the face with each swing. Naruto tried to appease to fox.

“We’re in the woods right now, can you wait until we get to a village?”

“No.”

“Well, there is nothing to eat here, so you’ll just have to wait.”

That was not the correct answer. Kurama seemed to take exception to the refusal. The fox twisted his head and body before chomping on Naruto’s ear.

“OW, LET GO, I GET IT, YOU’LL GET SOME FOOD!”

Kurama let go and seemed pleased with himself. His masterful negotiation tactics were still on point. He fondly remembered his younger days, when he was honing his skills. That Tanuki had found a ripe peach in the forest and Kurama had beaten the Tanuki into semi-consciousness before eating the fruit. It was the sweetest peach he had ever had before or since.

“You could avoid the pain if you keep your word next time.”

Naruto grumbled and took a quick glance around him. It was mid October, and it was a time of plenty in the forest. A nearby bush seemed to be covered in small, red berries. Naruto pointed it out to the demon fox.

“Right there, some berries. Eat your fill.”

Kurama rebutted.

“No. I want something else.”

“Well what do you want then?”

“Not that.”

“Chakra?”

“I am made of chakra. Why would I want to eat chakra?”

“If you’re made of chakra, how do you even get hungry?

Kurama remained silent. Naruto was exasperated.

“You can’t even get hungry can you?”

Kurama mulled over his thoughts. He had hungered in a figurative sense before the negative emotions were removed. It was a scratch the couldn’t quite be scratched unless he leveled a mountain or two. Maybe destroy a small town or decimate a herd of deer. He felt called to destruction, and couldn’t forsake his insticts.

Since he had lost the negative emotions, he supposed that he hadn’t felt the same type of hunger. There was still an itch he couldn’t scratch, but he wasn’t sure why. Unable to properly express him to the man before him, Kurama decided to skillyfully switch the subject.

“Brush my fur, mortal.”

Naruto decided that his best option was to ignore the fox. Without responding to the unreasonable Bijuu, he continued to follow the path of destruction that would lead him back to Sasuke.

However, Kurama had other plans, and started pawing at the man’s nose.

“Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey”

Naruto grabbed the fox with both hands, holding it in front of him at arms length.

“What do you want Kurama?”

“Brush my fur, mortal.”

“Why should I?”

“To fulfill your promise.”

Kurama had him there. Even on a matter as trivial as this, Naruto was loath to go back on his word. Some old memories flashed through his mind.

He and Neji didn’t start out on the best terms. Neji had almost killed Hinata during the chuunin exams, and when Naruto faced him in the tournament, he was almost defeated.

Naruto remembered coughing up blood from his injuries as he proclaimed his beliefs.

“I won’t run away, and I don’t go back on my word. That’s my nindo, my ninja way!”

Neji died under the attacks of the Ten-tails while protecting Naruto and Hinata.

“Why are you willing to throw away your life for me?”

“Because you told me I’m a genius.”

Naruto didn’t understand Neji’s answer at the time. However, Neji’s life force lingered in the area following his death. It was naturally sucked up into the God Tree later on, and Naruto would suffer the agony of living Neji’s last moments on repeat.

Neji died happy. He sacrificed himself to save Naruto the same way his father had sacrificed himself to save Hiashi. It was a worthy death for a shinobi, who deaths are often random and meaningless.

Neji remembered his fight with Naruto as he died. He remembered the gutsy ninja who declared that he would never give up to spite the fact that Neji had called him a failure. Neji thought of his father.

“Father, I finally understand your feelings, the freedom you felt when you chose to die to protect your precious people.”

The caged bird Neji Hyuga had finally found the freedom he so desired.

And Naruto let him down. He didn’t defeat Kaguya, he wasn’t able to protect Hinata, he couldn’t protect anyone, he went back on his word, and Neji died for nothing.

Naruto was still holding Kurama at arm’s length in front of him.

“Fair enough Kurama, at least this promise is one I can keep.”

“Good, you are only as good as your word.”

“That’s something we agree on.”

Naruto sat down beside the path and placed the fox in his lap. He sat there are ran his hand through the fox’s surprisingly soft fur. He picked out the small twigs and leaves that had accrued and straightened the fur.

Kurama had fallen asleep, but Naruto didn’t notice, his hands idly continued to brush the fox’s fur. Naruto’s gaze was off in the distance, unfocused, and his mind was elsewhere, remembering things that he would rather forget but couldn’t dare to.

Naruto didn’t notice the approach of Sasuke, who was slowly walking the path from the opposite direction that Naruto had come. The two of them had met in the middle.

The first thing that Sasuke noticed was the nine-tailed fox curled up and asleep in Naruto’s lap. The second thing he noticed was Naruto’s face.

Naruto’s eyes were glassy and unfocused, with tears streaming down his face. Sasuke couldn’t imagine what his friend was going through right now, so he couldn’t figure out how to help or support Naruto through his struggle.

All he could do was wait. Sasuke sat down next to Naruto, kept him company, and waited for the man to come back.

The fox awoke first, and quickly scanned Sasuke from head to toe. Kurama detected no chakra from the new mortal that entered his presence, and summarily dismissed the man as no threat. The man who had interrupted his fight with Minato was still brushing his fur, and even Kurama had to admit it felt nice. He had been feeling quite tired recently, and once again glanced at the new mortal before falling back asleep.

Sasuke continued to wait.

Naruto eventually woke from his stupor, well into the next day. The sun was shining, and the nice, fall day had a certain crisp feel to it. He quickly noticed Sasuke who was still sitting beside him, keeping him company.

Naruto wiped his eyes and addressed his friend.

“Sorry for the wait. Got caught up in some memories.”

Sasuke nodded, and Naruto continued.

“I was trying to find you, but it looks like you found me instead.”

Sasuke agreed with him before changing the subject.

“We need to adjust out plans at this point. The ultimate goal is defeating Kaguya, but it looks like we are going to have to play it by ear. Our knowledge of the past is not particularly useful since our mere presence in this time period will change the events of our lives in ways we can’t predict.”

Naruto replied.

“What if we keep a low profile?”

Sasuke almost smiled.

“That is the nine-tailed fox on your lap is it not?”

Naruto smiled with a little embarrassment and a whole lot of chagrin.

“Point taken.”

Sasuke continued.

“Hagoromo said that the only way to seal Kaguya is with the power of Indra and Asura. With your chakra being stolen by Kaguya, you no longer have that power, and when we got here, I felt the power of Indra that laid within me melt away and fade back into the world. It seems that there can only be a single incarnation within a single world”

Naruto asked with a frown

“So you’re saying that we can’t do anything to stop Kaguya?”

Sasuke replied.

“We can’t, but our younger selves still have an opportunity. The only way to defeat Kaguya at this point is to ensure that our younger counterparts in this timeline have enough strength to do so.”

Naruto nodded, and Sasuke continued.

“We will have our work cut out for us. We’re already at a net negative effect, and it will not be easy to insert ourselves into our younger selves lives. We have no background, no references, and no resources. We are starting from zero. I don’t have chakra for at least another 5 or 6 years. Luckily, we do have a couple things going for us, you have your chakra, and the God Tree is supplying you enough life energy alone to bring you to Kage level. I could feel the fluctuations of your jutsu from miles away.

Naruto furrowed his brows.

“Two points, One, what do you mean we’re at a net negative?”

Sasuke looked at Naruto.

“That is the nine-tailed fox on your lap is it not?”

Naruto cringed and changed the subject.

“Point two, I kinda used up my life energy and it won’t come back for another 5 or 6 years too, and… how do I say this… “

Sasuke said

“Straightforwardly would be best.”

Naruto let out a nervous laugh and scratched the back of his head.

“Well, my chakra control has kinda regressed to about my level when I was still in the academy.”

Sasuke let out a breath, and if Naruto didn’t know better, he might think it was a sigh.

“Like I said, we have our work cut out for us.”