15Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. This is just for fun and not for profit.
Summary: An attack by an old enemy leads Naruto and his family on a new adventure. Part of the Dreams Universe Futurefic NaruSaku
Note: Naruto and Sakura's oldest daughter and son's names have changed to Kushina and Minato respectively. They were intended to match the names of Naruto's parents, which I've learned since writing the last chapter.
Scattered Dreams
The scene that greeted Hatake Kakashi as he returned to his home village filled him with disappointment and shame as a teacher. One of his students was assaulting another, and she showed no sign of stopping anytime soon. He had already started moving when a woman with long hair that was half a shade darker than Sakura's swooped in and caught the girl's wrist in a firm grip.
Normally, Kakashi was very sure-footed, but seeing someone moving that fast with that coat caused the great Copy Ninja to stumble before flickering to his students' sides. His curiosity was pricked when he saw the woman's flashing green eyes and looked at the other pink haired person in front of him and saw many similarities. He did notice that the older woman had veteran eyes, too knowledgeable for anyone other than those who had seen death far too many times.
"Excuse me, could you release my student so I can have a talk with her?" he asked pleasantly as he'd learned (the hard way) that manners go a long way to calming an angry woman.
Her eyes finally looked at him, though he could tell she'd been watching him before that. "Do you teach all your students to attack wounded comrades?" The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end at the cold venom in her voice.
Kakashi adopted a more serious air, and looked at her eyes with his one visible one. He quietly answered, "No, I don't. The first thing I tried to teach them was teamwork. It seems that lesson needs to be retaught." There was something about this mysterious woman that was both familiar and so different at the same time.
"Here." She pushed the now terrified kunoichi to her sensei and turned to the bloody Naruto. "Let's get you to the hospital, shall we?" The abrupt change to tenderness and caring made everyone look at her in surprise. Naruto nodded silently and she quickly but gently scooped up Sasuke and turned so the conscious boy could get on her back. "Hop on."
Kakashi didn't feel the woman was a threat, but with Akatsuki showing so much interest in Naruto he felt the need to be cautious. "Wait Naruto. Miss, would you mind identifying yourself? You're not wearing a hitai ate, but that jacket . . . you have some explaining to do."
She turned to him with a smirk that reminded him of someone, but he couldn't place it. "Let's get these two taken care of first, then we start the explanations, Kakashi-s-san."
Kakashi raised an eyebrow at her stutter. He nodded and told Sakura to follow them. He still needed to have that talk with her. "Here, give me one of them. No need for you to carry both." He noted that she wasted no time giving him Sasuke while securing Naruto's position on her back. They took off without another word.
They were met by an ANBU member who greeted them and seeing the mystery woman carrying Naruto offered to carry him. The woman declined politely, but the Copy Ninja could see the possessiveness in the woman's eyes before it faded. Oddly enough, Kakashi felt intrigued instead of worried that she declined. He could tell her care for Naruto was genuine, so he decided to watch and see what her next move was.
He still wanted to know why she was wearing a copy of his sensei's signature jacket, but that could wait until his students had received medical attention.
Tsunade greeted them at the hospital, fresh from stabilizing the Akimichi boy after he used his clan's deadly red pepper pill. She smirked at seeing the woman carrying Naruto and Kakashi noticed that it matched the smirk the woman wore just a little while ago. He wondered what connection the two women might have before bowing smoothly, even with Sasuke on his back. "Hokage-sama, the mission was a success. Uchiha Sasuke has been returned to the village and all the Sound agents were eliminated."
Tsunade nodded at the Jounin, "Good Kakashi, take him in and have him checked out by Shizune then placed in restraints. Be sure to check the seal on his cursed mark."
Kakashi nodded and swore to himself that he'd find out who that woman was. He barely noticed the quiet kunoichi following him.
Sakura looked at Tsunade and wondered why she wasn't moving to help Naruto immediately like she normally would have. It was a bit disconcerting when someone didn't act as you always remembered them, and that smug grin wasn't helping matters either. She looked at the older woman in the eye and recognized satisfaction there. Feeling the boy on her back stir, Sakura knew that whatever was up with Tsunade could be solved later. "He needs medical attention. Where's an open room?"
"Follow me, Uzumaki-san," said Tsunade with that smug grin growing by the second.
Sakura was sure it would split the blond's cheeks if she kept it up. She shook her head in mild exasperation for her old teacher's many quirks. Then she realized what Tsunade called her, and while she was very used to being called an Uzumaki, Tsunade couldn't know that was her current name. 'What's that old hag up to?' dominated her thought as she followed the Godaime Hokage into the hospital to take care of the chibi version of her husband.
Soon chibi-Naruto was on a bed and his torn jacket and black undershirt were removed and Sakura immediately started a diagnostic jutsu to find the extent of his injuries. Her medic mind set took over and she quickly found healing bones and muscles and did what she could to help the process.
It took her a moment to realize why his skin had chakra burns. It had been some time since her Naruto had possessed Kyuubi's chakra. The damage was quickly taken care of.
Sakura looked at his right shoulder and could see the flesh reknitting itself back together to the point that there wouldn't even be a scar from the Chidori wound Sasuke had given him in the Valley of the End. The chibi Haruno had opened the barely healed wound while causing the boy more pain than just physical.
After she was sure that he was in no discomfort and sleeping peacefully, Sakura turned to Tsunade and considered what this Hokage thought of her right then. When she saw the stupid grin from earlier gone and in its place an appraising look that reminded her of her first days as a medic-in-training. Sakura suppressed a shiver at that harsh training she'd gone through under the Slug Sannin.
Tsunade studied the woman in front of her, and weighed what she knew with what she suspected and couldn't quite connect the two images. "Let's go to my office. There are a few things I need to ask you." The woman nodded and went over to the closed window and opened it up. Tsunade asked, "What are you doing?"
Sakura tensed and remembered that Tsunade wasn't a fan of jumping out of windows. "Unless you want to be stopped a dozen times before we leave the floor, we should take this route."
Tsunade sniffed indignantly but seeing the wisdom in her words leapt out the window sensing the woman following her. She then realized she hadn't asked her name, distracted as she had been by critically injured ninja and her own suspicious of her identity.
They were in her office with in a few minutes and Tsunade leveled a firm stare at the woman in front of her. "Now, who are you?"
Sakura smiled at the woman her husband considered a mother. "Okay, I'm not sure how to explain what's going on, but you may want Jiraiya or Shizune here."
Tsunade weighted what the woman said and decided to give it shot. It was a gamble after all and she was, among other things, a compulsive gambler. "Let's wait and see what you have to say, then I'll call in who needs to know. Though first I am obligated to ask, what are your intentions for my village?"
"I give you my word that I have no desire to harm anyone in this village, and once I'm done you will see why."
Tsunade studied her and nodded for her to begin.
Sakura let out a relieved breath, "First off, how did you know my name was Uzumaki?"
Tsunade supposed that it was a fair question and there was no harm in telling her the reason. "I guessed, given the information when you woke up, that you were Uzumaki Kushina."
Sakura first thought it was a normal reaction since she and her daughter were almost identical, but quickly realized that Tsunade was referring to Narutos' mother. "I am not Uzumaki Kushina, but there is a connection between us. She's my mother-in-law."
A red-haired young teenager moaned as she tried to lift herself off the hard ground. Her blurred vision only saw greens and browns and she thought she was in the forests around Konoha. A damp cool rag helped to dull her headache slightly.
"Don't worry Kora-chan. You're safe."
Kora blinked and in a grudging voice, "Minato-san?" She smirked slightly at her brother's groan. He always hated it when she acted formal with him. "Where are we?"
"It looks like home, but there some things missing." Though she couldn't see him and his voice gave nothing away, she knew he was worried about something.
"Like what?"
"Dad's face on the monument for starters."
Kora blanched at the statement. It didn't seem possible for it to be gone. "Was it destroyed or something? How's the rest of the village?"
"No, that's the weird thing. I checked the area it should have been in, but there were no blast marks or rubble. It was like it had never been there to begin with." Now he sounded tired and confused, but it comforted her to know that her lunk of a brother didn't know what was up. That meant it was most likely right up her alley. Their mutually blue eyes met and she smirked.
"Well, let's go see what's up, shall we?"
"Okay, but we should shift first."
"Why?"
"It looks like home, but it doesn't feel the same. More peaceful, but not as nice. Plus this is where the kitchen's supposed to be."
"How long have we been here?" Kora asked as she focused on her Uzumaki seal and activated her disguise. Long red hair condensed to short cropped dark green and her eyes shifted from their bright blue to a muted grey. She may not respect her brother's brain, but as an active jounin his survival instincts were excellent. She looked down at her clothes, and saw she was still in her pajamas. "You want me to walk around in my pjs?"
A red eyed Minato with long brown haired handed her a bag of clothes and she put on a traditional librarian's outfit. Kora growled at him, "Very funny, Uzumaki-san."
He grinned and shrugged, "Well, it does fit you, doesn't it?"
She huffed and looked at him, "How much do we know about what happened?"
He sighed and looked around, "Someone broke in and argued with Dad, but something happened. There was a chakra spike and a flash of light. I activated my barrier and grabbed you, but we got sucked through some sort of tunnel to here. You passed out and I scouted around and got you some clothes."
She glanced at his family jacket. He wouldn't need to worry about clothes since he never changed when he got home from his last mission. She smothered the jealous twinge that arose when she pondered the garment and strode toward the village. He trotted along side at an easy pace with that annoying grin slathered on his lips.
They easily slipped into the village proper and she wasn't surprised by their first stop.
She was however surprised to see a much younger Ayame-obachan smiling across the counter welcoming them and asking their orders. Kora stammered for miso while Minato easily asked for pork and a beef for later. Kora watched as a woman she'd known her whole life did the same task she'd always done, but it felt so off that it almost brought tears to her eyes.
This wasn't home.
She felt a hand on her shoulder and saw Minato's foreign red eyes convey his sympathy, and she resisted the awful urge to hug him. A deep cleansing breath helped her get back her control as they ate their ramen in silence. She noticed that Minato wasn't eating at his usual supersonic speed, but at a much more human speed.
That terrified her more than seeing the young Ayame.
After paying and leaving the stand, they ran into a girl a little younger than Minato in a nice orange shirt and white pants. She reminded Kora of all their father's fangirls back home who tried to emulate the Rokudaime. She even has the cheek tattoos that had faded on the former Jinchuuriki. Kora nodded but looked around and tuned out the flirting her shameless brother engaged in. She did notice how many people seemed wary of them and tried to keep from getting too close.
She finally got tired of her brother trying to steal another girl's heart and nudged him none too gently in the ribs. He glanced at her and turned back to the girl. "Sorry Natsumi-chan, but my sister and I are new here and need to see the Hokage about living arrangements. I hope to see you again sometime."
The girl gave a bright smile. "Okay, Minato-kun. I still want to see your technique. Sounds like fun!"
"You got it. How about we meet here around 1900 for dinner?"
"Awesome! See you then."
Kora felt slightly nauseated at her brother's constant attempts at flirting. She grabbed his sleeve and pulled him to see Tsunade-baachan, if the fifth head on the monument was a clear indication of who was currently in power.
As they waited, Kora looked at her pervert of a brother and noticed that he had a blank look on his face. "Worried about meeting baa-chan again?"
He shook his head. "It might look like her, but the feel of her chakra is off. Feels more like we're going to see her sister."
Kora studied him for a moment before returning to her own troubled thoughts.
'What's going on here?'
"He actually said that?" Tsunade asked with a hitch in her voice. She had spent an hour listening to Uzumaki Sakura talk of her life, her career, and her husband. The part that struck her the hardest was the photo album the woman had pulled from her coat. Tsunade knew Jiraiya would love to see it, both the clothing as well as the book.
"You were without a doubt the biggest maternal presence in his life. He meant it," replied Sakura. She felt tired from everything that had happened. Her impromptu trip and hospital stay, what happened with her and Naruto's younger selves, and now the emotional conversation with her old teacher. Her eyelids were crying for relief but she doggedly held on so she got this done.
Tsunade saw the other woman's eyes droop so she closed the book and looked at the proud wife and mother before her. She felt pride at having had a hand in molding this woman into who she was. Though she also wondered why this Sakura advised her to not teach the young Haruno. "That's enough for now. Get some rest. Hokage's orders, Doctor."
Sakura nodded with an exhausted smile turned to leave. When she got to the door, she turned and asked, "Where will I be staying? I'm guessing my home hasn't been built yet."
Tsunade grinned and tossed her a key. "Since you're technically a Namikaze by marriage, you can stay at the family homestead."
Sakura's fatigue fought a losing battle to her curiosity, "I didn't know there was a Namikaze estate. Naruto had to build our house himself."
Tsunade just shrugged, "Don't know, but Minato had a nice little place for his wife and future kids. Naruto will inherit it when he makes Chuunin. Just enjoy it for now and worry about the time-space mechanics when you're not dead tired." The gruffness in her voice was contrasted by the concern in her face.
Sakura just nodded and quietly slipped away. She hoped this would make more sense in tomorrow morning.
Tsunade leaned back in here chair. She smirked as she let the tears trickle down her cheeks. "Mom . . . I like the sound of that."
Hello again. Sorry it's taken so long, I got side tracked by other projects. Hope you've enjoyed reading this. School is taking a lot of my time (O-chem is kicking my trash all over the place). Please review. It helps the updates come faster.