This time as the door opened they weren't kept from the secrets within. On the other side was a place that resembled a sewer. It was dark and dingy. The walls were gray and cracked, a clear indication of mental stress. The floor was covered with ankle-deep water. The air was filled with an unusual silence save for the sound of their walking; each step echoing back to them clearly.
They turned down numerous halls. Inoichi felt confused and totally lost but Naruto seemed to know where to go. He led them down the maze of halls to a room where the cement slabs were replaced by bricks and the water disappeared. This seemed to be a part of his mind that gave Naruto strength. There was two ginormous gates that rested slightly open so that whatever was inside could come and go as it pleased. Naruto strode through the gates without hesitation.
"Time to get up, Furball." Commanded the teen as if whatever was there was an old friend.
"What do you want, Naruto? Can't you see I'm trying to rest?" Came an irritated voice. Inoichi and his Hokage jumped back in surprise. The voice was low and gravely. They knew right away that they were facing the Nine-Tailed Fox.
"Naruto." Said Sarutobi in a slow and steady voice as if they were facing a ravenous dog. "Come out of there please." He was ignored. This took the old man a second to process, he was used to being instantly obeyed but this man didn't seem interested in taking orders.
"Kurama, we have guests." He deadpanned.
This got the fox's attention. For the first time they got a good look at the creature as he moved his head to look at the 'intruders' as he thought of them. His head alone was easily the size of the Hokage building. He had red slitted eyes that were surrounded by black fur as well as the insides of his huge ears. The rest of his soft-looking fur was a reddish-orange color. He studied them with intelligent eyes. He wasn't really hideous as you would imagine a demon would be, but that didn't mean he wasn't scary. He snarled, revealing his huge, sharp teeth that all but froze the men in place. And then there was Naruto who looked right at home standing between the monster's eyes.
"Take it easy you grumpy old fox. They look like they are about to piss themselves." The two could barely comprehend how he could speak so casually to a beast that was so horrific.
"Why are they here?" He asked.
"Well they're observing my memories." Said Naruto as if it were the most normal thing in the world. Like it was an every day occurrence.
"Why?"
"Gee~~, I wonder." He said sarcastically. The fox grumbled in response.
"So why bring them here?"
"Because there are somethings that you can explain better than I could," He said, and then, in a lower voice that the two men waiting outside the grand gates were not meant to hear," and I don't want to go through them alone." to Inoichi and the Hokage, the thought of having a blood-thirsty demon as an emotional support was rather hard to comprehend.
"Alright fine, but you owe me for this." Naruto smiled knowing that the fox would never hold him to it. Kurama began to shrink in size until he was the size of a rather large horse. As he padded out of the cage the other two backed up.
Kurama rolled his eyes. "Relax you pathetic humans. I won't hurt you."
"Oh yeah, and I suppose we should just take your word for it?"
It was Naruto who replied. "No take mine. Kurama won't hurt you, I promise . . . unless you piss him off, then I can't guarantee your safety."
They gulped. "Yeah, I feel so reassured." Said Inoichi in a slightly shaky breath. Naruto just laughed.
"Let's go. It's this way." Said Naruto, heading to a passage opposite of the one they entered from.
"What are in the other gates?" Asked Sarutobi. Inoichi hadn't noticed, but there were eight other much smaller gates surrounding them. They were all slightly ajar like the first one. He had a feeling they he already knew the answer however he prayed he was wrong.
"You'll find out." Said Naruto mysteriously. The fox only laughed as he followed the blonde, furthering his feelings of unease.
Inoichi, along with the silent Hokage, reluctantly followed Naruto into the darkness.
ยค|ฮฉ|ยค|
This time there was no light to guide them. They walked along in silence, no corners, just a straight route. They continued along until the darkness faded into soft moon light. The dense silence broken by slight sobs. They had entered the first memory.
They were seeing the memory as if in the middle of it. Like standing in a life-sized, 3D model, but they were shadows to their surroundings. They could see it all as if it were real, but they couldn't interact with anything, if the way Inoichi walked straight through was anything to go by.
Now, they stepped out into a grand clearing, above which hung a clear night sky. The moon was bright so they could see everything. There was a giant fox identical to the one that now walked beside them though much larger in size. Kurama let out a growl at the scene. There was a man and a woman who were impaled by the creature's claws. Their faces and voices were impossible to make out; gnarled by the collection of a newborn who couldn't make sense of their meaning yet, so there was no telling who they were. They leaned over a crib that held a tiny, baby Naruto Uzumaki. ๐๐ฐ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ช๐ด ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฌ๐ช๐ฅ'๐ด ๐ง๐ช๐ณ๐ด๐ต ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ณ๐บ? ๐๐ฐ๐ธ ๐ด๐ข๐ฅ. ๐๐ท๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ช๐ง ๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ค๐ฐ๐ญ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ค๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ช๐ด ๐ฏ๐ฐ ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐จ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ฑ๐ข๐ณ๐ต ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ด๐ค๐ช๐ฐ๐ถ๐ด ๐ฎ๐ช๐ฏ๐ฅ. It would be now.
The two leaf shinobi were curious as to who the couple were. They were crying and murmuring soft words. When they looked to Naruto he had unshed tears in his eyes along with a look of longing. The two people were his parents, they realized. It was confirmed by the blondes explanation.
"This is not even an hour after I was born. The Kyuubi got loose and was attacking the village. In order to save it my father sealed him inside of me, giving his life in the process. As for my mother . . . well I guess she would have died anyway, but she was strong and hung on. I suspect the only reason why this is still here even though there is no way I could remember, is because this is a memory I share with him." He jabbed a thumb at Mini-Kurama.
"so, he killed your parents, yet you sill trust him?" Asked Inoichi incredulously. He couldn't even fathom such a thing. He was also confused as to how it was all possible, he didn't recall the demon attacking any villages in the past years, but he figured the explanation would be somewhere in these memories.
"It's not like that." Insisted Naruto. "He's different now. Besides, as you will see later, it wasn't entirely his fault." They eyed him skeptically. The fox looked at him appreciatively, he had never known a human who had so much love and forgiveness in him, or such a desire for peace. He would give anything for it, even if that meant forgiving the beast that killed his parents. In his eyes, Naruto was greater than any kage whom ever lived. He viewed him in the same light that he viewed the Sage of the Six Paths.
Suddenly, the Memory Kurama let out a growl. "Curse you! How dare you seal me in that pathetic human child!" He roared angerly. They wondered why they could understand this but not the words of the couple. It probably had to do with the speaker's presence.
"Let's go." Instructed Naruto. The scene faded and was replaced by one of when he was a small child. He was about four years old in this memory. He was walking through the village aimlessly. The air around him was filled with whispers.
'๐๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฌ ๐ช๐ต'๐ด ๐ฉ๐ช๐ฎ, ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ฃ๐ฐ๐บ.'
'๐๐ฉ๐บ ๐ฅ๐ฐ๐ฆ๐ด ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ฐ๐ฌ๐ข๐จ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ธ ๐ฉ๐ช๐ฎ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ญ๐ช๐ท๐ฆ, ๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ญ๐ฅ ๐ซ๐ถ๐ด๐ต ๐ฌ๐ช๐ญ๐ญ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ.'
'๐๐ฆ ๐ฅ๐ฐ๐ฆ๐ด๐ฏ'๐ต ๐ฆ๐ท๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ท๐ฆ ๐ฑ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต๐ด. ๐๐ฐ ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฆ ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ท๐ฆ๐ด ๐ฉ๐ช๐ฎ.'
"What is this? Why are they treating you so bad? Is it because of what we saw before? Or did we miss something?" Asked Inoichi. Despite the sad air Naruto sighed, irritated.
"Can you not learn to ask one question at a time? Yes, it was because of what you saw before." His irritation faded quickly. "When I was a kid I was always alone. I had no friends or family. Everyone scorned me for something I didn't even know about."
Before they could respond a new scene took the place of the pressing darkness. Again it was Naruto. This time he was a lot older. Around twelve or thirteen. He was on the ground, his eyes filled with terror as a man crouched over him defensively, a giant shuriken in his back, blood trailing from the corners of his mouth. Naruto was looking past him to a figure standing on the branch of a tree. "What decree?" He asked, and his voice, terrified as it was, sounded so innocent.
The man looked contemptibly at him. "The decree is; no one can tell you that the Nine-Tailed Fox who attacked the village is inside of you! ๐ ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ช๐ฏ๐ฆ-๐๐ข๐ช๐ญ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐๐ฐ๐น!" He jeered.
Yound Naruto fell back. "No." He whispered. "That's not true!" He shouted.
"Oh, really?" The man asked mockingly. "Didn't you ever find it strange how they treated you?" He was saying, his voice filled with malice. "Like dirt! Like garbage! Like they hated you for! Just! Being! Alive!" ๐๐ฐ๐ธ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ถ๐ญ๐ฅ ๐ด๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ข๐ฌ ๐ด๐ฐ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ณ๐ด๐ฉ๐ญ๐บ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ข ๐ค๐ฉ๐ช๐ญ๐ฅ? ๐๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ฉ๐ข๐ฅ ๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฅ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฆ? The men wondered. Were they missing something? Before they could process what they'd seen, the memory changed again.
Suddenly, they were in an academy classroom and Little Naruto was seated at a desk beside a pink-haired girl and a raven-haired boy. He has a bruise on his face and all the girls in the room were glaring at him like he had kicked their dog.
"Why are they all glaring like that?"
Naruto blushed and looked down as he remembered what had happened. "I don't want to talk about it." He was just glad that he didn't have to watch that horrid incident.
"A;right, Team Seven; Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura Haruno," Tiny Naruto cheered. The accompanying men chuckled along with the fox. Naruto had a small smile on his face. "and Sasuke Uchiha." Now Tiny Naruto was sulking.
The scene changed and they were on the roof. There sat the three new genin and a man who looked to be in his twenties, but it was hard to tell because he had a mask covering his lower face and his headband pulled over his left eye. He seemed familiar to them but they couldn't quite place it.
"You know," voiced Naruto almost sadly, "this is where it will all start to make sense." They eyed the boy questioningly but stayed quiet. They turned their attention back to the memory.
"Alright. Why don't we start by introducing ourselves? Who wants to go first." Drawled the man in a laidback tone.
"What do we say?" Asked the pink-haired girl.
"Well, how about your likes and dislikes. Dreams for the future. Stuff like that."
"Why don't you go first, Sensei, so we know how it's done?" Said a younger Naruto.
"Alright." What he said next shocked Inoichi and the Hokage. "My name is Kakashi Hatake."
The memory stilled for a moment as they turned to the Uzumaki. "Kakashi . . . how could that be Kakashi?" Asked the Hokage. Naruto chuckled.
"I would have thought you'd have figured it out by now, old man." He had cold, empty humor in his voice. "I'm from the future."