That story I refuse to write.
(The scenes might or might not be connected, but they are seperated because they are not in order)
------------------
Naruto is muttering by now, he glances to the side, his chin fully connected to his shoulder as he stares at the cold ground, leafless. "Some of them .. even wear the same faces."
Kakashi looks at him with a hint of disbelief, ".. just who was your partner, Naruto?"
He raises his head, and stares at Kakashi for a long moment.
"He looks .. a lot like Itachi." He is thinking.
"They're not the same, of course. He's stockier" - and Kakashi is thinking of how skinny Itachi is - "and he has shorter hair and a rounder face, and different eyes", he remembers the red swirl of Itachi, "but they .. are a lot alike."
Kakashi doesn't say anything for a long moment, just nods and stands up a little straighter. "Maybe he's Itachi's descendant."
.. "Or ancestor", Naruto mutters so low that he thinks he is not heard.
"Have you told anyone this Naruto?" Kakashi's voice raises as he talks, and puts emphasis on the word 'told', as if he is afraid of Naruto's sanity.
"Only Ubi." He says it with a passing sort of care, not as if the words are nothing, but more that he has done what he has done and he feels there was no wrong.
Ubi, with his height that stands him a full head over Naruto - wrapping an arm around his shoulder even though they are not supposed to interact - and wide, wide yellow shades that cover half his face in a mysterious kind of way. Mysterious in that he has never removed them. Kakashi asks who Ubi is, because he has never seen him.
"A friend .." His voice trails, but the words are connected "from that time. He was somebody else's partner." He does not say how uncommon it is to befriend someone who is not your partner. Friendships, as he knew them then, were all loose and changing in ways that fell easily.
"If you know someone from that place of yours, why haven't they helped you go back to your home?"
Naruto replies ".. because, if you can not come back under your own power, you should not come back at all", with words that have been drilled into him so hard that he still remembers them despite how long it has been.
. . "and I am not sure if this is the way the past is supposed to be, or if I have messed things up by coming here and doing the things I did", Naruto is breathing deep, the image of Sasuke etched in his mind, "but I have to get him back! If it's my fault, if I messed things up.. I have to make them right again!"
.
The wall is so long, that the scattered light of their torches leaves the rest of the world in darkness as they hold it up to the stone, trying to read the runes etched deep in the rock.
Naruto is at the back of the group, not listening as Sakura is talking.
Their guide runs his hands along one strand of runes, and says that they are ancient letters. He has never seen them before, but they are long before his time.
Not paying much attention to anyone, least of all Kakashi - who glances at him slightly when he starts moving away -, Naruto wanders off to the side of the group where there is a deep darkness and holds his torch up to it.
Something is tugging in his mind, and he almost can hold onto the memory but it slips away again before he recognizes it. Then he sees the area for what it really is and it takes the breath out of him.
His torch is weak in his hands, but he doesn't drop it and he doesn't shout in alarm. But he is very afraid.
For in front of him is the room that he was taught at, in what should have been the future, but is now in decay and disuse. The same desks, instruments, all the things he remembers, falling apart when he remembers them once being new and immaculate.
Is he in the past, as he always thought, or, as impossible as he has never dared to think, is this .. even farther in the future than what he was supposed to come from?
-----------
------------------
Naruto is muttering by now, he glances to the side, his chin fully connected to his shoulder as he stares at the cold ground, leafless. "Some of them .. even wear the same faces."
Kakashi looks at him with a hint of disbelief, ".. just who was your partner, Naruto?"
He raises his head, and stares at Kakashi for a long moment.
"He looks .. a lot like Itachi." He is thinking.
"They're not the same, of course. He's stockier" - and Kakashi is thinking of how skinny Itachi is - "and he has shorter hair and a rounder face, and different eyes", he remembers the red swirl of Itachi, "but they .. are a lot alike."
Kakashi doesn't say anything for a long moment, just nods and stands up a little straighter. "Maybe he's Itachi's descendant."
.. "Or ancestor", Naruto mutters so low that he thinks he is not heard.
"Have you told anyone this Naruto?" Kakashi's voice raises as he talks, and puts emphasis on the word 'told', as if he is afraid of Naruto's sanity.
"Only Ubi." He says it with a passing sort of care, not as if the words are nothing, but more that he has done what he has done and he feels there was no wrong.
Ubi, with his height that stands him a full head over Naruto - wrapping an arm around his shoulder even though they are not supposed to interact - and wide, wide yellow shades that cover half his face in a mysterious kind of way. Mysterious in that he has never removed them. Kakashi asks who Ubi is, because he has never seen him.
"A friend .." His voice trails, but the words are connected "from that time. He was somebody else's partner." He does not say how uncommon it is to befriend someone who is not your partner. Friendships, as he knew them then, were all loose and changing in ways that fell easily.
"If you know someone from that place of yours, why haven't they helped you go back to your home?"
Naruto replies ".. because, if you can not come back under your own power, you should not come back at all", with words that have been drilled into him so hard that he still remembers them despite how long it has been.
. . "and I am not sure if this is the way the past is supposed to be, or if I have messed things up by coming here and doing the things I did", Naruto is breathing deep, the image of Sasuke etched in his mind, "but I have to get him back! If it's my fault, if I messed things up.. I have to make them right again!"
.
The wall is so long, that the scattered light of their torches leaves the rest of the world in darkness as they hold it up to the stone, trying to read the runes etched deep in the rock.
Naruto is at the back of the group, not listening as Sakura is talking.
Their guide runs his hands along one strand of runes, and says that they are ancient letters. He has never seen them before, but they are long before his time.
Not paying much attention to anyone, least of all Kakashi - who glances at him slightly when he starts moving away -, Naruto wanders off to the side of the group where there is a deep darkness and holds his torch up to it.
Something is tugging in his mind, and he almost can hold onto the memory but it slips away again before he recognizes it. Then he sees the area for what it really is and it takes the breath out of him.
His torch is weak in his hands, but he doesn't drop it and he doesn't shout in alarm. But he is very afraid.
For in front of him is the room that he was taught at, in what should have been the future, but is now in decay and disuse. The same desks, instruments, all the things he remembers, falling apart when he remembers them once being new and immaculate.
Is he in the past, as he always thought, or, as impossible as he has never dared to think, is this .. even farther in the future than what he was supposed to come from?
-----------