Chapter Text
Chapter One
Back to Halcyon Days
Naruto Uzumaki’s Apartment - Early Morning
Naruto Uzumaki, a young man of around twelve years old with spiky blonde hair, slowly opened his eyes as sunlight filled the room from the nearby window.
Turning to his side, Naruto smiled. “Good morning, Hina-huh?” he said, expecting to see the still-dozing face of his wife, Hinata, only to find that not only was she not there, but her entire side of the bed was gone.
Sitting up and looking around in blatant confusion, Naruto found himself back in his childhood apartment, everything exactly as he remembered it, no wife, son, or daughter to be found.
Getting out of bed, Naruto made his way over to the calendar on the wall. According to the calendar, it was September 19th of 1999.
That… doesn’t feel right, Naruto thought to himself. According to this, two days from now, I get duped into stealing the Scroll of Seals by Mizuki, find out about Kurama being sealed away inside me, kick Mizuki’s ass using the Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu, and become a Genin alongside Sasuke, Sakura, Hinata, and the others.
But… I could have sworn it was January of 2023 yesterday… does that mean everything that happened between last night and now was… just a dream? Naruto thought to himself. If it was, that was the longest and most vivid dream I’ve ever had.
Before Naruto could ruminate on this any further, a deep, gruff voice spoke from within Naruto’s own head. “Naruto? Is that you? How’d you end up becoming a twerp again? And why’re we in this apartment again?”
Naruto leapt in fright. “What the-?! Who said that?!?!” he cried out, though the voice felt extremely familiar.
“Don’t you recognize my voice? It’s me, Kurama,” the voice, Kurama, said.
“Kurama…? But, in the dream, you died when I used Barion Mode against… what was his name… Isshiki Otsusuki, I think?” said Naruto.
“I did, and that wasn’t a dream, Naruto. That actually happened. I died and then I woke up and I was here, with you as a kid again, though I still remember everything that happened up to that point, which usually doesn’t happen when I reincarnate. Usually I reform out of a formless mass of chakra as a kitt,” said Kurama.
Naruto hummed in thought. “Well… if it wasn’t a dream, then what else do you remember? Start from the very beginning,” he said.
“Let me think… you and I were together, you didn’t know about me until some asshole tricked you into stealing a scroll, Iruka protected you from said asshole, you kicked said asshole’s ass with the Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu and became a Genin, you were put on Team Seven with Sakura Haruno and Sasuke Uchiha, you went to the Land of Waves on a mission, then the village got wrecked during the Chunin Exams, and Lord Third was killed by Orochimaru, then you and Jiraiya went out to find Lady Fifth Tsunade, who only became Hokage when she learned who you actually were, Sasuke got butt-hurt that you were getting stronger than him, so he defected and joined Orochimaru, you and Jiraya trained for two and a half years, came back, rescued Gaara, invented the Rasenshuriken to deal with the Akatsuki, Jiraiya was killed by the Six Paths of Pain, who then attacked the village and leveled it again killing a whole bunch of people and nearly killed Hinata who confessed her love for you, Pain died to revive most of the people he killed, then there was the Fourth Shinobi World War, you and Sasuke defeated Kaguya Otsutsuki, then you two lopped each others arms off, you grew up, married Hinata, popped out a couple kitts named Boruto and Himawari, and became the Seventh Hokage,” Kurama listed off. “Do I need to go on, or do you think you get the gist of everything?”
“No, no, I think I get everything now,” said Naruto. “That lines up with the dream perfectly… and the last thing I remember from that ‘dream’ was me and Hinata being shoved through a portal by Kawaki, who said it was for our protection. Though, I don’t really get how my older self’s mind being in my younger self’s body is supposed to protect me, unless this is some kind of genjutsu, but… it feels too real to be a genjutsu…”
“All the same, I wouldn’t try using anything more advanced than a standard Rasengan, and I definitely wouldn’t try any of your various chakra modes, for a number of reasons. For one, if this really is some kind of senjutsu technique that’s sent the mind of the Seventh Hokage back in time into the body of his juvenile delinquent self and not some kind of genjutsu, it would be highly suspicious if you were to use any technique that absolutely no Genin should be able to use, or even have heard about, but more importantly, I’m not sure that your body can handle those techniques as a twelve year old, regardless of your chakra reserves,” Kurama cautioned.
“Right, got it,” Naruto said with a nod.
“More importantly… you said Hinata was sent through Kawaki’s portal too, right?”
“Yeah,” Naruto said before something clicked. “Wait, you don’t think she-?”
“Only one way to find out. You’d better get ready for school, you’re gonna be late if you waste any more time.”
Hyuga Compound - Hinata’s Room
Hinata Hyuga, a young woman around the same age as Naruto with short black hair, was all snug in her bed like a perfect little doll. Slowly, she opened her beautiful lavender eyes and was greeted by the sight of her collection of stuffed animals, ready to comfort her should she need it, as well as her very own circadian rhythm.
It was the most wonderful feeling in the world, especially after the strangely lengthy dream she’d just had. A dream that was equal parts wonderful and happy as it was terrifying.
In her dream, the village had been devastated twice in less than three years, once by a giant snake monster controlled by a man named Orochimaru, and second time by a group of people who called themselves the Six Paths of Pain, during which attack she had nearly been killed, and after a Fourth Shinobi World War had ravaged the world, a war that the man she loved, Naruto Uzumaki, had ended alongside Sasuke Uchiha, she had married Naruto and brought her two greatest treasures into the world: her son, Boruto, and Himawari, her daughter, and had but recently adopted a third child, Kawaki, into their home.
The last thing she remembered from the dream was Kawaki shoving both her and Naruto into a portal of some kind, claiming it was for their own protection. And there the dream ended.
As she sat up and rubbed her eyes, Hinata frowned as she realized something. Her eyes… they felt funny somehow. Like, the power she’d always known was there, her Byakugan, was still there, but now there was another, vastly stronger power there as well, one that, should she tap into it, would give her the power to snatch the stars right out of the sky and unleash their fury upon her enemies or even turn the fury of nature itself against those same enemies, smiting them with lightning from the heavens, washing them away in a mighty flood, chilling them to the bone with a freezing blizzard, send them sailing to the ends of the earth with a powerful tornado, and no shortage of other bits of weather wizardry. Or witchcraft, in her case she supposed. And that was but a taste of what this new power within her eyes could do.
Hinata frowned. Whatever this power was, it most certainly hadn’t been there the night before… and now that she thought about it, this power wasn’t the only thing that felt wrong or off somehow. And it was with these thoughts on her mind that Hinata got up, brushed her teeth, brushed her hair, got dressed, and proceeded to join her father and younger sister, Hanabi, at the breakfast table.
As he looked at his eldest daughter, Hiashi Hyuga frowned. The look on Hinata’s face told him all he needed to know to come to the conclusion that something was troubling his daughter.
“Hinata? Is something wrong? Are you feeling unwell?” Hiashi asked.
“W-well, I don’t know…” Hinata said. “I just have this feeling that I can’t quite pin down. It just feels like something’s wrong. Like I’ve lost something that’s very important to me, and it’ll be a very long time before I can get it back…”
Hiashi hummed in thought. “I see… well, it is getting close to that time of year again… maybe that has something to do with it,” he said.
Hinata felt a twinge of sadness. Mom… she thought.
It was true. Every year around this time, depression entered their household as they began to feel the gap that Hiashi’s wife and Hinata and Hanabi’s mother, Mitsuru Hyuga, had left in their family and in their hearts after she had passed away from illness.
However, something in Hinata’s gut told her that wasn’t it in the slightest, and that the strangely long dream she’d had the night prior had something to do with it…
A Short Time Later…
After giving her father and sister a hug and a kiss goodbye, Hinata, her schoolbag over her shoulder, started making her way to the Shinobi Academy, accompanied by her cousin, Neji Hyuga, as her usual escort, Ko, was currently indisposed with other matters.
As the two of them made their way closer to the Academy, Hinata found herself unable to let go of the feeling that something was wrong, trying desperately to figure out why she felt that way... and why looking at Neji made her feel as though she was looking at the ghost of someone who had perished what felt like a lifetime ago, and had somehow returned from the Pure Land to walk the Earth once more.
As Hinata and Neji continued walking, the two of them caught sight of Naruto Uzumaki making his own way towards the Academy, a troubled look of his own on his face.
Hinata didn’t even feel herself move before her bookbag hit the ground and she sped over to Naruto, immediately wrapping her arms around him in the biggest, tightest hug she could manage.
“Naruto!” Hinata cried, bursting into tears as the contents of her dream, or rather, what she’d thought was a dream but had in fact actually happened, came rushing back to her.
Naruto returned Hinata’s embrace immediately. “Hinata! You remember everything too, right!? The Chunin Exams! The Konoha Crush! Pain! The Fourth Shinobi World War! Our wedding! Our kids! It wasn’t just a dream, right!?” Naruto exclaimed.
Sobbing, Hinata shook her head and clung to Naruto all the more tightly. “No, Naruto… it was real… it was all so, very, very real…”
Naruto gave Hinata a warm smile as he gently lifted her chin up so she could look him in the eyes. “Then… if it was real, you won’t mind if I do this?” he asked before he leaned in and kissed Hinata on the lips, which stunned her for a moment before she wrapped her arms around Naruto’s head and reciprocated the kiss.
How long were the two of them lip locked for? Well, if you asked either Naruto or Hinata, not long enough. If you asked Neji, who was currently staring at Naruto and Hinata with his eyes wide and mouth agape, it was quite long enough before Hinata and Naruto finally broke apart, gasped for air with their faces flushed a bright red, and quickly realized Neji was standing there, much to their embarrassment.
“O-oh! H-hey, Neji! Didn’t see…” Naruto stammered through his embarrassment before, unbidden, a war flashback surfaced in Naruto’s mind’s eye.
“Why did you do that?!?!”
“...because you called me a genius…”
Back in reality, Neji had no idea what the Hell was going on with Naruto or Hinata, why they were suddenly trying to suffocate each other with their tongues after showing, from what he’d seen at least, no interest in each other romantically, or why they were now staring at him like they’d seen a ghost from long ago, but he did know one thing: he wanted nothing to do with it.
“I saw nothing, I heard nothing, therefore, there was nothing,” Neji said with finality before he turned on his heel and began walking back to the Hyuga Compound as quickly as possible.
Naruto chuckled. “I kinda forgot Neji was kinda a jerk when we were this age…” he said with a warm smile towards Hinata, who currently had a deep crimson blush on her face as she nervously pressed her index fingers together.
“C-can we, um… can we do that again?”