Chapter 50

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Kakashi, Obito and Rin were watching over the villagers that they had escorted to safety earlier. They could hear the explosions from all of the fighting, but knew they had to protect everyone else, no matter how much they wanted to fight.

"Kakashi! Are you sure they can handle this?" Obito was getting more worried the more they had to wait. His voice filled with unease. "I know that Naruto and Minato-sensei said that they could handle it, but it just doesn't sit right with me."

"I don't like it either Obito, but we have to protect all the villagers just in case the enemy comes here. We are the only ones that can."

Rin was watching Obito and Kakashi talk to each other, wrapping her arms around herself. She knew both of them were right and she did have a bad feeling, but she knew that they had to stay. "I want to go help too Obito, more than you can imagine, but we have to stay here. We can leave once things calm down."

The three of them continued to listen as the explosions continued, their hearts heavy as they thought about their friends fighting as well as the unease they all felt.

* * * * * *

"It's okay Sasuke, I've got you!" Itachi was running through the forest just outside of the village. He and Sasuke had been locked up somewhere by Danzo, but once he knew that they were all gone, he was easily able to escape. "We've got to find dad and get him to stop before it's too late."

He continued to run through the streets of the village, avoiding the foundation members and Leaf shinobi that were fighting with each other. He was headed directly towards the nine-tails, knowing that his dad would be close by.

Finally as he reached a small clearing between the buildings that was away from the main fighting, he saw his dad sitting down on the front steps of a ruined house. "Dad!" Itachi yelled as loud as he could in order to get his dad's attention, luckily having it work.

"Itachi? Sasuke?" Fugaku came running towards them, gathering them up into his arms and holding them tightly, tears running down his face. "You're here. How did you get away?"

"Well, once everyone started fighting, there weren't any guards around. It was pretty easy after that."

"Is Sasuke okay?" The worry on Fugaku's face was clear as he looked at his two sons.

Itachi gave a bright smile as he looked up at his dad. "Don't worry, we're both okay. For now, can we just leave this be and go find mom?"

Fugaku didn't even think before he smiled and nodded at Itachi. "Yeah, let's go." Without looking back, he ran through the streets of the village, guiding Itachi away from danger. Once they were just about to the hideout that the rest of the villagers use, he finally let his grip on the nine-tails fall, having faith that they could continue to hold it back until he could be taken care of. Good luck. Once again, I'm so sorry.

* * * * * *

"Wind style: Rasenshuriken!" Naruto threw his jutsu at Sasuke, finally hitting his mark and bracing against the explosion that followed it. Once the dust had settled Naruto could see Sasuke lying on the ground not too far from where he had been standing before.

Naruto carefully walked up to Sasuke, kneeling down beside him. Carefully he grabbed onto his hand, holding it between his own and putting it to his forehead solemnly. "I'm sorry Sasuke. I never wanted you to die for me." Tears quietly started to fall from Naruto's face as he looked at the face of his friend. "I never got a chance to say goodbye to you. Thanks for being my friend, Sasuke."

Naruto held out his right hand, forming a rasengan in his palm and while still holding onto Sasuke with his left hand he pushed the rasengan into Sasuke's chest. As the rasengan disappeared he watched slowly as the form of Sasuke slowly began to fade and turn into the familiar image of a white Zetsu creature and a tree rising from the corpse. Naruto bowed his head as he stood up, his thoughts drifting quickly through his memories of his friend before whispering softly to himself: "Bye Sasuke."

"What now, Kit?" Kurama spoke up as Naruto began to walk away, curious as to what he planned to do.

"I need to talk to you, Kura. It's important." Naruto looked at Kurama within his mindscape, his eyes showing an array of conflicting emotions. "I'm going to seal you inside of the me from this time, Kura."

Kurama looked slightly taken back from what Naruto had just said before quickly coming back to his senses. "Ah, so that's what your plan has been..." Kurama took a deep breath before letting out a long sigh, "I'm going to miss you, Naruto. I've seen how much you have grown, and even if we haven't been friends or even on good terms for that long, I am glad to have known you."

"Thanks Kura. You've always been there for me, no matter what. I am glad that I was your jinchuriki, ya know." Naruto gave Kurama the brightest smile that he could muster under the circumstances. "Now, how about we go take care of the other you, huh?"

"Yeah, before I destroy any more of this village...again..."

Naruto started laughing as he started to run towards the nine-tailed fox that was attacking the village. He knew that Kurama was trying to ease the suspense that was in the air, but it still made him laugh.

Just as he was closing in on the nine-tails, he heard a scream come from in front of him. When he took a closer look, he saw someone was about to get crushed underneath the nine-tails' hand. "KURAMA, STOP!"

The nine-tails stopped his attack just mere inches before he would have crushed the Leaf shinobi that was lying on the ground underneath him. As he looked at Naruto his eyes held a look of bewilderment at being called by his actual name. "Who are you? No, wait. I remember seeing you while being sealed inside Kushina Uzumaki."

"My name is Naruto." Naruto was smiling as he slowly walked closer to the nine-tailed fox. "I'm your jinchuriki... from the future..."

"You do have my chakra inside of you. But you also have the chakra of all the other tailed beasts. You remind me of..."

"Haha! Super-gramps sage right?!" Naruto started laughing at the shocked face of the fox in front of him. "Ya know, I still think you're a stubborn fox, but you're my friend."

Naruto began to explain everything as simply and quickly as he could and just as he was finished talking, his eyes turned blood red, the pupils changing to slits. "Hey other me. This kid is telling the truth. He's the boy the old man used to talk about."

"You know, it feels sort of weird talking to myself."

"Naruto wants to stop all of the fighting. He thinks of us as family. We just need to combine our chakra inside of him and it will all be over."

"Yeah, whatever. This is all still so annoying."

Naruto smiled as he regained control from Kurama. "You still can't be upfront about your feelings huh?" Still smiling, and without wasting any more time Naruto walked up to the past Kurama, placing his own hand onto Kurama's. "Alright, here we go then."

Clouds of dust were stirred up all around Naruto as he began to combine the nine-tails' chakra. When the dust had settled, Kurama was gone and he was left standing there alone. "How did the merging go Kurama?"

"Everything went well, Kit. But now we need to go and check up on Minato, you and your mom."

"You're right. Let's get going since we are done here." Naruto started running full speed towards the safe house that he knew his family would be at. He didn't want to end up being too late to save everyone.

Naruto was running as fast as he could and it wasn't long until he got a glimpse of Minato and Danzo fighting. He was about to step in when Minato and Danzo started to lunge towards each other but Minato suddenly disappeared and then reappeared above Danzo, knocking him to the ground with his own rasengan.

"Well that seems to have taken you quite a bit longer than you thought, dad." Naruto had a teasing smile as he walked up to Minato, Danzo unconscious on the ground below them. "Did he give you some trouble?"

"Well, he didn't get to his position by just sitting around. His wind style is pretty tough to fight against. You can't even see his damn attacks." Minato was smiling as he walked up to Naruto and put his hand on his shoulder. "It seems you got everything done you needed to as well."

"Yep, it's all taken care of, ya know. Now, I have something else I need to do. Can you bring mom and little me out here?"

Minato was suspicious of what Naruto was planning, but brought out Kushina and the baby Naruto only to see the future Naruto standing next to a ceremonial altar. "You're creating a new jinchuriki?"

Naruto was silent for a while before looking back at his family. "Not just yet." Without saying anything, Naruto walked over to his mom, placing his hand above her. Nothing seemed to happen, but he slowly raised his head with a small, peaceful smile on his face.

"What did you just do?" Kushina asked Naruto in a small voice, still tired and breathing heavily from everything that had happened.

"Don't worry, you'll be okay now. You're not a jinchuriki any more, but I made it so you won't die even though the tailed beast was removed."

"What happened to the nine-tailed fox then?" Kushina was confused as to what was really going on. "Did the attack get stopped?"

Naruto and Minato shared a meaningful look before Naruto looked back at Kushina. "The Leaf shinobi are finishing off the last of Danzo's foundation members, and I stopped Kurama from doing any more damage to the village. Everything will be just fine."

"Who's Kurama?"

At Kushina's question, Naruto let out a sigh before starting to explain everything to his mom. He left out anything that wasn't important and tried to get the main points across as quickly as possible. He knew that he didn't have a lot of time left to finish things for good.

"So...you're actually my son?" Kushina had tears running down her cheeks as she looked between the two Naruto's. "Why didn't I know sooner? Why didn't you tell me, ya know?"

"I wanted to hide it from you, mom. I wanted things to happen as normally as they could for you. But now I have to give Kurama to me as a baby."

"But why? You're the nine-tails, I mean, Kurama's jinchuriki. You're here, so why bother with this?"

"Because time has to flow as naturally as possible... and I've already changed enough." Naruto chose to answer Kushina's question as simplistically as possible as he knelt down beside the altar, looking down at himself lying there. "Kurama?"

"What's up, Kit?" Kurama's voice was sad as he curled himself around Naruto's body.

"I just...I'm going to miss you Kura. I don't know how different things will be in the future, but please watch out for everyone for me. And go easy on little me, ya know."

"I will, Kit. Thanks for being my family."

"Bye, Kurama."

"Bye, Kit."

With tears filling his eyes Naruto let the chakra of the all nine tailed beasts inside him flow into the small baby laying on the altar, the familiar spiral seal appearing as the seal was completed. When everything was done, he turned slowly towards his mom and dad with a sad smile on his face. "Alright, it's all done."

Naruto was just about to hug his parents when he noticed something nearly transparent flying towards his dad. When he got a better look he noticed that it was a blade of wind heading straight for them. "Dad, no!" Just before it hit Minato, Naruto shoved him out of the way, the blade embedding itself in his chest. "Gah!"

"Naruto!" Minato and Kushina yelled together as they watched, stunned, as Naruto fell to his knees, blood soaking through his clothes. They were about to run over and help when Naruto suddenly got up, using the flying raijin jutsu to appear just in front of Danzo, stabbing him with the same raijin kunai blade he had just thrown.

"Too bad, Danzo. You still lose." Naruto didn't say anything else as he watched Danzo's lifeless body fall to the ground. "I won't let anyone take them from me again." Naruto whispered this to himself as he stumbled back to where his parents were, falling into their arms.

"Naruto!" Kushina was crying as she held Naruto in her arms. "We need to get you to the hospital!"

Naruto softly placed his hand on hers as he looked up at both his parents. "No, it's okay. I...I knew there couldn't be two Naruto's, a-and I knew already that there wasn't a way for me to return to the future. I was a jinchuriki, remember? I would have died s-sooner or later anyway after getting rid of Kurama. Saving you was the b-best thing I could have hoped for."

"But I just found out you're my son! I can't watch you just die!" The anguish in Kushina's voice could easily be heard as she held tightly onto Naruto, not wanting to let him go. "I'm not going to let you die, ya know!"

"Mom, this is what I w-want. My past can't change. It will always be filled with sad memories, but now I get to be with the friends that I lost." Naruto moved his gaze from his mom over to his dad before talking again. "T-thanks for looking out for me dad...ugh...take care of everyone for me, yeah?"

Minato couldn't hold his tears in as he looked at Naruto. "I will Naruto, I promise."

"Don't tell the little me about Kurama until I'm a little older. Just until you think I'm ready...Mom, dad..." Naruto was breathing heavily as he tried to form the words he wanted to say while trying to ignore the pain. "Don't worry, I'll grow up eating lots, I won't be picky. I'll also love bathing and sleeping, so you don't need to worry about that. I w-will make lots of good friends that I'll trust, and even though I probably won't do very good in s-school, I won't get depressed a-about it. I will respect my t-teachers too. And don't w-worry about the three prohibitions. I'll follow them. Though I will be close to Pervy-Sage, s-sorry about that. I know that I will have hardships, but I will a-always be true to myself and I will have the c-confidence to reach my dreams."

Minato and Kushina were both crying as they continued to hug Naruto. "Naruto! I love you so much!" Kushina words could barely be heard over her crying as she buried her face against Naruto. "Thanks for making me a mom!"

"We love you, Naruto." Minato grabbed a hold of Naruto's hand, placing it on his own heart. "We'll take care of things here now." Minato was trying to hold in his tears as he spoke his last words to his son. "It's okay. You go and be with your friends again."

Naruto managed a weak smile as he looked at his parents. "I l-love you b-both... so m-much. T-thank... you for b-being... my... p-parents."

Crying was the only thing you could hear as Minato and Kushina watched Naruto's eyes close for the last time, his free arm falling limply to his side. They lost track of time as they both sat there, still taking in everything that had happened. They finally came back to their senses when they heard multiple sets of footsteps rushing towards them.

Kakashi, Obito and Rin had looks of agony on their faces as they noticed the cold body of Naruto laying on the ground in front of Kushina and Minato. None of them knew what to say. All that they could do was drop to their knees with tears falling from their eyes.

Minato was the first to come back to reality, speaking up quietly, "Alright, let's start cleaning all this up. We need to get the villagers back to their homes as soon as possible."

"But Minato-sensei!" Obito spoke up, not wanting to leave.

"I'm sorry, Obito. We need to think of the village right now." Looking at the resigned faces of his students as well as his wife, Minato softened his voice until you could barely hear it, "This is what he would have wanted as well."

Knowing all too well what Minato was talking about, they all gathered themselves up as much as possible as they began to head back to the village. They knew the clean-up would take a while, and wanted to sort out what casualties there were from the fighting and wreckage.

In a dark space, nothing but the sound of soft breathing could be heard. There was a small layer of water on the ground, and a large cage at one end. Inside the cage was Kurama curled up around himself. Silently, a small tear escaped his eye and fell down his whiskered cheek. As the tear fell to the ground, he quietly let out a soft whisper, "Goodbye, Kit." Just as the tear hit the water, Kurama let his eyes close, ready for a long nap.

* * * * * *

Everyone was busy as they focused on cleaning up the village from the attack. Using the information given to them by Naruto, and with the help of the newly formed Akatsuki group in the Hidden Rain Village, they were able to finally track down the black and white Zetsu creature and seal him away so that he couldn't bring about any more disasters to the shinobi world.

With the explanation and pleading from Itachi, Minato and Kushina both forgave Fugaku for what he had done, and the two families became even closer as a result and Danzo was branded as a traitor and was buried away from the rest of the village shinobi. Everything seemed to be back to normal in the Leaf village; all of the peaceful days were back.

It had been six months since the attack, and for the first time in a while, Minato found himself sitting alone in his office with nothing to do. In order to distract himself he decided to go for a walk and found himself standing on the mountain top above the Hokage faces.

Minato sat and was watching the sun set over the horizon when he heard soft footsteps approaching from behind him. He wasn't surprised when he turned to his Kushina with their baby boy walking up to him.

"I thought I might find you here." Kushina had a nostalgic smile on her face as she thought back to sitting here talking with the other Naruto less than a year ago. "You two always loved coming up here."

Minato looked back out over the village as he thought about all that had happened. "Yeah, and you know what? I'm going to continue coming here with him." He carefully pulled his baby son onto his lap as smiled at the view. "Naruto, this is our village and they are our family. Don't you ever forget that."

The little baby smiled and giggled happily as he held his hands out in front of him as if reaching towards the village. Minato and Kushina just smiled as they watched their son. It was dark when the three finally stood up ready to leave. The baby was asleep in Minato's arms as he beckoned for Kushina to follow.

Kushina smiled at the peaceful smile that was on Minato's face. Locking her arms around Minato, she gleefully went with him. The small family made their way back through the streets of the Leaf Village, stepping up to the doorway of their home.

As they were stepping through the entrance, Minato turned to Kushina once more. "I am so thankful for you and Naruto, Kushina. Thank you for being my family."

"Thank you too, Minato. Let's always be happy, ya know." Kushina gave Minato a soft kiss and they both smiled at each other as they let the door close behind them, ready to move forward with their happiness.


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