A Life Unlived- Industrial Lace & Magic

Hi, so this is my first fic on here. It is a Yondaime/Naruto family fic. There are some other pairings in here, both Yaoi and Het. I don't want to give anything away, but I need to credit Reaper Nanashi for the idea which came from her fic 'Vis a Vis: Side Doors' although it has been slightly altered.

I want to express great thanks to my best friend and beta Ravencaller, who not only checked and edited this for, but also typed some of it up as we were breaking from writing our collab fic.

Anyway, read review, enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or its characters. They belong to the master, Masashi Kishimoto. NOTE: This is the only disclaimer I will be putting up for this story!

Chapter 1

Naruto POV

He'd left a few hours ago, said it was time he hit the bar, met some women. I, though, remained here, in this same spot, flashing through series after series of hand signs, determined to make this stupid jutsu work. Some say my determination is stupid, almost suicidal, that I do it to get attention. Some people wonder why I stay out here so late, alone. But what they fail to remember is that when I return home, I'm still alone. At least out here, I have something to focus on.

After something like my 1000th try, I could still only get the dirt to jump a few feet off the ground. It was simple really. Mould my chakra into my feet and force it into the ground, form eight hand signs and the ground should lift to form a shield. It was kind of like what Gaara could do with his sand.

Getting agitated, I gathered as much chakra as possible and pushed it into the ground. The result wasn't quite what I had expected. Dirt flew everywhere in a massive explosion. For a moment, everything was black, then it cleared and I could see the training grounds clearly again. I looked down and saw I was standing in a massive hole.

Stars danced in front of my eyes and I somehow ended up on the ground. A yellow blob appeared above me, I could hear a worried voice in the distance somewhere. Then, everything went black.

When I woke up, I wasn't lying on the ground, nor was I in the hospital, where I sometimes ended up after training until I passed out. Instead, I was in a bed, a very large and comfortable bed. So this definately wasn't my apartment.

Opening my eyes, I tried to keep my chakra levels as low as possible, so I didn't alert the person whose house I was in that I was awake. When I opened my eyes, I saw I was in a large bedroom. The walls were blue and orange. It looked like how I'd do my bedroom if my apartment wasn't all one room and I had the time to decorate. I didn't recognise where I was at all.

Sighing, I turned my head to the side and had to stifle a scream when I saw someone lying on the bed next to me. What the hell?! Trying to move without shaking the bed and waking the man, I sat up and looked around the room, trying to find some sort of weapon.

I climbed out of bed and pulled a sword off of the wall. The man woke up at the sound of the sword being drawn. He looked around, instantly alert. This man must be a ninja. He turned to me and looked at me with shocked eyes; I stared back with the same expression.

The man before me had blonde messy hair, all sticking up in different directions, and vivid blue eyes. I'd seen this man before. His photo hung on the wall in the Hokage's office. This couldn't be right though; the Yondaime was dead. How could he be alive? Was I dreaming, or dead? Maybe a Gen-jutsu, yeah that must be it. I was caught in a Gen-jutsu.

It was probably an attacker who wanted to throw me off. I let killer intent flow from myself and gathered up some chakra.

"Release the jutsu," I warned, my voice barely louder than a whisper. "How dare you impersonate him, my hero."

"Naruto, what's wrong, don't you remember me?" the impersonator asked. I didn't take any notice of the hurt in his voice. He was just trying to distract me.

"Of course I remember the Yondaime. But he was killed when he sealed the Kyuubi into me," I all but shouted. The Yondaime impersonator paled. He'd seen the flaw in his disguise. I thought everyone knew of the Yondaime's death.

"Son, what's wrong? Who's Kyuubi?" This time, I paled. What did he mean by son? Was I…?

"I'm your son?" I asked. The Yondaime nodded and everything once again started to turn black. My knees buckled and I was falling. But instead of hitting the ground, something caught me, and I was held against something warm that smelt of trees and ramen. Eventually, I lost consciousness.

I awoke to the sound of dripping. I knew this wasn't anywhere in Konoha; I was back with Kyuubi. When I called his name, though, I got no answer. Instead, all that greeted me was silence, apart from the dripping of water.

I ran down the side of the sewer, towards the cage I knew should be there. It was, but inside, I could see no fox. I looked at the gate. The seal was still there. So where was that damned furball?

I looked around, hoping in vain that I'd maybe find him somewhere else. I knew I wouldn't; the seal was still intact so the fox was unable to escape. That still didn't tell me where he was though.

I'd come to realise that this wasn't a Gen-jutsu. That wouldn't have been able to affect the fox like this, it was impossible. This was something far beyond that, something that I couldn't understand. Shocking really, the 'dobe' can't understand something. People don't realise I'm actually smarter than I pretend to be.

I knew what I had to do: pretend that I knew what was going on, live with the Yondaime as his son. I doubted I could put this down to an enemy, something was wrong about the situation. Send me somewhere where there would be someone to protect me? All I knew was, I'd have to stay here until I could figure out what was going on and how I could get home.

I closed my eyes and focused on waking up. It was usually the fox that did it, but since he was currently unavailable, I was forced to do it myself. If I stayed stuck in my mind, it would be hard to get home again.

When I opened my eyes again, I was in the bed I woken up in earlier. This time when I looked beside me, the Yondaime wasn't there. I breathed a small sigh of relief and got out of bed. When I looked in the drawers, I found that I still wore my trademark orange and black jacket here, but my pants were black instead of orange.

I showered quickly and dressed in some fresh clothes, then decided to explore. The house was big, but what was to be expected for the Hokage? He was the most important person in the village. Eventually I found myself in the kitchen. On my way around the house, I'd found many maids around the place. All of them bowed to me, something I'd found quite unsettling, before turning back to their job at hand.

When in the kitchen, I'd explored every room in the house and had not found the Yondaime… my dad… anywhere. On the kitchen counter, though, was a note. It told me he had gone out for a bit to get some food, and he should be back soon.

Deciding I had nothing better to do, I went to one of the studies I'd seen earlier and picked up a book on wind jutsu and sat down behind the desk to start reading. I read for a few minutes before I felt a shift in the amount of chakra in the house, signalling someone had just teleported into the house. For a moment, I panicked, thinking it was an intruder, then I heard my dad's voice call out to me.

"Naruto, I'm home and I have take out!"

I got up and headed down to the kitchen where my dad was putting take out ramen into two bowls. I smiled at the sight of my favourite food and sat down in front of one of the bowls. "Itadakimasu," I muttered before splitting my chopsticks and starting to eat. When I looked up a few seconds later, I found my dad staring at me rather than eating.

"Naruto," he said, "Is something wrong? Today, you didn't even recognise me, not as your father anyway." I stayed silent for a moment, trying to think up an answer that could explain what was happening without seeming suspicious. "Well," I started, "It was it probably just my brain being a bit slow after waking up from whatever had happened earlier."

My dad stared at me. His face was completely unreadable. I returned my attention back to my food and ate as quickly as possible so I could get away. Outside, the sky was starting to turn dark. I could give the excuse I was tired and go to bed.

I stood up and told the Yondaime I was going to bed. He gave me a small nod and I left the room to disappear back to my bedroom. I didn't think I'd be able to sleep, but after I'd stripped down to my boxers and climbed under the duvet, I was asleep the moment my head hit the pillow.