Chapter Warning: None.

Disclaimer: I'm only borrowing this world, the only thing I own are the OCs.

Enjoy!

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Dilemma

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I spread out on the grass, feeling the warm sunlight that managed to slip through the canopy on my skin, my fingers gently running through the blades of grass around me. I was sequestered deep in the forested part of the Nara clan lands where only the deer roamed.

My Nara-sitter conveniently occupied elsewhere.

Mom was going to blow a gasket.

Fortunately, that was a problem for future me. The current me had another more pressing problem. A problem that required calm and quiet… and, this was the only place where I could think without one of my many Nara-sitters breathing down my neck.

I really hadn't thought my trip to the Hokage Tower through. The consequences were still haunting me months after the ordeal.

My third birthday had come and gone back in December along with my grounding (although, I was still supposed to stay in view of at least one Nara-sitter if I did leave the house), it was now March, the deer were out and about, the fawns were taking their first steps, and, oh yeah, Yoshino was pregnant again.

My fingers plucked a single blade of grass, twisting it gently to pull it out intact and without harming the surrounding blades.

The arriving baby wasn't the reason for my troubled thoughts, the reason happened to be because I finally knew where I was in the timeline. After all, what were the chances of another birth by the same couple before the canon kids were born? I sighed. I should've been happy, finally knowing when I was, getting to the part of this life that I had forewarning of, but all I could feel was dread. Shikamaru would be born in a couple of months, and Naruto would be here on October 10th and I knew what would follow.

It wasn't like I knew Minato or Kushina, I didn't know anyone outside of the Nara clan. Whatever happened to the other people of Konoha just didn't affect me. My whole world consisted of the forest and my home, the Nara and the deer. I knew that Shikaku and Yoshino would make it out alive, and outside of them, I didn't stand to lose anything. But if I interfered, if I said anything, there was no way to predict what would happen, but it was always better to expect the worst and the worst was something I couldn't bear.

I twisted the blade of grass around my finger with only my chakra.

Despite not reading the full story, I had gleaned enough from fanfiction and social media posts to know how it ended. How the ninja world put aside their differences to come together. The original story had ended happily, everything had turned out okay… But.

But, what about the other Nara? What about the people who would be affected by the Kyuubi? What about all the people who would suffer? I knew this wasn't a dream, I knew this wasn't a delusion, everything was too real, these people weren't characters. They had hopes and dreams, they had people that cared about them.

It's not like dying was the end, I could attest to that, but the pain and loss suffered by those left behind was very real and if I could do something to prevent their pain, shouldn't I do it?

If I could do something, help in someway…

Except…

The danger was very real. The fear that I would be locked away, be kept away from my family and the life I had with them, the information ripped from my mind, in the hands of my family's enemies, it was all too terrifying.

Just the thought of being imprisoned, having seals placed on me, being shackled and chained in a room, never to be let out… My breathing picked up, the blade of grass crumbling under my spiking chakra.

I couldn't.

I couldn't.

I wouldn't be able to handle it; I wasn't that strong. My freedom was everything to me, I couldn't… I couldn't live— couldn't survive like that.

I dug the heels of my palms into my eyes, but who was I to play god? What right did I have to decide whether people lived or died? I had information that could save lives, if I did nothing—

If I did nothing, then so many people would suffer. Would I be able to live with myself then?

A warm hand settled on my head.

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