※ 回想記の夢 ・ A Memoir of a Dream ※
By: Fehize

[AN: I advise to re-glance or rehash through the previous chapter or more.]
[This chapter jumps straight from a multiple of plot lines that I had set in place, earlier.]
[Thank you for your patience!]

[x]

Red hair sprawled lazily around a woman's body, as her lavender eyes only glanced up sheepishly towards a certain blue pair. Her hands, normally so adept at controlling things, were lying on the side. Her mouth, usually open and ready to speak her mind, was shut. A part of her was physically showing her worry: she had known that men took time to persuade to have families, but...

She never though Minato would have been one of those men.

Granted, Kushina wasn't just your average woman who wanted a child. She was the host of Kyuubi, the demon who would be more than happy to devour the world, if loose. Such a birth would leave her open and exposed for an enemy - of which Minato had many - to come by and... well, do something damned nefarious!

Like scare her husband enough to not want children! Fuck it all!

The woman suddenly shook her head. No, she couldn't get angry at her poor man in such a way. There was always a reason with Minato. He loved her so much, when he first confessed to her about it, it took a few minutes just for him to get out of the blushing stage. Besides, a part of her mused, it was more like the kind of scared fear that one had when realizing a terrible moment.

Like when she found out her nation was dead and her clan no more.

Her hands shook his a bit, as she tilted her head in part jest, trying her hardest to cheer up her Hokage, and not showcase her own, personal hurt. "C'mon, Minato," she tried in vain, "the weakening of the containment is only for a few hours at worst. If we are both rather careful and hide ourselves, it'll... it'll be alright. We... we could have... have a child..."

Odd, he was now wiping her cheek, with sorrow in his eyes. Why was he-?

Oh. She was crying after all.

[x]

The moon hung high above somewhere in the world as a grotesque looking statue rested behind him. The ten tails, all asleep, petrified in a statue as well as scattered amongst the lands in nine parts. Few legends even had the story of the ten tails existing, but Madara Uchiha had found them, thus letting 'Tobi' learn them.

His life was always torn by war. His friend, Kakashi, betrayed Rin, killing her with his hands. The world was in nothing but chaos and agony. Just take a look at the previous two shinobi wars. In some retrospects, one could argue that the discovery of chakra made humans more terrible creatures.

All he wanted was a peaceful land.

Was that so hard to-?

A pang went through his heart. Sudden, quick, and brought him immediately to his knees, panting.

"Tobi," came the gruff voice of Black Zetsu, "what is wrong-?"

But all Tobi - no, Obito Uchia, and what the hell was he doing in a cave?! - NO, Tobi! No! Who the hell is Tobi!? His name is O.B.I.T.O. damn it! Who the fuck are you!? Me!? I am TOBI! Obito Uchiha was a name long ago, a name who died when Rin died! Rin's not dead, Not-Obito! And you're an ass for saying such! Now, get out of my head! Yours? No! It is MINE. I am Tobi- HOLY SHIT, WHY AM I BLIND IN ONE EYE!? WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO TO ME, TOBI!? WHERE THE FUCK AM I!? No, I AM TOBI, the bringer forth for PEACE IN THE WORLD. The disciple of Madara Uchiha- MADARA!? YOU MEAN THAT ASSHOLE WHO WANTED TO DESTROY THE VILLAGE!? How dare you! He was a man who saw only TRUTH of the world-! TRUTH!? TRUTH IS I WAS JUST GIVING MINATO'S KID A FUCKING WALK AND NOW I'M HERE AND I DUNNO WHY THE HELL AM I MISSING FEELING ON MY LEFT SIDE!?

"-Tobi! Now is not for your games! Get off of the floor and-"

The two entities kept fighting, arguing even. It kept spiraling further and further with what could only be called a descent into insanity. The being that was Tobi eventually just started screaming, clawing at his face, trying to rip the orange mask off of him, as if trying to gouge out his very eyes.

Black Zetsu could only stare for a few moments before... before something went wrong.

Tobi, the being that was to help further his plans, laughed - was that a cry of victory!? - before giving Zetsu the middle finger and simply disappeared, leaving a very confused and lost Zetsu behind.

[x]

Obito felt like someone had trampled over his grave. He stuck out his tongue, and not in the good way that came before food was to come in. In fact, it felt like he was going to through up. Badly.

Rin's brown hair sashayed in the wind, as she turned to face her comrades at the ramen stand. Like it was almost everyday for this past week, the group of teens would band together. However, unlike normally, Naruto didn't make a visit to stop by. Obito could understand being notoriously late, but this was borderline ridiculous. Naruto wasn't the kind of guy to deny free lunch...

There was that odd feeling again. The black haired kid felt his insides churn for just a moment, frowning a bit. He was about to bring it up, but then he noticed Rin and Kakashi were being to show discomfort as well.

"Is it just me-?" brought up the silver haired, masked child.

"-or did you just get this bad sense of deja vu?" finished up Rin.

[x]

Sasuke opened his red eyes once again, staring straight ahead at...

Well, it could only be described as pure, unaltered terror. He had heard reports of what had happened, but to see such a thing... in action...?

Ahead of him was, to put nicely, the End of the World. It was a sphere - a chasm - of black, inky nothingness that slowly began to expand as time passed. Sometimes it would grow a few inches, the reports had stated. Sometimes, it would explode outwards, consuming entire hundreds of feet.

What made it unsettling was the location. It was quaintly growing, gnawing and eating everything around it, right in the middle of the Valley of the End.

A fitting place, really.

"When did... this THING come into being?" he questioned, not allowing his screaming mind, telling him to RUN, show outwardly. He placed his hands on his sword, nevertheless, as if the unbreakable metal object could protect him from such a dastardly sight.

Karin, the redhead 'medic' chakra sensor, who now followed him at almost any passing, shuddered as well, with a voice filled with awe and fright. "We only noticed it about a month ago, officially," she began, shifting her weight and taking a few steps back away from that monstrous sphere. "I can't tell if it's an orb of pure, raw, unfiltered chakra in the real world, endlessly growing-" she began, filled with honeyed words of knowledge, "-or the harbinger of our world's doom into mere nothingness."

"Could you be a little more explicit?!" the Uchiha growled. He had asked Karin to lead her to this object solely because it was an unknown, and Sasuke couldn't have such plans with an unknown. That, and Karin was adamant that whatever it was was not 'good'.

Her pale, sweater covered hands rose her glasses higher up her nose, wrinkling in thought. "In theory, it could have been here for even longer, and maybe only got large enough to be noticeable to us in the Sound. It could explain why Konoha was running a muck."

Ah, Konoha. The Hidden Village that Sasuke wanted to see fall under the flames of his design. A town that was also falling apart at the seams with a missing, presumed dead Hokage. And, in his deep thoughts, no Naruto to tie everything together in a vain attempt. He could still remember the look on his friend's face - could he really, honestly call Naruto a friend? - when he denied Konoha and all it stood for in his quest for power.

He felt his stomach flip flop. That circle of darkness was silent, as well, not being audible, despite the very air being destroyed as it passed through it. If Sasuke, and by default, Karin, didn't know anything better, he could swear that it was almost like a black hole. Only, it wasn't controlled by the might of Uchihian eyes, but...

It grew just then. That thing, jumping forwards an extra twenty feet - no, forty - in front of their eyes. Both of the team members jumped back, startled, but otherwise unhurt. They had a good vantage point, about half a mile away on the cliff side.

The effect was terrible. It suddenly was now wide enough to swallow the entire river. Just like that, there was no more water going into the stream, but into the monstrosity, never coming out. It was just sucking up water, and was still eager for more.

"Did you not hear me?" Sasuke began, already wanting to leave this thing. "I said 'explicit', not 'no answer', woman!"

A glint lit in her eyes, as if fascinated by the death of a once mighty river. "It's a vortex swallowing up our reality as we know it. Just watch," she began, bringing forth her fingers into simple, jutsu forms. With just a quick mutter, off flew chakra into the void-

-and in a terrible fashion, this time making such NOISE and such LIGHTNING-

-the black orb of The End expanded ten fold, collapsing the left side of the cliff, destroying the statue that was once Madara Uchiha, as well as miles of forest. Even the birds could not escape.

"What did you just DO!?" the 'last' Uchiha argued, ready to defend himself from the woman's antics. Was she INSANE!? She just made something that was from his innate nightmares EXPLODE, destroying everything in its path. It was so BIG that it now was behind Karin; so close that a mere push could shove her into it.

"You wanted an explanation," she began, with her teeth shining in a smile laced with fear. "It expands outwardly with chakra, exponentially, making any attack to shut it down useless. Such sheer expansion initially must have been small - small enough for Konoha not to find out about it, yet. Well, at least until just now, of course."

Sasuke was going to threaten Karin's life right about now. She had officially gone off the deep end. He knew she was always a little off, but-

She flung her hand, as if showcasing the world. "Of COURSE you don't see! Silly me, I'm the chakra sensor here, whereas you are not." Her expression soon soured, despite the fact that Sasuke had already unsheathed his sword, aiming at her weaker form.

She placed a face of pure seriousness, and changed her demeanor so fast it was hard for even Sasuke to follow. "It's the place where you and Naruto fought. Where you made a black orb similar in looks to this, don't you recall?"

And Sasuke DID. The Valley of the End. Where he had won and the dobe did NOT.

"What of it?" he growled, seeing the black reflection off of the shiny, immensely sharp blade. He remembered, yes, but he could also recall that when he and the blonde hair idiot created such, it was no where near as destructive.

Or frightening.

She flattened her shirt, looking back at him. "It reeks, absolutely, 33 percent, reeks of Uzumaki chakra. Specially, YOUR Naruto's chakra. Only, meshed with so many things, I'm not surprised your fuddled."

"This is NOT explaining!"

She cut him off. "Naruto, before he died, I assume, in that THING, casted a jutsu to End the World. Revenge? Accident? Some other 'divine purpose'? Quaint, isn't it? Makes you wonder how such a thing could even be CASTED. A kekkai genkai of the most malicious space-time manipulation I have ever heard or seen, I suppose," Karin began, haphazardly. "I knew it would bring The End when I first saw it. I knew you would be devastated to know your want to kill your brother and the Village would be moot. Still...

"You did ask to see it, did you not?"

[x]

Minato held onto Kushina tightly, trying, and failing, not to feel guilty over the distraught he caused his wonderful, beautiful wife.

"I'm so sorry," he muttered into her red hair - the hair he loved and the hair he had worshiped. "I'm so sorry. You and I would both die, and leave our child alone, if we have a kid right now. I'm so sorry Kushina, but I can't. I just... just can't."

Elsewhere, in another part of Konoha, Naruto, too, felt like someone was walking over his grave.

[x]

The skips of POVs are hopefully not too confusing. It jumps back and forth in perspective, and you, readers, should know I have been alluding something like this in previous chapters. How it pans out might be foretold a bit, or maybe not. But, as you can see, things HAVE changed. But, can it be a good change? Well, obviously not. Anyways, I finally addressed a little on how the 'future' is getting effected by Naruto. Not so innocently...!

I am sorry for the late response. To readers who held out, thank you. Your reviews and replies made me wonder in amazement that people still find this, after so many years. I promised myself I would finish it, and now that I have my life on track, I plan on ending it. As it was planned.

As such, most of the story of Naruto after his age jump was thrown out the window. See? I can hear it crashing and breaking apart right now. I'll try to allude and incorperate what I can... but no promises. Aja!