The Future: Naruto Fanfiction

Chapter 132-HOPE FOR HOMEWORLD

The Village

Naruto opens his eyes as he gradually regains his consciousness. A minor throbbing in the back of his head, he lets it fester as he looks around. To his left his mother and father, to his right his daughter and Ming Dai. Nowhere to be found is Hinata. It confirms all his worst fears from before, she is dead, he failed.

Naruto sighs, drawing all eyes in the room to him.

"Hello Naruto," Kushina says, smiling, "How are you doing, does your head still hurt?"

Naruto sits up, they are all now fixated on him, like children with nobody else to look to. He quickly perceives that the primary emotion in the room right now isn't fear, it's not suffering, anxiety or concern, it's desperation. Once again everyone is looking to him as their saviour.

"Of course not," Naruto says, "I don't have to endure any pain for long."

Naruto raises his hand to the back of his head and brings 'life' energy to it. He massages the small bump for a second and feels it completely disappear. His wounds from the fight before are all gone too, this is his power, a healing factor higher than anyone else in the world.

"Everyone in the has to bear all the burdens, and I just get to keep moving forward, like it's easy," Naruto grumbles.

"That's nonsense," Himawari corrects her father, "You put up with more than any of us and no matter what you say I know that you're hurting now dad. I've seen you lose people before, I know how it gets to you."

"Has it occurred to you that perhaps I don't want to talk about how I feel," Naruto snaps, "Why has this all got to be about how I feel, you lost your mother, why is nobody-"

"It hurts, it sucks," Himawari admits, "But right now I've got to power through it, because you need to be safe before I can grieve, that's what my mother wanted and you know that to be true."

Naruto would normally be more receptive to Himawari's arguments but he has just lost his wife, he is not in the mood for this kind of talk. He realises that Himawari may know Hinata better than any of them, that she, having lived longer, actually knows her mother better than Naruto does. Naruto doesn't want to think about Hinata's last thoughts though, about her fear, about her anger, about her rage. He has thought about that sort of thing before, and it always leads down a dark path.

"This sentimental chat is nice, and I'm sure it's necessary, but not under these circumstances," Dai says, changing the direction of conversation, "Naruto, what happened sucked, but this won't be the last time you lose someone in this conflict. We will all lose someone, but I need you to endure the pain and move forward."

"I was supposed to be different you know, that's why everyone had such high hopes for me," Naruto hypocritically continues, "I was supposed to save everyone, my element is 'life', that's why I was given this element, but I couldn't even save Hinata."

"Oh don't give me that," Dai groans, rolling his eyes, "Do you think we want you to be some sort of god? Furst thinks he's a god, he may even be right, but we believe in you because you're the best of us, because you're one of us. You're human Naruto, you make mistakes, but don't let you hold it back, not when we need to act fast."

"I'm sorry Dai, but I need to change things, I can't let this happen again."

Himawari approaches her father, "If you're not going to stand up and fight with us then what are you going to do?"