The Light Of Hope (A Naruto Timetravel Fanfic)

Chapter 3

At the Uchiha Compound, in the Main household, inside the youngest child's room, lay a boy struggling in his sleep.

In his dreams, memories of the war kept on replaying as he stood watching his troops get slaughtered by an army of White Zetsu.

Only ending with them finally sealing the rabbit goddess away, as he gasped awake sitting up on his bed, panting.

With a jolt of realization, he quickly scanned the room with caution, alertness and incredulity. Realizing that he was no longer in the battlefield, dying.

For he immediately recognized his previous bedroom from when he was a child, thanks to those repeating flashbacks from his past.

'This is impossible.'

As he unconsciously suppressed his chakra, now aware that it was of smaller quantity compared to before, he quickly got out bed and stood still on the center of his room with his eyes closed and forced himself to relax with practiced ease.

Being familiar within unfamiliar territory and sudden changes, aware that he should have died already and not feeling so alive right that moment, he took deep breaths to stay calm and forced away negative thoughts that tries to invade his mind, knowing that he might be affected by anything similar to his childhood.

Despite staying calm though, he still felt vexed that he woke up in his bed from when he was a child.

He didn't understand why he's in this house either. He should be dead. Laying on his pool of blood. He was suppose to finally be with his family in the afterlife.

Or is it? Is this the afterlife? But why does it feel quite the opposite?

It doesn't feel dead to him nor is it the same with how one is trapped in a genjutsu should be.

Opening his eyes with his matured, three tomoe Sharingan, he unsurprisingly saw nothing.

No anomalies.

However, when he walked over to a body mirror on the side, he was astonished to look at himself as a child again, causing him to take few steps back in horror.

'T-This can't be real. T-This isn't...'

Quickly calming himself down not to panic and violently react, with a hand on his chest putting pressure and his other hand clenched to his side, he immediately closed eyes and roared in his mind.

Moments later, he knelt down on both knees and slowly opened his eyes again as the reflection before him showed the same.

Feeling a mixture of emotions, surging within him wanting to break out. But what puzzled him later is his left eye, showing a normal sharingan, not the fabled Rinnegan.

Gritting his teeth in frustration, he sat crossed legged on the floor facing the mirror and meditated.

He tried focusing on his chakra and surprisingly found a mysterious seal on his chakra pathway.

Nudging it, he felt a slight surge of familiar chakra flowing through him, however, an unknown sense of dread suddenly assaulted his senses as he immediately opened his eyes wide in alarm, automatically shutting off his sharingan.

'What?'

Furrowing his brows in thought, he didn't quite understand why the feeling of dread came to be.

Was it the seal? It was obvious to him that it was sealing away his original chakra, but not allowing it to fuse with his current one. So why?

Then with a sudden thought, he closed his eyes again and tried to use his senses to get a feel around his house, discreetly.

Within seconds later, he shocked himself to stand on his feet, eyes wide in disbelief and denial.

'No. No. No... it can't be...'

Dashing to his window, he swiftly opened it and jumped as he maneuvered himself to climb to the roof. Upon arriving, he stood frozen, dumbfounded at the sight before him.

Seeing the view of his clan still standing, with people wearing the uchiha clan symbol walking through the streets as birds tweets in the distance and the wind blowing towards him, he started to slightly tremble.

Slowly turning his head towards the hokage mountain, feeling a sense of dread and a bit repulsed, he saw a sight he didn't want to accept.

For there was only four heads on that mountain.

Either confirming his suspicions or giving him even more troubling questions.

He can then feel himself beginning to panic as his hands trembled at his side.

'H-How is this possible!'

"Sasuke?" An eerily familiar voice sounded from behind him, causing him to further tense up and feel extremely anxious, not wanting to turn around.

"What are you doing on the roof?"

☆☆☆

Back at the Nara Compound, the couple were still dumbfounded by the sight before them.

When Shikamaru finally regained his senses, he turned his back to them and quickly wiped his eyes.

'What am I doing?' He thought in frustration.

"Shika-chan, is everything alright?" His mother asked as they immediately composed themselves, now looking at their son in worry.

However. Shikaku could not get his mind off of what he had seen in his son's eyes.

That look of grief and deep sorrow.

He couldn't help but scrutinise him even further.

'Wonder what happened to warrant him that look?'

"Shika-chan?" Yoshino inquired, feeling worried for her son as she stood from her seat.

"I-I'm fine, mom." Shikamaru responded as he composed himself and walked to his seat to eat breakfast, as if nothing happened.

"O-Oh."

Sitting back down, Yoshino could not help but observe her son as she noticed that his behaviour seemed a bit off compared to yesterday.

"Did something happen at school?" Shikaku asked his son while eating leisurely.

Tensing for a split second and quickly acted as if nothing mattered in his life other than being lazy among many others, Shikamaru shook his head 'no', but he still did not look at his parents as he continued eating quietly, wanting it to be over immediately.

"Hmm."

Seeing his response, Shikaku threw a discreet sharp look at the lowered head of his son, something he had not done before.

"Perhaps, you have encountered something troublesome?"

Again. He shook his head 'no'.

Moments later of uncomfortable silence, Shikamaru stood with his empty plate and went to the kitchen.

Later on, he finally bid his parents goodbye and went out of the house onto the streets.

Sighing in relief, he wander through the streets as planned and decided to skip class.

Looking up, he frowned in thought as he saw the hokage mountain with only four heads, becoming even more uncomfortable with the implications it brought.

Picking up his pace, he decided to just go to Naruto's apartment to get his answers, if that white light really has something to do with the situation they are in.

'Even if he can't provide it, maybe the fox can.'

He quickly dashed through the streets, avoiding jumping through the roofs since it would look suspicious, especially in the day.

Considering how he is still an academy student, not a genin who learned walking on surfaces with chakra.

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