The Windmill Turns Both Ways

Future

Tsunade and Kakashi stared at him. Neither of them said anything.

"What do you mean, future?" Naruto asked, looking back and forth between the two adults.

"What do you think?" Kakashi asked, but he was asking Tsunade. "It doesn't seem like he wants to go along with my crazy idea. Either this guy is really good, or we're dealing with the real thing."

"We can figure that out later," Tsunade said. "Right now, whatever we believe, it comes down to the same thing. Whether it is really Naruto or an exceptionally good fake, we have to assume that Madara or Kabuto is involved. We don't know anyone else that would have the power and motivation to do either."

"I believe he's real," Kakashi said. "It would be pointless for them to make a fake like this. It would make much more sense to switch him with an appropriately aged replacement, en route to the Lightning Country. Then again, I can see why they'd pull a younger and less powerful version forward."

"Don't... don't joke like that, Kakashi-sensei," Naruto said, smiling shakily. "That's impossible. You're still messing with me, aren't you?"

"Naruto, how else do you explain the village being destroyed?" Kakashi asked softly. "You said yourself the last thing you remember is right after Orochimaru's attack, and it wasn't nearly as bad as this."

"Yeah, but..." Naruto threw his arms out, eyes wide. "How? How could that be?"

"As I was saying, the only ones with the power and motivation for this are Akatsuki." Tsunade frowned. "Right now we're going to assume it was their doing. You are aware at this age that they are hunting for you, right?" She tapped her chin, trying to remember.

"Yes..." Naruto said slowly. "Uchiha Itachi and a weird fish-looking guy tried to kidnap me when we were out trying to find you, Baa-chan... and Sasuke showed up, but neither of us were any match. If Ero-sennin hadn't rescued us..." He lowered his gaze. "Ero-sennin said that they were after... after the Kyuubi." Even though he had come to accept his burden, he still didn't like saying it out loud.

Tsunade put a hand on her hip. "If you understand that much, you'll understand what is going on now, at least the basics. Shortly after that time, Akatsuki seemed to quiet down and leave us alone for a while. We aren't entirely sure why, except that you did travel with Jiraiya for a long time, and that probably had some influence. But recently, they have been going after you actively again." She bit her lip, worry clear on her face. "That is why they may have brought you here: to double their chance of catching you. But that is just a wild guess. We can't actually say until we know more."

"They're still after me... wait, is that why they destroyed the village?" Naruto croaked. "To get to me?"

Tsunade hesitated, then nodded.

"Please don't start blaming yourself for that now," Kakashi said, knowingly but a little exasperatedly. "The you in this timeline has already done that enough."

"But... how am I still alive after that? From what I saw, it looked like someone dropped a huge bomb on this place. When did they invade? How many people died?" he buried his face in his hands. "I didn't think all that out there was my fault."

"Fortunately, you weren't in the village at the time," Tsunade said. "Naruto," she added gently, stooping down in front of his chair to look him in the face, "Because of you, the village wasn't wiped out entirely—"

"What else would you call that—"

"Idiot!" Tsunade cut him off. "A village is more than a few buildings! A few years ago, we didn't fully understand how powerful Akatsuki was. What happened here wasn't an invasion. All of the destruction was done by a single shinobi. And you were the one who confronted him and made him back down. He had god-like powers of destruction and revival. He killed half the village and then turned around and sacrificed his own life to bring them all back. All because of you!"