The Windmill Turns Both Ways

Lightning

"Have you been able to sense them?" the younger Naruto asked, looking around as he and his older self's bunshin jumped through the trees. They were in the same forested area that covered this entire region, but Naruto didn't really recognize where they were. It wasn't the same way they had traveled to the medical camp.

"Aa! They made it in time," The bunshin said. He put on an extra burst of speed that forced the younger to scramble to catch up.

"I'll be glad to find out what happened with Kabuto," Naruto said, focusing hard on dodging the increasingly thick growth of trees. "I mean, it could have been a disaster if he'd managed to take control of them. I guess that's all the more reason to seal Nagato and send me back." He couldn't quite stop the twinge of disappointment in his voice.

"Why d'you say it like that? Don't you want to go home?" The bunshin looked over at him, navigating with ease despite taking his eyes off the path ahead.

"I mean, yeah—of course I do. That's what I've been trying to do this whole time. And I know there's not much else I can do to help in the war. It's just... that's the thing. What if something happens after I leave, and I completely miss hearing about it?"

The bunshin nodded. "That's the real reason you've been putting it off."

"Yeah. I know about the war, but I won't know how it ends if I leave now. What if everyone ends up dying? How can I stop it if I don't know? And I mean, I'm obviously gonna try to keep it from happening in the first place, but what if it happens anyway? I won't know how we can win it."

"You still want to save everyone, even though they've been keeping secrets the whole time you've been here?"

The bunshin said it so quietly that at first, Naruto thought he had misheard. But, no—a few seconds lapsed, and the meaning of what his older self said didn't change in the slightest, no matter how he rolled it over in his mind.

"O-of course I do! Wouldn't you do the same thing? You said you were never giving up on Sasuke, even after all this time, right? I'm not giving up, either."

"Then that's your answer. You know you want to make things better, even though you don't know everything."

"Even though..." Naruto frowned. "When Madara captured me, he said what we want is the same. He's kind of right, isn't he? He wants to erase all the bad things that have happened in this world, and replace them with something he thinks is better. Like he can decide that."

"I don't think it's the same," his older self murmured, and Naruto looked over at him hopefully. "Bad things will always happen. That's the way it is. Madara's trying to keep the world from changing. He just wants to get back something that was gone a long time ago. A dead end. When you think about it, it's completely different. You learn something, then change what you do because of it. That's how anyone grows."

Naruto crossed his arms and frowned confusedly. Even though it seemed like a compliment, it was not something he would have expected his older self to say. There was something slightly cold about that way of thinking. He watched his older self out of the corner of his eye. "I don't get what you're talking about. Are you saying I should go back and change things, just because I can?"

"Actually, no. I think your work here is far from over."

"What do you—"

Naruto broke off when he heard a sharp sound, and looked down to see a length of thin wire looping around him. It tightened up around his chest painfully, and he fell out of the air mid-jump and landed hard on the ground with a loud grunt.

He rolled over and scrambled to his feet as quickly as he could with his arms trapped down by his sides. His eyes darted around in search of who had attacked him, dread quickly growing at the thought that he already knew.