The End Of The Line

Chapter 3

Third person pov

Naruto's eyes popped open, and he was immediately blinded by sunlight. Which made sense, since they were in the desert and all. Only the sunlight wasn't coming from directly above him. No, instead it was coming from... well, he wasn't sure. It was just a little pocket of light, seeping into the room he was in.

Room.

Wait-

"What the hell?" The blonde jolted up, his blue eyes wide with surprise as he took in his surroundings, which were quite possibly one of the most horrifying yet comforting things he'd ever laid his gaze upon. It was his old apartment. His old apartment full of old, moldy instant ramen cups and other questionable substances. And dirty clothes. Dirty clothes were everywhere. It smelt much worse than he remembered, and the amount of orange was genuinely startling. Naruto had no idea how to react.

"It worked." Kurama seemed surprised. "Dude, I was totally joking."

"What the fuck?" Naruto sputtered, his head whipping back and forth. He wanted the damn desert back. What was this? This wasn't okay. Where was Sasuke? What about Orochimaru, and the moderately-insane Sasori? Hidan could stay back. Kisame could too. He stole everyone's food. Kakuzu could come he guessed. He was sort of obnoxious and definitely a money-hoarder, but not too bad overall. 

"What do we do?" Naruto sputtered. This was his apartment. From the past. It had air conditioning. And a shower. And hot water. Oh my God, this was amazing! He probably even had a toothbrush somewhere! He missed his toothbrush. Using bits of torn up clothing and banana peels really didn't work as well as you would think. Naruto scooted to the edge of his bed. His bed. That had a mattress. Sure, it sort of felt like laying on a pile of lumpy grass, but that was a lot better than a pile of lumpy rocks. 

"Okay, you need to calm down." Kurama shook his head. Being in the past was great, but it wasn't that great. This brat needed to calm the hell down before he blew a gasket or something. Honestly, this was just pathetic. Really, really pathetic. It was just an apartment. Albeit, Naruto hadn't seen one of those since they practically destroyed all of humanity, along with the civilization's they'd built. But that was besides the point! He as a grown-ass man. He needed to get a hold on his emotions and chill the fuck out. 

"Right, calm." Naruto took a deep breath. "Okay, so if this is my old apartment, that means I probably have my old calendar. And it also means Sasuke is probably around here somewhere. Unless he already left, which would be fine too. At least he'd be with Orochimaru. But wait, then I'd be alone." The blonde rambled somewhat senselessly. 

"You'd have me." Kurama scoffed, sounding somewhat offended. 

"What? You don't count. You're an asshat." Naruto responded as he scurried over towards where his calendar hung crookedly on the wall. Why was he so short now? He didn't like any of this. It smelled weird, and he was lonely. Kurama didn't really count as any sort of company. He was just a giant fox with a superiority complex. And a total and complete asshat, as stated before. 

"Excuse you." Kurama gasped. "I'm an asshole, idiot. Not an asshat. I don't even have a hat on. Get some fucking brain cells."

"Oh my God." Naruto groaned. Not this again. Kurama didn't really understand insults. Hidan had called him a fuckbucket once, but the fox had insisted that he was indeed not a bucket. So Naruto had spent around two hours explaining to Kurama why it didn't matter if he was a bucket or not. Evidently, the fox had disregarded anything he'd learned. If he'd learned anything in the first place, that is. Whatever. They'd work on it at a later date. They had bigger things to worry about right now.

"Dude, you're like six." Kurama said, looking blandly up at the calendar. Naruto blanched, his blue eyes shifting to the date. And sure enough, the year on the front of the neglected calendar did indeed indicate that he was six years old. He wasn't sure what month it was exactly seeing as his past self probably hadn't touched the poor thing, but he remembered throwing it away around five months after he'd obtained it. Which meant it was still somewhat recent.

"Why do you remember that and not something important? Like that one jutsu you used to blow up that giant building. That was so fucking cool." Kurama whistled.

"Okay, I do remember that jutsu. Kind of. It's just this one hand sign I'm missing, but if I go through all the combinations, eventually it's bound to work, right?" Naruto shrugged, turning away from his calendar. If he was six, that meant Sasuke was six. As in the Uchiha was still in Konoha. As in Naruto could actually go find him. If that wasn't progress, he wasn't sure what was.

"Whatever. Doesn't everyone hate you in this time?" Kurama asked.

"Orange or black shirt?" Naruto ignored him.

"Neither, meatbag." Kurama rolled his eyes. Naruto groaned again. Another thing Hidan and Kisame had managed to convince the fox of is that if you were completely naked, and you walked slowly enough, nobody could see you. Naruto wasn't sure how they'd managed to get that idea into the fox's head, but they had, and he was dead set on Naruto trying it. Naruto absolutely refused for obvious reasons. He didn't need everyone staring at him and his hotdog! 

"Orange it is." The Uzumaki grumbled, earning a scoff from the chakra being sealed inside of him. Naruto wasn't sure what the fox had against Orange. His fur was orange. He didn't understand the logic of him not liking it. Maybe it was just the brighter shade. Naruto could see why it might hurt someone's eyes on special occasions. However, he had a special fondness for it. Even if he could admit that his younger self had been a little too obsessed. 

Naruto got dressed quickly. He needed to get to Sasuke's, preferably before the Uchiha woke up. Unless the Uchiha was already awake in which case they were screwed. They needed to save the future, but Naruto didn't doubt he'd blow their cover by trying to cut off his own arm. He hated his arm. He loved not having it around to "bother him" as he said. The moment he woke up, he was definitely going to try severing it. 

"Go faster. You're slow. And you smell weird. When was the last time you bathed?" Kurama's nose scrunched up, and he let out a yawn. Maybe he'd take a nap. But what if he missed something important? Ugh, he felt so conflicted. This was the hardest decision he'd ever had to make. Besides the one where he chose between helping Naruto and killing everyone. He still regretted his decision--

"Hey!" Naruto threw open his front door. "Rude!"

"Thanks."