Black Light (Naruto)

Chapter 20

Hello! Chapters might start being a little slow (I'm trying to prewrite a bunch more chapters cause I didn't back in January or Febuary.)

Original: 01/28/2020

Edited: 10/30/2020

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Hikaru glanced outside, violet eyes glancing on a brown hawk flying by. His eyes traced the hawk's moving outline, feathers outlined in the shining sun. There was a small scroll wrapped to the hawk's leg with a red band around it, and Hikaru recognized it. So he opened his window and let the hawk it. 

He ran his fingers through the hawk's feathers politely, and Hikaru grabbed the scroll that he was offered, continuing to pet the bird. He unrolled it, blinking in surprise at the small, coded text. 

The only thing written was a single sentence, and the hawk was trained by the Hokage, so Hikaru assumed that this was the Hokage's note. 

The spymaster is here. Is what the scroll read. 

Hikaru exhaled sharply, rolling the scroll back up and burning it with the smallest fire jutsu. His hands shook as he did so. Jiraiya was finally here. 

Hikaru muttered a curse underneath his breath, petting the hawk for one last time before letting it fly out the window. His heart was pounding and echoing in his chest, and panic was making his vision flow in and out. A hollow feeling was echoing inside of his chest. 

He made sure he had his henge on and tried for a short smile in the mirror, but it fell short. He went as he was, but he wasn't ready at all. He definitely wasn't ready- even that mere glimpse at the village had been mind-numbing. 

So he went through the streets of Konoha, going slow and prolonging the inevitable. He could feel his breath appear in short bursts as he glanced around him, scanning each face and picking up a flurry of emotions that he couldn't feel. A headache bloomed.

Happiness, anger, sorrow, apathy. It was all there. 

Blankness, emotionless, stone-cold.

Hikaru wanted to fell it, but his mind kept tossing not very healthy flashbacks at him. They didn't help. Hikaru didn't want them. 

It could wait. Emotions could wait, he knew this from experience. 

They could wait.

His feet were soundless against the dirt roads, his chakra reaching out and sensing Jiraiya in the Hokage's room. He remembered a time when he was up there, complaining to his ANBU about the paperwork. 

He knocked, and once hearing a confirmation to come in, Hikaru entered the room. He kept his eyes on the wooden floor, not wanting to look up and meet the eyes of what was his grandfather. But, in this timeline, they were strangers. 

"Hello, Jiraiya." Hikaru finally anchored his nerves and looked up, taking in the bushy white hair, the red tear streaks. Hikaru was a stranger to Jiraiya, and he had to remind himself of that. His only hope was that, for now, Hikaru wouldn't let this timeline's Naruto lose his godfather. 

"Hello. Who are you?" Jiraiya asked, tone light although there was something too it. Hikaru had no doubt that Jiraiya knew exactly who he was. 

He straightened his back and shoulders, lifting his chin. "My name was Uzumaki Naruto. It's now Uzumaki Hikaru." He said after making sure that there were no ANBU in the room and the privacy seals were activated. 

Jiraiya blinked. Then blinked again. "Impossible. Naruto's twelve."

"In a sense, I'm from the future." Hikaru began, only to be interrupted by Jiraiya once more.