Facet of Future

10

Epilogue

The image on the screen flickered and then showed Naruto sitting on his desk, again wearing his jounin uniform, which in hindsight had orange Uzumaki spirals on either sleeve. The Hokage's white cloak and hat hung on a nearby rack, and judging by what could be seen through the windows, it was another day, the festivities of Tanabata done and past for another year.

"Hey there, Konoha Eleven and everyone else." Naruto greeted with a grin and a raised hand. "Did you enjoy the show?"

"Is he talking to us?" Ino asked.

"…it would seem so." Neji said with a nod. "I believe this is a message from the future Naruto to us all."

"…and given what he just asked," Shikamaru said. "I think this is the end of this glimpse into the future."

"I'm sure you all have so many questions," Naruto said. "But I think we can boil them down to three. Why did I – we – send this message and glimpses of here and now to the past? Is the future set in stone? And why wasn't more…useful, information like the details of the war sent instead?"

"…yeah…that's pretty much it, actually." Tsunade said with a nod.

"Two answers for the first question." Naruto said. "One is because we all remember watching what you saw. Well, it was a long time ago from our point of view, so even I'm not really sure if the details are the same…more to the point, someone had to have sent those glimpses to us…you…time travel makes my head hurt."

There was nervous laughter at that, though the more intellectual people in the room were troubled by the implications of what Naruto's future self said. Apparently, he and everyone else remembered watching glimpses of the future in their own time, which implied a temporal loop wherein future actions were taken to insure something happened in the past to ensure that future came to be. It was…disturbing.

"Second answer to the first question," Naruto said. "Well, it's like what baa-chan wrote in her letter to her past self. Things are about to get really…difficult, for all of you in the next few months, so we'd like to give you what encouragement we can. No matter how hard things will get, no matter how bleak and hopeless the future might seem, no matter how tempting it becomes to just…give up, and let Madara have his way, keep at it. Fight for what you believe in. Fight for what's right. Protect your hopes, your dreams, the people you love and care for…all for that moment when the fighting stops and the smoke clears, and the future everyone looks forward to dawns on the horizon."

Naruto paused and laughed. "I'm talking big, aren't I?" he asked.

"No," Neji said with an unusual smile and a glance at Naruto. "That sounds just like you."

Naruto laughed and rubbed at his head, as everyone in the room smiled at him, and Sakura patted him fondly on an arm.

"Moving on to the second and third questions," Naruto continued, and tilting his head in a subtle challenge. "Tell me, Konoha Eleven, baa-chan, Kakashi-sensei, Gai-sensei, Kurenai-sensei, and especially you, Naruto Uzumaki: do you believe in fate?"

That last was punctuated with a finger pointed at them, and Naruto lowered his face, eyes narrowed in determination. "No, I don't." he said.

"Neither do I." Neji said.

"Or me." Kiba followed.

"Nope." Shikamaru said.

"What Shika said." Chouji chimed in.

"Of course I don't." Ino said.

A chorus of denials went up one after another, and as though expecting such a response, the older Naruto on the screen smiled while giving them all a thumbs-up.