Manicherryblossom33
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This chapter is so much shorter than the others! The reason? I'm a working girl now and also I had writers block (do any of you know how to fight that sort of thing? It's becoming a big issue with me). So much to do... I wish the days were longer!
Anyway, please enjoy!
Naruto Fanfic A Future Without You
Chapter 41: Erased
SASUKE’S POV [KUMOGAKURE RAIKAGE BUILDING]
Three hours after Tsunade examined the body, Kakashi came to deliver more bad news.
Sakura and the others were missing. The many search teams that the Raikage had sent to the snowed-in forest region had come back empty handed. Many of the others had simply disappeared without a trace. However, they had discovered a cave which contained a dying fire and some blankets with a few strands of Sakura’s hair. There were some signs of a struggle, including one area of the cavern wall which had been blown to bits, likely by one of Sakura’s punches, and quite a bit of blood.
Sasuke vaguely heard this. While the gokage, Mifune, and Uri listened to Kakashi’s report, he leaned against the back wall, his arms crossed, as he looked at the floor.
He had already told them what had occurred in his fight with Tsuna. Everything from watching Tsuna manipulate ice-nature, to restoring his severed arm, and summoning a dragon.
A few moments after watching the dragon pop into existence, Sasuke had seen the explosions that wrecked half the raikage building. However, he’d been unable to help as Tsuna held him up. For fifteen minutes, the dragon attempted to reduce Sasuke to charcoaled ash, shooting blue flames everywhere, nearly killing Takamana and burning away whole acres of forest.
Afterwards, through what Sasuke deduced was reverse summoning, both Tsuna and the nameless dragon vanished. Sasuke was then able to drop down low enough to fetch Naruto and joined the kage moments later.
A few of the kage, the raikage and tsuchikage respectively, were obviously skeptical. Killer Bee’s student Karui flat out refused to believe him. Not that he cared about that at the moment.
He had so many questions. Normally, he would be able to sit and think. He would go over the battle in his mind, analyzing everything, as he was trying to do now. But he was distracted. There was too much weighing in his mind, zipping by at blinding speed, and he couldn’t relax or think and kept forgetting to breathe.
He could see what he wanted to do. But how to get there was another story…
“What are you thinking?”
It took a moment for him to realize that Uri was speaking to him. When he did, he instinctively relaxed, feeling his arms fall to his sides and his head rise.
Uri alone was looking at him, as the other kage and Mifune were now discussing how they should act. Sasuke stared back at him, remembering how moments earlier he had let down his guard after separating from the group. He had allowed himself to grieve for precious minutes, only to find that Uri had been watching him the entire time. Upon discovering this, he had walked back to the kage and reported everything that had happened between him and Tsuna.
“What does it matter to you?” Sasuke asked, pushing off the wall. He would not allow himself to appear weak or guilty in front of these people. He wouldn’t give them the satisfaction.
Uri frowned. Sasuke eyed him skeptically. For a while now, he had been thinking, in the back of his mind that this person looked incredibly familiar. More than that, he almost felt nostalgic when he looked at him. There were features, his eye and face shape, his height, that somehow reminded Sasuke of an older Naruto.
But that was too typical. He would never say it aloud. This person was from the Uzumaki clan, the same group of people who had betrayed their only capable protector. He was giving them information, but seemed to be about as devastated over Naruto’s death as Tsuna was.
“I…” Uri began, squaring his shoulders in a disgustingly similar way to how Naruto had so long ago, when he had asked Sasuke’s advice while they were on the Uzushiogakure mission.
Sasuke narrowed his eyes at him before meeting Tsunade’s gaze. At some point, the gokage, Mifune, and Kakashi had noticed that the two least trusted allies were conversing.
“We don’ have time for you anymore.” Sasuke told Uri before giving Tsunade a questioning look. “Konoha will be their next stop. We need to do something about them before then.”
“And you’re alright with that?” Uri asked, getting his attention once more.
Sasuke and Uri stared each other down for a moment, with Sasuke growing increasingly anxious. His heartbeat ahd increased for some reason. Ignoring this, he turned back to Tsunade.
“We can interrogate the children.” Sasuke suggested. “Summon Ibiki. He can—”
“They won’t talk.” Uri cut across him. “There’s a chance their parents are in on this. They aren’t like the rest of us. They were born into the shadows of the shinobi world and they’ve been running and fighting for their very survival for as long as they can remember. You won’t get a single word out of them.”
“So?” Sasuke challenged, feeling his fingers curl.
“I have a suggestion, if you’re interested.” Uri replied.
“I’m not interested.” Sasuke answered flatly.
“Listen to me. I can help you.” Uri implored, laying one hand over his heart. “We don’t have to fight them. He wouldn’t want this.”
Sasuke curled his toes. Keep it inside, keep it inside… Stay calm…
“It doesn’t matter what he wanted. They aren’t interested in that, they never were.” Sasuke stated, as the image of Tsuna killing Naruto flashed through his mind again. So much blood. And that look on his face…
“You’re wrong.” Uri said. “They want the same thing we do. They just think its impossible after what happened to the Uchih—”
Uri’s back hit the wall just as Sasuke’s sword sheath smashed through, creating a small hole in the plaster. In seconds, he activated his mangekyo only to feel something sharp, cold, and painful dance through his chest like lightning.
He fell to his knees, coughing and hacking with one arm hugging his stomach.
He shot a hateful glare over his shoulder a Tsunade, who was holding up her fingers in the sign that was both familiar and hateful.
“Good thing we’ve got restraint jutsu on him.” Enoki harrumphed, breaking the silence. “He looked like he was about to kill you.”
Uri ignored this and yanked the snake sword out of the wall, gently placing it in front of Sasuke, who was still catching his breath.
“… I’m sorry.” He said, to everyone rather than just Sasuke. “All of you are right to blame me.”
“This isn’t your fault. “ Tsunade sighed, looking wistful. “It wasn’t you who…”
She trailed off, unable to finish the sentence.
“If we had kept our distance, then none of this would have happened.” Uri argued, squaring his shoulders and ducking his head. “I never expected them to come back into our lives. I always thought it would be enough, simply erasing ourselves from the world. I hoped Setto would return to being the kind Uncle from my childhood. I imagined that Naruto would become hokage, and grow old without ever learning of our existence.”
Sasuke looked up at him, confused and stubborn.
Uri backed into the wall and slid to the ground, raising his hand so it was half-curled in front of his forehead. His eyes seemed to gleam and tremble.
“The past really does catch up to you.” He groaned. “I was so wrong, so wrong. I’ve let them down again. I failed…”
“Failed at what?” Sasuke asked in a demanding tone.
Uri smiled dryly. “I always swore never to speak of it. But I guess… I guess it doesn’t matter anymore.”
Sasuke got to his feet, retrieving his sword and sliding it through the strap around his waist. He and the other kages waited expectantly.
“It’s such a long story… We don’t have much time… A week at most…” Uri said dropping his hand. “But I did promise to explain once I could get all of you together.”
He got to his feet, seemingly recovered from his moment of self-pity. They watched as he reached into his pocket and pulled up a small photo, holding it up for everyone to see.
It was with mild surprise that Sasuke realized he was looking at a twelve-year-old version of his father, standing beside a ten-year old yondaime, and an obnoxious little redhead that had to be Naruto’s mother. Behind them was Jiraiya of the legendary sannin, who was petting Minato Namikaze roughly on the head.
“Where did you get that?” Tsunade asked, suddenly furious.
“I didn’t steal it.” Uri told her. “Before I left Konoha, I made a copy of the photo you have in your desk, and brought it with me.”
“That’s impossible.” Tsunade stated. “You were under constant watch. There was no opportunity for you to—”
“I’m referring to the first time I left Konoha.” Uri corrected himself. “Years ago. When Naruto was three. Before we erased ourselves.”
With that, he raised two fingers—“Release!”—and simultaneously revealed a small, intricate circle in the center of the photo, which began to spin and unravel. As it did, the photo began slowly changing. Sasuke noticed what should have been obvious before: inbetween his father and the young fourth hokage was another boy. A ten-year-old with jaw length red hair. The same boy Sasuke had seen in the photo he’d found in Uzushio.
“The memory seal,” Uri began, “Comes in two forms. One is the type which Naruto had, that erases a single memory and leaves an unnoticeable void in its place. If tightened, it will cause much more damage, as you already know. But the second form is something we’ve nicknamed the Erase Memory Seal. Simply put, it will remove a certain event, or person, entirely and leave nothing in its place. It can be removed temporarily, from small objects or even people. But eventually…”
Sasuke blinked as the redhaired boy in the photo began to disappear again, leaving the photo exactly as it was before.
Sasuke eyed the photo in shock, considering the possibility that it was an illusion. His eyes flickered back and forth from the photo to Uri multiple times before accepting the truth.
“Back then,” Uri smiled weakly, “Something terrible would have happened unless we disappeared. So I and many of my clan decided to place an erase memory seal on the entire shinobi world. We never wanted to. It was a last resort. And in order to keep it in place, we must continually flood our chakra into the ground, so the seal can absorb it.”
Everyone was gaping, in shock. Uri smiled sadly back at them.
“It was such a long time ago.” He recalled. “But the truth is, we are already familiar with each other. That being said, allow me to introduce myself properly.”
He put the picture away and gave a short bow from the waist.
“I am Uzumaki Uri, the twin brother of Uzumaki Kushina and the uncle of Uzumaki Naruto.”
Anyway, please enjoy!
Naruto Fanfic A Future Without You
Chapter 41: Erased
SASUKE’S POV [KUMOGAKURE RAIKAGE BUILDING]
Three hours after Tsunade examined the body, Kakashi came to deliver more bad news.
Sakura and the others were missing. The many search teams that the Raikage had sent to the snowed-in forest region had come back empty handed. Many of the others had simply disappeared without a trace. However, they had discovered a cave which contained a dying fire and some blankets with a few strands of Sakura’s hair. There were some signs of a struggle, including one area of the cavern wall which had been blown to bits, likely by one of Sakura’s punches, and quite a bit of blood.
Sasuke vaguely heard this. While the gokage, Mifune, and Uri listened to Kakashi’s report, he leaned against the back wall, his arms crossed, as he looked at the floor.
He had already told them what had occurred in his fight with Tsuna. Everything from watching Tsuna manipulate ice-nature, to restoring his severed arm, and summoning a dragon.
A few moments after watching the dragon pop into existence, Sasuke had seen the explosions that wrecked half the raikage building. However, he’d been unable to help as Tsuna held him up. For fifteen minutes, the dragon attempted to reduce Sasuke to charcoaled ash, shooting blue flames everywhere, nearly killing Takamana and burning away whole acres of forest.
Afterwards, through what Sasuke deduced was reverse summoning, both Tsuna and the nameless dragon vanished. Sasuke was then able to drop down low enough to fetch Naruto and joined the kage moments later.
A few of the kage, the raikage and tsuchikage respectively, were obviously skeptical. Killer Bee’s student Karui flat out refused to believe him. Not that he cared about that at the moment.
He had so many questions. Normally, he would be able to sit and think. He would go over the battle in his mind, analyzing everything, as he was trying to do now. But he was distracted. There was too much weighing in his mind, zipping by at blinding speed, and he couldn’t relax or think and kept forgetting to breathe.
He could see what he wanted to do. But how to get there was another story…
“What are you thinking?”
It took a moment for him to realize that Uri was speaking to him. When he did, he instinctively relaxed, feeling his arms fall to his sides and his head rise.
Uri alone was looking at him, as the other kage and Mifune were now discussing how they should act. Sasuke stared back at him, remembering how moments earlier he had let down his guard after separating from the group. He had allowed himself to grieve for precious minutes, only to find that Uri had been watching him the entire time. Upon discovering this, he had walked back to the kage and reported everything that had happened between him and Tsuna.
“What does it matter to you?” Sasuke asked, pushing off the wall. He would not allow himself to appear weak or guilty in front of these people. He wouldn’t give them the satisfaction.
Uri frowned. Sasuke eyed him skeptically. For a while now, he had been thinking, in the back of his mind that this person looked incredibly familiar. More than that, he almost felt nostalgic when he looked at him. There were features, his eye and face shape, his height, that somehow reminded Sasuke of an older Naruto.
But that was too typical. He would never say it aloud. This person was from the Uzumaki clan, the same group of people who had betrayed their only capable protector. He was giving them information, but seemed to be about as devastated over Naruto’s death as Tsuna was.
“I…” Uri began, squaring his shoulders in a disgustingly similar way to how Naruto had so long ago, when he had asked Sasuke’s advice while they were on the Uzushiogakure mission.
Sasuke narrowed his eyes at him before meeting Tsunade’s gaze. At some point, the gokage, Mifune, and Kakashi had noticed that the two least trusted allies were conversing.
“We don’ have time for you anymore.” Sasuke told Uri before giving Tsunade a questioning look. “Konoha will be their next stop. We need to do something about them before then.”
“And you’re alright with that?” Uri asked, getting his attention once more.
Sasuke and Uri stared each other down for a moment, with Sasuke growing increasingly anxious. His heartbeat ahd increased for some reason. Ignoring this, he turned back to Tsunade.
“We can interrogate the children.” Sasuke suggested. “Summon Ibiki. He can—”
“They won’t talk.” Uri cut across him. “There’s a chance their parents are in on this. They aren’t like the rest of us. They were born into the shadows of the shinobi world and they’ve been running and fighting for their very survival for as long as they can remember. You won’t get a single word out of them.”
“So?” Sasuke challenged, feeling his fingers curl.
“I have a suggestion, if you’re interested.” Uri replied.
“I’m not interested.” Sasuke answered flatly.
“Listen to me. I can help you.” Uri implored, laying one hand over his heart. “We don’t have to fight them. He wouldn’t want this.”
Sasuke curled his toes. Keep it inside, keep it inside… Stay calm…
“It doesn’t matter what he wanted. They aren’t interested in that, they never were.” Sasuke stated, as the image of Tsuna killing Naruto flashed through his mind again. So much blood. And that look on his face…
“You’re wrong.” Uri said. “They want the same thing we do. They just think its impossible after what happened to the Uchih—”
Uri’s back hit the wall just as Sasuke’s sword sheath smashed through, creating a small hole in the plaster. In seconds, he activated his mangekyo only to feel something sharp, cold, and painful dance through his chest like lightning.
He fell to his knees, coughing and hacking with one arm hugging his stomach.
He shot a hateful glare over his shoulder a Tsunade, who was holding up her fingers in the sign that was both familiar and hateful.
“Good thing we’ve got restraint jutsu on him.” Enoki harrumphed, breaking the silence. “He looked like he was about to kill you.”
Uri ignored this and yanked the snake sword out of the wall, gently placing it in front of Sasuke, who was still catching his breath.
“… I’m sorry.” He said, to everyone rather than just Sasuke. “All of you are right to blame me.”
“This isn’t your fault. “ Tsunade sighed, looking wistful. “It wasn’t you who…”
She trailed off, unable to finish the sentence.
“If we had kept our distance, then none of this would have happened.” Uri argued, squaring his shoulders and ducking his head. “I never expected them to come back into our lives. I always thought it would be enough, simply erasing ourselves from the world. I hoped Setto would return to being the kind Uncle from my childhood. I imagined that Naruto would become hokage, and grow old without ever learning of our existence.”
Sasuke looked up at him, confused and stubborn.
Uri backed into the wall and slid to the ground, raising his hand so it was half-curled in front of his forehead. His eyes seemed to gleam and tremble.
“The past really does catch up to you.” He groaned. “I was so wrong, so wrong. I’ve let them down again. I failed…”
“Failed at what?” Sasuke asked in a demanding tone.
Uri smiled dryly. “I always swore never to speak of it. But I guess… I guess it doesn’t matter anymore.”
Sasuke got to his feet, retrieving his sword and sliding it through the strap around his waist. He and the other kages waited expectantly.
“It’s such a long story… We don’t have much time… A week at most…” Uri said dropping his hand. “But I did promise to explain once I could get all of you together.”
He got to his feet, seemingly recovered from his moment of self-pity. They watched as he reached into his pocket and pulled up a small photo, holding it up for everyone to see.
It was with mild surprise that Sasuke realized he was looking at a twelve-year-old version of his father, standing beside a ten-year old yondaime, and an obnoxious little redhead that had to be Naruto’s mother. Behind them was Jiraiya of the legendary sannin, who was petting Minato Namikaze roughly on the head.
“Where did you get that?” Tsunade asked, suddenly furious.
“I didn’t steal it.” Uri told her. “Before I left Konoha, I made a copy of the photo you have in your desk, and brought it with me.”
“That’s impossible.” Tsunade stated. “You were under constant watch. There was no opportunity for you to—”
“I’m referring to the first time I left Konoha.” Uri corrected himself. “Years ago. When Naruto was three. Before we erased ourselves.”
With that, he raised two fingers—“Release!”—and simultaneously revealed a small, intricate circle in the center of the photo, which began to spin and unravel. As it did, the photo began slowly changing. Sasuke noticed what should have been obvious before: inbetween his father and the young fourth hokage was another boy. A ten-year-old with jaw length red hair. The same boy Sasuke had seen in the photo he’d found in Uzushio.
“The memory seal,” Uri began, “Comes in two forms. One is the type which Naruto had, that erases a single memory and leaves an unnoticeable void in its place. If tightened, it will cause much more damage, as you already know. But the second form is something we’ve nicknamed the Erase Memory Seal. Simply put, it will remove a certain event, or person, entirely and leave nothing in its place. It can be removed temporarily, from small objects or even people. But eventually…”
Sasuke blinked as the redhaired boy in the photo began to disappear again, leaving the photo exactly as it was before.
Sasuke eyed the photo in shock, considering the possibility that it was an illusion. His eyes flickered back and forth from the photo to Uri multiple times before accepting the truth.
“Back then,” Uri smiled weakly, “Something terrible would have happened unless we disappeared. So I and many of my clan decided to place an erase memory seal on the entire shinobi world. We never wanted to. It was a last resort. And in order to keep it in place, we must continually flood our chakra into the ground, so the seal can absorb it.”
Everyone was gaping, in shock. Uri smiled sadly back at them.
“It was such a long time ago.” He recalled. “But the truth is, we are already familiar with each other. That being said, allow me to introduce myself properly.”
He put the picture away and gave a short bow from the waist.
“I am Uzumaki Uri, the twin brother of Uzumaki Kushina and the uncle of Uzumaki Naruto.”
maybe it wasn't a surprise to me because I read chapter 40 then went to read the rest in order? Anyhow nice chapter. 
thank you...!