'I... I beat him.' Naruto thought, proud yet exhausted. 'Sasuke, you're coming back home. Sakura, I hope he makes you happy.'
As eager as his mind was to leave the Valley of the End after his big fight and triumphant victory over Sasuke, Naruto's body just did not want to comply. His legs gave up and he fell to his knees. 'Come on, stand up. You've got to go home.' He fell forward, his hands stopping him from collapsing completely. He was breathing deeply and his vision was getting blurry, not to mention he was lightheaded from the loss of blood from his chidori wounds.
Unknown to Naruto, he was being watched by three sets of eyes.
'Whoa, after all that he still has the energy to avoid passing out right away? Maybe it's time to take him to the next level.'
'Oh my Kami, he did it. He nearly died, but all by himself he managed to stop that jerk. Naruto, I know you even less than I gave you credit for.'
'Naruto-kun, you're so amazing.'
Before any of the watchers made a move, someone else did. That someone was Sasuke himself, returned to his normal form but his expression was that of a sadistic maniac who hated to lose. Basically, just himself but out for blood. He rose slowly, as if his muscles wanting to go on strike but he didn't care, and got up to his own knees as well.
"You... don't know when to give up... do you teme?" Naruto asked, wheezing but trying to get back on his own feet as well.
"Shut up. I will never lose to some talentless..." Sasuke tried to say, thinking up the meanest possible insult he could for his former teammate, but lacking the strength to talk much.
'These two can't go on any longer. Before one of them actually dies, I better stop them.' One of the watchers told themselves.
Before they could act, Naruto stiffened and started to glow. But he didn't glow red like before, no, this time he glowed orange. Everyone stopped moving, even Sasuke, wondering what was going on.
'What the heck is happening to me? Kyuubi is this you?' Naruto asked himself, not sure if he was saying it out loud or not.
"My son? Is that you?" A woman's voice called out to him.
"What? Who are you?" He asked back.
Naruto could see nothing around himself except for orange light. In front of him a dark figure began to appear, just a blotchy silhouette, but he could tell it was a person. Little by little it came into focus more, and soon it started to look like a woman. More detail came, giving her long red hair, violet eyes, and a purple dress with a green shirt underneath it. Naruto didn't recognize her at all, but he could sense she was powerful but not here to fight him.
When she saw him, she looked like she didn't know whether to smile, cry, or gasp. "Naruto? Is that really you?"
"Yeah I'm Naruto. How do you know me?"
She answered by hugging him, much to his surprise. "You look just like your father sweetie."
The blonde boy was too surprised by this to object, but he did say the first thing that came to mind. "You still haven't told me who you are."
"I'm sorry." She said, pulling away from him. "It's just that I haven't seen you in so long and for the past few years all I wanted was to see you again. Now that I can, I just wanted to hold you." She explained, her warm smile and gaze never leaving her face. But she saw Naruto still wanted his answer. "But before I ramble any further, my name is Kushina Uzumaki-Namikaze, your birth mother."
Naruto dropped his jaw and widened his eyes. "My mother?" He asked in disbelief. "This can't be real. This has got to be a dream."
Kushina lightly hit the top of his head. "Does that feel like a dream 'ttebane?"
Naruto rubbed his slightly sore spot on his scalp. "Why did you do that? Wouldn't a pinch have worked just as well?"
"True, but I doubt you would have let me do that so I had to try something harder to avoid. I'm sorry son."
Naruto looked okay but still confused. "Where have you been? Why are you just showing up now? And where did everything and Sasuke-teme go?"
"In order, I've been trapped in another kingdom for the past few years. I'm showing up now because now is the first chance in too long a time for me to see me again. I truly wanted to be here sooner, in fact I never wanted to leave you, but someone was a bitch and stopped me all these years." She sounded like she wanted to kill 'someone' just as badly as Sasuke wanted to kill his brother. "And we're actually speaking in your mind right now so that's why you can't see anything else. I'd say outside here only a couple of seconds have actually passed."
"So technically you're not really here?" Naruto asked.
Kushina sadly nodded. "No, this is a sort of astral project to allow me to find you. Very soon though my real self will come to you directly. I just wanted to know where to go once I'm back in Midgard."
"Midgard?"
"I'll explain more later. Just stay where you are and I'll come to you as soon as possible son. Remember I still love you and I never stopped. You're what's been keeping me going all this time." Right now the vision started to fade away.
"Wait! Mom don't go!" Naruto shouted, extending his hand out. She took it gently as if to reassure him she could come for him, but she faded away completely.
Back out in the real world, the glow faded and Naruto collapsed like a puppet without strings.