Chapter 1
There was an old Uzumaki clan building hidden within the Land of Fire.
Even before the clan’s final demise, it had been left relatively untouched. And now, decades after anyone had last maintained its fearsome security seals, time had surely eroded the ink and the stone that it was etched into.
And now, it was Team Ro who had the hapless task of clearing out whatever lay inside.
“Everyone spread out. See if you see any remnants of the security seals and then report back if they’re still functioning.” Hound ordered briskly, lifting up a cover of moss to reveal the Uzumaki clan seal that marked the entrance.
“Understood.” Crow agreed, flickering over to the other side of the base’s roof.
“Shouldn’t we keep identifying jutsu under wraps?” Cat asked, resting his hand on a nearby tree and inclining his head slightly. Hound knew that he probably had his eyes shut under the ANBU mask, focusing on the life chakra that flowed through the trees.
“Almost every ninja above genin level knows the Shunshin.” Weasel pointed out, jumping up to a higher branch, and then using that inertia to send himself flying over to a rock that was jutting out slightly. Turning it over revealed a faded seal, crumbling at the edges with branches leading outwards that made it obvious the slab had come from a much larger seal that was somewhere else.
Good job. Hound signed at him. Weasel was the youngest of their group so far. Possibly the youngest ANBU ever. Positive reinforcement was probably a good idea.
Weasel simply replied with No credit to be attributed, with a gesture towards his eyes. Right. A Sharingan makes these things much easier.
“It’s not active anymore.” Hound deduced, “The residual chakra is from the stopgap kept in here to make sure it stayed running. Now that the seal’s been broken, it’s been leaking out.”
“There’s something else.” Cat warned them, “I can feel some sort of foreign energy here, but can’t pinpoint it.”
Crow’s chakra flared out in the pre-approved code from the other side of the base, obscured by the slight slop of the domed building underneath their feet. Instantly, all three were beside him, waiting to be presented with his finding.
“This one’s broken. Probably the main seal here, with the rest of the pieces coming off from it.” He reported, pointing them towards the floor, nearly big enough for a large bear to lie across comfortably. There was a pattern running through it, with a few shards from the side clearly missing, and leaving the rest to crumple in on itself.
Hound could see where the one Weasel had found fit into all this, except that spot had been filled in by the piece directly above it, now tilted diagonally.
“I think it was a wall. Maybe the wind knocked it down, so it landed like this.” Cat suggested, looking around with interest, “Why only one wall, though? There must be the rest elsewhere.”
“Architecture later, Te- Cat.” Hound corrected, “Is this still protecting the base like it was meant to?”
“There’s still some residual chakra flow.” Weasel warned, “But only within the seal itself. Likely it got cut off from the base when it fell.”
“Best to just break it then, yeah?” Crow suggested, reaching his hand out to touch the side of the rock.
Maybe he was planning on using a chakra-strengthened finger to sever the connection. Maybe he was going to shift a few of the weak rocks to destroy the entire wall. What his intentions were was irrelevant.
Because in the next second, a bright light flashed out, blinding them all.
Hound’s own Sharingan flickered open the second he registered the flash beginning to emanate out of the rock, but it was too late. He could only see in slow-motion as the light began creeping up and engulfing all of them. If there was a range on this attack, he couldn’t see it.
A glance at the other two Sharingan users in the group confirmed that they too had them active, and were already attempting to escape the range of whatever trap Crow had set off.
Only Cat didn’t have the reflexes and observational abilities to figure out quite what had happened. Hound didn’t think twice before twisting his body around to shield him instead, before the warmth of whatever that bright light was washed over him, and left him blinking out the spots in his eyes.
…Okay, so he was in one piece.
Not a bomb then.
Kakash- Hound groaned, putting a hand up to his face, and meeting cold porcelain.
Cat was kneeling in front of him, shoulders tense, “Sorry, Taichou. I should not have frozen. It was my mistake. I will take whatever punishment you deem fit.”
“Don’t worry about it, Tenzou.” Hound told him, risking the use of Tenzou’s preferred code name, in case that snapped him out of whatever spiral he was currently on.
“We shouldn’t have left you.” Shisui agreed, hopping back towards them, his tone and body language suitably regretful, “Some teammates we are, huh?”
Cat was still visibly uncomfortable as he picked himself up, but he nodded after a second, standing up. The tension in the air, first from the unexpected trap, and now Cat’s panic.
It was Weasel who broke the standoff, “A flashbang? I expected Uzumaki to be better than that.”
“Not just a flashbang, by the looks of it.” Crow corrected, head swiveling around to take in the greenery around them.
Now that Hound’s senses were coming back to him from that scare, he was able to immediately pick out what Crow meant. The trees were different. Smaller. Not as thick or weathered as before the blast. Even the soil was a different color. He took a deep breath, and the difference in the air itself was undeniable.
“Okay. Not just a flashbang.” Hound agreed, “But what, then?”
“Genjutsu??” Weasel suggested.
Cat stretched a hand out to touch the ground, “No way they can manipulate life chakra like this.” He refuted, “The trees’ networks… they’ve all changed. They’re smaller now. But match up with what we’re seeing exactly.”
“Also the seal I touched is gone.” Crow pointed out.
Ah, so it had.
“Crow, I swear, if you’ve done something.” Hound bit back his frustration. Now wasn’t the time to be arguing about seal safety. They would have to do this later. Preferably once they were all safely in the Village walls. But for now…
“Taichou. The base seems to be gone.” Great. One thing on top of another.
Still, it cleared something up. What this seal was meant to do at all.
“Maa, so it must be a genjutsu after all.” Hound decided, “Meant to replicate the world around them perfectly, except for the base being gone. Their idea of what the world looks like is a little outdated, though.”
“What do we do now?” Cat asked, “Look for a way to break it? The mission needs to be fulfilled, but if none of us can see any cracks in this genjutsu-” He was clearly working himself up into hysterics here.
“Extenuating circumstances. And a non-malicious automated genjutsu simply doing what our allies designed it to do.” Hound consoled him the best he could, “Returning to the village would be optimal. Then we can try this again with someone who understands how seals and genjutsu interact.”
Cat nodded, a stiff jerk of his neck before he was turning around to head back.
“We really need to get him to lighten up.” Crow muttered under his breath as they all fell into formation behind him. The only indication that Cat had heard him was that miniscule contraction of his shoulders.
“Lay off him.” Hound warned, “He’s just following orders.”
“Right. Sorry.” Crow agreed quickly, sounding sincere in his apology.
As they moved further away from the base, Hound had expected the smaller, fresher trees to melt away, going back into the tall Hashirama variety that populated most of the Land of Fire.
No such trees came. The air remained fresh and smoke-free, with an almost wintery tinge to it? Birdsong brushed the edges of his awareness, but it wasn’t the right kind of birdsong.
But the hills were the same. The roads were the same too, though some looked much less worn than the last time they had passed by them. The rivers were the same, and so were government buildings set up round the place.
Everything was just similar enough to lead them right back to Konoha.
They were perhaps five kilometers away from Konoha that Hound started to suspect that they had miscalculated in some way.
See, Konoha was a very recognizable sight. There were more buildings there than any of the Land of Fire’s other cities. It had walls that could be seen huge distances away. A giant mountain with faces carved into it overlooked the entire place. There simply was no disguising Konoha.
And yet, five kilometers away, when the Village would normally begin peering out from over the top of the treeline, they were seeing nothing.
He kept going, though, until they came out onto the clearing that was meant to open up to the gates.
Except there was no clearing. And there were no gates. Where there meant to be people upon people that Kakashi’s precious people had sacrificed his lives for – there were nothing but trees.
“Okay… this genjutsu seems to be a bit stronger than expected.” He admitted, coming to a stop.
His entire squad paused too, not needing a command.
“Are we sure it’s a genjutsu at all?” Crow challenged, “Because with all the jumping around we’ve been doing, our chakra should have fluctuated enough to throw it off, now that we’re out of the area of effect.”
“If you’ve got a better suggestion for what we’re facing, I would like to hear it.” Hound replied levelly.
“I don’t know! I was just throwing it out there!”
Hound rubbed at the side of his mask where he would have Obito’s eye, “I’m not saying you’re incorrect. Just another suggestion would be appreciated.”
There was silence from Crow’s side. Until he finally suggested: “Time travel.”
“Look, if you’re not going to be serious about this-”
“I know my genjutsu, okay? And this goes way beyond that! At some point, you gotta take reality bending as a possibility.”
Cat and Weasel watched in silence. They usually did. Until Weasel silently put his hand up, and suggested, “We could go check up on the old Uchiha clan compound and see if it’s there.”
Cat tilted his head, “What good would that do? Everyone knows where it is.”
“But it’ll be filled with details only privy to clansmen.” Crow realized, “Nice one, Itachi!”
“No names.” Hound warned, before thinking over the proposed plan, “Very well then, but me and Cat will be prepared to extract you at any moment, should something go wrong.”
Crow nodded, and Team Ro quickly moved with their guidance downstream, where there were a few walls erected to be barely taller than a person, yet still giving an air of security. Possibly because of the uchiwa fan printed on it at periodic distances. It was intimidating, at least.
Hound took a breath, and the smell certainly made it obvious that there were people inside. The sound too; conversations melded together into a cacophony, but if he were to focus on any part of it, he was able to pick out proper words and sentences. Most genjutsu weren’t capable of that.
“How are you planning on infiltrating?” He asked Crow and Weasel, “Even if you’re Uchiha, they don’t know you and aren’t likely to believe you.”
“They’ll believe Weasel.” Crow assured them, “He’s like. The most Uchiha someone can get. No one will question it for a second.”
“Hn. I feel like you’re mocking me.”
Hound stared at him for a moment, “I think you’re right about that.”
Itachi and Shisui changed out of their ANBU gear and swapped it for the clothes Cat had been able to nab for them from where one hapless clansman was doing laundry by the river.
Cat and Hound were hovering nearby, and it was clear as day they didn’t want their younger teammates doing this, but there was no better alternative for them to figure out the truth behind this.
Shisui smiled slightly as they approached the guards at the front gate. Itachi pointedly did not.
“Oh, hey, you’re Izumi’s kid, right?” One of them said.
“Really? I thought he was Old Man Kagami’s for sure.” The other noted.
Itachi wasn’t entirely sure which of these alibis to go with, so he noncommittedly replied, “Hn.”
They were let inside easily.
“The security is frighteningly lax.” Itachi commented, once inside.
“No, no, it was just your… you-ness.” Shisui assured him, looking around, “Wow. We don’t change at all in… however many years it’s been huh?”
Likelihood of genjutsu was going down with every step. There was too much detail. Too many little things that were slotted into place yet were discordant.
Loathed as he was to side with his cousin over his commanding officer, but maybe the time travel theory had some merit to it.
“We should find a calendar.” He suggested, turning towards where the old maps had marked there to be a records office. And there was one, right there.
But there was also a person leaving that office that made Itachi freeze on the spot.
Sasuke?
No, not Sasuke. He was too tall. Too old. Clearly older than Itachi, even. But he could see his baby brother growing up to look exactly like this man.
Who was now staring him down. Great.
“… Did you have business with me?” The man asked uncertainly.
“No.” Itachi replied, sidestepping him to continue towards the records office.
Behind him, he heard another voice talking to the man, “Izuna? You’re still here?”
“Yeah, got caught up looking for this one scroll, Madara-nii.” The man replied calmly.
Itachi could feel his blood freezing. Shisui stiffened almost imperceptibly beside him too.
Madara. Uchiha Madara. The man who ruined their clan’s lives and reputation. He was here.
It took all his self-control to keep walking. And no small part of Shisui’s gaze boring into his skull. Right, they didn’t know what was happening here. Or how this supposed time-travel would work. They were better off leaving it alone and not doing anything rash.
His team’s lives were on the line, here.