Pearlescent

Ages ago, during a time lost to history, the Rabbit Goddess, Kaguya Ootsutsuki arrived on Earth. Once a gentle and peace-loving being, she was eventually consumed by anger and hatred, filled with greed and hunger for the power she once was the only one capable of yielding. Greed and hunger for all the chakra in the world. She was powerful, but not powerful enough to defeat her sons, even if they had considerable losses.

The world wasn’t ready for her return.

Once she came back due to a successful plan made by the manifestation of her will she had created moments before her demise, it seemed to the Allied Shinobi Forces like things weren’t going to be so bad. The people once stuck inside the parasitic cocoons of the Divine Tree were freed, although they were severely weakened, and Kaguya herself had a peaceful and almost warm expression to her face.

Then, her expression hardened. “I will take back what belongs to me and I will make you pay for stealing it.” Black vines shot out from within her sleeves, hitting most ninja nearby. Their chakra left their bodies, killing them and making their bodies turn into empty, dried-out husks. Those were the lucky ones. The unlucky were caught and stripped of everything that made them unique, turning them into white zetsu.

Over the next few minutes, the Allied Shinobi Forces lost two thirds of their manpower, while the last third was instructed to flee. To find somewhere they would never be found, either to plan a way to defeat the god-like being or to simply wait for a natural death. They decided to go to the Village Hidden by the Whirlpools. It was isolated and there was practically zero chance for even a single white zetsu to be there.

Over the next few days, their numbers would be reduced even further by Kaguya’s army of white zetsu or, whenever they were unfortunate enough, Kaguya herself. By the time they arrived at the Hidden Whirlpool, all that was left of their forces was a pitifully small handful of ninja and civilians, Naruto, Kurama, Hinata, Sakura, a blind Obito, a Kakashi on his deathbed and the reanimated Hokages. The others died either during Kaguya’s first attack or during her subsequent strikes.

Once deep within the village, they found multiple entrances to the underground of the village. Being limited horizontally wasn’t a problem for the people that once lived in the Hidden Whirls. They simply expanded towards the sky and below the ground.

The remnants of the Allied Shinobi Forces decided that they shall spend the rest of their lives hiding within the village. They would never give Kaguya the satisfaction of killing them.

The Hidden Whirlpool has a very intricate underground system. It’s almost like an entire second village was built beneath it. Rooms upon rooms fill up the walls of the corridors, which have whirling patterns etched onto them, and the air is stagnant, but not completely still, so there is some circulation down there, even if severely limited, likely due to the collapsed buildings on the surface. They quickly moved there once they realized how large it is. It would double as extra protection from Kaguya, as they can now spend minimal time above ground, exposed to the outside.

Naruto likes to explore these tunnels and rooms. He has to be careful since a lot of those have traps, and a lot of rooms are very well-hidden. Still, it’s something that greatly helps to pass the time and improves the knowledge he and his friends have of these tunnel systems they now call home.

Some rooms are filled to the brim with books and scrolls. Normally, Naruto would simply ignore them. Books were never his thing. But now… Now, he wants to learn what is in each and every single one of those books.

When he first arrived at the Hidden Whirlpool Village, he didn’t expect to really think much about it. The Uzumaki name never really meant a lot to him. It was just the name of a clan that doesn’t even exist anymore and that he happened to be a part of. Even his appearance is nothing like other Uzumakis. Instead of a beautiful red, his hair is a bright yellow.

His mother was never there to teach him what it meant to be an Uzumaki. The only living members of the clan he ever met were Nagato and Karin, and both of them were his enemies, at least at first, and both of them were in a similar situation to him, being Uzumakis in name only. Naruto puts for a second. “At least they had the red hair…”

So, he decided to learn on his own. To absorb every bit of information he can from those old books and scrolls. It was soul-crushingly boring at first, but for some reason, after the first week of reading, he often finds himself actually looking forward to the reading sessions. He was always the type to learn things by doing them, rather than reading about them, so for him to be enjoying reading things, it ’s surprising. The weirdest part of it all is that he started with history books and records. He hates history. And yet, he loves reading about the history of the Uzumaki clan. Of his clan.

Then, Naruto moved on to what apparently was the clan’s specialty. Fuinjutsu, the art of sealing things. He never learned how to do fuinjutsu and never thought much about it. That is, until when he started to read books and scrolls about Uzumaki fuinjutsu. He barely understood anything. The terminology was complex and the explanations didn ’t make sense, and yet the book was named “Fuinjutsu Basics Volume 1” .

After looking around for a while, he was directed by the book to read “Written Jutsu for Absolute Beginners.” . It is … a somewhat childish book, clearly meant for people at least a decade younger than Naruto, but it was really helpful. He began learning more about how to make jutsu, both with hand signs and formula on a medium. It became fascinating to him how, if everything was done correctly, things simply worked .

Then, he went back to “Fuinjutsu Basics Volume 1” and everything just clicked into place. Things that before didn’t make the slightest sense now make perfect sense. He can understand everything perfectly. Naruto felt the same way he felt when he learned the Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu or when he created the Rasenshuriken. It’s a great feeling he didn’t know was possible to get from books and scrolls.

Kurama also helped him. The fox was very good at remembering things and would often do surprise quizzes to see if Naruto didn’t forget anything about the subjects he was studying. Kurama was also strangely eager to name any jutsu Naruto developed.

As of right now, Naruto managed to get deep within the underground city, and he now finds himself in a hidden room with just a singular scroll on a pedestal. He takes and opens it, and he finds something he thought was lost to time. Something he thought died with Kushina Uzumaki.

He smiles widely. “I will make you proud, mom!”

Ever since arriving at the Hidden Whirlpool, Hinata’s admiration of Naruto got even stronger. To watch him immerse himself in books, never really giving in to total despair… It inspired her and everyone else. They are going to live until death takes them away. Kaguya will not take them prematurely.

That increase in admiration also poses an… issue . At least for Hinata. Her thoughts already drifted a lot towards the blond man of her dreams, but being in such a cramped environment with him certainly didn’t help with her crush on him.

Then, it dawned on her. This is her last chance. This is the perfect chance. She has to say it out loud to him. She has to tell him how much he means to her. If she keeps tiptoeing around it, she ’ll never know if he likes her back. It’s clear to her that he considers her to be a great friend, but she wants to be more than just a great friend.

She takes a deep breath and goes on to find Naruto. He should be finishing his studying sessions. After looking for him in some empty rooms, she manages to find him. He’s either developing some formula jutsu or training his fuinjutsu, judging by how he’s writing something on a scroll.

Hinata decides to stay by the entrance and watch him. She doesn’t want to interrupt the blond currently sitting on the floor. After a few more minutes, Naruto speaks up. “Phew! This took a while! I should be done with it by tomorrow!” He then turns around and instantly meets Hinata’s pale eyes.

She feels very nervous and she knows her face is redder than a tomato. Still, she pushes through. “Naruto…” Then, she speaks with unusual haste as she closes her eyes tight and clenches her fists. “Will you please be my boyfriend?” She then slowly opens her eyes, apprehensive.

Naruto is confused. “What?”

Hinata takes a deep breath. “It’s just… I don’t want to die regretting I never got to ask you to date me. I… I’ve liked you for years. Ever since you protected me from some bullies. Even as you were punched down, you kept trying to fight back. You… That day, you inspired me. And… And I’ve been wanting to be with you ever since. I was too shy to ask you out before… But now, I don’t want to never do it. Naruto, will you be my boyfriend?”

Naruto is still confused. Why would someone as pretty and nice as her want to date him ? Then again, she seems to have genuine intentions. Her beautiful pale eyes are filled with hope and fear. She wants to be by his side. She wants for him to like her as more than just a friend. Naruto’s eyes tear up as he smiles. “Yes! Yes, I will!”

Hinata can’t believe her ears. Now it’s her eyes that tear up. She slowly gets closer and reluctantly hugs him. He hugs her back, tighter. They melt on each other’s arms with a look of pure happiness on their faces.

If someone earlier this year told Sakura that she’d be where she is right now, she’d call them crazy and maybe threaten punching them. And yet, it happened. She lost practically everyone and everything. Now, she has to live within these walls. At least the architecture is pretty nice and everything is organized. It’s definitely better than whatever was going on with Orochimaru’s hideout earlier this year. In a competition of the best underground lairs Sakura has been to, the Hidden Whirlpool Village easily gets first place.

However, Sakura wouldn’t simply give up and starve to death or something like that. She’d follow Naruto’s lead and keep improving herself, even if it’s just to distract herself from… well, everything .

After exploring a lot of the tunnels, she found some rooms dedicated to different basic elements of jutsu. She knows she has an affinity for both water and earth, so she decides to start from there. She quickly learned that most of these books weren’t meant for the average person to read. They were complex, and most of them were of scientific nature, detailing various thesis and experiments.

One thing she learned is that most elemental kekkei genkai aren’t really unique , and instead are just difficult to learn, except in the rare instances where someone is born with the perfect innate ability to balance different natures to get to the desired result.

She also learned that even using the same two basic natures, but in different proportions, can result in wildly different advanced natures. And that’s not even considering adding a third nature to the mix.

Unfortunately, elemental kekkei genkais weren’t very well-documented in those books, and Sakura can’t seem to find anything anywhere else, so it’s clear that the Uzumaki clan didn’t produce an elemental kekkei genkai user to study, and most other villages would never share anything about their kekkei genkai.

Well… there actually is one elemental kekkei genkai somewhat documented, but it is severely lacking in details and Sakura isn ’t even sure if she’d be able to use it. Then again, she does have all the time in the world.

Obito is a man full of regrets. He regretted failing to survive. He regretted giving Kakashi one of his eyes. He regrets murdering Minato and Kushina, people he once considered to be like parents to him. He regrets helping with the genocide of his own clan. He regrets turning Nagato into the twisted man he became. He regrets causing so much pain and suffering to the people of the Hidden Mist…

He regrets having a hand on plunging this world into darkness in what now seems like an extreme overreaction to Rin’s death. A death that was manipulated into happening so he would do as Madara wished. As Black Zetsu wished. As Kaguya wished.

Madara, the delusional fool. He ruined his life. He ruined so many people ’s lives . All to achieve a pipe dream that he somehow convinced a young and traumatized Uchiha to achieve for him. A dream that wasn’t even theirs. A dream that would bring an endless nightmare upon this world.

Obito is a man full of regrets, and now it’s too late to change that.

Hashirama Senju has always considered himself to be a “go with the flow” kind of guy. He never liked to worry about ifs and maybes. What happened, happened. All that can be done is move forward and try to shape things for a better future.

For the first time in his life, he is wondering about ifs and maybes of the past. What if he had managed to kill Madara during that fateful battle? What if he had managed to stop Madara from betraying what they both once stood for? What if he didn’t give tailed beasts away as if they’re not living, thinking beings?

He doesn’t show it much, however. No point in thinking about these things, after all. The damage was already done. All he can do is wait. For what, he doesn’t know. He decided to help Naruto, Hinata and Sakura on their training and research however he can. He has a lot of knowledge on jutsu, after all. Having every chakra nature, plus a kekkei genkai, quickly leads to that. However, he gave extra attention to Hinata and Sakura. The latter’s research is pretty interesting and the former has a lot of potential. Besides, Naruto was already claimed by his brother anyways.

Tobirama Senju has been completely focused on Naruto. “The boy is a genius. Had the village not forcefully stunted his growth, he’d probably have surpassed even me or my brother by now.” The boy still makes some amateur mistakes from time to time, but it ’s still a surprisingly low amount of mistakes for a complete beginner in the art of making jutsu. Especially jutsu as intricate as Uzumaki jutsu.

He has seen what Mito’s jutsu, especially her fuinjutsu, was able to do. The designs are unorthodox, the process is equally parts art and science, the results… well, it’s not just any kind of jutsu that can summon the Shinigami itself or seal away the full might of the Nine-Tailed Fox.

The jutsu from the Uzumaki are like no other jutsu. They’re the perfect fusion of form and function, with no compromises and many times better than other jutsu… And also many times more difficult to learn and master. The Flying Thunder God’s formula was heavily inspired by the jutsu formulas of the Uzumaki, and yet, Tobirama didn’t achieve his exact vision for the jutsu.

The fact that Naruto was able to learn so much on his own awakens a sense of respect within Tobirama, something the Second Hokage doesn’t feel very often. He managed to create paper bombs that are the size of a coin. He was able to create small explosives with different elements each. He even managed to begin creating an advanced chakra nature with Sakura’s help by combining Wind Release and Fire Release. He wasn’t very successful on that last one, since the balancing act between the base elements is extremely difficult to pull off with his absurdly limited chakra control, but he still almost got the basics right, so Tobirama decided to put Naruto in chakra control bootcamp, much to the boy’s dismay.

And then Naruto began learning fuinjutsu. And that’s when the boy really shined. His first successful creation was made just a few days after he began learning the specialization, and it was a sound isolation seal. Once the walls are lined with a sufficient amount of the seals, no sound escapes the room, being trapped by the seals. It was named the Sound Sealing Technique. The creations after that, fuinjutsu or otherwise, got exponentially more complex, and after a while, not even Tobirama was able to decipher them before Naruto’s explanations.

Hiruzen Sarutobi has very few regrets, but the few regrets he has hurt a lot. From not imprisoning Orochimaru when he had the chance to not punishing Danzo for trying to kill him. Actions that didn’t just hurt him eventually, but that also hurt the village itself to a much larger scale. That hurt what was supposed to be his family to a much larger scale.

He has nothing to teach. Nothing to learn. Nothing to do. It is definitely an ironic situation for a man known as “The Professor” , but he is a man out of time during a time that wouldn’t exist had he been more proactive. He knows that, and he regrets not fixing that when he had the chance.

Minato Namikaze has decided to spend as much time as he can with his son. He never got to watch his little Naruto grow up. He never got to protect him from the village that should have been celebrating the existence of the blond boy. He never got to tell him to get ready for school or take care of him when he’s sick. He never got to see him learn to talk and walk. He never got to know his son.

His own flesh and blood, all alone, in a village that hated him just for existing. It surprises Minato that Naruto never turned against the Leaf. It wouldn’t really be a betrayal. The village never wanted him in the first place. Minato is thankful that Naruto inherited Kushina’s tenacity and stubbornness, or else his son might have decided that he’d “show them” in a different way.

The two got along really well, all things considered. Minato was expecting for Naruto to hate him, but that never happened. The boy loves him and missed him, and Minato always makes sure to show him how much he loves his son, even with his cold body and unbeating heart. He even offered to teach Naruto the Flying Thunder God Jutsu, but the boy refused, muttering something about “large projects” and “chakra bootcamps” .

Kakashi Hatake has been on a coma for the past seven months, and today, he has finally died. His body is currently being cremated as everyone is crying or at least mourning a fallen comrade.

Obito is facing the pile of flames and looks deep in sadness, even if his eyes can’t express that, since they had been destroyed by Kaguya and he refused to have them be rebuilt. “I’m sorry, Kakashi… I wish I could fix all of this mess… My mess …”

After exploring the underground for a little over a year, Naruto and Hinata found a rather peculiar room. It is really deep within the tunnels, on the lowest floor and behind several hidden doors. Its walls are lined with a different pattern that every other room or corridor. Then, there’s the centerpiece. A pedestal right at the middle of the room with a golden scroll sitting vertically on it. There are other scrolls around the room, but the one in the middle is completely distinct. Hinata looks at it before turning to Naruto. “What do you think?”

Naruto stares at the scroll, resisting the urge to touch it. The deeper levels of the underground of the Hidden Whirlpool are full of traps. They learned pretty quickly to not go around touching everything. After a few more seconds of examining the scroll and the short pillar it is sitting atop of, he speaks. “It seems fine.” He picks up the scroll and reads its label. “Release…”

Hinata tilts her head. “What do you think this can do?”

Naruto keeps inspecting the scroll. “I have no idea. It releases something, but there’s nothing beyond that written here.”

The pale-eyed woman gets closer. “Should we open it?”

“It could be a trap.” Naruto places the scroll back on the pedestal and then makes a shadow clone. “Can you open that up?”

“Yes, boss!” The shadow clone opens the scroll, and as soon as it is opened, it starts to glow and then smoke comes out of it. Naruto can feel the shadow clone undoing itself. The other scrolls around the room react similarly, opening on their own and also letting out smoke.

After the smoke finished settling, a group of red-haired people seemingly appeared out of it. Uzumakis. Ten of them. One of them, the one to come out of the golden scroll, comes forward. He is clearly older than the rest, with some signs of aging such as some small wrinkles on his face. He has a distinctive scar cutting across his face at an angle. His red hair is long and flowy, but is starting to lose its colour, and his eyes are dark green. His skin is rather pale. Once he gets near the couple, he speaks. “Who are you?” He has a rather gentle voice, which contrasts a lot with his somewhat intimidating face.

The blond speaks first, with his usual upbeat tone. “I’m Naruto! Naruto Uzumaki!”

Hinata also answers, although she has a little more reluctance in her voice. “I’m Hinata Hyuuga.”

The man slowly nods. “What state is the Village Hidden by the Whirlpools right now?”

Naruto clenches his fists until his knuckles turn white. “It’s… It’s gone. Has been for decades. There’s only ruins at the surface. We thought every Uzumaki besides me was dead by now.”

The man sighs. “We had these emergency seals to protect us until someone with Uzumaki or Senju blood found this place. They are meant to hold us inside, protected and stuck in time. There are other hidden rooms with more of us. We could not protect everyone with these, but we could protect enough.” The man then walks up to he entrance of the room. “So, do you want to help us rebuild, Naruto?”

Naruto looks rather crestfallen. “We… We cannot do that. The world is gone. Everyone but the people on this island is dead.”

The red-haired man looks a little confused, but his voice doesn’t show it. “It’s a matter of simply restarting humanity anew right here in the Village Hidden by the Whirlpools.”

Hinata speaks up. “If we move to the surface and start to rebuild, she will find out and we will all die…”

He looks disappointed, but decides to not ask who Hinata meant by “she” . He takes some time to think, sighs and speaks up again. “Then… we have one last thing we could do. A last-ditch effort. My name is Nori Uzumaki. Follow me.”

Turns out, the Uzumaki survivors have a way to probably maybe revert time. Naruto and his group now likely have one last chance to steer the wheels of the world into a brighter direction. It would require an extremely complex formula, an ungodly amount of chakra and a little luck, but there’s a chance, even if they don’t know how far back they will go, only that it won’t take them further than a hundred years back in time.

Actually, almost nothing is known about this jutsu, even if it works at all. It was the result of intensive research and a lot of guesswork by the ninja and scientists of the Hidden Whirlpool, but it was never tested. However, desperate times call for desperate measures, so they ultimately go through with the plan. Naruto, Hinata and Sakura are to go back in time, as they are the only ones in condition to do so and the jutsu can only support three people.

As everyone in the underground capable of helping is helping with getting the jutsu ready, Nori decides to explain the history of the Time Travel Jutsu. “It was meant to be used in case of an extreme emergency, not just to the village, but to the entire world. The research team was capable of finding ways to make it simpler, but Lord Second decided to put a stop to the research. He said it should be kept as complicated as possible as to make it so only people who have a deep knowledge of it are capable of using it.”

Nori then pauses for a short while, before speaking again. “I can see where he was coming from. Even I felt like I was committing a terrible sin as I worked on this jutsu. But… if we have even the slightest of chances to stop this Kaguya from coming back, then it is my belief that we should use it.”

They prepared everything, from the special candles to the tags and paint. It took a week of work. Sometimes, they had to erase huge portions of the formula because of tiny mistakes. The Hokages and Obito also gave them a detailed timeline of events, at least of what they know happened, so they can plan accordingly. Obito was particularly useful, as he was involved in a lot of… issues . After the week was up, however, the jutsu was finally ready to be used.

Nori approaches Naruto. “Naruto Uzumaki. Visit and free us in the past. Take this.” He hands over a small metal pin. It looks just like the Uzumaki crest, but Naruto can tell it’s not just a simple trinket. “Show this to us and we’ll know what to do. Now, let’s get this over with.”

As the trio walks towards the center of the room, they are stopped by the reanimated Hokage.

Hashirama speaks first. “When I helped create the Village Hidden by the Leaves, I was hoping to create a place where children wouldn’t have to worry about dying on a war. Please, help guide the Hidden Leaf Village back to its original purpose. Make it so it’s once again a place where children don’t have to worry losing their lives over a pointless war.”

Then, it’s Tobirama’s turn. “I… realized my mistakes. I thought that I was showing the Uchiha clan appreciation, but I believe my intentions were tainted by an underlying dislike for the Uchiha I thought I had gotten over. Please, find a way to make sure the Uchiha aren’t to be ostracized by the rest of the village.”

After that, Hiruzen speaks. “I was considered to be a great man, even being referred to as ‘The Professor’ , but my Hokage career is full of failures, most of them stemming from me not properly taking charge and not holding possible enemies of the village accountable. Please, make sure to have a more proactive role than I had.”

Lastly, Minato speaks. “The only regrets I have about my rule are how short-lived it was and how I left you all alone. I wasn’t expecting to lose so much so quickly, so I didn’t prepare contingency plans in case Kushina and I weren’t there for you, even if Sarutobi should have done something of value in my place. Please, remember that self-sacrifice without a secure future is worthless.”

The three to-be time travellers nod with a serious look to their eyes. Naruto speaks first. “Don’t worry, we’ll make things right!”

Then, Hinata continues. “We won’t waste this chance!”

Finally, Sakura speaks. “Leave it to us! We’ll get the job done!”

The trio walks to the center of the room. Then, everyone present begins to push their chakra into the jutsu. Obito speaks with hope in his voice. “Please, make sure to stop this from happening however you can! Be it by getting rid of Madara, or by saving me from the boulder, or by fixing Rin’s tailed beast seal, or by helping Minato-sensei during his fight against me… I don’t care how! Just make sure it never comes to this again!”

Naruto smiles. “That was always the plan, Obito! We’ll never let this happen again! Believe it!”

And then, in mere seconds, a light engulfs them.

…

The trio is met by a bright blue sky with some clouds scattered throughout. They can feel a nice, cold breeze run along their bodies, something they haven’t felt in over a year. They can feel the soft grass touching their bodies.

The jutsu seems to have worked. They don’t know how far back they have gone, but they are definitely somewhere in a not-completely-destroyed world. They are definitely excited, but they are too tired to manifest the feeling. Their bodies are sore. Extremely sore. There ’s also probably some chakra exhaustion mixed in there as well. Even with so many people helping them power the jutsu, they still just barely managed to avoid complete exhaustion.

Naruto tries to contact Kurama, but the fox is out cold for now. The tailed beast is probably the reason they didn’t come back in time already dead from chakra exhaustion.

Sakura painstakingly slowly moves her head, fighting through the pain on her muscles, and notices a river nearby. She feels too tired to speak. Even just barely moving her head already tired her out.

They stay like that for at least an hour, unmoving and too tired to get up, but also unable to fall asleep. Then, they finally regain their voices. Naruto is the first one to speak. “So… What are we going to do?”

Sakura replies with fatigue evident in her voice. “That depends on the time period. Ideally, we’re before Obito gets smashed by the boulder and kidnapped by Madara.” She then lets out a sigh. “At most, we have to be right before your birth. If we’re any further than that, it becomes extremely troublesome to correct the problems.”

Hinata sounds apprehensive. “How do we figure out when we are?”

“Let’s go to the leaf and try to see the faces of the Hokages from the outside. That should give us some idea of when we are. If there’s no village where there should be, then we’re way too far back. Even if we somehow get rid of Madara, Zetsu will probably just find another Uchiha to take Madara’s place.”

Naruto’s fists clench. “Yeah… But we have to find a way.”

“I already have a plan for a specific time-frame. Obito told us back in the Hidden Whirlpool that Black Zetsu was with him while his body was being reconstructed. So, if right now we are right before he turns bad, we can wait for the Kannabi Bridge mission, let Obito sacri-”

Naruto cuts Sakura’s speech with some anger in his voice. “I’m not letting him go through that, ya know! There has to be another way!”

“What choice do we have? If we are at the time-frame for that plan to be valid, we have a way to easily locate Black Zetsu. The monster was with Madara while he was keeping Obito in Mountain’s graveyard, but we don’t know about anything before that. It would be a huge risk to just guess whether that monster is with Madara or not. That thing is the source of our nightmares!”

Naruto continues. “Still, nobody should go through what Obito did!”

If Sakura could, she’d be pinching the bridge of her nose right now. “Look, I know how much had to endure during the Fourth War and our time running away, Naruto. I know you hate to skew and change your way. You had to do that for way too long against Kaguya. I know that sacrificing other people for the greater good isn’t how you do things. I know all of that. But if we don’t do that just one more time, everyone will suffer again. Things may turn out even worse.”

The pink-haired woman sighs. “I’m starting to think that Kaguya deciding to hunt us down personally instead of using the Infinite Tsukuyomi was a blessing in disguise. It gave us the chance to do this . Besides, the plan I gave is just a plan for a specific time-frame. If we are too far behind or just a little bit after, we won ’t be able to use it. I already have a few plans in mind for pretty much every world-changing event.” She thinks a little bit deeper. “A lot of these events are just a footnote in history at most , and yet their ripples changed everything in history …”

Naruto closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, before opening them again. “Ugh… Alright. But we will help him as soon as possible if we do that!”

“Of course we will. But… let’s rest for now. I’m sure even you are exhausted.”

Hinata sighs. “This feels… terrible.”

Naruto agrees. “Is this how Kakashi-sensei felt during our mission back at the Land of Waves?”

Suddenly, a familiar, grumpy voice talks to Naruto within his head. “You foolish human.”

“Good to see you’re alright, Kurama!”

“That jutsu you used… It consumed too much chakra! You are lucky you have me, y’know!” Kurama recoiled a little after saying that. He has been accidentally adopting that tic from Naruto, much to the tailed beast’s own chagrin. “It will take a while until you can use my power again.”

“No problem! I’m not planning on using it unless it’s an absolute life or death situation. It could bring lots of unwanted attention.”

Kurama feels a bit offended to have his power so promptly rejected, but decided to keep it to himself. “Just make sure to end Madara and Zetsu, if it is the right time. Make sure those bastards regret everything they’ve done and plan to do.” Naruto can feel that Kurama really wants to detail many different methods of torture he could use on the two targets in the beast’s stead, but he was unable to continue speaking before falling into a deep sleep.

Naruto speaks out loud. “I just talked to Kurama.”

Hinata was surprised. “Really?! He recovered so soon?”

“Not really. He had just enough energy to tell me that I won’t be able to use his chakra for a while and then told basically told me to make Madara and Zetsu suffer before going to sleep.”

Sakura internally chuckles, because if she actually does it, it will hurt a lot. “I can’t help but agree with Kurama’s stance on those two monsters.”

Naruto, however, is already trying to move around, right before pain shoots through his entire body and he goes back to laying flat on the ground. “It’ll be a while ‘till I get better.” He resigns to his current situation. “How long do you think we’ll be like this?”

Sakura replies. “Hopefully not too long. We’re sitting ducks. If we at least had our Leaf headbands, then maybe we could have tried to make something up if we were found by a ninja of the Hidden Leaf.”

Thankfully, nobody appeared during the five hours they were downed. Naruto finally gets up, as difficult as it is. Sakura and Hinata slowly follow suit. They walk towards the river and each one of them takes a handful of water to soak their faces with. It’s extremely refreshing, a nice change of pace from how they have been feeling for the past few hours.

After they finish washing their faces, Sakura looks at her teammates with slight confusion. Hinata notices it first. “Is something wrong?”

Sakura squints a bit. “Well… Maybe I’m imagining things, but now that I had a closer look, I think you guys look a little younger. Naruto, did you bring a mirror?”

“Sure.” He then opens his bag and takes out a small scroll. He opens it and unseals three small handheld mirrors from it and hands two of them to his teammates before looking at the one he kept. He takes a moment to stare at his reflection. Sure enough, he is ever so slightly younger. Even the Allied Shinobi Forces headband seems to have been reverted back, since it’s lacking a lot of nicks and scratches. He started fighting the Fourth Shinobi War with his Leaf headband, but it had been destroyed. He decides to look down to his clothing and it’s also good as new. His teammates are in a similar situation.

Hinata looks somewhat confused. “I wonder why we look younger…”

Sakura cups her chin. “It’s probably a side-effect of the jutsu. Maybe it reverses the effects of stress-related aging or other forms of ‘unnatural’ aging? I know I had some wrinkles beginning to form until earlier today and my hair hasn’t been this much of a vivid pink in a long while.”

Naruto replies. “I guess that makes sense.” He then looks around for a bit before speaking again. “So, what are we going to do now?”

Sakura is already looking tired and breathing somewhat unevenly. “I don’t think I can move for more than ten minutes before collapsing. Let’s find somewhere we can sit down and rest.”

Hinata looks around and stares at a rather large and lone tree a few metres away from her and her team. “There is a tree over there. Maybe… we could stay there until we can move again?”

Sakura smiles and nods. “That’s a good idea. Let’s go there.” She then turns towards her blond friend. “Naruto, did you bring food?”

Naruto smiles. “Of course! I mean, it’s not the best food there is, just some basic pills, cured meat and hard biscuits, but we won’t go hungry!” His eyes then lock on something in the distance. “Wait! I can see some apples over there! Maybe I can get some fresh fruit for us!”

Hinata looks rather worried. “Careful, dear. You’re still exhausted.”

Her boyfriend, however, simply smiles as he dismisses her concern. “Don’t worry! I’m fine! I’m sure I can handle walking over there and back.” He gets up and begins walking towards the apple trees, stopping from time to time to rest. It takes a lot of effort to move even just a couple of metres at a slow and steady pace, and Naruto doesn’t think he can even run. Over half an hour later, he arrives at the trees. “Damn chakra exhaustion… Why couldn’t we have appeared closer to these trees?”

Naruto then painstakingly walks all the way back, with a bag full of apples. Walking is ever so slightly easier, but not by a large amount. Once he arrives at the tree where his teammates are resting, he sits down and opens his bag. “I brought as many apples as I could! They look pretty good!” He takes one of the apples out.

Hinata smiles. “Thank you.” She grabs one of the apples.

Sakura soon follows. “Thanks, Naruto.”

All three of them take a bite out of the fruit at the same time, and their eyes widen before they begin to furiously eat the fruits away. The flavour of a fresh apple is certainly welcome after so long. It really helps them feel energized. It’s one of their best meals in a long time, and it makes them feel eager to keep pushing forward.

Naruto is just finishing his seventh apple when decides to speak up, full of energy. “This is almost as good as ramen!”

Sakura’s eyes widen in surprise. “Oh, wow. It really was a long time since we ate something that wasn’t survival meals for you to be saying that…”

Naruto shudders at the memories of the food they all had to eat for months. “Well, this beats any of those grains we could scavenge at the surface and the survival food we had to ration out before we found that storage room full of food.”

Sakura sighs. “And that food was just more survival meals. They were able to store living people, but weren’t able to store fresh food…”

Hinata chimes in. “Mr. Nori did say that those were meant to be deployed one scroll per ninja team. Maybe they’re meant to last long in case the team in question isn’t skilled enough to reseal the food?”

The pink-haired girl sighs. “Well, I guess that makes sense…” Sakura stares at the bright sky of the afternoon, thinking. “Naruto.”

The blond looks at her. “Yeah?”

“Have you ever thought about your clan? You know, since we were stationed at the Hidden Whirlpool for a year, and we even met some Uzumakis from when the village still existed near the end of our stay there… I just got curious.”

Naruto was caught off-guard by the question, but decides to answer anyway. “Of course I do. I mean, I didn’t think about it for a long while, but during that year we spent there, I read so much about it and… a lot of times I wished the clan wasn’t gone. Maybe if they were still around back when I was a kid, they would have taken me in…”

Sakura looks distressed. “I- Sorry if the question wasn’t-”

Naruto cuts her off. “Don’t worry!” A melancholic smile forms on his face while he looks at the sky. “We were using that place as a shelter for a while. I do want to learn even more about my clan if possible. I’m sure I wasn’t able to read everything . And we know there are many Uzumakis sealed away and even some spread around the world. I want to… Maybe one day, I want to be able to restart the Uzumaki Clan. And this time, make sure we won’t fall again.”

Then, Naruto looks down to the grass. “I just want to make my clan proud, ya know? I spent so long thinking I was all alone in the world and that my family name was made up or something… I ignored that part of my family for so long… I decided to learn as much as possible from those books and scrolls. I even learned a bunch of secret Uzumaki techniques, y’know.”

Naruto tries to fake a smile, but Hinata and Sakura are able to see right through it. Both of them look bitter, Sakura more evidently. “Damn you, Zetsu…”

Naruto speaks. “Are you two able to walk?” After the two reply in affirmation, he gets up and stretches for a bit before speaking again. “Alright! Let’s find somewhere to camp at!”

It is the next day. The strain in the time travellers’ bodies is much more manageable. Naruto, in particular, is now able to use a, as he put it, small amount of shadow clones. About ten clones or so, even though making more than one or two is already debilitating if not outright lethal for an average ninja.

Hinata looks around for a second before speaking. “Which direction should we go?”

Sakura replies. “We know we are in the Land of Fire, that much is evident just by looking at the vegetation and overall geography and hydrography. The problem is that we don’t know where we are within it. We need to find our way towards the Hidden Leaf…” She stops speaking and goes deep in thought.

Naruto stares at the pink-haired woman. “Uh… Are you alright, Sakura?”

She breaks out of her dazed state. “Oh! Yes, I’m fine. It’s just… I think we shouldn’t go to the Hidden Leaf. At least not right now.”

Naruto looks confused, surprised and somewhat annoyed. “What?! Why?!”

“I’m worried about getting caught even just walking outside.”

Naruto recomposes himself. “What do you mean?”

She holds one of her fingers up. “First, we are clearly ninja. We will be recognized as such, since none of us is specialized in infiltration and disguising. Once caught, we will most likely be sent to the Torture and Investigation, putting the entire plan in jeopardy.”

She then lifts another finger. “Second, if we’re during or just a little bit after the Third Great War, then your looks would attract too much attention. You are the splitting image of your father.”

And then, yet another finger. “Last, but not least, there’s Hinata. You know how… prickly the Hyuuga clan is. Hinata looks and fights like a Hyuuga. If they see her, they’ll either think she stole the eyes and clan techniques or she escaped from the family. Either way, she gets in great danger.”

Naruto interjects. “Why don’t we just use transformation jutsu?”

Sakura shakes her head. “Neither of us can hold a transformation for as long as you. One slip-up, and we revert. Besides, a byakugan or a sharingan can detect the use of a regular transformation jutsu.”

Suddenly, the blond boy is very much in distress. “Then what do we do?!”

Sakura gives her answer. “We can try to look for the Hidden Leaf, but instead of going towards it, we go on the opposite direction, following a road or river, until we find some smaller village or town. We can find out when we are there , and then plan accordingly.”

The blond still protests. “But what if we don’t have the time, y’know?!”

The woman promptly replies. “Then we just have to adapt our plans. That’s what a shinobi has to do. Plans can and will go wrong. We need to be able to adapt to unforeseen problems.”

Naruto furrows his brows. “You’re starting to sound like Kakashi-sensei.”

Sakura simply lets out a short hmph before continuing with her thought process. “Let’s get settled first. We need to have a clear view of our situation and not rush into things blindly. We also need to hide our headbands and jackets.”

Naruto takes a scroll out of his backpack and seals their headbands and flak jackets inside it. They are all wearing simple black shirts they found in a room in the underground, but they had to remove the Uzumaki crest on the back. Their pants are basic dark gray cargo pants. Underneath it all is the standard metal fishnets they usually wear for protection.

The blond speaks. “I’ll see if I can find the Leaf from here.” Naruto jumps from tree to tree, until he reaches the top of the tallest tree in the area, and sees a familiar area over in the distance, almost kissing the horizon. He then comes back down, excited. “Hinata! Sakura! The Leaf is that way!” He pointed to his right. “I was able to see three heads sculpted!”

Sakura smiles. “Then, we will go this way.”

The three begin to walk away.

The trio walks and walks along a road they found for around two hours. They unfortunately can’t really jump from tree to tree in their current state for any significant amount of time, and the time it would take to regain their energy would actually make them take longer, so they have to simply take it slow until they find something worthwhile. It’s also better to conserve every drop of energy they have in case they need to fight.

After a few more minutes, they finally arrive somewhere. A rather small, but somewhat thriving, village. Most roads are dirt, with only the main road which cuts through the middle of the settlement being made with stone. The houses are made out of plain wood, with some larger ones being made of bricks and concrete. There are a few children playing and lots of people walking about, but not a single ninja in sight. An inn catches the trio’s attention. The perfect place to stay and listen to gossip. They would definitely find something out.

Naruto stares at the inn for a few seconds. “Pervy Sage told me he had a huge info network all over the Land of Fire and even in some other countries. If we slip something important, he will probably learn about us. We are pretty close to the Leaf, so he has a tighter network over here. We gotta be careful.”

Sakura sees an opportunity to tease the blond man. “By ‘we’ , you actually mean yourself, right?”

Naruto looks at her with some annoyance in his eyes. Sakura laughs and even Hinata lets out a light giggle.

The pink-haired woman continues talking. “But seriously, he will eventually know about us regardless. You are the spitting image of the famous Yellow Flash of the Leaf. If we are later than the Third War, then it ’s the Fourth Hokage. If we’re earlier than that, then it’s one of Jiraiya’s own students.” She then looks at Hinata. “Also, Hinata looks exactly like a Hyuuga, so that will also draw attention.” Sakura then has an idea and smiles. “Maybe we could use that to our advantage, actually!”

Naruto and Hinata look confused. The former speaks up. “How?”

Sakura lightly smiles. “Let’s talk when we are in private. I have a plan.”

The trio walks towards the inn. The building is rather wide, and has two floors over the ground level, which seems to be used only as a reception area. Its brick walls covered by concrete are painted white, with just a hint of red in the form of a somewhat faded stripe running near the foundation. The ceiling has an inclination, letting any rain simply drip away at the front of the inn. Two large windows and a large door can be seen on the wall turned towards the road. A large sign by the entrance reads “Fire Dancer Inn”.

They enter the place, and the inside looks very clean. There are a few plants in pots and jars here and there, and some tables where some of the patrons can be seen eating and chatting. The floor is made out of very nice wooden planks, their luster still present despite the likelihood of this inn being new being extremely low. Right by the center-back of the room, there’s a large desk and a woman writing some papers. There are stairs to her right, and a door to a room by her left.

The woman looks rather young, not even in her thirties yet. She has medium black hair and sharp, brown eyes. Her face is pretty normal for Land of Fire’s standards, and her dark-brown hair has a short bang. Her clothing is just a simple, loose and thin red shirt with white, knee-length shorts. Her makeup consists solely of a red eyeliner, enhancing her already sharp eyes.

The eyes of the receptionist open wide when she notices Naruto. “The Yellow Flash?!” She then looks at Hinata, eyes subtly squinting.

Naruto promptly replies. “Uh, no. I’m not him. I do get that a lot though.”

The receptionist tilts her head in curiosity. “A relative, perhaps?”

The blond boy answers somewhat awkwardly, but not enough for most people to notice. “No. I’m not really related to him.” It feels wrong to say he isn’t related to his dad.

Her face tenses up a little, as if she is in deep thought, but she still offers the pair a smile. “What can I help you with?”

Sakura takes control of the conversation. “We’d like a room for three.” She then places a small stack of ryo on the desk. She’s glad she brought some money with her.

The receptionist takes the money with glee and picks up a key from the wall behind her before speaking with a wide smile on her face. “Your room is number 2-10. It’s on the second floor. Have a nice stay!”

They get in the room. Naruto quickly starts to place privacy seals along the walls, floor and ceiling to stop any sound from the group from getting out of the room. Then, Sakura starts to talk. “That probably confirms it. We’re likely at least before he became the Fourth Hokage. Let’s hope we’re far back enough to stop the tragedy that befalls Obito and Rin.”

Hinata speaks first. “What was your plan?”

Sakura confidently smiles. “We are going to use our looks as an advantage!” Naruto looks confused and even Hinata doesn’t seem to get it. Sakura explains her plan. “We are going to be mercenary shinobi, helping people for a price. Not a very high one, but enough to get by. I bought some money with me, but it’ll last us two months at most. Naturally, that is going to attract the attention of Jiraiya, the Third Hokage and Minato. Then, it’s just a matter of getting close to them.”

Hinata looks rather apprehensive, “Um, Sakura, that sounds dangerous.”

Naruto nods in agreement. “It sounds like something I ’d come up with.”

Sakura sighs. “I know it’s dangerous, but I can’t think of anything else. We need funds, we need access to the Hidden Leaf, we need to save Obito and we need to get rid of Zetsu and Madara. This is the best I can think of, okay?”

This time, it’s the blond man that sighs. “Alright. I can see that. But what about our names? Do we really need to change them?”

Sakura resists the urge to pinch the bridge of her nose. “Think for a second. ‘Naruto’ isn ’t exactly a common name, which isn’t that big of a problem, since lots of people we know have rather unique names, but this is Jiraiya we’re talking about. He may actually think that’s a fake name, considering his book, and although that could get him to like your taste in literature, it may make it difficult to get him to trust you. And Hinata can’t go around calling herself a Hyuuga and use her byakugan around people, for obvious reasons. It could come back to bite us and hamper our mission of fixing the past.”

Naruto begrudgingly caves in. “Fine! But I’ll keep the Uzumaki Name!”

Sakura nods. “That’s fine. It could actually work for the best to use it.” She then continues to talk about the plan. “After we catch Jiraiya’s interest, we’ll lead him in a wild goose chase as we continue our work.”

Hinata tilts her head. “Why do we need to do that?”

“Because we need him to know about us, but to not know who we are. That way, we can keep him informed of what we are doing without interacting with the man. And before any of you ask, we aren’t going to talk to him right away because we need for him to have as much of a positive disposition as possible before we talk. It will probably make things easier when it’s time to go to the Hidden Leaf, and we may even be able to ask for his help if we need it.”

Naruto cups his chin. “Then… What is going to be our names?”

Sakura doesn’t really look like she cares about which names they choose. “Just come up with something.”

Naruto nods. “Okay! I’ll be…” He starts to think before landing on a name. “Nozomi Uzumaki!”

Sakura turns to her dark-haired friend. “What about you, Hinata?”

Hinata stares at the ceiling. “I don’t know… Maybe… Taiyo Uzumaki! Yeah, that sounds good!” She then turns to Naruto. “I can use Uzumaki, right?”

He hugs her. “Of course you can! You’re family!” Hinata still blushes a bit when he acts like that, but at least she doesn’t pass out anymore. Naruto turns to Sakura. “You too, if you want. You’re my best friend, ya know!”

Sakura speaks. “Good. Then I’ll be Ume Uzumaki.”

Naruto smiles. “Alright! Let’s just rest for the day. I’m still sore.” He then picks a bed for him and Hinata. The beds are pretty big, so they could both sleep on only one.

Sakura nods. “Yeah. I feel like I could faint at any moment.” She then picks a bed for herself.

They all almost immediately fall asleep. Sakura just moved around her bed until she got in the optimal comfortable position she is currently in. Hinata and Naruto are on the same bed, and Hinata is the big spoon, like usual.

It is the next day now. The trio is feeling and looking much better than the day before. Still a bit tired, but they can now walk without feeling like a thousand punches are hitting their entire body each step they take.

Naruto looks a lot more energetic than yesterday. “Alright! What are we gonna do now, Sakura?”

Sakura quickly scolds Naruto. “Call me Ume! We need to build up the habit of calling ourselves by our new names.” She then goes on to answer Naruto’s question. “First, let’s get ourselves a map. Then, we should find some work. We have to build up our reputation as quickly as possible. The world is going through a war, and not everyone is willing to go all the way to the Leaf to post a mission or even be able to afford the prices, but they’ll be able to afford us .”

Hinata tilts her head. “Wouldn’t that take too long? We still need to figure out when we are, exactly.”

Sakura smiles. “Under normal circumstances, you’d be right. It would take a lot of time. However , considering the war and the jobs we’ll be taking, we should be well-known within a few weeks. We can afford a month or two with the money we till have. Word of cheap and effective mercenaries travels fast. And that’s not even factoring in our appearances and abilities. All that is left is to learn when we are so we can decide whether to do things patiently or to rush things.”

The trio walks down to the reception area of the inn to talk to the receptionist, hoping to find any useful information they can.

Sakura starts the conversation. “So, what is the Yellow Flash up to nowadays? It has been a while since we had the chance to see the news. When you compared my teammate here to him, you made me curious.”

The receptionists promptly replies as she fidgets with a pencil. “Well, as you probably know, the Hidden Leaf has been at war for a few months now, and Minato Namikaze’s team has been rather effective. Not a single failed mission as far as we know.” She then shifts to a more relaxed stance, leaving the pen on the counter and resting her chin on her hand. Her face, however, is tensed up in an inquisitive manner. “Now, what about you tell me something about you three. That’s only fair, isn’t it?”

Sakura shrugs. “I guess so. And I’m also guessing you’re not just a receptionist, right?” The receptionist just barely flinched after Sakura’s answer. “Maybe I could also advertise our services.” She then sits down. “My name’s Ume. This one’s Nozomi and this is Taiyo.” She definitely wants to say as little as possible. It would be best to not give away too much to someone they had just met.

The receptionist looks very slightly suspicious. Good thing Tsunade taught Sakura how to catch onto these small expressions just in case she had to deal with politics and the like, even if it seemed like that ability of the Slug Princess left her body the instant she picked up a deck of cards.

Sakura continues. “We do some odd jobs here and there. We’ve been trying to get into the mercenary business for a few months now. Money has been getting rather tough to get nowadays, and our reserves are starting to dry up. Despite our looks, we’re quite skilled shinobi.”

The receptionist squints as she stares at the trio. “Shinobi, huh… I may have some work for you.” She then shifts around some papers below the counter. After a few seconds, she picks up a wanted poster. “Black-Blood Dokumu. He’s a rogue ninja from the Hidden Mist. His kekkei-genkai is rather… complicated to deal with. His blood is a deadly poison that instantly becomes gas when it leaves his body. He works as a mercenary, usually for really bad people with loads of money. His main tactic is to infiltrate the location his victims are at and cut himself, allowing for the poison gas to spread. In combat, it is believed he allows himself to take some amount of damage, for obvious reasons. Nobody has survived a fight against him. The only reason we even know so much about him is because a servant of one of his victims managed to just barely escape.”

The team’s faces had turned serious moments after she started to describe the target and they didn’t even notice themselves doing that. This is not just a casual chat anymore. This is a mission briefing. The receptionist noticed the tone shift. “It seems they are not lying about being ninja.”

Sakura decides to speak again. “How much?”

The receptionist smiles. “The bounty is 300,000 ryo. However, I will be taking 100,000 ryo as a service fee, since I’m the one with the contact to the person who will pay. I am making a rather generous offer, all things considered.”

Sakura stares at Dokumu’s wanted poster. “This mission is extremely dangerous, considering how you described the target…” Sakura then lets out a sigh. “But you know we need the work and it will take really long to make a name for ourselves if we refuse this.”

The receptionist chuckled. “It seems like you’re sharper than I thought.”

Sakura takes the poster from the woman’s hands. “We’ll do it.”

The receptionist looks rather surprised. “Are you sure?”

Sakura nods. “Definitely.”

The receptionist lightly claps her hands once before speaking. “Very well. He’s been doing his work mainly between the Lands of Fire and Lightning. Find him, kill him, bring proof of the kill. How you do it isn’t really my business, as long as it doesn’t evolve into an international incident or something like that. I doubt the relationships between the different nations can get any worse, but trust me: you don’t want to become an enemy of an entire nation. Not so soon into your careers, at least… Oh, and call me Kinko, by the way. I can already tell you have been calling me just ‘receptionist’ since yesterday.”

The trio neither confirms nor denies the accusation as they leave the building.

Hinata is reading a list as Naruto seals some things away in a book. “Okay. Map, kunais, shurikens, extra rations and medicine made by… Ume. That’s everything we didn’t have.”

Naruto stores his book in a bag. “I finished sealing it all!”

Sakura speaks up. “Great! We should get going.”

And just like that, the trio jumps away from the small village.

Kinko is seemingly talking alone in a room. “Yes, sir. Two rather outstanding people just showed up. One looked eerily similar to Minato Namikaze, and the other was obviously a Hyuuga, even though the former denied any relation to the Yellow Flash and the latter didn’t mention anything about her clan. The third one, who seemed to be in charge, didn’t really stand out beyond her hair colour, which is pink, but I’m sure the other two listen to her for a reason. They are shinobi. I do not know their circumstances, they were very tight-lipped about that. Oh, they’re not here anymore. They just left. I sent them to collect a bounty. Black-Blood. No, I don’t want for them to die, but I’m curious about them. Something about them is… intriguing.”