Chapter 1
Shisui panics.
For the first time since the third war, he is truly scared for his life. He always knew that death would catch up with him eventually, after all he is a shinobi. With every mission he takes he knows it could be his last. But he never taught that he would die in his home, HIS village by the hands of a man he should be able to trust with his life, a man he TRUSTED with his life. He never taught he would be betrayed by his comrade, his superior. He can’t breathe. Everything is spinning. He can’t see right. And his eyes… eye. It burns, it hurts. His Susanoo is breaking he can’t keep it up with only one eye.
He only has one eye. The other got ripped out. He can still feel the bony fingers in his eye socket and himself struggling out of the grip of two ROOT agents. He knows that here is some type of poison in his system that messes up his chakra. He has to leave. Escape.
“Your eyes are too powerful. A power that should never be trusted to an Uchiha”
No… run. Don’t listen. Escape.
He feels his chakra flickering and knows that he is going to die today. He has failed. He failed his village, his clan, Itachi. Itachi! The only person he can trust.bSo, in a last effort Shisui sums up his chakra and shunshin his way out. “Kill him he can’t escape.”
He senses them following him, but even poisoned Shunshin no Shisui is a master of this technique. He twists and turns, goes faster and pushes himself further than he ever had before. He feels his chakra draining faster than ever but the signatures that follow him are falling behind until he can’t sense them anymore. He has to meet up with Itachi and make sure that his eye doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. It is all up to Itachi now. He has to burden his friend because he himself was too weak. He will die today but Itachi will live, and he’ll make sure to save the village and the clan. Itachi can do it. He has to, there is no one else.
“Are you okay?” a worried voice asks behind him and Shisui jumps as he turns around. He didn’t sense anyone around him…danger. He puts himself in a defensive stance because he doesn’t have a lot of chakra left and looks at the man who’ll kill him.
“I felt all this vile chakra and thought I should check it out and saw…Oh shit your eyes!” the man takes a step towards him, arms outstretched as Shisui stumbles several steps back.
“Stay away don’t come any closer,” Shisui screams as he trips and has to lean on a tree so he wouldn’t fall.
“Relax. I’m trying to help you,” comes the soothing answer but Shisui can’t hear, can’t see. His vision blurs. The voice sounds muffled. Warm arms catch him as he falls forward. “I got you don’t worry. I’ll keep you save.” He hears one last time and looks up at blue eyes full of warmth and worry.
As he loses consciousness, he feels warm chakra embrace him and for that second he feels safe.
-------------------------------------------------------
Naruto is tired.
He came back not even 24 hours ago and is already neck deep in trouble.
He planned on landing a little earlier maybe before his parents’ death but now looking down at the Uchiha, who he knows is Shisui, he realizes that at least he has the chance to save Sasuke and the rest of the Uchiha. He feels the curly haired boys’ chakra getting smaller and smaller and calls upon the Rikudou Sennins’ power. He isn’t a healer like Sakura (he feels his heart breaking just at the thought of her), he doesn’t understand the nuances of mending bone and flesh, but he has his ying yang release (a gift from the Sage). As he pushes the chakra, that isn’t really his own, a chakra so warm that its color isn’t the normal blue or green healing color but golden yellow, and watches as it starts to regrow an eye and cleans the blood of toxins. This chakra doesn’t really heal, it more like gives back energy or life. He has never really been able to explain what it does to Baachan or Sakura, it is more a feeling than true understanding. But he knows he could have saved so many lives with it, if he had been a little faster. It’s all his fault.
No! He made a promise. He won’t blame himself for the things in the past… future he will make it up, he will save them all this time.
He hears a whimper and looks back down at the teen. Shisui Uchiha is a hero that no one but Itachi had ever truly remembered. Naruto had never met him before his death, nor had he heard of him. But a reanimated Itachi made sure that everyone knew of Shisuis’ sacrifice. A humble and kind shinobi who terrified his enemies even as a child. A lot of Kiri and Iwa shinobi of the Alliance would tell tales about a ten year old Shisui during the nights when the only things they had left was the fire burning to keep them warm and stories to keep them sane. Itachi always said that Shisui was better than himself especially because his friend was one of those rare shinobi who had an on and of button. The ability to be serious in one moment and goof around in the next, like the Yondaime and Naruto himself.
Naruto heard a lot of stories during those nights, were the handful of shinobi and some reanimated allies huddled together and tried to forget for a couple of minutes the pain and loss war had brought. It wasn’t even a war anymore at that point, they simply tried to survive. After the first year of fighting against the Rabbit Goddess and her dead allies, the alliance had only a third of their ninja left. Not even a couple of months into the battle it had started to spill over all the nations. Civilians died in an instant and the line between children and soldiers blurred once more. Naruto can still remember Konohamarus death followed closely by his friends and Iruka sensei. After Tsunade died (the third Kage who fell) their numbers dwindled exponentially. It happened a year into the war, Tsunade tried to stop Kaguya from breaking the jutsu over their own reanimated allies. The previous Hokage and Itachi were vital to the alliances due to their “immortality”. Naruto himself had been busy bringing civilians into a shelter when she died brutally at the hands of the Goddess. That day they had lost their greatest medic and allies. Naruto lost his only mother figure, his father once more and his teachers. Naruto learned a lot from the four Hokage, but he wished he could have learned more. Hashirama would always try to make Naruto laugh, Tobirama would be a stern uncle, while Jiijii a loving grandfather and his father…always encouraging and full of love. Naruto didn’t have any time mourning, he had to take care of the people he had left even though those numbers become smaller every day. The first of the Rookie 9 who fell was Team 8, they died together protecting one of the last civilian villages. After them Chouji, Lee, Gai, Ino, Tenten and Gaara. Not soon after them Bee, Kankuro, Sai, Sakura, Temari, Neji, Kakashi, Obito and Shikamaru. Two years into the war and the only people still alive were Sasuke and Naruto. And finally, after so much death and loss they sealed Kaguya and Zetsu away, but it cost Sasuke his life. Once more it was just Naruto and Kurama. “I guess after all this time it is still just the two of us. You were always by my side Kurama, thank you,” he remembers saying. “I don’t know what I should do. We searched everywhere but in this barren land we are the only ones left. I can set you free Kurama and in a couple of years when your siblings come back you guys will be free to roam this world.“ But the fox wasn’t about to let his kit have such a pathetic death, it wouldn’t do for the jinchuuriki of the strongest bijuu. “You think you humans can destroy this world, die and leave us only with scrabs. No kit, we’ll fix this. And when Shinigami comes to claim you due to your old age, you may set me free but not a second before,” scowled the fox. It took a lot of nagging from Kurama for Naruto to understand that in the ninja world nothing is impossible especially to an Uzumaki. “Time Travel?!” asked Naruto as the bijuu explained his plan. “Yes. With a seal you should theoretically be able to travel in time. If the Hiraishin seal is for teleporting what makes you think that there can’t be a seal for time travel. You just have to be the first one to make it. Don’t tell me that you haven’t earned the title of most unpredictable ninja for nothing,” Kurama scoffs.
Thus, they started their travels in search of information while waiting for the rest of the bijuu to reform. Naruto learned some sealing from his father and Tobirama during the war but not enough to construct a time travel seal. They united with Shukaku and Matabi before they got their first lead. In Kirigakures ruble they found an old Uzumaki scroll on high level sealing theory. Their next find though was a goldmine and helped the blonde in constructing the seal. They found a horde of Uzumaki and several other sealing scrolls in Orochimarus old lair. Nearly a year of wandering the world and some form of therapy thanks to Isobu and Kurama (“You have to heal and mourn, if you want to help anyone kit.”), Naruto had finished the seal and realized why no one had ever traveled back in time. The amount of chakra needed to even attempt it was humungous and nothing was certain, he couldn’t be sure where he landed or in which body he could go back.
“We will provide the chakra…”
“No.”
“…to power the seal…”
“No.”
“…we just have to wait for Choumei and Gyuuki.”
“No. I won’t let you guys sacrifice yourself. I will change the seal. I can do it, believe it,” Naruto cried out. Kuramas heart gave a small stutter, he hadn’t heard his kit say those two words in such a long time, but he knew there was no changing the seal. To mess with time had to have consequences or everybody would have already done it.
“Okay kit! We will wait for the others. If you don’t have a solution until then, promise me you will use this seal,” said Kurama gently.
It took a couple of months before the other two reformed and a huge argument broke out between the bijuu and the Uzumaki. At the end it was Saiken who persuaded the blue-eyed boy. “When you go back you can save us too. This wouldn’t be a goodbye Naru just a see you later,” he whispered gently one night during an argument. Two days later Uzumaki Naruto stood crying in the middle of a huge seal his ancestor would have been proud of and said goodbye to his family. They had been there for him in the last year, healed him and made sure that he didn’t go insane as the last man in the world. They treated him like a younger brother, told him of legends and mock fought him on days he had too much energy. As the seal started to glow, Naruto felt one after the other of his siblings once again vanishing, his skin burning, and limbs being torn apart. Before he lost consciousness, he heard his best friend saying: “Don’t forget kit! This isn’t goodbye, simply a see you later. You are Uzumaki Naruto, you saved your village, won against immortals, fought a goddess and won, but most importantly you are the jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi no youko. You stood before the mightiest of bijuu and befriended him and his siblings. Saving the world! In comparising to that, this is nothing but childsplay. Believe it!”
With those last words the universe reset itself as one man defied its rules and landed back in time.
Here he is now with an unconscious Uchiha in his arms over a decade in the past and this time Uzumaki Naruto is going to save them all. Believe it!