Start Again M*therf**kers

Naruto was falling.

That was it.

But it wasn’t like a fall where he was aware of his blurring surroundings. Heck, he couldn’t even tell whether this fall had an end or a beginning. The space around him was a mixture of solid cold tones, of black and white bleeding together, giving him this monochromatic reality. He found himself getting used to it. He didn’t know how long he had been falling, only that when he opened his eyes, he was already descending into this never-ending abyss. All Naruto knew was that he was falling…but he couldn’t understand why. He couldn’t remember anything prior to him falling into this endlessness. He tried…to remember. But he was met with a gaping hole in his mind while a bolt of pain lit his body on fire. The only thing he could feel was weightlessness and the agony that lingered in his mind every time he tried to force himself to recall why he was here –wherever here was.

Naruto would very much like to stop falling.

His body jerked to a stop.

“I think I’m gonna be sick.” Was all he got out before he was jerked backward (or was it upwards?). He let out the (un)manliest scream that the universe had ever heard.

A sharp jolt forced the blond man’s hands into the untamed mop on his head. He gripped and pulled and yanked at the stands of his sunshine-yellow hair, likely pulling a bunch of chunks out of his scalp. A scream ripped itself out of his throat –from the depths of his soul –as his mind was assaulted with a plethora of memories. Naruto almost threw up in his mouth from vertigo but held strong, even if it felt like his entire being was being torn apart, laid out for the universe to pick at, and sewn horribly back together. He could only see flashes, mere moments during the entire experience but he knew he got the important parts.

GET OUT OF HERE, D̶̡̛̛̛̟͚̫̜͈̈́̄̊̌̓̒͌͆͌́̔͊́̏̓͘͘͜E̸͙̪͖̩̩̠͈͓̣̞̤̬̭̰̤͓̪̻̪̙̦̣̔̈́̋̿͗͌̊̋̈́̂̃͌͐̍͂̆̈͝͝͝͠M̶͍̗̈́͗O̴̢̰̺̞̪͍̔̃̊̍͊̽͊̂̎͂͆̈́͆̍̑̇́̔͠N̷͚͒̍͆̉̑̈́͐̈́͌̉̒͗̉̄͘̚̚͠

Stop asking questions about y̶̧͙͆̃͐́ô̵̺͖͙͔̞̚ủ̶̮͉̘͛ṟ̶̘̣̰̊̓́͘ ̷͚̪̜̂̋̓ṗ̶̦͖͎̻̻͔̌̉̇̈́͐ą̷̛͙̦͍̉̓͐̆͘r̵̭̥̯̫̎̇̅̓͝ȩ̵͊̄̏͌̆̚n̵͎͚̈́̏t̵̟̔̓̀̑̇͊͝s̶͓̑͑̑. It’s not going to b̴͙͙̩͎̲͓̌̓̚r̸̹̙̙̠̅̕i̵͚̯̝̱͙̍̂͝͝ͅn̷̛̞̤̈́̉̓͝͠g̷̟̟̭̳̪̠̥͌̒͒̿ ̷̨̨̦̖̺̗͙͌̈̕b̵̢̲̮͖̋̈́a̷͍̹̭̽̉̃̓c̵̲̳͉̜̑̋̑́̍͝k̵͎̲̤̥̃̀́̿ ̵̗͂̈́͝t̵̨̛̰̗̆̎̌̽͠h̷̤̔̒̋̄̅e̴̡͇͕̤͉̯͊̒̔́ ̶͕̫̹͍͒̏̈̈̚d̴̖̈́̾e̷̖̐̆̒͆͝͝á̷̖͐̋͊̈d̸̛̥̥̮̅͒̽̏ͅ.

My name is Ű̴̝͔̟͎͇͇̞̼̜͇̼̱͙̮̦̰̎̃̈͗̃͐ͅz̸͖͕̹̦̰̬̱͙̓̇͊̐͗̍̈́̄̑͜ư̷̢̩̜̱͔̟̻̦͔̰̺̩̘͖͋̑͛̅̍̏͋̍̄͒̇͂ͅm̵̗̞̞̼̑̅́̾̈́̑̂̉á̸̢̡̛̲̮̥̳͍͇̼̭̗̰̭̺̖̮̩̙͕͗̏̑̂̈́̾̒̓̆̊͊͗̌͒͘͜k̴̛͈̗͕͎͕͔̺͈̲̫͑̇̆͑̍̏̉́͛͌̇̄̾͒̈́̈͘̕̚͜į̶̣̥͓͓̫͍̜̩̳͓̞̲͍̯̾̔̈̈͂͐̈́̌͑͐͂̈͑̋̚͘ ̶̧̢̛̠̠̹̪͔̪̦̙̲̊̃̋̎̃̇̎͜͠N̷͎͂͂̉̈́̽̈́̍̒͋̋͊̈́͂̂̇͗͘͘͝͝a̸̗̖͗̃̈́̌̔̕͘̕ŕ̴̨͍̲̰͓̦͎̖̗̙͉̊̆͊̂̎͆̃͗̇̂͑̓͂̒͘͠ư̴͎̗͖̣̌͗̃͆͘͝͠͝ͅṫ̷̡͕͍͖̞͕̭͇̗̘͙̹̙̥̩͇͋̌̄̐͊͘͠͝͝o̸̧͔̖̳͕̬͇̰̝̪̺͍̟͖͌ ̴̢̡̧͙͈͚̯̠̼̥̘͚̯̣͎̩̪̺̰̘̗̈͘ and I’m gonna be H̶̳̝͝ǫ̶͔͂k̸̡̫͇̑̆́͝a̷̭̔̏̿g̸͎͔͍̰̼͂̎̊͠e̶̡̛̪̹̻͙͆͑͝!̶̥̞̄̈́͠Don’t you forget it!

Congratulations… ŏ̶͎͉̙͚̿ṋ̵͉͕̇̐̂̽͝ ̶̞̄y̸̺͂͒̓ǫ̷͕̦̯̟͋̋ǘ̵͕͕̟̃͛͛͆r̷̼̆̓ ̴̧̙̳͛̏͋͝ǵ̸̥r̵̨͇͇͐a̸͔̿̒̔ḏ̷̣̇͆̚͘u̴̡̙͈̙̒̄̓ä̶͔̻́̕t̷̫̱̜̽͂̌̂͠ĩ̸̳̠͔̅͗̓͗ȯ̵͙́̽͘ṅ̸͉̟̱͜.̴̜̻̲̱̦̽̉̑͆

Those who break the rules are scum... b̷̻̯̳̈́̽̕ŭ̶̻̓͗ţ̴͇̤̼̪̀̂̈͐,̶̘̃̓̎ ̷̨̯̻͛͛̋t̷̢̰̠̜͒̆͆̓͠ḩ̷̪͇͑̓̓̉̉ö̴̡͔̹̪́͊̌s̷̡͈̮̍̓͌̍̚e̴̢̧͇̫̾͒̈́̆ ̷̻̖̠͙̘͆̍͝w̷̛̦͍͙͇̾͑͝͠h̶͕̄̈ȍ̷͚̈́̀̈́ ̵̝͇̱̚a̶̛̺̘͆b̷̛͔̝̻̤̔̍͋̊ą̴͇̺̖̂́̇͜n̵̬͇̥̖͆̍̋̀d̵̘̝̒̿o̵̹̾̔n̸͍͖̪̊̾̇̋̈́ͅ ̴̬̀̈̈͘̚ͅt̴̘͖͍̙͋͋̓͗ḧ̵̫͖̙́͘ē̷̛̺̺̤͖͝i̴͍̽͋ṛ̴͇͉̽ ̵͓̯̖̮̹̐͆͐f̶̰̙̹̦͗̐̾̚̚r̷̺̠̆̄̍̋̉i̴͈̲̚ͅe̶̡̜̳͌̓n̵̻̯͓̅ͅd̶͖̖͖̥̀̓̿̓s̸̛̲̝̙͓ ̵̤̦̦̜̔͗͋̄̾ͅa̵̛̫̐̐́r̸̦̻̣͔̯̍͝e̷͉̣͈̞̔̈̈ ̴̰̤̮̄̃̔w̵̼̅̎͛͠o̵̞̬͚͂̆̒ͅr̶̡̬͍̒̂͋͂s̷̭͖̘͑̏͋͘ë̸̮́ ̸̭̘̜̃̀t̶͕̓̚h̸̗͉̭̹̋͒͌͋̕͜a̶̘̗͈͎̗͂̔̚n̵̖̗̐͆̓̄ ̴̹̼͕̲̍̐͝s̷̺̝̽͝͠c̴̛͚͇̜̅̏͒͘ư̸̜̱̗̥̱̑ṁ̷̢̭̻͔̇͘͠.̶̼̬̈́͛͌̿

M̵͕̱̒y̷̦̑͌ ̷̧͍͌͠b̸̨͍̿̄o̴̙̬̜͗d̷͈̟͆͘ỹ̵̬ ̸̣̪̐j̷̗̝̦̈u̶̞̤͋̚ṣ̷̨̩̈́̉ţ̷͚̺̍̄ ̸̡̛̺͜͠m̶̢̻̒̇̽o̷̱͆̿̑͜v̴̨̻̙̇̓̕e̷̹̒͝d̷̹͌.̸̺̰͓͑͌ ̷̫̝̙̽̄There was no time to think.

I’ll bring him back, S̴̻͔̔a̵̝̎k̴̨̏ȕ̴͈̤̈͠r̸̥̰a̴̺̍͋͝-̷̜͘ċ̵̦̈́́h̶͇̊͆a̵̬͓͖̓͂ň̷̪̎͘ ̵̛̟̲…̵̼̘̺̅Í̴̡̌͊ ̴̯̌̈́p̷͈͓̘̆͑͑r̷̡̥̫͊̀o̷̒͌͜m̷͉͗͝ĭ̷̗̤̰̀s̷͔̽̾ẽ̶̟͇͐.̸̢̨͛͛̊

I’ll just have to s̸̳̯͉̀̋e̴̫̳͙͈̠͌̌̿͝v̶͙̞̗͒̈́͝ẽ̶̛͓̽̓̕ṟ̴̡͉̮̄̔̔̿̾ ̸̞̑̎̊̀t̷̥̬̜͌͗̆ḧ̴͚͈̳̻́ͅa̴̗̦̻̔͒t̸̞̪͖͓͈́͒̃̒́ ̸̨̯̹̏͊̍̋ͅb̵͖̤͐̓͋͑̚o̴̟̓̐n̸̦͕̻̦̼̾͒̚d̷͇̣̐̎͠, Naruto.

E̷̞͑r̴͙̾ô̶ͅ-̵͎͝s̸̻̄ẽ̴͙n̷̯͝ņ̵͒i̶̭n̸̝͐!̸͉̓

I’m sorry Naruto… J̴̗̯͎̽i̴̧̝̺̺̿̾̄̃r̸̨̟͒͑̾̈́ą̸̺̏͛̓i̷̛̯͔͊̂̒͑y̷̪̠̠͔̒͝ą̴̏̍ ̸̭͍͗͑͜ĥ̴̩̍̇̆ā̶͔͈̉́͌ś̴̪͈̤̈́̇͝ ̴̨̀̋̓̇p̸̻̜͒͆̂a̸̻̟͊͒͂s̸̯͉̱̑̇̀s̷̜̓̾ë̷̝́̿d̸͔̎͘͠͝.̴͙̏̓̐

K̴͇̣̙͒̿͊̍͂̏͝o̵̡͇̺͎͈͗͆̒͐͊̃̿̏̋̌̚͝ͅṅ̵̡̡͕͇̩͚̥̗̝̜̟̳̥͌̇͝a̷̛̹̿͐̏̋͜ḩ̵̬̤̠͕͔͉̠͉̖̺̦͉̦̗̱̣̐̃̈́̋͋̃̌͂̂̀̈͋̾̕͜͠ą̴̛̹̟̰͕͎͖̻̫̪̜̠̲̳̬̜̑̉̆ was…destroyed.

Those who do not understand ţ̷̻͌r̷̡̲̙̓ȕ̸̖͂͝ḙ̴̉̿̕ ̶̮̲̹̇p̶̰̔́͜͝a̶̘̥̒ḭ̴̘̾n̷̨̳̗͛ ̴͈͔̏̎ can never understand t̸̬̗̱̃̔͝r̷̹̕ṳ̷͋͑̓ȇ̷̩ ̵̠̰̎p̶͕̤͖̎e̸̢͓͂̓͝ä̴͕́c̷͖̋͋e̷̯̟̻̾.

Ŵ̵̧̻̐̿a̴̦͌͠ͅr̸̎̇͜ was declared on the F̶̺̣͌̽͑ȋ̸̞̲̍͐v̶̹͊͘e̸̡͙̬̊͋ ̸̪̑͑Ẽ̸̦l̶̗͇̄͛̑͜ȩ̴̫̊̅̎m̸̩̚ĕ̵̠̣̂ņ̸̄̈́͜ţ̴̓͝ā̴̺͚l̴̬͕̣̈́ ̸͕̐N̷͕̲̙͋̓ä̶̰͉̟́̍t̷͔͍̮̾i̵̤̼͔̿̚ǫ̶̠̻̈́ň̵̡̲̯̊̉s̷̳̱̰̅͊ ̶̩̠͋̋ for Naruto and Ķ̷͇̈́̈i̷̯̿l̷̞͔͆l̸̡̈́͜͠e̸̞͈̓r̴͇̥̓͋ ̷̲̍B̶̨̖̈̀.

N̸̨̨̲̲̖̮͙̻̫͖̯̠̙̳͉̙̻͖̰̻̎̒͑̅̾̉̿͊̓̾̃͗̔̕͜͜͜͜͜E̴̡̲̰̯̜̰̔̈͐̒̅͑͑̋̿̄̈̽̔̏̆̚͘Ĵ̶̦̝͚̮̺͍̃͘͝ͅI̷̻͙̗̬͖̦̝̹̫͎͔̫͛ͅ!

I can’t change what I’ve done, b̵̺̩̠͝ủ̸̳̱͙̳̅͆̕t̵͇͒ ̵̮̱̦̊̚Ĭ̶͚͖̗͓ ̶̪͙̲̉̑̚c̷̱̐ą̶̈́n̸͙̜͆̎͗ ̵̧̊h̶̙̽̎e̶̢͎͎̥͂͊̉͝ḷ̴̛̥͈̗p̸̮͙͒ ̸̹̈́̆͐͊ṡ̸̼̟͓͙͂̽ṱ̵̦̇ŏ̷̡̤̥̙̏̓p̶͎̮̪͈͗͂̓ ̶͇͈͑̈́̏͐i̶͈̿͒t̵͎͚͉́.

M̸y̵ ̶p̵r̵e̶c̸i̶o̵u̴s̴ ̵c̷h̷i̵l̵d̵r̵e̸n̷…̸m̸a̴d̶e̶ ̸f̶r̶o̷m̵ ̴m̵y̷ ̸b̷o̶d̶y̵…̷b̶e̸s̷t̷o̴w̵e̴d̴ ̶w̸i̴t̶h̷ ̷m̶y̴ ̶c̵h̸a̸k̸r̸a̶.̷

Ḱ̷̲̰͒͗̀͑̈́̀̑̈͠͝A̶̧̨̪͔̞̼̘͇̳͊̔̂̚K̷̗̮̥̭̂̿̊̐A̶̢̡̯̭̻̟̖͚͖̔̿̂̿͊͝S̶̝̭̻͈̦̱̩͉͍̬͈̲͌̂̂̐́̿̚Ḩ̵̧̝̦̞̞̫͙͎̻́͊͜Ì̴̡̛̼̪̞͚̻̰͎͙̍̏̍͆̈́͗͒̎-̸̤́̏̽̇̒̈́͊͝͝S̴͚͎̣̰͕̩̍͆̂̓̿̎͠Ë̸͔͙̟̺͍̳͉͎̻͇́N̵̢̦͎͎̝̬͈͇̫͇̗̪͊̓͋͠S̶̨͖̓͑̉̈́̌͜E̵̲͎͗͒͑̋͗̽̎̐̔̄̂I̷̖͙̳̿̽̓͌̕ͅͅ!̷͎̘̜̩̱͇̟͕̟̮̱͌͛͋͗

I can’t do anything S̶̟̤̋a̴͙͕͌k̵̰͉̿u̵̗̫̇͆r̷̡̞̈a̵̘̥͒͆̅! The world’s gone to shit and we’re barely hanging on!

Ś̵̥̆̌̿a̶͙͋͗͛̄̔s̶̰͚̓͒ư̴̢̹̖̒͑̓ķ̶̫̘͚̅̅e̵̗̜͎̠̰̊̈̀͘̕͝ …don’t leave me again…

I̸̤͑ ̸̭͓̐̅l̸̝͇̀̇o̶͍̝̱̜͒̂̒̅͘͠v̷̧̨̮̆̌͘ê̷̹̦̍̽ͅ ̸̬͙̲͔̤͒͑͒y̵̡͉̝̟̯̝̾̊͠ŏ̴̙u̷̯̓,̶͕̬̪͌̏̃̚ ̷̠͇̞͖̓̊͝N̸̛̰͓͉͑̉ȃ̸͇̔̐̚̕r̸̥̪͇̟̊͋̅̕͜u̴̮̰͌́͘͠t̸̛͙͓̃͛̊o̷̞̘͉̦͌̽́̓̂.̸̰̻̄̊̿̈͠͠

Ţ̷͇̘͉̞̌͌̿̈́̆ȩ̸̩̥̩͗̑̎͠a̵̧̛̪̞̦͔̳͗͒̓̈́͠m̸͚͍̯̼̥̔̑̉̿̚ ̷̰̙̜̣̱̅̉̚7̴̧̹̭͚̿̚ ̶̡͎̂͝ forever, right guys?

Į̵̗̇’̴̬̊m̶͍͂ ̸̡͔͇̚͠s̴̮̣͕̊͗͝ȯ̶̗̱r̴͚̍̐͋r̸̤̗̫͘ŷ̷̬̼͚ ̷̛͕̥̽͐͜k̸͚̳͝i̷̪̔͌̂ṱ̷͝.̴̣͖̓͘

See you guys on the other side!

Naruto did throw up in his mouth that time.

One final lasting scream tore from his throat which seemed to echo around him –through him, past him, towards him, it was everywhere and nowhere all at once – before Naruto was spat out on the other end of the seemingly fathomless free-fall in a heap of jellied limbs. For a moment, the blond man just laid there, ass over his head, as he contemplated his life choices that led up to this specific point in his life. Naruto wasn’t a stranger to embarrassing and completely mind-breaking situations, but this took the cake.

Groaning loudly, the blond swung his legs around so that he was straightened out on the ground which allowed him to take in his surroundings a bit more. Naruto blinked rapidly trying to rid his vision of the constant sun being blasted into his eye sockets. His cerulean eyes shifted from left to right, cataloging the area when he realized that there wasn’t any sun in his vicinity. The room, on the other hand, was just extraordinarily bright for some reason.

“Urgh…where am I?” Naruto murmured as he slowly lifted his body off the ground.

“Nowhere.”

The sudden crisp voice in the suffocating silence almost made Naruto trip over himself from how fast he had gotten to his feet and spun around to face whoever else was in here with him. The blond man might be disorientated as hell, literally missing everything –he had his clothes on, ya damn perverts! –on him and lacking back up but he could always count on his war-honed senses and quick reflexes to have his back.

“Super Gramps!”

Standing before him, in all of his glory and brilliance was Ōtsutsuki Hagoromo, the Sage of Six Paths. The man was staring straight at him, his kimono-covered arms crossed over his chest, an amused eyebrow quirked in question with his lips tilted to the side. Naruto flailed slightly at being under the scrutinizing gaze of basically someone that all shinobi considered a God before righting himself –he remembered the last time he saw the Sage and shriveled a little bit inside. Sakura had almost broken the floor with his head when he had told her about his interaction with the Sage. He coughed self-consciously into his fist before meeting the old man's gaze head-on without breaking a sweat. Naruto remembered why he was here, or at least what led him to be here but not why he was here, with Hagoromo-jiji, specifically. When Shik-they all designed the time-travel seal –something they thought was fantasy and would definitely not work –they had linked the path with the Hiraishin, namely his father’s Hiraishin, which would have allowed them plenty of time to stop things from turning to shit.

It’s the reason why Naruto was currently freaking out over why he was here in the first place. 

‘I’m sure the seal was flawless! And we did everything correctly!’ The blond man shrieked in his mind, barely keeping himself from physically clutching his head and screaming out in frustration, ‘Sasuke and Sakura-chan are missing! Even Kurama isn’t here! Fuck, what am I gonna do?!’

All the while, Naruto kept a pleasant smile on his face as he stared right back at the Sage of Six –motherfucking –Paths.

‘What I would do to have Kurama back with me right now…’ He pleaded, a sweat drop appearing on the side of his head.

“Ano…” Naruto rasped out sheepishly as he scratched the back of his head nervously, “…not that I’m not happy to see you again Jiji but why am I here?”

Hagoromo’s face stretched into a gentle smile as he took in the blond man in front of him, an appraising look in his eyes, “I wanted to thank you…for sealing my mother once again.”

At that, Naruto’s posture tensed as his face took on an uncharacteristically serious expression, “Of course, whether we lived or died, the Earth survived or not, Kaguya had to be sealed.”

“If she wasn’t immortal,” The blond continued with a scoff under his breath, his eyes darkening in anger, “we would have killed her.”

Hagoromo-jiji just watched him with saddened Rinnegan eyes, not commenting on his words even though he heard them. Not like Naruto minded since he did just say he would have killed the man’s mother if he had the opportunity to do so. The blond man was sure there was no love lost between the two of them but family was different in that sense. Naruto should know especially after the many times Sasuke tried to kill him –sometimes almost successful in that endeavor –yet he still took him back. As his lover no less!

When the silence after that bordered on awkward, Naruto’s eyes unwillingly flittered across the…area they were situated in as he tried to take in his surroundings as much as possible. The room(?) was white –in that it was just a blank canvas that they were inhabiting. It also didn’t escape his notice that Hagoromo-jiji had called it ‘Nowhere’.

Huh…maybe he actually died this time.

“So…” Naruto drawled out in contemplation before pouting petulantly, “…I’m guessing that the seal failed and this is the door to the Pure Lands or something. Of course, after so many years of surviving fucking Kaguya, the one thing that managed to make my death stick would be my own faulty ass seal.”

Hagoromo laughed heartily at his words, his previous melancholy wiped away in the face of Naruto’s ability to lighten any serious situation. He had felt terribly guilty and heartbroken at the state of the world, the damage that his mother had caused by her insatiable need for chakra, and the resulting state which left the world desolate and its inhabitants slain. Hagoromo had seen a better future when the humans had banded together towards a common cause –it had brought him hope, something he hadn’t felt since he had invented Ninshū and shared chakra with the rest of the world.

He should have known that his mother wouldn’t have let it go on for very long.

‘Yet…after everything you have suffered and endured…’ Hagoromo mused in thought as he gazed at the man before him, ‘…you still chose to go back to try and fix everything.’

“No, you are not dead, Uzumaki Naruto.” Hagoromo answered instead, his voice steady and calm, “I pulled you from the Nexus and brought you here.”

Naruto frowned before rudely inquiring, “And where is here exactly, Jiji?”

‘Kurama would have probably ripped me a new one if he heard how I was talking to his dear old dad…’ The blond man snorted at that.

Hagoromo-jiji barely acknowledged his lack of respect, “Nowhere. This is the in-between of life and death.”

“So, I am dead!” The blond Kage’s face was drawn into a picture of comical horror as his mind floundered over the fact that he was actually dead.

‘Oh, my fucking Sage! Oh fuck, can I actually use the old man's name as a curse word…wait, fuck, I died. I fucking died!’ Naruto lowkey freaked out all the while he smiled like the world was filled with sunshine and rainbows.

Fact: It was not.

Hagoromo’s swirling purples eyes widened at the complete lack of control on the blond man’s end –he was not fooled by the fake smile, the blond sucked at lying and should seriously give up trying –and raised his hands in a placating gesture, “No, no, you’re not dead. I just pulled you from a dangerous place that you shouldn’t have been in.”

Naruto blinked at the unsettled expression on the old man's face and calmed down, “What…?”

Hagoromo-jiji cleared his throat and then started speaking to Naruto as if he was talking to some demented five-year-old. Fuck, if Kurama ever found out about this shit, he would never let him live it down, “Your seal worked and you would have been on your way to your destination, however, there were some problems.”

The blond man’s eyes narrowed at the older man’s reasoning, “What problems?”

“While using the Hiraishin accounted for the time you specifically wanted to travel to, that seal only serves as a travel mechanism. Whatever happens to the traveler after that is left to chance…” Hagoromo explained with a neutral expression on his face.

“The hell are you talking about, Jiji?” Naruto frowned and crossed his arms in thought as he went over the intricacies of the time-travel seal in his head.

Shikam-They had designed the seal to account for the many possibilities and unknowns that came with the theory of time and time travel in general. It wasn’t a subject that many people looked into or something that was even attempted so there wasn’t much they could go on. Messing with time was a dangerous endeavor which was why they had left it as a last resort. And while they couldn’t exactly know the outcome of the seal –whether it worked or not, whether they would disintegrate in the process or end up in bodiless –they had been so sure that the seal would actually take off.

“Time travel is the act of breaking through the mold of time which you were able to do but traveling through space and time is dangerous. Something completely different from teleporting from one destination to another like with dimension travel…” Hagoromo stated softly admitted, “Naruto…you would have continued to fall in the Nexus for the rest of eternity…without any memories, had I not pulled you away.”

Naruto’s breath stuttered in his chest as the implications of Hagoromo-jiji’s words fully hit him. Without knowing and understanding, the blond man forced himself to control his breathing, to not let the panic settle in before he knew all the facts. Naruto swallowed thickly, his throat swollen and prickly which made it harder for him to suck in any air but he continued to do so. His hand clenched into a fist with every breath that he took in and released with every breath that he let out.

“A-And…-” He coughed when his words seized in his throat, “and Sasuke and Sakura…where are they?”

Hagoromo smiled gently at him, “They’re safe.”

The knot in his chest, one he didn’t even realize was there until now, unraveled at those words.

“Anything…else…I should know.” Naruto asked as a dry chuckle escaped his lips, “Any other people I pissed off, your mother notwithstanding?”

Hagoromo-jiji huffed out a breath before he turned around and began walking away from him, a subtle swish of his hand alerted Naruto to follow after him. The blond man scrambled a bit as his head whipped from side to side before he jogged forward to catch up. Naruto left a decent gap between himself and the Sage but stayed in step with him –he wasn’t going to walk behind the man when he was making pleasant conversation on less-than-pleasant topics.

“You said something about Nexus, what the hell’s that ‘bout, Jiji?” Naruto finally asked when the silence stretched on for too long.

Hagoromo spared him a side glance before speaking, “Time is something no one should dabble with. The Nexus is a space, of sorts, that deals with people who go too far…no, more like, get too close to traveling through time.”

“Are you saying that the seal would have worked had the Nexus not intervened?” Naruto did little to stop himself from gaping.

“The seal worked Naruto…”Hagoromo revealed grimly, which made the blond man stop short, “…Sasuke and Sakura were on their way there already.”

“What…?”

Hagoromo-jiji stopped just a few ways in front of Naruto but kept his back to the blond man, “They would have arrived in the past…without you.”

Sasuke was not having a good time.

Then again when did the Uchiha ever enjoy anything really?

“I’ll ask again…” Sasuke gritted out threateningly, his Rinnegan eye twitching slightly, “Where the fuck is Naruto and Sakura?”

“Tsk, tsk, tsk…so touchy all the time Sasuke…” Uchiha-motherfucking-Madara tutted sarcastically as he stared at the younger man before him with curiously amused eyes.

His gravelly voice echoed throughout whatever area they were stuck in, which only served to piss Sasuke off even more. There were a million other things that he had expected to wake up to after Naruto activated the time-travel seal but this was certainly not one of them.  The Uchiha had opened his eyes to a stark white room and nothing else…well nothing else, except Madara. His Sharingan was inaccessible and the Rinnegan sent a spike of pain through his brain whenever he tried to use it which had left him with only normal attacks.

Unfortunately…Sasuke only realized he was missing his remaining arm until he was face-to-face with Madara.

The older Uchiha had no qualms about bursting into laughter in his face when Sasuke moved to attack him –the act reminded him more of something that the Shodaime would do, certainly not Madara. But the man was smirking, openly showing emotions on his face, as he stared down at Sasuke.

Sasuke gritted his teeth at the non-answer that the man had served him once again, barely restraining himself from round-housing the man across the room. Having no arms didn’t make Sasuke any less dangerous and he would very much like to demonstrate that on his dear old supposed-to-be-dead ancestor.

“Where. Is. Naruto?” Sasuke groused out, his voice rising in his anger which only seemed to make the other Uchiha smirk wider.

‘Any wider and his face might split in two…’ He thought venomously, his bloodlust spiked at the vivid image in his head.

“Ah…your little fox is in a meeting with the granddaddy and you’re in the waiting room,” Madara stated with a straight face.

Sasuke choked on air, “G-grand…daddy…?”

Madara snorted down his urge to laugh at the constipated look on the other Uchiha’s face –at least it was better than him spitting out curses and hurling insults like it was free candy, “Hagoromo, Sasuke.’

The black-haired man reeled in his emotions and composed himself, all the while he berated himself for losing it in front of someone like Madara of all people. Of course, he was still coming to terms with the fact that the older Uchiha –realist, notorious killer, traitor, the one who helped turn the cogs of Kaguya’s rebirth –had just said the word…daddy and that he used said word to refer to the Sage of Six Paths. Sasuke would very much like to bleach his brain and forget any of this ever happened.

“Okay…” He swallowed heavily to keep himself from gagging, “…where’s Sakura then?”

“In another waiting room.” That was all he said before falling quiet.

“Where am I?”

“I don’t know.”

“Why am I here?”

“I don’t know.”

“Why are you here?”

“I don’t know.”

Something snapped in the distance –Sasuke was sure that it was his sanity.

“What do you even know then?” The younger Uchiha sneered, cracking first and losing the battle of wills between the two of them.

Generally, Sasuke could have taken way more. After all, he had been in Naruto’s presence for over a decade and he had found himself immune to idiots and annoyances alike but Madara was something else. He was an asshole –more than him that is –and a fucking irritation and it seemed like he got worse in death. Sasuke much preferred the psychopathic Uchiha Madara to…whatever this was, since at least he had some experience with that. This was just wearing on his already frayed patience.

“Why is Naruto with Hagoromo?” He settled with asking and prepared himself for another bullshit answer from the other man.

“Your little time-travel escapade had some consequences which you are now facing.”

Sasuke’s breath hitched in his chest at Madara’s statement. Out of all the things the man could have said, that wasn’t something he had expected –gloating, yes, some bullshit speech, definitely, the actual answer, no way. Slowly, the black-haired man raised his head and looked the other Uchiha directly in the eyes, a taboo against a Sharingan user. But Sasuke wasn’t afraid of Madara. He had long surpassed the man and could probably deck him into another dimension, even without his arms.

All thoughts of brutalizing his ancestor soared out the window when he noticed the look in Madara’s eyes. What he saw almost made him gape in shock –he didn’t, of course, Uchiha don’t gape like simpletons –since all he could see was sincerity. It was something he had never witnessed on the older man when he had been alive, or at least his Edo Tensei (Reanimation) version of alive.

Sasuke had expected there to be trouble when it came to the time-travel seal, even before the consequences had been laid out during planning. There had been so many unknowns, so many possibilities that could have led to their deaths or something even worse. The effects of trying to change history, the effects of them being in the past, the effects of breaching time…and so many more but he would have never thought that the Sage would have gotten involved. And the fact that Naruto had been the one to actively draw and use the seal…couldn’t have been a coincidence.

No…not at all.

“What’s going to happen to him?” Sasuke asked quietly, knowing there wasn’t much he could do at the moment –not when he was like this.

Madara almost seemed to soften, if that was even possible, at his question, “Nothing that Hagoromo won’t try to help stop.”

Sasuke regally raised an eyebrow in doubt.

The older Uchiha chuckled at his expression which only served to make Sasuke more incredulous about his words, “Hagoromo is quite fond of your little fox so don’t worry…he’ll make sure nothing happens to him.”

‘I’ll never not worry when it comes to Naruto…’

“Alright, if either of you doesn’t start talking then I’m gonna start cracking skulls.”

Sakura has always been an intelligent person.

Her fangirling era aside, she was observant and she knew that whatever she put her mind to, she was going to achieve it –Sasuke’s love doesn’t count because he had always been Naruto’s since day one. Sakura knew she had been capable, she knew she was meant for greater things, even if it took her longer than necessary to realize that. But it showed in her skills, the things she had trained and acquired over the years –her kenjutsu, her taijutsu, her Byakugō no Jutsu –so Sakura was a very intelligent woman. It was the thing that set her apart from her idiotic teammates, even Kakashi, and she reveled in it.

So Sakura instantly knew that there was something wrong as soon as she regained consciousness.

The air had been too still, almost as if there was no breeze which meant she was inside a confined space and not outside as she had anticipated. It was also too quiet. Any space gave off some sort of sound –a frequency –which is something a person could hear if they were still enough, even more so for a seasoned shinobi like her. Whatever this place was…it didn’t give off that frequency. It was as if this room was in a vacuum where no sound could possibly travel. Then Sakura heard the shuffling of feet in her vicinity, whoever was there was hesitant to approach and most likely wouldn’t unless she showed at least some sign of waking up. She forced her body to relax and stretch slightly, making the whole waking-up-from-unconsciousness process look legitimate which caused the footsteps to seize their movements. There were more than one consecutive taps of feet on the ground, and it was inconsistent which meant that there was more than one person –possibly only two.

“Do we wake her up?”

“No…let her come to on her own.”

Sakura figured, at that point, that the pair wouldn’t attempt to rouse her –not that she blamed them, it was always a ‘hit-first-ask-questions-later’ situation when it came to shinobi and they didn’t seem like they were going to chance it with her. Sakura was probably a foreign-nin to them. She let out a faint fake groan of satisfaction as she stretched her arms above her head before opening her eyes. The pink-haired kunoichi was faced with a white ceiling and nothing else. She slowly turned her head to face the only other people in the room and was met with two sets of eyes boring down at her, both of whom looked faintly familiar to her.

It didn’t feel like she had met them before in another time and place, but they did look similar to other people she knew. It was then Sakura realized that the two idiots she was supposed to be with weren’t anywhere near her and all thoughts on subtlety were banished from her mind

Which led to this point…

“Akane…she’s kinda scary.” The dark-haired man in front of her whispered –more like trying to. He wasn’t actually putting any effort towards being quiet so Sakura heard him loud and clear.

The red-headed woman, Akane, beside him hummed with a small smile on her lips, “Hmm…it’s the famous Uzumaki temper rearing its head, Yakeru.”

Sakura has always been an intelligent person.

Yet, at that moment, the one thing that she heavily relied on short-circuited in the face of something so unbelievable.

“What…?” She murmured in shock as she turned that one statement over in her head over and over again.

‘Oh…that’s why the woman looked so familiar…’ She thought faintly as she cataloged the unknown woman’s features –from her deep red hair to the purple eyes, her youthful appearance that almost seemed to be glowing, ‘She looks like Kushina-san and Karin.’

“The stumped look reminds me of the day I proposed to you, Yakeru.” The redhead, Akane, barely managed to stifle her snigger as her partner flushed bright red.

The dark-haired man, Yakeru, huffed out in a way that almost made Sakura’s eyes pop out of her skull, “Hn, I did not look like that.”

The pink-haired kunoichi stared unabashedly as the couple hurled slanderous words at each other as if they spent a lifetime doing the same and were just falling back into familiar habits. Eventually, Sakura got tired of the repeated jibs and debated knocking the fuck out of the both of them just so she could get some peace and quiet.

‘I guess all Uzumaki and Uchiha relationships are like this…’ She sighed as she thought of her own Uzumaki and Uchiha, who were probably causing chaos somewhere.

“Ahem-!” Sakura coughed loudly to get the fighting couple’s attention which worked immediately by the way they both blushed furiously and squeaked.

‘Yep…all Uzumaki and Uchiha relationships are the same.’

“Ahh…erm…” The dark-haired man stammered –kind of uncharacteristic for an Uchiha but she had seen weirder things, “…my name is Uchiha Yakeru.”

The red-headed woman smiled gently at her, belaying her previous fury, “Uzumaki Akane.”

“Yeah…I kinda got that from all the…” Sakura hummed as she waved her hand towards them with a bemused expression, “…drama.”

Akane giggled into the fingertips of her hand, the demure gesture reminded of something Naruto had done after fighting with Sasuke, “Apologies, habits like these are hard to break after so many decades together.”

Sakura raised an eyebrow in question, “Decades? Who, exactly, are you people, and why are you here?”

Yakeru took a step forward with each question before slipping his arms around his wife’s waist, the actions spoke of years of intimacy and love that it almost made the pink-haired kunoichi squeal and fangirl like in the good ol’ days, “We’re your ancestors.”

“What.”

“What.”

Naruto stared at Hagoromo-jiji with disbelieving eyes, a pit slowly forming in his gut as he turned those words over and over again in his head. While he hadn’t really thought about what had happened to his team –he only cared about whether they were safe or not –the blond man had not expected that. Sasuke and Sakura had been on their way to their desired destination…without him. Naruto didn’t know exactly why the universe liked to crap on them for shits and giggles but it was starting to get annoying.

The blond-haired man released the heavy breath that had collected in his chest, “…why?”

Hagoromo’s back was still turned away from him when he spoke and the blond found that he didn’t mind –if it was something that upset the Sage so much that he couldn’t even look at Naruto then it was fine by him, “Since you were the one to draw and activate the seal…that was supposed to be your punishment.”

Naruto cupped his mouth with his right hand, the other hand sliding over his chest before gripping at the fabric covering his heart. It reminded him of a gesture that Sasuke was used to doing to him and brought him some comfort even if he felt like collapsing, “Um…alright, b-but Sasuke and Sakura are safe so that means they can do what is nee-wait, did you say supposed to be?”

Hagoromo-jiji lost all pretenses at that and snorted, which he quickly disguised as a cough before speaking, “Yes, you are under my protection since I’m the one who pulled you from the Nexus, however, your presence was noted and there will be consequences, especially if you want to continue on the same path as before.”

The young Kage contemplated the old man’s explanation and knew that while he could let Sasuke and Sakura take the lead on this mission –something that would be infinitely easier without him there –he knew that those two crackheads would hunt him down, just to put him six-feet-under themselves. Naruto was aware that was he certifiably insane, at the very least, but that extended to his teammates as well. No one comes out of a –almost decade-worthy –war sane. They were a testament to that fact.

Instead, Naruto chose to focus on the warning tone in Hagoromo-jiji’s voice and the possible ramifications of continuing forward. The whiskered man clicked his tongue, “Paradoxes…right?”

The older man turned around to face him and nodded solemnly, his eyebrows furrowed in thought which broke his calm façade, “Time is infinite and older than anything we know. It’s a construct we created and something much bigger than we could possibly comprehend but one thing is absolutely clear, and that is paradoxes. Your bodies, especially yours, Naruto, would have been disintegrated the moment you were registered as unknown in the time you were going into.”

“Unknown?”

“As I said before, time isn’t linear. There’s no beginning and end so you could say that the universe would recognize that you are where you are not supposed to be and-”

“…erase me,” Naruto murmured, cutting off the old man's explanation before he could finish.

Naruto fell quiet once more as he processed the other man’s reasoning and found that he couldn’t refute anything he had said. They had all been aware of the danger that came with this part of their plan –paradoxes had topped the list of the possible wrenches in the turning cogs. Hinata had suggested they go to a time where they hadn’t been born, that it would maybe stave off the likelihood of any paradoxes but it had been at the cost of them probably never being conceived in the first place.

‘Jiji’s explanation means we didn’t even have a chance in the first place…’ Naruto swallowed as utter helplessness seeped into his bones, ‘Even if this whole bullshit Nexus thing didn’t happen then the effects of the paradox would have wiped them clean of the face of the universe.’

At that moment, all Naruto wanted to bury himself in Sasuke’s warmth, curl up and forget the world existed. He wanted Sakura's bright smile as she hounded him about some new Iryo ninjutsu she had created while she cuddled into the curved form of her girlfriend. He wanted Ino's indulgence as she watched Sakura while running her fingers through cheery-blossom hair. He wanted Shikamaru’s blasé attitude and lazy cloud-watching expression -an expression that always shifted into a mixture of love and adoration when he gazed at his wife. He wanted Temari's brazen words and vicious outlook, traits that always softened around Shikamaru. He wanted Gaara’s blank face that always twitched in amusement and fondness whenever Kankuro forced him into bonding with them. He wanted Hinata’s calm and quiet nature, her well-concealed mischievous smiles, and her strong presence that always seemed to ground them. He wanted Choji and Kiba and Shino.

Naruto just wanted all of his precious people back. All of them -alive and well. All of them smiling and not weighed down by grief and the loss that the war had inflicted on them.

Something hardened in his very soul, prompting Naruto to make his decision –a promise he made to himself, to everyone he lost, to the team he still had and would cling onto until the day he died, and to the people of the future, “So then how are we supposed to change that?”

Hagoromo stilled for a moment then smiled at the man’s resilience, “We’re going to change your appearance, physical and spiritual.”

Naruto stared at the old man as if he had a few screws loose –man, the blond could almost hear Kurama’s screaming curses at him for his utter disrespect towards his pops, “How…exactly are you going to do that?”

The Sage just raised an expectant and bemused eyebrow.

The Uzumaki’s eyes widened in realization before he smacked his forehead –hard, to the point where he would feel it for days and he’s sure that Kurama wouldn’t have healed him out of pure spite if he had caused some damage, “Creation…” He sighed, his azure eyes looking towards the Sage with awe.

Ōtsutsuki Hagoromo was the Rikudō Sennin for a reason.

“What are you going to do?” Naruto asked, excitement crawling into his voice.

The Sage waved his question away genially, “I already have that sorted out but I do have some people here, who would like to speak with you.”

“Who ar-”

Naruto’s words died in his throat as three very familiar people stepped into view –another not far behind but they kept a respectable distance. However, the blond didn’t pay much attention to that, not when everything was overshadowed by bright red hair with a boyish smile and sunshine yellow with gentle blue irises. Minato and Kushina stood before him, looking as young as the day they died with loving smiles on their faces and glistening tears bracketing their eyes. Naruto could hardly think before he launched himself at them, gathering the pair into his arms and squeezing tightly. His parents didn’t complain and instead clutched onto him twice as hard. He could feel the tears brimming in his eyes.

A choked sob escaped his throat but it stopped there, Naruto didn’t feel comfortable crying anymore and as much as he wanted to at that moment –he just couldn’t, “Kaa-chan…Tou-san…”

“Naruto…” His mother’s sweet melodious echoed throughout the room as he stroked his long unruly hair, “…my sweet boy.”

“Naruto…” His father’s suspiciously crackly voice sounded in his other ear. A hand ran down the length of his back in a soothing gesture.

The trio crumpled to the floor, overwhelmed with everything that happened –from losing and regaining his memories to his worry and stress over his situation and his teammates –Naruto was tuckered out and would give anything for some good quality sleep. Even so, the blond man forced himself to stay awake and not waste such precious time with his parents, something he was sure he wouldn’t get ever again. Edo Tensei wasn’t the same, not when Naruto could actually feel the warmth emanating from his parents' bodies, their hearts beating a tattoo against his own, and their breaths stuttering and ghosting over his whiskered cheeks.

No…this certainly wasn’t like Edo Tensei.

When the little family managed to calm down enough to separate from each other, did the other two people in the room, besides Hagoromo-jiji, finally deem it appropriate enough to approach them. The blond man straightened his posture and managed to compose himself before they reached him. A man with long brown hair came into view, someone who Naruto instantly recognized as a former Kage and companion during the war with Madara. When the Shodaime had been reanimated, he had bonded with him during the quieter moments of the war, slinging techniques and battle strategies over a hastily made campfire. A wave of relief cascaded over Naruto at the sight of the man –he would admit he had been slightly worried when the man was released from the reanimation technique.

Narito smiled as he took in the Shodaime with a cursory glance. Hashirama was an exuberant man, all sunshine and smiles, as their history books painted him to be. The friendly grin stretched widely across his face, his eyes lighting up in delight –Naruto swore he saw flowers blooming around him and he was sure that had nothing to do with the man’s Mokuton. Although, the blond knew that looks were deceiving and Senju Hashirama was a testament to that, what with him being the ‘God of Shinobi’.

The younger Kage chuckled sheepishly and scratched his whiskered cheek, he was feeling a little embarrassed with all the attention focused on him. It was something he craved as a neglected child, something he had gotten used to after he defeated Pain, something he started to regret when he became the Allied Forces’ Rokudaime Kage.

Naruto just felt awkward now.

“Shodaime-sama…” Naruto greeted him in a rare show of respect.

Hashirama just chuckled and waved his formalities away, a scrunch of his nose indicated that he loathed it, “Hashirama, Naruto-kun. It’s only fair after we fought together as equals on the battlefield.”

“Hashirama then,” Naruto agreed without a fuss, if he had the opportunity to turn down the forced politeness then he’d take it, “Why are you here?”

Just before the Shodaime could speak, another man stepped up beside him, someone who looked mildly familiar to Naruto but he couldn’t put a finger on it. He trailed his azure eyes across the older man’s form – short, spiky brown hair with two locks of his hair wrapped in bandages framing either side of his face, his face was stern but friendly and open, a white bandage wrapped around his forehead where a hitai-ate should have been, and a light-colored kimono with magatama adorned around the collar encased his body. Something was pounding at the back of his mind, begging for attention as he continued to gaze at the man in confusion. He was sure he knew his man from somewhere. Naruto bit his lip in frustration as he switched his gaze to the other people in the room and noticed the amused and anticipatory stares.

“What?” He called out, his eyes narrowing while his mother snorted loudly.

“Wait for it…” She sang out to an unknown tune.

Naruto’s eyes jumped from one person to another as he tried to figure out what was so funny before landing and staying on the form of a chuckling Sage, who was watching him with amusement. The blond-haired man narrowed his eyes, cataloging Hagoromo-jiji’s looks absentmindedly before his cerulean eyes popped open wide and his jaw dropped. Naruto’s head shifted from left to right, from the old man to the recent addition to the group, and promptly choked on his own spit.

Kushina burst into boisterous laughter as Naruto tried not to die. Neither of his parents seemed inclined to help him and chose to either stare at him with mirth in their eyes or outright cackle –like his wonderful mother. Minato shook his head and hummed out, “Well, at least it was shorter than your mother’s reaction time.”

At that, the red-headed woman stopped laughing and directed the infamous Uzumaki glare at her husband, her vibrant hair flaring from anger, “What was that?!”

A sweatdrop appeared on the side of Minato’s head as he subtly tried to shift away from his enraged wife. He knew that the throwaway comment would come back to bite him in the ass the second it left his mouth, “Nothing, honey.”

“It better be nothing, anata~” The sickly-sweet tone made the older blond cringe.

Naruto snorted outright. He didn’t know anyone who could make an endearment sound so terrifying –leave it to his mother to be that person.

The kind-of-Sage-lookalike stepped forward, while his mother continued to rage on his docile father, his arms crossed into the sleeves of his kimono, “Naruto, my name is Ōtsutsuki Ashura.”

Naruto’s reeled back and his hands raised in shock and horror when the son of Ōtsutsuki Hagoromo and the progenitor of his clan bowed deeply in front of him. The blond stood up and waved his hands around frantically as he tried to get the man to stand back up and stop bowing to him. It was weird and too formal and it was something he would never get used to, no matter how many times it happened. It rivaled the times his comrades insisted on calling him Naruto-sama…eww –they had stopped when he threatened bodily harm with the help of Kurama. Of course, the stupid fox got his rocks off his embarrassment first before helping.

‘I swear I can hear that fleabag cackling like a maniac…’ Naruto sulked before clicking his tongue.

“I would like to give you my sincere gratitude on behalf of the Ōtsutsuki Clan for sealing away Kaguya.” Ashura said solemnly, his face was hardened but his eyes exuded a certain sadness that only came from being bone-deep hurt, “Not only for stopping my grandmother but for doing something that none of us achieved.”

Naruto swallowed at the utter earnestness in Ashura’s voice, he had to physically force his mind and body not to shy away from the man’s words because –I didn’t do anything, I failed, I was too late, I didn’t save anyone, they all still died, the Earth is still gone, why are you thanking me –it would be rude to so.

“Thank you for bringing all shinobi together and for seizing the feud between the Senju and Uchiha clans.” Ashura continued before regaining his composure once more, “Although, while I’m not complaining, I didn’t expect Indra and my own’s incarnations to stop the blood feud in the way that you did.” The man chuckled with fondness in his dark eyes.

Crimson, akin to his mother’s lovely hair, spread across his whiskered cheeks and down the sides of his neck at Ashura’s words. It was a bit weird when put in that perspective –Sakura had gleefully pointed it out to them on one of their days off –what with them being the reincarnations of Indra and Ashura, who were brothers but Naruto and Sasuke weren’t like that. They didn’t hold any memories of their past lives, they weren’t Indra and Ashura or Madara and Hashirama –no…they were just Naruto and Sasuke. They held a bond greater than that of being incarnations of others, something deeper than even they could explain. So while it was weird, that was them and it wasn’t going to change.

His silence pushed Ashura to flounder a bit, a funny sight from the regal and powerful man, “I have no problem with it, of course! Your lives are your own and will always be. Indra might make a fuss but he’s always moody so don’t mind him.”

“R-right…” Naruto nodded awkwardly before speaking up once more, “So…why else are you here?”

Ashura’s eyes sharpened at his question, his expression devolving into something more serious which caused everyone around him to tense. The blond wasn’t dissuaded and continued on –he wasn’t the same Naruto as before, who barreled head-first into everything but his core was still the same, he was still the same ninja with the same nindo but he was just smarter about it now, “As flattered as I am to be granted such the honor of your gratefulness and your presence, it isn’t something so important that your immediate attention was needed.”

The brown-haired man’s eyes narrowed at his explanation, his posture rigid for a moment before he sighed in exasperation. The tension quickly leaked out of his body like a squished sponge, “Alright, I guess business it is. We’re going to send you to where you're supposed to be, but there will be changes to your physical appearance and…your soul.”

“I get that…but the soul?” Naruto’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion, “How’s that work?”

Ashura smirked at that, “Your soul and chakra is recognizable enough to cause a paradox so stopping at changing physical features would defeat the purpose. As for the process, since you’re a reincarnation of me, and in turn, Hashirama, Tou-sama is going to use bits of us to reshape your soul and create a new body for you.”

‘Create a whole new…body…’ Naruto mouthed out the words, disbelief evident on his face, before he rasped out dryly, “The technique…”

Banbutsu Sōzō no Jutsu (Creation of All Things Technique) was a yin-yang release ninjutsu that allowed the Sage of Six Paths to create anything from fantasy. The ability to create something from nothing was coveted by shinobi across the world for centuries, but it was impossible to recreate and thus faded from people’s minds. It was a myth, just like the Rinne Sharingan and Rinnegan and the Sage of Six Paths. 

“Yes.”

Naruto contemplated the answer, his eyes finding the familiar ones of his parents who were watching him with barely concealed love, concern and pride, “Okay…is it like…gonna hurt? ‘Cause like I know pain and all but spiritual stuff is beyond me. And is Kurama gonna still be with me, I’d really like it if he was still with me. Y’know, he’s my partner right, and one of my precious people, or fox in his case. Are Sasuke and Sakura gonna go through the same thing? Where are they anyway? Sakura would have absolutely lost her mind over this and Sasuke-”

“Naruto!” Minato called out before grabbing his shoulders in an effort to calm him down. His ramblings had been devolving into the very familiar panic attack, “Breath with me.”

The older blond made exaggerated breaths, forcing Naruto to follow while his mother rubbed a gentle hand down his back. The action was so normal that it almost fooled him into believing that they’d been doing this for years –he was sure they would have made awesome parents, had they survived. Brushing away any inconsequential thoughts, Naruto proceeded to focus on his breathing. Taking in air deeply and exhaled it out loudly –hoping he could be done with this absolute bullshit, he’s had one too many panic attacks recently and it was seriously starting to wear him down.

“I…I-I’m good,” Naruto coughed out, shifting uncomfortably, signaling his dad to let go of him.

The others waited for him to collect himself before speaking again, they were willing to gloss over his panic attack, knowing how hard war was on people –especially for people like Naruto, who was sensitive and felt each loss and failure as if they were his own.

“Unfortunately, you will go through a great deal of pain due to how your very soul will be fragmented and stitched back together. Your comrades will go through the same thing, and we will inform them of the same thing. Kurama…” Ashura’s breath hitched at the name of his chakra sibling, he had been close to all of the Tailed-Beasts and was greatly saddened that he and his brother’s feud affected them so terribly, “Kurama will accompany you. He won’t be so affected but father will make some changes to make sure the two bijū, past and present, don’t merge.”

The young Kage took the explanation seriously, turning every single thing said over in his head and making sure he knew and understood what was being said, “Okay, when is this going down?”

“Now.”

With that, Naruto fell into the abyss once more.

“How long am I supposed to wait here?”

“I don’t know.”

Sasuke’s right eye twitched, he was beginning to hate the sound of his own voice followed by those three shitty words. He had been standing in front of Madara for Sage-knows how long, waiting for something to happen –he was starting to see how Naruto felt during his genin days. The Uchiha had debated on whether or not he should just plop down on the ground and wait out whatever this was. His legs were straining from how long he had been standing, especially without moving, but Sasuke didn’t exactly want Madara towering over him so he forced himself to stay as he was.

It definitely didn’t have anything to do with the fact that he didn’t know how to sit down, since he didn’t have his fucking arms. He wasn’t willing to test his luck now by attempting to do something so simple and failing horribly –nothing like embarrassing himself in front of his psychopathic ancestor. That would have really put the wind in Uchiha Madara’s sails. Sasuke knew the man would spend every second of his time with him snubbing him as if it was his side job.

“You know…” The slightly throaty whisper drew his attention to the other man, who was shifting around awkwardly in the silence, “…you look very much like Izuna. I’d say a bit too much though.”

Sasuke’s eyes narrowed at the older Uchiha’s words, “Izuna…?”

“My brother,” Madara cleared his, suddenly, closed-up throat, “Uchiha Izuna.”

At that, the dark-haired man’s eyes widened in shock before devolving into horror, a slightly sickened expression adorned his pale face –Madara was sure the younger man was turning green. Sasuke took a moment to collect himself, swallowing the unexpected surge of bile then forced himself to take deep measured breaths so he didn’t pass out from the sheer shock he was feeling. He glanced at Madara from beneath the long bangs of his hair and almost burst out laughing from the absolute bullshit he was seeing. The man had the audacity to stand there with an angry expression as if he was the one who fucked up.

“Are trying to have a fucking what-? A fucking heart-to-heart with me?” Sasuke spat out the questions viciously.

Madara’s jaw clenched as he suppressed his urge to deck the younger man. His previous countenance was gone and replaced with something familiar that almost made Sasuke relax, “I was attempting friendly conversation, and y-”

“I don’t need friendly conversation-” Sasuke sneered, barely hiding his shudder of revulsion at the words, “-from you of all people.”

“What the hell do you want me to do then?!” Madara roared angrily, it didn’t seem like he was content to take things lying down, “I can’t answer your questions until the Sage of Six Paths decides to grace us with his goddamn presence!”

“I didn’t ask you for anything else!” He shouted back, equally as angry, “I was fine just waiting without you trying to start a fucking conversation with me! I don’t need you of all people to relate to me! I don’t need you of all people to talk to me about family, not when you slaughtered the Uchiha Clan! I don’t need you of all people, the person who was responsible for my brother’s fate, to fill the silence! I don’t need the person who ruined my fucking life- no, who fucking ruined the goddamn world to try and patch things up with conversation!”

Sasuke was breathing heavily at the end of his rant. His chest was moving heavily up and down from the utter exhaustion he was feeling and the rare emotional breakdown he just had. The Uchiha Clan didn’t deal well with emotional upheavals, anything extreme always pushed them over the edge –it’s what everyone could solidly confirm about the Uchiha. It’s not that they can’t feel emotions properly, or that they don’t know emotions but that they feel emotions all too much and all at once.

The Uchiha Clan was a blessing and a curse. That Sasuke knew without a doubt.

“I don’t need conversation from someone who almost took the most important people away from me.”

Madara quickly shut up during the first part of his rant, his face slowly blanking out as Sasuke continued to scream out his pain and suffering to the man who had caused all of it. The younger Uchiha didn’t feel any remorse, no…he felt gleeful for putting that expression on the other man’s face –it wasn’t like before when he had ruthlessly slaughtered their comrades on the battlefield with his face apathetic. No, Madara’s face held the expression of someone forcing their guilt and pain into the recesses of their mind while trying to rebuild their mask.

Sasuke knew that expression all too well. After all, he still sees that same expression in the mirror.

The both of them fell into a strained silence after that, neither wanted to talk first or rather neither wanted to talk at all, to address the massive amount of bullshit piling up in their minds. The atmosphere was so tense, Sasuke was sure he could cut it with a kunai –not that he wanted to. Anything was better than trying to talk things out with Uchiha-fucking-Madara. Just when Sasuke was about to curse the Sage for being so tardy and leaving him alone with other Uchiha for so long, the man in front of him cleared his throat loudly. Sasuke’s eyebrow twitched slightly in annoyance, but he didn’t give any other signal that he paying attention and pretended to disregard the other man.

“I admit…my ambitions and goals blinded me. My anger blinded me to the manipulations of Zetsu which inadvertently led to Kaguya’s rebirth.” Madara groused out which made Sasuke snort loudly.

“Now, at least, I know that the infamous Uchiha pride perseveres ‘til the end.”

The older Uchiha huffed out an annoyed breath while running a hand down his face, “I’m not going to apologize. My goals…my ambitions would not have changed, even if Zetsu had not interfered. I hold no remorse for my actions, just that I failed in completing the Infinite Tsukuyomi.”

“No remorse…” Sasuke scoffed in derision, his eyes widening in anger, “How dare you-!”

“Would you rather I apologize, disregarding all the lives lost? All the people who strove for peace, who died for a better world, would you rather I half-heartedly apologize for something I don’t believe in?” Madara intoned softly, his face blank and voice flat, “That would be akin to spitting on their sacrifice. I acknowledge those who fought for their ideals to the very end, challenging my own ideals. I will not discrete their graves by regretting my decisions, my ambitions, and the path I chose to take because that would mean that they died for nothing more than being my entertainment.”

Sasuke swallowed heavily, his throat felt like someone was strangling him, “Don’t act so high and mighty Madara. Discrete their graves- you put them in those graves. I can’t fucking make you apologize, better yet don’t apologize! Not to me, I don’t want it. But don’t fucking use the people you’ve killed in cold blood as an excuse for your cowardice and inability to admit defeat. The fact that you were used in another person’s grand plan must have been so grating to you, right? Being a puppet without knowing, being betrayed right when you had everything you ever wanted. It must have eaten away at you. I hope it ate away at you and I hope you carry that feeling into the afterlife, preferably in hell.”

“My descendants are always so testy.”

The unexpected and unknown voice echoed throughout the room, dragging both Sasuke and Madara’s attention to the new addition to the room. The soundless footfalls made the younger Uchiha narrow his eyes in suspicion, before glancing over the form of the man. He had long brown hair with two locks wrapped in bandages that framed either side of his face. His eyebrows were cut short –Sasuke’s own eyebrows rose in surprise since he knew that it was a symbol of nobility. The man’s face was set in a bland look as if he knew he had better things to do than being here but his eyes were sharp. They were the eyes of a seasoned shinobi –no, warrior –which were lined by blue markings. He wore a high-collared, light-colored kimono held closed by a dark sash while the collar of the kimono was adorned with magatama.

Sasuke unconsciously straightened his posture –he didn’t bow to the man, he would never bow to anyone, not again –and lowered his head slightly in greeting before asking, “Who are you?”

The brown-haired man raised an incredulous eyebrow at his brazenness, his dark eyes doing a quick once over his body. The man’s gaze settled on his arms, or lack thereof, for a second longer than necessary before shooting up to his uncovered Rinnegan, “My name is Ōtsutsuki Indra.”

The younger Uchiha’s eyes widened in disbelief then fell as he scoffed in turn, “The progenitor of the Uchiha Clan.”

“Hmm…though there is hardly an Uchiha Clan left is there.”

Sasuke gritted his teeth in anger; it was simmering beneath the surface –something old and familiar, like those days in Konoha as he contemplated and craved his brother’s murder at his own hands. He hasn’t felt like that in a long time, revenge was a thing of the past. It had been something that he couldn’t hold onto, not only because all of the people who had been responsible had already been dead but because the war with Kaguya couldn’t handle personal grudges. The feelings were bitter and frayed, like a bad taste in his mouth –Sasuke had moved on from it, but seeing these people here brought it bad to full force. He was sure that if Naruto and Sakura saw him now, that would have smacked the shit out of him.

“Why are you here?” Sasuke asked quietly, his tone and face neutral as he faced the man he was an incarnation of.

Indra's steely eyes didn’t waver, in fact, he almost seemed interested, “Tou-sama will be here in a moment to explain everything.”

“The Sage…” The younger Uchiha mouth silently. Sasuke bit his lip as a multitude of thoughts ran through his mind, he knew from Madara that the Sage of Six Paths was currently in a meeting with Naruto. He knew that Sakura was safe and that he was next in line for a meet-and-greet. The problem was what they were talking about. Consequences of time travel be damned, if something happens to either one of them, Sasuke would find a way to burn all of them to ashes.

“My…such a scary face you’re making,” Indra commented with a smirk adorned on his lips, it only served to piss him off.

“Are all of my ancestors such asshol-”

“Indra, stop antagonizing our guests, please,” The wizened voice caused Sasuke’s head to snap towards the one it originated from, an unbidden breath of relief escaping his lungs at the sight of the Sage of Six Paths.

The Sage stopped a few feet away from the younger Uchiha, he eyed him with an assessing gaze before speaking, “Uchiha Sasuke…”

“Hagoromo…” Sasuke muttered wearily, his hackles still raised but he knew he was safer with the Sage than with the other two.

Hagoromo sighed as the tense silence filled the room, “Always fighting…” He sounded so disappointed that it made him visibly wince –Indra and Madara doing the same, “I will be sending you back now. I needed to speak to Naruto for a moment.”

“Where is Naruto?” He blurted out, cutting off the Sage.

The man raised an amused eyebrow before speaking, “Safe and on his way to the past. You will meet him there. However, I need to discuss some things with you.”

Sasuke narrowed his eyes, and his spine straightened itself out, “Go on.”

Hagoromo spoke about the consequences of the time-travel seal, of Naruto and the Nexus, of almost not being sent together, of tearing their souls and stitching them back together with his other incarnations, and of creating new bodies for the three of them. The mere thought of the man’s idea made him gag in his mouth a little. He didn’t want anything of Madara near him –especially his wretched soul. Sasuke already had his own broken and twisted soul to deal with; he didn’t need to add Madara and Indra on top of that.

As much as he hated the idea, he knew that he had no choice but to go along with it otherwise he might not be able to stay in the past for long. He couldn’t do that to Naruto and Sakura.

“Alright…” Sasuke sighed in exasperation. He was so done with his life at this point, “When are you doing this?”

“Where have your manners gone, Otōto?”

“Sage, what the fuck is up with all of you and popping up out of nowhere?!”

Sasuke spun around abruptly to face the new rendition to their very colorful group which he immediately regretted as his body flailed about without support. The younger Uchiha had mastered the art of balancing one’s self since he had lost his arm almost a decade ago and while he was fairly sure he could have turned around without face-planting, what Sasuke forgot to acknowledge was that he was now missing his remaining arm. The arm that helped center his body, to prevent overbalancing, was gone so now Sasuke was on a one-way express trip to kissing the floor –at this point, he would rather commit seppuku than embarrass himself in front of these people.

Before any of this could happen, arms circled around him as a voice whispered in his ear, “I didn’t think the next time I would see you would be like this, certainly not with you being armless, my dear Otōto.”

“Itachi…” Sasuke breathed out as he wriggled his body out of his older brother’s arms so he could face him properly.

His older brother, Itachi, was the same age as the day he died but his eyes were kinder this time, filled with amusement rather than the ever-present guilt and pain that had weighed heavily on him. Sasuke swallowed thickly as he took in every single detail of his brother’s face with eager eyes –he would never forget the last time he had seen him. The scene starred in most of his nightmares, especially the words that left his mouth that day. Two fingers poked into the middle of his forehead, the touch making him flinch while bringing him back to awareness.

“Why are you here, Nii-san?” Sasuke asked dryly, it wasn’t like he wasn’t happy to see his brother but he didn’t think the Sage would resort to emotional manipulation –he had made his peace with Itachi years ago even if he still haunted his dreams. One could never forget killing their kin.

Itachi’s lips downturned as he took a step away from his, a careful mask placed over his features, and as much as Sasuke’s mourned the action, he didn’t call his brother out on it, “When your new body is created, recessive genes will show.”

Sasuke clicked his tongue, “I’m not going to end up looking like you, right.”

“I hope not.” Itachi snubbed childishly which made him raise a bemused eyebrow, his older brother flushed slightly when he realized his actions. “Just…other features from the clan may show up. You may end up looking like Tou-san.”

Sasuke made a disgusted face at the mere thought of looking like his father of all people. He’d rather take his older brother’s face than look anything like his father, “…is that all?”

Itachi’s face screwed up for a moment, as if he wanted to say something but was physically restraining himself from doing so but then he gave up with a sigh and a slow shake of his head. The younger Uchiha brother barely resisted rolling his eyes –he thought that death would have made his brother more susceptible to human emotions. Sasuke turned back around, slowly this time so as to not land on the floor face-first, to face the Sage who had a very tired and exasperated expression on his face.

“Indra, I’m so disappointed in you.” Hagoromo sighed which caused his elder son to bodily twitch.

Indra spared a side glance to his father, before drawling out venomously, “And what does any of this have to do with me, Tou-sama?”

“That stick up your ass was too strong of a gene and now your descendants seemed to have inherited it as a result.”

There was a beat of silence just for everyone to process that statement.

Sasuke snorted first, not bothering to hide it as he gleefully watched his ancestor turn an unflattering side of cherry red –it really didn’t go with his makeup. Itachi hid it better, but he could see the amusement swimming in his dark eyes, who knew that his stiff older brother had a sense of humor. Madara looked constipated as if he didn’t know whether to laugh or disapprove –not that Sasuke cared, either way, the man was a mood-killer and that was coming from him.

“Tou-sama!”

Hagoromo chuckled at his elder son’s embarrassment, “Come now Indra, it would not do to be so stiff all the time. Your brother-”

“My brother is an utter fool!” Indra roared, his face was burning and Sasuke was sure he could fry an egg on it. The Ōtsutsuki turned to look at the younger Uchiha with Sharingan red eyes, “And you! How dare you consort with my brother’s descendant in such a disgraceful manner?!”

Indra shuddered at the thought of one of his descendants, his incarnation no less, being intimate with the incarnation of his brother. It was unseemly, and as soon as heard of it, the elder son had debated striking down his own for his folly. Sasuke just grinned widely, it was callous and frankly terrifying –Naruto had told him to never smile that widely ever again since the first time had given him nightmares that lasted for a few years.

“Maybe you should be more worried about how all of your incarnations seem to revolve around each other…” Sasuke instead answered, eyeing Madara who suddenly looked very interested in the stark white ceiling, “…specifically from your side. Now, what does that say about you and your brother?”

Indra spluttered –he was floundering on what to say in response.

Hagoromo cackled –it was kind of unsettling hearing the Sage laugh like that.

Madara was examining his nails –it was very interesting and had nothing to do with the conversation, no…not at all.

And Itachi –Itachi had given up all pretenses and was joyfully laughing.

It was such a pure sound. Something filled only with amusement and happiness. There were no lingering shadows in his eyes, they were bright for once and Sasuke felt proud of himself for doing something so simple. He had made his older brother laugh. Sasuke had made Itachi smile and it was one of the best and most precious things he had ever seen.

“Hagoromo-sama…” Sasuke called out, being polite for the first time since coming to this place, “…I’m ready to go.”

The Sage of Six Paths smiled, a knowing look in his eyes before placing a hand on his shoulder –Sasuke managed to smile, a real smile, at his brother, enjoying the shocked and endearing look on his older brother’s face.

“See you in a better world, Nii-san.” He whispered just as his body began falling.

.

.

.

“And I, you, Otōto.”

Sakura’s mind was filled with static as she tried to process the bold statement made by someone she didn’t even know existed. The kunoichi couldn’t even begin to digest what was going on, it felt like she was trying to navigate through tar and failing miserably. That was the last thing she expected –no, that wasn’t even a thing she expected to face when she woke up from their little time travel adventure. Sakura could see the eager and amused expressions on the couple’s faces like they had been waiting for this moment. She could also see the similarities between them and her. It wasn’t noticeable at the first glance –genetics and out-breeding cause traits to die out but a strong enough bloodline could survive for long and the Uzumaki and Uchiha Clans were old and distinct clans. Akane was shorter than her but her slightly stockier body was evident, something Sakura obviously inherited down the line from her. While Yakeru was taller and leaner, built more for speed than strength which all Uchihas’ seemed to get upon birth.

‘Feature-wise, I look more like Yakeru while I’m built more like an Uzumaki…huh…’ Sakura cataloged the differences and likeness that the couple held with her.

Akane smiled at her green-eyed stare, not commenting on the slightly uncomfortable feeling of being picked apart like an experiment, “Your hair color held strong, diluted to a cherry-blossom pink.”

“I guess…” Sakura considered the woman’s words as she gingerly lifted a jagged piece of her hair to eye level, “I never really questioned my hair color since my mother was the same.”

“She’s descended from our line then,” Yakeru stated with excitement brimming in his dark eyes, before he bashfully continued, “Akane and I only had one kid when we were much older. We were shinobi first, and children were terrifying for us.”

“Probably my great-grandmother then…” Sakura muttered, remembering stories passed down from her own mother, “We didn’t really have any pictures of her and my grandmother passed away when I was really young, but I knew she also had pink hair, slightly darker than mine though.”

“Ahh, Aki…” Akane sighed, a wistful look in her eyes as she thought of her long-deceased daughter, “We died when Aki was a teenager so we don’t know who she married.”

Yakeru stepped towards Sakura, a hand hanging in the air as he debated whether to follow through with touching the war-weary kunoichi. When she didn’t make a move, he placed his hand on her shoulder gently while his eyes started watering. A choked sob escaped his throat before he yanked Sakura into a tight hug, stunning her completely as she went stiffly into the embrace and stayed like that. Akane just watched, her right hand cupping her mouth but not moving from where she stood.

“You look…” Yakeru whispered into her hair, “…just like my Aki.”

Sakura sucked in a deep breath at the confession while Yakeru subconsciously stroked her unruly hair, whispering unintelligible things into the side of her head. The pink-haired woman hadn’t felt such a soothing, parental touch in so long –she had lost her parents during Pain’s invasion but she knew that she had lost them long before. Her parents had been passive-aggressive in their stance of her being a shinobi, something they never grew out of even when she succeeded in the impossible of surpassing Tsunade. They had wanted her to settle down at a young age, have kids, and be a housewife to a rich man –she had allowed that thinking for years as a child, followed them where Sasuke was concerned until the Uchiha left. Sakura had decided after that, that she didn’t ever want to feel so utterly useless ever again and changed for the better.

Her parents didn’t agree.

'It’s so nice…’ Sakura sighed internally, as she allowed herself to relax a bit into the hug, ‘…to be hugged like a child again.’

The kunoichi stayed like that, savoring the feeling and tucking it into the deepest recesses of her mind for safekeeping. She knew that she wouldn’t get a moment like this again –there was something different about it compared to the hugs from her boys and Ino so she didn’t want to waste the opportunity. Sakura released a sigh of contentment when the Uchiha slowly pulled away from the hug, letting go of her body although the touch lingered as if he was physically forcing himself away from her.

“I apologize for suddenly doing that,” Yakeru stated formally, his cheeks alit with crimson splotches.

Sakura took a second to gather herself once more before waving it away, “It’s alright, just unexpected that’s all. I have-haven’t…” She trailed off, not knowing whether to continue with what she wanted to say or not. The pink-haired woman took a moment to assess the couple and was met with calm and encouraging faces, “I haven’t been hugged like that…in a while. Hugged like a child by their parent.”

The kunoichi heard a hiccup as Yakeru tried to stop himself from crying, she cleared her throat awkwardly, “You know, you cry a lot for an Uchiha.” She joked in an attempt to curb the tension.

Akane chuckled, taking the chance and rolling with it, “Yakeru is a special case.”

“Uchihas like him are born once every generation.” Sakura teased with a smirk, “All the ones I know had sticks lodged firmly up their asses.”

The redhead cackled at her words, “Hah! Those stuck-up’s still like that, eh?”

Sakura snorted outright, while Yakeru sniggered –he had managed to stop crying, “Not sure about the rest of them but the one on my team sure is.”

“Oooohh~” Akane sang as if this was gossip girl hour, “Tell me more about this stuck-up Uchiha on your team. I remember in my day how the girls used to flock around the particularly asshole-like ones. Apparently, the cold attitudes were a turn-on.”

Sakura fought the urge to curl into herself, her embarrassing academy and genin days assaulting her mind, “Well, that didn’t change over the decades.” She muttered under her breath with a pout.

“So you and the Uchiha…?” Yakeru ventured out and asked with a questioning lilt in his words.

The pink-haired woman’s eyes widened at the question, she waved her hands out frantically in denial, “NO! No, no, nope, definitely not. Not with him.”

“You know, I don’t know whether to take that denial as a confirmation or not.” Yakeru considered with a smirk on his lips, “Akane reacted the same way when her mother asked her the same thing.”

The redhead’s left eye twitched as her husband recounted the memory in stunning detail –he probably watched from the sidelines with his Sharingan activated. Sakura interrupted before the Uzumaki woman could clobber him into the ground, “I mean I had a crush on him when I was a kid but everyone did. It fizzled out when we got older.”

“Huh…that’s new.”

Sakura’s eyebrow twitched this time as she resisted the urge to slam the arrogant Uchiha’s face into the ground, “That man wouldn’t know feelings and comfort if it hit him in the face.” She grumbled, still kind of pissed at Sasuke for running away because he couldn’t process emotions.

Things would have been so much better if her boys knew how to communicate properly –without losing each other’s arms in the process.

“Plus…he held a flame for my other teammate for years,” She revealed casually to the couple, “…even if he didn’t know it himself.”

Yakeru snorted at that, “All Uchiha’s need a little push when it comes to that. Thankfully, I came out right side up so I didn’t have that problem. As soon as I knew that I loved Akane, I made her mine.”

“Made her mine…?” Akane raised a disbelieving eyebrow at her husband’s statement, “Are we remembering two different scenarios right now? I proposed because you were too chicken!”

Yakeru spluttered in a way that would have been unbefitting for the Uchiha Clan which made Sakura cackle loudly. They surely needed more Uchiha like him around –they were all too rigid for her tastes and she knew that Naruto would have agreed with her.

“That aside…” The dark-haired man cleared his throat, probably trying to regain his dignity, “…when an Uchiha does realize they loved something or someone, platonic or not, they do everything in their power to protect it.”

At that, Sakura's smile turned nostalgic as she remembered the bond between Sasuke and Naruto because as much as the two of them fought –nearly killing each other every time–they loved each other just as fiercely. She knew with certainty that Sasuke would single-handedly burn down the world if it meant protecting Naruto. Sakura, herself, remembered those times when it came to Ino and how she felt when she found her lover’s body covered and buried underneath tons of rubble.

“Yeah, Sasuke and Naruto are like that…” She chose to say instead, unwilling to stew in memories that made her want to rip her eyeballs out –go figure that would have been the last thing an Uchiha would do.

Sensing the kunoichi’s mounting depression, Akane spoke up, “Sasuke and Naruto?”

“Ahh, my teammates…” She stated with a fond smile on her face, “Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto.”

Yakeru let out a delighted laugh, the sound was contagious and echoed throughout the room, “Fuck yeah! Another Uzumaki-Uchiha relationship for the win!” He cheered loudly, with a wide grin on his face while Akane giggled beside him, her smile matching his.

The couple spoke in hushed voices about their own relationship and experiences during their time, especially where their clans were involved. The Uchiha Clan was stricter in those times –meaning they were utter asswipes –and didn’t approve of a marriage between one of their own and an Uzumaki, due to them being a descendant of the Senju Clan. Tensions had still been high around the time Konoha was built since peace was tentative at best, so any marriages between clans were frowned upon, especially concerning the Uchiha and Senju Clans.

Frowning in thought for a moment as Sakura considered the couple in front of her, “I didn’t know our family came from shinobis.”

That caught Akane and Yakeru’s attention.

“I mean, my mum didn’t mention anything about it. My grandparents were civilians as well, so I assumed I was the first shinobi in the family.” The pink-haired woman continued as she thought back to her own parents and their disapproval of anything regarding her chosen occupation.

“Oh…” Akane sighed sadly as if remembering something, “Aki…she didn’t like that we were shinobis since she was a little girl. We went back to duty when she was old enough. It was in our blood and we just kept moving and while she was supportive enough, she made her displeasure known.  Aki stayed a civilian and didn’t bother with the academy, and by the time she was a teenager, she became a seamstress. She probably swore off anything regarding the shinobis when we were killed.”

Sakura’s eyes dimmed and lowered as she turned those words over and over again in her head. She couldn’t fault her great-grandmother for doing something like that, grief did that to people but it still sucked. The kunoichi would have loved to know about this side of her family, about how they were related to two very old and almost-extinct clans, and how they weren’t only civilians made to get married, rear children, and take care of the house.

“Hey, since I’m part Uchiha someone in my genes, does that mean I’m going to somehow get the Sharingan.” Sakura teased with a smirk in amusement –the way she was going to rub this little fact in Sasuke’s face the next time she saw him.

“I don’t think we have to worry about that too much.”

The older and gruffer voice sent Sakura’s instincts into overdrive as she spun around to face a threat that she hadn’t even heard approaching. Either she was losing her touch –that made her wince, she wasn't going fucking senile, damnit! –or the other person was especially skilled. Sage, this was the worse time for her to be as vulnerable as she was. The kunoichi had no weapons on her person and she was struggling with regulating her chakra properly.

She was fucked if this turned into a battle.

Except when Sakura found herself face-to-face with her would-be ‘enemy’, she saw a very familiar old man.

The pink-haired woman switched gears and dropped into a low, respectful bow, “Hagoromo-sama…”

“Oh-ho, seems like this one had manners.” The Sage chuckled at the woman’s actions, “It’s fine, raise your head. I’m not much for formality anyway, though the effort is appreciated.”

Sakura sighed as she straightened her posture out, “I’m taking a guess here and saying that you already met with my teammates.”

“Yes, always a delight to see those two boys,” Hagoromo stated dryly, “No manners from the blond one, and the black-haired one is as uptight as ever.”

The pink-haired woman snorted loudly, not bothering to apologize for it, “Sasuke is quite attached to that stick up his ass, although it does leave from time to time when it comes to Naruto.” The innuendo didn’t pass or phase the Sage, who cackled loudly.

The Sage’s Rinnegan eyes lit up with amusement, “Hmm, sadly, that’s my elder son’s influence. Ashura is more laid back and all of his incarnations followed the same pattern. Indra passed that stick to his descendants, and it, unfortunately, seems to be still going strong.”

Sakura watched as a whole slew of emotions flashed across the man’s eyes, and concluded he must have been reminiscing about his sons and their feud, “So…what happening?” She questioned, hoping to break the man out of his reverie. She’d rather not have to go and touch the old man to get him to snap out of it.

Thankfully, she didn’t have to do anything much as Hagoromo spoke up once again, “I have already spoken to Naruto and Sasuke regarding the time-travel bit and I’m sure they’ll relay everything to you once you arrive. However, I needed to inform you of the changes you will face when you leave this place.”

After that, the Sage spoke about how she would have her body ripped apart and put back together, infusing bits of her ancestors’ souls into her body while also bringing out the recessive traits in her genes. She wondered briefly why it had to be her Uzumaki-Uchiha ancestors and not all the others, but came to the conclusion that it was the stronger blood that was needed. She was sure that Naruto and Sasuke had gotten by with them being incarnations so she had to fill those gaps with her ancestors instead.

‘I wonder if I can ask him…’ She considered before pushing forward and inquiring with the Sage.

Akane and Yakeru were beaming with pride as they stared at their descendant speaking so confidently with the Sage, of all people! They had been pulled from the Pure Lands unexpectedly, feed information on who the pink-haired kunoichi was, and dropped in this room. Sakura was…just beautiful. And strong and an all-around amazing person and they were so lucky to have met her. Akane had been saddened at how thoroughly her daughter had erased them from her memories, going as far as to not mention them to her own children it seemed. It was disheartening, what their actions inadvertently caused and they couldn’t even bring themselves to be angry about it. Aki had been very adamant about not wanting to become a shinobi and about how they should retire, but Akane and Yakeru never quit –they were reckless, even at their age, and adrenalin junkies to boot.

Nothing was going to stop them but it wouldn’t hurt to be more careful –their daughter had deserved that much.

“Alright.” Sakura breathed out as she prepared herself for however long and painful the trip was going to be, “I’m ready.”

Akane smiled sadly at the pink-haired girl –she did look like her Aki with lighter hair and different color eyes but the strong and stubborn demeanor was there. The strength hidden behind her deceptive build and the bite in her words was so much like her dearly departed daughter. The redhead moved towards the kunoichi and abruptly drew her into a hug, she breathed in the woman’s scent and let that comfort her for a bit before letting go, “Good luck on your journey, Sakura.”

Sakura let out the most radiant and bloodthirsty grin Akane had seen –she was a woman after her own heart, “Thanks for the extra motivation, Akane-san.”

The kunoichi hesitated slightly before speaking, “It was nice…to see you. I’m happy that I got to know you two, even if it was brief.”

Yakeru stepped up behind Akane and slipped his hands around her waist, “We’re happy to have gotten to know you as well.”

Sakura managed to blink away the sudden rush of tears that welled up at the corners of her eyes and then she was falling.

‘-ruto!’

‘-ke up!’

‘-AKE UP!’

‘WAKE UP, NARUTO!’

A groan escaped his lips as consciousness seeped back into his mind and body, he could barely move but he, somehow, managed to pry his eyes open. His surroundings were blurred out and the blackened edges of his vision weren’t helping. Honestly, he felt blind as shit. He shut his eyes again –it was useless, he couldn’t even see anything –and started shifting around in small increments to feel where his body was at. His entire being ached something terrible like he had been put through the wringer repeatedly without any mercy. There was also this discomfiting feeling of his body not being his own. Slowly, as to not aggravate the pain, Naruto rolled his body onto his back –ignoring the jolt of pain that spiked up his spine –so that he was facing the sky instead of eating the dirt.

‘Urghh…when Jiji said it was going to hurt, I didn’t know he meant like this.’ The Uzumaki thought deliriously.

Naruto swallowed heavily as he tried to lubricate his parched throat with his own spit. It only made him want to gag since his mouth felt like it was full of cotton –he couldn’t, of course, he was already dehydrated as it was. Naruto coughed; the grating sound and irritableness in his throat made him grimace. He tried his luck by opening his eyes again. Maybe he’d actually see something this time since he wasn’t face-first in the dirt now.

‘Worst way to land after time travel…’

The first thing Naruto saw was a bright blue sky.

There were a few clouds floating around, but the sky was clear. The sky was clear! The brightness almost made him was to shut his eyes again but the giddiness of seeing the sky again was overwhelming –Naruto knew that if he had any water left in his body, he would have been sobbing fountains. The sun was out and there wasn’t the tell-tale sign of that devastatingly bright full moon anywhere. There was no smog clogging the air, he could finally breathe properly without hacking out a lung. Naruto felt content for the first time in seven years and he just wanted to lie on the grassy ground, soaking in the sunlight and doing absolutely nothing.

‘Man…now I know what Shika was always talking about.’ Naruto sighed in thought.

‘As happy as I am that you’re enjoying yourself by playing the mud like some pig,’ Kurama rumbled out, the old fleabag was as cranky as ever, ‘but we have an unknown shinobi coming this way, Fishcake.’

Naruto groaned out loud, as he contemplated throwing a fit just for the heck of it. He just wanted some peace, damnit!

“Naruto, shut up.”

The cold command, lacking any real malice, was high-pitched for some reason but he knew that it could only be his moody lover. If the other man was in any shape similar to him then his moodiness was going to be worse than ever –that’s not even counting Sakura and she was terrifying on a normal day. Letting out a sigh of resignation, Naruto shakily used his elbows to push his upper body up and off the ground before taking in his surroundings properly. The area where they had landed was enclosed by towering trees, ones that reached the sky –he remembered how those trees were leveled and burned down, leaving the land naked  –which seemed cut off from the rest of the world. Naruto couldn’t identify where exactly they were but Kurama said there was unknown shinobi approaching which meant they landed on marked territory. Naruto had linked the seal to a Hiraishin that was on neutral territory or as far away from civilization as possible, so as to not draw attention to them –or, you know…just in case something went horribly wrong.

Heh…like that didn’t happen already.

‘How far out are they?’ Naruto asked his foxy friend.

‘You have some time to acclimate but make it quick.’

Naruto's head swiveled slowly as he scanned the area for a bit, lost on what to do before turning back to his teammates, who were sprawled on the ground. Oddly enough, they looked smaller than usual. Sakura –thank the sage! –was still out, although all the shifting she was doing meant that likely wasn’t going to be the case for long. On the other hand, Sasuke was clearly awake yet seemed to be trying to force himself back into a state of unconsciousness. All of a sudden, a stab of pain shot through his back, from the bottom of his spine, which forced him to sit up.

“Fuck!” Naruto shouted disorientated as his body kind of seized, he felt woozy and off the kittler.

‘Incoming, Fishcake.’

“Well, what do we have here?”

The new voice shattered the peacefulness of the area, which left Naruto begging internally, in quite a pathetic manner, for the previous high from before. He noticed Sasuke jerk slightly, not from surprise though, he was likely annoyed that his downtime was being interrupted. The Uchiha probably noticed the shinobi from miles away which was what definitely made him all twitchy in the first place. The sounds of heavy footfalls approached Naruto from behind but he didn’t give any indication that he was paying attention. It was like a herd of elephants was stomping toward him. It made him wonder how the man became a shinobi in the first place when he couldn’t even silence his own footsteps.

Or maybe the past just had shitty ninja.

“Shit…is that an Uchiha?” The man called out as he moved closer to them –the way he addressed Sasuke made his hackles raise as if his lover was some commodity to be sold, “And a fucking Uzumaki?!”

Naruto tensed at that.

“I’m gonna make so much bank today just off the two of you!” The vermin cheered, as he announced his plan to sell his family, “And that’s not even counting whatever the fuck you are. You are going to make me tons of money just based on how freaky you look.”

That made Naruto pause…because who exactly was the man even talking about?

Sasuke and Sakura looked normal from where he was sitting, a bit smaller –okay, a lot smaller but he’d worry about that particular travesty later or better yet, never –but nothing too crazy. His lover’s hair was longer, but he had no obvious signs of being physically different…well, other than the fact that he looked way too Uchiha for some reason. Sakura’s appearance made him raise a shocked eyebrow since the last time he had seen hair as long and red as that was from his own mother.

Case and point, nothing outright shocking so who in the hell was this fucker calling a freak?

“Come now, little fox.” The man cooed in a disgusting tone –like some pedophile, figures that the first person he meets would be a fucking pedophile, “Kumo is gonna pay a fucking fortune for whatever freaky bloodline you have.”

“How about you-” Naruto choked on air at the sudden change in the atmosphere, “-SHUT THE FUCK UP AND LET ME SLEEP!”

The unknown nin was sent flying through the canopy of trees, taking several with him in the process. The forest they were in seemed to still after that, the thumping of falling trees sounding distinctly like a gong going off in the distance. Naruto swallowed heavily before his eyes tracked their way back to a seething Sakura, who was glaring into the passage she created through the trees with her clenched fist still outstretched.

“Holy shit, it’s Madara!” Naruto screeched with horror.

Sasuke sat up lighting fast at that, a slightly crazed expression on his face –Naruto should really be concerned for his lover but whatever, “Madara?!”

The dark-haired man’s –was he a man, he certainly didn’t look the part –eyes fell on the very Madara-like person in the clearing. His Sharingan eye, which had activated subconsciously, was spinning wildly as he ran his eyes over Sakura’s body. Something seemed to register in his mind, because Sasuke visibly shivered before looking away, “That…isn’t Madara, Naruto.”

“What…?” He asked in confusion as he motioned towards the figure in front of them, “But he’s right the-oohhh shit.”

Sakura was standing where his finger was pointed at.

Sakura, who was now facing the finger that was pointed at her…

And why was she so short…?

Shit, why did she fucking look like a kid?!

Why the fuck did she look like a Madara and Uzumaki love child?!

“What the fuck are you guys going on about?” The redhead was staring –her eyes blinking rapidly as if she was seeing something bizarre –at them with her hands on his hips, waiting for an answer.

The image overlapped with Madara doing that which made Naruto snort, which he tried to disguise as a cough. He was unsuccessful going by the glare Sakura shot at him, so he redirected her attention to something else, “You’re sho-shorter, Sakura. Yes, shorter. That was what Sasuke and I were talking about. You, being shorter.” His rambling only served to make her more suspicious as her eyes narrowed.

“Shut the fuck up already, dobe.” Sasuke hissed out.

Naruto’s eyebrow twitched, “How about you shut the fuc-”

The rest of his words were cut off when he felt something long and fluffy brush against the side of his thigh. His attention diverted towards it and found a long furry red …thing swishing around slightly as if responding to his perceived annoyance, the end of it tipped by a patch of black fur. It was clearly an animal tail by the look of it but Naruto hadn’t sensed animals anywhere near them –even if there had been some in the vicinity, they had probably been scared off by Sakura. Another thing that was suspicious was how much clarity he could hear everything around him in like he had double the hearing power.

That was when he felt something twitch on his head.

Kurama started cackling.

Naruto’s eyes widened in horror as he tentatively raised his hands to his hair, skimming past his longish and surprising silky hair, and towards the foreign, furry protrusions on his head. The silence felt suffocating as he ran his fingers delicately over the curves of the new appendages, flinching at the realization that he had these…things on his head and how sensitive they seemed to be. Naruto gulped as he traced the line of the extremity to the base, where it sat comfortably in the mess that was his hair.

Ah, so he was the freak that the man was talking about.

“H-Hey guys! I have ears!” Naruto finally lost it and screamed out in undiluted panic and fear, “And a fucking tail!” He groused out as if it was the end of the world.

Kurama had completely lost it and was currently rolling around in his mind, howling with laughter. Jerk.

“What the hell are you talking about, do-” Sasuke’s words cut off as he inhaled sharply, his eyes widened to the max as he stared at Naruto’s new additions.

Sakura raised a considering eyebrow, not even paying attention to his panicking, “Huh…so those were real. I thought I was hallucinating.”

“Can you guys take this seriously?!” Naruto screeched at the nonchalant responses.

The redheaded kunoichi crossed her arms over her chest and tapped her bare toes against the grassy land with a contemplative look on her childish face, “Well, are they hurting you?”

“Huh?” The animal-eared boy answered smartly, “…no.”

“Do they feel uncomfortable?”

Naruto wiggled the ears on his head around without knowing, before replying, “Um…no.”

“Do they feel natural or forced?”

“I mean…they’re moving on their own so…natural, I guess.”

“Then, you’re fine.” Sakura deadpanned before moving towards him –curiosity and glee filling her emerald eyes, “Although, those are fascinating.”

Naruto’s eyes widened, his temporary relief shifting into pure unadulterated fear as the now-redheaded kunoichi stepped toward him with a downright evil grin on her face. Sakura neared with childlike outstretched hands and wriggling fingers, a demonic giggle leaving her lips while Naruto’s azure eyes widened in horror. The Uzumaki man(?) scooted back as far as he could, narrowly escaping the redhead’s grasping hands. He felt his animal ears –fucking animal ears, what the actual fuck was Jiji thinking?! –flatten against his head in response to the very real threat in front of him.

“Teme! Save me from this witch!” Naruto screamed out, pure fear dripping from his plea, “Sasuke, what the fuck?! Help m-”

Naruto’s breath hitched in his throat as he caught sight of his lover’s face. Sasuke was staring at him with a dumbfounded expression, his previous dark eyes replaced with one swirling red kaleidoscope, while the other was holding the Rinnegan. His pale face was slowly turning a very familiar hue of red as he continued to stare at Naruto –a surge of heat bloomed across his own cheeks, his ears (the normal ones) tinged crimson and spread across his chest to the rest of his body.

“Oy, oy, this is not the time for your two to make kissy faces now.” Sakura stepped in with a smirk twisted on her lips –it did not look good on a face so childlike.

“Sakura, you look like a demon child. Stop smiling like that.”

The words were out of his mouth before he could stop them, but Naruto did register when Sakura heard them because the aura surrounding her became darker.

And denser.

Colder too.

Was that why he was shivering?

“Naruto~” Sakura called out, her eyes were closed but they did nothing to hide her simmering fury.

The Uzumaki ‘eeped’ and frantically waved his hands out in front of him, “No, no, no, no, wait-please, have mercy, woman!”

“I don’t think mercy is in a demon’s vocabulary~”

“Ack-” Naruto choked up as his words were thrown back into his face –Sakura was out for blood, his blood.

‘Fuck, it wouldn’t even be considered murder. Just another animal sacrifice.’ He cried silent, invisible tears –his face set in a dramatic caricature of a permanently sad clown. He, fucking, hated clowns.

Swallowing heavily, he tried to think about something that could appease her anger –what the fuck was she, an avenging god, you know, she probably is –before resigning to his fate, “Alright…you can touch them…” He mumbled out a small pout on his lips.

In the blink of an eye, Sakura’s mood changed as a smile lit up her face –making her look sweet, innocent, and angelic, despite the Madara hair.

‘I call fucking hex, Kurama.’ Naruto bit out, a mixture of fear and annoyance steaming in his veins, ‘That should not be possible.’

‘The pink brat is from a different breed of shinobi, Fishcake.’ Kurama chuckled gruffly, ‘Then again all you ninja tend to be over eccentric.’

‘I think that’s just all the powerful ones though.’ Naruto thought back to his own teachers –Jiraiya and Kakashi were absolute perverts and weirdoes yet were extremely powerful so maybe they go hand-in-hand, ‘You can’t really call her pink brat anymore.’

‘Pink hair, red hair, all the same to me. She’s still the same brat who pandered after your Uchiha and smacks sense into your thick skull.’

“Hey!” Naruto called out loud in offense, an impressive pout on his lips.

“What?” Sakura frowned at his sudden exclamation as she settled in a spot next to him, her hands reaching out gently toward his…ears.

“Um…nothing,” He coughed, and instead chose to ask, “What else is different about me?”

The red-headed kunoichi hummed under her breath as she ran her fingers through the hair at the base of his head. She slowly started to make her way upwards, her touch inquisitive and prodding while she thought about how to answer. It wasn’t like it was anything bad, it was different and would take all of them to get used to it but Naruto was a dramatic shit so there’s that.

“Well, for one, your hair’s red.”

Naruto breathed stuttering, his mind going blank as his thoughts went to the last time he had seen his mother –with her long beautiful red hair, her loving smile as she stared at him and his dad, “Like Kaa-chan’s?”

“Darker than hers but it definitely came from her.” Sakura nodded, not commenting on the fact that he had slight tears brimming in his eyes, “Your eyes are the same color as before but with little flecks of purple in them. You just look like your mother now, with your father’s build.”

“Oh…”

The kunoichi giggled for some reason as her hands shifted to cup his squishy cheeks, “And your whiskers changed. They look more like red tribal marks, extending into the sides of your face. Your canines are longer too…they look like baby fangs. Your ears...they're red, the same color as your hair but they're lined and tipped in black fur.”

Naruto glanced down at the rest of his body –a notably younger body –from his clawed toes, past his shit-brown pants and shirt, to his shorter and definitely childish hands that were adorned with black-colored and slightly curved talons. He certainly looked…different.

“Huh…” He breathed out, panic simmering under his skin, “…are we gonna talk about how we’re missing a significant portion of our bodies?”

“Hell no.”

Naruto was purring.

It was a novel experience, really. The now-redheaded man(child?) had fallen under the tender touch of his only female teammate –who knew Sakura, of all people, would have it in herself to be gentle, then again she was a medic-nin. Naruto had forgotten about this side of the kunoichi, not that he could even blame himself for that since Sakura's whole personality basically spelled bloodthirsty on a good day. Experimentally, he wiggled his ears as he tried to get a feel of them. Naruto could feel them twitch slightly, and Sakura’s resulting squeal indicated that whatever he did, actually worked so score one for him. He wanted to try and get them to flatten like before but that was probably just a visceral reaction to Sakura’s demonic tendencies.

“OWWW!” The redheaded man(?) yowled loudly and leaped away from whatever had caught onto his tail and pulled, “What the fuck, Sasuke?!”

The Uchiha was staring at him with a stumped expression on his face, his hand sitting limply on the ground where Naruto’s tail had once been. The blush from before was still dominating his face, making him look so much like the tomatoes that he so loved eating, “I was…um, I was just-I was…just seeing if it was…real…” Sasuke stammered out, which was so unlike the Uchiha, before trailing off into a whisper. The dark-haired man(?) dropped his head so that he was facing that ground –why the fuck was that his reason ?! He was an Uchiha, they were masters with genjutsu! He would have been able to tell if it was fake, right away!

Naruto just stared at him as if he was demented.

“Ahem! What Sasuke was trying to say is…” Sakura cleared her throat loudly, with a smug grin on her face, then henged into Sasuke’s form, “OhmySage! Naruto-chan is soooo cute! The ears, the tail, the hair! It’s my furry dream come true! Kyaa~” The henge gushed girlishly –reminding Naruto of all the fangirls that used to follow the Uchiha.

Naruto choked.

Sasuke twitched.

Kurama…well, Kurama was cackling that the piece of shit fleabag he knew he was.

‘I knew I liked that brat for a reason!’

“Ano…S-Sakura-chan, maybe we should leave before another ninja drops in on us.” Naruto intervened before Sasuke decided to roundhouse her ass into the next tree. He could already feel his lover’s insanity spiking from where he was standing.

Sakura, not even phased by the Uchiha –she had proven she could kick his ass into next Tuesday so maybe that’s why –hummed underneath her breath in consideration, “…alright. I need out of whatever this is.” The redhead’s nose scrunched in disgust as she picked at her brown-colored dress, “For as powerful as Hagoromo-sama is, he does not know fashion.”

“I don’t think Jiji is supposed to be proficient in woman’s clothing choices.” Naruto laughed uneasily –it was a wonder how Team 7 even survived sometimes when he was the voice of reason, “Also, we’ve established that Jiji is a massive troll. He fucking threw me out of ‘Nowhere’, just like that! No fucking warning!”

“Naruto…” Sasuke called out in a suspiciously sweet voice that made him instinctively stiffen in fear, his tail bristling beside him echoed his feelings, “...shut the fuck up and try to figure out where we are.”

“HUH?!” The redhead screamed in indignation –the utter audacity of this man to order him around like Naruto was some kind of personal pet to him.

‘This is why you don’t date the Uchiha scum, gaki,’ Kurama kindly inputted his, frankly, unwanted opinion, ‘Hey, I resent that! Also, the whole personal pet thing isn’t far off right now.’

‘Fuck off, fleabag!’

Naruto swung his head to face his lover, and whatever he wanted to say to the Uchiha died in his throat at the sight of his aura. It was dripping with murderous intent, his previous love-struck expression overtaken by something resembling his genin days –that murder boner Sasuke had for Itachi never really went away.

“F-Fine, teme…” He huffed out, he decided to be the better person in the situation –no, he was NOT running away, he was Uzumaki Naruto!

The redheaded man(?) took a deep breath to calm himself down, his heart rate settling as he focused on his surroundings before slowly exhaling. Just as a fresh bout of wind whistled through the air, rushing past his messy hair, his mind regained a relaxed sort of concentration –bringing clarity to the forefront which allowed him to latch onto the sounds of the forest. The rustling of the swaying trees was the first thing he heard, followed by the distinct resonating of splashing and the sloshing of water from a nearby lake, maybe.  Naruto’s furry ears twitched towards the crunch of leaves, but the scuttling was an indication of a forest animal instead of another human. The redhead stretched his senses beyond the area they were dumped, beyond the borders of the forest, and towards any civilization that could be nearby.

That’s when he heard it.

“Caught something, dobe?”

Resisting the urge to clobber the dark-haired man and sounding too much like Sakura, Naruto exhaled a slow breath and answered, “Yeah, it sounds like a marketplace.”

“Marketplace means village which means shinobi.” Sasuke surmised intelligently, “Can you change into Sage Mode and check if they’re civilians or shinobi.”

Naruto’s button nose wrinkled, “I don’t know if I even hold the Toad Summoning Contract since we’re back in time and I’d rather not try it out. My body is also…different so I don’t know how it will affect me and Kurama.”

“Can’t you ask Kurama to check?” Sakura suggested with a hand on her hip.

‘Can you?’ Naruto asked the demon fox.

‘I can only sense the negative feelings in chakra, Fishcake.’ Kurama huffed out while examining his nails.

‘Anything else then?’ He asked impatiently, his eyebrow suffered a spasm as a result of his mounting irritation.

‘Maybe I have the ability to sense the amount of chakra in people and thus define whether they’re a ninja or not.’ Kurama coyly answered as his tails curled around his huge form, ‘I can be persuaded if a certain kit decided to take my contract instead of those disgusting toads again.’

‘Are you serious right now?’

‘I don’t know…’ Kurama pouted -well, as much as a demon fox could -and blinked innocently, ‘…am I?’

The redhead groaned and agreed, not without a multitude of expletives being thrown at the fox for being such a bastard –he didn’t know who was worse, Sasuke or Kurama, in that spectrum.

‘We’re in Fire Country.’ Kurama conceded smugly, ‘Specifically, the borders. I can sense shinobi, most of them have the fire attribute compared to the others.’

Naruto took another deep and calming breath before relaying his answer, “The fleabag says were at the borders of Fire Country.”

“Alright,” Sakura sighed before looking in the direction of the pathway she created in the canopy of trees, “We’ll spread out and look for anything in the area. That shinobi probably had a pack stashed somewhere, especially if he’s a missing-nin.”

Naruto nodded in agreement, “I’ll take the unknown nin that Sakura punched. Sasuke will check for the Hiraishin, since we used that as a basis of the seal, my father’s marker should be around somewhere. Sakura, check for the pack.”

“Hai!”

Naruto sighed heavily, his head falling back to face the blue –so bright, and all-natural –sky then spun on the heel of his barefoot. He matched his way through the devastation of trees, keeping his senses sharp because it was unlikely that no one heard this commotion. They had already spent too much time in the area to be safe and as confident as he was in his ability –he was extremely powerful, he knew that he surpassed his predecessors a decade ago so he knew he wasn’t weak –but this new body was different. Naruto was going to be the sane one this time, the careful one since he didn’t know how well his body would respond if pushed into battle.

‘Kurama, any ideas on why Jiji made me like this?’

‘Hmpf! The Sage of Six Paths! Reduced to a mere Jiji?!’ The old fleabag snarled, his fur puffing up like some offended cat, ‘It’s probably because of your lack of manners!’

“Well, I knew he was a troll but isn’t this taking it a bit too far,” Naruto grumbled out because while he didn’t hate the new…additions, he didn’t necessarily like them. He could have done without the animal traits, dattebayo!

‘The Sage did mention how he was going to change your chakra a bit so it doesn’t merge with your past self…’ The redhead revealed to his tenant.

Kurama hummed in thought, ‘My chakra is currently intermixed with yours, to the point where I can’t define whose is whose. So maybe that was his plan, and as a result, you gained some of my physical characteristics.’

The redhead extended his hands out, in front of him, and examined his claws with deep interest, ‘So, what, am I part fox now or something?’

‘Or something?’ Kurama mocked in a haughty voice, ‘It means that you’re closer to me than ever and we can never be separated. Kit, you’re not even a jinchūriki. We're part of each other now.’ The demon fox’s tone had softened during his explanation –it sounded fond and scared all the same.

Naruto was the same. It wasn’t something he could have ever fathomed –he should have expected it though since all the weird things seem to happen to him. Instead of dwelling on the negatives, he chose to laugh, ‘Does that make you my sub-conscious?’

Kurama huffed out a breath, ‘I’m probably your brain, kit. Sage knows you need one.’ His tone was unmistakably warm.

His answering retort halted when he came upon the shinobi from earlier, smashed like a bug against the bark of a still-standing tree. From whatever features Naruto could make out from the mess, there wasn’t a hitai-ate in sight but the man looked like a Kirigakure ninja so he was most likely a missing-nin. He was probably running from the Kiri ANBU, specifically the Hunter-nin. If Jiji followed the seal’s location then Team 7 had landed themselves in the midst of the Third Shinobi War, which was right around the time Obito was ‘killed’ at Kanabi Bridge –Naruto hadn’t wanted to push the timeline further, in case they managed to mess up and end up in the Warring States Period. So the appearance of a missing-nin without their headband wasn’t far-fetched. Not wanting to draw attention in Fire Country must have been his top priority and the Kiri Hunter-nin wouldn’t have been able to enter without causing even more tension.

Naruto grimaced as he reached over towards the clearly dead man –it was a mercy, no one should live to survive a point-blank punch from Sakura, a quick death was better –and searched his clothing for any sort of clue. A missing-nin would have likely gathered tons of information about the state of the place they were hiding in if it meant surviving one more day.

“Yatta!” The redhead cheered as he fished out a handful of papers from the man’s back pocket, “Alright, let’s see if we’re in the right time…"

Except they weren’t.

“Fuck.”

Sakura ran her tongue over the flat part of her upper teeth before clicking her tongue in frustration. She knew that whatever belongings the creep had wouldn’t have been too far from where they were, since he had stumbled upon them. But that shit was a better ninja than she had given him credit for, because while he was too much like a pedophile –understatement of the century! –he was a decent shinobi. Because Sakura had spent the last twenty minutes looking for a pack that wasn’t there! Her! She does not spend twenty-fucking-minutes looking for a shitty ninja’s travel pack unless they were legit which was grating to admit.

“Shit on a cracker, where the hel-aha!” The redheaded woman(?) shouted in delight when she looked up and spied the creeper’s pack hanging from a high enough branch.

Sakura scrunched her nose and groaned at the thought of actually trying to get up there –she didn’t even know what could be in there, the guy might have actually been a pervert and a pedophile to boot! There was also the fact that she was currently running on fumes, and her body felt like she had been hit with one of Naruto’s Rasengan. Concentrating, Sakura channeled chakra into her feet and attempted to stick her feet against the bark of the tree only to be blown back.

“What the fuck?!” She screamed as she tried again, only to be blasted away, “This is kiddie shit! I did this on my fucking second try when I knew fuck all about tree climbing!”

‘Sage, it must be the Uzumaki chakra reserves.’ She realized while clutching at her long and oddly cut tresses, “I’m like Naruto now!” She cried out, tears streaming down her childlike face.

And thus, Sakura spent the next hour trying to get up the tree.

“Fuck, how long did Naruto spend on this?” The redhead sighed, swiping away some dirt that clung to her sweaty cheek before clapping her hands as she revved up for round twenty-five, “Alright, let’s do this!”

With a burst of speed, Sakura took on a running start while slowly filtering as little amount of chakra to her feet as she could. Her breath fell into heavy pants as she pushed on even if sometimes her foot slipped against the bark or cracked uneasily under too much power. She was Haruno-fucking-Sakura! The most powerful medic-nin in the Elemental Nations, a student of the Sannin, Senju Tsunade, and the one to have wholly surpassed her. She was a fucking badass and would not let some mere tree-climbing exercise beat her.

“Shannarō!” Sakura screamed as she pushed off the tree and jumped toward the pack. When the tips of her fingers grazed the edge of the bag, her eyes widened before she leaned forward even further and tightly grasped it. She yanked it from the branch with such force that the wood broke off, she yelled happily while pulling the pack close to her chest, “Fuck, yes!”

Sakura braced her legs as she stilled in the air for a bit before descending back to the ground. The wind parted around her like a projectile, blowing her hair around her body while almost deafening her to the world. The ground cracked as the redhead landed with a loud thud, her body swayed slightly since it wasn’t used to taking such force before she righted herself. Sakura’s legs felt like jelly and she was covered in dirt but she had gotten the pack.

“Alright, now, to get back to my boys!” She yelled out triumphantly.

Sakura threw the backpack over her shoulders while pushing through the exhaustion as she ran back to the clearing. Her steps getting slower the closer she got –what she would do for some sleep –and when she entered the little hideaway, she found Sasuke standing in his shit-brown shorts and t-shirts, his bare feet tapping fiercely against the grassy floor as he waited impatiently for them. Sakura took this time to really look at the Uchiha and take in his features and realized that he didn’t look much different from before. Sasuke’s features seemed a bit more regal than before, definitely prettier than any girl but still masculine –as much as one could while looking like a child again. His hair was longer and silkier, it looked nothing like the duck-butt style he had been so fond of wearing in his youth before Naruto and Sakura forced him to grow it out. War-Sasuke looked more put together than pre-war-Sasuke, and that was saying something.

“Hey, Sasuke!” She called out before dumping the travel pack at his feet.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow at her –how the fuck did make her feel more like a commoner than she already was?! –in question, “This it?”

“No, it’s my grandma’s fanny pack.” She deadpanned, before snapping, “Yes, it is, moron!”

“Hn.” That was all he said before swiftly turning around and stomping towards a cluster of trees on the far end of the clearing.

‘Why the fuck does he have to act like a spoiled princess, now? Probably ‘cause I insulted his pride earlier.’ Sakura thought grumpily before smirking, ‘Good.’

“I found the seal.” Sasuke –finally! –announced from where he had ducked behind a well-hidden tree, “But…it doesn’t look like the one the Yondaime used.”

“What?” Sakura frowned as she ran up to the tree, shoving the dark-haired boy aside and inspecting the tree herself, just in case the Uchiha came down with a sudden case of blindness –you never know with those guys, “Huh…”

Before she could comment on it, they heard Naruto yell for them from the clearing, “Guys! We have a problem!”

The redhead took off when she realized the panic in the other’s voice, Sasuke followed quickly after, his worry for his lover and their last precious person evident in his eyes. When Sakura came face-to-face with their resident blond-turned-redhead, she halted as she watched her teammate lose his shit. Naruto was pacing up and down the grassy land, literally burning a hole into the ground from his and Kurama’s chakra leaking out. Sakura cursed in her head, debating with herself on whether she should approach or not –she couldn’t have him alerting anyone that a goddamn active Bijū was on Fire Country land but she didn’t know how volatile he was based on whatever was affecting him. Sasuke bypassed all of this and swept in, yanking his lover into his arms while battering the redhead’s hands away from his hair –he had a bad habit of wrenching chunks of his hair out of his head when he was stressed or panicked.

“Naru…” The whisper carried with the wind while Sakura dropped to her knees not very far from them –not too close to trigger Naruto though.

“Naruto…” Sakura called out, steel in her voice, she wasn’t going to allow him to spiral, “What happened?”

Naruto towards her with widened eyes, the purple flecks in them standing out starkly, “T-The…fuck-the time…the time is all wrong-” He stammered out uneasily.

“NARUTO, BREATHE!” Sakura cut the other redhead off before he could stutter himself into a dead faint, “Now, talk to me.”

“It’s the wrong time!” Naruto shouted in a panic, his eyes shifting from side to side, not saying in one place, “We’re in the Second Shinobi War!”

“What.”

Naruto clenched his fists tightly as he started to ramble, “I-I, uh, checked with that guy, you know, he’s like super dead cause of Sakura-chan’s punch and I found papers in his, uh, pocket. One was a newspaper, like who keeps up with the papers, am I right, stupid, anyway…and I found travel papers, they were so clearly fake, it’s a wonder how that pervert went on for so long-”

“Naru, breathe and then talk,” Sasuke stated dully as he tried to come to terms with the fact that his father was likely his age –whatever his age may be.

“Right, right, and the newspaper was talking about how the war was coming to an end, in-in-in Amekagure. Like it’s not completely over but it’s slowing down.”

“Okay, okay, I got it so you can stop.” Sakura sighed, her head starting to ache from all the bullshit –seriously, it was utter bullshit at this point and she would have rather died on the fucking battlefield after getting rid of Kaguya than go through this bullshit.

“Tou-san is probably like nine years old right now…” Naruto revealed with a grimace.

Sasuke choked before muttering something along the lines of ‘my fucking father is nine years old'.

“…so I don’t know how we got here with the Hiraishin. We linked it to my father’s so we should have gone to at least the end of the Third Shinobi War.” The redhead finished as he cupped his mouth in horror.

“The seal is different.” Sasuke announced before Naruto burst a braincell with how hard he was thinking, “Behind that tree, the Hiraishin is different.”

Without another word, the redheaded man(?) shot off towards the tree that the Uchiha had been pointing at, “It’s not Tou-san’s and it’s also incomplete!” He called out.

There was a beat of silence.

“It kinda looks like the Nidaime’s before Tou-san completed it.”

Naruto plopped beside them with a put-out pout on his pink lips, his arms were crossed over his chest as his tail swished back and forth anxiously –the picture he made was endearingly cute, “Tobirama’s signature is there but it hasn’t been specifically linked to him so anyone with his blood would be able to teleport to this spot.”

“The Nidaime’s dead, right?”

“Yes, dobe. The Sandaime should be the Hokage now.”

“Then it looks like my blood brought us here.” Naruto announced before flopping back to the ground, “Jiji put some of Hashirama in me so maybe that’s why.”

Sasuke grimaced as if he tasted something particularly revolting, “Please don’t phrase it like that.”

“But why is it so far out from Fire Country?” Sakura questioned out loud, “This is way past the borders and this area is probably way too close to another country’s territory so it would have been unwise.”

“No, it’s not.” Naruto pointed out, “There’s like, I mean, I heard water not far from here so this place is at the edge of Fire Country. No one would think to check for the Nidaime here, since it’s so far from the village.”

Sakura turned Naruto’s explanation over and over again in her head as she tried to figure out why the Nidaime would be here, of all places. She knew that Tobirama was a secretive man, a recluse if he hadn’t been the Hokage but this place wouldn’t have been safe for him. His guards wouldn’t even have let him go past the borders, especially during the war.

Her emerald eyes widened in realization, as she snapped her fingers before shouting, “Uzushio!”

“What about Uzushio, Sakura?” Naruto asked as he sat up, his face filled with curiosity.

“Uzushio was Konoha’s sister village!”

“I know that.” The redhead groused out, he was still pissed about that fact –Uzushio was forgotten by Konoha after everything his people did for them.

“No, no, no, what I mean is that Uzushio had an alliance with Konoha so it wouldn’t have been weird or even unsafe for the Nidaime to be here. Outside Fire Country borders.” Sakura explained completely while Naruto wrapped his arms around his knees, “That means we’re in the direction, or close to Uzushio.”

“You forget that Uzushio is in Whirlpool Country which is literally an ocean away.” Sasuke pointed out dryly.

Sakura waved away the other’s sours expression, “We’ll figure it out but~ now we have a place to hide out in!”

“You wanna use Uzushio again…” Naruto frowned, less than happy about the thought which his female teammate noticed immediately.

“You...don’t want to?”

The redhead pushed his face into the crevice of his folded arms, “It’s…it’s just that Uzushio was wiped out during the Second Shinobi War, and if we go there then-”

“We’ll see the bodies that Konoha left unburied.” Sasuke finished with a dark look in his eyes –probably remembering how the Leaf Village had failed his own clan.

‘Crap…’

Sakura bit her lip uneasily, her mind taking her back to their own war when they had decided to migrate to Uzushio as a last resort. They had discovered the skeletons of the Uzumaki Clan and others, discovered that Konoha –who was their sister village, who took an Uzumaki Princess as their own, who was the reason for the Uzumaki being wiped out –had abandoned and forgotten them. Naruto had been inconsolable and started taking more missions outside of the island with Sasuke, who had been the only one to really understand the man.

“We can find another place to settle down,” Sakura assured both of her boys, “But we should do it quickly before someone notices us here.”

Naruto was still frowning; it wasn’t an expression that either of them liked on their sunshine. He sighed before stretching his hands to the sky while letting out a groan of contentment, “It’s okay. We’ll go to Uzushio.”

“Naruto-”

“No…” The redhead huffed out then let out a slightly hoarse chuckle, “No, it’s better if we go. We’ll be able to bury them. Give them peace, dattebayo.”

The verbal tic made them smile –they knew that Naruto would be fine.

“Yatta! Let’s go, Sakura-chan, teme!” He exclaimed before holding out both of his hands towards them, for a hand up.

Sakura and Sasuke shared a smile, the Uchiha’s more reserved but then again he looked terrifying when he really smiled so she’ll take what she could get. They pulled Naruto to his feet, who did a little energized jump, his tail wagging excitedly like a dog and his ears swiveling around as if searching and cataloging all the new sounds from around them. Sakura grabbed the pack once more and threw it at Sasuke’s face without warning, a smug grin on her face.

“Run.”

Sakura took off, cackling all the way with Sasuke chasing her not far behind –Naruto was walking at a sedate pace, taking in his surroundings. He looked like he was one with nature.

And wherever Naruto’s feet touched, a little flower bloomed.