Start Again M*therf**kers

Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura ran along the coast of Fire Country. They used the huge trees as coverage, the large branches as footholds as they stealthily checked for any docks that could take them to the Land of Whirlpool. While Uzushiogakure had been completely wiped off the map, the event itself had only taken place a few years ago which meant that there still should be some method of transportation or leaving point available –even if no one used it anymore. Sakura had brought up the idea of water walking to the island, but Naruto had shot it down by explaining that he wasn’t comfortable using chakra like that when he still didn’t know how it would affect his new body. There was also the problem of Uzushio’s temperament, now that her people had been slaughtered. While the two redheads would be relatively safe, they couldn’t say the same about their third teammate. They weren’t exactly going to leave Sasuke so they had to find a boat and go from there.

“There…!” Naruto signaled to the rest of his team, his head jerking toward a clearly unsafe port at the end of the shoreline.

The trio came to a stop, landing together on a much larger and studier branch as they eyed the unkempt dock with disdain. Naruto wanted to growl at the state of the Uzumaki spiral painted on the posts of the dock –the crest was grimy, the paint chipped and dulled. Clearly, Konoha was all too comfortable with forgetting their sister village. His black-tipped tail flicked outwards with a silent snap, echoing his anger before he reeled himself in. It wouldn’t do for him to get angry and alert someone to their presence. Anger had been the driving force towards letting Kurama out in the old days; Naruto didn’t know how his new body would respond to his anger this time.

Sasuke flashed his Sharingan as he scanned the area and its surroundings, “There’s no one around, but I can see some old boats tied to the outer posts.”

Naruto inhaled deeply, calming his simmering rage then exhaled and leaped from the branch. He landed on the sandy ground with a feline-like gracefulness –on the tips of his toes, soundless and without a hint of his trademark clumsiness. Sasuke and Sakura followed, taking their places on either side of him as they strode toward the abandoned port. Naruto’s azure eyes sparkled with hints of purple as he trailed them across the expanse of the area –needing to catalog every single thing that he could. When they finally reached the wooden bridge, the redheaded boy ran his fingers across the collected dirt, and the rotting wood, and the feeling of nature reclaiming the man-made structure made him shiver.

“Are we going to Uzushio, now?” Naruto asked when the silence stretched for too long –his dear companions had been giving him time to acclimate.

Sakura eyed him warily before sighing, “It’s probably for the best. At least, for us to take some time to rest and get back on our feet.”

Their resident Uchiha took that as his cue to continue, “Sakura’s right, Naruto. If we are earlier than expected then we have the time to relax for a bit.”

“Kinda ironic coming from you, Sas,” Naruto snorted.

“Hn.” Sasuke grunted, before flicking his eyes towards the old boat with a contemplative look in his eyes –Naruto was sure he spied a pout on the Uchiha’s face, “What about Kagu-”

The dark-haired boy’s question was abruptly cut off when the animal-eared boy slammed his hands messily over his mouth, his widened azure eyes darting around the deserted harbor. Sasuke spluttered behind the sweaty, grimy mitts of his lover before he slapped the hands away –a distinctly nauseous look on his pale, well…paler face, “What the hell is wrong with you, dobe?!”

The Uzumaki boy just brought his fingers to his lips, silencing the rest of the Uchiha’s questions while Sakura looked on with a bemused eyebrow quirked. “Shut it, Uchiha.”

A muscle in the pale boy’s jaw spasmed as he clenched his teeth, his eyes blown wide with anger –the Uchiha was always so quick to anger when it came to his lover. Nevertheless, he heeded the other boy’s commands because as much of a dunce as Naruto could be, his instincts were always on point. Instead, Sasuke just let out a tired breath while he crossed his scrawny pale arms over his chest. He refused to even entertain the idea of how small and frail his body was –a child’s body.

Naruto exhaled a breath of relief, but his eyes were still guarded, “Sorry, it’s just that I don’t think we should say her name out loud like that.”

Sakura frowned at his reasoning, “You do know that there is a clan named after her, Naruto?”

“Yeah, but we’re referring to her and not the Clan.” The redhead refuted, “Her will is running around unchecked, and has been since before the Shodaime and Daddy Uchiha.”

“Daddy Uchiha?” Sasuke rasped out throatily, horror etched into his face –hearing it from his own mouth made him want to puke.

Naruto continued without missing a beat, “Her hench-plant was pretty active during the wars, Sakura. We can never be too careful.”

“Hench-plant?” Sasuke repeated stunned, his voice steadily growing grimmer.

“That was the Third Shinobi War.” Sakura pointed out with a raised eyebrow, “Most of the bad shit happened then, things that he had his hands in.”

“But we can never be too careful. Please…just until we can get the barrier around Uzushio then we can freely plot world domination.”

“World domination…?” Sasuke murmured under his breath, his gaze blank as he stared at his teammates. And people thought he was the crazy one.

The redheaded girl sighed while rubbing her brow with her index finger and thumb, “…alright, Naruto.”

Naruto beamed from the depths of his soul, forcing Sakura and Sasuke to shield their eyes from the sheer brightness and positivity pouring from the other boy. With the addition of Naruto’s newfound appendages, which were wiggling quite adorably in accordance with his happy mood, it was also impossible to not be affected. They stared for moment longer at the uplifted wagging black-tipped tail and the swiveling ears. It made for an absolutely adorable picture. Never let it be said that the two of them were only blood-hearted killers, not when they had Naruto with them on a daily basis.

“Yatta!” He cheered, doing an enthusiastic fist pump into the air before turning to the clearly unsafe boat swaying in the water. Sakura wondered if they would even make it to Uzushio in the first place, “Come on, let’s go!”

Sasuke gaped –no, not gaped, Uchiha don’t gape! –for a moment as he followed his lover’s form. He had known that he wasn’t resistant to Naruto’s charm, his exuberance, his absolute force of will, and…just his umbrella of goodness, but this was overdoing it. Hagoromo, either, didn’t know what he brought into his world when he mixed the Kyūbi and Naruto’s physical appearances or he did know and was betting on the chaos he induced.

The man lit a spark that was certainly going to destroy the world.

Regardless, Sasuke didn’t know whether he wanted to thank the man or curse him.

“He’s so cute…” Sakura muttered, still enamored at the vision that her companion made.

Naruto, unaware of his teammates’ thoughts, hummed an unknown tune under his breath –it was something he had always done as a child, but he didn’t know where he actually heard the sound from. The redhead’s fluffy tail swayed from side to side as he moved in response to his song while the ears on his head perked up in excitement. He wasn’t happy –angry, actually –about going to Uzushio, a place that was littered with the remnants of war and the bodies of his people. No, Naruto was happy because he was finally going to be able to do something for his people because the Uzumaki deserved better than what they had gotten. He would not let them die out like this, forgotten in history because people were too afraid or too ashamed.

Naruto would revive Uzushio.

He would revive the Uzumaki and the minor clans.

No matter the cost.

“Guys, the boat is good!” Naruto called out to his teammates –they had been staring at him for some reason.

Sakura was the first to snap out of whatever daze she was in before harshly elbowing their resident Uchiha’s ribcage. From the choked breath he let out, Naruto knew he was barely holding in his gasp of pain which made him eye his lover with pity. The redheaded boy knew all too well about Sakura’s monstrous strength and that was before Tsunade-baa-chan taught her how to harness her freaky chakra-controlled strength.

The other two children –hah, children! Yay, for puberty again! –climbed into the boat carefully, they didn’t want the old thing to capsize on them or pop any holes. Naruto took his place at the end of the boat, more like a dingy, while Sakura sat at the head, acting as a lookout. Sasuke just plopped himself in the middle, intending on getting some rest because he, honestly, felt like he was about to drop dead. The redheaded boy drew raw chakra into his hand and then stuck his hand into the water behind the boat. The force of the power against the water pushed the little craft forward which meant that they didn’t have to spend a better part of their lives rowing to Uzushio.

All that was left was a waiting game and while the island wasn’t far from Fire Country, it would still take some time to get there even with their ‘motor’ working.

“Do you know the story of Kushinadahime?”

The trio had been traveling in relative silence since their departure from the shoreline of Fire Country. That had been five hours ago and while they weren’t exactly sleeping, that didn’t mean they weren’t in a dazed state of relaxation. So the sudden quiet question shattered the quietude and jolted them into upright positions. Well, more like jolted Sakura and Sasuke because Naruto had been the one who spoke.

“Princess Kushinada…?” Sakura echoed with a tilt of her head, “Like your mother?”

“No, her name was Kushinadahime but she wasn’t actually a princess.” Naruto chuckled slightly –his childish voice made it come off as more of a giggle than a chuckle, though, “It’s a legend, I think, from Uzushio about how the island came to be. Kaa-chan probably got her name from that.”

Sasuke hummed under his breath, “…tell us.” He didn’t mind if his lover filled the silence for a bit.

“Well… Kushinadahime was said to be Uzushio’s creator. She was the mother of the island. The First Queen…” Naruto breathe out, as he stared off in the distance of the icy blue waters of the Land of Whirlpool, “I don’t really know if any of this is true but she was the daughter of Tenzuchi and Ashinazuchi, who were people said to be descended from Hagoromo-jiji’s children. And she was the last of all of the couple’s children.”

“What…”

“So like one day, a man named Susanoo entered their village. He was a failed warrior from a neighboring kingdom and was looking for work. Tenzuchi and Ashinazuchi saw hope in the man and pleaded with Susanoo for his help, because there was a monstrous creature that invaded their land, taking with it all but one daughter. The Yamata no Orochi had devoured seven of their daughters, one each year, and their remaining daughter was next. So the couple asked the warrior to slay the beast, to which Susanoo agreed on the condition that the couple would give him their sole surviving daughter, Kushinadahime, as his wife. He had found her to be very beautiful and would not leave without her hand in marriage. They agreed readily and the man slaughtered the eight-headed serpent.”

Sasuke frowned at the names of the fictional characters, “Susanoo and Orochi…?” He raised an incredulous eyebrow at his lover.

“What’s with the girl’s parents just agreeing to pawn her off like that?” Sakura huffed in irritation.

Naruto pouted in offense, “Hey! I’m just repeating what I was told. I never come up with the names and don’t ask me about her jackass parents. Like I’d know what they were thinking…” The boy grumbled with his arms crossed.

“Wait, does that mean that the Uchiha and the Uzumaki are related in some way?” Sakura interrupted, with a curious look on her face.

“I don’t really…know. It’s a legend so this might not even be true at all.” Naruto scratched his head in thought then shrugged, “Anyway, I didn’t finish!”

“Alright, alright, go on then.” Sakura waved the boy on.

The redheaded boy glared at them petulantly –it wasn’t very effective with the whole animal planet look he had going on, “Okay, so where was I…oh right! So Susanoo killed the serpent by getting him stupid drunk on sake before chopping off all of his heads and tails. With the beast dead, the warrior collected his prize in the form of one daughter. Kushinadahime, on the other hand, wasn’t very pleased with her parents’ decision to sacrifice her to the Susanoo but relented in the favor of their wishes. She had bared the man eight daughters, much like her own mother had done before her but she wasn’t content with her life. She wanted to change her fate.” Naruto smiled solemnly, as if remembering something painful, “This all came to head, one day, during a violent storm. Kushinadahime and her daughters were tending to the rice fields when their land was overwhelmingly flooded with storm rain. Desperate to protect her daughters, the woman used the reeds from the fields and wove a hut for her children to hide in. Kushinadahime used a sharp stone to slit her hand and proceeded to write a prayer to the gods in her blood, begging for her daughter's safety. The gods answered her prayers and, with a crack of lightning, split the entire land in two which separated the family from the impending flood. While this allowed them to escape, it also caused the newly created island to drift away from civilization and into the seas where it was never found again.”

“Really…” Sakura said skeptically as her eyes bored into the side of Naruto’s head.

“Yes, really! And stop interrupting me!” The other boy whined at his friend, “Whatever, even if you talk, I’m gonna continue, dattebayo! The island had floated to an unknown part of the ocean, far away from the mainland. Kushinadahime was so happy and grateful to the gods. She was free and her children were safe. Using her newfound freedom, she created an entirely new village with her daughters at the helm. With the favor of the gods, Kushinadahime created the Art of Sealing which all of her people took after. She was named Queen by her people, a title that was passed down the line of succession as their village in the whirlpools grew, filled with powerful people who had to ability to command the seas and change the tides with their remarkable seals.”

“And thus Uzushio was born…” Sakura whispered as she turned to the front of the craft.

Naruto nodded excitedly, a proud grin on his whiskered face, “They say that Uzushio still holds the soul of Kushinadahime, making the island sentient as the years passed by”

Sasuke stared at his lover, his lip twitching with amusement from how absolutely adorable he looked –he was Uchiha enough to admit it, “Where the hell did you learn that from, dobe?”

“Ahh…Tou-san told me.” Naruto confessed sheepishly, his azure eyes becoming distant, “He said that Kaa-chan used to tell me that story when she was pregnant, particularly the times when I was being fussy, heh.”

The Uchiha looked away from those eyes, those tragic blue eyes filled with sparkles and hope, and instead chose to stare at the endless ocean behind him, “That’s nice…” He murmured softly, “…Uzushio, being born from love and wanting to protect those loved ones.”

'Maybe that’s why Naruto is so…’

“LAND HO!!”

The sudden bellow startled the boys, to the point where they almost took a dip in the ocean. Collectively, the both of them shot venomous glares at their only female teammate who was grinning at them with a triumphant look on her face. Without saying anything else, Sakura pointed her finger towards the front of their little craft, where an island could be seen, getting closer. Or rather, they were getting closer to the island.

Sakura giggled evilly into her cupped hands, “Sorry guys, I’ve always wanted to do that.”

The redhead she-devil didn’t look the least bit apologetic at all.

Naruto visibly shuddered at the picture his teammate made before shifting his attention to something less scary. The first thing he noticed was the lush greenery surrounding the island, the rolling hills beyond the entrance and then he caught sight of the crumbling towers that lined the outskirts of the island. It became more visible the closer they got, Naruto vaguely felt their little craft sway uneasily due to his unstable emotions but otherwise, his attention was firmly attached to the destroyed village of his people. His azure eyes widened in happiness and grief as he stared at the spires, it looked like they had caved in from the top, bringing the rest of the structure down on itself. All the peaks had been destroyed from what he could tell. Naruto surmised that when Kiri and Iwa invaded, they had specifically aimed for the top and let gravity do the rest. The reminders of the assault littered the shoreline, fallen debris, and murky waters –a perfect imitation of their apocalyptic world in the future.

“Naruto…” Sasuke whispered when the redhead didn’t make a move to leave the boat, “…we’re here.”

Naruto rapidly blinked his eyes as he snapped out of whatever daze he was in –the redhead had been so focused that he hadn’t realized he stopped running his chakra into water. As a result, they slowly drifted to the outskirts of the island. The Uzumaki boy sighed tiredly as he pulled his hand from the cold water. He absentmindedly wiped it down the side of his brown shorts before jumping from the boat to where Sasuke and Sakura were waiting for him.

The two of them shared a look before coming to a resolution. They didn’t need to ask if Naruto was okay. All they needed to do was be there for him.

“Okay, let’s go…” Naruto muttered under his breath, a bit reluctant to venture forth into the destroyed village –it had been so hard the first time.

The gravel and loose rock crackled under their bare feet, scraping them along the way but the trio hardly flinched. After all, they had experienced worse. They walked in silence, taking in every single detail with a critical eye while also subtly searching for any intruders. In the past (or was it the future?) when the survivors had migrated to Uzushio, they had found out that the island had been looted of everything. Sacred temples with complex seals protecting it had been opened which meant that an Uzumaki or someone with the blood of the minor clans had been there before them which had greatly saddened Naruto. Any and all information about his clan had officially been wiped out or hidden completely, and with how the villages were decimated one after the other by Kaguya, Naruto had known that they wouldn’t get that knowledge back.

Uzushio was a large island, smaller than the Kirigakure’s multiple isles but big enough to house all of the Uzumaki, the minor clans and then some. Hills and large trees dotted the land, some domesticated areas overgrown with plant life from the lack of care. Flowers native to the island flourished in abundance, filling the empty spaces where humans once were –the old dirt trails steadily sprouting tufts of grass, vines crawling up posts, and abandoned watch stations slowly being hidden away by the overhanging trees. It looked similar to the Uzushio from the future, at least, until they arrived at the valley.

The valley was as breathtaking as the first time they saw it.

Uzushio was an island that held many hills, big and small, but the valley that encompassed the village was made up of quite possibly the biggest hills on the piece of land. The place was hidden quite well, something that had benefitted them during the war with Kaguya –something that was going to be important for them when they secretly revived Uzushio while simultaneously trying to save the world. Naruto swallowed heavily when they reached the entrance to the village, the pillars surrounding the area were broken down completely while the ones that stayed intact were being swallowed up by the steadily creeping greenery.

Naruto clenched his hands into tight fists, talons digging deeply into his palms, but he didn’t so much as flinch from the pain. The redhead willed himself not to break again –he had already been through this, so he should have been fine, right? Yet…why did it feel like his heart was being ripped out of his chest. Oh…deep down Naruto knew why. The first time he saw this place had been shocking –horrifying, that is –but he still managed to drag himself back and build something new.

But this time…this time it was different.

Because this time…Naruto could actually see the damage done to the village –Uzushio wasn’t weathered down by the corrosive salt of the sea and the storms that razed the island, the streets weren’t filled to the brim with overgrown trees and grass, some buildings looked whole instead of scattered across the ground in a mismatched puzzle of brick and wood, the imprints of Kiri and Iwa’s attacks were still visible everywhere and…Naruto could still see the bodies. Left unburied and at the mercy of nature –skeletons still positioned in a heartbreaking depiction of their untimely deaths, skulls drawn in a distortion of fear and resignation, bony hands reaching out for something that wasn’t there. Larger forms draped over smaller forms, skeletal forelimbs encircling them protectively with hunched shoulders.

All of it painted a horrifyingly beautiful picture.

It made it harder for Naruto to turn away.

The trio of children continued to walk, taking in everything with blank eyes and carefully concealed emotions. They didn’t speak, not once. They were content in the silence –no, more like that they knew if one of them spoke then they would break. All for different reasons, nonetheless still the same. The sight of a decimated village was nothing new for them, they had survived through an almost-decade-worthy war and lived to telltale but it still caused parts of their hearts to shrivel and die.

For Naruto, it was the fact that…these were people, they were his people. Uzumaki like him that he could have known, could have grown up with and come to love as his own yet here they were, butchered and left to rot like they had meant nothing at all. An orphan like him was denied family for so long until he scrounged one together all on his own while his people were left here to rot, forgotten like they never even existed in the first place.

On the other hand, this scene brought back decades-old memories to the forefront of Sasuke’s mind –memories filled with the overpowering metallic smell of blood, of skewered flesh and spilled guts, of blank eyes that stared into the nothingness, of red eyes filled with malice, of the echoes of his own tortured screams at the hands of his dear older brother. And he remembered what came after, the loneliness in that blood-stained compound. The seemingly never-ending cycle of nightmares filled with death, his brother, and the suffocating feeling of wanting to leave and wanting to stay.

Sakura…Sakura was assaulted with feelings of heart-wrenching grief. Her pain was fresher compared to the others as she vividly recollected the sight of her lover dying in her arms in a place more broken than the one she was walking through. The crushing guilt of knowing that she was the reason for it was oh-so prominent in her chest and in her mind –maybe she shouldn’t have suggested Uzushio as their getaway island.

Blood dripped steadily from Naruto’s palms as they continued to advance further into the destroyed village, the self-made wounds not healing. Kurama knew that sealing the indents would send Naruto spiraling and as unhealthy as it was, the pain tended to ground the boy. The black-tipped tail flicked outwards when the redheaded boy came to an abrupt stop, pulling his teammates’ minds out of their respective hells and towards him. Their eyes were drawn to a wide river, it ran through the middle of the valley which separated the rest of the village from whatever was on the other side –Naruto couldn’t tell since everything had been annihilated.

“We’ll camp here for tonight,” Naruto announced stoically, before plopping himself where he stood and slumping to the ground. He tucked his left arm under his head to cushion himself and turned on his side, not addressing his team after that.

Sasuke and Sakura shared an uneasy look and as much as it hurt them to stay quiet, they knew that they couldn’t push the other boy to open up. Naruto was, and still is, someone who wore his heart on his sleeves but he could also close up in an instant when things got rough. He was someone who would tighten up further, bury himself deeper, the more he was pushed. Without a word of acknowledgment, Sasuke sighed before walking over to a semi-stable building. He lowered his body to the ground where he leaned against the side wall with closed eyes. Sakura shook her head in exasperation at her two boys then followed Naruto’s lead by sitting down where she stood. The girl curled onto her side, forced her eyes shut, and attempted to get some rest.

‘Being in the past…’ Sakura thought fleetingly, ‘…might break us completely this time.’

Thirty-six hours.

That’s how long she had been working with no breaks.

Sakura dragged the back of her hand across her forehead, from temple to temple, swiping and flicking off the sweat, from her pinked-colored brow, that had accumulated during her shift. An exhausted but relieved sigh escaped her lips, she had been up much longer than when she had started working and this was her first break. All she wanted to do now was to collapse on her beloved bed and give herself up to the blissfulness of sleep. The pink-haired kunoichi eyed the blood-stained tools lying on the table with disdain, she couldn’t leave them unattended and she had already sent all the training medic-nin and nurses away for some much-needed rest so the job fell unto her. Unwittingly, an image of a small, emancipated boy with blond hair and wide brown doe eyes flashed across her mind. Sakura grimaced, remembering the conversation she had with him –though she could hardly call it a conversation when the boy was the only one that spoke while she ran away in answer.

“Are you still thinking about it?”

Sakura was hardly startled, she had sensed the other woman’s presence a while ago yet she had chosen to stay quiet –if only to avoid that same question. The medic-nin clicked her tongue as her only acknowledgment that she was listening. Begrudgingly, she started sterilizing the tools around her while waiting for the other kunoichi to speak again. Her hands moved methodically, the actions familiar because of how long she had been doing it –it was taboo for a medic-nin to reuse tools like this, especially for so long but it was their only option. Things like needles, stitches, and bandages were replaced as many times as possible, even with their limited supply but everything else was thoroughly cleaned and used again.

“Sakura…”

The pink-haired kunoichi tensed minutely as slender muscled arms slide around her midriff, encircling her stomach and locking together on her waistline. She breathed out another sigh and relaxed as she was pulled against a curved chest and allowed her head to fall back onto a slim shoulder. A puff of breath against the shell of her ear caused a shiver to run down her spine, a familiar heat settling low in her stomach while her heart thudded loudly in her chest. Every time, non-stop, this always happened to Sakura –even after years of being together. She never wanted it to stop.

“…you know you can’t put it off forever, love.”

The statement was whispered in her ear, the endearment warming her heart but the context brought her back to Earth, “But why…” It almost came out as a whine.

Ino forcefully turned Sakura around until she was face-to-face with her slightly taller blond lover; an exasperated look etched on the other woman’s face as she steadily placed her hands on Sakura’s shoulders, “Since when do you run away from shit like this, Sakura.” Ino asked seriously, a frown marring her beautiful pale features.

Sakura swallowed heavily, her throat closing up in the face of her lover’s obvious disappointment and her own inadequacy, “I…I can’t…I can’t train someone, Ino.”

Ino pursed her lips, her eyebrows furrowed in confusion, “Why not?”

Her lover’s warm hands slid from her shoulders, down the length of her arms until she had a firm hold of Sakura’s hands and fingers –it was grounding, “I-I didn’t even finish my own training with Shishou-!”

"Sakura-” Ino interrupted before she could continue on her tirade, “…yes, you didn’t finish your training with Tsunade-sama but you’ve long surpassed her. You’ve created your own techniques, mastered and improved the Byakugō, and you’ve saved countless lives. All on your own. And that was without finishing your training. Why are you hesitating on this? You don’t have to agree, but at least tell the kid not to get his hopes up. It’s been a month already and you’ve been avoiding him. You know that’s not right, love.”

“It’s just that he’s lost so much already…” Sakura shuffled forward, dropping her head against the crook of her lover’s neck, “…I don’t want him to break like I did when I lost Shishou.”

Ino’s palms crept up her sides before soothingly running down the length of Sakura’s spine until it reached the small of her back, where she left her hands to settle. An exhale of air from the blond woman’s mouth, one filled with resignation, fondness, and grief penetrated her ear, “You know that’s not it…”

Sakura stilled.

“You’re afraid that you’ll lose him.”

“Ren!”

“You’re not dead!”

“You can’t be dead!”

“REN!”

Sakura’s eyes blinked open to the morning sun bearing directly onto her face. Silent ghostly tears were matted on her chubby cheeks, running down her temples and disappearing into the mess she called hair. She let out a loud groan –whether it was from her crappy dream, the fact that she slept on the ground, or how her body felt as stiff as a board, she didn’t know. The redhead twisted her body until she was lying on her side before she attempted to heave herself off the ground. Loose gravel and sharp stones scraped and embedded themselves into her skin, leaving gashes that would heal horribly without Iryo ninjutsu. Sakura let out a loud hoarse sneeze, feeling something tickle her nostrils. She wiggled her nose, trying to get rid of said something as her eyes adjusted to the daybreak.

“What…the fuck-”

“AHHHHHHHHHH!”

‘Sage-fucking-damnit…why can’t we have one normal day…’

Sakura exhaled heavily as her head tipped back so that she was staring at the sky, her emerald eyes shut to the world while she enjoyed the warmth of the morning sun. She was contemplating just not reacting, pretending she didn’t hear Naruto –because it is Naruto, when isn’t it Naruto –scream, so she could probably get away with not giving a fuck. Except…

“OHMYFUCK-did I just fucking teleport to the Forest of Death in my sleep?!”

‘What the actual fuck, Naruto?’

“Naruto…” The enraged growl resounded throughout the area they were situated and Sakura could feel Naruto stiffen.

“Sas-Sasuke…is that you…or are you dea-”

“Yes, it’s me, dobe!”

“Oh, thank the sage!” She heard their blond-bimbo-turned-redhead loudly sigh in relief, “I thought I was in Fire Country again, even though we like traveled for like a super long time to Whirlpool Country yesterday and I was gonna be like super mad ‘cause that shit was-”

Sakura tuned out the rest of the other redhead’s rambling as she focused on the soothing sounds of rustling, an unknown soothing tune ringing in her ears –she’d started hearing it as soon as she landed in the past –a welcoming, sort of, warmth wrapping around her being. A gentle breeze traveled throughout the island, carrying with it the salty scent of the sea and the sour tinge of grass. The kunoichi wouldn’t mind laying here; taking in the world around her without thinking of what came next. Yet…as she listened to the distant voices of her panicking and grumbling teammates, she knew she could not.

“Alright!” Sakura called out as she pushed herself to her feet, the grass trailing across the expanse of exposed skin of her body.

Wait…grass?

The kunoichi whipped her head from left to right, taking in the overabundance of greenery surrounding her. Curiously, the grass hadn’t grown under her at all, just around her, leaving the patch of dry land she was lying on bare and in the shape of a starfish. She was sure…probably sure, that the area they were in was filled with only dirt –it wasn’t like how Uzushio was in the future, and that had taken over 20 years to grow. Not a day. Sakura eyed the scope of land, landing on the place where the vegetation was the highest with its lush blades of grass, flowers, and tiny trees.

“Naruto…” She huffed out as she navigated through the wonderland that her teammate had created.

“Sakura-chan! I’m here!” Their resident not-blond idiot called from the heaving pile of nature.

Sakura-chan groaned loudly, debating whether she even wanted to deal with those disasters that she called teammates. She could always knock the both of them out and be done with it, that way she would get the rest she so desperately craved, and maybe this time, her dreams wouldn’t be racked with nightmarish memories. Clicking her tongue in annoyance, she took a moment to gather chakra into her hands until they made fine-tipped blades –the Uzumaki reserves were still fucking with her control but it was better than the whole tree-walking fiasco. She used her chakra extensions to cleanly slice through the bigger and harder growths, making a path toward Naruto where there wasn’t one.

“Sakura-chan! I’m so glad to see you!”

Naruto…

Naruto was being held down by vines.

“Oi…isn’t this a bit too early for foreplay.” Sakura snubbed the other redhead, Naruto squawked in protest, “And aren’t you a little too young right now for you and the emo-duckbutt to be doing all of this.”

“So cruel, Sakura-chan!” Naruto yelled in a whiny voice, with trembling lips and watery eyes as he struggled with the vines completely encapsulating his small body.

The redheaded kunoichi snorted in amusement as she watched her teammate wiggle around like some kind of demented seal before she relented and decided to help him out. She dropped to her knees beside Naruto’s sprawled form and started slowly cutting away at the intertwined plants and branches; they reminded her of overgrown Bonsai trees. While she was doing that, the jinchūriki was muttering under his breath at the possibility of something like this happening –Sakura scoffed, because, of course, something like this would happen to them.

The sound of a brief swipe through the air and a soft thud alerted them of their third teammate who was wearing his signature scowl on his pale face. Sakura was sure that if he was any paler, he would be able to reflect the light of the sun, much as the real moon did. Although it did suit him quite well –what with him being the person with the Moon sigil etched on his skin. Sakura just raised an eyebrow at the boy before gesturing towards the other incapacitated boy, she wanted things to go faster and his help would be much appreciated.

Sasuke sighed as if they were the troublesome ones, dropped down next to her, and began cutting away at the vines, “What happened?”

“I’d like to know that as well, Naruto.” The redheaded girl huffed out pointedly.

Naruto pouted, his tail pressed uncomfortably into his back and ears swiveling around anxiously as he considered his answer, “…don’t know, just woke up like this.” He mumbled as he shifted around to try and get his new appendage out from under him.

“Stop moving.” Sakura snapped when she got too close to the fur of his tail, “So, what, you spouted plants from your ass?”

“Ah, mou, Sakura-chan, don’t say it like that!” The redhead grimaced, the image that popped into his head was less than pleasing –more like horrifying and Kurama was making it known how hilarious he found everything.

Their female teammate hummed in thought as she snagged a particularly stubborn root that was embedded deeply in the ground, “Could it be the Mokuton? You did say that you had a bit of the Shodaime inside you.”

“Please don’t phrase it like that.” Sasuke rasped out, his face twisted with a look of disgust.

Naruto’s eyes, on the other hand, light up in childish excitement at the mention of having a new jutsu –a kekkai genkai at that, “Like Yamato-taichou’s! That’s so cool! Do ya think I could build stuff like him?! And, and, and, I could like do all those other cool stuff like him-”

“You can’t think of anything else to do with the Mokuton.” Sasuke deadpanned.

“-what if I become scary like Yamato-taichou…?” Naruto asked in sudden horror, his previous joy extinguished in the face of his other worries, “I don’t want my face to look like his!”

“Shut up, Naruto!” Sakura screamed as she hacked off the last plant before punching the redheaded boy, “Now, get up! We have to scavenge for supplies.”

The kunoichi yanked the other boy to his feet without warning, who let out a squeak of fear at the rough handling before following after like a kicked puppy, well, kicked fox. His tail sagging low, barely swinging, and ears drooping down which made for an incredibly cute and heartbreaking picture. Luckily, Sakura had more steel and self-control to stop herself from reaching out and petting her teammate like she so dearly wanted to.

Sasuke wasn’t so lucky.

‘Why is he so cute like that? Did I always find stuff like that cute or is it just Naruto? And when was Naruto ever cute?!’

“I want a bed so badly, with silk sheets and soft fluffy blankets.” Sakura gushed with thoughts of finally having a proper rest –even though she probably slept for a solid twelve hours.

“So mean, Sakura-chan!” Naruto whined in a simpering voice.

‘So…Mokuton, huh…’

‘Can it, brat.’ Kurama’s voice rumbled in his head, his tone edging on irritation and anger, ‘I can’t believe the Sage gave you that happy-go-lucky idiot’s kekkai genkai.’

‘Hey!’ Naruto called out in offense.

‘The other idiot, idiot.’

‘Oh, the Shodaime,’ The redhead deduced smartly –after all, Kurama only knew so many happy-go-lucky idiots, ‘Dear old dad didn’t inform you of his plans?’

Kurama’s fur puffed up in indignation, a steam-like breath escaping his muzzle, ‘No, he didn’t. Combining that fool and Ashura with you brought forth many physical characteristics and new abilities. Not to mention my own attributes.’ He begrudgingly admitted 

‘The fox stuff?’ Naruto bit his lip in thought, his ears twitching with nervousness, ‘I know you weren’t just sleeping, you old fleabag, so tell me what you found out.’

‘Hmpf-old fleabag! I am the Kyūbi no Yōko! Demeaning me with such a derogatory name when I am the most po-’

‘Yeah, yeah, the most powerful bijū of all of his siblings, blah, blah, blah,’ The boy mocked with a smirk, ‘I don’t wanna know about ya personal dick measuring contest, I wanna know about my half-animal body! Now, tell me!’

‘Tch…shitty brat, your new form is stable.’ Kurama stated stingily, a sneer stretched across his maw, ‘You’ll be able to use your little techniques without shriveling up and dying.’

‘Wait, that was something that could’ve happened-!’

The fox demon continued, tactfully side-stepping his vessel’s screeching demands, ‘I am unsure of whether you would be able to morph out of this form in order to hide your more animalistic features. Fox spirits tend to change into humans to blend in with their surroundings so maybe that will be an option for you. There’s also your tail we have to consider since fox spirits grow more tails the older they get. I don’t know if that will apply to you but don’t be surprised if you suddenly sprout a new one. Now, onto other things, you have the capabilities of Hashirama and Ashura, on top of my own abilities and yours from the future which makes you –a very powerful little brat. However, you can’t do much right now with your feeble body. You’ll have to train yourself to do everything again. Even though you know the moves like the back of your hand, your body doesn’t, so no fighting anytime soon. That includes sparring too, brat.’

‘Aww…’ The jinchūriki pouted, he had wanted to fight head-on with Sasuke as soon as he heard about having the Shodaime and Ashura’s abilities, ‘Wait, does that mean that Sasuke has Indra and Madara’s abilities as well?!’

“Naruto!”

The Uzumaki boy jerked back from his inner domain and towards his fellow teammate, who was waving him towards a relatively safe minka before continuing on without him. Naruto took a moment to gather himself together then jogged towards the other redhead who had taken the initiative to approach the sliding door of the house. The panes of the door were cracked and damaged in some places, it creaked as the redhead tried to pry it open and the grim covering the wooden rail made it harder to move but Sakura managed to do it. His slightly smaller teammate stepped into the house first, guard raised as a testament to their years entrenched in war while Naruto followed closely behind with alert eyes. His cerulean eyes shot from left to right, eagerly taking in every single detail that he could –he hadn’t been able to see this the last time, since the culture had practically degraded due to the years of being unkempt. The tatami mats beneath their bare feet were slightly wet, the edges blackened from molding while the fusuma doors were torn down –likely by swords and kunai he noted –leaving the house without dividers.

“Alright, I’m going to find some futons.” Sakura said, already leaving to do her task, “Check for some clothes for us, even if it’s big, we can resize it.”

Before Naruto could even agree, the other redhead was already bounding through the decrepit house with a skip in her step. He huffed out an exasperated breath, her eagerness to find a proper bed to sleep in was adorable and he, too, would like to sleep on something that wasn’t the ground so he let her go without argument. Naruto stood in the middle, of what he supposed was once a sitting room –there was an upturned table on the floor, and the picture frames and tapestries decorating the tokonoma at the far end of the room were shattered and torn.  The redhead was silent as he strode through the destroyed house, he didn’t know what was worse –actually seeing echoes of the Uzumaki’s fall or seeing what was left after they were forgotten.

Naruto stopped short when his foot landed on something soft and squishy; praying to the Sage that it wasn’t a body, he looked down and found a teddy bear. It was plush, the fuzzy material dirty and torn with a button eye missing while the other stared at him –the remaining eye almost accusing, making Naruto take an unconscious step back.  He shuddered a little at the slight ominous feel he got from the toy before quickly shuffling towards the open doorway adjacent to the entrance. Sakura had taken the path through the kitchen and presumably to the second floor to look for the bedrooms so Naruto took the side door with a long hallway.

‘It’s a miracle this place is still standing.’ The redhead thought as he took in the obvious signs of struggling –of ninjutsu being used in the scuffle. He knew that whoever lived here hadn’t survived.

‘I wouldn’t put it past the Uzumaki’s to reinforce their houses with seals, kit.’ Kurama spoke in a softer tone before chuckling, ‘They were a bunch of bombers and pranksters. It wasn’t surprising that they tried to mitigate any damage from any failed sealing attempts by placing a shitload of protection seals everywhere.’

Naruto smiled fondly, wondering whether his parents had done the same things, “I’m sure they were a riot.”

‘Yeah, they were chaos chasers.’ The demon fox smirked, his eye flickering as if remembering the old days, ‘You're more like your mother in that right.’

Naruto choked down his urge to cry, he took measured breaths –inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale –until his heart calmed and his mind settled. Deciding to leave the reminiscing for another time, he focused on his task as he walked further into the darkened hallway. While it was bright outside, the house itself was blocked by a substantial amount of vegetation, with all the outer doors being closed and no working lights, the inside of the house was almost pitch black. Naruto stopped in front of a room, the fusuma doors were open instead of broken in like the others. He noticed the rumpled discarded futons on the floor and surmised that it was a bedroom –most likely the parents’ –there was also ninja equipment thrown haphazardly around the larger room.

‘Iwa and Kiri attacked in the dead of night so they were likely in a rush to defend the village.’ Naruto thought while scrubbing through his brain for whatever he could remember about Uzushio’s fall.

The redhead stepped into the room, hesitating for a second before he made his way over to the closets lining the inner walls. He didn’t touch the futons since they looked moth-eaten and dirty, and he’d rather not have to sleep on something someone else used just before they died. Naruto jerked open the cupboard door, the hinges squeaking slightly, and started rifling through the clothes on the hangers. Most of the attires had collected dust, nothing some cleaning couldn’t fix so he gathered those into his small arms and placed them on a fairly dry spot on the tatami mats. The clothing was a mixture of bright colors –the shade of a bright sky without clouds, a sea of rolling waves and foamy tides, and a stark white moon with shades of grey. Every single article of clothing had the Uzumaki Clan symbol intricately sewn into the wears.

“They’re beautiful…” Naruto muttered in awe as he held up a particularly artistic-looking piece –the stitching was made with golden thread that glittered in the low light, he could only imagine how it would actually look when the sun reflected off it.

Carefully, the redhead folded all the kimonos and yukatas in from the closet and gently placed them in a pile on the ground. He gathered the shinobi gear and clothing, wrappings included, into a separate stack before searching around the room for a bag to carry the things in. Naruto was checking the drawers in the corners of the room when a bolt of electricity zapped through his body. The time-traveler gasped out loudly from the sudden influx of pain, abruptly letting go of the last drawer handle. He watched as the wood of the furniture lit up a chakra blue before revealing a well-hidden seal –a protection seal to be exact.

Naruto’s head tilted to the side as he examined the seal with narrowed eyes. It looked like something similar to what he had done in the past but it was keyed to the residents of the house which made it unlikely for anyone else to get access to whatever was inside, “Well, seems easy enough.”

Kurama scoffed at his vessel’s words, ‘Only you would take a single look at a seal done by an Uzumaki and say it’s easy.’

“But I’ve done seals like this so it’s easy.”

‘Kit…this is an A-Grade security seal, which is difficult, even for an Uzumaki.’ The demon fox stated bluntly, ‘Then again, your seals hid us from Kaguya so I don’t think you can compare the two.’

“Aww, you’re such a flatterer!” Naruto flamboyantly cooed at his tenant, before obnoxiously stating, “Anyway, as much as I would love to stand here and listen to you compliment me the entire day, we have things to do.”

With that, Naruto set to work and began gathering chakra into the tip of his index finger, intending on changing the seal in one go. The seal probably had an anti-tamper link added in –seal masters were finicky like that –so he had to be careful around that. Naruto started on the anti-tampering component first, he isolated and severed the connection between that section and the entire seal without touching the other parts. This allowed him to access the rest of the seal, the security measures, and the authentication which he could now interact with. Naruto disabled the blood recognition portion which took a bit more work since whoever did the seal had integrated it into various parts of the design. However when he was done, and there was nothing holding the security part of the seal together, the entire seal collapsed on itself and faded away. Thankfully there wasn’t an explosion waiting for him –he wouldn’t put it past any Uzumaki, since he and his mother shared that tendency after all.

“There! Easy enough!” He cheered lightly with a beaming smile, his tail swishing from side to side in delight.

Kurama scoffed.

Naruto ignored the old fleabag and slowly slid open the drawer, curiosity brimming as he considered what was so important that the previous owners had sealed it off using an A-Grade seal. Peeking inside, his jaw dropped open as he took in the abundance of scrolls that littered the draw. There were some personal effects inside as well, baby clothes and toys, ceremonial robes –he didn’t touch them, they weren’t his to take.

‘Yet, you’re taking the scrolls, hmpf-hypocrite.’

Naruto pouted.

The scrolls were all untouched and sealed with a special wax, likely to read chakra and blood so he’ll have to wait to open them. He didn’t know whether the blood was keyed to a specific person or just to people of Uzumaki blood and he couldn’t change the seal like before. Seals on scrolls like these were different –permanent because there was a unique type of ink and wax used in the process as opposed to just using chakra, which could be manipulated. Quickly, Naruto took the scrolls and stuffed them into a bag that he had found before zipping it up. He was sure there were more like this and while he wasn’t going to necessarily open them, he was going to store them away in a safer location.

After all, the Uzumaki were going to come back and when they do, Naruto would have everything ready for them.

A screech from the second floor drew the redhead’s attention, his ears flinched away from the sound while his tail fluffed out in fright –urgh, he was gonna have to learn to control that –Naruto huffed out a breath and gathered that Sakura must have found the emergency futons. Loud rattling footsteps from above alerted the redhead of his teammate’s descent; he braced himself for her excitement and unnecessary violence. The echoing of her bare feet slapping against the tatami mats grew closing until the she-devil was standing in front of him, with an arm full of bedrolls and three futons thrown carelessly over her small shoulders.

Sakura was drowning in their bedding.

“Pfft-!” Naruto snorted into his cupped hands before breaking down into laughter. The bag he was carrying slipped off his shoulder from how hard he was shaking. Every time he looked up at Sakura, it just made him laugh harder and her crazy red Madara hair wasn’t making it any easier on him.

“Eh-? What the hell are you laughing for, Naruto?!” Sakura demanded as her face turned an unflattering shade of red –one that clearly didn’t match the red of her hair.

“N-no, nothing, it’s nothing, I’m sorry…pfft-!” The redheaded boy conceded and burst out laughing, right in his teammate’s face. It probably wasn’t the smartest thing to do, especially with how volatile she was.

Sakura’s left eye twitched, her self-control waning while her olive eyes darkened a shade, “Tch, I’m gonna go check what’s making you laugh so much.” She said before stomping away, presumably to find a mirror.

Wait…she’s going to find a mirror?

“Fuck.” Naruto gritted out, his body tense with fear, before quickly hiking his bag over his shoulder and bolting out of the house.

‘…3…2…1.’

‘Do you have to do the countdown now?!’

“NARUTO!”

“Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck-!” The redheaded boy chanted under his breath as he pumped his chubby little, and kind of useless, legs faster. He needed to get as far away from that house as quickly as possible and find Sasuke.

‘Yes, Sasuke! He’ll help me!’ Naruto panted heavily as he searched through the ruins of Uzushio for his broody boyfriend.

‘Or he’ll help the pink brat hide your body.’ Kurama tactfully inserted his opinion which was, frankly, the last thing he wanted right now, ‘Uchihas are sell-outs and prefer self-preservation over everything else. This is what you get for dating one of those scumbags.’

‘Not now, fleabag!’

Naruto yelped as something grabbed a hold of his very sensitive tail and yanked without mercy, stopping his escape and dragging him back to hell. He whined loudly, not unlike a kit getting caught in a trap, and tripped over a sharp jutting rock which caused him to land face-first on the hard ground. The harsh pulling continued, ruthless in its attempt of punishing him, he tried to halt his teammate’s actions by digging his talons into the floor and refusing to let go. Except…it didn’t work and the only thing left was ten deep claw imprints on the ground.

Naruto sniffled lightly, dramatic tears dripping down his face as he tried to massage the lump on his head away. At least he knew that Sakura’s punches didn’t change –not a good thing for them or their enemies and with her looking like Madara’s mistake from a particularly bad one-night-stand, it was a disaster waiting to happen. Sakura was the spitting image of a nightmare coming to life and would likely destroy everything around her just for shits and giggles. And they wouldn’t stop her. Nope, Naruto and Sasuke would rather stand on the sidelines than get between that she-devil and playtime.

“Why’d ya haf’ta hit me so hard?!” The animal-eared boy cried out, his furry protrusions flattened against his head depicting his sadness and pain, “It’s not like I made you look like that! If you wanted someone to hit, take it up with the shitty old man in the sky!”

Sakura smiled a smile full of teeth and bloodthirsty glee, “And where’s the fun in that?”

Naruto shuddered as his fur stood on end, recognizing a threat in the form of an ultimate predator. Subtly, he squirmed and shuffled away from the maniac towering over him –he was afraid to admit it but maybe Madara did manage to procreate between planning world domination and denying his feelings for Hashirama. Sakura could be descended from that obscure line because Naruto swore that he saw that same sadistic grin on the Patriarchal Uchiha’s face when he was slaughtering the Allied Forces. Sakura just raised an inquisitive eyebrow at him before stepping away, taking away the uncomfortable pressure which allowed him to let out a relieved breath.

‘Kurama…I saw my last moments right there.’ He admitted bluntly –he wasn’t a coward to acknowledge the fact that he was afraid of his female teammate. If there was anyone who felt otherwise, then they were most likely stupid, dead, or just as crazy.

‘Mine too.’ The demon fox stated uneasily, his bushy tails curving around his massive body protectively.

Naruto followed suit, his singular fluffy tail curling around his waist, acting like his personal safety blanket that he could pet. His ears swiveled attentively towards the sound of hard dirt crunching beneath shoe-covered feet before his head followed suit, Naruto turned to face their third team member who was staring at them with raised eyebrows. Sasuke was dressed in new clothes, standard black shinobi pants, and a dark blue shirt with a grey jacket, boots adorning his previous bare feet –the clothes looked slightly bigger than him, which he clearly tried to combat with wrappings that he tied around his calves and forearms.

“Hey, Uzumaki colors suit you, teme,” Naruto smirked at his lover –he remembered fondly that the other boy said the exact same thing about him and the Uchiha Clan colors.

A soft blush rose onto Sasuke’s pale cheeks before looked away in an attempt to hide his reaction, “Hn.”

Sakura shook her head in exasperation, her boys were so awkward, even after being together for so long –maybe that was how they kept the romance alive, “Alright lovebirds, we have things to do.”

“Oh, yeah! I found a bunch of clothes and scrolls in that house we were at.” Naruto stated with a wide grin on his whiskered face, “Did you find anything in those other bedrooms, Sakura?”

The little redheaded girl grimaced at the question, “I…the clothes were too small, possibly younger than us and I didn’t really want to touch anything in those rooms.”

Naruto’s bright azure eyes dulled at the girl’s words –he knew there had been kids in that house but knowing those children might be dead caused something inside him to crack. He bit his bottom lip, his longer and sharper canine easily slicing through the flesh, bringing blood to the surface but he hardly noticed, “Haa…anything else you managed to get besides futons and bedrolls.”

Sasuke eyed his lover, his normally concealed concern shining through while Sakura pushed on, “I went back to get some accessories for myself. I can’t believe you guys didn’t tell me that I looked like that asshole! And my beautiful hair! I look like some kind of wild animal!” The girl mourned her previously pin-straight hair. While her hair was jagged in length before the disaster of the time travel seal, it had been easy to maintain with how silky it was all the time. Now that was gone!

‘At least her appearance finally matches what she actually is.’ Naruto thought childishly with a huff.

“I’ve been meaning to ask but why exactly do you have traits of Mad-my ancestor?” Sasuke asked calmly, with a raised eyebrow.

Sakura tilted her head to one side as she processed the question before her eyes lit up, “Oh! My great-grandparents were an Uzumaki-Uchiha couple. Hagoromo-sama brought forth my recessive traits from those clans which is why I look like this.”

“What?” Sasuke deadpanned.

Naruto, on the other hand, beamed with joy for the girl, “Holy shit! I knew you were Uzumaki from the hair and build but Uchiha too! That’s so cool! Oh, oh, oh, do you like have it?” He asked in a whisper as if inquiring about some great big secret.

“Have what?”

“Ya know, the Sharingan.” The half-fox boy stated excitedly, his azure eyes wide with eagerness, which made the purple flecks in them stand out even more.

Sakura gaped in shock before smacking herself in the face, her cherubic face wrinkling in thought, “Sage, how could I forget about that!” She shouted then dived for the little bag she had snatched from the house they visited –she had taken all the hair ties, clips, and pins that she could find, along with a couple of mirrors.

Yanking a small make-up mirror from a semi-secure pouch, she sat on her haunches and stared at her reflection, more specifically her olive-green eyes, and tried to channel chakra to them. She remembered how Sasuke described the feeling of having the Sharingan and her own intensive study on various dōjutsu and tried to apply those lessons to herself. Sakura knew that the Uchiha Clan developed their special ocular power through trauma, sometimes via feelings of intense protectiveness and love, things which she had in spades. Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and naturally let her chakra gather around her eyes before snapping them open.

Sakura stared at the mirror in amazement; red eyes with three tomoe stared back, the pattern spinning wildly around.

“Fuck yes! Sakura-chan, you did it!” Naruto cheered loudly, his black-tipped tail wagging and ears wiggling in elation, the actions more suited towards a dog rather than a fox.

A smirk stretched across Sasuke’s lips, his version of being impressed and proud –for someone who worked with theory and other people’s experiences alone, Sakura had managed to awaken the Sharingan with three fully formed tomoe even though she just got it.

“Wow…” The redheaded girl murmured as she bewilderingly took in her surroundings. She could literally see and count the number of dust particles floating around them. Everything around her turned sluggish and almost unmoving in some cases, she waved an open palm across her eyes –the slowness of every movement, her movements, made her slightly dizzy and all the more excited.

“Oh, oh, try to see if you’ve got Mangekyō too!” Naruto suggested, bouncing on the tips of his toes, his long toenails scratching against the ground.

The black-haired Uchiha raised a challenging eyebrow, haughtiness evident in his stature as he crossed his arms across his chest with a smirk on his lips. Sasuke was a bit worried –even though he’d rather bite his tongue off than rather than admit it –about where they were going to get someone to switch eyes with Sakura since that form causes extreme pain to the body and eventual] vision loss, “Try it, Sakura though I doubt-”

“Woah…-” Sakura gasped loudly in awe, she was squinting her new glittery eyes pretty hard but the end result was evident, “Holy shit…is it supposed to be this easy? And like there’s no pain or anything, aren’t you guys always bitching about it being painful.”

The Uzuchiha’s eye had taken on a form of a beautiful crisscrossing kaleidoscope –blooming like a four-petal pinwheel flower in a sea of blood with slight thick lines circling near the pupil and the outer ring. Sasuke lost all face and gaped openly as Sakura switched between the different stages of her Sharingan before finally stopping on the motherfucking Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan which literally looked like a fucking flower dancing in her eye sockets.

Sasuke’s eye twitched, followed by the rest of his body as the frustration settled deep into his bones, “What the fuck?”

Naruto’s gushing and Sakura’s stunned gasping came to a halt that the sound of his raspy voice cursing up a storm. The two of them shared a coy look before saddling up next to the black-haired Uchiha, who was silently fuming while desperately trying not to give in to his urge to punch something. The animal-eared boy placed a hand on his lover’s shoulder as he spoke softly to him, “What’s going on, teme?”

Sasuke stayed silent.

“Sasuke…” Naruto conceded and drawled out the other’s name to gain his attention, “I thought we talked out this. You need to talk about your feelings so we can help you. Brooding all the time isn’t good for your health, anata.”

The Uchiha shuddered in disgust at the fake concern and sugary tone that his boyfriend was using on him, “This is fucking bullshit and I know that shitty old man in the sky had something to do with it.”

Sakura, finally realizing why the other boy was so pissed off, smirked deviously, “Aww, are you upset that I managed to get the fully awakened Sharingan so easily~” She asked in a babyish tone, a mocking pout on her lips as she stared at him from under her eyelashes.

“No, this is actually bullshit. You’re bullshit and so is that Sage.” Sasuke sneered, a scowl spoiling his aristocratic features, “Do you know how much suffering I went through for the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan?! This isn’t fair!”

“Life’s not fair, darling~” Sakura cooed while blinking innocently, before stating flatly, “So, quit your whining.”

“I’m not whining!” Sasuke proceeded to whine.

Naruto snorted.

“And your Mangekyō is the ugliest one I’ve ever seen.” The Uchiha snubbed before looking away with a pout on his lips while his lover burst out into ropes of laughter.

“Now, you’re just being childish.” Sakura tutted at the supposedly most ‘mature’ of Team 7, she didn’t know who started that rumor but they needed to get their facts checked –anyone who runs away from home to play the longest and most frustrating game of murder tag with their older brother while simultaneously trying to escape their feelings for blond idiots was most certainly not ‘mature’, “I didn’t know it was time for us to start acting the age we look.”

Sasuke’s body twitch before he rigidly turned to face her, the look on his face was not dissimilar to the one he had all those years ago when he spoke about Itachi. Only it was just a tad bit more crazed, “Let’s fight Sakura, Sharingan against Sharingan. A ‘Welcome-to-the-Uchiha-Clan’ tradition.” He threw his arms out into a wide arc, emphasizing his words.

An even more insane grin spread across Sakura’s lips, “Bring it, pipsqueak.”

…Except they did shit-all because Naruto stepped in between them both with a rare look of anger on his chubby whispered face. His tail was bristling, standing tall and commanding –stiff and unmoving just like his resolve. Naruto’s head was tilted forwards, long red bangs shadowing his eyes, his aura edging towards being oppressive which made it hard for them to even breathe.

Sakura and Sasuke fucked up.

And now, one very pissed off Uzumaki Naruto had come out to play.

Sasuke and Sakura backed down without a fight. All the while looking like two thoroughly scolded puppies.

Naruto didn’t even need to say anything.

“Alright, now since that’s over!” The redheaded boy suddenly clapped cheerfully, his inner demon –not Kurama –sucked back into his being in an instant. It was almost like it had never happened in the first place, “Sasuke, Sakura, let’s go explore the tunnels!”

With that, Naruto skipped away from the pair, humming a happy unknown tune loudly while they stared at him, dumbfounded and afraid to move.

“Urghh-” Sakura shuddered, her body visibly wiggling as she tried to get rid of the stone that had dropped into her stomach, “there’s a good fucking reason that he’s the nice one.”

“Yeah,” Sasuke whispered throatily –he knew he should be scared, in fact, he was, but he couldn’t lie and say that he didn’t find that to be extremely hot.

Man, was he fucked.

“Guys! Come here, I found one of the sealed archives!” The animal-eared boy yelled out for them.

Naruto was standing in front of what looked like a temple, but also not –it wasn’t a Shinto shrine for worship, instead it looked more like a storage space. No, this was different because this held information and secrets of his clan, things that had been taken away from him and hidden before being destroyed in the chaos. He eyed the temple-like structure with awe written across his childish features. It was built with simplicity in mind yet managed to look even more beautiful than all the other buildings he’d seen in his entire past life. Following the colors of the Uzumaki and minor clans, hues of blues, silver, and gold linings with shades of black, the deepest reds, and various tones of brown, from honeycomb to dark chocolate, were splattered artfully across the planes of the temple. Even though it looked a little worse for the wear –his cerulean eyes noted the damaged state of the building, the rank greenery, the wood of the entrance was chipped and scarred, the charms and sigils hanging from the roof were torn and some were clearly missing, and the protective fence surrounding the building was completely destroyed. It seemed like people had already attempted to steal the secrets from Uzushio and only managed to get past the first layer.

That, in itself, was unacceptable.

Not willing to wait anymore for his teammates to catch up with him, Naruto moved on without them and stepped past the threshold of the building –archives, if he was certain. A bolt of something zapped through his small body, freezing him in place for a moment before he was let go. The redheaded boy’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion minutely then realized that the hidden seals had just checked him. Probably to see whether he was an Uzumaki or not –he’d rather not find out the consequences of not being part of the sealing clan. Secure in his knowledge that he wasn’t going to be blown out of existence, Naruto continued on confidently and strode to the large double doors of the archives building.

His azure eyes narrowed in on the intricate seal burned into the wood of the door, it looked personally handcrafted. Whoever opened these seals in their past (future?) was most definitely an Uzumaki seal master –the mark called for the blood of the clan and for someone with decades of knowledge in the art in order for it to open. Huffing out an irritated breath, Naruto determinately stepped forward, a sharpened claw already slashing across the palm of his hand which he placed face-down on the seal of the door. At the first smear of the dark red liquid, the mark lit up blue, tracing the pattern from the inside and flowing outwards, like a particularly beautiful dance.

Naruto shut his eyes tightly, his mind somehow connecting with the seal which gave him a blueprint of the design. He took his time to study it, the links and what they were attached to, the backdoors and entrances, the blocked flow of chakra and blood that prevented the door from opening. The redhead’s blood just allowed him access to the seal, he still had to unseal the door itself before he could go in and by the looks of the design –it was truly a work of art.

‘Looks like a more primitive version of your seal, Fishcake.’ Kurama’s voice rumbled in his head.

Naruto snorted at his tenant, ‘Primitive as you call it but it’s revolutionary for the people of this time.’

‘Hmpf-the looks on these lesser beings' faces when they see your stuff is going to be satisfying to witness.’

‘Aww, was that another compliment?’ The redhead cooed to the demon fox.

Kurama scoffed haughtily, ‘As if, you’re merely an inch higher than the rest of your insignificant kind and that’s just because of my presence and you being Ashura’s incarnation.’

'Tsk, tsk, tsk, you’re so grumpy today, Kurama.’

Just as the demon fox was set on snarling another insult at him, a click resounded in his head before the door lit up completely with a bright blue hue –akin to the color of chakra. The cracks of the door, starting from the seal and extending outwards, were filled with a bluish-red chakra as the Uzumaki spiral made itself known, and then the double doors creakily swung open without prompt. Naruto exhaled an awed breath, his body vibrating with how cool his clan was.

“Naruto!” The scream ripped him from his thoughts and towards his teammates –specifically Sakura, who was crouched down beside Sasuke, holding him up.

Pain was etched into his features.

Naruto abandoned his voyage and sped to his team, his heart beating a tattoo against his ribs as he took in his lover’s pallid complexion, heavy breathing, the copious amount of sweat, and huge fucking seal lit up under his small figure. He cursed loudly and skidded to a stop in front of his last two precious people, dropped to his knees, and stared at the seal in horror. It was that hidden seal that had caught him earlier, for reading Uzumaki blood which Sasuke didn’t have.

“It caught me too before letting go!” Sakura stared in horror while holding the still-frozen Uchiha, “Sasuke froze too and stayed like that.”

“I-It hurts-” The black-haired boy rasped out, the veins in his neck bulging dangerously as he pushed himself to talk.

Naruto’s heart almost threatened to stop at the admittance –he remembered someone else, a hole where a heart was, whispering of regrets so large it ate away at him, he couldn’t save them –before he scrounged up steel around it. Shaking away his dark thoughts –thoughts that were locked in a box and shoved into the recesses of his mind, thoughts that swallowed him whole, thoughts that should not leave the box, thoughts that were in danger of leaving the box –Naruto set to work, slashing his healed palm and placing it on the seal. The redheaded boy sucked in a gasp as his mind showed him, not the blueprint of a seal as it did before, but a vision of the island of Uzushio. It showed him of a time before its people were taken away and of the time they were slaughtered and Naruto knew why Sasuke was hurting.

‘Please…’ He whispered in thought, pushing his will into the island, ‘Please, he is mine. Mine to love and mine to protect. He is friendly. He is of no danger to Uzushiogakure. Uchiha Sasuke is an extension of me and thus the Uzumaki Clan.’

And by some goddamn miracle, Naruto felt an answering caress from the island –it was filled with warmth, love, adoration, and welcoming –followed by a familiar humming tune.

Sasuke exhaled a loud relieved gasp, his body lurching forwards from the force of it before he slumped into Sakura’s arms tiredly, “Goddamn Uzumakis and their stupid seals.” The Uchiha wheezed out while Sakura barked out a slightly hysterical laugh at his sour words.

“What the hell happened, Naruto?” Sakura asked when she sobered up some, her face set with serious determination –he knew she would beat the answer out of him if he didn’t tell her.

“Uzushio gave Sasuke the A-Okay to be here!” Naruto exclaimed with a shit-eating grin and a thumbs-up.

Sasuke and Sakura stared at him with blank eyes.

Naruto continued on, heedless of their reaction, “Now that that’s over, I opened the archives so let’s go.” The redheaded boy stated casually, he swiftly turned on the heel of his foot and marched back to the, now, open building.

Sakura clicked her tongue at her companion’s back, “Come on, Sasuke. Walk it off, we’ve probably got thousands of scrolls to read through now.”

“Urgh…fuck.” The Uchiha groaned in annoyance –maybe he could get away with knocking himself unconscious.

“Uzushio was built on the backs of Kushinadahime and her eight daughters in the middle of a sea of whirlpools. After they had successfully made a new life for themselves, creating a village for themselves with their own hands, they took on a new name –shedding their old name and old lives altogether. They called themselves the ‘Uzumaki Clan’, after the swirling vortex of the whirlpools that protected them. They were a clan that created a new art with the guidance and acceptance of the gods at their side. But curiosity was an eager thing, daring people to cross the ocean to catch a glimpse of this newfound ability yet they were all met with resistance. Kushinadahime was wary of people outside the island, afraid of the harm that could befall her precious children and the new life they created. But her daughters pleaded with their mother, for as Kushinadahime had once desired freedom so did her daughters. With a heavy heart, the Queen of Uzushio accepted and opened their home to the people.”

-Excerpt, ‘The Legend of Kushinadahime and the Beginning of Uzushio’: Ch 5, Pg 17

“The island of Uzushio holds four clans on her land. The Uzumaki Clan was the most prominent, the first ones to create the village and the ones who allowed the mainland access to their waters. The three minor clans that followed were either married into the Uzumaki Clan or sought asylum with them. The Igarashi Clan, the Adachi Clan, the Hiraoka Clan. Uzushio was home to people who didn’t have one and eagerly accepted people in the fold, as long as they didn’t bring harm to the island and its inhabitants.”

-Excerpt, ‘The Four Clans of Uzushio’: Ch 1, Pg 3

“The sealing arts were bestowed on the Uzumaki as a gift for Kushinadahime’s bravery and love when she used her spilled blood to pray to the gods for help. It’s an intricate study of sealing that allows the user to create, manipulate and destroy their surroundings using artistry. It is one of the most powerful techniques ever created, something that is both hereditary and learned. The Uzumaki Clan was blessed with an instinctual feeling toward sealing. Their ability to see and read patterns as effortlessly as breathing was a boon to the clan and while not everyone is proficient in the art –all Uzumaki are capable of mastering the basics quite easily. Sealing is an art that can be taught to others, though they do have a harder time with it, however, anyone can use it if they go through years of training. ”

-Excerpt, ‘The Art of Sealing’: Ch 2, Pg 1

“The Igarashi Clan is a minor clan from the Land of Water, a clan of nobility that married a princess of Uzushio before completely migrating to the island. They are a clan of dark-haired folk with silver eyes, their banners carrying the shades of their appearance, and are known for their proficient control of the tides with their technique called the ‘Fifty Storms’. In the Land of Whirlpools, the Igarashi Clan thrived greatly and became quite feared on the seas. Their abilities made them formidable on the battlefields when the Shinobi Wars broke out; however, their small numbers meant it was highly dangerous for them to be alone as they were often attacked first.”

-Excerpt, ‘The Nobility of the Igarashi Clan’: Ch 1, Pg 1’

“The Adachi Clan heralds from a line of Samurai and Weapon Masters that descended from the Tetsu no Kuni, a place that is separate from the world of shinobi. This is due to the fact that Tetsu no Kuni’s military is made up of samurai instead of shinobi, who would have made quite formidable enemies if provoked so the Elemental Nations collectively agreed not to interfere with the Land of Iron. The shinobi and samurai held different ideologies, and traditions –it set them apart and made it difficult for a proper agreement to be made between the two factions so they stayed out of each others’ way. The samurai stayed out of the Shinobi Wars that occurred and the shinobi settled to never be at arms with the samurai

However, the Adachi Clan was as honorable as they were adaptable and when one of their daughters pleaded with the elders for the chance to marry into the Uzumaki Clan, a distinct shinobi clan –a union born out of love, they couldn’t turn away. However, this went against the creed of the samurai in the Land of Iron, since this meant they would be joining the shinobi through marriage which would have broken the unspoken agreement of neutrality between the rest of the Elemental Nations and Tetsu no Kuni. The Adachi Clan conceded and left for Uzushio, where they stayed lest tragedy and war befall their home country.

The Adachi Clan’s traditions and skills were passed down through the generations, shared between all of the people residing on the island, and later became one of Uzushio’s signature fighting styles.”

-Excerpt, ‘Tetsu no Kuni and the Adachi Clan’: Ch 1, Pg 2’

“The Hiraoka Clan was a genesis clan –a clan born from civilian blood that created one of the most powerful techniques that are still used in Uzushio, though it is wildly protected because of how dangerous it is. They called Yuri no Hana (Lily Flower) their home until their village was slaughtered in a skirmish over land between Hana no Kuni and Tsuchi no Kuni. The Hiraoka Clan was a larger-than-usual civilian family that fought for their survival and in doing so created the Animēshon: Kaiga technique. After parting from their home country, the family sought asylum with the Uzumaki Clan and were eagerly accepted into the fold. Several of their family members married into the various clans, but they still retain their name.”

-Excerpt, ‘Genesis: The Hiraoka Clan’: Ch 2, Pg 4

A small, quaint smile hitched onto Naruto’s lips as he reread the passage over, “Four Clans, huh?”

“I thought the Uzumaki were all just one clan.” Sakura piped in with furrowed eyebrows.

“Hmm…” The redhead hummed in thought, “…the Uzumaki were the largest population on the island so it’s no wonder everyone thought it was just one clan. Also, I think it has something to do with protecting the minor clans. While all of them were pretty dangerous, they were also very small clans on their own. They probably banded together under the Uzumaki name to become stronger.”

Sasuke grimaced at that, “A bit too strong.”

The three children nodded solemnly, sad eyes cast to the dusty floor of the archives –Kiri and Iwa, and probably the rest of the world thought they were too strong and decided to eliminate them all for it. The Uzumakis’ urge to protect their loved ones had led to their demise but it did bring Naruto hope in such a bleak situation. Because, if these three clans –all from different backgrounds, countries, traditions, and ideologies –could come together, and protect one another, then that meant there was hope for the rest of the villages.

“There’s so much information here…” Naruto muttered reverently as he stared at the scroll in his hand, taking not-so-subtle glances at the papers and books scattered around them, “…about our people, our different cultures that we melded together, our history and our struggles. The minor clans were still apparent, separated by compounds on Uzushio, yet they were called Uzumaki to the rest of the world, whether they were of blood or not.  We had samurais on this island, guys! From the Land of Iron! We have noble blood, people who could control the seas, and extraordinary sealing abilities, we had…so much. We had so much. And now it’s gone.”

Sasuke looked away from the heartbroken expression of his lover’s face –he knew it all too well, all the questions that the redhead was probably asking himself. Sasuke did the same when his whole world had been destroyed. The questions –why did Itachi kill our clan, we didn’t do anything, people were always discriminating against us, it’s not fair, we weren’t a danger to anyone, all my loved ones were killed, just why, why, why, why –the Uchiha had continuously asked himself, over and over again and yet he never got an answer in return. Not from his brother, not from his dead clan, not from the Sandaime, not from his teacher, not from his comrades, and certainly not from Konoha –no, he got it from the person that helped slaughter his clan. Naruto had that same look on his face, asking for answers that people would not give because that was war and the Uzumaki was a threat that needed to be stopped. The Uchiha might have been butchered in a time of peace but it was under the basis of preconceived and unwarranted war, which made it fair game for the Council and the Hokage to allow- no, to sanction their deaths.

Sakura was quiet for a time, contemplating Naruto’s words before coming to a conclusion, “We’ll change it, Naruto. We’ll revive the Uzumaki Clan!” She declared then turned to the other boy, “We’ll save the Uchiha Clan from those old hags too!”

“And how are you going to that?” Sasuke inquired dryly, not rallying together with the redheaded girl’s Naruto-esque attitude.

Sakura.exe had stopped working.

She froze at his question, running the suddenly huge problem through her mind before defaulting, “Well then, what’s your plan?” She pouted as she crossed her arms –the whole positivity thing was Naruto’s shtick for a reason.

“Kill Danzō. Kill the hench-plant. Kill Tobi. Kill the Akatsuki. Kill Orochimaru which might take a couple of tries. And if that Rabbit Bitch somehow still resurrects, kill her too.” The Uchiha boy listed off the tips of his fingers with a stoic face while Sakura stared at him with raised eyebrows.

“That’s it?” The Uzuchiha just stared at him for a moment.

Sasuke nodded, resolute in his explanation –if it could even be called that.

Sakura face-palmed hard, the resounded smack echoing throughout the old archives hall, before she gave the Uchiha a dull and defeated look. Sasuke grimaced at a handprint covering her face from the force of the hit.

“Naruto, talk some sense into your boyfriend. He’s being an idiot.”

Sasuke frowned at her words, insulted and ready to make it known when his half-animal boyfriend clamped a hand around his skinny bicep. The look of ‘we-need-to-talk’ written in bold capitals across his tanned, whiskered face –his ears were twitching slightly as his tail hung uselessly behind him, and the disappointment was thick in the atmosphere.

Sasuke knew he fucked up.

“Is that what you think we’re doing?” Naruto asked softly, his eyes lowered to the ground –Sasuke couldn’t tell what his boyfriend was thinking when he wasn’t making eye contact with him. Naruto’s azure eyes were always so expressive, even more so now, that it made it hard for him to lie to anyone. He was usually so easy to read but Naruto was actively avoiding eye contact. While Sasuke could practically taste the disappointment radiating off his lover, he still needed Naruto to look him in the eye and tell him to his face ‘I’m disappointed in you. You’re supposed to do better.’

Not knowing how to respond to Naruto not looking at him, Sasuke chose anger.

“What, do you want to save them? They destroyed so many lives, even before my clan was killed. The whole world was wiped out because of them.” Sasuke asked incredulously, fury seeping into his tone and dripping from his words.

Naruto shook his head in disagreement, “That was the will of the Rabbit Goddess, not Danzō. And the Akatsuki were tricked-”

“So then you want to save Danzō? He killed my clan, he used my brother. Itachi died with everyone thinking he was a murderer! And you want to what, you want to save that kind of person!” He cut off the other boy before he could go on one of his forgiveness tirades.

“Sage, no, that’s what-I-…I meant that the world’s destruction came from a place we couldn’t even anticipate! I’m just saying that traveling back to time doesn’t just revolve around killing people, it’s not going to cut it this time!” Naruto yelled out in frustration –the other boy wasn’t listening to him, too blinded by his anger, “We have to stop the cycle of hatred! We have to be better than our predecessors! Just killing off a few of the rotten eggs is not going to make everything better!”

“So then we kill them all!”

“Sage-fucking-damnit, you can’t solve everything by killing people!”

“Like hell, I can’t!”

“And that worked out so well for you the last time.” Naruto shot back sardonically while rubbing a palm over his suddenly very tired face –Sasuke's mouth clamped shut abruptly at those words.

Sasuke clicked his tongue in annoyance, “Why the hell do you even care about them?”

‘And why do you care so much?’ The question that Sasuke really wanted to ask was shoved into a lump at the back of his throat. No matter how many time they had this argument, surrounding the villages, Konoha and its people, everyone really, Sasuke will never really understand Naruto’s point of view. Shinobi were such hateful people at heart, on the brink of violence and revenge, that it made the topic of forgiveness and mercy seem like a sin at times. It was all they knew –all Sasuke knew and grew up with. Even if he had begrudgingly come to terms with everything that happened to him, Sasuke still lapsed at times. He found himself hating his comrades, hating the people that surrounded him, hating himself and his brother, hating everything, and wanting everything to burn.

Maybe that’s why Sasuke found it hard sometimes to comprehend the person his lover was.

Naruto was just too good to be real.

“And why the fuck don’t you care at all?!” Naruto finally snapped and screamed in anger, his patience and frustration had already been running thin while reading through his clan’s archives.

“Because they aren’t my people!” Sasuke finally admitted, seething with rage and grief, “I hated Konoha and all the countries! I hated my brother and my clan. I hated the war and the death it caused! But I-…but I made my peace with it. I made my peace with everything. I saw comrades in those people, I gave a shit about them because they recognized the pain of war and they also wanted it to end. They wanted peace and we all strived for the same thing. They didn’t give a shit that I was a fucking criminal! That I was The Last Uchiha! They were the people I cared about…not-…not these people. These people are in some fuck-who-knows-war, using children and spreading destruction. These are not our people.”

Naruto gulped as he witnessed Sasuke have a mini-breakdown over the people they’d lost and honestly…it was about time. He knew that the Uchiha Clan loved wholly, with their entire being and Sasuke embodied that ideal to the letter. Naruto and Sakura were always Sasuke’s top priorities but that didn’t mean that others hadn’t made that list. No one could stay unattached for over half a decade, not even Sasuke who only had them at the time. The dark-haired boy had bonded with the Allied Forces, grew to know them –their stories, their love, their loss, their grief, and everything in between. The Uchiha had been too composed, putting up a front after Kaguya had killed their people and now it was finally catching up with him.

“They will never be our people.” Sasuke stated tonelessly, “Our people are gone, Naruto, and they took whatever fucks I gave with them.”

“I know that, Sasuke,” Naruto murmured softly, slowly scooting towards the other boy when Sasuke didn’t make a sign that he was going to move. He tentatively laid his head on the dark-haired boy’s shoulder, his furry ears tickling the other’s cheek, “I know that these aren’t the people we know, the people we grew to love as our precious people but we have-…we have a chance to change that. To prevent unnecessary grief and loss, to prevent children from dying on the battlefields, to prevent wars…to create a better future for our precious people that have yet to be born.”

Naruto felt Sasuke swallow at his words.

“I know this is hard…it’s hard for all three of us but if we don’t do it, who will?” He mumbled into the crook of the other boy’s shoulder, his heated breath meeting skin made Sasuke shiver unconsciously, “And as easy as it is and deserved as it is, killing all those people are, it’s not gonna change a thing. There’s always gonna be another Danzō, another Orochimaru, another plan for world dominion, we just have to show them another way.”

“You can’t save everyone, Naruto,” Sasuke whispered feebly, his voice caught in his throat.

“I know that too but…” Naruto sighed, aging years at that moment before he snapped back to the present, “…I can try.”

Sasuke was silent.

Naruto was silent.

Sakura was silent as she watched the both of them.

‘One day…’ Sasuke thought in the back of his mind, barely stopping himself from glancing at Naruto in the process, ‘you’re going to break yourself under the weight of the world.’

‘And I’m afraid that I’m not going to be able to stop you.’

‘Or save you.’

“If it’s you…” Sasuke muttered begrudgingly, everything else was shoved into the recesses of his head, “…I’m sure you can do it.”

Naruto perked up visibly, lifting his head so he could stare into his dark-haired lover’s eyes, “I always keep my promises, dattebayo. I managed to become the Hokage so now it’s time for a new one.”

Naruto held out a pinky for Sasuke.

“I promise to bring peace.” The redheaded declared with a bright toothy grin stretched across his cherubic face, “With you and Sakura by my side, I’m sure I can do it ten times over.”

Sasuke locked his pinky with Naruto’s.

“And I-…I promise that I will always protect you. You and Sakura mean everything to me now, above all else, and if you want to save the world, I’ll be there…right beside you, every step of the way.”

‘Please don’t break. I won’t survive without you.’

Naruto hadn’t expected a declaration in return for his one and going by the look in the other boy’s eyes, he knew that Sasuke was being sincere. Even after years of being together, his lover is still able to surprise him like that. Naruto smiled softly, his eyes closing as joy swelled in his heart, while tears streamed down the sides of his whiskered cheeks –his chest felt full and warm and it was the best thing in the world. Without warning, Sakura tackled her boys to the ground; they landed in a heap of tangled limbs which was incredibly uncomfortable especially when paired with the dusty hardwood floor yet none of them moved.

“Aww, my boys are finally growing up!” Sakura squealed as she smothered them into her flat chest –thank the Sage, they had a few years of reprieve before puberty hit.

“Wha’d’ya’ mean by that?!” Naruto cried out, trying to break out of the girl’s ungodly gorilla strength, “We’re twenty-five years old!”

“Physically, you both are not.” Sakura disagreed with a pretentious huff –looks like the Uchiha genes were kicking in, “It’s a wonder how you guys were able to hold a steady relationship for so many years without talking like that.”

“We had more important things to worry about,” Sasuke grunted out onto the corner of her elbow.

“Well, now you have time so no more squabbling and more talking about your feelings because I swear if I have to go through another Naruto-chases-Sasuke-across-the-countries-adventure, I’ll torture you both before giving you to Orochimaru.” Sakura’s eyes darkened to a poisonous green as she stared at them, her aura screaming bloody murder.

“Now that’s just uncalled for, Sakura-chan.” Naruto whined, his tail bristling at the thought of being with Orochimaru of all people before he turned his attention back to his partner –the mischievous grin on the redhead’s face made Sasuke shiver, “Plus…I didn’t say that we couldn’t fuck those people over, just that we also need to save people as well. Danzō sure as hell deserves that and more.”

Sakura smirked with Naruto, their faces stretched into something downright demonic as they plotted, frankly, creative ways to mess with the old Council leader. All the while, their female teammate petted and stroked through his partner’s fluffy tail and scratched a particularly good spot behind his animal ears. Then Sakura just launched herself at the half-fox boy and began tickling him with a bright and carefree grin on her childish face.

Sasuke watched quietly, his mismatched eyes alight with amusement. And he knew at that moment, he would give everything up for these two idiots because they meant the world to him.

‘Whether we save the world or not…I’ll stand by you.’

After the boys’ fight and eventual epiphany in the records room –and wasn’t that refreshing for all of them, they were all still traumatized as fuck but at least they talked about their feelings –the trio had moved to gather all of the bodies scattered across the island for a proper burial and send-off. Naruto had denied wanting to bury them, instead, he chose to burn the bodies on a pyre at midnight under the sorrowful tune of Uzushio’s crying winds and tremulous tides, with the full bright –non-hypnotizing –moon shining down on them.

They had all slept soundly that night.

All cuddled up together amongst the dusty scrolls and forgotten history.

Team 7 spent the next two weeks after arriving on the island of Uzushio sorting through every single scroll in the archives, in addition to getting access to the weaponry, the fūinjutsu archives, and various clan compounds. They were swamped with a ton of shit on their plates. Naruto –bless his soul and his usefulness –certain that he wasn’t going to explode, guided by Kurama, was able to successfully use his Shadow Clone Technique which made the work go by quicker. The houses that were destroyed beyond repair, which was basically everywhere, were marked for reconstruction while the belongings inside were relocated to one of the underground tunnels on the island. Most of Uzushio had been overrun by nature by the time they had arrived on the island in the future, but this time they could see the damage. The shinobi district on the outer ring of the land was completely obliterated –they would have become piles of rock and sand by the time Naruto was born –while the civilian area was wrecked from looting, certain areas were littered with more bodies compared to other areas.

Then there was the piece of land past the wide river, the one with the burned bridges.

It had been decimated.

Any structures that had been built on the section of the land had been completely torn down to mere rumble and that wasn’t the worst part –no, what was shocking was the fact they didn’t even know that part of the island had even existed. In the future, there had only been evidence of bridges and nothing else, they had shrugged it off, thinking it had been an unfinished port to Kirigakure. Apparently, the damage had been so intense that a part of the island had literally crumbled away under the numerous years of wear and nature. Kurama had made his opinion known about not wanting them to even go near the bridges, because of how unstable the area was. Naruto had opted to wait until they put up a barrier around Uzushio before he attempted anything with his tenant’s help –he’d rather not draw unnecessary attention to them by using the Kyūbi’s power openly.

But the most heartbreaking part had been about what the records revealed.

“What?”

“The area past the Hanako Bridge is home to the Uzukage and-!” Sakura’s breath hitched slightly, her throat closing up as she recited those few lines in her head over and over again.

“And…? Continue Sakura.” Sasuke said softly, suspicion dripping from every single letter.

The redheaded girl swallowed thickly before speaking directly to Naruto with saddened eyes, “-and the Uzushio royal family.”

“What does that have to do with me, Sakura?” The boy questioned, a hysterical laugh bubbling in his chest, getting ready to pop, “It’s not like I’m related-” He stopped mid-way through his sudden urge to ramble when he realized that Sakura wasn’t laughing or disagreeing with him.

She was just staring, no pity in her beautiful olive green eyes but with a small sad smile on her lips.

“Your mother is listed as the First Princess…” She started seriously with furrowed eyebrows as she checked the register on the floor once more –she had dug through mountains of crap and found it in one of the sealed rooms of the information archives. It documented every single Uzumaki on the island with information about what clan they came from, their ranks in the shinobi forces, and their family before and after marriage. The kicker was that it dated back centuries, just after the village was built.

Which apparently had been a long time ago –Uzushio had been built before Hasirama and Madara had even been a thought in their parent's minds. It seemed that the village stayed in hiding for a very long time, only allowing a selected few into their waters which always resulted in them staying and never leaving. That is until the various countries started creating their own villages. The Igarashi Clan had been the first to join during the Warring States Period, while the rest came after the creed of the shinobi villages was established.

“What else does it say? How come my mother was the…she was the First Princess?” Naruto gritted his teeth in suppressed anger, “Tou-san told me about the way Konoha had treated her, even though they didn’t know she was a jinchūriki…if she was the princess of their sister village, why did they treat her so badly?”

Sakura looked away, unable to answer for Konoha’s transgressions.

Sasuke clicked his tongue but didn’t say anything else. After all, he had already made his opinion of the village aware.

“Why was Kaa-chan even chosen as Konoha’s jinchūriki anyway? There were so many other people, why did it have to be her? She’s supposed to be important! She’s a princess yet they sacrificed her!” Naruto screamed out, angry on behalf of his mother –his beautiful mother who deserved to live longer, who had deserved to live the life she wanted especially after what happened to Uzushio.

“It’s part of the peace treaty drawn between Konoha and Uzushio.” Sasuke stated stoically, side-stepping his lover’s rage, “We learned this in the Academy. Hashirama’s wife, Mito-sama was the First Princess of Uzushio and the first jinchūriki. I’m guessing the reason why Kushina-san became the next candidate had to do with that, since she is the First Princess, perhaps that burden fell unto her.”

Sakura nodded in agreement, her face set in grim determination, “If the official documents state that the jinchūriki must come from the Royal Uzumaki line then she wouldn’t have had a choice in the matter.”

Naruto took in a deep breath to calm down before speaking up once more, “So does that mean that Kaa-chan is Mito-sama’s daughter since she’s the First Princess and all that jazz?”

Sakura dropped her head back into the very dusty and clearly very old registry before shaking her head ‘no’, “Kushina-san is actually the daughter of Mito-sama's niece, Uzumaki Fumiko. Mito-sama had a younger sister by the name of Uzumaki Aiko, who had been born significantly later in their parents’ lives.”

Naruto’s cerulean eyes widened in shock, his tail began wagging wildly as he eagerly waited for his redheaded teammate –didn't that make her his relative now –to continue, “Then why was Kaa-chan called the First Princess? Mito-sama had kids, ‘cause that’s how baa-chan was born, ya know. So there must have been little princes and princesses running around to take the first-whatever, dattebayo.”

“Hmm…possibly, it’s because Mito-same married the Shodaime. She became a resident of Konoha and while she didn’t totally give up her name as an Uzumaki, she also couldn’t take the ‘throne’ and so couldn’t her children because of her new position as the wife of the Hokage. Any children she had would be the Shodaime’s heirs and spares to the Senju Clan, and we all know the elders well enough that they wouldn’t have let them go back anyway, especially if one of them inherited the Mokuton.” Sakura explained sagely while roughly shoving her hand through her thick red tresses, “The line of successors come from Uzumaki Aiko after Mito-sama was unavailable, with Uzumaki Fumiko becoming Queen as her only child. Kushina-san was the firstborn daughter of that line, Fumiko-san’s line to be exact, thus making her the First Princess. After the bullshit with the Uchiha’s resident troublemaker and the Shodaime, that made her viable as the next jinchūriki.”

“Anything else I should know about?” Naruto sighed heavily, suddenly feeling very tired –all he wanted to do was sleep.

Kurama sniggered in his mind. Everything about this was extremely entertaining for him.

“Well…since Kushina-san, who is your mother, is still the First Princess of Uzushio, granted that it didn’t change then that makes you, Uzumaki Naruto, the first-ever prince of Uzushio.” Sakura declared a shit-eating grin on her face while placing a concerning amount of emphasis on the word ‘prince’. Sasuke snorted carelessly with amusement –Naruto was the last person to be thought of as a prince of anything, maybe ramen but not of a whole ass country, “Did I mention that the Uzumaki Royal Bloodline is a completely matriarchal line, only women have been born so far until you arrived.”

Naruto gaped, unable to think of words to even form sentences to reply to the utter crap that his relative –he shuddered in fright just thinking about it –was spouting. Kurama had no sudden affliction and promptly burst out laughing, commenting on how he was the last person who should be a prince and Naruto wholly agreed.

“I also forgot to mention that Kushina-san was the oldest of eight sisters.” Sakura piped in once more, a positively evil stretched across her face –he swore he saw sharpened teeth, not unlike his own canines.

“Can you stop forgetting to mention the important parts?!” He screeched furiously, done with his teammate’s teasing.

Sasuke coughed to hide a laugh and Sakura smelt blood in the water like the fucking man-eating shark she was.

“And since Sasuke is practically your husband at this point, he’s your royal consort.” She cheered with a sickly sweet smile while the Uchiha’s face dropped, “Congratulations to the new royal couple! I can’t wait for little princes and princesses!”

‘Sakura, you absolute menace!’

One Year Later

Location: Amegakure no Sato, in the asscrack of nowhere.

Amegakure, true to its name, was raining.

Heavy black clouds gathered in the skies, casting the village into a dull monochrome reality that made him want to puke out his guts for some reason. But it was more than the rain that made the place so dreary… no, Naruto knew that it was because of the war –a war that was currently taking place on this land. From what the redhead could remember about the Second Shinobi War, due to Amegakure’s unfortunate location which placed them between three of the Five Great Shinobi Countries, many battles occurred on their territory as a result.

It was a war-torn country.

It was also a country that Naruto was currently scouting out for information.

Naruto clicked his tongue in annoyance while he attempted to squeeze his cloak dry of all the water that was permeating the cloth. He had haggled with a particularly thrifty merchant for the measly piece of clothing, the amount he coughed up for the thing had been pricey but it was way better than what the merchant had originally demanded. A few well-meaning threats would have put the conniving man in his place but that would have blown his cover –Ame was known to be suspicious of all of the people passing through their lands, so he had to be careful since he didn’t actually have any papers.

Naruto couldn’t very well walk up to the guards and declare he was a ‘time-traveler here to save the future from annihilation'. They would have probably locked him up for interrogation or given him the mercy of ending his existence where he stood.

Sasuke had been the one tasked with all the scouting in the earlier months after they had landed in this time period. Naruto and Sakura had stayed on Uzushio, they had been busy with clearing away all of the heavier debris and cleaning up the way for new structures to be built in the future. Things had been moving faster lately courtesy of the barrier that Naruto had finally erected which allowed him to let Kurama out so that the old fox could help them out. The barrier was a rendition of the one that hid them from Kaguya for over three years, with some changes taken into account –the hench-plant won’t be finding its way anywhere near them anytime soon. So while they were trying to make a home out of Uzushio –again –Sasuke was slipping in and out of the shinobi countries, scouring for every single bit of information.

All Shika-their plans involved the Third Shinobi War and everything that came after, so they were in a bit of a bind on what to do. They had planned to use the reputation of the Sannin and, maybe, the Yellow Flash if things got too hectic and they required assistance but the first wasn’t even a blip on the metaphorical map of the world yet and the second was a child schooling in the Academy.

They were on their own…then again, wasn’t that their plan from the beginning.

Sasuke had managed for a while; a helpless child was less assuming but still equally dangerous since the shinobi villages had no qualms with throwing five-year-olds onto the battlefield. Things had been going well for a time. Their dark-haired teammate had managed to bring back vital information on the state of affairs with the countries, the war, and how things were winding down slowly –they knew it wouldn’t last though. The Third Shinobi War was inevitable, especially with how many factors were in play; shadowy factors to be exact. They were aiming towards shortening the war, as well as mitigating the losses on all sides. But as much as Sasuke was cautious, heck, he was the most paranoid bastard they knew, he still retained heavy damage in a mission gone wrong –not something totally unbelievable, even though they were war veterans, they inhabited bodies of children, bodies that didn’t have the muscle mass, and memory that their old ones had and Sasuke paid for it.

Naruto and Sasuke had forced the Uchiha to rest while he took over the scouting –his shadow clones made it easier for him and less dangerous, with the addition of possibly getting the task done faster. There was also the unspoken fact between them that the redhead would subtly search for any surviving Uzumaki while gathering intel. He knew that it wouldn’t be easy. After all, any Uzumaki was hunted down for their special traits and blood, or just for the fact that they were powerful, so many would be in hiding. Openly asking about the Uzumaki would be dangerous for them and him, and Naruto didn’t need to draw that kind of attention to him and his family. His clones hadn’t found any as of yet, but they had managed to make a few connections and started on a spy network –Naruto had learned something of value from Jiraiya that didn’t involve women and porn so score another one for him.

So, now after all of that, Naruto was here in the hidden village of rain, soaked to the bone and looking like a drenched cat.

“That stupid crafty businessman…!” Naruto muttered angrily as he dug his talons into the frankly itchy material, his voice coming out slightly robotic because of the re-breather he was wearing –he had acquired the thing from a very willing shinobi.

‘I told you not to buy his shit, Fishcake.’ Kurama inputted uncaringly, his vessel’s constant mumbles woke the demon up from his nap.

‘I really don’t need your clearly unhelpful and unneeded opinion right now, fleabag.’ The redhead snapped at his tenant, ‘I needed a cloak to hide my ears, the seal fizzled out and I couldn’t walk around like that.’

‘Then you should have just gone back to Uzushio, brat.’

‘I finally got into Ame and you want me to leave…!’ Naruto whined pathetically, ‘This is the last place we need information on and I’m not gonna leave just because my seal gave up on me. After this, I’m gonna have such a hot bath-ohh, we should go to an onsen! Doesn’t that sound awesome, Kurama?!’

‘Why are you asking me, you’ve got control of the legs?’ The old fox huffed tiredly.

‘You’re no fun!’

‘I’m not supposed to be fun, Fishcake. I am the Kyūbi no Yōko! The strongest of all the bijū-’

Naruto tuned out after that, he was familiar with the rant and would rather not have to deal with it after the millionth time.

The redhead snapped out of that haze when he heard a shriek echo throughout the area –the place where he was standing idle wasn’t too isolated but it did well in hiding him from people and the rain while he tried to dry of his cloak. It wasn’t weird to hear screaming but this one drove a particularly hard jab into his heart because it was a child’s scream of pain. He knew that he shouldn’t interfere, not when his presence in the village could be at stake.

‘Oh, fuck it.’

Naruto threw the wet cloak over his shoulders, hitching the hood over his shoulder-length red hair and animal ears –the fabric low enough to shadow his eyes, the re-breather he was wearing, thankfully, served to cover up the bottom half of his face. He heard the old fox grumble in his head about ‘suicidal maniacs’ and ‘why couldn’t he just leave it be' and ‘he’s so troublesome’ –Kurama had definitely spent a lot of quality time with Shik-him when they switched.

Naruto sped towards the source of the sounds, his feet catching in puddles and splashing rainwater everywhere as the screaming got louder. It meant he was getting closer so he pumped his legs faster, his pants escaping the breather in short puffs of steamy white clouds. Naruto skidded to a stop, shadow clones materializing on instinct around the men that were surrounding a small group of children. Kunai in their hands, the clones struck with deadly accuracy, going for the kill without hesitation while Naruto watched with a passive gaze. The clones disappeared as silently as they came; their memories merging with his before he turned his attention toward the three children huddled together in yellow breathing suits.

The group of men coughed out strangled noises, choked on their blood, and then fell to the wet ground with a thud –the rainwater surrounding the bodies rippled from the impact before finding their resonance once again as the teardrops fell steadily from the sky. Naruto didn’t let down his guard, but he did lower the kunai in his hand as he approached the children. He tried to look as unthreatening as possible but one of the kids whimpered so loudly in fear that he stopped altogether and waited for them to make a move.

Slowly, the only child that had stayed standing strode forward, confidence and fear in his gait –Naruto gave him points for his utter bravery and stupidity. Seriously, he could be anyone for fuck’s sake! Kurama scoffed in the back of his mind while muttering on about ‘containers being hypocrites’. The kid halted a few feet away from him, just a step away from one of the bodies, “Oi! Are you a shinobi?” The kid asked confidently, his voice washing away under the rain but Naruto still heard him.

The animal-eared boy pursed his lips behind the re-breather, “What’s it to you, kid?”

“Would you-…can you teach us to do that?”

The question was asked in such a soft voice that Naruto doubted that anyone other than him and a few highly trained shinobi would have heard. Biting back a snort that the kid, “HAH?! What did you just say? I couldn’t hear you over your wimpiness, you fetus!” The redhead teasingly cupped a hand over his hood-covered ear as he exaggeratedly leaned forwards.

The kid bodily twitched at the taunt, “F-Fetus! Who the hell are you calling fetus?! Why you shitty short shinobi?! What do you get outta teasing a kid, hah?!” He raged while throwing his arms in the air.

Kurama huffed out a laugh, ‘Five words in and he pegged you, Fishcake.’

‘I am not short!’

‘Shut it, shorty.’

Naruto cried out equally in embarrassment and anger while waving his clenched fist around in protest, “Hey, I’m not short, ya little brat!”

“Hah-! You’re shorter than me! What the hell do you call that?!”

“It’s called being vertically challenged, alright!” Naruto shouted in indignation, “Ya know, words can hurt and you’re being extremely rude! Why the hell should I teach you when you’re being such a brat, hah?!”

The yellow-banana-dressed figure jerked back in shock at his words, then he came at Naruto, angrier than before, “So, you did hear you shitty shinobi! Do you get off teasing little kids?!”

Naruto choked at the insinuation, laughing uneasily before raising his hands up in surrender, “I’m not a pervert, ya brat! But…at least you’re calmer now.”

“Huh-” The kid faltered at the sudden change in the cloaked figure’s tone and attitude, “What-…what the hell are you talking about now, you slimy fuck?”

A tick mark formed on Naruto’s head at the kid’s terrible behavior –he outta wash the kid’s mouth out with soap –before he sighed, “You stopped shaking. Your little friends also seem better, less scared and all that.”

True enough; the two huddling bananas behind the standing kid had stopped cowering. They were still shivering, though that might be due to the cold and the slight drizzle of rain. Naruto’s ears twitched under the scratchy hood of the cloak, catching the near-silent gasp and whimper from the other kids before the one in front of him snarled insults menacingly –the sudden twinge in his heart almost made him buckle to his knees. It reminded the redhead too much of his own team, when they were too weak and vulnerable to the many threats that were constantly after them, and when they looked powerful in the face of multiple enemies.

It reminded him of Konohamaru and his ragtag gang –when they were crying over their lost ones and when his little disciple stood protectively over his friends in the face of Kaguya’s army.

It reminded him of Shikamaru, Ino, and Choji –when they lost Asuma-sensei and the day they looked resolute in avenging him.

It reminded him of Hinata, Kiba, and Shino –when the boys did everything in their power to protect the little girl who was too afraid of herself and the world and when Hinata was doing everything in her power to protect everyone around her.

It reminded him of Neji, Lee, and Tenten –when they finally got along and found themselves, and when they grieved over their teammate being taken too early from them.

It reminded him of Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro –when they became a family like it was always meant to be and when they carried their sibling’s cold body into a desolate compound.

These three kids reminded Naruto of every single lonely and scared child that had found comfort in other lonely and scared children –the ones that loved and lost, the ones that preserved.

And at that moment, Naruto made a decision he would surely come to regret and love all the same.

“Get up, fetuses. I’m taking you to a place that doesn’t exist.”