Not the only one
Naruto groaned, feeling as though she had been stomped on by the Juubi before being dragged over a hundred mountains and finally thrown off a cliff. Every inch of her body was screaming in pain and she whimpered, trying to curl up despite the fox in her head yelling at her not to.
She distantly thought that Kurama might have a point but her pain-addled brain was too far gone to care.
Much to her consternation, hands on her body kept her from moving and she whimpered at the wave of pain that lit up every nerve when she jolted. Someone shushed her gently, running a soothing hand over her head.
“It…okay…ll…fine…”
“Why…she….ming!”
Naruto could hear two voices, one filled with forced calm and the other yelling. But she could tell that they both held an undercurrent of concern. Oh wait, she could actually tell that for herself. Seemed like the pain was receding.
“Kurama?”
“Not now, kit. Talk to the others if you want but don’t disturb me. You’re not healed yet.”
“Kay.”
The girl pried her eyes open, instantly meeting a pair of very familiar blue eyes.
Minato looked down at his daughter with worry; Naruto had stopped screaming but her face was still twisted in pain. Behind them, Obito was pacing anxiously, muttering to himself under his breath.
“Naruto? Can you hear me?” Minato asked when his little girl opened her eyes. The question made the Uchiha still and peer over the man’s shoulder at the Jinchuuriki.
“…dad? Obito?”
“Nice to finally hear your normal voice, brat.”
“Sorry…”
Shaking his head slightly at the by-play, Minato helped Naruto sit up. Blue eyes flickered up to his face, confusion swimming in them. “Dad…your eyes…”
“Yeah. It seems that I’m no longer an Edo Tensei.”
Obito snorted. “He’s not the only one who’s different. Although you’ve changed the most.”
“Huh?” Naruto blinked, not quite understanding what he was saying. Now that the pain in her body was mostly gone, she could see for herself that Minato was indeed no longer an Edo Tensei and if what she could hear could be trusted…
Her father had a heartbeat.
He was alive.
The Uchiha had changed too but not much; he still had the scars on his face but he looked younger. His chakra felt different as well; the ever-present sorrow was there but it felt less tainted by Zetsu.
‘Wait, I’ve changed too…?’
Naruto looked down at herself, jaw dropping when she realized that she had been de-aged to a child.
“Not the only change, kit. Your hair’s red and you look a little more like your mother, except for your eyes.”
Diving into her mindscape at the sound of her partner’s voice, Naruto stared down at her reflection in the water. Her appearance was nothing like her former self; like Kurama had said, she resembled her mother with her father’s eyes, in both shape and color.
“What happened?” she asked, eyeing the tired form of the Bijuu with worry. “Wait, before that; are you okay?”
Kurama yawned and dropped his head on his front paws. “A little chakra drained,” he admitted, huffing when the new redhead threw herself at him in alarm. “It took a lot to keep the three of you in one piece.”
“What happened?”
“It appears that we’re in a different dimension. The energy of this world is slightly off from what I remember of ours.”
“What?!”
“Stop yelling, brat. Go brainstorm with the other two idiots.”
With that Naruto was booted out of her mindscape, immediately being met with two concerned stares. “I’m fine now,” she waved off Minato and Obito’s unspoken questions. She got to her feet gingerly, her father hovering next to her with his arms held out to catch her, should she fall. “Kurama says we’re in a different dimension.”
The proof was right in front of her eyes; after Kaguya’s rampage, almost ninety-five percent of the planet had been turned to ashes and the sky was always blood-red. But surrounding the three humans were lush, green trees as far the eye could see, the air fresh and clean, the night sky with twinkling stars.
“Not time travel?” Obito asked as he looked around too, but his voice said that he was less interested in the answer and more of confirming their current situation.
“No. Apparently the energy of this world is different.”
Minato cut in, “I think we should find out where we are first. Judging by the trees, I’d say we’re in Hi no Kuni. Perhaps we should find a village?”
“Good idea, dad. But let’s clean up first,” Naruto suggested, grimacing at the state of her clothes. Minato and Obito were mostly fine but thanks to her massive decrease in size, her clothes were baggy on her and she was barefoot. And all of them were bloody, even Minato which was strange since he had been an Edo Tensei until recently. “I can hear a stream nearby.”
Giving in and letting her father carry her when he sent a pitiful expression at her, Naruto directed the two men towards the stream. A quick dip later, the three were huddled around a small fire. Obito had caught some fish for them and they ate slowly as they discussed about how they had been thrown between dimensions.
They finally concluded that it had been likely a combination of Kaguya’s Gudoudama, Minato’s Hiraishin and Obito’s Kamui, and that the circumstances were highly impossible to replicate.
Not that any of them wanted to go back; there was nothing but a devastated world left in their original dimension.