Ta-n Ushiro Bikoku
By
lilyflower01
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Summary: AU With the destruction of Konoha at hand the surviving group of shinobi are forced to make a decision… a decision that ends up sending Naruto to the past and with consequences that nobody could have foreseen…
Warnings: This fic will be a Naruto-goes-back-in-the-past-and-ends-up-in-a-girl's-body!! So it will be a female Naru fic, there will also be swearing, blood, gore, angst, darkness along with a little bit of humour… (more warnings will be added as fic goes on)
Pairings: This is not a romance fic! so when the pairings do come up they won't take over the whole story. They will mostly stay in the sidelines and won't occur for quite a while yet, so please don't ask me about them.
Disclaimer: Naruto is a copyright of Masashi Kishimoto.Ta-n Ushiro Bikoku is not meant to be an infringement on any of the copyrights and is for entertainment purposes only.
Author notes: I have been itching to write something for a while now, and after reading so many Naruto-goes-back-in-the-past fics I decided to write my own version while adding a female Naruto twist to it. Hopefully it will be original and refreshing and a bit different from all the others.
Ta-n Ushiro Bikoku roughly means Turn Back Time
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Prologue
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Cold
It was so cold.
A lone figure staggering down the darkened lane shivered violently, pulling his tattered vest closer to the body along with his precious cargo. A flash of lightning illuminated the forest, giving the figure a brief glimpse of the cave he was heading towards. The sight brought a spark of hope into the deadened eyes. His mud-quenched feet quickened their pace, fighting against the torrent of rain that was being brought down by the sky.
Almost there.
The roar of thunder drowned out the sound of his laboured breathing. He could feel the trickle of blood steadily pouring down his numbed arms and legs. The darkness kept creeping into his eyes until he was almost afraid that he would just collapse. He clenched the bundle tightly in his hands.
NO!!... I have to make it… Just a few more steps and I'll be there… just a few more…
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"How is he?"
The hoarse voice echoed throughout the quiet chamber.
Sakura looked up and stared into the face of her best friend and team-mate. She could feel the strain that was present in that voice; a voice that was begging her to give a positive answer, an answer she would not be able to give.
"H… he… I don't…" she hesitated, "I'm sorry; I've tried everything but," her voice broke, "he's not going to survive the night Naruto."
"Oh."
He knew he should say something more, something encouraging, to try and lighten the atmosphere, especially when Sakura's soft sobs reached his ears. But he couldn't. He felt so tired, almost weary, especially with everything that had happened in the past few months and now… and now Kakashi-sensei is dying... just like everyone else… just like Iruka-sensei.
There were tears prickling at the corner of his eyes but he blinked them back harshly. He couldn't cry, not now, not when he knew that if he started he would never be able to stop. And if he couldn't stop crying then how would he be able to help everyone with what was needed. The whole world seemed to be in chaos right now, especially with all the Hidden villages that had fallen. The last stand had taken place in Konoha where all the refugees from different villages had gathered in the end, but even that hadn't been enough and they had failed.
Naruto felt anguish tear up in his heart when he thought of Konoha. If only he had been stronger, then the Akatsuki wouldn't have succeeded in extracting the Kyuubi. No matter what everyone said he knew he would never be able to completely get rid of the guilt he felt at letting Kyuubi be extracted, at surviving.
And that was the root of the matter; he shouldn't have survived, he didn't know how he had survived and when his friends had burst into the Akatsuki lair right after the extraction he had almost wanted to scream. He wasn't worthy; they shouldn't have risked their lives trying to rescue him, especially since he hadn't been able to stop the Kyuubi from being taken. But no one had blamed him, and the Akatsuki, weakened by the extraction process, had fled as soon as the Konoha nin along with Gaara had arrived.
A pale arm wound its way around his shoulder and Naruto looked up to see Shikamaru sitting beside him, giving him a small smile; one that was filled with reassurance, comfort, sadness, bitterness, anger and every emotion that could possibly be mustered up. It's not your fault, you did the best you could… we all did our best.
Naruto could feel a small smile flicker past his lips; Shikamaru was still as perceptive as ever. He might complain about how troublesome it was but in the end he would always help out a friend.
He felt a frown form on his face; the last time Shikamaru had complained about something being troublesome had been… before Chouji and Ino had died. He shook his head, trying to get rid of the thought, and looked around the underground cave that they had hidden themselves in.
The only light present in the place right now was the faint glow of chakra emanating from Tsunade as she sat quietly in the corner trying to futilely work on saving Kakashi. Sakura had stopped sobbing and was now sitting in between Kiba and Temari, trying to take comfort from their quiet reassurances. Kiba had lost both his team-mates along with Akamaru and Temari… Temari was the only survivor from Sand. She had been in Konoha during the period of the attack and by the time she had rushed in Sand had been no more. Gaara and Kankuro had died protecting their village.
So many people were dead now. The only survivors left were sitting in the cave. There was Jiraiya, who had lost his arm. Neji was the sole survivor of the Hyuuga clan and was staring listlessly at the ground along with his team-mate Rock Lee. And then there was Konohamaru, Naruto had literally dragged the Jounin all the way to their hideout.
Konohamaru had been hysterical at the time, with the loss of Konoha as well as both of his legs; he had been ready to take his life. Naruto had almost been tempted to join him; anything to get rid of the constant heartache and pain, but in the end he had been forced not to because of his sense of duty. He couldn't do that to Sakura and Tsunade, especially not at this time and not in this way.
And that was it, only 12 survivors… 11 because Kakashi would be dead by morning. A sick feeling rose in his stomach. This is it… this is all that's left…
"So, what's in the scroll?"
Naruto jolted back to the present as Shikamaru's voice pierced through the stifling darkness. This was a question they had all been wondering about. It was their last hope; the one thing that they had even bothered to pin their expectations on. The scroll, according to Tsunade was the only thing that could help them now, the only thing that could take away the darkness. It had taken such a long time to prepare for this final mission, to take the scroll from the ruins of what was left of the Hokage Tower, the tower where the Akatsuki had set up their base.
Because of this Kakashi had been chosen to do the mission; amongst everyone in the group Kakashi alone, apart from Jiraiya who was too wounded, was the only one skilled enough in stealth to actually be able to perform the mission successfully. And he had succeeded in bringing back the scroll just as he had said, but at the cost of his life.
The look on Tsunade's face was enough to make everyone sit up straight. The Hokage looked every inch the 59 year old woman that she was. Her Transformation technique had long since worn off and she now appeared to be in her true form. She had a serious look on her face as she stood up from beside Kakashi's unconscious form, silently motioning Sakura to take over for her. Walking to the center of the darkened chamber room she lit the central torch. Light flooded the area making everyone wince.
Tsunade took out the scroll that Kakashi had brought and opened it, laying it on the middle of the room. She sighed wearily before straightening and looking each person in the eye.
"Throughout time there have only been seven people who have ever known about this Jutsu and two of them are in this room. It was created by an ancestor of mine a long time ago, before Konoha had even been founded and it has only been used once, approximately 200 years ago. I…" she paused, "this Jutsu is extremely difficult and dangerous, along with that there is only a 15 chance that it might work and…"
A low growl emitted in the room. "Stop stalling and just tell us what it does Tsunade-sama!" Kiba snarled.
Tsunade glared at 20 year old ANBU causing him to falter slightly. She snorted before looking at everybody. A resigned look overcame her face.
"It turns back time," she blurted.
A shocked silence descended on the room. Whatever they had been expecting, it had certainly not been that.
"Turns back time," Neji whispered wondrously his voice echoing throughout the chamber.
"It's not just that," muttered Jiraiya restlessly before sighing and speaking up, "this Jutsu will allow one person to go back in time into his or her old body. It will completely erase the world as it is right now and send back the person who this Jutsu is performed on."
"But even if one of us goes back, that person can change the world so that none of this happens and Konoha can be saved! Yosh! We can make sure no one dies and Akatsuki does not take over… Everything can turn out great!!" There was a small spark of light in Lee's eyes, one that had not been present for months.
Everyone was starting to look hopeful and even Naruto could feel a bit of fire coming back to his spirit. This was perfect, this was amazing, this was…
"Suspicious," Shikamaru broke in, "there is no way it could all be so easy, otherwise it wouldn't have been called a Forbidden MASTERS technique. There has to be a catch it somewhere or some side-effects that we aren't expecting. Otherwise every person would be using this Jutsu to start their life over."
"Clear-headed as ever, eh Shikamaru?" smiled Tsunade, "you are right of course. There are many consequences to using this Jutsu. First, like I said it only has a 15 chance of succeeding. Second, only ONE person is sent back in time, not two, not three and certainly not everyone here can go back. Also," she hesitated, "this Jutsu requires an enormous amount of Chakra. In order to send one person back, the rest of us will have to sacrifice our complete chakra."
Naruto could feel his eyes widening as the implications of that sunk in. Complete Chakra, but that means…
"We have to sacrifice our chakra, our lives," Temari whispered.
"But why?" Konohamaru interrupted, "why use everyone's chakra? All of us here are among the strongest of shinobi's. The amount of complete chakra even from two of us here will be more than enormous, especially when you consider Naruto-niichan's reserves. And anyways, why do we even need to use more than one person, the Yondaime sealed the Kyuubi by himself, surely…"
"That was different!" Jiraiya snarled standing up abruptly and limping towards the center of the chamber.
His left sleeve was fluttering aimlessly around him where his arm was supposed to be. Walking over towards the lit torch Jiraiya snatched the scroll out of Tsunade's fingers. He glanced at it for a few minutes before sighing and carefully sitting down again.
"I'm only going to explain this to you brats once so you better listen up. The Fourth Hokage sealed the Kyuubi with the help of the Death God. He used up most of his chakra in order to invoke the power of Shinigami and paid the price with his soul. The Jutsu we are talking about right now is on a completely different level then the Shiki Fūjin technique that the Fourth used. We aren't just talking about sealing something here; we are talking about ripping through time and space itself and without the help of a God. The amount of chakra needed to do this is enormous and there are only twelve of us here. I doubt Kakashi," he winced, "will be able to help us. So that means the rest of us will have to perform the Jutsu on someone here, and we will need every last bit of our chakra in order to do so."
The silence that followed the explanation was deafening and Naruto could feel it clawing at him. He had always loathed the silence, preferring to fill it up with his loud voice and actions and right now was no different. He racked his brain to find something to say, a question, anything would be better than this nerve-racking silence. His brows furrowed as a thought suddenly came to him.
"Wait, baa-chan you said that there were many consequences to using this Jutsu. What would happen to the person who is sent back anyway? I mean would the world be different or same or what?"
Tsunade smiled thinly, making it look more like a grimace than anything else. "That is what I don't know Naruto. All I know is that when this Jutsu is used some things about the past get changed completely. Whoever is sent back will see that changes have already taken place just by using the Jutsu. I don't think anything big is changed, it could probably be that some of our personalities might get altered or something that happened to us could be changed, but I don't think it will be anything really big. The big changes will only occur when the person sent back starts to slowly alter the timeline to prevent this whole mess. Apart from that though I have no idea what could happen to the past if we use this technique."
Naruto scowled, listening to the complications that would arise if this Jutsu was used. "So not only will it take our life to perform the Jutsu, we also don't have a guarantee that everything will work out perfectly. What a stupid Jutsu!"
Jiraiya scowled back at him, "Naruto this is the only chance we have of trying to make everything better or at least fixing some things up!" He sighed loudly, "anyways, we can only perform the Jutsu on the night of the full moon so that means we have seven days to go before we are able to do this. I will give you all six days to decide on whether you want to do this or not. At the end of the sixth day we will make our decision so that we can have the last day to prepare, alright."
"Ano…" Sakura spoke up from her spot.
She hesitated slightly before straightening up with determination. "I think we should decide on who we are going to send back, if we use this Jutsu. I mean if we all agree to do this by the sixth day then it would hardly give us enough time to decide on which person we should send back and it wouldn't give the person who is being sent enough time to mentally prepare for the whole ordeal. Even if we all agree not to perform this technique in six days we should still have the person ready… just in case."
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The colors were all a huge blur around him… twisted so that there was nothing… just a blankness… no light, no darkness, no meaning… nothing mattered… 'nothing but the pain!'
Excruciating, twisting, turning, a haze all around him… 'when will this end?!'
Sheer, utter, devastating pain.
Blinding him, chocking him until his lungs could no longer breathe, until his mind attempted to retreat from reality, but there was no escape.
Too strong.
'Stop…'
Nowhere to turn. Nowhere to escape… there was no way to flee the pain, no hope at all, nothing, he was so hurt he couldn't even tell if he was still alive or not, because his mind had long since shut down.
Shattering his defences.
Breaking his mind, his will, his soul.
Nothing was left.
The pain never stopped.
Never dying away, no matter how much he begged it to.
Seconds. Minutes. Hours. Days. Weeks… How much time has gone by?... he couldn't know.
He couldn't care.
'I just want it to stop!'
'JUST STOP!'
And then, nothing more…
… only silence.
No pain, nothing.
Only a comforting darkness, and he welcomed it.
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Author's Note: So what do you all think of the prologue? It's not beta'ed so if there are any mistakes please let me know. The fun starts with the next chapter, the prologue was just to get an idea of where Naruto is coming from and to learn a bit about the effects of the jutsu!
Anyways, remember the more reviews I get the faster I'll update!!
So please review and let me know what you think!!