Time and Time Never
This is my Envision of How time travel fics should be. The sad part is that It should be a one shot. If, in fact, the time traveler comes back than change should auto happen. A resolution be accomplished in a matter of seconds. This is why I wince, sometimes, at very long Time travel fics. They're good, amazing often times. But the truly great ones are the ones that make the change into a huge and often spectacular direction. Having the chuunin exams happen again and again, is BORING (I mean in different stories, not as a repeating scene.)
Anyways, The set up is the perfect early life for Naruto. He is still an Orphan. Sasuke still lost his family. But there is one big difference. The Anbu Found Team 7 early on in the Forest of death. They saved them from Orochimaru. This lead to a war with Sound. After beating Sound in a long war, the Akatsuki came. Konoha was still recovering and The Akatsuki came in full force, crushing Konoha. Tsunade, the Hokage, ordered immediate evacuation and forces to scatter, while some protect the civilians.
Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura leave together, surviving on their own for 3 years. Kakashi died defending Tsunade.
Sadly, The remainder of Team 7 was ambushed by the Akatsuki near the remains of Konoha.
Here we go
A drop of rain hit the ground below. Another drop, and another, and finally the sky cried. A steady staccato of rain poured down, one for every soul that had past, and one for every soul to be reborn. One of the drops fell onto lone figure on the ground. The figure, a man in his early twenties, looked unsteady on his feet.
Moving shakily forward, the man let the rain pelt him. The cool of the rain, helped soothe the ache's on his body. Though his body did heal faster than most people, it did not mean it dulled out pain. The blonde haired man stumbled across broken rock, glass, and other litter. He knew this street well. He had lived here for so long. Naruto gasped as he felt the adrenaline leave his body. The once Jinchuuriki of Konoha, now one of its only survivors, walked over to the rest of his motley crew.
Naruto pushed his limbs, though they screamed in protest, towards a nearly crumbled alley way, where his kage bunshin had put his teammates. A black haired nin, with a pink haired nin in his lap, was holding his bandaged stomach, which was still bleeding, the other holding onto a notepad. One of Konoha's finest warriors met eyes and Sasuke grimly smiled.
"Naruto" Sasuke grunted out.
Naruto stumbled towards his teammates and noted that Sakura was breathing irregularly. Naruto assessed his teammates damage for the first time, his kage bunshin only had time to bandage before it ran out to join the fight. Sasuke was bleeding from a slash across the stomach, courtesy of Kisame, and his right arm was in a makeshift sling. Sakura had a lot of slashes on her forearms, probably from blocking Sasori's blades.
Naruto bit his lip. Sakura usually was the one to brief him on injuries. Her ability as a medic nin also applied to herself. She had inherited Tsunade-baa-chan's technique in self regenerating cells.
Naruto's eyes flickered back to Sasuke,, who held out the note book he was holding.
"Poison in Sakura." Sasuke grunted, obviously forcing the words out.
Naruto felt a jolt run down his spine. He knew that Sakura probably forced herself into an unconscious state so her chakra would focus on regenerating her damaged cells, which mean that she couldn't fight it without anti-biotics. Naruto gritted his teeth as he grabbed the notebook. He opened it and looked over its contents. There were 3 names of Antidotes listed, each of them circled, which mean she had to take them all at once.
Naruto nodded as he bent down and pulled Sakura onto his back. Sasuke grabbed onto Naruto's shoulder and Naruto heaved himself up. Usually, it would be no problem to hold up Sakura and Sasuke. Hell he could do it half awake, as his body was naturally built for heavy hitting. But now it felt like the world was pushing him down. His legs shook as he started forward. Sasuke limped beside him, his face also twisted in pain. Sasuke coughed twice, first was dry, the second one was blood.
Naruto eyes went wide. "wound?" Naruto felt his throat strain to get a simple word out.
Sasuke shook his head, looking forward, away from Naruto. Naruto would have pressed the issue but they were all injured.
Naruto moved down the street, trying to go to the broken down hospital which was near Hokage tower. Naruto, though, felt the dread, the doubt, forming in his stomach. His legs were shaking, he was running on bare minimum chakra. His stamina had hit rock bottom and he had no more soldier pills.
'Kyuubi chakra.' Naruto closed his eyes as he reached inside himself. Pulling on a familiar, locked area, Naruto pushed the chakra into his limbs. With new chakra running into his systems, Naruto moved forward.
"Where" Sasuke grunted. The single word implied the actual question. Where are we going to get the medical supplies, Sakura isn't going to last long. But they had long gotten over using words. Ever since their departure from Konoha, they started talking less. Conversations would just be a single word from each participant. Sometimes they would just point and get the message across that way.
"Hospital" Naruto rasped out. His voice felt like it was running over gravel. Naruto continued to walk down the street, carrying Sakura and dragging Sasuke.
Naruto felt his stomach flutter. He remembered the hospital. All the times he had visited.
"Hey watch it Bastard." Naruto growled as he limped towards the hospital in front of him.
Sasuke snorted, though painfully. "Shut up, dobe. I can't even feel my shoulder right now."
Naruto glared at Sasuke. They had been sparing again. Going a little overboard was a natural occurrence between the two. The injuries they had going into the hospital were legendary. The reactions their final teammate had, when they entering the hospital, were the stuff of nightmares. Naruto and Sasuke both grimaced as they walked in.
Their eyes both immediately locked onto the pink hair near the desk. 'Shit' They both thought. They were always hoping she wouldn't see them enter.
"YOU IDIOTS! AGAIN!" Sakura screamed as she saw them. The patients in the room went wide eyed, though the doctors and nurses and attendants simply carried about their business. Sakura stomped over at now the two cowering Ninjas. It was a very curious sight. Two of Konoha's most celebrated Chuunins cowering before a Trainee doctor.
The doctor in question grabbed both nins by the scruff of the neck and lifted them. The duo held their hand in front of their face in hopes of warding of the incoming pain. The pink haired doctor shook the two like rag dolls yelling at them.
"you pigheaded idiots can't even keep yourselves out of trouble for one second every single time I find you-" Sakura let out a breath and glared at the two. Sakura than dragged the two into an available room and threw them in. She slammed the door as she went in. The patients in the room stared as they heard loud screams of someone being imbeciles, having no regard for safety and so on.
Naruto shook his head as he warded off the memory of happier times.
"Too far." Sasuke grunted as he turned his head to look at Sakura. Naruto blinked as he felt Sakura's body temperature slowly climb.
Naruto bit his lip. "Ichiruka's stash."
Sasuke nodded.
Naruto turned and walked down the street. Ichiruka' stash was a back up stash, Naruto had created as a just in case. He had shoplifted everything from kunai's to cabbage and stashed them into a huge container, sealing the container with preservative seals and the like. They were actually on the way to recover the stash when they were ambushed by the Akatsuki.
Hopefully, the damage caused by the battles didn't destroy the seal. Naruto dragged his team and his feet towards the remnants of their old meeting place. Sasuke grunted with each step and Sakura's breath was still shallow.
"Three orders of Miso Ramen please." Naruto ordered briskly as he walked under the cover of the stand. Old man Ichiruka smiled as he nodded, taking in Naruto's tired appearance. "Back from a mission eh?"
Naruto nodded as he sat down. "Yep, got to shut down a camp near the border. Pretty hard stuff." Naruto whined as he rolled his shoulders.
"That's because you're lazy" a voice came from behind Naruto.
Naruto turned and growled. "yea right, I train as much as you."
Sasuke smirked as he sat down. Sakura shook her head in resignation as she sat down on the opposite side of Naruto.
"Neh, How is sensei?" Sasuke directed his question to Sakura, who was now a full fledged doctor and field medic.
Sakura tapped her mouth in deep thought. "well, he's recovering from chakra exhaustion but it didn't help that he got poisoned. He'll be up and about in a week or so but he wont be at full till 2 weeks at least."
Sasuke nodded just as Ichiruka set down three bowls infront of team 7, which was now composed of 3 chuunins.
Naruto heartily dug into his bowl while Sakura stared at him. Sasuke noticed and raised an eyebrow.
"Something on Naruto's face, Sakura?" Sasuke asked.
Naruto, hearing his name, stopped eating and looked back and forth between Sasuke and Sakura. Sakura smiled sweetly. She gave Naruto a nudge with her shoulder.
"I saw Naruto over here give Hinata a little kiss, and a date."
The reaction of Sakura's boys was hilarious, if one knew them well. Sasuke raised both eyebrows and stared wildly at Naruto.. Sasuke didn't even try to hide his shock as his jaw was in full open. Naruto immediately went beet red and looked down, trying to become as small as possible.
"how did you find out" Naruto groaned.
Sakura gave a sly smile. "Oh? So, when were you going to tell us?" Sakura narrowed her eyes, while breaking out into a wide smile. It wasn't often to see the boisterous nin be so shy.
"Well," Naruto began, trying to think of a way to dodge.
Sasuke coughed as he picked up his chopsticks to start eating once more. "Let's just eat."
Suddenly, Naruto's mind clicked on what to say. "What about you and Sasuke that one time in wave?"
Sakura froze, her eyes widening like deer. Sasuke proceeded to spit out his ramen. Naruto blinked as he realized that both of this teammates were now as red as him. And in a spirit of teamwork, Sasuke and Sakura smacked Naruto in the back of the head at the same time. Naruto's face landed ungracefully into his Ramen. The Ramen loving chuunin, for the first time, regretted that Ramen was hot.
"OW OWOW" Naruto cried as he tried to wipe his face from the scalding liquid.
Sakura and Sasuke both looked away, determined not to face each other.
Naruto trudged to the front of the shop and set Sakura and Sasuke down nearby a block of wreckage. Moving forward, Naruto approached a small wreckage of wood, surrounded by crumbling wood. It was not surprising to see that the wood had no mold over it. Naruto had, after he completed his sealing training, put protection and time delay seals over his favorite stand. Protection left the stand lasting against harsh wind or rocks, not open ended blasts of destruction. The time delay was a tricky seal that made the wood last longer. Naruto had intended to make the chef's life a bit easier without having to worry about replacing wood.
Naruto shifted through the wood to look for the strongbox which held their stash. Naruto heard Sasuke cough twice and slump on Sakura. Naruto guessed that he passed out from Chakra exhaustain. The idiot had used 10 Chidori's in a row, a ridiculous feat and a suicidal one as well.
Naruto gave a small smile as he found the box. The strong box was made of solid steel. It was 2 inches thick being 3 foot by 3 foot wide. Opening it, Naruto looked at the neatly stacked and secured bottles and scrolls. Naruto gripped the sides the box and lifted upwards. Ripping the box from the ground Naruto moved towards Sasuke and Sakura. Naruto limped towards his friends, his body was tiring out from excessive use of chakra, using the Kyuubi chakra was not helping at all. Naruto set down the box and looked for the scroll which contained the medicine. Finidng it quickly, Naruto took the scroll and quicly found where the specific medicine where stored. Opening the medicine containers, Naruto poured it into Sakura's mouth.
Sasuke gave another cough and Naruto perked up. It was than Naruto realized how pale Sasuke was. Shifting towards Sasuke, Naruto saw that Sasuke had a decently sized wound on his right side. Nothing too serious but dangerous if left untreated. Naruto reached into the medicine scroll and unsealed bandages, proceeding to wrap Sasuke's wounds.
Finishing his work, Naruto got set in securing the area with seals. It was cold, very cold. Konoha used to be warm, so full. Now it was just cold. Naruto wrote seals for detection, scent dampening, chakra suppression and other protection seals with a mixture of blood and ink..
"HEY GAKI BE CAREFUL!" The white haired sage yelled. Waving his hand, to stop his student from writing down the finishing seals. It was not everyday you saw your student write a completely foreign Seal series.
Naruto rolled his eyes. "I know what i'm doing baka-ero"
The Toad sage raised both his eye brows and scrutinized the series. "What is this?" Of course, the elder nin could figure it out, but it was better to ask the creator.
"A time dilation seal."
The toad sage froze, "A time dilation." It was one of the highest levels of sealing. Most humans experienced time as a stagnant flow. That was because energy was moving in a certain field or 'way'. But manipulating that energy or chakra could change the 'atmosphere' of the chakra. By manipulating ALL the chakra, one could, in theory, manipulate time.
The ero-sennin looked at the seal with renewed interest. He wasn't worried that Naruto would try it on himself. He had taught the boy, and knew the idiot at least had some common sense in him. "So..." Jiraiya trailed, looking the seal up and down, "Manipulating Earth and Air by the same constant but leaving Spirit in the same constant. But why write a redundant seal for Soul protection. If you're multiply by the same constant shouldn't it stay the same?"
Naruto shook his head, "I tried it with a sticks and glue, the constant made the glue dissatisfy because it was part of Earth."
Jiraiya nodded, sealing was annoying like that.
'So, lets see if it works.' Naruto thought as he placed two sticks and a nice glob of glue on them.
Naruto placed the seal and put chakra into it, barely trying. He let the seal take as much as it needed, because he really didn't have the strength to regulate it.
Naruto passed out as soon as he felt enough was put in.
Sadly, Naruto did not realize the chakra he put in was the Kyuubi's. And the Yokai's polarity made the steal unstable.
The first thing Naruto felt as and heard was a murmur. He knew for a fact that the wounds on his body had healed, which meant the kyuubi had done its work. He was stills sore as hell so Sakura and Sasuke had not woken up yet. That meant the murmur came from someone else, most likely an enemy. That meant that they we're trying to figure out how to take down the seals. Naruto's hand, luckily, was underneath him, near his Hirashin Kunai. He was about an arm's distance from Sasuke and Sakura. He would be able to grab them and Hirashin away if things got dicey. But to Hirashin he would need to take down the seal. That was easy to do. Simply reach behind him and activate the burning seal behind him.
But they needed the stash with them. It would take only a second longer, which was deadly at these distances. He could shield them with his body. Yes, that was it, the kyuubi would heal his wounds and he would be able to save Sasuke and Sakura.
Taking a deep breath, Naruto quickly jumped into a crouch position, touching the seal at exactly the destruction point. Pushing chakra into it, Naruto than jumped forward, throwing his kunai into the air towards the right as far as he could. Using his left arm, Naruto scooped up the box and shifted his entire weight towards Sasuke and Sakura. Naruto was using this chance, as the second it took to move, to look at his surroundings.
It was this second that changed everything for Naruto. Because it took him only half a second to realize he couldn't Hirashin even if he wanted to. Naruto let his body and the box fall half hazardly only his teammates as he stared ahead and around him.
The Jinchuuriki of former Konoha now stood in an exact replica of Konoha. Naruto had one thing pulsing through his mind, 'Genjutsu.'
Naruto looked around in wonder. Everything was pristine, no stone cracked, no streets destroyed, no crumbling buildings, the faces of the Hokage's still there (except for Tsunade's), hell Good o'l Inchiruka's was still there.
Naruto spun around once, looked at all the faces staring back at him. Some of them civilian, some of the Nins, some of them anbu. Naruto froze as he looked at the Hokage tower. The tower still standing as if it hadn't been torn down.
Naruto chuckled, he couldn't help himself. The chuckle turned into laughter, and than into a full blow on Roar.
Naruto shook his head as he looked around and smiled to himself. Who ever had the gall to use this illusion would pay. Hell, he'd play along.
"Hey Come on out now. You can drop the illusion." Naruto called out. Waiting for the person to show up. Maybe it was that orange masked freak, or Maybe Orochimaru had harvested Itachi's eyes, though he highly doubted that.
Naruto's answer was given in a form of anbu who moved foorward. It was Cat. Naruto shook his head as he recognized this anbu. He always laughed at how Yugao was so serious.
"Identify yourself, Why are you wearing Konoha uniform."
Naruto chuckled as he shooked his head and crossed his arms. What the hell was this genjutsu user doing. If one had figured it out was a genjutsu, you moved onto something else. Maybe the nin was stalling to take down the seal. He would play along for now.
"Well its obvious I am a Konoha nin. But you already knew that. Now tell me who are you. Don't say you're a Konoha nin. Konoha has been dead a long time ago. Give a straight answer nin and i'll give you a quick death."
The fake Anbu bristled and growled out. "Who do you think you are. Look around you. Konoha is clearly alive."
Naruto rolled his eyes, as he felt the presence of More Anbu approach. Interesting, this genjutsu user could mimic Chakra signatures, he would have to look into this later. Naruto was about to continue to goad this genjutsu, for his enjoymeent, until a loud voice pierced the situation.
"HEY HEY WHAT IS GOING ON! WHY DOES THAT GUY LOOK AT ME! IS HE COPYING ME!-" The voice was muffled as someone had put a hand over the loud voice.
Naruto looked over to his left, where Ichiruka was and saw an intersting sight. Naruto chuckled as he looked at the genjutsu's poor attempt to stall him. "Seriously" Naruto called out in a louder voice. "Pick something better than me, to distract me. Basic Genjutsu 101, more realistic harder it is. Fuck, what is with these shitty nins." Naruto growled. Maybe that would grab a reaction.
Naruto was sadly rewarded with watching his younger self scramble to get out of his Deceased sensei's grip.
Naruto eyes softened as he saw the grey hair and the headband in its proper place. Naruto smiled at the jounin. The proxy of the jounin realized he was staring at him and stared back.
"Who are you?" Kakashi-proxy asked.
Naruto smiled and shook his head. "I'll humor you, for the sake of the memory. I am the boy you are holding, just a lot older."
Kakashi froze and Naruto's genjutsu counterpart looekd confused. The genjutsu Naruto pushed Kakashi's hand away and asked a confused voice, "you're me?"
Naruto nodded slowly, while rolling his eyes. "Yep, Son of Uzumaki Kushina, Namikaze-"
The Genjutsu Kakashi cried out, "HOW do you know that!"
Naruto paused and blinked. Looking at Kakashi, Naruto raised an eye brow. "What do you mean? You told me yourself before you ordered me to leave with Sakura and Sasuke after Akatsuki invaded."
Kakashi clenched his fists. "Who are the-"
Naruto waved his hand, he had enough of this Genjutsu. "Alrightly, Since you aren't showing yourself I might as well start breaking the structure of the Genjutsu, get some blood flowing."
As Naruto gathered Chakra, Genjutsu Cat asked, with more Anbu surrounding them. "How do you know you are in a Genjutsu."
Naruto scoffed as he started to push Chakra away from his head. "Well... I don't know. Maybe its because Konoha isn't destoryed to kingdom come. Or Ichiruka is still standing. Or hell maybe it was Kakashi-sensei still being alive. I think those are pretty damn big hints don't ya think?"
Cat paused and than nodded. "Than are you using a Genjutsu cancelling technique."
Naruto rolled his eyes, "Yes, no shit. Get ready cause once i'm out, im gutting you from head to toe."
Naruto pushed the chakra out in a large pulse. The pulse was large enough to cause a ripple in the air. Naruto blinked as he looked around, seeing that the scenery and people had not changed.
"Huh. Interesting." Naruto put his hands on his hips and looked around, now more intrigued. He was sure there would have been some irregularity forming like a hole in the middle of space or a scenery more familiar to him.
The Genjutsu of Cat took this as a chance to speak. "As you can see that this is not-"
Naruto waved his hand. "It could be a fast repairing genjutsu or a Sharingan."
Naruto saw Genjutsu Sasuke bristle. Naruto froze as a new voice entered the picture.
"That would be impossible, The only sharingan user is Sasuke here and one other."
Naruto turned slowly, smiling at Nostalgia. Looking at a familiar sight behind Naruto's genjutsu self, the Sandaime stared hard at Naruto.
"Hey old man. Been a long while." Naruto stressed the word. Naruto would've continued except a groan emitted from Sakura.
'Oh his he bringing Sakura into this, I can use that as a way to get out than."
Sakura's eyes fluttered and She sat up slowly.
"N-naruto what is going on?" She said weakly, still not taking in her surroundings.
"Well not much Sakura-chan. Cured you, healed up Sasuke, i'm stuck in a genjutsu." Sakura immediatley perked up and jumped to her feet. The Anbu surrounding them immediately took out ninjatos and prepared hand seals. Though they were stayed by a hand motoin from the Sandaime.
Sakura looked at Naruto and back at her surroundings. Naruto sighed as he was growing tired of this genjutsu. It was time to break out using memory logic.
"Under the trees we grow..." Waiting for Sakura to finish. It should take a while but Sakura should eventually say she didn't know what he was talking about, or answer wrongly.
Sakura just stared at him with wide eyes and answered. "While the fire in our hearts burn."
Naruto froze as well. Both of them stared at each other for a very long time.
"that's impossible." Naruto whispered, his voice suddenly hoarse.
"G-group genjutsu." Sakura asked quietly.
"Should be impossible... River under the sea..." Naruto stutttered out.
"Cloud above the sky." Sakura finished once again, perfectly.
Sakura dropped to her knees. "there is no way. How are we?"
Naruto reaching the same conclusion Sakura had but with more information.
"The kyuubi chakra..."
Naruto didn't even notice several people stiffening at the mention.
"I used it with the time seal. Oh kami. Oh kami." Naruto ran his hand through his hair. If this was true. Holy fucking shit.
Naruto whipped his head towards Sandaime, a new fire burning his eyes. He felt rejuvenated, a new hope filling him.
"Orochimaru is the head of Otokagure. He is planning to invade during the Chuunin exams." Naruto rattled off everything he can remember. "Tsunade becomes hokage but The Akatsuki comes in. They are lead by a man in an orange mask. Their members are Sasori, Kisame, Itachi, Diedra, Hidan, Kakuzu and a couple others." Naruto took a deep breath and looked at Sakura.
"Sakura give them your journal."
Sakura nodded, realizing the chance they we're given. Sakura fumbled into her pouch and threw it to Sandaime. An Anbu intercepted it but The Sandaime held out his hand for it. The sandaime too realied what was going on, though still skeptical.
Sakura called out, "It's a medical journal for all the poisons and medical techniques i've created under Tsunade."
Naruto than reached into his own pouch and tossed a scroll. This time the Sandaime caught it without interference. "It's a sealing scroll. I've written down everything I know on it."
Naruto racked his brain for anything else he could give, to give this one chance. There had to be more, there had to be something he could do to ensure the change would happen.
"Naruto look."
Naruto froze as he looked over to Sakura. Sakura pointed towards Sasuke was turning transparent.
"He's dissappearing." Sakura whispered. Naruto looked at Sakura and blinked rapidly, his eyes watering.
With a hoarse voice, Naruto nodded, "you too." Sakura looked at herself and looked back at Naruto smiling. "I guess we did something worth a chance."
Naruto smiled back at her and nodded. Looking down at himself, he was indeed fading. Naruto turned back to himself and smiled. "Hey Naruto, Make sure to give Hinata Orchids on your first date she loves them. And make sure to take pictures of Sakura and Sasuke kissing during that wave mission, excellent black mail material."
The entirety of Team 7 just stared at him in shock.
Naruto just smiled. He had done something. Whether he had changed an illusion or the past he didn't care.
He faded away satisfied.
There we go!