A/N: Well, here I am, this is the first time in 3 or 4 years in which I've properly worked on a story, being completely honest, this story has been rounding my head for the last six months more or less, I was not confident enough to actually work on it before because I seriously doubted my abilities, and I still doubt them, but I wanted to do something productive with my time and I would rather try and write something that seemed interesting to me than just keep it on a void.

I must also admit that certain parts in this prologue were written as they came to my mind and then morphed in a way they would work in the story, of course some things will feel absurd or badly explained, and that's ok in a certain way, hopefully they will make sense to some degree in teh future. Another note to be made is that I'm bad in action scenes and chances are that this fanfic will revolve around character interactions and their growth a lot more than fights, not saying that the latters won't be present.

I also must clarify that Naruto will not be hugely overpowered, but he will retain certain level of power. He is past the 32 years old mark, he has been Hokage for some time and he has grown more wise, intelligent and experienced as well as skillful, but he will need to regain a lot of what made him great since he was transported to a younger body, that means less chakra control, faulty taijutsu since he lacks the muscle memory or the right or strenght and speed.

With that said, I think I've gone through all that's important to note as of right now. I welcome you to my vision of a Time Travel and Gender Transformation Naruto. Hopefully you will enjoy this as much I'm going to try to enjoy writing it.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Naruto or any of the projects that had been born out of it. His rightful owner is Masashi Kishimoto.

PROLOGUE

Saying that they were exhausted would be toning things down, if they stopped for more than a few seconds, it was clear that their bodies would give into the pleasure of the much needed rest they needed after fighting a war and the likes of gods for more than a few continuous days, that's why they kept on going, even when Sasuke and Naruto were only able to stand on their knees, throwing punches that seemed like they wouldn't make any difference.

To any outsider, this endless fight would have been meaningless and sad, also not quite long, to those who did not partake in it, it was a mere exchange of blows, but for the blonde Hero and his black haired antagonist, it was an exchange of words, feelings, ideologies, they didn't need to try and understand each other, they were far past that, one could argue that it was because of that very same fact, why Sasuke wanted to kill Naruto to reach his goal, while the blonde Hero wanted to do exactly the opposite, he wanted to stop his longtime friend from coming back to the loneliness they once experienced as children.

Unlike the first change of pace in the prolonged fight where it took them hours to come from trading earth shattering attacks and punches that would have broken any lesser ninja into mere bumps in each other's faces, the next one was quick, Chakra being absorbed, a Chidori that was almost a fatal attack being interrupted by a powerful blow to his chin and suddenly it was the last attack, just like when they were twelve, it was a battle of Raw chakra, a Chidori infused with the black flames of Amaterasu against a Rasengan, once again it was that the deciding factor to a battle that had been told far too many times, but it was also the end of a 'tradition' that started between Indra and Ashura.

In a void of color, once again they came to talk to each other, to discuss why their reasons, this time with words, but no matter how much they tried; Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto were far too stubborn. Unlike 5 years ago, this time there was no winner, not physically at least, not one of them was standing. Hours had passed since the final clash, and Sasuke had been the last to wake up.

Both of them had lost far too much blood, and with Kurama sleeping thanks to using the last bit of his own chakra, there was no hyper regeneration that could help the Uzumaki this time around. Sasuke demanded an answer, why would Naruto go so far to put himself in the middle of his plans, to stop him… What exactly did mean the word friend to him?

The answer was awkward; it was just like Naruto to not know the logical answer, but to speak his mind either way. "Whenever I see you carrying that burden… I just… Hurt… So much pain that… I just can't leave you alone!" And then, the Uchiha accepted a few facts that he had known for a long time, he closed his eyes to surrender himself to their incoming death.

It was hard to name a loser, or even call it a tie, but it was almost as if it was the work of destiny, laying right next to each other, blood seeping out of their missing arms just to get mixed on top of the rocky hands of Uchiha Madara and Senju Hashirama performing the seal of reconciliation. Morning came and the sun bathed their faces with his potent rays, against all odds, they survived, and once again there was doubt in the Uchiha, while he had come to accept he had lost his battle, while he had accepted his way of seeing things was wrong, he felt that there was no forgiveness, he claimed that his death would finally put an end to the conflict that Indra and Ashura started so long ago, he was looking at the easy way out.

Naruto on the other side decided against it, while he was not able to talk it out with his fists how he was so used to against such stubborn people, he could not let the Uchiha accept such fate, not when he was by his side, not ever.

"What if I end up opposing you again?" Sasuke asked, his voice rough and weak, but there was no need to scream, not when they were the only ones laying in a perfectly quiet place and having Naruto dong enough screaming for the two of them. "Then I'll stop you again. But you wouldn't do that anymore!" Naruto declared, as if he as already the winner, as if this battle of ideologies finally came to an end and he was sure that Sasuke was just being childish and acting out of his hard temperament, thing both knew was not true in this moment.

"How… can you say that?" Sasuke sent his question, but there was the underlying one, the question he really meant was easy for Naruto to detect. 'How can you trust in me so blindly?'

"I'm not gonna keep repeating myself to you! Jeez, you still don't get it…!?" 'Because you're my best friend… ' Sasuke didn't need to hear the exact words, just like him, Naruto responded in kindness, not with the direct answer, but one that directed the man to it, he felt that he had lived hearing those words for the past few years, unconditional love and respect, Sasuke was accepted against all his flaws, and that was enough for him, tears rolled down from his eyes. "Shut it… Usuratonkachi. "

Twenty years old and it still felt like he was chasing the Uchiha, darkness was surrounding the both of them as they stood by the village gates, the Uchiha had a soft blush on his cheeks, it was not hard to predict what he had been up to not long ago, if anything, the chances of a seeing a very happy Sakura the next morning were quite high.

"Do you really need to go once again?" Asked the blonde, arms crossed on his chest, there was no verbal response, just a staring contest between the young adults, Sasuke was the first to break it by turning around towards the village gates, Naruto didn't need a verbal answer, even after all of those years, he was still looking for his redemption, protecting the village his deceased brother and his best friend had risked so much to protect. But his walking was stopped, a firm prostatic arm pulling his own forearm. "Let's go drink… Let it be the first of many…" Naruto was not a fan of alcohol, he had tried it, like many other things during his 3 year training trip, some of them, he wasn't very proud of, but in words of his godfather, the life of a Shinobi was too short to miss on stuff.

The black haired man stared at him for what seemed minutes, but it had only been a couple of seconds, his frown relaxed, he sighed and pulled his arm away. "Lead the way..." His voice had sounded commanding, but there was some friendliness laced with it, and though his eyes seemed severe like his father's had been once, there was understanding in them. It had always been an awkward sight to see them on friendly terms, people struggled to picture them like friends rather than rivals, but there they were, entering one of the few stores that stayed open past the midnight mark to buy whatever brand of Sake they could find and some cheap Onigiri to accompany it.

That was enough for the pair of friends who then walked towards Naruto's new home, Hinata was aware of her husband plans for that night, to some degree at least, so she went to bed early the pregnant woman needed her bit of rest even If she was entering very early stages of her pregnancy, Sasuke had seen her earlier that day, and even congratulated her for what would be the real start to their family. To keep things quiet Naruto walked him towards a small wooden hall on the outside, one of the few traditional elements that the house had.

With a hand signal he indicated Sasuke to wait as he went inside the house, soon he came back with a large wooden plate and a couple of saucers, part of a set he received as a gift from Tsunade for his wedding in the hopes that he would join her for a few drinks in the near future. Sasuke had done his part, none of them had planned on getting drunk, but yet there were five bottles waiting to be opened, because the two of them knew that their plans never went the way they wanted.

Silence reigned, one because they weren't sure was to start, but Sasuke made sure that their little drinking evening wouldn't grow stale soon, so he moved first, pulling out one of the plum filled Onigiris. The wrapper was soon left in the wooden plate, next to the rest of the rice treats, his mouth quickly taking a bite as Naruto proceeded to pour some of the liquor into the pair of saucers. After a quick swing, the blonde's cup was empty, the liquid burned his throat and warmed his stomach, it tasted bad and it almost made him cough, but he still went for another drink, the only noises were of the pouring, the drinking and the chewing coming from the duo, but soon, it was broken. "Tell me of your family…"

That was the start of a series of sleepless nights divided in the years, every time Sasuke came with some information or after they were done defeating an enemies, he would spend the night with Naruto, drinking their problems away, information was shared, from favorite meals, from bad experiences, to dark matters such as the massacre of a whole clan, how it came to it, who was involved in it, they were nothing but past memories, but it was important for the two of them to share every bit of their existence with one another, because they lost so much time because of their early errors, that now it was the only opportunity they had to share who they were without needing to punch each other's faces into the ground.

It was one of those rare occasions where work has just been too much and Naruto finally decided that resting was something he could allow himself, sure the head ache his clones would give him once they finished with the share of work in the office that he left them doing would be massive, and probably it would knock him out for a few minutes, but it was worth it. It was worth the smiling face of his daughter, it was worth seeing his son being less grumpy, less angry by just having his father in their dinner table eating his meal during that afternoon with them, and the idea of feeling the warmth of his wife later that night while they hugged each other to sleep.

Things would have been completely fine that evening, but when he was bringing the cup of warm tea towards his lips, something just had to go wrong, it was such a normal occurrence, probably the cup was just over used, or Himawari had failed when making it at some point, making the thing easier to break, but the thing shattered in his hand, when his grip wasn't strong enough to break it, the hot liquid fell on his pants and he had to stand up quickly pulling the fabric away from his skin to avoid any burns. "Himawari! I'm sorry darling…" He quickly apologized, the girl seemed to feel a bit emotional, that the gift she had made with so much effort a few years ago for his father had suddenly exploded, but she remained calm, understanding that it wasn't nobody's fault, excusing himself Naruto moved towards the bathroom, laughing nervously, playing things out, Hinata noticed though, Naruto was worried, it was probably just a gut feeling, but he knew something wasn't right…

Night came, dinner had ended quite soon after Naruto's quick exit, a message was sent to his best friend through a falcon, the man never answered his phone anyways, and with that, he returned to his house, to the awaiting arms of her wife, the kids were already sleeping, he just checked on them before going to his bed, arms firmly taking Hinata by the waist, no words were exchanged, Hinata surely wanted to ask what had him so worried, but she remained silent, he knew him well enough, and even she could feel that maybe, just maybe, something might have happened to Naruto's brother in all but blood and name.

Naruto had his problems sleeping, but once he finally did, it had to be interrupted by someone, or rather something in his mind, he opened his eyes, but all he was able to see was a void of darkness and right in front of him an orb, an orb that seemed to hold something so familiar yet so foreign to him, Naruto was somehow able to sense Ashura and Indra, Hashirama and Madara and even Sasuke in it, but not himself, if he had to point a finger to an answer, it was that most of them shared one thing, death, but that would mean that whatever suspicions he might have before about Sasuke's well fare were true… Someone ended his best friend's life.

There was no exchange of words, the object didn't emit a single sound, but the seventh Hokage did not know what were the right questions to make, because somehow he knew that he would get answers. "What is this?" Came in his first question, it was a sentiment as if his mind was filled with information. "A re-starting point?" He questioned, he didn't know what Hashirama had meant by it, it felt as if he had given the answer, Naruto tried to bring this information to Kurama, but there was no answer coming from his tailed beast allied. "Why do I need a re-starting point? Did something happen?" Once again, information was given to him, not through a voice, it was like opening a box, as if the knowledge had always been there but was locked away from him.

"Sasuke… Failed to fulfill my vision? So it's true he is dead?" Naruto's throat tightened as soon as those words left his mouth, new information appeared in his mind, not the how, not the where or the who, just the fact that Sasuke was gone, someone had been able to defeat him, and with his death the promise that the cycle would end on a good way, had been put to an end in a way a bigger entity did not wish for, Naruto's world had been terminated because of it, everything he had worked so hard for seemed to have been vanished because an evil force had gone against his plans. Naruto wanted to curse, the more calm and wise man he had become during the last decade had receded for a bit, it was the loudmouth and impolite teenager that wanted to scream, but he wasn't able to, something kept him from talking or even screaming, information was given once again, this time without the need for him to make a question.

"To stop? Who? Who do I have to stop!? Hey, come back here!" He could feel it, the horrible sensation of pity that oozed out of the orb as it vanished right in front of him, Naruto had little to no understanding of what was going on and if he had possessed the calm of mind to analyze what was requested of him, he would have understood since it was rather simple, it didn't matter how or at what cost, the entity wanted the solution Naruto had thought off to end the cycle to work, it didn't matter if he was taking things away from the blonde to reach it, he also didn't care how the blonde would achieve it, no evil force should be left alone to ruin things for the blonde, and that was his problem to solve, with the orb of light gone, Naruto was left in the darkness, his chest starting to hurt and once again, like if he was in space, there was no space to scream.

Blue orbs came out of their shell, he was sweating, his whole body trembled and the pain in his chest was as real as it could be, it took work, his body ached in ways he didn't expect it too, unless Hinata did something to hurt him while he slept that is. While very real, the experience in his sleep seemed to have been quite an awful dream, but it was finally over, the confusion was still present, but he had someone who he could fall onto, someone who would give him the energy to stand up once again, he looked to his side, and that was when he felt for the very first time that morning, that things were wrong.

Naruto's hand trembled in an uncontrollable way as he pressed it against the wall, instead of a king sized bed, instead of the warmth Hinata always left in the bed during the mornings, he was faced with the cold wall of his memories. Of course he remembered, his old apartment was so small that every inch of space was needed, so his bed had been pressed towards one of the walls, he bit his lip. The second shock came when his big blue orbs fell on top of his arm and hand.

Instead of a prostatic and bandaged hand, he could see skin, real skin in a small hand, his chest hurt as he took a big gulp of air, instead of a naked arm thanks to the fact that he had been sleeping in short sleeved t-shirts as of late, he was able to see it covered by the light blue long sleeve of his old pajama, it was somehow as if someone was playing an awful joke on him, quickly he channeled chakra without any seals and produced a burst, no Kai was needed, he was skilled enough already for it, and what was becoming his worst nightmare only became that much more of a reality, he wasn't in a Genjutsu, his fear had been so great that he had pushed quite a bit of his own chakra to delete any possibilities, but it didn't help one bit, not even Kurenai would have been able to produce a Genjutsu of such high quality to not be dissolved with the amount of chakra used by Naruto.

He pushed his way out of the bed, scrambling onto his small feet, only to fall face first, not because his body was in pain, besides his chest there was no real pain elsewhere, it was because for some reason his legs fell shorted, more than he remembered them being when he was young. He didn't bother changing, he didn't bother seeing himself on a mirror he just ran out of the house in his pajama's, pushing his way through the crowd, he jumped towards a wall and almost failed to stick to it, his eyes widened, some of his control was gone, not completely since he was able to stick to the wall, but it wasn't as easy as breathing as it had become.

Pushing the thought aside he rushed towards the top of the building, he jumped towards a large post, the very same one he climbed so excitedly once he came back to the village, and that was what sealed the deal, he really wished he didn't know how, but that dream made an awful lot of sense now… The village was the same he remembered… The very same one he remembered before his training trip with his godfather… The very same one he remembered even before he went to pursue Tsunade to become the fifth Hokage, the last carved face was the one of his father.

Wind passed through, and this time it was something else entirely that had picked his attention, the one bit of information he hadn't seen this whole time since he had woken up, why his body felt smaller than it had been when he was eleven years old, his orbs trembled with unshed tears as they stared to the side, his face still facing the Hokage monument, he gulped loudly as his vision was suddenly covered by blonde hair, so long that it resembled the one his mother had when he saw her in his seal, he was almost hypnotized by it, his eyes following every movement that it made with the wind, and as it stopped, it slowly started to fall, soon resting on his body, he didn't want to look down, yet his eyes couldn't be stopped, they followed a single strand of hair that started near his forehead and fell onto his shoulder past his chest, the straight strand was only interrupted by a healthy looking mound that was located in the place his pectorals should have been.

A/N: With this I put an end to the prologue, hopefully I left as many questions as certain answers were given, the main drive of the story hasn't been completely revealed either, certain things were said in a ambiguous way since I'm not too sure of certain events that will take place in the future.

I'm not able to talk of when you could see a future update, but I sincerely hope you enjoyed this. With that said I'll take my leave, please review and tell me what you think of it, what faults you found and in what ways I could make this better.