AN: Random drabbles are all these really are. Just ideas floating around in my head the past few months - they could potentially turn into fics.
This one: In which Naruto goes back in time, having lost everything, (no Sasuke), and is willing to do what it takes to save Konoha this time around.
"Will this really work?" It had to work. Naruto needed it to work. There was nothing left, no one left. He had nothing if this didn't work.
"Of course it will! Just trust me, Kit. Have I lead you astray before?" Kurama's voice was a warm presence in his mind. The fox demon was the only constant that Naruto had in his life. Without the demon with him during the war, Naruto knew for a fact that he would have given up long ago.
It took days to get ready. He had long ago lost his Leaf headband, yet had managed to keep his ANBU gear in tact. The standard silver vest was gone, yet he had on the black shirt and black pants that were given to every ANBU operative. His tattoo was on his shoulder, and it pained him as he remembered Kakashi-sensei. A kunai pouch was secured to his left thigh, and he checked and double checked his weapons. Once Naruto was sure he had more weapons than he probably needed, he got to work.
The seal he worked on was old. It was unlike anything he had ever come across as a Seal Master, complex and beautiful. It required blood. For a week, Naruto bled himself and used his blood for the seal, ignoring Kurama's warnings to be careful. This needed to be done. Finally, it was.
Two and a half years of war, of watching his comrades dying at his feet, and he could save them. He was ready. Activating the seal was a delicate process. It physically drained Naruto of his chakra, until he was pouring Kurama's chakra into it. He could hear Kurama yelling at him in the back of his head before-
His world went white.
He awoke in a battle zone. An Iwa Shinobi attacked, and it was only years of honed reflexes that gave him the edge. He didn't hesitate to slit the shinobi's throat, and Naruto was up and running, taking down yet another shinobi. "Out of one war, dropped into another," he thought bitterly, dodging a flurry of shuriken thrown towards him.
Dropping onto a tree, Naruto reigned in on his emotions and took the squad of enemy shinobi out. It was quick, brutal, and he was left standing in the middle of a blood bath, crimson dripping down the kunai he held in his right hand. He recognized the village symbols on their headbands, quickly gathered that he was in the Third War, and steeled himself. Now wasn't the time for rest. Spreading out his senses, he honed in on a chakra signature like a ninkin and took off into the forest, concealing his own chakra down, clamping onto it, despite how desperately it tried to get free in the wake of the bloodbath.
A feral smile came to his face as he dropped down directly onto the front lines, saw the leaf and Iwa shinobi fighting. Immediately attacking an Iwa shinobi, slitting the man's throat after pulling him off of a leaf shinobi, he ignored the looks he received from both enemy and allies alike, and set to attacking the Iwa shinobi. He was finally home, and nothing was going to stop him from protecting Konoha again.
"Captain! Who is that?!" Shikaku Nara stared at the blond on the battlefield, the Nara watching as the unidentified boy took down one enemy after another. Had he not been on Namikaze's squad, he would have mistaken the other blond for his Captain. A few other's on the front lines looked towards their Captain, as if expecting the man to have the answers. They had expected to die when coming out into this war. However, this, an unknown subject taking down their enemy? It was not what they had expected at all.