I don't own Naruto.
A/N: I got bored and decided to write a time-travel piece because I do love me some sci-fi. My other story wasn't giving me the requisite hedons to merit working on lately, so I'm trying something new.
Prologue
"You're the seal-master, you idiot. I have no idea what any of this means," Sasuke remarked.
Naruto turned with an evil grin. "You keep bitching about how Itachi killed everyone, so we're going to fix it," the blonde said as he smirked up at his best frienemy.
"Why am I here?" the pink-haired kunoichi asked.
"Just in case the seal matrix doesn't work," Naruto lied as he activated the first seal. "Don't worry though, Sakura. I've got everything covered."
Naruto's chakra began to feed the seals, causing the entire underground room to glow. Sealing patterns began to cover Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke. A brilliant, white light began to shine and Naruto yelled, "If you need help, find me!"
Sasuke breathed in the morning air. He was in an enormous bed. He could tell because his feet didn't reach anywhere near the bottom of the bed. The pillow was equally enormous under his head. He opened his eyes to figure out where he was and when he did, he shot out of bed.
Not just any bed. HIS bed. The bed from his room. In the Uchiha compound. He looked around at everything, noting how everything seemed exactly as he'd remembered it. Even his pajamas.
Then he realized that his body was not the twenty-five-year-old body that he'd been in just moments before. He was in the body of a child. He couldn't even tell how old he was because it had been so long since he was small.
Then he heard it.
Children were playing outside. Children were playing in the Uchiha compound. He was filled with such joy at the prospect that he didn't realize that he couldn't mold as much chakra because he was just smaller now. He didn't realize that until his legs crumpled under him after jumping out of the window.
It hurt, hitting the ground like that, but he didn't care. There were children. He stood up on what had to be a broken ankle and watched them play in the street.
"Sasuke!" a male voice called.
Sasuke turned to see his older brother, Itachi. The older boy looked like he was about twelve. That was when everything hit him. He remembered the night of the massacre. He remembered the time Itachi had broken his arm. He remembered the harsh training with Orochimaru. But mostly he remembered both times he watched Itachi die.
The first time, Itachi had simply run out of steam. His older brother had stumbled toward him and poked him on the forehead before collapsing into death. The second time was much more purposeful. Itachi had been resurrected by a forbidden jutsu and they had had a long talk before Itachi ended it and died again.
Without thinking, he flooded his eyes with as much chakra as his tiny body could produce and his eyes morphed. Time slowed down for him.
Itachi was alarmed. Itachi was never alarmed, but now he was alarmed.
Sasuke slapped his hands over his eyes, even though he scrunched his eyelids shut, realizing that he was looking through the Mangekyo Sharingan. "Don't tell anyone!" he managed to shriek before collapsing.
Sasuke sat in the hospital, wondering what day it was. Naruto hadn't told him how far back they'd gone. That meant that he needed to talk to the idiot, immediately. And the doctors were completely clueless.
It was like without Tsunade or Sakura, the hospital was run by bureaucrats who couldn't tell the difference between healing chakra and genjutsu.
"Mother?" Sasuke asked.
"Are you okay? Do you need something for the pain?" the woman asked, concerned.
Sasuke shook his head. "No. Could you please have someone get Naruto Uzumaki and Sakura Haruno? I would like to see them."
"I don't know if that's such a good idea, Sasuke. You've got a fractured ankle and the doctors said you have a bad case of chakra exhaustion," the woman replied.
Sasuke cursed internally at his mother's well-meaning obstruction. "Please, Mom? I need to see them," he tried not to whine, but realized that he was far too young for it to sound like anything else.
She thought it over, unsure of whether to leave or deny the boy before finally answering. "Alright. But you be a good boy and don't give the doctors a hard time," she told him while standing and leaving him alone in the hospital room.
An ANBU operative with a blank mask moved into position above him. He looked over at the spot on the ceiling and activated his eyes for a split second to take care of the ROOT operative. Whoever it was began to spasm from their position, falling to the ground. Sasuke didn't notice because he passed out again.
Sasuke woke up in the same hospital room. There was a massive sealing matrix covering the entire room. Naruto stood with Sakura, both of them looked roughly the same as he'd last seen them.
"What the hell, idiot? Why am I eight while you two are normal?" Sasuke croaked.
"I used seals to put my body into the correct shape, but I can't do that for anyone else," Naruto replied. "I just don't have the knowledge of how their bodies should be to do it. Sakura jumped the gun and made herself sixteen before I found her. With her medical skills and learning from my weird biology, she can make herself whatever age and in whatever physical shape she wants."
"So you both started as eight and made yourself adults," Sasuke confirmed. "Fine. My turn."
Naruto shook his head and stopped Sakura from moving any closer to Sasuke. "I'm effectively immortal so a few more years isn't going to make much of an impact on me. Sakura has enough skill with medical jutsus that it doesn't much matter. You, on the other hand, have a limited lifespan. This is a chance for you to get back the years that you lost to darkness. This is a do-over. I'm not going to rob you of an extra seventeen years of youth just because you don't appreciate this yet."
Sasuke sat quietly contemplating his options before responding, "Fuck you, Naruto."
"You want the massacre stopped. I'm going to stop it. I'm claiming my inheritance and killing Danzo. I'll then go have a little chat with Nagato and Obito. Anything else that happens, we'll deal with in a couple of years," Naruto nonchalantly responded.
At this point, Sakura punched Naruto so hard that he flew into the wall.
"You didn't even ask me! What the hell?" Sakura screeched.
"I'm sorry, but I didn't want to leave you behind. Your knowledge and skills are far too valuable to just disregard," Naruto whimpered while standing. "You think I like going back this far? Hinata is EIGHT. The only woman who ever loved me is EIGHT and I have to save the world. We can't be together now. Don't tell me this is a sacrifice for you. You can still reverse your age and be with Sasuke. I don't have that option; I have to wait it out until she's older. So yeah, I dragged you back with us."
Naruto stopped and breathed deeply for a few seconds before continuing. "I know you're smart Sakura. Much smarter than me. Put the pieces together. I have to go," Naruto finished and disappeared in a yellow flash.
Sasuke was still reeling from chakra exhaustion and his brain wouldn't work properly. He drowsily looked at Sakura and asked, "What did he mean?"
Sakura stared at the wall where Naruto had just been in concentration before a single tear fell down her cheek and she wiped it away. "He's scared. Terrified, really. He doesn't want to be alone. He knows that Hinata will die before him. That all of us are going to die and then he'll be alone again. With what I learned under Tsunade and developed myself, I probably have a good 300 years in me, but I'll eventually wear down. With the fox's chakra leaking out of his seal, he won't ever run down with age."
"So he really is immortal?" Sasuke asked dumbly.
"He won't ever suffer from old age. He can still be killed, but you know as well as I do that it'd take a lot to do it," Sakura replied before changing the subject. "I'll turn myself back into an eight-year-old, if you want."
"Don't cripple yourself, but that would be nice. If I have to deal with the Academy alone, I might lose it," Sasuke managed before falling asleep again.
Sasuke and Sakura walked into the Academy building. It was the old one, before the reconstruction, and had a lot of memories for both of them. They found their classroom and walked in together. The plethora of girls focused on Sasuke was a stark reminder that young girls are stupid.
Sasuke scoffed and sat down at chair somewhere in the middle. Sakura took up a seat next to him. A young, blonde girl stormed over to Sakura and started screaming.
"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING, FOREHEAD?" Ino hollered.
"Ino…" Sakura started, holding her ears. "Why would you try to kill everyone in the class like that? Please stop and discuss this at a conversational volume."
Shikamaru looked over at the interaction with what passed for shock on the young genius, muttering, "Troublesome."
"Fine. What do you think you're doing sitting next to Sasuke?" Ino asked angrily.
"Sasuke, what am I doing sitting next to you?" Sakura asked as she turned to the young Uchiha.
Sasuke grunted and then replied, "Learning how to become a better kunoichi. Both of you, shut up and sit down," he commanded.
Two older ninjas walked in to the classroom just as Ino sat down on Sasuke's other side. "Good morning, class," the one with the scar across his face said absently.
"Good morning, Iruka-sensei," the class responded.
"We have some news about one of your classmates: Naruto Uzumaki. He will be taking a year away from the Academy to train with his godfather, so you won't see him in the village until he returns," Iruka explained. "If anyone would like to write to him, you may give your letters to the Hokage who will ensure that they reach him."
A dirty looking boy with clan tattoos on his cheeks yelled out, "But Naruto is the best prankster in the village! What are we going to do for laughs?"
"KIBA, SIT DOWN!" Iruka ordered. "I'm sure that if you want something to laugh at, there are many movies that could provide you with that sort of entertainment."
The class sat silently stunned until Mizuki pulled out the teacher's book and told the class, "Everyone open up your textbooks. Today, we're going to talk about molding chakra."
Sakura sighed and put her head down on the desk just like Shikamaru. Sasuke thought long and hard about his current situation. He could easily outshine Itachi with the extra seventeen years of experience he now had over his older brother. But to what end?
He didn't care about his father's approval. Itachi was the heir, so it didn't really matter. His mother never cared about his performance as a shinobi. Naruto would prevent the massacre and Itachi wouldn't leave the village.
Sasuke smiled. Everything was going to change.