Set during the 3rd Shinobi World War, a little AU. Follow Team 7, as they try to fix their broken world, but there's only so much four Shinobi can do.
CHAPTER 1
Cold, that's how he felt when he woke up, cold, his whole body felt cold.
His vision was clearing, red; everywhere was bathed in a blood red glow, his eyes widened, he knew this place, frantically he sniffed the air, it smelt like blood no his senses had to be deceiving him, he attempted to move his arms, they were bound above his head, chakra sucking cuffs; he was in one Konoha's torture chambers. He attempted to talk but all that came out of his mouth was a soft groan, he really hoped that his companions were not awake yet he needed to figure out want was going on quick. However all hopes of that were shattered when he heard his name.
"Naruto" no response, "Naruto" the feminine voice called again this time laced with irritation, "Naruto, I know you're awake and when we get out of here I'm going to kill you" she said.
Naruto swallowed hard "Ahh, Sakura-chan I can explain" Naruto gave a nervous laugh; he felt the other two bodies begin to wake. He swallowed again 'he was doomed'.
Earlier today…
An obnoxious yellow-haired boy slammed his cup on the table, he laughed "Sake's good" he said, but his companions didn't seem to share in his enjoyment, he would change that he always does.
"Come on guys" the residents glared at him, Naruto shied back. He stood up and walked towards his newly restored best friend.
"Whatcha looking at Sasuke" said friend didn't acknowledge the other's presence, but Naruto didn't need an answer, Sasuke was staring into the village again, feeling sorry for himself and reliving his past in his head again, or in short brooding, always happens when Sasuke gets drunk or partially drunk. Naruto sighed then whacked Sasuke on the head, Sasuke retailed with a glare, Naruto only grinned back in response.
"Sasuke's drunk again" Sai asked from his book.
"Yep" Naruto answered back, team 7 was lounging in Sasuke's and Naruto's apartment after their most recent mission and Naruto had practically dragged them to the apartment. After a long chain of missions the team finally got a break.
Naruto smiled as he remembered the reason he got his friends a little drunk, he made his way into his room, he grabbed the bag filled with what he needed for his latest experiment. He made his way back to the living room, removed the table from the center, by now he had gotten his teammates' attention.
He dumped the contents of the bag unto the floor, and began arranging the necessary parts.
"Naruto, what are you doing?" Sakura asked.
Naruto had a devious smile on his face while he completed arranging how far he had gone. When he was done he stretched then smiled, his teammates were looking at his work now with rapt attention.
"I was just wandering if you guys could help me complete this seal", the other three teammates looked at each other before simultaneously answering
"No!"
Naruto grinned, he was expecting that "No, why not?" he asked.
"Because dobe all your little experiments end up wrong, terribly wrong and we" Sasuke said gesturing towards the other teammates "always have to clean up after you"
Naruto pouted "I'm getting there" he said. His teammates still weren't giving in, 'that alright, I still have my trump card' he thought, with that he cleared his throat.
20 minutes and 1 sob story…
The four members of Team Kakashi sat around the elaborate seal,
"So" Sakura asked "What this seal for anyway?"
Naruto shrugged. Sasuke sighed "Idiot".
"Hey, I told you I found it in some old underground secret tomb" Naruto said in his defense.
"Maybe you shouldn't go around picking thing you don't know anything thing about" Sai said, with his annoying smile.
"Just help me figure it out and then complete it, beside when I found it, it was nameless" That brought silence into the room, as experienced ninjas they had learnt the hard way that the flashiest were the most dangerous, to expect the unexpected, and fear the unknown. So this whatever it was, raised invisible warning bells throughout the whole room.
"Fine, let's get this over with" Sakura finally said.
Some grueling hour later…
The elaborate seal was done, the sun had begun to set in the horizon and four very exhausted ninjas examined their work. So far they had been able to complete it to what they taught might be the solution, but so far Sasuke had been able to determine with his Sharingan that it was a space-time seal of some sorts.
"So, let's activate it" Naruto finally said.
"Are you crazy or something that thing could do anything to us, anything! And unlike you I think before I leap" Sakura screeched. During her episode Naruto who had finally managed to learn some eye language had convinced Sasuke and Sai to experiment with him. Sakura noticed the situation she was in sighed and got into position for the seal. They had designed the seal as a four-man function, and hand seals just kept on coming, they were only vaguely aware that the marking were glowing white, before everything turned black.
…and then there was nothing. Back to the future-present-past.
Naruto's mind was reeling.
"Naruto what did you do this time" Sasuke asked.
"Didn't we all agree to this?" Sai asked, this earned him a growl from Sakura and Sasuke and an 'I love you Sai' from Naruto which he politely said 'sorry, I'm not interested' to Naruto.
"Naruto, when we get out of this I'm going to kill you" Sasuke threatened in a menacing voice.
Naruto sighed before "HEY, WHAT THE HELL, WHAT'S THE BIG IDEA PUTTING US IN A TORTURE CHAMBER. ANSWER ME DAMMIT", he shouted at the top of his lungs. Then he knew that Sasuke was going to kill him after this.
After some few more minutes of silence, they heard footsteps' approaching their door, some muffled talking before the door was swung open to reveal three familiar faces.
"You brats are really loud you know that" one of the newcomers said.
Their mouths hung open, not betraying the extreme shock they felt "Jii-jii" Naruto asked with uncertainty, he decided that whoever was playing this cruel trick one him won't last a minute as soon as he got out of his chains.
"I'm not that old kid" said Hiruzen Sarutobi.
The chamber was silent for a while, "Shit" Sasuke muttered, his teammates heard him and glanced towards his direction but the newcomers didn't catch it.
Shikaku Nara cleared his throat "Last night just before dusk, in the northern mountains, there was a huge spike of chakra that gave practically all sensory-types in Konoha a minor headache, when ANBU was deployed to check the cause of this, four armed unidentified ninjas wearing leaf headbands were seen at the presumed location, these four ninjas were you, now make this easy on yourselves and tell us which village sent you and the secrets of the hidden jutsu you would have used to annihilate the village" he said without missing a beat.
The third newcomer glared and growled, anyone who knew him knew he wasn't a man who would fall back on a chance to obtain power, that's just who Danzo Shimura was, and this time his interest was peaked, these four ninja woke him from his sleep, and he wanted answers now.
"Are just going to stare at us all day, or are you going to give us the information we need but" his face turned a little crazed "I'll rather you have us squeeze it out of your lifeless bodies" yes, Danzo was angry.
Sai was the first one to break out of the mutual silence and even so he could only utter one word "Danzo".
"We'll talk, only if we are completely alone with the Hokage"
"We would grant no such wish" Danzo snarled
Hiruzen sighed "Danzo that's enough, I have other duties to attend to today so please leave" he said. Shikaku tapped the 3rd on the shoulder then pulled him into a quiet discussion. From the angle of the prisoners it looked like they were having an argument, finally Shikaku nodded.
"Shimura-sama, Hokage-sama will take care of this, let us take our leave"
Danzo didn't bother to hide the fact that he was pissed "Your softness will cost you your life one day Hiruzen" and with that he left
As soon as there were no pry ears the Hokage turned to the prisoners "So, now that we are alone, would you mind explaining to me who you are?" Hiruzen said in a low menacing manner.
Naruto only grinned in response to that "It's good to see you again Ojii-san" but Hiruzen only looked at him with a questioning stare "if I wasn't bound I would probably be hugging you now, but also getting ready to beat the crap out of you" now he was totally confused the boy spoke as if they knew each other personally, and he was damn sure he hadn't seen him in his life.
"I'm sorry but I do think I know who you are"
"Ahh, but I know who you are"
"Please I don't have time for your mind games; I should just send you to th-"
"Sorry, but there is no easy way to say this without you thinking we are deranged or so-"
"It's actually quite simple" Sai said cutting Naruto off "We are from the future" and there was silence.
Hiruzen regarded them with confusion, anger and some mild amusement, the blond was right after all they were deranged, yes he needed to get an interrogator here right now, and with that thought he started towards the door.
"We aren't lying, we really are and we can prove it" with that the Hokage stopped and turned to the female "Really now?" he asked her to which she nodded. He held a look on his face that said 'amuse me', but he still couldn't shake the feeling that they were telling the tru-, no way that was impossible, time-travel, out of all the excuses in the world, besides he had already settled for they were deranged.
"If you would just get our things then we can prove it to you" the silent boy said. Hiruzen didn't want to do this but he really wanted a good laugh, that's why he ordered their belonging to be brought into the chamber.
"First, we should probably tell you about ourselves" the silent boy continued "I'm Sasuke, and they are Naruto, Sakura and Sai, we were team 7 and our Jounin instructor was Hatake Kakashi" Sasuke was expecting it, but maybe not this much, the 3rd burst into laughter, it stretched out and the man was holding his stomach now, if anything Sasuke was a little pissed. When Hiruzen managed to regain his composure, he looked at the prisoners with a broad grin on his face "Really, little Kakashi, your instructor, that's a good one".
"Well you could just check our stuff to find out" said Sakura. Opening the first pouch, the Hokage looked for the Ninja ID, but what he saw made his eyes go wide, he checked them all, and all the same thing their registration said they were ninjas of Konoha, a little above 20 years from now, that was not what disturbed him, it was the seal of the Hokage that disturbed him the most. He dropped the last one "This does not prove anything" he said sternly.
"Come on, after everything you've seen you still don't believe, for bloody sake you were the one who used to always come to my house every Sunday morning to make sure I'm not drinking expired milk again" Naruto said furiously shaking his chains.
Hiruzen was having an internal debate, on one if they were from the future they knew how the war will play out, but if they weren't, he didn't even want to think of the consequences.
"One last chance" he stopped "One last chance to prove we aren't lying" Sakura repeated. From his position, the Hokage nodded.
Sakura turned to Sai, he faced her "Sai we need your records"
"What?"
"You know, your records, your paintings"
"Oh" he frowned "Sakura, I need chakra for that". Sakura turned toward the Sandaime.
"Absolutely not" he said
"Please"
"No, if this is a-"
"It's not a trick, it's the only way to prove our innocence" Hiruzen looked at the girl, she was pleading with him, and then he knew if he didn't do it he would never have a good night sleep ever.
"Alright, but any funny business and I will kill you on the spot" they all nodded. Sai gave him directions and eventually they were scroll on the floor, now for the hard part, Hiruzen knew that one day his compassion would cost him his life. He unlocked the chains on Sai so that he would only be able to reach were he needed, then he started making some seals and the Hokage held his breath.
When Sai finished, a book popped out of scroll, he picked it and handed it to the Hokage. The book had a simple title 'The Fourth Shinobi War', and Hiruzen resisted the urge to roll his eyes, but the he opened it and he wished he hadn't, the boy was a good artist, but literally every page was littered with dead bodies, and he knew it, this wasn't fictional, this was war, upon closer inspection, he noticed some familiar faces with a familiar jutsu.
"This is-"
"Edo-Tensei" Sasuke completed for him. As the Sandaime looked through it he discovered something even more shocking, it was himself, even though older, nevertheless it was him, he was wearing that armor, the armor given to him by the Shoudai Hokage, the armor he had never worn, turning to a new page he dropped the book because right there was a face he never wanted to see again, and unlike the others it wasn't Edo-Tensei, he was alive, he glanced at the prisoners.
"How can Uchiha Madara be alive?" it was a simple question and if Madara was truly alive then a lot of things will become complicated.
"Madara isn't alive" Sasuke said, to which Hiruzen sighed in relief "at least not yet" "What do you mean?" he asked Sasuke. He smirked in response "untie us and you can get all the answers you want and more, even your death might shock you" he was been forced into a corner and the Hokage knew it. He glared at the so-called Uchiha willing him to break, but the boy only stared back impassively.
After a while of thought, the 3rd made his way towards the door.
"YOU CAN'T JUST LEAVE US HERE" Naruto shouted.
"When I make my decision I will inform you of your fate" He replied in a monotone voice.
When the door was closed, there was only silence, and then Sasuke spoke "At least we won't be here for long".
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