Naruto suddenly sprang up from his bed, cool sweat dripping off of his skin.

His eyes frantically searched about the room, his body slowly falling back down with a sense of relief.

It had actually worked. The seal had worked!

He almost started to laugh at how somehow he was still alive. It had been so long since he had seen this room, as it was destroyed in that attack all of those years ago.

Sakura, Sasuke, Kakashi, even the old man! They were alive! He still had a chance to save them after all.

Seeing as how the sun was barely up, he still had some time to plan his actions.

When he saw everyone what would he say? How would he act? It had been such a long time since he was this age. So much war since those innocent times. So much death.

But that's why he was here. To prevent it from ever happening in the first place.

The seal was supposed to send him back to time right before the Chunin exams began. That's about when everything turned for the worst.

He could go take out Orochimaru, prevent Sasuke from leaving, and help Gaara too. It would be so good to see the pervy sage again. With his current skills and years of battle knowledge, he could continue to act like his younger self while still manipulating events from the background.

Then something though suddenly dawned on him. It was something startling, something that should have been obvious from the start.

Why didn't he think of it first?

…

"Naruto,"

The old man was standing at the other side of the office, looking out the window with pipe in hand. He turned, giving him a small nod of acknowledgement.

"What can I help you with?"

Naruto felt slightly out of place standing on this side of the room. In his own time that desk had rightfully belonged to him.

"Old man, I need you to listen. This is important."

The Hokage raised an eyebrow, looking slightly interested.

"What is it?"

Naruto felt a bit nervous, an emotion he thought he had long lost.

"I'm from the future."

The older man began to look a little annoyed in him.

"Naruto, I don't appreciate these stor-"

"It's not and I can easily prove it. I know the Yamanaka clan has a technique for that. Search my memories if you have to. It might be quicker to see it than to hear the whole history from me anyways."

There was a sudden look of seriousness on the man's face.

"I don't know who you think you are-"

"Fine I'll show you."

Naruto quickly did a transformation technique, fingers moving at a lightning speed. Once the smoke cleared, the old man's eyes widened, his mouth hanging open in shock.

"M-Minato?!"

"This is what I look like in the future old man. I used a fuinjutsu technique I developed to travel back in time. There are going to be a lot of people dying in the future; including yourself pretty soon unless we stop what's about to happen."

Still in a bit of shock, the Hokage was somehow able to get out his next sentence.

"How do I know if you're telling the truth?"

"Like I said before, check my memories."

"Well I suppose we could…At this rate I would have had brought you to interrogation anyway.."

Naruto nodded, now smiling wider than he thought was possible.

"On the way there I have some very interesting things to tell you."

…

Orochimaru's eyes widened; the new hole in his chest completely unexpected.

He hadn't seen a thing! How could this little blond Genin brat know-

There was a sudden flash of movement from behind him. Two figures. One the Hokage, the other- Jiraiya?! Why was he in the village?! His plans hadn't accounted for this! They hadn't even really begun.!

To be cornered like this, who had betrayed him?! Was it Kabuto? Where had it-

He couldn't even finish his last thought, his existence becoming just a memory.

…

Kakashi swore that during all of his years of being a ninja, he had pretty much seen everything. There was little left to surprise him his line of work.

He had to admit that his little Genin team showed some promise. Sasuke was an Uchiha and had talent to spare. Naruto also had his high points, but he was off the walls and needed some real refining. Sakura was sure to succeed as well if she really started to work hard and put herself out there.

Out of the three, Naruto was the most unpredictable for sure, but the news he had just received rocked him to his very core. Seeing Naruto's apparent real appearance didn't help the situation much either.

After finding out how strong the kid really was, Kakashi felt very surprised when he requested to stay on their little Genin team. He said to just treat him as an undercover sensei; working from the background to improve the team unless he was off on high profile missions.

It was a strange arrangement, but it probably would have been stranger without the orange ninja in the group.

Apparently when the time was right he would reveal he was from the future, and until then just to consider him the psychic ninja.

A strange new situation indeed.

…

Sasuke sometimes wondered what it would have been like if he had really left. He almost did- a memory that still brought shame.

When some information about his brother was brought to light the first reaction of his was to go and kill all of those involved, whether he would succeed or not.

Surprisingly though, it was Naruto of all people who made him see the light. One day the idiot had shown up at practice, ridiculously claiming to be able to see the future.

Of course he hadn't believed him. Why would anyone ever think the crazy things the dead last said were true?

That was until it was confirmed by the Hokage himself.

Sasuke couldn't help but shiver at things he learned. In the very least he had been able to spend Itachi's final days together.

Danzo paid for what he had done. He was sure there was special level of hell just for him.

…

Sakura never really thought about what kind of ninja she wanted to be. As long as she was near Sasuke, it was enough.

One day though a young blond haired woman appeared in the village. She was a legendary Sanin who specialized in medical ninjutsu.

What she never expected though was when Kakashi -sensei informed her that Tsunade-sama was looking specifically for her. It turned out she was staying for a while as was searching for a temporary apprentice.

Learning something like that hadn't really crossed her mind. She supposed though that if she wanted to stop holding everyone back, it was time to step it up.

Sakura never regretted it once.

…

Everything was supposed to have gone perfectly. Years of preparation and gathering the necessary forces, he was supposed to have a strong and unstoppable force.

But how where they all defeated so easily?! Why was it there seemed to be shinobi coming for his men at every turn?!

He had barely been able to capture a handful of biju, and that was much earlier on. Why were they being protected now of all times? What had changed?

Who had dared to interfere with his plans for world peace?!

…

Naruto sat at his favorite ramen stand, casually eating at the same place he had since he could remember.

Maybe it was odd for the soon to be Hokage to be walking around like this to get lunch, but the citizens were pretty much used to it by now.

He could hardly believe six years had passed since he traveled back in time. Now he was close to reaching his original age.

After taking out some of the big players early on, Naruto reformed future alliances and took down Obito united with several strong ninja and jinchuriki. The other members of the legendary trio, Sakura and Sasuke, were of course present for the battle.

When he had finally told them who he really was, they weren't surprised. It seemed that they had figured it out early on. He was still Naruto they said, and that's what really mattered.

A smile crept across his face as he started to reminisce on all of the missions they had gone on, and all of the new memories with the people he had saved.

That nostalgic feeling though instantly vanished though once he remembered the meeting he had to go to.

Crap! He might even be late if he didn't hurry up! All of the big players were supposed to be there! The old man, grandma Tsunade, and even the pervy sage was back in town for this.

Plus he couldn't miss his own ceremony!

While scarfing down the rest of his noodles, he couldn't help but wonder what if would have been like if he hadn't told anyone anything at all, and instead had tried to do this on his own. It probably would have become a complicated mess living with such a lie. He might have even been considered an enemy one point because of knowing more than he should of. That didn't even account for the mental toll of pretending to be his younger self.

Why wouldn't someone just reveal something like this right away? It was easily provable. Plus, he gained valuable allies immediately that probably wouldn't have trusted him without the truth being known.

In the end though, he was able to protect all those he cared about. Now it was time to keep doing that and he had once before, but this time in a very different world.

AN:

I love Naruto time travel fanficton as much as the next person, but I swear most their problems could be easily solved if the time traveler just went and told people they were from the future. It can even be proved through jutsu. Seriously, it could solve a lot of conflict down the road.