"It's being here now that's important. There's no past and there's no future. Time is a very misleading thing. All there is ever, is the now." ~ George Harrison

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It wasn't even supposed to be a difficult mission, which was the entire point.

Tsunade had honestly been waiting for it when the four members of the original Team 7 filed into her office, the expressions on their faces ranging from fond exasperation to almost pleading, and she barely managed to hold in her sigh and not rub at her temples.

It wasn't a surprise, given the fact that in little over a week Hatake Kakashi would be officially named Konoha's new Hokage, a position that he was only very, very grudgingly accepting, and only because he'd been thoroughly guilt-tripped and blackmailed into it. Which definitely wasn't the kind of reaction Tsunade had been thinking of when naming her successor, back when she'd accepted the position herself. Of course, she'd been expecting to hand the hat off to a sunshine blond with a bright smile who'd been dreaming of obtaining it his entire life, not a recalcitrant, socially-awkward and emotionally-stunted pervert, but, well...

She didn't really have the room to be choosey at the moment. She'd been able to keep hold of the title for over a year now, but she'd begun to wear incredibly thin. The war took a lot out of her and she was feeling her age more now than she ever had before. And while she could handle the paperwork, could handle handing out missions and giving orders, she wasn't in any position to defend her village anymore, not like she was supposed to. A Kage was meant to be their village's best defense, the strongest and most capable of defending their people, and right now, that wasn't Tsunade.

And as much as she would absolutely love to pass the hat onto Naruto that very moment, he just wasn't ready for it. He was getting there, now that his time wasn't being devoured by trying to drag his teammate back while also fighting against S-ranked terrorist organizations and participating in a war that spanned over the entire Elemental Nations, but he wasn't quite there yet. And he knew it just as well as she did.

She'd even asked him, during a quick lunch one day when he'd stopped by to drop off his latest mission report, if he was upset that she hadn't nominated him for consideration. If she had, it likely would have gone uncontested. He, along with his teammates, were the saviors of the Fourth War, the ones who had faced off against Madara and Kaguya back to back and somehow come out on top. Not only that, but he was on speaking terms with multiple Kage and other high ranking shinobi across the nations. He was their village's darling, loved by everyone, and not a single person would have complained if she'd selected him.

He hadn't been upset, though, had understood completely. He was strong, stronger than most, but that wasn't all that made someone a Kage. And he'd learned firsthand during the war that just because he was powerful didn't mean he was ready for that kind of responsibility. He would be, eventually, would work hard for it like he always had until he reached that goal, but it was okay if it took a bit longer. He'd never been one to shy away from hard work before, after all, and he wasn't ever going to give up.

Which had really only left Tsunade with a single option: Kakashi. He seemed to have realized this just as soon as she had, and then had disappeared for a week. (She suspected a henge was involved, though she couldn't be entirely certain seeing as how he'd never revealed his face to anyone before, because he definitely hadn't left the village.) After he'd finally been dragged back into her office by a very haggard and unimpressed Sakura, he'd commenced listing every reason for why it was a terrible idea while throwing out other candidates that she should consider.

All of which was a complete waste of time, of course, since she'd already thought through all of her options carefully. Something she knew he was aware of, and that he was just desperately attempting to hold off the inevitable.

Finally, though, he'd been forced to admit defeat, though it took another week of prodding. He was clearly unhappy, and proceeded to spend the majority of his time sulking, but he was also loyal to his village above everything else and knew just how important this was. He'd do it, but he'd drag his feet about it the entire way.

Which brought them to now.

She knew what Kakashi was going to ask for before he even slouched forward to stand before her desk.

Each of them had been busy since the end of the war. Sakura had dived head-first into the hospital, when she wasn't working on groundbreaking limb prosthetic designs with the help of several from the R&D department, whipping it into shape in such a way that definitely made Tsunade proud and that had even veteran medic-nin giving the girl their utmost respect. Sasuke had had to be thoroughly vetted, after his betrayal of the village and then subsequent spiral into insanity, and then he'd been put on probation before swiftly being absconded into ANBU once his loyalty had been established once more. Naruto had been bouncing between departments, taking the time to familiarize himself with each, even if he had no hope of contributing to their efforts, while also shadowing Tsunade from time to time and taking missions whenever he could. Kakashi himself had been stuck filling out paperwork and preparing for his upcoming promotion to leader of a Hidden Village.

And so this was Kakashi coming to beg, in his own way, for one last taste of freedom before he became shackled to the very desk she was now sitting at and, through that, to paperwork and responsibility. All he wanted was one last hurrah as Team 7 before they lost their chance.

And Tsunade hadn't minded, not really. She'd been planning on sending Naruto out on a mission anyway, to deal with a couple of missing-nin that had apparently been foolish enough to use the ruins of Uzushio as their base, both because the blond was technically the Head of the Uzumaki clan, for all that there were only two known members currently living, and that he'd been studying fuuinjutsu for the last few months and, besides herself and Hatake, was the closest thing to a Seal Master that they had.

Reports had claimed that the missing-nin consisted of mostly chunin, with only a jounin or two thrown in the mix, and so she'd been planning to send Naruto alone. But if she was going to be sending her successor out on a mission, especially so close to her freedom, then she'd be damned if it was a mission that was anything but pathetically easy, and for four of the strongest shinobi alive, the Heroes of the Fourth Shinobi War, that was exactly what this mission was.

It was supposed to be easy. There were supposed to be no complications and it should've taken them only a few days at the longest, most of which was just travel time.

Of course, it was Tsunade's own fault for not remembering that this was Team 7 and, with them, no mission stayed simple for long.

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Naruto could admit, if only to himself, that he should've seen this coming.

One of the reasons this mission had been handed to him, after all, was that he was one of the rare few who could even hope to avoid any wayward seals laying about the ruins of Uzushio. Because they were everywhere, in almost every line of sight, and he didn't know if the missing-nin had been able to avoid them this long because they had fuuinjutsu training or because they had a lot of dumb luck. He was thinking it was most likely the latter but wasn't about to completely rule out the former.

The information they'd been given was mostly correct, in that the majority of the group consisted of chunin, with two jounin who were clearly the leaders. They'd set up their camp in what looked to have once been a town square and, while they had a guard rotation set up, were all pretty relaxed, clearly thinking they were safe where they were.

Which wasn't an unfair assumption. Not many people, shinobi included, were brave enough to walk into the ruins of Uzushio. The people here had been wiped out because of fear for the power and skill they had, skill which was readily apparent anywhere one looked, and it was never a good idea to not look before you leaped when seals were involved. Because of that, none had ever come here for looting purposes before, the danger far outweighing the payout, at least until now.

And Naruto couldn't deny that it had him fighting against the urge to bare his teeth and snarl a bit. Because, yeah, Konoha was his home and his village and, yeah, he'd never met any of the people who'd died here, wouldn't know any of their names or faces or dreams, but they'd still been his family. This place had been his mom's first home. If it hadn't been destroyed the way it had, it could've been a second home to him, too.

And even beyond his own personal ties to the place, he believed quite firmly that the dead deserved to rest in peace. If the Fourth War had taught the world nothing else, it should've at least taught it that.

And so, yes, Naruto was a bit more angry than he usually got on missions now-a-days, a bit more impatient to kick some ass and take some names. And, yes, it may have made him a bit more careless, a bit more likely to revert to bad habits than was safe in a place like this and so, technically, what happens could, possibly, be considered his fault.

He wouldn't ever admit it, though, no matter how much Kurama poked fun at him for it.

The whole thing goes off without a hitch, at first. Naruto keeps an eye on their path, keeps them from triggering any nasty seal traps, and they wait until the sun is sinking low behind them, hopefully limiting their target's visibility and making their approach easier to hide, before launching themselves forward at their opponents.

The first six go down before the rest even really know what's happening. The jounin are the first to react, of course, engaging with Kakashi-sensei and Sasuke respectively while also attempting to shout out orders to the others. They don't really get the chance, though, since they're mowed down fairly quickly while he and Sakura continue to make their way through the rest.

He's not paying as much attention as he should and he knows it, focusing only on taking these nin down and getting them out of these ruins as quickly as he can. And so he doesn't see the young and desperate chunin, the last of them left alive, that launches himself at a seal that's been etched into the ground at the edge of the clearing, only has time to turn as he hears Sakura shout a warning, barely gets a look at the seal itself before the guy is slapping his bloodied hand against it.

He braces himself, expecting it to misfire and explode.

He isn't expecting for the world to twist and warp alarmingly, or for the ground to seemingly give way beneath him.

He isn't expecting what feels like a hook to the gut and to be yanked, mercilessly, and contorted and stretched and pulled in ways he's fairly certain shouldn't be possible.

He isn't expecting Kurama to snarl, to snap, to begin yelling obscenities and threats.

He isn't expecting to feel like he's catching on fire while simultaneously slamming into solid concrete before his world finally, thankfully, goes dark.

He sure as hell isn't expecting time travel but, well, he's pretty sure that nobody ever expects that.

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A/N: Back at it again with the time travel AU's. Who knows, maybe I'll actually get further than 8 chapters with this one lmao

So, I've always loved time travel AU's in general, especially ones from the Naruto universe, and I've been debating with myself for quite some time whether to actually try my hand at one or not. I finally decided to say "screw it" and give it a go, and hopefully it won't turn out too badly.

(I'm so sorry, Time Is On Our Side readers. I swear I'm trying to work up the inspiration for the next chapter. I'll get there eventually. Hopefully.)

A few things I wanted to say, though, is that this is definitely an AU, even more so than the whole time travel concept implies. Basically, I'm ignoring most of what's shown in the final few chapters and beyond, because I don't really agree with it.

These things will be:

1) Most canon pairings. If you ship them, hey, more power to you. I just don't. I won't rag on any of them, I promise, but I also won't be including them. (Except for Asuma and Kurenai, Minato and Kushina, and probably hints of Shikamaru and Temari later on). I'll probably be hinting a lot towards team 7 ot3 (I'm weak, okay?) but I doubt I'll ever actually explicitly make it a thing, unless a lot of you actually want me to. Another pairing I'm weak for is Hinata and Kiba, which I'll probably end up hinting towards a lot without even meaning to, so be aware of that, too.

2) Pretty much anything that happens in Boruto. I don't watch/read it at all, so I have no idea what's going on in it and therefore won't be applying it to this fic.

3) Sasuke leaving the village after the war. I know there was a reason for it or whatever but, yeah, no.

4) If I'm being honest, I haven't actually read/watched Naruto since the last chapter of the manga came out. And even then, I wasn't really paying as much attention as I maybe should've been? It's just, the Madara fight and then the Kaguya fight went on forever. And it's really hard to keep up your enthusiasm when you're reading something chapter by chapter over such a long period of time. And honestly? I don't have the time or the desire to go back and read through all of it again right now. So, I might end up getting a few things wrong. (Or I might just be changing them because I didn't agree with it in the first place and this is my fic and idgaf). So, yeah, apologies in advance for that and feel free to point it out to me if it really means that much to you.

I'm mostly writing this fic for fun, though, and I am in no way going to be taking it completely seriously. (That's not to say that there won't be serious things addressed in this but you get the point). Most of my attention and effort is still going to be focused on TLATSWW, so I can't really guarantee how often this will be updated or if it'll even be all that great, though I will try my best.

But please understand that I'm writing this for me, because I want to, and because this is the story that I want to write. If you end up liking it, too, then hey, that's fantastic! I would absolutely love to hear what you think, what parts you like and even which parts you think I could improve on or that you didn't think were all that great. I'm always ready and willing to listen to constructive criticism and to take some advice, to better myself as a writer. But if you're only staying to tell me how much each chapter sucks and how you think I should do everything different, and are mad because this fic isn't what you want to read even though you're reading it anyway, then please don't waste your time or mine.

Well, anyway, if any of you are still here and willing to read on even after all of that, thank you! I really hope I'm able to deliver something that you'll all enjoy!

Please favorite, follow or review and let me know what you think!