Summary: Naruto is sent back in time by the Rikuduo Sennin to the time of the Second Shinobi world war. He wakes up in Nagato's body and with the Rinnengan. Naruto, travels with Konan, Yahiko, for sometime before meeting up with Jiraiya, and leaving for Konoha. There he meets Kushina, his fellow uzumaki, and changes the future for the better. Pairings: [Naruto X Mikoto] [Konan X Yahiko] [Kushina X Minato]
Emptiness. The world seemed to stop still for a moment. all around him, there were sounds of screams, horrible bone-wrenching screams. Shinobi crying out for their fallen comrades. Others trying to rally the last of the troops. He felt someone calling out to him, saying his name repeatedly. He thought it might have been Kurama, but the voice sounded as if it were coming from a million miles away.
Naruto senses seemed to be slowly shutting down, refusing to believe what was in front of them. Sasuke Uchiha. Sasuke was lying face down. His hair was stuck up in its usual duck butt fashion. Had Naruto been able to use his body, he would have laughed at the fact that even now, Sasuke's hairstyle remained ridiculous.
He wore a black high collared shirt with the Uchiha sign on the back, proudly displayed for the entire world to see. His sword lay in his limp hand, coated in his enemies' blood. Yet it lacked the lightning cloak around it that made it sparkle and sing so dangerously.
His face, even now was impassive, yet there seemed to be a peaceful air around him, as if he had finally resigned himself to his demons, and found some last measure of contentment. You could almost believe that he was simply sleeping and about to wake up.
That was if you ignored the large gaping hole through his heart, even now profusely bleeding, and if you ignored the dead look in his eyes, and the lack of movement in his chest that in a normal person would be a harbinger of breathing, of life.
Naruto realized that he was going into shock, but he didn't care anymore, he didn't care about anything. He had been ecstatic when Sasuke came to help them. He had thought that after long last, they might end this war once and for all and achieve peace. No, not peace.
Achieving peace had been the dream of the old Naruto Uzumaki, the one who had been naive and blind to the real world, blind to the horrors of war. That Naruto had truly believed that people could put aside their differences forever and live together in harmony.
He had stupidly believed that his dream was coming true when he saw the villages banding together to fight Madara, putting aside old feuds to unite and deal with a common threat.
However, as the war had gone on, his eyes were forcefully opened. He had observed his fellow shinobi, and seen the farce they were displaying. While they cooperated enough on the battlefield, where it was kill or be killed, they cooperated enough, in the safety of their own camp, they behaved completely differently.
They all wore the same headband, yet they lived in arrangements similar to their old villages. Any shinobi from a separate village was treated with suspicion and dislike. Old grudges still festered, and were expressed through foul words and gestures for the moment.
Even after these observations, Naruto's eyes remained closed, no he kept them closed. However, even his legendary determination couldn't keep his eyes closed forever. He realized that even now, the cycle of hatred continued to fester, to feed, and it was impossible to kill it, it could only be suppressed.
After all, since the dawn of mankind, since the dawn of the cycle of hatred, people have been trying to end the cycle of hatred and usher in an era of peace. Hagoromo Ootsutuki tried, his son Asura tried, Hashirama tried, even he tried, yet they all failed. Sure, all of them had instated temporary peace. For a time, people were chummy with each other and got along. This was only because that was the will of the aforementioned people.
The most powerful beings in existence willed peace, and so their will was followed. However, this was but an enforced peace, while not the intention of the enforcers, this was the end result. Each of these people was able to suppress the cycle of hatred for a while, but it cannot be contained forever.
It is like the concept of yin and yang, while there may good in this world, the instinct that inspires selflessness, nobility, bravery, and generosity, there is also evil that inspires hate, vengeance, selfishness, corruption. One side would be meaningless without the other, and thus no one side can prevail.
Both are locked in an eternal embrace to the death, battling for dominance and gaining momentary victories. However, the battle would continue forever more. Hagoromo vs the Jubi, Asura vs Indra, Hashirama vs Madara, and Naruto vs Sasuke, all living manifestations of this struggle, and a symbol of its infinite and everlasting nature.
The only way to end this cycle would be to end all that was good and evil, for where one existed, the other would follow. Only when every last human being, every last creature capable of intelligence was wiped out, would this cycle truly end. Even that would be pointless.
What was the point of peace if everyone was wiped out? That was what made Madara's plan truly stupid. He planned to enslave everyone, but if everyone was about to die, then what was the point of achieving "peace" in the first place.
All these thoughts and more flew through Naruto's head like a whirlwind as he lay motionless in front of Sasuke's body. He did not know when he had begun thinking so, or when he had finally accepted that there was no such thing as true, everlasting peace, that his goal was but a facade.
He supposed it had started when Kaguya stabbed Sasuke through the chest. That had been one of the most disconcerting moments in Naruto's life. Sasuke and he had finally come up with a plan. Kaguya had seemed invincible. She was a self-proclaimed goddess and seemed to have the power to back up the claim. All had seemed hopeless, Naruto had begun to loose hope.
Then the Rikuduo Sennin himself had come before him and Sasuke, proclaimed them to be the re-incarnations of his sins, and then given them his powers to save the world. He had told them how dangerous Kaguya was, but had also told them of the one way to defeat her: the Yin-Yang sealing.
By combining Sasuke's Yin power and his own Yang power, they should have been able to seal Kaguya away for eternity, or at least until another idiot unleashed the Infinite tsukuyomi. However, they had underestimated Kaguya, and before they could successfully seal her away, she managed to fatally strike Sasuke, literally ripping his soul away and ensuring that it was now impossible to seal her away.
He had watched as she stabbed him brutally through the heart, his best friend falling from his perch, helpless to do anything to save himself. Just as helpless as Naruto now was to do anything.
He couldn't bring Sasuke back, not even the Rinnengan could do that with Kaguya now in possession of Sasuke's soul. He couldn't seal Kaguya away since that only way to do that required Sasuke, and Sasuke was dead. He couldn't hope to defeat Kaguya through sheer strength since she was a being whose power made his look like that of an Academy student compared to the likes of Hashirama Senju or Madara Uchiha.
Just then, something inside Naruto broke. It was hopeless he realized, for the first time in his life, he truly had no hope, no chance of coming out on top.
Naruto heard a voice calling to him, the words were fuzzy to him, his senses still in shutdown mode from shock.
"Naruto!"
"Naruto!"
"For Kami's sake Naruto, get up! You can't give up yet."
Naruto somehow managed to move, his muscles obeying some unconscious order to get a better view of who was speaking to him. It was Sakura.
She looked terrible. Her clothes and jonin jacket were shredded in multiple places. Her pink hair, once luxurious and vibrant was now dull and grimy, exhibiting none of its previous luster. Her eyes had bags underneath them, and her stooped posture and weak grip showed that she was on the brink of exhaustion despite how hard he tried to hide it.
Behind her, smoke rose in large, lazy curls. The shinobi forces seemed to be in full retreat, trying desperately to escape Kaguya who was decimating anyone who stood in her way, but was more that content to watch as most scurried away.
That was until roots burst out of the ground and quickly ensnared most of the shinobi, trapping them in the Infinite Tsukuyomi and slowly draining their chakra away. The shinobi forces were being enslaved. The kages were on their last breaths, and now Sasuke, their last chance at redemption, was dead. Naruto chuckled humorlessly.
Sakura in her weariness had yet to recognize the body of her dead teammate among the many corpses that littered the area. To her, the most important objective was to get Naruto on his feet so he could fight kaguya, and win this battle. She was about to hit him to jolt him into cognizance, when she heard him chuckle.
Of all the things she was expecting, this had not even crossed her mind. Naruto was laughing, what was going on? His allies were dying in front of his eyes, and he was just sitting there, acting as if he was dead. Staring off at...
Oh god. She saw him then. Sasuke Uchiha, the other member of Team 7 and Naruto's best friend. She understood then why he was so distracted, but she couldn't let him wallow in his grief. They needed him to fight Kaguya right now, he was the only one who even stood a chance against her.
"Naruto!" she called once again. He didn't respond, but continued to stare blankly at the still body of Sasuke. Ugh! This wasn't working. Naruto seemed lost, confused, tired, all not good things at the moment.
BOOM! An explosion rang out in the night, muffling the screams of hundreds of shinobi. It gave of a brilliant glow, brightening the dim, red light of the setting sun.
"Come on Naruto. You can't give up now. You need to get up and fight. What happened to the Naruto Uzumaki that would never give up? What happened to your dreams of being Hokage? What happened to world peace?!" Sakura shouted. She was fairly hysterical at this point. Naruto seemed mute to the world. A vegetable for all purposes, yet he was the only one who even stood a chance against Kaguya.
"Those dreams died along with him." His voice was croaky and soft, but she still heard it. She had no need to ask who "he" was either. It was clear that Naruto seemed quite shaken up by Sasuke's death. However, all that changed when she looked into his eyes.
Naruto wasn't just shaken up, he was broken. She cursed herself. Everyone had a breaking point, and as incredible as it might seem, so did Naruto. She had become so used to viewing Naruto as invincible that to see him in such a state was an absolute shock to her.
From birth, Naruto's greatest strength was his indomitable will. The orphanage kicked him out at the age of 4. He was forced to grow up on his own, without any guidance or love. The villagers and even the shinobi were in contempt of him for something that was completely out of his control, and something that, at the time, he was clueless about.
Not only that, but he had no chance at making friends since all the parents of children his age told their children to stay away from him. He had a a terrible childhood, and his troubles didn't even end there.
In the Academy, the teachers refused to teach him properly, and in fact sabotaged his education because they believed him to be the 'demon child'. When he got onto a genin team, his lazy sensei didn't teach him anything, instead favoring their traitorous uchiha teammate. This was the same sensei who was the student of Naruto's father; Naruto's father who pretty much raised up Kakahi like his own son after Kakashi's father's death.
Then he was faced with impossible challenges left and right, from C-ranked turned A-ranked missions to facing S-ranked shinobi and crazed jinchuriki as a genin. Life just never seemed to give Naruto a break.
Yet, despite all this, Naruto never gave up. He continued to survive and even thrive. He remained a bundle of joy that shone like the sun, constantly sporting a smile so bright, it could light up an entire room. He never let any hint of his troubles show on the outside.
Every time he faced a struggle, every time he was knocked up, every time someone thought he was defeated for good, he just got back up, and continued fighting. He never stopped fighting, never stopped smiling, never stopped believing in his dreams, except for now.
Now, those blue eyes of his, normally so vibrant and sparkling, seemed to be shattered. Naruto's indomitable will had been shattered. Looking back, Sakura realized that this was not a sudden event caused by overwhelming grief at Sasuke's death. Sasuke's death was simply the catalyst for something that had been building up for a long time.
Naruto may not have showed it, but he had suffered greatly in the war. While Naruto was not forced to kill anyone himself(White Zetsu's and Edo Tensei's don't count. They are dead, so its like killing people in a video game. Nobody really feels any guilt for killing people in a video game.), he was forced to watch as thousands of fellow shinobi were killed around him.
He watched on as his friends were killed in front of his eyes, one by one. He held their broken, bleeding bodies in his arms, helpless to save them, and watched as the light faded from their eyes. So many comrades dead, so many families buried.
The deaths hit Naruto especially hard since he blamed himself for each and every death. He always believed that had be been stronger, had he been faster, had be been smarter, he could have saved them. Every death simply added to the weight he bore upon his shoulders, every death seemed to dim the light in his eyes, every death seemed to hide his smile, more and more.
Sasuke's death had been the last straw for Naruto before everything came tumbling down. Despite everything, Sasuke was Naruto's best friend, the first one to acknowledge him, his eternal rival. Sasuke had been Naruto's rock throughout the years, his constant goal that came before all others. Before Sasuke's defection, Naruto's goal was to catch up to, and surpass Sasuke. After his defection, it was to bring Sasuke back once and for all and to surpass him in the ninja arts.
Sasuke's death meant the end of that dream, meant that Naruto's world had simply crumbled around him. No wonder he was so lost. He had lost his guiding light, and now with no direction, he was wandering around aimlessly, grieving for the loss of Sasuke and of his dreams.
"Naruto!" She shook him again. She understood him now, but she still needed to get him our of his funk. He was still the only one who could save them, and as heartless as it may sound, now was not the time to grieve.
She moved to hit him, to try to evoke some reaction out of him, and it seemed to work. He caught it perfectly, a result of reflexes honed to perfection in the war. His gaze bore into her own, this time with a quality of steel in it. He was angry.
"What are you doing Sakura! You should be lucky you are still alive, attacking me out of the blue! What are you doing here? Can't you just leave me alone?"
"Naruto, you can't stay here. We need you to fight Kaguya. Everyone out there is being decimated. None of them stand a chance against kaguya. With Sasuke gone, you are our best chance. Didn't you say that you had some plan to deal with her, well we need you to do that or something else right now. We need you to stop her! Don't you get it?"
He slapped her. A single strike on the cheek. It wasn't very hard, but the shock of the action was far more painful that any physical blow. Naruto, her teammate and friend had just hit her.
"No Sakura, you don't get it! Sasuke is dead! There is nothing, absolutely nothing we can do now to stop Kaguya. My plan involved Sasuke, and now that he is dead, there is nothing that we can do to stop her. I am strong, but she is a goddess. Even the Sage of the Six Paths couldn't defeat her, what am I supposed to do? "
"Do you understand Sakura? There is nothing we can do. It is hopeless. We are all going going to die, be enslaved by the Infinite Tsukuyomi while Kaguya leeches off our chakra. There is no hope left."
"What do you mean there is no hope left? Who are you? You have faced tons of situations with impossible odds and have always come out on top. You are Naruto Uzumaki, Konoha's Number One Hyperactive Knucklehead Ninja who never ever gives up and always manages to win no matter what!"
"Not this time"
"So you are just going to quit then? You won't even try?"
"What's the point?"
Sakura sunk onto her knees at that last statement. To hear Naruto so broken, so full of desperation... it was chilling. He was normally the one that lifted others spirits when they were down, but now that he was down, others fell as well without their pillar.
There truly seemed to be no hope. There was nothing they could do she realized. If even Naruto believed that there was nothing, if even he was so broken, then there really was nothing that anyone else could do.
Naruto looked away from Sakura as she slowly slumped onto the ground. She finally seemed to have realized the hopelessness of the situation. He felt a tugging sensation in the back of his mind, as if someone had caught hold of his hair, and was jerking it towards them.
He tried to ignore the feeling, but gave in to it. He appeared in a world of white, not a speck of color to break up the monotony of the area.
"Kurama, I really don't want to talk right now. Whatever you say isn't going to make a difference. I know you are going to say the same thing as Sakura-chan and insult me for being such a weakling. Just save it for now, I would rather spend my last minutes in silence."
"You insolent whelp. Don't compare me to that useless kunoichi. You forget who exactly I am. I may be civil to you, and even deem you better than other ningen, but that doesn't mean I will bow down to your wishes or simply watch by as you act utterly foolish."
"As if I would waste my breath on trying to convince your thick skull of anything anyway. No, there is someone else who wants to speak with you. "
"Huh, who wants to meet me here?" He turned around, and there in front of him, once again was the Rikuduo Sennin.
"Oh, it's you Sennin-Jii-San. Come to tell me what an idiot I am being?" Naruto chuckled humorlessly."Because if so, you are wasting your time. You know as well as I do that there is no way to defeat Kaguya now that Sasuke is dead."
"Indeed Naruto, I admit, there is no way to defeat Kaguya now."
"I already told you... Wait, what?! You admit that I can't defeat her. Well, then what are you here for?"
"Kaguya cannot be defeated now, she is far too powerful. However, if we were to prevent this from ever happening in the first place, if we made sure that she was never resurrected, then we wouldn't have to worry about defeating her."
"Are you out of your mind Old Man?! What do you mean prevent this from ever happening, its already happened. How would you stop something from happening that has already happened?"
"Simple. Time Travel"
Naruto sweat dropped. "Time Travel. Really? You must be even more senile than I previously thought. I mean seriously, time travel is impossible. Not saying that I haven't heard of weird, seemingly impossible things, Edo Tensei for one seems to defy all logic. But this, this is a whole new level of crazy!"
"You know, it seems that everything you do is a whole new level of crazy Naruto, so this should be right up your alley."
"Whatever, so what's your crazy scheme this time. We saw how well your 'Seal Kaguya' plan went. Is this one going to be as spectacular of a success as that was? Is it going to be me that dies this time instead of Sasuke?"
The Rikuduo Sennin sighed. "Naruto, I don't want to kill you. I truly apologize that the plan failed, and trust me I mourn for Sasuke too. You forget, he is the reincarnation of my eldest son. He may have different biological parents, but I still consider him and you to be my sons. Losing him is as painful, if not more, to me as it is to you."
"That being said, we cannot be allowed to dwell on our grief. It is sadly, a regular part of life."
"So what, I just forget about Sasuke. Forget the fact that he was my best friend. Forget the fact that he's DEAD!"
"I am hardly suggesting that Naruto. I am not asking you to forget Sasuke. You should definitely remember him, and cherish the memories that you have together. However, focusing only on his death is causing you unnecessary grief. Focus instead on his actions when he was still alive. Focus instead on all your positive memories together."
"Tell me, if Sasuke was here, would he want you to brood as you are doing so?"
Naruto laughed "No. He would probably call me a dobe, and then proceed to tell me what an idiot I am for moping like this. Knowing him, he would probably demand that I take vengeance against Kaguya as well"
"I would hope that he wouldn't advise you to take revenge, it is too dark a path to take. However, your description is mostly right. Thus I advise that you listen to me, for I might have a way out of this mess. As you said yourself, there is no way to defeat Kaguya now, so you might as well give my method a try. "
"Time travel?"
"Yes"
"I guess I have done crazier things in my life. So how is this going to work? Does it require anything from me? Will I remember anything when I get sent back? Will I be in my current body or in a younger one? How far back am I going? Where will I be landing?"
"Just stop!" The Rikuduo Sennin took a breath. "First I must explain how I am doing this. You see, the Rinnengan grants the user immense and unbelievable power. I even have mastery over life and death, command over souls, that actually plays a part in this. Most importantly, I also have some mastery over time, after all, I am here aren't I. I may just be a spiritual manifestation, but I do have my chakra, or some of it after I gave most of it to you both, and I do have my memories."
" I was able to traverse time due to my Rinnengan, therefore, what I plan to do is use the Rinnengan as a beacon in time, and transport your soul there."
"What? How will you transport my soul, and what do you mean use the Rinnengan as a beacon?"
"Do you remember Nagato Uzumaki? Especially the fact that he had the Rinnengan?"
"Of course I do, how could I forget him. Do you mean you will use him as an anchor?"
"Yes in a way, mainly his eyes." the Sennin said hesitantly.
"Wait, there must be some catch here. What did you mean that you would transport my soul to the beacon? What about my body? How will you transport it?"
"That's the catch, as you might say. It is a sacrifice that I am hesitant to make, but one that is necessary in order to stop Kaguya. We cannot let her be released again or she will destroy all life on earth. In order for you to time travel, I will be sending your soul to take over that of Nagato's, in turn destroying his soul and sending it to the pure world. "
"Wait, so you're saying that you are basically killing of Nagato in order to send me back in time! That's so wrong. You can't just kill him off. He doesn't deserve that. Is this because he created Akatsuki and caused this whole fiasco in the first place?"
"Naruto, this has nothing to do with his past actions. While it may be unfair to just kill Nagato off, we have no other choice. Keep in mind that Nagato is already dead, and that if you don't do this, everyone will die instead of just Nagato. "
"Think about it Naruto. No matter what, we must ensure that the world does not come to an end. Kaguya cannot simply be allowed to kill everyone. Plus, you are the only person I can send back in time. You have the Yang half of my chakra, and thus I will be able to send you back through that connection. "
Naruto looked away from the sage, struggling to come to terms with this new revelation. Did he want to do this? Moments ago, he had given up all hope of salvation, of defeating Kaguya, and now the Rikuduo Sennin was offering him a chance to fix everything on a silver platter.
It was almost to good to be true. Yet, there was no way it could be fake. It couldn't be the Infinite Tsukuyomi, the sage's chakra in him made it impossible for it to gain a true hold on him. No, this was the real deal, if it was fake, then Nagato wouldn't have to die.
That led to the other issue: Nagato's death. He didn't want to kill Nagato, in fact, if he had somehow managed to time travel, saving Nagato would have been one of the top things on his priority list. After all, Nagato always had good intentions, but was lead astray by Obito and Madara.
However, if he didn't do this, everyone would die anyway, and Nagato was already dead. When he had fought and defeated Nagato, he had died with a smile on his face. He took this as a sign that Nagato was content with what had occurred in his life. Furthermore, Nagato had initially sacrificed his life to resurrect the citizens of Konoha, so it was evident that he himself would have approved of such a decision.
If he was honest, it wasn't the decision to kill Nagato's soul that shocked him, it was the fact that this was all really happening, and he was just having a really hard time assimilating all of it.
He took another breath. He was just delaying the inevitable. He was going to accept the Sennin's offer. Of course he was, he would be a fool not to. besides, he had a feeling that the Sennin would forcefully send him back if need be. He wasn't going to let the world end because Naruto was indecisive.
"I'll do it. I'll go back in time. I will make sure that the bijuu are never captured and that kaguya never rises again. However, don't expect me to try to establish world peace. I don't believe in that anymore. If this really works, I will make sure Kaguya never rises again and will protect all my precious people. But, I do not plan on trying some foolish, impossible plan to try to establish everlasting peace. No such thing exists. Peace is but a temporary state brought upon the lands due to the wishes of those in power."
"I had hoped the war wouldn't turn your world view so negative, though I guess that there is nothing that can be done about that at the moment. I do understand your view though, while i continue to believe that peace can still exist, that ninshu can prevail, I can sympathize with your plight. "
"My mother tried to kill me and brother after she became insane with power. My wife died in childbirth. My sons forgot about my dream of peace, and instead began to fight each other, only causing conflict to erupt all around them. "
"I was watched things over the centuries that would horrify you beyond anything you have ever seen yet. Yet, I have also seen things that remind me that hope still exists, that goodness still exists in this world. I have seen acts of courage, of selflessness, of generosity, that restore my hope that one day peace can and will prevail. I have had thousands of years to digest all that I have seen and I have come to terms with it."
"You on the other hand, for all your experiences in life are still very young, and thus are quite confused. Furthermore, you have only been in war for a few weeks, the emotions in you are still fresh and are clouding your mind. i hope that in time, at the very least, you will try to achieve peace, because that is all it takes."
"If everyone in all the lands decided to pursue peace instead of war, decided to make a conscious effort to do so, then we could very well achieve the peace that you declare is impossible to achieve. Never lose hope my boy. No matter what you do, remember this, never lose hope."
"Alright, alright old man. I still think that your years are catching up to you and you are going senile. But, we can sit and discuss this for all eternity while Kaguya decimates everyone out there. Sooner or later she will notice your presence and try to stop this from happening. So, you better do whatever you need to do fast, so that it is successful. I will keep your words in mind out of respect to you, but don't expect me to act on them"
"Given the circumstances, I will not ask anymore of you."
The Sennin then went closed his eyes, and began to gather massive amounts of chakra. Being a sage, and with his new sage mode, Naruto could feel the sage drawing upon the powers of the entire world around him.
The Sage's chakra spiked, and then all his three eyes snapped open and snapped glowing. In that moment, Naruto truly understood the immense power the sage had held, it was beyond anything that he could ever have hoped. The Rinnengan truly did make one a god.
The Sage then unleashed a beam of chakra that went straight through Naruto.
"Good luck Naruto. I hope that your journey is successful and that you accomplish everything that you put your mind to."
With that, Naruto began to feel lightheaded, and slowly faded into unconsciousness.