Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. I will probably never own Naruto. But I kind of wish I did if that counts for anything.
Chapter 1: A Final Beginning
Hinata glanced over the calculations double checking the final algebra. She had never been very good at algebra. But it wasn't her fault. Algebra was just, algebra was just well.
It was evil.
She glanced back at the paper. The solution checked out. Wait, wait- she had forgotten the double negative again. She remembered many an academy test where Sakura had beaten her by a point. Damn negatives! Damn Sakura! Hinata pushed away thoughts of the deceased medic-nin adjusting the equation. Done.
She gulped. It shouldn't have surprised her, but her current environment supplied all but one piece of energy to complete the jutsu. Normally, Naruto's Kyuubi chakra would have been enough, but now.
She knew what she had to do.
* * * * * * *
"Hinata! Hinata!" the blond shouted despite his incapacitated condition. Attempting to exaggerate the waving of his arms, he almost fell off the stone bed further injuring already crushed ribs. Hinata blushed though no one was around to see it. For the first time in her life, she was glad she blushed so easily in his presence. Her embarrassment was well worth the spark of mischief she saw in his eyes. She'd give anything to make him happy.
Hinata's thoughts darkened. She would only have one shot at this. Seeing Naruto's precarious position on the stone ledge, she rushed to make sure he wouldn't smudge the dirt around him.
"Naruto, what if I could send you back in time?" her voice came out steady, confident- the opposite of her tumultuous inner state. "A time before Konoha was destroyed, before the others died, before they took Kyuubi, before Sasuke defected," she watched the wistfulness bloom in his eyes, and it was too much for her to bear- so she closed her own.
"Hinata," awe filled his voice, "can you really do that? Can we really save them?"
"No," she answered silencing him with a kiss before his sputters of outrage distracted her. She had always been too passive when he was upset. She hated seeing him in pain. The confusion from her kiss kept him silent.
"You're going to." She breathed the words inside his ear before slamming her chakra infused fist into her chest. The Jyuuken strike landed perfectly closing the chakra channels around her heart. It was the ultimate sacrifice, the final piece of the equation. Hinata Hyuuga died. The jutsu activated. Their world ended. A new world was born.
She had loved him. Hinata Hyuuga had dared to love the dead last, the loser, the Kyuubi brat. And in that instance her power, her emotion awakened an ancient magic that Kyuubi would have cowered in terror from. Hinata had given Konoha a second chance; now, Naruto had to make things right.
Naruto sat up in bed.
AN: This is my first attempt at a story. I'm attempting to do something different with the time travel idea, and while this first chapter is short my next update will be significantly longer. I hope it all goes well! Please review. I appreciate constructive criticism.