DISCLAIMER: I do not own Naruto, it's characters or any of its ideas! Those belong to the rightful owner. I'm just a fan with way to much time to procrastinate away and write fanfics all day.

I don't know why exactly i decided to write a time travel fic, but hey...it's 1:30 in the morning and I have exams. This is my stress relief. Expect sporadic updates, if any at all. I can't guarantee how long this fic will last.

This fic starts AU, and it will definitely end AU.

Hinata was forty years old. She was forty years old and still, she was alone. She had never married. She'd never bore any man's child, or a single Heir to the clan. And as such, she had named her little sister's son her heir. She was proud of Hanabi, and happy for her and Shino. They were a cute couple, despite what many thought. Other people thought it was strange, and many Hyuuga looked down on them. They found Shino's colony revolting. Hinata, being his former team mate hardly even noticed. She was just so happy for both of them. They had embraced themselves and their feelings.

Unlike her. Hinata had never had the courage. She never confessed to the man that still held her heart. Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze. The Hokage. The Child of Prophecy. And so, so much more. He brought peace to the Elemental Nations. He made Konoha safe and stopped Madara once and for all. She had loved him since she was a small child, but she was a coward, and could only sit back and bear the pain of watching him fall for Sakura Haruno. She had even been a bridesmaid at their wedding.

Confessing to the love of her life wasn't her only shortcoming. She'd failed to bring peace to her own clan. She was clan head, but still the Main and Branch families fought. It had gotten far worse. Her cousin, Neji, had left the clan all together. She had barely managed to convince the Elders not to kill him. She had had Naruto develop a seal to stop Neji's children from having the Byakugan. It had been the only way to save his life.

Hinata was forty, and she had done nothing to hold her loved ones close. Her cousin married a nice civilian girl. She was a little sickly, but she took good care of him. She kept him in line, and she kept him happy. It was all Hinata could ask. They had three children, the eldest was a boy, and the other two were twin girls. They caused a lot of trouble. Hinata just adored them, and did her best to visit, when she knew the Elder's weren't watching her.

She was happy for everyone she loved...but she hated them, to a tiny degree. As selfish as it was, she just wanted someone to love her too. She wanted to have a child who would stare up at her with such adoration like Hanabi's boy, or Neji's little monsters. The Elders would not even allow her the chance to adopt. If she could, she would have taken all the orphans left from the Fourth War.

It was on the anniversary of the war that Naruto made his annual speech. His words gave them hope, and kept the peace in the village. They were a reminder of all those lost, and why peace was needed. Why equality was needed.

And this year, his speech would change the world.

This year, Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze was assassinated.

From her place on the balcony beside the Hokage, Hinata could see everyone in the crowd. It was her duty as Hyuuga Clan Head to use her Byakugan and watch out for attacks while the Hokage gave his speech. Her eyes were perfect for the job.

But they were not as perfect as they should have been. She had been losing her vision for years now. Her eyesight slowly fading, and the range of her Byakugan shrinking with every time she used it. She had wanted to tell Naruto, to get someone else to fill in for her, but the Elders had forbid it, and threatened to harm her sister or cousin if she disobeyed them. She could not let that happen.

It was a quick death. Nearly painless. No one saw the senbon coming, not even Hinata, or Sakura, who had stood on Naruto's other side, being the loyal wife she was. One moment his chakra had blazed brightly, and his voice had rung out across the square for all to hear, and the next, he was down, a senbon driven into his jugular. Blood leaked out of the puncture and stained his Hokage robes crimson.

Hinata hadn't even noticed that she was screaming.

"NARUTO!"

Sakura only stood off to the side, her eyes wide and horrified. After a moment, the pink haired woman snapped out of it and tried to activate her medical chakra. It was like the chakra inside her was thick and sluggish. She just couldn't get it to move the way she needed it to.

"No! No, no no! This can't be- Why isn't- N-no..." Realization dawned on her. She had been drugged. It was the same drug Tsunade-sama had used on Jiraiya to destroy his chakra control. Her sensei had taught her how to make it long ago, when she was still the Fifth Hokage and Sakura's team had been disbanded.

Sakura began sobbing as she tried over and over again to gain control. She had to save him- She had to save her husband!

"N-Naruto-kun?" Hinata whispered as she lifted Naruto's head and placed it on her lap. She ran her hand through his blond hair, staring into those beautiful, life-filled blue eyes.

"H-Hina-ta..." He whispered back. He lifted his hand to touch her face, "I-I'm...not...healing."

Her eyes widened. How could she have missed that? Where was the kyuubi? Where was the fox?

Her Byakugan flared to life as she tried to look at his seal. Then she noticed it, there was an extra character, one that had never been there before in all the years that Hinata had known him and had looked at his chakra to know he was okay.

He was losing too much blood. Hinata tried to stop the blood flow, even as Sakura dropped to the floor with a senbon in her own throat. Down below, the citizens were screaming in terror.

"W-What do I do? N-Naruto? I...I don't know w-what to do!" Hinata wailed in panic. She had to do something! Where were the medics? The ANBU?! Where was Shikamaru and his men? Weren't they the Hokage's personal guard?

How could this have happened? Someone had done something to Naruto's seal! He hadn't even noticed...someone had done something to Sakura's chakra, and she didn't even detect it...Hinata hadn't even seen the attack coming! No one knew about her eyes. No one.

Except for her clan.

The same clan that stopped her from trading with someone else. The clan that was at war with itself. The clan that believed itself better than all the rest.

Those bastards. They were staging a coup.

"Oh Kami...Naruto, j-just hang in there, o-okay?"

"Hin-ata...I-I need you to-to touch m-my seal."

She stared at him for a short moment before she did as he said. She placed her hand on his seal, sliding it up his shirt for direct contact. Had it been any other time, she would have blushed...but now...now was not the time.

The moment she touched the seal, she was dragged into his mind. She stood in an empty tunnel. There was a faint odour, and the floor and lower walls were stained badly with something that she refused to think of.

"Hinata!" A voice called. Instantly, Hinata found herself running for it. Naruto.

She found him in front of a massive cage. Inside, she could see the kyuubi growling furiously. Naruto smiled sadly to her.

"N-Naruto-kun."

"Hinata...I'm sorry."

"No! I'm sorry, Naruto-kun. My...my clan...I think they're the ones behind it. I-I didn't see the senbon and- you- Sakura! I-" Hinata felt herself falling apart with the guilt of it all. She could take the life of an enemy, but to be even indirectly responsible for the death of her comrades-

Arms wrapped around her, "Shh...Hinata-chan. It's okay. It isn't your fault. You had no way of knowing. We both know how they used you."

She sobbed quietly.

"It's alright Hinata...but right now, we need to talk about something else." he pulled away from her slightly and stared her firmly in the eyes. She could see some strange emotion dancing behind his eyes.

There was a loud crash as part of one of the walls crumbled. It was a reflection of what was happening to Naruto's life force.

"W-What is it?"

"I'm going to die." He said it with a smile, like he was perfectly fine with his death.

"N-no, don't say that! Someone will come up and heal you! It's just a little hole!"

"I've already lost a lot of blood. But it's alright Hinata-chan." He told her with a smile, "I have something really important to ask of you...A mission, if you will."

She stared at him. He was...giving her a mission. It would be the last mission she ever did for him. The last mission any of them did for him.

"What is it...Hokage-sama?"

He grinned that grin that looked like he was the living embodiment of the sun. Warm and bright.

"I need you to go back in time for me!"

"What?"

"Kurama knows this jutsu, and it'll send the target back in time. I- I want you to go back, Hinata-chan. I want you to go back and...fix a lot of things."

"Why-Why me? What do you want me to change?"

"You're life. I want you to change your life, Hinata-chan. You're the Hyuuga Clan Head...I want you to take charge of your clan and bring peace back to them. And Hinata...I don't want you to be alone."

As he stared into her eyes, Hinata felt something grip her chakra. She hadn't even noticed the fox behind Naruto making hand seals.

There was a great rumble and the floor began to shake as the mindscape continued to break apart. Behind the walls of the tunnel, Hinata could see the pure darkness of oblivion, waiting to swallow them. Him. Naruto.

"I know that...you loved some idiot in the past, but he was too dense to realize how you felt, or how he felt, until it was too late."

How...he felt? Hinata tried not to get her hopes up. Surely he didn't mean-

"He didn't realize he loved you until he married the wrong girl."

She gaped at him.

"So, Hinata...I want you to go back. I want you to save lives. Including your own." He rested his forehead against hers, "And maybe mine too."

And with that, Kurama finished the hand signs, and in a brilliant flash of light, she was gone.

Naruto turned to Kurama with a look that made him appear twenty years older than he really was.

"Well, it looks like I'm dying."

"Sorry, gaki."

"It's cool. I...kinda expected it."

"Why didn't you stop it?"

"How? Did you expect me to ask Hinata to go all Itachi on them?" Suddenly Naruto's eyes widened, "And then Neji or Hanabi would become Sasuke, and it'd all start over!"

He shuddered and the fox laughed. It wasn't a cheerful laugh, but bitter instead. Bitter, tired, and though the fox would never admit it, full of grief.

The floor began to break away, and the bars on Kurama's cage rusted and broke down into dust.

"Gaki."

"Yeah." Naruto shook his head, "When I'm gone, you better not attack my village."

The fox laughed again and shook his head.

"Good. 'Cause if you did, the second the next idiot used Edo Tensei and brought me back, I'd track you down and whoop your ass."

The fox grinned, "I believe that."

"But seriously, don't touch my village."

"I wouldn't dream of it."

"Good. Otherwise I'd haunt your nightmares."

The mindscape gave one last violent shudder before everything cracked and fell apart.

"Good bye, gaki."

"Bastard."

Short, I know. Sorry. Next chapter will definitely be longer. If I actually do write it.