A/N: Well I've gotten a descent response to the prologue so I suppose I will continue with this fic. There are several surprises in store for you this chapter as I set up the frame work. I hope you like it as there is a bit more going on here than meets the eye.

"talking"

'thinking'

'Kurama talking'

'Kurama thinking'

Soul Matrix

Chapter 1

Dysphoria

Inhaled dust cause Naruto to cough violently as he staggered over to a pair of pink and black haired heads.

"Sasuke, Sakura, are you guys –" he was cut short as he finally took in the sight of his two best friends and teammates. A small "No" escaped his lips as he fell to his knees beside them.

Sakura was missing a large chunk of flesh out of the left side of her torso as her hyakugou seal began to fade to nothingness. The massive chakra stored in the seal was not enough to keep up with the wounds she had sustained. Sakura was dying.

"Sasuke, i-is she..?"

Silent tears mixed with blood ran down the last Uchiha's face, his right eye returned to the original flat black. "Not quite. But I can't save her, there's nothing I can DO!" His last word was punctuated by a weak fist lodging itself into the ground and forming a small impression to the right of Sakura's battered body. "S-she took the last hit for me as I was readying an attack." His voice faded towards the end as if he still couldn't believe what had happened. Why did his family always have to die?

Naruto's breath hitched as he reached a hand forward to touch Sakura, "Sasuke I can-" He was cut off with a snarl from the raven as he jerked his wife's body towards him a bit more. His actions reminded him of a wounded animal protecting their pack from a threat.

'Gently, kit.'

Naruto headed Kurama's advice as he began again in a lower gentler tone, "I can seal her soul Sasuke, she will come with us yet." His eyes bored into his brothers' mismatched pair. Trying desperately to convey his intentions to the grief stricken man, "Like I sealed Shikamaru. You'll have her again. I promise."

The words seemed to finally reach Sasuke as the man visibly deflated and backed away from the rapidly declining pinkette. Cautiously, Naruto reached out and covered her unseeing green eyes with his hand. Golden chakra swirled and mixed with the green nature chakra Naruto was pulling out of the air as the blonde began chanting in a low tone.

Sasuke was unable to catch the words coming from his brother's mouth, too focused on the last wisp of Sakura's chakra that was dangerously close to burning out. But as he watched, that small flame flickered a tad brighter as it moved up towards her eyes and finally into Naruto's hand. Naruto made a final seal with his free hand before exclaiming "Sealing art: Sōru Kyaria no jutsu!" Sasuke watched as the flicker of chakra raced up the blonde's arm and spattered in a delicate looking seal across his ribs.

Naruto panted, "I got her Sasuke, just in time."

Sasuke let go of Sakura with one hand to grasp Naruto's upper arm, "Thank you." The raven then tucked a strand of pink hair behind a delicate ear before continuing, "She'll be happy to see us on the other side."

Naruto gave a weak smile as he got his breath under control, "I'm sure she will."

'How long Kurama, I don't think we can hold out much longer.'

The devastation surrounding them was not unlike previous hard battles they had fought in before. However, this time Kaguya had attacked with very little warning and her attacks were harsher and swifter than previously. She was getting stronger.

'Patience kit, we just have to hold out for the next full moon. I should have gathered enough chakra by then.'

'Enough for the five of us at least?' Him, Kurama, Shikamaru, Sakura, and Sasuke. Plus anyone else they could convince, hopefully.

'I'm doing my best kit. This has never been done before.'

'I know Kurama… Thank you.'

'Wake up kit!'

Naruto groaned as the Kyuubi growled.

'NOW!'

The blonde pitched off the bed and onto the floor. A sticky tongue tried to wet equally dry cracked lips.

'Get up! You have to move! If you don't find the Uchiha within the next two hours, we're both dead!'

That got the blonde to their feet and stumbling towards the door, eyes bleary and hair unkempt. Movement, movement was needed. Death bad.

'Huh? Wha? Kurama? Whazz goin' on?'

'I'll tell you when you get your ass out the door. Just get dressed and try to find that blasted Uchiha!'

Naruto struggled to the closet, still groggy and disoriented from the abrupt wake up call. Why did everything feel like it was on fire? Every breath ached and crackled, every joint creaked. The door to the closet was opened and foggy blue eyes gazed inside.

'Huh? What's wrong with my clothes? They're for-'

'Quickly Naruto! We can figure this out later!'

Two minutes later the jinchuuriki was racing through the twilight lit village. Sense pressed to the max attempting the find the raven haired boy.

Naruto gasped for breath while bouncing from roof to roof. This younger body wasn't able to keep up with the massive strain being put on it.

'Why is the drain so much? Also I'm much taller than I was at five. How old am I Kurama?'

The bijuu paced back and forth in Naruto's mindscape, the obvious irritation rolling off of the mighty beast in waves. Strain could be clearly seen along the Kyuubi's neck and back, all the way to the tip of each of his nine crimson tails.

'We miscalculated kit.' He snapped out, every word a struggle to project, 'We didn't take into consideration the drain the soul matrices would have on your younger underdeveloped body. If we had gone any further back, we would have died instantly. To protect us, the seal dropped us here. As it stands, if we don't release one of the seals within the next two or so hours we will died regardless.' Tails swished as a ripple of pain ran through his figure, 'Maybe less time.' He proceeded softer, 'You are ten years of age by my estimates kit.'

Naruto's eyes searched wildly for any trace of the Uchiha. Ten, they were ten. Naruto pitched and changed directions to head to the docks. Sasuke was often alone by the docks at that age. Along because-

The blonde gasped, "Sasuke." 'Oh no, the massacre!'

'We tried kit. We always knew that there was a risk it wouldn't turn out right.'

'Not right? Everything about this has been messed up so far Kurama!'

'I know but keep running. How much further are the docks?'

A bridge flew underneath the jinchuuriki but each passing step was slightly slower than the one previous.

'Five minutes hopefully'

The Kyuubi slipped off his paws in the mindscape, landing in the dirty water of the once again sewer as he choked out a response.

'Hurry-'

Naruto pushed the small ten-year old body to its limits, relying on the muscle memory to keep balance as the docks grew ever closer. Seven agonizing minutes later the lake came into view

A tiny black haired boy sat on the edge of the pier.

Without losing momentum, Naruto landed on the pier and launched for the boy. The small Uchiha barely had time to turn around and emit small squeak before a hand shot out to cover his eyes.

"Sealing art: Sōru Kyaria no Jutsu, Reverse!"

Naruto just caught the boy before he hit the ground, knocked out by the sudden release of the seal.

'Please work. Please work. Please work!'

Naruto chanted while huffing down beside the prone figure.

'I hope no one is around to see this.'

'Relax kit. We are alone and we can move to a better location when he comes around.'

'Oh thank Kami, Kurama. You weren't sounding too good there.'

'It'll take more than that to get rid of me.'

The Kyuubi grumbled as he got back to his feet, tails swishing in annoyance and pain.

'However, you only have about two days before you need to release another seal.'

The blonde nodded, eyes fixated on the now twitching form of the raven.

'Not much time, but enough. Probably Sakura next.'

Naruto shuffled over and leaned until their heads were directly on top of each other. However, Naruto wasn't prepared for the onyx eyes to fly open or for the boy to violently sit up, bashing their foreheads together with a painful smack.

"Ow! Dobe! What the fuck?!"

Sasuke froze. Where were they? Why did everything seem bigger? Why was the blonde, reeling in pain next to him, so tiny? He looked down at himself. Why was he so tiny?

"Dobe." He growled out, "What is going on? Are we dead?"

A painful headshake later, Naruto ground out, "No. I'll explain soon, but first: Where did you live when you were ten?"

Seeing the raven's baffled look, the blonde tried again, "Quickly! Think!"

Sasuke frantically looked around, spurred by his teammates tone, until he finally recognized where they were. This time in his life was buried deep within his memories.

"In an apartment not far from here."

"Great, let's go."

Naruto winced while attempting to stand, only to fall back down with a thud and a grunt. "Ugh. Could you carry me by chance?"

They stumbled into the Uchiha's apartment twenty minutes later. There had been some difficulty in getting Naruto upright and moving. But soon the blonde was deposited on the couch in front of the coffee table, just about ready to begin explaining.

"Sasuke, can I have some ink and paper?"

Wordlessly, the raven searched around his living room and set the desired items on the table. He then turned to his kitchen to begin making tea for the two of them. Funny how even after almost ten years he could still remember the exact layout of this place. Memory is a strange thing.

Meanwhile, Naruto shakily wrote an advanced privacy seal and activated it after sticking it to the wall behind the couch. "There, no one can see or hear inside this room."

Sasuke dropped down a mug of steaming tea and rice balls in front of the obviously exhausted and weak jinchuuriki before claiming the chair across the table. "Well I suppose we should get started. I presume that we are back in the past now. What happened?"

Naruto let out a sigh, "For me, you died approximately eight hours ago. I quickly did a seal on your soul like I did for Sakura and Shikamaru and immediately went to the clearing we had chosen for the jutsu. I was exhausted and barely had the stamina to draw the seal. But here we are. We didn't go back as far as I had planned though. We are approximately ten years old."

Sasuke let out a breath he didn't realise he had been holding. His clan was still gone. They wouldn't be able to save them after all. The blue eyes of his teammate boring into his, all of the sorrow he was feeling were reflected in those eyes, also seeking an apology for a reason he couldn't fathom. He knew that Naruto and Kurama had tried, something probably happened to prevent them from going back further.

"Do you know why we only went back this far?"

Naruto looked down at the mug before looking back into Sasuke's eyes, "Kurama thinks it has something to do with the strain put on my younger body by the soul matrices. If we went back further, we would have died instantly. As it was, we only had a few minutes left -maybe ten at the most- if I hadn't found you when I did." Blue eyes closed, if only he had more chakra. "I'm sorry Sasuke. I –"

"Don't apologize!"

Naruto looked up startled. Sasuke's eyes were blazing a fully developed sharingan. "You have already done the impossible, dobe. And have given us the most amazing gift we could have ever received, at least I can still save Itachi. My aniki is still alive. That is more than enough."

Once again, Sasuke's growth and recovery since returning from being a missing-nin amazed the blonde. This second chance at his youth could only bring more positive things for the former avenger. Former avenger who spoke again, "Also, what strain are you talking about? You never mentioned a draw back about the soul matrix before."

Naruto chose to eat one of the rice balls and drink some tea before replying. Sasuke was going to be angry. "Well the soul matrix takes a large amount of chakra to sustain. And price increases exponentially with each additional soul you have sealed. I think this is because I had to base it on the Hakke no Fūin Shiki, which requires a soul sacrifice, that it uses so much. I couldn't find a way around the chakra cost."

"How much chakra exactly?"

Naruto swallowed, "About as much as the average jonin's reserves… per day."

Sasuke's eyes bulged. That was an unbelievable amount of chakra, and he had been carrying around Shikamaru's soul for almost six months. For a ten-year old body to sustain even one of those seals was ludicrous, let alone the two that the blonde still had on. No wonder they needed to get the third off as fast as they did.

"You fucking idiot." First Sasuke was furious but then he laughed, "Only you Naruto. Anyone else would be dead before they even finished the seal and you whip out your third at the end of the battle for our lives like it's nothing… Un-fucking-believable."

Now Sasuke was laughing? Did something weird happen during the seal reversal?

'Kit.'

'Yeah Kurama?'

'During the seal reversal, you severed the links between your souls too quickly. Some of your soul went with him and a bit of his stayed. That is probably the reason for his newfound 'light-heartedness'. Luckily, right now it seems like the changes are limited to slight personality quirks only.' The Kyuubi stared at the traces left behind by the reversed seal in his section of mindscape. Naruto would have to clean that up. 'However, I think if you went slower during the other reversal this could probably be prevented. The soul intertwining is likely more severe though.'

Sasuke noticed the harshly sucked in breath Naruto drew, "What is it?"

Naruto hesitantly relayed the information Kurama communicated. "I didn't know that would happen. And I-I don't know how to fix it on your end. Perhaps a Yamanaka…"

The raven sighed and shook his head, "It's fine Naruto. Honestly, I should probably thank you. I feel lighter now than I can ever remember. Just try to take a bit more time with Sakura. Deal, dobe?"

Naruto grinned, the first since coming back to the past, "Deal, teme."

He caught the blonde's azure eyes once again, "But one last thing: Why do I now have a sister instead of a brother? Naruto-chan?"

A/N: Did anyone see that coming? I have recently found a love for fem!Naru and wanted to explore it a bit. So whatcha think?

Also does anyone have any requests for flashbacks during or before the second coming of Kaguya? I think I'll try starting each chapter with a scene until I run out of ideas.

Sōru Kyaria no jutsu = Soul Carrier Technique

Hakke no Fūin Shiki = Death Reaper seal (the one that holds the kyuubi)

I hoped you liked it!

R&R!