Author's Note: Wow, thanks to everybody who has taken an interest in my story so far, and it's just my first fanfic! Sorry this chapter took a little longer to come out than the last one, but I've made it a little longer to make up for it. Anyway, hope you enjoy it. Next one might take even longer, exams are coming up…

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. I once claimed that I did, only to have Hinata chase with a Katana. Apparently, Naruto was hers and she would inflict grievous bodily harm on those who said otherwise.

Chapter 4

To go Back

Naruto unrolled the blueprints of the Shiki Fujin Seal out onto the grass in front of him. This seal had been the cause of so much pain and anguish in his life. On October 10th, sixteen years ago, Minato Namikaze, the Fourth Hokage had used this technique to seal the Kyuubi no Kitsune inside of him. That was the way that all jinchuriki were created, by having a bijuu sealed inside of them. But different bijuu had different strengths, which meant that the strength of the seal had to be proportionate to the strength of the demon. The Fox was the most powerful of all the Tailed Beasts, known by some as the King of the Bijuu. As off such, one of the most powerful seals in existence was used to contain the Kyuubi within Naruto. To be precise, the Shiki Fujin Seal. But it was not without a cost: the Shiki Fujin seal worked by summoning the Shingami, the Death God himself. Then working together, the Fourth Hokage and the Death God acted in concert to seal the Kyuubi within Naruto, using the Yondaime's own life force to power the jutsu. But the important part of this jutsu, the part that Naruto was interested in, was the fact that it first acted to summon the Shingami to the mortal plane… Slowly, Naruto began forming the necessary hand seals. "SHIKI FUJIN," Naruto roared out, slamming his hands against the ground.

Nothing happened, at least, at first. Naruto only had to wait for a short while before the very air around him began to grow cold. The shadows lengthened and darkened, seemingly reaching out like a certain Nara's jutsu. But the malevolent intent that came with those shadows made one thing perfectly clear. Whatever was the cause of this darkness, it was not human. The light dimmed, becoming fainter and fainter, seemingly being eaten by the shadows themselves. Then, the darkness began began to converge, seemingly building up on top of itself, rising up into a single black mound. Slowly, ever so slowly, the mound began taking shape, the shape of a man. Firs the the limbs could be distinguished, the head. Slowly, ever so slowly, details began to become visible. Finally, it was finished and a man stepped forth from the shadows. Or at least, it looked like a man. A black cloak covered the figure completely, with a hood thrown over his face, leaving it in shadow, no, not just shadow, it was more like an abyss. Clutched in a bony hand was a large scythe, so sharp that seemed to Naruto as if it would cut you if you simply looked at it. The scythe was held in the figure's left hand. But such a hand… Death had already touched that hand. Only small strips of rotted flesh clung to the otherwise stripped clean bone. The figure raised his other hand slowly to his hood, before throwing it back suddenly, revealing the empty eye sockets with a cold light burning behind them, the yellowed teeth that were in a death's head grin and the empty pit where a nose had once been. A feeling of such malice filled the area, such malevolence, that Naruto almost shouted out in fear. Yet something stopped him.

"Why are you wearing reading glasses?"

With a startled look, the figure whipped the glasses off his face, revealing another surprising feature to Naruto. "Your fingers are ink-stained…"

Folding his arms, the figure spoke. "Who are you to summon Death."

Naruto looked at the scroll once more, cursing under his breath, apparently, he had not done the jutsu correctly.

"Errrmm… Wrong number?" Naruto said, slightly embarrassed. The figure blinked.

"Well, who exactly were you looking for? The God of the Dead?" Naruto nodded.

Almost excitedly, the figure leaned forward. "Now, don't tell me which aspect you're looking for. I'll figure it out myself." He began walking around Naruto, sizing him up. "Let's see, idealistic, always keeps his word obviously the hero type with the body of a Greek g… I KNOW! YOUR'E LOOKING FOR HADES!" At this, the figure changed into a tall, ripped man with long, black, slightly greasy hair, wearing a black toga that had tortured faces moving within the fabric, with a black helmet under his arm and a sword at his waist. "No?" Naruto shook his head, consternation clear on his face. "Alright, well, you're a bit short, but with that warrior light in those blue eyes and that blonde hair, you must be a Viking… so you're looking for Hela, right?"

"No," Naruto interrupted.

"Damn, you're not Egyptian, so Anubis is out. You didn't recognize the Grim Reaper and I doubt you're an African so…"

"I was born in Konoha!" Naruto shouted out feeling slightly annoyed. At this, the figure stilled, before turning into the Shingami himself. The scythe changed into a knife, which he clenched between his teeth. The teeth were set in the face of a demon. Shinigami's clothes became a sickly white in colour.

"Konoha you say… oh, that's right, I can see the hiate now. Tell me, do you know anything about a disturbance that happened here about five days ago? A great commotion happened within my realm," the Shingami spoke casually, as if the answer to his question had no importance.

"You're the Shingami?" Naruto asked. The figure nodded.

"Sorry about earlier, I have a multiple personality disorder. Answer the question."

"NO! Give me back…"

"Answer the question first, then we'll carry on with this conversation," the statement was said in a pleasant tone, yet there was something that caused even the Knuckleheaded Ninja to shut his mouth. "Now, did anything unusual happen five days ago?"

"Oh yeah, that was Nagato, he used a resurrection technique at the cost of his own life."

"And he did this why?"

"Because of me."

A rough sound seemed to come from the Shingami, it was only later that Naruto realised he had been grinding his teeth. "Alright, now, what was it that you wanted?"

"Give me back Hinata-chan!"

"THAT'S IT!" the Shingami exploded. "You're the reason why I'm up to my eyebrows in paperwork with that stunt that you pulled getting so many souls out of the underworld. Do you have any fucking idea how many forms I have to fill out for every bloody person who ends up dead in the first place? And then not only do they become immediately useless, but I have to fill them in anyway, cause they did actually die and then there's like twelve times the amount of crap that I've got to fill out for every person that lives again and then you come and ask me to add to that burden? Actually, you didn't even bother to bloody well ask now did you? Instead, you come with you're demands and insist that I use my power to give you back you're loved one." Naruto blushed suddenly at the word 'loved.' "And to top it off, you don't even use the right summoning method. This is the Shiki Fujin seal! What did you want to seal?" the demand was angry and by this time, the Shingami had yelled so much that he had gone red in the face, although, thanks to his original colour, he was now a startling pink in colour.

"Nothing," Naruto said, trying hard not to cower from the huge killing intent that he was being subjected to.

The Shingami nodded with an evil smile. "Done. And now I take my payment. Your soul." As he said it, the Shingami flickered appeared before Naruto and plunged his hand into Naruto's stomach.

A cold such as Naruto had never before experienced before in his life seemed to pervade every fibre of his being emanating from his stomach. An unearthly power started acting against him. Naruto felt his strength begin to drain as he fell down to his knees. He had failed and now he was going to die all because he did not think things through. A horrible thought occurred to him. The ones who died from this jutsu would be sealed within the Shingami's stomach. Even in death, he would not get to apologise to Hinata.

"WELL SHIT KIT, YOU REALLY HAVE A TALENT FOR PISSING PEOPLE OFF."

That voice, Naruto knew that voice. Liquid fire started rushing down his veins, combating the killing cold. Naruto groaned, in that instant becoming so much more than just a human, he was a battleground, the meeting between to great oceans as two powers as old as the world itself warred within him. Pain, an overwhelming pain rushed through his body wherever hot met cold. But slowly, the fire won out. Pushing against that unearthly power, it finally reached its originating point and with a howl reminiscent to pain, the Shingami pulled his hand out of Naruto's stomach.

"OH YEAH! I STILL GOT IT BABY! MAN WHAT A RUSH! COMING OUT ON TOP IN A BATTLE WITH THE SHINGAMI HIMSELF! AHHH! WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME I DID SOMETHING LIKE THAT?" the Kyuubi no Kitsune cried out, inside Naruto's head, who was able to hear him because of the large amounts of demon chakra pumping through his body.

"Kyuubi…" Naruto said.

"WHAT?" the fox yelled slightly upset that Naruto had interrupted his euphoric rant. After all, it wasn't often that he came up against an adversary that he actually considered his equal.

"Thanks."

The fox was shocked; it was not often that his jailer ever expressed anything resembling gratitude. "YOU'RE WELCOME."

In the meantime, the Shingami was shaking his arm cursing underneath his breath. It was a bright, cherry red in colour. His other hand however, was pressed against his belly. Still swearing, he changed into an ordinary, if overly handsome, man, before popping the cap of what looked like a bottle of antacids and chugging the entire contents. "You're a jinchuriki aren't you?" Naruto nodded. The Shingami swore loudly. "I guess you aren't as stupid as you look. You must have known that I can't come into contact with one of the immortals."

"Riiiiighhht…" Naruto said. The Shingami didn't notice his confusion, as he continued to rub his stomach.

"This must be one of the biggest cases of indigestion I've ever had… You wouldn't happen to know anybody in here would you?"

"Yeah, Minato Namikaze and Old Man Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi."

The Shingami froze. "What did you say you're name was?"

"Naruto Uzumaki."

The Shingami flinched. "Well crap, that was close."

"What do you mean?"

Shingami snorted. "Well isn't it obvious? I tried to eat the Chosen one, can you imagine how much paperwork I'd have to fill in for something like that? Then there's the fact that if you die, the upcoming Fourth Shinobi War will be lost, hundred's of thousands will end up dead and the Eye of the Moon plan will succeed, or would it, after all, they wouldn't have the Kyuubi, so they wouldn't be able to resurrect the Juubi… Until the Kyuubi reformed… Not to mention I'd never get a chance at that son of a bitch Madara's dirty old soul."

"Does that mean that you'll help me?" Naruto asked, hope once more in his voice.

"No."

Anger flashed in Naruto's eyes. "Come on! You were willing to kill me just for the sake of a little bit of extra paperwork!"

"Don't call it a little extra paperwork. That shit is the paperwork from hell! Literally!"

"If you don't help me, I'll find another way, even if it means I have to kill myself, I will!"

Shingami looked at Naruto, humour in his eyes. "No you wouldn't. You've still got to many promises to complete in this world. But why would you go that far?"

Naruto sighed and sank to the ground. "I don't know. My parents died when I was just a baby and I was a jinchuriki. I never received any love as a kid. I was always so lonely. I sometimes got beaten; I never had any friends until after I became a genin. I did so much to earn acceptance from those around me, but even when I was hated by most of those around me, there was one person who always looked up to me. That person was Hinata. I'm almost seventeen years old and Hinata was the first one who ever said that she loves me. She loved me. And I failed her. Because of me, she's dead." A look of determination came across his face. "So I'm willing to do whatever it takes. Do you hear me? No matter what the cost, I'll pay it, as long as I get her back."

"Oh, be a dear Gami-kun, give the boy back his girlfriend." Both Naruto and the Shingami jumped into the air at the sound of the very feminine voice behind them. They turned to see a beautiful woman behind them. Shingami sighed. "Naruto, meet my wife." If Naruto were ever asked to describe her, he would say that he was completely unable to put to words such a beauty, although the real cause may have been self-memory manipulation, since the Shingami specifically stated that if he ever had perverted thoughts about his wife, he would wake up one morning and find himself castrated. "She's not my girlfriend, Mrs?"

"Oh, call me Arlia, dear."

The Shingami sighed. "That's not her real name. Names have power among those as powerful as us. Why did you think that the Kyuubi is always called by a title rather than a name?"

"Anyway, you say she's not your girlfriend? Why? The girl said she loved you and you obviously have some kind of feelings for her, otherwise why are you going through all this trouble to get her back?"

"I don't know what I feel for her. She's a friend sure and I would do anything for my friends. As for the trouble, well, I never really planned any of this. After I saw the scroll it all just seemed to… happen."

"You mean you summoned my husband, the God of Death himself… on a whim?"

Naruto put his hand behind his neck and scratched, wearing a rueful grin on his face. "Well when you put it that way it does seem kind of stupid. But I thought that there was chance that this would work, so I didn't need to think about it anymore."

Arlia turned what seemed remarkably similar to the dreaded 'puppy dog eyes no jutsu' on the Shingami, who winced visibly. "Dammit woman! It's not that fucking easy!"

"What did you say to me?" her voice was quiet, but the Shingami himself, God of the Death, Lord of the Underworld, King of the Dead and Prince of Darkness, cowered before his wife's angry gaze.

"I mean, I'm dreadfully sorry, my beloved, but I am afraid that what you are asking of me can simply not be done. I'm Lord of the Dead, unfortunately, when I took the job, the small print in the contract stated that I could not send someone back of my own accord, it would set an extremely dangerous precedent."

Arlia stared at Naruto and he felt himself being weighed, measured and examined in hundreds of different ways. This woman seemed to look at his very soul. "It needs to be done. With this burden added to the rest of them that he carries, he will not be able to win the upcoming war. He will fail and the world will fall."

The Shingami cursed and muttered under his breath. Naruto was fairly certain he heard the word 'paperwork' somewhere in the middle of his rant. "Well that sucks."

"Really," Naruto said sarcastically. "Does that mean that you won't help me?"

"No of course we'll help you won't we Gami-kun," Arlia said, turning with a smile to the Shingami, or 'Gami-kun.' He winced at the nickname before speaking.

"I told you dear, it's not that simple. I am physically unable to let one loose from my kingdom. It is an impossibility."

"What about a resurrection technique?" Arlia asked. The Shingami just looked at her, then looked at Naruto.

"Do you know any resurrection techniques?" Naruto shook his head. "So that's a no go as well. Besides, he only time a resurrection technique doesn't cost you your own life is if you have the rinnegan. He doesn't so if he used one, he'd end up dead and the world is doomed anyway."

"Well that's just great, isn't it? What else am I supposed to do? Turn back time to when Hinata was still alive?" Naruto asked sarcastically.

Arlia looked excited. "Dear?" The Shingami however, just shook his head a slightly evil gleam in his eyes.

"It wouldn't work. The Time Travel Technique requires chakra, something that I don't have anymore. It was taken from me when I kidnapped you to be my wife."

Naruto latched on to the idea with a fierce determination. "What about my chakra? You can use mine to power the jutsu." Shingami just snorted.

"Kid, you ain't got near enough chakra to go back a single day. And the fox's chakra sealed inside of you is good enough for maybe six more days. And even if you got the rest of it, that only leaves you with what, one more day to prepare? This is a once off technique, kid, it only works one time per person. With only one more day, the end result will be the same."

Naruto glared at him. "Give me three, maybe four days and I'll come to you with enough power to get the job done." The Shingami laughed and laughed at him, before Arlia socked him one in the stomach, then he just crouched over and wheezed. "It's not going to happen kid, even if you do gain the necessary power, which you won't. Kami will put me into all sorts of shit if I help you with this. Not happening." Naruto frowned, then an evil grin spread across his features.

"Arlia, can I speak to you for a second?" Nodding, the Shingami's wife stopped pouting at her husband and came over to Naruto, who whispered into her ear.

"Ooh I like that," Arlia giggled. "Alright sweety, I'm in."

"Shingami! I Naruto Uzumaki, swear by my father's memory that if you do not help me, then I will not succeed in fulfilling the prophecy. The world will fall and Kami will blame you. The paperwork that you'll be landed with will be of proportions that you have not seen in all your millennia."

"And I say that if you don't help him, then you'll be sleeping on the couch for the next twenty years," Arlia threatened him.

The Shingami looked from one to another. "I've had people offer me all the wealth they possess, heroes have entered my realm trying to steal from me, people have sold me their souls, or those of their wife, daughter, mother, brother son father or sister, dark rituals have been held in my honour, with countless human sacrifices and in all the thousands of years that this has been happening, there has not been a single person who has got the best of me. And now you come along, Naruto Uzumaki, with the threat of making me do more paperwork and convincing my wife not to give me any for twenty years. That's the best you can do? That's what you're going to blackmail me with?"

Naruto nodded. "Yep."

The Shingami sighed. "Damn you're good. I'll see you in four days. Call out for me when you have the power at the ready and I shall come before you to help you on your way."

Naruto was searching the campsite, looking for one of two men. If he was going to do this, he would need their help. All of a sudden, he heard cries of horror and pain, with one man screaming "My eyes! My eyes!" repeatedly. By the sounds of things, he had found both of them. Ignoring the hideous sights around him, he pulled Lee and Guy apart, for the first time in history breaking the Ultimate Sunset Genjutsu. "Green beasts of Konoha! I have a favour to ask of you."

Slightly annoyed at being broken apart, Guy looked at who had been foolish enough to do so, intending on insisting that they join him for a days training… When he saw who it was, he forgot about his earlier intentions. It was Naruto, who once more had the fires of youth burning in his eyes. He would do anything he could to help the youthful Hero of Konoha! "We'll do whatever we can to help you Naruto. Consider your favour already done. That's a promise!" Guy exclaimed, ending his speech with his thumb up, almost blinding the onlookers with the glint of light coming off his teeth. The 'Nice Guy' pose. They were now bound to keep their word.

"Thank you Guy-Sama. I need you and Lee to teach me how to use the Hachimon."

Three days later, Naruto moved to the largest of the intact training grounds, a forest area with a great deal of life within it. He had done it. Although Guy and Lee were harsh taskmasters, using the Hachimon was surprisingly easy after you got the hang of opening the first three gates. Opening the first one was actually the hardest task of all. It had taken him almost half a day to learn how to do that. Well, half a day with just over three thousand kage bunshin working alongside of him. Both Lee and Guy had been amazed at his progress, before he told them that he had effectively done over four years worth of training. He could create a whole lot more clones using sage mode if he didn't use any as spare 'batteries' to store nature chakra. He had created so many that Yamato-sensei had been afraid that he would not be able to keep up if any of them went Kyuubi. But with both of the Green Beasts there to help, any clone looking as if he was starting to get some more fox-like characteristics quickly went 'poof.' Naruto could use the Hachimon now. But he needed more power than just the gates could provide. Naruto snorted at himself thinking that he needed more power, quickly running through his mind to check if was starting to resemble a certain Emo Uchiha. No? Good. Luckily, he knew how he could get it.

Moving towards the centre of a clearing, Naruto sat down on a large boulder that stood within the middle of the area and set a small container in front of him. Getting into a meditative stance, he breathed deeply, forcing his body to be perfectly still. 'First Gate – Gate of Opening – Open.' Naruto could feel the rush of power that flowed throughout his body. 'Gate of Healing – Open.' He could feel the amount of chakra he contained multiplying within him. 'Gate of Life – Open.' By now, his skin had turned red from the increase in blood flow. 'Gate of Pain – Open.' After passing this point, any more movements would begin to tear his muscles apart a but thanks to his sage training he was able to remain completely immobile. 'Gate of Closing – Open.' It was becoming so much harder now to stay still. All the energy within him made him feel full, almost bursting to release it. 'Gate of Joy – Open.' Cracks shot through the boulder Naruto was sitting on as he opened the sixth gate. Suddenly, Naruto felt himself get pulled into his own mindscape.

"WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?" Kyuubi asked, sounding ahhh… slightly miffed. Even more so than usual.

"Getting power so that I can use that time travel jutsu so that I can save Hinata."

"YOU FOOL, IF YOU OPEN ALL THE GATES, YOU'LL KILL US BOTH!"

Naruto just shook his head. "Not right away. Guy said that most men could last at least three minutes after opening the Gate of Death. With my healing factor, I can more than triple that time. Plenty enough for me to gather all the power I need. Gate of Wonder – Open!"

"MAD. YOU TRULY ARE MAD. DON'T YOU REALISE THAT IN THE LAST FEW SECONDS OF YOUR LIFE, I'LL BREAK FREE OF THIS ACCURSED PRISON AND LAY WASTE TO ALL AROUND ME?"

Naruto smiled. "Nice try Furball, but the Gate of Death causes your heart to explode. Death is pretty much instantaneous."

Kyuubi snarled menacingly at him. "DAMN YOU! DON'T YOU REALISE THAT EVEN IF YOU OPEN ALL THE GATES YOU STILL WON'T HAVE ENOUGH POWER TO GO FAR ENOUGH BACK IN TIME?"

"I know. So you're going to help me. Gate of Death – open." As Naruto said these words, he once more became conscious of the world around him. A great pillar of blue chakra had shot up into the air, visible to everyone from miles around. Chakra seemed to be leaking off of him, in quantities great enough to create a pseudo-jinchuriki. Many shinobi were by now on the way to see what the cause of this disturbance was. Naruto quelled the urge to smirk. It would take them a while to get here. He, and as many clones as possible, had been making as many traps as possible. Although non lethal, there was such a great number of them that the area was practically inaccessible.

Re-entering his mindscape, Naruto walked toward the doors of the cage and stood before the great gate. "So what do you say Kyuubi? Want to help me?" Without waiting for an answer, Naruto ripped the paper seal off the doors of the cage.

With a howl of joy, the Kyuubi leapt forward, sending all of his chakra towards Naruto, intent on taking over the foolish mortal and gaining his freedom. "FOOL! DON'T YOU REALISE THAT I CAN STILL HEAL YOUR BODY BEFORE TAKING IT OVER," he yelled gleefully. All of a sudden, the fox frantically began trying to withdraw his chakra, but Naruto held on to it with all his might. "Gotcha!" Naruto said with a satisfied grin on his face.

As soon as he had removed the seal, Naruto had started drawing sage chakra into his body. The seal had been removed: all the chakra of the Nine Tailed Fox was set loose within him. "But you're chakra comes in two forms doesn't it Furball? Chakra and Will. It was your Will that kept on trying to take over my body, but if you use your Will now, then I'll move and we'll both end up being a large stone toad. You wouldn't like that now would you? The legend of the Kyuubi no Kitsune finished with him becoming a petrified amphibian."

"CURSE YOU."

Naruto chuckled to himself as he felt the Kyuubi's chakra meld with his own physical and spiritual chakra. If he went into sage mode like this, he would have close to twice the amount of chakra as the fox ever had at his disposal. But he feared that it wouldn't be enough. He still needed more. Steeling himself, he stopped drawing on the natural energy around him for just long enough to swallow the contents of the box he had set in front of him, his heart in his throat as he had to reach over to where the vibrations caused by his chakra had sent it. In a single, jerking motion, he swallowed the entirety of its contents and immediately started drawing slowly on the natural chakra surrounding him. He almost winced at the pain that the pain that the Akimichi's coloured pills caused his system. But he could feel the inhuman boost that the spinach, curry and chilli pills gave him. Each pill multiplied the amount of chakra held within a person's body. The chilli pill alone gave you one hundred times as much chakra. But in taking them all at once… The pills were normally used exclusively by the Akimichi clan, since the pills worked by converting the body's fat cells into chakra, something that the Akimichi's always had a surplus of. But if there were not enough fat reserves, then the pills would break down any and every other energy rich type of cell in the body, which was what caused death in any other person. Cells, which, in Naruto's case, were replicating at an extraordinary rate, thanks to Kyuubi's influence. The rock underneath him was completely ground away and Naruto started forming his own crater thanks to the intensity of his chakra. His chakra coils had long since fractured and split asunder, only the Kyuubi's influence keeping a tenuous grasp on the ocean of power that raged within.

When he felt his chakra reach its peak, Naruto began drawing deeply on any available nature chakra, striving to create a balance with the energy already within him. It was too much for the things that surrounded him. Like a stain spreading out from where Naruto sat, the plants around him began to turn brown and die as the energy he drew from them exceeded their limits. The tree around him lost their leaves, which had turned brown and brittle, before the trunks themselves began to wither. Like a wave, the desolation spread quickly. Seeing the devastation move towards them, the ninja who were within seconds of coming into contact with Naruto turned and fled. A circle of ruin almost five and a half miles in diameter now stood where once had been a heavily forested area; Naruto in the centre of it all. Within that circle, there was utter silence. Not even the sound of insects permeated the area. Naruto opened his eyes, revealing the orange markings that marked him as a Sage, taking in the destruction that surrounded him. Clods of earth were floating around him, buoyed up by the very pressure of the power that he held, a power that could be felt by all the inhabitants of the Elemental Nations. And yet Naruto knew that if he even tried to channel it, he would be obliterated. "I CALL UPON YOU: SHINGAMI!"

There was no dramatic appearance this time, the Shingami just blinked into view, wearing the form of the man that he had left as, that of an ordinary man.

"Shit kid! What in the hell did you do! The court of the gods itself was almost pissing itself when it felt what you were releasing! No mortal should have that kind of power, or so they say." Despite his words, the Shinigami could not help but let the smallest hints ao admiration tinge his voice. This mortal...was intereting

"Is it enough?" Naruto asked his voice strained. Holding this much power was overwhelming him, even with the healing that both the Kyuubi's chakra and Sage Mode provided.

The Shingami snorted.

"Hell yeah it is. At this point of time, you're holding more power than any other mortal has ever held on this planet. Pity you can't do anything with it for fear of going kablooey. Cutting it kind of close though aren't you? From my count you're going to be gone in oh… thirty-two seconds?" he saidd, speaking as if he were holding a casual conversation with a stranger.

Naruto's eyes widened as he fell to the ground and began hacking up blood. "Then do the jutsu already!" Naruto gasped.

The Shingami sighed, before leaning down and extending his hand to Naruto. "Fine, take my hand and say please." Naruto looked at him as if he were crazy. "It's not as if you've got much choice in the matter. Tick-tock, tick-tock."

Naruto swung his hand round to take a hold of Death himself. "Please." With a surge, he felt all the power that he had held leave him, travelling along his hand and up to the Shingami. Immediately, the world started going hazy. Just before he blacked out, he heard the Shingami's voice one last time.

"Oh and for future reference, you're really going to want to kill that son of a bitch Yakushi Kabuto, or he'll really start to chafe your ass in the future."

It seemed as if Naruto had awoken from a dream, or was it a nightmare? Slowly, he opened his eyes, staring at the familiar ceiling above his head. He was back in his home, back in his own apartment block. With a whoop he kicked off the covers and ran around, or tried to. The only thing he succeeded in doing was planting himself face first into the ground. Frowning, he stood up slowly and tried to take a couple of steps forward, swearing as he tripped up once again. It looked like that technique had messed up with the control he had over his own body. It took hi awhile, but Naruto finally made it into the bathroom. He stopped suddenly, staring at his cracked mirror. Staring at the face of the ten-year old boy looking out at him.

"HE DID IT, THE LITTLE KIT ACTUALLY DID IT."

"Well of course he did. I never had any doubt of it in my mind," another voice said, answering the fox's disbelieving statement.

Author's note: Well that's another chapter done and dusted. I've been thinking a lot about where this should be going and I can quite happily say that I've already got the next few chapters planned out, now I just have to write them… Don't worry Naruto is not going to become a Gary-Stu in this story. The methods that he used in order to travel back in time cannot be used in an ordinary battle. It's impossible for anyone to mould that amount of chakra, at least it is in this story. He will not be doing anything with the Akimichi pills again. The only time his healing actually prevents the poisoning from killing him in a few seconds is when the fox has been released, which obviously isn't going to be happening anytime soon. I mean, come on, the kid just went six years back in time. That takes a lot of juice! Anyway, who do you think that voice is in Naruto's head? Read, Enjoy and Review.