A/N: Naruto is owned by Masashi Kishimoto , I only take credit for my own added character's and storylines. Similarly, any references will be attributed to their original creators when they pop up.
Recommended story: Sasuke's No Good Very Bad Teammates by GwendolynStacy
Just after becoming Team 7 a wild, time traveling Naruto and Sakura make an appearance. Sasuke doesn't, and is left rather confused as to where these two came from and why Kakashi is the only other person that suffers with him.
BTW, I also have an A03 account where I'm also publishing, if you prefer reading it there~.
Enjoy!
Chapter 2 ~ Dream of Stars
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Content Warning! There will be implications of mental illness -if you squint you eyes- through this fic. If any of the above is something you are not comfortable with, then you might want to skip this fic.
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How strange, she thinks, idly going through her new-born memories. I don't remember Kushina Uzumaki visiting Mother this often.
Not that she was a stranger to change. Only the blur of her first few lives shared much of a similarity, and even those had deviated with growing diversity. She'd found that hoping for the same timeline was much like holding water with your palms. It slipped through your fingers, slowly disappearing until it was empty.
She learnt her lesson the third time she'd been born. Or rather, she'd learnt that the second time Itachi had murdered her. Tantō through her chest, piercing her heart in a single, swift strike.
Ironically, her first death had been a fog of death and confusion as she died in a pool of her blood. The second time? When she'd so childishly believed that she could change the fate of her clan? That she could survive with the knowledge of the future?
"Hm," She hums to herself, staring at her realms star-filled sky with contemplative eyes. "I probably should cross-reference." She admits, standing as her eyes dart to the centre.
It'd been within her fifth life when she'd released that the older details of her memories had started to become hazy, difficult to reach or recall. The human mind could only retain so much knowledge. Her soul could only bear so much knowledge. It hadn't been as terrible as she'd feared in the realisation. In all those lives she had died young, barely into her teens, always killed by her brother.
But it hadn't been until her seventh life when she'd stopped and started to ask why. Realising that there might have been ways to counter it. Though... to be fair, it hadn't been as much a realisation as it had been pure coincidence.
She'd crippled her chakra coils, in that life, overusing them in an accident that had left her unable to develop them any further. She'd been banished from her clan, only her mother offering comfort as she was moved to the edge of the compound had been offered.
Ironically, that was when she'd chosen to attend school rather than the academy. Where she'd found higher levels of maths and science. More importantly, where she'd found neuroscience.
And the first concepts of her Hansei had been born. An idea that would eventually be built from the soul that served as a 'librarian' of her memories, giving her a perfect form of Eidetic memory throughout the rest of her eternity.
Not that she'd got it in a single go. It took millennia of ideas, lifetimes of experimentations and countless step backs and pondering to build.
But the time for her thoughts was a luxury she had. And here she was, in a mind built realm that served as the defence and core of her being.
And it'd eventually branched out, becoming a second mind along with so many other useful skills that only furthered her capabilities. Because it was far more than she'd originally intended, even her own mind, which could barely be called human or mortal, found itself struggling to comprehend its existence.
But she could, and with it, she had complete control over her mind. Such as the knowledge that Kurama was sleeping in the forest, an action that she'd realised had become incredibly common.
But immortality was something she understood. And the wish to sleep through it was something she understood as well.
Her eyes dart towards the sky, an ethereal like structure floating in the distance as if it had replaced where one would expect to see the sun.
And in an instant, she was standing inside it. And for all it looked like an endless library, it much easily looked like a space station on the outside.
The thing about living for millennia was that you got to see how far humanity could develop. How far they could grow. And with the dwindling of chakra, it hadn't been long for humanity to learn to employ technology as a replacement for chakra.
Her musing ends with her cross-referencing. Frowning as she walks towards the window, staring at the sky's as she thinks. Because Kushina Uzumaki had never had a reason to visit so often.
Her throughs collect, and she wonders as to what could have caused the difference from the few months of her birth.
The only difference is that she brought Kurama with her, but even then, she can see no viable way that it would cause a difference. She couldn't have sensed something different. One of the first additions she'd added to the first Hansei had been the improvements on masking her chakra.
Because while the first lifetimes had made little difference, but it'd soon been a noticeable difference that her chakra grew in every repeat she experienced.
No one had known that her chakra had been low for clan kids in her first life. As such, no one had raised an eyebrow in her twelfth, when it became greater than Itachi's.
Ah. She always found herself oddly nostalgic in her first months. She supposed it was the sudden change of being constantly present with his chakra to... well, it'd been three millennia since she last saw him in her last loop.
Oh, but she'd long since stopped hating him for the betrayal. How could she? When he was always repeated as a child while she grew and learnt? Realised how much trauma and pressure had been placed on a pre-teen.
They said he snapped, she thinks, fingers twirling through her hair in contemplation. And he had, but it hadn't been from pride or power.
It is very difficult for an old woman to hate a child for falling apart because the adults around him failed.
"Ayda," Kurama voice echoes through her mind, her eyes sharpen, watching as he lazily stretching under the taller trees, His eyes staring upwards in the direction he assumes she is.
Her surroundings change, bare feet on the white sand as the crystal sea gently reaches her toes. Her lips twitch when the faint twinge of irritating travels through their bond.
"Honestly," She smiles, "there's grass right there, you don't have to get all hissy."
"I don't see you with any fur to clean." He retorts, leaning on one of the nearby trees as she lazily moves her toes through the sand.
"True." She admits with ease. "How's your taste for time travel? Any critique for the experience?"
"Terrible company." He snorts, and she rolls her eyes as they fall on old banter.
"I already knew that." She smirks, content with the silence as her feet casually plays with the sand.
"...Now what?"
"...The Ōtsutsuki Clan is something we can deal with," She sighs, having hoped she'd have at least some few years before dealing with her newer memories. "Their masters... well, I suppose we'll just have to work on it. Try something new, so to speak."
"Oh?" He falls no one. Tails wagging with the barest hints of excitement.
"Hn." She sighs."Working on it."
She sends him a faintly irritating glare when he starts to chuckle.
Which wasn't particularly fair. How was she supposed to know that the invading aliens had been puppets of another invading force? Honestly, when you were invaded by a narcissistic species you first thought wasn't 'a, they obviously puppets of an even more powerful alien invading force'.
She was a... well, she should start addressing herself as a ninja. But by the time she was actually qualified she'd long stopped caring. She supposed a samurai or ronin was more accurate. Or a monk, recalling the one attempt in a particularly peaceful life.
Anyway. Her point was that battles over land and countries were one thing. Invading alien army in space theatre wars was another, thank you.
...Eh. She'd work it out. She did have over three millennia until they invaded again.
Which wasn't particularly easy. She wasn't a genius, or particularly talented.
Her first life had been of interest in arts and faint fascination on how society worked. Everything else? That was based on experience and knowledge. Perhaps even some wisdom…
...Or maybe the ability to speak cryptically poetic.
There was a reason she'd once chosen to become a monk.
She was just that old to get away with it, even if she was physically months old.
Her eyes darted towards the underneath sea, studying a reflection she wouldn't possess for some few more years of waiting.
"Urgh. I'm going to have to deal with Fugaku Uchiha." She grimaces, not having much missed that man in any of her lives.
...Well, she supposed the first few, when clan loyalty and family loyalty had all been indoctrinated in her.
Funny, that. Being practically kicked out of your clan the second you stopped being useful was a bit of a wake-up call. Your brother repeatedly murdering you no matter how you tried to help him would be a bit of throwing you out of bed. Violently.
Fugaku Uchiha was also a bit of a misogynist. Not the worst she'd seen, but… well, she wasn't about to be a housewife simply because she had different body parts.
Humans can be so ridiculous sometimes.
"We're going to have to deal with this era's issues. The whole set of them" She finally states, knowing she would be set back by centuries if she didn't get the major villages under her thumb. "There's Minato Namikaze, I suppose. But with Kushina Uzumaki's deviation, we might end up going blind from the beginning." Not something she particularly minded. Things only changed so much at the start.
Keeping an eye out with an open eye was the best way to work with it, after all. Even if in every lifetime they died with the birth of Naruto Uzumaki.
She might not have been a genius, but she'd never been particularly stupid either.
"Anything you want to deal with? And no. We are not killing either of the Madara Uchiha's until we cut their influence. Zetsu is the weak spot of this timelines issue. Danzo is a nuisance in his influence, and I'd only need most of the Akatsuki dead to pull their resources." Konan and Nagato had proven to be reasonable once they realised they were being dubbed. Kisame was a bit of a coin toss, but she'd likely have to kill him as well.
Pity that her body wouldn't allow her to do much in the first few years. Stopping Yahiko of Akatsuki's and Minato Namikaze's death would make the world transition of powers so much easier.
Her lips twitched in amusement when Kurama sent her a frustrated look, but ultimately showed no opposition to her thoughts.
"You are already thinking of building a power base. So I suppose we could rebuild your body's empathy while we wait for you to walk." He huffs, probably having expected something more interesting in her first years. "Re-establishing our connection should be a priority."
"Agreed." She nods, tilting her head as she contemplates. "Though it'll take some few years. We can either build a sealed room or do so in the mess of the war. Neither is risk-free, unfortunately."
"...I suppose this is the best we can do, for now." He hummed, closing his eyes as he quickly returns to sleep.
"..." She stares, faintly amused as to how much the being actually rested. "I suppose it is." She whispered, feet gently touched by the crystal water.
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Writing one or two k rather than five is surprisingly less stressful.
Not to mention a lot easier. I only took an hour or two to wright.
But anyway, if you felt I should have written something differently, be it personality and/or displays of different states of mentality, please leave a comment! Any advice is welcome and appreciated!
Anyways, Ill See you next time! Ciao!
~ Sapphire and Emeralds