Author's Note: This another one of my long fics that I'm starting to cross-post here, in fact, this is the very first fanfic I ever begun writing. It has got more than 75k words so far and is somewhat midway to completion.

In any case, the quality of writing was quite poor as compared to the chapters that came later - when I was more confident in my writing, and had improved through practice. So, I'm rewriting the initial few chapters so there's some semblance of balance in quality. I'll be posting the rewritten chapters as I write them here so the first 10-15 ones will be updated a bit slowly. The rest will be posted as they are with just minor tweaking.

The main ships are NaruShika and SasuSaku fic though there won't be alot of focus on romance beyond the set ups.

Anyway, here's the first chapter!

Naruto stood like a ghost, silent and striking, eyeing the village - his home, Konoha, in all its glory from atop his vantage point on the Hokage Monument.

He was right above the stone face of his father, Minato Namikaze. He watched the hustle-bustle of the villagers, heard the soft, cheery chirps of birds, reveled in the cool breeze with a detached sort of fascination.

He was sure this wasn't real. That he'd blink and everything would simply vanish and he'd wake up from some sort of silly dream again.

He took a moment to process. Then another. Then a couple more. 15 minutes and he was still there, on the small hill.

It wouldn't have been that unbelievable if he hadn't been almost a foot shorter than his usual, adult height.

He glanced at his body, his scrawny frame then chuckled at the bright orange attire he was wearing. Gone was the billowing cape and gone was the Hokage hat.

Just to be certain, he bent and looked to his left. Lo and behold, there were no carved rocks to depict Tsunade, Kakashi and himself. It was just plain and simple, utterly boring rock.

Oh.

Oh shit.

He really was back

He really did land himself in the past.

flashback

His day went by in a blur. As usual, he'd had a rushed breakfast at home, more like shoved toast down his throat and body flickered to the Kage Tower only to be bombarded with a chain of enquiries and requests before he even reached his office.

Shikamaru had handed him a cup of coffee, like the Nara knew exactly how overworked Naruto was. The blond had promptly dumped the beverage inside his mouth and carried on dealing with the persistent councilmen and the Head of the Inter-village Relations Department.

It was already afternoon by the time Naruto had finally found a moment of peace on his comfortable chair, sipping some tea which had gotten cold a long time ago. He thought back to his argument with Hinata last weekend. Ever since that night, all his interactions with her had been brief and tense. Their home wasn't the most comfortable place at the moment.

He couldn't even remember what had initiated their fight but like countless times before, it had ended with Hinata expressing her displeasure with Naruto's minimal efforts to spend time with his family.

The thing was - she wasn't wrong. And Naruto knew that. He was just...tired of it. He'd tried so hard, to be a good husband, a good father, a good Hokage.

As things were, he doubted he was succeeding at any of the three.

He sighed and twirled his cup idly. He supposed he could try apologizing and smoothe things over. It won't be the first time he'd be doing this, not letting things escalate, not letting his feelings out. Because yes, saying "sorry" and agreeing with Hinata was the last thing he really wanted to do.

He wanted to stand there, across from her and tell her, shout at her, so she would listen. She would hear that he was trying his hardest, he was doing all he could to be the man she wanted him to be. He wanted to hold her by the shoulders and shake her and ask her why they were doing this - pretending they were happy and content in this relationship.

But no. That wouldn't be easy. That would mean confronting all these unsaid emotions, addressing the ever-constant tension between them.

Accepting the fact that their marriage - it had been a mistake.

An honest mistake made by two young adults who hadn't even figured out themselves yet.

A knock broke him out of his thoughts and he placed the now empty cup on his desk, swivelled his chair to face his desk again and called out for the person to come in.

His senior advisor - Shikamaru - shuffled inside, and walked straight to the fluffy couch at the end of the room. Slumping onto it, the Nara asked,

"Done approving the annual budget for the Hospital?"

Naruto groaned, "Didn't I do that yesterday already?"

Shikamaru chuckled, sweeping his gaze across some ANBU-related documents,

"Nope," he said, "That was the budget assigned to the administration."

"Fuck this shit," Naruto grumbled even as he rifled through the stack of parchments in search of the relevant documents.

"Here!" Shikamaru called out before a binder was hurtling towards Naruto who snatched it out of the air with the ease befitting a shinobi.

"Some warning, please," Naruto told him with exasperation, too used to the antics of his perpetually bored friend.

Shikamaru shrugged and continued to read through the sheets he was holding.

They sat in silence for the next hour, each doing a part of their jobs they despised. Then, Shikamaru spoke without looking up,

"You look like shit Naruto," and he ignored the half-hearted protest of his Hokage, "Go home."

"Can't," Naruto mumbled his response, "Still gotta approve the team assignments for the academy students. They're graduating day after."

Shikamaru sighed and placed the sheets on the coffee table in front of him. Getting up, he stretched leisurely.

"I'll cover for you," he said mildly, "Go and get some rest. I can take a look over the team formations. You trust my judgement, right?"

"I do," Naruto frowned, "But this is my responsibility. I already dump most of my clerical work on you. Admit it, I've made you my glorified assistant. Can't put more strain on you."

"Great then," Shikamaru pulled out the chair opposite Naruto and seated himself comfortably on it, "You'll probably die next week by overexerting yourself. I should start looking for candidates for Lord 8th soon."

"Asshole," Naruto muttered, but he couldn't help the tiny smile that came over his face, "Get lost, go. Or else Temari's going to beat you to a bloody pulp."

The Nara understood the necessity to follow that order and quickly stood up and left after a hasty retrieval of his documents.

"Fuck you," Naruto said to his binder full of a complicated documents and got to work.

By the time he got through them, it was almost midnight and his drowsiness reached a peak. However, before he could sleep right there on his desk, someone kicked open his office door and in walked his son, Boruto, looking irritated, frustrated and angry altogether.

"Oh," Naruto blinked at his sudden and quite dramatic arrival, before noticing the pack of clothes in his hand, "Got a change of clothes for me?"

Boruto didn't say anything, except throw the pack at Naruto's face. The older blond swiftly caught it and placed by the side of his chair, wondering what was with people and throwing things at him today.

Sensing that his son was upset with him - again, not an uncommon occurrence - he resigned himself for yet another stilted conversation.

"Boruto," he said in the calmest voice he could muster, "What's up kiddo?"

Boruto snorted bitterly, "Keep the niceties to yourself old man. Look at the calendar and give me another excuse for not coming home tonight."

Naruto was confused. What did he miss? He turned his head to look at the calendar hanging by the bookshelf and cursed under his breath for being so woefully forgetful.

"Boruto-" he cut himself off, a painfully sheepish expression on his face, "I'm so sorry, I was just so lost in work--"

"Save it," Boruto said through gritted teeth, "I don't even care that you weren't there tonight. But Himawari does. It's her birthday, goddamnit. And you couldn't even be there for her. Even after you'd promised."

Naruto winced, each word ringing true. He had indeed promised to come home that night, to celebrate his daughter turning six but he'd gotten so engrossed in his work that it had totally slipped his mind.

Boruto left shortly after and Naruto sat wondering how much more could he mess things up. His familial life was down the drains and he had no real motivation except unfathomable guilt to keep this bond with Hinata intact.

He didn't love her.

It was plain and simple.

Once, maybe, he must've. When he was fresh out of war, hopeful and desperate for normalcy and Hinata had been that anchor of his to reality, to a semblance of calm after the chaos of war.

But right after Boruto's birth, things had gone downhill and they had never got better. At this point, their marriage was simply for show. Hinata and him, they were barely more than old, distant friends.

And it hurt a bit. To have his life come to this after all he'd really wanted since childhood was a loving family.

He was at blame, he knew that. He should've tried harder, should've shown more initiative, should've been more present. But he'd never had someone to show him, to guide him how to be a proper husband and father - Hinata realised that, his friends did too but they never quite understood what it was like to craft your behaviour for such important roles through observing others alone.

Some nights, when things got particularly difficult, Naruto would reminisce old days. When he was a genin, laughing at Kiba's fart jokes, purposely annoying Sakura till she ran after him to beat him up, when he would try to start a conversation with Sasuke and occasionally cloud-watch with Shikamaru.

Those were simpler days.

He missed them. So much so that he wondered what could've been if he'd gotten a second chance. If miraculously he could get a do-over handed to him on a silver platter.

"Ugh," Kurama's grumble resounded inside Naruto's mind, "You're such a drama queen."

Naruto closed his eyes and in an instant, found himself inside his mindscape, standing before a lounging Kurama. No prison, no shackles in sight.

"Hey," Naruto greeted, tired but cheerful, "Back to your idle commentary again?"

"What else can I do?" The bijuu regarded Naruto with one opened eye while the other remained shut, "I'm bored as hell here."

Naruto shrugged off his cape, wouldn't matter anyway. It was his mind. He sat down cross-legged on the ground that no longer had any water.

"Me too," he admitted, "Life's so uneventful now. I'd thought being the Hokage would be exciting, y'know? Instead, it's all politics."

Kurama snorted, swishing his huge tail lazily, "Your puny brain can't appreciate the subtleties of negotiations."

"Oh?" Naruto raised a brow, sarcasm lacing his voice with ease. "You're telling this to someone who talked an enemy into sacrificing himself whilst reviving all the ones he'd killed not an hour ago? Sure, I know nothing of negotiations."

Kurama chuckled (though Naruto wasn't sure that was the appropriate term for the sound the bijuu made), "Good to see you've got some of that spark still left."

"It's almost gone, huh?" Naruto asked with a wry smile, "I miss it man."

"I do too," Kurama said, "And that is why I have an offer for you."

"Offer?" Naruto straightened up, "What is it?"

"You've been wondering about somehow going to the past right? For years now."

Naruto frowned, unsure of where Kurama was going with this.

"Yes, but what's that got to do with anything?"

"It's got everything to do with this," Kurama's smirk was a terrifying little curve with sharp teeth and even sharper eyes, "I've got a way for you to go back in time."

Naruto looked at Kurama's eyes for a few seconds before bursting into hysterical laughter. Calming down a bit, he managed to say,

"Yes, sure. Time travel. Awesome. A jutsu for time travel. Seriously, Kuru, what sort of junk is filled in that head of yours?"

Kurama's tail flicked more precisely this time, an indication that the fox was irritated.

"I'm serious here Naruto," he said, both eyes open now, "It's a jutsu shown to me by the Sage himself. Ofcourse, this was to be used in a matter of tragedy but I find our collective boredom a problem of the highest degree."

"Sure," Naruto said, uncertain and dubious, "You're playing a prank, aren't you?"

"I'm not," Kurama said, a determined gleam set in his eyes, "I want to do this Naruto. For you and for myself."

Naruto sat there for a bit, trying to wrap his head around the fact that this was an actual possibility. That he could agree and he'd get a second chance at living his life.

He gulped and looked at Kurama,

"For the final time: you're not messing with me? This is the truth? We can actually go back?"

Kurama's grin was an answer in it of itself, "We most definitely can. Our memories and souls travel back and inhabit your younger body. It's that simple."

"Oh," Naruto said, struck by all these revelations, "That's...awesome."

It took another three hours of talking and convincing and getting over denial after which Naruto stood atop the Kage Tower's roof with the handseals and chant memorized and a promise of a better future making his chakra act out of pure excitement.

And maybe after years, a whole decade, there was hope in Naruto's eyes where weariness had taken permanent refuge.

Goodbye, Naruto thought.

Goodbye Hinata.

Goodbye Boruto and Himawari.

Sorry for everything, but let me be selfish just this once.

With that, he vanished from this world, this galaxy, this universe, a whisper of his existence the only thing that remained of him. Come tomorrow, the name Naruto Uzumaki would be a legend of the past, a forgotten person for everyone that knew him. It would be the work of the world maintaining balance and equilibrium.

Naruto Uzumaki never existed for the people of this world and the power of the Sage himself would make sure of it.

Goodbye, the last echo dissipated into nothingness.

Author's Note:

Hope you enjoyed this first chapter. Let me know your thoughts! I'm open to criticism as long as it's constructive.

Thanks for reading. Have a good day! :)