Wow. This chapter was disastrous not because of its content but because a 3-day project somehow got stretched out over like 2 weeks. This has been the unfortunate result of a mix of writer's block and me literally not being able to find the time in this hectic month of November to just sit at my computer for two seconds. In fact, this release is the result of me finding a few hours to just part my ass in front of a monitor and not move until this bastard was finished. Apologies for any roughness around the edges; this fic doesn't have a beta and I want to push it out ASAP so that I can hopefully catch up on an atrocious month in terms of productivity.

X

"Naruto. Sasuke. Thank you for coming on such short notice. I would have liked to have spoken to you both after you've had the chance to get settled. Tomorrow like I suggested, preferably."

Tsunade inclined her head politely as the pair of… time travellers? Yes. As the pair of time travellers entered her office.

Naruto looked about as lost as he always did, though that was through no fault of his own at the moment. He, unlike Sasuke, really didn't know why she called him here.

Well, down to business, then.

"Before we—"

"Excuse me," Sasuke started, pointing at her assistant. "Is it okay for her to be here?"

Tsunade stared at Shizune blankly for a moment. The short-haired woman was white as a sheet and couldn't look away from the two that were looking back at her awkwardly.

"It's fine," she said uncaringly. "I asked her to be. I figured it would be best to introduce those I think are trustworthy to this situation in a controlled fashion. Do you disapprove?"

"Lady Tsunade!" Shizune all but shouted. "These are… I mean, they're—"

"Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke," she answered matter-of-factly. "Only, they're a bit older. They're from the future, supposedly."

"That's—"

"Shizune!" Naruto exclaimed. He smiled at the young woman. "I'm glad. If Granny thinks this is a good idea, then I'm happy that I'm able to see ya. Sorry if this is all a bit out of nowhere."

Sasuke was less enthused.

"That's nice and all but this isn't what we came here to discuss, is it?"

Tsunade closed an eye and rested her chin on the palm of her hand. She sighed.

That Uchiha was as pleasant as always, huh? Patience oozed from this one's pores.

…Not that she could blame her. She figured the girl was pretty high-strung at the moment. Lots going through her head.

"Right. If you wouldn't mind, then, Shizune, I'd ask that you keep your questions for later."

"Y-yes, Ma'am."

Shizune seemed content to keep his mouth shut for now.

"Good. Naruto." The boy's head perked. "I'll be brief. Sasuke—the younger one—was approached by a group under Orochimaru that calls themselves the Sound Four. I assume you know about them."

His sombre expression was confirmation enough.

"Is she all right?" the blonde asked, trepidation clear in his voice. If what this Sasuke told her was right, he was worried about more than just her physical well-being.

"She's fine," Tsunade responded, allaying his concerns. "Your Sasuke was there to hold them off. All four members are in our custody right now."

A sigh of relief escaped his lips.

"That's good! So then… why are we here exactly?"

There was a clear look of discomfort on Sasuke's face.

"Because of them. Or rather, because of one member in particular. Sasuke insisted that you see her."

He looked at the black-haired girl questioningly but she refused to meet his eyes. Her head was kept facing forward, stoic as ever.

…Not going to say anything, huh? Even after all these years, she was still this gloomy. It was good to know that the younger one's character wasn't the way it was because she was in some sort of foul mood; the girl just came this way.

"Her name is Tayuya," Tsunade said. "We have reasons to believe that she is a member of the Uzumaki clan. Your clan."

Naruto's face contorted into an expression of pure shock.

"Wha—this whole time… are you sure?"

"No," Tsunade shot that thought down immediately. "Of course not. Either way, she's an enemy and that hasn't changed. Be wary of her; she's not your friend."

Naruto's face scrunched up.

"I don't understand. Then why are you letting me meet her?"

"Sasuke knew that you'd want to. She talked me into it."

He immediately turned to Sasuke again and smiled genially. She still wouldn't look at him.

"Let's stop wasting time," grumbled Sasuke. "Lord Hokage, if it's all the same to you…"

Tsunade waved them off.

"Yeah, yeah. We can go. Shizune, you don't mind looking after the office while I'm gone, do you? I won't be out longer than an hour. I'm not trying to get out of work, I promise."

The three made their way to the door. Shizune had her hand raised awkwardly, but she was still too shaken to say anything to catch their attention before they left.

X

The three passed by rows of unattended cells; there would typically be guards stationed here, but seeing as the existence of this Naruto and Sasuke was meant to be a secret, for now, those guards were asked to temporarily vacate the premises. No one raised a fuss, of course. There was no better security than the presence of a Kage.

"Say," Naruto started, breaking the silence. His fingers were intertwined behind his head as he idly looked around the prison hallway. "Don't you think younger me should've been here? He's the one that actually matters for this sort of thing. Not me."

"No," Sasuke answered, not breaking her pace. "You were too much of a simpleton at that age. It would be easy for someone malevolent to take advantage of his naivety."

He frowned at her.

"I don't get it. I thought you wanted me to get along with this lady. I have to give her a chance, at least. If I—"

"I don't want you to get along with her. You do. If I had things my way, we wouldn't be here either."

Naruto opened his mouth to say something but quickly stopped himself.

What Sasuke meant to say—and failed to vocalize—was that she talked the Hokage into letting him meet this Tayuya girl for his benefit and his benefit alone. He recognized that and he wouldn't be taking that for granted.

"Right. Thanks."

"You—"

"Enough," Tsunade grumbled. She grabbed their shoulders and held them back long enough to make her way to the front of the pack. "We're here."

Naruto stared at the nondescript metal door that they stopped in front of silently. There wasn't a way to see through to the other side before it was opened; what would Tayuya be like, he wondered? He had never actually met the girl before. Everything he knew was from second-hand information.

"Should we… go in?" he asked uncertainly.

Tsunade crossed her arms.

"Go ahead. She's tied down. Won't be able to do much. I'll wait for you out here; it seems like a private affair."

"Sasuke?"

"..."

Her silence was taken as a dismissal of some sort. He would be going in alone, then.

His fingers grazed the iron latches holding the door closed and he froze.

Did he even know what he was going to say?

Up until now, the feeling at the forefront of his mind was anticipation. Elation, even. The idea of talking to someone who was part of his extended family was so foreign to him; he wasn't ever able to do anything like this before. He didn't think he'd ever get the chance.

But that was just it: that this moment would be possible had never crossed his mind. Finding the right words to say was already difficult enough without needing to worry about this person being super bad and not at all someone he wanted to talk to.

Well, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

He stepped through and entered a real concrete box of a room. The only distinguishing feature was its centrepiece: a small woman—probably still a kid, actually. A few years younger than he was now—strapped to a chair. The first thing that struck him was her hair.

Red. The same red as his mother's.

The second thing was the soullessness in her expression. He was hit by an immediate and short-lived bout of inexplicable empathy before that expression morphed into a derisive grin.

"Who're you supposed to be, Blondie?" she asked him in a raspy voice that didn't fit his initial impression of her. "You gonna interrogate me? It won't go well, I promise. I don't know where you took the other guys, but none of us are going to talk."

When he first saw her, his tentative plan was to introduce himself as an Uzumaki and see how things would go from there. Now, though…

"Why do you work for Orochimaru?" he asked. He figured that introductions could wait; she could believe whatever she wanted for now. If he could see things from her perspective then maybe…

She was quiet for a moment.

"That's a pretty strange question, don't you think? I work for him 'cuz I work for him, fucktard."

"What did you call—" he bit his tongue. Getting upset wouldn't get him anywhere. "That's not a reason. No one does anything 'just because'."

Or at least, he didn't want to think so.

She smirked again, the look twice as mocking as it was a moment before.

"Not too sure about that one. You don't look like too much of a thinker yourself."

Naruto repeatedly clenched and relaxed his fists. He closed his eyes and took deep breaths, though he couldn't control his violently twitching brow. This would be a long conversation. He could just feel it.

X

"I'd assume you know this Naruto better than I do," Tsunade spoke, leaning against the wall. She didn't look at the younger woman on her haunches on the other side of the closed door. "Has he learned anything over the years? I couldn't imagine leaving the Naruto I know alone with a prisoner that he might be fooled into getting along with unsupervised. I can only trust that you know what you're doing, Sasuke."

"...I wouldn't really say that Naruto has learned much of anything," the Uchiha eventually responded.

The Hokage grimaced.

"Care to elaborate? Uzumaki or not, I felt no compulsion to inform Naruto—either one of them—about that girl. She's one of Orochimaru's pawns. She—"

"Can't do a thing. Naruto might be the same fool he's always been, but that's to his own benefit. The difference between the Naruto that you know and the one that I know is that the one in that cell has the experience and toolbox to support his idiocy."

Tsunade turned to face her. Her eyes were sharp.

"Why did you really want Naruto to meet that Sound ninja?"

"'Why'? There isn't much to lose," Sasuke answered dismissively.

"I'd argue that there is, actually," the older woman spat back. "You appeared in my office thirty minutes after I told you to go home with my genin and dropped four unconscious enemy shinobi on my floor—you're lucky that no one else had stopped by, by the way. You only let me take them into custody after you made me promise to let Naruto know about the red-haired one. You were adamant about that. I want to know why."

"She is an Uzumaki," Sasuke remarked, picking at her nails. "You wasted no time running the tests. Naruto doesn't know this because he might let his bias get the better of him."

"That's not gonna fly with me," shot down Tsunade immediately. "We both know that doesn't have anything to do with my question.

The Uchiha took a moment to come up with something to say.

"...If Naruto has an interest in knowing more about her, there's a good chance that she'll spill whatever she knows about Orochimaru. Considering what will come next, Konoha will need every advantage that it can get its hands on.

"..."

This slithery brat.

It wasn't lost on her what the Uchiha girl was doing. Just because she said something ominous didn't mean that Tsunade couldn't realize that Sasuke was purposely avoiding the subject.

…It did mean, however, that she had to act like the responsible person that she was forced to be and pay attention to the more urgent of the two topics.

Damn it all.

"What was that?" Tsunade drawled.

"The Akatsuki. You've heard of that group, haven't you? Naruto and I have had our fair share of run-ins with them at this age, I'm pretty sure."

The Hokage's scowl deepened.

"On with it."

Sasuke stood up and stared at the closed door that Naruto was behind.

"They want to gather all of the Tailed Beasts—that involves capturing and killing their jinchuuriki—and use their power to bring the Ten-Tails back to life."

"I don't—"

"Forget your problems with Iwa and Kumo," the black-haired girl continued before she could be interrupted. "If and when the Akatsuki get their way, the entire planet will be in danger."

Tsunade suppressed all the feelings that such a ludicrous reveal birthed within her. She would get her answers now and worry about whether any of this was true at a later juncture.

"Are you speaking from experience?"

"Yes."

"That means that they've gone after Naruto and succeeded, then. How is he—"

"This has nothing to do with how or if the village protected Naruto. It has everything to do with the fact that we did nothing to stop them from getting to the other eight."

"It's not our responsibility to look after the other eight."

"And that's why the Akatsuki will succeed."

"..."

Tsunade sighed.

"You're incredibly manipulative. Has anyone ever told you that?"

Sasuke's face was blank. Totally unreadable.

"Manipulative? What is it that you think I'm trying to accomplish, exactly?"

"I have no idea."

The Uchiha let out an aloof grunt.

"Naruto should have made some progress with her by now," she said. "That girl might have a rough personality but Naruto is an empath, through and through; he'll have no issue getting her to open up a little. I'll go get him and we can try again another—"

BAM!

The sound of the metal door swinging open and slamming against the wall startled Sasuke enough to make her jump back.

Naruto stood at the entrance with a pissed-off snarl on his face. He whipped back around and yelled at the inmate.

"Get bent!"

"I'm strapped to a chair, you fucking halfwit; I'm already bent!"

"You—gah!"

He gave up on the insults and just slammed the door shut in her proverbial face.

He huffed and puffed. Tsunade and Sasuke stared at him awkwardly for one long and silent moment, both of them wide-eyed.

Sasuke was the first to find her words.

"What—"

"I don't want to talk about it."

Tsunade ran her hand down her face.

"Let's not talk about it then. How about both of you follow me back to the office?"

Naruto seemed to have calmed down a bit. He scratched his cheek.

"Shouldn't we, uh… do this tomorrow instead?"

"No."

"Oh. Okay. Is something wrong?"

Tsunade had already turned around and started walking back to her office.

"We'll talk about it in a second," she said ominously. "While you were chatting up the prisoner, I had an elucidating conversation with Miss Uchiha over here."

Naruto looked at Sasuke confusedly. The girl simply shrugged and followed the Hokage's lead.

X

The door opened. Tsunade was the first to peer her head through.

"Shizune. We're—"

"I want an explanation right now!" the short-haired woman shouted. She was as stiff as a board, her arms crossed and her eyes wide.

She might've been caught flat-footed at first, swept along in the swing of things and all that, but that was behind her! What time alone in the office had offered was the chance to stew and process all the crazy information that had been shoved in her face all at once.

Her conclusion was that this whole situation was five steps past crazy and she would not be kept in the dark with quick, half-assed dismissals any longer. Lady Tsunade didn't actually have a reason to tell her to shut up earlier; she just couldn't be bothered to explain anything!

Panicked, this strangely older Naruto raised his hands and held them out in front of him placatingly.

"Shizune—"

The arms were slapped out of the way; he was too startled to react properly. Shizune dropped her hands onto his shoulders with an audible slap.

Her eyes stared right into his soul.

"You," she rasped. "You're really tall."

Gently, the also-older Sasuke stepped between them and pulled Shizune off of him.

"Of course, Shizune. One thing at a time."

The black-haired woman was incredibly calm. She sounded nothing like her younger, always angry ball-of-bitterness-and-spite counterpart; though admittedly she had only made the girl's acquaintance fairly recently, could someone's personality really take such a stark turn?

Shizune took a deep breath.

Right. First things first.

"What happened to the younger ones?" she asked. Whom she was referring to should have been obvious. "Are they all right?"

Big Naruto smiled widely.

"Of course! Little me is back at my—his—uh… our apartment. Same with Sasuke, I think; we were actually going to call it in for the night, but Granny made us come back here."

She felt like a weight was taken off her shoulders. At least there was that.

So… the future, huh? She was aware of time-space ninjutsu, but even then, never did she think that such a thing was actually possible. Lady Tsunade seemed to be convinced, so she really didn't have any reason to believe that this was some sort of sham, as insane as that was to think.

"..."

As she eased herself into the reality of the current situation, she felt more comfortable engaging in a more peripheral line of questioning.

She propped her fists on her hips and put on a teasing smile.

"How about it, then? I sure hope you've made it to chuunin rank by now."

Lady Tsunade seemed content to allow the conversation to flow in any which way. The woman sat at her desk and waited patiently for Shizune to get her questions out of her system.

Naruto puffed his chest out proudly.

"Actually, yeah I did! I'm really bad at taking tests so I wasn't gonna, but Sasuke convinced me to do it anyway! You're looking at a newly-minted jonin!"

Shizune laughed and clapped her hands together.

"Congratulations, then! As a jonin, you're now a fully-fledged ninja; it's quite impressive to reach that rank at your age. I'm proud of you."

Sasuke had a complicated look on her face.

"Naruto, I think you're giving them the wrong impression—"

"Well then! Tell me a little about the future," Shizune continued. She was too caught up in the novelty of speaking to a time traveller to process the fact that Sasuke had spoken up. "Is everything going well in the village? Our relations with Suna are a little messy right now. Has that improved any?

Before he had the chance to answer, Lady Tsunade slammed her palm down her desk. Though she wasn't trying to break anything, it was loud and overt enough to grab everyone's attention.

"Yes, tell us a little about the future," Lady Tsunade parroted calmly. "Sasuke, I know that you had something to say earlier. You're free to pick up where you left off."

The black-haired woman stepped forward; her companion eyed her with a scrunched brow.

"Huh? Sasuke? What were you and Granny talking about while I was—"

"Call me a granny a third time and I'll tear you a new one. It's not cute coming from a grown-ass man."

"Sorry."

Seeing that Naruto had been effectively silenced, Sasuke decided to get right into it.

"The group of powerful rogue shinobi that you've been encountering recently: the Akatsuki. Has Jiraiya told you about their plans yet or is he still figuring that one out?"

Once the organization's name was uttered, both Shizune and Lady Tsunade snapped into a state of alertness. Naruto didn't interrupt the girl but he stared at her back intensely as if trying to pick apart a difficult puzzle. He didn't know where she was going with this either, it would seem.

Lady Tsunade frowned deeply.

"He hasn't," the woman admitted. "He told me he had something to discuss with me, however; I figure if there's something to be said, I'll know soon enough."

Sasuke nodded.

"Then at the very least, you'll be able to verify what I tell you once he comes back with his information. Good."

She turned her head to look at Naruto.

"Do you remember what I said about them wanting to capture the Tailed Beasts in order to revive the Ten-Tails, Lord Hokage?"

Shizune's mouth fell open.

"Hold on!" Naruto interjected. "When did you—"

"I do," Lady Tsunade confirmed, cutting the boy off once more. "It's why I thought it important to talk about it here, in fact. What I'd like to discuss, however, is what you think we should do about it since you seemed so sure that we'd fail to protect Naruto."

"They don't need to start with the Nine-Tails," Sasuke explained. "In fact, they would prefer not to. The Akatsuki can do plenty of damage by going after the other eight first. By then, it'll be too late. It wouldn't matter how well you took care of Naruto; the Akatsuki will be too powerful for one village alone to handle."

Agitated, Lady Tsunade stood up and hung off the edge of her desk.

"If you're suggesting that we should help the other unaffiliated nations then you can just forget about it. We might be able to do something about Suna, but—"

"It's not about what we can do," Sasuke snapped back, her tone as even as ever, "it's about what we must do. I'm telling you that all eight jinchuuriki will fall to the hands of the Akatsuki and there is nothing that any of the great villages can do to stop them alone. This is not a premonition. I am speaking from experience."

The room was silent for a moment. Lady Tsunade let out a deep sigh and sat back down.

"You're failing to understand what I'm saying, girl. This has nothing to do with what I want to do. I'm telling you that regardless of what you say the outcome will be, there's no way that a ninja village will accept the unsolicited help of an enemy."

"You don't need a ninja village to accept our help," the Uchiha countered. "Just their jinchuuriki."

Shizune felt just as lost as Lady Tsunade seemed to be. Sasuke turned her head to Naruto once more and inclined it pointedly.

At first, he had a really dumb look on his face. Like a deer caught face-to-face with a hunter's arrow, almost. A moment later, it morphed into an expression of understanding and eventually a confident grin.

"Right!" the blonde cheered. "Just leave it to me."

He sat cross-legged on the floor and closed his eyes.

"What's he doing?" Shizune asked, just as lost now as she was two seconds ago.

"Meditating," Sasuke responded uselessly.

"Why is he meditating?" demanded Lady Tsunade impatiently.

"As the host of a Tailed Beast, Naruto has the ability to communicate with the other eight. I have no idea how that will go now that we've gone back to the past, but it's certainly worth a shot."

"Seriously!?" Shizune exclaimed.

Tsunade didn't offer any additional input. She stared at Naruto's still form silently.

It didn't take much longer for the blonde's eyes to snap open. Once they did, his shoulders slumped.

"Sorry, no dice," he conceded. "Ku—uh, the Nine-Tails said that since he's not really a person-person, future him and past him kind of fused together. That means that mine and younger me's seal space are identical and that I can connect to this timeline's Tailed Beasts just like normal."

"You just had a conversation with the Nine-Tails?" Shizune questioned worriedly.

"Not important right now," interjected Sasuke, brushing off her question. "If you can connect with them, why can't you speak with them?"

Still sitting on the floor, Naruto scratched the back of his head sheepishly.

"Well, ya see, my Tailed Beast came back with me but the other guys didn't change any. They just didn't let me connect with them, basically."

Lady Tsunade quirked a brow.

"Were you expecting anything different?"

"Yeah! They're pretty nice usually. Once you get to know them, at least."

Again, Lady Tsunade couldn't help but sigh. Shizune didn't blame her.

"I want to ask, but I won't," the blond-haired woman mumbled. "What now, then?"

Naruto brought a finger up to his chin and he hummed.

A moment later, he looked as though a metaphorical lightbulb lit itself over his head.

"I know! I can just go talk to them in person! We can—"

"No." Tsunade shot the idea down immediately. "That's stupid. Use your head a little."

Surprisingly, Sasuke advocated his point.

"There really wouldn't be any risk involved in us infiltrating the other villages and speaking with the jinchuuriki in private. The ninja villages would not be properly equipped to stop us."

Shizune felt concerned for Sasuke. Wasn't she supposed to be the smart one?

"You either have a god complex or you're delusional," Lady Tsunade told her flatly. "Naruto: I know you've just been promoted and all, but that does not mean that you're on top of the world. Don't ride that high and do something stupid or you'll regret it."

Naruto looked like he was going to say something but Sasuke slapped her hand over the boy's mouth without breaking eye contact with the Hokage.

In a rare showing of frustration, the black-haired girl ran her fingers down her face and rolled her eyes.

"I knew you'd— look: words won't get us anywhere. Who are the strongest shinobi in the village right now? You, Kakashi… who else? No one comes to mind, sorry."

Shizune didn't know where Sasuke was going with this.

Lady Tsunade narrowed her eyes.

"Jiraiya is still around so him too, I suppose. Why do you ask?"

"Would you trust Jiraiya to do something like this?"

"That has less to do with—"

"Yes or no?"

Lady Tsunade gritted her teeth.

"You're an impertinent little shit. Yeah, I guess so."

"Naruto will fight him, then. That should give you a better idea of what Naruto is capable of. There's no reason for me to waste my words."

The eldest in the room prepared a retort, but Naruto countered brightly before she could.

"Aw… that would be great! I'd never…" the trailed off and blushed. His eyes were squinted shut. "I'd never actually sparred with Pervy Sage for real, you know? Not as I am now, at least. Whatever Sasuke's trying to set up is going right over my head, to be honest, but I would like that a lot."

Lady Tsunade slumped over her desk and dropped her temple between her waiting fingers. She glared at the two of them dryly.

"...Look. I'm not going to agree to that other stuff, but if you think that you can convince Jiraiya to spar with you, be my guest. I wouldn't hold my breath, though. I doubt he'll be too interested."

Naruto's smile didn't wane even a millimetre.

"I'll go get him right now! I can get him to fight me no problem."

"Wait 'till tomorrow, at least," Shizune told him with a frown. Did he know what he was getting into? Older or not, he was still a kid. She hoped he wasn't getting overzealous. "It's been a long day; get some rest."

"Shizune's got the right idea," Lady Tsunade agreed. "You're all dismissed until tomorrow morning. For real this time. Seriously, don't come back."

Naruto flashed them one last grin before pulling up the hood of his grey cloak and leaving through the door. Sasuke was about to follow, but—"

"Quite the theatrical way to go about this, don't you think?"

The Hokage's words gave Sasuke pause.

The girl turned to look over her shoulder and shot the woman and her assistant a condescending smirk. Seriously: it was almost impressive how that Uchiha girl managed to make a twitch of the lips so aggravating.

"I like to have a safety net."

And with that parting remark that made just about as much sense as Shizune thought it did, she and Lady Tsunade were the only ones left in the office.

The blond-haired woman looked out the blackened window and sighed.

"Nn. Shizune."

"Yes?"

"Would you like to be Hokage instead? No one would put up a fuss, I'm sure."

"No, Ma'am."

"Right. I'm going to bed, then. Come get me when it's time for me to do this shit all over again tomorrow."

The Leaf Village's fifth Hokage kicked up a floorboard, grabbed the sake gourd hidden beneath it and walked away unphased as Shizune gasped at her.

"You— I thought I got rid of those! You better not be hungover when I call you in the morning. Lady Tsunade! Hey, are you listening!?"

She was not.