AN: A slower chapter this time, but more meaty.

EDIT: beta'd as of 7/19/18

Because of how hurried things had been, Naruto hadn't had time to truly process what had happened. Hadn't had time to understand what had happened to them. They were five years in the past. Every accomplishment they had made, every person they had lost, every enemy they had ever defeated, was all gone now. Naruto didn't know what to think.

After Kakashi-sensei had dismissed them, they had each gone their separate ways in an attempt to wrap their minds around their new situation. Sasuke had headed back in the direction of the old Uchiha compound, Sakura had gone off to one of the training grounds, and Naruto had gone up to the top of the Hokage monuments. Specifically his father's. It was now sunset, and the light of the setting sun spilled across everything, turning the world a vibrant orange.

He sat on the edge and overlooked the village. It had been destroyed a few months ago for him, so seeing it whole again was… jarring. He had left for Turtle Island while it was still being reconstructed, so he didn't know what it looked like during the war. Perhaps it had been almost completed. Perhaps it still looked like it had when he'd left. But now he'd never know.

"Time travel," he muttered to himself. "What the fuck."

He would be faced with discrimination again, he knew. As the jinchuuriki of the Kyūbi, his life had never been easy. It had gotten better though after becoming a ninja, but not truly until after the chunin exams and after saving Gaara. He'd gotten more acknowledgment after that. People didn't jeer at him in the street or smack him on the head for being in their way. It still hadn't been ideal, but it had been a hell of a lot better than before.

But that had all been stripped away in a matter of moments. Now the only accomplishments he'd made was becoming a Genin. And even that wasn't official yet. It also sucked because his only friends now were his teammates. No Konoha twelve, no Gaara, no Granny Tsunade, no Captain Yamato, no Sai. Hell, even no Killer B. It all just plain sucked.

The wind whipped at his hair, rustling it as he watched the sun set over Konoha. His knees were drawn up to his chin, arms wrapped around them. He must have looked incredibly small to the world right then, instead of like the seventeen year old hero he really was.

"Sixteen my ass," he grumbled, remembering what Sakura had said earlier. "It was definitely after midnight." Not that he could prove it. But it probably definitely had been.

Dismissing the thought, he focused back in the problem at hand. They were all stuck in their twelve year old bodies. That meant no Kyūbi mode for Naruto, no hundred hands of healing mark for Sakura, and no rinnegan for Sasuke. They were all back to square one. Luckily they still had all their memories and skills, so fighting and chakra control wouldn't be too much of an issue. But strength wise, they'd all have to build it up again.

As well as height. Jeez, being a shorty again sucked!

Sighing, Naruto unfurled from himself and stretched his legs out, leaning back on his hands. There was still an issue he hadn't addressed yet. But it was one he really didn't want to, either.

Jiraiya was alive.

His godfather. That loss had been a knife to the heart. Accepting that he was still around but didn't even know him yet, Naruto wasn't sure how to feel about it. Hell, that wasn't even mentioning the fact that old man Third was still kicking. The likelihood of running into the latter was far higher than it was with the former, and if so, Naruto wasn't sure if he would be able to keep himself in check.

But that was part of being a ninja, wasn't it? Facing hard situations?

"Come on, stupid," he grumbled to himself. "You beat the Akatsuki AND Madara, you can face a stupid old man."

A stupid old man who he had just been fighting with on the battlefield a few hours ago, along with his dad and two other Hokage. Jeez his life was complicated.

"Naruto?"

Naruto jumped, surprised, he hadn't heard anyone coming. He silently cursed himself for his distraction. Twisting around he saw Sakura standing at the edge of the cliff above him, looking down at him. Her pink hair swayed in the wind, choppy edges flying around her face.

"I thought I might find you here."

"Sakura," he said, jumping up the edge in one chakra enhanced bound. "What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to go over the plan for tomorrow with you and Sasuke. As well as the plan for… well… after that."

Meaning Orochimaru, the Akatsuki, Obito, Madara, Kaguya, all of it.

"Yeah, sure," he agreed, tone somewhat subdued. "So like, here should we meet?"

Sakura gave him a faint smile. "Follow me."


"You're kidding me."

"What? It's the perfect meeting spot," Sakura defended against Naruto's sigh. She had led him to the Memorial Stone by training ground seven. Its inscriptions bore the names of those who had fallen in service to Konoha.

I wonder if Mom and Dad are on there, Naruto thought idly before being pulled back to the present by Sakura tugging sharply on his wrist.

"So we're all here, then?" A new voice said. Naruto was surprised to find that Sasuke had already arrived and was leaning up against of the training posts in the field.

"Yup," Sakura replied. "Let's get to work."

They all sat around in front of the stone obelisk, sitting in their own unique way. Sakura was sat with her legs folded beneath her, prim and proper, while Naruto sat criss cross with hands tucked between his legs. Sasuke had taken up leaning against one of the posts, arms folded in front of him like they always were. It made something inside Naruto ache with nostalgia. When was the last time they had all sat around like this? Four years ago? Five, even? He couldn't remember.

"Alright, we should take stock," Sakura said, voice firm and commanding, breaking Naruto out of his reverie. "What do we have available to us? And, more importantly, what don't we?"

"I don't have my eternal Mangekyō," Sasuke piped up, deciding to go first. "Rinnegan either. But I still have my normal Mangekyō."

Sakura nodded, making a mental note of that. "Okay, in that case, you should try to limit your use of it unless it's absolutely necessary so you don't go blind quicker."

Sasuke considered her words for a brief moment before nodding.

"I don't have my hundred hands of healing or the strength I did before," Sakura reported, as it was now her turn to speak. "The strength should be easy to get back, but the other thing… I'll need Lady Tsunade to help me with the seal for that."

Alright then, Naruto thought. They just had to make sure to bring Tsunade back to Konoha again. Whether or not she'd also become Hokage was a different matter. Hopefully Lord Third wouldn't die if they managed to do things right. But it really was too soon to tell.

"And Naruto," Sakura said, snapping him out of his thoughts. "You said you had your old seal again. Does that mean you can't access the Kyūbi's chakra like you did back there?" Back there in the war.

Naruto shook his head. "If I tried, it would be like the time Pain attacked. I wouldn't be in control."

Sakura's expression flashed to something akin to pain and regret, and Naruto knew she was remembering what that entailed. "Let's hope it never comes to that," she said softly. Naruto could only nod mutely in agreement.

Silence fell over the small group after that, each not knowing where to go now. The air around was getting colder now that the sun had set, making Sakura shiver.

"So," the girl piped up. "Now for the elephant in the room. We're in the past," she clipped. "Now what?"

"That depends," Sasuke replied dryly. "Do we want to change things are leave them be?"

"Change things, of course!" Naruto cried.

The only response the Uchiha gave was a "hn" and a shrug. Jeez, some things never change, Naruto thought with a pout.

"Okay, but how do we do that?" Sakura pressed, taking charge again.

When no one answered, she slumped where she sat. "Are you telling me neither of you two can figure out where things went wrong?"

"If you wanted to stop it there, we're fifteen years too late," Sasuke bit out. "You'd have to stop Obito from getting crushed so Madara wouldn't sink his claws into him, thus releasing the Kyūbi and destroying a lot of people's lives," he continued. "But as it is, we can't."

"Well fine," Sakura shot back angrily. "But there are definitely things we can change here and now."

"Yeah, let me go after Itachi," was the boys response. "I can save him, so that maybe this time I'll still have family."

"If you leave the village you'll be branded a rogue ninja," Naruto finally cut in, tone deadly serious. His eyes were hard as he stared his teammate down. "I won't stop you if you chose to, I know how much family means. But we can't help you after that. And you will need help."

The Uchiha stared him down for a long few moments, black bleeding red as his sharingan spun to life. It wasn't a declaration of war, just a threat. A threat Naruto didn't back down from as he maintained eye contact, his gaze holding fast.

"Fine," the Uchiha finally growled. "But my only goal is to save Itachi, and kill Danzō," he said. "Know that."

Naruto nodded solemnly in reply.

"So aside from Itachi and Danzō," Sakura said slowly, looking between the two boys. "What else should we do?"

Naruto didn't even have to think before responding. "Orochimaru," he piped up. "We gotta stop him."

"Orochimaru is the reason your dad and the other Hokage fought with us," Sasuke cut in before Sakura managed to. "He's knows a lot of things that could help us win this war."

"I didn't say we had to kill him!" Naruto shot back. "He can rot in jail for all I care. I just won't let him hurt anyone else ever again."

"So how do we do that?" Sakura demanded. "He's a Sannin. He's bigger, and stronger, and smarter than all of us."

"Yeah but we got something he doesn't," Naruto smirked. Sakura raised a pink eyebrow in confusion. "Knowledge. We know where he's gonna be and when. All we gotta do is tip off the right people and boom!" He snaked his hand to his fist. "One Sannin coming right up!"

Both Sasuke and Sakura gave him a dubious look, but neither contradicted him.

"Well then that just takes care of one problem," Sakura finally said. "But there's still the Akatsuki. And on that note, Obito and Madara."

"That's three years away," Sasuke pointed out. "They won't surface until then, so there's nothing we can do without leaving the village."

A long suffering sigh escaped the pinkette, but she let the issue be. "Okay, So we'll cross that bridge when we get to it?"

Both the boys gave uneasy nods, Naruto's more reluctant than Sasuke's.

"Okay," Sakura said. "Now for the bell test."

This was going to be fun.

AN: Next chapter, the bell test.