Disclaimer •• I don't own Naruto and no matter how much I wish that I do, I never will.

Warning •• Rated T for mild swearing, blood and violence, and a lot of mental trauma.

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Chapter 1: Going In With A Bang

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"You couldn't convince me not to if you tried."

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Going back in time was believed to be impossible, and even if it was possible, anyone who'd risk doing it would be a complete idiot. There are many reasons that one shouldn't take it upon themselves to shred their existence from the present and impose themselves on the past. The most obvious reason is quite frankly the most consequential: the tiniest change can lead to a multitude of divergences.

Here's an example:

A four-year-old girl places her purple and pink plushie on the old wooden bench in the park near her grandparents house. Now, in the original timeline (the one left untouched by time travelers), the plushie stayed in the place it was left in until the girl returned to the bench and retrieved it. She would then return to her grandparents' home, with her plushie in her arms, completely safe.

But what if she returned to the bench only to find the plushie missing (due to someone not of that time that happened to pass by and, by some chance, knock it into a nearby bush or simply picked it up out of pure boredom)?

That's where the divergence begins.

Instead of returning to her grandparents' home, she begins to search for her lost plushie. Having wandered too far into a place she's unfamiliar with, she never returns home. Two days later, her body is found in a large ditch in the forest, all because she'd been searching for a toy that should have been in the place she left it.

It's far-fetched, yes, but it's realistic in it's own way. The smallest of changes can have a catastrophic effect. Saving a life that wasn't meant to be saved could cause the death of another. Falling in love with someone that would have otherwise married a different person in the original timeline could prevent the birth of an important figure, while at the same time it could give birth to an entirely different soul, and who knows? That very soul may someday grow to be some sort of harbinger of death. One could never know for sure.

Time travel. . . the concept is just too dangerous. There are too many risks and too many unknowns and Naruto believed it just wasn't worth the risk.

But desperate times call for desperate measures, and Naru's timeline was far past desperate.

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She was falling. Falling, falling, falling, falling. Her lungs ached for air, air that swept past her so quickly it felt as if it was purposely avoiding her lungs all together. Droplets of water trailed after her body, gathering at the tips of her golden locks before fleeing into the air. Those same droplets seemed as if they were suspended, as if they were floating-- but they weren't. She was simply falling to fast for them to keep up.

How did this happen? What led her here? Or rather, who? The memories leading up to that moment seemed to flit at the edges of her mind before slipping completely from her grasp.

She knew the answers would return to her soon. She didn't know how she knew.

It wasn't without cause. No. She'd failed, hadn't she? Failed. . . to defeat? Protect? . . .Prevent? . . .All those seemed like the right answer, actually. It seemed as if she wasn't strong enough. Like she wasn't there at the right time. Only in the wrong moments was she ever present for anything.

She never was a lucky person. Misfortune seemed to follow her. It stuck to her like glue, like a piece of gum that she stepped on and couldn't scrape off of her shoe. And the gross, gummy pink substance that was misfortune stuck to her as it picked up every speck of dirt and trash it could until it couldn't anymore.

A strange analogy, but not far from the truth.

She had to change something, she knew that much. Something had happened. Something worse than. . . anything, really. . . Or was it that something that should have happened didn't occur? . . .Again, she didn't know the answer.

Her head hurt. It felt as if it were splitting and shrinking and splitting again. Something boiled beneath her skin, and a part of her told her it was her own blood.

She believed it. And it hurt. Everything hurt. Her eyes burned, her cheeks felt numb with cold, even as her blood boiled beneath her skin. Her ears rang a screeching, piercing noise and her nailbeds were sore, as if she'd been clawing at the stone walls of a prison. Her heart hurt. It was a fresh wound, she thought. It felt dark and sad and angry and empty.

Her mind hurt the most, telling her to helpthemsavethemwhydidn'tyouhelpthemWHYWEREN'TYOUTHERE--

She told her mind to shut the hell up-- To leave her alone, because she felt like shit and negative thoughts like that were only making her feel worse. She was nearing the ground now, she noticed with a fleeting smile. The wind felt warmer and much more humid. Long blurs of green and brown streaked her vision. Absentmindedly, she noted the smaller streak of silver and shock of bright yellow that scraped at the edges of her vision, but as something struck across her back, (really, it was a whole freaking branch) all the colors snapped to a halt. Black crawled at the edges of her electric blue eyes and she gasped for air, the short wheezes of breath sounding almost animalistic, even to her own ears.

A muffled shout and a commanding voice were the last things she heard before she let the darkness consume her.

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"Minato-sensei, sh--she's barely breathing!," came the panicked, almost hysterical voice of Minato's singular female student, Rin Nohara, centered in a large and deep crater with several large rocks and chunks of dirt and grass littering her surroundings, torn and splintered wood being the only evidence that there were once trees within the impact radius. Her back was turned to him as she cradled something in her arms, a limp streak of a dirty sunshine yellow that draped over her arm.

It was then that Rin's words registered to Minato and a flood of panic flooded his chest-- because 'she' was 'not breathing'.

Heart pumping wildly in his chest, (because whose wouldn't after seeing a massive fireball appear in the sky, which, by all evidence, contained a little girl,) the blonde bounced into the massive clearing, appearing by his student's side in a split second, Kakashi and Obito joining him only a moment later. The brunette sent him desperate look, a hand hovering over the child's chest in hesitation.

A thin film of blood coated the child's round face, clumping her eyelashes together and dripping from her chin and hair. The thick, red liquid seemed to be leaking from her skin-- as if she held too much of it, and it had to be released. Short, strangled gasps of air escaped her blood coated lips and, for a moment, the only coherent thought that went through the Namikaze's mind was 'shit', because this girl was probably minutes away from death and he had no idea what the hell just happened.

Rin slowly eased the girl to rest on her arm; propping her back a little straighter. The blonde's breathing evened out ever-so-slightly, and Rin let a nervous breath escape her, "She has a collapsed lung, I--I think-- I... I've never used medical ninjutsu on something this bad before but I--"

Minato placed a reassuring hand on Rin's shoulder, pushing panic out of his own mind as well, "It's okay, Rin-chan. She's more at risk if we don't at least try to heal her," he gave a slight smile, "try your best. Do what you can and don't overthink it."

The gentle green of medical chakra formed around Rin's free hand, and a shaky confirmation was all Minato heard before she pressed her palm gently on the tiny, tiny chest of the blonde.

The girl couldn't be any older than five, judging by her small, almost frail limbs. She was thin-- too thin, almost bordering on malnourished. Every inch of showing skin was a canvas splattered with blue, black, yellow, and purple bruises. Her lips were blue, causing a sickly hue of purple to form under the bloody film. His eyes trailed to the apparent scarring on her cheeks, forming identical whisker-like markings on both sides to the worn and battered dark blue cloth of her hitai-ate--

Kakashi sucked in a sharp breath at his side the same moment Minato's eyes landed on the hitai-ate.

...Because graved on the scratched and dented metal, there was no symbol for any of the Hidden Villages. Instead written clear as day, was the kanji for 'Shinobi'.

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"She didn't say anything to you?"

"No, Hokage-sama," Minato sighed, "She was unconscious when we found her--minutes from death. If it wasn't for Rin's medical knowledge, she would have been dead long before we reached the village."

Taking another long drag from his pipe, the Sandaime reached across his desk, palming the hitai-ate that Minato handed him and scanning it with keen interest.

"She was wearing this when she. . . fell from the sky-- I've never seen another nin wearing anything remotely like that. . . It's too vague for me to make out what or who she could be associated with. As far as I know, none of the Hidden Villages have 'Shinobi' engraved on their hitai-ate."

Hiruzen nodded in agreement, "I've never layed my old eyes on anything quite like this either," he gave a hollow chuckle, "The shinobi world is not a place where people can agree with eachother so easily. This label seems to hold much confidence in trust. . ."

"Hokage--sama," Hiruzen glanced at the Namikaze, unease pooling in his gut as the blonde pulled a scroll from his pack with hesitant movements that did not match the usually cool-headed man's demeanor. Sarutobi retrieved the scroll from Minato's palm.

Dread consumed him as he read to words on the scroll's bloodied surface.

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( ͡ ͜ʖ ͡)

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"Put her in the T and I holding cells until she wakes up. I will question her from there."

"Are you certain, Hokage--sama? She is a foreign shinobi, a potentially dangerous one despite her age."

"I am certain, Minato--san. I would like to retrieve the answers personally."

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It was dark.

"Well, no shit. You kind of, oh, I don't know, passed out, you dumbass."

"Shut your piehole, Kurama."

"BRAT. YOU DONT TALK TO ME LIKE THAT--"

Anyway, yeah, I passed out. That's what happened, in short. It sucked, by the way, but my life sucks, so what's new?

When I opened my eyes, I was greeted with blinding whiteness. White ceiling, a fluffy white bed, white curtains, and warm, fuzzy sunlight drifting through an open window. Yeah, you guessed it! A hospital room! Just where I, as an injured person-- child, whatever-- should be!

Just kidding.

No. When I opened my eyes, I was greeted with dull gray walls and an equally dull gray ceiling. No windows, no curtains, and certainly no fluffy white bed.

I was weaponless, reduced to just my form-fitting black shinobi shirt--which was honestly more like a dress than a shirt due to my change in size. They'd removed anything that could be potentially used as a weapon and-- oh, hey, they had someone put a seal on my skin storage seals.

What the hell? That's just rude. Didn't they know how much time I spent making those?

Though whoever put that seal on sure knew what they were doing-- hell, it'd even take me a while to deactivate the thing.

I wasn't surprised though, with the way I popped--crashed-- out of nowhere, I'd honestly expect someone to put me in a cell and take away anything of mine that could be a threat. My real worry was where this cell was, and in what timeline I'm in. For all I knew, that seal that Obito and I had scrawled up was faulty.

. . .In fact, it was more than likely to have been. It was a pretty stupid decision. . .and of course we knew that at the time, but. . .

Anyways, backtracking to my other thoughts.

I truly and sincerely hoped that I wasn't going to be killed-- or worse, tortured in the oncoming hours. Not that anyone would have gotten anything out of me-- it's just that I could very much do without the whole experience. Torture wasn't something I was ever into, or would ever be into, whether I would be on the receiving end or vice versa.

I'm wasn't a masochist, thank you very much.

"You are a masochist."

"I am not, you imp. Shut your yapper."

"Hmph, touchy."

The old metal door opened with a loud screech (which thankfully covered up my embarrassing squeak of fright), and I sucked in a breath as the Sandaime--fricking Jiji-- walked into the cell. His steps were slow and deliberate, and briefly, I let my eyes wander his face, because damn did he look younger than I remembered him-- I guessed his age was around mid--fifties.

At the sight of him, my anxiety was partially appeased because he was alive, which meant this whole time-travel thing had, by all evidence, worked, and as a plus, I was in Konoha.

"Hello, young shinobi-san," his voice rumbled a deep, rough sound, but it wasn't as grainy as I remembered. I gave him a bright smile, belatedly noticing the numerous bandages wrapped around on my head as they tugged on my cheeks.

And damn, my body ached like hell.

"Ohayo! Jiji--san!"

He seemed slightly surprised at my cheerful tone, but he kept his smile intact, puffing on his ever--present pipe, "You had quite the accident, haven't you? You seem chipper despite that, though," he chuckled. A calculating look lurked mischievously in his eyes as he smiled disarmingly.

"I did. My body still aches, but I'll heal up in no time at all!," I dropped my smile, feigning curiosity, and willed the smile that tugged at my lips to fade, ". . .Ano, Jiji-san, if I may ask, where am I?"

The way his gaze sharpened and his smile dropped told me that the mock pleasantries were over, and he said gruffly, "I'd tell you, shinobi--san, but you already know the answer, do you not?"

A sly smirk crawled on my face, "What gives you that notion, Hokage--sama?"

A low hum rumbled from his throat, a thick trail of smoke following its path, and he pulled out a bloody, ragged, and very familiar scroll from his robes.

I sweatdropped, "Ah. . . I must've forgotten to place that back into my storage seal, silly me!"

He frowned. "I've read the contents of this scroll and verified them. If you are who this scroll says you are, then I will welcome you once again into the Leaf Village. If you are not, you'll be processed for information, then most likely executed."

I raised my eyebrows, "I don't remember you being this blunt, Hokage--sama. The Jiji I knew was much less serious. . ."

"Though, to be fair, you are not Jiji, so I suppose it makes sense."

He chuckled, and the deep roughness of it made me shiver because it sounded as if I was living a memory. In a way, I guess you could say that I was but. . . I guess the whole situation was deeply unnerving-- honestly I was surprised I hadn't broken down at the sight of him--

but then again, he was just one of the many--

I plastered a grin on my face, deliberately creasing my eyes until they were but glittering crescents. The movement itself was fluid and deceiving, "Morning glories greet the sun in the early hours of the day, smiling and shining bright in the waking sun and closing their eyes as the evening sets, but moonflowers thrive in the night when the moon is high. They soak it's soft rays and cast the darkest shadows onto the ground, reflecting light for the creatures of the night and providing shelter when the sun returns to burn their precious wings."

Hiruzen smiled, "Welcome to Konoha, shinobi-san."

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I trailed behind Jiji--Hokage-sama slowly, eyeing the thick fabric of his robes as they dragged on the ground. I'd tripped on them with my short legs more times than I could count, so forgive me if I was watching like a hawk. That, and it was a great distraction from the many pairs of eyes that followed my every movement. The looks they gave me ranged from confused and curious to downright suspicious.

--I mean, seriously? What's so strange about being in the company of the Hokage? I knew I was a child, but--

"You idiot. It's not because you're a kid it's because you're literally covered head to toe in bandages."

"Oh, that's. . . that actually does make sense."

Apparently when I was found by 'them' (I didn't know who found me, but I was eternally greatful), I was unconscious, minutes from death and. . . bleeding from my pores.

. . .Which, in hindsight, made a lot of sense, actually. Seeing as my body went from the mass of seventeen-year-old's to that of a child's in a matter of seconds, it's not all that surprising that there would be issues.

In theory, since my body had shrunk at such a quick rate, there was an over excess of blood and other bodily fluids. Those fluids had to be drained from me somehow, thus the reason I was bleeding. . .out of everywhere. Which explains why my blood felt as if it was boiling over-- in a sense, it was. My veins and arteries were overloaded which led to serious bruising and swelling-- which had mostly healed by now, so luckily I wasn't actively experiencing that pain.

"Why wouldn't the blood have drained from your mouth or, I don't know, your eye sockets? If you had an excess of blood, why don't you have an excess of skin as well?"

"Okay, first of all,ew. Second, any extra skin that I had probably converted into baby fat or muscle. I am in a child's body now, and children are naturally chubby, so it only makes sense."

"That's not how it works. And look at yourself. You look like a twig-- you're practically malnourished. You have no baby fat, much less muscle."

"I KNOW IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE, YOU IDIOT. BEING IN A TINY BODY ISN'T FUN-- I'M TRYING TO MAKE MYSELF FEEL BETTER, DAMMIT.

"I know it's not fun. I've been caged in your puny little body this whole time, after all. And now, you're even shorter than last time. I can practically feel how much that blasted seal has shrunk."

"Hey. I'm not that short--"

"Oh, yes you are. You're twice as short as Before, and apparently it's also increased your stupidity, as you've so eloquently demonstrated only a minute ago. With that mindless and relatively anti--logical way of thinking, we'll never finish the mission. You're useless like this. Ergo, double the shortness and stupidity equals double the inefficiency and uselessness."

". . .You. . . You're mean."

"Thank you."

"I'll grow with time. If anything, me being this young is a good thing-- we'll have more time to plan and train. And I'm sorry if I'm a little out of it right now, but you didn't have your body ripped out of time. Mine is the one that went through that hell-- yours was under the protection the of seal."

My anxiety spiked as Kurama stayed quiet for a few seconds to long.

"That's another matter to discuss. There are two of me. I can feel my counterpart, and more importantly he can feel me. He's pissed."

". . .W--what!? But Obito said--"

"He was wrong."

"--then we can move to figure out who will be acting as your guardian," Hiruzen's gruff voice snapped me from my mental connection with Kurama. I whipped my head up, a hilaruously strangled noise of confusion escaping my throat as I locked eyes with him.

He huffed, "You didn't hear a thing I said, did you?"

I chuckled nervously, rubbing the back of my neck. Hiruzen observed the action intently, eyes trailing from the movement of my arm then trailing from my hair to my eyes. An incredulous look shone in his eyes, ". . .what did you say your name was, shinobi--san?"

I smiled, bright and big, and openly eyed the many shinobi that traipsed the halls and bowed to the Hokage respectfully as they passed, "I am nameless at the moment, Hokage-sama."

He followed my gaze in agreement, "Ah, I understand. Come with me, child."

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The Hokage's office looked newer than the last time I saw it, but older than how I remembered in being as a genin. The walls were a foamy cream color, darker than the off-white that it was when I was twelve. The floor was the same dark wood, though it seemed to be cared for more than it had in my time.

I wasn't sure what else was different. From what I could tell, all else was the same as it was, but my memory from that time was. . . fuzzy, to say the least.

"Mission report, shinobi-san," came the serious command from Jiji--(The Sandaime), my mind corrected. I listened for the faint crackling of the silencing seals as they came to life before beginning my report.

With strong shoulders and a straight back, I began my report.

"My name is Uzumaki--Namikaze Naruto, daughter of Namikaze Minato and Uzumaki Kushina. I am the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki of my time, as well as the Nanadaime Hokage, and a member of the Allied Shinobi Forces. I come from roughly twenty years in the future to change the past-- which is now present, and prevent the start of the Fourth Great Shinobi War. . ."

Well, that's the first chapter of this--

Whatever this is.

As you can tell, this Naruto is obviously a girl-- a 'Naruko', if that twist of a name helps. I'm going to make it clear right here and now that Naruto's gender did not change during her travel through time.

This is an AU Naruto. She is female, and has always been female. Her story does not parallel seamlessly with canon. Things happened very differently in her world, and she's going back to change that. I just wanted make that clear so nobody gets confused.

Right now, nobody other than Sarutobi knows who she is. Anyone who knows of her only know her as 'the girl who fell from the sky and nearly died in the process'.

In other words, they know nothing.

She's gotta gain the Hokage's trust to gain her freedom in Konoha, as well as the support of such a powerful figure, and that entails spilling her life story, so it's going to be a tough ride for her.

We'll see how it blows over in the next chapter, hm?