The first thing Naruto does when he regains consciousness is go into his mindscape to confer with Kurama.

Okay, so the first thing he does is completely panic, seeing as how he's currently a twelve-year-old. And when he says 'go into' what he really means is 'dragged into once Kurama loses his patience'.

Same thing, really.

"What the hell is going on?!" He screeched, flailing his arms around. The fox was sitting on the other side of the cavern, chin resting on folded arms and watching Naruto pace back and forth, looking torn between amusement and annoyance. "Why am I sitting in what looks like my old apartment, you know, the one that was destroyed by Nagato? Better yet, why do I look like I'm twelve?! What even happened?"

"What do you think happened, idiot?" Kurama scoffed. "Obviously, the seal transported your soul, and me along with it, through time and dumped us into your younger self."

"Oh, obviously," Naruto threw his arms up, tone dripping with sarcasm, "time travel, why didn't I think of that? Surely, it should have been my first guess, seeing as how it's impossible to do!"

"Clearly not, or we wouldn't be in this mess."

"How do you know that's what happened? This could just be a really good genjutsu, you know!"

"You think that hadn't occurred to me, you hairless monkey? Of course it did! One of the first things I did was disrupt your chakra just to be sure!"

Naruto drew in a breath, about to start yelling back once more, before suddenly slumping. It wasn't Kurama's fault, and yelling about it wasn't going to fix anything.

"Time travel, though?" He asked, and couldn't quite keep the despondence out of his voice. "Really?"

It wasn't that he'd never thought about it before, especially once he'd begun learning fuuinjutsu theory. Because as far as sealing was concerned, your imagination was the limit, and Naruto had that in spades. All he needed was the skill and the knowledge to match, and while he hadn't been anywhere near knowing enough to even start on something like that, he was also soaking up lessons like a sponge, something Tsunade-baa-chan had pointed out with a wistful smile and a comment about him living up to his Uzumaki name.

And he'd thought it out, really, truly thought it out, the way he rarely used to do with anything. Because if he could go back in time, he could save so many people. Ero-sennin, Neji, Itachi, Konan and Nagato, Asuma-sensei, Jiji, hell, maybe even Obito. He could try to save Sasuke, too, give him more of a reason to stay in the village. If he went back far enough, he could even save Zabuza and Haku, the ones who'd given him so much inspiration to fulfill his dream and to get stronger, to protect those precious to him.

But, at the same time, things had turned out good. Or, at least, as good as they could've, all things considered. They'd defeated Akatsuki, they'd defeated Madara and, after all of that, they'd defeated Kaguya, too. The nations had come together, had fought side by side in a way they'd never done before. Strong alliances had been made and every country was working harder than ever before in actually keeping them.

Maybe he hadn't found the true peace that Jiraiya had talked about, that his father had dreamed about, but he'd gotten pretty damn close and he wasn't about to do anything to put that in jeopardy.

And now, with the activation of one seal, all of that was gone. The deaths, yes, but all the progress, too.

"Yeah, kit," the Kyuubi rumbled out, voice gentle in a way no one would've thought possible even just a year ago, and yet, "time travel. That was what the pulling sensation was, the seal taking hold and yanking you out of your body, through the rivers of time, and dumping you into this one."

"And the feeling like I'd caught on fire?" When silence met his question, Naruto began to get a very bad feeling. "Kurama?"

"That was your soul overwriting the one that originally inhabited this body," the fox admitted reluctantly as Naruto gaped, horrified.

"Are you telling me," he demanded, slowly, "that I basically just killed my younger self?"

"You didn't kill him. More like... absorbed him."

"That is not helping!" Naruto shrieked, hands fisting into his hair desperately.

"I'm not seeing the problem here," the Kyuubi admitted, rolling its massive eyes. "Your younger soul wouldn't have even felt a thing. The only reason you felt anything was because yours was the one doing the absorbing. He's still alive, he's just a part of you now."

The blond groaned, dragging his hands down his face as he despaired, "That's so creepy."

"Whatever, just move on. You're back in time, you're in your younger body, there's nothing you can do about that. What you can do is check up on those teammates of yours. I'm fairly certain all three of them also got caught up in the seal and are also here in this time."

Having said his piece, the fox shut his eyes, clearly done with this entire conversation. He'd gotten a lot better at the whole 'civil interaction' thing but he was still a centuries-old manifestation of chakra who'd spent the last hundred years locked away behind seals with no one to talk to. It was a work in progress.

Naruto sighed but did as suggested, leaving his mindscape before Kurama could get annoyed and throw him out, which he'd done in the past. And really, he couldn't deny the relief he felt at knowing he wasn't going to be here all by himself. He didn't know what he'd have done if he got stuck with the younger versions of everyone he'd ever known and was the only one alive who remembered the war.

Once he opened his eyes to his old, empty, trashed apartment once more, he immediately folded his legs and sat absolutely still, drawing nature chakra to himself and stretching his senses out as he did. His team's chakra signatures were easy to locate, though each one was located in a different part of the village.

Kakashi-sensei was at their old training ground, likely having been standing by the memorial stone when they'd come back. Sasuke was at the Uchiha compound and Sakura felt like she was at home, the house her family had lived in before it'd been destroyed with the rest of Konoha in Pein's attack. He wasn't all that worried about them, since he was fairly sure they were each smart enough to put the pieces together, even if they didn't have a demon in their gut to spell it out through their denial for them.

Still, it'd make him feel a hell of a lot better to be able to see them, and talk to them, and know without a doubt that they really were his teammates, despite all evidence pointing towards this already being true.

With that thought in mind, and feeling that Kakashi-sensei and Sasuke seemed to already be moving in his direction while Sakura was definitely moving about and would likely be arriving soon enough, Naruto hopped up from his bed, stepping over the hole in the floor covered by open scrolls with the ease of long practice, and headed for his closet to get dressed.

He was met with orange. A lot of orange.

He was still extremely fond of the color and always would be, but even he could admit that maybe he'd been a bit too zealous as a kid, if this was what he'd been wearing day in and day out.

And it wasn't like it had been that long ago that he'd been wearing a similar outfit. Hell, he'd fought the entirety of the Fourth War in his orange and black jumpsuit. It was only bouncing around the other departments the last few months and being sent on a variety of missions he'd never been on before that had taught him that maybe orange wasn't something his outfit should be completely comprised of.

The looks on his teammate's faces, the first time he'd shown up to one of their joint training sessions dressed in a black and blue ensemble only barely edged with dark orange, had been priceless, at least. It had taken almost an hour and a trip to the Yamanaka flower store before they'd been convinced that he was actually still him, which had just made it even funnier.

Now, though, it looked like he was back to eye-searing orange and blue jumpsuits for the time being.

At least it was nostalgic.

The actual wince when Sasuke caught sight of it while climbing through the window he'd opened for them was pretty great, too.

"I really thought I'd never have to see that monstrosity again," the Uchiha lamented with a sigh.

"I don't know," Naruto said, doing his best to keep his face as innocent as possible, "I kinda missed it. I think I'm gonna wear it all the time."

Sasuke's face hadn't even begun to fully contort into true horror when another presence made itself known, "Maa, maa, Naruto, it's not nice to pick on your teammates."

"Yeah," Sakura agreed, just a step behind their sensei, "besides, even if you were serious, we'd burn the things before you got a chance."

"That's really mean," Naruto pouted, but let it go. They had a point.

"So," Kakashi started, hands tucked into his pockets, as Sakura closed the window behind them. A series of hand seals later, courtesy of Sasuke, and not even ANBU had a hope of eavesdropping on this conversation. "Time travel, huh?"

Sakura squinted up at him. "You are way too happy about this."

"I have no idea what you mean," he returned, voice bland, eye curved in what was obviously meant to be an innocent smile.

"Of course he's happy," Sasuke scoffed, "this means he's not becoming Hokage in week."

"I have no idea what you mean," Kakashi repeated, expression unchanging, even though he was all but radiating manic glee.

Sakura rolled her eyes but moved on without further comment. "If the calendar on my wall was correct, and there isn't any reason for it not to be, then tomorrow is team assignment day. Or, well, today."

"That's really far back," Naruto sighed, though he wasn't surprised. He rubbed at his forehead and then flinched upon realizing he was using his right hand.

By the way Sasuke was awkwardly crossing his arms, he wasn't the only one feeling exceedingly uncomfortable by the sudden return of a limb after over a year of getting used to its absence.

"At least we won't have to stack the team or anything. As it is, nothing we do now should change that," Sakura continued, eyes drifting around the room as she was lost in thought. They snapped back to Naruto, sharpening instantly, when he couldn't hold in a snort.

"We would've been assigned the same team anyways," he informed her, plopping down on the solitary chair next to his tiny little kitchen table. "Team 10 and Team 8 were made for info gathering and tracking, and they're both second generation team formations. Which leaves Sasuke and I left over, of the graduates that more or less had to pass their sensei's genin test, which left us together. And Kakashi-sensei would've been assigned to us because he's the only one with a sharingan to teach Teme over here. You're the only one who would've been an unknown, Sakura, since you're not a clan kid, but with your intelligence they would've been stupid not to assign you with us."

Silence met his words and he glanced up to find all three openly gaping at him, even if Sasuke was trying hard not to show it. He couldn't help but scowl.

"What? I've been shadowing baa-chan all year, you really think I haven't learned anything?" He demanded, huffing when at least Sakura had the decency to look sheepish.

"Sorry, Naruto, it's just weird hearing you be so logical when you look like that," she admitted, shrugging, and, okay, he had to give her that one. He'd never admit it out loud, for fear of Sasuke never, ever letting it go, but he'd definitely been a bit of an idiot when he was a kid.

A derisive snort from his mind let him know just how much of an understatement Kurama thought that was.

Rolling his eyes, at both his team and his inner demon, Naruto grumbled, "Can we get back on track? We're in the past, most of us are twelve, what the hell are we gonna do?"

"He has a point," Sasuke admitted, sounding grudging, which, rude, "can we even do anything? My chakra reserves feel about the same as they were in the future, but my body is definitely, ridiculously out of shape."

Every single one of them shared a wince at that, since his body wasn't the only one.

"My reserves feel the same, too," Sakura admitted, holding a hand up and letting it briefly glow green, "and my control seems just as good. But my Strength of A Hundred seal is gone, which is annoying, and my body has hardly any muscle mass. Hardly any mass at all, really, which is just unhealthy."

"Kurama's seal stayed open, thankfully." Naruto didn't even want to think of what would have happened if it hadn't. He would've felt completely awful if that had been the case. "And my reserves have always been huge, so I'm guessing they're the same. If my control didn't come back with me, I might actually cry."

Sad thing was, that wasn't even an exaggeration. He had fought tooth and nail for the control he had and even then, it wasn't all that great. To start back all the way at square one, unable to even walk up a tree, would've been absolute hell.

As one, all three of them turned to face their teacher, who'd yet to speak up, only to find him slouched against the wall with his nose buried in his book.

"Really?" Sakura demanded, eye twitching. Sasuke and Naruto, both recognizing the signs of an imminent explosion, carefully edged away from her. "We're over five years in the past and you're reading porn?"

"I can multitask," the man informed her blandly, not even looking up as he spoke. "My reserves are the same, though like you three, my body is a bit out of shape. Easy enough to rectify."

"Kaka-sensei," Sakura smiled at him, sweet as could be, and it was at this point that Sasuke and Naruto gave up all pretense and simply plastered themselves to the wall behind her, hopefully out of danger, "we're working together as a team to figure out what happened and to plan out what to do now. As our leader, it's your responsibility to be a part of this discussion, don't you think?"

"Maa, in just a moment, Sakura-chan. I just got to the part where Aiki seduces the -"

Both boys winced as their teacher went crashing through the wall he'd been leaning against, Sakura's fist still raised as she stepped delicately over the rubble in pursuit, and Naruto couldn't help but thank the Sage that all the other tenants in this building had moved out years ago, not wanting to be that close to the fox brat. Otherwise this probably would've caused a lot of awkward questions.

"I take it we won't be lying low and hiding our abilities," Sasuke commented dryly, slowly relaxing as sounds of pain echoed from the other side of the wall. Now that she was taking all her frustrations out on her target, they should be safe so long as they didn't piss her off as well.

Sasuke might have once thought that, as her once-crush, he'd be safe from Sakura's monstrous strength. He'd learned within less than a month that this was very much not the case and that, though she'd forgiven him, she had quite a lot of anger to still work out where he was concerned. Best not to give her a reason to do it.

"Nah," Naruto admitted easily, righting the chair that had fallen from the shockwave and plopping back into it. "I think you and Kaka-sensei would've been the only ones able to pull that off. I'm not really good at hiding, obviously, and Sakura tends to forget herself when she's mad. It would've only been a matter of time before she punted one of us through a wall in front of witnesses."

Sasuke sighed but didn't disagree. No point, since it was true.

"We're all going to be training pretty hard, though, so even if we're not hiding our abilities, we might be able to pass it off without actually admitting to time travel," Naruto continued, eyes squinted as he thought. "Everyone knows that sensei is a genius, and they all say that you are, too, so it won't surprise them if you get strong quickly. Sakura is thought of as only book smart, but she's always had a natural talent in chakra control. And as for me, well. Iruka-sensei was pretty much the only one who didn't go out of their way to sabotage me when I was younger and after awhile I just decided to do things my own way. With a teacher who's actually teaching me, it's not all that unbelievable that I'd get good pretty quickly."

Naruto trailed off, catching sight of the grimace taking over Sasuke's face, and couldn't help but smile at him. He'd never blamed his teammates for the way he'd grown up, they were just kids themselves and it wasn't their fault, not really. He'd been a little bitter over how Kakashi-sensei had never come forward, given that he was his dad's last living student, but he'd gotten over that fast enough. He might not have been there for his childhood, but the man had been there ever since, and to Naruto, that made up for it.

And even if it didn't, not entirely, it wasn't like there was much to be done about it now. No good would come from being bitter or hateful or from holding a grudge. Best to just move on and be happy that he was in his life now.

"Right now, nobody really knows any of us, anyway," Naruto continued. "Iruka-sensei and Jiji might be a bit confused, but that's about it. None of us have friends, not really, so it's not like any of our classmates can tell the difference. So long as our personalities don't do a complete turnaround, we should be fine."

"That's very true," their sensei agreed as he climbed back through the crater he'd originally been blasted through. He was a lot more scuffed then he'd been before and was walking with a bit of a limp, and his book was noticeably absent, but otherwise he looked fine. Sakura, stepping through behind him, looked smugly satisfied. "You should be fine, Sasuke, as you tend to lean more towards complete social avoidance, still, if it's not the members of Team 7 that you're interacting with."

The badly hidden "hypocrite" that Naruto coughed into his fist went ignored.

"Obviously, all three of you have matured quite a bit, but you've all kept the main parts of your personalities. All you have to do is play those up during the team assignments and you should be fine. After that, interaction with your fellow graduates will be rare for awhile as all the teams settle in. After that period of time, bigger changes in your actions won't seem all that odd."

"So, basically, we pretend to be our twelve-year-old selves in class tomorrow, but afterwards we won't have to bother?" Sakura asked, arms crossed in consideration. "Seems simple enough. All I've really got to do is go around with my hands clasped, yelling 'Sasuke-kun, Sasuke-kun' and nobody should really be able to tell the difference."

Sasuke grimaced, clearly not looking forward to it at all, but said nothing against it. They had a point, and he could handle it for one day. Hopefully.

"Don't forget that you and Ino are currently Rivals in Love," Naruto snickered, amused by the pained look that was growing deeper and deeper on the Uchiha's face. "You're both fighting for Teme's affections and the right to be called his Number One Fan."

Sakura groaned, palming her face before shoving her hair back almost violently. "Yeah, yeah, I remember."

"I just have to be super loud and obnoxious while Sasuke just has to be quiet and glare at everything and we'll be good to go!" Naruto declared and, sadly, wasn't lying. That really was probably all it took to fool everyone in their class into thinking everything was the same as always.

Sudden snickering had all three males taking a swift step away from their pink-haired teammate. Or, in Naruto's case, leaning as far away as he could without overbalancing his chair and tumbling to the ground.

"S-Sakura-chan?" He asked warily.

"Nothing, nothing!" She assured in a way that had none of them feeling better. "Just remembering something that happened last time around. You know, it only just now occurred to me that you're both mine and Sasuke's first kiss, aren't you, Naruto?"

Naruto could feel his face grow red, hard as he tried to stop it. "T-That wasn't my fault! That kid bumped into me! And you were preforming CPR, that doesn't count, you know!"

"I don't know," Sasuke commented idly, smirking, "you were also my second kiss. That's a pattern forming."

"What?" Sakura demanded, eyes wide. "When?! How come I never heard about this?"

"Never! It never happened!" Naruto insisted desperately.

"Hmm, that means I'm losing," Sakura muttered, hand held to her chin in consideration and ignoring how her words had Naruto's face practically on fire. "But don't worry, I'm sure I'll catch up!"

"You guys are the worst," he complained, slumping over in defeat.

"Maa, maa, aren't you three a bit young for this discussion?" Their sensei asked, amused, over the sound of more snickering. "Speaking of which, it's far past your bedtimes. You lot have a big day tomorrow!"

"Yeah, yeah, it's probably best if I get back home soon. My mom was usually the one to make sure I was up, back when I was in the Academy, and she'll lose her mind if I'm not there," Sakura admitted. She snagged both of her teammate's shoulders before either could step away, holding them tightly. "I'm so glad you're here with me."

"Hn," Sasuke grunted his agreement, carefully wrapping his arm around her waist in return. Naruto didn't even hesitate, hugging the both of them fiercely.

"With all four of us here, there's no way we could lose!" He agreed, grinning wide. "We'll kick Madara and Kaguya's asses all over again if we have to. Together, it'll be easy, you know!"

Kakashi sighed, ruffling both boy's hair before patting Sakura on the head. "My adorable little genin, off to conquer the world."

"But first," Sakura grinned, both boy's expressions matching hers, and if they were more than a little bloodthirsty, well, that only made their sensei feel prouder, "let's start with the village."

.

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A/N: I decided to upload this now, so that anyone interested in this fic could get a better feel for if you like it and want to give it a shot or not.

The next update won't be coming anywhere near as fast, it'll be a few days at least.

But I hope you guys like it so far. Thanks for reading and please follow, favorite or leave a review and let me know what you think!