Temporal Advantages

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The old shinobi sat in a silent cave, his full attention on the brush held in his remaining hand as he painted a complex design on the scroll before him. Each stroke was perfectly placed and between the strokes, the brush was dipped into the puddle of spilled ink and blood that the shinobi knelt in.

Finally the design was done and the ninja rolled the scroll up, placing it into a metal tube that had patterns engraved along the outer surface, patterns filled with blood.

"We've come this far, let us go this one last step." He whispered, his remaining eye filling with tears. "Lend me your power this one last time, old friend, and we shall rejoin our comrades."

For a long moment, nothing happened, then a red aura formed around the old man, highlighting his emaciated frame and the rags that served as clothing.

The boulder blocking the entrance to the cave began to crack as roots started forcing their way through, but the shinobi didn't even twitch, all his attention on the scroll-holder in his hands. As the boulder shattered and the roots lanced towards him, the shinobi exhaled and the tube vanished.

"It is done." he whispered just before he was impaled.

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Shikamaru looked round at the classroom. Although he looked just as relaxed (or lazy) as normal, his mind was whirring faster than it had ever done before as he took in the differences between how his classmates should be acting and how they were acting.

Start off with eyes briefly flashed red, so he has the Sharingan. The question is, from when? Before or after?

Sakura just snapped her pencil. She couldn't do that before and from what I caught sight of in her lunch box, she isn't limiting her food intake.

Ino isn't fangirling over Sasuke.

Shino… No difference. Wait, his coat has a hood but he hasn't raised it. Coincidence? Proof? Troublesome. I'll have to keep a watch on him.

Kiba and Akamaru aren't fidgeting as much as normal. Their self-control has gone way up and they're never looking in the same direction at the same time. They're always on the watch-out, even subconsciously. It takes a great deal of experience to learn to do that by reflex.

Choji… has changed his hairstyle and his crisps have been replaced by a high-protein snack that looks similar. He's also occasionally doing isometric exercises when he thinks no-one's looking.

Hinata is using her Byakugan without seals… and she's just stiffened. Interesting.

The door slid open and Iruka stalked in, carrying a familiar hogtied blond.

…aaaaaaand Naruto seems to be exactly the same as before.

Troublesome.

I wonder why so many of the others have changed, but he hasn't.

How troublesome. I think I'm going to need to talk to the others… but which one to approach first?

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Naruto was confused. Happy, but confused.

The day had started out fairly normally with Naruto tried to skip school (since the first lesson was going to be about the Kyuubi again. Why? Just because it attacked on the day that he had been born, why did they always go on about it on his birthday? Why?) in an attempt to train at one of the many practise fields scattered around Konoha, but he had been tracked down and dragged back (literally) by Iruka.

And that was when things went weird.

Iruka had dumped him onto a seat without bothering to untie him first, only for Hinata to shift close to him and covertly pull him towards her so that he ended up with his head resting on her shoulder.

While she did smell nice and was supporting him with an arm wrapped around his body, he didn't understand why she didn't bother to untie him until just before lunch break.

His confusion grew deeper as Hinata, in an incredible change from her usual habits, literally dragged him to the shade of a tree and shared her lunch with him, glaring at him until he meekly ate the vegetables that she had included in her over-sized lunchbox.

Choji had wandered past and handed a nutrition bar to him before ambling off to sit beside Shikamaru…
…who was watching him rather than staring at the clouds as he normally did.

Even Sasuke was acting differently, talking quietly to different girls rather than ignoring them. Straining his ears, Naruto caught part of his conversation.

"…and since I'll need to rebuild my clan, I'll need the strongest Kunoichi I can. One who can stand beside me on the battlefield. Here's a scroll on chakra-control exercises. If you can water-walk, score at least eighty percent in kunai and shuriken throwing as well as run for a full hour without getting winded, you have a chance…"

Naruto blinked in confusion.

Just what was going on?

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Hinata was overjoyed that her beloved was alive. Bee had sacrificed himself to send her back in time with instructions to "save Mr Nine and get him strong so he can save us all, word!" and she was going to do just that.

Part of Naruto's problem had been a poor diet during his early years, something that she was going to fix. Although he obviously didn't like the vegetables she had carefully selected for him, the vitamins they provided would help him grow taller and stronger than he had been just before the final battle against that insane three-eyed woman, the battle in which he had been killed because he had reacted just a fraction of a second too slowly.

Now, she would oversee his diet personally and help him to grow. She had already confronted her father about her plans and had been shocked when he had instantly agreed with her plans, declaring that she would not suffer the application of the Caged Bird Seal even she was no longer the Heir.

Hanabi was now the Heir to the Hyuuga Clan while Hinata was the clan's emissary to the scattered remnants of Uzukagure.

She had already sent several letters out based on her future-knowledge.

She would help the Uzumaki clan rise once more.

And her father had asked that she send any Uzumaki Seal-masters to him to help craft a replacement to the Caged Bird Seal that could be applied to all the Hyuuga.

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"You came back too?"

Shikamaru's soft question caused Choji to freeze for a moment, then he turned to stare at the lazy boy.

"Too?" He whispered. "But… Shika, you died!"

It was Shikamaru's turn to freeze as his brain went into overdrive.

"Choji… when I came from, only three of us had survived… you were one, but… troublesome!"

Choji raised a quizzical eyebrow as Shikamaru rubbed at his forehead.

"Different futures. One past. Means that I can't throw out a reference and see who responds since it may not have happened for the others…"

The last word caught Choji's attention.

"Others?"

"Others." A new voice confirmed and Ino sat down beside Shikamaru. "I knew something was wrong, but I've been scanning the others. There's a... an echo in the thoughts of those who came back. It's how I knew you both had… even though you both died to save my life back… then."

"What about the others?" Shikamaru asked. "I know Hinata's a returnee."

"Good name for it." Ino agreed. "Sasuke is… so's Sakura. Kiba is and so is Akamaru. I think that those two are from the same… the same…"

"Elsewhen?" Shikamaru offered and Ino nodded.

"You may be a lazy ass, but at least your mind works." She said with a slight chuckle. "I'm looking forwards to getting to know you two lunkheads again."

Ino looked round at the other students doing different things in the playing field.

"I haven't been able to get a good read off Shino." She admitted. "Aburame are perhaps the only clan with a natural counter to us Yamanaka. His hive means I can't lock onto him."

Shikamaru rolled his eyes, then once again, he froze.

From the window of the Academy, Umino Iruka was watching Naruto with a wistful smile on his face.

And perched on the edge of the roof was a silver-haired figure sat as if he was reading an orange book, but whose head kept turning towards the orange-clad boy.

"How many people came back to help him?" Shikamaru asked, feeling slightly annoyed.

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"But… Lady Tsunade?!"

"I said we're heading back to Konoha." The blond Medic growled. "Now I'm no longer afraid of blood, I can take over the hospital and pay off my debts in the process."

Shizune hid her smile. She had planned to try and trick Tsunade into returning early and helping her favorite genin, but Tsunade had somehow managed to turn herself around even before she could put her plan into effect.

"Tsunade?"

Tsunade and Shizune both froze as a familiar figure appeared in front of them.

"What are you doing here?" Tsunade growled.

Orochimaru smiled, his eyes somehow holding centuries of grief.

"Making amends… if I can."

"Oh, fuck." Tsunade sighed. "I know Shizune came back from a different timeline, but you as well?"

Shizune's jaw dropped and Tsunade gave her a quick smile without taking her attention away from the Snake Sannin.

"Did you really think I didn't notice when you healed that woman in the last town?" She asked almost impishly.

"Fascinating." Orochimaru breathed, then he paled. "Oh hell. Please tell me Danzo didn't come back as well!"

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Sarutobi Hiruzen stared at the formation of shinobi standing in front of them, then at the one-eyed man at their head.

"Danzo… what is the meaning of this?"

"Message in a bottle." Danzo stated calmly and Hiruzen felt his breath shorten. "Let us say that the path I followed until recently was not one that would allow Konoha to survive. I thought I was strengthening the foundations of Konoha, but I was actually weakening them."

Hiruzen sighed.

"We obviously need to have a long talk."

Danzo motioned and one of the younger shinobi, one clad in black and with almost chalk-white skin, stepped forwards.

"It gets worse, old friend." Danzo said. "This one had a message in a different bottle, but one with the same patterns."

Hiruzen rubbed at his forehead.

He was going to need some Sake to get through the upcoming conversation.

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"This is the scroll." Jiraiya said as he placed a worn metal tube down on Hiruzen's desk. "The one I used… will use… when Konoha fell thanks to the traitor Mizuki killing Naruto three years prior. The one that brought me back to his twelfth birthday."

"That is the scroll I used." Danzo confirmed. "I tested the ink first, though. I know who wrote it."

"So do I." Jiraiya stated. "I wanted to take him as my apprentice. His style is.. will be… might be… bloody time-travel tenses! I hate this, I can't work out what I'm trying to actually say!"

"And you an author." Tsunade sniggered from the just-opened door, Shizune and Orochimaru standing behind her. "Hey, I recognize that scroll!"

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An idea for a time-travel story bordering on outright crack. LastNinja!Naruto sent back a scroll to the early days of Konoha, one designed so that anyone who used it would have their memories sent back to themselves on a specific date (Naruto's twelfth birthday). However, multiple futures meant that many people used the scroll and now Konoha has dozens of temporally-enhanced shinobi including a reformed Orochimaru and a Danzo who is trying to undo the damage he has unwittingly caused.

This would effectively be a crack fix-fic on a totally surreal scale with curb-stompings galore.