Chapter 1

"You do realize that when we go back, my consciousness will no longer exist within you."

Naruto's head snapped to look at his lifetime companion. For most of his life they had barely been on speaking terms. With the events surrounding the beginning of the 4th Shinobi World War and his temporary capture, all of that changed. Naruto's will was much stronger than Madara could have possibly fathomed and thus managed to keep the last of the 'free' bijuu sealed away inside of himself. While they had become 'friends' before that, Naruto's actions that day sealed the deal beyond any doubt.

"Don't give me that look. I can only exist at one place in time. Therefore my consciousness will go to where it exists already, depending on where in time we end up."

"But what about your chakra?"

Kurama chuckled, but it did not sound nearly as menacing as it used to. That may have been due to the fact that he had shrunk itself to be Naruto's size. Not to mention the fact that he had no reason to try to intimidate Naruto anymore.

"So now you wish to use my chakra?"

Naruto shrugged. "Well, it has proven rather convenient on more than one occasion."

There was light noise that came from the fox next to him, either a snort or exasperated sigh.

"I have no answer for you. I do not know what will happen, other than I will probably awaken inside one of my previous hosts, depending on when we arrive."

"But you will remember?"

There was a moment of silence before Kurama's voice rumbled, "Yes. I believe I will remember."

Naruto groaned as he awoke from what felt like a jarring impact. His body felt completely drained and sore, but it wasn't nearly as bad as when Madara had tried to yank the Kyuubi out of him. He ached nearly all over, but it was especially bad along his back.

Opening his eyes slowly, he blinked several times as he looked up at the bright blue sky. The moment he went to rub them, however, he realized that he could not move his arm. Panic started to set in as he tried and tried - alas, to no avail.

"Hokage-sama! He's awake!"

The voice he heard was vaguely familiar, a voice he recalled hearing once upon a time... but at the same time he could not place his finger on it. The blond was groggy for a few quick seconds as he racked his brains, trying to figure out what was going on. One of last things he could remember...

It all came back at once, rushing into his mind and leaving him short of breath. The war, the destruction of Konoha for a second time, Kurama... the seal. Time travel.

"You can relax, young man. I see you have a Leaf hitai-ate, though I do not recognize you as one of my own. We have you bound at the moment until you can explain yourself - you've made quite the ruckus. It's not every day I find a shinobi lying in a crater not far outside the village walls, after all."

Upon hearing a very familiar voice that he had not heard in so long – without the scratch of old age either – Naruto couldn't stop the pinpricks of tears that began to form in the corners of his eyes. He let out a barking laugh, "Haha... that you, old man?"

He could hear a few murmurs and quiet snickers around him, until the familiar voice of the Sandaime Hokage could be heard clearly once more. "I don't believe I'm quite that old yet, but if you recognize my voice without seeing me, I probably am who you think I am."

Naruto's lips quirked into a small smile. "Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Sandaime Hokage."

"You would be correct. The problem does remain, however, that I do not know who you are."

Naruto opened his eyes, letting the gathered teardrops run down the side of his face towards his ears. He was on his back, and was now staring straight up at a cloudless blue sky. He wanted to blurt out who he was and what he was doing so badly, but he had already discussed the problems of doing that with both Kurama and Darui.

Thinking about the Kyuubi caused him to take a second to check if somehow Kurama was still sealed inside him. It barely took a moment for him to realize that the consciousness of the bijuu was no longer with him, exactly as it had told him - even if a decent amount of its chakra remained. While this discovery made his spirits sag a little, he still had a mission to accomplish. Somehow.

"I have things I need to tell you," Naruto began, "but only you alone can hear them."

"I'm afraid that is not possible."

Naruto sighed internally, they had figured that would be a likely scenario. Unfortunately all of their scenarios had not had Naruto captured the moment he arrived. Breaking out of his bonds would have been possible eventually, but he was too tired to even bother at the moment. Not to mention it would completely dispel any degree of established trust, existent or otherwise.

Running through a mental checklist, Naruto began thinking of various offers, hoping that the legendary 'Professor' would agree to at least one of them, and not simply dump him into Torture and Interrogation. The blond had begun looking around, moving his head left and right. There were only a handful of ANBU around him, but not too close. The Sandaime was behind him, above where his head was resting, so he'd have to move his head about in an awkward manner in order to see the man.

Other than that he idly noted that he was in what appeared to be a crater in the middle of the forest. Whatever happened upon his arrival must have put Konoha into a state of alert.

"Are Jiraiya, Orochimaru, or Tsunade around?"

There was a moment of silence before the Hokage told him that they were out on village business.

"What about Hatake Sakumo?"

Even more silence followed, until Sarutobi answered him carefully, his voice beginning to show signs of aggression. "I'm not sure what your aim is, young man, but I'm not going to tell you about any of the shinobi in my care."

Nodding to himself, Naruto figured that would be the case. He was trying to determine exactly how far back he had come, but that could probably wait until after he had gained trust... if that was even possible at this point.

"Gather one or two other people you trust the most, and a Yamanaka that you trust as well. If you want to have others around just in case, that is fine – but I can only speak of what I know to those who you trust implicitly. You can keep me bound the entire time, if you wish."

There were many moments of silence, but Naruto knew the Hokage was communicating with his ANBU as he saw many of them make hand signs that he had become very familiar with. They were going to move him into a structure nearby that was outside the walls of Konoha.

"We'll be moving you someplace nearby, and I will gather those I trust most, like you say. I assume your desire for a Yamanaka is so that they can tell me if you are being truthful?"

"Yes. If Inoichi is available, he's the one I would trust the most. But I understand if that is not possible."

The Hokage hummed for a moment, then walked around to Naruto's side so the blond could see him for the first time. He definitely looked much younger than when Naruto saw him last, before his death.

"You should sleep for now, young man."

Before he could understand what was happening, the Hokage had made a hand sign. Naruto's eyes focused on what seemed to be a couple falling feathers before quickly dozing off into a dreamless sleep.

Naruto wasn't sure how much time had passed before he had fully regained consciousness, considering it looked as if they were in some earthen bunker. The only lights in the room came from torches on the walls, and while they were bright, he didn't have the faintest idea if the sun was still up in the sky. He was just in one big room with a single door.

Glancing around, he noted that Sarutobi was in his full Hokage battle gear, and was standing with his arms crossed as he chatted with a much younger looking Shimura Danzo, who was in traditional Jonin attire.

In a nearby corner was a younger man, who Naruto was barely able to recognize as a young, probably mid-teens aged Yamanaka Inoichi. The young man was currently writing in a notepad, otherwise oblivious to other goings on in the otherwise empty room.

Looking at his own situation, he became aware that his arms and legs were bound in iron to a large metal chair and that the bindings were lined with suppression seals, likely to keep his chakra down. They did - as he couldn't summon much - but they likely could not contain the regenerating chakra of the Kyuubi that he could still feel within himself, or that of nature which gave power to his senjutsu.

Trying to make himself a little more comfortable, he leaned forward and stretched a bit, which seemed to immediately gain Danzo's attention.

"Hiruzen. He's awake."

That was enough for the Hokage to quickly look at him, as well as for Inoichi to stop what he was doing and stare at him too, albeit somewhat nervously.

"I'm afraid you've awakened faster than I expected. The last person I called on has not arrived yet."

Naruto tried to shrug, but with his arms securely fastened it probably didn't look like much more than a twitch. "It's fine. I've got nothing but time anyway."

That caused Hiruzen to chuckle, if nothing else. "Indeed. Do you have a name I could call you?"

"You can call me Naruto for now. I'll tell you my clan name once I know you trust me a little bit."

"Very well, Naruto. That sounds fair."

There was barely a moment of silence before the heavy door to the room opened, and another older looking male walked through the door. At first, Naruto held the brief spark of hope that perhaps Kakashi had actually survived and made it into the past as well, but that idea was immediately quelled when he realized that the man actually seemed to be taller than he remembered Kakashi being, and his hair didn't appear to defy gravity like his sensei's did.

The man nodded at both Danzo and Hiruzen, then his gaze wandered over towards where Naruto was bound. There was no spark of recognition in the man's eyes, not that Naruto was expecting one.

"Very well, Naruto. Since we are all here now, perhaps you can appease a bit of my curiosity and tell me if you know who who everyone in this room is."

Naruto nodded slowly, then moved his gaze from one person to the next, saying all of their names. The three that had never met him previously all looked at him with various degrees of surprise, from Inoichi's utter confusion, Sakumo's stony face of indifference, to Danzo's very slight eyebrow twitch.

"So now that we've established that you know who all of us are even without us saying a word about our identities, perhaps you can now answer us as to why you appeared outside of Konoha's walls in the middle of a large crater. You wear the insignia of the Uzumaki and have a Leaf hitai-ate, but as I mentioned previously, I have never seen you before in my life."

Naruto sighed and let his head droop, then chuckled. "You probably won't believe me, which is why I asked you to bring a Yamanaka. But I'm from the future."

There was an eerie silence that fell over the assembled group, until Danzo leaned towards Sarutobi and whispered a few words that Naruto couldn't quite catch. The Hokage nodded, then asked another question.

"Exactly... how far into the future, Naruto?"

"It depends on when it is now. I was born a little over a year after the end of the Third Shinobi War. I'm nineteen now, so it's been at least that long since the end of that war."

Sarutobi looked at Danzo, then at Sakumo, and waited for both of them to nod at him in turn before facing Naruto once again. "Sand and Rock have had a few skirmishes recently, but there hasn't been any declarations as of yet. The second war ended a scant few years ago. It seems we are right to prepare for another one."

The blond nodded slowly. "Sand won't be much of an issue early on and later allies with us, but Konoha didn't get involved until a lot of the battles between Sand and Rock happen in Rain. Konoha will have to declare to protect our minor nation allies of Waterfall and Grass, and while Rock uses a small amount of their forces to keep Sand occupied, they start to focus on us. We also have a few skirmishes with Kumo, but nothing like during the Second Great War."

Danzo's rough voice – not nearly as rough as Naruto remembered from the few times he heard it, but it was still somewhat gravelly – posed the next question. "If you were not alive during that time, how do you know the specific details about what happened?"

Naruto gave the war hawk a sharp glance. "History is written by the victor, isn't it?"

That got a chuckle out of the three grown men in the room, all of them offering nods of varying degrees. Danzo even smiled a bit, which is something he didn't ever remember seeing before, not that he had many memories of the man.

"So we win, then?"

Naruto looked at Sakumo, who was currently giving him a kinder stare than he expected from anyone so far in this time period. "Yes, we win. Though I think I should keep as much secret about that as I can until the information is needed. This way if as little as possible changes, I'll know what's coming and we can prepare."

Sarutobi didn't look too enthused about Naruto withholding any information, but both Danzo and Sakumo seemed to think that was the best course of action, if their respective smirk and smile were any indication.

Instead of speaking further, Sarutobi motioned for Inoichi to come forward. The younger man did so – Naruto wasn't too sure of Inoichi's current age, but he looked to be in his mid to late teens.

"Naruto, I can only begin to guess that you know of Inochi in the future. As my first amount of trust that I will extend to you, I have called him here. Since you asked for him, that means you know what his capabilities are, correct?"

The blond nodded, then focused on the mind walker. "I'll try to concentrate on my most recent memories, especially ones where I remember talking to you in the future. It should make it easier, right?"

Inoichi murmured an affirmative, then grabbed a nearby chair and sat in front of the time traveling shinobi. Making familiar hand signs, he murmured the name of his technique and held his forehead.

After having someone to share his mindscape with for so long, Naruto knew exactly what it felt like to have someone rooting around in his head. He did his best to line up his most recent memories about his time travels in his mind, then present them in some manner that Inoichi would be able to see and understand clearly.

It didn't take nearly as long as he thought it might, as Inoichi appeared to be very skilled even now. What barely felt like two or three minutes later, Inoichi suddenly inhaled sharply and gave Naruto a rather solemn look, then immediately turned to face his Hokage. "He's telling the truth, Hokage-sama. I saw quite a few of his memories, and they all match up. I did see what looked to be yourself in the future, as well as... myself."

"Could they perhaps be carefully constructed memories?"

Inoichi shook his head. "They are in the part of his mind where the rest of his memories are, and not things like daydreams. Anything he speaks of did happen."

"I see." The Hokage rubbed at his chin for a moment. "Well, Naruto, it would seem that you are who you say you are... though I am unsure if that is good or bad. What could have possibly possessed you to travel back in time?"

Naruto frowned, looking at the old Hokage that he remembered, other than the fact that now the man didn't look nearly quite as old as he used to. "We lost the Fourth Great War."

"What? How?" This time it was Danzo who spoke before any of the others. Sarutobi and Inoichi both looked stricken, while Sakumo seemed more melancholy.

"We lost because of a lot of internal strife and issues after the near death of the Godaime Hokage. We didn't have the necessary leadership during the beginning of the war effort, and most of our initial efforts were stalled. Madara managed to control all except one of the bijuu, and with no Senju to oppose him, the United Shinobi Army was gradually worn down and whittled away through attrition."

All of the men in front of him paled as he began to talk, and there were gasps at the mention of Madara. He knew if nothing else, that would get their attention. Stopping Madara was his number one objective, after all.

"I came back in time to stop Madara. He's a power hungry madman that believes he alone has the right to rule the world because of his eyes. His final plan was to put everyone in the Elemental Nations in a genjutsu so that he would control our lives so that there will be peace, even if it is a fake one. All of the Nations banded together against him because none of us wanted to live our lives as puppets."

"Do you have a plan for stopping him?"

Everyone turned to look at Sakumo, and Naruto noted that it was the first words the man had spoken the entire time. "Unfortunately, that's what I came to the past to figure out. I need to get stronger, somehow... in order to stop him. We figured that if I could also somehow help make Konoha and our allies stronger in the past, it would be more able to stand up against him in the future."

Danzo and Sakumo both nodded slowly, though Sarutobi seemed to accept everything Naruto was saying with a grim smile.

Naruto continued, "There are some things that I can tell all of you, however there are probably other things that I should only pass by the old man first before we decide on what to do."

"Agreed." Sarutobi accepted that, appearing relieved, and ignoring Naruto's latest 'old man' comment. Sakumo and Inoichi both nodded, the latter probably believing he wouldn't have any say on what was to come anyway. Danzo, on the other hand, didn't look terribly happy but still seemed accepting, much to Naruto's curiosity. He didn't have much interaction with the man before, but he'd heard plenty from Sai after the temporary Hokage's death.

The Hokage made a gesture, and much to Naruto's surprise, Inoichi moved forward and began to release the bindings that held him attached to the chair. As he was doing that, Sakumo talked for the second time.

"So, Naruto... what was your ranking in the Konoha of the future?"

Naruto shrugged and grinned, "Officially? I don't think I ever made it above genin, at least not on paper."

"That's it? Why was a mere genin trusted with such an important job?" Danzo's exclamation seemed to surprise Hiruzen, who quickly shot his friend a strange glance.

"Because I was the last leader of the United Shinobi Army."

Danzo continued speaking, undaunted, "While we can have Inoichi verify that you are, that merely deflects my question. If you were in fact a genin, why was someone of your rank placed in charge?"

The blond chuckled as he stood up for the first time, rubbing his wrists and forearms. He glanced at Inoichi quickly before speaking towards the others present. "I know I trust Inoichi, but do you want him to hear what I have to say?"

"It's fine."

"Very well." Naruto took a deep breath, then stared straight into the eyes of Sarutobi. "My name is Uzumaki Naruto. The third Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi no Youko, the first full master of Toad senjutsu, the unofficial Rokudaime Hokage of Konoha, and the third Supreme Commander of the United Shinobi Army of the Elemental Nations."

A/N: My pen name on another fanfic site called YourFanFiction is still Paradox Jast. On DeviantArt, it's infinityparadox.

Some things of note:

- For those of you familiar with my works, this is another fic that starts with shorter chapters and they get longer as the story continues.

- Thank you to all my betas from my village in Billy vs Snakeman, and Denim88.

- Progress is being made on Fire Shadow, and I've got 2 chapters finished of a new Harry Potter fic.