'italics' for thoughts

"bold" for jutsus

"normal" for speech

"bold and italic" for all summoned or tailed beasts.

"Jikuu Henshitsu no Jutsu!"*

The blond's left foot hit the scroll that he had had laid on the ground, as he was making the hand seals. He had his chakra uniformly spread all over his body.

"Jikuu Ankaa no Jutsu!"*

The redhead smashed his right foot on the scroll next to Naruto's, in the adjacent circle. In the meantime, everyone was channeling their chakra from one to the other in order to keep a link between them - Kakashi to Yamato, Yamato to Sakura, Sakura to Sai, Sai to Shikamaru, and Shikamaru to both Gaara and Naruto.

The next thing they remembered is black and daze.

"Hey, hey, is everybody okay?" the Rokudaime asked, looking with a slight frown at his colleagues who were scattered on the floor.

Gaara was the first one up after him. They had fallen a good two, three meters when they got teleported into the past, but Gaara didn't really sense the impact due to his sand always protecting him. "I'm fine." He rubbed the tattoo on his forehead.

"Naruto." a raspy, low voice spoke out. "We're going to mess things up. I'm not supposed to exist in this time."

"We're in the time of the Sage of the Six Paths?"

"Congratulations, you've got such good thinking skills," the Kyuubi laughed shortly.

Konoha's Orange Hokage looked around for a second, trying to see if there was anybody approaching. "For the moment, team One and team Two are not going to split up."

Shikamaru raised his eyes to Naruto, deducing that the jinchuuriki had talked with his tailed beast. He had to find out and think of a strategy to solve the problem as soon as he could.

"We are in the time of the Sage of the Six Paths. The tailed beasts do not exist yet, but we have the Juubi."

Shikamaru had his hands in that rectangular kind of shape he always makes when he concentrates, trying to think of what to do. "Ask the Kyuubi if there is any kind of immediate danger."

"No, there isn't, as long as Gaara can hold the Anchoring Technique. I will have to help him mold his chakra because he uses much more than he can mold at a time. But other than that, everything should be fine for the moment."

"Then, the only sensible thing we can do is find the Sage."

A slender figure appeared from the forest, without having made any sound. "I felt some... irregularities in this area." he explained, sitting down in the middle of the scattered shinobi. He looked at them as if nothing would disturb him, and studied their faces with some kind of interest. "I see we have quite an impressive Jinchuuriki here, being in total harmony with the tailed beast inside him." He appreciated shortly, looking at Naruto, as if he would expect to be told the situation. The blond stared blankly at the man for a second, before his head started to clear up.

"I am Naruto Uzumaki. Those are Hatake Kakashi, Haruno Saku-"

"I do not have the will to know you names. I only want to know why it is that you came back in time."

"Oh, yeah, about that..." Naruto explained in few words everything that he had learned about history - The Five Great Shinobi Countries, The Five Kage, The Tailed Beasts... What happened to Konoha, The Fire Country, and how they were now trying to make everything right. Surprisingly, the Sage lowered his head into a short bow, to Naruto, as a way to show respect. Naruto was puzzled, but made sure to remember to ask Shikamaru what was there that the Kage could respect about him.

"This Jikuu Henshitsu, you said it has two parts, right?"

The one to answer this question, though, was Shikamaru. "Yes. The first one is the Jutsu itself, that allows time travel and alteration, but it had to many risks, in case of usage, because it can cause loopholes and paradoxes. We had to find a way of keeping the present - or future, if you want - how it was when we left, in order not to modify ourselves, as well. Basically, the Anchor Jutsu isn't much of an anchor but it temporarily splits the time into two timelines, different one from the other."

"And when you let go of the initial timeline, you will no longer have people going back." The Sage countered.

"That is true, but that is also why we will make sure that, every time before we let go of the Anchor, we will make sure to send our future - or different-timeline - selves into the past, to do this again."

The Sage was a bit impressed - after all, five of them weren't even eighteen, one of them was reading porn (how could he, in such a situation?), and the only one who looked sane enough to him looked nearly dead because of sleep deprivation (even though the Sage didn't know that, Naruto snored loud enough to wake up an entire village; unfortunately, Yamato was the only one who didn't manage to find his solution to that).

He sighed and stood up.

"I have to show you something."

Thirty five minutes later, the Sage was holding a scroll in front of him.

"Rikudou Sennin*? What's this?"

The Sage looked at Naruto, waiting for him to look at it. The blond unfolded it, with a small frown. Then, he tucked it inside his Hokage robe, without saying a word. Shikamaru was going to ask about it later, but for the moment it didn't matter. He had to keep the roll of paper safe and away from unwanted eyes - not that there were many, in those times where shinobi were rarely seen, but better to be safe than sorry.

Jikuu Henshitsu no Jutsu - Space-Time Alteration Technique

Jikuu Ankaa no Jutsu - Space-Time Anchor Technique

Rikudou Sennin - Sage of the Six Paths