AN: My time travel theory is fucking weird. If Kamui was real, it might well work, though. Actually, no. Not a chance. I'm a stupid fuck. Have you ever read a fanfiction so emotionally brutal that you have become physically STRESSED afterwards? I just did. I'm so on edge right now. I'm like, angry. But not angry. Just angry and jittery and stressed. It's really strange. It's like, midnight. I have an exam in the morning. Also, this chapter is shorter than average. But I'm also pretty sure it came out sooner than average. Either way, shit happens. I'm almost done with the next chapter, so I'll get that up ASAP. Anyway, please enjoy this chapter! I hope you like it.

Naruto had left after a couple hours.

He'd said nothing more, sitting on that hill. Sasuke could tell he was laying back, staring at the same sky he was. Naruto did not sleep, as far as he could tell, and he left an hour or so before sunrise. The blond had stumbled away, his walk slow and heavy. Not Sasuke nor his team had slept the whole time he was there, though Suigetsu had come close once or twice. It was unsurprising. Naruto's presence had put all of them on edge; it wasn't hard to tell that the boy was a shinobi, and one that knew Sasuke no less- laying right above them.

Once the boy had staggered out of earshot, there was a deafening silence in the camp. Sasuke did not turn from his position looking outwards onto the landscape to see his teammates.

"You knew the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki?" Karin asked. Her voice was hesitant, but she'd been unable to contain the question. She'd felt, even beneath the strength of a cleverly done tightener seal, the licking, horrendous chakra that resided in the boy that had sought out Sasuke. Yet, the chakra of the boy was warm, liquid gold that made Karin feel safe even as she merely sensed it's presence. She could not help but think why such a kind, resonating chakra would have any interest in the cold, blackened chakra that ran through Sasuke.

Sasuke said nothing for a minute, before moving slightly. "He's persistent."

Though Karin knew that it was intriguing enough that Sasuke still had old bonds that he had that were still linching him back to them, she knew the question she was pondering the most was why Sasuke hadn't killed the boy, murdered the person so obviously irritating him, cut out his throat and shut him up forever.

For a single moment, Karin thought she felt a flicker of humanity underneath Sasuke's cold, hard chakra, flowing around his channels like venomous sludge. In the next instant, it was dead, and the cave was quiet once again.

Naruto returned back to the Cat's Inn, knees covered in grass stains and hands coated with mud. He felt stupid for having had such a spontaneous outburst of rage and upset, and the walk back had been long and slow. Naruto didn't know what to do, but when he came back Shikamaru was waiting in reception for him with a lit cigarette. It was late.

"We're sharing a room. Sakura's got her own. Come on." He nodded at Naruto, turning and walking past the receptionist who bowed respectfully as they made their way upstairs. Naruto smiled at the woman as he stepped up quietly. They reached their room, a soft traditional room that had all the features of a traditional japanese home but was decorated with expensive blue silk and trimmer with gold fastenings. Shikamaru kneeled down at the table, settling on a soft blue cushion. Naruto sat down opposite to him, and he stubbed out his cigarette butt on the ashtray. Shikamaru looked him in the eyes.

"Naruto," he said. "When are you going to tell Sakura?"

Naruto flinched. All hope that Shikamaru didn't know was dead.

The boy took out a cigarette, sparking his lighter and lighting the end. "You're really going to hurt her if you don't tell her." He let out a swirling mass of smoke, spinning out of his mouth slowly. "You're getting sick, Naruto." I don't think you have long, Naruto heard in the silence afterwards. He withdrew a page of paper from his notebook and quickly wrote,

Soon. I don't know what to say. Perhaps Naruto's biggest fear was disappointing his lifelong promise. No matter how many times Sakura lied to him, telling him that she didn't need that promise anymore, Naruto could never believe her. He had to bring Sasuke home.

If he didn't live to do that...

"Stop putting it off." Shikamaru inhaled deeply on the cigarette. "I'm not going to pity you, because I know that's not what you'd want. But, Naruto..." He blew a ring of smoke, before averting his gaze elsewhere, expression unreadable. "I'll miss you. The news hit me hard. But it will hit Sakura harder. She has to hear it from you first."

I can't tell her. What do I say?

"The truth," Shikamaru said. "What else?"

Naruto sighed, the noise a deep puff of air. He leaned on the table, clutching unfamiliar dark locks in his hands as he stared at the table. He nodded at Shikamaru, and they sat in understanding silence as a woman in a blue kimono arrived with sake. They got comfortably drunk into the night, Shikamaru talking briefly about things as Naruto scribbled furiously, his scrawl becoming increasingly illegible until the sun rose.

He would tell her tomorrow.

Morning came quicker than Naruto would have liked, and he made a soundless groan as he rolled off the bed he had haphazardly passed out on. The floor was also harder than he would have preferred.

"Troublesome." He felt Shikamaru nudging him in the side with his foot.

Naruto dragged himself up, getting changed without paying much heed to Shikamaru at all, mouthing to ask where Sakura's room was before heading there, barefoot, in his civilian clothes. It was only down the hall. He knocked, and he heard a brief shuffling inside of the room.

"Naruto? Is that you?"

It took a moments silence for Sakura to realise the stupidity of her question. She unlocked the door, dressed in a lavish bathrobe. She smiled, opening the door to allow him in. Sakura sat down at her table, allowing Naruto to sit down before she offered him some tea. He nodded, and Sakura made him a small cup of ocha. It woke her up a bit.

"So, what is it you're up so early for?"

Naruto paused, bringing out his notebook and setting it on the table. With downcast eyes, he wrote, I have some big news for you. So, please don't be sad.

Sakura looked puzzled. "C'mon, Naruto, just tell me."

It's not that easy for me not to be scared. Sakura-chan, I'm dying. I'm getting sicker by the day. I was predicted by 2 years, but I personally think much shorter than that. Please... please don't be sad.

His requests were in vain. Sakura looked at him, eyes filled with emotions he couldn't even begin to comprehend, tears sliding silently down her cheeks as she closed her eyes tightly, gritting her teeth together. Naruto knew she was choking back sobs, screams-

She opened her mouth to speak, but let out a wail instead, a pathetic sob. "Naruto," she whispered. "Oh, Naruto."

Her arms wrapped tightly around his neck, tears wetting his shoulder. Sakura was shaking, her hands shaking the most as she clutched to Naruto desperately. It was a solid moment, a moment that was most certainly present, most certainly there. Naruto felt like his whole life was crashing down around him. Sakura's tears made the situation a million times more real. He was dying. Fading. Falling into an ocean covered by a thick layer of ice, and everyone was banging on the ice, trying to break it and begging him to swim up. But it was so cold, his arms were numb, and he could do nothing but sink, like a dead animal, like he was dead already, dead, dead, dead.

The next week passed uneventfully.

Taka did nothing more than wait. Waiting constantly for the scroll to be finished. Karin would regularly go collect food and fresh water, and her natural abilities ensured they were aware of any intruders. There were none; Naruto had been the first and the last. Suigetsu had resorted to playing card games with Juugo, but Sasuke had not done very much. Early in the morning, he would get up and train in the woods beyond the mountain, and occasionally Suigetsu would join him. Sasuke knew he couldn't let himself get rusty; it was rare that Taka – or Hebi, as it were – had ever remained motionless, waiting for something, so it was vital that Sasuke did not let himself weaken.

Naruto, Sakura and Shikamaru had passed the week by walking up Chiro's most glorious mountains and cliffs, looking at the most beautiful views. Yugito had guided them to the most breathtaking points of them all. It was truly impressive, and it did nothing but assist their guise to be doing such a thing. Sometimes, Naruto felt very small and insignificant in comparison to the massive landscapes.

Tomorrow, they would visit the fuuinjutsu master, and that night, if he was alive and incompliant, they would steal it, and leave a few days afterwards so as to appear inconspicuous. Though there were somewhat larger problems at hand, he'd spent more time than he'd have liked to admit wishing that he'd come a day earlier, that the mission had started a day earlier, so that he could see Sasuke, and... well, Naruto was unsure of the details, but he was sure it would have come naturally – even without words.

"The fuuinjutsu master." Karin had walked quickly back. "He wants to see you now, Sasuke-kun."

Sasuke's eyes did the closest thing to lighting up that Karin had ever seen on the blank-faced boy. It had been a mere week or so, but Sasuke hadn't done much but wait. She was sure that somehow, they were being watched by that Madara person – the single, cold eye of someone all-seeing. It made her feel uncomfortable being in his presence. She'd appreciated this week, though she was sure that now the fuuinjutsu master was done; she'd appreciated the quiet relaxation, as carefully on-edge as they had been. Sasuke hadn't looked peaceful, but he'd looked far less empty than he had beforehand. Emptiness, and hatred. Those were the only two things Karin had ever really seen on Sasuke, especially recently.

What had surprised her was that when Sasuke's friend had arrived, not only had Karin not killed him, she had seen something... else in those eyes, aside from intense hatred, and emptiness. An irritation, almost. It was nothing pleasant, but it was something different. And no one seemed to invoke anything at all, really.

Karin decided that this Naruto boy must have been special. She knew she, Suigetsu and Juugo had all silently concluded that this Kyuubi Jinchuuriki was indeed the one that had saved the whole of Konoha. He was interested in Sasuke, of all people – a mighty, selfless hero, who had saved the entire village and spared even the enemy, and he was looking for Sasuke. Murderer, cold-blooded avenger. She wondered if he knew that Sasuke would never change. He would never become kind-hearted, even if he had once been. Karin knew that Sasuke was empty, his family, his brother, his everything scraped from his insides, leaving behind only a husk of a man; no, a boy.

Karin wondered if this Naruto knew that his friend was dead.

How sad, she thought.

Sasuke took a cloak, and, putting it around himself, began running down the side of the mountain. The rest of Taka took this as a cue for them to do the same, and picked up their belongings and put on their individual cloaks before rushing after him. As they arrived at the home of the fuunijutsu master, just outside of the town, Sasuke turned to them.

"Stay outside. Suppress your chakra."

Karin nodded, and they waited outside. Suigetsu looked at Karin.

"If this seal kills him, what will you do?"

The thought made Karin's blood run cold.

Suigetsu had obviously been studying her reaction; grinning, he shook his head, leaning back. "You're an idiot. Caring about someone like Sasuke." He unscrewed a bottle of water, downing the whole thing in a couple of seconds. "He'll just kill you, in the end."

"Good morning, Sasuke."

Sasuke nodded to the man, sitting down beside him. The fuuinjutsu master turned to him, eyes as bright as before. He looked Sasuke dead in the eyes, something Sasuke did not see often – especially in civilians.

"I've finished the seal." The man lifted the massive scroll and gave it to Sasuke. "Your time to complete it is running out. I finished it quickly for that reason."

"What do you mean?"

The man shakes his head. "You'll understand soon, but there was a circumstance that even Itachi could not have predicted." He gave off the same eerie, unnerving aura that he did last time.

Sasuke was irritated by the man's steadfast decision to not divulge any kind of information at all.

"Your brother... was an interesting boy," the man said abruptly. "Always thinking of you. Above all else."

Sasuke felt sick, his stomach turning. He didn't want to think about it. He didn't want to think about his brother's sacrifice. It made him feel sick. As though he was going to throw up right then. His sacrifice, how people had used him as a pawn. The ordeal itself made him feel ill, sick with anger and fury.

"Thank you," Sasuke said, bowing and heading for the door. He stopped before he reached the door, massive scroll in hand, turning to the wrinkled, aged figure. "What is your name?"

The elderly man grinned, a surprisingly kind smile coming across his face. "I'm afraid that's another boring story, child. Best of luck, Sasuke."

Sasuke had lain out the scroll end to end. It was very long, and Suigetsu let out a whistle. "What a pain in the ass. Can you imagine writing this much crap? I'd rather die."

The Uchiha took a glance at his team. He turned to them. "Get down the mountain. We don't know what this seal might do."

"Y-Yes, Sasuke-kun." Karin turned to leave, Juugo and Suigetsu to her side.

"Wait."

They looked at Sasuke, and the youngest living Uchiha descendent nodded his head at them. "Thank you."

Sasuke didn't need to say anymore for them all to understand what he meant. That he was giving them an honest, genuine thank you, in case he never saw them again. They nodded back, Karin giving him a blushing smile and Juugo giving him a small, kind grin. He'd expected the most animated response from Suigetsu, but the boy nodded solemnly and said, "It's nothing."

They descended the mountain, and Sasuke felt a strange sort of longing seeing them go.

Before he could think about it, Sasuke cut his finger of blood and placed it on the largest kanji of the seal, feeding in a decent amount of chakra. A fantastic, spider-web like network of illuminations came from it, and then a small scroll appeared in the centre. The Uchiha opened it, and recognised his brother's fluent, but perfect handwriting once again.

"I am glad you decided to complete the seal, Sasuke.

This was the hardest thing I ever did. To do it, I had to make a consistent theory about time. The theory was, naturally, that time was not a flowing river, but rather an ocean full of currents. Multi-verses. Yet, I discovered that time is indeed space. And to travel within it, you cannot simply travel quickly- though that would take you forward in time, it is sadly impossible. I deliberated about this for a good amount of time.

I treated time like a material, and indeed, if you run a needle and thread through bunched up material, you will end up much further in time than your starting point.

To travel backwards, of course, you may theorise you cannot go any slower than simply stillness. This is a natural law, and therefore one cannot go backwards in time. It is a simple enough rule, but not one I intended to obey.

I decided that since one cannot go backwards, we will simply bring time forwards. I use 'simply' loosely... this was not a simple task.

I had to stretch out time whilst manipulating it so the perpetrator remained outside of time, in an isolated stretch. Easier said than done, however I discovered a way in which to manipulate seals to replicate the separate dimensional jutsu – Kamui – that the Sharingan perpetuates on victims, or objects. Such is a fascination of Uchiha Madara, who manipulates this jutsu in a fanatical way. You must first isolate a person, and then move time.

As you can imagine, this requires a colossal amount of chakra. I have accounted for this as well.

It is all so inanely complex. I spent years deliberating, and this is the simplest way I can perpetuate these ideas. The sealing itself is beyond human thought. It took years of logical thought to conjure mere lines of this jutsu.

You are no fool, Sasuke. By now, you must understand what I intend to do.

This is a mechanism by which to travel time. By this, the future will cease to be.

The method by which I am accounting for the chakra, is Naruto. The summon for Naruto will activate once the jutsu does, but there is a designated lag time for the two of you to consider your decisions. I cannot designate any more time than an hour, however. After this hour, the time travel jutsu will begin. Also, please remember that killing Naruto will completely botch the whole seal.

Naturally, since the new course of time will begin, the future will be erased, and with it, you and Naruto as well. Luckily, this is not an instantaneous process, for though things can be incredibly fast, time is a dense and long presence. By calculations I sought out from ancient civilian libraries, I expect the lag to be 1 day. This is a great amount of time, however this is the amount of time you and Naruto have to perpetuate any kind of change.

You may do anything with this. It is up to you.

For the purpose of accurate calculations, the time traveling date had to be pre-ordained. I could not travel to the date of Naruto's sealing, because interfering with the sealing of the Kyuubi could be lethal to the entire seal - as the power of bijuu is something that could be said to exist outside of time and natural logic. An unassailable force, especially since the seal is powered by the power of the Kyuubi itself.

I apologise, Naruto, that I could not save your parents. Know that Minato and Kushina indeed loved you, and they died for that cause. I can only give you thanks, for being the brother to Sasuke I could not be. Though he did not diverge from that path of darkness... you were a guiding light in his eyes. He chose to shut them.

I decided to designate the day as the day of the massacre. Please think wisely about your changes and their repercussions. Many things can have massive changes down the line, as time is a fickle thing.

One final rule:

Letting your past selves see you will have highly undesirable consequences. More specifically, if they recognise you, it may cause a cerebral paradox once the lag catches up with you. In short, you may inadvertedly kill them. I can only advise you try and keep tabs on where they are, and avoid them seeing you at all costs. Things associated with you aren't likely to cause an issue, however. It is the recognition that is the problem.

This is my final masterpiece. Please, repent in my stead.

Uchiha Itachi of Konohagakure"

Sasuke felt himself tackled to the ground in all his shock, an unfamiliar figure sitting atop his gut. Activating his Sharingan, he saw immediately that it was Naruto, looking into familiar eyes as the genjutsu dappled away around him. Naruto appeared to be trying to catch his attention – what, can he not talk? - but Sasuke felt his heart beating so fast. So fast, so fast -

He felt Naruto shaking him. He didn't care. He didn't care at all.

Naruto wasn't going to lie – the inability to speak was agonising. There was only so much you could really state via physical contact and glares – and Naruto had no fucking idea what was going on.

One minute, he's walking around the calm town of Chiro, and now he was on a mountain, no less, with a hysterical Sasuke. Well, not quite hysterical – strangely absent. He was laying down, silently crying, staring straight through Naruto. He had so many questions, a few being, how did I get here, or where the fuck am I, but number 1 being, why am I here? But, obviously, Naruto had mixed feelings about it. This was ultimately one of Naruto's goals. Normally, he would have taken advantage of it – normally. Naruto was already feeling the lethargic symptoms of his illness kicking in. The tiredness. It made his heart pound with worry. With upset. Sasuke had dispelled his genjutsu instantly, which was something he was unsurprised at.

He really had no clue at all what was going on. Naruto had no clue why Sasuke would want any kind of contact with him, let alone in this strangely vulnerable state of mind. Naruto had no idea what had just transpired to create such an abnormal situation. It was beyond bewildering.

Sasuke's silent crying stopped, his face contorting into an odd expression as he sat up, looking out at the landscape. Naruto followed Sasuke's gaze and found himself staring at the village of Chiro, and judging by what he could see, determined this was the mountain he had been stood on the other day. Naruto felt indignant, almost, that Sasuke hadn't even left Chiro in the first place. Then again, he might of. Naruto was completely unsure.

The Uchiha made eye contact with him, cold, empty eyes boring into his own as Naruto desperately tried to make any sense of the situation. Sasuke seemed to be deliberating about something or other, before he looked at the scroll beneath him, closed his eyes and said,

"I'm going back in time to change everything. It's a pain, but I guess I'll have to bring you, too."

AN: I'm sure you'll be pleased to know that after this chapter, I will finally tie up this part of the plot and will delve into the actual time-travel plot. I hope it will be of epic length, and I hope you will all enjoy it! Feel free to review. I need constructive criticism on my writing style, I'm constantly changing it. Also on the plot. So don't hesitate.