Thirteen Orphans and Four Gates

Iruka pulled his surviving students around him, holding them as many cried for their dead family. Naruto, Sasuke, and Shino seemed to be the ones handling this the best. As far from what he could tell, this band of thirteen orphans were the only ones left in all of Konoha. A group called Akatsuki had attacked Konoha and destroyed everything, all to get the Kyuubi.

The container of said demon had actually been the one part that helped them win the day. While Iruka was busy getting the academy students in his care to the false safety of the caves, Naruto had slipped away and watched at the only man he considered a grandfather figure was cut down by the invaders.

After that, the battle had changed from a one sided slaughter, to a one sided massacre in Konoha's favor. Naruto ripped through to four tails of Kyuubi's chakra, and began shredding through the enemy. Only one was left in the end, when Naruto finally slowed his destructive rampage.

The man, known as Tobi by his colleagues had called him was still breathing, despite having half his body ripped apart by the Kyuubi. His final words had been disturbing to say the least. "I... should... have... gone... lowest... first..."

Sasuke looked at the corpse of his older brother silently, he had wanted to kill the murderer of his clan, but now he owed that dobe Naruto. He would have to think about how to repay him later. But for now he had to remain strong for the broken members of his class. They'd have to figure out what they would do. They could possibly rebuild Konoha, but that would take forever, and they'd never be able to be as strong as they had been.

Something caught the failed avenger's attention, in the remains of Itachi's cloak was a piece of paper. "The Dimensional Gates..." Sasuke read off curiously as he pulled the paper out. "Length, Depth, Width, and Time?"

=Five years later =

After many ordeals, the thirteen orphans found themselves facing the temporal gate. They knew that in order to activate the power of the gate, one of them would have to remain behind and shut the gate. All of them knew that if they were the one to remain they would be the only one who didn't know the adventures they had and the bonds that they held with each other.

None of them wanted to suffer that, but each knew that none of them wanted to put the others through that pain. The debate about the one who would remain raged between the group. Sasuke was first, then Sakura, who was countered by Tenten, and so on, until such time as almost all of them were embroiled in the argument. All of them but one.

One stood back as the gates opened wide, while the others completely ignored it. Two red lengths of red chakra formed out of his backside, and Naruto used them to shove all the squabbling thirteen through the gates. Only Iruka managed to react in time to stop himself from falling through by clinging to the edge of the gate. "Naruto! Don't do this!"

"I'm sorry sensei... but I've seen too much... when you get back... buy me some ramen..." Naruto answered sadly while he pried off Iruka's fingers and sent him spiraling into the void. Turning away, he began the process of closing the gates. While they slowly closed, he felt a calling from his tenant, and decided to humor the fox demon. Finding himself in front of the massive sealed gates, he sighed heavily. "What do you want Kyuubi?"

"Let me out... if this world is doomed already, would it be so bad that I get out?" the smiling fox asked with evil intent rolling off it in waves. "Let me destroy this world!"

Naruto crossed his arms over his chest and sighed. "I do that... and I die... might as well since everyone I care about is either dead or back in the past..." Walking forward, he yanked off the seal his father's spirit had long ago warned him against removing. "Been nice knowing ya fuzzbutt."

"You're not too terrible yourself brat..." Kyuubi snarled as he poured out of Naruto's body, it turned around to look at the cooling form that had been its prison for this past sixteen years. Without a second thought it turned away and flicked a tail, sending the brat into the portal just before the gate slammed shut with a loud clang.

The last thing that Naruto saw as death was slowly clawing at him was Kyuubi smile sadly at him, and the gates close before darkness took him. The next thing he knew, he was waking up in the orphanage, staring up at the ceiling. If he had to guess by the cracks in the ceiling, and the cold breeze blowing in, he was four years old, and it was the day before he ran away.

His plans to leave were curtailed later that day when a young chuunin, recently assigned to the academy came to adopt him. The familiar scar on the chuunin's nose brought a smile to his face, despite the people warning him against his choice.

There was only one answer Naruto could think of at that moment. Running at the chuunin, he hugged him tightly and let out a happy laugh. He was going home.