Full Summary

Seven years after their unwilling nomination and subsequent ascension to the Kage seat, Co-kages Shikako and Kakashi (But let's be honest, it's more like Shikako's the Hokage and Kakashi is her assistant Hokage) have just about had enough of Naruto's reluctance to finally relieve them of the hat that neither of them ever wanted. In retaliation, they decide to assign him a genin team… It goes about as well as you might expect.

Or

If the result of assigning Naruto a genin team is the lucky sevens and co. being catapulted through space and time into an alternate universe twenty-four years in the past, then it looks like Shikako and Kakashi are going to be stuck with the hat for a while longer yet.

Authors Note: So, I already uploaded this onto Ao3 a while ago, but I figured I might as well try putting it out onto FF as well. This is my first time using this site to publish anything, so if I make any mistakes please let me know (as well as how to correct them) and I'll do my best to fix them. I included the full summary above, as it was too long for FF.

TO BE CLEAR: This is a recursive fiction inspired by some forum posts made by maiarichard476 and Neutral_Zone, who were themselves inspired by the fic Dreaming of Sunshine by Silver Queen. Silver Queen has given permission to their community to write recursive fanfiction based upon their work.

I DO NOT OWN DREAMING OF SUNSHINE OR NARUTO

I am merely making use of their characters, settings, and themes to tell a different story.

If anyone would like to use my own work as a base/inspiration for a fic, you are more than welcome to do so, just credit me in the beginning and maybe send me the link so that I can read it too, I'm always looking for more DOS recursive.

Well, I think that covers all of my bases, so with that out of the way, on to the fic!

Chapter 1: The Seal that Started it All

"Naruto, you should know better than anyone else who doesn't specialize in seals just how dangerous it is to provide a novice seal user with material more advanced than what they are equipped to handle. This, Naruto. This is what happens."

She continued on for a while, though her words soon devolved into unintelligible mumbles as she became more focused on drafting a transfer seal.

Naruto scratches the back of his head sheepishly, "Hey! How was I supposed to know that something like this would happen?! Your seals never backfired like this!"

At this statement a small snort escapes Sasuke, which he quickly tries to cover up with a cough, though apparently not quickly enough if the glare Shikako throws at him is anything to go by.

"I assigned you a genin team so you would learn to be more responsible, not so that you could teach the next generation our special brand of recklessness." Shikako says, graciously choosing to ignore Sasuke's reaction for the moment.

Wishing to avoid allowing the argument to devolve any further, Kakashi smoothly cuts in, "Maah, Naruto, Shikako is hardly a good example of your average seal user."

At Kakashi's words, Naruto deflates, nodding morosely in agreement, prompting Shikako to once again shoot her teammates (and sensei) an irritated glare before turning her attention back to disarming the… monstrosity that Naruto's genin had managed to concoct.

"There's so much wrong with this seal that it's honestly kind of amazing. How exactly you managed to mangle a basic barrier seal this badly without it exploding is a mystery to me, but even more impressive is that even with how badly you mangled it you also somehow managed to unintentionally balance all the components you messed with and have essentially given the seal an entirely different function from its original. I still haven't figured out exactly what that function is, by the way. And this part right here, why would you include the Kanji for time in a personal barrier? It dos- wait, did you really try and integrate the timing and radius matrices of an explosion seal into a barrier seal?! They work off of completely different bases, you moron! What were you even thinking?!" Shikako says to the genin currently sitting upon her desk.

Said genin pouts at her Hokages admonishment, "I wanted to use chakra scalpels, but I don't have the control, so I thought if I wrote out barrier seals on my arms and just activated them while fighting, they'd do basically the same thing." She mumbles.

Shikako closes her eyes and breathes in slowly before exhaling in an attempt to calm herself down, "Inscribing untested seals onto your persons is possibly one of the worst ideas I've ever heard. We test these things for a reason, Irumi-san. Without testing you had no way of knowing if or how these could have malfunctioned. What if they cut your arms off rather than your opponents? What if the way you structured it also allowed for your opponent to activate the seal? Thats not even considering the variety in barriers - what if you'd chosen one that was meant to be used offensively? I know for a fact my notes contained the formula for a barrier that forms a self-contained vacuum. When we're done Naruto will walk you home. When you get there, I expect you to hand him all of the research notes and reference material concerning sealing that was lent to you. I am also going to require you attend and complete the academy's remedial sealing safety course before you are allowed to practice sealing again, and even then, you are not permitted to do so without the express permission and supervision of either your sensei or another Jonin. Am I clear, Irumi-san?" Shikako said, looking up towards the genin in question.

Irumi's upper lip wobbled a bit at the reprimand, but she did her best to keep the wet shakiness out of her voice as she replied, "Yes, Hokage-sama. I understand. I am sorry for the trouble I have caused you." She said, turning her head away in shame.

Shikako exhaled once more. Finally finished with the transfer seal, she placed it on the genin's abdomen before activating it, causing the swirling ink lines that had stained the girl's skin to move towards the paper before reforming upon it. Satisfied that she had removed the seal in its entirety, Shikako addressed the girl once more, "Irumi-san, please step outside and wait for a moment, I need to have a word with your sensei before he walks you home."

The genin hopped down from where she had been sitting on the desk and bowed to her leader before departing (though the room's occupants were slightly amused to note that she had entirely forgotten to do the same for Kakashi.).

Knowing it was now his turn to endure a reprimand (in full this time) from Shikako, Naruto braced himself before turning back to face her after assuring his student that he would join her soon. Only, instead of scolding him like he expected, Shikako seemed to be fully immersed in decoding the seal now that she could see it more fully expanded.

"Um, Shikako?" Naruto said hesitantly,

Instead of stopping to look at him like he expected, Shikako only hummed in acknowledgment. By now all three men were fairly curious as to just what aspect of the seal had managed to so thoroughly capture her attention. Rather than interrupt her, they simply moved closer in hopes of better interpreting the mumbled words that came from her mouth as she fell deeper and deeper into her analysis of the seal. The focus with which Shikako regarded a seal that was unfamiliar to her was both intimidating and mesmerizing, as well as something they not dare interrupt once it had reached this point. Perhaps it was because of this that none of them were able to react to the sudden activation of the seal in time to escape it.

—

~1 hour 30 minutes later~

Tired of waiting and wondering if she could go home yet or if she still had to wait for Naruto-sensei to finish his discussion with Hokage-sama, Irumi decided to chance interrupting and possibly agitating the Hokage even more than she already had by knocking on her door to make her inquiry. A minute passed with no answer, so she knocked harder, but still no answer. Knowing that simply barging into the Hokage's office without permission would only earn her the Hokage's and an official reprimand, Irumi decided to ask the Hokage's secretary instead, hoping he might either be able to give her permission to leave or ask the Hokage for it.

Upon hearing her request, the secretary gained a thoughtful look before flipping through what Irumi could only assume was the Hokage's appointment book. Apparently satisfied with whatever it was he saw, the secretary asked her to take a seat while he went to speak with the Hokage. Nodding in acceptance, Irumi did just that, content to wait once more. Only, not even three minutes after her initial request suddenly the reception area was flooded with darkly clothed masked shinobi (ANBU, her mind supplied) who without a word grabbed her by her biceps before shunshining her into a blank walled room containing only a table and chair.

Time passed weirdly in the blank room, sometimes it seemed fast and other times it felt unbearably slow. The only thing of note to happen was the appearance of a Yamanaka asking to receive entry to her mind. Being the good shinobi that she was, Irumi didn't bother asking why before accepting the request (in her heart she knew that for all that it may have been worded as such this was not actually a request - they would enter her mind with or without her permission, the only thing her cooperation or lack thereof would determine was how much this was going to hurt). Having the Yamanaka enter her mind was like blacking out after taking a hard hit to the head, she was simply awake, out, then awake again almost as if no time had passed.

Upon returning home after being released from the blank room, Irumi would come to learn that almost three days had passed since her sealing accident. Really, she found the entire thing quite confusing; it would only be almost a week after her release that she would come to learn that the Hokage, Sensei, Uchiha-san, and Hatake-sama were all currently missing. It didn't take much to piece together the reason for her stay in the blank room after that.

That's all for chapter 1! Leave a review and let me known what you think, I love hearing from you guy! Thanks for reading!