Prompt: time travel, fix it, wedlock, he falls first, love travel throughtime, technology involved.

POV: dual/first person (first try)

Timeline 1: Neji is dead. 7 years after fourth shinobi world war.

Timeline 2: After time travel. Shippuden after time skip, Sakura 16, Neji 17. (Hanabi 15, adjustment for the plot. War happened in Neji 19, I adjust a bit for the marriage age to be legitimate)

Author Note: If ASM is my old IP rewrite, this is the new story. All battles and war will be mention vaguely, not in detail.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto! For my plot, I'm making young marriages feel natural and legit in the shinobi world. Marrying young with parental consent usually happens between 16-18. Without it, the age is typically 18-21.

Prologue-The Volunteer

The Fourth Shinobi War left some serious scars that never really healed. It's been seven years, but I still feel the weight of losing people like Jiraiya-sama, the Third Hokage, Asuma-sensei, and Neji. The Uchiha massacre was tough on all of us, but for Naruto, losing Jiraiya and Neji hit especially hard. They were his mentor and best friend—guys he looked up to. Neji's sacrifice really shook him; he gave his life to save him and Hinata during the war. Naruto felt deeply that he owed the man something he could never repay.

I've lost count of how many times Naruto has used Edo Tensei just to bring Neji back for just a brief reunion. He couldn't bring back Jiraiya-sama since they never found his body, which made it even harder for him. But with Neji, he took any chance he could to reconnect— even he can't hear his voice. Each time he used that forbidden jutsu, I could see him breaking a little more inside as I scolded him about using dangerous techniques. For him, it wasn't just about breaking rules; it was about keeping the memory of his friend alive.

But Naruto still held on to hope that things could change. He spent years trying to figure out how to time travel—something that seemed impossible at first. He wasn't trying to alter our universe but rather hoped that he can find back Jiraiya's body and hope his fallen friend Neji could live on in another timeline. It was both admirable and heartrending.

Then came the day when his experiment finally worked. Hinata stood next to me in the lab as she cried tears of joy mixed with sadness when she realized what this meant—not just for her cousin but for all of us who still mourned him. In another universe, there was hope for redemption and maybe even a chance to reunite with those we loved and lost.

We were all gathered in this cramped room, trying to figure out who would be the brave soul to take on the mission. As I sat there, a sense of calm washed over me. The decision was made—I would go.

Naruto, as Hokage, couldn't leave his duties. And Hinata? Well, she had her hands full with Boruto and Himawari. Honestly, sending them back in time would just be a risk. Seeing Neji again would stir up emotions; they might accidentally spill details about the future and disrupt the whole time travel fuinjutsu.

Shikamaru would've been a great choice with his strategic mind—but the genius had just married Ino. I couldn't imagine my best friend dealing with his absence or worse, a life without him.

There I was, gearing up for a time-travel mission. Someone had to do it!

My mission? Find Amegakure, the Village Hidden by Rain, where Jiraiya-sama's body rested. And I needed to stop Neji from sacrificing himself. I often thought about his selflessness and what it meant. It was brave and honorable, but why did he do it? This journey could help me understand his choice. Could I save him? And maybe, just maybe, I could change fate.

Nara thanked me before we even started; he believed in my ability to rescue his sensei. Before departure, I had to ensure mastery over the space-time ninjutsu and its accompanying fuinjutsu—necessary technique for staying put in that timeline without being yanked back prematurely.

Everyone from the team pitched in with reminders and warnings—they're a cautious bunch—but I felt ready. It wasn't like I planned on staying forever—just a year in another timeline before coming back home.

With everything set, it was time to make it happen!

With a quirky device to reach my original timeline and a handbook filled with Naruto's doodles, I set off on what was supposed to be an epic adventure. Unfortunately, the time travel didn't go as smoothly as I'd hoped.

After a few botched jumps—I even found myself in the middle of the First Shinobi World War—until we finally got it right. Or rather, almost. Instead of landing back seven years ago like we planned, I ended up ten years back, bumping into my 16-year-old self's place in time. Our goal was to jump into the war to prevent casualties, but hey, an extra three years to make things better couldn't hurt, right? This leap gives me more time to work my magic, tweak events, and hopefully steer things toward a better outcome as the resident time bearer. Can't really complain about that.

But then things got really wild—and by wild, I mean super embarrassing. My grand entrance wasn't exactly graceful as I landed smack dab in Naruto's old house bathroom while he was showering! Yup, I'm fully clothed and soaking wet amidst all that steam. Naturally, my first instinct was to punch a startled and very naked Jinchuriki right out of his own window, making a less-than-dignified exit onto the street.

Not my finest moment, but nothing that couldn't be smoothed over with some ramen at Ichiraku's. A few apologies and a half-baked excuse about why I suddenly appeared kept everything from getting too weird between us. It turned out Naruto had just returned from training with Jiraiya-sama, so at least this blunder happened during interesting point in our previous lives. All in all, not the most graceful start to my mission—but felt like old times again.

Time travel really messes with my head, here I am, tossed back into the past as a Chunin medic Haruno Sakura, trying to save the future while surviving high school all over again. It's a strange mix of reliving old memories and feeling the constant pressure to accomplish what I came here for.

I've been stuck here for three months, scouring every inch of Konoha for Jonin Hyuuga Neji. No luck yet. Asking around would raise suspicions, so I'm trying to track him down without making it obvious—I've got to keep my future knowledge on the down-low. He's either never around or off on missions, avoiding me like I'm contagious. Finding him is like looking for a rare bird that doesn't want to be seen.

My handy little device buzzed in my sling bag—a gadget with a three-year battery life giving me a deadline. Trying to casually bump into Neji has turned into a side quest. How hard could it be to find one guy in Konoha? It's driving me nuts!

If fate wasn't helping us meet by chance, I'll make it happen myself. The annual shinobi checkups came through as my saving grace—a routine task suddenly turned golden opportunity. Never before had I fought so hard, elbowing my way past other medics for something as mundane as checkup assignments. But there I was, going all-in over Hyuuga Neji's checkup slot like it was Black Friday and he was the last flat-screen TV!

The sideways glances from other medics ranged from incredulous amusement to mild concern for my sanity—or maybe they thought I'd finally moved on from Uchiha Sasuke at last. But honestly? This wasn't about romance; it was about fixing the future.

The day I'd been waiting for finally arrived—the appointment to meet the man again after his death. It felt monumental. As I heard his footsteps echoing down the hallway, excitement bubbled under my calm exterior. This was it—where yesterday met today. Not every day do you get to reunite with someone who's both part of your past and, in a way, still part of your future. As he reached the door to my office, every moment stretched out in anticipation.

When the door creaked open, there stood Hyuuga Neji in all his stern glory, his long hair flowing over his shoulders and his white eyes focused and unreadable expression intact as ever. In that moment, I remembered why this mattered so much. It hit me all over again why this mattered so much; seeing him alive and well emphasized how precious these overlapping timelines can be—and how determined I was not to waste this chance to change things for good.

End Note: Here is the setting for the story. The idea has been on my mind for a while.

I've plotted about 30 chapters in advance, I hope you like the concept.

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