Summary: Born in the same village. Friends turned enemies. Naruto and Sasuke find themselves enlisted to a seemingly impossible mission by the most unexpected individual in the strangest of circumstances. But faced with the chance to fix the past, they embark on an entirely different journey.
Link: https://m.fanfiction.net/s/9919484/1/
Word count:928k
Chapters:105
Prologue:
Blast to the Past
One Uzumaki Naruto opened his eyes slowly, feeling a bright light illuminating far too strong for his liking. Not only that, but his entire body felt as if it were on fire. He was also tired. Very tired. If he could, the blond Uzumaki wished that he would be able to take a nap for months, maybe years. Okay, so maybe he was exaggerating. He was pretty sure Shikamaru wouldn't mind the idea, though.
Thinking of the Nara caused for a sudden wave of memories to hit him, mainly of just what exactly was occurring in the Elemental Nations at this point. The sudden excess of memories also brought a wave of pain along with it. Holding his head in pain as he stood up in a sitting position, Naruto winced even more as his whole body felt as bad as his brain, maybe even more.
Looking down, the blond saw his teared up orange and black jumpsuit staring right back at him in silence. Just what happened? All he could remember was a bright light, the others screaming at him, and then…..
Holding his head as another wave of pain hit him, Naruto realized that it was probably better for him to NOT try to recall what had happened. At least, for the moment anyways. As the wave of pain passed, the orange wearing Uzumaki finally took this time to study his surroundings. What he found could be describe in one simple word: white.
All around him, all the blond Uzumaki could see was a white empty land, or space, or whatever it was that this place was called because the Uzumaki certainly didn't know the word for it. It was then that Naruto was alerted to another presence as a groan ran out right next to him on his right. It seemed that his senses weren't back to a hundred percent if he had missed a person being right next to him.
Turning to look at where the groan came from, Naruto came to the sight of the last person he thought he would see under these circumstances: Uchiha Sasuke, his ex-teammate and presumed friend.
Just like Naruto had been a few moments earlier, the young Uchiha was sprawled on the ground on his back, another groan escaping him.
'Just what is Sasuke doing here?' wondered Naruto for a moment before correcting himself, 'Scratch that. Just what are WE doing here? Whatever or wherever here is,' he added as an afterthought as he took another look around. Finally being able to stand up, Naruto continued to study his surroundings, not that there was much to look at. And then it finally hit him as his brain continued to reboot itself.
'Oi, Kurama! Furball, are you there!?'
Silence. That was the response that the Uzumaki received. Now he really started to worry. Just what the hell had happened? Hadn't they just been fighting against Tobi, now known to really be Obito, and the resurrected Madara? And the Juubi….
"Idiot, what's going on here?"
It seemed that Sasuke had finally woken up from the realm of unconsciousness. And he had taken up to calling Naruto by his old nickname, it seemed. Just wonderful.
Turning to look at Sasuke who was beginning to stand up, Naruto could only shrug in a helpless manner. "I don't know. I just woke up and found us to be here….wherever here is."
Sasuke merely frowned at the answer and, like Naruto, began to study his surroundings as he stood up. An even bigger frown formed on his face as he realized that it was a wasteland. Holding his head, he looked at Naruto.
"Do you remember what happened? There was this light and then…."
Naruto frowned. "That's all I remember too. Then it all just goes blank for me."
Sasuke h'mphed slightly, a small smirk forming on his face which was obscured by his hand covering his face. "No surprise there…."
Naruto scowled slightly, crossing his arms. "Yea, yea, make all the jokes you want. But right now, we should be trying to find a way out of here, teme. Then you can crack a joke which is odd for you in the first place."
Sasuke didn't respond as he looked around once again.
Naruto sighed as he ran a hand through his blond spiky hair. He just didn't get Sasuke. And people called him unpredictable. Then again, he probably earned that right to. A grin formed itself on his lips at the thought.
Sasuke t'ched, his impatience beginning to appear. "This is pointless, just standing here."
Naruto came out of his thoughts in time to hear Sasuke speak, making him nod. "Ha, yea. But how are we going to get out of here? We don't even know where here is!"
Sasuke's lips thinned into a straight line. For once, he agreed with Naruto. Just how were they-
Naruto began to walk away, both hands behind his back.
Sasuke raised an eyebrow as he looked at him walking away. "What are you doing? Better yet, where are you going?"
Naruto simply shrugged. "Dunno honestly. But beats just standing here. Like you said, it's pointless."
"Just like it's pointless to walk around aimlessly," retorted the Uchiha with one arm on the purple bow that was around his lower torso.
"Like I said, beats standing here."
Before Sasuke could respond, chuckling ran all around them, causing for both Uzumaki and Uchiha to be on guard instantly. They were immediately next to each other, back to back and both of their eyes narrowed.
"You two really do bring back memories to this old man," commented a voice that ran all around the duo.
Sasuke's sharingan sprung into life as he continued to look around while Naruto simply frowned.
"Then why don't you just show yourself then!" the blond challenged.
'He just has to rile up people,' thought Sasuke but didn't comment.
"Ease up already, brat. The old man doesn't bite….much."
Naruto's eyes widened as he immediately recognized the voice, relief flooding through him.
"Kurama!"
Less than a second later, the towering form of the nine tailed fox appeared before both shinobi, a massive grin on his face. But he wasn't the only one. In front of him stood another individual, except this one was human. Or looked human anyways.
Sasuke looked at him with some curiosity. "You….who are you?"
The man had a long beard with light silver-ish shaggy hair with two distinctive horns sticking out from the front of his hair and wore a white cloak with a high collar with said cloak also having both a red colored rinnegan and nine red magatama. He also had a necklace with six red magatama, making Naruto recall Nagato whose Deva path also wore something similar to it. Finally, he had a ringed staff on his right hand, making him look slightly like a priest of some kind.
The individual let out a small chuckle, closing his eyes momentarily before opening them. Both Naruto and Sasuke froze as they soon found themselves staring right into a pair of rinnegan eyes.
"I'm sure that, with my revealing my eyes to you, you can guess who I am," the man said with some mirth.
"The Rikudo Sennin," muttered Naruto, catching Sasuke's attention. Was this man really...
Both the Sennin and Kurama also heard Naruto whisper, causing for Kurama to nod in agreement.
"That's right, brat. You are now meeting with the man who created the shinobi world that you know of."
"An accomplishment which I'm not too proud of," the Sennin stated with a frown.
Sasuke turned towards the Sennin, lowering his guard and deactivating his sharingan in the process. If the Kyuubi recognized him at so, then it had to be true. "So you're the famed god, are you? Do you know what has happened to your creation? All of the pain that has been brought about because of it!" He had a lot of pent up frustration that he needed to release.
Naruto, who also lowered his guard, frowned at the accusation but stayed quiet for the moment. He knew just who exactly Sasuke was referring to, and he couldn't really blame him. He had felt the same way when Jiraiya had died.
The Sennin could only sigh, not taking any offense at the accusation. "I do. Which is why we're here right now."
"But how did we even get here in the first place?" asked Naruto as he looked around once more. "And just where is here?"
The Sennin looked at both of them quietly for a moment, his rinnegan still activated. Finally, he said, "Your relative has been tampering with things that he shouldn't have." He said this while looking particularly at Sasuke. "But I suppose it was inevitable considering just what I left behind when I died."
'He's talking about his two sons,' realized Naruto as he remembered his talk with Obito at the Land of Iron. 'So it might be true after all…..' If that were the case, then the Sennin have might caused a lot of the shinobi world's pain, if not all. Even if it was indirectly.
Kurama simply closed his eyes. He too had been part of that pain.
The Sennin carried on, "But because of this, it seems that if I might have a chance of fixing my greatest mistake. With your help, of course."
Sasuke raised an eyebrow but decided to let the Sennin continue.
"It seems like this Uchiha Obito wasn't able to handle the power of the Juubi as it should be. Because of this, his body was completely torn apart once the Juubi got free from his control. But in doing so, a lot of energy was released which was the bright light that the two of you saw before coming here."
Both Naruto's and Sasuke's eyes widened in realization. So that was what that had been.
But Sasuke then frowned. "If I'm guessing this correctly, that released energy is the reason why we're here right now."
The Sennin nodded. "Indeed. The Juubi's energy is different from any other, even from the bijuu. It's stronger and more potent since it's made out of all nine bijuus themselves. The amount of energy released once Obito lost control and the Juubi was freed was so great that it even broke through time itself."
Naruto scratched the back of his head, trying to wrap his mind around the idea. Was the Juubi really that powerful? He should have guessed that, he supposed.
"But then why were Naruto and I the only ones to get suck into it?" questioned Sasuke as he spread his arms around him. "No one else is here!"
The Sennin nodded. "Indeed. But that's because they weren't close enough. You and Naruto were the ones engaging him once he lost control and close enough for you to be sucked into the vacuum, if you want to call it that. The others simply suffered the explosion which was caused a moment later."
Naruto's blood ran cold at the answer. "Are they all….dead?"
The Sennin looked at him with an unreadable look on his face. "That's a complicated question to answer."
Naruto frowned. "And why is that?"
Just like Sasuke, the Sennin spread his arms wide out. "Because of where we are. I just told you: there was a break through time itself because of the sudden release of the Juubi's power in a such violent manner. We are now in that break. Here, the concept of time doesn't exist. So depending on when you get out of this break, your friends might still be alive. Or maybe they aren't. In here, time is nothing but an illusion."
Naruto blinked, scratching his head again as he tried to understand exactly what the Sennin was saying. "I think I understand…." he then blinked once again. "Wait, so if I get this, you're saying that Sasuke and I can go back to the night of our births or when the village was founded!?"
The Sennin nodded. "Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying."
Naruto's eyes were wide in shock. "Woah…."
Sasuke stepped in. "And I'm guessing that that's what you meant when you said that you wanted for us to fix your mistake. You want us to travel back in time to stop all of this from ever happening…."
The Sennin nodded for a second time, a grin on his face. "Yes, that's also correct. It seems that you two catch on fast."
Naruto exploded. "Just what do you mean by that!? How far in time are we going to go!"
Sasuke looked at the Sennin, sharing the same question as his ex knucklehead of a teammate.
The Sennin was silent for a few moments before he finally answered, "The most logical answer would be to stop Madara from ever thinking of doing any of this or maybe even go as far as my own time. But there are some things that are just meant to happen," he said this while looking directly at Naruto, which made said blond have a sudden bad feeling at the pit of his stomach. Something told him that that was going to come back and haunt him.
"So which time is it then?" asked Sasuke.
"At the end of the Second Shinobi war," answered the Sennin without hesitation before adding, "Give or take a few years. Something which was most definitely not meant to happen was for things to go with Obito the way they did. That's the best time for you to go back which is just right before his birth."
Both Naruto and Sasuke shared a glance. Were they really going to do this? Just before, they had been fighting in a war with them most likely fighting themselves at the end. Were they really going to team up once again?
Picking up on their hesitance. the Sennin said, "I understand why you're troubled by this," he began, making both of the shinobi turn to look at their shared ancestor. "But do understand that this is my only chance at redemption. I had to go through a lot of troubles to arrange this as something as big as this is most definitely not allowed. Not to mention the fact that your bodies should have disintegrated into nothingness the moment that you were absorbed into this timeless dimension, even with Kurama's power."
Said bijuu simply huffed slightly but didn't comment.
The Sennin continued, "I know that circumstances, which were mostly set in motion because of me, made the two of you enemies. But now, you have a chance to stop that. To become something greater than Hokage. To save your friends, your clan, your village. To erase hatred from the shinobi world forever."
Sasuke clenched his fists as an image of Itachi flashed in his mind. If he did this, he could save Itachi. But not only Itachi.
'My entire clan….' That included his parents.
Naruto closed his eyes as the images of Jiraiya, Tsunade, and everyone else flashed in his mind before they were replaced by that of his parents. They had died too early just because of the hatred that ruled the shinobi world which had created the "nobody" Obito. And this was his chance to stop that from happening.
'I did promise Ero-sennin and Nagato…..' And this was maybe his best hope at doing that.
The Sennin looked on as the hesitation disappeared from both shinobi, only to be replaced by newfound determination. Raising their heads towards him, the Sennin instantly knew that they had reached a decision.
Behind him, Kurama smirked as he too saw this. 'It's time for a new adventure, eh brat? Let's just see where we end up….'
"It seems we have reached an agreement then," commented the Sennin with both Naruto and Sasuke merely nodding. "Good. I will forever be in your debt."
Naruto grinned. "Don't worry about it! We also have our own reasons for doing this although our end goal is the same."
Sasuke nodded. "That's right. We should be thanking you."
The Sennin sighed in gratitude. "I still thank you. The only thing that I should warn you about once you wake up is to not panic, no matter what you experience."
But Naruto and Sasuke became suspicious at the tone in which the Sennin said that but neither dwelt on it.
"Next, I will be guiding the both of you once you're in a stable and secured position. But remember what the ultimate goal is: to prevent the Fourth Shinobi War from ever happening and indirectly also prevent the Juubi from ever being recreated again. It will be the first step into fixing the future of this world."
Both Naruto and Sasuke just listened intently.
"Kurama here will also be with you as you cannot be without him without experience some unneeded repercussions," he added as he looked at Naruto who nodded before looking at Kurama with a grin.
Without saying another word, both Naruto and Sasuke were immediately engulfed into a bright light feeling as if their bodies were on fire once more. In other words, it was unpleasant.
"One final thing," began the Sennin with a smile as both of their visions began to get hazy, "you two are going to find yourselves separated for a while. But like I said, don't panic. It'll work out at the end."
Both Naruto's and Sasuke's eyes widened at that, but before they could say anything in response, they disappeared with the light.
The Sennin let out a sigh of relief as even Kurama behind him disappeared. Things had gone a lot better than he expected. Then again, both of his descendants had shared equal pain because of his actions. But now, he was going to help them regain that happiness which was why he chose the time period that he had. True, it would prevent Obito from becoming what he turned out to be. But if things went right, it would have also been for another reason.
The Sennin smiled. Yes, he was certainly looking forward to this. Their journey had just begun.