Chapter Text
Naruto rubbed a hand over his face, looking at the three man in front of him and his team. Orochimaru had a wonderful way of explaining things that made him feel like he had the brain of a tree stump.
"Ok, please repeat that again. In smaller words, please? I think you just caused my brain to autodestruct."
The older man huffed and looked at Itachi for support. The Uchiha just shook his head, trying to send his brother a reassuring look. It wasn't very successful, Sasuke looked just as confused as the rest of them.
"Well, if it were easy every moron with scrambled eggs for brains would be able to travel through time."
"You're not helping, Orochimaru."
Minato, his dad, sent the other man a disappointed look. It looked like he would take over the explanation and Naruto was eternally greatful, there was a reason why the man had made such a good sensei.
"Alright, look at it this way. The bijuu are beings of pure chakra, they exist, to a certain extent, alongside the flow of time. Since time can't exist outside of life and life outside of time. Still with me?"
"The beginning and end of life are the beginning and end of time. Chakra is life, right?"
Sakura had always been good at classroom stuff, he decided to let her take the lead, maybe they would finally get somewhere. Sasuke seemed in agreement, holding his girlfriends hand as she leaned forward over their little fire. Naruto looked at Kakashi's long fingers so close to his own, he wished he too could hold the hand of the one he loved but it was just not the way life worked... He turned back to his dad.
"Yes. We want to take advantage of that and use their chakra to power our seal. There is no point in time where it didn't exist so they will also act as an anchor."
"They will remember?"
"No, I don't think so. Maybe there will be like... an imprint left. They might be more inclined to trust you or talk to you, should you ever meet. The minds they have developed as individuals are very human like."
"Oh."
"Itachi, Orochimaru and I will be guiding the seal. A living being would not be able to survive the pressure, we are breaking the very laws of existence."
"But you're not living..."
Naruto didn't know where they would be without the three man, probably dead like the rest of the world. Kaguya didn't seem capable of comprehending the difference between peace and complete annihilation of the human race. For a while they had even thought they would win the war but that didn't last long. Kaguya was relentless in the pursue of her vision. The civilians fell like flies and the shinobi alliance didn't fare much better. They had managed to awaken a few of the reanimated shinobi before she had turned on her own, but even so only a handful of people in the world had been capable of standing against her. Now there was only them, and the bijuu inside Naruto.
"You need to do this while in Sage Mode, otherwise your souls will be torn to pieces."
His dad trailed off.
How encouraging. Sakura, Sasuke and Kakashia had learned senjutsu in an attempt to destroy the Rabbit Goddess but she still got back up.
"There will be consequences. Some we are sure of, some we can only speculate."
Itachi had an apologetic look as he added to the speech. It was very risky, that Naruto got the first time around.
"Well, for one you will only be able to go to before you were all born. A soul is unique, it can't exist in two places at once. Which leads directly to the fact that you will never be born in that timeline."
Sasuke shook his head at his dad.
"But we are the reincarnations of Indra and Asura."
"No, you have their chakra type. It's very rare, it lead to some misconceptions... Think of it as a bloodline limit that almost always skips generations. A recessive gene, if you must."
"So we will land somewhere before Kakashi was born. What about location?"
Sakura was right. They couldn't risk leaving their relatively safe base and he was pretty sure it was somewhere close to what used to be Kiri once. Not the safest environment to wake up disorientated in.
"Most likely Uzushio, that is where the Sage split the Ten Tails."
"I didn't know that."
The bijuu inside him were subdued, they had barely spoken in months and they too were at their limits but he got an affirmative from Kurama. Naruto nodded.
"Maybe if we're are early enough we will be able to prevent their downfall."
"There is something else."
There was always something else...
"You will be flooded with natural chakra and also that of the bijuu. We speculate that it will affect your bodies."
"How?"
"Your pathways will overflow. Enlarge. It will be painful and take time to recover from. You will have twice maybe thrice the chakra capacity you do now, and the control over it of a newborn."
"Wonderful..."
She was complaining? Leaning control was like a walk in the park for her! Them on the other hand. Kami! At least it would make them easy to pass off as Uzumaki relatives, if very distant.
"Your bodies will suffer as well. Since the bijuu are pure chakra, they don't age the same way. For one fraction of a second, in order for you to squeeze through the ckrack we made, you and them will be one person."
A look of horror overcame Sasuke.
"We might wake up looking a hundred years old!"
"Or five..."
It was the first time Kakashi spoke since the subject of going back in time had been broached. Unlike them, he looked more determined than reluctant. His strength was one of the things Naruto loved about him most, if there was even a chance Kakashi could save the people he loved, he would take it regardless of consequences. Always.
"We think it is more likely you will age slower. Based on what we know of jinchuriki all of them had enlarged chakra pathways, just as you will. And they all aged visibly slower, Mito who was already predisposed to slow ageing process died looking not a day over thirty. What you will experience will be closer to her than any other host. This will affect you most, as we think the chakra will try to fix the damage already done. Make you younger... And there is the price..."
His dad was gentle towards the end, Naruto knew he'd raised Kakashi since he was five and the man was a son to him. They would have been basically brothers had the Third and Elders not forbidden the Hatake from even seeing him until he was twelve. It was one of the main reasons why Naruto was never going to get to hold the man he loved. And yet he was happy Kakashi had his dad all that long ago...
"This sounds better and better."
"We think time will try to right itself, making sure you are not born again is one way, taking away something that defines you in this timeline is another. We can not know what that will be, except the fact that Naruto will no longer be a host, that is guaranteed. And you will lose your summoning contracts, they will never have signed with them in them first place. You will have to find out once you get there."
He was going to lose all of them, he was going to lose Kurama. At that undetermined point in the past, they were each the prisoner of someone who didn't understand them. Who hated them. And that hurt. Naruto had once offered to set them all free, free they may have stood a chance at hiding from Kaguya, but they refused to leave their new friends behind. And now they were willing to be used as a tool once more, to help them maybe fix everything. Was this what they have been talking with Itachi about every time the Uchiha asked to visit them? How long had they known about this end of the rope plan and not told him?
"It sounds just like a holiday."
"I'm sorry, I know it's not how any of you wanted things to go. But the world is already gone. No one can save it. This is the best we've got."
Naruto knew they would take the risk, he didn't even need to look at his teammates. He was gonna miss his dad and so was Kakashi. The man had become so much more open since the Fourth was returned to them. And Sasuke was going to be devastated loosing Itachi for what felt like a third time. Naruto couldn't even imagine the pain. Even Orochimaru had grown on them... like fungus.
Kakashi's fingers brushed his. Those warm mismatched eyes looked at him in support. The mask had been destroyed long ago, Naruto was never going to get tired of just watching that beautiful expressive face. For years Kakashi had never had to worry about hiding his emotions, so he never learned. He showed his every worry, his every joy, freely. He had to tear his eyes away to look at his dad.
"From what you're saying, it's less that we will travel through time and more like we will split the timeline. This will be one, one that will end soon. The other we will change the moment we land there, and hopefully be able to save."
"Yes."
"Ok. Let's do this! We will save the world this time. Believe it!"
It was the most hair brained idea he had ever heard but they were so going to nail it.
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