Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Hey everyone! If you recognize my name, then you'll know that this isn't exactly my neck of the woods.

"Well, Xolef, why are you writing a Naruto fanfic all of a sudden?" you may ask.

Well, it's because I love One Piece.

To elaborate, I've been trying to get euphoricimage to read the damn thing. We reached an agreement in which he'd read One Piece if I wrote one fic of his choice.

Here we are. If it helps, the instructions were really vague and most of this really is something that I wanted to write. Naruto's great too, after all.

If you want character material for what's-her-face's appearance, I'll link a quick doodle that I made in the AO3, spacebattles, and questionable questing versions of this publication.

X

The Valley of the End. This was where it all began.

Two figures stood across from each other, both as powerful as they were young. A boy and a girl.

Her silky black hair was tamed by a ponytail cascading down her back. Her intense gaze, amplified by the bright colours of her dojutsu, fell in and out of sight as the wind made her lengthy bangs flutter across her face.

His skin was tanned, darkened by countless hours under the sun. His blonde hair, usually too wild to control, was matted down to the whisker-like markings on his cheeks by blood and water.

Their faces and bodies were battered and bruised. Tired as they were, there wasn't an ounce of chakra to be shared between them. Their extended battle had taken its toll on them both.

Neither had reached the end of their teens and yet the weight of the world had already been placed on their shoulders.

Somehow, the world beyond this moment felt inconsequential.

They had done their duty. The word was saved. The Fourth Shinobi War had ended.

Now, all that there was left to do was to find a resolution to the turbulent emotions that had plagued them for well over half a decade. Whatever the outcome may be, they'd be sure to accept it.

Even if that outcome spelled death.

There was no more energy to waste on techniques made to slay gods. In the girl's hand, a condensed mass of electricity had taken form. In the boy's, a spiralling sphere.

Chidori.

Rasengan.

The irony was not lost on either of them. They hardened their hearts and met in the middle of the clearing one last time.

"Naruto!" the girl screamed. All her regret. All her pain. All her rage. Everything else had to be put aside as these were the places from which she had drawn her strength until now.

The boy, on the other hand, drew strength from his heart.

His feelings. His memories. His bonds.

As the final impact drew closer, all of this was laid before him.

"Sasuke! I love you!"

"Eh?"

What collided were not deadly ninjutsu, but two foreheads. The pair crashed into each other, then the ground before toppling over onto their backs.

At the center of a battle-scarred landmark, two teenagers lay next to each other, blushing furiously as they stared up at the sky.

They refused to look at each other as the mortification would be too much. Surely, what had just transpired could be put into words another day.

X

Ch.1

X

In a rental villa at the edge of the Land of Fire, a plump young man dressed head to toe in expensive cloth and priceless jewels sat comfortably at the head of a long table. Idly admiring the rings shining on his fingers, he waited for his guest to arrive.

There was a knock, and his gaze lingered in place while his ears perked.

The servants opened the doors to the room. In came a figure accompanied by a pair of plain-looking shinobi– either chunin or jonin, if their flak jackets were any indication. They stepped back near the walls while the one accompanying them stepped forward.

The young man clasped his hands.

"Lord Hokage! It's a pleasure. Please take a seat."

Hatake Kakashi offered the man a slight smile. He held his long, flowing robes out of the way so that they wouldn't get caught on the overly elaborate chair.

"The pleasure is mine, Your Excellency. Let's get right into business, shall we?"

The son of the foreign Daimyo returned the smile politely. His servants gathered around the table and handed both dignitaries documents highlighting matters to be discussed.

Kakashi was quick to grab the closest sheet of paper and skim its contents, his eyes lazily tracking from side to side.

"…Ah. I'm afraid this is too much. While I appreciate that you hold us in such high regard, our village is primarily a military force within the Land of Fire. A trade agreement is one thing, but no amount of money can buy our routes, let alone legal authority over our forces. Not even our own Daimyo has this much control over us, Sir."

Though the Hokage wisely held his composure, the overwhelming desire to sigh and rub his tired brow still lingered. Was this fool even acting on his father's orders? They had barely spoken and yet the proposition was already hair-brained enough for the legitimacy of this exchange to be brought into question.

At least make it a little believable, no?

The Daimyo's son's smile was still plastered to his face for a few seconds longer. The man was either waiting for something to happen or simply didn't know how to take the outright refusal of a deal that he had yet to present.

Kakashi's eyes squinted shut.

My, my…

X

Two blades were swung, their dulled metal failing to catch the light. Their wielders glided across the rafters with steps so light that the wooden supports didn't so much as creak despite the awkward weight they were being made to carry.

Locked in combat, the shinobi's weapons never clashed. The woman's chokuto swung at the man's head, forcing him to dodge; he took advantage of his momentum and swung up at her arm.

Rather than flick her sword to redirect the enemy's katana, she forced herself to step out of the blade's range.

Yet again, they met in an exchange of blows. Yet again, one weapon did not catch the other. Yet again, not a single sound was made.

Those in the area below them continued their meeting, oblivious to the mortal combat taking place atop the villa's ceiling space. To the common eye, there was only a Kage, a daimyo's son, and their retainers.

This was how it should be.

A shinobi is invisible. A shinobi operates in the shadows. To be discovered would be worse than death itself.

The woman's lone visible eye hardened. Like a pinwheel, its crimson pattern spun hypnotically.

X

After penning in a few clauses of his own, Kakashi slid the paper back to the daimyo's son.

"How's this?" he asked. "This shouldn't cause any issues on our end and I'm sure there's more than enough to still benefit yours."

The larger man grabbed the sheet and did a commendable job of pretending to look it over.

"I'm not too sure, Lord Hokage. Maybe we can meet somewhere in the middle?"

Without so much as a twitch, Kakashi clenched his shoulders to stop them from drooping. The toll that this mindless back-and-forth was taking on his mind wasn't inconsiderable.

How did Lady Tsunade put up with this stuff for as long as she did? No wonder she didn't want anything to do with this hat. He certainly wasn't built for this type of role. Couldn't he give the position away already? How long was he supposed to wait again?

Kakashi smiled through his mask once more.

"Of course, of course. We can take as much time as you need."

Though I really hope that you give up on this sooner rather than later. The longer you stall, the more time you're giving yourself to act like a fool.

X

"Damn it! Why is Uzukami Naruto here!?"

A group of six rogue shinobi hung from the nearby trees. They were tense, all of them knowing that trying to hide would do them little good.

A blonde shinobi shuffled idly on his feet as he took a good luck at each one of them.

It wasn't like they were all from one village in particular and none of them seemed familiar to him, but they must have been at least jonin level, right? It didn't make sense for there to be so few of them, otherwise.

He channelled his chakra. He did his best to control his output, but any sensor worth their salt would still be able to pick up on his signature from a good distance. It was a good thing that Kakashi-sensei had him intercept these guys so far away from the villa.

Naruto cracked his knuckles, and his opponents took it as a signal to get a move on. Some rushed straight at him while the others tried to get around him.

He grinned.

As if it'd be that easy!

He didn't even move. Six shadow clones appeared in front of each missing-nin and buried spinning balls of pure condensed chakra right in their chests.

Without being given a chance to react, they were all sent cartwheeling backward, cratering the earth and toppling over trees as they made impact.

Proud of a job well done, Uzumaki Naruto wiped his brow.

As far as Shinobi went, he was far from subtle. Was he skilled? Sure, but he doubted that he'd ever be as good at being subtle as That Asshole.

He knew his own strengths and so did Kakashi-sensei. He was sure that this mission would go without a hitch.

"You guys should really think things through before you take a job, 'ya know. The war's over! The leaders of the hidden villages that you've all abandoned might've even taken you back… maybe. Or not."

He was wasting his breath. None of them were conscious to hear him anyway.

X

"Lord Hokage, wouldn't you consider–"

"Enough. I'm sorry, but I don't think we'll be able to come to an agreement today. I'll be sure to let your father know that things fell through."

As Kakashi got up to leave, the daimyo's son lost his composure. The man shot himself out of his chair with a swiftness that belied his frame.

"W-wait! I'm sure that, uh… that is to say, if you wait a little longer…"

"I'm afraid waiting any longer won't change anything, Your Excellency."

It certainly won't make my head fall off my shoulders in the near future.

Unable to do much else, the daimyo's son and his retainers could only watch as the Hokage left the villa with his two guards in tow.

As if on cue, a dead shinobi –the missing-nin that was hired to assassinate Hatake Kakashi– dropped from the ceiling the same moment that the doors slammed shut.

The daimyo's son was too shocked to scream.

X

After having reconvened following the mission's success, the group consisting of the Hokage, two jonin, Uzumaki Naruto and Sasuke Uchiha began their trek back to the village.

"Seriously, what took so long? Was it that difficult for you? I took out si– twelve jonin-level guys in that time!"

"Am I supposed to find that impressive? There's such a thing as discretion, you bumbling fool."

"Hm? Sounds like an excuse to me."

"You–"

"Excuses~! Heheheh!"

With such a display before them, the Hokage's two guards were forced to watch on with disillusioned expressions as two of their village's most famous figures squabbled like children. Kakashi could only sympathize.

My students are morons. Fugaku. Minato-sensei. I've failed you both.

In the months following the war, the two didn't change much. The extent of those changes, in fact, was Naruto's switch to one of those newer elastic forehead protectors and Sasuke choosing to comb part of her lengthy bangs over her Rinnegan.

Kakashi expected a bit more of a change, actually.

Very little of him believed that Sasuke would elect to remain with the village following everything that had happened. Her contribution to the war went a long way in earning her a legal pardon, sure, but there was bound to be enough turbulence between her and everyone else –namely Naruto– for her to prefer to leave.

Obviously, he didn't know his student as well as he thought he did, as she did, in fact, chose to stay.

That had its consequences, but strangely enough, she and Naruto had been able to smooth over that five-year rough patch like it hadn't happened at all.

Somehow.

He was convinced that something had happened between them when they fought each other at the Valley of the End –something must have– but he never found it prudent to ask.

Mostly because he could guess what that "something" was.

Kakashi cleared his throat. Maybe it would be smart for him to say what needed to be said before this argument got out of hand.

"Naruto. Sasuke."

The two superpowered shinobi stopped mid-thought to look over their shoulders and back at him. They slowed their pace enough to find themselves on either side of him instead of at the front of the formation.

Unbeknownst to them, Kakashi was a little nervous.

There was a reason why he brought these two along for this mission, of course. Foiling a half-baked assassination attempt on his person? Sure, it was great to be cautious and all, but that alone was a poor reason to assign Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto to his protection detail. Anything more than an extra pair of respectable jonin was overkill, he thought.

In reality, he needed these two out of the village so that they didn't get angry and break something when he said what was about to come out of his mouth.

"A representative of the Land of Demons got in touch with me about a marriage proposal involving their priestess and Naruto. This was organized a while ago, apparently, so since we're already out and about–"

"Come again?"

Wow. Sasuke really took offense right away, huh? So much for sneaking that bit in smoothly.

"Well–"

"Naruto, explain," she tried instead, realizing instantly that her old teacher was going to try to deflect.

The boy's face lit up like a Christmas tree. His mouth flapped uselessly like a fish dragged out of water.

"I– I don't know what's going on either, 'ya know!"

"Liar."

One could practically hear the girl's Sharingan spinning in her skull. A Chidori crackled to life over her fist.

The other two poor saps that had been dragged along gave the two superhumans as wide a berth as possible. They were quite literally quaking in their sandals.

Kakashi felt beads of sweat trickling down his brow.

"Hey," he mumbled weakly.

Naruto channelled as much chakra as he could in order to defend himself pre-emptively. For a normal person, the feeling of someone like Naruto going from zero to one hundred in an instant was nightmarish.

"Sasuke, calm down! I really don't know what's–"

"Why are you getting so defensive? Have something to hide?"

"What? No!"

The girl didn't take the denial at face value, obviously. Susanoo's ribcage began forming around her person. Matching the escalation so as not to die on the spot, Naruto started channelling his Tailed Beast's chakra.

Kakashi's bodyguards were out of sight at this point. The Hokage's eyes slowly widened as he realized what was about to happen.

"Hey. Hey… hey, hey, hey, hey–"

X

X

"Hey, Sasuke… before we fight, you better put on your forehead protector."

The twelve-year-old girl glared at her teammate with seething anger in her eyes. It was not an expression that belonged on the face of a child, let alone directed at someone who was supposed to be a rival.

A friend.

"…My forehead protector? I don't need it. You won't be able to land a single scratch on me, Naruto."

The boy got angry. She was missing the point.

"A scratch?" He repeated incredulously. "You think this is about a fucking– you dumbass! We're both shinobi of the Hidden Leaf Village! We're equals!"

Sasuke laughed.

And laughed.

Her head tilted back and her shoulders started to shake.

"You seriously think that? You really think that you and I are on the same level? Don't be stupid."

Honestly, Naruto didn't come here to start a fight.

Or, well, he did, but the point was, he was looking forward to being able to fight Sasuke seriously after all this time. Since they were kids, the opportunity to prove himself against her had eluded him and has been all that he ever wanted. This was finally that moment. He was happy, and if anything, it was his hope that it would bring them closer together, not push them further apart.

But now…

Now, he was actually angry.

"'Same level'? No… I've surpassed you!"

At that moment, all of Sasuke's ugly insecurities bubbled to the surface.

When she called Naruto to this rooftop, it was supposed to be confirmation.

Confirmation that he hadn't surpassed her.

Confirmation that she wasn't stagnating.

Words weren't necessary anymore. Within moments, they were fighting.

Shadow clones and asinine tricks against talent and fire jutsu.

So absorbed were they that neither noticed their sensei or Sakura watching them. Not until the conflict escalated.

Chidori.

Rasengan.

Sasuke growled.

You've had this up your sleeve this whole time, huh?

Sakura was yelling at them now –saying something about them going too far– but neither of them was listening.

"Naruto…!"

"Sasuke!"

And suddenly, before their justu could collide, before Hatake Kakashi could grab them and pull them apart, the very fabric of reality ripped apart in the space between them. For all their anger at that moment, neither Naruto nor Sasuke could avoid stopping in their tracks and having their jaws hit the ground.

Kakashi's eyes widened. He jumped back and pulled Sakura along with him while Jiraiya, who was hiding somewhere nearby, appeared to grab to troublemakers and lift them out of ground zero.

Through the rift came two figures before the bend in reality disappeared as if it were never there to begin with.

A man and a woman.

"So? What happened to 'I love you, Sasuke!', huh? Empty words go a really long way, don't they?"

"I did mean it! You're acting stupid!"

"I'm acting stupid? It's not like you've brought it up since then or anything, what else am I supposed to think?"

"You didn't bring it up either!"

"Of course, I didn't! I was expecting you to bring it up!"

"Hah!? But– hm?"

The argument between the two mysterious figures fell apart the moment they realized where they were.

Or rather, where they weren't.

"Hey, Sasuke," spoke the man, grabbing the attention of his… companion? "We're in the village somehow, aren't we?"

The woman whipped her head back and forth, clearly alert and confused in equal measure. Her eyes widened once she noticed that they had company.

"Sasuke? What's–"

The man cut himself off.

White as a sheet, as if he had seen a ghost, he stared at Jiraiya. The larger man stood a ways away, blinking owlishly, with the young Sasuke and Naruto held under his arm. After having heard the newcomers' argument, the two kids were as red as cherry tomatoes.

Sakura, who was with Kakashi, wasn't fairing much better than her two teammates. Kakashi himself was about as speechless as Jiraiya.

Decidedly, neither camp knew what the hell was going on.

Sasuke, from top to bottom:
Current, Valley of the End, young Team 7

Chapter Text

As if in a trance, Naruto couldn't help but stare at his younger counterpart. The twelve-year-old's wide blue eyes were unflinching and filled with about as much confusion as his own.

It wasn't some random people pretending to be them, either. He could feel them. That blond-haired boy felt the same as him, Kakashi-sensei felt like Kakashi-sensei, Pervy Sage felt like Pervy sage, Younger Sakura felt like Sakura and Younger Sasuke felt like Sasuke.

Every few seconds, he flicked his head toward the black-haired girl that came with him, but never for so long that he lost track of the supposedly-impossible sight before him. If Sasuke's stiff shoulders and scrunched brow were anything to go by, she was in the same shock-driven boat as he was.

Her lone exposed eye flickered. He caught it.

She was thinking the same thing, right?

Genjutsu.

It shouldn't be possible, though. He was one thing, but Sasuke had her stupid spinny eye stuff. There was no way that a Genjutsu should have been able to work on her. Either the person –or thing– that did this to them was even stronger than she was, or it just wasn't a genjutsu.

Then… what?

The hospital rooftop, Sasuke, Sakura, Kakashi-sensei, Pervy Sage… It was like a snapshot of a long-past moment in his life. He remembered it clearly; that time when Sasuke totally lost her marbles and it took Kakashi-sensei and Pervy Sage showing up to keep them apart.

How could he forget? That was when everything started going south.

This wasn't a dream. This wasn't a genjutsu. It was almost like–

"Hey, You! Why do you look like me!?" Younger Him shouted from where he was, wrapped under Pervy Sage's arm.

"You? Why do you look like me!?" Naruto shouted right back without thinking.

"...Naruto?"

It was a gruff voice. He had almost forgotten what it sounded like.

That did it.

A cold sweat ran down his spine. Again, despite his best efforts to not think about it for now, his attention was forced back onto Master Jiraiya.

This was by far the most difficult thing for him to wrap his head around.

Younger Him and Sasuke? Sakura? Kakashi? All of that was strange, sure, but he would have much rather started trying to figure out that stuff first before even thinking of the carbon copy of his dead sensei that looked, acted, and apparently spoke just like him.

He couldn't say anything, Sasuke had to step up and speak for him.

"Forget what you saw here," she ordered the people before her in an even tone. "Go about your day as you normally would have."

The anticlimactic statement was met with a sudden, floundering silence. She grabbed his arm amidst the distraction and started to pull him away.

"We're leaving," she whispered into his ear. "We can figure everything out once we're out of–"

"Like hell!"

Younger Naruto struggled and broke out of Pervy Sage's grasp; the man was stuck in a daze, unable to stop him. The boy stumbled a few paces forward before regaining his footing.

"You two… you realize how crazy this all is, don't you? If you think we're just gonna let you walk away, then you're nuts!"

Sasuke didn't really care about the kid's opinion on the matter. Again, she tugged the older Naruto's arm.

He wouldn't budge.

She hissed.

"Damn it, you–"

The girl clicked her tongue; she was annoyed. Naruto could tell right away, which was why he refused to look at her.

"...Well?" she was forced to say to the younger one a moment later, unable to cut the conversation short. "Spit out whatever it is that you want to say."

The kid's cheeks reddened.

"Y-you're just a couple of weirdos using a transformation technique, right? Cut it out already!"

Sasuke kept a blank face.

"Yes. That's right. Sorry, we thought it would be funny."

Kakashi let go of Sakura and stuffed both his hands into his pockets. He had a deceivingly-calm air about him.

"Ah, well, you're both free to cancel the transformation," he told them. "It must be draining to keep up, no? Ah. Unless you're a spy from outside the village, of course. That would be bad for you, but I'm sure it's not the case!"

He wasn't buying it, and it had nothing to do with their chakra signatures. Hatake Kakashi wasn't a sensor-type ninja, but he was sharp.

A puff of smoke appeared behind him; a tiny, unassuming pug wearing a Leaf Village forehead protector emerged from it and landed on the man's shoulder.

The two teenagers were visibly uncomfortable. This was Kakashi's Ninja Hound, Pakkun.

The dog didn't need anything as complicated as a chakra signature to figure out precisely who they were. All he needed was–

"Naruto? Sasuke?" a deep, gruff voice coming from the small animal questioned. Pakkun's nose twitched. "There're two of you now?"

Kakashi blinked and visibly stalled for a moment. That wasn't how he expected that to go.

…Well then. So much for getting out of this one without rousing more suspicion than necessary.

No moves were made right away, but it was like a switch had been flipped. Kakashi removed his hands from his pockets. Sakura flicked her eyes back and forth between her teammates and the older teenagers that looked just like them. Those same teammates were frozen solid and were quite obviously trying to reconstruct their thoughts. Jiraiya, surprisingly enough considering the man's disposition, was the one with the least obvious outward reaction as he seemed cool as a cucumber.

Younger Sasuke suddenly snapped out of her inaction. She squirmed until Jiraiya was forced to let her go too.

The girl pointed a finger at her older counterpart and snarled angrily.

"What kind of stupid joke is this? What's the punchline here? This lady is nothing like me."

To the temporally displaced woman, the words of a borderline prepubescent child were of little value. The younger one's anger wasn't something that she understood, but neither was it something that she felt any compulsion to understand either.

"Is that so," she replied flatly.

The furious expression didn't budge.

"I'm not some lovesick woman! All that nonsense about 'I Love You's or whatever… do you even hear yourself? And Naruto? Who are you kidding?"

The eyebrow of the "lovesick woman" in question began twitching violently. The object of those supposed affections paled a little.

"Hey!" Younger Naruto shouted right back. "I resent that! Besides, who'd wanna be your boyfriend anyway?"

"Now, now," cooed Kakashi in an effort to calm his difficult students. Though his mask covered most of his face, his eyes peered through, squinted shut in a pleasant expression. "Let's put all that aside for now, shall we? I think there's something much more pressing to be discussed; Naruto, Sasuke."

The way that the man spoke those names said two things.

That he was addressing the older counterparts and that he was still every bit suspicious of them. Whether that meant that he didn't think they were really who they presented themselves as or something else entirely, no one could say.

Jiraiya huffed and crossed his arms.

"Why don't we stop by the Hokage's office? We can pick things back up from there."

Sasuke, for one, was of the opinion that this would be a terrible idea.

Putting aside the obvious assumption that this was a trick of some sort and jumping straight to the conclusion that time travel was even remotely possible, the Naruto and Sasuke from five years from now would be prudent to not let their guards down in the presence of these people.

Lord Jiraiya, Kakashi, Sakura, themselves: all were individuals that they were intimately familiar with and vice versa. However, this was only true in a reality in which all of this, confrontation on the rooftop and all, had taken place about half a decade ago.

Which was to say, this Jiraiya was the mentor of a twelve-year-old Naruto. Kakashi was the leader of a fresh-out-of-the-academy Team Seven. They were all loyal to people who were supposed to exist within this timeline. If the older counterparts couldn't prove that they were who they said they were, then there was no reason for these people to treat them like the people they said they were.

Stopping by the Hokage's office was only as menial as advertised if the trust accumulated over a lifetime was still present. It was not.

Unfortunately for the black-haired woman, such realizations flew over her blonde companion's head.

"Wuzzat? Granny already started the job?" the older Naruto said, stretching and locking his fingers behind his back. "Yeah, sure. That's fine."

She would have loved to have driven her heel into the back of his head at that moment but considering their current circumstances, she had to settle for a disapproving glare. As strong as they were, it shouldn't be impossible to get away from two Sannin and an incredibly powerful Jonin once things inevitably went south, right?

"..."

It was decided, then: she would kill him. She would wring his neck until he stopped breathing and maybe then the aneurysm he was trying to give her would go away.

"...Sasuke?" the older blonde whispered so as to only be heard by her, "you okay?"

Kakashi tapped Sakura on the shoulder lightly. The catatonic girl snapped back to reality and squeaked.

"Right!" her sensei chirped. "If you'd be so kind as to follow us…"

[center]X[/center]

Well, here they were.

Senju Tsunade, the newly-inaugurated Fifth Hokage, stared at the two seemingly-older members of Team Seven with a flat expression.

Both of them were clearly uncomfortable with the current situation, though the extent to which they expressed it differed greatly. Naruto stood ramrod straight with nearly-visible beads of sweat dripping down his face while Sasuke's calm expression was only betrayed by her furiously twitching brow.

Of course, Jiraiya and Team Seven were still present, the group having chosen to stand back near the door. The three genin waited in stressful yet anticipating silence for something to happen while the two older men leaned against the wall with crossed arms.

Another moment passed and tensions continued to rise.

Then suddenly–

SLAM!

Lady Tsunade's fist cratered her desk as she rose to her feet. Startled, those in the room jolted back.

"You fucking idiots! You can't come to my office with this sort of shit and just stand back without saying anything! You know how to use your words, don't you? Explain!"

The two other adults quickly shuffled forward. Jiraiya rubbed the back of his head sheepishly

"Ah! Hime, you see–"

"Bad start. Hatake, go."

The grey-haired ninja sighed.

"Unfortunately, Lady Tsunade, we really don't know much either. These two just… appeared."

She quirked a brow.

"'Appeared'?" the woman repeated slowly. "I hope for your own sake that you're not being facetious right now."

"They did!" interjected the younger Naruto from further back. "Sasuke and I were uh… well, we were there! These guys just 'popped' into existence out of thin air or something!"

"Pakkun can't tell them apart," Kakashi added. "It's not a Jutsu, and they aren't replicas."

The Hokage's shoulders sagged. With slow and exaggerated movements conveying the agony that this sequence was inflicting upon her, Tsunade turned her attention back to the pair at the source of her frustrations.

"Well? You two look like my genin, albeit a good few years older. It's almost like a big hand in the sky fast-forwarded a few years, picked you two up, and dropped you off back here with us."

Before any of the shinobi could get up in arms about the ludicrous insinuation, the woman bearing a striking resemblance to Sasuke started to speak.

"We're really not–"

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto. She's Uchiha Sasuke."

The admittance was sudden. All eyes were on the blonde next to her, and no one was able to remain as calm as he appeared to be.

The black-haired one nearly lurched forward.

"Why would you–"

"Can you prove it?" the Hokage asked, interrupting her.

The one that claimed to be Naruto frowned a little.

"I don't know what I could do to do that."

"Did Jiraiya check your seal already?"

Silence.

"..."

"..."

"Check the seal, Jiraiya."

"Right."

Without needing to be told twice, the young man lifted his shirt and channelled his chakra. Sure enough, there it was: the swirling pattern of the Eight Trigrams Sealing Style.

Jiraiya clearly didn't expect to actually see it. He visibly recoiled but quickly steeled himself and lowered his hand to the younger man's stomach.

The chakra exchange was quick and the Toad Sage removed his hand just as quickly.

The younger Naruto was the only genin who knew what this really meant. His eyes widened.

"Wait! That's not possible, right? There should only be one–"

Tsunade wasted no time.

"I'm going to put some faith in the forehead protector you're wearing and speak as your superior officer. I need you two to explain exactly what you did to end up here. Don't pussyfoot around the issue."

The older Naruto continued to prove that he was more willing to speak than the older Sasuke.

"We were having an argument," he explained. "Things got a little carried away and so I couldn't really make out what happened with our jutsus being thrown around. One second we were on our way back from a mission with Kakashi-sensei, and the next we were on the hospital rooftop with all of you guys."

"It's been… theorized by certain individuals that a sufficiently-large chakra output would be capable of messing with all that Space-Time stuff," Jiraiya admitted after some consideration, careful not to divulge who these certain individuals were, "but the 'chakra output' in question would have to be insane. It's not something that anyone has been able to test."

Tsunade closed her eyes contemplatively.

"I've made my decision. Naruto. Sasuke. Head home as you normally would."

Who it was that she was referring to was not specified; this fact wasn't missed.

The younger Naruto shot his hand into the air in a mock salute. His eyes squinted shut in confusion; that paired with his whisker-like facial markings made for quite a canid-like expression.

"'Scuse me, Granny, but which 'Naruto and Sasuke' are you talkin' about right now?"

"All four of you. You're the same person, right? You shouldn't mind bunking together, at least for a while."

"I refuse."

All eyes fell on the twelve-year-old Uchiha Sasuke. She was absolutely livid.

Everything was happening pretty fast, sure, but she wasn't about to forget the emotions that were driving her to fight Naruto on that rooftop in the first place.

She held anger in her heart. Ambition. Indignance.

Uchiha Sasuke was above all of this. She had to be. To kill her brother, she couldn't remain stagnant and get swept up in the complacent ways of this village.

She knew nothing of this woman that claimed to be her and she didn't want to. To her, the reflection was an ugly one and she rejected it with every fibre of her being.

No one else seemed to be hung up on it, but in what world would she allow herself to be swept up in a lover's quarrel? Something so trivial? So base?

It disgusted her. She would not subject herself to bunking with a woman who was led astray by the romantic advances of Naruto of all people.

Sakura put a hand on her forehead and frowned worriedly.

"Hey, Sasuke. You're kind of red in the face. Are you okay?"

The Uchiha slapped the girl's arm away.

"I– never mind that! I'm fine."

"You can 'refuse' all you want," Tsunade growled, "but your refusals don't mean much to me, unfortunately. This is an order. Deal with it."

"Tche."

The girl grumbled and whipped her head away.

"Uh," Kakashi sounded, "Where do we go from here? I'm willing to go along with this and all despite it sounding a little farfetched, but…"

Tsunade hummed.

"I'd assume that these two" –she pointed at the supposed time-travellers– "would want to get back to wherever they came from."

"Right," the older Sasuke agreed, breaking her short-lived bout of silence. "We don't belong here. Naruto and I will be working on that."

"Do you know how you'll go about it?" Jiraiya asked. He was staring at the older Naruto intently as he did so.

The stare forced the blonde to look away. Being the only one who knew what was wrong, his fellow time-traveller turned her eyes to him with the smallest tinge of compassion.

"Not really," she answered for him. "It was a fluke the first time, after all."

Jiraiya crossed his arms.

"Hm… I don't take it you know fūinjutsu, do you? It might help."

"How kind of you to put your best foot forward," Tsunade drawled. Her cheek was resting against her fist. "How about, instead of wasting your day peeping on the women's baths, you help them out in your spare time, hm?"

"Well, I–"

"Great. It's settled. I want all of you back here in the morning to discuss things further, but for now, get some rest. As for our two 'guests', I don't want anyone in the village finding out about you without my say-so. Stay out of sight whenever you can and keep your features hidden whenever that's not possible. Understood?"

"Yes, Ma'am!" was the immediate resounding response. She took a moment to look everyone over one last time.

"...Good. Dismissed."

As everyone began to leave, the Hokage called out once more.

"Kakashi, Jiraiya, stay behind for a moment, would you?"

[center]X[/center]

The door to the office closed behind them. The younger genin of Team Seven and the older counterparts of Naruto and Sasuke were ready to be on with their day.

"We'll be having words later," the older black-haired woman muttered into her blonde companion's ear. "I hope you know that I didn't appreciate the stunt you pulled."

To her annoyance, he just smiled cheekily at her. As always, his way of thinking differed greatly from her own. Whether she would accept that difference or beat the living daylights out of him would depend entirely on his explanation, however.

For now, she let sleeping dogs lie. Now that they were left to their own devices, Team Seven was free to bombard them with questions to their hearts' content.

"Excuse me," started Sakura in a timid voice. Naruto wasn't used to being on the receiving end of that tone from her. "You two are really Naruto and Sasuke, right?"

"I thought we went over this already," Future Sasuke answered curtly.

The pink-haired girl didn't seem too caught up with the rude response. Her cheeks took on a rosy tint and her teammates looked at her curiously.

"Then… that stuff you were talking about when you got here: are you two, well, you know…"

The other two kids didn't want to hear any of this. They each grabbed their older counterpart by the cuffs of their shirts and started pulling them away.

"We should go to the front desk!" Younger Naruto suggested. "They rent out cloaks for missions at a pretty good price. Ah– just let me handle it though. No one's allowed to see you, right?"

"I've had enough of this," Younger Sasuke complained. "Let's just go."

Sakura was left alone in the hallway, wide-eyed.

"W-wha?"

[center]X[/center]

The two blondes walked at a leisurely pace toward their apartment. The taller one, features masked by the hood of a white cloak, turned his head every so often to soak in the appearance of his village as it existed back before Nagato blew it all up. Everyone from his time was doing better now, sure, but it didn't mean that it wasn't nice to see everything as it once was.

"...Hey, can I ask a question?" the shorter one asked. The boy kept his eyes in front of him. "What's it like? The future, I mean."

The cloaked figure's lips could be seen smiling gently from under the shadow cast by his hood. All this time travel stuff was confusing and he didn't really know what he should or shouldn't say, but…

"It's nice!" he answered. "Sometimes things go well, sometimes things go… not-so-well, but I –we– have lots of people that we can rely on! At the end of the day, that's all that really matters, right?"

They were both the same person, so it was only natural that they both understood where their priorities lay. To Uzumaki Naruto, more than anything else, as long as he knew that his friends were–

"That's not what I mean! What rank are we in the future? We gotta be Hokage by now, right? Aren't you?"

The older one deadpanned.

"…You're taking this pretty well if you're able to ask questions like that right away." The man paused and scratched his cheek. "I'm still a little out of it, to be honest."

The younger one looked away contemplatively.

"Well, I mean, it's pretty unbelievable, but what can 'ya do? You're me and Sasuke's Sasuke, so at least there's that."

The cloaked man hummed.

"What do you mean?"

The kid tilted his head up and grinned. He stretched his arms over his back and held them there.

"It's easier for me to think that you do stuff just like I would. Your Sasuke was being all moody and trying to get away and stuff, but Pervy Sage, Kakashi-sensei, Granny… they're still them; you trusted us to eventually trust you. That's why you didn't try to hide anything, right?"

Older Naruto's mouth made an "o" shape before matching his younger counterpart's grin.

"Yeah," was his simple answer.

"Hehe. I figured!"

"..."

"Ah– hey! You didn't answer my question!"

[center]X[/center]

"Don't speak to me. Don't look at me. Don't be in the same room as me. If it so happens that we're forced to exist within the same vicinity, I will pretend that you don't exist and I expect you to do the same. Understood?"

As the young Uchiha approached the abandoned compound of her massacred clan, the streets became visibly less populated. By the time they were barren, the girl felt comfortable voicing her grievances to what seemed to be thin air.

A moment later, a woman who looked just like her dropped down from a nearby rooftop.

"Hoh?" the woman exclaimed flatly, her tone almost mocking. "Knowing me, I would've thought that you would have wanted to get what you could out of me first. I'm older, aren't I? I'm wiser. More powerful. Surely your grievances could be put aside if it's for the sake of–"

"There's no point. You're a dud."

"...A dud?"

"The future you come from is no good. I will not envision myself losing track of what needs to be done because of a boy. I will be stronger than that."

"..."

In a roughly eighteen-year-long life, Uchiha Sasuke had done many regretful things. Regardless of her reasons, for her to say that she didn't, in fact, regret many of those decisions would be a lie. However, not once did she hate herself for those decisions. They were a part of her, just as how her penance was a part of her. To "hate herself" would be akin to spitting in the face of everyone who suffered at the hands of her own convictions.

Now, though, "not hating herself" had suddenly become incredibly difficult for entirely new reasons. Naruto wants her to think that he fell in love with this pain in the ass? Either his tastes in women left much to be desired or he was just jerking her chain this whole time.

What a miserable train of thought. It left a bad taste in her mouth.

To compensate, saying something spiteful and misleading to this younger version of herself would be fine, she decided.

"Don't you know? No matter how much you train, no matter how strong you and your sharingan become…" The hair that she combed over her rinnegan fluttered, revealing it to the younger Sasuke for a split instant. The girl's eyes widened in shock at seeing such an alien dojutsu. "...You'll never be able to beat Uzumaki Naruto in any way that actually matters. You might as well just give up now."

Needless to say, the shock was short-lived. It was immediately replaced with fury as the girl's curiosity would always play second fiddle to her pride.

That fury was one that a young Sasuke would remain convinced that she wouldn't ever let go of.

No more words were exchanged. The younger one turned about-face and marched in the opposite direction of the compound, leaving her older counterpart alone at the gates.

She was not followed.

The girl kept her head low. Her shoulders were tensed and her teeth were bared. Even still, distracted as she was, she slipped through countless crowds of people with little to no difficulty.

Before she knew it, she found herself on the other end of town. The sun had already started to set. Wanting to be left alone, she climbed a nearby tree and leaned against its trunk.

"..."

She sighed.

She didn't need this today. Not today of all days, at least.

She was at her lowest right now. Even she could see that. The intrusive thoughts were winning; making Naruto fight her was the only thing she could do.

If she beat him, everything would be fine, right? She was stronger than him, still. Sure, he was getting better, but not as fast as she was. It made no sense for a guy with no talent to improve just as quickly as someone like her. That was just how the world worked.

…No. It wasn't even that. It was how the world needed to work. She wasn't stupid. To kill Uchiha Itachi, she needed all the talent. All the training. All the power, skill, ability…

And she was getting it, right? That was what Kakashi was here for. He was their teacher. He taught her the Chidori.

Small amounts of lightning chakra formed at her fingertips. She observed it idly.

Naruto… what was that jutsu you used?

She couldn't help but think that the "mentors" in her life were purposely holding out on her. Holding her back.

Honestly, as strange as this supposed "time travel" turned out to be, it could have been good for her to meet the woman that she would become. Instead, the first thing that came out of that woman's mouth sounded like something that Sakura would say.

"You will never beat Uzumaki Naruto."

She clenched her fist. The lightning sparked before disappearing.

Damn it.

She slid down the length of the trunk and sat on the tree branch below. Her legs dangled over the edge and she grabbed her face angrily as if she were going to tear her flesh right off.

"Damn it!"

She heard something. Someone was approaching.

Multiple someones. They were moving in fast; probably not coming for a chat.

Her introspection was put aside as she forced herself back into an alert state. She stood just as four other kids around her age appeared on the very same branch.

She grimaced.

"Who the hell are you people supposed to be?"

"The Four Sounds," answered one that looked a little too much like Shikamaru. "I'm Kidoumaru, of the East Gate."

"Jiroubou, of the South Gate," followed the large one with the bad hairline.

"Sakon, of the West Gate," the white-haired one responded. Was that a second head on his back?

"Tayuya, of the North gate," answered the final one: a red-haired girl.

"..."

She didn't care.

These guys were Sound ninja, right? They were wearing the headband of that village. It would be fine for her to beat them up, right? Maybe it would be a good way to relieve some stress.

She made the first move.

[center]X[/center]

"Khuagh!"

An ugly sound escaped her lips along with the blood and vomit that was forced out of her. Sasuke's heaves came out laboured and her unfocused eyes could barely make out the blurry forms of her assailants anymore.

She had underestimated them.

Everything had been going just fine at first. They could barely put up a fight, even.

But then… that mark. They had it too. The curse mark –the power– that Orochimaru had given to her.

The advantage that it gave them was unbelievable. The tables had turned in an instant; she was thrown around like a ragdoll without a single opportunity to counter.

It wasn't fair.

It wasn't fair!

Was this… was this as far as her own power could take her? Could Orochimaru's mark really make a bunch of faceless nobodies that much better than her?

"You understand who we are, don't you, Uchiha Sasuke?"

She didn't speak. Though she couldn't see any of them clearly, she still tried her best to glare at them.

"Oro…chi…"

"That's right," the white-haired one said. Finally, Sasuke's sight started to return to her. "Orochimaru-sama wants you. The curse mark is powerful, but yours has barely started developing. Forcing you to come with us won't do us any good, but I'm sure that you can see that staying in this village is stagnating your development."

She gritted her teeth.

She did.

She did see.

"I–"

"Here you are. In a bit of a pinch, are you?"

The voice came from right beside her. Were she in any condition to do so, Sasuke would have jumped.

Slowly so as not to exacerbate her injuries, she looked at the figure that managed to sneak up on her without her noticing.

It was the older version of her that claimed to be a time-traveller. The woman stared down at her, paying no mind to the four Sound ninja right in front of them.

"Hey. Who are you supposed to be?" The red-haired one asked. The similarities between the two black-haired girls could not be made out due to the older one having donned a black hooded cloak.

"It doesn't matter for now," the one with the spiky ponytail said. "Let's retreat before– hmf!"

The cloaked figure grabbed the boy by the face and, in an impressive display of physical strength, lifted him clean off the floor.

The redhead was the first to move. Wide-eyed, she jumped back and pulled out her flute–

"Tsukuyomi."

The four ninja dropped to the ground like puppets with cut strings. They were unmoving.

The younger Sasuke couldn't keep her jaw from falling open.

What was that!? A jutsu?

Those sound ninja… they hadn't stopped using the curse mark, but they still lost to this woman in an instant.

She couldn't even tell how it happened. As far as she knew, the older Sasuke hadn't even lifted a finger.

Was there… this much of a gap between them?

She gulped.

Something like this… Is it possible for me to…

Grabbing the unconscious red-haired girl by the head and observing her features as she turned it from side to side, Older Sasuke spoke over her shoulder.

"You have ninja wire on you, right?"

The younger girl couldn't think to do anything but check her pockets.

Chapter Text

Wow. This chapter was disastrous not because of its content but because a 3-day project somehow got stretched out over like 2 weeks. This has been the unfortunate result of a mix of writer's block and me literally not being able to find the time in this hectic month of November to just sit at my computer for two seconds. In fact, this release is the result of me finding a few hours to just part my ass in front of a monitor and not move until this bastard was finished. Apologies for any roughness around the edges; this fic doesn't have a beta and I want to push it out ASAP so that I can hopefully catch  up on an atrocious month in terms of productivity.  

[center]X[/center]

“Naruto. Sasuke. Thank you for coming on such short notice. I would have liked to have spoken to you both after you’ve had the chance to get settled. Tomorrow like I suggested, preferably.”

Tsunade inclined her head politely as the pair of… time travellers? Yes. As the pair of time travellers entered her office.

Naruto looked about as lost as he always did, though that was through no fault of his own at the moment. He, unlike Sasuke, really didn’t know why she called him here.

Well, down to business, then.

“Before we—”

“Excuse me,” Sasuke started, pointing at her assistant. “Is it okay for her to be here?”

Tsunade stared at Shizune blankly for a moment. The short-haired woman was white as a sheet and couldn’t look away from the two that were looking back at her awkwardly. 

“It’s fine,” she said uncaringly. “I asked her to be. I figured it would be best to introduce those I think are trustworthy to this situation in a controlled fashion. Do you disapprove?”

“Lady Tsunade!” Shizune all but shouted. “These are… I mean, they’re—”

“Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke,” she answered matter-of-factly. “Only, they’re a bit older. They’re from the future, supposedly.”

“That’s—”

“Shizune!” Naruto exclaimed. He smiled at the young woman. “I’m glad. If Granny thinks this is a good idea, then I’m happy that I’m able to see ya. Sorry if this is all a bit out of nowhere.”

Sasuke was less enthused. 

“That’s nice and all but this isn’t what we came here to discuss, is it?”

Tsunade closed an eye and rested her chin on the palm of her hand. She sighed. 

That Uchiha was as pleasant as always, huh? Patience oozed from this one’s pores.

…Not that she could blame her. She figured the girl was pretty high-strung at the moment. Lots going through her head.

“Right. If you wouldn’t mind, then, Shizune, I’d ask that you keep your questions for later.”

“Y-yes, Ma’am.”

Shizune seemed content to keep his mouth shut for now.

“Good. Naruto.” The boy’s head perked. “I’ll be brief. Sasuke—the younger one—was approached by a group under Orochimaru that calls themselves the Sound Four. I assume you know about them.”

His sombre expression was confirmation enough. 

“Is she all right?” the blonde asked, trepidation clear in his voice. If what this Sasuke told her was right, he was worried about more than just her physical well-being.

“She’s fine,” Tsunade responded, allaying his concerns. “Your Sasuke was there to hold them off. All four members are in our custody right now.”

A sigh of relief escaped his lips. 

“That’s good! So then… why are we here exactly?”

There was a clear look of discomfort on Sasuke’s face.

“Because of them. Or rather, because of one member in particular. Sasuke insisted that you see her.”

He looked at the black-haired girl questioningly but she refused to meet his eyes. Her head was kept facing forward, stoic as ever.

…Not going to say anything, huh? Even after all these years, she was still this gloomy. It was good to know that the younger one’s character wasn’t the way it was because she was in some sort of foul mood; the girl just came this way.

“Her name is Tayuya,” Tsunade said. “We have reasons to believe that she is a member of the Uzumaki clan. Your clan.”

Naruto’s face contorted into an expression of pure shock. 

“Wha—this whole time… are you sure?”

“No,” Tsunade shot that thought down immediately. “Of course not. Either way, she’s an enemy and that hasn’t changed. Be wary of her; she’s not your friend.”

Naruto’s face scrunched up. 

“I don’t understand. Then why are you letting me meet her?”

“Sasuke knew that you’d want to. She talked me into it.”

 He immediately turned to Sasuke again and smiled genially. She still wouldn’t look at him. 

“Let’s stop wasting time,” grumbled Sasuke. “Lord Hokage, if it’s all the same to you…”

Tsunade waved them off.

“Yeah, yeah. We can go. Shizune, you don’t mind looking after the office while I’m gone, do you? I won’t be out longer than an hour. I’m not trying to get out of work, I promise.”

The three made their way to the door. Shizune had her hand raised awkwardly, but she was still too shaken to say anything to catch their attention before they left. 

[center]X[/center]

The three passed by rows of unattended cells; there would typically be guards stationed here, but seeing as the existence of this Naruto and Sasuke was meant to be a secret, for now, those guards were asked to temporarily vacate the premises. No one raised a fuss, of course. There was no better security than the presence of a Kage. 

“Say,” Naruto started, breaking the silence. His fingers were intertwined behind his head as he idly looked around the prison hallway. “Don’t you think younger me should’ve been here? He’s the one that actually matters for this sort of thing. Not me.”

“No,” Sasuke answered, not breaking her pace. “You were too much of a simpleton at that age. It would be easy for someone malevolent to take advantage of his naivety.”

He frowned at her.

“I don’t get it. I thought you wanted me to get along with this lady. I have to give her a chance, at least. If I—”

“I don’t want you to get along with her. You do. If I had things my way, we wouldn’t be here either.”

Naruto opened his mouth to say something but quickly stopped himself. 

What Sasuke meant to say—and failed to vocalize—was that she talked the Hokage into letting him meet this Tayuya girl for his benefit and his benefit alone. He recognized that and he wouldn’t be taking that for granted. 

“Right. Thanks.”

“You—”

“Enough,” Tsunade grumbled. She grabbed their shoulders and held them back long enough to make her way to the front of the pack. “We’re here.”

Naruto stared at the nondescript metal door that they stopped in front of silently. There wasn’t a way to see through to the other side before it was opened; what would Tayuya be like, he wondered? He had never actually met the girl before. Everything he knew was from second-hand information. 

“Should we… go in?” he asked uncertainly.

Tsunade crossed her arms. 

“Go ahead. She’s tied down. Won’t be able to do much. I’ll wait for you out here; it seems like a private affair.”

“Sasuke?”

“...”

Her silence was taken as a dismissal of some sort. He would be going in alone, then. 

His fingers grazed the iron latches holding the door closed and he froze. 

Did he even know what he was going to say?

Up until now, the feeling at the forefront of his mind was anticipation. Elation, even. The idea of talking to someone who was part of his extended family was so foreign to him; he wasn’t ever able to do anything like this before. He didn’t think he’d ever get the chance.

But that was just it: that this moment would be possible had never crossed his mind. Finding the right words to say was already difficult enough without needing to worry about this person being super bad and not at all someone he wanted to talk to.

Well, nothing ventured, nothing gained. 

He stepped through and entered a real concrete box of a room. The only distinguishing feature was its centrepiece: a small woman—probably still a kid, actually. A few years younger than he was now—strapped to a chair. The first thing that struck him was her hair.

Red. The same red as his mother’s. 

The second thing was the soullessness in her expression. He was hit by an immediate and short-lived bout of inexplicable empathy before that expression morphed into a derisive grin. 

“Who’re you supposed to be, Blondie?” she asked him in a raspy voice that didn’t fit his initial impression of her. “You gonna interrogate me? It won’t go well, I promise. I don’t know where you took the other guys, but none of us are going to talk.”

When he first saw her, his tentative plan was to introduce himself as an Uzumaki and see how things would go from there. Now, though…

“Why do you work for Orochimaru?” he asked. He figured that introductions could wait; she could believe whatever she wanted for now. If he could see things from her perspective then maybe…

She was quiet for a moment. 

“That’s a pretty strange question, don’t you think? I work for him ‘cuz I work for him, fucktard.”

“What did you call—” he bit his tongue. Getting upset wouldn’t get him anywhere. “That’s not a reason. No one does anything ‘just because’.”

Or at least, he didn’t want to think so.

She smirked again, the look twice as mocking as it was a moment before.

“Not too sure about that one. You don’t look like too much of a thinker yourself.”

Naruto repeatedly clenched and relaxed his fists. He closed his eyes and took deep breaths, though he couldn’t control his violently twitching brow. This would be a long conversation. He could just feel it. 

[center]X[/center]

“I’d assume you know this Naruto better than I do,” Tsunade spoke, leaning against the wall. She didn’t look at the younger woman on her haunches on the other side of the closed door. “Has he learned anything over the years? I couldn’t imagine leaving the Naruto I know alone with a prisoner that he might be fooled into getting along with unsupervised. I can only trust that you know what you’re doing, Sasuke.”

“...I wouldn’t really say that Naruto has learned much of anything,” the Uchiha eventually responded. 

The Hokage grimaced. 

“Care to elaborate? Uzumaki or not, I felt no compulsion to inform Naruto—either one of them—about that girl. She’s one of Orochimaru’s pawns. She—”

“Can’t do a thing. Naruto might be the same fool he’s always been, but that’s to his own benefit. The difference between the Naruto that you know and the one that I know is that the one in that cell has the experience and toolbox to support his idiocy.”

Tsunade turned to face her. Her eyes were sharp.

“Why did you really want Naruto to meet that Sound ninja?”

“‘Why’? There isn’t much to lose,” Sasuke answered dismissively.

“I’d argue that there is, actually,” the older woman spat back. “You appeared in my office thirty minutes after I told you to go home with my genin and dropped four unconscious enemy shinobi on my floor—you’re lucky that no one else had stopped by, by the way. You only let me take them into custody after you made me promise to let Naruto know about the red-haired one. You were adamant about that. I want to know why.”

“She is an Uzumaki,” Sasuke remarked, picking at her nails. “You wasted no time running the tests. Naruto doesn’t know this because he might let his bias get the better of him.”

“That’s not gonna fly with me,” shot down Tsunade immediately. “We both know that doesn’t have anything to do with my question.

The Uchiha took a moment to come up with something to say.

“...If Naruto has an interest in knowing more about her, there’s a good chance that she’ll spill whatever she knows about Orochimaru. Considering what will come next, Konoha will need every advantage that it can get its hands on.

“...”

This slithery brat. 

It wasn’t lost on her what the Uchiha girl was doing. Just because she said something ominous didn’t mean that Tsunade couldn’t realize that Sasuke was purposely avoiding the subject.

…It did mean, however, that she had to act like the responsible person that she was forced to be and pay attention to the more urgent of the two topics. 

Damn it all.

“What was that?” Tsunade drawled.

“The Akatsuki. You’ve heard of that group, haven’t you? Naruto and I have had our fair share of run-ins with them at this age, I’m pretty sure.”

The Hokage’s scowl deepened.

“On with it.”

Sasuke stood up and stared at the closed door that Naruto was behind. 

“They want to gather all of the Tailed Beasts—that involves capturing and killing their jinchuuriki—and use their power to bring the Ten-Tails back to life.”

“I don’t—”

“Forget your problems with Iwa and Kumo,” the black-haired girl continued before she could be interrupted. “If and when the Akatsuki get their way, the entire planet will be in danger.”

Tsunade suppressed all the feelings that such a ludicrous reveal birthed within her. She would get her answers now and worry about whether any of this was true at a later juncture. 

“Are you speaking from experience?”

“Yes.”

“That means that they’ve gone after Naruto and succeeded, then. How is he—”

“This has nothing to do with how or if the village protected Naruto. It has everything to do with the fact that we did nothing to stop them from getting to the other eight.”

“It’s not our responsibility to look after the other eight.”

“And that’s why the Akatsuki will succeed.”

“...”

Tsunade sighed.

“You’re incredibly manipulative. Has anyone ever told you that?”

Sasuke’s face was blank. Totally unreadable.

“Manipulative? What is it that you think I’m trying to accomplish, exactly?”

“I have no idea.”

The Uchiha let out an aloof grunt. 

“Naruto should have made some progress with her by now,” she said. “That girl might have a rough personality but Naruto is an empath, through and through; he’ll have no issue getting her to open up a little. I’ll go get him and we can try again another—”

BAM!

The sound of the metal door swinging open and slamming against the wall startled Sasuke enough to make her jump back. 

Naruto stood at the entrance with a pissed-off snarl on his face. He whipped back around and yelled at the inmate. 

“Get bent!”

“I’m strapped to a chair, you fucking halfwit; I’m already bent!”

“You—gah!”

He gave up on the insults and just slammed the door shut in her proverbial face.

He huffed and puffed. Tsunade and Sasuke stared at him awkwardly for one long and silent moment, both of them wide-eyed.

Sasuke was the first to find her words.

“What—”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

Tsunade ran her hand down her face.

“Let’s not talk about it then. How about both of you follow me back to the office?”

Naruto seemed to have calmed down a bit. He scratched his cheek.

“Shouldn’t we, uh… do this tomorrow instead?”

“No.”

“Oh. Okay. Is something wrong?”

Tsunade had already turned around and started walking back to her office.

“We’ll talk about it in a second,” she said ominously. “While you were chatting up the prisoner, I had an elucidating conversation with Miss Uchiha over here.”

Naruto looked at Sasuke confusedly. The girl simply shrugged and followed the Hokage’s lead.

[center]X[/center]

The door opened. Tsunade was the first to peer her head through.

“Shizune. We’re—”

“I want an explanation right now!” the short-haired woman shouted. She was as stiff as a board, her arms crossed and her eyes wide. 

She might’ve been caught flat-footed at first, swept along in the swing of things and all that, but that was behind her! What time alone in the office had offered was the chance to stew and process all the crazy information that had been shoved in her face all at once. 

Her conclusion was that this whole situation was five steps past crazy and she would not be kept in the dark with quick, half-assed dismissals any longer. Lady Tsunade didn’t actually have a reason to tell her to shut up earlier; she just couldn’t be bothered to explain anything!

Panicked, this strangely older Naruto raised his hands and held them out in front of him placatingly. 

“Shizune—”

The arms were slapped out of the way; he was too startled to react properly. Shizune dropped her hands onto his shoulders with an audible slap. 

Her eyes stared right into his soul.

“You,” she rasped. “You’re really tall.”

Gently, the also-older Sasuke stepped between them and pulled Shizune off of him.

“Of course, Shizune. One thing at a time.”

The black-haired woman was incredibly calm. She sounded nothing like her younger, always angry ball-of-bitterness-and-spite counterpart; though admittedly she had only made the girl’s acquaintance fairly recently, could someone’s personality really take such a stark turn?

Shizune took a deep breath. 

Right. First things first.

“What happened to the younger ones?” she asked. Whom she was referring to should have been obvious. “Are they all right?”

Big Naruto smiled widely. 

“Of course! Little me is back at my—his—uh… our apartment. Same with Sasuke, I think; we were actually going to call it in for the night, but Granny made us come back here.”

She felt like a weight was taken off her shoulders. At least there was that. 

So… the future, huh? She was aware of time-space ninjutsu, but even then, never did she think that such a thing was actually possible. Lady Tsunade seemed to be convinced, so she really didn’t have any reason to believe that this was some sort of sham, as insane as that was to think. 

“...”

As she eased herself into the reality of the current situation, she felt more comfortable engaging in a more peripheral line of questioning. 

She propped her fists on her hips and put on a teasing smile.

“How about it, then? I sure hope you’ve made it to chuunin rank by now.”

Lady Tsunade seemed content to allow the conversation to flow in any which way. The woman sat at her desk and waited patiently for Shizune to get her questions out of her system. 

Naruto puffed his chest out proudly.

“Actually, yeah I did! I’m really bad at taking tests so I wasn’t gonna, but Sasuke convinced me to do it anyway! You’re looking at a newly-minted jonin!”

Shizune laughed and clapped her hands together. 

“Congratulations, then! As a jonin, you’re now a fully-fledged ninja; it’s quite impressive to reach that rank at your age. I’m proud of you.”

Sasuke had a complicated look on her face. 

“Naruto, I think you’re giving them the wrong impression—”

“Well then! Tell me a little about the future,” Shizune continued. She was too caught up in the novelty of speaking to a time traveller to process the fact that Sasuke had spoken up. “Is everything going well in the village? Our relations with Suna are a little messy right now. Has that improved any?

Before he had the chance to answer, Lady Tsunade slammed her palm down her desk. Though she wasn’t trying to break anything, it was loud and overt enough to grab everyone’s attention. 

“Yes, tell us a little about the future,” Lady Tsunade parroted calmly. “Sasuke, I know that you had something to say earlier. You’re free to pick up where you left off.”

The black-haired woman stepped forward; her companion eyed her with a scrunched brow. 

“Huh? Sasuke? What were you and Granny talking about while I was—”

“Call me a granny a third time and I’ll tear you a new one. It’s not cute coming from a grown-ass man.”

“Sorry.”

Seeing that Naruto had been effectively silenced, Sasuke decided to get right into it. 

“The group of powerful rogue shinobi that you’ve been encountering recently: the Akatsuki. Has Jiraiya told you about their plans yet or is he still figuring that one out?”

Once the organization’s name was uttered, both Shizune and Lady Tsunade snapped into a state of alertness. Naruto didn’t interrupt the girl but he stared at her back intensely as if trying to pick apart a difficult puzzle. He didn’t know where she was going with this either, it would seem.

Lady Tsunade frowned deeply.

“He hasn’t,” the woman admitted. “He told me he had something to discuss with me, however; I figure if there’s something to be said, I’ll know soon enough.”

Sasuke nodded.

“Then at the very least, you’ll be able to verify what I tell you once he comes back with his information. Good.”

She turned her head to look at Naruto. 

“Do you remember what I said about them wanting to capture the Tailed Beasts in order to revive the Ten-Tails, Lord Hokage?”

Shizune’s mouth fell open. 

“Hold on!” Naruto interjected. “When did you—”

“I do,” Lady Tsunade confirmed, cutting the boy off once more. “It’s why I thought it important to talk about it here, in fact. What I’d like to discuss, however, is what you think we should do about it since you seemed so sure that we’d fail to protect Naruto.”

“They don’t need to start with the Nine-Tails,” Sasuke explained. “In fact, they would prefer not to. The Akatsuki can do plenty of damage by going after the other eight first. By then, it’ll be too late. It wouldn’t matter how well you took care of Naruto; the Akatsuki will be too powerful for one village alone to handle.”

Agitated, Lady Tsunade stood up and hung off the edge of her desk. 

“If you’re suggesting that we should help the other unaffiliated nations then you can just forget about it. We might be able to do something about Suna, but—”

“It’s not about what we can do,” Sasuke snapped back, her tone as even as ever, “it’s about what we must do. I’m telling you that all eight jinchuuriki will fall to the hands of the Akatsuki and there is nothing that any of the great villages can do to stop them alone. This is not a premonition. I am speaking from experience.”

The room was silent for a moment. Lady Tsunade let out a deep sigh and sat back down. 

“You’re failing to understand what I’m saying, girl. This has nothing to do with what I want to do. I’m telling you that regardless of what you say the outcome will be, there’s no way that a ninja village will accept the unsolicited help of an enemy.”

“You don’t need a ninja village to accept our help,” the Uchiha countered. “Just their jinchuuriki.”

Shizune felt just as lost as Lady Tsunade seemed to be. Sasuke turned her head to Naruto once more and inclined it pointedly. 

At first, he had a really dumb look on his face. Like a deer caught face-to-face with a hunter’s arrow, almost. A moment later, it morphed into an expression of understanding and eventually a confident grin.

“Right!” the blonde cheered. “Just leave it to me.”

He sat cross-legged on the floor and closed his eyes.

“What’s he doing?” Shizune asked, just as lost now as she was two seconds ago.

“Meditating,” Sasuke responded uselessly.

“Why is he meditating?” demanded Lady Tsunade impatiently. 

“As the host of a Tailed Beast, Naruto has the ability to communicate with the other eight. I have no idea how that will go now that we’ve gone back to the past, but it’s certainly worth a shot.”

“Seriously!?” Shizune exclaimed. 

Tsunade didn’t offer any additional input. She stared at Naruto’s still form silently. 

It didn’t take much longer for the blonde’s eyes to snap open. Once they did, his shoulders slumped. 

“Sorry, no dice,” he conceded. “Ku—uh, the Nine-Tails said that since he’s not really a person-person, future him and past him kind of fused together. That means that mine and younger me’s seal space are identical and that I can connect to this timeline’s Tailed Beasts just like normal.”

“You just had a conversation with the Nine-Tails?” Shizune questioned worriedly.

“Not important right now,” interjected Sasuke, brushing off her question. “If you can connect with them, why can’t you speak with them?”

Still sitting on the floor, Naruto scratched the back of his head sheepishly. 

“Well, ya see, my Tailed Beast came back with me but the other guys didn’t change any. They just didn’t let me connect with them, basically.”

Lady Tsunade quirked a brow.

“Were you expecting anything different?” 

“Yeah! They’re pretty nice usually. Once you get to know them, at least.”

Again, Lady Tsunade couldn’t help but sigh. Shizune didn’t blame her. 

“I want to ask, but I won’t,” the blond-haired woman mumbled. “What now, then?”

Naruto brought a finger up to his chin and he hummed.

A moment later, he looked as though a metaphorical lightbulb lit itself over his head. 

“I know! I can just go talk to them in person! We can—”

“No.” Tsunade shot the idea down immediately. “That’s stupid. Use your head a little.”

Surprisingly, Sasuke advocated his point. 

“There really wouldn’t be any risk involved in us infiltrating the other villages and speaking with the jinchuuriki in private. The ninja villages would not be properly equipped to stop us.”

Shizune felt concerned for Sasuke. Wasn’t she supposed to be the smart one?

“You either have a god complex or you’re delusional,” Lady Tsunade told her flatly. “Naruto: I know you’ve just been promoted and all, but that does not mean that you’re on top of the world. Don’t ride that high and do something stupid or you’ll regret it.”

Naruto looked like he was going to say something but Sasuke slapped her hand over the boy’s mouth without breaking eye contact with the Hokage.

In a rare showing of frustration, the black-haired girl ran her fingers down her face and rolled her eyes.

“I knew you’d— look: words won’t get us anywhere. Who are the strongest shinobi in the village right now? You, Kakashi… who else? No one comes to mind, sorry.”

Shizune didn’t know where Sasuke was going with this.

Lady Tsunade narrowed her eyes. 

“Jiraiya is still around so him too, I suppose. Why do you ask?”

“Would you trust Jiraiya to do something like this?”

“That has less to do with—”

“Yes or no?”

Lady Tsunade gritted her teeth. 

“You’re an impertinent little shit. Yeah, I guess so.”

“Naruto will fight him, then. That should give you a better idea of what Naruto is capable of. There’s no reason for me to waste my words.”

The eldest in the room prepared a retort, but Naruto countered brightly before she could.

“Aw… that would be great! I’d never…” the trailed off and blushed. His eyes were squinted shut. “I’d never actually sparred with Pervy Sage for real, you know? Not as I am now, at least. Whatever Sasuke’s trying to set up is going right over my head, to be honest, but I would like that a lot.”

Lady Tsunade slumped over her desk and dropped her temple between her waiting fingers. She glared at the two of them dryly. 

“...Look. I’m not going to agree to that other stuff, but if you think that you can convince Jiraiya to spar with you, be my guest. I wouldn’t hold my breath, though. I doubt he’ll be too interested.”

Naruto’s smile didn’t wane even a millimetre. 

“I’ll go get him right now! I can get him to fight me no problem.”

“Wait ‘till tomorrow, at least,” Shizune told him with a frown. Did he know what he was getting into? Older or not, he was still a kid. She hoped he wasn’t getting overzealous. “It’s been a long day; get some rest.”

“Shizune’s got the right idea,” Lady Tsunade agreed. “You’re all dismissed until tomorrow morning. For real this time. Seriously, don’t come back.”

Naruto flashed them one last grin before pulling up the hood of his grey cloak and leaving through the door. Sasuke was about to follow, but—”

“Quite the theatrical way to go about this, don’t you think?”

The Hokage’s words gave Sasuke pause.

The girl turned to look over her shoulder and shot the woman and her assistant a condescending smirk. Seriously: it was almost impressive how that Uchiha girl managed to make a twitch of the lips so aggravating. 

“I like to have a safety net.”

And with that parting remark that made just about as much sense as Shizune thought it did, she and Lady Tsunade were the only ones left in the office. 

The blond-haired woman looked out the blackened window and sighed. 

“Nn. Shizune.”

“Yes?”

“Would you like to be Hokage instead? No one would put up a fuss, I’m sure.”

“No, Ma’am.”

“Right. I’m going to bed, then. Come get me when it’s time for me to do this shit all over again tomorrow.”

The Leaf Village’s fifth Hokage kicked up a floorboard, grabbed the sake gourd hidden beneath it and walked away unphased as Shizune gasped at her.

“You— I thought I got rid of those! You better not be hungover when I call you in the morning. Lady Tsunade! Hey, are you listening!?”

She was not.