Naruto's hand makes contact with Kaguya's shoulder and, in that moment, he feels victory unlike anything he's ever felt before in his life. Because even without seeing it, he knows that Sasuke succeeded as well, knows that they can seal her, that they've won.

And then, just like that, the victory crumbles.

It's not that he thought dying was impossible. He's known since he was a young kid running from violently drunk civilians that death was not only possible but also very likely. That expectancy only grew the stronger he became, the more enemies he faced, and with each win death just seemed to creep that much closer.

That didn't mean Naruto was going to just accept it, of course. All those moments, all those brushes with death, he pushed through, gave it his all, did everything he could to make it out. He had a dream to fulfill, promises to keep, precious people to save.

The hollow feeling in his chest, emanating from the spike of Kaguya's bone that was currently piercing through him, made Naruto think surviving wouldn't be so easy this time.

He watched on, strangely detached as his body began to decay and crumble away into ash, as Kaguya's body was swept away with the force of the sealing, revealing that Naruto wasn't the only one she'd used her last second of freedom to strike down.

Across from him, Sasuke stared back, eyes blown wide in disbelief, abdomen flaking away on the wind.

And Naruto felt... regret, so much regret, because he was dying. He was really dying this time and there was nothing anybody could do about it. Even if Sakura could heal him, he could tell she was running on empty. Granny was sleeping with the rest in another dimension and there was no way they could make it there in time.

He'd never see his friends again, wouldn't be there to greet them as they woke up. Wouldn't be able to lay Neji and Obito and so many others to rest like they deserved. Wouldn't be able to say goodbye to his dad and Hokage-jiji. Wouldn't be able to bring Sasuke home.

Wouldn't be able to become Hokage.

He couldn't stop the tears that sprang to his eyes as he realized that this was it, this was really it, and he had so much to say, so much to apologize for, but there wasn't any time.

"Naruto! Sasuke-kun!"

"No!"

Sakura was there, grabbing hold of them both, and he could see her hands already glowing with a weak, flickering green. She didn't have the chakra to spare but she was trying so hard anyway, even knowing how futile it was.

By the Sage, but he loved her, so much. Not infatuation, like when he was younger, but honest love. She was his family, his sister in all but blood, and he was so, so sorry for leaving her like this, so sorry he couldn't bring Sasuke back to her.

"Sakura," he managed to breathe out, but it was barely above a whisper. How had Obito managed to talk through this? His lungs were giving way, collapsing in on themselves and dissolving into so much ash, and it didn't hurt. Didn't feel like anything at all. Like absolutely nothing.

That, more than anything, told him that his time was running out.

"Shut up, don't talk!" Her breathing was labored, and he couldn't tell if it was because she was overworking herself or because she was sobbing so hard. "You're gonna be okay, I'll heal you, I have to heal you! You have to be okay!"

Kakashi had made it to them, was looking on with so much agony in his spinning eyes that Naruto almost wanted to look away, but no. If this was gonna be the last time he'd see them in awhile - and it had damn sure better be - there was no way he could look away.

"Can't," Naruto grunted instead and, with the last of his strength, he reached up and gave her glowing hand a single squeeze. "Sorry. 'M s'rry. Broke m' pr'mise."

"No, no, no!" Sakura's eyes met his, desperate, and he smiled for her. Because she was hurting and he would give her all of him if it meant she wouldn't cry like that.

But he didn't have anything left to give, it was all decaying away faster and faster, and as he looking forward he could see that Sasuke was barely there anymore. They met eyes, and he looked so angry, more angry than Naruto had ever seen him, but also resigned. There was no saving them.

After all, they were already dead.

His neck was giving way, the decay reaching his face, and Naruto used his last second of life to look upon his team, his family, one last time. To give them one last smile. To think one last apology to every single precious person that he was leaving behind, for every promise he was leaving broken and unfulfilled.

And then Naruto felt absolutely nothing at all.

.

.

The day had started out like any other day for Izuku.

His mother had woken him early for breakfast, after which she had helped him get ready for school. He was especially excited today because one of his classmates had gotten their quirk yesterday, a girl who's skin changed to whatever color she wanted, and it was so cool! Izuku couldn't wait to see his other friend's quirks, he was sure they were all bound to be super amazing.

Though, if he was being honest, he was most excited for his own. He couldn't stop thinking about what it could be. It was so exciting!

"Izukkun! Are you ready to go?"

"Coming, mama!"

The day had started out like any other. So that didn't explain why, seconds after calling out to his mother, Izuku found himself on the ground experiencing the worst pain he ever had in his short life, his head feeling like it was going to pop at any second.

Because there was too much. Images were flowing into him, thoughts and dreams and memories, almost two decades' worth, and he was only four years old. One moment Izuku felt like he was going to break, like his entire self would just shatter apart like the glass cup he had accidentally dropped last week during dinner, and then, just as quickly as it had started, it stopped.

Something within him clicked into place and, suddenly, he wasn't Izuku anymore.

Or, at least, not just Izuku.

Because he remembered his four years of life here. He knew his name and his mother's name, knew his father's face and the sound of his best friend's voice. He knew what quirks were and what heroes were.

But he also knew that his name was Uzumaki Naruto, that he was a trained shinobi of Konohagakure, the jinchuriki of the Kyuubi no Kitsune. He was a member of Squad 7, a part of the Konoha Twelve and the Rookie Nine. He had trained under Hatake Kakashi and The Legendary Toad Sage Jiraiya. He was the son of the Fourth Hokage and Konoha's Red Hot-Blooded Habanero.

And he had died.

He'd died. He'd just left Sakura and Kakashi stranded in that dimension with no way home and he'd died. He'd broken all his promises, hadn't become Hokage like Obito had asked with his dying words, hadn't been there to make sure everyone woke up form Kaguya's genjutsu, hadn't been there to send his dad off when he left for the afterlife.

He hadn't been able to bring Sasuke home because Sasuke had died too.

"Izukkun? Izuku!"

It wasn't until he felt arms around him, lifting him gently and patting at him, checking for injuries, that he realized that he was crying. Great heaping sobs, blocking up his throat until he couldn't even breathe. But he didn't need to breathe anyway because he was dead.

"Izuku? Izuku, baby, talk to me, tell me what's wrong, are you hurt? Did you fall? Baby, you have to calm down, you have to breathe, mama's here, mama's got you."

The frantic cooing barely managed to pierce through his absolute panic and with it came a shuddering inhale, his lungs practically screaming as they finally received oxygen. He knew that voice, that voice belonged to his mother.

Except, his mother had bright red hair that hung long, all the way down her back, not dark, almost green hair tied up into a bun.

No, a small voice in his mind whispered, that's mama.

This was Izuku's mother, the mother he had known and loved for the last four years, and Naruto was Izuku. He had Izuku's memories, shared his feelings, looked at this woman and felt safe and loved in a way he'd only ever felt for a too short time, when he'd met the chakra remnant of Kushina within his mindscape.

So, if he wasn't dead and if he was suddenly in the body of a four-year-old, a body that was his while looking and feeling nothing like what his was used to, then...

Just where the hell was he?

.

.

Despite claiming that he felt fine, his mother (his mother, he had a mother) was insistent that they go to the hospital. It wasn't like he could put up all that much of a fight anyway, seeing as how he was a toddler, but that didn't make him any happier about it.

Hospitals, in his experience, were not great places to be. Nevermind the pervasive smell of illness and death mingled with the burn of antiseptic. Hospitals meant pain, meant hurting so badly that it couldn't be ignored, meant wounds so serious that not even the Kyuubi could heal them. And, up until Tsunade-baa-chan had come back and Sakura had become a medic, it had meant sneering faces, rough hands and the 'accidental' mix-up or loss of pain medication.

No, hospitals did not hold good memories for Naruto.

But he wasn't Naruto anymore, was he?

As Izuku, he'd never actually been taken to the hospital yet in this life. He'd been sick before, had gotten bumps and bruises while playing, but never anything serious enough to require medical attention. Apparently being found huddled on the ground and sobbing like there was no tomorrow was cause enough for such a trip, and least in the eyes of his mother (his mother!)

Naruto-yet-Izuku gave it up as a bad job fairly quickly, realizing that it really wasn't worth the argument, especially considering how absolutely exhausted he was. Instead he let his mother guide him out to the car, strap him in his seat, and off they went.

(And it was so very, very weird, riding in a car. He'd been in a train before, had ridden vehicles similar, but there was nothing like this in Konoha. Everything around him was so foreign and yet he could name almost all of it. His memories were layered and jumbled and it was almost like seeing double, even as his eyesight remained as sharp as it had always been.)

It seemed like they arrived in no time at all and then came the waiting. Izuku wasn't currently bleeding, nothing was broken, he wasn't in pain, and so they got to sit in the waiting room with everyone else, regardless of how frantic his mother seemed to be.

Not that he minded much. Sitting on his mother's lap, feeling her fingers run gently through his hair as she spoke to him softly, it was the most comfortable he'd ever been in either life. He basked in the easy affection, soaking it all up like a sponge, and was extremely disappointed when his name was called and they stood to follow the nurse to a room.

"It seems as if his quirk decided to say hello," the doctor that finally came in to see them, a Takahashi Kenta, announced cheerfully, taking a seat across from them even as he flipped through a folder of what must be Izuku's paperwork. "A rather extreme reaction, to be sure, but not the worst I've ever witnessed. Gaining another part of yourself can be alarming in the best of times."

Takahashi leaned forward so that he was more on Izuku-yet-Naruto's level (and wasn't that just great, all that growing he'd done and he was right back to being a little pipsqueak all over again) and smiled at him. "Does anything feel different, Izuku-kun? It doesn't appear that you have a mutation quirk, nothing looks different about you."

The doctor trailed off, voice raising at the end like a question, and glanced at his mother, who resolutely shook her head. She looked torn between elation, because he'd developed his quirk, had done so practically early, and she knew how excited he was to finally get his, and concern, because what kind of quirk resulted in her son hyperventilating on the ground?

"So, not a mutation, most likely. What do you think, Izuku-kun? Your mother tells us you're very interested in quirks. A smart kid like you, I'm sure you have some ideas."

Izuku had to fight not to laugh incredulously. He'd been called a lot of things in his life, smart had never been one of them.

Only, that wasn't quite true, was it? Naruto had never been called smart. Izuku had been called smart loads of times.

And wasn't that just the weirdest thing, seeing as they were the same people, only born in different circumstances?

"Um, well," he began, a frown working it's way onto his face. Did he feel different at all? Not really. Beyond the whole 'suddenly in the body of a toddler' thing he felt just as he had before he'd died.

He blinked, pausing.

He felt just as he had when he'd died.

Which shouldn't be possible. He hadn't heard any talk of chakra in this world as he was growing up as Izuku but he could clearly feel it coursing through his body. Closing his eyes and holding perfectly still for a split second, not an easy task in an untrained body, he was able to sense the chakra in the air around him too, while very carefully not reaching out for any of it. (It would be just his luck to be reborn into a new life only to turn himself into a stone toad within hours, wouldn't it?)

His aches and pains from the war hadn't followed him, thankfully, but his awareness of his surrounding had, the feeling of power pulsing through his body, strengthening and supporting his muscles. He felt as powerful as he had on the battlefield while standing opposite of Kaguya.

He opened his eyes slowly, clenching his hands open and closed as he did so, and that was when he noticed the yellow circle imprinted on the palm of his right hand.

A gasp above him proved he hadn't been the only one to spot it and then his mother's gentle hands were taking hold of his, opening and flattening them out so that she and the doctor could get a better look.

"Well, that's interesting," the doctor remarked, looking intrigued, and made a note in the folder next to him before rolling his chair closer. "Does it feel odd? Does it hurt, tingle, or is there no feeling at all?"

Izuku-yet-Naruto shrugged as best as he was able when they were both poking and prodding at his hand like that. "Doesn't feel bad. Feels warm."

And it did, now that he'd noticed it. It felt like his hand had been laying in the sun while the rest of him had been hidden in the shade.

The doctor hummed. "Anything else, Izuku-kun?"

Izuku hesitated before admitting, "Feel stronger. Like I'm wearing armor, but it's in me."

He couldn't think of how else to describe it in a way that they'd understand and hoped that that would do.

"Armor, huh? Making you stronger? Could be a hardening-type quirk or a stock-piling type. No way to really know for sure until we run some tests."

"Tests?" His mother butt in, looking fairly uncomfortable. "What kind of tests?"

"Oh, not to worry, Midoriya-san. Things like this are fairly common. Not everyone's quirk is obvious, after all. I'm going to recommend a quirk counselor, one that specializes in determining quirk properties and how to utilize them. It's best to know as soon as possible just what someone's quirk is capable of, in order to avoid accidents."

The doctor had kept up the same cheerful tone throughout but by the end there'd also been a note of warning there. His mother sighed but was in very clear agreement.

Izuku was, too, if he was being honest. The sooner he found out what this 'quirk' of his was capable of the better. Would he be able to use chakra to preform jutsu? Would he be able to enter Sage Mode? Could he summon his toads, since they were used to being called on from different dimensions anyway? Would he still be able to call on Kurama's chakra too?

Wait.

...Kurama?

There was no answer, verbal or otherwise, but he could feel a warmth in his gut that was almost like acknowledgement. Still, he knew without a doubt that the bijuu wasn't there, that none of them were. They'd left pieces of themselves behind when Kaguya had torn them from him but they hadn't been within when he'd died in that world and so hadn't followed him on to the next one.

It made him feel lonelier than he ever had in his very lonely life.

"Izukkun? Sweetheart, are you okay?"

He blinked suddenly foggy eyes up at his mother, who had broken off her discussion with the doctor and was now peering down at him in concern. One of her hands rose up to gently caress the side of his face and he could do nothing but lean into the touch.

Sage, but all this easy affection was gonna go to his head so quickly.

"I'm okay, mama. Just tired."

She smiled at him, relieved. "I would imagine so. You've had quite the day, haven't you? One step closer to being a hero! Why don't we go home and you can have a snack and take a nap? I'll give your Auntie Mitsuki a call and maybe Kacchan can come over for dinner. I'm sure he'll be thrilled to hear you've gotten your quirk!"

Izuku wasn't too sure about that. His friend would be excited eventually, for sure, but not until he'd gotten through throwing a fit over Izuku having developed his quirk first. Kacchan hated losing in anything, even if he was the only one that saw it as a competition.

As excited as he'd been when his classmate had developed her quirk yesterday, he also remembered how Kaccchan had fumed the entire day and had refused to talk to absolutely anyone.

The Naruto part of his brain, the one who'd just left a war by dying, didn't give much of a care about a snot-nosed kid that might feel a bit inferior just because he'd come into his quirk first. After all, he'd had to die to get here.

The Izuku part of his brain was trying hard not to panic. Kacchan was his best friend and he really didn't want the other boy to be mad at him.

This whole thing was gonna get old real quick, he could already tell.

"That sounds great, mama," he agreed instead of trying to explain any of that and was rewarded with a bright, sunny smile.

Things went quickly after that. The doctor handed his mother a card with instructions to keep an eye out, just in case, and to either call or bring him back if anything were to happen.

Izuku was summarily strapped back into his car seat where the last thing he registered before drifting off was the soft sound of Present Mic's radio show.

.

.

A/N: Hi, yes, it's me, back on my bullshit

I really don't have to time to write new fics, I don't even have the time to write old ones, and so what does my brain do? It pesters and pesters until I write this.

This being my new fic, apparently.

(God, I am so sorry to those of you that read my other fics and are waiting for updates. I'm the worst, I know)

So. I'm not sure how far with this I'll go since I'm pretty horrible at updating on any kind of schedule. I'll write when I have the energy/inspiration? Just... don't expect a lot out of me. You'll only be disappointed lmao

I had this idea awhile ago because I went through a bnha phase and started seeing similarities in a lot of characters and so I've decided to just go with it. We'll see how that turns out.

I'm rating this M for language, because I have no self-control over my potty mouth, and because I don't know how descriptive the violence might get in the future. So. Just to be safe.

General disclaimer: I have not read the war chapters of Naruto in... awhile. So, don't know how accurate a lot of what I'll write about it is? But I don't have the motivation to go back and read it so. If there's anything I get wrong feel free to point it out if it means that much to you.

So, is this a good idea or absolute garbage? Follow, favorite or review and tell me what you think! Until next time!