Summary: There was no way this was a genjutsu-his eyes never lie. Yet, it was impossible for these people to be walking around, breathing, being alive. He had no idea what was happening, and that didn't set well with him. Time-Travel.
Rating: M (just in case).
Warnings: Violence, language, spoilers.
Genre: Friendship/Family

Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.

This is a callob story with Nitty Gritty. Non-Yoai. We hope you enjoy it!

At the End of the Path
By: PhenomenalNitrus & Nitty Gritty

Chapter One

It would be beautiful to sit atop of the Hokage Mountain, holding the Nanadaime(1) hokage hostage, making him watch the village he fought to protect crumble and he would be powerless to stop it.

Sasuke smiled and picked up a small stone and tossed it into the river, watching as it sunk, just like his dreams had.

It had been four years. Four years since the war ended, since the defeat of Akatsuki, and since he had lost everything.

As a child his two goals, or rather ambitions, were simple: kill his brother, and rebuild his clan. Now he wanted to destroy Naruto Uzumaki, and the precious village he loved.

Ever since he had taken over the mantel of Konoha the counsel members responsible for the slaughter of his family were sent to prison on several charges. Sent away for life, probably rotting in a cell-it was too nice of punishment; they deserved a painful death by his hands for their crimes against his family. Only an Uchiha could bring justice to the clan.

Grinding his teeth, Sasuke slumped against the rock. The Nanadaime Hokage was going to watch his village burn for what he had done. That man took everything away from him with his stupid self-righteous attitude and naïveté.

He deserved to suffer…he deserved to have everything precious to him disappear-killed while he was powerless to stop him. To see his precious people die in flames…

Konoha was going to burn.

XxX Hold up, oh no, who let them in the door XxX

Once in a while it was nice to breathe fresh air. In his office he was breathing the same recycled air everyday, but this air was pure. It had been six months since he left the village, and the first time in those six months since he felt like he was actually doing something useful.

Although he-now-understood the importance to paperwork, he still hated it. He could understand why most of the previous Hokage's had weird quirks-reading porn, drinking in the morning, playing with a crystal stalker ball.

So sue him for wanting to escape for a few measly hours. He hated being coddled-he knew he was an important figure to the village and needed (or so they said) protection, but he thought it was bullshit. He could take care of himself.

Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze needed no one to sit around babysitting him, holding his hand for a "just in case" situation.

On this entire mission he didn't even come across a small scuffle, which was to be expected it was only a C-rank mission. He could have easily sent a team of genin-but he wanted to escape. He needed a break, and missions to him were his break from the office, he was still a shonobi, and he hated being treated as though he were fragile.

He grinned and adjusted the porcelain raven mask that covered his face. He had kept his old anbu uniform and it served to be the perfect disguise for him to slip away in. His hair was covered with a white-grey hood that matched the uniform. He had specifically requested this uniform-with the hood, that way he would be unidentifiable-his hair was always a big tip off to enemies.

Plus, although it would seem that he fled from his duties, he hadn't. He was not stupid enough to leave the hokage's chair empty. Sitting in his steed was himself- a clone. It knew how to handle the office, and it was a great sit-in hokage.

Naruto stopped and took a breather. He was using a lot of chakra, trying his best to reach Konoha before night fall-and failing. He was still a good few hours from the gates and the sun was starting to blind him as it set in the west.

He stood on the tree branch for a few minutes. Taking calm breaths, trying to keep his legs from trembling from the amount of area that he had already run across.

He took out his canteen of water and took a swing from it, not minding as some water droplets dripped down his chin.

He rubbed his legs and groaned as they ached under his fingers.

"Common," he muttered tiredly to himself. "Just two hours and we can sit down and do paperwork for a week," he cooed to himself. Motivation to keep going, he needed it-because honestly he felt like just sitting on this branch and never moving again.

"Talking to yourself?"

Naruto froze. He knew that voice, well used to know that voice. It was deeper, darker, than he last remembered. He inwardly cursed himself for not paying attention to any chakra signatures around.

Turning around he saw him standing on a tree branch a few feet behind him. His pale hand was resting against the trunk and that blasted smirk was saying more than the man himself. That smirk that always could tell Naruto that he was a moron with no words.

He opened his mouth and quickly closed it. Sasuke would not recognize him under the mask, and was silently thankful for the protocol that anbu must remain anonymous.

XxX It's like a freak show, shake it like a photo XxX

Sasuke watched the Konoha anbu stare at him impassively. He wondered whether killing this man would make a difference in the ranks of the village, and then realized he didn't care if it did or didn't. He felt fury build in him as the man just stood there.

Did he not realize that he was Sasuke Uchiha. He smirked, poor fool.

"Not going to try and take me in are you," he mocked and grinned-nothing playfully or sweet about it.

"You are not my concern," the anbu murmured out in a familiar voice. Sasuke couldn't place it.

"Your Hokage may think otherwise," he challenged and smiled, "the moron was always on about some promise," he scuffed.

"Hokage-sama has given up on you."

Sasuke froze. 'What..?' suddenly a smile formed on his face, cruel and unforgiving. "That idiot finally realize how much time he has wasted chasing me like a sick lost puppy?" Sasuke smirked and eyed the Anbu.

Yet his chest hurt…ice flowed through his veins and fury burned behind his eyes. He was itching to kill the man, then head straight to Konoha and kill Naruto.

The raven anbu did not reply, eyeing him carefully. Sasuke smiled, the man was obviously not going to underestimate him.

"You are not my concern Uchiha," the anbu calmly spoke, yet not turning away from Sasuke. Smart-not to turn your back on an enemy. "You are scum," the man continued, "abandoning your comrades, teammates and family."

He growled and felt his chakra build up, unconsciously forming a chidori in his hand. He grit his teeth and glanced at his hand where the blue ball of electricity had formed, turned and grinned manically at the anbu. "I never abandoned my family," he hissed out, taking a threatening step closer. "You don't know anything."

"I know more than you think."

Sasuke humorlessly chuckled and dispersed the chidori, and clenched his hand. "You know nothing!" he seethed and glared at him, "whatever your precious Hokage has been spewing is garbage! Whatever you may think is flawed. You know shit about me."

He was surprised to note that anbu's eyes seemed darker and he could feel the charka spike around the man.

"I am not the one who forsake everything my brother fought for." The baritone voice cut into him, he didn't respond. "I am not the one who is constantly manipulated," he spat out and turned his head up to the sky-though Sasuke that he was still being watched. "I am not the one who destroyed the only one willing to go to hell to save you."

Sasuke smirked and started to chuckle, "Hell to save me?" he threw back at the man, watching as his head turned to look at him instead of the cloudy sky. "Nobody asked him to."

"Nobody had to." The man whispered out, though his voice rang like a bell.

Sasuke frowned, shaking off that same tender feeling he always got whenever Naruto was brought into the picture. It was hard to ignore being wanted by someone, even if it was someone he vowed to kill…he still thought of his ex-teammate as his best friend.

His eyes trained on the anbu, and frowned again. The man had significantly stiffened, his posture tense and rigid. He watched as the anbu swayed lightly and he felt the man's chakra spike in a threatening way. Sasuke glanced around the clearing-there was no other chakra signatures around-maybe he found Sasuke threatening?

The anbu groaned pitifully and swayed dangerously close to the edge of the tree branch. Sasuke watched, unsure as what to do, and secretly hoping the man fell from the tree- breaking his own neck.

Sasuke smirked as the man reached out and touched the trunk of the tree with his hand. Sasuke noted it was tan.

He saw the anbu fall to his knees, almost slipping from the branch and clenched his hands into fists as he placed his head between his knees. He appeared to be in severe amounts of pain, and Sasuke couldn't fathom why.

Maybe on his mission he had gotten hurt? Slow acting poison..? Served the moron right.

His eyes widened as the man's chakra flared again and he realized that his chakra was draining at an alarming rate. Instinctively he activated the sharingan, and glanced around the forest quickly.

Someone-or something- was draining his chakra. Was it an enemy-and although he really didn't care what happened to the Konoha shonobi, he was still in the forest-therefore at risk too if this threat was left unattended. He was not going to die before he could kill Naruto.

He frowned, there was nothing around…. nothing strong enough to be a threat. He shook his head and turned his blood eyes back to the anbu.

'What the…' he stared. That man had the Kyuubi's chakra…. which meant….

XxX Hate is only what you say, not what you mean XxX

Naruto kept his head low, trying to keep his breathing even. Everything was burning, he had no idea what was happening but Kyuubi seemed quite disturbed.

He gripped his arm, willing the burning to stop. He wanted it to stop…

He didn't care that Sasuke was there, he couldn't even see the Uchiha anymore-although unnerving, he just couldn't focus. His eyes blurred as he kept them closed tightly, gripping his arm rougher, trying to refrain from screaming.

He tried to control the spikes in his chakra, with every spike it felt as though electricity was combining with the fire. He took calming breaths, keeping his eyes closed, trying to focus. He needed to control his chakra, but with each passing second he felt drained.

He recognized what was happening, his chakra was being stolen-he assumed at least. He couldn't control it; he tried and hissed as another wave of electricity shot though his stomach and chest.

He kept his eyes closed and bit his lip, causing it to bleed as the fire felt as though it was increasing in intensity. He groaned and felt darkness pulling him under, his body was heavy. He didn't want Sasuke to know who he was, but he was sure the Uchiha had already figured it out.

Kyuubi roared and Naruto felt his head pulse at the pained sound and he could sympathize with the demon. It might be possible that he was feeling what Naruto was.

Sweat trickled under his mask and his hair now sticking messily to his forehead. He felt the clone dispel-the one he left at the office, and frowned. He couldn't even register what the memories of the clone where, the pain was numbing everything in his mind to mush.

He felt his anbu mask being lifted carefully, and willing up strength he lifted his head to look at Sasuke who was crouched in front of the Hokage.

"Naruto…" he whispered in shock and there seemed to be something besides hate in those eyes but Naruto couldn't figure it out-he could barely focus on the blurry image of his ex-teammate.

Something moved behind Sasuke and he looked past the Uchiha and saw a shadowy figure move towards them.

Dark greasy hair cascading down his back, sickly pale skin. Who the hell was that..? and that smirk, it was creepy and Naruto felt his chakra spike again.

This time he did scream and his body quivered, he tried to keep his head focused on the figure that seemed to smiling with mirth as withered in pain.

"Sas…" his voice was foreign to his own ears, too low for a person to hear. He wanted to warn the Uchiha-about the figure, it made Kyuubi uneasy-that was no feat.

He opened his mouth again and a wave of dizziness washed through him and he felt himself falling as darkness descended on him.

XxX And pain, is what's inside of me not when you're bleeding XxX

Sasuke quickly reached out and grabbed the anb-no, Naruto's- uniform and hauled him back on the tree branch. He leaned the unconscious man against the bark, and whirled around to where he had been staring off before.

There was nothing behind him. He kept his sharagian on, but he still didn't see anything. Maybe Naruto was losing focus at the end..?

He sighed and glanced at his old teammate and frowned. His breathing was shallow, and his chakra was barely there-at this rate he would die.

Now was a time he wished he knew some medical jutsus, nobody was to kill the Nanadaime before he did. It was that simple, he would not allow Naruto to die at some unknown person's hand.

Quickly checking over the Hokage, he noticed not a single scratch on his friend, if he was poisoned, where was the needle or weapon mark? Did he ingest it..? Did someone slip it into the moron's ramen?

As he was about to deactivate his sharingan and haul the idiot to a doctor, he heard a low buzzing sound. He whipped towards the direction the sound was coming from-there was nothing there.

Yet the volume increased and he winced, placing both hands over his ears. It was a piercing buzz and even with his hands muffling the sound it was ear splitting.

Within a few seconds he felt his vision blur and his insides coiled at the idea that some unforeseen enemy was going to kill him.

He closed his eyes to stop the white dots from dancing across his vision and he felt his limbs grow heavy. He attempted to move his heavy hands, he needed to create a summon, get backup, but his hands wouldn't cooperate.

He cursed and tried to move his hands again but was only greeted with darkness. He knew no more.

XxX I will fall xXx

"Sensei," she called out to her teacher who was sitting cross-legged on a stump. His eyes were closed in obvious meditation.

"Are you done training?" a gruff voice asked her, his eyes still shut. She frowned, and glanced to her other two teammates. She sighed once they both shrugged and she brushed her dark hair out of eyes.

"Sensei," she called again, "you need to see something." She told hotly and glared at the man who cracked both his eyes open; his pupil-less eyes boring into her own red ones.

"What is it?" he muttered out tiredly. She understood why he was tired, they had been training extra hard for the upcoming chuunin exams so he was always trying to get them to practice.

"Two men fell from the trees," she told softly, "they're hurt real bad." She sighed and saw her teacher quickly stand up.

"Where?" he asked and she pointed past her shoulder to where her other two teammates were kneeling. They were checking the men over-to see if they had any injuries.

"Enemies?" he questioned marching towards the two boys. She shook her head quickly.

"No, one has a Konoha headband."

He nodded and approached his team. She stood off to the side and watched her sensei kneel next to one of the bodies. The guy had dark hair; spiked at odd angles in the back, while at the front his bangs framed his angular face. He reminded her of an Uchiha…

"He's lost a lot of chakra," her sensei murmured. She glanced at her other two teammates, one shrugged his shoulders with no interest and the other was biting his lip in worry.

Their teacher stood up and moved to the next one, rolling the man over so that he was no longer lying on his stomach. Everyone froze.

"Asuma…" her sensei called to her teammate, "come and give me a hand." He thoughtfully said, even though his eyes never left the face of the man. Kurenai couldn't blame him; his features also struck her.

Asuma slowly walked towards his sensei and kneeled down, noting that he already had the Byakugan activated-the veins around his eyes a dead give away.

"Shit," he cursed and turned his, now, deactivated eyes to his team, "Gai," he called to the green-jumpsuit teen, "carry that one," he pointed to the dark haired male, "I'll carry him, they need immediate medical attention."

Gai nodded quickly and walked over to the fallen man, Kurenai lending a hand as she hefted the still body up so that her teammate could easily carry him.

"Hizashi-sensei," Asuma spoke up, still staring at the man before him, "he looks like Yondaime-sama, except for the scars," he said noting the three parallel scars on both of his cheeks.

"I know," he told softly and hefted the body up, cradling him carefully.

"Who is he?" Asuma questioned, standing up and following behind his teammates and teacher.

Hizashi glanced down at the man in his arms, and shook his head. He couldn't answer his student-he had no idea who this person was.

(1) Nanadaime- Seventh Hokage.

Hizashi Hyuuga is the sensei to Asuma, Kurenai and Gai in my story. We don't know if that is actually the case in the cannon.

We're trying to keep everyone at the correct age, but we are having problems with that. So some characters may be a year or two younger/older, but we tried to keep them in the correct age slot.