I like Naruto time travel stories, though i don't seem to have found one that treats the story in a manner i would like. I hinted at this story not too long ago in my other story "other worlds" and i'm glad to say the first chapter is finally finished. I hope you all like it.

As always.

Read and review.

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The rains fell.

Tiny droplets of water, each one stinging, hurting, shearing its way into his body with its decent. The rains fell, the water washed over his body, and the mud beneath him seeped into his open festering wounds. Blond hair laid matted against his forehead, and his eyes remained closed.

Why wasn't he dead?

Why, after everything, wasn't he dead? Why? Why did he still live? He'd earned death hadn't he? He'd redeemed their deaths hadn't he? He'd re-killed Madara, eviscerated Obito. Made sure that each were not only dead, but that their souls would never receive the peace that was the after life. He'd sealed the Juubi away in a technique that should have cost him his life, and yet….

Why wasn't he dead?

Yet he lived. Yet he remained alive, feeling the droplets of rain beat on his face, feeling the thick disgusting mud seep into his wounds, feeling the low thrum of his weakened heart in his chest. Where everyone he had known, where everyone he had loved, where all the lives that had been lost that shouldn't have been. Where there had been so much death, and destruction, he lived.

He shouldn't have lived, he couldn't live, he didn't deserve to live. He refused to live.

He willed his body to give up, willed his heart to stop beating, but…but nothing. He lived.

He lived.

"God damn it." The words escaped his lips, they were hoarse, and harsh.

"God damn it!" He screamed, he screamed against the sheer unfairness of the world, the fact that his body refused to die, and he was too weak to end his own life.

"God damn it…" He whispered. Tears streaming down his closed eyes, the rain still falling, mixing in with the salty liquid and sloshing to the floor.

"Why?" He whispered, and only the splatter of raindrops, only the thunder of the storm that raged above was the world's response. He couldn't talk anymore, couldn't demand anymore.

So he fell to the darkness, he fell unconscious all the while hoping he would die. All the while wondering why he wasn't dead.

But still, uncaring, unmoving, unchanging in the land of rain, the rain fell.

xxxx-xxx-xxxx

"Wake up." The deep voice he'd known for years, nay all his life, called out to him.

He didn't want to wake up, it was pointless when he'd just fail. When he couldn't do anything right, or accomplish anything at all. The rains had stopped, his wounds ached with the pain of being suddenly healed and the once thick mud was slowly starting to harden around him. His face was dry as he'd exhausted his tears long before he'd fallen to the darkness, but still, he didn't want to wake up.

"Stop whining, get over yourself and wake up. We've been given a second chance. Don't waste it, get up. Wake up."

He moaned, a great big sigh escaping his lips as he did so.

Fuck the voice, He didn't want to move, he'd it his all. Fought to the last inch of his life and he'd lost. So didn't he deserve to rest? Didn't he of all people deserve to just…rest, to just give up?

"No. Get up."

"Fuck you."

He moaned in distaste as potent evil chakra poured through his pathways and angered up his blood. "Stop." He didn't want that. He didn't want to move. But this chakra, it would make him move. It would make not moving impossible. Because it made his body crazy with anticipation, unbearable in the need to move.

He had to move.

"Stop God damn it!"

He had to run. He had to chase and hand. He had to kill, and feel blond on his hands, and in his hair , and on his skin, and…goddamnit!

He stood up against his will, arched his body to stretch out the kinds, and in a mad dash of energy, in a uncontrollable urge to speed away leapt forward. In a mad dash he ran ahead. His spine arched, he pumped chakra into his feet and he was moving, running, sprinting full speed, wasting chakra in a desperate attempt to move.

"Fuck you."

"Stop whining. Get moving, you're not one to mope, and you'll thank me for this later, I know it, you know it."

"I just wanted to be left alone."

"There's no rest for men like you Naruto. The world is constantly being shaped and reformed by the wills of men like yours. To give up…to let that go…"

To move, god it felt so glorious to move. To feel the wind whipping through his hair, to feel his lungs screaming with joy. To feel his legs pumping, and heart beating, and his mind rushing with adrenaline as he moved…it felt good.

"Naruto…"

He didn't answer, he didn't want too.

"Naruto..."

Still he was silent, his determination not to answer was long dedicated.

"Naruto you need to stop pouting and stop to think this over. The other eight gave us a chance to fix everything, to pull back the veil of time fifteen years…it's a sacrifice that shouldn't be taken lightly. They gave their lives, their very souls to to rend time and space apart, to make their sacrifice so meaningless…"

Naruto sighed a long, deep, wistful sigh as the deep dredges of depression started to settle in. His frown was more than visable, and his running slowly crawled into a sensible more moderate pace. After a few moment he'd stopped in his tracks and was leaning against a tree.

"Fine, I'm just…I'm so tired."

"You're not the only one Naruto, and you're not alone in this…I'm here. Look, we'll need a plan."

Naruto sighed as he looked up to the clouds above. The constant grey storms that perpetually hung over the land of rains seemed to mirror his mood.

"Fifteen years."

Fifteen long arduous years. Fifteen years in which he had spend most alone, depressed, sad, and anger. Fifteen years in which a little boy had stood silently to the side as other played, in which a little boy had absorbed the hate thrown at him consciously by adults and unknowing by children. Fifteen years in which a three-year-old boy barely able to annunciate had grown into a man capable of fighting monstrosities other would have no chance of surviving against. Fifteen years to change the course of history, to mend the shape of time to his will, fifteen years to change things for the better.

It was daunting, challenging tasks, but then, he'd always been good under pressure.

His eyes cast back to the grey, warping skys. The clouds were darkening, and he couldn't tell if it was about to rain once more, or if it was about to turn dark. Perhaps both, but either way he had to move fast. And, of course, he had to come up with a plan.

xxx-xxx-xxxx

As Naruto huddled over the warmth of the small flame he couldn't help but to cast a look at the elderly old woman who had come to his rescue. Walking slowly through the ever-worsening storms, Naruto had cast a sharp eye around him. Hoping either to find himself an abandoned home to occupy for a few days, or too at least, spend the night and get out of the damn rain. Then he'd sensed a small, pitiable, and obviously civilian, waddling feebly throughout the abandoned town. He'd continued walking, pretending to not notice her presence until she called out to him.

"What you doing in this rain boyo?"

Casually he turned his head to her, taking in her presence as he did so. She was short, as old people tend to be, with wrinkled skin, and silver white hair. Her grey-blue eyes held a strong light to them that hinted at a strong mind regardless of a weak body. She carried a bamboo umbrella, and sturdy cane with a wide base in order to grab a better hold to the sinking mud of Ame.

"Trying to find a decent place to sleep granny. I was just passing through."

The old woman was quite, her thin lips wrapping into a wry smile. Her eyes glinted with glee, and she lifted her cane to point at him.

"You lookin mighty suspicious boyo, walking around here, flaring all that chakra and what not."

Naruto stopped and stared at the elderly woman, contemplating his next action. She was obviously skilled at sensing, and his chakra was heavily suppressed, and partially masked with nature chakra. Reflexively his hand reached behind him in an attempt to grab Kunai that weren't there. She seemed to read his thoughts, and laughed in response.

"Now, now, there's not a need for violence. I'm simply an old woman making an observation. You've got a lot of chakra, and all of it isn't yours. You appeared within a thousand yards or so of here today, seemingly out of thin air. You're using a strange type of chakra to mask your simply insane reserves. And to top it all off you're wearing the spiral of my dead clan on your ripped and shredded clothing. All in all, you're an interesting little anomaly boyo. An interesting little anomaly indeed."

Naruto stopped to stare at the old woman. Her blue-grey eyes stared into his, and her wrinkled face morphed into a wide smile.

"Come on. Follow me, wouldn't do at all to leave a young'un out in the rain where they bound to get sick. Get on inside, i'll get you something to eat, and warm you up real good. Then we can talk, and if I like your answers, well…we'll go from there."

Naruto briefly contemplated ignoring the woman and just running full sprint. Clearing the land of rain at full sprint would take more than six or seven days, maybe three or four if he didn't stop for a break in-between. Something he could do without too much effort.

He had decided against it.

So now, he sat in front of a small fire, slowly eating the broth of fish and vegetables the old woman had managed to cobble together as his clothes warmed not too far from the flames. Despite it's humble beginnings Naruto, could say with a smile on his face that it was good eatings.

"So granny…"

"My Names not Granny, Boyo," she called out.

"My Names not Boy."

She laughed, and Naruto, not being able to help it, laughed along with her. He was likening this old woman. She was lovely in the best kind of way.

"My name is Uzumaki Ren."

Naruto smiled at her name, while also contemplating what to call himself. He couldn't use his own name, it was too unique and any resemblance would cause problems for him later on.

"Uzumaki Arashi, it's nice to meet you swirling water lily."

She smiled at him. "I can assure you the same thing swirling storm."

She handed over a small scroll, and Naruto sent a questioning gaze her way.

"That scroll can only be opened by Uzumaki blood."

He got the gist of her message, and after quickly biting his thumb he rubbed it on the scroll's locking seal. With a poof it opened up, and her elderly smile widened.

"So what brings a lost child of the swirling tide to the land of falling rains?" She asked. He liked the way she talked, it was… intriguing. She talked in a pattern, to a set beat. One two, one three, one two three, a strange beat that created a unique rhythmic flow.

"Fate…the winds?"

She laughed. "So, you're a drifter?"

"Yes, you could say that. I've been all over the elemental countries." A half-truth, the best kind of lie. Ren seemed like a sweet old lady, but the years had bred a strong sense of paranoia in him.

"Ahh, to be young with the wish to see the world. I wish my old bones would let me move around the way I once could. Tell me have you been to see Uzu No Kunia yet?"

Briefly the name of his clan's home village popped into his mind. He hadn't thougt of or considered the village, well…ever. Maybe once or twice when he'd found out about his clan, but other than that, the island village hadn't really crossed his mind at all.

"Hmm…no. Not at all really?"

She smiled at him knowingly. "I suggest you do. The island hides secrets of our clan, if one can get past the traps we laid before we few survivors left."

"Why tell me this?"

"Is it not the job of the old to share with the young." The flames of the small fire lit up her smile, and Naruto had to admit it was infectious. It would seem his luck had played out for him.

"Thanks!"

"So, what's got you down Arashi?"

"What?"

Ren smiled a soft smile. Hey grey blye eyes stared into his own pool of deep sea blue. Those eyes seemed to carry a weight with them that, seemed so…so lost. So depressed and tired. So tired. Eyes to tired for someone so young.

"Your depressed, tired, your eyes show it. Your chakra sings with your emotions. Your sad, and from the blood stains on your clothes you were recently in a fight. A terrible, terrible fight."

"Yeah, I was in a fight. Though…I can't decide if I won or lost. Though, I guess time will tell. And im not depressed, but I am tired. Life's hard, and….sometimes you just want to sit down and take a long break from it. But I can't do that, I've got people that rely on me. So, despite being tired, despite the world being tough, I just…I gotta keep on going."

She nodded at his words, she understood, maybe too much. "Every man has his own burdens, its how he bears them that matters. You bear them like a true Uzumaki man."

She looked into the flames, her eyes drifting to places far away.

" You can spend the rest of the night with me, after that you have to leave, I've fixed up your clothes so you don't have to worry about them too much. Sadly I don't feel too comfortably keeping you here for extended periods of time. The ame-nin tends to scrounge these border towns pretty consistently. If they found you, well…I'm sure you're drifting lifestyle would be affected. And my life would be effected in the manner that I wouldn't have one." She laughed at the statement, apparently finding humor in speaking of her own death.

"But…I have something for you. Something I'm sure you'd be able to put to better use than this old bugger." She walked away and came back yet again with another scroll. This one easily was as large as Naruto, and he couldn't help but to wonder at her strength despite her age.

"I saved this as Kumo-nin stormed the beaches. Pulled this right out the clan vaults at the last second. I don't have anywhere near the reserves to use this, and I was too old to have kids when I grabbed it. Just the idea of some Kumo bastards maybe getting this…" She frowned, her old wrinkled face twisting into a snarl as she spoke.

She unrolled it, and Naruto cast a cursory glance at it. His breath caught in his throat. It was a summoning contract, and not just any summoning contract, this thing was archaic. The seal work for this thing was as old as the sage of six paths or at least dateing back to his era. Hundreds of archaic seals interlinked together. Idly, he wondered what it summoned.

"What…what does it summon?"

Ren smiled at him, her smile a wide, wonderful thing. He idly wondered if the ear-to-ear smile was an Uzumaki trait.

"It summons..."

xxx-xxxx-xxx

Naruto sat crossed legged. His face was scrunched into a mask of annoyance. His eyes watched the city below him while his mind contemplated his options. It had taken him four days to leave the land of rain after bidding good bye to the old Uzumaki named Ren. It had also taken him another five days to reach the border town of Kanagawa. Sitting on the border of the land of rain, fire, and river, it was an economic hot zone. It was a gambling town, a place with loose laws, and looser morals. The perfect place to stop and think for a while.

"You have a plan yet?"

"The working girls."

"I don't think getting your rocks off will help us."

"Stop being a smart ass bastard. The working girls are in all the major cities in the elemental nations. If what I remember from the pervert sage is right for the past thirty years the major brothels of the elemental nations have all been run by the same person."

"Since people tend to blab when their getting their rocks off…"

Naruto smiled. His face spreading into a wide grin as the Kyuubi reached the same conclusion as him.

"I'll have a source of information in order for me to work with. I'll be able to watch, and get a better grasp of my actions and the resulting changes I'm bound to make. I can't directly get involved with the ninja villages, especially Konoha. I can't exactly claim I'm a future version of myself. It's ludicrous, and even if I could somehow prove who I am…well I doubt things would go as simply as I want them too. I'm far kinder than the Sandaime was, and even I'd keep me locked up in order to ascertain information about the future. I'd prefer not to be bound and tied up, my mind used as nothing more than a information mine."

"So, how are you going to use the working girls?"

Naruto frowned at Kyuubi's words. He wasn't using the working girls, quite the opposite. What he had planned would benefit them, or at least wouldn't harm them.

"If I can find who runs the brothels, I'm not sure if it's a man or a group going by one name, but If I can find out who, I can start to act. Maybe even find a way to improve the life of my younger self."

"All a sound plan, but, how are we to find the puppet master?"

Naruto smiled and sat back. A devious smirk on his face. A hand sign, and a poof of chakra smoke and a clone appeared not to him. It morphed using his strange transformation technique and before him stood a tall voluptuous blond of a woman. Her hair was a rich sunlight yellow, and her eyes a deep ocean blue. He got up and walked over to her, and pulled out an ink brush and seal kit. Slowly he started to inscribe a reinforcement seal onto her? Or was it his, stomach.

"Stop! That tickles." A seductively feminine voice called out to him. He shuddered.

"Hold still, I've gotta reinforce you. Can't have you disappearing for no reason now can I?"

"I..don't feel comfortable with this."

He smiled at himself. He could understand his own hesitation, but with time this…him would fall into the routine of things. She'd come to see herself as a she, hopefully, and things would get easier.

"Yeah…it's not something I'm comfortable with either. But it's the only way for us to be able to find who's running the show. Remember, it's all for everyone else. So why not take one for the team?"

She smiled at him, and he laughed.

"I guess so." Her voice was like a melody. A sweet whisper backed by thousands of little wind chimes.

"Theres no I in team!"

"You're going to use a clone as a working girl."

"The fastest way to find who pulls the strings is to be a part of the web. Besides its not just a clone, she's reinforced. Hell more than reinforced, she's a breathing, sweating, bleeding copy of me…that's female."

"Hmm, so she finds out who's pulling the strings while you're doing what exactly?"

"Ren made me curious about Uzu no Kunia. During the war it was mentioned a bit, but I never had a reason, or need to visit. But, if that sealing scroll is a hint of what's locked away in the land of swirling tides then it worth a visit. I could find something useful."

"A solid plan."

"It's mostly short term though. If," he stopped to come up with a name for his female clone. " If Atsuko can come up with what we're looking for then we can make our plans afterward."

He looked at his female clone, and pulled a small scroll from one of his pockets. He ran his thumb over the scroll and a second after a fat roll of ryu appeared in his hand. He handed the roll to Atsuko.

"That should be enough to get you around for the next few weeks until you get picked up by one of the more prestigious houses. The houses can be found by a red banner in groused with a blue turtle insignia. If I remember right…the house in Kanagawa should be on the edge of the redlight district, next to the market district."

"Alright, I guess we'll meet up in a couple weeks when you return from Uzu No Kunia?"

Naruto high fived Atsuko, and then, both disappeared in a blur of speed.

xxx-xxx-xxx

Uzu No Kunia was dead. A barren wasteland that was slowly eroding into a pitfield of sand. It was bereft of life, devoid of existence, it was as if some vengeful god had come down, and smitten the small island with the greatest of curses. Stolen from the land life itself, and had chosen to zealously, and jealously harbor what it had stolen, forcefully, to its breast. But some god hadn't come to Uzu No Kunai and cursed it. Naruto could tell, with horror and abhorrence, with acrimony and spite, exactly what had happened here.

His family, his clan had been brilliant, or mad, or perhaps a horrid combination of the two. Mad in their brilliance, for they had done something he'd never thought possible. They'd done something, for he wasn't sure what they'd done, but it was horrible in it's inception. Horrid in it application. He'd never felt something like this before. Even in the deserts of Suna, even in that seemingly dead land of sands and blistering heat, followed by a cold that shouldn't have been possible in a dessert, there had at least been life.

Life teeming and hiding, life beneath the sand, or scuttling in the small shades of dunes. Life hiding beneath the hard packed earth and swimming in the loose grit sand.

Yet, here, In Uzu no Kunia, there was no life. Nothing lived here. No plant, no insect, even the waters that surrounded the island that should have been teeming with fish was denied the sweet bliss of life.

All that was left in Uzu no Kunia were the dead.

The bodies of the Uzumaki that had fought to the last soul. The bodies, bodies, bodies. Bleached white from the sun, weathered from rains that fell, and sands that now battered at them, slowly but surely eating away at them. The buildings held firm, white and cream, tainted with the filthy reddish brown of the blood of the thousands that had died defending this land.

When the Uzumaki had died, they'd made sure Uzu no Kunia had died with it.

He fell to his knees, his fingers pressing into his palm. The red scarlet of his blood dripped into the sand. And he felt in aghast horror, as what little chakra, and nature chakra was stolen, ripped from the droplet of blood, and…sealed? Yes, sealed away.

His family had done something awful. They'd stolen nature chakra from nature. Their bodies lay there, mummified from heat, but preserved from the sheer fact that even bacteria needed nature chakra to live. Their faces masks of solidarity, and grim determination.

He felt a little proud, despite the horror at what they'd done.

"Good god."

"Yea, fucking crazy."

"I'm not too surprised. Your branch of the human race was always eccentric. Though, they would never do something quite as extreme as this out of...spite."

"No, I can sense what they've got working here. Whatever this is….its, it's…"

"It's something else. To seal all the nature chakra surrounding the island, and to keep other Nautre chakra from getting in…Be careful Naruto. Tread lightly."

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This chapter is over. I don't really have anything to say other than "Other worlds" is still being a bitch. The fucking things got me in a writer block i can't get over. It's fucking annoying as shit is what it is. I hope you guys liked this. Oh well. I'm off to bash my head against a wall untill other worlds stars working in my brain again.