Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

Author Comments: Seems to be a month for me to randomly put down first chapters =) This is one of two time travel stories that I have been contemplating. Hope it's a interesting start.

Naruto: Shadows of the Future

Chapter 1

The night was cold and clear, the moon large in the skies over Konoha, in one of the many small parks where children came to play the air began to stir. The effect seemed subtle, causing grass to sway and leaves to begin to dance in the the air, a civilian would have thought it was merely the wind but would have found his pace increasing as he tried to leave without knowing why. Any ninja in the immediate area would have felt the telltale signs of chakra in the air and would have raised a warning, but the chakra build up was happening out of the path of regular patrols and while the chakra building in the area was powerful, it did not have range that would have summoned a curious shinobi to investigate.

This was by design.

Had anyone been looking, they would have noticed the park began to look slightly twisted and distorted, had they had advanced knowledge in Fūinjutsu and physics, they may have deduced that what they were watching was the actual space being warped to a point it was visible via the light of the moon. No one was watching, and this was fortunate, because the travelers who appeared a moment later were counting on this part of their journey remaining as secret as possible, and while there was a need to silence any unfortunate soul who happened to be there, only a few of their number who could possibly stomach killing a innocent, but they doubted their leader would allow such a action, much to their secret relief.

One moment the park was empty, the next a sensation that would be best describe as a bubble bursting seemed to overtake the area (not that our imaginary Fūinjutsu physics expert would even begin to call that accurate) and where a empty park existed one moment, now stood twelve people who found themselves off balance. Their eyes were closed shut, save their leader who knelt in their center and one by one they began to open them and began checking on friends and surroundings for danger.

"Holy crap! Did that actually work?" said a young man with the obvious markings of the Inuzuka clan on his face, not to mention a near man sized wolf by his side.

"What do you think dog breath?" commented a blonde woman as she dusted herself off. "You think we landed in Suna or something?"

"Come off it! How am I supposed to know we landed in the right...when?"

"Evidence would show that we have arrived close enough to our goal." stated another young man who, despite the fact it was a warm night, wore a long coat and sunglasses.

"Really Shino! And how are you so sure?"

In response the man merely pointed at the familiar Hokage monument, easily visible in the light of a full moon.

It supported fours heads looking down over the village.

"We really did it." the pink haired woman checking on their leader said in wonder. She was helping the blonde to his feet. She stooped when she heard him whisper something she could not understand. The woman leaned in closer and asked him to repeat himself.

"It wasn't far enough." he said with a bit of anguish in his voice.

"What are you talking about? We may not know exactly when we are but it should be fine."

The blonde shook his head. "It wasn't far enough, I can tell, we won't be able to save them." he replied bitterly. Now knowing what causing her friend pain, she looked up at the raven haired man on his other side. The man looked down at the blonde and sighed, carefully he knelt by his side.

"You knew that the chances of you taking us back that far was slim, I thought we had agreed you wouldn't even try." he admonished slightly.

"I had to." the blonde said back. "They were your family, don't you want them back?"

For a moment old emotions fought to the surface, but he had grown in maturity and time had healed those wounds and allowed for wisdom to replace vengeance.

"I had a family, I was just to much of an idiot to realize it." he said taking in his two teammates and then allowing his gaze to include the rest of the group and even the village as a whole.

"Besides I wasn't the only one without a family." he reminded his friend. "We'll be young enough as is, any younger and the chances of us completing our mission would be slim."

A young woman with silver eyes joined them. "Will we be able to do it? Can we complete our mission?"

The blonde smiled and stood. "Believe it. It won't be easy but we'll have a few advantages."

"But...will we still be us?" she said with a hint of shyness that she hadn't had in a long time.

The blonde smiled back. "Yes...and no. I have a lot of experience with this you know, but even I have never tried it too this kind of extreme. I don't think we will come out of it unchanged but in the ways that really matter we'll still be us."

He looked at the group, how had he become the the leader of his friends? It was his goal but sometime sit seemed too strange.

"Look guys, I know this is the craziest plan I've ever had, but it's the only way to save the people we care about, the only way to save us actually, and I know we can do it."

"Unless the Third catches us." commented the Nara.

"Well, I got a move that will work on him." he grinned in reply. His face took a more serious tone. "We do got to be careful. These people are not the enemy, but they will think we are. Once we complete the mission we can worry about them, but until then we do our best to avoid them."

"If we want to stay hidden then we best get on with it. A patrol could find us at any moment." the raven haired man remained them all. The Hyūga girl flared her Byakugan and gave a nod that said he was right.

"I was hoping for a least a few minutes." the blonde said wistfully. A black haired woman, hair done up in buns, came up with took his hands.

"We knew what we were signing up for." she reminded him and leaned in giving him a light kiss. "We would follow you anywhere, I hope you know that by now."

He smiled at her and then looked to the rest of is team.

"Okay say your goodbyes, we'll meet again soon but...you know." with that he gave himself a moment and took the girl into his arms. Others followed suit making sure the ones they loved and cared about knew how they felt. Time was short though as the blonde looked at them all one last time.

"See you on the other side." he said and with it he gave a command he never thought he would give with a feeling of dread.

At the same time twelve shadow clones dispersed into too clouds of chakra smoke and the park was as empty as it was.

0

In a small apartment with barely adequate heating, Naruto Uzumaki with a start, and all around the village eleven other children did the same.