Naruto was bored.

The problem with being an Uzumaki with such strong life force, and being constantly healed by a big ball of sentient chakra in your gut is that you inevitably outlive everyone you know.

Looking back, it certainly had been a good life. Yeah, sure, there were some rough years at the beginning, but saving the world, becoming Hokage and starting a family were all wonderful things that he managed to achieve - and that was all done by the time he was in his thirties. He'd retired from Hokage in his 60s - not so much because he couldn't do it any more, but because he thought he should pass the baton on to the next generation. If he'd waited till he wasn't capable anymore, well, he was in his 120s now and he'd still be waiting.

His retirement had been a content one at first. Naruto continued training - he always loved it, so why stop? Sure, he was easily the most powerful ninja in the world, but that's no reason to slack off.

It was about 3 years into retirement that Naruto had decided to take a leaf from his old man's book and delve into fuinjutsu. Always the slow learner in his academy days, he certainly couldn't grasp the concepts as quickly as his father had, but Naruto still had the advantage of time - and of course the ability to make shadow clones in order to multiply the usefulness of that time.

By the time he reached his 80s, he could confidently say that he was a fuinjutsu master. In his 90s, the shinobi alliance acknowledged him as the worlds foremost fuinjutsu expert. By 110, he'd well and truly taken the art beyond what the rest of the shinobi world thought possible.

By 111, he was tired of fuinjutsu.

The last 12 years had gone by slower and slower, which apparently wasn't the norm for getting older. And his health simply wasn't getting any worse.

Naruto needed something new in his life. Something to DO.

He paused in his reflections for a moment and started murmering to himself.

"Those early years in the academy were actually pretty rough. Maybe it would be possible to go back and make things easier for myself?"

Naruto reached into the drawers under his desk and rummaged through his fuinjutsu folders. He hadn't ever made any time travel jutsu or seals as yet, but it would just be an extension of the other space-time jutsu he already knew, right? Surely it wouldn't take him more than a couple of days.

Three years later, Naruto finally managed to complete the seal array he'd been working on. Sure, it was a lot longer than he'd hoped it would be, but actually having something to work toward was refreshing. Now all that was left was convincing Kuruma to power it for him.

"You sure you want to do this, kid?"

Nevermind that Naruto was the oldest living man on the planet, he'd always be a kid to Kuruma.

"Yeah, yeah, it'll be fun ya'know? Weren't you complaining to me about being bored last week too?"

"I was, but finding something to keep you occupied and messing with the space time continuum are two different things. You don't want to jeopardise the peace you've achieved, do you?"

"It'll be fine! Besides, the seal doesn't actually send me back in our own timeline, it just puts me in a different dimension that until the point of insertion, is exactly the same as this one."

"Wait, what? That makes no sense."

"Tsk, just because you don't understand it doesn't mean it doesn't make sense. It'll be fine Kuruma. This timeline will remain exactly how we left it, but I'll get to help a young me in the other."

"Will it even actually be you that you're helping then?"

"Shh, don't dwell on the metaphysics. Besides, whether the Naruto there is truly me or not, they will have had some crappy treatment and deserve our help."

"Humph. Well, I guess you're the boss. Let me know when I need to give you my chakra."

"Starting now should be fine." Naruto replied with a smile

"So, did it work?"

"I think so. I've brought us back to the valley of the end, and it's still undamaged by either of my fights with Sasuke here."

"I suppose that proves you've managed to go back in time, but did you get to the timeframe you wanted?"

"Kuruma. My seals were immaculate. I have no doubt we're exactly when I wanted to be. Young me should have just turned 6."

Naruto peered into the distance, looking in the direction of Konoha. "Can you feel the chakras Kuruma? I can sense chakra signatures I've not felt in a long time. Iruka sensei is there. Kakashi is there. The old man Hokage is there."

"Hmph. I guess you're ok at fuinjutsu after all"

"Look Kuruma, I know you aren't a fan of fuinjutu, but it was over 120 years ago that my old man used it on you, and we've gotten past it haven't we? Besides, I think it's time we paid a visit to some of our old teachers."

"Oi, Mizuki!"

Mizuki looked around. Across from the training ground he saw an old man waving at him.

Weird.

It wasn't anyone he recognised. And it wasn't like Mizuki himself was a particularly well known ninja. He was just a mediocre chuunin that had ended up in the academy after having one too many scares in the field. For this old man to know his name and be waving at him so cheerily was putting him on edge.

"Hello? How can I help you?" came his cautious reply.

The old man nonchalantly wandered toward him. The manner in which we walked was making Mizuki feel even less at ease. It wasn't the walk of a ninja being cautious of his surroundings.

No. It was more like the walk of a ninja so supremely confident that nothing can harm him that there's no need to be anything but casual.

"Hi, yeah, I was just wondering if we could have a chat about how you treat your students."

Hmmm, had Mizuki somehow managed to anger an older relative of one of his students? That didn't make sense. He treated all his students well.

Weeelll, except Naruto, but that brat didn't have any relatives anyway.

"In particular, a boy named Naruto."

Crap.

Mizuki drew a kunai.

"No, no wait, I don't want to fight you or anything, I just want to talk!"

Mizuki carefully lowered the kunai again. "Ok, talk."

"I just want to make sure you treat him okay, and don't betray him to give village secrets to Orochimaru or anything."

Mizuki's jaw dropped. How the hell did this old man know he was still in contact with the traitor sannin?

Well, now the battle line had been drawn. If this guy knew he was considering betraying the village, then he had to die.

Mizuki charged with his kunai, ignoring the pleads to stop and just talk it out. Thankfully the old man wasn't even doing anything to defend himself...

...that is, until the very last second in which Mizuki found himself running face first into an elementally empowered rasengan.

"Well, that went well" Kuruma snickered.

"Shaddup."

"There's not much left of his body."

"Shaddup."

"Maybe that attack was a tad too powerful."

"Oi, I only infused two elements into that rasengan, it was a weak attack."

"Weak by your standards, sure, but you gotta remember that you're the strongest ninja alive. You beat this guy up before just using shadow clones, remember."

"Are other shinobi really this weak? That doesn't seem right."

"Well, what are you going to do now?"

"Whadaya mean, what am I going to do?"

"You killed a 'loyal' leaf shinobi. That might not go down so well."

"Crap. I suppose I should have just used shadow clones to beat him up a little."

"I told you so."

"Oi!"

Naruto paused for a moment.

"Wait, I still could use shadow clones!"

"But you already killed him."

"Yeah, yeah, I know, but I could just get a shadow clone to fill in for him."

"Would that even work? I know your clones can last a long time, but can you convince others that the clone is that traitor?"

"Sure it would. I'll just use some fuinjutsu - oi, stop grumbling whenever I say that word - to bind some of Mizuki's blood to the clone and let it take on his chakra nature."

"Is that even possible?"

"Do you not remember me figuring out how to do this? It was the one I decided not to publish because I though it might be too easily abused to replace people with spies."

"Yet it's ok if you do it, huh?"

"Shut up, furball."

So, I got sick of my thesis for a bit and started writing a new story. I still want to get back to an explosive touch, but the ideas for this one were flowing tonight.