Author's Note: Hey guys, welcome to my latest Naruto fanfiction. Some of you may know me best as the co-author for Cmartin-Panda Productions. I want to assure fans of mine and my co-author's work that this story will not take away from our other stories on Cmartin's page. And while this entire chapter was written entirely by myself, expect Cmartin to help me write future chapters from time to time.

With that being said, I hope you enjoy my very own Time Travel Story. Enjoy.

Chapter 1: Back to the Past

Five years after the Shinobi Alliance's victory over the 4th Shinobi World War, the Leaf was burning.

Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze, dressed in the standard Jounin vest of the Leaf, looked on helplessly at the once beautiful ninja village he called home. From the top of the Hokage Tower he could see fires raging all across the various districts of the village. Shops, restaurants, factories, and apartment complexes all burned with the same orange and red hue. Farther back towards the walls that once surrounded and protected the city from intruders, now there were only mountains of rubble burning black with the fires of Amaterasu. Naruto's eyes traced down to the city streets where black specks he knew to be people fought in a bloody and pointless struggle. The concept of frontlines had broken down in the last few hours. Now the enemy was everywhere, attacking pockets of resistance wherever it could be mustered. Leaf ninja, along with ninja from Sand, Cloud, Mist, Rock, and even some samurai from the Land of Iron were dying by the dozens every second. Their shoulders pressed against their comrades and their backs against whatever remained of a wall. The Leaf was where the Shinobi Alliance was to make their last stand against the forces of Sound, Rain, and all the other minor nations that were once looked down upon by the Five Great Ninja Nations.

It was supposed to be a short war, the last gasp before total peace could be declared. But Sasuke Uchiha had proven himself to be as effective a tactician as he was a ruthless murderer. He left on his redemption mission to right the wrongs of his past, but it was all a lie. He was in fact gathering support for another war against the Shinobi Alliance. The 5th Shinobi World War. He attacked defenseless villages to draw out the forces of the Alliance and ambush them. He forged secret partnerships with the underclass from all the Great Ninja Nations, placing sleeper agents in key locations. Like a divine and terrible god of war he spared no one on his campaigns. One year after the 4th Shinobi War ended, he attacked. The Five Great Nations had barely enough time to recover. The had lost half their forces in the 4th War and nearly a fifth of their remaining forces to injuries too severe for them to continue to be Shinobi. The remnants of the entire allied Shinobi World spent the next four years being pushed back…and back…and back… Until they were finally forced into this last, desperate corner.

"Naruto?" Kakashi, the Sixth Hokage spoke up. He had been Naruto's Jounin sensei back in his Genin years, and right before anyone could even sense trouble coming from Sasuke, he was named the Sixth Hokage. He had hoped to spend as little time as possible on the job. Just enough to train Naruto to take over as the 7th Hokage, but fate…or one very misguided and hateful Uchiha, had other plans.

"It is time…" Kakashi said. Naruto couldn't tell if his master was joking or not as the blond, spiky haired Jounin looked back at all his friends carefully assembled in a circle with intricate seal markings carefully etched around their feet. The same markings that Naruto and his team had discovered by accident while exploring some ancient tomb of the Sage of Six Paths.

"You know I don't like this." Naruto growled. Kakashi nodded. For ever since the idea was presented to what Kakashi referred to as the Council of the Konoha 11, Naruto had been a strong objector to the entire plan.

"I know, but we don't have any other options at this point." Kakashi reminded him. "Sasuke's army has cut off every possible escape route. There is nowhere to run and there is no chance that Sasuke will let us surrender. He means to wipe us all out completely."

"If only my clan elders had listened." Hinata spat as she stood next to Kiba and Shino in their own private circles. "If they had just elevated the branch clan to equals, than maybe they wouldn't have betrayed us and given away every secret tunnel entrance in the Leaf."

"It's okay, Hinata-chan. It's not your fault." Naruto said as he stepped towards her and took her hand in his as a comforting gesture. A gesture that a certain pink haired medic couldn't help but burn holes into when she looked upon it. Yet she didn't say a word. She knew that she lost her chance long ago. Just in time for her to realize her true feelings for the blond too. As if her love life wasn't screwed up enough.

"If you lovebirds are quite done. We need to get this show on the road." Shikamaru spat, his voice hoarse from his years of constant smoking, yet no one called him out on his rudeness. Not when the love of his life Temari had died in childbirth earlier that day.

Naruto and Hinata quickly broke apart. An air of awkwardness hung about them, which a nearby explosion quickly snapped them out of.

"You all do know that this jutsu could cost all of you your lives, right? The chakra required is enormous." Naruto pressed, really hoping that everyone would reconsider.

"And what is the alternative? Being captured, tortured, and executed by Sasuke and his gang?" Ino spat. "Take a look around you, Baka. There is no future for the Leaf. There's no future for anyone once Sasuke wins."

"What she means is that if this jutsu works. You can prevent all that." Kiba spoke up. He had matured greatly ever since Akamaru was killed during the fall of the Sand village.

"That's just it. If it works." Naruto stated. "What if the sealing is wrong and it fizzles out after sucking all of your chakra dry? What if it only sends me back five minutes at the cost of everyone's life? What then?"

"What if, you don't care about being sent back to the past, you only hate the thought of leaving the rest of us behind?" Sakura spoke up, silencing the blond.

"Is that so wrong?" Naruto asked, although he knew the answer.

"Naruto, we're all friends. Heck, I think of all of you as my family." Sai stated. "We have all made this decision to send you back in time because we believe that you will save the world. You have the best chance to do so."

"But I'm only one man and I'm just an idiot." Naruto said, earning a chuckle from a few of his friends. "I can't do it alone."

"You won't be alone." Lee stated. "You will have our past selves helping you. Just trust in them like you trust in us and we will not fail you." Lee declared as he held up a thumbs up.

Naruto looked at Lee and then at all his friends as they stood in their circle. Rock Lee, Tenten, Kiba, Shino, Hinata, Shikamaru, Ino, Choji, Sai, and Sakura. All of them looked upon Naruto with reassurances on their faces. It brought tears to the 22 year old's eyes. These 10 teammates were his family too.

"Alright." Naruto said as he wiped away his tears. "Let's do this." The blond toad sage leapt to the center circle of the ring. He immediately dropped down into his meditative stance and closed his eyes. As he did this, the 10 other Jounin waited for their Hokage to join them. Once Kakashi stepped inside the 11th circle surrounding the seal, he and the rest of the castors began to weave the necessary hand signs.

"Boar, Dog, Monkey, Snake, Ram, Horse, Rat, Boar, Dog, Monkey Snake, Ram, Horse, Rat, Boar…" The twelve ninjas chanted as the seal beneath their feet began to glow. The ancient, long forgotten ninjutsu began to reactivate. Months of Leaf historians working day and night to decipher the ancient cave markings, weeks of learning the hand signs and chakra control requirements necessary, and it looked like it was going to pay off. The signs began releasing some unseen gust of wind. They could all feel it working.

Meanwhile, down in the ash and rubble of the Leaf village streets, a brave young Chunin was waging one last stand against the tyrannical evil army. His entire platoon were all engaged with other enemy forces scattered about the street and on rooftops, but this target was different. This one could be the deciding factor of the entire battle.

"Rasengan!" Konohamaru shouted as he charged at the enemy commander. If he could just take him out, then maybe the rest of the Leaf could be spared. These were his hopes as the enemy commander turned his spiky black head and faced the last surviving Sarutobi clansman with an uninterested look upon his red glowing eyes.

"Chidori." The commander said halfheartedly as he struck his arm out to meet the young man's Rasengan in midair. The resulting explosion threw the Chunin 20 yards away until he skidded to a stop.

"Aaaahaaaa!" Konohamaru cried out as he clutched his right palm. The explosion had burned all his skin away and nearly taken off his fingers entirely. He wouldn't be casting anymore jutsus in this fight.

The commander walked casually up to the struggling Chunin. His dark blue cape flapping in the wind as an anti-cyclone breathed more and more life into the flames around him. The wind changed direction, revealing his white open chest shirt and combat pants that Sasuke had worn during the end of the 4th Shinobi War. Now by coincidence, rather than anything resembling sentimentality, it would be what he wore during the end of the 5th Shinobi War.

"Some advice." The commander spoke in a mocking tone. "If reincarnation is a thing. Next time, don't try to counter my jutsu with his. You're not on the Dobe's level. Don't presume to be anywhere near mine."

"Fuck you, Uchiha…" Konohamaru spat as he unzipped his jacket and revealed his undershirt to be stuffed full of paper bombs ready to blow at the utterance of a single word. "NOW DIE! KA- Konohamaru shouted before Sasuke extended out his lightning blade and cut right through the Chunin's vocal cords. Had he finished saying "kai" Sasuke might have had to jump back a bit. But this was quicker. Now all Konohamaru could do in his last few moments of consciousness, was to pray to whatever God would listen for Naruto to succeed like he always did.

'Big brother…I'm sorry…' Konohamaru thought before the darkness took him.

Sasuke wasted no time watching the worthless Leaf Chunin choke on his own blood, instead his eyes looked up to the pillar of light shining out from the top of the Hokage Tower. A yellowish, orangey kind of glow. Not something the last Uchiha liked the look of.

"Yo, duckbutt!" A white haired, blue skinned, cocky young man shouted as he yanked his buster sword out of the torso of a newly gutted Akimichi ninja. "That's one more sector cleared. When are we going to take the Hokage Tower and end this farce already?"

Sasuke didn't reply, which was typical, so the right hand man to his army followed his bosses eyes up to the Hokage Tower where the clouds were beginning to swirl around the pillar of light.

"Jashin, what the fuck is that?" Suigetsu asked.

"Continue your sweep of the sectors. I will find out personally." Sasuke said before leaping to the nearest rooftop and hopped over to the next one.

Back on the Hokage rooftop, things were going smoothly as could be hoped for. Just a few more minutes of chanting and the spell would be activated.

Unfortunately for our heroes, nothing ever went smoothly for them nowadays.

Naruto's eyes shot open as he sensed the incoming presence filled with hatred and bile.

"We've got company!" Naruto declared. Before anyone could ask him who, the figure landed on the rooftop and everyone felt the same disgusting chill run up their spines.

"Sasuke…" Sakura spat, like the word was a dog turd she had to vomit out.

"Well, well, well… what do we have here?" Sasuke asked as he observed the infamous Konoha 11 and the Sixth Hokage all standing around performing some kind of ritual. From the looks of it, a sacrifice of Naruto, but Sasuke's luck wasn't that good.

Naruto stood up, ready to fight with Sasuke when Shikamaru shouted at him. "Don't break the seal, Naruto!" He shouted. "Don't anybody stop weaving hand signs!" He added. Right now, nothing else mattered besides finishing the incantation.

"Oh my, and what is so important out this jutsu that you would stop yourselves from fighting me like you always do?" Sasuke asked as a team of ANBU agents snuck up behind him with their swords and kunai drawn. They got as far as the downward thrust before Sasuke sidestepped them without breaking eye contact with the 12 ninjas all keeping their place inside the seal. Two more ANBU agents tried to stab Sasuke in the back, but he merely whirled around and slit their throats with a flick of his Chidori infused hand. Kakashi cursed himself again for teaching Sasuke that move.

"No answer? No one wants to let me in on the secret?" Sasuke asked as he cut down the remaining two ANBU agents like he was harvesting grain. "Maybe after I kill one of you, you'll feel talkative." Sasuke said as he charged his Chidori and aimed for Sakura's back.

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto shouted before Kakashi flash stepped next to Sasuke and grabbed his Chidori with his own lightning infused hand.

"STOP!" Shikamaru shouted, instantly everyone halted in their latest hand sign. The eleventh member required to perform their ceremony had stepped out of the circle.

"Keep going!" Kakashi ordered as he and Sasuke engaged in close quarters taijutsu. Exchanging punches, hand chops, and knees to the gut. The older ninja was holding his ground, but Sasuke had stamina and his Sharingan on his side. Kakashi only had experience.

"How? We need 11 people to weave signs, damn it!" Shikamaru shouted in frustration.

Naruto was wondering the same thing, when a voice in his head gave him hope.

'Hey Kit, summon me, quick!' Kurama, the Bijuu demon sealed inside Naruto mentally spoke to his Jinchuriki.

'You sure?'

'Positive. I memorized the hand signs even when you didn't.' Kurama thought.

Not wasting any time, Naruto hoisted up his shirt to reveal the spiral seal appearing around his naval like a tattoo. He made a claw with his right hand and placed it around his seal and gave it a good turn like a key, then he slammed his palm onto the ground inside his ring.

"Four Point Seal Summoning Jutsu!" Naruto cried as smoke exploded out from his palm. Before it could clear, a blood orange fox with nine tails leapt out of the cloud and landed on the spot where Kakashi once stood. He took up the position and started with the hand sign everyone had left on.

"I'm ready!" Kurama declared.

"Are we sure this will still work?" Choji asked. Remembering how they weren't supposed to leave the seal for any reason. Let alone if replacing one of the castors mid-chanting would be acceptable.

"We don't have a choice!" Shikamaru shouted, knowing that it was all or nothing at this point.

"Boar, Dog, Monkey, Snake, Ram, Horse, Rat, Boar, Dog, Monkey Snake, Ram, Horse, Rat, Boar…" Everyone picked up the chanting again, more urgently this time.

"Getting tired, old man? Sure wish you still had your Sharingan, I bet. You've enjoyed the Uchiha's gifts for far too long and now its catching up to you." Sasuke mocked as he landed a solid blow to Kakashi's gut. Kakashi took the hit and followed up with his own gut punch to his former pupil, but Sasuke caught his punch and kicked the Sixth Hokage flat on his back.

"The only thing I wish…(cough)…is that I could have saved you from the dark path you walk upon, Sasuke." Kakashi said sincerely as he forced himself to stand. "I failed you, and I am sorry." Kakashi flashed through his familiar hand signs to produce one last Raikiri. "I just pray…Naruto will be able to save you the next time around."

"What are you blathering about? What is that jutsu anyway?" Sasuke demanded as the chanting and the sign weaving became faster and faster.

"You'll find out in the next life!" Kakashi shouted as he charged at Sasuke. Whose eyes were spinning, he was starting to get annoyed.

Naruto could only watch as his last living mentor was cut down by Sasuke. Once his rival and now his greatest enemy. Naruto's blood boiled as he saw Sasuke side step Kakashi's thrust and pierced his heart with his own jutsu. How many friends and comrades had Naruto lost to that jutsu? Tens? Hundreds? Maybe even thousands. He wanted nothing more than to jump out of this circle and fight one last stalemate with Sasuke. End this war with the death of the tyrant who started it all. Yet a force compelled him to remain inside the seal. He could feel it… It was working.

"And that's it. That's every Kage on my list. Killed." Sasuke declared as he wiped off the blood from his hands. He stared at Naruto, expecting him to shriek and flail about. Leap out of the seal and attack Sasuke like he always did, but the blond stayed put. "All that remains is you…Naruto…"

"I can't even be mad at you anymore, Sasuke. I just pity you. You've fallen so far." Naruto said.

Sasuke growled at Naruto's smug statement. He found it more vexing than anything else. It was a gift of Naruto's. To know just how to rub Sasuke the wrong way.

"Grr…pity THIS!" Sasuke cried as he leapt over Sakura and Sai and flew directly towards Naruto with his Chidori raised upright. Naruto was ready for him and was up on his feet with his Rasengan ready to go as soon Sasuke took to the air. The two clashed in the center of the circle just as the chanting had reached its fever pitch.

"Chidori!"

"Rasengan!"

"Taimu Toraberu No Jutsu!" The Konoha 11 shouted as the seal was filled with blinding light. For an instant, Naruto felt weightless, then he felt he was slingshot-ed all the way to the moon and back. His very essence and his mind drifting behind as he was hurled through time and space. All before crashing back down to reality.

"Naruto, pay attention!" A man shouted, jolting the poor boy awake. Naruto opened his eyes to find his nose buried in a book on account of him using it as a pillow. He lifted his head up and noticed snickering surrounding him. Then he drank in what he was seeing. A blackboard covered in theories and math problems written out in chalk. A man with a scar across his nose wearing a Chunin vest. And surrounding Naruto, seated along his and every row below and above him were children no older than 12. He was back in the Academy, by the looks of it, the semester before he graduated.

"Holy shit it worked…" Naruto muttered to himself.

"What was that?" Iruka-sensei demanded, having heard Naruto use dirty language.

"Ah, nothing, sensei!" Naruto answered quickly as he picked up his textbook to hide his face, earning more snickers from his classmates.

'Enjoying being back in class?' A familiar voice in Naruto's head spoke.

'Kurama? So you came back with me huh?' Naruto thought.

'Yup. Not too surprising though. We are a package deal, after all.' Kurama thought with a smile.

Naruto smirked to himself. 'Sweet. Always great to have my good buddy with me.'

'Speaking of good buddies. Look who it is.'Kurama thought as he pointed out to Naruto the lower levels where he could see 12-year-old Kiba holding out his puppy Akamaru like he hadn't seen him in ages and past that he could see 12-year-old Sasuke diligently staring at his textbook.

'Sasuke…' Naruto thought as he stared at the young spiky haired youth before he became completely evil. 'I promise I will do everything in my power to save you this time around.'

As if he could hear Naruto's thoughts, the young Sasuke closed his book and turned to look at Naruto. Their eyes met and Naruto was a bit weirded out. So far as he could remember, Sasuke had never been so friendly with Naruto back in their Academy days to deliberately look at him, and he certainly didn't know how to read minds. That's when Naruto noticed Sasuke's eyes burning with hatred like Naruto had never seen in his youth. This wasn't annoyance at Naruto for any prank he might have done or annoying comment he made. This was a desire for the time traveling ninja die, flailing in agony.

The next thing Naruto knew, Sasuke leapt at him with his arm charged with lightning chakra. It didn't seem real, Naruto was supposed to be in the past, Sasuke didn't know that jutsu then and he certainly didn't want to kill Naruto yet.

"Damn it!" Naruto shouted as he cocked his arm back. He didn't even think about what he was doing as he made chakra swirl around his palm to form a Rasengan. He Sasuke had too much of a drop on him, Naruto couldn't block without taking a hit.

"Die, Naruto!" Sasuke screamed as he thrusted his Chidori at Naruto's chest.

"Shannaro!" A young girl cried as a red and pink blur sailed right in Sasuke and kicking him away from Naruto before he could do any damage. Sasuke was sent tumbling end over end down the rows of desks before he crashed to the floor right next to Iruka's desk.

"Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked in bewilderment to the pink haired school girl who crouched on top of his desk after kicking the village heart throb halfway across their classroom. Why would she save him? The 12-year-old Sakura wouldn't…she couldn't… That kick was taught from Granny Tsunade's training. The only explanation was…

"You came back with me from the future?" Naruto asked.

"Looks like it. LOOK OUT!" Sakura shouted as a hail of shuriken came flying at the two of them. Apparently 12-year-old Sasuke had remembered his shuriken pouch for target practice lesson in class today.

Naruto grabbed Sakura by the back of her Chinese style dress and yanked the both of them underneath the desk. Children screamed as shuriken embedded themselves in the wooden desks. With no time to waste, Naruto reached for his own kunai pouch only to find that his younger self had forgotten his today.

'Oh for the love of…' Naruto thought before he reached up and snatched his number 2 pencil off of his desk. He rolled over to the edge of the desk. Making a snap judgement, he flicked his wrist around the corner of his cover, all the while infusing his pencil with chakra just like Killer Bee once taught him. The pencil shot out like a senbon needle and skimmed right past Sasuke's chest, drawing blood.

"Okay, that's enough!" Iruka shouted at the top of his lungs. He moved to restrain Sasuke who had started this whole mess then Sasuke slash out his kunai at Iruka's throat. The Chunin instructor only just had enough time to lean back and avoid a fatal slitting before a chair came hurling at Sasuke, how nimbly dodged out of the way and did a cartwheel over Iruka's desk.

"You're not getting away that easy, Uchiha!" Kiba shouted, for he was the one who threw the chair. He then leapt at Sasuke like a ballistic missile. "Fang Over Fang!" Kiba cried as he came at Sasuke like a drill.

Sasuke merely threw another few shuriken at Kiba, hoping to kill him in midair. Unfortunately for him, his shuriken were knocked out of the air by another hail of shuriken thrown by Shino who did in fact remember to bring his shuriken for target practice today.

The last Uchiha then had no choice but to dodge out of the way, letting Kiba crash into the wall. Never one to miss an opportunity to deliver a killing blow, Sasuke was about to stick Kiba's undefended backside with a kunai when he felt his entire body freeze in place.

"Shadow Possession complete!" Shikamaru declared from his kneeling position on top of his desk. "Choji! Finish him off!"

The heir to the Akimichi clan flashed through his clan's signature hand signs and sent his enlarged fist rocketing towards Sasuke from across the room. Without a moment to spare, Sasuke spat a fireball down at his shadow that Shikamaru was using to hold him in place. The ground exploded, the shockwave shattering the windows to the outside where Sasuke leapt out, kicked off a nearby tree branch, and leapt up to the roof.

Naruto and the other kids coughed as the dust settled. "Kiba? Shikamaru? Choji? Shino? You guys are here too?"

"So are we!" Ino declared over the screaming classmates as Iruka tried to herd them all out of the classroom. Ino came out of the dust cloud with Hinata in tow. The latter's veins around her eyes were bulged out, indicating she had her Byakugan activated to keep an eye on Sasuke.

"He's on the roof. But he looks tired." Hinata reported.

"Wait, hold on a damn minute!" Naruto shouted. "Why did you all come back with me? That jutsu was only supposed to send me back. What happened?"

"Worry about that later, Sasuke is getting away." Shikamaru reminded him. Leave it to the planner of the group to keep things in perspective.

"Damn it!" Naruto shouted as he sprinted towards window. Once again, he didn't even think about it as he activated Kurama's chakra. His entire 12 year old body exploded with demon chakra before they settled and covered him head to toe in golden flames with black Sage markings appearing on the surface of his frame. Golden Kyuubi Mode Naruto then leapt out of the window, twirled around, and shot out his chakra arm to grab the ledge of the room like a grappling hook and hoisted Naruto up topside.

Sasuke meanwhile made it to the roof and tried to summon his hawk summons to escape, only to find once he slammed his hand down on the concrete roof that his summons would not appear.

'What the Hell is going on? I can't summon. I can't activate my Susanoo. Or Amaterasu. I can't even see what moves my enemies are going to make before they make them. It's almost like my Sharingan is back down to two tomes.' Sasuke thought to himself as he stumbled across the rooftop of the Academy. 'On top of that, I'm so exhausted. I've never been so exhausted from using so little jutsu. What is wrong with me?' He thought before the ground beneath him exploded upwards. Sasuke leapt in a zig zag pattern as the roof top was being punched full of holes by enlarged fists.

"There! There! And There!" Hinata reported from the classroom, letting Choji know where Sasuke was so that he could use his expansion jutsu against him.

'Son of a bitch. What the Hell kind of jutsu is this?' Sasuke thought as he glanced upwards and saw the Hokage monument devoid of the 5th and 6th Hokage head stones. 'It can't be what I'm thinking of. There is no way. That type of jutsu isn't possible.'

His thoughts were cut short when a golden blur of light leapt over the side of the roof and rolled to a stop 20 yards from where Sasuke was standing. The Uchiha's eyes narrowed at that hated form of Naruto's, the one that made the blond haired Dobe look like some kind of hero demigod. It just pissed Sasuke off even more.

One by one, the rest of Naruto's merry band of do-gooders leapt up to rooftop. Sakura, Hinata, Ino, Shikamaru, Choji, Shino, and Kiba all stood beside Naruto, forming a crescent line closing in on Sasuke who stood with his back against the Hokage Tower.

"Surrender, Uchiha! We've got you surrounded!" Shikamaru shouted as he and the rest of the Rookie 9 took their combat stances, leaving Sasuke no room to maneuver.

Sasuke responded by arching out his Chidori arm, sending thousands of tiny lightning needles flying out at the group. Naruto responded by arching his own golden chakra arm, catching all of the needles before they could harm anyone.

"Nice trrrrrrrrr-woah…" Naruto slurred as he was suddenly overcome with fatigue. He felt so dizzy that he fell to his hands and knees as his Golden cloak vanished like embers of a fire. And Naruto wasn't the only one. That last jutsu had sent Sasuke falling to his knees as well. The same with all the rest of the Konoha 11; Sakura, Shikamaru, Choji, and Kiba especially. Only those who hadn't used any jutsus were able to stand up on their own two legs, but just barely.

"Naruto-kun?" Hinata gasped.

"Kiba?" Shino inquired.

"Shikamaru? Choji? Forehead?" Ino asked.

None of them could respond. They all felt like they were experiencing their worst case of chakra exhaustion in their lives.

"Nice Genjutsu, Dobe." Sasuke spat as he forced himself to stand up, leaning against the back wall. "But it won't be enough to defeat me. The Leaf will still fall today and you and all your precious friends will die."

"It's not…a Genjutsu…" Naruto wheezed as he tried to stand up with Sakura's help. "We really are…back in the past…"

"Bullshit." Sasuke spat as he struggled to stand up. Neither he, nor any of the other members of the Rookie 9 could summon up the energy to keep fighting. It was as if their younger bodies couldn't handle the fighting styles they were used to by the time they were in their 20s.

"It's true!" Naruto insisted, thinking that this might be his last chance to save Sasuke's soul. "We found a jutsu in one of the Sage's Tombs and it taught us how to send someone back to the past. We thought it was only going to send me back to the past, but it appears not to be the case."

Sasuke looked at Naruto, using his Sharingan to detect any fluctuations in chakra that would prove Naruto was lying, but Naruto's chakra flow remained calm as could be expected for a man pushed to the brink of exhaustion. And even if Sasuke only had access to his level 2 Sharingan, he could still tell that this was no illusion. It was real. It was all real.

"So, that's it huh? So, then I can assume all twelve of us who were in that seal came back to the past." Sasuke stated, his expression unreadable.

'Make that 12 ninjas and a demon.' Kurama thought as the time traveling ninjas soon found themselves completely surrounded by ANBU guards.

Author's Note: Watch out…

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