Chapter 1: Peripeteia

Cold air in the evening, red and yellow obscuring her vision. Momiji leaves now was falling down and almost everyone in Konoha was enjoying the rare occurrence. It was rare in October to have red a yellow leaves raining down.

Naruto walked down the streets, watching the beautiful scene with a nostalgic, saddened eyes.

It was rare for her to feel melancholy but something from today made her feel it keenly, not ignoring it as she usually did when she felt even the slightest bit of negative emotions.

Watching the vivid scene of red and yellow, she thought of her parents and friends. Their laughter and smiles.

Just the thought of it made her feel worthless. It was like they left her behind and do their own things, while all she had to do was to become Hokage now that all obstacles were now gone. Ironically, she didn't know what to do anything else now that all she had to do was to become Hokage.

Naruto exhaled a fogged, white breath.

"This is ridiculous," she mumbled, feeling yonder. She trudged forward and for once in a long time, everyone was ignoring her. Or maybe they didn't recognize her what with her long yellow hair hidden beneath a green cap that she got from Ino today.

She was eighteen now. Her birthday was celebrated with Sai and Ino just a few hours ago, as everybody else was busy with their lives.

Sakura was on a self-imposed mission to chase after a clearly unwilling Sasuke, Shikamaru was in Suna courting Temari, Chōji was in Kumo for whatever business he had there, Hinata was actually on a training trip with her father, Tsunade was enjoying her freedom again and visiting countries and villages to maintain the alliances between the five great countries, Kakashi was stuck behind the Hokage desk doing his Hokage business, and Kurama... he was sleeping.

The lazy bastard.

Not that Naruto wanted her birthday to be celebrated, as it was the day her parents sacrificed themselves to protect her and the village. But... some part of her wanted a semblance of normality, even for a moment.

Birthday was supposed to a happy occurrence, right? That conclusion was drawn from the many observations she did in her childhood, and she had not yet proven wrong.

She glanced up at the Hokage mountain, her gaze heavy.

The aftermath of the war, Konoha was expanding its grounds to the top of the Hokage Mountain. It was going to be weird for her to see her home, once the buildings up there was completed. She missed her old apartment and the old Konoha.

As if someone answered her silent longing, her body suddenly went frozen.

Darkness came soon after, and her body went slack.

Everything felt distant and before she knew further, she involuntarily closed her eyes as her consciousness left.

Wood brown was the first color she saw. It was a shock to see that and as a result, she had stared off into space.

Her mind went blank for a few minutes as she stared and stared.

It was the color of ceilings she was very familiar with, having seen it for the majority of her life. She thought it was weird and she promptly stared at her surroundings. To her great surprise, she was lying down on her old bed.

Quickly, she sat up and her face turned white thereafter.

"Impossible," she uttered, as she sized up everything around her. "This is... this is my old apartment! How...?"

Naruto froze as she checked herself.

She... shrank?

"What the hell!" She shrieked.

Naruto ran towards the mirror and found that it reflected herself... but smaller and more youthful. She promptly staggered backward and did a double take before she went limp and gazed off ahead, too shocked to register what was going on.

"This... this couldn't be true."

She was small, her hair was longer than her usual above the shoulder-blades cut. She was wearing her old green shirt with red swirls in front. Her chest... was flat again, and she was short! Again.

Just what the hell was going on here?

There must be someone responsible for this. There must be some assholes enemy or something that pulled this on her...!

Speaking of assholes, her best friend is one. Sasuke was supposed to be traveling the world for his past 'crimes' atonement, yet she felt that he was the one responsible for this.

She had to find the bastard. Now.

It was harder for her to balance the natural energy around her with this smaller body, as it took several minutes for her to find the perfect balance. Naruto estimated that this body was 6 or 7, judging with how small she was.

She had to use sennin mode to search for that bastard to explain this. She had already tried to contact Kurama, but something blocked her connection to him.

Just for that, she speculated that this was an incredibly real genjutsu that wasn't really trying to hide it was genjutsu, but... she could absorb natural energy. A genjutsu wasn't supposed to allow her to do it, as Pa said that genjutsu was weak against nature or something. A lecture she didn't pay attention to, but somehow got the gist.

"Sasuke better explain this," she muttered as she ran. "This has to be his fault."

She strolled near the Uchiha district with great caution, as she felt Sasuke was deep inside the forest that was just outside the district. He was running suspiciously fast for his age, meaning he had to be the Sasuke she knew.

He better had.

Naruto swore under her breath as she contemplated the notion of what if this was not a genjutsu, "Dammit, Sasuke!"

Sasuke was scared, even if he didn't want to admit it. Having two women chase after him to have his... babies made him a little wary of women. If it wasn't for Naruto, he might have a phobia of women.

That was why when he found himself suddenly in front of a woman that looked like his late mother, he backed away as quickly as possible.

"Sasuke?" Her voice even sounded like his mother. "Why are you zoning off? I thought you want to find your brother and bring him here for dinner?"

Sasuke stared and stared.

Finally, without any warning, he took off, ignoring the woman's shouts of his name.

"Nii-san...?"

In Sasuke's line of vision, only Itachi was there. He unconsciously ignoring how Itachi's supposedly dead best friend, Shisui, was there too.

"Sasuke, why are you here?" Itachi was here. He really was here. The question is; how? But Sasuke isn't one to use logic when his brother is concerned.

"I-!" Sasuke was interrupted when an angry yell was heard across the field.

"Found you, asshole!"

A seven-year-old Naruto was running full sprint towards him.

The eighteen-year-old that currently resided in his younger seven-year-old body, that went by the name Uchiha Sasuke, went pale as he watched the girl barreled towards him.

He didn't want to be killed now that he was somehow in the past. And so he blurted out, "Wait! I can explain!"

If he was right, this was the past. His rinnegan was gone, and it would be for a few years. He went to the past by using the rinnegan and somehow he brought Naruto along and likely used her six path sage mode too to do the impossible.

His head hurt but he will explain this to the best of his ability. After all, he was a practical man.

"Sakura... or Karin... might have made me drunk..."

Or not. Just what did he say now?

Naruto's mouth went agape in disbelief.

"What?!" She yelled heatedly, hands covered her mouth soon after. She opted to glare when Itachi gave her a look.

It was like a mouth diarrhea because Sasuke just couldn't stop talking. "They have been chasing after me for a year now. I might have gotten tired and... they might have caught me off guard."

Naruto glared menacingly. "No way. No fucking way that you pulled this shit when you're fucking drunk! You're lying, dattebayo!"

Shisui, who was watching the entire spectacle without a clue of what was going on, held back the red-faced blonde girl away from his best friend's brother, otherwise, Sasuke would eat the girl's punch for dinner.

Itachi awkwardly watched his younger brother and his... friend (?) converse. He didn't want to interfere unless it was necessary, so he stood there silently.

Sasuke sighed as he looked at Naruto with a resigned look on his face.

"I might have been drunk and desperate enough to think of time-traveling. I didn't mean to do this, and if I was, I wouldn't bring you along, Naruto." Sasuke bowed his head low. "Forgive me."

The silence was maddening and it went crazy when Sasuke dropped to his knees and did a dogeza.

Naruto's eyes teared in frustration. She shook her head and closed the distance between them and offered Sasuke her index and middle finger.

Sign of Reconciliation.

Sasuke looked up and smiled thinly as he took her hand and got up with ease.

"I... forgive you, Sasuke," Naruto quietly stated, her blue eyes gazed directly at Sasuke's onyx ones. "I'm... also sorry for overreacting. I mean, I thought that this was a cruel powerful genjutsu prank you pulled on me because today is my birthday."

Sasuke's lips twitched in amusement as he remarked, "... usuratonkachi, there is no way I would pull a prank on you."

Naruto smiled with a relieved look on her face. "Geh, an asshole as always aren't you, Sasuke?"

"Can one of you explain what this is about?"

Shisui interrupted their moment, as he was practically dying of curiosity. He observed their strange conversation and he wanted to know what was going on between Sasuke and Naruto.

Naruto and Sasuke shared a look and they nodded to each other.

"Shisui," Sasuke started, not bothering to add a suffix. "It will be better for you and nii-san to hear this from me."

Shisui glanced at Naruto and Sasuke back and forth.

"Now. Once upon a time..."

A snort came from Naruto but Sasuke continued on.

"Goddamn." Shisui's tone was full of incredulity.

Goddamn, indeed. Itachi shook his head as he palmed his face.

His brother was drunk enough to go back to the past... at eighteen? The legal age to consume alcohol was 20 in Konoha. Not that everyone abides by it as Konoha is a shinobi village and shinobi could drink alcohol in a special bar reserved for them, and many genin were rebellious enough to get drunk early. Of course, many traditional cuisines in Konoha use sake or mirin, but it was not enough for one to get drunk.

A shinobi shouldn't get drunk while on a mission. Itachi sighed in disappointment while a passive Sasuke looked at his brother with a silent question.

"You're older than me now," Shisui commented to Sasuke, a grin on his face. "This is so weird!"

"Only mentally." Naruto quipped. "His body is a lot younger than his ancient soul!"

Sasuke's glare was venomous. "That is like the pot calling the cattle black, Naruto!"

Naruto gasped dramatically as she faked a sob and wailed. "What! How could you say that to your youthful younger best friend!"

Itachi chuckled, his eyes shining with mirth. "Ah, Sasuke, you're our ancestor reincarnated, Ōtsutsuki Indra and Uchiha Madara, if I was not mistaken? And Naruto-san is Ōtsutsuki Ashura and Senju Hashirama's reincarnation. There is no doubt that you two are old."

Shisui fondly watched the scene. He momentarily forgot how he was supposed to report to the Sandaime and the advisors of his plan.

No matter how bizarre the situation is, Shisui quite liked the atmosphere. He hoped his little plan would be a success to see this again.