"Well shit."

Blowing a bang from its placement over his eyes, Uchiha Sasuke peers at the source of that particular declaration as every muscle in his body screeches.

"Well shit." he parrots mockingly, "This is all your fault."

Across the patch of scorched earth that separates them, Uzumaki Naruto groans into the ground hair spilling over her back in one great, golden lake. She can't even find the strength to lift her head. It is this fact that pushes Sasuke into rising, even as his arms scream in defiance. It takes two attempts, but he finally manages to orienteer himself into a slouch that a half-blind man may potentially label a sitting position. Naruto remains face down on the ground.

It's what she deserves.

"I'm sorry time-travel isn't a smooth ride. I'll try to do better next time," she snarks, words muffled by both the ground and the mass of hair. It goes unsaid between the two of them how time-travel has never been accomplished before. How it has never been done and been deemed impossible by the greatest charka theorists.

It is with a defeated half groan that Sasuke accepts his lot in life.

"When are we?"

"Kurama said we had enough juice for five or so years." Right, five or so years. That's… that's graduation-ish time… he thinks.

Head pounding, Sasuke peers at their surroundings, his heart plummeting when it lands on the mass of thick, spikey white hair. The owner of said hair is goggling at them.

Shit, have they said anything more incriminating than mentioned time-travel?

"Sasuke. Sasuke. Help me up. Sasuke, you damn Uchiha!" Fucking hell.

"Well done, Naruto," Sasuke hisses, eyes swirling into the Mangekyō.

Jiraiya of the Sannin doesn't have enough time to tear his eyes away from the change of black to red before he's thrown into an illusion and Sasuke's thrown into a splintering headache.

.

When he wakes up, they're in a different location. Naruto is sprawled out again but she's on a bed this time. There's no Jiraiya present and for that, Sasuke's thankful. How they got here, he doesn't know, but he's past asking after miracles now. Not when they're fiveish years in the past and he's going to have to start pulling them out his own ass to change things around.

Itachi's alive. Itachi's alive and he's dying from disease and there's Tsunade running around somewhere and Sasuke knows exactly where his priorities lie. If he knows Naruto's, however, is a different matter.

Fuck. He can do this without Naruto, he can.

Truth is, he doesn't want to.

Urgh. Co-dependency. How horrific. Especially given-

Sasuke looks to his companion through time, taking in the pillow marks on her cheek, the drool dribbling out of her open mouth to pool on the mattress.

Fuck. How is he co-dependent on that? Of all beings, Naruto? Really?

Oh god. Undead Itachi was right. He's in love with her.

God, how can he be in love with the idiot? This is it, centuries of excellent genetics, of carefully selected marriages to maximise the potential of future generations of Uchihas and it's going to be Sasuke who introduces idiocy to the Uchiha bloodline. The ancestors must be rolling in their graves.

And that's if he even manages to woo the girl. His chances are good. Sure, he's got a lot to make up for but, as stated previously; Naruto's an idiot. She'll be stupid enough to welcome him with open arms, no matter what he's done.

Fuck. He doesn't deserve her.

He wants her anyway.

"Oi, Sasuke. You alive?"

"Don't talk." Listening to her voice hurts. Why is she so loud? Does he really want to live with that for the rest of his life? Oh God, he does, doesn't he?

With his head still threatening to tear itself in two, Sasuke shuffles about on the bed until he's sitting up, belatedly noticing they're on a double bed. They're sharing a bed, fully clothed though they may be.

It's bloody hard to believe he was in a warzone just hours ago. Or maybe its not; doesn't the mind focus on distractions instead of dealing with trauma? And Sasuke's got a fuck ton of trauma. Buckets and buckets of the stuff. Maybe a distraction will do him some good.

"Oi. Bastard!"

"Naruto, for fuck's sake, some quiet. Please." He stresses the 'please', draws it out for a long while in hopes she'll have the decency to not interrupt him. It goes without saying that she'll respond to him; she's Naruto, silence is an abstract concept that she's never had to puzzle over, let along take part in.

This must be his first miracle though, because she doesn't speak. Even if this is the only one he pulls off, this Sasuke can live with that right now. Thank fuck. He's so tired and so achy and Naruto's so delightfully warm.

Wait-

Peeling one eyelid back, Sasuke peers blearily at the blonde fluffy a few inches from his face. The electric blue eyes would be fucking startling if it weren't for the fact he honestly could not care less right now. If Tobi and Zetsu had moved their plans forwards however many years and Kaguya was subjecting the entirety of the world's population outside, the most effort Sasuke would go to in order to deal with it would be to shut the blinds. As that's not a problem, he can't be arsed to get up and shut out the dawning (dusking?) sun.

"Sleep now, save the world later," he grumbles, closing his eyes again and daring to nudge that little bit closer to Naruto. As usual, she takes the slightest hint for physical contact as an open invitation, come-one-come-all, let's go the full hog. You get the drift.

Her arms worm their way around him, pressing against his tender (broken, they're probably broken) ribs. Then, he gets a noseful of hair as her empty head is forcibly shoved beneath his chin, the motion rattling all his teeth something horrible. Sasuke doesn't care anymore.

The world can hold itself together for a few hours (days). Right now, he's going to get some well needed rest.