Chapter Text
He... was kneeling? His head… It hurt... so much... what's happening...
It seemed like his head would split in two until suddenly it didn't. Where was he?
“Naruto?” That was Kakashi-sensei's voice. “Naruto? Do you hear me?”
“Wh...” He tried to say but ended up coughing instead. His throat felt raw... Ah, he was screaming earlier wasn't he? He tried again. “What happened?”
“We don't know. As soon as Raikage left you collapsed and started screaming. Yamato made a house for us to stay in for a while. You stopped screaming only recently.”
“Raikage?” That didn't make sense. He left for a mission to the water country, not anywhere near where Raikage should be.
“Yes, do you remember? You asked him to take back the order to kill Sasuke.” What? Sasuke? But… order to kill? That… happened a while ago. Before the war and right before Sasuke… Oh shit. His panicked expression was probably a sign enough for Kakashi to notice something wrong. “Naruto, what do you remember last?”
Last thing he remembered, well, he was on mission in the land of water, quite happy about it too since missions outside of village were rare for him those days. When he got there he was even happier since he could feel familiar chakra. Right, Sasuke was there too. He met up with him and after lot of pestering convinced him to do the mission together.
The mission entailed capturing a rogue ninja who had annoying ability, bit similar to Yamanaka’s body capturing jutsu but it did not capture anyone’s bodies and it also didn’t leave user’s body unattended. More like the spirit of the user, invisible to most eyes rinnengan not included, acted independently along with the user.
At first Naruto thought they had some invisibility jutsu and used it along with clones but the last moment convinced him otherwise. Last time the rogue used that jutsu they instantly collapsed and the spirit seeing that froze from shock. Sasuke, never one to miss opportunity in battle, tried to teleport both of them to the target instantly. Neither of them where wholly out of portal when Naruto tried to grab the spirit or at least, where he thought the spirit was based on Sasuke’s actions. And well, that’s the last thing he remembers.
Naruto was starting to feel more clearheaded now. Which wasn’t all that helpful actually. Wherever he was it was clearly freezing. But actually… what did Kakashi-sensei say again? Raikage and order to kill Sasuke? Was this a genjutsu? No wait, he was immune to those after he started to get along with Kurama. What… ok, play along first and then check in with Kurama.
“I… Kakashi-sensei, are we in the land of snow?”
“Yes, we haven’t left yet, not until you had your say, although with the sudden collapse I was rethinking that. “
“Is that so… I’m glad. I don’t know what happened, I was fine one second and had a splitting headache the next. Although, I’m feeling fine now.”
“I see… well you still better rest for now. We’ll talk about what to do next later.”
“Alright Kakashi-sensei.”
Now, Naruto should probably check in with Kurama. The sewers of his mind where as always not so pleasant. He wonders why they look like that… even the place he visited Son-Goku in his jinchuriki’s mind looked marginally better and that was during war. He always forgets to ask Kurama about that too. Oh well, not the main issue right now anyway.
“Kuramaaa! You here?”
“Yes brat, surprised you come here so fast.”
“Of course I came. What the fuck is happening outside? I’ve never seen a genjutsu so weird.”
“That’s because it’s not a genjutsu, or I would have dispelled it a while ago. “
“Not a genjutsu? But… the kage summit and, and everything! That was before war dattebayo! How is this happening?”
“My guess would be that contact with the spirit jutsu guy in his disembodied form while being right in the middle of space time technique might have caused this. How exactly I don’t know, you’ll have to check it out with your Uchiha.”
“Not my Uchiha” Naruto said reflexively, sage knew the tailed beast referred to Sasuke like that often enough “Wait, are you telling me we are really in the past? And Sasuke is here too?”
“Yes, but I’m not sure if he’s here or not yet, it is likely he will arrive at some point. But as for now from what I can sense his movement hasn’t stopped or changed the course during the time you were unconscious, which would also mean he didn’t get the memories yet. Not really surprising, as a jinchuriki you are more adaptable to spiritual manipulation and have higher recovery time. He will probably come soon.”
“That’s…” Well, amazing seemed to be a too positive of a term, what did time travel even entail? What was he supposed to do now? He certainly doesn’t remember having headache’s and fainting (well before meeting with Gaara at least) so this was already wrong kind of past and not a loop like ones he sometimes saw in TV shows as a kid. “uh too complicated, I’ll have to discuss it with Sasuke when he gets here then.” At that he frowned, didn’t Sasuke attack five Kage’s at the summit? And then lured Danzo out of there and killed him? Wasn’t Sasuke going there right now?
“Kurama, when Sasuke gets his memories back is he gonna have a headache and collapse like me?”
“Most likely, yes, probably a bit worse or bit easier depending on how the sharingan wired brain will accept the process.”
“But he will be out commission for some time at least?”
“Obviously.”
“And that can happen any time now?”
“Well, I think it will be today but I couldn’t pinpoint more surely.”
“Oh fuck… fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck” Naruto started pacing around in his mindscape.
“What’s the matter kit?”
“Kurama don’t you get it? He is going to attack all five kage together right about now! And then he is gonna fight with “I have twenty lives” Danzo until he kills him, after WHICH Sakura is going to try and kill him… although I hope that she wouldn’t try if he collapsed but… I couldn’t be sure but that’s not the point. The point is no time today is a good time for spitting headache for him. I have to get to him right now.”
“There is no chance you are going to leave him to luck, is there?” At that he Kurama received a deadpan stare “Thought not, oh well, you better hurry then, Sasuke is almost there.”
“I’m sure we can get there on time, with kyubi mode at least.”
“We sure can, your two sensei’s on the other hand most likely won’t keep up.”
“Uh…” Naruto winced a bit guiltily “I guess I’ll leave a clone… they shouldn’t try to leave this place anyway… Obito is going to come and explain Uchiha massacre right about now too, they need to hear it.”
“Great, I think you’ve got it covered, I’ll leave you with chunk of my chakra and look at that, you still have access to my sibling’s chakra too, I will meanwhile take a nap, wake me up if someone resurrects Madara earlier than planned.”
“Sure, I’ll go save the teme now.” At which Naruto promptly woke up.
Yamato and Kakashi where talking in the room next to his. It didn’t seem like they were going to finish any time soon so this was perfect time to escape. He soundlessly made a clone and left him in the bed. Now… was that a window over there? He didn’t remember there being a window first time he escaped in the past. He would like to think that even he wasn’t so obvious as to miss that and dug a hole instead. Was that because it was after meeting with Obito and Sakura? Did Yamato block windows after that? Was he that predictable? Most unpredictable ninja for shame… but to be fair he was obvious about escaping that time. Whenever he is planning something he goes quite, habit of youth he got over in time. Youth being relative, it’s just 5 or so years in the past after all… but so many things happened in between that it doesn’t feel like it. Back to the topic, Window, well this certainly made things easier.
Seeing no need to further hesitate Naruto jumped out of it run in the direction Raikage left few hours ago. Sasuke was too close to Kage summit already, Naruto won’t catch up even with kyuubi mode, he would have to meet him there. Not wanting to think about how much of a mess jinchuriki appearing there might cause Naruto starting running towards his destination leaving only yellow flash with orange hues behind.