Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. This story was a challenge from EDelta88

The Wrath of Team 7 Chapter 1: Going Back

Three figures stood, looking out over the barren landscape that had once been their home. The setting sun shed only dim light on the wasteland that had once been lush forest and thriving village. Their long shadows where the only change on ground that was flat for as far as their eyes could see. Their only company was the fine dust carried by the wind.

The blond man had a tired look on his face. "Well… Shit."

The first of his companions, the only female of the group, looked around with sadness in her eyes, "Do you think anyone else survived?"

"Madara probably did. That bastard has a back-up plan for everything," answered the last of the three, a raven-haired with a pained expression. "I wouldn't count on anyone else though." He paused. Though his face remained impassive, his companions could sense the anger he was holding inside, a feeling they shared. "Sakura, can you sense anything?"

The pink-headed woman closed her eyes, "There's some residue still in the air. We should be fine, but it would have been highly toxic for the first few days. Demon Chakra isn't exactly healthy for normal people." She opened her eyes again, turning around to examine the remains of the village. "The Plateau's been leveled, Akatsuki's jutsu probably went further than just Konoha. With this much damage, I doubt there's a tree left standing in the whole fire nation."

Sakura fought back the tears that appeared at the corners of her eyes. She didn't want to think of how many friends she wouldn't be seeing again. Trying to change the subject, she asked, "How long were we gone, Sasuke?"

The dark-haired man pinched the bridge of his nose, grimacing at the sharp pounding in his head that accompanied the use of Mangekyo Sharingan "No more than a week. It takes a lot of chakra to move even that far. Kakashi sensei could barely do it using Hachimon Tonkou (1)."

"Still," said the blond, "that's one hell of a jutsu. I didn't know the Mangekyo was good for more than setting things on fire." His blue eyes looked ponderously at the blood-red sunset. "Moving through time… I wonder…"

"Naruto, I know that look. You've got another one of those ideas." Sakura looked him in the eye. "What are you thinking?"

"Sasuke's jutsu moved us forward in time by nearly a week. Is it possible to go backwards?

"What do you mean?" Sakura asked as Sasuke raised his head quizzically.

"Think about it. Everything in the past few years has gone horribly wrong. Akatsuki, Danzo, The fifth war, this…" He gestured to the landscape around them.

Sakura put a hand on her teammate's shoulder. "Naruto, there's nothing…"

"We can go back." The blonde interrupted, "If Sasuke's jutsu can manipulate time it should work both ways. We could save everyone, stop the fifth war, imagine it!"

"Naruto, I had to borrow your chakra just to move a few days forward, you're talking about going back years!" Sasuke exclaimed.

"The chakra I gave you was from my reserves, and they were low. The Kyuubi's got larger chakra reserves than even me. If we use his chakra, we might be able to move as far back as we want."

Sakura shook her head. "Naruto, even if you did come up with enough chakra, and I doubt using the Kyuubi is safe, there's no telling what moving backwards in time could do to us."

Sasuke shifted uncomfortably, closing his eyes again. "We merge."

Sakura turned to look at her second teammate. "Merge?"

"Naruto's right in that the Jutsu works to take you both forward and backwards, but moving backwards works differently." Sasuke looked meaningfully at Naruto. "Moving either way is painfully complex, but moving backwards forces you along the same path you took to arrive at the present. In other words, if you move back in time by five minutes, you end up exactly where you stood five minutes ago, with nothing more than your memories to prove that you moved at all."

"I don't see how that's a problem. Even if we end up as our past selves, you said we'd have our memories. That's enough to change what happened." Naruto pointed out.

Sasuke sighed. "Remember how I said it was painfully complex? You're not just moving through time, you're moving through space as well. The earth has been rotating during the time we've been away. What do you think would've happened if we'd reappeared exactly where I'd started the Jutsu?"

Even Naruto looked troubled by the thought. Sasuke continued, "Moving backwards is even worse. You have to figure out exactly where you were at the time you're shooting for. Hell, you have to figure out where the Earth was at the time you're shooting for. If the calculations are off, the jutsu will just keep sucking chakra until you either compensate or die."

Sakura frowned at her companion's explanation, "Sasuke, how come you never mentioned the jutsu before now?"

Sasuke gave a pained expression, "Kakashi and I have only managed to practice the jutsu recently, He is… he was in the hospital for chakra exhaustion because of it." The three teammates looked mournfully across the landscape. The evening broke and their shadows disappeared in the encroaching twilight.

Sakura tightened her fists. Talking about their former sensei had only served to remind them of what they had lost.

Sasuke closed his eyes in an effort to control the anger that made his own hands tremble. "Naruto," he said bluntly. "No matter how long it takes, I will find a way to take us back. I want to see Madara suffer for what he's done, but that won't bring back Kakashi or anyone else."

Naruto quietly moved to stand at his friend's shoulder. Sasuke had come a long way in the past few years. He was stronger now, in more ways than one.

Sakura put her arms around Sasuke in a gentle hug. "What do you need us to do?"

Sasuke awkwardly returned the hug as Naruto smiled. Sasuke still had trouble showing affection, or even receiving it. Even now he fought the urge to shrug out of Sakura's grasp. He'd been hard on her, even in the academy years. She had stayed loyal despite his flaws.

He chuckled a little. He could remember the time she had gone out with the intent to kill him a few years ago. Danzo was the acting Hokage, and had passed a death sentence on the missing Nin. Sasuke himself was playing puppet to Madara at the time.

His expression clouded again at the thought of their greatest enemy. Madara had twisted Sasuke's pain at the loss of his brother and clan, manipulating him for his own dark ends. Naruto had suffered long and hard to teach Sasuke that true strength came from bearing each other's burdens. They were a team, and they worked together no matter what.

"Kakashi and I didn't have the chakra to move more than a few hours back. Naruto, if we use Chakra seals to multiply the Kyuubi's reserve we could go back as far as we want. Sakura, we'll need you to help with calculations. I'll need to know the exact time/space coordinates. "

Sakura looked up into Sasuke's determined eyes. "I'll do whatever it takes. Think of the things we could change, the problem's we'd fix." She said happily.

Their blonde companion frowned with a thoughtful look on his face. "Actually, I've been thinking lately about how Madara always seems to know what we're planning. Hearing you talk about that jutsu makes me think he might be using it as well. He has the Mangekyo Sharingan and eight of the nine Bijuu. Every time we've confronted him, he's been two steps ahead of us."

Naruto scratched the back of his neck. "I think he's been doing the very same thing we're planning on doing, jumping back in time to change the past."

"It… it would actually explain a lot," Sakura frowned at her teammate for ruining a perfect moment. "But then why didn't he stop us from escaping the Chakra bomb?"

Naruto grinned, "He wouldn't have had the chance to go back yet. The bastard used all of the Bijuu he had to perform that Jutsu of his. It'll probably be a while before he has enough chakra to move."

Sasuke smirked, "So we can't act needlessly, but we still have an edge. If we're careful about how we change things, he won't know we've moved backwards at all. He might not even know we're alive."

Sakura's face blossomed into a smile. "I would still like a rematch."

In the dust and ashes of Konoha, Team 7, the heart and soul of the Konoha twelve, heirs of the Sannin, swore vengeance on the man who destroyed their home.

Twenty years earlier, the eyes of Yondaime Hokage grew wide with shock when his newborn son looked straight into the eyes of the Kyuubi no Kitsune, the demon fox itself…

… and flipped it off.

Heh heh, if you can't tell, I think this is going to be a very interesting fic. The original Idea came from "EDelta88" in his 'Challenges' Forum. You can check it for spoilers if you really want to, but I tend to like surprises. There's also a little mini-chapter I've added, Tag.

Hopefully as I get better at updating more frequently, I'll start doing omakes depending on how many reviews I get. Any input is appreciated, please, please, please review?

Hachimon Tonkou: The Eight inner gates. Look up "Rock Lee"

The Wrath of Team 7 Chapter 1.5: Tag

The midday sun beamed down upon the hidden village, and a figure, hiding in the tall spring grass, shadowed his eyes against the brightness…

Lying on his stomach, Naruto slowly crept through the brush, away from his target He chuckled softly to himself, as he pulled his shaded goggles over his eyes. After months of failed attempts, he had finally managed to Tag her. Children shouted as they played a game in the field around him. They would likely be upset when they discovered the form of Naruto's target, one of their playmates, slumped against a tree like a pile of wet noodles.

The childrens' game had been ideal for the Tag. They played at being ninja, concealing themselves from their peers. Naruto had simply waited for the girl to isolate herself from the others, and then he struck. The brats never could have expected a real ninja in their midst. 'Theyarebrats too…'Naruto thought darkly, 'and their parents are just as bad.'

A small smile crossed his lips as he cleared the edge of the field and hid himself behind a tree. He almost wished he could reveal himself to them. It would almost be worth the trouble to see their faces as the 'Demon' of the village used an S-ranked technique on a child; almost worth it, but not quite.

Naruto chuckled softly to himself as he watched a young boy came across the unmoving form of the girl, he'd have to content himself with watching. The boy shouted for one of the adults that stood some distance away. Naruto knew that it was pointless, by the time the adults reached the girl, all physical signs of his work will have faded. Shouts of alarm rose from both children and their parents as they discovered his target wasn't waking up.

Naruto took a deep breath, savoring the fresh summer air. Minatsuki, June, was a good month. It signaled the end of the rainy season in Fire country. He thought it was appropriate considering he would no longer have to live through the depressing years on his own.

Hidden away from prying eyes, six-year-old Uzumaki Naruto watched as Haruno Ume carried her unconscious daughter, Sakura, away from the open field where young children played Ninja. 'Yes,'he thought smiling, 'now is a good time for Team 7 to be revived.'