A silver-haired retired Jonin observed his blond Hokage warily as they and a few others stood at a distance from what was once their home. 'Once,' because the Hidden Leaf wasn't their home anymore – their paranoid enemies had made quite sure of that. Truly, the 'Land of Fire' was a very, very fitting title for what they were now witnessing before their very eyes.

"Naruto… What exactly did you do? I can understand some of our former enemies turning on us again, but the Land of Iron was leading the charge. The Land of Iron." Kakashi tacked on the end for emphasis. Seeing his hyperactive, knuckleheaded former student sheepishly rubbing the back of his head and laughing nervously did not exactly instill great confidence in the middle-aged Hatake.

"Um… So you're not gonna believe this, y'know, but a couple years ago I went to the old Land of Whirlpools for the first time, and I found some neat stuff!" Those within hearing distance of Naruto and Kakashi visibly tensed at this. Naruto thought it was 'neat' to find new ways to make stuff explode, so obviously he had a different opinion of what that word meant than the majority of them. But Naruto pressed on, "I'm hardly a Seal Master like Pervy Sage or Ma, but I still knew what I was lookin' at when I came across this one seal, y'know! Who knew a time-travel seal was developed by my clan?! With the right amount of Chakra and people, just about anyone could activate it! Sooo… I kinda brought the design back here and was working on and off with it for the past two years or so. Took me a while, but I finally cracked it!"

Kakashi cocked his head to the side slightly in contemplation as he considered this information. The seal alone could explain the uncontrollable flames encompassing their former home, but Kakashi knew for a fact that their former allies had been the ones to commit arson, so…

"Well… That's not so bad on its own, I guess… Reckless of you to try and tamper with an Uzumaki seal, especially one that sounds pretty complicated, but where did the other nations come in…?"

Naruto squirmed some more at Kakashi's continued questioning. His nervous laughter really wasn't helping his case. A pink-headed woman chose that moment to stalk over to the two males, her knuckles cracking dangerously.

"Na… ru… to…" Sakura growled. "What. Did. You. Do?!"

"Ehe… You know how I can't keep quiet about stuff!" Naruto held up his hands defensively. "Plus, why would you wanna keep quiet about something like this?! Our lives are great, but it could be a thousand times greater if we went back and saved everyone! Kakashi-sensei's dad, Obito, Neji and his dad, and even all kindsa people in other countries! We could kill Madara, Orochimaru, Danzo, and those Zetsu things before they went too far! … So I wanted to let everyone know they'd be seeing the return of loved ones, and kinda blabbed all about the seal and where I got it. Do ya think their attack had something to do with that, maybe?"

… Huh. This was the first Kakashi was hearing of it; same went for a number of people within hearing range. Just how the hell had the other nations heard all about Naruto's latest altruistic mission, but they hadn't heard a peep? He was their Hokage, for crying out loud!

Regardless, that didn't stop Sakura from slugging her former teammate and Hokage into the surrounding forests several meters away, and at this point, nothing could. Kakashi sighed tiredly and rubbed his temples. Truly, Naruto had the best of intentions in mind, and the other nations most likely knew this, having battled alongside him in the last war. That wouldn't stop the outrage, however, and Naruto should have been remotely aware of this.

No single hidden village should have that much power; with that kind of seal, Naruto, and the Uzumaki Clan by proxy, might as well have relabeled himself as a god. After Lord Third and his generation passed away, no one in the Hidden Leaf really knew why the Uzumaki Clan was nearly brought to extinction beyond the vague explanation that the Uzumaki sealing prowess had become widely feared and renowned, but Kakashi suspected that this seal that Naruto just so happened to find would explain a lot, honestly. Paranoia made up a lot of the shinobi lifestyle; of course people were going to fear a time-travel seal.

There would be no more history because it would be ever-changing, thanks to dissatisfied shmucks like their Hokage…

Thank Kami Sasuke never got his hands on that seal.

"So… It's gone now, right?" Kakashi asked Naruto warily as the blond came trudging back up to his two former teammates with a bulbous-sized bruise on top of his head. "Right, Naruto?"

This more urgent prodding came about as a result of Naruto appearing sheepish… again…

"Weeell… In the Hidden Leaf, yeah. You know my style, Kaka-sensei! I had a few groups of Shadow Clones outside the village working on the seal, too. Heck, most of the testing for the Jutsu was done outside the village! I didn't wanna endanger our home, y'know?"

… Oh, the irony. It burned.

Kakashi visibly wilted at this as he held up a pointer finger.

"Naruto… Are you telling me you tested it already?" They might've only been Shadow Clones, but there was that long-standing theory that even the tiniest changes in history could bring disaster. And since they were Shadow Clones of Naruto, Hero of the Fourth War…

They were screwed.

"Yeah, a few groups of Clones did. There must be at least three excursions into the past goin' on right now… All chose different points in time, y'know." Naruto muttered and nodded thoughtfully as he crossed his arms. "One group…"

But before Naruto could explain anything, there was a flash of light that encompassed everything, and then they all knew no more…

Timeline Alpha…

Eight Shadow Clones tumbled into some forested area after popping out of a vortex that spewed lightning bolts as it appeared at a random location in the forest. As soon as the Shadow Clones had arrived and came to a stop, the vortex immediately closed up and vanished as if it had never been there at all.

Such was an Uzumaki time-travel seal.

"Success!" A Shadow Clone pumped a fist into the air triumphantly. He motioned for the other Clones to gather 'round. "'Kay. So here's the plan. We'll break up into two squads and nip this whooole thing in the bud. I mean, seriously, this is where all the problems began, y'know?"

The Clone received seven affirmative nods in response. With that being said, they broke into groups of four without much fuss. After all, both aspects of the mission were important, so it wasn't like there was much to compete for. Especially when they were all Shadow Clones of the same awesome guy.

They'd all entered Sage Mode, of course. Hyper-sense of awareness added to Chakra Sensory Technique made for nearly unbeatable shinobi. Well. They were all still very beatable; hell, one hit, and they were done. However, there was eight of 'em, and all of 'em were in Sage Mode, so their mission's rate of success was drastically improved even if they eventually ended up dispelling before all the changes took effect.

One group had a lock on their target, which was close by. The other… would have to travel quite a bit. But they would make it to their destination, or their name wasn't Naruto Uzumaki. Believe it.

In a matter of minutes, the first squad of Shadow Clones had reached the cave just as it was beginning to collapse. The trio they were sent to save were running for the exit – well, that wasn't completely true, as the silver-haired teen ended up tripping and the raven-haired teen had turned around to save him. The brunette stood there helplessly.

That was when the squad of Naruto's charged into the cave dramatically and thrust the trio of teenagers to safety outside of the cave with Sage Jutsu strength and took the brunt of the boulder that had been meant for the raven-haired kid. Sure, it was a suicide run for the three Naruto's that had charged into the cave, but they didn't need to worry about sticking around to make sure Team Minato survived for sure.

That's 'cause the fourth Naruto was outside delivering a Rasenshuriken to that bastard Kakko's face. And when he was done offing that one Stone-nin, the Shadow Clone formed two more Shadow Clones to form a Mega Rasenshuriken to take out the group of Stone-nin that were on their way to that location to back-up their comrades.

Poor bastards didn't stand a chance as the giant Rasenshuriken cut cleanly through the trees and burst just as it enveloped the entire group of Stone-nin. Then the Shadow Clones dispelled from Chakra exhaustion, and poor, poor Team Minato were left with no one to plausibly explain what had just transpired.

"What. The. Fuck?!" Obito exclaimed, mouth agape as he took in the destruction of the cave and many of the nearby trees. That had happened in the blink of an eye, and Obito had just awoken his bloody Sharingan, damn it!

Needless to say, Obito had summed up exactly what Kakashi and Rin had been thinking, too…

Timeline Beta

Meanwhile, in a time not-so-distant from where that first group of Shadow Clones went to, a small army of Shadow Clones had appeared somewhere in the Land of Rain. Every single one had Sage Jutsu flipped on, and was surveying the confrontation that was just starting between Hanzo the Salamander and his forces, Root, and the Akatsuki leadership. The fact that they traveled through a much larger lightning-spewing vortex to better accommodate them was enough of an attention-grabber to halt the confrontation before it truly began.

"Who the hell are you?" Hanzo the Salamander bellowed from atop the cliff, demanding an immediate answer. He did not like the way these Shadow Clones were eying him savagely, not one bit…

They all answered in unison, of course. Honestly, it was kinda creepy.

"Naruto Uzumaki! We're gonna kick your ass, believe it!"

And then the small army surged forward like a stampeding herd – some already charging up Rasenshurikens and Rasengans. Yahiko and Nagato stared at the stampede of orange-colored eyesores in a dead sort of way, accepting their inevitable fate, but they needn't have worried. The whole army veered away from them and began ascending the cliff-face to get at Hanzo, his men, and the Root personnel that were throwing every kind of projectile they could to kill off as many of the Shadow Clones as they could.

Not one Shadow Clone popped from their defensive barrage.

Soon, Konan was freed from those bastards and returned safely to Nagato and Yahiko, who were still staring kinda dumbly at the sight of the blonds beating the crap out of Hanzo and Danzo's forces. Some Shadow Clones did eventually pop due to the head-on confrontations, but not as many as one would think when going up against elite Anbu forces.

Even Hanzo was forced into retreat with his tail between his legs. A bunch of Danzo's goons were beating a hasty retreat, but Naruto's Shadow Clones were not letting them get away. At all. One Shadow Clone stayed behind to talk to Yahiko, Konan, and Nagato.

"Sorry about all that… Our mission's not over 'til that bastard Danzo's deader than a doornail. But you're free to go wherever ya want!" The Clone quickly tacked on at the end of his 'explanation.' He brought his arms behind his head and grinned toothily. "But, uh… If you could do one thing for me… Don't go insane and try collecting all the Tailed Beasts to make a super-weapon to bring about a cycle of endless fear and hatred for the sake of 'peace.' That's not how you go about makin' peace, y'know? Just… try somethin' else. Liiike peace, love, 'n ramen. That's the best way to go about it, y'know."

The trio of Jiraiya's former students blinked owlishly at the Clone's absurd speech. This did not make sense… at all.

Still. Naruto's Shadow Clone saluted the trio without another word and went off to join his compatriots in kicking Root's collective posterior. Root wasn't gonna come to a miserable end on its own. Not with that bastard Danzo at the helm.

Yahiko, Konan, and Nagato were still trying to work out what had just happened looooooong after the Shadow Clones had run off after members of Root. Perhaps it was time to reopen communication with Jiraiya-sensei? All of those Clones bore the Hidden Leaf insignia, after all.

Maybe the Hidden Leaf had just gone insane? What other explanation was there for blond, orange-wearing eyesores?

… Don't answer that. They wouldn't be able to handle much more of this…

Timeline Gamma

… This group of Shadow Clones was really confused when they reached the point in time they'd been aiming for. Confusion didn't even begin to describe what they were feeling as the twelve of them began investigating. Like, seriously… When had Obito become the Fifth Hokage? For that matter, when had the Hidden Leaf and Hidden Rain become such great allies?

And why the hell was Madara's ancient relic of a body now a preserved museum exhibit?

Author's Note:

Sooo… I started work on this one back in January. Been in my archives this long, but I did extensive work on it. Significant changes in the premise and everything. If this goes over well at all, I will be surprised. It's not chaotic to the point of That was Anticlimactic, but it got out-of-control in certain parts, I'll be the first to admit that…

As for why I went 'Timeline Alpha' and so on, it's 'cause the initial plan was to do multiple timelines. But then I thought it'd be funnier to combine them, so... Hence the end bit. :P

Just another small-ish treat for you guys. I might do more on this; I dunno. If you want more, I'll expand on it. If it's a flop, it's a flop. At least I finally did a time-travel fic, even if it was crack. XD