Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

I'm leaving, Sasuke. I have to. The Leaf isn't what I remember it to be, with Granny still in a coma and so few of my precious people left. And you. You're always away from the village, the only person that really understood me, and I'm beginning to think that you had the right idea all along. The village will be in safe hands with Kakashi-sensei as Hokage, and by the time he retires Konohamaru will be old enough and experienced enough to take up the mantle.

I've decided to adopt your second ultimate goal: the revival of my clan. Until recently, I wasn't aware that the Uzumaki were an actual clan, but now that I do know I want to learn everything I can about them. So, I've decided to travel, like the Pervy-Sage, and go to the ruins of Uzushiogakure and the surrounding lands and ask about my clan, in hopes that I will be able to at least learn of and preserve the culture.

I'm sending this note to you because I know that you of all people I can trust not to follow me and convince me to go back; I am not advertising my imminent departure.

Naruto

Sasuke read the short letter, no small amount of amusement present in his expression.

"So the dobe finally did it, huh?" he mused aloud to himself. He smirked, a palpable air of smugness surrounding him. "Knew he'd do it eventually, the mess the village is in now."

And indeed, the Hidden Leaf Village was in a bit of a mess, especially from how Naruto would have wanted it to be. Almost all of their graduating class of genin were away, or dead, or incapacitated in some way, shape, or form. Jiraiya was dead. Asuma was dead. Kakashi was Hokage, and like the Third before him couldn't give Naruto much more time that the occasional checkup. He'd heard something awful had happened with Sakura and Naruto just before the war really started and that they'd been cool towards each other since. Tsunade had been taxed to her absolute limit during the war and had fallen into a coma soon after. And, probably something that hurt awfully to the blonde idiot, was what had happened with Ichiraku ramen. The old man running the stand had died, just after his daughter had married Iruka, their old sensei from the Academy, who Naruto had been close to. And since Konoha apparently reminded the ramen stand man's daughter too much of her father, she moved to the land of lightning, Iruka retiring as a ninja and going with her. So, really, his family wasn't really able to give him what he wanted.

"Well, best of luck to you," he said, watching the sparks from his small campfire swirl up into the stars.

Naruto sighed, staring up at the night sky and wondering whether or not the people at home missed him, or even wondered if he was gone. He was on the roof of Tazuna's house, having run all the way to Wave Country in just two days. The first night he'd slept in the wreckage of the statues of Hashirama and Madara, remembering the history the place held, and the mark he'd made on it with Sasuke. It had been a bittersweet experience, remembering just how he'd gotten so far and how his precious people had been able to help him achieve his goals.

But now he had a new goal. He sighed and rolled onto his side, moving his gaze to the spiral symbol on his pack. His clan symbol. His new goal was not one achievable by others, and anybody else traveling with him wouldn't help in the slightest. No, this was a goal he had to achieve on his own. His goal was to learn everything he could about his clan. His next stop would be Uzushiogakure, to investigate its ruins and see if he could find anything of interest there.

But first, sleep. It wouldn't do if he were exhausted on his way there. He might fall in a whirlpool.

Well. It's been two years. It turns out there weren't any Uzumaki there at Uzushio, but I did find a wealth of knowledge. I was walking along, not really paying attention, and scraped my knee on a rock. Stereotypical me, I guess. Anyway, it activated a blood-seal and it turned out there was a secret basement thing under just about the entire city. It was covered in reinforcement and stasis seals, so the stuff inside was old, maybe even hundreds of years. I used shadow clones to read all of them, got it done in a month. Gave me the worst headaches. But it was worth it.

Taijutsu, history, festivals, traditions, teaching curricula, sealing techniques, training methods, recorded bloodlines, and what was best of all: records of the people. I got to see my entire family tree – it was amazing.

But Sasuke – I'm leaving. For good. For real. For forever. There was this one seal – an immensely complex space-time jutsu. It sends you through time, Sasuke. As you're reading this, I'm probably already gone. But I want to fix things. I've adjusted the seal so that it comes out a few years after we're born. So you all will be fine. I'll just be trying to make at least one world a better place. You understand, don't you?

Well. I guess we'll meet again in death, right?

Naruto

"And he didn't invite me to go with him." A swish of a cloak and a small smile marked the passage of the ninja through the forest. "Usuratonkachi."

"Ugh." Naruto sad up, groaning, and put his hand to his forehead. Say what he would, that seal was a monster. It had taken more chakra than any other one jutsu he'd ever performed. He'd even been in sage-bijuu mode, and he'd landed completely exhausted of even the massive chakra stores that state afforded him. He definitely had some sort of chakra exhaustion – he'd only felt like this a few times before – after summoning Gamabunta for the first time, after beating Gaara, after developing the rasenshuriken, after fighting Sasuke at the valley of the end – both times – and while fighting the unholy alliance of Obito, Madara, the Juubi and Kaguya.

He sat up painfully. Time to sort out priorities. First thing: find a place to rest and recover; going to talk to Nagato while weakened so badly wasn't a smart decision. So. He had to get up and use all of his skills to find a place to stay for a couple days. He looked down at himself, checking that first, nothing was broken; and second, he was properly attired in the clothes he'd found in Uzushiogakure while studying there. It all looked good – the blue, brown, and gold complemented each other surprisingly well.

He tugged a lock of hair in front of his eyes, checking the color – good, a bright red, thanks to a special permanent bijuu-chakra seal. He'd had to do something about it, as there was no way he was going to let himself run around looking like an older Naruto. Which he was, but that was beside the point. Keeping his original appearance would just be asking for trouble, so he changed his hair color. And his eye color, too – well, he hadn't checked it yet, but if it had worked his eyes should be some shade of indigo.

He closed his eyes and tried to go into Sage Mode, only to pass out again.

A few moments later he awoke and laughed, not quite bitterly, but not in happiness, either. He pulled himself up, grabbing a stone next to his shoulder as a support. He wouldn't be trying to access Sage Mode again anytime soon.

"Kurama?" he murmured aloud, as anything thinking made his head hurt more, including mental conversation. He kind of heard, kind of felt the deep rumbling snore from the space where the fox resided. He frowned. "I guess that answers that."

He finally properly looked around. The stone he'd used to pull himself was actually a broken wall. The same broken wall he'd sat on about an hour earlier to eat lunch…although, if the seal had worked properly, it would actually be about fifteen years into the future…confusing.

Well. At least he knew where he was. The seal had transported him exactly into the same spot he had performed it from, just altering the time in which he existed. Well. In that case, he thought he'd most likely be able to make it to Wave if he had to. He managed a shaky step forward, leaning against the wall for support. Maybe not. He'd have to find a sheltered area, at least; fat drops of rain were started to fall and getting soaked wouldn't help his recovery at all. He trudged forward, looking around for a convenient space among the rubble in which he'd be able to rest until the storm stopped.

Because he was so exhausted and because he was looking around him instead of down, he didn't notice the small lip of stone still remaining from a doorway and tripped over it, about to face-plant into the stone walkway. And then he was caught.

"Hey, are you all right?"

Naruto froze. He allowed himself to be pushed back up and helped onto a rock in the sitting position.

"Man, you look awful. What caused this? And what's your name, anyways?" The one who'd helped him was young, probably actually younger than Naruto himself. Maybe fifteen or sixteen.

Naruto tried to speak, but his throat had gone dry; nothing came out. He closed it and cleared his throat, trying again. "Uh, chakra exhaustion. And, I'm, I'm…" Naruto searched for a suitable name. "I'm Raiden." He said finally. He'd chosen the name for two reasons. The first – it was partially to honor his father. His Hiraishin. The second was that it was a cool name, suitable storm-related like his previous name, and it sounded Uzumaki-ish.

"Cool name, mine's kind of boring. I'm Satoshi. But anyways, time to get out of the rain, yeah?" Naruto just looked at him tiredly. "Well, follow me, I guess."

The other red-head – Naruto strongly suspected he was an Uzumaki as well, given his hair and the fact he was wandering around the ruins of Uzushio – started off, and Naruto managed to heave himself up off the rock to follow him, but immediately stumbled again and braced himself up against the wall. Satoshi noticed his difficulty and came back, slinging one of Naruto's arms around his shoulders to help hold him up.

"Geez, you really did a number on yourself, what kind of technique uses up that much chakra?" Satoshi said, curiosity bleeding into every syllable. Naruto gave a strained chuckle before answering.

"I was working on a transportation seal," he said, and in a way it was true. He was just transporting himself through time, not space. "It worked, obviously, but it sapped all my chakra. I'll not be trying it again." Naruto paused and thought about his last phrase. Would he be trying it again, as he'd do it in the future? His younger, future self did it? But then since he'd landed there, and if he was going to change things, his younger self would never attempt the time-travel seal, which meant he wouldn't have been there in the first place? And then it would be a paradox? The only possible explanation was that Naruto had created a separate reality when he'd landed. At least the reality where he'd come from would be safe. At least from his meddling. Ugh, this was just giving him a headache.

"So you're really good at seals then?" Satoshi asked him. Naruto snapped out of his introspection and shook his head.

"I guess. I've experimented some. I'm just lucky I haven't killed myself on accident with them," he admitted. Satoshi laughed.

"Sure seemed like you tried your very best with this one. But seriously, you're being modest. You made up a transportation seal and used it successfully? That sounds pretty genius to me."

"My teacher was the one to create that seal," Naruto explained, even though it wasn't quite accurate. Still, he couldn't just say that one of the Uzumaki from the future created it. That would seem rather improbable and he'd like to keep the fact that he was a time-traveler under wraps for a while. "I was the one to adjust the coordinates and actually use it."

"Woah, that's way cool!" Satoshi exclaimed. "Did your teacher come with you, too?"

Naruto's expression hardened. "He's dead." And indeed, as he remembered Jiraiya, he was reminding himself that coming to the past was more than a way to meet some of his Uzumaki relatives; it was a way to save the people that meant the most to him.

"Oh." Satoshi was quiet the rest of the way to his shelter, which suited Naruto perfectly, as he was losing energy quickly and barely able to set one foot in front of the other at that point. The rain was coming down a bit harder now, and Naruto felt a cold drop slide down the back of his neck and down his shirt. He was so tired he didn't even have the strength to shiver. They were nearly at the edge of the ruins when the blackness that had been hovering at the edges of his vision finally overwhelmed him and he passed out.

There was a fire crackling when Naruto woke up next, and when he opened his eyes he saw the peaked roof of a tent. It wasn't his tent, though, and he sat up. He saw a small pile of gear in the corner of the tent, and the red shirt on top reminded him. It was most likely Satoshi's tent. Sure enough, just a few minutes later the young man entered the tent.

"Oh, you're up!" Naruto nodded and pulled a scroll from his belt, flicking it open and withdrawing a bottle of water from one of the seals inscribed. He popped the top off and chugged the entire thing before answering.

"Yep," he said, resealing the bottle into his scroll and slipping the scroll back into his belt pouch. "How long have I been asleep?" he asked, making his way out of the tent to stretch and relieve himself. Satoshi followed him out.

"Today would have been day three," he said. "I was starting to get worried you would never wake up."

Naruto laughed. "Trust me, Satoshi, I don't die easy." Satoshi still looked skeptical, but Naruto let him be. It wasn't like he hadn't faced skepticism before. "Um, do you have any food?"

"I have a couple ration bars," Satoshi answered. "I also have some fishing gear in case you want to get some fresh fish or something."

Fresh fish sounded excellent, but three days of sleeping on top of intense chakra exhaustion made food an immediate priority, and he had his own ration bars. "Never mind then." Naruto retrieved a couple bars from his scrolls and unwrapped them hastily, stuffing half of one in his mouth and barely chewing it before he swallowed. It was the best way to eat them – they didn't taste the best. And he was starving.

Less than a minute later Naruto was sitting next to the fire, the warmth of which he was using to stave off the pre-dawn chill. He closed his eyes. 'Kurama?' Naruto heard an annoyed snort.

'I'm sleeping. Or was. What do you want?' Naruto smiled. So he was alright, too.

'Just wanted to check you were alive in there, you old fox,' he thought.

'And you had to wake me up to do that? I'm going back to sleep.' Naruto laughed out loud that time and left his mindscape. Satoshi was looking at him weird.

"What was that all about?" Satoshi asked. He'd just seen Naruto sit down, close his eyes, and then make faces and laugh. It must have seemed rather odd to someone not used to watching him communicate with Kurama.

Naruto decided to be straight with him. "Just talking to the several-thousand-year-old demon in my head," he said blithely. Satoshi's eyes went wide.

"Oh," he said, voice a bit higher than Naruto knew it naturally was.

"Don't worry, we won't bite." Satoshi nodded slowly. "Hold on, I'm going to try something, and I wouldn't recommend touching me while I try it." Satoshi looked apprehensive, and Naruto was quick to reassure him. "I don't think anything would happen to you, but I need to be absolutely still in order for it to work." Satoshi looked relieved, and Naruto felt a bit guilty that he'd caused him distress.

But he needed to try Sage Mode again, to see if he really had lost it since he wasn't a Toad Summoner in this dimension. It meant he was no longer a Toad Sage, but he wanted to know whether or not he would still be able to harness nature chakra to use Sage Mode. So he held up his fingers in a cross and another Naruto appeared from the smoke.

"All right, boss," it said. "I'll whack you if you start looking weird. So no worries!" Naruto nodded and sat down in a meditative position, legs crossed and eyes closed. Satoshi looked utterly confused.

"What's he doing?" he asked. The clone frowned.

"He's trying to go into Sage Mode right now. We used to be able to do it, but something happened recently and we're not sure we can right now, so Boss is trying it out right now. I'm supposed to whack him if he starts – uh oh – " Satoshi saw that Naruto's cheeks were starting to bulge and the clone kicked him hard in the shin. Naruto yelped and jumped up, glaring at his clone.

"No good, Boss," the clone said, not very helpfully. "You started stretching out like one of the old toads." Naruto frowned sourly and the clone disappeared with a pop and a small cloud of smoke.

"Well then," Naruto said. "Guess I'll have to re-learn Sage Mode." Satoshi was gawking at him.

"Who are you? I know you said your name was Raiden, but who are you, really?" The young man looked slightly confused, slightly in awe, and slightly accusing. Naruto sighed. Time to test his backstory.

"Well, my full name is Raiden Uzumaki, if you must know. I was born here but our village was attacked soon after. I never knew my parents, the orphanage I grew up in told me my name. As soon I was big enough I left, ending up on the streets, where I learned lots of useful things. I hung out in a place with lots of missing-nin – I learned quite a bit from them, actually. When I was thirteen I met the ninja who would become my teacher, though he was more of a father figure to me. He taught me up until I was sixteen years old, and then he was killed by a former student of his." Naruto paused. It hurt to remember Jiraiya – and then remembered once again that in this world he was alive and Nagato hadn't yet become Pain. "I spent a few years working on my skills – mostly sealing – and then came here, in order to start working on my goal."

"And what goal is that?"

"To revive the Uzumaki clan."

A/N: So, how was that? I think it was decent, myself. Also, be prepared for irregular updates probably around once a month.