Edits are edits. This fic is dead.

compound time

Naruto and Shikamaru

Fireshadow

"Why are you doing this, Shikamaru?" his Hokage demanded. "You know the consequences of travelling, perhaps better than I do. If you are to interfere in yourself's and Ino's timeline, even if it is in a different world to ours, Ino's personality will not be the one that you remember."

The other man inclined his head slightly to one side, dangling strands of brown-streaked hair loose from his hair-tie flowing in a breeze. "I know. But I also know that the points of her personality that make her Ino the most were established in childhood - so where I go will take me immediately after that."

Naruto looked down, his face a little grim. "Shikamaru, my most trusted strategist, tell me it's a good idea to have so many of our strongest and most experienced ninja away on this."

"Naruto!" Shikamaru chuckled, softly. "You've become formal. No, it's not a good idea, but then, what is? You and I've been through so many troublesome things. The Will of Fire will survive. And your successor has it in full. Must be a family trait."

"Or crazy families. Yeah, you're right. I just wish that..."

Shikamaru put a hand on his shoulder and Naruto looked up, shocked. Shikamaru had almost shunned human contact, since the death of his wife, Team 10, and his genin team.

"Who knows?" That was almost a smile. "In infinite universes, we might meet up, once or twice."

Sasuke and Naruto

Contrast in Monochrome

It had been an easy thing to wake up while in that damn barrel, sealed from the inside and out, his curse seal trying to activate itself while being toted about like a sack of hay by the Sound Four. Had been easier to control the curse seal. With his experience, that was simple.

Finding a way out of that barrel? Sooner said than done. His body, this twelve-year-old body of his, lacked the finesse and sheer chakra reserves that he would later have had, training under Orochimaru and then himself (and then with Orochimaru again. And then with Kakashi. And Jiraiya. And the sandaime Mizukage. And Sarutobi. And Naruto, when he got off his ass.) Finally he bade himself to wait in the barrel, (Uchihas did not give up) reasoning that from what he remembered (all kami knows three hundred and twenty-five times), he'd have come out anyway.

It w as an interesting experience, to say the least, of hearing the sounds of fighting (remembering the multiple times, after Kimimaro put Lee/Kiba/Gaara/Gai/Ino/Sakura - wait, Sakura? Oh yeah, that was the seriously odd timeline - in the hospital with philosophy-threatening injuries), or maybe someone else getting pounded. He couldn't see anything, could barely breathe, decided not to burn the barrel open with a Katon. Might fry himself.

He managed a "Hn," that echoed in the now decidedly stuffy barrel.

Resigned himself to wait.

Finally the sounds of battle (Naruto and one of the Sound Four, couldn't bother remembering who) echoed around him, and he tensed, waiting his time.

"Mwahahahaha! You stupid child! He came to us entirely of his own will, to gain the power you couldn't offer! As if you could make him leave us! You're weak, crippled, so blind to the truth - hehehe - you can't do anything!"

Crippled? Anyone who'd ever faced Naruto would know that the demon in him gave him advantages, not crippled him. His opinion of the Sound Four boy plummeted further. Although that whole thing about being blind - if you counted Naruto as oblivious, then at least he spoke some glimmerings of truth.

The barrel's lid cracked, and Sasuke burst entirely out of the barrel, sharingan eyes spinning to assess the situation. And paused.

"Na...ruto?" The dobe across from him, who developed so differently (and yet, always the same) in all of the timelines that he'd been in, flicked his head to meet his gaze, and Sasuke flinched. He seemed to be on fours, although his features weren't as feral as when he was manifesting Kyuubi. But his eyes - his eyes weren't the turquoise he was so familiar with, instead milky white with a hint of cyan at the back. He was so shocked, his sharingan deactivated to see if Naruto was some kind of trick. "What...what happened to you?"

Naruto laughed, a hoarse, harsh bark of a laugh. "Did Orochimaru erase your memory or something, Sasuke? I'm blind. I'm weak. I'm the dead-last dobe, the ninja with no-name and no-worth, remember?"

Sasuke flinched. This wasn't Naruto. Wasn't him at all. The turquoise of his eyes which had vanished seemed to spill out of him and float, his chakra pulsing around him in a vast field that stretched backwards from him to across the horizon and out of sight.

"Wh-where's your Curse Seal manifestation?" the Sound Four boy stammered, before his eyes narrowed.

"Hn," Sasuke said, ignoring him completely in favor of watching Naruto. Maybe Naruto was blind but he certainly didn't act like that was a disability.

"Zankuukyokuha!" the Sound Four boy bellowed, red in the face, finally exasperated. Sasuke leapt into the air automatically to dodge it, activating the sharingan, and watched with awe as the chakra stretching far and beyond what he could see flared and dissipated the other boy's wind attack with feverish ease.

Naruto watched the other boy with unseeing eyes, not even tense. Sasuke oriented his landing to aim for a nearby branch, and landed as noiselessly as possible. No such luck - Naruto's head flicked around instantly and pinpointed his eyes without even thinking about it. "Sasuke."

"Naruto," he nodded. Maybe this time, I won't have to train you up for the dangers ahead. I think...you'll manage fine.

"This isn't over yet! ZANKUUKYOKUHA!"

The chakra didn't flare this time, instead spiking directly towards the Sound Four boy, countering and dissipating the wind along the way. The Sound Four boy could barely raise his arms in self-defence before the chakra tore through his arms and flung him backwards, tearing furrows in the ground where his legs dragged along, breaking them savagely. The chakra coiled and dissipated, and Naruto got up from all fours, wiping his pants down.

"Sasuke?" Naruto said, sounding tired. "Are we going to fight now?"

The groans and curses from the Sound Four boy were starting to get on his nerves. "No."

A grand fireball incinerated the surrounding area, dissipating where it came in accidental contact with Naruto's chakra. When Sasuke was satisfied that the Sound Four boy and the sealed barrel were nothing more than ashes, he dropped to the ground, rolling his eyes at his own pathetic stealth when this Naruto instantly placed him again.

"Let's go home, Naruto."

Naruto gave him a disconcerting stare, made all the worse by the fact that his expression never changed, and he wasn't entirely sure that Naruto was looking in his direction in the first place.

"Yeah, sure, Sasuke." His face was creased in that familiar Naruto grin, eyes furrowed into slits that made his memories overwhelm his mind. Even his tone was the same Naruto, whiny and obnoxious. "But you're going to have to explain to me-"

KILLER INTENT. HEAT suffusing him, flushing his face and skin with heat. A blur of ORANGE and there were sharp claws at his throat, and Naruto's face angrily snarling in his, still blue and white eyes pressed close to his own swirling red and black -

"Why you smell the same as Sasuke-teme, but your chakra is so very, very different."

Tenten

Practice Makes Perfect

"See now, oji-san!" The voice was demanding, a little petulant.

Tenten raised her head, the grace in her movements startlingly obvious to herself as she saw a younger girl jerk her hand around in an awkward throw and the kunai in her hand streak towards the target, landing almost hilt-deep in the strawman, wobbling in the center of the body mass. Her eyes narrowed, and she strained to remember the form. There was something about it...inefficient. Not refined enough, could get the thrower killed.

"I see," an old man responded, a rich undertone to his raspy voice, and Tenten stiffened and stepped out of the way of the dojo, her sandals making no noise on the polished bamboo. The competition must have been over. That...or...

The noise level behind her began to increase, and Tenten slipped into the shadows, a hand automatically caressing the child that lay dormant in her womb.

"And," continued the old man, "What are you going to do with this new technique?"

"Train!" her six-year-old self responded with a bounce in her voice. "Train until you'll be proud of me, oji-san!"

There was a rustle of clothing before her grandfather-she-wished-were-hers rose from the half of the salle containing the targets and clacked across the bamboo floor.

A flash of stubbling, white hair, and Tenten ducked into the shadow of the trees behind the dojo. From inside, the steady sound of kunai and shuriken whistled to end in bullseyes. As well as curses, when a throw failed to reach perfection.

Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk.

"Tenten?" her oji-san asked, and Tenten barely suppressed the urge to snap out of cover, and go running to the leader of her dojo, who'd died a year before she had graduated. One measly year.

"Yes?" said the six-year-old, standing at the doorway of the dojo.

He smiled, a calm smile that made Tenten wish that she could reveal everything to him. Unfortunately, this could not be the case. "Don't go anywhere. We have to eat out tonight, remember?"

"Yes, obaa-san!" her younger self sang out, and the old man's eye twitched for a split second.

"For that crack," he announced, "You're going to have to eat two plates of vegetables!"

In amusement Tenten watched her younger self cling to the side of the dojo doorway and wail out in pure theatrics. But, even as she remembered, though the old man softened, he never budged. But then, he knew the point of these games as well - if not better - than she had, then.

"No buts!" he said, firmly waggling a finger, before turning to march away. "Shoo! Go train!"

"Yes, sensei!"

Tenten couldn't quite keep the small smile that had grown off her lips, and she closed her eyes to remember the time she had invested in this garden. Almost without conscious knowledge, she shifted the rocks to a more familiar pattern, a more complex one than the one her sensei had laid out right then - one he would create himself later, and challenge her to memorise, mixing up the rocks.

She winced, looking at her assumption, then swept out a hand and jumbled up the rocks.

She stood without hesitation, slipped over the fence into the neighbouring backyard, and vanished onto the rooftops.

Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk.

Itachi

Return

The last sight of Tobi's - No, Obito's - Mangekyo spinning assaulted him with illusions as potent as him using his Tsukuyomi upon himself. There was no way that he could be a man, unscarred again, next to the Uchiha compound when it seemed like it would be in full glory. The uchiwa fan on the long unused Genin Meeting House was in vivid color instead of the faded wreck that it had been while he was in his family; moreover, light and sound seemed to be coming from it.

There was a small explosion and a little black-haired boy fairly flew out of the door, two genin and a jounin sticking their head out of the doorway and laughing at him.

Itachi caught him.

The laughs quickly changed to scowls, and in seconds they had flooded out of the door, kunais at the ready.

"Who are you?" the jounin demanded, battle-ready.

"Uchiha," Itachi said.

The boy in his arms tensed, and wriggled to get away. Itachi let him go.

"What..." the boy said. "What'll you tell Shikoto-san? Please don't. He'll ban my team from the compound again and make me do another hour of katon practice. Please."

Itachi remembered his ancestry lessons. Uchiha Shikoto?

...No.

No.

"I'm back from a long mission," Itachi found himself saying, eyeing the compound. "I think I'd have to speak to Shikoto-san anyway. But I won't tell you about him."

"Okay," the boy said. "I'm Ren."

"Hello, Ren," Itachi said. "I'm pleased to meet you."

The jounin watched him quietly. "Training Ground Four," he said, and his genin team ran off, their feet silent in the rustling grass.

"Where's your hitai-ate?" the jounin said.

"For the purposes of the mission," Itachi said, "There is a scratch through it."

The jounin observed him for a moment more. "Bring peace to the Uchiha."

-How...

Nidaime.

Hinata

Recursion

"My notes, Naruto! My notes!"

"What-Hinata-chan, calm down. What's wrong?"

"My notes on the Caged Bird Seal. They're gone."

"Gone? Do you think another village took it?"

"No...I put a tracking spell on it. It says it's still in Konoha. But it doesn't show me where it is, and it should!"

"I'll put a team of ANBU on it..."

"This," Hyuuga Hizaru said, looking through the pile of notes and then at his brother, in line for Clan Leader even though his advisors 'said that it was him, certainly'. The bonus for this scroll was that the seals on it was so much more advanced than anything else in this time, which guaranteed that no one else would be to undo it for a very long time.

All the solutions were in that scroll. And he refused to let anyone see it. He would burn it, as he died.

He smiled.

Minato

Seal

"Minari! NAMIKAZE Minari, get your ass right back over here or so help me I'll make your days a living hell until our parents get back! IS THAT UNDERSTOOD?"

"YOU ALREADY DO!" the fresh genin shouted. "You boss me around all the time!"

"IT'S FOR YOUR OWN GOOD!"

Minato leaned against the corner of the courtyard and rubbed his forehead. If he'd known that his grandfather was so loud - and bossy - as a teenager, he'd have thought twice about coming back to this time. And yet...Naruto and Kushina deserved to have a family, if he didn't survive the upcoming battle.

He'd always tried to keep a curb on being selfish for himself, but he could afford to be selfish for his family, right.

Yes.

Minato placed his hand on the walls of the compound, and seals rippled out to trace their path around the walls. As one, the figures in the compound froze in time, their eyes moving as though they were dreaming. They would live their lives as in Minato's timeline; the difference would be that, under this compound, the Iwa ninja would not find them, would not destroy them.

Minato leaped over the wall of the compound and landed on the other side, breathing shallowly. The compound vanished behind him, leaving him in a forest clearing, alone.

He coughed, once, twice, and dissipated, into the morning mist.

Karin and Sasuke

The Konoha Clause

Karin peeked her head out from behind a rock, watching Sasuke ink the final lines onto the seal.

Time, and time enough!

Sasuke stood in the center, his head upraised to the sky, eyes dark as night itself. Karin shivered in joy, then braced herself.

Sasuke's familiar chakra rose around him, blurring the air as he molded it, the seals in his hands flickering quickly from form to form.

Karin could tell when Sasuke finished, and was waiting for it to take effect; the last traces of Sasuke-energy transmuted into a translucent, humming technique.

She sprang.

"SASUKE-KUN!"

Sasuke had a split second to widen his eyes.

Flash.

"You can't have him! He's mine!~ ALL MINE!"

"Shut your face, Glasses! He's mine!"

"Ohh...you're just as hopeless, Forehead!"

"Be quiet, Ino-pig!"

Sasuke cringed, slowly, and turned to face the frowning visage of the Sandaime.

"Care to explain yourself?"

"The other me was so regretful of the things he did to the Leaf that he wrote in a clause that changed my personality so that I would always be loyal to Konoha."

The Sandaime nodded, and lit his pipe. "And? What about that girl?"

"...She jumped me just as the other me activated it."

"I see. So now? What use are you going to make of her?"

"...I don't know. How effective is she now?"

The Sandaime peered at his crystal ball. Sasuke leaned over him to look at it, as well.

"I MADE POSTERS, SASUKE-KUN!"

"MINE'S BETTER!"

"MINE!"

"She's joined your legion of fangirls," the Sandaime said, puffing on his pipe.

"No," Sasuke said. "Not another one?"

"I'm afraid so."

Sasuke sank his head into his arms and sighed. "Useless. I'm useless."