Just to avoid confusion, this is set the moment Naruto appears to save Sakura and Hinata at the Fourth Shinobi World War arc.

WARNING: This is a FEMALE NARUTO, TIME TRAVEL fanfiction. It would also be a FEMALE NARUTO AND KAKASHI pairing. I'm not sure if this idea is often used, but the pairing was kindly suggested by someone. Since Naruto and Kakashi's age difference is too big for my preference (not that I have anything against age gaps) and that they're in a sensei-student relationship, I decided that it would be best if Female Naruto was thrown back in time.

DISCLAIMER: I obviously don't own the original NARUTO series.

Sakura's eyes widened at the sudden appearance of her teammate. Much like the rest of the woman, her hair was alighted yet unburned by orange flames, brushed softly by the wind. Emerald orbs slowly drifted up and stayed on crimson, demonic ones, crinkled by a grin spread over the whiskered face. If she hadn't been in so much shock at the sight of her best friend, Sakura would have smiled in relief; the blonde had once again showed up to save the day.

"Sakura! Are you alright?"

"Naru…to? Wha—"

"Watch out!"

The alarmed yell had brought them out of their short-lived conversation. Both turned to the left to see a frantically running Konoha ninja—at least, that's what Sakura suspected from his green flak jacket. Behind him, a woman with fiery red hair flowing down tied up high, reaching her mid-back, was walking calmly in comparison, an engraved line cutting through the symbol of a whirlpool.

On first sight she looked so much like Uzumaki Kushina, but, taking a closer look, Naruto realized that the face was different. Sapphire eyes grew wide in shock, before the blonde jinchuuriki barely avoided a kick behind her that was aimed for her head. She turned to see another Zetsu clone and avoided his attacks, throwing in a few of her own. Why would… She ducked and quickly got up again to pound the plant-man's face in, but her hits distracted by her thoughts. How did Kabuto get a hold of—!

The ever growing bunch of Zetsus had left Naruto peevish, and, creating two firm claws, she powered a swirl of chakra. She dispersed one limb, as it has already served its purpose, and outstretched the other.

The Rasengan charged through the crowd of white and green.

None was left alive. Sakura, who's just finished treating her formerly dying patient, had her lips parted in pure awe. Before she had the chance to give a quick cheer, the pinkette noticed a blur of crimson from the corner of her eyes. They widened in horror at the sight of a seals filled hand after the half-dead woman from earlier came into her better view.

"Naruto!"

Said girl turned a mere second too late. The moment the woman's arm curved around her, her palm and fingertips came into contact with Naruto's stomach. The seal that had previously held the Nine Tails at bay closed painstakingly slowly, and the orange chakra that surrounded Naruto subsided. She shut her eyes before snapping them open again, and skimmed her hands through hand seals. She ignored the strange sensation that had wafted over her and, instead, focused on taking out and opening a storage scroll.

Her hands slammed it down as it was in midair and, with a pop, a tri-pronged kunai appeared within them.

Without a moment's hesitation, she threw it towards a clear space, and activated the Flying Thunder God technique.

Azure eyes fluttered open and immediately surveyed its surroundings. Naruto sat upright from the grass, stretching as a small frown settled on her face, trying to adjust to the darkness of the night; a completely different setting from where she had been a few mere seconds ago. How long had she been knocked out? Or the more appropriate question is…

What knocked her out?

The technique the whirlpool kunoichi used? Possibly. And also maybe because she hadn't used the Hiraishin in a long while. But that didn't explain why she was out here, in the open, without a spot of blood or carcass or anything to show that there was a bloody war going on in sight.

Only after her hitai-ate fell from her forehead and was by her neck did she noticed the feeling of her hair tied into two bunches. Bringing her hands up to confirm it, she scowled.

Was this some prank?

Sakura knew she didn't like putting up her hair like that. Not after her training trip with Jiraiya. Racking her hair out of the horrid hairstyle she noticed that instead of her long, slender fingers she had grown to narcissistically love, short, chubby hands were what greeted her eyes.

Naruto looked down and started hyperventilating. She patted her chest a few times, paling even more as she did so. Through her sleepy and dizzy state she had failed to notice the absence of her womanly growth and her unbelievably baggy clothes.

Her slightly tight, orange pants that had previously reached down to just below her knees were close to falling off, while her black and also orange jacket slung off one shoulder revealing a white shirt. Her shoes were many, many sizes larger, and she picked up her weapon holster along with the bandage strips. The latter had given her some relief; at least she had something to hold her clothes together.

But why did she shrink?

Naruto then noticed one important detail.

What happened to her chakra? She quickly slapped her hands together and concentrated. A bead of sweat trickled down the side of her face when she found that her chakra pools were much more violent than it had been before. Not only that, but it felt as if her levels had decreased greatly.

It's also taking me so much more time to channel my chakra… A worried crease developed between her brows, the graveness of the situation dawning her.

She hadn't exactly shrunk.

Her age shrunk.

A vague image of the fiery haired woman shoving her hand against her stomach flashed in her mind.

Suddenly feeling faint, she unzipped her jacket and shook it off. The stomach was where a person's spiritual and physical chakra is created, isn't it? Reaching the hem of her shirt, she lifted it and saw the glowing red seals that littered around her stomach. Through the years of her training with the perverted sennin and her mastery at fuuinjutsu, she could make out most of the seals.

The characters drawn on her skin weren't looking too good on her.

Not only that, but because she had activated the Flying Thunder God technique that was also formed on the same area, it seemed to have mixed.

And another stack to overpower her problems. A curse escaped her lips.

Upon closer inspection, she noticed that under the recent seals the Hakke Fuuin which had kept the Nine Tails sealed before she unlocked it was seeping back into her skin.

Which meant that she has to go through the inner battle with the Nine Tails all over again unless she found a way to return back to her sixteen year old self.

She shook her head; it was best to find out about her current situation in a safer place. Using the bandage tape, she wound her pants tightly around her hips and tied her jacket around her waist.

Even with her heightened senses—due to her unwilling partner that lived in her gut—she couldn't hear a single person around. One thing she clearly noticed after thoroughly looking around was that the area changed.

Naruto growled in frustration; she had seen the same distinct, giant rock before she shrunk and after. Even though that single feature had proven the place was the same, it was as if all the trees and shrubs blown away had grown back in place.

She was sure she had checked every inch of the forest and the camps that were supposed to be around. Now she wasn't really sure anymore if the ninjas had just packed the tents up and ditched her. Not only was it highly unlikely in the first place, but there was absolutely no trace of a five nations worth of ninjas—genins not included—ever being here.

Plopping back on the boulder, she yawned tiredly. The Hiraishin had taken a lot of chakra unlike it usually does. Strange…

Her eyes drew to a close, and she succumbed to exhaustion.

Miraculously, she wasn't taken by enemies. No, instead, she woke up at the sounds of cheerful birds chirping, and a wonderful kink situated on her neck. A brilliant way to start the morning, Naruto, she thought sarcastically to herself.

Using her arms to prop herself up—bending her neck was absolutely impossible since it would only result in a sharp stab of pain—she noticed the position she was in.

Oh, her parents would be so proud, won't they?

Somehow she had managed to crawl up on the rock in her sleep and fallen off halfway without waking herself up. How on earth did the sweet chirpings of birds do the job? Shaking her head at her odd sleeping tendencies, she grumbled bemusedly.

Where were the others? There was absolutely no one around. With her mind clearer than it had been last night, she was sure that everyone had really packed up and left without her.

A gnawing feeling snapped her out of her thoughts, and she would have shrugged it off, had it not come again the next second when she stepped away from the rock, stronger.

After a moment of absent thinking, she snapped her fingers. Now she remembered why she needed to go back.

If there was one place with information on Uzushiogakure and its jutsus, it would most likely be Konoha. Uzumaki Mito could have stashed it away somewhere a long time ago. All the blonde had to do was rush back to her home village's libraries and the Hokage Tower.

There was just one problem with that, though.

Where exactly is Konoha?

Scratch that, where exactly is she? Naruto hadn't really kept a clear head when she was going to the war field.

After several hours—long hours—she had finally stumbled upon a small town. There wasn't a single ninja living in it as far as she could tell, and the civilians sent her wary glances; most because she was wearing a forehead protector at her age—or what they thought was her age. One kind old woman had given her directions to Konohagakure, which was about a week away. Thankfully the granny had only asked if she would be fine alone and nothing else.

Naruto refilled her energy with many bowls of ramen—apparently, the coins she had were worth a lot more than it had been before. Odd, seeing as it was a time of war; not the most normal of wars, but a war nonetheless. But by the time she had been finished stuffing her stomach, it was nightfall. Fortunately, through her hunger she still had the right mind and made sure to keep her money. Renting an inn, she immediately got in and slept like a log.

Naruto gritted her teeth once again as another wave of pain attacked her head. It had been her fifth migraine during her way to Konoha, and two days had passed. The more she began or tried to think only served to make it stronger, often distracting her from staying on the path.

She groaned, glaring down at the ground as she clutched her scalp. What brought this on? Although it had only been a few tries, she had never gotten these effects from the Hiraishin, so it had to be the sealing jutsu the Uzu kunoichi had landed her with.

So far, she had reviewed the recent happenings and took a closer look at the marks on her stomach, but only came up with two things.

One, some of the characters show that it is a sort of chakra exchange jutsu, more complicated than most of the seals she had ever seen.

Two, it works fast to spread the user's chakra around the victim's body.

Because of those two results, an ominous feeling was slowly bubbling up inside her. Naruto's brows drew down as she bit her lip. The chakra control she had now was horrible, not only because of her shrunken state but because of the seal she had examined.

While fighting her headaches for the next couple of days, she had taken off her hitai-ate and stuffed it in the hidden pockets of her jacket. Looking at the open gates she knew all too well from a few meters away, a smile lighted her face. Her heart pounded excitedly at the thought of possibly finding her old clan's techniques and the way to return to her former age.

Guards she had never seen before were standing securely in front of the tall walls, and Naruto dashed to them. A frown developed on her lips when they stiffened at her approach.

Didn't they recognize her? Even if she was changed to a defenseless child, her hair and prominent whiskers should catch them off guard. But, as she got closer, she noticed something different with the village she was so familiar with.

The buildings seemed to have reverted back to the ones she was running around during her childhood. And upon closer inspection, her mind blanked out.

The image of only three stone heads on the Hokage Monument was the last thing she saw before she fainted.

Prologue completed.

I'm kinda (very) nervous about this... First time ever writing a fanfiction, not to mention my first attempt at writing a full blown story period... and I can't say I have much experience in writing other than class assignments.

Reviews filled with critique on my writing would be highly appreciated! Is it choppy? Are there run-on sentences? I think there are, but I'm not sure...

I wanna learn +.+

By the way, about the "Naruto narcissistically loving her hands" thing, just an idea that popped up when I was eating with my friends. One of them had really pretty hands, and when I pointed that out, she admitted that she wanted to do a hand modelling job. I never knew such an occupation existed O.O

Sorry about having an OC right at the beginning. But if Kabuto can find super old, unbelievably powerful supreme ninjas way back from-what? a hundred years?-then why not a whirlpool nin?

I've kinda studied chakra on Narutopedia (hehe) to make the jutsu the kunoichi used, by the way. So it's entirely made up from the Naruto world's logic.

Again, reviews please. +.+