Disclaimer: Anything not mine is disclaimed.

WARNINGS: AU, OOC, OC, SLASH (Boy x Boy)

A/N: Hmm... it seems like there's not a lot of opinions on whether dead shinobi retain their chakra. Anyway, the poll will still be up for a few more chapters. But just to clarify, this will definitely be ItaNaru at the end. The MadaNaru will either be a one-sided pairing or if enough votes, part of a threesome. This fic is a work in progress and I'm writing as I go... so certain things can still change.

Chapter 1

Minato sighed and stretched, placing his pen back in the holder that sat neatly at one corner of his desk. For once, he managed to finish his paperwork for the day. It was not that he is lazy, or even the fact that he despised the desk job that affects his ability to complete the stacks and stacks of requests daily. The blame falls entirely on his daughter. Usually around midday, her academy teachers would be fed up with her pranks and disruptive manner and he would have to go pick her up. She would then spend the entire time pouting and whining in his office while pestering any Anbu that had the unfortunate luck of reporting in at that time for information about her 'beloved Itachi-sama'. If she wasn't his daughter, he'd have no doubt that Itachi would have filed a complaint. Minato didn't know how her obsession started or why she had such a gigantic crush on the Anbu captain. His daughter is five years younger than the Uchiha heir and is currently enrolled in her last year at the Ninja Academy... So the only time they could have met is when Itachi goes to pick up his younger brother, Sasuke, who is in his daughter's class, on one of his rare days off. Minato wondered if that's what happened when his little girl started spouting about 'love at first sight' or something of that sort. She certainly couldn't have held a conversation with the teen since Itachi spoke monosyllabically most days and only answered in few sentences occasionally. He was startled out of his contemplation by a chuunin with an urgent undertone lacing his voice.

"Hokage-sama, there's a disturbance right outside the west gate! There was a large and sudden build up of chakra about two hours ago, but there was no sighting of anyone or anything. The gate guards have alerted the Anbu, however, there was no commotion or any sign of intruders. Nothing else happened until now. Just before I left to inform you, a large seal appeared on the ground" the shinobi stated hurriedly.

"Was there anyone who entered or left the west gate within an hour before the occurrence?" Minato questioned, getting up.

The chuunin did not get to answer before a huge explosion of chakra set all the ninjas in the village on edge. Without a word, the two disappeared with shunshin to the area.

"The seal is glowing brighter..." the messenger noted.

The Yondaime stepped closer while the gate guards and a few Anbu patrolling near them surrounded the field. Despite the seal being a possible threat, he couldn't help but be amazed by the complexity of the design. The seal started around three small focal points where symbols for drawing chakra were carved. He slowly rounded the glowing display, catching sight of the kanji for time, destination, and space. His eyes widened as he tried to comprehend what type of fuuin would use such vague, yet powerful words in its composition. Minato hummed slightly as he worked his mind around how it was possible to have a trifocal seal end up as a circular continuum array. "A merge between... from odd to even... stabilized by inserting..." he mumbled to himself, taking out a scroll and copying the complicated glyph for further study later.

"What does this seal do?" Anbu Tora wondered out loud, voicing the thought that ran through his camarades' minds.

His reply was a horrible, ear-splitting rip resounding from the center of the array. The shinobi group watched in surprise, hidden behind masks both figuratively and literally. The giant tear opened itself up in the air and spat out three figures; but that was not the most shocking thing.

"Dad? Am I hallucinating? I must be dead... This doesn't look like hell though."

Naruto didn't know how long he's been drifting. His eyes were closed, but from behind his heavy eyelids that wouldn't open was the feeling of empty darkness. None of his senses could detect anything. Breathing only brought fresh air into his lungs. His fingers twitched but touched nothing. Licking his slightly chapped lips did not leave any unsavory flavors on his tongue. He supposed this is what they call limbo. Sometimes he was semi-conscious for a short while, other times he felt like he was awake for days. Calling out for Ibiki and Anko only resulted in a loud echo that caused his ears to ring. He could only hope that they were safe... though it was getting quite lonely just hanging in nowhere. He shifted, finding it funny that he was trying to get comfortable when there was nothing to get comfortable on. 'Jeez... a person can go crazy in here.'

Almost as if someone heard his wish to leave, Naruto felt a tugging sensation starting from his bellybutton. 'Am I finally getting out of here?' he wondered, a small ray of hope blossoming in his chest. The pulling got stronger and it stretched to the rest of his body. He groaned when he started getting dizzy. Nausea began creeping in and he wondered if it was possible to vomit without food in his stomach for... who knows how long. Bile gathered in his throat as the feeling continued and he almost, almost, wanted to go back to that suspended isolation. Thankfully, one last harsh tug sent him tumbling onto a hard surface, causing the sensation of his brain getting jolted around in his head. Two following moans let him know that his teammates had also been dropped into the same place. Disorientated, he stumbled a few steps forward before blinking up at his surrounding. He had landed on his knees in front of a blond who looked way too familiar despite not knowing him for the entirety of his life. "Dad? Am I hallucinating? I must be dead... but this does not look like hell." He babbled, vertigo still affecting his thought process. "Oh Kami-sama" he whimpered and crawled out of the seal he appeared on and retched. Only acid and saliva came out, but it eased a little of the pounding in his head. His stomach cramped from expelling nothing and he coughed to get the rest of the liquid out of his throat. From the vomiting sounds behind him, it appears that Ibiki and Anko were not unaffected by the shift either.

"Who are you and why do you have a Konoha forehead protector?" The Yondaime demanded. His voice was frigid to hide the bewilderment of being called 'father' by a lookalike who could be mistaken for his son.

"Uzumaki Naruto. Is this not Konoha?" The younger blond responded easily, standing up despite his exhaustion. He didn't want to be caught unaware, especially when he didn't know where the botched up time travel seal sent them. The very people in front of them could kill them effortlessly since they had the advantage of his team being fatigued.

"You are in no position to be making inquiries" the Hokage retorted before turning to Tora. "Have them brought to the T&I headquarters. I will be monitoring this session."

"Hai, Hokage-sama" the Anbu bowed. He grabbed hold of the blond teen and signaled the others to get the other two.

Despite being manhandled and bound by null-chakra cuffs, Naruto was quite thankful for the hand gripping his arm. He rested part of his weight on the other shinobi, his aching body finally getting to him. From out of the corner of his eyes, he could see his two teammates doing the same to their captors. Sighing, he mentally sorted out the things he would could reveal to the Hokage. From what he could see, they were either back to before he was born or they were in a completely different reality. The latter was more plausible seeing how Ibiki, Anko, and him were not tussled up and immediately thrown into a cell. When the Yondaime had been alive, tension was high between Iwa and Konoha. If three strangers appeared in front of the village gates wearing said village's hitai-ate, they would have been regarded as enemies first. So lost in thought, he didn't realize that they have arrived at the Konoha Intelligence Headquarters until he was pushed into a seat.

The interrogation was daunting, having to see the faces of the dead on the captives. Minato had to hold back his anger when they each gave their data, especially when his replica recited his baby boy's information to the tee. His baby boy who never lived past his first day. His little one whom was sacrificed with his beloved wife that day to save the village from the Kyuubi. But he couldn't order the execution of the imitations, because his morals kicked in and made him listen.

Morino Ibiki was the first to contribute his profile. As the oldest of the three members of his team, he was currently 31, born March 20th. The man stood at six foot four with a tanned and scarred visage. His hitai-ate was worn like a bandanna and the signature black cloak was present. Minato was not surprised when the man claims to be the head of the Torture and Interrogation department. The deceased Ibiki had also held that occupation and died in field with his Infiltration and Reconnaissance team years ago.

The female hostage went next. Mitarashi Anko's birthday is on October 24th and she had just turned 27. She has purple hair styled into a short, spiky, fanned ponytail and pupiless light brown eyes. Like her other teammate, she was part of T&I. Minato remembered the five foot four, scandalously dressed jounin who had been killed with the head interrogator during the same surveillance mission.

Everyone gave the last prisoner extra scrutiny after hearing the Yondaime being called father by the clone. The blond was the same height as his female partner, dressed in a sleeveless black vest zipped up over a white tank top. The revealed pale arms were covered in silver seals that Minato couldn't make out. A simple thin chain necklace hung inside the shirt, hiding the charm. The teen wore the standard black shinobi pants wrapped with bandages at the ankles and the black shinobi-issued sandals.

"Uzumaki Naruto, 17, born October 10" the teen answered monotonously. "Occupation: seal master."

Minato's brows furrowed at that information. Uzumaki was his late wife's maiden name and Naruto was the name they gave to their baby boy... But his son had died twelve years ago. Here was a boy who had the same golden hair, blue eyes, and bone structure as him, claiming to be Naruto, but was five years too old to be his son if his son had lived. Minato watched as the teen reach his cuffed hands up to run through his spiky hair and split the straight, waist-length, layered strands at the back over his shoulders.

Yamanaka Inoichi, the current Head Interrogator, eyed the three captives curiously. "You dare claim to be members of Konoha?" he inquired. "The same members who have died years ago?"

"Hmm" the blond hummed and all the Anbu in the room wondered if the boy was going to give up the farce. "So that's why we look like we still do... I can't believe that the seal didn't explode and kill us."

The Yondaime narrowed his eyes. "What is your purpose in Konoha?"

"Nothing. We were not supposed to be in this Konoha" Naruto groaned. "I fucked up and we ended up here. But I guess it's better than the alternative..."

"Explain."

A sigh escaped the teen. "You know that seal we appeared in?" he asked rhetorically. "It's a time travel array. We were supposed to return back to our younger bodies. It was our chance to fix things again... Guess this is karma for meddling with things beyond our reach. It was such a stupid mistake. So stupid. I didn't take into account that mud cracks when baked at a high temperature. The hairline fracture at the 'destination' sequence and the 'bind' character messed up our target. So we landed here... where the original "us" no longer exist and five years back in time."

"Back in time? You are half a decade older than your counterparts."

"Exactly. The seal should have transported our souls back five years and into the bodies of the Naruto, Ibiki, and Anko back then. But it didn't and our entire selves got pulled through time and space here."

The room was quiet as everyone but the captives took in the impossibility. They have never even thought of reworking time, though things like space and dimension have been played around with. Souls were considered taboo and were never touched upon. Killing merely removed a soul, it did not distort it. To find that the three in front of them have survived messing with both prohibitions is a little shocking.

"Why did you need to redo the past?" Inoichi wondered, voicing the thought on everyone elses' mind.

"Well, isn't that the million ryo question" Ibiki muttered. "There was a world war back in our dimension started by an organization. The leader of the Akatsuki believed in peace through war and began collecting the tailed beasts to carry out his quest. S-ranked missing nins were recruited for his cause. Behind the scenes, however, was the undead Uchiha Madara who planned on world domination by using all nine bijuu to merge with the body of the ten-tails sealed in the moon to become its jinchuuriki. Then he would project his Eternal Sharingan to the moon and control everyone with Tsukiyomi. That was his idea of utopia... But Naruto here destroyed that plan. He removed the Kyuubi from that world."

Anko coughed and took over. "The Uzumaki heirloom became Madara's next target. The family treasure, the Kyouka Suigetsu (Mirror Flower, Water Moon), is a sword that casts illusions on anyone who have seen it unsheathed. You can see how useful that would be in Madara's quest for power. The catch though, was that the sword could only be wielded by someone of Uzumaki blood."

The Uzumaki in the room sneered. "We were sent away from the village to keep the heirloom safe. By the time we returned to the village a month later, Konoha and all the allied shinobi were dead. The armies of four villages were wiped out... which is why we even gave the time travel array a thought. We used a blood sacrifice, the blood of our dead comrades to power the seal. But we messed up and ended up in a different dimension."

"I see" Minato commented. "However, despite your alliance and your loyalty to Konoha, this is not your home and we have no reason to trust you as of yet. But the three of you have not garnered any reason for us to keep you prisoners, so you will be placed under house arrest for a month until we can integrate you into our system."

"I am retaining my first name" Naruto inputted. "Since our counterparts are dead and we are obviously older than what the 'originals' would be if they were alive, all we need to do is change our names. I'll just switch my last name to Kazama."

"I'll go by Mitarashi Azuki" Anko said with a smirk. "I'm an orphan so there shouldn't be anyone else in the village with my last name."

Ibiki grimaced as he tried to think up a name similar to his own. "Morinozuka Ibi" he finally decided, using the nickname Naruto gave him for his first name.

"Very well, since you guys have nothing to your names, you will have to be placed with an Anbu who does not live in the barracks" Minato glanced around. "Itachi-kun, you live alone in one of your clan's branch houses. Your mission will be to monitor these three. You will be paid of course."

The Anbu under the raven mask nodded imperceptibly.

A scowl graced Naruto's face at that, but he kept his silence. 'This is not our Konoha anymore' he reminded himself.

"Naruto, what is your relation to Yondaime-sama?" Inoichi questioned curiously.

"None. I do not know him" the said blond replied.

"You called him father, when you arrived."

The teen's lips thinned. "I was disorientated when the seal brought us here. If you didn't remember, I vomited at his feet. My father died a long time ago."

"You carry his wife's maiden name."

"Why are you being so persistent? Does my answer mean so much to you?" Naruto snapped. "Didn't you say that this is not my home? That means any associations here are not mine either."

"Enough!" Minato interrupted. "The three of you will stay with Itachi-kun until you can be trusted."

"Perhaps you should keep our discussions in mind. Parallel dimensions are similar in several ways..." the blond warned before getting up to follow his host for the month. 'If anything, the Uchihas are definitely to watch out for. Their prized Sharingan is the manifestation of the Curse of Hatred. That won't be changed no matter where we are - even if this is no longer our home.'

A/N: Wow... it took me forever to churn out this chapter. I got stuck writing and rewriting the second half. I got bored of reading it several times... that says something when you get tired of your own writing... so I erased it, daydreamed some more before I came back to it. Not much happened in this chapter, but the trio are finally in the new universe! Hope you enjoyed~