Note: To prevent confusion for readers, there is NO form of any yaoi, shounen ai, love between males, etc. in this story, ONLY friendship.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

WARNING – THERE ARE SPOILERS. If you aren't very far into the manga or anime, then I advise you not to read this.

Prologue

It's been twelve long years since the end of the Fourth Shinobi War.

A blond-haired man in his late twenties overlooked the remains of Konohagakure atop the Hokage Monument. Although it's been several years since the war ended, the once proud leaf village was still in the process of reconstruction. Demolished buildings and ruined houses littered parts of the large settlement of land.

The world was now at peace, but at a high cost.

Konoha's citizens continued to mourn the loss of their friends and family that perished in the violent world battle that caused the suffering of so many, and Naruto was no different.

Naruto's mouth pressed into a grim line as he remembered the deaths of his precious comrades. The pain from his grief has yet to leave, and would probably never will.

He looked down on the monument from where he was standing. There, at the right of the replica Tsunade, was a version of his own face carved onto the rock. Not long after the war, Naruto was chosen to be the next Hokage. The village elders had no choice, but to accept it. The other candidates for the position were among the casualties.

Many would assume that Naruto would be thrilled to finally achieve his long-awaited dream of becoming Hokage, but what he truly felt was the complete opposite. The war gave him the occupation of Hokage, but it also robbed him of those he held dear.

:

Naruto returned to his office, the official room where every Hokage before him has once occupied. He promptly dropped onto his chair in the far back of the office. He sighed when he saw the pile of documents sprawled across his desk.

There were many hours left until the end of the day, but the thought of going through countless papers constantly filled him with dread. Before he became Hokage, he never actually thought about the amount of paperwork that a leader of entire of village would have to do. He didn't think about all the grueling efforts that a Hokage had go through every single day. There were breaks and day-offs, but they were rare, and he still had to do some form of work during them.

Oh, how naïve he was back then, during the days of his youth. To think that he used to believe that becoming Hokage was a simple task that would earn the respect of all the villagers. Yes, most of the village has come to admire him as their Hokage, but there were also those that hated his very existence. No one could erase all hatred of the jinchuuriki, much less the Kyuubi.

Naruto suddenly felt someone's presence at the front of his desk. He didn't hear any footsteps, but he smiled when he recognized the person's chakra.

He asked out loud, "Sasuke, what are you doing here?"

Sasuke answered, "To see how you were doing obviously."

"Ah, but I thought I assigned you a mission just yesterday night? If I remembered correctly, it was supposed to take you longer than one day."

"Don't underestimate me, dobe. Anyway, here's my mission report." Sasuke handed Naruto a stack of papers with Sasuke's handwriting scrawled neatly over the pages.

Naruto groaned at how long it was. "You couldn't make the mission report shorter? I have to read the whole thing you know."

"Details are important, especially on high-ranked missions."

"Whatever." Naruto frowned. He might have to cut some of his sleep today, which he barely had for days.

Along with Naruto, Sasuke returned to the village. It was a surprising turn of events when Sasuke came to their aid in the war and said that he decided become Hokage one day. Naruto, of course, wouldn't criticize Sasuke for thinking that way, but in reality, the village held Sasuke in deep contempt for his betrayal. Traitors were not warmly welcome, even if Sasuke helped them in the war, grudges could not easily be erased from people's minds. And Naruto was sure that Sasuke continued to harbor his own deep-rooted grudge against the village because of what happened to the Uchiha clan and how Itachi was burdened with their slaughter.

But the village was slowly warming up to the Uchiha, and Naruto had a feeling that Sasuke had a great chance of taking his spot after Naruto resigns. Truthfully, he had high hopes that Sasuke would be his successor, seeing that Naruto had no heirs and Sasuke was his best friend and ally. It's only natural that Naruto would want Sasuke to succeed him.

Naruto was about to check off Sasuke's completion of his report when his pencil rolled off the table. "Oops."

Naruto reached down to grab the pencil that had fallen to the ground. While doing so, he noticed something on one of the drawers of his desk. He was confused to see a seal placed on it. He never saw it before, especially since he was so busy with his duties and rebuilding the village to its former glory. He never bothered to check the desk that was reserved specifically for the Hokage. How strange, the thought of something hidden there never crossed his mind.

He have already studied the art of sealing for several years now, and easily broke the seal. Naruto opened the drawer and peeked inside. He saw a small, miniature scroll and picked it up. He unrolled it and read its contents. His face morphed into great surprise.

Finally noticing that something was wrong, Sasuke spoke, "Dobe?"

Naruto read the scroll again, and then looked back at Sasuke.

"Sasuke, have you ever heard of a jutsu that allows the user to perform time-travel?"

A/N: This is my first time-travel fic. You can drop a review if you like. Reviews give me motivation to update and also helps improve my writing. This is a very short chapter, but I'm testing out whether or not I want to do this story.

So does my writing suck? I'm not sure about writing this story, but I'm open to any constructive criticism, advice, or suggestions.