Chapter Text
Sasuke’s breath was coming in harsh pants. Naruto knew that if they didn’t end this fight soon, they’d both die. Kaguya was just so strong, and neither of them had enough chakra left to do much of anything. Sasuke had clearly realized the same thing; they’d managed to force her to retreat into one of her realms for a moment and they’d finally had a moment to regroup. We’re going to fail, Naruto thought, a grim set to his mouth.
They were the last ninja alive. The war had raged for close to six years and over that time, Naruto and Sasuke had lost everyone. They’d had to watch Sakura and Kakashi-sensei take their final breaths within weeks of each other. Naruto hadn’t known grief could be so debilitating, despite seeing Sasuke succumb to his need for vengeance.
Naruto was nearly numb.
Sasuke was the only thing keeping Naruto grounded now. Without Sasuke, Naruto knew he’d have killed himself months ago. He’d lost much of his optimism and the boisterousness he’d had at the beginning of the war, the time when he thought he could talk any enemy into seeing their wrongdoings. He missed that part of himself often. A small, miniscule piece remained for Sasuke. For Sasuke, Naruto would push through. For Sasuke, Naruto would hold his head high and continue to fight until he died.
Naruto knew Sasuke felt the same way.
“Dobe.” Sasuke’s voice cut through his thoughts. Naruto glanced at him, cataloguing the injuries he could see. Cuts littered his torso, his hands were burned slightly and he couldn’t hold his sword steady.
“What is it, teme?” Naruto asked dejectedly as he ran a hand through his hair.
“We can’t win this.” Naruto’s eyes leapt to Sasuke’s then back down, this time resting on the ground.
“I know,” Naruto whispered. Sasuke didn’t respond but his posture stiffened slightly.
“You know?” Sasuke said incredulously.
“Yeah, teme, I know,” Naruto snapped. “We’re fighting a losing battle. You’re injured and nearly out of chakra, plus your eyes are starting to wear out. I still have some chakra left, but it won’t be nearly enough to take her down. So I know we can’t win this.” Naruto’s eyes met Sasuke’s again.
“I’m just surprised, Naruto,” Sasuke said softly. “I thought you never gave up.” Naruto clenched his fists before gesturing to the barren wasteland surrounding them.
“Sasuke, what’s left to give up on? The only thing I have left to protect, to call a precious person, is you! And if we keep fighting her…” Naruto choked.
“I know. I have an idea, though.” Naruto stared at Sasuke.
“You have an idea?”
“Yes, dobe, that’s what I just said,” Sasuke said with a falsely condescending eye roll.
“An idea for what? Defeating her?” Naruto asked suspiciously. Sasuke hesitated, and that alone was enough to put Naruto immediately on edge. “Sasuke?”
“It’s…not a plan to defeat her. Technically,” Sasuke hedged. Naruto glared at him and motioned for him to continue. “It’s actually something that popped into my head because of something Shikamaru said. You know the Hiraishin is a space-time ninjutsu, right?” Naruto nodded slowly. “I’m thinking that with the correct altercations to the seal used for it, we could…potentially turn back time.” Naruto froze.
“You think we can…prevent this from happening? By going to the past?” Naruto managed after digesting what Sasuke said.
“I think we should at least try,” Sasuke said. “Do you think you could do it?”
Naruto pondered this for a moment. He knew they needed to move quickly, find somewhere to set up a genjutsu to try to keep Kaguya from finding them. “If this is going to work…” Naruto said slowly, “then we need to go to Uzushio. We need to set up a place to figure this out and there’s an unparalleled amount of sealing information there. Sasuke, if we’re going to do this, we need to move now.” Sasuke nodded and grabbed Naruto’s elbow before the blond focused and used his father’s jutsu to pull them away from the site of the last battle.
Naruto brought them to the edge of the Uzushio ruins. There was a barrier there, protecting the demolished city from intruders, though Naruto knew it would never stand up to Kaguya’s might. Naruto bit his thumb and traced his blood over certain parts of the seal holding up the barrier to open it. He had been to the city only once before in the second year of the war but he remembered how everything worked. He and Sasuke slipped through and the barrier closed behind them.
“Hey, teme, can you set up a genjutsu?” Naruto asked. Sasuke rolled his eyes and activated his Sharingan. Naruto watched his face pinched in concentration, maintaining complete focus and that deadly precision Naruto had always envied and adored. Naruto could feel the genjutsu settle into place as Sasuke turned away from the barrier.
“Lead the way then, dobe,” Sasuke gestured with a smirk. Naruto resisted the urge to roll his own eyes at the teme. He led them through the dirty, polluted streets of the once-beautiful Uzushio until he came upon the structure he was looking for: the Uzukage tower. It had been almost completely destroyed by Kiri and Iwa when they attacked, but the two villages were clearly not well-versed in sealing techniques. The first time Naruto was here, he’d easily found the library hidden beneath the tower rubble.
Copying what he’d done to gain entrance through the barrier, Naruto bit his (now healed) thumb again and traced some of the characters of the hidden seal. The stone creaked and rumbled as it moved aside to reveal a staircase. “C’mon, then,” Naruto said. Sasuke only hn’d back, making Naruto’s lips lift slightly at the corner.
The library was vast; scrolls and books were kept on towering shelves and stretched deep into what was essentially an underground bunker. Naruto saw Sasuke glance around, trying to be subtle about the awe that was clear (at least to Naruto) in his eyes. Naruto had learned a lot his first time around, teaching himself sealing and some of the Uzumaki clan techniques including their taijutsu. He knew how the library was sectioned and knew exactly what he was looking for.
Naruto led Sasuke to the table that was positioned near the middle of the room and had him sit. Naruto then went over to the bookcase that contained space-time seals and pulled multiple scrolls and books down. There was almost no chance he’d be able to construct a seal like the one Sasuke was hoping for unless he read through every book on the subject. Naruto considered the pile in his arms then turned and walked back to Sasuke. He dumped everything onto the table, kicking up the layers of dust that had settled and sending Sasuke into a coughing fit.
“Well, teme, how about we get started?”
~
It took six months of constant work. The genjutsu and barrier held, though it was getting harder for Sasuke to disregard the strain it put on his chakra. Naruto knew they were running out of time; Kaguya would eventually find them and she would finally achieve her goal of eradicating all the shinobi in the Elemental Nations.
Naruto couldn’t bring himself to regret giving himself and Sasuke a little extra time. Before Uzushio, they’d rarely had any reprieve to actually sit and talk. Sasuke had decided his whole revenge plot on Konoha was insignificant in comparison to the destruction they faced at Kaguya’s hands and had permanently been a part of the Allied Shinobi Forces. Naruto even got him to wear the Shinobi hitai-ate.
Talking in the library while working on the space-time seal theory spread to talking over the scant dinners they were able to cobble together which then spread to speaking in hushed whispers from separate futons at night and finally to soft, sweet (or as sweet as Sasuke could get) mumblings between kisses. Naruto could admit to himself he’d waited a long time for this, even if he hadn’t realized the extent of his affection for Sasuke until they’d fought side-by-side for nearly four years.
The six months in Uzushio working on the seal flew by. Though they were still alert, still wary, still trying desperately not to break under the weight of their shared grief, they’d managed to find something akin to peace. Naruto never thought he’d feel relaxed again but with Sasuke in his arms, it was hard to deny himself the simple pleasure of existing alongside his one and only, his soulmate.
Of course, it all came crashing down around them the day the seal was finally finished and Kaguya managed to find them.
Naruto was fiddling with Sasuke’s dark hair, his eyes tracing the now-complete lines of the seal, when he felt the overwhelming animosity that could only belong to Kaguya approaching. “Sasuke,” he said, an edge to his voice. Sasuke sighed.
“She’s here, isn’t she?” he said, voice resigned. Naruto swallowed.
“Yeah,” he said. Sasuke stood from his perch on the edge of the table in the library.
“Get the seal ready, dobe. I’ll hold her off for a bit,” Sasuke instructed. He began to walk away but Naruto grabbed his wrist tightly.
“Stay alive, Sasuke. You know I can’t do this without you.” They both knew Naruto wasn’t talking about the seal. Sasuke’s lips tilted up in the semblance of a smile.
“I’ll always stay alive for you, dobe,” he said, quickly pressing a chaste kiss to Naruto’s lips and sliding his wrist from Naruto’s grasp.
Once he disappeared from the library, Naruto took a deep breath and pulled out a kunai. He ran the blade across his palm and told Kurama (who was asleep and had been for about a year at that point) not to heal him. The blood ran from his hand where he formed a fist and dotted the blood on each anchor point of the seal. The seal only needed his blood and as long as Sasuke was touching him, they’d both be flung into the past. There was no way to code Sasuke’s chakra into the seal to activate from afar.
Sasuke’d have to hold off Kaguya for long enough to force the goddess into one of her alternate realms to recover. Naruto was hoping (praying) that it would be enough.
Naruto felt the barrier and the genjutsu shatter like glass. Intense bursts of chakra flared from the northern part of the decimated village. Sasuke had regained nearly all his strength throughout their time in Uzushio but Naruto knew the other man’s eyes were beginning to fail from overusing the Sharingan. Hold out, teme, I know you can do it.
Naruto began imbuing the seal with his chakra. He’d need to pull on nearly everything he and Kurama had, and even though the fox was asleep, Naruto knew he wouldn’t mind. Not if it meant saving everyone. He pulled in nature energy as well, something the sealing scrolls indicated would strengthen and balance the seal.
The flares of chakra were getting steadily closer and Naruto could tell Sasuke was losing ground fast. There was nothing Naruto could do to help, though, not with his chakra tied into the seal matrix. If Kaguya found him before the seal was ready Naruto would absolutely die. Naruto could now hear the crashing of rubble as jutsu after jutsu was fired. Please, Sasuke, Naruto pleaded.
Then, everything went quiet.
Naruto could still sense Sasuke but he couldn’t sense Kaguya’s immense hatred. She’d retreated, for the time being, into one of her dimensions. Sasuke’s chakra rapidly approached the library and he came hurtling into the room, breathing heavily and looking worse for wear.
“Are you ready yet?” Sasuke gasped. Naruto closed his eyes and concentrated.
“About thirty more seconds,” he replied. “As soon as it’s ready put your hand on my shoulder,”
“Alright,” Sasuke said and shifted into position behind Naruto. His left hand was hovering over Naruto’s right shoulder. Nearly there, Naruto thought. He was waiting for the satisfying click! to tell him the seal was ready to activate. They were so, so close to going back, to changing everything and preventing the mass extinction of all life on earth.
Kaguya returned.
She broke through the sealed door at the top of the stairs with ease. She glided down and her Byakugan eyes rested on the two men standing in the middle of a glowing seal. Please be fast enough, Naruto begged, still waiting for the click!. But this time, time was against them. Kaguya drew two truthseeker rods, aiming one at each man. Move, Sasuke! Naruto shouted in his head. Kaguya let the rods fly.
Time seemed to stand still. Naruto’s eyes watched the rods approach them, noting that Sasuke did, in fact, move. However, Sasuke didn’t move away from Naruto; instead, he stepped in front of him and took Kaguya’s rod directly through his chest.
The sound of screaming was coming from somewhere but Naruto didn’t have the wherewithal to understand it was coming from him. Sasuke fell to the ground in front of Naruto, his eyes still red but not nearly as red as the blood now pooling beneath him.
Naruto heard a click! but it barely registered in his frenzied mind as he released the tiger seal he’d been holding and pressed frantic hands to Sasuke’s chest. Kaguya had disappeared for the moment but Naruto didn’t care about her, not while Sasuke was bleeding out in front of him.
“Naruto,” Sasuke rasped. He coughed and blood gurgled over his lips. “Dobe, you need to go.” Naruto raised panicked eyes to Sasuke’s.
“What? No! I’m not leaving you here!” Naruto bit back a sob that threatened in his chest.
“You’re not leaving me here, dobe. If anything, since I’m going to die, I’m leaving you here,”
“You’re not going to die! I’ll do something, I’ll figure something out, I’ll–”
“Naruto,” Sasuke bit out. “You can do it. I know you can. You can prevent the war from ever starting. You can stop Obito. You can save me,” he said. His hand came up to rest on Naruto’s whiskered cheeks, thumb wiping at the tears falling from the ocean blue eyes. “I believe in you, dobe. You’re the most powerful shinobi in the Elemental Nations. But more than that, you’re Uzumaki Naruto. You don’t give up. You’re compassionate and kinder than I deserve. As my last wish, I’m asking you to do something no one else could ever do.” Naruto’s tears were flowing freely now, breath hitching on sobs.
“I love you, Naruto. Now go save the world in the most unpredictable, gutsy way possible,” Sasuke said and smiled, a brilliantly real smile that Naruto hadn’t seen since before the Uchiha Massacre despite the blood coating his teeth and lips. Sasuke had never said those words before.
“I love you too, Sasuke,” Naruto whispered, pressing his lips to Sasuke’s temple and watching the Sharingan fade from his eyes leaving them dark.
“Go,” Sasuke breathed out, his final breath punching the air with his request. Naruto closed his eyes, unwilling to see Sasuke’s eyes go dull and his chest stop moving.
Naruto stood, moving his bloodied hands through the seals he’d practiced hundreds of times. “Jiku Fuin no Jutsu: Jikan no Ko.” Naruto slammed his hands into the ground and vanished in a flash of light.