Rules of Time Travels

Shu knew he had to move fast. When Naruto turned time back to the day he was born, Shu was still in the same place he had transported them, meaning he had to use the same technique to get to Konohagakure and fast. He wanted to show up at the delivery area right then and there and kill Madara and Obito, but there were constraints that involved the time-traveling thing that kept him from going up against anyone or anything that the person who had turned this world's time back had fought with. This meant that whether he liked it or not, he had to let the enemy extract Kurama from Kushina. He also would be unable to seal Kurama into Naruto, because Naruto had fought said Bijuu, and said Bijuu would not remember until he was part of Naruto again. However, he could still save Minato and Kushina. He would just need a little help from a certain old man, though he knew Naruto would not like the end result....

"Step away from the Jinchuriki, Yondaime, or else your son's first minute will be his last," The masked demanded, holding the newborn Naruto in a threatening manner.

"Where the hell is Shu?!" Naruto thought furiously as Minato tried to ask the masked man to calm down. "He was supposed to do something about this!"

"Speak for yourself Yondaime," The Masked man said, tossing Naruto up and drawing a kunai.

"I am quite calm!" He declared as he proceeded to stab Naruto in midair, only for Minato to flash by and rescue him from being skewered. "Your name as the Yellow Flash of Konoha is well deserved, but what about my contingency?"

It was then Minato realized that the masked man had put exploding tags on Naruto's bundle. He cursed as he tore it free and flashed away from the explosion. They found themselves in a clearing with a small wood fragment embedded in Minato's leg as he thanked his lucky stars Naruto was alright. As he prepared to go try to save Kushina, Naruto thought angrily, "You better not let that bastard kill my mother Shu…"

Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Sandaime Hokage, got a surprise when the green haired man showed up out of nowhere and knocked out his ANBU guards before they even knew he was there.

"Who are you?" he asked as he prepared for a fight.

"A friend," the man responded, dashing forward and grabbing the old man's head before he could react and started forcing memories into his mind. "Sorry about this, this will cause a bit of a headache, but it is quicker than just trying to explain, and time is of the essence."

Sarutobi could only groan in reply as the memories of things that had yet to pass rushed through his mind.

Naruto was somewhat relieved when Minato showed up with Kushina, but upon realizing that she no longer had Kurama inside of her he was pissed off. "What the hell is that jerk Shu doing?!" he thought as Minato prepared to defend the village.

A recovered Hiruzen was demanding answers as to what was going on and what the deal with those memories that never happened was. "So let me get this straight," he sighed as he tried to gather his thoughts. "Minato's and Kushina's son turned time back to this point after the future went to hell, and I was dead before then?"

"That's the thick of it, yes," Shu responded. "And you had better help reduce the casualties of the Kyuubi's attack right about now. I know that it is a difficult thing to ask for you to trust me, especially considering what I am asking of you, but there is little time to persuade you, so I can only give you my word that this is the best shot we have at rewriting the future. What do you say?"

Sandaime thought for a few seconds as he prepared his battle gear to fight the Kyuubi. It was a far-fetched story to be sure, but it did seem that this Shu was on the up and up. He also knew that there was not much time to make a decision. So he decided to throw the dice. "Alright then. I will trust you and do my part."

"Good. Now get going and don't get yourself killed yet. I will come to get you when it is time for your part in this." Shu replies.

"Are you Uchiha Madara?" Minato asked as the masked man lowered his hood. "But he is supposed to be dead, so you can't be him."

"Hmm, I wonder about that," the masked man mused, preparing his chains.

"Not that it's important whether you are Madara or not. But why do you want to use the Kyuubi to attack Konoha?" Minato asked.

"Well, I guess you could say…that it is both a whim and a plan… for both war and peace." The masked man replies.

"Well, whoever you are, and whatever your goals, I will not let you destroy the leaf village!" Minato shouted.

They dashed at each other, and the ensuing battle was somewhat short, ending when Minato used a Rasengan on the masked man's back, followed by stabbing him with a kunai and using a contract seal to remove the Kyuubi from his control.

As the masked man backed off and teleported away, he declared, "I am impressed that you have managed to wound me and delay my plans. It is no wonder that you are the Yondaime. But know this, the world will be mine someday. I have plenty of backup plans and many means at my disposal."

Once he was gone, Minato could not shake the ominous feeling that the masked man was not lying.

As Hiruzen was preparing the shinobi under his command for another attempt to drive the Kyuubi further out of the village, Minato showed up and used the Hiraishin to teleport the beast away before it could launch one of its Bijuu Bombs. "Just like before if those memories are really true" he mused. "So that means that Shu's character was telling the truth." His thoughts were interrupted by the Bijuu Bomb explosion in the distance and Shu showed up. "It's time to get going," he said gravely as Hiruzen nodded.

"Who are you?" one of the nearby ANBU demanded, causing Shu to mutter something about that question getting rather old. "Stand down, I have reason to believe that he is an ally of ours," Hiruzen commanded. The ANBU complied, albeit reluctantly. "Let's go." And with that, they dashed off in the direction of Kyuubi's location.

Upon reaching the barrier Minato set up, Shu quickly cut through it with his blade, earning astounded stares from the accompanying shinobi. "Hurry!" he said to Hiruzen as they dashed to the place where sealing would take place, Shu leading the way.

Naruto could only watch in horror as he watched his father prepare the Reaper Death Seal. Before Minato could cast the final hand sign, however, Naruto's hopes were restored as a familiar green haired man dashed up to Minato from behind and knocked him out with a quick chop to the back of his head.

Before Kushina could say anything, Shu shouted, "Keep the Kyuubi at bay lady! We'll take care of the rest!" As he said this, Hiruzen came up next to him and started to cast hand signs.

"What is Jiji doing here?" Naruto momentarily wondered before his eyes widened as comprehension set in. "No, he can't be!" His suspicions were confirmed as Hiruzen cast the final hand sign, and the Shinigami roared to life behind him. He had to do something, but his body was too small and helpless.

"I'm sorry about this, Kushina, but sealing the Kyuubi inside of Naruto is truly for the best," Hiruzen said, gazing at her with a sad look in his eye that took all argument out of said redhead. He turned his gaze to the Kyuubi then and the Shinigami reached through his chest to the beast. As Kurama cursed, half of his being was then ripped from him and sealed within Sarutobi.

"Tighten the chains now!" Shu shouted to Kushina before Kurama could take advantage of his smaller size.

She complied as Hiruzen quickly set up the altar. "Forgive me, Minato, Kushina, and Naruto," Hiruzen asked before shouting "Eight Trigrams Seal!" With a final roar, Kurama felt himself being pulled into Naruto, cursing all the while. Then it was over.

Naruto found himself once again within his mindscape as the seal resolved itself. Dimly he noted that he was in his 17 year old body again, though that was due to his real mental age. He looked up as the ever familiar cage manifested and a particularly loud demon fox with it.

"DAMN IT ALL!" Kurama roared before a sudden jolt in his mind occurred. He growled at the agonizing pain in his head as his forgotten memories began to reassert themselves.

"What's wrong Kurama?" Naruto asked, only to be ignored.

"He is going to be out of it for a little bit, Gaki," Shu said as he appeared within the mindscape to Naruto's shock. "He did not remember all that happened between the two of you initially, but now that he is a part of your mind again, they will be coming back to him."

Then he doubled over as Naruto socked him in the gut. Hard. "What the hell is wrong with you?! Why did you let Obito release Kurama from my mother? And why did you make Jiji sacrifice himself?"

Shu regained his composure and responded, "Look, Gaki, I am sorry I had to resort to that, but it had to be done. There are laws in the Elder Dimension that were put into that time travel scroll, and one of the big ones is that no being from the Elder Dimension is allowed to tinker a large amount with the timeline in question. One of the restrictions to avoid messing it up too much is that I am not allowed to fight against anyone the person who turned the timeline back had fought. So it was a no go for me to stop Obito for you since you fought him. I also could not be the one to seal Kurama back into you since you had fought him as well when you made your bid for his power. If the beings of the Elder Dimension went around solving everyone's problems for them, no one in those other dimensions would be able to do anything for themselves! "If I had tried to break the rules, and trust me, I wanted to, then my life would be forfeit and the jutsu that brought us back would have been undone, making this trip for nothing. I did not want to sacrifice someone else like the Sandaime, but it was him or your parents. He made the choice entirely of his own free will. I did not force him. So I am sorry, but it was the best option available to us."

Naruto sank to his knees in despair. He had just gotten back, and already one of the people he had hoped to save from the horrors of the time he had witnessed was gone. Was the future really written in stone? Would this happen to everyone else he hoped to prevent the deaths of? "Don't give up yet Naruto," Shu said with a sympathetic tone to his voice. "We have already managed to save your parents, even if it was trading their lives for the Sandaime. He would not have wanted you to let that trade-off be in vain, now would he? You did not come back to this time to just allow everyone you care for to die sooner did you?"

"No, I guess not," Naruto said as he wiped away his tears. He could not let this unexpected turn bring him to his knees. "Though I wish you would have let me know what your plans had been beforehand."

"First of all, there was too little time before we came back. For all we know, one of the Jyuubi's Bijuu Bombs could have already been on its way to destroy us. I could not take that chance. Secondly, would you have gone through with it if I had?" Shu asked.

"I would not have liked it," Naruto admitted.

"If you two are done with this conversation, I think that it is time for us to make plans for the next few years," Kurama interjected having recovered from reclaiming his memories.

"Hey Fuzzbutt, are you feeling better yet?" Naruto asked, glad to see his old friend again.

"Fuzzbutt?!" Kurama sputtered as Shu laughed at the nick-name. "Gaki, you had better open this cage now before you make me any more cranky."

"Yeah all right," Naruto said as he complied, letting Kurama out. "So Shu, what is our next move?"

"First things first, I had better bring your parents into this conversation. This is something we should collaborate on."

Minato groaned as he woke up. Who on earth had knocked him out? He looked up and saw Sarotobi lying prone on the ground, surrounded by a few ANBU. Two others were keeping watch over him. As he continued to take in his surroundings, he spotted a ragged Kushina holding Naruto while a green haired man was using Medical Ninjutsu on her. "What happened?" he asked somewhat sluggishly.

"That man tending to the woman knocked you out and lord Sandaime sealed the Kyuubi in your place, lord Yondaime," one of his guards, a man in a crocodile mask responded.

"I see," Minato responded as he rose to his feet and went to his wife and son. He took a look at the man who was healing Kushina. He did not know who he was, but it was clear that he was very skilled to have been able to get the jump on Minato like that, even if he was a little preoccupied. He was also very good with the Medical Ninjutsu he was using on Kushina. He noted that the man seemed to somehow be drawing some of the residue chakras from the Kyuubi's attack from the air and streaming it back into her so she could survive without needing the complete being within her. There was a small chance that she would have survived anyway, being an Uzumaki, but this man was clearly taking no chances. Minato spared a sad glance at his predecessor's body before asking the strange man, "How is she?"

"Quite good actually, all things considered," the man responded. "I have got her mostly stabilized, so we should be out of the woods momentarily. My name is Otsutsuki Shu, by the way."

Minato nodded in appreciation of Shu's words. "If you don't mind me asking, what exactly are you doing here, and why did you aid us in the manner you did?"

"I could tell you, once I am finished with the lady, but you might want to dismiss your ANBU guards for this. I am not saying that they are untrustworthy, but what I will be telling you will be most likely an S classed secret, and you should hear it before you deem who else can." Shu replies.

Minato looked at all of the ANBU and nodded. Reluctantly, they left the clearing.

About ten minutes later, Shu announced that he was finished and Kushina sighed and said, "Thanks."

"How do you feel?" Minato asked her a little nervously.

"Like a load of crap that countless idiots unwittingly stepped on," she groaned. "But definitely an improvement over giving birth and having the Fuzzbutt ripped from me."

Shu snorted and muttered something about that being where he gets that nicknaming tendency from.

"All right then," Minato replied, taking Naruto from her before turning to Shu. "Now could you please explain all that has been going on?"

"I'm no good at sugar coating things, so I will give it to you straight. Brace yourselves… I am a traveler from the Elder Dimension. I actually came to this dimension about 17 years from now and I had your son there turn time back to this point so that we could change things for the better because it all went to hell when I came." Shu said.

Minato and Kushina stared at him for a moment. Then, predictably, they both burst out laughing. "Time traveler," Kushina choked out. "Please don't make me laugh like that, my body is already pissed with me despite your treatment." Minato sobered up first when he saw that shu hadn't even twitched. "Wait, you're serious, aren't you?"

"Serious as a heart attack," Shu responded. "And I can back the claim up." He then proceeded to conjure a scroll about the same size as the forbidden one. He unfurled it, revealing the seal and said, "Why don't you take a look-see."

Minato and Kushina shrugged, still sure that this was some kind of joke before they saw the seal. It was so fiendishly complicated that not even Minato or Kushina could make heads or tails of it. The best they could figure was that it was indeed space/time seal, and a very advanced one at that.

"This is definitely something," Minato said. He glanced up at Shu. "Did you make this?"

"Meh, that one is beyond me despite the fact that my own experience is nothing to sneeze at. That is the work of one of my friends and I took it with me, figuring it would come in handy. But that is not all the proof I have. Place your hands on Naruto there and you will see what I mean." Shu replies.

Numbly, they complied and found themselves in the dark sewer that was Naruto's mindscape, at least as far as his seal was concerned. Shu joined them and beckoned for them to follow him. For about a minute they moved through the winding corridors before they came to the room that held the cage, only the Kyuubi was out of it and was conversing with a blonde that looked almost like a carbon copy of Minato, except for the strangely familiar whisker marks. Upon noticing the two dumbstruck people in the room, the blonde turned to them and with a wide grin said, "Hey Mom, hey Dad."