The Turnaround

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Author Notes-

The incidents in this chapter and the previous are explained in Chapter 167

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Naruto started crying bitterly yet silently,

As he cried, he felt like his throat was almost about to be crushed.

Naruto fell on his knees in terrible pain. Not willing to accept he could not save them once again.

"NARUTO! " Kakashi screamed as he ran towards Naruto

Naruto on his knees suddenly felt a stinging pain in his glabella (a part of the forehead in between the eyebrows) as though his brain was about to be split.

Kurama also felt danger to his state of existence that time as he tried to find out what had happened.

A green light burst forth from his glabella at this moment.

Things surrounding Naruto at this moment slowed down...

Kakashi ran slower, Gatô's men were still, the flowing oceans calmed down to a point that it was frozen and Kakashi also stopped at this moment completely…..

Naruto suddenly felt his pain washed away as he turned around seeing everyone frozen as though he was stuck in time.

"Looks like you could not accept your own decision...." Naruto heard a voice he had never heard before in his life, the voice had a strange accent with an ancient manner of speaking very similar to how Hagoromo spoke to him. Naruto searched for the entity that spoke but could not catch sight of it.

"Who are you?"

"Where are you?"

"What's happening?"

"Why is everyone around me frozen?" Naruto asked hurriedly.

As he spoke, mots of light started gathering on to one spot slowly forming a silhouette of a young boy.

"You….." Naruto pointed towards the boy with his hands trembling.

"The name is Ôtsutsuki Shū, Shū as in attachment, obsession or persistence" The boy replied as his facial features started to completely appear.

"You were the one Sasuke killed that time..." Naruto said with horror across his face.

"….I have seen your past on your way here to this world thus I know the kind of person you are..."

"It really surprised me when you took the decision though..."

Naruto suddenly remembered the earlier predicament he was in...

"You haven't told me how you are still alive yet….." Naruto asked

"Hmmm….. You see the base your team had attacked was just the branch family of the Ôtsutsuki clan....More exactly the martial branch of Ôtsutsuki clan"

"Martial branch?…..How many branches does your clan have?"

"There are a few branches..... I was just in that branch by coincidence, I am born between my dad from the time branch and mom from the space branch….." Shū continued.

"Now back to what you did earlier, I am going to grant you a chance."

"A chance?" Naruto looked at Shū.

"Yes, I can only grant you three such chances, the first one always works to your favour but the other two works differently…."

"I am going to give you a chance by reverting time back to when you faced that boy with the mask alone after you had kicked him…."

"Also, you have to choose two people who would retain the memory of this experience."

"This experience as in how the person had died, ie how the events led to this point..."

"The two people can be of your choice, however it is limited to one from your side and one from the other….."

Naruto thought back to the conversation he had with his dad,

"What of your clansmen? Are they all revived and alive in this time?..."

"Yes, however the time branch may notice the anomaly in the time field here, that is why the other two chances are related to that..."

"So have you made your choice?"

"Yes, I choose Kakashi-sensei and Zabuza-san..." Naruto became happy.

"All right then, I will invoke the time laws for you….." Shū said as he started moving his hands in the air with swaying motions causing everything to fall back into place and reverse their actions.

Naruto also saw his image un-sewering Haku's tendons as they went back to the time Shū said he would revert it back to.

"All you have to do now is superimpose with your image and time would continue running again…."

"Shū...…Thank you for everything" Naruto said as he had tears coming out of his eyes.

"Aren't you angry that Sasuke and the others killed you and your people?….." Naruto asked as he started rubbing away his tears.

"The time branch members are destined not to die and also not to interfere with lower worlds as they age... so since I am young and wanted to go out on an adventure, I sent you back with my soul residing in your body to see how you would relive your life again if given a choice….." Shū said as he changed into light particles diving back into Naruto's glabella.

("How shall I explain this to Kakashi-sensei?") Naruto thought as he walked back to his image.

Naruto then turned towards Zabuza who was bitten by the eight dogs and then finally turned towards Haku in front of him.

"It's time for you guys to live your life…." He murmured as he superimposed with his image.

(Boom!) a green coloured light pulsed away into the sky as everything was set into motion once again.

"Please kill me Naruto….." Haku begged.

"I wont kill you…." Naruto smiled as he turned towards Zabuza and Kakashi's direction.

Kakashi who had just powered up his Raikiri suddenly let it die down as both he and Zabuza looked around. Zabuza had no idea who could possibly do this but Kakashi turned towards Naruto as if trying to verify something.

"Kakashi, let us stop here" Zabuza said, feeling the pain from the eight fangs around him.

"Okay" Kakashi nodded as he turned towards Pakkun.

"You can let go of him" Kakashi commanded as he walked forwards.

"Are you sure…. Didn't you just summon us now just to stop him." Pakkun asked as he looked towards Kakashi for having contradicted his earlier actions.

"I'll explain to you later." Kakashi said.

"Okay"

(poof), (poof), (poof), (poof), (poof), (poof), (poof), (poof) all the ninja dogs disappeared as Zabuza finally felt free.

"Did you feel that as well" Kakashi asked as he walked towards Zabuza.

"Yeah….." Zabuza said as he regained his breath.

"Haku! The fight is over" Zabuza commanded.

…

…

Haku then turned towards Zabuza with surprise written all over his face.

"We no longer have to fight…." Haku murmured as he turned towards Naruto who was smiling back at him.

..

..

..

"What the hell are you two doing, not finishing them off…." An unpleasant voice interrupted.

"Gatô!" Zabuza called as he became really angry.

"Finish your job!" Gatô screamed

"Don't you want to be paid?..." Gatô asked.

Zabuza would not fall for this again as he had already experienced death, Even if Gatô was to show him the money right now, Zabuza already understood that living this way he would regret it.

"Haku, send them back...I'll deal with this fool myself." Zabuza said as he went and grabbed his blade.

"Got it!" Haku nodded as he ran towards Gatô's men

"Everyone! Take them down!" Gatô commanded as he ran to the back of the pack.

"You're not getting away, easy" Zabuza commented as he jumped up high in the air towards Gatô

The men under Gatô raised up their weapons as they shouted "CHARGE!"

"I won't let you…." Haku interrupted by raining in punches and kicks as he combed through Gatô's men.

Naruto also followed Haku into the battle as he kicked all the men back to their ship.

The fog completely lifted as of this moment, revealing a surprised Tazuna and Sakura.

"What is this?" He shouted upon seeing the scene of battle royal with two prominent figures Haku and Naruto.

"Are they fighting together?" He asked Sakura who had no clue what was going on as she kept crying on Sasuke.

..

…

Zabuza landed on the ground as he faced Gatô

"What are you going to do?" Gatô asked fearing for his life.

"You were going to have me killed weren't you?" Zabuza asked.

"How did you kno(w)…..?" Gatô asked, almost pissing his pants.

"Let's just say I just had a taste of death" Zabuza said as he turned towards Naruto and Haku who were fighting.

He then turned back towards Gatô as he said

"It Was Not Pleasant!" Zabuza said suddenly in a demonic voice upon which Gatô started pissing in his pants.

Kakashi calmly stood at the back watching all the events taking place in front of him as he looked towards Naruto.

("Naruto…..what just happened in the past 2 months....What happened today?....Are you really Naruto?....") He thought.

…

…

…

"Ugh!" "Where am I?" Sasuke asked weakly as he raised his head

"Sakura, you are too heavy…." Sasuke complained.

(Author's note - I swear, any Girl in this universe would have instantly been pissed off for an entire year because of this comment)

"Sasuke!.... Sasuke! Sasuke! Sasuke!" Sakura cried even harder, relieved that her teammate was still alive.

"Sakura, that hurts" He said as he sat upright.

"Things turned out well for you, huh!" Tazuna said, being happy for the team and the change in events.

"Anyway, where's Naruto?"

"And also what happened to the masked guy?" Sasuke asked.

"Naruto and the masked guy are both fine!"

"Huh!" Sasuke looked up.

"They are fighting alongside each other as we speak" Sakura said.

("What in the world happened, When I was knocked out?") Sasuke thought.

..

..

The scene changes to a small yellow puddle present next to a shoe in which Gatô's reflection with fear written all over his face was seen.

"Are you done pissing.." Zabuza asked impatient to kill the man.

"Let's talk this out Zabuza... I can give you ten times...no….no…even a hundred times the money…."

"What do you say?" Gatô whimpered, struggling to change Zabuza's motives.

"Sadly, you have already made an appointment with Yama today….. Why don't you guys talk over a tea or something…." Zabuza smiled as he raised his blade.

"No…no….NOOOO!!!!!!" Gatô screamed as he started to run trying to jump off the bridge.

"Too late….." Zabuza said as he almost cut Gatô in two who then fell off the bridge….