Baby Team Seven Time Travel
Fandom: Naruto
Genre: Time travel, light romance
Notes: I was trying to write time travel for the big moxie, but the wordcount fell short! Either way, something got written.
Warnings: Canon-typical violence mentioned
Wordcount: 1976
Summary: In a world where Team Seven never split apart, the three of them have never met a challenge they couldn’t conquer, an obstacle they couldn’t obliterate. So, it probably shouldn’t surprise anyone that they’ve set their sights on the impossible. (Even less surprising: that they actually manage what no one has before.)
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In a world where Team Seven never fell apart, they become something more than monsters. Instead of years away from each other, they stay on one squad and learn and grow together, taking missions that push them further and further.
Naruto becomes a master without equal in fuuinjutsu and leans heavily into wind and water jutsu. Sasuke picks up the sword and focuses on speed, picking up the fire and lightning to complement his teammate. Sakura takes earth, rounding them out, and through discovery of her mokuton becomes a medic after all. With the bloodline limit comes Senju Hashirama’s prodigious self-healing ability and through her excellent control, she combines that with Tsunade’s medical ninjutsu and comes out on the other side unstoppable.
Sasuke breaks the curse of hatred that his clan has languished under for generations, unlocking the fullest extent of his Sharingan not through murder and betrayal but love and loyalty.
Naruto still makes friends with the most powerful demon in existence, but this time he goes on to manifest chains of adamantium reaching out from a sure and unshakeable soul.
The three of them have never met a challenge they couldn’t conquer, an obstacle they couldn’t obliterate.
So, it probably shouldn’t surprise anyone that they’ve set their sights on the impossible.
Even less surprising: that they actually manage what no one has before.
“Oh, fuck, I can’t believe it worked.” Naruto sat up with a groan, voice nasally and high-pitched.
“Bit late for second thoughts.” Sasuke grumbled, pushing himself upright with effort. But his voice–!!
Sakura and Naruto yank their heads around to look at him, lightning-fast.
“Oh my god.” Naruto said, hushed and reverent.
“Don’t fucking start.” Sasuke narrowed his eyes at both of them, tiny hands coming up to ward them off.
“You’re so cute.” Sakura breathed. “Oh my god, I want to pinch your cheeks. I’ve never wanted anything more.”
“I’ll scream.” Sasuke deadpanned, eyes the only thing giving him away. They darted to the opening of the tent furtively.
“Don’t be dramatic.” Naruto kicked out a foot at him. “She probably won’t actually squeeze you until you pass out.”
“Don’t tempt me.” Sakura complained. She stood up, on her short legs, and looked around. The sight of her with the little ribbon tied around her forehead was cute but in a creepy kind of way; she walked with the unerring confidence of her older self.
Sort of like if Kurama had gotten put into a fox plush; less “aww”, more “oh god, we should be running.”
“I honestly don’t even remember this trip.” Sasuke sighed, looking around the tent. All of the ‘rookie nine’ were accounted for, asleep and unbothered the way only really young children could sleep.
“I do.” Naruto said. “Little bit. First time sleeping around other people.”
“Stop, you’re going to make me homicidal.” Sakura huffed. “Okay, so, timeline. Uchiha clan, all alive. Probably even Shisui. Naruto’s parents, very dead– sorry, no way around that one.”
“No offense taken.” Naruto assured her. “The fuck would we have done as literal infants?”
“It feels like we’re literal infants now.” Sasuke eyed his tiny hands in disgust. “This might have been before I could do the great fireball.”
“On the plus side, I’m pretty sure this was the last day of the trip. I got a scratch on my face from a stray tree branch– see, Ino put a cartoon bandage on it.”
They both leaned in to admire the bandage, decorated with little flowers. Sakura pulled it off, the cut healing before their eyes.
“Good news is: we’ve got our adult chakra reserves.” Naruto murmured thoughtfully. “Bad news: if we don’t give it a few days to settle, we’ll burn through our current little baby systems the first time we try to use it for anything serious.”
“I can feel my chakra pathways widening as we speak.” Sakura confirms, eyes going distant as she focuses inward. “It’s a gentle expansion, only burning a little. My core is literally twenty or thirty times the size it was, but that shouldn’t cause us any harm as long as we let the pathways themselves expand to match.”
“I already had pretty wide channels at this age.” Naruto said, flexing his hand in front of his face as though he could feel it happening– but with his lack of control there was almost no chance.
“My core to my veins.” Sakura held her hands out, then widened them greatly. “Your core to your veins. The ratio is the same or larger. Just because you started off massive doesn’t mean you don’t have to cope with some truly ridiculous fucking growth.”
“Eh.” Naruto shrugged. “I’m sure it’ll heal. Yours will, too. Sasuke’s the only one who’ll be fucked.”
Sakura leveled a training kunai at him– baby’s first. D’aww.
“Do not blow out your chakra pathways, Uzumaki.” She squinted at him dangerously.
“I won’t, I won’t!” He laughed. “I was just saying.”
Sasuke snorted. Sakura turned the knife on him, even as Naruto took her free hand and bent his body over it at the wrist, fiddling with something. She didn’t react at all, letting him move her arm as easily as if she herself were the one moving it.
“I’m not as stupid as him.” The brunette defended, pulling a bitch face that looked absurd on his young features. “You don’t have to threaten me.”
“Historical evidence begs to differ, but I’ll allow it.” Her pinky twitched and the knife was suddenly gone. “Priorities?”
“One second.” Naruto interrupted, dropping her hand. The wet sheen of red ink glistened on her forearm. “Flex your chakra three times.”
He made grabby hands for Sasuke’s wrist and Sasuke obliged out of long habit.
“Oh, I recognize this one. Good idea.” Sasuke watched upside-down as the seal came into being, and finished the statement mentally.
You never know when Shikamaru is only pretending to be asleep, Sasuke acknowledged into the warm mental space shared by his teammates.
Fair. Sakura acknowledged, while Naruto eased back with his palms against the ground, lounging smugly. As I was saying. Priorities?
My clan for sure, Sasuke said, the obvious.
The Sanin, sooner rather than later, Naruto said, ignoring Sasuke’s obvious and exaggerated grimace.
That gets the Sandaime out of play, Sakura said. Shishou is a lot more accommodating– loves you, loves me, kinda tolerates Sasuke.
Sasuke huffed, blowing some of his long childish bangs out of his face.
Root? Sasuke asked, throwing that out there.
Twin eyes on him, green and blue.
Yes. His teammates said, hard and flinty.
Good; they were all in agreement.
Mist isn’t fucked yet, Sakura said thoughtfully. Momochi’s already become Demon of the Mist, that happened before we were born.
So they’re not doing the kill-or-be-killed graduation test, but they might have started bloodline purges. Naruto worked through the timeline mentally. Uzushio has already fallen, obviously. That happened when my mom was a kid.
Yagura can’t be in charge yet, he’s our age. Sasuke said. He paused and sighed. That statement means something different than it did this morning.
Yagura’s a baby, Naruto agreed, waving him off. So the third Mizukage. Gotta be honest, I don’t know a lot about that dick.
Why’s he a dick? Sasuke asked.
Same kage who sacked Uzushio, Sakura reminded him. Sasuke’s eyes darkened a little at the reminder.
Ugh, this timeline’s irritating to break down into useful parts. Sasuke sighed. I wish more of it were taught in the academy.
A lot of the nation’s histories are kept secret and hidden, Sakura countered. They’re hidden villages, after all. What we do know is pieced together by T&I and Intel, and they’re hardly going to feed that to a group of kids who probably won’t even graduate.
Especially the recent history, Naruto mused. I mean, we wouldn’t know half of what we do about Konoha if we hadn’t been in the thick of things.
The classified shit we get into, with Jinchuuriki and kage and plots? Sakura asked incredulously. Babe, we wouldn’t know a tenth of it if we hadn’t been directly involved.
Oh, we could do something about Gaara! Naruto yelled, suddenly. He grinned. Ahhh, we should have made a list before we started, for real.
Dobe, Sasuke said. We didn’t even think this would work.
Naruto scratched his head absently.
Well, we’re here now, Sakura said. Let’s make a list of what we remember from the timeline, first of all. No edits or changes.
Then we fuck it? Naruto asked, curiously.
Sakura nodded, a feral grin breaking out. Then we absolutely smash it to bits.
Sasuke looked up at the canvas tent beseechingly.
“Could you three stop being weird and go to sleep?” Shikamaru called from the darkness. “It’s too late for whatever this is.”
“Sure, bro.” Naruto laughed.
They did some quick rearranging, less ‘putting their sleeping bags next to each other’, so much as ‘laying one down as extra padding and zipping the other two together so they could all fit inside’. They’d been on so many– literal hundreds– of team missions that another way to sleep didn’t even occur to them, only needing to compensate a little for the reduced size and stature before falling into easy configurations.
You’re so small like this, Sasuke thought, hushed and quiet even in their shared mindscape. He was between them tonight, Naruto wrapped around his back like a koala and Sakura tucked under his chin.
Which one? Asked Sakura, tiny and pink in his arms.
Both of you. I don’t like it. Sasuke was used to giants walking alongside him, if not huge in stature than larger-than-life with the power to shake worlds. It makes me homicidal to imagine anything happening to you like this.
Naruto yawned and nuzzled into the back of Sasuke’s neck.
You’re always homicidal, he said, happy and more than three-quarters asleep. But I get what you mean. Tiny Sasuke. Tinier Sakura.
Watch it, you. Sakura pinched him without bothering to open her eyes or lift her head, and Naruto grunted. I’ll be the one who adjusts first, and first to be back to full strength.
Naruto’s thoughts are unworried and untroubled, his brow smooth of wrinkles, wallowing in the happiness of their closeness.
Sakura’s mental touch softens.
I’ll keep us safe, she assures Sasuke once the blonde has gone to sleep. No one will touch you.
I know you will, Sasuke said, worries placated. I trust you.
They drift off at more or less the same time, lulled into sleep by Naruto’s sleeping mind, lazily beckoning. That destraction is the danger of the shared mindscape seal; if one of them is asleep, the others will want to follow; if one of them is hurt, the others will feel the pain.
For them, it’s less of an issue; one, they’re of sufficient callibre to ignore such distractions; for another, if one of them is hurt, their focus is already distilled down into raw vengeance.
They already revolve around each other in ways that would be unhealthy if it wasn’t how Konoha trained its dogs for war.
Teams who reached this level of synergy got called legends.
It was why they rarely bothered with the seal. They didn’t need words on a battlefield, communicating like a well-oiled machine with looks and instinct alone, weaving in and out of each other’s space as easy as breathing, and off the battlefield they weren’t restricted in what they could or couldn’t say.
Most of the time, they only used a seal like this when they were undercover or, more specifically, bored.
Sasuke figured they’d be getting a lot of use out of it now, though, when they had things to say they couldn’t risk being overheard.
As his dreams tangled together with his teammates’, though, nestled warm and safe together, he couldn’t find it in him to mind.
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