Third person pov
Naruto Uzumaki was tired.
Sasuke Uchiha was tired.
Shikamaru Nara was tired.
Battle after battle, death after death. They were done. There was nothing to save anymore: nobody to protect. Konoha was a pile of rubble, and so was Suna. The other hidden villages were either wiped out or in the process of being leveled to the ground. Obito and Madara were merciless when it came to their rein of terror. The trio had nothing more to fight for. Even Kurama, who'd been urging them to fight back, was burned out. Sure, he had been thirsting for blood before. He finally had a home and he'd gained the acceptance of those around him. People had gotten used to the idea of him, and they treated him as an equal. As a comrade. It was a nice change to be accepted and even loved by the masses, but in an instant, all that had been ripped away from him.
"What now?" The Nanadaime Hokage asked his two comrades, glancing at each of them. They were grimy with dirt and sweat, but at least they weren't injured. "I don't know, Hokage-Sama." Shikamaru answered heavily. Naruto's war-hardened face deepened into a scowl. "I'm no Hokage, Shikamaru. I failed not just the village, but the people in it. There's nobody to protect anymore." He sighed, leaning back to look at the smokey sky. It wasn't often that the sun shone brightly, and when it did, it always seemed unbearably hot. As though the universe was scolding them for losing. "Hn. Once a Hokage, always a Hokage." Sasuke said, his eyes downcast as he examined the end of his tattered cloak. While Naruto had accepted his fake arm that contained the cells of the first Hokage, Sasuke had denied the offer from Sakura.
Littered with scars and exhausted, the three brothers sat in silence. It was almost peaceful. It felt weird to just sit. No shouting over the battle's scream. No crying over lost teammates and friends. No rushing to save the day. It felt almost wrong in a way, Naruto mused. Everyone was dead. He shouldn't feel so... relaxed. So off guard. He should be sobbing and screaming at the heavens. But the blonde had screamed so much already, so much that his throat burned and his lungs cried out in pain. He's sobbed and begged and asked the golden question: Why?
None of the three men sitting on that piece of rubble knew what they'd done to deserve this. Well, Sasuke supposed he did. He'd helped start this war, but he'd also helped end it. Surely, surely fate wouldn't punish the whole world for his crimes and for his sins. That wasn't how things worked, right? Sasuke knew he played a great roll in this world, but his actions couldn't have effected everyone across the great nations, right? He sure hoped not. Although, it did feel nice to have someone to officially blame, even if that someone was himself. Obito was under Madara's control, driven mad by a genjutsu that nobody could find out how to remove. They just couldn't get close enough to him for long enough. Shikamaru had seen the seal. He'd figured it out. But he hadn't seen enough to help them free the poor man.
Madara had no mercy. This world hadn't ended in just an instant. There hadn't been some huge nuke to wipe them all out at once, and there hadn't been a plague to kill in everyone in one fell swoop. That would have been nice, Sasuke supposed. To drift off in your sleep after two days of a shitty fever. That would have been the ideal end of humanity, if they had to pick. Instead, this world had ended one agonizing scream at a time.
Shikamaru took in a long drawl of his cigar, blowing the smoke back out seconds later. He knew it wasn't healthy, but he just couldn't shake the habit. He felt like it was the only thing that kept him sane these days. Out of everything, it was one of the only consistent, unchanging things in his life. Cigars didn't change. Sure, the brand would. The flavor. But all in all, the sticks of rolled paper or leaves would still give you cancer. Obito and Madara couldn't change that, and that somehow comforted him. Sure, Naruto and Sasuke had been by his side, but they'd changed too. The three had gotten closer and closer until they were like a little family. A band of brothers brought together by war. It was almost poetic.
Naruto no longer smiled, and Sasuke was oddly sassy, and he didn't grunt as much. They were all more open, but they'd also all lost their (as Lee or Gai might have called it) youthful spark. Naruto's eyes no longer had a fire lit in them. He'd run out of hope. And because of that, so had Sasuke and Shikamaru. They had accepted him as their leader with little to no hesitation. Over time, their undeniable urge to follow the man had grown stronger and stronger. They'd die for Naruto, and he would die for them. It was as simple as that.
"You know, we could just use a forbidden jutsu and destroy this all." Kurama hummed. 'Destroy all of what?' Naruto's eyebrows furrowed slightly. Shikamaru's eyes flicked towards the blonde's face, as did Sasuke's. He was talking to Kurama. The Uzumaki's eyebrows always did that when the fox said something he didn't understand. However, the two ex-clan heirs didn't speak. Naruto would tell them what the furry beast was thinking, if anything at all. Part of Shikamaru didn't want him to have a plan. He was tired-- just as tired as Sasuke was-- and he really didn't want to do anything else. He guessed that was his Nara genes, talking, but he was sure both Sasuke and Naruto had similar thoughts.
"Ah, that was a bad way to word it, I guess. Or you're still an idiot. That's a definite possibility." The Fox said, clearly amused. Naruto rolled his eyes at the creature in a good-mannered sort of way. The fuzzball sure was in a good mood today. 'What're you talking about, Kurama?' Naruto mentally sighed to his nine-tailed companion. "I just remembered this jutsu that could potentially, you know, save the whole universe. No big deal." He said in a sarcastic tone that caused a wave of nostalgia to crash down on the blonde. He hadn't heard Kurama speak like that in a very, very long time. He fox had become more serious, and less of a sarcastic jokester. Whatever this plan was, it was good if it was making him this giddy.
Naruto straightened slightly, gaining the attention of his two friends. They perked up as well, watching him patiently as he conversed with the fox. It was hard to read Naruto's expression at the moment, but he seemed reasonably intrigued, if not a little confused. Powerful or not, Naruto still wasn't the most intelligent guy out there. He was calculating--he had to be to fight against Obito and Madara--but that was just something he'd picked up along the way. He was still pretty slow for a shinobi of his status, although he had grown quite rise over the years. Shikamaru, however, could proudly say that the man still couldn't come even relatively close to beating him in a game of shogi.
"So, this jutsu, it's super hard and could potentially backfire and kill us all." Kurama said. Naruto's curiosity peaked. If it had a good chance of killing them, it was definitely promising. 'Spit it out, then.' Naruto urged with anticipation. "No need to rush! Anyway, it's a time travel thing. It's sort of hard, but I think we can pull it off." Kurama scratched his shoulder absentmindedly as he mulled over the idea. It would take a lot of chakra, but it might just work. However, sending them to a time before their birth's would most definitely make them cease to exist. And if Naruto ceased to exist, Kurama probably would to. Even if the fox was no longer sealed, he still chose to stay inside of Naruto.
Naruto's mind scrambled to process the idea. He was staring off into space, so Shikamaru and Sasuke knew it was important. They didn't dare interrupt. That was one of Kurama's pet peeves, and they didn't want to silent treatment, especially if Naruto was as interested as he was. Normally, Naruto would banter with the chakra-mass aloud. It was rare that Kurama drew in the Uzumaki's attention to this extent unless they got into a truly heated debate, or decided they just wanted to talk. And that was rare, because Kurama really wasn't an emotions kinda guy. That, and Naruto really didn't want to talk about what he'd been through. He was traumatized enough without Kurama coating his experiences in sarcasm in passive-aggressive quips.
'T-Time travel?' Naruto's voice came out slightly dazed. "Alright, good. Your mind has sorta caught up with it. Anyway, it would require most of my chakra. And if I overshot, you could cease to exist. We can only travel to a time when you're all alive. You're the youngest out of all of us, so we'll have to operate in your lifetime. You'd be transported into your younger body, and I'd be transferred into mine. Same with Sasuke and Shikamaru. I'm not going to even try to explain this jutsu's complexity to you because seal master or not, you would definitely not understand." Kurama sighed. Naruto knew he was right. He was good at puzzles. That's what seals were: puzzles. But when it came to understanding the inner workings of something as complex as a probably-forbidden and ancient jutsu, Naruto was a no go.
'So if you sent us back to when we were younger, we could not only save Sasuke's family, but the entire world. We could... prevent the war?' Naruto's voice was slow and disbelieving. But in a hopeful sort of way. "Yeah, pretty much kiddo. You'd be weak, but you'd still have your current knowledge, and could probably learn again pretty fast. I think chakra reserves and physical strength would be your main issues in the fighting department." Kurama speculated. None of this was a sure thing, nothing but the memory remaining, and the loss of skill. Never had Kurama used it, but his father--his creator--had told him stories of the great jutsu, and taught him in full detail how to use it. Only Kurama though. As though he knew the fox would one day find the need to use it...
Kurama grinned slightly when he felt something spark in Naruto. Naruto's mind was frigid, and nearly unbearable, even for Kurama. With war came traumas and horrors unlike any Naruto had ever seen, and his mind grew number and colder with each passing day. But Kurama swore, for a second, that he felt a flicker of warmth. It was brief, but he didn't doubt that it had been there. That was enough to make Kurama hopeful again. It didn't take much to inspire him, honestly.
Shikamaru and Sasuke flinched when they saw it. It was like a flash, but it was something. Something amazing and rare that neither Sasuke or Shikamaru had seen in a very, very long time. In Naruto Uzumaki's eyes, there was a spark. A flicker of hope and that old fire that used to burn so brightly in his eyes. The man leaned back, eyes shining with positive emotion. So many feelings swirled in those deep blue pools that even Shikamaru couldn't discern them, although he was sure hope was in there somewhere. Even just the thought of Naruto being hopeful was enough to start up his fire again. His drive.
"Naruto?" Sasuke's chest was tight. A flicker of his best friend's flame had been there, and Sasuke was elated by that. "Oh my God!" Naruto laughed. It was the same laugh he used to use when the war began. When he would mock the enemy or when a friend would make a joke. He grinned that same, goofy grin Sasuke wouldn't admit he'd missed, and fist pumped just like he used to when he accomplished something. "Things have taken a turn for the best, brothers! Who wants to save the universe?" Naruto's pearly white teeth glinted in the sunlight beginning to filter through the cloudy sky.
Broken, bruised and beaten, the three veterans were not a pretty sight. At first glance, they were a couple of young men who'd been beaten down. And really, they were. They'd lost virtually everything, and even thought all hope seemed lost, they still lived through the horrors of the war they'd braved. The war they'd lost. But even thought they seemed to be the losing team, the underdogs of the world at the moment, they all still smiled at each other, their fists colliding in a three way fist bump.
"Let's do this, Naruto."
"Hn."
"Believe it!"
Sasuke and Shikamaru nearly cried out in relief at the sound of Naruto's oldest catchphrase, which they hadn't heard in years. And for the first time since the death of Sakura Haruno and Kakashi Hatake, Kurama could safely say that he was beginning to feel warmer and warmer by the second.