Chapter Text
## **Prologue – The Last of Us**
The battlefield was silent, save for the howling wind that carried the echoes of war. **Naruko Uzumaki**, the last of her kind, stood at the edge of destruction. The remnants of **Konoha**, her home, were little more than ashes and ruin. **The Fourth Shinobi War** had devastated the world, and with it, her friends—the **Konoha 11**, **Kakashi**, **Yamato**, **Sai**, and **Tsunade**—were lost to the flames of war.
Naruko stood alone, the last of the warriors who fought and failed. Her body was bruised, her chakra nearly depleted, but her spirit refused to break. She couldn’t save them. She couldn’t stop the tide of destruction that had swept over them all.
Her eyes, once full of hope and resolve, were now empty, haunted by the losses. Her fingers twitched, the sensation of her friends' lives slipping through her fingers, the weight of her failure unbearable.
But she couldn’t let this be the end. **Not again.**
“I... I have to save them,” she whispered, barely audible over the wind.
In the deepest recesses of her mind, a voice rumbled. **Kurama**. But this time, it was not just the Nine-Tails.
*“Naruko,”* the voice said, not just **Kurama**'s, but the collective voices of all the **biju**.
*“We have watched. We have seen the future, your suffering. The pain you’ve endured... We will help you.”*
Naruko’s breath hitched. The **nine biju**, the most powerful beings in the world, had never spoken to her like this before.
*“What do you mean?”* she asked, her voice shaking with disbelief.
*“We are bound to you, Naruko. You have always been our vessel, but now you are something more.”*
**Shukaku**, the one-tailed beast, continued, his voice gritty, but strong. *“We sense your desire to undo the destruction, the desperation in your heart. If you wish to change fate, we will help you.”*
**Matatabi**, the two-tailed beast, purred in agreement. *“We have power beyond time itself, and we will give it to you. You are not alone in this.”*
One by one, each biju added their voice: **Isobu**, **Son Goku**, **Kokuo**, **Saiken**, **Chomei**, **Gyuki**, and **Kurama**. Their collective chakra surged, filling Naruko with an overwhelming power.
*“We grant you the ability to traverse time. The jutsu you need will require every ounce of your strength and ours. Once you step into the past, there is no going back.”*
Naruko clenched her fists, feeling their combined power coursing through her. She knew the cost, the sacrifices she would have to make. But she didn’t care. She would do anything to save them.
*“I... I won’t fail again.”* Her words were fierce, her resolve unshakable.
The biju’s chakra exploded outward, wrapping around her, their collective energy pulsing through her veins. The seals on her body glowed brightly, flaring to life as the power of all nine beasts surged into her. The wind picked up, howling, and the ground trembled beneath her feet.
Naruko’s chakra exploded outward in a dazzling burst of light, and the world around her began to warp. **Time fractured.**
---
**Time fractured.**
---
She fell, falling through the cracks of reality itself. Light and shadow twisted around her, and for a brief moment, Naruko felt herself slip into the void, a sensation of weightlessness that threatened to overwhelm her.
And then—everything stopped.
She landed, her body hitting the earth with a heavy thud. Her heart pounded as she gasped for breath. The world around her was different. **Konoha** was standing, the streets full of life, the buildings intact. The **Hokage Monument** towered above her, the faces of the Hokage still etched in stone.
She had done it. She had traveled back in time. **Two years before the Third Shinobi War.**
Naruko pushed herself to her feet, the overwhelming power of the biju still swirling inside her, now silent but ever-present. She had one chance. One chance to rewrite history, to save **Konoha 11**, **Kakashi**, **Yamato**, **Sai**, and **Tsunade** before everything fell apart.
But as she stood in the middle of the bustling village, she could feel it. **The thread of fate** was already beginning to shift. She had made her move, and the future—both hers and the world’s—would never be the same.
---