Chapter Text
Konoha was no longer in ruins.
In a way, it had felt right to walk those streets and find nothing but blood and destruction. Tenzou was the one who had worked tirelessly over the past few days to rebuild the village and erase the traces the attack left behind; yet, looking at it now, Tenzou felt no satisfaction whatsoever in the completed work. It felt wrong for Konoha to move forward when he had lost everything.
Tenzou knew it was unfair to think that way. For the past few days, he had strived to avoid thinking at all, rebuilding Konoha until his chakra reached its limit and he could finally pass out from exhaustion. Now, he wished he had taken less time to rebuild the village. Even though he knew seeing the village rebuilt would boost morale, the truth was that Tenzou had felt more comforted when everything was just as shattered as he felt.
Besides, being busy with the reconstruction gave him a purpose. A way to avoid thinking. From the very first moment—when he had rushed to Konoha, the seal proving Naruto had lost control of the Nine-Tails burning in his palm, and was confronted with the reality of how many lives had been lost, and whose lives had been lost—Tenzou hadn't allowed himself to break down. There were far more important things than his feelings. Or at least, that was what he told himself. The truth was, he knew that the moment he allowed himself to feel, he wouldn't be able to get back up. So, he buried those thoughts deep within himself, determined to keep moving forward until it was all over.
That day, it was especially difficult to keep his emotions in check, given that it was the day of the mass funeral for everyone Konoha had lost in Pain's attack. There was talk of building a memorial specifically for this tragedy. Sometimes, Tenzou wondered if he would end up like Kakashi—if he would spend hours upon hours staring at a stone that held nothing of Kakashi other than his carved name, wondering how things might have turned out. How Kakashi seemed a little more open than before. How sometimes it seemed like they were slowly walking away from their friendship towards… something. And now Tenzou would never know what it would be like, if they took that step.
The thought brought a familiar lump to his throat. Looking back, he shouldn't have judged his senpai so hard for being stuck in grief. Now that it happened to him, Tenzou had no idea how to function. He couldn't imagine what it would be like to be the one to blame for his death as well. Kakashi was probably stronger than everyone gave him credit for.
Tenzou took a deep breath, ignoring the lump in his throat and his urge to curl up in bed and never get up again, to drop to his knees and weep until not a single tear remained in his body. Looking at Naruto, Sakura, and even Sai beside him, Tenzou knew he couldn't afford that luxury for now.
Fortunately, Tenzou had some experience suppressing his feelings. A faint smile touched his lips as he thought of what Kakashi would say, and how strongly he would disapprove of this choice—he hated what his time in ROOT had done to Tenzou far more than Tenzou had ever been capable of—but the smile didn't last long. No smile lasted more than a few seconds these days.
The mass funeral dragged on, and Tenzou tried hard to pay attention, but his mind was crowded with thoughts. He worried about how Naruto, Sakura, and Sai were coping with the loss of their sensei. He thought about the fact that Tsunade had been in a coma for days, with no one knowing who should take her place if she didn't wake up, because the best candidate was among the dead. He was aware that Danzo was likely trying to fill that role. And there was the news that Sasuke had joined the Akatsuki and was now considered a criminal.
The worst part was not knowing what to do. There was so much to be done, so much to fix, and Tenzou didn't know if he had the energy to handle it all. Every day, he fought against the part of himself that didn't care what happened next. For Kakashi's sake, he had to help those kids. Save Sasuke from himself. Save Naruto from the Akatsuki. Prevent Konoha from being completely destroyed. Problems that had seemed impossible even before, when Kakashi was by his side.
But Tenzou had survived impossible missions before. He would ensure those kids survived all of this. And afterwards... Well, he didn't know, and he was avoiding thinking too much about it.
The ceremony was over. Tenzou fully intended to accompany the kids for the rest of the day, even though offering comfort had never been his strong suit, but he noticed an ANBU operative approaching silently and frowned. Especially because it looked like the operative wanted to speak with him.
"Go on ahead," he told the kids, who had stopped to wait for him. "I have something to take care of."
Sakura nodded and squeezed Naruto’s arm, urging him to keep walking. Seeing him so dejected made Tenzou’s heart ache. Sai glanced toward the spot where the ANBU operative was hiding and looked at Tenzou before nodding and following the other two. Poor kid. How would he handle grief when he was still discovering what it meant to have feelings? Tenzou knew it was a difficult process. Just one more thing to worry about.
Tenzou let out a heavy sigh and waited until they were out of sight before seeking out the ANBU operative. He dropped from the tree where he had been hiding to the ground, carrying an open box in his hands.
“Captain. During the battle against Pain, before summoning Katsuyu, Tsunade instructed us ANBU to look for some ancient scrolls at her residence,” the shinobi said. “She said we were to hand them over to you, in case things went wrong.”
Tenzou looked at the box he was carrying. He could make out a few scrolls, all coated in dust. He looked up. “Why now?”
“The Senju family estate collapsed, like so many others. We were searching for the scrolls,” the ANBU explained. Tenzou could tell by the tension in the man’s shoulders that he was exhausted and on edge, yet he hadn’t given up on finding what the Hokage had requested.
But it was strange. Given that they came from the Senju estate, Tenzou could guess they had something to do with Mokuton, which explained why Tsunade had thought of him out of so many others. But how would such scrolls help now that it was all over? Tenzou let out another weary sigh, but he was a dutiful shinobi. He nodded and accepted the box.
Much later, Tenzou went to his cabin in the woods and made himself some tea, then sat down, looking at the scrolls. It wasn't his first time learning about the Mokuton through scrolls, but those were new to him. He also knew that he didn't have Lord First's level of chakra, so a lot of things were useless to him. Still, it was nice to learn something new. It was a good distraction.
There was a scroll that caught his eyes. It was named “The Leap”. Tenzou blinked at the simple instructions: Take a leap and time will be reversed. The cost is your life. Tenzou frowned at the complicated hand signs and the amount of chakra needed to do it. Time will be reversed. What exactly did it mean?
Something like traveling back in time didn't exist. Right? If there was, they would hear about it somehow. Most of those scrolls seemed to be experimental jutsu anyway. Hashirama probably just drafted some interesting ideas, but there was no way he actually tried it. Or did he? If Tsunade thought about those scrolls when things were about to end badly for Konoha, then maybe…
No. That was a ridiculous hope. Sighing, Tenzou pushed the scrolls aside and tended to his domestic shores. Even as he tried to follow his routine, the damn scroll never left his mind. It seemed too good to be true, so it probably wasn't true. But if something like this could be done…
Tenzou knew he shouldn't be messing with this sort of thing. First, the cost was his life, so that probably wasn't going to end well for him. Second, what exactly time reversal would entail? Would he just wake up one day in the past? When? Could he choose it? Or would he literally travel to the past? Maybe there was something he could do, then. He could warn his old self. But would his old self even believe him?
Shit. His curiosity was picked. That was very bothersome. Tenzou laid down to sleep, sighing. It didn't matter how curious he was. He couldn't do something so stupid.
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Tenzou ended up doing it.
Mostly, he blamed the dream about Kakashi’s death. Oh, Tenzou didn't see it, he wasn't even there, but he remembered well of the moment he learned about his death, finding his body, and the deep knowledge that he would never be the same again. Would Kakashi be disappointed if he saw what became of Tenzou? Would he understand?
His vision was blurry when he got up the bed and picked up the scroll. He went to the forest and practiced the movements without chakra at first, until he was sure he got it right. Then Tenzou spent all his chakra to make the jutsu, and he felt the chakra depletion knock him out. So the cost really is my life, he thought faintly as he lost his consciousness, wondering if he had killed himself for nothing.
Then his eyes were opening again, and he felt exhausted to the bone, but he also knew he wasn't at home. No, he was… Tenzou knew that place. It was a memory that chased him in his nightmares. He was inside that damn tube, one of Orochimaru’s subject studies.
For a second, panic hit him hard. One of his worst fears, right there: being back to that place, seeing all the other kids dying again, fearing for his own life. When it was clear he wasn't just dreaming—it felt too painful to be just a dream—Tenzou blinked. It… worked? That crazy jutsu he did on an impulse, too deep in his pain to think rationally? He reversed time, and…
And he came back in the worst moment possible. He was six years old, he was small, and even if his mind remembered many jutsu and fight techniques, his body was too weak to do anything with this knowledge. And who would even believe him?
Tenzou took a deep breath, and the bubbles that left his mouth bothered him. Right. For the moment, he had to focus on getting out of that place. He knew he was pushing it, he could feel the effects of chakra depletion, but he couldn't stay one more second in that cursed lab.
He used his Mokuton and broke the tube. Tenzou choked, trembling with cold and feeling the broken glass against his skin. He was too busy vomiting all that water to do something about the glass, though.
“Is there anyone here?”
Tenzou froze. That voice… Wait. He didn't come back on a random day. It was the day he escaped, the day Danzo found him. He hid before his mind even made the decision consciously, but if he had time to think, he would do it anyway. Danzou felt like a lifesaver in the past, when he was scared and lonely, but he only fed Tenzou lies. He was using him, treating him like a prize. And Tenzou really didn't want to go through that again.
The wait seemed to last forever, but finally, Danzo left the lab. Tenzou took a deep breath and left his hiding place. Right. He escaped the tube, and escaped Danzo. Now what? There was still too much time left before Kakashi's death. It was enough time to stop it, right? But now that Tenzou escaped Danzo, would they even meet and become friends?
Well, Kakashi was alive and in Konoha. And… There was still a few years before they were supposed to meet. Actually, if Tenzou remembered correctly… Kakashi's team hadn’t met tragedy yet. Maybe… Maybe he could stop it. He could save Obito and Rin. He could save Kakashi from an unhappy life. He didn't know how, yet, but he had a few years to think about it.
Tenzou looked at his really small hands. His brain was of a kid, would he forget how to think like an adult? Would he forget everything he went through? He needed to write everything down, and he needed a plan.