Saints and Suffering: A Naruto Fanfiction

Chapter 5- Konoha

Naruto sat in the middle of the fuin, while Sasuke completed the hand seals for the time travel jutsu. During this time, Naruto meditated without a word.

Over the 5 decades of time it took to perform the jutsu, Sasuke noticed some small differences that accrued over time. With the power of the Rinnegan, Sasukes perception was unrivaled, however, around the ten year mark, Sasuke noticed that Narutos presence had started to fade.

Sasuke made no comment at the time, and observed with patience. By the 25th year, Narutos presence had shrunk to the equivalent of a small frog or reptile.

In the 45th year, Narutos presence disappeared completely. Sasuke was about as surprised as he could be, which is to say, not that much, but an idle amount of curiosity floated around his mind.

To Sasuke, Naruto was there before him, and he could be easily seen with the naked eye, but Sasuke could see no energy flow within him. Naruto had not had chakra since Kaguya had ripped it from him, but following his removal from the God Tree, he had possessed the normal physical and spiritual energy that all lifeforms possess, it simply would not mix and form chakra.

When Naruto became the jinchuuriki of the God Tree, life energy was added to the mix, and Sasuke could easily identify their flows during the time period when Naruto was purifying the life energy of negative emotion.

But now, there was nothing. To Sasuke, Naruto was devoid of all energy, as lifeless as the rest of the planet. Sasuke would assume that Naruto had died, but even a blind man could hear the deep breathing of Naruto during his meditation.

Naruto would breath in, pause, and breath out. It was normal beyond description, but Sasuke couldnt quite put his finger on what was special about it. It wasnt a perfect rhythm, and there were no phenomena associated with it.

The best Sasuke could do to describe it would be, Its never out of place. A/N Whatever that means.

So there he sat for the last 5 years of Sasukes jutsu, an breathing corpse, in Sasukes eyes.

Sasuke faced a similar dilemma. The jutsu he was performing was incredibly taxing, and his immense chakra reserves were slowly dwindled over the 50 years of hand seals.

Sasuke was finishing up his jutsu.

  Ne-Ushi-Tora-U-Tatsu-Mi-Uma-Hitsuji-Saru-Tori-Inu-I.

  Naruto, the jutsu is activating.

Naruto opened his eyes for the first time in five decades and looked around him and Sasuke. The fuinjutsu that covered the planet glowed into life, burning bright red.

The fuin pattern started glowing at its center, surrounding Naruto and Sasuke, and wuickly shot out in every direction, tracing the lines of the array.

Within seconds, the fuin array was completely lit within eyesight.

Sasuke spoke again.

  The jutsu is activating. It will send us back in time when it finishes lighting up the entire array.

  We are currently aiming for the exact moment of your birth.

Naruto went bug-eyed.

  WHAT!? Could you pick a shittier time?!

Sasuke calmly replied.

  With the sheer scale of how far we have to travel back in time, the error on my time estimation is plus minus 5 years, and you should be ecstatic I could get it that close. Had I not a watershed moment in the development of my Rinnegan 25 years ago, we would have to aim 50 years before your birth to ensure that we traveled to the right time.