Drifting the Temporal Dimension

"It's... incredible, the things that humans can do when you push them hard enough. What would normally be considered impossible could be made possible with willpower alone."

"...And is that what led you here? Willpower?"

She laughed, hysteria and helplessness and defeat curling at the edges of the sound, grating deep into her soul and his alike, "No. Willpower was something that we fought with for a long, long time... But after everything, it never really worked."

Her eyes locked with his.

"Desperation. Desperation, in the end, proved itself to be a truly powerful thing."

---

In which Naruto Uzumaki is thrown far into the past, bearing the weight of the shinobi world and her own failure on her shoulders.

Heavy is her burden.

But this time, she will succeed.

---

Cross-posted on fanfiction.net and Ao3.

Fem!Naruto | Live!Minato | Live!Kushina | No Uchiha Massacre