The Fox Beneath the Ashes

They said time couldn't be rewritten.
They were wrong.

The Third Shinobi War is still two years away. Heroes are still whole. Villains have yet to fall. Konoha still breathes, unscarred.

But destiny is already unraveling.

On what was meant to be his final, tragic mission, Sakumo Hatake finds a lone girl in enemy territory-bloodied, silent, and barely breathing. She shouldn't exist. Her chakra shouldn't exist. Her very presence warps the air.

She calls herself Naruko. She's only five. And she won't speak of where she came from.

She knows what's coming:

A massacre that will bury a clan in blood.

A war that will claim her parents before they ever become parents.

A boy with a mask and a name he forgot.

A village that breaks its own heroes.

A beast inside her that was never sealed.

This time, she's early. This time, she's ready.

But the world doesn't like to be cheated. And fate will do anything to correct itself-even if it means making her disappear all over again

But deep inside, she holds the soul of a warrior from a future that's already ended in flames-and a burden she can't share.

She knows what's coming