Chapter Text
Team seven wanted to make a wave, to throw a pebble and hope the ripple it made grew... they would never get to see the tsunami they caused. They found it ironic, after all the mission in Wave was the first real problem they faced together and their reactions to that, the choices they had made followed them to the cave that was about to become their tomb. If only they had trusted each other back then...
The three shinobi looked down at the seal they had made and knew there was no going back. Not like they would have if they could, they were desperate enough to try anything, no matter the consequences. They sat down in a triangle, each in a corner of the seal, the blood loss getting to them. They didn't have any ink on them when they barricaded themselves inside, ensuring that the enemy would not get to them but also that the few allies they still had would not be able to stop them, so they had used their own blood to make the seal.
The triangle was large and ugly, their hands had been trembling and they had been so tired. They had barely remembered the pattern they had created, their last resort. A space time seal, one that had taken them years to created and had never been tested. When they had first started on it they had been so excited, the war had just started and they had so much hope. They had been so naive, thinking they could travel through time, go back to before Kaguya escaped the first time, change the future. Then the war got worse by the day, their lives became a blur of fighting and planning and mourning... And then their hope got squished like a tiny little bug. The seal they had created could not take them to the past. They could not even send their souls to their old bodies. Nor their knowledge, hell, they couldn't even use it to send a message. They locked it in the back of their minds and didn't think about it again for months, not until they had no other choice.
They looked at each other, eyes dull and skin pale, and held out their hands to comfort each other, the tips of their fingers barely touching. They couldn't send much back, but they could send something... Trust, love, loyalty. That one feeling, that warmth they felt when they were together, even only a fraction of it, would have to be enough. It was all they had, it was a pebble thrown in the ocean, and they hoped to at least make one wave because one tiny ripple making stone was all they had. They started pouring their chakra into the seal and closed their eyes, falling into a state of meditation.
When they first became a team they had been so afraid of the world, so wary of each other that they never even considered telling each other the truth. They had had so much potential as a team, if they had only listened to Kakashi sooner... All they had to do was be a team, trust each other and they hadn't. In their lives there had been many teachers, some better than others, that had taught them many things. Techniques, strategies, fighting styles... It was way to late when they realised the most valuable lesson anyone told them had also been the one least impressive, they had been so young and impressionable, simple words went past them. Those who abandon their friends are worse than trash. Hopefully they could help their old selves become the people Kakashi thought they could be sooner.
Naruto took a deep breath and poured his love for his team with his chakra in the seal. When he had been a young boy, being raised by his grandmother in the clan house at the edge of the village he had started learning sealing. The old woman had told him all about the history of the Uzumaki and their skills and he had been so eager to make his ancestors proud. To have a connection to the past... the last Uzumaki, a sealmaster. He hadn't been good at what the academy taught them but that he excelled at. He had never told people anything, it was supposed to be the greatest prank when he finally showed what he could do and everyone realised they had been fooled. His grandmother had died when he was ten, so he had moved to an apartment, unable to stand being in the big house alone and continued his studies there. The villagers had started being meaner to him once his grandmother was gone but he hadn't cared, he had his seals. He would become Hokage, prove to them his worth. That the blood of the Uzumaki ran through his veins even if he didn't have blood red hair. He had made sure everyone knew his name, that all of them knew the pride of Uzushio was not gone and maybe when he became hokage they would stop pretending his clan had never existed... Then he had failed the graduation exam and Mizuki had told him about the Kyuubi. It had been then when he had realised that they didn't hate him because he was their failure staring them in the face, he didn't remind them that Konoha let Uzushio fall. He had reminded them of what Konoha herself had lost. When the time had came he had been too afraid to tell the team of his skill at sealing, he didn't want to risk them being afraid he would free the fox. He hadn't told them he could use the powerful ninjutsu of his clan, people feared him enough without knowing what he was truly capable of. The only one who knew he was more than a no good dead last was dead and it was better that way. Even when his team had been at risk of dying he kept his secret, even if showing his skills could have saved them. Fear froze him. He had been worse than trash. He couldn't send powerful techniques to his old self but he could make sure he would trust his team this time around. He would not be worse than trash again.
When Sasuke had been a young boy he had believed the world revolved around Itachi. His father had never been home. He was not a bad father, or a good one, he couldn't be, he would have had to be present for that. His mother had been kind but a little bit of an air head... Or maybe she had just wanted to seem that way but it didn't matter, she had made sure they were fed and healthy and not much beyond that. Itachi had been there, every step of the way. When he had awakened his sharingan at the age of ten Itachi gave him a sword. Every time he had learned a new genjutsu his brother told him how proud he was of him. The only thing his brother had asked for back then had been to keep his skills secret, stay a child as long as he could. So Sasuke had done just that, because how could he deny Itachi anything? When he came home at nearly eleven to find his clan dead and his brother covered in blood he hadn't cryed. Not for the reason people thought anyway. He had loved his clan... but loved Itachi more. So he did what Itachi asked and acted as if he hated him, if his brother wanted to die by his hand Sasuke would do it, even if it broke him. He had never told anyone of the tears he saw on his brother's face nor of his plan to one day find out the truth about what had happened. He had moved out of the compound and continued to hide his skills. People had feared him enough for being an Uchiha, Konoha never truly got over their fear of his clan, without knowing that Itachi had taught genjutsu and kenjutsu and that he already had his sharingan. When his team had been in danger their first time outside the village, he had been too afraid to show what he could do. They were from Konoha and Konoha broke his brother, he had been sure of that, even if he had no proof. They could have died and he chose his secret over them. He had been worse than trash. He closed his eyes and thought of Itachi, after having learned the truth he realised that his brother would have wanted him to trust his team, to not be alone. With a deep breath he poured all his trust into the seal, he knew now that his team was more than worthy of it. He would do better the second time around, he would not be worse than trash.
Sakura let out the breath she had been holding and poured her loyalty for her team into the seal. When Sakura had been little other kids had made fun of her. She had been shy and small and a crybaby. Then Ino had noticed her and Sakura swore to become a shinobi, to prove to Ino she could be the woman the Yamanaka claimed she could become. She had wanted to be able to stand by her friend's side, to protect her the same way the blonde had protected Sakura from bullies. Her parents hadn't understood though, they had been just genin, and even then part of the reserves, they had practically been civilians and had the mindsets of civilians. Not to say that they hadn't loved her, they just didn't understand the path she chose. Didn't think she could make it either. She had wanted to prove them wrong but she still loved them and hadn't had the heart to completely deny them the daughter they wanted. So she went on a diet and put on pretty dresses and brushed her hair three times a day. She wore makeup and pretended to be nothing more than a bookworm. She hadn't told anyone that her near perfect chakra control meant she was faster and stronger than anyone in their year. Her diet made her taijutsu weak anyway. She had never told anyone about her love for healing jutsu either, it was not like it would have helped in the academy and she couldn't have spared the chakra anyway, it went to sustaining her starving body. When the time came for her to step up and help her team she had been too close to fainting to do it. She hadn't had the courage to admit the truth after that, how could she she tell them that she was worse than trash because she wanted to be a lady like her parents desired? She just kept her mouth shut. She wasn't going to make the same mistake twice, she knew now that she could trust her teammates, and so would her past self. Her parents would learn to live with who she was, at least they would get to live this time around.
The seal glowed a faint blue... And then it faded and so did they. Their timeline was gone like it had never existed in the first place and they never got to know that the little ripple they made in time and space became a tsunami instead of a wave.
***
Twelve years old Sakura woke up to the sun shining through her pretty, lace drapes. She washed herself and put on her brightly coloured dress and a big smile on in hopes it would hide the pain she was feeling. She checked her pack twice, it was their first real mission and she didn't want to realise half way there that she forgot her soap or her uniform. She run her fingers over the thick blue fabric, she wished she could wear it, it was much more comfortable than her restricting clothes but it made her look less like a girl so she put it in the pile with her weapons and tiny med kit and sealed them all in a scroll. She went down the stairs and ate an apple as she reassured her mother that she would be safe with her team, after all Kakashi was a jounin. She kissed her parents on the cheek and willed her stomach silent. The bright light outside almost made her throw up the apple.She was the first to reach their meeting place and she wished she could sit down but then her dress would get dirty so she forced her weak body to stay upright and prayed to reach Wave before the little energy she had ran out.
Sasuke woke up on the training ground. He had practiced with the straight blade Itachi gifted him long into the night and hadn't bothered to go to his empty home once he was done. He walked home, buying some dango to eat on the way there. He still didn't like sweets much but they had been his brother's favourite so he ate some at least once a week. He checked his already prepared supplies once more before he sealed them, making sure his sword was at the bottom and no one would see it unless he himself took it out. Genin were told to pack at least one set of the standard uniform in case they needed formal dress during the mission but it was unlikely on missions below B level. He put on a set of his usual clothes, they used to be Itachi's and he was going to outgrow the last of them soon, his brother had always been slender and delicate. Sasuke liked to pretend they smelled like home but the truth was all they smelled of was his mother's favourite soap. He took a deep breath before he set his face into a scowl and left the apartment. Sakura was already there when he got to the bridge and he prayed she would not ask him on a date again. Why couldn't he just put her into a genjutsu and make her think she was in love with someone else? Right... He was not supposed to know how.
Naruto woke up before the sun was up. He packed for the mission using a scroll he made himself, his grandmother would roll over in her grave if her cute apprentice used a standard seal made by subpar Konoha practitioners. He buried his ink and papers under ramen and three sets of uniforms before he sealed everything. He put on his bright orange clothes, his grandma said it was a combination of his parents hair and he liked that it attracted attention. Sure, it made things complicated as a shinobi but it ensured no one could overlook him. They might have erased his clan from the history lessons and made Uzushio a taboo subject but he was never going to let them forget there was still one of them breathing. They could fear him all they liked, if nothing it meant they couldn't ignore his existence, one day Konoha was going to admit the swirl from their uniforms came from Uzushio. He spread a big grin on and walked to his grandmother's grave, watering the pretty white rose he planted there before going to Ichiraku's, after all ramen was the food of the gods. He got to the meeting place later than intended and his teammates were already there. He prayed Kakashi showed up before their client, if they had to deal with the drunk alone he was going to use a paralysis seal on the old man and then his cover would be blown.
Kakashi as a miracle showed up on time, dragging the client behind him and signaling for them to start walking towards the gates. They tuned out the drunk ramblings of their client and waved at the chunin guarding the village entrance when the passed by them. Team seven walked out of the village with masks firmly stuck on and a feeling in their heart they didn't understand. They didn't know what was waiting for them, didn't know what they would have to face. They had never left Konoha before, never faced the outside world before. The one thing they understood though, was that they were going to do it together. Wherever it was that the warm feeling came from, fear of the unknown or maybe the many teamwork exercises their teacher put them though finally got to them, they didn't question it, they were too excited to see what laid beyond the walls of Konoha. That was the day they were going to become true shinobi... if only they knew how right they were.