AN:

Hello everyone.

This is a Naruto time loop story with Naruto as the MC. This is also a AU version of the setting.

How is it AU?

Well, mostly I have taken the hax that make no sense out of the setting. No DBZ shonen powerscaling in this version where Naruto can literally blow up the moon and every fourth person has special eyeballs that violate the laws of physics.

The upper limit of the power in this setting should (if I do it right) be around the Sasuke vs Itachi fight, maybe slightly stronger. Definitely nowhere near the level of the 4th War arc.

This does mean that most of the end chunk of shippuden will be considered "non-canon" to this AU and I will have to rework some characters and their goals and such.

Anyways, I make no promises about the release schedule of this story. It is something for me to work on on the side of my actual job. I will try to get one chapter out every weekend, but don't be surprised if I miss a week or two a month.

With all that said, I hope you guys enjoy the story.

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Naruto could barely see through the thick chilly mist. He could barely see Kakashi-sensei only a few feet away from them.

His heart was hammering in his chest as he tried to keep his breathing steady and keep his hands holding his kunai from shaking. He could no longer see where that bandaged bastard Zabuza had went.

The menace that guy gave off... It was like nothing Naruto had ever felt. Far from what Mizuki had felt like.

This man was nothing like those Demon Brothers. He was in another league entirely, just like Kakashi-sensei.

Naruto could feel it in his bones.

"Sasuke," Kakashi said in a strong, steady tone, "Even if he gets me, I'll still protect you."

Kakashi-sensei turned his head to look back at them and smiled despite the situation.

"I will never let my comrades die," Kakashi-sensei said with absolute certainty.

He may have been talking to Sasuke, but it felt like he had been speaking to all of them.

Naruto felt the tension in him relax ever so slightly and his next breath was easier.

He glanced at his teammates to his right and saw the same had happened with his teammates.

And that is when he struck. In that small instant of lapse of their concentration, Naruto saw Zabuza appear in the middle of their formation already swinging his sword.

Before any of them could react, Kakashi-sensei moved toward them so fast he appeared as just a flash to Naruto's eyes.

They all moved to dodge, but they were just genin caught off guard. Rookie ninja. And this guy was a guy on the level of their sensei.

Naruto felt a sharp, shearing, tearing pain erupt in his chest and arms as he was flung away.

His vision flickered wildly as he flew until he hit the ground and bounced. His body in far too much pain for him to think or even try to stop his tumbling.

But everything was wrong! As his body slid and rolled painfully across the ground, everything felt wrong!

He could only feel the impacts of the ground on his chest and head.

A few moments later the world stopped tumbling.

Naruto felt incredibly weak. His vision swam and he couldn't breathe. He couldn't even really think. But he fought to stay awake.

Even as he felt the unimaginable pain he was in, Naruto had just enough presence of mind to turn his head to look and see if his teammates had gotten away.

And he couldn't comprehend what saw.

Sasuke's head and chest were lying on the ground separated by a few feet from his waist and legs, red pouring into the grass between them.

He could see a little away from where Sasuke was, Sakura lay in a similar state.

He tried to look at their faces to see if they were okay, but all he saw were blank, glassy eyes and faces locked into grimaces of pain.

His eyes wandered, uncomprehending of what he was seeing. Wondering why they were moving if they were in so much pain like he was feeling.

Near the two of them, he spotted an orange and red blob laying in the grass.

He wondered what they were for a moment before he realized the orange was the bottom half of his jumpsuit. But why was it way over there?

As his mind swam and he struggled to keep himself conscious- he had to help Kakashi-sensei and protect the old drunk! -Naruto realized he could hear a familiar scream.

He'd heard it before. The scream of rage and grief he had heard from funerals by families, screams that had been directed at him a few times before, which he now knew were because of him holding the fox in his stomach.

But Naruto was confused. Why was Kakashi-sensei screaming like that?

He tried to open his mouth to speak, but he remembered he couldn't breathe for some reason.

As his mind struggled to puzzle everything out, the black spots that had been dancing in his vision expanded to cover everything.

The last thoughts in his mind's eye as Naruto faded were the glassy eyes of his teammates and his sensei's screams.

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Naruto's eyes slammed open as he instantly woke up heart racing.

Rapidly breathing and looking around, he quickly realized that he was in his bedroom in his apartment.

He frowned, confused.

Hadn't he been on his first C-ranked mission?

Naruto took a minute to try and puzzle out what had happened.

Had that all... been a dream?

It must have been. He wasn't outside of Konoha. He was in his bed in his room.

Actually, it was a good thing that had all been a dream. A nightmare. The most lifelike dream he had ever had.

He could still feel the phantom sensation of unthinkable pain, more than anything else he had ever felt, across his chest and arms and that disturbing feeling of lack below it.

He couldn't tell where it had taken over from real life. It had all felt so real.

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In the moment in that nightmare after he had been hit, Naruto had been confused about what everything he saw meant, but now that he was awake, the truth of what had happened in that nightmare was seared into him.

He shut his eyes trying to forget everything, but the image of his teammates' eyes and his sensei's scream remained in his mind.

His body shuddered.

No. It was much better that it had all been a dream.

Mood thoroughly ruined, Naruto got up and made himself some ramen for breakfast.

Because of how real the dream had been, almost like real memories, he didn't know what day it was or whether he had training with the rest of his team today or another D-rank mission or if it was one of their rare days off.

He really had to remember to get a calendar now that he was actually going ninja stuff.

It didn't matter that he had clearly woken up late. Kakashi-sensei was always way too late anyways. Even if Naruto took his time he would be there before their lazy sensei.

After he had finished eating a double helping of his favorite breakfast, Naruto was in a much better mood.

He gave himself a sniff and realized he must have sweat in his sleep, probably from the nightmare.

When Naruto got in the shower and started washing himself, he realized something.

The seal that always appeared on his stomach when he made chakra, the mysterious seal he had always been too wary to ask anyone of, the seal that he now knew probably held the Kyubi, it was visible even though he wasn't doing any jutsu.

Or at least part of it was.

The seal normally had an outer ring of sealing characters that looked almost like kanji except swirly and wrong, and in the center were nine spirals that all started at the same center point and swirled out.

What was visible on his stomach despite not using any chakra at the moment was a single one of those spirals.

This was absolutely not normal behavior for his seal.

The idea that something might be going wrong with his seal filled Naruto with dread. After that night, Ji-ji had warned him not to touch or mess with his seal or let anyone else do so.

Something might happen and cause the Kyubi's leak into his own, causing him to go berserk and attack people, or the monster could even escape, killing Naruto in the process before it went on a rampage.

Naruto couldn't let anything happen to his seal!

But he really hated the idea of anyone looking at it. He was ashamed and didn't want anyone to know about it.

He would wait and if it didn't go back to normal in a few days then he'd go tell Ji-ji.

That settled, Naruto finished cleaning himself and went to go get dressed.

He quickly found a shirt and shorts and his favorite orange jumpsuit he wore every day, but as he went to put on his forehead protector, it wasn't in the spot on his dresser where he usually put it.

Huh. That was weird. Naruto started looking at other places he normally left things.

Soon he found something on the living room table.

A pair of familiar green goggles. Hadn't he given these to Konohamaru? How had they gotten back here?

Had Konohamaru snuck into his apartment to play ninja for a prank or something?

The idea raised Naruto's ire. If he had, Naruto was gonna show that kid not to do that again. Naruto was an unrepentant prankster, but a red line he never crossed was the inside of people's houses.

Naruto kept looking for his forehead protector, but no matter where he looked he couldn't find it.

Feeling a rising panic that he may have accidentally lost the forehead protector that Iruka-sensei had given him, Naruto started tearing his apartment apart.

He checked in every drawer and cupboard, under and behind every piece of furniture, but he couldn't find it anywhere.

By the time he was done his entire apartment was a wreck and he still hadn't found it. He also realized a couple of small things he had bought with the money from his D-ranks were missing as well.

A pair of green goggles on the table and his stuff missing, he was gonna teach that punk Konohamaru a lesson. Maybe even tell Ji-ji if he wasn't sorry enough. This was way too far for a prank.

Looking at his clock and realizing he was gonna be almost as late as Kakashi-sensei, Naruto hurried over to Third Training Ground.

Thankfully, it looked like one of his team's days off, so he decided to head over to Ichiraku's for lunch.

As Naruto arrived at his favorite restaurant, he saw an irritated Iruka-sensei standing outside.

Remembering that he had yet to get his forehead protector back from Konohamaru yet, Naruto turned to go somewhere else to prevent being embarrassed, but Iruka-sensei saw him before he could leave.

"Naruto! I knew you would come here!" Iruka-sensei shouted as he ran over to Naruto.

"Huh?" Naruto said, confused.

"Pretending you don't today was an academy day? I haven't fallen for that excuse since the second time you used it, Naruto.

"You know it is already time for history class right now!? Come with me, now! I can't be wasting my mornings chasing you around town," Iruka said, angry and stern as he grabbed Naruto's arm and started dragging him along towards the academy.

"I swear Naruto, if you don't cut this crap out you won't be able to pass the upcoming exams, and you won't ever become a ninja. This will be your third time, and anyone who fails their third time is never allowed again.

"You really should have listened to me and not tried to take the exam early the past couple of years. You really-"

Iruka kept on lecturing Naruto about how he needed to change his behavior if Naruto wanted a chance to pass with how poorly his performance in class was.

As he did, Naruto kept quiet as his confusion grew.

He had already graduated from the academy and Kakashi-sensei had accepted him as his student. Why was Iruka-sensei acting like this?

What... what was going on?