Chapter Text
Sakura pursed her lips tightly and settled herself deeper into her tree watching her prey closely and only half listening to the whispered argument next to her, Naruto and Sasuke’s voices mercifully hushed. “-we were supposed to go back farther! Before the other eight were sealed!” “I know, idiot. Must not have been enough power” Naruto’s breath hitched at the reminder of the cost of this gamble “Kurama wasn’t at full power but he hoped-“ Sakura elbowed the blonde hard in the diaphragm, letting his spluttering pull the attention to her. “Look” she hissed “I think we know our when” Naruto stared, even Sasuke looked like he was staring; “Is that….” The Uchiha whispered “A tiny, tiny Hatake? Is that sensei’s dad?” Naruto interrupted, eyes wide as they looked at the tiny silver haired boy sobbing next to Konoha’s unnervingly new walls.
“Ok” Naruto started slowly and then the boy let out a hitching gasp of a sob and Sakura saw his shoulders go firm in that way he had; “damnit” she muttered but leapt right out after him anyway. Team 7 (and no Naruto wasn’t still mad that they didn’t a cool team name like Densetsu no Sannin) dropped down next to the child, Sasuke already turning out to scan for enemies and Naruto knelt down to talk to the tiny!Sakumo; “Hey, hey little wolf, what are you doing out here?” he asked gently. There was a wet sniffle and Sakura looked over just in time to get a good look at huge wet eyes swimming with tears and wobbling lips. Yeah. No. She looked up at Sasuke’s murderous eye when the Uchiha spoke and knew that for once all three of them were on the same page “Who is bothering you!?” the Uchiha growled in an unusual deep rumble.
Tiny!Sakumo stared up at them with his giant gray puppy-eyes and made a manful effort to stem the tide of his tears, “I – I – I – I’m not supposed to talk to strangers” he forced out, biting his lip “Nidaime-sama says” and that was the last straw because he burst back into tears and Naruto’s self-control snapped and he gathered the child into his arms with cooing noises, looking a bit damp himself. Sasuke took a deep breath and gathered himself walking over to kneel next to them and speak to tiny!Sakumo, “But I’m not a stranger I’m an Uchiha” he pointed out in what Sakura liked to call his ‘supercilious-Uchiha’ voice; the one that said that because he was saying it and he was Uchiha clearly he was right and had to be listened too. tiny!Sakumo blinked and looked a bit better though no more inclined to get out of Naruto’s lap – which was probably for the best really, the blonde looked like he was inches from manifesting his tails and bunding tiny!Sakumo up in them, “Oh, you must be Uchiha, they’re the only ones that sound like that” he said, hiccupping halfway though and making Sakura’s heart clench (oh he was deadly) (also, ha! She had told Sasuke it was an Uchiha thing!). Sasuke nodded gravely, clearly pleased to be recognized (apparently he hadn’t realized that this meant the were more Uchiha around in this time, Sakura was not going to be the one to remind him) and preening a bit until tiny!Sakumo leaned closer and blinked at him with another sniffle, “’re you Izuna-sama back? ‘ve seen and you look like him so you must be, n’ Nidaime-sama could do ‘nthing!” and oh dear. Sakura hadn’t thought of this problem.
“Um” Naruto grumbled and cuddled tiny!Sakumo closer, taking over in his blunt way “No, this is Sasuke, he’s not Izuna and Nidaime-sama didn’t resurrect him” tiny!Sakumo’s face fell and Sakura’s heart twisted again. “oh,” he whispered into Naruto “right, he’s dead now” desperate to change the subject- though relived to have a bit of context for when they were (and honestly not to have to sort out Tobirama Senju, the man was a wild card and way too smart)- Sakura finally spoke up “Is that why you were crying?” she blurted, cringing a bit as she did – kami she used to have more tact than this! Naruto shot her a dirty look as tiny!Sakumo started sobbing harder in response and he cuddled the child closer with soft fox like noises until tiny!Sakumo was breathing easier and chocked out a confusing slur of words that Sakura had trouble following but Naruto and Sasuke seemed to get (well, that wasn’t surprising, Naruto was good with kids and anything Naruto got Sasuke did as well given that Sakura had decided thy must have some sort of psychic connection; luckily she was well past feeling jealous about the whole thing – she really didn’t need to know what was going on in either of their heads frankly).
“Danzo” both men said in one growling voice and Sakura straightened as the words shot through her, suddenly realizing that – shit, Danzo would be alive in this time if a lot younger, though not apparently any less of a dick; actually though, now that Sakura thought about it “Hey, guys, guess who else is alive in this time” they both looked at her with murder in their eyes “Orochimaru”. Naruto’s eyes blew huge and Sasuke’s jaw dropped for a moment before something evaluating flickered in Naruto’s blue eyes “He would be very young-“ “Fuck, oh my god imagine how cute he would be as a kid” Sasuke’s interruption made Sakura roll her eyes until the Uchiha added “just imagine it” and – oh lords of leaves. “Shit” she whispered as the mental image formed “oh fuck” “He would be a creepy little terror” Naruto breathed, eyes wide and thrilled as his tails poof-ed into existence and wrapped around a confused and wide eyed tiny!Sakumo “I want him!” well, shit, looked like she would have to keep them away from children again. Though…Naruto and Sasuke couldn’t be worse influences on Orochimaru than whoever he had had the first time and Sakumo was definitely a better choice than fucking Jiraiya as a friend (not that Sakura was going to tell Naruto that, they had gotten in enough arguments about the old creep already, she didn’t need to go there again – and, huh, maybe some of his worse behavior could be curbed with enough time and someone other than fucking Sarutobi involved).
Well, huh, that…wasn’t a terrible way of changing the future come to think about it, good adults that didn’t enable shit or shut people down might make a big difference in Konoha- and she wasn’t going to try and separate Naruto from tiny!Sakumo given how he was slowly smothering the child in his gold and red tails, the black tips flickering around the small enraptured face- well, well, child collecting it was then. In that case “Change of plans, Sasuke is going to tell everyone about his dad being Izuna Uchiha and we’re not going to tell anyone else anything else and in return you guys can have at Danzo whenever you want. Naruto wont bother to keep his precog hidden either” both men stared at her and raised eyebrows in sync before nodding slowly in agreement with her cover story. Izuna would have had to had a kid right before his death to fit Sasuke's age but if that was Sasuke’s parentage then they would have to be let into to the village and it wasn’t like even the Yamanaka would find anything but horror and power and pain in the two of their heads anyway (Sakura could of course fool even Ino, she’d be fine and if she got pissed enough she’d just reverse psychology Madara into being in love with someone- Tobirama maybe? Ino would have liked that…- and let him be distracted by that. Uchiha were always a bit dumb in love, see example in front of her).
“Alright then tiny!Sakumo, lets go kick some Danzo but!” Naruto cheered, cuddling the boy even more aggressively until the tip of his tiny twitching nose and one happy hand were all that was visible as the adults traded nasty grins full of too-many teeth, as Tenten would say: Team 7 was here, let’s hear a halle-fucking-lujah!