Time and Again (fanfic)

Blood.

He could smell it everywhere. On him, on the burning buildings around him, leaking out of the body of the last of his childhood friends not far from him, it was even in the mud that he was lying in. Something cold and wet hit his face, causing him to stir and beginning to bring him back to his senses. Was it raining too? He couldn't remember when it had started.

—Time and Again, Opening words, Prologue

Time and Again, and its sequel, is a masterful re-telling of Naruto. With a twist.

The future has gone bad, very bad. Konoha has been destroyed and Orochimaru-as-Sasuke stands on the threshold of complete and final victory. Then, in the last moments, his life leaking away, Naruto lands a decisive blow before losing consciousness.

Then he wakes up--twenty years in the past.

At first Naruto suspects a really awful hangover, then genjutsu, of being the cause of the strangeness surrounding him. Then the possibilities hit him...

With powerful, poignant characterization, excellent pacing, humor, drama, suspense, Time and Again is the epitome of Peggy Sue fanfic; with a tendency towards nail-biting tension and generous helpings of awesome. An examination of the Peggy Sue and God Mode Sue plot devices that plays straight, deconstructs, inverts, averts, and turns 'em every way but loose!

The recipe is heavily Original Flavour, amazingly so: the author has repeatedly guessed upcoming canon plot twists, sometimes months before they happened! Unlike most Peggy Sue stories, as time passes the plot leans towards Darker and Edgier.

Now it has a fan vid.

Tropes used in Time and Again (fanfic) include:

• Time Travel: Comes with several toppings:
  • Set Right What Once Went Wrong: Most of Naruto's efforts are along this vein. He is moderatly successful. Several times his past/future/current mentors diuscourage this.
  • Future Badass
  • Bad Future: A major motive for Naruto's attempts to change the timeline.
  • Really Seven Hundred Years Old: Naruto looks, and manages pull off the act of a twelve year old when he's actually over thirty.
  • Peggy Sue: Naruto, later we find out Orochimaru is also one.
• Angst: Naruto falls into a brief funk after he fails to stop Haku's suicide, and thinks he may have inadvertently gotten Akamaru killed.
  • Later, he falls into a more serious one after he is captured and tortured by Orochimaru for two years!
• Adaptation Distillation: Debateable - Some aspects/arcs are glossed over, others are greatly expanded.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: Some interpreatations of the Sasuke/Sakura romance and Ship Tease. Which is which is open to debate.
• Big Bad: Orochimaru, in the first story. Danzo is showing symptoms in the second.
• Brainwashed coupled with Mind Rape: The mind-control jutsu from the future. May actually be People Puppets. The mind-controlled victum is entirely aware of what's happening to them.
• Brick Joke: Cutting people's hair while they sleep, almost a Book End since Naruto mentions how twisted it would be in the beginning, and Temari wonders what would happen if she does it at the end of the Time and Again.
• Cats Are Mean: The Two-Tailed Monster Cat in Here and Now.
• Clear My Name: This is a major plot point resulting from both Orochimaru and Danzo's mechinations.
• Contrived Coincidence: Orochimaru convinces Rin that Naruto is really the Kyuubi rather than being the person it's sealed inside by taking her to witness Naruto use the Kyuubi's power. Fridge Logic would normally be the case, but he took her apparently right before Naruto decided to change a B rank mission to a C rank mission to put the team in some trouble so they could bond, but which should have been an A rank mission, during which he is required for the first time in the entire story, to use the Kyuubi's power visibly.
• Darker and Edgier and It Gets Worse: The series is increasingly leaning towards this. Most notably is the graphic torture scenes orchestrated by Orochimaru.
• Fighting From the Inside: Some people attempt this once captured by Orochimaru's mind Jutsu.
• For Want of a Nail: The timeline diverges as a direct result of Sasuke's fight with Itachi resulting in a different outcome.
• Hopeless War: Against Orochimaru in the original timeline, and against Kumogakure after Time and Again.
• More Than Mind Control: Apparently this was Orochimaru/Sasuke's relationship with Rin from before the rewind. Now, Orochimaru is up for a repeat performance.
• One Dialogue, Two Conversations: Sakura trying to confirm Naruto is trying to go out with Hinata... Naruto thinks she realized he has the Kyuubi in him. Hilarity Ensues
• Sadist Teacher: Anko to Sakura.
• Secret Keeper: Kakashi and the Third Hokage in Time and Again and Sasuke in Here and Now. He also told Shikamaru, but it's so random he thought Naruto was joking.
• Shout-Out: Repeatedly, of events pertaining to the 'canon'. Others deal with the altered timeline and the changes wrought by both Naruto and Orochimaru. Happens more often in the sequel.
• Ship Tease: The Author is unnecessarily cruel to Hinata...considering the Irony.
• Time Skip: Between Time and Again and Here and Now.
• Zerg Rush: Taken to absurd limits when he calls Taijuu Kage Bunshin. They don't even attack, simply filling every available space to keep Neji, Lee, and Tenten from following them.