Disclaimer:I still haven't worked out a plan to own Naruto, so until I have… Nah, screw that, I never will, and Masashi Kishimoto always will own Naruto – and you know that!
Random Rambling: I am warning you; this fic will be OoC and alternative – you can see the title is 'What If?', and this is the story of how the world could be if things were different.
Me and lock came up with the concept for this thing a while back when we were sitting up all night talking, and we're writing each our take on it. If you want to see hers, her name on here is slocks.
If you do not want to read this, please just click the back button now instead of telling me at the end how wrong this seems to you, because you have been warned, and as I said, it is meant to be that way.
If you want to continue, thank you for trying this fic out, and also, please leave a review to tell me what you think. This will be long if I complete it, so if I don't get any reiew i might likely won't write any more, though I might if I get the inspiration for it...
XXXXXXXXXX – Scene Change
xxxxx - Timeskip
Warnings: OoC, Alternative, Angst (you will only understand this in the very last chapter), Shounen-ai, Yaoi in later chapters…
Parings: There will be many pairings, and some of them will change throughout the fic.
Beta: slocks
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What If?
Chapter 1: What if Itachi never killed his whole family?
"Nii-san, will you help me train after school today?" 12-year old Sasuke was in a hurry, none the less he stopped when he saw his brother sitting by the kitchen table, smiling happily at him.
"Let me see," Itachi said, thinking through his day. "Well, I have work first, and then I promised I'd meet Hana, but I could probably fit you in, the movie we're seeing only starts at nine, so there'll be time.
Sasuke smiled, he loved training with his older brother. "Thank you… Oh damn, I gotta go. See ya later, nii-san." Just as he was about to walk out of the kitchen he heard his brother's voice, turning around only to be hit in the chest by something hard flying through the air.
"Sorry, Sasuke-chan, I thought you'd catch it… It's your lunch, you forgot it." Itachi said, laughing. The younger just smiled, then he ran out the door, he was going to be late for his last day at the academy, and he really didn't want that.
The Uchiha was running at something that could only be described as superhuman speed, miraculously getting to the academy on time, but as he neared the building he noticed that he was on head-on collision course with someone. He had no chance to stop before the impact hit, as he knocked the blonde boy over and they both tumbled to the ground in a tangle of arms and legs.
"Ow… Ow, ow, ow…" The blonde boy said, freeing one of his hands from beneath Sasuke's thigh and rubbing the back of his head, which had bumped into the wall as they fell, tentatively.
"Damn, I'm sorry… Sasuke said, looking up, are you all right?" The boy nodded, then lifted his head, his blue eyes meeting Sasuke's obsidian.
"Naruto…" he started blushing, attempting to hide it by getting to his feet, helping the other up. "I'm really sorry…"
"It's ok," the blonde smiled, one of those dazzling smiled that only he could smile. "Let's go, you don't wanna be late, do you?" Sasuke nodded and started walking towards their classroom together with the smaller boy, keeping a step ahead of him just so he wouldn't notice his blush. He'd had a crush on the blonde for over a year now, but being as shy as he was he never dared to do anything about it, preferring to admire the blonde from a distance.
As the two boys walked into the classroom, less than a minute before class was supposed to start, all the girls in the room either sighed, 'aw'ed or 'ah'ed. The two boys had each their fan club of girls; the Uchiha for his handsome appearance and mysticism; the blonde for his bishounen looks, outgoing personality and kindness. The two boys looked at each other sympathetically, neither had ever been particularly interested in their fan clubs; Sasuke would just tell them off, but Naruto, being his considerate self, put up with them just so he wouldn't hurt any of their feelings.
They took their seats; Naruto between Shikamaru and Kiba, his two best friends, and Sasuke in the corner where he usually sat, just as the teacher came in.
"Good morning, class" Anko said. The woman had been their teacher throughout their time at the academy, and they'd all grown quite attached to the strange female. "Today is your very last day at the academy since you all, I'm glad, passed your genin exams, and now I will call out what genin teams you will be on, and who will be your senseis in your genin periods.
The pupils were busy chatting excitedly amongst themselves, turning to face the front of the classroom as the small woman banged her fist into her desk, which made a rather loud sound that was followed by a couple of select words.
"Here we go," she said, satisfied at having all eyes on her.
She'd already called out teams one through 5, and Sasuke was wondering when his team would be called just as Anko called out his crush's name as the first member of team 6. Please, please let me be on the same team as him, the raven thought.
"Yes, Naruto, that would be you," the woman said to the blonde, who'd been paying very little attention as he was busy chatting with Kiba, and thus, when his name was called, simply let out a confused grunt. "Inuzuka Kiba, and Nara Shi… no, I'm sorry, Uchiha Sasuke." The black haired boy smiled inwardly, he'd already faced the fact that the odds of him being placed on the same team as the Yondaime's son weren't high, and when she's started to call Shikamaru he'd been sure, but fate was obviously on his side. "And you're sensei will be Umino Iruka." Umino Iruka… I think Itachi mentioned his name some time… "Now team 7, Haruno Sakura, Akimichi Chouji, and Hyuuga Hinata – your sensei will be Yuhi Kurenai. Team 8; Nara Shikamaru, Yamanaka Ino and Aburame Shino, your sensei will be Hatake Kakashi. Now all of you have gotten your teams. I wish you all good luck in life, and I hope I will see you all again. You will wait for your senseis here, now take care." She smiled at them one last time before she exited the room, leaving all her young genin there to away the makers of their futures.
Only seconds after Anko had left, a young man stepped into the room; he was a well built, tan male with a large scar running across his nose and his brown hair put up in a pony tail.
"I'm Umino Iruka," he said calmly, "Will my team please join me for our very first team meeting." The male looked at the crowd of students, waiting to see who would get up.
"Let's go," Kiba said, dragging Naruto to his feet as the two both poked Shikamaru as a goodbye, the blonde sticking his tongue out at him.
"Hey, you coming," Naruto said, looking at Sasuke who was in his own little world.
"Uhm, yeah…" the raven said, getting to his feet and following the two other boys and his new teacher out of the classroom.
After having walked for some while they ended up by a fountain in one of the many parks of Konoha, their teacher sitting down on the stone edge of the pool of water as Naruto and Kiba both sat down on the grass facing him, Sasuke deciding to follow their example.
"So, Let me hear about you all," the male said, his voice sounded kind and as calm as earlier. "What are your names and what are you like?" Seeing that no one attempted to speak he continued. "I'll go first. My name is, as you know, Umino Iruka. I'm 25, I've been a jounin for 7 years, and I will do everything I can to make sure you succeed as shinobi. I dream that one day the world we live in will be at peace." As he finished speaking he looked back to the children in front of him. "Who wants to go next?"
Sasuke sat quietly, he'd rather not go at all, listening to the blonde speak.
"I'm Uzumaki Naruto, the son of the Yondaime Hokage. I'm 12 years old, and I want to become either and elite ANBU or a hunter – I also wish to be hokage like my father. I lover Ramen and sweet food, and also peaches, and… well… I suppose you'll get to know me well enough…" he sat down again, leaning back so that part of his stomach was exposed, and Sasuke couldn't take his eyes off the boy.
"Well then, you with the dog, how about you go next?"
"I'm Inuzuka Kiba of the Inuzuka clan" the brunette said proudly. "We train dogs that fight alongside us, just like Akamaru here," the boy patted the white dog sitting in his lap lightly on the head. "I like animals, except for cats, and also training and candy. There's not really anything more to say about me I think…" The blonde laughed, pointing to him.
"Well, you forgot to mention that you're the biggest klutz in history" The Inuzuka merely scowled playfully and sat down again, then he laughed too –Oh, how Sasuke wished he could be like them at that moment, laughing and talking, not shy at all. He was an Uchiha, pride ran in his blood, but none the less he was shy to strangers, preferring to stay to himself, something which caused his father too think even less of him than he already did because of Itachi's accomplishments, Sasuke thought.
Sasuke was still sitting in silence, envying the Inuzuka who seemed to have a close relationship to Naruto, the Uchiha was slightly startled when he heard said blonde saying his name and noticed that someone was poking him in the shoulder.
"You ok, Sasuke?" the blonde said, looking at him. "We've been trying to get in touch with you for minutes, geez…" Sasuke blushed, embarrassed at the situation and the fact that the blonde seemed annoyed with him.
"Sorry, I was just thinking… What?" He looked at the blonde, then at his teacher.
"It's your turn to tell us about yourself, Sasuke" the man said, still smiling kindly.
"Oh, yeah… I'm Uchiha Sasuke of the Uchiha clan – Uchiha Itachi's my older brother, you've probably heard about him. I want to become as good as him, and I also want to get certain people to acknowledge me." The Uchiha was thinking about two people as he said the last part, both the blonde and his father.
"I suppose we won't get more done for today anyways, so you can all go home. We'll meet at training ground six tomorrow at 9 am sharp – if you're not on time you'll get a not so pleasant surprise." The man blinked an eye and smiled jokingly, then he poofed away, leaving behind only a puff of grey smoke.
Naruto, Kiba and Sasuke all stayed for a while, then they split up to go home, Naruto and Kiba walking together, Sasuke walking back to the Uchiha compound alone.
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Itachi had had a busy day, there'd been a lot to do at the ANBU headquarters even without a mission, the tension between Fire and Rock was growing, and they had to be alert. The relationship between the two countries had been strained for a long time, but now things had gotten all the more complicated; Rock had just appointed a new Hokage.
The black haired teen sighed, putting his elbows on his desk and his head in his hands. He'd be done for the day in 15 minutes, but his superior had ordered him to go to the hokage and brief him on the situation when he was done, something which would probably take him half an hour more. It was already 3 pm, by the time he got home it'd be around 4, and then he'd promised Sasuke that they'd train before his date with Hana. He smiled at himself when he thought about his little brother, the kid was just so damn cute and, appearance wise, he resembles Itachi so closely that it's hard telling the difference in pictures of the two of them at the same age. Sasuke is the one thing in the world he adores more than anything, and that he would give up everything for, and it's terrible to see the way their father treats the younger of the siblings, he thinks, because even though he's the genius of the clan doesn't mean that Sasuke's not any good.. Both he and his mother have talked to Fugaku about it, but the man doesn't seem to listen to them, and so they both have to watch Sasuke work himself to the bone for the recognition that he so craves from his father…
"Damn…" Itachi mumbled as stretched, yawning lightly. He'd almost fallen asleep on his desk, which wasn't the first time as of late – all the things in his life spinning round in his head and keeping him awake till long at night so he didn't sleep much. Looking at his watch he got up from his chair and walked out of his office, headed for the Hokage tower.
xxxxx
It was 4.01 pm when Itachi walked into the Uchiha compound, subbing his feet across the ground lazily as he did so, heading to his room to change his clothes. Once he got to his room he closed the door, locking it, and then walked over to his closet to find some clean clothes that he could also use for training with Sasuke after dinner. He ended up with a set of normal Jounin pants and a dark blue, fitted tee with the customary Uchiha fan on the back. After changing his clothes he lay down on his bed and closed his eyes, he really needed some rest.
Itachi could hear a soft knock on his door, looking at the clock on his bedside table to find that he'd slept for close to 45 minutes, sitting up and rubbing his eyes as he spoke to whoever was at the other side of his door.
"Yeah, yeah… What is it?"
"Dinner's ready, Nii-san" he heard his younger brother's voice through the door, smiling. The boy actually sounded quite happy for once, not bored or distant as usual.
"I'm coming," he said, walking over to his door and unlocking it. As it opened he saw Sasuke leaning against the wasll on the other side of the hall from his room, smiling happily, and he walked over to him, ruffling his hair gently. "Hey, Sasuke," the younger looked up at him. "Had a good day?"
"Mhm!" the younger mumbled before he started walking towards the kitchen. "I'll tell you about it over dinner, since mom'll probably want to hear too."
Itachi frowned behind his little brothers back, it hurt him to see that his younger brother really thought their father didn't at all care about him, though he couldn't blame the boy for it. "Yeah, I bet you she will. Oh, by the way, what do you want to train today, chibi?"
Sasuke frowned up at his older, taller brother, but the resumed his happy expression from before. "You can choose today, I just want to train with you." Itachi had to smile at his younger brother, then he pushed him playfully before him into the kitchen and they both settled down at the table with their parents.
Starting out, no one is speaking as the four of them eat, then Mikoto looks up from her meal and at her youngest son, smiling lovingly at him. "So, how was your day, Sasuke-chan? You got split into genin teams today, didn't you?"
The youngest of the four gathered around the table looked up at his mother, taking time to chew and swallow his food before he speaks. "It was really good. First Anko told us our teams, I'm teamed with Inuzuka Kiba and Naruto," there was no need to mention the latter's last name, everyone knew who the son of the fourth hokage was. "And then our sensei came, his name's Umino Iruka, and we introduced ourselves and stuff, and then he told us to meet up at training ground 6 tomorrow." The young boy seems genuinely happy, Itachi thinks, about to speak when he hears his father's voice.
"If you're paired with someone like Naruto you had better do your best, Sasuke, you represent the Uchiha clan, and he's the son of the hokage, this could be a good opportunity for our clan." Both Mikoto and Itachi looked disbelievingly at Fugaku, Mikoto making a mental note to take it up with him later.
Sasuke nodded and looked down, his father can always find a way to bring him down. "Hey, I bet you're better than him already, Sasuke, and if not then I'll train you till you can beat him to the ground, ok?" He hears his brother's voice as the older tries to cheer him up, and if nothing else, then to please him, he smiled.
"Well, I'm done, and it looks like you are too, do you want to go now?" Sasuke nodded at his brother, then got up and grabbed his plate to take it to the counter, but Mikoto laid a hand on his, telling him she could take it for both him and Itachi and that they should go and train. Sasuke and Itachi both thanked her for the meal, then they walked outside to the Uchiha's private training grounds.
xxxxx
After two hours of training, the clock was nearing 8, Sasuke and Itachi were both sitting on the ground recuperating from their heavy training. They'd sparred, and even though he wasn't giving his all he had to say that Sasuke had really gotten good. He smiled at his little brother and ruffled his hair like usual.
"You were really good today, Sasuke." The younger grinned and got to his feet.
"Well, you still aren't doing your best, so I'm not good enough…" Itachi shrugged and got up, their father had, if nothing else, succeeded in making Sasuke believe that until he was better than his own brother he was nothing.
"No, you're not good enough to beat me, but I've got 6 years on you, and you've really gotten better lately." Sasuke seemed to brighten at the compliment.
"Well, you're date's in like an hour, isn't it, you should probably get ready unless you wanna meet her smelling like a skunk or something…" Itachi laughed, it made him happy to see his younger brother happy, and right now the youngest Uchiha was in an unusually good mood for himself, the older thought.
"Mhm, you're right… Well, I'll see you later then, tonight or tomorrow." Sasuke merely nodded, then walked off in direction of the house, and, Itachi guessed, his own room, then he started walking towards his own.
As soon as he got to his room he closed and locked his door like always, walking straight into the adjourning bathroom where he turned on the shower and undressed, waiting for it to heat up, then stepped in. He let the warm water run down his body for some minutes before he started washing off, stepping out on the shower and drying himself once he was done. He proceeded to walk back into his room wearing only the dampened towel, then found some new clothes; a pair of jeans and a black tee, to wear when he was going out. As soon as he finished he looked at the clock; it was half 9, and he was supposed to pick up Hana before the movie…
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After the movie Itachi and Hana came laughing out of the cinema, they'd seen an action movie, but simply because they were both shinobi all of what happened in it seemed so overdone or just plain stupid, so it had served more as a comedy too them. They walked slowly until they reached the Inuzuka household, stopping some meters from the door. Night was falling as it was already 11 pm, and darkness was slowly enveloping Konoha. Just as they were about to part Itachi brought a hand to Hana's cheek, pulling her towards him with the other, and kissed her passionately. The girl immediately responded when he bit her lip lightly asking for entrance, spreading her lips gently and granting his wish. Their kiss lasted for what Itachi guessed to be a couple of minutes before they heard a knock on the window from inside, both looking over to see what it was. It was Inuzuka Kiba, Hana's annoying little brother, and from today on also his little brother's teammate. The boy made a disgusted face and stuck out his tongue at the two, Itachi merely smiling back as Hana made a gesture telling Kiba just how dead he was.
"I'm sorry…" she mumbled embarrassedly, a blush creeping to her marked cheeks.
"Haha, don't be…" Itachi placed another, but this time brief kiss on her lips. "I'll see you tomorrow, kitten." The nickname earned him a playful punch to the shoulder, he know how much Hana hated to be called kitten, and therefore he just couldn't help himself from calling her just that.
"G'night, Itachi" she said, waving at him as she walked up to her door, opening it.
"Yeah," he replied, "You too." She closed the door behind her and Itachi walked home in silence, heading straight for bed as he got home; he was starting work at 6 am tomorrow, so he had to be rested.
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It had already been a week since they became genin, and Sasuke was quickly learning that the real thing was something very different from the classroom education they had from the academy – and they hadn't even been on a mission yet.
Two days ago he'd been training with Itachi and the male had told him about his current sensei. Umino Iruka was one of Konoha's best jounin, alongside the likes of the infamous Hatake Kakashi, the legacy of the white fang of Konoha, and others like him – and incidentally he was actually dating the white fang, having come out as a bisexual not so long ago. Even though he was a feared jounin and ex hunter he was also, Itachi had said, probably one of the kindest people in Konoha, and a highly exceptional Shinobi. Sasuke was lucky to have gotten the man as his sensei, was the end result of that discussion.
The black haired boy woke from his thoughts only when someone hit him in the head, snapping him out of his own world.
"Sasuke, wake up, teme, it's our turn to spar!" Naruto was already settled in a fighting stance on the field that was their training ground, waiting for the Uchiha to come join him. The blonde had just fought Kiba and won, yet he still had the energy to fight Sasuke this enthusiastically. Where does he get all his energy from? The raven thought to himself as he got up, walking towards his opponent, then, when he was opposite him, settling into a fighting stance of his own.
"I'm ready, " he said to the blonde, "let's go."
"Finally," the blonde said, Sasuke was slightly embarrassed that the blonde was annoyed with him again, but he focused on the battle.
After 20 minutes of a rather competitive fight Sasuke felt a sharp pain shoot up his spine as he crashed backwards into a tree, the force of Naruto's last kick has sent him flying backwards before he knew it, and only as he actually hit the tree did he realize he should have done something to stop himself from hitting it. He'd lost, again.
"Good match, Naruto," Iruka said, smiling at the blonde as he walked over to his 'fallen' student. "And you too, Sasuke, but you have to get better at taking the opportunities you get, and you also need to learn something or another about fall techniques… We can go over that tomorrow, I suppose." The brunette reached his hand, pulling Sasuke to his feet, then the two walk over to Kiba and Naruto.
"Seriously, Sasuke, you gotta pay more attention when we fight!" Naruto looks slightly annoyed, yet there's something in his eyes that makes Sasuke not speak and rather wait for something more. "Since we're on the same team, how bout I help you out with that after team practice some days?"
Smiling, Sasuke nods, then speaks. "Yeah, that'd be real good… thanks"
"Sure… We'll never be a good team if we don't work well together, right?" The blonde said happily. "Does tomorrow work for you?"
"…" Sasuke isn't sure what to say, gladly surprised that Naruto would be private tutoring him, but then again the boy is the son of the fourth hokage – it might just be his sense of duty. "Yeah, sure" The blonde gave him another smile, then poked Kiba in the shoulder.
"It's kind of you to be willing to give Sasuke some extra training, Naruto. Well, team practice is over for the day, you will meet up here tomorrow at the same time." Iruka smiled at his team and ruffled Kiba's hair, he has a tendency of doing that with his students, then turned around and walked off, waving his hand backwards at his team of genin.
"You'll get him tomorrow, but Naruto's mine for the afternoon, see ya, Sasuke" Kiba said, pulling the blonde with him away from the training grounds and into the city.
"Bye" the raven said, barely noting the reply he got from Naruto and Kiba, who were disappearing from his sight, then he walked slowly homewards bound. When he got home Mikoto called at him to come to the kitchen and help her make dinner, something to which he happily obliged, he liked helping his mother with things. Just as they finished dinner Itachi and Fugaku returned to the Uchiha compound, walking into the kitchen to find Sasuke and his mother already seated by the table.
"How was your day?" Itachi asked, his brother looks so happy that it warms his heart, he hasn't looked that glad in long.
"It was good… Naruto's going to be tutoring me extra outside of team practice, since you don't have time that often now a days," Naruto only gestured to his brother, he hardly ever talked directly to his father no matter what, and the man hadn't trained him ever since he realized the boy wouldn't follow in Itachi's hard-to-fill footsteps. Itachi was sad to see just how bad the relationship between his father and younger brother was, but he kept smiling.
"Oh, that sounds good." He said, about to continue when his father spoke.
"Sasuke, if you're so bad that you need tutoring you should go back to the academy for a year, what you're doing now is only giving Naruto-kun more to deal with, that's not something you should be doing." Just then Mikoto interrupted, looking sternly at her husband at seeing the sad look on her youngest's face, setting the dinner on the table.
Itachi sighed, he was so sick of seeing the way his father treated Sasuke; it wasn't the boy's fault that his older brother was a genius. If it would make you happy, Sasuke, and if it would make him give you the acknowledgement that you so desire, then I'd give it all up, I wonder what you'd say if you knew.
Although it wasn't something he said, Itachi though he was quite good at showing his little brother how much he cared, although he doubted his little brother knew how much he really meant to him. To put simply what Sasuke was to him, Itachi thought, it would be that he'd gladly give up everything, including his life, for Sasuke to have the best opportunities he could. He smiled a melancholy smile and continued to eat his dinner…
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What if I lead the way?
What if I make mistakes?
What if I change the world?
What if I take the blame?
(Will you be there?)
What if – Simple Plan
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