Disclaimer: not mine. Never was and never will.
Can a person truly and completely understand even one person in his lifetime?
The world is peculiar place. There are so many intricate and complicated aspects of the world that no individual has been able to completely comprehend them. Of course, one of the most mind-boggling ideas that Man has come to play with is the theory of alternative universes. In the original (and the most familiar for all of us) universe, a young child was sealed with a demon in his tummy and was condemned to a life of scorn and disdain. Well, we do know that such individuals will grow up to be influential, filled with empathy and powerful because stories are meant to motivate and inspire the readers. Perhaps, that is due to his nature. Or maybe, the circumstances that he lived in helped to shape his personal identity and life philosophy. What if this young boy was never subjected to scorn and contempt? What if he was never sealed with the demon? What if people were more rational and could differentiate between the prison and the prisoner. Such questions lead to possible divergences from the original timeline and the young boy whom we are all so familiar with may just change so much because his life experiences are different.
In this alternative universe, our young protagonist was sealed with the demon but no one else knows. Not a single soul.
Uzumaki Naruto wandered into the market place where the crowd was celebrating the demise of the Nine-tailed Fox and remembering the sacrifice their leaders made. The disaster that struck fifteen years ago had been safely averted but it was not without a price. The disaster has left Konoha struggling to survive after the Third Hokage and Fourth Hokage collaborated to kill the demon, resulting in Konoha lacking a strong leader to calm the distressed and scarred people and to convince foreign powers that Konoha was still a formidable powerhouse. Problems snowballed and it was increasingly more painful to solve such issues. Yet, the people felt that they should give due respect and recognition for the sacrifice their leaders made, therefore, deciding to host annual festivals. It was such a festival that our young protagonist wandered into, setting the background for our alternative universe.
This blonde, blue-eyed teenager wandered from stall to stall and his eyes grew wide in amazement seeing all the different games available. Naruto was getting really excited and started to jump up and down when he saw the fireworks lighting up the nightsky.
"Woah! That is so cool! I never knew Konoha was this exciting!" he whispered in amazement.
"Naruto." a deep voice growled behind him. Naruto carefully turned around and it was an understatement when Naruto could only whimper, "Oh crap."
"Uzumaki Naruto. Which part of "Wait", "Stop" and "Idiot" do you not understand?"
"Eh? I think the "Idiot" part. I am sure that my intelligence is rather remarkable. Being any smarter might just be a sin," Naruto quickly replied.
"Right. And if your ego continues getting any bigger, I am afraid that the world can't fit it."
"The world is too small to fit one Uzumaki Naruto to begin with!"
Upon seeing his raven-haired companion getting increasingly furious, Naruto decided to placate his companion's anger by quickly saying, "Ah hahah, Sasuke, you do know that I am joking, right?"
Uchiha Sasuke sighed in despair. He felt that he could never completely understand this friend he made at Wave. Naruto was working as a construction worker for Tazuna when he first met him. Upon finding out that Team Seven was from Konoha at the end of their mission, Naruto pleaded with Tazuna to grant him leave to visit Konoha. When Tazuna refused to grant him leave due to unknown reasons, Naruto quit on the spot and it left the Wave family flabbergasted and speechless for a good twenty minutes. During that time, Naruto quickly started to drag Sasuke, demanding Sasuke to lead the way. Sasuke looked at his Sensei for help and when Tenzo had just shrugged, Sasuke knew that the return trip was not going to be as peaceful as he had hoped it to be.
Looking at how amazed Naruto seemed as he looked around Konoha, the raven-haired teenager had an inkling that Konoha was not going to be as peaceful for a while. Sasuke took one glance at Naruto and sighed.
Damn it.