Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. If I did, I probably wouldn't be doing this.

AN: Here's the rewritten version of Chapter 2. Not too many changes, but a few pieces here and there.

He hurt like hell. That was all he could think of to describe it. Eyes slowly opening, he quickly closed them again, turning into his pillow to get away from the light. Wait, pillow? Shooting up in his bed, he frantically looked around, wondering what was going on.

Did I survive? How could he be? What had happened? Where was everyone? Bringing his hand to his forehead, he noted yet another problem. And why the hell am I so small? Ugh…

He looked up at the ratty calendar on the wall, surprised to find that it was the old one he'd kept as a child. The problem was that the calendar was quite obviously wrong. According to the date, he should have been about…seven? Taking a moment to think, his hazy mind pulled a few recent memories. They Kyuubi had done something. He wasn't sure what, but he knew that he'd heard the Kyuubi saying something about "bending reality" or some such nonsense. So what, the giant ball of furry-looking chakra could send him back in time now?

On the other hand, there really weren't many other reasons he could think of for why he was in a far younger version of his body, with no signs of Madara, Pain, or the Snake-Bastard anywhere. Maybe he was dead, and this was all some kind of strange afterlife? Or a Genjutsu of some kind…But what reason would they have to put him in a Genjutsu when he and the others were so clearly going to fail? They'd certainly never come off as the merciful sort, so he doubted it was a final act of kindness for a dying enemy.

Of course, if he had in fact gone through some kind of freakish reality shift, he was probably just in shock, and the reality of it would hit him later. Regardless of what had happened he'd never been one to sit around thinking. He was more of an action person, and at this particular moment the only thing that would help him figure out what was going on was probably just such an action.

Well, only one way to find out. Delving into his mind, he found himself in front of a familiar set of barred doors, the seal holding them together still holding strong. Strangely, in this place his body was still that of a young adult. It was a little comforting to know that he wasn't just going completely insane. At the very least he knew that the Kyuubi was really there. Yet even though the place was very familiar to him, as was his mental image of himself, the sight inside was far from anything he'd seen while entering his mind before. The Kyuubi was in his cage, just as he'd expected the beast to be. However, there were some rather noticeable—and frankly, disturbing—differences.

The sleeping fox was only a fraction of its normal size, and what was left didn't present an imposing image. Its "fur" was scattered and thin, missing in other places, and the translucent reddish tissue below was pulled tight over visible bone and muscle. It was missing all but a single tail, which was in only slightly better condition than the rest of its body, and to top it off there was a flood of pulsating chakra circling the slumbering beast, crawling over its mangy coat. Simply put, he'd seen rotten carcasses that had pulled off a more lively look.

As he called out to the slumbering giant, a deep displeased rumble echoed from its mouth.

As was his nature, Naruto only paid heed to this warning for a matter of seconds before the rather twisted form of logic he'd developed came into play. This particular brand of logic had a very simple solution to problems such as the one he was faced with: If you want something to wake up, and calling it doesn't work, poke it with a stick. If no stick is available then just settle for hitting it with something. And so hit the fox he did. Several times, in fact. He wasn't completely sure where the stones came from, but there were plenty of them sitting around on the ground. And if they were there then why not use them? It was his mind, after all, so they'd probably just appeared because he wanted something to pester the old fox with. Within moments, he remembered just why he needed to be more careful when using what he'd come to call his "Super Amazing Genius Logic."

It tended to lead him into trouble. "Trouble" in this case translating into an angry, several story high tall fox slamming itself against the bars of its cage, and trying to smash him with a huge paw, snarling curses at him all the while. Yeah, it might have been smaller and rattier than before, but it had been a giant capable of towering over pretty much every building in Konohagakure during its attack on the village, so that wasn't saying much. Even at a mere fraction of its normal size, the demonic beast still completely dwarfed him.

"Hey, would you just calm down already, ya crazy old fuzzball?" Finally noting what was right in front of him, the fox drew back from the edge of its cage, giving him an angry yet questioning glare as its mind began to settle.

"Yo. How are things going in there, Kyuu-chan?"

"Who are…" Its eyes widened by a barely noticeable margin."No, you couldn't be." Naruto's eyes narrowed, taking in the Kyuubi's expression. It looked confused, amazed even. No, the fox was never confused. Or, at least, it never let on that it was. Shocked maybe, but never completely unable to comprehend a situation.

"What? What couldn't I be?" What's with you, you old pain in the gut?

"You are my host. My Jinchuuriki."

"Um, duh? It's not like that's anything new. Seriously, what's the deal with you?" It didn't seem interested in listening.

"Impossible…I couldn't have been slumbering for so long." Its focus returned to the small human in front of its cage. "You, brat, how old have you become? What is your age? Tell me!"

Huh?

"What're you freaking out about? You were talking to me just a little while ago. Y'know, with the Uchiha, crazy Snake-Bastard, piercing man? Any of this ringing a bell?" The Kyuubi's uncomprehending expression turned completely baffled, and the anger boiling below the surface of his typically calm (albeit sadistic) exterior was beginning to show. But then he never had liked it when Naruto talked down to him like that. Let's see…Oh.

"Um…You said something about reality bending?" The Kyuubi moved as though it was going to speak again, but instead turned away, pacing around in the cage. Naruto absently wondered if being smaller was more comfortable, given that pacing wasn't really an available option for the fox the last time he'd seen it. After it continued this for several minutes, Naruto was starting to get impatient. Oh come on already, say something! And, perhaps unsurprisingly, it didn't take long for those thoughts to make their way through the rather ineffective filter between his mind and mouth. Sometimes he really cursed his lack of patience, but in this case he just plain didn't care.

"Yo, fox! What's the holdup? Do ya know what's goin' on, or is all that fur on your head makin' it too hard to think?" His "prisoner" growled at him, before walking back up to the bars, glaring down at his smaller form.

"If I said I was 'bending reality' then I likely was." Well, wasn't that just a clear and simple explanation. "Tell me, how old are you?"

"Sevent-I mean, seven. According to that calendar, anyway. But like ten years older last I remember."

The fox looked him over for a moment. "I see…" Beginning its pacing again, Naruto dropped to the ground with an all-too-audible sigh. This could take a while. He supposed it was a good thing he was stubborn, then. Minutes passed. Hours passed. Days passed. Or maybe he was just really, really getting bored with watching the fox trot back and forth across its cage.

"Alright fuzzy, c'mon. Need-to-know info needed right here, right now."

"I might have sent you—us—back in time."

"Huh? You can do that." That would have been a nifty piece of information to have had at their disposal earlier.

"I'm not completely certain. I've always considered testing it to see, but I've never tried before. Or at least, I don't believe I have."

"You don't know?" Talk about a bad memory. I mean really, what kind of crazy does it take for somebody to not remember that he could go back in time? The Kyuubi didn't growl, instead choosing to release a condescending huff at the boy.

"I didn't even remember meeting you. I wasn't even sure who you were at first. And I'm severely low on chakra. It may require so much energy that I rest until I've regenerated, unaware of whether or not I even did so. An…intervention, like yours," he said this without attempting to hide the obvious aggravation, "May have simply been something that hasn't occurred before."

"Wait, but you said 'This will hurt. Badly' before you did whatever it is you did. How would you know that if you didn't know?"

"…It's not like I've never played with reality before. Just never to a significant extreme. Even miniscule changes take a major toll. I haven't done it in years. The last time I attempted to change time was over one hundred years ago, and only by a few days. For that, I lost two tails, and nearly fell to the Hachibi. Damned tentacled ox almost had me that time."

"…Oh." Well that would explain it. Sort of. "Think anybody could have come with us?"

He was positive that he'd felt something there with him when he was being pulled back…The last time he'd seen anyone, Gaara and Ino had been with him, not that they would have been any use. It wasn't an insult to them, but Gaara's recovery from losing Shukaku was taking a long time, and he wouldn't stand a chance against Madara (Hell, even with Shukaku, he might not have stood a chance against Madara). As for Ino, well, her main advantage came from the Yamanaka techniques that affected the mind, which would most likely fail against someone with the Mangekyo Sharingan and one hundred years of experience.

"It might be possible. I've already admitted that I don't know the ins and outs of time travel. I must have been desperate to try it in the first place. What more do you want? I probably saved your life. Pathetic, weak little creatures that your kind are, I've no doubt that you needed my help often."

Well, it was worth a shot. "Man, we get into some crazy stuff."

"We do, do we?" Was the fox actually amused?

Oh yeah, no memory. "Yeah, we always got into all sorts a trouble." The fox's brow rose up, clearly disbelieving. "Okay, so it was usually me that got into trouble, but who cares about the details, right?"

"So if you're a mere pup again, would you not have somewhere to be? Your culture is hardly a specialty of mine, but even you primitive, hairless monkeys must have some form of tasks that the young are meant to perform."

Eh?

"Whattya mean? Where would I ne-" Aw crap! "The academy! Oh man, I'm gonna be late!" And suddenly he was gone, leaving a smirking fox who quickly fell back into a deep slumber, waiting to regenerate his chakra.

For the second time in less than five minutes, Naruto leaped up in his bed. This time, however, he was already sitting up when he jumped. The result was a very disgruntled child trying his best to untangle himself from the bed sheets, scrambling for whatever clothes were closest to him. Less than a minute later, still pulling a shoe on, Naruto hopped from his room on one leg, a package of cup ramen hanging from his mouth. Somehow managing to shut the door behind him, he finally got the shoe on, and began his mad dash for the academy. A mad dash that was brought to a crashing halt not too long afterwards, as he plowed into someone while running through the streets.

"Sorry Fishnet, gotta go." Of course, he wasn't going to get away that easily. As he jumped up and started to run, he found himself in the air, running in place. Stopping his "run," he turned his head to the woman holding him up by the back of his shirt, glancing at the woman with obvious and exaggerated frustration. He might just be able to make it to the academy on time if nothing else went wrong, and this was pushing it.

"Fishnet?" Mitarashi Anko hadn't been called Fishnet before. It sort of fit of course, so she wasn't going to complain about it. In all honesty she kind of liked meeting a kid who had the guts to say something like that to her face. But she was still annoyed at the boy for crashing into her. She'd almost lost her dango and in Mitarashi Anko's books, such an action would be unforgivable…

"Don't like Fishnet? What about Dango Lady?"

Narrowing her eyes, Anko shook the small boy a few times. Fishnet was fine, cute even, but insulting the dango was a big no-no. "It's Anko. And I almost lost my dango because of you, blondie."

"Oh c'mon, Dango Lady, it's not like ya really lost it! I'm gonna be late, so you can just lemme go now." Did she just get dismissed by a child? The Hokage could dismiss her. Jiraiya or Tsunade could dismiss her. Jonin like Kakashi and Asuma and a few of her peers could dismiss her. A prepubescent brat? Hell no.

"Okay, just listen up you little hellspawn, because I'm not saying it again. I told you, my name i-"

"Academy! Late!"

Her eyes shot behind him to the right for a moment, and she dropped him to the ground. Ugh. Fine. "Alright, but watch where you're goin' next time, you little maggot."

Muttering some quick and rather insincere thanks to the woman, Naruto sped off towards the academy yet again, leaving an annoyed Anko in his tracks. Turning to the man that had drawn her attention, she faced the silver-haired Jonin leaning against the nearby wall.

"So why'd you want me to let him go? Not like I was gonna hurt the brat. Much." And I thought I might finally get to have a little fun. Everyone around here is so boring. He may have been a brat, but the runt had balls.

"He's late. It wouldn't be nice to hold him back now, would it? His tardiness record is bad enough as it is."

Wait…Now that she thought about it, the kid had looked familiar. "Who was the runt anyway?"

"You don't recognize him? He's pretty famous around here."

"It's not like I'm around a lot." She looked at where the boy had taken off just a few moments earlier, and stood lost in thought for a several minutes, flashing through memories of the many shinobi profiles they were required to read. "It was him, wasn't it? The fox…"

"Yep. He's the one. Lively, eh?"

"Little maggot was pretty hyper" Seems like a little brat. She didn't even notice the smirk slowly making its way across her features. I like him.

"You like him."

Anko chuckled. She'd have to keep tabs on the kid.

"Iruka-sensei!" Naruto slammed through the door, gasping for breath. Not that he really needed to. He never ran out of energy that fast. In retrospect, it was somewhat amazing that he'd never realized there was something unusual about him before Mizuki let the cat out of the bag about his secret.

"Uzumaki Naruto." Iruka sighed. He was hardly surprised. Naruto was a good kid at heart, but he had serious priority issues. "Late again."

Naruto's jaw dropped. He could've sworn he'd made it in time. Oh come on!

AN: Hope you liked the rewrite. The rest of the rewrites and the new chapter should be up soon (Same goes for several of my other stories).