Hey I'm back with the first real chapter of this story. First off, thanks to the person who left a review! I'm surprised that on my first chapter I got a review, so that's encouraging, as well as the 7 favs and 9 follows! I'm amazed and gratified that there are already people interested in the story. Especially because this is my very first fanfiction. I would appreciate any constructive criticism that you guys have to offer. It's probably not very good, and I would like to improve my writing so... here I am! Anyway, here's the next chapter.
Naruto
Naruto awoke with a start. Gasping, he sat up and looked around, wiping the sweat off his face with the back of his hand. Controlling his breathing, he noticed a couple things. The first of those was that he was in his old apartment. He hadn't been in his old apartment for a good amount of time, seeing as it had been destroyed by Nagato in his invasion.
Looking around his bedroom, memories of his past abusement by the citizens of Konoha came flooding into his mind. He remembered how every year on the day of the Kyuubi Festival mobs of angry and drunk people came to his door with makeshift weapons, threatening his life.
With a frown on his face, he got up and walked around his old room. That was when he noticed the second thing. Everything was tall. Or rather, he was short. The bottom of the window in his room was about shoulder level with him, which was a weird experience for the teen. Looking outside the window at the town he saw people smiling and conversing with others in a cheerful manner, as if they weren't in the aftermath of the 4th Great Shinobi War.
Then, he noticed the third thing. The Hokage Monument. It only had FOUR faces. Baa-chan's wasn't there!
'Kurama, what the hell is going on right now?'
…
'Kurama?'
'Five more minutes….' the bijuu grumbled.
'KURAMA!' he mentally shouted
'Agh! I'm up! What do you want kit?'
'Why is there only four faces on the Hokage Monument? Why am I so short? And why am I in my old apartment?!'
'Hmmm…. Well, I'd say we're in a genjutsu.'
"KAI!" Seeing no change in his surroundings he turned his intention inwards to the kyuubi.
'So we traveled back in time.'
'... Come again?'
'We traveled back in time.' He said with a smirk on his face. 'My guess is that it is sometime before the chunin exams.'
'What? How is that possible?'
'You're asking the wrong bijuu.'
'Troublesome' Naruto thought.
Shikamaru sneezed.
'Wait, if I traveled back in time. And it's before the chunin exams... does that mean that Old Man Hokage is still alive?' asked Naruto, his voice filled with hope.
'Probably. I'm taking another nap.'
Naruto muttered something that sounded like 'lazy overgrown fox' before checking his wardrobe. In it was his old orange and blue jumpsuit that he used to wear.
'Wow why did I ever wear this? ... Oh yeah, cuz I wasn't sold anything else. Oh well'
Naruto reluctantly threw it on and went out into the kitchen to look in the fridge, which had spoiled milk and water. In the cupboard was instant ramen. Nothing else, just ramen. 'Figures' He thought. He made a mental note to go shopping later. Throwing out the milk, he took the water and used some of it to warm up some of the ramen.
While waiting for the ramen, he thought about his situation.
'Right now , I'm around 12 years old. In order to not arouse suspicion, I need to only do what I can do right now. That may or may not include the Shadow Clone jutsu. I wonder if anyone else came back with me. The most likely person would be Sasuke, considering that he was right next to me when I blacked out in the Valley of the End. I'll find out today.'
His thoughts were interrupted by his timer letting him know that his ramen was done.
"Itadakimasu!" He shouted enthusiastically to no one.
Sasuke
Sasuke jerked up quickly with cold sweat covering his face and back.
"Ughhhhh What the hell…" he muttered.
With a massive headache and an aching left eye, he shakily got up and stumbled his way to the window, throwing the blinds open and letting light flood into his room. He looked out upon Konoha, and his eyes were immediately drawn to the stone faces of the Hokage Monument. More specifically, it's lack of said faces.
'How is that possible?'
Deciding to ponder the question later, he went to his wardrobe, which held blue shirts and white shorts. Confused, he got dressed and went to the kitchen to make himself some food.
'Last thing I remember is talking with Naruto and deciding not to kill the Five Kage. Then, I fell unconscious. One would assume that I would be placed in a hospital, or a jail after my betrayal and everything proceeding the Sound Four. It's the last thing I would expect to be placed in my clan's compound with my arm intact. Not too mention, wasn't Konoha destroyed by Pain while I was away?'
While eating his breakfast he came to the conclusion that he was either under a genjutsu or he had traveled back in time. However after examining his surroundings and his arm with his Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan and seeing no genjutsu, he decided it was the probably the latter. Checking his calendar, he noticed it was the day of his genin graduation.
Any trace of doubt vanished when he left his apartment and got smiles and greetings of 'Uchiha-sama' instead of the disgusted scowls and insults he had expected after abandoning the village.
Deciding to head to the Academy, he leapt onto the rooftops and took off.
Arriving at the Academy and heading into his classroom he caught sight of his class… five years younger than he had last seen them.
Forcing down a feeling of nostalgia from seeing his old class untouched by the horrors of war, he took his seat by the window that he used to sit at. Immediately he was surrounded by fangirls.
As far as Sasuke was concerned, the entirety of the Akatsuki and Madara were preferable to the abomination that was fangirls. He had probably suffered more mental trauma from them then from his late Elder Brother, Itachi.
'Wait, Itachi! If I really travelled back in time, then Itachi should still be alive! He doesn't have to die this time around!' Sasuke realised with a dumb grin on his face.
Lost in his stupor, he didn't realise that a certain blond ninja (or at least, soon to be ninja) strolling up to where he was sitting.
"Wow, who knew the teme could smile!" Naruto said with his trademark grin in an overly loud voice.
Sasuke's eyes widened as he looked up at the blonde, not knowing whether he came from the future like he did or if he was alone in his trip to the past.
"Did you come back too?" Sasuke asked, not very well concealing the hope in his voice, which was rather uncharacteristic for the Sasuke-kun his fangirls knew.
In response, Naruto twisted his finger in his ear and shouted "Huh?" with a confused look on his face.
Sasuke sighed and said "Nevermind", all hope of having a comrade in this… this... thing lost.
"Hah! Got you! Of COURSE I came back. You wouldn't expect me to miss all the fun would you?" Naruto asked with only Naruto could make.
Sasuke's eyes brightened and he smiled as well, pushing the fangirls' screams of delight in seeing their 'Sasuke-kun' smile to the back of his mind.
"Talk later?" Sauske asked, tiliting his head to the fangirls around him.
Catching his meaning, Naruto nodded.
"Uchiha Sasuke." Iruka called from the front of the class.
As Sasuke walked to Iruka, the pink haired banshee called Sakura screamed, "You can do it Sasuke!" Not to be outdone, the blonde she-devil known as Ino cheered, "Sasuke! Sasuke! He's our man! If he can't do it, no one can!". A chain reaction of fangirls showing their support for Sasuke-kun started and went on for about 15 minutes looping back around to Sakura once or twice. His results on the actual test did nothing to hinder this.
Sasuke performed the shuriken, taijutsu, and ninjutsu test flawlessly, passing with the highest grade in the class so far and earning the monomer Rookie of the Year.
"Good job Sasuke. Next: Uzumaki Naruto." Iruka said slowly with a slight cringe, unnoticeable to all but Sasuke and Naruto.
Naruto walked to the front to perform his tests, eliciting an exact opposite response from the crowd.
'Hmph. I'll show them. I'll show them all. I'll get the same grade as the teme! What kind of future Hokage can't pass the genin test at 17 years old?'
'Kit. You need to fail your test.'
'What?! No way! This is my chance to gain some respect early on!'
'You don't know the shadow clone yet. Or at least, you shouldn't. If you start using it without having the excuse of the Forbidden Scroll, you'll be questioned. By failing and getting the scroll again, not only will you be able to freely use the shadow clone, but you can also learn another forbidden jutsu.'
'Actually… that's not a bad idea. It sucks that I have to do this, although if I didn't I might not be in the same team as last time…'
'Exactly. Now do your worst!' the Kyuubi said with a smirk.
During his test he passed the shuriken test, barely. He took extra care to be sloppy in his taijutsu, managing to pass the taijutsu section with a just below average grade because of his speed and strength, but he failed the ninjutsu part of the test. More specifically, the bunshin. Which he probably still couldn't do regardless.
Then there was the written test. He didn't have to try to fail that one.
"You failed, Naruto." Iruka said with a disappointed look. 'If only he had tried harder.'
"Aw come on Iruka. He made the bunshin this time at least." Mizuki said.
"It looked dead. You couldn't fool a civilian with that. I'm sorry Naruto but I can't pass you this time. Try again next year." Iruka said. It hurt him to tell Naruto that he failed but it as far as he was concerned, it was for his own good.
Naruto pretended to sulk away while the rest of the class laughed at him. The only one not joining in was Sasuke. He looked rather irritated.
"Why? Why did you fail? We both know you are better than almost everyone in this room, approaching even the likes of me." Sasuke asked, still a bit salty at the results of the battle from yesterday. Or rather, five years from now.
Ignoring the jab at his skill level in comparison with Sasuke, he replied. "The first time around, Mizuki told me I could still graduate if I took the Forbidden Scroll from Old Man Hokage's office. That was how I learned the kage bunshin. If I don't do the same thing again, I won't be able to do the kage bunshin without raising a few eyebrows." Naruto explained.
"Hmph. That's not a bad plan. I'm surprised you came up with that." Sasuke said, genuinely impressed.
"Heh… er… it was Kurama's idea…" Naruto said with a smile while rubbing the back of his head.
Sasuke sweatdropped. "Figures… There was no way a dobe like you could have that amount of foresight."
"Teme!"
"Dobe."
They looked at each other for a moment, then laughed together. A couple of people around them gave the two a weird look.
After everyone had taken the test, Iruka told the graduates to meet back tomorrow at nine in the morning.
After Naruto had sulked for a bit, Mizuki approached him.
"Hey. I'll let you in on a little secret. You can still graduate!" He said in a hushed voice. 'Sucker' he thought as he saw the boy's eyes widen.
"Really? How?" Naruto asked, hoping he sounded ignorant and childish.
"Here's what you do…"
Forest Surrounding Konoha
"Alright. I got the scroll. I already have the kage bunshin down, so let's look at the next one." He said aloud, all though there was no one around to hear him.
"Soulbane…" he muttered.
'It's a genjutsu that turns friends into enemies! Genjutsu is my weakest spot right now, so it might not be a bad idea to learn this.'
'Weakest spot?' the Kyuubi asked with a snort. 'You don't know the first thing about genjutsu. You can barely dispel one.'
'Ah shut up. With this I won't need any others!' Naruto thought with a triumphant grin.
- 3 Hours Later -
Iruka appeared in a puff of smoke.
"There you are! What are you doing with the Forbidden Scroll, Naruto?" Iruka asked.
"Huh? Oh! I learned a jutsu from here! I can graduate now right? That's how it works, right?" Naruto asked with a big smile.
"What? No. Where did you hear that from?" Iruka questioned with a frown.
"Mizuki-sensei!" Naruto said.
Iruka sensed multiple kunai coming toward the two and pushed Naruto out of the way.
"I see. So that's how it is." Iruka said.
"Naruto. Hand over the scroll. Iruka is afraid of you having it." Mizuki said in a low voice.
Naruto widened his eyes and looked at Iruka with a questioning face.
"That isn't true Naruto. Mizuki just wants to use you for his own goals. He's lying!"
"Hah! Hey Naruto. Do you want to know who's really lying to you? Why everyone calls you demon?"
"Mizuki, you can't do that! It's an S-Class secret!"
"Does it look like I care?! Naruto, the reason everyone calls you demon, is because you are one! Twelve years ago, the Nine-Tailed-Demon Fox attacked the village. And the Yondaime put him inside of you! In other words, you are the demon that killed Iruka's parents and destroyed our village!"
"I know." He simply stated.
"What? How? Whatever. It doens't matter now. Die, demon!" and with that, Mizuki flung his Fuma Shuriken at Naruto.
"Run Naruto!"
"Nah, I don't think I will." he said.
He sidestepped the Fuma Shuriken, already preparing his chakra.
Performing the jutsu, he filled the clearing with hundreds of Naruto's.
Mizuki's eyes widened. "H-h-how?" He wondered aloud, just in time to be clobbered.
- 30 minutes and a good beating later -
An uninjured Naruto stood over an unconscious Mizuki.
With a grin, Naruto said, "Sorry, I kinda got carried away."
Iruka just shook his head. "Come here for a minute."
Naruto made his way to where his sensei was.
"Close your eyes."
With his eyes closed, he felt a hitai-ate wrapped around his forehead.
Opening his eyes, he heard Iruka say, "Congratulations, you graduate! And to celebrate, we're going out for some ramen!"
Naruto then tackled his sensei in a bear hug.
Enjoying the moment, Iruka thought, 'Naruto, this is only the beginning. The road gets tougher now that you're a genin. Although I suppose if I told you that now it would ruin the moment. So I'll tell you later. Over ramen.'
A/N
There you go! Please review and tell me anything that I can do better to improve my writing ability. I'm aware that this is a very generic story, but like I said I'm trying to improve my writing ability before I try anything that could be interesting, which could let people down.
For people wondering when I will be updating, as long as I'm motivated and interested in the story, I'll try to update around once a week at least, all though I will be gone in the Virgin Islands scuba diving for three weeks during July. The reason that I updated so quickly from the last chapter was because it wasn't really a chapter, more of a prologue. So yeah. R&R!
