I meandered through the streets of Konoha, Naruto quietly following along. He seemed to have been really pensive, glancing at me and looking like he was comparing two things what with his hands imitating a crude balance.
I didn't know I was going to encounter Naruto this soon in the timeline. Though the Hokage and I had agreed that if I hadn't found the child on my own terms, we would find the child by our own drastic means.
That meant, intervene in the Uchiha timeline by finding Itachi and enlisting him as one of the people with to find him with me.
It was a whole complicated mess that would have required a lot of effort and messing up of the timelines but would have allowed me to get close to the older of the Uchiha heirs and attempt to, through him, prevent Madara from manipulating the thoughts of the Uchiha to the point that the Council members would feel threatened and thus feel the need to employ Itachi under the table into completely annihilating his own family.
However, Naruto being his klutzy and mischievous self just happened to have fallen into my lap and made my mission that much easier in a way. Then again, it was difficult because I would have to think of another way of getting close to the Uchiha and seeing into his innermost thoughts and psychoanalyzing him and conditioning him until he did something that would allow me to decide that the future would be better off that way.
Of course, the best option would be to cut off and eliminate Madara before the massacre and before he would ever be tempted to unify the world but that was just impractical. Konoha was not strong enough yet to face Madara. Even eight years after the Kyuubi attack, the Hokage told me, the shinobi ranks were not up to were they should have been.
I sighed and continued on my walk. I would have enough time to ruminate over my decisions in the many scheduled visits I would have with the Hokage. He was an expert; after all, they did call him the Professor. We could discuss the many nuances and decisions that would influence the future, even create a risk-benefit analysis.
But one thing was for sure. We would have to come to a decision about the Uchiha's fate soon. From what I knew, the massacre would take place a mere three months from now, and neither Sandaime-sama nor I were particularly sure of how far the council members had gone to influence Itachi thus far.
"Nee-san?" Naruto called, startling me way out of my reverie. His eyes stared at me in a manner that was completely the opposite of the Naruto I used to know.
"Yes, Naruto-kun?"
"You look awfully like a girl I know from the Academy…" he said slowly and cautiously, as if any faster and I might strike him for his insolence.
I smiled, quickly coming up with the story the Hokage and I had fabricated to go along with my name and history. "Wow, really Naruto-kun? And what happens to be this girl's name?"
"Her name is Sakura-chan but she gets bullied a lot at the Academy because of her forehead, she has the same color hair as you, and I think the same color eyes but her hair sort of covers her eyes, like a sheepdog!"
I made an overly surprised face, "What a coincidence! My name is Sakura as well!"
"Really? Is your hair natural as well? Cause that's what she told the teacher! That its natural!"
"No, sadly mine is just hair dye. See, someone I know from my time in the Land of Whirlpool dyed my hair this color. Actually," I touched Naruto's hair fondly, an idea striking up into my head. "My hair is your color. And you know what my last name is, Naruto-kun?"
"What is it?" He exclaimed, practically bouncing up and down in anticipation of my answer.
"Uzumaki Sakura."
"Uwah! So you're related to me, nee-chan?" he exclaimed, completely stunned.
"In a way yes, distant cousins I suppose. But no matter! Hokage-sama has given me permission, as your family, to become your guardian." I smiled at him, but then was thrown down by the force behind his tackle hug.
I stood inside our apartment, giving it a cursory glance. It wasn't fairly big. The bedroom was apart from the kitchen and "den" but that was about it. There was a pull out couch and a small library, stocked with some scrolls already. (I suppose the Hokage really was helping me out in my mission all he could.)
A quick glance into the fridge brought to my attention the fact that it only had the basics. The cabinets had some instant ramen (I quickly noted in my head to put a limit on Naruto's intake of the food. As long as I told him that I allowed him to have it in moderation, it would not hinder his progress as a ninja and his physical growth as well.
Other than the other little nuances, I could definitely deal with the apartment. It would suffice for Naruto and me.
I sighed as I realized that I would have to get the part I was dreading.
Reluctantly, I pulled out a little box from my medic nin shorts. "Naruto-kun? Would you like to help me in dying my hair?"
"YES!"
Something told me, that the affirmative answer that he gave me was just a little bit too enthusiastic to be completely innocent.
Of course, after an hour battling over the sink with Naruto and one particular instant where he accidently dumped some yellow dye onto his hands and clamped them onto my shirt after laughing at how I "looked like a tin foil alien with antennas" while coloring my hair.
I scowled, sitting down on the couch with a scroll opened up in front of me, occasionally glaring playfully at Naruto for having ruined the only shirt that I had thought to bring with me to the future.
And unluckily for little old me, I had neglected to buy clothes while I was in the market.
Naruto simply stayed giggling in front of me and pointing from my head to my shirt every once in a while.
Then I conceded and laughed with him. He was just too innocent and pure to not laugh with him.
"No!"
"Yes!"
"No!"
"Yes!"
"No!"
"Yes!"
"No!"
"Naruto, you're eating your vegetables and that is final!" I said in a firm voice, pushing the bowl of steamed veggies in front of the bundle of energy.
"But, Sakura-nee-san! They're icky! They smell weird and they look like tiny trees!" he exclaimed, his eyes turning into little slits as he made a gagging face.
"They will help you become a stronger ninja!"
"How? Those things will kill me first! Why can't we have ramen instead?"
"Because ramen has little to no nutritional value, will stunt your growth, and inevitably lead to your lack of choice when looking for a girlfriend when you are older!"
He simply looked at me like I was nuts. "Nee-chan, you speak weird."
I rolled my eyes. "You're eating them, or else no ramen for the rest of your life, Chibi-chan."
"WHAAAAAAT?"
"Sakura-nee-chan, what are you doing?" Naruto asked me.
I glanced at him briefly.
"I am researching a method of recreating a technique my old master came up with."
Naruto gave a grin, his whisker marks contorting as he grinned at me impishly. "Can I learn it?"
I chuckled. "No, Naruto-kun. You have homework from the Academy that you must do, right?"
"Awww, but nee-chan, the theories and practicing shuriken throwing won't help me become a great ninja! I need to learn great jutsu!" he punctuated this with a pout.
"Yes, Naruto-kun, however, every great ninja has to begin somewhere. Before you get to learn great jutsu, you must learn accuracy with shuriken and Tai-jutsu. That way, you will be able to defend your teammates should you run low on chakra. You must learn to defend before you may attack, Naruto-kun."
Though I really wasn't one to be giving advice in this…for as far as I could remember, Naruto had been the one protecting me. Why? Because I was far too obsessed with getting Sasuke-kun's attention rather than improving myself as a ninja.
That is, until he left. That was when I suppose you could say I got stronger under Tsunade-sama, but I still required people to protect me from harm, simply due to the fact that I was the only medic nin on most missions.
Naruto pouted, "Nee-chan, learning shuriken throwing is so boring though!"
I shrugged, smiling at him. "You will feel better for learning it when you become a great ninja."
The leaves rustled as I stood in training ground seven, panting as I did my cool down. I had been working on tai-jutsu while Naruto went to the Academy, having taken a bit of my own advice and practiced my basics. Hell, I went so far as to pull a Lee and put some light weights on my limbs so as to further advance my development.
The jutsu Tsunade had placed on me maintained my prowess from the future however, it left considerable room to grow. If I meditated I would be able to get my chakra levels to their maximum capacity in about four years. Even more if I could master the jutsu that Tsunade created…
I sighed and crouched down on the floor, completely exhausted after my strenuous training session. And I hadn't even begun on the jutsu I was planning on learning!
Nothing all too flashy; just some elemental techniques that my collection of jutsu was severely lacking—after all I couldn't depend on my chakra-enhanced strength all the time during fights. I would have to fall back on something else in case a sticky situation arose, as I had tried to explain to Naruto earlier on in the week.
I ran a hand through my hair, my mouth twitching up when I caught sight of the bright blonde hair in my peripheral vision; just another reminder of all I had to do.
After a fair bit of thinking, I allowed myself to flop down on the bright green grass and stare up at the blue sky, lazy clouds floating about.
Uchiha Itachi…
The name floated around my head like a dangerous poison. I hadn't even met the boy in this timeline, the decidedly ANBU Itachi who was a little less dangerous, if not just as, his future Akatsuki self.
My mind had come up with thousands of incidents where I would meet him and we would gradually get to know each other and I would end up either one; ruining the timeline, two; saving the timeline, or three; keeping everything the same as it was during the first.
Only one of those was very favorable, which narrowed my success rate down to thirty-three point three percent.
When factoring in all the different situations that might occur within that timeline to screw up something crucial, the percent fell down to about five percent success rate.
And all the seemingly unimportant details that could have already been screwed up by my presence in this timeline? Forget it. The percentage was so infinitesimally small that it gave me nightmares at night, hence the developing bags underneath my eyes.
I closed my eyes, just lying there, feeling the chakra swirl around from ninja and civilians moving all around.
That is, when I felt one supremely imposing chakra signature that I could in no way ignore.
A/N: I am honestly surprised by the amount of reviews this story got so quickly. Thank you! Anyways, my goal is to get to thirty reviews before I post the next chapter! Oh and cliff hanger, aren't I an evil author? Who is this person? And for those of you who are thinking of pairings, just suggest some to me, gimme your best reason why, and I will see if I can squeeze it into the plot I have in mind. Ja ne!