Chapter 3 – Re-readings

Naruto was lying down on his side, trying to think of what to do. The foreign wall of the guest room in the Hokage tower was to plan. All of these things were now messed up all because of the Akatsuki. However, they liked screwing things up. So it made little difference.

He must have drifted of, because his arm he was lying on was starting to sting, and the faint aura of flower petals came to his senses, he sighed, and forgot where he was.

'This isn't helping, you know, with you staring at my back, Sakura.'

He turned around sensing that she jumped a mile, he sat up straighter remembering where he was. She was now after recovering from the shock, now looked at him with a frown, he could plainly see the question plastered to her: How does this guy know my name? He wasn't even looking at me! Do I even know him? He looks familiar…

Naruto sighed again, and then lay back down, with his hands underneath his head, and stared at the ceiling, he needed to get out of here. Otherwise he'd start being a Nara with their sayings.

She looked very uncomfortable, he reasoned that she must be here for a reason, so he looked to her, and gave an asking face to her, but she still seemed to stare at him.

'Why are you here?' He asked her after awhile of her being in silent torture.

'Oh!' She finally came out of it. 'Tsunade-sama asked me to see if you were alright.'

'Uh-huh…' He said in response, and went back to looking at the ceiling.

'Are you okay…?'

'Hm…?' He asked her, not looking at her.

'You keep looking at the ceiling, is there something wrong…?' She asked of the man, in silent worry.

She obviously hasn't been filled in, they probably didn't know if she should be told or not, so left it to me. This sucks, she'll totally kill me, if and when I get back. Naruto sighed; he didn't want to tell her…Though things, for her, are going to start getting weird…

'I'm trying to concentrate.'

'…Oh…I'm sorry…' She told him, and looked rather ashamed of herself.

He looked towards her, and frowned, in wonder what she meant; she was confusing.

'Why are you sorry?'

'You're trying to concentrate…'

'Yeah…? So…?'

She remained silent, so Naruto went back to looking at the ceiling, she would still confuse.

In silence, he was trying to figure out if there was anything, he could do to get himself home, or if he was stuck there, or if the technique they put on him was a limited one, and would hopefully let him go back…

Somehow, he knew all of these were somehow wrong. He would, of course get back…somehow.

He sighed, and gave up; he looked to Sakura who was still standing.

'How long have you been standing like that?'

'…For a while…why do you want to know…?' She asked him, suspiciously.

'It'll hurt you, sit.'

She nearly blushed, there was no seat in the room, if she were to sit; it would be on the bed.

'Sit on the bed; I'm not going to chew you whole, you know.' He reprimanded her, as if he were scolding a little child.

At this, she did blush scarlet, which he found highly amusing. When she saw that he was trying not to grin, she stalked all the way to the end of the bed where his feet where, pushed them aside and sat cross-legged on the bed, with a look of defiance.

This only made him laugh more. She gave him a death glare; he stopped laughing, but still grinned.

'At least you're not standing up now.' He told her, humour in his voice.

'At least you're not ten feet under the ground.' She replied, with no humour in her voice.

'Ouch! Coming from the fair maiden herself…!' He said grinning, and then watched the after effects of his words on her.

'What… did… you… say?'

Naruto repeated his words that had affected her so, grinning. He was finding this most hilarious; even if she was confused, she was still blowing steam out of her ears.

She looked as if she was going to kill him, officially.

'I do wonder what the fair maiden is thinking, though I can guess it's about me—'

As soon as she heard his words, not waiting for the next sentence to finish, she pummelled him into the bed, but as soon as her fist came into contact, it wasn't him, it was the bed.

He stood over by the door, laughing.

She turned to glare at him. 'I hate you.'

Her words made him grin even more. She was still funny, even though she wanted to kill him.

'You don't even know my name, and you already hate me.' He looked as if he was now pouting; she stared at his changed emotions so quickly.

'Fine…Tell me your name, coz then, I can go back to saying, "insert name here, I hate you."'

She had that look of defiance of her face again, which made Naruto grin again, which started to piss Sakura off highly.

'You wouldn't believe me, even if I did tell you…' He told her, and he highly doubted she would believe him, even if she wanted to know. It would serve to confuse her more.

'Hah, try me.'

He looked like he was going to say something. Though, held up a hand, a known signal to be quiet, and became quiet himself. For some reason she became scared.

He moved in a second he was in front of Sakura, then the door slide open, by the time it was fully open, Sakura was behind the door opening, while she didn't know where he was. She saw a shadow of a man walk in, who it was, she didn't know by the shadow, as it was distorted from her angle. The door then closed, she didn't have time to think, and as in a flash he had a kunai to the other man's neck.

'…Kakashi…?' The man looked stunned, though he didn't pull his kunai away.

'…Minato…?'

'Oh hell…' The man said as he pulled the kunai away.

Sakura stared at the two, and watched as the kunai that he held disappear.

'I'm not Minato how could I even be him?' When Kakashi didn't look as if he was going to answer, hell, he even looked confused, he looked for Sakura. '…. Sakura…?'

Kakashi turned around, and saw her, as she walked over to them, then turned back to him.

'If you're not Minato, who are you? And how do you know the name?'

'Hm…I think everyone knows who Minato is…'

Sakura looked blank, suggesting she didn't know the name, and he sighed, and continued.

'I don't think you two will believe me… but here. I come from the future.'

They both looked sceptically at him, and he sighed.

'Told you, you wouldn't believe me…'

Sakura stepped forward.

'How'd that happen?'

'Ah! Fair maiden is alliance!'

Sakura glared, and he had that grin which told her he was mucking around, which also seemed to piss her off. Then he seemed to stop grinning, and have a serious face, and then he walked to the bed and sat down.

'It was Pein…Some people might know him as Nagato...'

Sakura was at a loss, though Kakashi looked stunned.

'Who…?' Sakura asked, frowning.

He looked at her, and then he had seemed to forget, yet again, where he was. 'Oh, the leader of Akatsuki…'

Both mouths dropped.

'He seemed to have wanted to come into Konoha for something, probably for Kyuubi…' He said while one of his forefingers as if he was cleaning one ear.

Both Sakura and Kakashi stared at him, for saying that as if he talked about it all day long, and if the topic was of natural occurrence.

'…So I fought him. And somehow I was sent here, I think Madara had something to do with that… though….' He kept on, looking to one side, and looking as if he was thinking.

'Huh? You fought him…? Why?'

'Hm…?' He looked to Sakura, from being in thought about what he was talking about. 'Oh, I don't have any markings….' He was seemingly was talking to himself, he then stood up, and they stared at him.

'…Naruto…?!'