Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto

"Well," Kakashi began, looking at his students with a serious expression on his face. "What do you guys think we should do?"

Sakura stayed silent, as did Sasuke. Naruto, however, was his usual vocal self.

"Let's go!" he yelled.

"And you guys?" Kakashi asked, glancing at his other students.

"Go." Sasuke spoke.

"I guess we should go," Sakura reluctantly agreed, her shoulders sagging.

"Don't worry Sakura-chan," Naruto told her, "You'll do better next time."

Even as an immature brat, Naruto still is better with people than me. Sasuke noted. "We're a team, Sakura-san," he added. "We'll be here to help you get stronger, if you want."

Sakura looked at her teammates with a smile. "Thank you."

"Well," Tazuna declared, clapping his hands together. "Let's go then!"

"Shut up, you drunkard," Sasuke said, surprising his teammates.

Kakashi just smiled at them.

"Everybody down!"

The giant cleaver sped over their heads, and Zabuza appeared.

"Sharingan Kakashi," he growled, looking over his shoulder at them. "The old man is mine."

Kakashi dramatically revealed his left eye. "Surround and protect the client. Don't enter our fight: this is beyond your level."

Their fight didn't interest Sasuke that much, beyond copying the few techniques he could gleam from the depths of the mist.

It was when Kakashi was caught by the Water Prison that they sprang into action.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Naruto growled, sending his clones to fight Zabuza's water clones, while Sasuke pulled out his bow and let a few arrows fly.

Zabuza effortlessly blocked most of them with a swing of his sword, but then the next volley came.

And then the next.

And then another volley flew in.

After scattering the fifth volley, with the arrows falling into the lake around him, Zabuza began to scowl in annoyance. "Don't you stupid kids realize how pointless this is?" he asked, pointing his sword at them. "Stop playing around and die."

Sasuke smirked, looking at a grinning Naruto. "Sometimes," Sasuke replied, "The most stupid of plans are more than you'd think."

At that, the lake exploded with orange clones, freeing Kakashi from the water prison as Zabuza jumped away.

"You know," Sasuke told Naruto casually as they sat around Tazuna's house. "I'd forgotten how strong the Sharingan is."

Naruto gave him a look that implied very unpleasant things. "Are you serious? Don't tell me you forgot about Kamui, your stupid black flames, your stupid summoning, or even your stupid torture illusion."

Sasuke waved his hand. "The Mangekyou is a huge weakness," he told Naruto. "I think that just getting it makes people stupid and over-reliant on it, which is why I haven't bothered to activate it. No, I mean how utterly overpowering the normal state is."

"You mean copying techniques?" Naruto made a strangled sound of annoyance. "That's cheating."

"We're ninja, or have you forgotten that, you fool?" Sasuke shot back. "No, I meant the hypnosis in the middle of a fight that Kakashi was able to pull. I also remember during our fight at the waterfall place, that halfway through you pummeling me my eyesight became sharp enough to read your movements in your one-tailed bijuu cloak. The Sharingan is a serious weapon, even when it isn't fully upgraded, you know?"

"Itachi told me about your cousin's eye," Naruto thought out loud, "and how it could force someone to completely change their personality."

Sasuke pondered upon that, before making a decision. "I'm going to work on my basic Sharingan more, concentrating especially on illusions, Naruto," he said. "It's an underrated branch of the ninja lifestyle, and having even a bit of Kakashi's skill with my eyes would be a godsend against some of our enemies."

And the second I see Danzo, he thought to himself, I will rip out his arms, and take Shisui's eye back. That thing is too powerful to leave in the hands of that crazy old man.

"Naruto-kun, Sasuke-kun," Sakura spoke, walking into the dining room where they were lounging, "Kakashi-sensei's awake!"

"C'mon, Sasuke! This is easy! Why can't we just spar or something?" Naruto whined, pouting from his precarious position at the top of a tree.

"I noticed that you've become rather confident," Sasuke replied, walking up the tree at a measured pace. "It's a good thing, because it means that you're less likely to freeze up, but then again…"

After a few moments of silence, Naruto impatiently asked: "What?"

"You're too damn confident!" Sasuke snapped, glaring at a surprised Naruto. "What happens if you start throwing around Rasengan and walking on water, or using Sage Mode, or that blasted golden chakra, and Kakashi notices?"

"I'm not going to—"

"Face it, Naruto," Sasuke growled. "You've been coasting along on these memories. You have the skills but none of the experience. You're still too damned immature! Tell me, what will you do when you meet that masked ninja with Zabuza?"

"I'll save Haku, of course," Naruto declared, annoyed.

"You can't save everyone," Sasuke shot back. "Haku is a ninja. If Zabuza demands it, he will KILL us, without hesitation, and you know that. If Zabuza dies, he would never forgive us."

Naruto seemed to falter at that. "But, he's a nice guy…"

"Itachi was a nice guy," Sasuke shot back. "But he still killed EVERYONE, and TORTURED me more than once. You can't forget that!"

"But…" Naruto seemed defeated. "What am I supposed to do?"

Sasuke didn't really know what to tell him. "What did dream-Naruto do before?"

Naruto paused at that, staring at Sasuke with a strange expression. But then he closed his eyes, and thought about it for a second. "I... he took it as a lesson. To live a life without regrets and to follow his own path."

Sasuke watched as Naruto's posture seemed to change, watched as a load left his shoulders. "What are you going to do?" he asked quietly.

"I don't know if I can save him," Naruto said just as softly. "But I'm going to try."

"Fair enough. As long as you don't do something stupid, or get too confident, I'm fine with that." Sasuke then noticed his position on the side of the tree, and jumped to a branch. "Now go train. Don't you have something you can do right now?"

Naruto shrugged. "I guess I can practice Wind Manipulation, or meditate."

"Every little bit counts," Sasuke replied. "I'm going to do some exercises then."

The fight against Haku was hard. As hard as the battle was the first time.

Haku was fast, and although he wasn't a powerhouse, he was skilled.

He was a good ninja, one that with more experience and training could be a great one.

Sasuke had been trying to mold himself into a great ninja, of course. He did chakra exercises as often as possible, making his control and capacity much better than Dream Sasuke's had been at the same age. He practiced the other Sasuke's known techniques as often as possible, so as to not rely on just memory in the middle of a battle. He studied as much as he could from everything he'd inherited from the clan, because just knowing ninja arts was not the same as understanding them, as knowing why this did that, rather than just casting something based on someone else's experience.

Even so, he was at best at a Chuunin's level, the same level as Haku. Haku, who had the benefit of years of being on the run, and training under an A-rank killer from the harshest of all of the ninja villages.

One who had a distinct advantage with those goddamned unbreakable mirrors. Nothing Sasuke had could pierce the blasted things, much less catch the boy while he sped between them.

At least Naruto was here to help now. "Why did you take so long getting here anyway?" Sasuke whispered, readying his kunai.

"I stopped Gato's men from killing Tsunami and Inari, and rallied the troops," Naruto replied, staring at Haku's reflection.

Tsunami…and Inari?

Oh Kami, he was such an ass sometimes. Forgetting the names of people who fed him and housed him…

"Have you made your final decision?" Sasuke asked, activating his Sharingan, shoving away the useless thoughts.

"Don't kill him," Naruto said. "I want to talk to him."

"Then talk."

"I don't wish to kill you," Haku spoke, cutting into their conversation, "But I can't allow you to oppose Zabuza. For him, I will harden my heart and kill you."

"Why?" Naruto asked, "Why would you do that? What makes him so special?"

"Because he helped me when I…"

Sasuke tuned them out, glancing at Zabuza and Kakashi, who were indistinct flares of chakra in the mist. Then he looked out at Sakura, who bravely tried to defend Tazuna, even as she shook in terror, looking out at them.

Their eyes met, and he gave her a comforting smile.

"Enough."

Haku's voice cut through the mist, full of emotion, and Sasuke knew what would happen next.

"Plan B!" he shouted, and he charged in front of Naruto, blocking the ice needles with his knife.

"I'm sorry, Haku," Naruto said, before an orange aura shot out of him and enveloped him.

"Why did you let me do it?" Naruto asked the next day, when just he and Sasuke stood before the missing-nin's graves. "You knew what would happen, didn't you? You told me, after all."

Sasuke looked away. "I think you needed it," he said. "After all, didn't you know what would happen, too?"

"I did," Naruto replied. "I just…didn't want to believe it. Didn't want it to happen."

"What do you think now?" Sasuke continued, looking back at the blond. "What'll you do?"

"I'm…not ever going to give up," Naruto said, looking right back at Sasuke. "I'm going to live my own path, without regrets. I'm going to save Gaara in the Chuunin exams, no matter what."

Save that psychopath? Had he done that before? If so, that meant Naruto had been the reason for his rise to the level as Kazekage.

Not that surprising when he thought of it.

"I'll be there every step of the way," Sasuke promised, grasping Zabuza's sword and yanking out of the ground, before sealing it away.

Naruto's eyes flashed in irritation, before giving way to morbid amusement. "Only you would say something like that while robbing a grave," he told him with a resigned air.

"Whatever," Sasuke flippantly said back. "Dream-Sasuke did the same thing. I'm only getting a head start. Besides, there's a lot of things you can do with a big frickin' sword like this."

A few weeks later, they were back in Konoha, training under the evening sun after yet another day of boring D-ranks.

The life of a ninja was unchanging: fierce battles and high emotions mixed with idle days and peaceful times.

It made Sasuke and Naruto tense, waiting for the next hammer to fall, waiting for the next enemy to spring out of the trees and attack.

Naruto brought up a topic Sasuke had scarcely considered in all their time training and planning.

"Are we ever going to try to improve Sakura?" Naruto asked in concern, throwing away another sliced leaf. "I feel like she'd be an awesome teammate if we gave her a chance. In fact, I know it."

Sasuke grunted from his position on the stream, practicing his archery on distant targets he'd painted on trees. "We don't really need her, you know," Sasuke replied. "She might be nice support, but she's always been rather useless."

That brought out Naruto's ire. "Have you hung out with her at all?" he asked with a growl. "She's gotten a lot better, you know, and she's willing to get stronger with us. Not everyone starts out like us, after all. Hell, what if, for some reason, the same thing happens to her, and suddenly we have an angry future-Sakura who's pissed off because we've been ignoring her. She killed Sasori, after all."

"Then train the damn girl," Sasuke shot back, wondering who the hell Sasori was as he continued firing his shots, with more force than necessary. "Meanwhile, I will be doing things that are actually productive."

"Like what?" Naruto asked with faked innocence. "Like sitting around doing nothing while I take care of the fights?"

The string on Sasuke's bow snapped under the pressure. "Listen, you stupid little brat," Sasuke began thundering, before Naruto interrupted him.

"What the hell have you done?" Naruto asked. "You haven't taken care of any of the villains, and any time I want to try something new, you tell me about how I'm going to fail, and get myself killed!"

"That's because you frickin' will, you idiot!" Sasuke shouted. "Just because you have the memories of a ninja with more strength and experience doesn't mean you can fight like one!"

Naruto stood up, and shook his head at Sasuke's angry expression. "I'm going to go ask Sakura if she wants to train. See you later, Sasuke."

For once, the lack of honorifics annoyed Sasuke. But not as much as the fact that Naruto was right.

"But what the hell can I do?" Sasuke asked aloud, watching Naruto's retreating back. Danzo would have me killed right now, Orochimaru would be content with leaving me brain dead, Itachi would never hold back on me, Tobi is ridiculously hard to kill. Hell, I'd have problems with even Kabuto!

You can't afford to do anything rash just because you're feeling a bit useless, he reminded himself. All you can do is train, and train, and train, so when the time comes, you'll be ready.

All you can do is…

It was a few weeks later when he finally saw Naruto alone again: as they met outside for the Chuunin exams.

Well, Sakura was there, looking at him with a mixture of determination and nervousness, but she didn't count.

"Naruto-dobe." I'm here, you punk. Let's go kick some ass, growled Sasuke's expression.

"Sasuke-teme." Take care of yourself, alright? Naruto's face pleaded.

But for once, neither one could understand the other. And it was a startling thought.

"C'mon guys," Sakura spoke, drawing their attention. "Let's go inside. I don't want to be late."

The boys exchanged another unreadable exchange, before they followed Sakura in.

Of course, it was at the Forest of Death when everything went to hell.

Orochimaru was every bit as devastating as Sasuke remembered.

Naruto was blown away by a gust that the Serpent had thrown at them, and then, when the man came up to him and Sakura as a grass-nin…

The sheer amount of malice in his gaze, in his body, in his soul…even if it was just an illusion, it was one that was effective enough to paralyze him yet again. It took everything he had to break through and take Sakura to cover.

"Sasuke," she began, trembling next to him. "What was—"

He put his hand over her mouth, muffling her, wondering what course of action he should take, when suddenly Sakura slapped his hand away. "SNAKE!"

Sasuke jumped away from the venomous summon, whose reptilian maw seemed to smirk at him. The snake suddenly shot forward, slithering up the tree at unnatural speed to catch him, its jaws opening to reveal glistening fangs.

Sasuke realized that if he didn't stop the summoned beast, the Serpent would let him die out of spite. Orochimaru hated weakness, and hated wasting his time on failures. So, with all the skill he'd accumulated over the years, he pulled out his bow, nocked a particularly thick arrow, pulled it back, and fired with the span of a second, nailing the snake right between its yellow eyes.

It collapsed on a thick branch; its eyes clouded over in death, letting Sasuke catch his breath, if only for a second.

His actions probably earned him Orochimaru's interest, and thus, mercy, as the Serpent ripped his way out of the snake's side, rising to his feet with his tongue licking his lips in anticipation. "You shouldn't relax for even a moment," he taunted with a crazy glint in his eyes. "The prey should always be ready to run in the presence of a predator."

He twisted his way up the tree just as his dead summon did, when suddenly a series of kunai shot out and almost impaled him.

"Never fear," a familiar voice cried out, "Uzumaki Naruto is here!"

That idiot is going to get killed, Sasuke thought to himself, watching as the blond charged in without a care in the world. "Don't be an idiot, Naruto!" he shouted out. "This guy is way beyond us!"

The Serpent merely watched them in amusement, wrapped around a branch, his head resting on his hand. "So, you've come too, Naruto-kun?"

"Don't underestimate me!" Naruto shouted, sparing Sasuke only a quick glance before coming closer to the fray.

"Stop it now!" Sasuke tried to command, grinding his teeth in irritation. "He'll kill us if you piss him off! Let's just run!"

"That's true," Orochimaru said, smiling at them, as a master to his hounds. "You'd be better off if you ran away. You might even survive."

"Not gonna happen!" Naruto roared, charging in.

"Then again," Orochimaru continued, unwinding himself to stand once again. "I'd rather just kill you."

The serpent bit his thumb, and swiped a tattoo on his forearm. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"

Of course, it only took a few seconds for Naruto to get taken out.

Orochimaru pulled his fingers away from Naruto's stomach and tossed the boy away without a thought, instead staring down at Sasuke.

The entire fight between the Sannin member and the Genin had lasted about thirty seconds, as Naruto valiantly tried to smash Orochimaru's face in, even resorting to attempting the Rasengan at one point, to no avail. The Serpent's summon had thrown the boy about, and when Naruto began to tap into the Kyuubi's chakra for support, Orochimaru had picked him up with his prehensile tongue, and thrown up a seal that completely shut Naruto down for the moment.

At least he's not dead, Sasuke thought, staring back at that cold gaze. I don't know if I'll be able to say the same in a few minutes.

"Sasuke!" Sakura cried out. "Don't let him get you too!"

Sasuke smirked in spite of himself, his Sharingan blooming under the overwhelming pressure. "I'm not going down that easily," he spoke, readying his bow.

Orochimaru merely smiled in condescension, and sped forward.

With the Sharingan, Orochimaru was merely a blur, rather than a flash. Sasuke quickly fired as many arrows as he could, scattering them around the Serpent, who easily stepped past the projectiles. "Your brother's eyes seem sharper than yours, Sasuke-kun," the Serpent taunted. "He never misses, after all."

"Who said I missed?" Sasuke shot back, before throwing his head back and inhaling deeply. "Gokakyuu no Jutsu!"

A massive fireball sprouted from his lips, one that didn't seem to faze his opponent at all. Orochimaru jumped over it, only to face another arrow coming at his face. "Did you honestly think that would work?" Orochimaru asked, plucking the arrow out of midair, crushing it in his right hand.

Sasuke didn't bother with a reply. He whipped his hand, sending a wave of crackling energy at the scattered arrows. "Activate!"

The arrows glowed for a half second, before sending out their own bolts of lightning that carved into the bark. The sparking energy suddenly seemed to come to life, and they all began flying at the Serpent. Orochimaru noticed their trajectory and attempted to throw the broken arrow away, to no avail. It seemed to stick to his hand, and in a flash the right side of his body was consumed by the combined blasts.

The arrows burnt to ashes very quickly under the stress of the energy they channeled, forcing the lightning to subside, revealing a very badly burned Orochimaru. He grinned maniacally under the warped skin he wore, staring at Sasuke with a disturbing hunger.

"A very nice trap for someone to think of so quickly," the Serpent hissed slowly. "Though it could use some work, you showed intelligence and skill far beyond what I could have imagined."

High praise indeed from the Summoner. Especially for a plan made up on the spot, using up his very special arrows, which he'd laced with seals he'd discovered in his studies of the Uchiha archives. They were very hard to make, and he'd used up all ten in that gambit. Better to lose some supplies than get my neck snapped trying to take him on hand to hand, Sasuke mused, warily glaring at the missing-nin.

"I enjoyed testing you, Sasuke-kun," the Serpent continued in his smooth and low voice, a patch of skin falling away to reveal his serpentine eyes. "You may indeed surpass Itachi; I look forward to seeing you again."

"We never want to see you again!" Sakura interjected from her hidden perch.

"I'm afraid that isn't an option," Orochimaru replied, forming a hand seal.

Before Sasuke could do anything, the Serpent's neck shot out, and he was bitten, the familiar burn of the Cursed Seal forming on his neck.

"My name is Orochimaru," he whispered in his ear, "Come seek me out for more power, if you wish."

The man vanished into the tree like a wraith, leaving Sasuke to collapse, unconscious.

When he finally awoke, it was to Sakura's scream. The Cursed Seal burned in his neck, channeling the muted Sage Chakra into his skin, warped by Orochimaru's experiments. It was nothing too dangerous, now that the Serpent had been exorcised from within it.

He got to his feet slowly, savoring the power flowing through the young body; it was much stronger than he remembered it being. An unfamiliar yet intimate weight hung on his back (the bow and its quiver, he reminded himself), and his clothes…he didn't understand why he would voluntarily chose to wear this at such a young age, but it was what he was used to, and for that, he was thankful.

"That boy had some crazy ideas," Sasuke said softly, bringing his hands up to his forehead, lightly tapping the hitai-ate tied upon it, a sensation long forgotten.

But for now, time to save the day, he thought with a smirk, stepping out of the shade to confront the Sound-nin.

A/N: Is this a regular time travel story? God, I hope not. That'd be boring, and not fun at all.

Anyway, I know the beginning was a bit rushed, but I'd rather not rehash canon. Besides, it's Sasuke-centric, and I don't see him as the type of person who actually cares about half of what happens around him. He's rather goal-oriented, after all, and focuses on the finale rather than the path, as opposed to Naruto, of course, who in every in-character time travel story is the type of person to talk to everyone, solve everyone's problems, and save the day, while getting a huge harem and the respect of all the ninja in the world.

Besides, I've must have read the Wave Arc a hundred times, if not a thousand. It's pretty boring stuff, and it's really just Naruto's chance to grow up in canon. I kind of doubt Sasuke gives a damn about it, besides nostalgia (and stealing Zabuza's sword. I mean really: you never know when you need a BFS).

Anyway, can you guess what happened at the end? It has to do with why Sasuke received the memories when he did. It's my little plot twist. From here on out, things should start getting more detailed, as he begins to get more involved with current events.

Review please! Even if it's just to criticize my plot (or lack thereof), or my convoluted sentences. I write just as I read: fast, so sorry if it seems rushed.

Edited: 8/27/12