Another chapter. I've been pumping these things out.
Naruto is not my property, because I'm Kishimoto, who has a boner for Sasuke.
Enjoy the chapter.
A body fell to the ground as the dark haired teen flicked his sword, clearing the excess blood from his blade. He was a young shinobi, not much older than fourteen, dressed in ANBU style armor without a forehead protector or a mask. His hair was tied into a pony-tail of sorts, the dark hair falling past his shoulders. His eyes, normally onyx and dispassionate, were ablaze in red with three black tomoe swirling around his pupil, a telltale sign of the legendary kekkai genkai, the Sharingan. The lines between his eyes, along his nose, signified that this teen was Uchiha Itachi.
This was the day he feared, the day he never wanted to happen. He was here to kill his clan, to slaughter his aunts and uncles, his cousins, and his parents. Parent. He remember the special order Danzo had given him. If he didn't kill Sasuke, then he had to spare his mother as well. Itachi saw no problems with this. While his mother knew about the coup, she had tried to persuade Fugaku to stop, to consider the fact that they would only confirm the suspicions of the village elders.
Itachi walked down the street, leaving the bodies of his uncle and aunt in the street, his Sharingan blazing. Of course, he knew the man responsible for this situation was ultimately Tobi, the rogue Uchiha who had vowed to destroy Konoha and had taken on Madara's name. The Madara he had read about in the history books was a god of a shinobi, matched only by the Shodiame Hokage. Tobi was skilled, but he was no match for that giant of history. Of course, Itachi had no idea who Tobi really was, but he didn't care.
While Itachi would no longer call himself sane, he knew his purpose would carry him to his death. The sickness he carried had only just started, and while someone of Tsunade's caliber would probably be able to heal him now at the early stages, he was now a missing nin, and would be labeled an enemy of Konoha. Even if the slug princess had no love for Konoha any longer, she would not heal him, if only for old times sake. The medi-nin in the village had given him seven or eight years. He hoped Sasuke would be strong enough to kill him by then.
Other Uchiha flashed out to fight him, and he killed them before they could react. Itachi was the best, and while he knew he could not have done it if Shisui were still alive, the slaughter of the Uchiha was no real test to his strength. Hatake Kakashi might be close, The Sannin could probably match him, and the Sandiame in his prime could match him as well, but no other shinobi in the village was skilled enough to match him.
He finally reached his house, and inside, his father was cradling his mother, and he could see that both were prepared to die. His father looked up at him. His father was a stern man, with long hair similar to that of Itachi's, but not fashioned in a braid of any kind. His eyes were onyx, a typical Uchiha color, when not using the Sharingan. He was dressed in robes fit for a kage, and Itachi hated him for it.
"I am sorry, father. I know you understand why I do this." Itachi said quietly, and while Fugaku did not agree to the reasons, he understood them. The man nodded, and fell to the ground when Itachi's blade flashed. Itachi felt nothing as the man's blood began to pool around him. He turned to his mother. His mother still looked young, despite being in her thirties. Her hair was long as well, kept neat down her back on top of the more traditional robes of an Uchiha mother and wife. But this women could have killed him in her prime, for she had been a jounin as well, and while he knew he was more skilled, she would have had the experience if she was in shape. Her onyx eyes welled up in tears as she waited for her judgement.
"Are you going to kill me as well? Did you already kill Sasuke?" She asked, and that hurt Itachi worse than anything he had done that day. For his own mother to question his love of his little brother? That hit his heart deep. He had always loved his mother more than his father, but not enough to spare her life without orders. He turned to leave, and the foolish woman grabbed his leg. "If you already killed Sasuke, then kill me as well. I don't want to live in this world without my children." Uchiha Mikoto, a proud and strong woman, begged him. Itachi could see the pain glimmering in her eyes, the absolute anguish. He turned to finish the job, to kill her as well, despite his orders.
When his blade fell, it did not hit flesh like he expected. Instead, it met another blade. Itachi jumped back to see a kunoichi with black hair and red eyes glaring back him, standing over his mother with the most curious blade Itachi had ever seen in her hands. In fact, her eyes whirled with the Sharingan, something that Itachi found strange, as he had never seen this woman before. Mikoto was already unconscious, knocked out by what seemed to be a mild poison that the kunoichi had slipped into her with a senbon needle.
"Who are you?" Itachi asked simply. The kunoichi raised a brow, her Sharingan challenging his, instantly breaking the genjutsu he tried to place on her. She was skilled with her eyes, it seemed.
"I am no one. You are Uchiha Itachi, and your orders were to spare her." She stated, and Itachi placed her as a ROOT member at first, but no ROOT member showed even the slight emotion the woman had. She was a little older than Itachi, in her late teens, and her long black hair descended to her shoulders. She wore robes similar to that worn by the Main Hyuuga house, but white and black instead of cream and brown. It was difficult to place her origins, since the robes could be common in other places, especially among the warrior monks sometimes found across the land. Her Sharingan discounted any relation to the Hyuuga, and she possessed the Uchiha qualities that made him question if one of their shinobi had not gone rogue or had an illegitimate child somewhere.
"What is it to you?" He asked.
"I was the one who forced Danzo to give you those orders." She hissed, and Itachi sprang forward, trying to get a read on her. She was a slippery one, a woman who knew how to avoid being read, as though she had spent her life near or with someone who could read a person's motives and personality with just their eyes. Most Uchiha didn't even possess this quality. His blade clashed against hers, and Itachi's Sharingan saw the spark of chakra that leapt off the blade when they clashed. He was curious about the blade, but not so much as the woman. "That sickness of yours can be cured, you know. Not just by Tsunade. I know another medic who can help you." She told him simply. Itachi didn't care. He had nothing to live for. He would be a contact to spy on Tobi's Akatsuki for Jiraiya, and he would wait for Sasuke to kill him.
"I am already dead." He said simply as he used the shunshin, appearing behind the girl. She laughed, and Itachi found it to be both a chilling and beautiful sound, like the trumpet played at funerals.
"You are so similar to him." He heard her whisper as he brought his blade to end her life. The girl spun so fast that his Sharingan had trouble keeping up, and grabbed his blade before it could even make it a quarter way of the full journey. He saw her blood run down the blade, and her arm, and was impressed that she didn't even flinch. He saw her blade to his neck, and knew that she was stronger than he was. "I can see the curiousity in your eyes. You are needed in Akatsuki, especially in the times to come. But you need to live. With Mikoto still alive, Sasuke's loyalty to this village is sealed. You can explain why you did what you did in the future, but I need you to stay alive. You will be needed in the war to come." The woman said, and Itachi raised a brow. This kunoichi knew more than even Danzo or Jiraiya about his plans.
"Who are you?" Itachi asked again, this time the curiousity he felt leaking through his voice. She smirked and patted his cheek as she let go of his blade, before backing up.
"You can call me Honour." She said, and disappeared in a puff of smoke. Itachi eyed the place she had been, while his other hand traveled to his cheek. What an interesting woman.
It was then that Sasuke came through the door. Blood still on his blade, their father dead, and their mother unconscious, Itachi's Mangekyou sprang to life.
Sakura's eyes widened at the news. She was not surprised to hear Itachi had killed the clan, it was something she knew she could not have stopped. However the news of two survivors was something that gave her pause. Sasuke's mother had lived as well, a mild poison aimed to knock an opponent unconscious found in her bloodstream.
Both Naruto and herself had visited the boy in the hospital, who was in a small coma from the effects of an 'unknown genjutsu,' which translated to the Tsukiyomi in her mind. She had sneaked a peak at Mikoto's charts and noted that the poison was probably the same one she had come up with back in the war, to keep patients under control if they became rowdy. So someone else had come back as well, one she had known. Only seven people had been in range of the seal when it went off, which was only designed to encompass two or three. She made it, but the seal hadn't completely grabbed Naruto, so she supposed that another two could have made it as well.
But to have the strength to face Itachi and make it out alive was something that only a few could have pulled off. She could have done it at full strength, Naruto would have obliterated the teen. Shikamaru could have done it, but she had seen no signs that he had changed from the original timeline. While Sakura could see Shikamaru hiding it, Kurenai was not someone who could hide it, or face Itachi. She was definitely not one of the ones who made it back. She could almost discount Konohamaru for his current age, and he hadn't shown any signs of changes, and Tenten due to the fact that she had seen the girl around the village with her genin team, and she seemed to have not changed. That only left... Tobi. Sakura shuddered at the thought of what Tobi could do to this world with knowledge of the future.
Then again, the Yondiame had severely injured Tobi, and the man hadn't shown his face or made any sort of moves toward the Jinchuuriki until they were fifteen, besides the time Itachi and Kisame came after Naruto right before Tsunade became Hokage. If he was one of the ones that made it back, things were worse than she could have possibly imagined.
That was the problem with the seal. Originally, it was supposed to be Naruto, Sakura, and Shikamaru making the journey back, since Naruto was the one with power to stop Tobi, and Sakura and Shikamaru could stop him from doing anything stupid. But everything went to hell.
-(Flashback)-
Sakura watched the blonde man work away at the seal. In the barricaded and sealed room they were in, which about ten feet tall, and a couple dozen feet in diameter, the room was covered from wall to wall in seals. The small adjoining room, which held the rest of the survivors, had living quarters and food, but could be sealed off in a moments notice. And, to their knowledge, there was no way Tobi was going to find them here.
Sakura put a hand on Naruto's shoulder, and he stopped his caligraphy to look up at her.
"It's been three hours, Naruto. You need a break." She told him, and Naruto nodded slightly, before standing and stretching.
"Thanks, Sakura-chan. I suppose I could use some food." He said, and she shook her head.
"Oh no, you are also coming to bed. You haven't slept in two days, and if you take another soldier pill, you'll OD. Besides, I miss my blonde teddy bear." She whispered the last bit into his ear. He blushed and grinned.
"Fine, fine. I could use some sleep soon. I'm just so close to finishing. Another hour and I'll be finished." He said, and Sakura nodded.
"Yes, but it will be there tomorrow for you to finish. Now come have some ramen and then we'll go to bed." She told him. They jumped onto the wall, not wanting to ruin the seal on the floor, and wall-walked to the door to the living quarters. Shikamaru sat with a small child in his lap, Kurenai and Asuma's daughter, which she named Mirai, in honor of the future of the world. The situation made Sakura giggle on occasion. Shikamaru constantly complained about how everyone in his life were women, but he loved the kid like she was his own daughter. After Temari's death, he had never been the same, and threw himself into raising that kid and keeping the rest of them alive.
Tenten sat across from him, considering a shogi board. Her hair was up in her regular buns, something she rarely did when just lounging around the living compartment. When Neji had told her he preferred her hair down, she kept it down outside of battle. He had died not four hours after telling her that, so she had taken his last wish to heart. She had utterly changed since his death, even going so far as to dye her hair. Kurenai was attending the homemade ramen she was working on. She had been heart-broken when her team had died, but had moved on for her daughter.
Konohamaru was the last of their rag-tag group. The boy had become everything his grandfather had been. He had signed the monkey contract, and had mastered a long list ninjutsu that was as invaluable to their group as Shikamaru's planning, Sakura's medical skills, or Naruto's sheer power. He always seemed the least affected by their situation, but deep down she knew him to be heart broken. Everyone he had ever cared about, besides Naruto, was gone. He was creating a Rasengan in his hand before letting it disipate, before doing it all over again.
Kurenai smiled at the group's fearless leader and handed him a bowl.
"We figured you needed a treat after all the hard-work you've been putting in." She told him, and Naruto smiled tiredly at her. She handed Sakura a bowl as well, and the whole family was soon eating. Mirai was a little over two, and was munching on some carrot sticks. They were her favorite food. She was often the center of attention in their group, the last source of wonder and innocence in a broken world. She loved Shikamaru and Kurenai, but Naruto, who had always had a way with kids, was her favorite person. Kurenai always joked that she had a little crush on the blonde, leaving him embarassed. Naruto finished his food quickly, and was nearly asleep at the table. Sakura stood and escorted the blonde to their sleeping quarters.
She got him into his sleep wear, a black t-shirt and his frog boxers. She changed as well, a long orange t-shirt and sakura blossom panties, something Naruto had picked out for her so long ago when they were still living in Konoha. The jinchuuriki was already asleep by the time she got into the bed, and she laid her head on his chest, wrapping her arms around him. The blonde's arm went instinctually around her waist, and she heard him mumble in his sleep.
"Good night, Sakura-chan." He whispered, and she smiled.
"Good night, Naruto." She said before drifting off.
Her nightmares were filled with the dead faces of everyone she cared about, like they were every night. She woke in the middle of the night when Naruto sat up, and she could feel that he had been sweating. His nightmares were always worse than hers. She sat up and comforted him. As he cooled off, she heard a noise, something between a knock and a bump. Naruto looked at her, and they were out of bed and into their clothes faster than Naruto could have said 'ramen.' They were out in the living quarters in seconds flat, and noticed the rest of their group assembled as well. Naruto activated the sage mode, and his eyes widened.
"He's outside." Naruto said, and Konohamaru was the first to curse.
"How can he be outside? We both went over those seals and they blocked any sort of chakra from leaking out of the bunker!" Konohamaru called, and Naruto nodded.
"This is what happened when he attacked on my birth night. There was no way around the seal barriers my father set up, but he got through them anyway." Naruto said, and Shikamaru sighed.
"How far away are you from finishing the seal, Naruto?" The Nara asked. Naruto glanced into the sealing chamber.
"I could finish in a half-hour." He said, and they nodded. Konohamaru punched the wall.
"It will take him at least twenty minutes to get through our seals. The rest of us can hold him off while you finish." Konohamaru stated. There wasn't room for argument in his voice, a tone he inherited from his grandfather. Naruto nodded and immediately set to work. Konohamaru set to setting up more trap seals. Shikamaru assumed his thinking pose, surely coming up with some way to fight off Tobi and his army of Zetsu. Kurenai attended to Mirai, who was crying. Tenten spent the time putting her hair into her battle buns, as Sakura had nicknamed them. Sakura herself began to poison all the weapons they possessed. If they somehow got lucky and poisoned the bastard, he would be dead before he could even phase out.
Tenten wouldn't let her poison her special sword. She had come up with an idea, combined with Naruto's seals, to forge a sword able to travel with Tobi when he phased. They had never finished it, but the sword was still indestructible and able to block all the Sharingan techniques from hitting her when she held it. Some of the things Naruto could do with seals were amazing. He had never figured out a seal that could replicate Kakashi's technique, but said he would work on it once they went back. Tenten and Naruto were the only ones allowed to touch the sword, according to Tenten.
The half-hour passed quickly, and, sure enough, the door the led to ground-level opened above them and Tobi dropped in.
"Ah, finally found you." He said. Sakura closed the door to Naruto's chambers, and the rogue Uchiha noted the seal that Naruto often used to disrupt Tobi's ability to phase through certain walls. Tobi knew he would need at least fifteen minutes pick apart that seal. "Come now, you really should just surrender Naruto to me. You'll all be happier once my plan goes down." He said, and Sakura just laughed.
"Tobi... you say this everytime. It will never work. We'd rather die than see everyone in the world made your slaves!" Sakura said as she flung a kunai at the man. It phased through him, but the kunai had a tag on it, exploding out the far wall, opening up the cavern they had built to fight in case Tobi found them. Kurenai backed Mirai into Naruto and Sakura's quarters, and stayed there to protect her. Tobi didn't care about the girl in the other fights. His goal was Naruto. Zetsu after Zetsu flowed into the quarters, but Konohamaru cleared them fairly easily with a fire dragon technique.
"And yet, everytime we meet, one of you dies." Tobi's phasing ability was troublesome, as normal, and despite all their plans to counter it, the ability was too versatile to counter. Eventually, they all got caught up fighting Zetsu clones, and Tobi took the time to unlock the seal. The group noticed this and blew through clones to the door. It was then that Tobi took his opportunity. WIth Kurenai distracted, he grabbed Mirai, holding the little girl by her throat.
"MIRAI! NO!" Kurenai screamed as Shikamaru held her back. Tobi just glared at them.
"Surrender Naruto to me or the girl dies." He commanded, and Kurenai, despite the tears streaming down her cheeks, knew there was nothing she could do for her child. She turned and fell to her knees when she heard the crack of the girl's neck. Tobi dropped the body to the floor, and phased through the group, sticking a blade into Tenten's spine as he did so. Obviously, he wasn't playing with them that time around. Sakura checked Tenten quickly, and noted that she was still alive, though her spinal cord was severed. Sakura could fix that, but it took hours to do so. She closed the wound to prevent the girl from bleeding out and dragged her into the chamber, where Naruto had dropped his sealing to keep Tobi off the rest of them.
She could see the tears of rage on his face as he flashed in and out of view. While Tobi could prevent himself from being hit by the enraged jinchuuriki, there was nothing he could do against the relentless onslaught. Naruto appeared next to Konohamaru.
"I need you to finish the seal, Kono." He told the boy before flashing toward Tobi. Konohamaru's eyes widened. Konohamaru was Naruto's apprentice in terms of sealing, although all of them were learning it. Konohamaru was the best besides the Jinchuuriki, but had confidence issues sometimes.
"I can't. One thing wrong, and we all die!" He said, and Naruto simply stopped for a second, and glared at Konohamaru.
"I trained you. You are an expert sealer. You can draw one damn seal. Now do it before I kick your ass!" Naruto commanded as he flew through Tobi, before flashing and attacking again. Konohamaru nodded and grabbed the brush, drawing the seal for 'time.' Sakura took the time to notice that Naruto was avoiding hitting the ground, and since Tobi normally just hovered in place, the seals were undamaged. Konohamaru finished the seal in less than a minute.
"I finished, Naruto-nii!" He called, and Naruto appeared in the middle of the circle.
"SEAL!"
-(End Flashback)-
The seal had not been designed to designate targets. It had grabbed at least three of them randomly and thrown them back in time. She considered the possibility of Tenten. Although she hadn't appeared to have changed, Sakura theorized she could be in cover, although, like Sakura, in her untrained body, she had little chance against Itachi.
Since Sasuke was unresponsive and Mikoto was asleep still, Sakura dragged Naruto to her training grounds, where they met with Ino. Ino wasn't a fan of the boy, but now that Sakura gave him some attention, she discovered he was a fantastic friend. She wished she had tried harder to be friendly to the boy in her first time through, but then again, she didn't know what she knew now about the boy. Ino was tainted by her parents view of the boy. While they didn't hate the boy, there was a social stigma of associating with him, something they wanted to keep their daughter free of. Which was what Sakura's parents had done for her.
This Ino was more accepting though, maybe because Sakura had already opened her mind a little with her spiel about training. Sakura was going to wait for Naruto to start training with them on his own, but now that there was a possibility that Tobi made it back, she needed to train the boy to be strong as quickly as possible. Things were not looking well for her.
Sasuke returned to class in the following week, and while he was depressed, he wasn't as anti-social as she remembered. He made efforts to talk to both Sakura and Naruto. He seemed to relate to Naruto somewhat, who had no one of his own. Sakura guessed that he felt bad for the blonde boy, since the Uchiha still had his mother.
Sakura found out that when the Hokage questioned Mikoto about it, she said that she had not seen who saved her, only a blade and a prick in the back of her neck. There had been a note dropped on the old man's desk later that week that told the Hokage of Danzo's interference, and in the following weeks, Sarutobi Hiruzen showed Danzo exactly why he was one of the most feared shinobi who ever lived, though he allowed the man to continue to be his advisor, on the condition that he would never supersede any Hokage's authority again, or he would be executed.
Sakura found this comforting. Whenever she thought about the Sandiame, she always imagined an old man who was too soft with his people. It was good to see him have a backbone, something Tsunade had told her that he had possessed a lot of during the wars. She missed her mentor, but she knew she would meet the woman soon enough. Perhaps she would be able to teach Sakura her signature jutsu this time around.
Sakura, Naruto, Ino, and eventually Sasuke and even Shikamaru trained hard for the next few months. Sakura recovered most of her medical skills, her taijutsu, her genjutsu, and her superstrength. While she knew it would be years until she was back up to full strength, she was glad to know she was at least high chunin level again. Ino improved drastically. While Sakura refused to teach the girl anything she didn't know in the original timeline, simply because she wanted Ino to become her own kunoichi, she did improve Ino's speed, reaction times, and taijutsu. Ino went to her father in short order because she was tired of Sakura being better than her, and it was then that Sakura found irony in the fact that Ino still saw her as a rival.
Sakura taught Naruto the shadow clone technique. She also told him not to do the jutsu in public until he could get someone who was actually allowed to know the jutsu to 'teach him.' She made him promise, and, like her own timeline's Naruto, he was very good at keeping promises. She then taught him about the benefits of the shadow clones, and he became very strong very fast. While his style was still developing from the seals his future self had left, he was faster, stronger, and had better reflexes than he had when he became a genin, some four and a half years from the end of the training time.
Sasuke, under his mother's guidance, started kenjutsu, much earlier than he did the first time around. He improved his control, his speed, and his taijutsu. He and Naruto were about on par, though Sasuke normally won spar because he knew how to rile Naruto up. Sakura always had to give something to psychological warfare. It surprised Sakura to see that, while revenge was on the front of his mind, he was still friendlier and more open than he had ever been in her timeline.
As for Shikamaru, Sakura truly wondered why he would join training. He was lazy, as lazy as they came, and while she was pretty sure he wasn't future Shikamaru, something changed him. His excuse didn't fly with her either.
"My mom said that if I didn't pass near the top of class, she was going to make me do all the house cleaning until I moved out. I decided it was less troublesome to put the effort in now." He said. While this would probably fly with anyone else, Sakura still had her doubts, but didn't bring them up. Maybe he had recieved the partial transfer like Naruto, but it hit his personality more than his conscious thought.
Shikamaru was always smart, and once he put his mind to it, he blew Sakura out of the water in academics, something Sakura found annoying. He was the fourth best in class in this timeline for skill, behind Sasuke and Naruto, and, like Ino, he went to his father for more training. Sakura was top of the class in skill, and was attributed to be a genius. Iruka was already slating her to be rookie of the year when they graduated. Both Naruto and Sasuke saw her as their ultimate rival, even if they were more immediate rivals. Sakura was fine with that, though. They needed a benchmark to want to reach, and even with her advantages of already knowing her skills, both of them would eventually become more powerful than her. But she would not let them leave her behind.
Not this time.
Another done.
Please read and review. The more feedback I get, the better my writing style will get.
And I do prefer constructive criticism over flames.
Next time
Hiruzen had also clipped off a bit of the civilian council's power, and Danzo, while furious at the loss of his own power, was glad to see his old friend finally acting like a Hokage should again, though it wasn't enough. Danzo had plans for the Hokage, plans that would be a couple years to go through, and if the 'God of Shinobi' could not see it coming, then all the better.