I Am Friends With Uchiha Itachi
A/N: Another chapter, yay! My target for this chapter is around 2000 words. Glad to see (well those that reviewed at least) that not everyone loves Sasuke (seriously though, why?) as much as his real-life fangirls…or…fanboys…*shudders*. The "bloody Sasuke" from last chapter – you can sub it for a rude word…without actually rude-wording…as well as dissing Sasuke! Joy. And btw, this will NOT become a harem…can't stand them tbh.
Chapter 2 – I Am Friends With Uchiha Itachi
"AHH! We're going to be late, hurry up already!" yelled Naruto as he tore down the path toward the Academy. Ino and Sakura ran behind him, panting.
"God, where does he get all that stamina from?" muttered Sakura. "Hey idiot, wait up!"
Naruto showed no signs of slowing down though, still yelling frantically about what would happen if he was late. If only you knew…thought Ino.
After another five minutes of sprinting, the Academy finally loomed into view. Unlike normal days, where ninja-in-training would mill around, lazing about, the vicinity of the Academy was silent. Unfortunately for the three of them, this would only mean one thing.
They were late.
Sprinting at full speed now, and pumping chakra into his feet, Naruto raced inside his classroom, Iruka raising an eyebrow in annoyance at their lateness.
"You're late."
"Sorry I'm Late; I…er…got lost on the Road Of Life?"
The class, Sakura and Ino sweatdropped at the obviously lame excuse, while Iruka's right eye suddenly developed a twitch. He simply motioned for the three to sit down at the desks. As Naruto walked by, Iruka muttered,
"You sound like Hatake Kakashi…Namikaze." He then said in a louder voice so everyone could hear, "Naruto, stay back after class please. I need to talk to you…about stuff."
"Yes Iruka-sensei."
Not surprisingly, Sakura rushed to the empty spot next to where Sasuke sat, and grinned at him.
"Hi Sasuke-kun, so you think you're gonna pass the test today?"
"Hn."
Sakura squealed at an answer from the stoic Uchiha, while other fangirls glared at Sakura for being able to sit next to Sasuke. Iruka sighed at the scenario, noting that Naruto and Ino sat next to each other, instead of Naruto being alone and Ino sitting with the rest of the Ino-Shika-Cho trio. Obviously he knew what Naruto had done; he had been one of the ones that the Sandaime had gone to and told first, and he believed every word of it. This had been further confirmed when Naruto did not react at all to the name Namikaze, which signalled that he was comfortable with the name, and knew its significance. Iruka rapped on the table for attention.
"Okay, class, today is the day of the Academy's final exam. I hope that everyone will take this seriously, as this can affect your life and future career as a shinobi. Mizuki is not here today, he was called out to some other business so I will test you by myself." Iruka remembered that in Naruto's previous timeline, the Hokage had said Mizuki had tried to steal the Scroll of Seals, kill Naruto and betray Konoha. He was happy that this time this could not happen, and from the look on Naruto's face he was happy as well. "I'll call you each up one at a time, and you will need to perform a jutsu – this can be any rank you wish as well as a clone. Good luck to everyone."
So far, everyone had passed and now there was only one person left. Him. Even after going back in time, fighting off Akatsuki members and saving Konoha multiple times, he was still nervous over an Academy exam. Figures.
"Uzumaki Naruto."
Naruto stepped into the room that the exam was held in. A single lone hitai-ite was perched on the desk; Naruto assumed this was for him.
"Okay Naruto, I want you to perform a jutsu for me please. And NO not that perverted thing, a proper jutsu."
"…alright Iruka-sensei." Naruto formed some handseals and called out.
"Henge no Jutsu!"
Iruka had no idea what he was going to transform into, but he had a feeling he wouldn't like it. After the cloud of smoke dispersed, there stood…naked…Orochimaru. Iruka blanched, and turned green. Private areas were covered by smokes of clouds, and Naruto-Orochimaru was grinning.
"Wait till dear Tsunade-hime sees me like this." he simpered, and then dropped the henge.
In a casino not too far from Konoha, Tsunade sneezed violently.
"Are you okay Tsunade-sama?" asked Shizune.
"Yes, I'm fine Shizune. Someone was probably talking about me. Better not have been that baka Jiraiya." Tsunade returned to her gambling, already having lost about 5000 ryō that day.
Iruka was still cringing in obvious horror at the henge Naruto had chosen, bordering between the humour of it yet the seriousness of such a thing.
"Ok…Naruto…now create a clone, please."
"Well, you see Iruka-sensei, if I do a normal clone," A beat up slightly off-colour bunshin appeared, splayed out on the floor. "Then it doesn't work at all. But if I do THIS,"
"Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" A hundred clones filled the room and said simultaneously, "Hi Iruka-sensei!" Naruto then dispelled them all. "-then I end up passing, don't I?" he finished.
"Well, erm, yeah, I suppose so." Iruka beamed at the supposed dead-last of the class. "Here you go - your very own hitai-ite." Naruto grinned and put it on in replacement of his goggles. "Now go join your class."
Back outside in the main classroom, the whole class was chatting animatedly with one another. Next to Naruto, Ino was admiring her own hitai-ite.
"So we finally have them again, huh Naruto-kun?" asked Ino. "I felt empty without mine."
"Same here. Hey Ino-chan, do you think the team lineups will still be the same?"
"Probably. I mean, nothing's happened to change them drastically, so why should they change?" she replied.
"What's changed?" Kiba's voice popped up from a seat above them, Akamaru barking in agreement.
"Err, nothing…?"
"Come on, you can tell me, I can keep a secret." Kiba flashed a grin.
"For about 30 seconds you can," retorted Ino.
"So anyway, what's up between you and dead-last? Something going on between you two?" Ino whacked him hard on the head, causing Akamaru to lose balance and fall off.
"Shut up you baka, Naruto-kun isn't the dead-last!" Well not in the old timeline he wasn't, Ino thought.
"Ooooh, getting all protective now are we?" Kiba sniggered. There was a faint tint of red on Naruto while Ino was blushing outright. She turned away, huffing in annoyance.
"Okay, listen up everyone. All of you passed today, congratulations. Yes, even Naruto. ESPECIALLY Naruto." Iruka went a bit green at the recall of the memory. "Now you'll all be informed of your teams and meeting your Jōnin-sensei's tomorrow, so use this bit of time to catch up. Naruto, I want to see you now."
"What DID you do in your exam Naruto-kun?" Ino muttered curiously.
"Oh nothing much Ino-chan, just henged into a naked Orochimaru and pretended to fawn over Tsunade-baa-chan." Naruto flashed a foxy grin.
"We'll never hear the end of this one…" Ino mumbled. "Naruto-kun, drop by my house later ok? I've told my parents about the situation and they would like to meet you. No, daddy won't eat you," Ino caught a glimpse of fear in Naruto's eyes at what Inoichi could do to him. "Just come round at like 6pm." And with that, Ino walked away.
"Quite a relationship you have there." Iruka said behind Naruto. Naruto turned around and found a smiling Iruka.
"So what did you want to talk to me about?"
"Well, as you know, Hokage-sama told me of your little…incident, and we both thought it would be best if we clear some things up that you're bound to probably mess up. Firstly is the matter about the Sannin. Jiraiya will be arriving earlier than when you said he was going to come, during the Chuunin exam finals was it? The same applies to Tsunade."
"Iruka-sensei, Ino-chan did the same thing as I did and used the time jutsu as well…"
"I figured as much. Why else would she seem so attached to you for no reason? At least she's not a Uchiha Sasuke fangirl now." replied Iruka. "By the way, speaking of Uchiha's, there's someone I'd like you to meet, so that there are no misunderstandings in the future."
A figure appeared in the entrance, walking forwards towards Iruka.
"Uchiha Itachi!?" cried Naruto. "What the bloody Sasu-er, hell are you doing here?"
"Informing you of course. I'm not really a member of Akatsuki; I'm actually a double agent, working for the Hokage and Jiraiya-sama. Happy now?"
"Then why did you massacre the Uchiha's?"
"I didn't. It was Danzo. I was framed." replied Itachi.
"And so you went into exile for nothing then?"
"Err, no. By joining Akatsuki I could easily get information from them and relay it back to Konoha. I've always been loyal to Konoha. It's a pity Sasuke thinks otherwise. Anyway, the Sandaime told me of your time travelling. Pity I wasn't alive to see of it in the future; would have liked to see the havoc."
"Meh. Let's be friends!" grinned Naruto.
"… … …that was random. Eh, whatever, ok. As long as you don't tell anyone else; Sasuke will go into emo mode if he has no-one to take revenge on."
"Sure. Who did he take revenge on when he was little?" asked Naruto.
"His goldfish. Used to have staring contests with it, until he realized goldfish never blinked. As revenge, he cooked it and burnt it, put it through the washing machine then flushed the remains down the toilet bowl."
"How responsible of him." Naruto was snorting while Iruka was trying not to laugh. "Anyway Itachi I have to go somewhere, catch ya later."
"Seeing your girlfriend?"
"NO! INO-CHAN IS NOT MY GIRLFRIEND!"
"Whatever."
"So you're saying that you came back to your past to set some things that have gone wrong right again?" asked Inoichi. After getting over the initial shock of how tall Ino's father was, they had surprisingly got on quite well.
"Yes, and Ino-chan followed me."
"That wasn't very responsible of you Ino," Inoichi said. "Something could have gone wrong and you could have been in a real mess."
"I couldn't leave Naruto-kun alone though, he was bound to do something stupid before long, RIGHT Naruto?"
"Err…yes?" he replied feebly. From the opposite side of the table Mrs. Yamanaka smiled. Ino and Naruto would be a good match for sure. But how to get them together…?
Next: Sorry I'm Late, Insert Lame Excuse Here
A/N: Whew, that took ages! Just a note on how the story will go – I will go past the Chuunin exams, where Sasuke makes his choice (Emo, or No Emo?) then I'll see what happens from there.
Also, I'm currently in a dilemma over whether to speed up the NaruIno or to stagger it. Obviously the best thing about relationships is reading about how they slowly get together, but then again there's also the plot storyline to think about. As always, Read and Review plz! =D
