Chapter 3

o

Very few of the newly graduated genin class slept well that night. Twenty-seven students had graduated, twenty seven students had heard the same basic message from nine jounin, and twenty-six students had vowed that they would be one of the nine taken as official genin (the twenty-seventh had other things on his mind at the time). Most of the graduates had gone home to their families that night and told them of the additional test to take place the following morning. Some had received advice from a parent or sibling who were or had been ninja at some point, others received a kind word of encouragement and assurance that they would do fine. Most were offered diner and a few even managed to accept it and keep it down despite their nerves. A few of the girls declined the diner offer because it was rumored that a certain boy – who was sure to pass, of course – only liked thin women.

Only one of the genin was completely unconcerned about the test the next day and that was only because he'd already passed it and because far more pressing matters were hanging so heavily over him that he could scarcely breathe.

Haruno Sakura spent her evening rolling her eyes at her mother and refusing to eat anything that was put in front of her. She'd had a light snack after returning home from the meeting with Kakashi and the rest of Team Seven, and that was more than enough food for her unless she wanted to look like her mother in another few years.

Her parents, unfortunately, didn't seem to understand how important it was for her to keep the pounds off. Her father had made a joke about how much her stealth skills would improve if she wasted away to nothing. This had caused her mother to declare Sakura too skinny for her own good as she added an extra portion to the plate full of food Sakura was already not eating. Only the fact that she really was very nervous and feeling a little queasy, and that it was readily apparent on her face, kept Sakura from having to eat her weight in pork and steamed vegetables. Once she'd escaped her family, she quickly made her way to her room and locked the door, refusing to come out for the rest of the night lest she find herself tied to a chair while her mother force-fed her some crackers and other foods meant to settle upset stomachs (and put a little weight on silly girls).

That night she went to bed early so she could wake up in time to make herself pretty for Sasuke and recheck the survival equipment she'd already packed for the test. Sleep did not come easy, and once it arrived she wished that it had just stayed away altogether. Horrific dreams of the one-eyed jounin grinning through his stupid mask as he informed her that she'd failed assaulted her as she tossed and turned violently under her cotton sheets and thin quilt. She saw Sasuke – who had passed with flying colors – scowling as he looked down his nose at her and shook his head in disappointment before wrapping an arm possessively around the slender waist of blond, perfect –and formerly Sakura's best friend – Yamanaka Ino. He then whispered something into the floozy's ear that caused her to laugh playfully and glance in Sakura's direction as she planted a small kiss on the flawless skin of their mutual-crush's cheek.

Twice Sakura woke up in a cold sweat; her heart pounding until she realized that it was just a dream and that Sasuke could never like Ino-pig with her snooty, little nose, ugly, boring hair, and – admittedly – fashionable clothes that she only wore to showoff her family's modest wealth. Both times she assured herself that Sasuke would see right through Ino and would know what a shallow and annoying person she was. And yet, every time she closed her eyes she saw the same thing. She would fail miserably at all of the different tests Kakashi forced her to take, Sasuke would pass, and then Ino would show up looking smug and stealing Sakura's destined true love.

It was enough to drive a girl crazy and when her alarm finally, mercifully, went off, she was mentally exhausted and didn't feel like her body had gotten any rest at all. Her stomach growled irritably, but a light punch reminded it that there were more important things to think about than food. When she was Uchiha Sakura, she promised to reward her stomach every time her beloved husband took her on a date to one of the expensive restaurants in the village.

Soon she was showered, dressed, and looking as good as she could make herself look after a night like the one she'd just had. Her light pink, canvas satchel was stuffed with anything and everything she thought might be required to make it through Kakashi's survival training test as well as several items purported in her favorite magazines to be useful in keeping herself looking nice even under less than ideal conditions.

Without a word to her thankfully-still-sleeping parents, Sakura made her way into the dimly lit day. She would be a little early, but it was important to show Sasuke and Kakashi how responsible and prepared she was, plus it would deny her mother another chance to try to feed her, which was always a good thing.

Sakura shifted the strap of her heavy bag until it was comfortable and then set out, determined to pass Kakashi's test and win Sasuke's heart.

ooo

In his expensive – yet somehow cold – apartment, Sasuke also woke early and prepared himself for Kakashi's survival training. He too had spent the night restlessly trying to get comfortable in his large bed and struggling to hold the nightmares at bay. By the time he finally awoke, his silk sheets clung to his sweaty body like flypaper and his dreams remained with him.

"It would be worthless to kill someone like you… my foolish brother…"

Even awake those words haunted him, echoing faintly in his ears as the ghost of his older brother's strange eyes floated in his mind. Those eyes, the Mangekyo Sharingan, always seemed to be on him, sometimes taunting him, sometimes frightening him, but always just ahead of him, unreachable and untouchable.

Sasuke ran his hands over his face, pushing his fatigue away, and then up through his dark, wet bangs as he took a deep breath and glanced at the clock beside his bed. It was earlier than he needed to wake, but not so early that he shouldn't get out of bed anyway, he had better things to do with his time than dreaming about the past that continued to dog his every footstep.

"If you want to kill me… hate me! Curse me! Live a long and unsightly life. Run away. Run away… and cling to your pitiful life! And some day, when you have the same 'eyes' as me, come before me."

Itachi's voice had been so calm when he spoke those words, as if he'd felt nothing for what he'd done to their clan… for what he'd done to their mother and father. He just calmly looked at his little brother who had always idolized him and strived to be as perfect at everything as he was and said those strange words that Sasuke had thought about every day since.

Sasuke quickly made his way to the bathroom and splashed water on his face to clear away the sticky feeling his sweat had left with him. He glanced at the mirror and frowned. How had Itachi felt when he became a genin?

He hated thinking about his brother, hated comparing himself to the bastard and yet he couldn't seem to stop doing it.

Had Itachi even been capable of feeling nervous about the test given to see if he was actually allowed to become a full-fledged genin or had he just been supremely confident in his skills knowing what a genius he was?

Probably the latter. After all, Itachi had only heard how amazing he was from their father every day of his life. It wasn't as if he would have been like the others in Sasuke's class, just looking happy to have graduated and pleased to be on a team. He was an Uchiha, he was bred to be the best and would have accepted nothing less than perfection and Sasuke was going to be exactly the same.

Itachi had been five years younger than Sasuke when he graduated, only seven years old and still top of his class. He'd been allowed to enter the Academy earlier, but that was just more proof of his genius.

Genin by seven, Sharingan master by eight, Chuunin by ten…

Of course, Itachi had been in an entirely different situation than Sasuke was. He'd grown up in the house of the leader of one of the most powerful clans in the village, not on the outskirts of a compound that was now as silent as a graveyard, with a clear view of the empty home he'd loved as a child. Itachi had grown up with a loving mother, a father who favored him, and a brother who idolized him. He hadn't spent half a decade as the last living member of his family, hearing the whispers as he walked down the streets. Itachi had always come home to a family that welcomed him happily, he hadn't ever had to come home and see his clan slaughtered and his parents murdered by the person he looked up to.

In short, Itachi hadn't grown up with Itachi as an older brother.

Sasuke wished he could say that his painful childhood had hardened him, made him stronger, but he wasn't so sure. He was better than everyone in his class, but he couldn't use the Sharingan yet… he might not even be capable of it. He'd heard rumors, before his clan was slaughtered, that the Sharingan sometimes failed to manifest, even in children who seemed quite talented. Itachi had already had it mastered for four years when he was Sasuke's age and Sasuke didn't even know what it felt like.

Itachi seemed so far ahead! How was Sasuke supposed to make up that ground? How was he supposed to avenge his clan when he was stuck with two weaklings as team members?

He'd known as soon as Iruka had said the teams were designed to be even that he would be carrying his team until he could rid himself of them. He was the strongest of the class in every subject; it was natural that to balance the teams meant he had to be stuck with two far weaker teammates.

Sasuke allowed a weary sigh to escape his lips and then plucked his toothbrush out of the cup by the sink and began to clean himself up for the day.

Uzumaki Naruto and Haruno Sakura.

He supposed it could have been worse, but not by much. Naruto was a loud mouthed idiot who was too dumb and delusional to realize just how weak and pathetic he really was. The fact that he'd passed some sort of special test made it seem like the Academy was just trying to get rid of him – everyone knew most of the chuunin and jounin who ran the Academy hated him to some extent. The fact that even his minor offenses and harmless questions sparked their ire only reinforced the notion that they had put up with him for far too long and just wanted him gone.

He was deadweight that would just pull down whatever team he ended up on unless someone extremely talented was there to pick up the slack for him. Sasuke wished they could have offered that job to Aburame Shino or Tandoku Yousu, the two boys with the next highest average scores in the class.

In all likelihood, Naruto would get himself killed fairly quickly – which might also explain why he'd been allowed to graduate despite his horrendous lack of talent, though that seemed a bit cruel no matter how annoying Naruto was. He was too stupid to know when to shut up so he didn't get killed and too loud to manage it even if he realized what he needed to do. Sasuke would try to keep him alive as long as he could, especially if such actions helped him get reassigned quicker, but he doubted even he could keep Naruto alive once their missions started involving life or death situations.

Sakura was actually rather smart, which only served to make it that much more disappointing to see how weak and dumb she was. Her weakness was obvious from just looking at her, but her test scores showed that she was intelligent despite all appearances to the contrary. Really, he didn't have many bad things to say about her outside of her lack of physical abilities. She followed him around like all of those other harpies, thinking that he actually cared about any of the ridiculous things they did to "impress" him, fighting amongst each other for the chance to be near him when all he wanted was for all them to go away and leave him alone. They were idiots, every last one of them, and Sakura's associations with them only proved that test scores did not always accurately judge intelligence.

Kakashi would be the key. Sasuke would have to impress him right away, let him see what he was capable of and pray that it was enough to prove that he should be removed from his weak team as quickly as possible and put somewhere more suited to his skills. He was an Uchiha, after all. His clan had been one of the elites… until Itachi…

No! He was an Uchiha, he was the Uchiha. His clan was known for their strength in the past and even that would pale in comparison to the strength he would prove he could possess. He'd been called a genius for years and proven it during every test he'd ever taken. Now it would be time for all that potential to be realized. He would surpass his brother, avenge his clan, and then rebuild the Uchiha to be greater and stronger than they had ever been before.

But to do all that, he had to get away from the team he'd been saddled with and to do that, he had to impress Kakashi during the survival training.

As he brushed his teeth and dwelled on his brother, Sasuke slowly became aware of a stinging sensation in his left palm. Curious, he raised his hand and stared at it. His fist had clenched so tightly his fingernails had sliced into his palm… again. He turned on the water, spit the toothpaste out of his mouth, and then calmly set about cleaning his small wounds. It seemed something like this always happened when he thought about his brother… about that night…

He just couldn't control the rage he still felt. He buried it deep down during the day, when others were around, but when he returned home to his empty apartment and stepped out onto the balcony to watch the sun on his clan's vacant section of the village, he couldn't hold it in anymore. Digging his fingernails into his palm was fairly minor in comparison with some of the other things he'd accidentally done while thinking of what happened back then.

When he was satisfied that the bleeding had mostly stopped, he quickly checked his bag to make sure that he hadn't missed anything when he'd packed the nigh before and then hurried towards the training area Kakashi had told them to meet him at. He would be early, but it didn't really matter.

He could be alone out there or alone in here. At least out there he wouldn't be tempted to stare at the vacant buildings that had once housed his family and fellow clan members.

ooo

Naruto did not suffer from nightmares that night, nor did he wake early like his teammates. He probably would have had horrible dreams, waking up screaming or at the very least biting back a scream, and then would have rolled out of bed wearily once it became apparent that sleep wasn't where he needed to be, but he didn't.

None of those things happened to him because all of them required him actually falling asleep first.

What Naruto did after his conversation with Hinata was head more or less straight back to his apartment – taking the occasional headlong spill into the ground, alleyway walls, old men playing shogi, and one pile of trash bags – pull off his still smelly and slightly wet jacket (not bothering with his pants or shirt), crawl into bed, and stare up at his cracked ceiling as the shadows swallowed up the room and then began to retreat again many hours later. He neither saw nor heard anything around him as all of his attention was on the unique – to his knowledge, at least – situation he found himself in.

Had any enemy ninja entered his apartment, tripped over his table, cursed loudly, realized they'd forgotten the tools of their trade, left to get those tools, and come back again later to kill him, he would have been a dead man… or child… or whatever he was.

After dwelling for a long time on what he could do to fix things, he'd eventually worked his way back towards the question of how he'd been transported back in time in the first place. After many hours of thought, it was still a mystery to him. He remembered fighting Orochimaru… and losing – much as he hated to admit it – but other than that things weren't very clear. He remembered the Mangekyo Sharingan… and the bodies of Hinata and that prick she'd had to marry… but that was about all the detail he could recall other than the fact that the village had obviously been attacked and was in the process of being even more destroyed than it already was after years of warding off attacks.

Once he'd tired of that subject, he again turned to the question of how sure he was that he truly was in the past and not stuck in a genjutsu or some other trick. This question actually grew easier to answer the more he thought about it, which was a pleasant change from the rest of his evening.

Even if he was trapped in a genjutsu, there was no way Orochimaru or Sasuke or anyone else from Otogakure would have known about Hinata's mother or any of those other things Hinata said. She just wouldn't have been important enough in their eyes to get that sort of information. On top of that, he doubted there was a genjutsu powerful enough to recreate everything from his childhood so accurately. Even things he'd forgotten about until seeing them again in this Konoha were perfect, it just wasn't possible. And the final part that officially made this – in his mind – real, was the fact that no one had attacked him besides two old men who didn't appreciate him ruining their shogi game with his clumsiness. Large, highly detailed genjutsu were extremely taxing on the caster's chakra reserves, Itachi's Tsukuyomi could only be used a few times and even then only for a few seconds each time, and this would be the biggest most highly detailed genjutsu Naruto had ever heard of and yet he was completely unmolested so far. No, this was definitely real, Naruto was sure of it… mostly… sort of…

It was the other question, the one that he kept coming back to over and over, that was the most difficult to answer, which explained why he spent so much time thinking about it. Unfortunately the question of how to make sure the future he came from was never allowed to happen only brought more questions with it. How much could he change? Could he actually change anything? What changes should he make assuming he actually could make real changes?

There were a lot of things in his life that he'd always wished that he'd done differently, or better, or not at all, but now that he had the chance to make those changes, he wasn't completely sure how to go about doing it.

On top of it all, he couldn't let anyone know who or what he was. He knew enough about the way the village worked to know that if he suddenly developed an amazing array of abilities, people would notice and start asking hard to answer questions. If they learned that he thought he was from the future, he'd either end up strapped to a bed in the hospital for the rest of his life or would find himself sitting in a chair staring up at the scarred face of Morino Ibiki for the rest of a much shorter life… he wasn't even sure which of those scenarios was actually worst.

Naruto sighed and rubbed his hands against the strangely smooth skin of his face. He'd always been a baby face, but over the years had gradually built up the ability to at least grow some stubble. Now his face was back to its previous smoothness and he was rather glad for it. Being unable to grow a decent beard or goatee – and being reminded of it by several "friends" from time to time – took all of the fun out of having facial hair and turned it into just another chore that had to be done. He'd always thought having a beard like Asuma's would have been cool, but it was not to be. There were female members of the village council who could grow more facial hair in a week than Naruto could manage in three months.

And with that pleasant thought, Naruto sat up and yawned, deciding that it would be better to get going than sitting around trying to plan how he was going to live his life the second time through. He'd never been good at planning for the future, he'd always just sort of adlibbed it as he went along. It made him unpredictable – "the number one unpredictable ninja of Konoha," as Kakashi used to call him – but also meant that he had to rely heavily on his friends when in-depth plans were required.

The blond looked down at his orange pants and blue shirt and sighed forlornly. It would be obvious that he'd slept in his clothing, except for his jacket that was lying crumpled on the floor, and that he hadn't gotten the stink completely out of them, despite Hinata's best efforts. He would have to work on it again that evening, after he'd past Kakashi's little test, and his sheets would need a good cleaning as well.

Naruto stretched and scratched himself lazily as he headed into the small kitchen and opened the door to the beat up refrigerator.

"Ugh, I'd forgotten how bad it was," he groaned as he stared at the measly pickings. The milk was obviously bad, he could smell it the moment he opened the door. At one time in his life, he probably would have figured that it was close enough to good and drank some – having heard of the importance of calcium and vitamin D early in his Academy days – you just had to hold a fork up to keep the chunks from ending up in your cup and it was fine…

There was a half eaten apple, but it was shriveling up and turning brown, and Naruto wasn't sure if he'd be able to actually force himself to eat it. The rest of the items in the refrigerator were either unidentifiable, unappealing, or both so he shut it in disgust and began to search the rest of the kitchen for some decent food. It was strange to realize how spoiled he'd become once he actually had friends who looked out for him. As a child he wouldn't have minded his lack of options, he might have even thought he was eating pretty well, but after years of living off the home cooking Hinata occasionally brought for him, having had the chance to sample some of Sakura's more edible attempts at meals, and being invited to have dinner and lunch with the families of other friends he'd had his eyes opened to what a homemade meal was supposed to be… and it wasn't going to be found in this refrigerator. Fortunately he only had to open two cabinet doors before he hit the jackpot.

Six unopened, beautiful cups of instant ramen sat before him.

The oven couldn't heat the water fast enough. In mere minutes Naruto was pouring the boiling water into one of the cups and inhaling the intoxicating scent of his favorite food as the water softened the noodles and released their trapped aroma.

With a heartfelt "Itadakimasu!" he dug his chopsticks into the beautiful noodles and brought them up to his watering mouth… and then paused.

He wasn't supposed to eat. Kakashi had told them not to and the first time around he had obeyed. Normally, Naruto would have simply thought "screw you" at the jounin and enjoyed his less-than-healthy breakfast, but there was a problem in doing that. His team had passed Kakashi's test the first time around and they needed to pass again or everything would get really screwed up. If they didn't pass the test, they wouldn't be Team Seven, and if they weren't Team Seven they wouldn't go to Wave Country, and if they didn't go to the Wave Country they might not be entered into the Chuunin Exam, and if they didn't take the Exam, Naruto wouldn't have met Gaara and Jiraiya, and if he didn't meet Jiraiya, Tsunade-baa-chan might not become the Hokage…

No, he had to do everything just like he had before. He couldn't remember all the details from way back then perfectly, but he had to be close enough to get the same outcome. If he started changing things that didn't need to be changed, everything could be ruined.

With a heavy heart, Naruto let his chopsticks sink into the steaming bowl of noodles and then picked up his ramen, carried it to the sink and mournfully poured it out. Watching the noodles and broth slide down the drain and out of sight was nearly the saddest thing he'd ever seen… well, actually, not even close, but it was the saddest thing he'd seen since waking up in the past and that was enough.

Naruto let out a forlorn sigh and cast a longing glance back at the cupboard that held the wondrous stash of ramen, and then headed out the door and towards the training grounds. If he was going to be hungry, he might as well be hungry somewhere that didn't have a ready supply of ramen softly calling out to him like a siren amongst the rocks.

ooo

Naruto was the last member of Team Seven to arrive at the training grounds, having been delayed numerous times by trips and stumbles as his too-short body was unable to comply with the instructions of a brain used to wielding far longer and more powerful limbs. He was, at least, encouraged by the fact that his stumbles were occurring less frequently than they had the previous day. Slowly but surely his mind was adapting to its new – or old – body… though the key word there was s-l-o-w-l-y.

So long as he remained totally focused on his movements he was generally fine. Unfortunately it was really hard to keep thinking about the correct distance for each step, how quickly his arms were moving, or the distance from his hand to his face. Those sorts of movements were instinctive for a reason: they were boring.

Of course, tripping and falling on top of a little, old woman out for an early morning stroll, being called a pervert, and getting hit repeatedly until an escape was managed were the results of his inattention – along with even dirtier clothes, a mouthful of mud, and a severely bruised ego – so perhaps he should have been able to put a little more effort into watching what he was doing. It was just so hard for him to pay attention when he kept seeing buildings that had been destroyed years earlier suddenly returned to their former glory and people that had been killed during one of the many attacks on the village going about their business as if there was nothing strange about it – and for them, he supposed, there wasn't.

When he finally made it to the training grounds, his teammates looked as though they'd already been there for awhile. Sasuke was sitting at the base of a tree, his satchel placed between his bent legs, his arms resting on his knees, and a bored expression on his face. A gentle breeze played with his long, dark bangs, causing them to sway in front of his face in a way that Naruto had to admit appeared to be simultaneously unintentional and unquestionably cool-looking. Seeing his old friend as he had been and being unaffected by the jealousy that had often dictated his actions and views as a young man, Naruto could see what the girls liked about the Uchiha. He was handsome, or at least Naruto assumed that he was – finding it a bit unpleasant to think of another guy as 'handsome' – and something about his perpetual brooding made him seem mysterious and aloof. His features were almost delicate from one angle, but then hard as ice from another.

"What are you looking at, dobe?" Sasuke asked, noticing Naruto's stare.

"I just realized why all the girls liked... er, like you," Naruto replied with a grin.

"Hn," the seated boy snorted, "don't get any ideas, I don't swing that way."

Naruto opened his mouth to protest, or perhaps to challenge Sasuke to a fight, but before he could say anything Sakura yelled, "Quit bothering Sasuke, idiot!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes and muttered something under his breath before turning his head away from his teammates and looking up at the branches above him as the early morning sunlight danced in the leaves.

Naruto frowned and glanced in Sakura's direction. "I think you're bothering him more than me," he retorted before he could stop himself.

Sakura's eyes hardened dangerously and her lips pulled back to reveal her clenched teeth as she advanced on him. It could have been his imagination, but Naruto thought that he might have even heard her knuckles popping as her hands squeezed into fists.

"Ah… ha ha… Sakura-chan… don't do anything you'll regret later," he said gesturing placatingly with his hands.

"I won't regret this," she announced in a deadened voice. "You've had this coming for a long time…"

"Sakura-chan, I… I don't want to hurt you," he tried again, his arms relaxing slightly as he prepared to defend himself, "but if you try to hit me…"

He knew there was going to be power behind her fist, there always was, but it came at him so pitifully slow it was almost hard to take it seriously. As a child, he'd often been blindsided by such attacks, his eyes unable to follow them, but this time he could see it coming with ease. His right arm shot out instinctively to knock her fist away…

…but his hand didn't travel far enough to make contact with her arm. A half-second later, her fist slammed into his head, sending him tumbling through the grass and dirt.

For a long minute, Naruto lay in a heap, covered in grass and dust and not moving, perhaps not even breathing. Then he coughed, spitting sod from his mouth, and rolled onto his back, one hand coming up to rub his aching face.

"Damn it, Sakura-chan," he grumbled, gingerly touching the large lump that was already forming on his head as he sat up, "I forgot you were such a…"

"What was that?!?" the pink haired kunoichi snarled as she rounded on him again, her eyes twitching.

Naruto swallowed the comment instantly and smiled innocently up at her. "Nothing."

"Make sure it stays that way."

Naruto nodded hastily, not wanting anything more to do with her angry side until his body was working properly. It was actually, in a vague and mostly made-up-so-he'd-feel-better-about-himself sort of way, a good thing that she'd punched him. He'd been able to see her fist coming and could have dodged it or blocked it if his arms and legs would consistently do what he asked of them. Seeing how much of a hindrance his body was going to be in battle helped him see what he would have to work on first. After all, it would be difficult to save all of his friends if he was constantly tripping and misjudging distances. It also worked as a convenient excuse to not start trying to make any changes right away since he had no idea where to begin.

His blue eyes followed Sakura as she once again attempted to strike up a conversation with Sasuke and met only silence, small grunts, and a few one word answers. As a child, Naruto had suspected that Sasuke secretly enjoyed Sakura's attention and even encouraged it, but looking at it now, he saw nothing but annoyance from the dark haired boy. Perhaps it just hadn't started yet, or maybe he'd seen something that wasn't there because he'd wished that it was him she'd paid so much attention to.

Whichever was the case, Sasuke looked to Naruto like he just wanted to be left alone… which was exactly what couldn't happen. If Sasuke was allowed to be the loner that he wanted to be, then he would be that much more willing to leave the village in search of power in less than a year. Sasuke's ties to the village had been nearly severed by his brother's betrayal and then the last few were ripped away by Orochimaru and the curse seal. What he needed was a few stronger ties. Naruto liked to think that he had been one, but if he was, it wasn't enough. Sasuke needed something more than a little brother and a semi-rival, he needed…

Naruto wasn't sure what his friend needed, but he would have to figure it out quickly. If he didn't and things went the same at the Chuunin Exam as they had the first time around, he would have to do what was needed to protect the village.

Even if it meant killing one of his best friends.

It was a chilling thought and Naruto hated himself for even thinking it, but it was true nonetheless. He would kill Sasuke before allowing him to betray the village a second time, especially after having lived through the consequences.

Naruto pushed those thoughts from his mind quickly and vowed to only worry about the here and now for the time being. The Chuunin Exam was still a long ways off and he would come up with a plan before then, it was as simple as that. Right now the most important thing to think about was getting his mind back in control of his body.

For the next two hours Naruto sat cross-legged on the ground, bringing one arm up slowly until it was where he wanted it and then lowering it back down, over and over again, slightly faster each time. Once he thought he had the timing down he would work on the other arm until he was satisfied with that one, then he would return to first arm and see if he still remembered how to move it… and was disappointed when he found himself nearly back at square one. It wasn't that he couldn't figure it out, his head knew more or less how to move his body after the first several times he worked through the movement, but his instincts still wanted to use his larger form and instincts that had been built up over the years couldn't be trained out of him with just a few minutes or even a few hours of work.

After he gave up on his arms he stood up and began pacing, measuring his footsteps at one speed and then at another, always keeping his eyes down on them to make sure he didn't trip or try to take a larger step than he was capable of.

Sakura and Sasuke – who was now up in a tree to avoid having to talk with anyone – watched his antics curiously for a while before eventually passing it off as just another Naruto-being-weird moment; there had been plenty of them over the years.

Sakura told him to just sit still at one point, but he didn't even look up at her or reply, and she couldn't work up enough anger to do anything about it. The truth was that she was getting restless as well. Kakashi was now over two hours late and she'd gotten to the meeting spot almost an hour early. Were Sasuke not around, she would have taken up pacing and fidgeting as well. He was around, however, and she didn't want to annoy him or be seen acting like Naruto. So instead she sat at the base of the tree Sasuke was in and dozed while watching Naruto.

ooo

Kakashi had woken long before any of his genin, he was already at the Heroes' Monument before the sky had changed with the coming of dawn, and he was still there when he noticed that his students had made their way to the spot he'd told them to meet him at, just on the other side of the trees that surrounded the cenotaph.

His instructions had been for them to meet him at seven-thirty, but all three had shown up early… just like he would have when he was fresh out of the Academy. He could have gone and seen them at anytime, but he didn't. After realizing that they were there waiting for him, his body seemed to try to pull him towards them, desperate to be close to on time for once, but he resisted, forcing himself to stare at his friend's name, tracing it with his eyes over and over.

The large stone was exactly as it had always been: cold and smooth, somehow simultaneously seeming to reflect the growing light of the morning and suck in all of the light around it. Kakashi knew it was just his imagination that it did this, brought on by the fact that he knew a great many of the names that were carved into its glossy surface, but the stone gave him the creeps and he hated it. Still, every morning – and occasionally during the evening as well – he came and stood before it until he was late to wherever he was supposed to go, punishing himself for the person he once was and recalling in near perfect detail the mission that claimed his best friend's life.

"I've got a new team, Obito," he whispered. "Hokage-sama asked me to take them, just like he does every year, and I had to say yes. One of them is from your clan and another is supposedly a loud-mouth dumbass… that's why Hokage-sama gave them to me. I doubt they'll pass though, the loud one followed me all over the village yesterday when we were supposed to head straight to the Academy and never even asked why we kept wandering around in circles."

Kakashi let out a soft sigh and looked up at the sun overhead, noting that it was approaching eleven already. "Three hours should be about right, don't you think? I thought about telling them that I was helping an old lady who'd gotten lost, but I've decided just to go with the 'my alarm clock broke' routine. The old lady one is sort of special. I was always fond of that one when you used it… no, actually, it drove me crazy when you used it, but I'm fond of it now… it was the last excuse for being late that I ever got to hear you give."

He turned and began walking towards his team, calling over his shoulder, "I'll see you tomorrow and let you know how badly it went."

ooo

Another thirty minutes had passed before the sound of movement through the bushes caught the attention of two of the three genin – Naruto continued his strange pacing and didn't even bother looking away from his feet at the noise. Sasuke and Sakura looked up just in time to see Kakashi step into the clearing, a small backpack on his back and a little skip in his steps.

"Hey guys, good morning!" he said with a happy wave.

"You're late!" Sakura yelled back, seeing red. If Kakashi wasn't going to show up until after ten, why had he told them to meet him there at seven-thirty!

"Oh, yeah, sorry about that," he chuckled, not sounding very sorry at all. "My alarm clock broke and I over slept."

"By three hours?" Sakura asked in disbelief and then added in a whisper that she didn't realize he could hear, "What sort of jounin are you?"

Kakashi's eye shifted away from her and she could imagine the corners of his mouth twitching under his mask. "Hmm, anyway, come over here and we'll get started."

He signaled for them to follow him and then led them down a small path through the woods that led to an open space surrounded by trees on three sides with a small river on the fourth. Three wooden posts were stuck into the ground near the path with a large, cut stone monument just beyond them. Kakashi removed a small black alarm clock with golden bells from his backpack and set it on the middle post (Sakura noted that this clock seemed to be working just fine and was set to the correct time) before pressing a button on top of it, setting the alarm.

The jounin then turned towards the three young ninja and held up his hand, two silver bells dangled from two pieces of string. "Here are two bells," Kakashi informed them needlessly. "Your task is to take these from me before noon. Those who cannot get a bell by noon will get no lunch." He smiled through his mask at them, "I'll not only tie you to one of these posts, but I'll eat right in front of you."

Right on cue all three genins' stomachs growled loudly and Kakashi looked even more pleased as he watched realization dawn on two of the three. Naruto either didn't notice or didn't care, but he smiled knowingly as he too glanced at his teammates. For a moment Kakashi wondered if the boy had figured out the reason for the rule and still went without eating, but dismissed the idea just as quickly. Everything he'd heard about Naruto said that the boy was hopelessly clueless, his boundless energy making him unable to concentrate long enough to fully understand even the simplest of puzzles or instructions.

Of course, if one read between the lines of many of those reports it wasn't difficult to see a rather intense dislike of the boy coloring the opinions of most of his teachers, but if he'd figured it out, he should have eaten like an intelligent person.

"You only need to get one bell," he continued, allowing his thoughts on Naruto to slip to the back of his mind. "Obviously there are only two, so one of you will definitely be tied to a stump and the person who doesn't take a bell… fails." Kakashi gave the strings a small tug and the bells tinkled tauntingly at his potential students. "At least one of you is headed back to the Academy no matter what."

Once again he watched their faces carefully as they realized what he was saying, this time Sakura inhaled sharply at the news, Sasuke's eyes narrowed… and once again Naruto seemed not to care very much.

Kakashi's hand closed around the bells and he stood up a little straighter. "Use your shrunken and whatever else you want. You won't succeed unless you come at me with the intent to kill."

"But… but you'll be in danger!" Sakura objected.

Naruto looked down at the kunai holster on his right thigh, judging the distance carefully, and then let his fingers slip into it. The moment they closed around the ring of one of his kunai, he drew it out and flipped it underhanded at Kakashi with surprising speed, though little accuracy.

Kakashi watched it sail over his shoulder, missing him by a good ten centimeters, and then turned back to the group. "Well, he doesn't have much aim, but at least Mr. Dead Last has got the right idea. Trust me, the only ones in danger out here are you three, so I'll say it again: if you don't come at me with the intent to kill, you stand no chance of getting a bell."

Naruto scowled at the "Mr. Dead Last" comment, but more so at his aim. He'd done such a good job getting his hand into the holster, but it still wasn't good enough. He had to be able to do it without thinking and he had to be able to use his weapons accurately. In his current state, he stood no chance against Kakashi or anyone else for that matter.

Fortunately, he didn't have to beat Kakashi today, he just had to make sure that everything happened the way it had before and they would be fine... well, maybe not the butt poking thing. He didn't care how much it screwed up the timeline, Naruto was not going to let Kakashi do that a second time.

"We'll start when I say," Kakashi continued. "Ready... start!"

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A/N: I know I said the next update would be on Friday, but I couldn't help myself, I'd forgotten that reviews are more addictive than crack. I think I checked my email about once an hour, every hour, during the past two days. Plus there's now an email that lets the author know when a story is added to favorites or story alert. It isn't quite as nice as a review, but it's still nice to see that someone besides me is enjoying the story so far. I know this goes without saying, but I really enjoy reviews, the longer, the better, even if they aren't just about how wonderful and perfect my story is (not that I complain about those so long as you're being honest). Tell me what you liked, what you didn't, any mistakes that you might have caught (especially if it involves me getting facts or back stories messed up, because I hate making those sorts of errors)… whatever, I don't care. I just like getting them because I'm an addict and if I don't get my hit, I start getting the shakes… well, not really, but I do enjoy them. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, the next one really won't be up until Friday and from then on it's really going to be a once a week thing (these early chapters have been proof read and fixed a couple of times, but the rest are still a bit rough). If you feel up to it, let me know what you thought.