Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

Welcome to the world of Naruto Elseworlds, a look at Naruto's life in an alternate universe where even the smallest of changes have the greatest of consequences. Sasuke Uchiha once said he had spared Naruto's life at the Valley of the End "on a whim", leaving him and Konoha far behind. But what if he chooses to take Naruto with him to Sound? What would the consequences be for both Sasuke and Naruto? What plans does Sasuke have for his teammate and how will Naruto and the others react? What if Sasuke took Naruto with him to Sound, on a whim?

Naruto Elseworlds: On A Whim

Chapter 3: End of Innocence

The funeral for Naruto Uzumaki was held two days after his belongings were found on Tsunade's desk. Since no body had been recovered all that was placed in the casket was the tattered remains of his orange jumpsuit and the necklace he won from Tsunade. Both Shizune and Jiraiya asked if she was sure she wanted to part with such an important keepsake, but she plainly said that the curse of that necklace would be buried with Naruto.

The number of attendees was surprisingly great with Tsunade finding herself looking over a rather large gathering of people. Beside her were Shizune and Jiraiya who were there to help her through the eulogy. In front were Iruka, Kakashi and Sakura, Sakura in particular looking devastated staring at the tombstone as if trying to burn the name carved in it away.

What remained of the rookie nine, Team Gai and their sensei's stood a bit further back, each trying to cope with the realities of war. Lee was crying with Ino and Tenten both on the verge of tears themselves. The retrieval squad stood together in a show of solidarity, most of them having just been released from the hospital. Shino stood behind Hinata, his hand on her shoulder in support as she fixed a dead gaze on the slowly filling hole. Teuchi and Ayame were also there, the elder Ichiraku holding up a brave front for both he and his daughter who was sobbing next to him.

Even the Sand siblings were present, having requested to help with the search and rescue after the failed retrieval mission. Now they were the Sands "official" delegation for the funeral. Kankuro stood next to Gaara, keeping a watchful eye on his brother. When news of Naruto's fate had reached them, Gaara had disappeared into the forest of death and had not emerged until that morning. Kankuro had been concerned if the small trace of humanity Naruto had found in Gaara had been squashed but took it as a good sign he decided to kill stuff in the forest of death and not him.

Temari on the other hand was keeping a close eye on Shikamaru. He had been a wreck when Choji had been in the operating room with her trying to get his mind in the right state if the worst should happen. Then the worst had happened. After Sakura vented her grief on the boy and they had both broken down she half expected he would just give up being a ninja all together. Instead he calmly excused himself to write up his reports and had hardly been seen since. That had been nearly two weeks ago.

The ceremony ended and as the crowd dispersed, Temari decided she was going to talk with the Nara and see if he was going to be all right. She spoke briefly with Kankuro before heading off to catch up with Team Ten who had left together. She found them outside Ino's family shop with said girl angrily interrogating her lazy teammate.

"What do you mean you have things to take care of," Ino said placing a hand on her hip and glaring at Shikamaru through puffy red eyes.

"What do you think I mean," Shikamaru said crossing his arms, "I have to take care of some things. What is there to not understand?"

"We haven't seen you for two weeks Shikamaru," Ino said raising her voice, "your mother has been worried about you. We've been worried about you," Ino said motioning to herself and Choji.

"And I'll tell you what I told her, there is nothing to worry about," Shikamaru huffed as he turned to leave.

"Don't you walk away from me Shikamaru Nara," Ino growled before a reassuring hand on her shouldered drew her attention. Turning she saw Choji shaking his head at her before calling out to his best friend.

"Shikamaru," Choji said quietly causing Shikamaru to stop but not turn around. "If you need to talk about...you know…what happened, Ino and I are here for you."

Shikamaru said nothing, offering a small wave as he walked away. Having spied the entire scene, Temari decided to tail her target since it was clear he didn't feel like talking. At the very least she would be able to see what he was up to and decide if maybe she should tell someone if he was getting himself into more self destructive trouble.

Temari followed him through the streets of Konoha, shadowing him from the roofs as he made his way to the edge of the city and crossed into a large section of forest that grew even within the village's walls. Considering who she was following, the pace had been mind numbingly slow as he casually strolled along, hands in his pockets. Eventually Shikamaru came to a medium sized clearing surrounded by the enormous trees Konoha was famous for. Temari found herself perched on one of the branches, hidden among the leaves watching as Shikamaru began…stretching?

Shikamaru, still dressed in his formal funeral cloths began his warm ups, working out the kinks in his legs and back before walking over to a large tree at the edge of the clearing. Pulling out a kunai, Shikamaru made a slash into the bark at around his own height. Coursing some chakra to his feet, he began to walk up the tree before coming just up to the leaves making a second line around twenty-five yards up. Replacing the blade in his boot, Shikamaru closed his eyes and steadied his breathing allowing the quiet of the forest to settle around him.

In a flash he opened his eyes and sprinted down the tree reaching the first line, bending to touch it before turning to repeat the process at the top. Temari watched with interest as Shikamaru ran his suicide sprints figuring he would exhaust himself after ten minutes of such a brutal workout. Over an hour later Shikamaru was still running much to Temari's concern as the boy was clearly fatigued yet pushed himself to continue. She would have hardly believed that this was the same Shikamaru who had fought her in the chunin exams, and knew enough about him to know that something was very wrong.

Her thoughts were cut short as either the strain or lack of chakra had finally caught up to the shadow user as his feet lost their hold to the tree sending him crashing backwards to the ground below. Temari abandoned her cover, jumping down to Shikamaru's side who was gasping for breath and trying to stand.

"Stay down you stubborn idiot," Temari chided placing a restraining hand on Shikamaru's shoulder. In his current state, Shikamaru could do little as he flopped back on the ground taking deep breaths and massaging his shoulder.

"I was wondering if you were going to talk to me or not," Shikamaru said giving the Sand kunoichi a bored look, "did Ino send you after me?"

"No," Temari said crossing her arms, "I've been meaning to talk to you since the mission and I saw you and your team arguing. It didn't seem like you wanted to talk to them so I hardly thought you would want to talk to me."

"So you decided to spy on me," Shikamaru asked annoyed.

"I decided that I would make sure you didn't do anything stupid," Temari said watching Shikamaru scoot to lean back against the tree, "I'm debating as to whether or not this qualifies as being stupid."

"All I'm doing is training," Shikamaru said rolling his eyes, "very efficient training I might add. This exercise builds stamina, chakra capacity and refines chakra control all in one."

"And I suppose working yourself to a state of exhaustion till you collapse and give yourself a concussion from falling out of a tree is your cool down regime," Temari scoffed.

"Why do you care anyway," Shikamaru grumbled.

At that Temari had to pause and think why did she care? They weren't even from the same village and despite facing one another in the finals and her coming to aid him against Sound she really didn't know him very well. As she struggled to find an answer, Shikamaru stood and sighed.

"Look," he said rubbing the back of his neck, "I appreciate that you were worried but I really am fine."

Shikamaru turned and began to walk away before Temari called out to him.

"Working yourself into the ground isn't going to bring him back," she said causing Shikamaru to stop dead in his tracks. She knew she had struck a nerve as she watched his posture become stiff, his hand clenching into fists.

"Obviously," Shikamru said gritting his teeth, "but did it ever occur to you that maybe I'm doing this so next time I can be strong enough to prevent something like this from happening."

"Do you think I'm stupid or is that really what you convinced yourself to believe," Temari snapped back.

"You said in the hospital that I need to learn to deal with the realities of ninja life, well I'm dealing with it," Shikamaru yelled stalking back towards Temari. "Forgive me if Konoha doesn't have classes that teach us to be cold, heartless tools that just brush our friends and comrades death aside like…"

Any further point Shikamaru was going to make was ended by the slap across the face Temari gave him. Shikamaru reeled slightly before turning back ready to vent some more of his anger when he looked into Temari's face. She was crying, not some silly little girls tears, but tears born from rage and boiling emotions that seemed to seethe from deep inside.

"Is that what you think Sand ninja are like? Is that what you think I'm like, some cold, heartless bitch who could care less if her fellow ninja are killed? Some tool that never shed a tear for her dead mother or anyone else," Temari screamed wiping the tears from her eyes but still glaring a hole into the boy in front of her.

"You think your being noble, but all your being is a selfish asshole! You aren't doing this for Naruto, you're doing this in order to make you feel better about yourself. Death in missions are a fact of life, you can't blame yourself."

"And why the fuck not," Shikamaru screamed somewhat startling Temari. "I was in charge, I was the captain, my decisions led to what happened. I could have ordered us to stay together, to fight together; instead I broke our squad up and sent genin to fight one on one with Orochimaru's elite squad."

"You didn't have a choice," Temari argued.

"There's always a choice Temari," Shikamaru snapped back, "I made the wrong one. Ultimately only Naruto paid the price, but if you three hadn't shown up Kiba, Lee, me…we'd all be dead. If Lady Tsunade wasn't here Choji and Neji might have died as well."

"Well they didn't die and that means that they are going to need you to lead them again someday," Temari said her voice softening.

"I…I don't know if I can do that," Shikamaru said lowering his head, ashamed to admit it out loud. His eyes widened as two arms snaked around him, a pair of soft hands rubbing his back as Temari hugged him. He didn't resist it but couldn't help but wonder what brought this on.

"Temari, why go to so much trouble over me" Shikamaru asked tentatively.

"I didn't really know Naruto at all," Temari quietly said, "but from what I've heard from those closest to him, he would want you to protect those he left behind. He would want you to look after his friends and make sure they were okay, so that is what I'm doing."

Shikamaru returned the hug and both allowed the peace of the forest to quell the pain each kept close to their heart.

With Sakura

Sakura had been standing in front of Naruto's grave in silence long after the others had left. Kakashi was the last to speak to her, placing a hand on her shoulder and telling her to get some rest, a piece of advice that went unheeded. Ever since Naruto's death had been announced, Sakura felt as if she had been walking through a haze. The world didn't seem real to her anymore. People would talk to her but she never really heard what they said. Time seemed to pass quickly with her barley even noticing. Even now, it had been a few hours and she had not moved from her spot, her eyes still fixated on the name carved into the stone before her.

Every so often, the fog would lift and she would again become aware of her surroundings. Looking around, she saw that everyone had gone… almost everyone. Hinata stood to her right, hands clasped in front, her normally milky white eyes, now puffy and red, her cheeks stained with dried tears.

"Why is Hinata still here? Has she been here the entire time," Sakura wondered.

Before she could ask, Hinata turned and started to walk away in silence before coming to a stop.

"I was always jealous of you Sakura, did you know that," Hinata said calmly.

"What," Sakura said spinning around, "why would you be jealous of me?"

"There were a lot of reasons I suppose," Hinata said her back still to Sakura; "you always seemed so confident and spoke your mind. You were always at the top of the class and all the boys noticed you. He noticed you."

Sakura began to put two and two together, remembering all the times Naruto would try to get a date out of her. At the time it had been annoying, but looking back, it was sweet. Her heart clenches again as it is just a reminder that he's gone and those offers with him.

"All of you would tease him when he failed in class, but did you know that he would leave school and train by himself in the woods? No teacher or parent to help, just him and his own determination," Hinata said reminiscing.

"How do you know that," Sakura asked unsure where this was going.

"I used to follow him. He seemed so sure of himself, even when he failed, I thought that maybe he could teach me to have that kind of confidence," Hinata said sadly. "I never asked him though. I was shy and stupid so I just watched him hoping that would be enough."

"Hinata…did you…have feelings for Naruto," Sakura asked as she put the pieces together.

"I'm not really sure," Hinata sighed. "He was the first boy I had ever felt that way about. It might have been a crush or it could have been something more. It didn't really matter. I could have loved him with all my heart, but in the end he still only had eyes for you."

Sakura grimaced slightly remembering the look on his face when she begged him to bring back Sasuke. Watching a little bit of life leave his eyes never to return as he forced a smile on his face to reassure her that everything would be okay.

"He would have done anything for you," Hinata said turning around, "if you said so his heart would have been yours forever."

Naruto must have told her something similar at least once a week, but to hear it from someone else made the revelation of Naruto's feelings even more painful and her own actions that more loathsome.

"Like I said, I used to be jealous of you. But those feelings have been replaced."

"Replaced?"

"I am no longer jealous of you…I hate you," Hinata said glaring at a startled Sakura.

"Hinata…I…I'm…"

"I don't want to hear it," Hinata said coldly. "He was willing to do anything for you. Even chase after your precious Uchiha, just so you would be happy. Was Naruto's life worth it? To bring you back that traitor…that…that murderer?"

"Do you think I wanted this," Sakura angrily shot back.

"Of course not, you only want things your way because you're selfish," Hinata hissed.

"I…I'm not selfish," Sakura said weakly.

"I don't believe that and neither do you. If we have to work together then we have to, I won't let my personal feelings get in the way. Just…don't ever speak to me again," Hinata said turning to leave.

"Hinata…I'm sorry," Sakura said unsure of what else she could say.

"Just keep saying you're sorry Sakura. Maybe one day it will bring him back to us," Hinata said before storming off, leaving Sakura to weep quietly and alone.

This was originally part of a "what If" story about Sasuke killing Naruto in the valley that got abandoned but I wanted to use it for something. I know Hinata seems a bit ooc but that's kind of the point for the direction I'm going to take her. The poll to decide the pairing for this story will close after the next chapter so get your votes in by voting at my profile. Tell me what you guys think about the story so far and leave some feedback. Also, shika/temari is likely to happen for fans of that pair but that and Naruto's pairing won't happen til after the time skip. Next we look at year one with a look at Naruto's training under Guren and a look at how people in Konoha are adjusting. Until next time read and review people.