A/N: I've decided to change things up a bit and get some progress on Second Chances in lieu of Rising Star. If you haven't read it, go ahead—it's actually a pretty good story.

I've spent quite some time thinking about this next chapter, but it wasn't until a few days ago that I got one of those flashes of inspiration that take time to come. After a good bit of consideration, I've decided on the next phase of SC, and I think it'll be as epic as anything out there.

Hope ya'll had a great new year!

Next chapter, I'll do some review answers. For now… please read and review!

Chapter 4

"Naruto," Iruka said calmly from the front of the classroom. "Would you mind telling me, just what in the hell are you doing?" Though his expression was cool, a vein in his temple was starting to bulge.

Naruto was leaning back in his seat, a pencil balanced on its tip on the peak of his nose. His face was turned toward the ceiling, and he seemed to be in intense concentration. "What does it look like, Iruka-sensei?" he asked. "I'm balancing a pencil on my nose."

Iruka inhaled and exhaled. Though Naruto was the best student in his class, with Uchiha Sasuke a close second, the boy could be somewhat… no, very trying at times. "I can see that," he said. "What I want to know is… WHY THE HELL AREN'T YOU PAYING ATTENTION TO MY LECTURE?"

Naruto seemed to be startled, for the pencil fell over and onto his forehead. "Lighten up, Iruka-sensei!" he said as he grabbed it before it could fall to the floor. "I've already read this chapter. Everybody knows about the Third Shinobi World War. We went over it last year… and the year before that… do you really think we need to learn it again?"

Iruka closed his eyes and gritted his teeth. One… two… three… he mentally counted off. Sometimes he was able to make it all the way to nine before he blew up. It seemed to be a game that the boy liked to play.

Today, once again, adding to a number that was already too high to accurately log, Iruka lost the counting game. "YOU IDIOT!" he shouted. "You are here to learn, Naruto! You are here to pay attention, and just maybe I'll let you pass your exams next week!"

Several of Naruto's classmates giggled. This was a scene that had, more or less, been played and replayed fairly consistently over the past few years. Naruto was, they knew, an orphan without a clan, but he was still tied with the brother of one of the strongest shinobi in the known world in their academic and practical scores. There was no possible way that Naruto could be held back—the Hokage would throw a fit! But Iruka needed to vent, and the most convenient—and, surprisingly, perfectly willing, it seemed—target he had was the boy he'd come to love like a son, Uzumaki Naruto himself.

The boy knew that he could probably push Iruka just a little bit more before his teacher really got mad at him, but decided to, for once, go easy on the academy instructor. He leaned forward in his seat and rested his arms on the desktop. "Okay, okay!" Naruto said with a smirk. "Calm down, Iruka-sensei! I'll behave, I'll behave!"

"That would be a first," Iruka said dryly as his face returned to its normal color. "Really, Naruto—are you seriously that bored in my class?"

Naruto held up his hands and shrugged. "Well… Yeah. Sorry, Iruka-sensei, but it's been a while since I've actually learned anything in here."

Iruka sighed and closed his eyes. It wasn't that he was a bad teacher—he knew that he was an excellent teacher, especially since he taught the class by himself. The real problem was, he knew… Naruto was just too good a student for him to handle.

He'd been the young boy's sensei for four years now… ever since he'd entered the Academy, he had shown an extraordinary amount of intelligence and ingenuity. The problem was, he'd only shown any of it with pranks and practical jokes… at least, for the first year he'd been his student. He remembered very vividly the day that he'd changed, though…

It was odd, and he'd thought a lot about it since then, but Naruto seemed to really blossom and come into his own shortly after Uchiha Madara, the most infamous of Konoha's nuke-nin, had been killed by the living legend that was Uchiha Itachi. After Sasuke's momentary trauma of seeing his brother covered in the traitor's blood and standing over his body, he had bounced back surprisingly quickly and, to the astonishment of all, became good friends with Naruto.

Since that day, Naruto was known to frequent the Uchiha compound as a friend of Sasuke's, though he seemed to be on good terms with all of the Uchiha… most especially, though, with the man who'd been unanimously voted the new headsman of them all, Itachi.

The gossip that had gone around the village (mostly muttered under the breaths of people who knew the facts of the Kyuubi inside of Naruto) when he'd started going to the Uchiha tracts was that one of them, perhaps Itachi himself, had put the jinchūriki under his control somehow—hypnosis of that caliber wasn't unknown to Uchiha, after all. But no… for whatever reason, Uzumaki Naruto seemed to actually be a welcome guest at the household of the most powerful clan in Konoha, who seemed to be allowed to come and go as he pleased, even when even the Hokage had to make an appointment to visit.

Many things about that event were odd… but there was one thing that stuck out more than anything else: that morning, before the incident, Naruto had gone out running from the academy at full tilt, faster than Iruka had ever seen him move—faster, in fact, than most shinobi could casually dash.

So many pieces to this puzzle, and so many mysteries to string together. No matter how many times he tried to turn it all over in his head, Iruka could never figure out how any of this had anything to do with the other… if it did at all. The one time that Iruka had asked Naruto where he had gone that morning, the blond youth simply told him that he had an appointment to get to, though he didn't say where or why.

He shook his head and brought himself back to reality. "Listen, Naruto… I know you're bored. I know that you're just spinning your wheels right now. But you have just one… more… week. Can you please, please try to not make me wanna strangle you until you graduate?"

Naruto smiled. "I'll do my best," he promised.

Iruka sighed and palmed his face. "I suppose that's as much as I can expect," he said. "Now… before your little circus trick got me off target… we were talking about the Second Battle of the South Plains…"

Naruto looked at Iruka as he talked, but he'd mastered the art of anonymously zoning out the first time he'd gone through this school. This time, though, when he did it, it was somewhat justified: in his own realm, he had been Hokage. That he was able to remain in the Academy and maintain the cover of a student without letting anyone know his true power was a testament to his discipline.

Three years, he privately mused. For three years… I've been doing this. He looked around surreptitiously at his former—god damn it! I still think like that!—current classmates. Some of the best people in the world that he ever knew were represented in this room. Sakura… loyal to a fault and one of the smartest kunoichi ever produced by Konohagakure. Kiba… The single most ferocious specialist he'd ever had the fortune not to fight. Shino… possibly the greatest tracker in the Recon Corps…

And then, of course, there was Hyuuga Hinata.

He sighed as he thought about her as he had once known her. Hinata had always been a good friend of his. Ever since the day Pain had attacked Konoha and she confessed her love to him, though, things had been… well, awkward. After the immediate conflict with the Akatsuki as an organized organization was over and done with—though there was still the problem of Madara himself to deal with—he'd talked to her about her feelings for him. He admitted that he thought that she was attractive, but his feelings for her were nothing more than those of affection. In no uncertain terms, he told her that he was in love with Sakura, and always would.

She took it as well as he could expect… though not as well as he had hoped. For months after their talk, she wouldn't look him in the eye (though, to be fair, she hardly looked anybody in the eye) and avoided being around him, and once outright refused to go on a mission with him and his squad, forcing her cousin Neji to stand in for her. Over time, she seemed to get over him… but from what he heard from other sources, a small flame was still lit for him in her heart.

His only love would ever be Sakura. That could never, ever change. No matter where or when he was in his life, she would always remain the most important person to him. The fact that, even now, she and all of the other girls in his class—as well as many of the girls in the younger grades—were still fawning over the boy didn't mean anything.

If he was going to win her heart, he would have to do it the honest way.

These musings, of course, lead right back to the whole reason he'd embarked on this epic voyage through time and space: Uchiha Sasuke himself.

Even with all of the major differences in the way this Sasuke and his own previous Sasuke had grown up, there was still almost no way to connect the two. That this one could have been that one was almost unbelievable. Where the old one was cold and stoic, the new version was warm… kind…

Hell, Naruto thought. This guy's one of the nicest guys around.

Truth be told, Naruto had only the vaguest recollections of the old Sasuke from before the slaughter of his clan. He was young at the time, eager in life, and just beginning to understand the world around him. He didn't know anything about the clan system in the village, had no idea what the politics of the world were like, and he definitely had no clue why people hated him. But his child's memory was certain of one thing; if Sasuke had grown up normally, this was what the end result would have been.

This was the Sasuke that should always have been.

His Sasuke had not grown up during his most important years with a family that loved him and cherished him. His Sasuke had not grown up with a family to give him the proper training and discipline. In fact, his Sasuke wasn't nearly as strong as this one was. In many ways, this Sasuke was the brother that he had never had.

After he'd averted the massacre of the Uchiha, possibly one of the biggest disasters of shinobi history, Naruto had found himself spending more and more time at the compound the clan called home. Of course, much of that time had been spent talking to Itachi for various reasons—not the least of which was answering whatever questions the young Jounin had—but he found himself spending a good bit of time with Sasuke, too. After all, why not? This was the boy who, in his own time, (he really had to stop thinking like that) would grow up to become one of the most dangerous people in the world. His power would surpass that of the Sannin themselves. In fact, only Naruto, with as many aces up his sleeves as he could fit, could hope to match him and pray for a draw.

If he had stopped and fought Sasuke at the spot in the forest with the high-density chakra in the area, he just might have beaten him. True, he would probably have to go through both a full salvo of Sage chakra, then probably his whole gamut of Kyuubi-powered techniques, but he could have beaten him. But the cost of that victory would have been far, far too high. The very landscape would have been irrevocably altered, and more than likely nobody within miles would have been left alive. Activating his time travel technique was his last and final option for a better world… a world without the threat of the Akatsuki, without Madara, without Orochimaru.

Oh, yes… Naruto had been very, very busy over the past three years.

For quite some time after the Uchiha crisis had been averted, he had struggled on the moral and philosophical ramifications of further acting on his knowledge of the future. True, without Madara to lead them, Akatsuki most likely wouldn't be quite the threat they would end up being. From what he knew from talking to the Mizukage of his time, Madara had been the power behind the seat of the Yondaime Mizukage. The fact that the future Yondaime Mizukage wasn't yet in power at the time of Madara's death didn't mean a thing. All it meant was that someone else was most likely the mad Uchiha's puppet… But who?

And most of all, a question that had been haunting Naruto ever since he'd been given the top secret intel from the Mist… why?

In what had become known as the Fourth Secret Shinobi World War, Madara, along with Akatsuki and the Bijuu that he'd managed to collect, had waged what amounted the most epic of terrorist attacks on the hidden villages of the continent. One by one, with what came down to no more than three or four people and seven of the tailed demons, entire nations fell under their combined might. At first it was the smaller, less-influential countries and villages—Otogakure was quickly wiped off the map. Perhaps that was some sort of "take that" from Madara or Sasuke, but the almost-miniscule village was destroyed in a matter of hours. That wouldn't be quite such a problem if the village was a standard model… but in truth, it was scattered all over Rice Country. As a result, more than half of the land of the country had been devastated, nearly a full quarter of the population killed.

After them, others quickly dropped like flies… Grass, Rain, Waterfall, so many dead, so much destroyed. They operated as a highly-visible hit-and-run cell, the Mangekyou of both Uchiha controlling the Bijuu and commanding them to destroy, destroy, destroy… then, by the time anybody could arrive to help, they were gone, leaving nothing left behind.

After the minor villages had been ground to dust, the true horror began. At first, the most isolated of all of the villages—Kirigakure of Water Country, was targeted. From the reports of the survivors, the eight great demons appeared out of nowhere and destroyed the islands that made up the outer parts of the village, one by one.

Eventually, as the outer defenses fell, the village crumbled like wet cardboard. The Muzukage, to her credit, was at the front of the battle lines. For hours, she'd held off four of the Bijuu nearly single-handedly with her dual Kekkei Genkai, but it wasn't enough… eventually, even she fell to the power of the ancient horrors from hell.

From Kiri, they went on north to Lightening Country, the home of Kumogakure… the Cloud. There, they met the same fate as all those who'd gone before. Oh, sure… the Raikage and his brother put up an excellent fight, knocking out or taking out of commission five of the seven demons sent to destroy them. Truthfully, if Madara had shown himself, if he had gone and fought instead of sending in the Bijuu to do the dirty work for him, he might not have made it as far as he had. But Madara was, if nothing else, an extremely intelligent man, and intelligent men used the tools at hand most efficiently to get the most desired results.

The only remaining jinchūriki besides Naruto, Killer Bee, was forced to go on the run. Even he, with all his skill and bravado, was no match for the combined powers of his Bijuu's brethren. For years, he went into hiding, but was eventually found, captured, drained, and killed. But for he and Naruto, there was nothing left in the world to stop him from achieving his dream of reuniting the Bijuu into the Jibi…

That is… nothing except for his distant cousin… the only other Uchiha living in the world.

Sasuke, of course.

Later on, Sasuke had taken great pride in telling Naruto how he'd decided that he no longer needed Madara anymore. Madara, he said, was getting just a tad too… ambitious. With a slip of the tongue, he mentioned how he wondered what would happen if he replaced his own eternal Mangekyou with another eternal Mangekyou. It was at that moment that he knew that his elder could no longer be trusted. Soon after that… Madara Uchiha was no more.

For a time—almost five years, in fact—Sasuke had disappeared from the face of the earth. Try as every remaining shinobi could, there was no trace of the boy or the Bijuu. It seemed as if they no longer existed anymore, as if they had vanished into thin air.

Those five years were spent rebuilding their war-torn continent, of giving aid to those countries devastated by the demons. Truly, for the first time in a long time, Naruto realized just how dangerous the Bijuu were… and how justified some of the people who'd given him crap when he was a child just might have been.

The peace was short-lived, however. Just when it seemed that the remaining superpowers were able to put the continent back together in a somewhat reasonable state, Sasuke resurfaced, with all of the powers Madara had shown… and more.

The next several months were an exercise in tension. Killer Bee had disappeared from the face of the earth, when he'd been careful to only let Naruto and a few others know his location. When Sasuke had come back and offered proof that he'd captured the Hachibi and was in full control of the beast, every one of the remaining shinobi villages went on high alert. It was then that Naruto knew that the worst possible scenario that he'd been fretting over for years might come to pass.

He began researching everything he had on space/time jutsu in preparation for what might come. With the help of his closest friends and confidants, he explored possibilities and last-ditch scenarios. Finally, after months of effort, he finally came up with what might be the only thing that could possibly set the world right again… the seal array that had sent him back in time.

Now that Naruto had gone back to this era, he had a tough decision to make: should he use the knowledge he had of the future to his advantage, or let history play out as it would have? He knew that he'd already taken advantage of his future experiences by averting the Uchiha slaughter… but how much more beforehand knowledge was he ethically allowed to use?

In the end, he knew that whatever he chose to do would be defined by an incredible balancing act. He understood the principles of the butterfly effect, how one action of seeming innocuous consequence could have major ramifications that had no seeming connection. He knew that for him to act on some of this could cause more harm than good… but to not act would result in good people being very, very dead.

In the end, he found a good, solid middle ground.

He passed the buck onto the Uchiha.

After Naruto talked Itachi out of killing his clan and into betraying Madara, he decided to stay close to the Uchiha for a while. Only he and Itachi knew the truth, though there were many who wondered exactly why the young Jinchūriki was hanging out so much with the most influential clan in the village. Behind the scenes, Naruto was occasionally slipping Itachi bits of information—names, dates, locations, etc—based on his own experiences. Some of them were barely consequential, though others were vital. With this information and what amounted to the full might of the Uchiha, Naruto and Itachi did what he hadn't even thought of when he had traveled back into his past.

Uchiha Itachi, with intel provided by Naruto, found, fought, and killed the second-biggest threat to peace to come to the world in over a hundred years.

Orochimaru, the Snake Sannin, was dead. Killed by Itachi's genjutsu and sword.

Konoha, it was fair to say, had been in a frenzy Orochimaru's head had been carried through the streets by the Uchiha clan leader.

It had started when Itachi, along with a couple other Uchiha and one Hyuuga, had returned from what had formally an information-gathering venture into the southern edge of Rice country. But using information given to him by Naruto, Itachi had lead the team deeper into the territory than they had been ordered, the given reasoning being Itachi "thought he saw something" that none of the rest of his squad had picked up. The fact that the Hyuuga, with the Byakugan, hadn't questioned the head man of the Uchiha, spoke volumes.

They had found an underground hideout some two miles from the place that Itachi had given the deviation orders. Not being one to leave things to chance, Itachi had ordered the Hyuuga to scan the door with her doujutsu. With a start, she said that, among other people, Orochimaru of the Sannin was several levels below them. While giving them strict orders to stay and guard the entrance—and not to let anyone in or out besides him—he delved down into the bowels of the underground warren.

The Hyuuga narrated the succeeding events to her Uchiha partners: going room by room, Itachi found and slaughtered nearly every man and woman who didn't look like they weren't there against their will. Those who seemed to be prisoners or test subjects of some kind—namely, those who were hooked up to some kind of medical equipment—only they were spared.

Even though many of those inside the underground compound seemed to be shinobi, there was no chance for them to defeat the rampaging Uchiha. Even if Itachi had given them a chance to fight more than three or four at a time, he was far too skilled to fall under their combined weight.

Bloody bodies and severed limbs fell behind him as he tore a mad melee down, down, down though the cavernous subterranean building, until finally he reached the suite that housed Orochimaru himself. The Sannin met Itachi head on… but did exactly the opposite that any person who hoped to survive a confrontation with an Uchiha would do: he met Itachi's eyes.

That, the Hyuuga woman told her male compatriots, was the beginning of a very quick end. Orochimaru moved not an inch as Itachi's genjutsu was cast. The man himself casually crossed the room, drew his sword, and decapitated the bastard's head from his body with a single swing of the blade.

He incinerated the corpse with a fireball, but took the head as a prize and proof of the deed. There were too few people left in the compound to put up any kind of fight… and those who were left were now too terrified of the invader to do anything, anyway.

Orochimaru was dead.

All of his plans were out the window.

There was nothing of him left in the world.

Indeed… Naruto had been busy.

The world he now knew was much different than the one he'd left. With the Uchiha, he'd managed to prematurely eliminate most of the major threats to peace that had come up in his career, or at the least alter events enough so that they couldn't escalate into the catastrophes he knew could happen. He knew that there would always be trouble somewhere in the world, but he'd come across his fare share, and had the knowledge to make it so that the trouble he knew could happen never did.

Though he never exited the boundaries of Konoha to act upon his future knowledge, he did, however, take it upon himself to, as he put it to Itachi soon after they met, "exterminate some rats from the ship." Over the course of a few months, he targeted two people who he knew for a fact to be traitors—Kabuto, Orochimaru's agent, and, though less of a threat, more of a personal vendetta, the sensei that had tried to kill him, Mizuki.

He'd taken care of both of them, and neither of them knew what hit them. Kabuto had been taken out with a wind-accelerated kunai from a distance one late night, while Mizuki had gotten a rather nasty surprise when he arrived home after classes one afternoon. Kabuto was a sick and twisted puppy, and it was better he be taken out sooner rather than later would make the world a better place. The things he'd seen the man do… it made him feel sick just thinking about it. And Mizuki…

The fact that Naruto hadn't been in class that day didn't raise any flags for anybody—of course, he already had a reputation of being a truant. When Mizuki didn't report in for class the next day, someone had been sent to check in on him. They found him, cut in half by his own Fuma shuriken, in a pool of blood on the floor. There were no leads on who his murderer could be; the forensics unit of the ANBU even was stumped. None of his neighbors could remember seeing anyone entering or leaving his apartment, or hear anything come from there. True, they were living in a village pretty heavily populated with professional assassins, but there was only a single entrance to his home.

"Naruto?" The blond looked up just in time to see the eraser smack him square on the forehead. A plume of chalk dust covered his entire upper body as the two classmates on either side of him dodged to the side. "What did I tell you about paying attention?"

Naruto cringed. He really thought that he was on top of it! He rubbed his forehead and grinned in chagrin. "Sorry, Iruka-sensei! I was just thinking about something else for a minute there!"

Iruka closed his eyes. From the size of the vein throbbing on his temple, Naruto knew that he had pushed his sensei to the breaking point… Ok, probably well past it. "And what, if you please, could be more important than listening to me?"

Naruto fidgeted. Though he had another lifetime's experience dealing with people, and was considerably more skilled than Iruka, the man was still intimidating.

He played the role of nervous student to perfection. Though it was often fun to act as young as his body was, on occasion his antics came to bite him in the ass. "Umm…"

Iruka sighed. He was such a bright young boy. Too bright, truth be told. There was no real need for him to even be in the Academy anymore. But for the moment, he was still the jinchūriki's sensei, and that brought along some… privileges. "Can it. You're staying behind to clean off all of the tables in the academy. No clones. Got it?"

Naruto sighed. "Yeah, yeah, I got it," he mumbled, though the corner of his mouth twitched. "I'll be done in no time. Believe it."

Iruka was rubbing the bridge of his nose as he walked into the staff break room after classes were over for the day. On days like this, with Naruto giving him trouble, a headache was sure to come. Sure enough, at final bell, the inkling of a migraine slipped in and invaded his brain. By the time he was able to get to the relative sanctuary of the break room, a pinching at the front of his skull was torturing him mercilessly.

"Hey, Iruka-sempai!" another Chuunin called from the couch on the left wall. "Fresh pot's on the burner, just made it."

Iruka nodded his appreciation. "Thanks, Chakie-chan," he said. The kunoichi taught the class three years behind his own, and got along much better with her own students than he did his. "I need this."

The red-haired woman chuckled. "I can believe it. Let me guess—the Uzumaki boy again, right?"

Iruka rolled his eyes as he grabbed a mug and poured the brew. "Of course. What else? Every time, it's the same damn thing—Naruto goofs off, makes a scene, pulls the other boys into his antics, even Sasuke! I swear, it's like he doesn't even want to be here half the time!" He sat beside the woman with a huff. "Sometimes, I don't even know what I'm doing here anymore."

Chakie sipped gingerly from her cup. "What are you doing here, Iruka?" she asked. "I've seen your file. You're strong enough, and certainly skilled enough, to be a Jounin. Why don't you ever take the tests?"

Iruka sighed and took in the warmth from his mug. "I would," he said, "but I didn't want to leave my students before they graduated. If Mizuki was still here, I might have, but—well, you know what happened to him." Chakie nodded, so he continued. "The thing is, I probably wouldn't have any problem passing the tests. I'd probably go into the private tutor Tokubetsu rank, but all that means is I'd be teaching some clan kids the basics, and maybe some of the intermediates. I wouldn't be much good out there. In here," he continued, idly sweeping a hand around, "I can reach the most kids the most quickly. I'm not ambitious, and I know where I belong. It's just—"

"You wish it wasn't so annoying?"

Iruka nodded. "That's just it—it's not that bad. I just hate it when Naruto acts out like that. He needs to grow up, and no matter how much I try to help him, he just brushes me off. It's like I don't even matter to him."

"Well," Chakie said in a diplomatic tone, "he does kind of have some advantages over the rest of his classmates, doesn't he? He's the jinchūriki, he hangs out with the Uchiha boy at his home, and it seems he's the personal apprentice of Itachi himself, for some odd reason. All told…"

Iruka sighed. "I know, I know," he said. "He's good. From what I've seen, he's as strong as almost every Chuunin in the village—hell, I wouldn't put it past him to be able to take down some of the newer Jounin. That Uchiha boy, Sasuke, is almost as strong." He closed his eyes and leaned back in the couch. "Itachi trains them both relentlessly in the practical arts when he goes over, from what I've heard. If those two get put on the same team come graduation…" He shook his head and snorted. "Life would be pretty interesting, I would think."

She turned to him, deadpan. "Interesting? That would be a disaster! They'd never get a single D-class mission done!"

Iruka had to chuckle. "You're probably right. Luckily, that's not how teams are made. It is extremely unlikely that they would be put on the same team even with luck on their side."

"You don't have anything to do with the assignments, do you?" Chakie asked.

Iruka shook his head. "Nope. Out of my department. A special council with the Hokage himself will be convened the day of graduation; they're the ones who decide who goes where, not me." He took a sip of his coffee. "And all the power to them. I don't want to be the one who decides who goes where. Can you imagine deciding that?"

Chakie smiled. "Imagine? I shudder in fear to think of where our little Konohamaru's going to end up. Grandson of the Sandaime… something of a little brother to Naruto, if I interpret their interactions right… Whoever is his sensei had better prepare for some headaches." She hummed. "Maybe I should make a note of that in his file…"

Iruka laughed good-naturedly. "Maybe," he agreed. "But that's not for us to worry about—not yet, anyway. One step at a time, Chakie-chan. One at a time."

Two hundred thirteen… two hundred fourteen… two hundred fifteen… Naruto grunted with the effort of the one-armed pull-ups he pushed his body toward. Ugh, how the hell does Lee do this crap every day? They call me a stamina freak! Finally ready to take a break, he dropped the foot's distance to the ground and flexed his shoulder.

He'd long left that hole of an apartment he had grown up in. Though he held some fond memories from his first childhood there, in retrospect he couldn't fathom why he didn't leave it sooner. With some funds from the Uchiha clan, he was able to snag a place in a nicer part of town with quadruple the floor space. He'd gotten some friction initially from some of the people who'd already lived in the building, but he had kept to himself and had turned out to be the model neighbor. Recently, many had even grown fond of the boy, and several of the families, military and civilian alike, had come to see him as a kind of extended family himself. Of course, his connections with the Uchiha didn't hurt his reputation any. Everyone knew that Uchiha Itachi held him in high regard by then, so it wouldn't do to get on his bad side.

He found himself, in the three years since his personal reboot, looking at the world through quite different eyes. Though many things had remained the same, much had changed. Through nudging the world in his own ways to eliminate the biggest threats he'd known, he'd created a power vacuum that some had only been too willing to fill. One of the biggest moral quandaries he'd had was what to do about the ones who he'd never run across. Eventually, he came to the conclusion that he was no god, and had no choice but to let this world's history run its course. In time, when it came to it, he would do what he could to take care of them. Until then… he had his own life to worry about.

The one biggest worry he had to concern himself with was what he would do about the man called Pain, originally called Nagato. That was, he was forced to admit, something of a humdinger. On the one hand, he was a living monster with delusions of grandeur. He'd managed to take over a hidden village, kill its leader, and style himself as a god.

On the other… from what he'd learned as Hokage, Hanzo had coming what he got. Danzo had tried to get him to comply with a coup and overthrow Sarutobi, and in truth it was Hanzo's fault that the being called Pain came into being. The implications of interfering with that course of events were dicey at best. All told, it would be for the best to deal with him when the time came. The strange ability he had to befriend almost anyone and turn them to his point of view astounded even him at times. He was sure it would work with Nagato a second time, if it ever came to that.

As for the rest of the Akatsuki…

He grinned malevolently as he sat down with crossed legs. Well, save for Konan, not a one of them were worth the dirt on their graves.

Time well, well spent.

But now that he'd accomplished what he'd set out to do, what, exactly, was there to do?

"Perhaps I can be of some assistance."

Naruto yelped and fell backwards to the floor in shock. He looked up to see the smiling face of none other than the time lord himself, the being styling himself as "Winston." "What the hell?" Naruto screamed aloud. "You almost gave me a heart attack!"

Winston skipped nimbly backwards as Naruto leapt to his feet. "Oh, I highly doubt that, young Naruto. You're made of much sterner stuff than that."

Naruto scowled. "Yeah, yeah," he growled. "Now, what do you want? After three years, I thought I'd never see you again! What gives?"

Winston smiled that infuriating smile of his. "Why, Naruto, I expected a warmer welcome from such an old friend such as you! Where's the warmth?"

Naruto stared deadpan at the apparition. "You're kidding, right?" he said. "Every time you show up, I get a headache! What do you want this time?"

Winston folded his hands of his cane's knob. "Want? Oh, I want for nothing, young Naruto. I just would like to congratulate you on all that you've accomplished in these last few years. Why, in this brief time, you've used what you know to good use. Every foe you've had is gone from this world, every enemy who's posed a threat is neutralized. You have in place plans for the future events that have not yet come to pass. Should worse come to worse, you have the tools to save the world. You should be exceedingly proud of yourself."

Naruto put himself on guard. "And so?" he asked.

Winston smiled. "Well, I do have to ask you… now what are you going to do?"

Naruto frowned. "What do you mean?" he asked.

"I mean," Winston said with a wave of his hand, "you've already had a taste of power. You broke the rules and went back through time to change the world. I just want to know if you're satisfied leaving it here."

Naruto looked at Winston suspiciously. "I don't follow," he said. "I've got a lot of irons in the fire right now. I'm using the knowledge I attained from my other life to make this world a better place. I'm thankful that you gave me another chance at this, but… what else is there?"

Winston cocked his head and grabbed the brim of his top hat gingerly between his fingers. "Hmm… would you like to find out?" he said with a smile.

"Uh-uh," Naruto said, shaking his head. "Not gonna let you play this game. Either tell me what you want, or leave me be. I've got too good a life here without you getting in my business."

The man in black laughed and gently tapped the bottom of his cane on the floor. "That's the spirit! Always questioning, never taking things at face value… suspicious lad, aren't you?"

Naruto glowered at the man. "It's an acquired trait," he said. "Anyway, really now—what do you want?"

"Oh, nothing much," Winston said idly. "Just would like to introduce you to some friends of mine… people like you, time travelers. Thought you could learn a thing or two from them before your next great adventure."

The boy frowned. "Next adventure? The hell?"

Winston grinned. "You didn't think I was done with you, did you?"

"What do you mean?"

Winston rubbed his hands together gleefully. "I would like you to meet some friends of mine," he said, "followers of mine, if you will, those who have also bent time and space for their own purposes. Hopefully, they will be able to give you some insight."

"Followers?"

"Yes. Naruto…" Winston held out his hand to the boy. "I'd like to introduce you to the Prince, the Hero, the Professor, and the lonely Wandering God."

Naruto hesitantly looked at Winston… then took his hand in his own. The world went black once again.

A/N: Yeah, it's gonna get pretty interesting from here on in! Bonus points if you can figure out who the Prince, Hero, Professor, and Wandering God are!