AN: This is hot off the presses, and I'm on a roll. Leave me a review, because those are my crack and you all know how crack makes you act.

…Right?

A Better Friend

Chapter 3: Back to Normal?

It was roughly nine months since he had moved in with Ayame and her father, and things were honestly looking up for Uzumaki Naruto. Mornings were spent at the academy, which he honestly found kinda dull, but Jiji had burned it into his head that studying was part of being a good ninja, and so Naruto gave it his all. So far, he had even managed to get some decent grades for his efforts, which Ayame had been very pleased about.

Once dismissed from class, Naruto had picked up the habit of rounding up a friend or two then going to Ichiraku Ramen for lunch. After that, he would go to the park with his friends(and Ayame) to play until dusk.

After returning to the ramen stand, Naruto and Ayame would help out Teuchi at the stand until closing, when they would all go home for the day. Well, Naruto sort of helped.

Ayame and her father had been quick to realize that letting the blonde serve bowls was a bad idea due to his urge to eat up any bowl of ramen he laid his grubby little hands on, so Teuchi had decreed that he would only chop vegetables and wash dishes, to Naruto's protest.

To Teuchi, everything seemed to have worked out splendidly. His daughter was happy again, Naruto was a nice, helpful kid and was working hard towards his goals, and their finances were in the black again. But then, there were things he didn't know that would have brought down his positive outlook for the future.

Such as the fact that Naruto had secretly begun to teach his daughter how to channel the chakra the very day after they took him in.

No, Teuchi would not be happy about that at all.

The very first time they had tried to sneak off to practice had been very awkward for the pair. They had just finished eating their lunch but Naruto had been twitchy and nervous the entire time, and Ayame had been sure that their cover was blown. Luckily for them, Teuchi had waved it off as Naruto still being emotional about his quasi-adoption and didn't say anything.

Once they had made it to the park, they had gone off to one of the small clearings that were hidden by trees where nobody could see them and had begun. Naruto had begun to channel his chakra to show Ayame the way the old man had shown him, but then they heard voices heading their way.

Flashback

"Hey, I think they're this way, I see yellow!" shouted a girl's voice, making Ayame panic and Naruto drop his posture immediately, eyes wide.

"Oh Kami, this is supposed to be secret! If we get caugh-," whispered Ayame franctically at the thought of what her dad would do if he found out.

She didn't get to finish her sentence because Naruto had placed his hand over her mouth. "Ssshhh, Ayame-chan, they can't find us if they can't hear us," whispered Naruto as he began to slowly inch backwards away from the trees.

The two continued to slowly move away, until Naruto bumped into something. Something that was clearly not a tree.

Turning around, he came face to face with the amused grin of an older black-haired boy dressed in black pants, an unzipped flak jacket, ninja sandals, and a sleeveless black shirt with the the Uchiha fan featured prominently on his chest, with a Hitai-ate on his head. Based on his height, he couldn't be any older than Itachi.

"Going somewhere you shouldn't, gaki?"

Naruto frowned, scrunching his face in a glare. "Uzumaki Naruto, who the hell wants to know!" shouted Naruto as he pointed his finger at the amused boy's face, quoting something he had heard Kiba say once.

He conveniently forgot that Kiba had been smacked by his sister for saying that. The boy's grin just seemed to widen as he looked over the boy's head and nodded, making Naruto and Ayame turn.

Behind them was Itachi standing next to Ino with Sasuke on his back, while Shikamaru was standing a few paces back grumbling per usual. "I think I like this one," said the unknown Uchiha boy.

Itachi simply nodded, "I told you that you would; you're both very alike," said the more reserved Uchiha, drawing a twitching brow from the boy as he frowned at his best friend.

"Oi! I'm nowhere near as loud as this gaki!" shouted the boy, peeved at being compared to the brat who began yelling again.

"I am NOT a gaki! Who are you anyways?" asked Naruto as he eyed the older boy with a slit-eyed frown.

"The guy who just caught you channeling chakra, kid! The name's Uchiha Shisui," said the boy, hitching his thumb towards himself.

Naruto was upset at being caught by the guy and wanted to punch him, but sighed instead and turned to Ayame, who had remained quiet the entire time.

"Don't worry Ayame-chan, we'll find a way to show you how to be a ninja even if your dad does finds out," said Naruto comfortingly as he shot the now identified Shisui a dirty look.

"Yare yare, now why the hell would I do that?" asked the Uchiha with a curious glance at the blonde midget.

Naruto opened his mouth to bite back, but then stopped himself, realizing that he honestly didn't know what the Uchiha kid would do.

"Hmh. Like I thought. Say, want me to help you out with your chakra?" offered the boy as though he hadn't been arguing with the blonde seconds ago.

Naruto looked at the guy guardedly, still internally nervous at being caught. "Why would you do that?" asked Naruto with a squinty stare, making the boy sweatdrop.

Ino walked over to her fellow blonde and elbowed him while hissing angrily, "Naruto, this guy's a jounin! Don't be a moron! And where have you been these last few days anyways!"

Blushing, she covered her mouth as she realized that she had shouted that last part out loud.

Shisui chuckled as Itachi and Sasuke watched on in amusement (at least, Naruto thought it was amusement, you could never be too sure with the stoic Uchiha) at the comic blonde-haired duo.

Shisui stepped forward with a swagger, grin on his face. "The girl's right you know, I may not look it, but I recently got promoted to jonin; no need to bow in front of my awesome though," bragged Shisui as he rubbed his knuckles on his shirt and looked at Naruto expectantly, making the boy twitch.

"But hey, I'll teach ya even if you don't wanna bow down to me. Just meet me at the park tomorrow; hell, bring a friend or three, I don't care," said Shisui aloofly. "But now that we've dropped off Chibitachi here, we're off. Later!"

At his words, Itachi dropped Sasuke off of his back and set him the ground gently. Nodding at Shisui, the two took off in shunshins, making Naruto grumble about the old man who wouldn't teach him cool jutsu like that.

As the two Uchiha ran on the roofs back towards their compound, Shisui mentally thought back to the loud blonde and smiled fondly in nostalgia. The kid was a blonde-haired carbon copy of his older brother.

Turning his head to look at Itachi, Shisui gestured back towards where they came from.

"You know," drawled Shisui lazily at Itachi, "If that blonde gaki hadn't drawn his chakra, we probably wouldn't have found him. It was like a beacon, yeah?"

Itachi nodded, making Shisui sigh irritably at his friend's lack of communication.

End Flashback

Thanks to Ino, when the next day came around for Uchiha Shisui he found 12 brats waiting for him with varying degrees of excitement(and Ayame) while Hana had looked on with curiousity. Since that day, it had become a competition of sorts amongst the group to see who could channel their chakra quickest and who could master the leaf concentration exercise. Over the next few months, all of the children had picked up at the very least the ability to channel chakra. Generally speaking, it was the boys who managed to channel their chakra first, but it was the girls who picked up the leaf concentration training quickest.

Ayame was actually one of the last girls to be able to channel her chakra(Sakura was the second to last, and Lee was the slowest person) but was able to quickly pick up on the leaf concentration exercise, to Naruto's consternation as he continued to struggle for month after month to make slow progress.

What none of them except Itachi had realized at the time was that Ayame had begun the process in which the chakra coils began to narrow from disuse, something that happened to almost all civilians and locked them out from accessing their chakra. Another year and Ayame may have not been able to use it at all, but due to her continuous attempts to channel it, the deterioration had been quickly reversed and her chakra coils had soon returned to what would be normal for a girl her age; it wouldn't affect her ninja career at all.

As the record stood, it was Naruto who managed to channel chakra first(Shisui made it a habit to pick on him and point out that his accomplishment didn't count since nobody else knew how yet at the time) while Ino was the first person to successfully complete the leaf concentration exercise. Sakura had actually managed to do it on her first attempt, but took too long to channel her chakra for the first time. The only ones who had yet to compete the leaf concentration training were Naruto(to his chagrin) and Lee.

Lee was actually another oddity in their group when it came to chakra. At first, he had found it incredibly difficult to channel chakra and had only managed to succeed in drawing it out after months of effort but had made zero progress with the leaf concentration exercise, something not even Naruto could claim.

While at first it had been amusing for the others to see Lee constantly placing a leaf on his forehead only to have it fall off, but it had quickly ceased to be funny once a month passed by and Lee still had yet to do it. It had actually become such a big concern to the group of friends that they had began to brainstorm what the problem could have been and had tried a variety of ideas to get Lee making progress.

As the 'trainers' of sorts for the group, Itachi and Shisui had also tried a variety of different tests but none had proven successful.

After countless failed attempts, Naruto got the idea to take Lee in front of the Hokage to try and see if he had a solution.

Hiruzen had at first been stumped(not that he let Naruto know that) until he decided to call in a Hyuuga to observe Lee's chakra pathways. The Hyuuga ninja had quickly diagnosed the problem and had declared that the boy's chakra circulatory system was very thin; that it almost looked like a civilian's chakra pathways.

Once he dismissed the ninja, Hiruzen had been ready to reluctantly dismiss Lee from the Academy. Which he did, despite his clear hesitation.

Then Lee had gotten on his knees and given the Hokage the most passionate plea he had even seen to not take his dreams away, and Hiruzen had folded.

He had written up a letter before sealing it and calling in Itachi and Shisui. The Sandaime had assigned them the mission of finding and delivering the letter to Tsunade of the Sannin and taking Lee with them.

Albeit confused, they had done as he asked and left the village with a meek Lee in tow. Before they left, Sarutobi had made it clear that they were to let Tsunade know that this was NOT a request or demand for her to return to the village, only to help an injured child.

Naruto had complained loudly about how unfair it was that they got to go but he didn't but hushed up quickly after a whack to the head and a boring lecture about why he wasn't allowed to go, courtesy of the Sandaime.

Two months later, Shisui and Itachi had returned with a near-mummified Lee who they said should be able to use basic ninjutsu like any other shinobi, but that most large-scale jutsu would be beyond the capacity of his chakra coils. The Sandaime was happy to take what he could get, knowing that the dreams of the young orphan would live on.

When the three had returned, it had been to a very large crowd of happy brats and a very clingy Naruto who had been latched onto his leg. Ever since Shisui met Naruto, the two had grown really close and Naruto had come to look up to Shisui as an older brother, even calling him Oyabun.

It wasn't very surprising considering how alike the two were in personality, and to Shisui, it was almost as though his dead brother had been resurrected from the grave in the blonde-haired boy.

The prodigious Uchiha had begun to spend most of his free time with the blonde and his band of misfits, as he took to calling them. His willingness to hang around the gaki gang made Itachi's visits to play with them all the more frequent, to Sasuke's delight.

But having informal 'instructors' to give them a few pointers wasn't the end of Ayame and Naruto's efforts to turn her into a ninja.

Ayame and Naruto had also made it a habit to sneak out to a clearing once a week in the middle of the night to practice fighting, not that they were very good at it. Naruto was an amateur grappler at best and fought like a street thug, while it had taken Ayame months to even be able to lift her practice chúi.

She had taken to sneaking out her mother's old pair of wooden chúi that were hollow on the inside and had almost woken up her father plenty of times due to the racket she made when trying to get them out of the house.

'Spars' between them usually consisted of Naruto rushing in trying to duck under Ayame's clumsy swings. Either Naruto pinned Ayame down in awkward position that never truly kept her unable to move, or Naruto ended up getting smacked away as Ayame dropped one of her chúis and used the other to clobber him like it were a pickaxe. Due to Naruto's unnatural stamina, Ayame usually managed to 'win' their spars the first few times but quickly began to lose to Naruto as she exhausted herself trying to swing around the heavy wooden weapons.

Their little group had also managed to gain a 'home base' of sorts when Tenten had discovered an interesting little fact that had managed to let her leave the orphanage and bring Lee along with her.

As it turns out, due to her father having owned a property in Konoha(a weapons store) before he died and orphaned Tenten, she was eligible to receive something akin to a limited emancipation due to some obscure clause in the Konoha Charter. This gave her the right to leave the orphanage if she so chose, but she was originally unwilling to leave Lee behind.

Tenten then proved her brass that day when she requested a meeting with the Hokage himself and managed to convince him to give Lee the same limited emancipation she had.

Her devious little mind had thought of bringing Naruto with her to play up the fact that the old Kage was always willing to give Naruto some amount of leeway and to serve as a reminder of what the orphanage was like. After that not-so-subtle reminder, Hiruzen had signed off and had emancipated Lee as well, to the cheers of all three.

The Sandaime swore that day to keep an eye on the cheeky little girl with enough bravery to try and argue with a Kage.

Tenten and Lee had quickly set up shop on the second floor of the weapons store and had even decided to reopen it, something Hiruzen hadn't expected her to do for years.

At first, Tenten had insisted that Naruto move in with her and Lee due to their shared commiseration at the orphanage, but had quickly dropped that idea once Ayame-neechan had begun to shoot her the evil eye.

At first, the two had struggled a lot to get the shop running, until Tenten had been hit by inspiration and had decided to 'hire' her friends and pay them to help her out at the shop.

Soon the little shop had turned into their second unofficial meeting point and their 'home base', so to speak, aside from Ichiraku Ramen. While running the shop was hard at first(some of her friends weren't very good at math, to Tenten's chagrin), they had quickly learned enough to help carry weapons out from storage or show the clients where to find certain weapons while the older ones or Tenten herself manned the register.

The store even gained renown for its odd way of functioning and was jokingly referred to as 'The Chibi Shop' due to the fact that it was the only place in the village where a business seemed to run on 'child labor'.

While it was hard work and sometimes even stressful to run the shop with child 'employees' when she was herself a child, Tenten managed and she was happy, so Hiruzen never did a thing to stop her.

Today was a hot summer day in Konoha, and several of the children from the group were playing amongst the trees in the shade. Currently standing near the outskirts of Konoha, Hinata was playing hide and seek with Naruto, Ayame, Sakura, and Shisui, and they were hidden well.

The normally shy girl pouted mentally at the fact that she couldn't use the Byakugan like she had a couple of times before or Shisui would catch her and call her on it like he did the last time she tried it, to her great embarrassment.

She ran through the trees, her sandals making a soft thumping noise with the every step as she looked around and craned her head in every direction. She was keeping an eye on the tree branches above ever since Naruto had hidden from her and led on a wild goose chase a couple of months ago.

Hearing a soft rustling of leaves to her left, she quickly turned and ran into a tree. Moaning softly as she held her head in pain, she turned again to the rustling bushes and ran at it, determined to catch at least one of her friends. As she approached the bushes, she saw a hand come out towards her face, making her freeze in shock.

It was a hand far too large to belong to any of her friends. Grasping her by her shirt, the man took his other hand and made to chop at the back of the girl's neck while Hinata looked up in fear. As she saw the grinning face of a blonde man she had never seen before, her world went dark.

Crouching down to adjust the unconscious girl under his arm, Atsui smiled, relieved that the capture mission would be over soon and that he had yet to draw attention to himself. Hearing rustling behind him, he quickly got up and began to sprint, pumping chakra to his legs as Shisui burst out of the trees hot on his trail.

The man tightened his grip on the unconscious Hinata as he pulled out his ornate white katana in his free hand. Atsui gave a small hop and began to channel chakra to his feet as he smoothly landed in a crouch facing the angry face of Uchiha Shisui only feet from him. Offering the boy a mocking smirk, he jumped, hard, and made to swing his sword.

Shisui's eyes narrowed as he rolled left only to see the man swipe towards the ground. His expression didn't show any of the shock he felt on the inside when fire, actual fire left the sword in a stream that seemed to give the blonde Kumo nin a boost as he barely cleared the walls of Konoha with his leap.

Shisui growled as he saw the blonde man elude him and raced towards the village's north gate. Using a Shunshin to appear on the other side of the gate, Shisui called upon his chakra reserves ferociously as he began to use his signature technique gratuitously to head northeast towards Kumo; there was a reason he was called Shunshin no Shisui.

The Hokage's Office

"…thank you for bringing this to my attention, Itachi-kun," said the Sandaime as he looked stonily upon the bowed ANBU, while on the inside, he was sweating in tension as he wondered how the Uchiha clan could have planned this under his nose.

Itachi bowed his head lower in acknowledgement before meeting the Sandaime's gaze, only moving his eyes to briefly to gauge the Sandaime's advisers. They did not look pleased.

The young Uchiha felt like there was a lump in his throat but continued on anyways, "As I mentioned earlier, only a small segment of the clan are openly voicing their support. A majority are only voicing lukewarm to negative support, and most of the retired shinobi, and obviously children, know nothing about this plot."

Sarutobi nodded, offering the Uchiha a weak smile. "We will of course not punish all Uchiha, especially not those such as you who cooperate like you have, Itachi-kun," offered the Sandaime, knowing that it was important to keep the only Uchiha he knew for a fact he could rely on on the same side.

"We will try diplomacy," continued the Sandaime, angering his three advisers who opened their mouths to interrupt, but were cut off as Hiruzen angrily waved his arm at them to quiet.

"You believe that the Uchiha will not revolt for at least another six months?" asked the Sandaime as a frown creased his face. Itachi nodded.

"Then we have time to find a solution that leads to little or no bloodshed," said the Hokage with finality, making Danzo's face tighten in frustration as Koharu and Homura looked on with disapproval.

Itachi deepened his bow until his head was touching the ground.

"Thank you, Hokage-sama."

Atsui was racing as fast his legs could carry him towards Kumo; as someone who specialized in speed, getting away from Konoha's forces should be a breeze for him, which is part of the reason why he was chosen to play ambassador. If worse came to worst, he could ideally get out of Hi no Kuni.

His plans came crashing down when a fist collided solidly with his face, sending him crashing into a tree and breaking it into timber. Hinata had flown out of his grasp but landed in the arms of a crouched Shisui, who set her down gently on the ground behind him and pulled out a kunai.

Shisui's hands began to blur as Atsui groaned and stood up from the remains of the tree, white katana in hand. "How did you find me?" asked Atsui with honest curiosity. He could count the people who were faster than him in Kumo on one hand.

Shisui simply smirked at him, infuriating the Kumo hothead, "That's my little secret to keep."

"Alright then, you want to dance with the heat Konoha-nin, well start moving or get burned!" shouted Atsui as he sprinted at Shisui and lashed out with his sword, sending a wave of fire towards Shisui and the still unconscious Hinata.

A mud clone formed wordlessly behind Shisui and raced off with Hinata back in the direction of Konoha while Shisui's irises began to shift and turned blood red while a black shuriken pattern appeared with a small black circle in the center for a pupil. Shisui raised his hand into a hand seal as he disappeared from Shisui's sight in gust of leaves, making him stop his charge and raise his sword in guard.

"Come out! Get back here and face the heat!" shouted Atsui, hoping that if he were to fail the mission that he would at least be able to kill this Konoha nin and return to Kumo.

"Who's hiding?" asked Shisui as he appeared behind Atsui with a kunai to his neck.

Atsui growled as he kawarimi'd with a chunk of the broken tree and charged back towards Shisui, his sword burning with flames as he held it in position to stab through the Uchiha and end it all.

But then Shisui smirked at him once more, and he felt hands grasp onto his shins, making him hit the ground with a thump as his katana fell out of his grasp. Trying to stand up angrily, Atsui began to trash once more hands began to pop out of the dirt and held him down.

His mind flashed back to the hand seals the boy had made as he realized exactly what the Uchiha had done.

"Genjutsu," stated the boy jonin as he answered the obvious.

Atsui simply growled and struggled some more. "You can end my life today Konoha-nin, but Kumo will demand your head in return for killing its ambassador!" shouted Atsui as more hands appeared and held down his throat so that he could not struggle.

Surprising Atsui with a shrug, the boy said, "I know, which is why I'm not going to kill you."

Spinning the kunai in his hand, he rammed it hard against Atsui's skull, knocking the man unconscious, albeit with a bloody mark on his temple. Shisui wiped the blood off from the butt end of his kunai and put it back in its holster as he began to whistle a jaunty tune and hauled Atsui onto his shoulder, taking his time as he made his way back to Konoha.

Some Time Later

Shisui burst into the Hokage's office with Atsui still on his shoulder before unceremoniously dropping him onto the ground in front of the Hokage's desk like a sack of potatoes.

"I brought the Kumo ambassador back Hokage-sama," said Shisui with a jaunty grin in the Hokage's direction, earning a small chuckle of amusement as the boy then bowed to the Hokage and his guest.

Hiashi was not in the least amused by the boy as he held his still unconscious daughter in his arms while starting at the Kumo nin with distaste. "I want to kill that Kumo nin as repayment for his attack on my daughter, Hokage-sama," said the Hyuuga clan head, ire evident in his tone.

Sarutobi shook his head slowly, "I know that it is your right, Hiashi. Sadly, doing so would only drag us into a prolonged war with Kumo that we can ill afford to wage," said Hiruzen while reaching for his pipe and taking a puff.

Hiashi's hand clenched into a fist but his face and eyes betrayed nothing as he inclined his head at the Hokage's words.

"However," continued the Hokage, "We can demand some form of reparations from Kumo in exchange for the return of their ninja. The Kumo diplomat Atsui was caught carrying your daughter hostage," said Hiruzen with a wave of his arm at Hinata, "Furthermore, it's clear he had skill. The Raikage will certainly want him back," mused Hiruzen out loud while pulling out some blank paper. Hiashi was not happy but he knew there was not much that could be done.

"Inu."

At the old Kage's word, an Anbu appeared in front of the Sandaime's desk in a crouched bow so deep that his spiky silver-gray hair touched the ground.

Hiruzen gestured at the young Uchiha while scribbling away at the paper on his desk, "Shisui-kun will be joining your division starting next week," said the Hokage, making Shisui gape before his face slowly settled on a shit-eating grin.

As Sarutobi finished writing the message and placed his seal on it, he handed it to the ANBU who rose to meet the Kage's outstretched hand. Nodding to the Hokage, Inu disappeared in a swirl of leaves.

Turning to the still present Shisui, Sarutobi offered him a smile.

"As you know, it is customary to give each ANBU a unique mask. Do you have a preference?" asked the Kage as he pulled out a form and began to fill it out.

"A-Actually Hokage-sama, I was wondering if you would hear out something I wanted to ask you," said the boy nervously as he fidgeted under the Sandaime's curious glance.

The Sandaime nodded at the boy, "Go on, Shisui-kun. Tell me what you wanted to ask me."

Two Weeks Later

And so it was as Sarutobi said when the Yondaime Raikage agreed to the Hokage's unexpectedly reasonable demands, having no ground upon which to stand. In exchange for the return of his relatively unharmed ambassador, the Raikage would leave the ambassador's younger sister Samui in Konoha as collateral as well as paying some minor reparations to the Hyuuga Clan.

Danzo had been furious with the Sandaime for not demanding a child with the Ranton bloodline at the very least. Hiruzen had waved off his demands, saying that provoking Kumo would only come to harm them later, and that this would open more dialogue between the two nations in the future despite the currently tense political climate.

Atsui, upon hearing that his sister would be taking his place had refused to go and had to be sedated by Konoha's Torture and Interrogation Department in order to be transported back peacefully by a bored-looking Darui, who simply apologized for the trouble Atsui was causing.

The young girl, Samui, had just glared icily at the lazy man. Once he had Atsui ready for transportation, he had dropped off at the Hokage tower, leaving her subject to who knows what in her mind, or at least she thought so, at first.

Shisui's first assignment as an ANBU was to be the minder of the frigid girl, a task he at first loathed. He had hoped that being an ANBU would have meant exciting missions, not doing more of what he already did in his own free time, with what looked to be the most boring gaki imaginable.

The girl had been moved into the apartment next to the Ichiraku family, paid for by the Raikage, and for the next few days, Atsui and one other ANBU would shift on and off as they watched the girl for any suspicious behavior. Not that Shisui was expecting anything from the doll-like girl who had done little but eat, sleep, and stare at the spot he was hiding in.

For the first few days, she had simply stared at the corner he was hiding in and never even bothered to go to the academy she was supposed to be attending. But a few days later, it had appeared that a bit of the child she was had broken through as she had begun to talk at him about little mindless things.

Shisui, bored and unprofessional punk that he was, had decided to breach ANBU protocol and had begun talking to her, making the assignment not quite so bad in his eyes.

The next day he had a break from minding Samui, a Saturday, the young Uchiha decided to go pay a visit to his favorite blonde and his chibi brigade(as he had taken to calling them). He even had a nickname for all of them.

Shisui had spent the rest of the day messing around with them, but he had noticed that Samui had appeared around midday and had sat down to watch from one of the park benches, simply staring as he played with the big group of brats. He had been surprised to see the quiet girl outside of her apartment, but had simply shrugged and called it a part of getting used to living in Konoha.

The next day, as was his normal routine, Shisui had gone out early to meet with whatever gakis decided to show up at Panda-chan's store(Tenten hated this nickname).

On his way there he had crossed by the park only to see Samui sitting at the park bench, simply gazing at where the group of children had been playing yesterday. Lightbulbs went off in Shisui's head as he grabbed the eight year-old girl by the shoulder, startling her, and strong-armed the surprised girl away from the park and towards Panda-chan's store.

Stepping inside, he waved to the bun-haired girl manning the register and headed towards the door in the back of the shop, ignoring Tenten's curious stare as he led Samui along.

As he entered the shop's storage, he was greeted by a chorus of gakis seated around a table playing a card game. He waved and smiled at them before taking a seat and leading the blonde-haired girl to the seat next to him. Gesturing towards the girl, he said, "Gakis, this is Samui, she's new. She just moved here from Kumo and doesn't really know anybody, so I want you to play nice," only to be met with silence and awkward stares.

At this, he shot them all a look that screamed 'Obey or face my awesome'. Samui blushed lightly, which was the only hint that she was embarrassed to be stared at by all of the other children.

Naruto being Naruto went first and tried to break the ice; not that he knew, felt, or cared that there had been nothing but silence but seconds before. Waving his hand into the air in greeting, he shot the girl a grin and said, "Hey, I'm Naruto! I like training, Ayame-chan, and ramen, what about you?"

Samui merely stared at him blankly before asking, "How can you like ramen?"

Kiba began to cackle, already knowing what would happen to Mt. Uzumaki at these words...It wouldn't be the first time Naruto flipped out over this.

"WHAT! HOW CAN YOU NOT LIKE RAMEN! WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU?!" shouted the overreacting blonde as anime tears began to stream down his face in sorrow. Samui just stared at him blankly.

"It's bad for you," said the girl simply.

Before the blonde Uzumaki could explode again, Ayame had slammed his head down onto the table to shut him up, earning a muffled 'owww' from the loud blonde as she turned to the girl and gave her a smile.

"It's good to meet you Samui-san. I'm Ichiraku Ayame," offered the brown haired girl, her palm still on top of Naruto's head as he grasped wildly to get her off him.

With a successful smack, Naruto lifted his head back up and began to grumble about 'Mean ramen-hating Kumo girls' and 'Traitor best friends who never have my back' as he turned to the still laughing Kiba and told him to shut up.

Samui nodded at the brown-haired girl and offered a ghost of a smile before her face went back to its usual neutral stare, making Shisui grin.

Despite the cold demeanor, he was starting to like the icy blonde gaki who seemed to be Naruto's polar opposite. He needed to have another chat with the Sandaime, and soon.

Later

Itachi was in a good mood, which was rare. Most of the time, Itachi was simply aloof, serious, even cold. But not today, for beneath the cold frown lay an optimism that he had not felt in a long while. When he had revealed the treachery of his clansmen, the Sandaime had decided to be merciful and had opted to negotiate with the Uchiha.

Which meant that there would be no bloodletting, no violence. Sasuke wouldn't be exposed to any of it, and life could go on in the village. He almost felt like humming beneath his weasel mask, he was so cheerful today. Bowing respectfully to the Hokage, Itachi turned towards the door and stepped out, closing it behind him, only to come face to face with the one man his father had always told him to be weary of.

Danzo stood tall, gazing at him neutrally, but Itachi knew what he wanted almost the instant he saw him.

After several seconds of blank staring, Danzo gestured for Itachi to follow. He hesitated, but began to walk after the the war hawk, curious as to what he intended. If anything, Itachi could inform the Hokage of anything that Danzo let slip that could hinder the peace process.

If Itachi hadn't been so focused on analyzing Danzo, he would have seen his best friend make his way up the stairs and give him a funny look as he saw him following Danzo of all people to an empty room.

Following Danzo's lead, Itachi stepped into the barren room, which had only two wooden chairs across from each other, separated by a desk. The thick shutters only let in a tiny sliver of light into the room, and Itachi couldn't help the feeling of isolation that crept up on him while Danzo sat down at the desk.

Cautiously, Itachi lowered himself on the seat across and removed his mark, never taking his eyes away from the bandaged man. Danzo seemed to mull his words over before he looked Itachi straight in the eyes and spoke in a low baritone.

"Your be stopped peacefully. You know this, and yet you continue to hope that Sarutobi will create a miracle for your family," stated Danzo calmly as he watched Itachi twitch almost imperceptibly.

"I have faith in the Hokage," said Itachi quietly as he continued to look Danzo in the eyes unwaveringly.

"I can see the doubt in your eyes clear as day, Uchiha Itachi. You yourself have seen the fervor with which your clan drinks up the words of your father and the clan elders," said Danzo, pounding on Itachi's resolve with his words.

But Itachi's face remained unmoving, "Indeed I have, Danzo. But I believe in the Will of Fire…I believe that the village will pull through this and be stronger for it, as will the Uchiha Clan," replied Itachi as he ruthlessly stepped on the niggle of doubt that had blossomed in his mind.

Danzo leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table, "Then you believe that your father can be talked out of his quest to grasp the title which has been denied to his clan since the founding of Konoha? Do you believe he can be persuaded away, bribed?" needled Danzo bitingly as Itachi's eyes misted over in thought.

"No…No I do not. But the Uchiha Clan as a whole will see reason," said Itachi as the doubt returned stronger than ever.

Danzo leaned back and narrowed his eyes at the young teen, "Do you know what I believe, Uchiha Itachi? I believe that you are lying. Lying to yourself, and lying to me," uttered the manipulative war hawk, practically seeing Itachi crumple internally at his words.

Sensing his inner weakness, Danzo moved in for the kill. "Your clan…your clan will destroy Konoha in their quest for power. You already know this. The conflict will result in Konoha's enemies jumping on our weakened forces whether they be Uchiha-dominated or not, and in the end, Konohagakure will burn…it will burn due to your selfish desire to see your clan live!" stated Danzo with angry conviction.

Itachi…all Itachi could do was look down; Danzo had succeeded in managing to fill his head with doubts. His mind had been caught playing over the scenario Danzo had detailed...and he hated to admit that he agreed with the old cripple. His father was pride in living, breathing form.

To appease his own pride, Itachi had no doubts that he would watch Konoha burn, what with all of the lecturing he had grown up with where his father had declared that the clan came before Konoha.

And because it was ultimately his father who was driving the coup, he himself felt responsible, as though he was the one who was going to embroil Konoha into a war that would end with its destruction. He couldn't handle that feeling. He had to do something.

Itachi glared at the old cripple. "Enough Danzo," said Itachi, making Danzo's gaze harden as he stared at the boy.

"I know what you want, I know your methods, and I won't allow you to do it. I myself will kill Uchiha Fugaku, and then this coup attempt will crumble," said Itachi with an empty look to his eyes as his mind began to recall the good times with his father. It only served to make him feel ill with what he had just volunteered to do.

Danzo began to laugh. It was not a warm laugh, it was mocking and filled with rancor as he gazed condescendingly at the Uchiha for his words.

"It seems as if I have misjudged your abilities, Itachi. Do you truly believe that the death of their leader will make your clan's resolve crumble? No; your clan is made up of warriors. They will band together and their hatred will fester and their anger glow brighter. There is no simple killing of one person that will end this," said Danzo, watching the Uchiha expectantly.

Itachi began to shake like a leaf as he realized what Danzo was implying. For the first time since this meeting had begun, Itachi's emotion showed clear on his face. The shock, the grief, followed by a cold, dead acceptance as his face returned to a stony aloofness.

"I understand…I will eliminate the Uchiha…" said Itachi in near monotone. Outside that same door, Shisui's eyes widened in shock.

Due to the attempted kidnapping of the heir apparent to the Hyuuga Clan, Hiashi had cracked down on his daughter's freedom. She was only allowed to leave the clan compound to play with her friends twice a week and only with an escort. Aside from her studies, she was to be brought back home immediately, and Hinata did not try to argue with her father on the issue. None of the other kids could bring themselves to protest it, not even Naruto.

Additionally, Hiashi assigned Neji as Hinata's fulltime bodyguard. To ensure this, he went to the Hokage and directly petitioned him to allow Neji to drop down into Hinata's year in order to ensure her safety, to which the Sandaime agreed after a bit of mulling over.

Neji was originally furious upon hearing this, although not that he let Hiashi see his anger. He raged to his friends and complained about the injustice of having to repeat the first year of the Academy. So livid was he with his crappy situation that he even began to blame Hinata…but before the situation got out of hand Ayame-neechan sat down with him to have a series of 'chats'.

These 'chats' consisted of Ayame ripping Neji's weak arguments that blamed Hinata to shreds and leaving the boy meek and quiet for the rest of the day. Needless to say, Neji soon got over his short rendezvous with resentment towards Hinata.

Tenten too was furious, although for completely different reasons. Dragging Lee along to the Hokage's office, she tried to petition the Hokage to let her and Lee drop down as well. This time however, Hiruzen had anticipated the devious little orphan's tricks and shut her down quickly. The girl may have shown politeness and respect towards him, but she had a determination and devious streak that would have made Kushina blush in envy.

Upset, Tenten had then gone to Naruto to complain about the unfairness of letting Neji drop down and not letting her and Lee drop down a class too. Naruto thought upon the issue for abit, and soon he had an idea; a devious idea that Tenten, Kiba, Ino, and surprisingly, Shino and Itachi all volunteered to help him with once they heard the details. Ayame tried to warn him not to do it, but he would not be deterred.

The first part of the plan had involved sneaking into the Hokage's office while he was out to lunch. They had waited a week for it to be Itachi's turn on the rota to guard the Hokage. Actually sneaking in was the easy part once Tenten picked the lock; setting up the trap wasn't. Naruto had quickly opened the desk and began to shovel everything inside to Kiba who was stuffing it in a sack, giggling like mad.

Naruto blushed a deep red once he pulled a certain orange novel and it accidentally fell open, but quickly handed it to Kiba. Ino was standing next to him waiting impatiently while Shino kept lookout using his Kikaichu.

Once the drawer had been cleared, Ino began to empty her sack full of paint bombs and stink pellets into it. Kiba had explained away his owning stink pellets as something his clan used to stop the ninken from going into places they weren't supposed to, while Naruto had simply whistled innocently when asked about the paint bombs.

Once the booby traps were set, Ino took out a small firework with an unusually long string and a strange mechanism at the end from her pocket and placed it in the desk as well. Setting the mechanism carefully so that it'd trigger when opened, the children rapidly retreated and Itachi gave off a rare smile at seeing them go. If it weren't for them…he may have held off on warning the Hokage about his family's mad goal for months. Playing with them had made him realize that the children of the Uchiha Clan, his brother amongst them, were being put at risk for his father's own selfish goal.

So before he disappeared from the village for his crime of kinslaying, he had decided to do one last hurrah with them. He was only saddened that Sasuke hadn't been there today to join in one of the last things they would be doing as siblings.

When the Sandaime stepped back inside his office, satisfied with his meal, he had sat down at his desk to find a sheet of paper that had 'Come find us Jiji' written in red ink and a messy handwriting that he recognized as Naruto's. Confused, he shrugged it off as he reached for the drawer to get a bit of…literature.

POP!

Sarutobi twitched once, twice, as he realized what that note had been talking about. Raising his hand to wipe the orange paint off his face in frustration, he formed a hand seal and made a Kage Bunshin, thankfully devoid of the paint that caked him. Nodding, the Sandaime doppelganger took off.

Slumping backwards in his seat, he stuck his hand back into the drawer, searching for his Icha Icha only to find a thick tar-like black goop that smelled like sewage. Gagging slightly, the Sandaime saw red as he reared his head back and shouted,

"NARUTO!"

Naruto and co-conspirers were currently hanging about outside the academy when they heard the Sandaime's shout echoing down from the Hokage Tower. Naruto chuckled before he started laughing hard, bending over as he tried to hold back tears as he pictured the old man's office now. The others quickly joined him, laughing their little hearts out…until an angry-looking Sandaime appeared before them, hogtied them all with a rope before they could blink, and Shunshined back to the now ruined office.

Staring them down icily was the Sandaime, making Naruto gulp. This was a new visage he wasn't used to.

"Naruto," uttered the Sandaime, making Naruto cower back a little but with his determination still holding strong.

"Why did you and your friends decide to vandalize my office and paint the entire room in orange paint," questioned the Sandaime in a deadly serious voice making the others cower while Naruto just started smiling goofily.

"You didn't let Tenten-chan and Lee drop down a class Jiji, so I figured I owed ya something. In fact, we'll keep pranking ya until you decide to let them drop down," said Naruto with a big grin. Tenten on the other hand, was starting to reaaallly regret listening to Naruto right about now and wished he'd shut up.

Sarutobi shot them all a glare that almost made their hearts stop while Naruto continued to smile. Sarutobi was starting to question if his surrogate grandson had a death wish.

"Naruto…you do realize that what you just said could be taken as a threat to the Hokage? That I could now strip you all of your rights, kick you out of the ninja program, and throw you into the Konoha Maximum Security Prison Complex if I so wanted to?" questioned the Sandaime as the others began to near hyperventilate in panic. Ino and Tenten looked like they were about to cry, Kiba looked like he was going to wet his pants, and Shino was sweating.

"But I know that you won't do that Jiji," said Naruto, his smile still in place.

The Sandaime's stony face turned his gaze back onto Naruto, "Oh?"

Naruto's grin widened. "Yep. You like us to much, and if you threw us out, then where would your kickass ninja come from? Sasuke's groupies? Don't think so Jiji."

Sighing, the Sandaime released the light killing intent that he had been flooding the room with and gave Naruto a deadpan look.

"Naruto-kun, you're the most hardheaded individual I've ever met, and that's saying something. And I'm not sure if I like that anymore," said the Sandaime frankly as Naruto's grin widened as though he had just been complimented.

Turning to the others, he said, "I will allow Tenten-chan and Lee-kun to drop down to the same class as you. But you WILL clean this office," said the Sandaime with a glare, making them all nod vigorously. "Finally….DON'T DO IT AGAIN!" shouted the Sandaime, making them all jump as Naruto smiled sheepishly.

'I can't believe I just caved to the demands of a seven-year old girl and my six-year old twerp of a grandson,' thought the Sandaime morosely as his clone let the children loose and Shunshined away and back with cleaning supplies in hand. Standing up, he left the role of supervising to his clone as he decided to go bathe and bury his annoyance in sake and smut.

Days passed and Konoha once more seemed to settle into a calm, as calm as a ninja village could be at any rate. The populace at large remained ignorant to the rising tensions despite the Uchiha clan still believing the Hokage remained ignorant of their plotting.

Sasuke was walking along the road that lead back to his clan compound with Shikamaru and Naruto at his sides. Shikamaru had planned to lazy on a hill close by while Naruto was simply bored and had decided to tag along rather than head directly to the ramen stand for once.

As the trio walked down the alleyway, what sounded like a dull roar came from in front of them. Raising an eyebrow, Sasuke looked at the two with him to confirm that he wasn't imaging what he heard. He wasn't, if the curious glances his two friends were shooting at his clan compound meant anything.

As they got closer, the roar became clearer and a distinctive chant could be heard.

"ITACHI! SHISUI! ITACHI! SHISUI! ITACHI! SHISUI!"

"Why are they chanting out your brother's and Oyabun's names?" asked Naruto with a nod in the direction of the clan compound. Sasuke simply shrugged in response and the three began to walk a little faster, curiosity burning. Well, Sasuke and Naruto did. Shikamaru kept up his lazy pace while giving his two friends' backs a dull stare.

Once they were closer to the entrance to the compound the chanting had started to die down and angry shouts could heard, followed by what sounded like scuffling and a large amount of gasps. The two leading the way began to run towards the clan compound and even Shikamaru began to lightly jog after his friends.

Naruto and Sasuke stopped at the entrance, simply staring in shock. Shikamaru caught up with the two just in time to see the horrifying sight.

Time seemed to slow for Sasuke as his eyes began to water and his eyes turned red. The Uchiha Clan was out in full force and suspended in various states of surprise, shock, awe, and horror, not that Sasuke noticed. All he could pay attention to was Itachi as his blade met with the neck of his father and bathed in himself in a spray of blood. Uchiha Fugaku's head fell to the ground with a dull thud. And Sasuke. Sasuke's terrified scream echoed through the compound as the gathered Uchiha all stared on in shock.

"TOU-SAN!"

Ranton: Storm Release

Kikaichu: Insects utilized by the Aburame Clan, used for all of their techniques.

Ninken: Ninja dogs, used by the Inuzuka Clan

There are a LOT of butterflies in this chapter. A LOT. Good lord are there a lot. I'll try to explain down here what isn't immediately obvious.

Firstly, the Hyuuga Incident. In cannon, it happens when Hinata's either 4 or 5 going by the canon timeline. I'm going with 5; I'ma actually take it one step further and say that it happened the night of the funeral for Hinata's mother.

Due to the presence of more high-leveled shinobi with reputations at the funeral(Shisui and Itachi), the Kumo delegate felt more nervous about the kidnapping, hesitated, and walked away from negotiations with cold feet without having attempted to kidnap the Hyuuga heiress.

As a result, A then sends Atsui as ambassador to Konoha and tasks him the longterm mission of kidnapping the Hyuuga heiress. After about 6 months, Atsui realizes when the Hyuuga heiress is most vulnerable and kidnaps her in the best possible location; the Konoha outskirts.

Due to Hiashi not killing anybody from Kumo, Hinata, Hizashi, and Neji are spared a great deal of grief; in fact, since the Kumo ambassador was caught redhanded and isn't (seriously) hurt, Kumo is forced to give reparations instead.

Note that Atsui was caught off guard and he isn't quite the badass he is during the Fourth Shinobi World War yet.

Next, Tenten moving out. Why she wants to should be self-explanatory and if Naruto can get his own apartment in canon, why the hell not?

Finally, the revealing of the Uchiha's plans for a coup gets revealed earlier due to Itachi comprehending the spirit of the Will of Fire earlier; defending the next generation, due to his interactions with the chibi brigade. As for Shisui finding out, remember how he wanted to talk to the Sandaime about Samui? That's how he ends up being at the right place at the right time.

Why aren't Danzo's bodyguards intervening as he listens in from outside? They're hiding in the shadows inside of the dark room with Danzo, because Itachi is one dangerous mofo, even before he gets the Mangekyo Sharingan.

Why did Sasuke already activate his Sharingan? Well, remember that it activates when under duress. So why didn't it activate for Sasuke during the Uchiha Clan Massacre? Excellent question; it's called a plot hole. My personal theory is that Itachi suppressed it via Tsukiyomi; why else would he use it on the brother he's trying to protect? To instill life-ruining mental trauma? Not likely in my opinion.

4/2/2012: Yep, several reviewers confirmed that Kishimoto had Sasuke's Sharingan activate during the Uchiha Massacre in a flashback.

As for how I decided to end this chapter, it's a purposeful cliffhanger. Yes, this is completely different than what happens in canon. No, I have not lost my mind and this makes perfect sense to me. Just wait until the next chapter!

Hopefully my jumbled musings and insane plot make sense, but review! I'll answer more or less any question that isn't a blatant spoiler!