Alternative Canon Crossover

By Andrew J. Talon

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, nor am I making profit off of this.

Author's Note: The problem with being creative is having so many damn ideas. This one in particular, the Alternative Canon, was an attempt by me to totally rewrite the Naruto universe in a unique and different way. I have many ideas for it and articles and thought experiments, but I couldn't pull it together into one story. The focus was always on the contrasts between the Alt-Canon and the normal Canon. So, I decided to use that as the impetus for writing a story, where the two universes meet.

This is set before Pein's invasion of Konoha.

"Gah... Fucking everything looks wrong," Naruto mumbled, tree hopping through the forest lining the main road. His chakra senses were fairly decent, if he did say so himself (though grudgingly, he had to admit Sakura and Sasuke's were better). But it was impossible to miss Konoha. And the main road was still going in the right direction. It just wasn't... Paved. It was plain dirt, when it should have been a long, winding paved road of dull red and white stones, the road that connected Hi no Kuni together.

Where the hell is everything? he thought, irritated. Granted, the forest seemed just as big as he remembered, but aside from some lone merchants and private carriages, as well as people in pretty low grade clothing, there was nothing. No merchant trains, no city of Okansai built into the forest itself, no rest stops, no railway stations or railway, for that matter...

It was like someone had turned the clock back a few hundred years.

Is that what Sakura did? Send me back in time? He thought. He had no idea how Sasuke could have gotten that badly messed up in the head from it... Or how Tobi and his entourage could have ended back here too. But then again, he'd never time traveled before.

So, I'm back in time... That much chakra coming from over the horizon's gotta be Konoha, so at least I'm not around during the Tengoku period...

His musings were cut short when Sasuke elbowed him, hard, in the gut.

"OOF!" Naruto grunted, letting go and kicking away from Sasuke when he whipped out his sword. Naruto landed on an opposing tree trunk, Sasuke on another. The blond growled at the flat expression Sasuke was giving him.

"I'm not going back to Konoha," he said. "I don't care what or who you are, I will not return. Not until I come to take my revenge."

"You already killed your brother! You said so yourself!" Naruto argued. "And how can you trust Madara anyway? The guy's a nutcase! You know that mask of his? It's what contains his-!"

Naruto dodged the Grand Fireball jutsu, landing on another tree trunk. He growled.

"Madara is using you! Don't you get it? He tried to destroy Konoha before, in order to put the Uchiha on top!"

"Konoha ordered the destruction of my clan! Itachi carried it out! My vengeance is not complete!" Sasuke stated, sending another blast of flames at him. Naruto once more dodged and back flipped in mid-air and landing on another trunk.

"Sasuke, you're messed up! You're not well! I don't know what's happened, but I'm trying to help you!" Naruto shouted. Sasuke lunged, sword first. Naruto grimaced and bit his thumb, sliding it over a sealing tattoo on his wrist.

POOF! CLANG!

Sasuke's eyes narrowed. Naruto blocked his sword with one of his own, and even now the Uchiha was analyzing it furiously.

It was a naginata, it's blade a mixture of dull gray and black, a few figures in kanji decorating it. The handle part of the pole-arm was simple but elegant, dressed in red and black, and from the end hung a dull red chain.

"Chidori Senbon," Sasuke whispered, his body becoming alive with current, lashing through his blade into Naruto's. The blond's reaction was unexpected.

"OOF!" Sasuke grunted, receiving a hard kick between the legs. He was forced off the branch and slammed into one below it. He gritted his teeth and tried to fight through the pain, but Naruto was above him, the point of his polearm at Sasuke's throat before he could move.

"You forgot about Hisana too, huh?" Naruto asked in a flat, calm voice. "And her rubber grip."

"You bastard," Sasuke growled.

"That's my line, pal," Naruto said. He tensed, and Sasuke knew why-Team Hawk was nearby.

"Allright, you stay here, I'll handle this," Naruto said. He formed a small group of Kage Bunshin, and grinned at them. They grinned back.

"Fool... You can't possibly think... You can beat them..." Sasuke tried. Naruto rolled his eyes.

"I'm not beating them... I'm just going to be giving him something to think about." He hefted Hisana over his shoulder and headed off for the road, landing in the middle of a field indenting itself into the forest behind him.

"Yo, Madara's new fanclub! It's pointless to hide, so you'd better come out now."

A moment later, a tall young man with spiky hair, a short girl with red hair and glasses, and some smiling, pale kid with a familiar sword all appeared. Naruto's eyes narrowed.

"Hey, you! Smiley! Where'd you get that sword?"

"Who, me?" The young man asked with a pointy-toothed grin. "Zabuza's grave, of course."

Naruto grit his teeth. "Fucking liar!"

"It's true! It's mine, he was my sempai. And so will the swords of the rest of the Seven Swordsmen."

Naruto smirked and snorted. "Feh. A fucking pansy like you? Becoming as good as Zabuza? Don't make me laugh." He turned to the girl, who bristled.

"We're here to take back Sasuke-kun, you fox-carrying bastard." She leered. "And then we'll just have to rip the fox out from you and leave you to bleed out."

"Hahaha, cute, no," Naruto said. He glanced at the tall, quiet-looking boy. "And you? Nothing to say?"

"We will take back Sasuke from you," he spoke softly. Naruto shook his head sighed.

"These are the best Madara could scrape together?"

Granted, their chakra capacities weren't anything to sneeze at, but compared to what Madara had thrown at him before? He was decently sure he could take them, though they'd probably have some special tricks up their sleeves.

"Your life is about to end, you little shit. Prepared to die?" Smiley asked unpleasantly.

"No, I'm good with living," Naruto said. "See, here's the thing: You guys fucked with my friend's brain. I don't know how, but nevertheless I'm going to kick your asses for it."

"All by yourself? We know that you can't use the Kyuubi's chakra! You're just bluffing!" the girl said mockingly. Naruto raised his eyebrows.

"Well, I might have to go that far, I don't deny it, but if that's the case, babe, I suggest you pack up and run," Naruto said easily. "Oh, one second-!"

Deftly he whipped his naginata around, cutting clean through a Water Clone of the pale boy that attempted to grab him from behind. At the same time, he outstretched his free hand, a Rasengan forming in his palm.

He pointed it right for Suigetsu and, to the astonishment of all the members of Team Hawk, compressed it to the size of a marble before it shot out like a bullet into the gut of the water-based ninja. The Rasengan expanded within him, sucking him up and spinning him every-which way apart like a blender, before exploding with massive force. Karin and Juugo deftly evaded.

"Wha-How can you do that?" Karin asked in disbelief. "The Rasengan is a purely hand-held technique!"

"Who told you that?" Naruto asked.

"Sasuke-kun, of course!" Karin sneered.

"Okay... Guess he remembers that a little differently than I do," the blond said. He spun Hisana around and pointed it at the remaining (intact) members of Team Hawk. The water boy was slowly pulling himself back together, which was definitely annoying.

"That just means I'll have to show you just how much you've really gotten wrong!"

Building up some suspense, please pardon the dust.