Another Chance
Summary: 32-year old Uzumaki Naruto is a very different person from when he was 12. Death has made his life different. What will he do when he gets thrown back into the past with two of his last friends?
Pairing/s: None.
Warnings: May have blood and violence.
Time-travel fic.
Disclaimers: I don't own Naruto.
Author's Notes: Naruto in this fic is strong and pretty much merciless. He's seen a lot and that changed him. Don't be mean to him.
And also, I will shift between Naruto - Shiroi, Gaara - Akai and Shikamaru - Kuroi just so you know. But their real names are Naruto, Gaara and Shikamaru don't worry about that.
Will also refer Naruto as: disguised man (when he is in Henge as his child form), boy or child. It's easier to call him boy or child when it's Kakashi or someone else thinking about him.
Enju is Shikamaru in boy-disguise.
Jidan is Gaara in disguise.
-o-
Time for another chapter! Thanks for all the reviews, and enjoy!
And I've decided to use English translations for techniques from this chapter on, to make it easier on both me and readers (so we know what the hell they are doing in a fight). I've always thought it sounded ridiculous to have the English names but I know it's annoying not knowing what it means. So ridiculous it is. The only things I may write out in Japanese are names on weapons and such, like when a sword has a special name.
-o-
Chapter Ten
Kakashi found his team along with team ten at a restaurant, all eating lunch.
"Ah, sensei!" Sakura called out. The man walked over to them and took a seat, as well as Asuma who had entered along with him.
He looked over at Naruto and said:
"Have you talked to Shiroi-san?"
"Yeah, he came up," Naruto replied and looked up at the man. "He doesn't seem so bad. He said he would be gone on a mission for a week or so. Does that mean I get no training?"
"No, you and Sasuke will be training with me," Kakashi said. "And Sakura, even if you didn't make it to the third exam you should come too and train."
"That's probably a good idea," the girl said and looked at her food. "I'll just have to work hard to try next year!"
"Like you can do it, forehead-girl!"
The boys in the teams rolled their eyes as the girls got into a verbal fight.
"Oi, Naruto, how come we haven't seen that Shiroi before?" Shikamaru asked. "Or should I be asking you guys that?" He looked at the adults.
"They hadn't been introduced to the village properly," Asuma said.
"They?" the teen questioned.
"They were three," Naruto said. "Shiroi, Kuroi and… Akai?"
"Yes," Kakashi said. "A three-man team."
"Yeah, and they got weird names," Asuma said. "Wonder how long they've been working together."
Kakashi had a feeling they had been for a long time.
-o-
Naruto left his copy in the apartment, clear instructions of what would happen the time when he was not there and then he moved to meet up with Gaara and Shikamaru. They would leave Fire country to get to a city where they would gather a scroll back for the Hokage. The task itself was not that hard, it was more the journey there and back that would take time. Then there was the side-note that might also take a bit of time.
The two were waiting for him at the north gate, sleepy guards watching them. He jumped down in front of them and began to walk, knowing they would follow.
"Fast or slow?" Gaara asked.
"Let's go fast for today," Naruto said. "Do any of you guys know what kind of place this city is?"
"Gambler one," Shikamaru said. "Checked it up."
"Gambling," Naruto mused, his thoughts turning to a certain blonde super-strong woman with a love for gambling and sake. Of course.
"You interested in staying for a bit?" Gaara asked. "We can arrange that."
"Nah, gambling like that has never been my thing. But I'm sure we'll be entertained while there."
"Only you would say that about convincing a super-strong woman with a temper," Shikamaru muttered.
Naruto gave a feral grin, and the brunette, now in his Kuroi-shape, groaned in misery.
As on cue, they began to run and soon disappeared from Konoha.
-o-
Gaara looked over at Naruto and Shikamaru, grinning a bit. No matter how much Naruto nagged about Shikamaru being a lazy ass, he never let the brunette get behind no matter what happened. Probably one of the reasons why so many in their own time had come to respect the blonde so much.
Naruto glanced over at the redhead, saw the grin and snapped:
"What?"
"Nothing. It just looks kind of cute."
"Shut up!"
Naruto did not stop, instead he speed up despite having Shikamaru on his back, jumped far higher than Gaara thought he was able to but the redhead just laughed and ran faster to keep up.
"I can't believe you sprained your ankle," the blonde growled to Shikamaru who smiled sheepishly from his spot on Naruto's back.
"What can I say? Trees are evil!"
"You probably did it with purpose!"
"I think I'm offended."
"You think?!"
Gaara caught up to them, this time riding on sand, and Naruto growled, suddenly unloading Shikamaru onto the sand and then ripping out a scroll.
"Naruto, what are you doing?" the redhead asked.
"Getting someone."
"Naruto, you don't mean--? No, man, why her, come on!"
Too late. Smoke, a roar and Naruto jumped up on the great back filled with hot red fur. The fox boosted past the smoke, past them, legs moving past over tree-roots and dirt in great leaps. She turned her head, saw Shikamaru and Gaara and they swore the fucking fox was grinning.
"She likes to bite legs!" Shikamaru wailed.
"Only on the ones who are annoying her," Naruto reassured. "Right, girl?"
He rubbed the top of her head, the fox rumbled and ran faster, knew Naruto loved it. Shikamaru shouted something after them but neither bothered to listen to him raging and ranting behind Gaara. The redhead sighed, and used sand to protect his ears.
"How long are we going to keep this up?" Gaara asked a while later, catching up with Naruto.
"You tired?" Naruto asked.
"It's hard to keep it stable for so long and at this speed," the redhead said.
"I want to keep moving some more, let's switch. I run, you guys on Sabre."
When hearing that, Sabre came to a stop at the same time as Gaara stopped his sand. Shikamaru limped over to the great fox, petted her bulk before getting up slowly, and to his credit she did not try to playfully snap after either of his legs. Gaara nodded to Naruto, cracked his shoulders and neck before jumping up on the fox, stroking her fur.
"Follow my lead, girl," Naruto said and then they were off again.
-o-
They camped outside near some rocks that would provide protection, and Naruto started a fire while Gaara checked over Shikamaru's ankle.
"Feels better?" he asked the brunette.
"Yeah," Shikamaru replied and slowly moved it. "Should be fine in a day or two."
"You're not running tomorrow," Naruto said. "It won't heal up right then. Sabre can carry you."
"Just as long as she doesn't try any funny business." If she had eyebrows, Sabre would have raised one in suggestion, and Shikamaru shuddered, continuing, "You know, Naruto, she's way too scary to just be a fox."
"She's a summoned fox," the blonde said and rested against her, "of course she's scary. That's one of the requirements to be a bad-ass summoned-fox, didn't you know that?"
"She… she's just scary, alright!"
Sabre laid her head down and growled a bit, not taking it as an insult. Naruto burrowed down, missing this sometimes, feeling the heat and the steady heartbeat, the soft fur under his hands and cheek. He had to summon her more often.
He had not summoned a toad ever since Jiraiya died. He had not done a lot until Kyuubi practically forced the fox summons on him and made Sabre appear, the mother-hen of the foxes. Ever since, she had been a pretty constant object in his life. Someone who would never hate him no matter what he did.
Shikamaru and Gaara looked over when they had heard nothing from Naruto in a few minutes. The sight that greeted them was normal, although missed a bit; Naruto asleep resting against Sabre's side, her thick tail over him and her head positioned near the limp body, eyes glittering. She raised it a little when she saw them watching her, cocked it to the side as if to ask what the fuck they were looking at, and then she laid it back on the ground and they returned to their own tasks of getting comfortable.
-o-
Sarutobi looked up as Kakashi entered the room, put down the papers he was reading and waved the man forward. The Copy-nin came to a stop in front of his desk and scratched his head.
"Something on your mind, Kakashi?" the aged man asked, although he had a fair guess what Kakashi came for.
He sat down and seemed to think over his words, careful now as he threaded on unknown ground.
"You're worried about Shiroi and Naruto aren't you?" the man said and Kakashi looked up, did his eye-smile and said:
"That obvious, huh?"
"It's normal for a teacher to worry about his students. Ask Iruka," Sarutobi said with a smile. "Although that man takes it a bit to the extreme."
"Yeah, he still worries about Naruto," the grey-haired man said and rubbed his neck.
"Naruto is dear to him, don't be bothered by it. And I assure you, Shiroi will not let Naruto be harmed."
"It's just… I don't know anything about him, I've only seen him a few times and during those times I can't tell whether he's on our side or not…"
It was unusual to hear Hatake Kakashi ramble, and a bit amusing. Sarutobi smiled and said:
"I know the feeling."
"You do?"
"Yes. Imagine my surprise when they first showed up, entering my office like the wind, no explanation, just offering to work for me and me alone," Sarutobi said as he turned to look out the window. "Somehow I still knew I could trust them. Shiroi looks and acts cold when you don't know him, but once you get a little under his skin you'll see he's nice. Kuroi and Akai are almost always with him, so your student will get to see a lot of new things with them."
"I just feel a bit uneasy about it all."
"I know, Kakashi, but don't worry," Sarutobi said and leaned closer to the man. "Shiroi will protect Naruto. I swear that to you."
-o-
Entering the city the three had a look around, donned in simple brown cloaks and Sabre gone, Shikamaru having a slight limp only enforced their looks as travellers. That was just as well, they wanted to get in quietly and get out quietly.
"Who will look for her?" Shikamaru asked.
"I vote for Naruto," Gaara said.
"Of course you do," Naruto muttered. "Why me?"
"Because if she challenges you for a match, you'll kick her ass and drag her to Konoha," the redhead said with a shrug.
"You can do that too!"
"Yeah, but you do it without breaking a sweat," Shikamaru chirped. "We'll look like sweating pigs once we've finished running away from her."
"You will, at least. There's a thing called exercising, I'm pretty sure Gaara have heard about it but I'm not so sure you have," Naruto muttered and Shikamaru stuck his tongue out at him. "Alright, I'll find her. You go get the scroll. We'll meet up outside the city, rock formation, in a while?"
"You got it," Gaara said and steered Shikamaru down one street while Naruto took another, stretching out his chakra to see if Tsunade was there.
It was Sarutobi who had found her and he wanted her to come back to Konoha, as well as Jiraiya. Naruto knew Jiraiya was already in the village, but had not summoned up the courage to go see him. Well, not yet anyway. He probably would do that first thing after this mission when he realized how foolish it was to fear meeting someone who had died in his time. This was a new time and the pervert was alive, he should just be happy about it.
Bingo.
Not only did he feel her, Naruto also had a visual of her and Shizune. The girl was holding Tonton tightly while pursing her lips, probably keeping in what she wanted to say, which was that they would leave. He had to smile at that, and then entered.
Tsunade turned her head, felt his chakra and eyed him as he sat down by one of the machines, digging out some coins.
"You're not here for the gambling," she said as she started over with her own machine.
"How could you tell?" Naruto asked as he looked at her.
"Your chakra tells me you're a shinobi, and they don't gamble."
"Not? What about you, Tsunade-hime?"
She looked over at him sharply but he had turned back to the machine, seeing if he was having any luck. Most of the time, he did not. He wondered if he somehow had inherited Tsunade's bad luck at games, or at least when it came to gambles.
A few coins were his win and he gathered them, stood up from the chair and looked over at her.
"Who ordered you here?" she asked, also standing up after losing one last time. Shizune stood behind her, wary. "Someone I owe money?"
"Sarutobi-sama did," Naruto replied.
Judging by her look, Tsunade had not expected that. She kept looking at him as if it was a joke and he nearly gave a sigh, then he said:
"And no, it's not a joke. He wishes to see you again."
"I'm not going to Konoha."
"Then I'll just have to drag your cowardly ass there," he said and left, knowing she would be angry enough to follow him. She was not really a coward, but it was easier to bait her by calling her that.
True enough, he had only managed to get out of the city before Tsunade jumped down in front of him. Shizune came running from the gates in the distance, Tonton tightly in her arms.
"You called me a coward," the woman said casually.
"Yes, I did," Naruto replied softly. "Care to show the opposite?"
"I'm not going to Konoha."
"I believe you said that already. And I say you should."
"Why?"
"For your former teacher's sake. He only wishes to meet you."
"No," she said. "I left Konoha long ago. I'm not going back."
Naruto smiled a bit, and she took a step back, wary. "I propose a solution," he said, and while still not looking entirely sure, Tsunade nodded. "A match between you and me. You win, I'll go back and tell Sarutobi-sama you were not to be found. However, I win, and you will follow me back to Konoha."
The woman thought this over, Naruto waiting patiently. Shizune edged closer to the blonde woman, sensing there was no malicious intent coming from the man but still was careful.
"Alright," Tsunade said. "I accept. Shizune, back away."
Naruto removed his cloak and she stared at his white dressing, then shaking her head.
"Are you really a shinobi?" she called out.
"Why do you ask?"
"Your clothes. Normally we don't wear that much white, dirt and blood stand out very well on that."
"I guess I wear them as proof of my skills."
"Yeah?"
"Let's see if there's a speck of dirt or blood on them when we're done," the blonde said with a wide smile.
Tsunade's eyes narrowed, and then she ran forward.
Naruto avoided her first hit with a fast move to the left, jumped up in the air and twisted around, coming to a landing some thirty feet away from her. The woman looked up. The ground had cracked heavily underneath her knuckles.
"You're fast," she commented.
"And you strong," he countered with, and debated whether to use one of his scrolls or fight without them. Tsunade did not give him much more to think about it before she attacked again though, and he removed his hand from them. He would go without them for this fight.
Tsunade attacked again, and Naruto caught her fist with his hand. Her eyes widened, but he did not give her a chance to recover, instead he tightened his grip, swung around and threw her away. The woman landed safely on her feet but her eyes were on the blonde man.
Already were her shoes dusty but so far there was nothing on his clothes that she could see. Could he really be that skilled to get away with his clothes still clean? Even his shoes were white.
'She's gonna give you a fight if you stand there like an idiot.'
Naruto rolled his eyes at Kyuubi's statement and straightened up. He cracked his knuckles, slapped his hands together and Tsunade threw her hands up against the shock-wave. She took them down again, and knew his element was wind.
They both stood still, searching for a weakness, and then Tsunade moved. Naruto stayed still.
"I never got your name," she said, moving sideways, eyes trained on him.
"You may call me Shiroi," he answered.
"Shiroi… I should've guessed it." She snorted after that, and took off towards him.
He jumped the split second before she hit, and the ground opened up, broke apart and he landed a bit away. She turned, did not give him a breather as she came towards him again. He jumped once more, but this time slapped his hands again and the shock-wave made the dust fly in the air.
He landed, went through seals but did not utter any words. Tsunade watched, waited to see what the technique was.
"You can't see it," Naruto said and smiled a bit at her. "After all, can you spot air itself with your eyes?"
The wind closed in on her and she jumped away. Naruto released the technique; it was mostly used to choke people to death, or in its weakened stage, trap them. Tsunade had felt it move in on her though and escaped. He realized he probably let her do that, because he wanted a fight with her. It had been such a long time since he sparred with the woman.
But in this time, she still had her fear for blood. He had to make that fear vanish somehow, for her sake. Should he let himself get hurt? Or should he hurt her, make her stand up despite seeing blood?
He had already boasted a bit about his skills so he would be failing his own words if he got himself hurt. Naruto sighed, made another set of seals and swirled around.
Tsunade's breath was cut short when the wind knocked into her mid-section and she flew backwards, landing hard on her back. Something dripped from her mouth and she looked down.
Blood. She froze up. She had bit through her tongue at the impact, and the blood dripped steadily from her mouth to the ground. She spit and coughed, her eyes unable to leave the sight.
Naruto looked at her and said:
"You're scared of blood, aren't you? Sarutobi-sama told me you might be."
She did not look up, but her fists tightened. He had a feeling what she expected him to say. Coward, and another thousand things that came down to one meaning; that she was weak.
"I have a friend who just a while ago couldn't pick up a kunai without starting to tremble," he said and her head shot up. "And he isn't weak. Not anymore. He overcame it. You're as strong as him, Tsunade-hime, I know that. Prove it to me."
She looked at him, trying to figure him out. One minute he was taunting her, the other he wanted her to get up and fight. She slowly rose up, wiped her mouth and saw her hand was not trembling anymore.
"You're hard to figure out," she stated, spitting out another mouthful of blood.
"So I've heard," he replied.
"You don't think me as a coward."
"I knew you would hate that."
"How did you know it?"
He shrugged. "Just a feeling," he said, then moved into a Taijutsu position. "Now, Tsunade-hime, are you ready?"
She threw away her robe and cracked her knuckles, grinning. "About time the warm-up was done," she replied and then began to run, faster than before.
He knocked away her fist with a strike of his arm, moved one leg back and thrust it up in a kick that she narrowly avoided. She took a hold of his arm and he felt the sensation of her chakra cutting into the arm, then she jumped back.
The pain was bearable and he looked down at the arm. "Nice work," he said. "You tried to sever the muscles."
Her face remained close.
"However, I have to disappoint you. It was a long time ago something like that worked on me," he said and flexed his hand, soothing the burning muscles, pushing away her chakra. Deciding on something, he worked his trench-coat off and threw it aside, leaving him only in a fish-net shirt and black fingerless gloves. He usually had a pair that went up to his elbows but for today they ended around his wrists.
Shizune had moved to a safer location and looked at them both. Tsunade had incredible strength and lots of ways to hurt people from the inside with an impact from the outside. However, the man was unknown for both of them; the only clue he had given was that he used wind and he seemed good to repel Tsunade's tries to hurt him from the inside out. Plus he had caught her fist. Not many people would do that.
Now the blonde woman moved again and Naruto stood ready. She jumped up and made ready to strike him by a falling axe kick. Knowing the effects of that, he took a hold of the leg before she could hit him, looked into her widening eyes, ignored the way his muscles and bones protested at the motion and instead gripped her ankle and threw her down onto the ground. The second leg however managed to give him a solid one in the stomach and he was pushed back. As she got up her eyes focused on him.
His clothes were still clean, despite the dust around them, and it annoyed her just a tiniest bit. But then she saw blood coming out from his mouth.
"That sure showed me why I shouldn't let you kick me in the gut," he said and wiped the blood away. "Impressive."
"Impressive?" she said, stood ready for an attack.
"Your kick. It's impressive." And with that, he started with seals again, this time calling out: "Wind Release: Cut!"
A powerful wind broke from him and Tsunade threw up her arms, shot her chakra out to protect her skin. Where she had not been fast enough she felt the biting air cut open small, small wounds. She struck her fist down in the earth so the shock would stop the air from coming.
"Not good enough!" she heard Naruto call out. Another slap of his hands, and she jumped away from the shock-wave. As she looked around, her eyes saw something in the air. The woman looked up and her eyes widened a fraction.
The blonde man was standing in the air. He looked down at her, sun beating on both of them and said:
"I hope I won't hurt you too much with this, Tsunade-hime."
He made seals again but this time said nothing, just leaned his head up and opened his mouth wide. His arms flew out, like wings, and he released a howl to the sky. Her eyes opened wide as fire rushed out of his mouth, and she realized he could use both wind and fire.
The fire formed into an animal, which one she could not see, and for a moment it was still in the air, before rushing down towards her, getting larger with each second.
She threw her arms up and the fire hit the ground, exploding.
"Tsunade-sama!" Shizune screamed.
-o-
Gaara looked back and Shikamaru stopped once he realized the man was not following him.
"Something wrong?" he asked.
"Naruto used a combo, that's all."
"Oh. Is he trying to kill her or what?"
"She isn't that weak," the redhead said and turned back to Shikamaru. "But the fight should end soon."
"How can you tell?"
"If she doesn't give up now, he'll take it up to a whole new level."
"He hasn't done that for a long time, we both know that," Shikamaru said.
"And he hasn't fought any strong people for a long time," Gaara said. "Why overuse your powers against a thug? With Tsunade and the like, he won't hold back forever."
"You mean we will in the near future see him fight for real? I admit, while I haven't done much fighting myself the last couple of years, watching him was always entertaining."
Gaara looked over at him, and saw the grin. "Yeah," he replied. "I think we will see him fight for real in the near future."
-o-
Tsunade coughed and felt Shizune's hands on her shoulders, and she looked up. Her skin had minor burns but she had managed escape relatively unharmed from the technique.
Naruto was putting on his trench-coat again and looked over at her. She noticed he maybe was a bit sweaty but that was all. There was not even any dirt on his shoes, and she wondered if he really was that strong, or just picky how his clothes looked like.
"My loss," Tsunade said after a moment's silence. "I guess I'll go with you then."
"Alright," he said.
"One question though."
"Yes?"
"With that power, why settle on being the Hokage's underdog?"
Naruto laughed at that as he moved towards them. "First of all, I'm not working for the Hokage," he said. "I'm working for Sarutobi-sama. Secondly, being an underdog is sometimes more entertaining than ordering people around."
"Sarutobi is the Hokage."
"But not forever," he said. "That's about it. Anything you need to go back and get from the city?"
"No," she said and rose up. "You?"
"Nope. I'm meeting up with the others in my team soon by the rock formation over there. Or they might be waiting for me already."
They took off after Tsunade had healed her burns, and was by the rock formation within minutes. Tsunade raised an eyebrow and said:
"Let me guess… their names are Kuroi and Akai or something?"
"Oh dear me, we're easy to figure out," Naruto said and Shikamaru rolled his eyes. Gaara watched them silently. The blonde turned to the two and continued, "Did you get it?"
"Piece of cake," Shikamaru said.
"How's your ankle?"
"Good as new."
"Wanna have Sabre testing that out?"
"No!"
Gaara rolled his eyes at that and Naruto grinned. Shikamaru had the nerve to pout, and Tsunade knew she would enjoy their company.
-o-
Sarutobi was standing on the roof of the Hokage Tower when someone landed behind him. He turned, and his eyes widened slightly.
Tsunade looked back at him and said with a slight smile:
"What a way to contact me, sending a man of that grade."
"I thought he might be able to convince you," he said quietly. "How are you, Tsunade?"
"I'm fine," she said as she walked forward. "Tell me something… how strong is Shiroi?"
"I don't know. Stronger than me. As you are here, he must have given you a good show, or proved that he could defeat you as well."
"I don't think he fought very seriously with me," she stated. "So I was a bit nervous how he would be if he fought all out. I took the easy way out; I admitted defeat and tagged along. I must say, you choose your people well."
"I didn't choose them, they chose me," Sarutobi said and looked back at the stone faces of the Hokages. "I'm guessing they went their own way after you entered the village."
"Shiroi said something about a boy."
"Ah, yes, Naruto. A boy he's going to train for the Chuunin exams."
"They're going on?"
"Yes, or well, this is the beginning of the month between the second and third exam," he said.
"Naruto… the kid with Kyuubi inside."
"Yes. Shiroi can handle large chakra-amounts thrown at him, I think if Kyuubi lashes out he'll put a lid on that."
Tsunade walked up to him and looked up at the stone faces. "Why did you want me to come back?" she asked.
"Not only you. I'm looking for Jiraiya as well. I just wanted to see you two after so long."
She snorted. "You're an old geezer, sensei."
He chuckled. "I know."
-o-
Naruto looked up from his kunai to see Hinata enter the training-area where he was with his copy, and for once the copy was in the guise as Shiroi. The girl looked over at him and then at the copy. Then she took courage and walked closer.
"Hello, Naruto-kun," she said softly as she came into hearing distance.
"Hinata-san," he replied with.
"Is that Shiroi-san? I heard about him."
The copy waved a hand to her in greeting, and returned to his scroll.
"Yeah, that's him," Naruto replied. "He's doing some research. Why are you here, Hinata? Did they already release you from the hospital?"
"As long as I don't do anything exhausting, I'm fine," she said timidly. "I… I made lunch."
She held out a basket and Naruto looked at it, then her face. She was blushing.
"Really?" he said.
"There's enough for all three of us," she stated.
He raised an eyebrow but was not about to say no to a meal from Hyuuga Hinata. "Shiroi, can we take lunch-break now?"
The copy looked up, thought about it, then nodded. Naruto put away the kunai and the two teens went over to the man, seating themselves down and Hinata began unpacking from the basket. She had been so thoughtful she even had tea with her.
Naruto smiled a bit down at his food. It seemed like she was progressing just fine to be the strong woman he had come to know in the future.
Tbc…
New chapter!
Chapter eleven: Kakashi comes to watch Shiroi train Naruto, meets Kuroi and Akai there as well. Naruto, Gaara and Shikamaru meeting up with Gaara the younger and his siblings. Then, time for the third exams! Orochimaru attacks. Don't know when it'll come out, may take a bit or may be quick. We'll see.
Until later,
Ja,
Tiro