Chapter 16: The Creepy smile

"Ramen is the food of the gods!"- Naruto

Naruto walked… Well, he wouldn't say it was walking. He sprinted from rooftop to rooftop with the strength of his legs, and his chakra giving him more speed. This had been his new routine ever since he got here, the wind hitting his face at speeds ANBU nor Ninjas could ever see him at. It gave him time to also look around Konoha properly. That would sound weird when he would say it out load but whenever he would spot something interesting or something familiar, he would stop, store it in his mind, and continue on his routine. Then after, he would meditate and go in his mindscape. There he could access that specific image and inspect it more. Whenever he would feel homesick back then, he would pretend to nap and simply look at the image of his family… Of course there would be limitations such as the fact that the image would be stored in his short-term memory and thus, if a day had passed, he couldn't access the image anymore due to it not being in his mind.

As he ran from rooftop to rooftop, Naruto stop at an old abandoned shock just near the walls of Konoha and frowned. He knew what lied inside, but he didn't want to disturb it. Yet. It wasn't time yet.

"Naruto, I feel a presence behind you" Kurama said to him

"What are you doing here?" A boy said behind him.

Naruto, his ninja instincts being a 30+ year old hokage with the speed and flexibility of his 12 year old body, jumped away, did a backflip in the air, threw some shurikens and took out his kunai, all with just a few seconds. Naruto watched as the boy who spoke behind him instinctively jumped as well, blocked the shuriken with his tanto and landed with a sort of eerily calm and yet familiar something. The boy was pale, looked like Sasuke a bit, wore a black and gray jacket with Red Straps on his shoulders and carried a tipless tanto and a large scroll behind his back.

"What are YOU doing out so far out from the village center?" Naruto asked him before something finally clicked in his head.

"I saw you while I was gonna train somewhere nearby. I'm Sai" The boy said before squinting at Naruto before smiling with a big yet obviously fake smile.

"It seems to me, your name would be…Orange dick" Sai said as Naruto looked at him, his mouth agape


Sasuke looked down at the marketplace, watching people pass each other with a mask on his face. There was no other meaning to the mask, yet it put him at ease to not be recognized by anyone who saw him.

He felt the wind shift a little and looked beside him, already knowing who it was

"Kakashi" Sasuke said as the silver haired ninja continued reading his porn without any difference "What are you doing here?"

"Nothing important" Kakashi said without a pause. Sasuke was used to Kakashi's behavior and returned looking at the people at the marketplace.

"Seems like you're looking for something" Kakashi asked in a nonchalant manner. A tone of a laid-back person and a hidden mesage 'I couldn't care less' plus 'You better tell me everything'.

"Not really." Sasuke answered back. Kakashi raised his eyebrow over his book but returned back like nothing happened

"Well, seems like you are." Kakashi said as a matter of fact. Sasuke 'tch'ed. Nevertheless ignored Kakashi and continued what he was doing.

After a few minutes of silence of Kakashi and Sasuke, Kakashi brought down his book and looked at the marketplace himself.

"This is oddly …boring." Kakashi said in surprise. Sasuke just ignored Kakashi, in an attempt to block him out.

Sasuke then finally saw his target, and moved from rooftop to rooftop in an effort to get on top of it. Kakashi watched, surprised at the sudden movement, but stood ready.

Sasuke saw it move in the shadows. A lowly effort for someone who had his own rinnengan. Sasuke counted for 3 seconds before leaping down and leaping up back to the rooftop without anyone noticing him.

"What the…oh" Kakashi said as he jumped to where Sasuke wass and saw what Sasuke was holding. A snake. A messenger snake, to be exact.

Sasuke squeezed out the scroll from the snake and let go. Sasuke read as the snake slithered away. Sasuke closed the scroll and put it inside his pocket. He looked at Kakashi "We should probably get going now. Naruto and Sakura are probably at the training ground by now"


Tsunade sat on her office in the hospital with Sakura and Shizune, sorting out the documents. Once Team seven returned from their Wave mission and Sakura was accepted into the hospital (With a few broken bones of course), they were able to improve/introduce methods of healing that were better than their old counterparts. Now they were just in Tsunade's office before they hear a knock from the door.

Sakura stood up and opened the door slightly, she looked who was at the door and found a nurse, with a boy.

"Yes?" Sakura asked the nurse.

"I'm sorry to interrupt Sakura-san, but this boy suddenly came in with a letter stating that he needed to meet you both. He said it was urgent" The nurse said to Sakura. Sakura raised her eyebrow and inspected the boy. He had tousled white-blue hair, thin eyebrows, with golden eyes, and a pale complexion. The cogs in her brain turned before she recognized who the boy is.

'Mitsuki…?!' immediately thought Sakura, which she thought impossible. However, she nodded and let the boy in. The nurse bowed before she walked away, then Sakura closed the door.

"Who was that, Sakura?" Tsunade said, still busy arranging the documents.

"Tsunade-sama, it's... Mitsuki" Sakura said, for a loss of words. Tsunade immediately dropped whatever she was doing and looked at the boy, her eyes wide.

"Excuse me…But who is Mitsuki?"Shizune asked, confused.

"Yes…I am confused, who is Mitsuki? I am Ichitsuki. Orochimaru-sama has told me to come here to give this letter to Tsunade-sama and for…training?" Ichitsuki said as he hold a scroll from his hand

Tsunade remembered the letter Orochimaru had given to him in the past, yet she wasn't expecting…this. She scrutinized the boy in front of him, carefully inspecting his features. He did seem to be like Mitsuki, yet, it seems not. Then everything clicked into place.

'This is…! Damn that snake, of course he would have found a way . Then again, the body switch jutsu had a major side effect of turning the user impotent…'

With a long pause, Tsunade took the scroll and opened her mouth "We'll need to take tests before we let you in. Do you know how to use Sage mode?"

Ichitsuki nodded, and closed his eyes before a familiar aura of Nature energy take hold, before dissipating "I haven't learn, in detail, but I have learned enough to gather Nature energy."

Tsunade nodded, cautious yet understanding the situation "During the duration of your time, after we have confirmed your tests, you will undergo training to become a Medical-nin. Understood?" Ichitsuki nodded and Sakura took the boy outside the room.

Once outside, Shizune suddenly stood up "Tsunade-sama! Why?"

Tsunade looked at her apprentice and took a sip of Sake "Because the world is changing, Shizune. We cannot expect to hold grudges. Especially with whats at stake"

Shizune opened her mouth, then closed it, before she sat down, seemingly out of words to say. Tsunade massaged her temple before returning back to work with a sigh.


Jiraiya walked the beaten dirt road, as confident and himself as he could be, but the thing he saw and heard…

"What is all this?" He asked the priest in shock. The scrolls were accurate. Reminders of a time he had lived and not lived.

"This is the power of the Rikudou Sennin." The priest said as a matter-of-fact. Jiraiya didn't bother asking again. He looked at some of the scrolls and saw an orange toad fighting a monster of some kind. He recognized what the orange toad represent. And what the monster represented.

"Naruto…"

He closed the scroll and looked at another. This was the most disturbing of all. Different pale horned man, in line going through a portal.

He shooked his head. He looked at his hands, calloused as ever and thought of the once-future. Then blinked.

He sighed. Then he continued his walk, back to Konoha.

Naruto, out of breath, slid into a corner, hiding from someone. Someone, he never thought would be this persistent.

"Why are you running?" a voice suddenly said in his left ear. Naruto screeched before he turned to face the voice

"Sai, what are you doing!?" Naruto asked the pale boy. Sai looked at Naruto confusingly.

"Aren't we friends?" Sai said, with an innocent tone in his voice.

Naruto looked for words in his head to answer that question. Yes, they were friends, in another life. But, he knows what Sai is, in this time atleast. A ROOT agent. Which means Danzo is on the move, which mea-

"I'll take your silent as a yes. I am only simply following you because you are my friend? Isn't that what friends do?"

"No! That's only if they want to be followed. Which I DON'T!"

Sai just looked back, more confused than ever. Naruto sighed, and he continued to walk down the street, with Sai in tow. He was supposed to meet his team in Training ground Seven to discuss about plans or something

'Guess I'll bring Sai along. Sakura and Kaka-sensei would be surprised about him' Naruto said with hands in his pocket.

A few moments later, Naruto arrived in the training ground, with Sakura sitting in a log. As she turned around to greet Naruto she saw Sai and her eyes turned wide as saucers. Naruto smirked, knowing he was right before he was suddenly dragged away from Sai by Sakura.

"What-How-Where" Sakura said in a hush tone.

Naruto rubbed behind his neck "I don't know. HE found me, not ME found him"

Sakura looked at Naruto for a few seconds before she looked at Sai and back to him again "We know he's a ROOT agent, but what are we gonna do with him?" Sakura asked

"I have no idea, Sakura. I say, we keep him close. Like…last time"

Sakura nodded, before they returned back to Sai. Sakura reached out her hand "Hi, I'm Sakura, and you are?"

"Sai. Nice to meet you, uhhh." Sai said as he looked at Sakura up and down "Flat-top."

With a few bruises on the face, and Sai's blue face later, Kakashi and Sasuke arrived just in time to see the aftermath.

"Uhh, yo?" Kakashi said in greeting before he squirmed to see Sakura cracking her knuckles again.

"What happened?" Sasuke calmly asked, as he was, more or less, used to it. Sakura tched and pointed at Naruto and Sai.

Kakashi raised his brow "He's early" he said. Sakura shrugged before she checked Sai and healed him. A few moments later, Sai was now standing, with a neutral expression on his face

"It seems, I have been mistaken" Sai said to Sakura

"Get used to it. We're all scared of her" Naruto said with a scared tone on his voice

"You're no flat top. You're a Gorilla." Sai said before he did his creepy smile. The field turns a negative degree of temperature as Sakura turned her head, with a smile so scary, Naruto ran away and hid under a tree, and Kakashi step back until he was sure he was safe

"I'm a what?" Sakura said menacingly

"A Gorilla"

"…"

Sakura stepped near Sai and put his hand at his shoulder "Good luck" before he shunshined away. He looked where Sasuke was before he looked back at Sakura, exactly as she punched the ground. Sai fell down to the now non-existent ground and into the crater, with multiple rocks hitting him. He immediately tried to run away but not before Sakura suddenly came up and punched his jaw so hard, he flew away, up into the sky.

"Anyways" Sakura started talking after she went up the crater, "What happened?" she said like nothing happened. Sasuke returned, in a flurry of leaves, took a scroll from his pack and gave it to Naruto, who just got back from hiding at a tree "Read it later."

Naruto nodded and put it inside his jacket "What are we gonna do now?" He asked.

"Well, we try to fix this first." Kakashi said pointing to the ground "Then, tomorrow…is when the Hokage is going to announce the Chuunin exams, if nothing is going to change this time. The Hokage has asked that before he announce it, that we are going to speak to him about certain matters"

"What matters?" Naruto asked Kakashi

"Probably about what's going to happen at the exam, most likely. If it's not that, then I have nothing" Sakura suggested

Naruto nodded, before he saw Sai falling back to the ground, and hit the ground with a large "thud!"

"Someone should bring him to the Hospital" Kakashi remarked.


A/N: Yo! Damn, it has been a long two months. Sorry again! I lost my brain juices thinking of how I was going to make this story move, that's why this chapter is a bit…lackluster. Also, school was going to end so I concentrated on that for a while before Covid-19 hit. Now I'm stuck in this house. All I did was stare at this chapter, thinking how I was going to make this story move, and also being a DM on an online DnD campaign, which had some benefits, being that I had a breather from anime stuff and concentrated on High Fantasy stuff. So now, after rewatching some Naruto episodes, like the Chuunin exams, for example, I'm back and I hope I can actually maintain a schedule. I'm also inspired, thanks to some of my friends actually being fanfic writers themselves, so I'll post a couple more chapters, and continue on a constant pace. Anyways, also! I have an ao3 account! If you guys didn't and prefer to read there, then I suggest looking at there. It's the same username, so just search MushTroqua. I haven't uploaded the whole story of this fanfic while writing this author's note so expect some chapters missing. Anyways, I wasted enough of your time. I hope you enjoyed, and expect a chapter coming soon!