Please read the fic before titled as Paradox as you will not understand everything if you just read this one. Just click through my profile as it's the only other fic there, then feel free to return to this one. Thank you~

Summary: Now, finally back within their own timeline, the boys have to work together to make sure Sasuke's wrongs do not reoccur again, as well as the incoming threat of Madara and Obito. In order to get stronger, both boys head off to seek power from Orochimaru in order to save their futures.

Author's Note: So I did promise I would upload this within a few days, so here I am. Again, I have also added the first chapter as well for you guys to chew over for a little while until I sort out the next few chapters. I do hope you guys will enjoy this, as I enjoyed writing the first chapter. It is a bit of a monster, so I'm sure it'll give you a little bit to do over the next few moments. Again, my updating schedule is down the shitter until further notice due to going-ons in my life. It is what it is, but I'm sure I'll have things back in order at some point. I'm spending some of today writing out a few chapters, as I'm on an RDO. I do hope this is enjoyable enough for you all, an I, as always, apologise for any grammar mistakes you may see going ahead.

Once more, this fic is inspired by Fast Forward/Pause, but further ahead I will be changing a lot of things from what their original was. A lot of things were already changed, including Sasuke gaining the mangekyou and Itachi being killed off.

Still, I do hope you guys stick along for this journey. There won't be a third part I don't think, but this particular one will be a lot longer than the first part, according to what I have planned.

The M rating is here due to sexual content that will not be hugely graphic as well as potential gore-ish scenes. The full version will be on AO3 which is linked in my bio if you are wanting to the full versions. I will be reminding you of this whenever chapters that have cut sections will be added.

Stand Still

00. Prologue

.

Normally, Naruto would not be as jittery as he was at that moment. However, he was standing in front of one of the most deadliest men in the world of shinobi. Orochimaru was looking on, his grin wicked with his tongue slipping out from behind his thin lips, a fang glinting dangerously in the low light of the hideout. His sickly golden eyes were on Sasuke, amusement evident in his expression, but beneath that was no doubt irritation.

"Now, Sasuke-kun, I don't remember inviting guests," he hissed out, his tone catching on each 's' in the sentence.

Inwardly, Naruto was terrified. This man could cut him down easy as hell. Beside him, was the silver-haired Kabuto whose expression was blank. While Naruto was still kind of shocked that Kabuto was with this man, the aura that protruded off the medic really showed what side the man was on.

Sasuke shrugged in response. 'Oh man, I'm dead,' Naruto thought inwardly, wanting to hit Sasuke for his indifference but wisely decided not to.

"Naruto has his own goals," Sasuke said in response, his own expression blank as well – 'Fuck you and your stupid pokerface,' Naruto thought angrily.

'I could take over, that might make him believe you, brat,' Kurama interjected snidely. 'Although, I can't promise I can help myself from killing that creepy bastard.'

'Shut up for the moment, Kurama,' Naruto said back. 'I have to concentrate on looking scary.'

He heard the kitsune chuckle back, and did his best to stop himself from rolling his eyes.

"Oh?" his attention was now directly on Naruto, who could not help himself from gulping. "And what are those?"

He and the idiot had thought of ways to convince Orochimaru on allowing Naruto to stay (and to not be killed in some weird sacrifice to the snakes), and one of the main ones was: "I want to destroy the Akatsuki. I'm sick of running from them, and I don't want to live in fear anymore. I figure coming to you would be the best idea, honestly," he shrugged himself this time. "Jiraiya isn't letting me live up to my full potential, and he's a shitty teacher, so…"

The idea of destroying the Akatsuki was Sasuke's idea (although, that was practically the truth since their goal was the Akatsuki, minus Itachi), whilst the Jiraiya jab was Naruto's. He knew that Orochimaru disliked Jiraiya quite a bit. At the mention of Jiraiya, Orochimaru looked interested now.

'Come on, take the bait…'

"So, I came to you, so I can get stronger and achieve my goal of being free," Naruto allowed a malicious grin to fall onto his features, "That, and I wouldn't mind aiding you in destroying the Leaf."

Silence enveloped the group, before Orochimaru clapped his hands together. "My, my, Naruto-kun, you do make a fair argument. I suppose you are wanting to assist us with two goals… I do agree that coming to me is a lot better than training under the toad."

Naruto nodded wearily. Were his words enough? Did he buy into it? Naruto was no liar, but he supposed his life being on the line was what may have aided him into lying effortlessly.

"Hm…" his eyes flickered onto Kabuto. "What do you think?"

Kabuto adjusted his glasses, and nodded to himself. "Naruto-kun might be a valuable asset, considering what he is containing," he smiled maliciously. "While his words may be false, if he is being truthful in what he is saying… then maybe…"

Orochimaru grinned again. "Fine, Naruto-kun. I'll allow it," his expression changed to being stony. "But you must understand that you'll be under surveillance. After all, I don't need you trying to undermine what Sasuke-kun is here for."

Naruto nodded sharply. "I understand."

Sasuke snarled out. "Come on then, train me."

'Already? Surely, he's exhausted?'

Orochimaru grinned. "Kabuto, show Naruto-kun to his room… I'll make some… adjustments for a new teacher."

Kabuto nodded. "Yes, Orochimaru-sama."

.

.

.

Kakashi landed onto the shore below, and instantly noticed the two royal blue headbands. He picked them both up, and noticed that one contained two bottles. He opened them up, and saw within that there was some sort of medication inside. There was a note within, and he read it.

Tsunade,

Here is the medication to treat tuberculosis. I do hope that you will be able to analyse it, in order to be able to cure this disease. I know there is a slow outbreak beginning to occur in the Village of Rain, and I worry that it will spread to the Land of Fire quickly.

I also understand you may be weary, hence why I provided two bottles. One is a cure, and the other is a vaccination. One is capsules, and the other is in liquid form. I'm sure you'll do what is right for the village. I understand that you will need to analyse, but please note the ingredients below.

Kakashi's eyes narrowed at the mention of ingredients that he had no idea about. Some medical science, no doubt. He read further on, and saw more of a message.

Please do what you will with these, and I hope this will help you in the future.

There was no mention of whoever had given it over. He knew right away that it was neither of the boys' handwriting though, considering Naruto's was like chicken scratch and Sasuke wrote in a very neat cursive. This was very much so of a doctor's hand.

However, for the moment…

The headbands were what worried him.

Where were the boys? Surely they had both not…

He unveiled his sharingan with his other hand, and scanned the water. He found no body…

'Naruto, too? Why would he…?'