Life Revisited Chapter 3: Friends or Enemies?

A/N: Starting now I'm ditching first person POV, POV change just means it'll be following someone different now. If you have complaints... oh well shrugs because I was getting more negative than positive feedback about it, and it was starting to get a little too difficult for my likings.

Also, I've found out that I'm not the first person to have the idea to have the Yondaime sealed inside of Naruto with the Kyuubi. Let it be known that I've read part of that story and mine is not similar except for the obvious cannon things.

EDIT I couldn't remember how many times Kabuto had attempted the Chuunin exams so I said three. Flower Kid corrected me, so I'm fixing it to seven.

Naruto--

Naruto sat on top of a tree in the forest where he and his team were training in Wave Country. He looked at the reds and oranges of the sky as the sun set behind the sea of trees, wondering how long he had been sitting up this tree meditating. When it had come time for them to walk up the trees Naruto had just walked up like it was nothing, sat down at the top showing further chakra control, and started to meditate. Sasuke was deep red and his shoulders were tense, he had only been able to make it about a fourth of the way up the tree and he had been running. Sakura ran at the tree, and managed to make it all the way to the top but clung there for dear life, panting. Sasuke tensed up even further.

"Don't worry about it Sasuke, Naruto is, well, Naruto and Sakura has always had superior Chakra control. With a little practice you'll be able to do this just as well." Sasuke just snorted and ran at the tree, making it three steps further then the previous attempt. Naruto's stunt at graduation had almost made him number one rookie, but Sasuke's grades were better, so he still held it. And Naruto wanted it to appear that Sasuke was stronger outwardly, so that as little would change as possible. His team members didn't necessarily understand his request that they act like Sasuke was stronger, but didn't bother argueing. The only other difference in Team 7 was that Sakura obviously wasn't drooling all over Sasuke, in fact she didn't appear to be drooling over anyone. Appearances can be decieving of course. Naruto let everything happen as it should, he even trained himself into exhaustion just so he could be awakened in the forest by Haku. He sat talking to Haku in the forest like before, but this time he was going to end it differently.

"Haku, I know it was you who saved Zabuza. Please, don't come to the bridge."

"If you know so much, then you must know that I will do whatever my master wishes." Naruto just sighed as Haku disappeared.

Naruto slept in the trees that night, so that the rest of his team couldn't find him to take him to the bridge the next day for guard watch. When he woke up he headed over to the house and stalked, waiting for the rest of Team 7 to leave for the bridge and waited. Not long after Team 7 left the two thugs showed up. Naruto waited for the thugs to leave the house and for Inari to try and get his mom back before he did the familiar Kawarimi no Jutsu and got them both to safety. He then proceded to flog the two thugs without mercy, when he was done he tied them up.

"Inari, I need you to go gather the town and bring them to the bridge, no questions." Naruto said to the little boy. Inari nodded and left after seeing that his mother was safe inside the house. Naruto left for the bridge, getting there a lot faster this time using a teleportation jutsu that brought him close enough to run to the bridge, but still not have his technique detected by Kakashi or the others. When he got to the bridge Sasuke was in the middle of the fight with Haku, and Kakashi was duking it out somewhere in the middle of the fog. He watched again as the needles penetrated Sasuke's flesh, always just shy of anything vital until finally Sasuke fell, apparently dead. Naruto then walked into the circle of mirrors.

"Hello Haku." Naruto said, turning his head to look at the exact mirror the real Haku stood in. Naruto had learned to sense chakra, and the mirror he was looking at was housing the most chakra, so it was obvious where he was. Haku stepped out of the mirror and stood facing Naruto.

"Hello Naruto. I see you've come to fight, and I'm sorry that it had to come to this, but it looks like I'm going to have to do to you what I did to your little friend over there." Haku pointed at Sasuke, and quickly retreated back into the mirror. Naruto sighed, why did it have to be like this? Haku zipped around between mirrors, but Naruto was able to follow the movements. Dodging the senbon that Haku was relentlessly throwing at him, Naruto maneuvered himself next to one of the mirrors and, gathering chakra to his hand, shattered it with a punch. Haku was unable to move, this boy had just shattered one of his ice mirrors, how much power did he have? Just as he was contemplating how he was going to continue the fight, the mist cleared slightly and Kakashi was visible, preparing to strike Zabuza with the chidori. Haku quickly headed over to the fight to get in the way, Naruto contemplated stopping him, but figured that it was wrong. Not only would him saving Haku and Zabuza show off more power than he wanted, it would change something that Naruto didn't think needed to be changed. Naruto felt compassion for the deaths of the two, but also saw the justice in it, and he also saw that the only true way that Zabuza's soul would rest easy would be if he felt he had made amends. This was the only way. So he sat and watched as it all happened, watched as Haku took the chidori, watched as Zabuza cried. And then came Gatoh.

"Kill them all!" Gatoh yelled, and the crowd of henchmen came at them.

"Kakashi, toss me a kunai" Kakashi stood for a second contemplating before pulling out a kunai and tossing it to Zabuza, who caught the weapon in his mouth. Not to be left out, Naruto could be heard yelling "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" just before a hundred Naruto clones popped into existance to fight. And fight they did, the three and the clones tore into the enemies and to the surprise of Kakashi and Naruto, so did a very angry looking Sakura. Up until that point Sakura had been sitting over Sasuke crying, but after Sasuke's 'death,' Haku's death, and Gatoh's sudden kill 'em all attitude she was pissed. After the fight Naruto and Kakashi were left unscathed, Sakura had a few cuts, and Zabuza was left with several wounds, since he was fighting, essentially, with his face. The wounded missing-nin walked painfully towards the body of his 'tool,' and lay down next to him, letting himself go. He knew that he would probably be going somewhere different, but he was ok with that, knowing that he would never forget him.

Konoha, later--

Naruto lay in bed, contemplating what he had gone through already and what lay ahead. He knew the Chuunin exams were soon, and he didn't know what he was going to do about them. He knew that the snake-bastard would be there, and he knew that he would try to give Sasuke the cursed seal again. Would he be able to stop Orochimaru from giving Sasuke the seal? He was strong, sure, stronger than he would have ever have dreamed to be at this point in his last life, but Orochimaru was stronger. The only way to keep Sasuke from getting the seal would be to run since he hadn't signed the frog contract yet, and then he would have to use the Shunshin. Did he want one of his biggest enemies to know his abilities so soon? Frustrated, he got up and stamped out of his house. Walking casually down towards where his team was supposed to meet, Naruto came across Kankuro standing face to face with a frightened looking Konohamaru, he waited a second and then using shunshin zipped into the tree where he knew Gaara was hiding without a sound.

"You'd better tell your brother to keep his hands to himself or he's gonna have to face me." Naruto said. Gaara's head spun around to face the apparently not-so-noisey ninja, but before he could Naruto was gone. He showed up mere moments later walking towards Konohamaru defensively. "Oi! You'd better leave him alone you sand freak! Or you'll have me, Uzumaki Naruto, to face with!" Kankuro looked at him almost stupefied.

"Who are you calling a sand freak, you flaming midget?"

"Yea, well this 'flaming midget' is gonna kick your ass!"

"Kankuro, enough!" Gaara called from the tree. Naruto turned to face him and, using the kyuubi's chakra, gave him a foxy wink. Gaara looked shocked for a moment and then his face broke into a wicked grin. "You will be participating in the chuunin exams?"

"You bet your ass I am, I'll look forward to facing you there." Naruto smiled, picked up Konohamaru and zoomed away.

When Naruto arrived at the bridge, everyone was already there, including Kakashi and if looks could kill, Naruto would be dead. "Sorry guys, Konohamaru got into a fight with some visiting gennin and I had to save his butt." They loosened up, atleast Naruto had a valid excuse, unlike Kakashi's lame 'I got lost on the road of life' story.

"That brings me to my main topic of discussion for this meeting." Kakashi started. "As you all are probably aware, the Chuunin exam will be happening soon. I think that you three should go for it." He gave them each a paper. You all have to agree on entering to take the exam, as you need a three person team, so you should probably talk it out. I'll leave you guys to it then, after you talk you have the rest of the day to do as you wish" and Kakashi poofed away. Sasuke looked at Naruto and then Sakura.

"We're gonna take it." Sasuke stated simply, like the decision was his alone. Naruto and Sakura both just nodded and then the three parted ways.

The time before the Chuunin exam passed quickly and soon it was the day of the first exam. Team Seven found themselves outside of the Konoha Academics building, instructed to go to room 3a. They headed inside and walked up a flight of stairs. At the top of the stairs they found a crowd of people around a door that said 3a, there were two guards standing outside the door. Sasuke walked up to the guards, "Let us pass" he said, nonchalantly. The guard didn't budge, so Sasuke got into a fighting stance and the guard seeing this, followed suit. They charged at each other but before they could connect, a green blur stopped both of them, standing in between the two was Rock Lee, blocking both attacks.

"You shouldn't fight," he said. Sasuke just 'hmpf'd' and backed off.

"This isn't really 3a anyway, we're on the second floor. I just wanted to test this 'Guard,'" Sasuke said, before him and the rest of Team Seven started walking towards the stairs up.

"Very clever," the guard said before dispelling his henge, revealing a Jounin ninja "a Chuunin needs to be able to detect genjutsu." The rest of the spectators just walked towards the stairs.

In the exam room, everything was just as Naruto remembered it: nasty looking ninja everywhere. Not long afterwards a man walked up to them, it was Kabuto. "Hello, my name is Kabuto," he said in introduction, and they all exchanged introductions of their own. Then he expained that this was his seventh try at the exam, and that he knew a lot about it and about some of the people in the exam. That's when his deck of 'info' cards came out. A small crowd of the Konoha ninja crowded around as he went through them. Then when he came to Naruto, more people looked on and unknown to everyone but Naruto, Gaara used his sand eye technique to spy on this as well. But just like before, Naruto's card was all question marks save for his mission list, disappointing more than a few of the onlookers. Naruto had been attracting more attention than he realized. The rest of the exam went as it should have. Naruto left his paper blank, feigning ignorance and still passed (although he could have filled out the test, with both his and Yondaime's knowledge at his disposal). Then a familiar crash was heard, as Anko broke through the window in one of her flashy entrances.

"Hello! My name is Mitarashi Anko, and I will be the examiner for the second test. Meet me outside of the Forest of Death tomorrow morning and pack for survival training. That is all."

A/N: Sorry about the shortness of this chapter, I didn't want to go past the first exam. I'm also sorry about the lateness of this chapter. It may be a cop out, but I have had extreme writer's block and couldn't think of anything to write for the end. This explains why the end is pretty lack-luster. I promse that the next chapter will be a doosie though, with a lot of nice detail because I have it planned out for the most part. Hopefully it'll be out in a week or less, depends on how much time I get to write between work and school. Well, until then Kreekoh