Itachi woke up with a soundless scream.

"Itachi-san?"

The Uchiha blinked several times, discreetly activating his Sharingan. He was motionless even as his eyes scanned the perimeter with apprehension. He found nothing.

The owner of the voice spoke again, "I've finished preparing on my side. Tell me whenever you're ready to accept Shisui's eyes."

This time, Itachi could tell that it only rang out within his mind.

It was a telepathic message.

Itachi finally realised who it was.

"Good morning, Naruto-kun," Itachi greeted.

The memory of what he had to do was still so fresh in his mind. He had awoken, thinking he was still there. His eyes might have been open, but they were unseeing. He could not seem to process what he saw.

If not for the shock from hearing a familiar voice, Uchiha Itachi might have gone on a rampage.

"It's still early where you are, wasn't it? It's close to noon here in Konoha," mused the blond in an oddly contemplative manner. "I hope I have not interrupted your rest."

Itachi could not help the startled laugh that escaped him. The blond was continually just so bafflingly considerate. Itachi wanted to thank the blond for stirring him from the aftereffects of his nightmare but was not too sure how to go about doing so. As such, he held his tongue and refrained.

"I was not bothered. Hearing from you is always pleasant," assured the black-haired Uchiha.

"Sasuke scored full marks again," supplied the reincarnation of Asura from the other end.

He naturally assumed that the Uchiha desired updates on his younger brother's progress. He was not too far off — Sasuke was at the fore of his overprotective nii-san's mind around half the time. However, Itachi was being honest with no such subtle allusions when he made his remark. He genuinely enjoyed conversing with Naruto.

Even so, he did not correct the blond.

"I see..." Itachi said softly.

He was certainly relieved that Sasuke was still doing so well in his absence, but...

"Have you been well, Naruto-kun?" Itachi asked mildly.

Itachi could almost picture the blond's foxy grin when he replied brightly, "Very much so. I made a few new friends lately!"

Although Itachi was infected by that vivacious cheer, he also felt a twinge of regret for how an innocent child had to live the life of a jinchūriki. Naruto was a wonder to be around and merely speaking with him could put a smile on Itachi's usually-impassive poker face. Itachi hated that Naruto would sometimes have an aura of bleak morosity. He despised the fact that the citizens of the village that he so loved could be so blind as to harm this child with their filthy hands. His heart ached in sympathy for the little Uzumaki.

Itachi had wished too many times that he could just scoop up that too-small child and bring the poor boy into their home. He knew Naruto lived in the extravagant mansion just adjacent to the Uchiha clan compound. However, his clansmen on patrols had never turned away the hordes of villagers that gathered on Naruto's birthdays. It was soon evident that none were even capable of touching a hair on the child's golden head, a realisation which relieved Itachi, but they never acted even before the revelation. Naruto could protect himself just fine, but what if he was not able to do so?

Itachi was always dispatched on missions on the night of the Kitsune Festival, so there was just no way for him to be there. He dreaded to think that the small and delicate frame of that child would have ended up battered, his azure eyes dulled in pain. Even worse was the notion that Naruto might have even died by the hand of one of those horrendous miscreants. Even with Itachi's pacifism, harming a blameless child was just too much.

"What about Itachi-san? I hope the mission has not caused you too much trouble," Naruto said, sounding worried through their telepathic link.

The Uchiha chuckled. "I am doing just fine. The orange-masked man seems to trust me. He had even taken me to their secret hideout, after we met with Nagato-san, and told me all of his plans."

Itachi heard the blond hum in tacit acknowledgement.

A moment of silence passed between them.

"I am sorry. I have heard that your inamorata had passed in that tragedy," Naruto finally said in a sigh.

The black-haired secret agent smiled bitterly.

"Danzō got to her," Itachi agreed. "I reached her in time to aid her in departing peacefully. I have sworn off matters of the flesh as well. Perhaps I might have had a peaceful life with her, had the coup d'état never happened. Unfortunately, my wishes were never to come true in this lifetime. All such sentiments have no place in this harsh world."

Itachi did not know that Naruto was gritting his teeth. He sat alone on the roof of the Academy, a shadow clone attending class in his stead. He was not the only one to do so either. Sasuke did not go for his lessons either, choosing to train at Naruto's personal facility. There, uninterrupted cultivation of his Sharingan was made possible. His awakening to the memories of his past lives and the shock from the scenes which Itachi had made him witness forced this early maturation. First unlocking the famous Sharingan at such a tender age was a feat never before seen in past generations.

Naruto loathed seeing the cruelty in the world.

That was why he wished to end it, at long last.

"I will be free whenever," Naruto announced. "You just have to tell me when you are able."

Itachi tried and failed to muster a smile.

Instead, he simply replied telepathically, "Now would do."

"Right now...?" mumbled the blond.

Itachi suddenly realised that it was thoughtless of him to demand such. The boy likely had prior engagements already. Besides, it was ridiculous for him to expect the younger to traverse over a distance so great so abruptly. It was neither fair nor intelligent to ask him to come on such short notice.

"Send a trace of chakra into the seal and I shall appear before you," Naruto stated, unruffled.

Itachi startled, taking a moment longer to mull over those words.

"What...?" he barely managed this intelligible thought.

"The communication seal. I need you to act as a proxy. To bypass a fūinjutsu barrier without any preparatory delay, I do seek your cooperation," explained Naruto, misunderstanding why Itachi had been confused.

"That's not..." Itachi trailed off, going speechless as he realised that it truly was within the little blond's means to cross the continent in an instant.

Puzzled, Naruto queried, "Not what?"

Itachi sighed. "Forget it. I'll cooperate with you. Just tell me what you need me to do."

"Are you sure about that, Itachi-san?" Naruto pressed, aware that there must be more which Itachi had not vocalised.

"It's fine," assured the Uchiha. "So, what do I have to do?"

Itachi was surprised when Naruto laughed at his question.

It was unlike the blond, to say the least.

"I already told you, Itachi-san," Naruto stated, his voice tinged with mirth. "You just send chakra into the seal."

Uchiha Itachi was stunned by that revelation.

"It's just that simple?" he muttered aloud to himself in disbelief. "Impossible."

"It's part of the seal from before," Naruto clarified, accurately guessing Itachi's thoughts this time.

It should not have been possible to incorporate so many features into a single seal but Naruto had succeeded in doing so through methods unknown to Itachi.

The black-haired male sent a generous stream of chakra into the seal on his right forearm.

Naruto was internally relieved that he took the time to learn the now famed Hiraishin no Jutsu from his younger brother then. Senju Tobirama was truly ingenious for his miraculous invention which allowed one to teleport wherever the tag was placed. He would never have thought of it, if not for Tobirama. It was not a feat beyond his skill. It simply never occurred to him that such a seal would be useful. His then-brother opened his eyes to the truth and showed him the utility of the Hiraishin. He could only lament his dull imagination which hindered him from having discovered the impressiveness of that technique of his own accord.

Thankfully, his persistence often made up for what he lacked in creativity. He would invent many practical seals after long brainstorming sessions. Although he never specialised in the art of fūinjutsu as Senju Hashirama, there was much that drew from the ideas of his best friend and blood brother Uchiha Madara. He always needed the ideas of his brother to come up with anything revolutionary. It was so ever since they were just Asura and Indra.

Without any warning, Naruto appeared before Itachi as the minimised seal on the raven's arm faintly flashed gold. The blond blinked several times, disoriented due to the ripples he sensed in space-time as he arrived. He had learned, in recent years, how to perceive the distortions in the fabric of reality that signified the use of a jutsu affecting space-time. Thus, he sensed the fact that time had been twisted around the seal he had painted on Itachi's forearm only weeks ago.

"That was way too much chakra, Itachi-san..." sighed Naruto as he observed warped reality begin to mend itself slowly.

Itachi's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. He did not understand why it was bad that he overdid it. After all, he knew close to nothing about this area of study. He always thought that control of chakra was insignificant when it came to seals.

"You could've ended up phasing through reality and landed sometime in the past or future," the blond elaborated, mildly annoyed.

The actual amount of chakra that is required to teleport from one location to another was little. This was especially so seeing as Naruto's fūinjutsu skill maximised the efficiency of the seal to almost a hundred per cent. Even an ordinary chūnin could teleport to one thousand markers across the continent before collapsing from chakra exhaustion. Overcharging that seal would instead result in a leap through time. He supposed that it was good that the jutsu was so specific that it would only allow one to travel to another Hiraishin marker. However, there were endless possibilities where one might end up. It might even be a thousand years into the future, in a museum where such old relics were shown.

There were, thankfully, few possibilities if Itachi went back into the past instead. It was not long since Naruto had first created his variation of it. Naruto's Hiraishin no Jutsu did not allow travel to another's markers — although this included only Tobirama and Minato at the moment.

"It shouldn't be as simple to pass through time as you claim..." Itachi said, baffled.

It was true that he expended more than half of his chakra then, but time travel was not a trivial matter.

"Just a little more would have been enough for you to skip several years," Naruto replied flatly. "If you had exhausted your chakra in one shot without any destination in mind, you would've ended up lost some time somewhere. If that did happen, I would not be able to help you even if I wanted to."

Itachi winced, the severity of his actions finally struck him. He never knew about how risky the space-time ninjutsu that he had heard so much about from stories of the late Yondaime would be. So many dangers were yet unknown to the average shinobi and not even Itachi - hailed as a once-in-a-lifetime genius as he was, knew what it entailed to dabble in the obscure art.

"Anyway," Naruto continued in a lighter tone, "I wanted to ask what you'd like for your birthday this time next month."

Itachi floundered for a moment before it finally clicked in his mind. Too many events occurring within the past months, he had completely lost track of time. It felt like the days he spent in the vibrant hidden village were a lifetime ago. From the day he had entered the sitting room that his parents used to frequent to see his mother take her final breaths, he drifted through his days.

It was painful.

Being alive hurts.

His laughter had been hollow, his eyes pools of sorrow. He took to activating his Sharingan at all times to hide the grief that he felt as though he was constantly drowning in. Having Naruto's company was uplifting, a relieving fresh breath of air that allowed him to see past the shades of bygones that he never could bring himself to dispel. Itachi could never forgive himself for the Uchiha Massacre. His hands might not be those that took the lives of innocent civilians, but he could not help it. He could only lament that he had chosen the harsher route, regretting his inaction.

He did the most he could to sway the minds of his father and the clan elders, but it was never enough. The worst option had to be taken, for the sake of Konohagakure as well as his otōtō Sasuke. Perhaps it was more for the latter than the former, but the Sandaime Hokage had been kind enough to disregard that petty little detail.

Being reminded that the tragedy did not occur too long ago caused the mask Itachi donned to crack, anguish twisting his features as withheld tears began to well up in his eyes.

"I-" Itachi's voice cracked as he tried to speak.

Naruto remained silent as he patiently waited, a particular look in his azure eyes which caused the Uchiha to startle.

Understanding.

Itachi did not know who the blond had lost, but he was not callous enough to ask about it.

Finally, the black-haired missing-nin managed to find his voice.

"You've done enough. You have given me more than I could ever deserve," Itachi said hoarsely.

Naruto frowned. "And if I told you that you can have anything you wanted?"

The physically older male hesitated.

Truthfully, there was only one thing he was able to think of.

"Sasuke... I would like to apologise to him," was the Uchiha's choked reply.

It was not a difficult decision to make.

After all, Sasuke was all that he had left.

Naruto beamed up at the teenager.

"Now that wasn't so hard, was it?" he chirped. "Consider that done. Sasuke will be waiting for you, wrapped up nicely with a bow and all."

Itachi chuckled, assuming it to be a joke.

"Now, let's get started with the surgery."

With that overly cheerful statement, the blond pulled on a pair of white surgical gloves.

The black-haired teen gulped, wondering if it was too late to back out.

Unfortunately for him, it was.


"I'm Shikamaru," a certain adolescent whose hair was in a spiky ponytail abruptly introduced himself to the pair.

Usually, he had a feeling that the two were just not real. It was only on a few occasions that he would see their true selves around. This just so happened to be one such opportunity. It was a rare chance and Shikamaru was not going to let it slip past him again.

"I'm Naruto and he's Sasuke," responded the boy in question, his eyes alight with curiosity, "but I'm sure that you already knew that."

Shikamaru's typical bored-looking expression gave way to a smirk.

"Of course," drawled Shikamaru, "and I want in."

Sasuke's eyes narrowed. "What do you know?"

Despite the raven's accusing tone, Shikamaru remained unperturbed.

"Oh, nothing at all. I just noticed that you know a lot more than others could give you credit for. I've heard your discussions in class and, though I might not understand, I figured you were in on something. I want to be a part of your plan," the Nara spoke with a careless shrug.

Naruto merely blinked in acknowledgement as he mulled this over, but Sasuke scowled at their classmate and looked away sullenly.

"What do you offer us in exchange?" Sasuke asked sharply.

Shikamaru was startled, not by the question in itself but by Sasuke's rapid change in mood.

"I'm a Nara. All I have going for me is my brain," he replied.

Sasuke sighed, turning to look at Naruto.

They made eye contact, and Naruto nodded imperceptibly.

"So..." Sasuke began. "What are your thoughts about the Uchiha massacre?"

If Shikamaru was stunned by the detached and almost indifferent manner in which Sasuke had brought up the tragic event, he did not show it.

"What about it?" the Nara yawned. "That fellow was an ANBU captain. Uchiha Itachi was pro-Konoha. I suspect that the whole affair was just him eliminating the traitors of Konohagakure. I have reason to believe that the Uchiha clan had been plotting treason against Hokage-sama..."

"H-How did you know all that?" stammered the supposed last member of the Uchiha clan.

"His father's trusted as the best strategist in the entire village. I don't suppose you'd know, what with your previous circumstances... At present, I would say it's customary. A Nara would always take the unique position as one of the Hokage's closest aides and the key strategist for Konoha. Seeing as only the most intelligent of the clan is allowed this vital position, the one trusted with that role has been the Nara clan head for three generations now," Naruto explained. "It isn't all too difficult for Nara-san over here to be able to pick up on something like that. It was quite a significant occurrence, after all."

Sasuke flushed bright red, mortified by how he had just revealed his ignorance.

"You cannot be blamed for that... It's not as if it is common knowledge, you know? Tradition or not, it was only started soon after the 'death' of Uchiha Madara," sighed the only blond present.

Shikamaru's tired eyes brightened, flashing in curiosity as he absorbed the information which Naruto had deigned to reveal.

He had no designs on trying to pry information from the duo, but that did not mean that he did not wonder about the mysteries they held. The main reason for Shikamaru's interest in Naruto and subsequently Sasuke was his desire to find out the secrets behind the blond's identity.

It was just a matter of putting two and two together when it came to Naruto's parentage. It was not as if blonds were a common sight in Hi no Kuni. Not even a Yamanaka could claim that distinctive hue as their own, a shade that was so radiant that it resembled the rays from the summer sun shining overhead. He grew up with tales of the village's hero, Yondaime Hokage Namikaze Minato, and had seen too many pictures of that man to be unable to spot the many similarities between the two blonds. It was true that the marriage records of the Yondaime and Uzumaki Kushina were well-buried, but he found allusions to the occasion in the notes his father kept. Thereafter, it was not hard to guess that Uzumaki Naruto was the child of the Kīroi Senkō and the Akai Chishio no Habanero.

This, however, was something else.

Sasuke's knowledge stemmed from his wayward ancestor, Uchiha Madara. This was a start to learning more about the pair of enigmatic clan heirs — the future heads of the Uchiha and Uzumaki clans. He still had no clue why Naruto knew what he did, seeing as it did not seem quite plausible that it was the Sandaime Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen who informed him about such a secret. If anything, it was more of an unspoken rule that the head strategist of Konohagakure had to be a Nara. As for when his forefather who had been a member of the founding clans of Konoha had taken his post, even Shikamaru was clueless about it. The information was so obscure that it was unlikely that anyone would know about it unless they were either the Shodaime Hokage or at least someone who lived within those times. It was possible Senju Hashirama imparted such information to his grandchild, Senju Tsunade, but even then it made no sense that Naruto would know about it.

Shikamaru never knew how close he was to the truth.

"We intend to salvage this world from possible doom. Would you join us?"

Although Naruto worded it as a formal request, the glint in his eyes made it all too clear that Shikamaru no longer had the choice of backing out.

Shikamaru never had such intention.

After all...

"...things are finally becoming more interesting. Count me in," he said without a beat of hesitation.

Naruto chuckled, reminiscing about the too-similar promise he received from the Nara clan head in the days of the establishment of Konohagakure.

"Glad to have you onboard, Nara-san."

Shikamaru was not shocked when the verbal welcome was vocalised by both boys in perfect unison.

"Drop the formalities, would you? Just say my name or give me a nickname if you so prefer," sighed the Nara tiredly.

"If you say so, Shika," Sasuke said, a little too readily.

He would shake the Nara's hand, but he had a feeling that Shikamaru would not even bother to reciprocate the action.

This laziness was only too common in the Nara clan.

Nara Shikamaru was an unexpected new factor.

One that now had to be accounted for in their world-shaking plan.