It had been weeks since they had arrived, weeks that had been spent tirelessly completing d-rank missions that felt like a waste of time. However, they were nonetheless crucial in maintaining their cover. Drained and exhausted, the two had used every last minute to iron out the finer details, all too aware how every decision could change everything that they knew. The hardest decision to swallow had been to abandon the mission to wave. While able to acknowledge its part in bringing himself and Sasuke closer, the same had awakened the Uchiha's sharingan, something that the two were hoping to delay. As for saving Zabuza and Haku, whilst the thought was appealing, he had come to the realisation that much like himself the duo had been firm in their beliefs, unlikely to ally themselves to another village.

Delaying Sasuke's sharingan seemed like an obvious choice, the dojutsu slowly drove its users insane with its enticement for power and penchant for chasing suffering. With Itachi having toyed with his brother's mind, Orochimaru's offer had struck Sasuke at his most vulnerable and pulled him in with all the cunningness of a true snake. As such Naruto settled on attempting to prompt Kakashi in actually stepping up and training their abysmal team so that they would actually be ready for the chunin exams. Even then, he had to proceed with a fair degree of caution, younger Naruto was hyper and excitable, certainly not the sharpest kunai in anyone's weapon pouch so advancing too quickly was bound to be suspicious. A small darker part of his mind whispered to him that this could all be worth nothing, who was to say that they could really toy with the world and play God?

"Team 7 reporting, Tora has been found and returned." Kakashi's low deep voice pulled him out of his musings, raising his eyes to see the Hokage nod his head at the jounin in front of him. He tracked Hiruzen's tired eyes and watched as they landed on himself, an enquiring look settling in them. Ah, he had not bothered him today, well, that would have to change.

"OLD MAN, get our sensei to move his lazy ass and train us! We'll never advance in rank at this rate! How will I ever be hokage?" Iruka, who had been handing out missions alongside the hokage, looked at the boy, scandalised that he would talk to their village leader in such a way.

"Don't be foolish Naruto! You cannot talk to our Hokage in such a way, your sensei will teach you as he pleases!" But the two seniors only chuckled, acknowledging his request, albeit curious at the way he had phrased his sentence, less demanding and petulant and more edged towards reasoning. However,It was information that was filed away for later, no doubt Naruto would be kept an eye on, there was no telling whether or not the seal was serving its purpose, more worrying after the events regarding Mizuki and potential educational sabotage. Minato may have been a seal master but he had been dead a long 12 years and Jiraiya had remained almost wholly absent, none could truly affirm the status of the seal.

As the team was dismissed and no business left, Naruto had run out the Hokage tower in joy and went seeking for his favourite Nara. Stopping home, he'd ditched his bright orange tracksuit set and opted for some more comfortable loungewear, reasoning that he was technically off duty and thus also allowed his now long hair to flow down his back. Older Naruto had also allowed a fondness for alcohol to sneak up on him- but not dependency, dependency got you killed. So, shucking off his usual attire would hopefully or well theoretically let him blend in ever so slightly more and keep people from noticing that a 'teen' was drinking. The rumour mill really did spare no one. With his search fruitful, he found Shikamaru in an empty field, gaze set on the clouds covering a blue sky. Tugging impatiently, he dragged him towards the nearest bar, causing the other to roll his eyes.

Fortunately, with it still being the early afternoon the room was fairly empty, with only a few jonin littered here and there. Slowly, they made their way towards the corner of the room, shielded from view as far as a bar frequented by Konoha's paranoid shinobi would allow. As they sat, a peaceful silence descended upon them as they sipped on their drinks lost in their talks. Unable to talk in the open about their plans and actions that they would have to take, they basked in the warmth of each other's presence, hands intertwined.

"How was it with your team?" He inquired seeing the bags under the others eyes. A tired sigh left the brown eyed boy as he recalled the events over the past few weeks, spending time with people that had previously been dea- no they were in public- people that he had not been around in years was tiring. Naruto could feel a lump forming in his throat as he tried to force his tears away, gulping down the wine hoping that even for a few mere seconds, it would wash away his worries, and burn the memories infecting his mind like it did to his throat.

'無限月読 ' Infinite Tsukiyomi, A dream to enslave, how could one enslave the nation when he had killed them all? Who would be left to power such a jutsu when Madara's foolish bloodlust had taken over? An aching pain settled in his chest, he failed Pain, hatred had only bred more hatred. As long as humans had roamed the earth the cycle would continue, a seed had been planted and its roots had spread.

The irony of the situation had not been lost on him, as much as he tried to preach about peace and forgiveness, it seemed as Konoha had bred the majority of the problems they would face. From Danzo's unlawful schemes behind his own leaders' back and the isolation then massacre of a deadly clan, his beloved village had been no better than those whose name they spat upon, villainizing the actions they too carried out, ruling the village one lie at a time. His mood changed minute to minute, every happy emotion was killed off when a feeling of self loathing settled in. How could he sit here completely fine, unable to do nothing? He should be out there finding ways to help them train, but instead was confined due to the rules of logic, unable to move as it threatened the peace and the timeline.

One step out of line would cause ripples throughout the shinobi world, leaving them with an unpredictable future. The damned butterfly effect. Every decision came with more and more dangers, and increased potential risks. Every discussion led to any small piece of hope being crushed, but they were hopeless, things had to change or the future would repeat itself.

Something neither of them wanted to happen.

Sunday evenings had found them frequenting training ground 12, every morning and for a few spare hours in the evenings before getting home. Leaving home had been difficult for Shikamaru. While Naruto had his own apartment to leave and enter as he pleased, the former's father had immediately been suspicious as to where his son had been going so early in the morning, knowing full well that his team had not started training till 8 or why he was suddenly coming home much later at 11. Sooner or later the commander would piece together a theory, what mattered was how quickly he would come to the right conclusion. With plans to have Naruto visit his home so that they could plan together, it was likely that it would be much sooner rather than later.

Shaking those thoughts away, the two began their training by unsheathing their weapons, focusing their attention solely on the training dummies in front of them. Retaining their memories aided in being able to relearn kenjutsu, but knowing theory didn't make the physical aspects any easier. The bodies they now occupied were smaller and weaker, leaving them constantly adjusting their stances in order to accommodate for their shorter height and weaker strength. Practice had thus been long and strenuous, but sparring showed the fruits of their labour as they visibly improved. But while training had been a success Shikamaru had found himself facing an old problem.

"If theres anyone who can tell the difference between a sealing scroll and a kunai is my clan they're not stupid."

The village may have hated what Naruto had stood for, a living reminder of what they had lost, but the Nara's were too clever to let themselves be blinded the same way. Affection bloomed in Naruto's chest, his lovers words of kindness kindled a fire within him that burnt brightly at the reminder that he wasn't alone. Spotting the now stern look on his partners face, he knew that arguing would amount to very little, logically he knew the truth in the words but a lifetime of mistreatment would never allow him to trust so easily. Resigned, he forced himself to surrender to the impending interrogation he'd have to face from the Nara clan head.

The walk to the compound had been anxiety filled and now stood at the doorstep, Shikamaru joined the blonde in his anxiety. Trepidation filled them both as they waited for the doors to open, for his mother or father to greet him. Thinking back on his abrupt decision, he realised his parents probably weren't aware that he was friends with Naruto.

Oh well, they would now.

"Shika-chan? Who's your friend?"

"His names Naruto, since it's late I was wondering if he could stay over?"

"Maa of course, come inside."

Since when had his son been close to Minato's child?

Shikaku would have prodded more, but saw the two of them fumbling in the cold and quickly ushered them into the house, unable to ignore the undisguised fear in the blue eyed boy's eyes. But fear of what? The genin, Kakashi's student he remembered, was known to be loud and boisterous, rarely showing that he was. Involuntarily, his stomach lurched, the Yondaime Hokage's son was afraid of him even when barely knowing him because of the civilians' less than desirable behaviour. He cursed their ignorance of the weight of Naruto's burden as he kept his eyes on the two teens.

What was odd was the way they had come in. His son had flanked Naruto, while to others it may have seemed far-fetched, friends normally stood side by side, casual in their interactions. But this was purposeful, their bodies showed that they were on guard. His son was guarding him. Shikaku narrowed his eyes but said nothing when they took their shoes off and neatly arranged them in the shoe box. Looking intently, he found himself startled as he looked straight into the boy's eyes, orbs full of weariness and pain peered back at him. What could have happened to make him have those eyes? As he stood pondering, the boys rushed past eager to start planning knowing that sleep was a luxury they currently could not afford.

"The mission to wave hasn't happened in this timeline, what if Kakashi decides that we're not ready this time round?"

"No, Asuma and Kurenai will nominate meaning he wouldn't want his team to be seen as weak, his pride won't let him do so, also if Sasuke doesn't encounter Orochimaru in some way the changes will be too drastic for us to know a counter."

"But that means there'll always be a likely chance that he'll defect. We can't change things even if we wanted to."

Naruto leaned back against the wall, the day had been draining and with all of this hitting him full force at once, the reality of things felt surreal. Drained of energy, the mental strain of having to simply cope taking its toll on his body, he let his body succumb to a fitful night of sleep.

Hours later when Shikaku went up to check on the boys he found them sound asleep, curled up against each other in a position that suggested that if there was danger they would be able to fight immediately. Again, it was so odd, barely genin yet showing behaviour that cropped up as instinct after years of service. He filed this information away for later and let a rueful smile spread across his face, it was nice knowing that the two were friends, cementing bonds amongst others that they had not yet worked with. Thousands of theories filled his head, but he would wait until evidence presented itself and would hand pick one that would give him the answer.

The morning after 9.00am

"Got your slip for the exams then?"

Truthfully neither had expected it to have come so quickly, again perhaps a reminder that they had been forced to adapt and progress far sooner than they were able to.

" Yeah! Kakashi pretty much handed ours the same as last time, no hinting at it being a whole team event."

Of course he wouldn't, even now years later he still wondered if it had been a test to see if they were ready. Kakashi's ideology had been built on teamwork, after Rin's death he'd taken a fractured team to mean a dead one. Individually, had he been the same genin he had been at 12, with no skills to speak of and a lack of aptitude to being a shinobi, from a teacher's perspective he would have wanted his students to think carefully about their actions. Sakura was still wrapped up in her delusions of being saved by Sasuke, the shining 'prince charming' image still clung to her, her sole purpose for being a shinobi. While textbook smart, she still lacked the strength to defend both herself and the village she pledged to protect. Sasuke however was a different case, one that he knew would never be resolved. Ignorant to the sacrifice that his brother had made for him, his ambition drove him to insanity. A lust for power that negated any efforts to keep him loyal to the village that could offer him nothing.

For that he had silently resented Itachi. He understood deep down why the older Uchiha had done it, why he'd wanted it to be Sasuke to kill him but even after his death the younger had refused to see reason, mercilessly tearing through his former comrades (had he ever considered them as such?) until he himself had died at the hands of Madara, yet another pawn in the grand scheme of things.

"Same with Asuma, it seems as if they're playing it off as a suggestion, which could probably be because we're still rookies and as prideful as they are, still understand the risks."

Another obstacle in their way was how to go about the exams, Naruto had no intentions of winning by fluke against Kiba once more and if paired against Neji, he'd have rather be able to give the boy a fair fight then get the stick out of his ass. The written portion would pass by the same as it had originally, knowing the true intent behind the last question there was no need for him to exhaust himself trying to answer the questions and possibly reveal too much.

"Neither Ino or Choji expect me to want to take the exams and it's too troublesome to try change that so Ino will be trying to convince us for the next few days to enter"

He laughed at that, trust him to slack off just to keep up appearances. Then again he didn't really have a choice so fair enough.

"My team doesn't really talk too much outside of missions and training so it's more of being sure that its an individual thing and we can go if we want"

"So you got lucky?"

"Basically."

Such was the fragility of team 7's barely there bonds, he admired Kakashi but the man could have done better at teaching them. When coming back from his training with Jiraiya, his input in developing the RasenShuriken had been valuable and his genius mind when it came to ninjutsu peeked through every word that left the jonins mouth. But with a genin team as unbalanced as they were, much was left to making them a workable unit, in simple terms he had his work cut out for him.

Strolling out of the training grounds, silently they took to the roof tops. Both doubted that the civilians would be particularly welcoming towards the demon vessel and whilst not outwardly aggressive nothing would stop them from glaring and taunting under their breaths just loud enough for only each other to hear.

Eventually, the Nara clan compound came close into view, which while impractical as a base with all the smarter than normal clan members and eyes that followed every move as discreetly as one could, it was inevitably also the safest place for them to speak freely.

With Shikaku tending to his duties as the head of jonin and his own clan, the house stayed empty. It seemed that the matriarch had also wandered from her home with something to do. The two could hardly sit idle as they waited, further into the clan grounds the Nara estate had a forest that had restricted access, allowing for their more hidden abilities to be developed away from prying eyes.

Through travelling to the past, their physical and spiritual balance had been greatly thrown off, leaving chakra control shot to hell. Thus began their endless sessions of tree and water walking in hopes of reaching some sort of stability. Whilst Shikamaru didn't have nearly the same amount of chakra that Naruto did, his younger body still struggled with the burden of his adult reserves so adapting while necessary was exhausting.

Unprepared as they were, it seemed that problems kept on being attracted to them. They had no elemental ninjutsu in their repertoire, not one, the only genin to have been the Uchiha with his fire style taught by his father. Which again frustrated the Nara endlessly, people died in these exams, just what the hell had their teachers been thinking? Which only left himself to his clans jutsu, the basic shadow binding, the basic academy three and taijutsu. Naruto himself would have the obvious choice of weapons and kage bunshin but little else. Hardly was it possible for him to suddenly excel with hand to hand combat at Lee's level when his style had previously lacked structure and any thought behind his movements.

There was also the fact that they knew how to defend themselves against many of the styles, ingrained into their memory it was possible that they'd move entirely on instinct which could prove to be a problem if they hit didn't land due to them overestimating their height or strength.

All in all it was a drag and something that neither wanted to deal with, but with the threat of the invasion looming over their head there was nothing that either could do but train.

And so they did.