AN: Hey guys, thank you all so much for commenting and leaving kudos and the like. You guys are awesome! Edit: Beta'd as of 2/14/19

After filling out and submitting their reports, Kakashi-sensei had dismissed them for the day with the order that he doesn't see any of the them for the next two days. All three genin were just fine with that and each went their separate ways with the promise to meet at the memorial stone that night. None of them had really had a chance to go over the mission, or rather Sasuke's actions, since the battle on the bridge. But as things grew more tense between them, they quickly realized that needed to be remedied.

But that meant they still had the rest of the day to themselves with nothing to do. Naruto would have loved to run off to the training grounds and try out his chakra chains, since they were now back in the village, but Sakura and Kakashi-sensei had forbidden him from even trying without a higher ranking shinobi or medical ninja present. Naruto thought it was overkill, personally, but he didn't argue. Iruka-sensei had offered to take him out for ramen though, probably so he could make sure he was okay after all that had happened, but that was hours away.

Which left him with a half a day to kill.

"So you're off back home?" He asked, stopping to wait for Sakura as she followed him out of the building.

"Yeah," she said. "My mom and dad will be worried enough as it is that I left the village. When they hear it was an A-rank they're gonna freak."

Naruto winced in sympathy. "Did they freak last time, too?"

"You have no idea," she moaned. Chuckling at her misfortune, Naruto waved her off as she started her walk home.

He should probably get home too, he figured. His poor plants needed to be watered, and he didn't trust that Konohamaru had kept up with the schedule he'd set for him before he left. It was weird though seeing him as an eight year old again. He was used to seeing him and his crew wearing leaf headbands instead of goggles, like they now were (used to? Argh, this time travel business made no sense!).

Turning the key to his apartment, he was pleased to find all his plants alive and well as well as all the food in his fridge thrown out. He remembered he'd forgotten to do that the last time and came home to extremely sour milk and moldy cheese.

"Good job, Konohamaru," he smiled.

Setting his bag down, he told himself he'd unpack it later and decided to take a shower, washing away all the grime of the road. Once he was clean and dressed, he found himself sitting in a very empty, very boring apartment.

"Well this sucks," he muttered, sitting on his bed. What would he have normally done after a mission back when he was actually twelve? Probably have gone to Ichiraku's. It wasn't a bad idea, he thought, but that still left a lot of time before team 7's meeting. And training was out of the question.

Suddenly, Naruto was struck by just how lonely he had been at this age. Yes he'd been apart of a team, but they hadn't been great friends then. He hadn't yet truly made friends with the members of team 8 or team 10 yet. Hell, he hadn't even met team 9. That would have to wait until the chūnin exams.

Sighing, he flopped onto his back and stared at the ceiling. The paint was just as chipped and as cracked as he remembered. How many nights had he stared up at it wallowing in self pity and loneliness? Those years before he had become a ninja, before he'd met all his friends, all his precious people.

"This is stupid," he muttered. "I'm seventeen, goddamnit, not a whiny kid."

Pushing himself back up, he picked himself off the bed and made his way towards the door, shoving his sandals on. So he was lonely, so what. He'd made do before, he'd make do now. He was Naruto Uzumaki, goddamnit! Future Hokage and savior of Konoha. If he couldn't find something to do, then all hope was lost.

It was time to face the world!


When he'd told himself he was going to face the world, he didn't quite imagine that meant he'd end up in the shopping district. Nor did he imagine he'd be facing one of the most frustrating decisions of all time:

Which outfit to buy.

Since losing his jacket, he'd quickly found he wasn't fond of not wearing one. T-shirts were fine and all, but he'd always worn an orange jacket to complete his jumpsuit. It was disheartening to suddenly find himself without it. So he'd made up his mind and settled on buying himself a new one. It wouldn't be like the one Pervy Sage bought him, as that was still too big for him, but it wouldn't be an exact replica of his old one either, as he was pretty sure no one in Konoha made it anymore.

So that brought him to his current predicament: what jacket to buy.

Before him were two options. Both were orange, thank God, but he still wasn't sure which one to choose.

This would have been so much easier if Sakura or Ino were with him. They were much more knowledgeable about fashion than he was.

Finally, he decided on one of the two choices and pulled it down off the rack. It was orange with a dark blue color that was buttoned down at the top, with matching blue cuffs on the sleeve. He'd have to pay extra to get the Uzumaki spiral on the back and on the sleeve, but he'd just completed an A-rank mission, so he had the money.

"That'll be ¥5000, kid," the shopkeeper said. . Naruto obligingly handed over the ryo, happy to take the jacket in return. After stuffing Gama-chan back in his pocket, he made his way out of the shop.

The whole adventure had taken up a good portion of the afternoon, and now the village was lit up orange with the setting sun. He should probably start heading over to Ichiraku's by now. By the time he arrived, Iruka-sensei had already started on his first bowl.

"Hey, couldn't even wait for me!" he cried, jumping up onto a stool. Iruka-sensei stopped slurping up the noodles and gave him a bashful smile.

"Sorry, Naruto," the chūnin apologized. "I got hungry."

Naruto rolled his eyes good-naturedly at the response. "Yeah, yeah, that's what they all say."

Ignoring his jab, Iruka set his chopsticks and down and turned to show he was now focused solely on the genin. "So how did your mission go?" He asked, getting straight to the point.

"You were in the missions office," Naruto frowned. "You already heard."

Iruka rolled his eyes in a way that said "lord give me strength". "I meant how do you feel it went?" he elaborated. "An A-rank when you're only a genin isn't something to scoff at. Surely it was pretty crazy."

Naruto shrugged, pulling out a pair of chopsticks as Teuchi set his bowl on ramen down in front of him. "It was," he started, trying to think of what to say. Hard? Well, not truthfully. He was a Kage level ninja, a meager A-rank was nothing. Scary? Not really. He'd already known what was going to happen, so facing off against a rogue ninja wasn't exactly a nerve wracking ordeal. "Intense," he finally settled on. "It was intense, y'know."

Iruka-sensei made a sound of agreement. "And you drained your chakra reserves," the chūnin noted. "That really takes a feat for you."

"What can I say, I'm just that awesome," he smiled in response, rubbing the back of his neck. The two lapsed into a comfortable silence after that, Naruto happily slurping up his ramen while Iruka-sensei did the same, except at a more sedate pace. It wasn't until Naruto was slurping up the miso soup that Iruka-sensei spoke up again.

"You must be really excited about those chakra chains, huh?"

Naruto paused and set down his bowl, whipping at his mouth. "Huh? Oh yeah, it's awesome, y'know! I got my own kekkei genkai. Now Sasuke's not the only special one around here!"

Iruka-sensei laughed, eyes crinkling up in response. "Yeah, I guess that is true."

"Yeah and I wanna learn about 'em too, y'know. So I can use 'em better," Naruto continued excitedly. "But Kakashi-sensei doesn't really know much about 'em, so I want to ask Old Man Hokage but I don't think he knows much either." If he'd even tell him anything. The man seemed dead set against revealing anything about Naruto's parents, and since chakra chains were a staple of Kushina Uzumaki, the likelihood of him spilling anything about them was next to none. It really was a bummer, he thought.

"Well, I can't help you there," Iruka-sensei said. "But the library might have some stuff on them."

"That's what Sakura said," Naruto agreed. "But we're on forced leave for the next two days, so I might not get to see her."

"Just 'cause you're on leave doesn't mean you can't see each other," Iruka-sensei chuckled. "Unless you're already that sick of being around one another for a month straight."

"Nah, I don't think that'll ever be the case," he assured his old sensei. "Actually, we have a team meeting after dinner, so I gotta finish up fast," he added. Iruka-sensei just smiled warmly in response.

"Then you better eat fast, 'cause you still have another bowl to go through."

Naruto merely laughed before digging in.


Just as they'd agreed, the genin of team 7 met at the memorial stone after sunset. Kakashi-sensei was long gone by now, as they knew he would have come straight here after their debriefing earlier. Silently, they sat in their little semi-circle facing each other before starting off the meeting.

But instead of starting, they just sat in frigid silence. It was quite uncomfortable.

It seemed that Sakura was the one who was willing to step up, because she took a breath and looked over to the Uchiha, ready to say what had been on all of their minds for the past week and a half.

"Sasuke," Sakura started off, giving the Uchiha a steady look. "You almost killed Haku." The boy in question just returned her stare with his own, cold one. Undeterred by the action, Sakura continued. "Why?"

"Because," he said in a low tone. "He died in the original timeline. Keeping things the same is the smartest course of action, because then we can more accurately predict what's to come."

Naruto felt his fists clench where he rested them over his thighs. He hated to admit it, but his argument was sound. Sound, but frustrating.

"Yeah, but what happens when we go up against Orochimaru, or Itachi? What then?"

"We're not going to go up against Itachi," he ground out, glaring at the blonde. "I'm going to save him."

"Even so," Sakura pressed, cutting in. "What happens when you change that? What is the Akatsuki going to do?" Sasuke remained stubbornly quite. "You're argument makes sense, but only to a point," she continued. "We already agreed we wouldn't let Orochimaru give you the cursed seal. That alone changes things a lot. And you said yourself on the battlefield that you would become Hokage," she added, much to Naruto's chagrin. "Well, being Hokage means you protect people, not kill them."

"I'll become Hokage to reform this village," he spat back. "It's corrupt and broken. It's the reason my family is dead."

"No, Danzo's the reason you're family's dead," Naruto cut in harshly. "Him and his twisted mindset of how a village should be run. He's who you should be blaming, not Konoha."

"So let me kill him already," Sasuke shot back. "Ever since we got back I knew I had to do it. But we've been running around playing ninja instead. He deserves to die and you know it. So when do I get to kill him?"

"We will kill him," Sakura interjected, voice and expression sympathetic instead of hard. "I know you're angry, Sasuke," she continued, trying to cool the situation down. "And you have every right to be. But please think about this logically: Danzo is surrounded by Root members nearly 24/7. And if he wasn't, we wouldn't know about it because we're only genin, and he's a council member. Getting him alone and killing him would be one of the hardest S-rank missions we've ever gone on, unofficial or not. Do you understand?"

Naruto watched in silence as Sasuke took in her words. He seemed to be contemplating what she'd said, weighing the pros and cons of her facts. Finally, he appeared to have come to a verdict and looked up to meet her green eyes with his own black ones.

"Fine," he said, letting Naruto sigh in relief. "But I'm still going to kill him eventually."

"We're going to kill him," Sakura corrected. "You're not in this alone."

"Yeah, y'know," Naruto added loudly. "And we're gonna save Itachi, too, obviously."

A small smile, almost impossible to see, appeared on Sasuke's face at his friends proclamation. If it wasn't so dark, Naruto might have even seen the Uchiha's face turning a faint pink. For a moment, the old Sasuke was back. The one that would have risked his life for his teammates because he believed it was the right thing to do, not the means to an end. The one who'd somehow managed to find a family in team 7. Just for a moment, that Sasuke was sitting with them on the training grounds by the memorial stone.

"Thanks," he managed to say, and meant it.

And who knew, they might be seeing that Sasuke a lot more soon enough.

AN: 5000 ryo (assuming it works the same as yen) is about $40 usd. So it's a reasonably priced jacket he bought.

Check out my AO3version for this chapters fanart!