AN: Sorry this is out later than usual. I actually had it sitting in my computer already finished for two days, but I wanted to hold off posting it until today because it's my birthday! So as a present to both em and you, here ya go! This chapter is un-beta'd, as usual. And thank you to everyone who has left reviews and favorited this so far, they really do inspire me. Enjoy!

On one hand, Naruto was glad he finally got his chakra chains. On the other, WHAT THE FUCK SENSEI!

Before they'd gone to lunch, and after everyone had gotten over the initial shock of what he'd done, they'd started screaming at him. Sasuke looked ready to activate his mangekyō and light him up with amaterasu. Naruto, having pulled in his chains, was also lighting into their insane sensei, screaming about emotional manipulation and the ethics of it. Nobody really shut up until Sakura finally succumbed to her panic attack.

Then it was Kakashi-sensei's turn to freak out.

He tried apologizing, in his own awkward way, but ultimately he ended up offering to buy them all lunch as payment. Naruto managed to make him pay for all their lunches for the next week. He agreed.

Sakura didn't calm down for a good hour, and Naruto understood why. Shooting an uneasy glance as Sasuke, as if to say "don't help me", for he was partly the reason for the episode, he crouched next to the shaking girl and wrapped an arm around her. He couldn't really offer any words, just comfort. If their sensei found the whole thing strange, he didn't say anything.

Once she had calmed down, they'd made their way to Ichiraku's and ate in silence. Nobody made eye contact with each other. Or rather, nobody made eye contact with their sensei. Afterwords, Kakashi-sensei dismissed Sakura and Sasuke for the day, even offering Sakura the day off tomorrow. She declined, whoever uneasily, and said she had to get stronger and couldn't do that without training. He'd accepted that and waved them all off.

All except Naruto.

"Come on," he said, already walking away from the ramen stand.

"Huh?" The genin asked.

Not turning around, Kakashi-sensei replied with, "The sooner we get back to training with your kekkei genkai the better. The feeling is still fresh in your mind, meaning it will be easier to try to access them again. The longer we wait, the harder it will be to remember it."

Naruto hurried to catch up with his senile sensei, short legs pumping hard to keep up. Man he missed being taller. "So we're gonna use them again?" He asked in clarification.

"Well I'm not," Kakashi-sensei said. "But yes, we're going to make sure you know how to access them. Preferably without a trigger…" Naruto had never heard his sensei sound guilty, but damn if that wasn't what he sounded like now. Oh, so this Kakashi-sensei actually had emotions? That was good to know.

Naruto rolled his eyes, but wisely kept his mouth shut.

The trained until nearly sunset. And Naruto being able to freely access his chains after by the end of it, much to his joy. When he dismissed him, Kakashi-sensei even ruffled his hair in praise, something he'd rarely, if ever, done before. It didn't quite make up for threatening Sakura's life earlier, but it gave him a nice warm feeling in chest that lasted until after he got home that night.


Earlier that day, the three time travelers agreed to meet that night at the memorial stone to discuss the elephant in the room.

The chunin exams.

Or more specifically, Orochimaru.

They'd covered the topic in past meetings, but never in any detail. They'd simply agreed that subduing him would be best, as he had knowledge that would be useful for the future. But that was as far as they'd gotten. How they were supposed to do that… well, they had no idea.

Hence the meeting.

There was a tense silence between them as they all sat around the memorial stone. The cicadas in the woods were the only background noise, loudly crying into the night, but even their chirps couldn't diminish the harrowing sense all members of team 7 were feeling.

It was Naruto who broke the silence.

"What do we do about the exams?"

Right to it then.

"We have to stop Orochimaru, no matter what," Sakura stated. "And we can't let him give you the curse mark, Sasuke, or let him kill the Third."

"I don't want that snake anywhere near me," he agreed under his breath. "But we can't kill him either," the Uchiha pointed out. "He has valuable information and skills that we might need in the future. We wouldn't have been able to fight with the previous Hokage on the battlefield without him."

Naruto nodded, agreeing with his logic, however he hated to. "But he can't be allowed to go free." Both of his teammates nodded.

"So then…" Sakura started, voice wavering only slightly. "What do we do?"

It wasn't a question anyone had an easy answer to.

"I think…" Sasuke started. "We apprehend him. Let him rot in a cell until we need him. We know where he'll be and when," he said. "All we have to do is withstand him and wear him down until we can get backup. And when we do, it's over for him."

It was a sound plan, but there was a glaring flaw in it.

"That's great and all, Sasuke," Naruto said. "But how the hell are we going to get backup? We'll be in the forest of death for five days, with no way of communicating to the proctors. How the fuck are we gonna get help?"

To his surprise, Sasuke just rolled his eyes like the melodramatic shit he was. "Idiot, the scroll." He stated it as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"The… what now?"

The Uchiha let out a loud, heavy sigh of frustration. Next to him, Sakura looked as if she'd just figured it out too, but was going to let him explain, for his own sake if nothing else. "The scroll, the one we'll get at the beginning of the exam, remember?" He asked. Ah, yes, Naruto did remember. The objective of that test was to retrieve a heaven and earth scroll and arrive at the tower in the center of the forest. He remembered teaming up with the two faced Kabuto to get them. Ignoring Naruto's inner musings, Sasuke continued. "Iruka-sensei told us that if you opened it before you got to the tower with it's matching counterpart, a proctor would appear and you'd be disqualified from the exam."

"... Oh." That made sense. "So… we open the scroll and get backup? Is that the plan?"

"Yes, idiot, that is the plan," Sasuke sighed.

"That's great and all," Sakura cut in, a frown decorating her face. "But actually fighting Orochimaru is something else entirely." The boys looked at her quizzically. She sighed. "We might have the memories and knowhow of seventeen year olds- sorry Naruto, sixteen," she added, making the blonde glower. "But we only have the strength, stamina, and chakra of twelve year olds. Strong twelve year olds, sure, but still. It won't be enough." She sighed in frustration, looking down at her lap. "I don't have my hundred hands of healing," she said. "Naruto doesn't have his kyūbi mode. Sasuke, you don't have your rinnegan or eternal mangekyo. We're all put at major disadvantages here. And we're going up against a sannin. This isn't something to be taken lightly."

Her words were followed by a heavy silence. In the background, cicadas chirping filled the night.

"We're gonna figure that out," Naruto suddenly piped up, voice firm and self assured. "We have a month. It's the thirtieth today," he pointed out. "The exams don't start until July first. I'm sure we can figure something out. Or at least you can, Sakura," he added, smiling at her. "You always do." She tried to hide her blush by tucking a strand of hair behind an ear.

"Naruto's right," Sasuke agreed, surprising the both of them. "You- we'll figure something out. I know it." His smile was small but genuine.

"Great," Naruto smiled, breaking up the tender moment. "Then let's do it, y'know!"


The next few weeks were filled with training and missions. Their training was centered around whatever specialty they had chosen, with the exception of Sasuke. He insisted there were loads of scrolls in the Uchiha compound he could read rather than "wasting his sensei's time" as he'd put it. Really he just didn't want to pretend he didn't know how to use his sharingan for any longer than he had to. And it had already been long enough.

With Naruto and Sakura however, they worked tirelessly. Sakura was starting to become quiet adapt with senbon and poisons, her groupings and aim were getting better and better. And that combined with her medical knowledge and perfect chakra control made the boys both very nervous of her. It was a good reminder to never get on her bad side ever again. On top of that, she was practicing more ninjutsu. It had never been her specialty, per say, but it would probably help to be more well rounded as a kunoichi.

Meanwhile, Kakashi was having Naruto work hard at mastering his kekkei genkai. Ever since the disaster of the day he'd finally managed to unlock them (again), he'd been working tirelessly with them, trying to understand them better and learn how to use them in different combat scenarios. So far he'd learned he can use them up to eight times a day, and that was without expending chakra on anything else for the rest of the day. So in combat, about four to five times. Six if he really pushed it. As much as Naruto hated the restriction, it was almost humbling to actually feel mild chakra exhaustion. That wasn't to say it didn't still suck, though.

But that was just using his own chakra, he'd never tried it using Kurama's. But then again, he hadn't used Kurama's since being back here. While it was useful and powerful as all hell, the more he used, the more unstable he became. He could use up to three tails of the nine tails cloak and remain in relative control, but that control was flimsy at best. It wasn't a risk he was willing to take. Besides, he didn't have granny Tsunade's necklace anymore. If he did go berserk, what could be done to reign him in?

But aside from all that, he didn't want to risk using Kurama's chakra anyways. Aside from the fact it made him more feral, he didn't want to demand anything of the fox. He'd already dragged him back into his old cage, he didn't want to upset the grumpy biju even more.

So his chakra it was. Until there was an emergency anyways.

"Again!" Kakashi shouted, breaking his train of thought as he threw more kunai in his direction. Naruto reacted and shot chains out at them, knocking them out of the air. They're been running drills like this for the past few hours, working on dodging and deflection using his chains. They'd worked on restraining and attacking foes with them yesterday.

"Two chains this time," his sensei ordered, throwing his kunai again. Naruto focused and shot out only two, striking down as many kunai as he could. Unfortunately he missed some and a blunted blade whacked him on the arm.

"Ouch!" He cried, grasping at the forming bruise. That was the fifth one. "Can we break?" He called out breathlessly.

"Enemies don't break in battle," Kakashi-sensei said sternly. "Why should I?"

Naruto scowled, pulling his chains back into his body. His legs were starting to shake from exhaustion, and sweat beaded his brow.

Luckily it was Sakura who spoke up. "Sensei, we've been at it for hours," she said, sweat beading her own brow. "We have to let our bodies replenish our ATP and chakra. That's the only way a body can strengthen itself."

Their sensei hummed, mildly impressed with her reasoning before shrugging. "Maa, fine," he sighed. "Thirty minutes, then you're back to work." All three genin nodded and went to sit in the shade. Kakashi-sensei walked a bit away to read his book in peace.

"Man," Naruto sighed, slumping up against a tree. "I never thought I could be so tired before." The bark he was leaning on scratched against his bare back, but it was nothing compared to the bruises dotting his body. He would definitely be sore tomorrow.

"Welcome to our world," Sakura breathed, taking a big chug of water. Then, after a glance at Sasuke, added, "Or rather, my world at least." Stupid, overpowered Uchiha's.

"Yeah but you have perfect chakra control," Naruto noted.

"Doesn't mean I have a lot, though," she retorted. "I have the chakra of a twelve year old," she groaned. "Muscle mass of one too."

"Hn, I think you have more muscle than you did before,' Sasuke hummed, glancing over at her. "You looked like a stick back then."

"Shut up," she said lightly, smile pulling at her lips. "I still mastered tree walking before you."

Naruto snorted beside her.

"The great Sasuke Uchiha," she continued in a teasing voice, adding a fake pout for effect. "Beaten by a weak little girl."

Sasuke rolled his eyes, but it was hard to hide the fact that he was smiling.

"I bet I could still kick your ass, now," she said with finality, leaning back against the tree.

"Yeah right," he smirked.

"Fucking watch me," she said, before taking a drink of water. They went on like this for the next half hour, teasing each other and cracking jokes. For that moment, team 7 was really and truly back together.

AN: Go check out my AO3 version for some cool art!