As the feathers fell from the sky and people fell inside the genjutsu, explosions started going off across Konoha as the Ichibi's jinchuriki, Gaara, had transformed into the one-tails and was wreaking havoc.

The Hokage had trapped inside a barrier with the creepy sennin dude from the forest and Naruto really wanted to go help him out, but Kakashi had ordered him to go help Sasuke detain the Ichibi.

So he was. He had summoned the boss toad-like Ero-Sennin taught him but just as he was about to knock the Ichibi out, a man who called himself "Pain" had arrived and blasted Gaara away.

Pain rose into the air not a minute later, before extending his arms and sending a giant blast that leveled Konoha to ruins. As Naruto was buried below buildings, he lost consciousness.


Deep in the forest, a few miles north of Konoha, lay a small campsite. Rain fell, thunder rolled, and the night sky was black as sin, but the brief flashes of lightning revealed a black-haired man wearing a toad mask. He stood in the middle of the camp, surrounded by the corpses of lesser shinobi.

The bodies were dead by his hand, but for all that he was gentle as he pried a large scroll loose and slung it over his back. One last glance over the battleground, and then he sunk into the earth and was gone.


A few minutes later, the man resurfaced, mud and dirt caving around him. He gave a slight glance at his surroundings, for he stood before the giant gates of Konoha.

His right hand formed into a hand-seal as he moved at untraceable speeds, maneuvering through the village and finally arriving at the Hokage's office.

"Gama-san." the elder Hokage greeted as he stapled a paper before turning his full attention to the man who had just arrived.

"Retrieval successful, I encountered no trouble." the man responded as he gently laid the scroll on the table.

"Very good. I'm sure you would be glad to hear that I have finished creating a file for you. From now on, as per your request, you are to go by Inari Senju. Your true name, Naruto, shall only be used when it is only you and me." Hiruzen spoke.

"Now, onto the second topic at hand. Hereby, you are promoted to the position of ANBU Commander, the second-highest position of authority in the village. Previously, I was unable to do this as you had no previous record in the village, but in the last month, you have acquired a career worthy of the title." the Hokage added as he stood up.

"Another piece of news you are sure glad to hear; My student is soon to return. From what you have told us, Orochimaru's defection will take place in only a few weeks. We have yet to compose a plan, and I hope to do that when Jiraiya is here." Hiruzen finished as Naruto gave a grateful nod in response.

"Thank you, I wholly agree that we should come up with a plan when it's the three of us. Anything else, Hiruzen-sama?" Naruto questions as he looks at the Hokage, who seems to ponder about something for a minute before responding. "As you know, my current Jonin commander is Shikaku Nara. He is a very intelligent individual, if maybe a little lazy. Do you think it would be beneficial to include him in our schemes?" he asked with a thoughtful look, which Naruto replicated as he thought of the benefits of doing that.

"It would without a doubt be helpful, as he is the most intelligent person in the village at the current time. His son would come to surpass him, but well, he is a little young at this time. My worry here is that compared to us two, it would be considerably easier to capture him. I could try to create a tattoo version of the Flying Raijin Formula, but that would take a while. For now, he should-" Naruto spoke, before being interrupted by a man rushing into the Hokage's office, carrying a black-haired child in his arms.

"Hokage-sama, we found the boy near the gates. We have identified him to be one Itachi Uchiha, he and his genin team were assigned to protect the Daimyo's son. We only found Uchiha-san, so we concluded that the mission went astray." The man spoke hurriedly, as his words started to jumble together.

Naruto stepped up as he gently took Itachi off the man's hands. "Dismissed," he added in a commanding tone as the man nodded and scrambled off.

Placing Itachi on the ground, Naruto kneeled beside him as his hands glowed green, and he examined the boys' wounds. "Shouldn't be anything too serious, a minor case of chakra-exhaustion, minor burns in his throat, and many minor bruises," he reported as he continued treating Itachi.


Itachi Uchiha stirred as he tried to stand up, as the memories of his latest mission flashed through his mind.

His sensei being killed by a mysterious man, his two teammates soon following. Remembering how he was sucked into some vortex before passing out and now finding himself in… Where even was he?

He opened his eyes to see himself being in a familiar place, namely the Hokage's office. He saw the Hokage behind his desk, talking to another man.

"Ah, look who is awake." the man greeted upon noticing that Itachi had awoken. "My name is Inari. Now, I know that this is a sensitive topic, but if you could give us an idea of what happened to you and your team, it would be greatly appreciated." Inari explained upon noticing Itachi's confusion.

Itachi stared at the man for a second, before obediently nodding. "We were taking care of an assault orchestrated by bandits, but as we were doing that, a man appeared inside the caravan where he killed the Daimyo's heir.

We tried to attack him, but he was invulnerable to everything we did. He had an ability to phase through objects, people, and jutsu. There was nothing we could do against him. The man then hit our sensei with a large fire Jutsu, which nearly killed sensei and outright killed my teammates.

Then, he turned to me and sucked me into a vortex. That's when I passed out. I apologize if this is vague, I am still quite shaken up from the events myself." Itachi explained as a lone tear fell from his eye.

"That's understandable, Itachi-kun. You have the week off, please return to my office next Monday, so you could be assigned a new sensei." Hiruzen said softly as Inari helped Itachi up to his feet.

"Understood, have a nice night Hokage-sama," Itachi said as he walked out the door.


"Itachi's team was supposed to die when he had already made chunin. Almost a year from now." Naruto says grimly.

"Could it be that your presence here is changing the future?" The Hokage pondered as he gazed out the window, looking at the awakening civilians setting up their stores and shinobi, getting ready for training.

"That's a possibility. There has yet to be a drastic change, though. At least not at the moment. Do you think we should continue with our plan to apprehend Orochimaru?" Naruto asked as he took a seat.

"No, from what I have pieced together from your tales, we need to kill him before he goes too far with his experiments. This Yamato person sounds worth recruiting into our ranks too." Hiruzen responds. "I expect you will want to take over the tutorship of Itachi? I'm sure the Uchiha will readily agree to let their heir be trained by the ANBU Commander," he adds with a chuckle.

"Yes, it would be nice to be his sensei. To conclude the conversation we had before the interruption; I think that we should not include the Nara as of now, but once I have created a more permanent Flying Raijin version, then we should tell him." Naruto responds.

"Then we have reached an agreement. You are dismissed, be sure to be here Monday to meet Itachi." Hiruzen said as Naruto exited the office onto the streets.

Breathing in the fresh hair, Naruto walked through the village until at his apartment.

He opened the door to the rather big flat, making his way to the kitchen where he grabbed a cup of instant-ramen, which he quickly scuffed down before hopping on his bed and falling asleep.


Naruto had picked up the habit of sitting on the Hokage's heads as a small child. There were no people glaring at him up there. He could just peacefully sit there and enjoy the view of Konoha, dreaming about the day his face would be carved into the mountain. Unfortunately, that day never came to pass, but its the thought that counts.

Naruto peacefully watched as the sun rose on this nice Monday morning, before standing up and heading to the Hokage's office.

He was able to just warp inside the office using The Flying Raijin or just Body Flicker there, but he loved walking through the village almost as much as relaxing on the heads of the past Hokage.

Watching as parents were sending their kids off to school for the day or as people started opening their restaurants, serving their first guests, was a lovely sight.

He smiled to the people passing by him, almost wanting to jump in glee as they smiled back, something that never happened back when he was a child. And as sad as it was for him, back in the day, he never resented the civilians for this, as he understood why they would treat him like this.

Arriving in front of the giant, round building that is the Hokage's residence, he entered the place, passing by the Chunin behind the desk and entering the office where he found one Itachi Uchiha already waiting for him.

Giving a smile to Hiruzen as to say good morning, he turned to Itachi. "Good morning, Itachi-kun. I hope you have been well." Naruto greeted with a slight grin, Itachi hesitating a little, before giving Naruto a slight nod.

"Well, I hope you are ready to start your training again, I'm sure you are looking forward to participating in the Chunin exams taking place in a few months. Please meet me at training ground seven, I will exchange a word with the Hokage and be right there." Naruto said, keeping up his cheerful tone as Itachi Body Flickered away.

"Good morning, Hiruzen." Naruto greeted, "I assigned clones to start spying on the Uchiha's last night. By the time they intend to strike, we will have all the uninvolved ones rooted out."

Hiruzen nodded sagely as he extended a scroll to Naruto. "Kumogakure has sent a request for peace talks as you said they would, they want to meet in nearly a year though. I cannot wrap my head around the reason why they would try to plan a meeting a year in advance. You have any ideas?" Hiruzen asks.

Naruto examined the scroll as he quirked an eyebrow before handing it back to Hiruzen. "No clue, but the times match up with the ones from the past, so I assume they did this the last time too. Maybe to see if they can still come out the victors of the war?" he questions.

"I considered that too, and until we figure out another theory, this seems like the most reasonable explanation. You are dismissed." Hiruzen agreed as he stored the scroll in a desk drawer before taking out a blank scroll and starting to write something in it.

Naruto nodded as he disappeared.


Naruto reappeared on training ground seven, where he saw Itachi sitting on a log, visibly bored.

"Sorry for taking so long. As we don't know each other too well, and I will be your teacher, for now, I hoped to get to know you a little better. How about you tell me your likes, dislikes, and what you aspire to be or do in the future." Naruto said with a grin.

Itachi nodded in response. "I like my little brother and my friend Shisui. I dislike war and in the future, I want to help protect Konoha as a strong shinobi." he answered.

Naruto let out a surprised hum. "That's very nice, I'm sure you will become someone great. I am Inari Senju, I love ramen, and I dislike arrogant people. I don't have any exact dreams, but peace would be nice." he offered with a soft smile.

"Now, I understand that you have above-average chakra capacity and control, your taijutsu is refined, and you have quite an arsenal of Jutsu. I heard you have an interest in Genjutsu, but unfortunately, I am not very capable of helping with that, but I am sure you will improve in leaps and bounds in taijutsu and ninjutsu, which are both my specialties. If you are interested, I can teach you some ninjutsu. Nevertheless, what we will be first working on are your strength and speed. Both will be vital when fighting against enemies bigger than you."

"I want you to know, I am not trying to replace your previous teacher, if you want to distance yourself to prevent yourself from getting hurt, I can respect that, but as you know, shinobi work is brutal so having someone to actively rely on is always a good thing." Naruto said before hurrying Itachi to his feet and having him do physical exercise, leaving Itachi to ponder over Naruto's words for a little while.