Thank you so much for the follows and favs! Honestly, I wasn't expecting this to get any attention, I made it on a whim from boredom. It's nice to know people are enjoying what I write, lol. I usually like to only write for myself and occasionally my best friend.

Anyways, here's the next chapter. Enjoy!

Chapter 2

Naruto wiped the dirt off his knees and quietly padded throught the woods. Getting past the guards was easy. Alarmingly easy. Maybe he could tell Kakashi to—

Ah, that was right. Kakashi wasn't Hokage... here. The Sandaime was alive and still ruled over the village.

That was another thing. So many people that had died were actually alive—and when Naruto went back home they'd be dead.

The thought made Naruto halt in his steps. They'd all be dead again. Maybe he could save them, and then go back home? No, what was he even thinking? It probably didn't even work that way.

Naruto kept walking, careful to avoid the sharp ends of stray branches. He wasn't going to ruin his new pair of clothes already, not after how annoying it had been to grab the first pair, with those pesky villagers ready to beat him to the ground should he do any wrong move.

The blonde teen rolled his eyes at the thought of them, picking off a leaf on his black pants. His whole outfit was dark, to obviously not draw attention to himself. Black shirt, black pants that reached his ankles, and black sandals. Naruto also sported black gloves, the kind that left your fingers exposed. He left his hitai-ate at home.

Soon, he came to a familliar clearing, the one he had been at yesterday... or the future?

Quickly, Naruto scouted the whole area and beyond, determined to find the mysterious rock. Moonlight carefully pooled in the spot, making Naruto's search easier.

Still, even with the extra help, there had been no luck and Naruto had begun to panic. Just a teeny, tiny bit...

Oh, who was he kidding? Naruto was panicking. Frantically, he searched faster, occasionally tripping over his own feet time to time.

Defeated, Naruto glumly walked over to tree and leaned against it, sliding down until he reached the ground.

Still panicky, Naruto tried to look at the bright side of things. His mind trailed over to his previous thought; he could save people. Things could unfold differently.

Naruto's mouth curled up in the slightest smile. But in order to do that, there were issues that needed to be taken care of. Major issues.

Orochimaru was the first thing that immediately needed to be taken care of. Naruto would have to kill the snake, or at least subdue him for as long as possible. He had, after all, taken Sasuke from him.

Ah, that was right. His teammates were also... different, to say the least. Sasuke was probably back to being a broody bastard and Sakura was most likely still obsessed with Sasuke. Kakashi also favored Sasuke over Naruto and Sakura, and also hadn't developed a bond with them like he did before.

Naruto would think about them later. Another problem was Danzo, who was arguably worse than the snake Sannin.

Naruto trailed off to another thought—Itachi. The whole reason Sasuke left with Orochimaru. For power, and for his brother.

Of course so many problems led up to Sasuke. But those problems had only occured so far in Naruto's original... timeline? Naruto could still stop them from happening.

There were a couple ways to go about preventing Sasuke from going rogue. One was to attempt to be friends with him and make him have some sort of attachment to the village. But judging by the date Naruto's memory, the Wave mission wasn't far off. The chunin exams were not long after that, and that was where everything went wrong. Not nearly enough time to break through to the Uchiha, considering his current mental state. Still that idea wasn't off the table yet.

Another idea was to help Sasuke grow stronger, which probably wouldn't be easy since he most likely wouldn't be keen to Naruto's help. Still, if Sasuke wanted power, then Naruto could help him get it in a different way. But what if that only made his drive for immense power worse? What if he wanted to leave the village even more?

Besides, Orochimaru had been watching Sasuke. Seeing him even stronger would only make the creepy snake want to get his hands on Sasuke even more.

The Akatsuki also had gotten a hold of Sasuke as well... another thing to stop. Or try to, anyways. Maybe this time Naruto could try and save Obito, too? Perhaps the rest of the members as well, though they were certainly strange. Naruto also didn't particularly care about them too much either.

Still, that was a thought.

Naruto stood up and carefully made his way back home. Getting out of the village was easy, he only had to leave at the right moment and mask his chakra, and the same could be said for getting back in.

For now, Naruto thought as he climbed through the window to his apartment, he'll try to act normal. But perhaps just the tiniest bit less stupid and a little more skilled. He didn't need everyone too shocked when he had to bust out the big guns. Tomorrow, he'd attempt to make friends with Sasuke and Sakura. The key word was attempt. But if there was anyone who could weasel their way into almost anyone's heart, it was Naruto.

But it also wasn't like Naruto to be this... planned out. Still, he was determined not to mess anything up. This was a one in a lifetime chance, and he would put it to good use.

The next day had came fast, and Naruto frowned as he looked into his kitchen cabinet. The only thing that could be seen was cup ramen. Not that he was complaining, but Sakura and Kakashi had drilled it into his head that he needed to eat at least something a little healthy. Or healthier, anyways.

Naruto closed the cabinet and instead went to the fridge. A fowl smell slapped him in the face and Naruto immediately scrunched up his nose. He reached for the milk carton, determined not to throw up before he could toss it. The milk had to be way past its expiration date to smell like that. Was his past self really that dumb? Naruto snorted to himself.

Maybe he'd skip breakfast for right now and actually buy food later.

Naruto hummed at the thought and walked to the bathroom to check his appearance one last time. He'd slipped on his orange jumpsuit again and carefully tied his hitai-ate in his past fashion, because again, the idea was not to draw attention for as long as possible.

Naruto quickly left his apartment and ran along the rooftops of nearby buildings. In truth, Naruto had no idea where he was supposed to be headed. He'd only decided that the rest of Team 7 was probably meeting at Training Ground Five, like they used to.

Like they used to.

He skidded to a halt in recognition of the lush green field and skipped over to two familliar heads, one pink, and one black. Kakashi, of course, was not there yet.

Naruto stifled a laugh. It was weird seeing his teammates so tiny again. They were like little ants, and Naruto felt like he could squish. Then he needed to remind himself that he was shrunk down was not his previous height and that he was, in fact, shorter than the other two. The urge to laugh immediately disappeared.

Sasuke wasn't stupid. Far from it, of course.

He didn't pay too much attention to his pathetic excuses of teammates. A fangirl and the dead last; what else was there to say about them? As far as Sasuke was concerned, his only goal was to reach chunin level so he could run away from them as far as possible. Then kill Itachi. A nice plan. A perfectly well-thought-out plan and nothing would go wrong.

Still, Sasuke did notice Naruto's strange behavior. The almost hurt look when Sasuke would ignore him. The numerous attempts at asking Sakura out being stopped. The complaining didn't go away, though. Neither did his clumsiness. Did he always trip that much?

Probably, right?

But today was more bizarre than how Naruto had been acting the past week.

Kakashi had told them they were going to be tree walking. The blonde teen had given a questionable look but nodded. Maybe Sasuke had imagined it, but he could have sworn he muttered, "That soon?"

Before Kakashi could demonstrate, Naruto was one step ahead of him: literally. Naruto walked up the tree with ease. Sasuke had narrowed his eyes. If he of all people could do it so easily, than Sasuke definitely could.

Kakashi also was a bit surprised, asking Naruto when and how he learned that. Naruto had only given him a grin and said he trained. The jounin still seemed skeptical but nodded in approval, instructing only Sakura and Sasuke to practice instead.

Sakura had mastered it in a few tries, leaving only Sasuke to learn tree-walking.

The ravenette let out a small groan of frustration as he landed on the floor for the millionth time. The rest of his team had left some time ago. Sasuke had not, angry that the blondie and pinkie had gotten this down so easily.

He saw a yellow dot in the corner of his eye and snapped his head toward it. He suppressed the urge to roll his eyes. What did the dobe want now?

"You should try taking running head start. And don't think too much when you're actually walking up the tree." Naruto spoke hesitantly, as if talking to a skittish animal.

Sasuke scoffed. As if he'd take Naruto's advice. He was an Uchiha; he didn't need help from people like his teammate.

He ignored the blonde and stood uo, brushing the dirt off his clothes. Naruto shifted his stance again before speaking up again.

"I'm just trying to—"

"Help?" Sasuke finished his sentence for him, not bothering to look at him. "I don't need it."

"Oh. Well... do you wanna—"

"No."

"Huh?"

"No, I'm not getting ramen with you. Go away, dobe."

Naruto let put a pout, and Sasuke glared daggers at him. "Fine, teme, be like that. But at least take this."

He threw Sasuke a water bottle. Sasuke stared at it, dumbfounded, before muttering, "...Thanks. Now go away."

Naruto beamed, if only for a moment, before putting up a sad front and obliging. He walked away sluggishly, but Sasuke caught how Naruto skipped with happiness when he thought Sasuke wasn't watching. Sasuke only shook his head, and opened the bottle to drink the much-needed liquid.

When he was sure Naruto was gone, he decided to do as Naruto said. Not that he'd tell him or Kami forbid actually listen to him in front of him.

He took a few steps back and ran at the tree in front of him, attempting to clear his head of any less thoughts. Naruto was (sadly) right—that did help, and Sasuke's new mark on the tree from a kunai was much higher than the last.

Maybe Sasuke'd thank him tomorrow?

Nah, that was being too nice. He also already interacted with him today too much than was necessary—and he'd already said thanks today.

Besides, he wasn't gonna go and make Naruto's head too big and make him think Sasuke needed him.

'Cause ew.

I know I said I wanted to make the chapters longer... but it's harder than it looks, ok!? Plus, I just really wanted to publish another chapter.

I think they'll be more interaction in the coming chapters which I dread because I feel like I suck at characterization but I try, so A for effort? I also think I might've made Sasuke slightly nicer than how he was at this point in Naruto, but if this story is gonna be canon-divergent, might as well change the characters a tiny bit too.

(I also hated how Sasuke was a complete and utter asshole in the beginning, so shhhh.)

Also... ok, so pairings! I wasn't originally going to add any, but if there's any requests for certain relationships then I'll try if I'm up for it. Personally, I don't think I'm the best at romancey stuff but if I don't try then I'll guess I'll never get better? I also have to practice having shorter author's notes.. whoops.

I also apologize for any grammar mistakes and typos. I've read this over a thousand times, but some things might've slipped my mind. And I'm just sick of reading my writing over and over... :'D

Anyways, next update will hopefully be in a couple days. Toodles!