Hello! In case you've forgotten after all this time, my name is quil12 and this is a story I started writing what seems like forever ago about getting reborn into the Naruto universe. I was feeling really nostalgic lately and I wrote a new chapter in one of my most popular fics called "Pokemon Ninja". In doing that, I remembered that a few years ago, I had written most of the next chapter in this series and had just never quite finished it. Because it was already mostly completed, I decided that I would finish it and publish it. I'm not sure if I'm going to continue writing on this story - It was definitely my favorite story that I wrote from my era of writing fics, so who knows, I may keep writing it. But for now, here's the next chapter in this story. I hope you enjoy!

It was a few days after I had achieved my first half transformation with my kekkai genkai. I had been practicing every day, but so far, I had yet to achieve anything other than a form with sharp nails and teeth and silver fur sprouting up all over my human body.

I had given up for the day and had decided to just wander around town for a little while. My mom was a little bit apprehensive about me going out on my own, but she wanted to encourage me to make new friends, so she allowed it as long as I was home before dinner.

I decided that today I was going to try and either find Sasuke again or meet someone else from the Rookie 9 to strike up a friendship with. As I was walking through the streets of the Leaf Village, my attention was drawn to people yelling a little ways down the road. Walking with purpose, I made my way to the yelling.

"...STAY OUT YOU FREAK!"

I felt like I wanted to cry as I looked at the scene in front of me. Naruto Uzumaki was laying on the ground, looking as if he had been pushed by the shopkeeper in front of him. Tears were starting to fall down his cheeks. He didn't say anything as he slowly got up and started running down the street.

"Good riddance," the shopkeeper grumbled as he turned and went back into his shop. I glared at him but he couldn't see me.

At this moment, I felt sad and upset, but also strangely happy. People were treating Naruto badly for something that he had no control over, but hey, I could help him and become his friend. I took off down the street after him, ignoring the looks that people were giving me.

After a few minutes, I finally found him. He was sitting in an alleyway with his knees pulled up to his chest. I could hear a broken sob coming from the small boy. I slowly walked over to him and gently placed my hand on his shoulder. He looked up, eyes widening in surprise.

"Hey, are you alright?" I asked him in a soft voice.

Naruto looked very confused. People probably didn't ask him that very often if at all. He promptly wiped the tears from his eyes and nodded his head.

Obviously, I didn't believe him. I sat down next to him.

He was staring at me wide eyed, probably wondering why I was concerned about him.

"I'm Zaria," I said.

"Uh… Naruto," he replied.

"Well Naruto-kun," I said, smiling at him,"Do you want to be friends?"

He stared at me incredulously before promptly nodding.

"All right!" I exclaimed before getting to my feet. "How about we meet at the park tomorrow afternoon?"

"Okay…" Naruto replied, his voice a little shaky. "But can I ask you a question?"

I nodded, knowing what he was going to ask.

"Why do you… want to be friends with me?"

"Umm," I tried to think of a good answer,"Because I think everyone deserves a friend."

He just stared at me for a few seconds, looking as if he was about to start crying again.

"Well, I'll see you tomorrow, Naruto-kun!" I said, trying to sound cheerful and starting to walk away. I didn't want Naruto's life to be sad anymore.

"Bye Zaria-chan!" he yelled as I left, making me smile. I hoped that I could make the boy's life a little bit less lonely so he wouldn't have to suffer as much through his childhood.

I still had some time left before I had to be back home, so I decided to go to the park to see if anyone that I knew was there.

When I got there, I saw that once again, Sasuke was there. This made me happy as Sasuke had been my second favorite character in the anime, my favorite being his brother, Itachi. I really wanted to become good friends with Sasuke in this life if I could, as well as all of the main characters of the series. I wasn't entirely sure yet if I had some goal in mind by becoming friends with them, something along the lines of changing the story. If there were no consequences to changing the story, then I'd probably try to, but with all the things that had been set up years before with Madara and Obito, I wasn't entirely sure how much of the story I could reasonably change. I decided not to think about that for now and instead approached Sasuke.

"Hey Sasuke-kun," I said in greeting.

"Oh, hi Zaria-chan," he said, looking up at me.

"Whatcha doing?" I asked him.

"I'm practicing the clone jutsu," he replied.

That was a little bit weird to me, that Sasuke Uchiha would have to practice something as simple as the clone jutsu, but it made sense. We were only four years old after all and everyone had to learn it at some point. I already knew how to use the clone jutsu because my mom had insisted on teaching it to me before I could begin working on my kekkai genkai. I was still a little bit shaky about using it and the feeling of successfully using chakra was something foreign to me, but I could still use it to some extent.

"Ooh! I know that one!" I exclaimed to Sasuke.

"Really? Will you show it to me?"

"Yeah," I said, nodding my head. I got into a stance where my feet were spread about shoulder width apart and formed the corresponding hand signs.

"Bunshin no jutsu!" I exclaimed, feeling the chakra flow through my body to do what I wanted it to do. A few seconds passed before an exact copy of me poofed into existence beside me. I could only hold onto it for a couple of seconds before it got dispersed by my lack of chakra control.

Sasuke thought for a minute before speaking, then he copied my stance and hand signs.

"Bunshin no jutsu," he said. Right after he said it, the clone popped into existence. He held onto it for much longer than I had before it too was dispersed.

I felt completely and totally outclassed. He was only four years old and had essentially mastered a jutsu already. It was cool but also kind of scary at the same time.

"Wow Sasuke-kun, that was amazing! You held it for so much longer than me."

He smiled at me,"Thanks. I thought it was pretty impressive that you knew it too."

My heart melted. Pre-psycho revenge seeking Sasuke was so damn cute. It took all of my willpower to not become a total fangirl and try to hug him. He probably wouldn't appreciate that and it might ruin the little shred of friendship that we had.

We stayed in the park together for a little while longer, just generally hanging out and trying to practice the clone jutsu a little bit more than we already had. When the sun looked like it was starting to go down, I had to leave to go home because my mother only permitted me to be out until it got dark.

"Bye Sasuke-kun," I said,"I have to leave now or else my mom will get worried."

He looked a little disappointed,"Okay, I'll see you later."

.

I smiled at him,"Yep!" Then I had an idea,"Hey, if you can, you should come here tomorrow afternoon. I'm meeting one of my friends here then, so maybe we could all be here together." My plan was simple. Get Naruto and Sasuke to become friends now. Sasuke really had no reason to be disdainful toward him yet seeing as none of us were in the academy yet, so maybe, I could make them be friends.

Sasuke nodded, smiling,"Okay! I'll try to come then."

"See you tomorrow then," I said, walking away toward home.

When I reached home, my mom was just finishing up dinner.

"Hey Zaria," she said as I walked in the front door,"How was your day? Did you do anything fun?"

"Umm," I said, sitting on one of the chairs surrounding the kitchen table. My feet dangled off and were several feet away from the floor,"I made a new friend and then I went to the park and played with Sasuke-kun."

I decided not to tell her that the new friend I had made was none other that Naruto Uzumaki. I knew that she was a pretty chill person, and had never expressly told me to stay away from him, but I wasn't sure how she would react seeing as the nine tails had been the cause of my father's death.

"Sounds like a fun day. You must be hungry."

I nodded,"Yes to both."

With that, we ate dinner together and then she coached me through doing my kekkai genkai transformation for what felt like the thousandth time. I managed to hold onto the half transformation for a whole 30 seconds longer, but that really wasn't much of an improvement.

Exhausted after the training, I went upstairs to my bedroom to go to sleep. My bedroom was actually really nice. I almost felt like my mom had taken the worse bedroom in the house when she had originally moved in. Her room was big enough for a bed, a dresser, and a little reading area. She also had an en suite bathroom. I had all those things too, but my room was bigger and had a balcony. I had definitely gotten a good deal with this room setup.

I changed my clothes into my pajamas and crawled into my bed. It was a double bed that had flowers printed across the purple covers. I was still really small, so to me, the double bed felt more like a king that I had all to myself.

As I fell asleep, I thought about the next day and how I was going to get Naruto and Sasuke to become friends. I knew one thing - I didn't want to fail.

I hope you enjoyed! If you did and you have the time, consider leaving me a review. I live for the validation.