Author's Note: Sorry about this taking a long time and such... I had a way too much stuff to do for finals, and I have no Internet at home... so... now I can do stuff again, presumably. Also, I hope the whole "codename" thing doesn't confuse anyone... I find it fits the story and it's easier to type "Ume" rather than "Sakura's younger self" over and over again. Just remember:

Naruto :: Kayaku

Sasuke :: Saizo

Sakura :: Ume

Team 7 Deja vu!

Chapter 3: The More Things Change...

Sakura squinched her eyes. They were burning red, like a bright light was being shone right in them.

"Sakura chan," an older man's voice said softly. "It's time to wake up..."

Grumbling, she pulled her blanket over her head, hoping her father would take a hint and let her sleep another hour or so. He was always thinking up annoying ways like this to rouse her from peaceful slumber. The bastard. She was somewhat surprised when she found that the blanket that had been at her side was quite a bit heavier than she'd thought it would be. And it was starting to move. And it was snoring. "Kyaaa!"

Naruto nearly jumped out of his skin. "Wha, huh, eh?!" He looked frantically about until his eyes came to rest on Sakura. "H-hey, Sakura chan, what was that about?"

"Wh-what do you mean 'what was that about?'" Sakura growled. "You were lying on top of me!"

"To be fair, Sakura chan," Kakashi said, making his presence known to the two teens, "You were the one who pulled him over you."

The two ninja took in the sight of their old teacher and the past Team 7 standing about. Kakashi looked unenthusiastically amused at the ordeal, Sasuke looked aloof and condescending as usual, and the young Naruto and Sakura looked a bit embarrassed.

"Ah, that's right," Sakura said. "We were talking for so long and it was so late... I guess we must have just passed out."

"Alright," Kakashi sighed. "But, you know, if you ever need me to talk to you about the birds and the bees..."

"Kakashi sensei!" both Sakura's shouted angrily, giving him a much deserved boot to the head.

"I'm not that easy!" the older kunoichi shouted.

"Like I would give it up to Naruto," the younger growled. Now maybe if it were Sasuke kun... Inner Sakura crowed.

The two Sakuras stopped and glared at each other for a moment. However, after assessing the situation, both decided it better to ignore the other. They turned their backs to one another theatrically and stomped away.

"Yes... well..." Kakashi groaned, rubbing his forhead. "I'll meet up with you three kids at Tsunade's in five minutes. Three out of time shinobi can't just go waltzing around Konoha, and she knows just about every method of disguise in the ninja world."

"Sure thing, Kakashi sensei!" little Naruto shouted. Then he scratched his head. "Who's Tsunade and where is her place?"

Kakashi looked toward his older students meaningfully. "Do be sure they aren't late."

"Will do, sensei," Sakura acknowledged dutifully.

Tsunade stared in complete shock at the three younger versions of Team 7. "S-Sakura chan... what... what's happened to you?"

"Eh?" the young Sakura asked. She had no idea who this woman was in the Hokage's office, but apparently she knew her. "Um... new... hairstyle?"

Tsunade glared accusingly at her. "No... you..."

Sakura cringed, wishing Kakashi were here. They had actually gotten here in six minutes due to young Naruto nearly blowing their cover by shouting for Iruka, but the white haired jounin was yet to be seen. This could get really bad if the ample proportioned woman took them for intruders like older Naruto and the others had originally. "R-r-really, Tsunade sama... it's not what you think..."

"Don't you lie to me, Sakura chan!" Tsunade growled. "You... you've discovered an age defying jutsu even more formidable than my own!" Tears poured from her eyes as she chewed inconsolably on a handkerchief. "I'm... I'm so proud..."

Sakura sighed in relief at the more fortuitous misconception. However, her ire was raised upon the blonde Hokage's comment that her breasts had shrunk along with her. Shannaro!! Inner Sakura shouted in dismay at the older woman.

"But, Naruto," Tsunade said soberly to the young blond. "While I commend you on also performing such an envious jutsu, I must say that creating a clone to look like Sasuke is quite insensitive to Sakura chan. I'd think you would know better after what happened."

"Huh?" Naruto asked. "But I didn't..."

"Hello, everyone," Kakashi greeted the four as he entered, reading his Icha Icha Tactics book. "Sorry I'm late, I had to stop and help an old lady out of a tree."

"Liar!" the members of Team 7 scolded.

Tsunade raised an eyebrow. "Kakashi? What are you doing here? Maybe you can explain this."

The jounin bowed and admitted that he could, and requested a great favor of the Fifth Fire Shadow.

"You sure it was a good idea just leaving them there like that?" Sakura asked Naruto.

The blond grinned. "Well, Kakashi should be there to help out... but even if he isn't... it will still be amusing to hear the results of the meeting."

The kunoichi rolled her eyes, but had an amused smirk on her face as well. "You're such a bonehead."

Naruto laughed at that. "Man," he sighed, changing the subject. "We've both gotten pretty good. It's great we managed to get those bells." He grinned. "Maybe I've gotten stronger than Kakashi sensei!"

"Don't be so cocky," Sakura chided him. "You know you wouldn't have won without me."

"You were a big help..." the blond admitted before his stomach rumbled. "Oh! We haven't been home or even to the Ichiraku Ramen, yet."

"I am pretty hungry, now that you mention it," Sakura said. "I mean... after all that training."

Naruto grinned foxily. "Hey, Sakura chan, since we're both on our own, I guess it's a da--"

"Okay, but it's your treat!" the kunoichi demanded before he could finish. Naruto mourned his Gama purse. "Well, what are we waiting for, I'm famished!" Sakura said, grabbing the blond by the arm and dragging him in the direction of Naruto's favorite ramen stand. The two finally reached the stand and sat for a nice big bowl of ramen. No sooner, had their noodles been delivered, however, when Kakashi came in with three unknown genin.

"Well, I can't say I'm too surprised to see you here," Kakashi said as he shuffled in. "This was the first place he wanted to go, too," he patted a genin with spikey black hair on the head.

"Yeah," the boy said, his onyx eyes bright with glee. "Ichiraku is my favorite spot." He pulled on his coat, which was black with orange lining that covered an all-black outfit. "How do you like the new clothes? A little too dark for my taste, but..."

Naruto growled. "Hey, kid, why'd you have to go and interrupt my date with Sakura?"

The boy looked shocked. "A date? With Sakura?" Tears welled up in his eyes. "I'm... I'm so sorry!"

"A date?" the female genin scoffed skeptically. She flipped her long, black tresses streaked with red-violet highlights haughtily and stared daggers at the black haired boy with cold violet eyes. "That's ridiculous! I would never go on a date with you. Not in three years and not in a hundred."

Sakura looked warily at the slightly gothic-looking girl. She was wearing a black sports bra and a tiny wine colored vest that covered no more skin than the bra. Her black miniskirt rode low, too, so her slightly pudgy stomach was in full view. Everything else was "covered" with fishnet sleeves and leggings, ending in black gloves and sandals, respectively. "Um... are you... Chibi Me?"

The girl folder her arms defensively over her chest. "Umm... my name is... 'Fuyuno Ume.'"

Sakura nodded. Tsunade must have given them some kind of disguise and codenames so they wouldn't be recognized by anyone. Of course, she could have given Sakura's younger self something a bit less revealing, but the boy she assumed was Naruto's counterpart didn't seem to be minding.

"H-hey, Saku... I mean, Ume chan, you wanna go on a da--" the same boy asked.

"No!" Ume screeched, obviously horrified at the suggestion.

"So what's your name?" Naruto asked himself.

"Oh!" the black haired boy shouted, recovering quickly from rejection. "The old lady said from now on I'd be called 'Tatsumaki Kayaku!'"

Sakura glowered at her teacher's choice. She sure wasn't being very creative. First changing "Spring Cherry Blossoms" to "Winter Plum Blossoms," and now going from whirlpool to tornado and from something one puts on ramen to... something else one puts on ramen. Hopefully Sasuke's name would be a little less obvious.

The boy in question was obviously the sullen one playing with his shoulder length white hair as if mourning its flattened condition. He was wearing something very similar to Kakashi's old ANBU uniform: a black, sleeveless body suit and white vest along with long black gloves and white armguards. And, of course, he had Kakashi's classic mask. The jounin placed his hand on the boy's head and said cheerfully, "Meet my long lost nephew, 'Hatake Saizo.'"

"Oh, she just stopped trying right there, didn't she?" Sakura blurted.

Saizo slumped and sighed heavily.

At that moment, two familiar figures entered the ramen stand. "Come on, no one I know but Naruto ever eats here, and he's not been here for..." Shikamaru stopped in his tracks as he saw the collection of people behind the curtain. "... N-Naruto! Is that really you?"

"Shikamaru!" Naruto shouted enthusiastically.

Temari, who had entered with the lazy chuunin, had at first looked around nervously at the various ninja, but then she looked shocked at the blond ninja before her. This guy... that runt? He had certainly changed drastically in her opinion. Certainly not for the worse.

"Did you just come home, then?" Shikamaru asked.

"No, I just came back yesterday," the young man responded.

The wolftailed boy laughed. "So has any of your idiocy left you? Have you changed? Well?"

"No," Sakura blurted. "He hasn't changed at all."

"Ah... really?" Shikamaru asked.

Naruto slumped in his chair. "Sakura chaaaaaaaaan!" he protested. However, he wasn't brought low too long as the next moment he had turned to Shikamaru and whispered connivingly, "So, are you on a date, too?"

The chuunin was surprised at that comment. So that's it... I wouldn't have thought those two would be dating... He mentally shook himself off that as he had another matter to attend. "That's not it," he said in response to the actual question.

Temari, who had been within earshot (though most of the other patrons could also hear Naruto's quite unninjalike stage-whisper), stammered, "You're joking. Why would I go out with such a..." she paused and switched gears. "There's a Chuunin Exam soon. I'm just going back and forth between the Sand and the Leaf for meetings."

"And it's troublesome," Shikamaru sighed overdramatically. "But I've become an examiner, so... I was told to go and see off the messengers from the sand."

"'Messengers?'" Ume asked. "But there's only one of he--"

"Shhh!" Shikamaru said, waving her silent.

Naruto didn't notice as he gazed away wistfully. "A Chuunin Exam? Brings back memories..."

"Yeah!" Shikamaru exclaimed cheerfully. "And Naruto, what are you planning?"

"What do you mean?" the blond asked.

"Well, it's a Chuunin Exam..." the young man explained. "The only one from our class who hasn't become a chuunin is you."

Naruto was stunned into silence for a long moment while his comrades stared at him. Then both Naruto and Kayaku shouted a long, bewildered, "EHHHHHHHHHH?!!!"

"How could I---you, not be a chuunin yet?!" Kayaku shouted.

Naruto ignored him and turned to Sakura, realizing what Shikamaru's statement meant. "Then! Then! You're a chuunin, too, Sakura?"

"Yep!" the pink haired kunoichi grinned whilst flashing the v-sign.

"Plus," Shikamaru continued. "Neji from the class above us, Kankurou of the sand, and Temari here are already jounin."

"Huhhhhhh?!" shouted a thoroughly shocked Naruto. Something else occured to him, though. The two sand siblings were jounin, but their younger brother, who was much stronger... "Hey. Then Gaara! What about Gaara?"

Shikamaru and Temari exchanged nervous glances. He wasn't going to like this very much. "Well," the chuunin began. "You know how you've always had that dream of yours..."

"You mean the one involving becoming Hokage?" Naruto said, being pretty sure the other ninja wouldn't be referring to his other dream, and certainly hoping, too, as Sakura would probably injure him greatly if that were ever brought into the open.

"Well..." Temari continued. "After my father died and Gaara... mellowed... it was decided that he should become... the... next Kazekage."

Naruto clutched the bar for dear life. He couldn't believe that the kid he'd fought way back during the Chuunin Exams, and actually matched, had already become the Kage of his village. The container of the Ninetails still had a long way to go.

"So what about this Gaara guy? How strong must he be?" Kayaku demanded.

Kakashi answered for him. "He was undoubtedly the strongest of competitors in the first Chuunin Exam in which Team 7 took part. Sasuke managed to severely wound him before the match was interrupted by the Sand and Sound villages. Afterward, Naruto managed to save Sasuke from a fatal blow and defeat him... barely."

"Wow," Kayaku murmured. Then he turned angrily to Naruto. "Well?! Why aren't you Hokage, yet?!"

Naruto sniffled. "I'm sorry... if only it wasn't for that damned Akatsuki and stupid Itaa... ah--" he stopped and looked warily at the disguised Uchiha. "Ummm... it's because I was training with Ero sennin. He's a legendary ninja, and I'm now his protegé!"

"Oh, well I guess that's okay, then," Kayaku said.

"Umm," Shikamaru mumbled. "I think we'll be going now..." he led Temari hastily away from the ramen stand as the other ninja were distracted. "C'mon," he whispered to her. "I know this other great place that no one would go to..."

"Why don't I like the sound of that..." Temari grumbled.

"Um," Sakura said, "I think I should be going, too. I have to help Tsunade shishou with some things."

"Yes," Kakashi concurred. "I should be going as well. Saizo, Ume, Kayaku: come with me." With that the jounin and his three students exited, followed closely behind by his chuunin former student.

Naruto sat there confused. "Well... guess I'll have to finish up alone..."

A figure lifted the flap at that moment and entered. "Hey, Naruto kun. I heard you were back in town."

Naruto's face lit up. "Iruka sensei!"

"So, you just have to climb this tree without using your hands. That should improve your chakra control greatly," Kakashi finished explaining to his students. He stopped the young Sakura, though. "Not you, Ume chan. I already know your control is excellent. I have another task for you."

The two boys, then, made their first attempt to climb their trees. The result was much as Kakashi expected. Sasuke put too much power into it while Naruto held back too much just as the first time his former students had attempted it in the Land of Mist. The result was the same. They landed on their butts.

"Kayaku," Kakashi said to the young fox container. "I have a tip for you which will allow you to improve much faster."

The young Sasuke narrowed his eyes. "Hmmph. Looks like he'll need it more than me."

"You wouldn't be able to use it anyway, Saizo," Kakashi said. "This training technique is something only a ninja like Naruto can use. Perform the Kage Bunshin." Kayaku complied, creating a single clone. "Now, I want you to close your eyes while your clone continues to watch." After the boy once again obeyed, he formed the hand seal of the tiger, the boar, and then the rooster. "Now dispell the jutsu. What hand seals did I just form?"

Kayaku immediately responded, "Tora, Ousu-buta, Tori... how... how did I know that?"

"Your Kage Bunshin will pass on its experience to you once it is dispelled. Therefore, if you train with one hundred clones, you will learn one hundred times faster than you would normally," Kakashi stated.

Naruto's eyes widened. "Oh, wow, that's cool!"

"But, sensei," Ume protested. "Those kind of Kage Bunshin are jounin level techniques. He couldn't keep it up for more than a few minutes!"

"A normal ninja couldn't. However, Kayaku has more stamina than even me. He could keep it going for hours if he chose," Kakashi said.

Ume looked dumbfounded at Naruto. "Really?" She hadn't known her Naruto was so strong. It was no wonder he managed to do as well as he did in Kakashi's test even with the worst chakra control in the class.

"Alright!" Kayaku shouted, creating one hundred clones as his teacher had suggested. "Let's get going!" All the clones rushed toward seperate trees, running up them with all due speed. The crashing of one hundred bums on the ground resounded soon thereafter.

"Dunce," Sasuke muttered. However, he was a bit worried. If he wasn't careful, the dunce would catch up to him. Even a moron could do so if he had four days worth of training for every hour he had.

"Come now, Ume. I'm going to drop you off with Hokage sama. You'll be able to learn more from her and Sakura," Kakashi said.

The disguised younger Sakura watched diligently as her older self and the Hokage worked. She noted the precise use of chakra, and Tsunade occasionally directed comments about how one was to go about performing a particular medical jutsu. The young ninja committed every word to memory. After several hours went by, the three ninja were surprised to have a visit from Kayaku.

"Eh? Aren't you supposed to be training, Naruto?" Ume asked irately.

The disguised boy nodded. "That's why I'm here Saku--I mean... Ume chan. Ummm... I was kinda wondering if you could give me some tips on how to climb the tree?"

The dark haired girl turned to her companions.

"Well?" Sakura prodded. "Aren't you going to tell him? It's a compliment to your skills that he would ask your opinion. How about obliging?"

"Uh, well... okay..." the young girl conceded. She explained how she normally prepared herself for the task of tree climbing, detailing how he should breathe, how he should feel to be in an alignment conducive to free chakra flow, and other such simple things that would normally seem so trivial as to be overlooked. However, Ume insisted, all these factors together could make or break one's chakra molding ability.

"Thanks, Ume chan," Kayaku said. He made a hand seal and poofed out of existence.

"Wha...? A clone?" Ume exclaimed.

"So that's it!" the amassed Naruto clones all suddenly yelled out at once. They began to try out their tree climbing with a new determination. Many suddenly found themselves many meters higher than they had been going.

Dammit! Sasuke thought, looking at the clones' progress. Some of them have already surpassed me! The last time he dispelled the jutsu, though he passed out from the strain, he went from a meter off the ground to merely a meter from my highest mark... if that's going to be his normal progress, he'll be to the top before I manage to get to the branches. His eyes set with determination. I can't let myself fall behind. If I can't stay ahead of this dunce, I'll never be able to match that guy

Soon enough, Kayaku had to dispell his Shadow Clones, and the mental strain knocked him on his back. Due to the Kyuubi's healing abilities, however, he only stayed down for a half hour before he was ready to go at it again.

"Naruto," Saizo said to the boy before he had a chance to perform his Kage Bunshin once again. "You sent a clone to ask Sakura about this, and your clones' abilities improved by leaps and bounds. Tell me... what did she tell you?"

Kayaku looked into his rival's eyes. He could tell the young man was doing his best to squelch his pride in order to even ask the advice of his rival. "No way. If you want to know, why don't you ask Sakura, yourself?" He knew the Uchiha would never consent to that. It took all his effort to look for advice in his rival, but there was no way he would lower himself to asking the Haruno girl, who he privately believed had no business being a ninja even if she had memorized the code. That made her nothing more than a fangirl in his eyes. While the young Naruto had told his rival to ask her partially because of this and didn't want the Uchiha to get any more advantages on him, he also partially wished the other would take him up on his advice. After all, he knew the pain Sakura felt when he refused to acknowledge her. He'd felt the same pain for as far back as he could recall. It somewhat irked him how stuck up Sasuke could act sometimes. It served him right.

And so the training continued into the evening, both boys wearing themselves down to exhaustion. It wasn't long before Sakura and her younger self finished their duties and came along to see how the two were progressing. Both were surprised at what they saw. One hundred Kayakus graced one hundred treetops, gazing peacefully up at the stars. At the bottom of his tree, Sasuke glared murderously at his rival.

"I'm not through, yet!" Saizo growled, dashing up the tree. He managed to make it three fourths of the way up before his foot slipped and he began to tumble to the ground. His stamina was exhausted and he didn't have the presence to control his fall. If he landed he would surely be severely injured or worse.

Fortunately for Saizo, Sakura was already on it, and plucked him from midair. "Hey, kid," she said. "You shouldn't yourself too hard. You'll hurt yourself."

The white haired boy frowned and averted his eyes in embarrassment. "I won't fail," he said simply.

The pink haired kunoichi huffed. "That's fine, but you have to be patient about it." She set him on the ground. "Here, you need treatment if you're going to be walking anywhere, tonight." Her hands glowed and she sent her healing energy into the boy. While she worked, she looked into the canopy and called out, "Hey, Na--Kayaku. Come on down from there, okay?"

The clones vanished leaving the original Naruto, who received the full brunt of the psychological stresses his clones had accumulated. "Uhhh," he groaned, vertigo gripping him. "I... err... would, but I don't think I have the energy left, myself..."

"Dammit," Sakura cursed. "Both of you! What is with boys and pushing themselves too hard?"

"You're one to talk," Naruto quipped, strolling into the clearing. "I seem to remember a certain kunoichi pushing herself pretty darn hard during the chuunin exams. Remember? When you had to protect Sasuke and me?"

The prone Saizo scoffed. "Sakura? She's the one who needs our protection."

"Lie back down," Sakura said sternly, shoving him roughly to the ground. She was almost done, but that last comment stung and she certainly wasn't going to let him get away with it. "I'll have you know... 'Saizo'... that I saved your life. That is, times other than just now."

The boy blushed at this and turned his head away.

Naruto, meanwhile, leaped into the trees to retrieve his younger self. Hopping gracefully down the trunk, he said, "I sure don't remember mastering the tree climbing technique this fast."

"Well, Kakashi sensei gave me a great training method to speed it," Kayaku explained.

"Really?" Naruto asked. "Well, he never showed it to me. Must be something he thought of recently. Lucky you."

Sakura completed her work with both Sasuke and Naruto in a few minutes, and then turned to Naruto. "So what's up?"

"Well, Iruka sensei helped me pick up my place a bit. It was pretty bad... there was something living in my refrigerator. I guess I shouldn't have left in such a hurry," Naruto admitted. "It's clean now, though, so these three can stay over there if they don't mind the lingering smell and cramped conditions."

"Forget it," Sakura said. "You're coming to my house."

"Eh?" Naruto exclaimed. "What about your parents? What will they say?"

Sakura shrugged. "They left on business this afternoon. It wouldn't matter anyway, my mom thinks you're okay and dad wouldn't refuse orders from the Hokage concerning these three."

"Oh... okay... so where will we all be sleeping?"

The pink haired kunoichi rolled her eyes. "We won't all be sleeping anywhere. I'll sleep in my room with Ume and you guys can take dibs on my parents' and the guest rooms."

"Ah..."

Ume's eyes watered with excitment. Shannaro! Me and Sasuke kun sleeping under the same roof! Then her eyes slid slyly to Naruto. And then there's him, too... sucks Kayaku has to be there. She thought it odd that she had started calling Naruto's younger self Kayaku, now, but she accepted it. She just couldn't see the two as being the same person from the first moment she'd laid eyes on such a mature and competent ninja, and the separate names helped her in this view.

Thus the five ninja made their way to Sakura's house for a well deserved rest.