Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Chapter 2
'I miss Sakura.' Naruto thought idly. Not the loud, useless, pink thing that was currently screaming in the face of an equally loud blonde girl, but the competent, fun, mentally stable woman she would become. And he would make sure she was that woman again, even if everything else changed.
It was the day of the genin exam. Naruto had only been in the past a week and things had already changed a little.
Mizuki, of course, was the biggest change for now. He wouldn't have the chance to use innocent and desperate students in a stupid bid for a higher rank than he deserved. But there were little things too. Naruto had not skipped class in the week he'd been back, which had all of the class on edge, waiting for some sort of prank. It was actually kind of funny. A prank in its own way.
Of course he ad things to set into motion long before what he felt was the main reason for him being here again. He planned to save Haku and Zabuza. Those two were people he felt that he could have connected with if they hadn't died so soon. Then he had to somehow reveal to Sasuke that Itachi had only killed the clan on orders because they were treasonous bastards. That would negate any and all reasons the other boy would have for following the ideals of the snake freak. Which would leave Naruto to deal with him and Akatsuki in peace.
The only thing was, what was there to do after? What if, even as he sat here, there was some other group that had plans set in motion to mess with him, a group that he wouldn't know about because he hadn't lived long enough for them to come out of the shadows? Or maybe...
"Uzumaki Naruto!" The boy was ripped out of increasingly distressing thoughts by voice of the proctor. The man's exasperated tone and the giggles of his classmates told Naruto that he had been calling him for a while.
"Uh, yeah, sorry!" He pulled himself out of the chair and followed the man's directions to another room to start the first part of the exam, the written part. Sitting in the lone desk in front of a panel of serious faced teachers, Naruto looked down at the paper. The problems were simple, and the situations it presented hardly practical or realistic. At what point would any ninja worth his kunai not have any sort of weapon at hand? Really.
The man who had directed him to the room cleared his throat to catch his attention. "Uzumaki, since it is well known how... mischievous you are, precautions have been taken to assure that you can't cheat at all. You have half an hour to complete as much of the test as you can, at which point you will be escorted by the next proctor to begin the stealth, weapons, and taijutsu portions of the test. Any questions?"
Precautions to prevent cheating? Naruto certainly didn't remember any such thing happening the first time around. He wondered what he had done to cause it. Shaking his head, Naruto picked up the brush they provided, and began the test. It wasn't until he was done and it had only been five minutes that it occurred to him that he probably should have gotten some of it wrong or left some blank. These men were expecting him to be the dunce, and would wonder what had changed.
Ah well, he could explain it away by just saying he studied. There was nothing fatal about how he did in this exam, nothing hinging on his results, so he would breeze through mindlessly and use his brain capacity for more important things.
"Is there something the matter, Uzumaki?" The proctor prompted, and Naruto looked up at the man. He was the first person besides Iruka-sensei that Naruto had seen in the past week look at him with anything other than contempt. Of course he lacked the paternal warmth that the before mentioned teacher always held, but even so the complete and utter indifference in his eyes soothed the boy slightly.
"I'm done." Naruto said simply, handing the man the test. Instead of the suspicious looks the people of the panel were shooting him, the tall, dark haired man just nodded impassively.
"We shall move on then."
Even the first time around, when he had been an idiot, Naruto had earned the top score on the stealth portion of the exam. He had to be pretty good, to wear orange and yet still be able to escape the clutches of the various ninja he had pranked as a child.
His taijutsu was irritatingly thrown off. Even though he only had to prove proficiency in the Academy style and not show the style he had come up with, his sie was a problem. Though he had been the shortest of his age group eight years in the future, he still grew enough that his center of balance was off by a bit. He still did well, but not as well as he thought he would. And if the Academy style was that mangled, his own style would be useless unless he practiced whenever he could.
Weapons was no issue. A simple test of throwing kunai and shuriken at the dummies and aiming for a certain body part. Easy. The only thing that would make it even slightly worth consideration to the time-traveler was if it also included senbon, which were harder to aim and required preciseness that had also troubled the blond. But no, senbon were not taught in the Academy. They left that to the jounin senseis to take care of. Which of course meant that Naruto learned by himself while traveling with Jiraiya.
"Very good, Uzumaki." Was that... a slight amount of approval in the teacher's voice? Naruto blinked confusedly at him. The proctor didn't seem to notice the boy's shock. "We'll move inside now for the final part, the jutsu portion."
Naruto nodded dumbly. Then the words registered and he bit his lip. This was the only part he was worried about. He could completely bomb it and still graduate because of his high scores in the other portions, and then that would keep Iruka-sensei from being suspicious about anything but... he didn't want to lose this new possible ally by seeming inept in the most important part of being a ninja.
Looking at the back of the dark haired stranger, Naruto made a choice. He would excel at this, as he did at every portion. It would be easier to placate Iruka-sensei than it would to gain back the slight amount of esteem this teacher showed him.
Nodding to himself, Naruto walked into the room with a confident stride and a goal.
He had no idea how much that choice would change things for him and the path he was trying to guide the future into taking.
It was an understatement to say Hiroyuki Imamura was not happy to be assigned to watching the kids at the Academy fumble over the genin exam. He was brought in as a temporary replacement for the traitorous Mizuki Toji, and as he watched the children bumble through the tests, his patience grew thin while his respect for the poor chuunin that were forced to teach this inept bunch grew stronger. He had almost lost hope in the future generation until a name cropped up on the list that was almost as familiar to him as his own name. After all, one couldn't go more than a few hours here in the village without the child being mentioned. If not by name, then by predicament. As a personal guard to the Hokage, though, Hiroyuki knew that the kid had nothing to do with the demon, wasn't the fox reborn or something.
That didn't mean that he was overly fond of the orange wearing oddball. Just that he didn't hate his every breath like the rest of the villagers.
"Uzumaki Naruto." He announced, his eyes zeroing in on the child, who was currently staring into space with a vacant, slightly troubled expression. He had to call the inattentive child's name a few more times, while the idiots around him giggled more with each successive calling. Finally the kid seemed to snap back to reality, and grinned sheepishly. He ignored the blond kids apology and began to lead him to where the testing would take place.
He didn't miss the kid's bemused and slightly scornful expression when he got a moment before the test began to read the questions. Clearing his throat loudly while the panel glared at the kid, Hiroyuki began the instructions, which were a bit different than any of the others he had given that day. "Uzumaki, since it is well known how... mischievous you are, precautions have been taken to assure that you can't cheat at all. You have half an hour to complete as much of the test as you can, at which point you will be escorted by the next proctor to begin the stealth, weapons, and taijutsu portions of the test. Any questions?" The kid shook his head and began to write. Hiroyuki almost settled in for a long wait when the sound of the brush sliding over paper stopped.
"Is there something wrong, Uzumaki?" He asked. The kid just held out the test.
"I'm done."
Well that was... unexpected. It was quick, correct from what Hiroyuki could tell, and by the expressions on the faces of the chuunins, there was no obvious cheating. Good for the kid.
"We shall move on then."
By the time they were done outside, Hiroyuki was entirely impressed. The kid was so masterful at stealth that the teachers running that portion couldn't find him, and he didn't show up until they announced the test was over. His weapons test was deadly accurate, and the kid seemed to have a vindictive streak and very good ears. One of the chuunin made a derisive comment to another, and a kunai landed in the crotch of the dummy while the kid shot the two chuunin a meaningful look. They wisely shut up after that.
The only problem was taijutsu, though it was barely worth mentioning. The kid just seemed to be over compensating for something. He still passed handily, though. Hiroyuki could feel nothing but grudging respect for the young man.
"Good job, Uzumaki." Hiroyuki said before they left to go back into the building. The kid was oddly quiet after that.
Naruto walked into the room with slight trepidation. There was Iruka-sensei, smiling gently like always, and severely frowning chuunin beside him. The juxtaposition was oddly striking then.
At this point he was almost desperate to add one more person to the list that would look at him with any other emotion than hatred. His immunity to the stifling anger of the village towards him had weakened over his three year trip, and was completely obliterated when he saved the village and became a hero. It wasn't that he wanted everyone to love him again, he just needed to be reminded why he had saved this village in the first place.
The man that had been leading him through the test took a seat right beside Iruka-sensei and placed his chin on steepled hands.
"Right, Naruto. First you need to perform the replacement jutsu." Iruka instructed him, and Naruto did just that flawlessly with an empty chair that had been sitting across the room. "Good! Now the henge." At this Iruka-sensei flinched, obviously expecting the lewd version that the time-traveler had employed often.
Instead, Naruto surprised the man by simply asking, "Of who?"
"What?" The scarred chuunin asked blankly.
"Who should the henge be of?" Naruto prompted patiently.
Iruka sent an inscrutable look at him, before motioning to the still unnamed proctor beside him. "How about Imamura-sensei?"
Naruto nodded, his hands already zooming through the proper handsigns for appearance's sake (he had been able to do the jutsu without any handseals at all for a few years now) and turned into an exact copy of the now named proctor.
Iruka smiled, noting that everything about the jutsu was as it should be on his paper. Now would be what he thought would be the difficult part for the boy.
"Could you please demonstrate the clone jutsu? There have to be two viable clones."
He swore his jaw almost hit the floor when three Narutos stood before him. This was the first time in the years he had taught the boy that he had seen him perform the jutsu correctly.
"P-pass?" He managed to stutter, and the boy grabbed a hitai-ate off the table in front of him. He surprised him again when, instead of replacing the goggles that still resided on his head even after the blond's wardrobe change, Naruto instead tied it around his bicep. Grinning and waving at his still favorite teacher, Naruto left the room.
He didn't notice the dark contemplative eyes that followed him.
Naruto almost stumbled back when he was assaulted by pink the moment he stepped out of the exam room, but managed to hold his ground.
Sakura took one look at the goggles still on his forehead and began laughing in his face. "You stupid idiot! You failed for the third time, didn't you? Dead last." She taunted. Naruto only raised one eyebrow.
"Haruno-san, I see you passed. And here I thought ninja are supposed to be more observant than this. If you would notice, my hitai-ate is on my arm. I passed easily enough." He said coldly. This girl, this... chit was not Sakura-chan. She had the potential to be her, but wasn't yet. He brushed passed her barely repressing a sneer. He had forgotten what a self righteous idiot his friend had been at this age.
Her standing there meant that Sasuke hadn't completed his tests. He actually felt sorry for the other boy if that was the first thing that greeted him as well.
Naruto had no idea that his snubbing of the girl would result in some more changes in the timeline.
Originally, because Sasuke had beat Naruto out the door the first time, Sakura had greeted the broody boy with obsessive exuberance which had firmly steered the boy from wanting anything to do with her like nothing before had managed. Now, though, the pinkette was still reeling from the sudden flip of Naruto's attitude to her when Sasuke walked through the door that she just meekly congratulated him and walked away, her self-confidence for the day shot. Sasuke would later remember that moment, and the effects would ripple lightly through time.
Hiroyuki sat back with a grim, but satisfied smile on his face. He had thought that his stint as a legal arguer during his chuunin years would have amounted to naught, but it was helping him now while he researched, and would most likely help him later.
He had found exactly what he needed in the dusty tome on the table in front of him, and it had only been an hour since he made to decision to look for it. Which gave him a little leeway in the ime limit for the next part. Talking the Hokage into agreeing.
Hiroyuki passed through the tower easily, his clearance passing him through barriers that would have kept others out. Finally he stood before the door of the main office. The dark haired man didn't give himself time to reconsider, he just walked through the doorway.
Bowing lowly to the wizened old man that sat in the large seat almost obscured by the papers on the desk, Hiroyuki took a deep breath in preparation to what he thought would be a difficult argument.
He almost let the shock show on his face when his request was granted with a simple 'okay' only a minute later, after a brief explanation of his plan.
He had no idea that the boy in question was almost as precious to the Hokage as the man's own grandson, and that the Sandaime would accept any offers for help the kid could get (that didn't stem from Danzo, anyway).
And so, in only an hour and fifteen minutes most of the future as Naruto knew it was obliterated and replaced with new possibilities and choices.
The question was, would that make the time-traveler's goal easier or harder to accomplish from here on out?
So, a few things will be changing from here, mainly because of Naruto's actions. Though he's mentally twenty, he still doesn't fully think things through. Sorry for the super late update. My sister's been in the hospital and I've been helping take care of her kids. I hope this makes up for it, and the next chapter should be on time this weekend. How do y'all like Hiroyuki Imamura so far? He's obviously an OC, but I hope not to make him any sort of Gary Stu, because we;ll be seeing a ton of him. If he gets even vaguely Stu like, warn me and I'll go back to the drawing board.
Lionna