Author's Note: Well here we are again! My parents dragged me camping so here I am all weekend with only trees to look at lol. I had the sense to bring my laptop though! And wow a chapter without a late apology O.O yay! Also it's the longest one yet! Anyway here ya go, chapter 13!

P.S. I now have a new beta! Dr. Yami!

Beta's Note: Yo. Hope you enjoy my edits. Please note that you might wanna re-read the Ichiraku ramen stand scene, and the conversation where Kyuubi explains about Uchiha Madara, as those are the biggest edits I made.

"Talking"

'Thinking'

"Kyuubi/Inner Talking"

'Kyuubi/Inner Thinking'

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or anything else!
(B/N: Nor do you own me, Dr. Yami) (A/N: I know I know!! Sheesh...)

Revelance of the Future

Chapter 13

Burning the Veil

By: Ginriku

Edited By: Dr. Yami

The next morning Hinata walked into the dinning room only to find her Father already there.

"Yes, Father?"

Hiashi shifted to get a better view of her.

"What has changed your behavior?"

Hinata sighed. Her father always was a blunt one. "I have. I was sick of being weak and useless, so I decided to change it."

His brows knitted together, "One does not change simply because they decide to. Who has done this."

Getting sick of his attitude, Hinata tersely replied, "You mean who has inspired me? You really want to know, don't you? Why, I doubt you're going to thank them. More like ban me from ever seeing them again. Well do you know what Father? I'm not going to tell you who inspired, and I am most certainly not about to let you bar them from my life."

Hiashi stood up. How dare she talk to him, her father and clan leader, in such a manner!

"Now you listen here daughter. You will obey my commands. Do you hear me?"

"Or what?"

Hiashi's glare would've made ice look warm. "Or I will disown you."

Hinata laughed, "I dare you to try, Father."

The Hyuuga head was taken aback. He was positive that that would shock her. Never before had she shown such… such backbone! Instead of countering he simply turned to the door and began to leave. However before he touched the door to slide it open he heard Hinata's voice once more.

"Why are you so cold Father? Did okaa-san's death cut you that deeply? Is it because I look so much like her?" Her tone was soft, yet undeniably cold, and firm.

Hearing that voice come for his eldest daughter broke something inside of him. Something that he hoped would never open up again. His heart. He left the room without another word.

Not missing the change in posture, Hinata smiled. Those questions had had just the effect she wanted.

A week passed and our time traveling heroes began to get anxious. There was just one anomaly that they had to fill in.

Hinata titled her head towards her lover. "So, Naruto-kun, what about team ten? They don't have one of us to push them to get stronger. Wouldn't they be at the same level as they were last time?"

The couple was currently sitting under a tree in a secluded area of the park. It was about ten in the morning a soft breeze could be felt coming from the west.

The blond sighed; this gave him a headache a few nights ago when Kyuubi brought it up.

"Well, I came to a conclusion. Kakashi, Kurenai, and Asuma are friends right? So therefore they would boast about how well their team would be doing. Also, since Kurenai and Asuma are dating, well, will be dating, they have a close relationship already. So, naturally, Kakashi and Kurenai will have bragged to Asuma how well we're doing which will have Asuma whipping the InoShikaChou trio to be as good as us." He waved his hand vaguely. "The whole male competition gene acting up and what not."

Hinata giggled, smiling. She knew that gene only too well. Every man alive seemed to suffer from it.

"Hopefully, of course."

"Yes. Hopefully."

The smile on the girl's face shrank a little, "You know that if they aren't, we're next to screwed right?"

The blonde sighed again. "Yeah. It'll make everything that much harder."

And indeed it would. It was barely a month to go before the chunin exams and they still needed to bring in Sakura, Sasuke, and the Third in on their secret if they wanted their plan to succeed. Naruto also had to find Jiraiya, and Tsunade if he could manage it, and bring them back to Konoha for the impending battle.

On the bright side, their training was coming along swimmingly. Sakura could now heal not-so-basic wounds and her stamina and strength was way up. Sasuke was fast as hell when he took off his weights, even without them he was a speedy little bugger. He had increased his jutsu range and was focusing on training both with and without the sharingan. Naruto's speed had drastically increased as well, though it was no where near what it once was, but it would do for now. The blonde's chakra control was up to par with his sixteen year-old self. Not as good as it could be, but greatly increased overall. Hinata was up to her sixteen year-old self as well, in terms of strength. However, her jutsu base was much larger. Kiba and Shino were coming along nicely as well, they were both around their sixteen year-old power.

"Well, Naruto-kun, when are we going to tell them?"

Naruto stood up, brushed off his pants, and helped Hinata up as he replied, "Later today, after training maybe?"

The violet haired girl nodded, "Okay, how about you bring them to the top of the Hokage monument around six-thirty? That should give us enough distance from anyone to avoid being overheard."

The to-be Hokage smiled, "Sounds good. I'll see you then Hina-chan!"

She smiled too, despite the slightly queasy feeling in her stomach. "See you later Naruto-kun."

They gave each other a quick hug, Hinata giving the blonde a peck on the cheek as well, before they parted ways.

For some reason that day seemed to drag on forever. Team seven meet up at the bridge at eleven, did a few D-rank missions, and trained the rest of the day.

For the most part everything went smoothly, albeit slowly. So slowly that when they finished their missions they were surprised it was only four in the afternoon. After their warm-ups, Kakashi decided that they should spar against each other to fully get to know the others' style. No ninjutsu allowed, of course. They weren't trying to kill each other after all.

The masked jounin, going on that premise, decided to pit Sakura against Sasuke and have the winner fight Naruto.

Their fight lasted roughly ten minutes. Sakura put up a pretty good fight, but in the end, lost. For all intents and purposes, Sasuke just had more chakra, and she had run out. Though her reserves had increased greatly compared to before, she just didn't have as much as the boys.

Then it was Sasuke's and Naruto's turn. The blonde decided to leave Kyuubi on the sidelines, so the fight was more equal; if one versus seventeen was anywhere near equal. They were ninja. There's no such thing as cheating in the ninja world. Never the less, Naruto held back. In the end the score was what you would expect it to be: Naruto won. He used a few kage bunshin to hold Sasuke down using chakra infused wires, while the real Naruto brought his metal claws an inch away from his neck. Not that Sasuke didn't put up a good fight. Oh no, quite the opposite. Their battle went on for about forty-five minutes. Pretty long, all things considered

Breathing heavily Naruto put away his claws and cancelled his clones.

He gave a small grin. "Nice job," he managed between breaths.

Sasuke just nodded weakly. Anything that had the blonde chakra powerhouse breathing heavily would have anyone else short of Gai or Lee exhausted too.

Both breathless, they wearily wandered around the training area collecting their weaponry. Sasuke's sword was lodged into the trunk of a tree and took both of the genin to haul it out. When they made their way back over to the rest of the team, Kakashi's only eye that they could see was wide as it could be, and Sakura's jaw was brushing the floor.

The boys both spoke at the same time, "What?"

Kakashi quickly composed himself as Sakura squealed, "You guys were awesome!"

A wide smile made itself known on Naruto's face and even a smirk that was almost a smile graced Sasuke's visage.

Kakashi also had some praise to offer, "Yes boys, quite good. Now, how about we end training early for today? I have some business to take care of. Later."

Without another word he poofed away.

Naruto gave a weary sigh. 'Well this is annoying. Now I have an hour and a half before we have to meet up with Hina-chan. May as well invite them for supper.' He turned to his teammates

"So, guys, whose up for ramen?"

Kyuubi hopped up on the boy's shoulder as his teammates merely nodded agreement.

Once the arrived at the Ichiraku ramen stand. Naruto brought up the subject of going to the Hokage monument.

"Sooo, guys."

Sasuke and Sakura looked up for their noodles. Usually nothing could tear Naruto away from his ramen, except Hinata of course, but that was a different story. To make him actually talk before he finished was astonishing, considering that he could eat it all within thirty seconds.

Sakura answered. "Ya?"

The jinchuuriki hesitated for a moment, and within this moment Kyuubi took the opportunity to jump onto his head. 'Don't screw this up kit.'

Naruto silently agreed with the kitsune. "I know you guys have been pretty suspicious of me…"

Sasuke's eyes narrowed, directing a small glare at the blonde. 'Of course we've been suspicious! You went from dead last to being as strong as you are now in the space of a day!'

Naruto rolled his eyes, "Don't look at me like that Sasuke, it won't do you any good." He lazily slurped a noodle as his teammates paid rapt attention. "Anyway, I would like to clear everything up. And by everything, I mean everything."

Both of his teammates' eyes went wide. 'Is he kidding?!'

It was Sakura who verbally spoke. "You're serious?" 'Cha! We're finally gonna find out how he got so strong!' He nodded.

"Can we ask questions?"

That was when Sasuke decided to add his two cents. "Use your common sense Sakura, of course we can ask questions."

And that was when hell froze over.

There was no warning. Absolutely none at all. Her face didn't change expression in the slightest. She just decked the Uchiha scion across the face. "SHANARO! Shut up and let Naruto-baka finish!" THEN the angry tic appeared above her eye.

The Uchiha, having been knocked out of his seat, just sat staring at her, rubbing his face. 'She hit me. She actually hit me! Is it that time of month? Does she want to know THAT badly?"

Naruto, after taking a moment to pinch himself to see if he was dreaming, intervened before Sasuke ended up swallowing a few teeth. "Uh, Sakura?"

Now she rounded on Naruto, anger mark gone. "Yes, Naruto?" The complete and sudden calm, the sickly sweet innocence of her voice, scared the blonde beyond belief.

"Y-y-you can ask as m-many questions as you w-w-want!"

Sasuke still couldn't believe what had happened, Naruto was going over his jutsu list to keep himself from bolting, and even Kyuubi was a bit freaked out by Sakura's tone of voice. Thankfully, however, Naruto's last comment seemed to snap the presumed PMSing, split-personality-from-hell girl out of her self-made house of horrors.

Just like that, she was all sunshine and smiles again "Okay!"

That somehow made it all the creepier.

Needless to say the boys were quite careful about what they said after that, and Sasuke was sure to always remain just out of arms reach of the pink haired banshee.

Seeing things were more or less back to normal (Since when was the ninja world normal?), Naruto helped Sasuke back into his seat, and continued what he was saying. "So, ah, anyway, Sasuke, Sakura. When we're finished here, how about we head up to the top of the Hokage monument, alright?"

Judging by the way that they both started shoveling noodles into their mouths, they wanted to get there quickly.

By the time they got to the designated meeting spot it was about six twenty-five. Five minutes early, but Naruto knew that Hinata wasn't late. Ever. So needless to say, she was already there.

"What's Hinata doing here?" It was Sakura who broke the otherwise silent ascent.

The blond paused before replying. "She's in on this too." He then spoke to the white-eyed girl. "We're here Hina-chan!"

The said girl giggled, "I can tell that Naruto-kun. Anyway, I already set up the clearing with the silencing jutsu, so make yourselves comfortable."

The clearing that they had just walked into wasn't overly large, about fifteen feet in diameter. There were odd seals written on paper on many of the trees surrounding the area, presumably made for silence and privacy, and probably would alert those inside their range if anyone approached. The grass beneath their feet was a soft pale green and in the center of the clearing there were two fallen logs.

"Well, if you two would take a seat." Naruto gestured toward the logs.

The two genin still in the dark sat on the log across from Naruto and Hinata. The gears in Sasuke's mind were turning like crazy; he was trying to guess what the two were about to say. ' What could possibly have let him get so powerful so quickly? How is Hinata involved in this?'

Hinata began slowly, "I know that you guys are suspicious of us, as Naruto-kun must have already said. In any case, I am a part of that secret as well."

The male time traveler took a deep breath, "I'm not quite sure how to put it lightly, so I'm going to just say it alright?" There was a collective nod from the other two. "Okay. I, we, are from the future."

The pink haired girl and brooding avenger stared at them in open disbelief. Sakura spoke first. "Come again?"

They both shifted in their seats a little and Hinata repeated, "We are from the future."

Sasuke finally seemed to be able to speak again as he said in a rather breathless voice, "You're serious."

Naruto nodded. "Dead serious."

The Uchiha then seemed to think for a moment as Sakura was gaping like a fish out of water, "Well, that would explain a hell of a lot."

Naruto chuckled nervously, "So any questions?"

Sakura came back to her senses and her hand shot up. School reflexes aren't ironed out overnight after all. Or even over the period of several months.

"Yes, Sakura?"

Blushing embarrassedly she put her hand down and asked, "Why did you guys come back?"

The blonde glanced at Hinata before replying in an accusing voice, "Well Hinata-chan wasn't supposed to." She had the grace to look embarrassed. Naruto's voice turned grave, "I came back because if I didn't, the leaf would've been destroyed. Was about to be destroyed. There were so, so many dead already…" His voice trailed off as the memories replayed before his eyes.

Sakura posed another question. "How far in the future do you two come from?"

Naruto shook himself out of his reverie "About thirteen years in the future. I was twenty-six."

Sasuke then voiced his question, "Did I manage to kill Itachi?"

Both of the time travelers hesitated. They had hoped that this topic would come up later. It was Naruto once again who answered, "Yes, you did manage to kill him. But at a price."

"What kind of price?" The raven's eyes narrowed.

"Your friends. Your village. Your very sanity."

"How." That was a demand, not a question.

They both sighed; this was going to be a long explanation. Hinata began, "Well, in about a month there is going to be the chunin exams. Last time, during those exams, a man named Orochimaru," Sakura gasped. She knew well who that man was. Hinata continued. "Decided that he would come and claim you, so to speak. You see, he wanted the sharingan. He ended up placing the curse seal on you. Because of the seal, your darkest urges began to gain control of you, whittling away at your sanity. You ended up leaving the village to go and train under him."

That shocked them. Sakura was once again the first to comment, "Sasuke betrayed the village!?" Her voice was that of utter disbelief.

Naruto interjected, "And that's not the worst part. After he killed Orochimaru and Itachi, he started planning the destruction of the Konoha."

Sasuke couldn't believe what he was hearing. He had left the village AND plotted to destroy it!? 'But I never even thought about anything even close to that! EVER.' To say that he was shocked would be an understatement.

Sakura's small voice questioned, "Is that why you came back?"

The blond had a thin, sad smile on his face, "Oh no. I had to take care of Sasuke about nine years before I had to come back."

"By 'take care of', you mean…" Sasuke trailed off, almost afraid of what he might hear.

Naruto's eyes lowered, ashamed of what he had done, "Yes. By 'take care of', I mean that I had to kill you. What happened… Sakura and I were on a mission to try to negotiate with you, when you… When you snapped, I suppose. The fight went on for a long time… When it came down to the last round, so to speak, you managed to… skewer," Sakura winced at his choice of words, "Sakura right through the stomach with a poisoned blade. You just… flicked her off… like she was a rag doll… like there was a piece of trash that had gotten stuck on your blade…" Sasuke couldn't help but grimace. That he could become so cold… so cruel…

"When I asked you why… Why you had done all this… all you said was, 'Because I can.' It just made me so mad. I managed to grab Sakura with a kage bunshin, and got her to the hospital in time. She was in a coma for a few weeks. After I… did what I had to do… I don't think I managed a good night's sleep for over a month…"

Naruto was lost in his own little world, eyes glazed over and unseeing, trapped in his memories. Hinata gently took his hand and spoke again, "I never want to see him that way, the way he was when he came back into the village, ever again. I'm not sure if I could handle that." She turned to the grimacing Uchiha with a small, sad smile. "Although, Sasuke, we believe that you only did what you did because of the influence of Orochimaru's cursed seal. That's one of our main objectives. To stop Orochimaru."

Sasuke accepted that, the look on his friends' faces was enough to convince him that whatever power he might gain from Orochimaru, it wasn't worth it. Certainly not such haunted looks. Although, he couldn't help but wonder about something.

"So, you have more then one objective?" It was more of a statement then a question.

The heiress looked at the ground and answered softly, "Well our other objective is to wipe out a group of people. They call themselves the Akatsuki. What they are doing is capturing Jinchuurki's, and extracting the demons jailed inside of them. We need to bring them down. Sasuke, your brother is a member."

At this Sasuke's hands curled into fists, his brow furrowed in rage, eyes flickering between black and red, the memories rushing back.

'You lack hatred...'

'Become strong to defeat me...'

'You will never be strong enough...'

'Foolish little brother...'

Naruto, finally coming out of his trance, heard the last bit of Hinata's sentence and saw the effects on the raven-haired boy.

"Sasuke, don't act like that. Everything that Itachi did isn't as it seems."

Now the red eyes were glared in his direction. "How can you say that! He murdered our entire family!"

Seeing that he may need an intimidation factor to make the young Uchiha listen he let some of Kyuubi's chakra bleed into his eyes, tinting them purple.

"He's working as a spy for Konoha."

"What are you talking about?" Anger and disbelief seeped into his tone, making Sakura next to him flinch. His tone was that of barely restrained fury.

Everyone hung on to the blonde's next words, power and truth lacing his tone.

"Before the massacre, the Uchiha clan was planning a coup de'tat. Itachi was the last link to the village, promoted to ANBU captain at age thirteen. Your father and clan used him as a spy, but he was loyal to the village first. Your brother, only 4 years old, had seen the horrors of the last Great Shinobi War. He knew that, if civil war were to erupt in Konoha, other villages would take this chance to attack, and it would be a 4th Shinobi War. He wanted to avoid that at any cost.

"Now, why did the Uchiha want to usurp the village? You see, the Uchiha were fed up with how the village was treating him. The council placed blame on the Uchiha for the Kyuubi attack, since the sharingan could control the Kyuubi. In the end, it was really Uchiha Madara who enslaved Kyuubi and forced him to attack the village, in an attempt to destroy it. So, naturally, the council thought it was reasonable to put sanctions on that clan. The third was against it but three of the council over ruled it and the bills were passed.

"The three on the council were Danzou, and Sandaime's former teammates, Homura, and Koharu. Those three are also responsible for the massacre. Sarutobi tried to come to an agreement with the clan, but once again, those three overruled him and sent the order to Itachi.

"Itachi was faced with a very tough choice. He could kill the Uchiha clan and stop the world from going into a 4th Great Shinobi War, or let the coup de'tat happen, and thus open the doors for said war. In the simplest terms, it was a kill one, save a thousand, kind of deal. Or rather, kill a clan, save the world. Konoha was definitely not ready for a war like that so soon."

Even though the explanation was the complete and utter truth Sasuke still felt himself grappling with it. After all one, couldn't just alter their way of think after years of believing it, living it. It wasn't that he didn't believe it; it was that he didn't want to believe it. To believe his own clan had wanted to start war within the village, to believe his own village had ordered the execution of his clan…

But this truth, it was one of those truths you could feel with every fiber of your being, sending a shiver to every portion of your body. This was the feel of an irrefutable truth.

The boy's world was practically turned upside down. 'Everything that I had believed, everything that I thought was true about that day... Was just a cover up! My entire life, my goal, my ambition, a complete lie!'

After a few moments Sasuke manage to choke out, "Then why does he want me to grow strong and defeat him then? What's your answer for that?!" The sorrow, the confusion, the rage, all of it was evident in his words.

Naruto's shining violet orbs closed. This was hard for him, he knew that, but he also needed to get over it.

"He wants you to defeat him, he wants you to grow strong and get over everything, because he feels guilty for what he did. He thinks that if you kill him he may be able to atone for his sins."

Sasuke's eyes glinted, "And what exactly happened last time?"

Hinata shifted and looked away. Sakura just looked shocked. Naruto continued to answer his questions.

"You went crazy. You were so obsessed with power that you did anything you could get it. Including betraying the village and because of that Itachi only blamed himself more. He wanted you to become strong and loyal to the village, but you did the opposite. Once you became strong enough, and learned the truth so late, you sought to destroy the village that you should have been loyal to."

Tension was thick in the air as the Uchiha continued to fight himself. After countless minutes of strained silence Sasuke seemed to come to a conclusion. He sighed and rubbed his temples to relieve the pressure of a coming headache. He doubted he would sleep tonight.

Sakura, not able to handle the silence anymore, she burst forth with the question that had been on her mind for a while now. "So, in the end, whose fault is it? Because as far as I can see, this can all trace back to the Kyuubi attack or even before... Someone must be the cause of all this."

It was then that the small fox known as Kyuubi hopped down from a nearby tree from which he had been observing everything. As he spoke he began pacing between the young genin.

"Yes, there is one person at fault. His name is Uchiha Madara. And yes, it does date back to before the attack. In fact, it dates back to the time of the first Hokage."

Everyone turned to the fox, who now had their complete attention. As he told his story, he continued to pace.

"Long ago, before the village of Konoha had formed, ninja were in a constant state of war. Each ninja was loyal to his own clan, and each clan fought all the other clans for dominance. Two of these clans were the Senju clan, and the Uchiha clan." The fox paused and turned towards the genins.

"The Senju and the Uchiha clan were undoubtedly the two most powerful clans. They were also great rivals. Whenever one clan went into a battle, the other was sure to be on the opposing side. Each clan had a great leader. Of the Uchiha, their leader was Uchiha Madara. Of the Senju, Senju Hashirama.

"Now, through their many battles, the two clan leaders came to respect each others power. Eventually, an alliance was formed. Once the two clans allied, the quickly began to dominate many other clans. Soon, Konohagakure no Sato, the Village Hidden in the Leaves, was created.

"But alas, there was a conflict. Madara wanted to lead the village, for throughout their alliance, the Uchiha clan had become little more than guard dogs of the Senju clan. However, his clan disagreed with him, as did the rest of the village. And so, Hashirama become the Shodai (First) Hokage. Disgraced, Madara left the village.

"But is was not over then. By leaving the village, Madara was declared a missing-nin, and Hashirama gave chase to them. When they battled, I was summoned, and controlled. The battle created what you know as the Valley of End. Alas, The Shodai could suppress my abilities to a degree, and Madara lost. I returned to the spirit world, and the Shodai returned to his village, both of us believing Madara to be dead.

"However, somehow, Madara survived. He spent years regaining his power, so that he may summon me again and attempt to destroy Konoha, as was the case twelve years ago. But again, Madara was defeated, this time by the Yondaime. Now, he is the leader of Akatsuki, and he seeks to gather ALL the tailed beasts, and destroy Konoha once and for all."

By the time he was finished, the sun had set and the stars were beginning to come out. The mood was slightly morose, but they all seemed to have an understanding of what they had to do and what was to come. A few questions however still needed to be asked.

Once again, Sakura seemed to ask the important questions, "Are you going to tell Hokage-sama or even Kakashi-sensei?"

Hinata decided it was about time she spoke up and answered, "Yes, we're going to tell Hokage-sama next, probably sometime within the next week, as for Kakashi... We're not quite sure when to tell him..."

Next to her Naruto nodded and a sly grin crept across his face, eyes fading back into their sapphirine hue, instantly breaking the serious air to the conversation. "Come on Sakura, I know you have some less... serious... questions to ask. You are, after all, a born gossip."

At that the rosette blushed as dark as her hair but continued on despite her embarrassment, "Naruto, I swear one day your gonna regret saying that, but in the meantime... Who does Ino-pig end up with!?"

The last part was rushed, as if she couldn't wait to get the question out. Chuckling the question was answered, "Heh, Ino actually ended up with Shikamaru. They had a little boy named Shikone who was six when we left."

Her eyes widened. That was preftect! Sasuke was all hers! "What about the others?"

"Well, Asuma and Kurenai got together, they had a boy named Asuka who was eleven. Neji and Tenten, you'll meet them in the chunin exams, had a little girl named Teran, she was five..."

Naruto's voice trailed off. Sakura's eyes narrowed. Something else was there, "What about you two? You are obviously more then just friends."

Hinata twiddled her thumbs, something she hadn't done in a long time before she responded, "Naruto and I are-… were, married. We had a little girl who was five. Her name was Kianta, but we just called her Kia for short."

Naruto grabbed one of her hands and softly brushed his thumb over her knuckles, "But I wouldn't have wanted her to grow up in that world anyway. One of the reasons I finally made the decision to come back. That world was too far beyond repair."

The somber expression on the group was enough to let anyone know that there was no joking about it, no acting, no smoke and mirrors, no nothing. It was, pure and simple, just the daunting truth.

Naruto stood up and caused everyone to look at him, "Well, I think that's enough depressing conversation for one night. How about we all go home?"

Soft smiles greeted him from Sakura and Hinata while Sasuke just smirked.

"One more question, dobe."

The blond raised one fine golden eyebrow, "What?"

"Did you finally make it to Hokage?"

The smirk on Sasuke's face said it all, meanwhile a foxy grin took over Naruto's.

"Damn straight I did teme!"

During the next week, all of them had threw themselves even more into their training, desperate to make a difference in the outcome of the future.

On a few separate occasions, the duo talked to Sasuke and Sakura about what would happen during the chunin exams. While they still weren't sure exactly what their course of action would be, they were at least were prepared.

"Hey, Naruto?"

Him and Sakura were sitting under a tree, taking a short breather from training.

"Ya, Sakura?"

The rosette fidgeted a second, while making sure no one was in hearing distance of them (except for Kyuubi, who was lazily stretched out on a branch above them snoozing) before spitting it out, "Well, you said that you and Sasuke were trained under two of the Sannin, Jiraiya and Orochimaru, but what about me?"

Naruto slapped his forehead, how had they forgotten to tell her?!

"Gah! Forgot about that! Anyway, you were trained under the last Sannin, Tsunade."

Her eyes grew wide, "Really!?"

Naruto nodded. "Yep. She even taught you the secret to her super strength, something about absolute perfect chakra control. Anyway, you could cause a mini earthquake with just one finger! I can't even count the times you sent me flying through a wall or a tree. Or thirty-seven of them. Sometimes, I swear you gave me brain damage with that temper of yours."

Sakura laughed at the mental picture she gave him.

"I was that good?"

"Oh ya, after a while you even surpassed the old hag. You were the head of the hospital after all, and one of my top advisers."

A strange glint came into her emerald eyes as he watched her stand up. Suddenly, he had a very bad feeling about the pink haired girl in front of him.

"W-what are you planning, Sakura?"

She turned back to stuttering blond, "What do you think? I'm gonna get a head start on that strength technique!"

Naruto just sweat dropped as he watched her wander, off mumbling theories about how to achieve such a skill.

'Dear Kami. What have I unleashed upon our world?'

After a moment, Sasuke flopped down next to the blonde, sword still out and sweating. He had just reduced a training log to little more then saw dust.

Seeing the way the blonde was acting, and how Sakura was stalking away, muttering under her breath, he asked. "What's with Sakura?"

Naruto composed himself, "I told her what she could do in the future."

Sasuke just gave him a look.

"She was trained by Tsunade, one of the Sannin. You did not want to be on the receiving end of one of her punches. She accidentally clocked Kiba in the head once, when she was going after me. He didn't see the light of day for a week, and when he did, he was staring at the ceiling of the hospital for another week and a half."

The Uchiha simply winced.

"So, why did you decide to come back anyway? What made you even think about it?"

"It wasn't my time." Naruto spoke with a low voice, "I wasn't going out to that battle, there was a fear in me that that could be the end of me and everything I knew. I couldn't go. After all, the future isn't written in stone. It's not even written in wood. It's written in metal. Soft, moldable, metal. If you apply enough heat, of course."

Sasuke looked at him. He hadn't thought of it like that before. Suddenly he stood up. If this was going to work, they had to be at their best. "Well dobe, are you just gonna sit there or are we going to train? Although I don't mind beating the crap out of you if decide to just to grow into the ground."

Sensing the challenge, the blonde instantly hopped to his feet, "Yeah right teme! I'll mop the floor with your ass!"

The next day around, four in the afternoon, the old Hokage found himself staring out the window in his office.

'The chunin exams are coming up fast, and it seems as though all three rookie teams are going to be entered this year. From what I hear from the senseis, all three teams have grown far stronger, far quicker then we could ever have imagined. Even my lazy assed son's team is doing exceedingly well.'

The man drew another puff on his pipe and turned back to his desk, 'When will this paperwork ever end? Damn it Minato, why couldn't you have invented an anti-paperwork jutsu...' He chuckled dryly, 'If he had been in office longer, he probably would have.'

The thought of his late successor saddened him slightly, 'He would have gone so far...'

A few moments later he heard a slight tap on his door, before it opened.

"Hey! Old man!"

The Hokage set down his pen, 'Naruto...' When he turned around he was inwardly startled at the Hyuuga's state of dress accompanying him, in all of her fishnetted, bandaged, short shorted-ness. 'What on earth happened to Hinata?! I can't believe Hiashi would let her wear something like that, in public no less!'

Never the less, the old shinobi showed on emotion other then mild surprise at the abrupt meeting. As he observed the two he noted how well they complemented each other. Hinata's dark hair and lavender tinted pearl-like eyes, which were expressing anxiety. Naruto's sun-kissed blonde, untamed hair, and eyes bluer then the ocean, virtual sapphires. They had a fire burning in them that he hadn't seen since the Kyuubi attack.

He met the Sandaime's eyes in a direct stare with those two burning blue orbs.

"We need to talk."

Author's Note: Well there you have it! Chapter 13! I think I did pretty good if I do say so myself. Although hell that conversation was hella long! OMG don't worry you'll never have to sit through another like that again (I hope lol). Anyway just to warn you I'm going on vacation for most of the month of August although I will have my laptop with me I may not always have Internet. I will however try to get another chapter out before then!

Beta's Note: For every one of you who reads this and DOESN'T review, I shall eat a kitty . Don't mess with me. I KNOW.
"If violence doesn't work, you're not using enough."

Please...

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