What Could've Been

by Concentrated Awesomeness

Naruto gets pushed to his limit early on in life. The same could be said for Sasuke. Follow along as both go through hardships that test their sanity. The two have to rely on each other to prevent the darkness that could have been. More mature, God-like Naruto. Good Sasuke, probably also God-like or close to it. May have some pairing(s) later on in the story, but no yaoi.

8. Chapter 8

Double Release! (Cheers erupt from everywhere) Hope you all enjoy the next installment of What Could've Been.

I don't own Naruto. I called Kishi to talk about it, and he killed me through the phone for such an awful offer. Apparently a paperclip, 3 pennies, and a rubberband is not enough to purchase the manga.

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Itachi had just returned from the woods and sat Sasuke down against a tree and was on his way to collect Naruto when red chakra started floating off of Naruto in waves before forming into 3 tails.

"Can he control the Kyuubi's chakra or did the seal weaken?" Itachi pondered slightly worried.

"Wow, this is nice." Said Naruto with a smile as he felt the 9 tailed demon's chakra flowing through him without the bestial instints.

"Naruto is that you?"

"Yes Itachi sensei. I talked the fox into loaning me his chakra to see how we match up with his power."

"I see. Are you ready then?" Said Itachi before they both disappeared in a blur.

They clashed towards the middle of the field as Naruto threw a punch at Itachi only to have it blocked. The force of the blow did however blow Itachi back several feet.

As Itachi was sliding backwards he began to make handseals, and much to his surpise, Naruto began to copy them with his Mangekyo Sharingan active.

"Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu!" (Grand Fireball) They both said at the same time before blasting out a massive stream of fire at each other. They clashed in the middle and battled for dominance for a brief moment before Naruto's won and Itachi was forced to substitute himself with a log.

"Bunshin Daibakuha." (Clone Great Explosion) Itachi said as he formed 2 shadow clones beside him that instantly rushed at Naruto.

Naruto simply launched himself towards the shadow clones, intent on clawing through them to dispel them. As soon as he got into range for a strike, he heard one of the clones speak one simple word "Boom."

Naruto was blown back out of the clearing and through a tree from exploding clones in such close proximity.

Itachi wasn't the most feared shinobi in Konoha for no reason. He knew that with the fox's chakra shroud that Naruto wasn't down for the count. It proved to be a smart move, as even though he was prepared, and using his Sharingan, he barely had time to dodge the rocket that was Naruto's fist as the blonde shot out of the woods.

Naruto, realizing he missed, tried to stop and turn back for another attack, but he had for too much momentum and continued sliding across the ground backwards before he sucked in a big breath that made his chest swell out.

"What jutsu could this be that requires no hand seals? Damned fox." Itachi thought as he flashed through a set of hand seals for his own jutsu.

Naruto released the breath he had sucked in, and along with it a stream of white flames the size of a schoolbus, aimed right at Itachi.

Itachi finished his seals and gathered all the chakra he could manage before a dragon made of water that rivaled the size of Naruto's flamethrower rose out of the nearby pond and crashed into the flamethrower, covering the entire field in steam. "Suiton: Suiryudan no Jutsu." Itachi huffed out. He didn't have a very large chakra reserve, and that last technique took a lot out of him. He knew he'd have to finish this quick.

He didn't get long to ponder on the issue before he was forced to dodge several volkswagon sized fireballs coming through the steam that shrouded the area. It was thick enough that even Itachi couldn't see through it, so he figured Naruto was just firing blindly at him.

"What to do… I can't keep up this fight with him for long. I hate to use the Mangekyo on him but I think it may be necessary. I think I've got it." Itachi thought as he continued dodging the fireballs that never seemed to end.

"Kagebunshin No Jutsu." Itachi said as a clone appeared beside him and took off at blinding speeds into the steam. "Doton: Moguragakure no Jutsu." Itachi said before disappearing under the ground.

The Itachi clone charged straight at the source of the fireballs and threw several shuriken towards Naruto.

Naruto let out a chakra-laced roar that knocked the kunai down before launching a red chakra arm towards the clone, catching it before he could move. Naruto grinned since he had just won this match, until the Itachi in his hand 'poofed' away. Before he could react, the real Itachi jumped out of the ground in front of him and the 2 made eye contact.

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Tsukiyomi world.

Naruto found himself pinned to a cross as he looked out at the landscape he was in. Everything was made up of black and white, and accented by a blood red moon.

"Genjutsu?" Naruto thought to himself as he took in the visage. "Kai!" He said as he tried to pulse his chakra to cancel it, to no avail.

"Naruto-kun. I must congratulate you on a good fight thus far, no one has yet forced me to use this technique. This is the most powerful genjutsu in the world. In here, I control everything; time, matter, and ever space." Itachi said in an echoing voice as his Mangekyo Sharingan appeared on the moon.

The next thing Naruto knew, he was face to face with Itachi. "One day you too will be able to perform this technique. But now, I shall use it to win. In here, 72 hours will only amount to 1 second in the real world. Now for the next three days you will be forced to watch me eat ramen, and you will have none! HAHA!" Itachi said with an evil laugh. (Hey he just wants to win the match. And maybe have some fun. Not destroy Naruto's brain.)

"NOOOO! That is inhumane!" Naruto cried out as anime tears began to flow down his cheeks.

Itachi then materialized an exact copy of Ichiraku's and sat down "Hey old man! One miso ramen with pork!" He yelled out, mimicking Naruto.

"NO PLEASE I CAN'T TAKE THIS!" Naruto yelled as he struggled to break free.

Itachi looked at him with an evil smirk before devastating bowl after bowl after bowl of ramen. It was never ending and in his world, he would never get full.

It only took 2 hours of torture before Naruto passed out and slumped over on the cross. Itachi promptly chuckled and ended the genjutsu as the victor.

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Naruto's mindscape- be warned, this section contains a highly pissed demon fox that intends to swear. Bunches.

"FUCKING INSOLENT LITTLE HUMAN! I WILL FUCKING KILL YOU IF YOU EVER HYPNOTIZE ME WITH THOSE GODDAMNED ACCURSED EYES AGAIN!" Kurama roared with an anger and killing intent that no human had ever witnessed before.

Naruto managed to somehow stay conscious, which spoke volumes about his testicular fortitude, but he was shaken to his very core and couldn't manage to make his mouth produce words.

"Don't just fucking stair at me! Explain yourself before I rip your head off and shit down your neck!" The fox continued raging.

'Gulp' "I-I-I don't-" "Don't fucking stutter in my presence!"

At this point Naruto almost lost control of his bladder. "I don't know what you mean by hypnotizing you, fox."

"Bullshit! And don't call me fox you disrespectful little shit! You will address me as Kurama-sama!"

"How the hell did I hypnotize you? I asked for you chakra and you agreed."

"The hell I did! Your fucking Sharingan invaded my brain and forced me!"

"I barely know how to use the Sharingan, much less brainwash the strongest of all demons!" Naruto replied, getting angry at the fox for his 'false' accusations.

"Dammit I don't know how you did it but you hypnotized me!"

"I don't believe you!"

"I'll fucking eat you!" roared Kurama as he shot his giant paw out and slammed it down at Naruto, missing by mere inches.

"What the hell?! Give me a chance to explain here!"

"There's no explaining! You-"

"Shut the hell up! This is my mind and I am in charge! I will only tell you one more time; I didn't do anything to you!"

The fox simply growled and reached a tail to Naruto's forehead. Naruto now knew the fox couldn't hurt him so he allowed it to happen. Suddenly the tail touched his forehead and there was a white flash then everything was dark… he was asleep.

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Flashback

He was suddenly awoken by the sound of footsteps on water. His body acted on it's own, opening it's eyes to reveal… him and began speaking. "What do you want Kit?"

"I need some of your chakra, but without wanting to kill everything in sight." 'Naruto' replied

His body once again spoke on its own "Absolutely not. You are in no danger of dying, therefore I am in no danger of dying."

"I don't care what I am! I need some chakra to see how I stack up with the boost." 'Naruto' replied once more.

"I refuse." Current Naruto's body spoke again

At this point Naruto(from Kurama POV) witnessed the three tomoe in Naruto(flashback Naruto)'s eyes begin to spin rapidly before they merged into the familiar pattern of his Mangekyo. "You will give me your chakra, and leave me in control. You've been freeloading for far too long, so I demand rent." He said in a commanding voice.

That was the end of it as Naruto(Kyuubi)'s mind focused on one thing only. "Obey." He thrn felt the chakra being pulled from his body freely. Everything then flashed white once more

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Flashback end

"What the hell was that?" Naruto asked, stunned by what he just saw.

"That, Kit, our meeting earlier from my perspective. Do you admit to using those damned eyes on me now?"

"I can't deny it, but I had no idea I was doing that… Sometimes these eyes act on their own accord. Believe me, I don't intend to make your stay any more unpleasant than need be, I may need your help sometimes. I apologize for what happened."

"I can sense that you tell the truth, so I will let it slide, BUT JUST THIS ONCE!" Kurama started calmly and then exploded at the end. "But still, don't expect me to freely help you now. You haven't earned any respect from me."

"I understand. I'll be seeing you later, Kurama-san."

"That is Kurama-SAMA to you brat!"

"As you just said, -sama is a term of respect, and you haven't earned my respect yet." Naruto said with a cocky grin.

"This is understandable. Begone so that I may nap.

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At the academy

Hinata sat boredly at her table listening to Iruka talk about the 5 different elemental countries. It was quite a drag without Naruto and Sasuke, but they had dropped out for a 'fasttrack ANBU school'. Deep down she wished she could follow their path, but they were special prodigies, she just wasn't good enough.

"sigh. Naruto-kun… Sasuke-kun… one day I will be able to stand beside you, instead of walking behind you. But how?" Thought Hinata as she zoned out from the lesson. She needed help to catch up to her friends, but who could teach her? She has good chakra control so she would make a good genjutsu user, to supplement her jyuken.

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In a dango shop on the other side of Konoha

"Achoo!" The noise came from a woman who some would argue to be the most beautiful women in all of Konoha. She was around the age of 22 with deep red eyes, brown hair that dipped just below her shoulders, and a red one-armed shirt underneath a white sash-like dress that stopped just above her thighs. She also wore chainmail under the outfit, hiding her cleavage and upper thighs.

"Bless you Nai-chan!" Came the enthusiastic voice of the woman who was arguable the second most beautiful lady in the village, even if she was hated by a large crowd for reasons beyond her control. She was around 18 years old and wore a simple chainmail t-shirt and short shorts. She also wore a knee-length trench coat that was open down the middle, leaving little to the imagination. On the lower half she wore an orange mini-skirt, that like the trench coat, left little to the imagination.

"Thanks Ko-chan, someone must be talking about me." Kurenai said as she rubbed her nose.

"I wonder if it was a man?" Anko replied with mischievous eyes and a large grin.

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Back with Team Itachi.

Itachi was sitting back against a tree, waiting for the injured youth that formed his team to wake up. Naruto was beginning to stir, so he figured that he would be the first to wake, even if he had suffered severe(to him) mental trauma, since he had the fox to heal his issues. Sasuke had just taken a shot to head in their brief fight, so he wouldn't be too far behind Naruto.

After about 5 more minutes of waiting Naruto opened his eyes and looked around to regain his bearings. He then remembered the awful episode that had knocked him out in the first place, and began to scream and sob more anime tears.

"Naruto-kun calm down." Itachi said in his normal stoic voice.

Naruto kept on crying.

"Naruto-kun!" Itachi spoke up a bit now.

Naruto continued to cry.

"Suiton: Suiryudan no jutsu." Itachi calmly said after doing some handseals before he spat out a small water dragon that hit Naruto and drenched him.

"AHH what the hell?" Yelled the now soaked Naruto, breaking out of his ramen-induced hysteria.

"Okay then. You were spazzing over my genjutsu earlier."

Naruto's eyes widened again at the thought. "Oh God that was terrible… Itachi-sensei you are a sadist I swear."

Itachi couldn't help but chuckle at that. It seemed that he was feeling happy a lot more than normal here lately for some reason. "I was running out of chakra facing off against you with the Kyuubi, so I had to end the fight fast. By the way, how did you manage to use it's chakra so well?"

"I subconsciously hypnotized it with the Mangekyo. Is there any way you can teach me more about the Mangekyo, because I didn't even know I had used it until I talked to him again."

"I will work on that soon. We have much to cover over the next couple of years, so I will work it in." replied Itachi as Sasuke began to stir.

"Ahh welcome back Sasuke-kun." Itachi said to his little brother as he started to look around.

"Oww. I assume we lost the spar?" said Sasuke with a chuckle.

"Oh yea. Bad." Naruto replied as he let out his own chuckle.

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With Hinata.

Iruka finally decided to end his discussion and dismissed the class for the day, and Hinata was happy to finally get home. She hoped Naruto was done training for the day and was already at home waiting.

"Naruto-kun… waiting on me… at OUR home." She thought with a blush and a smile.

On the way home she decided to stop at a dango shop to pick up some dinner for Naruto and herself, since she forbid Naruto from having ramen every meal.

Once she walked in she saw 2 beautiful young ladies sitting at the table over in the corner. They looked familiar somehow, but she couldn't recognize them off the top of her head. The old Hinata would've shied away but with her newfound confidence, she approached them.

"Hello there. Sorry that I don't know your names, but I feel as if I recognize you somehow." She said as she walked up to the 2 women in the corner.

It was Anko who chose to reply. "I don't recall ever seeing you before gaki. Judging by those eyes of yours you're a Hyuga, so I don't figure that your mighty clan would have ever paid me any mind."

"Ko-chan! Be nice to her!" Kurenai replied. Now she was never fond of the Hyuga before, due to their attitude, and when she heard that the clan head had disowned his own daughter it drove the nail in the coffin.

"Actually, I am Hinata Namikaze now. I was disowned from the Hyuga clan." Replied the white-eyed youth.

"Namikaze? As in the Yondaime Namikaze?" Kurenai asked. She, like all teenage girls at the time had a crush on Minato during his life.

"Yes. His son, Naruto, took me in since he had plenty of rooms to spare in the Namikaze estate."

"Aren't you a bit young to be living with your boyfriend?" Anko asked playfully, making Hinata blush a dark shade of red.

"H-H-He's not my b-boyfriend. Only a f-friend."

"Sounds like you aren't happy about that?" Anko continued, her smile getting bigger and more evil every second.

"Anko leave the poor girl alone. I am Kurenai Yuhi, nice to meet you Hinata. I'm sorry to hear about your clan."

Anko 'hmph'ed' at Kurenai before Hinata decided to reply. "Anyways I'm sorry I bothered you two, I could've swore that I recognized you from somewhere but I guess not." She said as she bowed and turned to leave.

"Wait a second Hinata, you are in the ninja academy right?"

"Yes."

"Since you are, err… were, a Hyuga, I am sure that you have already extensively studied chakra control, yes?"

"Yes, I have very good control, as is standard in the Hyuga."

"How would you like to be my apprentice then? I would love to see the power of a Hyuga unrestricted by those laws that prevent you from learning anything but the clan style."

Hinata's eyes lit up a bit at hearing that. She had just found her ticket to catch up to Naruto and Sasuke.

"That's where I recognize you from… you are the Genjutsu Mistress, yes?" Hinata said.

"That I am. And this here is my friend Anko Mitarashi, the Snake Mistress, she will likely help with your training occasionally if you choose to accept. So what do you say about my offer?"

"It would be an honor to learn under such prestigious names. I accept."

"Good!" Kurenai said in a jovial tone with a large smile.

"Thank you Kurenai-sensei." Hinata said with a small bow.

"Sensei… HELL NO I am NOT that old!" Kurenai screamed in her head.

"Make it Nai-chan, I'm far too young to be called 'sensei'." Kurenai replied.

Hinata smiled a bit at the familiar nickname. "Thank you, Nai-chan."

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Hopefully one of these days I will finish the 'buildup' chapters and get on to some good story. I believe I'll throw in a small timeskip next chapter to help things along. Anyhow, I hope you all enjoyed.

Once more, thanks a ton to the reviewers, you guys and gals make it easier to write.

Erasels: Once again thank you for a great, honest review. I didn't want to control the Kyuubi in such a way, because I actually like the ole furball, but like you said, it was rather original and I feel like I halfway righted the wrong in this chapter.

As for the Hinata issue, I hope this chapter explained better. She is behind them too far to be in the program they are, but some extracurricular training from Kurenai for 3-4 years should help her fit in a bit better.

And lastly, the shunshin: Honestly it is a mysterious technique to me. It is supposedly a low rank technique, but is mainly only taught to chunin+; It is supposed to work by using chakra to 'amp up' muscles, which just makes you faster, but people use it to go 'through' walls and the such. I don't think the chakra control would have to be too great, given it's rank, but yea I believe even if it was than the Sharingan would help.

Gold testament: Yes I would say so. But by the time you read this, you should've already saw the rampage.