"I hear that the Kazekage had another kid. They named him Gaara," said Minato.

"Oh-ho! Redhead right?"

"How did you know?"

"Gaara was like a brother to me. He has the first one, and he eventually married my best friend Hinata. Those two got along surprising well, especially with all the jokes they made at my expense," chuckled Naruko.

"So, should I expect any more people to be dragged back here?"

"The only person who ever got stuck in my repeats was me. If the others ended up with the same problem, I've never heard of..."

Her reply dropped off as a familiar swirling vortex appeared, and she was among those who rushed to see who it was.

Without warning a body dropped out of the sky. It was one she recognized immediately, and she jumped up to catch him.

"OOF!"

The person she had caught had a mesh shirt, black jeans and wore a hitai ate that fell. She swiped it before anyone saw that the symbol had been slashed.

Once he was safely on the ground, she heard a familiar set of complaints. Complaints she had let loose every time Madara had dropped her into the past.

"You may as well let it all out...Itachi."

Sharingan red met rippled blue, and he passed out once his standard complaints had been let out.

Naruko had managed to keep the Uchiha far away from the mystery person, since she knew very well Itachi might snap and kill Fugaku for all the hell he put him through as a kid. Mikoto was fairly safe, because she hadn't pushed Itachi that much.

When he finally woke up, he found Naruko grinning at him.

"So I'm not the only one that pest has thrown into the past," she grinned.

"No. But that event was set in stone, so I had to reenact it every bloody time. After a while I just didn't care anymore. What year is it anyway?"

"Oh, roughly a few months after the Fox was supposed to be set on the village. Madara was pissed when I punted him to the Valley of the End," she said cheerfully. Itachi's eyes widened, though they were really unfocused.

"What?"

"Apparently he sent me back to the point where your cousin Obito was killed and I prevented his death. Right now we have two choices. Allow things to go their natural course...or really piss off Madara and stop the repeats. Oh, and get you a new pair of eyes."

"I don't need..."

"Itachi you can barely focus on me and your Sharingan is off. Your eyesight's shot to hell."

"I can still see some colors..." he grumbled.

Naruko tutted at him and unsealed a pair of Sharingan. Itachi stared at them and then at her in disbelief.

"So that's where they went the fifth time. I thought that mummy got them again."

"Hell no! You think I would pass up a chance to study the Sharingan and block that damn thing from happening? I swiped as many as I safely could and kept them sealed on me at all times. Hell, the only one that isn't in my control is the one I gave Kakashi."

"You gave Kakashi a Sharingan?"

"He still lost his eye, and I had a lot of spares. Can you think of anything that would piss off Fugaku more than to find out that his eye ended up in Kakashi? After all the fuss he made about it?"

Itachi couldn't help it. He laughed, long and hard. His father's eyes, which had been stolen right after he had been killed, was now in Kakashi Hatake.

He had heard during the fifth repeat that someone had gone in after he had knocked Sasuke out and stolen every pair of Sharingan they could get their hands on. He had assumed it was Danzo, but the culprit hadn't used a chakra scalpel.

He never expected it to be Naruko's doing. Then again during the second repeat when he had gone after her, she had been a medic nin that didn't use her chakra to perform surgery.

"So why did the old geezer keep dropping you off?"

"I kept trying to kill him during the attack on Ame. For some reason he tends to send me back to the day the Kyuubi attacked."

"Well he was only off the mark a few months this time. Though I do wonder why you came back in your older body and not your child one, because I know there is a younger Itachi running around."

"Possibly because you're around in your teen form as well. From what I can tell I did lose a few years because I was in my twenties when I was thrown back. And now I'm roughly 18 again," said Itachi.

"Meh. So here's my question Weasel boy. Do you want to deal with Madara alone or should we tag team and beat his ass like a drum?"

"I'm tired of dealing with him. Let's kill him together, Naruko-chan."

Naruko held out her fist for her standard agreement, which was the fist bump ritual. Itachi did so, with a little issue of where to aim his.

"Since we're gonna tag team that bastard, just call me Naruko. And once I get Rin in here, I'll have her transplant one of the Sharingan pair I have here so you can see again. And I know it will give you that rather irritating pair of eyes."

"How are we going to do my background?"

"Easy. We'll just claim that you are the oldest son of a Sharingan user that died recently and decided to try to use an untested jutsu to get to Konoha. This user is the same one I retrieved the eyes from in an attempt to buy my way into their ranks, since it's well-known that the Sharingan is from Konoha. Any idea what we should call this unknown?"

"Kodora."

"Kodora? Small Tiger? So we'll say it was a girl?"

"It's been a few months, hasn't it? It's unlikely they'll be able to tell who it originally belonged to without removing the eye."

"True. Anyway, rest up and tomorrow we'll give you a new set of Sharingan so you can see properly again."

A week later Itachi was out of the hospital and officially assigned as Naruko's permanent partner. He had impressed Minato when the man learned how loyal he was to Konoha.

Though he could do without having to listen to the Uchiha elders again.

Since he had to wait two weeks before being allowed on missions (even though Kakashi quickly adapted to the new eye, he was still stuck on sick leave until his body could adjust properly) Naruko and Itachi decided to kill time by comparing their repeats.

(From here on out it's mostly flashbacks. Italic for Naruko, Bold for Itachi.)

Naruko, when she woke up to find herself in her genin body with only the things she had on her during the battle, cursed so well that the ANBU watching her apartment actually took notes. They never thought to ask why she was cussing so early in the morning.

Later they would all be staring at her because she went to the Hokage and they had a closed meeting that had him on edge.

(Time Skip Graduation)

"DAMMIT! Why do I have to deal with the Emo and the Pink Banshee?!" said Naruko loudly.

Iruka looked at her un-amused. While she had exposed Mizuki and passed with the rest of her class, she had been acting oddly for a week now.

The other two were less happy. Sakura had been furious when Naruko called her useless and Sasuke looked ready to kill her when she said he had a brother complex.

Though she did wonder why Itachi actually drew odd designs in the cooling body of his clan. Last she remembered, he just killed them and moved on.

When they were given to their sensei, she thoroughly enjoyed the look of horror on Kakashi's face when she stole his Icha Icha and then proceeded to mock him with it.

He really wasn't happy when Naruko managed to switch his Icha Icha with some Magical Girl story.

Since he had no idea what she did with it, and the book was getting old anyway, he read it. He was left gaping in absolute disbelief.

It was a Magical Girl Hentai...with a lot of tentacles and no plot holes. Kakashi was hard pressed to find any spelling or grammatical errors.

When the test was over, he waited for Naruko while the others went to eat a large lunch.

"Where did you find this?"

"Hah! Knew you would enjoy that more than the error ridden book the Pervy Sage wrote!" said Naruko triumphantly.

"Pervy Sage?"

"Jiraiya of the Sannin. That man can't write to save his life," said Naruko flatly.

"Naruko-chan...how did you know Jiraiya is a Pervert? Or that he wrote Icha Icha for that matter?"

Naruko smirked, and released blades of wind to shred the ropes. Then she held up a single hand...and Kakashi was hard pressed not to faint. As it was, he was very glad he wore a mask at all times.

Naruko knew the Rasengan and he knew for a fact no one had ever told her how.

"Where did you learn that?"

"The same place I learned Jiraiya is my godfather, Kushina and Minato are my parents, and what really happened to Obito Uchiha," she said.

Kakashi was hanging on her every word now.

"I'm from the future Scarecrow."

Itachi woke up and realized immediately where he was. Cursing rather strongly under his breath, he noticed that his sight was back. He had pretty much lost it when he turned 21...though the party Kisame had thrown for him made up for the fact. Who knew the crass Shark nin was a fun drunk?

The first thing he did was test his eyes. He still had the Mangekyo. The next thing he did was check the date.

So he was in his ten-year old body? By the time he was twelve the coup was almost in full swing.

He had long since come to terms with his part in killing off the clan. The real question was how was he going to save his brother? Sasuke had become a traitor and worse yet, a willing pawn of Orochimaru.

Itachi had a grim smirk as he considered the illusions he could inflict on the bastard.

Once he took stock on everything he had on hand (surprised to find he had everything he had taken with him, including his Akatsuki cloak to his amusement) Itachi decided to really annoy Madara. He knew there was nothing he could do to stop Madara at this point. The ancient relic would realize he had thrown the boy into the past and kill him before he had a real chance to do anything. So he decided to go an alternate route.

Tobi was a pain in the ass ever since joining. Time to use that against him.

(Time Skip Massacre)

Itachi decided to try to at least keep Sasuke from joining Orochimaru. He didn't show the boy how he killed everyone he ever cared about. He showed him what Orochimaru did to boys under fifteen.

He didn't learn until later that his trick had succeeded...and that he had inadvertently driven his brother into Danzo's hands. Since he didn't want Sasuke to become a ROOT agent, Itachi challenged Tobi and got him to throw the teen back into the past.

It still didn't work.

Right when he was about to give up hope, he heard Naruko curse so well that he knew something was up. A private meeting with the Hokage that left him rather shaken only confirmed his suspicions.

Naruko had tried to beat Madara and failed.

And he knew Naruko better than most. She would never give up until she saved Konoha. Perhaps now he would have a chance to save his home.

(Third Repeat)

Naruko felt like crying. Twice she had gone up against Madara and twice she had failed. This was the worst repeat, because she had been thrown back right to the point where the Hyuuga had lost Hizashi. During the last repeat she had run away from the village during the Uchiha massacre and hunted down Tsunade. The blond was beyond surprised Minato and Kushina's daughter was so interested in regular healing without chakra.

(Not nearly as surprised as the Hokage was when he found out where she had vanished to.)

Naruko was so annoyed at Madara that when Itachi killed the clan (she had memorized the date so she could steal the eyes this time around and hopefully find a way to block the Sharingan) she took her rudimentary surgeon's kit (it was one Tsunade had gotten her when she proved to be a natural at healing without chakra) and a large amount of jars filled with stasis solution for external organs and went to work.

The solution and jars had been a bitch to get, but it was worth pretending to act innocent as to where it went missing. The ANBU was looking for months for the culprit, especially when the mortician told the Hokage that all activated Sharingan had been taken from the corpses soon after they were dead.

After that, she noted that the Kyuubi was restless.

She laid down a month after the theft and went into her mind.

'What Fuzzy?'

'I want to offer a truce. We both don't want to deal with the repeats again and we hate the Relic with a passion. I will help you in any way I can if it means we can kill that bastard.'

'And what is in it for you? You've been nothing but trouble since that pervert managed to get me to meet you!'

'There is an old saying. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend." And I know you would like nothing more than to murder him in the most painful way imaginable at this point. It was his fault your parents died, not mine.'

'What?!'

'Madara broke the seal and forced me to attack Konoha when all I wanted to do was leave and never return. If he hadn't used that damn eye of his, your father would be alive and you wouldn't have had me inside you.'

'That... Alright Fox. But how would this agreement work?'

'Find the scroll on chakra chains. I am sick of this damn cage. I will...tolerate a collar but that's it. In exchange I will give you chakra boosts whenever you need it and lessen the pain of the poisoning when you activate the cloak.'

'You can stop the pain?'

'It will involve giving you some of my blood and turning you into a partial demon. But the benefits will be worth it. Though I would recommend covering your nose. It will boost your sense of smell past that of an Inuzuka hound. Oh, and cats will hate you on sight.'

'Let me think about it first.'

Naruko left her mind and three weeks later found her mother's scroll on chakra chains. Once she mastered them she went into her mind and replaced the cage with a loose collar. The Kyuubi had been so pleased that he finally told her his name. From then on she called him Kurama instead of Fuzzy...unless he made a comment to annoy her.

(This is the current time skip for Itachi, and explains why he was sent to the same time period as Naruko.)

Itachi was bored. He had gone into the past seven times, and by his count two more than Naruko. He knew that she had definitely crossed Madara because her past kept changing.

First time around, Sarutobi died by the Sound Four killing him since Orochimaru couldn't.

Second time, she went missing after he killed the clan and was found a few years later with Tsunade as an accomplished medic nin who didn't use chakra. Third time, the eyes of his clan went missing and were never recovered, and Naruko went missing again only to reappear years later as the richest shinobi in the Elemental Nations. This time around she was in the BINGO book before she even went to Wave as Anko's apprentice and holder of three separate summoning scrolls and could go to five tails without getting chakra poisoning.

Itachi went up against Madara, not realizing he had done it in the same place as Naruko had a month earlier. Had he actually been paying attention and still had his sight, he would have seen the signs of battle and the taint of the Kyuubi chakra.

"How amusing, the little Weasel believes I will let him win. How many times have you done this brat?" sneered Madara.

"Six," said Itachi bored.

"Perhaps this will be your lucky number seven," cackled Madara, as he threw the Uchiha into the past again.

Itachi immediately noticed something was up, because there was a tang to the vortex that had never been there before. It took him a moment to recognize it, but once he did he knew something would happen. The last thing he saw was a flash of blond and orange before passing out.