Hello everyone.

First off, I want to thank my two reviewers and all those that put this story on their alerts and favourites.

I'm really sorry about the delay, but I'm a terrible updater at best and those of you that have seen my profile should know the data peg story. This chapter was really hard for me to write, but I don't know why.

Here is a little Christmas present for you all, so Merry Christmas. I promise to try to update faster, and am already starting the next chapter.

Read, enjoy, review if you want. Not gonna force you, but it would make me happy. So, have a great New Year and have fun,

Industrial Lace & Magic.

Yondaime

What was going on with Naruto? Ever since he'd woken up, he's been acting strange, and all this nonsense about Kyuubi, I don't know what's happened to him. Before he passed out at the training grounds, he was this arrogant little boy and now he'd gotten so quiet… it doesn't make any sense. What happened at the training grounds?

After thinking on it for a while and finding no logical explanation – other than him travelling here from sort of alternate universe, which was ridiculous, even for a ninja- I sighed and went upstairs to bed, checking in on Naruto on the way.

The next morning, I didn't wake up slowly like I usually did when I had time off. I was woken rather suddenly by a loud scream coming from my son's bedroom.

My blood ran cold as I picked up a few kunai and ran to his bedroom, throwing open the door, prepared to throw the knives.

I froze though when I saw no enemy standing in my son's room, only a boy of about one year old standing on Naruto's bed. On closer inspection, I found it was Naruto. He looked at me, confusion etched onto every inch of his face.

"What happened to me?" he asked – rather yelled – so it seemed he was only a one year old in body. He was in no way different to the hot headed sixteen year old I knew.

I went over to him, lifting him off the bed, and balancing him on my hip as I went downstairs. After putting him back down onto the sofa, I went back up to his bedroom and picked out a black t-shirt and a pair of shorts, placing a shrinking jutsu on them.

I was going to need to call Rin; she can tell me what to do. Why was my son one year old again, what had happened? What if this was an enemy attack? Try to make my son vulnerable and easy to attack. I pushed down all panic. Everyone knew better than to go after my family. They knew it was a hell of a lot less dangerous to confront me directly.

I went back downstairs and dressed Naruto in the shrunken clothes, using a hand towel to create a makeshift nappy – which Naruto didn't seem to be very happy about.

"Naruto, we don't know what control you have over your body. Better safe than sorry," I told him. Naruto made a face of disgust and sat up, since I had now finished pulling on the shorts.

Crossing his arms over his chest, he turned away from me. I could still see the pout to his lips. I laughed before biting down on my finger and summoning one of Gamabunta's fledglings.

"Go find Hanano Rin," I told it, "And bring her here, tell her something odd has happened to Naruto."

I sat back down on the sofa, and seeing Naruto was still pouting, I picked him up and sat him on my lap. After squirming about in what I could only call mock protest, he settled down and started sucking on his thumb. He'd never had this habit when he was one year old the first time. If we couldn't find any way to reverse this, I was going to have to buy him some dummies.

I absently started stroking his hair and watched as his eyelids grew heavier and started to droop. A knock on the door brought him back to full awareness and he jumped. Through his t-shirt, I could feel him little heart fluttering wildly.

I picked Naruto up – balancing him on my hip – and went to the door. I opened it up to see my old team standing in front of me.

Naruto

I knew the people standing in front of me: one because I saw him nearly everyday and the other two because I'd been told by the first.

The first was Kakashi-sensei; the other two were his old team mates Hanano Rin and Uchiha Obito. Obviously, I'd only seen the latter two in pictures, and they were never any older than fifteen years old at the most.

I held on to my father a little tighter and snuggled into the space where his neck and shoulder met.

The deep vibrations of his voice travelled through me as he chuckled and started to talk to Rin.

"I found him like this this morning," he explained, "He only seems to only be a one year old physically and still has all the reflexes of a one year old, but mentally he is Naruto – if a little shyer than normal." I looked up briefly to glare at him before returning my head to its previous position.

"Can you think of any thing that may indicate why this has happened?" Rin asked.

"Well, apart from yesterday – and you checked him over – no, I can't." Yondaime told her.

"Ok, let me check him over," she said. My dad handed me over to her and I felt a wave of panic wash over me. What was wrong with me, I'd spent sixteen years without a father, and after half a day, I can't bear to be just metres away from him?

I stretched my hands out to Yondaime who reached over and stroked my hair.

"Naruto, it's just Rin. You know Rin," he told me. That was just it, I didn't know Rin. Sure, the me in this world seemed to, but I didn't. She was nothing more than a face and a name to me in my world. That was all.

But because I couldn't blow my cover, I'd have to pretend, so I forced down the panic and focused on keeping calm as Rin took me through to the living room and took my shirt off, doing that thing medics do. Y'know, where they poke and prod at you for a few minutes, enough to leave bruises all over your body, but it does nothing to help in their diagnosis.

Eventually, she came to – what she believed to be – a good enough conclusions, but she took my dad into another room where I couldn't hear what she was saying.

As we waited, Kakashi and Obito sat either side of me. Obito picked me up and started moving me through the air making whooshing noises. God does he not listen to anything the Yondaime says. Obviously not else he would have heard the still mentally sixteen part.

Yondaime

I followed Rin through to the kitchen so she could tell me what she'd found. After pushing herself up onto the worktop, she explained what she knew.

"Well, there doesn't seem to be any sign of a jutsu, this seems to have happened naturally. Why, I have no idea. I can't tell you when this will wear off, it could be a few days, he may have to grow up all over again. I don't know." I nodded and thanked Rin for checking him out. I was relieved this didn't seem to be a jutsu; at least I was still able to protect him, though the layer of mystery left me unnerved.

I went back into the living room to get Naruto and followed my old students to the door so I could say goodbye. As Rin was leaving, she added, "Remember, he's changed mentally since he was a baby, don't expect him to be the same as he was back then." I nodded and waved goodbye as all three disappeared in a puff of smoke and a swirl of leaves.

I smiled down at Naruto and bounced him up and down a couple of times. He reached up and grabbed one of my bangs in his chubby little toddler hands.

"What shall we do now then," I asked. Before we could decide, there was another knock at the door.

Naruto

I almost jumped out of my dads arms when I saw who was at the door. I barely managed to restrain myself when I saw Itachi standing there right in front of me. I was about to launch myself at him when I saw the little boy with his head buried into his collarbone.

That chicken butt hair was very familiar.

"Sasuke," I said. The little boy looked up and eyed me suspiciously. The way he looked at me, I knew this was my Sasuke from my world.

I held my arms out to him, wanting so bad to touch him and to hug my best friend. Something I'd never had the privilege to do in my world, because technically, he was still on probation and wouldn't go anywhere near me.

Yondaime laughed again and handed me over to Itachi, who took me in his other arm and let me sit, balanced on his other hip. I reached over and ran my hand over his cheek. I felt tears fill my eyes and a single one spilt over as I blinked.

My dad looked at me and moved to wipe the tear from my cheek, but instead it was Sasuke. His chubby toddler hand a little rough on my face, but gentle all the same.

Itachi carried us – following my dad – into the front room. He then set us down on the floor and I turned to Sasuke. Once they were out of immediate earshot and engrossed in there own conversation, I spoke.

"Sasuke, is it you?" I asked, "Are you really my Sasuke?"

"Your Sasuke, you mean you came from the other Konoha?"

I nodded. "I think. Tsunade was the Godaime Hokage, rather than the Yondaime – who is apparently my father."

Sasuke nodded. "So why are we here?" I shrugged. "Its not a gen-jutsu, I already checked."

"Maybe it's a second chance. Our second chance, to have a happy life." I was only joking. Grabbing at any idea. I expected Sasuke to tell me not to be such a dobe and come up with a real answer, but instead, he just shrugged and looked thoughtful fro a while.

Yondaime

I sat down with Itachi on my sofa. After looking towards my son and Sasuke, I saw that they were both deep in conversation and turned back to the Uchiha prodigy.

"So, what happened?" I asked, waiting for his side of the story.

"Well," Itachi started, "Sasuke and I were training, when he passed out. When he woke up, he tried to attack me, saying he was going to get his revenge and passed out again. When he woke up, he was like this. I've checked him with my Sharingan, there is no jutsu surrounding him."

"No, Rin said the same about Naruto," I mumbled. I thought for a moment, coming up with a game plan. "Ok, here's what we'll do. We'll say that Sasuke and Naruto are on a mission together: long term, about a year. If this thing hasn't undone itself since then, we'll just say they have been reported dead.

"Right now, we need to find cover stories. I'll say Naruto was the son of my late half-sister – that I had never met – and that he was named after my father and that it's just coincidence that he has the same name as my own son, since Naruto was also named after my father. Do you have any plan for Sasuke?"

Itachi thought for a while before answering. "I'll tell everyone that Sasuke was the result of a mission. I'd told the woman about my brother, who she named her son after. She has found herself unable to care for him anymore due to illness, wrote to me and I agreed to bring him here. In two months, I'll receive the news of her death." I nodded at Itachi's cover story.

"You know, this could be looked at as a blessing," Itachi said. I gave him a questioning look and he continued. "Well, after Naruto was born, you spent a lot of time mourning for Kushina-san, not really giving Naruto your full attention," I felt a stab of guilt at these words, "And my father ruined Sasuke's childhood, but he's dead now. It's our second chance."

I thought about this for a moment. "Yes," I agreed, "I suppose it is."