Kakashi knew the bird was coming, and had known it would be for a good while but, that didn't stop the strange, almost painful feeling in his chest when he saw it. This was the beginning of the end. This was the point where it all went to hell and, thanks to the conversation he had with Jiraiya and Tenzo last night while Naruto slept, it could all go to hell once more. Gods forgive him, he was going to enter his team in the Chunin Exam. As the bird circled overhead, he dismissed his students before turning to go to the Hokage Tower. As he turned away, he could have sworn that he had seen Naruto staring up at the bird with an unusually grim look on his face.
All too soon, he was in front of the Hokage alongside the senseis of the other Genin teams and, sooner than he expected, he was nominating his team for promotion. He'd done it the first time around out of a subconscious desire to get rid of them and the painful memories they had brought with them. This time however, he was putting them forth as bait. He didn't know which was worse.
Iruka, the man who would kill anyone who intended harm to any of his students - especially Naruto - in any way, naturally spoke up against the recommendation, not believing the recently graduated team to be ready. He briefly thought about cluing Iruka in about Orochimaru to see what he would do to the man but, decided against it because Iruka would murder him first for using his precious Naruto as bait.
"They're ready." he said. "Naruto took down an A-class missing-nin, and an army of mercenaries singlehandedly. His methods were unorthodox but, still...Sasuke's teamwork has improved dramatically. The Pin...Sakura has become more assertive as well."
The rest of the teams that would be entered were soon entered, and as they were leaving Gai approached him. From the serious look on his face, he could tell that whatever it was he wanted to speak with him about, it wasn't for another challenge.
"What about the other problem?" Gai asked.
It took him a moment to realize what problem his friend and "Eternal Rival" was referring to, and remember telling Gai about his fears of history repeating itself. He'd all but forgotten that in his worries over Naruto's welfare and the impending invasion.
"I don't know. Sasuke seems to be fine with Naruto for the time being but, it could just be because the boy has something he wants. Sasuke hates being second best to anyone and, if he doesn't catch up to Naruto soon, things could spiral out of control." he replied, remembering what had happened when Naruto had managed to best Sasuke in a fight the last time around.
"What could Naruto have that he wants?" Gai asked.
"In simple terms, Power. Naruto's been able to distract him with something shiny as it were but, I don't know how long he'll stay distracted." he replied.
"So, the jumpsuit and the pranks have a purpose?" Gai said.
"Yeah, Naruto's set it as a "training exercise". Since Naruto is capable of outmaneuvering ANBU, and Itachi was an ANBU..." he replied, having decided a while back that that had to be the reason Sasuke would be willing to go through such humiliation.
The boy was driven by revenge and would do just about anything to get it.
"I never could figure out how Umino Iruka could catch that boy when he was capable of evading even me." Gai mused, apparently remembering one of the more recent searches for Naruto, probably the one with Mizuki and the scroll.
"It's because Naruto trusts him. That, and Iruka used to be a prankster himself, so he knows where all the best hiding spots that only a kid can fit inside are." he explained.
It was that, and the fact that Iruka seemed to be the only one who was able to accurately profile Naruto despite the boy's rather unpredictable nature.
"So?" Asuma and Kurenai asked when Gai caught up to them after his brief conversation with Kakashi.
"There is still the possibility of danger. The Uzumaki boy has rather masterfully distracted his teammate but, Kakashi believes it is only a matter of time before the boy grows bored with the distraction and does something." he replied.
That was, after all what he had gathered from the conversation. Over the past few months, he had seen enough of the Uchiha boy to know that there was a reason to worry, and both of his fellow Jounin who were teaching Sasuke's former classmates had also seen reason to worry based on what they had witnessed in regards to the Uchiha.
"So, the Uchiha boy's sudden rash of pranks..." Asuma started.
"Was the Uzumaki's idea for using up all of the Uchiha boy's spare time and energy. Since the Uzumaki had successfully demonstrated that "pranks" could be used to one's advantage on the battlefield, the Uchiha seems to have taken his "training" at face value." Gai concluded.
"Damn, that kid's brilliant. I wish he were mine." Kurenai said.
"I wonder if Kakashi would be willing to trade him for Ino." Asuma said.
"I too find myself regretting that the boy failed the graduation exam that second time." Gai admitted.
Naruto would have fit in nicely with Lee. Both boys would have quite likely driven each other to new heights and, the boy's unorthodox strategic style could have fit in nicely with his, Lee's and Tenten's fighting styles. It's a pity that there weren't any Genin teams with four Genin because, he could easily see the Uzumaki boy's cheerful nature finally cracking through Neji's depression as well. How he'd seen that exceedingly valuable asset as the demon that had resided within him for so long, he didn't know.
Sasuke smirked slightly as he prepared the bag of brightly colored arts and crafts feathers and the corn syrup. That weekly fangirl meeting wouldn't know what hit it. He was nowhere near Naruto's level when it came to evading other Ninja but, he had improved drastically. Last week he had failed to outrun the group of experienced Chunin that he had managed to completely elude yesterday. If his progress continued, he might find himself outrunning Jonin in a matter of weeks or a couple of months.
As a bonus of this training, he'd found himself becoming so exhausted that he hadn't dreamed when he'd fallen asleep on a couple occasions. The pranks themselves were somewhat...liberating as well. He could see why Naruto would enjoy pulling them. The planning and strategy for the pranks he had seen as exceedingly childish before he himself had started executing them was far more difficult than he had anticipated. The preparation for each prank was like planning out and properly executing a mission. Fail to pull it off correctly, and...
Naruto's eraser in the door trick that always failed to get any of the teachers after the first one when they were about six was like a basic Academy assignment. Painting the Hokage Monument like he had shortly before their graduation was pretty much on par with an A or S rank mission, especially considering the fact that Naruto had successfully managed to bypass every last evening and night patrol, haul the paint up the side of a mountain and deface the monument without anyone noticing until the sun rose the next morning.
How the hell could he ever have thought that Naruto was Dead Last even when he was his own age?
It's funny how the old adage "The more thing's change, the more they stay the same." can be true at times. Naruto thought as he skidded around a corner only to find Konohamaru caught in Kankuro's grip.
It had to be the most ironic thing that after spending half the morning searching for the Sand Siblings, Sakura once again managed to chase him and Konohamaru right into them. This time however, the feather covered Sakura had been pissed because she had been caught in one of Sasuke's "training" pranks, and had decided to blame him for encouraging the boy. He had learned of this when he'd stopped the Konohamaru Corps and their square rock in the middle of what was to become Sakura's warpath to tell them that the game of ninja was postponed because he was looking for someone.
He enjoyed playing ninja with Konohamaru during his downtime because it was a rather nice form of stress relief, and he got to teach the boy skills he could use later in life to become a Super Awesome Ninja like he had been later on. Take that Ebisu! Right now however, he was trying to figure out the best way to get Kankuro to drop Konohamaru without sparking an unpleasant confrontation.
This time, he was grateful for Sasuke's intervention, as it resolved his dilemma over how he was going to make friends with Kankuro after he hit him for manhandling his apprentice. Since what hit Kankuro's hand was a needle with the beginnings of a scarf on it rather than a rock, he knew that the boy had taken Haku's free senbon lesson to heart.
Rather than "fangirling" over Sasuke this time, Sakura was yelling at him for ruining her hair and her outfit, using just about every swearword in the book which was something she never ever would have done before. From the dropped jaws of the two Sand Genin, he was guessing that a few of those words and phrases were new to them. Either that, or they'd just taken in the entirety of his team, with him being the normal looking one for once.
It was at that point that Gaara decided to show up and start correcting the behavior of his siblings via the use of several death threats.
"Get moving or I'll..." Gaara said before he fainted and dropped out of the tree in which he'd been hiding behind Sasuke.
In another timeline the Godaime Kazekage sat in the Rokudaime Hokage's anteroom waiting for him to complete his business for the day so they could have a proper visit complete with drinks and some childish board game that his constituents would be scandalized to discover him playing. Fortunately, Naruto had given him a puzzle of sorts to stave off his boredom.
Actually, what he'd been given was an incomplete seal that Naruto had found in a storage room, wanted him to tell him what it was and what it did since he was better at them but, for all intents and purposes it may as well have been a crossword puzzle for him to solve while he waited. In order to figure out what it was for, he would have to complete the seal, which was something Naruto didn't have the patience or the spare time for at the moment. After three hours, it was done. Or at least he thought it was, since he based the pattern off of the rest of the seal and could have missed something somewhere. All that remained was to put a little Chakra into it to get a basic idea of what it did and hope it didn't blow up in his face.
As he put a small amount of Chakra into the seal, he smiled as he remembered the day he had met Naruto, back when they both had been so young and didn't have so many responsibilities to deal with. Suddenly, the small pull on his Chakra became a sharp tug, and he found it rapidly draining out into the seal. He tried to stop the flow, but he found himself unable to do so.
The world went black.
Moments later, he awoke with a massive headache, a headache that rivaled the one he'd suffered through after Kankuro had insisted he take Naruto out for drinks to celebrate his ascension to Hokage and they somehow ended up going on a week-long pub crawl across Fire Country.
When he opened his eyes, he knew he had to be hallucinating since, standing over him were his brother and sister looking exactly as they had when they were fifteen and fourteen respectively. Nearby were a twelve year old Naruto who was wearing something he'd never seen on him either as a boy or a man, a possibly thirteen year old Sasuke in a neon Pink tracksuit with purple shoulders and purple sandals, and a thirteen year old long-haired Sakura who was covered in feathers and what smelled like corn syrup.
A familiar roiling in his gut heralded the presence of Shukaku whom he hadn't had to deal with for many years.
The world went black again.
Edited 11-3-12.