Sorry about the late update. I had school, and family health issues, and a birthday in between then and now.

Also I have non-fanfiction things I'm trying to write. Fanfiction isn't my only fiction guys! I'm not exactly sure how to get into writing for income yet, but it's my dream. One day, right?

Anyway, here's the chapter. I apologize for the wait. Enjoy, and any constructive comments would be appreciated. I want to improve for you guys as much as myself.


"Kiba," Naruto muttered, his voice barely above a whisper. He had spoken louder earlier, but the attempts just seemed so foolish now.

"And after we're done punching you, we're gonna start kicking you too!" the dog-like boy boasted, his hands on his hips and his canine companion, Akamaru, yipping supportively along from on top of his head.

"Kiba," Naruto repeated, a little louder this time. His hand rubbed at the bridge of his nose to try to stop the oncoming headache, but he could tell it was a futile effort.

"And when we're done punching ya," Kiba continued, seemingly unaware of his former classmate's ire, "we're gonna start biting ya too!"

"Kiba, please," Naruto said, his voice now louder now that he could reign his irritation no longer. When it was apparent the dog boy had no intention to listen, however, Sasuke yelled from the sidelines.

"Just kick his ass, Naruto!"

And apparently that was all that was needed. As soon as the proctor, a man by the name of Gekko, signaled the start, the two boys sprung away from each other. The one on one duel between Chunin hopefuls started, and it was to be the first of many that day.

"Okay," Kiba howled, retrieving a pill from his pocket. "It's time to rock Naruto! Are you ready, boy?" Kiba asked his puppy. The little dog barked his approval, and Kiba grinned in response. Tossing the pill up above his head for Akamaru to eat, Kiba growled in challenge.

"We're gonna destroy you Naruto. Once Akamaru eats that soldier pill, you'll see why he's named what he's named."

Naruto, his face scrunched up, just started tossing something small up and down in his right hand. "A pill? You mean this one?"

Kiba looked up, only to catch the eyes of his still white puppy. Akamaru looked back down and, upon meeting his partner's eyes, whined in a very high pitch.

"Buddy? Where's your pill?" Kiba asked. Akamaru whined again, before staring at their opponent. Naruto just grinned. Catching the small object he was tossing between his fingers, he held it out to the two. Kiba's eyes widened.

"Is that…"

"Your pill?" Naruto asked. He looked at it almost wistfully, before crushing it into dust. "Well, it was anyway. I'm sorry Kiba, but I'm not letting you use that."

Kiba stared silently at his opponent for a bit, before reaching into his pack and retrieving another pill. Carefully this time, Kiba threw his pill up to his dog companion, watching as it sailed through the air. Akamaru, jaws agape, tried once more to snatch it out the air, only for it to vanish once again. Deadpan, the dog boy stared at his old classmate, sure that he had the pill again. Sure enough, Naruto had it between his fingers.

"Why are you doing this?" he asked. Naruto chuckled, before crushing the pill.

"It's funny."

"You can't do that forever," Kiba growled, pulling out yet another pill. Before he even tossed it Naruto had it in his hand.

"We'll see, dog breath," Naruto said, before crushing the pill once more. Now both Kiba and Akamaru were growling and, seeing what the challenge was now, pulled out his entire bag of pills. Apparently he was prepared for this outcome.

"Bring it on, ramen boy."

XxX

Up in the balcony, the other Chunin hopefuls couldn't believe what they were seeing.

"Are they… are they really doing this?" Choji asked around a mouthful of chips. Sakura nodded, a solemn look on her face.

"You get used to it. You should see him when he's serious."

Shikamaru glanced at the girl: an impressive feat seeing as a full-scale invasion probably couldn't rouse the boy from his sleep. "I'm pretty sure that Naruto is moving fast enough down there to snatch the pill from midair and get back to where he was standing before anyone can notice."

Sure enough, Naruto was doing just that. Kiba's bag of pills was just getting smaller, but the dog boy was not giving up. He had resorted to tossing multiple pills at once, but that wasn't helping.

Why Naruto didn't just take the bag of pills was anyone's guess.

"That's not him when he's serious?" Shikamaru asked.

"I've seen him open a rations bar with wind chakra."

Shikamaru's was surprised. This wasn't readily apparent however, as a Nara's rendition of surprise is a slightly less sleepy look.

"Isn't utilization of wind chakra a Chunin level skill?" he asked. Sakura shrugged.

"I'm starting to debate that idea. He also used it to scratch his nose. His hands weren't even full, he just didn't feel like moving his arms. If nature manipulation is that easy, I'm starting to doubt our village's system."

"Mrgh," Shikamaru said. His eyes started to droop again. Sakura stared at him.

"How are you tired again already?"

"Mrghgh," Shikamaru grunted.

"What?" Sakura asked.

"He said he uses a lot more brainpower, so it makes sense he'd be a lot more tired." The answer came from Choji.

Sakura stared at him. "You understood that?"

"Yeah, can't you?"

Sakura stared at him.

XxX

Back down in the stadium, Kiba was on his last couple of pills. "Aren't you getting tired of crushing these? They cost quite a lot, and you've set me back… a lot."

Naruto, with pill dust up to his ankles surrounding him, shrugged his shoulders. "I have nothing better to do. Honestly, I'm surprised you kept going as long as you did."

Kiba smirked. "A true Inuzuka never backs down from a challenge!" To accentuate this point, he tossed another pill to Akamaru. The puppy bit at it, only for it to disappear right before his mouth closed.

"Dude, you literally snatched that from my dog's mouth."

"Yeah, I know. There's some literary irony in there somewhere," Naruto said while crushing the pill.

XxX

"You said there's a what?"

"A living, sentient kunai made of rainbows following us around, yes," Sakura said, her voice even and her face straight. If she weren't the kind of straight laced person she was, the looks they had thrown her way would have been more incredulous than they already were.

"You're lying," Ino said, arms folded. The platinum blonde wore some very fashionable purple clothes, and was tempted to use her family's techniques to see into her former best friend's head to find out what was wrong with it.

"I assure you that I am not. Just last week it came to check up on us as we were coming back from our C-rank mission. Naruto waved at it."

"I'm sorry, Sakura, but I don't believe you. How could a kunai have sentience?" Choji asked. The idea was somehow alien to him, a boy who could grow to the size of a house.

"Fine, ask Sasuke-kun. He was there. Sasuke?" Sakura asked. Said Uchiha turned at the mention of his name. He raised a finely cared for eyebrow. "Isn't a magical sentient kunai following us around?"

"I wouldn't say it was following us, no. But it is checking up on us every so often."

"See?" Sakura said, face smug.

"Mrfgl," Shikamaru yawned. Sakura turned to Choji.

"He said 'But Sasuke isn't known to be the most mentally stable. His word doesn't mean much.'"

Sakura turned back to the lazy genius.

"Shikamaru!" Sakura yelled, before turning to Sasuke. "Did you hear what he said about you?"

Sasuke grunted. "I can't exactly argue that logic, really. Spot on as usual, Nara."

Said Nara grunted. "Hn."

Sasuke nodded his approval of Shikamaru's response.

Changing tactics, Sakura turned to her other teammate. "Naruto! Isn't there a magical kunai following us around?"

Naruto, who was in the middle of crushing another pill, looked up from what he was doing to answer his female teammate. "Well," he yelled, "I wouldn't say it was following us exactly…"

While he was answering, Kiba managed to get Akamaru to eat his very last pill.

"Damn it, look what you did Sakura!"

Up in the spectator's balcony, Sakura couldn't care less about her teammate's match. "See? Naruto confirmed it too!"

"It is common knowledge that Naruto is a prankster," Shino added from the sidelines. Sasuke, who was half listening, found it hard to recall the boy's name. "His word doesn't mean much either."

To this, Sakura was forced to turn to her teacher, who was reading smut in the corner. She made to call him, then thought of his reputation as well, and stopped.

"I can't really ask anyone to validate this for me," Sakura whimpered. Ino placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"I'm sorry your team is full of untrustworthy people. At least you have that hunk Sasuke."

Sakura sighed. "Yeah, I guess. It only kind of makes up for all the weirdos I keep running into. If I encounter another high ranked ninja disaster because of them, I'm going to cry."

XxX

Gaara sneezed. Since his sand usually kept dust out of his nose, he took the unfamiliar action as an attack on his person. Since he was using the bathroom at the time, everyone in that bathroom died.

XxX

Back down in the arena, Naruto was sidestepping wave after wave of spinning dog tornados.

"You can't dodge forever!" screamed Kiba from his dog tornado. "My Gatsuga is invincible!"

Naruto yawned. "Oh really?"

"Yeah!" Kiba yelled as he was sidestepped once more. "It's only a matter of time!"

"Time is exactly the thing I have too much of."

"What was that?" Kiba asked.

"Nothing."

XxX

"So uh, Kakashi?" Sasuke asked, uncertain. The Hatake looked up from his book, but seemed pained to do so.

"Yes, my cute little student?"

"Are you going to do anything about this?" Sasuke pointed to the Curse Mark prominently spinning on his neck. Kakashi shrugged.

"Do you think I need to?"

"Yesss, do you think he needsss to Sssssasssuke-kun?" a snakelike voice in his head whispered. Sasuke winced.

"Maybe?"

"Then maybe later," Kakashi grunted, before turning another page in his book.

"I don't remember you being this lazy last time."

Kakashi looked back up from his book. "What was that?"

"Nothing," Sasuke stammered, before going back to watching the arena fight. Naruto was still sidestepping the duo of dog and boy as they spun into him in literal tornadoes of power. They left gouges in the ground around him, making the task difficult, but possible.

XxX

"When are you going to give this up?"

"Never!" shouted Kiba in response.

"You're going to get dizzy."

"Not before we beat you!" Kiba yelled back. Somehow his voice was being heard clearly through the tornado. Also through the fact that they were ricocheting off the walls of the arena.

"Are you sure?" Naruto asked. He sidestepped Akamaru's tornado once more. "You haven't hit me yet."

"Those were lucky dodges!"

Naruto counted the amount of dodges he had done since they started attacking. As he was doing so, he dodged twice more, and had to count those as well.

"All forty eight… forty nine…. Of those dodges were lucky?" Naruto asked, mid dodge. He supposed that he should be annoyed by now, but Bolt had much more bullheaded strategies and much less sense, so he was used to fighting like this.

"Y-yes," Kiba stammered. Naruto smirked. Kiba was getting dizzy.

"Oh," Naruto said. His voice was knowing, and that pissed Kiba off, which was exactly the blonde Hokage's intention. The tornadoes, which were dying down, seemed to increase in intensity.

"Alright Akamaru! Let's hit him with a pincer attack!" Kiba yelled. Naruto chuckled.

"You shouldn't discuss your plans where your enemy can hear you."

"Shut up Naruto!" Kiba yelled as he and Akamaru came from opposite sides of the blonde. Naruto looked back and forth between the two, judging the attack for what it was. To an untrained and uninformed eye, the attack would be sudden and hard to avoid. He was not untrained nor uninformed, so with practiced ease, Naruto stepped back, allowing the two to hit and knock each other out.

"Match done! Winner: Naruto Uzumaki!" the proctor, a man with what seemed to be a terminal cough announced. With a large grin, Naruto walked over to the two unconscious canines and congratulated them, before lifting them both and walking off to the infirmary.

XxX

Sasuke and, surprisingly, Sakura were unsurprised by the outcome of that fight. When Naruto arrived on the balcony they just nodded to him.

"Nice one, Naruto," Sakura said, a slight smile on her face. Sasuke mirrored the expression.

"I bet my fight is shorter."

"You wanna know what isssn't ssshort?"

"Shut up, Snake bastard!"

Everyone on the balcony looked at the Uchiha as if he was crazy.

"It's none of your business!"

"Is he still whispering into your ear?" Naruto asked, uncaring of who was around him.

"He is! I told you he was annoying!"

"Wait, who's annoying?" Shikamaru asked. His eyes were, for once, both open and focused. Naruto, who had the great pleasure of having this man as his aid in the future, saw the look on the young genius' face many times before, and quickly deflected the dangerous situation.

"Uh, the voice of his brother, mocking him. Yeah."

Shikamaru was not convinced.

"What reason would I have to lie?"

Shikamaru looked as if he were coming up with many such reasons.

"That was a rhetorical question."

"Then why do I have answers?"

"Moving on," Naruto said, quickly guiding Sasuke to a corner of the balcony away from the rest of the children. The next match, ironically, called Shikamaru and some Sound genin to the arena. Shikamaru, before heading down the stairs, glared at the two boys.

"Troublesome," he muttered, then was gone.

Sasuke cuffed his arm around his blonde friend's head and brought him close. This brought quite a few stares his way, but they were all ignored.

"He's being annoying. Like, more annoying than he was last time."

Naruto's eyes widened. "How so? Forgive me, I'm not too well versed in the matter of cursed seals."

"Oh right, you studied seals back in the future. Do you have any idea how to get rid of this one?" Sasuke bared his neck to show his best friend the cursed sigil there. The skin was red around three black teardrops that were seared into his skin. Naruto looked at it, before tentatively touching it. Sasuke hissed at the contact, but remained otherwise calm.

"Sorry, nothing doing."

"What do you mean 'nothing doing'? Aren't you an Uzumaki? Don't you guys whisper to seals?"

Naruto raised an eyebrow, before stepping back and folding his arms. "First off, no. Second off, even if we did, do you really think a seal made by Orochimaru would listen to whatever we said?"

"I dunno… maybe?"

"You don't even listen to what I say."

"That's not the point," the Uchiha hissed. "Why, exactly, can't you get this thing off me."

"Well, to put it as simply as I can, the seal employs natural chakra and a little bit of Orochimaru's own in order to bind a specific chakra matrix to your own, letting you utilize and absorb both…"

"Wait," Sasuke interrupted, a hand to his nose to staunch the upcoming headache. "Use… smaller words. It scares me whenever you use more than one syllable to speak."

Naruto glared at him.

"Glad I'm not the only one," Kyuubi said. Naruto glared at him as well.

Seeing as Kyuubi was currently inside of the blonde, this was a confusing action, but one Naruto managed to do nonetheless.

"Ignoring your rude comments… Basically Orochimaru has wrapped his soul around yours and anchored himself there with some sort of special natural chakra. Due to the nature of nature oriented chakra, I cannot remove it without destroying your own chakra system in the process. Now, if you really want it gone that badly, I suppose I can, otherwise…"

"Do it," Sasuke said. His face was set in stone.

"Excuse me?"

"You can do it, so do it," the ex-Avenger said. He pulled down the collar of his shirt once more and sat on his knees, making himself comfortable for what would no doubt be an intensive procedure.

"Did you not hear what I just said about this?" Naruto gestured wildly at Sasuke's neck with both of his hands. It would be a strange sight had not everyone else be focused on what was happening down in the arena.

"I did, and I've decided the rewards are well worth the risks."

Naruto's eyes widened. "Risks? There are no risks. Your chakra system will be shredded beyond repair if I did this, guaranteed. It is a one hundred percent certainty, no going back."

"That's fine," Sasuke said, voice even. "I don't need chakra to be a ninja. If Lee could do it, so can I. Besides, you made it this far without a brain, how hard could being a ninja really be?"

"He's got you there, kit."

"You stay out of this, fox," Naruto then turned back to his apparently insane friend. "As for you, this issue can easily be resolved with the Evil Suppression Seal until a more permanent solution is found."

"The… what?"

"The Evil Suppression Seal. It's that one where people put seals all over the room and then suck them into you."

Both children looked up to see Neji make his way over to them. Sasuke spoke up first.

"Oh right. That one." The Uchiha then shook his head. "No thanks. That one took forever and hurt like a bitch. I'd rather you just remove the Curse."

Naruto stared at his rival. "Removing it would hurt more."

"Don't care, just do it." Sasuke then turned his head, ending the conversation while also exposing the mark. Naruto sighed, before going through handseals.

"If I weren't sure time would reset I would never do this." Chakra then started to build around the young Hokage. Starting off small, the blue power roiled and twisted until it was visible to the naked eye. Moving and spinning with enough power to affect the air, everyone in the stadium had little choice but to look at the blonde boy.

"Wh-what are you doing, Naruto?" Kakashi asked, his Sharingan eye exposed. The Jonin had tried to keep track of what was happening with his transplanted eye, but the power eventually became so concentrated that it began to blind him.

"Just giving the bastard what he wants," Naruto answered. His hands had started to blur.

"And what exactly is that?" Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Third Hokage asked. He had arrived amidst a trio of ANBU.

Two of such ANBU were immediately repelled from the sheer force of the jinchuuruki's power. Sakura, who refused to be surprised by this, just watched as they tumbled to the stadium floor.

"He wants the seal gone, so I'm making it gone. He can deal with the aftermath himself."

Neji, who was so used to the antics of his time traveling partners just stared, before turning to his military leader. His face was stoic as he spoke. "It's best to just let them do this. If you don't they'll just be annoying for the next few days."

If possible, the eyes of everyone on the balcony widened even further.

"Neji…" Tenten, his female weapons specialist teammate started. She opened her mouth to say more, but the force of Naruto's chakra literally blew her away. Neji glared behind him.

"Can you restrain that? A little?"

"Nope," Naruto answered. Sasuke rustled.

"Shut the hell up, Hyuuga! I'm getting this thing off!"

Neji turned back around, eyes half lidded. "Forget it, I'm just going to wait until time resets."

The Hokage's eyebrow lifted. "Until time wha-"

And then the world went black and white. The sudden shift in reality disturbed the chakra that Naruto was building, and he was almost shocked when it all disappeared.

"And there it is," Neji commented stoically. He waved his hand in front of the confused Hokage's face, noting exactly how frozen he was. "Time has reset."

Sasuke looked up at the Hyuuga, enraged. "What the hell? He was almost done!"

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "I was nowhere near done."

"Just a few more seconds and Orochimaru would've been gone!"

Naruto's other eyebrow rose. "It would've taken a half hour more, easily."

"Now I'm stuck with this… this thing on me!"

Neji smirked. "It was probably better than the alternative."

Sasuke looked to his shoulder. Straining it, he was able to catch a glance of the Seal that was definitely still there. In true Uchiha fashion he glared at it, then glared at Neji.

"Is a broken chakra network really worth it?"

Sasuke continued glaring. Neji didn't know what to make of it.

"He means 'yes'," Naruto murmured, walking back over to Sasuke after having pulled a towel from… somewhere.

"You can interpret his glares?"

"He's glared at me a lot." Naruto then placed the towel, slightly wet, over Sasuke's shoulder. Sasuke visibly relaxed at the contact, though he continued to glare as an afterthought. It was much less potent, but Naruto slapped the boy in the back of the head anyway. The glare returned full power.

"What was that for?"

"You don't look right if you're not pissed off."

Of course, Sasuke's response to that was to glare. It contented Naruto.

"Anyway," Neji said, officially having enough of the bromance he was subject to, "what is the towel for?"

"Well, it has seals in it," Naruto said, pointing at the various seals scribbled across it. "They dampen the effects of any seals they encounter."

"And why would you need to do that?" Neji asked. Naruto looked at him as if he were stupid.

"Because… because Orochimaru is in there?" The blonde looked honestly surprised that he had to explain something to someone else.

Neji raised an eyebrow. "Is he?"

"Well, no. Not particularly. Not anymore at least."

Sasuke's head shot up. "Who said that?"

"You know exactly who said that."

Slowly, all three boys turned to see a taller man standing behind them. His face was soft and feminine, but most of all pale. His eyes were slit, like a snake's, not that you could tell fully as one of them was hidden behind a river of long, oily black hair. He wore a modest kimono that covered the rest of his body, including both his arms and his legs.

"Y-you…"

"It seems we're in the past. I knew it felt odd when my soul appeared somewhere I couldn't recognize." The man then looked over to the onyx eyed boy on the ground. "That towel has Uzumaki restraining seals on it. I'm guessing that it's covering up my old sealing mark. Allow me to help you with that then."

The man then walked over to the Uchiha. Naruto and Neji attempted to stop him, but were immediately dispatched.

"Naruto, you've become much stronger than I can possibly hope to be, but you're not in your old body. Please don't interfere." The man then looked at Neji. "Aren't you dead?"

"Aren't you?" Neji shot back. The man chuckled. It was somehow both melodic and highly disturbing.

"I'm hard to kill."

"He really is," both Naruto and Sasuke intoned. The latter quickly shut up as the man continued his stroll towards him. The Uchiha attempted to activate his Sharingan, but a quick flick in the forehead stopped that.

"How-"

"I revived Itachi and asked him. Apparently the forehead thing deactivates the Sharingan. It puzzled the hell out of me that I couldn't tell why he did that."

Naruto shouted from where he was thrown. "Ha! I knew it didn't mean whatever bullshit you said!"

"Shut the hell up, Naruto!" Sasuke yelled. He looked back at the man. "You! What that hell do you want?"

"Why, to help you Sasuke-kun."

"Bullshit."

"Why is that?" the man asked.

"You never want to help me unless it benefits you."

The man chuckled. "I can be benevolent."

"Yeah, and I can be homosexual."

Both the man and Neji looked at Naruto. Naruto, in turn, looked at himself, before looking at Sasuke.

"Dude, you walked into that one," the blonde said. Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"He doesn't count. Listen, just get what you want over with and get out of here."

The man looked around. Everyone around him was frozen in a black and white canvas.

"And where do you want me to go?" He asked. When Sasuke growled, the man just chuckled and pulled the towel off. He stared at the curse mark, before clicking his tongue in annoyance.

"I was so drab back then. This is so sloppy."

"Remove it… please?"

"Oh fine," the man drawled. He put his hand, palm covering the mark, on Sasuke's neck.

"Now you may feel a little pain…"

Sasuke didn't know what to say to that. He attempted to stop the man so he could prepare himself, but the man didn't seem too keen on that plan. He immediately channeled chakra to his hand, then pulled it back. Immediately the black chakra started to unravel, and an inky black and purple substance started to be pulled from the Uchiha.

Sasuke howled. "Orochimaruuuu!"

The Snake Sannin started laughing uncontrollably. "I knew I'd get you to scream my name someday!"

Eventually the blackness was pulled completely from Sasuke. With it's removal, the cursed mark was removed from Sasuke as well. The Uchiha collapsed on the ground from the unbearable pain, while the blackness that was pulled from him roiled on the ground until it formed into the shape of a man.

And from it, another Orochimaru appeared.

"Wh-where am I?" the man hissed. "And who are…"

The new Orochimaru then noticed Sasuke on the ground. His face lit up in unrestrained glee.

"Sssasssuke-kun!" the man hissed happily. Sasuke propped himself on his elbows to see what was going on, only to regret it immediately.

"Th-there are two of you?" he stammered, before fainting.

Naruto and Neji promptly fell over laughing.

Ignoring the two boys and the world frozen around him, the man attempted to lunge himself at the unconscious Uchiha heir, only to be restrained by the man who looked suspiciously like him.

"Who are you?" the new Orochimaru finished his question from before. The first Orochimaru snickered, before removing his hand from his past self's shoulder. A seal was left there that began to glow.

"I'm you, but better," the future Orochimaru said, before cackling as his past self burst into unholy black flames. He bent down as his past self rolled on the ground in agony, unable to shed his own skin for some reason. "And trust me, you don't want any part of that boy. Think of this as a mercy killing."

Eventually the screams died down as Orochimaru's past self was reduced to cinders. Orochimaru resealed the flames, then turned back to the two boys behind him who weren't unconscious. Their laughter, only slightly abated from watching the man kill his past self, stopped when the Sannin focused his attention on them.

"Now, are you going to tell me why I'm in the past?" The Snake sage asked.

"Are you going to tell me if you're Mitsuki's mom or dad?" Naruto asked imperiously, his eyebrow raised.

"Are you going to tell me how to use the Talk no Jutsu?" Orochimaru shot back, his own eyebrow raised in an amused challenge. Neji blanched.

"I don't think these secrets carry the same weight." Both of the other two conscious members of the time freeze glared at him.

"They are," they both said.

Neji promised himself to stay hands off from now on.