Disclaimer: I do not claim to have rights to Naruto. I just like using him!

Naruto Uzumaki was up bright and early the following morning, propelled by an absolute sense of excitement. However, instead of distracting him, this giddiness made him extremely productive. He ate an enormous breakfast before going through his morning exercise regimen like a madman injected with adrenaline. Not content to rest on his laurels, sunrise saw him pacing and formulating a plan in a newly-cleaned apartment. If he hadn't been so busy with looking forward to the future, he might have gloated about the fact he could, for the first time in years, eat off of the hardwood if he'd been so inclined.

The morning air smelled magnificent to the fox boy's nostrils when he left his apartment at long last. It was still a tad bit chilly, but he couldn't ask for more on an early spring day. He could manage; his jacket was warm enough to compensate for his open-toed shoes, and no cold breeze could effect the wide smile plastered on his face.

His companions didn't react to any hurry in the jinchuuriki's stride when he met up with his team for the day, but Kakashi picked up on its manic energy. With all the maturity of adulthood, he didn't need to mention it. He knew the excitement of youth, and that it would die easily enough with the introduction of another cat hunt.

To Naruto's chagrin, Sakura busied herself with a one-sided conversation with Sasuke as they walked, leaving very little room for bonding before the mission. He really did miss being on the receiving end of her attention... With the advent of maturity, she'd made a great friend. Still, he wouldn't let her childish obsession rain on his parade too heavily. There was so much to do.

Team Seven entered the mission assignment area casually. To Naruto's glee, he saw Iruka was near the Sandaime. Since that wasn't a common occurrence, it meant his timing had been correct. The 'operation' could commence as planned.

Sarutobi finished speaking to a group of attendants, his office as bustling as any other village elder on a weekday, and then addressed the group before him. His voice carried the usual amount of gravitas.

"For today, there are several missions available for Team Seven. At the top of the list is babysitting the three-year-old granddaughter of-"

"No." Naruto interrupted, prompting incredulous expressions from everyone in the room. Iruka looked as irate as he had the first time his immature pupil had mouthed off as such. His eyes were wild and… worried? Odd that Naruto hadn't noticed it before, but maturity brought with it social insight the young lacked. Of course Iruka didn't want him doing anything even remotely dangerous.

"Naruto, what the hell do you mean, 'no'? You three are Genin-the lowliest of the low!" He furrowed his eyebrows. "You're supposed to start with these little errands. They build character, discipline-,"

"No." Naruto said again, working very hard to keep his face straight. It felt strange to play the spoiled brat consciously, but also incredibly satisfying.

His opposition lingered in the air awkwardly. None of his teammates had attempted to dissuade him yet. Maybe they approved of his outburst? He doubted that anyone in his group felt fulfilled by the grunt work to which they'd been assigned. Kakashi, the person who would be the most likely to raise an objection, seemed more than willing to allow the misbehavior to continue. In fact, he appeared slightly amused.

Sarutobi gave a knowing smirk. He had been expecting something like this for some time now. Naruto had been quiet lately; too quiet for a child of his rambunctious age. It was good to see him acting normal again.

"No what, Naruto?" the old man asked genially, studying the bright-eyed preteen with patience.

"No more of these kiddy-missions," Naruto stated loudly, putting his hands on his hips. Sakura sputtered a quiet plea for him to shut up, but that didn't stop his rant from continuing. "I hardly see how moving trash from one place to another hones our abilities as ninja. I mean, I understand how you sort out all those requests you get everyday according to letters and difficulty and stuff, but could we forget that part? We've done our time."

Again, no one interrupted or silenced outside of Sakura's predictable interjection. It seemed everyone was listening to him attentively for a change. Naruto knew the attention was scrutinizing, and that the fate of the Land of Waves depended on how he phrased his question. No pressure, right? His fingers fidgeted before he finally set up his portion of the argument. He decided to go with his original strategy. It was time to act like the insecure boy he was supposed to be.

He puffed up his body language. He had to really sell his self-doubt and desperation here, and it was far less than he had suffered from before. The body he inherited was weak, but he knew how to project confidence. What he had to do now was overdo it.

"I.. I want to prove I'm not a kid anymore. I can handle more than this! Come on, give me a REAL mission." he begged, making sure to exaggerate his body language in true Uzumaki form.

The following glare Naruto got from Iruka was both short and quickly rerouted to his teacher. Kakashi felt a sinking feeling in his stomach. Naruto had no doubt his teacher would be hearing about this later. The blanching the Hatake was busy demonstrated indicated it would not be a pleasant experience.

Despite the tense atmosphere, a short-but-hearty laugh flew through the room. The Hokage puffed on his pipe happily. He could work with this! "So, the brat wants to test his mettle? Fine! I've got just the thing."

Kakashi's eye widened considerably, and Naruto couldn't help but think that Sasuke looked like he was going to give birth from his gullet.

"…Really?" the copy-ninja deadpanned, disbelief obvious in his tone.

"Yes," Sarutobi replied, pulling a scroll out of one of his many massive, leaning piles of parchment. "A C-rank, in fact," he hummed and parsed through the text,"you will be escorting someone."

"Who?" Sakura asked immediately, her eyes on the door.

"You'll see," the old man said calmly, motioning to a shinobi near the arch. "Send him in." he instructed.

Naruto was not disappointed in the least when he saw an elderly builder enter the room in a slightly-drunken stupor. Well, aside from with the smell wafting off the old man. He really, really tried not to wrinkle his nose in disgust until he remembered that he was supposed to be acting like a stupid adolescent.

Kakashi nonchalantly scratched the back of his head.

Sakura and Sasuke just stared.

All-in-all, impressions were made pretty quickly.

"Wha? A bunch of snot-nosed kids?!" the client asked, dripping with slurred outrage.

The hokage didn't react one way or another, but the builder continued. "I bet they couldn't even protect a rock," he accused, only taking enough time to point an especially wrinkled finger at Naruto. "especially that short one with the idiotic look on his face."

Naruto's eyes narrowed. The last time Tazuna had used that line, he had taken the bait and looked like exactly like he was described as a result. He could just ignore it, but dammit if he didn't take acting juvenile seriously. "Sorry," he said,"but I always look like this when I'm being yelled at by a smelly old hobo."

"Naruto," The sandaime chided softly. Someone else choked on their own spit.

While Naruto didn't care to imagine what Iruka was thinking, as he was emanating some sort of dark aura in response to Naruto's insulence. Sasuke snorted. Uzumaki got the distinct impression that his old comrade was enjoying himself.

Tazuna shut up as a result of Naruto's rebuttle, allowing Kakashi to use the opening in the conversation for introductions. They were kept brief, but the mission was the same as he had remembered. Tazuna redoubled his commitment to being a total ass.

Thinking back, Naruto thought it strange that he didn't notice any red flags in the old builder's mannerisms, but he guessed it was only natural. He had been too busy reacting to the man's insults.

Between Tazuna and Sasuke, I wonder if I'll have any self-esteem left. The blonde thought wryly, suddenly having second thoughts for the sake of his own sanity.

Less than an hour would find the five outside of Konoha's gates. Though things had been going swimmingly thus far, Naruto couldn't help but feel uneasy about the confrontations ahead. He hadn't been in this new body for very long, and without all of Jiraiya and Kakashi's conditioning, he didn't really feel up to combat.

He tried to calm himself down as he began to think about the things that could go wrong. It wasn't like him to worry so constantly, but it wasn't like him to travel back in time after.. Wait... What exactly had he been doing before he ended up in this prepubescent body, anyway?

Absorbed in troubling thoughts as he was, the fair weather and pleasant breeze did nothing to soothe his skittish nerves. Try as he might, he couldn't refrain from scanning the path ahead for a tell-tale sign of an attack.

To mask his irritation, he started a wordless competition with Sasuke. Whenever the Uchiha would step ahead of him, Naruto started walking faster. They accelerated in such small increments that it took minutes before either were jogging. By that time, the dreaded puddle had already appeared on the dirt path before them.

Naruto's neck hair stood on edge the moment his blue eyes spotted it. Despite weeks of careful planning, he couldn't be entirely calm. Even the knowledge that Kakashi was aware of the theat didn't diminish the anticipation. He was playing a game of deadly hide-and-seek, where the anticipation got to you more than actually being found.

Naruto forced himself to walk past the tiny pool of illusionary water and was pleasantly surprised that nothing lashed out at him outright... only to hear Sakura's scream soon after.

He swirled around out of instinct. He was just in time to watch the Mist Chuunins' chains wrap around what he knew was a clone of their sensei. He had to hand it to the jounin, he made his death seem highly convincing. The display was nauseating.

Another scream from Sakura yanked his senses into even higher gear. This one was prompted by a situation that alarmed the blonde beyond belief. It was unplanned; he had failed to take Sakura's current weaknesses into mind when he had formulated the plan and internally kicked himself. The enemies were supposed to attack him, so why were they targeting Sakura?!

He saw the claw head for her. He could tell she was making a dash to evade, but it wouldn't be fast enough. He began to focus chakra; surely he could augment his speed... No, it wouldn't be enough in this inferior body. The attack would hit her head-on, and then be followed by a relentless string of potentially fatal finishers.

He had only fractions of a second before his future best friend would be slaughtered. He heard Sasuke barking orders to Tazuna, but the voice was coming from too far away. As for Kakashi, that enigmatic man could be anywhere... There was no time. No time.

Before he realized he had moved, Naruto felt himself pushing Sakura out of harm's way. The poisoned claw sunk deeply into his back in her stead, rending fabric and flesh. It was a mind-numbing agony punctuated by the snapping of bone.

He couldn't contain the screams, despite his best efforts.

He was moving, but not of his own volition. He'd been snagged like a fish on a line, and the enemy ninja would be fools not to take advantage of it... even if the attack was psychological. Gods, it hurt to be dragged...

He vaguely heard his teammates shout his name desperately through the fog that was rapidly replacing his faculties. Before any new wounds could be inflicted on him, he felt the claw ripped away by a familiar pair of gloved hands. His eyes worked very hard to focus on his savior. Kakashi-sensei…

To say that the Kakashi swimming in his vision was livid would be an understatement. Naruto rarely ever saw the man this angry, even in that future that slipped further and further away from his grasp...

The man's forehead-protector had been ripped away leaving both eyes fully open and menacing. Naruto knew that the Sharingan was likely rotating, and the enemy ninja knew to react with fear at the senior ninja's presence.

Naruto could feel his rage; his body was unbelievably tense while ripping his student out of the enemy assassins' clutches.

As soon as Naruto's failing body was removed from the claw, Kakashi turned the weapon back on its masters, but the damage that followed wasn't enough. The Uzumaki scion could smell the burst of ozone that signaled the use of the Chidori.

And of course, there was Sakura. She hadn't stopped making noise since the whole thing began. Tears were already gathering in the corners of her eyes.

"NARUTO!" she had shrieked, reaching out for his hands before they were cruelly dragged away by the weapon's hold. Only once her instructor had intervened could she frantically gather him up in her arms.

It was odd that her voice hadn't been alone... Naruto could have sworn... Was Sasuke calling out, too?

The bridge-builder had petrified by the entire display. The kid he had insulted had sacrificed himself! He was just a child...

During the heartless slaughter of the two enemy shinobi, Tazuna could swear that some of Kakashi's rage was directed at him. The killing intent washed over him in waves.

Against a vengeful Kakashi Hatake, the Demon Brothers didn't stand a chance. The Chidori rammed through them before they even had time to retract their weapon entirely. The attack drilled through the two without giving them a chance of survival. Their last moments were filled with blue light, and the sight of Kakashi's tears.

Naruto hadn't seen anything his instructor had done... but he could feel the intense emotion that followed like a stifling envelope. Well, it was either that or the blood in his lungs.

In a normal situation, being as close as he was sure he was to Sakura's budding breasts would probably have gotten him killed. Then again, if he hadn't interfered, she'd be the one bleeding on his chest. This was... definitely preferred, if Naruto could be selfish.

It was a little stupid, though... After everything Naruto Uzumaki had accomplished, after the heights of strength he'd previously reached. After all of his now-forgotten victories, here he was, dying ignobly like a dog.

Sakura's hands brushed over his face in comforting motions. It felt nice, but it didn't change the primary problem that Naruto was fading away. No amount of the Kyuubi's chakra could reverse the poison by that time, he knew. If it could have, it would have already done so. Either that, or...

Warm drops of salty water fell on his skin. Was this really it? He was going to die on his first C-rank mission? Tazuna would be sent back without an escort for sure, and Inari… He couldn't allow it! He wouldn't allow it! Still, he felt death's approach. It was getting cold, and Sakura held him even more tightly. She was calling his name.

The sounds grew quieter and quieter.

Then, there was nothing but darkness.

Author's note: Rewrite-no-jutsu.