Dialogue is in single quotes (') whereas thoughts are in double quotes (''). Memories are italicized .

Chapter 2

He fell on the bed, running a pudgy hand through his hair, frowning. The shower had left his aching body pleasantly shrouded in a haze of heat which never really dissipated.

Training, eating, sleeping and repeating. He'd been carrying out the process for a couple of weeks now.

Idly twisting his coarse sheets in his fists, Naruto thought for a long time.

'What are you gonna do after I leave?'

'Me?' Sakura smirked, cocking her head boldly to the side. 'Not pine after you, that's for sure.'

'Saku chan, I don't want your ghost chasing me or anything if you get killed. You should've stayed behind at the civilian garrison, you know, taking care and stuff-'

She wrung her hands tiredly, turning to him with a glower.

'Are you telling me that I am incapable of taking care of myself?'

He buried his face in his salt streaked pillow, irony forcing his mouth to twitch.

'It really sucks, you know?'

The fuzz ball was napping.

Sticking his tongue out childishly, he rolled over to the edge of his bed to take note of the money he had stashed underneath in the corner.

Gama-chan had disappeared, which left him strangely disappointed.

Closing his eyes, he felt a sharp sting behind his eyes. Mortified beyond measure, he pressed the heel of his hand against his sweat slicked temple. He hadn't had such a lapse of emotion since-

His first day in the past; his past.

Blurry eyes. Clammy hands.

Those were the first few things which he had registered upon waking up. Everything hurt, and his bones and limbs were strangely groaning in protest as he shot up on an unfamiliar bed, in an unfamiliar bed, in unfamiliar surroundings, in-

'Kurama!' He had snarled, almost ripping the sheets away with the claws which had projected instantaneously out from the tips of his tremoring fingers. 'I'll kill you!'

Only to fall back onto the bed back again as paralysis rendered him incapable of any action.

'If you killed her then Kami knows what I am gonna do to you-'

'Keep that trap shut, midget.' Kurama had berated him calmly, but his tone had a dangerous edge to it. Naruto shut his mouth, fangs and whiskers elongating in tandem as one eye grew dark.

He had laid there in the darkness, his vision blurring beyond any point of recognition. Rage suffused his mind, but Kurama patiently battled it, and he'd reverted back to his dubious self in a matter of seconds.

'What?' He had growled with the intention of getting some answers.

The nine tails had succumbed to unconsciousness. Naruto recalled how he had panicked, almost tumbling down the bed as he checked his surroundings in disbelief. His eyes had landed on the empty, stained ramen cup on the edge of a table kept nearby in incredulity, and sputtered when he stumbled and planted his face against the ground.

He couldn't take his eyes off the chipped mirror hanging in the old, dank washroom.

Funnily enough, he found himself repeating it a couple of times that week.

He took note of the date on the calendar and holed himself up in his nostalgic shack, taking inventory of things and trying to get used to his strange stature and awkward motions as he reached out for things, only to discover that his hands were too short and his fingers were dwarfish at best.

Of course, Sakura had drilled this in to his head. He'd mostly ignored it in favour of thinking about ways to impress the teme if the time travel debacle actually worked.

He had checked his inventor; the basic genin essentials which he'd received from Iruka as presents after his academy graduation were stuffed into his musty closet, which he'd shut after hauling all the cool stuff.

It had mainly consisted of empty storage tags- much to his surprise-and weapons.

'Whaaaat?'

'No pushing yourself.' Sakura said firmly, shooting him a stern look which spoke volumes. 'Use your head; if the kyubi manages to exhaust itself, you won't have any chakra to use. Unless you want to die a disgraceful death, by all means, go ahead and I'll kick your ass in the afterlife. Provided I join you there.'

'Whoa.' Naruto lifted a pair of complacent palms. 'You make it sound like I am gonna mess this up.'

'You won't.' She rounded on him in an instant, looking desperate for reassurance. 'Dammit. You won't mess this up... you won't.'

'No I won't.' He said softly, patting her blood encrusted shoulder.

After a few, half-hearted tries, a grand fall and some creative curses later, Naruto decided to take note of everything he remembered.

The empty scrolls turned out to be one hell of a blessing.

He left one half blank for further comments and underlined the Forest of Death, because teme.

Orochimaru was going to be guttered. Naruto thought of the catastrophe that was his first C rank, and had smiled toothily. Gato or whatever the sleazy guy's name was would never know what had hit him.

He tried chakra precision by sticking onto his wall and walking about, but a few tries and some mini craters on his less-than-sturdy walls convinced him that he was going to be put through hell in those months, working himself to death if wanted his skill set back.

Eventually, he had seen the benefits of his lack of chakra control. He could use it for destructive ninjutsu as he could weave through hand signs quite easily and had the necessary amount of chakra within him. That raw power came to his fingertips like it had when he had seamlessly battled with Obito.

The guy was dead and gone, dragging Madara with him. But Danzo's resurrection had put matters in a shit storm. Naruto wasn't interested in knowing why the snake sannin had gone out of his way to bring the manipulative old man back from his rotting pit, just this that he'd put him through hell for murdering Tsunade.

Danzo had gone on to manhandle the legendary kages by using a modified, reverse jutsu of Tobirama's edo-tensei, subjugating Konoha.

It was crazy, it wasn't possible, and he still remembered how Shikamaru had taken the news with a grim look on his face as he considered the variables.

'Ino, how bad is the situation out there?'

'…Shika, it is terrible-the villages have scattered-'

No matter whatever brilliant plan the Nara managed to conjure up, Naruto was sure he wouldn't be able to bring back Neji, Shino, or Sai. They'd all slipped through his hands like threads.

The story ended there. He had created a brilliant seal which could reverse time.

He still couldn't believe how he'd planned crazily with Sakura, who didn't seem averse to the idea. It was crazy, considering the fact that he was ready to take matters into his own hands if she disagreed.

All said, he thought he had nothing to lose. There was only one drawback.

Hinata and the others came to know of his little plan.

'Did Neji nii-san die for nothing, Naruto-kun?'

'Hah! No way, birdbrain! Right, Akamaru? You sure as hell aren't gonna leave us behind with that junky plan of yours.'

So yeah. He'd almost chucked the seal away. If there was one thing which could convince him, it was leaving the others in the gutter to deal with the slime ball that Orochimaru was.

Then things had taken a turn for the bizarre and worse simultaneously

Someone had edo tensei-d Neji back and set him on his freaking ass.

It still boggled his mind how the Hyuuga prodigy had blocked his tenketsu points. That was his second time facing against Neji, and he almost had an urge to do a sarcastic little dance when he blew him up with his Rasenshuriken before ending up on a random hospital bed.

'Hey Kurama, do you think I am suffering for your past actions?' He had groaned remorsefully.

There was something seriously out of place when someone who gave their life to save your guts came and tried to take it from you again.

He couldn't move, couldn't speak.

That was when Sakura rushed in and began her gory ritual.

Kurama could've given him a freaking warning.

The first time he met Sasuke, he had this inexplicable urge to pound him into the ground. Or not so inexplicable. Kakashi still remained the same, except he seemed so laidback and casual that Naruto had to stop and stare for a long moment.

He hoped he didn't come across as creepy.

A couple of weeks later of acting out of character and his boisterous love sick self around Sakura and acting prissy with teme and avoiding Kakashi like the plague, Naruto decided to hole himself again in his apartment and research.

He made it a point to make two stops at two places each day. One was his favourite Ramen stall, and the other, the abandoned training grounds near the forest of death. Well, abandoned by the rookie nine and Kakashi, atleast. They opted for the one closest to the hokage tower, which was made Naruto's plans a bit easier.

Kurama had woken up randomly, and Naruto had felt a whole week's speech of disapproval and curses being washed away by relief.

The fuzz ball had certainly boosted up his training.

'Why are we doing this again, Kakashi sensei?'

'Now, now Sakura. No questions. Be my good kunoichi and work. Naruto, try not to slack off.'

The heat was unbearable, and the fact that he couldn't use a simple suiton jutsu pull out water from the humid air was laughable.

He shovelled some more earth to the side, forming a small pile of weeds and soil. It was plausible that the old lady leaning against the railing from the balcony high above them was leering at him and not Kakashi.

That lifted his spirits a little, although his insides shrivelled a bit in abhorrence at the wayward thought.

As usual, the teme was in his private little corner on the roof, out of sight and out of Naruto's harried psyche. The blond ninja sighed, wiping the sweat off his brow. Uchiha was probably tiling the roofs, if he'd finished with the pipes.

Sakura on the other hand…

'Hey, hey Kura-chan! Say, do you wanna-'

Covered in grime and dirt, Sakura shook a fist at him, looking as formidable and imposing as the mole he'd discovered in his belly button that morning.

Kakashi had strolled off, leaving both of them alone in the deformity that was the old matron's garden.

'Don't you dare, Naruto baka!'

Grinning unabashedly, Naruto surreptitiously made a ram seal behind his back with his unoccupied hand, before proceeding to nonchalantly swing his shovel around. Preteen Sakura was terribly annoying, and Naruto didn't feel any irritation welling up inside him. Instead, he felt the condescending sort of affection for her and Sasuke, the kind he'd reserved for the Konohamaru corps whenever they were round and about and making a general nuisance about everything.

'Are you stupid, Naruto? You are spraying-'

He managed to keep his countenance devoid of any satisfaction as an invisible bucket of water was dumped onto her head.

Sakura spluttered.

Sasuke chose that moment to drop down, making his way past them and feigning disinterest at the sight of an incoherent, drenched teammate struggling for words.

'Ne, Sakura-chan. I think it was the rain.'

'NARUTO!'

'That would be an awesome jutsu!'

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw teme slamming the gate shut with casual ease, before making his way down the street, hands balled up in his pockets.

Shooting him a glower which amused him to no end, Sakura strode out of the courtyard, leaving him to stand all alone, surrounded by half dug out pits. He couldn't sense the Hatake's presence, and he suspected that the ANBU which hung about him from time to time had to deal with a game called life, for he was unable to detect them eithet. The old man had taken to heaping useless missions on his creepy watchmen, and Naruto had no idea why the Sarutobi was in an apparent paranoia.

Not that he couldn't blame them. He was far too caught up playing his own game for a second time.

Stretching his fingers and hearing his knuckles flex with a welcome 'pop', Naruto muttered a handy Dōton jutsu underneath his breath as he crouched low and placed blistered palms against the dirt, chakra flowing from his fingertips and spreading like a web underground, targeting the positions he wanted.

The ground beneath him quivered unsteadily for a second, before caving in. The shovel which he had stuck in the soil upright had disappeared, and he reached out, pulling it back with an oath.

That jutsu was one which he'd snatched from an ancient scroll in the rarely frequented inner cubicle of the Hokage's library. He'd been doing a bit of research about seals shortly after Tsunade's death, and no one was willing to bother him.

'You aren't mad, Sakura? You know, about the plan and all-'

'I-Its insane, Naruto. Why are you even asking me? I guess I am just placing my faith in your ability to handle seals and all. Kakashi is out for the patrolling duty, or else I could've-'

'What it do you think?' He pressed, 'What do you think, Kura chan?

'Don't let me stop you.' She whispered, wrung out and haggard.

Idly covering up the seeds he'd scattered with a jutsu which, if his ego agreed, was inspired by one Sand user back in Suna, his thoughts went over through the plan he'd forged in his head.

It would take another month or so before the D rank missions came to end. If Tazuna was cooperative, then Naruto deduced that all could go in accordance to his plan. If not, well, it wouldn't take much time to convince the man.

It was imperative that Sasuke got his Sharingan. Sakura needed a lot of development before she could even come resemble his future Sakura, and Naruto wasn't ready to push her younger self off the figurative cliff just yet by flashing cold and hard truths in her face.

He figured that her subsequent missions would do that job for him, along with Tsunade, who would hopefully be joining them before the chuunin exams.

Like he'd reminded himself a lot of times, good things come to those who wait.

Snorting, he made his way out of the courtyard and sauntered over to home sweet home. A cup of ramen would be waiting for him in one of the cabinets, hopefully.

Not exactly canon compliant, alright? And I am not gonna follow certain details in the manga. I just wanted to experiment with things a bit. I just need feedback in order to improve. Why did Sakura become a suicidal kunoichi all of a sudden, you ask? That will be explained in the forthcoming chapters.

Just one review from you, lovely reader, will make my shitty day bright.

On that note, a huge thanks to Tobee.