Naruto knew that the day was going to be a bad one.
It started when he woke, at the early hour of six o'clock, just as the sun was rising, to a gloomy overcast day. The sky was grey, the streets were bare. Nobody but the shinobi ventured outside their doors.
Years of conditioning meant that Naruto would not be able to return to his sleep. Not that he wanted to. His dreams were filled with painful memories he'd rather forget. He had witnessed them firsthand and had no desire to relive them every night. They were a reminder of his failure.
The blonde threw on his orange jumpsuit and jumped out his window. Sakura and Shikamaru would be rising. Early morning was the only time the three would be able to meet without curious eyes watching, and they had a lot of work to do.
Sakura groaned when a tapping sound disturbed her sleep. It had been so long since she last slept in a proper bed. Its softness felt like heaven. She wanted to ignore whoever it was knocking and snuggle deeper into her covers and sleep for ten years.
But the irritating noise persisted, so Sakura was forced to throw off her comforter. Pushing up her window, she drowsily snapped a "What?" at the blonde balancing on the edge of her nonexistent windowsill.
It was not the prankster her hazy brain expected, but her Hokage. "We need to grab Shikamaru. We have less than a month until the chuunin exams."
Sakura nodded solemnly and Naruto quickly left to fetch Shikamaru. She was following after him in less than a heartbeat. Her hair had been sloppily trimmed last night, so she simply brushed the wrinkles out of her clothes.
They met their third conspirator outside the gates of his compound. If she hadn't known better, Sakura would have thought he decided to spend the night out there. But he would not have passed up the chance to be close to his parents.
Shikamaru led them to a relatively unused plot of land in the Nara forest. It was the best place to meet because only Naras, and those they brought with them, were allowed in. He and Sakura looked to Naruto first.
He removed two simple scrolls from his pouch, Sakura's green orbs widened in recognition. Naruto had created the seals for this just before Konoha had been destroyed, annoyed with the day or more wait to receive messages from Suna. The two villages had been coordinating to fight Madara and wasting time waiting for a reply hindered their efforts. "I've already drawn the seals."
The seals connected the two scrolls, so that when chakra was added to a message it would disappear and reappear in the connected scroll. It was a completely undetectable method of communication that had been used heavily by the Kages to coordinate movements against Madara.
"I'll send the second one to Gaara. Right now, the most important thing is training. Retraining to be precise. The first time I tried to activate the seals I blew my coffee table to splinters. Our bodies aren't ready to hold the amount of chakra they currently are. We have four times what we had at this age."
For Naruto, that was saying a lot. Even as a gennin he had had the chakra capacity of a jounin. If the jutsu sent them back with the level of chakra they possessed at the time, he would have more than a Kage.
"That means our control is back at square one." Observed Shikamaru.
Naruto, obviously would have the most trouble relearning chakra control. The task took him several days the first time he learned it, and with the amount of chakra circulating in his coils now, he was more likely to blow up the tree than walk up it. It would be much easier for Sakura. Although her amazing control came from her smaller reserves, as soon as she regained enough control she could reform her Yin Seal and store the excess chakra in there each day, gradually reducing the amount until her body could handle the full amount of her chakra. Shikamaru knew it would be a struggle for him. At this age, he didn't have the stamina. Because of that he would exhaust much faster and it would take him much longer to relearn it. He and Naruto would have to channel the remaining chakra into chakra intensive techniques just to get it out of their system.
But, despite the problem it presented, that larger reserves would come in handy.
"Yes. Chakra control is our first priority. Knowledge of the future won't do us any good if we overpower every jutsu and literally explode everything in sight."
So they focused chakra to the soles of their ninja sandals. Naruto put one foot on the tree and it broke, taking down two others with it.
Sakura thought her best bet would be to not concentrate on the amount of chakra, but to do it instinctively. Her first run up the tree resulted in her foot drilling through and the two boys having to help her out.
Shikamaru had learned this technique years ago, for controlling shadows require precision control of one's chakra. In the end, he made the most progress, a single foot up the tree's trunk.
The trio trained for three hours, making very little success, before Naruto and Sakura had to leave to meet with the rest of Team Seven. Even though Kakashi-sensei would always arrive three hours late, all the members of Team Seven gathered at their training grounds or the bridge at the time the jounin picked.
Sasuke probably wouldn't question it if Naruto was late, because the blonde was always the last to arrive, but Sakura never failed to appear on the dot. And while he certainly wouldn't comment on it, Sasuke would watch them more closely, and they couldn't afford to raise any suspicions.
Naruto's prediction had come true. The day went from bad to worse.
Kakashi chose that day to have them spar as a team. Meaning Sasuke and Naruto would attempt to beat the other black and blue to the point of hospitalization while Sakura hesitated on the edge cheering for her crush and yelling insults at the blonde. Another regular day for Team Seven, until the spar started.
The second 'start' left his mouth, both Naruto and Sakura had leapt backwards, the pinkette instinctively taking up position slightly behind him on his right. Both angled their bodies to give them the widest range of motion and to put the other at their back. They moved in unison, like a pair of seasoned jounin that could read what their partner was going to do before he moved.
Naruto could sense Kakashi's piercing gaze and knew that they screwed up. Not even a day in the past and they had already made a mistake.
The newest Icha Icha book had come out that day. Kakashi had stood outside the bookstore all night so that he could be the first in line. He would tell his students to spar and read this literature masterpiece and call the exercise over when it seemed like Sasuke would kill Naruto.
But he found the spar riveting. It stole his attention.
First, Naruto had not made any loud declarations about wiping that damned smug look off the Uchiha's face and how he was going to beat him this time, believe it. And consequently, Sakura had not yelled at Naruto for insulting her precious Sasuke-kun.
The two had paired up against Sasuke, probably in hopes that they could take him out if it was two against one. It wasn't a plan Kakashi believed to have a chance of success. Sasuke was in a league of his own when it came to combat. The plan was just unexpected, weird, because Sakura was not a fighter and always looked to the dark haired boy for instructions.
Now, however, she seemed to be taking her cues from her blonde teammate. She had moved backwards first, almost like she was expecting Sasuke to attack from behind, and was in position to intercept him should he go after Naruto.
Sasuke hadn't blinked at his teammates' unusual behavior, until Sakura unexpectedly put herself between his kick and Naruto. The girl had frozen just before the attack connected, and Sasuke's strength sent her crashing to the ground.
That was when Kakashi became concerned. Sasuke had not shown any regret for injuring his female teammate, who was currently biting her lip as she cradled a broken arm. Then Naruto's body language changed, and Kakashi swore he saw the image of his sensei imposed over Naruto. Rage and determination lined the blonde's face, his eyes hardened until they were chilling. Kakashi had to close his eyes at the image of his sensei frowning like that when he tried to use Chidori in a spar against Obito.
The two boys fought, and for once Naruto appeared to have the upper hand. He forced Sasuke on the defensive, who barely managed to defend himself and would not have if not for his Sharingan. And then Naruto, too froze, fist raised scant inches from the Uchiha's face, and Sasuke took advantage of that to hit the blonde in the gut. When he doubled over retching, Sasuke slammed his elbow down on his neck, and Naruto collapsed into the dirt.
The spar had ended the way Kakashi expected, with Sasuke victorious, but nothing about it was right.
Naruto was clearly holding back, pulling his punches, and he never once used his trademark Shadow Clone jutsu. Sakura had participated this time, leaping to Naruto's defense, and was removed easily. And unexplainably, both had hesitated when faced with Sasuke's attacks.
Kakashi called an end to today's team meeting, reminding them they had a mission tomorrow. Sasuke, indifferent, went off on his to continue training. Sakura helped Naruto off the ground; he noticed that her arm was fixed, and the pair ran from the training grounds, leaving behind a baffled Kakashi.
That was the final kunai for the jounin. Sakura had not asked Sasuke out on a date and willingly left with Naruto when she should have been punching him.
Fearful for his students, Kakashi followed them.
The two had gone straight to Ichiraku's and ate in silence. He observed them with his Sharingan, seeing no trace of genjutsu or Henge. Maybe he was seeing things that weren't there. Sasuke might not have actually broken her arm. The girl could have been shocked that he would actually hurt her. It would be her first injury. Sakura had been his only student to come back from the Land of Waves unscathed, only because she did not fight.
Maybe that mission had made her realize being a shinobi was not a game, that it wasn't something you did to catch a boy's attention. That mission changed Naruto, too, it seemed. Now that Sakura was willing to train, Kakashi could mold them into this generation's strongest team.
They had the basis for it. Sasuke was very advanced, the Rookie of the Year, capable of utilizing fire jutsus and his Sharingan already. Naruto, with his enormous chakra reserves, in addition to the Kyuubi, and his Shadow Clones could be a one man army, if he used his head a lot more. Not that he needed to with Sakura on the team. She was the smartest of the three. With a couple of genjutsus, both defensive and offensive, she would be perfectly suited to be the strategist, deftly able to direct Naruto's destructive potential.
Kakashi left, satisfied that his students weren't enemy ninja in disguise, anticipating training a team that had the potential to become famous. Now he only had to train them like Minato did him.
Shortly after he disappeared Shikamaru took a seat on Naruto's left. "Kakashi's gone."
"We know." His two students said in unison.
"How did your day go?"
Sakura let her head slam on the countertop. "Horrible," muttered Naruto. "You?"
"The same."
Shikamaru had wanted to crush his team in a hug. It killed him to see bubbly Ino, Chouji munching an exorbitant amount of chips, and Asuma-sensei peacefully smoking. He tried to play the lazy character they expected, but he found himself reacting to orders when they were given and taking charge of the mission from the beginning instead of waiting until Ino's and Chouji's arguing became too troublesome.
At the end of the day his teammates didn't think anything of his strange behavior, but he was sure Asuma did.
"I hate this. I have the mindset of a twenty-three year old woman mentally, but physically, my body reacts like a twelve year old."
Shikamaru sighed, resigned to the situation. He had known the risks of using the time travel jutsu. He studied it extensively before even letting Gaara tell Naruto it existed, but he felt the benefits outweighed those risks. There could have been a million risks, but the opportunity to rewrite the future was one he could not ignore. He had not considered having to live in a younger body. All day he had dealt with conflicting signals, from his immature body and his warfront mind. Naruto and Sakura must have had it harder, having to deal with Sasuke, who they had just watch die.
"We can't be seen together. Not until after the forest." Naruto stated.
The second part of the chuunin exam would give them the excuse they needed. As rookie participants, all the other teams would be gunning for them, so it would be believable for two Konoha teams to work together to survive. Once the sand siblings arrived they would be complete. It would be troublesome to sneak around until then, but necessary.
But they still had three weeks until Gaara and Temari arrived. Naruto would send the red head his scroll tonight, when a messenger bird was less likely to be spotted. Until then, they needed to remain inconspicuous.
Naruto absentmindedly used chakra to leap atop the nearest building. The street formed spider web cracks where he was standing, and Shikamaru was sure there would be a matching pair on the roof Naruto hurriedly jumped off of.
And train until they dropped from exhaustion. Too many incidences like this, combined with the fact they stopped using jutsus entirely, would alert their senseis that something was wrong.