Long chapter for all you guys and you're really going to enjoy it. I struggled with it a bit. As I was writing I realized that Sasori had the ability to think and remember, which he shouldn't be able to do because he didn't have a brain. And the Land of This really does exist. It was taken over by the Land of That. Go ahead and laugh hysterically. I did too. Look it up if you don't believe me.
And Angellwriter, I win again. I'll have you know this chapter was exactly 8,000 words in Word before I added the author's note.
At first, Gaara thought he would hate reliving his gennin days.
Even if he did have his sister at his side, Kankuro was still terrified of him. The villagers hated and feared him again, avoiding him like the plague, hiding inside their houses whenever they caught sight of him. And it would be a few years before he could justifiably take up his position as Kazekage. He didn't get it until he was fourteen originally, and no amount of change in personality would convince the citizens of Suna to follow the lead of a twelve year old boy that housed a demon he couldn't control.
But Gaara found himself enjoying it. For one, it really was a lot easier this time around with a Temari that wasn't afraid he would kill her for talking to him. Kankuro nearly had a heart attack when she laughed at the shadows under his eyes their first day back in the past, teasing him and asking if he had gotten enough sleep with a suggestive wriggle of her eyebrows.
But Gaara didn't mind his sister's gentle ribbing, because it meant he wasn't alone. Being alone was the worst feeling. It was dark and cold and Gaara never wanted to go back to that place. He was thankful for all the friends he now had, and those that he would have in the future, thanks to Naruto.
It also helped that he had better control over the Ichibi. His seal may have been weak, the reason for his madness and blood lust originally, but the overall strength of the seal was moot if Jinchuuriki and Bijuu were working together.
And Gaara had appeased Shukaku by promising him the blood of many they would kill for the greater good.
For another, he finally experienced the joy of pulling pranks.
Naruto had regaled him with tales of his various schemes as an academy student, from painting the Hokage Mountain in broad daylight, to flooding the Torture and Interrogation and Hokage towers, to switching all the Inuzuka's dogs for cats.
The future Fifth Kazekage had the rare chance to have some fun. And what easier target was there than his own brother?
They had already set the puppet user on edge when Gaara and Temari greeted Team Seven the day before the chuunin exams began. Kankuro had nearly popped a blood vessel in his head when his insane brother hugged his pink haired girlfriend.
Gaara didn't think his brother slept even an hour in the forest. The red head would have sacrificed blood to the demon a lot sooner if it meant he could sleep. After a month of a happy, smiling and rested Gaara, Kankuro was jumping at his own shadow.
The best part came when they received news from the imposter Kazekage, stating that the finals of the chuunin exam would be a team event. Logically, the future Kazekage could see the reason behind the change. It was more strategic for Suna to unleash their secret weapon, him, when Gaara had his two siblings present to keep the Konoha shinobi off him while he transformed.
Kankuro actually fainted.
However, the aftermath was not as amusing. With no other choice Kankuro attempted to incorporate his mastery of puppets to his brother and sister's already combined offensive and defensive strategy. But he flinched every time Gaara's sand came within three feet of him.
With Kankuro freaking out at every turn about getting crushed by his sand, Gaara imagined that this was how Sakura and Naruto were feeling. Given they may have had it harder having to deal with the Uchiha's mammoth pride. Kankuro would eventually overcome his fear of his brother, coming to trust him and support his choice to become Kazekage.
Sasuke's pride would only grow to eclipse his hatred.
But Gaara would do whatever Naruto asked in order to save the Uchiha, because Naruto had saved him from himself.
Shikamaru groaned for the umpteenth time, gazing dreamily at the free floating clouds. It was actually the twenty-seventh, but he only knew that because Ino was complaining about his constant groaning.
Being back in the past was starting to lose its appeal. Stars knew he had shed many, many tears over his team's death and would have, and did, do anything to have them back. But was Ino always so loud, so bossy, so . . . troublesome?
The blonde shrieked in his hear like a banshee, mostly over the third exam's twist. The first thing out of her mouth at that announcement was, not unsurprisingly, an exclamation of how cool Sasuke-kun was and how the Uchiha would be able to fight any team ("especially those freaks from Suna" which made Shikamaru want to strangle her) singlehandedly. Then she demanded Asuma start practice earlier to maximize their available time to train.
"Ino-Shika-Cho is the best combination of abilities. Winning the final exam will be easy," she said with a flip of her glossy blonde hair. "But that doesn't mean we can slack off. We have a reputation to uphold. A team designed for their teamwork and compatibility can't lose. We'd be the laughing stock of the village. So Chouj, stop eating! And Shikamaru! You lazy bum! Get up. We just started training, you can't sleep now."
Asuma liked Ino's initiative and enthusiasm, and was actually encouraging it, pushing his gennin to train longer and harder and more often. He even called in their fathers to demonstrate how the older Ino-Shika-Cho trio worked like a well-oiled machine.
In the same breathe he ordered them to use the time they had out of official practice to further improve upon their clan techniques. Shikamaru had cursed out his sensei to his fellow time travelers for that decision. He was a hundred percent certain that his father knew he was failing at the techniques on purpose.
It was all so troublesome. How was he supposed to meet with Naruto and the others and make contingency plans for the impending invasion if his past team was eating up all his time? They had no guess as to who had taken Orochimaru's place as the Kazekage and requested team structured finals. They had no plan to deal with Kabuto, or any idea where he was. The Snake Sannin's second hand man had all but vanished at the end of the Forest of Death, probably back to one of their numerous hidden lairs to perform more experiments.
In the end, their only plan was to derail the invasion and hopefully save the Third Hokage. The Sandaime could still call Tsunade back to the village to take over as the Fifth Hokage and just by being alive he would force Danzou to keep to his shadows.
It was a tall order when they didn't have all the answers they needed.
If possible, Naruto thought Sai was even creepier at thirteen than he was at sixteen.
Ever since he had invited the artist to join their team training sessions the boy had followed him like a Nara's shadow. He was always asking questions and smiling and calling him leader instead of dickless. Sakura claimed it was because Naruto was charismatic. It was impossible to not love his sunny disposition. Sai certainly orbited around him like the orange wearing shinobi was his sun.
And maybe Naruto was his sun. Sai was drawn to him like a moth to a flame. He wanted to learn more about Naruto by observing him, whether he was training, sleeping, pulling pranks, shopping, meeting with Iruka, playing with Konohamaru and his friends, or simply walking. Sai went as far as to follow him home and slip into bed next to him.
Naruto promptly shoved him out the front door.
Whatever the reason, it unnerved him to see Sai so open and genuinely friendly. But this was the perfect chance to save Sai from Root and Danzou's machinations.
If they could teach him about the importance of emotions and the strength of having bonds, Sai might be able to join the official ranks of active shinobi and not hide in the shadows robotically carrying out Danzou's every self-serving order.
Shikamaru had suggested the first time he and Sakura brought the topic of Sai up, after the written portion of the exams, that Naruto gain his loyalty and then use Sai to infiltrate Root and keep an eye on the bitter old war hawk.
Naruto hated the idea of using his friend like that. Sai did not give his loyalty easily, but once he came to appreciate the friendships he had built with Team Kakashi, he would never risk them. And there was nothing he wouldn't do to keep them. So if Naruto said it jokingly, Sai wouldn't hesitate and offer to do it.
His willingness to do whatever Naruto asked killed him in the future.
But Naruto was the Hokage first, and if he needed Sai to pretend to be a Root agent to save his village, he wouldn't think twice about asking him to return underground.
However, the issue of Sai would have to wait.
Naruto was sprawled in the dirt. Both Sasuke and Sakura lay near him, their heads only inches from his own so that they looked like the letter 'y'. Kakashi, by means of an unnamed jutsu he had stolen from a Kumo kunoichi, had put a tether on them that only allowed them to move ten feet away from their other two teammates. And then he gave Team Seven the bell test for a second time.
Needless to say, adjusting to the restricted movement took a while. Long enough for the timer to run out. And the second run didn't go so well either. It was harder than it looked to coordinate the different attack styles of three close range to mid-range fighters.
"Tomorrow's the big day," said Sakura conversationally.
Naruto whooped, punching the air. "And we're going to kick as and take names. Believe it."
"Aa." Sasuke agreed.
"Ne, do you guys want to go for some victory ramen?"
"We have to win first, Naruto."
"Don't talk like that Sakura-chan. Of course we're going to win. No one can match our teamwork."
"Let's go." Surprisingly it was Sasuke that agreed first.
"Really, teme? You're actually going to come? In that case, dinner's on me."
Sakura smacked him upside the head. "You would be paying anyway, you idiot, because you eat twenty times what anyone else does."
"Am I invited to dinner, leader? From what I've read, the evening meal is when you share what happened that day with your family, but I've never had someone I could tell about how horrible my day was."
Naruto jumped a foot in the air. That had not changed about Sai. The guy still based all his knowledge of emotions on books he read. Though Naruto was glad that Sai was already comparing Team Seven to a family unit and viewed himself as a part of it. "Shit. Don't sneak up on me like that Sai. Just where did you come from anyway?"
The pale boy shot him a puzzled look. "Well, thirteen years ago my father fertilized one of my mother's eggs with his sperm. . ."
"Woah! Stop right there!" Naruto clapped his hands over his ears, slightly green in the face. "I don't need a detailed description of the birds and the bees, believe it!"
"Then why did you ask?"
"It means where were you a few seconds ago, location wise, not how did you come into being. It's a figure of speech."
"I see."
Naruto seriously doubted that. Sai said the phrase "I see," as often as he said "Believe it!" Which was practically at the end of every sentence. But he decided to introduce Sai to the best pleasure that was ramen a few years early.
Sasuke lay awake, staring at the bare ceiling above his bed.
He probably should be asleep, resting in preparation for the finals the next day. But he couldn't sleep. His mind was racing. Thoughts coming and going before he comprehended them.
Naruto and Sakura were not the people he thought they were.
Both of them were much more mature than expected of a twelve year old. Naruto didn't goof around as often and Sakura hadn't asked him on a date in over a month.
Naruto planned and strategized where he once leapt in with a hundred copies of himself screaming to not be underestimated. His mind was sharper. He still used flashy insanely overpowered jutsus, but in a smarter manner. His jutsu repertoire had increased to include more than just his Shadow Clone jutsu and his Sexy jutsu.
And Naruto had this aura around him that commanded respect and obedience. He radiated confidence and intelligence. When the blonde barked a command, Sasuke followed through. When he shouted a warning, Sasuke moved.
And Sakura. Had he imagined her fangirling? Mistaken genuine concern for his well-being and invitations for two friends to eat for something less? Did he see infatuation in her because he saw it in every other female that hung around him?
Because the Sakura he saw during practice could not be more different. She wasn't talentless like he first concluded. He witnessed her using medical jutsus on daily basis; even let her heal a broken ankle once when he refused to go to the hospital. He had hidden the injury, carefully distributing his weight so that it would not be noticed, but her green eyes had narrowed poisonously and she sweetly asked if he would let her look at it. Surprised that Sakura had even noticed the injury at all, didn't say anything to stop her from grabbing his leg.
She used elemental jutsus too, mostly water but there were a few earth and one or two wind and fire, and genjutsu during spars, and the force she hit with immediately left the recipient with large purple bruises and aching bones.
As difficult as it was for him to grasp, Naruto and Sakura were not the unskilled shinobi he thought they were. They were stronger than him. It was amazing how much stronger they had gotten since they graduated the academy.
If he trained with them more often would he be as strong? Kakashi's intense team based training had proven how beneficial working together could be. They had managed to outwit the jounin and won a spar against him. It was only once, but Sasuke couldn't do that on his own. Kakashi had readily defeated him during the first bell test.
Could Naruto and Sakura help him get strong enough to kill that man? Would they let him join them considering the way he had treated them as insignificant since Team Seven had been formed?
He rolled over, ignoring the twinge he thought he felt from Orochimaru's Cursed Mark. Sasuke was being stupid. Naruto and Sakura would never shut him out.
Later that night Naruto met the others in the Nara's forest for the last time.
"No long battles tomorrow. Don't hold back. Finish them off quickly." Naruto ordered. They would need all their chakra to fight of the person masquerading as Suna's leader.
"But won't your senseis and the Hokage find the sudden changes suspicious?" Temari asked.
Naruto nodded. "Yes, but they probably have already cottoned onto some changes and it's only a matter of time before they realize they're not seeing everything we can do. They definitely won't believe that we've improved so much in just a few months. We might have to tell them the truth once the exams are over."
"You can't tell me you mean to use your Rasenshuriken tomorrow?" Sakura asked in disbelief. "That's a dangerous jutsu. S-rank! Kakashi said you're not to use it against comrades. You'll tear someone to shreds!"
The blonde reeled back as if Sakura had slapped him, a sensation he was unfortunately awfully familiar with. "What? No! That's not what I meant! I'd never hurt a comrade!" Sakura flushed guiltily and looked away from his horrified blue eyes.
"I think," Gaara interjected smoothly, "that Naruto means for us to show off a marked improvement, but nothing that we shouldn't know. However, the more advanced abilities would go unnoticed in the chaos of the invasion."
Shikamaru exhaled. "Maa, it's easier for you two. You're from a different village. No one knows what you are capable of."
Temari reached a hand over to pinch a cheek. "Don't worry. You're such a lazy bastard that no one knows what you can do either. And anything you do tomorrow will be attributed to the Nara genius."
Naruto was flanked by Sakura and Sasuke as Team Seven waited for the third exam's proctor, Genma Shiranui, to explain the rules (the fight continues until only members of one team are standing or I choose to end it) and how they would be matched up.
"We decided the only way to do this fairly was to place the two rookie teams in separate brackets. That way, everyone is in the dark about their opponents' abilities." Genma spoke around the senbon between his teeth.
To his right Sakura snorted. It was a good plan, a good set up. And it would have worked. If there weren't five time travelers present.
It seemed the more things changed the more they stayed the same.
Team Seven was set to fight Team Gai first. So Naruto could still beat the destiny out of Neji, and it would be even easier because, by traveling to the past, they proved that destiny doesn't exist. Not that he could tell the Hyuuga about that. And Sasuke would get to fight Lee, a confrontation that didn't occur this time.
That, of course, left Shikamaru to fight his future wife again.
Team Ten and the Sand Siblings left the arena for the viewing box reserved for the competitors.
Naruto stared down his future as good as brother-in-law, since Hinata saw Neji as more of a brother than just a cousin. His pearly eyes stared back, disdain evident. Naruto would change that. He had changed the ways of the Hyuuga clan once, and he would damn well do it again.
"Hey, teme, bet you a bowl of ramen you can't beat bushy brows."
"Not a chance, dobe. We just had ramen yesterday."
"Do you want something else instead?"
"Omusubi."
"With okaka and tomatoes right?" Sakura added.
"Aa." Naruto intentionally shuddered. Rice, dried tuna and tomatoes. And he was the one that ate unhealthily? At least ramen had noodles, meat, fruits and vegetables paired together in a manner that was appealing to eat. Just the smell of Sasuke's favorite food put Naruto off his lunch.
"A challenge!" Lee exclaimed, revealing all his sparkly white teeth. "Then, I too, Rock Lee, Handsome Devil of the Hidden Leaf Village, challenge you, Neji Hyuuga. The first one to defeat their opponent wins. I wish to fight, you, Sasuke Uchiha. A true test of grueling training against natural ability. I will prove that, with enough hard work, sweat, blood and tears, that the so called loser can defeat the genius."
"Are you done yet?" Genma asked mildly. Lee ducked his head, his whole face burning up. "Right then, first match, begin!"
"Formation U!" Naruto shouted. He could feel thousands of pairs of eyes upon him as he and Sasuke darted forward, keeping in line with each other, and Sakura went the opposite direction to cover their backs and prepare for attack plan A.
An entire stadium filled with people who simultaneously wanted Sasuke Uchiha to win but called out for the demon's crushing defeat. The ironic thing, Naruto thought as he engaged Neji with a kunai, was that he had won, while Sasuke lost to Lee the first time they fought.
Naruto had no doubts regarding the outcome of this fight. Had they been the twelve year old Naruto and Sakura that had not yet witnessed war and still viewed the world through rose colored glasses, Team Gai would stand an equal chance of winning.
But their one extra year of experience could not compare against Naruto and Sakura's decade. Honestly, the pair didn't need Sasuke to fight to win, but pushing him away would defeat their purpose of making him see them as his support, his friends, the people that would always have his back.
Sakura was already channeling chakra to her right fist as she pushed off backwards from her two teammates. There was a large gray mass in the corner of her eye and she bolted toward it. In four seconds she had crossed to the boulder, nimbly jumped on top of it, and launched herself into the air over the five blurs of fighting gennin.
Their timing was perfect.
Sasuke and Naruto pulled away, with Neji's Byakugan still trained on the blonde, which let Sakura slip through his blind spot and right in between the three older gennin. Her extended fist slammed into the earth, and as quickly as she hit the ground, Sakura was on her feet between her boys.
As per her Hokage's order, Sakura withheld none of her strength and her chakra enhanced fist devastated the arena floor. Screams rent the air as civilian and shinobi alike gawked at the brute strength the slip of a pink haired girl possessed. The senbon dropped out of Genma's open mouth.
Neji leapt clear of the still billowing cloud of dirt, one arm wrapped under the armpit of his teammates.
When the haze settled the crowd saw the two teams separated by a massive crater at least a hundred feet deep and nearly the size of the stadium around. The six gennin and Genma only had a small precipice of ground at the base of the stadium's concrete walls to stand upon.
The Kazekage nearly threw himself out of the Kage's box at Sakura's move. "That's quite the show of strength. Scarily similar to Tsunade."
In contrast to the leader of the Hidden Sand Village, Sarutobi leaned back in his seat, hands fisting on his chair's arms until his knuckles were white at the tremors. Such strength required a level of chakra control unheard of for a kunoichi from the civilian sector that had only been a gennin for four months.
"Kami, just what are you teaching those students of yours, Hatake?" He murmured to himself. The fight moved to the bottom of the massive crater.
"Hatake?" The Kazekage repeated. "She's one of Kakashi Hatake's students?"
"Yes, along with Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha," answered the Sandaime Hokage. "It's a marvelous display of teamwork, don't you agree?" He asked as hundreds of Naruto's Shadow Clone's, previously disguised as rubble and dirt, dog piled Tenten. Sasuke then tossed eight shuriken, directing them with thin invisible wires to circle the weapons mistress.
The clones popped as Sasuke tightened his strings, pulling them taut, until only Tenten was trapped in their embrace. He clutched all the wires in his left hand, drawing back as he took in a deep breath, and breathed fire along the wires.
Gai's mini cloned dashed to her rescue, considerably faster than the rest of the gennin, slicing through the wires which fluttered harmlessly to the ground mere inches from her.
"Yes, exceptional teamwork." The Kazekage acquiesced. What he was seeing was more than he expected of a Jinchuuriki.
Naruto observed the battlefield with a critical eye. Neji, Tenten and Lee were struggling. Team Seven had taken the upper hand in this battle right out of the gate, and they weren't going to relinquish their lead.
The ground had been caved in, they nearly set the Tenten on fire, Neji couldn't keep atop the sheer number of clones Naruto sent at him, and Sakura intercepted every attack of Lee's, forcing the taijutsu expert to retreat or kick the girl he loved into the opposite wall of the crater.
Team Gai was frustrated. And humiliated. They were getting the worst of a team that had only been put together four months ago, a team that included the year's worst student. Neji was clearly starting to get enraged by Team Seven's uninjured state.
And Naruto was going to capitalize on that.
He crouched on the branch of a toppled tree, waiting; as Neji continued to demolish his Shadow Clones, as Sasuke blocked and dodged Tenten's Twin Rising Dragon technique, his onyx eyes bleeding red; as Lee attempted to double team Sasuke only to be blocked by Sakura and immediately pull back, apologizing and promising to run seven hundred laps around Konoha on one hand if he ever hurt her.
Naruto waited, until Neji was sure that he had dispelled the last clone with a Juuken to the heart, until Tenten had hurled all her weapons at Sasuke, until Sakura got between Lee and her black haired teammate again.
"Now! Plan A!" He shouted.
It was instantaneous.
Sasuke performed a Kawarimi, replacing his body with Sakura's. Lee, expecting Sakura's pink hair to streak between him and his target, had halted his punch once more. In that split second of confusion, when Lee met his eyes with surprise, Sasuke cast a genjutsu.
The taijutsu expert would still believe he was fighting, but it would all be in his mind. In reality he would be attacking nothing but air. And seeing as Lee had no talent for ninjutsu or genjutsu, the green clad boy was neutralized, because he wouldn't be released unless Sasuke himself ended the jutsu or he ran out of chakra to maintain it.
Tenten had drawn up all two hundred of her weapons of every shape and size by the invisible wires connected to them, intending to pulverize Sasuke by throwing them with her unerring accuracy all at once. Sakura may not have had an affinity for wind style jutsus, but that didn't mean she was incapable of utilizing them. She used one that Naruto had taught her in the future.
"Fuuton: Kamikaze!" Several tornadoes twisted above Sakura, catching the weapons mistress's second attack, cutting the translucent threads attached so she couldn't try a third time, and scattering them about the field.
Sasuke prevented the unknowing Lee from getting impaled while Neji used Kaiten, releasing chakra from all of his tenketsu points and spinning rapidly, to deflect the weapons.
Sakura pressed her advantage over the older girl, "Water Release: Exploding Water Colliding Wave!" A torrential volume of water spewed from her mouth, rising up and crashing down on Tenten. One water prison jutsu, held by a water clone, later, and the bun haired girl was neutralized.
Team Seven realigned in front of the male Hyuuga with Naruto in the middle.
"You know, Neji, that I failed the graduation exam three times, because there was one jutsu that was on it tripped me up every year."
Neji's white eyes widened as Naruto admitted that he failed the clone jutsu three years in a row. "So don't whine to me about fate. I know more about it than your beloved clan. And I know that it can be changed. If you don't like yours, fight for a better one."
Kakashi watched proudly as his team soundly separated and took down two-thirds of Gai's team, whose sensei was sulking in the seat next to him lamenting how his rival's students were as cool as he was.
"Maa, maa, Gai. I think that makes the score seventy-one to seventy."
Gai shot up, fire burning in his eyes. "Don't get ahead of yourself, Kakashi. Neji may not be a taijutsu prodigy like Lee, but he is exceptional at the Hyuuga style taijutsu which has no defense."
But Gai was wrong. The Hyuuga's Kaiten may have been the perfect defense, but if the user ran out of chakra or could not spin, because the chakra itself was not enough to stop a physical attack, the user became vulnerable.
Faced with three opponents, it was inevitable that Neji would exhaust his chakra stores first. Hell, just against Naruto Neji would run out of chakra first.
Neji seemed to be thinking along the same lines as Kakashi seeing as he dropped his hands to his side, standing stiffly as Genma called an end to the match from above with Team Seven's victory.
The masked jounin beamed as his team was pronounced the winners, and if anyone was looking his way they would be able to see the smile even behind his mask. This was the team that he imagined when the Sandaime told him he had to take on a gennin team. A team that worked together like they were a single person. No other team came close to meeting the large expectations he placed on them, but Team Seven had risen to the challenge and forced him to pass them. They were a team reminiscent of Team Minato. Naruto would be Obito, Sasuke was like himself, and Sakura could be just like Rin.
'You must be so proud of your son, sensei.' Team Seven would become legendary. Kakashi would see to it. And he wouldn't let them turn out like his team.
A group of earth users repaired the ground that had been shattered under Sakura's fist. Team Gai was directed to the medical station to receive treatment as Genma called down the next two teams to fight. Ino practically dragged her teammates down to the waiting Sand Siblings.
It was agreed upon last night, depending on how the teams were paired up, that Shikamaru's team would be the one to lose no matter what team he faced. Gaara needed to make it to the final round for the fake Kazekage to launch the invasion, and Naruto needed to be in position to become Konoha's hero once again.
The only team they would have been allowed to fight seriously would have been Gai's team.
Even with the outcome pre-decided, Shikamaru knew this match was going to be troublesome. Temari was going to piss off Ino royally by toying with her because he had gone on one date with her in the future.
"I think we should forfeit."
"What? Shikamaru, stop being lazy. Don't you want to be a chuunin?"
"Ino!" He hissed, cutting off her rant. "I saw what that guy could do in the forest."
Ino's blue eyes slid to the red head he was pointing at. Gaara stared back impassively. "He utterly destroyed a team from Ame. There was nothing of them left."
Shikamaru mentally begged for Gaara's forgiveness for painting him out to be the monster he was in the past, but it was the only way to convince Ino that they could not fight. And it wasn't like he was lying about what the sand wielding boy was capable of, for he had once murdered Team Shigure in the original chuunin exams.
"I agree with Shikamaru, Ino"
Ino huffed. With both boys against her, she really didn't have a choice. "Fine. Proctor, we forfeit."
Genma blinked, as it was rather unusual to quit in the last round, but accepted their forfeit and named the team from Suna the winner.
Shikamaru whistled cheerfully to himself as he climbed the stairs back up to the participant's box. Even if it made Temari angry with him, and he knew it had because he knew his wife, he had successfully avoided a cat fight between the two most troublesome blondes in his life.
Second most troublesome. Naruto was definitely the first.
"Team Kakashi, please come back down."
Naruto slapped the Nara upside the head for not fighting before vaulting over the railing. They hadn't said he couldn't fight, just that he couldn't win. Sakura and Sasuke landed seconds after him without an audible thud.
He extended his hand to Gaara. "May the best team win." He grinned brightly. The red head returned both.
Their match was interrupted before it even began. A man in a black cloak with red patterned clouds stood in the center of the arena.
"Well, isn't that thoughtful, yeah? Konoha's put both Jinchuuriki in the same place. This won't take long at all. Danna will be happy, yeah."
What the hell were Akatsuki doing there?
Naruto snapped his head sideways to look at Gaara, who looked as lost as he felt. Why was the Akatsuki already moving against the Jinchuuriki? They weren't supposed to start that for another three years. Did killing Orochimaru early warrant such a drastic change to their time scale?
He also didn't miss the concerned look Sasuke shot him. Let in on the orange loving blonde's secret a couple years early, Sasuke was now aware of the danger this criminal organization posed to his teammate.
But, despite Deidara's unexpected crashing of their exams, Naruto thought they could handle it, even as the sleeping agents in the crowed put everyone in the arena to sleep and the invasion began. They had beaten the Akatsuki once, and the invasion would fail with Gaara on the Leaf's side.
And then it all went to hell when Itachi Uchiha appeared.
"You!" Sasuke snarled. The seal on his neck flared red. "What are you doing here? I'm going to kill you."
"It has been a few years, foolish little brother. You do not have enough hate to kill me. You are not worth killing yet."
Naruto put a hand on Sasuke's shoulders as the boy tensed, Sharingan flaring. "Ignore him, Sasuke. He's baiting you. You know you're not ready to kill him." Not that he would let Sasuke kill his brother. Itachi was a hero, and Naruto hoped to welcome him back to the village once everything was over and done with and they saved the world.
"Naruto-kun, we would like you to come with us."
"Like hell I'd do that, believe it."
"Naruto won't be going anywhere with the likes of you, Itachi Uchiha." Kakashi and Gai joined them, stepping directly in front of the gennin. "Go, help the civilians. Anyone not wearing a Konoha hitai-ate is an enemy. Did you three know about this invasion?"
The second question was directed at the Sand Siblings, still standing silently behind Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke. Kankuro was perspiring lightly while his two siblings looked as cool as cucumbers.
"Yes." Gaara said bluntly. Kankuro gaped at him. Why would he admit that to Sharingan no Kakashi? The jounin would murder them.
"And do you plan to aide your troops?"
"No," came Gaara's quick answer. "I do not agree with or condone Suna's attack. I understand if you do not trust us, but my siblings and I fully intend to fight for Konoha."
Kankuro tried and failed to look like his betrayal wasn't news to him. Kakashi noticed but chose not to comment. "Very well. Stick with my students. And no heroics from any of you." He said sharply. "Defend the villagers and evacuate them to the shelters."
There was a quick moment when four of the gennin looked at Naruto to answer for them, and with his nod of approval the two teams scaled the concrete walls to protect the people who had come to see the gennins fight. They would certainly get their money's worth.
Naruto's clones were a life saver.
The blonde multiplied, two clones for every unknown chakra signature he detected, and sent his duplicates out with the order to eliminate. Shikamaru and his team raced over.
"Ino, how good are you at your Mind Transfer jutsu?" The blonde haired girl drew up affronted, what did the class clown know about clan jutsus, of course she was more than adept at possessing other shinobi subtly, and she did so to get the answers during the first exam, when Naruto continued. "Can you use it on the Kazekage?"
"The Kazekage?" She shrieked. "I can't possess the Kazekage! That would be asking for a war between the Yamanaka clan and Suna, you idiot!"
"That's not the Kazekage. I need to know his real identity."
Ino chewed her bottom lip as Naruto's serious eyes focused on her. How did he know that? Could she risk an international incident if he was wrong?
"Ino." Shikamaru said softly.
"Fine," she snapped. "But when Suna demands my head on a silver platter I'm sending yours in my place."
"They won't." Naruto smiled knowingly.
Ino's body had barely slumped, Shikamaru's arms were outstretched to catch her unconscious body, and her eyes snapped open. "There's nobody there."
"Did it not work? Do you need to be closer?"
"It worked perfectly. There's no mind at all!"
Sakura's green eyes darted around the stadium, scanning for Sasori who would most likely be hiding in his Hiruko puppet. If the distinctive red and black cloak wasn't easy enough to pick out, Sasori's shorter height from the hunched over puppet would definitely be noticeable.
And even then, there was no way Sakura would ever forget the first man she had a hand in killing.
"Sakura." The pinkette turned her attention to the future Rokudaime Hokage. "You're the only one of us to have fought puppets. Take Kankuro and go help the Third Hokage. You're the only one that will be able to beat Sasori."
"Lord Kazekage! What is the meaning of this?" Sarutobi demanded. The Hokage's ANBU guard took positions around him.
"Hokage-sama! You must flee. Escape now."
The Kazekage's arms came up. Two small holes were visible on the palms of his hands. From them dozens of senbon were launched at a rapid speed. The ANBU squad protecting the Sandaime was killed with precise hits to vital areas.
Sarutobi could not believe what he was seeing. The Yondaime Kazekage was a sand manipulator, much like his youngest son, and possessed a kekkei genkai called Magnet Release, which allowed him to manipulate particles of gold dust.
"By the fires, you're a . . ."
"Puppet, Lord Hokage." Sakura said succinctly, smoothly rising from her crouched landing. She was positive that what she was about to do was not what Naruto wanted when he mandated that they go all out. In fact, as the case may be, went against every order that they not reveal themselves to be from the future.
"Haruno-san, Kankuro-san. What are you doing? This is not a fight for gennin. Go, now!" The old man gestured with his arm for the two of them to run. Kankuro, who was hovering off to the side not really knowing why he listened to the blonde haired brat and followed the pink haired one, probably because Gaara glared at him, muttered something under his breath about how true that was.
"I'm sorry, Hokage-sama," she apologized, "but I cannot let you fight him."
"Cannot?" He blustered. "Child, who do you think you are? You are a mere gennin. I am your Hokage. If you do not leave now I will have you stripped of your hitai-ate and tried for treason!"
Sakura's lips curled upwards. "You may be Hokage, sir, but you are not my Hokage."
Sarutobi was stunned by her answer. That didn't make any sense. He was so stunned he could not act to prevent her from activating a sealing barrier around her and the puppet of the Kazekage. There was no way her abnormally advanced abilities would go unnoticed after that.
"Kankuro, please take Hokage-sama to safety."
The make-up wearing shinobi raised his eyes to the heavens, complaining about the insanity that all Leaf shinobi shared. Praying that the Hokage would not react quickly enough, Kankuro trapped him inside Black Ant, he left the crazy pink haired girl with a parting, "my old man uses Magnet Release," and hurried to dump his prisoner somewhere out of the way before he lived up to his nickname "God of Shinobi" and kicked his ass.
"I hate to be kept waiting."
Sakura did not move as Sasori, hidden within Hiruko. The criminal was never far away from his puppets. No puppet master could be, not even one of his skill level.
"You cannot hope to beat me by yourself, little girl." The gruff tone of his puppet said.
She smirked. "I think you'll find I can." She surged forward, meeting the Fourth Kazekage as the puppet was directed forward, and shattered his face. Sakura then used the still moving wooden body as a spring board to launch herself onto an unsuspecting Sasori's back and cracked open the face shaped shell that hid the true Sasori.
A black blur shot out of the destroyed puppet, retreating to the far side of the barrier.
Sakura had intentionally made the barrier small so that he would not be able to use his Performance of Hundred Puppets that once brought down the Land of This. Admittedly, Sakura was not as impressed with the technique once she researched the country, which was a small country bordering the Land of Fire and the Land of Rivers famous for its food contests.
All joking matters aside, Sakura did not feel suicidal and felt no need to fight one versus one hundred.
In hindsight, she should have shattered more than just the Fourth Kazekage's head.
Gold sand exploded from underneath, slamming her against the wall of her barrier. She heard at least two bones snap. Sakura doused it with water, weighing it down enough that she could slip out and attack the puppet, and due to its greater density, it was too slow to stop her from reaching the headless puppet. This time she annihilated the human puppet.
"Impressive," Sasori called softly. "Have you fought puppet masters previously?"
"Yes."
"I see. It's been a long time since I was forced to use myself, but I cannot keep the others waiting." Sasori pulled the cloak from himself, revealing that he had turned his entire body, except for his living core that had scorpion written on it.
Sakura pulled on her signature black fingerless gloves and cracked her knuckles. She may know Akasuna no Sasori's abilities, but she would be fighting he alone this time.
Across from her Sasori opened the compartment on his abdomen and balanced on the thick black wire that shot out of it.
"Please do not interfere with my affairs. You will only get killed."
Kakashi studied the two S-class shinobi in front of him.
Itachi Uchiha, who had just spoken, was easily recognizable and his history was well known; the murderer of his entire clan. He had a meteoric rise through the ranks, claiming the title of ANBU captain as a boy of thirteen, thanks to his proficiency with his Sharingan. Kakashi knew his skill with the Uchiha's kekkei genkai would never compare to one born with it. And Itachi's Sharingan was on a whole other level. The Copy-nin would never have the mastery over the Uchiha's doujutsu that Itachi had or Sasuke would come to have.
The second shinobi was unknown to him. Long blond hair which he wore drawn into a half ponytail with the rest hanging down freely. Bangs covered his left eye and he wore a slashed Iwa forehead protector.
"I'm going to prove to Sasori-danna that art is fleeting." The blonde reached into a large pouch on his left leg that held his clay.
"Deidara, we do not have time to engage in frivolous battles. Our mission is to retrieve the Jinchuurikis of the One-Tail and Nine-Tails."
Kakashi's normal eye widened in alarm. He would not let them have Naruto.
His hands blurred through a stream of hand seals. Chakra condensed in his hand, taking the form of a ball of blue lightning and chirping. He raised the headband concealing his Sharingan.
"You take Deidara," he said to Gai. "I've got the Uchiha."
"Yosh. Let us defeat these guys quickly and aide Lord Hokage. This is my next challenge, my eternal rival, with which I will tie up the score. If I do not beat my opponent before you, Kakashi, I will be the bait for your nin-hounds next tracking simulation."
"Chidori!" Kakashi streaked towards Itachi. The Uchiha dodged, right into a kick from a clone.
Itachi disappeared from sight and Kakashi felt a kunai prod the back of his flak jacket. Itachi thrust the kunai into the Copy-nin's back, and he poofed out of existence. He quickly jumped when the jounin tried to pull him underground by means of his head hunter jutsu.
For the longest minutes of his life, Kakashi stood toe to toe with the infamous Itachi Uchiha. He may not have Uchiha blood running through his veins, but he could wield the Sharingan just as well. The battle was fast paced, who held the upper hand was always switching.
Itachi would use the Grand Fireball jutsu every Uchiha mastered as a child and Kakashi would counter with a vortex of water. Kakashi would summon another Chidori and Itachi wouldn't be in the place he was aiming for.
Ultimately, they were evenly matched. Until he closed his eyes. "Do you know why the Uchiha clan is the most powerful and feared clan of all? I will show you the true powers of the bloodline of Sharingan masters. Tsukiyomi."
Kakashi was too slow to close his eyes. His world turned black.
While Sakura handled Sasori and his second Kazekage puppet, Naruto directed Ino and Chouji to helping some of his clones get civilians to safety. Ino had tried to protest, saying she could fight, but he told her straight away she was a liability due to her clan's jutsu and that he could not afford to waste someone on watching over her mindless body.
He and the others separated to quickly deal with the large number of Sound and Suna invaders. His plan had been progressing smoothly. Naruto mostly employed the use of various battle seals he had designed himself.
Seals were a brilliant shinobi invention. Ingenious, really.
Most thought nothing of them. They allowed for simple things, like easy and more storage, paper bombs, starting campfires, and summoning , to complex things like sealing Tailed Beasts, manipulating time and space, sustaining life, and barriers.
Unfortunately they also allowed for monstrosities like Orochimaru's Cursed Seals. Which, on their own, were an amazing mix of fuuinjutsu and senjutsu and a commendable feat, but in the hands of someone as twisted as the Snake Sannin were a menace. Or the twice damned Edo Tensei.
Most shinobi didn't use seals beyond storage, premade explosive tags, and the occasionally summoning jutsu. But Naruto could fight with them exclusively if he wished to. Fuuinjutsu was impossible to defend against and was the most unappreciated and unused weapon of the shinobi world.
Not even his father fought with seals. Minato used them in battle, seals were the foundation of his Flying Thunder God technique, the pinnacle of fuuinjutsu twelve years ago, that had earned him the name of Konoha's Yellow Flash.
But Minato only used seals to travel at the speed of light. Naruto could use them to incapacitate an enemy two hundred and sixteen different ways and kill them another thirty-two ways.
Certainly they could be dangerous to work with if you didn't know what you were doing. Fuuinjutsu was not for the faint hearted. The theory of fuuinjutsu was abstract, complex, and difficult to fully comprehend. The smallest mistake in writing a seal could have severe consequences. That was why it was important to write with a steady hand, carefully balancing lines, numbers, and symbols to create a functional seal. A fuuinjutsu master understood the limitless possibilities and miracles that seals were capable of performing, and could do anything their imagination could dream up.
Any seal that was written correctly would activate without fail when chakra was added.
Naruto was a fuuinjutsu master. One the likes that the world had never seen. That's how he knew some second rate idiot had written the seal overlaying Orochimaru's Cursed Seal.
Naruto cursed viciously, dropping to his knees at his teammate's side, utterly helpless when the containment seal broke and Sasuke automatically entered the first level. The seal absorbed all his own chakra, replacing it with Orochimaru's senjutsu chakra. The black flame like markings spread from his neck, and he cried out as pain and absolute power consumed him.