Disclaimer! I do not own Naruto nor its Characters!

Chapter 7: Sasuke Uchiha

Sounds of kunai could be heard from the third training grounds in Konoha. The sun was setting already, and some people had started to wonder who could train for that long, putting Lee out of the question due to his heavy injuries.

"One more time!"

Sakura panted. She slightly bent and clutched her knees to get some air. She looked beat up, sweaty and tired, but she wanted to continue, nonetheless. Her sparring partner, Naruto, looked completely fresh, which was a given, but he still urged her not to continue straight away. "You need some rest, Sakura-Chan." he told her. "You don't have to overdo it."

"No chance! I still have a long way to go!" Sakura struggled to utter some words amidst her heavy breaths. She wobbled towards Naruto like a drunken Lee. "I can still go… on…" Sakura could not make the next step. She simply gave in and allowed the green grass to embrace her whole. She lay on her back and let her vision scan the night to dusk red gradient in the sky. She took deep loud breaths that became more silent after time.

Naruto came over to sit next to where she lay. "I told you to take it easy." He told her. "It would be a problem if you ran out of chakra."

Sakura simply kept silent, still cooling down. She raised her hand as if reaching for the unreachable sky, describing a lot of her situation. She wasn't strong enough to help Sasuke fight Orochimaru. She needed help from others when her team was rendered useless. She didn't want to be useless at all, ever again. "Hey, Naruto!" She called out for the blonde. "Do I really become strong, like you?"

"Of course not, dattebayo!" Naruto goofily replied with a loud cackle of laughter. "I am the strongest in Konoha."

Sakura grew a tick on her forehead and folded her hands into fists. "I see that you're still boasting around just like your younger self." She said while approaching Naruto, threatening to land a hit on him.

"It's true! It's true!" Naruto defended himself awkwardly because all of his life he had been afraid of pissing the pink haired girl off. "But you are strong, very strong." He said, just before remembering the times that she would change the topography of an area with a punch. "Crazy strong! Monstrous strong! No one can beat you with pure strength."

"Huh! What kind of muscled shinobi do I become?" Sakura tried to place an image in her head, and honestly, it wasn't pleasant to think about. Naruto continued his narration. "And you're the best medical Nin I've ever seen, possibly you and Baa-chan."

"Medical Nin?" Sakura asked. "Me? Baa-Chan?"

"Yeah! I don't know how many lives I would have lost if it wasn't for—"

Naruto suddenly couldn't finish his sentence. He was interrupted by a certain flush of memories in his head. He stopped talking completely and placed his hand on his forehead.

"Naruto!" Sakura exclaimed in confusion. "What's wrong!"

Naruto, still clutching his head, looked at Sakura who had nothing but worry in her eyes. Something about him had changed and the girl noticed it. "Naruto, your eyelids are orange. Your irises have changed shape." She worriedly asked him. "What's going on?"

Naruto didn't reply, but only said one thing before creating a clone and himself vanishing in a swirl of leaves.

"Ino-Chan!"

"That perverted hermit! He just left suddenly saying he'll be back shortly." Naruto Uzumaki, with his white collared orange jumper and orange pants, wandered through a certain forest. From the looks of things, he seemed to be training. He looked a tad bit worn out. His clothes were dirtied with soil, and he looked to be sweaty.

"He told me to perfect the summoning technique till he gets back." He looked at his hands and gave a deep sigh. "It seems that there are plenty of tadpoles in season." He sighed again and continued walking through the forest. Suddenly, he heard a loud explosion within the forest. He slightly quaked before turning towards the possible direction of the explosion. "What the heck was that 'ttebayo?" He shakily asked himself.

"Naruto!"

Naruto then heard his name after the explosion within the forest. He tensed up, immediately hid himself behind a tree trunk and removed a kunai. He searched around his current range of view but could see nothing significant. Nonetheless, he remained vigilant. He jumped up onto a branch of the same tree and continued to another after the other with sharp alertness. "Who was that?" He whispered to himself. "How do they know that I'm here, outside the village?"

"Naruto!"

The blond Genin heard his name again and this time, there was no mistaking the direction from which it came. "This way!" He shouted. At full speed he launched himself from branch to branch, still confused at the whole situation, but he was sure that things would work out when he reached there, like they always do.

It wasn't long for him to reach the scene of action. He saw four ANBU knocked out with two still standing. An elderly man with bandages wrapped around his forehead was standing next to a yellow haired man, who had a… tiger? Was that a tiger on his back? In front of the blond man was a small pale skinned boy, bleeding profusely from his nose. "It's that guy again from last time." Naruto concluded while looking at his future counterpart, of course, oblivious to that fact. "I see that he's trying to escape the ANBU, I won't let—"

Naruto was interrupted in his tracks of thought. He had not seen the blonde girl tied up to a tree, having a sword against her neck by one of the ANBU. "Ino-Chan?" He thought. He did not even stop to think about anything else. He rushed down the tree branches as he crossed his fingers into a cross sign, the seal for the…

"...Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

The parties looked up only to see… a hundred? Five hundred shadow clones of Naruto? No one knew, but the fact remained that there were too many of him. They rained down like massive orange boulders of hail, rushing down on a stormy day. "Deal with him and everyone." Old man Danzo ordered his men before vanishing from the place.

The two masked ANBU men prepared for combat. Sai chose to first recover from his wounds and fatigue. "What are you doing to Ino-Chan?" Naruto's clones shouted in unison as they wrapped up the ANBU who was pointing a sword at Ino.

"Naruto!" Ino in surprise and gratitude exclaimed.

"Water Release: Scattering Bullets Technique!"

The first ANBU broke free from the holds with a water technique. All of Naruto's clones surrounding him were forced to be released. The other ANBU was just finishing up his side of the clones. Using his ninja sword, he sliced them up one by one as they each turned into plumes of smoke. The clones could barely land a hit on the two ANBU.

"One more time!" Naruto yelled.

"Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

Hundreds of his clones appeared once more. The two ANBU looked willing to go through it again. The second ANBU operative removed his sword and started his sword play again. He thrust his sword from one Naruto into another endlessly and so ruthlessly that the clones could die horribly if they were real people. Hardly had he thrust his sword into a certain clone when it refused to be released. Noticing that, he assumed that it was the real body. "I've got you now." He spoke. He pushed his sword further into his belly causing him to gush out blood from his mouth.

Naruto suddenly grabbed his arm with so much strength that he couldn't burge. He looked up and gave him a triumphant grin. "I've finally stopped your annoying movements, you annoying grasshopper!" He grunted.

A clone from his right ran over and punched the ANBU's cheek so hard that he was launched to the other side.

"U…"

A second clone used the first clone's back as a launchpad, thrusting himself in the air into the air at the same exact time three others slid down at his feet. They simultaneously kicked him upwards, launching him higher in the air per hit.

"...ZU…MA…KI…"

The second clone, already in the air, dropped down an axe-kick on his head, bringing him down violently.

"NARUTO RENDAN!"

The first ANBU rushed towards his temporarily fallen comrade and took him to safety. Naruto and his army retorted with a bunch of kunai flying towards them. Placing his teammate down, the ANBU operative made a few hand seals and smacked the ground with his fist.

"Earth release: Earth-Style Wall!"

A gigantic earth wall grew from the ground, blocking all the kunai and shuriken thrown. On the collapse of the wall, the second operative got up as soon as he could and weaved a few hand seals, ready to attack.

"Fire release: Great Fireball Technique!"

The army clad in orange was completely decimated by the flames. "Annoying pest." The operative muttered. They waited for the flames to clear, only to see no one in sight, not even Ino who was tied up, let alone Sai, their teammate.

"All that was a distraction!"

•••

Naruto paced through the forest in forced panic. He had Ino on his back who was twice or more times as shaken up as he was. Being threatened by the ANBU of your village was not a small matter and who knew if they'd ever stop. She couldn't stop herself from shaking. Naruto noticed her hands, which were around his neck, shivering unlike before. "What's wrong, Ino-Chan?" He asked without looking back, focused on his path ahead.

Ino jerked her head backwards, completely not expecting Naruto to notice or talk to her at the moment. She tightened her grip on her hands in an attempt to make the shaking stop, which Naruto realised as well. "Nothing! I don't know!" She replied with a soft tone.

Naruto didn't bother to ask more, but instead chose to strengthen her. "Don't worry Ino-Chan. I won't let them hurt you." He told her with his usual cheerful voice which she had heard before, but this time it felt different.

"Thank you, Naruto." She told him. She didn't seem to be as worried as she was before. Her shaking was reduced, too. She felt a little bit at peace. Was it because she had met an older and stronger version of him? Maybe, or not, but she felt alright at that time.

She leaned in to rest her head on his back. She was sure it'd feel nice. What was she thinking? Well, her actions were way ahead of her thoughts at that moment. No sooner had she rested her head than she saw his clone carrying the pale skinned boy. "OI NARUTO!" She yelled. "WHAT IS HE DOING HERE?"

Naruto almost stumbled at the change of tone. "Eh? Ino-Chan?" Naruto wondered. "He seemed to be hurt by those guys, so I brought him too."

"HE IS THE ENEMY! ENEMY!"

"Calm down, Ino-Chan. Now that we've come all this—"

Naruto was interrupted by a couple of shuriken that were shot past him and Ino. Looking back, the two ANBU were giving chase, closing in the distance in a heartbeat. "Ahh! Those guys!" Ino exclaimed in shock. "I couldn't hear them."

"That was because you were shouting, 'ttebayo." Naruto replied in his usual rowdy form.

"SO, ARE YOU SAYING IT IS MY FAULT?"

"YEAH! YOU'RE SHOUTING RIGHT—"

Before Naruto could finish his sentence, one ANBU brought a blade towards them from behind. During their quarrel, the ANBU had actually closed in on them. "Goddammit!" Naruto desperately whirled himself in midair so that he could tank the attack instead of Ino. Crossing his arms, he braced for impact.

"Partial Expansion Jutsu!"

Two gigantic arms extended towards the two ANBU, the other one chasing Naruto's clone with Sai. They were pushed violently through trees till they hit the ground, knocking them out completely in the process.

Naruto opened his eyes to see what was going on. He was actually pleased to see Choza standing in front of him and no ANBU at all around. "Choza no Ossan!" Naruto said happily.

"I'm glad to see you are okay." The big man replied. "I'm sorry I delayed. Naru– ahem– I mean the clone was released before I reached, so I got lost."

"Clone?" Naruto asked suspiciously.

"Ino! Can you move? Are you injured?" Choza asked the blonde girl in an attempt to dodge the question.

"I'm okay!" Ino answered as she got off Naruto's back. She stumbled a bit but managed to hold herself upright. "I'm fine now, but what should we do about that kid?"

Choza looked at the pale skinned kid with blood on his face, some from the nose. "Who is he?" He asked her.

"One of the ANBU that kidnapped me."

"Ehh? ANBU? Him?" Naruto couldn't help but exclaim in disbelief. "No! It's a lie, dattebayo! He actually kind of looks like Sasuke and that pisses me off."

"Whoever he is, he's hurt." Choza said before removing Sai from Naruto's clone before disappearing in a plume of smoke. "Let's head over to Konoha and let him have treatment. We shall begin the interrogation afterwards."

"Hai!" The two Genin replied as they followed the Akimichi through the forest.

"You demon! You're horrible!" The white-haired Sanin exclaimed in disappointment. He walked through a narrow path with rocky walls and ceilings with his newly found companion, Jun Akira, walking behind him.

"You had to remove that laziness from your head." Jun replied as he followed from behind, scanning the walls as he went on. "Night is the best time to attack a person stronger than you."

Jiraiya stopped after reaching an intersection where the paths diverged into three. He stroked his chin as he silently hummed. "Where to next?" He asked himself before turning back towards Jun. "Why do you have the impression that I'm weak?"

"Because you don't look like it, so you're not, and don't tell me appearances don't matter." Jun said. He walked up to the intersection to catch up to him. "Do you know why?"

"Why?"

"Because I've tried to scare people with my weak physique pretending that I'm strong, and I've failed."

Jiraiya, still thinking about the paths, simultaneously replied to his brown-haired companion. "I think you've got it backwards! Do that when you're actually strong. It's quite laughable to think like that."

"Hey!" Jun shouted in annoyance only to be ignored by the Sanin.

"Now where to go. We have two choices!"

"Two choices? Who's the dumb one now?" Jun retorted happily. "There are three paths."

Jiraiya shook his head with a pretended sad face. "So naïve, boy! So naïve!" He said. "We either split up or chose the one we shall all enter. Two choices!"

"Split up? No!" Jun replied angrily. "We're not splitting up. Do you know how strong the enemy is? So, we have three choices."

"Okay, oh wise one, which one are we entering?"

Jun looked awkwardly at the three paths. He swallowed a chunk of saliva in nervousness. He almost pointed to the central one before Jiraiya took the initiative.

"We'll take the one on the far left." He said as he went straight there without hesitation. Jun, surprised and angry at his quick decisiveness, filled him into the passage.

"Why did you choose when you told me to?" He asked the white-haired man. "What if this path is not safe?"

"Hey, it was your idea to use the alternative route to the cave instead of going straight in."

"Yeah, so?"

"Bear with it!"

"This old man." Jun could only mutter under his breath in irritation. Nonetheless, he has no other choice but to follow.

"I heard that!" Jiraiya mockingly shouted back at him.

"Damn you!"

•••

The two walked through the cave passages overcoming quite a number of barriers. Steep boulders in the way, wide pits, bats in most corners and all these seemed to affect one person only, especially the bats.

"How are you able to do this easily?" Jun angrily asked his travel companion. He tried to wave off the bats that flew from every corner that they pointed at with their lit wooden torches.

"I think you know why!" Jiraiya answered bluntly.

He moved on within the caves only to see a bright light being reflected off of some shiny rocks in a spacious area with a large hole in the centre. It was a green light that originated from the hole below where surely was another level of the cave. Looking down the hole was a small pond with water having a green light.

"Wow! This looks amazing!" They could only wonder until Jun noticed something familiar. Pulling Jiraiya into a hiding spot. He pointed to the lower level and whispered to him. "That's the entrance." He said.

"Does that mean…"

"Yes he's right here, somewhere."

Within their hiding spot, a loud voice reached out to them, echoing throughout the area. "You, who have been wandering the place like mice, come out! Or I'll have to eliminate you without any chance of explanation." The deep voice resonated.

"What do we do?" Shakily, poor Jun whispered to the Sanin who was stroking his chin with his eyes closed in thought.

"Nothing much! Let's talk it out first before we can think of fighting." Jiraiya said nonchalantly.

"Oi! Are you—"

Before Jun could finish his sentence, he saw himself, with his white-haired companion, right in front of the most terrifying person he'd ever met. He stood tall in front of the glowing stone, fully wearing a black robe. He had medium length hair, just reaching the base of his neck with a spiky pattern at the back, just like when he was a teen. The only exception was that he had allowed one side of his bangs to grow out, covering his left eye in the process, one that wielded a purple ripple patterned eye. He had a sword in his hand, halfway out of his sheath at the back, with one side of his robe open.

"I'll say that I haven't met an Uchiha like you." Jiraiya stated bluntly and carefreely. "Because I'm pretty sure there are only a few alive."

The Uchiha's eyebrows furrowed in annoyance, possibly because he didn't seem glad to hear that. He removed his sword farther from his sheath, but not completely out. "What are you talking about?" He replied. "I'm the only one alive and I'm pretty sure that you, with the ability to transform into one of the long dead legendary Sanins, is able to know who I am."

Jiraiya pulled back his head in metamorphic shock. "Long dead?" He asked in confusion. "I don't know which time you came from, but in this one, I'm alive. Or am I actually supposed to be dead by this time?" Jiraiya pumped out a relaxed, loud laughter.

The man clad in black completely unsheathed his sword. With the same hand that held onto the sword, he made some one handed hand signs. A coat of lightning covered his sword whole.

"Kusanagi no Tsurugi: Chidorigatana!"

Jun panicked seriously when he saw the dangerously glowing sword. "Why did you have to piss him off, huh?" He whispered to Jiraiya angrily. He was completely shaken up about just thinking what the man would do to them. Jiraiya paid him no heed though.

"Relax! I have come to talk!" Jiraiya replied calmly in his usual self. "I'm sure that you can see with those eyes that it's not any transformation."

"I can, and that's what troubles me. Why? Because the dead do not just rise back to life."

"You somehow travelled back in time. You should figure these things out yourself."

The ninja in black furrowed his eyes more. He went into his stance. "I find that even more absurd than coming back to life." He replied dreadfully. "On second thought, why not end you for tarnishing the legacy of the legendary Sanin as a common thief? I'm sure Naruto would not like to hear about it, and so would you not wish for that to happen, that is, if you know him and what he can do, you ignorant punk."

"Oh! You really shouldn't take your elders for granted, the last son of the Uchicha, Sasuke Uchiha." Jiraiya replied with a viscous smirk.

On the other hand, poor Jun had got a lot of information running into his head. "Sanin? Him?" He muttered to himself. "Uchiha? They know each other? What's going on?"

Sasuke's eyes lit red and the purple rippled Rinnegan came into sight. His eyes narrowed and his eyebrows fully furrowed. With his sword ready to slice, he grunted. "So you do know me? Well then…" With an incredible speed, he whooshed straight up front, swinging his sword aiming for Jiriaya's neck.

"… let's get this over with!"

"Hokage-Sama! We've succeeded in finding Ino-San."

Choza entered with Ino and the small Naruto after knocking at the door. Inoichi and Shikaku were discussing something with the hokage apparently by the time they appeared. Inoichi hurried up to grab his daughter in his hands and embrace her. "Ino, you're safe? Thank God." He exclaimed, almost bringing tears to his eyes.

"I'm okay, dad." Ino hugged back.

Naruto, not seeming to care about anything, looked around the office in a puzzle. "Shikamaru,Choji and Ino's dads are here." He said before looking shocked all of a sudden. "Does that mean Shikamaru and Choji are also kidnapped? Let's go search for them."

Ino hit a palm to her face as the others in the room laughed. "No, Naruto. I was the only one kidnapped." She told him however much she didn't want to.

"We are trying to confirm the conspirator, " Shikaku replied. "Did you see anything, Naruto, that we can use?"

Naruto's eyes became slits as he stroked his bare chin in thought. "I saw two ANBU, one of them had a sword to Ino-Chan." He said. "Then a pale boy, too, was there. Ino said that he was also an ANBU."

"He was!" Ino added in as Naruto was talking.

Suddenly, the air was tense, although unnoticed by the two blonde kids who were still arguing. "That Danzo! How could he train kids in his crusade?" Hiruzen muttered to himself angrily.

"But he didn't have a mask, and he is young." Naruto complained further.

"That's because it was broken by…" Ino paused to think of how well she could phrase that it was broken by his future counterpart. "...someone else."

"Naruto, what else did you see?" Hiruzen asked calmly, but the air around him wasn't becoming any calmer.

"There was an old man with bandages on his head and used a walking stick." Naruto replied. "Also a bunch of other ANBU who had been defeated. They were about… " Naruto started pointing towards his fingers trying to use his photo memory. "...four? Yeah, four of them!"

"Danzo is involved in this mess." Hiruzen stated bluntly. "Is there any relationship between Jun and Danzo? Has Jun made contact with him?"

Inoichi stepped forward with a file in hand, folded in to view a paper as whole. "There was certainly contact, but they seem to have different motives. Danzo seemed to be after Naru–"

"Is it okay to mention this in front of the kids, Hokage-Sama?" Shikaku interrupted Inoichi, due to the presence of little Naruto and Ino. Hiruzen remained silent for sometime before observing the two. Everyone in the room would have seemed to confuse the younger Naruto and the older one, since they are just a tad bit different in behaviour.

"Hokage-Sama, I apologise—"

"After me?" Naruto interrupted Inoichi too. He looked sadder than he was when he entered the room. He clutched his belly tightly. "Is it because of the—"

"Naruto!" The hokage called the small blonde out, interrupting him in his speech. "Would you care to escort Ino-San over to her home?" It wasn't a request and no one needed to be told that it was the other version of 'a confidential meeting happening now, please leave.'

Just as Naruto was about to say something, someone opened the door without even knocking and worst of it all, he had begun talking before even showing his face.

"Hey Jiji!" The voice sounded. "I went to the forest and saw little me fighting the ANBU, so I figured I wouldn't get close because of what happened last time, so I waited for Choza no Ossan to help out then I left." By this time, the voice was identified to be from the older Naruto who clearly had not scanned everyone in the room while talking. "I'm sorry I came late, but—"

After carefully scanning the room, Naruto interrupted his own speech with a strained stammer. "Ah…I..I–who… hahaha." He stammered then laughed as if he were hysterical.

"AHHH! You're that bastard who made Sakura-Chan cry." Naruto pointed at himself in his grown image, clearly not remembering his previous words. "I'm going to beat your ass, dattebayo!"

The people in the room just shook their heads and clutched their foreheads indicating how much of a bother it had become. On the other hand Ino and grown up Naruto were trying to convince the boy. "Wait up, Naruto." Ino said while pulling him back. "He's an ally."

"No he's not! I saw him trying to hurt Sakura-Chan. I saw him in the forest trying to batter the kid." Naruto grunted under his heavy breathing. "I can't just let him walk away."

"It looks as if Naruto is protecting Ino from a vicious thug." Choza tapped on Inoichi with his elbow jokingly. "I didn't know that she had a boyfriend."

A tick grew on Inoichi's forehead. Frustrated, he turned to the conflict at the centre of the office. "Oi Naruto, stay away from my daughter. You heard me?" He shouted only to have the Sandaime Hokage hold his shoulder. Inoichi, Shikaku and Choza tensed at the action.

"Take Ino away, immediately." He said with a serious face. "Things are going south from now on."

The older Naruto who was still trying to convince his younger self, felt something dark in the air. It was suffocatingly morbid. "What the…!" He exclaimed just before taking another look at his younger self.

"Oh no!" He exclaimed. "Ino get out of there!"

Before she could react, or even respond to the warning, a slight nudge was more than enough to send her flying towards the cupboards on the side.

"INO!" Inoichi shouted at his highest. He didn't allow her to hit the woodwork, instead he rushed over and wrapped her up in his arms. The force, nonetheless, that sent Ino flying was more than enough to send them both flying into the wooden cases of files.

"Urg!" Inoichi grunted on impact with the woodwork. Not wasting any second, he flickered her out of the office.

Meanwhile, in the office, the air grew denser and denser. The lights flickered, spending more time off than on. Despite things looking a bit normal when the lights were on, a pair of red glowing predator eyes could be seen in the dark turn. Around the boy was a steam, a vapour, an aura of sorts, glowing red in the dark and steamy in the light emanating from him.

"The Kyuubi!"

Hiruzen tensed up as Choza and Shikaku went on guard. Naruto –the older one– readied his fists for action.

"Oi oi oi! Calm down, Kurama!"

Hey guys!

Thanks for reading.

More info about Sasuke's appearance. I've tried to describe his look as seen in Sasuke Shinden Arc (Naruto Shippuden episodes 484-488)

I wanted to use The Last's appearance, but I wanted to cover his eye.

Anyway, stay cool.

Please enjoy.

Please review.

Please correct me.

Peace Guys!