N.B: Please note, for those who read the original, that this chapter has a lot of changes to it.

Chapter 7: A New Path Part 1

"Hello again Itachi, what can I do for you this time? Oh, and I see you brought little Sasuke with you as well." The Hokage greeted the brothers, who had just entered the office.

"Hokage-Sama there is something Sasuke and I have to tell, and show you that is very, very important. Something that you definitely cannot convey to anyone else." The older one spoke to his superior in a calm but urgent tone.

The Hokage closely looked at the two, sensing the seriousness in the elder's voice, glanced at Sasuke and saw that the young boy looked nervous for some reason and sad at the same time. This really made him think about what the two wanted to talk to him about, especially since he is to attend a meeting involving their clan tonight. The Sodaime lead the two brothers to the sofas and chairs he had within the adjoining room, for their conversation. After he placed a silent jutsu around the room, he signaled them to begin.

The Hokage realizing the tone of his voice "Well Itachi, what is it that you two would like to talk to me about that is so important?"

The two glanced nervously at each other, before Sasuke stood up, and began to glow. The Hokage's eyes went wide when the light died down and, in its place, stood and older looking Sasuke Uchiha. A look of confusion fell over the Hokage's eyes as he saw the newly changed boy. At first, he thought this was some sort of transformation jutsu, a very easy jutsu for shinobi's. But, as he looked closer at his eyes, he realized, that this was not the case. The boy sat back down in his seat and reveled everything to the older man in front of him. The leader was silent as he absorbed the information given to him, by this young...older boy. In reality Sasuke was actually older than Itachi; imagine their family finding out.

After the time-traveler finished his story, the elder was silent for quite a while, as his mind slowly mulled over everything that was said and shown to him. Sasuke had reverted into his younger form and was now resting his head against his brother's shoulders. His eyes were glassed over and almost clouded. It was always hard for him to think about what happened to him in the past, well future now. Even harder was for him to actually talk about it out loud. Unknown to anyone, he began to suffer from the nightmares of his past, he never wanted anyone to find out; especially not Itachi.

Before they left, the two brothers discussed the plans they were able to come up with, and the Hokage admitted that he did remember hearing about the same clan they spoke of. He then wrote an official letter granting the younger one permission to enter ANBU Elite Prison Cell's. He also told which area they would use for their plans. There were large more secured and structured cells deep within the prison that were used for highly advanced criminals.

Although Danzou, one of the official elders of the village, is also in the loop about the upcoming war, the Hokage clearly wasn't even going to inform him on the new development. He signed the seal, and sent the two off, knowing full well that Fugaku would want his son's home early, before the meeting was to take place. As they left, he continued to pray that the Uchiha's leader wouldn't try to bring Sasuke anywhere near the chaos that he'd started. He sighed and looked out his window down at his village wishing the newly advanced Sasuke, would be able to bring this war to an end, and bring forth peace; before the visions of his past, soon become their future.

The two Uchiha's high tailed it towards the prison's having one of the same thoughts as the Hokage; knowing full well their father would want them home early…mostly Itachi. The ANBU captain entered with his brother with ease, although many were questioning what the younger was doing there in the first place. Not wanting to cause any kind of trouble, the ANBU quickly lead his brother to his superior's office and gave him the letter from the Hokage, and quickly left, not wanting to answer any questions. He didn't want to be here any longer than he should be. Soon, they were walking down the corridors that Hokage gave them permission to use. They nodded to each other, and activated their sharingan's quickly analyzing the area, cell number's, any and everything that will be useful to them.

Before they left the library, they were actually able to test out the jutsu around the area and found out that it wasn't all that difficult to learn at all. After a few minutes, they finished their scan, and returned their eyes back to normal. Itachi glanced at his brother who had one of his hands on one of the cell bars of one of the cell's. The older teen placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, and gave it a gentle squeeze, as a silent communication between them, that there would be no problems after all. The stress and worry that had previously run through his mind were soon gone as he saw the gentle smile upon his brother's face. Returning his own the two made their way out the corridors, to head home.

Two days later

The meeting had gone exactly how the young Uchiha had imagined it. The Hokage's attempts of forming a peace treaty with the clan, was totally blown to bits by his father. Sasuke, using a special jutsu he developed, was able to see beyond the door that held meeting, and able to see and hear everything. It seemed to him, by the looks of the other members, that not everyone actually wanted to fight. That there were members who might even go up against Fugaku. Those were the ones that looked the most tired, as if they didn't want to be there at all. They were tired of all the fighting just like their ancestors were and Fugaku was behaving just like Madara did years ago. That's when he began to take back a lot of the things he said about his clan, and instead directed all those insults straight at his father, which apparently had lost his members.

'How can he not see how much suffering the different nations and villages will be in if he let this happen? Has the thought of power made them ignorant to everything else that is happening around them?' Sasuke sighed, and kicked a pebble that was in his path, as he continued his walk. His brother had suggested last night, before he went out on an assignment; that he should relax by taking a walk through the park, to get away from the clan for a while, and ease his mind. So, taking his brothers advice, he closed his eyes and allowed all the worry problems to just drift away.

Suddenly, he heard of the sound of harsh laughter, and muffled tears and cry's coming from the distance. Concentrating on the sound, he took off in the direction the sounds came from. As he got closer, he began to have this strange feeling, like he knew whose voice it was but couldn't put a finger on it. When he reached the clearing, he gasped at the scene before him, and realized why he recognized the voice. Three girls were standing in front of a young Sakura Haruno, who was being bullied, crying hard and curled up in a ball. Her bright pink hair was a dead giveaway.

As the middle girl; Ayami, pulled young Haruno by her blouse, preparing for another punch, Sasuke pounced.

"Put her down." Said the cold voice behind them. A hand stops her fist, and Ayami turned her head to give them a shouting to. But, as she saw him, she gasped, and her eyes filled with hearts.

"Sa-Sasuke-Kun, is that really you?" She squealed happily, ignoring his request to release Sakura.

Sakura opened her eyes to see what was happening around her. That's when she saw him, Sasuke Uchiha. The young boy who's captured the hearts of almost all the young girls in the academy. Sasuke began to get annoyed and repeated his words colder and slightly tightened his grip on the girl's fist. She squealed out and dropped Sakura, falling to her knees. After the Uchiha boy gave them a strict warning, the girls ran away, crying their eyes out that they have been crushing on suddenly hated them. Quickly turning to the only girl left, Sakura, the boy the realized that she took abit more injuries than he first thought. She had a slight bruise on her left cheek, along with cuts and scratches; which covered some of her arms and legs. Looking at her eyes, he saw that she was still scared and shy, not to mention still shaking, from what just had just happened. Seeing that she was probably a nervous wreck, he slowly went on his knees in front of her; still giving them space, and slowly reached out his hand to her. She looked at the hand, then back at his eyes, and then slowly a smile began to make it way across her face. She took her hand in his, and he began to pull her up to her feet.

But as she began to stand fully, she cried out falling back down grasping her right ankle. Sasuke quickly went her side and examined her leg. It appears that she must have fell on something hard, as there were marks around it. As he slowly felt around it; being careful not to hurt it; he sighted in relief that it wasn't sprained or anything.

"Um, Sasuke-san." A quiet voice snapped him out of his thoughts. He looked at his future teammate and saw true sadness in her eyes. He felt anger running through him at the way the girls were treating her, especially since Sakura wasn't a bad person.

"What is it Sakura?" He asked giving her a smile.

"Why are you helping me?" She asked confused. Sasuke also gave her a confused look as well. 'Why am I helping her? Why would she ask me that?' he thought. Before he could respond, she gave him her reason.

"Everyone says that I'm pretty much weak, annoying among other things, so I don't understand why you would waste your time helping me."

What she said pretty much made his blood boil even more. 'But then again' he thought sadly, 'I too said horrible things to her as well. But that's only because I didn't want to put her danger, by being near me. She doesn't even know how much I actually care about her…'

Sasuke's thoughts began to trial off but was then broken when he saw a hand waving back and forth in front of him.

"Are you ok Sasuke-san?"

"Yea I'm fine. Come on we should get your leg cleaned."

Before she could protest, he helped her stand; leaning most of her weight on his side and began moving them towards a small pond not too far from where they were. Holding her in that way, took some of the pressure off, of her leg.

After placing her down by the river, Sasuke pulled a rag out of his pocket and soaked it in the river. He then took it out and rung out the water before he began to clean the young girl's ankle. Holding her leg gently in one hand, he slowly began to clean the marks that were caused by the trouble making girls.

At first glance, it seems as though the silence around them was comforting. But it was instead the exact opposite. Both children had deep thoughts running through their minds and neither knew how to break the silence between them.

When Sasuke was done with her leg, his body seemed to be moving on auto pilot. Caught up in his thoughts, he rinsed out the rag and began to clean her arms and the other marks that he could find. It was only when he moved up to the bruise on her cheek when it happened. He glanced casually at her face and into her eyes. He saw many mixed emotions flowing through her. Sasuke froze as the two stared into the each other's eyes. It was only when the rag he had fell out of his hand and landed half on her leg, half on the ground that they snapped out of it.

Blinking to clear his thoughts, Sasuke apologized and collected the rag, so he could finish tending to her. After rinsing the item, he moved to her cheek. Suddenly his hand was stopped by Sakura, whose face was full of confusion.

"You didn't answer my question."

"What?"

"Why are you helping me?"

Sasuke forgot she even asked him that earlier. A part of him knew he would eventually have to revel the truth when he first realized he came back to the past and already knew in mind who he would have to tell. Sadly, he didn't know how to tell his future teammates.

'It's too early to tell her right now, first I need her to trust me as a friend.'

"I would have been cruel of me to see you in trouble and do anything about it." Said girl looked at him and knew what he said was true. Her parents always told her that one should never hesitate to help others in need. She slowly let go of his hand, lowering her head with a soft sorry. Making sure it was okay, Sasuke continued with his tending until he was all finished. Placing the rag between them, he sat next to her in silence.

'Great now what do I say to her. I hope she isn't afraid of me' Sasuke thought, as he slowly began to remember how shy and afraid, she was back in the academy until she met and became friends with Ino Yamanaka. 'That's when her courage began to build, but over time she picked up a slightly stubborn attitude that Ino also has.'

While Sasuke was busy with his thoughts, Sakura was busy with hers.

'Sasuke Uchiha actually saved me from those bully's and is being nice to me. I know he didn't need a reason to help me, but he doesn't have to stay with me. Not that I'm thinking he's a bad person or anything, maybe he wants to be friends. Yea that's it maybe he wants to be friends. But why me I wonder, it's not like I'm strong like him and his family. Well, he did look really look mad when those girls were bullying me.'

"How does your leg feel?" Sasuke asked. Rotating her leg slowly, she stood up and put slight pressure on it, testing her weight.

"It's feels a lot better now. Thank you very much Sasuke-san." She replied with a small smile on her face.

"No problem, hey would you like to go for a walk with me?" The time traveler asked while getting up himself.

'Maybe he really does want to be friends.' She thought before giving a shy nod. Picking up the rag he used, the two began their walk. As they made their way around the park, they slowly began opening up to each other about their lives as their friendship slowly began to grow. Before they realized it, they had exited the park and would soon enter town. That's when Sasuke spots and recognizes a tea shop that's owned by a family that's close friends with his. Glancing at his companion, he grabbed her hand and slowly led her inside the shop.

"Ah, good afternoon young Sasuke-san, how are you? And who is this, a friend of yours?" asked Mrs. Kaoru Musashi, as the young ones entered her store. Smiling she greeted the two as she came around the counter.

"Good afternoon Mrs. Musashi I'm doing well. This a friend and classmate of mine, Sakura Haruno. Sakura this is Mrs. Kaoru Musashi, both of our families are close with each other." The young Uchiha replied, making the introductions.

The three fell into friendly conversations during and after a cup of green tea. Later, Sasuke smiled to himself as he watched his family friend and future teammate still conversing in the kitchen, while he watched from the bench close to the entrance. 'It's amazing how second chances could change your view on someone you thought you knew. Or maybe I just didn't give them the chance I should have.' Sasuke pondered what would have happened if this meeting would have happened in his past timeline. 'Maybe if I wasn't so focused on impressing my father and becoming Itachi, I would have seen things a bit differently.' Lost in his thoughts didn't see the hand waving in front of him, until it landed on his shoulder. Snapping out of his thoughts he looked up at the pink haired girl giving him a smile.

"You space out alot don't you? Are you okay?" She asked with a giggle.

"Yea I am. Are you ready to go? I'll walk you home" he replied getting up from the bench he sat on.

Saying goodbye to Mrs. Musashi, the two began their walk towards the center of the village.

"Are you sure I won't be bothering you, Sasuke-san?" Sakura asked nervously. 'He's already done a lot for me in one day, I don't want to think of me as a bother.'

"I don't mind Sakura, really. It's not like we live in different villages or something." 'I didn't think she would still be this nervous, that's something I'm definitely have to help her with.'

Minutes later they made it the Haruno residence and just in time to run into Sasumi Haruno, Sakura's mother. The woman Sasuke realized, almost looked like an older version of his future teammate. The only real difference being that the hair and eyes being darker than that of her daughter's. After Sakura made the introductions between the two, the young Uchiha slowly made his way back home.