N/A So its come to my attention some of y'all ain't gonna like this particular chapter. That's good. It's probably for the best. If you can't handle the break from what's basically become the norm on this site I'm afraid you wouldn't last very long anyway. I'm doing different. Very different. I'm not writing this to please anyone but myself. I'm getting kind of tired of the same type of reviews over and over, so if you're commenting about this particular narrative choice, please save your breath. I'm over it. Sorry if this sounded overly harsh. Don't mean to scare nobody. I'm not angry or nothing, just tired. I really do hope that those who remain enjoy the story for what it is anyway. Thank you for taking the time to read this. I'll see ya.

It was too loud. The sound of clashing claws just managed to eclipse the loud jeers of a raucous audience. It wasn't a pleasant sound. I was sparring again, against a kid just slightly older than me. Bigger too. I think his name was Kyo? I don't remember.

Ramsnaketiger—"Clone Jutsu." I charged from the left just as three clones took the other three angles. He threw down a rudimentary smoke bomb. Self made? Maybe poisonous? Dodging it then.

I jumped out of the way and circled him, my clones repeating the action. He likely couldn't see inside his own smoke. I started another sequence of hand signs.

"Bestial Illusion: Emblematic Pride." I chanted. He screeched.

"Passing Fang!" The smoke cloud dispersed, and Kyo came out, twirling so rapidly he shredded the ground under him. That'll take a lot of his chakra. Good.

He charged against one of my clones, and went straight through, hitting the ground and running out of momentum.

"Ha! Take that! Stupid Arata! Take that!" He said, as he stood up, facing the wrong direction.

I calmly walked up behind him.

And elbowed him in the head. He fell face first into the ground.

With one foot on his back, I held a kunai to his neck.

"Winner. Arata." A round of boos greeted Nobuyuki's announcement. I took my foot off of him.

Mmmm. Not good enough. He was practically static through the whole thing. I need someone better to test my skills against. Torune's out shopping I think, Ayame's training with her mom, Hayama's with Tomoe probably. I didn't see either of them today at our spot, so most likely. Mmm. Maybe Hyuurou? Nah. I'd have to deal with Anko and I'm not really feeling like it today.

"Hey! Come back cheater!" I turned around. What?

"Run that by me again?" Kyo looked really angry. Though it was hard to take him seriously when he still hadn't wiped the dirt from his forehead.

"You used genjutsu on me just now! That's not fair!" The crowd behind him riled up at that.

"Yeah! You can't do that! That's against the rules!" Random Inuzuka #4 yelled.

More noise, all in agreement. Ah, here we go again.

Nobuyuki stepped up, his stupid creepy smile starting to make itself known again. "Well, Arata. While technically you didn't break any rules, it is a massive breach in decorum to use such techniques in an honorable Inuzuka spar."

"Yeah! What he said." Other random Inuzuka #6 said.

"As such, I do think it appropriate to enact a punishment. You will be cleaning out the kennels for the next hour."

My hands clenched. Great. Just what I need right now. More nothing punishment. "I'm sorry, I can't really follow what you just said. Can you baby voice it for me like you always do?"

Nobuyuki sneered. "You understand me just fine, Arata. Now get moving, or I will add to the punishment."

I clicked my tongue, and walked over to the indoor part of the kennels.

Picking up a shovel and trash can, I felt three presences behind me failing at chakra suppression.

I dodged the shuriken coming for my side. "Really? This again? You couldn't have—Is that shit on your shuriken?" Aww some of it got on my sandals. That's disgusting.

"Go on then. Clean it up!" One of them said.

Ok. That's it. "Get the fuck out of here before I rip off your limbs from your body and use them to strangle your friends." I flared my chakra, and my canines rapidly elongated.

That seems to have spooked them. "Yeah right! I'll just get Nobuyuki-sama to kick your ass later then!" They ran away.

Shit. Literally.

I sighed, and got to work. A while later a small white figure with red eyes approached the kennel doors.

"What'd you do to end up here again?" Shiromaru asked.

"Beat some kid in a spar. Hurt his pride." 'Nobuyuki.'

He calmly walked up and on me to lay on my head. 'Ah. Figures.'

'What took you so long to get back here?'

'Almost got caught at the end. Scent masking against Inuzuka is no easy task you know.'

'Yeah. Thanks by the way.'

'Whatever. I'll just tell you what I learned.' He cleared his throat, which, is really unnecessary. 'So Nobuyuki is almost definitely training Tomoe in secret. They've already gotten to learning the Gatenga.'

'Wow alright. But why?'

'Hell if I know. Nobuyuki isn't pleased with her progress, though. Keeps getting angry every five minutes. It's kind of unsettling how quickly his mood swings back again.'

'And how does Tomoe feel about it?'

'She isn't happy with the lashings, but she likes the attention. Completely brainwashed, poor thing.'

"You couldn't have opened with that?!" Tomoe's being lashed? Like with a whip?! Granted beating a child obviously isn't uncommon around these parts, but lashings are definitely crossing a line. "With what? How often?"

"Can we not talk about this out loud? Someone might hear us." 'Seriously. He uses a practice whip. Not one of his actual combat whips. I'd think we'd notice if he did.'

'Still, if anyone in the clan found out, his position as Head Caretaker would—'

Citrus. The smell wasn't overly strong, but it was noticeable. The smell was coated somewhat by the scent of dog, but then, everyone's here did.

'I don't think anyone would do anything but frown at him. At this point he's too ingrained into the clan for anyone to tell him how to do his job.' Shiromaru continued on, not catching my break in thoughts.

I dropped my dung shovel and grabbed my pack. 'Shiro, we have to go.'

'Why? You're not even halfway finished yet.'

'Look, I just need—'

"Arata." My thoughts slowed to a crawl.

"..Shizuka." She sat on one of the larger tree branches, her bad leg lightly swinging off of it.

"You've been avoiding me." She said, softly.

I couldn't look her in the eyes. "It's been months. And you still haven't said a word to me."

'Shiro, help me to..' The line was dead. The little- He ran off!

"I thought at first you just needed your space. After all, the sight of me wasn't exactly pretty. Then you stopped sleeping in the kennels at all. Nobuyuki almost had to force you to show up some days. And you know there's something wrong when he notices your absence." She tried laughing. It didn't work.

I backed up against a wall, closing my eyes. I heard her drop down from the trees. "Then Shiromaru came up to me, started talking about how you've been spending your time in the Training Fields with the other kids from the Academy, and less and less with him. And then Tsume-sama started saying the same things. And that really worried me. I mean, this wasn't really about space anymore. You're actively avoiding people."

My teeth pressed together. Stronger and stronger urges to flee kept coming to me, but I still stood there. With my eyes closed. Like an idiot.

"So that, I mean whatever's eating you up inside, or. Or whatever thing we did we could, we could still talk about it." I opened my mouth, and closed it again.

How could I tell her? That I wasn't meant to be here in the first place? That I couldn't see what my existence did for Tsume's political career?

The kennels aren't a good spot for me. How could it be? After all, it's the same place Shizuka was getting bullied by her coworkers at for associating with me. The same place where Nobuyuki uses his position against me, and then takes it out on my family. The same place where not even an hour ago actual shit was flinged at me. The same place that reminded me every second I was there that my existence could trigger some random butterfly effect which makes it so that in the third fucking World War everyone could just up and die because of one change I made. And I don't even want to think about what would happen if they were in a different place from canon at the time of the kyuubi attack. So many variables I can't control, it's a wonder I'm still sane.

"Arata, please just talk to me. I can't understand what you're going through if you don't tell me."

The sound of birds chirping started to die down, it was getting later and later. She closed the distance.

"I.." Fuck. Why is this so hard! "I'm sorry."

She hugged me, and squeezed.

"Why?" I asked.

"Why what, Arata? Why I'm still here, or why you're still here? I chose to be here. I chose to be your caretaker. Not because of any special reason. I just saw you and.. I just chose to. And I want to stick with it. So. So you're gonna have to give me a little more trust right now. Okay?" Her voice quivered.

Something in me cut loose. Was it still safe? To tell her? Anything? Everything? Just the relevant parts?

I breathed out. If I'm going to tell her, I have to give her everything. That's the only way.

"This is gonna sound crazy, but I want you to wait until I finished talking all the way, because it's a lot." She pulled back a little to look me in the eyes.

"Of course."

I fought hard to keep eye-contact. "About six and a half years ago, I died." She already opened her mouth, but remembered her promise. "But then I woke up. And I found myself as an Inuzuka. See, before that I was someone different. Not a ninja, not from this country, or even this dimension. I was born and raised in places that had no chakra, but had way more technology to compensate. Like the internet. And planes and cars and.." I could tell I lost her. "Anyway, I spent 18 long years there, until, somehow, I died and someway, ended up here. The thing is, I knew this world already. See back on my world there was this manga that ran for a good while about a land called the Elemental Nations, where an underdog ninja would fight to prove himself worthy of the title of Hokage. Long story short, there's a lot of stuff that happens, but eventually he does become Hokage. But the events that led up to it weren't exactly fun. One of those events, is the Third Great Ninja War." Her eyes widened. "So far this world is exactly like portrayed in the manga. Every single detail, besides my existence, has been the same. The founding of Konoha, the First and Second's death. The First and Second War. The Sannin versus Hanzo. Sand's betrayal. All of that is word for word. Well that last part wasn't very clear in the manga, but there was a whole poisons thing and they did fight in some war or another. And I'm rambling. Point is, the Third War is coming soon. Very soon, and I don't know what to do about it."

I removed myself from her and sat on the ground, giving her some time to process all of that.

Her eyes flickered as she silently worked through it. There was a long silence. Then, she laughed. Hysterically.

"What's so funny?" I crossed my arms indignantly.

She wiped away a tear. "You know in hindsight it was so obvious. Advanced communication, comprehension, and abstract thought. Heck, even critical thinking. It was all there the whole time." She realigned herself. "But, ignoring the whole "knowing the future" thing, and believe me we'll get back to that, it doesn't really answer why you've been avoiding us."

I hesitated. "You know what the Butterfly effect is right?" She shook her head. "Right. Well, people in my world were very interested in random theories about the world and stuff. Oversimplified, it means that any small change can lead to a much, much larger change in the future. 'When a butterfly flaps its wings, much later, far farther, a hurricane ravages.' So, if say, I stop someone practicing their shuriken throwing, and they miss during a fight, and then all of a sudden the Fourth Hokage's gone. Well that's on me isn't it?"

She stayed quiet while her jaw moved. "That's interesting. But also complete bullshit." Wha? "Before you try to refute. What's to say that in that original story you didn't exist? Maybe you did, but you were an unimportant background character or something. What if that world isn't even the same one you're living in right now? It's also possible that your presence wouldn't change anything at all, or might even have a positive effect. Have you thought of that?"

"I..yes but.." My gaze shifted down.

"But nothing." Her eyes widened. "Arata. Oh kami. Arata."

"What?"

"My injury isn't your fault."

It was… so so simple. And yet. And yet I felt such a resistance to those words I could barely process them at all.

She put her hands back on my shoulders. "I chose to go out. And I would have done it either way, if not earlier if you weren't there. Maybe I wouldn't have come back at all if it weren't for you."

"Look. No matter what happens, everyone's choices are their own. Yes, you could influence someone one way or the other, but that doesn't mean they didn't have a choice. Or that you're somehow responsible for the choices they did or didn't make. Removing yourself from the equation really doesn't help anything. I'm alive. And right now, that's all that should matter to you."

I met her eyes, and suddenly mine were wet. She didn't initiate the hug this time.

After a long, long while, she pulled away. "Then again, that doesn't mean your future knowledge can't help either. We'll just have to be careful about it."

I nodded slowly. "So what are we gonna do then?"

"I think I have an idea."

"So where are we going again?" I asked. We were tree hopping through a forested part on the other side of Konoha. We had to stop every now and then when her chakra coils overcharged, but it didn't seem to hurt her that much anymore. I couldn't stop myself feeling a little guilty still, every time she almost fell out.

Haah. Deep breaths.

"Ugh. Youth nowadays, so impatient." She said with a smirk.

"You know I'm older than you, right?"

"Yeah right." She staggered a bit. I stopped on the next branch.

"Umm yeah? How old are you? Like 21? 22?"

She started going again. I joined her. "Don't you know it's rude to ask a lady her age?"

"Yes? And?"

"I sure hope not everyone on your world is that mean to chivalry-san."

"Who?"

"I'll take that as a yes."

"Pfft. Oka—" HOLY SHIT. That is a LOT of chakra. How does a being with that much chakra even exist? It's easily more than anyone I've ever met before. Like, combined probably. I'm surprised I didn't notice earlier.

"You just sensed it didn't you?" I nodded. "Good, we're almost there then."

About half a minute later we came upon some fencing with the sign "Training ground 64: Proceed with Caution." on it. Shizuka hopped the fence, acting as if it wasn't even there in the first place.

Following her we came upon a clearing with several people there. Several very familiar people.

I tried to make alarmed eye-contact with her. Unfortunately, she wasn't looking.

I mean, really! That giant chakra signature? Was Uzumaki-freakin-Kushina! With Namikaze Minato right next to her! That's not even it either! Uchiha Mikoto was on the other side. Opposed to her, the Ino-Shika-Cho trio were hunched over some board game.

And those were just the ones I recognized! A Hyuuga with short hair (and isn't that a rarity) was sitting next to a tall serious-looking man with a scowl on his face.

"Hey guys, sorry I'm late." Shizuka introduced.

Kushina stood up abruptly. "It's all fine, we really didn't notice. I mean, we all just got here just now too you know! Right Mikoto? Right?"

Mikoto sighed. "Would you please sit down, Kushina? You're embarrassing yourself."

She hurriedly plopped herself back down again. "Right. So who's the squirt? And why's he staring at me like that?"

"Oh this is Arata. He's a chakra sensor." I still can't get over it. I mean, retrospectively I guess it makes sense? She's a full-blooded Uzumaki, with all of the Kyuubi inside. She likely has more chakra than anyone else on the planet.

She jumped up again. "Oh he can sense my greatness then? Good! The name's Uzumaki Kushina, squirt! Future Hokage! And don't you forget it-ttebane!" Yup. That's her alright. The resemblance is actually unnerving.

"Better question, why is he here? This won't exactly be age-appropriate." Inoichi asked. Uuuuhhhhhh.

Shizuka had a feral grin on her face. "To keep score, of course. I don't trust any of you anymore after last time."

"Nah, I did that shit right. You were just too piss-drunk to notice." The Hyuuga refuted.

"Speaking of.. Minato-kun, if you'll do the honors.." Mikoto said.

"Of course." With the most serene smile on his face, he took out a scroll from his pocket, and unsealed the insides.

Which was, of course, shit tons of alcohol. A loud cheer came from every person in the field.

Shizuka grabbed my arm, keeping me from fleeing. "Alright, Arata, so here's the deal.."

"Never again!" I shouted, running away as fast as possible. It was well past midnight, and I could still hear them jeering.

"C'mon Arata, it wasn't that bad." Shizuka tried to plead.

"Yes, yes it was! Did you not notice them using me as a bat!?" They started off tame sure, but drinking game after drinking game came and went. And they didn't stop. THEY DIDN'T STOP!

"Come on! They put you down afterwards!" She pleaded. I ran faster.

"Yeah! So they could replace me with the ball!"

After about twenty minutes of running I took a break and lay down on a comfortable looking bush. About a minute later, Shizuka landed next to me and plopped herself down as well.

The stars look nice this time of day. There's a lot less light pollution in this world. It makes nighttime more tolerable.

"So? Which ones?"

"Most of them play a role. Most of them die."

"I thought so." She jumped back up again. "Alright. Time to plan."

"Ne, Torune, do you think red's better than green?" Ayame whispered. In the big mess hall, it was one among many.

"I think green has its merits. And red does too." The Akimichi girl responded evenly, feeding a piece of jerk chicken to a certain white dog in her arms.

"Can you guys pay attention? This could be important." I reprimanded.

The entire school was here, after all. The principal had been speaking for a long time, and as usual, no one was listening.

"Because of this fortunate time, the teachers' repertoire has been unchanged for the last three years, and changes have been slow to implement. After all.."

"But red's like.. better though." Ayame whined.

"Yes, but green is leaves. And leaves is like our village." Torune countered.

"Guys!"

"I think it is time to get to the matter at hand, Eisuke-sensei." Chizuru-sensei said, voice very much louder. She stepped forward.

"Last week a town two kilometers off of the Kawa-Tsuchi border was massacred. Every man, woman, and child was hung by their entrails to the trees. Our Daimyo has responded accordingly, and has sent ninja there to protect our allies. Three days ago, a similar massacre happened on the farms of Kusa, just fifty kilometers from our own border. They were hung up in the same way. So far, the attackers haven't been shy of announcing who they are. Then, two days ago Iwa launched an attack on our border. In the battle, more than sixty of our own laid down their lives to protect konoha. Tsuchi no Kuni has challenged us." The hall was dead silent.

"Now, today, the Third Hokage along with the Daimyo have officially declared war on the Land of Earth."

And so, it begins.

Yeah I have no idea how this chapter will be received. I also have waaaay too many characters that aren't important till waaaay later. I'll have to do something about that..

Revised 4/25/2020. Revised again a little on 12/2/2021.