Uchiha Sasuke had many regrets in his life, greatest of them being killing his brother. However, on that particular day, he was seething about another regret of his - leaving Konoha and hurting Naruto. He was sure that if he hadn't done that, the dobe would not be marrying Hyuuga Hinata.

Sasuke was the person Naruto cared the most for. The usratonkachi had trained for years, for the sole purpose of bringing Sasuke back to Konoha. Even when Sasuke had been lost in darkness and was actually trying to kill him, he never let the thought of ending his life enter his mind. He kept Sasuke's forehead protector for years, waiting to give it back to him.

No, if Sasuke had not left Konoha, the dobe would have been his, not Hinata's.

Sasuke had recieved the invitation to Naruto's weddding from a toad four weeks ago, following which he had intentionally chosen a path taking him away from Konoha. He couldn't bear to go and watch Naruto get married to that woman. He had sent a note bearing his congratulations via a hawk, knowing that Naruto would be hurt if he didn't atleast acknowledge his happy day.

He wasn't sure what would have happened had he actually went back to Konoha and tried to convince Naruto to leave Hinata for him. Even though there was a slight chance that the dobe would agree, he didnt want to risk it.

If only he had the realization of his love for Naruto a few years earlier... If onlyy he could go back in time...

Suddenly, he felt an immense pressure behind his eyes, not unlike the activation of his Mangekyou Sharingan. However, the pain progressed to a much higher intensity, finally reaching a peak when Sasuke passed out.

When he gained consciousness, Sasuke immidietly felt that something was wrong. His body didn't feel akin to the one he was used to, but smaller, weaker. He was lying on a futon instead of the forest floor where he had decided to rest (rest, not brood, the Uchiha didn't brood).

Not sensing any chakra in close proximity, he cautiously opend his eyes and looked around, finding himself in replica of the apartment he had occupied after the massacre of his clan and before the chunnin exams. It couldn't be the same apartment since it had been destroyed during the Sand-Sound Invasion. If it was a genjutsu, it was precisely woven as he could't notice any discrepancies. He activated his Mangekyou Sharingan. When nothing changed, he was forced to acknowledge that it wasn't a genjutsu.

He walked up to the mirror and noticed that the body he was currently occupying bore great resemblance to the one he owned when he was 13. Upon further inspection it was revealed that his Rinnegan was gone.

Glancing out of the window he noticed the Hokage Mountain currently adorning only four faces, instead of the six it should.

All of it pointed towards only one possible solution. Somehow Sasuke had ended up back in time. Coincidently, it was the exact same thing he was wishing for, before his Sharingan mysteriously acted up.

Time travlling wasn't such a bizarre concept for him after everything he had been through. Maybe it was fate's way of repaying him back for the shitty hand he had been dealt with. He could work with this.

All he had to do was to make the usratonkachi fall in love with him again.

And save his brother. After kicking his ass

To say that Naruto was excited, would be equivalent of saying that jiji was a bit old. His heart was close to bursting with happiness as he was finally a ninja of Konoha ( after 3 failed attempts, but who counted them?), and one step closer to his dream of becoming Hokage.

Naruto entered the classroom in high spirits, eager to join his new team with whom he would be saving princesses in no time. He didn't even mind when Shikamaru questioned his presence there. After all, how was he supposed to know that Naruto had been granted promotion in such an awesome way.

He had just sat down next to the teme when Sakura-chan and Ino entered the room, fighting over who would get to sit next to Sasuke. Really, what did they see in him?

He was pretty sure that Sakura-chan was going to push him out of the seat when the teme spoke, "I don't wish to sit with any of you. You're both annoying. And don't push Naruto. He was already sitting here when you arrived."

The crickets chirped.

Naruto gaped at Sasuke, trying to figure out what he was playing at. Did he want Sakura-chan to hate Naruto because her Sasuke-kun made her cry over the seat he was occupying?

He was about the shout at the teme to apologize to Sakura-chan when Iruka-sensei arrived.. He gave a boring ass lecture and started announcing teams. And as luck would have it, Naruto and Sakura-chan were in the same team as the teme.

After Iruka-sensei dismissed them for lunch, Naruto was going to follow Sasuke to beat him up for making Sakura-chan cry, but the teme surprised him by saying, "If you come with me, I'll treat you at Ichiraku's." before dramatically walking away.

Naruto who considered ramen sacred followed him without questions, though he gave him a fare warning of dismemberment, if this turned out to be a joke.

They reached Ichiraku's, and Naruto quickly took up his seat, "The usual Teuchi-san. Teme is paying."

"Mind your language, Naruto. What can I get for you, Uchiha-san?" Teuchi-san asked Sasuke.

"One bowl of what Naruto is having. Thank you." he answered, politely.

After inhaling one bowl of ramen and while waiting for the second, Naruto turned towards Sasuke, "So, teme, what do you want? Need to get someone pranked?"

"No, I just want to have lunch with you."

That raised Naruto's hackles. "Really? What are you playing at?"

He sighed. "I wish to get to know you more, Naruto, as a teammate."

Naruto scoffed. "What about Sakura-chan, then? Why did you leave her at the academy?"

"Sakura isn't at the academy. She is right there, behind that tree."

Naruto looked at where Sasuke was pointing. Huh, she really was there. "I really don't understand girls. Hinata stalks me a lot too."

Sasuke looked shocked at that. "You know about that?"

"Of course. I'm not an idiot, ya know. " he said, scowling.

"Oh. What do you think about that, then? About Hinata stalking you?" The teme asked.

"What's there to think about? I know she is a girl but I wouldn't let her rob me."

"Rob you?"

"Yeah, that's why she's stalking me, right? To get a perfect opportunity to rob me. I've got quite a lot saved up in Gama-chan."

Naruto didn't know why Sasuke started banging his head against the counter.

Kakashi observed his genin team as they quickly settled down on the roof of the Shinobi Academy. His jonin senses were screaming at him that something wrong with the picture in front of him, but for the life of him, he couldn't figure out what it was.

The three genin were behaving exactly as they should- Sakura was mooning over Sasuke and glaring at Naruto, Naruto was trying to impress Sakura and scowling at Sasuke and Sasuke was brooding.

"Why don't you all introduce yourself?"

"What's the point? You've already read our files and we've already acquainted ourselves with each over time you generously gave us." Sasuke bit out.

"You three don't know about me." Kakashi countered.

"Were you going to tell us?" Sasuke shot back.

He had a point there. But Kakashi couldn't let a genin win, could he?

"I might have. Now you have lost your team vital information for the genin test tomorrow."

He waited for the expected gasps but only received them from Naruto and Sakura, while Sasuke looked coolly at him and said, "My father did me the favor of telling me about you before he died. I can pass the information to my teammates."

Ah, of course Fugaku couldn't die without informing his son about 'the sharingan thief', could he?

"What are you talking about sensei? What test?" Naruto shouted.

Kakashi took immense glee in informing them about the real genin test and the failure rates. Relishing in their dismayed looks, he told them not to eat breakfast tomorrow and pretended to leave via shunshin.

He was surprised to see the 'antisocial and loner' Uchiha take charge and bring his two teammates to Uchiha training grounds for training.

Sakura happily followed Sasuke, while Naruto grumbled all the way. On reaching their destination, Sasuke told Sakura to work on the tree walking exercise, which wasn't as surprising as seeing Sakura master it on the first try. Sasuke took it in a stride and told Sakura to continue doing it to increase her chakra reserves.

Then he turned his attention to Naruto and asked him for a spar. Naruto accepted with a vigor and made ten shadow clones to attack Sasuke, which he dispelled with ease. But Kakashi noticed something unusual about the dispelling strikes. They were aimed at the largest holes of Naruto's defense. Following this, Naruto took care to cover those areas and Sasuke proceeded to dismantle his next worst defenses. Naruto thought it to be an actual spar, but it was obvious to Kakashi's eyes. Sasuke was correcting Naruto's Taijutsu and apparently knew the secret of the shadow clone technique.

This behavior was complete opposite he had expected of Sasuke after reading his file. He was worried about an impersonator before he caught Sasuke looking at Naruto, the way he distinctly remembered Obito looking at Rin.

Holy shit.

Uchiha Sasuke had a crush on his sensei's son.

Sakura arrived at the training ground only to find Sasuke-kun and Naruto already sparring. She frowned. As much as she liked to see Sasuke-kun, even she wasn't blind enough not to see that his attention was too focused on Naruto for a simple spar. It had been the same yesterday when he took them to the Uchiha training grounds. Sasuke-kun was acting really weird. He even took Naruto for Ramen during lunch.

Could it be that he actually liked Naruto?

Hmm. It could be possible. No wonder he never responded to any of his fangirls in the academy. And Naruto-baka wasn't exactly bad to look at, if you didn't count the orange jumpsuit.

Sakura should be furious at this revelation, but she was... just not. Getting Sasuke-kun's affections had been a way to win over Ino and to make Sasuke-kun happy. This way neither Ino nor Sakura was winning and Naruto actually made Sasuke-kun happy. The gloom he had carried in his eyes was nowhere to see.

Spending time with Naruto also made Sasuke-kun nicer. He didn't scowl even once when he told her about the tree climbing exercise yesterday and even complimented her when she succeeded.

She should probably stop uselessly pursuing Sasuke-kun. She might even become his friend if she stopped being his fangirl.

Sakura decided to work on the tree climbing exercise while waiting for Kakashi sensei, while being careful not to overdo it. Sasuke-kun had told them that Kakashi_sensei had a habit to arrive late everywhere, but he was also very strong. It wouldn't do much good to be chakra exhausted while fighting him.

Kakashi_sensei arrived five hours late. Thankfully (taking Sasuke-kun's advice) she had eaten breakfast, and by the looks of it so had Naruto and Sasuke-kun.

"You decided to ignore my order, then" Sensei admonished them.

"Was it an order? I thought you only suggested it." Sasuke-kun responded.

Kakashi-sensei decided to move on and showed them two bells, " Only those who would get the bells would be real genin. You have till noon. Start."

Sakura's heart sank at those words, until Sasuke-kun grabbed both Naruto and her and leapt back from the clearing.

"What the hell, bastard?" Naruto shouted.

"He is tricking us. There are no three-men genin teams and none of us alone can defeat him. We need to work together." Sasuke-kun calmly explained.

Naruto was about to protest but one look from Sakura kept him quite.

"So, what's the plan?" she asked.

The plan was simple. Naruto would use his clones, Sasuke-kun would use his great fireball technique while Sakura would sneak in, suppressing her chakra and get the bells.

It obviously didn't work out and all three of them ended up being tied to a tree. Although, Kakashi-sensei was apparently impressed by their teamwork and decided to pass them.

Following which, he gave them a speech about the importance of teamwork, told them to meet him tomorrow morning at training ground 13 and disappeared with a shunshin.

"Sakura-chan, let's go for Ramen to celebrate, dattebayo." Naruto said, as soon as they were free.

She wanted to hit him over the head for making Sasuke-kun think that she was stealing Naruto form him. She had an idea though.

"Only if we all go together. As a team." she replied.

"Yatta." Naruto jumped in excitement, as Sasuke-kun raised an eyebrow at her. She slightly tilted her head towards Naruto, who was skipping ahead. A surprised look crossed over his face, before he gave her a nod and followed after Naruto

'This is going to be awesome' her inner yaoi fangirl squealed .