Shifting Tides

Naruto woke up in the middle of the night, panting and scared out of his mind. He just had a weird dream, a very long and terrible dream in which he thought he saw his entire life up until his death.

He'd become Hokage, but a lot of things didn't sit well with him. He didn't end up with Sakura, many people he became close to died because of Sasuke's actions, Sarutobi died and he was nowhere around to help him, there was a goddamn war and so many other things that didn't make sense to the young boy. His preteen mind only registered that he didn't want a future like that. He didn't want to end up having to settle for second best. And most of all he would not allow his dreams of his perfect future be ruined by other people's goals…..

Somehow he knew that he'd been shown a possible future. His possible future. And he was not satisfied with how things turned out. He had the demon fox- Kurama the Kyuubi no Yoko- sealed in him. He got impaled by the Uchiha Teme. Why would he try to save someone who could be selfish enough to lose himself so far in a quest for vengeance that he abandoned his friends and tried to take their lives so many times? Sakura picked Sasuke after all that he'd done for her. How could a girl not give him a chance or return his feelings after all that? Risked himself for her? No… he could never allow people to take that much advantage of his heart and kindness.

That night the old Uzumaki Naruto died. The new Naruto had been dealt a new hand by fate, and he was about to take full advantage of it.

Naruto didn't get any sleep that night. Instead he took an old notebook and began writing down vital things from the dream as long as they were fresh in his mind. He remembered the Kage Bunshin and Rasengan theories, as he'd done them so many times in his dream. He decided to steer his life in a better direction, with a better ending for his loved ones and himself.

The next morning, he dumped all his instant ramen into the trash and decided to pay Ichiraku's a visit for some help.

It was pretty early in the morning, so he found Teuchi just opening up the shop for the day.

"Naruto! This is the earliest I've seen you up and about! If you want ramen you'll have to wait a few since nothing is ready yet." said Teuchi in his usual kind manner towards Naruto.

Naruto felt tears welling up in his eyes and he himself was confused as to why he felt like crying seeing the man in front of him. He realized that the person setting up shop in front of him never once treated him with anything other than kindness and that this kindness was something he'd been taking for granted.

Quickly wiping away the tears, he cleared his throat so Teuchi wouldn't find anything odd. "Uh, I'm just here to ask for some help and I thought that you'd have some time to spare early in the morning before people start coming in."

Teuchi seemed a bit surprised at how serious Naruto looked and stopped setting the shop up to look at the boy. "What's this about? Did something happen?"

"What? No! Nothing happened, I simply thought that I should start acting more serious if I wanna be a ninja of the village and I sorta have nothing in my apartment to eat other than instant ramen and Jiji keeps telling me I should eat better or I'll get sick and stuff. I thought I'd come ask you if you could give me some cooking lessons? If its not too inconvenient? Please?" he explained, hoping to get a positive answer.

"I'm sorry, I don't have the time to do that Naruto." Seeing Naruto's let down expression, he quickly added, "But I can have Ayame teach you. All you have to do is come to the shop at this time and learn from her while I handle business. Since its slow in the mornings I should be able to handle things myself." he said smiling. "Tell you what, since you don't know how to cook yet, how about you join us for breakfast everyday?"

Naruto was shocked at the offer. To be offered so much for free, he felt blessed to have known Ichiraku Teuchi. He hugged the man's feet and thanked him while giving him his biggest grin.

"Ahaha it's the least I can do for the future Hokage!" Teuchi said laughing before taking a stern expression. "Make sure you learn everything Ayame teaches you perfectly, she won't have time later once she gets older. She'll have her own studies and work, understand?"

"Of course! I'll be the best student ever dattebayo!"

Teuchi gave him a warm smile and got back to work.

Naruto was writing up his monthly expenses in his notebook. Since he wouldn't be spending money on breakfast for the foreseeable future, he planned to save that money and buy some decent equipment. He still had two more years left at the academy since that's when everyone he remembered from his dream would graduate, so he planned use that time to become as skilled as he could get, while hiding said skills from everyone of course, how would he explain where he learned Kage Bunshin? No, his training would not include Kage Bunshin until he beat Mizuki in his last year, which meant he was going to have to fail. Twice.

His eyes twitched in irritation as he realized this. He'd have to fail on purpose. That however didn't mean he wouldn't learn all that he could. No way. He would exercise , read and do everything to be ahead in skills. He would get as close to his ideal future as possible.

But first he needed new clothes. His want to be noticed and acknowledged gave birth to his love of orange, but he didn't have that anymore. He finally saw that orange was a very stupid choice of colour. No, it was downright hideous.

-Two Years Later-

"You fail Naruto. Sorry." said Iruka.

Naruto looked depressed and walked out defeated.

"Hey Naruto." he heard Mizuki call from behind.

For just a second, Naruto had the biggest shit-eating grin in the Elemental Nations.

A/N: Hi there, this is FiB. This is my first time writing here, so constructive criticism is welcome. Please don't ask questions while anonymous or i will not be able to answer. And if you really wanna flame the story, go ahead and waste your time. I won't waste mine by answering. Till next time.