REWRITTEN

(Hokage Tower)

Sarutobi sat behind his desk, with a pipe in his mouth as he looked at the three children in front of him. None of them were like how he remembered. Naruto was not even looking at him, and did all he could to avoid eye contact with the man. Sakura had an almost lost look in her eyes, as she seem to look right through him. Sasuke was simply looking at the old man, with no emotion at all. He only blinked once every ten seconds or so.

After this silence had gone on for near five minutes he spoke, "Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura. I'd like to formally apologize to you three," He looked away for a moment, a glazed look in his eyes, "My foolishness is the reason we're going to be invaded soon."

Sakura snapped out of her trance like state and nodded at the man, Naruto and Sasuke continued to do what they were before.

""Old man," Naruto looked at him, dislike filling his eyes, "You don't have my sympathy. Orochimaru is a S-ranked ninja, and we gave you all the instructions on how to kill that bastard in that forest! If you would have come, one of our village's biggest threats would be dead!" He slammed his fists on the table, "but no! You had to go on about this village!"

Sakura was about to grab his shoulder, but Sasuke held her back.

"My teammates forgave you already! I don't understand, but I doubt I want to understand!" He began to shout, "Old man, I don't forgive you, and I don't think I ever CAN forgive you! You've endangered this village, and you want to know the casualties that will result from that!" He spat on the ground, "I hope you're willing to give up your life again to try and kill that bastard!"

Naruto was about to leave, but then he turned back around, "But wait! You know what? He's so much stronger now that he has come back from the future! He could easily take on Sasuke and I, we're ANBU now, and in the previous timeline we were Genin in there. I remember, that was when Sasuke got the mark,"

Naruto began to emit a red aura around him, "But no! Not here, Sasuke doesn't have the stupid mark now! No, it's Sakura-chan now. You think that's better?" He punched the wall he had wandered over to while he was pacing the room getting the anger out of his system, "Of course it's not! It's the same mark, on a different person! It changed Sasuke, so why can't it change Sakura!"

Naruto stomped around the room in his anger. He was about to go off on the Hokage again when suddenly a poof of smoke appeared, "Naruto, stop this at once!"

"How about you stop defending him? You were there with us risking your life to save us, he should have come right away" Sasuke said, glaring at Kakashi.

"Sasuke," Kakashi sighed, "Listen, he had a very good-"

Sasuke glared at him, his Sharingan eyes activated, "He has NO reasons to betray us and let that bastard go away." He sighed he put his head in his palm, "Look, I don't want to repeat Naruto again, but we may have forgiven you, Hokage, we're not going to trust you anymore, all your requests you need from us, we'll look into it, no guarantee that we'll do it." He then looked at Sarutobi, "Naruto's right though, I hope you are prepared to die."

"Sasuke!" Kakashi yelled, "We can save him with your help!"

Sasuke glared at him, "Save him? Last time he died trying to kill Orochimaru, who was far weaker than how he is now. This time there is no chance he can survive against him." He then did a seal and disappeared away from the place.

Sarutobi looked up from his silent mourning to see Naruto in front of him glaring at him, and Sakura still standing in her original position. She didn't even seem to try and stop Naruto like she did before.

"Naruto, even if you don't forgive me, I'm sorry." He said.

Naruto stopped his struggling and sighed, getting angry was getting him absolutely nowhere. "You're very lucky that we need your power to make this work," He muttered, looking away from the Hokage once more.

"Naruto!" Sakura shouted, "We get your point! If you're so unintelligent enough to realize that we NEED his trust to work with him, then you can go leave this village for all I care!" She put her hand over her mouth and looked shocked after she had said that.

Naruto was looking down for a bit, until he raced at Sakura and slammed her against the wall, his hand had her throat around it, "Listen, Sakura," He said in a deep demonic voice, "This village will not fall. I have sworn to protect it no matter what!" He dropped her to the ground.

"If you 'love' this village so much, Naruto," She glared at him, the distant power in her telling her to go on, "Then prove it instead of acting like a baby." She got up and into his face, "Hokage-sama did what he had to do to, and-"

Naruto glared straight back at her, "Did what he had to do?" He cried, "There's a time when doing what you have to do is not as effective as doing what has to be done!"

Sakura looked away and said, "He has his reasons."

She didn't expect to be slammed back into the wall by an angered Naruto, who yelled out, "How can you say that! He's going to kill the whole village!"

Sakura punched him right off her, and coughed up a small bit of blood, Naruto had been very forceful with that last move he had done, "Do you think hurting me is going to make me go to your side!" She was about to run at him, but she then noticed how much closer the power of the Curse Mark was to her, she instantly stopped her maneuver.

"Sakura," Naruto muttered, realizing what he had just done. He saw the bit of blood drip from her mouth and onto the floor.

She refused to look at him and did the same seal as Sasuke to disappear out of the room.

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto shouted, suddenly feeling very lonely. He sighed and didn't even look at the two adults in the room before he slowly made a seal and disappeared from the room as well.

Kakashi watched the whole act and sighed, "That didn't go well. Naruto is allowing his emotions to get in the way of what needs to be done. It seems only Sakura is still willing to help you."

Sarutobi didn't even acknowledge what Kakashi said, and only sighed once more, his hand holding his head up.

(Downtown Konoha)

Sasuke wandered the streets of Konoha, wearing his Chunin vest; he could really care less about what people thought about him. He could hear people admiring how he looked, but that didn't matter to him, he forcefully pushed anyone who dare get in his way to the side and continued to walk through the town, his mind still brooding what had just occurred within the last five days.

I didn't want this to happen, He sighed; we all didn't! Why, Hokage.

Suddenly two hands covered his eyes, and someone said, "Guess who!"

"Not now Ten-chan," Sasuke muttered pushing her hands away from his eyes, "I am not in the mood to be around you right now."

Tenten gave him a confused look, "You don't want to be around me? What's wrong?" She asked, catching back up to him. "I can tell you're fussing over something, and if you talk about it, maybe you'll feel better? We can go to my place you know." She offered.

"No." He said, continuing his march, "I doubt talking to you will help."

She looked really confused now, "Well," She hesitated, "Do you want to go spar with each other? I need to train for the finals you know!"

Sasuke finally turned around, he was holding his anger within himself, and through gritted teeth he said, "Tenten, I don't wish to be around you right now," He held her shoulders firmly and softened his grip and said, "I've just," He sighed, "Had a bad past few days."

Tenten dragged him into a nearby store and sat him down. "Well, we'll eat here and you can tell me about it!" She said, a grin appeared on her face.

"Sasuke? What are you doing here without Naruto or Sakura?" Teuchi walked up from behind his stand, "I figured of all people, Naruto would definitely be here."

Sasuke looked downwards, "Naruto is busy speaking to Hokage-sama about things."

Teuchi looked at him awkwardly before saying, "Alright, so, what do you want to eat? The usual?"

It's so ironic that the place she drags me into is Ichiraku's. He sighed, "No. I think I'll be leaving now. Thanks Tenten, but really, I want to go." He got off his stool and was about to leave, but Tenten grabbed his hand, preventing him from getting out.

"What's bothering you? You're acting like Neji now!" Tenten shouted, Sasuke's actions right now were obviously annoying her.

"Tenten." He glared at her, but dropped it immediately, "Ten-chan," he sighed. He walked up to the stool and was thinking of the best way to explain things to her. "You know now that I have been working with Kakashi for so long," She nodded, "Well, I was assigned a mission by Hokage-sama. This mission was really important, and if not completed could have very bad consequences. Well, we failed it badly, and it ends up that Hokage-sama could have helped us out."

Tenten looked shocked, "I don't think Hokage-sama would really do something like that."

"Heh, I agree with you kid." Teuchi said, listening to the two.

"He gave us so many excuses, but in the end I think that it was his fault. My team, all feels betrayed by the guy. We looked up to him, and when we need him the most, to help us out, he doesn't show up." He knew he was leaving a lot of details out, but this was the best way he could explain it.

Teuchi nodded, "I'm guessing Naruto is really mad about it?"

Sasuke nodded, "Obviously. He was probably the worst affected by this act, than the rest of us. To Naruto, if you break a bond with him, he'll get extremely angry about it." Just like how he acted when I tried to hurt him on the hospital roof so long ago, "He'll come around soon, I hope."

"Sounds like the Naruto I know." Teuchi said and gave the two children in front of him some bowls of ramen, "Here you kids go, it's on the house." He walked away, allowing the two to be alone.

Tenten picked up her chopsticks and sighed, "I think he'll make it up to you guys. It's not like him to do that to people."

Sasuke slammed his hand down on the counter and near shouting told her, "You don't know him Tenten! Why are you saying this? He better make it up to us, because he has lost all my respect of this! He's lucky he needs us so badly for the-" He quickly shut his mouth and shook his head, "he's lucky we're going to still help out with village affairs."

"For the what?" She asked, slightly confused, and kind of intimidated by his attitude.

Sasuke shook his head, "Tenten, it's another subject that you won't need to learn ever. Let's just eat."

Tenten gave him a curious look before turning to her noodles and eating them at a moderate pace. Sasuke only spun the noodles in his bowl around a little bit, thinking about the events that have passed, and are certain to pass in the future.

(Konoha rooftops)

Naruto sat on top of the Uchiha house he and Sasuke lived in, thinking over what he did to Sakura, and what he said to the old man. He meant it all, and yet, he felt bad that he had acted like that. Damn it! He deserved it! He looked up at the sky, and noticed black clouds were gathering around the village. Ha, fits my mood. It was around five in the afternoon, and the rain clouds had been coming in for a little while now.

What should I do? I need guidance, but after what I did to Sakura-chan, she won't help me, and Kakashi and the Old man probably won't be willing to assist me either. He rubbed his hands through his hair, trying to figure out the right thing to do, I need Shikamaru! He was always the one to help me get my thoughts laid out, but we're in a new timeline. He doesn't know about it all.

"Should I Tell Shikamaru?" He glanced around, getting no answer but the winds picking up, "He has been getting suspicious of us, and knowing him, he will probably figure it out soon on his own, but is it smart to tell him?"

He just sat there continuing to think it over.

He finally got up, "I need someone to talk to, or I'm going to explode." He decided and jumped up, Shikamaru, where are you right now, He began to jump from roof to roof, I remember he always looked at the sky from a rooftop; I spoke with him there at times, where was that?

He stopped onto of someone's house and sat down to focus. I wish Sakura-chan were here, she's so much better at this. He then focused and felt all the thousands of chakras within the village of Konoha. He had been near Shikamaru and could identify what his chakra felt like, but finding it out of everyone else's would be difficult.

He tried to remember every detail of his signature, and after doing so for about five minutes, he felt a hint of his chakra, and having no other lead, he followed that. After trying not to get side tracked, eventually he managed to track where he was. He finally broke his concentration and focus and stood up and looked in the direction Shikamaru was.

"You're not on a rooftop? Amazing." He muttered, jumping off to where Shikamaru was located.

He dashed through the streets so quickly that he was but a black blur with the color of yellow on top of it all. Naruto made a final jump and appeared in the training grounds. He looked around and saw many Genin training themselves for the next exam, and he looked around for the one he was looking for.

He wandered around for a bit before spotting Shikamaru with Choji. He ran over to the two and called out, "Hey! Shikamaru!" both Shikamaru and Choji looked up, "Hey, I expected you to be looking at the sky instead of, well, training." He trailed off.

Shikamaru had multiple bruises on his figure, and he was panting heavily. Choji was on the ground breathing heavily as well, however, after each breath he popped a chip into his mouth and chewed it within a millisecond before doing the cycle over again.

"Naruto," Shikamaru muttered, "What brings you here?"

Naruto shook his head and went over and sat next to him, "Listen, I need to tell you something important."

Shikamaru gave him a weird look and glanced at Choji, "Well, can Choji listen to it as well? I usually don't keep many secrets from him."

"I don't know," Naruto muttered, "Looking at the boy, "If I tell you both, you have got to promise me that you will never tell anyone else in the village." He said. He looked around the area, seeing all the Genin and said, "We need to go somewhere where no one can hear us."

Choji gave Naruto a confused look, "Is it that important?"

"Yes. Very, important." Naruto said, giving them both serious looks, "It could possibly change your lives."

Shikamaru gave him a weary look and sighed, "I'm not really in the mood for life changing moments right now if you can't see, I'm already training, amazingly, and that's enough of an accomplishment for me for today." He got up and dusted off his pants, "Now, Choji and I will be leaving."

Naruto looked desperate, "No!" he got in front of Shikamaru and began to beg, "This is serious, I need your help so badly right now!"

"Oh," Shikamaru said. He looked at Naruto's desperate face before sighing again and saying, "Fine, fine. Take me to wherever you plan on telling me this stuff."

He grabbed both Choji's and Shikamaru's hands, and began to run towards the village, "I know the perfect place, I'll take you to my place." He continued to run until he reached the gate of the Uchiha district.

"This place?" Choji said, "I have heard that-"

"You can hear the night of the massacre?" Naruto sighed, "Not true, I've slept in this place long enough to say that is false." He pushed open the gate and led the two through the district until he got to the house he and Sasuke lived in.

"Nice place." Shikamaru complimented.

Naruto allowed himself to smile for the first time since he got done seeing the Hokage, "Thanks."

After a little bit, the trio walked into a large room. In the middle it had a couch, with a table in front of it, and a chair was on the opposite side of the couch. This was the same room Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura went into to sleep three years ago, when they first got into this timeline.

Choji and Shikamaru both sat on the couch, while Naruto went to the chair.

After that a short silence came over the room, until Shikamaru said, "Ok. We're in here; care to tell us what you wanted to say?"

"Right," Naruto said, obviously nervous, "Don't be afraid about what I am going to say, it may scare you for a little bit at first, but then you'll realize that I am here to help and you guys are in no harm," He took a deep breath and said, "To make a long story short, I come from the future."

Another silence came upon the room. Shikamaru gave Naruto the same bored look and got up, "ok, I'm out of here." Choji got up to follow giving Naruto a glare.

"No!" Naruto shouted, "I'm serious, and I can prove it!"

Shikamaru crossed his arms and turned towards Naruto, "Ok then, prove it."

"An invasion of Konoha is going to happen. The invading forces are from the Sand and Sound villages! Shikamaru, if all goes well, you're going to be the only Genin to become a Chunin this exam! The kid Gaara is really a demon, and it's going to be up to me, Sasuke and Sakura to stop him and-"

"Naruto!" Shikamaru shouted, "You're giving me information, but you've no evidence to back it up." He sighed, "Don't you have real proof, like you know, a secret that only I know that I told you in the future or something?"

Naruto thought for a moment before saying, "Nothing's coming to mind."

Shikamaru walked over and sat back down on the couch, Choji followed him shortly after, "Ok, Naruto. Suppose what you're saying is true, and that's the reason you were picked by Kakashi so early on and happen to be Chunin now, tell me, why are you telling me all this information?"

"In the future," Naruto began, "You always helped me sort out my thoughts when I was really stressed, and even though you always thought that it was troublesome, you'd always do it because we were really good friends and we always backed each other up."

"Really?" Shikamaru sighed, "I know we were friends in the academy, but that was some time ago Naruto," He said, "I don't know if you're telling the truth," He looked up at the ceiling, "I don't want to believe what you just told me either, but tell me what's on your mind and I'll help you the best I can."

Naruto nodded, "You're the best Shikamaru!" He then turned serious and said, "Remember, everything said in here will not leave here, got it?"

Choji and Shikamaru nodded, "I hope you're just kidding," Choji sighed, "I don't really feel like having our village get invaded."

"Well," Naruto said, ignoring Choji's comment, "When we first came to this timeline, we immediately went to the Old man, eh, the Hokage, I mean. Anyways, we proved to him that we were from the future by doing some moves that were exclusive to two individuals in the world, and we were in the beginning stages of doing them," Naruto sighed, "Enough about that though, he agreed to help us through this timeline, and assigned Kakashi to train us all."

Shikamaru raised his hand, stopping Naruto from continuing, "Naruto, it was you and who else coming back from the future?"

"Oh. It was me, Sasuke," He looked down, "And Sakura-chan."

"That would explain why you three suddenly became so close." Shikamaru commented, nodding.

"Exactly," Naruto confirmed, "Anyway, we did various missions, and we were going at the really good speed. After one year, Kakashi gave us a test to see if we were prepared to become full-fledged ANBU agents. Of course, we easily passed." Naruto boasted, almost forgetting about his previous mood, "But, when the exams came up," He looked back down, "It was going well at first, we all were really strong, and could beat almost anyone together, but one thing was able to beat us."

Choji with a mouth full of chips asked, "Who's that?"

"Orochimaru," Naruto muttered, his hands covering his face, so his voice came out a little muffled, "He apparently came back from the future as well, and it's one of the reasons he beat us so badly." Naruto felt like crying, "We were supposed to go in, and hold him off until help arrived."

Shikamaru cringed, "I can see where this is going."

"It's worse than you think!" Naruto nearly shouted, "Orochimaru was about to give us the Curse Mark." Seeing the confusion on their faces he elaborated, "It's a mark that Orochimaru gives you on your neck, and it forms a small irremovable seal, it grants a lot of power, but it plays with your negative emotions, making small anger become large anger and things like that." Naruto sighed, "He was about to give it to Sasuke and I, but then Sakura came in and got Sasuke away from it, and in order to get it away from me, she had to get in front of me-"

"She got the mark." Shikamaru concluded.

Naruto nodded, "Yes." He said as if it was a venomous word, "She got it."

"Where was the help during all of this?" Choji asked confusion on his face still.

"It never arrived until too late!" Naruto said, "Both Sasuke and Sakura were knocked out cold when they finally came!" His eyes turned red temporarily and he yelled, "They came and chase off Orochimaru who managed to escape, and I was struggling to stay awake!" He slammed his fist on the table, making a large crack go across the table towards Shikamaru and Choji.

Shikamaru looked confused, "Why?" He asked the simple question, "They must have known that Orochimaru was a huge threat. I can see if they don't trust you, but even then," Shikamaru shook his head, "That doesn't make sense, why would Hokage-sama make a move like that?"

"Please." Naruto said, calming down, "If you figure that out, let me know the answer too." Naruto took a deep breath before saying, "After all that, it was five days when we finally woke up I believe, and we went to see you guys do your preliminary rounds. After that the Hokage invited us to his office to talk over things."

"I assume the reason you're here in because that meeting you had with him didn't go too well?" Shikamaru asked, a knowing look on his face.

Naruto nodded, not startled at all on how Shikamaru caught on so fast, "Of course. During it all I was," He looked away, "I was still pissed of what happened and began to call the old man out saying I'll never forgive him and other things," He rubbed his face, "And worse of all, I hurt Sakura-chan because she was trying to defend the Hokage."

Choji whistled, "That's some story."

"I agree." Muttered Shikamaru, "Well, Naruto. What you did wrong there was that you should have tried to work something out with the Hokage, you know, try to find Orochimaru and work with the Hokage to kill him, and about hurting Sakura… if what you said about the mark is true, I'm sure she must be very sad, and if I'm not mistaken, sadness is considered a negative emotion, right?" Naruto looked even worse when he realized Shikamaru was right, "However, I know Sakura is smart, and if she has the same knowledge of it as you, I'm sure she knows that her sadness will fuel the seal, so she is probably trying her best to act completely emotionless."

Naruto shook his head, "Should I go find her and apologize?"

"If you can find her." He said, "While that is certainly something to think about, you mentioned an invasion coming soon?"

"Yes," Naruto sighed, "During the final part of the exam, it will begin." He looked down, "It's when the Old man will die trying to protect the village. The village won't fall however, but our economy and other very important things will go way down, and we have to continue to accept the same amount of missions, even though our numbers are reduced so far. It's an unstable mess for about four years after that."

Shikamaru nodded, "We have to prevent that."

"Sounds like a plan to me." Choji commented.

"We do need to prepare for the invasion." Naruto said standing, "You guys go train as much as you can, and don't worry, most of the fighting will be handled by the Jounin, you guys just stay low and kill those that are weakened."

He noticed Shikamaru and Choji shifting uncomfortably when he said to kill them, "Right." They both answered.

"So," Naruto said, "Do you guys believe me now?"

Shikamaru shrugged, "You just told us one of the most far-fetched stories I have ever heard in my life. You claim to be a kid from the future, an ANBU now, and you're apparently on equal footing with almost every ninja in the village." He sighed, "I don't like taking chances, and if what you said is true and I don't train, I can't really be of use to this village."

"Ok," Naruto shook his head, "Shikamaru, thanks for listening to me." He gave the boy a hug, who reluctantly returned it. When Naruto released the boy he looked around as if thinking and said, "I need to find two people: Sakura and Jiraiya."

"Jiraiya? One of the Sanin?" Shikamaru said, "Wow. I'm not even going to bother asking how you know him." He turned around and waved at Naruto, "Stay safe Naruto. I'll do all I can to prepare for what's to come." Choji walked out after Shikamaru.

"REMEMBER!" Naruto shouted as loud as he could, "Don't tell anyone else!"

He heard an annoyed, 'yeah' from the distance.

(Downtown Konoha)

Naruto landed on the street in the middle of the village, he knew people were tossing him some glares, but he could really care less about that at the moment. He had two objectives in his mind, the first one was to find Sakura and apologize to her so her emotions wouldn't mess with the seal, the second one would be to find Jiraiya and get him to be his apprentice once again.

He wandered around for a bit before he eventually sighed, he was going to have to find her the way he found Shikamaru, the horrible meditating way.

I need to find a safe place to do it. He thought as he saw all the villagers continue to glare at him, I can't trust these people. It's ironic, I'm trying to save them and they want me dead. He shook his head of the useless thoughts.

He jumped on top of a building and sat cross-legged. He then began to focus. Like before he could feel all of the people's chakra around him, and began to pick through them to find the girl he loved.

After several minutes and no results he cursed without breaking his concentration, and began to try and remember what her chakra felt like, he hung around her enough to know the specific details of her chakra signature. The only way she could hide from him this long was if she was purposely hiding her signature so she couldn't be found.

He opened his eyes and got up. "Why do you have to hide Sakura-chan," He muttered and jumped off the building and back down to the streets.

He was only a short distance from his favorite stand in the whole city, Ichiraku. He walked in and was surprised to see Sasuke and Tenten in there.

"Hey guys." He greeted and sat down next to Sasuke.

"Hey Naruto!" Tenten greeted him enthusiastically, "Did you see me kick my opponent's ass in the preliminary?" She had a huge smile on her face.

Not wanting to ruin it, Naruto put up a fake smile and said, "Yeah, you ruled Tenten."

"So Naruto," Sasuke said, "What brings you here?"

Teuchi was in the back not knowing Naruto arrived yet. Deciding not to be rude, Naruto called out, "Hey, Old man, how're you doing?"

"Naruto?" Teuchi walked out from the back and smiled as he saw his number one customer, and his number two customer sat right next to him, "I'm fine! What can I do for you?"

"I actually need to talk to Sasuke alone for a bit, Old man, I'll be right back." He got up and grabbed Sasuke's arm, and when Tenten got up to go with them he said, "Ah, Tenten, in private, only Sasuke can know, sorry!"

She rolled her eyes and went back onto her stool and began to talk to Teuchi.

Naruto pulled Sasuke out of the stand and into the nearby alley and looked both ways before saying, "I need your help."

"With what?" Sasuke was actually kind of afraid to see Naruto in such a panicked state, Naruto's previous act had even fooled him, he was so good at acting that it was near impossible to tell if he was lying or not.

"Sakura-chan." He whispered, "When you left we got into a small fight over something," He was about to say 'something stupid', but it was actually something pretty important, "Anyway," He said getting out of his daze, "She ran off after I kind of hurt her."

Sasuke slammed Naruto into the wall, kind of like how he did to Sakura, "You idiot!" He yelled, then realizing that Tenten might of heard he lowered his voice, "You do realize-"

"I know!" Naruto said, getting Sasuke off of him, "I talked to Shikamaru about it!"

"WHAT!" Sasuke shouted once again, "You told him?"

Tenten came around from the corner and asked, "Are you two ok?"

Both of them smiled at her, even though it was obvious that they weren't really in that mood and said, "Yes Tenten! Sorry if we're making too much noise!"

Sasuke kept his smile up until she went right back around the corner, and then he went right back into Naruto's face and whispered, "Tell me, did you tell him?"

"I had to!" Naruto said forcefully, "I needed guidance, and he was always the one to help me out when I-"

"Naruto…" Sasuke sighed; he let go of him and leaned against the wall next to him, "Remember when I said that we're in a different timeline?" Naruto nodded, "Well, maybe he didn't have to be the one to guide you now."

Naruto looked at him, "Then who could I turn to? I tried to find Sakura, but she is hiding herself from me and probably everyone else too, I kind of destroyed my ties with the Hokage, and everyone else is too young to help me – besides Shikamaru, he's so smart that he could do anything."

"How much did you tell him?" Sasuke asked, fearing the answer.

"I told him about all we did when we got here, and what just happened, and about the invasion soon, that's all, I swear." He said, then added, "I gave him a very vague description though, he doesn't really know that much."

Sasuke sighed, "What did he tell you?"

"That I need to find Sakura-chan and apologize to her so she doesn't have the Curse Mark influencing her decisions, and go find Jiraiya so we can prepare for the soon to come attack." Naruto looked incredibly worried.

"So we need to find Sakura," He sighed, "Any idea where she could be?"

Before any more could be said, a figure quickly jumped in front of them. "Who are you two?" The person was Tenten, "I heard all you said, about when you got here, an attack, and Sakura? What is going on?" She looked hurt and confused at Sasuke.

"Ten-chan." Sasuke whispered, "It's nothing that you need to-"

"I'm a ninja of this village, and if you're a security risk, I have all the rights I need to eliminate you both from this place." She held her Kunai up at Sasuke and then turned it to Naruto every two seconds or so.

Sasuke was at a loss of what to do, here was his girlfriend pointing a weapon at him, if it was any other person he would simply destroy them to an inch of their life and let them run off. Since this was Tenten though, he had to use some other tactic. "You were listening to us." Sasuke said, getting the obvious out of the way.

"Yes." She said, making sure not to show any weakness.

Naruto sighed and said, "Look, Tenten, we're not against the village, we're here to help. The village needs us as much as we need it." Tenten only gave him a confused look.

"Ten-chan," Sasuke said stepping forward, reaching his hand out to lower her Kunai, "I don't know if I can trust you to keep this information secret."

Naruto looked at Sasuke with his eyes wide. That was the worst possible thing he could have said in this situation. You moron! Naruto mentally yelled at his friend.

She shook his head away from the lowered Kunai and raised it up once again, a glare on her face, "You're saying you can't trust me? I thought you actually meant it when you said I was a special person to you!" Her happy mood from earlier was now completely replaced.

"Ten-chan-" Sasuke began.

"Don't call me that!" She shouted.

Sasuke lowered his head, "Tenten," He whispered, "If I do tell you you must promise me something." He looked up, straight into her eyes, "You cannot, under any circumstances tell anyone about what I'm going to tell you. If you don't believe me, fine," He shrugged, "Come with me."

"Sasuke! Are you really going to tell her?" Naruto shouted.

"You told Shikamaru, why can't I tell her?"

"Because Shikamaru, eh." He got him there, "Fine…" Sasuke and Tenten were both about to get out of the alley, "What about Sakura-chan?!"

"You know her more than I do Naruto," Sasuke said, "I'm sure you can find her easily."

Once Sasuke and Tenten were gone Naruto sighed, "Bastard." He mumbled under his breath and proceeded to go out of the alley as well.

He wandered back out to the streets and jumped on top of a random building. He laid down on it and began to think of where he could find Sakura. "Well, She isn't at the Uchiha place. I doubt she'd go to her mom… I HOPE she didn't go to her mom," He thought on it, "Nope, she couldn't have gone there…" After a moment of silence he suddenly shouted, "Damn it!"

(Haruno Residence)

Sakura entered her house and didn't even bother to say anything to her mother as she walked up to her room and shut the door. She didn't slam it, for that would prove to her mother something was wrong, so she closed it slowly and with minimum sound.

She walked over to her bed and sat down. Her face was void of emotion, for she was intelligent to know that the Curse Mark was already trying to get her to do things she would later regret – it reminded her almost of her inner self, but much more annoying and threatening.

She glanced out the window and noticed that it had began to rain, she must have not noticed, actually, how could she notice? She was trying her hardest to keep her chakra signature hidden from Naruto who would inevitably come looking for her; she also had to make sure that the Curse Mark wasn't making her sadness worse than it already was.

However, she knew that by coming home, she wanted to speak to Naruto as well. If he were to come up with a list of places she liked to go when she was angry or sad, her house would be near the top, if not at it.

She felt a faint smile come to her face when she remembered the horror on his face when she even mentioned her house, it wasn't that the place was bad, it was actually a pretty decent place to be, but the fact was that Sakura's mom was evil.

She wasn't evil in the sense that she would eat him alive, no, she was evil as in she would hug him to death rather than kill him outright.

Sakura held the smile up for a little bit longer before she thought back to how her mother has been acting around Naruto lately, she was certain Sasuke also noticed, for when she was going out on a date with Naruto a month ago she saw the look that crossed her mother's face for a mere second right before they left, and she knew Sasuke had as well, Naruto might have, but of course he may have also been too busy looking at other things.

She shook her head back to the topic she had come to mind before her mother. She had come home knowing Naruto would be coming here as well. She opened the window, knowing it was Naruto's favorite spot to enter when he didn't want her mom to know he was coming.

As if on cue, Naruto appeared outside of her window. He looked at her sadly before looking down himself and muttered, "Sakura-chan, about what happened earlier, I'm sorry."

"Naruto," She let the words come off her tongue; she hadn't spoken in what seemed like years, "It was my fault. I should have just-"

"No," Naruto said shortly before she was about to continue with her sentence, "I was too busy trying to berate the Old man, and, while I feel incredibly guilty now." His eyes glazed over, and another sad expression came across his face.

It was quite an unusual sight to see Naruto sad. It was like a remote without batteries. "Naruto," She said, snapping him back to reality, "You had a right to be angry, we all were." And still are, She mentally noted.

"It's just that the Old man thinks that he saved the village by following the village procedures and rules!" Naruto said, "But in the process of that, he kind of forgot that Orochimaru should have been his main goal!"

"You're right." Sakura sighed; she stood back from the window, pretty much the sign that she wanted him to come in the room. Naruto took the invitation and walked in. He was wet though, so Sakura quickly got some dry clothes of hers and set them on a chair Naruto could sit on.

He looked questioningly at her, and after a brief moment he sat on the chair with all her clothes on it. She sat on her bed and the both simply stayed like that, allowing the silence to reign over them. It wasn't a bad silence, a comfortable one really, both knew that each other was in the room, and for the precious moment, nothing bad would happen.

Unfortunately, all good things have to end. "Naruto, I am sorry for saying you should leave the village." Sakura spoke up, looking at the ground dejectedly.

"Sakura-chan it wasn't your fault at all. If anything, I should be the one on the floor begging for your forgiveness." He looked at her in the eyes when she looked back up, "I attacked you because Kyuubi was trying to influence me to," He cut away from her eyes, "He's getting stronger."

Sakura's eyes widened, the most emotion she had shown for the last few hours, "How?"

"I don't know. It has been steady though. When we first came here, to this timeline I mean, I could feel something in the depths of my mind. It was closer than I remembered it use to be," He then sighed, "Over the years though, it has been growing stronger, and now it has begun to send me one or two worded messages, usually to kill someone when I get angry."

Sakura stood up, anger seething off of her; she tried her best not to shout at the boy and said in a deathly whisper, "You have been hiding this from us all for so long?" Naruto was ready for a beating of his life, but suddenly felt arms wrap around him, Sakura didn't mind getting wet, the moment was too important for such small matters as that, "Naruto, what if it's something that could kill you? What would I do without your goofy smiles, or your stupid antics, or-"

"Sakura-chan," Naruto whispered into her ear, "It's ok! I have been able to hold the fox back for this long, I know it will never be able to get pass me." He gave her a genuine smile.

Sakura felt like crying at that moment, Naruto had proclaimed that Kyuubi, the demon lord wouldn't take him over, and somehow the travel to this timeline had weakened his seal. She wanted to run some tests to make sure he was ok, but she knew she wasn't an expert in the field of seals.

"Naruto," She whispered, sitting on his lap, "Don't ever go away."

Naruto nodded, not wanting to ruin the moment that was made. He slowly stroked her hair and she simply had her head on his shoulder. She didn't cry – she and Naruto, even Sasuke were stronger than that, they all have seen the worse of the worst, and could stand up to anything.

After a little bit, the two fell asleep within each other's grasp. Naruto was probably going to wake up with a cold, but Kyuubi would cure that instantly for him. Sakura however, might not be as lucky.

(Tenten's apartment)

Sasuke and Tenten entered her apartment right when it began to rain. Well, not just rain, more like a downpour. That didn't stop Tenten from feeling any betrayal from Sasuke however. It probably did the opposite, it helped fuel her anger at him.

Tenten's apartment was actually a pretty decent place. It was the main room, which one entered, and it was connected with the kitchen to the left of the entrance. The bedroom was down the hall besides the kitchen, and so was the bathroom. The guest room, or what Tenten has dubbed the training room, for she had put all her weapons and such on display in there and the bed was replaced with a huge mat, was on the opposite side of the kitchen, it was the second largest room in the house, the main room being the largest.

Sasuke followed Tenten over to the Kitchen, which had a counter with several stools for chairs. The kitchen had all the basic supplies that any would need. There was a dishwasher, stove, oven, and a microwave to name a few of them. Tenten however pulled out two cups and began to boil water on the stove; she then got out two bags of tea and put them in the cups.

Sasuke sat on one of the stools and waited patiently for Tenten to finish her task. He knew that she was angry with him from this, for she would have been talking his ear off while doing this if she wasn't.

After a little bit she brought two hot cups of tea to both of them, and they sat opposite of each other. Sasuke occasionally drank his tea, as did Tenten.

After a small uncomfortable silence Tenten said, "So, you were going to explain to me exactly what is going on?" Sasuke nodded.

Sasuke sighed, "I don't know where to begin," He rubbed his eyes and after another moment of silence he said, "Three years ago, in a different, yet the same land, there was a Eighteen year old boy named Sasuke." Tenten gave him a very weird look, as expected, "He was an idiot, and he was completely consumed with revenge for the death of his clan."

"Sasuke, what the hell are you trying to pull here?" Tenten asked annoyance etched on her face.

Sasuke ignored her though and kept going on, "After a long while he finally killed his brother, and found that he had no other meaning to live, he agreed to help his master, Orochimaru by giving up his body to him." He judged her face before continuing, "Before he took over my body, he lured Naruto and Sakura to the Sound village where they were easily caught, both were trained under two of the stronger ninja in the lands, Tsunade and Jiraiya."

"Tsunade-sama?" Tenten asked, "She trained one of them, why?"

Again Sasuke ignored her, "Since they were trained under those two, they thought they could easily beat the hundreds of Sound Villagers to come to defend their home. Unfortunately, the two were caught and were to be executed in the middle of the village. Poor Sasuke was to be their executioner, I was to kill them at the age of eighteen," His face fell to his hands, finally break out of his narrative story, "I couldn't kill them, So I instead I turned around and stabbed Orochimaru, and brought them back in time, literally to a new timeline."

"They proved to me that I could make the right choice the second time around and choose them instead of power for only myself. I will never betray them again, and we promised to kill Orochimaru, who also happened to come back in time." Sasuke sighed; he had finished what he had wanted to say.

"Sasuke!" Tenten shouted, "You can't be telling me that you used some sort of Jutsu to come back in time five years from now because you made a few mistakes?"

Sasuke shook his head, "I told you that it might seem-"

"Impossible? Insane?" She shouted at him and slammed her fist on the counter, "I brought you here to tell me the truth! Not some pathetic story you just made up at the top of your head! I heard you two talking about Sakura, an attack, and something about telling Shikamaru!" She looked down sadly, her voice shaking, "Why won't you tell me?"

"Tenten," Sasuke sounded completely serious, "Do you seriously want to know? It could change you badly Tenten. You could-"

She leaned in towards him and kissed him on the lips and whispered, "You said I was special to you once Sasuke, you're special to me as well, and I know I can always depend on you for help if I need it."

Sasuke whispered back, "Ok, Ten-chan." He got up and went into the main room, which had a couch and a table in the middle of it, "You might want to get comfortable, it will be a long story." He sat down on the couch, seriousness still visible in his eyes.

Tenten went over and sat down right next to him and undid her hair, Sasuke paid no heed to it, he had seen her enough time with it down already. "I'm ready." She said.

Sasuke told her the whole tale, from start to finish. He told her much more than Naruto did to Shikamaru, for he knew that for her to truly know that he thought of her as a special person in his life, he would have to have no secrets from her, like she had done for him.

That was the second night that Sasuke had stayed with Tenten in her own apartment since they had been together.

(Late at Night, main road of Konoha)

A group consisting of two Sound Jounin and a Sand one was wandering down the road of the Konoha a little pass one in the morning. It was very unwise of them; however it also proved to other village's ninja that saw them know they thought they were powerful enough to hold off against any attacks. Unfortunately, they 'thought' they could.

The one leading was a Sound Jounin who, like all Sound villages Jounin, wore the office uniform, which was a gray tabard with a black shirt and pants underneath and a purple rope tied around their waist. The Sand Jounin looked like almost any other Konoha one, except that his vest was a light brown.

The group had been out drinking at one of the bars in the city when they were kicked out for closing. It did make them mad, but making a scene would make their villages look bad, so they left without a fight.

The three Jounin were halfway to their hotel when suddenly, a couple of black blurs went from left to right in their field of vision quickly, not allowing them to see who they were.

"What the!" The Sand Jounin pulled out a Kunai and held it in front of him, the two Sound Jounin followed suit as well.

"We're here because of the exam," One of the two sound Jounin called out, "We're not enemy of this village, so leave us be!"

Right after he finished saying that, he felt a blade plunge right through his back, going right through his spinal cord, killing him instantly. The other two Jounin had little time to react before the Sand Jounin was taken out, and the other Sound was held down to the ground, a katana held against his throat.

"Clean the corpses!" one of the ANBU who ambushed the three called out, "We don't anyone to know what happened to these people."

"What is going on?" The Sound Jounin was afraid. He was just having a good time when suddenly several ANBU came down and began to kill him and his friends.

The ANBU punched him in his chest; knocking the air clean out of him, "Don't bother trying to prove you're innocent, we know of your plans," The ANBU made a few hand signals to his allies, letting them know what he was doing. Once they nodded he teleported out of there with the prisoner with him.

The Sound Jounin closed his eyes for only a second and when he reopened them, he was in front of a desk, which was in front of a rather large window showing the whole village, and the one man he thought he wouldn't have to see at all.

"Did you dispose of the others?" The man said, blowing some smoke out of his mouth. He turned around and looked at the man on the ground in front of him. "Ah, it seems you did well." He said to the ANBU who bowed down to the man and disappeared from the office.

"Hokage," The Jounin muttered as he saw the man come around from behind his desk and walk around the captured Jounin. He looked very relaxed, he walked slowly, and showed many openings that the Jounin could attempt to take, but he knew the Hokage was only proving to him that he could easily kill him if he dared to anything.

For instance, the Hokage turned his back to him to walk back behind his desk, he could have grabbed a Kunai and attempted to plunge a Kunai through his neck, but that was, as previously mentioned, a very foolish thing to try.

"I don't understand Hokage-sama," The Sound Jounin said, "We were only going back to our hotel. Then suddenly we were attacked unprovoked, your ANBU have gone completely mad! I didn't do-" He shut up when the Hokage twisted around and threw a Kunai at him, piercing right through his foot, making him fall down from pain.

"How stupid do you think I am?" The Hokage questioned. The Sound Jounin ignored the man and held in his breath so he wouldn't scream. It was also evident that he was holding back his tears, "I know you and the Sand villages have joined forces to try and destroy Konoha."

The Jounin opened his eyes, his eyes narrowing at the powerful figure in front of him, "Why would you assume that," He writhed in pain a little more, "Hokage-sama." He pulled out the Kunai and dropped it on the ground; "I can go back to my village leader, and-"

"Who's your village's leader, my dear Sound Jounin?" The Hokage asked an almost sadistic smile played at his lips as he sat back down into the chair behind the desk, "I'm sure I can arrange something with him."

"He's," Then his face fell from an almost evil smile to a look of despair. He couldn't dare tell the man in front of him who his leader was, or he'd be killed! "He's none of your concern." He answered, making sure not to sound suspicious while saying it.

Sarutobi nodded as the Jounin stood once more, as if he was never in pain in the first place, "Of course, I'm guessing Orochimaru would kill you if he found out someone dared to tell me what position he had landed himself in."

"How?." The Jounin looked frightened. His confident aura was now reduced to one of fear, "I didn't give you any information!"

"You're right," Sarutobi sighed, his eyes lit up as he said; "I guess we'll have to change that won't we?" He looked away from the Sound Jounin and called out, "Ibiki! I have someone who would love to spend some time with you alone."

A cloud of smoke covered the room, and a man appeared. He took one step and heard screaming coming from the ground. Ibiki looked down to see a Sound Jounin screaming as he looked at him, "You're that guy! I don't want to be tortured!" he turned to the Hokage, "Please! I'll tell you anything!'

"Ibiki," Sarutobi said, making the Sound Jounin sigh in temporary relief, "Make sure you get all the information out of him. He's a Jounin of his village, and should act accordingly." He glared at the cowering man on the floor, "If you must, kill him, there's more of the maggots wandering our village."

Ibiki grinned sadistically. The Hokage gave him the equivalent of giving Naruto a year's supply of ramen.

"I'll do my best, Hokage-sama." He said before turning around and dragging the Sound Jounin by the collar out of the room.

Once they were out of the room, Kakashi appeared in there. He took one glance at the Hokage and sighed inwardly at what he saw. Sarutobi's face had multiple wrinkles upon them, as if he had been stressing the entire day, adding that the bags under his eyes and the dull looking eyes, Kakashi knew he had been up all night trying to figure out what to do.

Kakashi walked forth, dressed in his ANBU gear. He then asked, "We've got one of them to tell us all the information we'll need." Best start with the obvious then go into the point.

"Indeed." Sarutobi answered, and looked down at his paperwork. Konoha still had to accept missions, even though he knew an invasion was going to occur. With this knowledge he managed what Jounin, Chunin, and even Genin he wanted out of the village doing various missions away from home so they won't be killed. He wasn't an idiot; he knew who was strong enough and needed to stay and who wasn't.

"I'm planning on looking for the three of them, and offering to train them." He said, getting to the point when the Hokage did nothing to add on to the conversation.

Sarutobi nodded his head, "I understand your intentions, Kakashi, but those three would rather go off and do their own things than work with us." He looked out at the darkened village, "My foolishness may have cost us once, but now, I will act before the month is up to prevent the worse possible case from happening."

"What else are you planning?" Kakashi looked almost frightened.

"They told me, some years ago, that around this time I would die fighting Orochimaru, if you remember." He looked up at Kakashi, "I have no other idea on how to defeat him, and from what they told me, I will need to do it for the good of the village." He looked determined now; "I don't plan on just taking my students arms this time. I plan on killing him; he will die by my hands, like it was supposed to happen so many years ago."

Kakashi let out a small gasp, and whispered, "I thought you were going to try and prevent your death, for the good of the village." His eyes were downcast. He had gotten to really like the man in front of him, almost as a second father figure.

"I was." He said, "But, fate has been set, and I am to die here."

"NO!" Kakashi shouted, "They always claimed that this was a new timeline! You don't have to die again! Things can come out differently this time Hokage-sama!"

Sarutobi shook his head, "I have accepted my fate, Kakashi. I will die protecting this village, and Tsunade will be the next leader of the village. Like how history is supposed to go."

"Hokage-sama! If history were to stay the same, why do you think the three of them tried their best to change it? We saved many lives because of the different choices they have made, and we've done so much to help in the defense of our village! Why, why have you lost all hope now?"

The Hokage didn't answer at all. After several moments Kakashi bowed down and dismissed himself. If you were to see the Hokage through his window, you could see the tears coming down from his eyes as he tried to hold them in desperately.

(Early the Next Morning, Haruno Residence)

Naruto opened his eyes for a moment, then shut them once again and snuggled closer to the pillow he was on. After a little bit his eyes opened fully, and he looked down to see that he was on a bed, he looked over and saw that Sakura was on it as well, still fast asleep.

He was confused for one thing, exactly how did he get into the bed? He glanced around the room and confirmed it was definitely Sakura's. He nodded to himself and slowly got out, so not to disturb Sakura, if she woke up, it would be an awkward silence, especially after the event of last night.

She's knows Kyuubi has been acting up lately, He sighed, I'm glad I finally told someone. Once he was out of the bed, he went over to the door to her room. He wanted to jump out the window, into the distance, but it was still dark and the breeze might wake her up. If he were not a ninja himself, she would have definitely woke up to his movements.

He exited the door of her room and closed it softly; he looked down the narrow hallway. The house was a pretty decent place, however, some of it felt more cheaply made than others, and the upstairs hallway was definitely one of these rooms. It was so narrow that only one person could go through at a time, and to make matters worse, there were pictures on the wall that you couldn't knock down on your way through as well.

He did manage to get through this though; he had been in Sakura's house several hundred maybe thousand times? He didn't know, but he hated coming here every time for the single fact that Sakura's mother was really, the creepiest woman he knew.

"Naruto," A voice called out, he had his hand on the knob of the door, and he quickly jumped back, his eyes were wide, and his breaths came out in short burst. He was so focused on being quiet that he didn't hear the person coming up to him.

"Morning Mrs. Haruno." He said while getting up. "How are you?"

She looked down for a moment, making Naruto frown. "Naruto," She said, "I need to speak with you."

"Of course," He said, straightening up, "What do you need?" She didn't answer, but only beckoned him to follow her into the kitchen of her household. He sat down as she went over to the steaming stove and came back over with two cups of tea; he knew this meant he would be here for a while.

She took a sip of her tea before sitting across from him. She only looked at him, not with the glare she used to give him so long ago when he was merely nine, no, she just studied his every movement. From picking up his cup to how he drank.

This all was beginning to make Naruto rather uncomfortable, "Eh, Mrs. Haruno."

"Naruto," She said, interrupting him, "I don't know why, but my daughter loves you." Naruto gave her a confused look, which was pretty much say, 'no duh, Sherlock', "I use to think of you as the demon fox, but time and time again, you've proven me and the villagers wrong."

Naruto's eyes widened, this was getting serious if she mentioned that name out loud, "What are you trying to tell me?" He asked, getting only slightly worried.

"I have noticed that the villagers are beginning to act out towards my daughter and me," She said, "They are not allowing me to buy supplies that I need at local markets because my daughter is associating with you." She said, "I'm afraid." She finally admitted.

"Mrs. Haruno, There's nothing to be afraid of, they're all talk and no action they won't-"

She raised her hand up to stop his speech, "Naruto, if you really love my daughter, you need to stop being with her when you're done with missions."

The first thing that crossed Naruto's mind was anger, his eyes turned red for only a second as he glared at her, then he quickly reverted to confusion, "But-"

"I have seen what they can do." She said, "I watched when you were young, and you were hurt, and harassed by the people of this village. Some of my closest friends were among them, and they have all outcast me from their group, and when I get near them, I can see in their movement and the hatred in their eyes they have for me, I know that they are wanting to hurt me, but are only holding themselves back by a thread."

"But," Naruto began, "You can report them to the Hokage! Sakura-chan, she's strong. I know she can manage to beat them up if they even dare to hurt you!"

She glared at the boy, "That is hardly the point!" She nearly yelled, "They want to hurt us, and that is proof enough that this family doesn't need you to do this to us!"

"Fine," Naruto stood up, sadness was obvious in his face, "I thought you've changed your opinion of me," He laughed, "Who am I kidding? You're just like the rest of them."

"The rest of whom?" She asked.

"The villagers," Naruto answered, he could feel the rage building up inside of himself once more, Kyuubi was using his anger and sadness against him, but he knew the fox was doing, and could easily repel it, "They all hate me. Even when I get to know them and show them that I am a good person, they'll always go back and follow the rest of the pack like the sheep they are."

She began to shake, but she stood her ground, this was not Naruto speaking was it? "Naruto, this is nothing against you." She muttered, "I am worried about my family, my only daughter!"

"Don't bother trying to tell me." Naruto told her, "I'm a demon aren't I?" He walked out of the house and shut the door. He didn't slam it, for he still respected the woman deeply, but this was the second betrayal he had within two days, and it was really beginning to get to him.

"Fine," He said walking down the road, the sun coming up out in the distance, "If she doesn't want me to be near Sakura-chan, I won't be near her. At least this way I won't be able to make her mad and give the mark power." He wanted to scream, or cry out, but just continued on to what he had to do, My problems are not important, He reminded himself, I need to save the village.

With that thought he jumped on top of a nearby building and looked around until he saw the place he wanted to go to. The bathhouse, Jiraiya, you'd better be there! He began to jump off towards the place.

(Tenten's apartment)

Sasuke opened his eyes, allowing them to adjust to the light pouring into the room. He got up and looked around, he was on the couch from last night, yes, that much he remembered. He looked down and saw Tenten figure leaning next to him, still asleep, but that changed when she started to move about when the sunlight got caught in her eyes.

He checked himself; he still had on all his clothes. He looked to Tenten, yep she did too. Good, that means that they didn't get carried away or anything. He sighed in relief; give it another five years before that.

"Tenten," He whispered, allowing her to open her eyes and look up at him, "I need to leave. I need to begin training for 'it'."

"No," She muttered getting up and wiping the sleep away from her eyes, "Train me too, I need to be stronger so I can help you guys out."

Sasuke shook his head, he was still amazing she had accepted him even after all the things he had told her he had done in the past timeline, "There's no way I can get you to become as strong as an ANBU within a month from your current skill level, if you were Naruto though, I guess something like that could be possible."

Tenten looked down sadly, "So what do you want me to do?"

"Try to stay away from the fighting, there will be real enemy ninja out and they will kill all the ninja that get in their way, whether it's a Genin, or ANBU it doesn't matter, just don't get involved." Sasuke said getting up and walking towards her door, "You have a month to train, and unfortunately, I'm not strong enough to achieve my goals, and I need to train myself, please Tenten, don't get into trouble."

"Where are you going now?" She asked, getting off the couch and walking towards him.

He shrugged his shoulders, "I'm going to find Naruto and Sakura, and we'll figure out what the hell we're going to do now."

She nodded, "Ok Sasuke." She faintly smiled, "Make sure you don't get into any trouble."

"Of course." Sasuke said going out of the door, he closed it lightly behind him and left the girl in her apartment alone. After a moment she shook her head and grabbed a scroll and titled it, 'training schedule'.

Outside, Sasuke walked down from the second story and was about to go out on the roads when suddenly a figure jumped right in front of him. He didn't even look up at the person before simply saying, "Kakashi."

"Hello Sasuke," Kakashi greeted, "I've come here to offer to train you. I know what I did before was wrong, but I am going to make it right by making sure you guys will be prepared to deal with whatever is thrown at you."

"No thanks." Sasuke said walking right pass him, "I already know most of what you can teach me, and plus you're on an equal level with all of us if not a little stronger, what can I possibly learn from you?"

In a split second Kakashi charged at Sasuke with a Kunai in hand and attempted to put it on the throat of the child, but Sasuke twisted away from the hold and managed to get a Kunai at Kakashi's throat, the only downside was that Kakashi also held his up at his neck.

The two looked deep into each other's eyes before both lowered their weapons, "I see what you mean Sasuke." Kakashi muttered, "But even so, we all need to train with one another in order to truly become an ANBU team."

"I wasn't aware that you were still part of our team." Sasuke said bitterly before moving on.

Kakashi followed Sasuke until he was walking on the left side of the child. The two were silent until they got to the main street of the village. Sasuke had his hands in his pockets, his face in a frown, annoyed that Kakashi was still following him.

Various people looked at the two, and then proceeded to do what they were out to do; it was not wise to get in the business of ninja, even if they were of your own village.

Kakashi walked right next to Sasuke, normally, if the situation wasn't so serious he would have his favorite book out and read it to annoy the child next to him even more, but he knew that Sasuke really wasn't going to like that and may even attack him if provoked.

Sarutobi often praised that they were to become to new Sanin, but that wasn't really going to happen if they weren't going to be willing to help the village in its dire time of need, and Sasuke here was not willing to work with him.

"Sasuke," Kakashi finally spoke, he noticed Sasuke didn't give any indication that he was listening to him, besides the fact that he lead the man into an alley. Once he stopped and leaned against a wall, Kakashi continued, "You need to get over your childish hatred right now, your village is going to be attacked, and we all need to work together through this time!" He sighed, "It seems only Sakura is the one that realized this-"

"She may have realized it, Kakashi." Sasuke spoke up, "But is she working with you?"

Kakashi stopped talking at that moment. Sakura had said that they needed to work with the Hokage and the rest of the village, but she never did attempt to do so. Was she going to go through what she said?

"I don't know," Kakashi finally answered truthfully, "Please, Sasuke." He said again, "We need you. I'll do anything!"

He got down on the ground and kneeled down to Sasuke who rolled his eyes and looked away. He didn't like making people beg, it made them look pathetic, and made him look like an asshole. He didn't mind the latter, but the former did really bug the hell out of him, probably more than the fan girls back in the academy.

Sasuke looked at Kakashi, the so called Sharingan Kakashi, one of the most powerful Jounin- no, scratch that, ANBU in the village, and he was kneeling down to him, begging for him to work with him. He looked away and back at the sky.

He looked at the clouds moving along, and for a second he could understand why Shikamaru liked doing this kind of thing. It gets the mind off of stressful topics, and allows one to think things through easily, or simply relax; it was always the person's choice.

"Ok." He sighed, "I'll work with you for now, though I'm not sure if Naruto or Sakura will."

(Haruno Residence, once again…)

Sakura walked down into the kitchen where she saw her mom. She looked rather stiff, her movements were really slow and seem like a robot, and she seem to too busy thinking about something to notice Sakura was right beside her. Sakura shrugged and walked over the table and sat down.

"Mom." She called out.

Mrs. Haruno jumped slightly, her eyes widening before she turned around to see Sakura sitting down on the table in the kitchen, she sighed and said, "Did you have to scare me dear?"

"Sorry." She smiled a little before her face fell again, "Did you see Naruto? He stayed the night, and when I woke up he was nowhere to be seen."

"Oh," She turned towards her daughter, "Well, he woke up rather early this morning and came down and told me that he was going out to train or something like that." She said.

Sakura studied her for a minute before saying, "Really." She shrugged and went to the cabinet to get some food to eat for breakfast. She stole a few glances at her mom when she wasn't looking, and knew that she was keeping something from her, it wasn't like it would take a rocket scientist to figure that out.

"Sakura." She turned around, "What are you going to do today?" She walked over and sat next to her daughter and gave her a smile, which wasn't returned.

"I don't know." She said, "Maybe go find Naruto and Sasuke and train together for something."

Her mother nodded, "Sounds interesting." She said, tapping the counter with her fingernails, further proving to Sakura that something was wrong.

"Ok," Sakura sighed, "What's wrong?"

"Wrong?" She repeated, "Nothing's wrong my dear, just a few things I can't keep off my mind."

"Like what?" Sakura asked, trying to pry through her defenses without threatening to kill her. Interrogating a mother is a lot harder than many people make it out to be.

After saying that a short silence came up before a knock came on the door, "Why don't you get that Sakura?" Her mother asked, sounding relieved that it happened.

Sakura got up, obviously upset, and not bothering to hide it from her mother. She's hiding something, and I will find out what it is! She mentally told herself and cleared her mind of the anger, remembering the seal on her neck.

She opened the door and was surprised to see Kakashi and Sasuke standing there. Kakashi gave her a short wave while Sasuke nodded at her.

"We're here to get you to train with us. We need it for," Kakashi looked at Mrs. Haruno and said, "The third part of the exam."

"Right," Sakura said, quickly going out and shutting the door behind her, not even telling her mother where she was going to be. "What's going on?" She asked once the door was securely closed.

Kakashi and Sasuke beckoned her to follow them away from her house, which she did willingly, not wanting to be near her mother right now.

Once the three of them were a safe enough distance Sasuke turned to face Sakura and said, "I've agreed to train with Kakashi for the invasion, we're wondering if you are willing to join us in our training."

Sakura looked down in thought, and when she looked back up it was obvious what her answer was going to be, she looked both determined and strong willed, her eyes were narrowed, and a smile played across her face as she said, "Sure. I need it."

"Well," Kakashi muttered, "That was much easier than I expected it to be."

"Why'd you agree so quickly?" Sasuke asked, in a state of shock, his face didn't betray it, but his voice definitely did. It had a fair amount of disbelief in it.

She shrugged, "In the forest I was useless to you guys," She frowned, "I don't intend for that to happen again." She said, determination seeping into her voice.

"That's not all true, Sakura." Sasuke said, "You helped me when I was about to die due to the poison, if it weren't for you, I would have died there."

"Well," Kakashi sighed, "Shall we go find Naruto?"

Sasuke and Sakura both nodded in agreement and the area was left empty.

(Hot Springs)

Naruto entered the Hot Springs and looked around, knowing that Jiraiya was going to be here. He walked along the place, the steam swirled in the air wherever he walked, and the water was almost boiling hot. How relaxing. He sighed looking down at the water, but he shook his mind clean and focused on his one target in mind.

He didn't have to look hard, after only a few minutes he saw the wall the separated the men's and the woman's side of the spring, and knew instantly that the perverted giggling he was hearing was none other than Jiraiya. He walked along the wall until the giggling was as loud as it could possibly get. He walked into the bush on the men's side and pulled out Jiraiya.

"I need to speak to you." He said, not listening to the desperate cries of the old man. He examined him and sighed, he looked exactly the same as ever, the red streaks went down from his eyes to the bottom his face, he had the long white hair, and the clothes – it was all the same.

"What is it brat! Can't you see that I am-"

"Researching," Naruto finished, "I see." Jiraiya gave the boy a weird look before his face lit up and Naruto knew he had figured it out.

He sat down crossed legged on the ground, beckoning Naruto to do the same, which he did. Then he said, "Ah. You're the child Sarutobi-sensei was telling me about," He rubbed the bottom of his face, "Hm, you don't look like much."

Naruto grinned, "I'd watch what you say pervert." He then became serious again and said, "So, he told you everything about me? About the future and what is going to occur?"

"Yes." Jiraiya confirmed, "He told me, but you're going to have to prove to me that I actually decided to teach a shrimp like you. You look like a little bratty kid who can't even stand up to a girl."

Naruto glared at him and then said, "I now realize why Tsunade always hits you, you say the stupidest things. I'm pretty sure I could get Sakura-chan to-" he stopped speaking when he said her name and merely shook his head, "Anyway, what do I need to do to prove that I am your student?"

"Well. If you can really do Rasengan, prove it to me." He crossed his arms and a smirk came upon his face, obviously amused that some kid like Naruto could do it.

Naruto nodded and stood up. Once he was standing, he raised one of his arms and focused chakra into it. First it began to spin around his hand, then it began to spin more rapidly as he added more chakra as it turned into a near perfect circle, he held it up while Jiraiya examined it.

"Well." Jiraiya said, sounding very impressed, "That's pretty good." He was nodding and walked over to the water. "Can you walk on water via chakra yet?"

"Yes." Naruto answered, not even bothering to wait for Jiraiya to say prove it as he walked on it to the other side and back.

After a few more demonstrations, Jiraiya finally accepted the fact that Naruto was indeed his student in the other timeline. After a little bit he said, "Well Naruto, Let's head to the forest and see where your skill really is. We'll fight, and I promise that I won't hold back."

"Jiraiya," Naruto said, almost pleadingly sounding, "There's something I need you to see for me," With Jiraiya's attention on him, he continued, "When we came back into this timeline I felt that Kyuubi was closer than before. Each passing year he gets closer, and now I can hear him talking when I get enraged, or am anger or sad. I don't know what to do, and I only now realized that I need you to help me."

"Well come on," Jiraiya sighed as he rubbed his forehead, "We'll look into that as well."

The two walked out of the hot springs, Jiraiya had forgotten all about what he was doing previously. He was actually incredibly serious when the situation called for it, and the situation with the fox within Naruto seemingly getting more powerful was definitely under his category of important.

He'd have to speak about the boy when they're away from the village, out training for what was to come about other things. He needed to know all about Akatsuki, Orochimaru, and other threats to the village that the children might know of.

For now though, he had to keep things at a simple level.

---END---

Documented changes:

-Grammar fixes.

-Added a few new lines of dialogue here and there, got rid of the bit in the beginning with Naruto trying to strangle the Hokage.

FINALLY finished revising the rest of the story! I just want to have a small recap here of all the people who know about them being from the future: Jiraiya, Sarutobi, Kakashi, Tenten, Choji, Shikamaru, and Ibiki. I will finally be able to update this story with a real chapter now, I am eager to begin writing this again, though the new chapters will probably be shorter in length than these most chapters. 14 – 16k is just so much to write, I will probably set my minimum at 8k, and work from there.

See you all in the next chapter!