A Few Steps Back

Shink!

'One..' A blonde flash hurled a shuriken at the straw dummy, effectively driving the tool into the target's bullseye. He ignored the sudden thunderous clapping that emerged after his first attempt.

Shink!

'Two..' The blonde child known as Minato Namikaze reared his wrist in an odd twisting formation, then slung the second shuriken at the straw dummy. A scowl settled upon his features as he noticed the skewed trajectory of the shuriken. He missed the bullseye by just a few millimeters.

Shink!

'Three.' The final steel projectile rocketed from the graceful hands of the blonde, as he was slightly pleased to make up for his prior slip up. The shuriken pierced the last bullseye with an impressive display of power and speed, the wind screeched due to its speed. A subtle proof of his skill.

"Great job, as usual Minato-kun." Minato nodded in the direction of his instructor, who smiled approvingly at the child's humble yet warm personality. Though at the moment he didn't realize how uncharacteristic Minato was at the moment, now the ultra ego of a Uchiha prodigy inhabited the body of the sweet boy.

Minato regarded the straw dummy but once before he stuffed his hands into his pockets and stalked cooly to the back of the line, the whole time he ignored the eyes that followed him subtly. Girls stared at him as he walked by, muttering among themselves things like 'Minato-kun is so strooong!' and 'Minato-kun is mine!'. While the majority of the male population of the class sneered at the Namikaze , and cursed his name.

The blonde simply tuned them all out as he raked a small hand through his truffle of unruly hair, 'Hn. Just like the old days, somethings never change I guess.'

Minato walked past the few others who had displayed their shuriken accuracy skills prior to himself. He sat upright against a tree away from the others, allowing himself some privacy and time to think. The blonde watched the remaining students show off their skills while he tried to battle his mental breakdown, though to the surrounding bystanders the Namikaze just looked deep in thought.

'What in the world were they thinking when they sent me here, in this body, at this time, with such a mission.' Minato allowed his memory to recall the meeting with the Amazons back when he was still 21 year old Sasuke Uchiha, an unattractive scowl settled upon his features at the thought. 'I'm not Sasuke Uchiha anymore, I am Minato Namikaze...no matter how desperately I wish this was a sick genjustu Madara cast upon me. But there's just no waking up from this huh?'

Minato set his deep blue eyes upon the vivid crimson hair of Kushina, she stood in line with the rest for their shuriken trail. She seemed to move constantly, not once remaining still for the entire minute Minato observed her. He gave a begrudging nod, she was definitely Naruto's mother.

'Looks like she's where he got his annoying ways from, and Naruto got his looks from the Yondaime-'

"Yo Minato!" The blonde Academy student was startled from his train of thought by the boisterous call of Okyu Nara, his so-called best friend of this life. The Nara child withdrew three shuriken and pointed to the straw dummy, "Watch this new trick I learned!"

Suddenly Minato felt his senses tingle and go haywire as a warning, his underdeveloped chakra sensory skills were trying to kick in. But to no avail, the winds seemed to unnaturally gather in the area. Kicking up dust and swaying around the other students and teacher violently, Minato nearly leaped from his relaxed place as realization hit him.

'These winds..this feeling.. Okyu's chakra, his wind chakra.'

Thick and visible wind chakra washed over the three shuriken Okyu held between the spaces of his knuckles, he hurled the wind-enhanced projectiles at the straw dummy. The tools mowed through the weak cloth material of the dummy, and separated it into three sections. The butchered target collapsed in a disheveled heap upon the dirt field of the Academy training yard.

Okyu then turned his attention back to his companion, who was noticeably shocked by the display of nature transformation. Okyu allowed a cocky smirk to tug at his lips, he hollered out to his rival. "So, pretty cool huh?"

Minato acted out of instinct more than thought, the blonde erased his look of surprise and schooled his features into an impassive manner. He closed his eyes and turned his head to the left, "Hn."

The cocky Nara glared at the stoic Namikaze, the sudden shift in the blonde's personality irked his nerves greatly. "Damn you Minato, and your hip attitude!", Okyu murmured aloud to himself before he was reprimanded by their Academy instructor. Toru Akimichi, slapped Okyu upside his head before he began to lecture the Nara.

"You little show-off you destroyed the target dummy, now the other students do not receive a turn! Okyu you will make up for this by restitching and putting the dummy back together. Is that understood Mr. Nara?"

Toru eye-balled the Academy student, while the child simply stared at the ground in disappointment. Okyu answered promptly "Yes sir, Toru-sama."

Toru felt a wave of grief flood from the child which bothered the instructor to a great extent, he sighed while pinching the bridge of his nose. "Alright then, everyone else head back inside. We will continue to go over Konohagakure's history for the remainder of the day."

With that said the students groaned in despair and walked aimlessly to the entrance into the Academy, with the exception of Minato Namikaze. The lone blonde observed Okyu meagerly tried to collect the hay to stuff the target dummy, Minato looked on with mild interest yet was also unattached. A frown graced his features while he looked between the Nara and the entrance back to the Academy, abruptly he began to walk back toward the Academy.

"Tche, I barely know that guy. I could care less if this is the Yondaime's friend or not, I have better things to do than make friends." Minato stuffed his hands in his pockets and scrunched up his features in annoyance, he rather not socialize with the very people who degraded his past clan. Approaching the door he yanked it open and looked upon the stairs leading to the classroom, yet his body refused to move any further.

Images of a certain red-head bombarded his disturbed mind, he shivered unconsciously at the thought of having to eventually court Kushina. Feelings of resentment invaded his conflicted mind, he squeezed the doorknob as he shook with bubbling rage. Konoha was still in turmoil with the Uchiha even in this time period, though no longer a Uchiha. Minato promised himself he would forge a future of peace and the survival of his past clan. Catching his reflection in the slim window on the door his frown vanished, he saw a teenage Naruto grinning back at him. His blue eyes screaming 'Sasuke don't screw me over!' and he remembered the Amazons and how they entrusted him with a second chance, one he honestly believed he didn't deserve.

Minato lowered his head and sighed, a sweeping breeze played with his shaggy blonde hair, he slammed the door shut and calmed his growing deviant ambitions. 'Dammit, why me? Naruto is deserving of a new life, one where he is praised and loved. And be the hero that will save the future and end senseless war. Not the self-righteous Uchiha avenger, missing ninja, mass murderer, and international terrorist.'

Okyu diverted his attention from the troublesome task of gathering the dummy's hay, the loud slam of the entrance door lead the Nara to notice Minato making his way toward him. Okyu spotted the normally cheerful blonde throw him a pissed glare, Okyu furrowed his brows in curiosity. Before a sly smirk played upon his handsome face, he stood to greet Minato.

Okyu offered an informal salute with his index and middle fingers together, "Yo!"

Minato nodded as acknowledgement of the dark-haired boy and pushed past the Nara, to Okyu's shock the Namikaze wordlessly began to gather up the hay. Stuffing the hay into the bisected areas of the target dummy. Okyu stared incredulously at the strange boy before he went ahead and asked, "Minato what are you doing?"

Still gathering up hay and stuffing the contents in the dummy, he answered with his back to the Nara. "What does it look like dobe, I'm helping you fix your mess."

Okyu simply stood in silence as he took in the blonde's words, taking a bit of time to process them properly, he clenched his fist and started yelling at Minato. "Hey you asshole, who are you calling 'dobe'?! I could kick your genius ass right now!"

Minato was glad his back was to Okyu, he hid the pleased smirk that played upon his face. 'I think I might like this guy..maybe.' Minato stood from the piles of hay, brushed himself off and turned toward Okyu, after a momentary silence Minato nodded then shifted into an odd taijutsu stance. A bastard offspring of the Orchimaru's hebi style and the advanced tiers of the Uchiha taijutsu style, with a dash of the Gai's strong fist.

"Alright then, Okyu. Show me what you can do." Minato smirked arrogantly as he knew it would piss off the Nara as it did many of his opponents in battle, especially Naruto, Minato had to conceal a full-blown grin when Okyu reacted.

The Nara dropped into the basic Academy taijutsu stance, and narrowed his light brown eyes in irritation. "Fine bastard, if you want a beating so bad. All you had to do was ask!" Okyu growled but Minato could pick up on the playful tone to his voice, he was excited to be doing this too.

Suddenly Minato was hit with a vague memory that quickly became familiar, his brain harboring and syncing the memories with his past ones. This was also a common task between the two, a type of male bonding between the Namikaze and Nara was sparring. Minato smirked as he wondered if this was how he and Naruto would be like if they got along a bit better.

Without warning Okyu lunged forward with a spinning kick aimed for the blonde's mop of hair, it was intercepted by Minato's forearm. Minato pushed away the kick causing Okyu to lose his footing for a moment, he leaned back and touched the dirt with his hands. Okyu sprung from his hands and vaulted over Minato, who snapped a kick at the Nara in mid-air. Okyu threw both of his arms infront of his face in time to defend himself, the force behind the kick heaved Okyu backwards in the air.

"Dammit!"

Okyu cursed aloud as he soared in the air at dizzying speeds, he noticed a blonde flash speeding beneath him. Tucking his knees into his chest, Okyu completely rolled in mid-air as he descended, and shot out both of his legs as a dropkick at the approaching blonde. Minato took the full brunt of the dropkick to his chest, being blown off his feet and knocked to the ground.

Okyu landed in a crouch before he blanched in horror as he leaped from the volley of shuriken the downed Minato sent his way, "Crap! Are you trying to kill me?!"

Okyu realized that the weapons were merely a distraction as the blonde anticipated his escape route and launched forward, cocking back his right fist, the fist collided with the Nara's jaw. The momentum bringing Okyu toward the ground, yet he recovered before falling to the dirt. He slammed a single palm to the ground and held up his weight, and swiped at the Namikaze's waist with his shin. Minato smirked before he turned toward the incoming strike and caught the leg in his hands, gripping tightly, he twirled and heaved Okyu away from him.

Okyu cursed aloud as he was sent flying once again by Minato's raw strength, Okyu bounced and tumbled across the ground before coming to a halt upon his back. Minato groaned in pain as he sat up and managed to rest on one knee while he took a quick breather, Minato seemed to also take the chance to recollect himself but didn't seem as exhausted.

Still an arrogant smirk tugged at his lips, "Okyu if that is all you're bringing to the table, just call it quits now. Before I crush you." Minato throughly enjoyed toying with the Nara, admittedly the guy was pretty skilled, his speed was slightly lacking in comparison to his own. Yet his strength, taijutsu, and stamina were all impressive considering his age. Minato returned his attention to the raising Nara who withdrew a kunai, his gaze piercing and fierce.

"I haven't even shown you a fraction of my skill, Minato. I still got more that I wanted to withhold, but if you want my all..then no problem!" Okyu threw three shuriken at Minato who deflected the tools with a kunai, and rushed forward clashing with Okyu's kunai. The two boys glared at each other as they tried to push each other, but to no avail their strength was equal.

Okyu withdrew from the stalemate and jumped back a bit before he turned, and threw a roundhouse kick at Minato. The blonde genius simply leaned backwards, perfectly bent horizontally. Allowing the heel to cycle past him, stretching backwards the blonde arced his back while his hands slapped on the ground. Minato sent his feet rocket toward Okyu, who folded his arms under his chin to block the strike while remaining grounded. Okyu drove his foot into the blonde's back, sending Minato skidding across the dirt upon his face. Yet Minato recovered instantly and used the momentum to roll backwards into a crouch, Minato stood up and sent an approving nod in Okyu's direction.

"Not bad, yet still not enough to best me."

Minato leaped forward and twirled with a downward axe heel aimed for Okyu's head, Okyu spun out of the attack's range and watched Minato's foot smash into the earth. Okyu launched ahead and attacked the blonde with a barrage of swift jabs, which were blocked with smacks and palms as Minato was backed away. Upon finding an opening Minato drove his knee into Okyu's gut, causing the Nara to hunch over. Yet not defeated, before Minato could deliver another strike he felt a strong vise grip around his waist.

Okyu clenched Minato and fluently raised him a few feet from the ground and began to spin rapidly, the two boys looked like a vortex of bright colors. Okyu leaped from the ground, flooded his muscles with chakra, and body slammed the Namikaze into the dirt; creating a thunderous clap as the two bodies indented into the earth. A small cloud of dust kicked up from the impact before being blown away, revealing a tired Okyu kneeling over Minato.

Sweat layered the dark-haired child as he turned his attention to his unconscious pal, he managed a triumphant grin. "Ha!..Take that pretty boy..I win this one!" Suddenly Okyu's features contorted in pain as a chakra inforced foot crashed into his gut, hurling Okyu from the small crater into the air. His pain replaced with anger as he realized Minato was playing possum.

'He's really a tough one.'

Flipping in mid-air Okyu gathered his chakra, Okyu felt the familiar feel of the wind whip about him as he stared at the raising Namikaze. Withdrawing three more shuriken from his pouch that rested on his backside, he nurtured the weaponry with his wind chakra. Thick visible green chakra washed over the shuriken as he watched Minato's face adopt a look of annoyance, Okyu smirked as he whipped the projectiles toward the blonde.

"Take this Minato!"

Minato cursed to himself as the noticeably volley of wind-enhanced shuriken race toward him, swiftly upon instinct the blonde began to form a series of familiar handseals. Despite not having tested his body in combat and its capabilities since his revival, he prayed to the Amazons that this worked. Stopping on the final handseal of the tiger before he inhaled a deep breath to expand his diaphragm, he remained cool as the shuriken were just meters from slicing him up like the target dummy.

"Fire Style: Grand Fireball Jutsu!"

A small orb of wild flames burst from the blonde's mouth before quickly expanding to the size of a small house, the fireball hurled forward and swallowed the wind-enhanced projectiles which strengthened the flames. The fireball boomed to nearly double the orignal size as it soared toward the air-borne Nara, who froze as the flames swallowed him whole.

'No!'

Minato watched in horror as the flames overtook Okyu and made the child vanish from view, suddenly a thick whirlwind billowed through the flames at an alarming rate fighting back the flames. Though unnoticed to the panicking Minato who struggled to release the stream of fire, as the whirlwind drew closer Minato was victim to a vicious fist that shot through the flames right into the blonde's nose.

"Wind Style : Screech of the Whirlwind Jutsu!"

A pressurized burst of wind chakra completely dispersed the remaining flames apart as Okyu emerged from the inferno, as well as flinging the blonde Namikaze into a tree from the force of the punch. Okyu immediately doubled over as he coughed up some blood, exhaustion threatening to take him into unconsciousness. Yet his will to stand victorious was strong enough to allow him to crouch upon on one knee, as he watched the still form of Minato begin to stir.

'Dammit that hurt!'

Minato swore to himself as he slowly sat up from the ground, nursing the stinging sensation that flared upon his face. He licked his lips and noted the metallic taste of blood, touching a finger to his lips he saw he was bleeding excessively from his nose. Minato shrugged as he turned an impassive gaze upon Okyu who looked equally worn down. 'I think he broke it..'

Minato winced as he touched his broken nose lightly, yet still he turned a playful smirk upon the Nara. "Not bad Okyu, you actually got a good shot off of me." Okyu smiled in response, glad to accept some kind of praise from his rival/best friend but that was ruined as the blonde spoke some more.

"But you're still a loser."

"Shut up Namikaze!"

Both children fell flat-out upon the ground as they rested from the quickly escalated spar, Minato allowed his thoughts to turn into those about Naruto. Throughout the spar with Okyu, Minato could not help but note the uncanny parallels between the two. Amazing the former Uchiha concluded, even in this life he would befriend a total moron with a unhindered desire to surpass him. 'I guess Okyu isn't that bad, would you approve of this one Itachi? Naruto?'

"What in the world happened here!?"

Immediately both boys leaped from the relaxed positions to regard the fuming Akimichi instructor, Toru. Said man was turning an impressive shade of red as he observed the totally decimated area of the practice field, he turned his sights upon the troublesome pair.

"Minato!..Okyu!"

Both eight year old Academy students turned toward the raging Akimichi as he snatched them up, carrying each upon his shoulder as if they were babies. The noted as they traveled through the now empty Shinobi Academy that the school day had ended, and Toru must have come to check upon the Nara delinquent. Minato smirked as he was piggy-backed through the village toward the Hokage's office, what a first day back at the Academy.

'How troublesome can the rest of this day get?' Minato pondered as he noticed Okyu flashing a cocky grin, which caused the Namikaze to furrow his brows and bark at the boy.

"What are you looking at dobe?"

Okyu Nara simply smiled before he pointed at the slightly crooked nose of the Namikaze, "Nothing. Just that wonderful shiner you earned from your ass-beating!"

The Nara erupted into an uncontrolled fit of laughter, before a super expanded fist slammed upon the boy's hand silencing the child. "Stop all that damn cursing Okyu!"

Now it was Minato's turn to laugh as he allowed a pleased and humorous chuckle to escape his mouth, as a full-blown grin spread across his forever pretty boy features. For that moment he allowed the anger, anguish, and the Uchiha curse of hatred to leave him as he embraced this new part of his second life. 'It may not be so bad to have an ally like Okyu around to help me fix the future.'

Sasuke turned his head toward the looming Hokage tower, then turned his pensive eyes upon the Hokage Monument. A strange feeling of anticipation edged in his mind as he noted the lack of his face up there with his predecessors, he recalled the bold declaration of Naruto.

'I'll save the world, but without having to become the Hokage.' Sasuke modified Naruto's dream to a more realistic and less troublesome version, it suited the Uchiha turned Namikaze quite well.

Hey Taijen here!

Sup fanfiction readers, hope you guys and gals enjoyed the latest installment of 'A Few Steps Back'. This chapter I know is short and lacking in progression in comparison to how I normally handle my fics, but don't worry folks things will get better progressively. Because nobody gets worse at something they do often only better, so I assure you quality can only go up from here! Anyway those wondering what the point of this chapter was, no it wasn't just to write a fight scene, but to realistically help Sasuke cope with being Minato Namikaze. The loss of his heritage and clan that he crusaded and lived his last breath for, is a serious blow to his character. So in the future I will explain how Sasuke changed during his time as the singular 'Kage' of the Shinobi Alliance the five years between Naruto's death and Madara's victory, and how he devised a moral code that was hero-like but still true to his Uchiha-avenger mindset.

The spar with Okyu is also an introduction to the parallel friendship of Sasuke and Naruto, Okyu will be simillar to Naruto but not just some carbon copy. He will act as a great friend and ally to Minato. (I will be referring to Sasuke as Minato from now on). And whoever I decide to put in as the last teammate, also I am debating whether to replace Jiraiya with Sakumo Hatake (A.K.A Kakashi's Pops). What do you guys think?

Anyway guys please be on the look out for chapter 5 of 'Turn of Events: Reloaded', the next chapter is in the works and is probably about 33% completed by my estimates. And thanks to all the people who checked out the last update of T.O.E Reloaded, I was surprised by the nearly 200 jump in views and a 100 or so visitors! You guys rock!

Taijen signing out, have a blessed day/night/afternoon/whatever!

Character Profile :

Okyu Nara

Okyu Nara is a Academy student hailing from the praised Nara clan, though unlike a lot of his clansmen his strength is elsewhere instead of his brain. Okyu is considered a looker and often deemed attractive by older girls, he has pale complexion and dark hair with light brown eyes. He wears his hair in a unique style , tied in a ponytail that goes forward against his hair with jaw length bangs framing the sides of his face. Okyu often wears a dark blue shirt with thick red stripes vertically up his sides and red sleeves. And sports tan multi-pocketed pants with blue sandals. A kunai holster on both thighs, and a single weapons pouch upon his backside.

Okyu hopes to live up to the Nara clan's standards, since talent is in his taijutsu and ninjutsu while he lacks greatly in academics. Though he hopes to make up for his downfall with hardwork and studying.