Chapter 04: Somethings Do Change
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"Who are you and where is Naruto-kun?" a pair of angry byakugan's glared at him and in front of him was his future wife ready to attack. Naruto gulped.
"Ah….Hinata-chan you see the thing is…" Naruto gulped. This was so vastly different from the Hinata that he knew he had no idea how to handle the situation. As the kunoichi narrowed her eyes and prepared to attack Naruto knew that he needed to do something.
"Ah Hinata-chan I swear that I am Naruto and um can we talk about this in a non-violent manner? Please?" He pleaded.
"Where is Naruto-kun?" she repeated. Groaning Naruto held his head and sighed knowing there was no way out of this conversation.
"Hinata-chan, I can explain everything but not here in the open. The less people that know the better. I really need some sleep anyway so my house?" he suggested. The kunoichi growled slightly but relaxed her stance slightly. As Naruto slowly led her back to his house he whined at his tenant. 'This sucks. I didn't have any time to figure out what I am going to tell her!'
'Well sucks to be you. By the way you are being followed by her ever faithful retainer. You might want to do something about that.' Groaning Naruto spun, grabbed Hinata's hand and sped away as soon as his smoke bomb hit the ground. While a normal smoke bomb would never have affected a Hyuga, this one had been specially formulated to temporarily render the user blind for a period of two minutes. Not completely blind granted but unable to use their eyes. Hinata couldn't help but hiss at the blonde as he let go only when they were in his apartment. Before she could say anything he placed several privacy seals and dropped on his bed.
"Ko was following us. Like I said the fewer the people who know the better. Please have a seat." He motioned. Sitting in a kitchen chair tentatively Hinata waited for the explanation.
"This may be confusing but try to bear with me till the end. I am but I am not Naruto Uzumaki. My name is Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze and I am the Rokudaime Hokage. I am 31 years old and one of only two survivors of Konohagakure no Sato. I time traveled to try and fix the damage that was done by a shinobi of Konoha and to stop Konoha's annihilation. After using a jutsu that I spent thirteen years developing I arrived in this time this morning. By all rights my stronger self, my future self, absorbed my weaker self and took command of my body. So while the body is that of Naruto Uzumaki 12 year old genin of Konoha, my mind is that of Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze 31 year old Hokage." He started getting her attention. Hinata's eyes were widening with each passing word and despite the improbability of what he was saying (time travel) she truly believed what he was saying.
"Who is the other one? The other survivor you mentioned."
"Uchiha Sasuke 31 year old jonin of Konohagakure no Sato, my best friend and surrogate brother. He helped me do the jutsu to come back here. We honestly weren't expecting to come back so close to the exam start though." Naruto chuckled in embarrassment. "Hinata I know that you have a lot of questions and trust me I would like to answer them all but unfortunately for you some things are better left unknown. Just trust me when I say that the future is not a cheery place and that I have to do something to stop it. I am not an imposter I am just more mature and have an older mentally with a true idea of what is expected of a shinobi of Konoha. Can you trust me?" He asked steadily. Quietly Hinata weighed her options and pondered the words of the time traveler. If the future was truly that bad then why would they risk having to live it a second time? What happened if things don't change?
"I do trust you Naruto-kun. However…"
"It seems improbable that there could be time travel." Naruto finished making her blush.
"Hai."
"It's fine. When I started the jutsu everyone called me crazy so I am used to that reaction. I showed them though. Just like I did when they said that I could never be Hokage." He boasted. Hinata giggled at Naruto's childishness and nodded to herself.
"It's okay Naruto-kun. I believe you. Gomen for nearly attacking you."
"Its fine you were only doing what was expected of a shinobi of Konoha. You saw something that was suspicious and instead of making up excuses for it you tried to investigate. The sad thing is that the older more experienced shinobi haven't noticed. I'm sure Kakashi-sensei has but either than that…" Naruto trailed off as his eyelids began to droop. Before Hinata could ask him if he was okay he was out cold on the bed. Hinata smiled and carefully removed his sandals and tucked him in. Looking back she smiled as she left.
Sharp banging on the door made Naruto jolt awake as he reached for a kunai. Looking around disoriented he groaned as he remembered what happened and recognized the voice on the other side of the door.
"Damnit Dobe if you don't open the door soon I am just going to kick it in!" a yell sounded through the wood.
"Damnit Teme give me a minute to get out of bed!" Naruto yelled back. Growling as he heard the Uchiha laugh he quickly got out of bed and crossed the room yanking the door open hard enough to send the laughing boy sprawling on his face. Apparently the Uchiha had been using the door for support as he tried to stay standing. Rolling his eyes he motioned for the boy to enter and close the door. Dropping on his bed Naruto ran his hand through his hair.
"Hinata corner you?" Sasuke queried as he finally stopped laughing.
"Yeah. She was about to attack me actually. Thought that I was an imposter and that I had hidden the real Naruto somewhere. Didn't have a choice but to tell her something to calm her down. If only she had been that fierce in the war." Naruto mused.
"How much did she learn?" Sasuke asked seriously.
"Just that we were time travelers, the only surviving members of Konoha, that I was Rokudaime and that you were a jonin. That's all really. I wasn't sure what else to tell her. I did tell her that she was better off not knowing most of it. So what did you need?"
"More planning. What are you going to do if Jiraiya does his half-assed training again?" Sasuke asked while grimacing in disgust. When the raven had heard of the actual training that Naruto had received in the time that he had been away from Konoha he had been livid. For the most part Naruto hadn't learned all that much and Jiraiya was supposed to be a Sannin for god's sake! He could have taught him a lot more than he did. It had seemed to Sasuke that the best teacher that Naruto had learned from was the Hachibi jinchuuriki in Kumo, B. Pathetic in his opinion.
"Simple. Kick his ass and make him train me. Refuse to proof-read his books and shred all of his research notes. Though at this point I doubt that there will be much that he could teach me. Kakashi-sensei as well. It will be worth seeing what they will do when I know everything or at least "master" everything quickly. How are you going to cover your use of the chidori, its variations and the snake summoning if you still have it?"
"I won't use chidori or its variations until after Kakashi-sensei does then I can just claim that I copied it accidentally and since there is no one around to tell me the "protocol" for copying a teammate or ally's jutsu I didn't think to tell him. The variations I made because I realized how dangerous the chidori was and wasn't sure if I could utilize it properly." Sasuke explained. Tilting his head as if in thought he shrugged. "As for the snake summoning I just won't use it. Or I can say that I read if you use the summoning jutsu without a contract you could be taken to the summoning that best suits you and I got the snake contract that way if I have to use it. I honestly don't care for them that much. They are good scouts and even better for covert assassinations but truly not much else. Unless you are fighting the Jubi and need a way through." Sasuke lamented. Naruto laughed and stretched out on his bed.
"I still have the forbidden scroll. I set up Mizuki last night so the Hokage thinks that Mizuki hid it somewhere. I will probably be called for a psych eval though. I hit Mizuki a little too hard and accidentally broke his neck. I used seals so they will never find out that Mizuki even discussed the scroll with me. We really need to dissect the Edo Tensei though. We have to find a way to stop it. That was absurd the way that Kabuto kept summoning the strongest fighter's in history to mess with us. Bringing back Madara as impervious with limitless chakra was also a stupid idea." Naruto whined. Sasuke nodded remembering how hard it had been to fight against Madara both before and after he absorbed the Jubi. The two sat in silence for a few moments before Sasuke stood.
"Do you think you can create a seal that will allow us to adjust to our younger bodies and get back in top form? The last thing that we need is to be uncoordinated in a fight. Plus we need to know where our chakra limits are. Plus you will probably need to remaster the Kyuubi's chakra and you said that you still had a little of the other eight biju's chakra in you as well. It would come in handy if you could use some of their abilities as well." Sasuke commented making Naruto stand up and nod.
"But before that we eat breakfast! Can't train on an empty stomach." Naruto chirped. Sasuke groaned, he should have known that Naruto would bring up food.
The two time travelers spent much of the remaining week regaining their muscle strength and remastering their abilities. Both were somewhat disappointed to find out that they would have to resign their respective contracts before they would be allowed to use their summons. It was then that Kurama declared that they could have multiple contracts as long as the contracted bosses agreed and as long as they weren't on the same tier. After contemplating it Naruto signed the kitsune contract and Sasuke went to get the clan's cat contract. Naruto resolved to find his way to Uzu one day to retrieve his family's contract. When they walked into the classroom on the morning of the team assignments they got quite a few stares. Both were wearing different outfits and they were both carrying weapons. Sasuke had a sword strapped to his waist and Naruto had a glaive on his back. Sasuke was wearing black pants, a black shirt and arm guards instead of arm warmers that showed the storage seals on his wrists.
Naruto was wearing a black variation and mix of the Yondaime and Nidaime's outfit. The only thing that he was missing was the trench coat and that was only missing because it was still being made. He had it custom ordered and it wouldn't be ready until the wave mission. The shocking thing about Sasuke's outfit was that the familiar high collar was gone. There was also not a trace of orange on Naruto's outfit either. The transformation had startled the class and not even the fan girls had anything to say about them entering together and immediately taking a place next to Hinata. Just as it occurred last time Sakura and Ino burst into the room at the same time both acting like fools.
"Would you two stop it?!" Sasuke yelled getting everyone's attention. "You are acting like children and are embarrassing the girls who actually came here to be kunoichi, which as far as I've seen is limited to just Hinata. Girls like you are the reason that kunoichi aren't taken seriously. You care more about boys, dating, your hair and makeup, clothes, dieting and gossip. In reality you should be focusing on your training, maintaining a healthy weight for an active shinobi and making sure that your clothes are appropriate for combat and training. Now sit down and shut up!" The rant left everyone in the room speechless. That was twice now that he had snapped at his fan girls and twice that it had been negative.
As everyone who was standing sat down quietly, Iruka walked into the quietest class he had ever had. 'Wonder what happened, did they see the ghost of the Yondaime or something?' Clearing his throat he looked out at the group. To him it seemed as if the girls were finally ready to take the duties of a shinobi seriously. Well except for Sakura who looked like she was going to burst into tears at any minute.
"Congratulations to all of you for getting this far. You have finally taken your first steps as shinobi and I couldn't be any prouder. Now before I announce the assignments we need to hand out rookie and kunoichi of the year. It would have been done sooner had there not been a tie. Kunoichi of the year has gone to Hinata Hyuga. Congratulations Hinata." Iruka announced and beamed at the shy girl. Once again the room had been shocked. They had thought for sure that Sakura would be the kunoichi of the year.
"Now we had a tie for rookie of the year and given the circumstances it was finally decided that this year there would be two. So congratulations Sasuke Uchiha and Naruto Uzumaki."
"Iruka-sensei, how is that Naruto-baka got rookie when he spent the whole four years barely passing?" Sakura called out hoping to regain some dignity.
"By Naruto's own admission he has been failing on purpose because he wasn't sure he could work effectively with all the other classes. Combined with his performance in the exam the Hokage determined that he wasn't bluffing and agreed that Naruto, had he been honest with his abilities, would have been top of the class the whole time." Iruka explained. 'Gee thanks old man, is that your way of kissing up?' Naruto mentally growled. Sakura slumped in her seat and desperately worked at suppressing her tears.
"Now then each of you will be assigned to a team of three with a jonin supervising your training. The decisions are final so if you don't like your team I'm sorry but complaining won't help. Each team was designed to be balanced with a specific format in mind. Team one…" Naruto zoned out and began to mentally continue the seal design that he had started yesterday designed to counter the Edo Tensei. "…..Team seven under Hatake Kakashi will be Hyuga Hinata, Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto." Iruka was cut off before he continued by Sakura.
"I thought that you said the teams were balanced. How is placing both rookies and the kunoichi of the year on the same team balanced?" Iruka stared at the kunoichi for a minute in shock. Sakura had actually asked an intelligent question.
"By tradition rookie of the year, kunoichi of the year and the dead last are always placed on the same team. However, as there has never been a tie for rookie of the year we were a bit perplexed as to how to format the team. Luckily for us Hatake had actually wanted a specific team and made a formal request for this specific set up. The Hokage was skeptical as to the balance but apparently Kakashi made a compelling argument." Iruka explained. Sakura slumped in her seat, now she wasn't going to be on Sasuke's team either.
"Team eight under Yuuhi Kurenai will be Haruno Sakura, Inuzuka Kiba and Aburame Shino. Team nine is still in rotation and team ten under Sarutobi Asuma will be Yamanaka Ino, Akimichi Choji and Nara Shikamaru. Your jonins should be here after lunch….." Once again Iruka was cut off but this time it was by the door opening.
"Gomen, but I just couldn't wait to get my team. Team seven follow me." Kakashi called out startling the time travelers. 'HE'S EARLY!' they screamed mentally. As they left the room with the jonin they were certain that it wouldn't take Madara and the Jubi to end the world. It was going to happen in the next ten minutes.
:To Be Continued: