Author's Note

It's out! Kinda long though. Maybe too much dialogues? haha.. Review with any constructive criticism please!

Chapter 3

The Hokage Monument is the pride of Konoha. It is said that great carvings of the Hokages past and present were there to look over the village and protect the village from anything bad happening. If one were to look carefully atop the carvings of the head of the Yondaime Hokage today, one would see a speck of pink there pacing on top the huge mountain range.

Sakura was pacing left and right on top the head of the Yondaime, patiently waiting for her other two time traveler's to come to the agreed meeting place. After then a long 15 minutes wait, she finally could see Naruto and Shikamaru approaching from the different directions.

"What took you guys so long!?" said Sakura impatiently.

"Both me and Shika can't use Shunshin. Our jutsus are all out of whack. I can't even do the academy three!"

"Why not?"

"Sakura. You're the book smart person. How is chakra produced?" began Shikamaru. "You get chakra by combining our physical and spiritual aspect. Naruto himself explain just now that our current spiritual aspect has been replaced or rather merged with our future spiritual self. If you try to get a feel of your own chakra, you will realise that you would have a bit more chakra than you had the last time you were this age. This is because our spiritual aspect has grown vastly. And with this growth, we have lost all of our chakra control as we are not used to this combination of physical and spiritual aspect. We will have to relearn practically everything."

"I see!" exclaimed Sakura while listening to Shikamaru's advice and getting a feel of her own chakra. "No wonder my strength technique was out of whack! I think because I had the best natural talent for chakra control, I instinctively adjusted to a certain extent which is why I am still able to do some techniques even though it felt a little more draining. And the instinctive adjustment was not enough for my strength technique as it requires extremely precise chakra control."

"That's right Sakura. And Naruto, having the worst chakra control, can't even do the academy three. He was only able to do Kage Bunshin and even then, his chakra wastage is off the chart as he produced 5 shadow clones using up chakra enough for 50 shadow clones if he had normal chakra control."

"This just means more training. We still retain our habits, reflexes and skills that were honed during the war. My sensing and reactions are still fine. Just anything to do with physical strength as well as chakra control would need to be retrained. Even our reflexes and skill won't be much use if our body are unable to respond appropriately." Naruto began saying with a serious note. "We cannot allow our condition to stay like that for long. So here's the plan, Sakura, Shikamaru. First of all, no more referring this moment as the past. We are here. This is the present. We have one year before graduating the academy. We have until then to bring up our level to at least three quarters of our future capabilities. While we are training, we also need to subtle encourage our peers to up their training and get them started early. When things started happening, it started happening quick. The earlier they start training harder. The better prepared they will be. If everyone starts upping their training equally, and we conceal our abilities at the right level, we should be graduating with the same rank as the previous time. Team formation should remain the same. I will also try to begin working on opening Sasuke up more to see whether we can keep him from defecting."

"Hai. And I think that is where we should plan until for now. Planning now for event after our graduation is too early. We don't know what might have change with us working behind the scene now. We probably can discuss again when we are half year from graduating or even after we have graduated." responded Shikamaru.

"I agree with Shikamaru. No point planning too far ahead yet. Also, Naruto we need to consider two things. One is who we will have to, sooner or later, come clean to with the truth. We might need some help on the way. The other is who might be good or observant enough to notice the changes and we will force to tell the truth too." said Sakura.

"Understood Sakura. We will discuss who we might need to divulge the truth to when me do our further planning. There is no rush for that. As to who might notice, I think the biggest possibility for now until we graduate would be your father, Shikamaru. Try your best to avoid that. If he really does corner you, gather us and we will tell him the truth together. Any other questions?"

"No. Hokage-sama." replied both Sakura and Shikamaru.

Going into his mannerism when on Hokage business, Naruto looks at both Sakura and Shikamaru with determination. "Okay. Guys, this will be the last time we speak like that for the next six months. Less contact means less chance of people finding out the truth. We act as how we were when we were in the academy. We train on our own for now. We know what we have to do. Let us train as much as we can. This is the first step to our goal of protecting the world again. Let's meet here again in six months. Dismissed."

"Hai Hokage-sama." Shikamaru and Sakura said in unison.

And with that, the three time travelers broke off and headed towards their own home with their hearts filled with hope and determination to become stronger and better. And with enough luck, they would be able to change the future to ensure that all their precious persons survived and that they can achieve peace without going through the Fourth Shinobi War.

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During The Six Months

The first time Shikamaru saw his dad again that day he went home, Shikamaru had to focus to keep his emotion and facial expression in check. He was filled with joy and he swore to himself that he would do all that was necessary to ensure that they make it out alive this time around. And the pineapple head saw a friend alive again when he went to the academy the next day, he swore to himself over and over again that things would be different this time.

Shikamaru didn't have much trouble doing what needed to be done. All he had to do in class was to continue to sleep and act like everything was just as troublesome as always. However, in his private time, he was doing things which he had never done the last time he was in the academy. Knowing that he cannot give his father too much hint was different, he woke up before the sky was even bright and instead of leaving the house to do training, he focused on chakra control and did chakra control exercises in his room. It started with bringing some leaves home to perfect the leaf exercise. When he successful mastered that, it moved on to walking up the wall of his room, then it got to doing leaf exercise while walking up the wall. From that it moved to filling his bathtub with water to practice water walking and adding leaf exercise while water walking. By the time his chakra control was back to the necessary level, morning became relearning jutsu session where he slowly practiced his jutsu one by one to a workable level.

After the academy, during the afternoon and evening, it was when he did his physical exercises. He would say that he wanted to go cloud watching and find a secluded spot to do all the physical exercise needed to build his body back to optimum level for his age. By night time when he was home, we would sneak books into his room to read before sleeping. Books ranging from clan techniques, strategies, medicinal properties his clan's deer have, basically anything and everything which can give him extra knowledge to handle whatever the future may hold.

Of course, he also did not forget the need to encourage his friends. But not wanting to make too much changes as of yet, his available option was limited. His only close friend during the academy years were Chouji. So during the time in the academy, begin encouraging Chouji to play more Shogi with him, intending to improve Chouji's mind as soon as possible.

At one Shogi match, Shikamaru ask Chouji "So what piece do you think you are in Shogi?"

"Erm… Pawn?" replied Chouji while looking curiously at Shikamaru. While he knew Shikamaru was smarter than he let on, he rarely let it show and he most certainly has never ask him such a deep question before.

"No Chouji. I would liken not just you but our whole class as the King in Shogi." Shikamaru told, while reminiscing on that match when Asuma-sensei had asked him who he though the King was. "We are the future of the village, the legacy of our families and just like how all other pieces aims to protect the King, so does our parent, ninjas in the village and the Hokage protect us as top priority. And when we grow up, a new generation will be the King and we will have to do our job to protect them." explained Shikamaru to Chouji.

He continued, "I might be lazy, but I have my brains going for me. In the future, I'm confident that I can adequately protect the next generation. Not to be offending Chouji, but what do you have that you can say as time goes by, you will be able to take on the role of a protector of the next generation too?"

Chouji thought deep and hard about what Shikamaru just told him. He might not understand fully what Shikamaru was saying as he wasn't mentally a grown up like Shikamaru, but understood that Shikamaru was encouraging him to train harder so that in the future he may be strong enough to protect the village.

After that day, Chouji took Shikamaru's advice to heart, he began asking his father to increase his training a little and he took the Shogi matches with Shikamaru much more seriously and treated it as training to hone his mind and strategy.

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When Sakura went home, she was overjoyed to see her parents again. Since her parents were civilian, and she was always expressive, she didn't hesitate to give her parents a big hug and told them that she loved them. Her parents only thought that Sakura must be in a good mood today and did not think much about it.

From that day onwards, to the eyes of other, it would seem as if Sakura turned over a new leaf. She woke up early and left for training in the mornings. Since her chakra control was her strongest skill, he spent most of her time on physical conditioning. She knew that the last time she was in the academy she had totally neglected it and she would not make the same mistake. Her morning and time after academy classes were over were spent mostly on physical training. She only trained her chakra control and jutsu after dinner until she went to sleep.

Sakura as opposed to Shikamaru had the most success with motivating her peers to start training early. At the academy, she seemed to stop fawning over Sasuke. Her free time between class was used wither for training or for reading. She stopped going on diet and ate properly. And Ino particularly, was curious as to what brought on these changes. One day, Ino could not take it and asked her directly.

"Sakura! What's happened to you lately? Trying to act like you don't like Sasuke-kun any more so that you can get him to notice you?" she said.

"Yeap!"

"What!? I was just kidding! What do you mean yes? What makes you think this will make him notice you!?"

"Ino, one day when the whole fan club was chasing and stalking Sasuke, I just stop and watched what was happening and I realised, Sasuke really hated it when the fan club acted so fan-girlish. And I realised that if I want to go after Sasuke, I should not be doing something that he doesn't like. So what does he like? Thinking back on his circumstances, Sasuke is distancing himself from everyone because he feels that he is much stronger than everyone. And also because everyone is fawning over him just because he is the last Uchiha without really knowing or understanding him. I'm guessing that he would only respect people who are strong, at least near his level. So decide to stop being a fan girl and start to take my training seriously. Unlike you who comes from a ninja clan. I come from a civilian family. I have a long way to go if I want to be as strong as Sasuke-kun. And once I am strong enough, maybe I would be able to be his friend, and not fan girl." explained Sakura.

"Wow…. Sakura, I never would have thought of it like that before. And I'm supposed to be from the clan who specialises in the human mind and phycology. I fell you have a point. You know what? As much as I hate to admit it. You might be right. I'm gonna stop being a fan girl and up my training too! I'm gonna force Chouji and that lazy Nara to train with me and help me. Let's see who get strong enough to get Sasuke's attention first!" said Ino with a smile and left looking for her two aforementioned friends to bug them to train with her. She was going to be in for a surprise when both of them wiling trained with her without much complain as Chouji already has that life changing Shogi match by then.

After Ino left, Sakura noticed Hinata around the corner and walked up towards her. "Hey Hinata!"

"Sa-sakura-san!" stuttered Hinata in surpise. Surprised because one, she has never really spoken to Sakura before and two, because she was actually planning to look for Naruto and begin stalking him. She hoped that Sakura did not notice this. And her hopes were dashed when Sakura said her next words.

"Trying to look for Naruto to stalk him?" Sakura said with a grin.

"N-n-n-o….. I was ju-just-"

"It's alright Hinata, after all used to be an avid Sasuke fangirl. Besides, it's quite obvious to everyone except Naruto that you like him." Sakura said. While Sakura knew just why Hinata like Naruto (after all, she had proudly announced to the whole village when she defended him from Pain), she acted like she didn't know and asked Hinata "Why do you like him anyway? He is the dead last of the class and it doesn't seem like he has much of a future."

"No! He might be a dead last now but it does not mean he does not have a future. Results are not everything! Naruto-kun has so much determination and he works so hard to improve despite what everyone else says! He has never given up on his ninja career and believes with all his heart that he will be Hokage! With his attitude and hard work, he will definitely achieve his dream!" said Hinata passionately without so much as a stutter. But then, her tone took a sad turn and continued "Unlike me, I am a failure in everything. I can't even win my younger sister in our practice rounds. No one believes that I am capable enough to be heir of Hyuuga. I can only admire Naruto-kun from the shadows, because a failure like me would never be able to make someone strong like Naruto interested in me."

"Well Hinata, if you continue like that, you definitely would not be able to catch his eye. You said it yourself Hinata. Results doesn't mean anything. You believe that Naruto can be better, no, can be the best, the Hokage if he is determined enough, tries hard enough and never give up! The same should apply to you doesn't it? It doesn't matter that everyone sees you as a failure now. Your current results don't matter. If you are determined enough, work hard and never give up, who says you can't be a capable heir, a strong kunoichi, a girl strong enough to stand beside the future Hokage?"

"Y-yo-you really think so?"

"Of course! But it matters not whether I think so or not. More importantly is do you think that you can do it? Are you determined enough? Family not helping? Look outside your family for help. You have other classmates. Shino is always silent and alone. Maybe you can speak with him and make friends with him at the same time get a training partner? Kiba is noisy as hell, maybe you can befriend him and teach him to be a bit more calm and get a more aggressive sparring partner? And even at home when everyone calls you a failure, don't give them the joy of seeing you feeling down and depressed. Keep getting up and trying again! If all you show them is determination and the will to never give up, just like Naruto, sooner or later, they will have to acknowledge you, just like how you believe one day people will acknowledge Naruto. Don't just stalk and admire him. Learn from him and be like him."

As Sakura was speaking, Hinata begin poking her index together and lower her head. But Sakura finish her short speech, Hinata slowly lowered her hand and as she looked up to face Sakura again, there was a determined glint in her eyes. "Thank you Sakura. For encouraging me and making me see that if I like him, than I should do what I can to stand beside him one day. Starting today, I shall not doubt myself. I shall learn from Naruto-kun and never give up!"

Next day at the academy, Hinata would be seen approaching Shino and Kiba. And thus, the bond of Team 8 was being forged earlier than the last time.

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Naruto had no one at home and hence he did not need to limit his training to prevent anyone from finding out the truth. Just as well, he was going to need the most training to get back to his level in t the future. Every free time he had, he was training. He utilised Kage Bunshin as much as possible. Which means at the start it was just a pathetic 5 clones. Clones work tirelessly on his chakra control while he himself worked on physical. And as his chakra control came back, slowly, his number of clones increased as well.

Training was never Naruto's greatest problem. He loved the challenge and the satisfaction when successfully completed a chakra control exercise or jutsu. In fact, his greatest challenge during this six months was how to befriend Sasuke. He knew this was never going to happen in the academy. Sasuke had his guard up too high for it be possible. So he knew if he was going to try to bond with Sasuke, it would have to be outside of academy time.

And he was thinking about this problem one day, his feet unconsciously brought him to a familiar looking pond. After a short moment of thought, he realised that this was the pond where he meet Sasuke in his first childhood. Feeling a light bulb going up in his head, Naruto decided to come to this pond every day until he could "accidentally" bump into Sasuke here. After a few days of fruitless waiting, one day as he approached the pond as usual, he noticed another figure sitting by the side of the lake.

As silently as he could, Naruto walked up and sat beside Sasuke without saying a word. Sasuke didn't make any move to acknowledge his presence and just continue staring into the lake. After a few moment of silence, Sasuke could not take in and broke the silence.

"Baka, what are you doing here? And it is not like you to be so silent." asked Sasuke irritably, feeling that his private time was being intruded upon by the class dobe.

"Sasuke," Naruo replied without boisterous and loud tone, casing Sasuke to wonder what had gotten into Naruto. "I envy you." At this, Sasuke looked to Naruto in shock. Ever since the massacre, there were many who pitied him, who put him on a pedestal as if he was Kami himself, who fangirl-ed him but no one, no one ever told him that they envied him. And the way that Naruto said it this time, he didn't feel that Naruto was being sarcastic.

"What do you mean? I lost all that I have and you say that you envy me? Are you really that big a baka to wish my fate upon yourself?"

"No. You don't realise that no matter what happened to you, and how bad you think it is for you, my life is worse than yours."

At that, Sasuke was about to burst in anger and scream about how can losing your whole clan, watching them dying before your eyes can be better than anything. But when he looked to Naruto to scold him, he saw the look in Naruto's eyes. The sadness it showed, the despair. That looked wasn't a look that he ever expected on Naruto, who was the class clown, always smiling and laughing about. And so, while still disbelieving that anyone can have a worst experience than him, he waited for Naruto to continue.

"Hai. You have had a very bad experience. What you saw was something no one our age should have seen, or experience what you have felt. But, you have only been thinking of that horrible night. That one fact. You have never thought back to the time before it happened. And have never taken notice what is happening around you after it happened. Before it happened, you have known your family, your clan. You have had good times, no matter how rare they were. You have that memory, to know that your family loved you. And after that happened, you were lonely and angry, but all around you, everyone tried their best to make you happy and give you what you want. Some might do it for superficial reason because you are the last Uchiha, but some, for example our classmate, are willing to help you, to get to know you, to be your friend if you are willing to open up. So much good in your life despite one major bad event. Whereas mine, has been bad all the way."

"What do you mean yours has been bad all the way? Also, it's because I have the happy memories that makes what happened so bad. To know what having a family is like and then losing all of them is the worst thing!"

"Mine has been bad for a lot of reason. I do not know who my parents are. Whether they abandoned me, or they died or if they even know of my existence. Though out my life, there was no one to care for me. Where you had your parents, I was all alone. After the incident when you are along, many people would jump at the chance to be your friend. But for me, even though I was an orphan, since as long as I can remember, I only have people trying to sabotage me, hurt me, kill me. The shop owners only sold be defect goods at cut throat price. Restaurant just kick me out and would not do my business. How do you think I end up wearing this monstrosity? No one would sell me any other thing. Though I have genuinely grown to love orange. Look at the teachers at the academy, you will notice that they punish me for no reason, and if you bothered to pay attention, you will realise that they have been teaching me wrong hand signs, wrong information." said Naruto sadly. "You knew how it was when you lost it, but even when you lost it, you can relish in the fact that your family loved you that they would want to see you grow up strong and wise because of that. But I don't even have that solace. You can find that comfort again if you open. You can find many new friend if you so choose. But everyone's parents has told their children to stay away from me, and I won't be able to make friends easily to even find out how having friend feels like. So tell me Sasuke, who had it worst? You who had everything, lost it, but have to chance to regain everything again? Or me, who never had anything, and will have to put infinite amount of effort just to gain a little bit of what you have?"

By the end of Naruto's speech, Sasuke's eye were wide open. Never in his dream and self-pity would he guess that the class dobe who is always smiling leads such a life. "You cannot be telling the truth. Why would people treat you like that? I don't believe it."

"The reason why I am treated like that is something I do not even know, which makes it worse. Let make a deal Sasuke. You can do the henge already right? Spend one day in my life. Spend the day henged as me. And then tell me what you think, whether you or I have the worse fate."

"Fine. As if it could be that bad."

And with that both boys headed to their own home.

The next day, Naruto stayed hidden and Sasuke upon leaving his own house henge into Naruto. And before he even reached the academy, he realised that something was not right. When he walked into civilian area, no one approached him, spoke to him or even looked at him. It was as if that he does exist. And Sasuke was not used to this, as much as he felt it was annoying, he was used to everyone calling out to him, saying hi, asking how is his day. And his first big shock was when he approached the baker that he went to every morning to buy breakfast. Before he could even pick up the bread that he wanted, he felt his hand's go smacked away and the baker shot him a angry and disgusted look and said venomously "We do not feed your kind. Go away demon." before pushing him roughly away.

When he reached academy, his second biggest shock was waiting for him. He was sure he had reached on time. Or at least he wasn't late enough to deserve the reaction the teacher had given him. The teach had practically kicked him out of the class to stand in the hallway saying that he was late and needed to be punished. When it changed lesson and another teacher came in to run through the academy jutsu's with them, the teacher intentionally told him a wrong hand sign. When it was break time, he went to the playground. Before he could find a place to sit down to think about what has happened so far, a group of other kids came up to him and begin hitting him for no reason, all the while saying "My dad says that whenever I'm angry, I can just beat you up. I won't get into trouble and everyone would be happy."

School only became normal when it was Iruka-sensei's class which was the last class. After that he went looking for dinner but every restaurant he entered, he was kicked out. Finally, a small roadside stall selling mantou was willing to sell him something. But when he asked how much was the two mantou he had taken, the stall owner quoted a price equivalent of twenty mantou so he put back to the mantou and walked back home confuse and tired.

The next day, looking himself again, he met Naruto at the same pond.

"Your life is hell. How do you live through it every day? How can you still smile and make jokes? Are you not sad?" asked Sasuke.

"I am sad of course. I smile and make jokes, because people laughing at me is better than people beating me up. But I refuse to give up. Sandaime o-jisan still looks over me sometime and help me when he can. Teuchi o-jisan treats me like a normal person. And as I'm sure you've notice Iruka treated me fairly as well. I know that if I tried hard enough, I can make everyone realise that I am a friend worth having, that I am not whatever bad or evil thing that they think I am. And because the little few who acknowledge me love this village, so I shall do what I can to protect this village that they love, and get strong enough to protect them."

Naruto look at Sasuke with a genuine smile and continued "And now, I have one more person who understands me, who knows the real me. And you also now know that I do understand your loneliness. That means you and both have a new friend isn't it?"

"Friend?" said Sasuke with a frown. Thinking back on his day as Naruto and what Naruto just said, he realised what Naruto said that day and now was true. He had always focused on that terrible night. He treat the memories of his family as torture as opposed to solace. He took the well treatment of the villagers for granted. Maybe his life was bad, but it doesn't mean that he cannot make it better. But what about Itachi? He has sworn to kill him to avenge his family! Will he be able to get his revenge if he did not hold on to that fateful night to fuel his vengeance. "I'll think about it."

"Teme will always be a teme. Hmph! Well, if your holiness is willing to be my friend, just let me know. Maybe we can train together or something. Ja ne!"

While not friends yet, at least Naruto gave Sasuke a new perspective, another route to consider. And now, Sasuke also understands him better than the last time around and may even have a little respect for him.

Haven't started on Chapter 4 yet. Hope to get it out latest in one week time. :-) Ja ne!