Chapter 2
Naruto could feel his consciousness slowly creeping back in, but he didn’t open his eyes, not yet. He didn’t know if he was prepared to face so many faces that had lost their life right in front of him. He didn’t know if he could handle all the glares and whispers he received on a daily bases before he had proven himself. He knew the plan had worked, he could feel his surroundings full of people, not just the handful of those in their camp.
He could feel his own body, now small and frail and twelve-year-old. He didn’t know if he could ever look at the third Hokage again without being bitter at him for not telling him about his parents. He understood why it was important, of course, he did, but the man had also promised his dying mother he would take care of him. he knew he was being bitter, knew that being the Hokage meant looking after the entire village. but he hadn’t done anything to save Naruto from the villager's insults and treatment as well.
He couldn’t just let all that go, he might've grown up a lot faster after so many of his friends and comrades died. But he was still just a seventeen year old, or maybe twelve now, who wanted others to acknowledge him.
That's why he wanted to become the Hokage, so everyone knew who he was, Uzumaki Naruto, not the demon brat or any other names the people used to call him. He wasn’t too sure now, he didn’t want to become the Hokage anymore, he didn’t even want to stay in Konoha anymore, Sasuke and he had talked about this before, Konoha didn’t feel like home to either of them anymore, hadn’t for a long time, not when it was responsible for all the grief in both their lives.
But he wasn’t alone anymore, he had Sasuke with him. They had both agreed to not change anything from their original timeline before the academy exams, except for dealing with Mizuki which would be done quickly and neatly.
Kurama was asleep, which wouldn’t change for quite some time, he had used a lot of his chakra, and deserved a good rest. When naruto did finally open his eyes, it was almost dawn judging from the view outside his window, he hesitantly got up, feeling a little weird in a child’s body again, but it wasn’t as bad as he thought it would be. He couldn’t use the Kurama mode yet, since the seal was firmly locked right now, but with a little concentration, he found he could easily slip into the sage mode.
He didn’t try the sage of six paths mode, because he didn’t know what that would do to his frail body. He was too thin for his age, and this time he could actually feel it. He was suddenly desperate to meet Sasuke, to see for himself that he was alive and okay and there.
Sasuke’s and Naruto's relationship had changed a lot during their survival period. At first, they worked together because there wasn’t any there choice, but slowly that had changed too. Sometimes when they had patrol duties together Sasuke would him his regrets and the pain that killing Itachi had bought him. Naruto, in turn, told him about meeting his mother and father’s chakra impressions and how he felt angry at everyone for hiding it from him.
They slowly became more comfortable around each other, falling back to the familiar routine of insults and bickering.
Naruto slapped his cheeks lightly with both hands and decided to wake up properly and go take a bath, after a year-long of eating fish and bread, sometimes the rare meat, having instant ramen felt like a blessing.
He hadn’t had ramen in a very long time. there weren’t many luxuries when you were fighting to stay alive. Finishing up the somewhat familiar and nostalgic routine he made his way to the academy. When he saw students coming in, chattering and laughing like everything was normal, he felt a little lost. But he knew not to cause ay suspicions, at least not until their exams were over, repeating this in his mind, he let himself relax and smile, as he walked into the class.
“Naruto, did you know there was this amazing idea I had to prank Iruka sensei and it is completely going to work! I think-“ he tuned him off not paying attention to the words as a twelve-year-old Kiba chatted excitedly about his new idea, he didn’t know seeing him would cause such relief, his smile became more genuine and brighter as he watched him. “Oi, baka are you even listening” he heard his friend say but before he could answer with a similar insult a familiar chakra entered the classroom.
“Naruto, Kiba, back to your seats, you all are about to become genin and would do well to stop playing pranks now,” Iruka sensei’s warm voice said.
“Ha, like I would ever do anything that stupid ttebayo,” he said, his own voice happy and light as he made his way to his seat, hearing his sensei sigh behind him he could only grin wider. It was just so good to see him alive and well and safe.
It almost took Naruto effort not to look at Sasuke continuously, on the other hand, it didn’t make him have to pretend not paying attention in class. During the lunch break, he played with Choji, Kiba and Shikamaru, like he always had. He even insulted Sasuke for being all high and mighty to which the other scoffed at.
When the day was over he made way to his home, a little sad about being alone, he was so used to being around people whom he knew and trusted all the time that loneliness came back bitter than before. With a sigh he opened the door and set his bag down, walking to his bedroom only to find his best friend sitting on his bed.
“Sasuke!” he yelled in surprise, already holding a kunai in his hand ready to throw it anytime, “Teme are stupid or something? Giving me a heart attack just like that,” he said lowering his hand and plopping over on the bed.
“Hn” he heard his friend say intelligently before getting up and walking towards his kitchen, “Don’t you have anything in here except for ramen you loser,” he said shuffling through the cabinets.
“Why would I have anything else when I can eat ramen anytime I want,” he said back childishly.
Sasuke rolled his eyes but took two cups of instant ramen and set up a pot of water on the stove. He was working in his kitchen so casually that Naruto felt stupid for thinking about loneliness when he wasn’t alone at all. Grinning happily he walked over and sat at the small dining table. “I’m happy that you’re here and everything but weren’t you the one who decided to stay the way others know us to be for the time being,” he said.
“I’m not an idiot, I left a clone at home and took appropriate measures before coming here, besides I didn't want to be alone, and we have things to talk about.” the raven replied setting the cups on the table and taking a seat. When he saw that the blonde was already distracted and was looking at the ramen as if it by staring at it would make it cook faster, Sasuke sighed again.
“I still have my Rinnegan,” he said finally and was a little content to look at the other's reaction of surprise.
“Huh? I can’t detect any henge right now” Naruto said, trying to look for one.
“Before coming back, I placed the henge on my Rinnegan so that people could only see it if I wanted them too. But the problem is that the eye is taking up a large amount of chakra and I can barely maintain the one clone I made. I was thinking I should remove the eye, even if I’m confident in my henge I don’t know if the Hokage or worse Danzo will be able to look past it” Sasuke explained, lifting his hand to his left eye.
“But you can’t walk around with one eye, and what about your Sharingan? Is it there too?” naruto asked to which the other nodded and changed his eye so he could see the three tomoe’s spinning.
“I have the mangekyou too, using it will take too much chakra so I can’t activate it right now without my clone disappearing,” he said, “I was thinking if you could give me back my eye as you did to Kakashi when Madara stole his Sharingan” he added.
“I can’t believe I didn’t think of that” Naruto said while bringing his hands down on the table excitedly.
“I didn’t know you could think at all dobe”
“Shut up teme!”
“Well, can you?” Sasuke asked smirking as he ate his noodles, he wouldn’t admit it but eating ramen after such a long time felt nice for him too.
“I haven’t tried slipping into the sage of six paths mode yet but I still have this so it should be okay,” he said pointing to the sun on his palm. Sasuke nodded and took a jar from his bag. it was filled with a clear looking liquid and it was obvious that it was meant for his eye.
“Where did you even get that” he mumbled distractedly which got him an eye roll and a ‘do you really want to know’ look.
He watched in half respect and half horror as Sasuke took his own eye out, the henge gone, and placed it inside the jar. He focused his chakra into the sun tattoo on his hand and placed it on the others eye, he felt even more of his chakra going towards his hand and felt a little dizzy as it finally stopped. When Sasuke opened his previously empty socket he saw familiar black orbs looking at him.
“Man the last time I did this we were in the middle of a battle and I barely felt anything and right now I am at full chakra and I feel as if I haven’t slept or eaten in days,” he complained as he opened another cup of instant ramen and filled it with water.
Sasuke himself felt a dozen times better now that his eye wasn’t sucking up chakra like a sponge with water. “It's a little amazing how you do that,” he said completely truthful.
“A little? there is nothing I do that isn’t completely amazing and awesome” came the reply and the both of them smiled, it was just so natural by this point.
“Well, that aside you need a secure place to store it and I believe I have just the thing for that” naruto said excitedly running to his room and returning with some ink and paper which Sasuke guessed was what he used for making seals. He quickly drew a rough sketch of what he was planning and presented it to the raven.
“This is a simple storage seal with some modifications I did when I was bored, I suggest you get it made on your ankle, you can store the jar inside it, and I’ve made it so it can only be opened when you apply your chakra in it as well as put in the unlocking formula, you won’t feel a thing, and neither will anyone else,” he explained happily, obviously proud of his work.
“I’m fine with it, can you make the seal right now, it's better to get it done with so we can move on to… our future plans,” Sasuke said.
“Don’t you want to know more about the seal, the size, the adva-“
“I trust you, if it was faulty you wouldn’t have suggested it” Sasuke cut in, sitting on the floor of his bedroom and putting his bare foot forward, ready for the brush.
Naruto was a little surprised at how those three words could still make him feel all warm inside. Nodding and bringing the necessary items for making the seal he sat in front of his friend and concentrated, making the seal as small as possible before transferring it on his ankle. It was perfect, a small black band around the ankle which wasn’t anything noticeable. he urged Sasuke to put his chakra in and they both were satisfied to see that it opened up and the jar fit inside it easily.
“Well, that’s done with at least,” he said lying down on the floor beside his friend who was looking at his ankle as if the jar would come back out anytime.
“Hn. what do you want to do after graduation?” Sasuke asked, leaning against the edge of the bed.
“I have a few plans for that, but before that, there is something we really need to do”
“What is it?” Sasuke was curious, he had some ideas of his own, but he didn’t have anything immediate.
“Before the war started, sakura and I visited Uzushiogakure, my mother's homeland, it was destroyed by Kiri a long time ago, we found some old scriptures and seals that really helped me, Kakashi sensei said it was my Uzumaki blood showing,” naruto said with a snort, sitting up at looking at his friends face.
“But there were very little scrolls left, my guess is that Orochimaru took everything when he was trying to break the grim reapers seal. There are some compartments that only open when they recognise Uzumaki blood, but he had Karin for that” he finished.
“So you think that since Orochimaru has had no reason to go there yet there might be a lot more,” Sasuke said to which he received an eager nod. “That's a good idea, we can leave clones behind as go as soon as possible” he added.
“And I was thinking we should stay here till the chunin exams, not the whole deal, but I really want to save Gaara” these words sent a pang of jealously through Sasuke, he knew the redhead was hopelessly in love with his best friend. But he nodded, he didn’t want to leave him behind as well.
“Also Neji, he once told me how Hinata's father used the caged bird seal on him when he was a child, and I don’t want him to stay in that place for long” Sasuke said quietly, Neji and he had become close during the war. Both of them believed to be trapped by fate until a blonde idiot punched those thoughts out of them, quite literally.
“Okay, we can talk about this later, let's focus on Uzushio and Mizuki first,” Naruto declared with a loud yawn, “Damn, this body is already sleepy, to think we were used to staying awake for over 24 hours,” he added lazily, climbing into bed. Wordlessly Sasuke climbed into the bed with him, the bed obviously being too small for two of them, but neither of them wanted to be alone, and a few sore limbs were a small price to pay for a good nights sleep.