Second time round

It was the day marking the end of the second round and Team 7 stood in line with the rest of the contestants who had managed to pass. Naruto was quite surprised to see the Oto team here, however, hid it well. She was also very pleased with herself in regards to the fact Kabuto and his team weren't here. She had sent a few clones to deal with select few teams in the forest in order to lessen casualties. Of course, she had shown no remorse for the silver-haired boy and broken several bones before handing him over to T&I.

She paid no mind to what the sandaime was saying since she had heard it before and given a similar speech after taking the title of rokudaime in her own timeline.

She also paid no attention to the matches, focusing instead on meditating, allowing nature's energy to swirl around her but never absorbing more than could arouse suspicion.

However, she did pay attention to the pairings of this preliminaries: Sasuke vs Shino. Shino had forfeited when Sasuke began burning to bugs, understandably so. Sakura had gone against TenTen who completely destroyed her despite the amount of training Sakura had gone through over the past couple of months. Next had been Temari vs Ino, the former not taking any crap from the Yamanaka fangirl and had made quick work of her. The next match had apparently been very interesting, Kiba vs Neji, however, the Hyuuga had won in the end after sealing all of Kiba's chakra points.

Naruto's match had come after that and she had been against Dosu, she had made such quick work of him that it had several people gaping and others laughing. Gaara's match was against Zaku this time however the Oto ninja had forfeited before the match had even begun, clearly knowing how Gaara fought. Chouji had gone against Kin and at first, it seemed like the girl would win had it not been for her calling him fat, which led to his victory. Hinata had been paired against Lee who had taken it easy against the girl and still won, however, the Hyuuga heiress did manage to land several blows on him. The final match had been a slow one, Kankuro vs Shikamaru. Shikamaru capturing Kankuro in his shadow and the Suna ninja refused to give in, however, after a certain point he had lost however Naruto wasn't sure how.

Not long after the matchups for the finals had been announced; Sasuke vs Chouji, Naruto vs Neji, Temari vs Shikamaru and Lee vs Gaara.

Someone up there must have been having a great time at Naruto expense as she was certain her mouth was gaping over the matchups. They had been the same people who had fought against each other during some point of the chunin exam minus Sasuke and Chouji.

She prayed Gaara would try to destroy Lee this time, however, she made no such promise in regards to Neji. He still had fates stick up his arse and she was going to be the one to remove it. In regards to Shikamaru and Temari being against each other again, it made her happy, nothing brings two people together like fighting.

Speaking of fighting/venting, it bought up the memory of the other evening when she had requested Kakashi and Shisui fight against each other.

When she had arrived at the valley of the end they both looked thoroughly spent however she knew they weren't done. She held no delusions that the two of them were only fed up of each other and had told the both of them they should either with the others company or alone, vent out their frustrations with Naruto.

Neither would want to fight her, so verbally telling her their issues would release the remaining tension and she was proud to say her plan worked, mostly the two males were still skirting around each other however at least they weren't glaring at each other.

She sighed as they made their way out of the hall, all thoughts about the third round leaving her as she remembered what was going to happen today. Initially, they were going to wait till after the third round however that would cause a lot of problems in their plans considering Shisui was alive.

So now, she took Sasuke by the elbow, invited the others to a pool party the following day, bid Sakura and the others farewell and left for the valley of the end. The place was getting pretty famous these days with how often she was leaving the village etc.

In front of her stood Kakashi and Shisui who were sitting three feet away from each other and she shrugged before looking at Sasuke whose face was blank. "So uh Sasuke. I've taken you here to discuss something important. Which also just so happens to be an S-rank secret, however, we've all come to agree that this is the best course of action."

He gave her no reply, most likely because Kakashi was still around and he felt the need to keep up his ass-hole façade. Well, partial façade.

"Right, but uh I need- we need you to not react till you hear us out till the end, okay?" his brows furrowed for a moment before he gave that infuriated grunt replay. "Lovely, lovely. Um if you don't believe us then well I'm sure the four of us know right?" she turned around and looked to her two lovers and where Itachi was in the trees and they all gave nods. Absentmindedly she nodded and yelled, "You may as well come on out now!"

Not even two seconds later Itachi shunshined between Shisui and Kakashi causing Sasuke's eyes to grow wide before he activated his Sharingan, ready to attack.

This time Sasuke wasn't confused. He was enraged and felt slightly betrayed. Here in front of his was the man he declared he would kill back when he was only seven, the man who had murdered his entire clan and showed him over and over again.

Next to the man was his own cousin, sensei, and his teammate. Shisui was debatably okay, he wasn't alive when Itachi had murdered everyone, however, Naruto and Kakashi were completely different cases. The two of them had been very much alive during the time of the massacre, Kakashi having been assigned as one of the ANBU who had inspected the scene and Naruto had been one of the people he had allowed to see him during the aftermath of the massacre.

How either of them could stand to be in his presence without wanting to cause him some bodily harm was not in his field of understanding. Itachi leaned down next to Naruto who gave him a small peck on the cheek causing the elder Uchiha who was technically the eldest since Shisui didn't seem to have aged at all whilst in the hands of that man.

"Right. I promised not to react but someone explain before I use it." He spoke through gritted teeth as his left hand twitched, causing realized to dawn upon Naruto and Kakashi, he was referring to the Chidori, which in itself was highly dangerous since Sasuke had only begun to use it and was another two weeks away from being able to use it safely.

Nervously chuckling she rubbed the back of her head before shaking it, "Right so Itachi do you want to explain?" she turned around and the two of them looked to each other, Itachi not replying causing her to sigh and nod, as if she understood his unspoken words.

He noticed Itachi had his Sharingan activated, however, the strange pattern the Sharingan had on that night wasn't present yet he had little time to ponder on the thought as Naruto began talking, "Well you might want to take a seat because this will be a lot to take in. and it might take longer. Maybe."

Cautiously and slowly he sat down and the other two sat as well, Naruto between Shisui and Kakashi whereas Itachi sat behind her perched on a rock. It was like a poster image and the four of them most certainly looked the part of stunning famous or important figures, however, he would never admit that out loud, even under the threat of death.

Taking a deep breath she began, "Well I guess I should start with your clan. More specifically your kekkei-genkai. The Sharingan has four stages, per say, which first would be the activation, however, that will only be a total of three tomoe between both eyes, the second will fully activate three tomoe in each eye. The third would be the mangekyo as example."

As she said that, Itachi's eyes changed a pattern, Shisui's eyes bled to their Sharingan eyes and changed the pattern and most confusingly Naruto's did the same as Shisui's, however, the pattern was slightly different. "Right I have the Sharingan as well however that's a story for a different time. Itachi's eyes are the mangekyo sharingan whereas Shisui's and I's eyes are the eternal mangekyo. The eternal is the final form and by far the safest physically however not mentally.

"Activating the Sharingan needs the person to feel the pain of losing someone dear to them and it doesn't even have to be through death. Madara Uchiha activated his by cutting off all his ties with the Shodaime completely, losing the friend he once had because of clan differences and the edo period war. Again, a story for another time or at least later.

"In order to activate the mangekyo Sharingan one would need to kill or at least feel responsible for the death of a loved one. This can't be just anyone, it has to be someone very close to you like Itachi was to you before he left. You might be asking what this had to do with anything? Nothing really, it just needed to be pointed out. Right, so the reason why Itachi massacred your clan.

"The reason could technically be blamed on my birth which again could be blamed on the Uchiha clan since the reason why kyuubi left my mother's seal was because Obito Uchiha forced him to do so." He noticed Kakashi flinched at the name then stiffened, "The Uchiha clan's kekkei genkai holds the power to control the nine tails and that was why he attacked that night. The yondaime Hokage was forced to seal the nine tails inside me and that consequently led to the death of both my parents that night.

"It was known, kinda, that the Uchiha's held the power to control him and were blamed for the attack thereby being shunned by the village. This was something the Hokage had planned for in advance and he made sure that the people knew I was the jinchuriki and that I was engaged to an Uchiha. This was to prove the Uchiha weren't a threat, however, all it did was cause the village to shun your clan further, believing your clan to be cursed along with the fact that they were associating themselves with the demon brat. This carried on for years and the hatred of the Uchiha clan grew causing them to plan out a coup d'état against the village. Shisui had been told the plans and had told the Hokage around the same time Itachi had been informed about the plans. He also informed the sandaime and the two of them were both asked to monitor the clan.

"One thing led to another and Shisui convinced the council that he could use his kotoamatsukami, the special genjutsu from his mangekyo, which can also change a person's opinion and general thought process. They agreed to allow his to use it, however Danzo Shimura had been against it and had taken one of his eyes. That night Itachi and Shisui both met at Naka river where." she faded off, clenching her eyes shut as she seemed to struggle with breathing.

Shisui leaned over to her and Kakashi moved out of their way, he mumbled something to the girl, however, she shook her head. Sighing he looked at Kakashi who cautiously nodded and together they managed to calm her down, both of them holding one of her hands each as Shisui continued.

"That part she's getting mixed up. Itachi was supposed to go on a mission however instead came back and got me out of some trouble I was in. With Danzo having taken one of my eyes I had to make sure my other eye didn't fall into his hands as well so I gave it to Itachi. I told him what he needed to do, stop the Uchiha's by any means necessary or an internal war would begin and the other nations would use that as an opportunity to attack us, leading to another war.

"I told him I would leave him with a gift, the mangekyo and I jumped into the river." Naruto gave a harsh flinch and clenched her eyes tighter, causing the two of them to go closer to her, Itachi even began massaging her shoulders.

They looked like a family, Shisui and Naruto being the couple, Itachi the big brother and Kakashi just that really close friend of the eldest that had their back. It was oddly homely, of course, if you left out the fact that Kakashi was twice Naruto's age, Shisui was a supposed dead person alive and Itachi was a wanted criminal. He hadn't seen such a sight before however when he looked underneath the initial scene, he could see the love each one held for her, Itachi's being the only one that seemed to be platonic.

Itachi was the one who continued then, however, he didn't want to hear a word, but he was the one who lived through it, "The following day Shisui's body was recovered and the clan questioned me and I declined to know what had happened. The rest of my day was spent with the Hokage as I prepared myself to kill the clan. I was given the option for my identity to stay hidden, for no one to find out however there was a complication." Itachi looked at his in the eye, his mangekyo eyes gazing at him sadly, "I was unable to kill you, little brother and I told the Hokage that as well. As such, the Hokage said I would have to be branded a traitor and given another mission and in return, you would be protected."

He allowed the information to sink in and he was thankful for that. He found himself unable to take in the information.

Naruto, however, was able to shrink all the information for him, "Basically Itachi killed the clan because of a coup and he left the village to protect you. His mission was- you know what. We'll tell you at a later date. This was enough for you to take in as it is." She eyes were no longer shut and she looked to be back to usual. Slowly he nodded and felt he was tiered confusing him as he hadn't done anything today. "Well, I suppose we should all get going. I'm currently in the middle of looking for a place for us to move into. And no Kakashi, your apartment, whilst a good size for the two of us and your ninken, is not big enough for Shisui to live in as well, no matter how much you may currently dislike each other." She raised her brows as she got up, arms stretched above her, the three elder males getting up as well.

"That sure is one way to change the mood, hime." Spoke Itachi with a small smile on his face, shocking Sasuke slightly.

The trio lets out their own chuckles as Naruto reached out for Sasuke. Allowing her to hoist him up as she did so. Itachi took that time to henge into a civilian looking man and she hiraishined all of them to Kakashi's apartment.

.

.

.

"Well, as much as I hate to admit it Naruto, given how crowded it's been here lately, we might just need to get a house." Kakashi begrudgingly admitted, causing Naruto to laugh.

Five hours after their discussion, Sasuke was laying down on the sofa, trying to fully absorb all of the information he had been told as a henged Itachi and Shisui joined Naruto and Kakashi in-house picking. In the end, they had agreed to build a house instead. Kakashi knew Captain Yamato and could ask a favor from him as long as the man had assistance, as well as a draft of the houses blueprint. Of course, they had yet to ask but it was highly likely he would say yes, especially since they intended to expose Danzo for all he had done.

Naruto was holding a sketchbook and some pencils as she tried to draft the house. They had agreed to build their home on top of the place where her parents had built their home as the house they had lived in had been destroyed by Kurama and no one had been able to build over it.

Of course, the village would throw a fit if they knew about Naruto planning to build a home where their beloved yondaime had once lived so she would have to request when she came out to be a girl sometime later that her heritage also is revealed. It was going to be a very busy month.

Blueprint a house, reveal her gender, reveal her parents, come out as a jinchuriki, bring Danzo's cruel actions to the light, bring Shisui back from the dead (officially speaking). She thought back to her long to-do list from when she first arrived and of course, many of those things would require years to ensure since many consisted of making sure people didn't die.

However, despite that, Itachi had ensured Orochimaru was unable to sink his fangs into Sasuke and she had fortified that by shoving teamwork and camaraderie in his face. She had also been able to stop Sakura's fangirling ways, with Shisui and Itachi's help they stopped Nagato but still had to work on Obito and soon she would be able to stop the old man from getting killed.

She was brought out of her thoughts by Sasuke suddenly sitting up on the sofa, eyes squinted in deep thought as if he had a great revelation, "So you mean to say this entire time I have blamed my older brother when in fact I should have been blaming that old war hawk?"

This question-like-statement caused her to sweatdrop as she remembered the last time he had gone to that conclusion. Placing the sketchbook and pencil down she replied, "In a way, yeah but you have to remember none of this would have happened if it hadn't been for the events of the- if it hadn't been for a certain duo of Uchiha planting the seeds of deception and hate into your clan. Please don't do anything rash Sasuke, we have a busy month ahead of us and we already have a sort of plan for Danzo." She raised her hands as she made her way slowly to him as if approaching a loose baby lion.

Sasuke scowled at her, "There's no time for that! He caused all of this-!"

"Our clan caused all of this, foolish little brother." All eyes went to Itachi who was sitting on one of the kitchen stools as he looked at Sasuke with blank black eyes, "Also, remember to key in the feelings of others. You will cause Naruto unnecessary grief if you rush into this headstrong. And another point you seem to have momentarily forgotten due to your anger, how would you propose to deal with him? You are a genin, and he is a war veteran. He has been around since before even our parents. Think of others first brother."

"You most certainly didn't think about others when you massacred our clan and made me watch for seventy-two hours over and over again." Years of hard training allowed Itachi to refrain from flinching however it was only by sheer willpower.

"Okay enough!" she yelled, not wanting the two brothers to fight, "Sasuke, you weren't there. You weren't the one who had to do the killing. Despite all the feuds your brother and father may have had in the end he loved Fugaku yet he still had to kill him. He had to kill everyone for the betterment of the village. In my eyes and the eyes of everyone in the room, there is no one more loyal to our village than Itachi. Despite the pain, Konoha has caused him he still left and severed his ties by the word of our aged kage. I doubt you would be able to do the same thing if you were in his position so lay off him." Naruto was sure her glare was deadly enough to cause even Jiraiya to flinch.

Sasuke grumbled under his breath as he laid back down, arm covering his eyes as he no doubts planned several ways of decapitating and causing several bouts of pain over the war hawk.

Sighing she turned to the others in the room. Itachi had gone back to doing his nails, Kakashi was reading Icha Icha and Shisui was sharpening all the things in the kitchen. He also seemed to be sharpening the bread-knives.

Deciding to leave them to it she looked to the calendar on the wall and noticed a red circle around tomorrows date, looking closely she saw it was the date she circled as the first time she met Jiraiya and managed to convince him to train her.

She froze at the thought. Despite having been back in time for several months now she had never allowed her mind to wonder over to Jiraiya. It always brought back pains and memories she'd rather forget.

Shaking her head she made her way around the boys and began cooking. Her mind, however, wasn't on the food and she managed to burn it, causing several pairs of concerned eyes to fall upon her when it had been taken out. She shook her head, a clear sign she wasn't going to talk and despite what each of them wanted, they listened to her and carried on.

Giving up on cooking she ordered some food from the Akimichi clan's restaurant and asked for it to be delivered to their location.

They had all eaten in silence however it wasn't awkward. The part that was awkward was the end of the night. Sasuke had gone home, Itachi had henged into a crow and gone to the forest of death leaving Naruto, Kakashi, and Shisui alone to decide sleeping arrangements.

Whilst the two of them discussed it she made quick work of teleporting the two bed in the apartment into the living room after having moved all the furniture to the walls. The two combined beds created one large bed and she sighed when she turned to the elder males before whistling. Once she had their attention she pointed to the bed she had 'made' and the three of them got dressed for bed.

It was even more awkward than she cared to admit however she bared with it and not long later she found herself asleep, thoughts of what she would be doing tomorrow clouding her dreams as she slept.