I DO NOT OWN NARUTO

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Dedicated to: HOSHOKU-SHA

Because of the idea that I am using in this chapter!! :)

Also, thanks helloweirdstranger for making this book's new cover! I love it! :)

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Guys I wanna cry. One of my favourite authors, Izuna_Uchiha has completely disappeared from Wattpad, and so has his/her stories. I really loved them, and never finished reading "The Betrayed Hero", which makes me want to cry even more. And my favourite, "Forsaken" is gone. If someone deleted their Wattpad account, wouldn't their stories stay in your library? Guys if anyone can find this person or explain what happened, please tell me. Arigato.

And moving on. . . enjoy the chapter!

"Naruto," Sakura spoke very seriously with a straight face. "This is my last resort, and I truly hate to say this but. . .

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read some of Kakashi-sensei's books."

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"WHAT?!" Naruto shrieked. "I'M NOT READING ANY PERVERTED BOOKS!"

"Oh, so you know the meaning of "pervert", you understand the love where you "marry and have babies", but you don't understand the love Fuu has for you?" Shikamaru said bluntly.

"Well yeah. . ."

"Troublesome Uzumaki."

"It's Uzuchiha, Shikamaru! I'm not just an Uzumaki anymore!"

"Why not Uzuchikaze? You know, since your father was Minato Namikaze."

"The villagers don't know my father was their beloved Fourth Hokage, and I plan to keep my heritage a secret unless it is told by someone else or they find out. Plus, it makes explaining the name so much easier," Naruto smiled.

Shikamaru only grunted at the explanation.

"Naruto, how do you think up of such things to hide your heritage yet you still have no idea what love is?" Tenten shook her head.

"How unfathomable," Neji sighed.

"Well he is the Number One Unpredictable Knucklehead Ninja," Sasuke deadpanned.

"Hmm, oh yeah, Sasuke," Sakura turned to her brother, "what ever happened to your love life?"

Sasuke blinked. "What love life?"

"Did you ever love someone in the former future? As in romantically?"

Sasuke leaned away from his ex-fangirl sister, his eye slightly twitching. "N-No. . . at that time I was so stupidly obsessed with revenge that I didn't think of anything like that."

"Hmm, that redheaded girl seemed to be very attached to you." Sakura wiggled her eyebrows suggestively, making Sasuke jump up, crossing his arms in an X as he backed away.

"No. No, no no no no no no no no no! NO! She was just like the former you, Sakura! She was a fangirl, and obsessed with me sucking her blood! I mean, do I look like a freaking vampire to you?!"

"Well. . ."

The Leaf Legion looked at each other, avoiding Sasuke's gaze as said Uchiha sweatdropped.

"I do. . .?"

"With your Sharingan activated and the way you used to have your hair cover your left eye, coupled with your high-necked red-and-black Akatsuki cloak. . ."

Ino didn't have to say anymore as everyone immediately began to imagine Sasuke's "vampire appearance", all of them nodding along with the Yamanaka's description.

Sasuke winced. "I wouldn't look that much like a vampire. . ."

"Really?" Sai smirked faintly as he held up his drawing pad, on which was painted the image of Sasuke, drawn exactly like the description Ino had given.

"Yes! You go Sai!" Kiba howled, laughing as Ino grinned, pecking Sai's cheek as her way of saying thanks.

Everyone in the Leaf Legion, apart from Sasuke and Sai, was laughing at the image that Sai had drawn. Exactly as Ino imagined, there was an Akatsuki cloak without the clouds, his red eyes as menacing as usual, and his spiky hair covering his left eye.

"I take it back," Sasuke mumbled as a cloud of depression appeared above his head. The Uchiha slumped down gloomily beside Naruto, who was laughing as he sympathetically patted his brother's back.

'Can you even laugh sympathetically? ' Sasuke idly wondered through his misery. 'Well, anything's possible with this idiot.'

"Sai, did you have to draw me with a half-exposed chest?!" Sasuke's head snapped up when he realized one minor error in his. . . portrait.

"I thought it would make it more realistic," Sai smiled placidly. "And it's not even half exposed, it's barely exposed."

"Y-You make it sound like I'm a stripper," Sasuke stuttered as his eye twitched.

Naruto and Sakura coughed pointedly and the Uchiha's head snapped to his left then his right. "Don't even start that you two!"

"Well you were leaving your shirt very open, you know," Sakura said, looking away with a barely noticeable pink shade dusting her cheeks.

"That was Orochimaru's attire!" Sasuke yelped in defense. "And I did change into a more concealed Uchiha shirt!"

Naruto snorted, "Still wore that white shirt for a long time, teme."

"How many times do I have to tell you, I wasn't aiming to go stripper! Those were the only clothes Orochimaru provided me damnit!" Sasuke yelled before clasping a hand over his mouth, horror filling him as he realized how wrong that sounded.

Naruto, Sakura, Ino, Kiba and Lee were sniggering. Shikamaru was covering his smiling mouth wth his fist, trying not to laugh. Neji's eye was twitching violently as he too, tried not to laugh, a strained smile on his face. Hinata was quietly giggling, Choji was chuckling and Tenten was trying to muffle her giggles. Shino just sat there, and Sai kept smiling placidly.

"Shut up," Sasuke muttered, glaring half-heartedly at his sniggering friends.

"Yo."

"Oh, Kakashi-sensei! Do you have any information?" Naruto asked eagerly as he scrambled up.

"The rumours aren't good," Kakashi answered grimly as Naruto's face fell. "Also, when they talk of you in the rumours, they have given you a different name."

"Really? What is it?" Ino asked, intrigued.

"The Inheritors of the Will of Fire," Obito answered, smirking despite the grim news.

"I like that, but it's too long," Ino nodded to herself. "Why did they ever give us such a name anyway?"

"A majority of the rumours speculate you somehow knowing of the future events, maybe even coming from the future, and doing your best to interfere with matters that children like you should not know about."

"Who the hell spread the rumours like that?" Sakura cried.

"Apparently one of our own shinobi is the source of your rumours," Kakashi informed.

"The guy himself said that he never heard of such rumours until they asked him how he knew them. Also, the people who knew him said that he was out with his friends in a pub the day rumours reached around," Rin said as her eyebrows drew together in worry.

"Zetsu," Naruto growled.

Shikamaru nodded as his mind gears turned. "It's the only explanation. Zetsu can duplicate insanely fast, and can copy forms of other people perfectly without any irregularities. He must be spreading the rumour to try and get people to discover the truth about us."

"But how does he know of the future events?" Naruto questioned.

"Perhaps he doesn't know," Shikamaru said, frowning as he put his chin in his hand, thinking deeply. "We now know that Black Zetsu's true purpose was to bring back Kaguya, using White Zetsu and Madara as puppets. Maybe White Zetsu, influenced by Black Zetsu, was only told what he needed to do, maybe he wasn't informed of future events."

"Regardless, the rumours have been spread and you all need to be very careful."

"Itachi-nii!" Sasuke cried in surprise.

"Oh yeah," Kakashi gave them his infamous eye-smile as he rubbed the back of his neck, "we asked Itachi to pitch in too."

"You mean take over," Itachi deadpanned flatly. "Honestly senpai, I would've thought you would do your job better when it concerns your students."

"Maa maa," Kakashi eye-smiled at him, "I trusted you to get the job done. All you did was find out who spread the rumour."

"Which was supposed to be your job while Rin and Obito found out what the rumours were saying."

"At least we got the information right?"

"Honestly senpai. . ." Itachi shook his head, sighing loudly as he walked over and lifted Sasuke up and set him on his shoulders.

"Hey!" Sasuke yelped in protest. "We're not done!"

Itachi snorted as he reached down to take Naruto's hand. "Do you realize how late it is, otouto?"

Both boys looked at the sky, eyes widening when they saw the sun setting.

"You've been here the whole day, talking about who-knows-what," Itachi frowned.

Immediately, the Leaf Legion shot accusing glares at Naruto, who simply beamed and rubbed the back of his neck, laughing sheepishly.

"Well we probably didn't notice the time because we were so wrapped up in Naruto's idiocy when it comes to love," Sakura said glaring. All her hard work for nothing!

"Sorry Saki," Naruto apologized using her pet name to try and soften her up.

"Hm?" Itachi looked at his adoptive younger brother. 'Idiocy when it comes to love? How can that be, when he's surrounded by six and seven year olds who have their own love lives, and when he and Sasuke both made my non-existent love life existent? '

"Eto, Ke, is it just me or do you feel something in the air? " Naruto frowned as he stared at the darkening sky.

"No Naruto. . . it's not just you. I think everyone else feels it too," Sasuke answered as he observed their friends' stiffening, bodies like tightly coiled springs, ready to protect and attack.

"Yes, do you think you boys could sneak out to find Nagato and Konan? Perhaps they could know something useful," Sakura joined in.

"Where are they even staying. . .? "

"Leave that to me, kits. I'll easily track down Nagato's chakra, since he's an Uzumaki and all."

"Great, we'll leave it to you then Kurama! I'm going to a sleepover with Ino now, so behave yourselves boys! Bye! " Sakura grinned before running off to catch up with Ino, who was smiling patiently as she waited for her pink-haired friend.

"Bye Saki! "

"Geez, you don't have to make it sound like we're rude little kids. . ."

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"So Kurama, where are they? " Naruto questioned mentally as he and Sasuke carefully opened their creaky bedroom window.

"Have fun kid, 'cause the two of them are in the Hokage Mansion,"Kurama snickered.

Naruto groaned in frustration. "Of course they are. Where else would they be staying? Damnit we should've requested they meet us somewhere."

Kurama snickered.

"Naruto, what did Kurama say?" Sasuke hissed as he deactivated all the secret paper bombs he had placed around his window sill.

"They're at the damned Hokage Mansion," Naruto muttered as his brother cursed filthily under his breath.

"Let's get going then," Sasuke grumbled in annoyance.

"Aye," Naruto nodded and the two jumped out, their Shadow Clones huddled under the blankets in case Itachi peeked on them.

Only a few minutes later, Naruto and Sasuke were perched atop a lamp post, eyes scanning for any guards. Quick as a cheetah, the two boys leapt from their respective posts and landed softly upon the Hokage Mansion's flat roof.

"How are we going to get in?" Naruto muttered.

Sasuke smirked. "Leave it to me, dear brother, for I. . . am the embodiment of the night." And then he faded away into virtually nothing as Naruto rolled his eyes at Sasuke's unnecessary drama.

Sasuke nimbly scaled the Hokage Mansion's wall, using chakra to stick to the wall. His onyx eyes squinted as he searched for any disturbances, obstacles, and found none.

'Where the hell are the guards? ' Sasuke idly wondered before crouching above a window and prying it open with his kunai. He dropped in silently, alert for even the slightest shift in sound or movement.

Finding none, Sasuke observed his surroundings while still on high alert. On his right was a hallway, and to his left were two double doors. In front of him was another hallway, but much wider than the one on his right. Sasuke stuck his kunai there to keep the window open and leapt back out to his brother.

"I haven't noticed any sounds or movements that could delay us," Sasuke murmured quietly as Naruto nodded.

"While you were gone, I took the liberty of sending a shadow clone to check the Hokage's office. Baa-chan is, unsurprisingly, asleep at her desk. Probably fell asleep while doing paperwork is what I'd like to say, but there was an empty sake bottle beside her." Naruto looked somewhat annoyed at the Slug Sannin's drinking habits.

Sasuke snorted before the two boys walked down and slipped in, landing silently.

"Kurama, which room are they in? " Naruto hissed softly to his tentant, who was snoring loudly.

"OI YOU OVERGROWN FOX, WAKE UP! "

"Ah, damnit Kit I was having a good dream! And I am NOT an overgrown fox, now what do you want?!"

"Which room are they in?! "

"Fine, I'll direct you as you walk. Go down the hallway to your right."

"Kurama is going to direct us as we walk, so just follow me," Naruto said quietly to Sasuke, who nodded.

"Keep going, okay turn left. Pass those three doors, into that corridor. Good, keep going until you reach the twelfth door."

"What a long corridor," Naruto mused to himself before stopping before two doors. On his left read "12-A" and on his right read "12-B".

"Um, Kurama? There are two."

"The one on the left belongs to Nagato, the one on the right belongs to Konan."

"Oh great, thanks."

"Hmph, now I'm going back to sleep goodbye," Kurama huffed as he curled around and promptly entered Dreamland again.

Naruto snorted as he tried the doorknob of 12-A.

Locked.

He knocked softly on the door.

Nothing.

Naruto rolled his eyes and beckoned Sasuke over, who slipped out a senbon and started picking the lock. Two minutes later, the lock finally clicked quietly and Naruto turned the doorknob, cursing inwardly when the door creaked open.

"Nagato," Naruto whispered loudly, "are you awake? It's me, Naruto! Sasuke's with me."

The lights immediately flickered on, and the two boys quietly yelped as they covered their eyes at the sudden light.

They were roughly pulled forward and the door was closed and locked.

Blinking away the dots, the boys squinted until they could make out Nagato, who was standing in front of them with a frown. He was fully dressed, which was unusual given it was the dead of the night. Konan was sitting cross-legged on the bed, also looking at them.

"What might you two boys be doing in the dead of the night?" Nagato questioned.

"This strange feeling in the air," Naruto said quietly, "do you feel it too?"

Nagato and Konann exchanged looks before turning back to the boys. "Yes, we do. And we might know what's coming."

"What?" Sasuke asked quietly.

"You already know, so why have you come to us for answers?" Konan asked softly as she slipped off the bed to stand beside Nagato.

Naruto frowned slightly. "We just wanted to make sure."

"Did you really?"

The blonde Uzumaki looked down. "No. . . we wanted to come here for answers that we hoped. . . would be different from the one we already know."

"There is no other answer, no other alternative. You know this just as well as I do," Nagato said softly yet sternly as he squatted down to Naruto's height.

Sasuke's eyes darkened. "So it's truly begun, then."

At Nagato's and Konan's grim nods, both boys' hearts sank to the core of the earth. The battle was about to begin, and they would have no choice but to kill. . . or to revive.

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It was breaking into dawn, and Sasuke and Naruto were sitting on Lord Fourth's head. Both saying nothing, with hearts heavy as they wondered about the battle was coming sooner than they had expected.

At last, Sasuke spoke.

"Naruto, do you think. . . we would have enough time. . . to you know, maybe save a few more people that have been lost?"

Naruto raised an eyebrow, not taking his eyes off the rising sun. "I'm listening."

Sasuke brought his knees up to his chest, wrapping his arms around them. "I was thinking. . . about bringing the rest of Team Hebi back to the Leaf."

Naruto's face was impassive, and his body language showed no signs of any emotion. Instead, he just simply said, "I see."

They were in silence for a minute before Naruto spoke again, this time amusement in his voice. "I thought you didn't like that redheaded girl that you claimed to be obsessed with you sucking her blood."

"Maybe," Sasuke mumbled, hiding his face in his knees, "she isn't like that now. She's still a child, and hasn't been tainted by Orochimaru yet. There could still be hope for her, and Suigetsu and Jūgo."

"Why. . . did you pull together another team? Was it because you wanted their strength to back you up, or because they were helpful to you. . . or because you wanted company?"

"No, none of them were the reason," Sasuke said quietly as his grip on his knees got tighter.

Naruto looked at his brother in slight surprise, eyebrows high.

"I chose Karin not only because she was helpful in replenishing chakra, but because she somewhat reminded me. . . of you Naruto," Sasuke confessed.

"Me?"

"Yes, you were both loud and annoying. But endearing, and I found myself getting used to the noise. When I was with Orochimaru, I felt lonely because there was no idiot knucklehead screaming at me to spar with him, or to proclaim he was going to be greatest Hokage." Sasuke flashed a grin at Naruto who looked away in embarrassment.

"She also reminded me of Sakura, because of her fangirlish moments. That, and her red hair which I would often think to myself as reddish-pink."

"Geez, you really did miss us, didn't you?"

"Shut up."

"Well, what about Suigetsu and Jūgo?"

"Hmm, those two? I don't really know. Suigetsu also reminded me of you, because he kept spouting nonsense about his dream, and was insanely annoying. Only difference is, he wasn't all that endearing as you were, and as Karin turned out to be. And Jūgo was somewhat like Kakashi-sensei. Quiet, calm and the voice of reason. Most of the time."

Naruto smiled, closing his eyes. "Well then. . . let's get Saki. We're going on a Team 7 mission."

Sasuke's head snapped up. "You mean it?"

"Let's go, Sasuke." Naruto turned to face Sasuke, smiling warmly.

Sasuke let a small smile shape his lips as he gazed at the Uzumaki Smile. He remembered all those times in the former future that Naruto had abruptly showed up with a smiling Sakura in tow, declaring that they had a "Team 7 mission" to complete. Despite whatever the Hokage said, Naruto always left with only them, defiantly stating that they always had been a three-man-team and they always would be.

Most of the time, those "Team 7 missions" always ended up with something that Sasuke wanted to accomplish and eventually did while Naruto and Sakura did the part of the mission that benefitted the village. Sasuke always wondered how they had known what he wanted to do.

Sasuke closed his eyes, exhaling a puff of air through his nose in an almost silent snort as his smile shifted into a small smirk. Taking the blonde's outstretched hand, Sasuke stood up and smiled at his brother.

"Yes, let's go."

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"Saki, we have a mission!" Naruto hollered as he leapt onto Sakura's bedroom balcony.

Said kunoichi came out and opened the glass door, smiling as she dried her hair with a towel. "Oh, a Team 7 mission? Haven't had that in a while, have we?"

"Nope!" Naruto grinned as he jumped into the room, settling himself comfortably on her bed. Sasuke smirked slightly as he followed, however he chose to sit on Sakura's desk chair, sitting backwards so either leg hung on each side of the chair.

"Why are you straddling the chair, teme?" Naruto asked smilingly.

"Tch, dobe, I always do this."

"What's the mission about?" Sakura asked as she sat beside Naruto.

"Retrieve Team Hebi and bring them to the Leaf," Sasuke answered in Naruto's stead. The blonde just hummed in agreement.

"Team Hebi? Really Sasuke?" Sakura's eyebrows drew together in something like worry. "I don't think Kakashi and the Leaf Legion will react kindly to them, you know."

Sasuke shrugged. "They'll have to deal with it one way or another. And the Leaf would benefit from them, wouldn't they?"

"True," Sakura hummed.

Then she jumped off the bed and smiled at them. "What are we waiting for then? Let's go before they find out!"

By "they", she meant Team Minato.

Sasuke and Naruto exchanged smiles. "Yeah!"

And with that, they jumped out of the Haruno household towards the Uchiha Compound, and from there they gathered the boys' necessary items without disturbing anyone, as it was only dawn.

Team 7 raced out of the Compound and through Konoha gates, just as the sun fully rose to the sky.

The next morning, the Uchiha family would find both their boys missing, with only a hastily scrawled note on the dining table as explanation.

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Ugh, this was such a looooooooooooooooong chapter, I nearly numbed my wrist writing this! I hope you enjoyed, because I nearly used up all my creative author imagination to write this!

Any ideas on what you want to happen next. . .?