Beginning Anew (Naruto Fanfiction)

YOUTH! We Stan Might Guy

"You used a fork..." Naruto said blankly, staring at the Uchiha with slight concern. Naruto wasn't one to judge considering the trio had just returned to the past from a literal war spanning years but even he had to stop and take a moment to consider the method used by the Uchiha. 

"Don't give me that look. We're all in a weird mental space and to be fair, it was a very sharp fork." Sasuke rebutted, looking at the flower in his hands as he pointedly ignored the 2 pair of eyes burning holes into his skull. 

"Dad came home and hugged the life out of me before doing the same to mom and proceeded to collapse on the floor. I'm pretty sure he's still there." Shikamaru added, unimpressed by how violent the Uchiha had been. 

"Okay so maybe I also burned him. Just a little bit." Sasuke muttered quietly, grabbing another flower to remove petals from. 

"His lower half was ashes." 

"Hn, he deserved it."

"Y- Well you aren't wrong." 

"Don't encourage him Shika!"

"I'm not! I just agreed to a fact."

"I'm too old for this." Naruto sighed, taking a place on the ground next to Sasuke. It had been a month since their return and one of the biggest hurdles had been dealt with. With Danzo no longer being an issue, Itachi would be easier to handle and no one would be selling out Konoha secrets. 

The next immediate concerns were Orochimaru, Tsunade and the Konoha 12. The issue regarding Orochimaru was a bit dicey as it was once again a sensitive issue caused by the negligence of Hiruzen. Orochimaru, from the trio's experience, was a very helpful figure that they needed on their side sooner than later. 

In their past life, Orochimaru had been a great help to the Shinobi Alliance after returning to the right path. It also proved to benefit them as both Naruto and Sasuke had been told why exactly Orochimaru had been considered an enemy in the first place. As always, the main cause was Danzo who had misguided Orochimaru and lied to Hiruzen about his students aims and goals. Of course Hiruzen, being dumb, immediately agreed to whatever Danzo had to say and this resulted in him essentially disowning his student. 

Basically, Hiruzen was against the experiments proposed by Orochimaru but instead of letting the snake know this himself, he trusted Danzo to pass the message. Danzo, seeing an opportunity, gave Orochimaru permission to carry on with this proposition. Once Danzo had gotten the information he needed for his own operations, he sold out Orochimaru to Hiruzen. Hiruzen, who believed that his student had gone against him, declared Orochimaru an enemy. 

Naruto could imagine the shock on Hiruzen's face whenever the man would come in contact with the files pertaining to Orochimaru held in the root ANBU records. 

"So we need to get the snake man, granny and somehow get our fellow teammates to get along." Naruto hummed thoughtfully causing Shikamaru to grown softly as he opened his eyes. 

"Lets leave the last part alone for now. We can do that when we're assigned to our teams. As for Orochimaru, I say we leave that to Sasuke considering he was his sensei once or something." Sasuke hn'd in offence to the Nara's words, a shiver running down his spine as he remembered the time spent with the snake. 

"I am not getting anywhere near that snake this time around. Naruto can have a go at him with his certified talk-no-jutsu." Sasuke scoffed, sending a glare at Shikamaru. 

"You guys are children. We'll figure it out as time goes along. As far as granny is concerned, we can't go after her until Ero Senin is summoned which should be soon considering the recent drama. Sasuke, start with getting leads on Itachi. Tell him the truth and get it over with. We need Itachi back by the time we get granny so she can heal him. Meanwhile, Shikamaru I want you to stay up to date with our teammates. Get started with Ino, Choji and Kiba earlier so we have at least 3 out of 5 teams at chunin level. I'll keep gathering information of the situation inside and outside of Konoha."