Of Fate, Chance and a One more time

Of Paint, Alcohol and Ramen

Chapter THREE

Itachi had been released form Hospital two days after the whole incident in his room. After that, Sasuke often begged to be take to the park, where Sakura was often waiting for him.

Mikoto thought it was a case of young love.

Fugaku didn't really care, as long as Sasuke was ready to start his ninja training as soon as possible.

Itachi just thought that Sasuke and Sakura knew more than they were letting on.

Of course, not even the prodigy, Uchiha Itachi suspected anything beyond them having met before they had implied to have. Konoha needed 'Prodigy - Uchiha Itachi', not a 'My brother came from the future with his friend - Uchiha Itachi', thank you very much.

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Neither Sasuke nor Sakura had managed to run into Naruto yet. A part of them worried that Naruto hadn't actually been flung to the past with them, but both of them denied this when the other voiced this concern.

They had come to the past, so why would Naruto be left behind?

Then again, maybe Naruto was just laying low, which, now that the two thought about it, may have been a good idea on its ow. Both had gone along the tracks of 'Show off prodigy skills', 'Get sent to Academy early', 'Graduate Early' and 'Put into same Genin team'. However, following the tracks of their previous lives may have had its own benefits.

Had Sasuke had not three years to think this over, his first step would have been to stop the massacre of his clan. However, the decision to get rid of the clan had been the changing point to all the event that had followed. Not only would Team Seven lose the advantage of having an outline of what was coming, but a lot of other things would change.

Would the Uchiha clan go along with their plans to take over Konoha?

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"Still no Naruto?" Those were the first words every shared between them before they did anything else.

This time, it was Sakura who had asked. Sasuke shook his head.

"Oh." Both had come to expect the negative answer from the other, but it didn't make either of them feel better.

Neither of them had heard anything along the lines of someone painting the Hokage monument, but then again, they were three, and Naruto was probably much smarter this time around. He should be, with a lifetime of experience and things packed into him.

At least, Sakura hoped so. Still, it would be nice for at least one eye-catching prank. At least then, they would know Naruto was alive and would be able to track him down.

"I'm sure he'll come around soon. Maybe the Dobe hasn't realized that we've restarted." Sasuke shot her an amused look.

Sakura blinked and realized that she had whisper-ranted everything she had thought she had said in her head. She scowled to cover her embarrassment. She unconsciously clenched her fist and shot Sasuke a dirty look.

Sasuke held up his hands. "Don't punch me." He paused "Don't get me wrong. I'm sure I can dodge you. Still, if I do, you'll shatter the ground and both of us will probably get dragged off to the Hokage to explain why you can deal so much damage with chakra coils you should have even developed yet."

One thing Sakura still wasn't used to was how Sasuke spoke a lot more...

"Oh..." Sakura trailed off, eyes wide.

Sasuke blinked at her in confusion.

Sakura narrowed her eyes, a plan already forming in her head. "Oh! That's it!"

She decided to ignore Sasuke's exasperated sigh. After all, she needed Sasuke fully intact for her to execute her plan.

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Two days later, the whole village was full of talk about how someone had painted two additional...things onto the Hokage Mountain. The first was a bottle of sake. The second was a bowl of ramen with a huge Uzumaki kamaboko in it.

"I can't believe I went along with this, and I also can't believe it was you who came up with the whole idea," Sasuke muttered. "Though it is a good idea, I guess. If the Naruto from our time is here, he would recognize the drawings. Maybe he'll come around to Ichiraku. If not, he'll ignore it, and we know it's just the two of us."

Sakura shrugged from her place across him in the sand pit. Sasuke leaned closer and noticed that she was drawing something into the sand with a stick.

There was a grown up Naruto with their back to them, looking over his shoulder with his smile plastered onto his face. He was wearing the Hokage hat and cloak. Sasuke's expression softened. "Hokage, huh?"

Sakura nodded. "The war took its toll on all of us. There was a point where I thought that...if he lived through the war, he could...you know? Become Hokage, and it will help him deal with the loss and everything. It was his dream from the beginning." She gave a dry laugh. "I bet Tsunade-shishou was sick of all the loss and weight the Hokage has to deal with. I'm sure she would've given the title to Naruto anyways. He was ready in every aspect. People respected him, looked up to him,...loved him..." She choked back a sob.

"This time, we'll do this right," Sasuke promised. "We'll get him to that position."

Sakura smiled. "Yeah. And then I'll be the head medic, and you can be head ANBU, or something."

Sasuke nodded. "Yeah."

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Uzumaki Naruto didn't really want to live through his horrible childhood. Still, he was someone who had lived through a war. A little childhood beating and hatred, which had seemed like the end of the world to him as a child, didn't even seem to compare to the nightmare of having to fight the loved ones that had passed, brought back to life for evil reasons.

He spent most of his time indoors, heading out at night for things that were only necessary (Like eating Ramen just before the stand closed). He wanted to contact Sasuke and Sakura, but before anything, had to confirm that they were the sames ones as the ones from the future. He had sneaked around to Sakura's house a few times, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary, and nothing screamed 'future!'.

Then again, maybe Sakura was just a good actor.

He couldn't check on Sasuke, since the Uchiha estate was well guarded, and he probably couldn't enter without triggering a dozen or so alarms.

If they both were in the same state as him, they must be laying low, so he did just that.

He hadn't heard any rumors of 2 prodigies suddenly sprouting anywhere.

So, on that rare occasion when he headed outside during the morning due to a gut feeling, he was both amused and horrified of the hand-painted implication of him onto the Hokage mountain next to a hand drawn implication of Tsunade.

Though that didn't really scream 'Sakura and Sasuke', Naruto was sure the flattering portraits of his implication was drawn by his teammates. He could tell that the sake was drawn by Sakura, while the ramen was done by Sasuke.

It was a good thing art skills wasn't a necessity in becoming a ninja, or Sasuke would never had made it.

On the other hand, it may have been all the time Sakura had spent around Tsunade and her alcohol that had given her the ability to draw a bottle real enough for Naruto to be able to tell what it was. Then again, with the word '酒' may have given it away.

Naruto decided to head over to Ichiraku.