Naruto 1. Chapter 1

The Time For Change

Prologue

Hey everyone, Carnage here, this is just a prologue to an idea of mine to see how it is received, I might update depending on how this goes, but I do have another story in progress, so don't worry if I don't update. I will at the least come back to this story however.

As always, I don't own Naruto.

xxxx

I was just your average eighteen year old guy. Average grades, average hobbies, etc. However, I was without a girlfriend, jobless, and soon to be homeless too. I had had a rather sheltered life and as such had trouble accepting responsibility for anything, wanting to spend all my time watching anime and playing video games.

I had around £200 left in the bank, which was where I was standing at the moment. I looked around lazily, wanting to get this over and done with as fast as possible. I didn't want to declare bankruptcy, but I really had to or would end up living on the streets, begging for money at Liverpool Street Station or something.

I flinched when a loud bang echoed through the bank, and I looked at a guy who had a pistol in his hand, and was just pulling a hood up and some shades on. However, I got a glimpse of his face, which he noticed.

_Oh fuck_ was the only thought I had. No life flashing before my eyes, no begging or crying or laughing hysterically. Nothing. I felt nothing.

But I didn't die straight away. The guy decided to start torturing me, probably as an example to everyone else there. The first flash of pain came from my right leg. I looked down to see the blood gushing out of the hole in my leg. Then the same happened to the left leg. I was starting to hyperventilate.

Then he shot me in the stomach. Now that fucking hurt. It was more pain than I had ever felt before, it was excruciating, and then the pain from my legs hit, and I fell to the floor screaming, thrashing in my own blood from the pain.

He shot me twice more, once in each shoulder, and I felt my arms go limp beside me. My mind was starting to go numb from the pain, and I looked up blearily to see the bank robber standing over me. The gun was pointing right at my heart.

He fired.

I died.

And then I woke up. _What the fuck_.

I looked up to see a woman that I didn't know smiling down at me. _Wait a minute, smiling down at me. What the hell is going on?_ I looked around, and felt myself wrapped up in something soft, and I was somehow being held in the woman's arms.

I looked up and nearly blanched. Standing next to the bed was _Itachi Uchiha!_ I was seriously questioning my sanity when I heard the woman speak.

"Hey Itachi, I think he wants to meet you," she cooed, and Itachi leant over to get a better look at me. I glanced back and forth between the two of them, then looked down to see the bundle I was wrapped in, as well as another bundle, with a shock of black hair in the shape of a duck's arse.

I looked up again at the woman. "Makkusu, say hello to your brothers, Itachi and Sasuke," she said sweetly, smiling the whole time.

I began to hyperventilate, the memories of the pain of being shot in my world as an adult still fresh in my mind, phantom pains shooting through my body. Then there was the fact that I was now apparently a baby named Makkusu Uchiha, twin brother to Sasuke and younger brother to Itachi. I had been killed and was now a child in the Naruto universe.

The trauma was too much for me, and I heard machines beeping along with the woman who must be my mother shouting worriedly. A man who must have been a doctor rushed in and took me to an oxygen chamber. I closed my eyes and fainted.

xxxx

I woke up sometime later, and could feel that I was once again in the arms of my 'mum'. I was surprised to hear her talking with Itachi, and even more so once I realised that they were actually talking English and not Japanese. Oh well, easier for me.

"I don't know what happened mother. Like I said, one moment he was perfectly calm and the next he started hyperventilating and going into shock."

"I just don't know what's going on, he was perfectly quiet when he was born, that was strange in itself I suppose. I was so happy when they said he was going to be ok."

"I know mother, and don't worry about it happening again. I'm here, the doctors are here, Sasuke is perfectly healthy and now Makkusu is sleeping soundly."

"Yeah, I suppose you're right as always. You're so grown up for a seven year old."

"Mum, I think he's waking up."

I slowly turned my head towards where I heard my mum's voice coming from. That was so weird, thinking of someone who was effectively a complete stranger as my mum.

I slowly, oh so slowly, opened my eyes. My mother gasped. "Oh my god Itachi, look, LOOK, he's already activated his Sharingan!" I noticed that her face seemed a lot sharper than it had last time, and realised that the stress of waking up as a baby in a world I thought fictional after being shot multiple times and tortured before dying was reason enough for the Sharingan to activate, which only did so in times of duress.

I took a moment to think about that, ignoring the fact that Itachi had taken me and was inspecting my eyes extremely closely. I was a fucking _Uchiha_ of all people. That in itself was pretty damn cool, I mean the Sharingan was overpowered as fuck, but come on, the aggro that I knew came with it was totally not worth it.

"He has one tomoe in each eye mother, however, being a newborn I doubt Makkusu knows how to shut them off," Itachi said, already sounding like an adult at the mere age of seven.

"Ok then, give him here and go and call a Hyuuga to look at his chakra pathways. If he can support them being on all the time for a while then we will leave it be, but if not then we will have to cover his eyes to keep him from using them."

I tried to talk, seeing as I knew English, but the sound came out garbled. Apparently I had to go through all the normal motions for babies, only with the consciousness of an eighteen year old. This was going to be tiresome.

xxxx

We went home three days later. Luckily, it had been deemed safe for me to keep my Sharingan activated, though I quickly learned how to such it off anyway, though I passed it off as it deactivating on its own in my sleep.

When we got home, Fugaku Uchiha inspected me. _Oh shit_ I thought. I had forgotten that the man who led the Uchiha's coup was now technically my father. That was some fucked up shit right there. If only my new family could hear my thoughts.

Fugaku's interest was obvious. A child activating a Sharingan just after birth was unheard of, not even Madara had done that, something I learned from listening to Fugaku and my mum. Mikoto, which was my mum's name, I had no trouble thinking of as my mum. She seemed sweet and kind, caring and affectionate, and I had no such reservations against thinking of Itachi as my brother for the same reasons. Sasuke I still had to decide about.

Though I suspected my new brain chemistry also had something to do with it.

Fugaku though, I refused to think of him as my father, both due to what I knew he would eventually do, and because he only seemed to care for me because of my activating the Sharingan, my power.

I dealt with my new life. I shouldn't have been able to, but I was stuck there as 'Makkusu Uchiha', and there was nothing that was going to change that. So I had to deal with it. I pushed everything I could out of my head, intent on building a new life.

I was on the verge of ruin back on Earth, and dead, but this was a second chance, and damned if I wasn't going to use it. Plus, being a ninja was going to be _fucking awesome_.

xxxx

A/N: So let me know what you think. Should I split my time between this and my other story, focus on this, or focus on my first story before continuing this one? As always, read, review, follow and favourite. :D


	2. Chapter 2

The Time For Change

Chapter 1: Baby Steps

Well not many readers so far, but initial feedback is very positive so I'm going to continue this along with my other story Instinctual Release (look it up ;D) at least for a few chapters, just to see what happens.

As always, Naruto remains firmly outside of the sphere I call 'my possessions'. I do own the OC however, the main protagonist.

xxxx

Adjustment was hard. Very hard. I needed a top notch professional psychiatrist to sort out the shit in my head. However, to everyone else I was only a month old, and due to my physical brain, I was unable to speak or walk.

It was frustrating, but with a new brain I had to redevelop my language centre and 'calibrate' my cerebellum, all in a new body, where my consciousness was trying to impress itself.

In some ways it made me realise just how little control I had over myself. The urge to cry when I was hungry was very strong, though I still didn't, and my feelings were quickly developing into what one would consider normal for a family. I found myself inadvertently relaxing in Mikoto's and Itachi's embraces.

Don't even get me started on the results of my being hungry. I was switching to bottled formula as soon as possible. And I never wanted to see another nappy again.

From what I overheard of the conversations when other family members came to visit, the most frequent of which was Shisui, _that was just plain weird_, they thought I was a genius among geniuses. I reckoned that it was probably due to the fact that I was an eighteen year old in reality.

The first month of my new life passed in this manner. I was slowly coming to terms with everything, and was getting to the point that I was able to think about the future and where exactly I was. My first mistake was assuming that this was the exact Naruto universe.

Everything looked and sounded like it did in the anime, so I knew that some things would be the same, but I was born as an Uchiha and Sasuke's brother at that, which I know did not happen in the actual show, so already things had been changed.

What I realised was that because of this I couldn't accurately predict any events that should happen in the future. I was sure there were some things that were implicit to this universe, so I assumed that I knew some of what was going to happen.

My mere presence was going to royally fuck things up though, and so I resolved that I wouldn't just skate by on supposed knowledge of the future. No, when the time came, I was going to throw myself into shinobi training wholeheartedly.

The fact that my Sharingan was already activated helped, and it wasn't like I was going to have much choice being born into the head family of the clan of the Uchiha.

The irony wasn't lost on me considering how much of a lazy bum I had been in my previous life, but I attributed to the fact that being a shinobi was going to be so much more interesting than anything back in my old world, and I now had the blood of one of the strongest shinobi clans in existence, and I already had my Sharingan.

But for the moment I was still a fucking baby!

xxxx

Two months after me and Sasuke were born; tragedy struck the village of Konoha. I had never actually caught the date of mine and Sasuke's birth, so I had no idea when it was going to happen.

Turns out now.

The first thing that alerted me was shouting in the distance. I listened intently to what I could hear, until I heard one word that chilled my blood. _Kyuubi!_ I let out a startled cry as the sound of something crashing, breaking and falling all at the same time seemed much too close for comfort. I heard shouts at what I could only imagine was a building being taken down just outside the compound.

There was a rumble as something huge smashed a fist into the ground out in the village. The cries were getting louder, and Sasuke woke up next to me, looking as startled as I felt for a second. Then the area was awash with killing intent, so oppressive it felt like my lungs were going to collapse.

I fought the urge to cry and began to shake uncontrollably in fear, though I felt for my brother next to me as he started crying, not yet having the mental faculties to subdue such urges.

Sasuke's cries slowed down and I started shaking less as mum came into the room. She was scared, I could tell, but she was putting on a brave face for me and Sasuke, which actually helped a little bit.

"Shhh, don't cry Sasuke, it's all going to be okay, mummy's here, okay now, shhhh..." She said comfortingly, then turned to me and just smiled sweetly. I hadn't cried once in my entire (new) life and I planned on keeping it that way.

She grabbed us and left the room we were in and ran downstairs. Itachi was waiting for us by the front door, as Fugaku had probably gone to help fight the demon currently raging throughout the village.

I knew it was the guy in the mask controlling the Kyuubi, but I hadn't watched Naruto very avidly, skipping most of the fillers, so I didn't know a lot of back story, plus I watched it between other animes, so I could barely remember what I had watched. I realised that even had I decided I did know the future, fat lot of good it would do me if I couldn't remember it.

I came out of my own thoughts and found that we were running through the streets, Sasuke in mum's arms while Itachi held me. They both sprinted towards the Hokage monument with us, probably to evacuation shelters.

When we got to them, there were a lot of people just standing around looking dazed, while others were desperately trying to get the shinobi on watch to tell them what was going on or to report about a certain person.

Itachi handed me back to mum, who sat down in a corner with us, while Itachi stood at the entrance, his own Sharingan eyes staring out into the night, mum trying to rock us back to sleep. There was no way I was going to sleep though. The best I could do was just wait out what was happening, and grip onto mum for dear life as tremors of terror racked my body and Sasuke cried next to me.

xxxx

About a week after the incident, I had a nightmare. I figured I would have got them eventually, and it seems the Kyuubi's attack had triggered them.

I was lying on my bed, back in my old world. I could see the Metallica poster I had had since I was fifteen on the wall. I lived in a one bedroom apartment in Exeter, so the room wasn't massive, just enough room for my bed, my poster and a TV.

I turned my head towards the door and saw my parents, my old parents, standing in the doorway, looking at me with eyes filled with sadness and disappointment. I tried to say something to them, to lift my hand and wipe away my mother's tears, but I couldn't move, or breathe.

I wanted to hyperventilate but there was no oxygen, and as I struggled furiously against my paralysis my parents came closer and started taking bits of me out of the room, grabbing my arms and legs and just pulling them off like a doll.

I opened my mouth to scream as my father's hands reached towards my eyes, fingers ready to pluck them out like vultures, coming closer and closer...

"Makkusu! MAKKUSU!" My mum shouted me out of it, and I opened my eyes to see terrified ones looking into mine, and the sound of crying reaching my ears. She picked me up and hugged me to her, my face buried into her neck as I shook from the memories of the dream. It was absolutely horrifying.

"Don't worry, I'm here baby, it was just a nightmare so there's no need to be afraid.." she said, before she pulled me up and looked straight into my Sharingan eyes, which I had taken to leaving on as much as possible now.

After the very comforting hug, mum put me to bed, where I drifted off peacefully, the nightmare not coming back that night. However, it returned the next night, and I had the same nightmare at least twice a week from then on.

Every time I did have it though, mum would come into the room and wake me up, soothing me and calming Sasuke down, who would invariably wake and cry to the sounds of my screams.

I sometimes thought about how I responded to my mum, and the fact that I even called her mum. I felt like I was intruding on someone that didn't belong to me, taking attention away from Sasuke. I was already being hailed as a genius, and it looked like Sasuke was going to be held back behind two shadows.

Whenever the nightmare hit though, all of those thoughts went out the window, and I was grateful for my mum coming and comforting me every time it happened, and I unashamedly fell asleep in her arms.

xxxx

One year old. I had finally managed to say my first word three months ago, and once that hurdle was taken care of, my ability to communicate finally flourished. Within three months I was now able to string together sentences and speak coherently, greatly impressing everyone in the clan (except Fugaku).

Me and Sasuke were sitting in high back chairs staring at an absolutely _massive_ birthday cake, with two big separate number one candles on either side of the cake staring at us. Everyone finished the birthday song, and I heard mum telling me and Sasuke to blow out our candles.

I took in a huge (for me) gulp of air, held it for a second, and then blew as hard as I could. A little too hard, if the half of my cake that had decided fly away and land on the faces of everyone staring at me was anything to judge by. I couldn't help laughing when I looked at Itachi to find him slyly wiping some of the cake off his face and eating it.

Sasuke and mum just looked at me with wide eyes, before mum began chuckling, setting off Sasuke to giggle, and then everyone else to laugh as well, joining me in my mirth. Although there were a few curious glances in there a well.

Everyone stopped laughing very quickly when a sound that no one had ever heard before permeated the room. Sasuke looked at everyone, then stared at me with wide eyes.

"Makkusu," he said, before sporting a grin wide enough to put Naruto to shame.

Needless to say, I found myself loving Sasuke like family as well. I chose not to think about what this could mean for the future, instead simply feeling happiness well up inside me. I couldn't help but view Sasuke as my brother, both because of this, and because he technically was.

And damn it I would do my best to be the best twin brother I could.

xxxx

Year two came around much too quickly for my liking. I was now able to walk around on my own, which Sasuke also picked up a little while after me. We had both been put down by mum in a food shop.

I had absent-mindedly gone towards a shelf with sweets on it, not realising that I had gotten up and walked over to it, until I heard mum shout. I looked round to see her looking down at where I should have been by her leg, then saw her smile when she turned around and saw me standing on my own two feet.

However, I wasn't able to stop my own smile from faltering slightly at her next words, despite my convictions, as some of my old inhibitions towards effort surfaced.

"Well, looks like someone is going to be ready for shinobi training soon, huh?"

xxxx

A/N: Well that was a bitch to write. So from the next chapter onwards this is going to be purely first person present, so instead of 'I smiled at him' it will be 'I smile at him,' simply because some of the stuff I have planned will make more sense like that.

Also, I know this seemed like a bit of a filler chapter this early on, but I needed to make relationships clear and show how advanced Makkusu is due to being older mentally. Next chapter is shinobi training, so look forward to it.

I hope you all enjoy the chapter


	3. Chapter 3

The Time For Change

Chapter 2: Training Begins

A/N: Sorry it took so long for another chapter, but I hit a focal point in my other story and wanted to get that done. I have also changed my mind on the style again and have decided to leave it like it was, otherwise im just gonna get confused.

xxxx

Technically, mentally, I was twenty one years old. Physically, I was three, and I was getting the crap beaten out of me. Me and Sasuke had started training the moment we had turned three, like literally the day after our third birthday. I thought from what I remembered of the anime that training didn't start till the academy at age six, but it seems different for clans, and Itachi hits hard, no matter how much he loves us.

As it was, six months of training had gone by in a flash, and I found out how much of an advantage it was to be an adult mentally. I grasped the concepts of what we were taught easily, I was able to follow through and even improvise entire taijutsu katas, I could read situations quickly, overall my mental faculties ensured that anything to do with actually thinking came rather easily.

I found something else as well. Chakra is the mixture of physical and mental energies, and the amount available to you is dependent on how much of each you possess. Your control is determined by how easily you can mould the mental and physical together, and the right amounts of them too. Too much of one or the other at a young age does wonders for your capacity but terrors for your control.

Being mentally twenty one and physically three, my capacity was through the roof, higher than even Naruto's I expected at the moment, but my control was beyond difficult. But that's what practice is for.

And I spent a lot of time practicing. It is amazing how motivated you become to train when everyone you know is a shinobi and there are no video games to play or animes to watch. Since my mental faculties were so advanced, I spent every waking moment training my body or training my chakra control, though I didn't neglect reading up on things either.

Unfortunately, this made several things happen. Within the clan, I became almost like a celebrity. Always training my body, control or reading up on academy level shinobi information, I had unparalleled focus for a three year old, and quickly shot ahead of Sasuke and even where Itachi was at my age.

This meant that I was hailed as a genius, which in a respect I was, but that didn't concern me. Itachi, who I loved dearly, often took over mine and Sasuke's training, being a true prodigy himself, and I enjoyed every moment of it. Fugaku however, did not seem to appreciate it.

Outside of the clan, things were very different. I think the arrogant nature of the other Uchiha meant that they bragged about me non-stop to the other mothers. I was surprised at the level of animosity directed towards me, but I was different. I had no friends because of my training, Sasuke's friends wouldn't interact with me and the other kids picked up on what their mothers felt about me, though none of them tried anything.

My personality didn't help either. I found others my age dull because I was so advanced, and this translated into me being quiet, which (I'm sure it must be genetic) unfortunately led to me perfecting the classic Uchiha indifference and 'hn' became my go to response for most things. I never broke out of it.

Things picked up however, on one of the many times mum forced me and Sasuke to go to the park to (try to) interact with the others. Sasuke had his own group of friends and went off immediately, while I stayed on the bench and read about taijutsu stances taught in the academy while the other mums chatted.

It was during this one particular outing that I sensed something bothering me. I looked up from my book, Sharingan activated almost permanently, and immediately spotted a mop of blond hair moving backwards and forwards dejectedly on a swing.

I'm not sure what drew me to Naruto. I hadn't seen him before this, and it wasn't because I knew about him from the show in my old world. There was just something about him, and I couldn't bring myself to look away from the ball of loneliness that he was at the moment.

Before I knew it I found myself on my feet walking over to Naruto, much to the surprise of my mum, as I had never shown any interest in anyone who wasn't an adult other than Sasuke and Itachi. I plodded over the sand and stood in front of him.

He didn't look up immediately, instead bringing it up slowly. When he looked at me his large blue eyes fixed on my narrowed red ones. Neither of us said anything, opting to try and outstare each other. Three minutes later neither of us had yet blinked. I saw mum grabbing Sasuke and the other mums milling about out the corner of my eye.

"Same time next week," I said to Naruto, who just looked at me surprised that anyone would want to see him again after meeting him once. He nodded slowly, and I moved away, still staring, and then turned when I reached the edge of the sand and then walked over to where mum and Sasuke were waiting for me.

Mum just looked at me amused, and I was glad that she didn't try and prejudice me against Naruto, not that she could have. Sasuke just stared at me with a bored expression. "Well Makkusu honey, what happened with that boy over there then?" Mum asked sweetly, still talking to me like a three year old even it was obvious I was much more mature than that.

I looked up at her and smirked, the small smile coming easily to my face. "I think... I just made a friend."

xxxx

I found it surprisingly hard to concentrate that next week, though I still did better than I should have done. I found that with all of the training I had been doing at such a young age and the fact that I was so young, my stamina, speed and strength were through the roof for my age, so dropping a little from my normal routine didn't do any harm.

It made me think about the fact that I was learning to kill people at the age of three for goodness sake, but I had to remember that this was not only the shinobi world, this was the Uchiha clan, and I was a genius within the clan, so it would be weird to not see me training my arse off. Also I would have been extremely bored.

A week later and I couldn't wait to go to the park again to meet Naruto. I reasoned it was because of watching him in the anime and knowing he would be lonely, or that he had the Kyuubi and would therefore be a powerful friend, but the truth was I actually wanted a friend my own age and Naruto was just about inventive enough to challenge me intellectually. Plus I wondered what a cultivation of his fantastic mind at an early age would result in later.

This was definitely something which needed to change sooner rather than later.

So when we were getting ready to leave, I was already dressed and in my sandals and waiting by the door by the time Sasuke had walked out of his bedroom. Itachi and Fugaku were out on missions, so it was just me, mum and Sasuke that day. Mum just gave me a knowing glance, to which I smiled, and Sasuke decided to just ignore how crazy I was.

Sometimes I envied Sasuke. I loved my mum and brothers immensely, more so than anyone else, but the fact of the matter was even though I was so young they all felt like I could take care of myself, a great Uchiha prodigy, mature beyond his years. I sometimes missed the sheer amount of affection that mum and Itachi placed on Sasuke because he was normal. I also did as much as I could to include Sasuke in things with me, because I didn't want there to be animosity between the two of us because of my being so much better than him.

Therefore the chance for a friend my age, no matter who, was intoxicating. I was the first person out the door when everyone else was ready.

xxxx

There he was, sitting on that same swing in the park, a noticeable radius of emptiness where the other kids avoided him. Not caring about that, I marched over to him and stood in front of him like before.

"My name is Makkusu Uchiha, what's yours?" I asked, trying my best to make it sound like I didn't already know his name. He grinned up at me then, that famous foxy grin, and I couldn't help but feel the corners of my mouth twitch upwards in response.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki, and one day I'm going to be hokage, believe it!" He said enthusiastically, causing me to actually grin in response. We stood there grinning for a second, and then I got an idea.

"Hey Naruto, did you know that with help you can swing so far up on the swing that you go all the way round?" I asked him. I don't know why that idea popped into my head, but he seemed to look at the swing in a different light all of a sudden, which was quite amusing to see.

"Really? All right let's do it Makkusu!" With that he climbed on the swing and I got behind him and started him off. He slowly swung round higher and higher until he was hitting horizontal.

"Ok Naruto this is it!" I shouted at him. My mum had seen what we were going to do, and started towards us, but she wasn't fast enough. When Naruto reached horizontal backwards, I jumped up and grabbed the seat, then swung him down with all of the force I could muster.

He rocketed round and shot past the horizontal until he hit vertical. I could hear him laughing, but for one agonising moment it seemed like I hadn't put enough in. A moment later however the swing came down normally, and Naruto leapt off at the apex of the next swing, landed lightly on his feet.

I could see that mum still had that look on her face that meant that I was going to get a talking to, but before she got to me Naruto ran up to me and latched onto my shoulders, shouting about how much fun that was. I smirked at him, then looked at my mum.

She held my Sharingan gaze for a moment, but then smiled at me while shaking her head, and wandered back towards the other mums, who had been looking at us like we were crazy.

After me and Naruto spent another few moments laughing at how much fun (frightening and adrenalin pumping; I never would have done something like that in my old world) that was, some other kids decided that they didn't like us.

I hadn't watched all of Naruto: Shippuden, but I did watch most of Naruto, so I recognised these three as the kids a few years older than Naruto and me, who would often bully him at the academy. It seems that started a lot earlier than I thought it did. As it was they strode over to us confidently.

"Well well, look at these two, the village pariah and a know-it-all Uchiha _genius_, the only two in the village with no friends. Well, sorry to break up your little bonding session freaks, but you monsters need to be taught that you're not allowed friends, not even each other." The main guy was big, at least for a six year old, but made the stupid mistake of thinking he could hurt me.

I glanced at Naruto and caught his eye then glanced at the swing and winked at him, none of which the older kid caught. Naruto and I went back to the swing just before he reached us. I jumped onto the swing so that it immediately swung right up backwards, and then Naruto did what I did before, putting his whole weight on it to swing me round.

I did the whole three sixty on my feet, and when the swing was at the right point I jumped off of it, feet first, and kicked the older kid in the stomach so hard that he threw up and fell on the floor almost unconscious. His two friends were running towards us side by side, anger etched onto their faces.

Naruto had jumped onto the swing the moment I left it, giving it enough speed for another rotation, but instead of shooting off level he went up as he jumped off. I watched as he sailed over me and kicked the two other kids in the face, a foot a piece, and then laughed as they crumpled to the ground. Me and Naruto ran up to each other and high fived.

The leader was just starting to get up, so me and Naruto walked up to him and planted a foot each on his chest, driving him back to the floor. At the same time, Naruto and I shouted at him, "NO ONE CALLS US MONSTERS!" Then, perfectly in sync, we kicked him in the chin, knocking him out cold. We high fived again.

After that we had to sit and listen as the parents of the children rushed over and cooed over their babies being hurt, but when I glanced at my mum to see how angry she was, she just had an amused smirk and her eyes were twinkling with mirth. The other mothers rounded on me and Naruto and started calling us monsters and freaks and demons, much like their sons had.

After a moment mum got up and walked over, standing in front of Naruto and I, who looked stunned that someone, especially an adult, was sticking up for him. The other women quietened down as my mum released some killing intent.

"Listen to me closely, what you just witnessed is the difference between civilian kids who think they can be shinobi, and the sons of shinobi who actually deserve the title. If your children can't take a beating, even from a couple of three year olds, then I have to wonder what they are doing at the academy." I was never more proud of having Mikoto Uchiha as my mother than that moment.

Once that scene was finished, I noticed that everyone was getting ready to go home, and Naruto was just hanging his head, not looking at everyone's parents. Before mum called Sasuke over, I tugged on her trousers to get her attention.

"Hey mum, is it ok if Naruto comes over for dinner?" Naruto's head snapped up with a look of pure shock on his face, something which actually tugged at my heart a little bit. Back in my old world I could never stand films where a child got hurt or abused, and it seemed that I carried that over. Seeing Naruto so delighted at simply being asked to come to dinner was definitely not something I wanted to see again.

Mum appeared to have caught my line of thinking, as she smiled warmly and turned to Naruto. "Well Naruto dear, would you like to come to dinner with us?" He instantly nodded his head vigorously, apparently too happy to actually form any words.

Sasuke ran over just then to see me standing next to Naruto and said, "Yay, Makkusu finally made a friend!" Mum picked Sasuke up and put him on her shoulders so Naruto and I could walk together behind her, and we set off. Although, with my Sharingan eyes, I was just able to see Naruto's face out of the corner of my eye, and he was looking at me wondering what Sasuke meant.

xxxx

As we walked in the front door, Naruto was shaking like a leaf, probably out of nerves. He turned to me with a look of horror, and managed to get a question out, surprisingly. "Erm... Makkusu... err... is there err... anything, you know, special... that I err... need to do?" I looked at him questioningly for a second, but then smiled at him, causing him to settle down slightly.

"Well yeah, but all you have to do is remember to take your shoes off before you walk on the wooden floor, don't swear or shout, and try not to throw your food across the room, although that last one is more to stop food fights than anything," I said with a faraway look on my face. That had actually happened once when both mum and Fugaku were gone on missions, and Itachi got in the hospital. It was one of the few times that mum had been angry at us, though for some reason Fugaku didn't really seem to care.

"Oh ok, well that sounds easy enough," Naruto said with a relieved look on his face, as he stepped onto the floor barefoot. I followed and we waited while mum prepared the dinner she had set up before we left for the park, throwing in a couple of things for the extra guest.

All in all it was a pretty good dinner, with Naruto spending most of his time asking what the different foods were, and then trying them whether they sounded good or not, much to the amusement of myself and the others. However, just before he left, Naruto finally asked the question that had been bugging him since the playground.

"Makkusu, I don't want to be rude, but why did those kids call you a freak and a monster as well? Why did your brother say that you _finally_ had a friend?" He looked so nervous it was almost cute. I looked at my mum and she nodded at me to say that it's ok. I just hoped Naruto wouldn't take it the wrong way.

"Naruto, I'm not bragging, but I'm really really smart, and I spend almost all of my time training to be a shinobi, and my Sharingan is almost permanently activated. Not a lot of people even see the Sharingan, so to display all the time makes people think that I'm possessed or something," I said miserably. Naruto looked at me with his face scrunched up a bit.

"So what you're saying is other kids don't like you because of your eyes, and also because you're better than them?" I nodded with a downcast air, thinking that Naruto was going to reject me because of what I had said. However, I was pleasantly surprised.

"Well that's really stupid. Surely you'd want to be friends with someone better than you because then they can help you!" I looked at him with the closest to tears an Uchiha is likely to get and smiled widely at him. Mum and Sasuke were smiling as well, and I was really happy. I may have been twenty one mentally, but physically I was still three, and having a friend felt great.

xxxx

Mine and Naruto's friendship blossomed over the years between that day and entrance into the academy. Although, him and Sasuke had a strange relationship that was oddly reminiscent of what they were like in the anime, but it was a lot less of a rivalry in being shinobi, and more of a rivalry in who came up with the best pranks.

I was more often than not dragged into both of their hair brained schemes, if only to use my superior intellect to come up with slightly better plans. In those three years before we entered the academy we must have driven my mum mad.

Despite my genius, and the fact that I still trained non-stop, Fugaku lost interest in me after I started to participate in the pranks, although Itachi seemed to love the fact that me and Sasuke did such things, always questioning us about them and then refusing our pleas to train with us.

He had become ANBU recently and had a lot less time to spend with us. I knew what that meant, and I feared for what was going to happen in the future, but I prayed that things would go differently this time.

xxxx

Well that's chapter three of this story, again sorry to those followers about the slow updates, but my first story requires more of my time. Also, exams soon, so updates may become even more sparse, but after that its holidays, so look forward to it.


	4. Chapter 4

The Time For Change

Chapter 3: Massacre

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

xxxx

The Academy was a nightmare. I had been looking forward to it ever since I'd started learning, thinking that it was going to take me up a step, but in reality, it just dragged me down. It turned out that even the other clan children didn't spend as much time learning as I did. The first day of the academy will be forever burned into my memory.

_Whispers erupted around the classroom as Sasuke and I walked in, he smiling brightly in stark contrast to what he was like in the anime, and me displaying a classic Uchiha stoicism. I caught mutterings of 'monster' and 'freak,' so I scanned the room. Sasuke began walking over to an Aburame that I recognised as Shino, and I went to join Naruto, Shikamaru and Choji at the back of the class. _

_I didn't care where I sat, Naruto probably went back up there to get away from the glares of some of the other students, Shikamaru just wanted to sleep, and Choji always follows Shikamaru. However, before I had even made it five feet there was a cry of... something. Before I knew there were nearly a dozen fan girls glomping Sasuke. "Makkusu! Help!"_

_With a sigh of exasperation, I walked over to them and placed a hand on a very young Ino Yamanaka, "I believe my brother is uncomfortable with you hanging off of him like that," I said calmly. Suffice to say I didn't realise that fangirlism, stupidity and stubbornness went hand in hand the instant they started. Sasuke was doomed from the moment he walked into the room. _

"_Excuse me, but I don't think Sasuke minds my attention, do you Sasuke?" She said with absolute conviction. At that point in time I was literally astounded that someone could think they knew my own brother better than I did having just met him. I looked at him, a pleading look in his eyes, and smiled sadly._

"_I'm sorry brother, there is nothing more I can do, it was nice knowing you," I said dramatically, even going so far as to wave at him as I made my way to the back row and finally joined Naruto. He eventually managed to make his way to Shino and Kiba when the teacher walked in and everyone quietened down. _

_With my Sharingan permanently active, there's not much I miss out on, so it wasn't difficult to see the way that the teacher's eyes flicked to Naruto and me and the slight scowl appeared on his face. Luckily for Naruto, I was there, and I was not going to let his education get sabotaged like it was last time; that was something that desperately needed to change._

Due to how large my reserves were, I was pretty much in the same boat as Naruto; we could do the Henge and the Kawarimi easily enough, me through studying it and Naruto through his pranks, but the damn clone required such a tiny amount of chakra, it was like trying to get a river to flow through a pinhead.

While that was a concern, it wasn't my main concern. My main concern was that Sasuke and I were eight. That meant that the Uchiha Massacre was right around the corner, and it was scaring me so much that I was becoming paranoid and distant from my friends, even more so than normal. I kept trying to desperately think of something, anything that could save me, as Sasuke was supposed to be the only survivor.

However, every time I thought of saving myself I felt sick to my stomach, sick that I could damn my entire clan to death because I wanted desperately to live. What was stopping me from saving mum, or Shisui, or any other innocent Uchiha? If, that is, I could actually think of a way to do it, but the only thing that I could think of was talking to the Hokage.

I knew that I would have to talk to him eventually, knowing the potential future was eating me up inside, everyday was worse than the next. For the most part I ignored it and focused on Naruto, on learning, on training, on making myself the best I could be and giving myself the best chance of survival possible.

But every now and then, I would curl up in my bed and cry and shake and wish things weren't the way they were; the idea that I wasn't supposed to exist clawed at me, made me feel like ending it all, knowing what would happen and being unable to save anyone rattling around my brain. It was maddening, and I could feel my sanity slip every time it got to me.

So I resolved, then and there, that I would go and speak to the Sandaime that evening.

xxxx

"Come in," the voice of the old and wizened Sandaime Hokage called after I knocked on the door. I stepped inside, remembering what the office looked like from the anime. What hit me was the smell, the smell of Sarutobi's tobacco was extremely strong, but not unpleasant. It made me realise just how real everything was, this wasn't the anime, which didn't exactly set my mind at ease. I looked in to see that he was talking to none other than my brother, Itachi. It was unexpected, but not unsalvageable; Itachi had as much right to know as the Hokage, but no one else, at least not yet.

"Now then, what is the problem? It must be important if you felt that you had to come and see the Hokage now, must it not?" He smiled down at me, and I couldn't help but laugh a little at the fact that he was treating me my physical age, and not my mental age. He frowned at my laughter, which had an unsettled edge to it.

Itachi's eyes widened slightly, and he whispered something to the Sandaime. I saw him discretely trying to break a genjutsu behind his back, as laughing out loud was one of the things that I never did, no matter what; the near insane element probably didn't help. He obviously thought that I was an imposter.

"Please Itachi, I am Makkusu, there is no genjutsu to break. Now Lord Hokage, please ask your ANBU to vacate the room and then activate the silencing seal that is under the edge of your desk," I said calmly, earning looks of shock from everyone. With a wave Sarutobi dismissed the ANBU and then activated the silencing seal, his face deadly serious. I decided to play with them a little bit.

"So, how about that coup, eh?" Both my brother and the Sandaime were beyond shocked, and rightly so. An eight year old Uchiha, a prodigy yes but still only eight, had completely shocked them by revealing knowledge of one of the largest secrets of Konoha as if it was just a juicy morsel of information; which to me, it was.

"Wha-... how... what?" Itachi asked, breaking the stunned silence. He sunk down into the chair he had been standing next to, and the Sandaime stood and went over to his door. He called his secretary and informed her to free his schedule for the next couple of hours. He then sat back down and reactivated the silencing seal.

"Makkusu Uchiha, I request that you tell me what you know about the coup, how you know about it, and which side of it you are on," the Sandaime said, seriousness marking his face, making the old man look a hundred times more powerful and scary. It was at that moment that I realised why he was called the God of Shinobi.

I sighed, a look of resignation passing over my face, earning a look of confusion; it was not a look that one so young should have been able to make. "I want you both to swear, beyond all shadow of a doubt, that what is spoken in this room is not to be repeated anywhere, to anyone; you never know who might be listening." They both gave their word.

"I know the events of a future where I never existed." Both the Sandaime and Itachi look at me confused, a thousand questions passing through their eyes. Itachi was again the one who spoke first, "how?"

Before I could think about what I was saying, before I could engage any kind of filter, I began to spill everything. "I remember being alive, being someone else before I was born. I was an eighteen year old guy before I was killed in a bank robbery; I remember the pain, the sheer agonising torture. That was why my Sharingan activated almost the moment I was born; it activates in near death experiences, but I had actually _died_, and went into shock because of it."

Both of them looked like they wanted to say something, but I couldn't stop myself, and I felt tears pouring from my eyes and my arms shaking. I vaguely realised that Itachi had brought me to the other chair and sat me down in it.

"The thing is, physically, I'm eight, but mentally I'm twenty six; that's why I have so much chakra and such poor control no matter how much I work on it. However, the most important thing is that in my past life I was in another world, and that world, my original world, has information on this world, but not in the way you would think. Over there, our entire world is nothing more than a fiction, a story, and everything is known, our past, present and future. However, everything that I know about this world from that world is all based on the idea _that I never existed here_. Sasuke is supposed to be an only child!"

Suffice to say that stunned didn't even begin to describe the two. I didn't care though. At that moment I just felt like the eight year old that I was, and I needed the comfort. Getting the truth off of my chest made me feel better, but the tears had started and they wouldn't stop, and I did truly love Itachi and Sasuke and mum and didn't want anyone to die, at least no one innocent. So I grabbed onto Itachi and sobbed into his chest, clutching onto him for my own sanity.

After I don't know how long, I managed to calm down enough to talk again, and looked at the Sandaime, who obviously wanted to ask more questions, but he looked a lot kinder, understanding that everything was incredibly difficult for me; I know that before it happened to me I couldn't even begin to imagine the mental and emotional strain my current situation, especially knowing that someone I loved was destined to die.

"I assume," Sarutobi began hesitantly," that there was something specific about the Uchiha coup that you wanted to tell me?" It wasn't voiced as a question, but I felt compelled to answer, as my mum's life might very well be in the balance. I nodded meekly, and he gestured for me to explain.

I took a few deep breaths to calm myself. "So far, everything should be going as it does in the other world. Fairly soon, Danzo and your advisors are going to order Itachi to kill our entire clan, including me, mum and Sasuke, with a forged seal from you. He does it, with help from a masked man, but finds that he is unable to kill Sasuke; everyone else is slaughtered, and Itachi flees the village and becomes an S-rank missing-nin in exchange for Sasuke's life."

"WHAT! Why would Danzo do such a thing? And who is this masked man?" Sarutobi raged, causing me to flinch. He immediately calmed down, but I could feel Itachi's grip tightening on my arm in barely controlled rage. Obviously things were the same here as they were in the anime; at least until I just mucked everything up by telling them everything that I know, which is basically everything about the Naruto world.

"Danzo does it because his right arm is a clone of the Shodaime's, and after the massacre he implants a dozen Sharingan into the arm. He also steals Shisui's right eye so that he can use the ultimate illusion that Shisui got when he obtained his Mangekyo Sharingan." By then Itachi was so pale I wondered if he was going to faint, but I had to push on, no matter how horrifying, no matter how much it pained me to shatter his world, because otherwise everything would happen as it did in the anime and it couldn't; it just couldn't.

"The masked man calls himself Tobi, though he reveals himself to some as Madara Uchiha, but even that is a lie. He is actually Kakashi's old teammate, Obito Uchiha, who was twisted by the real Madara Uchiha and tipped over the edge when he saw Kakashi kill Rin to save the village, not understanding why it had to be done." I coughed slightly as my mouth was dry from the explaining, and I thanked the Sandaime when he passed me some water. They were drinking everything in, and I had to tell them. The Uchiha Massacre was the crutch, the cause of so much, and the first thing I could truly change and I knew that if I didn't reveal everything I knew to the right people, the two in front of me, and possibly others, I wouldn't be able to live with myself, whether Itachi killed me or not.

"To sum it up for now, Danzo is a traitor, your two teammates support him, the Uchiha have to be dealt with yes, but they don't all need to be slaughtered. We should watch out for Obito, because he will surely try and kill the entire clan himself if that is the case, which he may very well be able to do. He was the one who set the Kyuubi on Konoha with his Sharingan, and his Mangekyo allows him to become intangible and to teleport to wherever he wishes."

Before I could explain anything else, I felt myself yawn tiredly, and I realised that the sun had set, despite going straight to the hokage from the academy. Seeing this, the Sandaime held up a hand. "I understand that you have much more to tell us Makkusu, but there are things that need to be done now, before they get out of hand." I nodded dumbly, suddenly exhausted.

"ANBU!" Four of the masked shinobi appeared in an instant, bowing before their leader. "Gather every ANBU, ex-ANBU and jounin that you can. Get Inoichi Yamanaka to make sure that every single ANBU gathered that isn't part of my personal guard is trustworthy, and only him. You are to arrest Danzo Shimura, Homura Mitokado, Koharu Utatane, Fugaku Uchiha and the Uchiha elders. You are then going to relocate the entirety of the Uchiha clan to key locations around Konoha; there is a major threat to their security and they cannot be allowed to stay in one place where we can't reach them."

"Tenzou!"

"Yes, Lord Hokage?"

"You and Itachi are Makkusu and Sasuke's personal guards; you are to defend them at any cost. Itachi, take Sasuke to Kakashi, and explain the situation to him. Tenzou, go and get Naruto as well, the threat may go after him, and take him and Makkusu to the Inuzuka clan, tell Tsume that she can finally adopt Naruto, council be damned, and leave Makkusu there with them. Once the traitors are secure and the rest of the Uchiha clan are safe, you are to return to your guarding positions."

Thoroughly confused, but sensing the seriousness and urgency in the tone of Sarutobi's voice, Tenzou picked me up and used the Shunshin to get to Naruto's. He knocked on the door, and waited for Naruto to answer, which he did, wearing his pyjamas and a Panda hood, rubbing his eyes tiredly. A look of confusion crossed his features when he noticed me being held by a strange ANBU.

"Naruto Uzumaki, gather up your clothes and other important belongings, then come with me. I have orders to take you and Makkusu to the Inuzuka clan. Makkusu and the head of the Inuzuka clan, Tsume, can explain everything to you when we arrive," Tenzou said in a soft and gentle voice. He obviously didn't use his scary face and voice unless the receiver was actually a shinobi.

At a nod from me, he hurried into the apartment and gathered up his clothes, of which there was only one set of what he always wore, and as many packs of instant ramen as he could carry. It actually pained me a little that those were the only things he thought of as precious in his entire apartment.

Tenzou placed his hand on Naruto's shoulder, then used the Shunshin again, and we were both standing outside the house of the clan head of the Inuzuka clan, Tsume. Kiba was probably asleep and Hana was barely even mentioned in the anime, so I had no idea what she would be doing. Tsume, apparently smelling our arrival, bounded out of the house almost instantly, along with her partner Kuromaru, who actually frightened me a little with his size, eye patch and missing ear.

We went inside. The house was nice, cosy, with a lush brown carpet, soft cream walls, and dark oak furniture. It felt like a home. Naruto and I sat down on the couch, quietly, while Tenzou explained what was going on to Tsume in the kitchen. I sat there hoping beyond hope that I had done the right thing, the possibilities of everything that could go wrong were swimming within my mind, tormenting me, making me feel claustrophobic and trapped in my own head.

I didn't even realise that I had begun to hyperventilate until I heard Naruto shout for the ANBU. Tenzou and Tsume both rushed in, just as I passed out.

xxxx

I felt light through my eyelids, a blanket over my shoulders, and soft cushions beneath me. I reluctantly opened my eyes to find myself on the couch in Tsume's living room. I felt a wave of fear pass through me, wondering what exactly had happened last night. From then on nothing would be the same; I had sensed a time for change and seized it, consequences be damned. I just hoped I had done enough to save at least one innocent person.

"Hey gaki, looks like you're up. You want some chow?" I nodded meekly at Tsume's brash personality, still too mentally unstable to do more than just muddle along. I felt weak and shaky, knowing that I had set forces in motion that could and would have unforeseen consequences. I slammed down on my feelings, shoving them below a facade of calm and cold detachment, and then followed Tsume into the kitchen, where Naruto and Kiba were already sitting together.

I observed them for a second; it appeared that Tsume had informed Naruto of his status as the newest member of the Inuzuka clan, seeing as Naruto and Kiba were already chatting away as if they were brothers and Naruto already had the distinctive clan markings painted onto his face.

I sat and ate my toast silently, unintentionally ignoring both Naruto's and Kiba's attempts at conversation, too wrapped up in trying stop my own emotions from driving me mad. I stayed like that until my mum showed up, and my hold on my emotions broke. I rushed into her arms and started sobbing like I did with Itachi, completely and utterly overjoyed that my mum was still alive. I knew that the massacre wasn't going to happen that night, but I was still scared to the bone.

I didn't pay attention as mum thanked Tsume and then carried me out, and I didn't pay attention as she walked me somewhere. I only looked up when I heard the sound of an ANBU nearby, and looked up to find Tenzou waiting for us outside the Hokage Tower. I mentally steeled myself, knowing that I had a lot more explaining to do, and would possibly have to repeat myself if the Sandaime wanted me to tell anyone else.

We walked into the office. Sarutobi, surprisingly Jiraiya, Itachi, Kakashi, Shikaku, Chouza, Inoichi, Hiashi, Shibi and Tsume were standing there, along with Tenzou, my mum, and myself. And I talked.

It took a whole day to relay everything I knew to them, starting with Obito's survival, the existence of Madara Uchiha, Obito seeing Rin die and then becoming Tobi, the attack of the Kyuubi and how Minato had nearly killed Obito, the fact that the Bloodline Purges in Kiri was due to Madara. I explained about the Akatsuki, how Yahiko died and Nagato became Pain, I explained that they would look for the Bijuu and Obito would try to recreate the Juubi and enslave the planet in a mass genjutsu.

I explained how important Naruto was, how Itachi was part of Akatsuki and feeding information to Konoha, how Sasuke had become completely evil and turned himself over to Orochimaru. I described how Orochimaru marked Sasuke and then attacked Konoha, killing the Sandaime, how Tsunade became the Godaime, how Pain destroyed Konoha. I described in detail every member of the Akatsuki and their abilities, how strong Naruto was, who died and when, anything and everything that I could remember about the Naruto universe I relayed to the people in front of me, for better or for ill.

And then came the clincher. "However, pretty much all of this is now irrelevant, because I was never supposed to exist, and in explaining all of this, to all of you, I have changed the future. I have no idea what is going to happen from now on."

Utterly gobsmacked, they all just stared at me, and then something happened, which was so unexpected, so completely against what I thought could and would happen, that it was my turn to be stunned into silence.

"Jiraiya, we cannot wait. Get Tsunade here so that she can take over as Hokage now, as well as implement her medical training program. After that, you are going to take up your responsibility towards Minato and train Naruto in his father's jutsu and the other aspects of Shinobi. I am going to disband the civilian council before I retire."

That alone was enough to make me want to cradle my head as a splitting headache threatened to form, but what Sarutobi said next nearly knocked me off my feet. "Upon retirement I am going to focus on two things. The first, getting back to peak condition, so that I once again feel deserving of my titles as the God of Shinobi and the Professor. The second, well, Makkusu Uchiha, from now on you may call me Hiruzen-sensei."


	5. Chapter 5

The Time For Change

Chapter 4: Hiruzen-sensei

A/N: Big shout out to all 5 of my reviewers, not many people have read this, but for the few that have and want to continue reading it, I shall do my best, as always.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

xxxx

Immediately after the meeting everyone in the Uchiha clan was relocated around the village, either to stay with the other clans or with other shinobi around the village. Sasuke was sent to stay with Kakashi, I was sent to stay with Hiruzen-sensei, Itachi stayed at the ANBU HQ and Fugaku was sent on a mission to round up any other Uchiha in the field and bring them home. Mum stayed with Tsume, as she, Tsume and Naruto's mum Kushina had been friends at the academy and a team in a stint in ANBU, hence Tsume's desire to adopt Naruto.

Things stayed that way for three months, until Fugaku's team returned from their mission. At least, one of them did. And it wasn't Fugaku. I found out when I was collected by Tenzou and taken to the Hokage's office. I noticed immediately that something was wrong when I walked in and found the rest of my family gathered in front of Hiruzen-sensei.

"Mikoto, I'm afraid I have bad news. Fugaku Uchiha has given his life in service of the village of Konoha. In absence of a will, all holdings go to the spouse or closest living relative. I-" I watched as Hiruzen-sensei's voice hitched slightly when he saw the tears streaming down my mum's face. "I am sorry for your loss," he finished in a choked whisper.

I didn't know what to feel. On the one hand, the man had been controlling, he had come across as cold and uncaring, and my perception of him was invariably twisted by how he is spoken of in the anime. But on the other hand, he _was_ my father, and he was there. He was the clan head, head of the Police Force, and he still took missions, but for the most part he was there when I got home, he was there as I grew up, and no matter how cold and uncaring he seemed, he always asked Sasuke and I about our days.

Like I said, I didn't know what to feel. I had been sure that I actively disliked the man, but I suddenly found an old proverb ringing around my head, _'you don't know what you've got until it's gone_'. I had a feeling that that applied to me right then.

xxxx

_(Two days later)_

I stood there wearing all black, Itachi on my right, mum on my left and Sasuke on her left. The priest from the Shrine of Fire had just finished speaking, and to my surprise the others were crying quietly, the tears flowing freely. I however couldn't bring myself to cry, I couldn't summon my feelings enough to cry, and I could I wasn't sure that they would warrant sorrow anyway.

In fact I felt guilty. Guilty because when I had learned that Fugaku Uchiha, the main instigator of the Uchiha coup, my father, had died, it wasn't despair, or sorrow, sadness, or anger. It was relief. I was relieved that the man was dead, because that meant that stopping him was no longer my problem.

Did that make me a bad person? I wasn't so sure. Did condemning my very own parent to death because I knew what he was _capable of_ make me a bad person? I realised that this was dangerous territory, by deciding who lives and who dies, was I becoming like Pain? Or worse, Madara?

That was the thought that scared me the most. Because I knew too much, I would end up abusing it. I had told the people who needed to know everything that I could, but the fact was that no matter what they wouldn't see me as anything other than an eight year old who knew more than he should.

However, I hadn't done enough. Fugaku had died. _My father_ had died, because all I had done was tell some people what might happen. _I_ wasn't fast enough, strong enough, smart enough, _good enough_ to succeed in saving the entire Uchiha clan, and that had cost me my father.

It was after that thought that the tears finally began to flow. I couldn't fail a second time.

xxxx

Three days later mum got sick. I got incredibly scared, as she hadn't eaten since we found out that Fugaku had died, and she would sometimes end up staring at nothing and crying. I recognised the signs of deep depression, and I made sure never to leave mum alone for too long, as did Sasuke and Itachi. Then she got sick.

I wasn't stupid and my old world had been far more advanced medicinally than this one, so I thought I knew what she had gotten. Her immune system was weakened from the grief and starvation. Itachi had immediately taken her to the hospital when she started coughing blood and then collapsed, and I figured that she must have caught bronchitis. I became scared because I knew that bronchitis was potentially lethal, and mum wasn't in the best place to fight it off.

Sasuke and I had been given as much time as we needed off of the academy, but I had no other way of working off the stress of mum's illness and Fugaku's death except training. I trained and trained my body, merely keeping up my chakra control and reserves when I needed to; the rest of the time I spent training my taijutsu. It was the only type of training that I felt helped ease off the pressure and allowed me to forget everything for a little while.

Because the whole Uchiha clan hadn't been destroyed, Sasuke didn't fall into a pit of despair, and Itachi didn't become a missing-nin. For that, at least, I was grateful. After mum got ill, Sasuke ended up either clinging to Itachi, who after hearing my story made sure to make time for him, or with Kiba or Naruto. Itachi took missions, trying to get out of the village as much as possible, but he always ended up back in the Uchiha compound after completing the mission in record time.

I barely left the training ground I had set out for myself, venturing out only to eat, and sleep, and sometimes not even that.

Then a month later, news came. Jiraiya had finally returned with Tsunade, who he had briefed on everything that I had told them. I rushed to the Hokage Tower the moment I heard someone mention it in one of my rare ventures into town to get food.

I slammed the door to the office open, not caring about manners. My Sharingan took in the faces of those present, namely Hiruzen-sensei, Jiraiya and Tsunade. I focused on Tsunade immediately, not even caring that they had been talking.

"Tsunade-sama, you have to get to the hospital immediately, my mum has bronchitis, you need to heal her right away," I shouted at her, feeling a near crazed look on my face. Hiruzen-sensei was apparently unsurprised, but Jiraiya and Tsunade both got worried looks on their faces. We all used the Shunshin and went to the hospital immediately.

xxxx

"Are you sure you can walk ok now?" I asked my mum, who was using her crutches and insisting that she would be ok to go and meet Tsume and someone else named Yugao. I thought I recognised the name but I wasn't sure, I had probably forgotten it since I died and was reborn.

"Yes sweetie I'm fine," she said with a tired smile; she still wasn't completely over Fugaku's death, but my brothers and I had managed to bring her out of her shell. Tsunade had immediately diagnosed it as bronchitis like I thought it was, and had managed to destroy the infection and heal the damage.

The fact that I had nearly lost my mum, who I well and truly loved scared me even more than I thought possible. It made my bones feel like ice, and made me want to get stronger than ever. However, my training had been cut down because Sasuke and I had finally started going back to the academy.

I watched as my mum left, supporting herself on her crutches. I had come home from the academy and finished my homework (which was laughably easy maths; having done A-level maths things like triangle theory were a piece of cake).

Just before I closed the door, and ANBU appeared in front of it. "Ah, my apologies Makkusu-san, Sarutobi-sama requests your presence." The ANBU relayed the message and vanished, no doubt onto another assignment that was infinitely more difficult than talking to me.

"Sasuke! I have to go out for a while, I'll see you in a bit," I called to him. He was up in his room doing Kami knows what.

"What about dinner?"

"If mum or Itachi aren't back in time then there are some leftovers in the fridge," I told him, and then shut the door. I ran to the Sarutobi compound, which Hiruzen-sensei lived in with Konohamaru and his mum, Mia Sarutobi. Despite her upbringing, she wasn't a shinobi, she was actually a baker.

I knocked on the door hesitantly, worried about what he wanted me for. I figured it was to begin his training, but I didn't want to leave the academy. It may have been boring intellectually, but I could act my physical age around friends and forget about the pressure that I had placed on myself.

"Ah, Makkusu-kun, I'm glad to see you made it," Hiruzen-sensei said to me, smiling lightly. He stepped outside and gestured for me to follow. We went behind his house to a beautiful garden, with a large tree that I didn't recognise in the middle. He sat down next to it, gesturing for me to join him, which I did. We sat there for a little while, watching the setting sun.

"Makkusu-kun," he began after a little while, "I am offering you training, but I want to know what you want to do. I do not want to force you to become my apprentice." I looked at him shocked.

"What?! Of course I want to be your apprentice," I spoke up immediately, then returned to my earlier thoughts and carried on speaking, "but, only if I can stay at the academy too," I finished. Hiruzen-sensei looked genuinely surprised by that; no doubt he expected to want to be spend time with people my intellectual equals.

"It's because I can act my physical age and forget about the pressure and events of the future, plus I have friends there," I answered his unasked question. He thought about it for a moment then nodded to himself.

"Ok then, this is how it's going to work. You will go to the academy from Monday to Wednesday, then from Thursday to Saturday I will train you. Sunday will be your day off. Once you graduate from the academy at age twelve, then you will be on a team with me as your Jounin sensei. How does that sound to you?"

My eyes lit up and I felt a flare of excitement ignite in my chest. With Hiruzen-sensei's help, I would get the power I needed to protect everyone.

"Kami yeah!" I shouted out, causing him to chuckle. Late twenties I may have been intellectually, but I was male, and therefore allowed to get overexcited about cool things like fighting and learning to fight.

"I do have a question for you before we begin though Makkusu-kun," he said to me seriously. I calmed myself down and then looked at him with my best professional face, then nodded for him to go ahead.

"What area do you want to specialise in, or do you want to be an all-rounder? Be aware, you can specialise in things like traps or strategy, or even Fuuinjutsu if you wish," he said with the wisdom that comes with being man over the age of sixty who's lived through not one, not two, but three different wars, and been the leader of the winning side in all three of them.

I thought about it, hard. This decision was going to decide my future. What assets do I have? Naturally, I was smarter than anyone else my age except perhaps Shikamaru, but that's only because I'm older mentally and not because of any inherent genius. My Sharingan was on so much that to turn it off actually made me feel disoriented and weak, and my predictive abilities, the ability to read the situation and see the next movements of others in perfect detail, were greater than any other in my clan because of it.

I was also more physically capable than anyone my age, even Rock Lee as he had yet to discover that his difficulty with ninjutsu was because of malformed coils and not lack of talent. I was faster, stronger, had better reflexes and more stamina because I had spent almost my entire life training my body, since I was three, in my obsession to get stronger (I vehemently denied that the lack of friends had anything to do with it).

With a nod to myself, I decided. "I wish to specialise in close quarters combat, taijutsu and kenjutsu with supplementary ninjutsu," I said to Sarutobi, who himself looked thoughtful for a minute before also nodding his head.

"Alright then. I'm curious though, do you want to be able to use taijutsu and kenjutsu separately or do you want one to be integrated into the other? Do you have any particular weapon in mind?" I was actually really happy that he was asking me these questions, as it meant that my training would be that much more efficient.

"I want my kenjutsu to supplement my taijutsu," I told him, then felt a devious smile come into mind as I knew exactly what kind of weapon I wanted, which I was sure no one else wielded. "However, I think the weapon I want will have to be custom made."

He raised an eyebrow in curiosity, something which irked me because I had never been able to just raise one eyebrow, in this life or the last one. I did elaborate however. "I want a curved blade that I attach to my forearm that extends past my fist and elbow, one for each arm, along with spiked knee guards where I can retract the spikes at will." If Hiruzen-sensei was surprised by the description, he didn't show it. Indeed, I thought that he might have actually been imagining just how effective such a set up would be in battle.

He then sighed and I heard him mutter, "Why did I never think of that?" Causing me to chuckle slightly. Then a questioning look appeared on his face.

"Just for clarification, the spiked knee guards, do you want one big spike on each, or lots of small spikes?"

"How about both?" I replied. "I could have one big slightly curved spike in the middle that I can retract separately from the other smaller spikes surrounding it. Therefore, I have those spikes for shredding, the large spike for stabbing and the blades on my arms for slashing and stabbing."

He thought about it again, going through the merits and drawbacks of such a design. "You realise that there is neither a taijutsu style nor a kenjutsu style that you will be able to totally adopt? You will have to create your very own style." He said, and I nodded with determination. It would be challenging, but if wasn't challenged then how would I get stronger?

"OK THEN!" Hiruzen-sensei suddenly shouted with enthusiasm, looking years younger in that single instant. I looked at him and noticed that his arms were tensed as he stood, and were bulging with sinewy muscle; he really had gotten back into shape. "Starting on Monday, Makkusu Uchiha, you are officially my student. I will have your weapons created and ready by you first lesson on Thursday." He was obviously born to be a teacher.

I smiled broadly. This was going to be so sweet.

xxxx

A/N: What do you think? GLaDOS-01, thanks for the help, and I hope you like it. I changed a couple of things up, and this chapter introduces the kind of abilities that Makkusu will be training, without me just going to team selection day and saying 'oh look, someone with as much ninja experience as every other child his age has managed to create a completely new and kick arse style all on his own and mastered it apparently without difficulty.' At least this way it will be plausible, as Hiruzen is known as 'The Professor'; if anyone can help create an entire new style, it's him.

Also sorry that the chapter is a bit short. Also, all updates will be held off for two weeks as I am going on holiday and won't be taking my laptop.


	6. Chapter 6

The Time For Change

Chapter 5: Not As Good As I Thought

A/N: Let's keep it short and sweet; I'm Back! \\[T]/

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

xxxx

I walked through a blood red hallway, the same colour as my Sharingan. The walls were twisting and morphing with blurry images, and I found myself hurrying through the corridor as fast as I could, until sweat was pouring off my brow and my breath was laboured. For some reason movement was difficult in the odd place, but I pushed through it.

After a few more minutes of running, I spotted a door at the end of the hallway, and felt a second wind upon myself, and drove my feet harder into the ground with every step, giving one final push to get to the door. I lunged at it once in range, and in an instant I was tumbling across a golden floor, with marble columns lining a path in front of me, lit braziers burning in their sconces.

I took a moment to gather myself, feeling the breath and strength return to my body, the burning in my legs slowly disappearing along with the fatigue that felt like a lead weight in that strange place. My attention was diverted from my ailing body by the presence of a sound unlike any other.

It was booming and quiet, harsh but gentle, annoying yet soothing. It was the sound of every contradiction in the world amassed into a single place and given life, and it resounded through my body like a bass drum, shaking every part of me mercilessly while it held me completely still.

"**Well done young Uchiha. Very few are able to traverse the Path of the Suffering, and even fewer with their mind intact. It would appear that I chose well."** I turned to the end of the path created by the columns to see a throne of marble and velvet, though it was large enough to seat a dozen men. Upon it sat a thing that held the general shape of a man, but no more than that.

It had no discernible features. It looked like the back of my eyelids, blackness prickled with spots of colour and static, wrapping around the form of a large man, obscuring his face. He stood and moved towards me, every touch of his feet upon the golden floor eliciting not a single sound or any kind of indication that there had in fact been a physical presence there just moments ago, and as he got closer I could smell ozone, like electrically charged hot metal, radiating off of him.

The feelings were so real and the man, the _creature_, so completely beyond anything I had ever imagined, that I came upon the conclusion that perhaps this was not imagination, which begged the question of _how the fuck did I get here?_

"**Hm, even better. You are the first to ever discern the circumstances of what is currently happening. Both interpretations are true. While these events are happening within your dreaming state, this place is your mind made reality, and as such should be considered real."**

That confused me, and I wasn't even going to begin trying to understand all of that until I was somewhere a little more comfortable, somewhere that I could reflect on what was happening. "This is my mind?" The creature seemed amused by that.

"**Such a blatant and yet unobvious question, I truly did choose well. All others have at first asked who or what I am, so as a reward for being original, I shall answer your question. This area here is the control centre of your mind, which I have, shall we say, spruced up a little, but the general layout remains the same. The Path of the Suffering is my own construct, a test, which I have placed in your mind both as a defence and to judge your worthiness."**

Unbidden a thought rushed into my head, 'damn, does this guy ever shut up? I mean sure this shit is interesting but come on, couldn't he explain in fewer words?' As I tried to suppress that thought I remembered that he had read my mind a moment ago, and at that moment a chuckle erupted around me in that strange noise that was the man's voice.

"**Indeed I could use fewer words, but alas conversation is one of the few pleasures left to someone of my stature, so you will forgive me if I indulge in the practice and refrain from 'shutting up.'"**

"Ok, you're going to talk my ear off. So where the fuck am I? And who the fuck are you? And what the fuck is going on?" I realised that I was swearing a lot more than usual, but I was getting seriously stressed at that point and I had spent years having to watch my language around everyone since children aren't supposed to know how to say that stuff. I was venting.

"**Curb your tongue with me boy. Luckily for you I felt the desire to actually converse with you and help you on your journey, a nicety which is unwise to disrespect. Use your head and you can answer those questions yourself!"** The moment he had started talking the oxymoronic balance which his voice held before seemed to tilt towards the brasher side. How a voice can tilt I don't know, but I was held frozen in pure fear for the whole admonishment.

"What the fu-" I felt the fear begin to creep up on me again, "What the _hell_ was that?" He didn't answer me, so I set about thinking about what he said, not wanting to piss him off any more.

"Ok, where am I was a stupid question, since you've already told me that, we're in my head. Which leads to who you are. The only kind of thing I can imagine invading a sleeping mind like this is a Yamanaka or a God, and there are no Yamanakas imaginative enough to do all this, so I'm going with the second one."

"As for what's going on? The only Gods I know of that interacted with people were the Greek and Roman Gods and Goddesses, and that was only when visiting their children or choosing their champi-"

"**Indeed very good,"** he said with the same tone he was using before, as if my swearing at him had never happened in the first place, which I felt was a good thing. **"I am The Source, not so much a God though as a being born of the interactions between universes. I bled into existence through the actions of your original world, which is like a base from which all other realities are born, and as such I manage the existence of those realities."**

Now that got my attention. I was standing talking to a being that existed in the space between realities, and he, no _it_, had taken a special interest in me.

'Wopp-de-fucking-doo.'

"**As you may have guessed I am the reason that you were reborn into the world simply known as 'Naruto' to you, and for two distinct reasons. The first was your knowledge of events in Naruto, you both knew the main parts of the story yet were not so invested as to want everything to turn out exactly as it does in the anime. The second was the source of your drive."**

"**The main theme of the Naruto story is the gaining of power to protect those precious to you. In the story that is fine, but the realities do not follow the paths laid out for them, and as such that would not be enough to save the world you currently reside in. You are a new element with a drive stemming from the need to succeed, from the fear of failure. You are much more realistic and that is what this world needs, someone who understands the consequences more than anyone else."**

As much as this creature, The Source, spoke I listened and drank in every word. This was the reason that I had died in the 'real' world, years of questions as to the purpose of my rebirth and what it could all mean. Now all of that was replaced with pressure.

"So what am I supposed to do? I've already told Hiruzen-sensei everything, all I can do now is train!" I protested. The things I was hearing, while they made a disturbing amount of sense, were utter madness. I couldn't think of a better explanation for my being here, but the reasons were unacceptable and I couldn't see a path forward.

"**Unfortunately everything you told everyone has already been forgotten. It is a strain upon me to maintain your state of awareness of events to come and to not let a 'default' personality take over your body, and as such I cannot allow anyone else to know of future events. Everything that you've changed with your explanations has been rationalised, but should you tell anyone else anything that will allow them to know the future, your very existence may unravel."**

That was a scary thought. I felt a very different kind of fear from before. The fear I felt from The Source was primal, making me want to run and hide, but the fear I felt then was born purely from intellect. A beast does not fear death for it cannot understand the concept, and fear for its own life it is like the first fear, primal and only present when the threat of death is thrust upon them.

Humans are alone in that they are the only creatures able to fear a concept. Even when death is considered a long way off it is feared. To know that the wrong actions could kill me was both terrifying and familiar. I decided then and there to not dwell on the fear of erasing my own existence, for actually telling someone something that they shouldn't know was in reality infinitely more difficult than getting killed by an enemy shinobi or slipping on a wet rock and breaking my neck.

With that entire thought process... processed, I turned my attention back to The Source, who had been watching me patiently. At least I think he was, I couldn't see his eyes.

"**Well done for not giving into your fear. I'm sorry that that was actually another test, but not to worry, you passed with flying colours. Now as for what you are supposed to do, the answer is simple; get stronger. Do your absolute best to get strong to the point that you can handle the enemies that you know you will face."**

"**For all I've said Naruto is still the hero of your world, but alone he **_**will**_** fail. However, he does not need another friend to support him, or a rival to push him, or family to encourage him. What he needs is a comrade beside him, a hero on par with himself with which he can face the coming darkness, someone to offload some of the burden to. That someone is you."**

"**Left to your own devices for the last years you have done extraordinarily well without actually knowing your purpose; Hiruzen is by far the best teacher you could have possibly gotten, but it will not be enough to keep up with Naruto, especially now that the Inuzuka have taken him in and for when he attains Sage abilities. As such, I will in time bestow two gifts upon you."**

I looked at The Source in awe. It seemed he had put all of his conversational experience to use and wove an inspiring speech that actually filled me with a sense of determination, with the thought that if I just tried, if I didn't lose my head and so long as I remained focused I could actually do what he wanted me to do.

My curiosity peaked at the last line though. "Gifts? What kind of gifts are we talking about? Because if you're going to give me 'gift' like Naruto's dad gave him then no thanks!" Seriously, I didn't want anything sealed away inside me. The power looked cool in the anime, but now that I'm actually somewhere where something like that could happen to me, the thought makes me want to throw up.

"**Rest assured that no creature shall be sealed inside of you. You will know what gifts I have given you when you receive them. Remember, get stronger, train until you drop, become the best that you can be. Oh, and just because you cannot tell anyone that you know the general future doesn't mean that you cannot give them a push in the right direction. Now I bid you adieu."**

With that I sat up so fast it made my back click and my neck snap forward, finding that I was in the room that was set up for me in the Sarutobi compound. The bed was a pristine white and was up against a window so that the sun was shining directly on me through the blinds, illuminating the 6 by 6 room.

I wiped my hand across my forehead, finding that I was drenched with sweat, my shirt was stuck to my body and my hands and feet were deathly cold. I leaned forward and put my head in my hands, trying, and failing, to wrap my head around everything that happened in my dream, wondering if it was actually all a dream.

At that thought I felt the fear creeping up on me again, confirming that it was all real. I calmed my breathing and tried to think back on the conversation, but found that the details were slipping out of my memory as if they really were a dream. I remembered the main points of everything, but the nuances of the conversation had slipped from my mind.

xxxx

"Here are the weapons that you desired Makkusu," Hiruzen-sensei said to me on the Thursday, my first day where I was dragged out of the academy to become the Old Man's apprentice. I wondered how my apprenticeship under him had been rationalised, seeing as he and everyone else once again thought that I was merely an eight year old prodigy.

I reached out to grab them, but he held them out of my reach. "These weapons are quite heavy, and there is no point in wearing them if you don't know how to use them. So, from now on we will be building up your basic skills, as well as using weights to get you used to having them on your arms. Once these are up to an acceptable standard, then we will begin developing a style for you to use."

"You're joking right? I've been training my body and chakra control ever since I was three, I'm smarter, faster and stronger than anyone else my age," I told him with pride. It was true, and something that I couldn't help but protest; my only friends before the academy had been Naruto and my brother Sasuke, leaving me a lot of time to just train as there are no laptops or games consoles.

At that Hiruzen-sensei erupted into laughter, clapping his hand on my shoulder. "My dear boy, my standards are much higher than you could possibly expect. I expect to get a child of your talent up to Genin level by the end of the year," he told me casually. "Jiraiya had a fit when I told him what I expected of him upon receiving him as a Genin, and you are barely an academy student; I expect you to be greater than even my three previous students."

That actually shook me up a bit. Naruto was the only one in our generation who got better than a Sannin in the anime, and that was because he had Sage Mode and Kurama to help him, plus the fact that he had the Rasengan, and he was the son of the Yondaime and Kushina.

All I had was myself. Sure I was intelligent, had a lot of chakra and the Sharingan, but those paled in comparison to Naruto's benefits. My intelligence was only due to my mental age, I didn't have an innate understanding of things, I had a lot of chakra, but within a few years Naruto's reserves would be so high that mine would look miniscule in comparison.

The Sharingan was my sticking point. In the anime Itachi and Sasuke unlocked the Mangekyo through the massacre which has no longer happened, plus the fact that I wouldn't kill my friend to get it no matter what. So that left me with the basic Sharingan which was going to be next to useless when up against opponents like the Bijuu, Madara and other Kage level shinobi.

I realised that I had zoned out when Hiruzen-sensei cleared his throat, causing me to jump slightly, kicking up a slight amount of dust on the barren ground. "Of course, while you are faster and stronger than anyone your age, you are not fast or strong enough for me. SO, to begin with, three hundred laps round this training field while dodging rocks."

"What? You're joking right, _three hundred laps_! That's like nearly ten miles! There's no way I can-" I was cut off when a rock bounced off of my forehead. Hard. I looked at my sensei to see him bouncing another rock in his hand almost nonchalantly, though there was a vicious gleam in his eyes.

When I didn't move he pelted another rock at me, harder this time, right into my chest. Getting the message I began running, all the while thinking of my revenge. If there was one thing I picked up from being friends with Naruto for years, it was how to prank someone that got on my bad side.

xxxx

"You *huff* are *huff* an evil *huff* _old_ *huff* _MAN!_" I gasped out once I had sprinted the three hundred laps. Hiruzen-sensei had thrown more rocks and hit me harder and faster every time I slowed down, to the point that I had stopped to throw up _twice_ and then he made me continue.

"That's right, and every time you don't meet my expectations I will get more evil and more vicious until you are up to the standards that I expect. Then, and only then, will we begin developing a style with your weapons. Until that time I will be tutoring you in basic kenjutsu to get you used to the movements required to wield a blade of any kind, adapted for you of course."

'_Great'_ I thought, '_another person who just wants to talk at me incessantly.'_ Something must have showed on my face, because Hiruzen-sensei smirked at me. "So, on with the training. 250 press ups, 250 sit ups and 250 squats. Then the same again with these weights." He dumped some weights that kicked up dust in front of me, causing my eyes to widen.

"These should do at first, build your strength and speed up to a point that I deem you worthy of further instruction," he said thoughtfully, as if the point was only just occurring to him.

"Are you trying to turn me into the next Might Gai or something?" I queried loudly. He looked at me seriously for a second, immediately halting any further protests.

"Listen well Makkusu. Might Gai is a taijutsu specialist and he can hit hard and fast, and I won't deny the fact that his prowess is worthy of the title Green Beast, but Orochimaru hits faster, and Tsunade hits harder. Do you think they do it all with chakra? Naturally Tsunade's strength is augmented by chakra, but chakra merely multiplies the effects of her punches, and she has the very real strength to back up her claim as the strongest woman in the world."

_That_ I didn't know. It actually scared me a little that her ability to put Jiraiya, a 6'5" mountain of muscle that must have weighed around 20 stone, through a wall wasn't necessarily due to her chakra augmented strength.

"So what exactly does that mean for me?" I asked him tentatively, stepping back slightly from the crazed look in his eye.

"I have retired from my duties as Hokage and have one of the most gifted children to ever attempt to join the shinobi ranks at my beck and call. I am going to turn you, Makkusu Uchiha, into the next shinobi legend. I want to turn you into the next coming of the Sannin combined. You will hit as hard as Tsunade, be as fast and adept at ninjutsu as Orochimaru and as cunning and clever as Jiraiya. What it means is that for the next four years and possibly longer, you are my student."

I gulped audibly. Something told me that all of the training I had done myself was about to look like a kid playing in a park in comparison to what Hiruzen-sensei was about to put me through.

xxxx

A/N: A little bit different to the previous chapters, but I hope you like it. This chapter mostly explains my character's purpose and origin, as well as provides a believable beginning to how strong Makkusu is going to get. The God of Shinobi has all the time in the world to focus on training you and wants to make you better than all three of his previous students who are legends in their own rights; no matter what you are going to get good.


	7. Chapter 7

The Time For Change

Chapter 6: Training

A/N: Let's keep it short and sweet; I'm Back Again! \\[T]/

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Makkusu doesn't mean anything, it's just Max spelled phonetically how a Japanese person would pronounce it (a tad ignorant perhaps, but it flows.) (I don't own Harry Potter it's just a relevant reference.)

xxxx

Duck. Left. Left. Duck. Backflip. Jump. Roll. Right. Left. Right. _Crack._ Wince. Cradle arm. Spring up. Counter. Offensive. Three punch combo. Feint double low sweep. Right uppercut.

Darkness.

I woke up a minute later with a pounding headache. Hiruzen-sensei looked down on me in amusement, offering a hand to help me up, which I gratefully accepted. The old man's hand was always warm, whether he was offering me a hand up or knocking me unconscious like just a minute ago.

"Well done Makkusu, you managed to last a round three minutes against me in a taijutsu only spar, that's twelve seconds faster than last time," Hiruzen-sensei said calmly. I scowled at him.

It was so frustrating! Sixteen months I had been training three days a week with Hiruzen-sensei, and he could _still_ beat me with absolutely no trouble. No matter how much he assured me that I was leagues ahead of my peers, I just didn't feel good enough.

Intellectually I knew that I wouldn't be at the level The Source wanted me to be until I was sixteen, and that was years away, but it was just so damn frustrating, knowing that I was weak.

And I couldn't confide in anyone. The day I had woken up from talking to The Source, everyone had already forgotten everything that I had told them. The Uchiha massacre had been avoided, Itachi was still at home, and Sasuke was just as lively as ever and still best friends with Naruto.

That was something that saddened me. When I had started apprenticing to Hiruzen-sensei, almost all of my time and energy had become accounted for, and I had stopped participating in the pranks that my brother and Naruto liked to play. I had become distant from them, not intentionally, but with my focus on getting better I realised that I was pushing people away.

As it was, I barely noticed as Naruto and Kiba flourished together with _their_ clan jutsu. I didn't have time to see Itachi become an ANBU Commander, or Sasuke discover his Fire affinity.

The social dynamic slowly changed in the village. All suspicion of the Uchiha had been eradicated concerning any role played in the Kyuubi attack. Because of the amount of time spent together, the villagers seemed to reason that if anyone could rein 'the demon' in then it would be an Uchiha like Sasuke.

In his place, I had become the social pariah. It may seem unlikely, and there were still plenty of people who had it out for Naruto, but he was part of the Inuzuka clan now and he was already starting to turn people's hearts as with Sasuke around his pranks became less malicious, if not more intelligent.

With my Sharingan constantly activated, presenting red eyes to the populace that perhaps reminded them of a certain nine tailed demon, my anti-social air and the fact that I was just so much better than others my own age, it was I that received the visible scorn and disgust. The Uchiha didn't show their Sharingan around civilians, save for me, and so most of them didn't actually _know_ too much about the Doujutsu. In their eyes I was trying to usurp Itachi as well, which didn't help considering he was practically the second coming of the fourth Hokage to them.

Mum worried about me. Itachi had been similar when he was my age, but he had still had friends (*cough* Hana *cough*). Even at the academy no one talked to me. They shot me venomous glares for being better than them, looked at me with disgust when they looked at my Sharingan and they avoided me if I approached them. Even my tutoring with the former Third Hokage did little to appease the populace.

"It's still not good enough," I ground out, spitting gravel out of my mouth as I was pulled up. My muscles burned from the hours of working out. Normally the kind of workout shinobi engaged in would stunt a child's growth permanently, but thanks to our ability to mould chakra, the damage was negated and we became stronger and faster than was usually possible.

"Makkusu, you are not a man. You may not be a child intellectually but you are physically, and nothing can change that. You have to learn to accept that time is your friend and will provide if you but show it the proper respect in always trying your best," Hiruzen-sensei offered.

"Yeah I know," I said with a resigned sigh. "So what are we going to do now?" I asked him. We always did something different after taijutsu practice. Sometimes it was nin and genjutsu practice, sometimes it was about kenjutsu forms, sometimes it was stamina, strength or speed training, and sometimes it was analysing other fighting styles to be prepared for.

"Actually Makkusu-kun, today we are going to begin creating your very own kenjutsu style. Please equip your blades and we will attempt to discern which forms are best for basic stances, and if we can get those sorted then we may also begin developing a kata."

"YES!"

xxxx

I trudged towards the house mum had bought a while back, sore but happy after the day's training, not that anyone could tell. The entire Uchiha compound had been marked off from the rest of the village, the official story being that an unknown assailant had planted a noxious agent throughout the compound, making it uninhabitable.

With the death of father and the sealing of the compound, mum had decided that it would be a good idea for a fresh start, and so had bought a house near where the Hatake ancestral home was, abandoned though it may have been.

Itachi had moved and gotten an apartment closer to his workstation. He had been an ANBU Captain, which meant that he lead squads on missions personally, but an ANBU Commander answered only to the head of the ANBU Corps, none other than Shikaku Nara. Therefore, Itachi both went on missions and helped to coordinate important missions among other squads.

Sasuke lived with us still, obviously, though he spent a lot of time at the Inuzuka compound with Naruto and Kiba, and the three of them became thick as thieves. Sasuke and Naruto brought Kiba up in skill, Kiba and Naruto got Sasuke used to playing rough, and Sasuke and Kiba made Naruto actually use his brain, making all three of them good for each other.

"Hey," I called out as I walked in, but shrugged when I didn't receive an answer. Sasuke was probably with Naruto and Kiba and mum was probably round a friend's. They knew that I could take care of myself.

I fixed something to eat, and then sat in the living room for a few minutes, being bored. What to do with myself? I thought about going to see if Sasuke was with Naruto and Kiba, but reckoned they'd probably prefer it if I wasn't there.

There wasn't really anyone else I could go and see. With a sigh, I left the house and went to look for a spare training ground to use and work the strain out of my muscles. I made my way to the high street, turning over in my mind which training grounds would most likely be free.

I was stunned out of my thoughts by something cold and wet hitting me in the chest while walking down the main thoroughfare. I looked down slowly to see an egg slipping off of my clothes, which were soaked from the juices. I just stood there looking at it.

Why would someone throw an egg at me? I hadn't done anything to them, these people were civilians, I was working to make sure I could protect them from what I knew was sure to come. They should be thanking me, someone born here from another universe, for my role in their protection.

Lost again in my thoughts I was hit by two more eggs; one in the head and one in the chest again. "Oi, don't you get the message? Fuck off!" A random guy shouted. I couldn't even blame him for being confused and inebriated; he was obviously in full control of his faculties.

How dare he? How DARE he? Why had these people shifted their hatred from Naruto to me? "WHY?" I didn't realise that I had shouted the question to the street, which was now deathly still. Everyone was watching, all with caution and suspicion.

"Look at your eyes! Obviously the demon has left the blond brat and taken over the body of the prodigal Uchiha whelp!" The ignorance of the man in front of me was stifling, how could he possibly think that somehow the Kyuubi had gone from Naruto to me, when the Yondaime was one of, if not the, greatest seal master to ever live?

Their stupidity knew no bounds! Did they not realise that if I were the Kyuubi, throwing eggs at me and telling me to fuck off might _not_ be the best way to avoid getting killed? Despite the fact that I wasn't the Kyuubi, he had just thrown eggs at me for no reason! It was like he wanted to be punished for attacking a minor.

I didn't even realise that I had walked up to the man and was glaring at him with my Sharingan fully focused on him. I didn't notice that I had put him under a genjutsu that made me scarier than I would have looked otherwise.

I wasn't thinking when he swung a punch at my head and I responded by breaking his wrist. I swept him off his feet on to his face, still holding his arm, and put my foot on his neck. Gripping his arm, I twisted it, slowly, until a loud and satisfying crack echoed throughout the street, and the man's sobs at his broken wrist erupted into tormented screams of pain as his shoulder was broken and ripped out of its socket.

Not even waiting for anything else to happen, I left the scene and continued on my way to find an empty training ground. What I had just done didn't even cross my mind again; in my head, he had deserved it for daring to call me the Kyuubi, for projecting his hate from Naruto to me, for throwing eggs at me, for insinuating that I was evil and doing anything other than trying to get strong enough to save people and finally for throwing a punch at me.

I found said training ground without any further interruptions, and began my workout. I did ten laps around the ground first for a warm up, then moved into basic exercises, press-ups, sit-ups, squats, chin-ups etc. After an hour I was sweating profusely and starting to feel dizzy, so went for another light run to clear my head.

After that I laid down on the ground in the middle of the training area, looking up at the sky. Today was Saturday, so tomorrow was my day off. I thought about going home, but I realised that I just couldn't be bothered, no matter how much mum would worry. Every single star in the sky was burned into my memory as my Sharingan eyes took them in.

Without any warning pain erupted in my eyes, causing me to cry out in agony. It felt like someone had driven kunai into my eyes, it was pain beyond imagining! The only thing I could possibly think of that compared was when I was shot in the stomach just before I died in my old life, and it wouldn't stop.

I had no idea how long I spent writhing in agony in the middle of the empty training ground, it could have been minutes or it could have been days, the pain was all-consuming and obliterated any rational thoughts.

Eventually however, the pain did lessen, and it left me gasping on the ground, eyes tightly shut. I felt something warm covering my face and hands, and rationalised that my eyes must have been bleeding during the massive bout of pain that whatever that was had inflicted upon me.

Slowly, oh so slowly, I opened my sore and abused eyes, only to gasp the moment I looked through them. Everything around me was a mottled blue colour, with the trees looking a lighter blue than the ground. I swung my vision around the area, all pain forgotten in wake of what I was seeing.

There! There was an outline of someone hiding among some trees, except they were bright orange with their centre being an orangey/red. With a start I realised just what was happening; I had heat vision! It was completely out of the blue, yet somehow I knew that this was the first gift The Source had told me about. I blinked and suddenly I was seeing normal again.

The figure that I had spotted walked out from the trees, revealing himself to be Hiruzen-sensei. I felt out of sorts after what had just happened, and latched onto the fact that my mentor had been watching me without revealing himself and had watched as I battled with the most pain I had ever felt, apparently not feeling the need to help as my eyes bled all over my face and hands.

I didn't say anything, and neither did he. We both knew what was going on here. I had assaulted a civilian, and only the fact that he had swung at me first and I wasn't technically a shinobi yet saved me from a lot of trouble, although I found myself finding it hard to care about that. In return for not punishing me for that, and now keeping quiet about what had happened with my eyes, he didn't help with the pain or the bleeding.

When it came to Naruto, Hiruzen-sensei was the loving grandfather type, and when it came to the village, he was a strong and fair Hokage. However, when it came to being a sensei, he was a harsh taskmaster who would brook no argument and expected improvement and excellence. Oh he was certainly kind in his manner and demeanour, but I had done something wrong so he was fine with letting me pay the price. He probably had some of his own punishment thought out, but after seeing what I had just gone through, he would probably forgo it.

He led me back to my room in the Sarutobi compound; I lived with mum but there were plenty of times that I stayed here too. He washed the blood off of me with a sponge; again no words were exchanged, and then checked my eyes with a diagnostic jutsu. He may not have been a healer but Hiruzen-sensei knew enough to check for something, even if he couldn't heal it.

Apart from the pain lingering in them, which had flared the moment the adrenalin had left me, there seemed to be nothing wrong with my eyes, which was a relief; I'd hate to go blind like Itachi did in the anime. Despite being from another world I had still adopted the ingrained stigma amongst Doujutsu users of absolute fear of becoming blind, and with good reason.

xxxx

I didn't see Hiruzen-sensei again for four days, I left early Sunday morning and Monday to Wednesday were my Academy days, so I had plenty of time to adjust to my new ability. I found that I could switch between normal and heat vision rapidly so long as I was concentrating, and the longer I used my heat vision the more detailed and sharper it became.

By Wednesday, I was able to look at a person with my heat vision and know what limb they were going to move next as the slight increase in heat followed the electrical signals that travelled down their nerves, which with my stage three Sharingan with heat vision I was both able to see and follow.

I didn't know if my Sharingan actually changed, but I had used the heat vision a lot in the last few days and no one had said anything about it, leading me to assume it didn't. The problem was I couldn't actually see my Sharingan when in heat vision, it just showed the heat that composed my eyes, so to me they looked like a smooth orange layer while it was activated.

Thursday rolled around faster than I thought as I was so focused on getting used to my new vision. I was nervous as I made my way to the Sarutobi compound training ground for the regular spar with my sensei. Without preamble he upped my weights and made me do a slightly more exhausting workout, the usual for a Thursday.

I felt my heart rate increase massively as we set up for the taijutsu spar, and I activated my heat vision, which was almost like normal vision, except I could see Hiruzen-sensei's organs and circulatory system in red, along with his nerves which were white hot. It was something I had noticed among shinobi and not civilians.

Shinobi were trained to be on guard constantly, even when they were asleep, and were trained so intensely that a certain part of their mind was always sending signals to certain muscles to remain tense. Normally this would damage a human body, but thanks to the passive effects of chakra it had no effect on the efficacy of the human system. Thanks to those nerves constantly being visible, I can see in slow motion as the particular nerves flare for which movement they are going to make.

It also means that I can tell if someone is a shinobi or a civilian, since civilians aren't constantly tense and so their nerves aren't constantly electrified (which builds up the heat that I am able to see).

_There!_ I could see a flare towards Hiruzen-sensei's back leg, straight down the middle and across the whole calf, meaning that he's using the back leg to spring forward, no diversion in direction and the lack of major nerves firing anywhere else indicated that it wasn't a feint.

As I watched another flare indicated that he was going to try and take me out quickly with a punch, probably to the face since I'm so much shorter than him. I idly registered that he seemed to be stepping up training, he was moving nearly twice as fast as I was used to; perhaps he still wanted to teach me a lesson for attacking that civilian?

I shifted right such a small amount that I felt the wind on my face from the attack, and inwardly smirked at the look of surprise on Hiruzen-sensei's face. I lifted my right knee up to hit sensei in the gut, but he was an S-class former Hokage. I saw the nerves to indicate he was going to dodge by rolling right, so instantly compensated by continuing to plant my foot and spin to deliver a back kick straight to where Hiruzen-sensei's ribs were going to be by the time we both finished out respective moves.

With a sickening crack my foot connected solidly with the old man's bones. I watched as nerves were firing rapidly from two clean breaks in the fourth and fifth ribs, a hairline fracture in the third and rips in the muscles, until the entire area was lit up white from what I could see.

It was then that I realised that not only could I predict physical movements faster than even the Mangekyo Sharingan, I could tell how much someone was hurt from every attack. This meant that I could tell if I had really injured someone no matter how well they hid it, and so could focus on that area to attack and do more damage.

It was a mind-blowing realisation for me, and other possibilities flooded my mind, I could probably see if someone was leaning against a wall from the other side, I could tell if someone had touched something from residual heat, hell, my vision was so refined I could probably see traps even easier than the normal Sharingan.

Of course, I also realised that it wasn't good for telling if someone was lying from facial expressions, nor would I be able to see things if someone was dampening their heat signature or something else was interfering.

"Damn, it's lucky Tsunade is here," Hiruzen-sensei muttered, picking himself up from the ground while clutching his ribs. No matter how tough he was, sensei was an old man who just had two ribs broken and one fractured in a practice spar, it wasn't exactly a fight to the death.

"I have to ask Makkusu-kun, how did you do that? Last week you couldn't hold out against me for more than three minutes, now you were able to take me down in seconds. Where did this sudden influx of skill come from exactly?" His voice was jovial and curious, but his eyes were wary, and with my regular Sharingan on I could see the minute details in his wrinkled face that belied his true emotions, apprehension, fear and a hint of anger, though it wasn't directed at me.

I sighed, thinking if anyone should know it was my sensei. "That night," there was no need to explain what I was talking about, "my Sharingan changed. Over the last half week I have been developing my ability to see heat signatures; I have thermal vision," I said with confidence, hoping that nothing came of my confession.

Hiruzen-sensei looked at me with piercing eyes that seemed to be picking apart my mind apart and laying me to bear; for a moment I had a flash of Snape using Legilimency in the Harry Potter films, which was what sensei staring at me felt like.

Seeming to find what he was looking for, the tension drained from his body and he sat down suddenly, clutching his ribs. A green glow appeared from his hands, and he prodded himself gently for a minute before sighing, though the pain in his voice was obvious.

"Well, it seems that I'm not bleeding much at all, so I don't have to rush to the hospital; that will give you plenty of time to explain to me exactly what you mean by thermal vision and how it let you beat the former Hokage in a practice spar."

Figuring that I could get out of this (I didn't really want _anyone_ knowing what I could do; as I got older I found myself less and less willing to trust people. Not that I didn't trust Hiruzen-sensei, I just wanted some secrets that weren't forced upon me and occasionally gave me anxiety attacks still) I reluctantly began telling him what my new visual abilities entailed.

"I can see whether something is hot or cold; the hotter something is the closer to red and then white it is, the colder the closer to blue and then black. It is so tuned that I can see the nerves in the bodies of shinobi that are constantly firing to keep them tensed for attack, which civilians lack."

"I can also see all of people's organs, and I can see the nerves light up from where someone is injured. For example, with my thermal vision I was able to tell that you were going to dodge my knee and where, so I changed to compensate for your compensation. I can also see that you have two broken ribs, one fractured and some torn muscles from the heat is gathering from inflammation and pain signals are being sent."

After my lengthy explanation, which was the most I had spoken at once in months, Hiruzen-sensei seemed to slip into some form of light meditation while he expertly manoeuvred through the populace, who didn't dare scorn me both because of sensei's presence and because of what's I'd done to the last guy that mouthed off at me.

I left Hiruzen-sensei at the hospital, assuming that my lessons were finished for the day, but that wasn't to be the case. With a low whistle that I could barely hear, an ANBU appeared out of nowhere and kneeled in front of Hiruzen-sensei.

"ANBU, find Might Guy and tell him that his assignment for the rest of the morning is to judge Makkusu Uchiha's skills in taijutsu. Then find Kakashi and tell him to test Makkusu's ninjutsu after lunch, then find Kurenai and tell her to test him with genjutsu."

I wondered why ANBU would still listen to Hiruzen-sensei, and then remembered that just because he wasn't Hokage any more didn't mean that his personal ANBU wouldn't still be loyal to him after the new Hokage.

With a nod to his searching eye I led myself back to the compound, though I found myself stumbling slightly when I realised I was going to have to spend the entire morning with Might Guy of all people.

I arrived at the training ground and five minutes later, wasn't disappointed; if anything the anime didn't so the man justice. "DYNAMIC ENTRY!" I automatically flicked my Sharingan to thermal and glanced at the incoming figure. His leg was pointed straight at me as if flew forward like a homing missile.

Almost casually I brought an arm up and intercepted the mid air leg, which despite Guy's incredible strength and speed still spun away from me in mid air, forcing him to twist to land on his hands and bounce away from me in a back flip as I tried to knee him in the back.

"HA! A WORTHY OPPONENT INDEED! I PRAISE YOUR YOUTHFUL SKILL AND THANK SARUTOBI-SAMA FOR THE OPPORTUNITY TO TRAIN THE YOUTHFUL MAKKUSU UHCIHA!"

It all made sense now. He didn't need ninjutsu or genjutsu; he probably didn't even need his taijutsu. He was just so damn _loud_ and scarily enthusiastic that it would have frightened a Dementor (I couldn't get Harry Potter off my mind; I missed regular reading that wasn't looking at technique scrolls.)

Without further ado he rushed me again, apparently for the full Strong Fist with his full speed with weights on and gates closed, which was still faster than anything Hiruzen-sensei had ever thrown at me. Only the fact that my heat vision was on allowed to even remotely keep up with the Elite Jounin.

That didn't change the fact however that every dodge was just a little closer and every block just a little more painful, and every offensive countered just a little bit faster.

The entire morning disappeared in a flash as I fought for my life just to keep up with Might Guy as he attacked me mercilessly, not giving an inch of room to breathe or a second of rest, he just kept coming and coming.

It was only when the sun hit its zenith in the sky that he laid off, allowing me to immediately collapse to the ground, sweat pouring off of me and oxygen being in seemingly short supply as I tried to move any muscles without feeling they had been thrown under a steamroller.

If this was training I would hate to see what he would do with his enemies when he was serious.

xxxx

Training with Kakashi was a lot less intensive, he decided that since I was so gifted he would help me find my affinity, and the result was a massive surprise; I was a water affinity. It was incredibly rare for Uchiha to be anything other than fire affinities, if not they were lightning affinities or both, but there wasn't any known record of a water affinity Uchiha. I took the information with a pinch of salt, there was nothing I could do about it, and so I needed to find a way to use it my advantage.

The training was just a test of the academy basic jutsu (which were laughably easy except the Bunshin; like Naruto it required so _little_ chakra that it was incredibly difficult not to overload it), as well as dodging and countering some elemental jutsu that Kakashi had copied. Suffice to say despite how much he helped me, his hear really wasn't into it.

Once he left and I was waiting on Kurenai, I grabbed a sandwich inside the house and then went to the training ground to eat and await my next tutor.

As I ate my thoughts went to the anime that I could only really remember the major events of. Lots of characters had their signature jutsu; Kakashi had Raikiri, Naruto had Rasengan and Rasenshuriken, Sasuke had Chidori Sharp Spear, Senbon and Nagashi, Tsunade had super strength, Jiraiya had his Toad Oil Flame Bullet, Orochimaru had Edo-Tensei, Pain had Shinra Tensei, Obito had Kamui, Hashirama had Wood Style, Madara had Susanoo, Itachi had Tsukuyomi.

So I needed something to compare, something powerful. The only think I could think of though would be to copy Kakashi in how he made Chidori only see what happened with water affinity chakra. Before that however I had to master my affinity, which without Naruto's shadow clones would take years.

All the more reason to get started.

However, there wasn't any water in this training ground and I had to wait for Kurenai anyway.

The genjutsu training was easy in some ways and not in others. When it came to detecting genjutsu, nothing could stop me; even the Mangekyo Sharingan could be fooled by some of Kurenai's genjutsu, however my thermal vision acted like a sixth sense that Kurenai was unable to counter, so I was able to see through every illusion without difficulty.

Actually casting genjutsu was a large failure. I could use the natural hypnotic abilities of my Sharingan for rudimentary suggestions when I made eye contact, making me seem scarier than I really was and changing people's perceptions slightly, but nothing more complicated, I just didn't have the control or imagination necessary to pull it off.

I found that this didn't bother me though. I didn't need to learn genjutsu, I needed to perfect my taijutsu, kenjutsu and come up with some S-rank ninjutsu to rival and counter the things that everyone else would have later in life.

It was with this in mind that I didn't return home, nor go inside the house of the Sarutobi compound, nor go to a restaurant to eat.

I went straight to a training ground that was both empty and had a water source, and set about trying to get a ball of water to lift out of the water with mu hand, something I had learned from my vast reading was just one of many ways of training a water affinity.

I didn't even think of talking to mum, Sasuke or Itachi, and so had no idea how sad my mother was when she slowly and quietly slipped away after watching me for a while to see if any thoughts of returning home entered my mind. I had no idea that she felt like she was losing me.

xxxx

A/N: Here we have another chapter of The Time for Change, which was incredibly hard to write. I hope everyone liked the new Sharingan ability I came up with and explained well enough how it helps him. Sorry it took _so long_ for chapter seven, but writing took a backseat to getting ready for university and I was focusing on the next chapter for my other story Instinctual Release before this. As always, read, review, follow favourite, and above all, enjoy.


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Naruto, Adventure