Saints and Suffering: A Naruto Fanfiction

Chapter 9- At the Gate

Sasuke and Naruto continued their discussion as the approached Konoha. The two had to scrap almost the entirety of their previous plan. Sasuke had hoped that when Naruto traveled back in time and reformed his chakra, the power of Asura would reform as well, but it seems that was not the case.

Worse yet, Sasuke himself lost the power of Indra as soon as he reached the past.

The duo, rather than approach Konoha using Naruto's trail of destruction, made their way to the main roads and walked like normal travelers. The roads were busy, but in the opposite direction. Many civilians had decided to leave Konoha following the attack of the Kyuubi. Naruto and Sasuke were the only two heading towards the village.

Kurama had run off into the woods overnight, but the two of them would feel its eyes on them every once in a while, and they knew it remained close by.

Naruto's and Sauske's discussion was not going well, and the two of them were in disagreement over their next actions. Naruto spoke.

  "So why do we need aliases?"

Sasuke replied.

  "How else are we going to get into the village?"

Naruto scratched his head.

  "Why don't we just talk with Sandaime-jii-chan and explain our position?"

  "Sandaime isn't even the Hokage anymore, Naruto, you saved yondaime, obviously we'd have to talk to him."

  "Ok, so?"

  "What's you plan, go up there and tell him 'Hi, I'm your son from far in the future and I'm here to raise and train your son, who is also me, in order to defeat a space goddess.'?"

Naruto nodded and looked at Sasuke with serious eyes. Sasuke questioned.

  "Are you really that opposed to hiding our identities?"

Naruto nodded again before speaking.

  "We have nothing to hide, and are here to protect Konoha, why wouldn't they accept us?"

Sasuke furrowed his brow.

  "I suppose there is nothing I can do to convince you otherwise for the time being."

Naruto nodded again and laughed.

  "Yep! How about this, we try my way first, and if it doesn't work out, we'll do it your way?"

Sasuke quickly agreed, however, he added a stipulation.

  "Just in case your plan doesn't work, let's try it with disguises on. If it does work we can always remove them later without a problem, but if it doesn't, we won't be able to execute my method without henge, and I don't think you would like to stay in henge for 15 years."

Naruto was willing to compromise, and the two continued to make their way toward the village while discussing the other parts of their plan.

Sasuke spoke.

  "The most logical path is for me to be responsible for my younger version's strength gain while you are responsible for your own counterpart.

  While my younger counterpart is still in the same situation I was, young Naruto is without the nine-tails, and thanks to the Great Freedom Sutra, our chances of remedying that is zero.

  The more we change the trajectory of the past, the less we can predict what happens. One of our most valuable assets is our knowledge of future events."

Naruto disagreed.

  "My past has changed, but we can't yet see if it has made a negative impact on my strength. I saved Kushina and Minato, and their presence in my past might be a net benefit."