Chapter 10- Plan B

Naruto had just grabbed Sasuke and performed the Shunshin no Jutsu to teleport away from the main gate of Konoha. Sasuke took a quick glance around before commenting.

"It seems like your chakra control has improved enough to successfully perform a simple jutsu. That being said..."

Naruto scratched his head and laughed with a wry smile.

"Yeah, it is pretty impressive isn't it?"

Sasuke replied.

"Not in particular."

Naruto whipped his head to stare directly at his fellow ninja.

"What the hell do you mean, teme?"

Sasuke gestured around him.

"We're back at the cliff we started at. You're about 15 miles further than necessary. Extremely lackluster control."

Naruto was about to respond when a small, orange flash in the distance caught their attention. Sasuke tilted his head and gazed at it, before turning back to Naruto.

Naruto shrugged his shoulders.

"Heads up, this is gonna be a little annoying. That's Kurama, and he doesn't seem too happy."

Sasuke replied.

"The Kyuubi must have lost us when we escaped. It seems to be quite attached to you."

Naruto sighed.

"This time he's the warden. He thinks I'll become corrupted so he won't take his eyes off me."

Sasuke nodded.

"Turnabout is fair play."

Soon enough, the demon fox made it within hearing distance, and Naruto yelled at him.

"HEY! SLOW DOWN! YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO ST--"

Before Naruto could finish though, the small bundle of orange fur impacted him at mach speed and took him off his feet. The fox was glued to Naruto's head, and his momentum carried the two of them directly into the ground, carving a deep and wide trench.

Naruto slowly got back onto his feet, and walked back to Sasuke's side, who stared on in silence.

The fox broke the silence.

"The guilty flee when none pursue. What excuse do you have for escaping?"

Naruto rebutted.

"They were attacking me at the gate, what else should I do?"

The fox, which had perched itself on top of Naruto's head, answered.

"You defeated me and Minato, those ants posed no threat. That means you were trying to escape. You are my charge, and I am ensuring that you will not fall to the temptations of evil and wrath."

"I told you I'm fine Kurama, besides how can I even run from you?

Sasuke gave Naruto a questioning look, Naruto noticed and addressed the unsaid question.

"Kurama demanded that I accept a tracking seal; He say's that I'm indistinguishable from a rock otherwise."

Kurama interrupted.

"Indeed, were you not capable of movement and speech, to my perception, you would be dead in every sense of the word."

Sasuke directly addressed the demon fox.

"Kyuubi-

Naruto immediately interrupted.

"His name is Kurama."

Kurama interjected at Naruto's comment.

"I did not give him permission to use my name."

Naruto started arguing with the fox.

"Do you have to be like this? Sasuke here is a good friend of mine."

"Only people I acknowledge may use my name."

"He's just as strong as I am though."

Kurama looked at Naruto before shifting his gaze to Sasuke, and then back.

"I don't think so."

"Well, he's a little drained at the moment, but he'll get better."

Kurama snorted.

"Then I will acknowledge him then. Until that point, Kyuubi is fine.

Naruto was exasperated, but held his tongue. Dealing with the fox was just as difficult as he remembered, but in different ways.

Sasuke continued his line of inquiry with the fox.

"Kyuubi, as I understand, you wish to supervise Naruto here until you deem him no longer a risk?"

"Correct, mortal."

"And when will you stop monitoring him?"

"When I am satisfied."

"And when will that be?"

"When I decide so."

The fox was starting to get irritated at the mortal in front of him. The boy was interrogating him, and even worse, he dared to question Kurama with his paltry power. The boy might be below genin level. Kurama's tails started to swish more aggressively from side to side. As the tails whipped around Naruto's head, they started to hit Naruto in the face.

Naruto sat down on the ground with his legs crossed, and Sasuke mirrored him. Naruto then grabbed the fox, removed him from his head, and placed the fox into his lap. He stroked the fox's fur, and Kurama's tails started to calm themselves.

Sasuke asked Kurama some more questions.

"Kyuubi, my friend and I wish to interact with the humans of this world, but we will not be able to do so if you continue to monitor Naruto in such a conspicuous manner."

"That doesn't sound like my problem?"

"But it is. If you wish to confirm that the Human Emotion has not corrupted him, you must be able to witness how he interacts with other humans."

"Your silver tongue speaks honeyed words, boy, but I care not for your situation. I have my own designs."

Naruto interjected into their conversation.

"C'mon Kurama, it'll be fun. There's also a lot of tasty food inside the villages? You'll find something delicious everyday!"

Kurama mulled over the older's man words. So far, the older man had been honest and forthright in his communication, unlike the boy before him. The boy spoke with ulterior motives, and it reminded him of a particular clan that Kurama especially did not care for.

"You pay for the food."

Naruto smiled and scratched the fox behind its ears.

"Deal. I'll make some money once I'm in the village and you can get the lion's share."

Kurama corrected.

"The FOX'S share."

"Yes, yes, of course, the fox's share."

Sasuke looked at Naruto, who sat there petting the Bijuu, and wondered. While logic had not moved the beast whatsoever, a simple promise of food and money had persuaded it. Sasuke continued.

"Kyuubi, your current form is too illustrious, and would impede our travels, as well as your enjoyment of the mortal delicacies. Are you able to take a different form?"

Kurama stared at the weak, insolent, and foolish boy before him.

"You are asking the nine-tailed fox, the incarnation of power and tricksters, whether or not he can change his form. I thought you weak, but who knew the depths of your ignorance as well."

Sasuke's eyebrow twitched by itself. Sasuke was unperturbed though.

"So you agree?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"My form is illustrious."

Sasuke sighed, and Naruto had to step in again.

"Kurama, wouldn't it be really troublesome if Minato recognized you?"

"I forgot about that brat. He really is a handful. He even tried to seal me with the goddamned Uzumaki jutsu."

Kurama's hackles were raised and his last words were hissed out. Naruto calmly stroked Kurama's fur and spoke to him in a low voice.

"Don't worrry. The Great Freedom Sutra protects you."

Kurama huffed out before standing up in Naruto's lap. The fox jumped directly atop Naruto's head and closed it eyes.

"I tire of these humans. Perhaps a few decades without their bothersome influence would do me well."

Sasuke was again curious about the Kurama's decision making process. It seems that who said something mattered much more than what was said. While the fox harbored an implicit trust of Naruto, Sasuke was met with an equal and opposite inherent mistrust.

Sasuke and Naruto sat on the cliff they had first come to when they traveled to the past and looked off into the distance. The day was fairly clear and the could just make out Hokage mountain on the edge of the horizon.

Naruto spoke.

"I'll admit it. My plan was unsuccessful. We got attacked and had to flee. Your turn, but we try my plan again if yours fails.

Sasuke nodded in agreement and started to explain his.

"Our most important business is increasing the strength of our younger counterparts. The best way to do this is to involve ourselves in their lives as much as possible.

However, this will be difficult business. Our parents are elite shinobi and gaining their trust will take years, even with good intentions.

We don't need to act right now however. Our doppelgangers were just born, and we have 6 years before they start their training in earnest. We can use this time period to create our identities and insert ourselves into their lives.

My best option is to submit myself into the Uchiha family as the bastard of a branch member out on mission, I think you have it much harder. You will not find it easy to approach the Hokage's son."

Naruto shook his head. He spoke slowly, in a somber tone.

"Don't worry, I already got an idea. I'm gonna teach at the Academy."

Sasuke agreed.

"That is definitely an option. You'll have enough time to establish your identity and you will have 6 years of close contact with the both of us during our early years."

Naruto was not listening however. He was gazing off into the distance. The end of Iruka-sensei's life flashed before his eyes, and Naruto swallowed back his tears.

His life energy had given him sensor capabilities similar to his senjutsu chakra.

When he was rushing toward Konoha to confront Minato and Kurama, it reminded him of his fight with Nagato. That was the first time he had to deal with death, and he didn't handle it well, almost releasing the Kyuubi when Hinata died in front of him.

As Naruto rushed over to stop the fight a couple nights ago, he had felt a lot of people die. He was unable to save everyone yet again. Two death's laid on his conscience the heaviest. Iruka-sensei's parents once again died in defense of the village.

Sasuke called out to him to wake him from his reverie.

"Naruto..."

Naruto was somewhat skinny, his hair pure white, and wrinkles were carved into his face. He looked like an older gentleman most of the time. Like a kindly neighbor that watched the neighborhood, someone who had recently retired, or maybe just reached the golden years of their career.

He usually had a warm aura, one that seemed to catch other people and wrap them up in it.

Usually.

Naruto looked back at Sasuke, and Naruto looked old. There was a slight hunch to his shoulders. His hair was coarse. The wrinkles were set deep.

The almost ever-present smile on his face was gone. His eyes were dull, and it almost looked like they were starting go gray from cataracts.

Naruto had the look of a man who had seen too much. Someone haunted by the things they had done. Someone who desperately craved rest.

However, deep within his blue eyes, a hard glint could be found.

That glint spoke to stubbornness and drive. That glint cried out to an uncaring world that "I will never stop!"

A Will of Fire still burned within, and until it died, the man could never stop moving forward.

Naruto spoke.

"I felt Iruka-sensei's parents die. He supported me last time. I've got him this time."

Sasuke grimly nodded and continued their planning.

"The way we approach the village is simple. We'll have to stick to stories that could be considered partly true if we wish to pass the interrogation. Everything you say to them must be half-truths or better. If we lie to them at all, we fail.

We should tell them that we are shinobi who's country was destroyed in the previous Great Shinobi War. We'll need to come up with aliases; we should use a name we went by before so that we can pass their questions.

Furthermore, we will face a larger degree of scrutiny thanks to our shinobi background, but we must tell them. If we don't tell them, we will be under extreme suspiscion, perhaps even hostility as we recover.

The alias part will be the most difficult. We will have to convince ourselves that our names are not Sasuke Uchiha and Naruto Uzumaki, but instead our aliases.

If we are not fully convinced in our own identity, this plan will fail, as they will detect our subterfuge during our interrogations."

Naruto nodded before speaking.

"We can try that, but I've got good news. The aliases wont be a problem."

"Why not?"

"Your name is something that is written into your life energy. I have enough life energy to change the both of our names, but after that, I will be bone dry for the next few years."

Sasuke mulled over the new information.

"That does increase our chance of success, but are you sure?"

"Yeah, it'll be more troublesome to choose our new names than to change them."

Kurama chose this moment to open his eyes and speak.

"Old one, your name shall be Yama. Young one, you shall be called Shijin"

Naruto and Sasuke asked at the same time.

"Why should we choose those?"

"Other than because I said so?"

"Yes" "Yeah"

Kurama leapt off Naruto's head and sat a few feet in front of the duo.

He gestured to Naruto with a paw first.

"You are old like a mountain, lifeless like a mountain, strong like a mountain. If you are not a mountain, than there are no mountains in the world.

Thus, I grant you the Name Yama, and you shall be known as Mountain, and you name will be written as 山."

Kurama turned to Sasuke.

"And you. First you speak with carefully chosen words, Each sentence crafted with intent and focus. You choose your words like a poet.

But then I smelled it. It was faint at first, but the more time I spend around you, the more I notice it, and when I look into your eyes, I know it.

If he is lifeless..."

Kurama gestures at Naruto.

"...Then you are dead. Your eyes hold nothing. Your spirit is nothing, and yet you are animate.

It is a great conundrum to see the two of you side by side. One is alive and inside a dead body, while the other is dead and within a healthy one.

I speak thus, your Name will be Shijin, for you speak like a poet and Poets are known as Shijin (詩人)

But you are dead, so your name will be written as 死人 (A/N characters for Death and Man)"

Naruto and Sasuke looked at each other. The shared the same thoughts.

Kurama, who was usually capricious, demanding, and extremely willful, was also an old being of pure chakra, an existence on a higher plane than themselves, and a being which saw things they did not see themselves.

Kurama continued.

"I need not change my Name, for Kurama is my birthright, however I will allow you to address me as Ginou during the next few years. It will be written with the characters for Silver and King (銀王)"

Naruto looked at the fox with a puzzled face.

"Silver?"

Kurama transformed in front of him. The nine tails that he normally had slowly morphed and combined into a single tail, and his usual blazing orange fur dulled, and turned pitch black, before streaks of silver appeared on his body like shooting stars across the night sky.

As soon as Kurama had finished his transformation into a silver fox, he jumped back onto Naruto's head and closed his eyes.

Sasuke and Naruto once again looked back at each other. Naruto spoke first.

"My alias, is okay enough, but what do you think of yours."

"Doesn't matter to me, any is as good as the next."

"Okay, I'll start the process of changing our names; it might feel wierd, and I'll be out of life energy for a while after this, and I'll have to rely on chakra."

"Will that cause any complications?"

"Nah, It may take me a while to get things fine tuned, but we won't be in any danger in the mean time."

"Then lets proceed."