Back To The Past

Friends..?

It's been thirteen years since team 7 sent themselves back through time to save the entire Shinobi world from Madara, and they've  spent most, if not all, of their time in this universe training in the Mindscape. Occasionally being joined by Kakashi, Rin, and Obito for extra training, or Gaara, Kankuro, and Termari when they just wanted to see the familiar faces of a couple of friends.. it also helped that all of them were now aware of the alternate timeline, so they didn't have to hide anything from their friends. Gaara had made his siblings aware as soon as he returned to Sunagakure, and once they did, the sand siblings and team 7 became fast friends, again.

Speaking of friends though.. Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura had all been so focused these last twelve years on training and becoming stronger.. that they hadn't really tried to become friends again with any of the members of team 8, 10, and team guy.. they really had meant to try and stay friends with them again!.. but it proved to be harder this time around then the first.. but they'd get to it eventually. Plus they had Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro! How many more friends did they need to bring into this..?

But right now, the ninjas were more focused on other things then making friends.. like beating the sand siblings in a training fight!

Gaara quickly did hand seals, trying to put his team on the offensive side, "Sand shower." He spoke, small lumps of sand started to form high in the air, slowly getting larger and larger before he shot them down towards his opponents, directing them right at them. The members of team 7 watched the lumps of sand come down, which confused the sand siblings as to why they weren't dodging the attack.. but right before the sand lumps were going to hit them, they jumped out of the way, catching Gaara off guard as the sand hit the ground where they had just been standing instead of the tweens.

"You're rusty, Gaara." Naruto pointed out as he began to do his own hand seals, "Shadow clone jutsu!" He smiled widely as many more Naruto's appeared, deriving from himself, all with the same stupid grin on their faces as they charged at the sand siblings.

The original Naruto smirked as he was about to attack Gaara, he braced for impact.. but it never came. Instead, Gaara opened his eyes to see Naruto on the ground of the Mindscape with a large bump on his head as the nine tailed beast, Kurama, loomed over him with a frown.. at least he assumed it was a frown on the beasts face, he couldn't really tell.

"Kurama? What's this all about?" Sakura asked as she and Sasuke came out of their hiding places, they had planned a surprise attack before Kurama had interrupted their training, "even Shukaku is here.. is something the matter?" She wondered, noticing the sand beast sitting behind Kurama that Gaara had somehow failed to notice beforehand. Both beasts looked disappointed for some reason.. is that why they had interrupted them?

Kurama sighed, "you all are fairly old now, correct?" He asked as the ninjas nodded, Sasuke, Naruto, and Gaara were twelve years old, Sakura was thirteen, Kankuro was fourteen, and Temari was fifteen, "Mhm.. and in these years, you've made friends again with how many of your old ones?" He questioned them seriously, all of the ninjas went quiet, trying to figure out a good explanation to why they hadn't gotten to be 'besties' with everyone in Konoha again.

"Um.. well.. you see.." Sasuke began as he looked at the others for answers, only to be met by blank stares and shrugs. He groaned, they were NOT good at making up lies, no matter how good they were at other things, like training.

Shukaku laughed, "you all need to reconcile with your old buddies if you want any chance of defeating Madara." He reminded them, the ninjas hung their heads guiltily as he went on, "no matter how strong you are, your friends can help you become even stronger." He told them with a simple nod of his head.

"For once, Shukaku is right." Kurama snorted, earning himself a glare from the sand beast, "the only reason any of them even know you exist is because you three are the children of the Kazekage." He said, pointing his claw at the sand siblings, "and Naruto is the son of the Hokage, and you two are his best friends." He added, now directing his claw towards team 7.

Temari raised an eyebrow, "I thought Sasuke was famous because he's the lone survivor of the Uchiha clan?" She asked, earning herself a barrage of laughs from Kurama, Naruto, and Sakura, and an eye roll from Sasuke, "what?"

Sasuke took a deep breath, "The Uchiha clan massacre didn't happen in this timeline." Sasuke said quietly, "because the nine tailed beast didn't really attack at all, they didn't think anyone was responsible for it.. so the Uchihas never planned to overthrow Konoha and Itachi never killed our clan." He briefly explained in one breath, it didn't really answer much, but Temari and Kankuro still made a silent 'oh' with their mouths at the end of his story.

"Aww does someone miss being famous and having Ino and Saki drool over you 24/7?" Naruto teased, earning himself an elbow to the gut from both Sakura and Sasuke, earning laughs from the sand siblings who found Naruto's pain funny for some reason.. stupid sand people.

Sakura rolled her eyes as Sasuke crossed his arms, "I actually quite enjoy having my family still, I bet you do too?" He questioned, Naruto went silent before doing a silent nod in agreement.. and that was where the conversation ended.

Kankuro switched the conversation as he looked at Shukaku and Kurama, "so you want us to make friends, huh?" He asked as the two beasts nodded their heads, "how do we do that?" He questioned them while crossing his arms, tapping his foot as he waited for an answer.

Shukaku smirked as Kurama growled at the smartass boy, "easy, twerp. You act like normal kids." Shukaku told them like it was the easiest answer there was, "no 'alternate timeline' no 'gotta stop Madara'. As far as you all know, you're normal ninjas. Got it?" He asked, imitating Kankuro as he tapped his own.. 'foot'.. impatiently as he waited for his answer.

Kankuro rolled his eyes, annoyed, before nodding in agreement, the others followed as Shukaku and Kurama burst into grins at their positive answers.. but how exactly were you supposed to say no to someone when they were way taller then you.. and way more likely to kill you in a heartbeat.

"Great, so it's settled. You six will start making friends." Kurama laughed, it was like an explosion went off that shook the Mindscape and everyone currently in it! Sakura and Temari fell over as Kankuro and Naruto almost followed them down, barely managing to save their footing.

Gaara was trying hard to keep his footing as he looked up, "when do we- when- when do we start!?" He yelled, constantly getting cut off by himself slipping.. when was Kurama going to stop freaking laughing?!

Apparently he should've wondered that sooner, because as soon as he did, Kurama stopped.

"You'll start now." Kurama told them seriously, their eyes widened when he said that. How could they start making friends so soon when they didn't even know where to begin!? They had so many questions to ask.. they didn't feel like they could easily go out and make friends again! They didn't even know how they did it last time!

But before they could ask any questions, Kurama 'snapped' his fingers..

And the Mindscape went dark.

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It's time for the ninjas to make friends! But will it be easy for them? Or as hard as they think? And where will they even begin?

Stay tuned to find out what happens next on Back To The Past!

Also, make sure you check out my others stories! Based on the manga/anime Fairy Tail, Dragon Spirit and Lost Senses!