"Plans are nothing: planning is everything."

- Dwight D. Eisenhower

<>

Sasuke returned to the village later that day. Pretending to be dead had definitely run its course. He didn't want to deal with Naruto, Kakashi and Sakura, but it was inevitable that he'd have to. What he'd done was unacceptable in their eyes, and he was sure they'd want him to hear it from them. He went to the people whose house was closest to his while closest to the river- that ended up being Naruto. He pretended to show up shivering and tired, while Kushina called Mikoto and Itachi over immediately. Fugaku was at work, and didn't know about much, but he did come home when he realized his previously drowned son had returned.

Itachi looked at Sasuke and cried. He grabbed his little brother and hugged him, not letting him go. Sasuke pretended not to notice it, but when Itachi was done hugging him, his shoulder was a little bit more wet than it had been when he'd arrived. Naruto, watching from the sidelines, looked away with tears in his eyes. This was a visual representation of how much Itachi loved Sasuke. Sasuke, himself, sank into Itachi. The comfort he felt was radiating off him in waves.

"I'm sorry I scared you, nii-san! I tried to find you, and I heard your voice a couple times, but... whenever I looked for you, you weren't there. When I couldn't find you, I headed for home." Sasuke said, putting a scared, innocent face on. Itachi pulled back to look at him, then closed his eyes, pressing Sasuke to him.

"Never, ever, get too close to a cliff again, little brother. You scared me to death." Itachi told him, scrutinizing his condition. He shook his head, and backed off, and spent the remainder of the night alone. He never allowed Sasuke to leave his line of sight for more than a few minutes, though. Sasuke thought he might've just instilled a paranoia in his big brother that might be complicated.

Sasuke, of course, was passed on to his mother. Then to Aunt Kushina. Eventually he ended up with Naruto, who gave him the most terrible glare Sasuke had ever gotten from him.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, was when Sasuke Uchiha knew he fucked up.

<>

"Sasuke what the hell-?"

Just as he predicted, Sakura, Kakashi and Naruto were standing in front of him, perfectly ready to chew him out. Sakura and Naruto looked like they were about to physically explode, and Kakashi looked silent. Sasuke was scared of Kakashi's silence. That usually meant death followed for his enemies. Sasuke wasn't an enemy, of course, but Sasuke learned long ago that Kakashi's temper was not to be tested. He had done this knowing the consequences, he had known that his team was going to destroy him for it, but he still did it, because it needed to be done.

"What the hell." Sakura said it more like a statement, that time. She buried her hands in her hair and looked at Sasuke like he was an alien.

"I heard you the first time." Sasuke said stiffly. He was mentally preparing himself for Sakura's explosion, then had to check again when he realized she wasn't exploding. She was handling herself calmly, or as calmly as one could be when one of her closest friends was pronounced dead in the middle of the night, and then miraculously came back to life in the early morning.

"You're a complete asshole, Sasuke. You clearly have no emotional understanding at all, because otherwise you wouldn't have done that. Kami. Poor Itachi. Living in the same house as you must be terrible." Naruto exclaimed, frustrated. He paced around the floor, running his hands through his hair and groaning loudly. "How could you do that?! To your own brother?!"

Sasuke winced. The insults always got to him. He never showed it, of course, and usually brushed them off more often than not, a it was never nice to hear. "He needed to get the Mangekyo Sharingan. He wasn't going to get it anytime in the future, but it was necessary, so I took it upon myself to give him one."

"You sure did, alright! Good job! And you hurt him." Naruto shook his head, rambling some more. "Do you understand the concept of human emotion??" Another arrow to the heart. Sasuke winced again, but slowed his breathing.

"I did the right thing." Sasuke said simply, preparing for the arguments to start. "I swear my intentions weren't destructive."

"Sasuke, I don't think you understand what we're saying here. Why would you just... do that to your family? Pretending to be dead is the worst thing you could do to people who love you. Did you see your mom's face? And poor Itachi looked devastated." Sakura shook her head, looking absolutely disappointed.

Sasuke bristled. Anger, he could deal with. But disappointment wasn't something he handled well. "I did what was necessary for the team. Now Itachi has the Mangekyo Sharingan, and can help defend the village. Do you realize what that means? We can leave the village more, get more done. Make the world safer. So he had to watch me die once. He doesn't need to be worried anymore. I'm not going anywhere, anymore, so it's okay."

"You're ignoring the fact that you completely scarred him." Kakashi spoke up. He shook his head at Sasuke, crossing his arms over his chest. "You didn't see him when I saw him come home. He was devastated, there was no coming back. I thought he was going to kill himself any chance he got."

"You didn't see him look for me." Sasuke said quietly, but scathingly. Kakashi shut up, wondering if Sasuke was going to say anything else. "You didn't see him scream, or cry. You didn't see him let me go- say goodbye. You didn't watch him break. So you need to shut up about how broken he was when you found him, because you weren't the one that had to see it happen." His voice turned tired and sad. "You always lecture me about how I don't understand. I don't get it. But really, it's you. You don't understand why I had to do it. I can't lose him again, Kakashi. I can't. I will snap for good if I fail a second time." All three of his companions became quiet, listening to their friend explain himself.

"But I'm reasonable enough to understand that I will not be there all the time, there are other people we need to protect to stop things from falling apart like they did last time. He needs to know how to defend himself, and this is the best way to do it." Now he'd sit here, and he'd take their arguments and yelling like a real man, and he wouldn't complain anymore. He'd said what he'd come here to say, and would listen to whatever else they had to say. Because he had willingly brought this upon himself, and in the end, there was no one for him to blame but him.

<>

Kakashi had left for a mission two days ago, and hadn't returned yet. Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto went to school dutifully after summer break. They hadn't done anything adrenaline filled in a few months when they decided to get together and look at their options. In the middle of the school day, all three left effective, genjutsu covered Shadow Clones in class. They retreated Training Ground 44, where they often went for team meet ups. Everyone was too scared of the Forest of Death to venture there like those three crazy nine year olds did.

There they sat, all three. Naruto lay in a sunny area, basking in the comfortable warmth with his eyes closed like a cat. Sakura was perched in a tree above the boys much like her animal summon, laying on her back on one of the branches. She tossed a knife up, and caught it between her fingers before it could slip past her and stab Naruto. Sasuke sat leaning his back against a stump. He tilted his head back so he was looking up at the sky, examining the blue skies. "It's going to rain soon." He noted.

Naruto frowned. He, too, examined the sky, and found it was as blue as his eyes, as usual. "Whaddya mean it's gonna rain? The sky's clear." He tilted his head along the grass to look up at his friend in confusion. Sasuke angled his head down to meet his friend's eyes, and shook his head, sighing.

"It's in the air, Naruto." Sakura explained, tossing the knife one more time, and twirling it in between her fingers. Naruto looked up and noticed her and the technical danger he was in, but didn't move. He instead opted to go back to closing his eyes. Sakura was quite good at using throwing knives. Not kunai, normal throwing knives. Not that she'd ever use that as he official weapon. Sasuke hummed lazily in reply.

"I'm bored." Naruto announced, sitting up suddenly. He startled Sakura a bit, and she caught the knife in her palm awkwardly. It sliced her from her pinky all the way down to her wrist, but she just looked at it with a blank face. Her skin knitted itself up with no problems. She wiped the blood off on her pants. Her mother would complain later.

Sakura had gotten so good at medical ninjutsu that she no longer needed to use her hands to heal herself. She could technically use regenerative healing without even activating her Byakugou no In. Her chakra was so in tune with her, it knew what was wrong almost immediately and fixed itself. Of course, the bigger wounds could be fixed easier with her hands, concentrated bursts of chakra tended to come easier than regenerative healing in that case. Still, a feat that even Tsunade had never accomplished in her lifetime. It hadn't been done. Except by Naruto, and maybe by the Uzumaki family, and even among them it was rare.

"Is it time now?" Sasuke asked Sakura, turning his head up to look at her. Funny. He had to look down to see Naruto, and up to see her.

"I suppose so. She told us to summon her around noon." Sakura shrugged, sitting up and jumping down from the tree. She hummed lightly, biting down on her thumb. Now that she thought about it, she could've just used the blood from the cut. Oh well, too late now. "Summoning jutsu." She said, then backed away when she recognized the smoke and the body of Kagami arriving from Tsukinoyo.

"Sakura-chan," Kagami greeted happily, settling herself in the grass. She looked around at the other boys, whom she'd seen around a few times. "How can I be of assistance?"

"We need your help organizing things by order of importance." Sakura said, sitting next to her. Naruto and Sasuke scooted in as well. The three of them sat in a half circle around the giant cat, watching her.

"As you wish." Kagami nodded her head, and Sakura took evapopaper and something to write on out of her bag. She grabbed a pencil, also, and gave them to Sasuke, who was in the middle, directly facing Kagami.

"Scribe," Sakura teased. Sasuke rolled his eyes and took the paper, leaning in intently.

"Alright. Where do you want to begin?" Kagami asked, her ears perking forward.

Naruto frowned in concentration, thinking through his past life, and the things they'd already taken care of in this life. "We have a lot of enemies that need getting rid of, and we should probably do that now so we can enjoy the rest of our lives." He smiled. "Retirement. I like that idea."

Kagami's eyes softened, then she growled quietly. "I keep forgetting that you are all older than you appear. You look so small and fragile, but in reality you could probably break anyone and anything."

"That's true," Naruto laughed sheepishly, running his hand over the back of his neck as he normally did when he was nervous, a habit he'd picked up from Minato. Sakura had noticed him doing it, and bit her lip to hide a smile. Naruto had gotten his mother's personality traits, but a lot of Naruto's habits were reminiscent of his father, now that they were around the Fourth more often.

"Alright. Which matters are of more pressing importance to you?" Kagami asked, getting serious after a moment of silence. The three children that weren't children also became quiet to think.

"The First Hokage's killer has to be caught," Sasuke shrugged at his teammates. "There is no way around it." He didn't like the idea of not achieving justice for Hashirama Senju- because, like it or not, he had a deeply ingrained respect for the man that even time could not erase.

"Sure, but that's a mystery that can wait, for now." Naruto said. Sakura nodded in agreement. "That is interesting, though. It should definitely be near the top of the list. I say we go after Madara, right now, if he's still alive."

"Didn't you say he was weak when Obito left him?" Sakura asked, narrowing her piercing green eyes skeptically. "He most certainly should be dead by now. I, for one, would know the average lifespan of a human. Even a Madara human. He should be dead."

"Sure, but that doesn't mean he is," Naruto argued, pointing at Sakura. "He's escaped death before. Who's to say he hasn't done it again?"

"You have a point." Sakura acknowledged. "Still, Naruto... unlikely. Even people who are clever can only fool death for so long. I'm sure we can check, though. It wouldn't do any harm."

Sasuke watched his two friends bicker over his ancestor without saying anything. He was still thinking, mind spinning. There were so many things they needed to go back and fix... hell, maybe now even Haku could get a fair chance at life. "We really need to get to work if we're going to get it done. It took us a year to find and take down Danzo and Gaara's situations." Sasuke spoke up, finally looking up at the others. "If we're going to retire, eventually, we have a lot of work to do."

"That's also true." Sakura said, making a humming noise in the back of her throat, lost in thought.

Sasuke put Madara's name down on the paper, and awaited further instructions. Naruto, however, at the reminder of his friend, drifted off in memory.

Minato and Rasa were meeting for the first time. As a show of good faith, each brought their respective children. Or Jinchuriki, I guess we should say. While the grownups were talking, and Naruto got bored, he decided now would be a good time to wrangle Gaara. The poor boy... it broke Naruto's heart to see how sad he looked all the time.

"My name's Naruto, and I'm gonna be your friend!" Naruto announced to a small Gaara. The redhead looked at him in confusion, with thinly veiled fright in his eyes.

"Friend?" He asked, appearing shocked by the idea. "I've had many people tell me they wanted to be friends, but it... never worked out. Are you going to try to kill me too?"

Naruto's heart melted. "'Course not, silly. Friends don't kill friends! C'mon, you gotta come play with me! This meeting is so boring!" Naruto exclaimed, grabbing Gaara's shoulders and steering him out of the room. "I know just the place we can go to make perfect sand castles!"

Gaara's sand sprang up to defend Gaara from this new threat, but Naruto didn't appear afraid. In fact, he glowed a mild orange color, and sliced the sand in half with his bare hands. The sand that was detached from the spear looking thing that came out of the gourd appeared to shrivel up and disappear, and Gaara watched in awe, the sand retreating back into his gourd. The strange boy just looked at him and grinned, shrugging. "You can't hurt me." Then he tugged on Gaara's shoulder again, and this time the sand didn't attempt to move against the boy. It was as if the voice inside Gaara's head calling for blood had been silenced by whatever the power of the boy was. "Now c'mon! Before our dads find us!" And Gaara found himself following.

"I suggest you continue by putting Madara first, if you have a time limit." Kagami said thoughtfully. "What if he dies before you get any information out of him? That would be useless."

"That's true," Naruto nodded, sending a pointed look towards Sasuke and Sakura. He'd gotten one of the smartest beings in the forest to agree with him, so it was now something that they'd have to discuss.

Sakura shrugged, not in the mood to fight about anything right now. "I don't mind. What do we want to put second?" She asked. Everyone's eyes subconsciously went to Sasuke, who sighed loudly.

"You already know I want to solve Hashirama's murder." Sasuke said in his 'no bullshitting me' tone. They were going to get this done, if Sasuke had any say. "We have to act as quickly as possible. What if Black Zetsu can tell what we're going after when we take down Madara and starts destroying any evidence that may have been left behind? Like it or not, we're on a time limit here too."

"Lovely. What else do we have to worry about?" Sakura said after no one objected to Sasuke. Apparently solving a mystery was going to be next on the list after Madara. They were about to become Shinobi detectives, somehow. She snickered at the idea, then sobered up. "What else is pressing?"

"We probably need to start tracking Orochimaru. The Chunin exams are coming up soon," Naruto pointed out, throwing everyone back into their Chunin exam memories. Sakura rolled her eyes, but Sasuke added it to the list. It might not have been right after Madara and Hashirama's murder, but it was on the list.

Sasuke looked up from the paper. "The jinchuriki should probably be rounded up before whoever Madara sends to complete the job does it this time." He looked at Naruto. "You think you can convert them and their Bijuu to work with us?" He asked the blonde, who shrugged.

"I guess I could try." He said. Then his eyes steeled. "I don't want them to be persecuted anymore, if that's what you mean."

Sasuke nodded. "Alright, that sounds good. Going on the list, then." His eyes turned to Kagami again after he jotted that down. "You're not going to mention any of what you're hearing to anyone, are you?"

Kagami looked horrified. "Of course not! That would disrupt everything." No one asked what she meant by that. They knew better by now.

"Also, the Akatsuki. They have to be far up in the list, they're important." Naruto probed Sasuke's shoulder with a stick he found on the floor, and watched amusedly as Sasuke swatted it away and kept writing without missing a beat. He put the Akatsuki in right after Hashirama's killer.

"We need to visit the Mizukage, too, to make sure she isn't corrupt or anything." Sakura added, and Sasuke nodded, putting that down on the list as well.

Itachi had killed the Yondaime Mizukage in this life as well. That had been an incredibly weird situation, but apparently the Mizukage attacked him first for some reason. That had lead to Mei Terumi taking her rightful place in the throne.

They added some more things they needed to do, alliances they needed to forge. In the end they stopped with a list that was a pretty good first draft. Multiple things would be edited eventually, but so far, they had it pretty much mapped out. Sadly, Sasuke wasn't too good at going in depth with things.

First, they had down Madara's name, since he was who they were going for next. In second place, Sasuke had written in 'Hashirama's killer', since none of them knew for sure who that was, although there were rather educated guesses. In third place, Orochimaru's name took over. They had a couple notes jotted down about old hideouts and haunts that would have to be checked. They considered running that note to Kakashi.

The Akatsuki was to be taken out by order of power. Black Zetsu was obviously top priority, (they wrote KILL ON SIGHT in the margins of the note by his name) along with Nagato and Konan. Whoever Madara's new student was, was also imperative. Next up, Kisame, Hidan and Kakuzu. They were all grouped together, because they were the closest in power range, although Kisame was tougher than Hidan and Kakuzu. He had chakra that could easily be confused as that of a Tailed Beast.

The third batch of members were Sasori and Deidara, since they were also closer in power range and therefore less of a threat. They noted in the sidelines that they were probably going to pick up a few proteges, to keep things in the timeline running smoothly. Wherever Team Seven couldn't be, their proteges would be. They wanted to visit the Mizukage and the other Kage to make sure they weren't corrupt, because some things in this timeline had changed. They also had finding the other Jinchuriki on the list, which sated Naruto for the moment. They had down that they wanted to find the Three Tails, on that list too.

"Couldn't we just let Orochimaru use that kid... what was his name, Yuukimaru to get the Three Tails for us?" Sasuke asked, remembering the odd kid that had almost become the Jinchuriki. He had always been obsessed with going home- that had put Sasuke off while he was with Orochimaru, because whether he liked it or not, him home was Konoha. Needless to say, Sasuke had distanced himself from the kid during his stay at Orochimaru's base.

Sakura and Naruto took on identical horrified looks - both knowing exactly who he was talking about and hating that idea - and Sasuke elaborated on what he meant.

"No, I mean can't we follow them and use the same timeline, since Orochimaru probably still wants the Tailed Beast on his side? We can get to the Three Tails when he decides he wants to use the kid, but intercept them before he can actually make Yuukimaru into a Jinchuriki."

Sakura looked at Naruto, who shrugged. "Sure, as long as Yuukimaru doesn't get hurt." Naruto insisted.

"Fine," Sasuke shrugged. He'd never disliked the odd boy, he just... never wanted to be reduced to thinking about his questions. When Yuukimaru spoke, he payed attention, and it was odd.

They had down that they wanted to destroy or fix the Naka shrine, because that was the instrument used to lead entire generations astray. Sasuke decided he would be happy to be rid of the stupid shrine. They wrote down that they wanted to find their collectively scattered friends in countries like Kiri, Iwa and the other Great Nations. Even in small countries like Iron, Ame, Tani, and Kusa. Since they'd already taken care of Gaara and Danzo, Sasuke wrote their names down, anyway, but he crossed them out, just so they could remember what they'd gotten done.

Thus, they had finished the rough draft of their list. Sasuke allowed everyone to get a good look at it, before he stuffed it into his pocket to show Kakashi when he got back.

"This is shaping up to be an interesting lifetime, huh?" Sakura laughed, partly bitterly, partly nervously. "Imagine- we probably have to get all this done before we can retire. We'll be working our tails off for the rest of our lives getting these scum off the earth." Sakura, Naruto and Sasuke went silent for a moment, thinking about the future instead of the past for the first time that day. "Well," Sakura continued, shrugging a bit, "I suppose killing those guys is the best thing we can do with our lives. We can save so many others with them gone. We owe them that."

"We have to be careful." Sasuke reminded them, frowning. "We made some... significant changes, with the Third dying and all. Kakashi did good. We need to stop Orochimaru without losing Minato, but we also can't attract attention to ourselves. We're talking a hellish mission right here, guys."

"It's never too early to start planning, I guess." Sakura shrugged, adjusting her position on the floor to where she was leaning on Kagami. "New page then, Sasuke? Maybe we can create some protocols or backup plans."

"Hey, we need to get Kakashi-ani in on this as well," Naruto reminded them, tapping his head. "He'd be pissed to find out about this when we're in the middle of backup plan Stick or something."

"Stick? Seriously?" Sasuke groaned, running a frustrated hand through his hair. "You never change, do you? You just looked at the thing closest to you and named a whole backup plan after it."

"Well we're keeping the name," Sakura snickered, nudging Sasuke. "Lighten up, it's just a name." Sasuke looked at her to reply sarcastically, but ended up not saying anything, just looking at her. Sakura looked back, wondering how long this was going to last. The two of them still had an uncomfortable history. It wasn't something they couldn't work through- they were a team. Family- but it would definitely take time. Sasuke was still a bit of an inconsiderate arse sometimes, but hopefully, the two of them could figure it out.

Naruto noticed the two of them go into a weird trance thingy, and decided to be the one who brought back the subject. Kagami was looking at him as if she was confused, and that was a question Naruto neither desired to answer, nor was prepared for. "So, Madara's the most recent one, how are we going to play this?"

"Sasuke, it's your ancestor." Sakura said, coming back out of the ice. She was still looking at Sasuke, but this was cooler and more guarded. "You're going, definitely. But at least one of us has to stay in the village until we're Genin, so I'll stay behind this time, since Naruto did last time. You'll need Kakashi, he's an expert at... well, everything."

"Agreed. Thanks, Sakura-chan," Naruto grinned, giving her a thumbs up. He'd been going stir crazy in the village anyway. "I won't let you down!"

"You never do." Sakura ruffled Naruto's hair affectionately. The two of them were honestly more like siblings than friends now, (although all three were definitely like that, if Sakura gave Naruto a hug, Naruto would be 1000% more likely to hug back than Sasuke), and told each other basically everything. It was cute. Kakashi and Shisui had set up a betting pool over which boy Sakura would end up with. Pity for them, Sakura planned on staying as independent as she wanted for as long as she wanted.

"When are you planning on leaving?" Kagami asked Sasuke. "You should figure that out now, so Kakashi can clear his schedule accordingly." Sasuke nodded, thinking about it. School was easy, they could skip it no sweat, but home was trickier. They'd probably be gone for several days, and Itachi had been watching Sasuke like a hawk since... well, since he almost died. It was nice, cute, and all, but unnecessary. Sasuke hadn't counted on Itachi limiting his freedom when he fake died. It appeared that he'd underestimated his brother, just like he was warned not to do.

"We can go next week, I suppose. It should give us enough time to get our stuff together and go, I think, wouldn't it?" He asked Kagami. "We are facing Madara Uchiha. Senile old man or no, he's clever."

"I bet you twenty ryo he's dead by now." Sakura leaned in and whispered to Naruto.

Naruto grinned and nodded. "You're on." The two of them shook on it, and Sasuke looked back at them exasperatedly.

"You two going to be helpful? This is serious. Focus." He asked scathingly. Sakura lifted her hands in the classic surrender gesture, and Naruto laughed quietly. "Now, would one week be enough time?" He asked Kagami, who frowned.

"I think so, that would be enough time. I do think you'll need a guide, though, do you know your way there and back?" Kagami asked skeptically.

Sasuke thought for a moment, then nodded. There was someone. "I know a man with experience for the job."

"Lovely. Let's get started then." Sakura said, poking Naruto with the stick he poked Sasuke with.