In the Leaf Village.
Dust drifted through the air as Naruto Uzumaki stood in the center of a clearing with his arms casually crossed. Standing ten yards across from him were three academy students, each in their own fighting stances.
"Try not to push yourselves too hard, okay?" Naruto smiled with a relaxed posture.
"No way!" a boy in the center shouted.
"We're taking you out, Naruto-sensei!" another said.
Sensei. The title still felt strange, but it was earned. At fifteen years old, Naruto had bypassed the Chūnin rank entirely. Now, he was a Jōnin, tasked with evaluating a potential Genin squad.
In a moment's notice, the three kids charged, attempting a basic pincer formation. Naruto waited until the first boy swung. Then he swayed left, dodging easily. The second student lunged from the right, so he pivoted on his heel and easily slipped by the attack. The third student tried to tackle him around the waist, but he sidestepped and tapped her lightly on the back to make her stumble past him.
They all scrambled to their feet, shocked at his speed. He hadn't even seriously attacked yet.
Not giving up, the students regrouped and charged in for multiple, desperate strikes. They threw kicks, wild lunges, and clumsy tackles.
Yet Naruto evaded them all as if swimming through water.
"He's too fast!" a boy yelled to another after wiping sweat from his forehead.
"I told you not to push yourselves," Naruto calmly declared.
The comment made them a tad upset. Operating on frustration, the three of them reached into their pouches and hurled an array of shuriken and kunai at him.
Thwack. Thwack. Thwack.
Each weapon had hit their mark, burying deep into his chest and shoulders. The students were happy and terrified for a split second, right until Naruto's body vanished in a puff of white smoke and a log gripped in his place.
"Where'd he go?!"
Only a few yards away, Naruto sat comfortably on a tree branch, spying on them from the shade of the canopy. He watched them scramble below, noting their lack of awareness.
"Hey, cuz," a voice said from the trunk directly behind him.
Naruto didn't flinch as he kept his eyes on his students below. "Hey, Will."
"How's their test goin'?"
"It's goin'…"
William didn't quite like the somber tone in Naruto's voice. It lacked the usual fire.
He watched as Naruto finally stood up on the branch, drop from the tree, and land silently behind the three students. Before they could even turn around, Naruto swept their legs, disarmed them, and pinned them to the dirt in a span of a few seconds.
All without breaking a sweat.
After another brief round of fighting where the kids tried desperately to break his holds, the three students lay on the grass, completely exhausted. Their clothes were covered in mud and dust as they each gasped for air.
Naruto stepped back and let out a sigh. The smile was gone from his face.
"I like that you guys are willing to be ninjas," he started, looking down at them. "You have guts. But the level you're all at right now isn't good enough. The world outside the Leaf is full of tough enemies. People won't hesitate to kill the second they spot a mistake. So… It wouldn't be right of me to pass any of you."
"We failed?!" a boy on the ground asked.
"I'm afraid so," Naruto declared.
They were all upset now as the rejection hit them hard. The girl of their grip soon sat up in the dirt with trembling lips. She looked like she was going to cry.
Naruto, however, wasn't going to compromise or offer a second chance.
A moment later, the students picked up their gear and were seen leaving the training grounds, dragging their feet with saddened looks on their faces.
Naruto watched them go until they disappeared past the tree line. William then dropped down from the branch, landing next to him.
"It'll be alright," William assured. "I'm sure next graduation you'll get a team ya deserve."
"I know…" Naruto rubbed the back of his neck. "It's just disappointing. I wanted to teach them. But if I take them out there right now, they wouldn't last."
William agreed. He was honestly invigorated by this scene, despite the mood. Naruto Uzumaki was actually a Jōnin trying to form his own team of Genin. And he was only fifteen years old.
This was honestly how his story was supposed to play out had the Akatsuki not been a thing in the original lore, or if the village hadn't shunned him for so long.
Naruto now had parents who cared for him, he had teachers who respected him, he had friends who genuinely liked him, and he possessed skills that put him lightyears ahead of the rest of his generation.
The only thing missing from this perfect picture was Sasuke and Jiraiya. No thanks to Arthur.
"Hey, Will," Naruto said, shaking off the gloom. "Wanna grab some ramen later with me and dad? He's off duty tonight."
"Can't, cuz. I've got a meeting to go to. Just stopped by to see how ya were doin'."
Naruto crossed his arms and playfully narrowed his eyes. "Ya really gotta let me in on those secret meetings ya guys always have without me."
William laughed. "I promise you, the meetings are boring anyway. Just a bunch of talking about logistics and border patrols. You're better off with miso ramen."
Naruto shrugged, accepting the excuse. Then the two bumped fists before William chose to walk back toward the village center.
Not a moment later, he was entering the girls' apartment.
Everyone in the living room was present except for Jada and Jasper. Jasper was still out in the wilderness, stuck operating within the Akatsuki ranks. Jada had no reason to be here in person since she had Flying raijin papers to listen in on them from wherever she was.
"What took you so long, Will?" Margaret asked, looking up as he locked the door behind him.
"Kidding?" he smiled, taking a seat on the opposite end of the couch. "I was watching Naruto do a Genin test today."
"His students failed, though," Alice intoned. She hadn't left the room, having sensed the entire scene at the training grounds from all the way here.
"That's a bummer," Alex laughed. "Guess the kid's got high standards."
"He has to," William said. "We all know this is for real now."
The casual banter eventually faded as the meeting began with everyone discussing their overarching plans for the ninja world.
First on the agenda, every important character from the timeline had to be looked after and evaluated.
"How's Sakura?" Alex asked.
"She's doing much better," William answered. He had been checking in on her training schedules. "Hard to tell exactly, though, because she's pretending to be fine."
"Agreed," Alice stated. "She's still got a deep-seated hatred for what Arthur did."
A few months ago, Alice had used her techniques to probe a lot of memories across the village. All to make sure Arthur hadn't done anything to anyone else. Like planting subtle genjutsu or sleeper commands before he was captured.
Sad for the group, she discovered he had thoroughly messed with Sakura's memories after physically beating her down while disguised as Kaito.
When those memories resurfaced, it had really broken her confidence. That was taking into account that Arthur was also the reason her parents had died.
The psychological damage was so bad for her that she had almost gone to the Hokage to hand over her headband and abandon her ninja duties entirely.
That was until Naruto, Kakashi, Tsunade, William, and Margaret assured her that things would be alright. Their wall of support helped her recover enough to participate in the recent Chūnin Exams.
Now she was slowly regaining her footing as a Chūnin by focusing entirely on her medical ninjutsu.
The meeting would continue by discussing the stability of Minato and Kushina.
"Minato's holding up fine," William reported.
And he was right; they were fine. Every ninja in the Leaf had monitored them closely for weeks. They didn't seem to be altered in any other way, shape, or form since their revival. They were exactly as they were the day they died.
What was more was that their presence changed the balance of power. Thanks to Minato stepping back into the military hierarchy, the village's prowess had doubled in a short span of time.
The borders were secure, patrol routes were optimized, and the deterrent of having the Yellow Flash back made the other hidden villages hesitate to make any aggressive moves.
Things were honestly looking very bright for the Leaf Village, especially for Naruto.
William looked at the floor to consider all this.
The main character was fully committed to Hinata. He was a Jōnin. He had his parents back. He had a massive amount of respect from many of his peers and the village elders. The boy who used to paint the Hokage monument for attention was now a pillar of the community.
Not a single person sitting in the apartment wanted to admit the uncomfortable truth: it was all because of Arthur.
Arthur was a monster in their eyes, a tyrant who slaughtered innocents and broke the timeline. But he was also the architect of Naruto's perfect story.
It was Arthur who dragged Minato and Kushina out of the grave and dropped them at the gates. It was Arthur who caused the awakening of Naruto's dormant Adamantine Chains. And it was Arthur who formed the tournament in the Land of Waves, which in turn caused Naruto to face Lars in the ring, pushing the boy to awaken the Nine-Tails Chakra Mode years ahead of schedule.
They all hated Arthur. But they couldn't deny that he had forged Naruto into a powerhouse and handed him the family he always wanted. It was a twisted paradox that none of them knew how to vocalize.
The meeting would eventually shift to recent news.
"We have a problem," Alice said.
"What is it?" Margaret asked.
"Fū has gone missing."
Margaret stared at her with a pale face. Then she stood up, crying out, "How's that even possible?!"
"We don't know," Alice flatly answered.
The room grew tense. The last they heard of Fū was when Hidan and Kakuzu tried going after her near the borders of the Waterfall Village.
Thanks to Margaret and Alice intervening, however, the Akatsuki duo failed their mission. Fū had safely returned to her village for protection, and the Waterfall leadership had placed the entire settlement on high alert to lock her safely inside the walls.
What truly puzzled the group, and what sent a spike of cold dread through William's chest, was their fail-safe.
Before parting ways with the green-haired girl, they had given her a Flying raijin paper. It was meant to be an absolute guarantee of safety so Jada could teleport to her in times of trouble.
So how was it indeed possible that Fū had gone missing?