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"A strong person is not the one who doesn't cry. A strong person is the one who cries and sheds tears for a moment, then gets up and fights again."

Unknown

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During their childhood, Naruto and Sasuke saw each other often. Now, they were five years old, and their families were closer than they'd ever been, for some reason. In the other timeline, Minato and Kushina were good friends with Mikoto and Fugaku, but in this timeline, they had become closer to best friends. They relied on each other, although they were mostly brought together by Mikoto and Kushina's friendship. Because of this closeness, however, Naruto and Sasuke were practically raised as cousins.

No one ever would've thought that Fugaku would have lasting friendships with non-clan members. This is true, Minato and Kushina are stark exceptions. In the beginning, before Minato and Kushina had even married, Fugaku used to just tag along with Mikoto to talk with Minato about serious matters like politics, missions, and international relations. All business, all the time, as usual. However, after almost eight of years of friendship, Fugaku has long since warmed up to him, to the point where Minato has become his closest friend.

Since the boys also grew up close, Naruto and Sasuke made an unspoken pact to protect Itachi should anything happen. Sasuke still hasn't quite gotten used to having his family, and this would be one of the toughest adjustments he would make. Going from a former orphan to having to answer to nagging parents and a nosy elder brother was a strange but positive change. Sasuke definitely could not lose Itachi. Naruto was suffering with the same thing, and from a couple meetings with Kakashi, they deduced he was the same way. None of them were used to this, but none of them were complaining about it.

Kakashi had already spoken with Sakura, but Naruto and Sasuke hadn't seen her yet, since they were always under the watchful eye of Itachi. That put them at around five years of separation. They hadn't managed to slip away, yet, but they were planning an escapade for the near future.

Finally, Kakashi organized a meeting for them. Itachi would be occupied by the academy, and Mikoto and Kushina were going out to meet with someone else. Fugaku would be at work, and the kids were going to be temporarily left under Kakashi's care, which was 'negotiated' by Minato, who was going to be at the office all day.

"Kakashi-nii, why is this taking so long?" Naruto complained. Now that Kakashi wasn't really his teacher, (yet, hopefully, he would be in the future) he truly was more of a big brother to Naruto, Sasuke, and even Sakura.

"We're almost there. Training Ground 44 is very hard to navigate with a bunch of four-year-olds." Kakashi replied, closing his eyes, touching the floor. He was sensing out chakra signatures. He spoke before Naruto and Sasuke could complain about being five, not four. "I already brought Sakura here, she's waiting for us there."

"Alone?" Naruto gasped, getting a panicked look on his face. "You left Sakura-chan in this scary place by herself?"

Sasuke frowned, extending his chakra to sense for her. He wasn't as good as someone like Naruto, but all ninja had basic detection skills. "Kakashi, that wasn't a good idea."

"Sakura's quite strong, now, you guys don't quite know the full extent of it yet." Kakashi looked at the two boys pointedly. Sasuke sighed, but kept walking.

"We know that, but this place isn't called the Forest of Death for nothing, ya know! And Orochimaru was here the last time we were!" Naruto squeaked, waddling as fast as he could with his short legs.

When they finally arrived, they saw their female teammate sitting on a fallen tree stump, cleaning her kunai. Laying in a clearing behind her was a giant, disgusting centipede. It was dead, and it appeared it had its head ripped off. They assumed the severed head was lying somewhere else. "Hey boys," she cracked a grin at them, putting her kunai away, "long time no see."