During that period, teachers continued to work at last minute paperwork. The Hokage went through a stack of reports that he wouldn't remember five minutes later due to the sheer mind-numbing nature of the minutae that ended up on his desk. The Akimichi chain of restaurants, including that Korean Barbeque spot on Konoha Tea Avenue, all experienced some setback as the delivery of fresh vegetables was delayed by a bout of stomach illness making the rounds at the shipping company. Kids not ready for graduation went to school, and so on.
In the life of one Naruto Uzumaki, he had breakfast of Choco Ninja Stars, tea, and a piece of toast. He went on to do his usual regimen of exercises, grabbed a bowl of Ichiraku's pork bone ramen at lunch, napped on the roof of a building, got his picture taken, met Konohamaru, wandered around a bit, and finally made himself some instant ramen with throw-ins for dinner.
Between Naruto's meeting with Konohamaru and the team sorting, there was a "soft point" in time where things could be changed fairly easily. A "turn left" moment where things could be shifted and a different path taken.
Toltiir chose to make the change there and then. A flicker of ghostly light, barely seen but enough to draw someone whose mind wasn't focussed on anything in particular. Naruto turned left instead of right.
There were several possibilities there during that "wandering" period.
This old warehouse, abandoned since the merchant was discovered to be a Kumo spy, hadn't been properly examined since that event. It had since been used as a "drop station" and it wouldn't require much in the way of intervention for Naruto to discover the hidden cache.
Over here, a perfectly normal shopkeeper who had never interacted with Naruto at all. One who knew enough about sealing techniques that she wouldn't confuse prisoner with prison. As a seller of ninja and camping supplies, there being some overlap, this could end up with a better equipped Naruto among other things.
Over this way a bit was Amaguriama, a shop that Naruto knew about but never shopped there at this point in time. Not much could be done with a stop there without some further effort on his part, but bumping into another customer could produce some movement in the timestream. There were three customers of the shop that Naruto could run into at this time that would cause some alterations. Anko Mitarashi was a frequent customer. So was Katsumi Nibara, when she wasn't the ANBU Tanuki. Without nudging things a little further, Naruto would also miss bumping elbows with a disguised missing-nin who had a sweet-tooth.
There was also a small memorial area and shrine, which marked a weak point between the so-called "Spirit Realm" and the world of the living. Easy enough, and somewhat tempting, to have Naruto stumble into the area and reach across the thinned barrier. It would be possible to give him a spirit-guide, a familiar, or have a ghost start following him around. Rin Nohara as a ghostly advisor/companion that only Naruto could see except on special occasions like the O-bon Festival, not been done to his immediate knowledge. Or simply a spirit-raven to act as a counselor and sensei maybe. Maybe a ghost-wolf as that would certainly intrigue the Inuzuka.
There was the fuuinjutsu shop, Sealing Away, with its various books and scrolls and supplies. All it would take was having that one book written by an Uzumaki to be out an inch from the surrounding tomes to draw young Naruto's attention.
Perhaps. Yes. This would do.
(Posted Tue, 10 Jun 2014 16:23)
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