-...I challenge you, Homura! - proclaimed Uryuu, while pointing at a confused Homura.

-...well, this was unexpected...- said a truly confused Homura.

He had no idea what was happening right now.

Whatever was going on with Uryuu at the moment, Homura felt that it was none of his business and he had nothing to gain even if he won the duel. Which he believed to be an easy win, he did not feel at all threatened by the boy in front of him. So Homura felt that there was little incentive to amuse his challenger.

To Homura, Uryuu was definitely a curious case of pre-teenage angst and perhaps a bit talented, but since he didn't know him from the anime or any type of canon material that he remembered, he was not willing to do anything too bothersome for someone he didn't know if he could alter the events perceived in the anime.

In fact, Uryuu and the others being accepted at the academy was worrisome.

He was not crazy or self-centered enough to think that their decision to go to the academy was completely due to him, however, he was afraid that he could have altered something significant in the process of his meddling.

Such as in the timeline or the order of events that would play out in the future.

However, he had already changed the course of the story.

By allowing himself to get close to Naruto, ever since their first meeting. When Naruto happened to stumble upon Homura's location who was busy making a meal for himself at the time; Homura took the incentive to change fate to benefit himself.

Ever since that fateful meeting, the 2 had become somewhat close, and Homura even used that opportunity to try to gain something of worth from it, but so far it hadn't paid off. Only the Hokage knew of him and there wasn't much that he earned from that; Hiruzen was a cheap b*stard and completely useless according to Homura.

In other words, he considered it a failure so far, but unknown to himself he had also managed to catch the attention of a few important people from his actions.

Not that it mattered to most, or that they would take any actions.

Two children becoming friends was hardly anything worth thinking about to most, even if one of them was the jinchuriki of the village.

The jinchuriki was under the protection and the top duty of the Hokage, which was ultimately the Hokage's personal business. To watch over and make decisions concerning the village's jinchuriki was at the end of the day his call alone; even if the people had trouble hiding their hostility towards the host of the nine tails.

Still, if the Hokage allowed the two boys to remain friends, who were they to meddle or try to impose their will?

This lack of effort in trying to deter him away from Naruto by the central powers of Konohagakure, emboldened Homura to continue pursuing his goal.

If the Hokage himself did not put a stop to him from trying to get close to Naruto why should he stop himself from doing as much?

He could go even further and try to get closer to other characters that would become important in the long run as well.

Creating strong bonds with several important people this early on would definitely pay off, and now was the best time to do it since he was a child; which probably meant he could get away unscathed if anything goes wrong more easily.

For him, it was the best time to try his luck and potentially gain powerful allies or be helped out in the future.

Truthfully, he knew that he needed all the help he could get if he wanted to survive among all the chaos that would occur in the next decade.

So Homura was not entirely against meddling with events or important characters, if it would increase his chances for survival.

As long as the war arc unfolded the same way as it did near the end of the manga, things should turn out mostly to be the same.

There was no need to go out of his way to try to recreate the events to be exactly the same.

For something to change greatly the course of this world's future something quite big needed to happen or a key piece of the puzzle had to be missing.

So there was little to worry about if he just made a few bonds with certain key characters and if he happens to get stronger by doing so; it was no issue for him.

Since just by existing he had already greatly changed the course of the story of the world anyway.

It was unlikely that a "Homura" the same as himself existed in the original work. Even if he did exist, the chances of him having been in Konohagakure during the events of the course of the manga were astronomically low.

Thus, he had nothing to lose -besides his life- but much more to gain by acting the way he did.

He couldn't lead a normal life if he was afraid that every time he took a step outside, or each time he dared to take action he was responsible for stopping people from existing in the future; or possibly something far worse.

That would be too much responsibility for anyone to bear.

Unfortunately, too many discrepancies and his future knowledge may become compromised.

Otherwise known as the butterfly effect.

The phenomenon that claimed and described that changes in the timeline from each minute or great changes would lead to higher levels of divergence when compared to its original turn of events. Or had the possibility to utterly alter an  entire timeline course of events, due to slight changes causing events entirely not happening or happening very differently.

Unfortunately due to Homura's meddling, the timeline has already greatly changed drastically since Naruto was someone with an important role to fulfill. Any and all divergences in his life could be considered of great change to the future of the world at large; just perhaps not dictate the course of events.

That and coupled with the fact that different Naruto media portrayed events slightly different from one media to another, but the overall consequences remained mostly the same; it was fair to assume as much.

Regardless, at the end of the day it was hard to tell what was true and what clearly wasn't.

For all Homura knew at the moment the story portrayed in the manga wasn't the truth either. The ending was too good to be true. He certainly did not believe that this world's god or the being(s) that dictated the flow of events was a simple famous mangaka in another world, but he couldn't dismiss it entirely either way.

But since works of fiction usually have positive endings, he still hoped that Kishimoto, or whoever was in control of the universe he was in, could, in some cosmic way, make sure that he would survive and have a happy ending.

Such as Naruto managing to defeat the big bad villains, that were sure to reveal themselves in the future.

However, at the end of the day, Naruto was not the person or persons who would cause the world to come together in order to stop an apocalyptic event and dictate the series of events that will take place for the next decade. That honor was in the hands of Uchiha Obito and Uchiha Madara, but most likely, unknown to them, it was Black Zetsu who had the final word over which events took place. Since he had managed to trick people much stronger than himself to do his bidding for millenniums even though he was rather weak as a fighter, or at the very least lacked the abilities that would put him at the top of this world chain of power.

Due to their fates as antagonists in the original story, they are ultimately the cause for Naruto becoming who he grows up to be and becoming known as the savior of the world.

Thus, Homura's actions within the village, ultimately only mattered on how much of an impact they'd affect Naruto. They had almost no effect on how much he could trouble the plans of the antagonists; at least as long as he did not interfere by changing major events caused by them.

Their goals were set in stone.

Even if they failed in this era, Black Zetsu would ultimately continue carrying his mission to resurrect his mother. However, he would likely take more drastic measures if he became too pressured. After all, a Rinnegan had finally fallen into his hands; he would not easily give up after coming this close to accomplishing his goals. And if he was aware of sshiki Ootsutsuki's survival or plans that he had set into motion, things would ultimately go from worse to apocalyptic.

The chances for the survival of the entire world would be far worse. For all the evil deeds committed by the antagonists from the first series, none of them wished to destroy the world. Most of them were misguided but ultimately they desired to help others and a safer world. However, the Ootsutsukis were bent in their ways in trying to annihilate every single life form from this world.  All so that they could obtain more power to satisfy their greed and lust for power.

By this logic, it would be a waste of time and a greater risk of uncertainty/danger to get too involved with people he did not completely understand and know the full extent of their impact on the course of events, especially if these people could become close enough to influence Naruto's trajectory.

It was the conclusion that Homura came up with by analyzing his current situation. He tried to distance himself from others and tried his best to avoid others getting too close to Naruto, but since the adults forbade most children to do it anyway; it was a rather helpful outcome. 

But it was not without him having mixed feelings.

Homura was grateful for the fact that Naruto was seen as pariah within the village but he was also deeply conflicted by it.

He understood what it was to feel alone, and thus even he craved to have connections, or at least maintain the ones that he had. Desiring for Naruto to remain on his own, isolated, was not something he wished for. He had a soft spot for the guy, even if he refused to acknowledge it.

And it would be pretty hypocritical for him to wish that to anyone when he had made so many bonds that were similar to those of a family, so desiring it for someone he cared about, much less a friend like Naruto...was a hard thing to do.

Even though Homura puts a cold exterior and interior he was not really a coldblooded person, just a pretty scared child who knew too much for his own good.

That was why he also craved connections, even though he knew deep down that it would be safer for them if broke them as soon as possible.

Unfortunately for him, stopping himself from getting too involved with others was proving to be more difficult than he anticipated, and the same could be said of his schemes in trying to control Naruto. It was far more difficult than he had anticipated. He was still failing at both aspects, respectively.

However, now that several children were leaving the orphanage to go to the academy in order to study the ninja arts, there was little he could do about it; but he could still try to delay the inevitable as much as he could or whenever he could.

This was the case for Uryuu since he was also going to the academy. So until he was able to fully understand Uryuu's possible impact within the story, he was better off not to getting too involved with him until he was secure on the full impact of what this change might cause.

So Homura responded to Uryuu's demand for a duel in the best way and the most Homura-like way he could respond.

-...Nah. See ya! (weirdo)- said Homura while waving goodbye to Uryuu.

Thus he continued walking to his merry way towards the orphanage.

This was because he could see the writing on the wall that this event would turn out to be a hassle.

Sadly, although Homura knew of all the consequences that his actions may have over the overall plot, he still felt that putting too much effort towards more tactical ways to deter the situation was just something he didn't want to bother with. Just leaving and not getting involved was the safer option and the less taxing alternative.

- (He's a dumb kid. He will probably forget about it soon enough. )- so thought Homura, trying to convince himself that he did the right choice.

He continued heading towards the orphanage once again without a worry besides that now he wanted to go to the bathroom as well.

But he did not expect what would be happening next.

- ?!

As Homura was about to pass by Uryuu, from the corner of his left eye came a fist aimed straight at his face.

This almost took Homura by surprise, but he had an alarm set off inside his head which made him react to the upcoming attack by doing several backflips and put some distance in order to avoid the upcoming hit heading straight towards him; as if he was pre-programmed to do that in case of danger.

For once in his life, he was glad that he had the physical aptitude of an Olympic gymnast due to Guy's weird training regiments and genes.

Also, it is needless to say, that the alarm that was set off inside Homura's head; was due to his supercomputing skill.  After having to train and follow Might Guy for so long he had to adapt to things moving all around him or him having to keep up with Might Guy, which made him bump into a lot of things or just hurt himself in general in trying to keep up pace.

However, none of that was currently going through Homura's head as he tried to understand what exactly had just happened.

-!? What!?- was the first thing that came to Homura's mind and mouth as he landed.

The events that transpired still did not feel real to him.

But he soon realized what had just happened.

Uryuu tried to hit him without any warning, if he did not have the leeway to avoid that hit; he would have truly been hit by the boy in front of him.

This was quite a shock for Homura, he was quite shocked by the action Uryuu decided to take.

Attacking someone when they refuse your challenge for a spar among peers was not exactly common practice.

Truthfully, it was rather uncommon. Even children knew that much. Such was the reason academy students don't go pick up fights with normal kids. Unless they were a full-on bully; and even if they did do just that, there would be consequences that followed.

Such was one of the reasons as to why at the academy, they make children do the sign of reconciliation after each sparring match.

To not let students foster negative feelings towards each other and develop bad habits during the entirety of their stay at the academy, after all having unruly shinobi in the village's army could only result in disaster.

-...didn't I tell you? That I demanded a spar! - Yelled Uryuu as he walked towards Homura in a confident manner.

-ha!? (...This is so weird, even for him... is this V*geta complex?)- Homura looked completely confused and slightly disinterested in what Uryuu had to say and relaxed his stance once again.

-...don't look at me like that! I told you to fight me! (Uryuu)

Uryuu ran towards Homura and threw another punch at him.

Homura avoided by moving his body slightly, but he was immediately assaulted again by a high kick to his right, aimed towards Homura's face once again.

Homura once again avoided by ducking but once he tried to step back as the hit had been avoided, he got his wrist caught by Uryuu's left hand.

- Guh! (This guy wants to beat me badly! I can understand that, I just wished it was not my face that was his main target. Huh!)- Homura, soon looked down and realized that his left hand, or more precisely his wrist, that had been caught by Uryuu's left hand.

Uryuu's grasp on Homura's wrist tightened, enough for Homura to start to feel actual pain from it.

- Are you finally going to take this seriously!?- yelled Uryuu.

The look in Uryuu's eyes was one full of anger and perhaps slightly desperate.  As if something had been weighing on him for a long time.

It was obvious from his actions that something weighing on him for a very long time, but that hardly mattered to Homura.

Normally, Homura doesn't like to fight or even to have to hurt anyone. Especially against others that he considered as children.

Everyone that he may have hurt in the past was ultimately never on purpose. But, if pushed too far; he was someone quick to retaliate against his would-be aggressors.

-...let go. I won't tell you twice.-  Homura spoke slowly while looking Uryuu straight in the eyes.

If Uryuu pushed him further he was no longer going to hold back, even if it was against someone he had known for a very long time now.

Although Homura was able to tell something was wrong with the boy next to him, he didn't want to get involved any further with whatever was going on inside Uryuu's head.

-... Not until you agree to fight me seriously!- said Uryuu, while he kept glaring at Homura without flinching.

-....- A perturbed Homura had no idea what to say.

Homura remained silent and simply kept looking at Uryuu... however, inside his mind he was rather confused as to why the boy in front of him was so determined in fighting him.

To him everything happening was rather strange; when he truly thought about it.

They didn't have bad blood, grievances perhaps, but nothing to the level that a full-on fight was needed for them to resolve their issues with one another.

So they kept staring at each other in complete silence. As if trying to see who would back off first, but neither of the boys broke focus.

-...

-... (Uryuu)

The silent exchange between the 2 lasted for almost a full minute before one of them decided to break it off.

Until Uryuu, was finally unable to contain his emotions any further.

-...why?- said Uryuu in an almost trembling voice.

- ? - Homura could not help himself but let a puzzled look escape his face.

- Why!? Why do you keep looking at me with those disinterested eyes!? Don't you dare look down on me!!!- shouted Uryuu while raising his fist to try to hit Homura in the face once again.

Homura was able to avoid it rather easily but then Uryuu went for a volley of punches that seemed to be trying to make Homura unable to properly defend himself as he could no longer counterattack; but little did he know that Homura was simply trying to tire his opponent out so that they would make a mistake leaving them open to an easy counterattack.

And a mistake indeed Uryuu made when he decided to get too close to Homura while delivering a punch. His center of gravity became too unsteady and he had broken his stance, which was what Homura was ultimately waiting for.

- *grin* (Got you!)

- !? - A surprised Uryuu was taken off guard by seeing the grin on Homura's face, only a few seconds ago he seemed to have a troubled look, but the burst of confidence only cemented the idea he had been tricked.

As Homura was about to be hit, he grabbed Uryuu's arm holding him, and lowered his center of gravity till he was able to throw Uryuu off balance.

The boy was sent flying a couple of feet away by Homura's quick action.

However, instead of crashing into the ground; Uryuu managed to land on his feet and immediately rushed toward Homura once again and delivered a high kick, which Homura had to parry with both arms due to how fast Uryuu was able to unleash such an attack.

An exchange of attacks and parries between the 2 soon followed.

Hits came from left and right as the two boys exchanged and parried each hit coming their way, even slight feints and low kicks were being used to make the other fall but neither boy was able to do so at the end of the day. Their senses were simply sharpened to such a level that they could easily tell what the other was thinking, without having to think too deeply.

If they had more combat experience, they might have been able to hide their intentions from each other much easier, but as it stood, neither of them were any good at masking their intentions besides the bare minimum.

Thus why, such an exchange between the 2 where neither could fully take advantage of the other had lasted for almost half a minute, without any of the boys backing off. The pain from having to parry each other's strikes was starting to put pressure and a strain on how much pain they could endure in order to prevail over the other.

This was not a fight they could take lightly or their adversary might take full advantage and exploit the gap in their defenses.

To remedy that, they both stopped exchanging straight hits and instead tried to restrain each other instead.

They tried to grab each other joints by using grappling techniques, but each time one could try to incapacitate the other they would be tricked into getting the other close enough; who would then use that as a chance to get a solid hit on their opponent.

Once Homura tried to restrain Uryuu by his arms only to receive a headbutt to the face. Similar things happened to Uryuu during the fight, he once attempted to restrain Homura's right arm only for the latter to use that as an opportunity to step on his right foot and deliver a hit to his rib cage with free arm's elbow, almost knocking the boy out from the pain.

This exchange lasted for a while till Homura broke it off, by swinging his right arm towards Uryuu's face to blind him so that he could catch Uryuu off guard and pin him to the floor.

But to Homura's surprise, Uryuu was able to comprehend what Homura was trying to do, so he took a few steps back in order to avoid getting hit instead of blocking the strike with his arms.

- (D*mn it... he saw through that as well.)- thought Homura while staring at his opponent putting some between them.

Such a passive ability to make quick and collected decisions on the fly astonished Homura.

He didn't really think Uryuu would be able to keep up with him to this extent.

The abilities and quick reactions that Uryuu was displaying in the fight weren't exactly due to his talent for fighting being above the norm, but rather he had to have trained quite well on his own and had an innate sense of adaptability to make clear decisions during fights.

His movements were too messy for them to be deemed as pure fighting skill, he wasn't exactly learning or stealing Homura's moves, but his ability to adapt to Homura's fighting style worked since Homura was not fighting Uryuu seriously, rather he was trying to knock him out without hurting the boy too badly.

-(Damn what is wrong with this guy? Attacking me out of the blue like that! And he is not holding anything ba-!?) Bleurgh!

While Homura was thinking about what to do next, he was sent away while his feet remained firmly stuck on the ground due to a well-placed kick in his guts. The pain he felt was numbing and quite devastating. He barely managed to avoid dropping to his knees from the impact of the hit he had just received, but it was obvious that he had clearly been hurt by the outcome.

Homura found himself a few feet away from Uryuu, that kick truly did a number on him.

- Kuh! - All Homura could think about was the pain he was feeling in his guts, and he could not help himself from pressing both his hands toward the injured area; in a pathetic attempt to ease the pain he felt in that area.

By trying to end the fight quickly, his movements became too repetitive and he did not account for his opponent being able to exploit that weakness in his defense.

This was because he was more focused on trying to overwhelm Uryuu and not realizing that although the boy was being overwhelmed, he still managed to trick him into a false sense of security. Which ultimately allowed him to trick Homura enough to be caught off-guard and deliver a powerful strike in the process.

Showing that Uryuu was a rather smart fighter since he was able to use his opponent's strength and confidence to backfire against them.

- ! *cough* *cough*- In a moment of pure surprise Homura, found himself vomiting, the hit he just endured had done far more damage than he previously had thought, he had been taken off fully off guard, and didn't manage at all to lessen the damage from the hit he had tanked.

The power behind that kick was quite something to fear, whatever training Uryuu had gone through, his strength and the fluidity of his strikes had undoubtedly increased. Still, Homura was far from shocked.

Children in this world have a lot of strength, even without proper training. A normal child had the strength of someone about twice their age in his previous world, to say the least. Their physical abilities such as jumping power or resilience were nothing to scoff at.  Furthermore, it could easily be increased with training or when they reached their teenage years. By then they could be easily compared to have the physical fitness of a normal adult from Earth; although the amount of strength each individual displayed varied greatly. Chakra may enhance physical abilities but if not properly harnessed it was overall wasted.

Not that any of it made much difference right now.

And sadly for Homura, the buzzing he experienced this time around inside his head, was more of a distraction and nuisance than actually being helpful, so he immediately had it removed from his current set-up. What had happened was, that he became more distracted by the buzzing going inside his head to properly react to it; and instead became more confused and panicked by the warning he had heard.

He had become too complacent, and underestimating his opponent had weakened his sense of awareness to danger.

Thus, what just had occurred was him paying for his hubris, which Homura was determined to never let it happen again.

He clearly saw himself being above Uryuu in pure fighting technique,  which gave him a sense of security and peace of mind. He had no trouble believing that he would win easily, but underestimating his foe would only result in the latter exploiting his weaknesses more freely.

- Are you going to take me seriously now!?- said Uryuu while relaxing his posture. He seemed now more confident in his abilities after managing to strike a solid hit on Homura.

-...you b*stard!

- Hmph! You're not the only one who has trained hard, all this time. Don't think you've surpassed me!- said Uryuu while casually walking towards Homura.

-...dude, you have issues... and talk too much. (I never thought he was that much of a chatterbox.)- said Homura as he managed to stand up once again.

He had managed to recover enough to feel a lot better, making the blow that he received from Uryuu become more of a mental blow rather than a physical one.

So much so, that he wanted to beat Uryuu more than ever; but was still apprehensive about taking on Uryuu seriously.

He had never truly hurt anyone before. A mental block had been forming inside his head; he feared hurting others. Although he saw himself as a child, another part of his being also thought of himself as an adult, making it hard to fight boys of his own age.

So he would often use words to try to fend others off rather than using his fists, more or less the same way he did to save Naruto from a pack of bullies.

- Why don't you go somewhere else and take your frustrations with you rather than try to annoy me!?

The utterance of those words almost shocked Uryuu who had almost stopped breathing for a moment.

-...Y-you!!! Have you forgotten what you... no, it's pointless now... I will show you what I am capable of... defend yourself Homura!- Uryuu stopped walking and readied himself to fight once again.

However, Uryuu's words did not fall on deaf ears and made Homura reconsider the true purpose of what was currently happening.

- (Forgotten?...did I say something to him about... hmm? I-I can't remember anything. But it doesn't matter. He attacked me first, so, he's going down!)- thought Homura while trying to come up with a strategy to deal with his foe.

However, although he was still slightly confused, Homura, decided to ready himself and took a fighting stance once again.

Swearing to himself that this time, he would use all the strength he had left to put down Uryuu for good. Only by beating him; would he get an answer.

Thus, both boys simply locked eyes one more time and readied themselves to win the fight ahead of them.

Finally, the spar had been fully agreed upon by both parties.

Chapter end

*Sorry for the original draft had it reedited after some nap, hope it flows better. ;p *