Lerya's big bag of Drabbles 2 – Naruto
Naruto nodded and shook awake the silver haired man, "Kakashi-Sensei, we need you to wake up, something weird is going on..."
With a groan, the man sat up, running a hand trough his hair and scratching his cheek just below his face mask, "What is it, Naruto? And couldn't it have waited until dawn?"
Naruto shook his head and looked up to where Sasuke was waking Obito, the two raven haired men joining them, the elder jawing.
"We travelled back into the past, but we don't know how far back, and we don't know why. The only reason we do know was because the worrying of the 9 woke me, together with my gut feeling. I woke Sasuke and he looked around with his Juubi eye, and he could tell the chakra paths around us are way younger than they were last night."
He sighed, "I don't know what send us back, and I don't know why, but I don't like it. "
The elder men had a frown on their faces, just as Obito wanted to talk, Kakashi interrupted, "let's wake Sakura and Sai first, they need to know what's going on too, and they need to be informed of what you know, Obito. "
Obito nodded and turned to shake awake the only woman with them, the medic nin moaned quietly as she woke, looking around sleepily, she was alert in seconds when she saw the men looking at her, worry, doubt and uneasiness in their eyes. She sighed, ever since the original team 7 was together, although they now had some more members, trouble seemed to follow them where ever they went.
"What going on?"
She glared at the men in front of her, only easing up when Kakashi walked past her to wake up Sai, the former ROOT member instantly alert when he saw everyone awake, he stood and joined them.
Sakura looked back at them, "well, now would be a good time to start explaining."
Naruto sighed again and looked at Sasuke, who struggled his shoulders, "I woke up because the 9 were worrying, and they kept telling me something wasn't right. My gut feeling told me the same thing and I know to trust that, so I woke up Sasuke. He scanned the area with the Juubi eye, and saw that the surrounding chakra paths are way younger than they were yesterday."
Obito cut in, "they woke up 'Kashi and me, and I was just going to tell them what I know", and he took a deep breath, "we travelled back in time, only thing is, we don't know how far back. It could be any time from the Sage until 6 months ago."
He looked them in the eye, "I do know, when Zetsu still possessed me, he would sometimes whisper things, you all still know that weird dimension shift thing Kaguya could do?"
As Sasuke and Naruto nodded, he continued, "Zetsu manipulated a certain chakra for her to do that. But those 'holes', I guess we could best call them, they appear in nature too. Mostly like once in 100 years or so, and Zetsu knew that, he went looking for those holes multiple times, as to understand the way they worked to he could make then on his own."
He took a deep breath, "it would seem that such a 'hole' opened up on the place we were sleeping and sucked us in, I don't know how far it took us back, but we need to find out."
He looked up, "Sasuke, can you look around, see if you can find some residue chakra of this phenomenon? In the hope we can recognize it, and jump into it, hoping it'll bring us back to our own time?"
The younger Uchiha nodded, activating his Juubi eye again and began looking around.
He looked at the blond of the group, "Naruto, could you ask the Byuu if they ever encountered something like this before? If anyone is old enough to know, it would be them."
Naruto nodded and took a seat on the forest floor, closing his eyes and letting his chakra take him to his mindscape, where he knew 9 Byuu were already waiting on him to answer the question Obito just asked.
- Sasuke –
The youngest Uchiha looked around, his Juubi eye powered full force, he could sense something around him that felt alien, but he couldn't find it. With a grunt, he closed his eyes for a second, taking a deep breath, as he looked forward again, concentrating on a random tree in the clearing he was standing in. After 10 minutes, it seemed like one little particle was lit up in a sea of darkness, he approached, and finally came upon it, it seemed radiant, a lot more vibrant than the other particles.
And as he touched it, a flash of a memory came to his mind's eye, Itachi poking him in the forehead when they were much younger. And although the memory made him miss his brother, it also meant he had found the chakra needed for the 'hole'.
With a grin he analyzed the particle, once sure he would never forget its consistency and make-up, he turned around and retreated back towards their groups camping place.
- Naruto –
As he opened his eyes again, he was in his mindscape, the 9 Byuu around him.
Kurama, his partner, was the one who spoke first, "We can answer the question Obito asked you, Naruto. But as far as we know only a few of us have ever encountered something like this before."
Naruto nodded, "I don't care, we just need some answers right now, even if it's small, it's something. Meaning, we at least have a lead. And I know Sasuke, he won't stop until he's found something, so that's 2 answers, would give us more to work with."
Kurama nodded, and Saiken came forward, "I once encountered it with Utakata, but I warned him to stay out of it, so we weren't sucked it, we did saw a deer get sucked in, and when we looked through it, we could see younger trees. So we figured it was a time hole, just as your Uchiha told."
Naruto nodded and thanked the Rokubi, looking forward as Gyuuki comes forward, his eight tails coiling behind him, "A long while ago, even long before Bee, I had a Jinchuuriki who claimed to have fallen through one of these portals. He eventually gained favor with the Raikage and was made my Jinchuuriki. While he and I didn't get along so well, he did tell me things."
He took a deep breath, Naruto also looked a bit lost, and he still missed Killer Bee, the last of the Jinchuuriki to stay with him.
"He told me that once you enter a portal, you are essentially in a different dimension, meaning it is in no way connected to your own. This gives you free reign. He told me he grew up with a troubled childhood, but he prevented his own birth in this dimension, and it didn't affect him in the slightest."
He looked Naruto right in the eyes as he said this, the blond Sage was shocked, "We can prevent everything! Talk Nagato out of it, Save Sasuke from Orochimaru, Get Itachi back! Stop Madara, I... we, I can give... my younger self a childhood."
They all looked at their friend, what Gyuuki told them, it could change the whole being of this dimension; so many things could be altered and redone.
Kurama nudged Naruto with one of his tails, "Gaki, you do know we can't really use our real names? Or it would cause one hell of a confusion. Also, a lot of former enemies are still alive here, like Danzo and ROOT."
Naruto pouted, "Damn, I forgot about that. But still, we could do so much for our younger selves. I mean, Sai could have a normal childhood, I could have people who'd actually care, Sasuke would get out of his revenge, Sakura could get rid of her stalkerish tendencies sooner, Kaka-sensei could stop mourning Obito. We could make such a difference."
The 9 demons could only grin as they looked down on the blond, this little human, who had saved them all from losing themselves, who was their friend and didn't treat them any different than his human friends. But most lost their grins, they did miss their last inchuuriki's sometimes, their human companion, for some for 40 years.
When Naruto came back from his mindscape, the other where looking at him, he looked back at Sasuke.
The Uchiha spoke, "I remembered the chakra, it is almost the same as the kind Zetsu and Kaguya used during the war."
Naruto nodded, "I thought it might, Gyuuki told me he once had a Jinchuuriki that fell through one of these, and it's actually a portal to another dimension. Meaning, we're in a past time, a Konoha before the time we were in, and we have no idea as to how far back, until we do a recon. We can change everything without changing our own dimension. But, none of the Byuu knew if there was a way back to our own dimension."
It was quiet after he told them that, finally it was Obito that spoke, "but we can still change monumental events, even if some other already happened. I really hope I can stop myself."
Kakashi laid a hand on his shoulder, "don't hate on yourself 'Bito, Zetsu had a mayor part in your doings, you came around and helped us save the world and win the war."
Obito gave a small smile, "maybe, 'Kashi, but I still feel so horrible for taking Minato-sensei and Kushina-san away from Naruto."
Now it was Naruto who laid a hand on his shoulder, "and I forgave you a long time ago, and I know dad did too. Please forgive yourself now?"
Sasuke looked up, "so a recon of Konoha now, then?"
The 6 shinobi nodded and in a shunshin, they all disappeared, only to reappear in the forest before the gates, looking out on the Hokage monument.
Kakashi, being leader nodded at the others, making them all split into pairs, Sakura and Sai went towards one of the old ROOT hide-outs, hoping to catch a glance at Danzo. After that they would go and take a look at the hospital, Sakura, being a medic-nin, would see if things changed a lot.
Sasuke and Naruto went next, first to the Uchiha complex, to see if there were still Uchiha there, as to get an estimate as to make it easier to get a date for this day. After that they would head towards the Hokage monument, Naruto, being the loner that he once was, would sit up there for days, if he saw the whole village he could make out new and old buildings and see what has been changed.
Kakashi and Obito, the last pair, would check out the Hokage tower, both had been there once or more in their lives and could enter and roam almost undetected, they were planning on taking a peek into the Hokage office, hoping to discover who was Kage at this moment.
After an hour they met again at their camping site. Sai and Sakura spoke first, "we found a ROOT camp, but it appeared to be empty for quite some time. We looked around some more, but didn't really find an active one. We also didn't spot Danzo, so he might just be out of the Village."
"The hospital hasn't changed much, from what I saw some of the equipment was a bit old, but other than that it looked just like I remember. So as to that, I can't really put an age on this time, it is before I became a medic-nin, but that still gives a time span of about 20 years."
Naruto and Sasuke looked at each other, a frown on both their faces; still the Raven was the first to share their findings, "the Uchiha clan is still alive, meaning we are somewhere that puts us back at least 12 years. Also, I peeked into the main house, my father lives there with my mother, but they only have one child, Itachi. I didn't see me and I didn't see my mother pregnant. Itachi looked about 4, so we travelled 20 years into the past."
Naruto nodded, "also when we were up in the Monument, all the houses I saw were unfamiliar, meaning they were all destroyed when Kurama wrecked the place, so we did indeed travel back at least 19 years, if not more."
The last pair, Kakashi and Obito looked at each other, "we were spotted when we exited the Hokage Tower."
The other 4 couldn't help the disbelieving look on their faces, these two, Konoha's best recon, scouting and spying team, had been spotted.
The elder men gave a grim smile, "Minato is the Hokage and he spotted us, we got out before he realized what happened. But with him Hokage it would be better to just come clean about it, he'll figure it out anyway. Also, Naruto,"
They looked at the blond with them, "with Kushina still having Kurama inside of her, she'll be able to feel your presence, just like with the other Jinchuuriki, so it is indeed a better thing to just come clean to them. And maybe Jiraiya-sensei, if he is in the Village."
The younger four nodded, Naruto in particular, this would be his chance to get to know his parents, without them being the echo of stored chakra or an edo tensei.
The only blond looked at the horizon, "we still have a few hours until sunrise; I suggest we all get some more sleep so we can head to the Hokage Tower first thing in the morning. We'll all wear our travel cloaks, make sure all of you is covered, because especially for Kakashi," he looked at the silver haired man, "if he is recognized at this time, chaos will issue."
The four other men and the lone woman nodded their consent, going back to their rolls and laying down on them, they could all use some more sleep.
When morning came, Naruto had a rough wake up call. He shot to his feet, looking around he saw the other awake too, in various stages of standing. He looked in front of him, seeing Obito standing there, turned away with his shoulders tense.
He swallowed and looked at the other, Kakashi was standing in front of Sakura, holding true to an age old rule, always protect the medic.
Sasuke and Sai were both crouching, obviously only awake as long as him and slower in getting to their feet.
He looked back at Obito again; a movement in the corner of his eye had him moving to intercept the intruder. Only to clash Kunai with an ANBU guard. He swallowed, holding the kunai firm as he looked back at Obito, just in front of the elder Uchiha; he could see blond hair and a white cloak.
He swallowed again, paling now, they had been found. Found by the Fourth Hokage, he looked back a bit, his eye catching Kakashi's and Sasuke's.
With a sigh, he dropped his kunai and raised his hands, the others doing the same simultaneously.
All of them, now all standing, turned to look at the Hokage in front of them. A glare in his blue eyes had most of them cringing, when they knew/met him, he had been a friendly if protective ally. Now he was a stranger, a dangerous stranger.
Minato didn't know what to think when he caught a glimpse of unfamiliar chakra in the Hokage tower. And as soon as he turned his gaze, it was gone. Frightened and angry he gathered up his ANBU and went searching.
After a 4 hour search, just outside the walls of Konoha, he came upon a camping site, 6 people lay in a crude circle around a smoking fire pit. He frowned; he wasn't informed of any traveling shinobi. And looking at them, they could be anything but.
As he gives a signal to Neko, the ANBU took a step forward. Immediately the form closest to them sprung up, taking guard over the other, while waking the others too. The tallest person went to stand in front of the only female of the group, probably the med-nin.
He frowned when one of them intercepted Neko as she shoot through, intending to apprehend at least one of them. When it came to a standstill, he was even more surprised when they all dropped their weapons and held up their hands. They already surrendered, presumably unthreatening, then.
He rubbed the back of his head, he didn't trust this, with a nod to his ANBU all 6 of them were gathered and taken in for questioning.
When he heard the clearing of a throat, he turned around, "Hokage-Sama, if you would. We'd like to speak to you privately. Everyone you trust is welcome, but this is sensitive information so we'd like to keep it to as little people as possible."
Minato frowned, an odd request, but he didn't see harm in granting it. He nodded, and gave a curt nod to Inu, signaling the young man to gather Kushina, Sarutobi, Inoichi and Shikaku.
Once in his office, he dismissed all of his ANBU, except Inu, who took off his mask, revealing a younger Kakashi. Seeing everyone there, even his sleepy wife. He activated the secrecy seals, he had caught the undertone of the request this group had made, and he didn't want any of this falling to wrong ears.
He turned to the group, "talk."
The group of 6 fidgeted. Looking at each other out of the corner of their eyes, when they saw Minato's eyebrow twitch, Sasuke, like before, spoke; "you have to promise not to freak out. It might be a bit of a shock."
After a curious, if annoyed nod from everyone, they counted to 5 and threw back the hood of their cloaks.
It was quiet for a good 10 minutes, until the younger Kakashi took a step forward. His eye wide, "O-Obito?"
Obite nodded, taking the elder Kakashi's hand in his and hiding part of his body in doing so.
Minato spoke next, "how? What..?"
He looked at the others in the company, "Kakashi?"
Both younger and elder looked at him, before the younger took a look at his older self.
The elder nodded, "Yo, Minato-sensei."
Minato let his gaze wander the others, the teens of the company; he recognized one of them as an Uchiha, even though the left eye had him wondering. The other raven haired boy showed some characteristics of a ROOT agent, and the girl was obviously a medic, the symbol resting on the front of her jounin vest.
It was the last teen that made him stop and stare, dressed in the standard Jounin outfit, with an orange and black haori on top of that. Blond with wide blue eyes and whisker marks on his cheeks, he knew he was guessing but he needed to know, "Naruto?"
He heard Kushina gasp behind him.
The blond teen looked up, their eyes connected and he felt like the younger blond understood what he was asking without words.
A grin, Kushina's grin, appeared in his face, "Hi dad."
All the members of team 7 wanted to hit the blond boy, way to go in telling those from the past what was going on.
Yet, when Obito and Kakashi looked at their Sensei, they could see the acceptance in his eyes; of course Minato-sensei had figured it out. The man was a certified genius, him becoming Hokage at such a young age was proof of that.
Sasuke and Sakura sighed, they should really have expected this, Naruto was known to be the #1 unpredictable knucklehead ninja for a reason. And while he had been dead last in the academy, he had shown later on, especially in the War, that he was a genius on a whole other level. The guy accomplished it to make a solid plan in the span of 10 seconds on a battlefield. It may not have been as strategically stable as one of Shikamaru's plans, but the blond managed to make it work without, or with as little casualties as possible.
Sai gave no real exclamation, but if you knew him well enough, you could see the amusement in his eyes. He had learned a lot from Naruto and had come to respect the blond ball of sunshine.
On the other side of the room, reactions were mixed.
Minato had just gotten the confirmation he needed when he saw an older Kakashi and Obito, and a boy who could've been his clone with Kushina's characteristics.
Kushina on the other hand had her eyes wide open, her son. Her teenage son was standing in front of her. When he wasn't even born yet, and from the look of things both Obito and Kakashi were his senseis. Not that she had a problem with that, she loves those boys like her own little brother, if she would have had one. But her son, "How in Kami's name did you get here –ttebane."
Shikaku and Inoichi, after seeing Minato's face relaxing, and the exclamation the younger blond gave, didn't make a fuss out of it. None of the people in front of them made them feel threatened. They had known, or knew a younger Obito and Kakashi, and the others were just of a generation yet to come.
Kakashi, the younger however, could not help but stare at Obito. An alive, older Obito. An Alive Obito. He cleared his throat, trying the clear the tightness, "seeing as you're from the future, does this mean, my… I mean our Obito, is still… alive?"
This had the attention of the entire room.
Obito nodded, his eyes closing briefly, before looking at Kakashi, both younger and older, before setting his gaze on Minato.
Naruto took a step forward and took the elder Uchiha's hand, "it wasn't your fault."
Obito swallowed thickly, his eyes downwards, but nodded none the less.
Kakashi looked up at his younger self, "he should be alive at the moment, but…"
"But, what..?" Came from Kushina, Minato and the younger Kakashi.
"I don't think you can classify him as sane at the moment."
This made a silence set in on the room.
Naruto released Obito's hand and caught his father's eye, "the reason we sought you out is to explain, in reality this is a different dimension than ours, seeing as our timeline already passed this point, but in here we could, in theory, change a lot of things without changing our own timeline."
Minato and Shikaku nodded, the blond making a signal for his son to continue.
"Our changing starts here, in about a year time, when mom', he looks at Kushina, "goes into labor with me, a masked man will attack and succeed in freeing Kurama", at the questioning faces he elaborated, "the Kyuubi, his name is Kurama."
At this Kushina directs wide frightened eyes to Minato, and then to Naruto, "you mean?"
Naruto nodded, "in order to protect Konoha, you both gave up your life to seal him, in me."
Kushina let out a sob as she hurried across the room and threw her arms around her son.
The younger blond closed his eyes and wrapped his arms around her waist, even if he did see her in his mindscape, he never had the chance to really hug her tightly, he did hear her whisper 'Sorry' a lot of times.
Naruto lightly shook his head, "you have nothing to be sorry for, Kaa-chan. Yeah, it wasn't easy, and I had it rough at times. But I made it through, stronger than ever."
Kushina nodded, letting him go, but still keeping a hold on his hand.
"As I was saying", Naruto continued, "The masked man attacked and released Kurama. He revealed himself to be Uchiha Madara", this got a lot of gasp from the room, "this however wasn't true. While Madara is indeed still alive at the moment, he is weak and will not last past the next year. It was a young boy who he rescued from a rock avalanche that attacked Konoha."
This made them all look at Obito, who sighed, but nodded, shrinking back into Kakashi as the younger silver head looked at him with a betrayed look in his eyes.
Naruto narrowed his eyes, "it wasn't his fault. He was being controlled, just as much as Madara was. The bad guy in this whole story is Zetsu, and his quest to revive Kaguya. No one is at fault, Not Madara and not Obito. So stop glaring at him, Kakashi!"
The younger silverhead turned his glare to the younger blond, who stared back with ice cold blue eyes.
"Because of what happened and because of what some saw, namely a Sharingan user, and an Uchiha, controlling the Kyuubi, the clan was put on probation and later suspension. Most teams didn't want to work with them, Uchiha were most commonly ignored or even mistreated, so they planned a revolt. When I was about… 8?"
He turned around and looked at Sasuke, who nodded to confirm that.
"yeah, about 8, Uchiha Itachi, under order of the Sandaime Hokage and the elders, murdered his kin. Except his most precious person, his little brother, Sasuke."
This had then all turning to the younger Uchiha, who just hnn'd.
Naruto laughed, "yeah, he still isn't totally over that, and he did some pretty stupid things, but in the end they all turned out alright!"
The younger Uchiha turned to his blond friend, something unreadable in his eyes.
Naruto smiled softly, "on with the story, also, Danzo is an asshole, who ordered the murder of innocent civilians and young children behind the Sandaime's back, he also is the one who makes Orochimaru mad in his quest to immortality and who in the end, is as bad as Zetsu."
Minato blinked and held up a hand, "how do you mean, Naruto?"
It was Sasuke who answered the question, "Danzo gave Orochimaru permission, presumably from the Sandaime Hokage, to experiment with children on transferring Kekkei Genkai. When this was discovered, he was also the first to turn on him and send ANBU after him. He really doesn't mean harm, but with Danzo whispering in his ear and all the trauma he encountered, he went mad."
Minato nodded, he knew the Snake Sannin in passing, because of his sensei, Jiraiya. And to be honest he had seen the glimpse of madness in those black eyes, but he also saw a man willing to die for his village and friends.
He nodded to himself, he wouldn't let Danzo corrupt one of the strongest forces they had. He looked behind him, at his predecessor who had been quiet this whole time. The elder man just shook his head, a sad look on his face, which suddenly appeared years older.
He mouthed, "I should have known and seen this coming, but I was too blinded by the friendship we used to have."
Minato nodded and looked back at his son, mentally making a nod to have Danzo in questioning as soon as possible.
The younger blond opened his mouth, telling them all about what else transferred, from his first Chuunin exams, to the 4th Shinobi war.
At the end of it, he had a sobbing Kushina is his arms, his mother holding him close, while his father was hugging the older versions of his male students. The others from the past were just shell shocked, mouth wide open, but respect shining in their eyes for the, in their eyes, youngsters, and what they had lived through.
The younger Kakashi spoke; "then, why tell us all this?"
Naruto looked at Sasuke from over his mother's shoulder, nodded to the raven head and turned to Kakashi, "us being here already changed the timeline, making this another dimension to the one we come from. Even if we were to get back, every change we did here will not have any effect on our own time. So we told you all this, in the hope to change it all. At least for this dimension's version of all of us."
Minato and Shikaku nodded, that made sense, seeing as in the original timeline they hadn't appeared, by appearing now, they altered it and made it curve off from their own pasts.
Minato frowned, "Shikaku, Inoichi, I want you both to go and collect Danzo, have him here as soon as possible."
The men nodded and took their leave, intending to find one of the main villains, according to what they had heard.
Minato turned to his son, "what is it that we can do now, or in the distant future to prevent a lot of this from happening."
Naruto frowned, "if I am not mistaken, the bridge incident only happened 6 months ago, right?"
Both the younger Kakashi and Minato nodded, making Naruto frown some more, "is Nohara Rin still alive?"
This made them wide eyed, "yes, she is, why wouldn't she be."
Obito let a tear escape, "about 10 months after the rockslide and me being saved by Madara and Zetsu, I had a chance to explore and used it to hone into Rin's chakra signature. When I arrived, I saw Rin standing in front of Kakashi, his hand disappearing in her chest. Soon after, when Kakashi left, I checked on her, but the wound had been too severe and straight through her heart."
He rubbed at his eyes, excepting the older Kakashi's hug as he hid his face in the older man's shoulder.
The younger silverhead could only stand there open mouthed, his head shaking left to right, "no, that… I'd never do that! NO!"
The elder Kakashi sighed, "she jumped in front of my Raikiri, just as I was about to stab a Kiri-nin. She had been captured mere hours before that and the Kiri-nin had sealed the three tails inside an unstable seal, meaning to let her reach Konoha, only to have the Byuu rampage around, giving them victory in the war."
Minato stiffened, he had indeed intended to send Rin and Kakashi to the front lines in 2 months time, but he wouldn't and couldn't do that now.
"I see, so keeping Rin safe might just get Obito back to us?"
Obito nodded, "I think so, it was after that, that I totally snapped, of course, I have to be honest and say Zetsu, who is attached to me at the moment, was always whispering in my ear, it was only after Naruto defeated me and Zetsu released that I could think clearly and reflects on that day. Only then did I know that Kakashi would never knowingly hurt Rin."
Minato nodded, "would it help to send out shinobi to look for you, the younger you?"
Obito shook his head, "I was kept asleep most of the time and had little to no knowledge as to where I was. In fact the only clear memory of coming outside are the day I see Rin die and that night, when I released the Kyu-, when I released Kurama."
Naruto nodded as Obito corrected himself, he hated it when the Byuu were spoken of by their title, they had names and he would make sure everyone used them.
Minato nodded again, "alright, so we keep Rin and Kakashi in the village for the time being, and see if the younger Obito does indeed show up in 10 months time. As he does, we could have a clear shot at this Zetsu. So we still have to worry about Madara?"
Naruto shook his head, "Madara should be permanently dead by then, he died on the same day that Sasuke is born, which should be in about 10 months time, so his dead is probably what gives Obito an opening to escape. So we don't have to worry about him anymore; if Obito is returned to Konoha and we help him heal, and also deal with Zetsu, he won't ever come back alive. We should leave him be."
Minato nodded, taking out a scroll and writing that down.
"And as we do that, it means that Obito will be here and in rehabilitation, so he won't attack Konoha either on the night you get born, Naruto."
Naruto nodded, this was already looking good, if everything went according to plan, and this version of Naruto would grow up with his parents.
Suddenly Naruto looked up, "also, if we deal with Danzo, the Akatsuki will never be formed, not only is Obito here with us, Nagato wasn't forced to kill Yahiko."
Minato and Hiruzen looked thoughtful at that, they had heard those names before.
Seeing the looks on their faces, Naruto grinned, "Nagato, Yahiko and Konan were the Ame orphans Jiraiya-sensei adopted and trained after the 2nd Shinobi war. They formed the original Akatsuki to deal with Hanzo tyrannical reign of Ame, so that no other child had to endure what they had to."
Both Hiruzen and Minato nodded at that, it all fell into place now; Hiruzen remembered Tsunade and Orochimaru returning from the war to tell him that Jiraiya would be staying in Ame a little longer to care for 3 orphans.
Minato on the other hand, sighed; he knew Nagato had been the reason for Jiraiya to name the main character in his book Naruto. And it was that name he and Kushina wanted to give their son. That same son who, as a teenager, now stood before them and who wanted to help them save their village and the whole world.
Minato nodded, "that's a good thing too, maybe we should send Jiraiya-sensei out to them again, I'm sure they missed him too."
Naruto nodded, "from what Ero-Sennin used to tell me Danzo had told him they perished soon after the 3rd Shinobi war, so he would be overjoyed to see them again. Also, from what Nagato told me, he, Konan and Yahiko were saddened that he never came by again."
Kushina couldn't hold back laughter after she heard what her son called Jiraiya, "that's so him! I wonder why I never thought of that!"
Naruto grinned, "When I met him, just after my first Chuunin exams, he was peeping in on the girl's part of the onsen."
Minato blinked, on one hand, that was so his sensei, on the other hand.
"Only AFTER your first try at the Chunnin exams? But that would make you 13? Why wasn't he there sooner? We did name him your godfather, did we not?"
Naruto nodded, "I was 13. And he is my godfather; it's just that the council forbade him from seeking me out. So he had to wait for me to come to him. And well, I was kind of a Dobe back then, so it took me quite a while to figure out who my parents were and he couldn't tell me because Jiji made it a S-ranked secret."
Hiruzen sighed at that, it would seem that in his old age he had made a lot of mistakes, and had let the council get away with a lot of things that Minato would never allow.
Naruto shrugged his shoulders, "but it's ok, I figured it out anyway. And with us being here, this version of me will get a chance to grow up with you guys."
Kushina gave a teary smile, "do you ever miss us?"
Naruto nodded, "all the time, especially after the first part of the war. I met Dad in my mindscape after I accidently released Kurama up to 8 tails; he fixed the seal then too. And I met you when I took Kurama's chakra, before he became my main partner that is."
Minato frowned, "main partner?"
Naruto swallowed nervously and looked around at his friends, who all smiled encouragingly to him.
"I… eum, I am the Jinchuuriki for all the tailed beasts."
Kushina's eyes widened, "say what!? How is that possible?"
Naruto scratched the back of his head, before looking at Sasuke, who nodded, "well…", he started, only to tell them all what he had left out, their battle with a Juubified Madara, their deaths, and their rebirths with the powers of the Rukudo Sennin inside them both and of course the Sennin sealing all the Byuu inside him, with a back portal, making it so that they could leave his body for a limited amount of time without harming him.
This made them all perplexed, even the older Kakashi and Obito, Sakura and Sai, who had never heard the whole story before. To know that those young men had been through that all and came out on top perplexed them all.
Before any of them could respond, a knock sounded on the door, making them all shuffle restless, and making the time travelers put on their hoods again, they could all guess who was on the other side of that door.
At Minato's command, the door opened, revealing Inoichi and Shikaku escorting Danzo inside.
The old War Hawk send out a glare, "you called for me Hokage-Sama?"
Naruto and Sasuke growled, it appeared that the old man still thought himself superior to most people in the room, if he dared to mock the 4th Hokage in such a way. But they were distracted by something else, both men looked towards the right arm and saw it covered in bandages, at Naruto's nudge, Sasuke turned on his Rinnegan and took a look, what he saw, shocked him, it would seem that Danzo already had implanted some Sharingan eyes into his right arm. With a short hand signal, Naruto was also informed, as was Obito who had followed their movements.
All three of them glared at the man, how low the mighty had sunk.
Minato ignored the mockery and answered, "Indeed. You can start by telling…"
He was however interrupted by Naruto; "why you have Sharingan eyes implanted into your right arm."
This silenced the room, who all turned to stare at the man.
Danzo glared at the one who spoke, although he had no idea what he looked like, seeing as they were all hooded, he did knew it was the shortest of them all.
"And how, boy, would you know that, even better, how dare you accuse me of something like that! Do you have any idea who I am?"
Naruto shrugged his shoulders, "You're Danzo, and I really don't like you."
Danzo scoffed, "Namikaze, are you just going to let this happen?"
This made tension appear in the room; Danzo had just totally forgone Minato's title, going so far to only address him in his last name.
Minato gridded his teeth, "then prove us wrong."
Danzo gritted his teeth, making them all tense, if Naruto had said it so boldly it meant it was the truth. He looked around, his eyes landing in Hiruzen.
"Are you just going to let this happen, Hiruzen?"
Cold eyes were his reply, "you have played me enough times Danzo, too long have I done nothing because I thought you were my friend and you meant well. That ends today, we know of your schemes, we know of ROOT and all the other back stabbing things you have done to Konoha."
Danzo gritted his teeth, took a step back and pulled at the bandages on his arm, but before he could even move more than that, Sasuke had his sword at his throat, and both Kakashis had a kunai on him, one at his heart and one at the base of his spine.
Minato took a step forward, unraveling the last of the bandage. He swallowed thickly and closed his eyes, on the arms, there were 4 Sharingan eyes looking back at him. HE could already guess from who they were, not too long ago, 2 Uchiha ANBU had disappeared, he had been made to inform Fugaku and the clan of this and they were worried they had fallen in the wrong hands; only, he had never thought that those wrong hands would be of someone from inside Konoha.
He sighed, "Shimura Danzo, you are here by stripped of your rank as Shinobi and councilman. You will be taken into custody; you are arrested for betrayal of our Village Konoha, the willing attack on men from the Uchiha clan and dismembering Kekkei Genkai from said clan. The sentence for this is Death, which will be executed immediately!"
At those words Sasuke ranked his sword over Danzo throat, cutting over all the mayor veins, in a matter of seconds, the old War Hawk was death.
After Danzo's death, Fugaku was informed of what had transpired and while he had wanted to do the deed himself, he thanked Minato for his actions towards the Uchiha clan.
Soon, 10 months came and went, Sasuke was born and with it Obito came looking for Rin.
And he did found her, happily enjoying a pick-nick in trailing field 7 with Kakashi, Minato-sensei and Kushina-nee. He smiled at that, Rin disserved that, she had been an orphan, he had known, and she missed having company around her.
Still it surprised him that she wasn't hanging around Kakashi like he was the world's most perfect male anymore.
The reason for that, even if he didn't know, was because Rin had met with the elder versions of her male teammates, who confessed to her that they had found love in each other's arms, making Kakashi gay and Obito bisexual, she had been in a state of shock for some time afterwards, but had recovered, wishing them both happiness and after asking the younger version of Kakashi is this were true.
His answer had been that he didn't know yet, he wasn't really attracted to anyone at the moment, but he had a hunch it was true.
She had given up on that and had fully concentrated on her medical courses, wanting to be a great field medic one day, it did help that Sakura was there, seeing as Tsunade was still mourning Dan and Nawaki, Sakura took great pride in teaching Rin some basics and helping here hone the skills she already had.
Back to Obito, as he looked on as Rin stood and went to a pink haired women to talk to her for a bit. Only to Scare as Minato-sensei appeared in front of him.
"We've been expecting you, Obito."
He smiled as he said that, putting a hand on the boy's shoulder and guiding him into the clearing. When he was standing close to their little group, he was surprised to see Rin and the Pinkette standing at the ready, their hands glowing with green medical jutsu.
His answer came in the form of two hands taking his head, as they pulled back agony filled him. He whimpered, Zetsu was being separated from him. Panic filled him; it had been Zetsu who was keeping him alive all this time. Without the strange being he would die.
As soon as the agony began is also stopped, his whole body felt warm and relaxed, he smiled, if this was dying, than he didn't mind one bit. At least he got to see Rin again. He closed his eyes, a smile on his face and feeling the most peaceful he had felt since the start of the war.
Naruto and Sasuke in the meantime had taken a hold on Zetsu, the flytrap being; feeling itself outnumbered and beaten had sneered at them and tried to flee.
But they knew his every move, his every trick and cheat. He couldn't win; the last thing on his mind before he got sealed was his mother, asking her forgiveness for failing to bring her back.
Sasuke and Naruto sighed, at last, they had stopped disaster before it could even begin, Zetsu had been taken out, and they had used a jutsu to seal him in with the Byuu at their request. The great 9 had wanted to execute their own justice on the 3rd son of Kaguya, for the suffering he had brought upon them and would have brought with him, should his plan succeed. Needless to say he didn't live very long.
When Obito woke up, he laid upon a futon, the room made dark with the windows covered by drapes, the heat was comfortable, but he could feel the heater working.
He frowned, he had been sure he had died. Zetsu had always told him that he was the only thing keeping him alive.
When the door opened, he turned around and flinched, the person standing there was just far enough in the room that he couldn't see their face. He swallowed thickly, had it all been a dream, was a captured. Then again, did Minato-sensei and Kakashi turn him over to T&I, because he knew he would, should one of his teammates suddenly appear after almost 18 months of absence.
Obito, the one in the door opening, sighed, "Hello Obito."
His younger version on the bed looked up at him, "Hello."
The elder version moved further into the room, "you're probably wondering why you are here?"
Receiving a nod, he went on; "we healed you, after Setsu's extraction you were weak and fragile. You'll probably still be on bed rest for some time, if Sakura has her say."
The boy on the bed looked confused; "why? How?"
The man sighed again, "This will be a long story. But to jump right in. I'm an older version of you Obito, one who didn't have the luck of my friends and sensei intervening. I… I did a lot of bad things, but we're righting them by being here. Myself together with some friends, and also Kakashi, we travelled back in time. We made a new dimension because of that and agreed to right all the wrongs there were in our dimension. That's the reason you're here. We saved Rin from a mission in which she would have died, leading to you going insane and following Zetsu's every command."
He stopped talking after that, seeing the younger Uchiha on the bed looking at him with wide eyes. He sighed, this was so hard, and he knew he was still emotionally and psychically damaged from everything that had happened. To now explain this all to his younger self in the hope of saving him from the mistakes he made and that cost most of his precious persons something dear, a lot of them paid for his mistakes with their lives.
He sighed again as he heard sobbing, his younger self was sobbing, tears flowing over his cheeks, teeth clasped over a lower lip, biting it until blood started running down a hairless chin.
He approached the younger one; it would appear he confessed everything while lost in his own world.
"I am so sorry, Obito."
The younger shook his head, "it's not your fault, but Zetsu's. If what you tell me true, then I make Minato-sensei and Kushina-nee lose their lives! I kill them and leave Naruto as an orphan. I would have been a terrible person."
The elder nodded his head, "indeed. But you forget that is will also be Naruto that drags us out of the mindset Zetsu put us in; in the end he even defeats Zetsu, with Sasuke's help. None of us are truly bad persons, Obito; we just get manipulated in doing bad things. I won't try to speak like I didn't have a hand in anything. But in the end, we were crushed by a bolder, had just let 2 of our precious persons escape; out of our lives and were taken in by an old man, who in his madness thought he was doing the right thing. If we want someone to blame, blame Zetsu, for he was a truly evil being. Wanting nothing more than resurrect his mother, the Juubi and bring this world to an end. The rest of us were only paws in a big game of chess."
He sat down next to his younger self and gave the boy a hug, resting his head on that of his younger counterpart.
"They all believed in you, and in us, so much so that they all did their best to safe you before anything could even begin. You are free now; in a couple of month's time you'll be able to join the shinobi forces again. Join team 7 again, I am sure Rin and Kakashi have missed you."
The younger nodded his head and smiled, "hey, can I ask. What is your relationship with your Kakashi?"
Obito smiled, "we're team leader over team Byuu, consisting of Sai, Hanuro Sakura, Uchiha Sasuke and Namikaze-Uzumaki Naruto", he paused for a bit, "he is also my best friend and lover."
This had the younger boy's eyes widening, an unreadable look in his eyes.
Obito smiled, "it isn't that big of a deal, Obito, in fact it isn't frowned upon or anything. The reason you ran after Rin so much was because you were afraid of other's reaction", he paused again, "as a matter of fact, Naruto did the same thing with Sakura for a long time, until Sasuke reappeared and helped them win the war. They're in a steady relationship now and have been for 2 years already, same as me and Kakashi."
He gave a crooked smile, "your Kakashi admitted to being, most likely, gay too. Try and connect again, hopefully you guys can have what we had to wait 16 years for."
Obito nodded, a small smile etched into his face, it still pulled on his cheek; newly decorated with scars, he could live with that.
As the months passed, Obito healed, he would always have scars on the right side of his body, but thanks to Sakura's healing they were barely noticeable, less so then his older counterpart whose scars cut into his face and made it looks like a spiral turning into itself. Not unlike Kamui, their signature move.
Not soon after Obito was released from the hospital, he was welcomed back into the Uchiha clan, even more than before, when he had been one of the odd ones. Minato had given Fugaku an adjusted rundown of what had happened, and the Clan Head couldn't be more proud of his wife's cousin. The boy, while still odd, had shown a will of fire more strongly than even most Hokage. And while he had worried about their clan's ancestor, he was relieved to hear the man had died the same day his youngest son was born.
Obito smiled, walking around the village people stared at him, he knew it was because his scars were there, but to him, his scars meant he survived, he came back from the dead, and was saved by an older version of himself. Right now he was running towards Minato-sensei's house, baby Naruto was born last night and he wanted to see the little babe.
Speaking of baby Naruto, the time travelers had taken care of Kushina's Kurama, Naruto had gone inside her mindscape and adjusted the seal so the Fox wasn't tied down like he was before, after talking to him, and letting him talk to his future counterpart, he agreed to calm down and not fight Kushina for control, even less so when she went into labor.
It was something they had done just in time, in their planning, plotting and dealing with Zetsu, they had completely lost track of the date, making it a week before Naruto sat down to talk with Kurama, inside Kushina, to ease her struggles with his birth.
But he had been born, healthy and still on the 10th of October, late at night. But because of precautions, he was born at their own home, surrounded by his father and Sakura as Medic Nin and the 3rd wife; Biwako as midwife. It was an easy birth, with little complications, as a matter of fact; the only struggle they had was when Minato wanted to hold an infant Naruto before Kushina, which resulted in all three of the present women to yell at him for even suggesting it.
Finally, now is the home of the 4th Hokage and his wife, a lot of people were gathered; their baby and teenaged son Naruto, the elder's teammates; Sasuke, Sakura, Sai, Obito and Kakashi. Minato's own students; Kakashi and Obito; the younger versions, and Rin. Minato's predecessor; Hiruzen Sarutobi and his wife; Biwako.
And as they all looked down upon the babe settled on Kushina's chest, they couldn't help but smile, they had already changed so much. And they couldn't be happier to have done that. The time travelers especially, they had spared the people from so much suffering and hurt. They all hoped that changing all of this and making sure that Naruto had both his parents would do him a world of good. The elder whiskered blond looked down on his baby self and couldn't help but smile, at least in this dimension he would have a happy childhood and his parents by his side; supporting him trough all his trials.
He smiled at everyone in the room and went to kiss his mother's cheek and give his father a hug; he did the same for Hiruzen and his wife. He gave Rin a kiss on the cheek and messed up Obito and Kakashi's hair.
All time travelers waved at them all one last time before pulling on their hoods and stepping outside, they had agreed unanimous to look for another portal, whether it took them back to their own dimension or not, they would still be able to help others. Or make sure other versions of themselves didn't make the same mistakes or didn't have to go through the same trials as they did.
After all, they had been lucky once, who said it wouldn't happen more often.
There we go, I hope you enjoyed, please leave a review!
I plan on doing more of these one-shots, and seeing as the Naruto-Fandom had-s stolen my heart lately, I thought this to be fitting. ^w^
