A Step Forward

Walking through some rather dense growth of the forest surrounding Konoha in the late evening, a trio of kids were heading back to their homes within their village after a hard day training. Long and short shadows alike stretching out into their narrow path, one of the kids stopped.

"I don't like this," Rin declared with a faint wobble to her voice.

Kakashi scoffed and Obito offered his hand to the girl. "It's okay Rin! If you're scared you can hold my hand."

"Ah…thanks, but no thanks, Obito," Rin said as she put some distance between herself and the dark haired boy. "Though, if Kakashi offered to hold my hand…" she trailed off.

Kakashi gave her a look, one eyebrow quirked.

Laughing, with just a smidgen of embarrassment heightening its volume, the girl put up both hands and said, "I'm joking! It's just a joke!"

The look Kakashi gave her showed he didn't believe her, but even so, Kakashi played along. "Right," he muttered.

Sighing a breath of relief, it was at times like these that Rin appreciated her friend's emotional immaturity. Kakashi could barely acknowledge praise in a welcoming fashion somedays - let alone friendship or (dare she say it?) Romance. It sounded so silly! She was hardly twelve and to think of going out with a boy seemed so grown-up.

Then again…Staring through forest, she thought of the wall around their village. What lay outside of it. They were at war. Who knew if she'd ever be a grown-up like her parents or Minato-sensei?

Maybe…

She eyed her stoic teammate warmly, maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea to test that whole love thing. Kakashi was weird, awkward, and a hostile more days than not, but he seemed to care for them (in his own way).

Obito started tugging on them. "Um, um, guys!"

"What!" Rin asked as she turned her head to see a bright, bright white light begin to grow right in front of them.

Clinging onto Obito herself not a moment later, she cried, "What is that?"

Weapons already in his hands, and feet at ready, Kakashi gave a tense roll of his shoulders that might of doubled as a shrug as he told them, "I don't know, but you better be ready!"

The light only grew larger and her fingers digging so hard into Obito's arms she was sure she was leaving marks, Rin only glimpsed Obito putting himself between her and the light before it blinded her completely.

"We're in…Konoha?" Obito murmured as Rin opened her eyes.

Looking around, the girl had to agree with her teammate's assessment. It certainly looked like home.

Kakashi, though, had not relaxed his stance. In fact, he seemed to have gone into full attack mode. "Not home," he disagreed. "I don't know that corner shop, or recognize that old man over there and that doesn't even take in to account that it's daytime here."

"That is a good point," Rin said. "But are you sure this isn't home? I mean, look! That's the Monument in the distance..."

Narrowing his eyes, Obito remarked, "But there's an extra head…Hey! It looks sort of like Minato-sensei!"

"What?" Rin exclaimed.

She sent a quick glance to Kakashi. He looked equally miffed by this as he took up the free spot on the left of Obito to stare at the monument.

"This can't be…" she whispered.

"Any ideas, genius?" Obito asked their teammate.

Kakashi slowly moved his gaze from the mountainside and put up two fingers. "I have two ideas," he explained. "One, we are in some sort of jutsu that plays with our communal concept of reality or…" he put down one of his fingers so only his index remained pointed skyward. "Or we travelled to the future. I'm putting my money on the first, because, time travel? That's for books and stuff."

"Why do you say future and not alternate reality?" Obito demanded as he turned to argue with Kakashi.

Rin might have groaned if she wasn't curious as well.

Kakashi rolled his eyes at them. "You two wouldn't know this, but the Third's been talking with Sensei. He's getting old and he thinks Minato-sensei would be a good replacement. Minato's saying no right now because none of us are even jonin yet, but I don't know how much longer he's going to get to say no. The war's getting fierce and the Third doesn't have the energy to keep up like some of the younger shinobi and kunoichi out there."

"How come you got to know?" Obito whined.

Kakashi crinkled his eyes in a way Rin didn't think was exactly nice. "Because I'm not a crybaby," he answered.

"I'm not a-"

"Kakashi-sensei!?"

All three looked forward to see a boy just as blond as their sensei standing in their way with a girl, eyes green as sea foam, and a boy, who exuded Uchiha ideals, beside. Rin saw that the three weren't paying either she, or Obito any attention. All their focus was going to Kakashi, who seemed at a loss as to what to say.

Grabbing his arm, she said to them, "This is our teammate Kakashi. He's certainly no one's sensei!"

The three, probably just about their age, send Rin an impatient and irritated look before the blond one was demanding of her genius teammate, "What happened to you and who are these guys?"

"What are your names?" Kakashi asked instead of answering their question.

The trio's frustration is clear. "Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke-bastard!" the blond growled, pointing at each of them as he rattled off the names.

Not looking quite satisfied, Kakashi tipped his head at Sasuke. "Uchiha, right?"

"Hn."

Nodding along, he looked at the girl with squinted eyes. Seeming to understand, the girl sighed and offered, "Haruno. My parents are civilians."

This appeared to satisfy Rin's teammate as he moved on to hold a staring contest with the blond boy. Who was either too stubborn to give a name or maybe too dumb. In the end, it was the girl, Sakura, who gave his full name. "Uzumaki Naruto, Konoha's biggest knucklehead."

"Uzumaki…" Rin murmured. She caught Obito's gaze and then gave Kakashi's shirt a tug. "Kushina!"

Cocking his head, Kakashi, who always seemed to work on a level far above and beyond that of a normal mortal, demanded to know from the strange trio, "Your sensei is Kakashi? Is Minato Namikaze Hokage?"

"Namikaze?" The Sakura girl repeated in disbelief. "He's been dead for twelve years! The Third's Hokage, remember?"

Rin clutched onto her teammate, breathless. Their teacher was dead? That couldn't - it just couldn't -

Kakashi, who had to be closest with the man, did not react as she thought he might. He rolled with it, voice cool as he said, "Take me to the Third then, I don't care."

Obito, who'd really been too quiet to begin with, suddenly exploded loudly with a cry of, "You don't care!? Our sensei is dead and you don't care!?"

"The past is the past, idiot," Kakashi snapped with some true bite. Maybe he wasn't as unaffected as they'd thought, Rin considered. "What matters is getting back to where we're supposed to be!"

"…Alright, I'm lost," the Minato-blond admitted.

"That Kakashi isn't our sensei, you dope," the Uchiha boy said to his teammate.

Rin didn't know how she felt about Kakashi's future student. He seemed a lot more like the Uchihas she saw walking around on the street. Cold. Snooty.

Not like Obito…

She sent said-boy a half-smile. Maybe they hadn't lucked out like she thought, maybe he wasn't so bad a teammate after all.

Suddenly, two men appeared beside either team. Looking up, Rin gave a laugh. "Minato-sensei!"

The blond smiled back at them, reaching out and bringing them within his immediate reach. It didn't slip her notice, though, that he kept his hand on Kakashi as they all looked back to the other man standing by the strange kids.

Rin had to cover her mouth. It was their Kakashi. But instead of the short kid she was used to, he was a tall lanky man with only one eye visible. Had he lost it in the war, she wondered?

What was interesting, though, was how this Kakashi stared at them. His gaze was fond. As if he liked them (and wasn't afraid to show it).

"Sensei…" Kakashi's student said.

The man's lone eye curved into what could only be described as a smile. "It's alright, Sakura. The kids and their teacher just got mixed-up in a misfired jutsu."

"But that's you, Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto yelled, finger pointing at Rin's teammate. She saw Minato tighten his hold on Kakashi. Looking to the boy's face, Rin saw why. He was wearing his, "You're an idiot and I think someone (me) should knock some sense into you" face.

The adult Kakashi must have realized this too, as he leaned in and with a teasing lilt, to his surprisingly mellow voice, chided his younger self. "I'd think again, kid, this brat isn't just Kushina's."

Rin briefly wondered what that meant when it dawned on her. Oh. Oh. Glancing to her teacher, she snickered at his expression. He looked a bit horrified.

"How do you plan to fix this?" Kakashi's Uchiha student asked. His eyes had come to settle on Obito, whom was glaring back with a similar intensity.

Ruffling the boy's hair, the adult Kakashi replied, "The Hokage's working on it. He's looking for the old report - you don't think this went unwritten up, do you?"

"That's a good point…" Sakura said, "until then, what do we do?"

Minato-sensei and the grown Kakashi shared a look.

"Train?" they offered in union.

"No!" Obito whined, "we just finished training before we ended up here!"

Minato chuckled and their Kakashi crossed his arms and said quite snidely, "You could do with more training, crybaby-Obito."

Kakashi's students gave Rin's teammate a startled look as their Kakashi-sensei laughed nervously. "Hey, you brat, you might want to watch how you're talking…These kids, they're your future students."

The boy gave his older self a once over.

"I don't like you," he told him quite plainly. "I can already tell you failed to clear the Hatake name with the way you're acting!"

"Shut up," the adult ordered. "You're just a smart-ass brat - you have no clue what you're talking about."

For the first time, Rin thought maybe Kakashi lost a lot more than his eye and their sensei. "Maybe we could get something to eat…?" she suggested with great uncertainty. "I mean, like Obito said, we just finished training and, erm, I am sort of hungry…."

"Yeah!" Obito cheered enthusiastically. "Food would be awesome!"

Their Kakashi turned his feet in the way that always spoke of a fight, but, before he could do anything, Minato wrapped his arm around him. "You know what, kiddo? I think you and me should go check on the Hokage and see if he wants any help first, yeah?"

Rin liked how her teammate relaxed at Minato-sensei's suggestion. It amazed her sometimes how well her teacher knew Kakashi. How he could calm their teammate down in a way she never could.

"Yes, Sensei," Kakashi agreed. The two zipped off, leaving the adult version of their teammate and his students.

Rin smiled at him. "I guess you grew up, huh?"

His lone eye almost seemed sad. "Yeah," he sighed. "Now, why don't the six of us get something to eat?"

She continued to smile as she grabbed Obito's arm and let Kakashi's team pick the eatery. In the end, they chose sushi (even though Naruto complained about it not being as good as ramen).

Kakashi was quiet as he watched them all. He didn't actually feel all that much different from her Kakashi, maybe a little more worldly, mature, and once or twice she was sure she caught a haunted shadow lurking in the depths of his eye.

The girl attempted to be tactful, though, and instead took her time talking with Sakura and brought in Obito when she felt he might say or ask something inappropriate for their situation. It's in the middle of their meal that Minato-sensei and Kakashi return.

Smiling at them, she brought her hands together and inquired, "Are we ready to go back home?"

"Yeah," her teacher answered.

Getting up, Rin shook hands with the three and said, "I guess this is goodbye!"

A murmur of concurrence rose up and they all told her and Obito good luck before they joined their Kakashi by Minato-sensei. Briefly, their teacher reached out to the adult Kakashi and praised him, "You've done a good job, Kakashi. I'm happy to see how well you're doing."

"It wasn't easy," the adult admitted. "But I guess nothing worth having is, huh?"

Minato grinned and sent a brief look to Naruto. "No, it's not," he agreed.

Stepping back, he waved for them all to follow and, soon enough, they were in the Hokage's office where he preformed the same jutsu that they'd encountered before. And, just as before, they found themselves stricken blind by a flash of bright light and then suddenly found themselves in the middle of the forest where they started.

However, this time, their teacher was with them.

Bringing them all close, Minato laughed. "Whoo! Wasn't that a trip?"

"If we get to time travel again, can we see me or Rin instead of this jerk?" Obito asked as he jutted his thumb at the glowering Kakashi.

Their sensei's eyes clouded and his smile began to fade. "Sure, Obito," he said.

(Somehow, Rin knew he had learned something more than they).

This is the prize One-Shot for Northwind123 for being my Eleventh reviewer on my fic, Before it Was Over. She wanted a time-travel fic where Team Minato came to the future instead of Team Seven going to the past like in my fic A Step Back.

I hope you enjoyed this Northwind123!

Thanks for reading and please leave a review :)

P.S. If you guys have time, vote on my poll as well!

If you liked this, you may also like:

A Step Back - "Naruto takes Sasuke and Sakura to a training field he found. There, they run into some unexpected people and Sasuke is left wondering just how well he knows his sensei."

And

Youthful Endeavors - "Due to unspecified events, Kakashi Hatake is now seven years old and he'd really, really just like to go hide in his apartment, please."