When I woke, I found myself looking at the face of the man that was holding me. I didn't recognize him until I saw the silver hair, the red and black eye. Kakashi? He isn't wearing his mask, I realized. Looking at his face for the first time, I was almost disappointed, the mystery finally solved. Hatake Kakashi looked strangely different, although normal enough, without his mask. I sat, almost mesmerized by the normalcy of the moment. I eventually noticed others in the background: old man, dozens of ANBU, a few jounin. I winked subtly at Kakashi and his eyes widened slightly before he relaxed his features into a sad smile.

"Naruto…" The Third Hokage said as he began to study me. I reached up a chubby hand and gently smacked Kakashi on the cheek, dying to see his reaction. Some of the crowd smiled but Kakashi's eyes narrowed ever so slightly. I smiled wider and turned to the Third. He walked up to me and took me from Kakashi's arms.

Playing along, I frowned and gently tugged on the old man's beard. He chuckled but gave me back to Kakashi before looking at the rest of the crowd. "Dismissed." He announced, the ninjas disappearing or running off towards various parts of the village. Sarutobi-Hokage sighed sadly and turned back to face Kakashi and I.

"Um… Excuse me sir, but what are you planning to do with Naruto?" Kakashi asked while I played along and giggled adorably. Old man smiled tightly and shrugged his shoulders.

"Honestly? I'm not sure." His wizened face studied mine and I burrowed into Kakashi's arms. He rolled his eyes towards me before glancing up.

"What if I take him in? It's the least I can do; he's Minato-sensei's son, after all," Kakashi repeated the reasoning I offered him. The Third looked between Kakashi and I before sighing.

"I suppose. It would be a very good move placing him in an orphanage… Too many people saw what happened today and they'll blame him for the Fourth's death." Old man shook his head once before slowly walking away, heading back towards the Hokage Tower, leaving Kakashi and myself alone. He took one look at me and his eye twitched.

"Can you talk yet?" He asked, not sure of what my reaction would be. I opened my mouth but found no sound could leave. I shook my head once sadly. "How long?" I held up nine fingers, guessing how many months. Kakashi rolled his eyes in exasperation while I smirked. This is going to be fun, I thought, already envisioning Kakashi-sensei trying to figure out baby-gibberish.Then again, he'll probably just leave me with a bowl of ramen… Great. I'll be dead by the time Hinata comes around.

One Year Later

"Naruto!" Kakashi-sensei burst through my door, hearing me wake up screaming again.

Stupid war! Go away already!

Kakashi took one look at me before nodding in understanding.

"The war?"

"… Yeah."

"Wanna talk about it?"

"Not really. It was just Konoha…" I drifted off, not wanting to explain my vivid nightmares. Konoha always burned, in each nightmare I had. Whoever the enemy, they laughed as my home crumbled to ashes.

"Hey, Naruto?" Kakashi called, waving a hand in front of my face. I jerked, broken out of my trance.

"What?"

"What- what was that jutsu you and the Kyuubi used?"

"Ah, yes. Akuma Bijutsu: Jikan no tenshi. I don't know much about it, only that it is extremely dangerous. The only reason I allowed us to go back was the fact that we had the highest demon lord backing our chakra reserves. Without Kyuu, we definitely would've died. Outside of that danger, it was difficult trying to find ourselves in a set time. We sent ourselves to my and Hinata-chan's birthday; Kyuubi ended up half a billion years before he was born, during the Demonic World Wars."

"Demonic World Wars?"

"Sorry, Kakashi, I don't have time to give you a history. Basically, the demon lords- not the Bijuu, they're a different classification- had a fight for dominance until they eventually agreed to disagree, creating a system not unlike our own shinobi government." I summarized, trying to squeeze years of tutelage under Kyuubi into a few sentences. I could tell I failed miserably however when Kakashi's eyes clouded with feigned understanding. "I'll tell you when you're older, it took me a long time to get it."

"But- But I'm older than you are!"

"Physically, yes. However, I also have about six billion years of knowledge compliments of Kyuubi no Kitsune. I win," I smirked, drifting back to sleep.

Five Years Later

I woke to a loud knocking on the door to Kakashi's apartment and chuckled, wondering which our crazy neighbors had come to scream about the 'evil demon' this morning. This go round, all of the villagers were informed that I was the son of Namikaze Minato, but that didn't do much to discourage the more angry citizens from verbal assaults. I suspected the only reason I was not given to same treatment in this timeline was the fact that I was almost always guarded by my own personal ANBU.

I walked out of my bedroom, only to collide with a tired looking Kakashi-sensei.

"What did you do this time, Naruto?" Kakashi groaned, walking towards the front door, still half asleep. I laughed again.

"I'm not sure actually. It's hard to keep track of everything," I smiled, winking at the annoyed ANBU captain. Said ANBU captain glanced at me dryly before opening the door, revealing Hyuuga Hiashi, to both my and Kakashi's surprise.

"Hiashi-sama? Whatever Naruto did, I'm sure he didn't mean to-" Kakashi glanced at me worriedly while I shrugged my shoulders. I don't think I did anything to the Hyuuga's… Hinata-chan would've killed me.

"Quiet. Where is he?" Haishi cut him off, sounding angry although that didn't mean much. That man was a tad irritable at his best moments. The happiest I've ever seen him when he was given the approval to place a Caged Bird Seal on Hinata-chan. Thankfully the war took him before it could be placed, but the intent was astounding.

The Hyuuga stepped past Kakashi into the apartment and narrowed his eyes, spotting me standing in the hallway. The man stared at me a bit longer until I coughed, self-conscious.

"Um.. Hello, Hiashi-sama. Is something wrong?" I kept my head high but averted my eyes, a pose I knew that Haishi preferred to see he thought to be less than perfect, anything less than a Main House Hyuuga.

"I'm not sure yet," the man narrowed his eyes further, now succeeding in making me nervous. Was something wrong with Hinata-chan?

I don't think so, Kit. He doesn't smell of worry and, at this point in her life, Hinata's father still likes her.

True… Then what's going on?

"My daughter, Hinata-sama, seems to have… taken a liking to you. She wants you to attend her birthday party tonight at the Hyuuga compound." Hiashi spoke as if each word caused him physical pain. I smiled mentally, Good thinking Hinata-chan, before nodding.

"I'd be honored," I smiled briefly, trying to look grateful. I suppose I succeeded, Haishi scoffed and agreed before leaving in a huff.

"Well," Kakashi began as soon as the door closed shut. "I guess that is how you officially meet Hinata."

"Better than last time. She was getting beat up by a couple of guys for being a Hyuuga. I helped her out, got beaten up, and left by the Branch member that came looking for Hinata-chan." I shrugged, glad I didn't have to go through that experience again. To think, I couldn't even create a simple clone. I turned to go back into my room to change into day-clothes when Kakashi stopped next to me.

"How can you live in there? Your room's a mess!" Kakashi said.

"It's no worse than your own," I shot back, glancing around at the discarded clothing, kunai, scrolls, and old ramen cups that littered the floor of my room.

"You're not leaving this apartment until you clean your room."

"Ooh, getting domestic on me, Kakashi?"

"Shut up and clean, Naruto. Or did you forget that Sasuke's coming over when you get back from Hinata's party?"

"Really? Great, I did forget! Meeting little Sasuke-teme for the first time, and I completely forget about it. Classic me, eh?"

"Yeah, it is. Don't forget that he isn't a teme yet. He is six years old. We have another two years to gain evidence and present our case to the Third before this gets out of hand. If you are friends with Sasuke, I doubt Sarutobi would approve an order to slaughter both him and his family."

"Okay, okay, I get it. Now I gotta get cleaning," I mumbled, pushing Kakashi out of my doorway.

"No shadow clones."

"No deal," I smirked. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" A cloud of smoke rose from the ground and I was suddenly faced with four exacts copies of me. "Okay, I know none of us want to do this, but we gotta get Sasuke-teme on our side before he has another option. So, WHO'S WITH ME?" Three of my clones agreed, the fourth began to argue. I pick up a kunai off of my floor and threw it at him, hitting his heart.

"Oi! What was tha-" The shadow clone evaporated into air while the rest of us began to work. Kakashi, who was waiting on the other side of the door, smiled and walked away to get his room cleaned up a bit. Or not.