Summary: Sasuke overtakes the Moon's-eye plan and uses the energy to send himself and the rest of team 7 back in time to before Obito 'died' to prevent everything from happening. Now they just have to convince the elders of Konoha that they really are from the future and they have Konoha's best interests at heart. Not an easy feat.

xXx

The most annoying thing about being a shinobi from one of the hidden villages was the secrecy. There really wasn't a way around the necessity for it, but that didn't mean it wasn't bothersome. Jirayia couldn't help but sigh in fond remembrance of the lovely little town with at least two open, co ed bath houses that he'd been summoned away from by order of the Hokage, and it he didn't even know why. The missive had just basically said 'Come. Now.'

Jirayia had taken to his newly established life as a wandering hermit like a fish took to water. No more brats to take care of (or show him up, he would often grumble under his breath, but never really admit out loud), no more rules or responsibilities except those he chose to keep, and a whole lot more time to actually work on his jutsu and writing.

That, and he could keep an eye out for Orochimaru. He still just couldn't quite convince himself that his teammate, the person he had thought of as a sort of brother, had done all of those horrible things no matter the evidence. He sincerely and desperately wanted to believe that it had all been a huge misunderstanding.

Shaking that thought from his head, he sighed and brought his attention back to the approaching gates of Konoha. He'd followed the missive and come back. The old man really should be grateful. He'd only been gone for a few months, and that hadn't been nearly enough time to even start a decent information network, let alone set up something solid. This really had better be an emergency, or else…

Of course, while he was here he'd have to stop by and see only surviving student. He would never admit aloud how much he actually missed all of his students, no matter how he'd complained about 'the brats' before.

He allowed himself a small sight. Yet another reason why he hadn't wanted to come back: too many sad memories. Still, he was a ninja and this was the life he'd chosen.

Feeling his determination solidify, he straightened his back and strode forward, passing through the gates and waving at the chunins on gate guard duty. They recognized him almost immediately. He could tell from their star-struck expressions. Okay, even he had to admit that, no matter how painful, coming home had its perks.

He hadn't made it three blocks before he spotted Minato waiting for him, leaning nonchalantly against a building as he tossed one of those specialized kunai of his up in the air, always catching it effortlessly. Jiraiya wasn't fooled. The kid had only just gotten there himself, probably only seconds before. The Sannin found himself heaving a put upon sigh but was unable to hide the fond annoyance he felt at 'just happening' across his former student like that.

"Alright, alright," he said aloud. "You've made your point. You're good."

Minato looked up and smirked with one eyebrow raised in a mock question.

"I am surprised you'd meet me this soon, though," Jiraiya continued, interest now peaked. "You don't often wait for me."

"Who said I was waiting for you?" the blond ninja asked with feigned superiority and a large grin as he slid his kunai back into the pouch on his leg.

"Even you're not good enough to know I'm coming if you weren't actively looking," Jiraiya pointed out dryly, folding his arms.

The blond just grinned. "Are you sure about that? Apparently I'm at a Kage level now."

Jiraiya snorted, half in laughter half in annoyance. "Only just, brat."

"It's good to see you too, Sensei." He said it with a genuine smile, and Jirayia couldn't keep it up any longer. He broke into his own grin and walked forward, patting the kid on the back fondly.

As if it had been a spoken agreement, they both turned and started off down the street towards the Hokage tower. "So how is Kushina?"

Minato's smile softened and a slight blush rose to his cheeks, although no one who didn't know Minato personally would have noticed it. "She's good. Be glad she's on patrol right now, or she would have accosted you at the gate."

Jiraiya blinked in surprise, glancing over at his former student. "So Kushina's involved too, huh?"

"Apparently, we all are," the Yellow Flash responded, his voice gaining just a touch of sadness.

"What do you mean?"

Minato rubbed his chin. "It's rather difficult to explain."

"It's really that bad?"

For the first time in a long time, Jiraiya caught the unsure expression crossing the brat's face. He looked as if he couldn't decide. "I don't know if I would say 'bad'."

"But not good?"

Minato sighed. "Truthfully, Sensei, I don't know. With risk of sounding like a Nara, the situation is rather troublesome."

"Troublesome?"

"We needed a fuuinjutsu expert to confirm something for us."

Jiraiya's forehead furrowed. "And you and Kushina couldn't because…?"

"Apparently we're too close to the situation for the council's liking," Minato responded, tone just a little too dark for Jiraiya's liking. He looked over and really scrutinized his former student for several seconds. Did he feel the council didn't trust him? That wasn't good. It could divide a city if the council and the Kage (future or not) were at odds, and a divided city rarely stood against an opponent…and they would undoubtedly have opponents in the near future. After all, they were in the middle of a war, albeit a lull in the actual fighting, but everyone knew the temporary, unspoken peace wouldn't last. They just didn't know when the tension between Iwagakure and Konoha would break again. Personally, Jiraiya gave it two months, tops.

"I haven't heard you speak against the council like that for a long time," Jiraiya said quietly.

Minato caught the subtle reprimand, but only looked marginally repentant. That only worried Jiraiya even more. This was personal somehow. Very personal.

"Does it have to do with Kushina?" he asked.

Minato contemplated that. "Yes, but not in the way you're thinking," he responded finally.

"Alright, I give up, what is it? Really?"

"I'll wait for the Hokage to explain it to you," Minato said with a sigh. "I still don't really believe it myself."

And cue the confusion.

"Huh?" Jiraya couldn't help but saying aloud. What had he meant by that? Jiraya had been summoned for something Minato didn't believe had happened? That made no sense, even for ninja.

Minato's wry smile returned. "Exactly."

xXx

Jiraiya glared at the brat that had just been escorted into the room, scowl firmly in place. Behind him, Kushina had fallen on the Hokage's desk, pounding it as she laughed loudly, tears beginning to gather in the corner of her eyes.

"It's not funny!" Jiraiya growled. The fact that Minato was trying to hide a smile behind his hand and even the Sarutobi looked highly amused did not help. Two of the three council members—one, a Yamanaka Jiraiya didn't know, the second, Nara Shikaku—both looked surprised and amused while the third council member—Danzo—happened to be the only one that seemed to be able to look at the situation with a stoic, if disapproving scowl.

The Minato clone, supposedly his student's son from the future (and wasn't that a mindscrew?), could certainly pass for what he claimed to be. He had his supposed 'father's' looks and Kushina's brash attitude all combined under a horribly bright smile as he grinned brightly up at the Sennin.

"I am not perverted!" Jiraiya insisted. Kushina only snorted and laughed louder. Minato couldn't seem to look at him and Sarutobi had taken to following Minato's example, hiding his own smile behind his hand.

"Sure you're not," the kid said, still continuing his grin. Jirayia noted that, while he still looked a great deal like Minato, that smile was nothing if not foxish.

Danzo cleared his throat. "Are we going to continue as planned?" he asked, voice thick with disapproval. The kid's smile dimmed ever so slightly as he turned his attention to the speaker, gaze untrusting. Then the expression vanished and he reached up to unzip his jacket.

Orange. Yes, Jiraiya could see him being Kushina's son.

"Yeah, let's get this over with! Then we can work on fixing the future!"

Jiraiya raised an eyebrow, some of his annoyance slipping away. "Fixing the future, huh?"

The kid's expression suddenly sobered and it almost took Jiraya's breath away to see how much like Minato he looked when he was serious. "Yeah. A lot of things get really bad," he said with a very serious voice.

Everyone in the room seemed to exchange glances.

"How bad, exactly?" the Toad Sage asked warily.

The kid sighed. "Well, not everything is bad. A lot of good things happened too."

"Like what?" This time it was Shikaku who spoke up, looking as bored as ever except for the interested glint in his eye. So the Nara believed the kid? Well that was a surprise.

"Well, all five nations join together into a single army. That was pretty cool. I heard all five Kages fought together, including Tsunade-baa-chan."

Danzo snorted in disbelief while everyone else looked on in astonishment. All five nations working together? As one? Jiraiya couldn't think up a situation where that could ever possibly happen, especially between Iwagakure and Konoha. Or Kirigakure and…well, anyone else.

"Tsunade as Hokage?" Sarutobi asked, eyes just as wide as Jiraiya's.

"Yeah! Why not?"

Danzo cleared his throat again. The kid shot a dark look at him, but reached up and pulled the black t-shirt he'd had on beneath his jacket over his head, messing up the blond spikes even more.

"So what do you want me to do to prove I have Kurama inside of me?"

For the third time in about as many minutes everyone, even Danzo this time, stared in shock at the blond teenager.

"K-Kurama?" Kushina managed to get out, sounding both shaken an awed at the same time.

For a moment the kid blinked around the room before closing his eyes for just a moment. A few seconds later he opened them again and put a hand up to his head, rubbing it in embarrassment. "Oops. I…wasn't supposed to tell you his name."

Jiraiya actually choked. "That's the Kyuubi's name?" he asked at the same time Kushina spoke up.

"He has a name?"

Naruto blinked as he looked over at her. "Of course he does. Why wouldn't he?"

"Uh," Minato spoke up, sounding only slightly uncertain. Jiraiya hadn't heard that tone from him for quite a while. "Naruto, just channel some chakra. It should make the seal show up. Then we can examine it."

The kid, Naruto apparently, rubbed his head again. "That's it? Okay then."

With that, he put his hands together and closed his eyes in concentration. Almost instantly, a seal appeared on Naruto's stomach. Jiraiya and Minato both gasped.

"M-minato?" Kushina suddenly said worriedly, voice sounding strained. Jiraiya spared the barest glance at her she looked pale and stiff, like she was bracing against something. That would make sense, though if a second Kyuubi Jinchuuriki happened to be channeling charka close by…not that the entire situation made any sense at all, but hey.

"Minato, get her out of here," Jiraiya said as he knelt down to have a closer look. His tone left no room for argument.

Naruto looked up worriedly, but didn't stop channeling charka.

"Oh no you don't," Kushina started, but Jiraiya interrupted her.

"Now!"

Out of the corner of his eye, Jiraiya could see Kushina's eyes widen, surprised at his unusually serious tone. Minato nodded and went over to her.

"But," she started.

"Please," Jiraiya heard Minato say. Glancing between her boyfriend and her future son—for Jiraiya was convinced that the boy was indeed telling the truth—she seemed torn, but finally gave in and reluctantly allowed herself to be led out of the room.

"What is it?" Sarutobi asked, his own voice serious now.

Jiraiya paused, wondering where exactly to start. "This is an eight-tiagrams seal," he said, then hesitated for a moment and amended, "well, a variation."

"Variation?" the Third said slowly.

Jiraiya ran a hand through his hair. "I could go into the history behind the seal and its uses, but I only know a handful of people who could pull this off." He paused, still studying the seal. "It almost looks as if it's been destroyed and reconstructed," he muttered. "I can see the charka residue of an older seal, but it looks like the same seal. Or, the original eight tiagrams…" he faded off.

"Wow, you can tell all that, Ero-sannin?" Naruto asked, sounding impressed.

"Is it the seal of a Jinchuuriki?" Shikaku asked.

"Yes," Jiraiya said with a nod.

"That doesn't prove anything except that he is indeed a Jinchuuriki," Danzo said.

"Then why did Uzumaki-san have such a reaction?" the Yamanaka said, speaking up for the first time.

"That could have just been a reaction to another Jinchuuriki."

"It wasn't," Minato's voice sounded. Everyone looked to the window to see him step calmly down. "Kushina has come across other Jinchuuriki before. She said she never felt this kind of a reaction."

Naruto's eyes widened. "She did? Who? I wonder if they're all the same…"

Minato eyed his future son for a moment, but then shook his head. "It doesn't matter at the moment. What does matter is who sacrificed themselves to seal the tailed beast in you?"

A shocked silence fell over the room.

"No, what really matters," Danzo said with a steely edge to his voice, "is whether or not that really is the nine tailed fox sealed inside of him! You have yet to prove that it is!"

Silence fell over the room for several seconds. Then Naruto stood up again, hands dropping to his sides.

"Well how do you expect me to prove something like that?" Naruto asked, tone sounding put-out.

Danzo looked over him with a disdainful sniff. "I don't."

"Yamanaka-san," Jiraya said to the quiet council member who had been watching everything with concern. "Could you enter his mindscape and see?"

The blond man's expression suddenly went from concerned to downright wary. "I…believe so," he said finally, his voice quiet and uncertain.

"I'll make sure Kurama doesn't do anything to you," Naruto said with a grin.

The council member raised an eyebrow as he looked at the younger boy. "You don't mind if I use my clan techniques on you?"

"Sure. If it proves I'm telling the truth then it's all good, dattebayo!" Jiraya felt his eye twitch at the verbal tic. Definitely Kushina's son.

The Yamanaka looked over at the Hokage who nodded in return. "Very well then," he said and stepped forward to put a hand on Naruto's head.

He muttered the technique under his breath as his chakra flared and the room went quiet as everyone watched with baited breath. Then, after only a few minutes, Yamanaka-san jumped back and away from Naruto, snatching his hand back as if it had been bitten.

"Well?" the Sandaime asked.

The council member schooled the expression of shock and fear on his face before turning to face the Hokage.

"He's telling the truth. The demon sealed inside of him is indeed the 9-tailed demon fox!"

xXx

For Kuroi's b-day again! ;)