4. Beginning of a Friendship
A resounding knock at the door of the quaint little apartment that Naruto had been given broke him out of his thoughts of the nearly empty bowl of cereal on the table in front of him.
Getting up, Naruto walked to the door and opened it. He was surprised to see Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki, his future parents, standing outside of his apartment.
"Hello Namikaze, Uzumaki. How are you?" Naruto said. He was trying to be a bit formal since he did not want to offend them on accident.
"You don't have to be so formal." Kushina said. "Plus, you're apparently an Uzumaki too… which reminds me…."
"You want to know about the fact that we're related to the same clan." Naruto guessed. By the look on her face, he could see that he was right. "I'm an orphan. I recently received messages from my parents that they made when I was born though. Apparently my mother was a member of the Uzumaki clan. And I heard that your clan's good at fuinjutsu, but I'm not that good at it."
"Oh…." Kushina said. She could not help but feel a bit deflated. She was hoping that he was another member of the Uzumaki, especially since he was older than she was.
"I'm sorry I can't be of any further help." Naruto said as he reached for the door to shut it. He did not think Kushina had any other reason to talk to him.
Placing a hand against the door, Minato said, "Lord Hokage asked us to give you a tour of the village. He figured that it wouldn't due for you to not know your way around, after all."
"Oh, okay. Lead on." Naruto said as he slipped his sandals on walked through the door.
"Okay… let's start off at Hokage Monument…." Minato said.
Several hours later, Minato and Naruto were sitting in the Ichiraku Ramen Stand by themselves, eating. Kushina had been asked to help the twenty-three year old Teuchi while Naruto and Minato watched the stand for the chef.
"Hey Minato, can I ask you a question?" Naruto asked suddenly.
Surprised, Minato faced him. "Sure. What is it?" Minato asked curiously.
"Do you know much and space-time ninjutsu?" Naruto asked. A faint smile formed on his face when Minato dropped his chop sticks.
"Yeah… I do. Why?" Minato asked nervously. He was afraid someone knew of his project other than Jiraiya. He wanted to keep it a secret for a while.
"I was wondering if it was possible to… focus on the time aspect of it rather than the space." Naruto said, trying to word his question appropriately.
"You're asking if it's possible to use space-time ninjutsu to, instead of teleporting, control time?" Minato asked carefully.
Seeing the other blond nod, he said, "Second Lord Hokage was apparently capable of it. My sensei said that he was able to completely bring time to a halt once, though it was incredibly draining on his chakra. Apparently Lord Hokage told my sensei that Second Lord Hokage could have actually moved through time, but he never did."
That earned a look of surprise from Naruto, but he did not say anything, so Minato simply continued to talk.
"Apparently, moving through time destroys the timeline from the point of the use, so moving forward would kill the user and possibly everyone else in existence. Moving backwards through time… well, apparently it's possible, but it is said to completely destroy the user's timeline as well. It's all just theory though. Of the practitioners of space-time ninjutsu in the world, the only people capable of such a feat are too smart to attempt it."
Naruto nodded idly. 'What does this mean? I was sent back, but I didn't use a jutsu… I suppose it doesn't really matter.'
"I do know that Second Lord Hokage reported that time travel should never be attempted. Apparently, a single person can change the future dramatically just be breathing in the woods with no one around, provided that they are from a different time period, anyways." Minato shrugged. "Why do you ask?"
"My father was said to be skilled with space-time ninjutsu, and I just realized that I don't know much about it." Naruto said, looking into his bowl of ramen.
"Once Kushina gets back, we should go to the library. I'll show you where the books written by Lord Second Hokage are located. Maybe you'll get your answers there." Minato said as he continued to eat.
Unknown to either shinobi, their conversation was being observed through a crystal ball.
The next day, Naruto, Kushina, and Minato were standing in the Hokage's Office.
"Minato, you will lead Naruto and Kushina on a simple C-rank mission. I want you three to deliver a scroll to someone. The details are in this mission scroll." Hiruzen Sarutobi said as he handed two scrolls to Minato, who took them without hesitation.
Naruto inwardly groaned at the thought of doing a C-rank mission, especially a delivery mission. Nonetheless, he did not voice his displeasure. He knew that Sarutobi was suspicious of him already, and he did not want to make him even more suspicious.
"Oh, and I want you three to keep your eyes peeled. This might be a C-rank mission, but there may be complications. Recently, there has been fighting between the Hidden Sand Village and some shinobi from neighboring lands. It's a tense situation due to the absence of the Third Kazekage." Sarutobi said.
Naruto nodded in understanding. He considered telling the Hokage that Sasori captured the Third Kazekage and turned him into a puppet, but that was a bit… insane, despite the fact that it was true. Plus, he would either be viewed as a liar- Sasori was only twelve at that point in time- or he would be viewed with even more suspicion.
"You can count on us." Minato promised as he read over the details of the mission.
"You three are dismissed." Sarutobi said.
Author's Note: Thanks for reading and reviewing. I'm sure that someone will comment about this chapter being short, but that's a necessary thing, apparently. You see, I had planned for the "Introduction Arc" to last ten chapters, covering Naruto's traveling to the past, waking up in the hospital, facing Minato in a match, going on a C-rank mission, and returning to the village to train, along with a private meeting with Sarutobi and a public meeting as a chunin. My planning didn't account for length, apprently, so I have shortened this arc to make the rest of the chapters longer, but I couldn't add anything further to this chapter. The good news is that I will conclude the Introduction Arc with Chapter 6, and Mikoto will appear in pretty much every chapter starting next chapter. That also means that the first full scale battle of the fic will begin soon enough.
