The first room within the tower was bare except for a scroll on the wall. Sakura began to read the riddle aloud, but Naruto barely paid attention as he unsealed the Earth and Heaven scrolls and tossed them on the floor. The seals inscribed on them glowed—shoddy work, Naruto thought idly; the lines were weak and the curves unsteady—before a plume of smoke erupted. Sasuke and Sakura both stepped back, on guard, as a silhouette became visible through the hanging vapor. As the smoke cleared, Naruto dragged a hand down his face in exasperation.

Before them stood a rather poorly-made scarecrow, with straw sticking out of its vest and some sort of fluffy white brush on its head under a jauntily-tilted headband that covered one painted eye. The sketched face was a henohenomoheji—Kakashi's chop, if the brush approximating his characteristically gravity-defying hair wasn't obvious enough.

The scarecrow had a note pinned to its chest, which Naruto read to his stunned teammates. "Sorry for not coming to meet you, but there's a cat in a tree that I need to save. Head through the door in front of you to the third room on the right to get some rest. The first door on the left is a cafeteria; get something to eat and ask for medical attention if you need it. I'm proud of you for getting this far." It was signed with the henohenomoheji. There was also a chibi Kakashi giving a V-for-Victory sign drawn in the corner. Naruto sighed, passed the note to Sakura, and pushed his way through the door.

"You guys hungry?" he asked, moving to the door on the left.

"Wouldn't you like to get cleaned up first, Naruto?" Sakura mumbled, and Naruto paused with his hand on the doorknob. He glanced down at his blood-splattered clothes. On the one hand, this might make for a good intimidation factor. On the other…

"Yeah, you're right," he laughed. "I don't wanna eat with this all over me!" Naruto crossed to the third door on the right as Kakashi had instructed and found another note tacked to the door with their names on it. Inside was what looked like a small hotel suite, with three beds and an attached shower. "I'll go first then, shall I?" he added, still chortling, as he moved toward the bathroom. Just as he made to pull his shirt over his head, Sasuke suddenly tackled him, pinning the blond against the floor, using his legs to keep Naruto's hands away from any weapons, and holding a kunai of his own to Naruto's throat.

"You know, as good-looking as you supposedly are, Sasuke, I don't swing that way," Naruto snarked, not remotely threatened. "Didn't know you did, though. Sakura and Ino will be heartbroken." On reflection, it was really quite fortunate for Sasuke that he had pulled this stunt while Naruto was fully awake. A drowsy or groggy Naruto probably would have killed him rather than quipped at him.

"Who the hell are you?" Sasuke snarled. "Naruto isn't skilled enough to kill three people without a scratch or clever enough to understand the riddle back there so quickly."

Naruto snorted. He should have expected this, though. He hadn't been acting the way he had at this age since the moment he had come back—he found it difficult to remember exactly how he had behaved, in truth, so he hadn't bothered. Sasuke had always been observant, quick to draw and stick to conclusions. Even when, as was currently demonstrating, his conclusions were easily demonstrably wrong.

"Brilliant theory," Naruto said sarcastically. "Well, except for the holes in it. When exactly am I supposed to have switched places with someone else, moron? And with who? And why?" Sasuke hesitated as Naruto kept poking holes in his theory, but then tightened his grip on the kunai against Naruto's neck as his eyes spun into sharingan.

"Naruto has been acting weird for weeks…" Sakura said, though she still looked nervous.

Naruto sighed. "Look, I really want to take a shower, so why don't you tell me what I can say that will make you believe me? You want me to make some Kage Bunshin? Or reminisce about tree-climbing in the land of Waves? Or when I beat you up on graduation day?"

Sasuke growled, but the pressure on Naruto's throat disappeared. Sasuke, plainly, had never told anybody about that short tussle, so only Naruto could know about it. A spy could have known that they learned to climb trees in Wave, but the transformation of their rivalry into a friendly one was an interaction that couldn't have been faked. Nobody their age could use Kage Bunshin except Naruto, and no Henge would stand up to the sharingan, nor could it replicate the characteristic color or intensity of Naruto's particular chakra.

The last straw was when Naruto looked him right in the eye and asked, "Why exactly are you upset that I'm finally improving?"

Sasuke grunted, but got up. "Still a thin hammer…"

Naruto grinned, pushing himself upright, but then froze as a clone popped somewhere and he got a rush of memories. Then another. His smile became a grimace, and he dashed back past his teammates and across into the cafeteria.

"Medic!" he barked in what would eventually be his Kage voice. "Two injured squads incoming!"

Team Kurenai, eating glumly, and the two chunin chaperones in the cafeteria all jumped to attention, startled. When he saw it was only Naruto, the nearer chunin looked prepared to start shouting back, but hesitated at the sound of tramping footsteps. A moment later, a dozen more Narutos hurried down the hallway, carrying between them the unconscious members of Team Gai and Team Asuma as gingerly as they could. Both chunin sputtered, and Naruto turned on his heel, storming away.

"MEDIC!" Naruto roared down the empty hallway, and the last door visible on the right before the curve of the tower hid the rest of the hallway from view creaked open.

"Medical staff is h—" the woman began to say, but had to jump back as the clones rushed past her. She sounded familiar, but Naruto was paying her no attention.

They laid their comrades gently upon the available beds, and dispersed. Naruto closed his eyes to sort through what they had learned, and began to speak rapidly without opening them, even as he backpedaled into the hallways so that the medics could work. "All six of them display signs of severe chakra exhaustion; Nara Shikamaru appears to have a concussion, Rock Lee's muscles are torn due to use of at least the first three gates, Hyuuga Neji has had the ligaments behind both knees severed, and both females show contusions to the torso consistent with cracked ribs."

Pleasingly, none of the medical staff wasted time asking questions, instead leaping straight to work. The vaguely familiar one who had opened the door thanked him, and Naruto finally opened his eyes as the door closed sharply. Slouching back to the room they had been assigned, Naruto hung his coat beside the door and shucked off his shirt and mesh vest, leaving them lying on the floor. He began unfastening his pants as he moved into the bathroom, but hearing Sakura squeak, he kicked the door closed before getting fully undressed and stepping into the shower.

Emerging ten minutes later with his pants cleaned and firmly back on over a fresh sarashi wrap, Naruto paused in toweling his hair dry when he saw Kakashi in the room.

"Good of you to join us, Sensei," he said, drily but fondly.

"Actually, Naruto, Hokage-sama was hoping you would join him before lunch," Kakashi said, snapping his book shut with an eye-smile.

Naruto shrugged. "Sure, lemme get a new shirt." He caught the mesh armour vest he had dropped earlier on his foot, kicked it up high enough to catch it, and drew it over his head. This done, he pulled a scroll out of his jacket and unsealed another plain black shirt emblazoned with the Uzumaki spiral. Then he placed a hand inside the shoulder of the coat and channeled chakra into the self-cleaning seal there. The blood spray on the coat faded and vanished back into the usual orange color, and Naruto pulled the coat on happily. After a quick smooth-down that doubled as a weapon-check, Naruto tied on his hitai-ite. "Ready, Sensei!" he announced.

"You two get cleaned up and find some food," Kakashi ordered the other two, who nodded. He took the lead ahead of Naruto down the hallway past the medic's room, but curiously did not pull his book back out. Naruto took a moment to confirm by chakra signature that this was indeed Kakashi.

As the continued down the hallway around the tower, Naruto mused that it was probably time to tell Jiijii what was going on. The main reason he and Gaara had decided to hold off was so that the course of events wouldn't change, but given Orochimaru's failure to appear, it seemed that they had changed anyway. He had informed the Hokage of Orochimaru's appearance after the second test anyway, so there really wasn't a better time. He began bracing himself.

"Hokage-sama is waiting," Kakashi said abruptly, gesturing Naruto to a particular door and indicating that he should enter first.

Naruto shrugged and pushed the door open. "I'm here, Jiijii!" He heard Kakashi shut the door behind him as he froze, taking in the sight in front of him. The Sandaime Hokage sat before him, his wrinkled hands clasped on top of his walking staff. On his right sat a buxom blonde with honey-colored eyes and a perpetual scowl on her ageless face, to his left was a large, square-jawed man with long white hair and smile lines around his eyes—the two loyal Sannin, Tsunade and Jiraiya.

Tears welled up in Naruto's eyes instantly, apparently at the sight of all of them, and he blinked them back as fast as he could. Hiruzen felt rather than saw Jiraiya and Tsunade glance at each other, their stern expressions fading into startlement. That was anything but the reaction they had expected. Surprise, sure. Awe, perhaps. A trace of fear, or more than a trace if "Naruto" turned out to be an imposter or enemy. But tears?

Naruto let out a gasping sob, and in the silence they could hear his whispers clearly. "Jiijii…Baa-chan…Ero-Kyoufu…"

Hiruzen's eyes widened. Naruto was not supposed to know that Jiraiya was his godfather. Much less should he be familiar enough with Tsunade to call her "grandmother"; by rights, he shouldn't even recognize her real age.

"Naruto?" he asked, quietly, but this only seemed to make the tears come faster. "Naruto!" he repeated sharply, hoping the boy would pay attention and calm down.

His expectations were dashed when Naruto suddenly stiffened, then took a respectful knee. His back remained straight, but his chin dropped humbly, far enough that his hair hid his streaming eyes, he brought his other fist to his heart in salute, overall adopting a posture that would put most ANBU to shame. "Hokage-sama, command me," he whispered, plainly doing his level best to keep his voice steady.

"Tell me about this, Naruto," Hiruzen said kindly, but firmly. Naruto was forced to raise his eyes to see what he was holding: a leather cord, from which hung the cracked and broken remains of a crystalline gem.

Naruto gasped, "What is that doing here?" before his eyes darted to Tsunade. On an identical cord around her neck hung a blue-green crystal, whole and intact. "What the—"

"Do you know what this is, brat?" Tsunade asked harshly, her fingers moving to the necklace compulsively.

Naruto stiffened and dropped his eyes to the floor again. When he spoke, it was in a voice so flat that it wouldn't have been out of place from one of Danzo's men. "It is a necklace formerly owned by your grandfather the Shodai, Tsunade-sama."

After a slight pause, she snapped, "Are you going to tell us how you got one so like it?" Naruto flinched, eyes closed, and bit his lip. When he spoke, he seemed to be picking his words with extreme care:

"'When the tree leaves dance, one shall find flames. The fire's shadow will illuminate the village, and once again, tree leaves shall bud anew.'"

"What the hell is that supposed to—" Tsunade snarled, but Jiraiya cut her off.

"That's Sensei's poem, hime," he said, his eyes boring into Naruto's…or they would have been if the blond's were looking at him. "Which to my knowledge, he has never shared with anyone except us."

Naruto took a shuddering breath. He cocked his head to face Jiraiya's voice, though his eyes were still shut tight, and said in a brittle voice, "Six Paths leads Red Dawn to seek Ten-Tails." Jiraiya's eyes grew so round they looked ready to pop out of his skull.

Naruto's eyes finally opened, but his gaze was fixed back on the floor at Hiruzen's feet. He reached down very slowly to draw his kukri, which he laid on the ground before him; a traditional show of fealty. Then, just as slowly, he drew stabbing blade strapped to his thigh. This he turned toward himself, holding it steady before his own heart. "Upon my honor, my life is yours, Hokage-sama," he whispered. "Upon this oath, know that I am yours to command."

Hiruzen stared at the boy kneeling before him, offering his loyalty in the most traditional ritual possible. After a long moment, he answered. "Your oath is accepted. Sheathe your blade. Your kage charges you to speak and answer truthfully. Who are you?" he asked.

"I am Uzumaki Naruto, genin of Konoha, identification number zero-one-two-six-zero-seven," Naruto rattled off. "Konoha's jinchuuriki and partner of the kyuubi no kitsune.

"What is it you wish to tell me?" Hiruzen pressed.

Naruto took a deep breath, and said, "I am from the future."

Whatever they had expected, it wasn't that.

Naruto, still reeling from seeing before him all at once the three people whom he had lost, and most wished to see again, still could not bring himself to really look at any of them. Kakashi had been one thing, and he had been psyching himself up to face Jiijii, but not all of them, all at once.

"Seal this room, Jiraiya," Sarutobi barked. Naruto did not move from his kneeling position as his godfather brushed past him. He did not look up at the sounds of a privacy seal being drawn, nor the flash as it activated.

"Stand up and raise your shirt, boy," Jiraiya barked. "Show me your seal." Naruto winced, but did as he was told. "What the hell is this?" Jiraiya growled. His large hand fastened around Naruto's neck and hoisted him up so that his feet were dangling.

Hiruzen barked, "Jiraiya!", but the sage paid no mind. He ignored the tears dropping onto his wrist and snarled, "What happened to this seal?"

Naruto made no effort to resist or free himself, and still couldn't look at his godfather. He raised his right hand slowly and made a handtalk sign, which variously meant Trust, Honesty, or Honor.

"Jiraiya, what are you—" Tsunade said.

"Half the elements of Minato's seal are gone," Jiraiya spat. "The thing's so loose, all it's doing is keeping the Kyuubi in his body; it's not sequestered from his mind, not protecting him from its influence, not even really filtering its chakra. It's almost as bad as the one on the Ichibi jinchuuriki." The tips of the fingers of Jiraiya's free hands began to glow. Kurama snarled in the back of Naruto's mind.

I'll release it, Naruto told the fox quellingly. You know I will. Believe it.

Jiraiya slammed his glowing hand into Naruto's stomach and twisted. The seal burned suddenly and tightened, returning it to how it had been when Naruto had actually been twelve. Some tiny part of him had to chuckle at the irony that despite everything else that had gone differently, his seal had still been messed with during the chunin exams.

Jiraiya dropped Naruto, dusting his hands. "That should hold long enough for us to figure out how the hell…" He trailed off as Naruto's own fingers began to glow. Naruto twisted the seal the other direction, making the spiral of the seal appear to rotate and the flowing characters around it vanish once more. "You little fool!" Jiraiya hissed, seizing Naruto by the throat once more and again ignoring Hiruzen's protest. "You could have completely released the Kyuubi! Who taught you to do that?"

Naruto shakily raised a hand again, and without looking at him, gently poked Jiraiya's chest.

"Me?" he sounded bewildered. Naruto nodded as best he could.

"Jiraiya, put him down immediately!" Hiruzen thundered. Jiraiya lowered Naruto to the ground gently this time, and Naruto immediately knelt once more. "None of that, Naruto," the Hokage snapped, and Naruto finally met his eye. "This sort of humility ill suits you now, I cannot imagine it from you in the future."

Naruto blinked. "You…believe me?" he rasped.

"That remains contingent upon the rest of our conversation, Naruto-kun," Hiruzen said gently. Naruto registered the renewed use of a suffix. "When did you learn that poem?"

Naruto swallowed hard. "I…heard it at your funeral, Jiijii." Tsunade's and Jiraiya's hands curled into fists, and Naruto heard Kakashi shift behind him, but Sarutobi merely sighed.

"It is indeed in my recorded wishes to have that recited at the memorial service when I pass," he said, and both of his students froze. "What is the meaning of the message you gave to Jiraiya?"

"The de facto leader of Akatsuki is a man calling himself Pain," Naruto began, unconsciously straightening and folding his hands behind his back, the proper posture for debriefing. "He is the leader of Amegakure, having led a civil war and killed Sanshouo no Hanzou some fifteen years ago." His eyes almost looked at Jiraiya before he continued. "His real identity is Nagato, and I have strong reason to believe that he may be an Uzumaki." Jiraiya gasped, and even Tsunade looked stunned, but Naruto continued as if he had heard neither. "One of the powers of the rinnegan is to control the bodies of up to six specially-prepared corpses, which then share vision and power. The goal of Akatsuki is to capture the jinchuuriki and extract the bijuu, sealing them one by one into a giant statue. Pain believes that the statue is a weapon, and that by possessing it, Akatsuki can end war by virtue of being an unstoppable threat. In truth, the statue is an empty husk that was once the body of the Juubi, before the first Sage of the Six Paths divided its chakra into the nine bijuu we know today." Naruto rested a hand on his stomach as he finished speaking.

There was silence for several long minutes. Finally, Hiruzen asked, "How did you come to be here?"

"By the end of the Fourth Great Shinobi War, I was the only remaining jinchuuriki. Through a series of frankly absurd coincidences, I found myself with all nine bijuu contained within me. The enemy I faced attempted to capture me using a spacetime ninjutsu." Naruto bit his lip again. "As it was explained to me, that technique was supposed to place its target in a pocket dimension that only the user could access. Instead…" he scratched the back of his head in a characteristic gesture. "I was flung into the past."

"How far?"

"Five years or so. I'm not sure exactly; the calendar didn't seem so important toward the end." Naruto shrugged.

"It was that bad?" Kakashi asked, speaking for the first time.

"It was war," Naruto replied quietly.

"What proof can you offer?" Tsunade asked.

"Besides knowing things I shouldn't?" Naruto shot back. He raised his left hand, and with a soft hum, created a rasengan. The spiraling ball of chakra held everyone's eye for a moment. "I can do better, but not without Sage Mode. I can't summon toads for you, because I haven't signed the contract yet, so nothing will happen. Oh, there's this." He held out one of his Mie kunai, subtly imprinting it his Hiraishin tag with a squeeze. Still using exaggerated movements, he lobbed it at an empty chair. In a flash of orange light, he vanished and reappeared seated in the chair with the kunai spinning by its ring around his finger.

"That was—" Kakashi staggered over to a chair beside Tsunade and sat down heavily.

"Yeah." Naruto pocketed the Mie kunai. "Took forever to get it right. You wouldn't believe how complicated it is to change the color of the flash." He grinned, and the Hokage threw back his head and laughed.

"So how did you get my necklace?" Tsunade cut in. "I assume that it was mine?"

"You gave it to me," he confirmed. "After Jiijii… Ero-sennin brought me to look for you, Godaime-sama." Tsunade sputtered. Naruto allowed himself to smirk a little. "Don't get used to that formality from me, though, Baa-chan."

As Tsunade composed herself, Naruto picked up and sheathed his kukri, laying the marked Mie kunai in front of the Hokage instead. "I'm having more made, but I want you to keep this, Jiijii. I don't want to tag Enma-san."

He resumed his debriefing stance. "I said nothing before now so that the potential for changing the course of history would be minimal, and I was hoping to eliminate some of the larger thorns in our side before they could ruin everything again." He sighed. "But things are already different, and I don't know why."

"What do you mean, Naruto?" Hiruzen prodded gently.

"Last time, during the second phase of the chunin exams, in the Forest of Death, our squad was attacked by a giant snake, and a Kusagakure jonin who turned out to be Orochimaru in disguise. He placed a Five Elements seal on my stomach and a Cursed Seal of Heaven on Uchiha Sasuke's neck. None of these events happened this time."

"Orochimaru attacked?" Hiruzen asked, alarmed.

Naruto nodded, looking bitter. "It was a precursor to a planned invasion. Orochimaru is the secret leader of Otogakure, and he conspired with the Yondaime Kazekage to attack Konoha during the third phase, using a combination of mass genjutsu, summoning, and a rampaging Ichibi." Naruto raised a hand at the adults' looks of alarm. "If nothing else, the latter is a moot point—Gaara, the jinchuuriki of the Ichibi, Shukaku of the One Tail, also has his memories of the lost future." Naruto smiled. "Orochimaru apparently did not trust the Kazekage to hold up his end of the bargain, and as such killed him and replaced him shortly before the third phase. It was in this guise that he attacked you, Jiijii. Gaara later became Suna's Godaime. He is a powerful ally."

Then Naruto sighed, and added, "Gaara and I agreed that we should allow that assassination, but we weren't sure exactly when it happened. Now, I'm not sure if it even will. Orochimaru hoped to destroy Konoha with his invasion, but that was only ever a secondary goal. His ulterior motive revolved around Sasuke and the Cursed Seal, so that he could lure him away from the village with promises of power and eventually take over his body. Since he didn't mark Sasuke, I have no idea what Orochimaru may be up to."

"The Cursed Seal of Heaven?" Jiraiya repeated.

"Yeah." Naruto scowled, still not looking at Jiraiya. "I hate that thing. It's damn hard to remove." Jiraiya's jaw dropped.

"You can remove Orochimaru's Cursed Seal?" Sarutobi clarified.

Naruto's smirk was back. "I can remove any seal," he said confidently. "I am my parents' kid.

"You know about your parents, then, Naruto-kun?" Hiruzen said, looking amazed.

"Old Man, look at this jacket. Do you really think I don't know?" Naruto gave a foxy grin. "I am Uzumaki Naruto, son of Uzumaki Kushina and Namikaze Minato." He brushed a finger over the whisker marks on his cheeks. "I am the jinchuuriki of Kurama of the Nine Tails, as my mother was before me, and her kinsman Uzumaki Mito before her. She named Senju Tsunade my kyoubo, as my father named Jiraiya my kyoufu; as they both wished for Kakashi to be my big brother." He stuck out his tongue at the silver-haired jonin. "See how well that turned out."

Kakashi looked pained at that, but Naruto said softly, "I don't begrudge you your pain, nii-san."

After a moment, the Hokage cleared his throat. "Is there anything else we should know, Naruto-kun?"

"There is so much more you need to know…" Naruto sighed. "For the moment, the priority is the chunin exams and the invasion. The way it worked before was, during the third round of the exams, Sasuke injured Gaara, which caused him to go berserk. Someone disguised as an ANBU, likely Orochimaru's spy, used a wide-area genjutsu to put most of the audience to sleep, and the Sound nin hidden among them attacked. Orochimaru cast off his Kazekage disguise and had his bodyguards use the Four Violet Flames Formation around the rooftop to isolate you for a battle, Jiijii. He sacrificed some Sound genin to bring back the Shodaime and Nidaime with Edo Tensei." Naruto's mouth twisted. "I really hate that jutsu," he added.

"Do you know who was Orochimaru's spy?" Jiraiya asked.

"Yakushi Kabuto," Naruto replied without hesitation. "He was originally one of Danzo's Root, programmed as a deep cover spy within Akatsuki. He was supposed to keep an eye on them while pretending to pass information to Akasuna no Sasori, who is Akatsuki's spymaster. At some point, he legitimately defected to Orochimaru, though he was always willing to work with the true leader of Akatsuki… That's not important now, though. What matters is that Kabuto is an enemy, and his squadmates are also Orochimaru's flunkies. If I remember correctly, one of them absorbs chakra, and the other can stretch his body like he's got no bones. Kabuto fights with chakra scalpels and uses medical ninjutsu to heal any damage he takes. He's by far the most dangerous."

Naruto thought for a moment. "The only other thing that might be of interest is Gaara's suspicion that, well, if Ichi and Kyuu are back, maybe Ni through Hachi are, too. They would all be guaranteed allies, at least to Gaara and I, and they are all older, so they may be making moves of their own or informing their own kage." Then he shrugged. "Once the break in the chunin exams officially starts, Gaara and I were going to try to make contact."

"I see," the Hokage said after a moment. "Does this conclude your official report, shinobi?"

Naruto brought a fist to his heart to salute, much more relaxed now.

"Then I have another question, Naruto-kun. What rank did you hold in…the future?"

Naruto gave a crooked smile. "Rokudaime Hokage and Grand Commander of the Allied Shinobi forces."

"I see…" Hiruzen actually chuckled. "Well then, Naruto-kun, while I am not quite ready to hand you the hat just yet, I should think that you are prepared to shoulder some more responsibility than your present rank allows, if you are willing to agree to an assessment."

"As my Hokage commands," Naruto said neutrally, though the broad grin on his face told its own story.

"Not to full jonin, I'm afraid," Hiruzen warned his protégé. "I think TokuJo is the best we will be able to do for some time. I will arrange a private evaluation, though I must ask you to remain in both the chunin exams and your current team, under Kakashi-kun's direction for some time."

"As my Hokage commands," Naruto repeated. "What sort of evaluation?"

"The sort that ensures you are able to defend the rank in question."

Naruto's smile widened. "Permission to fight my taichou, Hokage-sama?"

Kakashi seemed to have recovered somewhat. "You sure about that, otouto?" he teased.

"Maa, I'm not sure I could take a Sannin while I'm twelve, unless I use Sage Mode, and I'd feel guilty beating up on a geezer," Naruto teased back.

Sarutobi cleared his throat again, pointedly. "I think that will be all for today, Naruto-kun. Though, if you would remain just a moment?" He didn't wait for Naruto's response. "Tsunade, please accompany me; we need to greet the other chunin candidates and examine the potential tournament bracket."

"Oh, Baa-chan," Naruto interrupted. "There were some friends of mine injured during the exam; looks like Kabuto's work to me."

"I'll drop in," Tsunade promised as she followed Hiruzen out of the room. The door shut behind them and the privacy seal flared as it reactivated. Belatedly, Naruto realized Kakashi had also left, which meant Naruto was now alone with…

Jiraiya watched his godson's back as the realization hit him.

After a long, stiff silence, Jiraiya said bitterly, "I must have hurt you pretty badly in the future for you not to be able to stand the sight of me."

Naruto whirled on the spot and finally met his gaze, his sparkling blue eyes brimming with unshed tears. "Hurt me? You left me to go deep into hostile territory with no backup, for no gain we couldn't have guessed at! If I had been there, I could have gotten you back out…" His strangled voice trailed off, too choked with emotion to continue. He turned away again.

Jiraiya said nothing. He got to his feet, pulled his godson around, and crushed the boy to his chest. Naruto sniffled, gasped, and then broke down completely. He sobbed and sobbed, and every one tore at Jiraiya's heart. Even accounting for a five year reversal of time, impossible as it sounded, Naruto couldn't have been more than eighteen. Too young. Too young for everything that had happened to him, without being flung back and having to face the people he had lost. If Jiraiya found himself suddenly face to face with Minato…

Naruto's sobs were slowly resolving into words. "I k-know…you're not h-him…but he was you…and…and…"

There was no reply Jiraiya could make to that, so he just rubbed the small of Naruto's back through the sleeveless haori until the boy finally sniffled himself silent. Then he said, "Seems like there's not much left for me to teach you, Naruto."

Pulling away at last and scrubbing at his eyes, Naruto scoffed. "You've forgotten more than I ever knew about being a ninja, you old toad."

"And don't you forget it, brat," Jiraiya laughed. "Now clean yourself up, it's time for Sensei to tell you why we have chunin exams or whatever the lecture's about these days."

"That's what I remember," Naruto gave a watery chuckle.

When they emerged, they found a red-haired boy with a Suna headband passing by. The Sand jinchuuriki glanced between them, and Naruto gave him a tiny nod. The redhead fell into step beside the blond, and Naruto said, "'Raiya, this is Gaara."

'Raiya? the sage pondered. He supposed he could allow it.

Gaara inclined his head respectfully, but spoke to Naruto. "Orochimaru did not attack," he said bluntly.

"No," Naruto agreed. "I'm not sure what to think, because he was obsessed with Sasuke last time."

"The spy escaped me," Gaara scowled, and the sound of shifting sand came from within the gourd he carried on his back. Well, that tallied with the stories Jiraiya's spies had reported, at least.

"He won't escape," Naruto assured his friend as they approached the door to the main arena.

"We should enter separately," Gaara decided as they approached the door. He broke off a few steps short and paused.

When Naruto opened the door, Jiraiya clapped him on the shoulder before vanishing in a Shunshin, reappearing just behind the Hokage, opposite Tsunade. The coughing jonin who had been the proctor for the preliminaries last time was calling for quiet as Naruto joined his teammates. Naruto did likewise, landing beside Sakura, who jumped. A moment later, Gaara appeared in a Suna Shunshin beside his siblings, fortunately or unfortunately between Naruto and Kabuto's team, who were the only other candidates remaining.

The speech was as Naruto remembered, except that no preliminaries were needed. Kabuto, as before, complained of injury from the second task and withdrew, leaving eight contenders to compete and Naruto to reign in his killing intent with difficulty.

"We will reconvene in one month at the public stadium to hold a tournament," coughed the proctor; Gekkou, Naruto suddenly remembered. Naruto hadn't known him well, he seemed to remember attending a memorial service for Gekkou shortly after Jiijii's, but he did remember an ANBU with long purple hair who he thought might have been Gekkou's betrothed. Even in the future she had never offered a name, and so had remained Cat even when her last mask broke. She had served as his ANBU commander after Yamato-taichou had refused…

With an effort, Naruto pulled himself back to the present in time to look over the tournament bracket being projected before them. In the upper bracket was Kankurou versus Sasuke and Kabuto's teammate Tsurugi Misumi versus Gaara. In the lower bracket, Naruto himself was facing Kabuto's other squadmate, Akadou Yoroi, while Sakura was matched against Temari.

With an effort, Naruto managed not to roll his eyes. He glanced at Gaara and cocked an eyebrow. The redhead sighed. It seemed he agreed—the finals would be between the two of them.

"Hn," Sasuke grunted. "Too bad. I wanted to fight you before the finals, Loser." He sounded eager, but not bloodthirsty; in that almost-friendly way that Naruto had missed so much after he had gotten the Cursed Seal.

"Tch," Naruto scoffed. "We can spar during the break, since you won't last that long in the tournament, Jerk," he shot back.

Sasuke smirked. Sakura just sighed, then glanced worriedly at Temari. With a slight shimmer, Kakashi appeared behind the boys and dropped a hand on each of their heads in an obnoxious manner. "Now, now, are you sure it would be fair to train together now that the team portion of the tournament is over?"

"Maa, Sensei," Naruto demurred. "I would never dream of abandoning my comrades like that."

Kakashi pinched his face. "Cheeky." The three of them groaned at the pun, but Kakashi just gave them his usual, infuriating eye-smile. "Take a week off, at least, and I'll see you in the usual place, bright and early. Naruto, Hokage-sama says that we can do the thing the day after tomorrow. Ja ne!" He vanished.

"So by 'bright and early', he means lunchtime as usual, right?" Sakura asked dully. Both boys nodded.

"What's 'the thing', Naruto?" Sasuke asked, apparently genuinely curious, since he used his teammate's real name.

"My secret promotion test," Naruto replied honestly, knowing that he wouldn't be believed.

As predicted, Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Whatever, Dead Last."

It was too late in the day to leave the Forest of Death before nightfall, so the Hokage instructed all the genin to remain in the tower for the night. Team Kakashi returned to the cafeteria for dinner, where they were hesitantly joined by the Sand Siblings and a smiling Iruka, their last Academy teacher, whom Naruto had not seen yet. Naruto and Iruka chattered away happily, while Gaara occasionally chimed in. Naruto wasn't sure if it was just him, but Gaara definitely seemed funnier than he remembered, even from the other future. Perhaps there was just more to laugh about. The rest of their respective teams made awkward small talk, none of them entirely comfortable with each other.

When Iruka escorted them out of the Forest the following morning, Naruto was promptly ambushed by Anko, who cried, "Meal Ticket!" before dragging him off by the hair. Naruto wept theatrically as all of his friends unashamedly abandoned him to his fate. Thirty plates of dango later—of which only four were Naruto's—Anko declared that his debt was paid and that she had to meet Hokage-sama about something.

The day of Naruto's evaluation dawned overcast, but there was no smell of approaching rain. He dressed for battle, and dropped by Kotetsu Ryuu to see if Higurashi-san had finished another Mie kunai. There were, in fact, two, but Tenten refused to hand them over until he agreed to a spar.

"All right, all right, fine," Naruto promised, "But not until you've rested a bit. Those cracked ribs looked bad."

Tenten shrugged. "I should be fine. Tsunade-sama checked on me personally!" She added with stars in her eyes.

While she was distracted, Naruto snatched the Mie kunai from her and fled the shop, calling back, "Well, I've got a whole month before the tournament, so we'll have plenty of time, bye!"

He turned a corner, then ducked down an alleyway. Once he was out of sight, he drew on chakra for his Hiraishin and flashed to the seal in Jiijii's office…or tried to. As he had half-predicted, he appeared inside the drop ceiling, and had to quickly anchor himself to the support beam with chakra so as not to fall through. He lifted the panel carefully, and peered down into the office, but a hand shot up through the gap, seized him by the collar, and dragged him down into the office proper. Realizing his error, Naruto quickly raised his hands in surrender, even as he was held with his feet off the ground for the second time in two days.

"Release him, Cat," came the Hokage's quiet voice, and the ANBU dropped him at once. Naruto glanced up in time to see the swirl of purple hair as the ANBU vanished to her guard position once more. "An excellent demonstration of your stealth and infiltration skills for advancement, Naruto-kun, but perhaps a little ill-advised," Hiruzen chided.

Naruto scratched his head. "Sorry, Jiijii; I forgot your Guard Platoon always has a talented sensor, and I didn't realize what a bad idea it was until a moment too late."

"You are forgiven," Sarutobi told him as he got to his feet. "Come, we will conduct the examination back in the Forest of Death."

"Ne, Jiijii, should I send a runner to wake up Taichou?" Naruto offered, not really wanting to sit around for hours waiting for Kakashi.

"I think Kakashi-kun may surprise even you," Hiruzen chuckled.

Sure enough, when they arrived, Kakashi was waiting for them in the clearing beside the tower with his little orange book nowhere in sight. He eye-smiled at Naruto. "Ready, Naru-bouzu?" he asked, without preamble.

Naruto took a Shioken ready stance at once. The Hokage chuckled. "Very well, Kakashi-kun," he called. "I will leave the evaluation to you. Please be thorough."

"Of course, Hokage-sama." Kakashi's eye moved to Naruto. "We'll be testing your various skills by sparring. Ninja art number one: Taijutsu." Kakashi watched Naruto for a moment, and when the blond showed no sign of striking first, Kakashi charged.

It was not his full speed—not even close, in fact—but still well above the level expected for a genin. Interestingly, Naruto's response was not Shioken despite his opening posture. His first few blocks and dodges were textbook Academy taijutsu; the sort Naruto had shown no sign of knowing when he had graduated just six months previously. Kakashi pressed his attack, slowly increasing both the complexity and speed of his combinations, but Naruto only smirked and began returning attacks. These, Kakashi was able to stop just as easily, but Naruto could tell he was impressed by his precision.

Abruptly Kakashi switched styles, shoving Naruto back and flowing into a spinning roundhouse kick; Gai's signature Konoha Senpuu. Naruto didn't miss a beat, blocking both of Kakashi's kicks and responding with a vicious uppercut that Kakashi barely dodged. As his teacher raised his fists again, Naruto spun a Konoha Senpuu right back at him. Kakashi whirled to parry the kick in a technique he had plainly devised by sparring Gai, but Naruto only grinned. The usual second kick was a feint, and Naruto instead used the centrifugal momentum to shove Kakashi back with a makeshift Jyuuken Kaiten. Naruto continued in Jyuuken form for another few minutes, though he had always been unable to focus his chakra finely enough to strike correctly. A moment later, Kakashi had shifted again to lightning-fast ANBU-standard Taijutsu, but still Naruto's corresponding defense and retaliation were flawless.

Several minutes and several more martial arts later, Kakashi began to spar in earnest, using the mixed taijutsu style he favored in actual combat. Sensing that the scarecrow was now serious, Naruto responded with his own personal style, which was heavily based on Uzu-ryuu Shioken. He leaned around a straight punch, stepped back to avoid an upward kick, then darted in as his sensei threw a hook. With all the speed and fury of the tides, Naruto buried a fist in Kakashi's gut, then stepped back and circled, waiting for another opening.

Kakashi chuckled wheezily. "Never did get the hang of fighting against that style," he confessed. He drew an ANBU-issue tanto from the sheath on his back. "Ninja art number two: Bukijutsu."

Naruto barely had time to draw his kukri and deflect the strike before Kakashi was on top of him. Locking the older man's blade in the notch at the bottom of his own, Naruto kicked at Kakashi's knees and dodged desperately backwards. His weapon had more heft, but Kakashi was a far better swordsman. Staggering away, Naruto managed to draw a Mie kunai in his off hand to even the odds. Kakashi also drew a kunai, albeit a standard-issue one. Despite Naruto's clearly better-made weapons, it was completely obvious that Kakashi had him utterly on the ropes.

Apparently deciding that he had humiliated Naruto thoroughly enough, Kakashi suddenly skipped backward and sheathed his sword. Naruto hurriedly did the same with his kukri and dropped the Mie kunai point-down where he stood as Kakashi withdrew a double handful of shuriken. Naruto flung his own shuriken to deflect his teacher's, but realized too late that Kakashi's throwing stars were attached to ninja wire. Naruto backflipped hastily over the wires and kicked off a tree behind him, headed straight toward Kakashi, but it seemed that this too had been predicted, as Naruto found several kunai headed toward him. Twisting in midair, Naruto drew his own throwing knife, deflected two of Kakashi's and dodged the third before flinging the small black blade at the scarecrow, where it sank into Kakashi's chest.

What?

Kurama pulsed Naruto's chakra without waiting to be asked. The genjutsu dissolved at once, and Naruto found the wire-bound shuriken still flying at him. He rolled to the side instead and came back to his feet to find Kakashi completing another series of seals. The world seemed to shiver, but Kurama once again shattered the illusion before it could really take hold. Naruto shook his head and said, "Don't tell me; 'Ninja art number three: Genjutsu', right?"

Kakashi's visible eyebrow furrowed, but his voice was as calm as ever. "Let's skip to Ninja art number four: Ninjutsu." He flipped through a few signs, ending on tiger. "Katon: Goukakyuu."

Naruto responded instantly, "Suiton: Teppoudama!" He spat a ball of water to douse Kakashi's fireball, then rolled to the side again as a bolt of lightning tore through the resultant steam. Naruto quickly crossed the first two fingers of both hands in a distinctive seal, silently conjuring a kage bunshin that contained a fraction of his chakra. Both of them began signing when Kakashi did not appear through the steam. The clone cried, "Katon: Housenka!" and dispelled, having poured all of its limited chakra into a small spray of fireballs. An instant later, Naruto took a deep breath and grunted, "Fuuton: Daitoppa!" before exhaling a veritable gale, which fanned the fireballs hot enough to glow blue as they tore through the vapor hanging in the air.

The air cleared, but Kakashi was nowhere to be found. Knowing what was coming and having no wish to deal with it, Naruto quietly replaced himself with another shadow clone and retreated into the trees, unseen. Sure enough, from his spot on the branch, he watched as Kakashi's hands erupted from the ground and gripped the clone's ankles, dragging it down until it was buried to the neck. Naruto grimaced. Doton: Shinjuu Zanshu. He really despised that technique; it was too much a favorite of the enemy in the future. Deidara, Kakuzu, Zetsu, Kabuto, Orochimaru, Tobi, Madara; appearing suddenly in front of you or seizing your legs with vicelike fingers, teeth, fangs, snakes; tearing at muscles and ligaments or dragging you down, down into the dark…

Naruto swallowed hard to prevent himself vomiting as Kakashi popped up again, bending down to pinch the clone's cheek. The clone glowed, then exploded, blasting Kakashi off his feet and leaving a sizeable crater. Kakashi impacted a tree across the clearing, and Naruto was on him in a Shunshin-assisted flash, his Kukri back out and pressed to his sensei's throat, glowing green and humming slightly with the wind chakra flowing down it.

"Word of advice, Taichou," Naruto whispered, quietly enough that only Kakashi could hear him. He let his fear and disgust bleed into his shaky voice even though his hand was steady. "Don't ever use that jutsu on one of us from the future. We have a lot of very bad memories associated with it. Best case scenario, you'll be spending time in the hospital, and I know you hate that as much as I do." He ended as lightly as he could, sheathing his kukri and retrieving the Mie kunai he had dropped as an emergency Hiraishin point earlier.

Naruto spun the latter around his finger, then extended it to Kakashi; a peace offering. "I know you have one of the Yondaime's; I'd be honored for you to keep one of mine, too."

Kakashi nodded gravely and took it. "Thank you, Naruto."

Naruto glanced around as the Hokage reappeared, flanked by both Sannin and a handful of ANBU: Cat, Lizard, Bear, Panther, and Ocelot.

"So, how'd I do, Hokage-jiijii?" Naruto called, grinning.

"Adequately, Tokubetsu Jonin Uzumaki," the Hokage smirked back. "Follow me back to my office and we'll draw up your commission. Though, I hope you do realize that you will probably have to keep a copy of it on hand so that people believe you, if you should ever need to declare your new rank."

A moment later, the clearing stood empty.

A/N: This chapter ended up being way more talky than I wanted, so I decided to finish up with a fight scene, even if it was kind of a boring one.

Sarashi is the correct name for the "bandages" that Ino wears around her stomach, or which Sanosuke wears in Rurouni Kenshin. (Naruto is wearing them in the same style as the latter, albeit under a shirt).

Obviously the necklace didn't break in the other-future the way it did in canon, before anyone pounces in the reviews.

-bouzu is an informal, affectionate, masculine diminutive honorific; socially the equivalent of addressing a young nephew or cousin as "squirt". Combined with the shortening of Naruto's name, Kakashi is being cheerfully familiar with Naruto, the way he might have been if they really had grown up as brothers, considering their relative ages, without outright referring to Naruto as a "little brother".

In case it isn't clear, the word "Ryuu" can mean "school" or "style" (as in a school of martial arts), as well as meaning "dragon", as I mentioned in a previous chapter. The characters are quite different, but pronounced the same way.

I've also thrown up a poll on my profile on FFN—would you guys like a forum to talk with/about me and my stories? I can't really imagine anyone does, but apparently that's a capability FFN has (I'm new to this whole fanfic thing, remember).