Restart

by xXChirushiXx

Uzumaki Naruto is given a new chance at life after failing it by the most unreliable source. In his new life, he is no longer an Uzumaki, he is lonely (Kurama is not the most talkative) and he still has all his enemies out there, that will attack in a few years. He must be ready. Time Travel. Adult Themes. "WHY IN THE WORLD IS OBITO ATTACKING? HE'S YEARS TOO EARLY!" Disclamer

6. Ripple Effect

Late chappy, sorry. A/N at the end

Word count:
This Chapter: 6 527
Total: 31 756

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Chapter Six – Ripple Effect! Its bigger everyone thought!

It took three months for Obito to realise that he was, in fact, 18 years in the past. He needed to be certain that this wasn't a really strong genjutsu from a revived Uchiha or something. He needed proof.

Once he had gotten used to the increased pain in his right side and a fortunate surprise of drastically increased chakra reserves, he had ventured out of Madara's tunnels, ignoring Zetsu's warnings and protests. In Kiri (Mist), he found that the Academy's graduation test of fighting to the death had only been discontinued for five years where, from memory, it should have been 23 years ago. That and the Yondaime Mizukage was still alive.

I'm Ame, he found civil war and Suna was still in a financial mess. Iwa (Rock) was still recovering from the Third Great Shinobi War and Kumo (Cloud) were still planning to somehow steal the byakugan.

Finally, after checking on multiple people, Uchiha Obito finally accepted that he was 18 years in the past. His next question he needed to answer before he decided what to do was 'how'.

At first, the teen started looking towards what could have brought him here. All he could come up with was the dark purple amaterasu like fire that escaped from Uzumaki Naruto's dying body though he doubted that a flame, no matter the size or strength, could cause someone to jump through time and return to their old body, even if that flame was caused by a dying Kyūbi.

Ultimately, Obito decided that a jutsu would be needed, a very well thought out fuinjutsu that probably ate, a lot, of chakra. He even doubted that, as there were few to no fuinjutsu experts that had a lot of chakra left.

The next thoughts that went through his head were 'why'. He gave up asking 'how' – maybe the gods thought that he couldn't reach his goal and gave him another chance at it – and moved onto the next question. 'Why'. Did the gods like him or hate him – he could not answer.

Eventually he came up with something that would answer the majority of his questions but most of all, though he refused to speak this out loud, it gave him the feeling of security. Someone important had made him travel back in time, where initially, Madara's 'Eye of the Moon Plan' started to go wrong – the Kyūbi attack. The gods were either giving him another chance to complete the plan earlier in the timeline so that he could create the ultimate peace or they were giving him another chance at doing something different. This answer meant that he was the only one who came back, it meant that he was special, and finally, it meant that whatever he ended up doing would work.

Finally the last question Obito had to answer so that he could get his life up and running again was 'what'. What was he going to do? Now that was easy – until he remembered what year he fell into. As the Kyūbi attack still failed even though the Gods sent him back, he guessed that the Gods more likely gave him this second chance to do something else. Since being selfless (in his own opinion), to the point of wanting world peace, didn't work, he decided to be selfish this time around.

"I need to save Rin" was all he talked about for a week while retraining his body. Rin was all he thought about during that week. 'Rin, Rin, Rin'. Then the moon shone on the matter and the boy realised that Rin was gone. Why didn't the gods help him? If only they could have sent him back one more year then he would have been able to save her – no, stop Kakashi from murdering her. She could have lived as a Jinchuriki, no harm. Namikaze Minato or Jiraiya could have fixed the seal keeping the Sanbi in. He was almost like a child on this matter; he was dead set on getting his real Rin back this time, no matter what.

"I will learn the Kuchiyose: Edo Tensei Jutsu (Impure World Reincarnation Jutsu)."

={|}={|}={|}={|}={|}=

Hatake Kakashi's eyes doubled in size as a tall man with a mop of blond hair walked through Konoha's market street with his tired eyes on the ground and his brows furrowed with stress. The teen had been busy with 'D' ranked missions for repairing the village during the last three months since the Kyūbi attack and hadn't had time to see his sensei. The Sandaime had taken over as Hokage for the majority of the time and all 'D' ranks were being created and administrated by the admin office so he couldn't even see him between missions or around the village.

No, he was lying to himself. Hatake Kakashi was avoiding the man like the plague. He didn't think he was ready to face the ghosts of his past yet. But after taking a deep breath, he deemed himself ready; ready to face reality head on in lieu of hiding in the shadows of normality.

"Sensei!" He called just as Minato turned out of the street.

"Kakashi?" The blond man stopped so that the boy could catch up before walking again. "I'm just heading home now. I'm too tired to deal with your complaints you're bound to have about all the 'D' rank missions right now." He said with a sigh.

"…Ah! Wait!" He didn't stop.

Kakashi hesitated before following him again with wide eyes which he hoped his sensei couldn't see. He couldn't take his eyes off him. It felt like he was in one of his multiple dreams where members of his team seemed to miraculously come back to life; he hoped this wasn't one though – all those dreams always turned into nightmares.

The two walked together in silence until they reached the street the older man lived in.

"I'm not here to complain, I know that more 'D' ranks then normal are needed to get the village up and running again rather than 'A's or 'B's." Kakashi finally said when he found some confidence.

Minato stopped and pulled out his keys before unlocking the door of his house. "Then what do you want? You know I'm really busy at the moment dealing with the Kyūbi attack and a newborn baby, I can't train you or something in the likewise."

Kakashi's brows furrowed at this as the man opened the door. The boy absentmindedly followed him into the house. 'This is only a dream – right?' With a slight bit of venom in his voice, he replied, "Minato-sensei, I haven't seen you in forever and the one time I do you're-" He almost crashed into his sensei when he stopped suddenly, "Sensei?"

"Minato, Kakashi-kun." A voice said from the lounge room.

The boy missed whatever Minato said as all his attention was glued to a man which caused him to want to freeze and have a double take on the colour of his eyes. "… Ji- Jirai… ya." The said man's attention was back on the sleeping baby in his arms.

The sennin looked up at the sound of the shock in the boy's voice. "Are you alright, Kakashi-kun? You look like you've seen a ghost."

He swallowed. "Oh… you don't know just how many I've been seeing."

Worry suddenly graced the faces of all the adults in the room.

"It's not like I'm seeing things now; so don't worry." Kakashi quickly said to calm them down, unconsciously giving his signature eye-smile before turning his attention on the sleeping three month old to calm his nerves as the adults eyes stayed on his face for moment longer. 'Maybe this wasn't a good idea'.

Minato sat down on a lounge seat and motioned for Kakashi to do the same on the other spare singular lounge seat.

The adults started some small talk between them about the baby and Kakashi went back to his thoughts.

This dream felt almost real; almost because it was absolutely impossible. Jiraiya and he had sat in the Namikaze lounge room before with both Minato-sensei and Kushina but never with a baby with blond hair in the arms of the sennin. Even in his dreams, never had the Kyūbi attack actually happened and Minato-sensei and Kushina had miraculously survived; never did Naruto get out of being a Jinchuriki. Kakashi was afraid that he would suddenly wake up and it would all be over, his sensei's family was destroyed and he was in the middle of a war protecting his sensei's son.

"I can't believe that he'd already worked out how to open a door knob when he was only two months old though… That's genius."

Zoning back in, Kakashi finally said something so that he didn't seem rude. "Why is it so… genius, Jiraiya? He still couldn't open the door so how does that help?" His eyes were glued to the young Naruto's face.

"Knowledge is power at his age," the white haired man explained, "At this age they don't have the muscles to physically do anything but their ability to learn is massive; babies, toddlers and children can learn a whole language within four to six years. You may not have been very strong when you were six but you already had the mind and abilities of a 12 year old genin. Knowledge is much more than power at such a young age."

The boy started to wonder if Naruto was this smart when he was baby; he didn't spend much time with Naruto while he was a baby so he didn't know. 'Why would my mind suddenly make Naruto a child genius? I know he was pretty much useless until he learnt the kage-bushin no jutsu (shadow clones) when he was twelve so he shouldn't be doing something like opening a door at such a young age.' Kakashi furrowed his eyebrows. 'Unless this is real…'

The boy had to admit that this dream, if that was what it was, had gone on a very long time. He had been a little bit disorientated at first because he was used to a bigger body and he had even accidently hit his thumb with a hammer on a 'D' which should have woken him up.

'Maybe, just maybe, if I pretend that this is real, what could have caused it?' The last thing he could remember was the attack on the craterous Konoha. Naruto and himself were the only two ninja in the crater, the rest were either medics collecting the dead who were killed by a Zetsu attack or Naruto's fiancée who was trying to convince the blond that she wasn't sick.

Suddenly there was an attack and the next thing he knew was that he was fighting Obito with Sakura. Fire, purple fire was the last thing he knew before he was suddenly standing alongside younger versions Gai, Kuranai and Asuma and many other ninja teens being held back by several senior ninja for some unknown reason. It hadn't taken him long to realise it was the Kyūbi attack but he easily noticed that something was different, maybe something was even wrong.

The baby in Jiraiya's arms starting to wakeup brought Kakashi out of his thoughts. 'Naruto… who would have thought your parents would still be alive to see a day like this.' He didn't know if he wanted this to be real or not.

The baby's big blue eyes widened as he looked at Kakashi's own then at Jiraiya's.

Something in Naruto's eyes caused Kakashi to frown. They reminded him more of the eyes of his student rather than the eyes of an ignorant baby. 'I don't know much about babies but I do know that they don't look people in the eye; I'm certain that babies have trouble focusing their eyes at this aage…'

"aa ooo on..? oo ai abb ummin on mai ace?"

'Is he trying to talk or just babbling…?'

'grrrrrrr'

"…"

He baby laughed and his face went even redder then it already was and an arm started to wave itself around his head. "ahm oot eerry ah unji ah ai ouwnd, ah-e-ah-o-" The baby's tummy growled again and everyone stayed silent, waiting to see what the baby would do. "eru, ahbe ai arm…"

When no one talk the baby obviously started to freak out, babbling on then his eyes widened again as if he realised something. Kakashi couldn't help but wonder why baby Naruto was acting like this; 'normal babies don't act so… civilised. They don't baby talk as if they are trying to make conversation with things around them… do they?'

"Ohr ou eeset ee oo ump owe an ay ai'm dee 'ine ail'd ox… iid."

Minato breathed in harshly. "Lets… I know!" he suddenly changed him mind, almost as if he hadn't even wanted to say what he was originally going to way. His eyes flashed between Kakashi and Jiraiya, "You two should stay over for dinner so we can… talk…" His voice faded to a whisper on the last word.

Everyone agreed.

Dinner was quick and quiet. The adults wanted to talk about something and they wanted Kakashi to be a part of it and for some reason, none of them felt that it was safe to talk while the baby was around; especially Minato. Surprisingly, Naruto stayed quiet, seemingly able to understand the mood his elders were in.

As he ate, Kakashi let his thoughts wonder again. 'I don't know if this is a dream or not but I think I will take my chances. If this is a dream, it might just turn into a nightmare and be over quicker rather than just waiting it out. If this is real though…"

"Hey," Kushina's voice echoed through the silent kitchen. "I'll go put Naru-chan to bed then we can talk." She took the baby quickly out of the room and returned fifteen minutes later while Minato and Jiraiya were making some small talk. "Back," the redhead announce as she came in, "do we want to sit in the lounge room?"

"Can we go to the study? I need to put up a barrier seal up because I have something important to tell you, Hokage-sama. Kushina and Kakashi-kun can sit in." Jiraiya said before anyone else could reply.

Minato's eyes widened before he led them all upstairs to his office. The air was tense as he shut the door and activated a seal. "This will muffle our voices and blur our image even to a Hyūga's Byakugan."

Jiraiya nodded in acknowledgment. The office room was fairly small compared to the fact that it was the private office of the Hokage. With a desk in the middle of the room, shelves and draws on either side and a display cupboard on the back wall, there was barely enough room for all four of them to move around.

"This is a double S ranked secret that at the moment, you must protect with your lives." Jiraiya said with absolute seriousness. "I have information that cannot get into the wrong hands and I can't deal with it myself."

'I don't remember anything like this ever happening…' "Not a word will leave my mouth." Kakashi said when both Minato's and Jiraiya's eyes flickered towards him.

With a nod from the other two adults, Jiraiya continued. "Minato, Kushina, you two were meant to die on the night of the Kyūbi attack." The said two tensed. "No, you two did die." This time their eyes widened.

"What are you talk-"

"-Minato, let me finish otherwise you will have more questions than I can answer." Jiraiya interrupted, and then looked out the window before continuing. "Minato, you used the shikifuin to seal half of Kyūbi's chakra then you sealed the other half into Naruto, making him the nine tail's Jinchuriki. Both of you died due to a stab wound from the Kyūbi's claw."

Kakashi's eyes were wide with disbelief whilst Minato's and Kushina's were narrowed with confusion.

"But… we're still alive." Kushina said tentatively.

"Minato, you are the space-time jutsu expert. Do you believe that time travel could be possible sixteen years into the future?"

Minato was hesitant to answer. "… Are you trying to say that you're from the future?"

"Why do you say sixteen years?"

All three adults had their eyes immediately on the boy.

"…" Kakashi's eyes were on the ground, then, with a new determination, they met the adults with an expression that was far beyond his age. "Jiraiya, there were only two time's you were close to death – not counting the third. The first, you caused yourself, and had to deal with Tsunade-sama's wrath. The second was while you were training the child of prophecy and he got up to the fourth tail."

"Kakashi-kun, Jiraiya's only ben close to death once…" Kushina said with a sweat-drop.

Jiraiya's eyes were bulging out of his face with an almost comical effect inevitably causing Kakashi's jaw had dropped to the ground.

"That means that this is real!" Kakashi said in shock with an accusing finger pointed at the sage.

The comment caused a raised eyebrow from Minato and the expression of the boy and sennin caused a silent cackle from Kushina.

"What are you two talking about?" Minato's sceptical tone knocked the shock out of his teacher and student and they both turned towards him with enlarged eyes.

"He's from the future!" The two said in unison.

Minato face-palmed and said "that's impossible," whilst at the same time Kushina finally let out her laughter and fell to the ground in a fit of giggles and cried out between chuckles, "time travel's impossible, everyone knows that!"

Kakashi flashed his eyes towards Jiraiya and found that he was doing the same, then, once again they said in harmony "That's what we thought too!"

Kushina suddenly took a deep breath and stood up, "Okay, I'm good. Why would you think that?" she said with one final giggle.

Kakashi raised an eyebrow. "Because you both died years ago, I am your son's sensei and I was fighting in the Fourth Great Shinobi War. That, and this building still should not exist anymore."

"FOURTH GREAT SHINOBI WAR!" All three adults cried out in astonishment.

Right at that moment, Kakashi really wished he had one of his Icha Icha books to hide behind. "I don't know what caused Jiraiya and I to travel in time, but I do know that I am eighteen years in the past and Jiraiya died two years ago in my timeline."

"What date did you… come back to?" Jiraiya was lost for words.

"The night of the Kyūbi attack, Jiraiya-san. You?"

"Same…"

"…"

"… What on earth are the two of you talking about?" Kushina suddenly yelled causing the two time travellers to jump.

"Well, Kushina-chan, by the look of it, Kakashi and I, both somehow died on different dates, two years apart- did you die Kakashi?" With a shrug from the boy Jiraiya continued, "- and we have somehow travelled through time to the exact same date- the night of the Kyūbi attack." he looked at the boy for affirmation, "We don't seem to know how or why but we can tell you what we know of the future to benefit the village and hopefully steer the Shinobi world into the right direction.."

"Wait!" Kushina was suddenly in front of the both of them and holding them by the collars. "So you two aren't just being idiots and planning some stupid prank against us?" she growled.

Jiraiya sweat-dropped and was reminded why the woman he hadn't seen for 16 years was called the Bloody Habanero, "Why… why would I get Minato to put up a seal if it was only a prank…?"

Kushina eyed her husband, "Do you believe them Mina-chan?"

The Hokage's eyes dangerously narrowed, "Speak."

The redhead put the two down and moved so that she was standing next to the Hokage as his right hand woman.

"Well…

.. .. .. ..

"…"

The room was silent by the time Kakashi finished putting his input in. Jiraiya was obviously gobsmacked at the escalation after his death – war.

"So… Naruto became the Rokudaime Hokage and Obito is still alive?"

Minato's question was rhetorical and no one bothered to answer it.

"The fourth shinobi war…" Minato continued his incoherent rambling.

"Even I didn't see that one coming." Jiraiya said with his head down, processing the information from two years after he had died.

"At least there was seventeen years of peace and a shinobi alliance formed." Kushina said. "That's more than the peace time between the second and third."

Kakashi couldn't help but want to roll his eyes at the redhead, only she could still be an optimist after being told that war was on the horizon. The last war she'd been in finished just under two years ago.

"I have another question… Why are Kushina and I still alive?" Minato suddenly said after another moment of silence.

Kakashi's and Jiraiya's eyes met before they both shrugged and in unison said "No idea."

"Tell us exactly what happened on the night of the Kyūbi attack. Maybe we could work out what differed from our attack and yours."

Kushina sweat dropped, "I don't really remember, I was a bit out of it."

Minato started his own explanation on what happened with his wife adding anything that he missed. He said every single detail that he could think of and even put in any thoughts he was having at the time. Every couple of minutes he would pause and ask if the others had any questions or if they wanted to know more about anything.

"I put Naruto into the crib in the sealing bed while Kushina was holding the Kyūbi back with her chains; my plan was to use the Dead Demon Seal (Shiki Fūjin) to seal half of the beast's chakra then seal the rest into Naruto with the Eight Trigrams Seal." The Hokage continued with his explanation, Kakashi and Jiraiya had yet to intervene or ask any questions other than when the blond stopped, though this time Kakashi frowned for a moment.

"Kushina lost control of the Kyūbi while I was in the middle of the hand signs for the Dead Demon Seal (Shiki Fūjin) and it immediately went for the crib."

"The Kyūbi stoped struggling for a second; I was controlling my chains and compensating for the fact he would be struggling. Due to that, he found a loophole in the technique and he managed to escape." Kushina added.

"We jumped in front of the claw that was aiming for Naruto, I even stoped the seal, but the beast suddenly froze. At first I thought it was going to shot out at him as soon as we were out of the way but it never happened. After we hit the ground, the Kyūbi started looking somewhat transparent and his expression on his face changed before he disappeared, faded away, so to speak."

Minato paused to let what he had just said to sink in. "So what were the differences between this attack and the one from your timeline?" he finally said.

"Not much." Kakashi said with a frown only slightly hidden by his mask and headband.

"The only differences from my knowledge of the Kyūbi attack are right at the end. You used the Dead Demon Seal (Shiki Fūjin) while Kushina held the Kyūbi off then the smaller sized Kyūbi managed to escape the chains and attack Naruto. You two were both fatally stabbed through the middle of your torso but you still managed to finish the Eight Trigrams Seal before you both died." Jiraiya said with foggy eyes, obviously thinking about the memory from when Hiruzen told him what he saw on that night.

"Basically, the Kyūbi attacking Naruto earlier in this fight is the only difference, not counting the obvious disappearing bijū." Kushina noted.

"Anything else, Minato?" Jiraiya asked.

"…Yeah. Naruto," Jiraiya and Kakashi made a face at this though Kushina looked like it was old bad news. "After the Kyūbi disappeared and Kushina let the Sandaime into the barrier, I collected him from the sealing bed but he was acting funny. He was really quiet and something in his eyes had changed from only minutes before when I placed him into the cot." Minato swallowed almost like he regretted that moment. "He… he looked broken. His eyes didn't look like that of a newborn, they looked older, wiser and they looked like he knew what had just happened and he had just escaped a death sentence."

The two time travellers gasped. "Impossible!"

"What happened!?"

"I have a hypothesis but I need your opinions." Minato said.

Kushina grimaced; she didn't want to hear what her husband was going to say. She wouldn't believe it no matter what. She turned into Minato and hid her face in his shoulder.

"I think the Kyūbi took over his body and that Namikaze Naruto died on the night he was born."

_.-*-._.-*-._.-*-._.-*-._.-*-._.-*-._

Naruto woke up with a scowl and his sore muscles refused to let him get out of bed; he couldn't even remember getting into bed. Once he did, he waddled down into the kitchen with lose pyjama pants, a too big shirt and his green frog hat hanging over his eye.

"Mon-mon…" he said as he walked into the room rubbing his eye. He heard both his parents' chuckle.

The man inside the toddler could help but sigh at the sight; this was what he had missed growing up. His father was at the dining table eating eggs on toast with bacon while reading the newspaper or something like that and his mother was wearing a green apron and rinsing her own dish to put in the dishwasher.

"Morning Naru-chan, you slept in." His mother greeted him.

"Mya, everything hurts. Is training meant to still hurt?" he asked innocently, knowing he'd be having a nice long talk with Kurama later.

His father chuckled, "So you've been training? What have you been training for?" Minato said as he put down whatever he was reading to pay attention to the boy who was now climbing onto the seat next to him.

Naruto grinned; he could make his daddy proud. "Hina-chan and I went to Sasu-gay's place yes-er-day and Itachi-san helped us train. Itachi shows us some taijutsu and we had a go, then we did some kunai throwing and we finished off with en-du-rance training and ran around nonstop for, like, three hours! Or maybe it was two…" He grinned, showing off his baby teeth.

Minato nodded his head; his missing proud smile didn't go amiss by his son. Naruto felt a little bad that he was still sore from doing such basic training; it could barely be called training, so he didn't feel the need to comment on it. If he didn't feel proud of himself, why would his father. "What have you been training for?" the man repeated his second question.

"Ah…" 'What am I training for? The future, I can't say that… I know!' "Sasu-gay and Hina-chan have both started clan training and I don't want to fall behind. And I want to be as strong as Tou-tan! I want to be Hokage!"

Naruto couldn't help but proudly grin at both his parents shocked faces and couldn't help but want to imagine their faces if he ever told them that he was already a Hokage.

Kushina suddenly shot a glare at Minato before quickly turning back to the toddler, "Wow, that's a big dream Naru-chan but don't you want to be like your Kaa-chan?"

Naruto furrowed his brows, "Aren't you just a normal ninja? I want to be a special ninja!"

"Haha, I guess so." She then whispered to Minato, "I'm glad he didn't say I'm just a mum."

The man chuckled. "That's a really big dream Naruto; do you think you'll be able to reach it?"

'I already have.' "Yep! I know I will!"

Some emotion graced his father's face for a second but the toddler was too slow to recognise it.

"So what are you doing today?" Kushina asked as she put a plate of eggs on toast and bacon in front of him.

After taking a big bite he said, "U'm going too Hinada's," he said with a mouthful before swallowing, "she wants me to meet one of her friends."

"Mmm, do you know who?"

Naruto shock his head and started stuffing his face. By the time he looked up, his father was talking to his mother in a hushed tone and his body language told him that he was in 'Hokage mood'. Minato got Kushina to read something on his piece of paper before she nodded.

"Naru-chan," the redhead said, "Kaa-chan won't be here when you wake up tomorrow morning and Tou-chan needs to be at the office at the same time."

"Mission?"

"Yeah bub; Do you think you can make yourself some toast or do you want me to make you a sandwich for breakfast or…" Kushina's face was guilt-ridden.

"I can make toast; I won't put a knife in the toaster or anything."

"We'll make it up to you. We really hate it when we do this, sorry."

Naruto jumped up and gave his mother a hug, "It's alright, when will you be home?"

"I don't know." She picked him up and cooed him in her arms.

"When are you going?" the boy said worriedly.

Kushina giggled, "Way after your bedtime."

"Okay, I'll make sure I give you a big hug tonight then."

"Naruto," His father got his attention and he turned around in his mother's arms, "would you like to start that special training I promised you a couple of days ago tomorrow afternoon?"

The blond's eyes bludged out of his head, "Special training! I don't remember that!"

"I'll be teaching you." Minato's eyes wondered up to his glaring wife's before back to his son's.

"YES!" Naruto screamed, 'the Yondaime Hokage is going to train me, Tou-chan is going to train me!' He jumped out of his mother's arms and gave Minato's legs a big hug. "Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes please!"

"Okay," Minato smiled, "we'll talk about it tonight, I need to get to work and you need to get to Hinata's. It's already 10:30, we all slept in."

Naruto gasped and let go, sprinting back to his chair and sculling his milk, "I told Hina-chan I'd be at her place by 10." As he ran back to his room to get changed he heard his parents chuckling. He got dressed and did some stretches so that he wouldn't get a stitch running over to the compound before running back downstairs and into the kitchen to say goodbye. He was out the door with shoes hastily put on, no socks and his shirt inside out.

Ignoring the following ANBU, the blond got through the Hyūga compound's gates in record time although his muscles were screaming for forgiveness. He raced through the garden and was urged to shortcut through the training ground and the other gardens but thought that it would be rude to come in through the window if this other person was already there.

Ko stopped him at the formal lounge room and made him wait there while the man told Hinata that he was here. As soon as he came back into the room and said "You know the way" the toddler was down the hallway and making his way thought the maze to Hinata's door.

The blond paused and regained his breath when he reached the door, knowing that they couldn't hear him if the Byakugan Stopping Seal was activated. With a deep breath he knocked, hoping he wasn't as late as Kakashi would have been in the same situation.

"Good morning, sorry I'm late." Naruto said with his hand sheepishly rubbing the back of his head as he opened the door but as soon as he noticed the second toddler in the room he became confused. 'What's Sakura-chan doing here?' he wondered.

When neither of the girls said anything and Hinata gave Naruto an expectant look, the boy started babbling to get rid of the silence. "Um… Hi, I'm Naruto. Hina-chan told me to come over at 10, sorry I'm late. Who are you?"

"…Naruto, as in fishcake? That's a funny thing to be named after…? I'm Sakura." the pinklette said apprehensively.

"Hey! My name came from a book ero-oji-san write and the name came to him while he was eating raman, so what! Ramen is the best and the ninja in the book is super strong! And you're named after a plant!"

"Hump! It's a tree, thank you. I even have a whole festival to my name," Sakura snobbed.

'Oh! I can play at this!' "I have an entire anni-ver-sary to my birthdate, I bet in a couple of years I will have a carnival every birthday!"

"Wow, I'm so impressed." Toddler Sakura said sarcastically, "What did you do, save the village?"

"Why, of cause my dear; I saved your precious Yondy-sama's life."

"And I saved your life so what does this have to do with festivals?" the older toddler asked with only a slight bit of sarcasm this time.

"Everything-"

Hinata suddenly cleared her throat. She was kneeling on the ground with her face angled at their feet and looking very professional.

Naruto and Sakura made eye contact one last time before following the younger girl's example and sitting down, though both just crossed their legs for comfort.

"Ah… Is this Sakura the person who you wanted me to meet, Hina-chan?" Naruto said when the said girl didn't speak.

Hinata only opened her mirthful eyes that flickered between the two. She obviously knew what was going on but wanted the other two to work it out for their selves.

Naruto couldn't help but notice that Kurama had been very quiet for the last few days and was silent when he asked the beast if he know what was going on. '… Hinata obviously wants me to figure out what's going on by myself and somehow Kurama is in on it too. Karama can't personally talk to anyone without going through me so that means he's figured it out.'

Naruto's brows furrowed, 'Why would Hinata want me to meet Sakura? I don't know – maybe Sakura just wanted to meet the son of the Hokage, she is a civilian. Or maybe Hinata just wanted Sakura to join our friendship, but then we couldn't talk about or plan the future…'

'Naruto, you're an idiot.'

'Oh! You're finally talking to me now?'

'Only because you are too damn dumb to work this out and its getting boring to watch.'

'Bastard. Are you going to help me out or what?'

'I would like to say the 'or what' choice but it would talk too long. Every time your girlfriend talks about the future, her plans and her ideas she talks in plurals, we, us, our…'

Naruto inwardly scowled at the huge fox, 'mee~?'

The fox rolled his eyes only for show but glad that Naruto currently could not go into the mindscape because he didn't feel like putting up another genjutsu. 'Aka-chan, your little girlfriend has suggested many a time that another knows of the future.'

'Wha! If she did, she'd tell me. Stop talking in riddles and just say whatever you're trying to say so I'll understand it! What does Hinata want from me and Sakura?'

'Just at what point did I decide to trust an idiot. That Sakura is from the future!'

'… ha…'

Concentrating on what was happening around him again; Naruto turned his head and had a good look at the older toddler only to find that she was doing the same. There was something in her eye that differed from the innocent Kiba who he had met at the park and that something looked the same as whatever was in Hinata's eyes. She wasn't squirming like he knew Sasuke would be doing in such a tense situation instead she was sitting still with a calm and calculating gaze doing the exact same as he was.

'Sakura's from the future… Sakura's from the future!' realisation hit him like a spade to the head.

"Hey!" Naruto and Sakura yelled in unison, their eyes flickering between a smirking Hinata and the other toddler.

Then the lavender bud calmly stated, "Then there was three."

'"HA!?"

"I told you that I had a surprise, Sakura-chan; Naruto, I have been trying to get you to meet Sakura for a while now. I wanted to do this yesterday but you ran in saying you wanted to train as Sasuke's."

Sakura throw a suspicious glance at the blond haired toddler, "Who ends up in your genin team, how many times do you try out to become chunnin, what is your official rank, what position do you hold and who is your companion?" she said sternly, nothing like the toddler she looked like.

"Haruno Sakura, Uchiha Sasu-gay, and our sensei is Hatake Kakashi. Once, gennin, Hokage and Kurama." Naruto said with wide eyes before asking his own questions, "What's your pro-fes-sion…? Who is your admirer…? Um…I know – what happened during the Limited Tsukuyomi and what was my name?"

Sakura's green eyes widened at his answers before answering her own, "Medic… um… Rock Lee! Everyone became polar opposites and your name was Menma!"

Naruto found her arms quickly around his neck, flabbergasted at her reaction and a laugh escaped his young lips, "Nice to see you again too, Sakura-chan."

Pulling away, embarrassment glowing red on her cheeks, Sakura said "So, what in the world is going on? Naruto's the person you've been talking about?"

"Sorry, I wanted to see your faces so I didn't tell either of you about the other." The youngest in the room giggled.

"hmm." Sakura eyes were mockingly wide with disbelief.

"So when did you two meet?" Naruto asked after a pause.

"Well, I realised Hinata was Hinata-chan about a year and a half ago at a park." Sakura started explaining even though she wanted to know the same about Naruto and Hinata. "She was talking to herself – without stuttering – and was making… What was it?" She turned to the other girl.

"It was a model of the rebuild of Konoha after Pein's attack."

"Yep,yep. It was a model in the sandpit and I came up to her asking questions about it; we realised we were both from the original timeline and… yeah… we became friends and all."

Naruto nodded; he was a little peeved that he hadn't gone to any playgrounds earlier – he'd already met Kiba at one of them. "I met Hinata after overhearing your Kaa-san and Ino's Kaa-san talking about her being kidnapped but it was too early, it wasn't the 27th yet so I ran over here to check on her."

"You've probably already told Hinata but what's been happening for you?" Sakura asked.

Naruto's former infamous grin appeared on his face, "Let's start off with what Kurama has told me when I- we came back."

_.-*-._.-*-._.-*-._.-*-._.-*-._.-*-._

Notes:

SORRY! Late update TT . TT and I really wanted to get this chappy out ages ago :( I had half of this written the day after I updated the last chapter but then this and that happened and I was was being dragged here and there by Mum and had to get ready for moving away. Mum and I went to Brisbane for a couple of days (she had a cancer test which thankfully came back all good) and I didn't really have the time to write but during that time I did draw up a timeline up until the 10 year mark, it is soooooooo full and after this chapter you can probably guess why. I almost had this chapter finished about mid February but I had to move down to college and I just haven't had the time to update. All spare time is taken up by studying and social life (I missed out on a social life during high school so I'm not missing out on one now). I'm updating this chapter now even though my Beta hasn't beta-ed it yet but that's because I only just sent it to them because you guys deserve it. Sorry for the wait once again.

Chapter 5 is now Beta-ed ^ ^

I have no idea when I'll be able to write Ch 7, I'm meant to be studying now so I cant start it now, but I do have holidays in April so I might be able to get it out late April if I'm lucky.

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(As of 15/3/2014 - right before this chapter was published)

(Please note, you don't have to read the statistics; I just want a copy of them at different points of time after publishing the chapters because the traffic states don't do it)

P.S. Did you know that 'blonde' is specifically a girl with fair hair and 'blond' is just a person with fair hair, the completion (as in race: fair hair, fair skin) or a man in particular with fair hair… (Haha, I found this out because I started using both spellings then started to wonder which was right :P )

Thank you to every one who is reading,

Till next time,

xXChirushiXx

Signing out

:)