Second Chances

Chapter 10

Things went well from there. Naruto stopped ripping Kakashi up every time he brought up the rules, and Kakashi himself always ignored Naruto's first insult. But only the first. If the team noticed the difference, they didn't say anything on the matter. For the next few weeks Naruto had shadowed Kakashi –though the boy didn't know it- to find the same Chũnin trying it on again two months later. Kakashi took them down without hesitation, and Naruto could breathe easy.

And just when it was coming up to her first year in the past, Sarutobi made the announcement; war. Naruto had been stood in the main street along with all the other Genin and Chũnin when the announcement had been made; they were now officially at war with Iwa. It was expected to become a three way brawl soon, if the way in which Suna was acting was anything to go by. Rin had started crying almost instantly, breaking down and allowing Obito to hold her. The Uchiha looked tense, biting his lip in order to stop himself from displaying any emotion whilst he kept his team-mate securely in place. Naruto cautiously placed a hand on Kakashi's shoulder, feeling how his muscles were coiled for action. But no one took any interest in the Hatake, instead trying to come to terms with what was happening. The third cleared his throat from his position atop the Hokage tower, looking down on his village with a face that told everyone this was the last thing he wanted.

"Though we are at war, no personal under the age of fifteen will fight on the front lines. The closest you will come is sabotage, and I plan to keep it this way. Please remain on high alert; you will be notified if you are needed. Also, there is someone I would like to speak to," his dark eyes locked on Naruto, easily picking the blonde girl out of the crowd and making a subtle gesture for her to approach him after the announcement, "I am sorry that it has come down to this, and I'm not going to say it will be easy. However, we will come out on top."
There was a collective cheer from some of the braver shinobi, Rin still crumpled next to team Minato and Kakashi still as tense as ever. Naruto bit on her bottom lip, chewing on the skin before watching as the crowds began to disperse before her.

"I've got to go," she mumbled, only Kakashi picking up on the fact she'd said anything at all.

"Why?" Naruto jolted to a stop at the sound of Kakashi's voice before grinning to herself.

"Because I'm the one the Hokage wanted to see."

It wasn't until today Naruto realized just how lucky she'd been so far. Because when the Hokage had said he was including her on the war council, stating that he would tell them of the demon inside her, Orochimaru walked past. Naruto almost had a heart attack, Kurama rooting her feet to the spot to make sure that she wouldn't attack him.

"Not now kit, you can't attack him yet. Opportune moment. But you will get your chance. We will get out chance to kill off that bastard," growling deep within his throat, Kurama let go of her body, Naruto gasping for breath before nodding to the Hokage.

"That's fine. As long as they don't use me."

The war council itself consisted of a majority of clan heads, the ANBU boss, Orochimaru, two civilian representatives and the Hokage himself. Though there were two spare seats, one for Tsunade and one for Jiraiya. However, Naruto knew the former would refuse to come back. Unless-

"Thank you all for coming together in this difficult time," The Hokage grumbled, looking around and sighing because he really didn't want to see this. Tsume was bouncing a child –Hana- on her lap, frowning over the reason they were coming together and leaving Naruto feeling sick. She could end this war instantly, but she really didn't want to go wiping out army's like they were ants.

"What's is this brat doing here?" Orochimaru grumbled, flicking a finger half-heartedly in Naruto's direction.

"Naruto is here because she is the current Jinchūriki of the Nine-tails, thus she has high enough a profile to be included."
Several clan leaders fidgeted nervously, each looking at the girl with cautious eyes, trying to weigh up the small child that hadn't even reached ten years of life yet.

"Still, she is but a prison. What is the point in keeping her here if all she can do was stand around looking cute?" Tsume mumbled, growling when Hana grabbed at her hair.

"Naruto?"
At the open question left before her, the Namikaze frowned slightly, playing with the idea of what to tell them.

"It won't hurt if you explain what you can do, just don't say anything about Nine Tails Chakra mode, only about the demon fox shroud. And it'll be best not to let them in on the fact we are cooperating."
Happily taking the foxes advice, Naruto turned back to the council and let the red chakra bubble to the surface, forming a single tail swiping out behind her.

"I can control the chakra to the extent of four tails. The fox can't influence me up until then." Several heads nodded, Fugaku Uchiha twitching his nose at the foul chakra leaking through the air.

"Any more questions on Naruto being included within the council?"
As they all sat together, talking amongst one another, about what to do, the Hokage finally brought up an issue that'd been baffling all but Orochimaru.

"Now, we need to figure out a way of contacting Tsunade. Luckily enough, both Minato Namikaze and Jiraiya summoned toads, and we've been about to contact out Sage through those methods. However, Tsunade shares the slug contract with no one else, making it furiously difficult to relay her any messages. Especially as she doesn't want to be found. From the last report Jiraiya gave me, he indicated that she is currently within the Land of Hot Water. I suggest we send a team out in order to search for her."

"I volunteer!" Naruto cried, instantly seizing the chance and shooting to her feet as she did so. Orochimaru scoffed, whilst the Hokage raised a brow, as if asking if she had a plan. One sly nod later and Sarutobi smiled.

"I am fine with Naruto Namikaze leaving to track down Tsunade. Do you have anyone in mind to join you?"
Frowning at the question, Naruto sat back down, drumming her fingers on the table before shrugging to herself. Might as well bring the people in on the secret.

"May I request Kushina Uzumaki and Obito Uchiha?"

"Granted," Fugaku snapped before anyone else could question the decision. The Uchiha head was meanwhile doing a small dance inside of his head, grinning and all but partying over the fact that yes, he had not only gotten rid of that damn prankster, but his failure of a nephew as well. And for an indefinite amount of time to top it off!
This was almost too good to be true!

She didn't see much of a point of sticking around after that, so Naruto got up and left, heading out to inform her two team-mates of the change of plan. She hadn't seen much of Kushina since she actually told her about herself; the red headed kunoichi had been pulled away on mission after mission and thus the two had seen little of one another.

"Hey Naruto!"
Spinning around at the sound of her name, Naruto blinked a few times, watching as Obito came steaming towards her.

"I just got told I'm going on a mission with you and some Kushina girl! Do you know what the mission is, because I bet it's something super awesomely impor-" The rest of Obito's words were muffled as Naruto slapped a hand over his mouth, hissing for the boy to shut the hell up and keep it on the down low.

"Yes we're going on a mission Obito, and yes, I specifically picked both yourself and Kushina. Now, I'm going to go find her, whilst you get your bag packed and get the team together at the training grounds. It's a long term mission, so pack everything you'll need. And you're not going to tell anybody about this mission, okay?" Watching as the Uchiha nodded, still grinning from ear to ear, Naruto let him go, watching as the orange blur took off down the streets as he did so.

Kushina had been less than impressed over the fact she had a mission right after the one she'd just finished. However, she brightened considerably when she found out that it was Obito and Naruto who would be her team on this one. Unknown to everyone else, it would actually by the little blonde leading the team, but they didn't need to know that. Minato and Kakashi were both slouched against a training post, Rin seated on the grass and all three observing Obito who looked like he was going to burst with excitement.

"Naruto, do you know what's wrong with Obito? Has he eaten something he shouldn't have?"
Kakashi and Rin both snickered, Obito stopping in his wild movements to shout at his sensei. Covering her chuckles, Naruto adjusted her bag, the three team members looking at it curiously before Minato frowned.

"You've got a mission," he muttered accusingly, looking at Kushina who was also with pack.

"Yes we do. We have been specifically chosen to locate and retrieve Tsunade by any means necessary."
Kakashi's eyes narrowed, glaring at the rag tag team before biting on his bottom lip.

"If this is such an important mission like Obito's being proclaiming it to be, why would they send you? I understand that Naruto is reasonably talented in Ninjutsu, but Kushina-san is just a regular Jōnin and Obito is just a joke."

"WHAT WAS THAT?" Kushina and Obito both had to be held back by Minato and Rin respectively, Naruto the only one left to explain to the Hatake just what was going on.

"Well, actually, I got chosen for the mission, and I got to choose a Jōnin I trust one-hundred percent, and a fellow ninja. So I picked Obito."
Kakashi let his face scrunch up at the information, dropping into a seated position and wondering why there had been a stabbing sensation in his chest at the fact Naruto picked Obito over himself for the mission. It took a moment for him to register the feeling as jealously, and another moment for him to instantly squash the emotion. Every time Naruto did something, either pick up a jutsu faster than he did, get better recognition that he did, the same painful feeling would echo about in his rib cage and leave a bitter taste in the back of his mouth.

"Anyway, he just thought we'd tell you. Minato-sensei, can I sign to the toad summons before I leave?" The blond dropped Kushina where he was stood, nodding and completely focused on the task at hand.

"Yeah sure, I'll summon them up now."
Minato went over to give Obito and Kushina some mission briefing, leaving Kakashi and Rin beside Naruto and the toad. The green eyed toad looked at Naruto in recognition, to which Naruto found herself frozen.

"Come on Kakashi, let's get some training done," Rin murmured, still shaken about the war. And now, two of her team-mates were leaving her for a war related mission. The silver haired boy nodded, rising to his feet and walking after the brunette.

"What do you want Naruto? What are you doing in this time?" The toad hissed, looking the girl up and down before shaking his head.

"And you're younger. I guess this is a time travel jutsu?"

"Huh?"
The toad just snickered, offering the scroll to already show her name signed.

"We'll explain later, come to Mount Myōboku as soon as you have time."
With that, the frog poofed away, leaving an unbelievably confused Naruto behind.

Sitting back and trying to comprehend what had just happened, Naruto was oblivious to the way in which Rin was looking at her. The wanna be medic could feel her eyelids twitching slightly, glaring at the girl that was curled up next to Obito and waiting for Kushina and Minato to say their goodbyes.
If that kiss could be called a goodbye; surely they'd have to come up for air at some point? Though she wasn't the most observant one on their team -cough, Kakashi, cough- she had most certainly noticed the way in which the silver haired boy didn't snap the first time she said anything, not the way he did with Obito or herself. It was almost like the boy felt he had to be nice to the Namikaze. Rin wanted to think that Minato had threatened him into doing so, but there was no way in hell that'd be happening. Minato was already treading dangerous waters with having his sister on his team, there was no way he'd risk showing favour to the girl. Which annoyed Rin more, because it meant her crush was spending more time on this silly blonde than he was her.

"Kakashi-kun, can you help me with my chakra control please?"
It was only recently that Minato had moved them onto water walking, and the silver haired boy had easily taken to it. Rin had stayed up for nights on end practising it till she was perfect, but she might as well utilize what time she could get with Kakashi. The silver haired boy came over, offering her a supporting hand as he stood perfectly on the water, watching as Rin wobbled slightly before adjusting herself. Every so often she'd 'slip', Kakashi catching her each time until she was wearing a blush that had nothing to do with the surprising September heat.

"Hey Kakashi! We're going now! Get over here and say goodbye!"
Rin watched in dismay as the silver haired boy all but dropped her in the river, calmly walking over to Kushina's team and standing with a raised brow as he looked at Naruto. Surfacing, Rin huffed, before watching in surprise as Naruto hugged -HUGGED!- the Kakashi Hatake. Not one girl had ever dared to do that! The boy was stiff and unresponsive, but didn't try to force her off him, instead waiting until she was done crushing his spine.

"You better keep yourself in good condition, because I want to open a can of whoop-ass on you when we get back. Got that! So give me a challenge!" Both Rin and Kakashi snorted at the girls arrogance, she couldn't even beat him in taijutsu right now, but the Chũnin simply nodded his head, watching as the blonde girl waved an overenthusiastic goodbye as she disappeared behind the tree line. Minato stood up from where he'd been sat on the tree stump, rubbing his hands together.

"Okay then, let's spar, Kakashi vs. Rin vs. myself."
Rin whimpered.

Gah, I hate introduction chapters, I just can't stop rushing them, and for that, I am very very sorry. But hey, two updates in one day?

Age's now are;
Kakshi and Obito- 10
Rin and Naruto- 9
Minato and Kushina- 22

Next chapter
Travel Time!

Thanks for reviewing;

Vaughn Tyler-Thanks!

Fk306 animelover- Look no further ;)

KisunaFuji- Thank you, I always see them as siblings, and I hope it'll come across in later chapters! And they'll find out, eventually.

god of all- Thank you, glad you like it!

TabooElf- Yes he has. And Naruto is terrifying at any age

Forbiden Light- Yes they really did! And Kakashi is one of her precious people, of course she'll kick ass to protect him!

PrinezCharm- Thank you so much, it's nice to know my stories okay, and thanks for reading!

Eternal Cat Moon- Baby Itachi would be the cutest thing ever. And the most advanced baby ever. 0.o

yyh-ygo-fma- Well, that's Jiraiya for ya. And yeah, she might have done. I think they'll be a side chapter as to what happened to Minato's books. *evil laugh*

LadySandoval- Thank you for the compliment, it means a lot!

the. stories . live. on - Thank you, They'll be more Uchiha after this arch, promise!

Kidan Yoshilda- Okay, I'll check it out the second I have time. And I'm rahter liking this Asuma/Naru idea, even if it's just to develop Kakashi a bit. And damn it, how did you guess my plans? Yes, Naruto will teach either Itachi or Shisui, I haven't decided yet. I don't have microsoft word, just open office, so it's not as good as picking up faults. ^^'

For some Itachi related humour, check out 'That Little Hickey', also wrote by me, featuring the boy himself.

Read and review people?

Lot's of love,
Tsume