21. Belated Realization

Previously On Time Traveling Prince:

As one, the Sailor Scouts' eyes snapped open and they looked around before they all looked down as they heard a groan. As Chibiusa's eyes opened, they all smiled only for those smiles to freeze as the Pinkette's own eyes suddenly widened and she asked "Usagi, why do you have a Lunar Crest on your forehead?"

Now:

Before Usagi could say anything, there was a sleepy grumble from Naruto before he asked tiredly "Have you really not figured it out yet?" All of the girls looked over to see Naruto's eyes barely open tiredly looking at his sister before he gave a massive yawn and got out of the bed he had been lying in for the last three days. Giving a joint popping stretch, Naruto stumbled out of the room with a fist rubbing one of his eyes as he mumbled "I'm getting some coffee."

His comment had everyone else in the room giving a collective blink of their eyes before Minako glanced at Ami and asked "Um, is it a good idea for a kid his age to actually have coffee?"

Ami shrugged and said "There's nothing in it that would harm the body, and after what the twins went through, it does sound like a good idea for him to get some extra caffeine in his system."

"Still, I didn't think Naruto drank coffee." Rei said in confusion.

"I've certainly never seen him drink it before." Usagi said bewildered.

"Who cares if Naruto drinks coffee or not, what did he mean by I have 'not figured it out yet'?!" Chibiusa asked frustrated. The chibi had her arms crossed and an angry looking pout on her face. Honestly, if the situation wasn't so serious, the older girls would be cooing at the cute sight she made. Still, she wanted an answer and she was going to get it even if she had to resort to pulling Usagi's hair.

Thankfully for said long ponytails, Usagi was going to answer her, if reluctantly. Sighing with closed eyes while she rubbed the back of her head, Usagi let out a small groan before she nodded. Opening her eyes, her crescent mark flared back into existence and she looked straight into Chibiusa's eyes, the intensity of the look in those blue eyes causing Chibiusa to become slightly uncertain, the pinkette dropping her arms and her eyes widening slightly as Usagi said "Chibiusa, what you are about to hear does not go past us and Naruto. Not even Mom and Dad know about this, and Shingo definitely doesn't. Am I clear?"

Chibiusa swallowed and said "Yes, ma'am." Who knew usually dorky Usagi could be so scary?

Usagi kept her gaze on her, unknown to her, future daughter for another long moment before nodding once. Then she reached up to her brooch, detached it, and pressed the unlocking mechanism. Chibiusa barely had time to gasp at the sight of the Silver Crystal contained inside before there was a flash of silver light and where Usagi Tsukino was once sitting, Sailor Moon now occupied the space directly in front of Chibiusa. Said Pinkette's jaw dropped and she shakily pointed her finger at Moon and said "You?!" Multiple flashes of light in blue, red, orange, and green had her turning her stunned gaze to see the other Sailor Scouts occupying the spots where the other girls had been. Jupiter and Venus had smirks on their faces and amusement glinting in their eyes while Mars gave her a regal nod and Mercury smiled kindly at her.

After a full minute of wordless spluttering from the youngest girl, Chibiusa suddenly spun around and pointed accusingly at a returned Naruto who was tiredly leaning against the door frame and hissed out "You knew who they were?! This entire time?!

Naruto blew the steam off of the coffee cup in his right hand and took a sip before he calmly said "I did."

"Well why didn't you tell me?" His sister asked, almost shouting the question.

Naruto raised an eyebrow and said "Operational Security." The eyebrow raise combined with his tone of voice made it sound like he thought that should have been obvious to his sister. The fact that he took another sip of his coffee right after only compounded that image.

"Du-wah?" Chibiusa asked caught completely flat footed at that answer.

Sighing, Naruto said "Chibiusa, there is a saying in this time period: A secret untold is a secret un-spread. The less people who knew the Scouts' identities, the less chance that information could be spread."

Chibiusa went right back to angry as she said "You think I would have told someone who the Sailor Scouts were?!"

"Probably not willingly, but if someone managed to get past me and the Sailor Scouts and captured you, then they'd certainly try to make you." Naruto said calmly, his shinobi training making a chilling appearance with how calmly he said that, and more importantly what he hadn't said but implied would happen if he ever did fail his mission of protecting her.

"Harsh, but true I'm afraid." Jupiter said with a frown causing Chibiusa to turn her now pale face towards said Scout.

"We don't like it, but secrecy keeps those we care about safe." Mercury said with a small frown on her own face.

"Which is why you can't breathe a word of this to anyone, not even in your dreams." Moon said sternly.

"Especially not your dreams given what you two just went through." Mars added.

As the Sailor Scouts shifted back into their civilian forms, Chibiusa looked back towards Naruto with a frown and said "I guess I can understand that, but why was Naruto told then?"

Naruto actually snorted as he said "I wasn't, I sensed the, by this time period's standards, massive amount of the girls' elements in their chakra systems and made a logical conclusion from that." More specifically, he identified Rei as Mars the moment he first laid eyes on her and inferred that the other 'Inners' were her friends since the number of people matched both groups. Secrecy magic imbued uniforms were no match when it came to logic and deductive reasoning, especially when it was someone trained as a shinobi using them.

Chibiusa pouted and said "Have I ever told you that your super ninja abilities are cheating?"

Naruto grinned and said "Once or twice." Chibiusa's pout and Naruto's grin was enough to make the girls giggle at the two and the topic soon changed to much more light-hearted fare.

Time Skip: The Next Day, Leaving The Tsukino Household

Usagi was walking down the street with the twins to her left, Luna on her left shoulder. Chibiusa was bouncing her ever present Luna P while Naruto had his hands around the straps of his equally omnipresent book bag. Smiling down at the two from her perch, Luna took the opportunity of now being away from the rest of the Tsukino family to say "Oh, it is so good to see you two up and about again. We really were quite worried about you two."

Chibiusa grinned up at the cat and said "Yeah, it's great to be back!"

Naruto hummed and looked about to say something before he scowled and said "Oh great, he's here."

"Naruto?" Usagi asked before Mamoru came out of a side alley and Chibiusa's eyes lit up as she happily called out "Mamoru!"

As Chibiusa happily ran over to hop into his arms, Mamoru smiled at her and said "Chibiusa! Minako told me you and Naruto were feeling better, I'm glad."

Chibiusa gave a happy nod before she said "Hey Mamoru, do you think you could take us to the mall in celebration? I want to get some paper, some glue, some scissors, and oh yeah, some new crayons."

"Woah, slow down Chibiusa, I didn't know Christmas was already here." Mamoru said with a laugh in his voice. His amusement died a swift, rapid death when he heard Naruto scoff. Wincing, he looked down towards the ground and upon sight of Naruto giving him the stink eye, the older male nervously chuckled and said "Uh, hey Naruto, how you doing?"

"I am doing fine, something that we might not share in common rather soon Mamoru. Were my words during our last meeting not clear enough?" Naruto asked dangerously, his right hand taking on a discreet silver sheen as he held it up.

Keeping Chibiusa up with one arm, Mamoru held up his other hand in surrender and said "Whoa, easy there, I just wanted to try and mend some bridges."

"You broke more than just bridges with that stunt you pulled, Chiba." Naruto said with narrowed eyes.

"Naruto?" Usagi asked uncertainly, not liking how her future descendant was staring at her former, hopefully soon to be current again boyfriend. If she didn't know any better, she'd have said that Naruto was planning on actually using that Lunar Energy in his hand, even with his sister still being held by the college student.

Mamoru winced again and said "Look, I know that I was being stupid, but I can't correct what I've done wrong if I don't at least try."

Naruto kept his stern gaze on Mamoru, staying silent for ten seconds before he said "You have one chance Chiba. You screw this up, and you'll be getting your medical degree from a laptop in the ICU, am I clear?"

Usagi, Luna, and Chibiusa all felt shivers go down their spines at the promise held in Naruto's words while Mamoru also shivered while a bead of sweat formed on the back of his neck at the minor bit of Killing Intent Naruto was letting out focused entirely on him. Swallowing once, he nodded and said "Clear."

Naruto narrowed his eyes just a little bit further before he gave a final snort and dropped his Killing Intent and allowed his Lunar energy to fade away. Turning away from Mamoru, he began walking down the street again clearly saying that this conversation was over earning a small sigh of relief from Mamoru who looked down and gave Chibiusa a shaky smile as he said "You know Chibiusa, your brother can be pretty scary when he wants to be."

Chibiusa gave a shaky smile of her own and said "Yeah, he's good at that."

"Makes me glad he's on our side." Usagi said watching her fellow blond walk down the street and Luna let out an agreeing hum as she nodded her head.

Scene Change: In The Future, Black Moon Clan Main Base

Deamande was sitting on his throne with his eyes closed when he heard someone say "Begging your pardon your highness." Opening his eyes showed him Esmeraude standing before him and at his hum of acknowledgement, she put her fan in front of her face and said "Our preparations are complete, everything is in order for our trip back to twentieth century."

Deamande frowned at her and said "Listen to me Esmeraude, for your own good, you must be extremely careful not to repeat Rubeus' mistakes."

Esmeraude let out one of her annoying laughs and said "Please, you don't have to worry about me, I will not mess up like that dolt Rubeus did!"

"Yeah, prove it!" Saphir said as he suddenly phased into visibility right next to her.

"Oh, Saphir." Esmeraude hissed in displeasure.

Saphir continued on as if she didn't speak as he continued "Rubeus' biggest mistake was underestimating the Sailor Scouts and Prince Naruto. They are worthy adversaries but we can cut them down. If Rubeus hadn't crashed and burned and changed the Crystal Points in the twentieth century to Dark Power, then the Sailor Scouts of this century and their obnoxious power would have been greatly diminished, along with Prince Naruto's. Now they'll continue to be strong until our Dark Power's secured."

"I'm no dope about abilities Saphir and I've got a fool proof scheme that will fix them for good. Even you'd get it, we just need to send enough Dark Power to the twentieth century, to contaminate the entire planet Earth." Esmeraude said confidently.

A confidence Deamande didn't share, as shown when he said "Get a clue Esmeraude, it's not like we can just walk in and drop off enough Dark Power so that it will contaminate such a massive planet. Unless the Mighty Gate of the Dark World can be opened."

Esmeraude smirked and said "Well, you could be quite surprised, Your Highness. You see, the twentieth century world is quite primitive. In that world, there are numerous vulnerable points that contain negative power. These points could be anywhere in a given city, and into these defenseless points, we will drive wedges of dark crystal power. Then the power of our Dark World will follow the wedges inside. Once we secure those unguarded points and the Dark Gate is opened, we will send the mighty power of the magnificent Dark Crystal, and color the entire planet Earth with our beautiful shade of Darkness! I've instructed Saphir to construct wedges containing the power of the Dark Crystal, and as soon as he gives me one, we can get started."

Saphir gave a disgruntled grunt before he gestured and a crystal in the likeness of Esmeraude floated down and into her hand. As Esmeraude grinned at the wedge, Saphir decided to speak up as he said "Hold onto your boots Esmeraude, I've made the Dark Power Wedges, but don't waste them! I can make more if they're needed, but if you fail, don't come crying to me like Rubeus did after each of his lame attempts!"

Esmeraude smirked and said "Ooh, of course not! The faster that I can get this job done, the faster I can get back to the Prince Hunkster."

As she closed her eyes with a blush, Deamande took that moment to look away with a roll of his eyes before quickly turning back towards her and said "Very well Esmeraude, I approve your plan. Go and do your best to succeed, and go quickly."

Esmeraude bowed and said "Thank you for your confidence, I'll go and make my plan work so quickly that you'll want to give me a personal positive reward very soon."

Esmeraude gave another annoying laugh before fading away and Deamande thought to himself 'Is it wrong that I'm hoping that Lunar brat carves that annoyance up like a turkey once she's finished her plan?' After a moment, he thought 'Nah, once her plan succeeds, she's useless. Let the brat Dust her out of his frustration at not being able to stop her in time.'

Scene Change: Twentieth Century, The Mall

After visiting a crafts store for Chibiusa, the group was coming upon a dessert place that had just opened and so was having a 'First treat is free' event when Naruto and Usagi both stiffened. Glancing up at her, Naruto said "You feel it as well right?"

Usagi, having been further trained since the mega mart incident nodded and said "Yeah, I'm feeling some serious Nega Vibes coming from that place." The excitement that the girl had been showing as they approached a free snack was now gone, leaving only the determination of a Sailor Scout who knew that the enemy was near.

Chibiusa frowned at the two before she tried to sense what the other two Lunars were sensing. Thanks to Naruto's rushed training in their shared dream scape, her Lunar abilities allowed her rudimentary sensing abilities and she gasped as she felt the darkness of the place and shivered as she said "I don't want to go in there anymore."

"And you're not, not until we deal with this." Usagi said firmly even as Naruto lead the group into a service alley between store buildings. Once there, a shadow clone appeared right next to Chibiusa while he said "We're going to have to get the civilians out before we start fighting. Any ideas?"

Usagi winced and said "Outside of starting a fire? I've got nothing."

A glance at Mamoru showed that he didn't have anything either and Naruto tsked to himself before he closed his eyes in thought. A moment later, they opened again and he said "I've got something, but you're not going to like it." Turning to his sister, he said "Sis, stay here with my clone." Looking up at Mamoru, he frowned and said "Can I trust you to at least keep her out of this?"

Mamoru quickly nodded, both because he WOULD keep Chibiusa safe, and because Naruto was back into full shinobi mode and quite frankly, he'd rather be AWAY from the kid when he 'got to work'. That pint sized warrior could be downright BRUTAL in a fight.

Once sure Chibiusa would be kept safe by both his clone and Mamoru, Naruto lead the way to the shop, Usagi following after placing Luna on the ground. As the two blondes walked over, Usagi glanced down and said "What are you planning?"

"Gunman scare." Was hisr short answer and Usagi let out a wince of worry at that, though she trusted Naruto enough not to question him. As they entered the shop, Naruto quickly located where the restrooms were. A cursory look around the room had him grinning and he said "Hey Usagi look, the other girls are already here! I can't believe they didn't invite us to join them!"

"Huh?" Usagi asked looking down at Naruto who winked up at her and then pointed at their table. When she saw where he was pointing, there was a quick flash of relief that backup was already there before she put on a believable look of anger and said "Yeah, you're right! Come on, I'm going to give them a piece of my mind!"

The two blondes quickly stalked over to the group. As Usagi began 'complaining' to the girls, Naruto quickly used the underside of the table to write the words 'enemies present' on a napkin and put it on Rei's lap. Rei glanced down at the object she felt on her lap and her eyes minutely widened before she went back to acting normal even as she passed the note along to the other scouts. A minute later, Usagi humphed and said "Whatever, if you girls want to keep this marvelous event to yourselves then we'll just have to sit elsewhere."

"Can we use the bathroom first Cousin?" Naruto asked and at Usagi's acknowledging hum, the two power walked away from the table, the other girls quickly getting up and continuing the act of trying to reason with their friend. The girls were soon in the bathroom where, once they were sure there was no one else in it, quickly transformed and waited.

Naruto meanwhile took a minute to prepare himself for what he was about to do. While he was sure hist teachers would understand, his mother would NOT approve. Opening his eyes with a sigh, Naruto made three quick hand signs and used the Transformation jutsu to look like one of Minato-sensei's Jounin, a Genma Shiranui. Idly rolling the needle in his mouth, Naruto looked over at the mirror to be sure that he had transformed with a pair of jeans and a hoodie with the hood flipped up rather than the man's Jounin outfit. Once sure he had got that detail right, he hoisted the 'gun' in his hand up before turning around and slipped out of the room.

He took only one second to ensure that the Invader was in the back area before he 'fired' his 'gun', an AK-47 set to single fire into the ceiling, his genjutsu letting off with a loud banging sound getting everyone's attention. Glaring at them all, he shouted "Everyone out! NOW!" The customers didn't need to be told twice, and within seconds they were all running screaming out the door. Soon as the last one was out, Naruto rushed over and activated the rolling shutter door to lock the place. A Lunar Senbon to each of the security cameras disguised as firing his gun at them later, Naruto dropped his transformation and said "Alright girls, you can come out now."

As the Scouts came out of the bathroom, Mars frowned and said "Was that really necessary?"

"You saying you want to fight the Invader with civilians around?" Naruto asked with a raised eyebrow causing Mars to huff with crossed arms but she didn't say anything.

"Where is the Invader?" Mercury asked even as she pressed on her left earring and her visor appeared to begin scanning the area.

Naruto pointed towards the back even as Esmeraude and the enemy of the day phased into being on the cashier and said enemy shouted "Right Here!" Naruto felt an eye twitch at the sight of the enemy minion, it had frosting nozzles for its bra, nothing else top side to hide its dark skin, purple spiked hair, and a yellow mini skirt that had a blue and white striped bow at the back that matched its leggings.

Esmeraude meanwhile let out an annoying laugh and said "Well, well, what do we have here? Five Sailor Scouts and a Lunar brat! Droid Marzipan, take them out!"

"Yes Mistress!" Marzipan said eagerly before a pair of frosting funnel shaped guns appeared over her hands and fired streams of white frosting at the scouts. Said girls were quick to avoid them, Jupiter and Mars pushing the nearest table over to hide behind while Moon, Mercury, and Venus quickly leapt away. Jupiter and Mars got a real shock when the table they had flipped over turned into a giant cake. Seeing this, Jupiter called out to the others "Don't let that stuff hit you!"

"Gee, you think?!" Venus asked as she leapt over a table avoiding another stream that turned that one into a giant dessert as well.

"I got it!" Naruto called out as he sprung up onto yet another table and let loose with the glowing bow and arrow in his hands. His Artemis' Judgement flew true and got the enemy Droid right between the eyes, the concentrated energy sinking up to the halfway point of the shaft. The Droid screamed like the damned for a few seconds before it turned to stone and disintegrated.

Esmeraude gasped at her Droid being taken out so quickly before she shrieked in fear as Moon launched a brightly shining Lunar Wave at her. Esmeraude managed to leap out of the way of the wave but her leap left her rather open and Naruto fired a second arrow at her. Esmeraude some how spun in the air in an attempt to get away only for Naruto's arrow to get her in the right knee. Esmeraude screamed in pain as she landed in a crash. Shakily getting up to her feet, she snarled out "You little brat! I'll get you for that!"

But despite her words, she quickly faded away, fleeing rather than trying to fight back. Dismissing the bow from his hands, Naruto sighed and said "Anyone else think this fight was rather pathetically short?"

"Yeah no kidding, even the Sisters put up a bigger fight than she did." Jupiter said as she and Mars righted the back to normal tables.

"Hey, I'm not complaining. If it's going to be that easy from now on then we don't have much to worry about from her." Venus said with a grin.

Mercury opened her mouth to say something only to close it as the sound of several running feet sounded outside of the locked store entrance and a voice shouted "Police! Open the door and come out with your hands above your head!"

"And that's our cue to get out of here." Naruto said even as he bolted across the tables towards the back.

"You'll get no arguments from me!" Moon said in agreement as she and the other scouts quickly followed the young shinobi, going through the large exhaust vent that helped cool the kitchen's large ovens rather than going out the back door where cops were most likely posted. The girls dropped their transformations as soon as they were out and they discreetly met up with Mamoru, Chibiusa, and Luna before heading out of the area. There had been enough excitement for one day after all.

END

Author's Notes: Update Schedule and Poll on my Profile