Disclaimer: I obviously don't own Naruto because if I did things would probably go A LOT differently. Plus I'm not Japanese and I'm not that good at drawing.
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"Is he gone yet?" Kakashi asked as he peeked around the corner with a sizable stack of books and scrolls in his hands. Sarutobi only chuckled and nodded, motioning for Kakashi to come closer.
"Yes, I sent Minato out to do some of my paperwork," Sarutobi told him with a smug smile. Kakashi quirked an eyebrow.
"That should keep him occupied," Kakashi muttered as he set his burden down onto the wooden table that Tenzo, Kakashi, and Sarutobi had made their official work desk located in the Sandaime's personal library.
"What did you find?" Sarutobi asked curiously, looking at the reading material that the jounin had set down. Kakashi sighed with frustration as he picked up one of the scrolls and opened it.
"Not much," Kakashi admitted. He showed the Hokage that the scroll was from earth country and that it was a record of natural phenomenon from before the hidden villages had been established.
"Most of what I've found mentions what we experienced in a roundabout way. We need to find something more detailed," Kakashi said as he quickly skimmed through the record in front of him and moved on to the next one.
"I'm not sure if that will be possible," the Third said gravely.
He had been a tad too optimistic in the beginning, he had known this, but if they couldn't find something themselves, there only choice would be to grovel to the other countries. And due to their tentative alliance with Sand and the others, Sarutobi knew that this wasn't an option. Konoha wasn't so friendly with other nations right now that they could demand potentially classified information from one another.
'Perhaps one day in the future,' Sarutobi mused, wondering what the political climate was like in the older Hatake's time. 'But not today.'
"Yes, I know," Kakashi bit out, growing more and more frustrated with the dead ends they kept on running into. "But we know practically nothing about any of this. Is it random? Can we make one ourselves? Can we recreate the conditions that make it? Can we predict where the next one will show up? And if we can, will that even be in our lifetimes?"
Kakashi stopped flipping through the moldy book that he was currently holding and slammed it shut. Sarutobi watched somberly as Kakashi closed his eye and rubbed at his temple.
"Will we even be able to get back?" Kakashi asked, his voice a steady monotone, but his posture belied all the anxiety that he was trying to conceal.
Sarutobi took a drag from his pipe and exhaled heavily, thinking of the situation. He felt for the younger man, it was certainly not a position he would want to be in and it wasn't something that he could relate to either. Kakashi sighed again and rubbed his perpetually messy hair.
"The others are doing fine for now, the chunin exam will keep them occupied, but when the novelty of everything fades away..." Kakashi expressed his concern.
Sarutobi chewed on the end of his pipe thoughtfully, thinking of the other time travelers.
"I cannot say that I truly know any of you," Sarutobi admitted, the 'yet' was left unsaid. "But it seems to me, from what I've witnessed and from what you've told me, that they are all remarkably strong individuals. I wouldn't give up on them before the time comes for them to show you what they can endure. They might even surprise you," Sarutobi told him. Kakashi smiled a bit as he thought of his team.
"I suppose you're right," Kakashi admitted. "Naruto alone is full of enough surprises to last a lifetime."
"That's the spirit," Sarutobi said, dumping some of the ash from out of his pipe.
The two of them jumped when they heard a knock at the door. Kakashi quickly closed all of the books and set them aside, making them less visible to those that walked in. He didn't want to take any chances after all and it might look a little strange if the Hokage was looking up time travel with his younger counterpart's long lost 'uncle'.
"Come in," Sarutobi called once he was sure that Kakashi had closed everything and moved it out of sight.
"Sir!" a chunin called as he opened the door and bowed. "One of the instructors from Sand is here. He says that he comes with a private message from the Kazekage."
If the chunin was confused, he hid it well, but Kakashi and Sarutobi exchanged a look, knowing that this was extremely out of character. Although Sand and Leaf were no longer at war, most of the people in the two villages had not warmed up to the others yet (most notably the puppet master Chiyo, who still called for Sakumo Hatake's blood regardless of his death).
The chunin stepped back and let the shinobi that had been standing just outside the door step through the threshold. Kakashi's eye widened when he saw who it was.
"G-Gaara?"
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Naruto grinned as they stepped into the main part of the tower. They had just seen their chunin instructor, received the whole 'heaven and earth' lecture, and were now going to have to wait patiently for the next four days until the second part of the test was over.
"How many do you think will make it?" Naruto asked as he sat down on one of the stone window ledges and looked out into the forest.
"Our first year was a bit unusual," Sasuke remarked as he leaned against the wall next to Naruto. "I doubt we'll see as big of a turnout."
"I don't know," Sakura said thoughtfully, sitting on the ledge with Naruto. "I saw a lot of strong ninja and I think that war might be coming soon, or at least people think so. That usually makes hidden villages allow more promotions than they normally would."
"Hn," Sasuke grunted as he crossed his arms and closed his eyes, not very interested in the topic.
"Hopefully we won't be here long enough to get involved in a war," Naruto said, basking in the last rays of sunlight that dusk was offering. "As much as I like being here, I don't think that'd be a good idea."
"Yeah..." Sakura sighed, suddenly uncomfortable with the turn their conversation was taking. "We'll see."
And with that the group was silent. All that was left for them to do was wait.
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Obito silently darted through the trees alongside his two teammates. They had thought it best to make their way closer to the tower. Although they still had their scroll, they didn't want to gain another only to be a good couple of kilometers from the tower. It would only make them more paranoid andvulnerable than they had to be.
Sai had told them that their best bet now was to set up traps around the tower and wait for an arriving team to get caught so that they could grab their scroll. After that they could make their way to the tower quickly and rest up before the end of the exam.
Although Obito normally wasn't very fond of these kinds of tactics, it would probably be the best choice for them, especially since their encounter with Asuma, Gai, and Kurenai showed them that they weren't exactly cut out for direct confrontations with other teams.
'I have to get better,' Obito thought glumly, thinking back to his humiliatingly short fight with Gai.
Their team felt a surge in power to their left and they swerved to their right, giving the area a wide berth. There was no need to take unnecessary risks.
Sai glanced in the direction of a large clearing. His two teammates were quieter than usual ever since they were defeated and although Sai knew that they had actually gotten very lucky, it would be best to complete this part of the exam as quickly and efficiently as possible.
'We'll have to make sure to stay away from those people though,' Sai thought as he caught a glimpse of a rock genin team in a clearing covered in blood. They were going too fast for the other two to catch sight of it. Sai was glad about this since he knew that most people had problems with that kind of thing, even if they were ninja.
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"G-Gaara?" Kakashi choked out at the sight of the unmistakable red-headed shinobi.
Gaara glanced at the Sandaime Hokage, who was staring at him with great interest, and turned to the flabbergasted Konoha jounin.
"Kakashi-san," Gaara crossed his arms and nodded in greeting.
"That will be all, Raiza," the Hokage told the chunin lingering by the entrance and the man gave the sand shinobi one last glance before nodding and closing the door.
"What are you doing here?" Kakashi asked the Kazekage, his tone belied his utter disbelief.
"Is your friend from the future as well?" Sarutobi asked curiously.
Gaara turned towards the Sandaime and nodded.
"Yes, in twenty-two years, I am the fifth Kazekage," the eighteen year old told him.
Sarutobi's mouth dropped as he looked at the man before him. He would be Kazekage? Even though he was considering Minato as Hokage, there were still some complaints about his age and the Yellow Flash had quite a number of years on this man!
"You're the fifth Kazekage?" Sarutobi repeated after Gaara, his voice weak with disbelief. Kakashi raised an eyebrow at the old Hokage when he realized what he was thinking.
"Gaara's been the Kazekage for the four years or so," Kakashi told him with a smile. Sarutobi could feel himself go numb.
'Not only is he the Kazekage, but he's held the position for four years?' the Hokage thought with wonder.
"What are you doing here Gaara?" Kakashi asked. "How did you get here?"
Gaara finally sat down at the table, the Hokage to his left and Kakashi to his right.
"I came to bring you back," Gaara told them. "It's a long story."
Kakashi and Sarutobi glanced at each other again, their curiosity only growing with the short and vague answers.
"We've got the time," Kakashi said.
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Next chapter will be a glimpse about what's happening in the future. Hope you guys liked the update even though it's a bit shorter than the last two.
And on another note, all the editing is finally over. I've corrected all my grammar crimes and I've also updated the story according to all the new crap that's happening in the manga right now. Damn you, Kishimoto! You couldn't have come out with this earlier? This is going to screw up so many fanfictions...
Oh, and for others that are interested in great naruto time travel fics, I recommend 'It's For a Good Cause, I Swear!' by Sarah1281, if you haven't read it already. I just reread it and laughed my ass off. Again. A time travel comedy at its finest :D