Second Chances

Chapter 22

It'd only been twelve hours since the the mask mans attack on Konoha, and Minato was back in the Hokage's office, running through paperwork like it had never happened at all. Oh, he still had to file multiple witness reports, but his concentration levels were at an all time low when there was so much on his mind.
Looking out of the corner or his eye, Minato let a small smile flutter onto his face before he cocked his head, looking into the little crib that was now resting beside his desk. The red headed baby stared back up at him with childishly blue eyes wide, mouth open in a perfectly curved circle before a little giggle escaped her mouth. He cooed, allowing the little girl to grasp and his finger and watching as she instantly brought it to her mouth to suck on. It wouldn't be long until she was hungry...
Turning back to the stack of papers, Minato plucked up Obito report, frowning as he did so. It'd been a lot calmer than that of Kakashi's and Rin's, which was so out of place it like like a beckon, telling him Obito knew a hell of a lot more than what he was letting on, much in the same way that Kushina had instantly trusted in the girl. Kushina-
Minato let out a low sigh, turning his head a bit more till he could see the hospital out of the office window. His beautiful wife was currently in intensive care, but he'd been told that she would pull through, people were working around the clock to make sure of it.
And then, then there was Naruto.

When he arrived at the foxes currently location, this was the last thing Minato expected to see. Firstly, three of his four students were stood there on the sidelines, each looking about as shocked as the other whilst absorbing the sight before them. Secondly, he quickly noted that the summoning alter had already been called, with his newly born daughter laid out across it. And stood over her, twin pigtails whipping around her in all directions, stood Naruto, her lips set in a grim line and her hands clasped in the bird seal. Finally, the last thing he noticed was the giant demon fox, stood over his intimidate family and looking down at the blonde girl before him with a look of complete and utter... trust.
The foxes slitted pupils were sorely focused upon Naruto, but he made no move to crush her, he didn't move at all. Instead, the fox was just stood over the two in a very protective stance, looking down at the girl and fully expecting something spectacular to happen. And spectacular did happen. Suddenly, Naruto let out a cry, the fox shrinking above them all and howling in protest- no, howling in pain as it was forced into smaller proportions by an unseen force.
He briefly heard Obito mention how both of the girls were taking in dark red chakra into the seals drawn on their now exposed stomachs, each one groaning after the other; he didn't even here himself mutter his own disbelief. His daughter was crying, right up until the foxes image disappeared altogether, a haze the only thing left of the most powerful demon in the world.
And then, Naruto dropped onto the ground, coughing and clutching at her stomach.

The four spectators raced over, rolling Naruto onto her back whilst Kushina had made to check on their daughter, Minato was more worried about the fact Naruto was coughing up fine red liquid. Rin was pouring her heart into healing the girl, glowing green hands hovering over her chest and Kakashi demanding to know what in hell had just happened. It was only Obito how managed to cough out the idea of a twin seal, something Minato had never even dreamed of before. Carefully, he inspected the seals as Rin worked, noticing they were all but identical, only the slightest variation; looking like they were made to hold back different things. His daughters had something about Yin chakra and presence scribbled down, whilst Naruto only seemed to house presence, nothing on Yang chakra like he'd have assumed it should.
Hiruzen appeared not a moment later, along with a team of medics that instantly set to work on Kushina and Naruto. One handed him his daughter, informing him of the villages current state. He only took in about half the information, more concerned with the sate of his daughter.

It wasn't until Naruto and Kushina had been rushed to hospital did he finally snap out of it and follow after them.

"Oh Nariko, what the hell am I going to do?"
The little girl just stared up at her father through tired eyes, obviously struggling to remain awake. He smiled warmly despite himself, watching as Nariko finally gave in and dropped off to sleep. Clicking his fingers, he watched as one of the ANBU appeared, bowing before looking up through the porcelain mask for orders.

"Get me Fugaku and Obito Uchiha. I don't care how, just get them here."

.

It was but moments later the two arrived at the office. Fugaku hadn't even gotten out of his daily attire yet, even though the sun was most certainly coming up in an hour and the man should have been sleeping. However, like a good clan leader, he'd been running the jobs his Uchiha's were too tired to do, such as check casualties for the clan. Obito however, was in his pyjama's, and currently struggling against the ANBU who'd dragged him out of his nice warm bed.

"Sensei! I don't like being kidnapped by your ANBU!"
Fugaku shot the younger boy a look of complete disgust to which Minato just sighed, not in the mood to be fighting with the younger Uchiha.
The third ANBU in the room just chuckled, lifting his mask up to reveal black eyes and silver hair.

"It's not kidnap, simply surprise adoption."
Fugaku coughed, almost chocking on the saliva he'd been swallowing before turning to look at the Hokage for orders. Minato sighed, carefully plucking the sleeping Nariko up out of her crib and resting her in his arms, sat atop his desk as he did so.

"Okay, we've got everyone here who needs to know. Kakashi, I assume you have no idea what's going on?"
Once the young teen shock his head, Minato repeated the question to Fugaku -whom replied the same as the Hatake- before he finally turned to look at Obito.

"Now Obito, Kushina isn't here to tell me, so I'm going to have to go to the only other source that seems to know what is going on. That source is you. What the hell is Naruto." It wasn't a question, it was a demand that left Minato's mouth, Kakashi nodding slightly in agreement towards the turn of conversation. Fugaku frowned, looking suspiciously at his nephew who suddenly seemed like he'd want to be anywhere else than this.

"But sensei-"

"I'm not asking you as your sensei Obito. I'm telling you as Hokage, either explain to me what Naruto is, or I'll have to send you to T&I."
That was enough for Obito. Within moments he knew the gig was up, he knew Naruto's secrets were going to come out whether she liked it or not, so he might as well attempt damage control.

"She's from the future!" Okay, that didn't go as planned.
Minato stared, and stared a bit more whilst Kakashi's eyes widened almost comically, mouth open beneath his mask.

"So that's how she knew, back with the bridge..."
The Fourth Hokage was too busy coming to terms with what his raven haired student had just said to even process Kakashi's words. Fugaku too seemed to be in a state of disbelief, but got over it quicker than Minato.

"Explain, now."
And so Obito did, running through everything that Naruto had told him whilst trying to keep out some of the most important parts of the future. "So, she knew the fox was going to attack, so she and Jiraiya went away and worked on the joint seal! It's how she knew just where everyone was going to be, it's why Kurama didn't attack her and let her seal him, because they both know what's coming in the future. They're comrades, and they only told the people that needed to know. I don't know why she told me, but she told Kushina 'cause of the link between their seals, and she told Jiraiya 'cause she needed to talk seal with him... I guess that sums it up..."
Minato blinked, sitting back against the desk and absent-mindedly rocking the baby girl in his arms.

"You can leave now Obito, Fugaku-san. You too Kakashi. I need to think about this."

It was three day's later that Kushina woke up and he got the story confirmed; Naruto really was from the future. Yet, she was still in intensive care.
Sitting beside the girls bed, Minato looked at the blonde haired teen that was hooked up to all sorts of machines before clearing his throat. Yet still, he was lost for words. Slouching into the chair, Minato let out a long sigh, staring up at the ceiling as he did so.

"I... I don't know why you didn't tell me Naruto... Obito said you grew up without us huh? It must have been hard for you... But you came through in the end, and you're here now right? I... I don't know if I can act as your dad... It's a bit weird when you're old a baby now, well, to me you are. Nariko... She has Kushina's hair... Yet you have mine... You did sleep at night as a baby right? Tell me you did, between running this village and running after Kushina, I don't think I get enough sleep as it is..." Trailing off, Minato cradled his head in his hands, looking at the girl that was laid out across the hospital bed. Her tanned skin looked completely out of place against the white of the hospital bed and Minato sighed, shaking his head and getting to his feet.

"The village is recovering well, the damage would have been worse... But you and Kurama are friends right? Hehe, never thought of that, never even dared to hope." Looking out the window, Minato rocked back and forth on his heels, sighing as he did so. "Thanks for not giving up on us Naruto."

"No problem dad."
Minato's head whipped around, staring at the very much conscious Naruto. She was smirking, pulling out the tubes in her body before watching in fascination as the skin healed almost instantly.

"Naruto?"

"The one and only!" Grinning from ear to ear, Naruto shot up out of her bed before accepting her fathers hug, trying her very best not to tear up as she did so.

"So erm... Wanna come meet your baby sister?"

Kakashi's days after the attack had been uneventful, a continual hazy blur as he tried to piece together Naruto. She was so damn confusing, and now he knew why. His future self had taught her... Obito was suppose to have died, so had Rin.

"Kakashi-kun?" He paused, turning to look at the girl that'd addressed him. Hayase Hyūga stood there, one hand hanging limply by her side whilst the other was wrapped around a home-made hamper. She was in her traditional kimono; a light pink design with a cream coloured sash that was pulled into an overly large bow at the back.

"Yes Hayase-san?"

"Are you going to see Naruto-chan? She just woke up."
Kakashi heart preformed a back-flip whilst his stomach was going for Olympic gold, twisting and turning till he felt slightly sick. Not only that but his cheeks felt unusually warm against the cool material of his mask.

"I see. I was not informed. I assume you are going to visit Minato-sensei?"

"Uh-huh. Hiashi-sama wishes for the delivery of this basket to welcome Nariko-chan to the world... And then Obito-kun and I are off for a meal."

Kakashi blinked, once and very slowly. "Obito and you..." He shook his head, not too sure if he wanted to know how this had come about. He hadn't even noticed Obito's shift in affections, but now that he looked back on it... He should have been more observant, instead of paying too much attention to Naruto as he had been doing previously. "I shall accompany you then." Holding out his hand for the heavy looking hamper, he watched as Hayase blushed, carefully handing it over. As their hands brushed against one another Kakashi felt the sting of foreign chakra before the hamper began to weigh down his hand. Re-enforcing it with chakra, Kakashi watched as Hayase smiled guiltily. She too had been holding the wicker basket with chakra; no ordinary human could hold this without it.

"Thank you Kakashi-kun."

.

Upon arrival at the Hokage's office, Kakashi happily handed the hamper back, watching as Hayase made her way in before him. Entering the door afterwards, Kakashi was greeted with the beautiful sight of Naruto cradling Nariko to sleep, cooing as she did so.

"Ah, tell Hiashi-san I send my thanks, we'll have to arrange a dinner at some point."
Hayase nodded, making her way over to Naruto and smiling at the baby. As Kakashi watched the two women interact, a small smile found its way under his mask and onto his lips, watching as Naruto carefully placed her younger counterpart back into her crib. And suddenly, he got the image of her cradling a little child with platinum blond hair and black eyes. Blinking away the image, Kakashi turned to Minato, bowing slightly before straightening.

"You wanted to see me?"

"Yeah, you're late... Again Kakashi... Though you're not as late as Obito, thanks for small favours."
At that point, the raven haired teen in question broke through the door, eyes whipping wildly around the room before they rested upon Hayase. A light blush dusted his cheeks as he carefully lifted his goggles up onto his forehead, staring at the brunette before a sly smile slowly made its way across his face.

"Hey Hayase-chan! Are you still up for going to a meal? Or," he stepped to a side, revealing the picnic basket he'd brought along for the ride, "would you like a picnic?"
Kakashi watched, befuddled, as Obito effortlessly had the Hyūga girl blushing and nervously playing with her hands. It was like he wasn't even trying, but he just looked so happy that his affections were being returned; he had defiantly missed this change in Obito's behaviour. He sneakily shot a look at Naruto from under his silver hair, the girl who seemed to be just as impressed as he was. Maybe she wanted something like this too...
Learning to cook didn't seem like such a bad idea now.

"Ah, Obito! It's about time you got here!" Minato clapped, gathering the Uchiha's attention before smiling at the new couple. At least one of his students seemed to have picked up his ways with the women. Though where he'd got it from when his sensei had been Jiraiya... That was a true mystery.

"Yourself and Kakashi are off an mission tomorrow, only a B-rank, I just need you scooping out the borders for a few days, got it?"
The two teens nodded, Obito saluting his former sensei before leaping to his feet, snatching up Hayase and his picnic basket as he did so.

"Bye sensei!"

.

After watching Obito leave the room, Naruto raised a brow before laughing, gesturing for Kakashi to come join her. The silver haired ninja shuffled nervously from foot to foot, not quite sure what to say to the girl from the future. Instead, she just smiled at him before turning back to the red-headed baby as she did so.

"You know Kashi, I'm really looking forwards to having my own family."
The silver haired ninja nodded, missing the way Minato's nostrils flared and he glared at the Hatake. Because oh-ho, his precious Naruto was too young for that.

"Plenty of time for that later," the Hokage reminded, getting up and purposely standing between the two teens in order to scoop up his daughter. Heavens knew Kushina would be demanding to hold the girl once she got back from her ramen run. As the elder blond walked away, Kakashi just smiled, running a hand through his hair before smirking at Naruto.

"I think I am too Naruto," he watched as she raised a smug brow, clearly proud of his sudden u-turn in personality, "I can't wait either."

Quick update is quick -two in one day- and this is the final chapter, they'll be a epilogue but then it's onto the sequels. Hope you like the turn of events here!

Not a lot to say on this chapter really, aside from it's long. =)

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And thank you all so much for the reviews, they mean a hell of a lot

Next chapter
Epilogue

Points of Interest;

- For those who don't know, I have a new FemNaru time travel up that will also be FemNaruxKaka; it's called 'Flash of Thunder', if you've got time, check it out please?

Read and review people?

Lot's of love,
Tsume