[9/13/22]

••• Ido not own Naruto

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Chapter Two:

OF BLACK AND BROWN AND YELLOW

The ANBU surrounding her twitched nervously, each of their imperceptible movements sending tiny shocks of adrenaline through her body. Her limbs tensed in apprehension, preparing out of sheer habit for the off-chance that one of them did being it on himself to strike. They wanted to take her down, but they had yet to act, and she knew that it was simply because she really hadn't done anything to anything to warrant their attack on her person.

But, she could understand the unease they held concerning the circumstances. While they hadn't heard the words she had spoken on account of the activated silencing seals - weak ones, she noted. That would have to be amended - they could see the state that their Hokage was in. Hiruzen was deathly still, his wrinkled face far too pale for what could be deemed healthy, and displaying no small amount of grief and regret.

They could see that he was not well, but could do nothing unless given the go-ahead by either their captain or Hiruzen himself.

She hoped the ANBU Captain assigned to this team wouldn't make it any harder for her.

Naruto frowned thoughtfully, turning half of her attention to her tenant, 'Kura-chan.'

"Don't call me that. What is it?"

'I still can't feel emotional signatures in anybody's chakra.'

The fox sighed dramatically, as if he was grudgingly indulging a child - which, technically, he was, but Mirai refused to acknowledge that, "Brat, the Bastard went over this before he activated that blasted seal; we dont know which abilities you've retained. Time travel was thought to be impossible until we managed it, and the sheer amount of unknowns surrounding the concept was enough to deter anybody that believed it to be possible from actually attempting it," he said, and the stark exhaustion that made itself known in his voice didn't go unnoticed by her. "Dont worry about it for now," his voice softened imperceptibly, "Out of all of your abilities, that one is more than likely to return on its own."

She gave a mental nod just as Hiruzen began to shift, his face thawing from its seemingly frozen state and immediately delving into a frown that deepened even the finest lines on his old face.

She hoped that he wouldn't have a heart attack, because that would be a bitch to deal with.

Though, if luck failed her once again, and he did, she'd at least know what to do; she had dealt with heart attacks before, after all, and Sakura was an amazing teacher.

In all honesty, Naruto couldn't bring herself to feel bad for the way he had taken it. It was information that Hiruzen himself wanted to know, information that he had to know. So, she had told him everything, sparing no detail--

Well, that's a lie, actually. She told him everything he needed to know - everything relevant to him. Nothing more, nothing less.

He wasn't taking it well and, in hindsight, maybe it would have been better for his mental state if she had layered it on slowly, bits at a time, but she didn't really have that luxury. The time she was given couldn't be wasted, because it was all that she had.

Time was the only thing that had a chance at saving the world, and she would use it to its fullest.

The Sandaime had used his amounted time, and had made too many mistakes with it. He'd let Orochimaru and Danzo - that damned bastard - go too far. He had let the village and it's shinobi down in ways that were too damning and to consequential and it was just wrong.

The Sarutobi Hiruzen of Before was quite frankly a total failure, and this one was well on his way to becoming the same.

If he wasn't already.

At first, it had hurt to admit that he had failed so terribly because he was important to her. He was the first person that didn't look at her with eyes of hatred and as much as she knew that his actions - or lack thereof - couldn't be excused it any way, there was a period of time where she was stubborn and blind - stupidly so - and she refused to accept that he'd failed Konoha, failed her, failed her family.

He was precious to her, yes, but that didn't excuse the amount of mistakes he did make, and just because he didn't look at her like she was a monster doesn't mean he didn't let Orochimaru ruin those other children's lives. Just because he treated her like shs was human doesn't mean he didn't let Danzo turn those poor children into mindless and emotionless tools.

He turned a blind eye to his teammate and student's traitorous actions and everybody suffered for it.

An entire clan. Countless children. Sakura's parents.

Did he truly think those children did not matter? Or did he really, truly not see how they were suffering? Was it guilt? Guilt because of his inability to help her parents, causing him to feel obligated to help her in some form of pity and regret?

Knowing that she at least had a home, no matter how little of a home it was, while they had nothing...

It made her feel nauseous. It made her feel guilty because she had this at the cost of them. No, she didn't have her family, but she had someone, and eventually, she had gained more friends - more family.

But the shinobi that Sai knew in ROOT... they didn't have that. The children that Orochimaru tortured did not have it.

And they died without it.

Why... why should she have gotten it if they didn't? Why'd they have to die without actually living?

"Everything... everything is gone, in the future?," Hiruzen asked, his head hanging low beneath the weight of his own thoughts.

And she swallowed thickly, mercilessly forcing the traitorous feeling of disgust for the man in front of her down. "Everything," she confirmed bluntly.

The Hokage raised his head, blinking away the sheen of tears in his old eyes, and some sort of resolve seemed to harden within them, "Well then, Naruto, you have much work to do here, don't you? I will see to it that you have my full support until the completion of this mission."

She started a bit at that, but nodded hesitantly, "Thank you, Hokage-sama."

"It's the least I can do, child," he chuckled mirthlessly, but paused briefly as if realizing something, "In regards to your identity, am I to assume that you'll be changing your name?"

She hummed, rocking on her heels because, oops, she actually hadn't thought about that.

'Name... name... what should my name be?'

"Mirai."

'Huh? Kura-chan?'

"Your name. Mirai. It means 'future' - Never liked the name 'Naruto' anyway."

'That's... I'm going to ignore the last part but ...wow! AWWW YOU'RE SO CUTE KURA-CHAAAAN~ I KNEW YOU CARED!'

"Cut it out, or I'll recind my offer."

'Nope, too late.'

She grinned brightly at Hiruzen, the action feeling the slightest bit easier to force onto her features, "Mirai. My name will be Mirai."

"Do you... ever wonder how things would've turned out if you never ended up under those rocks?," she glanced at him, swinging her legs slowly as the first rays of sunlight peeked over the horizon. The deep hues of blue and purple began to fade, and an ombre of pink and orange colors began to blend slowly into the sky. It was beautiful, despite only a tiny sliver of it being visible. Most was shadowed by thick clouds of ash and dust and debree.

Obito smiled grimly and shook his head, "You know better than to ask those questions, Naruto. The past is the past and we can't change it."

"But," she chewed furiously on her lip, palming a small stone and tossing from the rocky ledge they were seated on in some fruitless way of distracting herself from her anxiety. It tumbled down the steep, rocky slope, clacking loudly in contrast to the otherwise still silence, "...what if we could? I mean - even if we were only able to change even the smallest of things... I don't know, it's a stupid idea but... I can't help but wonder."

She squawked indignantly when he reached up and ruffled her hair, and slapped the offending appendage away. He chuckled.

"Don't overthink things, Naru-chan. Besides," his smile saddened, "...even if changing the past was an option... it'd be the last resort.

"And... I know it doesn't mean much at this point, but for what it's worth, I...I'm sorry."

As a whole, she thought, the citizens of Konoha seemed happier. They smiled more at this time, strangely enough, and they were more open. The held some sort of inherent trust within eachother, and it was evident in the small ways in which they interacted, freely letting their children play without discrimination, walking amiably together, and waving or calling out energetically in greeting as they passed eachother. The air seemed lighter, free, and for some reason, it made sense to her.

The Uchiha massacre, of course, hadn't occurred yet (and wouldn't if she had any say in it). Multiple raven-headed and uchiwa fan bearing backs dotted the large crowd, weaving in between stalls and civilians alike. They were calm, their heads held high with confidence and pride, and there was no animosity directed at them whatsoever, only respect.

The general atmosphere of the village would have been almost weightless, if not for the active war, because the tragedies that were the Uchiha Massacre and Kyuubi Attack hadn't happened.

It was wartime, yes, but despite the horrors of the war, nothing major had occurred directly on the soil of the village. If anything, she would guessed that the war made them closer to eachother. They seemed to be much more tight-knit - either because they truly trusted eachother as comrades, or the war and need for survival forced them to come together, closer than ever before.

For all that war divides, it also unites. She knew that well enough.

It was strange, but the most noticeable thing to her, she realized, was the overall lack of hatred towards her person. Those eyes stared at her with a gaze distinctly annoucing that she was the foulest piece of scum that ever walked the earth were nonexistent. Nobody was looking at her with hateful eyes and baleful glares.

No.

Their eyes simply flitted in her direction, occasionally meeting her own before their attention was pulled elsewhere and they went on with their business. No judgement and condemnation. No hatred, no disgust. They didn't care. They didn't know who she was, who she held. To them, she was simply another face in the crowd, another citizen of their precious village that didn't have any direct relation to them, and therefore wasn't of any importance to them.

Strangely, she felt bitter.

She felt so bitter and angry towards them, knowing that the villagers hated her simply because the what had been sealed within her as an infant. Did they not question what the outcome would have been if the fox had been left alone and unsealed, free to rampage and destroy what was left of their beloved village? They had hated her - they had hated Kurama! He, too, was a victim of that tragedy. He was forced into submission, forced into the seal!

And yet, there they were, alive and unharmed, hating and spitting upon the one thing that held the raging Kyuubi within its cage.

That hatred... they had paid for it dearly, in a way.

She smiled, a bright, cheerful, and convincing thing that betrayed none of the disgust and internal annoyance that bubbled underneath her skin when a plain-looking woman waved at her in greeting as she passed, a gentle smile on her equally plain face.

In her eyes, Mirai mused, she was just another child of Konoha - an innocent.

Here. Now.

It stung to know that if she and Kurama were but a few years into the future, that woman would have been sneering and spitting and muttering many unsavory things under her breath, that is if she didn't simply resort to her fists to convey her utter disgust with a monster.

But, Mirai pushed the dark thoughts away, ripping her eyes from the many faces in the crowd and focusing on the multitude of rather colorful and creatively designed buildings instead.

It was so different. And with her lack of knowledge on the overall layout of this Konoha, paired with her outrageous lack of physical height, she was left feeling lost in a somehow foreign place.

She sighed.

'Well, Kurama? Seeing how the layout of this entire half of Konoha is different than how it was in my time, I'm guessing that's because of your handiwork, right? Did you happen to, I don't know, pay attention to the layout when you were... remodeling the architecture?'

Kurama gave an affronted scoff, "Brat. I was under the control of The Bastard's sharingan. For your information, it felt like my mind was splitting for the entire duration of that whole fiasco, so no. I wasnt paying attention to the placement of your ugly human shelters."

"Oh, no," she muttered aloud, a self-deprecating chuckle escaping her lips, "I really am a lost little kid. How long before someone thinks I ran from the orphanage, I wonder."

Kurama huffed a mocking laugh in her mindscape that undeniably confirmed that she wouldn't be receiving any help from his end, and she heaved another sigh, hopping on the balls of her feet in a vain attempt to peer over the crowd.

Gold sparked in her peripheral vision, and she turned, craning her neck to peek at the large sign. It was positioned just high enough so that shd could see it despite the many bobbing heads, and the words displayed in the large sign were an instant comfort to the girl.

'I know this place.'

She knew it very well, as it was easily one of the places she'd spent most of her time in as a child, one bored and lonely most of the time. The loneliness and the boredom were two things that she amended that by burying her face in loads and loads of books. Granted, reading became sort of a hobby of hers when she was already well into the Academy - around the age of eight or nine.

But, she figured, there's nothing wrong with starting early. At this point in time... well, It'd help explain the reasons behind any unexplainable or sudden abilities that may or may not happen to appear in her toddler size arsenal. She'd been walking around for the better part of two hours now anyway, and her tiny, weak legs could use a long break.

'It must've survived the attack by some sick chance of luck.'

"That, or it had quite a few powerful protection seals, which would be most likely, seeing as the building itself probably holds some of Konoha's historical documents."

Hiruzen had already given her a key chain that currently had only her apartment key attached to it, a simple black messenger bag, and a wad of cash for roughly two weeks - just enough to last until he enrolled her into the monthly stipend. Hopefully, she could get her hands on a library pass and snag a few books - from the chuunin section, which she did not have the clearance for, no doubt.

But that wasn't at all a problem, she could easily maneuver her way around that obstacle.

With quick steps, she weaved into between the legs of many adults, most of whom came way too close to kicking her in the face for her liking. She was panting by the time she finally made it through, bending to rest her hands on her knees and gulping in a few breaths of air.

Until someone rudely interrupted her recovering session with a loud guffaw, "You look like a fish!"

She whipped her head to the culprit, glaring with all the might of her five-year-old face - which she doubted looked at all intimidating, and her fiery gaze landed on a grinning boy with black hair that spiked in every direction. A pair of obnoxiously orange goggles on his head, and a mocking grin stretched across his face as he laughed at her.

She eyed the goggles. Good taste, her mind whispered.

A girl stood beside Goggles, as she had eloquently dubbed him, a nervous expression on her purple striped face. Her brown eyes were warmer than melted chocolate, and Mirai could help but notice how pretty she was.

But the boy beside her was enough to distract Mirai from her beauty, and she snapped her gaze back to him, rising to her full (short) height and planting her hands firmly on her (nonexistent) hips. "Who the hell are you?"

The boy's laughter died down, and he mirrored Mirai's stance in defiance, "Well you're no fun, are you? The names Uchiha Obito!"

She paused.

This is Obito!?

He wasn't at all what she had expected. She remembered the time Kakashi-sensei had told her that Obito was quite un-Uchiha like - hell, even Obito himself said that - but despite their words, she didn't expect, well, this.

She was so used to how he was after the wars.

"I'm fun when I want to be," the blonde sniffed with all the defiance of a snot nosed brat, "My name is-"

"Mirai-san," came the brunette's soft voice - Mirai had forgotten she was there, actually - and she smiled warmly at her, "Hokage-sama told us to find you."

"...Already? But I only left the office two hours ago," she trailed off, a pout forming on her lips. She still hadn't managed to find the new apartment assigned to her, and she'd gone through so much trouble to convince Hiruzen that she could manage on her own.

'That... puts a severe dent in my ego.'

The brunette giggled, her hand rising to muffle the sound as she watched the small blonde, and Mirai made a face in response. "...What?,"

The brunette only shook her head gently, the smile not abandoning her features, "Nothing, nothing. My name is Rin!"

'Ah, so this us the girl whose death led Obito on the path of war.'

"Hello, Rin-san."

She giggled again, and Mirai's expression scrunched in confusion, then suddenly Rin was at her side, holding her hand out invitingly.

Mirai stared at it.

"Come along, Mirai-san. We mustn't keep Hokage-sama waiting!," she smiled.

She only stared at her hand for another few seconds.

"I..."

'Oh... oh Kami, this is horrifying!'

Kurama's loud cackle echoed in her head and a dark flush crawled up her neck.

'I... I am the Nanadaime, dammit! How - how have I been reduced to holding somebody's hand like a child!?'

"You are a child now, Kit. Get used to it."

Another giggle bubbled from Rin's throat as the blonde reluctantly placed her hand in hers, pointedly looking in the other direction to block the view of her red face. It was pointless, of course, since Rin had already seen it, but semantics.

She sighed, glancing at the library mournfully. 'I guess I'll have to save reading for another day.'

Obito snickered, "What happened to all that fire, Mirai-chan? Is it fueling that red on your face?"

Mirai glared, and Rin studied her face momentarily before bursting into yet another fit of giggles.

'What's her deal?'

The walk to Hokage Tower was relatively quiet - that is, if you were to press your palms over your ears as hard as you can to mute Obito's loud voice. Unfortunately, since one of Mirai's annoyingly small hands was held firmly in Rin's larger one, she was quite incapable of doing so, and Obito continued babble excitedly the whole way, while Rin nodded and hummed absentmindedly to keep the exuberant Uchiha appeased.

(Vaguely, Mirai wondered if that was how Team Seven felt when they were assigned to eachother. Sasuke and Sakura didn't hesitate to let her know just how loud she was most of the time, after all.)

And Rin...

It was... a jarring experience - looking at Rin, that is. She was the catalyst for the Fourth War, the one whose death caused Obito to go completely and undeniably insane, however unintentional it was. Her death and Obito's psuedo death were two events that caused the tiniest of ripples to converge into a tidal wave, one that had undeniably cast the entire world into ruin.

Imagine what the effect would be if Rin hadn't died? If Obito hadn't been crushed? Obito loved Rin - and as an Uchiha, losing her made him lose his mind.

If Rin had survived the chidori, he most definitely wouldn't have helped Madara with the Infinite Tsukuyomi. He would probably never ever forgive Kakashi, but that in itself would be better than the war reoccurring--

Kakashi-sensei would agree, no doubt, despite how much it would hurt him.

'I have to prevent their deaths first and foremost.'

"Agreed."

A heavy sigh escaped her when they finally reached the doors to hokage's office. Rin giggled at her expense, mildly flaring her gentle chakra to make her presence known, and opening the door quietly as soon as Hiruzen's gruff voice told them to enter. With a gentle hand, she guided Mirai's reluctant self in, placing herself in the back corner of the room after she had pushed the blonde to stand just in front of the desk.

"Hokage-sama?," Mirai tilted her head, rocking restlessly on her heels. Hiruzen smiled lightly, pushing a thin folder across his desk, as if the action alone would answer her unasked question.

"These are your papers, Mirai-chan," he clasped his hands under his chin, and the blonde moved to grab the mentioned item. His lips set themselves in a grim line, eerily contrasting the seemingly soft gleam in his eyes, and he leaned forward as if to prepare himself for some sort of show.

"As for your storage seals, I'm sure you are aware of how sensitive on-skin seals can be," he raised a brow cryptically, "Unfortunately I'm not sufficient enough at fūinjutsu to remove the cancelling seals from your arms. We only have one master in the village at the moment - in fact, he is the one who cancelled your storage seals himself," Hiruzen added as if it were an afterthought, and chuckled.

"I've already summoned him; he'll be here in just a few moments to removed his seals from your own."

Despite her efforts to conceal it, her breath hitched at the implication - Jiraiya?

Her mouth felt dry, and her lips formed words without thought as her body rushed autonomously to grasp at any straws she could, "A Fūin master? That's - no. Ah, you don't need to bother him. I'm perfectly capable of removing the cancelling seals myself, Hokage-sama."

"Nonsense, Mirai-chan! He doesn't mind a bit."

She couldn't face Jiraiya. Not now. It was too early for her to process that.

Please, she wasn't - she wasn't ready to--

A knock sounded from the door behind her, paired with a distinct flare of chakra.

Chakra she didn't recognize.

The door creaked quietly as it opened, signaling the newcomer's entrance, before clicking shut, a series of silent steps following until they had reached just beside Mirai, only a meter between them, but her muscles were locked in place, refusing to move as her body somehow still anticipated Jiraiya's arrival.

"You summoned me, Hokage--sama?," came the deep, soft-spoken voice, again holding a distinct lack of familiarity that somewhat eased her anxiety. And as her stance began to melt from its rigidness, she tentatively shifted her gaze.

Blonde hair reflected the sun's light, unruly spikes shining like gold, and Hiruzen's dark eyes glinted mysteriously.

Something in his gaze made her instincts burn with fear.

"Ah, you made it," he smiled, "Yes, we need your expertise in fūinjutsu, Minato-kun."

"Shit."

And she froze.

A/N: There's chapter two! I completely rewrote some of the first part of the chapter, and edited the rest so that it was at least a bit smoother.

I don't know, in all honesty, I'm still not satisfied with it, but I hope you guys at least enjoyed it.

Thoughts?

Chapter three will be out asap!