The sun was setting on the horizon as it showed its last few rays of sunshine. Minato Namikaze was on the hospital rooftop wearing mandatory hospital clothing staring across the Hidden Leaf Village, his blonde hair was spiky as usual but his hands, arms, feet, legs, upper torso, and even head were layered in bandages. Though his eyes were closed thinking hard about the fight and how it was inevitable they were going to have a rematch, yet strangely this made Minato excited. This was the second day after the battle with Naruto and it was already the talk within the Anbu; there were frequent visits from his friends that wanted the details of the fight.

"How long are you going to sulk?" asked the Hokage standing behind Minato with his hands crossed over his chest with a little smirk.

Minato looked behind him at the Hokage with feigned irritation and said "Lord Hokage, if anybody should be sulking it should be Naruto because of his shattered mask and his loss of the fight."

Hiruzen just chuckled and then replied "You know that you just came back from a mission from the Water Country as young Fox came back from a mission not only a day before you. So your battle, at least I think, could have been much deadlier and destructive."

Sighing, Minato thought about Foxs' face and how beautiful- 'Wait, what am I thinking?' he thought to himself.

"I hope you understand that in a few days you'll have a new mission" said the Hokage "So please don't make any… wrong decisions. Like fighting Fox for instance." He then started to walk away thinking about the politics that aren't doing anybody any favors.

Minato then stood on top of the hospital building for a while as the last of sun finally went over the horizon and it was dusk. He started to walk back to his hospital room when a nurse found him in the hall and started to yell at him for not being in bed resting.

'I wonder what Fox is doing at the moment.' He thought before being grabbed by the nurses' hand and pulled back to his room.


With Naruto

'Naruto.' Said the Nine Tails for the fifth time as the blonde refused to respond. Naruto had locked his room with a seal so that no nurse would come in and see his eyes.

The blonde had bandages around his head, legs, torso, and arms which needed to be changed every few hours or so. He would be discharged tomorrow morning and would speak with the Hokage about living arrangements.

But inevitably he was still in shock and in anger because of that damn Namikaze shattered his mask and saw his face. Naruto brought his hands up and covered his face with his hands.

'You'll be okay, Naruto. It was only a small time when he saw your face… especially your eyes.' Said the Biju.

Naruto put his hands down and thought about how he was different from everyone, how everything about him set him apart from everybody else.

"Hello? Anybody inside?" called a voice. Naruto just looked at the door in silence and saw the door handle turn but didn't budge.

The person tried a few more times before they finally gave up and left.

"Wow. You know they only want to help you." Said Crain from the window. "And if you want to keep people like me out please put a seal on that's above a B Class."

Naruto immediately closed his eyes "You know just because you were able to break the seal doesn't mean everyone else could."

"Now if you put on a seal higher than a S Class who would bring you food since you sealed yourself away in this room?" replied the Anbu "And water of course you need that too and this mask." This made Naruto almost opened his eyes to look at the anbu… almost.

Realizing the teenager was going to budge Crain decided he would try again later.

"Alright I can take a hint, I'll leave then but I'll be putting this mask here and the food with the water of course." Said Crain as he placed the food, water, and mask on the table next to the window and transported away from the room via Body Flicker Jutsu.

Naruto then looked at the blank mask left on the table and gotten up grabbing it and placing it on his face, applying chakra so it would stick like cement to his face. It was blank with no real shape or color but simple slits to look through and it was made out of porcelain. 'Not really my kind of mask but what else can you do' Naruto thought as he once again heard a knock from the door.

"Hello?" said a voice "It's time to change your bandages."

Sighing Naruto had gotten up and walked over to the door and opening it to let the nurse inside so she could change his bandages.

She was about 5' 6" with short curly brown hair, judging by the way she moved and talked she was new. The nurse asked him to sit on the bed nicely, 'Usually they just push you down on the bed' thought Naruto. She started to unwrap the bandages around his arms and noticed that were all healed; the cuts and bruises were completely gone.

"Excuse me, but how long have you been here? The charts must be wrong." She said nervously as she looked closer at the arm to make sure nothing was missed.

"This will be my second day." Responded Naruto with a calm voice as he almost smiled at the start struck nurse; though how could really tell since the mask was on.

She then started to unwrap the bandages around the blondes' other arm and legs to see absolutely nothing wrong except the fact his skin was very pale. The nurse asked Naruto to take off his hospital shirt to remove the bandages around his torso which he obliged. That was until she started to unwrap the bandages around his stomach.

Naruto quickly grabbed her wrist "Please don't unwrap those bandages" he said letting go of her arm while she took a step back and started to blush and apologize. But something on his chest had captured the nurses' attention it was like someone had stabbed the blonde with lightening induced weapon.

Curious and before Naruto could react she brought her hand up and touched the mark on his chest which brought up agonizing memories for the blonde. "Stop touching me." The Uzumaki said calmly though he could barely restrain himself from reacting in a harsh manner.

The brunette quickly apologized once more and blushed even harder while telling Naruto he could leave anytime he chose to check out in the morning.

Naruto nodded and thanked the nurse as she left leaving the blonde once again alone.

'This is a new time, Naruto.' Said the fox hoping Naruto would realize that he can no longer be hurt and no longer judged by the citizens of the Hidden Leaf Village like how they used to.

The Uzumaki just ignored him and put his shirt back on laid down in his bed.


With Minato

"Now don't get up again do you understand me?" said the nurse chastising Minato for the fourth time.

Minato, of course, nodded in response and opened his eyes to look at a brunette nurse running into the room blushing. "You will never get better if- "began the nurse but noticed the other nurse as well.

"Ms. Naomi, the patient we were discussing earlier appears to be healed completely" said the nurse nervously.

"Strange, Kigiri, we'll go check his charts in a moment again" said Ms. Naomi as she then looked at Minato once more. "I don't want you moving from that bed."

The Namikaze, curious as ever, created a clone and walked out into the hallway using Transparent Escape Jutsu. He followed the nurses to see if he could figure out where Naruto was just for a quick visit.

"And you're certain he's healed completely? He just arrived the same time Namikaze did" said Ms. Naomi in a hushed whisper.

"Yes ma'am, he has healed to perfect condition" replied Kigiri. Minato ever so silently looked the charts Ms. Naomi was holding to look at the name but the name slot was blank.

Placing the chart back on the table, Ms. Naomi sighed in frustration. "How could a teenager heal from a battle with Minato Namikaze in only two days… something like is impossible."

"He'll be leaving in the morning though" said the brunette.

Minato was shocked, was Fox really healed in only two days? That sounds impossible and he's going to be released in the morning as well which made Minato a little jealous.

Looking at the chart once more Minato saw the room number Fox was kept in and stealthily made his way there. 'A seal on the door? What could you be hiding?' thought the blonde as he broke the seal and entered the room.

He saw Naruto sleeping or assuming he is because of the mask attached to his face. 'But I know what's under that mask' thought Minato with a little pride knowing what others didn't.

Walking up carefully to get closer to Naruto did he realize pale he actually was like he barely had gotten any sun at all.

A hand shot up around Minatos throat tightly and Minato could swear he saw red under that mask.

"Who are you?" said Naruto quietly the hand had tightened a little more around Minatos neck. "Its… me…" the Namikaze gasp as he dropped the jutsu to reveal himself.

"I see." said Naruto as he released his hand around Minatos throat. The older blonde gasped and breathed in then started laughing a little which made Naruto look at him in confusion.

"I just tried to choke you. Why are you laughing?" asked Naruto in wonder.

"Well knowing the battle we just had two days ago and the fact that you just strangled me with a jutsu that pretty much kept me invisible means that you're really strong." said Minato with a large grin.

"Thank you, Namikaze." replied Naruto with a small smile though Minato couldn't see it due to the mask.

"Now about that mask." said the older blonde motioning for Naruto to take it off.

Sighing Naruto took off his mask and looked at Minato with his purple eyes "Knowing that you've shattered my mask and you seeing my face it would be no use hiding it any further." said the blonde running his hands through his spiky hair a little.

"It was a lucky strike that's all" replied Minato smiling a little wider.

"Even though it was a lucky strike you charge it with a lot of chakra which shattered my mask like it was glass."

"And your punch kind of fractured some of my facial bones." said the Namikaze pointing to his cheek. "The medical ninja that responded healed my face as soon as they stopped the bleeding because it was all swollen."

"I'm sure I broke them." Naruto said then smiled a little and Minato smiled back.

"I need to get some sleep, Namikaze." said the younger blonde and Minato nodded and said good night leaving Naruto alone.

'Getting attached to a certain someone?' asked the Nine Tails bringing Naruto into his mindscape.


Mindscape

Naruto sat down on the hill next to the willow tree and the sun was stuck in a sunset view. The Nine Tails turned into his human form this time with Leaf Ninja clothing and sat down next to the blonde.

"We're stuck in the past, you're basically a time traveler, you've met and soon to befriend the 3rd and 4th Hokage, the 3rd Ninja War is soon to come, you've become the soul Jinchuuriki for the Nine Tails -motions to himself-, and on top of that you're a regular Anbu with no connections with root anymore." explained the Nine Tails.

"Which means?"

"You can do a lot of good to fix bad you have done." said the Biju looking at his friend who stared at the sunset.

"The Akatsuki, Orochimaru, Madara, and countless other enemies can be dealt with much easier." said Naruto closing his eyes.

"When you think about it… they're actually innocent of all the crimes they've committed in your time since you're in the past." said the Nine Tails absentmindedly plucking grass out of the ground and looking at the blonde still.

"Do you think… Do you think they'll do a psychology evaluation?" asked Naruto looking at the Nine Tails in fear.

"Well I would suppose so along with an intelligence exam and medical exam, to make sure your fit for the field of course." replied the fox.

"Oh Kami." whispered Naruto thinking of all the things they could see.

"We will have to build walls of course. We can't let them see everything… only what we want them to see."

Naruto nodded his head in to show he understood "I think I'll get some sleep." he said.

The fox nodded and the blonde faded from the mindscape which let the sun finally set meaning that Naruto has fallen asleep.

"I won't let them hurt you, my friend." said the Biju.

Break

Naruto Uzumaki walked out of the hospital with his Anbu clothing and porcelain mask on his face but he heard his codename being called behind him and saw Minato rush up behind him with his mask to ride side of his face and his anbu gear on as well.

"I thought you weren't due to leave for at least a weak?" asked Naruto his arms crossing over his chest.

Minato responded with putting his hand behind his head ruffling the spikes, "Yeah well I got a little bit of help from a friend." said the older blonde.

"Tsunade?" asked Naruto remembering the 5th Hokage fondly.

Flashback

"Naruto what do you have to report? asked Tsunade wearing her regular style of clothing of heeled shoes, black pants, a grey and black tank top, with a green coat with the symbol of gambling on the back. Her hair was put into two lose pony tails, her blue diamond seal rested on her forehead, and what Naruto noticed the most was her amber eyes that had shown caring.

"Lady Hokage the mission was a success." replied Naruto taking of his fox mask and putting it to his side and smiled.

"You have to be careful" Tsunade whispered. "Soon we can get you free out of his clutches. I swear it."

"It's almost over?" Naruto replied quietly, tears threatening to fall. "I can barely get through his sick twisted training, Lady Hokage."

"Just keep that special person in your thoughts." She replied leaning back in her chair.

Naruto nodded smiling bigger he couldn't help it. He was almost free.

Almost.

Flashback End

"-x? Fox? You okay?" asked Minato waving his hand in front of Narutos face. The younger blonde blinked his eyes and regained clarity of what was around him at the moment.

"Y-yeah I'm fine, Namikaze." replied the blonde shuddering a little, 'I've got to control this... whatever this is.'

"Do you know Tsunade?" asked the older blonde "Because she's coming out of the hospital right now. Now if she says anything about a bet don't take it."

"Why is that?" asked Naruto playing along.

"Because she always loses." He whispered but Naruto already knew about Lady Hokages' losing habits.

"Minato, you can't even say thank you for me healing your ribs and injuries that would take weeks to heal!" said Tsunade wearing her usual attire and walked toward the two blondes.

"Hey! Tsunade, what's up" said Minato laughing a little.

"You owe me something for healing you." She stated crossing her arms.

"Before I do that I'd like you to meet Fox." Minato said motioning to empty air which left the older blonde feeling dumb and stupid as he twisted and turned to see where the anbu went.

"Are you talking about that ninja with the porcelain mask? He turned tail and ran once he looked at me. I guess I can be pretty intimidating." She said with pride.

"Strange." whispered Minato "Tsunade, did you by chance know him?" he asked the legendary sannin.

"No not at all." she replied. "Now that I've done you a favor I think you owe me one." Tsunade said with a smile.

'Oh no.' thought Minato.


With Naruto

Naruto was gasping on the floor, his mask off. He clutched his hair tightly and started to cry tears of sadness.

"Make it stop, please!" he said curling into a ball as the memories kept coming back.

Flashback

"It's going to be okay, Naruto! You'll survive I know it." screamed Tsunade.

Flashback End

"No. She's alive now. I've seen it for myself." he said.

'Hang in there, Naruto.' comforted the Nine Tails.

Flashback

"Tsunade, you can't leave!" screamed Naruto reaching out his hand.

Flashback End

There was a knocking on the door that woke Naruto up. It was dark outside as Naruto stood up and looked outside to see a reflection of himself in the window. His purple eyes were puffy and cheeks were red but nothing that his mask wouldn't cover up.

He placed his mask on his face and opened the door to show the Hokage.

"Lord Hokage!" said Naruto in surprise and bowed immediately to his superior. The 3rd ushered Naruto to stand up and said there was no need for such formalities when the Hokage was coming to see him personally.

"Fox, I'm afraid to let you work in the field I will have to let people exam your psyche, medical, and your intelligence. Your physical exam was already settled with your fight against Cat." said Sarutobi showing sadness and caring in his eyes.

"Lord Hokage… Is that necessary?" asked Naruto in slight worry, fidgeting a little.

The Hokage nodded "Even though you have a situation as difficult as yours, I still want to make sure your psyche is ready for the field. For not only the Leafs' safety but your own as well."

"You think I would have a mental breakdown in the middle of a battle?" asked Naruto putting his hands behind his back.

"Well… not specifically but there could be other possibilities such as memory relapses but of course those rarely happen." said Sarutobi crossing his arms across his chest while Narutos mind raced in worry.

"The medical and intelligence is really mandatory too?" asked Naruto in defeat.

The 3rd Hokage nodded his head "I'm sorry, Naruto, but I must insist -he leaned forward and whispered- you must hide whatever you can especially your friend and your situation."

Naruto nodded in response. "Yes, Lord Hokage" he replied bowing.

"Have a good night." the Hokage said waving goodbye to the pale blonde who was internally freaking out.

"Fox!" said Minato as the anbu ran up to greet the other. "Hey, what happened with meeting Tsunade? I know she can be rough around the edges but she's great once you warm up to her."

Naruto froze for half a second then came up with a quick lie "Well it's because I had to do something for the Hokage."

"And why are you still wearing that mask." he said and began smiling.

"Formalities." said Naruto, short and to the point.

"Well I'm about to offer you something you can't refuse." said Minato obviously overly excited with the information that he's about to deliver.

"And what is that Namikaze?"

"Call me Minato no more of this Namikaze." said Minato and before Naruto could object the older blonde spoke up once more. "Tsunade has given us a mission, S-Class and I was going to ask if you wanted to join me?"

"Namikaze-"

"You mean Minato."

Naruto continued on ignoring the older blonde "I'm afraid, if you want me to join you on this mission, you're going to have to wait."

"Why?!" he asked shocked that Naruto wouldn't accept it.

"Well I have some evaluations to partake in."

"…how long?" asked Minato a little disappointed.

"Tomorrow, hopefully." replied the pale blonde.

"Wait if you're a anbu on active duty, how come you need to be evaluated?" asked Minato confused at the whole situation.

"The Hokage feels as though I need to be reevaluated" said Naruto saying yet another lie to keep his time travelling a secret.

Minato slouched feeling somewhat defeated because the other blonde couldn't join him on the mission Tsunade had given him. 'Maybe Kushina would like to go?' he thought to himself.

"Well I'll see you in a few weeks then…" said Minato as he waved goodbye to Naruto and the blonde waved goodbye as well.

'A few weeks? I wonder what kind of S Class mission he was sent on.' thought Naruto as he went back to his room to fall asleep.


The Next Day

"This is the last time I do a damn favor for Tsunade." grunted Minato as he blocked a kunai being thrown at him with his short sword.

The S Class mission given to him by Tsunade was to find a pig by the name of Ton Ton that was kidnapped because of Tsunades' climbing debts that have yet to be paid off. The whereabouts of the gang that took the pig was last seen somewhere south of the Land of Fire.

Currently Minato was defending himself in the woods where he was investigated the latest sightings of the gang. Trees surrounded him and the gang members who started to attack the cat anbu at full force.

"Of course neither Kushina nor Fox could come with me which is fantastic." he said blocking three more kunai and began running at his enemies that stood in front of him, slashing their throats with his kunai at high speeds. One of them block the attack by raising his kunai in luck the others fell on the ground creating a large pool of blood.

The man started a fire jutsu and blew a giant fireball at the Namikaze who back flipped and once he landed on his feet started an earth jutsu "Earth Style Mud Wall" said the anbu. A wall of earth erupted between Minato and the fireball, once they collided the fireball dispersed.

The man then threw kunai with explosion tags against the earth wall that exploded and sent debris flying at Minato which he dodged most of but some of the fragments slammed into his right thigh and left arm.

"So Tsunade has sent an anbu to do her dirty work?" said the man as the dust and smoke started to clear.

The blonde grabbed a kunai from his pouch tightly and started pumping lightning chakra into it. "You think once you kill me you'll find that dumb pig? It's long gone anbu scum!" yelled the enemy throwing shuriken and kunai at Minato.

Blocking all the weapons that was directed at him he ran at the man who was shaking in fear but made a surprised face as something stabbed into his back before Minato had even touched him.

"Boom." said a voice and the man's body exploded sending Minato flying into a tree then landing on the ground.

A teenager with long hair platinum blonde hair tied into a pony tail stared at Minato with his sharp blue eyes though his bangs covered his left eye. He wore a head band with the Hidden Stones' insignia across his forehead, he smiled at the anbu who was laying on the ground barely moving. The teenagers' hands were shoved into bags strapped to his ninja navy blue pants; there was a strange chewing sound though that came from the platinum blonde but his mouth wasn't moving. He had on a green obi shirt lined with black that had some blood on it after the man exploded.

"Look what I've found here! An anbu with a cat mask and blonde hair? If I didn't know any better, I would guess you are from Konoha as well." said the ninja.

"And from your headband, I would assume you were from the Iwa." said the anbu standing up. 'Konoha and Iwa already have a tense relationship. Why attack?' thought Minato staring at his opponent.

Narrowing his eyes, the Hidden Stone ninja snarled "I would never be a part of that uncultured village! They don't understand what true art is." growled the platinum blonde.

"So you're a missing ninja?" asked Cat twitching to reach into his weapons pouch.

"And what if I am?"

"Then maybe bringing you into custody can make a better bond between Iwa and Konoha." said Minato snatching two kunai from his pouch and holding them in defense across his face.

"You can try." stated the platinum blonde as he brought his hands which had mouths on his palms. The mouths then started puking clay all over the ground and then started rising to make clay monsters. They had oblong shapes with legs and there was a line of clay attached to them and to the palms of the teenager.

"I will." said Minato rushing at the monsters.

Chapter End


(Authors Note: I'm doing a sneak peek into the next chapter, review if you hate it or love it!)

Scene Beginning

The time traveler jumped from a branch and onto the ground holding two kunai at his sides and stared at the enemies before him.

"You won't hurt him any longer." said Naruto pointing one of his kunai at the enemies in front of him.

The scene was decimated there were scorch marks everywhere: blood and clay splatters were covering the nature around the fox anbu. The platinum blonde teenager was holding up a lump of clay in his hand threatening to detonate it. Three Iwa ninjas were behind him posed to strike at the Konoha anbu: holding shuriken, kunai and swords.

"How weak the anbu of Konoha are." growled Deidara clutching the clay roughly. "And foolish!" he yelled throwing the clay and Naruto took a defense stance.

An explosion rocked the ground beneath all of them.

Scene End