The room was quiet following Kushina's declaration. To everyone but Obito the idea that Naruto was somehow from the future was ludicrous. Even the Sandaime, who knew it was possible, was having a hard tme processing the truth in what Obito had told them. Kushina's breathing was erratic, and Obito had to wonder if she would faint. She struggled to catch her breath, but within a few moments she was composed enough to speak. "How can this be possible?" She spoke cautiously, like she was afraid to be hopeful.

Obito frowned. "I actually don't know how. When I talked to Naruto, he didn't even know."

Across the room, Kakashi glared at him. "Then he must have been lying to you. Only you would fall for a lie this stupid."

Obito turned to retort to Kakashi, but thought better of it. What good would fighting do? It wouldn't change Kakashi's mind. Instead he turned to the Sandaime. "Do you know of any way this could happen?"

All eyes turned to the Sandaime. His nickname of the Professor was well known, and if he didn't know of a way, then the others would assume there was none. He was silent, contemplating the question. "There is one way that I can think of." The group leaned forward at his words. Kushina still looked like she was fighting to keep her hope at bay. Obito couldn't understand why, but she really wanted Naruto to be telling the truth. "It could be a space/time jutsu, like Minato's Hiraishin. Potentially, a seal could be made to not only transport someone from one spot to another, but to send them from one time to another. In all my research, such a seal has never been found."

"But that doesn't mean one won't be made." Kushina spoke up. Obito looked at her. She looked calmer than she had a few seconds ago, and from what he could tell, it was genuine. "It's possible to make the seal, so who says it isn't done in the future."

As logical as Kushina was being, Obito knew that wasn't it. "I don't think the seal came from the future. Naruto didn't know what send him here, so I don't think it could've been from his end. What if someone recently created this seal?"

The Sandaime nodded. "That is possible. With this ongoing war, seal makers are looking for anything that would give them an advantage."

"But why Naruto? Even if he can use fire jutsu as well as water, I'm sure there were others who are more powerful than Naruto." Kakashi said. For the moment, he seemed to have forgotten his bitterness, and was focusing on solving the problem at hand.

Obito let out a nervous laugh. "Did I forget to mention that Naruto is the Rokudaime Hokage?" The shocked looks confirmed the answer. "Um, yeah, well, it's true.

Rin shook her head. "That can't be true, he's still a teenager. Who would trust a teenager to lead a village?"

Obito shrugged. "I don't know, but it's true."

Before Kakashi could object, the Sandaime spoke again. "If everything you've told us is true, then that still leaves us with a problem." At Obito's questioning look, the Hokage continued. "What I'm about to tell you is an S-Rank mission, so you cannot repeat what I am about to tell you. A few weeks ago there was a spike in the balance of chakra in the earth. I've sent messages to all of the hidden villages, asking who was responsible for this, and the only village that has not responded is Iwa. We can assume that Naruto caused the spike in chakra, but it also seems that Iwa is the one that summoned him."

"Even if he was brought here by Iwa, that doesn't mean he knew that. He could still be in the dark about the reason why." Kushina defended him. It appeared that she had decided to fully believe Naruto. Good, he needed someone else in his corner.

"Then why did Naruto leave?" The Sandaime asked. Kushina didn't answer. "He either just found out the truth, or he's known all along. We've underestimated him and have no idea what secrets he may know, or what side of the war he is on." The Sandaime called three Anbu into the room. "I want you to head to Iwa and track down the missing-nin Naruto." The Anbu didn't ask questions, only bowed and left the room in a puff.

"Missing-nin? Naruto's not a missing-nin!" Obito objected.

Kakashi smirked. "He left the village against the Hokage's order without a word, and his objective is unclear. That makes him a missing-nin."

"Kakashi-kun is right. You can get back to your training now, but," the Sandaime looked each of them in the eye, "You are not to leave this village. You will not go after Naruto." With that, the Sandiame dismissed them. Kushina stayed behind, speaking hurriedly to the Hokage.

Outside of the building, the sky was already dark. Obito thought about heading to bed, but he was far from tired. He would only lie awake and worry for Naruto. Obito was halfway down the steps before he heard Kushina calling after him.

"Obito!" He stopped on the steps and waited for her to catch up to him. "You said that Naruto told you everything about him. Can you tell me?"

Obito hesitated. He had taken a risk inside to show that Naruto wasn't an enemy, and it had backfired. What would telling Kushina do? "Why do you want to know?"

Her eyes were shining when she answered. "He's my son. I can't explain why, but I want to know everything there is to know about him. Already I'm wishing I had spent more time with him during your training."

Obito nodded slowly. At least this would give him something to do. He had already started forming a plan to leave the village, though he knew he was being watched. Talking with Kushina would keep him from becoming overwhelmed with worry for Naruto.

They started back down the steps. "Well, Naruto didn't tell me everything about himself, but I do know that he was a prankster while in the Academy." Kushina hung on his every word as he recounted the story Naruto had told him about painting the monument.

oOoOo

Minato was perched on a tree branch, waiting for the last of the shinobi's to exit the base. It had been a long day. With nothing to do but remain hidden, the hours had passed by slowly. It was finally dark outside and he was relieved to be getting back to work. They would have to undue several of the seals he had done the night before, plus he wasn't sure they would remember the exact path they had traveled. The winding passages were confusing to those unfamiliar with them.

Seeing the last of the shinobi leave, Minato let a few minutes pass before he entered the clearing. He had a good memory when it came to seals, and was able to get past the first one easily. Once inside the building, he relaxed. He hated being out in the open when trying to sneak around. He felt like an easy target when enemies could spot him so easily. Especially in their own territory.

He could barely hear the Sannin behind him, but a quick glance showed that Jiraiya was still close to him. It wouldn't be smart for them to separate. Jiraiya knew a bit about seals, but he would never be able to work through all of the ones in the caverns. And definitely not at the speed Minato was working. The silence around them had unsettled Minato the night before, but now he was thankful for it. He trusted Jiraiya to watch his back, and the silence allowed him to concentrate more on the task at hand.

The further they got into the base, the harder the seals became to undue. If they knew where they were going, then getting past the seals would be easy. They would only have to know the seals that opened the doors the needed to pass through. Since they didn't know where the seal they were looking for was, they were having to open as many doors as they coul. One door often led to a hallway with two or more doors, increasing the difficulty of their task. A few times he forgot which doors they had already gone through and if they led nowhere. A handful of the seals seemed unfamiliar as well. Minato couldn't believe the intricacy of Iwa's base. He knew their base in Konoha was nowhere near as complex as this.

They came to a hallway with three doors branching off of it. Minato remembered the hall. Last night he had taken the door in the center and it had led them down countless hallways before finally dumping them at a dead end. The door on the left had been their next option, and that was where they were when they had to leave early in the morning. He knew what would await them for the first several passages on the left, so he took a chance and started working on the right door. The seals seemed repetitive, each one likening to the ones that Minato remembered being on the left.

After what felt like hours, the hallway in front of them widened into a circular clearing. Five doors lined the walls.

"Which door should we take?" Jiraiya whispered behind him. Minato knew that Jiraiya must be getting a little anxious. The further they went into the base, the more likely it felt that they would get caught. Minato went up to one of the doors, and looked over the seal. It was one they had come across already, and he quickly opened the door. Instead of a hallway like Minato had suspected, this one led into a small room. The room had to be no larger than ten by ten, and it had only a desk and chair in it. The desk had a stack of empty papers on it. This had to be where some of the seals were made. Minato pulled out the drawer in the desk and rifled through the papers. They were all blank.

He left the room and went back to the clearing. The next seal was also familiar, and the door led to a hallway. Jiraiya took a step toward the door before Minato stopped him. "Not yet." Jiraiya looked at him quizzically. Instead of explaining, Minato headed to the next door. The seal on this one was similar to the others, but not a copy. After a minute he was able to break the seal and open the door. Another empty room. Behind him, Jiraiya looked like he wanted to question his actions, but he remained silent.

Minato looked at the seal for one of the remaining doors and saw that it was different from the rest. Before he got started on it, he looked over the other door and confirmed it was similar to the others. He went back to the fourth door. "This one is more complicated than the others." A lot more complicated. Studying the seal, Minato knew it would take the remainder of the night to get into the room.

Jiraiya looked unsure. "This one could waste all of our time. Are you sure this is right?"

Minato nodded. "So far, the seals have started to repeat themselves, which leads me to believe the knowledge they are protecting isn't the most important. This seal is by far the most difficult one we've come across in the past two days. You don't put a seal like this in place if you aren't trying to protect something. I doubt more than three shinobi are able to get past this seal."

"And you're going to try to break it in a few hours?" Despite his choice of words, Jiraiya didn't doubt him. He only felt it necessary to point out there circumstances.

"None of the Iwa shinobi are stupid enough to try and break into one of their own rooms. I don't think any of them have ever snuck in at night to try and break through the seal." Minato had already started making out the lines of the seal. He had to pause when a line ran over another, adding to the complexity.

"And you're sure this is where our seal will be?" Jiraiya had to hear that Minato was confident before he let them waste so much time.

Minato looked up from the seal. "I fully expect the seal we're looking for to be in here, and even if it's not, there has to be some good secret hidden away, if there's this complicated seal in place."

Jiraiya smiled. "Then you better get to work. I'm going to be watching the tunnels entrance."

Minato turned back to the seal. It was hard enough with the many symbols in the middle, but the lines zigzagging over one another made the seal seem impossible. He had no idea what the base of the seal was, and until he understood that, the seal would remain in place. He closed his eyes and let out a deep breath before looked at the seal again. He would have to focus on one aspect of the seal at a time. Choosing to start with the middle symbol, Minato set to work. Slowly, he started to get more knowledge on the seal. Not only was it in place to keep the room locked, but it was also set up to act as a summons. If someone tampered with the seal incorrectly, a shinobi would be summoned to the spot. It made working on the seal tedious, since one mistake would give them away.

In the back of his mind he was aware of the time slipping by, but he chose to ignore the voice in his head telling him he was running out of time. He needed to focus on the seal and nothing else. Jiraiya was covering his back, and he trusted Jiraiya with his life. The seal was his only reality at that moment. An hour passed, then two, and still he kept working on the seal. When he had come across a seal that crossed lines twice, he had almost given up. It felt like he was unraveling one section, only to find that because of it, then next was even more tied up. He willed away the headache that was forming. Stopping for a break wasn't an option with the time they had left, so he took a deep breath and kept working.

When Jiraiya handed him a canteen of water, he took it without looking away. He handed the canteen back to Jiraiya and finished with another line. Only two more to go until he knew the seal entirely.

"The shinobi will be here in another thirty minutes." Jiraiya's warning startled Minato to the core. He knew the man was there, but it had been quiet for so long that the sudden noise had shocked him.

Minato took a second to look up from the seal. "I'm so close. I've been working on a counter for each problem I've come across. I should be done soon." Minato traced the line and looked at the one across from it. He nodded before moving on to the last line.

"I know you've almost got it, but we're going to be cutting it close. If we're caught now, there's no way we can get back in." Jiraiya reasoned.

"I know, but if I don't get this now, we would've wasted another day. We have no clue as to how long the world can remain out of balance before negative things start happening." Minato pulled a sheet of paper out of his pouch and began drawing. "It'll only take me twenty-thirty minutes to finish the seal. We'll get in and out before anyone makes it this far into the base."

"I hope you're right." Jiraiya looked over at Minato. Minato ignored him and kept at his drawing. True to his word, Minato finished the seal shortly after twenty minutes passed. Jiraiya looked proudly over at his student. "Let's see what's behind door number four."

Minato grinned and applied his counter seal on top of the original. He held his breath as he waited to see if he had made a mistake somewhere along the way. A second went by before the door clicked open. Minato pushed the door in and stepped into the room. Like the other rooms, this one was only decorated with a desk and chair, but unlike the others, the desk had several folders spread out on it. Minato walked over to the desk and picked up the first folder. Opening it, he saw a rough draft of a jutsu similar to his Hiraishin. He easily noticed the mistakes in the seal and put it back with a smirk. It would be a long time before they realized some of those mistakes. He and Jiraiya shuffled through the folder, taking what they thought to be dangerous. He had just opened a file about prolonging a lifespan, which Minato knew wouldn't work, when Jiraiya nudged him.

Minato read over the file in Jiraiya's hand. It looked like the formula to a space/time jutsu. The first one was incomplete, but there were several different drafts of it in the folder. The last one was complete and looked to focus more on time than space. "This looks to be it." Minato said. Jiraiya put the folder into his own weapons pouch. "We should finish looking through these before we leave. It wouldn't be wise to waste an opportunity to prevent our enemies from gaining some knowledge."

Minato picked up the one of the last folders on the desk. A loud boomechoed through the room, followed by the room shaking. Minato looked toward the door, half expecting to see shinobi rushing in. None where there and a quick fun into the clearing showed none on their way. "Grab the remained folders, and let's get out of here."

Jiraiya grabbed the folders, and took hold of Minato's arm. Within a second they were at the edge of the forest. From their vantage point in the trees, they could see a battle going on in the field. It looked like it was ten vs ten, but closer examination showed that the ten on one side all looked alike. Kage Bunshin. And the person using the Kage Bunshin was Naruto. Minato's heart dropped. What was Naruto doing here?

oOoOo

He had figured his journey had been going too smoothly. Why was it he could never get through one mission without something going wrong? It wasn't like he looked for trouble; it just naturally seemed to find him.

He had arrived in the middle of the night, but had chosen not to enter the base. He knew he still had a lot to learn about seals, and a quick search of the area showed him that Minato and Jiraiya were inside. He had been surprised at first, until he recalled their abrupt departure. The Sandaime must have known something was off, same as him. He had stayed in the trees, keeping watch over the entrance. Nothing had happened until the middle of the morning, when shinobi started showing up. He knew that Minato and Jiraiya would have trouble getting put undetected. The shinobi were stealthy, and could sneak up on them easily, especially if Minato was distracted.

So Naruto did what any good son would do. He caused a distraction so his father and godfather had a little more time. Hopefully they were able to find the right seal. He wasn't particularly enjoying having to fight ten strong shinobi while holding back so they don't know he's the one they summoned. It was quite draining and he was ready to get away. It would've been easy to kill them, but he didn't want Minato and Jiraiya to leave the base and find the dead bodies without an explanation. That would waste even more time. So he stalled. As soon as he had a sign that Minato and Jiraiya were out, he would use the Kyuubi's chakra to get out of there. It wouldn't matter if they knew then, he would be long gone.

An earth jutus used by one of the Iwa shinobi caused a landslide, resounding in a loud boom! the earth shook for a second. Naruto used that time to move to the back of his grouping of Kage Bunshin. Using a water jutsu would end things quickly. He could knock the shinobi unconscious without having to kill them. His arm was feeling better, so it could work. He started the hand signs, hoping the justu would work. Water rose up from the ground and formed a giant wave. Naruto pushed the wave forward, smiling that the jutus was working. Pain sliced through his arm and the wave came crashing down. He didn't have time to get frustrated that the jutsu had failed, before the pain started spreading. The pain had always stayed isolated to his arm, but it was now working its way over the rest of his body. His knees became weak, and he fell to the ground. His eyes started closing, his body trying to find relief in unconsciousness.

Through his cracked eyelids, Naruto could see a yellow flash moving about the battlefield. The number of Iwa shinobi kept increasing, but the yellow blur kept going. One by one the Iwa shinobi fell. Though his vision was blurry, Naruto could clearly see that Minato was angry. At what he couldn't even begin to guess. Minato's anger must've been fueling him on, for only a minute later the battle was over. Sleep was still trying to take over, and Naruto found himself failing to fight it. His body was still in pain, and he was still shaking. Unconsciousness sounded like the best thing in the world. Naruto saw Minato's sandals as he approached, but that was the last thing he saw. He closed his eyes and let the blackness envelope him.

Manic laughter rang through his head.

A/N: I'm sorry I took such a long time to update. I was planning on writing the chapter last week, but it ended up being a rough week. I was sick for almost an entire week, and to top that off, I got into a car accident. I've been working long hours to pay for the damage to my car. With this week being Spring Break, I don't get a day off, so I'm surprised I was able to get the chapter written.

I can't believe how fast this chapter got done once I actually sat down to write it. I usually write 1,000 words in an hour. Last night I wrote 3000 in two. The ending of the chapter was different and I didn't think it flowed well. It seemed a bit anti-climatic. AFter lying in bed and coming up with a better ending, I turned my laptop back on and changed the ending. Sadly, it was shortened by 300 words, but I think it was worth it for the better ending. This is going to easily transition into the next chapter, which should not take a month to update.

To explain how I picture the seal base: There are many hallways, each with several door off of them. The seals act like keys. In the same way only the specific key can unlock the door, only the right counter seal can unlock the door. I hope that prevents any confusion.

Lastly, I can't believe how many reviews I got for the previous chapter: 103! I was surprised when I got over thirty for one of the chapters, so this shocked me. It's just awesome. Thank you guys for reviewing, I appreciate it a lot.

Let me know how you liked or disliked this chapter.