He didn't know how to react, not really. Not only had two Konoha shinobi from the future entered the village, they also happened to be his students. Only, they were older than him now.

It was a strange thought. Minato knew that his students would grow up one day, but not this quickly. He was too used to the idea of Kakashi as a short-tempered midget and Obito as a chronically late loudmouth that seeing them as different was just... strange. Who were these people claiming to his beloved students?

He knew that time brought change. But was it possible that time could change this much? Kakashi and Obito's deep-rooted animosity had turned into playful bantering and apparently, something even deeper than that.

(Yeah, he didn't want to think about that right now.)

And that was when he spotted the tuft of silver hair, there in the middle of the marketplace. He raised an eyebrow. Kakashi? Here?

Yet when the man turned around to meet his gaze, he couldn't help but think, Sakumo?

He couldn't ignore the resemblance. While Kakashi had always bore a great likeness to his father, his older counterpart... could have been his twin. Minato couldn't see his face due to the mask (and wow, Kakashi was still wearing it.) but he had a feeling that it would look almost exactly like that of Sakumo Hatake's.

And judging from the reactions of the civilians, they weren't blind to the resemblance either. They shot each other looks of shock - isn't he supposed to be dead? I heard he killed himself! - and chattered among themselves, but none dared to confront the man directly. Just as well, Minato thought to himself. He sure didn't want to explain this mess to anyone.

"Morning, Minato-sensei," Kakashi - and wow, did it feel strange thinking of him as such - called out to him, threading his way through the crowd with practiced ease.

His grin tightened a bit. "Ah... I'm not your sensei anymore, am I?"

The other man closed his eye - what happened to his other eye? - into a wry eye smile. "You'll always be my sensei, Minato-sensei."

Minato looked at the stranger who was his student. He felt suddenly desperate. "What happened, Kakashi?" How did his little Kakashi-kun become him? The boy he remembered was closed-off, serious, and coldly arrogant. Which wasn't bad - that was just the kind of person Kakashi was, especially after Sakumo's suicide, all those years ago. But this older Kakashi was just so laid back; it seemed as if life as a whole was a joke to him. How could a person change so much?

He didn't say any of that out loud, but he could see that Kakashi understood his meaning as clearly as if he did.

"...Life happened, Sensei," said Kakashi at last. "People died. I realized that I had to change in order to protect my precious people. I've learned a lot. I'm not the kid you remember, Minato-sensei."

A sudden cold shiver went down his spine. People died, Kakashi had said. Which wasn't strange - shinobi died, that was a fact. But the way he said it...

"Who?" He asked, horrible images flashing through his head. "Who died?" Sensei? Kushina? His heart twisted. No, it was someone much closer to Kakashi than either of those. And...

...Neither Kakashi nor Obito had said anything about Rin, had they?

But Kakashi was shaking his head. "I... can't tell you, Minato-sensei." He paused at Minato's disbelieving expression. "If you know, you might change the timeline in ways we can't predict. Anyone can die. We have to let time play out until the crucial moment. But I promise you. That's not going to happen. Not again."

There was a hard look in his eye, and Minato knew that he meant it. Despite his reservations, he felt him trusting the man. And really, why shouldn't he? He was Kakashi, his student - and even though he had changed so much, Minato knew that he was still the boy he knew, deep down.

"Alright," he said, and put a false, cheery expression on his face. "...So, Kakashi-kun. What are you doing here?"

"Maa, the usual, you know," Kakashi replied, equally cheerfully. "Mikoto-san invited Obito and I over for dinner tonight. I figured it would be bad manners to go over without a gift, you know? What do you think?"

He held up a potted plant. Minato stared.

"It's very leafy," he said at last. Then, very dubiously, "a potted plant? Why?"

"It's called Mr. Ukki," Kakashi replied, seemingly oblivious.

Minato quirked an eyebrow. "Are you always in the habit of naming potted plants?"

"Ah, but Mr. Ukki is special!" The other man exclaimed, "One of my students gave me a potted plant just like this in the future. It was also called Mr. Ukki. Mr. Ukki is very cheery, you see. After a hard mission, Mr. Ukki always cheers me up."

...Kakashi had a student? He filed the information away for later questioning. "But... why a potted plant?" He asked.

"I think Mr. Ukki would look very good in their living room," the other man continued, utterly seriously. "What do you think?"

It was actually pretty good-looking for a house plant. Minato couldn't help but admire it for a bit. Maybe Kushina would like a houseplant. "I think Mikoto-kun will love it," he said, completely honestly. Mikoto had always liked weird things. A potted plant named Mr. Ukki wouldn't be out of place in her collection.

Kakashi beamed.

Kakashi scowled. "Cheer up, Kakashi!" Said Rin, before flinging another kunai at the red target. "At least come train with us instead of just sitting there by yourself."

"...That's easy for you to say." Rin didn't have an older version of themselves running around the village and ruining their reputation, after all.

"What, because an older me didn't appear in the village? Come on, it's not like older you is that bad!"

"I agree," chimed in Obito. "He's better than you, anyways."

"Hn. Likewise."

Silence. "Wait," said Obito, "are you saying that you think older me is better than me?"

"Yes, I did. Unless even that is too hard for you to comprehend..."

He actually meant it. Older Obito, who, while seemingly prone to dressing in strange clothing and inexplicable outbursts, also turned out to be an accomplished shinobi was a great improvement over his teammate, who was a crybaby and a weakling. In fact, he held him in higher regard than he did his own future counterpart. It seemed to him that the older Obito might have actually - he scowled - surpassed himself in the future.

Hn. Well, he wouldn't make the same mistakes his older self did, that was for sure.

"Why, you -"

"Boys, calm down," said Minato-sensei, materializing from behind him. "You have a mission in less than a week, remember? This time is better training to fight the enemy than fighting among yourselves." His face was tense. What happened? "This mission is crucial to the well being of this village and has the potential to be very dangerous as well."

"Eh? What's wrong, Sensei? You said this mission was the same rank as the ones we've been doing!" Obito pointed out.

"Well, yes, but..." Sensei paused. "Just... be extra careful this mission, alright? Call it a gut feeling."

"...Is this because of them?" Kakashi asked.

"Yes. No. Well, no," Sensei said unconvincingly. "I'm just worried, that's all."

Team Minato exchanged looks. ...Yeah, sure he was. They were young, not dumb.

"Hey Sensei," said Obito suddenly, "do you know where older me and older Kakashi are staying?"

"The Uchiha compound, I believe," Minato-sensei replied, squinting slightly. "But I know they're having dinner at the Clan Head's house tonight. Why?"

"Oh nothing," the boy said. His face turned grim. "...I just have to take care of something, that's all."

"I still have no idea why you bought a potted plant," said Obito. "Seriously? A potted plant?" He eyed said plant balefully.

"Like you had a better idea."

"Well, no, but - a plant. Really. It's not even colorful or flowery or anything. It's just a green plant."

"What do you have against plants, Obito? I thought the majority of your army was plants."

Obito scowled. "Zetsu wasn't just a plant. He was my friend. At least, when he wasn't manipulating me to follow in Madara's footsteps. Anyways, I don't have anything against plants. I just think they're a horrible idea for a present when we're trying to make them like us enough to not make our lives hell."

Kakashi gave him a look. "Let Mr. Ukki into your heart, Obito. Mr. Ukki can be your friend, just like he is mine." It was all said in a tone of utter seriousness.

"Oh, fuck off." He rolled his eyes. "...Are you going to knock, or am I?"

"My hands are full. Unless you want to risk the death of Mr. Ukki, I'm afraid you're going to have to knock."

"As much as I want that..." Obito rapped on the door. "I don't want to be the one to explain to Mikoto-kun why there's a pile of potting soil and pottery shards on her doorstep."

The door opened. A pair of very large, wide eyes regarded Obito and Kakashi calmly.

"Is it true that you're Obito-nii?" Uchiha Itachi, age three, stood in the doorway. "You don't look like him."

Obito froze. Then, slowly, he kneeled. "Hey, Itachi-chan. It's me. I'm just older." His face looked pained. Understandable, seeing how Obito had used the older Itachi in many of his manipulations. He had seen the boy grow up and die, knowing that he had a huge part in his fate. It hadn't mattered to him then - he had the Moon Eye's Plan, then - but it did matter to him now.

"...You don't have goggles," the boy said petulantly. "Obito-nii always wears goggles."

"They broke when I was on a mission," he explained, leaving out just how exactly they had been broken. He had a feeling that Itachi wouldn't take well to that. "Where are your parents?"

"They're inside," Itachi replied. "I'll get them." But before he scurried away into the inside of the house, he turned back. "Obito-nii, you're really different."

"Well," said Kakashi after the boy had ran off. "That's something we haven't heard before."