"The Fourth Hokage!" Naruto exclaimed.
Natsu and Ichigo looked dumbfounded, but Minato just kept that kind look on his face.
"Wha'?" Ichigo said.
"What's a Hoe… ga…key" Natsu said having difficultly pronouncing it.
Naruto stood up and step toward the trio that were standing in a circle and said, "No, Ho-ka-ge, the legendary hero from my village that stopped the demo-" he stopped remembering that the beast was inside his stomach and felt a friendship toward it. He didn't like calling it a demon. "t-the fox-beast that attacked my village."
Both of them looked at Minato, still confused about what Naruto was talking about. Minato's face had a shy-nervous look on it. He started scratching the back of his head and said, "Hehehe," he laughed nervously, "I'm not the Hokage, I'm just a Jounin from the Leaf village."
Naruto studied him for a moment and said, "Hmm… nope, you're definitely the fourth."
" Uhh… Hehe, look, that doesn't matter right now, what matters is-"
"Wait," Naruto interrupted, "Why do you have memories of the leaf? I could hardly remember my own name!"
He got a serious look on his face. "To answer that question, I don't know, I've ran into many other people who were just running of raw instinct, I honestly can't say exactly why I have my memory," that serious expression transformed into a kind smile, "all I know is I have them."
Naruto looked puzzled; he couldn't explain why he felt like he could trust this man no matter what.
"I uhh..." Naruto turned his back to them and crossed his arms, it was against his better judgment to trust somebody so easily, but he felt some sort of connection, "w-well you saved our lives so that's good enough for me." He turned back around and returned the smile.
"Im glad," he said happily, "oh, I haven't introduced myself, I wouldn't want you calling me something that I'm not, (he's referring to Naruto calling him the fourth) my name is Minato Namikaze." He said.
Naruto couldn't explain why he was so happy to be around this stranger. "I'm Naruto Uzamaki."
Minato, though he did not show it, was surprised. He's heard the name Uzamaki; in fact, he knew that name all too well. It was the clan name of which his beloved bared. And for a second, he saw, his love in the boy. The long red hair which he thought was so beautiful, and that kind smile she always offered. At that moment, the surprise; this time, showed on his face.
Minato stared for a moment, puzzled, at what he saw, "Kushina…" he murmured under his breath.
"Hey, are you okay?" Naruto asked wearing a confused expression.
He shook it off and said in a kind voice, "Yeah, I'm okay. We should probably find a place that we can stay, and rest whenever need be," he said returning to seriousness, "and we're going to need to find more people to join us. I don't know how many people are here in this world, but I believe that it's safe to assume that there are many of them. If we're going to make that happen we're going to need a base of operations."
"Yeah, sounds like a plan," Ichigo joined in, "I think the best place to search would be to the east from here, there's a mountainous terrain there. We can probably find a cave or something like that there."
The rest thought about it for a moment and then nodded in agreement. After they made their way to that mountain area, they searched for a few hours but to their dismay, they didn't find any sort of shelter.
Naruto was extremely irritated at this point, "Ugh, we've been looking for hours and haven't been able to find anything."
"Patience Naruto," Minato exclaimed, "If we keep looking I'm sure-"
He was interrupted to Naruto summoning a shadow clone and forming a Rasengan. When Minato saw this, a look of surprise shot across his face, he was surprised that he was using a Justu that he had created and took so much work to master.
"Massive Rasengan!" Naruto cried as he slammed the Rasengan into the mountain, the moment it made contact, it grew 5 times bigger in size. He pushed with all his might as hole formed. After he was finished, there was smoke and dust everywhere. Once it cleared, there was a cave that was fairly deep, and good in size.
"Hehe, there's our cave," Naruto said with confident smile.
They all walked in and explored the cave. After a few minutes of settling in their new, temporary home, the group approached one another and began to discuss their next move.
"Alright, what's next?" Ichigo asked.
"For now we need supplies. Natsu and Ichigo, can you go back to the forest to get some more firewood?" Minato asked.
"We're on it!" They both left the cave to complete their task.
"And Naruto," Naruto glanced at Minato, "Can you go to the lake and…" Minato crouched down and threw his backpack off around his shoulder and set it in front of him. He unzipped it and pulled out two metal buckets. He stood back up and handed them both to Naruto, "go get some water in one bucket and see if you can't find some wild berries to put in this one," he gestured to both the buckets, "and scout the area as well to see what we're up against."
An irritated look became visible on Naruto's face, "Why do I have to do this much?" he asked irritably.
"Because you're able to use the shadow clone technique so you can perform these tasks all at once," Minato replied with a kind Smile.
The more Naruto thought about it, the more sense he made. He decided that he would take on the task.
"Right!" Naruto said confidently "I'll do it," he weaved the sigh and howled "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Two clouds of smoke appeared; one to the left and one to the right of him; the smoke immediately disappeared to reveal two exact copies of him.
"We'll be back," they all said in-sync and left the cave. Minato watched them all disappear out of the cave.
It had begun to get late and the sun was starting to set.
"You've pieced it together haven't you?" a voice came from the shadows of the back of the cave, but Minato didn't wince, in fact he wasn't surprised at all. Out from the shadow appeared a man with a black cloak with red clouds on it. "You know he's your son don't you?"
"Itachi," Minato said while turning around to face him, "How've you gathered any evidence on where that demon could be?"
"I have not, not yet," Itachi stated, "but you haven't answered my question."
Minato let out a sigh and said, "Yes, I know who he is, but last I saw him he was in Kushina's womb. What this shows though is that the demon is able to pull the people regardless of time. He could've summoned anyone to this world. But it doesn't explain why I have my memories and everyone else I've meant has lost theirs."
"I don't know either, but I believe that Naruto is going to be a key character in the plot that is about to unfold."
Naruto was jumping tree from tree looking for some sort of source of water. The sun had already gone down and the moonlight was shining down on this world.
"Damn, I should've remembered that I have no idea where water is-"
He looked over and found a small pond. He hopped down from the tree and walked over to the pond. Excitement washed over him as his unknown destination had finally been reached. He crouched down and scooped up water in the bucket.
"Alright," he said excitedly, turning away from the pond, "now let's get back and-"
Simultaneously, Naruto felt his shadow clones destroyed. Then in front of him; a blinding white light appeared. He tried his best to cover his eyes but could not fully stop the light from burning. Then, it was gone. When Naruto opened his eyes and looked at that spot, a beautiful blond woman with blue eyes and a white gown going down to her ankles. Naruto blushed, wow, Naruto thought, she's really pretty. Then, he remembered that she came out of nowhere and he should be feeling threatened. He took a battle stance and got ready for anything.
"Who are you?" he said in a aggressive tone.
She offered a kind smile and Naruto seemed hypnotized for a moment and eased up, but once again remembered that he should be feeling threatened and tensed up again.
"I asked you a question," he stated again.
She closed her eyes and looked up toward the sky. Light started to radiated off her body and Naruto was once again paralyzed by her beauty, but then, a look of pure and utter shock ran across his face as two white wings, radiated in light, sprouted from her back, and Naruto knew that she was the same as that demon.
(Hey there everybody! SharinganShinigami here! Thanks for the continued support to those who have read the story so far. If you liked it, would you be as kind as to favorite and follow and leave a review. If not, tell me what I did wrong and what you didn't like so I can fix it in the future. I really appreciate it. Thank you!)