A/N: Hey, guys! This chapter got to you a little bit later than I intended, but I did finish it of course, so I guess that's okay.

--Anyway, I probably should have pointed this out sooner, but I didn't and my dense self only just came to the realization that a few people may be confused about the way I've written a few things, so here's list of sorts to help:

•Italics ~ Sections/parts of chapters that are written in full italics are flashbacks/memories. (Mirai is referred to as Naruto in these memories, since she'd yet to change her name.) Now, if a sentence or paragraph is italicized in the present time, and is contained within parenthesis, this is either a flashback or a deep thought - usually one that's made by the character subconsciously and/or the character is reluctant to acknowledge it. (Minato is prone to these deeper thoughts, whereas Mirai is usually the one with the flashbacks.)

• flashbacks ~ they are not in chronological order -- at least, not all of them are. In certain chapters (such as this one) longer ones will be separated into shorter parts. They're scattered, some are short and blunt, and others are more detailed in certain ways. I'm trying to write them like this so that they... reflect her mental state in that time - though I'm not really sure how is working out, sooo feedback is appreciated!

Anyway, I'm sorry I keep burdening you guys with long A/Ns. I just thought that some of you might need help, since I can be a confusing writer at times.

If you have any questions at all, dont be afraid to pm me or ask in the review section! I'm completely fine with answering even the most random things :)

Now, shoo. Go on and read the chapter. This one may not be particularly eventful, but trust me, shit's going to hit the fan in ways you don't even know!

Naruto had bolted up before Sasuke came within a close enough distance to shake her awake, her body and senses alike too alert to allow herself to slip into a deep sleep. War had been going on for what seemed like an eternity. No longer could she rest uninterrupted while any other being moved nearby, living or otherwise.

("Paranoia," the medic had told her, blunt and apathetic. "It's common during times of war."

'It's common sense,' her mind had whispered in response, something feral and defensive growling harshly beneath the soft tone of its exterior. 'Vigilence and caution. One would be a absolute fool to ignore their instincts.)

"There's something out there," he muttered, sharingan glowing strangely in the dim light of the cave as he crouched by her side. She heaved herself onto her feet, coughing harshly when her broken ribs grated agonizingly against her lung. Each cough rattled her chest roughly, blood dribbling from her chin, and she cursed, forming a thousand scenarios in her mind about the many ways in which she'd love to murder Kaguya.

That little shit screwed up her sensory radius.

Sasuke frowned at her, a stubborn, reluctant sort of worry pooling in his chakra. "Shouldn't you have healed by now?"

"Kurama's tired," she sighed, voice hoarse from screaming, and shook her head. "He's been feeding me shitloads of chakra non-stop for weeks. My pathways are strained as it is; any more and they might be damaged for good--"

Another fit of hoarse coughs escaped her, and her eyes stung with pain. "Who's out there, Sasuke?"

His sharingan blinked slowly, trailing a chakra form that she couldn't see.'Or feel,'she thought bitterly. She had the Rabbit Goddess to thank for that.

A grimace befell Sasuke's pale and ashy features. "Something, Naruto. It's... it's not a person."

"...Not a person? Is it a tailed beast? I would've felt it by now, even with my senses as messed up as they are--"

She cut herself off. There. A small blip of chakra poked at her weakened senses, barely grazing the edges. It was familiar in a way that brought a delirous smile to her features, eyes glossy with joy, and Sasuke's previous words abandoned her mind instantly. "It's Hinata!"

Sasuke roughly pulled her back before she had the chance to bolt from the confines of the dirty cave, and the look that he sent her, grave and doubtful, sent a chill down her spine. He stared at her for a moment, a line forming between his brows, and his mouth pulled down at the corners as if he was trying to figure something out.

"Naruto."

She tilted her head, glaring at him in confusion, "What's wrong, Sasuke? Hinata's out there! We have to make sure she's-"

"Hinata is dead."

At that, her world stilled, mouth dropping open in shock, and she remembered. She remembered, clearly, because (Oh Kami, how could she forget?) she was there. Hinata was there, and then she was gone, blowing away as a swirling pile of grey and black ash in a matter of seconds.

Naruto wasn't able to do anything but scream and yell in rage. (Angry, she was so, so angry. She hated everything. She hated everyone. She hated them, she hated them).

"Oh," was all that she could say, and Sasuke placed a firm hand on her shoulder. His eyes searched her face, as if making sure she truly comprehended his words, before his eyes snapped to the mouth of the cave, lips opening once more.

Urgency and wariness colored his tone, and the unfamiliar expression that crossed his normally apathetic features forced her from her stupor.

"It's coming."

"I don't know if I should be angry or impressed," Minato huffed, running a hand through his spiky locks and grimacing at the sticky, orange frosting that stuck to his hand following the action. He hadn't managed to succeed in removing all of it, it seemed. "But I think I'll settle on the former."

He frowned at his newest student, (who, despite his efforts to figure her out, seemed to just get increasingly confusing as a person), and her onyx-eyed partner-in-crime admonishingly. "Well? Care to tell me why you decided to bomb T and I the way you did?"

Neither of the two responded, and somehow, Minato had the gut feeling that the boy, ("Shisui," Mirai had informed him, rudely jerking her thumb at the boy in question, "He's a cool dude, unlike that closet pervert you call your student."), was not a willing participant, but he refused to release either of them until he had answers.

The Uchiha seemed entirely confused, though a bit sheepish at having been caught with the main culprit, and he simply sat in his place with a nervous and awkward smile on his features. Mirai, on the other hand, had snapped to attention when he had asked the question, and she looked at him with some twisted form of horror present on her features.

It didn't take long for Minato to realize why, because the moment his eyes met hers, her body went ridged and her attitude completely shut down.

'She forgot who she was talking to,' he realized, and his mouth formed a grim line. 'She got caught up in the moment and didn't realize that she was actually talking to me-- or the Yellow Flash... that's all that she sees me as, isn't it?'

His heart sank that much further when her silent rejection of him truly sank in, and the girl crossed her arms petulantly as she glared fiercely at the ground, refusing to bring her eyes any higher.

'This kid.'

The blonde ran a hand down his face with a sigh, turning his thoughts back to the matter at hand. It was a bit unnerving - the fact that such a tiny child had managed to wiggle a bomb into one of Konoha's main shinobi centers.

When the explosive had first been set off, Minato had been one of the furthest from it. Because of that, he hadn't been much affected, and with his clear mind, he had managed to grasp from the many frazzled chuunins rather incoherent blubberings that the explosive was apparently hidden in a cake.

A cake giften to them by an innocent, sweet little blue-eyed blonde girl.

That tidbit of information had almost given him a heart attack.

Though the explosive itself was relatively harmless, it brought to light a huge flaw in the general defenses of the T and I center, (and subsequently exposed the rather inadequate cognitive functioning of a certain chuunin), which he supposed was a good thing--

'No. No, really, I shouldn't even go there,' he scolded himself mentally for a moment, because what the girl had done was definitely not something to condone, no matter how helpful it may have been.

It worried him, really. (A lot of things had been worrying him lately, for that matter.) Because now Mirai had gone and made herself even more confusing and interesting, and he wasn't sure if he could go any longer without satisfying his curiosity.

She'd smuggled a hidden bomb into T and I.

She had smuggled a fūinjutsu explosive into the Torture and Interrogation Center.

And, Minato had concluded after a brief inspection of the remnants of the explosion, that it was a steel-activated fūinjutsu explosive.

A five year old girl had single handedly managed to sneak a steel-activated fūinjutsu explosive into what was supposed to be one of Konohagakure's most protected facilities.

Holy shit.

He ran a hand through his golden locks once again, the action compelled by equal parts frustration and amazement.

Just who was this girl?

Outside the rampant thoughts of his own mind, there was silence alone, thick and tense, only broken by the gentle, even breeze. Minato forced himself from his stupor.

"Shisui-kun," the boy's dark eyes nervously met his, and Minato jerked his head lightly to the right as a sign that he was free to go. "I'll talk with you later," he said lowly, for the boy's ears only, and the Uchiha nodded uncertainly, departing in a silent shunshin.

"Are you kidding me!?," Mirai whipped her head up, gaping in disbelief and seemingly once again forgetful of who she was speaking to, "You dont even know what happened! He could be just as much at fault as I am!"

She fisted her hands defensively at the apparent injustice, and Minato silently wondered why she was so scared of being treated unfairly.

"You misjudge my intentions," Minato's eyes locked with the girl's, cold and hard, and she flinched at the sheer disappointment swimming in his blue gaze. "Shisui will receive his due punishment - one that corresponds with just how involved he was. I give everyone I know the respect they deserve and I treat them equally, Mirai-chan."

He knew his tone had been harsh, but if there was something about himself that he knew for a fact - it was that unjust treatment was something he would never, ever turn a blind eye to, and the insinuation that he would treat anybody in such a way was something that made him raise his own defenses.

She gave a jerky nod, shoulders tensing at his words, and her hung her head low, long blonde locks obscuring her face from his view as her tiny fingers dug deeply into the soil she sat upon. She looked vulnerable, like someone who had hidden behind a wall of strength for far too long, and that wall had come tumbling down, crashing into nothing but dust and leaving only her, exposed and defenseless.

'But she is far from defenseless', a voice whispered in the recesses of Minato's mind, words as slick and as sharp as a snakes. 'Wounded and broken, but not defenseless.'

The voice was right, he had to admit to himself. It is the cornered animals who are known to be those who fight harder and fiercer and more desperately than any other. It is the cornered animals that are the most dangerous.

Her small form, thin and guarded, somehow brushed the dust from an old memory of his - one not forgotten, yet one he had not thought back to in what felt like years - and for a fleeting moment, Mirai seemed the slightest bit older. She was taller, her features rounder and slimmer--

And her hair was red, burning brightly despite the dark of the night. Even under the thick canopy of leaves it burned in glowing crimson flames. Her eyes were a stunning violet, holding fear and determination and newfound admiration. Newfound love.

Kushina.

Gone. The moment the image had seared itself into his mind, the illusion dissapeared like a ghost, flames of burning red and violet simmering to bright and glowing gold and blue.

And her features were sharper, yet still holding that same softness that screamed his wife's name. Uzumaki.

Could she really be...?

The thought vanished, though, as he further studied her features. Mirai's eyes were narrower than Kushina's, lashes a dark blonde, thick and elongated and framing a endless sea of blue. Deep blue, in so many shades and holding so much emotion back - so much knowledge. Her nose was sharper, and her skin was tan, golden instead of Kushina's pale rose complexion.

Minato sucked in a breath, unable to stop the action despite all his years as a shinobi, because--

Because in her, he saw not only Kushina, but himself. In her, he saw the undying love of the Uzumaki and the horrid pain of one who had been through worse than war. In her, he saw Jiraiya and Tsunade, Obito and Kakashi--

Kushina. Himself.

The resemblance she had to the both of them was uncanny, and that was both confusing and disturbing--

She stood up, breaking him from his thoughts, and his eyes widened in surprise as she crossed her arms self-consciously, her blue eyes flitting nervously to avoid his gaze.

"I get it," her voice broke, barely reaching a whisper. She winced at her tone and cleared her throat roughly, repeating her words with more confidence. "I get it, okay? I'm sorry. I won't do it again, just please stop... stop glaring at me like that."

Her tone lost its forced confidence and she trailed off, her small arms tightening painfully around eachother. Minato suppressed a guilty wince; he hadn't noticed he was glaring. Her resemblance to Kushina had caught him so off guard his mind had pretty much gone into overdrive trying to process the amount of similarities Mirai's features had with his wife. (And himself. She looked so much like him. He was an orphan. He didn't have family aside from Kushina, so why did she look so much like them both--?)

He banished his thoughts away, and smiling apologetically, he patted her head gently. "Sorry, Mirai-chan. I didn't mean it."

She looked up at him confusedly, blue doe eyes glimmering with a mixture of fear and confusion as she debated on whether she should believe his words.

Minato blinked at her, fully taking in her features from this angle... and then reached down and pinched her chubby cheeks.

She blinked, too stunned for a moment to do anything else until she fully processed what he'd just done - until her cheeks promptly flared into a beautiful red that rivalled Kushina's hair. She stuttered out a few incoherent sentences, clapping her pudgy hands over had face in an attempt the hide her flaming red blush.

Gods, this kid was too cute for her own good.

Minato grinned, eyes glimmering with mischief. He truly had the cutest chuunin of all, and he didn't mind keeping her one bit, no matter how troublesome she may be.

Smiling to himself, he dumped his thoughts and suspicions to the deepest recesses of his mind. The Hokage trusted her enough to help fight for their cause, and she was only a child, one who needed every bit of care she could get. If not-so-harmless pranks came with the bundle that was Mirai, he would just have to deal with it as patiently as he could.

(But she looked so much like Kushina... So much like him.)

"It's coming."

Sasuke words hung heavily in the Naruto's heart. No wind or noise other than their own breathing broke the still atmosphere, their warm breath visible as it puffed into the frigid air. The pair crouched lowly behind the rocky outcrop of the cave's mouth, waiting silently for the enemy to appear.

Hinata. That was Hinata's chakra, Naruto could feel it. Their was no mistaking the feel of one's chakra signature, and Hinata's was one that reminded her of lavender and honey, of warmth and happiness - as if she was cuddled up by a blazing fire, slowly sipping a calming tea as it snowed lazily outside.

But Hinata was dead, and accompanying the chakra signature that Naruto knew without a doubt was the Hyuuga's, was something sickly. It curled around the joyful lavender and warm honey like a disease, suppressing it and clouding it with something that grated against her damaged senses like a black sludge and rock, slimy and rough.

She traced the signature as well as she could with the damage done to her system, and the task had luckily begun to get progressively easier as it moved closer.

Her breath caught and she clapped a hand over her mouth as she felt bile rise in her throat.

Disgusting.

That was not Hinata.

It... it looked like Hinata. It had her face, but even her features were damaged beyond repair, barely discernible beneath heavy layers of ash and blackened slime. The slime acted as a glue, mixing with the ash to form a sickly gray paste that held its body together. Gooey black dripped from its mouth, from its eyes and nose, and its head was tilted back at an odd angle - as if the thing didnt have the muscles to hold it up. From that awkward, unnatural angle, it stared, eyes straining to meet with hers. They were white, not the white of the Byakugan, but a white that was tinted a pale, gross yellow, glazed with death. Soulless.

So disgusting. Not Hinata.

Naruto stared in horror. It was weak. It was so, so weak. It wasn't meant for fighting. It wasn't meant to do damage - not even to attempt an assassination while they were asleep. Its decaying limbs struggled to hold themselves, legs being crushed under its own weight because they were too soft - too rotten.

This was a walking corpse. Hinata's body had collapsed into ash, and Kaguya had built it up again.

As a mockery. Naruto couldn't save her closest friends, how could she save the world?

As a message. Hinata was one of the first, but Naruto would be next - reduced to a mindless, soulless zombie that had no purpose other than to warn the last of the human race that there was no such thing ashope.

Kaguya was taunting her. Telling Naruto that she was too weak. She was going to lose. She was going to let everybody down. Her parents, her teachers, her comrades, her village.

Herself.

"Na..."

It spoke. Its mouth moved slowly, choked rasps escaped its cracked and bleeding lips, blood and slime bubbling out as it struggled to form words. It sounded inhuman, its voice more of a muted, soundless scream. Almost as if it had lost its ability to truly speak. (Because it had. Hinata wasn't in there, and Hinata no longer spoke.)

"Na-ru-to... I... tr-... ust... you."

Naruto threw herself to the side and vomited, hands and knees digging painfully into the rocks. Her broken ribs rattled and scraped against her lungs, serving to further her violent, choked heaving and cause strings of dark blood to color her bile. Her back warmed slightly, blocked from the frigid air as Sasuke wrapped his arms around her, gently pulling her hair back from her face.

How dare she make a corpse speak the last words of one who lived.

"That bitch," she roughly swallowed the acid that burned her throat and the hopeless sob that threatened to escape her, "I'm going to kill her."

Hinata was the first walking corpse, but she certainly wasn't the last.

Belonging to a Team Seven that didn't include Sasuke and Sakura was too strange. Mirai was already in a different dimension now - one that she'd pretty much created with her own hands by separating if from the river of Time - so one would think nothing could make her feel more out of place.

Apparently, one would be wrong.

There was a total of three Team Sevens Before, but now she'd been inserted into the second instead of the third, twenty years into the past, in the body of a fricking toddler - and without two of her closest friends.

Kakashi was alive, but it wasn't Kakashi-sensei, so any sort of personal feelings she had for him were nonexistent in this stubborn, stupid little boy's eyes.

This one was a total asshole, but that she'd expected, since Kaka-sensei had warned her and apologized in advance. Regardless, Kakashi was still Kakashi, even if it wasn't her Kakashi, and he didn't deserve the horrible things he went through, so she would change that.

Sighing, Mirai secured her kunai pouch to her thigh and wrapped black bandages over the entirety of her right arm, and effectively hiding her seals from sight. Nobody but Minato knew they were there, and she intended on keeping it that way. Specialty seals were a rarity in these times, and any sort of fūinjutsu seal that was activated on a person's skin was something that would surely attract attention.

As of now, attention wasn't something she needed. She had gained some from the village already. The chuunin were rather suspicious, and any mention or sighting of a blonde, blue-eyed little girl they'd jump on like chimpanzees to a banana. T and I? Well they're suspicious of everybody, but Mirai honestly suspected that Hiruzen had shut down any questions concerning her person, considering they definitely would have been hounding her about her little stunt by now.

In hindsight, it was rather stupid of her. Once again, she'd jumped in and didn't think anything through and now she was receiving the consequences.

She didn't regret it though. Their reactions were priceless and totally worth it. Besides, it's not like anyone was going to figure out that she was from the future without inside information, which of course was something they'd never get. Her actions were eye-catching, but only within the walls of the village, and most of the future-changing work that she'd be doing would be either undercover or with her team.

They might be watching Mirai, but they wouldn't know the face of the person behind a mask.

She had a mask, and she had a plan.

Mirai sighed dramatically. She also had training with her new team in two minutes, and she was late.