Hey! Thank you for the reviews! It was brought to my notice that people may have difficulty regarding who is speaking, so i have placed extra attention in mentioning their names. If there are any other problems do communicate them to me! I will be happy to correct them! Also if you guys want me to have a discord channel, just tell me. Plus, you can also give me some ideas in case i suffer from writer's block (although my brother just laughs at me when i tell him, that little brat). Anyways, do tell me how you find this chapter. I will update next month most probably!

A/N: I present my first ever attempt at writing. It is not canon compliant and will be AU since I will be manipulating the timeline as i wish. English is not my first language. Constructive criticism is welcomed but don't be rude. I am writing for fun and hope you enjoy as well.

I don't own Naruto and never will.

"Emphasis"

characters thinking/a simple narration

AN IMPORTANT PART

"characters speaking"

If you have any confusion, feel free to ask.

Without further ado, let's continue. Enjoy.

CHAPTER 20: Overwhelmed

A smell of foxes and blood but also...

A scent of pleasant breeze and roaring fire with a hint of mischief (buried deep somewhere). Kakashi immediately looked around for the intruder with the smell so similar to Kushina-nee-san, except where there was autumn rain on an island surrounded by blue oceans, the intruder smelled like the breeze that blows through Konoha during the autumns of Hi no Kuni. (somewhat similar to Minato-sensei but he deeply buries that impossible notion because sensei had told him that he was the same as Kakashi - an orphan, with no living relative, all alone in the world before Kushina-nee-san came into his life, but that doesn't count because she is not related to him, not family)

Kakashi is not able to pinpoint the location through sensing chakra though; that must mean that either the intruder is suppressing their chakra or Kakashi's sensing skills are not up to par. He accepts inwardly that it may be a bit of both, because he is not that arrogant when it comes to assessment of his own skills. With Minato-Sensei running a bit late to the ridiculous D-rank mission that is assigned to them, it is in his hands to report anything unusual, because god knows that his loser teammates will only be a hindrance.

The silver haired boy sniffs the air once more and turns towards his teammates where a boy with orange goggles is making weird faces to a smiling toddler and the girl with purple triangles on her cheeks is sitting next to the toddler disgustingly giggling at that clown face as well. They are assigned a babysitting mission for the heir of the Uchiha clan due to Obito being the only Uchiha genin available right now. He sighs and prays for patience (that he knows he does not have). Kakashi can't understand what wrong he committed in his short life for getting such useless people as his teammates and then getting assigned such petty household chores as a mission. (he also cannot understand why his father chose not to love but to leave him behind). He sneers inwardly and shakes his head in annoyance.

"Inform Minato-sensei, if he arrives that I will be back in a few minutes" Kakashi announces and leaves in a body flicker, tracking the familiar yet unfamiliar smell, before his teammates have a chance to say anything. Now that he got closer he can make out the very faint smell of snakes and mint that he is sure is of Orochimaru-sama and not a second later the said man lands in front of the boy with the pleasant smell of autumn winds also following him.

"Hatake" Orochimaru says as a greeting and a question in a single word.

Kakashi is also on the same scale on genius so he understands in a millisecond what Orochimaru was trying to ask.

"Orochimaru-sama, I was with my team on a D-rank mission when I smelled an unusual scent and decided to track it" Kakashi answered the greeting and the unspoken question with ease.

"Oh?" Orochimaru raised one eyebrow, motion seemingly aristocratic and impossibly elegant, mostly implying for him to elaborate.

tilting his head like a dog, Kakashi answered like a perfect little soldier who defers to higher authorities -

"Yes. The one behind you" he pointed out while simultaneously answering Orochimaru-sama's unasked question.

...

Naruto had not expected to come face to face with yet another failure that had left a gaping whole in her heart. But now...now she can feel her heart which she hasn't in a long, long while and it feels as if the organ is pumping ice in her veins instead of blood.

Her dull blue meets his obsidian black, closed off and wary and everything shouts at her to flee.

The same dark eyes which had stared vacantly up at the sky. The same silver hair which had been smattered with dirt and blood. The same skin which had turned white and pallid and oh so so cold in death.

Naruto is living moment by moment, breath by breath. She could not look away; her mind would not obey when she told it to move, so she stands still, as frozen as a statue.

there's a little boy with striking silver hair so painfully similar to her sensei, the same sensei that took an attack for her, the very same that taught her to never leave a comrade behind, whose own father committed suicide after a mission gone wrong, who lost his teammate, and got an eye as a curse, whose teammate committed suicide by jumping in front of his jutsu, forever making him renowned as friend killer by the very comrades he had sworn to save.

Unbidden, helplessness and desperation fills her throat in a painful way as she remembers the Kyuubi's attack, and how her Kakashi sensei lost his entire family and chose to drown his emotions in ANBU, going back-to-back on suicidal missions and building a name for himself. she knows the choices that he will make; some good, some bad, and how he breaks again for losing other precious people (Genma, namishi, raido, Gai sens-) in the damn war which left her stranded in a time not her own. An attack unleashed by Kaguya, meant for Naruto was all it took for the self sacrificing idiot to come to a decision and jump in front of her. (maybe Naruto thinks, that it was not to save her but himself that made him jump in front of the attack, maybe he was relieved after all, his back facing her with his head to the side and looking at her and giving her the last one of his irritating eye smiles (precious oh so precious, and she misses him so much) as if saying - its okay, i am so sorry, be safe, i believe in you- and just like that falling backwards towards her-

And then, she sees a boy in the clothes she doesn't recognize, with a tanto strapped to his back. He doesn't show any emotion, but that's okay, because she knows she's feeling enough for the both of them.

Kakashi, Kakashi, just a boy, just a boy who keeps losing people and doesn't know how to stop it-

Kakashi.

Her eyes snap open and with a choked gasp, when a weight heavy enough to anchor her to reality is placed on her right shoulder, but it is only then that she realizes, she's unable to move...she wants to say something, when did she close her eyes? but-

"why do you smell like foxes?" Kakashi asked while crossing his arms over his chest.

if Naruto pretended hard enough, she could hear it from her own Kakashi's mouth, as if it was him who said those words. It made her chest ache.

She's screaming in her soul, wanting to cry, admit her guilty conscience, tell her Sensei of another time just how much it hurts to wake up and keep walking forward. But she won't. She can't. She's not supposed to be those kinds of things. She's the child of prophecy and she will not let her emotions drown her and annihilate the world again. (She's not allowed.)

Before she can open her mouth to reply,

"Oh you are that kind girl that-" (did not laugh and wished me luck in achieving my dream of becoming Hokage) he shuts his mouth when three pair of eyes swivel into his direction but frowns when he notices the girl flinch violently at his voice.

The girl looks at him with dark blue eyes, emotions running rampant, wild and oh shit she is seconds away from a panic attack, obito thinks and marches forwards towards the girl but immediately stops when she stumbles back a step in fear? as if he is some sort of rogue-nin coming to rob her and kill her. (oh the irony, future Obito would have snorted with his plans of robbing her off Kurama and killing her after the extraction)

"di you get owie?" A toddler (Itachi, her delirious mind hisses or maybe it is Kurama, she doesn't know) Big innocent black eyes peer up at her brimming with so much concern that she doesn't quite understand what is happening.

One moment she is with Orochimaru wanting to meet Itachi so she can see for herself that her Soul brother's family is safe-

and then she is standing in front of an acutely apathetic Mini-senseihearing and seeing things that are not there (and didn't the non-recognition and apathy hurt her like salt to her wounds). But things did not end there, she also saw a mini-Obito Uchiha running towards her with concern? (and wasn't that hilarious in and of itself, she thinks sarcastically) because she stumbled a step when she misjudged her distance and height at what it was supposed to be and surprise surprise, Orochimaru of the Sanin, traitor turn ally of the leaf caught her and her already downing mind would have succumbed to numbness if not for a toddler with eyes so pure and words so cute and actions so naive and looking similar to Sas- (that she finally yielded) and laughed.

Laughing and laughing with hysteria and bitterness so profound that her chakra and smell radiated her pain. Kakashi was forced to reevaluate his first opinion of the intruder who didn't smell like a stranger to Kakashi's nose, which was what was bothering him. His instincts have never steered him wrong but this stranger smelled so much like home and grief that it was unnerving. She knows loss like him (maybe even more), now he can clearly sense it and does not want to be in the same vicinity as her right now because it is bringing up his own bitter memories that he had so painstakingly buried deep (and maybe he doesn't want the child in front of him to go spiraling down a road which has no destination and is only surrounded by darkness which keeps pulling you down, down and down-) He takes a deep breath and-

"Control yourself." He blurts out and the child's mouth snaps shut in an instant as if she is used to obeying his orders and her dark, dark eyes (shining with unshed tears and a touch of insanity) turns to look at him. He was about to continue when-

"Brat" Orochimaru-sama comments and the girl flinches violently but he can't understand if it was because of the Sanin's hand that came down on her head or Minato sensei appearing after a flash of yellow.

TBC

Finalllyyyyyyyyyyy, we have Minato showing up in front of our protagonist. What are your thoughts? How will she react?

I have my exams coming up guys, so i am sorry to leave here guys! Do take care though! Ja ne!

Signing out

Yuki Race