Fading Away

Disclaimer: I was born on the same year as this manga's publication.

No one in his right mind would say Naruto was a patient boy. But he was more stubborn than he was impatient. This led him to his studying the art of sealing, trying to prove them wrong. Even idiots could master it if they tried enough, he shouted to Tsunade-baachan's face. And with that determination, after the end of Fourth Secret Shinobi War, Naruto began his research on this subject. It was thousand times harder without the aid of a sealing master but Naruto wasn't Naruto if he backed up from a challenge.

And that was why, these months no one had seen hide nor hair of his. He had sealed a year amount of instant ramen cups into a scroll, went into the restricted area of library of Konoha, and succumbed himself into his attempt to invent a new jutsu.

He clutched the brush in his fingers. Ever so graceful, he guided it, danced across the surface. The tip swayed right, left, up, left, down, right. Shrek, shrek each stroke so wickedly precise Naruto couldn't afford making any mistake. A mistake could mean a life lost. Or worst, destruction of the physical body of the user that was too censored to the ear of kids.

A wide grin broke on his face as he applied the last stroke. Naruto's posture leant closer, azure eyes narrowed as he assessed his masterpiece. His fingers tingled across the result of months' sleepless night and blood and sweat. Perfect.

He leapt up from his chair, ignoring the thudding sound of abused chair. Hell, even if the hell broke loose now he couldn't care less. He danced around the room, almost knocked a cup of rotten ramen onto his work of genius. The wood creaked mournfully beneath his body weight, too loud for ninja's standard. But devil might give a damn. His grin widened, as if it was possible. Fingers halted at exact places. He sent a pulse of chakra to them experimentally. Blue chakra flared to life. The seal glowed a blinding light, engulfing the whole of Naruto.

'Crap' was his only thought. And the world succumbed to darkness.

He groaned painfully as he opened his eyelids, flinching at the blinding light. Heaving to sitting position, Naruto blinked rapidly. His whole body aching, his lung was on fire courtesy to the chilly air. His azure eyes darted around. And what he saw puzzled him even more.

Rock, rock, rock, and rock. A never ending sight of rocks met his eyes. 'Iwa', his mind quickly supplied the word.

The ground was too bone shattering, in his humble opinion. His fingers scrubbed the humid ground as a proof he wasn't dreaming. And that, unfortunately yes, it was real. He was just resided by the side of a curvaceous mammoth-sized stone, straw-colored. To someone like he, who had spent whole his life a midst the evergreen Fire Country, the scenery was an eyesore. And very damn boring. Aside the lack of aesthetic value of Iwa…

A whistle of wind caught his attention. He dodged a kunai straight to his spine with ease, wondering who would assault him. Iwa nin? impossible. Last time he checked, Konoha and Iwa were in a ceasefire for a decade. But this was Iwa. Missing-nin? probably, if they were desperate enough. "Who are you?" a harsh voice assaulted his hearing. Not really surprised, from his peripheral vision he eyed the Iwa nin bored. How could someone of Jounin rank didn't recognize a would-be kage? A kage from one of the big five countries, nonetheless.

"Well…" he turned to get a better a view of the uninvited guests. A bald, sturdy-looking man with funny moustache and Iwa head band strapped on his upper arm, a slender brunette kunoichi without remarkable features except exceptionally huge breasts, and an insecure looking, thin redhead man. The later darted his eyes around occasionally, as if expecting being attacked every single damn second.

At the sight of the blond, the baldy gaped like a sushi fish, slanted grey eyes bulged to the size of a plate."K… Konoha's Yellow Flash! Report to Tsuchikage, idiot! Run!" what? He could fathom no one would be welcoming to an S-rank shinobi running around his or her country. But…

They were about to shunshin away he created some bunshin. The bunshin caught their wrist, effectively aborted their departing. Even the idiot knew, assaulting shinobi from allied country in their own territory was asking for wars. But we're talking about Naruto Uzumaki, whose life motto was consequences be damned. Satisfied, he rose to his feet and patted the dust off his clothes. Letting the frightened nin struggled in futile attempt to escape. Eventually, Sai's lesson of effective human strangling proved its benefit, he mused. Back to current situation, he frowned, "Konoha's Yellow Flash? What do you mean? What is happening here?" his tone betrayed none of his bewilderment.

The Iwa nin's blank faces mocked him in return.

"Well? Or you'd rather be strangled for the rest of the day?"

If he wasn't a Jinchuuriki, he'd have cringed at the amount of hatred in their eyes. "Shut up! Kill us already!" one of them, apparently the captain spoke. His moustache quivered comically Naruto almost laughed.

Naruto tilted his head curiously. What the fuck had happened when he was unconscious? Did his seal have anything to do with this? "But I'm just asking—"

"Damn, we have nothing to tell you! Die!"and he spit on Naruto's face. Instead of saliva, a mud bomb stuck and exploded to his face. Naruto screamed and he was no more. The man smirked in smug satisfaction, daydreamed about how he would be rewarded, before he froze. The kagebunshin didn't expel. Which only meant one thing.

"That's very rude of you, shithead," a voice, barely concealed the annoyance was heard. Naruto hopped into the scene. What the fuck is happening here?" After all, patience wasn't his greatest trait.

A few minutes of coaxing the nin to spit the truth, he realized they were as stubborn as rock. Hell, even if he threw them into the pit of the hell, he doubted they would give in. Besides, he had no knack for interrogating. And torture disgusted him, the ever master of talk no jutsu. Why bother, when you could talk them to change their mind?

He grunted miserably, "You're soooo impossible! What's wrong with you?" he was about to continue his ranting about how miserable life was when his ears picked a noise. Approximately five kilometres to the west, eight people were moving at the speed 46km/h heading his way. He pursed his lips, annoyed that he still had many unanswered questions. It wasn't like he was asking about anything classified anyway. He left with a quick shunshin, ignoring the perplexed nin who suddenly bunshin-free.

Time to came back home.

Shizue Momoka had a bad day. She didn't know what she had done to offense deities up there, really. It started innocently enough; her team, consisted of four shinobi and a medic nin of Leaf was sent on a mission to guard a group of merchants heading to Konoha. Usually, it was C-ranked. But considering the merchant's goods were one of the reasons of Konoha's continuing life, Iwa would more than willing to take them down at the first opportunity. It was then an A-rank mission with C-rank's payment.

She didn't count they would be daring enough to ambush in Konoha territory. Although they were in the Hi no Kuni, which made the odds against Iwa, it didn't help that each time they took down an Iwa nin, there would be two or three to substitute their fallen comrade. They were completely outnumbered by Iwa force. Not to mention three of her teammates had fallen and the last one was barely breathing. Her death gate was drawing near.

This realisation made a cold feeling crept up her chest, she fought the urge to immediately fall down the ground joining her other fellows. Regardless her feeling, she still had a village – precious people to protect. She moved, but it felt like as if it wasn't she who commanded her body. Her head felt too light, she had to vomit. She… what will happen to her children? She knew the fate of those war orphans, where the country was too busy to repair the economical damages to take a good care of them.

She slashed three Iwa nin's jugulars in a move, watched them falling down with glazed eyes. Her kids back home would be orphaned. Five Iwa kunoichi took the death shinobi's place. Perhaps there wouldn't be any maternal figure to them again. They assaulted with doton technique, which she countered with a wind one. Her eldest daughter mentioned her wish to become a kunoichi, she wondered it would come true. She combined a water technique and a lightning one, instantly paralyzed the five of them. Her little son, too naïve and trusting, didn't fit in the cruel world, she wished she could protect him. Her instinct screamed at her, she turned to see a chokutou straight to her throat.

Too late. A screamed echoed among the trees. She watched with fascination, and mostly, dumb-struck. One second her assailant stood with a smug face, a second later he dropped to the ground, a kunai in his upper thigh and in his stomach; intestine gushed out. He moaned and hissed, blinded by the overwhelming pain, slowly drifting into painful death. She turned to her savior, fixed him with an awe-struck gaze. Blond hair, azure eyes… it couldn't be…

"A nice chokotou, eh?" he said, eyed the chokutou about to be Shizue's dead judge longingly. He recalled Sasuke's fondness of its kind. He shot the Leaf kunoichi his trademark grin and threw the sheathed chokutou to her. "Take care."

"Wait—!" she called out. He was long gone by then.

One thing preventing Naruto from going all frenzy, breaking a pandemonium, and kidnapping a grandmother was the scent of the forest. He inhaled deeply, enjoying the soothing scent of home. Hi no Kuni was enormously distinguishable from the other ordinary ones. You could almost convince yourself, if you had listened attentively enough, you could hear the beating of the heart of the forest.

He allowed himself to relax as he was away from the battlefield. His back leant against a tree Shikamaru-ishly. He closed his eyes, letting himself drowned in his own thoughts.

The entire situation was… weird. He would know if there was a war, preoccupied with seal-making or not. But, no, no, he one day woke up in Iwa and attacked by a group of Iwa nin. On his trip back home, he occasionally met fights here and there. Not the one to stand idle watching his comrades falling, of course he helped. And by the word 'help', I mean 'sweeping whole the enemy squadrons in the matter of seconds' before resuming his journey. He was against killings, but if that meant the lives of his comrades, he didn't mind. He had since long accepted the fact kill or be killed.

Even worse, he didn't know for how long he had been out. Tsunade-baachan would be beyond pissed. He could only hope there would be a mercy upon him, and her castrating threat all of this time was a bluff. But, knowing her, it sounded wrong.

One second he was sitting on cold ground, pondering the safety of his manhood, a second later a metal pressed against his throat. Naruto blinked, processing the development of events. He looked up and saw golden locks of hair.

"State your business here," a voice, ever so calm in his ear.

Naruto vanished into the thin air. Kagebunshin, the stranger realized. A heartbeat later, he appeared behind the uninvited guest, a kunai against the man's throat. The man could somehow almost undetected by his acute senses, but Naruto wasn't a week from seeing his face on the Hokage Mountain for nothing.

"Cute isn't it," the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki mused aloud. "Why, tell me first. Who are you?" attacking a would-be Kage of five elemental countries was fucking foolish.

If the unknown specimen of male was surprised, he said nothing. The man disappeared out of existence, to which Naruto almost whistled to, and materialized somewhere on the tree. Naruto was impressed, really. No one could move that fast alive save the Yondaime Raikage and him since… the demise of a specific blond Kage.

A hail of kunai flew towards Naruto, which he easily dodged. He didn't count the assailant would hiraishin'd to one of the kunai and swiped an atrocious kick to his spine. Almost. Naruto blocked the kick with his hand, retaliated with a chop to the man's solar plexus. Before they made skin-contact, the man again disappeared and reappeared behind him, a three prolonged kunai in his hand. The assailant made a slashing motion, which would have slit his spine hadn't Naruto ducked. All of this was in mere seconds, and to the spectacles, would be no more than blurs of yellow. Naruto retreated farther across the clearing, getting a better view of the impudent attacker.

At the sight of the man, the whiskered blond froze. All of his previous thoughts evaporated. He struggled to get back his bearing, couldn't afford to show vulnerability there. Sun-kissed lock of hair, azure eyes like ones he saw in mirror every day, and Konoha headband.

He gapped. He stared.

It somehow resulted in a staring contest.

Minato fidgeted internally albeit putting on an indifference front. He was used to the look of awe, of fear, of respect, even the look of hatred. Damn, even the deathliest of the deathliest glare laced with killing intent didn't unnerve him that much. Honestly, the look on the young boy's face was nothing against the deathliest of the deathliest glare he ever received, yet it was… disconcerting.

It was the 'WTF, a ghost' look, shock, and something else. Something he didn't have enough ball to put a finger on.

Whatever. The threat somehow succeeded to infiltrate the border. He needed to interrogate and eliminate it soon. The threat was good, he had to admit. Anyone on par with Konoha's Yellow Flash, who had annihilated squadrons of Iwa nin single-handedly in matter of seconds, was… inadvisable to have in your territory.

"Kai," the stranger now christened 'threat' sent one hell pulse of chakra, immediately putting Minato on guard. He knitted his brows at the desperate look on the threat's face. "Kai!" it cried, this time louder.

The intensity of chakra almost froze the unsuspecting blond. The previous wave of chakra was a miniscule compared to this one. Their surrounding was hushed to an eerie silence, poor tree leaves withered and crumbled to dust. Minato instinctively took a defensive stance, absently noting how the chakra was warm and corrosive at the same time. It was as if trying to erase the world. He didn't know what made it think it was in a Genjutsu. But he needed to stop the threat immediately.

What troubled him was that his cute, adorable team was nearby. They no doubt had taste the numbing pressure of chakra. Hopefully they would grow a brain or two and flee at the first opportunity. Away from the hard reality of war, now from the unidentified threat with unknown capabilities. But, heck, no. They naively believe their Jounin sensei would always be there; dispose of any enemies, keeping them safe and nice. His invincibility was a fraud, you know.

As quick as it came, the pressure was gone. Seemingly, the threat had regained his composure. It grinned sheepishly, rubbing the back of its head with gesture uncannily similar to him. "So…" it trailed off, breaking the silence. The Konoha's Yellow Flash tensed, expecting it to spew a killing blow. "Who are you?"

"Leaf Jounin Minato Namikaze, ID Number: 23091675862," he replied flatly. "State your identification and your intention. You, apparently a nin, have broken the regulation, pass through the Leaf's border without alerting the authority."

Its eyes widened noticeably at the mention of his name, the only normal reaction he got from it so far. The mention of his name alone would trigger fear from even the shinobi of shinobi. With a good reason, though. His moniker and the flee-on-sight order weren't for nothing, he would humbly admit. And its reaction to his name wasn't anything he wasn't used to. Though why would a shinobi its calibre cower at his name, he didn't comprehend.

The threat took an offensive stance. "You're an impostor," assessed it, confident in every fiber of its stature. "Who are you truly?"

Minato frowned internally at the enigmatic threat. How so he was an impostor of himself? More importantly, why would it was so convinced he wasn't himself? Disguising as Minato Namikaze, apart from the benefit of flee-on-sight order plastered on his face, was dangerously foolish. It was like putting a 'kill me, I'm delicious' sign on the folly. "Why would you think so?"

"Because you're dead."

If he wasn't the Konoha's Yellow Flash, his eyes would have twitched visibly. A death threat? "Really? I'm as nice as alive," before he finished his sentence, he reappeared behind the threat, a three prolonged kunai in his hand. The threat in a heartbeat strode across the clearing, again facing him with ease. It was disturbing. No one he ever met, especially younger than he was, was faster than him. And it clearly was, without utilizing chakra to enhance its speed moreover.

"You… dad? But, how?" Minato watched the perfect epitome of self-control collapsed to pieces before him, emotions naked before his eyes. He gagged on the overwhelming sentiment; as confused as the threat was.

It was as if they had known each other for ever. And Minato didn't like it. It was too… weird.

Besides, last time he checked, he was a celibate. And had yet been active sexually.

"It's Minato Namikaze," not your father.

"You're… the Yondaime?" what? "But! It can't be! How can you be here? It… you…"

Taking an advantage of the moment of vulnerability, Minato chopped the back of its neck. It fell with a thud like a broken puppet.

Leaving Minato alone with the chirping bird and the whistling wind and some awaiting students.

He sighed, suddenly feeling a thousand year burdens on his shoulder. He kneeled by the unconscious enigma, never letting his guard down, expecting it suddenly leaping up and attack. He reached for his kunai, calculative azure eyes on the threat. A movement and the threat would have died of slit across the throat. It was his luck; the enigmatic 'thing' was too dangerous, he doubted he would get opportunity like this next time. Displaying weaknesses before a mortal danger wasn't an everyday occurrence. To tell the truth, 'it' probably even stronger than he was. And anything – anyone on par with Konoha's Yellow Flash was… a drag. They were about to be the victor of the war. He couldn't afford letting 'it' alive.

But he would not, no, frankly, could not just murder 'it' in cold blood. Perhaps the cowardice of the action bothered him. Not so, he was a ninja, not a samurai. Or he somehow felt a pang of pity – but why would he? He, who had massacred thousands of Iwa nin relentlessly, wouldn't suddenly pity a 'it' he barely knew.

He might regret this later.

His grip on the kunai tightened, still by the throat. Uncertainty killed him inside. Seconds passed and his eyes gleamed with newborn determination. Sighing dejectedly, he removed the kunai and returned it to his pouch.

His lithe fingers across the sun-burnt skin, and swirls of black waltzed on it. Chakra suppression sealing, check. Paralysis sealing, check. Satisfied with the results, he slung the threat on his shoulder. All he needed was to take it to Konoha and let the T&I department babysit it.

"So," Obito began, tried to poke the unconscious blond. "Who is he, sensei?"

A certain silver-haired boy snorted. "He's apparently a captive. What's with your so almighty eyes?"

The Uchiha glared at the prick. The topic was a sensitive one to him and that wretch had no right to bring it up. "I meant, why you don't just kill him if he is an enemy?"

"He infiltrates the border, taking him as a captive and interrogate him is the regular procedure."

"It's very unheard of you don't even know that."

"Bastard. Just wait! I'll awake my sharingan and you," he pointed at the uninterested boy. "Will kneel by my feet and call me Lord Hokage Uchiha-sama!"

"Dream on, sissy."

"Boys, stop it," Rin pipped in desperately. The boys just couldn't coexist. "Obito, don't cuss. And leave Kakashi alone. Kakashi too…"

Obito pouted, mood dampened at Rin's obvious biased judgment. He knew she tried to be as subtle as possible. After all, Obito was a close friend to her. But still…

Ever an optimist, he got the perfect idea. He knew this would work."Watch out, Hatake! Eat my newest original jutsu!" he shifted through some hand seals. "Fire release: great eternal fireball sidekick phoenix genjutsu…"

A hand caught his wrist, halting him from spewing his most awesome jutsu, which will beat crap out of the prick and make Rin instantly swoon all over him…

"Well, aren't you going too far, Obito?" he scowled at his smiling sensei. He knew, the blond was actually amused at their actions, laughing at them behind their back.

"Don't you want to see my newest, original, awesome jutsu, Minato-sensei?" he hastened his pace to match the blond's own, eyed the captive absently. "It's a fire element based jutsu, awesome right? So, don't you want to, sensei?"

Minato chuckled, ruffled his cute student's hair with his threat-free hand. Yeah, an optimist indeed. "Why not?" his eyes became stern. "But not on your teammate. What did I say about teamwork?"

"Teammates depend on and trust their lives with each other. I know! Errr… sorry, sensei," Obito turned gloom, or at least gloomier than his usual self Minato wondered he had been too harsh on him. "But! Back home then, you're gonna gaping at the awesomeness of my newest original jutsu!" Obito enthusiastically punched the air with his fist.

"Yeah, a lame flashy jutsu," said Kakashi.

"What! It's not!"

"The name's too excessive it's inefficient. Besides, what can possibly someone like you invent?"

Obito frowned. "You're just jealous."

Minato sighed inaudibly. It was a long day, indeed. "Now, now… Kakashi, don't ridicule your teammate. Obito is a formidable nin for a chuunin. Right, Obito?"

Obito puffed with pride. "Yeah! Eat it, Kakashi!"

"Sensei, you're being too soft to Obito. See, he almost got us failed missions these days."

"Am not! Better than you, rule-lover freak!"

"Do you know shinobi rule 25? We shouldn't show tears during mission. You will give Leaf nin a bad name."

"Quit it, boys. Please, we are a team, right?" Rin turned to her most adored sensei. "Minato-sensei, when will we reach Konoha?"she said in attempt to divert the conversation.

The jounin sensei hummed thoughtfully. "See… in about two hours."

"Oh."

And they fell into comfortable silence. The team continued their journey back home, until uncharacteristically, it was Kakashi to break the silence. "Actually, I've been thinking…" he said, onyx eyes on the captive. Minato leaned closer. It was rare for the pipsqueak Hatake to voice his thought. Rin turned to her crush curiously while Obito pretending not-too-interested. If the prick had anything to be said, of course, it was nothing important! With the thought, he suddenly found the line of trees fascinating. "Didn't he," he referred to the threat, "the one who send that pulse of chakra?"

Obito looked at Kakashi weirdly, not really understand what he was implying.

"How could you get out there without a fight, Minato-sensei?" Rin said, seeing Kakashi's point. Minato-sensei's cloth was too clean for a vicious aftermath's victim. "I mean, you're tough. But he's not bad, too, right?"

What a nice understatement of the century.

A smiled bloomed on Minato's lips. Again, his favourite female student showed her perceptiveness. "Good question, my little ones," Kakashi twitched at that, "We just need to take advantages of the enemies." yeah, he called me dad beforehand. What's wrong with him?

"Hey, Minato-sensei's just that great, you know? A little shrimp like him can't compare to sensei," Obito complained.

Much to Rin's headache, the bickering continued until the glimpse of Leaf's main gate was seen.

His head throbbed. No, I'm not insinuating anything. His head where his brain resided did throb. Irritation was an understatement to his mood. He was downright pissed, both at himself and a specific person. It was ridiculous of him, acting like a hormone-driven teenager in front of his father. It wasn't funny, you know. The man would think very low of him now. Besides, if what he had seen spoke for anything, Minato Namikaze wasn't anyone good. He was a living legend, yes, but nothing about his personality was fascinating. Nothing like what the textbook said, 'loving and friendly Hokage'. Perhaps it was just because he was an 'enemy'. Perhaps it came with the age.

But, if there was one thing Naruto hates, it'd be people judging others too quickly. Just like what the villagers did to him years ago. Besides, he was in no place to judge. No one was perfect, right? He'd be as good as dead now if Minato wished for his death when he was out cold.

The room wasn't made for comforting purposes; the plain grey stone wall, the room size he had to curl to a fetus position if he wished to lay, the floor the heaven of bacteria and varieties of fungus. Not to mention the poor lightning and ventilation. In other word, woe was he.

With an exaggerated sigh, he leant against the cold stone wall laced with seals. Seals to restrain a seal master. What a joke. Throw a kunai at a weapon master and expect what. He could very well escape the place, but that'd betray the portrait of an ally he was eager to give.

"Come on, just a bowl of miso ramen! There's no harm right?" he pleaded. "It has been two days since the last time I devoured the heavenly taste."

The prisoner guard eyed him with wary onyx eyes. "No."

"That's mean! Please, just a bowl and I'll be quiet!"

"Hn."

That was nostalgic. Uchiha's trademark grunt and that raven spiky hair…

Now he thought of it, everything did make a sense to him. The hostile Iwa nin mistaking him with someone else, his father alive, and all of the war-torn places. What they implied didn't amuse him at all, but at least it did make a sense.

He, somehow traveled to the past. The past where his father was alive and the Third Secret Shinobi War was still raging.

He screwed everything.

More importantly…

'Kurama?'

Silence answered him.

'Kurama? Are you there?' the creature adamantly kept the silence treatment. 'Helloooooo…! I'm sorry I screwed. But please, it's not funny! Grunt if you're there… hello?"

Uneasiness crept its way up his chest. Thousands of 'what if' situations flashed in his mind. He loathed silence, very damn much. Where was Kurama anyway? It was unnatural for him to keep silent. He always leapt at the first chance to talk, even though it usually about how he despise humankind. What if, what if, what if.

He went into his mindscape. As his feet touched the watery ground, he rushed to everywhere. The empty, opened jail, the rooms, the corridor. His heart thumped madly against his chest he almost suspected it echoed in the sewer. Kurama should be there, like always. Taunting him, mocking humans' foolishness, sulking about how the greatest Youko shrank this low. They'd never been separated, and would never be. Please, please, please!

The realization hit him, harder than his liking. Kurama was gone. He was left in the past where he was no one but nuisance. And he had no idea how to come back to his 'present'.

The most important thing was… again, he had to fight alone. He hated being alone, he despised silence; he couldn't bear having no one. He doubted he could see the bubble gum haired Sakura, with painful fists and beautiful smile. Or Sai, the official socially inept weirdo of his generation. Hell, he even began to miss his blunt, embarrassing statements. Or Kakashi-sensei, the giggly pervert; Yamato-taicho, Tsunade-baachan, Shizune-neechan, Lee, TenTen, Ino, Chouji, Shikamaru…

Everyone was so precious. And with his foolishness, he lost them all in a blink of eyes.

He had been very calm since he was stranded in the strange land. Even if he had no one, but at least he still had Kurama. The prankster side of him thought, perhaps, he could enjoy this whole charade. But now… it was all just a wishful thinking.

It made him wants to cry and laugh at the irony at the same time. At the mention of crying, his optimistic part kicked in, albeit a bit forced. Hell, he was Naruto Uzumaki. His oath to himself was he would never cry anymore. Weeping over the death of Jiraiya, that bloody super pervert was enough. Crying might be a human's nature, but not necessarily needed. And if you forget, Naruto didn't break promises.

Or so he told himself.

"Are you there?" he snapped out of his reverie, eyes meeting with the sight of fidgeting prisoner guard. Usual Naruto was shit annoying, but silent Naruto was… creepy, you know?

"It's nothing! You see, this cold prisoner makes me miss my friends. Back home, I always…" Naruto began his rambling about everything and nothing, to the guard's annoyance and relief. But mainly, it was for himself. Distracting himself from the cruel truth.

Honestly, what should he do? Naruto loved spotlight, yes. Not being in the center of conflicts made him wanting to murder something. But changing things back here was reckless and dangerous. His 'present' could as well being erased by his stupidity. Despite the death, the struggles… but in the end, it was all right, well? He was about to became the Rokudaime Hokage, Konoha was colourful and livelier than ever. All of his precious people save Neji were there, supporting him. It was so dreamlike, felt like too good to be true.

Perhaps… it was mere a dream. And now he woke up, finding out that he had always been lonely.

Perhaps, he never left the pit of loneliness after all.

Rattling of chain caught his attention. Naruto lifted his head up as another guard approaching, who looking at him with 'all-business-babe' face. "Someone wishes to meet you." 'your interrogating session commences.'

Even at that kind of situation, a flash of memory of a certain head interrogator with eagerness to intimidate people… played through and through in his mind. Not even the most insane people could claim that was a happy memory.

Uh, oh. A long day, indeed. First, he needed an alias name…

He creased his brow, tapping his temple repetitiously as he was in deep thought. His hat shadowed over his features, making his expression more unreadable. Not that just anyone could read through the professor. A small gesture and Minato knew, Hiruzen had made up his mind. "You claim this Uzu Hikaru is a more capable nin than you are, Minato?" he said that more as a statement than it was a question.

Minato stood straighter. "That's a probability, Hokage-sama. We still don't have access with his full potential but from what I have witnessed, he is faster than I am."

A fatherly smile marred Hizuren's feature. "From the interrogation session, he mentioned his wish to join Konoha's shinobi rank," his tone was light and apologetic, but his eyes said otherwise. Minato tensed at this statement, not liking the direction of this conversation. "I, as Sandaime Hokage announced, he thereby will be referred as Chuunin Hikaru Uzu of Leaf. Am I clear?"

Minato closed his eyes. This better not where he thought it would lead. It was all so wrong, or rather, this was not Konoha's method at all. "May I speak freely, Hokage-sama?"

Hizuren chuckled mirthlessly. Namikaze, perceptive as ever. It was nearly impossible to withhold information from the youth without his sniffing around the skeleton in the closet. "Yes?"

"Why are you telling me this?"

Hizuren puffed from his pipe, watching the chain of smoke fading away. "A month, Minato. We need a month to let him drop his guard," he paused, letting the innuendo seeped into the youth's mind. "Your mission parameter is… to eliminate Uzu Hikaru."

Author's Note: It's the first FanFiction I've ever written. And as much as I like to think I beg to differ, acknowledgement is an important factor of the continuation of my existence. That's why, any reviews; never mind if they are compliments, critiques, supports, or flames will be treasured. But it doesn't necessarily mean I'll take any suggestions into consideration.

I'm quite aware of how this TimeTravel genre is quite common and unoriginal at all. But that doesn't stop me from writing this. I've quite decent quantities of ideas in my little pathetic mind, but my vocabulary sucks. Pouring ideas into words is mind boggling. I'll do my best to make this as original as possible while appeasing me at the same time.

As a teenager, I'm DOWNRIGHT against romance, so don't expect me writing anything along the lines. there would be one-sided MinaNaru however. Naruto, dense as ever, never realised it. Minato neither, since he was too preoccupied with his paranoia. The end of the story.

You may later notice how I portray Minato not as the saviour of the day, rather, a calculative, aloof, possessive, manipulative, deceptive, and paranoid bastard. No, he is not evil. His loyalty to Konoha is unquestioned, and that was his only reason for his against the death sentence of Naruto. Frankly, he hated Naruto since the first time they met. But feelings aside, had Naruto proven his loyalty to Konoha, he'd be very 'useful'.

Ja ne!