A/N: The author's name, following the publication of Chapter 5, will be Discordance. Previous chapters will be minutely adjusted to accommodate the change.

Published: 9/18/2017

Last Edit: 2/12/2018

Trespassing the Laws of Time

By ShiraChan-Desu

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. All rights go to Masashi Kishimoto.

Chapter 4

No Choice

The air was musty. The smell of dust and old parchment permeated through the small enclosed space. By some lucky chance, the back room of rarely touched scrolls and books was still under renovation, and so a few flickering flames hidden behind glass panes were his only company.

Not long into his examination through the shelves, Minato realized something peculiar. A large handful of the tomes were in bad condition, jagged torn covers and disorderly creases further marring the dilapidated pages. Compared to the newer but limited collections outside of the little room, they looked as if they were salvaged, just barely spared from the many adversities they had faced.

He made a mental note to find and ask the librarian later.

Minato studied one of the desks against the wall, dragging it towards the light and carefully clearing the table of its contents. He set the scroll on top of it, turning it until a few of the smudged characters were in plain view.

The blonde-haired Jonin had not had the chance to do extensive research on the scroll prior to their arrival in the future. In fact, it had only been that morning, before he and his students met up for their regular training routine, that he had even received the scroll, along with its known history.

The Hokage had informed him, no pipe anywhere in reach of his hands, that the scroll was recently discovered by scavengers in an underground ruin. Compared to the handful of treasure that had been found, the indecipherable scroll was low in value, much less one to keep for the sake of sentimentality.

Shinobi from Konoha who had just happened to come across them in their small bid for help, had received the scroll as a token of their gratitude, as well as a free hospitable stay in their quarters.

Unfortunately for Minato, the scavenger family had had a toddler living under the same roof, and thus viewed the scroll as one of far less importance than the older civilians. They were beyond lucky that only water had been spilled on the scroll, and that the document itself had not suffered more than a large blotch on its fragile paper.

It did, however, make it a little more complicated than Minato had been expecting.

The scroll was ancient. Preserved by the intricate markings of one seal, its revelations concealed from the shinobi world by another. The moment Minato had first held it in his hands, the hairs at the back of his neck stood on end. A steady hum of primordial power had thrummed over the scroll's surface, in contrast to the strangely marked, dreary image it created in outsiders' eyes.

The contents of the scroll itself was not affected by the incident, that much was clear (at least before yesterday's events had transpired. Now, the scroll sat unnervingly quiet.). It was one of the two outer seals that was affected. And there lay in the problem.

Rarely was the case where distinct formulas were interwoven with one another, much less ones of such complexity. Minato could follow the characters to a certain extent – which was why he was able to identify that there was, not one, but two seals adorning the outer layer of the scroll – but it was not a formula he recognized from past encounters.

Many seals in his time were relatively easy to dissect – merely a read through and prodding of chakra were sometimes enough for Minato to mentally formulate the counter-measures or bypass the seal altogether. This time, he did not have that luxury.

For one, the seal was painted, rather than weaved through the use of chakra. Minato has long since mastered the painstaking art of using ink to create his seals, allowing him to move on to the more battle-ready methods of fuinjutsu through the use of chakra. It had one drawback, however: it made the seal more vulnerable to be manipulated.

Ink seals, on the other hand, were sturdier, and its effects unable to be changed in any way unless fully countered. A few of the characters had blurred beyond comprehension, but there were no changes to the effects of the seal itself. As long as the seal was not tampered with during its application, the seal would hold for however long it was required. All Minato needed to do was analyze the pattern and fill in the missing piece.

But it wasn't that easy.

Each character carried an absolute significance to the formula, and if Minato pumped his chakra into the seal with only a single character wrong, there would be no second chance.

The ink blotch was almost a dark grey, diluted from weeks of exposure to the air. If Minato made a mistake, if he placed ink on the paper, only to find out he was wrong, the combined blotch of the past character and the newly applied character would result in a blemish that would be indistinguishable in comparison to a third attempt. The seal would not recognize the character, and that would be it.

And so, as two of his clones searched through the shelves, looking among the severely limited texts about the philosophies of Time-Travel, as well as a single mention of the scroll among the texts regarding the ruins, Minato took the time to examine every inch of the complex seals.

Any other time, Minato would have marveled at the ingenuity of these designs. But in every second that passed, the length of their disappearance in the past would continue to tick.

And if there was a time limit, or any significant aspect to its usage, hidden within the contents of the scroll, he couldn't afford to waste any more time than was absolutely necessary.

~S~

Minato was scribbling on a piece of paper, mapping out one of the several versions of the completed duo-seal, when his students came.

The desk was in disarray, papers placed haphazardly all over the surface, and with a few writing instruments no doubt buried among the mounds. The utensil in his hand, itself, was the fourth. Several books lay open near his feet, his clones long since dispersed after bearing no more fruit in their search.

He heard footsteps. Rushed. Attempting to be silent.

Minato quickly and carefully set aside the papers, and in a calculated burst of chakra, leaped upwards and attached himself to the ceiling by the door in a crouch. His tri-pronged kunai gleamed in the dim yellow light.

The door burst open and two figures rushed into the room. They were halfway to Minato's desk when they stopped, and by then, he had gotten enough time to recognize the backs of their heads, one with their wig and one without, as well as their clothing, dirty and…torn.

Eyes widening in alarm, he immediately detached himself from the ceiling and closed the door. Quietly, but not so quiet that his students couldn't hear. They jerked around, and Minato's eyes caught the dried blood on Obito's leg and the thin claw marks slashing through his clothing.

"Are you okay?" Because even though they were here and alive in front of him, it did not change the fact that they had been attacked – the wild eyes and appearance were proof of that. He immediately rushed forward and peeled away the fabric covering Obito's wound. It was a deep rosy pink that was starting to tear from the unfinished healing it had done, with blood beginning to accumulate once again. "Rin, it's close to the femoral artery. Can you heal the rest of it?"

"Sensei - "

Minato grabbed the chair he had been previously sitting on and pulled it towards Obito, the wood protesting with the treatment against the floor, and ignoring the way his student was trying to get his attention. He gently yet firmly pushed Obito down, and Rin knelt by his leg, green chakra unsteadily flickering to life before stabilizing.

"Sensei - "

"It's okay, Obito, just leave it to her." Minato frowned, hands coming up empty after he rummaged through his pouch for gauze. "Rin, do you have - ?"

"Kakashi's unconscious!"

Obito's words rang through the silence. The glowing light from Rin's hands didn't fade, but her brow furrowed further, and not just from concentration.

"Ka…Kakashi?"

"It—It's not our Kakashi." Any hope that was building in his chest deflated at Rin's quiet admittance. But Obito's words came back to him again and made his heart speed up for an entirely different reason.

"Wait. This time-line's Kakashi is unconscious?" What was that supposed to mean? "How? Since when?"

"They said that...their Kakashi hasn't woken up since yesterday. And they've tried everything to-to see what's wrong, but they haven't found anything."

Minato could barely hear past the pounding of his heart, his mind trying to push him in a direction he couldn't quite grasp. He drew back with a slow breath.

"Obito, Rin, tell me everything."

They did, immediately diving into a summarization of their experiences following the moment he let them out of his sight (which was remarkably full of activity in that short amount of time). He listened as they took turns glancing over their personal advents until they reached the moment where they had presumably gotten their injuries – when they were confronted by Ino and the Inuzukas, Kiba and Akamaru.

At some point in their tale, Rin finished healing all of Obito's wounds and Obito tried to stand up, with success. They diverted from their story long enough for Obito to admit that he wanted to get to Minato first and tell what they heard and saw before allowing Rin to heal the entire wound.

They continued soon afterwards, once bringing up the small bit of the future Minato knew better than to not expect them to see.

("YOU BECAME HOKAGE?!"

He cringed. "Obito, not so loud..."

A beat of silence. "Wait...you knew? And you didn't TELL US?")

(In retrospect, he was just glad they were too stunned by the prospect to ask about his reaction.)

(He didn't want to admit he was having trouble recalling it himself.)

But it didn't matter. It wasn't important, and that lack of significance was even more blatant as the most recent events began to be told.

"It's like we didn't exist!" Obito threw his hands up in the air, as if he were offended, but he shouldn't possibly be, if it meant that it saved them from getting captured. "I even yelled at them. They didn't hear a thing!"

"And they couldn't see you either," Minato murmured. He looked at Rin. "You said it was right after they dispelled your clones, right?"

Rin nodded slowly, recounting the memory in her head. "When I was under the control of Ino," absentmindedly, she rubbed her arms, goosebumps dotting underneath her skin, "I couldn't do anything to get out of it. But then it was like she was torn away from me and I was slammed back into my body. The only thing I heard before that was Obito yelling at me to run away."

"I said it to her clone," Obito clarified. He looked up at Minato-sensei. "What's up with them, anyway? Why did it only happen after our clones disappeared?"

"Did you find anything strange about them?" Minato inquired.

"No," Obito said petulantly after a moment of thinking. "They felt normal when we created them, and it felt the same after they dispelled."

"What about you, Rin?"

She shook her head. "No, sensei."

Obito rubbed his head, and it matted unevenly from the dried sweat. "Jeez, first time travel and now this? Next thing you know, we'll be able to walk through people."

Walk through people. If Obito and Rin weren't able to be seen, nor were they able to be heard..."You haven't tried?"

"What?" Obito stared at him, horror-struck. "Minato-sensei, it's going through people," he emphasized, as if Minato had missed that fact. "Like, like some creepy horror story. Who would want to try that?"

A small smile twitched the corners of Rin's lips. "To be honest, Obito, we thought it would be you."

"Rin!"

Minato smiled too, but his mind was still whirring. "Have you tried talking to others? Civilians, perhaps?"

Rin shook her head. "We went straight here after they left. They seemed really worried and…" she trailed off.

He connected the dots. "They were the ones who said Kakashi was unconscious."

"Those weren't their exact words," Rin said, minutely quieter. "The pink-haired lady said he 'wouldn't wake up'. But they didn't ask any more questions, so we couldn't find out anything else."

Minato mulled over this, "Thank you, Rin."

"Sensei!" Obito piped up, eyes suddenly wide. "They called him 'Sensei'!"

Minato paused. "Sensei...who...?" Then it registered. "Kakashi?"

"Yeah, they called him - all three of them - they called him, Kakashi-sensei!"

It was a shock, as much as it was a relief, to know that Kakashi was still alive even after what looked to be many years. And it undoubtedly worried Minato that his student – his future self, that is – was being ailed by something unknown. But this? He was having a bit of trouble pinning down one of the emotions swelling in his chest.

Minato always knew the good qualities that was in his student, having met him and his father before Sakumo's death. He had been patient and kind, dry-witted and very intelligent. Skilled beyond imagination. But after the traumatizing event when he was 6, those qualities that made him less like a mere weapon had become buried under the resentment and ideals that Kakashi had prioritized above all others.

And yet, from what this new tidbit of information was telling him, it seemed Kakashi had finally risen from those dark times. He had finally decided to reach out and have people take care of him instead of him only taking care of himself, even if it meant having to care for his own students first.

It gave him no small amount of joy and relief. But it also made him curious.

Kakashi was an inverted person, rarely letting people into his inner circle. What had made him willingly take on students of his own?

And just how far into the future were they, if shinobi more than 5 years older than his own students were calling him 'Kakashi-sensei'?

Minato shook his head mentally. He was getting ahead of himself.

"It doesn't matter," he said out loud. Rin and Obito stopped their animated debate of how Kakashi would be as a sensei to listen intently to his words. "What we need to know is why this Kakashi's not waking up." Barring what had happened to his students, this was the closest lead they may have to what had happened to his third student. If his student wasn't anywhere in Konoha, perhaps the best option was to actually find his other self and see if anything strange has happened.

Obito's mouth opened a little as he understood. "Are you thinking there's a connection, sensei?"

"I'm thinking there may be a possibility," Minato corrected. "And if it will somehow give us a key to where our Kakashi is, then we'll take all the possibilities we can get." He straightened from leaning back against the bookshelf. "In case they may be out there, I'll teleport you both back to the hotel, away from prying eyes. They shouldn't be able to get past the seals without me knowing."

The both of them knew better than to protest against a direct order from Minato. "Even though we can't be seen, Sensei?"

"We don't know if the both of your conditions are only temporary."

Rin's eyes widened. "You can still be seen, Minato-sensei?"

"I don't know." He hasn't taken the time to communicate with anyone today. Not even the librarian. "But it's better to be safe than sorry, and right now, safe means that the both of you have a smaller risk in getting captured. From what you've told me, they don't know that I exist, yet."

Minato moved to the table and began to gather his stuff. The library books were going to stay, as he no longer needed them. But it was best for him to leave as little of his presence here as possible, just in case there was slim chance they might find him out. After putting the papers into a slim pile and tucking the brushes into their secure pockets, he turned to his students and held the load out to them. Since he was the closest, Obito took it first. Minato then grabbed the scroll and gave it to Rin, who held it carefully.

"Keep them safe for me," Minato said. He then placed a hand on each of his student's shoulders, sought out the marker he placed at their hotel, and jumped.

The last of the withering flames flickered out, leaving the small room in darkness.

~S~

There were no ANBU around. There usually wasn't, unless there was a high-profile shinobi being treated at the Hospital.

But even so, Minato has never seen a glimpse of any of the ANBU while they were in the future. Which either meant they were called away or the peace between the villages was stable enough to not have any use for the espionage force. Minato was willing to bet the latter.

Upon dropping his students off at the hotel, he had set off to find the Hospital.

Aware of the situation Obito and Rin had experienced, he was cautious in approaching the general population, but he needed to see if their condition applied to him as well. He had remained as non-descript as possible, before approaching a lone shopkeeper in an open store. Minato waited until the shopkeeper rounded the corner of the store he was in, away from view of the street, and called out.

There was no answer. The civilian continued looking around and rearranging what was needed. It couldn't have been a simple lack of hearing that was involved - Minato had observed his interactions with customers. There was nothing wrong with the functions of his ears, and there was no way the man could not see him when he was directly in his line of sight.

Minato shifted over to the shelf and, carefully watching for any reaction, placed a hand on a toy rabbit just as the shopkeeper's eyes were about to pass over. The man gave no indication that there was any change that had happened to the toy. Minato frowned and grabbed ahold of the toy, his hand wrapping easily around the small fabricated body, and was about to lift it up when a choked sound came from the shopkeeper's direction.

The man was staring. A second later, he rubbed his eyes, moving his head to the side and then back, as if he were trying to make sure that the toy wouldn't just disappear. Or appear, in what this case seemed to be. Minato frowned contemplatively and set the toy back down, releasing his hold on it just as the man repeated his movements one more time.

Minato watched attentively as the civilian jerked back with horrified and disbelieving eyes, away from the toy sitting innocently at its spot. Interesting. It had only been a simple hunch, brought on by the question of how Obito and Rin's given clothes, which were not from the past, had disappeared along with them. But it seems it was proven correct. Whatever had allowed them to disappear from other people's senses, it extended to even the clothes they wore and the objects they grabbed. It was just a matter of firm, largely direct contact.

But if that were the case...

Minato stared at his hand, before blue narrowed eyes lifted to the man before him. He took a step forward and slowly extended his arm, until his fingers began to brush the top of the shopkeeper's shoulder.

He didn't account for the man to suddenly straighten without warning.

Or for the skin past his wrist to disappear into the man's body.

Minato's eyes widened comically, and he immediately jerked out his arm. To his uncertain relief, his perfectly fine hand clenched and unclenched at his will.

Movement caught his eyes, and he immediately looked up to see the shopkeeper shudder violently, hand coming up to grasp the area Minato's hand had been. The man swerved his head from side to side in undisguised fear, glancing quickly at the still innocent toy one last time before hurriedly shuffling away. Combined with the constantly throwing back glances, it was the exact behavior one would expect from being haunted by a ghost.

Though perhaps that was a correct description for the occasion. If one disregarded the fact that the shopkeeper had clearly felt something when Minato's hand passed through him, they were essentially ghosts to both shinobi and civilians alike.

Which, despite being put into words, still didn't make sense.

The scroll was involved, that was for sure. And perhaps this mishap was a result of the damage inflicted on it - their bodies becoming incorporeal, unseen versions of themselves. But how did it explain yesterday, how they were fully able to communicate with everyone following their arrival in the future? And the fact that this mechanism only became active once Obito and Rin lost their shadow clones?

Minato's hands drew up into a sign, and a clone appeared before him in a puff of smoke, noting the familiar drain and his chakra swirling to life, connected by an invisible thread to the entity of chakra before him. He directed a short physical examination, to which the clone answered in negative, before telling it to remain. After making sure the shopkeeper near the front was angled away from his position, Minato quickly exited the shop before turning and striding over to the second entrance, where the owner stood.

The shopkeeper saw him approach and greeted him with a wobbly smile. His skin was almost white and his eyes were shifty.

Minato had not doubted his students' words, but it was another thing to have it all confirmed to him so clearly.

Noticing that the owner was about to close up shop and feeling guilty, he decided to pretend he was browsing, purposefully keeping up idle chatter with the man to subtly bring him back to the area they were in previously. He exhaled quietly in relief when, as moments passed by with nothing strange happening, the tension in the shopkeeper began to ease. Finally, after pretending he was late and asking for the location of the Hospital, Minato walked off with a thank you, making sure no one was looking before ducking into an alley and dispelling his clone, feeling the barely alleviated chakra return to him and cause his inner reserves to settle.

This...would probably making things easier than he thought. He now had an almost complete ability to avoid detection, as long as he avoided having contact with anyone. He wouldn't have to worry about his disguise being found out or being seen, nor would he have to worry as hard for his students once they inevitably went outside.

He would question it further later, but right now, he needed to get as much information as possible. And the sooner he arrived at the Hospital and find where the shinobi have gathered with the Kakashi of the future, the sooner they may be able to find out what happened to their Kakashi.

What a strange day it was, for him to draw close to breaking one of the most important self-made rules of traveling forward in time: do not seek knowledge of the future.

And if his gut was correct, he may just have to schedule an appointment with Inoichi when they get back - and sooner than he thought.

After minutes of walking and a series of corners, he came across a large white building with blue rooftops, looking as if time had not changed it in the least, as long as one did not consider its different surroundings. If the appearance was not proof enough, the insignia above the entrance was. Several shinobi were standing just outside the doors, talking, so Minato's eyes drifted upwards.

There were a few open windows on the second floor. Minato leaped upwards and smoothly cleared the windowsill of a room he remembered was supposed to sit nearest to the stairs. To his luck, he was greeted to empty silence. Four beds sat against the pearly walls, but only one had its bedsheets thrown and wrinkled. The door was open.

It was eerily silent as he exited the room and began walking down the hallway to the opposite side, inspecting the rooms as he did. The majority of the doors on the second floor were open, discovered to be empty. The ones that weren't, a quick sensory technique with his limited sensory skills were enough to show the same results.

Just as he reached the stairs, he heard the hurrying of footsteps coming up from the ground level. Minato stepped to the side, and watched as a young-looking Nara with a tight frown on his face went up the steps, heading for the third floor. Minato waited for a moment, weighed his options briefly, and followed. The Nara continued walking in what Minato knew was unlike the lazy stride every Nara was known for - on regular days, that is. When their duty would call, they could look every bit as formidable as their intelligence suggests.

Eventually, the Nara turned a corner into an area with a large white dog and an Inuzuka, who was leaning back against the backdrop of an open window. The ninken lifted its head the moment the Nara came into view, barking loudly. The Inuzuka looked up too, uncrossing his arms and positioning his body towards them. Minato could see scorch marks on his clothes, and his eyes narrowed. This was Kiba.

"Hey, Shikamaru!"

Shikamaru nodded in acknowledgement. "Why aren't you inside?" he jerked his head towards the door of the room directly across Kiba.

"Told me to wait for you," he grumbled. "In case you didn't know what room it was."

Shikamaru muttered something underneath his breath that made Minato raise his eyebrow in amusement. It seems that some of the clan members of the Inuzuka clan were just as rowdy as they were in the future. Shikamaru reached for the handle of the door.

"The Fifth Hokage is in there," Kiba announced suddenly. "They found her just before she left the village. She's checking on Kakashi-sensei, right now."

Minato's brows drew down. The Fifth Hokage...Tsunade, Jiraiya-sensei's teammate, the one who apparently succeeded him after...whatever happened to Minato. Jiraiya had muttered once about how she never seemed to age because of her jutsu, among other things - Minato adamantly refused to think further than that - but he didn't hear that it extended her lifespan, as well. Quite the opposite, actually.

Then that would mean...they weren't too far into the future as they might have thought. Jiraiya was in his mid-thirties in their time period. If Tsunade was around the same age as he, and if in this time period she already had a successor while still being well enough to do a check-up on a patient, then they had to be around 30 or so years into the future - at most.

Which meant that the Kakashi that lay past this door would be older than Minato himself. The thought swirled in his mind uncomfortably.

Shikamaru turned around, noticing that Kiba was starting to leave. "You're not coming inside, Kiba?"

He grunted, shrugging a shoulder. "I'm not much use anyway, aren't I?"

But before he could even take another step, Shikamaru said, "Well, aren't you gonna tell us where you got those burn marks? Or was it just another training accident?"

Kiba paused and slowly turned back around, a determinedly un-miffed look on his face. "...Right."

Shikamaru cocked an eyebrow at him before he shook his head exasperatedly, and entered the room. Three figures looked up at their entrance, while the fourth remained bent over the figure nestled under the covers of the bed by the window.

Minato instantly took note of the females with varying hair colors. Long blonde hair, appearance matching the description given by his students - Ino. Pupil-less milky eyes curtained by long raven hair - a Hyuuga. The "pink-haired lady" that had delivered the news about Future Kakashi. And the fourth figure, blonde hair tied back by two limp pony-tails, sandaled-heels adorning pale feet, an unfamiliar green haori blaring the words "Gamble!" on the back - Tsunade.

Minato had met his sensei's former teammate several times in the past, when his own team ventured out on missions outside of the village. It was always brief. Mostly for Jiraiya-sensei's sake, because they quickly found out Tsunade was quite temperamental and Jiraiya just so happened to poke at all the wrong buttons.

(The first time they witnessed a moment where Jiraiya was particularly rambunctious, they were scarred for life.

They learned to stay at least a few meters away every time they happened to cross paths with her from then on.)

The blonde-haired Jonin sensed Kiba come too close behind him, almost trapping Minato between him and the Nara, and so he immediately shuffled to the side. The two males moved closer to the bedside, with Minato following behind cautiously.

"Looks like the whole crew is gathered," Shikamaru commented.

"Only the best," Ino replied. Her attention, however, was focused on the green glow emanating from Tsunade's hands.

Shikamaru moved on to the next person with an ease that showed how familiar he was with the blonde's words. "Hinata, I didn't expect they would call you here, too."

The Hyuuga smiled at him, a gentle softness to her face that remained even when her expression sharpened subtly. "Sakura-chan asked if I could look for any abnormalities in his chakra pathways."

They finally reached the bedside of the patient, and Minato had to move towards the slightly open window in order to have a good view, while being safe from any involuntary contact. Ocean-blue eyes followed the traces of the body underneath the blanket, until it reached the tuff of silver hair almost blending into the pillow. As was customary, unless in the case of dire treatments, the mask was still in place, navy blue with the face underneath ever a mystery.

Even after all those years of definite maturing, it seemed that Kakashi hadn't really changed a bit.

Minato's eyes caught another glimmer of silver, except it was grayer and dulled with time. A scar that was barely noticeable under the calm green light on his temples, running directly over Kakashi's eyelid and disappearing underneath the mask. Minato's eyes tightened in concern. The old scar looked like the result of a deep wound. Did he go through a whole war with only one eye to use?

"And was there anything?"

"Kakashi-sensei's chakra paths looked more restless than usual-"

"Which is expected since he's asleep," the pink-haired girl added.

"-But I'm concerned about the other chakra signature that's following the same paths as his own."

Shikamaru's eyes narrowed. "You don't recognize the chakra, Hinata?"

She shook her head faintly. "No, not at all. But..." Her expression was confused. "It looked yellow. Gold."

Shikamaru and Kiba, who was a bit further back, widened their eyes. "But - that's Naruto's!" Kiba blurted. Minato blinked. Someone named their child after ramen? Despite that, he mentally filed the name away just in case.

"Naruto never had any contact with Kakashi-sensei for several days now," the pink-haired girl said. "And Kakashi-sensei has never shown anything wrong with him until yesterday."

"Yesterday, Sakura?" Shikamaru caught on.

Sakura nodded. "Shizune said he looked...off ever since he left to go home last night." Her eyes slid over to Kakashi. "When he didn't come to the office at the time he usually does, Shizune sent someone to find him. They thought he was sleeping, but when they tried to wake him up, they couldn't."

Shikamaru absorbed the info, and sighed. "Tsk...What a pain."

"You know, something weird happened to us, too," Kiba butted in. His ninken, Akamaru, barked in agreement.

Sakura eyed him. "Is that why you look like you played with the campfire again?"

"Shut up," Kiba said with no real heat behind it. "It was a Genin. He knew how to do the Fireball Jutsu."

"The Fireball Jutsu?" There was a surprised tone lacing Sakura and Shikamaru's voices. The technique has been passed down for generations in the Uchiha clan, so it was understandable how it would look like to them when a non-Uchiha Genin was able to use it. But then Sakura continued, "Kakashi-sensei has been too busy to teach any students, and Sasuke...it's unlikely."

Minato's eyes narrowed in confusion. So Kakashi knew the jutsu? Minato could understand if he managed to figure out how to use the technique, especially when he had Obito as a teammate, but even if this Sasuke was an Uchiha, then that would mean the prejudices thrown between the rest of Konoha and the Uchiha clan were still very much active. Even to the point that people would doubt their willingness to share their clan's technique with an outsider.

Minato had half-expected them, Ino and Kiba, to speak about the earlier events of the day, but he didn't account for it being the main reason why they started spilling information that Minato was better off not knowing.

"I'm sure we would have noticed if a Genin was practicing the Fireball Jutsu - especially with how exceptional he was in using it," Ino decided to choose this time to add. "I'm not kidding. I doubt it's something he could learn by himself in just a few months during the war."

"Sasuke was good at the jutsu when he graduated from the Academy," Sakura pointed out. "He's been learning it since he was a little kid. The boy you met may not be an Uchiha, but he could've been trying to learn it over the years."

Here, Ino hesitated, and for some reason, a trickle of unease curled up against Minato's spine.

"That's the thing...I think..." Ino looked at Kiba. "You saw, too, right? Under that wig?"

"What?" Sakura said.

"When I came across the two Genin, one is the boy we were talking about and another was his girlfriend, I was able to see what was underneath those goggles of his."

They all leaned in, the strange lilt to her tone peaking their interest.

"His face, you know? It kind of looked like...he looked a bit like..." Her eyes flickered to the unconscious Kakashi briefly before she made eye contact with each of the other shinobi, continuing in a whisper. "...Obito."

"What!?"

The absolute incredulity in their voices were enough to give Minato pause.

"And not only that, he even said his name was Obito."

"But he's..." Sakura's eyes were wide. "That can't be right. That's not possible...Unless it's Edo-Tensei?"

Impure World Reincarnation? The name drifted around his mind until it clicked, a long-forgotten memory coming to the surface. It was one of the jutsu the Second Hokage had created, except this particular technique was soon deemed forbidden because of its power to defy the laws of nature. But from the way these young shinobi were speaking, they sounded as if they were speaking from personal experience with the jutsu. That couldn't have been possible. If it weren't for Minato's interest in the Second Hokage and the original Thunder God Technique, he wouldn't have known it existed.

But somehow, these shinobi knew. And they seemed to think that Obito was a direct result of it.

...

Ocean eyes flew open, his body jolting as if he were struck by thunder.

Impure World Reincarnation.

Then that would mean that...Obito...

Obito was already dead?

Ino's eyes were narrowed, and she tilted her head. "Trust me, I was up front and center. There's no way he could be. And even then, his girlfriend said they were 10 years old, and when I tried to show that I thought they were from Konoha, they didn't correct me. They just looked spooked. And I've also looked at the Academy records - there hasn't been a single student in years who've had an early graduation. They've all graduated at the age of 12, like standard. Why would anyone set themselves up like that so badly?"

"During the Third Shinobi World War, Asuma-sensei's class graduated at 9 years old," Shikamaru pointed out. "I heard Kakashi-sensei graduated way earlier than them, but he was originally in their class before he did. And if Obito was in the same team as Kakashi-sensei...he should've been in that same class."

"The girl, too, if both of them are the same age," Sakura said. Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "But it still doesn't make sense. The Obito we knew was definitely older than 10. I didn't know it was possible to completely reincarnate someone to how they were years before they died. From what I've seen, it's always required a life in exchange."

There was a lull of silence at that, and Minato vaguely wondered what was going on through their minds to cause such skeptic expressions to come across their faces.

"You're forgetting one important thing," a new voice suddenly broke in.

Tsunade opened her eyes, the green glow of her chakra fading from her hands. She put a hand on her hip, staring down at Kakashi contemplatively before looking at the other shinobi. "Why would it be that on the same day you see these two Genin, Kakashi began acting strange?"

"Could just be a coincidence," Kiba offered. "They could've been here for a long time already before we met them. There's a lot of Genin in Konoha."

"Not these Genin." Her posture was relaxed, but her voice was firm and unyielding, sounding every bit of the Hokage she once was. Which, considering the current progress of the sixth head on the mountain, was not too long ago. "There's something else going on here, and those two children are a part of it."

"What makes you say that, Lady Tsunade?" Shikamaru asked, a sharp gleam in his eyes.

Tsunade walked to the foot of Kakashi's bed, nearer to them, and joined them as they collectively stared at the motionless figure. "Hinata was right that there is another chakra mingling with his own. I was able to test it and see if it had malicious intent. It doesn't, but it won't respond to me either. And it's weak. I doubt that Kakashi would even be aware of it when he wakes up."

"So he's going to be okay?" Sakura asked, and Minato was focused enough by now to identify the emotion in her eyes as deep-set worry.

"Your evaluation is the same as mine, Sakura," Tsunade sighed. "But there's another thing. His chakra reserves seem to have grown larger since the last time I've checked it. Are you sure he hasn't been training much for the past month?"

"He's not going to do that when he has the village to worry about," Sakura answered. "He hardly leaves the office nowadays, except for when he knows there's a meeting with the council."

"Then 'escape', is more like it." Tsunade sounded half-piteous and half-exasperated.

"Lady Tsunade, the Genin," Shikamaru prompted.

"Ah. I've only met Kakashi's sensei, Minato, a few times after he had took on his own Genin team. But I was able to hear stories from Jiraiya. A prodigy, an Uchiha, and a medic-nin."

"A medic-nin?" Sakura repeated.

"The Uchiha's best friend, Rin Nohara."

Ino inhaled sharply and Kiba's eyebrows shot up. The other shinobi collectively turned to them. "The girl," Ino murmured, "She said her name was Rin."

"What a pain," Shikamaru eventually sighed after a short moment of silence. He listed, "So we got two of Kakashi-sensei's former teammates, who turns out to have been revived by someone we don't know, in the bodies of their Genin selves. And not only that, Kakashi-sensei has been unconscious since yesterday, with a foreign chakra moving through his system, even though he had been in his office all-day yesterday."

"And now, it's time for desperate measures." Tsunade nodded to Ino, who took the hint and took the older woman's former spot by Kakashi's head. "Ino will be going inside his mindscape, find his subconscious, and try to figure out the problem."

They watched as Ino carefully placed both hands on the mop of silver hair and closed her eyes in concentration. When she ceased to move any longer, Tsunade continued in a softer volume, "If all goes well, by the time she comes back to her body, Kakashi will wake up."

And just like that, at the prospect of Kakashi awakening with none of his original team around, at the strange way they were talking about himself and Rin, the mentions of Team 7 all collected into one horrifying conclusion. Minato's breath shuttered, and the shadows of the white walls seemed to darken, the room suddenly becoming too small for him to breathe.

Rin and Obito were dead.

Obito had lived long enough to get acquainted with these shinobi, but he was no longer among the living.

Rin was practically an unknown to everyone, despite her large promise in medical-ninjutsu. Tsunade was a medic-nin herself; he had no doubts that she would keep track of the ongoings in the Konoha Hospital, yet the way she talked about Rin suggested she had never met his student in the years to come.

Minato had no idea what had happened to his future self, but he knew for sure that he wouldn't have just abandoned Konoha without good reason, up and left even though he had so many reasons to stay.

The only other option…was that he, too, was dead. Even if he was not yet the Fourth Hokage, he knew that he would give his life for the village. And the fact that only one of his students had disappeared and has somehow affected his future self while the rest of his team remained...it wasn't looking good for Minato's hope that somehow, he was alive to watch over Kakashi, to squeeze into the void that was left by his father and stay.

He had known the risks for going deep into uncharted territories, and now he was experiencing the full force of his actions.

Sakura stepped forward suddenly.

Ino's expression had tightened in confusion. "Hinata, can you use your Byakugan and see if anything's changing?" Sakura asked quietly.

Hinata gave a small nod without looking. Immediately, her milky eyes narrowed and veins popped up around the skin of her eyes. "Kakashi-sensei's chakra is stabilizing," she informed after a few seconds. "Ino is - " Abruptly, she cut off, her distant eyes refocusing and widening all at the same time, flickering to the window and then back.

An unspoken tension rippled over the room. Kakashi's form shifted slightly.

"...On my left." It was a whisper so quiet, Minato could barely hear it. A split-second after, his view of Hinata was blocked by Shikamaru, hands rammed into a sign and his shadow bursting into life.

Pitch black tendrils clawed at Minato's position at a speed that he barely managed to dodge, sending him flying straight into the open air.

"I missed."

"They went through the window!"

Minato knew that if he stayed any longer under the scrutiny of the Byakugan, his chakra signature would be memorized. His mind reached out to the beacon of one of his seals, and pulled. A still moment of oblivion, and then he was dropping onto the center of their hotel room, his students scrambling to their feet at the table nearby.

"M-Minato-sensei!"

His hand was trembling, he realized. His breath was hitching at intervals.

He let it go in a whoosh, closing his eyes, reminding himself of just why he had decided to endanger his anonymity. There was no need to dwell on the unnecessary information (he was dead, his students were dead) because Minato, based on what it sounded, just might have a feeling of what had happened to his third (only living) student.

It was a reach. It was something that was near impossible to conclude without the evidence being laid out, and even then it was baffling. But it was strangely logical, in an otherworldly sort of way.

Obito and Rin do not need to know of their fates. Minato will make sure it won't happen. Their deaths would loom over their heads until all that was left to think about was how, and they couldn't afford that. His students didn't need that burden.

He waved away his students' questions and moved with slightly heavy steps over to the side to begin modifying the seals.

(But even as he resigned himself to that thought...his heart was cracking.

And there was no telling what would happen when it breaks completely.)

Minato saved the fate of this chapter, everyone. All hail, Minato.

At first it was going to be Obito and Rin. That didn't work out, so I tried the long-awaited Present!Kakashi and Past!Kakashi. It didn't work out either. So here we are, on the same day of the month as the last month's update (at least for my time zone). It took a lot of squeezing. Again, all hail Minato.

One of Team 7 has finally met Kakashi, but it didn't go the way one would expect. Don't worry, their time will come. Also, more of their condition has been revealed. Kudos to those who successfully theorize how it all connects, and/or find the missing pieces to the puzzle.

If you ever wonder if I am still alive, or what I am doing, a look at the newly added "Last Edited" dates at the beginning of every chapter is a good way to start. I have made some minor changes, such as a Hinata cameo in Chapter 2 and, after much deliberation, Obito being the one to introduce his name instead of Rin. Despite being 10 years old, he still managed to bully me until I made a slightly revised version of how it was originally. (Of course, credit is also due to my dear reviewers for helping that thought process along). Other than that, most of the edits are merely smoothing out the wrinkles of my rusty hands: sentence flows, wordings, dialogue, the like. Reading the chapters again is not required, only highly suggested.

Lastly, for those who ever feel down and just need to say the words left unsaid, I suggest typing "The Thoughts Room" on the search bar. It's on the website called thequietplaceproject. The song that plays there is very beautiful and empathetic, so if listening suits you better, search up the song, put it on replay, lay your head down, and close your eyes.

Special thanks to my beloved readers for pointing out mistakes in the last chapter. Nanadaime is the seventh, not sixth, and Rin/Obito should not recognize Naruto and Sasuke's names (it is several years too early for that), are among the few.

Reviews are my light. Thank you! [heart]