A/N: So, here you go; commence chapter three!

Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN NARUTO. Can I make it any more simple than that?

Also, the older (timetraveling) Naruto will now be referenced as 'Niiromaru', or 'Niiro'. In case you don't remember, 'Niiro,' means 'red' in Japanese.

Chapter Three:

Niiromaru woke up the next morning with a feeling of contentment. The sun was shining on his face, the birds were singing, and he could tell just by the smell that the day was going to be sunny and warm. He sighed happily, not even opening his eyes. He just laid on his bed, soaking up his happi- Wait a second. Bed? He wasn't on his bed... he wasn't even on a bed at all!

He leaped out of bed in a flash, kunai (hastily retrieved from a pocket) in hand. Automatically, his chakra flashed outwards in a sensor-wave. There were two people sitting outside his window. He whipped his head around, ready to throw the knife when he realized with a jolt that they were Konoha ANBU agents. What are ANBU doing outside my window? He questioned. Then, another more pressing issue came to mind. And, even more important, where the hell am I?

His eyes scanned the room as he stood unmoving. The room, he noted with satisfaction, was still as silent as it was when he woke up. Even in a crisis as this seemed to be, he hadn't made a sound. On a similar note, one of the two ANBU outside his window was frantically trying to wake up his sleeping companion. I really should find out who that is. He or she isn't allowed to sleep on the job.

The room was familiar-looking, as was the view. He furrowed his brow. But he'd never been here... had he? Niiromaru thought back, thinking of his last memories. Let's see... the fake-Sasuke's letter, running to Konoha - then what? He frowned in concentration. Then... the smells of ink and paper. Of seals. And then Kyuubi. And then -

Naruto (or Niiro as he had decided to call himself even in his mind - to avoid slip-ups) felt his memory of the previous day come back with all the speed of a rushing Gai. Needless to say, the revelation that he was in the past swept him off his feet.

He crashed backwards onto the couch wordlessly, dropping the beaten kunai that had been in his hand. Everything is gone. Can I ever get back? No more being Hokage, being married, no more peace... for the first time since he'd arrived, Niiro allowed the full meaning of this time-change to wash over him. He was in the past. Sure, there were things he'd simply love to change, but he was only really in a good time period to fix one of them - though it was a big one. Plus, if he did fix it, what would be the consequences? How many people would die... or not die?

He sighed. He really did have a lot of thinking to do. Him being here at all had most likely already changed something in his real time. Is it really bad of me to be unsure of whether or not I even want to change things? Should I?

Niiro lay on the comfortable couch in turmoil. He bit his lips, chewed his nails - even rubbed his temples. Much to his annoyance, none of them seemed to relieve his stress. Though it was amusing to watch the surveying ANBU trying to figure out what he was thinking about. But that wasn't what he needed to think about right now.

He lay there staring intently at the ceiling as if it would provide some sort of answer for a good thirty minutes before he got up with a sigh. It's no good trying to figure it out in such a short amount of time. I'll decide later. But for now, I should check up with Tsunade-sama. He reached reflexively over to the couch where he had been sleeping to retrieve his robe, and grimaced as he remembered the genjutsu hiding the kanji, "Sixth Hokage," on the back.

Again, Niiro sighed. He really did want to take the genjutsu off... that coat was part of his identity! But he couldn't. It was far too much of a give-away. Not only would it alert people to the fact that he was the son of the Yondaime, but that he was Hokage. He would love to see the look on his younger self's face when he learned that he would, in fact, become Hokage someday. Niiro smiled.

He felt around in his coat. Well, for sure he knew that he had a few extra kunai, shuriken, and some explosion tags... Also, he was fairly certain he had sealed some extra leg and arm weights. Those were quite a bit more expensive, but not irreplaceable. He had an extra Katana (sealed, of course), his collection of extra Tri-Kunai with attached tags (he was working on the Yellow Flash technique, though he didn't have it mastered yet) and most likely a few nicknacks. He hadn't added any expensive things or the like as he'd been prepared for an epic battle, not a long mission. The most revealing of the lot was the small collection of Tri-Kunai, which hadn't been seen in Konoha since the Yondaime's time.

So what now? He wondered, looking around the room with baleful eyes. Could I go on a mission? He brightened. I don't see a problem with it, myself. A mission sounded wonderful at the present. As Hokage, he only went on about five missions per year; and then only very well-paying ones where his presence was requested. He missed being able to go out of Konoha boundaries and not being constantly worried about some disaster in the city. He winced. A disaster that had happened.

To distract himself from more thoughts of his native time, he began get dressed. He dug through the drawer where he'd put his clothes and retrieved an outfit similar to what he'd normally wear. He preferred his normal get-up, but he hadn't been able to find the same style of shirt he'd worn before.

This new shirt was a white tank top, and of normal length, unlike his normal one which was red and longer than a usual shirt. In the center of his back, there was an emblazoned logo of a dark blue Uzumaki-swirl. However, unlike his symbol at this time, there was a lavender circle in the middle with a midnight diamond inside it. It was his personal symbol as a Hokage.

The swirl representing himself, the lavender and blue for Hinata, as well as a small reference to Tsunade (his mother in all but blood) in form of the diamond. The beginnings of tears pricked up in the corners of his eyes, but he quickly wiped them away.

Once he had successfully gotten dressed and cleaned up (consisting of brushing his teeth, eating, and running his hand through his hair a few times) he headed towards the bookshelf on the wall. Hastily grabbing a blank piece of sealing paper and some chakra-infused ink, he absent-mindedly began to create a combined blood and alert seal with the speed and accuracy that could be achieved only by a seal master such as himself. Outside, the ANBU were gaping. Niiro gave a small smirk.

Before leaving, more out of force of habit than anything else, Niiro applied a small genjutsu over his red ANBU Captain's tattoo on his right arm.

Then, in a fit of mischievousness, he leaped out of the window, rocketing himself off the heads of the two ANBU outside it - who promptly fell out of the tree, barely managing to land on their feet. Embarrassed and a bit angry, the two masked ninja followed him (barely being able to keep up) towards the Hokage tower.

"Baa-chaaaannnnn!" Niiro yelled, flipping in agilely. "Can I have a mission?" It was only then that Niiro really looked at her. Tsunade looked, for lack of better explanation, drunk. Or at least very, very sleepy. Her face was planted firmly on a small stack of formal looking paperwork in front of her, a tiny droplet of drool seeping out of the corner. Her hair was a mess - bits and pieces fallen out of her normal two pigtails. "Baa-chan," Niiro repeated, annoyed.

I, of all people, know how annoying paperwork is; but you still can't just drool on it! Niiro thought with more righteous indignation thought possible when defending paperwork of all things.

"Wuhhh-" Tsunade groaned, flipping her head the other way, so she was not longer facing Niiro. "Whhud 'ju wan?" Niiro (with all his years of practice decoding Tsunade's drunk-speech) answered,

"A mission - at least A-rank."

At this, Tsunade finally got up, and stared at him balefully. "A-rank? And why should I give you that? You're still under surveillance, you know." Niiro nodded impatiently.

"Yeah, I know," he replied, "-but I'm a Hok- ninja, and my skills are wasted just sitting around here! I could be helping the village!" Niiro barely caught himself before he said 'Hokage,' and gave a small sigh of relief that he'd managed to do so. Tsunade, however, had caught caught his little trip up.

"You're a what?" She asked curiously and suspiciously. "What were you going to say before you said 'ninja'?" Despite himself, Niiro let out a small breath of relief that she hadn't caught exactly what he had said.

"I said that I'm a..." Niiro searched desperately for a way out of this... "-a hokey person!"

"... a hokey person."

"Yep!"

Tsunade looked about as convinced as a fish might when a shark swore that he wouldn't kill him, if he only closed his eyes for a second or two. In plainer terms, she was not fooled in the slightest. However, she seemed to decide that the subject wasn't worth following up on at the moment.

"Fine, you can have a mission. B-rank," she said, plucking a sheet of paper from many of the stacks on her desk. Niiro gaped. It had literally been over two years since he'd done a mission lower than A-rank! He opened his mouth to protest, and then shut it with an audible clack. It wasn't worth fighting over.

"Sure," he replied, a bit sullen. "What is it?"

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Three days later, Niiro returned.

The mission had been simple, easily the most straight-forward thing he'd done in ages. The B-Rank had been a retrieval mission, in the Land of Water. The scroll he'd been sent to retrieve had detailed information from Jiraiya's spy network in the Land of Water, especially the goings-on of the Civil War commencing there. Niiro had completed the mission with zero conflict, doing the tradeoff at the Wandering Wolf, a civilian bar in the Water town of Shinjuku.

Niiro entered the gates of Konoha, signing in at the guard's desk. The Chuunin present looked suspiscious (they'd never heard of a "Niiromaru") but checked him off. The former hokage ambled to the Hokage Tower without ninja speed, and got no strange looks. It was nice. His entire life, Niiromaru had been a standout for at least one reason. Kyuubi container. Student of Hatake Kakashi, and then Jiraiya of the Sannin. Killer of Pein. Hokage. In all honesty, this was the first time he'd been able to just... blend in.

The only thing making him stand out was his hair. Niiro tugged at a loose strand, tucking it behind his forehead protector. There were two people citizens of Konoha (and Iwa, incidentally) connected with bright blonde hair: Uzumaki Naruto, and Namikaze Minato. Naruto couldn't be connected with either. He'd been required to keep a henge up at all times, to prevent his real identity from getting out, but it was getting old!

Plus, it was chakra taxing to keep up a henge all the time - even for a chakra monster like Niiro, it depleted his stores by a slightly noticeable bit. And Niiro would rather not loose a fight because he'd needed to keep up a henge, thank you very much.

Deciding he would address the issue later, Niiro stepped into the Hokage Tower. Not paying much attention to his surroundings, Niiro stepped up to the mission desk and plopped his neat report onto the table. His mission reports, once messy and fully of exagerration ("and then, I made a Rasengan fifteen feet wide, and Sakura-chan was sooo amazed, and then I killed the bastard, and Sasuke was jealous of my superawesome power, and then Sakura kissed me!") were now honed down to an art.

"Thank you, Niiromaru-san," an extremely familiar voice said from across the counter. Niiro froze and whipped his head over to the man sitting behind the desk. There, looking younger and less scarred than Niiro had seen in years, was Umino Iruka. Niiro stared in amazement and disbelief. In the future, Iruka was still alive, thank kami. However, he'd been badly injured protecting his students during Niiro's final battle with Uchiha Madara. Iruka had lost his left arm from the elbow down, and had gained a long scar circling around his collarbone and onto the side of his scull.

And now here he was - brown ponytail, arm, and all. Niiro choked up a little, but managed to say,

"Iruka-sensei?" Iruka looked confused. Luckily, he was extremely used to being called, "sensei," so he didn't notice it, but still-

"Excuse me for being so impolite, Niiromaru-san, but do I know you?"

"N-no," Niiro replied softly. Iruka looked confused.

"Are you new to the Konoha forces? Forgive me, but you look quite told to be a Gennin."

"N-no, no..." replied Niiro, then remembering what Tsunade had told him was his backstory. "I've been circulating through ANBU for years. You wouldn't recognize me without my mast on." Iruka blushed a little bit.

"Sorry, Niiromaru-san," he apologized.

"There's nothing to be sorry for, Iruka-san," said Niiro, purposefully adding the correct honorific at the end. Niiro paused, then offered: "Hey, Iruka-san, I was wondering if you wanted to meet me at the Broken Kunai Pub later today?"

Iruka looked confused, then slightly embarrassed. "Uhm... I'm sorry, Niiro-san, but I am not homosexual, so-" Niiro laughed loudly.

"Sorry if I didn't make myself clear, Iruka-san! I just don't have many friends, since I was in ANBU Black Ops so many years... I thought we might be friends," he said. Iruka's face rose in color until it resembled a tomato.

"Yes, Niiro-san!" he said, standing up and bowing a little deeper than was necessary. "And I'm sorry about-"

"No prob, Iruka-san!" Niiro said, scratching the back of his head and grinning hugely. "See you there!"

Niiro disappeared with a puff of smoke. Iruka stood there, staring at the place where he had been. Umino Iruka was confused. First, he'd been just having a normal day. Then and freaking ANBU had looked floored at the sight of him. Then, he'd asked him out! But then it turned out he didn't- though they were still meeting up. And then... Iruka paused in his internal monologue.

Niiro looked a lot like Naruto. Iruka had noticed this the second he'd appeared in the Mission room. An older, more mature Naruto, definitely, but still. For a minute, he'd wondered if they were related somehow. But it was only when he had done that... that thing that Naruto always did (scratching the back of his tilted head and grinning) that he realized how similar they truly were.

If his backstory hadn't been in place, Iruka might of thought Niiromaru was Nar- no. That was impossible! Iruka shook his head at his thoughts, amused at their impossibility.

"Iruka-sensei!" Iruka turned around just in time to see an orange blur zip into his chest.

"Ooohf!" exclaimed the Academy teacher as the wind was partially knocked out of him by 110 pounds of hyperactive, preteen boy.

"Iruka-sensei! Iruka-sensei! You'll never guess what happened yesterday!" Naruto yelled loudly, letting go of Iruka's waist and jumping up and down at high velocity. Iruka's eyes followed him. "So I was..." then, Naruto trailed off into quiet.

Iruka pinched himself. Had... had Naruto just... stopped talking? Mid-rant, no less? It was unheard of - no, impossible! Naruto gripped Iruka by his wrist and dragged him up over a rooftop. Iruka kept pace with Naruto easily, though he noted with satisfaction that the Genin was nearly twice as fast as he'd been when in the Academy. Finally, they stopped at the edge of the village, on the nearly deserted road circling the high walls.

"What's all this about, Naruto?" Iruka asked, more than a little impatient.

"I'm not sure if I'm allowed to tell you-" he whispered. His whisper, of course, was only slightly more quiet than a normal person's average volume. "-Baa-chan told me not to-" Iruka narrowed his eyes, and interrupted.

"If Hokage-sama has told you not to share something with anyone, than you need to listen to her, Naruto!" chastised Iruka. "Village secrets aren't something to be laughed at!"

"But Iruka-sensei, it's-"

"Naruto, think about what you're doing for once. Does this secret have to do with a person? No, don't answer out loud, just nod or shake your head." Naruto nodded, indicating that the secret was about a person. "If you tell me this, could this person be in danger?" Naruto paused before shaking his head no. "If someone else heard this, could he or she be in danger?"

Naruto dropped his gaze before nodding slowly.

"Then don't tell me. Next time, Naruto, think these three things through before telling something to anyone. It was smart of you to bring me away from the crowd, though."

Naruto brightened and stood up a little straighter. Iruka suddenly felt bad for shooting down his former student and younger brother figure so severely. He bit his lip... should he apologize? He considered for a few seconds before deciding that no, he shouldn't. This was a lesson Naruto had to learn. He was growing up fast, with Sasuke leaving, the Chuunin Exam fiasco, that insane red-haired Suna kid, and (from what Iruka had heard of the rumor mill lately) no other than Jiraiya of the Sannin! Naruto was growing up, and it was visible.

Iruka smiled sadly, looking at Naruto with a reminiscent gaze. Iruka could only hope that Naruto would manage to turn out as well as his scarily similar ANBU counterpart, Niiromaru.

End of Chapter

Sorry it's been such a long time! I've been majorly busy with school, as well as personal things. However, I'll try to update as much as I can.

On another note, I have another account (which I use for Harry Potter and Alex Rider fanfictions) and have several fanfictions you might enjoy if you like those fandoms. My author name is Aquahina.

Thanks for reading, and please review!