A/N: lol hey guys...been awhile, hasn't it

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Naruto characters.

Warning: Yaoi (malexmale), crude language, explicit sexual content, nudity, shounen-ai/BL (Boy Love),

Rated: NC-17

Pairing: Obito Uchiha & Naruto Uzumaki, slight Kakashi Hatake & Naruto Uzumaki

Summary: Obito has spent all of his waking hours to go back to a time in which he could be happy. But life has a funny way of dealing him a losing hand. Or Naruto is just an anomaly in which probabilities can't calculate the extent of his unpredictability.

Paradox

Part I/X

Bonds

Minato perched himself on one of the jagged rocks framing the waterfall. The mist of the rushing water sprayed along his face and it was enough to refresh him. Meanwhile, he busied himself with watching his team interact with their newly-acquired member.

Obito and Rin had taken nicely to him. Kakashi, however, was openly rejecting everything about the boy. Naruto's contagious sunny disposition was something to be feared, at least for traumatized introverts like Kakashi. He could tell just by seeing them interact that the boy was slowly getting under his skin. A feat that wouldn't have been possible without Obito, who had been unknowingly chipping away at Kakashi's exterior for months now.

Rin wasn't quite as lucky. Minato supposed that the disconnect there was inevitable. After all, how could someone born and nurtured in the very things that haunted both boys understand the anguish that came with losing that very foundation, or even comprehend not having it at all?

Obito and Naruto were guffawing while loudly splashing around in the water, their attempts at submerging each other ending up in a twist of limbs and painful hair tugging. Rin was at ease with simply watching them while Kakashi sulked at the edge and away from the trio.

Minato sighed and rested his cheek against his palm.

"And what will we do when we locate these people? What's the objective?"

"Calm down, Minato. You're working yourself up over nothing."

"Hokage-sama, with all due respect I don't even know this boy, how will I know that he won't put my team at risk? You're sending me out there without the necessary infor-"

Sarutobi held up his hand and Minato straightened. He was losing his composure no matter how hard he tried to keep it under wraps. Regardless, he was sure no one could really blame him. He loved his team as if they were his own and he would die protecting them. Even if that meant setting the tragic fate of an enigmatic boy.

"I have my reasons for not disclosing much of the information regarding the boy. Though I'm sure much will be revealed when you locate the objectives. Jiraiya has already sent them word of your expected arrival."

Minato couldn't hold his tongue.

"But why?" He found himself asking, almost pleading. "Why all the secrecy? What aren't you telling me?" The niggling in the back of his head was too much at this point.

Sarutobi closed his eyes and took a puff out of his pipe. He blew the smoke out of his nostrils and he could tell that he was rummaging through his thoughts.

"There are things better left unsaid, for now. All will reveal itself in due time, Minato. Just have patience. But more importantly, trust your judgement."

Minato was still struggling with this. It had been hard at first. His first initial meeting with the boy was only hours before introducing him to his team and it was only a day after he'd been released from the hospital, his previously battered body having fully healed within two days.

That had been his second warning that something wasn't right.

The incident with the ninja-bandits had only proven his theory. The look of terror across Naruto's face had halted him in asking about the phenomena, the realization that the boy had been trying to hide his oddity from them out of sheer fear making his stomach churn in the most painful way.

But one thing was for certain. Naruto's fast-healing ability was directly caused by the seal around his navel. They had all seen it. It had appeared just as the wound began to sear away any evidence of bloodshed, the swirling intricacy beckoning his fascination. Had it been visible for longer then he may have known what it was for, but all he could do now was speculate.

Loud splashes came down from below again and Minato riveted his gaze onto the boy, tracing his eyes along his body and trying to find any more clues as to what he was missing. Alas, the seal wasn't present, which Minato deduced to be the absence of kinetic chakra.

"Haha! You're it!"

He watched intently as Naruto rose from the water and ran toward the waterfall to escape Obito's clutches. The seal hadn't surfaced and it made his eyebrows raise in question.

It must be concentrated then.

Despite his scrutiny, he couldn't help the smile that surfaced when both boys began to wrestle on top of the water and attempted to drown each other by disrupting their chakra flow.

Rin was still off the side and giggling silently at their antics, occasionally throwing worried glances at Kakashi's sulking form.

Minato sighed and hopped down from his perch and landed with only a small shift in the water, almost silent.

"Okay guys let's pack up and head over to the next-"

Kerr-splash!

"-site."

He glanced down at himself incredulously, his pants feeling uncomfortable as they stuck to his legs rather soggily. Naruto's head was poking out from the water and was staring up at him in sheepish apprehension.

"Sorry, sensei." he managed to squeak, a light flush dusking across his cheeks.

Minato smiled down at him despite his inner screeching. Texture was everything to him but...Kushina would be due soon enough and if the little bugger was anything like his mother, then instances like these weren't so far into the future.

"It's fine. I shouldn't have snuck up on the two of you."

Obito, who'd been the main culprit of the whole incident because he'd been the one who'd chucked Naruto a good feet away during their wrestling, was huddled into himself, face red and failing to hide his snickering.

Minato's grin twitched and he winked down at Naruto, who could only start as the man disappeared in a flash before his very eyes. Next thing he knew he was crouching next to Obito and placing a hand on his shoulder.

"You-" Minato hadn't even managed to get a full word in before Obito's shrill scream ripped through the forest.

Kakashi's deadpan stare was everything Naruto was missing from his future.

"You should be used to this by now, idiot." he drawled and Obito shot him a glare. Minato straightened and was doing a poor job at concealing his chuckles.

Rin was also laughing brightly, much to Obito's dismay.

"That was so uncool, sensei." he whined as he trudged to the banks.

They were all dressed and in higher spirits by the time they reached their next destination, which was just a few miles from where the waterfall was located.

Obito was visibly nervous. They had one final exercise to accomplish and therefore it meant he would be paired up with Rin. Finally, he thought, I can show off what I'm really made of without Bakashi in the way to ruin everything like always!

His heartbeats were crescendoing at the mere thought of being so close to Rin, alone. The possibilities were endless and at the mercy of his creative imagination.

Beside him, Naruto was noticeably uncomfortable. Obito had been mumbling to himself for the past five minutes. He was beginning to sweat and the color of his face was slowly turning red. He walked faster when he was certain he heard kissing noises in between the boy's unintelligible babbling.

"Minato-sensei." he called and the man turned to regard him with a curious gaze.

"Yes, Naruto?" Minato questioned softly and it struck Naruto how gentle the man was, even in passing.

He glanced back surreptitiously to make sure no one was paying him any mind. Obito was still in a love haze while Kakashi and Rin were a few feet behind him, silent and tense as Rin tried to find the right words to say to her dispassionate teammate and unofficial crush.

"I wanted to say thanks." he finally said. Minato blinked.

"What for?"

Naruto kicked at a pebble, the subtle but genuine attention the man was paying him reminding him of Iruka in more ways than one. His heart felt heavy.

"I don't know much about the hush-hush stuff pervy sensei and the old man talk about, but I know that you could have chosen not to be here. I'm glad you did." he smiled shyly up at him, unused to offering gratitude to people who, without reason, decided to help him and expected nothing in return.

Minato was taken aback at the boy's uncharacteristic timidness while simultaneously blindsided by the genuity of his seemingly out-of-the-blue admission.

The ruffling of Naruto's spikes was, in retrospect, a knee-jerk reaction for him. The boy reminded him too much of Kushina at times with rambunctiousness and rare displays of astounding practicality, with features that remarkably resembled Minato himself. For about the hundredth time since he'd seen the boy, he wondered who his own child would take after.

The thought sobered him up and he straightened, his hand slipping from Naruto's head, but he didn't miss the slight moue of disappointment that settled across the boy's face.

"You're a ninja of the Hidden Leaf village. That's more than enough reason to help one another when we can." He smiled down at him, big and bright, and Naruto matched it tenfold.

"Mhm!" he nodded.

The atmosphere had shifted. The curiosity that wracked Minato's brain was still there but the suspicion had all but dissipated with the wind. He was right. No matter what had brought Naruto here, the fact of the matter was that there was no way of going back, only forward.

When they finally arrived at a small clearing within the forest, Minato set his pack down and stared them down with a barely-contained smirk. All four of them squirmed underneath his gaze.

"This third exercise will begin in a scavenger hunt and then we'll finish the day off with a spar. Naruto, Kakashi, here are your clues. Obito, Rin, here's yours." he handed them a neatly folded piece of parchment paper and Obito took a peek inside the instant it was in his hands.

"Good luck!"

Obito snorted.

"Yeah, we're gonna need it by the looks of it. Kushina-san wasn't kidding when she said you were corny."

Rin smacked him over the head.

"Baka! You can't say stuff like that before a competition!"

Minato's lips twitched.

Naruto was gnawing at his bottom lip to keep from laughing and even Kakashi was skimming through their paper with raised eyebrows.

"Let's go now while we have the chance." he muttered and slinked away into the dense forestry. Naruto scrambled after him, throwing a furtive glance over his shoulder to see if Obito and Rin had noticed amidst their bickering. They hadn't and he snickered to himself as he caught up to his elusive teammate.

"So, what's the first clue?"

Kakashi didn't say anything. He merely kept walking and Naruto tried not to throw something at the boy. He tried to snatch the paper from his hand but Kakashi was quicker and raised it up out of his reach.

He growled in annoyance.

"Give it here, bastard."

"Only if you ask nicely."

The arrogant response only peeved him further.

"Will you please hand it over before I punch you in the face?" He said crossly, arms folded petulantly. After almost a year under his Kakashi-sensei's tutelage, he knew how to tell the man's facial expressions hidden beneath his mask. Which was a testament to how little Kakashi had changed through the years.

The bastard was smirking. He relented however and handed the paper over. Naruto snatched it from him with a snarl and read the first line.

He snorted.

"I am tall but cast no shadow, old with eroded bones, but stronger than many."

Naruto snorted. "What the hell is that?"

"A tree?" Kakashi offered.

Naruto shook his head. "They cast shadows."

Both of them thought back to the scenery they had passed to get here.

"Eroded…"

"What was that?"

"Eroded." Kakashi repeats. "Wind erodes. So does water."

There was a beat of silence.

"The waterfall!" they both exclaimed.

"Dammit, that means we have to go all the way back." Kakashi grumbled, already jumping to the treetops, Naruto following closely behind.

"If we keep up this pace, we should be there in about ten minutes."

Kakashi nodded his affirmative and said nothing else.

It unnerved him a bit to be around the other boy. Naruto knew so much about him yet he was so oblivious to it all. He felt his chest tightening, unbidden memories of his own team surfacing.

"What are you staring at?" Kakashi's voice intoned, interrupting his wayward thoughts.

Naruto started in the surprise and looked away.

"N-Nothing." He said, a blush forming across his cheeks at being caught. It was hard enough getting the other boy to like him, he didn't need to create more obstacles for himself along the way.

Kakashi regarded him for another moment before looking ahead once more. Naruto let out a breath of relief.

They arrived at the waterfall and stared up at it from the edge. The sparkling blue water sprayed them as it hit the surface, its refreshing temperature cooling their heated skin.

"He probably put it behind the waterfall." Kakashi stated and began his climb up by jumping on the jutting rocks. They were slick with water and covered in green moss.

"Watch your step-"

"WAAAaahhHHhh!"

Ker-splash!

Kakashi sighed and continued on.

Meanwhile, Naruto was swallowing buckets of water. There was a light at the bottom that twinkled when he opened his eyes briefy underwater but he was quickly running out of oxygen to swim down and investigate.

He headed up and spit out the water he hadn't yet swallowed.

"Are you done being an idiot?" A voice echoed from above and Naruto glared up at his teammate.

"Did you find it?" he growled and Kakashi shook his head.

"I think it might be down here."

He took a gulp of air and dove down again, swimming further into the darkness. The twinkle was reflecting the light from above and he swam toward it. The further he went, the dimmer it got and the chill of the water was getting bitterly cold.

Wrapping his hand around whatever it was he pulled it from the ground and tried to hurry to the surface, his lungs were beginning to tighten from the lack of oxygen. He glanced at the thing, realizing that while it was a kunai the peculiar design of it was uniquely Minato's.

It excited him. Maybe this is how Minato got so lightning-fast!

Without really thinking, he surged a small spike of chakra into it.

The world shifted on its axis. Where the water had slowed down his movements, he felt nothing but freedom as he materialized in the open air. And dizziness. A lot of dizziness.

But he didn't have time to reflect.

"Aaahh!" That scream totally wasn't his.

He landed on something hard and flailing and, whatever it was, had the hardest head since Sakura.

"Oooowwwiieee." He groaned, stumbling back while rubbing his head.

"I'm gonna kill him." Kakashi moaned as he clutched his own head.

"What was that?"

Kakashi glared at him but couldn't hold it for long when he saw that Naruto was holding onto the very thing that accompliced his almost death like a prized possession.

"That's Minato-sensei's seal. He uses it for his signature technique." Kakashi grumbled and heaved himself off the ground.

"Wooow!" Naruto's eyes were sparkling in awe. He paused enough to scratch the itch clawing at his mind. "But wait, how did I end up here?"

Kakashi pointed at another three-pronged kunai imbedded at the base of a tree a few yards away from the waterfall.

"I spotted it when you went under. It's the next clue."

He plucked it from the bark and unravelled the separate piece of paper covering the handle.

"I swim high in the water but I never get wet."

Naruto was stumped.

"High in the water?" Kakashi mumbled, confused. "Did you see anything else while you were down there drowning?"

Miffed, Naruto shook his head. "Just some fish." He shrugged.

"Maybe one of them had something tied around it. I'll check." The other boy didn't even bother to take off his clothes before diving into the water. Naruto, still sopping wet and glad he would be the only one wet anymore, waited by the edge and tried to see through the darkness of the water.

After three minutes, Kakashi resurfaced, taking in a mouthful of air before cursing.

"I didn't find anything."

"Hmmm." Naruto sat back down again, grasping his chin in deep thought and staring hard at the fish swimming just below the surface of the water.

That's when he spotted it.

"Right there!"

Kakashi whipped his head around. "Where?" he asked. All the fish swam unbothered and looked relatively normal to him.

"The reflection! It's above us." Naruto ran across the water just as Kakashi pulled himself up to the surface and pointed to the sky directly above them.

Floating high in the air was a makeshift balloon, the string tied at its base carrying a scroll.

Without preamble, Naruto threw a kunai at it.

It missed by four inches.

Kakashi whistled, "Wow. That was terrible."

"Shut up!" Naruto cried, a firm pout stuck on his face. "The sun was in my eye."

Kakashi rolled his eyes and threw his own effortlessly. It reached its target spot on, however, upon impact the kunai simply fell to the ground, the balloon and its entirety seemingly untouched.

"What the-?" Naruto squinted. "What just happened?"

Kakashi sighed. "Of course it wouldn't be that easy."

Cursing his sensei for what seemed to be the umpteenth time that day, Kakashi trudged ahead.

"We have to get to the highest point nearest us and plan from there. I can't see anything from here."

They ran up the cliff in haste.

"There seems to be a seal protecting it. We'll need something more powerful if we want to bring it down." Kakashi observed from the edge of the cliff.

There was a beat of silence as Kakashi thought about their next approach.

"Let me throw you." He supplied, as if the solution posed no threat.

"Hell no!" Naruto jumped away from him, arms raised and ready to defend himself from the lunatic Kakashi was proving to be. I can't tell which ones worse, Kakashi-sensei or Kakashi-baka. The hairs on the back of his neck stood at attention from the look the other boy was giving him.

"I suppose we could execute my other plan if you're too much of a chicken."

"Which is?" Naruto urged him to continue, still never letting his guard down. Kakashi's 'Thousand Years of Pain' isn't gonna get me this time! Believe it! He cringed at the mere thought of it.

"Since we have two of sensei's kunais we can use it to our advantage. You've already proven able to utilize them…somehow."

It's a fact that's been irking him since it happened, because even he hadn't been able to get very far with them without making himself dry heave at the sudden and drastic shift of his equilibrium, "so, if you can throw it correctly, you should be able to grab the balloon and bring it down with you."

Naruto sat on the plan for a moment, nodding in agreement and slight relief. "But….how will I come back down without, you know, breaking something?" he eyed the distance between the balloon and the ground below from the edge of the cliff, swallowing thickly.

Kakashi sighed, "That's what the second kunai is for."

The other boy stayed silent, an expectant look aimed at Kakashi to continue explaining. Kakashi, in return, refrained from slamming the heel of his palm into his face in exasperation.

"You'll throw the second one where you want to land….idiot." he grumbled, opting to rub his temples instead.

It was as if a lightbulb suddenly turned on in Naruto's head because he blinked, smiled, and nodded excitedly.

"Mmm mmm! I like this plan much better." He grinned before pausing for a moment in thought.

"How come you didn't recommend this the first time?"

Waving his hand flippantly in the air, Kakashi turned his attention to the floating object still high in the sky.

"Make sure the sun isn't in your eye this time." He quipped before handing Naruto the second kunai.

A light flush dusted across Naruto's cheeks as he took the handle of the blade in his hand.

"Alright then." he positioned himself and took a calm and steady breath.

"I'll wait for you at the bottom. Make sure you use enough chakra to disrupt the seal."

With that, he hopped over the ledge.

Just concentrate, Naruto. You got this. He mentally comforted himself since Kakashi proved to be just as cold and bastardly as Sasuke had been. Couldn't we have at least done a practice round!?

Taking another deep breath, he clutched the other kunai in his hand while he flung the other. The velocity of it whistled in the air and just as it was about to reach balloon, he poured chakra into the second kunai.

He adjusted better the second time around but everything still swam in his vision like a whirlwind. Despite the confusion, he was able to grab the knife before it was deflected away. Already beginning to feel gravity pull him down, Naruto clutched the knife in his hand and rammed it into the makeshift balloon.

It ruptured with a resounding pop and both he and scroll began to fall.

"Wah-AHHHHHHH!"

Down below, Kakashi cursed.

Of course the idiot would mess things up. Granted, he would fall into the water but there was no telling how that would affect the scroll. Would it still be readable if submerged? If it wasn't, then that means all of this would have been for nothing and Kakashi would still have zero wins under his belt for these absurd teambuilding exercises.

While Kakashi could be called a lot of things, a loser was not one of them. Looking frantically between Naruto and the scroll, he made his decision. Running up a nearby boulder he propelled himself into the sky and grabbed onto his objective, somersaulting back onto land in one quick motion.

Kerr-splash!

He winced at the sound, knowing good and well Naruto probably slapped the surface of the water with his face.

There was wet thrashing before Naruto made it back up, face cherry-red and anger apparent in the way his nose was scrunched.

"You asshole!" the boy shrilled at the top of his lungs, splashing almost helplessly in the water before clambering onto dry land.

"I could have died!"

Kakashi rolled his eyes, hitting the scroll against his palm in nonchalance, only serving to make Naruto angrier.

"But you didn't." Kakashi dully noted, tone uncaring.

"I can't depend on you at all!" he growled, wringing parts of his clothes from excess water.

Kakashi didn't bother to placate the other boy, nothing he said would ease the situation and on top of it all, he honestly didn't care. At least they had the scroll.

He opened it without letting the other know but the sound of the unraveling scroll made Naruto pause, if only for a moment.

There was a single word carved into the parchment, big and black and taunting. Kakashi blinked.

Before he could react, the scroll was all but ripped from his hands and thrown into the water.

"Bastard! What happened to 'those who break the rules are scum, but those who leave their friends behind….are worse than that'?!" Naruto yelled and despite himself, tears began to gather in the corners of his eyes.

This boy…wasn't anything at all like the Kakashi-sensei he'd grown to care about. Even worse, this Kakashi reminded him too much of the toxic traits Sasuke had carried around himself back when their team had still been a team. But, somehow, Naruto knew that had the roles been switched, Sasuke would have found a way to save him.

His fists clenched at his sides and he stormed off in a blind rage.

Kakashi stood there, taken aback by the outburst and feeling something deep in the pit of his chest. He couldn't quite identify it at the moment but he knew, in the flurry of it, he was equally as angry.

"Even after all that I failed." He murmured, walking on the surface of the water to retrieve the scroll.

It was soaked, the ink on the scroll that had read "FAIL" coming off in a slithering movement. He squatted down and dipped his hand into the water, grasping the top of the scroll and bringing it up.

There were no letters now, the parchment and empty canvas.

Suddenly, a new word had formed.

'PASS'

Kakashi narrowed his eyes.

"Of course." He said and looked to the sky.

Had the scroll fell into the water from the beginning, meaning that if had he chosen to rescue Naruto first, they would have passed regardless.

Sighing, he rolled up the scroll and tucked it into his pouch. He took the first step of what would be a long trek back to his team.

Ubeta'd

Hi guys! Hope you enjoyed this chapter. I know you guys have been waiting and waiting but I'm slowly but surely getting back into things.