Chapter Text
Naruto, Sasuke knew, would never leave the village unattended without notice.
However much of an idiot he often was—an "usuratonkachi," Sasuke would often mutter—Sasuke knew better than anyone that Naruto cared deeply for the Hidden Leaf Village and disappearing one ordinary evening, completely unnoticed and completely unbeknownst to anyone as to why, was not in his character. Something was not lining up.
He called an emergency summon immediately, sending his hawks out to summon the few he could trust with this fragile information. He could not let the village people know that their Hokage had gone missing—that would cause more panic than necessary. The Uchiha did not consider himself worthy of making decisions in place of the Hokage, but even Sasuke knew telling the village would simply cause unnecessary, irrational fear to be invoked. Sasuke may have preferred to stay in the shadows but right now, he knew something had to be done immediately.
So he stuck by his decision to summon the meeting.
First to arrive to the Hokage's office was Shikamaru, appearing as he would to any other day-time summon even though it was nearly three in the morning. His hair was pulled tightly into its usual pony and he wore a plain grey jumpsuit with a long, tan overcoat. Sasuke raised an eyebrow, taking notice of his fresh appearance at such hour of the night.
Neither were one for small talk so Sasuke cut straight to the chase, deciding those who arrived later would have to be debriefed. Time was of the essence, after all.
"Naruto is missing," he said in his usual monotonous tone. He was more nervous than he let on but hid it well. He had years of practice in hiding his emotions. This was no different. "Hinata informed me using one of my emergency messenger birds just a few minutes ago. He never returned home in the evening like he'd told her he would and when she came to the office to bring him a change of clothes, he was gone. There were no notes or messages left and the ANBU guards were dismissed early in the evening."
At this, the silver-haired Rokudaime appeared in a poof of smoke. "I apologize for my tardiness, I broke a mirror getting dressed and had to take the long way to avoid any black cats, lest I be double unlucky," he said, stifling a yawn. Upon reading the stiff situation, he straightened up and furrowed his thin brows. "What's the meaning of this?"
Shikamaru sighed, which he did quite often, but tonight's was heavier than usual. "Nanadaime is missing," he said bluntly. "Dismissed his ANBU early and never returned home this evening."
"Hinata is on her way too, but had to drop the kids off with Sakura," Sasuke added, leaning against the desk covered in stacks upon stacks of paper, books, and file-folders. Almost as if on que, Hinata came quickly and quietly into the room. Her brows looked permanently furrowed and eyes were filled with wary concern. "Naruto would never leave unannounced like this, so I summoned you all here to discuss what's next."
"Hm," Kakashi hummed thoughtfully, rubbing his chin in the process. "You're right, it's quite strange, though I don't think we should automatically assume he was captured. It would take a damn strong shinobi or three to capture Naruto unnoticed."
People nodded and hummed in agreement, filling the otherwise silent office.
"Protocol says Kakashi takes office temporarily while Shikamaru gathers search parties," Sasuke uttered robotically, though his single visible eye loomed with uncertainty.
Kakashi took immediate notice and, with a heavy sigh of regret, decided to do the dutiful thing and step up. Retirement was wonderful, but he was needed right now—and comrades always come first.
"This information will be highly confidential. Only ANBU and those heading up searches will know the details. The public will not know of the Nanadaime's disappearance and will simply be informed that he is out of office," Kakashi spoke with confidence and purpose, a grave contrast to his usually uncaring tone nowadays. Retirement's been treating him well, but Kakashi knew the severity of the situation. And as the Rokudaime, it was his responsiblility to step up in times such as this. "Shikamaru will head the within-village search, so he's nearby if we need him. Sasuke will travel to villages on our red-list, using his visual prowess to seek Naruto out. I will dispatch various ANBU teams to search the Land of Fire and neighboring lands. All information is to be relayed using Sasuke's birds back to myself. Let's find our Nanadaime and ensure he returns safely." Kakashi obviously wanted Naruto to return. Despite the uncaring attitude he often presented, he really did care for his student. And, if Naruto were to disappear, Kakashi would inevitably be taking office again until the eighth Hokage could be instated, and that was about the last thing Kakashi wanted.
A few nods from everyone and Hinata offered to contact the ANBU Commander and summon him to the Hokage's office.
Kakashi agreed. "And everyone," he added before people dispersed. "Remember to keep this information confidential. Nobody can know our Nanadaime is missing, especially enemy lands."
"We're going to find him," Sasuke stated. Sasuke didn't lie nowadays. Lying was something of his past. He lived in the shadows but spoke only the truth, with the exception of protecting confidential information, in which case he stuck mostly to half-truths. But he knew in his heart that the Nanadaime would return, because however much of a Number One Unexpected Knucklehead Ninja he was, Naruto loved this village more than anything and swore to protect it like his family. He would return. Naruto would find a way out of whatever situation he was in, no matter what it took, because he never gave up. That was his way of ninja—his motto, his way of life; the essence of his very being.
~ Approximately 8 hours prior ~
Naruto leaned back in his chair, looking dreadfully upon the stacks and stacks of paperwork he had yet to finish. He glanced up at the clock: 7 pm. He'd told Hinata he'd be home by 9.
Sighing, Naruto let his eyes flutter closed. For only a moment, he allowed himself to re-live certain moments of his life. Running the streets of Konoha with a bucket and paint brush, graffitiing anything that looked remotely important. Proclaiming his very audacious plan to become the Hokage in front of his entire academy class, earning him only scoffs and giggles. Meeting Team 7 for the first time, sitting up on the roof of the Hokage Tower and telling of their dreams for the future.
If he knew the future involved 90% paperwork and 10% cool Hokage stuff, he wondered if he still would have chosen this path as a child.
Obviously now, he would never change anything. He'd matured a lot in his teenage and young-adult years. While his ultimate goal to become Hokage remained the same, his reasons for doing it changed. He wasn't the kid who wanted everyone to acknowledge him anymore. When became the young man everyone looked up to following Pein's assault on the village over a decade ago and after the war, Naruto realized at that point how wrong his intentions had been all along.
One didn't simply become Hokage so that others would acknowledge them. On the contrary, the Hokage was someone people already acknowledged and who acknowledged the people.
This village was his family no matter how he framed it, and the Hokage's main purpose was to ensure the village ran soundly and everyone was protected. In times of peace such as this, things ran smoothly more often than not. Even when things didn't go according to plan, there was never fear like there used to be. That was one benefit of living in times of world peace and complete alliance with the major elemental lands.
Naruto, and many others, took great comfort in the peace and stability that had been ensured following the Fourth Shinobi War. They hoped this peace would continue to take place for a long while, too. Forever would be nice, Naruto dreamed, but he knew that thought was irrational.
Nothing lasts forever, especially not world peace.
Stifling yet another yawn—it must be the fiftieth this hour—Naruto decided to leave the paperwork for tomorrow. It wasn't often he made it home for dinner with his wife or kids, and he knew how much his presence meant to them all... especially Boruto. He'd been told that Boruto had begun acting up in school, purposefully failing to get the attention of the teachers and, they suspect, the Hokage. Naruto couldn't help but notice it felt like just yesterday that was young Naruto himself, trying to gain the attention of any person he could... even if it meant painting all over the Hokage stone faces only to be lectured by Iruka and spending the next nine hours scrubbing it off.
Naruto didn't admit to failure very often, but he would admit to one thing: When it came to being a father, he had no idea what he was doing.
Naruto never had that constant father-figure growing up. There were men who felt fatherly, yes, such as Iruka-Sensei or the Pervy Sage, and even Kakashi-Sensei sometimes... but none of them were constant and none of them could truly fill the gap that his own father, Minato the Yondaime, had left unfilled.
Thank the gods that Hinata was such a good mother, Naruto thought, or else he would truly fear for Boruto and Himiwari's well-being.
Naruto dismissed the guards early, deciding to take a little brain-break before heading home to spend time with his family. As he walked through the village, people smiled and bowed. It filled him with a certain warmth that he still could not get used to. He was just now realizing how his father must have felt, being the respected Hokage that he was.
It was no secret that Minato was loved by everyone since day one. Kakashi had told him stories that Minato was never able to tell to Naruto himself—stories about Minato's childhood. Kakashi, being Minato's student, knew quite a bit.
Naruto's favourite story was the one about how his mother and father met. Though, who could resist a good love-story, especially when it involved two people Naruto loved so very much? He only wished he could have heard it from his father himself. Kakashi's version was a bit... tacky. He enjoyed the stories about his father's badassery, of course. He'd heard about his profound sealing abilities and the Flying Thunder God technique, something Naruto secretly always wanted to learn. Who wouldn't wanna be able to teleport? It was the Nidaime's technique originally, but Minato perfected it and used it to a brilliant extent, so well in fact that he had a flee-on-sight order. Naruto may be biased, but he considered his father nothing short of an absolute genius.
He only wished he'd had so much more time with him; not just to learn his awesome jutsus, but to ask questions about how to be a good father. Naruto was sure Minato would have been the best father there could be—he was a genius, after all. There's so much Naruto wished he could have learned from the legendary Minato Namikaze.
But there's no use dwelling on the past. Boruto and Himiwari were seemingly happy children, for the most part, who were succeeding and progressing well. Naruto may not have known the best parenting techniques or even been around much for that matter... but he still loved them beyond belief. Nothing could ever change that—no past, no lack of experience, nothing. Nothing could come between Naruto and the love he had for his family.
Maybe that's what made Minato such a good father for the short amount of time he was a father. He literally didn't let anything come between him and his child, not even the nine-tailed fox. His parents sacrificed their lives for their son and for the village—that's how much they loved him. And that's how much Naruto loves his village and family, enough that he would be willing to die if it meant saving them from harm.
Naruto found himself outside of the village, near one of the unofficial training grounds. Being outside the village walls, not many went there to train, but it was a special hidden gem for those who did. Mostly chunin and jonin, since genin and academy students weren't allowed outside the walls without a note and an escort. The trees were thick and full, offering great shade from the blazing-hot sun which usually beat down during the day. Tonight, it offered branches for many birds to bid their evening songs. A stream and soft waterfall offered a beautiful scene as well as serene place to cool off. Just past the waterfall, down stream a bit, was a small old fishing hut. It was one of the few structures that remained after Pein's terrible destruction of the village many years ago. Now, it was used as a storage shed for old village artifacts—a strange place to hide valuables, yes, though an unexpected and some even argue discreet one. Hiding them in the basement of the Hokage tower with the other locked-up items was far too obvious and probably the first place intruders would look.
He'd been in the shed exactly once before, to take out of stow a box of the Sandaime's old things for Konohamaru, once he'd reached what Naruto considered a mature enough age to handle such valuables. Konohamaru did have a tendency to be sporadic in his younger years. It was mostly old tools and useless oddities, though he knew how much Konohamaru's grandfather meant to him so he agreed to finally give him the box on promise Konohamaru would take good care of the items. They were artifacts belonging to a legendary shinobi and Hokage, after all.
Naruto knew some of his father's items were stored in the shed but had neglected visiting until now because visiting would bring up feelings of nostalgia and regret—both for the man Minato was and the man he never had a chance to be.
But today was different. Today, Naruto felt a pressing need to finally give in and take his father's box home. If Konohamaru could do it, so could he.
It would mean questions from his children. He wasn't ready for those kinds of questions, but knew he never would be. No parent is ever prepared to tell their children the details of their deceased family members... Details of a retched past, a time way worse than the peaceful one his children now knew. His kids may never know the world like Naruto or his father before him knew it, and he was glad for that. A world without war was worth preserving. For so long, he wanted to keep it that way. But he also wanted to honor his father and mother's legacy. They deserved that, at least.
So he would bring the box home tonight, no matter how unprepared he felt for the conversations that would inevitably ensue.
But first, Naruto decided, he would go through it himself. This box was a bit of a pressing subject, and he felt he needed some time to go through it alone first. Time to react without the watchful eyes of his wife or children. Time to be open and raw and real. He would never admit it to anyone, but time to possibly shed a few tears.
The shed smelled of mold and metal. The walls were lined with various tools that had rusted over the years. In the corner was a bin filled with fishing rods and on a shelf beside it were canned worms and extra hooks and fishing lines. He left the door open to air out some of the musty smell.
Naruto had to climb over wooden crates, buckets, and boxes to get to the box of Minato's things buried in the corner. Characteristically, his foot caught on a floorboard sticking up and he fell face-forward into an old box of shinobi vests. An unmanly screech escaped the Nanadaime's lips when mice started scurrying, dispersing in all directions. Finally, after taking a moment to get up and compose himself, Naruto made it to the old box in the corner.
It was a simple cardboard box but was taped closed, keeping the dust and dirt out. He noticed one of the corners was a bit chewed but it seemed the mice quickly lost interest and moved onto one of the more accessible boxes. Like the box of old vests, which appeared to be their main place of refuge, Naruto thought with a cringe as he avoided that particular box like the plague from that point forward.
He ripped the tape off but carefully, wanting to preserve the cardboard. This was his father's box, even the cardboard was precious to him. Upon opening it, his initial suspicions were proven true. The mice had surprisingly found no interest in the contents of this box. The first thing he saw was the Yondaime's white cape with orange-red flames climbing up the back. It brought back memories of the red and black flame cape he wore when he fought against Pein. Surely, that uniform was intentional. Jiraiya knew it before Naruto ever did. It filled Naruto with warmth to think that Jiraiya was honouring Minato's legacy through his son before Naruto had even known who his father was.
Naruto remembered buying that cape. He bought it on his very last travels with his former teacher. Just like the orange and black jumpsuit he helped Naruto pick out when he grew out of his blue and orange childhood one, Jiraiya had picked the flaming cape out and told Naruto it was very fitting. Looking back now, Naruto remembers a flitting look of nostalgia in Jiraiya's eyes that Naruto had passed off as a "my pupil is growing up" look at the time. Only now was Naruto able to finally understand the true meaning of that glimmer in his teacher's eyes.
He hung the Yondaime's cape over the open door as he continued rummaging through the old box.
There were pictures galore, and most were in almost pristine condition. Naruto decided he'd go through with Hinata and pick a couple to frame. Yes, he thought, a smile forming on his lips. I'd like that a lot.
He noticed in particular a picture of Minato as a child. He couldn't help but almost laugh at the similarities child-Minato held to Boruto. For interest's sake, Naruto pulled out a picture he kept of his family—one he always kept there, folded nicely in his pant pocket. It was the photo taken on Naruto's inauguration day. He stood tall in traditional Hokage uniform, hat and all, with Hinata on his right and his children in front. In the background, his newly carved stone face could be seen beside all the others. He laughed out loud when he remembered that it technically wasn't even him in the picture, just Konohamaru transformed into him. That was the day Himiwari went bozo on him and shocked the hell out of him and Kurama, knocking them both out just in time for the ceremony. He held the two photos side by side—the one of young Minato, and the one of his family. He never realized before how much Boruto looked like Minato. Another smile found its way upon his lips as he placed Minato's photo back in the box and folded his family photo back up and slid it into his pocket again.
Suddenly remembering his promise to be home by nine, Naruto checked the time. It was only eight, he still had time.
His fingers skimmed the special kunai knives that took up most of the box. They had custom made handles with beautifully painted seals. Even the metal was pristine, having been preserved in the box for all these years. Many scrolls lined the bottom of the box. He saw the one for Rasengan and opened it up, noticing all the empty spaces. That's right, he thought. It was still an unfinished jutsu. Naruto made a mental note to finish filling in the scroll. Maybe he could then pass it down to Boruto some day. Or Himiwari, if she ever decided to learn the Rasengan.
Naruto placed the scroll back safely in its place and was about to close the box and head home with it when his eyes caught on one scroll in particular. He was going to read the rest of the scrolls at home but something stopped him when he noticed this scroll. It had a ribbon wrapped tightly around it. Whereas the other scrolls were scribbled and mostly unfinished, this one looked specially encrypted.
Carefully, Naruto removed the Flying Thunder God scroll from the box and tugged tenderly on the ribbon. It flipped open with a flutter and Naruto's eyes nearly popped right out of his head.
"What the hell is this!?" he exclaimed, pulling the scroll up closer to his face to observe the strange letters. It appeared to be written in some foreign language.
As part of Naruto's Hokage training, he had to learn to identify many foreign languages. Thankfully, he never had to learn to read them all. That task was left up to the decrypting section of the Intelligence unit nowadays. But immediately identifying what language a scroll was written in was important for the Hokage to know. Only, Naruto didn't recognize this language at all. The characters were completely foreign and didn't resemble any language in the slightest. It looked... made up.
It would be ridiculous for his father to make up an entire language just for the sake of keeping this scroll a secret... but not impossible. Naruto acknowledged that his father was an intelligent man, a genius actually, so something like this was definitely not out of the question.
It pained Naruto to think that this scroll might never be translatable. But Naruto had a faint hope that Minato had written the language down somewhere, and if it really did exist, he was determined to find it.
He would take it home and show it to Shikamaru first, who could pass it off to the decryption team to see if there was any way to understand its contents without a translation manual.
But, just as Naruto was rolling it back up and getting ready to leave the shed once and for all, he noticed something peculiar about the letters. They looked oddly familiar, but Naruto could not figure out why. He opened the scroll once more, flipping it upright and glaring at the page but they seemed to lose all familiarity, once again seeming like completely foreign letters.
Naruto was never an A+ student, not by a long shot, so when he realized the trick to reading it, he nearly leaped for joy. Flipping the scroll back upside down, the way you would before you roll it up, the letters started to look familiar again. After looking harder, he noticed that they were just regular kanji letters written upside-down, backwards, and with some words or letters purposefully missing or replaced by meaningless symbols.
Of course, that would throw anyone off. And if not for Naruto deciding to give up and roll the scroll back up... and, admittedly, Naruto's inability to understand anything too complex... he never would have figured it out. They could have spent hours—no, days—trying to decrypt a supposed fake language that isn't fake at all, just moved around and modified a bit. Anyone stealing the scroll would think way too hard about it, trying to decrypt a non-existent code. He figured that his father assumed anyone gutsy enough to steal that scroll would have to be someone pretty powerful and intelligent, thus making the scroll impossible to read. If not for Naruto's mind for simplicity, he never would have figured it out. His father truly was a genius among men.
It took hours to figure out just one portion of the scroll. Naruto quickly lost track of time on that shed floor as he laid both the Flying Thunder God scroll and a blank scroll beside each other and wrote the translated version on the blank one. Some words were still missing and others Naruto simply could not figure out, but an outline was there and he could see the basics of the jutsu starting to take shape.
Feeling proud of what he'd accomplished, Naruto couldn't help but twirl one of the sealed kunai in his left hand while he read over his work so far.
Despite some successful translation, it was still written in words purposefully meant to confuse someone and the jutsu itself was really freaking complicated in the first place. Naruto wondered if he'd ever be able to learn it.
He stood up with a sigh, wiping dust from the floor off his pants.
Reciting the words he understood from the translated part of the scroll, he tried to follow the instructions and see where it got him. It might only be a small part of his father's jutsu, and probably would not work, but Naruto was impatient and eager and just wanted to give it a go anyways.
Like a reverse summon, Naruto thought as he concentrated chakra throughout his body. He had the summoning technique down very well, now he essentially had to do the opposite. He had to concentrate and manipulate his chakra in such a way that he could summon himself into a dimensional void and re-summon next to whatever seal he has placed. Just this alone was really fucking complicated, Naruto knew. Sasuke could teleport into different dimensions by concentrating chakra and activating his rinnegan. He wondered for a moment if a jutsu like this might be easier for an Uchiha.
This got him thinking about the Uchiha and how incredible their visual prowess really is. Something like Flying Thunder God would be child's play for someone like Sasuke.
Suddenly, Naruto released chakra he didn't realize he'd been holding. His head started to feel funny and he had to grab onto the wall to steady himself. The wall felt funny too, he noticed. Like it was holding him up but he couldn't feel it there. When he opened his eyes again, all he could see was a blurry mess of what appeared to be the shed. In that moment, Naruto's head felt so weird that he dropped the sealed kunai he'd been fiddling with all this time. When it hit, Naruto felt like his head got hit too. His senses were completely clouded except for the high-pitched buzzing in his ears and lurching in his stomach. He grasped his head, desperate to get control over himself, and fell to the floor.
"Agh!" he grunted, as pain filled his body. He squeezed his eyes shut and tried to get rid of the dizziness he felt.
All of the sudden, almost quicker than it came on, the buzzing dulled and Naruto was left dizzy on the floor of the old shed, trying his best to not throw up. His best wasn't good enough, it turned out, because he heaved out the cup ramen he'd eaten for dinner a few hours ago.
Groaning with a terrible pounding headache, the Nanadaime sat against the wall of the shed for a few minutes as the buzzing in his ears faded. The headache didn't improve and Naruto decided it was best to leave the box here for now and come back for it another day. It would take all he had to just balance on his feet and make it back home, where Hinata would surely give him some headache-remedy of hers.
As he stumbled weakly back to the village, he made a mental note never to try that again without a full and complete understanding of the jutsu. Damn, that was painful.
It must have been around midnight because there weren't many people out, just a few drunks stumbling about. Naruto assumed he blended in well, stumbling around himself. He chuckled a little at this. What was Hinata going to think? He'd come home drunk a few times before. She was never very impressed. Hopefully she'd understand that this was purely an accident. He only wanted to try his father's jutsu... though his impatience did cost him a cup of cheap ramen and left him with a terrible pounding headache.
When he reached his house... or what he thought to be his house... he became very confused. For a moment, he thought he was lost. This wasn't his house at all. It should have been right there, only it wasn't. He didn't recall making any wrong turns, though his head was pretty fuzzy and he couldn't think all that straight.
Clutching a lamp post, Naruto bent down and blinked hard a few times, trying to clear his still-buzzing mind.
"Hey," someone shouted from across the street. He looked up but his vision was still blurry and spinning in circles, so he couldn't make out a face. He could only see the green vest and glimmer of a forehead protector off the light from the lamp. "Are you alright? You don't look very well," the man in green said as he approached Naruto.
"I- I'm just a little lost," Naruto managed to spit out, trying his best to keep his dignity intact. He could already see the news stories and gossip that would circle the village tomorrow: Nanadaime Hokage stumbles around Leaf Village drunk. He wasn't prepared for the lecture Shikamaru would surely give him—it seemed he picked up on Temari's terrifying lecturing skills more and more as time went on.
The man in the green vest gave Naruto a shoulder to lean on and led him to an apartment building Naruto actually recognized. They were the south jonin apartments, where most of the single jonin resided.
"I've got a floor cushion you can sleep on for the night," the man offered kindly. "It's not much, but it's probably more comfortable than a park bench." Naruto really just wanted to get home to Hinata but in his current condition, decided it would be better to accept the jonin's offer and go home tomorrow morning instead.
"Thank you," Naruto muttered as the jonin helped him up the stairs.
He didn't remember much else until morning. He passed right out on the floor cushion and slept the headache off completely. When he woke up the next morning, he felt completely refreshed.
"Good morning," the jonin said from the door way. "Perfect timing. I was just about to leave. I trust you're sober enough to get home on your own now?"
Naruto didn't feel like explaining the real reason for him to come stumbling into the village at midnight and, quite frankly, didn't think the jonin would believe it anyways. Nor did he want information getting out that he'd found and attempted to learn and execute the scroll containing Flying Thunder God. Naruto settled for letting the rumours and news stories fly.
"Yeah, yeah," he muttered, pushing to his feet and stretching with a big yawn. "Thanks man. I appreciate your hospitality."
With that, the jonin nodded kindly and left. Naruto felt weird standing in a stranger's apartment alone and quickly took to the streets. He knew his way home from here, and now that his mind was straight again, he was confident he would not get lost on the way.
People didn't look at him the same way they usually did. He wondered if news had already gotten out. Maybe his entire reputation was fried already. Shikamaru was really gonna pound him for this–
Naruto's thoughts were cut short when he peered up at the Hokage stone faces. He did a double take and blinked a few times, shaking his head to clear this strange vision he was seeing.
There were only four stone faces.
The first thought that crossed his mind was that someone had destroyed three of the faces overnight. Maybe by explosion... but Naruto was sure he would've heard that. Plus, the rock formation looked far too smooth for explosions to have taken place.
He bent over and nearly threw up when the other explanation crossed his mind.
No. Not possible. Time travel isn't real. This is a dream. I'm dreaming. Damn, I really must've done it to myself by trying that jutsu without all the pieces–
And then it hit him. He slapped himself across the face just to be sure, and it hurt like a bitch. Sure enough, Naruto realized his mistake.
He'd tried a damn complicated and powerful time-space travelling jutsu without all the pieces. What the hell was he thinking?! And of course it screwed up. Kurama's chakra tended to fuck a lot of things up when it came to chakra control and precision.
He didn't know all the details. Hell, Naruto was still trying to comprehend the mere fact that he'd just travelled twenty... thirty... who knows how many years into the past!
Now he really did throw up, but there was nothing in his stomach. He just dry heaved as he clutched his stomach and tried to breathe properly.
There was very little going on in his mind, and also everything at once, if that was even possible. Naruto had never experienced panic like this. He was sure this was what a panic attack was, though he'd never experienced one himself so he had nothing to compare it to.
In the corner of his vision, he saw someone approaching. All of his previous suspicions were verified as a thirteen year old Kakashi Hatake approached him with a strange look looming in his single grey eye.
He couldn't hold back the words that escaped his knotted throat, "Holy shit."