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“I feel old,” Kakashi states looking at his students.
The trip was much smoother this time. However, it appears that Shikako overshot a bit with their ages. Or their bodies age. Whichever was more accurate. Instead of the teens they were supposed to look like or even the kids they resembled before this trip, three young adults stood in front of Kakashi.
“No need for dramatics, sensei.” Shikako lightly scolded him. “It seems that I overdid the ageing part a bit.” She voices his earlier thoughts for everyone and then tries to console him “You look just fine. Thirty two-ish. Maybe Four..”
“I’d say more like thirty-four.” Sasuke deadpans with no consideration for his poor old sensei’s feelings. With a scowl, he continues “I look the same age as Itachi when we… uh...yeah.” seeing as the last time they saw the elder Uchiha half of Team 7 ended up in the hospital in a coma it’s no surprise that he doesn’t want to say it out loud. The rest of the team knows what he means anyway.
“So I need to work on the age thing a bit more for next time,” Shikako notes aloud, likely trying to get everyone back on topic. “We should probably make sure that we can fight in our current bodies in case we run into hostiles. I mean I can already tell that my chakra is only half empty unlike after the first jump. But I’m pretty sure that we’ll have to work on coordination and taijutsu and stuff before we can fight any decent opponent. Like last time.”
Even before Shikako can finish with her observations Naruto is already making a dozen shadow clones. Sasuke is not far behind in jumping to re-evaluate his capabilities.
Minutes later when they are more or less aware of their current limits Shikako speaks up again
“Um… I think I can sense our chakra. As in another us.” Her brows furrow, probably examining everything and anything she can sense for clues of when and where they are. “But a bit … odd. Different. They feel younger. Maybe. And definitely not in Konoha. Likely on a mission.”
Making a quick decision Kakashi asks “Naruto, how well can you suppress your chakra?” Thinking back he knows that if all four members of Team 7 are on a mission together and feel younger to Shikako’s senses then this must be before Naruto left to train with Jiraya and therefore before Kakashi trained Shikako’s sensing skills.
Naruto scrunches his face in concentration and proves that he too has improved in hiding his massive chakra signature. Although not as good as Shikako and Sasuke, who are both ANBU and can hide themselves from most sensors if they try hard enough, but good enough to not be noticed if they stay out of Mini Shikako’s sensing range.
“Will do. Let’s go and check which mission this is. Make sure you stay out of Chibi Shikako's range and we should be fine.”
“Speaking of. How big is your sensing range? Or was I suppose?” Sasuke asks and since they don’t even know which mission it is they agree to take cues from Shikako. Even if she can’t remember exactly how far away they should stay she is the most likely to realise when they get too close.
Turns out her active sensing range was impressive even back when she graduated from the academy. Lucky for them their first C-rank was memorable and therefore Shikako is mostly certain that her younger self wouldn’t search much more after noticing Haku hidden in the trees.
It’s incredibly strange seeing Team 7 so young. The few years since they became a team felt like ages and Kakashi can hardly remember the time when he was reluctant to call them his students. Now stealthily observing this younger version of his precious students he can see the potential they have. At Shikako’s reminder, both boys clumsily step into a protective stance around the bridge builder. Notices her slight reluctance to turn her back to the clearly dangerous enemy and the trust that her teammates (including him) will protect her back while she protects theirs even if she has no way of warning them about the hidden possible threat.
Kakashi is unbelievably happy that his wonderful students didn’t give up on him when he was so clearly reluctant to be a teacher. He knows that the team in front of him still has many challenges ahead of them. But Kakashi will never regret having them and is constantly reminded that his cute little genin accept him with all his flaws and mistakes.
Concentrating back on the fight he winces. Maybe it wasn’t so noticeable at the time but knowing how this ends Kakashi can tell that Zabuza is stalling. All the banter and mid-battle explanation is amusing nonetheless. Kakashi tries really hard to stop the laughter but a snort is still drawn out at Zabuza’s attempt to taunt them with bingo book entries. Despite this comment having the most obvious effect on Naruto, his other two hellions must have taken it as a challenge seeing how they did get into the books in less than a year.
While not unexpected it’s still heartwarming to see the genin’s resolve not to leave a teammate behind even when they are outmatched. Kakashi might have overdone it a bit teaching them about the importance of teammates above the mission but surprisingly it seems to be working in their favour so far. They all grew into incredibly strong shinobi in just a few years and reuniting the team only makes them more dangerous.
“Well that’s … embarrassing.” he has to admit as his past self collapses from chakra exhaustion. If they decide to stick around and actually talk to their counterparts Kakashi must tell his idiot self about the project: miracle (like Shikako called it). Come to think about it, this mission was important in their growth as a team and all but there is enough information about the future that would actually help without taking away the learning value.
“Don’t worry, Sensei. We still thought that you were pretty cool. Even if we had to drag you to Tazuna’s place.” Consoled Naruto.
“Why do I have a feeling you don’t think I’m cool anymore?” To which his students only shrug. No matter. He’ll just have to prove to them once more that he is feared among the nations for a reason.
“Whatever. We need to decide on what to do now anyway.” He changes the topic just to lull them into a false sense of security before he thinks of something.
They do end up agreeing that this mission was important to their improvement. But with Shikako’s assurances that their interference shouldn't cause any irreversible damage (what she actually said was “Our presence will most likely cause this version of reality to split from ours, therefore, creating a parallel universe. It’s also possible that we’ll change our own timeline in which case we should probably avoid revealing too much information that could possibly backfire. There is a tiny chance that we might create a paradox but I’m almost sure that it’s one of the first two. The first one most likely even.” ) they agreed to let the mission continue as it is and use the week to get used to their new appearances. Shikako spends some of the time redoing her seal. According to her, it is rather difficult to separate time and their appearance components and the targeting will take at least a few more jumps at the very least.
In Kakashi’s not so humble opinion everything she explained (or tried to. He knew a little about sealling but half of what she explained went right over his head.) seems like it would take experienced sealmasters years to do so she’s surely underselling herself again.
Out of curiosity Team 7, tracked down where Haku took Zabuza and make camp close by, just far enough not to be discovered. Acclimating to their new looks and capabilities take less time than they expect so by the time the two (for the time being) missing-nin leave to terrorize Mini Team 7 Shikako is mostly done altering the seal and the boys are eager to leave the camp and do anything more exciting than waiting.
Watching the fight without interfering takes a lot of self-control and a few reassurances in the form of physical contact but they manage and when Gatou and his men come they henge and mingle among the civilians and when the fight is over they hide again.
They argued a lot about when Team 7 should meet Team 7 but in the end, they decided on later just before the end of the mission. So naturally, as soon as Zabuza and Haku leave they exchange glances and as one jump out of the trees.
“Yo” Kakashi attempts to start only to receive alarmed glares from their younger selves and groans from his students. Rude. He’s being a responsible adult and a good teacher by taking the lead. The least theft could do is not judge him on his choice of greetings. He really needs to remind them how cool he is.
“Yo.'' The other Kakashi mirrors him although a bit hesitantly.
“We were just passing through. Thought it would be nice to stop by for a visit. Give a few pieces of advice.”
“Who are you?” Exclaimed Chibi Naruto And the other one responded just as quickly “You of course. Just a bit older.”
“Our chakra signatures are really similar. There’s no way of faking that. Mini-me should be able to sense it.” Shikako says and her counterpart nods when her team looks at her for confirmation.
“So time travel?”
“A Parallel universe is more likely but there’s still a chance that we gain memories of this meeting when we leave” Which leads both Shikakos into a discussion about the likelihood of parallel universes vs time paradoxes.
It takes sharingan checks (Both showing and being observed) and a short explanation of how they ended up time travelling before the younger Team 7 agreed to meet up and share information.
It’s oddly reassuring seeing his precious students talking to themselves, giving hints of how to train and what to improve earlier. When the topic of Chunin exams arises they tell them about Orochimaru’s attack and Sandaime’s death but also about the next Hokage and how much she did to improve Konoha.
Kakashi almost forgets about his sharingan problems seeing Sasuke share sharingan training tips reminds him so he ends up bragging about the miracle his cute little genin pulled. Before he could actually tell how to fix the chakra drainage Shikako silenced him and proclaimed that it’s only fair if it’s Sasuke and her who do it all over again.
They spend a few evenings sharing all the information they could remember. Each member took mini themselves away a few times. No doubt speeding up Shikako’s seal development, Naruto’s Rasengan and Sasuke’s Chidori masteries. Although they left out quite a bit hoping that some events would still happen the way they experienced them.
And when the bridge was finally finished they left their separate ways.