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The flash of light was unexpected- but perhaps a side-effect of the red chakra Naruto was using to fuel his jutsu. The deafening boom of noise was like standing under a lightning strike as thunder rolled across the land. Blinding and disorienting at such a close distance, enough that Sasuke had to divert his chidori or risk going blind.
Sasuke circled quickly, lining up his next strike. His former teammate had gotten too good, too powerful, to let him stand in his way. The chidori would hit him square in the back-
Only Naruto was moving before Sasuke could hit him. Dodging almost effortlessly. “Dude! What the hell!?”
That- was unexpected. Sasuke frowned, moving far away to the other side of the Valley of the End, letting his Sharingan take in the sight of his teammate as the light faded.
It wasn’t Naruto.
Or, it was a very poor replica. A false Naruto. One who couldn’t even dress the same way as the real Naruto. There were still hints of orange in the clothing, but only hints. Like someone had finally managed to convince the class idiot that bright colours would get him killed. Black pants, loose black shirt with an orange long-sleeve under it. A belt covered in tiny scrolls- leather and well-cared for. Far better quality than he had ever seen Naruto with.
The face was the same, sans the whisker marks, but blue eyes watched in widening confusion. “Dude! What the hell did you do to your hair? Did Obito-nii get you or something?” He shook his head, and crossed his arms, standing on the water without ripples. “No- that’s too ugly for Obito-nii. That’s definitely a Shisui job if I ever saw one. Maybe Itachi-”
Rage filled every vein in Sasuke’s entire being. With a hiss, he darted forward, kunai bared straight for the blond’s throat. “Don’t ever say that man’s name-”
“Woah!” Naruto dodged again, flipping away to land a distance away, well out of reach, “Okay! I get it! You two aren’t talking about it!”
Sasuke growled and whirled- where did Naruto’s speed come from?- “Enough talking!”
“Jeeze! I know it’s a bad haircut but I think you’re being a little sen-!” Naruto yelped and wasn’t quite fast enough to dodge the kunai this time. Blood welled on a bare cheek and… the cut didn’t immediately heal. More proof that this was an imposter.
Blue eyes seemed to shift as the smile faded. Naruto wiped the cut with the back of his hand. Quietly he said, in a tone that he must have learned from someone with authority, “That was uncalled for.” A statement.
Sasuke read between the lines. A warning. Finally. The blond imposter was taking this seriously, “What? Are you giving up on dragging me back to Konoha?”
Naruto’s eyes widened and then, Sasuke noted with a faint but growing sense of worry, narrowed. “You’re not Sasuke.” His lips pressed into a thin line. “Sasuke would never be such an idiot.”
The blond reached for one of the tiny scrolls in his belt. “I don’t know who you are exactly, but I’m going to knock some sense into you.”
~*~*~*~
Naruto woke up.
He didn’t think that was going to happen. Sasuke had been ready to kill him: he was going to die -
“Oi. Naruto-chan? You okay?” A woman came into his line of sight. She looked familiar, with violet eyes and blood red hair that cascaded down her back and over one shoulder. He blinked slowly at her, and her brows furrowed in concern.
Huh. He never had someone make that face at him before. The redhead knelt beside him on the floor, a hand coming to rest against his forehead. Something that people did when they were worried about temperatures. “You feel okay... “ She blinked again, “Well. I think we can conclude that seal didn’t work as planned, ya know? Though we somehow managed to change your clothes. And those whisker marks are cute…”
He took a breath, and finally saw it. This woman had his nose. And his ‘ya know’. But- it couldn’t have been possible .
Then she grinned at him and his heart just about broke with the familiarity. Naruto saw that grin every time he looked in a mirror. With a shaky breath, he asked, “Ka-san?”
The woman blinked and ruffled his hair, “Well yeah, dummy. How hard did you hit your head?”
That was it. He was dead. Sasuke had killed him.
“Naruto-chan? Are you crying? What’s the- omph!”
She was warm and solid and there and he squeezed her as tight as he could. He had his mom again. He was sobbing, ruining the woman’s - his mom - dress. “I-I-I thought I’d- never get to meet you!” Arms wrapped around him, one rubbing his back as he cried into her shoulder. A head settled on top of his, protecting him from everything. Was this what having a mom was like?
He liked it. He liked it a lot.
Quietly, she asked, “What do you remember, Naruto?”
So he told her. Everything that came to mind. From his time at the orphanage, the academy, all the way to his battle with Sasuke at the Valley of the End. The arms only ever seemed to tightened.
There was silence as he finished, “And now I’m dead. But it’s okay, ‘cause you’re here-”
“Naruto.” His mother said gently, but firmly. “We’re not dead.”
He pulled away just enough to look at her, her smile was soft and warm as she ruffled his hair, “I think you traveled between dimensions. The Naruto from this dimension ended up at yours.” She paused, “Hopefully.”
That couldn’t be possible. “So…” His voice wavered, and he pulled back a little further away from the warmth and safety. “You’re not my mom?”
With a stern expression she bopped him on the head. “Idiot.” The word held no heat. “I’m your mom in every dimension. And I love you in every dimension. Now come here.” She was fast, and before he could do anything, she had him in a hug.
It felt like forever, he just kept bawling until all he had left in him was sniffles. “What’s your name, Ka-san?”
She froze for a long moment. Pulling back, she looked at him with an expression he didn’t fully recognize, “Uzumaki Kushina.”
“It’s a pretty name.” He sniffled and pulled back a bit, wiping his nose. “I’m glad I get to meet you.”
Kushina- his mom - grinned at him. “I’m glad I get to meet you too. Now. As much as I want to cuddle you all day, we may not have a whole lot of time together. The universe might get upset with us frigging around with it.”
“Huh?”
She clapped her hands together, “What do you want to know? How are your seals? Been practicing much fuinjutsu?”
Naruto stared at her. Chuckling nervously, one hand behind his head, he replied, “What’s fuinjutsu?”
To which Kushina replied, grin frozen in place, “We can fix that.”
~*~*~*~
Kakashi stared at the scene in front of him.
Naruto- but possibly not- sat on top of a bound Sasuke covered in seals. Whistling. A scroll in his lap and an ink brush in his hand as he painted symbols Kakashi only had a passing understanding of. “Mah. You’re not Naruto are you?”
The fake Naruto rolled his eyes, “Oh, I’m Uzumaki Naruto. Just not your Uzumaki Naruto. Ka-san and I were working on traveling to places without having an anchor at the other location. I may have gone a lot further than the marketplace. Anyway, do you want something? ‘Cause this Sasuke has a curse seal on ‘em and I’ve just about cracked it.”
“Right.” Kakashi agreed, “Wait. Your ka-san?”
“Yeah. Uzumaki Kushina, head of the Uzumaki Clan.” This Naruto replied with a ‘duh’, “Tou-san’s Hiraishin jutsu only works if he has something to travel to. We theorized we could do it without an anchor if it was in sight.” He paused and looked at Kakashi suspiciously. “Are you like Kakashi-oji-san and nice or are you going to try and kill me like this idiot?”
Sasuke may have whined in distress.
The Jounin held up his hands in peace, lone eye crinkling in amusement. “Nope. I was coming to get you both and bring you back to Konoha.” He paused, “I’m your Jounin-sensei afterall.”
Naruto’s snort was loud enough to hit Kakashi’s one remaining feeling. “Not where I come from. Rin-sensei would kick your butt any day of the week. If this,” he pointed to his improvised seat, “is any indication.”
All the breath left Kakashi’s lungs. Training prevented it from showing. Not the time. Not. The. Time. “I... see.” He let the silence lapse. “What are you doing?”
“I’m recreating the curse seal on dumbass so I can take it apart more effectively. It’s pretty easy stuff, but someone got it into their head to tie this… thing into the chakra system so it’s going to have to be a delicate counter application. Which sucks because I don’t know how much time I have before ka-san finds a way to bring me back.”
Kakashi blinked slowly and came a little closer to watch. Intricate didn’t even begin to describe the fine, delicate symbols. Some were familiar, most were not. The Naruto double ignored him, tongue sticking out as he added some more notes and adjustments. “Huh.”
~*~*~*~
A door opened somewhere in the apartment, but Naruto couldn’t have been bothered to notice. His mom had given him a scroll with the basics of sealing to copy out. She sat beside him, one arm over his shoulder, explaining things so patiently that it all made sense.
And it did make sense. It made sense in a way that no schoolwork ever had. “That’s an Uzumaki thing.” His mom shrugged when he told her, “We suck with most stuff they teach in the academy, but give us some ink and a blank sheet and we can do some cool shit with seals.
“The big thing with fuinjutsu is that the only limit is your imagination. If you can think of it, you can do it. Eventually.”
“Kushina?” Naruto froze at the new voice, not quite willing to hope. A man’s voice. No way. He got to meet both ? “I got your message. Is everything okay?”
“Minato! You made it home in time.” Kushina turned in her chair, arm dropping from Naruto’s shoulders. He wished she hadn’t. “Come meet your son.”
He almost didn’t want to turn around. His throat felt funny. But he was Uzumaki Naruto- he wasn’t scared of anything. And he had his mom. She was already better than anything he had ever dreamed of.
Maybe...
… Maybe his dad was the same?
Naruto slowly lifted his head and looked back over his shoulder, jaw dropping when he realized who the older blond was, the face he had seen every time he looked at the Hokage monument. The chair clattered to the floor as he leapt up and around to point an accusatory finger, “You!”
The Yondaime Hokage froze, the flame jacket in one hand as he moved to hang it on the coat hook, and blinked at him, looking around as if to confirm he was the one being pointed at. He gestured to himself, “Me?”
Years and memories of being an outcast surfaced, crowding out his mother’s laughter. The Kyuubi’s chakra rose, the nail pointing at the man turned into a claw, and Naruto growled, “You sealed the damn furball into me!”
The laughter died as silence reigned in the room. Followed by a bellow as Kushina leapt to her feet, “He did what?!”
~*~*~*~
Kakashi watched the blond as he painted stone. They had swept the debris away and scrubbed to the best of their abilities, leaving the surface clean enough to work on, even if the blond sniffed a little at the sight. The boy hummed as he worked, his tongue still sticking out the side of his mouth. “So why did he get so mad when I mentioned Itachi to him?”
Kakashi blinked at the question and looked up from his book. “Did the massacre not happen in your dimension?”
“Massacre?” Naruto paused, slipping the brush he was using for a finer one behind his ear, “What are you talking about?”
“If it didn’t happen where you’re from, I probably shouldn’t say anything.” Kakashi turned a page, “It is bad history.”
Naruto shrugged. “Okay. But I will say my Sasuke could actually last more than a minute against me. And you know maybe beat me if the Moon was full. As a teacher you need to step up your game or something.”
It was an off handed remark that cut as it passed by. Kakashi didn’t respond.
~*~*~*~
“Okay.” The Yondaime, Minato and maybe his dad, repeated. Again. He had a finger rubbing his temple. Had been since he sat down in the armchair. “So in your dimension, Kushina and I are dead.”
Naruto nodded, not moving from his mom’s side on the couch. She held him close and didn’t mind the death grip he had on her hand.
“And the Kyuubi is sealed in you.”
Another nod.
The Hokage paused, “And no one stepped up to take you in?”
Naruto felt his mom tense as he nodded.
Minato stopped rubbing his temple and stared at Naruto. “Is Jiraiya dead?”
“That perv?” Naruto shook his head. “He taught me how to summon toads. And the Rasengan.”
Somehow that answer made the Yondaime frown. “But he didn’t raise you?”
“What? No! As if!” Naruto huddled closer against his mother.
The Hokage was quiet. Then, “I’m sorry, Naruto. I can’t imagine what… that other me was thinking, only that he obviously had to make a very hard choice.” Naruto risked looking up at the man- the guy who was his hero, or had been at one time. His grief was easy to see, and his broad shoulders had slumped.
Just… a guy. Upset by what he had learned. By something he didn’t even do.
Naruto swallowed. Fidgeting with the thought that turned over and over in his head. Finally he blurted out, “Are you really my dad?”
“Of course.” The conviction in the man’s voice shocked him. Like he… was proud of the fact. Minato, it was easier to think of him as Minato, smiled, “And I love you.”
Naruto nodded, emotion clogging his throat. Kushina, his mom, nudged him, “You’re allowed to hug him, ya know?”
He didn’t need to be told twice. He was caught mid-leap.
~*~*~*~
“Okay!” Naruto backed up a step, ink brush behind his ear, and a thumb out to gauge the distance. He nodded once. “We’re good to go!”
Kakashi’s sharingan whirled lazily as he took in the fuinjutsu working. It was extensive- tiny symbols spiraling outwards to cover the rock and Sasuke. This Naruto hadn’t bothered to unbound the Uchiha, and he had been unceremoniously tossed in the centre. The blond paused as he made his way back to the edge and glanced back over his shoulder, “This is going to hurt by the way, but it will hurt even more if you try and fight it.”
“Ah,” Kakashi interjected half-heartedly. “The counter seal we used before failed.”
“Yeah, of course it failed.” Naruto scoffed, shaking his head, “You used a seal that requires willpower to maintain on a curse seal that taints how the mind thinks. It was doomed from the start if used on anyone with anything less than iron-clad discipline.” He cracked his knuckles, a grin coming to his face. “This time, we’re going to get rid of the curse seal.”
Unease settled over Kakashi, “And have you done something like this before?”
“Of course! The Hyuuga even thanked me! Eventually.” He paused after the declaration, suddenly quiet. “The me from this dimension… he doesn’t use fuinjutsu, does he?”
Kakashi wondered what the boy was thinking. “No, he doesn’t.”
Naruto nodded slowly, suddenly glum. He shook his head as quickly, plastering a grin back on his face. “Well, the least I can do is make sure he gets his best friend back!” The boy turned back to the intricate work, kneeling down.
Minato-sensei once told Kakashi that watching a fuinjutsu master work was like watching a tidal wave be tamed. He hadn’t understood at the time- even the most powerful shinobi and kunoichi couldn’t turn the tide back. Or if they did, it wasn’t for long.
Now though, Kakashi finally understood what his sensei meant. The utter concentration it must have taken was something that Kakashi hadn’t been aware Naruto had the capacity for. Chakra rose slowly, thick with power and oppressive, but controlled. It stretched out to reach every single symbol in the working, changing the black ink into a glowing blue liquid. It swayed back and forth in the confines of the symbols.
At once, it rushed towards Sasuke. Driven by intent, swarming the Uchiha and covering him with the symbols.
Then the screaming started.
Naruto tsk’ed, a bead of sweat sliding down his temple. “Idiot. I told him not to fight it.”
As quickly as it began, it was over. The symbols swirled over the curse seal, a whirlpool slowly sucking out the black ink as if it was poison. Blue charka consumed it, slowly but surely, changing it into water as it did. Until there was nothing left but drenched Sasuke, glaring at Naruto with the passion of a thousand burning suns.
Naruto stood up, set one hand on his hip and gestured to the bound Uchiha with the other. “See? Told ya I could do it!”
~*~*~*~
“Yeah, but he should really learn this jutsu first!”
“You dork- he’s an Uzumaki, he needs to learn fuinjutsu first!”
The sight of his parents fighting brought tears to Naruto’s eyes- they were fighting over him . Over who was going to teaching him what first. Over who was going to spend more time with him.
He wasn’t even aware he had sniffled until he realized his parents froze and turned very slowly to look at him. His mom- his mom - padded over and ruffled his hair, “Hey. It’s okay kiddo, we’re not really fighting.”
“Right,” His dad- he had a dad - agreed, smiling as he came up beside Kushina, “We just want to make sure you’re prepared. Which we can do by teaching you futon jutsu.”
His mother scowled and hip-checked his father to the side with a yelp, “I think you mean fuinjutsu, Mina-chan.”
Naruto really couldn’t help it- he leapt at both of them just for the fact he knew they would catch him.
~*~*~*~
The trip back to Konoha was going to be a long one, Kakashi mused. One wayward student was thrown over his shoulder, unconscious with a seal, and the doppelganger of another student whistling beside him and his arms behind his head, as they walked. He shouldn’t ask. He shouldn’t. What happened in another dimension had no bearing on this dimension- except when it did apparently. “So. Rin-sensei?”
There was a sudden dip in the whistling. “I thought you said we shouldn’t talk about the differences between our timelines.”
“Mah. Humour me.”
This Naruto regarded him with a critical eye. Then shrugged. “Don’t know what to say. She’s awesome. Taught us everything we need to know to survive. Scares the shit out of Kiri, Kumo and Suna. Probably going to end up with the hat when tou-san retires.”
It was enough, Kakashi mused, to know that Rin had survived in a different timeline. Living, breathing and teaching his students everything he couldn’t. Thriving and due to be Hokage in time.
But then Naruto kept going.
“You, Rin-sensei and Obito-nii have a weird relationship going on though. Ka-san says you three will probably figure it out eventually, but Obito-nii is not allowed host ‘movie nights’ any more after the last time she walked in on-”
Kakashi stopped walking, throat tightening. “Obito. He’s- alive?”
“Well, yeah?” Naruto frowned at him. “The only guy who got close to killing him was that Madara jerk when he was a chunin. Happened on the same mission you got Obito-nii’s eye. Man, Mito-oba-sama still gets mad when she tells the story of how she found them and, let me tell you, if there is one person in Konoha you don’t want to see mad it is Mito-oba-sama. As that Madara guy found out. Or knew? He might have already been running when she found him. I forget the details.”
“Ah.” Kakashi said faintly. “Maybe we should go back to not talking about our dimensions.”
“Timelines.” Naruto corrected, eyes closed in thought, “I think this is just a timeline divergence, running in parallel with my timeline. I just traveled vertically between them at the same point in time for our respective lines. The intersection point that caused the divergence must have happened way back though. Close enough for certain things to be true, like the respective people we both know to exist, but distant enough for significant changes, ya know.”
Suddenly he groaned, “Oh man. Kensuke-nii is going to be unbearable when I tell him he was right about timeline hopping.”
~*~*~*~
It crept up like an itch. Sitting at the table with his dad as he taught him how to seal objects into other objects- filling a blank scroll with sealed scroll after scroll. All the basics for learning fuinjutsu and futon chakra manipulation, with a couple of futon jutsu, additional tools and weapons, and even the extra bento box his mom made for lunch. Things he could use no matter where he was. Everything his parents thought he might need in the future. In the kitchen, his mom was cooking up a storm, and the smell and sound of fish frying had never been so good before.
Kushina mused earlier that it wouldn’t be hard to sneak him into the Uzumaki as a side effect of a sealing adventure gone wrong (which was true). If she could get a Mito person and a Kensuke person to agree on forbidding the study of said seal then no one was obligated to answer questions in further detail. Naruto could stay here and become a twin.
But still. The thought nagged. He wanted to stay. He did. He finally had everything he could have possibly wanted but- Shikamaru? And Choji? And Kiba? And Neji?
What about Sasuke? That moron wasn’t going to figure out how wrong he was unless Naruto kicked his ass back to Konoha. And he had made a promise to Sakura-chan to bring their teammate back with him.
It hurt though. Hurt more than he thought it would. Even if his friends forgave him for staying, he wasn’t sure he could forgive himself. So the choice was clear. “Ano, after supper, I should probably go back.”
His dad paused, a scroll in hand, expression suddenly worried. “Are you sure? We could probably find a way to keep you here and bring our Naruto back.”
They wanted him to stay. They had only just met him that morning and they wanted him to stay and live with them- because they loved him. His parents loved him. Naruto sniffled, “Yeah. I love it here, but I made promises to people back home that I intend to keep and I can’t do that from here, ya know?”
Warm, tanned arms snuck around him from behind and hugged him tight. His mom squeezed him close. “I’m proud of you kiddo.”
“We’re proud of you,” Minato corrected. Then his dad joined in and Naruto was being hugged within an inch of his life and loving every second of it. Releasing, the Yondaime cracked a smile, “If that is what you want to do then we’ll help you any way we can.”
“Yeah,” Kushina cut in, wandering to the rice cooker, “We can probably create a one-way travel seal for you to use when you want to. Might take a while though. We do have a set of communication scrolls though; we’ll give you one half and hold on to the other here. The messages travel through a different realm, so it should still work, ya know.”
With a grin, Naruto wiped his tears with the back of his hand, “Thanks guys.”
“We’re your parents. No thanks necessary.” Minato ruffled Naruto’s hair. “Now, come on. We’re on a time limit to get these all stored if you want to leave after supper. We also need to figure out who in your timeline can help teach you these jutsu and concepts.”
“Not Jiraiya-chan!” Kushina shouted from the kitchen. “That jackass didn’t step up when he should have. I forbid it, ya know!”
~*~*~*~
“So, ya know.” Naruto mused aloud as they continued on their way back to Konoha, breaking the silence that had settled since the Obito conversation a few hours back. “Just because you were a lazy teacher up to now, doesn’t mean you have to be in the future right? Like Rin-sensei often gets you to be on our team when she’s busy scaring Kiri or something and you were great with us.”
In a distant way, Kakashi knows that Naruto is only trying to make things better, and somehow that only makes things worse. Because he hadn’t been trying with Team 7. Hadn’t drawn on decades of experience teaching others. Even a half-hearted attempt at teaching would have been better.
But here he is, with a traitor for one student, and the other one, if he even comes back from wherever he landed, would probably be snapped up by Jiraiya at the first opportunity, and the last one- He had ignored Sakura entirely. Which was a shame, because the potential was there. “Mah, Naruto. This timeline is very different from yours.”
“No shit.” Naruto snorted. “But it’s not completely different. You are still a crazy awesome shinobi. And I bet the son of a Hokage, your sensei, is still a big target here for Kumo or Iwa, so you should step up and make sure the other me can survive the world making that discovery, ya know? It’s your duty and obligation as a sensei if you believe Rin-sensei.”
Kakashi was going to need to talk with Inochi after this mission. He’d even go willingly. Schedule an appointment and all. Every other word was a Shinigami driven kunai aiming at his psyche; a horrific blend of praise and chastisement, being delivered with an offhandedness normally reserved for matters like what to have for supper.
“What-“ he shouldn’t ask; it was already too much. “How are your parents doing?”
The doppelgänger blonde glanced at him, squinting. “I mean, tou-san and ka-san are fine? Dad tries to keep the village standing and mom finds new ways to test that skillset. The entire clan thinks we should put Konoha under a new set of barrier seals but we haven’t managed to convince the Uchiha or the Hyuuga yet so the other noble clans aren’t biting yet either.” Naruto shook his head. “Honestly, we only want to shift the village slightly out of the current time phase. Just a little bit. Make it harder to get in without an invitation is all.”
“They are both alive then.”
Naruto blinked at him, expression closed off. “Yeah. And they love you, ya know? You come over every Sunday for supper, always the last one to arrive, and Fugaku-oji-san will say something about time-keeping as a quality for shinobi, and tou-san will defend you while ka-san and Mikoto-oba-san roll their eyes. Itachi-nii and Shisui-nii try and convince Obito-nii to play card games for their mission pay. Rin-sensei usually starts a drinking game with Mito-oba-sama -they bet on your arrival time by the way- and we all eat mom’s cooking. Afterwards, Sasuke and I usually leave before Rin-sensei and Mito-oba-sama get everyone else in on their game- Shisui-nii really needs to not take that bait every time. Everyone enjoys themselves.”
He was long familiar with the emotion slowly rising. Anger. Rage. Everything that had been stolen. With a cultivated ruthlessness, Kakashi smothered it.
“Ya know,” Naruto continued on, “just because you don’t have all the same pieces here, doesn’t mean you can’t build something great too. Mom started her dinner club with her students.” His grin was blinding, wide and hopeful, “You’re an excellent cook too, Kaka-sensei.”
~*~*~*~*~
“Okay,” Kushina mused, a paintbrush behind her ear and ink splotch on her cheek, a bit of her tongue sticking out. In her hand was another paintbrush dipped in ink, moving so fast against the wooden floorboards it was like the symbols just appeared - “So, this should switch you both back to your original timeline. Do you have everything? All the scrolls and stuff? The clothes? Kunai? Bento box?”
Naruto’s throat caught on something, and he held back his sniffle. “Yeah, mom. I got ‘em.”
She finished with a flourish just in time for Minato to emerge from the backroom, an odd kunai held between his hands, slowly twirling it. “One last thing. I have something else for you too.”
The kunai was even odder up close, three pronged with the tiniest of etches into the handle. Minato held it out with a certain reverence, as if offering it. “In case of emergency, charge with chakra then throw it. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
Tears welled, threatening to spill over and Naruto’s resolve to leave wavered. Just for a moment, then he grabbed the kunai and stuffed it in his kunai pouch. “Thanks. Dad.”
Minato grinned, “Emergencies can include talking with girls too, okay? Or if you need help with jutsu. I can’t be there all the time, but I can be there some of the time.”
The younger blonde grinned back, tears falling down his cheeks. This time, the hug from his parents was expected, deep bone-crushing warmth and closeness, and the best thing in the world. “We love you, ya know.”
And when they let him go, hands lingering on his arms, it was Naruto who stepped back into the sealing array and fed his chakra into it. “I love you too!”
~*~*~*~*~
The lightning bolt sent Kakashi dashing for the nearest tree before the clap of thunder.
Blinking away the spots, he stared where the Naruto clone once stood- and relaxed at a somewhat familiar sight. The orange jumpsuit was a relief after the strangeness of the day. The new bandolier filled with scrolls was less of a relief, as was the fact Naruto wiped tears away from his cheeks. He appeared the same otherwise.
‘Mah. Naruto?” Kakashi asked from his tree branch, Sasuke still slung over his shoulder.
There was one last sniffle from the blonde, before he seemed to pull himself together and grinned up at the branch, “Hey Kakashi-sensei! You’d not believe who I got to meet!” He shook his head suddenly, “But- hang on, what happened here? Where’s Sasuke?”
“He’s fine. The… other you kept him in one piece.”
“Awesome! Mom said that he’d probably do that.” The grin got even wider, “Oh man, Kakashi-sensei! It was so awesome! Mom and dad are so cool- I can’t believe no one ever said anything. And like, the Uzumaki! I have a clan! We do Fuinjutsu!”
He paused suddenly, suddenly scratching the back of his head sheepishly, “I guess I have a lot to learn, ya know. A lot more to learn.”
In a flash of inspiration, part mirth and annoyance, Kakashi realized what the other Naruto had been playing at- not even subtly. Laying all the groundwork for his doppleganger’s return. Kakashi took a deep breath; there was a fork in the path here and he had already seen where one ended: a student dead, another a traitor, and the last wanting nothing to do with him. The other path- of Team dinners and teaching- it could be better. He could do better. “Mah. Seals weren’t a forte of mine, but if those scrolls are teaching aids we probably figure it out together.”
Naruto lit up. There were few other ways to describe the way the grin seemed to light up from the inside out. “Really? That would be amazing! Thanks, Kakashi-sensei!”
Oh yes, he had been played like a fiddle. Possibly in the best way.