Naruto went first to buy new clothes before anything else. He bought a few pairs of black ANBU sweats, a mesh undershirt paired with a black jacket (they didn't have orange). He also got a pouch for his weapons shop and stocked up on kunai and shuriken as well as placing an order for a customized long blade sword.
Now he was in front of his new apartment. The building was definitely in better shape than the one he had when he was younger.
Just as Naruto was turning the key in lock someone spoke from behind him. "I didn't know anyone lived there."
Naruto spun around and almost dropped the numerous bags he was carrying. Once he saw who it was he settled down. "Kakashi ๐๐ข๐ต๐ข๐ฌ๐ฆ!" He exclaimed holding the space above his heart. "You almost gave me a heart attack. What are you doing here?" He asked.
Kakashi pointed to the door next to his. "I live here."
"๐๐ง ๐ค๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ๐ด๐ฆ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ฅ๐ฐ." Naruto muttered under his breath. Old Man did this on purpose no doubt. Meddling old geezer.
"What did you say?"
"Nothing."
Kakashi looked at Naruto curiously. After a few moments the blonde was getting uncomfortable. He felt like the little Kakashi was reading his mind or something, which is something Naruto would swear Kakashi-Sensei could do and it always creeped him out. Like, Naruto would be planning something and Kakashi would just ๐ฌ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ธ. He ruined so many good pranks that way. But he also helped some times, as long as he wasn't the victim.
"What do you want, Little Man?" He asked, disregarding these fond memories.
Kakashi looked insulted. "I am not little!" He exclaimed.
"Your what, twelve?"
"Yeah, so what?" He said. Naruto almost laughed, he really was quite adorable.
"Whatever, that's not the point. I was wondering how you knew my name." Kakashi stated.
It took a moment to process what Kakashi meant; that Naruto had used his family name and at this time, he wasn't renowned enough that any random shinobi would know that. Naruto quickly thought of an excuse. "I was assigned to your team so I was given a quick briefing on all of you. Yours was quite impressive, gennin by age five, chunnin by age six. It took me three tries to pass the gennin exams and even then I was the bottom of my class, the dead last." Naruto stated shamelessly.
"You say that like your proud of it." Kakashi dead-panned.
"I am."
Kakashi looked at him like he had a few screws loose. "Why on earth would you be proud of that?"
"Because my whole life I was told that I couldn't do it, that I would never be good enough. My dream was to become Hokage someday but no one believed I could. By passing even when no one believed in me I showed ๐ฎ๐บ๐ด๐ฆ๐ญ๐ง that I had the strength to do anything I set my heart to. Look at me now, I'm a jounin, passed without even trying." Naruto winked and ruffled the little man's strange hair before walking into his new place.
Kakashi stood dead still for a few moments after the exchange. The way he ruffled his hair felt just so fond, like how his father used to. And his eyes seemed so... ๐ค๐ข๐ณ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ. But he didn't even know him, why would he care like that. ๐'๐ฎ ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฃ๐ข๐ฃ๐ญ๐บ ๐ซ๐ถ๐ด๐ต ๐ต๐ช๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฅ, Kakashi concluded before going into his own apartment and heading to bed.
Naruto gave himself a tour of his new place. There was a small kitchen and a small, open doorway that led to a dining room and combined living room. There was a door off to the side that led to the bedroom and joining bathroom. The bedroom was a decent size but it didn't have a balcony like his old one did which he would miss.
Naruto noticed something was laid out on the bed. It was a green vest along with a Leaf headband. He smiled to himself. After organizing everything the way he liked it, Naruto plopped on the bed that he immediately deemed too comfortable - and fell into a sleep riddled with terrors.
ยค|ฮฉ|ยค|
The next day Naruto was awoken by a knock at the door. He started, lifting his head quickly and hitting it on the wall close beside it. Rubbing his poor scalp, he groaned and slid grudgingly out of bed and went to answer the door with only a pair of sweats hanging low on his hips. Maybe at a different time he would think to grab one of the shirts that were still in the bags on his dresser, but it was too early. So, sleepy and shirtless, he padded through his new apartment to greet his visitors.
"Hello?" He groaned while rubbing the sleepiness from his eyes. When they adjusted he saw a man who resembled himself chuckling lightly as he looked at him, and Kakashi who was impassive as ever. Naruto squinted at them, confused for a second before he remembered the whole time travel thing.
"Still sleepy?" Asked the chuckling jounin.
Naruto scowled at him. "Just give me a minute, I'll be right out." He said before opening the door wider. "You can come in while I get ready." He offered, and without waiting for an answer he walked back into his bedroom to find the clothes he got just the day before. Once he got in front of the mirror he understood why Minato had been laughing. His hair was even messier than usual and his eyes were red from lack of rest, he also had drool at he corner of his mouth. In all honesty, he looked hung over.
Five minutes later he was looking a little less hungover, they all went to meet the other two members of their team at the training grounds. They were the first ones. As they waited for the other Naruto sat down and leaned against a tree while closing his eyes, shutting out the world that wasn't his anymore. Shutting out everything that was too familiar. He tried to clear his mind. To dare himself not to think, not to hope too much for a brighter future. There was still too big of a chance he could fail. But it was hard not to when Kakashi Hatake and Minato Namikaze of all people, stood beside him, watching him.
The other two that were with him were surprised by how relaxed he looked, surrounded by nature, soothing him, or him soothing it. He could almost be mistaken for being asleep. Silence hung in the air around the three for a few moments before it was interrupted.
"So Naruto, your apartment looked pretty empty, did you just move in?" Questioned Minato in what he thought to be a sly way, breaking the serenity. Kakashi mentally facepalmed, his sensei was the worst when it came to being discreet. Naruto opened his eyes and looked at the blonde man.
"Yes. My old apartment had mold." Naruto responded in a bored tone. Minato couldn't tell if he was lying or not. He probably was, but his answer was just dull enough to be completely probable so who knows. Certainly not him. Not well enough to call him out on it.
"You know you're the first Uzumaki I've met that doesn't have red hair." Minato tried again.
Naruto chuckled at his antics. He was really that suspicious of him, huh? "I take it you've met a lot of Uzumaki, then?" He inquired with amusement twinkling in his blue eyes. Minato looked put off.
Naruto chuckled again. "My mother was an Uzumaki, she did have red hair, I got my blonde hair from my father." Once he said it he wished he could shove the words back in. Had he said too much? Made it too obvious? But when he looked at the other blonde he saw nothing alarming. Though he didn't expect to. If Minato thought anything by it, Naruto knew better than to believe he would show it. Kakashi however... he was observant and seemed interested in what he had said. He would have to be more careful.
When Minato was about to say something else, Rin arrived. "Hello everyone!" She chirped while waving. Minato gave his only female student a warm greeting, opposite of Kakashi who just made a vague greeting sound and looked the other way, it very much reminded Naruto of Sasuke. His thoughts turned sad as he was reminded of his best friend and trusted second in command. He noticed three pairs of eyes watching him and immediately threw on a soft smile.
"Hello." He called as warmly as he could manage with pictures of his friend's still body playing through his mind. Naruto knew that his pain was most likely showing in his eyes, so he closed them before anyone could get a chance to notice. Kakashi had always told him that his eyes were like windows, so he shut the blinds.
The next hour was relatively quiet save for the short bouts of small talk. Naruto didn't utter a single word the whole time. He remained as he was before, the only difference being that even with closed eyes he could never be mistaken for being asleep.
"Hey! Sorry I'm late, an old lady needed help with her bangs." A cheerful voice rang through the clearing.
"Hn, honestly Obito. You're a ninja, learn to be on time. Besides, we have a new member joining the team. Is that really the first impression you're going to leave?" Kakashi complained.
Naruto chuckled. "It's fine. Don't sweat it too much. As long as you're on time for missions I won't think any less of you." Naruto reassured the boy after Kakashi's harsh scolding.
"How can say that? Him being late takes away from our training time." Kakashi argued.
Naruto shrugged uncaringly at that. "My sensei used to always be late by at least three hours. At first it drove me nuts, but it taught me an important lesson every ninja must master - how to be patient. Sure as hell took me long enough to learn it, though." Naruto chuckled. "And he had the worst excuses too. Like '๐ ๐จ๐ฐ๐ต ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ด๐ต ๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฑ๐ข๐ต๐ฉ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ญ๐ช๐ง๐ฆ.' and '๐ ๐ฃ๐ญ๐ข๐ค๐ฌ ๐ค๐ข๐ต ๐ค๐ณ๐ฐ๐ด๐ด๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ฎ๐บ ๐ฑ๐ข๐ต๐ฉ ๐ด๐ฐ ๐ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ง๐ช๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ธ๐ข๐บ.'" He rambled. Despite his complaints he had a fondness in his voice when he spoke of his former teacher.
Minato and Rin laughed too. "Sounds like Obito if he ever became a sensei." Rin giggled earning a playful glare from the Uchiha.
"That just sounds irresponsible to me. Isn't he supposed to a jounin? He should know better." Kakashi said with arrogance. It took all of Naruto's will not to laugh.
"Yeah, I guess in some ways he was. Irresponsible, I mean." Naruto said.
"Wait a minute... why exactly are you here?" Questioned Obito as he pointed to Naruto's relaxed form.
"I already said, Idiot. The Hokage assigned him to our team." Answered Kakashi.
Obito scratched his head. "Why?" He looked at Minato.
"Don't question Lord Hokage." Minato scolded even though he was being hypocritical, he had done nothing but question him since he told him he was going to assign Naruto. Obito tried his best to look ashamed. "Now, why don't we quickly introduce ourselves? I'll go first. My name is Minato Namikaze. I like training and spending time with my wife Kushina. My dream is to start a family and to be the Fourth Hokage." He started before looking to Obito.
"I'm Obito Uchiha! I like training and my dream is to be Hokage someday!" He yelled. Naruto smiled at him. It was hard to believe that this cheerful boy would one day bring ruin to the Five Great Nations.
"My name is Rin Nohara. I like spending time with my friends and helping out at the hospital. My dream is to one day become a great medical ninja even better than Lady Tsunade." She stated proudly with a closed eyed smile. Naruto didn't miss the tender look that Obito gave her while he thought no one was looking. So this was the girl he was in love with. The one he couldn't live without.
It was Naruto's turn next. He stood up and brushed the dirt from his pants before starting his introduction. "I'm Naruto Uzumaki, as you already know. I like - no love - ramen and my... " He was silent for a while. He knew what should come next, '๐ช๐ด ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐จ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ข๐ต๐ฆ๐ด๐ต ๐๐ฐ๐ฌ๐ข๐จ๐ฆ!'. But after all that happened... that wasn't really his dream anymore. He had already become Hokage in his time, but it only brought him pain. It painted targets on the backs of his friends. So his dream now... what would be? To change the future. To make safe and assured. To make it a place where they could raise a generation of peace and lasting stability.
But he couldn't very well say that. "Well I haven't really thought about it." He finished. Minato was put out by how impersonal it was, but he couldn't help but think of Kushina at the same time; what, with the ramen.
"I'm Kakashi Hatake." ...that was it. That was Kakashi's introduction. Naruto sweat dropped. ๐๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ธ๐ข๐ด ๐ฆ๐ท๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ด๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ฏ ๐ญ๐ข๐ด๐ต ๐ต๐ช๐ฎ๐ฆ, he thought.
"What kind of an introduction was that?!" Obito shouted whilst breaking all of Team Seven's hearing. The silver-haired boy just shrugged. Obito grumbled to himself.
Minato chuckled nervously. "Now that we're all introduced I would like to get an idea of your abilities Naruto."
This had Naruto's interest piqued. "How so?" He inquired.
"I want you to fight Kakashi."