Chapter Text
He was back, but he was already too late.
He had been born already and his parents were dead, again, and Kurama was sealed into his younger counterpart once more.
Konoha was destroyed and was being rebuilt, he snuck in posing as a volunteer straight-haired brunette civilian construction worker with his same blue icy eyes, who came to help rebuild houses.
He listened and watched from his post fixing roofs, no one suspected him of being something else.
Shikamaru was the one to calculate how far back he would be able to push to go and cooperated it into the seal, but he didn't count on him going into a healing-induced coma for a few weeks missing his mark to stop Obito and save his parents along with the ones that had been lost that day.
There hadn't been any talks yet about how it had been the Uchiha, but there had been some whispers of his counterpart, about how some packed up what they had left along with family and left the village all because the demon still lived in the village and could break lose.
How they lost someone dear to them and how that monster should pay, some even asked him if he had any family here, his smile told them enough and they gave him sympathetic smiles and stopped prying.
It was awkward for him to be around them so he focused his attention elsewhere.
He was still injured, but, in his definition, not gravely, so he carried as much as he was capable, worked well into the night then kept going on into the day, took naps on the roofs he finished and when he woke he got started again, just so families could sleep in a home again and not camp out in the street, or the shelters.
The people came to love him, tried to feed him more than he was capable of as he wasn't able to stomach so much anymore like when he was little, invited him to drink tea with them, asked him to take more breaks, flirted with him and tried to get him to laugh more than just his awkward chuckles, and get him to smile something true.
For all his efforts of mingling, listening, and observing he was able to find an opening at the Hokage's tower, he now knew their routine, and every day he's been here the window connected to the Hokages office was left open during the time that the sunsets came that he knew he would easily be able to slip into.
He let his eyes wander as he walked there, watched as kids still played, and others swept some of the leftover rubble, some eating, and drinking, sobbing and laughing, others still working on what was left, and not much that was.
It didn't take long for him to make it to the rod that led to Hokages tower, he felt his heart leap to his throat, making it hard for him to breathe, his legs felt too heavy to move, and the world around him felt as if it was getting smaller while the building bigger, he took a deep breath and blew it out slowly, with it he regained control, he hopped on over and slipped in.
His feet touched the ground softly, toes to heels, put his hand to his sides, and bowed at a 120-degree angle, that's as far as he could push himself to go without opening up his abdomen wounds in the process.
"Hokage-Sama" he rasped.
The effect was immediate, the Hokage stood and the guards had their weapons on him the second he let out a sound, they nor the Hokage had sensed or seen him come in.
A sword was at his throat drawing beads of blood as it pressed into its side softly in warning, daring him to make a move.
The Hokages eyes sharpened, he tensed and adjusted his stance getting ready for an attack, his Anbu just a moment away from taking down the man in front of him should he make a wrong move but what came wasn't something he had expected.
"When the tree leaves dance one shall find flames. The fire's shadow will illuminate the village, and once again, tree leaves shall bud anew..."
Hiruzen's eyes narrowed, but his stance turned from hostile to open with mistrust but before he could speak the man in front of him kept talking.
"...but when the tree falls and the shadow flies there is nothing left not even the roots in which they came in."
His eyes widened and he tensed.
"Leave us!" He ordered his Anbu.
They left a moment after a few seconds of hesitation.
He activated his privacy seals and glared at the newcomer in front of him.
"Stand" he ordered.
He did, and icy blue eyes are what met his and for just a moment his memories of a dead man overlapped his vision of this man.
"Who are you?" He asked coldly, his demeanor showing nothing but open mistrust.
Naruto took in the (younger) old man's face, and he saw a worn-out veteran in the place of his grandfatherly figure, it made reality feel more real than it did just a few moments ago.
It no longer felt as if he was an empty vessel just roaming around.
He took off his brown wig, took his blond hair out of its bun letting it fall freely at his shoulders, ruffled it, gave a wry smile at the shocked (younger) old man and answered his question.
"Naruto Uzumaki, registration number '012607'–"
Hiruzen opened his mouth to object no matter how much he looked like Minato, how much he looked like a grown Naruto, but yet again he was interrupted before he got the chance.
"–and my parents were Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki, supposed to be brother Kakashi Hatake and my Godparents had been Jiraiya of the Sannin and Mikoto Uchiha"
That shut him right back up.
It wasn't known by anyone but him, Minato, Kushina, Kakashi, and the man in question that Jiraiya had been Naruto's Godfather, though Mikoto openly admitted to such things when she tried to gain custody of Naruto in a private meeting with him when it was questioned where he'd be placed.
It also wasn't known that Minato and Kushina were the parents, as to protect the child.
"A nice tale you've sprung, but you've missed one thing, Naruto has whiskers and you don't" He finished with his tone that of venom towards the lying imposter.
The man that looked so much like Minato that it hurt to see nodded his head and then pointed to his stomach.
"I am no longer a Jinchuriki, but if you'll allow me I could show you the remnants of the seal that had once been there," He asked
Hiruzen clenched his jaw but nodded.
He lifted his shirt with one hand and unwrapped his bandages with the other, letting his wounds show on full display, not minding the hitch of breath the Hokage took, before channeling chakra to his belly, showing what now is an empty seal.
One that mostly reflected baby Naruto's so much that he couldn't ignore this man's words.
Naruto's words.
Looking into those icy blue eyes he realized that he was no man at all, but a teen who has the world sitting upon his shoulders, those eyes looked back at him with a tired blankness that only those in the deepest ends of war could get.
He gave a hesitant nod and sat in his chair, his mind whirling, he doesn't even want to know why the boy was there, but he has to, it was his job, again, to do such things.
Sitting up straight he put his arms on his desk and stared at him, at Naruto, and he saw just how much he looked like his mother, even with his father's coloring, he has her penchant for bad luck when it comes to life events it seems and sighed.
"Tell me everything" It wasn't an order but it wasn't a question either, but the boy had the choice to tell him as much he saw fit until the time came he needed him to know more.
Naruto gave him a soft defeated smile, and nodded while aiming a fist slowly at him, he lelf it waiting, and he looked at the boy in askance, he laughed and it made him look young as it took the boy's stress lines away, "its a fist bump old man, you tap it with yours"
As soon as his fist connected with his, memories along with emotions that weren't his hit his brain.
Relief was what he felt, Nolstagia and so much sorrow, pain, and regret.
Those were what Naruto was feeling and he wonders if he had felt his emotions in return.
The memories started with Naruto's childhood, his Academy teacher, he painted the Hokage mountain, his genin team, and their wild adventures, how he got a bridge named after him, when he traveled with Jiraiya and brought back Tsunade, how he lost a friend and gained another, when he left the village and trained as Jiraiya's pupil, how he became a sage, and how the village came to love him, to when Asuma and Kurenai had a baby.
Everything that was shown to him was
happy memories, but he knows that the boy wouldn't have come back in time without reason so when their fists disconnected and the memories stopped he had to ask.
"Why are you here?" his voice curious but eyes searching for the answers he might not be giving verbally
Because he wouldn't be here and have felt what he felt if it wasn't all taken away.
"I came from the future to stop the past from following in the same steps as my time had, and I need you to aid me" his voice was determined but not demanding, and ice blue eyes that were once baby blue held so much fire that he couldn't help but agree.
Consequences be damned
"And what is it that you need help with Naruto?"
"I need to be an Anbu, I'll also need a new identity"
Lighting up his well-needed pipe, he took a long hit and blew it out with his eyes closed, before opening a drawer from his desk and taking out a scroll, "any preferences??" he asked already knowing the answers and by the tilted head half-smile the boy gave him he knew that he already knew them too.
Un-sealing the scroll to get the tools he needed for this process, gloves, chakra absorbent black ink, and a tattoo pen along with a stamp to help him trace along.
He's not usually the one to do this but he knows that he'll have to do so for this one.
He cleared his desk and nodded to the boy in askance of where he wanted it to go and the boy took off his shirt, laid on his back, and put his arms underneath his head as a pillow, he stared up at the sealing and flickered his eyes to the side of his rib right below his armpit.
He nodded and scooted his whirly chair closer and cleaned the area before he pressed the leaf symbol stamp into it, putting his chakra into the ink he turned on the tattoo pen and got to work.
Once done he wiped at it once more and put some cream on it then a clear covering on the top.
Naruto sat up on the edge of the desk and put his shirt back on as the old man put everything back into the seal before he set it on fire and put it in the trash, letting it burn, he grabbed the needed paperwork to forge documentation, put down a name and "recommended" rank he was, along with a fake amount of missions for each rank there was.
"How old are you Naruto?" he asked while still writing things down and slashing boxes here and there.
"Eighteen"
Hiruzen nodded and put down a fake birthday, and then grabbed some more paperwork to add an actual address seeing as the boy needs a place to live, and with everything having been rebuilt new housing was going fast by those who needed it, then when that was done, he finished the document with his signature than his stamp.
Rummaging through another drawer he pulled out more paperwork for the Anbu documents, and put in the needed information along with more amounts of fake missions, then came what his mask and codename were.
Nodding his head he put down, Fox, another signature and stamp and all that was left was to get the mask and be done with everything.
"Damn old man, you're making it seem as if you forge documents every day for someone who traveled back in time with how easy you're doing this"
A twitch of his brow and a grumble was all the retort he got back, but it made him smile anyway.
Getting a cup of water he put out his trash fire and grabbed every new paperwork on his desk and stuffed it all in an empty scroll that he'll find a holding place for later, as well as secretly add the documents into a hidden compartment in the Anbu's file room.
Getting up he went to his bookshelf and pulled the book lever and with that it turned around to show a room with rows and rows of masks, as well as village headbands, grabbing the fox mask along with a dark blue headband, he tossed them both to Naruto.
Closed the room once more, sat, and sighed.
Gesturing towards the mask with a nod, and meeting Naruto's eyes he spoke as he grabbed some keys in his right hand.
"That mask has been put up since before the second shinobi war had ended, it had belonged to that of a dear friend, and I know you'll be the perfect fit for the role of the mask just as he once had–"
Kagami Uchiha
"–Haruto Namikaze"he finished as he gave him his keys to his apartment.
Haruto, meaning "sun" and "sunlight", this name is a reminder of importance and dazzling spirit. -The Bump
Could also have the meanings "Distant, Soar, or Fly."
