Naruto 1. Chapter 1

Surprising Strangers

Chapter 1

Namikaze Minato was not having a good day. He had woken up to find that Kushina was still incensed with him and was trying to give him a cold shoulder, despite the fact that it was almost impossible for the fiery redhead to stay silent for long periods of time. He really could not understand why she was angry. Alright, so he may have handed off his young and impressionable son to a self-proclaimed super pervert, but in his defence, he was the Hokage and had to maintain some degree of impartiality in the chuunin exams. He was going to help judge the participants so it would be extremely unfair if he trained his son for the finals. Besides, Jiraiya-sensei had trained him when he was young, and he had turned out just fine.

He understood the point his lovely wife was trying to make. Naruto's Jounin sensei was already enough of a pervert and adding Jiraiya to the mix was simply asking for their son to grow up to be as lecherous as the two shinobi, but what could he do? His son would need Jiraiya-sensei's teachings in order to stand up to the unstable jinchuriki in the final round; Kushina's clan techniques would not help(Naruto would need to be a fuinjutsu master before he would be able to use seals to fight another jinchuriki and he had not inherited her special chakra, so chakra chains were out of the question). Really, Minato's sensei was the best option as a teacher. Kakashi was a prodigy and would probably find it harder to teach someone who needed a different teaching method than the one he usually employed with Sasuke (which basically equated to making him do physical exercises and letting him copy ninjutsu with the Sharingan). It made sense to pair off the two boys with the most compatible senseis before the chuunin exam finals.

He had to admit that he was starting to second-guess his decision to let his adorable little son train with his old sensei. This morning, he had received the news that Naruto was admitted in the hospital with chakra exhaustion. This made him wonder about the nature of the training that could deplete the chakra of his son, the container of the strongest bijuu. Unfortunately, he had not yet left home when the messenger had informed him of this news, hence he had been forced to endure Kushina's glare laced with killing intent, poking holes into the back of his skull with metaphorical kunai as he received an urgent message from the Kazekage requesting a private meeting.

Now, just a few hours after he had woken up, he could conclude that this day just kept getting worse. The Kazekage had just finished telling him a spectacular tale that had only served to increase his stress to colossal levels. Apparently Orochimaru had approached his fellow kage with an alliance offer with the objective to invade Konoha, which the other Yondaime had found so alarming that he only only pretend to support the missing-nin and was informing Minato of, at the first opportunity.

Minato was not naïve enough to think that his fellow kage had been motivated by the alliance between their villages to covertly betray the snake sannin. After all, everyone knew that most shinobi village alliances were tentative at best. It was natural for every village to look after its own interests. The strong alliance between Konoha and Uzushiogakure had been an exception to the norm, but even that had not been able to prevent the downfall of his wife's former village.

The most alarming part of the news that the Kazekage had given him was the tidbit that Orochimaru had revealed about his former allies, the Akatsuki. He had given hints to Suna's kage about the group's intentions that would affect the Kazekage when they came after his son. He had offered information about the group in exchange for the other Kage's aid in invading Konoha, which was widely acknowledged as one of the strongest villages under the leadership of the Yellow Flash, when the Kazekage had felt reluctant to turn on a powerful ally.

Minato, who already had an inkling of the group's existence due to Jiraiya's information network, was now quite worried about the threat they posed, if the snake sannin had worked for them, which would indicate that the leader was so strong that even Orochimaru had not dared to dispute his authority. He could not suppress his concern for his son, who would undoubtedly be a future target of the organization. The fact that the proud Kazekage, who was rumored to have sent assassins after his own son, felt threatened enough by the idea of the Akatsuki to share this information with Minato, meant that the situation was dire indeed. It showed that the other kage realized the magnitude of the global threat posed by a bunch of S-ranked missing-nin that were confident enough to take on jinchurikis. Who knew what nefarious deeds they could use the massive chakra of multiple bijuu for?

Minato really did not know what to do. The Kazekage had shared this information with him, and this was as close to a tacit agreement to jointly deal with this problem as he would recieve, but both Yondaimes were equally clueless about how to take the logical next step- that of gathering more information about the Akatsuki.

It was probably a testament to how stressed he was that Minato's mind jumped to the most unconventional solution to this problem; the kind of solution that was so out of the box that it could be credited to someone as unpredictable and surprising as Naruto. His mind drifted to the side project he had been working on for many years, ever since the Kyuubi attack. After witnessing the masked man's abilities, he had been wondering about the existence of parallel dimensions and the possibility of initiating contact across them.

He had used his signature time-space seal as a base when he had started his research and experimentation, which was probably why his attempt at establishing contact with their kage counterparts in another dimension failed so miserably that day and the situation spiraled out of control thereafter.

He really should have known better than to have powered an untested fuinjutsu scheme with the chakra of five kage-level ninjas on a day that was already proving to be governed by the law of Murphy. Perhaps, if he had not asked the Kazekage, Kushina, Kakashi and Jiraiya to add their chakra to his in the seal, despite their warnings, this catastrophe would not have occurred. However, he insisted on trying to contact other Kages from a different dimension and a more advanced timeline (even Kushina had not appreciated the ingenuity of the special seals he had added to select a time period corresponding to the future of this dimension, not to mention his brilliant use of the seals found on the Kage hat to ensure they got in touch with the right people). Thus the onus of everything that occurred henceforth was on him.

Minato had faced a very bad day. It became worse when all the chakra poured into the seal failed to have any effect. He had to face the glares of four murderous ninjas who had lost a large chunk of chakra on his failed experiment. Then the horrible day came to the peak of its abhorrence with a flash of light as five figures dressed in robes suddenly appeared out of nowhere in the middle of the sealing array.

**A/N: There is a semi-canon world with a fem!naruto, and there is an AU world with many divergence. The mostly-canon characters will enter my AU where most of the story will take place.**

**Please note that this is an AU world. Changes cheate ripples etc, so:**

**1. Naruto-kun having parents resulted in him being properly taught by Jiraiya how to summon, and succeeding within a week or two after prelims. **

** 2. The Kazekage is suspicious of Orochimaru and was not replaced/possessed**

**There will be lots of divergences in my AU verse, because this is NOT canon- even my semi-canon world will not be fully canon-compliant because Naruto is female and this does change things a lot. Only the basic plot in the semi-canon world regarding the villains is completely canon-compliant such as Tobi, Pein, Madara, Akatsuki, etc. I have not figured out how Minato being alive would effect the Uchiha massacre so I will avoid the Uchihas for now. Suggestions would be appreciated.**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Naru, a girl with too many last names(they really were a mouthful), had woken up unhappy. Her feet were swollen, her stomach felt even more bloated than usual, if that was even possible and her back was killing her. Adding to the physical discomfort was the depressing knowledge that she could deliver anytime and her husband would probably not be able to make it. He was in a different country altogether on an urgent and unavoidable business, and she _totally_ understood, but she really missed him. His calm demeanor would have definitely soothed her frazzled nerves.

However, he was not there and she had to make her way to the hospital alone. Today was a checkup day and Sakura-chan would probably try to convince her to get admitted in the hospital until her delivery again. Really, the girl was as stubborn as her mentor and refused to give up, but Naru was not the number one knuckleheaded kunoichi for nothing. Her old teammate was not going to win this argument, because Naru never went back on her decisions-believe it!

Winding her way down the streets of her village, she marveled at the respectful bows, smiles and friendly greetings she received. After a miserable childhood such as hers, she could never get fully accustomed to the positive treatment, but it felt nice all the same. The citizens of Konoha had not looked at her with _those eyes_ since she had defeated Pein when she was a teenager. Now, after the war had ended and Naruto's generation had helped usher the hidden continents into an era of peace, she was lauded as a war hero and was revered by the masses.

Things were going well, she mused as she entered the hospital and made her way to Sakura's office and the attached examination room (being Tsunade's former pupil had its perks). Spotting a familiar face hidden behind an orange book, she called out, "Kaka-sensei! Did Sakura-chan force you to get a checkup too?"

Kakashi looked up at his former student and his eye crinkled into his version of a smile. Sweeping a glance over the heavily pregnant woman, he replied, "Yup! Though I dare say you look like you need one more than I do. Weren't you due a few days ago? Looks like any kid of yours will be just as unpredictable as the mother." Naru laughed and was opening her mouth to respond when a flash of light surrounded the floor at her feet, morphing into a complicated sealing array that glowed as Naru's eyes widened in fear, recognizing some of the symbols.

Noticing her panic-stricken expression, Kakashi immediately sprang forward to grasp her arm and was about to pull her away when another flash of light surrounded both of them. When Sakura peeked out of her office, having sensed the chakra disruption, the area around nearby was completely devoid of chatter as everyone in the corridor had turned to face the place where Kakashi and Naru had stood until a second ago before they had vanished into thin air.

**A/N: I want your opinions about the people that should go dimension travel with the five Kages….Kakashi was an unplanned addition, but I can't decide if I want more extras- they would have to be trusted advisors/bodyguards and there cannot be too many…but I like the idea of Temari and Kankuro going to the alternate dimension. So the chapters may be edited after I receive some advice….**


	3. interlude 1

Interlude 1

The Yondaime Kazekage was a sensible man who truly cared for his village. He knew how to harden his heart and put the interest of his village first, even before that of his family. Despite this, he was not as heartless as many people, including his deceased brother-in-law had perceived him to be. He had loved Karura a lot and his carefully hidden grief after her passing had probably cultivated a distance between him and his children. He could not help but act cold towards them every time their smallest actions reminded him of his wife.

He truly did feel regret at his utter failure to raise Gaara as a jinchuriki loyal to the village. That could have reduced a lot a mental conflict as he tried to find a balance between his role as a father and his duty as the Kazekage. Of course, being the kage was a great responsibility that came with the burden of always putting the village first.

Still, he was not as terrible a father as his children thought. He did care for his children somewhat; even Gaara, whom he had lost all hope for. That was probably why his son was still alive. After all, there were many ways of defeating the sand jinchuriki who had developed a complete reliance on his ultimate sand defense. Some water jutsus could easily slow down the sand and some well-placed seals would solve the problem, one way or the other. His pride had stopped him from seeking Konoha's aid and sealing expertise, but even without it, his title was not for show. He was perfectly capable of dealing with an immature jinchuriki if the situation called for it.

He supposed it was fortunate that he had not been forced to take such a drastic step yet. Even a man such as him would feel aversion at the prospect of killing his youngest son, no matter how well he hid it. In any case, he was starting to reconsider the idea of not accepting help. He respected Namikaze and had heard a lot about his sealing prowess. It was also evident to any shinobi worth his kunai how Konoha must have 'defeated' the Kyuubi.

He had been thinking of asking the Hokage to look at his son's seal during the chuunin exams, when he was approached by Orochimaru. Now the Yondaime Kazekage had many personal flaws, but he was completely loyal to his village. Thus he automatically found people like Orochimaru extremely repugnant and in his mind, the snake sannin's repulsiveness was only enhanced by his immorality and experimentation on infants, which was quite extreme, even for shinobi.

In another dimension, were he not impeded by his healthy respect for a formidable man like the Yondaime Hokage, he would have probably accepted Orochimaru's offer to invade Konoha together. Perhaps he would not have feared the aging Sandaime and his ideas of peace. However, he had no intention of backstabbing the Yellow Flash without a good reason.

His reluctance to accept Orochimaru's offer was probably the metaphorical pebble that created large ripples and set many events into motion. The missing-nin was forced to give the Kazekage a good incentive to join forces with him. He did so by revealing the existence of the Akatsuki to the kage, who was secretly alarmed by the threat they posed to his son and perhaps all the nations, if Orochimaru had accurately outlined their goals of capturing all the jinchuriki.

It was this disturbing information that he passed on to the Hokage soon after he reached Konoha, a mere three weeks before the chuunin exam finals. His worry for his country and his expertly concealed concern for his son even gave him the motivation to hear Namikaze out. He personally thought that the man had lost grip of his sanity and was quite incredulous when the crazy kage came up with the _brilliant_ idea of gathering information from their trans-dimensional counterparts.

He wondered what was wrong with the conventional, tried-and-tested method of collecting data through spy networks. It was certainly a more logical option than the Hokage's suggestion. Even so, as ridiculous as the idea was, and he was still unsure how the man had convinced him and three others to take part in such a foolish endeavor- the man was too charismatic for his own good- there really was no harm in trying, or so they all thought.

He would plead temporary insanity for having supported the eccentric genius later. At the moment, he was simply speechless with horror as the seal, instead of opening a communication channel with the intended targets, had transported what appeared to be an alternate dimension's versions of all five kages and their guards into this dimension.

**A/N: Many people hate Gaara's father, and I guess that is justified but ever since the edo-tensei kazekage v/s gaara fight, my opinion changed. The man I am about to portray reflects my perception of the 4****th**** Kazekage. To be on the safe side, I am depicting him in my AU verse so if he crosses the line of realistic portrayal, then I cannot be blamed. However, I really do think that his character is a mix of Minato(the village comes first) and Fugaku(stern and stoic person with no idea how to treat youngest son that he probably cares for, at some level)…so I think the man could react like this in the given circumstances.**


	4. Chapter 3

**A/N: current traveller list: **

**sand: Gaara, Temari, Kankuro**

**leaf: Konohamaru, Naruko, Kakashi (tell me soon if I should send Shikamaru too)  
**

**cloud: A, Killer B, **

**mist: Mei, Chojuro**

**rock: Kurotsuchi as the kage, and Akatsuchi**

_Kakashi's musings:_

_Those who break the rules are trash, but those who abandon their teammates are worse than trash…does that still apply if said teammates are terrifyingly hormonal pregnant women?….Obito really should have reconsidered that one…._

Chapter 3

Naru's horrible day had already been bad enough when she had recognized the space-time aspect of the sealing array that had appeared under her feet. It worsened when she felt the wrenching sensation of being tugged away into a long distance teleportation, which was monumentally compounded by the fact that she felt extremely nauseous when she landed. The final straw was the fact that her water broke the moment she landed.

Kakashi managed to put his other arm around her and steadied her as they stumbled a little from the displacement. He was just taking note of the fact that they were still within the hospital yet there were a lot of minor differences in their surroundings that immediately set off warning bells in his head, when his blonde companion groaned loudly. "Kakashi my water broke!" she bit out, pressing a palm against her swollen belly.

The famous Copy-Nin felt all his valour desert him as he was faced with a pregnant woman, her face scrunched up in pain. He would rather fight Tobi all over again just to escape this terrifying situation. He had never felt so lost and helpless before. He had no idea what to do, and only the phrase about never abandoning your friends, which he had held close to his heart for more than two decades, stopped him from bolting right then.

His cute little student needed him (never mind the fact that she had not been his student or a little girl for years now) and he forced himself to maintain some semblance of rationality as he analyzed the situation. "Alright. So we were transported somewhere with an unknown seal, which had some space-time aspects unless I'm mistaken. In any case this place appears to be the Konoha Hospital, so let us try to find a medic-nin for you. We can figure out the rest later."

Naru groaned in pain and tried to express her observations to him. "Seal…. hiraish-…. time-travel…. could… dimens-," she grunted out as she hunched over and massaged her stomach with one hand and tightly held on to Kakashi's sleeve with the other, using the aid to stand upright. Kakashi slipped an arm around her waist and tried his best to support her after sending two kage-bunshins to find a trustworthy medic. He had understood the gist of her message and was silently cursing their luck.

He tried his best not to flinch and jostle Naru as one clone dispersed after being violently skewered with senbons for trying to interrupt Shizune. The gentle ones always turned into violent monsters due to the stress caused by the medical profession-Sakura was a fine example of this phenomenon. In any case, it seemed that the other clone had found a medic, if that chakra pulse it had sent was anything to go by. He helped Naru take a few steps towards the closest operating room just as his shadow clone turned into the corridor, followed by a very familiar blonde woman.

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Tsunade was extremely suspicious of this slightly older-looking version of Kakashi, though it was hard to tell since most of his face was concealed as usual and his hair had been grey since he was born. Still, she was not the best medic in all the nations for nothing. She could see the subtle signs of ageing that had not been present the last time she had seen the man. Even so, despite some irregularities, she could tell that the chakra within the clone accompanying her belonged to Kakashi. She had confirmed it with the aid of a passing Hyuuga- the clone was running on white chakra so unless Kakashi had an older relative who resembled him to an eerie extent, this man somehow was Kakashi.

That was enough to give the clone the benefit of doubt and her own curiosity in the face of the barely concealed panic on the clone's face motivated her to follow him and hear the original out about the 'medical emergency' that the clone had mentioned.

The clone dispersed as soon as Tsunade reached the two and Kakashi wasted no time in putting forth his request to her. "Tsunade-sama! Please, I know I owe you an explanation, but we're running out of time. She has been due for days and her water just broke and you are the only one we could trust with this delivery. The situation is very delicate. Please allow us to explain everything after the delivery," he bowed down at the waist, highlighting the gravity of the situation.

Tsunade seemed reluctant and was quite suspicious of the two strangers that seemed strangely familiar. She scowled and was opening her mouth to give the impudent brats a piece of her mind when Naru, unable to hold it in any more, shrieked angrily with tears in her eyes, "Baa-chan! My babies are trying to come out and it freaking hurts-ttebayo so get them out of me NOW!"

Perhaps it was the frightening, almost demonic ki that laced the air when she said those words, or the terror-inducing visual impact of her hair flying upwards which made her resemble a wrathful Kushina for a moment, that made Tsunade concede and comply with their requests. "Fine," she muttered, "But you owe me a hell of an explanation Hatake; starting with why this girl seems to know me when I have never laid my eyes on her before." Caught between two temperamental females, the poor shinobi could only gulp and wonder why he had not stayed at home to read his beloved Icha-Icha this morning.

Tsunade's wariness kept increasing with the strange and furtive attitude displayed by the Hatake and his companion, who, now that she thought about it looked a lot like Kushina, only with blond hair and whisker marks that immediately brought forth an image of the redhead's twelve-year-old son in the medic's mind.

She mentally took note of the chakra and fuinjutsu barriers that the man immediately set up after entering the operating room, as well as his refusal to allow anyone other than her into the room. She discovered the reason for his secrecy when she started to undress the blond woman. Her eyes widened and her hands stilled for a moment when she first saw the woman's stomach, and the black seal that was glowing with a reddish tint.

"This is…," she trailed off as she remembered a similar situation from twelve years ago. Minato had persuaded her to return to Konoha in order to help in Kushina's delivery. It had been a horrible night where she had been forced to witness the death of her sensei's wife, just a few minutes before her sensei had chosen to sacrifice himself using the Shiki Fuin seal devised by Minato. The sight of the seal on the blond woman's stomach brought back a lot of memories that Tsunade had been trying to suppress.

Now that she thought about it, this woman's seal was very similar to Naruto's; not being a sealing expert, she could not identify the exact differences though she could tell that something about it was different. Well, that explained the need for secrecy. Suppressing her personal feelings on the matter, the slug summoner briskly got to work with a great degree of professionalism, though she mentally basked in the perverse pleasure she received from Hatake's discomfiture.


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Kakashi was really starting to regret having stepped out of his home that morning. If he had not taken his former student's threat of burning his porn unless he visited her for regular checkups seriously, he would not have landed himself in this situation. Although a part of him felt happy at being able to support his other ex-student in a time of need, he really wished someone else could have taken his place. To say that Kakashi felt uncomfortable as he stood by Naru while she screamed from labor pain, would be a massive understatement.

It was bad enough that he had to allow her to crush his hand, and he was not exaggerating-the girl really did not know her own strength. He even had to ignore the pain in that hand (was he imagining the creaking sounds or were his bones being ground to dust?) as he used the other to reinforce her weakening seal. Minato-sensei's seal was strong, but he had only designed it to hold back the Kyuubi. The aftermath of the war had brought about a lot of changes, one of them being the difference between her former tenant and what she now contained.

Perhaps it was fortunate that the Kyuubi was aiding Kakashi's efforts to strengthen the seal- the man was not aware of the exact nature of the relationship that existed between Naru and the nine-tails but he did know that it was an amiable one. The Kyuubi's chakra was outlining the black lines of the seal with a reddish tint as the demon fox helped the delivery proceed smoothly.

Kakashi winced as the blonde Uzumaki's screeching reached a new decibel. His sensitive ears were suffering from his proximity to her as he idly wondered if his silencing seals could fail due to the sheer amount of noise being generated. He was roused out of his musing as Tsunade ordered," Well? Are you going to make yourself useful or not Hatake? There's only one of me and I'm delivering the baby. That seal looks stable enough so come and stand next to me and wipe the blood off the baby when it comes out."

With those horrifying words, she went back to _gently_ coaxing Naru to push ("If you don't push more the damn kids wont come out you and it'll keep hurting so push HARDER you damn brat!"). The following expletives that came out of Naru's mouth would have made a sailor blush.

Kakashi could feel himself turning green and was sure that his mask was not doing a good job of concealing his emotions since he caught the momentary flash of amusement in Tsunade's eyes before her face scrunched up again, into a fearsome scowl. He would later realize that Tsunade had been capitalizing on his discomfort and that she could have easily created solid clones if she needed an extra pair of hands instead of beckoning him close to the Naru's legs, forcing him to witness all the gory details of childbirth.

At that moment, he was thanking Kami that he had been born male- he would never have to undergo this torture, he thought, trying his best to suppress the urge to hurl. He had never needed the emotional control training from his ANBU days as badly as he did at that moment. Fortunately, shinobi instincts kicked in and allowed him to detatch himself from the situation. Thus he mechanically accepted the squalling infant placed in his arms and gently set about completing the task he had been given, trying his best to dispel the traumatizing images from his mind. Well, he definitely had new material for the T&I department's genjutsu team- those horrific images would definitely break the mind of the most hardened shinobi.

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By the time both newborns had been cleaned, Naru's rapid healing and Uzumaki resilience had allowed her to regain enough coherence to demand to see her babies. She had been too indisposed to hear Tsunade proclaim the gender of the twins and was pleasantly surprised at finding out that she had just given birth to two wonderfully healthy daughters. They were obviously not identical twins since one had a tuft of brilliant red hair while the other had sandy blonde hair. While they were definitely the most beautiful babies in the world in her eyes, she was sure Kaka-sensei and her friends would agree that the girls were going to be heart-breakers when they grew up- they came from an excellent gene pool after all.

On that note, she wondered why he had such a peculiar expression on his face. He looked weird; oh well- her babies were so adorable! With her eyes averted, she failed to notice that Kakashi's mildly nauseous expression vanished, and his face became unreadable when he observed her glowing countenance as she beheld her first offspring. The obvious adoration in her eyes made his visible eye soften and crinkle into a crescent shape.

Tsunade, looking at the new mother, decided to postpone her interrogation for a while and turned to the silver-haired man with a meaningful look. Just because she was unwilling to disturb the blissful new parent did not mean that she would not receive answers to her questions, and she had a lot of them. Their body language had made it quite obvious that Hatake was not the father, so he should have no problem in finally giving her some well-deserved answers. The man caught onto the meaning behind her subtle gesture and he raised a hand, wordlessly asking her to wait for a moment before turning toward the oblivious mother.

Kakashi really could not contain his curiosity anymore and had to verbalize the question that had been gnawing at him for a while. "Ne, Naru-chan, have you finalized their names yet? You seemed to have a lot of ideas for their names the last time I asked…" he trailed off, subtly encouraging her to respond.

"Yup! I've made up my mind," the young woman chirped. Her eyes flicked towards the medic who was unobtrusively listening to them and she carefully chose her next words- "I'm naming each girl after the grandmother she resembles the most!" Tsunade huffed at the obvious concealment of the interesting information that could have given her some telling hints.

Kakashi deliberated on Naru's response and told her, "Hmm….seems appropriate. I bet your husband will be very happy with your choice." He conveyed a smile through his lone eye before straightening up and speaking more formally. "I am sure Tsunade-sama would like to know more about this unusual situation that we have found ourselves in. How much would you like to disclose?"

Tsunade noted the mild deference in his tone and was mildly surprised before she realized that the woman, (she had been called Naru, which was another coincidental link between her and Namikaze Naruto, just like the seal, whisker marks and sunny-blonde haie) had also straightened up. The commanding, charismatic aura she exuded, so reminiscent of Minato, caught the slug sannin off-guard. She wondered how she had not noticed the inner strength and self-assurance that seemed to radiate off this kunoichi, who suddenly seemed a lot more formidable in Tsunade's eyes.

The unknown jinchuriki responded-no, it was an order, Tsunade's subconscious mind corrected- " We have nothing to hide so you can answer Baa-chan's questions. However, until we determine the exact nature of our….displacement, it would make sense not to reveal any news that would….affect this place that we are in."

Kakashi translated Naru's words into the underlying orders- answer the questions and find out which time period this is and thus only hold back any information about the future of this time. He nodded to signify his understanding and, knowing that this particular tidbit would inevitably be revealed, could not resist taking revenge on Tsunade for the torture she had put him through. He verbally responded to the unspoken order with a solemn, "Hai Hogage-sama!" and flourished it with a small bow, immediately turning around with a smirk, just in time to catch Tsunade's gobsmacked expression.

Naru watched them with an expression of fond amusement; Kakashi's antics had reduced some of the gravity and terseness from the atmosphere and her countenance. She was glad he still acted like the mock-cheerful man that had once taught her, at least most of the time, because the war had dealt a lot of emotional blows to her surrogate-family member. That he had managed to recover and carry on, was probably because his female students had tried their best to be there for him and always dragged him away for a spar if he started brooding too much at the memorial stone. She was startled out of this trail of thought as little Kushina-chan started to wail. Naru dismissed her musings and started to nurse her daughter.

**A/N: Yes her seal is stronger than Kushina's and after the war it is unlikely Kurama would actively try to escape, but I have my reasons for needing someone to strengthen the seal. All will be revealed much later when I delve into some of the specifics of the outcome of the war. Bear with it.**

**Please give your opinions about the list of remaining travellers ASAP…The next chapter will feature them. Please note that I'm trying not to make anyone who has a similar counterpart travel- two mostly same people are boring...so Tsunade is not going…canon Kakashi has been through a traumatic war (Obito revelation etc) so I can make him seem different when his counterpart is introduced.**

**Reply to the guest review: (SPOILERS FOR THE NEXT FEW CHAPTERS)I was asked why Naru and Kakashi did not appear with the others in the main room. I will explain this soon when I elaborate on the seal. As I earlier mentioned, Minato connected the seal to the Kage hat- the people wearing the hat and those in direct contact with them were pulled in. Naru is the rokudaime, as I have just revealed, but she was not wearing the hat in the kage summit that the others were pulled away from. At the same time, the hat contains traces of her chakra, so she was pulled into this world but the pull was not powerful enough to change her location as well, hence she landed in the hospital- Kakashi was touching her and was brought along. This will be explained in the story soon.**


End file.
