Tangents and Parallels

“When will you learn not to touch stuff you know nothing about?!”

“Shut up! It’s not like you weren’t curious either!”

“Please don’t fight, guys…”

Minato sighed as he watched his team, Kakashi and Obito sniping at each other like usual while Rin tried to play peacemaker. While he normally would have helped Rin calm the boys, he was a little irritated himself. The Uchiha had found a strange seal carved into a stone, cleverly hidden under some thick shrubbery.

Instead of being cautious, he had touched it and also channeled some chakra into it, causing an unexpected chain reaction. Stones with similar seals had lit up around them and they had been enveloped in a flash of blinding light.

When it had died down, the four members of Team Minato found themselves in a forest clearing like the one they had just been in, but the trees were older and placed differently. The seal network had remained though, and Minato had studied it but it had proven beyond his current level. All he could understand was that it was related to space-time and transportation.

“Alright, that’s enough,” Minato cut in when the boys took battle poses, voice unusually hard as he pinched the bridge of his nose. Kakashi and Obito stopped in their tracks, having the grace to look guilty, and Rin sighed in relief. “First things first, we find out where we are. I think we’re still in Hi no Kuni but-”

The Namikaze cut himself off, tensing as he shifted himself to stand in front of his team. The three children were initially confused until the sound of ruffling leaves and muffled voices reached their ears and they also tensed, pulling out kunai in expectation of an attack.

“I know it’s this way, who’s the sensor here? Certainly not you two.”

A feminine voice reached their ears and Team Minato prepared themselves, hands gripped tight around their kunai.

A pale hand appeared out of the leaves, pushing aside the branches to clear a path. The next thing the four saw was a head of crimson hair, in a very familiar shade. The newly arrived girl appeared to have been shouting over her shoulder and she turned to face forwards, freezing in mid-motion when her eyes landed on the group in the clearing.

“Kushina-nee?” Obito asked in confusion, yelping when Kakashi smacked him. “What was that for, Bakashi?!”

“Idiot,” the Hatake hissed, not taking his eyes off the still frozen redhead. “Kushina-nee has violet eyes; this girl has blue!”

That statement got the girl to unfreeze, an expression of exasperation taking over her features as she smacked her forehead with her palm. Much to the confusion of Team Minato, she sighed and stepped fully into the clearing, giving them a small but genuine smile.

“Hikari-chan? What is it?”

Two more people stepped out behind her, their distinctive features marking them as part of the Uchiha Clan. Minato and Obito could swear they had never seen those two before though, even if the one with long hair had some resemblance to Uchiha Fugaku.

They froze, much like the girl had done earlier, wide eyes fixed on Minato’s face.

“Am I dreaming?” the one with curly hair said slowly, taking in each member of Team Minato. The other male replied, voice dry as a desert, “If you are, then we are all sharing the same dream.”

“Shut up,” the girl ordered the two males, a thin eyebrow twitching. “I swear….Kakashi-nii, get down here!”

Minato startled, eyes flickering to his confused student before returning to focus on the girl, who looked a lot like Kushina. A person, a Jounin going by their flak jacket, flickering into the clearing distracted him though, before he could address the girl and all eyes turned to the newcomer.

Vaguely registering Obito choking behind him, Minato stared with shock at someone who could be called an older version of Kakashi; they had the same hair and mask, were identical down to the lightning natured chakra his student possessed.

The red-haired girl -Hikari, the Uchiha called her- glared at the tall shinobi, aiming a punch at him. He danced out of the way before it could connect, hands raised in surrender. “What did I do this time?”

“Remember the seal array you activated a little while ago? Look at what, or rather, who it brought here.”

Older Kakashi shot a sheepish eye-smile at the frowning girl then looked at Team Minato, doing a double-take when he registered who he was looking at.

“Sensei?!”

“Does that mean that guy really is Kakashi?” Obito asked, unable to stay quiet any longer. He couldn’t even be scolded for talking; the people they had met weren’t the slightest bit hostile and he knew it wasn’t a Genjutsu. He eyed his teammates, Kakashi looking like he had swallowed a lemon and Rin was gaping.

“Yes, he is,” the pretty redhead answered, smiling at him. It was Obito’s turn to gape, not at his suspicions being confirmed but at the clear fondness in the girl’s voice.

“Let me introduce everyone,” she continued, gesturing to the group gathered around her. “Uchiha Itachi,” she pointed to the teen with long black hair in a ponytail, who nodded in greeting, “Uchiha Shisui,” the other Uchiha waved, grinning, “and you all know Hatake Kakashi.”

“As for me, I’m Uzumaki Hikari…” the girl trailed off, taking in Team Minato’s dumbfounded expression. She met their shocked teacher’s eyes and gave him a faint smile, tinged with a strange sadness. “Or well, I suppose Namikaze Hikari would be correct as well.”

“I think you broke them, Hikari-chan,” Shisui remarked; their unexpected visitors were frozen in place, staring with wide eyes at the redhead. None of them had predicted that they would meet the not-yet-Yondaime Hokage and his team when they had decided to investigate the strange flare of chakra that had erupted seconds after Kakashi had accidentally triggered that seal array.

Hikari simply shrugged. “It’s not a lie and I’m pretty sure they’re smart enough to put the pieces together.”

“I think our visitors have recovered from their shock,” Itachi interjected mildly, leaning against a nearby tree. He had long since gotten used to strange occurrences, something he attributed to Hikari. He certainly had never experienced such things before meeting her.

“Time travel?” Minato whispered, drinking in the sight of the girl in front of him. She looked so much like Kushina, but there were differences he could pick out. Her eyes were the same ones he saw whenever he looked in the mirror, her sharp cheekbones similar to his as well.

“Maybe? We can’t really tell, since there’s a very big possibility that the timeline will diverge when you return to your own time.”

The older Kakashi stiffened, turning sharply to look at the girl. “Is that true?”

“Time is fickle, Kashi-nii. Things may change, they may not. But their knowledge of this encounter, as impossible as it might have been, is likely to affect events.”

“Wait, wait, wait!” Obito shouted while waving his arms wildly, interrupting the conversation. He glared, cheeks puffing up in annoyance. “How can you prove that this is time travel?!”

Itachi chose to answer that, arms crossed over his chest. He appeared to be the epitome of calm and Hikari knew him well enough to notice that he was amused. “One, I’m sure you know that this is not a Genjutsu and there’s no point in creating an elaborate setup for the sake of fooling you,” he said, gesturing with his head to the side, specifically the Hokage Monument. “Second, if the timeline is the same, then you should have a young Shisui running around and I may have also been born.”

“I don’t know what’s more impressive, you making your explanation sound like you’re talking about the weather or you talking about your birth so passively,” Hikari eyed the younger Uchiha with some amusement, making him smirk.

“Sensei became Hokage?!” Rin squeaked, surprise on her young face at seeing her teacher’s head carved into the mountain above Konoha. Minato looked equally as astounded, his shoulders relaxing at the knowledge that he and his team were in a safe place, even if it was not the Konoha he knew.

Still, to confirm it, Minato closed his eyes and stretched out his senses, seeking familiar chakra signatures. He found quite a few but…

Blue eyes snapped open, meeting an identical pair; there was a warning in the second pair, telling him to keep whatever he had learnt to himself. He swallowed harshly, giving a slight nod to say that he understood and ruthlessly suppressing his burning questions.

Thankfully, Rin distracted him, tugging on his sleeve and asking, “Sensei, is it okay to talk to these people?”

“I think so,” the blond man managed a smile, hiding his rampant emotions from his team. They didn’t need to know anything about his realizations yet, or if possible, not at all. The girl brightened and made a beeline for the only other girl in the clearing. Rin wanted to talk to the older Kakashi but he looked uncomfortable and she didn’t want to press.

“I’m Nohara Rin,” the brunette introduced herself, holding out a hand. “Nice to meet you, umm…Namikaze-san?”

Hikari grinned, shaking the younger girl’s hand. “Call me Hikari. Nice to meet you too.”

Obito was the next to approach, staring at the amused teenager with a scrutinizing gaze. “Are you really Sensei’s daughter? That means he married Kushina-nee?”

Minato choked and turned red, flustered at how easily the youngest Uchiha there had thrown out the question, while also embarrassed by the insinuation. “O-Obito!”

Shisui burst out laughing, supporting himself on Itachi’s shoulder, whose expression had remained amused. “You really have no tact, do you, kiddo?”

“Just answer the question!”

“Yes to both,” Itachi replied before Hikari could, making Minato’s blush deepen while Hikari joined Shisui in his laughter. “I think the resemblance speaks for itself, does it not?”

“I guess so…what rank are you guys? Wait, you’re all shinobi, right?”

Older Kakashi finally unfroze and gave the boy an eye-smile. “Of course they are. You’re looking at the best Jounin team in Konoha.”

Hikari, Shisui and Itachi smiled at the clear hint of pride in the man’s voice. They hardly ever sought recognition for their strength but it was nice to hear it once in a while. “And he’s a sensei now,” Hikari added in her own bit, pointing at the older Hatake. “He runs missions with us now and then, if necessary, but he’s raising his own team of Genin.”

“More like the team from hell,” Kakashi retorted drily. “Those three get up to mischief whenever I turn around and I blame you entirely.”

Hikari only grinned, obviously unrepentant.

“Woah,” Obito looked between his grumpy teammate and the older version, unable to reconcile the two of them. It was too hard for him to connect the easy-going man capable of making jokes with his rule-obsessed teammate. “You’ve really changed, Kakashi.”

“Hmm.”

Shisui clapped his hands, successfully attracting the attention of the younger kids and their sensei when he noticed that their Kakashi was starting to feel uncomfortable. “So, what do you guys want to do now? Anything but going into the village, which we kind of have to avoid, since, you know, you guys shouldn’t be here.”

“Is it fine to not report us?” Minato asked, brow furrowed in confusion. “The flare of chakra we arrived in was rather powerful. Won’t the village be concerned if the cause is unknown?”

Itachi shook his head, making eye contact with the blond. “The four of us always train inside a powerful barrier,” he explained. “The amount of chakra we throw around could be dangerous to anyone below Jounin-level. Because of that, no one outside the barrier would have noticed your arrival.”

Minato sweat-dropped, mentally revising his opinion of the quartet in front of him. Despite being young, they were clearly powerful to be required only to train inside a barrier. “I see. Sorry, are we interrupting you then?”

“We were just taking a break. It’s fine.”

Thanking the teenager for answering his questions, Minato looked around. Both Kakashi were on opposite sides of the clearing, hiding in the shadows. ‘I guess some things don’t change,’ he mused. Obito and Rin were peppering the curly-haired Uchiha, Shisui, with questions and Itachi drifted to join them, when it became apparent that Minato had run out of immediate queries.

Minato spotted the red-haired girl -his future daughter- crouched in front of a stone, frowning at the seal carved into it. “Hey, Minato-san,” she greeted cheerfully when he knelt next to her, not taking her eyes off the seal. “Need something from me?”

He shook his head, opting to study the seal again. It was an intriguing piece of work, clearly designed by someone with great skill in Fuuinjutsu. He could see himself poring over it with Kushina for days, trying to decipher it.

“What are you doing?”

“Studying this stupid seal,” Hikari said absently, pulling out a notebook and a pencil to take a quick sketch of the seal. She hardly looked at the paper but drew the seal perfectly, not a single line out of place. It was evidence that she was an expert in Fuuinjutsu. “Senju Tobirama was brilliant, but also an idiot.”

Minato blinked.

“What does the Nidaime have to do with this?”

Hikari sat down properly with a huff, propping her hands behind her. “The seal network is clearly his work,” she told him, passing him a copy of her sketch of the seal with a knowing smile. “From what I can tell, he was trying to create a teleportation seal capable of transporting multiple people but didn’t manage to complete it. I’m assuming he died before he could complete or destroy it.”

She looked at the seal again, poking it half-heartedly. “Don’t worry, it’s inactive,” she assured the man at her side when he looked worried. Continuing with her explanation, Hikari said, “I called him an idiot because the seal network is very unstable and should have been tested in a remote location, not in the forest near a training ground.”

“Unstable how?”

“Unstable as in it could have killed you four.”

Blue eyes widened and Minato stared at the girl in horror, complexion pale. “You’re not kidding…?”

“Nope,” she replied, deadly serious. “I believe that the reason you guys made it here is because Kashi-nii accidentally triggered the seal network on our end and it created a pathway between your time and ours. Still, it’s only a theory. I won’t know for sure without the Nidaime’s notes to understand what exactly he was attempting and I’m pretty sure you, of all people, would know that space-time techniques are rather finicky.”

Minato smiled weakly; the knowledge that he and his team had probably survived thanks to a mere accidental coincidence was not reassuring. Another item to add to the list of things that he shouldn’t tell his team.

“…you’re really good at Fuuinjutsu, aren’t you, Hikari-san? I couldn’t tell anything other than it involved space-time and transportation.”

Hikari snorted, waving her hand dismissively. “Don’t sell yourself short; you’ll get there. I literally have decades of studying under my belt. Kage Bunshin,” she added when Minato looked at her disbelievingly. ‘And a ton of spite, but who cares?’

“Oi! Minato-sensei! Hikari-san!”

The pair turned in unison to see Obito waving at them with both arms, a wide grin on his face. “Can we train with these guys?! They said they can teach me some cool stuff!”

“I suppose it’s okay if they’re fine with it…” Minato trailed off, frowning. “But we should also be looking for a way to get back home.”

“But Sensei!”

Rin joined in on the pouting, wide eyes staring up at the blond. Minato held his hands up, sweat-dropping at the combined assault of his students.

“It should be fine, Minato-san,” Hikari interjected, expression amused as she rocked back and forth on her heels. “There’s a limiter in the seal; you’ll return to your time in about four hours, likely to the very instant you left.”

“Alright then. We’ll be in your care.”

Hikari looked bemused at the sudden formality but took it in stride, turning to look at her own team who all either grinned or smiled back at her. “Since we have four on each side, why don’t we pair up? Let’s see…I thin-”

“I want to spar with the supposedly future me.”

All eyes turned to the younger Kakashi, who was shooting a dark glare at the older one. He looked like he was a second away from pulling out a kunai and stabbing someone, likely his future self. Hikari frowned and opened her mouth, but closed it after a pause. Instead, she looked at the older Hatake questioningly.

“Kashi-nii?”

The former ANBU was leaning against a tree, hands tucked into his pockets as he stared at his younger counterpart with his visible eye. After a few moments of contemplation, he nodded to the redhead.

“If you’re sure…” Hikari trailed off, uncertain. Younger Kakashi and older Kakashi belonged on opposite poles of the personality spectrum and she didn’t know if it was wise to pair them up. But since her Kakashi had agreed, she let it go.

“As for the others, Shisui and Obito?” Both Uchiha nodded with identical grins, making her sigh in resignation at the mischief they were likely to get up to. “Then that leaves Rin with Itachi.”

“But aren’t you the medic of the team, Hikari-san?” Rin asked, confused. It wasn’t an assumption made on the fact that she was a girl or some similar line of thought, but rather from what Shisui had told her and Obito about their team.

“We probably should have been more specific,” Shisui mused in a rueful tone when Hikari raised an eyebrow at him, gesturing for Itachi to explain.

Itachi rolled his eyes at his cousin, but smiled at the girl looking at him curiously. “Technically, all of us, meaning Shisui, Hikari and I, are capable of Iryo ninjutsu. We trade off based on the circumstances; if it’s a fatal wound or something that requires immediate medical attention, Hikari takes care of it because of her special chakra. For other cases, I act as medic. Shisui primarily takes on an offensive role, so he only takes over when neither of us is available.”

“You guys are really strong, huh?”

Minato studied the girl perched on the branch next to him, a multitude of questions swimming around in his head. But he didn’t know where to start.

‘If Kushina was here, she would probably hug the poor girl to death and then pester her with all her questions.’

“You can ask pretty much anything, you know,” Hikari interrupted his thoughts, quirking a wry smile at him. “It’s the reason I paired up with you. I won’t guarantee answers though.”

“That’s reasonable. So…are you really my daughter?”

“Yes and no.”

When Minato frowned in confusion, she smiled faintly, shaking her head a little. “I wasn’t born in this dimension. I was born as Uzumaki-Namikaze Naruto,” she explained, using a Henge to transform into her original form for a moment. “My dimension was destroyed and I arrived here by accident.”

The blond Namikaze’s eyes were unfocused, mind still on the Henge. The blond hair and blue eyes were similar to his, the six whisker marks on her cheeks rather distinctive, but he wasn’t sure where they had come from.

He filed away the information he had gotten about her identity to ponder on for later, having noticed the dark undertone in her voice when Hikari had mentioned her home dimension. Minato took a deep breath and asked the question he had been dying to ask. “Are Kushina and I out of the village right now?”

The sadness in the air was palpable and Minato had his answer before Hikari even spoke. “No,” she said softly, not meeting his eyes. “Both in my dimension and here, the two of you died when ‘Naruto’ was born.”

Minato didn’t need to know the reason why. He could come up with at least ten reasons at the top of his head and all of them were more than plausible.

“But there’s a chance to prevent that from occurring,” Hikari continued speaking, bringing his train of thought to a grinding halt. “Since you’re here, I can-”

Whatever she was going to say was cut off by yelling and the pair turned sharply to the source.

“There is no way you’re me!”

Younger Kakashi was panting, face set in a furious glare as he pointed his tanto at his counterpart. All throughout their spar, the older man had simply dodged lazily, clear that he wasn’t taking it seriously. He was even reading a volume of Icha Icha, which was basically porn, in public!

“I would never become so…so lethargic! Shinobi are supposed to be on alert at all times, ready to do their mission! You’re just a useless excuse of a shinobi!”

Next to a tense Minato, Hikari cursed, readying herself to jump off the branch when older Kakashi closed his book with a loud snap. The visible part of his face revealed an expression harder than stone, a startling amount of hate in his single dark eye.

“People change,” he said in a deceptively light tone. “When you lose too much, when all the people you love slip through your fingers like sand, something within you shatters.”

Younger Kakashi’s eyes widened, fingers trembling around the hilt of his tanto. “W-What are you talking about?”

“But I suppose you’re right,” the older Hatake mused as if the other had not spoken. “I guess I am useless. After all, Obito died for me, Rin died because of me, Sensei and Kushina-nee died because I couldn’t do more and-”

“That’s enough!”

Hikari cut in between the two Hatake, facing the enraged Jounin with a heavy frown. ‘I knew it was a mistake to let these two pair up,’ she thought with regret. ‘Kashi-nii despised his younger self, so it’s no wonder that he snapped.’

“Go cool off, Kashi-nii,” she ordered, voice brooking no room for argument as she stared him down. The Jounin stared at her for a few tense moments. Then he nodded sharply and spun on his heel, disappearing into the trees.

Exhaling, Hikari pinched the bridge of her nose, lines of stress around her eyes. “I was hoping that this wouldn’t happen,” she muttered, aware that the entire clearing had heard those hate-filled words. What they didn’t know, was that it was self-hatred.

“What did he mean by that?!” Obito demanded, dark eyes narrowed in a glare. But it was clear as day that he was shaken to the core, Rin not doing better than him, considering that she looked like she was about to faint. “Kakashi might be a stuck-up bastard, but there’s no way he’d kill Rin!”

The redhead’s lips were pressed in a thin line and she met Shisui and Itachi’s gazes, at a loss on what to do. She had originally planned only to tell Minato and let him decide whether to tell his team or not. But now it was out in the open and not in a way she would have preferred.

“Why don’t you sit down, Rin-san?”

Itachi gently took the brunette’s shoulders, guiding her to sit down on a boulder. Following his lead, Shisui herded the Uchiha he’d been paired with over to her, Obito placing a hand on his teammate’s shoulder to both ground himself and to comfort her.

With that taken care of, Hikari turned around. Minato was talking in whispered tones to a pale-faced Kakashi, the boy giving a strained nod to whatever the blond had said. Feeling eyes on him, Minato raised his head to meet the redhead’s gaze.

“Can you tell us what that was all about?” he asked, a desperate glint in his eyes. Kushina’s and his deaths were one thing, but to hear that he was going to lose most of his team did not sit well with him.

Hikari nodded, gesturing for them to join the quartet huddled around the boulder. Once they were as comfortable as they could be, she started to speak, Shisui and Itachi leaving it to her since she was the one who had the most information on the situation.

“This happened during the Third War. You guys were given a mission to destroy Kannabi bridge…”

She told them everything: Rin’s capture and the boys rescuing her, during which Obito had been crushed by boulders, giving Kakashi his eye, Rin having the Sanbi sealed into her, her suicide, Minato and Kushina’s death shortly after the birth of their child.

Everything except Obito’s survival.

That was going to be for Minato’s ears alone.

“I…”

Rin’s complexion was pasty-white, eyes darting between her hands and her stony silver-haired teammate. “I used Kakashi-kun to kill myself…?”

“A future version of yourself did,” Shisui corrected, wanting her to know the difference between what she didn’t do and what her future self had done. “Now that you know, I doubt you’re going to let things happen the same way.”

“Damn right we won’t!” Obito yelled, fists clenched as he shot to his feet. He scowled at his teammates, even at Rin. “If we got beaten because we weren’t strong enough, then we just have to train harder!”

“What’s the point?” Kakashi muttered, prompting the Uchiha to scowl fiercer. The Hatake’s eyes were dull, his whole posture screaming defeat. “It’s already happened. Training harder isn’t going to help.”

Eyebrow twitching, Shisui raised a hand and smacked the back of the boy’s head. “Didn’t you hear what Hikari-chan said before? Just your mere presence here has likely changed your future. Don’t you dare give up before even trying, idiot. There’s a reason we agreed to help you brats train.”

Rin blinked, the older Uchiha’s words startling her out of her shock and she looked at her temporary partner. True to his words, Itachi had shown her how to increase the efficacy of her healing techniques, but had also taught her how to wield them as weapons, to use them in combat. She hadn’t questioned him, happy in the knowledge that her Iryo ninjutsu could help not only heal, but defend her team.

It was the same for Obito, Shisui prodding him into pushing his body to move faster, sharper. He didn’t allow any useless movements, making the boy perform accurate and streamlined attacks that didn’t require much energy or chakra, but strong enough to incapacitate an enemy. Obito might not have his Sharingan yet, but his improving speed would make him more agile once he obtained the precognitive abilities of his Doujutsu.

Only Kakashi hadn’t received any such training, but what he needed most was a reality check.

Something he had gotten, even if it hadn’t been the older Kakashi’s intention.

Minato spoke up then, voiced a little strained, “Will them being stronger really help?”

“Maybe, maybe not. All we can give you is a fighting chance,” Hikari replied. “Last time, you were an almost broken team, learning vital lessons far too late to be of use.”

The members of Team Minato nodded at that, even Kakashi. His expression had transformed from shocked to thoughtful, glancing from Obito to Rin and back again every few seconds.

After a few minutes of silence, the three Genin looked at the older with determined expressions, asking them to continue with their training. Hikari was about to offer to train with Kakashi but Minato caught her eye, wordlessly asking her for a minute. Curious, she waved the Hatake to join Shisui and Obito, knowing that the older Uchiha could handle him.

Minato led the girl to a shadowy spot amongst the trees, not wanting his team to eavesdrop on the conversation he was about to have.

“You’re hiding something.”

Hikari tilted her head at him, leaning against a tree trunk casually. “What makes you think that?”

“If you weren’t, you would tell us who attacked Kushina and I during our child’s birth and how to stop him,” he glared at her, sick and tired of the games and riddles. “Instead, you kept saying ‘masked man’.”

“Are you sure you want to know, Minato-san? Sometimes, ignorance is better.”

The blond man resisted the urge to snap at the redhead, stiffening under the intense gaze she directed at him. Whatever information was being kept from him concerned his family and team; he felt he had a right to know, even if it hurt him.

“I’m sure. Who is this masked man?”

Hikari gave him a half-smile, her reply shocking him into silence, “Obito.”

When Minato didn’t react for a while, she said, “He survived being crushed and was saved by someone. It wasn’t out of the goodness of their heart; he was always a pawn in their plans. Rin being made into a Jinchuuriki and her death were all planned. Obito was manipulated into witnessing her death and it broke him. That’s why he did what he did.”

To Minato’s credit, he only took a few seconds to process that, expression blanking out as he buried his emotions. This was the man who would single-handedly win the war on the Iwa front -not that he knew that yet-, the man who would become the Yondaime Hokage.

“Preventing Obito’s…accident will stop that incident?” he asked flatly, sharp blue eyes watching the redhead in front of him. Hikari could almost see the man’s brain working overtime, already thinking of ways to change the future before he even got his answers.

Hikari shrugged. “No clue. It would definitely put a wrench in the real mastermind’s plans but they’re resourceful. I really don’t want to explain everything…”

Feeling the blond’s frustration rising at her complaint, Hikari unsealed a small but thick scroll from her bracelet and threw it at him. Minato caught it deftly, raising an eyebrow in question. “That contains the history of my dimension, everything I know about that person’s plans,” she wasn’t sure how to refer to Black Zetsu and also wasn’t in the mood to discuss it, “right from the start till when and how I came to this dimension. Read it when you’re back in your time.”

It was something she had prepared in case something happened to her before she could tell anyone but it was useless now, with quite a few people currently in on her secret.

Minato eyed the scroll warily and nodded, tucking it away in his pouch. He would have preferred a personal debrief, but he could see the well-hidden pain in the redhead’s eyes, so a written report would have to do. Closing his eyes, he exhaled, letting go of his concern and worry like his students had done, and instead let determination fill him.

“I’m sorry,” he said, smiling helplessly. “I don’t think either of us expected our day to go like this.”

“No worries!” Hikari chirped cheerfully, a bright grin on her face. Meeting mini-Team Minato was a delightful experience, the kids so very different from their adult versions. “It’s pretty awesome in its own way, so who cares? How many people can say that they’ve been to the future or met people from the past?”

“You’re a lot like Kushina,” Minato murmured, a strange fondness in his voice as he gazed at the redhead, who stilled at his words. “She would have been delighted to meet you.”

Hikari smiled at him, a little on the shy side before she said lightly, “Then you better make sure you both survive, hmm?”

“I will.”

Things went smoothly after that.

By the time their visit to the future came to an end, Team Minato found themselves much stronger than when they had arrived. Perhaps it wouldn’t be enough to match a Jounin yet, but the seeds were there. With dedicated training and resolve, they would be stronger than they had ever been.

Hikari could even see Kakashi loosening up a little, less likely to pick a fight with Obito; if the Uchiha annoyed him, he would simply roll his eyes and snap at him, albeit not harshly. And it seemed that the dark-haired boy had picked up on it, judging by the way he was less prickly around the Hatake.

“They’re going to be very different from what my team was, huh?”

The redhead hummed, not taking her eyes off Obito who was pestering Shisui and Itachi about their Sharingan. Older Kakashi stood next to her, melancholy and nostalgia in his visible eye as he watched the spectacle. He had returned shortly after her talk with Minato, keeping to the edges until his younger version had gone to talk to him.

It had seemed to prove productive, both Hatake more comfortable in each other’s presence even if they were still a little awkward.

‘I suppose both of them obtained some sort of closure,’ Hikari mused. Far be it for her to interfere if that was the case.

Sensing a faint chakra build-up, she uncrossed her arms, clearing her throat. Team Minato turned to look at her, faces falling when they saw her apologetic expression.

“Do we really have to go?” Obito pouted, staring down at his feet. He liked it in this time, where people saw him for himself.

Shisui ruffled his hair, smiling down at the younger boy. “You know you have to. Besides, it’s not like none of us are there. If you don’t mind the younger me, go befriend him. Who knows, maybe you’ll end up mentoring me this time.”

“I think I will do that,” Obito decided, startling the older Uchiha by briefly hugging him around the waist. He looked to the side at Itachi with a grin, “If Fugaku-sama lets me, maybe I can babysit you or something!”

Itachi chuckled, accepting the hug from the boy with grace. “Perhaps. If not, get Shisui to smuggle me out. I’m certain Mother would allow it.”

Obito hesitantly stepped back, standing in between Rin and Kakashi who had already said their goodbyes. Minato placed his arms around his students, gathering them up as the other quartet stepped out of the seal array.

“Take care of yourselves, got it?” Hikari waved to them as the seals started lighting up. “After all, we’ve got to meet each other again!”

“We will!”

Minato met his future daughter’s eyes for one last time, smiling as he mouthed a few words to her. Hikari’s eyes widened when she understood what he said, tears beading at the corners of her eyes and she grinned widely.

“I’m proud of you.”

The light engulfed Team Minato for an instant and when it faded, they were gone, leaving behind an empty clearing.

“Think their future will be different?” Hikari asked as she directed her gaze to the sky, resolutely ignoring the tears streaming down her cheeks.

Shisui and Itachi stood on either side, intertwining their hands with hers while Kakashi placed a hand on her shoulder. “I’m sure it will,” the Hatake said with a chuckle. “You managed to convert my younger self; I think that alone will be enough.”

The girl huffed, not quite agreeing but also not refuting the statement.

“Take some of the credit too, Kashi-nii! But I think you took too much delight in kicking your younger self’s butt!”

“Hey, sensei?”

“What is it, Rin?”

“Can we talk to anyone about us having gone to the future?”

Minato considered that for a moment then shook his head. “We can’t let anyone know about this array,” he explained when the brunette looked at him questioningly. “It’s too dangerous to change the flow of time too much. Even what we’re going to do is risky, since we can’t tell what the repercussions will be.”

“But we will do it,” Kakashi said quietly, steel in his eyes as he met the older man’s gaze. He didn’t want to become the traumatized man he had met in the future, not because of his own rigid rules. “I don’t want to lose you, sensei. Any of you.”

Obito puffed up indignantly, glaring at the silver-haired boy. “No way am I dying!” he declared, his twitching lips betraying the fact that he wasn’t really mad at the other. “I’m going to become an awesome shinobi and the next Hokage!”

Rin giggled at him, patting his shoulder to soften the blow from her next words. “But we all know that’s going to be sensei. So you have to wait for your turn, Obito.”

“It’s fine since it’s sensei,” the Uchiha waved it away, grinning at their sheepish teacher. “Because he’s a strong and cool shinobi!”

Minato laughed, ruffling his student’s hair. “Thank you, I guess? We’ll have to see how things end up, anyway.”

The four made their way out of the training ground, after making sure that the seal array was hidden and protected. Like the redhead they had met in the future had theorized, hardly any time seemed to have passed.

When they were just about to exit the forest, Rin put a finger to her mouth in thought and glanced at her teacher from the corner of her eye. “Hey, sensei; are you going to tell Kushina-nee about our ‘little trip’? I think she would like to know about her future daughter too!”

“R-Rin!”