Father and Son Reunited

In the ruins of the battlefield.

Namikaze Minato brought the blond boy to a secluded spot. He personally tended to the wound on the boy's left leg and wrapped it in a medical bandage. Then he nodded. "That should do it."

The blond boy gave Namikaze Minato a grateful look before asking, "By the way, who are you people? You're Konoha Ninja too, but I don't remember ever seeing you."

"Sorry, I can't answer that," Namikaze Minato replied gently.

"Huh?"

The blond boy looked a little disappointed and tried another question. "Then where are we?"

"Rōran, kid. This is Rōran."

Uchiha Aoba crossed his arms and leaned against the wall, speaking in an unfriendly tone. "You were running around the city, driven into a panic by a few puppets, and you don't even know where you are?"

"More importantly, you're wearing a Konoha Forehead Protector. As far as I know, the village doesn't have any ninja like you."

"So we should be asking you the questions."

"Who are you?"

"What's your name?"

That said, Uchiha Aoba knew exactly who the blond boy was.

That golden hair and those bright blue eyes looked like they'd been copied straight from Namikaze Minato.

And then there were the six unmistakable whisker marks on his cheeks.

There wasn't a second person in the entire Shinobi World who looked like that. It could only be Naruto Uzumaki.

But knowing who he was didn't mean Uchiha Aoba could say his name outright. Namikaze Minato and Choza Akimichi were there, after all, and he had no way to explain how he knew.

"What are you looking at?"

When Naruto Uzumaki didn't answer his questions and just stared at him in a daze, Uchiha Aoba's brow furrowed beneath his mask.

"Kid, playing dumb won't get you out of this. And right now, you don't have a choice but to answer."

"My Sharingan will make you tell the truth."

"Sharingan..."

Naruto Uzumaki looked even more dazed, seeming almost like an idiot.

"Aoba! Release the genjutsu!"

Seeing this, Namikaze Minato shouted, thinking Uchiha Aoba had really used his Sharingan to control the blond boy.

"Uh... I haven't even done anything."

Uchiha Aoba spread his hands helplessly. "Captain, I was only trying to scare him."

Namikaze Minato sensed the boy and confirmed he wasn't under a genjutsu. Realizing he'd misunderstood Uchiha Aoba, he immediately apologized.

Uchiha Aoba waved off the apology, then went over to Naruto Uzumaki and crouched down to check on him.

Just then,

Naruto Uzumaki seemed to reboot, like a computer restarting.

He suddenly came to and pointed excitedly at Uchiha Aoba. "I remember now! I know who you are... You're Teacher Aoba!"

???

!!!

Uchiha Aoba, Namikaze Minato, and Choza Akimichi all shuddered at his words.

They exchanged glances, suspicion and surprise in their eyes.

Namikaze Minato was about to ask him what he meant when Naruto Uzumaki continued, "Before I left on the mission, Teacher Aoba told me I might run into something unbelievable, like traveling through time."

"I thought Teacher Aoba was just messing with me again. But now that you've told me this place is Rōran, I guess it was true. I've traveled back in time."

Naruto Uzumaki began recounting what had happened to him.

He'd received his mission in the Hokage Office, then gone with Yamato, Sakura, and Sasuke to the Land of Wind to track the Sunagakure rogue Mukade. They'd discovered that Mukade had broken the seal his old man had placed on the Dragon Vein. Then a wave of purple energy had sucked him in, and when he woke up, he was here.

"Minato, looks like this kid is your future son," Choza Akimichi said, his voice tinged with amusement and teasing.

"Is that so? Ha... ha..."

Namikaze Minato laughed awkwardly and took off his mask.

Naruto Uzumaki's eyes widened, and he grew even more excited. "Dad, it really is you! When you saved me just now, I felt something was off, but I couldn't figure out what."

Namikaze Minato scratched his head.

He hadn't expected to see his future son on this mission, and he had no idea how to react.

For a moment, he didn't know what to say.

That didn't stop Naruto Uzumaki from talking nonstop, though.

It took a while before Namikaze Minato found a chance to ask, "In the future, your mother is Kushina?"

"Of course. Who else would it be?"

Naruto Uzumaki didn't understand why his father from the past would ask.

"That's good."

Namikaze Minato breathed a sigh of relief, then asked a few more questions.

Had they noticed?

Uchiha Aoba stayed silent as he watched the father and son interact. He also examined the Tailed Beast seal on Naruto Uzumaki's abdomen, and had already formed a rough idea of what the future held.

Clearly, because of him, the future had changed a great deal from the story he remembered.

First of all,

The Nine-Tails' attack had probably still happened.

But this time, Namikaze Minato and Kushina Uzumaki hadn't died in battle.

If Uchiha Aoba's plan had gone as intended, his template fusion would have reached at least fifty percent by then, and he would definitely have awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan.

Dealing with the Nine-Tails would no longer have been difficult for him.

Second,

The Uchiha Clan had survived intact.

This could be inferred from what Naruto Uzumaki had said earlier.

He'd said he'd been sent to track down the rogue Mukade, and his teammates were Yamato, Sakura, and Sasuke.

Sasuke, not Sai.

If the Uchiha Clan had still been wiped out, Sasuke would have defected by this point in the story. But he was still on the team, which meant the Uchiha Clan hadn't been massacred by that traitorous son.

Interesting.

Uchiha Aoba thought to himself.

Looks like he'd done plenty of interesting things in the future.

By then, Namikaze Minato and Naruto Uzumaki had finished talking. They still had a mission to carry out, and as a ninja, Minato couldn't forget what mattered most.

"Will you come with us from here?" Namikaze Minato offered.

"No."

Naruto Uzumaki shook his head. "I'm going on my own. I also need to find Sasuke and the others."

"All right. Be careful."

As he spoke, Namikaze Minato patted Naruto Uzumaki on the shoulder and left a Flying Thunder God Mark. Then he took out a signal flare and handed it to him. "If you run into trouble, set this off. I'll come right away."

"Don't worry, Dad!"

Naruto Uzumaki gave him a thumbs-up, then looked at Uchiha Aoba. "Teacher Aoba, your future self told me to pass along a message: whatever you want to do, just follow your own ideas."

"I understand."

Light flickered in Uchiha Aoba's eyes, and the corner of his mouth curled into a smile.