A cough followed the cawing of crows as they flew out of the trees in the forest. The leaves of the tree gently danced along with the tune of the wind unaware of the two bodies lying in the middle of the ruckus. 

The female with specks of dirt all on her clothes snapped back to reality with a sneeze followed by a series of coughs as she tried to recollect her memories leading up till now.

She had a blank look on her face as she looked around before noticing the lump laying next to her. It was indeed her wrong doer, Hatake Kakashi.

 I could have died, that dumb piece of .. silver.

She held a silent conversation by herself. 'Would it be a good plan to wake him up? Or just leave him here..?' 

She settled for the latter and went to go check her surroundings by herself. 

Moving out of the greens, she found that the shops had changed in appearance. They were only around 3 of them from what she could see but to her recollection, there were more than 7.

Do my eyes deceive me? Is that a genjustsu?  She tried to dispel it but nothing changed. 

Wait, was that scroll? Did it-? No, it couldn't have.... She was dreading her situation. If this is true, no it can't be..... She slowly and hesitantly made her way to one of the shops. "Morioka-san?" she called, waiting tensely for the man to respond and prove her wrong or  right....

A man with brown hair came out at the call, he looked no younger than 50. "Yes? What would you like?" 

Oh no....no this can't be. "A-Are you Morioka-san?" she managed to blurt out.  

He stared at her for a few seconds before he laughed, his voice throaty, "Who else would I be? Morioka Daiki at your service, miss. I haven't seen you around here before..." 

She awkwardly laughed at the man's comment, "um.. ah! What do you have on the menu today?" Nice job! Miyu.. He totally didn't realize what you just did.....

"The anpan were just done. They're better warm." he offered checking on his items.

"Yes, that would be great! Your bakeries are delicious." she complimented.

"Really? Thank you for your kind words but I don't think I've ever seen you buying it?"

"Oh...well.. uhm...  I meant that I have heard good words about your bakeries!"

"Oh? Thank you then..." he didn't seem convinced. 

"1 plate?" "No, please make it two."

"Two?" "For 2 people." she remembered the still unconscious Kakashi and hurried out of her seat.

"I will go fetch him! I think he's uh.. running late, yeah! That's it." She quickly hurried off leaving the older man shaking his head with a sigh 'Kids these days..'

"Kakashi" she poked him. "Hatake-senpai." another poke. "Hatake Kakashi." she hit him on the stomach. 

You leave me no other choice.

Her hands were in position to peel the mask of the masked ninja.

As her hand held the piece of fabric in her hands, she was pushed back by an unamused Kakashi.

As a ninja, you should never let your guard down even if the other person is someone you are close with. You never knew, it could be an enemy or there could be an enemy somewhere close. And that was why Kakashi was fully awake despite just having been unconscious two seconds ago.

"Where are we?" he questioned looking around the place. It looked the same but at the same time. Not.

'The nest that was on the third branch of the tree to the direction the sun set was not there anymore and there was one more additional tree,' Kakashi noticed.

"In the past." she said nonchalantly leading the man towards the shop.

"What?" "In the past, I just told you."

"I heard what you said." She turned to look at the man waiting for him to say something. He looked deep in thought as he mindlessly followed her.

He spoke after some while, "Banri's had such an easy time playing with us due to this."

They could see the small shop from where they were, the man was turning his back on them as he organized his shelves.

"Why did you let yourself be seen?" 

"What do you mean?"

"Time paradox. Ripple in time stuff." he said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world... which it might have been but cut her some slack, she wasn't in the right state of mind.

"I doubt anything like that will happen." She muttered.

"Your reason?" he turned towards her with raised eyebrows.

"My reasoning is that this was probably supposed to happen anyway. We are not destroying any timeline or anything, we are just making sure the timeline stays the same by going forward with what was supposed to happen." 

The both of them seated themselves on the stool comfortably as they continued talking.

"So.. anpan?"  "Anpan."

"Given the fact that the shop owner is in his fifties right now, give or take, it would not be too far off if we come to the conclusion that you might not have been born yet." Kakashi said as he sipped his cup of tea like he didn't just tell her she wasn't alive. 

"I am dead."

"You can't be dead if you haven't even been born."

"That does not help."

"It was not my intention to help."

"I wanna kill you."

"I'd prefer if you did that after we catch Banri and find a way to return."

As if having forgotten about the whole thing, Miyuki suddenly became aware of  the situation they were stuck in. "Oh no... how are we going to return?" 

They were quiet for a few minutes, the air tense near them. 

The tense air was disrupted by a boisterous voice, "Sensei! Did you see how cool that was? I managed to scratch him with a kunai!" 

Oh no....  I feel like I say this a lot. Maybe because- no wait, not the time, Miyuki. 

"I did far more than you." another voice said sounding like he wished for the boy to suddenly lose his voice.

"Bakashi, at least I didn't have to be rescued by sensei because I was a pompous prick." Obito retorted childishly with a grin on his face.

Miyuki could see Kakashi visibly stiffen as his grip on the cup became stronger.

 "Stop it, you two! Minato-sensei's treating us food and this is how you treat him?" She stopped the food travelling to her mouth midway, which would have made a comedic sight if it wasn't for the setting.

Did she just say Minato-sensei..?

Alright, no problem. You can do this, Miyuki. He's just your dead father, nothing more........ she thought as she ordered an extra plate. 

Kakashi seemed to have recovered from his initial reaction to the voices. "Where should we look first?" he asked her.

"My guess is the scroll. It's with you, right? Should tell us how to get back to our-" "Home" Kakashi firmly ended noticing her coming slip-up.

"Yes... home." "But it's not with-" They were interrupted by a boy they both recognized as Uchiha Obito in the flesh and not under a rock boulder.

"Hello, may I help you?" she asked as she turned towards the boy, Kakashi was searching for the scroll by patting around.

"Are you shinobis?" The boy asked with curiosity and suspicion present in his voice. 

"We are." Kakashi took over.

"What village?" This time, the question was from her father. 

I have always dreamt of seeing my father again, but this is definitely not what I had in mind.

"We are not with any." "How does that work?" It was Rin this time. 

"We got shinobi training but are not under anyone else. We are adventurers at best." She nodded at his words.

"That's so cool." Obito exclaimed and was about to speak more but was interrupted by her father.

"I heard you discussing about a scroll just now." Minato said in a serious voice, with an air of authority around him.

"I'm sorry I don't know what you are talking about." she tried to lire even though she knew she wouldn't be able to.

"Do not try and lie to us. We heard you loud and clear." It was the younger version of Kakashi that spoke this time.  Now that she thought about it, he was pretty cute.

Kakashi saved her from the questioning,"May I question what that has to do with you all?" 

It was at this moment that that realized how there are things that just don't work for everyone.

The older Kakashi and Minato had entered into a staring contest. The two not caring about the other people and trying to get the other to give up first.

It went on for more than a minute and that's when she said, "The scroll has something important in it." 

Minato turned to her,"There was a stolen scroll case in the Leaf. We have been assigned to retrieve the scroll."

"Do you know what's in the scroll?" Obito asked her in a curious manner. 

"The scroll ha-" she got cut off by her alive father, "The contents of the scroll are classified. The Hokage hasn't told me either." 

He looked at her with narrowed eyes, "I do not know how you know about the contents. But do not let us know about it, the Hokage doesn't wish to let the information spread around." She nodded at his words. 

The third probably knows about it, the scroll has time travel in it. Wait-

"Fa- I mean..." she paused for a few seconds, "Excuse me, what's your name?" Nice save..

"Before that, can I ask you where you both are planning to go? And where do you hail from?" Of course he would doubtful.

The Copy ninja spoke, speaking the truth but not the full truth, "We are planning on catching Banri. And you need not be worried, we won't harm you. You are not our enemy. Unless you make it be."

The air was yet again tense, you could hear birds chirping in the background, leaves blowing along with the strong wind that just passed by and the sharp intake of air by the young Uchiha as he ate his food.

As all eyes turned to him as he shrugged and responded, "What? I was hungry."

Numerous facepalms from his teammates could be seen. 

It was as if it was scripted.

"I am Namikaze Minato." "Uchiha Obito!" "Nohara Rin, pleasure." "Hatake Kakashi."

Sensing that it was her turn, "You may call me Mi." "Himeru." Really, Kakashi? You couldn't have come up with a better alias? Lazy ass. 

Noticing her stare, Kakashi shrugged it off as if defending himself.

"So, are we in a joint mission now?" Her question had made the other two adults give her an incredulous stare. "What? I mean.. we have the same objective plus, it would not do us well to laze around. We might just get too attached with the Leaf and do something not right." I don't want to end up disappearing into the thin air.

Kakashi nodded to her words, "I would like to propose combining our forces."

"Your forces? You are only two." The young Kakashi spoke and her eye twitched,"Quality not quantity, kid."

"Hey-Hey!" Obito suddenly yelled out pointing an accusing finger at the older Kakashi. "Why do you look like Bakashi here?"

"Bakashi?"her voice rang out. 

"He means Kakashi." Rin informed her.

Miyuki snorted, she would have to try that one out some time.

"I am Hatake Himeru. Of course, Kakashi looks like me." Miyuki snapped her neck at that proclamation so fast, she got the sting of a last time. 

"Ka- I mean.. Himeru, are you sure we should be.. telling them this?"

"Why not?" The older Kakashi waved it off, "It's like you said, it was bound to happen anyway, we are just following the path already paved."

"But what if..." the sentence might not have been finished but they both knew what was to come after, 'What if they figure out we are from the future?' 

"Memory seals." was the only answer she got from the man.

Minato listened intently to their conversation while his genins all had astounded looks on their faces, except for the young Kakashi who's only indication of surprise was the fact that one of his eyes visibly widened and slowly narrowed as he looked at the man.

The first one to break out of the trance was Rin who asked the silver haired boy near her, "Do you know him Kakashi?" 

"I.. do not.." they all turned to look at 'Himeru' again. 

"Of course, he would not. Your father was a cousin of mine."  Himeru said. "My father didn't have cousins." Kakashi chided. 

"He did, and I'm living proof. You just didn't know he did." Himeru responded matter-of-factly.

"So.. congrats?" Obito had said it to Kakashi who looked at him puzzled. "I mean.. you just found out you have a relative." the sentence held a certain weight and Kakashi settled to ignoring the revelation rather than acknowledging it.

"And you?" she was snapped out of her thoughts by her father who was now staring at her intently at her, it felt like he was trying to read her mind.

If I tell them the truth, it won't be well-received. I mean... I if I tell them the truth, then it would be obvious. But then my red hair... no wait- Uzumaki! 

She decided to play the part of a girl who was emotionally broken at the mention of her clan and family. "Uzumaki.... Mi" 

As if on cue, "Uzumaki?!" 

"I thought Kushina-sensei was the only one left?" 

"No, you dumbass. There could have been survivors."

"Hey! You old idiot!"
"Stop calling me old just because of my hair!"

A hand separated the two boys from almost killing each other. An embarrassed blond laughed awkwardly as he looked at her, "Forgive us for the commotion but we didn't know there were other survivors." 

"Other?" she repeated without missing a beat, she knew what he meant but she had to play the part.

"This might come as a surprise to you, but you might have a living relative back in Konoha." he told her in a soft tone, proceeding cautiously.

"L-Living?" if only Kurenai saw her now... she would never let me live this down..

"Yes, living." he nodded with sympathy on his face.

Himeru had started coughing uncontrollably and was chugging a glass of water, courtesy of a concerned Rin.

"Wh-who is she?" she asked faking a face. 

"My wife, Uzumaki Kushina." he responded proudly.

"I've never heard of her...." she muttered conjuring a thoughtful face.

"She has been in Konoha since she was young. She was distraught when she heard of Uzushio." "I was too." Miyuki said wiping fake tears.

Himeru was watching her with a slight crinkle of his eyes, he decided to join the act, and put a hand on her shoulder acting as if he was comforting her. 

"She is sensitive to the topic, I hope you understand."

"Yes, I do. My wife is one too after all." Minato said in a soft voice.

"Now though, getting back to the matters at hand." Himeru started with a voice that allowed no joking, "Why do you trust us?"

"Why not? Your answers seem true, although I'm pretty sure it's not the full truth." he said with an edge to his voice. "But do not be mistaken, the war has been slowly getting stronger but no other country would make the mistake to be the first to initiate it." he paused. "I do not trust you, but that does not mean I will say no to help. From the information you have given, the man is strong and may not be enough for a genin team like ours."

"Sensei! I would be able to beat him!"

"Obito, confidence is good, but too much can be lethal."

"What do you suggest our next course of action is then?" Miyuki asked.

"Come with us to the Hokage first." His eyes darkened, "Do not try to escape, because you will not be able to."