It was a natural reaction 'well, for

Naruto, at least.

During the war, they lost a lot. He had sacrificed

a lot.

However, the one thing that had always held true was that Naruto, whenever possible (and a lot of times when it wasn 't), protected his precious people. And Hatake Kakashi? Yeah, he was on top of the list, alongside the rest of Team 7. They had been his first true family.

Kakashi was also his Hokage, and if the lazy bastard stayed true to his promise, he would pass the hat to Naruto in less than a year. So, of course, the moment Naruto saw Kakashi stumble from chakra exhaustion into the line of fire, he acted without thinking. He still acted thoughtlessly even when his opponent was the same nin who had ripped the souls out of three ANBU without breaking a sweat at the beginning of the ambush.

'Naruto! ' several voices screamed. It was like they all had been sucker-punched just before he was hit with the vile green chakra that the other man emitted like a disease. He heard Kakashi 's anguished 'No! ' before his own screaming drowned out all sound.

Whatever this jutsu was meant to do it was a terrible sensation-- like his skin was being flayed with a knife of ice before being ruthlessly torn to shreds. It started from the top of his head and worked its way down. Naruto's bijuu chakra cloak peeled away from his skin while his screaming was ripped from his chest.

Something was wrong with Kurama. He was losing him! But the fox wasn 't about to let that happen. Naruto felt himself abruptly pulled into his mindscape, as he had experienced many times over the years. The room was melting around the edges this time. Yikes.

Naruto stared mournfully up at the fox spirit, as the demon slowed time down long enough for them to say goodbye. 'Sorry, fuzzball, early eviction notice, ' Naruto joked in a breathless sob from his sprawled position on the ground of his mindscape.

'Since when do you give up, runt?! ' Kurama growled. He felt the helplessness of the situation as keenly as his human host.

'Since my soul is being physically ripped from my body, ' Naruto joked before he gasped in pain. Though slowing time gave them the ability to talk, it also drew out the pain.

Kurama roared fruitlessly, his tails whirling behind him, but then he stopped. His eyes widened with a thought that was just crazy enough that it might actually work in Naruto 's hands.

'Naruto-the seal! Use that space/time seal your blasted father based his advanced Hiraishin off, ' Kurama insisted.

Naruto 's half-lidded eyes widened incredulously, but that quickly turned to determination. Naruto had been trying to crack his father 's Flying-Thunder-God technique for well over two years. In his research, he uncovered a scroll that Iwa had stolen from the ruins of Uzushio. That scroll had clearly been the basis for the Nidaime Hokage's technique and for his father's faster alteration. Naruto turned his head to the far wall of his mindscape where the seal had already waited for him. He had inked the seal himself for Kurama to puzzle over when he had been angry with his lack of progress.

Not that the old fox had done it. At least, he pretended not to.

From what Naruto could tell, the seal was purely theoretical. It was meant to send someone back a few seconds to correct a fatal mistake. He had yet to determine how much chakra input was needed to do something longer, but he didn 't have time to wonder about it. He would just throw everything he could spare at it and hope it took him back far enough.

Hopefully, not too far.

Naruto forced himself to stand and walk over to the wall. There was no time to consider the consequences; it was doing this or dying. He was Uzumaki Naruto Konoha 's Number Unpredictable Ninja. He had earned that moniker from the moment it had first been gifted to him. It was time to act.

Naruto quickly did the outrageous number of hand signs but faltered when another harsh ripping sensation flowed through him before he could slam his palms against the seal. Kurama reacted before he could fall. A tail pressed into Naruto 's back to stabilize him just as his palms slammed against the wall in his mind. The world around him exploded outward as Kurama 's chakra flowed through him in a torrent. It filled the seal so that it glowed an unearthly red color. The last thought to cross Naruto 's mind was the hope that he never had to hear Kakashi, Sakura, and Sasuke say his name like they had been sucker punched again. He would remember their terror echoing in his mind when it was clear that he wouldn 't make it. He would do better this time.

<>

Jiraiya watched in amazement as the strange nin stopped laughing. But he still let out occasional chuckles if he looked too closely at the toad sage 's flabbergasted expression. Jiraiya flinched when the man stood up smoothly, but the stranger didn 't seem bothered by the reaction. He didn't even seem curious that a legendary Sannin had come for him. He casually dropped his hands into the pockets of his long white coat, still grinning. It was yet another eerie similarity to the man Jiraiya struggled to dismiss from his thoughts. It wasn 't him. It couldn 't be him.

Jiraiya was thrown further off track when the man simply turned around rather than stand off against him. The nin leaped from the fountain to the wall of an intact building beside them. He began walking sideways to an unknown destination without saying a word. Jiraiya watched him speechless for probably the first time in his life outside of the company of a certain medic.

His mouth opened to protest just as the man turned his head and furrowed his brow at him. 'Aren 't you coming Ero-sennin? '

'Ero-sennin?! ' Jiraiya shouted, enraged. He immediately took off after the man who dared call the Legendary Jiraiya Toad Sage of Konoha a lowly disgusting name such as Ero-Sennin.

Despite the waves of KI washing over his back, the Uzumaki laughed as he disappeared into the building through an open window. Jiraiya forced himself to be more careful as he followed. He needed to be cautious, even though steam could be coming out of his ears from the rage of the insult to his fine personage.

The Uzumaki led him through the desolate building at a casual pace. He jumped down at the top of a spiral staircase and landed gracefully on the marble floor several stories below. Jiraiya looked down suspiciously but froze in surprise as he saw the seal that took up the entirety of the large room below him. The strange Uzumaki stood close to the center, almost on the spot where a person would be required to stand upon the seal 's activation.

Jiraiya slowly made his way down the stairs as his thoughts raced as he considered the intricate seal work. That could only result from the great Uzumaki seal masters. He stopped on the balcony just above the floor, which allowed someone to look down comfortably at the person standing in the seal while still in a position of power.

The Uzumaki waited patiently for Jiraiya to reach the balcony with his hands still in his pockets. His body language was loose and open. Jiraiya saw the man was making an effort to appear non-threatening, even though he maintained sage mode. Not to mention-- how in the hell was he doing that in the first place? Jiraiya stopped walking when the man lifted his head. Whatever this was, it was this man 's show. Jiraiya decided he could wait it out. Especially when being gifted with the chance to see a seal such as this. It was almost worth being called Ero-Sennin.

...Not really! Friendly or not, Jiraiya would get revenge for that little nickname sooner rather than later.

'Do you know what this is? ' Uzumaki nodded to the seal he stood on.

'I 've heard rumors about it, ' Jiraiya hedged, tilting his head as he observed the stranger closely.

When the men nodded and looked at him expectantly, he sighed and continued. 'It looks like the Seal of Truth to me. The Uzumaki 's used it to determine whether someone was lying to them. This is a work of hundreds of years that no one has been able to master since. It's useless now. It takes Uzumaki blood to activate. Now, it 's just a pretty seal in a dead village. ' Jiraiya saw the man wince and felt a tiny bit of guilt at baiting him. Still, despite the blunt way of speaking about the man 's village, he appeared calm.

'But not to you, ' the man said. His voice echoed slightly in the empty building. 'Right now, this will be incredibly useful to you and your purpose here. '

'Oh, and how is that brat?! ' Jiraiya scoffed, but his thoughts were already whirling.

Was the man offering what he thought he was? The Uzumaki laughed, and the sound was loud and out of place in this building of ghosts and dust motes. It was as though he could see the truth behind Jiraiya 's false expression of disinterest.

'You 're here to determine my intentions toward Konoha, ' the man shrugged at the taken-aback expression on Jiraiya 's face. ' You're here to possibly extend an invitation or eliminate me. I 'm leaning towards the invitation, but there is the little fact of me being an unknown. Anything I say will be suspect, even my bloodline. With this here, I prove I have Uzumaki blood. Also, I can guarantee the truth of my intentions. '

'You would give a possible enemy the power to force you to answer any question truthfully? Would you really willingly answer any terribly invasive question that I might think up-- on the off chance I extend a place in Konoha to you? ' Jiraiya confirmed. He felt off-balance at the sheer implications of such a thing.

He knew from Kushina herself that the seal forced compliance. There were no sidestepping awkward questions or giving half-truths. The seal forced you to give the truth as you knew it to be without fail. Konoha was great and everything, but to do that was something else entirely. Was he entirely sure the man was sane?

'Yes, ' the man clearly found the whole situation hilarious as he nodded cheerfully.

That was another negative point on the sanity meter.

'You 're an idiot, ' Jiraiya announced, crossing his arms 'over his chest.

Did Konoha want an insane nin in their ranks? Even one that was forced to be truthful? Well, most of Konoha 's best were a tad insane. Jiraiya himself certainly couldn 't claim absolute sanity. Still, they must have some standards, right? They did not need another Orochimaru running around.

'I 've been called that a time or a million, ' the man laughed, and there was something like nostalgia in his gaze despite being called an idiot. There was also a sadness that clung to his shoulders. It made Jiraiya have the irrational urge to make him laugh again.

'I assume you have some conditions, ' Jiraiya asked, still not quite believing this was happening.

'Just one, really, ' the Uzumaki admitted with a shrug. 'Ask me the five basic interrogation questions before you ask me anything else. '

Well, that was odd. Jiraiya would have started with those basics to begin with anyway. Why would the man feel the need to ensure those were the first questions asked? The toad sage couldn 't think of any nefarious reason. Maybe it was a personal thing?

'An odd request, ' Jiraiya said. He watched the man reach to rub the back of his neck in a gesture that instantly threw him back to the days with Minato. He really wished that would stop happening. That would make this so much easier to deal with. He didn't want to like the prick yet.

'I 've always been an odd person, ' the man admitted before his sunny smile lit his face again. 'So, will you do it? '

Jiraiya thought for a moment as he stealthily checked the area for other chakra signatures or anything that might give this away as a trap. He found nothing except for the man standing there watching him expectantly. Jiraiya nodded and then waved for the man to step into the circle's center. It surprised him when the Uzumaki did it without even checking that Jiraiya had accepted his condition.

'How does it work? ' Jiraiya asked as the man took out a kunai and cut his palm deeply.

The Uzumaki kept his eyes on his bleeding palm as he lowered himself to the ground and placed his hand on the seal. As it began to glow with a golden light, he looked up at Jiraiya again. 'You ask a question. Then, I have a minute to answer before the seal forces compliance or the question is negated by you verbally, ' the man further spread his blood on the seal as he spoke. 'If I try to lie in the minute reprieve, I get attacked by my own progressively stronger elemental chakra surges. In my case, that would be wind. '

He stood and instantly was surrounded by a gentle golden glow. The seal activated, and so it was confirmed that the man was a true Uzumaki. Now, he only had to make it through an interrogation with the toad sage.

'It is fully active now, ' the Uzumaki confirmed and met the sage 's eyes. 'Ask the first question. '

Jiraiya nodded and then settled into a contemplative pose.

Finally, he offered the first of the five basic questions of interrogation. 'What is your name? '

The seal flashed, and wind chakra spun lazily around the man as though to remind him what would happen if he lied. He didn 't waver. He didn 't appear afraid, or unsure at all, as he smiled brightly up at his godfather.

'Namikaze-Uzumaki Naruto Konoha 's Number One Unpredictable Ninja dattebayo! '

The wind stayed placid. The toad sage nearly fell over. The world lived on, unknowing that the future had just taken a drastic turn, while a grinning man with his demon fox laughed all the way.