"Rin?"
Naruto felt the name sounded familiar.
Sasuke shot him a look of pure disdain.
"You idiot. What kind of brain do you have?"
"???" Naruto still didn't get it.
Sakura reminded him, "Kakashi-sensei and the Fourth Hokage-sama mentioned it earlier. She was one of the Fourth's students—Kakashi-sensei's teammate back then."
"Oh."
Naruto looked at Uchiha Obito, whom Kakashi-sensei had just set down, and at Rin Nohara lying on the bed.
"They're Kakashi-sensei's teammates, so how come I've never seen them in the village, dattebayo?"
His question shut Sakura and Sasuke up, too.
They suddenly remembered…
When Team 7 had just formed, Kakashi-sensei brought them to the Memorial Stone.
'The names engraved here belong to ninja who died on missions. The names of my precious comrades are here too.'
Although Sakura had a bad feeling, she still hoped they were all wrong.
"I-I mean… maybe they're on some long-term secret mission outside the village and only come back once in a while?" she said weakly.
Hearing his three students talk, Kakashi's eyes dimmed with grief. He still couldn't bring himself to say the words: "They're gone."
Minato said, "Rin is under a genjutsu."
"It's Iwa ninja. They probably tried to force intel about the village out of her," young Kakashi added.
Kakashi helped Rin sit up while Minato placed his hand on her shoulder.
"Release."
His chakra flowed into Rin's network, breaking the enemy's illusion.
Exhausted, Rin Nohara nearly collapsed again, but Minato and Kakashi quickly steadied her.
She blinked several times.
Her blurry vision slowly cleared…
Seeing Minato Namikaze in front of her snapped her mind awake in an instant.
"Minato-sensei! Did you rush back from another battlefield?"
She remembered being captured by two Iwa ninja.
"What about Kakashi and Obito? Are they alright?!"
Hearing Rin think of him and Obito the very moment she woke up made young Kakashi's chest tighten. He had always prioritized the mission.
It wasn't wrong.
It was the shinobi rules—rules that said the mission came first.
So why did choosing the mission never feel like redemption?
'Those who don't follow the shinobi rules are trash.'
That was what the people who drove his father to his death had repeated to him again and again.
Adult Kakashi stepped aside so Rin could see Obito lying nearby.
Rin gasped. "Obito?!"
"Obito exhausted his chakra and fell unconscious. He should wake up tonight," Minato said.
Rin let out a breath of relief and looked around again.
Aside from the unfamiliar sea breeze and seagulls outside the window, the four unknown ninja wearing Konoha forehead protectors only deepened her confusion.
"Minato-sensei… who are these people?"
Knowing Rin had just been tortured with genjutsu and couldn't possibly handle learning she'd awakened fourteen years in the future, Minato decided to let her rest and explain later.
"Grandpa!"
A small boy burst out from another room upstairs, wearing a white-and-blue fisherman's hat. He completely ignored Naruto and the others, running straight into Tazuna's arms.
Tsunami scolded him, "Inari! Greet our guests properly! They're your grandpa's lifesavers!"
"No!"
Inari rejected the idea immediately, leaving Minato, Kakashi, and the others a bit embarrassed.
Naruto frowned. "What's his deal? Rebellious phase?"
But that wasn't the end of it. The boy named Inari slowly looked over each ninja present.
The tallest one—the silver-haired guy—looked like he could fight decently at least. Among the remaining adults, only the gentle-looking blond man was there… and he looked weak at first glance.
The rest were just kids, and two of them didn't even look like they could move.
"Mom, these people are all going to die."
Kakashi: "…"
Minato: "…"
Naruto: "What did you just say?!! You brat!!"
Sakura (internally): Exactly!! Who says stuff like that the moment they meet someone?! What kind of messed-up kid is this?!
Tsunami planted her hands on her hips. "Inari! Apologize right now!"
Inari shot back, "They don't stand a chance against Gatō! If they keep going like this, they're definitely going to die!"
"What?!!" Naruto jumped up, threatening to smack him if he kept talking.
"Listen up! I'm Naruto Uzumaki, and I'm gonna be Hokage in the future, dattebayo!! One day I'll be a super hero everyone in the village recognizes!! I'm not scared of Gatō or anyone else!!"
Inari lowered his head, the brim of his hat hiding most of his face.
"What hero? You just look like an idiot."
"What?!!" Naruto practically exploded.
"I said heroes don't exist!! If you don't want to die, you'd better leave this place right now!!!" Inari shouted, refusing to apologize the way his mother told him to. He stood and stormed off.
"Inari, where are you going?!"
"Back to my room to look at the sea."
Bang!
The door slammed shut.
As he passed, young Kakashi thought he caught sight of a tear slipping down the boy's cheek.
The room sank into awkward silence.
Tazuna sighed and apologized on behalf of his grandson, though he didn't explain why Inari behaved like that.
Naruto was still fuming, insisting he'd "set Inari straight" later.
Minato—the man who had just been mistaken for being incredibly weak—twitched at the corner of his mouth. Naruto might have inherited his eyes and hair, but the personality? That was pure Kushina.
Once they came downstairs, Minato Namikaze pulled aside the Kakashi who had grown into a twenty-six-year-old in this timeline.
Then he turned to his twelve-year-old student, the young jonin Kakashi.
"Kakashi, I'd like you to run some special training for Naruto and the others. Think you can handle that?"
He needed an excuse to send young Kakashi and the kids away.