To the Past We Go

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Naruto knew it was going to be a rotten day from the moment he woke up. He had woken up because of a nightmare, not that it was unusual. Then, Boruto and Himawari were both sick. And he was starting to feel pretty crappy himself. The day started out sucking, and it only got worse. Much worse.

At about noon, one of Naruto's clones had disappeared and Naruto gained that clone's memories. He rushed to the front gate, leaving Boruto and Himawari under the care of Minato and Kushina, where a suspicious person was. The person was only suspicious to Naruto because he had information that no one else had. To anyone else it would seem like Jiraiya had returned from a solo mission a little injured and exactly the time frame it would take to complete his mission, but Naruto knew better.

Once, when he was training with Jiraiya, he noticed a big scar across his thigh. It was from a mission he had, the same mission he supposedly just returned from. The wound made him return a few days later than he was scheduled. Knowing that information, Naruto knew this was the situation he was preparing for.

   He wasn't entirely sure what Madara was going to do since he wasn't able to retrieve Obito. He imagined he'd go after Rin again and try to kill her in front of Obito, but he wasn't sure how. Luckily, being extremely paranoid and hanging out with Shikamaru made him a damn good strategist.

   Naruto already formed a plan for this exact situation. He was only missing one thing, or person. He needed a Yamanaka. Naruto sent a clone to retrieve Inoichi and explain the situation to him. It shouldn't be too difficult considering Inoichi already knew Naruto was from the future.

   Naruto continued to stalk the imposter. He may be dense, but Naruto knew how to stalk someone really well. He'd follow the imposter, occasionally turning the corner and changing his appearance, then going back to watching him. He made himself appear to not be too focused on the individual and always keep him in at least his peripheral vision. It was actually really easy because Jiraiya stuck out like sore thumb with his long, spiky, white hair and abnormal, semi-bright clothes.

It didn't take too long for Inoichi to appear beside Naruto, who immediately explained what Inoichi had to do. "I need you to make an image appear in his head and tell him what to do. It won't work until I place a seal on him, so you have to wait until then."

"What image do I have to place? What order must I give? And what does the seal do?"

"The seal makes him more open to ideas and forces him to follow through with the directions. It also makes him explode after he completes the order." Naruto then explained exactly what Madara's base looks like and told him that he needed the order to go to enter the base, and that the explosion should be great enough to completely destroy the base Madara was in, completely obliterating everyone and everything in it.

The plan went into motion when Ichiraku's came into view. It was the place that Rin, Obito, and Kakashi were eating at. There was no way in hell Naruto was going to allow the imposter to get close the trio.

   Naruto quickly ran in front of the imposter and held him so that he couldn't move. He would not allow a fight to break out in the middle of his village.

   If he had been in better health, he would have been able to make it to where the enemy had no wiggle room. Unfortunately, he wasn't in good health. He was starting to come down with flu, and it hurt seeing his sensei as the enemy.

   The enemy didn't have enough wiggle room to break free from Naruto's hold, but he did have enough wiggle room to inject a serum in Naruto as he placed the seal on him. Even though his insides burned, Naruto didn't let go until Inoichi was finished.

   Naruto fell to the ground and his appearance started to change back to normal. The thud of his body caught the attention of Rin, Obito, and Kakashi. Their eyes widened and rushed to Naruto who was coughing violently.

   "Rin, get Minato and Kushina." Inoichi ordered as he picked up Naruto.

   "Don't. Twins... sick... parents... taking... care... of." Naruto mumbled barely loud enough for them to hear.

   While Naruto did want his parents with him, he also didn't want to worry them. The real reason he told Rin not to tell Minato and Kushina, was so that they didn't find out about his condition. He knew exactly what the serum was. He had seen many of his comrades die because of that poison. He also knew everyone who was unfortunate enough to get it, always died, and there was no cure.