Hiruzen Sarutobi scratched his growing stubble in annoyance. This was troubling very very troubling. Or just stupid. "I wonder if Sensei had to deal with something like this."

If they did they probably hid it far better than he did.

A boy - a young boy that was just starting his journey into adulthood - was found outside of the village walls, by his student, unconscious and holding the Scroll of Seals. This meant that a boy that hid did not recognize, had snuck into his office in the middle of the day, stole the scroll that was thirty feet away from his desk and locked with a key that he kept on him at all times, snuck out of his office carrying the scroll, and then passed out.

Again in the middle of the day, wearing an orange suit, that showed wear from running through leaves, fighting and in general doing a lot of things that made a lot of noise.

With another groan, he looked towards the blond boy through the one-way mirror. He was still passed out, this time through some sedatives, and restrained to a chair. And aside from a seal on the boy's stomach that was a design vaguely Uzumaki in design, there was nothing special about the boy.

He should be asleep for another hour or two.

Hiruzen scratched his growing beard once more. Damn that Biwako, he never should have shaved it off in the first place. His beard was once feared throughout the land. Mostly because he was but that was beside the point.

The boy had several objects that weren't ninja related - He had a few Kunai and various other ninja instruments, and an admittedly dangerous amount of explosive tags - which included a toad-shaped wallet that Jiraiya would get a kick out of, a set of house keys with no address on them, bundled up math homework, a scroll that had the basic clone jutsu written on it.

No idea, no clue on who this boy was, no nothing.

"Perhaps in the coin?" It might give him a country of origin. The wallet opened up easily enough, no baited trap, no chakra switch, just a frog wallet filled with… coins from fire country… Well, that was useful. "Wait, this coin is minted three years from now. And it looks rather worn as well."

The coin at least looked real, but if a forger was that skilled how could they forget what year it was? More questions, none of which were leading him to his answer of who the boy was.

"Sensei," Orochimaru didn't bother to bow as he entered the room. He was still holding the Scroll of Seals. His Student was one of the few people that knew of this, Orochimaru was the one to find the child just hours ago. Now was one of the few times he had seen his student look truly perplexed.

"I thought I asked you to put the scroll back?" The lock might have been compromised, but it was still one of the best places for the scroll. And once they found out how the boy had stolen it, the safer it would be.

"I did, but when I got there I discovered that the Scroll was still in the in place with none of its seals broken." Orochimaru shifted to reveal a second Scroll that looked exactly like the first. "This is the original scroll."

"So the boy copied the entire scroll while it was still sealed inside?" That would be an incredible feat, no matter how unbelievable. It was possible to copy text with jutsu, but that required time, and to be looking at both the original and would be duplicate. If someone had managed to learn a jutsu to copy a scroll exactly, then no written information was safe.

"I thought so as well," Orochimaru's face twisted from happiness to confusion, it was rare for his student to get so worked up about something. "But then I looked at the scroll the boy, had and well… look."

His student placed down both scrolls on the table, unrolling both of them with ease. It was just as Hiruzen feared. "An exact copy."

"Not a copy," Orochimaru corrected, he further unrolled the scrolls revealing years of knowledge and study until at long last it came to a stop. For the original, the knowledge ended and the white blank space for future generations to fill began to unfurl. But the copy didn't. It continued. "Look here, there's new jutsu here, ones that aren't in the scroll, some you made, or rather make, there's even a few in here that I make, but the majority of the later pages are made by a Minato Namikaze."

"He's one of our students," Hiruzen mumbled. This… this… wasn't possible some of these jutsu that had his name under them were projects he was just now putting them to paper. And the one that Minato created were equally impressive a solid improvement on the Hiraishin and several powerful seals. Ahh, the seal that was on the boy's stomach was here.

But worse, were the ones credit to Orochimaru, they were dark, evil, jutsu. "Orochimaru, please tell me that you haven't considered creating these?"

"I've had a few ideas, but nothing to this extreme," Orochimaru admitted. "I will admit that the second's reanimation Jutsu has intrigued me for years."

Hiruzen nodded, looking at the scroll once more before he turned towards the boy. "Some of his coin was minted years from now."

"Sensei, this is amazing, somebody found a way to travel back in time," It was rare to see Orochimaru this excited. His lust for jutsu truly knew no bounds. "I wonder how they did it, do you think the boy is the one who used it? Or perhaps, he is the one who cast it?"

"Yes, but why him?" there were so many unanswered questions.

"Perhaps he was sent from the future to warn us of some impending disaster?"

"I'm starting to wonder if Jiraiya is rubbing off on you." It was nice to see this side of Orochimaru, it was becoming all too rare these days. His students had become wayward as the Second shinobi war came to an end. As it stood now only Orochimaru remained in Konoha, isolated though he was.

Orochimaru just shrugged, his eyes firmly locked on the boy. "The possibilities are endless, don't you think sensei? Could you imagine time travel? Physical objects can make the trip as well, just learning that would be infinitely useful, imagine sending a scroll back in time to prevent a loss, we could rewrite history."

"Or erase who we are at this very moment." Hiruzen stroked his chin, "Think about it Orochimaru, if it meant saving someone's life would you sacrifice your own life? We know that one small event can cause drastic changes down the line. Just look at the second Shinobi war, that started with one death that plunged the world into war. What do you think would happen if we prevented that death? The war might be prevented, but for how long? Long enough for ninja ranks to grow and smell for a deadlier war?"

"So, you won't let me pursue the idea?" It was small, just the slightest flicker of frustration passed across Orochimaru's features.

"I am telling you to be careful," Hiruzen snapped, focusing on the blond boy as well. "I think that it could be a powerful tool, but one we must not take lightly, just look at what this boy's appearance has already done. It has set you own a new path for life, one where you research time travel."

That brought a smile to Orochimaru's face and a fire to his eyes that smoldered with ambition. "So I have your permission then?"

Once more as when he first chose his students from the first generation to be born in the village. There were so many paths to choose then much more than there were now, but each one was just as important as this one now. "And where would you begin? Would you extract the knowledge from the boy? There was no such jutsu in his copy of the scroll."

Orochimaru sighed, "I understand your reluctance Sensei. May I ask your permission to ask the boy what he knows? If there is nothing to go on I will abandon the search." A twisted smile wormed its way onto his students face, "Or at least focus on other things."

"I can agree to that," Hiruzen nodded. "We should-"

A noise came from inside the interrogation room. The boy had woken up. And was now trying to shake his way out of the chair. That shouldn't be possible the boy should have been asleep for another hour at least followed by another two of being drowsy. "Hey! What gives! Let me out of this thing!"

"It appears as though our guest has woken up," Orochimaru smiled walking over to the intercom. The buzzer sounded inside the room and the boy stopped. "Please remain calm, we'd just like to ask you a few questions."

"Questions? Is this some kind of test? Look I'm already trying to pass the stupid extra credit test Mizuki-sensei gave me!" The blond boy kicked his feet still flailing against the chair, it was futile of course, there was no way he was going to get out of that thing anytime soon.

Orochimaru removed his hand from the intercom. "Test? Mizuki? Do we have a Mizuki?"

"Several, but none of note." It was a common enough name. Hiruzen took over the intercom, and again the buzzer sounded. "Boy, would you be willing to tell us your name?"

"Ehh?" The boy stopped for a moment? "Old man is that you? It's me Naruto! Is this part of the test? Sorry about knocking you out but Mizuki said that if I learned a jutsu from the scroll, I'd be a ninja! And I learned two, well kind of one, the other one knocked me out when I tried to use it. But I know the Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

Could this boy use the Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu? At his age! More importantly old man? He was still in the spring of his youth, his wife was still pregnant with his third child, he was far to young to be called old man.

Orochimaru elbowed him away from the intercom. "What was the other Jutsu? What happened when you used it? Can you describe it in detail?"

"Uhh, I think it was Hirashin or something, the one that the fourth Hokage uses, I tried to do it, but when I did weird stuff kind of happened then I woke up here." Naruto's face twisted in confusion before he began to shake the chair again. "Can you let me out of this thing? I'm sorry okay! I just really want to be a ninja!"

"The boy has enthusiasm, to say the least," Hiruzen mumbled, finding it hard not to smile at Naruto.

"The Hirashin!" Orochimaru threw himself over the scrolls examining the multiple forms of the Jutsu. "Which one though? There has to be some kind of a secret to this, perhaps…."

With his students rambling serving as a background noise Hiruzen took over the calms once more. "Tell me Naruto, do you know who I am?"

"Duh, you're the old man, Third Hokage of Konoha and all that," again Naruto tried to shake himself free from the restraints. "Look I know I'm bad at History, but this is just mean!"

Did the boy not know where he was? Or what was going on?

"Look! I'm sorry I stole the scroll okay! I was just doing what Mizuki-sensei told me! Just go ask him! Or hey, let me show you my Jutsu and then you can make me a ninja!"

"Naruto, do you know where you are?" He was beating around the bush, but his skepticism was overriding his rationalism. No matter what the logic said, no matter how the dots connected, it was simply impossible. Even more impossible than time-travel. And yet here they were.

"Uhh Konoha, where else would you take me?"

There went alternate universe theory. Or at least, partially. Hiruzen swallowed. He needed a vacation, better yet, he needed to retire, he was already old for a shinobi. "And what year do you think it is?"

Naruto said the year. The year that he thought it was. Twenty Six years in the future.

Hiruzen sighed running his hand through his thinning hair, already feeling much older than he did this morning. Accidental time travel. It was almost enough to make him laugh. Or cry. Probably both.

He opened the door and walked into the room. Where he saw Naruto's eyes go wide and his mouth fall open.

"I don't know how to tell this to you Naruto, but I believe that you've traveled twenty-six years into the past." Hiruzen moved to the chair beside Naruto who had all but stopped his energetic movements. One by one he removed the boy's restraints. "I know this must come as a shock to you, being gone from your friends and family, but I need you to tell me what you can."

"I'm in the past?" Naruto asked, tears welling in his eyes. "But… but…"

"It's okay my boy, you can let it out." Hiruzen could feel it that calling of the Hokage that his sensei had once tried to describe to him. The will of fire burning brighter when it was next to a kindred spirit.

"But I was so close to becoming a ninja! How am I going to become Hokage now?" Naruto kicked his legs in protest now that they were finally free.

His reaction brought a smile to Hiruzen's face. The will of fire truly did burn brightly in this young boy from the future. "You're concerned about that? What about your mother and father?"

"Oh," Naruto blinked scrunching his face up like he had just smelled something bad. "I'm an orphan, I don't know who my parents are."

An orphan boy from the future that wanted to be the Hokage, one that could use Shadow Clone and had attempted the Hirashin with an unknown seal on his stomach. He had no reason to trust this boy. But he did. "You want to be a ninja Naruto?"

The boy nodded. "Yea, I need to be a ninja! So that way people will acknowledge me!"

Hiruzen laughed. "Okay then, let's make a deal, I'll allow you to join the last year of the academy and give you a chance at becoming a ninja if you pass all the exams. In exchange, you tell me everything you can about the future."

"Really? That's great!" Naruto lunged forward pulling him into a hug. "Can we go for ramen after?"

"Ramen?" Biwako would probably yell at him if he spoiled his dinner. But, she might be understanding depending on her mood. "Sure, but first can I ask why you're so okay with being stuck in the past?"

"Well, I might miss Iruka-sensei, but that's about it! And as long as I'm in Konoha I know that I'm home!" The Will of Fire burned brightly in this boy, and Hiruzen could feel pride swell in his chest.

"Now then, tell me everything you can think of."

Naruto was filled with information. Most of it was completely and utterly useless. But a few gems stood out that filled him with dread. There was going to be another war, the Kyuubi would attack, and he would still be Hokage twenty-six years from now.

Wonderful, absolutely wonderful.

AN: So uhh... this is my attempt at a Time Travel fic, I hope you like it? Romance is going to be low, which is different for me. This fic is also going to be long... hopefully.

Anyways. Hope you enjoyed!