Rating: T

Summary: "What is it?" Obito asks urgently. "Does something happen to you?" "No," Rin says. "It's - the Uchiha Clan. It's gone."

Pairings: Sasuke/Naruto (mentioned), Minato/Kushina

Disclaimer: No tengo Naruto, lo siento.

Notes: Because there are way too many 'Naruto and co. watch/read the future' and why not upend the status quo? Things are a lot funner when you have to figure out what's the legitimate information and what's just badly written gay porn.

(I probably won't be referencing any real fanfiction in here, but if I do, it will be sufficiently vague and I'll include the title and author in the notes.)

For once, Obito is early. He's sitting nervously on the verdant training ground, a large book bag next to him, but perks up as Rin approaches. He shows most of his teeth in a wild grin.

"Rin!" He shouts in greeting, and with a look of relief, says, "I guess I'm lucky you got here first, huh? I was afraid I would have to wait here alone with Kakashi."

She laughs at that. Maybe it was a good thing that Obito was usually so late to team meetings. Without her or Sensei to mediate their constant fighting, Kakashi and Obito would have landed each other in the hospital a hundred times over. Even with Sensei's calm admonishments and her own constant attempts to intervene, the two were constantly at each other's throats.

Rin plops herself right next to him, the soft grass cushioning her landing. "Then I would have had to haul you two idiots to the hospital myself," she teases.

Sensei was gone for the week. His orders had came in just the day before, so he hadn't had the chance to reschedule their training. "I'm afraid that the three of you will be on your own," he had said apologetically, waving goodbye at the gate. Earlier, he had told her privately to stop the boys from getting themselves into too much trouble. "But don't break any bones," he had added, only half-jokingly.

Obito flushes red. "Like he could land a hit on me," he scoffs, obviously forgetting about the last few times he and Kakashi had literally brawled on the field. "You two are supposed to be fighting enemies, not each other," she had said reproachfully the last time it had happened, putting ice to the site of what had been an especially vicious punch, even as Obito wiped at his eyes and complained about dust in the air.

She giggles, but plays along. "So, why are you here so early today, Obito-kun?" It was an odd day for him to turn over a new leaf, especially since the only witnesses to the miraculous event would be herself and Kakashi, the latter of which would probably make light of it.

"I need to tell you something important," he says, expression resolute, before adding, almost reluctantly, "...And Kakashi too, I guess. Except he's late, so I guess I don't have to wait for him then -"

"I'm not late," she hears, and then sees Kakashi jump down from his tree, landing perfectly. He fixates Obito with his perpetually bored eyes. "I've been here the whole time."

"You -" Obito splutters, mouth hanging open unattractively. He scrambles away from the standing Kakashi. "Dammit, why didn't you show yourself then?"

"Then I would have to talk to you," Kakashi says simply, the statement matter-of-fact. Obito's expression turns indignant, and it is clear that he is about to start shouting when Rin puts a hand on his arm and shakes her head slightly. It's not worth it, she thinks, and Obito seems to have caught her meaning because all he does is mutter under his breathe about 'stuck up bastards'. Disaster averted, at least for the moment.

"Obito, what do you need to tell us?" She asks patiently. "Should Sensei be here for this?"

He shakes his head. "No, I - I've already tried that. It didn't work. I'm not sure why, but..." He swallows nervously. "I've tried to tell other people what I'm gonna tell you guys right now, but for some reason, they don't remember! I tell them, they look concerned for five seconds, and then they ask me what I'm there for - as if I didn't just tell them why!"

Rin exchanges glances with Kakashi. "Who did you tell, Obito?" She asks.

"Sensei," he says, flatly. "The Sandaime. Even random office chuunin in the Hokage Tower, cuz I got frustrated. Other than them, I don't really have anyone that I would want to tell. So I thought, and then it was obvious that I have to tell you, and... well, Kakashi's still my teammate, so."

"Just say it then, Obito," Kakashi drawls. "Stop being dramatic."

"Dammit, okay fine." Obito visibly tries to muster up his courage, straightening up and puffing out a little. "I - I've been finding these - these books, and they're all written about the future."

"Obito?" Rin says carefully, tone carefully nonjudgemental. Kakashi has a hand to his face, already shaking his head.

"It's true! I didn't believe it at first either. I kept wondering why there were these random books lying around, and it was like nobody else could see them, and it turns out that nobody else could see them. So I started picking them up, and I read them, and -" He cuts off. "They were about shinobi, and Konoha, and jutsu, and -"

"Civilian fiction," Kakashi says, deadpan.

"I thought so too, at first, okay? But there were too many coincidences." Obito looked frantic now, and even though Rin didn't quite believe him, she knew that it meant a lot to Obito that they did. "There are four Hokages up there in the books, and the Academy's different, and in them, the War is over." He says all this in one breath. "The ones I've read - they're all about this Academy student named Naruto who wants to be shinobi, and he ends up being assigned to a team, and his jounin sensei is Hatake Kakashi. He has this weird white colored chakra," he adds, "but I'm not sure if that's right-"

Kakashi flinches, and that's an answer by itself. Rin says, "Show us the books, Obito."

Practically glowing with excitement, Obito more or less hurls a thick purple book at Kakashi, who catches it with typical shinobi reflexes. "Page 58," Obito says, face bright with hope. "It's the second paragraph down."

Rin leans over Kakashi's shoulder. "'I am Hatake Kakashi,'" she reads out loud, "'I have no intentions of telling you my likes and dislikes. As for my dream... I have few hobbies.'" She looks up, more than a little amused. "It does sound like you, Kakashi," she says.

Kakashi isn't listening. He looks down at the page with intense concentration, and then flips through the pages with incredible speed. "The character has silver hair," he says finally, flatly. "Wears a mask that covers most of his face, a hiti-ate that covers one of his eyes."

"Exactly! I thought maybe the guy who wrote it just picked a name out of a hat, or something. But the Kakashi in these books look like you, too." Obito adds, seeing an opportunity. "Plus, the team that Naruto's on - there's a Uchiha on it, and he acts like a Uchiha. There's a girl - Haruno -"

"Kizashi?" Rin mutters, surprised. He was the only Haruno she knew, and she was aware that Obito had no idea who he was, despite being one of their classmates in the Academy.

Obito shrugs. "...I don't know who that is, but maybe she's his future kid or something. I didn't get that far into it. I've been seeing the books for a while, but I didn't actually try reading them until a few days ago."

"Are all of these... a part of a series?" Kakashi demands, eying the dozen or so books in Obito's bag.

The Uchiha shakes his head. "I thought so, but some of them are a lot shorter than the others and - well, they don't really connect. Like, one book would start with the teams being chosen, and then the next would still be at the Academy..." He trails off, and it is clear that he has suddenly realized something of great importance. "Wait, so... you believe me, right? And... you remember this?" His voice is desperate, and it is clear to Rin that he wants them to believe him, so he wouldn't be alone in his knowledge of this strange event.

But did she? The idea of books about the future was insane, in all honesty. The idea that some technique had rendered them not only invisible to some of the strongest existing shinobi, but rendered them completely impossible to be discussed, both in verbal and written forms. And yet...

"Obito, I don't know if I'm completely sure about this, but... right now, there's a lot of evidence that says that you're telling the truth," Rin says finally, because really, what else could she say? "Do anyone else we know show up, other than Kakashi? You, or me, or Sensei?"

Obito furrows his brows in thought. "Not me," he says, "and I don't remember reading anything about you or Sensei. The Sandaime's in there too - he's still Hokage, even though there was a Yondaime at some point. He died, I think. There was a..." His expression turns dark. He does not like what he is going to say, and yet he says it anyways, forcing it out in one go. "There was a Kyuubi attack."

"A Kyuubi attack?" Rin stammers. But that was impossible - that would mean -

"The Naruto kid," Obito says, voice cracking slightly, and Rin knows that he's half submerged already in his own memories of the distant past. "He's an Uzumaki. With blonde hair and blue eyes, and whisker marks on his cheeks. And... he's an orphan."

(an orphan, the words reverberate within her, and it is Obito and Kakashi who come to mind, and it hurts knowing what they have gone through with no one on their side.)

"No," says Rin, and suddenly, the future depicted in those books seemed a lot worse than grown-up Kakashi messing with a bunch of genin for kicks and giggles. "You think... Sensei and his girlfriend...?" Obito nods slightly, and she sees that Kakashi's fist hangs bloodless at his side. Rin knows his teeth are gritted behind his mask, because for someone who covered up half of their face on a daily basis, it was surprisingly easy to know what Kakashi was thinking.

"I won't let it happen," Kakashi says, and within it is a promise, a statement, a plea, all wrapped up into one.

"We," Obito cuts in, voice fierce. "All three of us. We know about these books, and we're the only people who remember them. That just means we have to all work together, right? Sensei's our Sensei - and Kushina-nee is our Kushina-nee, even if she messes with us all the time. Not just yours, Bakashi!"

Soon, thinks Rin, heart sinking. Kakashi will spout another arrogant retort, and Obito will return the insult, and the faint camaraderie that had built up within her team - for the first time she could remember - would be destroyed, again.

It is therefore a complete surprise to her when all Kakashi does is nod, albeit with obvious reluctance. "You found these, so that means that you're somewhat important," he reasons. "Anyways, you'll probably fail miserably on your own like usual. You'll need help."

"You -" Obito shakes his head. "You know what? I can deal with that. You know, you're not that bad of a guy after all, Kakashi." He attempts a smile that looks more like a cringe. Still, Rin thinks, it's a step in the right direction.

Kakashi sidesteps the compliment, purposely pretending as if he didn't hear. "We're going to need a plan," he says instead, mind already calculating possibilities. There is a reason that he is next in line for promotion, Rin thinks. "We need to get more information about this... the future. That means we'll have to read through these, and create a timeline of events. We can't let ourselves get blindsided when... when they're at stake."

"I have twelve books with me," Obito offers. "I see them all over the place, so there's more, but... for now, that means four for each of us. But... some of them... I don't think they'll be useful."

"We can't count anything out," Rin argues. "Maybe there's something useful in those." Surely any tidbit they can get about the future will be important, right?

"There's nothing useful in them!" Obito squawks, covering his face, looking just like the time when Sensei had relegated them to his sensei for a week, and Obito had agreed to helping with 'research' and came back red and guilty. Oh, Rin thinks, and it takes all she can not to burst out giggling.

"Maybe for you," Kakashi drawls, a trace of the usual arrogance finally present. "Real shinobi have to look underneath the underneath."

"Fine, then you read them!" The Uchiha shouts, and shoves a handful of books into his arms. "Just as long as I don't have to think about -" He shakes his head. She decides not to ask.

"I can get the longer ones," Rin offers. "I read fast." Faster than Obito, at least, who she knows had learned the very basics of the skill a month after the Academy had started and had never felt the need to advance in such (not that he really had the need to, not beyond the level of Academy textbooks). She accepts the books, one of which is even thicker than the medical texts that she is used to. She glances down and - What kind of pen name was 'SakuraFan647'? Of all possible names an emissary of the future would choose to go by...

"Obito," Kakashi says slowly, flatly. His voice seems to promise future debilitating injury, and Rin remembers hearing the same tone the time Obito had spilled juice all over a murderous Kakashi, way back in the one year the three of them had been at the Academy together. He holds up one of his books, so thin that it looked like a pamphlet.

'100 NaruSasu Kisses,' it reads. Below it is a cartoonish representation of a blonde man swooping a black haired man in for a deep, passionate kiss. Rin puts a hand over her mouth, half to muffle her damning laughter and half to cover a sudden blush (in her defense, she did break away from the fujoshi crowd the year she had graduated).

"Look underneath the underneath, Bakashi!" Obito shouts gleefully. "That's what you said, right?"

"Don't call me that," Kakashi snaps, but looks down at the book with a calculating look in his eye.

Kakashi had woken to find a hardbound novel on his battered night stand, and there is a brief moment of panic because it had not been there when he had retired, mind whirling around the inexplicable discovery that Obito, of all people, had made. No one could have made it into his room without him knowing, and it is a knowledge not based on arrogance. Sensei had helped him put up wards, complicated looking seals around every entrance, designed to release a distinct burst of chakra when triggered. That, and Kakashi himself was not a particularly sound sleeper - he couldn't remember the last time he dreamed (though that, he was grateful for).

Fifteen different possibilities arrange themselves in his mind before he remembers Obito's tale of prophetic books that only he can see. He scans his surroundings for chakra signatures and cracks open the book cautiously when he finds none. The names he sees are familiar. Naruto, Sensei's and Kushina's future son. Sasuke, the Uchiha. Sakura, the (he winces) fangirl. And... himself. The lazy, perverted jonin sensei Hatake Kakashi, who reads porn in broad daylight and is late for every. Damn. Thing.

The very knowledge makes him furious, that in the span of what couldn't have been more than a few decades, he would forget every lesson he had forced himself to learn after his death. Ever since the day he had seen his - the blood pooling on the wooden floor of their home, the glazed over eyes, the slack hand -

He cut off his ruminations violently. No, he wouldn't make the mistakes the future Hatake Kakashi would make.

Kakashi had spent most of the night examining what Obito had given him. Four books, each ranging from twenty to two hundred pages long, each with a boldly lettered title and a brief summary, and imprinted with a string of numbers that he concluded could only be the date of publishing. The years were obviously different from the calendar every village used, which started from the end of the Era of Warring Clans. Even if these books were written in the future, Kakashi found it difficult to believe that he and his future students would be worth remembering almost two millennia in said future.

No, the dates were a mystery that he had yet to solve. Instead, he had read through his novels, and realized something that Obito obviously had not.

These books... were fictional retellings of actual events. And while that had explained the improbability of some future events (which included page 29 of '100 NaruSasu Kisses,' which had included events on the Hokage Mountain that Kakashi knew ANBU would not take kindly too) it also meant that not everything in the book could be trusted. Granted, there were a few events that remained constant, and those he knew were part of the real future.

The Academy, and Iruka-sensei (Kakashi vaguely remembered a kid named 'Iruka' that he had passed on the street.) Mizuki, and the Kyuubi. Team 7's choosing. His older self, and the bell test that had ended in a way that tempted Kakashi to Katon the damn thing (because teamwork? It was almost as if he completely forgot about that man.)

The others, however, were suspect. Naruto and Sasuke's romantic relationship, which had not shown up in anywhere other than the singular novel (and for which he was grateful for, because the two interacted in a way that was far too familiar to a certain other pair for his liking.) The one where Naruto had turned out to be the Kyuubi, in human form. And finally, the one that he knew was pure fantasy, which included the hyperactive blonde Naruko as the protagonist and Sasuko and Sakumo as teammates (as well as lazy, mask-wearing kunoichi Kakashi).

The absence of Sensei and his teammates within the stories were suspect as well. Kakashi tried to convince himself that since the story was focused on Naruto, it would make sense for people not as closely related to the kid to not appear - that, and Sensei was most likely deceased. But still, the knowledge nagged at him (and why did it? Obito was a useless idiot, and Rin was nothing more than a teammate. He knew they were.)

It takes him a moment to come to the realization that he had slept past sunrise, when he usually woke. He curses; the team had decided to meet at Rin's home, because it was the only place between the three of them that could fit all of them. Obito had rambled about a dirty room, but Kakashi still remembered the time Sensei had sat him down and explained about Obito's home life - or lack of it - in an attempt to get him to treat the idiot with more patience (it had worked, for the two minutes before Obito opened his mouth.)

Kakashi reaches Rin's home minutes after the agreed upon time, and is greeted by Rin's mother - a kindly career genin who thought that that he and Obito were good targets for mothering. Irritating, but he bore it with dignity. She ushers him in to where Rin and Obito are sitting on the floor, a thick notebook between them.

Obito springs up, finger pointed. "You're late, Kakashi!" He shouts, and it is obvious that he is relishing every word of it.

He eyes him boredly, not giving him the satisfaction. "Here, catch." Kakashi tosses his find at him, disgust rising as Obito catches it - barely - and struggles it for a few moments before getting a firm grasp. "Found it an hour ago. Looks like we're all involved in this now."

"You found one?" Obito yelps. "No way." It is clear to Kakashi that the idiot had been hoping for some sort of exclusivity in his find, and so his only response is a scoff.

"Let's add it to the pile," Rin says, pointing to the corner of the room. "Obito didn't get here too long ago, so we didn't get a lot done. I was thinking that we should write down everything we found out, so we can reference it in the future."

"First things first, then," Kakashi says. "Do both of you know that these are fictional? They are based on real, future events, but the authors took certain... liberties."

Rin nodded, while Obito looked vaguely stunned. Unsurprising, Kakashi thought acerbically. Obito had scored among the lowest in their year, while Kakashi and Rin had scored around the highest - for him, the highest. But Obito's look of surprise turned into triumph. "Hah," he shouts, "I knew Kakashi couldn't have gotten the Sharingan!"

"The Sharingan?" He demands. The Uchiha doujutsu, passed down only to direct members of the clan. "It said that I have the Sharingan?" Almost automatically, he considers - and discards - the idea of himself being an Uchiha bastard. He had certainly been his father, and he knew his mother was as far away from the Uchiha Clan in status as humanely possible, from what little he had told him.

"Yeah, it was during the Wave Mission. You were fighting this guy named Zabuza, and you just -" Obito mimes pulling at his hiti-ate. "You only had one of them, though. I'm not gonna lie, it was pretty badass, even though it wasn't real."

"No," Rin says, thinking. "Kakashi has the Sharingan in what I read, as well. He talked about it after the bell test. He said," she swallows, "he said that it was a gift from his best friend, whose name was on the Memorial Stone. He wanted to let Sasuke know after the -" She shuts her mouth suddenly. "It's not important right now."

"Wait, so Kakashi does get the Sharingan?" Obito exclaims. "What the hell, that's so unfair! It doesn't make sense, either. The Uchiha... the Sharingan is like our life. It's the one thing we protect above all else, and I don't know anyone who let someone else get their eyes. When they die... they always destroy their eyes. That's like, Uchiha Law Number One!" His expression is indignant now, eyes narrowed angrily. "And 'best friend'? Do you even have friends, Kakashi?"

Kakashi flinches involuntarily. "Obito," Rin snaps, looking dangerous. "That was fucked up."

Obito stops, evidently cowered by the reappearance of Foul Mouthed Rin.

"I have no friends within the Uchiha," Kakashi admits. "Probably something that happens in the future."

The statement satisfies Obito enough that he sits back down. It is clear to Kakashi why he had felt so strongly about the Sharingan - Obito, unlike most of his Clan, had shown no signs of ever being able to activate the clan's doujutsu. The idea that someone outside of the clan - Kakashi, even - could have what he desperately wanted... that, at least, Kakashi could understand.

"There's something else that's going to happen in the future," Rin says suddenly, and it seems that this is the reason she had looked so uncomfortable. "I don't know when it's going to happen, but it won't happen for at least a decade. Obito, I didn't want to believe it, but it explains a lot, and three out of my four books all made references to it and -"

"What is it?" Obito asks urgently. "Does something happen to you?"

"No," she says. "It's - the Uchiha Clan. It's gone."

"Gone?" He yelps. "What - Why -"

"There was a - a massacre," Rin says, expression somber. "One of the clan prodigies killed everyone else in the Clan. His name is... Uchiha Itachi, and he's the older brother of Sasuke. It's why Sasuke is such a - well, angry. He wants to go after his brother and kill him."

"A massacre," Obito repeats blankly. "What - Everyone? Even the kids? The - the old grannies? There are - There's Kenshin-san and Mayuri-san, they sell dango on weekdays, they never activated their Sharingan, they're not even shinobi -"

"It didn't say anything about them," Rin says. "All I know is... the Uchiha Clan Compound is empty. Nobody's left."

Obito doesn't say anything, eyes closed tightly. "So... that's why I don't show up, huh?" He says finally, faintly. "I went through everything word by word to see if I was the Fourth Hokage and maybe that's why I wasn't mentioned, but... Dammit. I can't believe it."

The idiot is about three words from bursting into disgusting, snotty tears. Kakashi intervenes. "Stop being an idiot," he barks, and his teammates snap to attention almost instinctively at his tone. "It didn't happen yet, did it? We still have more than a decade to make sure it doesn't happen. So stop crying."

"I'm not crying, you bastard," Obito says, but it's halfhearted. "...You're right, Kakashi. Yeah." He regains his composure slowly but surely, and Kakashi lets out a breathe of relief when the wetness vanishes from the Uchiha's eyes.

"We need to write this down," he says. "Before we forget. Shouting out everything is stupid."

Rin nods slightly, and cracks open the thick notebook. "It's new," she says, "and there's some seal on it. It's pretty cheap, so I think any skilled shinobi can get past it with ease, but at least people can't just flip it open. We can attune it to our chakra, so only we can open it. Where should we start?"

"The Kyuubi attack," Obito says resolutely. "That's when - when Sensei and Kushina-nee - when they die," he finishes with difficulty. "It's the same day as Naruto's birthday, October 10th. I don't know what year, but it's twelve years before when these books are set. And - I noticed something weird. The books say the Kyuubi attack is a natural disaster - but that doesn't make sense, because -"

"-because it isn't free in the first place," Kakashi finishes. "It's already sealed in Kushina - she and Sensei told us three months ago. The Kyuubi has been sealed since Uchiha Madara."

"Which means that something else happened," Rin decides. "Something deliberate. Someone deliberately set the Kyuubi on the village, then. If we want to stop the attack, then we need to find out who."

She writes that down - 'Who is behind the Kyuubi attack?' on the top of the page. "That's our first question," she says, and copies the relevant dates.

"The timing is too convenient," Kakashi says, thinking. "The fact that the Kyuubi attacks the same day Naruto is born - there's no way that's a coincidence. Remember what Sensei told us about the reason why Kushina is rarely on active duty, even though she's one of the top jonin in the village?"

"The seal weakens when she's stressed," Rin answers, a light in her eyes. "And - giving birth is one of the most stressful things there is!"

Obito had turned pink, obviously uncomfortable with the subject matter. "But - but that means that whoever attacked the village knows exactly when she would, um, have the baby! That means it has to be someone in the village, no," he decides, "someone close to both Sensei and Kushina-nee. They wouldn't announce a baby to the whole village, especially when Kushina-nee has the Kyuubi!"

Rin writes it all down dutifully. "I think that's all we got," she says. "What next?"

"Naruto in the Academy," says Kakashi. "The system is obviously different from ours. All the students graduate at 12." Extremely old, considering that he himself had attained the rank at age five, and even Obito had become a chuunin by 11. "They probably changed the system because the war is over."

Rin smiles at that. "I still can't believe it," she says. "It feels like the war has been going on forever - I don't remember a time when Konoha wasn't fighting. Can you imagine? No more missions to Iwa."

"I hope that comes soon," Obito complains. The last mission outside of the village had ended with Obito being carried back, covered head to toe in small, painful scratches from an especially sadistic opponent - a sadism that had turned into his downfall.

"And we get time to do stuff other than train! Maybe we could even go to civilian villages - I heard that they have these things called movies, and they're like plays that are recorded, like moving pictures." There were stars in Rin's eyes now, and Kakashi knew he had to cut off that train of thought quickly.

"What's important is now," he says abruptly. "We don't know how many years the war keeps going on. There's still the possibility that we won't survive it."

"But you show up in the future!" Obito says.

"We're going to change the future. That means we can change it to be worse, not just for the better. Maybe I don't die in the future, but I die now. I won't magically survive a gut wound because these books say I survive to teach Team 7," Kakashi reasons. He doesn't say that the odds for Rin and Obito's survivals are even lower, because they don't show up. They could have died in the decades long gap between their present and the books' future. "We still need to train. Everything we know in these books don't mean shit if we die before we get to do anything."

"That's - Dammit. You're right, Kakashi," Obito admits, and Kakashi is tempted to check for flying pigs outside. Rin gives them both a large grin, though he has no idea why.

"We need to be efficient with the time we have," he says. "Sensei told me that I will probably be promoted within the month - the front lines are running out of jonin, and they need everyone they can get. After that, I don't know how much time I will have to stay in the village. Even Sensei only gets to stay because he has a team."

"Then we're on a time limit," Rin says resolutely. "Okay! We need to get all the books we can get our hands on - most likely, we can all find them now. We don't have much time, so we need to read the ones that give us the most information. I got through all of mine, but a lot of information was repeated - there's some extra detail, but it's not worth the extra ten thousand words I read for them."

"Check the summaries first, got it," Obito agrees, and then says in a terrible attempt at motivation, "We can do this, Team Minato! We'll save the village through the power of randomly appearing future books and really weird gay romance novels! Yeah!"

Kakashi says nothing, because there's a feeling pressing down at him as he looks at his team that he is unfamiliar with, but doesn't exactly... dislike. It wasn't annoyance, as he thought he should feel at Obito spouting his usual idiocity, again. No, it was - he flinched. No, it was bad. He couldn't get attached. Getting attached meant losing sight of the mission. Getting attached meant him.