Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. It belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.

Back to Basics,

By DarkLordRising

Prologue III: Trust

Empty.

Devoid of life.

That was not how I had come to view this sewer. Yet here I stood. Nothing but bottomless darkness lay before me. No sign of life. No sign of that familiar hatred that I had come to associate with this sewer.

Where...Where was Kyubi?

"KYUBI!" I shouted. In this everlasting darkness, my voice seemed to die before it even left my mouth. There was no reply.

"KYUBI! KYUBI!" I continued shouting until my voice cracked from the pressure. What the hell was going on? Where the hell was the stupid Fox?

"KYUBI!"

"EASY THERE! STOP SHOUTING IN MY EAR!" A voice shouted back at me. I shook my head as I found myself back at the field where I had fallen. The sewer's landscape faded from my eyes as I looked around. Rin's bewildered eyes stared back into mine. She seemed a bit pissed off.

"What is the matter with you?" Rin snapped. I had been screaming nonsensical things in her ear. Thank god she hadn't heard about the Fox.

"Where am I?" I asked, blinking rapidly from the sudden light. It was a bright sunny day and we were outside in a field. Kakashi-sensei, Obito and my dad were nowhere to be seen.

"You fainted." Rin stated. "So we carried you here. The other's have gone to hunt for food." She seemed displeased. Naturally, she would have preferred to go with the other's but she was stuck with me.

It was just like when Ino and I were the only one's in the classroom because everybody else had taken an off for an exam the next day. Ino's mother had refused to allow her to skip school and she was stuck with making idle conversation with me. She had been a bit okay with me quite unlike her usual coldness. However, the next day she was back to her natural self. It suited me fine. I didn't like these sort of situations. They were too awkward.

"You didn't leave me behind?" I asked, a bit surprised.

"Minato-sensei was adamant..." Rin said, narrowing her eyes as she stared at me. "I can't see why..."

I stared off into the distance, wondering why the hell was I unable to communicate with Kyubi. Did he not exist inside me anymore? Was this a consequence of traveling back to a time where Kyubi was still outside? No that couldn't be possible. I had felt it. I had felt the Fox's presence the first time I had landed up here. It had been quite dim. Quite untraceable. I had only felt it by chance when I had thought to take the Fox's chakra while fighting the Iwa-nin but they had all turned out to be so weak that it had been unnecessary.

But now it was gone. Now, there wasn't a trace left. It was a bit scary.

"HEY!" Rin's shout gained my attention. I turned to her, raising my eyebrows in question. "Do you or do you not want something to eat?"

I was about to reply when my stomach growled unexpectedly. She smiled softly. I looked at her face. It was a nice smile. A refreshing change from the sad smiles that Sakura gave me of late. What could have been...

"What?" Rin snapped, noticing me looking at her. I turned away and grunted.

"Nothing," I mumbled, still not looking at her. Rin shrugged and offered me a plate. On it was freshly cooked fish; the staple diet of almost every ninja. It smelled heavenly and I quickly devoured it whole.

"Thanks." I added, almost as an afterthought after I had finished and cleaned every crumb off my plate. Rin looked at me in disgust. I take it Kakashi-sensei and Obito-san had better table-manners than me.

"OI!" A sudden call made us stand up. It was Obito-san, Kakashi-sensei and my dad, coming back from their hunt.

"We're back!" Obito exclaimed. He seemed in a jolly mood. It turned out, he had caught the biggest fish. Apparently this was a big cause for celebration. He thumped Rin on the back joyfully, almost making her fall. His joyful manner calmed significantly when he spotted me standing close by. He stared at me, surveying me from head to toe before shrugging and arching forward.

"By the way, we never really got a chance to properly meet what with you fainting and not speaking to us at all." Obito said, offering a hand. "My name's Uchiha. Uchiha, Obito. Thanks for saving me and Rin by the way." I froze. Uchiha. Sasuke's clan. They noticed my surprise, tensing just a bit if I did something suspicious.

I did the only thing that wouldn't escalate the situation further. I shook his hand.

"Uz-" I paused. I noticed my father tense a bit for the first time since I had been in their company. He was clearly paying attention. "Naruto-...S-suzumaki."

"Nice to meet you, Suzumaki." Obito said, though it looked anything but that. I see. He thought I had been suspicious of the famous Uchiha clan.

"Rin." Rin replied politely when I looked at her. A person without a surname, huh. I had never met one of them until now. My dad smiled politely when I turned towards him.

"Namikaze. Namikaze, Minato." Minato said, shaking my hand. The calm atmosphere returned only to be instantly broken. The real problem came when I turned towards Kakashi-sensei who just shrugged and started walking.

"Ignore him." Obito said, helplessly. "He's just like that." I didn't say anything. I knew they were just trying to be friendly but deep down they still didn't trust me at all. I guess that was all I could get in such a short amount of time.

We started our journey again. A bit muddled about the whole affair of yesterday, I asked Rin about it since she seemed to be someone like Sakura; a medical specialist.

"You fainted." Rin said, simply when I asked her. "A classic case of Chakra exhaustion. Do try not to use so much of it this time, although it did save our lives. Thanks for that by the way." She gave me a small genuine smile that did not quite reach her eyes. She still didn't trust me properly.

"I have a question." Minato said. I slowed my pace a bit so that we were shoulder to shoulder and the other's couldn't hear our conversation; or so I thought. "Where are you from, Suzumaki-kun?" His eyes slightly shifted to my forehead protector which bore the symbol of Konoha. Shit.

I noticed the other's listening intently. Especially Kakashi-sensei. His muscles were tense and ready to attack me at a moment's notice. I searched in my brain for the history lesson where Iruka-sensei had taught me all about invading another village. Nothing useful sprang up from that lesson. I mainly remember sleeping a lot in that period.

So, I did the only thing that came naturally. I answered truthfully.

"I am not entitled to reveal that information yet." I said. Naturally, this didn't satisfy them. I could see my dad staring at me curiously before shrugging and continuing onward. Although, I did notice a slight change in posture from him. Apparently in not revealing where I was from, their suspicions about me had only risen up. Perfect. Just what I wanted. To look even more suspicious.

The rest of the journey passed in silence. The friendliness from before had evaporated. The moon was just about to come up when my father broke the tense silence.

"We should hurry. We should get there today itself. We don't have much time." Minato said. "The attack happened yesterday night. At the very least, the meeting can be scheduled for tomorrow."

"Meeting?" Obito asked, curiously. Kakashi-sensei answered him.

"Before an act of war can be declared, it is standard procedure for the Kage's of the two villages to have a meeting to try and sort things out. A way to stop an unnecessary war if one agrees to the terms of the other. Although that has never happened. No Kage has ever bowed before the other." Kakashi said. "Although, for all we know, this small attack on our border's can simply be a desperate call for help."

"Help, how?" Rin asked.

"It could be that Iwagakure didn't have the time necessary to send a plea for help via hawk messenger. From all the standard procedures, paperwork and needless time wasting procedures that involve a treaty and studying conditions for a village to finally help another village, this is the fastest solution for getting heard as war takes top priority." Kakashi said.

"That's clearly not the case here." I said. "Those Iwa-nin were out for blood." It had already happened in my time-line and I was just about to witness the stories I had heard from Iruka-sensei. Now I had no way of backing down. But perhaps this had been for the best after all. How else could I get stronger than by being in a war myself? I just wish that I don't make a big blunder of it all.

"I agree." Minato said. "This time...it really is war."

"The Third Shinobi World War..." Obito whispered. The atmosphere turned gloomy as we jumped onto trees. Gathering chakra onto our feet, we jumped from tree to tree; a fast method when wanting to travel short distances but quite tiring when going long distance. For most people. Frankly, I could do this all day with ease thanks to the Fox's chakra.

A few hours later, my dad shot down from the trees, prompting us to follow him. The shrubbery and trees had changed to the extent that I no longer recognized where I was supposed to go. We landed in a thick field much like the one from where we had taken to the trees.

"There it is..." Rin mumbled softly. I stared.

There it was indeed. The village where I was born. The village I grew up in. There, in front of me, lay Konoha. Except that it looked nothing like the Konoha I knew and loved...

A/N: Thanks for the reviews. Hope you liked this chapter as well. I understand that the second Prologue didn't have much of an impact but I hope that this one makes up for it in a way. Keep in mind, prologue II and III are just to get things moving.

Chiichaan: Okay. Well it is the second option nonetheless. He is a Jonin and head of a team so it is natural to refer to Naruto as a son as he is greater in rank and in age.

SonYukiGokusSister: That's for you to find out and me to write(grins).

southern hickup(love the name by the way): Magical solution to every battle in the war? Sorry. Not in this one. He is going to win. He is going to lose. He's here to experience a war, not to win or put a stop to it(Though at his current level, I don't think he can, even if he tries.) Finding out if he is related to Minato...I have no plans of that as of yet. Why would anyone do a blood test while the person was unconscious? Was it a blood depletion problem or something? There is definitely not going to be tearful reunion by Minato even if Minato found out that Naruto was his son somehow. That's not how I think the future Fourth Hokage will act. Anyway, thanks for explaining.

Thanks to you three who reviewed. Hope to get a bit more reviews in this one.