Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
The morning came with wind and gathering storm clouds, angry and ominous. The wind howled outside the camp.
"So how are you two feeling?" Minato asked sympathetically, standing with his hands in his pockets as he eyed the two patients in the medical tent.
"Could be better," Kakashi grunted. Rin caught Minato's eye and shrugged helplessly, indicating that she couldn't make him cooperate.
Kakashi and Obito had both been hurt in the fight yesterday, Kakashi running a little too close to the enemy lines, Obito running forward to try to drag him away. Minato and Rin never ceased to be amazed by the foolhardiness of their boys.
Minato looked at Rin and the other medic in the tent. "So tell me ladies, how are they?" He was trying to sound chipper and failing; his students being injured always made Minato nervous.
The senior medic stood forward and addressed Minato. "Kakashi-san incurred only minor injuries; he should be back on his feet in a day or so. For Obito-san, it will take a little longer."
Obito looked up from his pallet and grinned weakly. "Occupational hazard, sensei. You learn to live with it."
Before Minato could say anything, Rin glowered at her teammates. Obito flinched. "Don't you dare be so flippant about it." She turned her furious gaze on Kakashi, who had to quail a little too. "You neither. You both could have been killed yesterday. If either one of you are ever so reckless again, I swear I'm gonna…"
Kakashi quickly spoke up to change the subject. "Hey, sensei, Kushina was by this morning."
Minato frowned. "Really?"
"Yeah, she said she's leaving."
"Leaving?!" Minato exclaimed. "To go where?"
"She said the ANBU squad she's with is heading out on another ambush against the Rock."
Minato promptly ran out of the tent.
Once he was gone, Kakashi commented, "I knew that'd get him out of here."
Rin gasped. "You told him that on purpose? That's cruel!"
Minato ran across the empty clearing, made gray by pre-dawn light. Standing in the center, his eyes flicked around, trying to find the departing ANBU squad. Finally, he heard the swish of wool, and saw them standing at the edge of the dark tree line.
The squad of five were all wearing their porcelain masks and hooded black wool cloaks, completely indistinguishable from each other apart from the different animal insignias of their masks.
Minato stood, staring helplessly at them, trying to figure out which one was Kushina—he could never tell any ANBU apart, a testament to how well they disguised themselves—, until the ANBU wearing a neko mask stood forward and walked towards him.
"Minato?" He was relieved to hear Kushina's voice, uncertain and a little confused as she lifted down her hood and removed her mask. "What's going on?" she asked.
They went to stand a little away from the other ANBU. Saru-mask and Inu-mask shifted a little in frustration, but did nothing to stop them. The wind stopped howling, and only the sound of crickets chirping intruded on their conversation
"You're leaving?" Minato asked her, hurt and confused.
Kushina frowned a little. "I'm sorry I didn't say goodbye, Minato, but I couldn't find you in time. We have our orders from higher up. We're going back to Shin'en Forest where you and your squad fought yesterday, to re-engage the enemy."
Shin'en Forest. Minato knew it well. A dark, twisted forest full of hidden cave mouths and secret pools, where every tree and rock looked the same and even the most highly trained of shinobi could get lost within half a minute. It was also crawling with Rock nin. The very mention of the name filled him with dread; Hiriashin no Jutsu was useless in cluttered terrain like that where there wasn't enough open space to perform it.
"Shin'en Forest?" he muttered numbly. "You can't go there!"
Kushina smiled weakly. "I have my orders; I'm going whether I like it or not."
In the pre-dawn light steadily turning dark ruddy gold, Minato took a good, long look at her face, shoring up memories. And he noticed that she was pale, muscles pinched. She was twitching and jumpy, nervous at every loud snap from the forest. She was worried.
"Kushina," Minato pleaded urgently, "you can't go to Shin'en Forest. It's a death trap; you'll never make it out alive! Think about what happened to your brother—"
"I remember quite well what happened to my brother!" Kushina snapped, half-shouting; her cheeks went red, her eyes flaring.
Minato flinched, wishing he hadn't said anything about that. Ever since Uzumaki Arashi had been killed last year in battle with a strange man in River Country, Kushina had been different. Older, more cynical and serious, fiercer. She was less inclined to joke and goof off, more firmly devoted to the mission. Her twin brother dying had essentially been what made Kushina grow up, though all who knew her wished it could have been under happier circumstances.
"Five minutes, Uzumaki!" Inu-mask shouted from the tree line. "Hurry up!"
Kushina snapped her head towards her comrades than back to Minato, copper hair swishing, biting her lip. "Look, I'll admit, what we're doing is pretty dangerous. I don't want to leave still angry at you."
Minato nodded, swallowing. "Okay."
She wrapped her arms around herself, folding her cloak tight around her slim torso. "We're scheduled to be back at camp by sundown. If all goes well, I'll see you then."
Minato looked at her sadly, wanting to do anything but talk, wanting to reach out and touch her, but only talking instead. "And if you don't come back?"
Kushina tilted her head, her violet-gray eyes clouding. Black gloved fingers reached out tentatively and probed the very surface of his skin, gently touching his face. "And if I don't come back…" she hesitated, her eyes crinkling in uncertain foreboding "…then I guess we'll just have to wait a little longer."
Kushina started to walk away, but stopped and looked back out of one eye. "Minato…I'll see you…when I see you." She drew her hood, replaced her mask, and was gone, tearing into the forest with her teammates.
Minato stood after her, stomach roiling with worry and apprehension. Guilt settled in with fierce persecution as he realized that he hadn't even offered to go with her.
"You'd better come back," Minato whispered after her in the pre-dawn light. The sharp wind, which had stopped suddenly while they had talked, picked up again, and thunder began on a dull roar again in the west. "I don't want to live life without you there."