Minato arrives at Kushina's side, her limp form sprawled over a tall rock rising from the lake. Panic spikes with his first glance at her. He fears the most horrible outcome until he registers her heaving chest, just before he hears her labored breathing. His wife is still alive.
The Nine-Tails is rampaging, tearing through trees and land like they're nothing. The ground beneath them trembles ominously. Minato takes the red head in his arms and bounds away. Better to put space between them and the beast before it notices them.
"Are you alright?" he asks. They're in a tree, high enough to keep an eye on the demon but still hidden from view.
She nods, even if they both know that the last twenty minutes have run almost parallel to the worst-case-scenarios they'd planned against. In hindsight, this is worse than what they imagined. A masked stranger intruding on the birth. Naruto's kidnapping. Stashing Naruto alone in a safe house. Kushina's kidnapping. The Nine-Tails set loose.
Their first twenty minutes of parenthood.
"Minato, is Naruto safe?" Kushina pants, head held stubbornly upright trying to remain conscious and aware. The man from earlier is seemingly gone, the only obvious danger currently raging in the distance.
"Yeah, he's fine." He can't help the smile that curves his lips. "I left him in a safe place."
"Thank goodness." A small amount tension falls away from her as she allows her head to fall against his chest. Still, she strains her neck to face him, and Minato is surprised at the intensity burning in her eyes.
"Kakashi is fighting that man."
He freezes, dread washing over him like a tidal wave. Kakashi should be in the village. Naruto is safe and Kushina is safe and Kakashi should be safe.
"Where did they go?"
"I don't know. Kakashi showed up and attacked the man. Then they disappeared into some sort of vortex."
"It was some sort of teleportation," a gruff voice beside them interrupts. Glancing to his right, Minato sees Pakkun, beyond him in the surrounding branches are the rest of Kakashi's summoning pack.
"What are you—"
"The boss called us find the two of you. Wouldn't explain anything. We found Kushina first."
Teleportation. If that's the case, it explains a bit how the man managed to bypass the protection seals around the birthing house.
A furious roar tears through the air and Minato forces himself back to the grander situation. The Nine-Tails is rushing toward Konoha.
"You guys should get out of here. Or track down Kakashi, he might need help." Not a moment later, the ninken are off. He knows exactly what they decided.
Minato looks down into his wife's eyes. "Let's get going."
.
"You will not use the Reaper Death Seal on it!"
"And you will not drag the Nine-Tails into death with you!"
"Kakashi is fighting a man with the power to teleport and extract a tailed beast. He needs your help if he's not already–"
"Our son needs a mother."
"I will not sacrifice one son for the sake of another."
Our sons–
.
Two halves of a demon tucked away into two thirds of a tired family.
Naruto is held by Kushina, who is held by Minato, who is held up by a title called Hokage that does not let him rest until he is certain that everything is well.
Minato knows that there's still a lot to do, but he wants one minute to be with his family. He doesn't get it.
There's a disturbance behind them and they turn in time to see Kakashi emerge from a swirling distortion in the air and fall face first into the dirt.
They nearly trip over each other in their haste to get to him.
The first thing Minato notices, when he rolls Kakashi onto his back, is that Kakashi's sharingan is strange. He thinks of three pronged shuriken and sickles. In a moment, it shifts back to its usual tree tomoe pattern, but the sight is quickly put from his mind because his last student – his boy – is creating a frightening puddle of blood around them. They need a medic now but between teleporting the fox demon away from the village, sealing away half the demon into a baby, and then keeping the other half restrained long enough to also be sealed, Minato's chakra reserves are shot.
The masked man is nowhere in sight, which is barely any relief given Kakashi's dire condition.
"Minato…sensei." Minato shushes him and wipes away the trail of bloody tears from scarred, ashen skin. It only smudges under the sharingan. Kakashi's unfocused gaze shifts away from him. "Kushina-nee." The distinguishing mask is torn and Minato's heart twists painfully when he sees the corner of a smile. "Naruto?"
"He's fine. Sleeping without a care in the world," Kushina answers as her eyes drift fondly to their tiny son against her chest while her hand holds tight to Kakashi's. Minato puts everything into rallying enough chakra to get them back to the village. All he needs is one leap.
"I'm glad you're okay. You'll be good parents." The words are ragged but soft, struggling to be heard past the boy's shuddering breaths. After all, that's what Kakashi is, really. A boy. Barely even fourteen. Goddammit.
"Kakashi—"
"I did it." The young jounin is staring without sight somewhere past Kushina's ear. His voice now barely a whisper. "You're both alive. That's all I need." Minato wants to cry at how final it sounds, but his hold on the remaining wisps of his chakra is slippery and he can't afford to be distracted. He forces back the part of him that feels guilt for disregarding his child's dying moments.
"Kashi-kun, you're going to be fine, 'ttebane."
"Everything will be okay," Kakashi sighs and slowly, his eyes slide shut.