A/N: So I have literally been working my ass off and its only the first chapter! e.e
I think its because this is my first time writing in this fandom and I don't like my writing style with it compared to others that I've read.
Anyway~ Yes. Non-time traveling AU. Incest. INCEST. Technically its unintentional, but that's besides the point! If you don't like it, don't read it.
This story is going to be angsty and dark.
Minato is going to be one depressed, aloof moe foe and Naruto...is going to be one angry son of a Kushina.
Since it's late, I'm going to leave okay. I'm tired of seeing this chapter, I've seen it too much the past few weeks.
There is a large range of emotions that a person feels in their lifetime, but there are six that are most common to the Shinobi of the village Hidden in the Leaf. There's loss, self-hatred, pain, loneliness, sorrow, and rubatosis.
In the middle of the night, former fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, lies wide awake in his misery and stares up at the ceiling, trying to figure out where exactly he went wrong.
He wanted to know what actions had been the fateful decision that led him to this very hour, to this agonizing lifestyle that he had built for himself.
With this free time, he can lay there in silence and ponder on it if he so desires. But only for a little while.
Only until his rubatosis kicks in and haunts him, like it does every night. Only until it turns him into a mess of tosses and turns in his cot, not only wrapping himself up in his sheets tightly with every movement, but trapping himself in his own desolate reality.
The feeling of his own heartbeat unsettles him.
It's an odd sensation, a reminder that, unlike Kushina….unlike his wife, he is still alive. He goes past the sense of feeling and thinking, coming down to the scientific makeup of himself. The dead feeling inside is overwritten by the grotesque sound of his heart, living and pounding. He remembers that while he has spent these years as a flee-on-sight Hunter-nin, fighting and killing relentlessly, his heart had been beating effortlessly, without his help and against his will.
He remembers that he has spent years training his muscles while his heart has been training on it's own, a muscle itself.
Grimacing, Minato clutched his chest with one hand and threw an arm over his eyes. The cold metal of his porcelain mask ghosted against the skin of his knuckles and he slowly realized that he hadn't even taken off his clothes.
Yes, it was all coming back to him now. Just another day as a Hunter-nin, another mission completed, another assassination and then the wretched reminder that he was all alone when he returned home and staggered through an empty house. From the creaking of the door that echoed into the vacant air to collapsing onto the bed void of any warmth, Minato would then unwillingly recall his loss.
There was no Kushina.
Every time he stumbled through the house, he wondered why he stopped in the middle of the stairway where a mirror hung on the wall. He wondered why he always looked into it when the only thing that reflected off of it was the walking flesh of a fragmented soul.
There was nothing brilliant in his blue pupils, at least not anymore. His eyes were no longer sharp, no longer as vivid and photogenic as an ocean, but rather as dull as a diseased sea. His hair-oh god-he couldn't even remember the last time he combed it properly. He'd do one, two, maybe three, strokes with the comb through the blond jaw-length locks that framed his face, and where it spiked at the top-he allowed that part of his hair to do as it pleased.
It didn't really require his care anyway. It looked fine being left alone.
Minato reached up and pulled off his white mask, carelessly tossing it to the side. He'd done it before on numerous occasions and never had trouble finding it the next morning so he figured this time would be no different. Sighing heavily, he squeezed his eyes shut in hopes that sleep would just overwhelm him. He needed its heavenly embrace, and as the days dragged on, his desire for it became stronger and stronger.
There was no escape better than sleep because at least then, he'd feel dead. And if he dreamed of Kushina, and her long pretty red strands-even better.
However, for Minato, falling asleep was easier said than done.
It seemed that it happened every night, without fail. Rubatosis would rear its ugly head and wrap its long claws around Minato in a cold, unyielding grip. In the darkness of his room, his heartbeat would echo in his head and pound in his chest. And from his back to his side, then from his side to his stomach, he would toss and turn.
He would whimper in husky, hitched breaths and sigh in irritation as he pulled his arms against his chest and curled up. Whatever God there was, he would silently pray to them in hopes to cease the alarmingly loud hammering of his heart in his ears. And when it wouldn't end, his face would scrunch up in displeasure.
At this point, his mind would begin to race. He would place his hand over the thin bones protecting his heart and he would think about how fragile he truly was, how fragile him, Kushina, Kakashi, Tsunade, and every other living, breathing being on this earth was. From every Kage, to every ninja and villager, to every ram and boar; everything was fragile, a simple creature at the mercy of an organ running on its own. An organ that decides that when it's had enough, the flesh that it lived within is no different than a body in a coffin under the ground.
On the same night of childbirth and forced extraction, Kushina's heart decided that it was time to give out and it put her in a black box that now occupied a space under the soil.
But unlike hers, Minato's pounded loud, mighty and turbulent enough to the point of uneasiness. While it never stopped, it was only at this time that it would make it's presence known, that it would remind the him that he was alive even if Kushina was not. It was like a mother's voice to their child, a soothingly soft tone that hummed, 'I'm here, I'm here...'
It constantly taunted him of the difference between him and his wife, and a beautiful sound that the man once loved to fall asleep to became the disturbing noise that kept him awake at night.
'I'm here, I'm here…'
Minato forced his breathing to become a little more labored, his frantic panting beginning to override the sound of his heart. He listened to his own breaths, more content with the desperate husky noises than the beating organ inside his body. This was one of the few ways he had learned to end the hammering racket of his rubatosis and one of the most effective.
He didn't know why it helped, but it did and it didn't matter if he were ignorant to the reason. He didn't want his heart speaking to him, telling him that it was there and still kicking. He didn't care about the status of his heart and if it had stopped, he wouldn't have cared either.
Thump, thump. Thump, thump…
'I'm here, I'm here….'
Minato bared his teeth angrily and out of annoyance threw himself over, shifting his entire body to his other side. He normally didn't sleep on his stomach-hell, he didn't like sleeping like that as he felt too valuable when he did, but if it meant ending his rubatosis then he would do it. To hell with what he was comfortable with-listening to his heart wasn't appealing either.
His heart felt like a nagging friend, one constantly in his shadow with the mindset that he needed to frequently point out the fact that he was there, or else he'd be forgotten. But Minato had forgotten his heart a long time ago, almost sixteen years to be exact. Kushina had taken a part of it with her when she left him, and he didn't want it back.
He just wished she had taken the whole thing.
The blond pulled the sheets up to his chin and within seconds, he begun to hear the fading sound of his heart. The hammering was getting quieter now, the 'I'm here….' leaving him to confront the miserable darkness of his room alone and he soon relaxed, sighing in relief. His body uncurled and stretched out across the large bed to get comfortable, and he pressed a hand against his chest momentarily.
His heartbeat was still there as it should have been for any living creature, but it no longer surrounded him and nauseated him like that of rubatosis. It no longer pounded in his ears and he was grateful for that.
Honestly, Minato was never surprised to wake up to someone in his house or to his front door being pounded upon by a hard fist that startled him from his slumber.
He had gotten used to the Tsunade clones that would check up on him, especially the uptight ones that enjoyed kicking him out of bed or slugging him in the face anytime he spoke negatively (which in both cases was all the time). Then there would be the few housewives randomly selected by said woman that would be in the kitchen to assure that he didn't skip breakfast or fill himself with a bowl of ramen or an energy bar as if either one were a healthy everyday choice for a man of his occupation.
According to the fifth leader of the Hidden Leaf, he may have no longer been Hokage, but he was still a shinobi and needed to eat like one.
Minato didn't wake up to either of the mentioned, but he was greeted by a horrific migraine that had him groaning and grimacing in pain the moment he sat up. He slouched forward and held his head, remaining unmoving in the silence as if a couple of seconds would ease the aching of his mind.
It didn't.
But there was no use in mopping about it; a headache was the least of his problems and so very minor compared to his other ones. So after a heavy sigh and about a minute spent rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, Minato sluggishly kicked the blanket off of him, knocking it to the floor in the process and carelessly stepping on it when he passed by.
Straight across from his room was the bathroom, but he paused in the middle of the hallway at the sound of something stirring from downstairs. His blue eyes narrowed at the meek noise and he stared ahead before continuing to the bathroom anyway to quickly brush his teeth.
Probably just a housewife.
The bristles of the toothbrush gliding across Minato's teeth lazily, he tried to look anywhere else but at the mirror while he brushed, not wanting to meet the dark, sorrow-filled blue he knew were in his eyes. Instead, he stared down at the Hunter-nin mask that rested on the sink's counter; white with thin slitted eyeholes, a wavy design that ran across the place of the mouth and the emblem of the Hidden Leaf over the forehead.
With his free hand, he ran his thumb over the wavy crescent and then across the eyeholes, feeling the cool and clean porcelain material under his finger.
Cool and clean.
Just like his Hunter-nin self. Comparing him to the Minato here was an ugly idea; the former Hokage who wasn't even strong enough to protect his wife or his village was a flaccid and beaten man. Whilst the Hunter-nin Minato was ruthless; cool, calm, collected, powerful…...clean.
The blond man's eyes suddenly came to full attention, snapping from his internal thoughts with a raise of his eyebrows. He halted his brushing and gazed carefully to study the mask sitting on the sink with a suspicious twitch of his lips.
Now that he thought about it, he didn't remember putting the mask in the bathroom (in fact he had thrown it in his room somewhere). Nor did he remember cleaning it, as it lacked the dirt of yesterday when his opponent had managed to throw him to the ground, smudging the mask in the process.
Slowly, Minato turned the sink off and he threw his brush down, grabbing the frame of the bathroom threshold as he peeked from around it and stared down the hall that led to the stairs.
Of course it wasn't odd if somebody were in his house, but only Tsunade's clones were obtrusive enough to barge into Minato's room without knocking and if it had been a Tsunade, then she undoubtedly would have kicked him out of bed. There was no way she'd miss the opportunity to do so.
Why hadn't she done it this time?
Treading with quiet steps, Minato held tight to the railing as he descended the stairway, preparing himself in case a foreign ninja managed to track him back to his home after a recent assassination. Even with all the time in the world to brace himself, nothing could have prepared him for the small orange animal that attacked his face the moment he reached the bottom step.
The former hokage was suddenly hit with a slimy, moist presence against the skin of his face and he stumbled backwards in surprise, hands shooting up to grab the creature as a reflex.
"Yo, Minato!" Came a lighthearted greeting, and when Minato yanked the animal away, he felt it struggle and writhe in between his fingers. "H-Hey! Hey! Hey! Watch it, pal! You're squeezing me way too tight!" It refuted loudly, receiving a weird stare from the male.
The familiar purple markings around the eyes, mouth and stomach gave major hints, but the voice is what gave it away and the corner of Minato's lips tugged upwards in a small smile. "Ah… it's you, Gamakichi…" He murmured, loosening his ruthless hold on the toad with an apologetic light flickering in his blue eyes. "Sorry about that, but you did startle me."
"I have no regrets," the amphibian responded gleefully. He slipped out of the loose grip and hopped from Minato's hand to his shoulder, shifting a few seconds to find a comfortable position. "Though the nail marks in my skin might say otherwise. Next time I startle you, let's hope those claws have been cut, okay Tiger?"
Most of what the toad-summon said went in one ear and out the other, the blue-eyed male being too busy observing his surroundings with a tight and skeptical expression.
As a summon, it was unlikely that Gamakichi was here by himself unless he was sending a message, but Minato was positive that the toad hadn't moved his mask. Someone was here and he had a feeling that the noise from earlier might be related.
He could have been wrong about his prediction, but it was very unlikely that he was.
"Gamakichi….?" The blond muttered quietly, voice low so that he wouldn't be heard by anybody else in the house. "You're not here alone, right? Someone had to have summoned you."
The orange creature opened his mouth to answer, but was then interrupted by a lower, secretive whisper that could have been from only one man.
"Oooh, that one is pretty nice~ hehehe."
Gamakichi rolled his eyes and glanced at the blond male before shaking his head with a suppressed grin. Even Minato bit back his own smirk despite his current inner turmoil; the familiar voice was definitely something that he needed to hear, one that he hadn't heard in years. He followed it to the living room and the first thing his eyes landed on was the mop of spiky white hair.
Laying comfortably down on the couch with a magazine in hand was Minato's former teacher and toad sage, Jiraiya-Sensei. Since Minato had last seen him, there wasn't much of a difference in appearance, with the same long white hair tied in a ponytail, the green short kimono and matching pants. Besides the fact that he looked a little bit older, the old man hadn't changed much at all.
Minato came to the conclusion that the author had been the one to clean his mask, not putting that amount of selflessness past the man. However, the mask had been in his room and the thought of Jiraiya seeing him fast asleep made him cringe, recalling the non-stop teasing he always got from 'sleeping like an adorable little girl' when he had been his student.
If he really hadn't changed, he probably got a good laugh out of it as he washed the mask.
Jiraiya hadn't even noticed Minato when he walked by, or if he had, he didn't show it, continuing to mind his own business as he flipped through-Minato squinted at the book's cover-an issue of 'Shinobi Stripped~ Women in and Out of Uniform.'
Yeah, he most definitely hadn't changed.
"Oh….damn~"
Used to the man's perverted ways and actions, Minato simply stood there and decided that he would allow his former sensei to finish his research without interruption, averting his gaze from the half-naked female shinobi on the front. He hadn't looked at a woman since Kushina and was not interested in doing so now.
Instead his eyes fell to the box sitting on the ground next to the man. Written in red was the words 'secret stash #1' and Minato's cheeks flushed pink, at first believing that he had been the owner of the porn collection and trying to think back to the time he had set that up.
That is, until he looked over the familiar handwriting again and furrowed his eyebrows.
"Jiraiya-Sensei…." Minato growled under his breath in a scolding manner, realizing what the older man had done. At a crossroads between what emotion he should be feeling right now, he was caught in between a glare and a shit-eating grin.
The toad sage slowly turned his head in the blond's direction, and his eyes grew wide momentarily before he tried to save himself by laughing casually and throwing the magazine into the box which he then kicked away from him. "Minato! There you are! Hahaha, long time no see, kiddo! Am I right?" He exclaimed through gritted teeth and a forced smile that was shot right through when the younger man continued to scowl at him. "Um…..nice stash. You sure know which issues are the best to buy…."
"Except I didn't buy them," Minato retorted with an cocked eyebrow, crossing his arms over his chest. "You did and you hid the stash in my house."
Jiraiya winced, raising his hands defensively as he admitted to being caught red-handed. "Alright, kiddo. You got me. But it's for research purposes, you know this! It's the best kind of way to give me a little writing inspiration!"
From upon Minato's shoulder, Gamakichi shook his head and croaked, "you're one crusty old grandpa, Jiraiya, I swear!"
The white-haired man, feigning it or not, threw the toad a hurt look and pouted. "Crusty grandpa...? That's a little harsh, don't you think?"
"Well you did hide a porn stash in your former student's house," Minato pointed out with a slightly playful smirk. "That seems pretty crusty to me."
"Listen, kiddo-"
"Stop calling me that, Jiraiya." The blond demanded with a sharp tongue, earning a startled expression from his now dumbstruck senior. His playful smile had dropped to a straight line and his eyes had morphed into a pair of dark blue that seemed to have seen more than death itself. "You're no longer officially my sensei, but I still see you as one. However, I am no longer a kid and you shouldn't regard me as one. If you do, we may have a problem."
There was a long pause and the atmosphere filled with heavy tension as Minato and Jiraiya held each other's gazes, placid and unfazed by one another's intimidation. The only one who was breaking under the pressure was Gamakichi, who was shifting uncomfortably on Minato's shoulder, observing the two anxiously.
After a while, Jiraiya nodded in understanding and he smiled, realizing that the male before him was no longer a child, but a man who should be treated as such. It was easier said than done though when the years had been so tough on him. Jiraiya may have been away, but he still had his sources and kept in touch with Lady Tsunade often.
"You're right, Minato. You are a man now."
And he wasn't lying to please the blond. Minato was indeed a man, but he was a broken one whether he'll admit to it or not. His loss of Kushina had taken its toll on him and his own health became less and less of a priority to him. The only thing that existed to him was his mind, and his mind was his enemy, therefore he needed something to occupy him from it. Otherwise, he'd lose his sanity to his inner demons.
Jiraiya was no fool to the kind of man Minato was, he had foreshadowed it when the blond was still an academy student. He was a fine shinobi and man, but his weakness was an ugly one that unfortunately thrived on Kushina's passing.
The corners of Minato's lips tugged into a faint smile. "Thank you, Jiraiya-Sensei." With that, he turned and headed for the kitchen, but was stopped by the sound of his teacher's careful voice and grew rigid at the next word.
"Except…."
The former hokage peered over his shoulder at the man who was now sitting up straight on the couch with a genuine expression on his face. His dark and solemn eyes met with the pensive gaze of steely blue. "I think you can be a much better man, Minato."
"Of course," Minato mumbled in agreement, somewhat relaxing from the nervousness that had befallen him earlier. "As a shinobi, there's always room for improvement in all areas, no matter how strong you become. You taught me that."
Jiraiya grimaced, scratching his spiky hair when he realized that his point had not reached his ex-student. "Right….right. You're absolutely right, but that's….uh," he cleared his throat before continuing on. "...not exactly what I meant… I mean, not in general. If you catch my drift."
Not as a shinobi.
It seemed that Minato caught on quickly afterwards because his defense suddenly went up, Jiraiya could see it in his eyes. He could see the dim blue in his pupils brighten up and become guarded. He could see his former student's body tense and by the look Gamakichi shot him, there was no doubt that the toad had felt it too.
His next words were forced, etched with feigned strength but apparent with weak lies. "...I...I have reached the strongest I can be in that case. I'm doing all I can, Jiraiya-Sensei. I'm coping."
"But is coping really enough…?" The toad sage inquired carefully in a whisper. "That's the question that you need to answer, Minato. Do you realize that maybe that isn't enough? That maybe it's time to stop coping and to start dealing?"
Abruptly, Minato turned to face his teacher and it startled Jiraiya, even Gamakichi hadn't been ready for it, clinging onto the blond for dear life when he suddenly spun around. His eyes held every broken emotion that Jiraiya never thought he would see all in one place; anger, disappointment, hatred, regret, betrayal, frustration, madness, misery, and so much more.
It hurt Jiraya to see Minato wrapped up in so much despair, overshadowed by melancholy and depression yet trying to overwrite it with happiness that wasn't there in the first place.
"Dealing with it, huh…?" Minato muttered bitterly, probably more to himself than to Gamakichi or Jiraiya. He started pacing back and forth, most likely looking as if had gone mad as he whispered words under his breath over and over again.
"Coping and dealing…?"
"Coping and dealing…?"
What was the difference again?
And which one was he doing?
The orange toad that rested on Minato's shoulder now jumped off, finding a new spot on the backrest of the couch, watching the blond pace with concern. He could sense Minato's chakra beginning to bounce out of control and he gave the toad sage sitting closeby a questioning look to which he simply raised a finger to his lips before looking back to his junior.
"But I can't…." Minato finally whimpered, sitting on the couch beside Jiraiya and hiding his face with his hands in a defeated heap. His voice sounded broken now, weak and feeble as if on the verge of going mute forever. "I can't. I can't…."
Jiraiya stared at Minato's unmoving form for a while, trying to figure out how he should go about this. He was never the best at comforting someone, but he always tried even if it was in his own, awkward way. He reached out and offered a consoling ruffle of his messy and spiky yellow hair.
Gamakichi tilted his head sadly and hopped onto Minato's back, crawling to his shoulder to lean against him as a means of solace.
"Hey, kid-" Jiraiya grimaced, catching himself mid-word before it was too late. "Uh, Minato… I've been gone for a long, long time and you know what…? I'm wondering... how old are you now? If you don't mind me asking."
Unfortunately enough, Tsunade and practically the whole village made sure to remind Minato of how many years he had lived without Kushina by his side. Not once had they forgotten his birthday and if it weren't for them, he most definitely wouldn't know his age. He couldn't imagine not knowing how old he was, but that almost seemed like blissful ignorance because at least then he wouldn't know that he was getting old.
"Thirty-eight…." Minato murmured gloomily into the palms of his hands.
The white-haired sage whistled. "Impressive…! And you still look like you're in your twenties!" He observed the long-faced shinobi and realizing that this hadn't made him feel better at all, he frowned, continuing to ruffle the blond spiky locks as he took another route. "...Kushina wouldn't want you to live like this."
That struck a nerve and Minato lifted his head up gradually, revealing that he had been on the verge of tears that he had kept bottled up for too long. He bit down on his tongue to keep them from rolling down his cheeks and then responded with a cracked voice, "I'm just so sick of missing her. Perhaps I didn't realize it before, but I do now….she was my rock-"
"No," Jiraiya snapped sharply, slicing through his words with his stern voice. "No, she wasn't. You're your own rock, Minato. You always have been. Trust me, as your teacher, I would know! For goodness sakes, you're the Yellow Flash of the Hidden Leaf!"
"Too yellow….not enough red," the blond replied quietly, fists balling up in his lap.
The older man shook his head and placed a comforting hand on Minato's arm, reassuring him with an amiable smile. "There's no need to stain your yellow with red, Minato. Your color is strong on its own. Yellow is bright, yellow is warm and happy, and you should be too."
Minato's eyes widened with admiration in its core; though it was momentary, it was there and Jiraiya knew that his words had reached the blond. He even smiled, bigger than any smile he had cracked earlier and his face brightened. However, his next words were sugar coated with a pinch of playful sarcasm that left Jiraiya with a pout on his face. "Real nice…...really, Jiraiya-Sensei but also a little cheesy."
The pervert furrowed his eyebrows and sighed.
"I wanted to be the cool sensei with the best quote and you ruined it for me, Minato."
Jumping from tree to tree at high speeds and in a perfect three-way formation, Naruto, Hinata and Ino traveled through the forest in thoughtful silence, replaying their findings in their minds.
Dressed in full Anbu uniform; grey flak jackets, metal arm guards, swords latched to their backs, and the standard black attire underneath, the only thing that was unique about them was the white porcelain masks that hid their identities.
Naruto's gave him the code name of 'Kit' as his was that of a fox. The inside of the ears were painted black and three red whisker-like marks were on each side of his face with strips that ran down the forehead, going between the eyes and stopping before it reached the black nose.
The 'Cub' was Hinata Hyuuga, her mask resembling that of a bear. Unlike Naruto's, the Cub's ears were much more rounder and the inside was painted red. On the left side only, three red claw-like marks stretched down the face, going over the eye and stopping before the jawline.
'Rabbit' was Ino Yamanaka, each side whiskered with three black lines. With the inside of her ears painted red, her mask's eye slits were traced with red, a trail running down the cheeks from the eyes as if the bunny were crying blood.
While Naruto was pondering in the quietness of their travel, even Kurama-the Kyuubi residing inside his body- thought back on their discoveries in hopes of lending a hand with their mission, his low humming filling Naruto's mind.
After enduring many grueling years of dealing with a tailed beast that practically lived and breathed hatred-Naruto still found it hard to believe that they had actually grown to become good friends. And considering that he couldn't even recall how they learned to accept one another, sometimes he forgot that they even liked each other until the fox's causal hums or mutters of advice would echo inside of him.
Following a good ten to twenty minutes of silent nothingness, Hinata finally spoke up bashfully but loud enough to be heard in the wind of their speedy pace. "So….even other villages have shinobi disappearing suddenly. How will we go about that? Doesn't that conclude that the those villages have nothing to do with it?"
"Rabbit. Branch," Naruto warned.
Ino adjusted her Rabbit mask momentarily before dodging the oncoming branch and murmuring a thanks. She then looked to Hinata, her expression most likely tight with thought behind the false face. "...Honestly, I wouldn't say that means that a village isn't responsible. Unless the perpetrators aren't even an entire village, but a small organization or a group. All I know is that I'm getting a really bad vibe that the disappearances aren't willingly."
"I am too," Hinata muttered timeously.
Naruto narrowed his eyes at his team member's opinions, deciding that his similar assumption was worth mentioning. "These could be ninjas going rogue….maybe they're joining some group that nobody knows about...yet."
"Do you think they're doing forbidden jutsu?" Ino inquired.
"Maybe."
That was highly possible and quite a common reason for a ninja to go rogue. If they ran away or 'disappeared', nobody would know about their forbidden trainings and nobody would be around to punish them for it. The thought of forbidden jutsu and experiments left Naruto's stomach flipping every which way, especially if they were being done on innocent people kidnapped from their villages.
That is, if these people were even kidnapped in the first place. They still didn't know whether these disappearances were voluntary or not.
'I'm sensing the presence of two shinobi coming in fast from behind on Hinata's side.' Kurama suddenly cautioned to the blond Kit.
Naruto glanced back at Hinata, careful to keep his steady jumping as he pulled out a kunai from his pouch. "Behind you, Cub. Guard." At these words, Ino readied herself and sped up to Naruto's side, mimicking his movements but instead placing her hand on the hilt of the sword strapped to her back.
Hinata didn't stray from her position, preparing herself to dodge the moment she heard the words. This was one of their countermeasures for enemies coming up from behind to ambush them; they were leaving Hinata 'vulnerable' and feigning ignorance in order to pull off a surprise attack.
In other words, they were leaving her as bait to lure the enemy out.
'...wait, Kit!'
The startled growl from Kurama mixed in with the ruffle of trees almost had Naruto sending his kunai right at his own teammates. Luckily, he had managed to stop his fingers before they released their grip on the tool, earning a relieved grunt from the nine tails inside of him.
Sai and Sakura suddenly jumped into the formation with ease, becoming the two to trail behind Hinata and Ino when she returned to her position.
Naruto sighed in relief, grateful that it was his friends and not an enemy ninja trying to pick a fight with foreign shinobi. With everything that was going on and the extremely confusing situation that only became even more mind blowing with every clue they got, he wasn't really in the mood for a fight.
"Sakura... Sai….! You scared us! Naruto almost attacked you both!" Hinata exclaimed, less apprehensive than she usually sounded.
"Cub!" Ino snapped in a teacher's tone before either Sai or Sakura could muster up a response to the Hyuuga. "Maintain code names. We have them for a good reason."
Hinata covered the mouth of her bear mask as if she were belatedly trying to stop herself from saying the names of her teammates. "Sorry..." She whimpered remorsefully.
Like everybody else, Sakura and Sai were dressed in the standard Anbu attire as well, both sporting a mask that associated them with their code name out on the field.
Sai was Crow; two squiggly red marks waved down diagonally from his forehead and halfway to the slitted holes of his eyes which, like Ino's Rabbit, were outlined in a blood red that resembled bleeding eyes. The beak of the mask stuck out, but only slightly and where it would have opened up, a black line was drawn to emphasize its mouth.
Sakura was a Dingo, much to Ino's amusement. The ears of the mask were white and not colored in, but between the ears was a blue triangle which covered part of the forehead, the tip of it stopping somewhere close to the middle. Two more of the same shape were on either side of the face, vertex in to end on the cheek of the mask. There were no whiskers, but a nose and mouth were lightly drawn on the snout to make the canine known.
"Have anything interesting to report?" Naruto inquired to the two at the back of the formation.
The pink-haired Anbu member wasted no time, responding almost immediately after the last word was spoken. "Gaara confirmed our suspicions. He also has disappearances occurring in the Hidden Sand."
"Even merchants have seconded the notion. They've overheard talk of other villages going through the same thing," Sai added.
Naruto bit his bottom lip from behind his fox mask, eyebrows furrowing in puzzled confliction as he picked up his pace. This was most definitely weird, but urgent, especially if any village could become a target of whoever or whatever was doing this.
'What are you thinking, Kit?' The Nine-Tailed beast murmured lowly to the blond male that he occupied. 'Perhaps the work of some newly formed underground organization?'
'I honestly don't know what to think, Kurama,' Naruto whispered to the fox in his mind. 'If that's true, then they must be a large organization if they're managing to kidnap so many people in such a small amount of time.'
Before the beast could offer more input, Sai spoke up once more and broke the short-lived silence between the group. "I think the first thing we need to consider is; are these disappearances kidnappings or are these shinobi leaving for a purpose of some sort…"
"But... how do we figure that out?" Hinata asked meekly. "Snooping around doesn't seem to be doing us any good at the moment. We're still at the same place."
The dark-haired ninja shook his head in disagreement. "No, we're getting somewhere. Just not at a pleasing pace."
"But we can't keep depending on snooping," Ino pointed out, reminding the Anbu team of the unsteady relationships between everyone of their land. "Not all villages are friendly enough with us to overlook our visits. We'll be watched, maybe ambushed-and that's assuming they let us even come near their village."
Naruto knew that Ino had a good point and the only thing that would make this mission harder, aside from the brain-busting thinking, would be to have enemies surrounding them and picking fights every five seconds because they were foreign shinobi.
He glanced over his shoulder at his teammates, unknown to them that he had large grin plastered on his face at the thought of disguising himself to get into a village. "I guess we'll have to be sneaky about it then."
Sakura seemed to catch on to his meaning automatically because she countered quickly after. "Naru-" She sucked in an annoyed breath as she remembered that they were Anbu members known by code names, and then said sharply, "-Kit. That could be extremely dangerous."
"Danger comes with the job, Dingo~" Naruto murmured, still grinning madly at the thought of putting his sexy jutsu to work. Perhaps it was time that Naruko got a little breather anyway. It's been far too long and he shouldn't have allowed such a great move to collect dust.
A thundering vibration of deep chuckles echoed in the blond's mind and he raised an eyebrow at the sound of Kurama's laughter.
'Dingo….' The fox repeated, followed by his rumbling snickering.
Naruto rolled his eyes with a hint of playfulness, his grin growing wider. 'Dingo is a type of dog, Kurama. It isn't an insult.'
'It sounds like one.' The Nine-Tailed creature answered back, obviously disappointed that the kid had to go and ruin the funny thought. 'It fits her well…She is indeed a Dingo.'
'You're a hater.'
'I'm not hating. I simply prefer the blond girl with the Rabbit mask to Dingo.'
The sound of Ino's voice pulled Naruto from his internal conversation and brought him back to reality. "The Leaf is just up ahead. I think when we get there, we should go straight to Lady Tsunade and report this in. What we learned is a bit….vital."
Naruto almost wanted to whine and retort that they should stop by Ramen Ichiraku first and order a few bowls because they deserved it for working so hard, but a sudden pounding in his head stopped him from doing so.
He heard Kurama release a pained growl that was followed by a low groan. 'Ugh….not this. Not this….this chakra again.'
With the splitting headache that left his vision spinning in a blur, Naruto could feel an intense pain growing inside his stomach that resided right where the seal was located. The extreme discomfort had him coming to a sudden halt, stopping on the next branch he landed on in hopes of catching the breath he didn't remember losing.
"Naruto!" Sakura called out, more concerned with her friend's health than Anbu regulations. She and the others had stopped a tree or two ahead, but now doubled back to the blue-eyed male, crowding around him.
'Kurama…?' The second the blond asked and tried to reach out to Kurama, the headache only intensified and the stomach pain grew tenfold, almost resulting in him falling from the tree had Sai and Ino not steadied him.
He held his stomach and slouched forward as if ready to vomit, squeezing his eyes shut in order to cope with the pain as he searched for the fox inside his mind.
'Kurama…!'
'Ugh….' The fox groaned, a pained mixture of disgust and agony slipping off his tongue. 'It's that presence again. His chakra….it's out of control. He's awake and it's out of control, Kit...'
'Who is….?'
Naruto was completely lost. He had no idea who Kurama was referring to and the fierce amount of torment he was feeling; the throbbing headache, the pulsing of his seal, it was making him see spots of red and black, and black and purple.
And purple and green with flashes of brown.
And then suddenly there was only yellow- a yellow flash with blue. A sad sort of blue-like the kind of blue that you see when you've lost someone important to you.
Naruto blinked.
He was seeing a person. He was seeing that person again. The one that he dreamt about almost every night; the one with the yellow hair and the sad sort of blue eyes. The one who smiles at him only for a little bit until he mutters that he doesn't want to see him.
That he wants to be left alone.
Suddenly the face distorted away and Naruto was falling, cutting through air like he was the heaviest thing in the world. The brown in his vision were the trees as he fell, warping and blurring as he closed the space between him and the ground with every second that passed.
As soon as Naruto came to the terrible realization that it will be a bloody, bone-snapping, sickening splat against the earth if he doesn't do something soon, he suddenly felt weightless instead of heavy. Arms had him feeling secured and they pressed him up against the fabric of an Anbu uniform.
Then he was on the ground and Sai was in his vision, removing his mask before pulling away Naruto's and examining him with the most emotion-filled features Naruto has ever seen on the guy's face in his life.
Hinata, Sakura and Ino are soon joining him, regarding the blond with concerned frowns, having thrown their masks to the side as well.
"Naruto! Naruto, are you okay?" Hinata asked softly, her deeply defined and muddled eyes looking down at him solicitously.
"I said not to move, didn't I, idiot?" Sakura reprimanded sternly, eyes narrowing and becoming ablaze with fury. "That's what you get... you freaking idiot!" Though her voice is tight, it still remained etched with concern that she was obviously choking back. She disappeared from his view, getting up to walk away and Hinata, after shooting Naruto a fretful look, followed after her with a feeble, "S-Sakura!"
Sai and Ino exchanged glances, and the blonde rolled her eyes in the direction of her pink-haired rival before reaching out to brush the back of her hand against Naruto's forehead. "You're a little warm…..and sweaty." She spoke the last word with slight disgust that was rewarded with a weak laugh from the male.
"I'm fine…" He groaned, attempting to sit up from Sai's lap before two worried pairs of hands pushed him back down a little too hard. "-hey!"
"Are you positive that you're okay?" The raven-haired artist asked.
Ino bobbed her head in agreement to Sai's question, keeping her hand firmly planted on Naruto's chest. "Yeah. You tried to jump, but when you did you just suddenly lost consciousness and fell."
"I'm fine!"
Or so he wanted to believe.
The fact that Kurama seemed to have sensed something that sent both of them into a fit of pain startled him a bit. And it didn't help that the man that always appeared in his dreams just suddenly invaded his mind before he lost consciousness, but the pain was gone. The seal was no longer tight with heat and the although the headache was still there, it was acute and had subdued quite a bit.
He would mention this to Grandma Tsunade later, but it wasn't the main priority at the moment and he did not want to hinder the mission any further.
When he forcefully pulled free from Ino and Sai's grasp, he met with the cold glare of Sakura Haruno, who already had her mask in hand as if ready to go. She narrowed her eyes at him before putting it on and becoming Dingo once again. "Let him play hero, Ino. Let's go." She said bitterly, gone and into the trees in seconds.
Ino looked to Naruto carefully as if trying to gauge his health, but then shook herself free from it, lifting her Rabbit mask to her face before she too, had disappeared into the greens.
Hinata offered the two boys left behind a reassuring smile. "Come on, guys." And then she too was gone, leaving Sai and Naruto standing together quietly.
The pale ninja turned to the blond with piercing dark eyes, mouth tight. "Naruto."
"I saw him again, Sai. Right before I fainted…."
Though it was a very subtle movement, Sai's eyes widened slightly and he opened his mouth to speak, but he stopped as if deciding against saying what he planned to. Instead, after a long pause, he simply put his Crow mask back on and said, "...let's go."
Naruto nodded, lifting his own mask to his face and then following Sai into the trees. As they leaped from branch to branch, he silently sunk back into his mindscape to speak with the tailed beast.
'Kurama…?' He asked, almost as timidly as Hinata would have.
'Yes…?"
'Are you alright?'
'I am fine,' The fox replied quietly, voice distant as if lost in thought. 'I was just startled.'
Tsunade pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed, squeezing her eyes shut wearily as she leaned back in her chair to take a breather from the stack of reports sitting in front of her. She had been hokage for so long, but never had she felt so intimidated by a pile of papers in her life until now. Perhaps it was also the source of her rampaging headache.
Or maybe it was because she was getting old-and the mere thought of that made her want to send a clone after Minato and have it suffocate him in his sleep for looking to her to take over as hokage when he became unfit to lead after Kushina's death. While he made the best decision he could for the village despite his status, she was much too old for this and one day, she was going to drown him in all of her reports.
The murderous idea playing in her mind brought her bliss.
A couple of soft knocks at the door snapped the woman out of her revengeful daydream and she straightened up in her seat and quickly started organizing the semi-messy stack on her desk. Her eyes caught the word 'marriage' and she squinted at the proposal in her hand, clicked her tongue and groaned before scooting it in with the other papers and calling out, "come in! The door is open."
She hoped that the five shinobi sauntering into her office didn't hear her mumbling inaudibly under her breath about how annoying it was to deal with arranged marriage offers.
While she understood its purposes, as breeding strong ninjas with other strong ninjas usually resulted in genetically strong offspring, she disliked summoning the clan's shinobi into her office and then hearing the awkward, "well I'm planning on getting married to another man soon," or the unnecessary, "I already have a baby on the way….hahaha! My apologizes, Lady Hokage."
It never upset her that she had to decline most of the offers-arranged marriage sounded shitty, in her opinion anyway-it merely annoyed her that other villages were not taking the hint. The Leaf wasn't used to forcing other clans to mix and despite the large amount of vetoed proposals due to love already being found, they never failed to keep hounding the village about it.
When Tsunade pushed her internal rant, along with the stack of reports to the side, she looked up a met with a pair of lively blue eyes that belonged to the grinning blond male who was leaning forward on her desk excitedly. Too close for comfort, she nonchalantly scooted back in her chair and crossed her arms over her busty chest with a sigh.
"Grandma Tsunade!"
"Naruto…." She responded, rolling her eyes at the name that she was still not used to. To make it known, she even cocked an eyebrow at the boy and burned daggers into his smiling face with her glare. She may have been older, but she was not old enough to be labeled grandma!
Okay, maybe she was. But she still looked too good for the nickname, honestly.
Naruto had long removed his Anbu mask from his face and now stepped back with his squad. Unlike the rest of his team, they didn't pull off their masks and were less 'jumpy' than the blond, much more accustomed and collected when it came to the solemn Anbu lifestyle.
Tsunade had gotten used to remembering who was behind what mask based on the code names given, depending on what animal they sported. The dark haired male on the very left was Sai, his pale face that was most likely void of any emotion, hidden behind his Crow mask. The girl bouncing nervously on her toes behind the Bear mask was 'Cub' otherwise known as Hinata Hyuuga; she was the one most furthest away from Tsunade's desk, most likely doing it out of respect.
Or intimidation.
The short pink hair was hard to miss and difficult to forget. Sakura Haruno wore the canine Dingo mask; she had her hands clasped behind her back, seemingly trying to ignore the obvious glare that the blond female next to her, Ino Yamanaka, was sending her from behind her Rabbit mask.
This anbu squad in particular never failed to amaze her and sensing the intense rivalry radiating off of Dingo and Rabbit, she figured it was best to get them both out of her office as fast as possible before they made her headache worse.
The fifth hokage sat back in her chair and looked to Naruto expectantly, glancing back and forth between the mask in his hand and his grinning face. "Status Report, Kit." She spoke the last word through her teeth, emphasizing the code name to remind the blond of his current job.
"Hnnn!" Naruto squeaked, frantically attempting to throw his Kit mask back on, only to end up fumbling with it when he didn't fasten it on correctly and it fell from his face.
Sitting there with an amused smile, Tsunade watched as an angered Sakura balled her fists and stomped forward in annoyance, shoving her friend back before bowing to the hokage apologetically. "Ignore the idiot fox, Lady Hokage," she said, winning a defeated groan from Kit as she straightened up to report her team's findings. "Report on the mission regarding the repeated cases of missing ninja in the vicinity. During our trek towards the Village Hidden in the Cloud, we came across a few merchants who-"
Suddenly Ino chimed in, cutting her off sharply. "What are you doing? Just start from the beginning, don't confuse the Hokage! Say everything in chronological order, stupid Dingus! Don't you think she has enough to deal with already?"
"Dingo!" Sakura countered, apparently finding it more important to address her childhood rival rather than to report in as she turned away from Tsunade to face Rabbit. "It's Dingo! Stop with the damn Dingus, Ino-Pig!"
"Well maybe I'd stop calling you a Dingus if you stopped acting like one!" Ino retorted, raising her voice louder than Sakura's this time. She had stepped forward now and Sakura retaliated equally, both of them butting masks and most likely seething angrily behind them.
As if used to this already, Naruto peered in Sai's direction from behind his porcelain Kit-face and the two shared a silent agreement that had them moving only seconds afterwards. Naruto behind Sakura and Sai behind Ino, they both grabbed a hold of the girls by the waist and pulled them apart just before they could reach the dangerous hair-tugging and face-smacking phase.
"Ino-PIG!"
The blond kunoichi glared daggers at the pink-haired ninja before her struggling grew stronger and more difficult for Sai to manage. Even his mask fell off in the process. "I'm getting REAL tired of that remark! You're the one who's pink like a pig anyway, Saku-DINGUS!"
"Okay, okay," Naruto pleaded softly, almost trying to laugh it off with causal haha's. "Let's just report in to Grandma Tsunade, guys-!"
"SHUT UP, DUMB NARUTO!" Both Ino and Sakura shouted simultaneously, this probably being one of the few things that they could actually agree on for once. But then the realization that they had thought something and said it at the same time left them eyeing on another from afar.
"I hate your face!" Sakura declared.
"I hate your face more, cow!"
"GOOD! MY FACE DOESN'T EVEN LIKE YOU!"
"MY FACE NEVER LIKED YOU!"
A little awkward laugh had everyone silently turning to Sai who had on one of those stupid smirks that never failed to worry everyone. Aware of the kind of things the shinobi would say due to his past training, the female Hokage could only pray that he was not about to utter something that would rile up the two further and induce more arguing.
She wasn't betting on it though, considering the numerous times she tried praying for less paperwork only to be disappointed when the secretary walked in with a stack large enough to make a flat chest kunoichi bustier than her.
Tsunade rested an elbow on her desk and caressed her head, mentally preparing herself for more yelling, followed by a chorus of multiple things snapping and shattering that would probably give her a full on migraine.
"If it makes you both feel better, my face hates both of your faces equally~" Sai said in a delighted tone as if proud of his words.
Hinata covered her mouth in horror.
Naruto groaned at the sight of both Ino and Sakura staring at Sai as they processed the insult, and Tsunade suppressed a groan of her own because she knew what would happen once the words echoed enough in their heads.
She came to the conclusion that this would result in broken furniture and the need to call Sai a medical-nin once they broke his bones.
She reluctantly braced herself for an angry woman's choir consisting only of Ino and Sakura with Sai as a screaming guest star (assuming they didn't kill him on the first swing) and silently prayed to the first, second and third Hokages to spare her the headache. Maybe even protect her furniture while they were at it-and as if her plea was answered, the door suddenly swung open and Ino halted her attempted assault on the smug-looking Sai, balled fist only inches from his smiling face.
Tsunade tiled her head and peered past the Anbu team to be greeted by a familiar spiky messy of white hair that she hadn't seen in years. Though not feeling like dealing with the pervert, she was grateful to the Toad Sage for saving her from dealing with the bickering squad and hailed him with a small smile. "Hello, Jiraiya. It's been awhile."
"Lady Tsunade~" The older man bowed swiftly before returning her smile with one of his wicked signature smirks as he scanned the surroundings of the room. "It's been too long….years, actually yet this boring office still looks the same…." His eyes landed on the young blond wearing the Kit Fox mask with his arms still wrapped around Sakura and his grin grew wider than before. "Oh. Is that little Naruto I spy?"
"Pervy Sage!" Naruto exclaimed, releasing his hold on his friend to rush over to the man who he had been the apprentice of years ago. "You recognized me from behind this mask?" He probed with awe, pulling the porcelain material from his face and almost blinding everyone with the giddy excitement that radiated from his sparkling blue eyes.
Dumbfounded, Jiraiya blinked as if caught off guard by the question and Tsunade couldn't resist rolling her eyes, realizing that he had only guessed that it was Naruto. He scratched the back of his head, laughing lightheartedly. "Hahaha….well…"
Completely ignoring the author's awkwardness, Naruto grabbed a hold of the front folds of Jiraiya's red vest and tugged excitedly. "I bet you didn't think I would end up working as an Anbu-nin, did ya? Huh? Huh, Pervy Sage?"
"Naruto, calm down." Sakura growled from behind her Dingo mask. "Act your age for once."
"Is that little Sakura too?" Jiraiya inquired jovially, having turned towards the familiar, but more grown voice of the pink-haired kunoichi who removed her mask, revealing blushing cheeks that made the sage go hysteric. "Awww! Stop growing!" He cried, comically throwing his hands up into the air ruefully. "I swear all the little cuties are all grown up now and it's making me feel like I'm a hundred years old!"
Tsunade's jaw tightened at the abashed words of Jiraiya, not finding comfort in them considering that she was around the same age as the man herself. "Speak for yourself," she chimed with an unintentional pout. Wanting to change the subject, she leaned forward and addressed the Anbu team once more through gritted teeth. "Now about that report that we never finished..."
She shot them her signature glare which only seemed to affect Hinata and Naruto who both grew rigid under her stern gaze.
The blond Jinchuriki cleared his throat before coming from the excited high of seeing his old teacher and stepping forward sheepishly. "I'll…. uh, give the report. Sorry," he muttered, rubbing the back of his neck with an awkward smile and then straightening up, becoming stern-faced. "So in the case of the sudden disappearances, we first traveled to the village Hidden in the Sand to speak with the fifth Kazekage and Gaara reported that he too has heard cases of Sand-nins disappearing out of nowhere but he has-"
"Good morning, Lord Fourth."
"Ah...hello."
Naruto stopped his report abruptly and turned towards the doorway with widened eyes. Everyone followed suit, and despite the fact that the report had been interrupted once again, Tsunade was unable to hide her smile.
"Hello, Fourth!"
"Hi…"
"Fourth! Good morning! I hope you slept well!"
"I did…Thank you."
Tsunade raised her eyebrows and the corners of her lips tugging upward only served to make her smile grow a little bigger. She couldn't remember the last time she had heard that voice sounding anything, but aloof when it came to speaking with other villagers. "Wow. Color me impressed, Jiraiya," she murmured, the tone of her words splattered with respect.
The Sage looked to her and grinned. "It was easier said than done, trust me."
After a few more friendly responses to the affable villagers, a blond man dressed in the standard Konoha uniform came walking into the room and he froze automatically due to the stares he was receiving; the wicked grin of his perverted ex-sensei, the awe-filled expressions of the Anbu members when they respectfully removed their masks, the blushing pink-haired shinobi, the smiling Tsunade, and the….-horrified?- blond standing by the hokage's desk with his mouth slightly agape.
He scratched the top of his spiky blond hair and his forced smile sported a most likely unintentional funny-looking face. "Sorry. Did I interrupt something?"
In the silence that only consisted of Jiraiya laughing at the blond's-at Minato's face, Tsunade peered carefully in Naruto's direction, studying his reaction to the father he never knew. There was no indication of recognizing his own blood standing right before him, but that was not surprising when Naruto had only seen him as an infant anyway.
And even despite the strong resemblance of Kushina that Naruto exhibited in his features; the large eyes, the rounder head, the more feminine face, Minato showed no acknowledgement of the boy as his son.
They just….stared at each other. Naruto looking horrified and Minato probably wondering why.
While Tsunade felt bad that neither of the two realized how close they were to the family that they should have had, she was relieved that the seal that had been implanted into Naruto as a child hadn't broke at the sight of Minato or the feeling of his chakra.
It was a double-edged sword, but in the case of the seal breaking and Naruto realizing who Minato was to him, there was no doubt in her mind that things would end nasty. And the spiteful Tailed Beast being inside him didn't make the situation any better.
Things would have to be sorted out without that seal coming undone.
Jiraiya glanced in kunoichi's direction, cocking an eyebrow while the Anbu team bombarded the former hokage with questions and words of admiration, but she didn't even notice. She was too busy watching the silent Naruto who had stayed behind with a slightly saddened look on her face.
The whiskered-male just eyed the blond, as if there were some part of a puzzle that he was missing. Tsunade could only think that perhaps he was getting a gut feeling, that maybe he felt like he knew Minato from somewhere but couldn't quite place him.
"Remember what we talked about?" The pervert inquired quietly after having snuck away from excited group of teens to address the fifth hokage.
Tsunade nodded thoughtfully, eyeing the squad from afar. "I do. Change of plans. I think this little set up is absolutely perfect. Naruto and his team aren't the most cooperative anyway..."
"We were thinking the same thing then," Jiraiya whispered in playful sin.
"Minato."
The mentioned blond looked away from his group of admirers and turned to the sound of his name, his smile facade reverting back to the stony expression he usually wore. "Yes?"
"You're here for your next mission, am I right?" The older woman asked.
"Yes…" Minato replied quietly, blue eyes narrowing and lips becoming tight as he studied the grinning faces of the Hokage and the Toad Sage standing before him. His gaze flickered elsewhere momentarily, trying to ignore the giddy intimidation seeping from them. "You know that I only want S-Rank missions. Just….anything that is difficult."
Tsunade's eyes glistened with excitement and she noticed the way it startled the younger man, making his eyebrows furrow in confliction. "Anything that is difficult…." She repeated, tongue playing wickedly on the last word.
Minato stared at her with a guarded expression.
"Congratulations, oh- mighty Yellow Flash~! You're the winner of the newest S-Rank mission! Better get your Anbu Gear ready and prepare to join the dark side, Buntaicho!" Jiraiya sang, shooting his former student a shit-eating grin.
It took Minato a few long seconds to catch on and the silence was one of the most awkwardest things Tsunade had ever endured, but as soon as he did, his mouth fell open. And she had to admit that his priceless face was definitely worth seeing.
"B-Buntaicho?" He sputtered. "As in….squad leader?"
"That's right, Namikaze-sensei~. You're going to teach everyone how to properly function on a team in order to avoid unnecessary arguments that could possibly be detrimental to the mission." Tsunade wiggled a finger towards the group of Anbu members standing by the doorway. "And you have just met all your newest squad members."
Sakura stepped forward and raised her hand as if she needed to in order to speak. "So, Lady Fifth….you think that we need help with our teamwork…?"
There was a sad, almost disappointed look flickering in her eyes and Tsunade's smile faltered under it, sighing quietly before responding softly. "This team wasn't formed by the normal regulations, usually they go based off of skills, strengths and weaknesses. You are an….oddball squad, but I believe you all can work well together with a little help." She then gestured to Minato who had grown silent, eyes cast down. "Which is where Namikaze comes in."
"Just a heads up; Sakura is the one who needs to most work," Ino growled with a condescending raise of her eyebrows, grinning when her pink-haired nemesis shot her a nasty glare.
"Ino, I swear."
"Oh, you actually heard me. Oops."
Hinata had a warm smile on her face, completely ignoring the two hotheaded kunoichis scowling at each other nearby. "I think having an actual team leader sounds fun! Don't you think, Naruto?"
After Tsunade, one by one, everyone's gaze landed on the jinchuuriki who had been staring at the ground, blue eyes void of any presence. Almost immediately Naruto noticed this and he blinked, looking to everyone before throwing on his brightest smile. "Heh~ Of course! I mean-being trained by the fourth Hokage? That sounds amazing!" He grinned at the older blond, coming on a little stronger than usual-Tsunade noted. Perhaps it was a forced grin. "You should teach us crazy hokage techniques!"
"I agree," Sai piped up with a smile. "Should we call you Minato-Sensei? Namikaze-Sensei? Maybe just Squad Leader or Captain?"
"Don't call me any of those!"
His growling bite left a cold chill in the air and everyone stiffened at the sudden change of the man who walked into the room, a completely different person than the one who now radiated unfriendly bitterness and unapproachable malice. Even Sai's smile dropped.
Tsunade furrowed her eyebrows at the man standing in front of her and her next words became tight like the tone of a mother scolding her son. "Minato. There was no need to snap at anybody."
The former Hokage looked up, only allowing her and Jiraiya to bear witness to the transformation before them. Those same sad blue eyes surfaced once again; the eyes of someone who had lost somebody dear to them, the eyes of someone who was broken beyond repair.
The eyes of someone who had lost in wife and failed to protect his village sixteen years ago.
Tsunade remembered that look all too well and seeing it again made her stomach drop.
"I'm sorry," He replied quietly, defeat and anguish etched in his voice. "Just don't make me responsible for the lives of others when I can't protect anybody."
And with that, the Yellow Flash disappeared.
A/N: Neh. Neh? NEH? O.O sorry that not everything has been explained yet. But that's the point ;) More explanations in ch.2.
If you liked it, please let me know! I worked hard on this, literally the longest chapter I've ever wrote for a story, reaching 10,919 words without the A/N's! And it was hard considering this is the first time I've written for this fandom. I hope you enjoyed it so far! Reviews make me want to update faster~ :D