The Third, flanked by five ANBU Black Ops, could only fear the worst.
One second, the Kyuubi stood menacingly atop of a secluded mesa, struck something with its large paw. The next, it was gone with a brilliant white flash, the dark skies brightening to midmorning before disappearing back into darkness.
His feet moved from branch to branch, his toes gripping and pushing off of the bark at speeds that did not seem possible for his age. Hiruzen could only hope that Minato, Kushina and Naruto had escaped the Kyuubi's wrath unscathed. He prayed that they had taken shelter in some alcove of the mesa before destroying the Kyuubi all together, leaving their village safe from harm once more.
Then again, the Third was a realist. He knew that Minato would do everything that he possibly could to ensure the safety of his family, his comrades, and most importantly Konoha. Hiruzen knew that the Fourth himself would use every tactic in his arsenal before he even thought about giving into defeat. Even so, Minato was never very good at losing. He would never allow himself to succumb to this infernal creature. It was against everything that he stood for.
"Sensei!"
Jiraiya, bruised and battered, but still moving swiftly, joined the Third to head towards the mesa. "Did you see that?! What the hell was it?"
"I'm not quite sure," Hiruzen barked out, his jaw rigid on his face. "But whatever it was seems to have destroyed the Kyuubi. We can only hope that Minato had reinforcements and they crushed it together."
Jiraiya's eyes widened. "Minato took that thing on by himself? What was that boy thinking? That fool! That incredibly noble fool!" His gaze turned hard as he sped ahead of the Third, who quickly followed suit.
It was only a few more moments before they had arrived at a beaten down house, now simply splinters under the moon. The ANBU captain of the squad touched the door frame of the now roofless abode. "This was the safe zone for Kushina and her child. This was where they were to go after the birth."
"Take your men and search for survivors. Report back to me when the area is clear. Jiraiya and I will continue on ahead."
The ANBU gave a masked nod before he and his companions began their search. The forest was eerily quiet, not a shake of a leaf or scuttling of an animal anywhere in the near vicinity. The entire situation seemed surreal; sudden chaos disappeared into thin air and no one knew how it had come about. It felt like a room that had been filled with music had just suddenly quieted all instruments, leaving nothing but a ringing in your ears.
Only, this ringing came from a pounding headache so terrible, the Third could only hear his pulse accelerating in his mind.
Jiraiya's chakra had stopped suddenly at the tree line and Hiruzen skidded to a halt at his student's sudden cease.
"What is it?"
"It's not what it is, Lord Hokage," Jiraiya said thickly. "It's what isn't."
Hiruzen only raised an eyebrow. "You're taking this Sannin title too seriously. You're ending up being too wise for this old man, Jiraiya."
"I can't feel their chakras anywhere, sensei," Jiraiya finally muttered, walking through the forest with his head turned towards the skies. "I know those two like the backs of my hands. How could they disappear? It's impossible."
"Use your senses Jiraiya." The Third moved close to his pupil. "We can't see them, we can't feel them, we can't taste them, we can't hear them; can we smell them?"
Jiraiya lifted his nose to the air and nearly gagged at his findings. "Yeah. They're around here somewhere. Blood and ichor and chakra and… Jesus, Minato must have fought for his life."
"We must continue to search," Hiruzen asserted, speeding off past the clearing. Pockets of knocked down trees were littered across the uninhabited mesa, scorched by heat and demon chakra. The Kyuubi had certainly been here in all of its rancid glory. It was standing right in these spots. They had to be close.
"I can only believe that they are near," Hiruzen began. "This place seems-"
"Oh no."
Jiraiya was peering through the brush of a heavily shrouded area to a larger pocket of open area. He leaped through the leaves at such a speed, the Third felt a gust hit his face before realizing Jiraiya's departure. The old man scuttled behind the Sannin's trail before he was hit by a wall.
The smell. The overpowering scent of irony blood washed the area of all scents other than death. Dizzy nervousness rose through his system as Hiruzen's eyes searched for any sign of life. Jiraiya scoured across the area, yelling out his student's name, the name of his wife, the name of their child; not a sound was made in return.
Hiruzen inspected pits of the Earth that were created from the obvious battle and the onslaught that had occurred. He could only imagine Minato, the Yellow Flash, flitzing back and forth at the speed of light trying to get a good shot for a Rasengan to send the beast straight to the pits of hell. He saw the Kyuubi's frustration in the depressions, his roars raging towards the heavens in anger at this mere human playing around like he was a God.
He could only imagine Kushina's fear. Her child, her most precious creation, was in danger of being destroyed by the one thing that she was supposed to prevent from coming into this world. Her husband, the love of her life, was fighting to defend their lives at the risk of losing his own. Not only was there the emotional pain, but the physical pain that involves a bijuu extraction is nothing to shake a fist at. Add the pain of labor on top of it? The Third was unsure if any human other than Kushina would be able to withstand that kind of torture.
His old eyes searched around the area, finding it clear of Jiraiya's presence. He followed his students chakra before the most incredible thing reached his ears: the sound of a child's cry.
Hiruzen sprinted towards the sounds, ignoring all other motives until he came to a final clearing, this one much larger than the rest, with his student crouched down in the center. Hair as red as the blood it was caked in, as well as a dirtied white cloak were all that could be seen from his position.
Hiruzen redirected his attentions towards a ritual alter placed precariously close to the bodies and approached it quietly, kunai drawn. "You won't need that," Jiraiya mumbled, his mind obviously elsewhere. "It's the boy."
Sure enough, atop the alter was the figure of a perfectly healthy baby boy, a signature Uzumaki seal placed around his naval. His blond hair was still matted with afterbirth and his eyes were still completely sealed shut, but his arms and legs were kicking wildly in the air. Hiruzen picked up the boy and immediately, his cries turned to coos as he simpered into the Hokage's chest, nuzzling for warmth.
So that's what you did, Minato, the Third thought, bouncing the boy in his arms. You sealed the beast within your own son in order to ensure peace. But at what cost?
He turned to find the boy's parents lying face down in the ground.
Kushina was below Minato, the gaping holes in both of their bodies giving Hiruzen a direct sight to the blood-muddied grass beneath them. Kushina's eyes were half open, her mouth parted by stagnant air with her arms stretching towards the alter. Minato was perched on his side, his right arm slung over his wife's form while his left also reached toward the alter; towards their little boy. Naruto…