The moment they arrived at Konoha hospital, nurses and medic-nins were already rushing to their side. A gurney was summoned in haste and Naruto, with the help of Kakashi and Minato, was secured on the mobile stretcher. He was unconscious still, as he had been the entire way there, but now twitched and mumbled inaudibly in his comatose state as if having a bad dream.

For some reason, Minato found it hard to let him go and Kakashi had to pry his grip off of the younger male so that he could be taken away. Not knowing the boy at all, it was a bizarre sensation that sat in the pit of Minato's stomach, but he could not deny the urge to follow Naruto, to go with him and make sure that the medic-nins took proper care of him.

The teenager was rolled away, down the hallway and to the emergency room, leaving Minato to watch with entranced blue orbs and an outstretched hand that reached out for the boy. Out of fear that his former teacher would follow, Kakashi didn't release his grasp on him until Naruto was out of sight.

Afterwards, Minato went silent for a few crucial seconds and was despondent to Kakashi calling his name repeatedly.

It was only after he got over the initial shock and the pounding of his heart that followed Naruto's departure that Minato was able to respond to Kakashi's attempts. He reassured him that he was merely shaken up by Naruto and that he needn't mind his reaction from earlier.

Minato put on a front; he smiled and disregarded his former student's worries as best he could. His composure needed a little work, didn't it? He used to be so calm and collected.

Don't you remember how calm I was before, Kakashi?

Whether Kakashi truly fell for it or not, Minato didn't know, but the silver-haired jounin eventually left to go retrieve Naruto's teammates, leaving him to wait for Naruto alone. The blonde held a tight, forced smile and he kept it up until he was sure that the man was really gone before dropping it suddenly.

It was evident that Kakashi hadn't heard Naruto's mumbling.

But he had. Or at least he was sure that he had. Minato didn't think he'd imagine Naruto saying his name and then muttering something about not looking so sad.

Who was it that looked sad?

Was it him?

The irritation that settled in after mere minutes of pondering the question bothered Minato and he eventually decided that he should just drop it and write it off as a nightmare that he was having. Naruto didn't even know him nor did he know Naruto, so it had to have been nothing more than a coincidence that he just happened to dream about him.

He figured he should think about something else other than Naruto.

For one, about Lady Tsunade's proposal from earlier. He wanted to know what exactly was going through her head when she appointed him as a taicho. He had nothing against any of those kids on the squad and he sure hoped they hadn't taken his outburst personally, but he just wasn't fit to lead anybody anymore. Saying that if he wasn't able to lead a village, he couldn't lead a team was invalid-it was supposed to be the other way around, but he found that his failure as a Hokage that night sixteen years ago took its toll of his confidence.

Now that he thought back on that, Minato ceased his thinking momentarily and made a mental note to himself to apologize to not only Naruto and his team, but to Tsunade for running off as childishly as he had earlier.

He simply no longer deemed himself fit to be responsible for lives anymore. He couldn't protect his own wife so how could he protect five children who, with one mistake on his part, could die any minute? He wasn't ready to carry that burden and he didn't quite understand why an intelligent kunoichi such as Lady Tsunade couldn't see that herself.

Knowing her, however, Minato had a lingering feeling that the assignment was not only meant to benefit the ANBU team, but to benefit him as well. And it only confirmed his suspicions further that Jiraiya-sensei just happened to be stopping by before she thought to give him this mission-perhaps he had persuaded her in some way.

It was a nice gesture and all. Really, he appreciated that they wanted to bring him out from the dump that Kushina's death had thrown him into, but it would benefit everyone if he remained there. He wasn't interested in failing to protect those he cared about again.

But then there was Naruto. God, that kid.

Minato didn't know what that boy was doing to him or why he felt so attracted to him, but he did. This attraction was not meant in a sexual sense, but in an emotional sense-it was like he was supposed to know the kid from somewhere. Something about him knocked Minato off his guard and he didn't know what it was, but it was unnerving. The mysteriousness of it all was a good kind though, not the eerie type that made your skin crawl, but the kind that left you pursuing it to find out all of its secrets.

There was a possibility that he could like Naruto if he got to know him some more, but it didn't seem like the feeling was mutual.

Back in Tsunade's office when Minato went to obtain an S-rank mission, he wondered what Naruto's problem was. He was used to the attention the rest of the kids had given him then, it seemed that despite his failure as Hokage, he was still well-known and respected, not shunned like he thought he'd ought to be. People still talked to him, in fact-they tended to initiate conversation with him often, and even if that was too intimidating for them to muster, a simple greeting and a "I hope you're doing well" or a "How has your day been?" was enough to bring the Konoha people joy.

But Naruto…..ah, Naruto. He had just stared at Minato. And not only had he just stared at him, but he had this absolute look of terror on his face. Minato didn't know whether anybody else noticed or not, but that boy's complexion had grown pale at the sight of him, and Minato almost wanted to look down and make sure he had remembered to put on clothes before he walked out of the house. Not that he had ever done that before, but that was the feeling Naruto gave him.

And he didn't understand what he had done wrong.

That taken into consideration and his lack of confidence for protecting other people-was it really a smart idea to become their taicho? It didn't seem recommended. But the glinting sparkle in Jiraiya-sensei's eyes and the unwavering expression of Lady Tsunade as they announced his newest mission gave Minato the impression that they weren't going to let him back out of it even if he wanted to, especially the kunoichi.

"Oh, you can back out, Minato."

"Really? I'd appreciate- uh…."

"..."

"...You know what, nevermind."

"I thought so."

The former Hokage huffed out a sigh at the thought of Tsunade going sarcastic with him like she had done so many times in the past. He wasn't fond of the killer glint in her eyes when she would go silent and wait for him to reevaluate his choice. It reminded him of Kushina, and that woman was such a nightmare when she was upset that if someone were to try telling Minato a scary story in the dark and they simply whispered, "Kushina is mad at you", he could piss himself. She was that terrifying. An older version of her was probably a lot more gruesome, but Minato figured it was better to leave that idea as an educated guess rather than a true fact.

That being said, if he were to take on this mission, he'd have to slide back into the reality of having a team once more. All these years he had grown accustomed to being a hunter-nin and working alone so being around people for most of the day would definitely shake his routine up a little bit.

He would have to learn how to get along in a group again. He would have to learn how to be a teacher again-wait no, these weren't his students. They would be comrades under his command. A slight difference, but not one that was too big. And perhaps a good thing, but he had to be careful not to compare them to his previous team, he had to be careful that he didn't repeat his mistakes-he lost Rin and Obito, yes….but Kakashi was still here and he grown into a great ninja, hadn't he? Hadn't he….?

Positive. Positive. Positive.

He had to be just that if he wanted to handle this team properly. That was one of the things he had learned in his days of leading a team; positivity from the teacher usually rubbed off on the students as well. If he did this, wallowing in his self-pity wouldn't be good for Naruto and his teammates, especially when they would be looking up to him not only as a taicho, but as a former Hokage too. Though Minato felt it would have been easier on him if they hadn't picked up on that fact, it was too late. They knew who he was and he couldn't do anything about it now, but prove to them that he deserved the title, even if he himself felt as though he did not.

The doors to the hospital were suddenly thrown open and when Minato turned towards the obtrusive entrance, he was surprised to catch sight of a familiar blonde kunoichi wearing a grass-green haori. Lady Tsunade, followed by a large mass of supposed medic-nins and another shinobi, was speed-walking for the hallway. He wanted to ask why she was here, but their quick pace converted into frantic running and by the looks of things, she didn't seem to have time to stop and answer him.

Minato's eyes landed on the shinobi trailing the back of the group. The dark-hair and the pale skin-he had seen that boy. He couldn't recall his name in that second, but there was no mistaking it; he was one of the members of Naruto's team.

What was he doing with that group?

Tsunade was quick to momentarily pause at the check-in desk and the woman sitting there was even quicker to stop what she was doing to address the fifth. "What room is Naruto stationed?"

As if prepared ahead of time, the woman didn't even have to check to respond. "Floor one, room twelve, Lady Hokage."

"Thank you." And with that, the entire group hurried down the hallway, unknowingly leaving Minato with a nasty feeling in his gut.


Naruto found himself drowning, literally sinking into a watery grave without any means to resist the pull. His body didn't want to cooperate with him, his limbs were heavy and it felt as if they had fallen asleep, dragging him down, down into a bottomless pit of water. He didn't feel like he was drowning though; he couldn't feel the water swarming into his mouth or his lungs start to fill up, his eyes didn't sting-there was just nothing. No pain, no anything. Just sinking.

The water wasn't empty either. As Naruto sunk closer and closer to sea (or lake?) level, he passed by various objects in the junk infested waters. None of it seemed to be random; actually, a lot of the items seemed to be things from his past ranging from cherished things like the necklace Grandma Tsunade had given him or the bracelet Sakura had handmade for him to little things like that one orange and black cup that he always saw when walking by the display window of that one shop-and hey, was that the paintbrush he had used to paint on Gai-sensei's face when he had been trying to woo Sakura with his pranking charm?

Ah, good times. He never did understand why she hadn't fell head over heels in love with him in that moment. It was a pretty priceless prank. The guy walked around with a pink, curly mustache on his face and nobody said a thing for a good hour into training. How the hell was Sasuke better than that?

Naruto sunk further and further. Seconds turned into minutes as he continued to relish in the nostalgia of the ancient memories he passed by.

He figured he would wake up before he hit the bottom, and for the time being, he simply floated and recalled the past. It was actually kind of peaceful and if this was meant to be a nightmare, it was doing a pretty bad job of frightening Naruto. Honestly, if drowning was this calming and no possibility of death was involved, he'd probably throw himself in a lake every chance he got.

Still, all good things must come to an end and eventually, Naruto did wake up. Or so he thought. All it took was a little blink and suddenly he bursted through the surface, gasping for air as if he had actually had been drowning previously. He smacked and splashed at the water a bit frantically and suddenly found himself being dragged up and out of what seemed to be a lake.

Upon dry land, Naruto spat and hacked up water, his arms barely even able to support his body weight when he tried to sit up. It didn't help that he was drenched to the bone either, his damp clothes only adding to the load weighing him down. Like a dog, he shook his hair, having forgotten that someone or something had helped him out of the water.

"Hello, Naruto."

The startled blonde jumped so hard that it seemingly cleansed his system of all the water that had somehow managed to clog him up and he was greeted by a pair of dark eyes. It took him a while for his focus to zoom out and when it did, he was somewhat horrified to find his twin staring right at him-literally his twin.

The boy staring at him looked virtually identical to Naruto in every way with the exception of a few distinct differences. Unlike Naruto, his black hair was longer and a little shaggier than his. He also had fairly noticeable circles under his eyes and the whiskered scars on his cheeks were more distinguishable.

Naruto looked around.

They sat on the bank of a small, yet apparently deep lake encircled by grass as black as coal and a mass of dead, skeletal trees. Their branches stuck out and twisted each and every way, some hardly covered with dead leaves and some not at all. The sky was bathed in red and the faint clouds that decorated it were a light orange, almost like that of a sunset. It was beautiful, but eerie and haunting at the same time.

Naruto looked back to find that his twin had not left his side.

Cautiously, he eyed the dark-haired version of himself and his head tilted curiously to one side and the then other, wondering if he was a mere reflection that would at first mock his movements before turning into a nightmarish being and attempting to devour his soul. His twin didn't move along with him and instead cocked an eyebrow at him in confusion.

"What are you doing?" He asked.

Normally, Naruto would have felt a little embarrassed at this point, but this was only a dream and it wasn't as if Sakura or the Fourth Hokage were around to see this. He still turned a bright red though and scratched his head sheepishly. "Sorry. I guess you're not a reflection."

"Well….we do have different hair col-"

Naruto cut him off to save himself further embarrassment. "Yeah, I know. Thank you for the obvious input….um…?" His eyes darted around.

The other seemed to have caught on fairly quick. "Naruto."

Or maybe not.

"Naruto…?" The blonde inquired slowly. "You mean that's your name?"

"Yes."

The first thing that popped into Naruto's mind was that one; this was not okay. Two; this was not okay. And three; this was absolutely NOT okay. Naruto never admitted this to anyone, but as a child he often wondered why his parents had given him such a stupid name. It wasn't until he had met Jiraiya-sensei and learned of his part in naming Naruto, that he actually started to appreciate it. Being named after a gutsy protagonist was pretty cool.

And plus, who else could say they were named after a main character featured in an author's first book?

That being said; Naruto was his name. Okay, maybe he was acting a little butthurt, but if there was anything about himself that he was truly proud of, it was his name. And if he didn't have to share it, then he wouldn't. Besides, calling each other the same name would just be confusing.

"Hmm...got any other names?" Naruto asked.

"No. I'm you."

The jinchuuriki bobbed his head thoughtfully, almost mockingly, but then his blue eyes bulged-wide enough to make it feel like they'd pop out of his sockets. That had sounded all too familiar and suddenly the voice of his ANBU instructor echoed in his mind.

'They will always be straightforward with you. Statistics show that if you ask them who they are, a hundred percent of the time, they will respond with 'I'm you'.

That's right; Naruto had heard of this before while studying the basics of interrogation, manipulation and mind distortion back in ANBU training. If this was absolutely real and not a simple dream-that meant that he was on the verge of entering his Confound Crisis phase.

Statistically, the Confound Crisis usually happens when the person either least expects it or doesn't feel it beginning at all. A virtual way of putting it would be the splitting of one path into two or more; or the blocking of paths because something stands in the way. It was like a crossroads of some sort in which the person must either do something or must learn something in order to mend their path and straightened it back up again. Nothing is fixed until the person overcomes whatever obstacle it may be, and then once they have-their subconscious disappears.

Until then, they visit often-at least once in a dream or in a nightmare, giving off subtle hints to whatever it is that must be made right. But ultimately, it is up to person to make amends. Though able to happen with civilians as all living things have chakra, it was more common in shinobi and young academy students. And age mattered naught, it depended only on mental condition.

And it seemed that Naruto's mentality was assuming it's crisis state.

This sort of thing was inevitable though, so there would be no point in getting angsty or upset about it. Instead, Naruto decided to take a more lighthearted approach on it.

He flashed his identical counterpart a large grin. "Can I name you something else? It'd be annoying if we called each other the same thing, don't you think?"

"Okay."

"How about ramen?"

"No…."

"Sushi?"

"No."

"Yeah, sushi can't top ramen. How about Sakura?"

A long pause. "...No."

Having caught the look of consideration and the slight blush on the other's face, Naruto's teasing laugh converted into a snort when he tried to hold it in. He wouldn't have seriously named him Sakura, but he just wanted to see what kind of reaction he'd get out of him and it was satisfying enough. And it definitely confirmed that this very well might be his subconscious.

His look alike stared at him, eyes tired and unfocused as if he were getting impatient and Naruto silently told himself to get serious. He wasn't very good at picking names-much lesser naming someone, especially when he needed their approval. Through experience, he found that most people didn't like the names he came up with and that was fine by him as everyone had their own strengths and weaknesses, but this was getting ridiculous.

Jiraiya-sensei always came up with awesome names for his book series….

After a few quiet minutes, Naruto abruptly turned to the other, outwardly startling him. "I got it! How about….Menma?"

The dark-haired boy blinked, opening his mouth rather quick to protest, but stopped short. "...I think I like that name."

Naruto lit up. "Really? Menma, it is then!"

A silent prayer was sent up to the almighty beings of the shinobi world for giving Jiraiya-sensei the inspiration (whatever indecency it may have been…) to write the side series for the Tales of an Utterly Gutsy Shinobi in which the protagonist finds his long lost brother, Menma.

It was a win-win situation for all; nobody gets confused by having the same name and everybody gets to have a cool name from a book series.


Menma and Naruto lay on their backs in the black grass, staring up at the red stained sky of Naruto's subconscious. Neither of them had spoken for awhile now since the first hint. The silence was comfortable and not as awkward as the blonde expected it to be, but it was daunting on him only because he had a tough question to ask himself and he was finding it difficult to answer it.

What have you always wanted?

What was that supposed to mean? The question was harder than an S-Rank mission! There were a lot of things that Naruto had always wanted; ramen, Sakura to notice him, to surpass Sasuke, to rasengan Kakashi in the ass...but none of those were the right answers. And everything else he tried was also incorrect, according to Menma.

They were irrelevant to the core of Naruto's Confound Crisis.

However, Naruto didn't expect to mend it on the first day. It ranged between taking weeks to years, days if you were lucky and extremely self-aware.

The blonde already wanted to give up for the day so he settled into the black grass and opted for admiring the sky in all its glory (and horror). Menma, who hadn't moved since laying down, finally showed that he was still alive, reaching up to scratch his face before returning to his previous position.

It was hard for Naruto to understand how the guy could be so still.

And now that he thought about it, in this short time, it was hard to understand most of Menma's actions thus far. He hadn't laughed at a single one of Naruto's jokes and any story that he brought up about Sakura, Kakashi-sensei, Sai, or anybody….never peaked his interest at all. It seemed like the sky was much more entertaining than he was. Menma was so chill and quiet; never once cracking a smile. He almost resembled Sasuke in a lot of ways and Naruto thought that was extremely weird, considering that he was HIS subconscious, not stupid Sasuke's.

The whiskered blonde blinked at the other male and rolled onto his side so that he was looking at him. As if reluctant to ask, his mouth slowly opened and a few seconds went by before he could utter a word. "...Um, Menma…?"

"Hmm?"

"You're supposed to be me, aren't you? You're supposed to like everything that I like and act how I act, aren't you...?" Naruto quired in a soft, low voice. This was the only way he could think to ask the question in the nicest way possible. It's not that he doubted Menma was actually his subconscious; he just found it hard to believe that this was supposed to be him. He most definitely didn't feel that way.

Menma didn't even look away from the red sky and his blonde counterpart could have sworn the bloodied color reflected off his dark eyes. Before his response came a simple shrug. "To an extent, yes."

Naruto couldn't understand how there could be a grey area when it came to this question, but he probed further with another one. "Then why are you kind of different from me? Why do you seem so quiet and sad? I've never even seen you smile once….and I thought my jokes were pretty funny, too! Then I mention Sakura and you can blush, but you can't smile….why?"

"A common misconception." There was no personality or emotion in his voice. His robotic-like tone gave Naruto the shivers. "I am your inner-self, therefore I am your mental state and how you act outwardly doesn't concern me. I am only how you feel on the inside."

A long pause followed, Naruto eyeing Menma up and down in absolute disbelief. This guy was practically the polar opposite of him; he was so still and calm. His voice was so quiet and soft. His face was so relaxed and composed. His entire being was what Naruto was not and for a second, the blonde almost wondered how his life might have been different if he were like this.

Maybe he'd be more like Sasuke?

Or perhaps maybe he was like Sasuke. Maybe deep down, there was nothing really different about them in the first place.

The possibility had Naruto thinking back to the raven-haired Uchiha who had been missing for years now and the throbbing pang of guilt hit him like a wrecking ball. It seemed that being locked inside the cravases of his own mind increased his feelings tenfold and even a little pinch of pain was magnified to something more extreme.

Maybe if he had reached out to Sasuke earlier things would have been different. Sure, they were outwardly different, but that was only because they had endured similar situations and coped with both divergently; Sasuke with the loss of his clan and Naruto as the jinchuuriki with no parents to protect him from the biting whispers of the village. Angry with his traitorous brother, Sasuke wanted power and revenge so he trained for it. From being a prankster to being on a team, Naruto wanted friendship so he worked for it.

And looking at Menma….it was hard to decipher the differences between him and his childhood friend.

The dark-haired entity finally, finally looked away from the sky and peered into the sparkling blues of the blonde. "I won't deny that you and your friend aren't alike. In some ways, you are. But at the moment…." Menma faded off as if trying to pick his next words carefully. "...I am like this because you are lost. Your subconscious has split into two crossroads and you are at a stump. This is what Confound Crisis is and it's effects on me are tremendous.. It's effects on you vary between shinobi. Outwardly, you might not change. Nobody, not even your closest friends, will be able to tell you've reached this point in your life. But it's not the same for me."

Naruto had heard all of that before, but what stuck out to him was the fact that his own inner-self didn't deny the similarities between him and Sasuke. He had grown up admiring the Uchiha, yet he wasn't so sure that being so alike to the revenger was a good thing or not. If he had been in Sasuke's place, would he have followed the same destructive path as his friend had? Would he have abandoned his own team, his own teacher and his own village for the sake of revenge?

He didn't want to know the answer to that.

Instead, he fell silent and a still atmosphere washed over them both. He rolled onto his back again and looked at the reddened sky (had it darkened or was that just him?). Menma hadn't turned away from him, sporting the most emotion-filled face he's ever made thus far with dark eyes that held a subtle sadness.

Naruto got the feeling that maybe his own internal confliction was manifesting inside Menma as well, so he changed the subject to something more light-hearted. "...hey, wait a minute. How do you know all that stuff about Confound Crisis anyway? Aren't you only supposed to know as much as I do?"

With the confused blinking, it seemed as if Menma weren't expecting the sudden question and it took him a few seconds to snap out of the angst Naruto might have thrown his way. "Um….yes, but you do know this. You think that you don't pay attention in class or whenever you study, but you actually do. You simply just suck at the test-taking part of learning."

Naruto glared at the subconscious being, shooting him a playful smirk when his face slightly paled from taking the look seriously."Thanks…..Hey, Menma?"

"How many questions are you going to ask me?"

"Oh, shut up," the blonde playfully retorted with a sharp roll of his eyes. "Your hint hasn't done anything for me. You said to think about what I've always wanted and there are a lot of things, but every answer I give you is wrong. I don't think I know anything else."

The last part may not have been completely true. Naruto knew a lot of things that he's always wanted such as unlimited ramen, Sakura's babies, to piggy-back ride on Grandma Tsunade for an entire day, Sakura's babies, to one day kick Kakashi-sensei's ass in a one-on-one battle…..Sakura's babies. But he felt as if those things were wrong right off the back. None of those wants would spark a Confound Crisis in him.

It had to be something important-something that would significantly change his life for better or for worse depending on what choices he would make.

Everything he thought of was wrong, wrong, wrong.

It was like he didn't know at all.

"Of course you do," Menma replied, a faint, reassuring smile gracing his thin lips. "You're just not thinking hard enough."

Not finding comfort in those words, Naruto let out a frustrated groan. "UUUGHH! If I think any harder, I'm going to get constipated and take a shit!" His voice echoed and carried throughout the subconscious land and his final word could be heard repeatedly in the distance, fading more each time. Call it childish, but Naruto couldn't deny the opportunity. "...SHIT!"

His curse echoed again, making the blonde crack a grin.

From the side, Menma was shaking his head at Naruto's immaturity, but the slight amusement that showed on his face was undeniable. He would have laid there contented, listening to Naruto scream inappropriate words at the sky for as long as unconsciousness permitted Naruto to stay had it not been for what happened next.

The piercing caw of a crow startled them both into silence and Menma sat up suddenly as if alarmed by something. His eyes became so sharp and alerted that he practically reminded Naruto of an animal that had just heard the familiar sound of a stalking predator.

The blonde slowly sat up and gazed at him with a slight tilt of his head. But before he had the chance to ask what was wrong, the air filled with various sounds of cracking and crumbling and the ground started to violently tremble beneath them like an earthquake. Through the tremendous shuddering of the world around them, they both struggled to stagger to their feet.

Abruptly, a wild flock of crows flew from their hiding spots in the surrounding trees and took off into the air, their cawing so deafening that Naruto slammed his hands over his ears. The red sky shattered, and as if it were a mere picture, cracks begun to form-even in the orange clouds.

Had it not been for Menma who reached out and grabbed his arm, Naruto would have stumbled backwards and fell into the lake. Being towed away from the waters, Naruto hurried to keep up with his subconscious being without question. He almost wanted to ask what the hell was going on, but he wasn't sure whether he'd be heard over the thundering caws of the birds and the crumbing of the world around them.

However, a sound soon followed, overshadowing everything else in it's enraged thundering. A mighty roar swept over them; a roar distorted in fury and wrath, etched with pain. It sounded familiar to Naruto…..almost too familiar.

The jinchuuriki pulled against Menma's grasp, stopping them in their tracks as Naruto turned in the direction of the prolonged cry of his tailed friend.

That sounded like Kurama. He had heard that roar many times before. He had absolutely zero doubt that it belonged to Kurama. But this roar…

Someone was messing with the seal.


Minato couldn't remember the last time he had seen Tsunade smile like that. In fact, for a good few years, majority of the time he checked in for an S-Rank mission, she either had a sour look on her face or she seemed extremely drained. He knew she wasn't like that all the time, considering gambling the night away graced her lips with something between a joyous smile and a smug grin. But personally, he never witnessed it without the mentioned being the reason why.

So when he walked back into the infirmary, Kakashi raised an eyebrow at the weird face that he was most likely sporting, watching his sensei take the seat next to him.

"Well?" The silver-haired jonin inquired, slowly leaning towards the older man. "Did she kill you and then bring you back to life with her exceptional medic-skills?"

Minato breathed out hard as if he had been holding his breath since he walked back in. He shook his head. "No. She was happy."

"Happy that you declined the mission?"

"Happy that I accepted it."

The eye that wasn't covered by Kakashi's mask widened, brightening up. "Is that so? Well, I'm excited for you, Minato-sensei. I'm glad that you're putting those things behind you and moving on from…."

Whatever was said after that, Minato hadn't heard him. It wasn't that he had purposely blocked out Kakashi, but his eyes just happened to land elsewhere-specifically on the little figure resting peacefully on the infirmary bed, wrapped up in white blankets. And with his attention went his mind, thinking back to the moments just before the younger blonde had fainted on the streets.

'The way you're staring kind of creeps me out, Fourth Hokage….'

Minato wished he hadn't of stared at Naruto so hard to the point of alarming him, but he couldn't help the blissful feeling of nostalgia he got from looking at him. The round structure of his face, the soft expression, the way he smiled, how he seemed so lively...he could see Kushina in that kid. In fact, it was almost as if he were the male version of her, save for the red to blonde ratio.

In his own trance, he stared at the boy seeming so tranquil and undisturbed in his soft slumber. He watched his chest gradually rise and fall, observed the slight parting of his lips that only gave room for a faint snore that sounded like gentle breathing. He almost wanted to reach out and ghost his fingers over those scarred cheeks...maybe stroke his hair-

Kakashi waved his hand in front of Minato's face, snapping him from his dazed ogling. "Sensei?"

Abruptly, the former Hokage jerked his attention away from the sleeping blonde; face growing pale as he wondered where that kind of thinking had come from. It even seemed like his eyes had turned a pale blue, wide and slightly disturbed as he shook his head. "...I-I think I changed my mind...I can't. I don't know why I accepted- I have to go find Lady Tsunade and I have to decline." He started to head for the door, but his arm was grabbed, stopping him in his tracks.

The silver-haired shinobi eyed him with furrowed brows. "No, you don't. Why is this so hard for you to do?"

Unable to admit that his reason for wanting to back out now revolved around the similarity between Naruto and Kushina, Minato shamefully resorted back to his previous excuse. He turned to face his former student with a lowered gaze. "I don't want to lose anymore people on my account. I'm not ready to have more deaths on my conscious. I've yet to get over Kushina's death and that was sixteen years ago. How can I deal with more?"

Kakashi sighed quietly and his grasp fell away. "Well….that's what the life of a shinobi promises us. There is no escaping it, you know this. You've explained it to me many times before."

Minato didn't want to recall such times. Unfortunately for him, he had taken office when things were at its lowest point. War with Iwa left Konoha sucked dry of all its elements-death had washed over the village and it had claimed both Obito and Rin in the process, leaving Kakashi alone. In this time, whenever he had the chance to, he had always checked up on the silver-haired boy to make sure he was doing alright….and sometimes casual conversation turned grim. But it was the only way he could think to console Kakashi then because by that point, he could no longer sugar coat anything.

But that was the Fourth Hokage. He wasn't sure who he was now.

"The one who taught you that is not the same man that you're speaking to now…" Minato murmured softly, almost sadly. "I wish he was, but he's not."

"He is," Kakashi countered firmly. "He's just a wounded man who has been approaching the problem all wrong for sixteen years. Don't you see that Lady Tsunade is giving you a chance to mend your heart at your own pace by putting these kids under your wing?"

In a sense, Minato could see what Lady Tsunade was trying to do. She wanted to appoint him taicho so that he could learn to get close to people again and there was nothing more rewarding in friendship than those you come to trust from your own team. But admittedly, Minato was terrified at the thought of getting too close only to lose them again-he didn't want to be entrusted with lives only to fail as he had failed Obito and Rin as a teacher, Kushina as a husband, and the entire village as their Fourth Hokage.

He wasn't ready to bare that shame again. He didn't want to shut down again. He didn't want to end up in the hospital and burden the nurses with his despondency...with his depression.

He just wanted to be a hunter-nin so that he could be alone. All alone.

He opened his mouth, but he couldn't say anything to Kakashi.

Hard gaze softening up, Kakashi was the one to speak after a few seconds of silence. "After Obito and Rin, I was a broken man. You know this because you've watched me grow into a quiet, sour shinobi who never gave Gai….or anybody else for that matter, the time of day." His eyes seemed to brightened at the memory as if he remembered something comical. "I was rather mean to Gai, especially...but that's besides the point. My point is that Lady Tsunade is doing for you what the Third did for me. He appointed me a teacher, allowed me to make something out of my wound by passing down what I learned when I lost my friends to my students. I was given Team Seven; I was given a chance to bring about my own happiness out of an amazing squad like them. And Lady Tsunade wants you to do the same with this ANBU team."

"The truth is….death, loss, grief….it's all inevitable," Kakashi muttered quietly with a soothingly soft voice. "As a shinobi, we will lose friends, family and loved ones for the sake of our home, but we must move on. The day Team Seven passed their teamwork test, I moved on with new comrades. I'll never forget Rin and Obito….never," he emphasized that last part firmly, making it easy for Minato to believe his words. "They became my past team when I moved on with the future." A pause followed as the words sunk skin deep and then he asked, "What do you need to put in the past, Minato-sensei?"

The blonde considered that question, but it took him longer than it should have to answer only because it was hard for him to admit what he needed to put behind him. Or more so, he didn't want to put what he needed to behind him.

He didn't want to put Kushina behind him.

Kakashi caught his former teacher's conflicted gaze with his own. "I think Kushina would want you to take on this team with pride and your head held high, don't you agree?"

He needed to put Kushina behind him because she would want him to.

With a quiet sigh and a faint smile, Minato found resolution. "...Thank you, Kakashi."

Just in time, too-a brunette Nurse with her hair tied up walked into the room. "Excuse me….there are a few visitors for…." She peered down at the clipboard in her hands and squinted her eyes. "...Naruto. They're, um….underaged and need consent in order to see an emergency room patient."

In all the haze and confliction, Minato had almost forgotten about Naruto's teammates. Kakashi had went to go fetch them and tell them what happened with Naruto only to return alone saying that they were preparing some things for him and would join them later.

Kakashi looked to Minato. "I'll sign them in. I'll be right back," he said, following after the nurse to sign everybody in.

After the door closed behind them, Minato was left alone in the room with Naruto. His blue eyes fell away from the door and landed on the sleeping blonde once again. At first he thought to simply sit down and wait for everybody to join them, but he found his gaze locked on Naruto, unmoving and soon his feet carried him across the room and beside Naruto's bed.

He hadn't moved one bit, still captured in his peaceful slumber and Minato tilted his head as he stared at the unconscious boy's face-the face that reminded him so much of Kushina. Even as he slept, looking more like a child rather than a teenager, he resembled her. A little snore could be heard through Naruto's parted lips and Minato had to bite back a frustrated whimper.

Their snores even sounded alike? The similarity between them was starting to get rather absurd.

Minato almost thought to back away before he got any weird ideas, but then he noticed Naruto twitch and stopped. His face contorted and his head jerked ever so slightly, but his eyes remained closed, signaling that he was still asleep. Then he moaned.

Was he having a bad dream?

The older blonde peered at him carefully, wondering whether it would be wise to wake him or not. It no longer seemed like his slumber was sweet, but he didn't want to intrude on Naruto's sleep if rest was necessary to his recovery. With a careful hand, he reached out to touch him.

His fingers were just inches from his whiskered cheeks before Naruto stirred again, startling Minato enough to make him pull away.

Naruto's eyes fluttered open-lively blue met with the older blues of Minato's eyes. Awkwardly, though, considering that Minato was practically leaning over him.

The younger male didn't question it though, wiping the sleep out of his eyes and blinking wildly as if to wake himself up. He smiled sleepily at the man next to his bed. "...H-Hokage-sama…?"

Hopefully, he didn't catch the slight twitch of Minato's eye at the name. The former Fourth returned his smile with one full of warmth and greeting. "Welcome back, Naruto…." As nonchalantly as he could muster, he pulled away and put space between him and the younger shinobi. "That title doesn't belong to me anymore so there's no need to regard me with it."

It may have been Minato's imagination, but Naruto's face seemed to dim a little-appearing to be deeply saddened by Minato's disregard of the title that was rightfully his. He tried to sound assuring with his next words. "But….you'll always be worthy of being called that. You used to be Hokage after all."

That was very much true. He knew that whether one was the current Hokage or one of the past, the respect always lingered-and often, so did the title. It was simply an unofficial and unmentioned tradition of Konoha that he wasn't very fond of.

"...Used to be," Minato stressed through gritted teeth and a forced smile. "Please, just call me Minato. Or Namikaze….whatever you're comfortable with."

The blonde's blues grew wide and he stared at him with uncertainty before, testing the waters by whispering, "Minato….heh…" Following that was one of the most cutest giggles Minato has ever heard in his life. Obvious excitement exploded out of Naruto. "Haha! It's kind of weird jumping to a first name basis with a former Hokage. Are you sure about that...?"

Luckily, Minato was able to shake himself out of his 'Naruto just did the cutest thing ever' stupor quickly enough to avoid an awkward silence. "Ah...I'm fine with it," he muttered, casually touching his face to make sure it hadn't grown hot from embarrassment. "Besides...I suppose you'll be saying my name a lot more."

After a few seconds of stiffened air, Naruto's face flushed.

Minato raised an eyebrow at the younger male, momentarily unaware of the dirty twist the mind of a teenager could put on his words. He didn't realize it until he repeated what he had said in his own head and sighed. "...I mean that I've accepted Lady Tsunade's offer."

After the mortification of retrieving words incorrectly, the little jinchuuriki brightened up and he sat up in his bed with a large grin plastered on his face and sparkling blue orbs. "You mean you're going to be our taicho then?!" He asked in loud exhilaration.

Minato nodded. "Yes, that's right..."

A little more than thrilled, Naruto ended up practically rambling on in his anticipation and Minato was internally frightened. "No way! Working under a former Hokage….that's amazing!" He jumped in his bed excitedly and squeed like a child. "I bet not many people can say that, huh?! You're going to have lots of fun, I promise, Hokage-sama...OH, I mean Minato! No, Minato-taicho! Sorry! You'll teach us lots of cool Hokage-level moves and jutsu, right? You won't regret your decision, we're a great team! Trust me, you'll like everybody!"

The enthusiasm on his face was more than captivating to Minato. As Naruto babbled on and on, the former Hokage stared and him, lost in the beauty in Naruto's face that was so very similar to Kushina's.

It was just her excited outburst when he told her that he was going to be the Fourth Hokage. She had jumped him then, and Minato would be lying if he said he wasn't half-expecting Naruto to leap out of that bed and...

Naruto stopped and frowned. "Huh….Minato…? Why are you crying?"

"...!"

Was he now?

In slow disbelief, Minato raised a hand to his face and found that a tear had escaped, having ran down his cheek. The moment his fingertip felt the wet trail it left behind, he swiped the sleeve of his shirt over his face. Once, twice. Three times. Gods, he was embarrassed-just how many times had he made a fool of himself today? He had ran away after a childish outburst, he had stared at Naruto too long and caused him discomfort, he had given a most likely hormonal teenager the wrong idea, and now he was crying in front of said teenager.

What made it worse was that this kid obviously idolized him as a former Hokage and the last thing he probably expected was to see the legendary, flee-on-sight Yellow Flash tearing up right in front of him like a….like a….

A soft warmth caressed the side of Minato's face and he almost jerked away from the touch, startled by the soothing gesture.

Naruto had reached out for him and his small thumb wiped away another runaway tear that Minato could not hold back. Then another one. Minato saw Kushina wiping away his pain. He saw her smile, saw the reassuring sparkle in her eyes. Her lips moved, but he couldn't hear her. He couldn't remember what she sounded like anymore. It had been too long and his memory of her was stained in blood as red as her hair. All he saw was this bright orange color.

He almost reached out for Naruto, too. Almost touched his whiskered cheeks in return.

Almost.

But then he heard footsteps coming down the hallway, echoing to him like a warning and he pulled back from the blonde to regain his composure, wiping at his face one last time. The door opened and Kakashi walked into the room, followed by the same four shinobi from earlier.

Each one of them had their hands full; the pink-haired girl carried a basket full of what seemed to be food pills and behind her was the shy-looking kunoichi holding something wrapped up in aluminum foil. Last to follow was the pale boy who Minato had seen following Tsunade's group and the female with the long blonde hair, both shuffling into the room with a bouquet of flowers in their hands.

When they had last spoken to him back at the office, they had introduced themselves, but Minato wasn't so sure about trusting his memory. If he remembered their names correctly; Sakura, Hinata, Sai and Ino. But out of fear of being wrong, he figured he would ask them himself to be sure….after he apologized for his outburst back in Tsunade's office, of course.

Sakura walked over to Naruto in a hurry, putting her basket down on the table sitting beside the bed so that she could slap her hand on his forehead with a loud smack.

The blonde looked like he was almost pushed back by the force. "Ow!"

"Grow a pair, Naruto," the kunoichi growled, keeping her hand on his forehead for a few seconds before pulling back. "I was only checking to make sure you didn't have a fever or anything."

"How about instead of hitting me, you try something normal like, I don't know-'hello, Naruto. We heard about what happened and we came to make sure you were okay?' What am I getting hit for?" The bedridden shinobi inquired with crossed arms and a pout, mutterly immaturely to himself,"It's not my fault I ended up in the hospital..."

"She means well, Naruto." Sai chimed with a kind smile that followed.

"She means my death that's what she means."

With the exception of Minato, Sai and Sakura who glared at Naruto in annoyance and started whacking him in the head playfully, everyone broke into a choir of laughter. It's not that Minato didn't find what Naruto said funny; in fact, it had been hilarious, but it was hard to laugh when somebody was scowling at you.

Eyes narrowing slightly and threateningly, Sai eyed Minato. But he was discreet about it that it seemed like nobody else caught him in the act besides him, the target of it all.

Timidly, Hinata inched towards Naruto's bed and held out her aluminum-wrapped present out to him. "Hello, Naruto. We heard about what happened and we came to make sure you were okay." A small, nervous smiled tugged at her tiny tips and her cheeks reddened ever so slightly when the blonde accepted her gift to him. "Are you alright? Sakura bought you food pills and I made you homemade bread. And Ino and Sai even got you some flowers, too…."

Ino spoke up quick, waving off the other girl. "Well, the ones in Sai's hands are for you at least. I was going to give you bluebells but Sai suggested the orange blossoms since you seem to appreciate that color so much." Ino peered to the art oriented shinobi who was holding the brightly colored bouquet and watched as he handed Naruto the orange plants.

Minato noted Sai placed him back under his narrowed scrunity, but he didn't show that he took notice and instead continued to feign indifference as best he could.

"And um….." The blonde kunoichi surprised everyone when she walked over to former Hokage who hadn't said one word since they arrived, holding a bouquet of dandelions.

"...these are for you, Lord Fourth. I thought maybe you'd like to make a wish." She spoke so fast that her words jumbled over one another, making her nervousness clear. "It seems like you need one. I know you only need one, but my dad says blowing from a dozen brings good fortune and I thought you'd like to..." She trailed off, obviously nervous and instead just jerked the flowers out towards him silently, gazing anywhere, but at him.

Minato had been so caught up wondering why Sai was regarding him with hidden hostility that most of Ino's words had gone over his head. He stared at the offered flowers with blank blues, noticing that everyone was waiting for him to accept the gift. Even Naruto was, motioning for him to take the flowers when their eyes met.

Turning back to Ino, he caught her still gaze, feeling as if the light in her eyes were her pleading for him to take it. Her face held such sincerity that Minato had to wonder if the idea to bring him flowers was all hers. With a warm smile, he took the bouquet of dandelions from the girl. "Thank you, Ino…."

At the mention of her name, her eyes grew wide and her jaw momentarily went slack, her face lighting up like a child at the sight of a candy shop. "You remembered my name, Fourth…!"

"Ah, Ino….." Naruto chided with obvious obscured eagerness. "...we don't call him that anymore. It's Minato-taicho, now."

If Minato were to say that everyone in that room was not only surprised, but happy about the news, he'd be lying. Kakashi was proud of his choice and it was plain in the way his eyes flickered to his former teacher approvingly. Hinata clapped excitedly; that's a good reaction. Ino and Sakura were smiling, and Naruto was grinning-grinning at Minato in particular.

But Sai…..wasn't.

He just kind of stared...with a threatening dimness in his practically black eyes.


A/N: I fINALLy updated this-school has been so mean to me and so I wasn't reall inspired to write until I got a nice comment from a dumb girl with a computer (that is literally her name) on Archive who inspired me to write this chapter~

I hope there weren't any mistakes, I tried to beta read it as best as I could. R&R would be appreciated and like I said, reviews/comments make me update. Trust me they do...at least the good quality kinds of comments :) thanks for reading!