Warnings: Still just language.
Summary: Naruto has always wanted to follow in his father's footsteps and become Hokage, but this wasn't exactly how it was supposed to happen. Now, the only thing he wants is to have his father back...and his own body.
Setting: Canonverse - AU timeline, Yondaime survived Kyuubi sealing, Sasuke never left. Team 7 are roughly nineteen years old.
Pairings/Characters: NaruSasu, YonKaka (plus other Rookie 9, Jiraiya, Tsunade throughout series; also, name order is irrelevant)
Forget the Sun, pt. 4
by vernajast
yondaime x kakashi, naruto x sasuke, others
~*~
"Ino!!" Sakura jumped forward to catch her friend before she could crack her skull on the floor. Ino was just deadweight in her arms, and when she turned to Inoichi for help, she found him in much the same state, but slumped forward. His head rested comfortably on the mattress beside the Hokage's shoulder.
Tsunade didn't seem distressed, so Sakura wasn't worried, exactly, just concerned. It was obvious they were both using their blood limit to help Minato-sama, after all, and Ino hadn't seemed too nervous...
Then, Naruto suddenly gripped his head and stumbled against Sasuke, screaming, screaming for someone to "STOP IT PLEASE DAMMIT STOP!" The two boys sank to the ground together, and Sasuke pulled Naruto against his chest, whispering unheard words of comfort into his ear.
Still Naruto screamed.
The Hokage started to thrash and convulse in the bed.
And Ino lay lifeless in Sakura's arms.
~*~
Ino was falling into blackness, and this was nothing like she had ever experienced before. All around her there was...nothing. It threatened to consume her. She'd come here for a purpose, a reason—it was very important—and if she couldn't remember...Naruto was going to cry and...th-that was so wrong and...his father would...right.
Straightening up, she marched off into the darkness, reaching out with all her senses to find the one thing that seemed to be eluding the Fourth Hokage himself: his mind. What she found was a golden white light tucked away in a corner. It emitted a faint purple aura, obviously a jutsu of some sort, and when she reached out to take hold, it burned her metaphysical hands. The fact that she could feel pain at all in the mind-realm was something new.
She watched, completely confused, as it retreated back into the corner. When it did, Ino caught sight of a silvery thread attached to it somehow. This is just like forehead girl told Tsunade!
She left the light—the Hokage's mind, though obviously bound and hidden, reduced to such a tiny light when it should have been as bright as the sun, she was certain—she left it there in the darkness and followed the glowing thread, her heart beating against her ribs.
And then the thread simply ran out.
Ino raised her eyes from the limp end still clutched in her hand and made a face at the scene before her: she was standing in the center of Naruto's old living room.
~*~
"What the hell is wrong with you!? Yamanaka, I—I'll fucking—"
"Sasuke—!" Kakashi's arms hooked under Sasuke's and around his chest, and he hauled him back from the bedside before he could disrupt the jutsu. A glare thrown over his shoulder at his sensei confirmed that Sasuke's Sharingan were active and spinning wildly, anger and mostly fear contorting his face into a pained, feral expression. Kakashi used his shoulder to nudge his own hitai-ate off to expose Obito's eye, and the hollow sound of the forehead protector clattering to the tile floor seemed to back Sasuke away from the edge of rage.
Naruto lay on the floor, perfectly still now, barely breathing except for the occasional minute rise and fall of his chest. He still looked pained, Sasuke was sure of it. Naruto was in pain and Kakashi was really planning on keeping Sasuke from taking care of the person responsible and ending it. He wanted to turn on Kakashi, fight him, take out his frustrations on something living and real, but he couldn't. He knew, somehow just knew, that his stupid bastard sensei was withdrawing, hiding his own fear. They were both holding their breath. They were both waiting for their precious people to be returned to them.
Tsunade sighed and came over to check Naruto's vital signs, eying Sasuke still locked up in Kakashi's death grip. "They're fine. You'll see, brat. Stop waving those Sharingan around unless you plan to use 'em." She went to the window, secretly chewing her lip and listening for even the faintest sound that would tell her the procedure had been a success.
~*~
Ino shook her head and dropped the glowing thread. This was ridiculous. Okay, so, I've played this game before with prisoners. And I know Naruto well enough to guess, but Minato-sama...where would he... It took six tries before she finally found a folded up piece of paper with a handful of names written on it in varying handwriting. Some she didn't recognize, but she found Team 7 listed there, and Jiraiya-sama, and what she assumed might have been his genin team. There were more than enough precious people listed for her to guess, and she thought it suited Minato-sama, to hide his soul inside such a thing. He loves them very much, she thought, scooping up the paper and gripping it tightly to her chest as she released the jutsu.
She awoke to the view of a dingy white ceiling. "Dad?" Ino scrambled up off the floor, ignoring Sakura's gasp when her knee accidentally caught her friend in the stomach. "Dad—" She leaned across the bed, across the Hokage's body, to trickle chakra into her father's empty body. The signal. It was a success.
Seconds later, Inoichi sat bolt upright, wide eyed and looking rather shaken. "Ready to go again?"
"You bet!" Ino hurried across the room to sit beside Naruto's far-too-still, not-even-breathing-now body and ignored Sasuke to plunge in once again. Her body fell against the wall with a thump to the back of the head.
Inoichi paused before starting the jutsu, eyes leveling on Sasuke and Kakashi across the room. "I suggest you sit down or leave. Your loved ones are in good hands, but we wouldn't want any accidents." He blinked and glared pointedly at Sasuke before going limp beside the Hokage once more, leaving Tsunade to deal with two very angry, very frightened Sharingan users.
TBC