When his laugher finally abated, Minato sat down in the kitchen chair, feeling suddenly out of breath and energy

AN: SPECIAL THANKS TO MY WONDERFUL BETA AYTHERIA without whom this chapter would not have been as good, as long, and definitely not out as soon as it is. .

AN2: I would just like to remind everyone that the AN and Q&A at the end of the chapter usually explain things that are unclear in the story, unless they are part of the plot. Any questions you have though can be redirected to me :)

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Kishimoto does. I only own the plot and original characters (and names). This is called fanfiction for a reason folks…

"Words": normal speech

'Words': thoughts

/words: unsaid words

words: emphasis

words: emphasis /dream / memory

/words: memory sequence

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Chapter 8 – Masks

When his laugher finally abated, Minato sat down in the kitchen chair, feeling suddenly out of breath and energy. He had a headache growing, no doubt due to high stress. After a few minutes of sitting in silence, he brought down his hand from where he had thrown it across his eyes in an attempt to block out the sun.

Truth be told, he hadn't planned to confront Kakashi so soon, or anyone else for that matter. Yesterday, after deliberating briefly about his situation and feelings, and subsequently locking the majority away as a necessity, he'd felt the need to pay a visit to departed loved ones.

A few hours later had found him walking towards the outskirts of the village. The day had been bright and cheery, with a few puffy white clouds in the sky – the same shade of blue as his eyes. There had been a gentle breeze blowing, and birds singing in the trees; a picture perfect moment.

As he'd walked down the paved path, he'd thought for a moment about killing the birds. At that moment, there had been nothing to be happy about for him.

He first stopped at his parents' grave, and paid his respects. He told them a bit about himself and Konoha, but it wasn't too hard. His father had died during a mission when he was still a genin, and his mother a few years later, of a heart attack. She'd always been a fragile woman, and it was a wonder her constitution had even allowed her to have a child, if at all. He'd cried, of course, she had been his mother, and the greatest support in his life, and at the same time he'd been her source of happiness.

But after he'd burnt the incense and made his prayers, Minato couldn't bring himself to care too much, and felt an odd sense of detachment as he made his way farther down the rows of tombstones, to where unattached ninjas were buried with what family they had.

Uzumaki Kushina's grave sat next to her older brother's, both partially covered in a type of ivy they'd brought with them when they'd taken refuge in Konoha, after Whirlpool had been destroyed.

Minato vaguely remembered the day the refugees had arrived, starved and weak from the long, uninterrupted journey as they fled the armies of Iwa. It wasn't a well known piece of history – Whirlpool country had been rather small, and the newly founded ninja-village it was home to not yet noticeable.

But they had been allies of Konoha, and during the war had willingly served as a relay post where the weary Leaf-nin could stop and rest for a while. In retrospect, it was probably what had precipitated the downfall of the young village, and the subsequent massacre of most of its population. Konoha had sent as many as they could to help and retrieve the survivors to guide them to the village. It was the least they could do.

If he forced his memory a bit, he could remember seeing, among the weary-looking and injured people streaming in the front gate, a little red-headed girl, holding onto the hand of an older teen. She'd had her chin stubbornly stuck in the air, even as tears streamed down her cheeks seemingly of their own volition. Kushina had been among the few remaining academy students of Whirlpool, and he smiled wryly as he realized she'd captured his attention even then, if he could recall so many details after nearly forty years.

It was at that point that he'd realized he wouldn't ever see her again, and the dam broke. He collapsed on his knees, crying silently as tears streamed down his face. For the first time in sixteen years, Namikaze Minato grieved for the only woman he'd ever loved.

He didn't know how long he sat there, arms hanging limp at his side as tears fell to the ground, or when raindrops joined them, but he would have said it was a fitting weather if he'd been aware of it. He couldn't even remember falling asleep, collapsed by his grief. At that point in time, if anyone had been around to hear, they'd have heard the sound of his heart breaking into thousands of pieces.

But Kakashi had obviously found him, and returned him to his home, because when he woke up he could see a stain on the ceiling shaped like a rabbit wearing shoes. Although it might have been an elephant with a hat, he wasn't sure.

Seeing his old student so soon after remembering Kushina's death had almost been too much for him, and the raging emotions from the night before rose once again to the surface.

On one hand, he'd been very close to Kakashi as a boy, almost becoming a second father to him, and Minato had indeed seriously considered formally adopting him into the family. He'd cared for young Kakashi, and had taught him to the best of his ability, and was disappointed when Kakashi pushed his team-mates away. He'd been both overjoyed and incredibly sad when he'd arrived too late to save the young jounin's new-found best-friend, Uchiha Obito; finding Kakashi's outlook on life forever changed.

'Children shouldn't have to fight a war.' He'd thought.

On the other hand, Kakashi, by some incredible twist of fate (or meddling from a certain pipe-smoking Hokage), had ended up as Naruto's teacher. While he obviously cared for the blond genin, he'd mostly ignored him and Sakura, preferring to concentrate on his more gifted student Sasuke. Perhaps Kakashi was genially interested in the boy, or perhaps he thought he could repay his life-debt to Obito through his only surviving relative (Itachi didn't count). Whatever the case, Kakashi, as a jounin-sensei, had messed up. Badly. But everyone made mistakes, including Hokages, so he couldn't very well hold that against the silver-haired man.

Minato knew he was under a lot of stress, and he wasn't arrogant enough to think he was strong enough to deal with it, all of it, on his own. And although he'd almost told Kakashi everything, he couldn't yet; there were still too many things he needed to sort out, not the least of which was the seal.

He sighed. 'I can't do this on my own…' Something started hurting inside again, and he brought a hand up to his chest.

"I can't…" He choked on the words, his other hand tightening almost painfully against the cup of now-cold tea.

His mind was a mess of scrambled thoughts, and when the grief, pain and fear, the raw hurt rose to the surface once more, he didn't even bother repressing it. Hot tears trailed down his cheeks once more, although he uttered no sound. Closing his eyes, he let them flow, allowing himself temporary relief.

If only Sandaime had been alive, he could have talked to the old man. But Sarutobi was dead, killed by his former student over three years ago. Minato was alone, at least for the moment, as alone as he'd been as Naruto in his childhood.

'Sarutobi, my friend, why did you have to die?' He opened his eyes, looking out the window and towards the Hokage mountain, and something seemed to click inside.

'That's right. I am, was, Hokage. I can deal with this. Maybe not now, and definitely not by myself, but I will get past this.'

His mind made up, Minato stood up and wiped his face clean, gathering a brush, ink and scroll from various cupboards, before going back to the kitchen table. Dipping the brush into the ink-pot, he quickly etched a seal onto each corner of the scroll, blowing softly on it to make it dry, before channelling a bit of chakra into them. The seals glowed blue for a brief moment, before disappearing, seemingly absorbed into the paper. Minato smirked, the prankster in him nodding approvingly at his work – now, no one but him would be able to read what was on it without his express permission.

Those privacy seals were something he'd designed prior to becoming Hokage, and they were still used on important documents. This particular version, however, had been tweaked to answer only to a particular pre-determined sequence of chakra pulses, baring his chakra-signature. People would think this a bit much for a simple blank scroll, but considering what he was going to write down, Minato felt it was a necessary precaution.

Nodding to himself, the blond man started writing a list of things he had to do.

First, he had to finish the seal. Although the Kyuubi hadn't been awake for more than four years, Naruto had often used its chakra, and it was starting to wear down the seal.

'I'll have to review my notes from then. My own memories are still too confused, and I can't afford any mistakes.' Minato frowned. His notes, or at least a good part of them, were kept in the Hokage's archives, to which he didn't have access yet.

He could ask Tsunade, but then he'd need to explain why he needed those notes, and that would lead to questions he wasn't ready to answer yet.

Breaking into the archives was unthinkable – the security was top notch, as he well knew, having personally implemented some of the security measures and various traps and seals around it. No doubt it had been reinforced further since then, so that option was out.

'But they didn't lock down my house…'

Yes, that was a definite possibility. By the time he was a jounin, Minato had lived alone in the Namikaze Family House. He was intimate with the workings of the house wards, a lot of which were blood wards, and as such could only be broken by a clan member. That more or less guaranteed that no one had accessed the notes and journals he'd kept in his personal study.

'I'll have to go there later.' He glanced quickly to a nearby rooftop, where he knew Kakashi had perched himself; no doubt on watch by Tsunade's order. Minato smiled slightly, vaguely amused. The smile vanished when his stomach growled. Loudly.

"Wha….? But I just ate! No fair!" Somewhere at the back of his mind, the Hokage part of him noted that he was whining, and that it was completely un-Hokage like. Naruto flipped a metaphorical finger at that part of him, rolling his scroll up and putting it away for working on later.

Checking his frog-shaped wallet, Naruto grinned. "Ichiraku ramen, here I come! Hehe!"

'You're being rather casual about this whole situation.'

Naruto's steps faltered for a moment. '…Who the fuck are you?'

'I'm you, of course. Who do I sound like, the furball? Sheesh. Anyway, don't you think suppressing your emotions like that is a bad idea?'

Naruto frowned, pushing aside the curtains to the entrance of Ichiraku's. It was only once he was sitting down and eating his first bowl of shrimp ramen that he replied to the little voice in his head – which, Minato idly noted, couldn't be very healthy either.

'Well, it ain't healthy – you're exhibit A by the way – but I'm having enough identity issues as it is. I don't need all those extra emotions to clog up my judgement right now.'

'…That doesn't sound like something Naruto would do.'

'Well, of course not genius! I'm Namikaze Minato, Yondaime Hokage, remember?'

The blond could have sworn there was an annoyed huff from the little voice. 'Well, you're also Uzumaki Naruto last I checked.' Silence, then: 'This is confusing…'

'Tell me about it.'

'I already am, I'm you after all.'

'Great. Just peachy. I'm talking to myself.'

A third voice, sounding rather like him when he was playing a prank, made itself known. 'Personally, I think that's the best way to deal with the current situation. You don't have someone you can talk to about…' - and Minato was under the impression the 'voice' was gesturing at its surroundings (whatever those were) – 'all this. You can only talk to yourself. Hence our presence. Sort of.'

Minato couldn't help it. He groaned, dropping his head to the counter. He was officially insane, there was no way around it. The stress had been too much, and he'd finally cracked.

"Naruto…?"

"Heh?"

The blond raised his head from the wooden surface, meeting the concerned gaze of Ichiraku Teuchi. "Are you all right lad? You've been staring into space for a good ten minutes, and the ramen's gotten cold…"

The man trailed off as Naruto gave him a horrified stare. He'd forgotten his ramen? His eyes widened almost comically, before he started gushing out apologies, which Teuchi waved away.

"It's quite alright, Naruto. Just don't make it a regular occurrence, or I'll have to refuse service on account that you waste the food."

The blond looked terrified at the prospect, before Teuchi laughed and he realized he'd been had. "Maa, lad, I was joking. You're my best customer, you're entitled to be distracted sometimes. Now," and the ramen chef settled down in front of Naruto, pouring down some tea into cups that he'd produced from seemingly nowhere, "what is troubling you?"

Naruto looked at him for a long moment, and Teuchi smiled. "You don't have to tell me anything, but it looks like you need someone to talk to, so I thought I'd offer. Consider it a bonus for being the best customer I've ever had."

Minato considered the offer. On one hand, he really couldn't tell anyone about what was happening to him – it wasn't the kind of secret that could be kept for long of course, but once his old enemies heard about it, he'd have to be watching his back constantly. As he wasn't up to his old strength yet, it could be a problem, and he made a mental note to up his training regimen. Even within the village, he had enemies he'd have to be careful of, like Danzo. If his secret got out before he rectified the seal…Best not to think of that. And of course there was Akatsuki to worry about as well.

However, he was desperately stressed out, and needed someone friendly, but unbiased, and who hadn't known the Yondaime well enough to connect all the dots. Teuchi fit the bill perfectly, as unexpected as it was. He made a last half-hearted attempt at refusing.

"Your customers…"

Teuchi waved his concerns away again, indicating the currently empty booth and nearly empty nearby streets. "There's not much business at this time of day."

Minato smiled slightly. "Well…I've had a rather stressful experience recently. I don't know if anyone told you, but I was in the hospital all week." The ramen chef nodded, indicating he'd noticed his absence. "I…I know what's happened to me, but I can't tell anyone, not right now. I'm horribly confused, all I've ever known, all I've ever been told was constructed around a lie, and…and I feel betrayed Teuchi-jii-san. It hurts." His right hand clenched the fabric of his shirt over his heart, and in the early afternoon light filtered by the entrance flaps, Naruto looked so lonely that it almost physically hurt Teuchi to look at him right then. The teen's voice was hesitant, heavy with raw emotions and he periodically choked between words on silent sobs.

"My thoughts are completely scrambled. I tried, I tried to take a logical approach to the problem. It's not like me but…well, it is too. Does that make any sense? It works, a bit. Sometimes. I…I…" A silent, choked sobbed racked his frame.

Teuchi's face was grim. He did not like seeing his favorite customer in such a state. "Drink your tea, it's getting cold," he said, lifting his own cup to his lips.

Naruto sipped at the warm beverage, grateful for the soothing liquid trickling down his suddenly dry throat. While the blond stared at his cup, clutching it like a lifeline, Ichiraku Teuchi remembered the only other time he'd seen Naruto in such pain.

It had been a little over ten years ago, when he and his wife and daughter had just opened shop in Konoha. They'd heard of the Kyuubi's attack by then, and through various indiscretions from the adult population, Teuchi had pieced together what had happened. As such, when he saw the blond child in dirty rags near the trash can, soaked by the pouring rain, he'd immediately recognized him as the 'Kyuubi no gaki'; the demon child.

At first, Teuchi just strode past, intent on ignoring the child like the bad news he'd heard he was. But after he'd dumped the plastic bags into the garbage containers, the child had gotten up, sneaking behind him as quietly as he could, reaching a hand towards the garbage. Teuchi had turned, intent on warding off the child – and he'd finally seen the truth.

This was no demon. This was a child, dirty from neglect, with dark bags under his eyes from a lack of sleep, and starved enough that he would consider digging in the trash for something to eat. Teuchi's heart had clenched painfully as his eyes met the soulful blue gaze, and he'd altered his actions mid-course, gently grasping the child's shoulder.

Naruto had flinched away, as if expecting to be hurt, and Teuchi had felt even worse.

"What's your name?" he'd asked.

"N-Naruto, mister." The voice had been frail, and full of pain and fear, but also innocent hope.

"Are you hungry Naruto?"

The child had nodded hesitantly, and Teuchi had led him back to the stand, lifting Naruto into one of the stools before setting a bowl of miso ramen in front of him. It was only later, after Naruto had left, that he'd realized the dark patches of dirt on Naruto's arms hadn't been dirt at all, but bruises. The next day, he went to the Sandaime, asking if it was normal for children to be abused and starved in Konoha. The old leader had looked rather shocked, before asking why Teuchi was asking such a thing. After he'd related his late night encounter with Naruto, Sarutobi's face had tightened in anger, and although he'd smiled and thanked the ramen chef, there had been something truly frightening in the eyes of the old man.

When Teuchi next saw Naruto, he looked a lot better, with clean clothes and a little less starved. It wouldn't be until months later that he would learn that, when he'd found five-year-old Naruto that night, the child had been living alone on the streets for nearly a year.

Teuchi stared across the counter, and for a moment it wasn't a sixteen year old quietly sipping at his tea who was sitting in front of him, but a blond, dirty, waif-like child hungrily scarfing down a bowl of ramen. His mind snapped back to the present, just as Naruto finished his tea, and he dutifully refilled it. Naruto inclined his head in silent thanks, momentarily puzzling Teuchi with this unexpected show of manners, before taking a deep breath and continuing in a quiet voice.

And so Teuchi listened, listened as Naruto told him of all he was going through, although he never explained just what exactly had happened to him. There were so many emotions warring to get to the surface, so many different thoughts. Naruto changed his whole demeanor and speech, switching between thinking patterns so fast that Teuchi was sometimes under the impression that there were two different people talking to him.

Naruto was still talking by the time the mid-afternoon customers started arriving, and so Teuchi left his daughter to man the stand while he led Naruto to the back and inside his house. He kept pouring tea, having lost count of how many cups the two of them had drunk by then, and listened some more. The blond had a lot on his mind, more than the ramen chef would have thought. He'd never pegged Naruto as the thinking type, at least not to such a degree, and he was one of those who knew him best. He was also amazed how, even though he was being completely honest and open, Naruto managed to keep hidden what had caused such distress in him.

The sun was low in the sky by the time Naruto had finished talking. Ayame had come in once, to ask her mother to help at the ramen stand, since her father was obviously unavailable, and another time to give the two some lunch, but those had been the only interruptions. Finally, Naruto stood up and waved his goodbye, thanking Teuchi profusely for his time. The ramen chef had replied that he was always available if Naruto wanted to talk, and he'd been rewarded with the most brilliant, genuine and grateful smile he'd ever seen on the blond's face. When Naruto had turned the corner and was out of sight, Teuchi reflected on what he'd been told.

Something terrible had happened to Naruto, something that had shaken him to his core, in a way much worse than when he'd learnt of the Kyuubi. He'd spoken of betrayal, implying with his words that the whole village had betrayed him, and not only that but they'd betrayed themselves. The words had been simple, without decorum, but they'd rung with such finality and truth that Teuchi had reeled back on his metaphorical heels.

At the same time though, it seemed Naruto was feeling…liberated. He'd related the feeling as being akin to finding a piece of yourself you didn't know you'd lost, and suddenly being complete. At times during his monologue, Naruto had lapsed into long silences, his eyes looking at a spot far-away, and it was at those times particularly that Teuchi had felt this explanation made the most sense; during those few moments, it had been as if someone else was sitting in front of him, someone much older in soul and mind than any sixteen year old had a right or reason to be.

There had been many, many other things, all jumbled together. Thoughts, feelings, ideas, half-formed sentences and absence, pauses and silences, all saying everything and nothing at all, all contributing to the confusion. Naruto had jumped from one subject to the next, seemingly without direction, simply following a stream of consciousness.

One topic kept coming back, although Naruto had skirted around the issue as much as he could. Whoever Kushina had been, she was an important piece of the complicated puzzle that was Naruto. He hadn't been told any specifics – it was incredible how much Naruto could talk so much yet say nothing at all – but he'd gathered that Naruto had been very much in love with her, and still was apparently. The raw hurt and loss in the blue eyes when he'd let out those little snippets about the fiery-tempered woman were soul-deep. Those weren't wounds that would, or could, be healed in a few days, or even years. Teuchi suspected that Naruto would still be hurt even if given two lifetimes to recover.

Even without this, he could tell that something was very wrong indeed, but Teuchi would not press his friend into talking anymore than he wanted to. He'd become aware of their silent ninja watcher sometime during the conversation – one didn't live in a shinobi village without picking up some tricks after all – and knew the blond probably felt a bit smothered by his well-meaning friends, who would most likely start pressuring him for answers as was their habit when the blond kept secrets. Teuchi wouldn't be like that; Naruto could damn well take his time, and Teuchi would damn well be waiting.

His decision made, the ramen chef had stood up and made his way to the stand, greeting his late-night customers as cheerfully as any other day.

oOo

Minato sighed contentedly as he walked down the street, rubbing his full stomach in satisfaction. Talking to Ichiraku's owner had helped a lot for his mental health. He couldn't say he was completely healed, but he'd started the process – at least the voices in his head had quieted down. If this was the effect having someone listen to you without any expectations had, he predicted many more talks with Teuchi-jii-san. He chuckled.

'I'm one to talk, I'm technically as old as he is.'

Hands behind his head, Naruto whistled cheerfully, ignoring the glares and whispers that followed him as he walked through Konoha. Although, to be fair, there were an equal amount of confused looks as well at his 'new' appearance. He almost snorted at that. Now that his 'whiskers' had disappeared, a lot of people did a double take – a lot of them were from the older generation, the one that had seen or grown up with the Yondaime - although some from the younger generation did look at him funny. Those people couldn't help but make the connection, and probably weren't liking the implications, although Minato doubted any of them would arrive to the right conclusion. Whether they didn't like their conclusions, or what they'd done in light of those conclusions, he wasn't about to start guessing. He had enough on his plate as it was.

Of course, that didn't stop the usual happenings. A few people tried to throw things at him on top of the insults, but today he dodged them, and to the most vicious he directed a low killing intent. He grinned as one of those more idiotic civilians stumbled back in shock and soiled himself. This was not something Naruto would have done, but Minato wasn't going to stand for it anymore. Besides, the prankster he had been as Naruto, although calmed down throughout the years, appreciated the humor of the situation, and Minato himself wasn't completely innocent of his own prank record.

This was something else he'd noticed: he kept alternating between referring to himself as Naruto or Minato. It had been frustrating and confusing this morning, but now it didn't bother him as much. It was still strange, to think of himself as two separate people.

'No, that's not quite right. I'm not two separate people. Rather, the 'me' of now is a combination of both Naruto and Minato.'

The keys jingled as he opened his apartment, closing the door softly behind him. Mechanically, Minato started cleaning out the apartment, wiping the tabletops and collecting whatever trash was on the floor.

'I haven't been Minato, Yondaime Hokage, for sixteen years now. I don't think I'll ever be that person ever again. I have been Naruto, hyperactive ninja for too long for that to happen, but…I can't be him anymore either…'

He side-stepped a chair, getting water from the kitchen tap before moving about the three-room apartment to water his plants, finishing with the ones in his bedroom as he contemplated who he was, his thoughts now calmer and emotions more under control.

'I think…I'll be both. I am Minato, but…I'll be Naruto for a little while longer.' He smiled ruefully. 'It's like I'm a teenager with a child's heart and an adult's mind. How strange.'

And for some reason, he found himself happy over this, relief flooding him as he sat down on his bed to watch the sunset. He didn't feel any better about confronting his precious people, but at the same time he didn't feel as scared by the prospect as he had been.

The next day went well, all things considered. He didn't exactly sleep peacefully – who would? Thoughts of all the trouble that awaited him, and more, kept coming to mind, but mostly it was thoughts of Kushina, her laugh, her smell, her smile...and that thrice damned stubbornness of hers which had endeared her to him, and ultimately cost her her life. He kept reliving memories of their encounters, some more pleasant than others – the time she hit him for pranking her brother, their first date, the first time she pranked him, the time they'd been sparring and she'd accidentally flashed him, their first kiss…But no matter the memory, they would all end the same way: in fire and tears, blood colored eyes and evil laugher dominating the background.

After the tenth time this happened and Minato woke up in a cold sweat, only to fall asleep again, exhausted mentally and physically, he took a dose of sleeping pills – not recommended for ninja, but he really needed to sleep if he was to start his plans tomorrow. He'd come to the conclusion the night before that what would come, would come, and that he'd deal with it when it happened, as he'd been doing for the past sixteen years. After all, why change something that worked? Even if it had gotten him into trouble before.

The first thing Minato did was prepare some cup ramen for breakfast – comfort food was the best excuse for being lazy ever invented. He hadn't been particularly fond of the salty noodles when growing up the first time, but his tastes had been completely reinvented as Naruto, and he wasn't going to complain. Having happily slurped down five instant ramen cups, and a glass of milk, the blond got ready for the day.

His first order of business was getting into his old house to look at his notes. That would probably take him a long time, and he couldn't afford to have anyone watching over his back as he did this. A kage bunshin could probably fool Kakashi (who he could still feel outside his apartment, along with a vaguely familiar chakra signature), but it wouldn't be long before the jounin detected the subterfuge. He had taught his sensei quite well…

His thoughts grinded to a halt, as he tried to organize his thoughts after that last bit. Apparently, he wasn't quite as ready as he'd thought when it came to dealing with his precious people. The idea – fact – that he'd been his sensei's sensei…was just plain weird.

'Dammit, not this again.' Minato resisted the childish urge to bang his head against the bathroom wall. He would need all his brain cells if he was to succeed in fooling his well-meaning – but unwelcome – watchers, and Naruto's childish nature couldn't interfere today. This was no time to be playing pranks…

'Wait a minute…That's it!'

Minato grinned, the prankster personna in him coming to the surface once more. A prank was exactly what he needed. Everyone around him needed to be reassured he was fine, and what better way to do that than playing a wide-scale prank? And it had the added bonus that it would make them bring down their guard enough that they wouldn't suspect the Kage Bunshin deception he was planning to use. Naruto's eyes gleamed as he rubbed his hands in anticipation: this was going to be fun!

Getting the idea for the prank wasn't hard. Naruto was a notorious prankster, and Minato was mischievous by nature. Planning and preparing for the prank however took longer than necessary. He had to get the materials for it, and using a henge to be able to buy things at a normal price definitely didn't sit well with him. Ninja, as an unspoken rule, tried not to use their powers on civilians when inside the village. Naruto supposed it was justice, but the part of him that was Minato wasn't very happy about it, or the civilians for that matter.

He made sure to be as inconspicuous as possible when doing his shopping – he didn't want his 'guardian angel' to become too suspicious yet. The only interruption was when he met Sakura and Ino. That…had been rather strange.

Minato suspected that one of the main reasons he'd had a crush on Sakura when he was younger was because she looked a lot like Kushina. Seeing her running up to him with Ino in tow tugged painfully at his heart, and he had to force a fake grin on his face. He was pretty sure it looked fake too, but he didn't have the time to do more before Sakura engulfed him in a hug.

"Naruto!" she exclaimed, obviously happy to see him.

He stiffened, and apparently Sakura sensed this. She stepped back, a questioning and slightly worried look in her eyes. Naruto widened his smile, feeling sick as he stared at her familiar face.

"Hi, Sakura."

The pink-haired girl didn't look convinced, and truthfully he hadn't expected to fool her. He just hoped she wouldn't pry too much – he could barely hold up his mask as it was. Thankfully, before she could start asking him what was wrong, Ino caught up with them.

"Naruto! Hey, you're finally out of the hospital! You had us worried for a while. How are you feeling now?"

Sakura shut her mouth as Ino and Naruto engaged in a casual conversation, the blond haired girl easily dominating the situation as she'd done so often before. Ino asked him when he had gotten out of the hospital – she'd been out on a mission with Sakura and Lee apparently, and so didn't know he'd 'escaped' illegally - what he'd been doing (resting), how he was feeling (fine, thank you, but hungry), what he was doing right now (shopping), and if he had any plans for later (training mostly – he wasn't about to tell them what he really had in mind). It was mostly Ino talking, with occasional answers from Naruto, and Sakura periodically trying to stir the conversation back to the initial topic. He knew he was acting quite a bit out of character, but he figured he could get away with it for now. He wished Ino would hurry along though, and take Sakura with her.

He liked the two girls, he really did, but right now he could do without reminders of what he'd lost. He got an idea of how to do that when Ino started talking about how she needed new shoes.

"Actually, I saw this store a few blocks back, it had this huge 'SALE' sign next to it. Maybe you…"

He didn't have to say any more; Ino squealed, thanked him in a rush and dragged Sakura with her before the other girl could get a word in beyond 'bye'. He snickered: the Yamanaka heir's obsession with shopping was near-legendary in Konoha.

'Must be something she got from her grandma. Mamori-baa-san always liked shopping a bit too much.'

Minato grinned a bit as he remembered the now-deceased Yamanaka Mamori - born Anezaki Mamori - and Inoichi's mother. She'd been his mother's cousin, and had visited often, occasionally bringing her young son with her. He hadn't paid much attention to her really, but she'd always been nice to him, and he could safely say that his fashion-sense was mostly due to her influence. The fact that she never said anything when he and Inoichi played pranks on Shikato (or anyone else for that matter) was an added bonus.

'Must be something she got from that civilian friend of hers…what was his name again? Himura? No, that's not right. Ah, Hiruma! Scary guy with an obsession for explosives. Wonder what happened to him…'

Lost in his thoughts of the past, Minato nearly bumped into someone else. He lifted his head to apologize to the person who'd been knocked down, when he realized just who he'd bumped into.

It was Tenten, Kazuma and Sachiko's daughter.

So soon after seeing Sakura, and being reminded of his lost love, he couldn't bear to look at his friends' daughter, and Minato panicked, taking off to the rooftops, shopping bags in hands, and not even bothering to apologize in his haste to get away.

oOo

Higurashi Tenten grumbled as she picked herself off the street, Lee giving her a hand up.

"Thanks. Where's the asshole who knocked me down?" She asked.

Lee turned towards his other team mate, and Tenten looked askance at Neji. The Hyuuga was standing there, his gaze on the rooftops and a look of concentration on his face. When it became obvious Neji was not going to answer, Lee turned back to Tenten.

"It was Naruto-kun."

Tenten was baffled. "Naruto?" A nod. "And he just fled without saying 'sorry'?" Another nod. She frowned. "That doesn't sound like him."

"There was something wrong." The two turned to their white-eyed team mate, who'd finally torn his gaze away from where Naruto had made his escape to. Tenten rose an eyebrow.

"What do you mean, Neji-kun?"

Neji frowned slightly. "There was fear and…grief in his eyes, and he was tensed, as if expecting to be attacked at any moment."

Lee and Tenten glanced at each other nervously. They didn't doubt Neji's observational skills – the Hyuuga had one of the best eye sights in the world, and their body-language reading skills were near-legendary. It was what made them such formidable opponents, both in combat and politics.

What did disturb the group though, was that Neji had been able to read Naruto. The Hyuuga prodigy had admitted, sometime during the three years Naruto had been away, that the blond was someone he couldn't read, no matter how open he seemed to be. It was, he'd said, something only high level ninja could do, and even then those people weren't as carefully guarded as Naruto was.

"Maybe we should see if he's all right." Tenten suggested, as she started in the direction Naruto had taken off. Lee wasn't far behind.

"Yosh! The fires of youth burn brightly in you Tenten-san! We will support a comrade in need with our youthful presence!"

Tenten rolled her eyes, used to this behaviour by now, and Neji was tempted to imitate her. Instead, he turned his attention back to his teammates.

"Wait."

Tenten and Lee looked at him askance, wondering why Neji would hold them back. He was, after all, one of those Naruto had grown close to in the year or so the blond had been back, and Neji was fiercely loyal in return.

Seeing their looks, Neji elaborated. "Hatake-san already went after him. Our presence would be…unwelcome."

Tenten looked like she wanted to argue, but surprisingly enough Lee stopped her, placing a hand on her shoulder and shaking his head. It still amazed Neji how his self-proclaimed 'eternal rival' trusted him so implicitly. Tenten huffed, before finally relenting.

"Fine. But I think we should tell the others. Naruto needs us, and I, for one, won't let a friend down when he's obviously distressed." A pause. "Especially if it's Naruto."

The other two agreed: the rookie nine would want to know what was going on with their hyperactive friend. After a last glance back, Team Gai walked away in search of their younger friends.

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Author's notes: ahem. Yeah. Slow development in this, but it was quite necessary. Actually, the whole story is slow, and Aytheria (my wonderful beta!! .) made the remark that some of my more impatient readers would like some more action. I'll do my best to incorporate that in the next chapter(s) but as I said early on in the story, this is an experiment to explore a theory. Action takes the backstage to character development.

Also, I'd like to apologize for the wait. Even though my beta has freakishly fast beta-ing abilities, I'm a rather slow writer, and my own life is getting a bit full right now. I have to find a job, and set up interviews, plus getting a residency, so it's not easy to find time to write as much as I did before.

Q:Whirlpool's history?

A: I only heard about Kushina being a former Whirlpool country ninja, and we haven't seen or heard anymore about the country. Considering it's not on the map anymore, my guess is it was obliterated at some point. Kushina living in Konoha gave me the idea that they were an allied country / village, hence why I said what I did. On the other hand, this is all either speculation or complete invention on my part, so if Kishimoto said otherwise in newer chapters, just consider it part of the AU.

Q: But you said Kushina was just an academy student. How could she be a former ninja then?

A: My opinion is that as soon as they become academy students, the children are considered ninja. Kushina just finished her education in Konoha.

Q: You keep switching between Minato and Naruto? Which is it?

A: 1) Go read the previous chapter. 2) I write rational people a lot better, so the Minato part of his personality will become dominant as time goes by. I am in no way erasing Naruto though – I just don't want to be accused of making him OOC, so I'm using the unknown 'Minato' more.

Q: Anezaki Mamori and Hiruma? I know those guys from somewhere…

A: You would. They're from Eyeshield 21, one of my favorite manga/anime show. :) I'm just borrowing them for the fun of it.

Anyway, thank you for reading, and leave a review if you can – it cheers me up, lets me know what I did right and what I did wrong, and generally motivates me. Cheers!