A/N: First of all we have wish Jiraiya, our favorite toad sage a good happy birthday!

Thanks for all the lovely reviews for the last chapter. I hope you'll like this chapter but I have to admit that I'm not completely satisfied with it but I doesn't get any better so here it is, I hope you'll like it.


Chapter 9 - Gone

"Kushina wake up".

The Whirlpool kunoichi moaned tiredly. "What?" she said, still half asleep.

"We're there," the voice said again.

"Where?" Kushina's tired voice replied.

"We've reached the Land of Whirlpool, you're home".

Kushina looked up, seeing a pair of sapphire blue eyes stare deep into hers.

"Minato?" the redhead asked in disbelief. "What are you doing here? And how did you get here so fast?"

The blonde smiled. "Does it really matter? You're home now, Kushina," he said.

Kushina looked at the shore near the boat. He was right; they really had reached her homeland. Her smile grew wider and wider. She was home. She was finally home.

She turned her head to tell Jiraiya and Mr. Turasuki but they were both gone.

"Where are the others?" she asked Minato.

"Who?" her blonde friend asked, "just go on, go to your family".

"Aren't you coming along?" Kushina asked him.

"I cannot," Minato replied, looking down for a moment before gazing deep into her eyes.

"Why not?"

"It's just not possible," he answered sadly.

"But-" Minato cut her off. "Please Kushina, just go," he said.

Seeing there was nothing else to do she nodded.

"Good luck," he said. Kushina nodded again before she turned around and walked into the small forest area she knew so well, it was that area she and her cousins used to walk through every time they went to the beach.

She reached the village in no time. There was something different about it. Why were the village gates back to normal again, she was sure they were cut to pieces last time she went through it. She shook her head and went through the gates.

"Welcome home Kushina," a chorus of voices exclaimed as she entered the village.

Kushina looked at the crowd standing a few feet before her. Why were they so happy? Was the fighting over? Did her people win?

"Welcome home darling," a female voice said. Kushina's heart skipped a beat. That voice…

Stepping out from the crowd was a woman with orange-colored hair and ocean blue eyes.

"Mother?" Kushina asked in shock. The woman smiled and nodded.

"I thought you were dead," Kushina said with teary eyes.

"Do we look dead to you?" a deep male voice asked.

Kushina's eyes went wide. The male stepped out from the crowd and joined her mother.

"Father?" Her father nodded. "I'm so sorry Kushina".

"There's nothing to be sorry about," Kushina said, her voice was now thick.

"Hello sister".

Kushina wiped the tears from her eyes and looked at the third person that stepped out from the crowd.

"Hiroto?" she asked.

The boy, who was no more than thirteen nodded. "Long time no see, huh sis?"

"I-indeed," Kushina stuttered with happiness. "How come all of you are alive?"

"Because this is the place where all your wishes come true," a fourth voice said while its owner stepped out from the crowd of people that never seemed smaller even if people left it.

"Uncle Arashi?"

"I'm sorry I didn't live long enough for you to see me one last time," her uncle said.

"D-don't be s-sorry, uncle," Kushina said, more tears were making their way from her eyes and down her cheeks.

"Jiraiya will protect you, trust him," Arashi continued. "Stay with him and you will be safe".

"I-I will, uncle, thank you".

"When you wake up none of us will be here," her mother said.

"T-this is just a d-dream?" Kushina asked, while more tears were rolling down her cheeks.

"I'm afraid so, Kushina," her father said.

"Please don't leave me?" Kushina said, collapsing to the ground and starting to sob.

"We have no choice dear," her mother said. "Sometimes life doesn't quite go the way you want it to and you'll just have to accept it".

Hiroto made his way over to the sobbing Kushina and kneeled down next to her. "Don't worry sis, you'll be alright, you always have, that's why I looked up to you so much, you're a great sister. Maybe we will meet again soon".

"We'll be with you, always, you just won't be able to see us," her mother said.

"Live your life as you want to, travel to other countries, make new friends, find a man to love and start a family, none of us is holding you back anymore," her father said. "I'm sorry for the way I neglected you".

"We all love you Kushina, don't ever forget that," her mother said.

Kushina nodded, while more tears escaped her eyes.

"Now you must wake up," Arashi said. "Wake up and live your life".

"But I don't mind staying a while longer," Kushina objected.

"Sorry, but someone is waiting for you".

With that the world before her disappeared in a white light.

"Kushina, Kushina wake up," a male voice said. Someone was shaking her shoulders.

Kushina tried to slap the person but she was unsuccessful.

"Kushina you have to wake up!" the male said even louder. This time Kushina opened her eyes and raised her head to look at the one who had woken her up.

"What is it, Jiraiya?" she hissed, annoyed that he had woken her up from her wonderful dream.

"Are you sure you know the directions to your country?" the white-haired sannin asked.

Now Kushina was even more annoyed than before, if there was something she really didn't like then it was when people accused her of being wrong. "Of course I am, Frog-guy. I may only have walked the way once but I wouldn't forget something that important".

"Sorry," Jiraiya said sadly, "it's just that then Mr. Turasuki must have sailed into the wrong direction because I see no island".

"What?" Kushina asked in shock.

"See for yourself, there's nothing here".

Kushina looked into the direction the toad sage pointed. He was right she saw no island. The only thing she saw was a small cliff, but barely, because they were too far away.

"Hey Mister," Kushina called, speaking to the boat owner. "Where are we?"

"I do not know, miss," Mr. Turasuki said, "I just followed the directions you gave me".

"You couldn't have," Kushina said, "there's no Whirlpool here".

"But miss, I assure you I did just as you said, straight forward all the way, maybe you just misinformed-" he was cut off by a punch to the arm, because Kushina missed his stomach. "Don't you think I know the directions to my own home?" she yelled angrily, her body shaking with rage.

"I'm sorry miss," Mr. Turasuki said but I really didn't do anything wrong, I followed all the directions you gave me, I swear".

Kushina was about to answer something but Jiraiya placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. Kushina placed her own hand on top of his and let it rest there for a second before she brushed his hand away. Instead of continuing her argument with Mr. Turasuki she instead turned to look at the cliff. "I want us to take a better look at that," she said, pointing at the cliff in the middle of the water.

"Right, miss," the boat owner said, beginning to sail into the direction of the cliff.

"What good will that do?" Jiraiya asked.

"I don't know," Kushina said honestly, "I just have a feeling, it's strange but I think I've seen this cliff before, maybe it can give us a hint of where we are".

"Hm," Jiraiya said and nodded.

Minato dropped down on a stool at the ramen stand. He was panting. He and his quad of students had had a pretty simple mission in his opinion; to paint a fence. Needless to say that it didn't turn out pretty well, well they got the job done but the fence hadn't been the only thing that had gotten some paint. Kakashi had given another comment about 'useless genin' and Obito had gotten mad and had poured paint over the silver-haired chuunin. Of course that had resulted in a paint-fight. Then Obito had accidentally poured paint on Rin, which made her join the fight. It took Minato five whole minutes to get his three students apart.

Of course Minato had accepted to pay back the client for the wasted paint.

The conversation he had with them afterwards was not a very pleasant memory.

Minato looked at his three students, trying to look as stern as possible. "You three, I'm very disappointed in you today," he started, staring down on each of them hoping that they would feel and suffer from the guilt. "I simply don't know what to do about you," he said. "You can't even do a D-rank mission without screwing up somehow. I'm very disappointed".

Obito looked at Kakashi and the two nine-year olds exchanged glares.

"Obito," Minato said in a voice that almost made the Uchiha afraid to look at him. "Must you always start a fight every time Kakashi annoys you? You are ninja, you should ignore those kinds of things and continue with the mission, you almost failed today and because of your little childish actions you cost us some money, your paychecks won't be so good-looking this time".

Rin looked uncomfortable and seemed to find the ground very fascinating.

"Kakashi," Minato continued his lecturing, "sometimes it is best to keep your thoughts to yourself. Must you always look down on your teammates just because your rank is higher? If you think you deserve more respect just because you're a chuunin then act like an adult and don't insult your teammates when you know how they will react. I refuse to believe that you didn't have even the slightest idea about what Obito would do when he heard you say it".

Kakashi's face remained neutral but one who looked close enough could see the regret in his eyes.

"And Rin," Minato said, "you are the one I'm most disappointed in. You used to be the peacemaker, the one who tried to stop this fight, yet this time you joined them, and on a mission might I add, I had expected better behavior from you, Rin, you disappoint me".

Minato knew very well that he had mentioned the word 'disappoint' many times but he wanted to make sure that the point slipped in, he was disappointed in them and he wanted them to know it so they would feel the shame.

"I'm starting to think that passing you was a mistake," the blonde continued. "Maybe you could use a couple of more years in the academy, Obito and Rin".

"You're going to send us back to the academy?" Obito asked I shock. Rin didn't look too happy about that either but she stayed silent.

"If you continue goofing around like this on missions then the answer is yes," Minato said, "however that is not a decision that I will make now, I'll give you a week, complete all your missions and be serious and avoid trouble and then we will continue as a team, however if you can not do that then I will make arrangements with the academy and send you back. And Kakashi, I'm afraid I cannot force you to go back to the academy since you are a chuunin but maybe I can make arrangements that will strip you of that rank".

Kakashi glared at his sensei in anger.

"Now I have warned you," he said, "if you want to become good ninja you will do as I say, I don't like this any more than you do".

Minato ordered some random kind of ramen and sighed when the chef turned back to his stove. 'Why did I choose to become a shinobi again?'

As the chef placed a bowl with hot noodle soup in front of him Minato looked up and grabbed some chopsticks. At first he just stared at the ramen, turning one of the sticks around in circles.

"Hey I'd hurry up and eat it if I were you," the chef said, "otherwise it's just going to get cold".

"Sorry," Minato said, "you're right".

With that said he began to eat his food in silence.

When the blonde an hour later threw himself on the sofa in his living room he buried his face in his hands in frustration. He wasn't sure if it was possible for this day to get worse. He hoped for both his students and himself that he wouldn't have to send them back to the academy.

He wondered how Kushina was doing. Had she and Jiraiya reached Whirlpool country? And how was her family? Were there even any survivors? He hoped that everything was well. He missed her company, both hers and his sensei's. He hoped that his sensei would come back soon, he needed some advice, his sensei had trained a genin squad too after all, and maybe he could give him some tips. But having two genin and a chuunin was different from having three genin. He hoped that his students would improve and learn to work together as a team, for he really didn't want to send them back to the academy.

Not long after Minato fell asleep, in his living room, fully dressed.

Kushina didn't know why but something about that cliff looked familiar. It got bigger as they got closer. The color of it was a dark shade of gray, just like the rocks in Whirlpool country.

As they reached it Kushina took a close look at it. It was very big. It was just like those kinds of cliffs she used to dive from when she and her twin cousins were on the beach.

"Well?" Jiraiya asked.

Kushina jumped out of the boat and onto the cliff. She kneeled down and looked at the horizon. It was like she had been on this cliff before. She climbed down slowly to take a look at the lower part. When she got closer she saw that there was something incurved on it.

'Kushina Uzumaki was here,' it said.

Suddenly memories of the beach flashed before her eyes. She was swimming around with her cousins; they were playing some kind of ballgame. She was diving from a cliff and she took a kunai and started writing something on the cliff with it, that way she would let others know that this was her cliff, her special diving spot and then one day it would be called Kushina's cliff. She smirked when she was done and put the kunai back into her little bag. Now this cliff was hers and hers alone.

"It can't be," she whispered. Her whisper was loud enough for Jiraiya to hear it. "What is it?" he asked the redhead.

Kushina looked sadly at the sannin. "This doesn't make any sense," she murmured. "Whirlpool was supposed to be right here".

Kushina gently traced her fingertips along the spot where she had written her name.

She felt a hand on her shoulder and she turned her head to see Jiraiya.

"Kushina what is it?"

"Whirlpool," Kushina murmured, a tear falling from her eye, "it's gone".

A/N: Admit it, you thought Minato had used the Flying Thundergod, didn't you? Well not this time I'm afraid. Did you like this chapter? Let's make a little contest, can you guess what happened to the Whirlpool country? Let me see howsmart you are. Anyway remember that I won't update if you don't review.