Almost half an hour later, Naruto and Minato followed a silent ANBU down the dimly lit hallways of the ANBU holding cells, both henge firmly in place. Both seal-users were silent, both contemplating a separate person. Minato's thoughts were centered on his former student Kakashi, reminded of the silver-haired boy- He'll be a man by now- by the grinning wolf mask the ANBU wore. It clearly wasn't Kakashi under the mask- the hair color was all wrong for that and besides, the operative was too young.
Naruto's ruminations were focused on Sasuke, wondering how far the raven-haired teen had delved into the darkness. Pot black kettle calling, came the amused thought from Kyuubi. Naruto mentally growled before replying. I did not enter the darkness willingly, nor do I embrace it with greedy arms. I still maintain that I sit on the border of light and dark- the twilight. Sasuke gave himself over freely and look where that has gotten him.
Before the fox could retort in his usual fashion, the ANBU leading them through the winding hallways slowed and came to a stop outside the barred cell of one Uchiha Sasuke. Its occupant lay silently on his cot, back facing his new visitors. The ANBU silently unlocked the cell and motioned for Naruto and Minato to enter. Both did so, with a silent nod of thanks that went unacknowledged as the door was shut and locked behind them. "The cell will be keyed to your chakra signatures while you're busy with the Uchiha so you won't need an escort to come and get you once you're done," murmured the ANBU. Minato nodded politely and watched as the silent operative walk away.
Turning around, the former Hokage was surprised to see Sasuke and a un-henged Naruto staring intensely at each other. Sasuke was the first to look away while Naruto slowly raised a hand and slipped it under his vest to massage at his right shoulder as Sasuke turned to look at Minato. "What do you want," he asked dully, shifting slightly on his cot.
"We here for a preliminary examination of your curse seal to see how much we have ahead of us," Minato explained calmly. Sasuke snorted slightly before removing his shirt and stood, mockingly spreading his arms and staring calmly at his companions. Minato's face was devoid of expression as he observed the small scatterings of scars that spread across Sasuke's upper body. Naruto briefly curled his lip before calmly stalking around Sasuke who subtly tensed as Naruto stopped to stare as his neck before his gaze flicked down to Sasuke's low hanging pants.
Naruto's eyes narrowed as he saw the thin half moon scars that occasionally crossed thin white lines of more scarring. His fangs were bared and a low growl escaped his throat as he grasped the implications of the scars. Taking a step closer, the blonde was almost unsurprised to see Sasuke's muscles tense another level before focusing on the large patterned scar on the nape of Sasuke's neck. "Ahhhh," he murmured, reaching a hand to brush the roughened skin, "I remember leaving this dental impression…"
Sasuke flinched at the blonde's touch, turning to glare at Naruto; thus giving Minato a clear view of the scar. Minato's eyebrows rose as he looked at the near-perfect impression of Naruto's teeth. "You have, ah, a fondness for going for the neck," he muttered before turning his attention to Sasuke's shoulder and the curse seal there.
Naruto smirked slightly before leaning against the wall. "Well my arm wasn't exactly functional at that point." He retorted, eyes flickering to look at Sasuke who smirked grimly.
"It was only a Chidori to the shoulder, dobe," the Uchiha muttered, crossing his arms against his chest to ward off the cool dampness of the cell.
Minato froze for a moment, recognizing the technique before coughing slightly. "Why don't you take a look at the seal Naruto," he asked, moving back to give the other blonde space.
Naruto pushed off the wall and sauntered over to peer at the inky markings, thumbs hooked in his sash and fingers drumming against his legs. "Did Ero-sennin talk to you about the curse seal at all?"
"Not particularly since he was baffled himself," Minato sighed as glanced back at the seal. "He's not that great with deconstructing seals in the first place and Orochimaru obviously hid the design."
Naruto eyed his eyes. "Well of course Orochimaru hid the design- it'd be too easy if we had the runes in front of us. I mean, take a look at my seal. One of the reasons Orochimaru was able to screw with it so easily was because the runes are in plain sight. Poof! Insta-blocked access!"
Minato sent him a flat look, about to tell him to focus on Sasuke's seal when the Uchiha suddenly clutched at his shoulder, a small gasp of pain escaping as he hunched over, muscles trembling from the tension. Both Naruto and Minato straightened, exchanging looks. Minato crouched down and managed to pry Sasuke's fingers away from the seal enough to see that the mark was pulsing a dull angry reddish-orange.
Naruto let out a low hissing breath as he peered at the seal. "Figures the fucking bastard would use the seal as a physical way to screw with his minion-toys."
Minato nodded thoughtfully. "If I had to hazard a guess without any more research, I'd say Orochimaru cobbled together a weaker version of the Hyuuga's seal."
"Makes sense," Naruto agreed. "I want to see if we can commandeer a Hyuuga to take a look at his chakra coils and see what they can tell us."
"That will be our next step," Minato confirmed, standing up; sparing a glance towards Sasuke's hunched form. "Think we can report to Tsunade without endangering our lives?"
"…Probably," Naruto muttered under his breath, heading for the door.
Ookami slunk into the ANBU headquarters, intent on showering and changing out of his blood-spattered uniform before going home and curling up in bed for the next twelve or so hours. Most of his masked compatriots within the lobby of HQ sensed his exhaustion and kept silent- except for one.
"Oi, Ookami! Can't you keep a uniform clean for just one mission? The Quartermaster is going to have your hide on a platter!" Ookami's shoulders slumped and he turned to face a younger, clearly rookie, ANBU wearing a wolf mask that only differed from Ookami's in the patterned paint and the state of the porcelain material- The youngster's mask gleamed proudly, without a scratch to be seen while Ookami's mask was dulled and seemed to be a magnet for scratches, scares and small dents.
"I'd like to see you try and keep a uniform clean," he began in a slow drawl, clearly mocking the younger member. "While escaping from a rather large squad of Iwa jounin af…ter…you…" Ookami's voice abruptly trailed off as a familiar scent entered the immediate area, accompanied by the strong stench of fox and chakra in general. He slowly turned to see a man and an older teen walk out of the hall that led to the ANBU holding cells.
Underneath his mask, Ookami's nose twitched as his mind registered the scents and promptly decided to shut down as his mouth and vocal chords instinctively formed a single title. "Sensei?"
The man on the left smiled slightly and motioned for Ookami to join him and his companion- whose scent niggled at the back of his mind- before moving to a quiet alcove, usually used for final briefings- or gossip sessions- by various ANBU teams. The man with Minato-sensei's scent stood just like him while the other one leaned against the wall, muscles tense.
Between one moment and the next, a henge was dropped and Kakashi felt his heart clench painfully as Minato smiled slightly. "Hey 'Kashi," he spoke quietly, arms crossing in front of his chest. The other person twitched and a small hurt noise escaped their throat, eyes flicking from Ookami/Kakashi to Minato-sensei as Kakashi slowly reached up and removed his mask before hooking the battered porcelain on his belt. As the teen slowly chewed on his bottom lip, the scent and actions finally clicked together into one name.
"You might as well drop the henge Naruto," Kakashi muttered under his breath with a long look at the teen. He was surprised to see Naruto stopped chewing on his bottom lip to bare his teeth, henged eyes flashing.
"Stupid fuckin' Hatake nose," Naruto snarled under his breath. "Naruto's not here but Kitsune will gladly keep you company."
Kakashi flinched back at the near-hatred Naruto's voice possessed, turning back to Minato who closed his eyes and sighed heavily. "Kitsune-san, we'd best report back to Tsunade-sama," he murmured, watching as Naruto/Kitsune opened his eyes, any hint of anger gone.
"Of course Minato-san," Kitsune bowed his head slightly before pushing off of the wall.
Kakashi moved back silently, his visible eye curving into a smile. "I'd best change and report before going home to curl up with my dolphin." He watched with small sense of satisfaction of Kitsune's right eye twitched. The sense of satisfaction abruptly disappeared as Kitsune smiled slyly.
"I trust I don't need to warn you, Kakashi-san, that Naruto is rather protective of dolphins," Kitsune's voice was smooth, the weighty meaning perfectly clear to Kakashi.
"I'll…just go hit the showers," Kakashi muttered, his eye focusing on anything but Kitsune's smug smirk.
Minato watched the small exchange, knowing that he was missing something of some importance but not knowing what. He hadn't seen Kakashi this uncomfortable since the mission where he had taken a kunai to the femoral artery, rather high on his thigh and Rin had had to heal it. Both teen had been steadily red-faced and refused to as much as glance at each other for almost an entire day. "See you later then, Kakashi," the former Hokage said genially as he reapplied his henge and started walking toward the door, Kitsune trailing behind him by a step.
Sakura sighed as she let herself into her apartment, shoulders slumping as she mumbled out the traditional "Taidama" before dragging her laundry down the hallway and into her room, dumping the basket on her bed. She sat beside said basket on her red comforter for a moment, thinking of what she would do for the evening.
Her mother had invited her to the house for dinner, but she wasn't feeling up to the questions that were normally asked. Was she sleeping enough, she seemed a over-tired; maybe she should only work at the hospital instead of doing missions and hospital work…Sakura's lip briefly curled at the thought- her parents loved her, but they still didn't grasp why she drove herself so hard. They fretted over her on the rare occasions she did appear and Sakura didn't think she'd be able to answer politely tonight
Levering herself up with a slight groan, the pink-haired chuunin headed for the bathroom, planning to take a hot shower before heading out to look for some dinner. Besides, there's some laundry I need to do...
"A Hyuuga, hmm?" Tsunade tilted her head back to look at the ceiling. " Do you have any preference for who I would assign?"
Naruto folded his arms and tucked his chin to his chest for a moment before smiling weakly. "Don't suppose Neji is free and in the village?" '
"Sorry, he's out on mission Naruto. Hinata should be back from her current mission in about two days though," Tsunade said, consulting a scroll briefly.
Minato frowned slightly, recalling the name from his debriefing of village events. "Hinata, Hinata…Hiashi's first born?" He asked. Tsunade nodded and Minato smiled. "We'll take her. D'you need anything else Tsunade-sama?"
Tsunade sent Minato a small glare. "Some sake and a decent speech explaining your recent return would be wonderful. Get right on it, huh?"
"Eheheh…I think you're on your own for that," Minato chuckled weakly until he spotted Naruto's smirk as his son crossed his arms.
"You could always just gather the villagers and tell them that their precious Yondaime has returned from the dead- and then shove said Yondaime into their ever-loving arms," Naruto suggested with a smirk and a deadly gleam in his eyes.
Tsunade's eyes began to gleam suspiciously as well and Minato decided it would be best to leave- quickly. "Well, wow, would you look at the time? The house still needs some cleaning and I'd better get to it. Seeyoulaterbye!" After that last rushed sentence, Minato made his escape out the window and into the village.
Naruto and Tsunade shared a small chuckle before Naruto sighed, running his hand through his hair for a moment. "I'd better go get some sleep. See ya later baa-chan." Naruto quickly left, his eyes flicking to one corner of the room before jumping out the window and into the village easily.
Tsunade sighed before pinching the bridge of her nose. "You can come out now Kakashi."
Kakashi dropped the genjutsu, slightly unnerved that Naruto had been able to find him, but focused on the matter at hand. "I don't suppose you mind telling me why I walked into ANBU HQ to find my former thoroughly dead sensei walking out with my wayward student?"
Tsunade rolled her eyes and heaved another, more dramatic sigh at the ceiling. "Mostly because we were trying to hide your precious sensei until I have a halfway decent speech written."
Kakashi cocked his head to one side. "Would it just be easier to say "He's back!" before shoving him out into the mob while you make your escape?"
"Don't. Tempt me," Tsunade muttered under her breath as she glared her overflowing trash bin, filled with failed speech attempts. "Shouldn't you be getting fussed over by Iruka or something?"
Kakashi smiled and bowed slightly. "Of course," he said cheerfully before disappearing in a swirl of maple leaves.
AN: Know what suck? Junior projects. I present in less than a week before a large audience and I'm nervous- however, my project is about fencing and this is an opportunity to try and get more people interested, which could lead to getting my idiot district to loosen up a few regulations.
Anyway, tonight is a triple update to make up for my lack-of-brainness in updating.