Time Flows Like Ink
Summary: After a fuinjutsu experiment gone wrong, Minato is yanked into a future where his family is dead, his team fell apart and the Uchiha were slaughtered. With the defective seal burning in his palm, Minato struggles to stay afloat in a Konoha that isn't his.
Chapter 10
Guilt churned in Minato's gut as he finished packing Kushina's and his travelling bag. The seal had announced its intent to make the next jump soon. It had never been a question that it would transport three, and not two, passengers this time.
Leaving Konoha behind in their absence had not been an easy decision – but it was one that hadn't allowed for many alternatives. Kushina wouldn't have let herself be put on the sidelines, and Minato wouldn't have wanted to try.
Taking her along into the future meant he could introduce her to his (older, battle-hardened) team. They would somehow make do with Naruto tiny, cramped apartment. Possibly, most likely, Minato would have to remind his wife to step back from her minor homicidal tendencies once she heard of some of the finer details of Naruto's childhood he had so far forgotten to mention to her.
Besides, they weren't leaving behind Konoha entirely.
"Will Mikoto be alright?" Kushina asked, her brows knitting together in a frown.
Minato would have loved to reassure her. "... I hope so," he said instead, not exactly soothing, but truthfully.
There were not many people Minato would put his trust in as easily as Mikoto. It did not change the fact that if worse came to worst, there wasn't much she would be able to do. Despite that, Mikoto had not hesitated to agree to Minato's request. They were still waiting for her to return from her last-minute preparations.
Far more complicated than getting Mikoto on their side (as if there was any other place for her to be) was explaining to Naruto what it meant to return to the future.
"What do you mean, things might have changed when we come back?" he asked, a frown on his face.
"Exactly that," Minato said patiently, despite having explained it once already. "We came back to the past knowing what the future used to look like. We might have already changed something, just by being here." Not to mention their deliberate plan to force the perpetrator of the Uchiha massacre out in the open. But Naruto didn't need to know about that.
"But," Naruto paused, his frown deepening. "But we've seen the future. We know what it's like. It's always been this way. How can it be any different than what it is?"
"Actually," Kushina chimed in, "it hasn't always been like this."
"Eh? What's that supposed to mean?"
"I've already made several jumps, remember? Rin wasn't there the first time. She's alive now because of what I changed once I came back." And, hopefully, she would be alive still when he returned.
"So anything could be different?"
"Maybe not everything," Minato said. There wasn't a whole lot they had done, this time around. "Most things are very unlikely to have changed. But in theory? Yes, I suppose."
"Like who I'm living with?" Naruto asked. "Or who's the Hokage? Oh!" His expression brightened up in a wide, enthusiastic grin. "Could you be Hokage again when we get back? Or Mom? Maybe we'll be living in a house when we get back! A really big one, and maybe Uchiha-san will be there and–"
Minato let him talk, although his smile grew increasingly strained. Naruto's rambling obliviously stomped over all the questions Minato had asked himself with Kushina and Mikoto whenever Naruto had not been able to overhear.
Would Naruto's situation have improved at all, once they came back? Would Kushina and Minato be dead, still? Would Mikoto? What about the Uchiha and Rin? Would someone else have died, someone they had not considered at all? What if, what if, what if.
They all looked up as the door opened and Mikoto entered. She paused, then gave a single, curt nod. "It is done."
"It worked, then?" Kushina asked.
"Konoha received a distress signal from the front lines," Mikoto said with a perfectly straight face. "The threat was unknown and time was short, so you two used the Hiraishin to potentially save an entire unit of our shinobi." She paused. "Such a shame that you couldn't spare the time to notify the council. They weren't pleased that they had to learn it from me."
Kushina snorted. "I bet they didn't. Did they try to press you for details?"
"You know how they are," Mikoto said, which Minato took to mean 'they would rather face the combined force of their rival countries on their own than accept that their Hokage had entrusted the Uchiha matriarch with his plans and not them'.
Minato couldn't suppress a frown at the thought of their most recent excuse to have him leave the village. The first time had almost caused a mass panic after only two days. The second time had been riskier still. But a third... Minato didn't doubt that they would have to give a proper explanation by the time they returned.
"Stop moping." Kushina shoved his shoulder. "I can hear that you're overthinking it."
"I'm not," Minato said without conviction.
He hadn't tried to talk Kushina out of joining him because he knew her too well to assume he'd have a chance to succeed. It did nothing to quell the feeling of irresponsibility and guilt that clawed in his chest at the thought of leaving Konoha without a Hokage and without the next best thing – Kushina.
Then again, if it meant that Kushina and he would figure out a way to avert even one of the many things that made the future horrible, it would be worth it. Wouldn't it?
Besides, he trusted Mikoto. He trusted her with his life. He would find it in himself to trust her with his village for as long as it took him and Kushina to work out a solution.
A part of him hoped that it would be the last jump they needed to make, while another recoiled at the thought of having to say goodbye to Naruto. At least the version of him that wasn't yet to be born by Kushina.
Minato paused, catching Mikoto's gaze with his own. The reminder would not be appreciated, but it was important. "Think about the offer I made you, alright?"
As expected, Mikoto's mouth tightened in a frown. She hesitated, then nodded.
In normal circumstances, she would have never agreed to give Itachi to Jiraiya as an apprentice. She would have been determined to have him grow up and train surrounded by his clan, close to his family. Unfortunately, the future wasn't kind enough to give them a choice.
"Be careful," Mikoto said, stepping forward to wrap Kushina in a tight hug. She shared a nod with Minato, then changed her mind and moved to hug him, too. The moment was too brief for Minato to return it before she already moved away.
Mikoto was not a very affectionate person, especially not with anyone other than Kushina.
"Take care of each other." Mikoto's eyes dropped downwards, and her expression lit up. "And you, Naruto." She laid a hand on his shoulder briefly.
Naruto gave her a somewhat hesitant smile. "Yes, Uchiha-san."
Mikoto's smile did not falter, but Minato saw the tension lining her shoulders. He could bet that they were both thinking the same thing. If everything turned out in a way that they'd planned, Naruto would grow up calling Mikoto an aunt, just like Sasuke and Itachi would call Kushina and Minato their aunt and uncle.
They would create their perfect, happy ending. Minato and Kushina would make sure of it.
Kushina had imagined many things upon arriving in the strange, unacceptable future her son had come from. She'd imagined marching through the village with a righteously burning fire in her chest, confronting each and every person that had done nothing to make Naruto's life less miserable after their death.
She'd imagined cold determination flowing through her veins as she systematically weeded out each and every problem she would not tolerate in any future she would come to live in.
Most of all, Kushina had expected to know exactly what to do the second they arrived. They'd certainly made enough plans, her and Minato and Mikoto.
All of them seemed to have evaporated with the very first breath she'd taken upon their arrival. Her mind was blank. She felt like the breath had been knocked out of her as she looked over the village with an aimless, unfocused glance. Listening to stories didn't compare to seeing it all for herself.
What had they planned to do first, again?
"Mom? Are you alright?" Naruto slipped out from Minato's grasp but didn't reach out to her. Kushina felt Minato's hand at her shoulder, firm and grounding.
I'm fine, Kushina intended to say, and instead blurted out, "We need to check up on Mikoto."
Minato's expression grew strained. "I told you what happened the last few times."
He had. Kushina didn't need to hear that horrible story a second time. "I know. And since you told Mikoto, she knew what was going to happen. There's no way she wouldn't prevent it."
"... She would have tried," Minato offered, his words making Kushina want to punch him. Mikoto was one of the smartest people she knew. There was no way she would have let anything like the massacre happen a second time, now that she'd known to prepare for it.
Minato saw the stubborn crease between her eyes and he sighed. "Just don't get your hopes up too much."
Kushina didn't need to get her hopes up when she knew her childhood friend better than anyone else. Minato would see for himself, once they'd found her.
Kushina leaped up and onto the nearest rooftop without wasting another breath. Trusting Minato to either stay with Naruto or to bring him along, Kushina took the quickest route towards the Uchiha district that she knew of, uncaring who exactly would spot them on their way. She wasn't planning on hiding from anyone.
And if anyone tried to stop her, well. Kushina held no reservations about working off some of the frustration she felt, especially if somebody so graciously volunteered.
Kushina didn't make it all the way to the Uchiha district. She didn't need to. She caught a glimpse of black hair and matching eyes and jumped, her eyes lingering on the white and red crest as she landed directly in front of the elderly woman. Her mouth pulled into a grin.
"I knew it!" Kushina did not know the woman, besides the fact that she was without a doubt an Uchiha. It did not stop her from pulling her into a tight, enthusiastic hug. "I knew she'd do it!"
"K-Kushina!" Minato landed few steps behind her, Naruto not far behind.
Kushina ignored him. Only now did she realize that another Uchiha – a young, scrawny girl – stood beside them, watching with wide eyes. Not wasting a second, Kushina pulled her into a hug, too.
The old woman sputtered in indignation. "What do you think you're doing!"
Minato wrapped a firm, warm hand around Kushina's arm and pulled her back. She let it happen without losing the grin on her face.
"I am so, so sorry about that," Minato said, pushing Kushina behind him with a pointed look. "Please, don't mind my wife. She's just excited."
"Are you an Uchiha?" Naruto poked his head out from under Minato's arm. "Like Sasuke?"
"Of course she is!" said Kushina, beaming. "I told you Mikoto would do it. She wouldn't have let anything happen. Not while she was there to do something about it." She would have to ask her how she'd done it. Had it been enough to keep an extra eye on Itachi? To nudge him away from the path that had been laid out for him? Or had she ripped out the issue at its root and taken care of the Uchiha's isolation from the rest of the village?
Better yet, perhaps Mikoto had found the culprit behind the conspiracy. Chances were high that their trap had snapped shut during their absence, and Mikoto had decided to take matters into her own hands.
"Let's find her quick," she said, giving Naruto a smirk. "She can tell us everything."
"Kushina," Minato said, his voice an odd tone. Kushina ignored him in favor of the Uchiha woman.
"Where's Mikoto?" she asked in a rush, her body brimming with the need to stop wasting time and to hunt down her friend. If it wasn't for the fact that she needed to be told where to find her, Kushina would have made a break for it already.
Kushina took note of the woman's bemused frown. She held one arm stuck out to hold back her charge.
"You keep saying that name," she said warily, "Mikoto. Is this a joke?"
Kushina's heart dropped into her stomach.
"Why would it be joke?" Minato asked.
Kushina didn't think she could have made her voice work around the dryness in her throat.
"Come on," the woman muttered, yanking at the little girl's arm to get her moving. Kushina jumped in her way before she could leave.
"Wait! Please. It's not a joke. We're actually looking for Uchiha Mikoto." More quietly, Kushina added, "What happened to her?"
The woman looked at them with a long, calculating glance. Then her shoulders dropped, exhaustion seeping into her every pore. "You're him, aren't you?" she said, not quite looking at Minato. "The former Hokage. The one who's had the whole village astir for weeks."
Next to her, the little girl gasped.
"I'm afraid so." Minato forced a horribly strained smile on his face. "I'm not sure how much you know about me, but I – we – are a bit... out of the loop."
Kushina might have snorted at his choice of phrasing, if it wasn't for the urgency that made her want to tear the village to pieces if she didn't get her answers right now. As if sensing her restlessness, Minato reached out blindly to link their hands.
The woman watched them with an expression veiled in reluctance. Then she jerked her head, once. "Fine. Come along, then." She didn't spare them another glance as she grabbed the little girl's hand and started walking.
Kushina shared a look with Minato. With a lump in her throat and worry tugging at her stomach, they set off to follow the two Uchiha towards their home district.
Kushina didn't know when she'd stopped listening. She held onto the teacup she'd been offered without the intention to ever drink something of it – there was no way she could manage to force anything down her throat – and kept her eyes focused anywhere but the depressingly small number of Uchiha sat in a half circle around them.
Half a dozen Uchiha too old to fight, a few civilians who had never held a kunai before in their life and an even smaller number of shinobi with battle injuries they would never recover from. There weren't any children in their round, but they were assured that there were just under a dozen in the village.
That was all. About twenty people – and none of them shinobi – were left of Konoha's once proudest clan. Mikoto and her husband were just two names on the long list of shinobi who had given their life on that day.
Something prickled at the edge of Kushina's awareness and she ignored it.
She'd known that this was a possibility. She'd known that it was something she had to be prepared for. But actually sitting here, half-listening to the tale of how an entire clan – families, shinobi, the entire police force – were reduced to a scattered group of grieving orphans and widows: Kushina pressed her eyes shut as if that could ever succeed in blocking out what had happened.
"Kushina," Minato muttered, rubbing a hand over her back. He knew her better than to ask how she was doing. "Go on. Take Naruto and find Kakashi and Rin." He nudged her until she rose to her feet shakily. "I can take care of this. Go."
Somewhat hysterical, Kushina thought that at the very least she could finally understand Minato's reaction upon arriving at the memorial after his very first time jump.
She would hold onto Mikoto and refuse to let go for at least an hour once they returned.
"Kushina?"
It was the thought that they would return, that they would be seeing Mikoto again, that tore Kushina out of her paralysis. None of this was permanent. None of this had to happen a second time. They would make sure that it wouldn't.
Kushina managed a shaky nod and laid a hand on Naruto's shoulder. Her son had been worryingly quiet during the whole ordeal.
"Come on, Naruto." Kushina jumped up on the nearest rooftop and shook her head, trying to get rid of a persistent buzzing that had taken hold in it. "Are you alright?"
"Are you?" Naruto frowned, the corner of his lip tugging downwards. "You got all... quiet and shaky in there. You're never quiet."
Kushina paused. She'd been the one who'd freaked Naruto out, not everything they'd heard inside the district? She supposed that having grown up in a Konoha without Uchiha, listening to their extinction would have sounded like little more than a story to him. Kushina meanwhile had known several of them dearly.
"I'm fine," she lied, and gave Naruto what she hoped was a reassuring smile. "Come on. Let's take a look around this place, alright?"
And if anyone stopped them on the way, the chances were high that Kushina had a score to settle with them anyway. She certainly wouldn't complain if somebody gave her a reason to let out some steam at them.
A/N: Beta'd by the wonderful To Mockingbird, PyrothTenka and Igornerd!
~Gwen