Holy crap, I've really just been blazing through writing these chapters nowadays, it seems. Never in my life would I have imagined being this productive with my fanfics. Still, I'm not complaining.
And on a bit of a random note, Godzilla! It's finally here in just two days! Ah childhood, how much you've aged and beautifully so…. Wow, that sounded remarkably fanboyish of me.
Now on a more relevant note, this chapter more or less marks the end to the chunin exam/invasion arc. From here on out, things will be different. The Namikaze family will be in the limelight a bit more now that the fight between Naruto and Reiko has happened. With nearly half of the Ragnarok participants taken care of too, it'll only be a few more magi battles before the final battles commence, though those are still a bit of a ways off. Nonetheless, I do hope you all look forward to those battles.
Now without further delay, here's the next chapter.
Chapter 20
Miki, Ryuichi, Hanako, and Masami approached Orochimaru slowly, cautiously, almost disbelievingly.
Right now, the snake sannin was currently lying on the ground. Miki's attack – Tyrfing – had put an end to his magical weapon, Memory Impersonator. The attack hadn't simply been content with that though; in addition to his magical weapon being destroyed, his arms had been vanquished as well. The snake sannin had also been cut in half at the waist.
Orochimaru coughed up some blood, his expression pained and shocked, but on the whole a bit amazed. "Kukuku," he chuckled weakly as he spotted the approaching magi. "I never would've imagined being defeated like this…"
"You probably shouldn't have underestimated us then," Miki retorted, remarkably calm. Inwardly though, she was glad that the snake sannin hadn't really bothered to take them all seriously from the start. If he had, then it wouldn't have surprised her if he had kill them all. He'd certainly have the skill for such a feat.
Orochimaru chuckled yet again. "I suppose so. But that's not what I meant, girl…" His weak smirk dropped. Already, the lower half of his body had faded away and what remained of him now was beginning to faintly glow, signaling his approaching end. "Your magical weapon… it's quite the powerful thing, although it looks like it has its risks too," he commented.
At his words, Ryuichi and Hanako shared a look of confusion and suspicion. Masami simply narrowed her eyes in thought. As for Miki though, the girl's eyes widened considerably. It would seem that Orochimaru had, perhaps as a result of being on the receiving end of it, figured out her magical weapon's main ability.
Svafrlami. It was more than just some random magical weapon in the form of a massive slab covering up a slender sword. Svafrlami was a conceptual magical weapon. Its main ability, Tyrfing, allowed it to 'cut' concepts. Another way of describing it would be one word: destroy. In this way, it could be compared to Katsu's own magical weapon, not that Miki would know about this fact. However, unlike Katsu's magical weapon, which only worked on what it could physically touch, Miki's was not limited by something as meager as range. With Tyrfing, even the very concept of distance itself could be sliced clean through, in turn reducing the 'distance' between Miki's attack and its target to zero, allowing the attack to instantly strike its target. It was a truly an attack that couldn't be dodged nor blocked, a true end-all strike that matched Miki's philosophy of 'ending the battle as quickly as possible' to the letter. Not only that, but in terms of sheer mana, Miki was actually a cut above Katsu and so if their two magical weapons were to clash, Miki's conceptual attack would overturn Katsu's with ease. After all, only a stronger conceptual magical weapon could overpower another one.
However, as powerful as her Svafrlami was, it had one glaring flaw, which ironically was its greatest strength. Because of how powerful the conceptual slash known as Tyrfing was, it put a massive strain on both Miki and Svafrlami.
Miki looked down at her sword, still in its true form. Though it was too small for the normal human eye to see, with her enhanced eyesight, Miki could see it; a crack on the blade. "So the damage is this much…" she thought sadly.
The strain Tyrfing puts on her and her magical weapon is simply so great that using it three times would cause it to destroy itself from the self-inflicted damage. And since she had just used it to defeat Orochimaru…
"Only two more uses left," Miki thought, her expression grim.
She looked at Orochimaru, whose body was looking more and more transparent by the second. And with passing second, she could feel all of the mana he ever had being drained from him and added to her own reserves, boosting them considerably.
Orochimaru chuckled yet again. "Oh well," he began. "I suppose there are worse ways to go…" Long ago, he had sought immortality or at least something close enough to it in order to learn all ninjutsu in the world. But when he had awakened as a magus, that desire of his had washed away and he had actually ruled over his created village of Otogakure with a firm and startlingly gentle (by his standards, anyway) hand. His people, while not exactly happy with his rule, were satisfied. It helped put them all at ease that his experiments had ended long ago when he had first awakened as a magus too.
"How funny," the snake sannin thought as he closed his eyes. "In spite of my desire to take one last swing at Konoha like this… I can't help but feel at peace now…"
He faded away, signaling the end of the battle for good.
With Takehiko, Katsu, and Yuko, the three of them looked at the unknown woman with great caution, especially the former.
However, before any of them could really do anything about it, Ai Space began to deactivate. "W-What the-?!" Yuko began, startled.
"Oh?" the mysterious woman spoke up, an eyebrow raised in amusement. "Looks like its over."
Now she turned in order to face both Katsu and Takehiko. In doing so, the glove she wore disappeared. This didn't go unnoticed by everyone there.
"That must be her magical weapon," Katsu thought, keeping his guard up around the woman.
"Now now," she continued with a smile. "Ai Space is gone for now. No need to go around pointlessly using your magical weapons, right? Especially since yours is about to drain you completely dry of mana about now." Her last few words were aimed at Katsu.
The man in question raised his eyebrows in shock. She had been able to deduce his mana being drained by his magical weapon just like that?
"Katsu," Takehiko then spoke up.
Katsu looked to the boy, surprised. The boy magus didn't sound arrogant like all the times before. Instead, he sounded… cautious. Nervous. "Like she said, Ai Space is done for now. Dismiss your magical weapon. It's time for us to go, especially since it looks like the invasion of Konoha is about to end as well."
Katsu looked off to the village and sure enough he could see that the fighting that had been vigorously going on before had dwindled considerably, reaching its end. With a grunt, he reluctantly obeyed Takehiko.
Takehiko approached the man while still glaring at the woman. His magical weapon floated by his side, awaiting his command. "I don't know how you got here so fast… but make no mistake, next time around we will be ready for you."
The woman simply laughed lightly in response. Behind her, Yuko dismissed her magical weapon, but looked on in nervousness. "Just what is with this woman? How can she be so…?" The red eyed girl's thought drifted off. She could only shake her head in disbelief over how nonchalant her savior was right now.
"I'm sure you will be, boys," the woman said. "But until then, it looks like you two no longer have any business here in Konoha."
"Tch! 'Take us away from here!'" Takehiko then commanded of his magical weapon. In an instant, he and Katsu faded from sight, having been teleported away, far from Konoha.
Now it was just Yuko and the woman who had saved her. The latter's rather cheerful smile dropped as she then looked over the state of the village. "Looks like quite a number of people didn't make it," she commented, remarkably sad as she could see the bodies of a number of Konoha shinobi that had went down fighting and civilians that had been unfortunate enough to not make it to shelter in time.
Yuko's eyes followed her line of sight and she too couldn't quite stop a pang from being felt by her heart. But nonetheless, she felt a compulsion to try and get to the bottom of this mysterious woman.
"Just… who are you?" she asked cautiously.
The woman slowly turned and gazed at Yuko. Yuko squirmed under said gaze, which was unbelievably intense. "This woman… she's incredibly powerful!" she thought nervously.
She twitched in fright when the woman suddenly smiled disarmingly. "No need to be so jumpy now. Seriously, you act as if I might eat you or something. Which I won't do…" The woman smiled coyly. "Yet."
Yuko squawked in shock and horror.
The woman laughed. "Just kidding." Yuko slowly relaxed. "You're not my type; too skinny. Not enough va-va-voom!" The woman made a few hand gestures to emphasis her point, motioning to Yuko's chest area and waist.
Yuko squawked again, this time in shock and indignation.
"Just kidding, just kidding," the woman laughed out. "I'm not like that at all, seriously," she said airily.
"P-Please be serious here," Yuko sputtered out. "Who are you, really?"
The woman's expression still looked amused, but this time there appeared to be something else there, a seriousness of sorts. "Who am I, huh?" she said slowly. "Well, I can assure you, I'm definitely not your enemy. In Ragnarok, I'd like to think of myself as being no one's enemy, but rather an ally of sorts."
She smiled softly now. "My name is Katsumi. It's nice to finally get to meet you, Yuko-chan." She ignored Yuko's look of shock. "Now I know this may seem sudden, but can you perhaps not go around mentioning me to your friends? I'd like to greet them on my own terms in a while."
Yuko blinked. "W-What?"
Katsumi just smiled. "Thanks for understanding!" She turned to leave. "Don't worry, you and the others will run into me again soon enough, so any questions you may have… hold onto them until then."
"H-Hey, wait!" Yuko cried out, but it was too late. By the time she spoke, Katsumi was already gone.
With Naruto, the blond magus could only stare as several jounin hauled the now unconscious Gaara off along with the rest of the enemy shinobi that have been captured rather than slain.
"How are the wounded? And the civilians?" Minato questioned a few shinobi just several feet away from Naruto.
As the shinobi gave the hokage a rundown as the situation, Naruto slowly looked over to his mom, who looked as unhurt as Minato.
When they had shown up, he and his parents had made quick work of Gaara, with his father having applied a fuinjutsu to seal away Shukaku while Kushina had kept him pinned and whereas Naruto had served to gain Gaara's and Shukaku's attention long enough for Minato to have applied the seal in the first place.
He watched as his mom looked over the village from afar, a pained expression on her face. For once, he couldn't quite bring himself to despise her; he felt the same way.
"A lot of people were hurt and killed today," he thought, mentally tired while physically he wasn't even winded.
While the village may have ignored him as he grew up for the most part, he didn't necessarily hate it. And it wasn't as if the civilians or shinobi of Konoha had done anything to warrant anything like this. Rebuilding was going to be hard, that was for sure.
"Kushina," Minato then spoke up, having finished relaying order to the shinobi from earlier. He slowly approached his wife, but halted temporarily in his footsteps when he saw that in between him and his wife coincidentally stood his estranged son.
Kushina, having heard her husband and sensing his sudden stop, turned to see what had happened and saw her son as well.
Naruto could only look back and forth between the two awkwardly. He had to keep himself from growling in annoyance. After his fight with Reiko earlier today, he was certain that even with the clean-up that needed to be done for Konoha, his parents were going to do something. He was just sure of it.
"Naruto…" Minato eventually said. He was glad that he was alone with his wife and son right now, the shinobi earlier having taken off to obey his commands. This already felt pretty awkward and it would've felt even more awkward if there had been an audience. "Are… you okay?" he asked.
"I'm fine," Naruto responded curtly. He shoved his hands into his pockets and moved out of the way, providing Minato and Kushina a clear straight-line path towards one another. He was hoping they'd take the hint and just attend to each other.
He wasn't that lucky.
"Naruto," his mother now spoke. Uncharacteristically, she fidgeted. There was so much she and Minato wanted to say, but neither of them were sure on where to even start. "A-Are you really okay?"
"I'm fine, kaa-san," he said, his anger, still quite fresh from his battle with Reiko and encounter with Takehiko, seeping into his voice.
"N-Naruto…" Kushina whispered. "About what was said… in your battle with Reiko…"
At that, Naruto gritted his teeth in frustration as the fight came back to the forefront of his mind.
"People can change! We can change!"
"You're just running away from us!"
"We know it won't be easy, that there is a long way to go to make this right… but we do want to make this right!"
"Things will be different this time! I promise!"
These were but a few of the things his sister had shouted at him. And they rang in his ears now that his mom had to go and bring it up. These words rattled Naruto's mind badly as he remembered the sheer intensity, the determination with which Reiko had fought with.
"I'm going to go check and see if the other genin are alright," Naruto said abruptly, before Kushina could continue.
"Naruto, wait!" Minato and Kushina said, but it was too late. Naruto had already run off into the village.
"Damn it…" he thought, his mind a mess. First his argument with Reiko a week ago, then the match with her, then the invasion, then Ai Space and Takehiko, and now his parents. He had never felt so frustrated or confused before in his life. "Damn it!"
He ran deeper into the village, no longer caring about holding back as much. He just hoped that Ai Space has finally ended. And that his friends were alright.
With the people in question, they had reappeared in the real world just a few minutes ago in the center of the stadium.
They had proceeded to check on the area of the stadium where the nobles had been sitting, wanting to see if Satoru was alright, but had been surprised to see him and the nobles missing. They hoped that it was because they had already been evacuated to a shelter when the attack had started.
And now they walked slowly from the stadium and through the rest of the village. "The village is an absolute mess…" Ryuichi muttered sadly.
Miki and Hanako nodded solemnly in agreement as they passed by stores and buildings, all of them wrecked to varying degrees, with some being flat out destroyed.
"I sure hope everyone was evacuated in time," Miki spoke up softly.
"I'm sure they were, Miki-chan," Hanako said in an attempt to soothe the other girl.
"Yes," Masami then added. "Please do cheer up. I'm sure everyone is fine," she said with a smile.
Miki looked to the older girl, a small and weary smile on her face. "Masami-san… thanks. For your words. And for the help."
Masami waved her off. "Oh no need at all to thank me," she said good naturedly. But the smile she wore disappeared as she grimaced.
"Masami-san, are you alright?" Ryuichi asked. "That was probably the first fight you were ever in, after all…"
The older girl nodded as she briefly held her side. "Yes, you are correct about that. But don't worry, the wound has already healed. It's just a matter of waiting for the pain to fade on its own. Though I must say, that battle just now had been… quite intense."
Her three walking companions chuckled weakly. "Well, considering it was Orochimaru we were facing, that's to be expected," Ryuichi said.
"Oh look!" Hanako then said, pointing ahead.
They all did as she said and could now see people. A great number of them were Konoha shinobi, currently in the process of going around and making sure the entire situation was under control. Looking more closely, they could even see another familiar face.
"Jiraiya-sama?" Miki muttered in surprise, having not expected another one of the sannin to be in the general area. Still, she supposed it was reassuring to have someone of his caliber around right now, especially since the village was going to take a lot of extra hands to get cleaned up.
The magi slowly approached the shinobi, who reacted to their somewhat sudden approach with a high degree of surprise and caution, with a great deal of them nearly reacting with violence. However, once they saw that Miki and Ryuichi were Konoha genin while recognizing Masami as the daughter of the fire daimyo and figuring Hanako – now back in her normal clothes – to be a civilian, they all dropped their guard quickly enough and escorted them deeper into the village, moving them to a safe zone.
There, the magi could see all of the civilians that had been evacuated into shelters slowly but surely being released here now that the invasion was over.
It broke their hearts as they saw the shell-shocked looks of the civilians. "This is going to be on their minds for a long time now…" Hanako commented sadly.
"Yeah…" Ryuichi and Miki agreed tiredly.
"Excuse me," Masami asked of a passing by chunin. "Would you happen to know where the fire daimyo is? I'm his daughter."
The chunin blinked tiredly. Given the current disheveled and bloodied state of his clothes, it was clear to Masami and the others that he had been deep in the frontlines of battle earlier. "He's safe," he said, just barely mustering up a reassuring smile. "He and the other nobles were immediately evacuated to a special bunker following the start of the attack."
"I see…" Masami replied, nodding thoughtfully. "Do you know when he and the others will be let out?"
"Don't know. Soon enough, once we secure the village and civilians first," the chunin answered. "Not to sound rude, but if that is all…"
Masami nodded and made a tired motion of the hand. "Of course. Sorry to have taken up your time," she said, bowing lightly towards the chunin in thanks.
As the chunin walked away, Masami looked back at the others, her expression one of relief.
"I'm happy for you, Masami-san," Miki said with a smile.
"Yes, thank you," she replied.
They all made ready to find a spot to sit down and rest, all of them completely exhausted, especially Masami and Ryuichi. The former because this was her first actual battle and so she needed her rest to adjust whereas the latter was tired from having used Turbulence mode for so long and using it so intensely.
However, at that moment, they were interrupted by Hanako, who spotted a familiar face.
"Master!" Hanako said as she spotted Naruto jumping from the rooftop of a nearby building to a nearby one.
"Hanako?!" Naruto exclaimed. Immediately, he changed direction and jumped down to ground level and approached them. "Miki, Ryuichi, Masami-chan… you're alright!" Troubled thoughts of his family shoved aside for now, Naruto found himself feeling incredibly relieved.
Miki and Ryuichi made to move towards their friend, but stopped suddenly and sat back down, wincing. "You guys alright?" Naruto asked worriedly.
"We're fine. Just really tired. And beat up," Ryuichi answered.
Naruto relaxed at that. Then his expression became a little more serious. "And Orochimaru…?"
"Dead," Miki answered tiredly. "It took a long time, but eventually we managed to win…"
"That's right!" Hanako said happily, apparently already getting her mana back. She smacked Miki on the back, nearly making the girl go flying forward. "Miki beat him with one hit!"
Naruto's eyebrows shot up in surprise. Then he smiled in amazement. "Really? Wow, Miki, that's just…"
Miki's face colored. "A-Ah, well everyone else helped wear him down first," she began, her face getting a little redder with every passing second as Naruto continued to look at her with admiration.
But then Miki tried to change the subject. "But what happened with you? After you disappeared…"
Naruto's relatively happy expression fell. A grim one appeared. "Yeah, about that," he began. "Later, when this is all taken care of…" He motioned to the village and civilians around him. "I'll sit you all down and tell you what happened. Because it's… well, I learned a few things."
Ryuichi, Miki, and Hanako nodded in agreement, content with that. Masami didn't appear to react though.
"Masami-chan?" Naruto asked almost hesitantly, noticing that she was staring at him. "Would it be possible if you could stick around in the village to hear what I have to tell you?"
Masami's eyes closed and a smile appeared on her face. "Oh my, Naruto-kun," she started. "Are you perhaps asking for me to stay here in Konoha?"
At that, Naruto's expression faltered. "A-Ah, t-that is…"
Masami laughed lightly. "Sorry. I didn't mean to suddenly put you on the spot. Just trying to lighten the mood. But yes, I will stay to hear what you have to say. It certainly isn't as if tou-san and I will be able to leave anytime soon given the current state of the village…" Her gaze left Naruto and swept across the village.
Everyone else there followed her gaze. "Yeah…" Naruto agreed solemnly.
His talk can wait. The healing of the village came first.
Elsewhere, Takehiko fumed while Katsu followed him, bemused. "Something troubles you," the latter commented as he followed Takehiko along the dirt road they were taking to the mountains. "Is it that mysterious woman?"
"No," Takehiko snapped suddenly. However, he flinched and sought to regain his composure. "No," he said, more calmly. "It's not her. Well, not just her…"
Katsu raised an eyebrow. "…Namikaze?"
"Yes," Takehiko said through gritted teeth. "Fenrir…"
Katsu looked at the boy in confusion. "What?" he said, bewildered.
Takehiko blinked in surprise and then nodded. "Ah right. Fenrir is simply a little codename I've come up with for Namikaze. Don't be surprised if I refer to him by that codename from now on."
"Ah." Katsu nodded in understanding. Then he took a minute to think on it. Like all other magi, upon awakening, he became aware of the mythology or lore that magi appeared to come from and quickly connected the dots. He sneered in amusement. "The wolf that'll kill Odin, huh? An interesting codename for sure."
That put a bit of a smile on Takehiko's face. "I know. Given his own disposition towards Odin and considering this ritual is called Ragnarok… I felt it matched his personality and feelings appropriately." Then the smile dropped as he grew serious. "Still, he will not win. The one to win this game will not be him, but us."
Katsu hummed in agreement. "Right." However, he sounded a bit unsure. His mind went back to his fight with Yuko. While he was more than willing to do whatever it took to obtain the power necessary to bring back his son, his battle with the red eyed girl opened his eyes to the fact that all of the other participants were clearly fighting for something as well.
"Katsu?" Takehiko began. "Is there something wrong?" He questioned, his gaze prodding the man.
"..No," Katsu answered after a moment, staring Takehiko directly in his eyes.
The two of them held their gaze before both looked away. "If you say so," the boy magus answered. "Now come. Let's find a nice and hidden spot to rest. My time in Konoha proved to be far more eventful than I had originally thought."
"I was wondering why you looked so tired. So things didn't go as planned, I take it?" Katsu commented.
Takehiko grimaced. "Unfortunately. Dealing with Fenrir was simply one thing that didn't go as planned. That woman showing up was another… and Orochimaru dying was the last."
Katsu's eyes went wide. "What?!" he nearly yelled. "Orochimaru… actually lost?! To who?" he demanded.
"The very same girl that I believe you called 'cow' back when I first summoned you all to announce Ragnarok," the boy magus answered.
Katsu nearly gaped, a first for him. He hadn't been expecting to hear that. "… And what of the woman? How was she unexpected?"
His ally sighed tiredly as he finally found a spot to sit down. "I had expected her to remain outside of Konoha for now… but she returned faster than I had ever thought possible. She must've sensed the battle between you and that girl or the one with Orochimaru…" he muttered.
Katsu, having been about to sit down, paused momentarily as his mind processed Takehiko's words. "Wait," he began. "You say she… 'returned.'"
"Yes," Takehiko said as he now went from sitting down to lying down, getting ready to rest. His mana, while recovering nicely, still had ways to go before he was back to full strength.
"She's been in Konoha all along."
Several days have passed since the invasion was thwarted. During that time, much had already been done. The village, while still a mess, was looking better than it was before. New buildings were currently being made with the help of a former Anbu going by the name of Yamato while genin and other chunin that were off-duty helped to make repairs to the buildings still standing. Civilians also helped in the reconstruction efforts, albeit dealing with more minor things that were suited to their level of physical ability. After all, physically they couldn't compare to shinobi.
A service had also taken place just two days ago, honoring all of the people – shinobi and civilian alike – that had fallen during the invasion. That day had been a very solemn day indeed, with even the sky being cloudy while everyone had been dressed in black. Even Minato, who always spoke with a firmness and energy that few could ever match when giving speeches, had sounded drained when he had given a speech in honor of all that had fallen.
All of the Oto and Suna shinobi that had been captured had been thoroughly questioned and in some cases just flat out interrogated during this time period as well. When it was established that the Kazekage had actually not had a hand in the invasion, having been revealed to have been killed quite some time ago, the Sun shinobi found themselves shocked, confused, and wracked with guilt. The Sun shinobi were, albeit reluctantly, let go. They were commanded to return to Sunagakure and make it known to the council there that, although it wasn't quite their fault, there still had to be reparations to be made. Needless to say, the relatively amicable relationship between Konoha and Suna had become quite strained following this.
As for the Oto shinobi, everyone involved found themselves at a loss when they couldn't tell the Konoha T&I shinobi just who it was that had spearheaded the invasion. They couldn't even remember if they even had an Otokage. This left Ibiki and his entire squad feeling very frustrated.
And now all of that came together to form one big headache for Minato on top of all the grief he still felt over the situation with Naruto and the attack on the village.
"And that about sums it up, hokage-sama," Ryuichi said.
Currently, Minato sat in his office – amazingly enough, the entirety of the hokage tower had gone undamaged – listening to the report of team magi, who had just finished up one of many of their current tasks.
Much like the rest of the genin, team magi was taking part in the reconstruction efforts. Given their specialization in taijutsu and kenjutsu in Miki's case, they were naturally very physically fit, even more so than the other genin and as such have been given the tedious task of taking care of supply transportation. Said supplies ranged from medicinal equipment needed to replace the ones damaged in the attack to massive piles of wood, metal and more to repair or flat out build new buildings. And this turned out to be a task that they had been well suited for; Minato never could've imagined a genin team being so efficient at getting the moving of supplies done. Then again, the man didn't know about them being magi.
"I see. Good work," Minato complimented tiredly, though still able to manage a smile.
"Thank you, hokage-sama," all three members of team magi said. Then it was just Miki that spoke. "Would there happen to be anything else, hokage-sama?" she asked.
Minato shook his head. "Not at all. Just carry on as you always have. The next shipment should be coming up within the next few hours, so just head home for now and rest up until then."
All three of them nodded and turned to leave.
However.
"Wait, Naruto," Minato called out. "Can you stay behind for a minute or two?"
Naruto and his friends shared a look. Reluctantly, Ryuichi and Miki left after nearly several seconds of silent communication between the three of them.
Naruto slowly turned around to face his father, a bit of a grimace on his face. Between avoiding his parents, working alongside his teammates to get their job in reconstruction done, and more, he simply didn't have the time yet to sit his friends, Hanako and Masami and Yuko included among those numbers, down and explain to them what had happened with Takehiko. He had been hoping that now would've been a good time to tell Ryuichi and Miki at least what had happened, but it looked like Minato was going to unknowingly get in the way of that.
"Yeah?" Naruto spoke up hesitantly, trying to keep calm.
Minato made ready to speak… only to close his mouth a second later. He had called out for Naruto to stop out of impulse and now he had to think on what to say.
Eventually, the hokage managed to figure out how to at least start talking. "Naruto," he began slowly. "About our… situation…" He paused. Minato was starting to get frustrated with himself here. He was the damn hokage and he couldn't even figure out how to properly talk to his own estranged son. He took a brief moment to marvel his daughter's ability to just speak her mind and feelings like she had in the match with Naruto. "Well, like Reiko said, we honestly have no excuse for what we did… or rather didn't do… for you."
Slowly, the blond man stood up. He looked his son straight in the eyes. "I know that we can't undo or rewind the past," he said. "And by god, you have no idea just how much your mother, sister, and I wish we could do just that… but we genuinely do want to be there for you now."
He paused momentarily to see what his son's reaction was. Naruto still stood where he was. His expression was one of complete stoicism, but there was something there in his eyes. Surprise perhaps? Shock? Was there something more? Minato couldn't quite tell, but he was going to talk a little more to find out.
"I know your mother and I haven't really said this before Naruto… but you are our son. And we love you very much." Minato's voice started to tremble a bit now, but he remained firm. "So please, just let us be there for you now."
Naruto and Minato stared at one another. The latter had just bared his heart out in as few words as he could manage, in order to keep himself coherent. The former now stood there, his mind overcome with shock.
"They… love me" Naruto thought these words with a level of shock he had never quite experienced before. He had never once heard words like that from either of his parents before.
Once again, his sister's words from their match came to the forefront of his mind, causing Naruto to look away from his dad. He curled both hands up into fists.
Minato watched these motions happen and he couldn't help but feel his heart begin to waver. He was starting to wonder if not even his own brief but heartfelt words were even enough to try and sway Naruto. And if his words, combined with Reiko's own words and actions during the match, weren't enough then Minato couldn't fathom what would be enough to at least get Naruto to give them one final chance.
He was startled from his thoughts when Naruto suddenly turned and made for the door, walking almost mechanically.
"Naruto?" the hokage hesitantly called out.
Naruto stopped, but didn't turn around. He wasn't sure why, but he felt that if he turned around to face his father, something was going to happen. His emotions were now too much of a mess thanks to these past few days right now.
"Naruto, please…" Minato said, desperate for a response of some kind.
Still nothing. Naruto just went on standing there.
Minato's head sunk, the hokage now looking at his desk with a sad and defeated expression on his face.
However, he was rankled from his state when Naruto suddenly sighed. He looked up to see his son's head lowering a bit.
"Kage bunshin."
Minato blinked once. Then twice for good measure. "What?" he asked, half-convinced he had simply hallucinated hearing his son say anything.
"Kage bunshin," Naruto said again. "Just use several bunshin to speed up the paperwork. Or just hire a secretary to take care of the unimportant stuff…"
Naruto then left the office without another word spoken, leaving Minato to gape as he left. A minute later, Minato couldn't help but smile, feeling as if a huge weight had started to move off of his shoulders.
It looks like Naruto might just give them a final chance after all.
And that about sums it up for this chapter. As I'm sure you've noticed, this chapter is shorter than previous ones. That's mainly due to this chapter simply focusing on the aftermath of the invasion. And also, of course, paving the way briefly for the Namikaze family so to speak. You can expect to see Kushina and Reiko getting in on the touching scenes as well some time soon.
Now the next few chapters will, in a way, be filler as they will be building up to the next battle or so. But there will naturally be plot progression too so don't worry about me just putting in random things. Everything in each chapter is done with purpose! I can assure you of that!
And you can definitely expect to see more of Katsumi in the coming future as well and with her will come a number of things. I hope you look forward to that.
Until the next chapter, everyone! Take care!