okay, gentle readers and o my best beloveds - one more chapter after this and then an epilogue and we'll have reached the end of our adventure. Or at least this adventure ;) tennisdesi91 - here you go, next chapter. You knew it was coming though ;) and hopefully I can pull the tension through into this chapter and give it a solid punch too! mc - we are down to the wire and so is Minato. You're right, this is his make or break chapter. And yes, you're on the right wavelength. This story is as much about Minato's joining himself to people in the outside world as it is anything else. It's about him finally letting himself establish relationships and deeper emotions for people around him and becoming 'human' enough to interact on that level with the rest of the world outside himself. And it's about trusting them enough to draw his strength from them as well, trusting that they will be enough, that they won't leave him when he needs them most. It's a big step for him even if he was eased into it unsuspecting. So you're right - this climax is about Minato not being alone in his battles anymore. Even if he is, in the end, the only one capable of finishing things. mystic 777 - good to hear from you again :D and, heh, that was a well timed sound track - lol. As for Umino... well, I've always thought that family had to be pretty laid back about surprising things. He's a smart guy and he's Minato's friend. I suspect he's probably got a pretty good notion of what he's been given to take care of. Observant friends - the blessing and curse of our lives, right? awkwardlyawesome - your wish is my command - at least in this case ;) here's our fox's fate - kinda. And, good, I love team Minato. They're way too cute. As for their fate - I am writing this as close to canon as I can but... I won't write that far so if the readers want to give them a different fate, I certainly won't be writing anything to prove them wrong. Knowing the ending does make the reading/writing bittersweet. I think it's okay though. Life is bittersweet and that's what makes the good moments so very precious and the bad moments somehow bearable. bylaternlight - LOL - your NPZN made me laugh so hard! That's perfect! Yes, the story has an end - but I wouldn't have started it if it didn't. Even if I didn't know what the end would be when I started. I promised my readers if they gave me enough faith to read, I wouldn't leave them hanging. I meant it. And now here we are and I can only pray that all that wonderful faith and time and emotion that everyone has invested into this story is rewarded. God, I hope I've done well with this chapter. It's the one I agonized the most over because it has to deserve what everyone's trusted me for. aledeth - I LOVED your review! It made me laugh so hard I think even Minato got a chuckle out of it. 'Stone-cold' indeed :D Yeah, there's not much that phases Minato - he's too busy figuring out how to deal with an issue to stop long enough to get shocked or horrified or thrown. I think it's part of his charm. ;) Either that or he's just really, really good at repression - lol. crazylikeanko - lol - I didn't even put two and two together with the hospital and zombies until you mentioned it. That's great! Yes, the undead are mobile and Minato and kids are right in the middle. Cliff hanger resolve coming up - in more ways than just one ;) velo - oh, you are so precious to me. I reworked the chapter on your advice and dag nab but I hope it works better now. I think it works better at least. I'm much more satisfied with it and that's entirely thanks to you. And yeah... I do have a weakness for suspense - lol. But you love me anyway. Right? I will admit, when I started writing this I had no intention for any of this. The story was supposed to end with the face off with the grandfather. But - things kept writing themselves into the story and the next thing I knew instead of one climax I had two! It was a bit nerve wrecking, realizing I wasn't done when I thought I was going to be done and I still had more to go. Well, here we go - again for you ;) writing bunny - heh, ;) I'll actually wrap most of this up in just one chapter. At least the action parts. Explanations will come next chapter. I figure my readers might come hunt me down with flaming torches and pitchforks though if I don't give everyone a break from the tension though. Minato was certainly in the fox den longer than he thought. Your guess if probably right about the time span. And, well, Kakashi doesn't have to chose between a team and a mission in this. Let's him be a little bit more of a little boy - that and the fact he's five years younger and not feeling the weight of a recent rank promotion. I think he and Minato connect on a lot of levels and I think they're both quiet about it. I think it's good for them though ;) At least it's not a 'first impression? yep, I hate you guys' right? lol BTB - welcome to the party! heh, yeah, that was cruel - but I'll make up for it by not making you wait more than a week to find out what happens next! That's got to count for something, right? and - good questions all! Hopefully I answer at least most of them here. Though - your guess about 'first moves' - yeah, you're not wrong with that. ;) bukkakenojutsu - good :D I'm glad and I'm glad you're still here. Hopefully this chapter will make up for the wait. hadar - nope. Would never do that to you. Every Sunday. I promised and that's my writer's way ;) It's the only way I can justify my love of cliff hangers - lol. And - here's your answer. Hope it's worth the wait. dellende - lol - tell me about it! I thought the story was supposed to be done about two chapters ago - but noooo. Minato and company just wanted to keep going and who was I to tell them no? And, I do tie the answer to your suspicion in, just a little. But that's next chapter. This one - heh, I hope this one is a good read. I worked hard at it. special thanks to jini who gave me the courage to start this wild ride and to velo who's given me the courage to finish it. You two rock! So... are we ready, peeps?

Chapter 25:

Behind him the door was starting to splinter and the children had already managed to push over one of the shelving cases against it to hold it closed. The creatures outside would be inside soon. Minato opened his eyes, still concentrating on keeping his breathing even when all he really wanted to do was pant raggedly.

Pushing up, back against the wall to hid how much it cost him or how much his muscles shook, he offered an open hand and his student gathered around him immediately, huddling close. The press of their bodies was comforting to him and he drew strength from it. He wasn't supposed to die here. He had a horrible unknown sin to commit against an unborn child he hadn't even given life to yet.

But sometimes Fate ran wrong.

"All right," he kept his voice calm and low but it still carried over the sounds of the breaking door. "When the door is gone, I will go through first. You three have one mission only. You are to escape. Nothing else. You leave me, and what is in here, and you get out of here." He met each of their eyes in turn. "That's an order from your commander. Disobeying me is not an option. You cannot join me in what I do here."

Kakashi's eyes were broken. The boy knew then. Rin and Obito just looked worried and scared. He rested a hand on each of their heads in turn and then looked back at his silver haired boy. He would have liked more time with them. He hoped no superstition stuck to them about losing teachers. "Make Jiraiya teach you. Make him. Kakashi, you are in charge of the team now. It is your responsibility to see that everyone gets out of here safely."

He paused and the boy nodded. Minato nodded back.

"Good. I am proud of each of you. Now get ready."

He had already given them the few small scrolls he still had on him, all but two, and so he drew his kunai again. He was running out of those too. They tended to lodge in bone and stick. The door splinted again and straining hands pushed through the opening, forcing the hole larger. The dead would have been able to come through at this point if they'd let just one through at a time. But the creatures they had become were mindless and there was no thought to their struggle to reach the living inside the room. Soon enough that wouldn't matter though. Minato moved in front of his children and focused some of the last of his chakra, fingers moving to form the symbols that summoned a wind rush. Halfway through the rapid motions, the hands and arms started to withdraw. Suspicious, Minato paused. A trap? But – they hadn't had the intelligence for that kind of thing previously. Or – perhaps something worse was coming and they were getting out of the way? His eyes narrowed to slits and he drew in a breath in preparation, fingers still holding the last sign they'd been in the process of forming, the jutsu half finished and unreleased.

There was a scrambling, scraping sound in the hallway beyond. Bodies thumping into each other and moving forward. The sounds were slow at first but they increased and Minato could see the ragged forms beyond the gaps in the door as they began their manic rush forward.

Down the hall.

Away from him and the children.

It didn't make sense and, still suspecting a trap, he shifted his way forward. If they were gone, he needed to get the children out immediately – but moving too fast was a good way to get them killed. He caught movement at the splintered edge of the door –

And saw gold eyes peering through the broken wood at him.

His heart turned over in his chest at the sight and he hoped he was dead. Because then – it would be real.

"I knew you were many people's favorite, Yondaime," his little fox said, voice surprisingly thin and wispy. "I didn't think it was this many."

"Little fox," it burst out of him without a thought on his part and he was over to wrench the broken wood out of the way. Needing to see her – because he shouldn't. She wasn't, couldn't, be here.

She almost fell through the door when its questionable support disappeared and he caught her in his arms even as he maneuvered through what was left of it. She was small and thin and frail against him. But her chest rose and fell and her eyes were watching him with something close to tenacious determination. She smiled though – and, tired and thin and worn as it was, it was entirely hers.

"Fox," his voice was a chiding murmur and as weak as he felt himself, the last of his energy spent on the door, he still managed to lift a hand to stroke it over her dull hair.

"How did you get here?"

The look she gave him was soft and sad and she did not blink as she watched him. As if she was afraid one of them might fade away. He knew the fear.

"You are mine, Yondaime. That is the pact. Remember? There is nowhere you can hide or be hidden, nowhere you can go, that I cannot follow. Nothing can keep me from coming for you." Her gold eyes were ancient. "Nothing."

"You shouldn't be here." The children were emerging through the ruined door behind him and he knew that they were talking too freely in front of listening ears. Somehow… it didn't seem to matter at the moment.

"You needed me." She whispered it as if it was all the answer in the world and he supposed it was. There was no pride in him to get in the way as he acquiesced.

"I need you," he agreed. She gave him a smile and then turned to her head to Rin.

"Little raccoon, you must heal your sensei now. Then we will leave."

"I can't – " Rin's voice was very small and she sounded as if she had tears in her eyes. She looked at Minato as he barely stood in front of her. "I used up all my chakra keeping the bad jutsu from turning me."

The fox lifted a slender hand so pale Minato could almost see the bone through it and gently, tenderly, she brushed the hair back from Rin's round face. Her voice was like dry paper as she asked:

"Are you still standing, little one?" At Rin's nod, she said: "Then you have chakra left. Drain yourself and use it. You are with us now and it is our job to keep you safe. You don't need it for yourself anymore."

Rin's eyes went huge and she looked panicked. Obito shifted defensively forward but Kakashi caught his arm. The fox watched patiently. Rin tore her eyes from that gold and looked at her teammates before turning her head to meet Minato's eyes. Minato looked calmly back at her and neither asked nor absolved.

The truth was that he was barely standing and in no condition to go after what had done this to his village. The sensible thing to do was to retreat with the children and his fox and save this battle for another day. Except he wasn't going to. He was going to kill a monster, and he was going to do it now. Today. Even if it killed him in the process.

With or without his student's help. The choice was hers entirely.

Rich brown eyes softened and the fear melted out of them. With a shy smile, she stepped forward and her hands found the sleeve of his shirt.

"Can I – will you let me help you, sensei?"

His fox shifted away from him then and, though she swayed, she stayed upright. He didn't want to let her go. He didn't want to drain his student. This wasn't about what he wanted though. It was about what needed to be done. Careful, he went to his knees and it could as easily have been from Rin's willingness to sacrifice herself as at the weakness thrumming through his body. Holding out his arms, he let her come close and snuggle in against his chest and for just a moment, it wasn't about healing or even a student. It was a little girl, a little girl he could think of as his own and one that he was so proud of it made his heart hurt.

"I would be grateful for your help, Rin," he murmured into her hair and behind them, he heard his fox say:

"That is his way of saying he loves you."

In his arms Rin giggled… and then he felt the surprisingly gentle warmth of her healing chakra. It slipped in passed his defenses like a little child sneaking into a parent's bed in response to nightmares and he shut his eyes and let it flow, warm and green and full of life and love through his veins. Still learning, the energy was raw but his body absorbed it desperately all the same, feeding it to the dying flicker of his own life's chakra. He felt her surprise, and then her horror, at how he had been keeping himself alive, and at how faint it had grown. And then he felt the surge of her power as she poured everything she had into him.

Her body went limp in his arms but the chakra continued to flow and finally he was the one that cut it off. In his arms, Rin was pale – but her breathing was steady and even and her body was relaxed and warm. He helped settle her against Obito's back and then he straightened. His levels were nowhere near the usual, but it was enough. His student's gift was enough and he would not fail her trust in him. This time, he would make sure this nightmare ended for good. He looked at his little fox and the smile she gave him was real and weak. He wondered what she was using to stay upright. So he didn't draw her into his arms and take that away from her, but he did reach out and cup her cheek tenderly.

"Where are the bodies?"

Her lips twitched again.

"Chasing one of my shadow forms. My – " her eyes slipped sideways to the children and then came back to his. Laughter was in that gold depth despite the dull color of them. "My jutsu let's me attract them."

Her fox seduction in other words. Having felt it himself, he could believe that it was powerful enough to attract even the dead. It meant she was burning through chakra he was fairly sure she couldn't afford to spare though. He brushed her lips with his.

"Go." He turned to the children. "Get out whatever way is fastest. Stay near the edge of the barrier, where the others can see you and keep an eye on you. Do whatever it takes to survive." His eyes met Kakashi's. "I will be back." And when he said it, it was with a determination to not lose what he had only so recently gained into his life. The silver haired boy nodded and his slim shoulders relaxed. Just a little. Minato smiled. Then he turned and barely, just barely, let his own chakra spread outward. The place reeked of unnatural magic… and a single clear thread of it led deeper into the complex.

A spider at the center of its web.

It was time to end that. Calling up the proper technique even as his students and fox fled, he shifted gravity for himself and used the roof as his floor. The dead would not chase his fox forever and he couldn't expect that all of them had. He didn't have the time or the energy to waste in fighting distractions. He wanted the root of this nightmare and he didn't want to give it the chance to know he was coming and escape.

The hospital looked different upside down and his footsteps made no sound in the clinging darkness. He passed through rooms and found dead bodies, like cast aside dolls, lying where they had fallen on the floor below him. Not all of them looked rotted. Some of them looked torn apart and he remembered that Rin wasn't the only healer with chakra skills. Apparently, the dead hadn't cared as they'd turned on the few survivors. Most of the bodies were already starting to rot though and he could only guess that whatever jutsu stole their lives burned through the bodies it animated afterward at rapid speeds.

The question was, how had jutsu of that sort gotten into the hospital in the first place? Serving the shinobi it did, the hospital of Konoha was warded against most jutsu.

Except his.

And his fox's.

Both of which relied on markers to draw them.

Had there been a marker planted here in secret, waiting for the jutsu to be activated?

His fox had said that one of the bats from their previous battle had smelled differently than the others. Had that bat been the jutsu's marker, as he was for his little fox? It made sense but it wasn't vital to the situation to understand it now. He didn't intend for his prey to escape to make such a marker a danger again.

His path took him into the very center of the building, where the operating rooms were. It made sense, to base yourself out of sealed off rooms that were easy to defend. The dead milled about below him in the hallways as he drew closer to his target but he was careful not to directly touch the chakra threads that linked them to their maker and alert the creature to his coming.

Again, Minato was grateful that the hollowed shinobi below him didn't seem to retain their skills from life. He knew he was not the only one that could sense chakra. Nor was he the only one that would have thought to check the ceiling from time to time.

The rolling sick feeling of abused chakra intensified to the point that Minato had to shut down his own web or risk being choked by the feel of it. He didn't need his inner senses anymore anyway. He could smell his prey now and the bodies under him were all still and unmoving. Waiting for him to stroll down the hallway perhaps? The thought made one edge of his mouth shift.

"You have to come get me!"

The voice made him pause and he sunk down to rest almost prone against the ceiling in front of an open doorway. The voice… the voice that had come from the room was young. There was a murmur, a rustle of wind answer, that Minato couldn't hear but the young voice rose, just a little, in response.

"He's here. I felt him when he fought my friends. He's the same one that almost killed me last time. You need – no! I can't. There's a barrier around the place. I can't get out. You need to – no! Don't! Don't leave me! I'm useful, remember? You promised I could join Akatsuki if I did this for you! You said - !"

To Minato, waiting outside, the murmuring wind sounded dismissive. The bodies in the hallway swayed in time with the desperate voice inside.

"I'm useful. I am. I can do more! Let me show you! I will – I – "

Crouching low, Minato looked into the room from his vantage point. The lighting was eerie in that room, sickly yellow-white and night worm blue and it glowed like swamp rot from a single moving point in the darkness. Bodies littered the floor, still struggling to move even though they were so rotted there was little left for them to move with. In the middle of it all he saw a robed figure, the source of that sickly light – and for half a moment, he thought he saw someone else in the writhing shadows as well. But then there was nothing and the robed figure was screaming out in a rage that indicated it too, saw nothing.

"No! No, you can't do this to me! You need me! I'll kill you if you leave me!"

"Don't worry." Minato said it as he dropped to the ground inside the room. As he straightened, he added: "You'll be leaving soon enough."

Robes swirled and spun, the figure surprisingly small to hold so much dark jutsu and it screamed at him. The sound was high and hate-filled and raw. The ground under Minato explored upward.

He'd been expected it though. This was three times now he'd almost had this creature under his kunai and each time, at the very end, guardians of rot and body, bone and wood, always stood in the way. The first time he'd been foolish enough to think they were the actual enemy. He wasn't interested in making that mistake this time. He spun wide to avoid them –

And felt his body freeze.

The jutsu! That damned death jutsu he'd been ignoring as it tried to worm it's way through his defenses. It had gotten so weak he'd forgotten about it. A stupid mistake and now, unsuspecting, it caught and froze him in place, its hold on his body insidious. The golems of rot and wood and bone crashed down on him.

In that second, with a snarl, Minato's eyes narrowed into blue electric and he forced his own will through his veins. It burned like fire. He would not be defeated; he would not fail. He would not end like this.

His hand flickered, shot upward, tendons on the back of it standing out in relief as he ducked low. It felt as if his muscles were tearing away from his bones but his fingers touched wood –

His mark caught.

And as the giant fists fell, he slipped between moments. Tile floor shattered under the unhindered attack and Minato, no longer there, was on the first golem's back instead. He forced a chakra flare and it sang through his veins, his body, burning like pure fire. It brought the edge to the smile that touched his lips and he thrust downward, a scroll so small it could have hidden in the palm of his hand in his fingers. The power of his chakra fueled punch broke through the rotting wood and bone and the scroll slipped loose.

Minato was already jumping clear and onto the other golem's back as the scroll ignited.

He'd watched. He'd learned from the first time he'd run into these defenses. These constructs were malleable and they shifted, swallowing regular fire attacks with their own bodies and smothering them deep inside. Minato had added his own twist to these fire scrolls though, preparing for a moment like this. It wasn't normal flame that sprang upward. It burned white hot and refused to be smothered even as the amalgams of bone and wood, flesh and muck, tried to shift and swallow the fire to douse it. White flames licked up from cracks and holes in the rotting golems, eating them from the inside outward and Minato's quiet smile was cold and pleased as he left their flailing forms to hone in on his target.

Again the robed figure screamed and Minato heard the scrambling in the doorway as the dead tried to pour into the room. The ruined creatures on the floor flailed madly, answering that scream as well. He felt the death jutsu trying to overtake him again, cold, black snakes through his blood. But he was too close and it was too late. Even without his jutsu, he'd always been fast.

His first blow caught the robed figure in the chest and the force of it sent the creature flying. Minato was there for it before it landed and his next blow drove it downward hard enough to crack the floor when it hit. He followed it down, heel driving into it and felt bone snap under him. You didn't slow down, you didn't take risks and you certainly didn't pause or let up when you were fighting someone that might be able to use jutsu. Minato had long ago learned to kill without hesitation or remorse. He felt none now as the figure under him cried out in agony and writhed under the knee he pined it down with. Kunai in hand, he caught a fistful of the cloak in his other and jerked the body into a killing position.

The hood fell back as he did.

He found himself staring at the painted face of a child.

A child with tears of pain in his mad, mad eyes of hatred.

"You hurt me!" it wailed at him and he saw it had no hair and that the side of its face was ruined in something that must have happened long ago. "You've hurt me and I'll feed you to the Shinigami for it!"

Minato drove his blade straight down through the deformed skull and put an end to whatever it was that had fed so long on the lives of others.