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- Vainglory -
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24: Paying Debts
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"Many men persuade themselves that right and wrong are distinguished
not according to their own nature
but by a certain vain opinion and custom of men."
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Grotius
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He stared at the expanse of plotted rectangles, stretching to the village gates.
In his minds eye, Minato recalled a rooftop under balmy skies, with rows and rows of white linens dancing in the breeze. There had been mothers singing. He could almost smell the fragrant zephyr, laden with the smell of grilling meat for supper. Lined in haphazard rows of two, villagers had belted their favorite songs as they hung the laundry to dry. Kids danced along the stairwells, playing impromptu games of tag. It had been a lively street corner, bursting with life.
It was the Konoha Minato loved, as a child.
The memory lingered in the wind. That wind now carried the stench of fire and smoke.
Today, the roof was empty. Those same laundry lines snagged against the gust, the cables bending, loose clothespins like spinning togs. Its whitewashed ledges were the only familiar remnant. Every peeling paint chip came into focus as Minato flashed. He landed, kneeling on the roof's edge.
Then Minato turned to face the maelstrom.
"Kushina!"
Her name was swallowed up by the wind. Yet the object of his call responded. The kyuubi—bristling tawny fur and intoxicating mix of smoke and fire—breathed its crackling, devastating chakra toward him.
The black ball loomed large before his eyes. Minato felt the hot air burn his lungs. He flashed.
"Kushina, it's me!"
Could she hear him? If he got closer?
The crux of countless fantastical romances was not to be. The demon opposite him was now a hundred feet away, and continued to teem with malcontent. But, as if Danzou's possession of it had been imperfect, the kyuubi loped forward with uneven steps. Still… loping for the kyuubi covered ground quickly. The street block between them quickly vanished.
Minato's heart had jumped to his trachea.
"Kushina!" he tried again.
The demon only roared in reply.
Adrenaline pumping, the blond nin ran to the roof's laundry lines and unhinged them from their posts. The lines—ordinarily used for drying clothes—were thickly coiled wires, creating two long, sturdy cables of metal rope.
Two Hiraishin kunai flashed—one tossed skyward and the other earthward. Like thin, long snakes, the metal cables of the laundry line followed the trail marked out for them.
Minato came dangerously close to snapping teeth in a dripping red maw. But proximity to danger was something the Yellow Flash was used to.
Gotcha. Minato wound the metal cables around the demon's front paws, and around its sloping ears and prickling jaw. Canines disappeared with a wet snarl as the wires tightened around the demon's mouth. Horrible howls became a series of tortured hisses.
But the cables could not hold. Powerful paws scratched at the muzzle, loosening the coiled wires even at the cost of tearing the beast's own flesh. Minato had planned to contain the tailed beast bombs for another few minutes, at least. But the kyuubi's brute force made short work of that plan.
"You're soft, Minato," crowed Danzou from several rooftops away. "Go for the eyes."
Plan B, then.
Minato's fingers flew through the seals he'd learned in Suna.
Efficiency. That was always his greatest weapon.
Minato relied on his most trusted techniques to force the battle to his favor. As an ANBU, he hadn't always killed, but his battles were finished within the span of minutes, even seconds. But a mission where he was loathe to even harm the opponent—and what an opponent, too— was new. He wondered if he could hold back, and how.
But beggars couldn't be choosers. Danzou was right in one thing: Minato had limited options. To hold back further was to die.
The whirling sphere of chakra that formed was small, nestled neatly in Minato's palm. Then, carefully, with his other hand, he applied an additional layer of chakra along the edges, reinforcing its shape. With Chiyo's puppetry lessons ringing in his head, he attached a chakra string to the orb's outer shell. Then, he unfurled the string, like a yoyo.
With his now-free other hand, Minato launched a kunai at Danzou.
The projectile was aimed true, flying past the old man's ear and lodging itself into an open terrace on the building adjacent to where the Hokage stood. Minato flashed. He landed with nary a tap, then quickly squeezed himself into the crack in the balcony door, and shut the curtains in the building's interior.
"It's useless to hide," came Danzou's voice in the distance.
Minato's charged Rasengan spun furiously out from behind balcony doors.
It hurtled straight, and the attack met its mark. Crying out, the Danzou stumbled. Minato knew he had the element of surprise. It was unheard of to shoot a concentrated ball of wind chakra away from the user's hand at such a distance.
But a tethered Rasengan that could be shot like a projectile was still lacking. Minato watched grimly as Danzou seemed to shrug the attack off. Danzou adjusted his position so he was out of the direct line of fire marking the path a Rasengan could take between the crevice in the door and his resting spot.
There's another feature, Minato thought, adjusting his index and ring fingers slightly.
Suddenly, the whirling chakra came hurtling back from the opposite direction, back toward Danzou, careening a hairs breadth away from the man's discolored arm.
The kyuubi screamed as Danzou lost his balance.
The Rasengan didn't continue along the path, but switched trajectories again, guided by Minato's will. The whirling wind ball leapt sailed smoothly like a pendulum to the right. It burrowed a path into every object it came across: flower pot, post, guard rail—until it reached its destination.
Danzou turned. But not quickly enough. The Rasengan only had to skim his side to burst in an explosion of concentrated wind chakra. The bandaged man collapsed to his knees.
Minato was already focused elsewhere.
He saw the tailed beast roar anew, but he also saw it blink its enormous eyes in time with Danzou's clutching of his Sharingan arm, hand over the multiple eyes that were closing and opening. Minato had found something interesting in his little experiment. Every time the Rasengan had come from the side closer to Danzou's Sharingan arm, Minato saw the beast shaking its large furry head as if confused.
I can undo Danzou's control.
A wave of hope washed over him, then receded. Would Kushina suffer? Could she feel any of Danzou's pain?
Minato's momentary distraction was his undoing. Danzou was already back on his feet, and shooting what seemed like bullets of air into the window panes. Glass shards burst dangerously close to Minato's form.
As Minato came out from hiding to stand on the balcony, he realized his mistake: Danzou had not been injured by that last attack.
Instead, the old man had moved with a speed equal to Hiraishin—teleported, truly. Danzou was now again close to the kyuubi, and far away from Minato's reach.
I need to separate the fox from the Hokage, he concluded.
When Danzou was near the kyuubi, he could strengthen his control with the Sharingan. And, with Danzou hiding close to the kyuubi, Minato had little way to target the Hokage directly, without fear of being mauled.
As if to prove a point, another tailed beast bomb flew his way. Minato jumped away from the balcony as the potted gardenias burst from the sheer air pressure. More glass, mixed with clods of earth and bright purple petals assailed him—
Flash—he escaped to another building.
Coughing, Minato brushed away some of the soil and silicate that had rained down on him. He ducked out of the fire escape and hopped down to the ground.
"Kuchiyose no Jutsu."
The ground quickly receded beneath him, sidewalk becoming thinner and joining a larger network from his birds-eye view.
Gamabunta's size elevated Minato comfortably above the surrounding five-story buildings. He saw over the rooftops of the lower buildings, over to where the kyuubi fumed, with Danzou's small figure next to it.
"Took you long enough, Minato," grumbled the toad boss as the final wisps of smoke dissipated. "Can't handle one little girl?"
"She's not exactly easy to handle in this form," he justified.
Blinking bulbous eyes scanned the enormous fox.
"So, you had to choose a girl even crazier than Jiraiya's?"
"Not in those exact words," said Minato. "But sure."
Gamabunta's voice dipped, and became solemn. "Ten times more destructive, then. You think we can immobilize that thing?"
"We'll try to get her out of Danzou's range. Please buy me time?"
Minato's eyes blazed with orange haloes.
Senjutsu flowed through his fingertips as he stood tall on Gamabunta's head.
"Ready," he said.
"Nice! Let's give 'em hell, Minato."
A huge sticky gob of oil shot from Gamabunta's gullet. Minato focused on delivering a series of complementary elemental jutsu. A douse of frigid water, then a sweeping cold wind, softened then hardened the thick oil into a viscous, brown putty that congealed in viscous swathes on the kyuubi's fur.
"Minato, sure you don't wanna go with fire?"
And risk hurting Kushina? "Not yet," the blond side-stepped.
Minato flashed away from Gamabunta's head. That same instance, the toad boss lunged forward with a powerful leap. His landing shook the foundations of the nearby buildings, but the kyuubi was glued to the spot. Everything but the kyuubi's eyes was covered with sticky residue. Gambunta's large webbed feet attached themselves to the kyuubi's hind legs, holding the beast in place. With the corded metal laundry line still twisted at the kyuubi's feet, Gamabunta retied its growling muzzle.
But a dark energy was building in the beast's mouth, as the kyuubi strained against the thick bindings.
"HURRY!"
Minato didn't need to be told twice. He was already full throttle after Danzou.
It was a fight against an endless parade of phantoms. Up close, Danzou's countenance was like a sheet of paper, his veins and arteries jumping under thin crepe-like skin. But the Hokage was elusive. No sooner did Minato launch a Rasengan into Danzou's torso, then the material flesh would fade like genjutsu. It felt like Minato was fighting a fellow Hiraishin user—except he couldn't land hits on where the body would turn up either.
Was the Hokage merely a mirage? Minato had enough information to make educated guesses. Minato had witnessed how positive the Raikage had been that he'd landed a hit on Danzou, despite that same illusionary technique. Previously, Minato had thought that A's hit had been the Kumo man's imagination. But now, seeing the wearied state Danzou was in, a different truth dawned.
Danzou could be hit. It might just be a matter of timing.
"This is a powerful technique," remarked Minato as another kunai came away without dealing damage. "It's not a ninjutsu… but it's not a traditional genjutsu either. You're actually here, for a brief moment. Am I right?"
Danzou's eyes narrowed, as the other swirling orbs in his arm seemed to blink. Minato flashed close, and delivered another devastating blow. Danzou faded again.
But Minato caught it. A single eye—encrusted in Danzou's arm—it had closed.
"When did the Raikage injure you? Is it when all your eyes close? Or maybe each eye has a time limit?"
Another bead of sweat trickled down the Hokage's brow. Minato paused, trying to glean more information from Danzou's passionless stare.
"TIME'S UP, MINATO!" Gamabunta roared.
Danzou's corporeal body blocked Minato's line of sight for just long enough.
Minato saw the tailed beast bomb burst through a cloud of Gamabunta's summoning smoke. The ball of crackling energy hurtled straight toward Minato, as he watched the grisly smile on Danzou's face slowly fade away with the rest of him.
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Raised at least fifty feet above the ground, Tsunade wrestled with the coiled snake's length. Manda held her high, its hissing tongue flickering in displeasure. Against any other snake, Tsunade could have torn its scales and skin with her bare hands. But this was the King of Snakes, steely-armored and ruthless. The great serpent let no one come between it and its prey—not even its summoner.
"Why not summon Katsuyu, Hime?" Orochimaru looked down from Manda's head. "Worried this cliff will collapse from the weight?"
"Unfortunately, I don't think you'd die from a landslide," Tsunade spat. "And if you did, I wouldn't have the pleasure of pummeling you for everything you've done. To our teacher. To Jiraiya. This is Team business, Orochimaru, and I intend to hold you accountable since no one else's left to do it."
"How noble of you."
A burst of chakra from the valley below sucked a gale of air and blew it toward the cliffs. Tsunade turned to see the scene play out below.
Orochimaru followed her gaze dispassionately.
"The kyuubi would have been so much more useful without that Uzumaki girl. But as I understand it, it won't be long now until even the jinchuuriki system is reformed for the better."
"You can't play god," spat Tsunade. "My grandmother paid the price. All hosts pay the price. Because they have things to protect, unlike you."
"Protect?" Orochimaru gave a sharp chortle. "Like the village? How narrow-minded. Face it, all those who would have followed the so-called Will of Fire are gone, now."
Tsunade watched as the enormous toad in the middle of the city struggled with the kyuubi. She could almost envision a familiar, white-haired man on top of the toad—laughing even in the midst of battle, giving her a jaunty wave.
"Our teacher would have turned over power to naïve brats like Minato. And look at him, now! Too weak to even deal a killing blow. Just like Jiraiya was too weak to overcome the product of experiments under Danzou."
Minato was dueling Danzou, both moving so fast Tsunade could hardly follow them, except for watching the direction in which the kyuubi's gaze turned.
"There's no future left for the old Konoha. No use left in avenging it either."
Manda's coils tightened. Tsunade felt it squeeze the breath out of her lungs, as her ribs protested their realignment. Her ribcage compressed and she felt several bones fracture and puncture inward. The pain seared through her limbs, even if her midsection was pressed too tight to register it.
She put one numb hand on the snake's flesh.
Two hands.
"I agree."
Orochimaru's gaze turned from the riveting scene below, where the toad disappeared, and another black ball of chakra hurtled into the city.
"Agree with what, Hime?" he asked, his eyes derisive.
"It's pointless to avenge the dead right now. Maybe that's why I'll start protecting Konoha's future."
A surge of chakra, raw and humming, coursed through her. The diamond on her forehead began to peel. The enormous king snake hissed in agony as Tsunade pushed all of her force into rending its coiled sinews and scales apart. Its hold loosened, and Tsunade knew that, any moment now, she would begin falling down the cliff side.
"Kuchiyose no jutsu!"
Hokage Mountain shook as Manda shifted nervously against the new form coalescing in plumes of summons smoke.
"I'll protect those who will lead us there!" Tsunade shouted.
"Drop her off the cliff!" Orochimaru cried to his summon. "Quickly, befor—"
Tsunade felt the snare of snake coils unravel completely.
She felt the sudden release, the agony in her torso from her chakra knitting tissue and bone back together, a tingling sensation that mixed with the rush of open air around her.
"Katsuyu!" she shouted as she fell. "Split!"
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The rubble from the numerous explosions had accumulated on the immaculate streets of Konoha. It was an eerily post-war landscape, with the people evacuated. Only monsters remained. Several monsters, human monsters and non-human ones—each with chakra flaring across the entire village's perimeter, noticeable from any location.
Karin was watching the battles unfold from the stairwell of the abandoned building.
She knew Tsunade was still there, as was Kushina.
It was not hard to find the battles, or the individuals embroiled in them. From her perch, Karin saw the man known as the Yellow Flash divert black chakra explosions. She watched as he miraculously diverted several blasts away from the walls where the last of the civilians were evacuating. There had been many escaping individuals who'd looked back, curious as to how dedicated Konoha's nin really was, and how powerful, compared to the stories that had build up during the Flash War.
But no one turned back to help.
No one except for Karin herself, that is.
That's why shock added to surprise when someone's steps echoed along her stairwell.
A raven-haired woman dressed as a Konoha nin had intruded her spot. Once upon a time, Karin would have fled at any direct confrontation. But she'd seen enough of that today. And she'd seen enough of what fleeing and hiding would do.
Karin jumped up, her words more brave than she felt as her hands balled into fists.
"Stay back!"
The intruder's face mirrored Karin's own shock. "You're not mute!"
Warily, Karin shook her head. This woman was familiar.
"You're Orochimaru's new girl," the raven-haired woman mused. "Sorry for misunderstanding. It's just... I've been in the lab long enough to see burly dudes scream when they run tests. You didn't scream. So I just assumed you were mute."
"I've seen you, too. But who are you?" Karin asked.
The intrusion could not have come at a worse time. Karin stood her ground while keeping the scene outside the building in her peripheral vision. She could put two and two together just fine. Even if she had been momentarily knocked out by the explosions, and tugged away by Lady Tsunade's summon, she knew the giant fox in the middle of the village was actually Kushina. The unearthly howls and sounds of crumbling buildings weren't subsiding.
"I'm Yuki." The woman's face dimmed a bit. "Uchiha Yuki."
"Uchiha." Karin had gleaned enough in the Konoha lab to know that the Uchiha name was special. "Do you have the…" she pointed towards her own eyes.
"The Sharingan?" Another pained look marred Yuki's face. "What of it?"
Karin moved closer to the stairwell's window. Her thin arm shot out to point to the scene outside.
"Well, then, you can turn Kushina-onee-san normal again!"
Yuki turned to look at the landscape full of crushed rubble.
"You realize what you're asking? That's the strongest tailed beast," the Uchiha woman said testily.
"No, that's Kushina-onee-san!"
Karin's voice echoed loudly through the emptied building. She hadn't raised her voice in ages. Hadn't shouted since before the bloodshed on Whirlpool Island.
Yuki, too, seemed shocked by the outburst. She backed away several steps, her face ashen.
"I-I'm sorry."
"Can you do it or not, Uchiha?" Karin demanded, again surprising herself with the force of her cry. "I'll know if you're lying! You're here for a reason, aren't you?"
"I…" Yuki looked out the window, where a giant toad was now wrestling with the fox. "W-What do you want me to do?"
The red-haired girl jabbed a finger out the window again. "Kushina-onee-san's not a demon," urged Karin. "She's—"
"—a jinchuuriki," the woman finished. "Konoha's most powerful tool."
"You know?"
"I know," Yuki breathed. "Kushina drew the worst ticket in the lottery—even worse than me. Danzou and Orochimaru would never see her as an actual human. And now that the war's at our doorstep, they're gonna wring everything out of her."
"E-Everything..."
"She'll be nothing more than a destructive demon fox, soon. You should know as much as I do how dangerous it is."
"You're here because you know this is wrong!" Karin urged, anger lacing her tone. "Uzumaki aren't just tools! All those people in the lab—you aren't just tools! We aren't just tools!"
Yuki was looking far off out the window again. Frustration coursed through Karin's small frame. She wondered if she'd had that look too. When she'd given up back on the island. Before meeting her new family.
"I can't ever repay Kushina-onee-san and Lady Tsunade for what they've done for me!" Karin pressed. "I can't leave them here while I run!"
Yuki's face was ashen.
"I have a debt too," the woman said hollowly. "Kushina treated me like a sister. It was the first time in a while that people didn't see me like a-a lab sample. She never suspected anything on our mission together. And Senju Tsunade… well, she's fighting Orochimaru. That's good enough for me."
"Will you help, then?"
"You mean, can I. Can I turn the fox back into Kushina." A bead of perspiration climbed down Yuki's temple. "Honestly, I'm no match for the Sharingan in the Hokage's eye and arm."
"But Danzou is controlling the fox, right? Can you get rid of that control, first?"
"That's more doable. If the Yellow Flash has weakened the Hokage… maybe…"
"Try," said Karin. "Maybe it's not just bad luck that made that snake guy choose us."
"Maybe it's our own abilities," Yuki finished, marveling at the strength in the young girl.
"Good," nodded Karin. "How close do we have to get for your Sharingan to work?"
"It's fine if we hide close enough, but not too close," Yuki replied. "We just have to wait for our chance."
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Kakashi didn't realize he was holding his breath as he ran along the streets toward the city center. The roads were littered with debris and errant, abandoned belongings of those forced to flee.
He felt rather than saw the blast first.
The shockwave hit his petite body in the chest, and he was blown back momentarily by the rumble of what sounded like thunder—except it was a weird chakra bomb, fired out of the demon fox's jaws.
The Yellow Flash better still be alive, Kakashi thought, unexplained urgency lacing his actions as he calculated the odds. The Hokage doesn't go easy on traitors.
Finally, he took to high ground. The young ANBU spotted them immediately—figures dwarfed next to the immense bulk of the fox.
He moved to a building two rooftops away from the Hokage. Quickly, Kakashi shielded himself from view.
The Hokage's voice was gravel.
"You mutiny against me, Minato. But even before that, you have failed your mission."
Kakashi looked on with a curious tugging sensation in his chest. The Hokage was speaking again, making one of those speeches that the young boy dreaded yet took to heart all the same.
"And since you failed not just any mission, but one of utmost importance, the penalty must be proportionate."
Unable to look away, Kakashi stood paralyzed as the Hokage strode closer to a figure previously hidden from view by the angle of his vantage point.
As expected, it was the Yellow Flash.
But it was him like Kakashi had never seen before.
The missing nin was on one knee a few feet away from Danzou. His breathing looked labored, back hunched and clothing ragged. Kakashi saw that the man was clutching a blackened shoulder. The sleeve there was entirely melted away. He saw blood trail the length of the Flash's discolored arm. It was also nearly the color of ink, as if a foul substance had tainted it.
"So you dodged it in time. You always were an impressive soldier," rasped Danzou.
The Hokage's unbandaged arm had blinking red eyes in it. Kakashi felt sick just by looking.
But now, the Hokage extended the arm without the Sharingan. Kakashi saw the Hokage's hand form a familiar shape, for a familiar bullet-like attack. It was a prized jutsu to learn back in the Root assassination units, for its efficient kill rate.
"I will kill you myself. You will be remembered as one of Konoha's disgraced shinobi."
The eavesdropping boy froze.
"Just another disappointment, with no one who will want to mourn you."
Konoha's disgraced shinobi.
In that moment, Kakashi didn't know what struck him. He hadn't thought he wanted to face off against Konoha's Yellow Flash that much—certainly, he didn't want it enough to go against the Yondaime's orders.
But every fiber of Kakashi's being hated Danzou in that instant.
Every cell wanted to thwart the Hokage's immediate plans for the so-called disgraced shinobi.
Danzou had trained his young assassin well. Kakashi waited until the last moment to close in and ignite his jutsu in a burst of elemental lightning that danced along his hand.
Chidori!
The singing lightning attack drew on the crackle of electricity in the air, as if the whole Land of Fire had a storm brewing. The Hokage moved away, instinctively. Kakashi had charged his attack at Danzou's bullet jutsu sign.
The Yellow Flash took the chance to seize Danzou's leg with his good arm. His face was drenched with sweat, but Kakashi didn't notice.
Held in place by the dual surprise, Danzou pivoted. But the Hokage inadvertently caused the lightning jutsu to graze his other mutated arm. Crackling veins of electricity ran up and down its length. The red orbs seized, then blinked, rapidly, as if the nerves along the arm had been jolted out of pattern.
"If anyone's going to kill the Yellow Flash, it'll be me!" Kakashi snarled, teeth bared against his leader.
Minato, an increasingly popular target, only gave a wan smile. It disappeared quickly, however. The blond struggled, and failed, to stand.
Danzou's face had drained of all blood. Yet, the Hokage's countenance was silently livid—horrifying to behold—one soulless inky eye and another spinning red eye pierced his junior assassin.
The old man's voice was soft.
"Root's Kakashi—"
"Hatake Kakashi," Kakashi snarled.
The name—blurted without any forethought—was drowned by a hollow howl rendered from the throat of the demon fox. The kyuubi roared its displeasure to the skies.
A sudden peal of lightning lit the sky, as it became a churning, swirling mass of gray storm clouds.
Kakashi guessed it had to do with the Raikage and Kazekage's battle on the outskirts of town. He wasn't sure. There were too many factors to calculate. He knew now that many things could not be calculated rationally. Not the weather. Not his own heart.
Danzou turned. Scarlet eyes spun wildly in the brewing storm. It seemed to reflect the kyuubi's own eyes for a moment, but the connection was tenuous as another peal of lightning cracked down and lit the nearby rooftops, traveling down the metal antennae of abandoned human infrastructure.
"The seal must be completed!" Danzou shouted, his voice rising above the din. "Don't let the beast escape!"
Out of the corner of Kakashi's eye, a pudgy white slug the size of a small sofa slid up the side of the building onto the roof. He watched, utterly fascinated, as it poked its tentacles toward Minato, who, still gasping in pain, touched its hand to it.
"Kakashi!"
It took Kakashi a while to register that Minato was calling him, even though he saw the blond's mouth move. Blood continued to pour down Minato's arm, but at least it was red now.
Danzou was fully focused on trying to regain the kyuubi now. Kakashi felt rooted to the spot, unsure of how to deal with the aftermath of his own disobedience, of this absurd multi-way battle, of Konoha's new wasteland—
"Kakashi! Take my hand!"
And for some reason, Kakashi felt like he was four again, before news of a suicide had rocked his life, before the first death had rocked his family. He wanted to listen. To obey, not out of duty, but out of hope.
Hatake Kakashi took the hand offered to him, and felt the tug of the Hiraishin as the roof's floor gave way beneath him.
They sped along in space. He suppressed the urge to vomit.
Suddenly, Kakashi felt matted fur beneath his jellied knees.
They were on top of the kyuubi!
"Everyone," panted the Yellow Flash, face drenched with sweat. Kakashi's blood ran cold from the look in those once-clear eyes. "Better hold on."
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The downpour began.
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A figure crashed through the forest.
Mud coated every step. But Kakashi sloughed forward deeper into the mire, the weight of his already drenched clothes lightening in the restless river. The banks swelled as the deluge continued.
All around him, gurgling screams were muffled quickly—first by the rain, second by the formless shapes that coalesced into humanoid soldiers, quickly and silently slitting throats with sharpened swords and teeth. Kakashi dimly registered that these were Ame's and Kirigakure's forces—finally at work in their most deadly battle scenario. Water came from every direction. Ame's fighters were used to the water. Kirigakure's fighters could literally meld into it.
Grimly, Kakashi traced the signs in the forest. The rain and prior signs of battle had erased most of the route marks, but he wasn't a professional for nothing.
The boy made his way back to the Ame ship. The very one that he'd been captive on. For some reason, returning now, freely, didn't seem like a crazy move.
He ambled his way across the starboard and through the hole in the deck, swinging his body down, arms extended, in case of danger.
For all of Akatsuki's griping about the speed of its construction, the Ame ship was well built. Below deck, everything was perfectly dry. Kakashi felt soggier than ever, as he dripped diluted mud onto the floor.
"You look half-drowned."
Kakashi scanned the area, hand poised on his shuriken holster.
He was expecting Shikaku.
Instead, it was only Noya, holding a single candle in the gloom.
"Oh, you."
Noya looked peeved. "I have a name, you know. You Konoha people have no manners."
Having a snarky Ame civilian on his case was the least of Kakashi's problems. Kakashi pushed past the Ame man to finger the seal that the Yellow Flash used to travel between ships. Every one of Akatsuki's boats had one. Kakashi had thought that the blond would have arrived at one of the ships by now, to recuperate. But the missing nin had disappeared after the Hiraishin. And what of the tailed beast? Kakashi wasn't sure, but the last thing he recalled before being dumped somewhere in the forest was the the putrid stench of malevolent chakra.
He needed to find the Yellow Flash.
Likely, the blond had gone back to fight Danzou, tame the kyuubi, or both. And Kakashi had the niggling idea that the Yellow Flash had again saved him.
Twice, now.
"Looking for Big Boss?" Noya had stepped near the seal as well.
"The Yellow Flash?"
"C'mon, you know who I mean," wheedled Noya, before sighing. "Shikaku sent me back here to wait in case Minato turned up. Been a bit boring—but at least our side's definitely winning, now. Our Kiri guys are eating those Konoha people alive. Literally eating."
Kakashi was silent.
"Eh, sorry," muttered Noya as he noted Kakashi's leaf hitae-ate. "So, uh, why're you back? Did busting into Konoha go well? And seriously, where's Minato?"
The masked boy looked resolutely at the floor, where a small puddle had collected.
"Don't know. I got dumped in the woods. It's like he's telling me to escape."
"Pity," deadpanned Noya.
"Well, I don't take pity. Especially from people who're wounded."
"Uh, huh." Noya scratched his noggin. "I'm glad you're talking now, but come again? I'm not following."
"I mean, M-Minato's hurt," finished Kakashi with some difficulty, the name foreign on his tongue.
Still, it felt appropriate to acknowledge the man who'd saved his life. He paused. Calling the Yellow Flash savior was too much. Maybe just debtee. Yes. That made it more of a one-time transaction, which could be paid back in the future.
"Earth to Konoha brat! Someone hurt Big Boss?" said Noya. He was alarmingly close and waving at Kakashi's face. "Yikes, it wasn't Red, right?"
Silence, again.
"You know Red. Kushina. You met her in Suna. You were cross-dressing."
"The demon fox," said Kakashi.
Noya dropped all antics. He scowled.
"She's human, you know. She's not just some monster you Konoha guys take out and put back into your toolbox."
Again, Kakashi didn't reply. He didn't have an appropriate response. It seemed that Noya, for all of the man's stupidity, was still better at discerning certain truths than many of his former Konoha associates.
"If he's not here, then I'm going back out there to find him." Seeing Noya's confused face, it seemed important to state a reason now. "Because he promised me a fight. Can't have him die of injuries before that."
"You're a nutjob, you know that?" said Noya, with a bright grin. "An assassin killer kid, but also a nutjob."
Kakashi turned to leave, but Noya followed.
Slinging a rain cape around himself, the Ame man announced:
"Let's team up, Kakashi! We'll find him together. I can't have Big Boss die of injuries either. Because… well, he's Big Boss."
"Where do we start?" muttered the boy.
"Let me guess… He probably went back to your creepy Hokage, yeah? We're after Konoha full throttle, now!" Noya paused. "How about you? I can't team up with you until I get your okay. So… Which side are you on?"
"I-I'm not sure anymore. My manuals don't cover this."
The truth felt even more true once said.
Noya peered at the boy. "Look, I've never been to school, but… That manual's someone else's answer. You gotta discover the right answers for yourself."
As the two walked out into the rain, a rather useless thought occurred to Kakashi: It's been a long time since I've worked in a team.
.
.
.
Concentrate.
Concentr—
Consciousness hit her like a dull thud of cotton wool meeting concrete.
It scratched and throbbed and
head
her
mess
was
a
jumbled.
"Fox, don't do this."
A cacophony of screams reached her ears. She wondered if she was hearing them through the kyuubi, or through her own ears.
"Fox—"
It never listened.
"Are you scared?"
A pause.
"Why would I be scared?"
"Because I might not be me, and you might not be you anymore. Don't you feel the seal slipping?"
"No, I'll still be me. You just won't be you."
"It doesn't work like that."
"I'm stronger than you."
"Puh-lease. That's why we've been controlled so often, isn't it? Because you're so great at resisting."
"Whatever. We're free for now. It's time for vengeance."
"There's no time for that. Calm down."
"Oh, there's time. I'll make them all fear me, little Uzumaki. Be grateful. Without me, how would you take revenge, too?"
.
.
.
The message spread throughout Kumo camp. Every soldier, though soaked to the bone and weary, hopped through the wind and rain-battered tree branches to relay the news.
"It's coming."
The message spread through the mouths of simpering chuunin, agonized jounin, even some genin, scared witless by merely remembering the stories their superiors had told them of the kyuubi's power. The attack was ill-timed. Kumo forces had enough to deal with—aiding their survivors from the earlier camp fires, moving the able-bodied to the fight against Suna and allies, etc.
Soon enough, the message of "It's coming" became "It's here."
No one needed to explain "what" had arrived. Konoha's kyuubi had suddenly appeared like a ghost in the middle of the forest, but it's movements after that were easy to see, hear,smell, and feel.
The enormous Fire Country trees parted like a green sea in the wake of its crushing demonic energy. This encounter was unlike B and unlike the brief encounters Kumogakure Village had had with the kyuubi before. Somehow, the nine tails was angrier, more desperate, stronger.
This called for a cessation on all other battle fronts. Both foreign kages had been embroiled in a stalemate—briefly, the Kazekage gaining the upper hand because of his fresh shinobi forces, but the Raikage regained the upper hand because of B's devastating attacks. The see-sawing of victory continued. That was before the rain. The deluge wet the sand and made mobility difficult for those using traditional Suna techniques. On the other hand, it gave a power boost to Kumo's lightning jutsu. If the fight continued, the Raikage had the upper hand.
"It's here!" was the ringing shout from messengers down on the ground.
Both kages turned immediately to the noise of splintering trees, skin prickling against the pressure.
A boom of thunder shook the earth.
An unmistakable silhouette towered above the trees.
"The demon fox," breathed the Kazekage.
"Is it on your side?" shouted the Raikage. "Tell me yes, because, fuck it, my village has a score to settle with that one."
The Kazekage scanned the terrified faces of his soldiers below. They were wet, tired, and many of their techniques were immobilized by the persistent rain. The Kazekage's moved swiftly down toward the cover of trees. The Raikage and the untransformed B remained hanging on the boughs of nearby trees, the higher branches swaying slightly in the wind and rain.
"Retreat," boomed the Kazekage to his men. "Retreat for shelter."
This was the signal to push back further north and west, where a confluence of allied nations had gathered against Konoha and, for the time being, Kumo. But Suna felt no obligation to risk their necks against Konoha's jinchuuriki, a weapon whose might they knew firsthand. After all, Lady Chiyo had obliterated the Iwa troops with the kyuubi only half-transformed.
"Coward!" bellowed A.
But the Raikage knew that the other leader had made a tactical choice. His taunt had drawn no response. The Raikage grimaced in the direction of the crashing, falling patches of forest, and then looked toward B. Killer B nodded, and, jumping from the bough, to the ground, disappeared from view.
But only momentarily. In a rush of steaming chakra, Killer B's form ballooned and grew in size, quadrupling in seconds and expanding further to stand amongst the tallest of the Hashirama trees.
The pounding footsteps, quick, like consecutive explosive tags, halted as a yowling screech rang throughout the forest. The kyuubi had arrived to the center of the battle. It stood, bristling, with murderous amber-red eyes and slit pupils.
But the scattered Kumo soldiers on the ground were not screaming in terror. They were cheering.
Because the hachibi stood level with the kyuubi, as both squared off in the thunder storm. The Raikage was on a nearby bough, his booming voice rising above the rain to taunt Konoha's jinchuuriki.
"Where's Danzou, your keeper?" the Raikage sneered at the fox.
The kyuubi only roared in reply. Spittle flew from its maw and mixed with the ongoing downpour.
"Oh, your keeper's not the Hokage, huh? Maybe the Yellow Flash, then?"
"Stop it, Brother!" shouted B. "Let me fight it fair and square!"
The Raikage stilled. "You can't be serious," he yelled to his partner.
The hulking head of the ox-like octopus nodded. "I am. That's an untrained tailed beast. It's being held back because there's no partnership with the host. No friendship like ours. I can win this, brother."
"You've only just learned!" A countered.
Worry crept into the Raikage's voice, and he noted the way in which it stung at B's pride. The hachibi's transformed face could still portray dejection, and B seemed to wrestle a bit internally.
The other tailed beast didn't observe social niceties. The Raikage jumped away from his tree as the kyuubi's raking paw shaved through the trunk, splintering it into wet woodchips that rained down on the soldiers on the ground.
"Pick on someone your own size!" bellowed B.
The kyuubi bristled. Its jaws gaped open, and a black hole seemed to form in the middle of its maw as dark coils of chakra swirled together to form the potent bomb.
But Hachibi was faster. And two could play at the tailed beast bomb.
The clap of the bombs meeting in mid-air was more deafening than any of the booms of rolling thunder. The energy in the air snapped and hissed, as if lightning had pierced it repeatedly, in the spot where the shockwaves met again and again in undulating waves. Sharp wind blew back the treetops, bending the ancient trunks away from the chakra storm.
The Raikage caught the again-small figure of B as he ricocheted back toward the ground.
The wind howled its fiercest through the trees. It seemed like the entire forest was groaning with the weight of the tailed beast chakra, which seemed to coil and combust after being repeatedly buffeted.
As Kumo's leader rode out the aftershock, eyes tightly clenched, he planned how to deliver a follow-up blow to the kyuubi.
But when he'd opened his eyes, there was nothing left in the space where the fox had been.
.
.
.
"Freak! Your dad will shut you back where you belong!"
"You only got close 'cause your chakra ain't normal! Freak!"
"I have a name."
"I have a name."
Kushina's eyes flew open.
And she immediately shut them again.
The pain was searing hot. Her skin was still burning, despite the droplets of cold rain that fell and evaporated to steam on every exposed inch. Kushina's breath hitched as she clutched her quick-beating heart, chakra hissing through every pore as her body healed itself with the kyuubi's latent power.
"We're alive… and that's…"
The words died on her cracked lips. Her own survival wasn't tantamount anymore.
A tear slid down her cheek. Or maybe it was rain. Wet droplets trickled from the branches that jutted into the sky above her. They splashed on her face, cooling and burning at the same time.
Minato…
She wanted to laugh, because she was finally free, not trapped in the kyuubi's body, not controlled by Danzou's Sharingan. But her laughter felt forced.
Where was she? In the Fire Country forest?
If only Minato were here.
This was her melancholy scene in the rain, wasn't it? The stuff of a million story clichés. She would apologize to her love, and bid him farewell and say all sorts of inane things like how she wasn't safe—how she was dangerous and could kill him. But Minato wasn't here to hear her blubber stupid things. Yes. She was glad he wasn't here now.
Looking around, Kushina noticed a smaller tree with a dented trunk, almost like chakra had burned through it.
That was probably me, she realized. The kyuubi's chakra must have still surrounded me, until I knocked into that. When and how did that happen?
The trees were especially thick in this part of the forest. There was hardly any wind that buffeted her from the gray skies above. The splatter of ricocheting water against the waxy leaves and matted underbrush meant that she could hardly hear any sounds of battle.
But she still needed to hide herself! And quickly!
Kushina reached into her (very depleted) chakra reserves to bring out Disguise Tactic 101—turn into a deciduous fern.
Unfortunately, no sooner had she made the first seal than a blood-crusted hand clapped over her mouth.
She could taste the hint of iron against her lips. Her heart hammered. She thought about biting the hand. But the contact against her still-raw skin was too agonizing to think straight.
"Finally found you."
The male voice—though muffled by rain—was familiar.
"You're not turning into that red shrub again, are you?"
So familiar it felt like home.
"Because that kind doesn't grow here," the voice added.
It wasn't rain. Those were definitely tears stinging her cheeks now. Her tears dribbled over the man's hand, which he released quickly once he'd made sure she wouldn't scream and give away their position.
"Freak!"
"I have a name."
"Kushina."
She turned around.
"Kushina, it's me."
First, a small, lopsided smile greeted her.
Above that, bright eyes. So clear she could see her own expression in them.
Then Minato grinned wider.
He reached a hand over to close her slack jaw.
"Kidnapping, success."
She had no way of responding verbally. Her heart had leapt to her throat.
And although the only thing grimier than she felt right now was how Minato looked, she still leapt toward him. She would swear that there was never a sight more handsome than his sopping hair, grime-streaked face, and idiotic smile. Kushina laughed at the ridiculousness of her own thoughts.
No one knew who initiated. Hips, shoulders, and mouths crashed together as Kushina felt Minato wrap an arm around her, even as she moved her aching, trembling limbs to make sure of him.
He was alive! He was here!
She wanted to chant the mantra aloud like a blessing, but Minato's shining eyes were still arresting, and there was rain falling into her still-open mouth. Even in the middle of everything—in the backdrop of a forest in the middle of a war—her heart sang as she felt the last vestige of unease leave her.
Loathe as she was to let go, her hand came away from his face.
She ran a cursory inspection.
"You're soaked," she frowned. "You catch colds easily in the rain."
"Do not," he said.
"Remember our first meeting in Ame?"
Minato hummed, but otherwise didn't answer as he leaned in, head against her shoulder, as if breathing in the scent of her. Kushina hoped she smelled like rain, and not whatever terrible awful she probably accumulated in her kyuubi form.
"Again, you'll get sick," Kushina said after another few seconds of listening to his breathing.
His words were muffled against her shoulder. "Doesn't matter."
Well then.
She rapped him upside his head.
"O-Ow!" Hand flying to his abused head, Minato jerked upright, if somewhat reluctantly. But his gaze never left hers, and the tug of a small smile never left the corner of his lip. "What was that for?"
"We have a war to win," she sniffed.
"Hence why I need to recharge."
Minato was a prodigy at the puppy face too.
"Prognosis?" she whispered.
"Almost recharged."
"Almo—?"
Even his kisses were crazy fast. Before she could hit him for his insolence again, he'd moved back, grin infectious, hair dripping into his eyes.
"Recharged," Minato breathed.
"Ah-um, I'm glad you're okay 'ttebane."
Minato chuckled at the familiar verbal tick. As he laughed, he shifted nonchalantly, but not quickly enough for Kushina's probing eyes.
"Hey! Your arm!"
"Just scar tissue. It's healing," he said quickly.
The man moved the mottled skin out of view, but Kushina had already glimpsed the familiar pattern. Her own skin always looked like that, very briefly, before it healed further. This was the work of a tailed beast's chakra, burning human flesh.
"I did that," she breathed. Her chest tightened. It was only Minato's even tighter grip on her hand with his injured one that stopped her from crying. She willed herself to move on to practical matters.
"S-So who healed you?"
"Katsuyu, Tsunade's summon. She put a lot of chakra into it." Blue eyes dimmed momentarily. "I'm constantly being supported by people I don't deserve help from."
"Everyone in this world is. That's what makes a village work."
Another moment of calm lingered in their small world of trees and the pit-pat of rain.
Finally, Minato spoke.
"Will you? With me… make Konoha new?"
Kushina stared back at him wonderingly—saw the scars up his arm, but more importantly, the invisible ones as well. And Kushina knew that he could see hers as well.
And that's what made this work. They were both so imperfect. They could watch out for one another. Minato, clearly, harbored similar thoughts. His clear gaze locked on hers like burning cerulean wells in a landscape of grey and green.
"Taking down Danzou… Sometimes I'm not sure that I'm doing the right thing. I want to undo his regime, but I wonder if I can be any different. And if different is better."
Kushina waited for him to continue.
"You have the ability to kill me now, or build me up… make me into the Hokage you want to see. If you don't think I can do it, I don't want any of it. It's your choice, Kushina."
She shook her head. "How could I choose? If you become a monster, then I… I already am one."
His gaze grew soft. His hand, reaching out and lingering like a butterfly kiss along her jaw, was even softer.
"Just stay with me, then. Be my closest ally, confidant. Because… you reduce me to a man. Forget Hokage, I can't even be Akatsuki's leader without you."
"Then it's not just Konoha," she replied. "We're with friends as part of Akatsuki remember? Our aim is the entire world."
Minato hushed.
"Am I like Danzou, then?" Another pause. "His aim is the world, too."
Kushina moved her hand up to where his faltered against her cheek, holding it there, letting him feel the sincere pulse of her heart at the crook of her jaw.
"No, you're not like Danzou. You're a good man," she whispered. "You're the man I love."
Minato smiled, slow and sure. "Makes you biased."
"No," she amended. "Makes me vigilant. I'll watch you like a hawk." Minato laughed at this.
Kushina's hand found his.
"I have your back, Minato. Always."
His palm was warm against hers.
"Where do we go now?" she asked.
Minato reluctantly let her hand go, and flexed his fingers, as if testing the hum of chakra through the scarred flesh.
"Shikaku still has my kunai. I think I've recovered enough to move us to where he is."
"O-Okay. Give me a minute." Kushina's physical ails crashed against her again.
With nary a warning, Minato looped his arms below her knees and lifted her. "I'll carry you. You're tired, right?"
"I-I've been meaning to tell you. I get motion sickness from your Hiraishin," she huffed, more out of embarrassment than anything else. Her arms hung limply at her side.
"Sorry," Minato grinned, and Kushina had the sudden vision of their reunion night, of grabbing his blond head and screaming her dissatisfaction. How things had changed.
"You should know what to do by now."
"Hold on?" she laughed.
To Kushina, warping space would never be a truly comfortable sensation. But it wasn't that bad, pressed to Minato's chest as they flashed together to the Nara's location.
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tbc
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Suzu: You asked for sap, yes? :) As for the rest, I admit, I struggled with how the battles would go. I read the wikia for notes, but I'm paranoid that it includes copious fan guesswork. If someone would explain the finesse of fancy chakra and jutsu to me, I'd be truly grateful.
Also, as always, this is unbeta'd. So please, dear readers, let me know if I made a grammar booboo or am confusing you. T_T Comments and crit always appreciated.
Thanks all, for reading!
Gah! So close now!