Chapter XXVIII: Here In Your Arms
"You're going to teach students?" Kushina blinked in surprise as she leaned against the door frame, arms folded and her head tilted back slightly to look up at the blond. Minato nodded a bit sheepishly with a nervous grin, rubbing the back of his neck.
"Yeah... One of them is a prodigy so I'm kinda nervous..." He admitted. Kushina tipped her head forward in interest, then stepped backwards as if granting him permission to enter.
"Daylian-nii-san isn't here today..." Kushina mumbled as she closed the door behind him. It was Minato's turn to tilt his head forward. He stuck out his tongue to lick half his lip for a bit, then immediately withdrew it back into his mouth when the kunoichi asked him another question.
"When do you get to meet the brats?"
"Err..." Minato chuckled a bit at the question. "Tomorrow..."
"... Haaa?" Kushina raised a brow from where she stood behind him, hands on her hips. "Tomorrow? Isn't that a bit early?"
"Well... No... I found out a few days ago, actually..."
"And you didn't tell me?"
"No, it's just!" Minato spun around to defend himself, hands raised as he thought of something decent to use as an excuse. "You... were busy with Mikoto-san and Inosae-san..."
"That was only for two days..." Kushina pointed out with a red brow still quirked. Minato lightly scratched the side of his neck.
"... I was... um..."
"Close to chickening out?" The red-haired kunoichi guessed for him. The blonds' shoulders slumped as he hung his head.
"Yeah, basically..."
Minato felt his cheeks being cupped, his head tilting slightly so he was staring straight into Kushina's eyes. She was staring back with a serious expression, which gradually softened as she smiled. "Listen to me: You'll make a great teacher. Just don't turn out like your teacher, all perverted like that..."
Minato laughed and placed his hands over hers, leaning forward to kiss her. "You really tempt me sometimes, though..."
"Oh?" Kushina murmured softly into the kiss, the question she was about to ask having melted away. Her hands moved from his face to his neck when she felt his tongue glide along her lower lip. Minato smirked a bit after their tongues fondled, pulling back and licking his lip.
"What can I say? Hormones can go mad sometimes." Minato murmured with a chuckle as he moved his own hands down to her waist. Kushina was red at this point, pouting slightly as she tiptoed to kiss him again, deeply this time. Minato exhaled shakily as if trying to restrain himself, eyes slowly falling shut as he returned the fervent kiss.
Lips parted and tongues playing, the two slowly managed to stumble their way to the small single bed. The two parted as Kushina landed on her back, her hair splayed across the sheets. Minato crouched over her, his hands at the side of her shoulders, holding him up. Blue eyes stared down at her longingly as he caught his breath for a couple of seconds.
"This is exactly what I mean..." He murmured huskily.
Kushina stared up at his for several seconds, and then sat up a bit to peck him lightly on the lips. She wrapped her arms around his neck, depending on him to hold them up. "You have a lot of restraint..." She mumbled with her face flushed red. "But not yet... I'm fine like this." Kushina smiled a bit and leaned back, pulling Minato down with her. The blond stared down into her eyes and then eventually cracked a smile at hers.
"Alright." Minato murmured as he kissed her again
"Ugh, are you kidding? We're going to be the last ones to see our teacher at this rate...!"
"I'm sure he'll be here shortly... And there's still three other teams here as well..."
"... Reminds me of you, Uchiha... You're always late too... I don't like this teacher already."
Minato couldn't help but inwardly face-palm at the last comment, standing outside the door to observe his students. Judging by the long pause, and the rather... rude comment, Minato had to guess that was Kakashi. He heard the girl speaking a few times, and the last one was an Uchiha, as he had just been informed by Kakashi. The blond sighed softly and scratched his head, closing his eyes to think to himself a bit.
"... How long are you going to lounge around outside?"
Minato blinks at the student's voice, and then laughs a bit nervously as he turns around to enter through the door. "Sorry, sorry..." He was about to say that he was nervous, but he had to set an example for these students, right?
His eyes instantly fall on a silver-haired student, and falter a bit at how alike he was to Sakumo. Take away the mask and you'd have a spitting image of the White Fang. Suppressing the second of surprise, Minato grins at the three.
"Umm. You three, right? Come on." He turned around and smiled at the other waiting teams, leading his new students out of the door. Minato rubbed his neck as he wandered down the Academy halls, feeling slightly nostalgic from the place.
"Ano... Sensei?" The blond blinked out of his reminiscing and spun around, walking backwards as he lowered his blue gaze down to the kunoichi. He had to admit, she looked a little frail, definitely not built for fighting...
"What will we be doing first?"
Minato stopped for half a second and then continued walking, recalling his genin days as he strode down the halls with the three behind him. "Hmm... Well we should introduce ourselves to each other, right?" He smiled over his shoulder. "... Let's meet at the training grounds."
"... Ha? So we're going separate ways or something?" The Uchiha folded his arms and raised a brow, which vanished behind the rim of the orange goggles he was wearing.
"... That's right." Minato continued to smile. "I just want to see something. See you there." He spun around and raised his hand in a wave, then vanished in a blur. The Uchiha genin gaped a bit, pointing at the spot the blond was last standing.
"He's fast!"
"No duh..."
-
Minato made himself comfortable in the tree branch, leaning against the base of the tree and folding one leg over the other. He crossed his arms then trailed his gaze upwards to focus, detecting each of their chakras. He sighed warily when he found that Kakashi's was well away from that of the other two, whom were sticking together unlike the former. The blond scratched his neck idly and closed his eyes, waiting for the three to approach the training grounds.
Teamwork.
He didn't want to have to fail Kakashi... no, any of them for not having that one important thing. With the corner of his mouth twitching, he silently hoped that they would understand before time ran out.
Kakashi was the first to arrive, waiting by the three stumps with some impatience rolling off him. Minato heard the kunoichi's voice calling out loud, and then got up and Shunshin'd to stand atop one of the stumps. He lowered to sit down, looking at the three.
"Let's introduce ourselves, shall we? Just give a little bit of background information, too... Like dreams and such... Oh, here, I'll go first. I'm Namikaze Minato... I'm, uh, rather young compared to the other senseis, anddd... I'm a student of Jiraiya-sama. My dreams...? Well... I'm not too sure on that, but we can talk more later." He smiled down at the three, slouching forward and resting his forearms on his knees.
"Jiraiya? As in... of the Densetsu no Sannin?" The kunoichi questioned with a bright look in her eyes. The Uchiha next to her grinned a bit.
"Hey, we got a good teacher then, right?"
"..."
Minato glimpsed over at the silent student, then sat up straight to rub the back of his neck. "Well... One of you two can go next, since he's not so talkative..."
"Hai! My name is Rin... And, um... I'm learning to be a medic." Rin wriggled shyly, looking away. "Because Tsunade-sama fought for the idea of a medic on a team."
Minato smiled. "I remember that debate... I think it's a rather fine idea, don't you think? I'm sure you'll prove to be a very good medic of this team."
"Y-yes! Thank you..." Rin smiled shyly again. Minato turned his blue gaze to the black-haired genin.
"Ossu, sensei! I'm Obito of the Uchiha Clan, one of the greatest clans in Konoha! I'm going to be a strong ninja one day... And prove a few certain people wrong!" As if to finish his statement, Obito turned his head to glare at Kakashi through his orange-tinted goggles. Kakashi was only turned away slightly, arms folded and giving them half a cold shoulder as he brushed off Obito's glare.
The blond instantly sensed there would be some kind of difficulty among those two. "Oh. I'm sure you'll be an excellent ninja, Obito... And you?" He looked at Kakashi, his eyes boring into the younger ninja's shoulder until Kakashi finally turned to look at him.
"Hatake Kakashi. I don't really feel like sharing any information. I don't have any dreams." Kakashi almost spat. Minato stared at him levelly, then sighed and broke the gaze.
"Alright. Now that we've got that over with..." He jumped down from the stump and dug blindly through the weapon pouch on his hip. There were a few hit-pitched rings as he dug two bells from it. "I hope you three are prepared. This will be your final test."
"What?! We already took a damn test though! We're full-fledged ninja now!" Obito instantly protested.
Minato looked at the two bells, then back down at his students. "This is a requirement. You're going to be pitted against a Jounin- aka, me -to see if you're fit enough to be a 'shinobi'." Minato tied the bells to his hips, which rung only a couple of times. "Use whatever weapon you may. Any techniques, any jutsus... Also, you'll be tied up if-"
"But wait sensei!" Rin protested. "There are only two bells... Is one of us gonna have to go back to the Academy?"
"... You have until the sun is directly overhead." Minato only smiled as he pointed upwards. "I hope you guys are fast. I enjoy a good game of tag."
"But, sensei-!" Rin stepped forward a second late, Minato already having vanished in a Shunshin.
Minato appeared quite a ways off from the clearing, landing on a branch and looking over his shoulder. He felt Kakashi's chakra instantly move to give chase, followed by Rin then Obito's. Minato sighed inwardly at Kakashi's haste, then vanished forward in a shunshin to create some distance for thinking time.
The blond glanced over his shoulder when he sensed Kakashi steadily gaining on him, slowing his pace to see what this 'prodigy' would be planning. He kept glancing over his shoulder, and when he turned his head forward, he instantly jumped to a higher branch to avoid the net that came flying from the front.
"Phew." Minato sighed a bit and quickly climbed the tree to avoid the Bunshin that was hot in pursuit, jumping to another, bigger tree and climbing to the top of that one as well. The blond looked down at where he saw two silver-haired ninjas coming up, and then jumped off the branch to vanish back downwards into the foliage.
"Ah!" Minato yelled a bit when he found himself hanging by his arm, a wire wrapped tightly around his forearm. He cringed in pain, his shoulder on fire as he raised his other arm to slice away at the wire. He lowered onto his knee as he reached the ground, grasping his shoulder and jerking it to make sure it didn't pop out of the socket. Sensing Kakashi's approach, Minato instinctively vanished in a Hiraishin to the other side of the training grounds.
"Ow..." The blond grumbled as he stumbled over to a tree, moving his arm to stretch his shoulder a bit. "My arm could've popped out..."
"Surprise!" Obito's voice yelled as the Uchiha dropped down from the over head branch with a kunai in hand. Minato looked up and sharply reacted by grabbing the arm with the kunai in it, using Obito's momentum to fling him to the side. Minato sighed softly.
"You don't yell out to give your position away..." Minato advised as he stretched his arm. He looked down at where Obito was sitting up, his goggles pushed up to his forehead and his face buried in the sleeve of his navy jacket. Minato blinked in surprise, clearly startled.
"Are you... crying...?" He asked hesitantly, wondering if he actually threw the genin too hard.
"No!!! I just got dirt in my eyes, that's all!!" Obito yelled back, lowering his arm and scowling. Minato could see some of the water in the corner of his eyes, though he noted that Obito's face was nowhere near dusty. Half-frowning, the blond rubbed his neck.
Instinctively, he jumped over Rin's charging form. Before his feet touched the ground, he vanished in a Hiraishin and appeared on the large tree he had jumped from. Minato rested on one of its higher branches, making sure to tone down his chakra as he searched the training grounds.
Kakashi's chakra was rather weak, but it was still there, and quite a ways off from where Obito was charging off with Rin stumbling along behind. The corner of his mouth twitched as he slumped into a sigh. Come on, I know you three can do this... Look beneath the underneath. He raised his hand to his eyes, shading them from the sun as he checked its position.
"..." Minato's shoulder slumped and he flickered his gaze to where Obito was heading. He scratched his head and then vanished in a Hiraishin there. He appeared right behind Obito, raising a brow when he saw what the Uchiha was doing.
"..." The Jounin folded his arms and kept his brow raised, staring at Obito until the genin finally got up and turned around, yelping in surprise and stumbling backwards.
"Wha, wh, what?! How'd you get here so fast?!" Obito demanded as he dropped the bentos, pointing openly at his teacher.
"Hey, I was saving those for all of us." Minato looked down at the dropped boxes. "You're not supposed to eat."
"You never mentioned that." Obito growled.
"You can't eat on a mission." Minato sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. "... And it was one of my rules... but Rin spoke the same time I did so you couldn't really hear it." Sighing and moving forward, he gathered up the bentos and slapped away evertime Obito tried to snatch at the bells on his hip. Once Minato stacked the food properly, he grabbed Obito by the back of his neck and pulled him into several swift Shunshins.
"Wha- whoa, that's not fair!" Obito struggled, though Minato already had him wired to the tree stump. "Hey!! Come on!" Obito snarled as he kicked out with his feet. Minato moved back a few paces, and then looked up at the sky.
"Stay here. The other two have a few minutes left." Minato murmured as he vanished. He heard Obito's protests increase drastically behind him.
"..." Minato glanced over his shoulder when the yelling ended rather abruptly, but turned his head back to the front when he sensed Rin's chakra. Kakashi stood before him, feet parted into a readying stance and a few kunais drawn. The blond stared at him for several seconds, and then rubbed the back of his neck.
"You're not going to help Obito out like Rin is?"
"It doesn't require three people to cut through some wires." Kakashi muttered before he threw one of the kunais. Minato faintly heard the snapping of some wire, and ducked beneath the barrage of shuriken that flew at him from an angle. The blond swiftly leaned back into a flip to avoid Kakashi's first taijutsu strike, vanishing in a shunshin to dodge the second.
The blond barely had much breathing time, having to constantly dodge numerous traps that Kakashi had smartly laid out, and avoid the ninjutsu and taijutsu. Relief overflowed Minato as he head the alarm go off, making Kakashi freeze in mid attack. The blond's shoulders slumped as he was finally able to catch his breath.
"Phew..." Minato only silently motioned towards where the tree stumps were, and vanished. When he appeared, Rin jumped to her feet, hiding the kunai she was using to slice through the wires that bound Obito.
"Fuck!" Obito snarled.
"Excuse me?"
"Nothing!" Obito growled as he hung his head, muttering to himself. Minato folded his arms a bit skeptically, and inwardly sighed when Kakashi appeared.
"Well... None of you got the bells. Obito broke one of the rules.. that Rin didn't let me finish." Minato added, turning his head to look at the kunoichi. Rin's eyes widened and she turned red, looking down at Obito apologetically. "... And you didn't see it."
"See what?" Obito growled after he raised his head and narrowed his eyes through his goggles.
"Exactly..." Minato sighed and scratched his head. "... I guess I can give you guys one more chance. But if you fail this... Well, you don't have what it means to be a ninja."
"Are you kidding?!"
"Nope. It's another game of tag." Minato spun around on his heels. "... Look beneath the underneath. Especially you, Kakashi." The blond glimpsed over his shoulder for a second, then lurched forward and vanished swiftly in a Shunshin. Kakashi scowled and darted forward, stopping when Obito yelled.
"Wait you! Dammit, at least help me out!"
Kakashi scowled darkly from behind his mask, dropping his arms and turning his body slightly so that he could look at the Uchiha. Rin was lowered onto one knee, trying to cut through the wires. Obito was glaring at Kakashi right in the eye, gritting his teeth.
"Come on, aren't we a team?!" Obito barked out just as Kakashi was about to turn and leave.
"..." Kakashi stopped once more, and thought about what he said for a second. He thought and thought silently to himself, before his onyx eyes widened slightly. "...! ... Che... So that's the point of all this?" He growled to himself. "Fine."
The silver-haired Genin spun gracefully on his heels and walked back towards the kunoichi and the Uchiha. Obito looked stunned at this, his eyes widening behind his orange-tinted goggles. Rin's slightly flushed face looked a bit surprised too, but she had a slightly glad look in her eyes.
You can't just cut through the wire with a regular kunai." Kakashi muttered after he inspected the binding.
"Huh?" Obito and Rin questioned in unison. Kakashi refrained from rolling his eyes, and took out his own kunai.
"It's reinforced with some chakra. All you have to do to cancel it out is do this." He gripped the kunai for a few seconds to channel his own chakra, and then easily sliced through the wires. Obito sighed in relief, feeling the blood freely circulating back to his arms. He yanked away the limp binding and jumped to his feet, fisting his hands.
"Come on, let's go find him!"
"..." Minato beamed brightly from where he was watching this, cutting off his chakra so that Kakashi wouldn't be able to sense him. So he found out. He jumped off the tree branch and vanished in a shunshin before he could reach the ground, appearing on the tree stump Obito was bound to.
"Hey!!"
Obito was about to run off, but stumbled and face planted at Minato's yell. He rolled over and rubbed the dust from his face. "Wha... Wait, huh?"
"You guys pass." Minato grinned as he sat down.
"... A wha?"
"How?" Rin asked with disbelief in her eyes. "We didn't get the bells though..."
"You two weren't aware of the main reason behind this test... But you two had it to begin with." Minato smiled and tilted his head towards Kakashi. "Care to enlighten them?"
"... Team work." Kakashi muttered.
"... That's it?"
"Yup." Minato jumped down from the stump, removing the bells from his hip. "In reality all three of you should have been fighting along side from the beginning... That's why there are only two bells, to throw you guys off. You had to look beneath the underneath."
"Ohh... See, so it was Kakashi's fault we almost didn't pass!" Obito declared smugly with his nose up in the air. "Isn't that right, Rin? I'm glad we work together."
Minato smiled. "... Remember those bentos you were trying to snatch, Obito? Let's go get them, shall we?"
"Alright!! I'm freaking starving!" The Uchiha yelled as he bent his knees, jumping forward with chakra propelling him into a shunshin.
"Oh, wait, Obito...! I know you too well; you're going to eat two of those bentos!" Rin cried as she ran after him.
The blond chuckled as he slipped his hands into his pockets, striding after them. Things would be rather interesting... He glanced back at Kakashi, whom walked at a much slower pace.
"... Team work is important, Kakashi." Minato said as he paused until Kakashi was along side of him. "You'll see this someday... I'm hoping it's not too far into the future."
"Hm." Kakashi grunted. "I'm depending on your guidance to make me stronger... sensei."
Minato blinked down at the adolescence and then smiled. He pulled his hand out of his pocket and ruffled Kakashi's silver hair, receiving an irritated growl in response. "I'm sure you won't need much of my help, but I'll be here if you need any questions... You're quite the fine ninja... All you really need is more team work and something to fight for."
"..."
"Senseiii!! Obito is threatening to eat Kakashi's portion!" Minato looked up and rubbed his neck. "Uh. Don't do that, Obito...? Kakashi, go defend your lunch, would you?"
Before Minato could finish the last word, the silver-haired genin was off in a blur. Minato warily chuckled to himself.
This was going to be interesting...
Author(ess)'s notes:
Kilala: I don't like school. -w- My grades slipped a bit... So much for a 4.0 GPA. Dx
And I've been kinda stressing out, getting sick, etc. Sorry it took a while, but I'm still dedicated to the fic mind you guys. 3 Your reviews make me feel better, thanks.
