"It's actually a brilliant plan," Kushina says, as though this is perfectly obvious and why is Minato being difficult. "It's to the point, and it's all about what really matters to people. There's very little opportunity for anything to go wrong."
"Yes," Minato says dryly. "Securing influence by seducing an exorcist boy. Brilliant scheme indeed."
"Tch, he's hardly a little kid. People mate younger than that all the time. And you're no straighter than you'd have fucked a man if the bond called for it."
This is all true, of course.
"Anyway I never said seduce him, I said bring him more firmly into our sphere of influence. I don't need to remind you that with Hiashi in charge of the Council, it's not a good time for shifters. We need to act while the humans are still all up in arms after the mess with the Uchihas."
The humans are helpless but deeply unhappy: unhappy enough even the exorcists are taking notice.
Because Orochimaru Sannin decided he wanted Sasuke, and suddenly it didn't matter that Sasuke's father was a prominent politician, that his mother was a famous researcher. Suddenly it didn't matter that Sasuke was a person, that people loved him. After all, the Uchihas were only human, and Orochimaru is a crusader.
Their refusal to give him Sasuke simply meant Orochimaru took him instead.
Minato's understood that Sasuke had to watch them die, presumably in horrific ways, and then was immediately taken into Orochimaru's custody. That was two days ago.
"Well, obviously, but –"
"We need a voice," Kushina interrupts him. "Kakashi's not only our best option, he's perfect. Which means I need you to get your head out of your arse and secure him while there's still time. Oh, he's pissed with the Council now – liked Itachi, didn't he – but in the end he's one of them. He's got his Council seat, he's a crusader prince of heaven, bla bla and etcetera. Isn't he engaged to the more desirable Hyuuga girl, too? What I'm saying is we need to act if we want to keep him when the exorcists start pulling him in the other direction."
And they will, Minato knows that. Kakashi has little love to spare for Hiashi Hyuuga, but he's never seemed to mind the engagement, and the Council's becoming interested in his views. What is he now, fifteen? It won't be long until he officially claims his seat…
"We do need to secure influence with Kakashi," he says. "But not in a way that – that nobody wants."
"Realtalk, Minato. I've looked the other way for years while you embarrass us both by running after that human of yours. I'd hardly object if you started cheating in an actually useful way. As for Kakashi, that boy is not a virgin, not to women and not to men, and he's obviously been in love with you for years. He's not here because of his politics, he's here for you. So quit the bullshit and give him something to stick around for."
"You're off your head."
"Am I?" She finishes towelling her hair, pulling it up into a bun. "I find it interesting your mind jumped immediately to a seduction." A snort, her nose scrunching up in that way he's always loved. "I suppose he might look a little girly in the right light. Anyway isn't it an exciting idea to have an exorcist? Make a prince of heaven bend over for you? I don't imagine there's much you could ask for that he wouldn't give you – though given how vanilla you are, I suppose that doesn't mean much."
Certainly Arashi finds the idea astonishingly enticing, but Minato's not reducible to his beast. "You're in a bitch of a mood today."
She gives him a smile like the slash of a knife. "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned?"
Today was the first time in a long, long time he slept with Yui; Yui hasn't wanted to, and perhaps more devastatingly, Arashi has been too aggressively disinterested.
Kushina shrugs, realising she's buttoned her shirt wrong and starting over. "I confess, it did piss me off more than I'd imagined. I suppose I'd thought of her as more conclusively your ex."
"I never left her," Minato points out. He did, of course, bond with Kushina and marry Kushina and have a child with Kushina, but that was bond compulsion and politics and friendship.
"No, but she did leave you."
"That's true," Minto says on a sigh. "And she's not coming back. So."
Kushina touches his arm. "So come on. Let's do this thing."
xxxxx
It's much later that he speaks to Kakashi, so late that they can stand on a balcony and have the city almost silent beneath them.
Kakashi's slouched against the wall, rubbing at the frost on the balcony railing. He looks pale and unsteady, which is nothing unusual, and his eyes are a bit glazed, which is.
"You're not ill?" Minato eventually asks, when small talk has petered out and he keeps noticing the vague, dizzy way Kakashi moves.
"No," Kakashi says with great precision, slanting a look at Minato out of the corner of his eye. "I'm drunk."
"I see," Minato says carefully.
Kakashi snorts, jingling his bottle. "Funeral feast for Itachi."
"You liked him."
"Yeah," Kakashi says, looking out across the cityscape. "He was cool for a human."
"And Sasuke…"
"Sucks," Kakashi says. "Naruto must be in hysterics."
"He is," Minato agrees. Naruto's locked up inside his own head, and Kyuubi's locked in a cage in Naruto's room, because if he's allowed to move he'll tear himself apart.
In Minato's view, Naruto met Sasuke relatively recently. But Naruto's eight, and from his point of view he's known Sasuke almost as long as he can remember, has built his life around Sasuke. They met in pre-school and Sasuke at first had shown no great interest in Naruto, sticking mostly to his own kind, but Naruto had been immediately fascinated. Kept talking about him, with annoyance and yearning and confusion, like Sasuke was a splinter under his skin, utterly impossible to stop picking at. They'd grown friendly quickly enough.
That was how Naruto had finally learnt to put a leash on Kyuubi, because Sasuke didn't heal. The usual scrapes and bruises were no matter, but Naruto hurt him badly once. From witnesses and Naruto's own garbled account, Minato's understood that they were arguing, and Naruto pushed at him. Not a strong push, Naruto insisted, I didn't push him hard! But Sasuke had gone flying, straight out into the street. Naruto, screaming with panic, had thrown himself after him, shielded him from the traffic with his own body when they were hit. Still, Naruto had healed within a few hours, at which point Sasuke was in hospital with a rib through his lung.
Minato believed that Naruto really hadn't meant to hurt him, but of course Minato was hardly an objective party. So it was heartening, and honestly a shock, that while Itachi was livid, Sasuke clearly shared Minato's belief. They were all in the hospital, and at first opportunity Naruto snuck into Sasuke's room while the Uchihas were occupied talking to the doctors. In the end nobody had dragged him out, because even through the window in the door it was plain to see that Sasuke wasn't objecting to his presence.
Naruto was up on the bed, crouching over Sasuke until Sasuke swatted him away and babbling uncontrollably. Energy kept bursting through his skin like sparklers.
Shut up, Sasuke grumbled, pushing at Naruto's head when Naruto ducked down to press his forehead into Sasuke's shoulder. Minato was pretty sure it was the first time Sasuke touched Kyuubi's ears. It must sting a bit, but Sasuke seemed fascinated. He'd always had a pretty sensible approach to shifters – not afraid, not idolising, but rather taking the approach of a biologist studying a dangerous but knowable predator.
Does it hurt? Naruto asked, glancing up at Sasuke's fingers in his ears with flushed cheeks.
A little. In a good way.
Naruto looked at him like he always did, besotted and obsessed, eyes shining with challenge and overwhelm and a wild kind of wonder, only this time they were Kyuubi's eyes.
Oh, Minato thought. Oh right then, so that was a mate bond in the making.
I'm gonna bite you, Naruto said.
The hell you are.
Am too! I didn't mean now!
Hn.
Hnnnnn what?
I'll think about it, idiot.
Tch, you big bastard!
You're the bastard, dobe.
Naruto sunk down on the bed, until he could put his chin on the pillow next to Sasuke's shoulder. I never meant to hurt you. I will never mean to hurt you. I'll do better.
I know. He yawned. Now shut up.
Naruto stuck his tongue out but quieted down at the sight of Sasuke's heavy eyelids. After Sasuke fell into a heavy and frowning sleep, Naruto remained on the bed, hands hovering over the bandages on Sasuke but never quite touching. He kept talking to Sasuke, a quiet ramble that never quite stopped, and eventually lay down beside him again. He watched Sasuke's face carefully, carefully as he snuck a tail around Sasuke's wrist, but Sasuke didn't wake.
It was after this that Minato spoke to Mikoto and Fugaku, who fortunately were amenable. Fugaku seemed to think it was good politics, or at least that he could turn it into good politics.
This cannot happen again, Mikoto said, with a firm hand on Itachi's arm. Naruto will be very good to him.
He will, Minato agreed. He believed it, too. At least, he believed Naruto wouldn't hurt Sasuke more than Sasuke could deal with.
Itachi didn't like it, but Sasuke himself never protested the unofficial engagement. He trusted Naruto, and anyway he was a total Mummy's boy and raised to take a pragmatic view of matters of the heart: didn't automatically bristle at the idea of his mother arranging what would amount to his marriage.
"You'll be in the shitter if Naruto still gets matesick for him," Kakashi points out, all these years later in the cold so his breath comes white and frosty.
"They're still very young," Minato says. "There's time for there to be someone else. Anyway…"
Kakashi lifts an eyebrow, a surprisingly sharp expression surfacing from under the drunken haze. "Anyway Sasuke will die before Naruto could grow matesick? Well, I suppose we'll have to see."
Orochimaru's not known to be careful with his possessions, and Sasuke's fragile and unprotected as any human child. Still, Sasuke's no innocent little flower. He shot to kill with considerable skill and zero hesitation when he was seven and playing with Naruto and BEAST mounted an attack. He hadn't balked at Kyuubi, either, though he'd kept the gun pointed at him until Naruto was back in control. Usually Naruto was lenient, usually Naruto didn't let Kyuubi go for the kill, but all of that was out the window as soon as Sasuke was in the line of fire, and Kyuubi had torn through the attackers. It looked like a fox had been in a hen house, afterwards. This made Naruto go pale and wobbly, his lips white, but Sasuke wiped splatter off his face and smirked, and Naruto could hold on to him and shake and finally grin back.
So in essence if Naruto had to have a human mate, it's a real pity it can't be Sasuke, and not just because of his connections, the possibility of finally forming a solid shifter/human alliance. But hopefully now they'll be able to persuade Kyuubi into a shifter/shifter bond instead. A Sabaku would be ideal…
"On a different note," Minato sighs, leaning back against the wall next to Kakashi, "I apologise in advance if Kushina says something weird to you. I'm afraid she's got it into her head that you're in love with me, and –"
Kakashi makes a sound, half a snort, half a chuckle. Half something torn bloody from inside his throat. "Isn't that common knowledge?"
"Er," Minato hears himself say, the world tilting under his feet.
But Kakashi shrugs it off. He tilts his head back against the wall and a snow flake catches in his eye lashes. "Why'd she bring it up? I assume it wasn't just some kink you indulge in."
Minato must not be at all sober himself, because he gives Kakashi what he should've probably given him from the start, which is to say the truth. "She thought we should seduce you. You know, secure influence with the Council in view of this…upheaval."
Kakashi twists towards him, mouth and eyebrows quirked up. "Like, both of you?"
"I – well – "
"I'm game if you are."
"That's –"
Kakashi laughs, taking a swig from his bottle. Minato might need a bit of that himself, very soon, if this conversation continues to derail wildly into – into –
"I did Anko and Hayate, you know," Kakashi discloses, "it was smashing."
"Right," Minato says, when he's ready to speak. "I think you've had enough for tonight."
Kakashi laughs, a high sharp sound at odds with his normal speaking voice. He takes a step forward and throws the bottle away, watches it fall. Turning around, he stumbles, and Minato finds himself catching him, cradling him suddenly to his chest. Again Kakashi laughs, a lower, breathier sound.
"Time to sleep it off," Minato says.
"Mmh." Kakashi makes an attempt to straighten up, slips, and falls back into Minato's arms. He's growing exponentially, and there's no doubt he'll be tall one day, but as yet he tilts his head back and looks up at Minato, hanging boneless in Minato's grip. "Well. I seem to be having some difficulty retiring to my rooms." There's another puff of laughter. "Maybe I could sleep here. Or will you carry me to bed?"
"Jesus," Minato mutters. "Go to sleep." He scoops Kakashi up, and Kakashi weighs nothing. Thin as rails, he wouldn't have been hard to carry even if Minto were only human. Minato tells himself it's like carrying Naruto, or Konohamaru, only it's nothing like carrying his children. Kakashi's always been difficult to touch, tense and alien under your hand, and he's not a little kid. Right now he's limp with drink and trust, and he smells like imminent snowfall and the fires of heaven. It's a smell that tickles Arashi's jaws, itches along his fangs. Minato's never wanted boys, never been drawn to people who were dependent on him, but Arashi smells exorcist and love and wants.
Of course, Minato's never been one to let Arashi's various desires impact his decisions. Still, it's a disconcerting realisation how much pleasure Arashi would in fact take in Kushina's mad scheme.
Adding insult to injury, she spots them just as he carries Kakashi over the threshold to his bedroom. Minato's never seen her eyebrows go that high. "Well then. If I'd known you were this eager, I'd –"
"Not now, please." He shuts the door on her smirk and deposits Kakashi on the bed. It's narrow and unmade, which is how Kakashi prefers it. The sheets smell of teenager. Minato makes to step back, only Kakashi's hand closes around his shoulder.
"I," Kakashi says. He licks his lips, expression hazy but his eyes shockingly clear. He puts his arm around Minato's shoulders, fingers tangling weakly in the hair at the back of Minato's neck. When Minato carried him here he weighed nothing, but his hand feels heavy now. Their faces are almost touching. "I'm going to be very embarrassed about this tomorrow, and unless you're a great deal more enticed by the prospect than I imagine you are, we're going to pretend I never said this, but just to be clear, so." He swallows, audibly. "Here's the thing. I love you. I'm in love with you. I'd love to have sex with you. I mean. I want to all the time."
Minato draws in a deep breath, buys himself some time to think by kissing Kakashi's forehead. "Sleep it off."
Kakashi's hand releases him. Kakashi closes his eyes and doesn't open them again before falling asleep.
Minato shakes his head, closes the door after himself and takes the stairs up to Naruto's room, nods at the guards. Once again, like last time he was here and the time before, there's not much left of Naruto under Kyuubi's red rage.
Once again Minato tells himself he's being ridiculous, that he's overreacting, but once again he stops cold.
That Naruto loves Sasuke is unfortunate but of no great import – Naruto loves a lot of people. Kyuubi on the other hand has never cared for anyone but Sasuke. So really, the faster Sasuke shuffles off this mortal coil, the better – perhaps especially for Sasuke himself. There are things that can happen that mean you'll never get better, and Sasuke's life right now is made up of nothing but such things. Better it ends, and then Kyuubi will finally be forced to give up on his obsession.
He tries to forget the fact that Naruto has already decided on the exact spot where he plans to bite Sasuke, how Naruto glows around him and Kyuubi comes alive and they cannot wait to bite into Sasuke's soul.
The stuffed dinosaur forgotten in a corner is Sasuke's. The sheets will still smell of him, if Minato gets closer, from the dozens of sleepovers.
He recalls Itachi coming to get Sasuke one morning, entering the room to find the kids asleep in Naruto's bed – it's always been ridiculously big for a kid, because Naruto tosses and turns and rolls off anything smaller – and Kyuubi's tails wrapped tight around Sasuke. Itachi had all but rushed to the bedside, reaching for Sasuke to pull him away from the shifter energies, his face closing down in displeasure when his hand came into contact with them. Kyuubi had growled, Sasuke had blinked awake, and the tension was just gone: Ii yo, Itachi-niisan. Shinpainai, ne. He'd yawned, frowned. Naruto, too much. Pull them in.
It wasn't pain, exactly, or no more pain than Sasuke was amenable to, but too much shifter energy under his skin left him over-sensitive, even the brush of own his clothes a shock of intensity.
Sasuke's always been sensible about the whole thing, as far as Minato knows. He read everything he could get his hands on about shifters in general and mate bonds in particular, conducted experiments with Naruto and himself as test subjects. He was scholarly, interested but not invested – or so it seemed to Minato, but Minato recognises that he doesn't know Sasuke well. Sasuke appears cold and cerebral to him, closed off like a stone inside his shell, but he's caught glimpses of Sasuke laughing, Sasuke screaming – in short of Sasuke possessing an astonishing capacity for passion – only that was with Naruto, or with Itachi. So more of a volcano than a stone, but all the same – he'd been dealing with it, they'd all been dealing with it, only now the fucking exorcists have ruined everything and Naruto may actually lose his mind, right here, right in front of Minato, and –
He leans on Kushina's certainty that Naruto will recover as he kneels in front of the cage. Meets Naruto's eyes, only they aren't: bright red, and Kyuubi's never looked at Minato and seen a father, seen anyone he's concerned with at all. He'd tear through Minato as easily as that, tear through bone and intestine until he was clear of the obstacle.
Kushina would tell him to let Arashi rise to the surface, match beast with beast, but Minato's never believed in that. He's a person, and he's going to deal with his family as a person.
"Naruto," he calls.
Kyuubi growls at him.
He says all the things he's said already, that's he's sorry and he's worried and that Naruto is loved and needs to come back to them. He talks about Yui, about Naruto's friends.
But Kyuubi doesn't care about that. Of course he doesn't, he never has.
At last he does what he hasn't wanted to do, offers Naruto the poisoned apple that's the only thing he'll eat: "Don't you want to see Sasuke?"
Kyuubi freezes.
"I can't let you out like this," Minato says. "You'll be no help to him if you can't control yourself."
He's being a complete manipulative arsehole, but it's fine, Sasuke's going to be dead by the time Naruto's out of the cage, and the grief will be devastating but that'll be an end to the mess…
It's going to be fine.
He reaches into the cage, strokes Kyuubi's ears, Naruto's cheeks, and Kyuubi's fangs snap at him but there's a rim of blue around Naruto's pupils now.
"You'll be okay," Minato says. "Your life's not going to turn out the way you wanted it to, and that's too bad, but nobody's does, and we all manage anyway. You'll be fine."
xxxxx
He meant to leave well enough alone with Kakashi, but there's chaos happening in the Hyuuga clan, which prompts him to return to Kakashi's bedroom late in the morning.
He refuses to let himself glance away as Kakashi gets out of bed – Kakashi's still fully dressed in yesterday's outfit, there's no reason to look away.
He talks about nothing, about smalltalk stuff and politics and missions, and Kakashi hmms and yawns.
Minato takes a step closer to the edge, "Glad to see you're not too hung over after last night."
"Mmh, I only want to die a little." He stretches. "God, I'm never drinking again for at least – several hours."
"Things got a little out of hand."
Kakashi's eyebrow goes up. "If that's what you're asking – I meant what I said. I still mean it. The only difference is now I'm embarrassed about it. But it's been like this for a long time. It doesn't change anything. We never have to mention it again." He doesn't sound too raw about it: sounds like an adult who's said something unfortunate and is handling the aftermath in a mature way.
If Minato didn't know him better, didn't know to look for the set of his shoulders and the tension around his mouth, he'd believe it.
But it seems kindest to play along, to prod gently at the wound gaping underneath the pretence. "How would Gabriel feel about it, I wonder."
Kakashi's face turns into a mess of expressions. Minato picks up curiosity, surprise, and something raw and hopeful that burns even at this distance. "What's he got to do with it? It's not exactly a bonding we're discussing." He wets his lips. "It's not like Arashi's involved with it either, right?" But something in Minato's face must tip him off, and Kakashi's known him for years, has kept his eyes hungry and fixed on him. "Oh my god, are you telling me Arashi's – interested?" He laughs, a short strange sound. "Well, holy shit." His face shifts again, there's something sardonic about his mouth even as his eyes glow. "Are we in for a bit of bondage play? He'd like that, no? Pretending he could take on an angelborn." He tilts his head. "And you'd like me as girly as you could get me, I suppose. Well, there's not much I won't try once."
"You're being quite forward about this," Minato says, trying to be careful, careful, to discern what's mask and what's beneath, what can be teased about and what absolutely cannot.
"Your mother once told me the best defence is a good offence. Also that the best way to get over someone is getting under them." He finger-combs his hair, gets stuck and grimaces as he pulls a few hairs out. "But like I said. I've no interest in – making you uncomfortable. This doesn't have to change anything. We really never have to mention it again." On the last few words, he sounds so young, failing to hide that note in his voice, the breathless neediness of children. Then he straightens up, and he hasn't moved but he's also taken a sharp step away from Minato, towards his own kind: "Well anyway, I have a date with Hiashi."
"Oh? I thought you couldn't stand him."
"Mmh, he's a piece of shit, but I need to make nice with the in-laws, you know."
"That's –" Minato thinks that it's unsettled him more than he's wanted to acknowledge, even to himself, this mess with Naruto, because he's not normally someone who lets himself be interrupted.
Kakashi sighs. "I'm doing what we're all doing, Hiashi too. We're – Orochimaru's the strongest crusader in the world. By a larger margin than would be ideal. So we're waiting for Hanabi to grow into herself."
"Hanabi Hyuuga," Minato repeats, and calls to mind the image of an arrogant little girl. What is she, a year younger than Naruto? Hardly discernible from all the other Hyuugas, with all the same hair and eyes and faces.
"She'll rule the world one day," Kakashi says lightly. His mouth quirks up. "I mean. It's not Samael who sits at the left hand of God."
"Michael," Minato says. "She does channel Michael."
"Oh yes. And luckily Orochimaru's not interested in little girls, so. It makes sense to placate him, it does, I just."
"You just want to shoot him in the face."
Kakashi snorts, a rather sharp sound that evens out as he looks at Minato, making for the door. "You know me so well."
Minato remains in the room for a little bit, trying to decide if he – if he believes that, if he knows Kakashi at all.
But he should. He – wants to, even aside from the fact that he needs to. Kakashis' clearly in deeper with the Hyuugas than Minato had let himself realise, and steps will need to be taken.
xxxxx
He'd assumed it'd be safe when he could finally let Naruto out of the cage because – frankly, because he'd assumed by then Sasuke would be dead.
But Sasuke lives.
This is actually good news, as Tsunade keeps reminding him – harder to forget the kid when he's wandering around like a poster child for one of those abuse helplines. Correction: Sasuke's too angry for that, and too beaten up. There's no sad single tear, no pretty resignation. But anyway he's a reminder, a sore thumb, and it's in Minato's best interest to keep the outrage alive.
But it's hard to think that, when he can see it's killing Naruto day by day. So he tries not to notice, tries to focus on what has to be more important.
In the end it's Yui who calls him, weeks later. Minato, you have to put a stop to this. Do you understand that – that Naruto's being forced to let that horrible man hurt him? He's being blackmailed with Sasuke's safety, and it's escalating and – I'm very sorry about Sasuke, I am, but you have to put a stop to this before it's too late for Naruto.
Confronted, Naruto doesn't deny it. There wouldn't have been much point to denial, not when Minato can see the wounds on him that Kyuubi can't heal, not when Minato knows Naruto would offer to take any punishment, any pain, for Sasuke. Naruto yells at him in desperation that if he wants to help him, he has to help Sasuke, he has to, this has to stop, someone has to help Sasuke.
"I'm sorry, Naruto," Minato says. "Nobody can help Sasuke. No, let me finish. His family tried. They're dead now. The only one who can ever stand against a crusader – against the strongest crusader in the world – that'd be if the Council took a stand. They're not going to do that for a human orphan. I can't make them."
"Then I have to –"
Minato shakes his head and has him locked up.
It works for another few weeks, before Naruto escapes and tries to run away with Sasuke.
When he gets Naruto back, after the longest week of his life, Naruto has extensive facial scarring and seems to have forgotten how to talk: there are growls and, during the night terrors, mewls. His eyes remain huge and his fingers remain clawed for a long time; Yui has to move back in with them, because Minato cannot in good conscience leave Naruto with her like this.
When Naruto starts functioning again, Minato has him sent away to a boarding school hundreds of thousands of miles away from Sasuke. Nobody protests except Naruto himself, not even Yui.
The next time Minato sees Sasuke, shortly after he's had Naruto sent away, Sasuke's missing a leg.
Minato would like to tell him he's sorry – not about the leg, though it's an abomination – but Sasuke's not helped by empty phrases.
He knew Sasuke a bit – not like Naruto knew Sasuke's parents, because Sasuke was never obsessed the way Naruto was, he had a life quite his own that Naruto was only one part of – and he can imagine how that conversation would go. At least, how it would go if Sasuke were older, and were someone who verbalised.
I'm sorry.
I don't care.
Sasuke.
You stole from me.
I protected what was mine.
I didn't realise I still had anything that could be taken. But you took something.
You're angry with me.
Don't flatter yourself. I'm angry with everyone.
xxxxx
Over the years, Sasuke keeps not dying and Naruto's obsession keeps not waning.
"Give it up," Kakashi tells him. "He's a right little Romeo, his fate's written in the stars."
"You don't believe that."
Kakashi shrugs, stretching his arms above his head. "I believe he believes it."
"Mmh." Minato nudges at Kakashi's legs, until Kakashi pulls them up a bit and there's room for Minato too on the couch.
They've tried, with Naruto. Minato has arranged for them to try quite hard. There have been boys and girls, human and shifter, all but parading in front of Kyuubi. Pretty, funny, strong; many of them familiar, many of them already friends, and some of them – the ones Minato's particularly ashamed of – very beautiful Asian boys.
Fact remains, Naruto simply is not interested; much less Kyuubi.
Kakashi lifts an eyebrow and stretches his legs out again, across Minato's lap. "I suppose there are worse things to die for than love."
"I don't want him to die."
"Of course. But it's not up to you, is it?"
Minato rests his face in his hands. It would be easier to stop being angry with Kakashi, to stop feeling breathless from betrayal like an incision, if Minato hadn't known Kakashi's right.
"Minato…"
But Minato's not ready to look up.
There are steps approaching, and then Kushina's hands on his shoulders. "What the hell's going on, Minato?"
It's Kakashi who drawls an answer, and Minato's grateful. "I gather little Naruto's still stubbornly preserving his virtue."
"Ah," Kushina says. "Too bad. I thought Gaara was our best bet."
He was, there can be no doubt about that, for all Minato hadn't liked the idea, what with Gaara so unstable and the Sabakus so hungry for power lately. But Shukaku's attempts to establish intimacy with Kyuubi had ended with a phone call from Asuma: the only way this is happening is if we hold him down.
There have been people who've tried to establish bonds that way. In a few cases it's even succeeded, founded a spark of violent and intimate emotion, however destructive.
But not with Kyuubi, Minato thinks. Kyuubi would respond with nothing but murder.
And anyway even if that hadn't been the case, Minato doesn't have the stomach to order his firstborn raped.
"One of these days," Kushina says, "maybe tomorrow and maybe in five years, you're going to get the call. And it's still going to be Sasuke."
"God damn it," Minato says.
Kakashi pushes himself up into a sitting position, legs still sprawled over Minato's lap. "So start putting things in motion now. Arrange it so you can buy him off Orochimaru."
"He'd really sell?" Kushina says.
Kakashi shrugs. "Sasuke's only human. If the pressure's great enough, or the price, why not?"
Kushina makes a thoughtful sound before nodding. "Then that's how it'll have to be. Good for Sasuke, too."
"You two," Minato starts.
"What?" Kakashi drawls. "It's for a good cause."
"Oh yes," Kushina agrees. "Even the mouse won't squeak, will she?"
She and Kakashi share a look, a glimmer of a smile.
Minato can't deny that this is a derogatory way of referring to Yui, but he also can't claim he's ever protested. What's the point, when it's not done to Yui's face, and Kushina and Kakashi aren't so bothered by her anymore. Kakashi was even the one to retrieve her from those kidnappers a few years ago.
Well, to be fair, Kushina was never all that bothered by Yui, and Kakashi grew tolerant when things – when things got very weird between the three of them.
It began a while after that extraordinarily awkward balcony encounter. This time it was Kakashi and Kushina on a balcony – or perhaps Minato's only projecting, only filling in the glimpses of a scene not meant for him with a familiar setting. Kushina's voice, light and even, I understood my husband suggested I'd said some things.
Kakashi's, softer and carefully bland, I told him it was common knowledge.
Minato hadn't imagined he'd be so frank with Kushina, but come to think of it it was always been Yui he didn't take to.
Well then, Kushina said. She sounded happier than Minato could've thought. But I believe you're not – well. You're not like Naruto. Not so fixed on one star that you miss the rest of the sky.
Are you trying to ask if I was sleeping with Itachi?
I've no right to ask you that. I'm – well, I suppose I'm a bit clumsy about it, but I was trying to confirm you're not adverse to women.
Kakashi snorted. Sure.
Good. And Kushina kissed him lightly on the mouth. It's a standing offer.
It's the first time Minato's seen Kakashi's face blank with shock.
Are you insane? he demanded of Kushina later that evening, after he'd – after he'd realised – feeling like the straight man in a black comedy.
Not at all, Kushina claimed, sounding disingenuously surprised by his disapproval. I stand by everything I said about bringing him more firmly into our sphere of influence, and if there's anything I took away from seeing him with the Uchihas, it's that he's into older women. You certainly haven't been getting anything moving. Also frankly I've been thinking it's time I had an affair.
You're not exactly substitute Mikoto Uchiha.
Of course not. I'm a great deal closer to his age, and dare I say it, a great deal more attractive. Minato, relax. I'm not going to hurt him. Really, out of the two of us, I'm not the one who could.
"Right then," she says in the present. "Let's talk bride price."
