Fuck yeah! Look at my record! Whoo, two chapters in before the start of my next term, whoo! Oh man this was so much effort. I watched the subbed version of this movie- Minato's and Kakashi's english voices almost made me cry.
I'm glad you all, for the most part, liked the last chapter. I understand some of you think it's weird to have those two getting married at sixteen. My question to you is, who said they were getting married right away? No one. Besides, them getting married or at least engaged was something I had written down in the plans from the very moment i started planning this story, back in sophomore year of high school. I HAD to add it, for old time's sake. And you know, writing this has taught me a lot. I like OCs, and I like the ones I've created. But i can admit to an error with writing out a romance for Naruto from the start. The more i wrote, the more i evolved Naruto, the more i realized that in terms of romantica growth i'd sort of boxed him into a corner. I like writing the romance between Katsu and Naruto, but for sometimes my mind wanders back to the "Skin King" contest and how much fun it was to write a flirtatious Naruto. Point is, i like writing action and adventure more than i do romance, but i do still believe that romance can be added in humble amounts. The next time i write a Naruto fanfic, I'll leave romances off to the sidelines, yeah? At least i know now, it means I've grown as a writer. Gotta take chances.
Once again now that spring term starts up this monday, i regret to inform you that it'll be another long wait for the next update.
P.S.: This entire chapter, though written as if read in the book, is actually watched on screen. We'll return to regular formatting next chapter.
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Naruto, Masashi Kishimoto does.
Chapter Fifty-Five
Look Into The Mirror Of Your Past, Uzumaki Naruto!
"Hey, that's my strawberry dattebane!"
Kurama chuckles, popping the sweet fruit into his mouth. "You've stolen half my bacon little terror. Be quiet."
Kushina pouts, but when the expression garners nothing but a disdainful look from the King of Demons, she looks away angrily and pesters Minato for one of his strawberries. Of course Minato gives it to her, and for a time they are spared any more indignation from the redhead as she savors the sweet juices. On the other side of the kitchen table Obito and Kakashi slather their pancakes in maple syrup, and Rin carefully cuts hers into easily chewable pieces. Tsunade savors a cup of tea as she works at her stack of pancakes, and Jiraiya demolishes his eggs.
The mood of the group couldn't be higher after last night's chapter. Minato and Kushina especially, seem to be radiating their happiness and their friends couldn't be happier for their future son.
"I wonder what this chapter will be about?" Rin sighs happily, mentally hoping for something just as romantic as chapter fifty-four.
"It better not be an entire chapter of wedding plans that's all I'm saying." Jiraiya grumbles, but it's not serious and he smiles even as he says it.
"We'll never know if you all don't finish and clean up." Kurama instructs, and they all find themselves obeying, even if they question their immediate obedience later. Kurama doesn't yet tell them that after being father to as many children as he had, the commanding tone is one he's got down pat. Kurama for a time, wonders after his children. The sons are no longer boys who need him and even at the time of his imprisonment three of them were already giving him grandchildren. He doesn't dwell too long— they were all capable of taking care of themselves and the family, and he couldn't think of his sons without thinking of his daughter . . .
The thought is cut abruptly, before the pain worsens.
"Kurama, do you think we should have lemonade while we read?" Kushina's voice breaks him from his stupor. Looking at her isn't much better than what he was doing before, he reflects dryly.
"You haven't noticed, but . . . the book has yet to reappear on the coffee table." Kurama informs her.
Kushina, as well as the others, share confused looks. "Where else could it be?"
Minato, after a moment suggests, "Perhaps we'll not be reading but watching today. There would be no need for the book if we were to watch an entire chapter."
"When have we ever watched an entire chapter though?" Tsunade points out skeptically.
"There's a first time for everything!" Obito cheers. "That must mean this chapter is extra exciting!"
The scramble to clean up the kitchen means a headache for the Demon King. The clacking and scraping of plates and cutlery and the warning sounds of glasses moved around a little too roughly has him retreat into the living room and wait for the others. Five minutes later they all move in quickly, Kushina in her insolence bouncing into the seat next to Kurama and twirling a shorter lock of hair by his ear around her finger before quickly moving over to rest against Minato.
"She's not usually like this, I swear." Minato jokes with a small smile. Kurama glares at him darkly, the blonde man not even having the good grace to look shamed or intimidated.
"So . . . what now?" Kakashi asks. After his question, the TV chimes. On it, a message quickly appears.
This chapter, we have a special treat for you all. Due to this particular adventure Naruto has, he ends up meeting someone rather important to him and someone you all know well. For this, we will have the entire saga up on the television. Whenever you are ready to start, just click the 'play' button on the remote. Happy watching!
"Oh this is so cool!" Obito trills, grabbing the remote before anyone can say otherwise and pressing the play button.
In the forests of Konoha, the trees whisper secrets as the wind blows past. Faintly, the strains of laughter both feminine and masculine echo on the breeze blowing through. The laughter, masculine, grows closer.
"Who thought to invite him to a game of freeze tag?" The male voice is amused and light.
"S-sensei . . . ?" Rin questions, looking to Minato.
"That does sound kind of like you Minato. But, it's not either . . ." Kushina's brow furrows at the mystery. "Your voice is . . . smoother. This one has a subtle gravelly edge to it. And this one sounds a little younger than you."
"I believe it was you." Another male voice answers with slight sarcasm. Kurama drops onto the tree branch from above, fluid movements and graceful stillness accentuating his profile. The dappled sunlight from above falls upon his face and front, highlighting an amused smirk as his scarlet eyes look to his left. After another moment, a slightly shorter figure drops down next to him where he looks.
"Minato . . . that's you." Tsunade murmurs, perplexed.
"How? Is this . . . a chapter about the past? Something we've immediately changed upon coming back?" Jiraiya postulates. Theories are speculated over, but when the person in question speaks everything is silent.
"You all can't see it?" Minato's voice is so full of intensity they all turn to look at him, and Kushina isn't the only one whose breath catches. Minato is like a tiger with sights locked onto something it wants. His blue eyes, icy and scorching at the same time, never stray from the laughing blonde would-be doppelganger.
"What do you mean sensei?" Kakashi asks, but he himself is already evaluating the clone with more scrutiny, much like everyone else.
"The hair is shorter, it's not quite the same style as sensei." Rin notes after a minute.
"The whiskers." Kushina whispers, and as if the words were a magic spell suddenly they are all able to see the thin black marks that line the cheeks. "That's my baby boy. How could I have missed it?" a light smile plays upon her lips. "He's ten times as handsome as his father."
Naruto smiles lightly, hooded blue eyes roving the distance. "Lee is so enthusiastic. I didn't expect Hinata to take up his challenge though."
"A demon in angel's skin." Kurama agrees absently, looking around. "What can you feel without the tail now?"
"I can feel . . . the wind." The blissful light in Naruto's eyes makes Kurama smile. "It's getting a lot easier to sense nature chakra without the ears and tail. When Ero-sennin comes back from his mission I think I can ask him to start training me in Sage arts."
"I can't believe I've put it off for so long actually." Jiraiya grumbles. "I should have started immediately after the invasion of Konoha."
"Good." Kurama replies simply. "Will you continue the game?"
"For a little while. Yamato said we would have to meet in three hours for some sort of mission briefing. I'll play for half an hour more and then just rest." Naruto lists off his agenda. "What will you do?"
"Still freely able to use the word play. When's the last time I ever had a game for innocent fun?" Tsunade wonders, smiling wistfully.
"I think I'll take a nap myself." Kurama muses. "I'll be coming along on this mission. It's been a long time since I've seen Rouran. It was a pretty city in my time. With a matriarchal ruling line too, a rarity in the human realm more so than in the demon realm."
"How many ruling powers were female?" Kushina asks, intrigued.
"The overall ruling power is the Demon King. I ruled for sixty thousand years, and the king before me ruled for . . . twenty thousand. He wasn't popular, obviously. Of course, being the king did not mean I policed the lands. I just made sure nobody committed genocide, or killed a child— you know, reprehensible crimes. The second largest powers were the demons who took territories. Of the one hundred territories, half belonged to women, either through matriarchal lines or being the first born. Maybe ten of the fifty were women who took over by killing the previous 'Lord.'" Kurama explains quickly.
"Can't imagine why. Nade does a great job of running Konoha." Naruto comments.
"Thank you, Naruto." Tsunade laughs.
Kurama merely shrugs before bursting into smoke. Naruto blinks at the warmth flashing in his stomach and speaks aloud to his covered abdomen. "I thought you'd prefer a nap out here."
His only response is a ghostly chuckle in the back of his mind before silence reigns again. Shrugging, Naruto returns to his game and seeks out Chouji who'd been frozen. Sooner or later he'd leave out and enjoy his fiancé's delicious picnic.
From outside an apartment window, the cheerful blue sky boasts few clouds and sunshine that lights up Konoha. Birds chirp in the canopy of the tree that is just visible from the bottom of the window pane.
"I thought he'd be leaving out for the mission the same day." Tsunade voices, looking surprised.
From the bed next to the window, a form slowly shifts under the sheets, shifting just enough to show golden spikes springing up as they are freed from the sheet's clutches. A tanned hand comes up next, large with elegant long fingers; fingers that reach for the alarm clock on the nightstand, turning it so that the owner of the hand can see the red numbers.
Kushina's brow crinkles. "Minato?"
Minato snorts. "How'd you identify me from just my hand Kushina? Hm?" he whispers teasingly, enjoying the bright red blush that overtakes her face.
"Should have seen that one coming." Kurama taunts quietly, smirking.
"Oh no!" The man curses, surging up from the bed and looking incredulously at the alarm clock.
"Sensei!" Minato's team crows, making the older man smile in amusement.
"Oh, but how? Is this chapter going between the future and the past for something important?" Obito queries.
"Let's keep watching and find out." Jiraiya chuckles.
An alarm that should have gone off at seven this morning. "I'm half an hour late!" Minato bemoans, jumping out of bed and rushing to get ready. Tearing off his shirt—
Rin squeaks, covering her face. "That's more than I needed to see of sensei!"
Tsunade just cackles at the girl's words. "You're a medic-nin, why should this affect you?! Hey, Minato— how much do you bench press?" She bursts into fresh peals of laughter at Minato's scandalized look.
"Whoo! Strip show! Strip show!" Kushina chants, bouncing in her seat.
"No money no show, now sit quietly." Minato chides, bopping her lightly on the head.
he scrambles around in his closet briefly and grabs his jounin uniform, running into the bathroom and closing it shut. His shower is brief, the water verging on cold as he prefers to better wake up. Soon he's out and half-dressed, pulling his jounin pants up to cover is hips with one hand and the other tugging down his long-sleeve blue shirt.
Minato clucks his tongue. "Quit trying to embarrass us." He mutters to the ceiling, unimpressed with their antics.
"Why, oh why, did Kushina have to play a prank today of all days?" Minato mutters in despair. There were only two people who had full access to his apartment, Kushina and Jiraiya. And Jiraiya is on a mission. Grabbing the roll of bandages from his nightstand drawer he sits on the bed and quickly tapes up his ankles, tugging them for a firm fit every so often. When that's done he ties his hitai-ate to his forehead, slings on his sandals, and then tears out the door.
"I did this plenty of times, so I'm not sure what made this particular moment special." Kushina confesses.
"Oh this was the opening day of Ichiraku Ramen." Minato informs her, grinning. "And the start of, what is without a doubt my favorite mission ever."
"You're not late are you Minato?" One of his neighbors, a kunoichi taken off duty after sustaining a debilitating injury, asks in amusement. Minato was never late, always right on time after all.
"Yes, unfortunately!" Minato answers quickly, taking to the roofs for a few minutes before hitting a traffic jam of sorts. A genin who, exuberantly trying out his new roof jumping skills, crashed right into a chuunin that wasn't quite so easy going on kids. Sighing, Minato leaps down to the road and takes off at an easy jog from there. Of course, and easy jog for the jounin is a bit of a hard run for any other, not that he would acknowledge that without visible proof at each inference.
"Oh, Minato! Would you come here for a moment?" An elderly man asks, smiling warmly at the youth. "Good morning to you, by the way!"
"Oh, foiled!" Rin giggles.
Minato sighs. "That's not funny, when I got to Ichiraku the line went around the corner you know!"
"Ah, I remember this! Sensei, there was nothing particularly special about that mission so why is it your favorite?" Kakashi asks. Minato only gives him a blinding, brilliant smile that shocks Kakashi. When had Minato-sensei ever been so . . . jubilant? Before, reading about Naruto of course, Kakashi amends to himself.
And then it clicks.
And— "No. Just, no— sensei. No."
Minato swallows a sigh, and smiles back politely. "Good morning! What is it you need help with?"
The mission starts off rather weird for Naruto. First off were the ruins of Rouran, where he had been expecting a city that perhaps was fading with time. Reminded a little too much of Uzu, Naruto wasn't quite up to par with consoling Kurama who kept lamenting the loss of Rouran's magnificence. Then, there was so much sand being blown around Naruto found it hard to see even ten feet in front of him.
"Good grief it's like you're breathing sand." Tsunade complains. "You all should have brought scarves or something!"
And then there were the puppets.
Such as the one he is currently fending off. Large, ugly things with lots of sharp drills and surprise blades that pop out of their chest at a moment's notice. Irritating, but luckily each person on the team is supplied with a chakra blade— pretty little daggers that look like miniature swords, that when you channeled chakra into them you could cut the chakra strings of the puppets and render them immobile otherwise you'd never hear the end of them. The only trouble was with the sand blasting him, the chakra strings were not easy to see and that's what really made the puppets so damn troublesome.
"Shannaro!" Sakura yells, fist crashing down on a puppet and sending it flying away into a wall several meters back. Her sharp eyes caught the chakra strings and cut them quickly, the puppet falling to the ground lifeless.
"Very nice!" Naruto approves, putting away his chakra blade. He sighs and stretches, and a glint of gold around his neck catches Sakura's eye as it is pulled harshly by the wind, as if trying hard not to be ripped away. It's a sun pendant Naruto wears around his neck, the gold shining even in the dim light and sand.
"Pretty necklace." Rin murmurs. "I think I've seen it somewhere before though . . ."
"Minato-sensei has one." Kakashi pipes up, and all eyes turn to him. "Don't you, sensei?"
When the others turn to Minato for an answer, his sphinx like grin has them all even more curious. Fingers dipping under the collar of his t-shirt, Minato pulls out a necklace identical to Naruto's. "You never take it off, hardly ever except for showers and the like." Kushina notes. "Where did you get it from?"
"It's that answer, which makes it so special I never take it off." Minato replies mysteriously.
Sakura smiles. "Thanks. Come on, let's go meet up with Yamato-taichou and Sai!" Following her call, Naruto and Sakura leap over ruined columns and crumbling walls, reaching their teammates in a few minutes.
"Is that all of the puppets?" Yamato asks immediately after they arrive, speaking loud enough to be heard over the winds that whip at their clothing viciously and try hard to fill their mouths with sand.
"We believe so." Sai confirms.
Naruto sighs, eyes hooded in an effort to decrease the amount of sand getting in. "Where is this puppet master, Mukade, hiding I wonder?"
Kakashi grunts. "Puppet master Mukade?"
"Also known as . . . Anrokuzan." Minato supplies, watching another piece of the puzzle fall into place for Kakashi.
Sakura sighs, annoyed. "If we knew that, we'd be done with this mission a lot quicker don't you think?"
As if her words were a charm, an explosion and a cloud of black smoke that stood out clearly amongst the sand-filled winds caught their attention. Naruto grins rakishly at Sakura who merely sighs in defeat.
"Shall we investigate?" Naruto asks charmingly.
"Please do." Minato urges eagerly.
"Minato what is going on?" Kushina cries, fed up with the man's knowing attitude towards this chapter.
"Don't be a dick." Sakura mutters. Laughing, Naruto jumps forward first, the others following and Yamato taking point as leader. The distance wasn't far to travel, and when they get there a large chasm appears before them, the smoke that is actually just great amounts of dust fading quickly.
"A cave-in?" Naruto guesses. "What could be down there?"
"Mukade wants to get the Ryuumyaku from the ruins of Rouran. As per our treaty with Suna, we will aide them in arresting this rogue, as well as fulfilling our own mission objective." Yamato reminds them of the mission debriefing.
"Ryuumyaku . . . the sleeping chakra underneath the city?" Sakura asks to clarify. "You said it was almost infinite."
"Yes . . . though I don't know what it was used for." Yamato replies. "Sai— draw something that can get us all down there safely."
"Yes sir." Sai intones, kneeling to the floor as with practiced, fluid motions he unravels a blank scroll and draws a bird. With a quick seal and a flare of chakra the bird grows and leaps off the page, stopping until it's cleared all their heads and is as long as they are.
"Wow, what an interesting ability." Jiraiya compliments, eyes lighting up. "What sort of fuuinjutsu goes into that, I wonder?"
"Eh? You wouldn't know sensei?" Minato asks, shocked.
"I may be a seal master, but that title doesn't grant me all knowledge in every aspect fuuinjutsu can be used for. That, I still need education in." Jiraiya answers with a sheepish smile.
Trusting in Sai's creations after so many times of seeing it, Team Yamato clambers onto the bird and it flies slowly down, making slow downward circles around a tall column that has appeared when the chasm was opened.
When the bird landed, they were in a chamber with a single hallway. Without a word, Yamato signals for his team to follow as he dashes down the hallway, Sai's ink creation dispelling after they'd left the chamber. The tunnel was long and dimly lit, but their eyes were trained on a slightly lighter opening that would, if intel proved correct, lead them to their mission's true objective, Mukade being a mere bonus.
"Naruto, remember, no matter what you must ensure the seal is secured." Yamato orders, and Naruto replies with a quick murmur of assent. The hallway ended into another chabmer, larger than the first. Their walkway was short, a single bridge connecting another pillar in the middle of a dark pit that. Naruto saw the seal, and with a little flutter of excitement the tri-pronged kunai his father was famous for using. The true objective of the mission, the reason he had been chosen specifically, was to renew the seal the Yondaime had used to keep Rouran's power safe. After so many years and with the seal fading, Mukade has a good chance of breaking it, thus Naruto's role.
Naruto rubs his hands together, ready to do his relatively simple task. He takes a couple steps forward, but pauses when a slim figure steps out from one of the black spires surrounding the seal. "What the hell is that? A puppet?"
The figure stops just before the seal, turning and exposing a gaunt man with shoulder length brunette hair, smiling blandly. "Looks like you were too late Konoha."
"Eurgh! I almost wish he were a puppet!" Naruto shivers in disgust, before getting serious. "Hey, freak show, you're not laying a hand on that seal! I've got dibs by rights!"
"Why can't you just wait until the mission is over to play around?" Minato mutters, shaking his head.
"There's nothing you can do," Mukade smirks. "I'll take this power, rule the nations, and then the world!"
"God, what is up with everyone wanting to rule the world? Does he even know what lies outside the Elemental Nations? I sure as hell don't!" Obito gripes.
Yamato shakes his head shortly. "Impossible. You cannot break the Fourth's seal."
"Oh I know that." Mukade softly agrees, stepping around to kneel behind the half-circle dais holding the tri-pronged kunai. "So I'll just absorb it!" Flicking through a few hand seals he places his hands on the dais and recites, "On, Mayuragiranti, Sowaka . . ."
"Uh." Both Minato and Jiraiya look nervous, and Kushina sighs.
"Here comes another crazy adventure right?" she guesses.
Minato looks at her and smiles happily. "Oh no this one is really great! I had just wondered how it happened . . . that's one detail still a little fuzzy to me actually."
"What the hell are you talking about?" Kushina pleads, baffled, but Minato won't let her curiosity be sated just yet.
A brilliant light erupts on the seal, a giant column that lights up the entire room. Glowing purple sygils grow on Mukade's skin as he grips tightly onto the tri-pronged kunai and he smirks tauntingly.
"Hell!" Naruto curses, sprinting forward to try and stop whatever process Mukade has just started. Yamato follows after him but Naruto is at a greater distance ahead, too great to turn back when something strange happens. The light grows brighter, brighter, seemingly swallowing Mukade into a vortex of light. The vortex grows bigger, starting to eat away at the bridge. As stones break apart and float into the light, Naruto slows to a halt and then tries to run back, but whatever the vortex is it has some sort of gravitational pull because Naruto can't move as quickly as he likes. For one startling second he feels weightless, and looking down he realizes it's because his feet are no longer on the ground! He's being sucked back into the vortex.
"Ah, oh no!" Rin yelps.
"Everyone, trust me when I say Naruto will be just fine." Minato assures with a smile so excited, so luminous they're too shocked by his restrained elation to question him. Kurama gives the blonde human a questioning glance, before he thinks it over.
"Oh." Kurama utters, actually surprised. "My, my, the things that happen to this child!"
"Right?!" Minato damn near sparkles, and if that doesn't knock the wind out of several people in the room nothing will.
Yamato prepares his jutsu. "Moukuton: Great Forest Technique!" His left arm shoots forward, morphing into a wooden plank that separates into wooden finger-like projections from his shoulder, shooting forward to wrap around Naruto and try and pull him back. The pull of the vortex is too strong though, and with a cry of "Yamato!" Naruto is gone in the blinding light. The vortex has not stopped growing, and it consumes more of the bridge, getting close to Yamato even as he tries to pull away. He too is sucked into the light.
"Oh no." Kakashi groans quietly, the puzzle finally connected in his mind.
Naruto wakes up slightly sore and very much confused. As he opens his eyes, his senses are already looking out for any trouble or Yamato. He finds neither. Yet. Opening his eyes, Naruto is greeted by a stone ceiling almost impossibly far away. Quietly, almost silently, a soft voice sings a strange song he's never heard before. Looking around, he finds a young girl sitting atop a broken rock singing, a trail of steady tears falling down what part of her face he can see. She wears a simple long sleeved shirt and shorts, her red hair in a ponytail that falls down her back.
"He sure does find a lot of redheads. How can any of them not be from the Uzumaki?" Obito mutters to Rin and Kakashi, who shrug.
Eyeing her critically, he finds that she holds no more chakra than the average civilian, and looks completely in her own little world besides. Politely, in hopes of not scaring her, he calls her attention. "Hey."
The girl jerks, and with only a mere glance at him she jumps off the stone and runs off, forcing him to get up and follow her. "Hey, wait a minute!" Naruto entreats her. He just wants to know where the hell he is!
The girl runs through a stone doorway, but when Naruto gets here she's already glaring back at him from behind two hulking figures. From underneath their cloaks the guards fire small, sharp projectiles at him and he drops to the ground, but he observes with surprise a purple barrier that halts the momentum of the weapons and leaves them to clatter harmlessly to the ground around him.
"The sleeping chakra's defenses?" Jiraiya postulates.
"Who cares, shut up and watch the movie!" Kushina hisses, determined to stop Minato's inside joke. Even Kurama was let in on it before her, she growls inwardly, forgetting that Kurama figured it out himself already.
Naruto swiftly gets up and backs away, and as the guards surge forward he once again notices the purple barrier activate, not only halting the guards momentum but dismembering them and enabling him to see that they are merely puppets!
"Puppets again." Naruto muses, looking at the pile of parts and joints. "Like Mukade's. Well . . . I need a little more information. Yo," he taps his stomach twice. "You seeing all this Kurama?"
Kurama snorts. "Like that was necessary."
Yes, and a little reconnaissance goes a long way. Kurama advises.
Fully agreeing, Naruto takes a running leap to the walls of this grand stone sanctuary, going higher and higher as he leaps closer to the three skylights above signaling above ground. When he's right under them he realizes the skylights are metal pipes that continue for a short distance past the stone ceiling and the glass top is what lets the sunlight through. Still, he breaks through the one light and leaps out into something almost like a little park. Taking a welcome breath of fresh air and grass, Naruto looks around. Above the treeline, a city towers so far up that Naruto is awed.
"Wow!" Rin whispers, awestruck by the city shown.
"Yes," Kurama's lips curl contentedly. "That, is Rouran. One of the few cities left on this world that remind me of a time long since passed with architecture much like this. Truly remarkable, what you humans can do when you finally use your brains."
Each building is a tower, a thin beautifully designed monument connected by a series of bridges from building to building, the towers stretching up so high Naruto childishly thinks for a moment that they're keeping the sky up.
"So tall!" Naruto breathes, shielding his eyes and looking way, way up.
It's Rouran! Kurama realizes.
Come again? Naruto asks, confused.
"Ah! So we can hear their internal conversation?" Obito gleefully realizes.
This city, it's unmistakably Rouran! The ruins you saw before . . . this is what they were!
Perhaps we travelled back in time? Naruto wonders.
Perhaps. Or, this could all be some elaborate genjutsu . . . Kurama guesses. Well, we need more information. Hop to— is that a flying puppet?
Naruto looks at the hovering, bulky figure. "Why, yes it is."
The bulky figure hides three more puppets that fly on either side of him now. "Wow, fuck you." Naruto sighs.
"Gah, if I'm not careful it's almost like seeing sensei act so casually and free." Obito laughs.
"I'm not casual and free?" Minato pouts.
"You're scary and you tease people way too much!" his team reports brusquely, making Minato's lips twitch with a restrained smile.
The puppets move forward and Naruto starts to run, leaping towards the towers and using them to maneuver around. Sighing irritably, Naruto avoids the blasts of purple energy, whatever it is, from their guns and the weapons displayed by the first two puppets he saw after waking— taking a moment, he realizes the puppets can control the kunai-like weapons' movements. He jumps onto a bridge and runs, scrabbling to a halt when another puppet emerges from the darkness of the entryway ahead. It wastes no time in setting its guns on Naruto and fires concentrated blasts.
"Holy—!" Naruto squawks, contorting in fantastic movements for a while until he's able to leap away again, once more flipping and dodging using the towers.
The group laughs at the funny little dance-like maneuvers Naruto had been forced to do to avoid the hits. "Teach me your ways Naruto-sensei!" Rin chants, sending her teammates into fits.
"Ah!" Naruto gasps, remembering his own chakra blade. Unsheathing it, Naruto ricochets off the next tower and gets behind a puppet, cutting its chakra strings. As it falls limp he uses its body to vault over to another puppet and cut its strings, but he'd lost sight of the third puppet, only to be reminded when it smashes into his back and sends him wheeling away to hit a bridge a couple kilometers below.
Naruto struggles up, glaring as another two puppets take the place of the ones he'd felled. "Oh lovely." He quips, seeing the quick-draw puppet is also flying, and setting its targets on Naruto once again. Naruto rolls back onto his feet to avoid getting that blast of energy head on, but it hits close and on the bridge, collapsing the bridge and sending him careening down and crashing through another stone building similar to the one he'd woken up in. He takes a moment to catalog his injuries. Throbbing bruises all around his back is customary, and a deep, bleeding cut on his leg is sharp in its pain but will heal quickly, all thanks to a friendly local bijuu.
Kurama eyes the cut and nods. "It won't be a problem to heal. I can do so in five minutes if I push enough chakra through."
"Why wouldn't you ever heal me fast? The quickest you'd take was overnight." Kushina whines.
Kurama chuckles, his answer harsh. "Well my dear before this room I wanted absolutely no connection to you."
He sees the puppets arrive at the hole his body blasted through, and with an annoyed sigh he picks up the chakra blade, preparing to fend them off. "God, if you had some personalities I could have at least a little fun!" he complains loudly to the puppets who zoom forward and start up again with the controlled weapons. Naruto groans and deftly parries each one, thinking through a possible strategy when—
This chakra, Kurama whispers—
Naruto feels a body suddenly next to him, a shoulder pressing lightly into the right side of his chest, an arm snaking around his middle. He turns, there's a strange stylized mask, and on either side is blonde hair—
"Who is—" Tsunade question but she's cut off by Kakashi's shout.
"Minato-sensei!" The answer to everyone's question was, in fact, the last thing the ever expected.
"You mean he's . . . and you . . .!" Kushina's eyes widen, looking at a glowing Minato. Without thinking she pitches forward and hugs Minato, while at the same time trying to strangle him.
"No fair! No fair! You get to meet our son like this, that's no fair!" She laughs, tears studding her eyes.
"Don't worry. You'll get to meet him too. I promise." Minato whispers to her, hugging her tightly to him as they turn back to the screen.
The shinobi hauls him up and leaps off, and Naruto hears a shout of, "Partial Expansion Jutsu!"
Naruto's eyes widen. "An Akamichi!" he gasps, unaware that the shinobi carrying him shifts his head a fraction of an inch after hearing his mutter. The gigantic hand smashes a puppet into the nearby wall. Another member comes out, another surprise for Naruto.
"Ninpon: Beetle Sphere." The stern voice calls out the jutsu, and the cloud of insects surround another puppet.
"And an Aburame." Naruto breathes. The shinobi reaches the edge of the hole, and leaps off it to reach a high edge on one of the towers. Releasing Naruto there, the shinobi crouches down and observes his teammates.
"Thank you. It was looking a little dicey there. I've never faced such strong puppets before." Naruto addresses the shinobi with the strange animal mask, a bird perhaps? He notices the shinobi is lean, the mask attached to a cloth that wraps around the man's head and continues down the neck, kind of like Kakashi's face mask if it covered even further. There's just a tuft of gold spikes sprouting up from his head. There was nothing on the man to indicate what village he was from, but if he is working with an Aburame and an Akamichi, it's safe to say he's from Konoha.
"They appear to have been supercharged by the Ryuumyaku." The man answers, his voice deep and smooth leading Naruto to believe the man was at least a few years older than him.
"Did it strike you as strange sensei?" Rin asks. "To see someone look so much like you?"
"Yes but, though the hair and eyes were an interesting clue my immediate impression was of Kushina. His eyes are hers after all, if not the same color. His eyes reminded me of Kushina's, and his taunt to the puppets alerted me to a feisty nature that again, combined with the eyes, had interested me." Minato replies softly.
"I'm not sure if that's true." Kushina chuckles.
"Which branch are you from? I've never seen ANBU with such a mask." Naruto asks curiously.
"Oh, nothing specific like that." The ninja replies, the response light but the voice still somehow carries something important . . . or maybe that's just Naruto. "You should get that treated quickly." The man advises, looking down at Naruto's leg.
"Oh this?" Naruto smiles at his leg, reaching down and wiping away the blood to reveal a thin, pink line. "No need. Hey, what are you guys doing here anyway?"
The man says nothing for a moment and then, "I see. You have an advanced regenerative ability."
"Yeah. But my question?" Naruto affirms quietly. The two from below, the man's comrades, jump up to their positions having finished with the puppets.
"Sorry but there's no time. Since your leg is healed, can you move easily?" The blonde man asks, standing with the Aburame and Akamichi.
"Yeah." Naruto replies, standing up and easily putting weight on the leg.
"Listen, could you possibly stay away from the city until we finish our mission? We might be able to tell you details later." The shinobi entreats him.
"Eh, Minato-sensei's first encounter with the stubborn nature of his son!" Obito cries amusedly. "I can't wait to see how sensei scares Naruto."
"So mean." Minato mocks.
Naruto shakes his head however. "No can do, my taichou is somewhere in this city, but I can promise to stay out of your way as best as I'm able. Even if I have to move around as a civilian."
The man shakes his head. "If we find another Konoha shinobi, we'll send him out of the city your way as well. But, it's best you leave." Without waiting for an answer the shinobi leave without a sound, there one minute and then not in the blink of an eye.
"So bossy." Kushina snickers. "He'll react just like me though, and ignore you Minato!"
"That kid gave me no end of trouble." Minato admits, smirking.
"Uwa, that's fast." Naruto comments softly, impressed. "But, like I said . . . I'm not leaving. There's Yamato to find . . . and Mukade." He crouches slightly, legs tensing to leap when a surge from his seal and then a puff of smoke next to him makes him stop.
Kurama impatiently waves away the smoke, looking intensely concentrated on something Naruto can't see. "What is it Kurama?" Naruto asks.
"Right!" Kakashi remembers. "Kurama identified your chakra right away."
"Oh?" Minato wonders, looking at Kurama. The demon merely shrugs, looking back at the screen. "Naruto hasn't discovered me yet, however. He wouldn't be able to recognize my chakra or my voice."
"No, but I'm sure he'll never forget it after this." Tsunade avows, smiling.
Minato tilts his head to the side, wondering. His own memories hadn't been sealed true but . . .
Kurama looks at him, a soft light Naruto can't understand in his eyes. "Something interesting just crossed our path. I think I'll be better able to assist out here."
"Ah? If you say so." Naruto accepts with a shrug, both of them leaping up to higher spots on the towers for a better vantage point. The wind is brisk at this altitude, and they can see parts of the desert that surrounds Rouran, and not much else.
"So it's not a genjutsu, obviously but . . ." Naruto sighs. "I just can't grasp . . . time travel, of all things!"
"It's the only thing that makes sense." Kurama points out. A whistle and small explosion has both looking over to see small fireworks going up, not even reaching halfway up the length of the towers. Down below on the ground, thousands of people shout and cheer around parade floats.
Naruto listens to the chant and cocks his head. "Queen? A celebration for the Queen?"
"Could be her birthday, maybe the coronation of a new ruler, who knows." Kurama shrugs. "We should keep searching for Yamato though."
"Right." Naruto agrees, leaping away in a random direction, Kurama following. They don't know the city though, and to their surprise they actually end up to the building right next to the Queen's. She walks out, a tall headdress and a cumbersome looking dress on, waving and smiling to the people. However, she's so young, around Naruto's age he figures and yet already ruling a city and its people!
"Huh. Red hair and violet eyes. If I didn't know any better, I'd say she was an Uzumaki, eh Kurama?" Naruto chuckles, leaning in the shadow of the tower.
"It's an unusual combination to see outside of your clan, it's true." Kurama agrees. "Now come, we need to—"
They both see it, as the Queen suddenly stumbles forward, the ground underneath her feet crumbles, and she starts to fall.
"Uwa!" Rin and Obito gasp.
"Well Naruto, there's your cue." Kakashi sighs, lips curling slightly into a small smile.
"Kurama," Naruto starts.
"Go." Kurama sighs, and watches with thinly veiled amusement as Naruto leaps for the girl, grabbing her and falling to the ground below with a safe cushion of wind chakra.
Down below, Naruto places the girl on the ground, stepping away. He's in a bit of a hurry, but wants to make sure she's alright enough for him to leave. "Hey, you're safe now. But I'd do a background check on whoever your guards were, because it looked to me like you were pushed."
The young queen slowly opens her eyes and gets up, looking at her knees for a moment. She looks up at Naruto then and her eyes widen, face twisting into a rueful expression as she quickly sits up and straightens her dress. "Ah, I should thank you first. Thank you for saving me. I am the Queen of Rouran, Sara."
Naruto blinks at the rapid change and responds with a bemused, "Uzumaki Naruto, pleasure to meet you Queen Sara."
Before anything else is said Kurama jumps down next to Naruto. "They're approaching quickly." He murmurs, and the queen gives the new redheaded man a scared glance. Kurama glances at her, smirks, then vanishes in an instant, leaving the girl to blink rapidly.
"You said something about me being pushed." Sara suddenly speaks, and Naruto bites back a sigh.
"Oh, he looks like he wants to leave." Minato pouts, eyes twinkling with fiendish delight. "What's the rush though?"
"Man you're creepy." Kushina mutters under her breath, shivering.
It would be rude to leave her there after a near death experience, but he had no desire to run into the other Konoha shinobi right now with so little information as to his situation. "But that can't be right? No one was trying to kill me . . . that crowd was so welcoming and passionate!" she continues, and Naruto wonders if she's in denial.
"Okay, well since you're cool I'll just be going then." Naruto rushes, turning and crouching to leap away. His legs are just uncoiling, powered to leap when a hand snags his collar— choking, he stumbles back into someone, the masked shinobi who saved him before.
"Whoo! Fast as ever, sensei!" Rin cheers.
"Ah. I was just leaving, you know . . ." Naruto chuckles, playing casual.
"You didn't keep your promise." The man's tone is even, almost flat and yet Naruto swears he's being scolded.
"I thought I'd be a better person and save the damsel. No offence Sara." Naruto adds to the girl, who puffs up at being addressed only be her first name by this strange boy. Still, when he's surrounded by the strange masked men she worries and pushes through their group with all the authority her position gives her, tugging at the man's shoulder who holds Naruto.
"What is your business here?" she demands.
Kurama shrugs. "At least she knows how to return a favor."
The two blondes look at her. "We're here to protect you, Queen Sara." The masked blonde states. "Come, let us find a safer location."
"Hold on." Naruto mutters, taking a step away from the masked shinobi, who allows his hand to drop. "Kura—"
"I'm right here." Kurama states. Sara jumps, Naruto laughs, and the masked shinobi throw kunai. Kurama catches them all and waves them mockingly at the shinobi. "Tut, tut."
"You're such a showoff Kurama." Minato laughs, looking at the grinning demon.
"Oh Minato, when you get older you'll understand how hard it is to resist showing off for the kids." Kurama teaches.
"Who are you?" The masked shinobi asks. Inwardly he is confused about the sudden arrival of the man. How did I not sense him?
"Ugh, even internal thoughts Minato sounds cool." Obito grumbles.
"Internal . . . thoughts . . . Minato?" Minato repeats, giving Obito a strange look. "My, what an imagination."
"Name's Kurama. I'm with this child. Don't worry, I'm just like a summons." Kurama explains, grinning toothily at his own explanation.
"Right, don't worry. He's with me, so I'll take full responsibility." Naruto laughs.
"If that is the case, then let us go." The masked shinobi sighs, turning to his teammates and nodding.
"You accepted him so easily?" Tsunade yelps.
Minato suddenly glares at her, startling everyone. "Not a chance. A strange man with my son . . ." his expression shifts almost too quickly into a pout sending everyone further into a tizzy. "The only way I could safely monitor him was by having him near, besides which I trusted Naruto who seemed completely at ease with Kurama. If I had really known, I would have just sealed Kurama up for the mission and laughed about it back home."
"The more I get to know you, the less guilty I feel for aiding in your death. I feel like I've said this before." Kurama remarks.
"You didn't really know Naruto was your son at the time though." Tsunade points out peevishly.
"No," Minato admits. "But I had my suspicions he and I were connected."
Naruto picks up Sara, despite her protest, and the group leaps away, searching for a spot. They find a vacant spot, a long hallway inside of a building lined with windows. While Sara sits it out, Naruto and Kurama move a little further to discuss the events so far.
"I know this will sound strange," Naruto admits. "But it's the only thing that fits. Suddenly having what was previously ruins become a great city again . . . the puppets, same as the opponent I was facing . . . something happened with a seal, and I have it on good authority that . . . I, well . . . travelled back in time. Still, if you guys can explain to me the situation I just landed in, I'll do my best to help while looking for a way back home."
The three masked shinobi look at each other, and one, the Aburame, speaks. "Your story is a wild claim at best. Why? There is a lack of sufficient evidence to back up your story."
"Like father like son." Jiraiya murmurs with a wry smile. "Children are amazing."
Naruto hums thoughtfully, shifting his weight to his left leg. "Is it really so? I know you are an Aburame, and you the redhead are an Akamichi. I'm a Konoha shinobi, but I'll bet you've never seen or heard of me. Naruto, does that name ring a bell? And, who else besides your friend here has blonde hair like mine? If you still don't believe me I don't care. Explain this situation anyway, so I can find my comrade and get the hell out of here -ttebayo."
The masked shinobi are silent for a while, before the blonde one steps forward. "-Ttebayo?"
"That. That right there, confirmed my thoughts. I knew without a shadow of a doubt then Naruto was my son." Minato proclaims proudly.
Kushina crinkles up her nose. "How— Oh!" groaning, she explains to the others. "He knew that –ttebayo was short for dattebayo, and the only other word close to that is dattebane, -ttebane!"
"Oh don't be so upset. Your hated habit gave me something very precious!" Minato soothes her.
"I still don't get it." Rin admits. "Because of that word? Sure it could be Kushina's son but perhaps she didn't end up with you sensei?"
"Yeah. Explain that one Minato. After all, blonde is rare but it's not exclusive to you and Naruto." Jiraiya jeers, knowing exactly the reason why.
Minato pouts, but relents when the others persist. "Oh Rin, you silly child." He smiles, but there's nothing nice about that smile. Just winter cold, sharp, oh my god what the— "You really think I'd let Kushina go?"
The silence is broken only by Kurama's and Jiraiya's poorly muffled guffaws into the couch pillows.
Naruto blinks rapidly before glaring challengingly, and Kurama stifles a snigger. "There a problem?"
". . . ramen or barbeque?" The man demands, and it comes out of left field so fast Naruto answers.
"Ramen, what else— wait a minute!" the blonde chuunin splutters. He freezes when the blonde nin chuckles, and takes another step forward.
"That also helped!" Minato chirps, wholly unconcerned with the trembling, shocked forms of his friends.
"I'll have to explain things now, there's nothing to be done about it." His gloved hand raises up and touches the side of his mask. Slowly, he pulls it down and reveals a face Naruto thought he'd never, ever, see in the flesh.
Minato smiles at the younger blonde, a little concerned with how pale Naruto is.
"M . . . Mi . . . ! Mina—!" Naruto chokes, slapping a hand over his mouth. His blue eyes flicker rapidly in between Kurama who is failing at hiding his laughter, and a calm-faced Minato with a wicked glint in his eyes. When the other two shinobi take off their masks Naruto gawks. "Chouza-san?! Shibi-san?!"
"So you know me it seems. That's not entirely surprising. And I suppose it's not too far a stretch to think you'd be aware of Chouza and Shibi, being Clan Heirs." Minato murmurs, before sighing. "I kept you in the dark mainly not to interfere with the flow of time—"
"You already suspected?" Naruto interrupts incredulously. Minato shrugs as if the matter isn't important, and continues.
"Six years ago, another shinobi came from the future as suddenly as you did. His name was Mukade." Minato answers.
"Mukade, we are after him too." Naruto discloses, brow furrowing. "But how'd he come back earlier than I did . . . ? Ah hell that's not important."
"Could you tell us what happened to you?" Minato asks.
"We chased Mukade to the Ryuumyaku. He absorbed the seal, but Yamato-taichou and I were too close and got sucked in as well. I don't know if that seal was originally a space-time fuuinjutsu or not but it caused this . . . or perhaps that kunai did. Damn it, whatever! I just need to find Yamato, find Mukade, kick his ass and then get us all back to our time!" Naruto huffs, growing animated towards the end of his explanation.
Minato nods. "Since Mukade absorbed the seal, defeating him is probably the key to getting back to your time." Though, I would love to examine the functions of that . . . !
Naruto, as if reading his mind sighs, "Damn, that'd be interesting to break apart, a space-time fuuinjutsu with temporary time-travel function. Wouldn't that be great, oh Seal Master?"
"Like father, like son." Jiraiya chokes out.
"Me?" Minato tears himself out of his proud daydream, hearing his son speak of fuuinutsu as casually he as does, before frowning. "You shouldn't disclose too much information from the future, we don't want to affect history."
Naruto waves away Minato's concerns. "Oh please, like you aren't halfway to figuring out a seal to wipe our memories of this event Mina—" Naruto suddenly cuts off, looking rueful. Minato isn't sure why this is, but he teases Naruto on the shortened use of his name.
"Mina? Giving me a nickname already?" Minato asks playfully, holding back a grin when Naruto twitches and glares at him. He's a little wary though when Naruto suddenly smirks.
"It's girly and sweet. Fits you perfectly huh, flake?" Naruto jabs, enjoying the small wince from Minato.
". . . Heh." The soft chuckle comes from Kushina, and the males on either side of her look at her with interest. Had she recovered already? "Heh! Yeah . . . there's no way you could intimidate my son flaky-kun." Kushina bolsters herself, vowing to shove that creepy and foreboding statement of Minato's into the farthest recesses of her memory.
"Like I said, that kid was trouble. A handful and then some. His mother's son without a doubt." Minato chuckles.
Naruto grins at the snort from Kurama and the stifled smiles from Shibi and Chouza. However, turning back to Minato he quivers a little . . . because somehow, Minato's smile has just gotten a little creepy despite having not twitched from its calm fixture and there's an almost dark aura around Minato . . .
"Oi!" Obito jerks, looking scared. "What the hell is that unnatural dark aura man?! It's visible!"
"Oh it is." Minato mutters, looking interested.
What are you?! Obito howls in his mind, frozen by the appearance of a sadistic sensei only rarely seen in glimpses or flashes.
I don't know why . . . but Minato's calm expression is kind of scaring me . . . Naruto deadpans to himself.
"Us too." Rin mutters with dread, swallowing.
He shivers when Minato continues to stare at him with that creepy smile, those blue eyes somehow looking so dead and—
"Quit staring at me!" Naruto hisses, bristling much like a cat as he shuffles behind Kurama, hissing at Minato.
Minato doesn't react, but inwardly he hoots with laughter at the prospect of playing with his son from the future. He's very much like his mother . . . will he be as fun to tease as her? He wonders, something almost evil in its deep wickedness passing across his handsome features.
"What the hell." Kakashi shivers, all three teammates edging as far away from Minato and the Minato on screen as possible.
Minato laughs nervously, rubbing the back of his neck. "I'll admit, perhaps I had a little too much fun on that mission, eh?"
"On purpose . . ." Kushina whimpers, trembling. "All this time . . . on purpose . . . planned!"
"Oh Kushina, of course it's all on purpose." Minato coos, taking pity on Kushina and patting her on the head softly. "If you got bored by me, I'd be scared you would leave!"
"God help me." Kushina sniffles.
"God isn't here right now. How can I help you?" Minato quips, and it's too much for Kurama who wheezes, hitting the couch cushion as he's attacked by a combination of Naruto's and Kushina's fearful expressions that are so very much alike.
"In any case, we should find Mukade and apprehend him quickly." Minato continues as if he isn't being glared and growled at by Naruto.
"Always putting on a brave face, that kid." Minato grins.
Suddenly, Sara stands up and glares at them all. "Enough of this!" She blurts out. "Six years ago it wasn't a ninja named Mukade who came to this city but a great man named Anrokuzan! He's now working as a minister for the good of this city, in the spirit of my mother." She strides towards them, indignant and demanding to be heard. "I can't imagine him, a man of peace, building weapons."
"Ooh, reality is going to hit her hard." Naruto murmurs to Kurama, both sniggering and then attempting to look innocent when Chouza and Shibi glare at them.
"But he always recovers quickly, just like his mother." Jiraiya adds, sending Kushina a sympathetic look as she trembles under the arm of his slightly unhinged student.
"Your Majesty, I'm afraid you're being deceived." Minato tries, but Sara will hear none of it.
"No! If anything, you all are more suspicious than he is!" Sara retorts, huffing and then spinning around to walk away quickly.
"Where are you going then?" Naruto asks curiously.
Sara stops, looking over her shoulder. "I'm going to ask him myself!" and then she continues walking, unaware that Naruto and Kurama have near collapsed onto each other, shivering with withheld laughter.
"She . . . she really thinks she's not going to be told whatever will keep him close to her?!" Naruto wheezes, nudging Kurama. When the redhead looks over he points to where Sara is walking. A clone of Naruto's that no knew he'd made steps out from the shadows of a pillar she passes by and chops her sharply in the back of her neck, catching her as she falls and gently placing her against the pillar. Meanwhile, Naruto catches Kurama mid-fall as the other's knees are weak from hilarity.
"Oh, children . . . so straightforward and honest!" Kurama sniggers, sending them both into fits, albeit quiet, of laughter.
Sighing disappointedly, Minato walks up to the two and grabs Naruto by the collar, uncaring of the boy's squeak of surprise and need for air. "Really now. Knocking out the queen was plain rude."
Kushina perks up and glares at Minato for the rough way he treats Naruto. "Oi, don't go shaking him around like that!"
"I couldn't help it, he was so cute every time he got angry at me I just couldn't stop needling him!" Minato confesses with a blissful smile.
Naruto scoffs, glaring at Minato (and noticing, to his chagrin, that Minato's still a few inches taller than him and makes him tilt his head up to look him in the eyes— the rat bastard!) as he replies, "Protect the queen— that's your mission, and I just made it a little easier for you. Mukade is mine, so I'll be going now."
Once again, before Naruto could go anywhere Minato stops him physically and wags a finger at Naruto like a parent teaching a toddler. "Now, now, we need to work together! What's Konoha's greatest asset?"
"Conveniently placed logs." Naruto deadpans.
"Ha! It's funny because it's true." Obito chortles, slapping his knee.
Minato merely sighs happily, reliving this memory and watching it was so much fun! He can't have too much fun though, he remembers nervously, because Kushina is nearly green with envy and she never responded maturely to negative emotions. He's likely to get a concussion for all his merriment.
"Burn." Shibi murmurs, but he is ignored as Minato laughs condescendingly, the attractive yet mocking smile on his face making Naruto's blood boil and his eyes grow wider with restrained fury.
"Oh, look at his face!" Minato laughs. "He looks just like Kushina when she gets angry."
"He really does have Kushina-san's face." Rin notes amusedly, eyes flickering between the angry blonde on the screen and the angry redhead on the couch. "No, sensei, he and Kushina have the exact same face on right now."
"You don't think I know that?" Minato laughs nervously, quietly as he shrinks under Kushina's anger.
"On. Purpose." She growls. Clearly this would not be forgotten any time soon. Minato will just have to be much more subtle when he plays with her.
"So cute!" Minato almost simpers, pinching Naruto's scarred cheek and increasing Naruto's ire. He snatches his fingers away as Naruto's head turns, mouth opened and sharp teeth ready to bite them off. "It's teamwork as you well know! We've got the situation under control. Just sit here with the Queen and wait, okay?"
"And why should I listen to you?" Naruto demands.
"Well chuunin," and damn if the emphasis Minato places on the word doesn't make a muscle in Naruto's jaw start leaping.
Jiraiya raises his eyebrows, looking along with Tsunade and Minato's students absolutely surprised at this side of Minato. "And here I thought you only went so far as light jokes. You're kind of sadistic aren't you?"
"Sadism? Never!" Minato protests, blue eyes widening and his features morphing into such surprise and innocent worry that he's almost off the hook. Almost, if not for Kushina.
'You just don't understand. You have never . . . ever . . . really seen what this sadist does!" Kushina snarls, trembling with fury. For the sake of finishing this chapter she won't kill Minato but, oh, how she wishes . . . !
Minato huffs, fingers soft and delicate as they run through Kushina's hair. "You weren't quite so angry back when you didn't know I was setting things up to rile you on purpose."
Kushina can only choke on her rage to such a bold statement, whereas Kurama chokes on hysterical laughter.
"I am a jounin, thus your superior." Minato has to turn around, feigning more condescension when really he's hiding his amusement from Naruto's eyes. Currently Naruto looks incensed, his entire face volcanic in its redness and his eyes so wide and furious it's a wonder they don't just pop out.
Kakashi's lips twitch reluctantly, unable to not play Devil's Advocate. "He does look funny doesn't he? I guess, to a stupid father like what you will be Minato-sensei, he'd be adorable."
Minato nods enthusiastically. "Exactly!"
He's hilarious! This kid is hilarious! Oh man, it will be like having two of Kushina in the future— I can hardly wait, Minato cackles to himself, taking a few seconds to smooth the wicked and wide grin off his face.
Kushina's guttural growl after hearing Minato's thoughts unnerves the blonde jounin, and he subtly pressures Obito to switch seats. Obito, cackling, feigns a decline of the plea but eventually relents.
Naruto swells with the force of his rage and spits, "What you are, is—"
Minato suddenly whirls around and leans in, the close proximity of their faces is so sudden Naruto jerks back and bumps into Kurama's shoulder. Minato winks. "Don't say anything I'll remember to make you pay for, musuko." The last word is a whisper, a breath between them that makes Naruto freeze.
"You hardly know him, you know that right." Tsunade softly murmurs, smiling at the scene.
"He's my son. He's got my hair and eyes, and Kushina's everything else. Other information is pedantry." Minato replies just as softly, almost lovingly. Kushina raises her head from where it rested on her knees, the headache of Minato's insufferable teasing duller now, with her son's adorable reactions to his father. He really is my son, Kushina thinks proudly.
"Oh?" Kushina looks over to Obito and smiles at the cheerful Uchiha (what an oxymoron!). "Will you be keeping me company Obito-kun?"
Obito winks, the two kindred spirits at ease with each other. "Aye, fair maiden, I've come to rescue you from the headache known as Minato!"
Minato chuckles. "Oh, I guess I made a mistake. Kushina, will you be forever lost to me?"
The way his father had said it, tenderly and with such warmth . . . Naruto blinks rapidly, straightening up and covering up for his earlier startle with a potent glare.
"Ah, he really is too much like me." Kushina ruefully admits, the others laughing at Naruto's attempt at bravado against his father. If anything, with his still red cheeks and his barely shown fangs, Naruto looks adorable to them.
"Whatever. Since you want to make this a joint operation, I'll give you two hours. Two hours, then you come back and take over the Queen while I go find Yamato-taichou." Naruto negotiates.
"Hm. I've got another operative hiding out who could find your captain for you. However, I'll agree to the time limit." Minato counters, smiling proudly. "Nice negotiating."
"Naruto is about to turn and sit with Sara when Minato stops him again, pulling out something that shines in the light coming through the windows. "Here."
Naruto, curious, looks at the proffered object and a delighted sound comes from him before he can help himself. "The specially made kunai?"
Jiraiya laughs at the poorly hidden excitement on Naruto's face. "He can't help himself. He's such a kid."
"Just so I can get to you wherever you are. It's a back-up, for just in case." Minato explains, placing the kunai in Naruto's hands. "We'll be back in two hours with your captain and Mukade all done!" Minato leans forward again, smiling warmly as his hand comes up and rests atop Naruto's head. "Be a good kid and wait, alright?" patting him on the head twice, Minato, Shibi and Chouza leave without a sound just like before.
Naruto remains there, frozen and blushing furiously.
Rin coos. "He's never had his head patted by a loved one? It's a wonderful feeling, like you've done something really great to make them proud!"
"Something tells me Naruto isn't going to see it that way for long." Tsunade breaks into their touched hearts easily, smirking at an almost bouncing Minato.
His hand raises up halfway, hesitates, then touches his bangs delicately. Sure, Kakashi liked to ruffle his hair and Iruka had upon occasion as well, but . . . had anyone ever pat him on the head? Patted . . .
Patted?
Wait, Naruto thinks to himself, brow crinkling ever so lightly. He just . . . pat . . . pat . . . good kid . . .
Minato laughs. "Wait for it . . ."
Pat . . .
Pat . . .
Good BOY.
It dawns on Naruto then, and his fury kicks into a whole new gear. In his mind's eye, he sees himself with a pair of floppy dog ears and a wagging tail, barking like a dog as Minato pats him on the head. That jerk . . . that . . . that . . . he pat me on the head like a DOG!
"Ha! Look, look what he's imagining! A puppy Naruto and a mean Minato!" Obito laughs, clutching his stomach.
"So very much like his mother." Minato murmurs fondly, eyes filled with love looking to Kushina. Kushina catches his gaze and holds it for a minute with a soft smile, before turning away in slight embarrassment.
"You . . ." Naruto whispers furiously, tongue tripping up as his vision bleeds red and his hands scream to murder someone. "You . . . !"
"Wow, he turned scarlet all over!" Kakashi whistles, impressed.
(line break)
Shibi and Chouza are a little behind Minato when a terrible roar of unholy fury erupts from behind them and nearly has them jumping into a dumpster below.
"MINATOOOOO! YOU ARE SUCH A DICK!"
The group breaks down with laughter, the move so inherently Kushina— indeed they can all recall at least three instances where Kushina's breaking point was heard by all of the village, where her temper finally exploded due to something or someone, usually Minato, doing wrong.
"You showed him the true you rather quickly." Kushina giggles.
Minato just grins. "I couldn't help myself, even though I didn't want to scare him off— he was so delightfully combative and energetic that my mouth ran away from me before I knew it."
"Wasn't that the time-travelling kid? Naruto?" Chouza asks nervously, the echo of Naruto's voice only just fading.
"Correct." Shibi nods, turning to face their team captain. "Minato—"
Shibi stops, has to stop, because Minato's entire body is quivering. "Minato?" Chouza asks worriedly.
Minato slowly turns, and they are further confused when his body quivers yet his face shows something close to Nirvana, an unequivocal joy that makes his blue eyes shine to put the sky to shame, makes his hair look like pure gold, even his teeth seem to sparkle . . . hell, his entire being just shimmers!
"Oh Minato, you're such a devil." Tsunade chides without really meaning it, smiling at Minato who shines much the same as the slightly younger Minato on the screen.
"Isn't he just great?" Minato sighs dreamily, eyes drifting shut and his mouth stretching into a smile that's too impossibly large. "He's so much like her!" And then Minato almost twirls around, and leaps off again, somehow looking like he's floating on air.
"You must really love Kushina a lot sensei, for even your son who you just met, to bring forth such love just because he's a mirror of her." Kakashi muses.
"Yeah. I love my Kushina." Minato whispers to himself, smiling widely.
". . . I'm not putting this in the mission report." Chouza states quietly to Shibi.
". . . I concur Chouza-san." Shibi replies.
"Neither of them remember Naruto, I know this. Not even Kakashi. Somehow though, I was left with memories deeply buried in my mind?" Minato trails off, thinking it over. Had he created a separate seal for himself?
Unfortunately for Naruto, his loss of temper resulted in a very abrupt and scary awakening for Sara who, after calming down, remembered her self-appointed task.
"I will prove Anrokuzan's innocence!" Sara declares, trying to get around Naruto but he keeps stepping in her path. "Remove yourself at once!"
"You call yourself a Queen?" Naruto demands harshly, making Sara jump. "What kind of ruler just rushes in without thinking of a plan, because you're little let's go ask Anrokuzan directly idea is not a plan! Not a good one at least. If you're the last of the royal bloodline, then tread more carefully so that your precious city has a ruler to guide it."
"Always has a lesson to teach others, while he himself learns something new." Obito chuckles.
The scolding makes Sara flinch and back away. "So then what do you suggest?" she shoots back without much fire.
Naruto sighs, looking over at Kurama who shrugs and looks out the window again. The sun is setting, the desert city glowing orange. "You're really determined to find out the truth then?"
"Yes of course. I can't let you doubt Anrokuzan, he has done so much for this city!" Sara insists.
Naruto sighs heavily. "Then let's go."
Sara opens her mouth as if to argue, then blinks. "Go?"
"You heard me." Naruto gestures for her to take the lead. "We'll both go meet Anrokuzan and find out what the truth is."
Jiraiya looks disapproving. "Mukade wasn't a joker with his puppets even in your time. I he's had six additional years, then it'll be foolish to meet him head on. What's your plan brat?"
Sara looks at him with wide, surprised eyes. She takes a breath and says, "O . . . okay! Let's go then."
Sara walks off, gate swift and sure whilst the two males follow after her. They speak no words, merely go on their path. Walking out of the hallway the step out onto the bridges that connect the towers and start their path to a specific tower that Sara has in mind. To Naruto and Kurama, there's no specific way to tell the towers apart, whether they're residential or business owned. Sara guides them into an elevator, and then presses a floor with an absurdly high number. Naruto and Kurama glance outside as the elevator climbs up, impressed with the view. Sara has her back turned to the glass wall however, mind churning with thoughts about the mysterious shinobi and Anrokuzan.
So, Kurama starts a conversation cautiously, but smoothly enough Naruto doesn't know it's a questionnaire. You've met your father.
"And he hasn't made the best impression." Rin ruefully admits. "Honestly sensei I knew you were bad but this?"
Hmph. Naruto's teeth bare for a brief second before his face slackens into a blank mask. I liked him better before he opened his mouth.
"I know what you mean." Kushina agrees. Minato smirks but mercifully keeps silent.
Kurama chuckles. Minato was always needling Kushina, I suppose he knew she was very quick to grow bored or tired when things were too smooth. But, how do you feel about him?
I just said, I liked him better when he didn't open his big, stupid mouth! Naruto snaps. Kurama just dips his head to urge Naruto to keep talking. Naruto huffs, but obliges his friend. He's . . . I don't know. He's too familiar! And . . . I felt it all. Everything I said I didn't feel. I felt, happiness, confusion, and then . . . bitterness, slight anger that only grew the more he kept talking. But, at least now I can say my anger is legitimate— the more he annoyed me, the less I thought about the sealing and the more I thought about how wrong everyone was about him.
Minato's eyes widen slightly, but a smile grows on his face even as Naruto admits the sealing becomes less of an issue as opposed to Minato himself.
"Congratulations, he doesn't dislike you because you sealed his fate, in a sense. He dislikes you because you're an asshole." Jiraiya guffaws.
"I couldn't ask for anything more." Minato softly informs them.
How do you mean?
Naruto cracks a smile then. Everyone said he was a very calm person, who was serious but had a soft side for people he cared about. No one had a bad thing to say about him! No one knows, I guess, just how much of a devil that guy is.
"Of course not." Kushina laughs gently, shaking her head. "Minato's far more careful about public image than I think any of us give him credit for. When I thought Minato didn't know about certain things . . . he was well aware all along. We were the ones getting led by the nose."
"Don't say it like that, it makes me sound like I manipulated you." Minato protests, and there's a genuine note in his voice that make Kushina look over to him with a smile.
"Like you could manipulate me into loving you, you pretty boy. Didn't I ever tell you I preferred brunettes before I fell in love with a dumb blonde?" She reminds him, smiling smugly at his distaste when she spoke of brunettes.
When the elevator stops Sara walks out without even addressing the two with her, eyes down and mind far away. Kurama and Naruto walk after her, biting their lips to beat down their amusement.
Naruto glances ahead, eyebrow cocked. I sensei multiple chakra signatures.
All civilian . . . they're hiding. Could it be an ambush? Kurama wonders.
If they didn't know Konoha was sending shinobi, and judging by The Jerk's—
Capitals, really? Kurama snorts.
Naruto ignores him and continues, mask and uniform this mission is meant to be covert. So, them thinking she is alone is likely. Let's watch this play out a little, perhaps they work under Mukade or Anrokuzan as he's called here.
"A little cold, but effective." Kakashi decides.
So they watch, as Sara walks forward and when she passes by a certain indent in the wall, leading to a small room, a covered arm darts out and grabs onto her arm. Sara gasps and is pulled forward—
Naruto rushes forward before Sara disappears and grips the offending arm trying to pull Sara, chakra blade in his other hand and the glowing tip compressed with his chakra poised just an inch from the throat of whoever tried to pull Sara, her figure indicating a female. "I wouldn't do that if I were you." He cautions.
"Ah Naruto why do they doubt you?" Obito asks warmly, sticking his tongue out playfully at Jiraiya and Minato.
There isn't just a gasp from the mouth of the offender, but multiple gasps from a whole group behind her armed with simple weapons that could be found in a household, their faces covered with masks.
"Waa! We're sorry, don't kill us please!" The childish voice of a young boy pleads, a rather rotund figure hunching forward and putting up his arms as if he's the one being held at blade point.
"If you've got the guts to kidnap your own Queen, then don't snivel when consequences come!" Obito snaps.
Naruto ignores that voice, watching Sara who takes her arm from the attacker and glares. "If you're going to kill me, don't do it behind my back!" she snaps.
"Try saying that without me right behind you." Naruto mumbles and Sara gives him a sharp look before raising her chin. Naruto smirks at her stubborn attitude but doesn't comment.
"Who are you all?" Sara demands.
The one who tried to kidnap her, the one who Naruto still holds, raises the other hand and slowly moves it to her face mask. Pulling it off, she reveals herself as a woman with brunette hair pulled back from her forehead by a hair band, tied in a low ponytail except for two thin locks that rest at her temples and wave to her chest. Her brown eyes look at Sara, questioning and intense.
"Please, we just want to confirm that you are the real Sara-sama." The woman pleads, looking fearfully at the blade Naruto has at her throat.
"Is there likelihood of an imposter?" Minato asks interestedly.
"Who else would I be?" Sara asks. "Let her go." Sara requests of Naruto, resting a hand on his arm and gently pushing down.
Naruto looks at her, and then the woman, before retreating a step back and putting up the chakra blade. Leaning against the doorway, he puts his hands in his pockets and tries to look as nonthreatening as possible. A futile attempt after stopping Sara's kidnapping, but Naruto thinks it's worth the effort. Kurama is waiting just outside anyway, not a fan of small and crowded spaces.
"Born I a forest, lived as a wanderer for many years and then living in a castle twice as wide and just as high as Rouran." Kurama explains, and the others are awed at the description of his previous lodgings.
Kushina looks almost bitterly at her stomach. "From a castle to a seal."
Kurama just smiles, a little light in his eyes. "The bigger they are, the harder they fall. I learned some good lessons, proof that you can never stop growing, learning, and improving."
When he moves away, the rest of the masked group finally take off the masks and reveal themselves to be typical civilians. Some older, some middle-aged and even quite a few youths. The one who had pleaded for Naruto not to hurt them in a childish voice was a chubby teenage boy with a voice that seemed more suited for a smaller, younger child. He looked fearfully at Naruto, his overbite pressing nervously into his lower lip.
When Sara looked at them all, she stated in a clear voice, "I am Queen Sara."
The tanned brunette woman who asked in the first place, presumably the leader, seemed to grow even more agitated at this. "You must return it to us! If you don't we don't know what to do!"
"What could the Queen have possibly taken from you?" Kushina wonders.
"Has she increased taxes?" Minato postulates.
"Taken land or property, perhaps even titles?" Tsunade adds in.
"Could we possibly watch the movie and find out?" Kakashi drags them back to the present, rolling his eyes at the sheepish expressions.
"Return what?" Sara asks, agitated and confused with the strange events happening today.
"You know what!" The woman returns desperately, almost angrily. "You're the one who gave the order!"
"I don't know what you are talking about." Sara hisses. "But I am your Queen and you will show me respect!"
The reminder of whom she speaks to makes the woman's countenance change again and she backed away with a defeated expression. "My apologies. My name is Masakoto. But . . . you have to know. You are, as you say, the Queen."
Sara nods. "As the Queen I will listen to your concerns. So please, explain the situation to me."
The woman hesitates, looking at the group behind her. "Not here. It's not . . . a secure location. Follow me." The woman walks around Sara and nearly darts past Naruto, still not quite over having a glowing sword held to her throat. Naruto suppresses a smirk and follows after with Sara and the group.
"Who is he?!" The leader demands, pointing a finger at Kurama.
"It is rude to point." Kurama states in an icy tone, making the woman shiver and take a couple steps back.
"Uwa, scary." Minato mocks humorously.
"That's me. The monster in your closet." Kurama teases.
"He's with us. Now, you were going to take us to a secure location?" Naruto reminds her pointedly. The woman, with another fearful look to him and Kurama, quickly gathers herself and takes command of the group again.
In the city streets the parade hasn't stopped, even with night falling upon the city. The parade floats are now lit with lights, the street lamps providing a little illumination and allowing the parade to shine as the citizens cheer. In a secluded corner, a manhole cover shudders and then moves to the right, allowing a woman to come up. She looks around, and then climbs out allowing the others to come up as well.
"It's been a while since I was on a sewer crawl." Kurama chuckles, leaping out and landing silently upon the stone floor.
"It's been a few years for me as well." Naruto chuckles, lifting Sara up and out, laughing harder at her disgusted moue. Sara glares at him but does not dignify him with a response, instead sniffing and walking to the side of the building they hide in, able to see the parade. Her spirits lift and she clasps her hands together.
"It's the parade Anrokuzan made to cheer myself and the people up after the sudden death of my mother!" Sara informs Naruto softly. She doesn't notice Naruto looking intensely at the crowd, his eyes widening briefly before sharing a look with Kurama. "I love this parade."
Kakashi tilts his head. 'It looks to me as if none of the crowd has . . . shifted. They keep doing the same motions, almost."
"It's hardly uncommon to see people waving their hands in the air at a parade." Rin points out.
The chubby boy lets out a rather snide, "That's strange."
Sara's eyes sharpen with the warning of her temper as she addresses the boy. "What's strange?"
"Everyone makes fun of Sara-sama, calling her the puppet princess." The boy explains, boldly looking Sara in the face.
"Oh that's nice." Obito frowns. "Gah, just looking at him annoys me."
"Obito!" Minato snaps, glaring at the boy to dissuade from any more snide comments.
Sara falters and takes a step back. Naruto spares her a pitying glance— he knew how easy it was to let someone else take up a responsibility while you were bereaved— and stuck up for her. "You want to teach that kid some manners around his Queen, or shall I do the honors?" he asks testily, glaring directly at the now shaking boy who wouldn't make eye contact.
Masakoto quickly kneels by the boy's side and presses a hand down on his shoulder. "Quiet down you idiot! I'm sorry about Sarai," the woman pauses, adding hesitantly. "But there is some truth to his statement Your Majesty. Everyone had their family taken away one morning, saying that it was by Sara-sama's command."
"Really?" Kurama purrs from the shadows of the pillar, scarlet eyes showing his amusement. Naruto sends the demon a chastising look, but Kurama merely grins at him.
Sara bristles, but her eyes convey her fear and uncertainty. "I never gave such an order!"
"It's true!" Sarai interjects, looking only at Sara however meek his stare is. "My father and older brother were taken away."
"That Anrokuzan was really sly. Taking advantage of Sara's young age when her mother died, it's easy to see why Sara would trust Anrokuzan with so much." Minato supplies.
Masakoto continues. "Rumor has it that weapons are being made in this country. So we came here directly to beg you, Sara-sama, to stop this and bring us back our families."
"Weapons huh?" Naruto muses, looking slyly at Sara. "Kurama, you hear anything about weapons?"
"Ah, wasn't that masked guy saying something rather fishy about that Anrokuzan?" Kurama plays along, eyes bright.
Sara turns angrily to Naruto. "That's a lie! If it was truly so, then why are so many people happy?"
"Didn't you just hear them explain their families were taken away?" Tsunade scoffs.
Sarai turns, disgruntled, to Sara. "No one is happy."
"What are you saying?" Sara cries, exasperated. "There were people greeting me passionately. Look at them, how happy they are!" she points to the crowd.
"Sara," Naruto calls gently, waiting for violet eyes to meet him. He takes out his chakra blade and jumps up, over the back of the crowd. He cuts something they can't see, but it causes four people at the back to fall to the ground. When Naruto lands he hitches a man up on his shoulder and walks forward to drop it down in front of them. The Rouran natives are shocked at the callous treatment.
Sara steps forward threateningly. "How dare—!"
"Look." Naruto tells her, and she does if only to see how much damage she'll inflict on Naruto for the attack to one of her subjects. When she does look however, she freezes in shock. What she thought was a man is actually . . . a puppet!
"Mukade's, or Anrokuzan's puppets. Who wants to bet that Anrokuzan's weapons of war are all puppets?" Jiraiya invites, smirking.
Naruto kneels by the puppet's side and presses a hand glowing with his chakra to its midsection. A line of blue lights up from the puppet and continues upwards branching to connect to others in the crowd before finally hitting one of the pipes for the city. "All of these people, who look so happy to you Sara . . . are puppets. Every last one of them."
"From afar, as she's only seen them, they must look like normal happy citizens. But, their all just fakes to make up for the kidnapped citizens." Kakashi mutters.
Sara mouths to herself in shock, before looking at the metal pipe above. "The power of the Ryuumyaku feeding the city flows into that pipe."
"The Ryuumyaku Mukade was after?" Naruto hums, nodding to himself. "Well—"
The sound of trumpets playing brings their attention to the large tower at the front, where Sara first appeared earlier that day. The double doors open, and a slim wooden puppet dressed very similarly to Sara steps out with two hulking figures as bodyguards on either side of her. The puppet starts to wave to the people, and the puppet crowd waves back.
"What . . . what is that?" Sara whispers tremulously.
"That's you. Seems like Anrokuzan wants to make a puppet of you too." Naruto answers, watching Sara as something darkens in her eyes and her face crumples with grief.
"What a betrayal." Rin sighs sadly.
"No! It's all a lie! Anrokuzan would never do something like that!" Sara cries, running away from them.
"Oh wake up and take a look around would you? You've had years to grieve, now get up and do something about this." Kushina mutters.
"Ugh, we'll see you guys later." Naruto mutters to the two 'rebels' sprinting after Sara with Kurama loping behind. When it appears he'll lose her amongst the crowd, the two start hopping on top of the puppets, uncaring if they break or not from the force of their landings. They see Sara run into the entrance of a dark colored tower, painted to look just like wood. They land by the entryway and wait for a couple of minutes, listening to Sara's panting breaths. When she finally calms down, she sings the song Naruto first heard upon waking.
Naruto figures if she's calmed down enough to sing that song, it was a good time for him to approach her. Naruto steps into the dimly-lit tower, realizing there isn't any rooms but just a set of stairs that wind down, and stained-glass showing a mother holding a swaddled babe. Sara sits on one of the lower steps just before they wind around a corner, singing quietly.
"You were singing when I first met you." Naruto announces his presence. Sara stops singing and smiles sadly at Naruto.
"It's a song that my mother always sang." Sara explains. "You know . . . it was Anrokuzan who persuaded my mother to use the Ryuumyaku for the sake of the people. With my mother in control of the Ryuumyaku and his technology, the Rouran you see today is what resulted. A thousand towers, higher than any other building ever built. Amazing. Just incredible! When she died before completing that wish . . . Anrokuzan was the only one who stayed by my side."
Tsunade nods. "So you feel like you owe so much to the man who helped create the glorious city you see today."
Naruto considers her as she bows her head, knees tucked to her chest. Smiling, he walks down the stairs and steps by her to lean against the railing that blocks off the stained glass. "He wasn't the only one."
"What do you mean?" Sara asks quietly.
"The ones we love never leave us, not really." Naruto murmurs. "You know, I don't have any parents. They're gone. And I know what it feels like, to cling to the one person who stays by your side. You know, my parents didn't leave me bereft? I inherited something from them . . . their strength, their passion. I inherited their guts and will. Did you inherit something from your mother? To answer that, think about what your mother valued. When you answer that, you'll know then what to do. Do what you have to, and don't bend or falter, no matter what!"
"You hear that Minato? We didn't leave him completely nothing after all. Still, should have put aside something like a scroll, or an heirloom of some sort." Kushina beams.
"I wonder . . ." Minato trails off.
After Naruto's speech they are quiet, both thinking. Suddenly, Sara stands, and Naruto faces her. "I must first find out the truth of the city." Sara declares.
"And how shall we do that? A visit to the local library?" Naruto teases. Sara pouts, huffing.
"No! All Queens have the ability to sense the Ryuumyaku. I need to find the central source and confirm some things." Sara explains.
"Then, lead the way My Lady." Naruto bows, sweeping his hand forward to the doorway.
They all look up at a large, silo-like building. "This exhaust pipe is the relay point transferring the power of the Ryuumyaku." Sara informs them. They stand around a grate, one of a few scattered about that could grant them access deeper into the facility.
"If we find your families, we'll send them up. So, go wait with your friends." Naruto tells Masakoto and Sarai.
"Really?" Sarai asks anxiously.
"I swear on my honor as Queen!" Sara promises, and that seems enough for the two.
"Let's go then!" Masakoto and Sarai give them one last parting nod, and then they run back to the city.
"I'm sure more than two hours has passed Naruto. Imagine my confusion when your trail kept winding through the city and then to the outskirts of it?" Minato mock scolds.
Naruto and Sara look back at them, and then at each other, before nodding resolutely. Naruto pulls back the grate and goes down first, Sara following. They enter a chute, probably an air duct, and crawl until reaching something that could be opened. There's no latch, but it is an air vent nonetheless so Naruto shuffles forward and whispers to Sara to move back.
Naruto closes his fingers and presses them lightly to the side of the metal shutters and silently calls forth his wind chakra, thin blades cutting the vent open. Naruto lets the shutter fall open, dropping down to the ground silently with his chakra. Sara looks down nervously, and Naruto opens his arms signaling to her he will catch her. Sara nods slowly, but turns and carefully lowers her body. When only her hands grip the duct, her body dangling, she lets go and Naruto catches her securely in his arms.
"Wasn't so bad right?" Naruto whisper, smiling. Sara smiles and shakes her head as Naruto puts her on her feet. The room they are in is industrial, nothing but metal pipes and metal walls— but a never ending steam muddles visibility, and they walk forward cautiously. The sound of chains rattling in a repetitive rhythm, and a grinding sound catch their attention.
"Ah, I think we found the citizens." Rin murmurs.
Naruto looks at Sara and gestures or her to follow him, and he walks forward to a large gap between pipes where they could see what's going on. They both look down, and their eyes widen— Naruto's in surprise and Sara's in horror. They found the missing families of Rouran. The lost citizens were chained, guarded by a large puppet as they were forced to turn a wheel around a thick metal column, each person to a spoke. They looked dirty, tired, and defeated.
"Puppet soldiers." Sara whispers, distraught.
"Those must be the weapons Masakoto spoke of." Naruto mutters.
Sara looks around. "There should be a place where the energy can be directly manipulated . . . there!" she points to a square of purple tile, and upon closer look Naruto sees the seal and dais that in the future would hold a tri-pronged kunai, different from the regular taupe floor. Guards were around it, but he sees the guards walk around occasionally.
"Oh I see." Naruto mutters, then without turning around he asks, "Mina, think you could keep us clear?"
Sara looks at Naruto, confused. "Who— kya!" She turns and sees Minato, looking down just as Naruto is with a calculating expression.
"God it's amazing how alike you two look." Kushina whispers, looking longingly at the screen.
"Ah . . . I'll leave Shibi here while Chouza and I get the citizens to safety." Minato replies, putting a hand on Naruto's shoulder. "Keep looking after Sara." And then he's gone.
"Still gets me every time." Naruto mutters with a grin, looking briefly where Minato was. "Shibi-san?"
"I'll provide backup from here." Shibi states, and Naruto nods. Gathering Sara in his arms, Naruto leaps down to the ground. The two wait for the guards to shift and walk away so that they can safely reach the seal of the Ryuumyaku.
". . . I kind of want to examine it." Jiraiya pouts. He turns to Minato and asks, "Do you think she'll let you take a look at it?"
"Doubtful." Minato answers readily, lips twitching at Jiraiya's petulant expression.
Sara steps forward, but when Naruto tries to follow her she puts a hand up. "Please step back."
Naruto nods and waits as Sara walks to the middle of the seal and kneels down, hands raising up. "I am the Queen and I order you to stop and control the flow of the Ryuumyaku." She floats her hands palm down over the raised dais. "Kyuu Kyuu Noritsuyo."
Her eyes close as the dais glows, the seal obeying her command. A large force field appears over the dais just underneath her hands, and she slowly lowers her hands down to hover just above the dais. It glows brighter, sending a pulse of light through the seal, before it all shrinks down and disappears into the floor. The command executed, the machines inside the factory start to stop, the steam they create starts to die out.
Sara rises from the floor and beams at Naruto. "The flow of the Ryuumyaku has been stopped. I hope your friends got those who were captured out safely."
"My, Mukade won't like that." Kurama mumbles.
"Mina and Chouza-san? Don't worry about them, I wouldn't be surprised if they were heading this way now." Naruto assures her. "Let's get out of—" he stills, seeing chakra strings suddenly swoop down like the silk of a spider's web.
The puppet parts start to glow, heads and arms drifting towards the trunks and connecting together.
"Shibi-san." Naruto raises his voice.
"There are too many. I will provide cover, but you must get the Queen out." Shibi responds, his voice floating down to them like a specter.
"Oh, great." Naruto grumbles. "I seriously don't like puppets." He looks at Sara. "While Shibi clears the way for us, we have to run fast. Can you do that?"
"Y-yes." Sara answers gravely.
The puppets are formed now, but before anyone can make a move, a smug and deep voice addresses Sara.
"You're somewhere you shouldn't be, My Queen."
Naruto and Sara look up to see Anrokuzan standing at a metal balcony, smirking down at them. "You should have just listened to me, like a good little puppet. I'm only doing what's best for Rouran, after all."
"You!" Sara's eyes blaze as she looks up at the man who'd tricked her. "I've found out about your secret weapons cache Anrokuzan. As your Queen, I command you to stop production of these puppets and release the citizens from their bonds at once!"
"I don't know what reminding him of your status will do except make you a big target." Rin groans.
"She was going to be taken care of eventually, so that he could use these puppets for something. Even Sara, secluded as she was, wouldn't miss her country going to war." Jiraiya points out.
Anrokuzan's smug grin twists into a sneer. "Ah, yes, the suddenly freed citizens. I don't know how many shinobi you brought with you, little Konoha ninja, but they will surely pay for setting those peons free. As for you, Queen Sara," Anrokuzan took a deep breath and his grin returned. "Since you know so much I simply can't let you leave here alive."
Sara stiffens, but Naruto's casual voice as he addresses Anrokuzan calms her. "Is that you Mukade?" Naruto smirks and crosses his arms. "Damn you've gotten fat."
Minato grunts. "Always with the jokes."
Anrokuzan leers down at Naruto. "It's been six long years since I last saw you, my good shinobi. In those six years I've enjoyed quite the life of luxury all thanks to the hospitable city of Rouran!"
"You've overstayed your welcome Mukade." Naruto replies simply.
"Mukade?" Anrokuzan's smirk grows twisted and his eyes widen. "I'd forgotten that name. I am Lord Anrokuzan, minister of Rouran!"
The puppets surge forward, only to be met by a cloud of beetles that work away at them. Naruto quickly grabs Sara's wrist and begins to run with her, eyes darting around and looking back every so often. "Sara, keep going!" he urges the girl, noting her slowed gait as the dress encumbers her.
Two puppets try to come in at the sides. Dropping Sara's wrist and ensuring she keeps running, Naruto makes quick work of the two puppets, following after Sara. However, Shibi's help must have been cut-off because another wave of puppets comes for Naruto and he can no longer see Sara. He slashes at the puppets and decimates them with rasengans but there's only so much he can do. The puppets grab tightly onto his arms and legs, and when they've rearranged themselves he sees Sara staring at him in horror.
"Oh, captured." Rin hisses lowly. "And these puppets seem very tough."
"Keep running Sara!" he yells loudly. Naruto growls in anger when he hears Anrokuzan chuckle. Turning his head, he sees Anrokuzan stepping onto a smaller platform that slowly starts to descend.
"Sara-sama, you have my eternal thanks." Anrokuzan assures her. "Without your help, none of this would have been possible."
Sara flinches at that, but she musters up enough fight to protest, albeit weakly, "S-stop this, Anrokuzan!"
Anrokuzan just smiles nastily. "You played out perfectly the role of a puppet. As if I had made you myself! Now, however, you mustn't be allowed to know any more. I can easily replace you with a puppet. Now, for me, Sara-sama . . . die . . . like your mother did."
Sara's eyes widen. To hear mention of her mother from such a disgusting man . . . ! "My mother?"
"Oh. I didn't hear this part." Minato mutters, eyes slightly wider.
Anrokuzan nods, shrugging in a nonchalant manner. "Yes, you see . . . that Queen was cunning. She saw right through me, saw what I wanted to do. For the sake of my ultimate plans I couldn't allow her to live."
"Oh that . . . that . . . monster!" Rin huffs. "To kill the Queen and leave that little girl all alone!"
"There are monsters like this everywhere." Kurama chortles darkly.
The words hit Sara like a sledgehammer, and she stumbles back. "You . . . you k-killed . . . my m-mother?" she whimpers, shaking like a leaf.
Anrokuzan smiles, pleased at the reaction and no other words are needed for Sara. Shaking hands come up to her mouth, and then she drops exactly like a puppet with its strings cut. Her head sinks down and her shoulders droop as her hands fall to limply lie before her knees.
Anrokuzan's fingers twitch, and a blade from a broken puppet wobbles in the air. Anrokuzan brings it up, and then, with a gentle flick of his fingers it slashes through the air towards Sara.
"What will you do now musuko?" Minato asks, smiling gently.
Naruto's cheeks bulge and he appears to spit something out of his mouth, a whistling, slightly glowing wind senbon hitting the blade and sending it off course. Turning his head sharply he sends two more to Anrokuzan's face, one hitting him in the temple and the other hitting him just below the eye. Imagine his confusion when instead of blood arcing from the wounds, Anrokuzan's skin seems to flake off and shows a dark endoskeleton as the man stmbles back. He brings a porky hand up to the injured side of his face that rapidly heals up, skin reappearing and making him look human again.
"Oh, a damn living puppet!" Tsunade fumes. "What a cheap trick for immortality."
"Wonder why Orochimaru never considered it." Jiraiya whispers to her, and Tsunade snorts.
"Fool. I am immortal." Anrokuzan intones. He lifts his fingers towards Naruto and waves them, making the puppets that hold the shinobi shift and start to move apart. Naruto grits his teeth, struggling, but it is Kurama who saves him.
The fox demon suddenly appears on top of a puppet, the claws of his left hand faintly glowing with chakra as he snips the chakra lines holding the puppet up. With quick motions, like someone boxing a child's ear, he decimates the other puppets and renders them naught but wood chips.
"Heh, thanks." Naruto murmurs. "Knew it was a good idea to have you waiting on the sidelines."
"You were doing just fine until now." Kurama agrees, looking disdainfully at Anrokuzan. "So he—"
Anrokuzan's hands fly up and his fingers splay out as dozens of chakra strings spread out and connect many puppets, a veritable battalion approaching them. Under the narrowed eyes of Naruto and Kurama, Anrokuzan himself transforms. Covering himself with his cloak, Anrokuzan's form bulges and grows, ripping past cloth as extra appendages form and his body morphs into that of a puppet spider. The head of the spider lifts and resembles a humanistic head, with large teeth and slit black eyes.
"Well, that's . . . creepy." Obito mutters, a little shiver travelling down his spine.
"Behold, my true form!" Anrokuzan's voice comes from the spider, sounding manic and triumphant.
"I would think that's something he would want to hide." Kurama mutters distastefully about the reveal.
"Not everyone can be blessed with beauty like us, Kurama." Naruto sighs mournfully. "Though I do agree, concealment of this would have been more appropriate."
"Gah, why do you encourage him?" Minato sighs, looking wearily towards Kurama.
"Nothing like some witty banter to get the blood flowing. Makes for a much more cinematic effect when your enemies' blood pitches after a death blow." Kurama explains seriously.
Anrokuzan hears these comments, and he bellows with rage. Lifting two front legs, the tips unravel and twist to form scythe-like blades.
"Oh, that's useful." Kurama appraises.
The blades come down toward them, slashing and hoping to rend flesh from bone. No such luck, as Kurama is a master at this dance with death, and Naruto quite adept at it himself. They move closer to Sara, who looks anxiously around at the brigade of puppets that moves closer.
Anrokuzan laughs, believing the three are cornered. "Haha, die with Sara, for there is no escape!"
Naruto snorts, amused. Looking to Kurama, he bows with a flourish and wave of his hand.
Kurama nods in kind and cracks his knuckles, looking at the puppets. "It'd be more fun if they bled but . . . well, it'll have to do." He murmurs silkily, taking one step forward and then vanishing. He can't be seen by any of them, but judging by the wood shavings and splinters flying through the air in a path, they are fairly certain they could guess as to his position.
"Wow." Minato whispers. "Of course, you're probably not even using an eight of your power."
"They're wood Minato. I'm at regular chuunin level in human standards. My thirteen year old son was dealing with things like this long ago." Kurama chuckles.
Naruto laughs at the contentment buzzing lowly along the link between Kurama and him, before pausing. Looking over his shoulder, he sees Minato, Shibi, and Chouza taking off their masks and looking approvingly at the puppet massacre. "Hey, easy work?" he greets Minato, who grins at the younger blonde.
"Yeah, everyone is safe now and resting. Kurama is fast."
"Oh, yeah." Naruto agrees, keeping an eye on Anrokuzan who still seems locked onto the destruction of puppets with nary a sound. Shock, Naruto figures, can do that to you.
Explosions ring out in the factory, large machines now becoming smoking piles and burning steel. Minato and Chouza run forward, stopping for a moment to look back at them. "Run now!" Minato orders Naruto and Sara.
Naruto nods and gently pulls Sara's shoulder. "Sara, get going."
Sara hesitates, looking up at him. When Naruto continues to smile confidently she nods and runs to the exit, disappearing from sight. Naruto then turns back to the giant Anrokuzan puppet with a grin, cracking his knuckles like Kurama did a few minutes ago. "Oh, yes, I will enjoy this."
Naruto starts easy, not knowing exactly what Anrokuzan can do. He creates a clone to add wind chakra as he powers up a rasengan. When the small yet powerful orb starts to whistle Naruto snarls and sprints towards Anrokuzan, the roar of the fires in the factory muffling his own approach.
Chakra aids his leap into the air, and he descends like a missile upon Anrokuzan, the Fuuton: Rasengan hitting deep and sending the puppet blasting into the wall several yards away, Anrokuzan indented deeply into the wall as cracks run around him like spider webs.
"Ah, to think I was witness to the Futon: Rasengan. Why didn't I notice it as such?" Minato mourns. "Was it the seal that made my memories more like dreams? Were details like that muddled?"
"It explains why you worked yourself into a fury over adding your element to the Rasengan after this mission though." Jiraiya recalls. "You kept saying you just knew it was possible, that you were dreaming of it too."
Naruto straightens his shirt and chuckles, glancing at Kurama who peers curiously at Anrokuzan. After a moment he sees Minato next to him on the other side, Chouza and Shibi nearby behind him.
"Correct me if I'm wrong . . . but that looked suspiciously like Rasengan." Minato whispers into his ear, blue eyes roving over the still figure of Anrokuzan.
Naruto smirks. "Just Rasengan?"
Minato's eyes narrow slightly, going over Naruto's reply. Naruto can see instantly when it clicks; Minato's eyes start to shine, almost glow with a predatory intensity and he inhales through his nose. When those blue eyes turn to younger, sparkling ones Naruto grins roguishly and Minato responds in kind, clasping Naruto on the shoulder.
"Minato-sensei you're so weird. You always look at Kushina like that too, like you're burning an imprint or a mark on her, but I figured that was just because . . . you know . . . but you look even at Naruto like this too. You seriously need to tone yourself down, you're too scary." Obito complains.
"To be honest I never really noticed." Minato confesses.
"You're aware, but not fully." Kushina sighs, smiling. "Typical."
A cracking noise from the puppet sends them all on high alert, glaring at the figure. Slowly, a drill peeks out from parted jaws, and the legs twitch. Anrokuzan's head detaches from the wall with a groan.
"Oh, you're tough." Naruto sighs, as if disappointed.
Minato gently pinches Naruto's shoulder. "Stay on your guard." He reproves, silently telling Naruto to cease with the jokes, glaring when Naruto rolls his eyes in defiance.
"Such cheek." Minato growls, scowling lightly.
Anrokuzan's body abruptly drops to the ground with a loud crash, and his head spins around to sit correctly. "You think this is enough to defeat me?" he demands of them, and from his open mouth chakra strings fly towards the broken parts of his former puppet army. The parts fly towards Anrokuzan, converging around his body and becoming a second armor.
The puppet abruptly stands, leering over them. "I told you before, that I am invincible!"
Naruto snickers. "I want to test that theory!" He sings, running forward as five clones appear around him. All six create rasengans and jump to various parts of Anrokuzan's body, smashing the rasengans through. However, the armor is thick and though damage is done it does not appear to affect Anrokuzan. "Don't make me burn you bitch! Katon— whoa!" Naruto reapplies his chakra to keep a steady grip.
"It surprised me then, how angry I got whenever Naruto just blasted into situations seemingly without thought. He makes me worry so!" Minato groans.
Anrokuzan shakes, bucks, does anything to get the boy off his body. Minato meanwhile, frowns darkly at Naruto's bold attack and turns to his comrades. "Chouza!"
"I'm on it!" Chouza assures him. "Get off Naruto!" Chouza gives him only one warning before expanding his left fist with a short cry of, "Partial Mulit-Size Technique!"
Naruto leaps off, impressed when Chouza's hill-sized fist sends Anrokuzan crashing into ceiling. Naruto goes through his own hand seals before sharply calling, "Katon: Grand Fireball Jutsu!" Cheeks puffing out, they hollow when he blows out a fireball of modest size, careening towards Anrokuzan.
Anrokuzan frantically calls up a wave of parts to take the fire for him, still trying to get out of the ceiling.
Minato looks at Shibi, and the Aburame does not hesitate. "Ninpon: Beetle Sphere!"
This Beetle Sphere is four times the size of the last one, Naruto is sure, watching ti shoot towards Anrokuzan and then eclipse him in black bugs.
"What?!" Anrokuzan cries, sounding almost pained. Finally, his body falls, still covered in beetles. It crashes through the ground floor, into a lower floor below. Naruto slowly walks forward with the others and looks into the depths. Only he and Kurama can see Anrokuzan's broken puppet body.
An unexpected, slight pain on his left ear makes Naruto start. "Ow!" he grumbles, rubbing the offended ear lightly as he glares at a scowling Minato. "The hell Mina—"
"I have to say, that's a cute nickname. I see now why you quickly discouraged others from using it. You've been waiting to hear it from Naru-chan again, haven't you Minato?" Kushina asks gently, smiling when Minato nods enthusiastically.
"I don't know who taught you to go running straight for enemies, but it could not have been me or your mother." Minato admonishes.
"Oh please, I was testing his defenses." Naruto snaps, slightly regretting the tone when Minato turns blank eyes and a seriously sinister blank face towards him. "Please stop that."
"Ah, he's getting up." Kurama sighs, and true to his words parts of puppets that hadn't been grabbed before were flying into the hole Anrokuzan lay in.
"I'm punching Kankuro in the face the next time I see him." Naruto decides, Kurama snorting in amusement.
"Be serious!" Minato scolds, slapping Naruto on the back of the head. "I swear I will wear this kind of behavior out of you when—"
"And that's a promise." Minato mutters.
"Oh Minato, it's just a bit of fun. I know you prefer to quickly end fights, but others enjoy some banter. This life isn't an easy one, you know . . . can you really judge him if he lets off steam by joking around? So long as his actions are professional I don't see the harm." Jiraiya instructs his pupil, who while reluctant does appear to be listening.
Anrokuzan cuts him off, and Naruto laughs at the annoyed expression on Minato's face for being interrupted. "Allow me to show you the ultimate power of the puppet weapon."
Several booms from down below, the hiss of steam and a steady stream of crashes alert the Konoha contingent to a tougher battle ahead of them than the last few were.
"A new body for me!" Anrokuzan declares. The ground starts to shake underneath their feet and the men all brace themselves. The ground cracks underneath their feet, and they jump away. A part of Anrokuzan's head comes smashing through the hole he'd previously made. The rest of his body destroys half the floor. Anrokuzan's new puppet is bigger, so much bigger than before and Naruto can finally acknowledge Anrokuzan as being a tough opponent.
"That is one big doll." Kurama notes, and Naruto chokes on a poorly hidden laugh.
Minato sighs, aggravated. "I can't take you anywhere."
"What a thing to say!" Rin giggles.
Sara watches as the ones who were forced to work on Anrokuzan's puppet army are finally reunited with their loved ones. The brutal realizations of the night that came one after the other still haunt her, but she can push it to the edges of her mind now, seeing her people so happy.
"Sara-sama! You kept your promise!" Sarai congratulates her, standing with his father and older brother. Sara smiles, and opens her mouth to say something, when a shuddering boom sounds below and grows closer. The ground underneath their feet shakes.
"Everyone move! Something dangerous is coming!" Sara shouts, and herds them all away as she too runs to safety.
Anrokuzan bursts up from under the ground, destroying the surrounding two towers and crushing the street underfoot. And, to Sara's consternation, Naruto and Kurama ride atop Anrokuzan like a bucking bronco, whooping and hollering.
"Oh, Naruto!" Kushina groans, hiding her face in her hands.
"Oh, you idiot." Minato despairs. "I don't care what any of you say, I will teach him the appropriate time to joke around is not in the middle of a mission or danger!"
"That is a little excessive." Jiraiya admits, though he grins at the pure enthusiasm for life his godson exhibits.
"Yeehaw! Get on, little puppet! Yeah!" Naruto roars with delight, clinging to the fiercely shaking Anrokuzan as he yells with rage.
"He's having so much fun." Kakashi sighs.
"Best weekend I've had in centuries!" Kurama hollers, throwing his arms up in the air.
"Naruto!" Sara screams, not sure how to feel about Naruto's obvious excitement.
"Sara, now isn't a good time! Go and find a safe place until we figure this out!" Naruto calls out to her.
"But . . . !" Sara splutters, waving wildly towards him and Kurama.
"Oi! You're the Queen!" Naruto reminds her sharply, hollering in delight when Anrokuzan dips so fast his stomach feels like its floating for a minute. In his peripheral vision he sees Sara escort the group of citizens away and he smiles happily, free to enjoy himself fully once more.
"I will crush you beneath my feet, foolish Leaf Shinobi!" Anrokuzan thunders.
"Less talk, more fun!" Naruto screeches gleefully, grabbing his chakra blade and stabbing it into Anrokuzan's body, seeing if he'll get more fun that way.
"And he talks about Minato-sensei, but I don't think that teasing nature of his came from out of nowhere." Obito observes, laughing hard.
"Ah, that's true!" Kakashi snickers. "That last action was a little sadistic, something sensei might do if he felt he had ample time."
"Really, I'm not sure exactly how dark you all think I am but isn't this too much." Minato deadpans, joking. He was very aware that a little sadism was in his nature, but he still wasn't reckless and foolhardy like his only child. Riding a puppet like a raging bull, honestly!
Anrokuzan rises up, and starts to drop into a tower back first. Kurama and Naruto, sensing the early end of their fun, clear the area. Anrokuzan crashes into the tower and knocks it down. Anrokuzan pushes himself up and heads in the direction Sara did, and from a tower a couple blocks away, Naruto observes this with a frown.
He turns to Kurama next to him and asks, "Think there's something significant about his deep desire to see Sara die?"
"I'd say no more so than the usual villain." Kurama supplies. Naruto furrows his brow at the rather cryptic comment, but before further analysis can be done Minato appears on the tower next to him.
"Hey!" Naruto chirps, grinning. "I told you, should have come with us and you could have enjoyed a wild ride!"
"Deep down he really, really wanted to but Minato-sensei has this funny idea that if he just acts the adult for long enough we'll follow his lead." Obito chuckles, black eyes snapping with mirth.
"Clearly I'm just a fool." Minato sighs, playing along.
Minato merely shakes his head. "You are so lucky your mother isn't here to see this. Make sure Anrokuzan doesn't get to Sara okay? Protect her for a little longer."
"You got it." Naruto assures, then stops, scowling. "Hey, wait a minute how come I just unquestioningly obey—"
Minato ruffles his hair roughly, smiling brightly. "Because you're a good boy and good boys listen to their fathers!" Without another word, Minato disappears to do something.
"Tch! What a smug bastard." Naruto growls, going his own way as well to guard Sara from the murderous Anrokuzan. It's easy to find them, all he has to do is follow the path of collapsing, destroyed towers and poof! Anrokuzan.
"Oh, you're going to have so much trouble with him as soon as he thinks he's too old to cuddle with you." Obito laughs. "See it all the time with my baby cousins."
"Ah, it's so true! They think they're little men, so they always want to challenge the older ones. Testing them you know." Rin agrees.
Anrokuzan, who manipulates Sara with his chakra strings to make her choke herself. What a dick move. Naruto lights up his chakra blade, and dives down. He cuts the string and catches Sara as she falls in one continuous movement, surveying the girl for any other damage.
"Sara, you alright?" Naruto asks urgently.
"Naruto . . ." Sara utters quietly, wide violet eyes looking up at him. She smiles lightly and he smiles back, glad that she's not harmed. He helps her up, and gives her the chakra blade to defend herself.
"Just in case, okay? Not like it'll do me much good against that hulking monstrosity." Naruto jokes, jerking his head to a fuming Anrokuzan. "Get to safety, all of you!"
Naruto doesn't wait for an answer, as he takes the fight to Anrokuzan with Kurama. While Naruto uses kunai, Kurama settles for his own claws, lengthened with chakra into wicked blades of their own. The two slash and hack at Anrokuzan to distract him from the fleeing people. Naruto uses his clones to try and find 'soft spots' on Anrokuzan where heavy damage could be dealt with a Rasengan.
"You two work seamlessly together." Kushina speaks with plenty of admiration in her voice.
"Hey Naruto!" Kurama laughs. When Naruto looks over after flipping away from a blade he watches with wide eyes as Kurama creates a blood red rasengan in the palm of his right hand. When Kurama descends and smashes it into the side of Anrokuzan, destroying a leg, Naruto whoops elatedly.
"Wow, that's a new color for Rasengan." Minato laughs. "It's nice to see The Demon King use my jutsu."
"Well, like I said it's similar to bijuudama." Kurama admits.
"Badass Kurama!" Naruto crows, reinvigorated by the sight of a Kyuubi-Rasengan directly from the source. Kurama and Naruto leap away, stopping direct attacks on Anrokuzan. Instead, they leap higher and crash rasengans into the ends of a bridge, dropping it down on Anrokuzan and watching the puppet fall heavily to the ground.
"How much total property damage do you think this is?" Naruto asks Kurama. Minato's voice responds.
"Can you quit joking around for one second?" Minato almost growls, frowning upon Naruto's attitude towards the situation.
"Hey man, quips are my thing and being a smug flake is yours." Naruto dismisses Minato. Despite the man's glares he stands beside Naruto, and all except Kurama arm themselves with a kunai in each hand.
"Maybe I'll have to handle discipline?" Kushina suggests, giggling. "I think all Naruto will do is insult you."
"Naruto!" Sara shouts, and Naruto looks behind him. He blinks, then smirks.
"Got tired of the dress huh?" he shouts, indicating the dress now several inches shorter at the skirt where Sara hacked at it with the blade.
Sara huffs but shouts for him again. "Where we first met, that's where I'll be! I have to protect the Ryuumyaku!"
Naruto takes a minute to think about that, then nods curtly. "Got it."
Anrokuzan emerges from underneath the rubble. "I cannot allow you to live." He growls hoarsely.
Naruto grins and smacks his right fist into the open palm of his left hand. "I'll make kindling out of you bastard!"
"Wait." Chouza stops Naruto, stepping forward. "Leave him to us. It's our job."
Naruto shakes his head. "But—"
"Protect Sara-sama that is your job. It is better to have multiple lines of defense, after all." Shibi interrupts, stepping up by Shibi.
"Naruto, it's time I return." Kurama states, bringing their attention to him. He smiles at Naruto. "You've got this, right?" Turning to Minato, his expression sharpens into mocking amusement. "I'll leave him to you, for now."
Immediately Minato's eyes grow icy cold, and they drift towards scorching scarlet eyes. "For now?"
"Come now," Kurama purrs. "I will be with Naruto forever. He and I will be closer than anyone on this earth. I will know him from his first heartbeat, and I will be there for all the rest."
"That doesn't mean you'll own my son. You cannot loan my son to me." Minato chides mockingly, smile as sharp as a blade. Kurama's answering grin is just as deadly.
"Hey!" Kushina snaps, breaking the tension in the room and startling everyone. "I'm the one who will be carrying for nine fucking months. If anyone's closest to him, it's me, his mother! Kurama and Minato— you'll be fighting for second place!"
Kurama chokes, then laughs loudly, Minato following quickly after. "Fair enough." Kurama concedes.
Minato's eyes narrow, but he nods. Naruto chuckles and agrees with Kurama. "Yeah, thanks for all your help Kurama."
When Kurama disappears in a puff of smoke, Minato's eyebrows raise. "I've never heard of a human summons?"
"There isn't, so far as I know." Naruto replies mysteriously.
"Hm. Come on, we need to catch up to Sara-sama and the others." Minato orders abruptly, mind on Kurama's words. He and Naruto run after the Rouran group, leaving Chouza and Shibi to deal with Anrokuzan.
The group runs as quickly as possible down the steps of the central tower that spiral around the main hub of the Ryuumyaku's power. The column glows bright purple, and Naruto suspects the power is being subverted somewhere. Minato and he are at the back of the group, the last line of defense should Anrokuzan best Chouza and Shibi.
Minato and Naruto look up when they hear the buzzing of many beetles, Shibi's own. Minato stops and holds out his hand, the bugs swirling onto his palm and then forming characters.
"What does it say?" Naruto questions.
"As I thought. Anrokuzan has absorbed the power of the Ryuumyaku." Minato explains. "We must seal the Ryuumyaku to stop his chakra from increasing."
"In other words, he has unlimited chakra?" Rin frets.
"Yeah, that . . . I still feel guilty about that." Minato murmurs.
"In the meantime he's getting stronger." Naruto exhales, looking up to where a battle takes place on the surface.
"Even so, he must have a weakness." Minato argues, looking deep in thought. A large tremor that shakes the cavern startles them, and they both look up in alarm. Anrokuzan's puppet climbs down towards them, an air of malevolence about him.
"Sara!" he growls gutturally.
Naruto quickly turns and sees Sara frozen, glaring hatefully at Anrokuzan. "Sara, get everyone to safety quickly!" he shouts down to her.
Sara stirs, and her eyes flicker to Naruto before she nods. "Right! Come on everyone!" She continues to lead them further down while Minato and Naruto stay up.
"I'll kill you!" Anrokuzan rages.
"Can't you be more original?" Naruto bemoans, several clones popping up into existence around him. The clones create futon rasengans and regular rasengans, and the Naruto's shoot forward to engage Anrokuzan.
"U!" The first pair of clones shout, before they are killed by Anrokuzan's detachable claws.
"Aw!" Rin and Obito wail.
"Zu!" The second pair share a similar fate.
"Ma!" The third pair are swiped at by his tail, ending their lives. Before the fourth pair can finish the "Ki!" they are also dispelled.
"Well props for trying." Jiraiya grimaces.
"Naruto Barra— Guah!" The pair with the original and a clone that tried to sneak up on Anrokuzan from directly above are thrown into the wall by his tail. While perhaps the clone can dispel, it does nothing but add even more pain to Naruto who is slow to detach himself from the wall after smacking into it with such force. Anrokuzan's tail, blade first, shoots forward towards the blonde shinobi but Minato pulls him away and leaps further down to safety.
"Why didn't you catch him, idiot?!" Kushina growls, fist waving underneath Minato's nose.
"Man, Kushina, I'm fast not clairvoyant." Minato begs.
Naruto breathes deeply, the rasengans and clones taking their toll along with the injuries he's received. "He is stupid strong right now. Damn, this is going to take something a little stronger—"
"Don't bother." Minato orders, blue eyes roving over Naruto. "You go protect Sara-sama. I will stay up here with Anrokuzan."
Naruto snorts, annoyed. "I get it— you're some kind of prodigy, but that doesn't mean he's any less hard to deal with—"
"We can't take him head on. I know a way to discover his weakness but I need to be able to focus on Anrokuzan. Please, go and protect Sara-sama." Minato urges.
Naruto huffs, looking away, but he nods curtly. Minato helps him stand, and with a last nod Naruto flies down the stairs and doesn't look back. Minato turns back to Anrokuzan and pulls out five shuriken. Running up the stairs his free hand forms a hand seal as he throws the shuriken. "Shuriken kage bushin no jutsu!"
The five become, fifteen, and then hundreds— all that shoot forward and pepper Anrokuzan's unmoving form in a green shower of powerful chakra constructs. The shuriken pick up debris that clouds the air around Anrokuzan for a moment before drifting away when the barrage ceases, showing a battered but otherwise unresponsive gigantic puppet. Minato's sharp eyes search for his prize, looking over the mouth with missing teeth, the chunks of armor taken away from the main body and—
"Wow sensei!" Minato's students gasp, wide eyes impressed by the powerful display.
"Don't act so green." Minato jokes, chuckling.
Minato catches sight of the original puppet body Anrokuzan had, a spider, lodged into the right side of the larger puppet's chest. "So that's his weakness." He murmurs, head tilting to the side.
The central hub of the Ryuumyaku glows again, and like lightning the purple chakra hits Anrokuzan and envelops him, irritating Minato as he sees the previous damage he had inflicted heal up as if it were never there. The main weakness of Anrokuzan, the original puppet body, is covered over once again.
"He's regenerating too fast." Minato grouses. "That is . . . annoying."
Anrokuzan's puppet, now fully healed, hurtles towards Minato and crashes into the wall and stairs he had once stood on.
Naruto's head jerks up when he hears the crash, and he scoffs. "Mina you flake!" he growls under his breath. Turning to Sara he cautions her. "Sara he's coming down, you have to get them into the gardens!"
"You don't even know what happened, yet so quick to chastise . . ." Minato sighs, sending a knowing look to Kushina who isn't even looking at him.
"I know!" Sara snaps, running up to the locked doors. She pulls at the locking mechanism, trying to twist or pull it but it won't budge. Stunned she looks at it. "No way . . ."
"What is it?" Masakoto asks, running to Sara's side.
"The locking mechanism must have been damaged earlier— the door won't open!" Sara cries, internally panicking. She can hear the worried murmurs of her people behind her, and tries again to open the door.
Naruto can see Anrokuzan now, and he summons his claw blades. "Sara you don't have much time." He warns her, before leaping up to engage Anrokuzan on the walls of the sanctuary. "You walking, talking pile of sticks!" Naruto rages, shooting forward.
His claw blades glow with chakra and he slashes forward, blades of chakra hurtling from them towards Anrokuzan. "Crimson blades!" he roars.
"Oh they're even more impressive to see than just to read about." Tsunade comments.
Obito scrunches his nose. "Does anyone think that they sort of look like Blades of Blood?"
Rin snorts, shaking her head. "I can't believe you watched that anime."
Anrokuzan raises an arm and lets the blades hit the appendage, even then very little damage is done, just lights scratches scored into his arm that makes Naruto's jaw tighten. Anrokuzan's tail whips around too fast for Naruto to dodge, and he's sent colliding into the stairs, body awkwardly strewn about on the steps. Naruto spits out a globule of blood and glares at Anrokuzan.
"Katon: Fire Fox no jutsu!" The three flame foxes flicker towards Anrokuzan, who dispels them with a sweep of his arm. His claws detach from the other hand and start to fly towards Naruto, who jumps around them and deflects with kunai when they get too close.
"Kage bushin no jutsu!" He roars, creating six more clones. Each clone pairs up and uses a futon-katon combo to try and slow Anrokuzan down, never giving up until one of them dispels, and then the remaining just keep going throwing whatever they can at Anrokuzan.
"He's wasting chakra, but not fighting isn't an option." Jiraiya mutters. "His connection to the Ryuumyaku needs to be severed."
"Damn it! I've hit every possible spot and I can't find this supposed weak spot!" Naruto growls painfully, forcing himself up after another painful hit from Anrokuzan sends him skidding down several feet of stairs. "This bastard might not be invincible . . . but he's the closest I've seen to it!"
"Minato!" Kushina growls, almost snarls and her boyfriend flinches.
"I know, I know." Minato nearly whimpers.
"Naruto!" The sound of Sara's voice surprises Naruto, and he leaves the last of his clones to occupy Anrokuzan while he faces the Queen.
"Naruto, everyone has been evacuated to the gardens. They'll be safe there." Sara reports, and Naruto grins.
"That's great!" Naruto cheers.
Sara smiles, but when she looks at Anrokuzan who's destroyed the Naruto clones the smile fades into a grim look. "So long as the Ryuumyaku is active he'll grow stronger. So I . . . will stop the Ryuumyaku!"
"Even if Rouran falls for it?" Naruto asks severely. Sara looks at him, nodding.
"The power will destroy us all. If I must seal the Ryuumyaku to save my people, then I'll do it!" Sara promises.
Kushina smiles. "She's queen of people, not queen of a city."
Naruto smiles at her resolve, firming his own. "Then I'll cover you. Just get that thing sealed!"
"I'm counting on you!" Sara yells to him as she runs to complete her objective. Naruto doesn't answer, mentally gearing himself up for Round Two with the damnably tough puppet Anrokuzan.
"And where, exactly, is that flake? He's supposed to back me up here!" Naruto groans, cracking his neck on each side and rotating his arms.
"Minato!" Kushina growls even louder, glaring at a downtrodden Minato.
Naruto whistles loud, sharp, and high. Anrokuzan turns to look at him, a deep rumbling coming from the puppet.
"With a face like that, not even your own mother could love you." Naruto simpers, taking a couple steps forward, almost swaggering. "Tell me, Mukade . . . do you really think you'll be able to take over the Elemental Nations? With The Professor still on his throne and waiting to dismantle you like a child's toy? Can you defeat the Five Great Villages— in one of which puppetry is a serious endeavor? I doubt they'll take kindly to you playing around with it and divulging secrets. You're fated to die here, Mukade, Anrokuzan or whoever the fuck you are. YOU WILL DIE!"
"SILENCE!" Anrokuzan roars, and then his body tilts forward. "Ryuumyaku Dragon Fire!" From his unhinged jaw flames of purple and intense heat rush forward and Naruto leaps frantically away. Putting up an arm to cover his face, Naruto pants. He hadn't felt chakra exhaustion in a long time but he could feel it creeping up on him now. Even if he calls on Kurama's chakra, it wouldn't last and the exhaustion would become a coma.
Naruto draws out several kunai and throws them. "Kunai kage bushin no jutsu!" he cries, the several kunai becoming several hundred as they plow into Anrokuzan.
"Rather than sensei's green needles of death, Naruto's is a blue streak of death." Kakashi muses.
"You could have done so much better." Rin complains.
They tear at teeth, rip apart armor and for a brief moment Naruto sees something like a face on the right side of Anrokuzan's chest. He stills and narrows his eyes, but the pause is a grave error. Anrokuzan's tail smashes into him and he tumbles down to the floor. When he looks up, Anrokuzan is fully healed again.
"Ugh." Naruto grunts, struggling up. "No choice . . . this will be my last bet!"
He summons one clone, and they work to bring forth his chakra, combine his wind-natured chakra, and mold it. The rasengan grows, and the wind becomes sharp spikes on either side.
"Fuuton: Rasen-Shuriken!" Naruto hisses, leaping forward with his last bit of chakra to see eye to eye with Anrokuzan. The puppet's jaws open, and Naruto thrusts his most destructive jutsu forward.
"It's still so magnificent no matter how many times I see it."
The wind putters out, fading into a normal Rasengan.
That too, unravels like a ball of string until he's only holding out an open hand.
"Oh shit." Jiraiya, Kakashi, and Obito say numbly.
". . . Oh fuck." Naruto whispers hoarsely. Anrokuzan laughs madly and grabs Naruto with one hand, squeezing tightly until Naruto coughs up blood, the red liquid dripping down his mouth. With a careless gesture Naruto is tossed through the closed door where the true source of the Ryuumyaku sits, scaring Sara as he tumbles to a slow stop and lies limply there.
"Naruto!" Sara screams, horrified as Naruto struggles even to move his arm.
Naruto spit out a mouthful of blood, grimacing. He had really done it this time . . . . He barely has enough chakra to kawarimi, let alone keep fighting. Anrokuzan's tail slithers around him, not touching but forming a closed perimeter. Naruto fights his body's demands to lie still and climbs to one knee, both hands pressed to the floor as he pants harshly.
Anrokuzan's face, despite being unable to change, gives Naruto the impression that the man leers at him now in his hour of weakness. "Now . . ." Anrokuzan's clawed hand rears back. "Die!" and it shoots forward.
Once again, Naruto is treated to a strange weightless sensation as an arm grabs him around the middle and blonde spikes press close to his cheek. Minato arrives and carries them off mere seconds before the claw fell on them, leaving Anrokuzan to seethe over his failure.
"Just in the nick of time." Tsunade smirks, looking over at a seething Kushina and wilting Minato.
"I know," Minato murmurs, checking over Naruto with a tense set to his mouth and a sort of cold fury in his eyes that keeps Naruto silent. "When I saw Shibi and Chouza defeated I know I should have come back to help you. But I heard the fighting going, I thought if I could help them for a few minutes I'd come back quickly to help you." He pauses, blue eyes flickering up to catch wide matching ones. "I'm sorry."
Naruto chuckles briefly, taking deep breaths. "Your arrogance isn't a new thing to me Mina."
"Arrogance?" Minato whines, a pout forming on his lips.
Minato gives him a half repentant, half cheeky grin that eases some of the irritation at the man. Not all. "I'm proud of you though. You got this far without my help." Minato adds lightly, and Naruto freezes for a moment because he couldn't mean what he thought he meant— and realizes he's only talking about the fight with Anrokuzan.
Naruto scoffs, bristling and forcing Minato to back up a step as he lets Naruto stand for a first wobbly effort. "Will your pride fix my cracked ribs?!" Naruto hisses at Minato, the older blonde coughing to hide a laugh that would be inappropriate for the moment. Naruto breathes harshly but he stands on two feet, and Minato takes a second to marvel at how sturdy Uzumaki's are.
"I know his weak spot." Minato states, getting back to business. "I'll open it up for you, and you must hit it with Rasengan."
Naruto shakes his head. "It's no good. My chakra is spent, I haven't even got enough for a Kage Bushin at this point."
Minato smiles. "Then I'll just lend you my chakra."
The easily said statement makes Naruto stammer. "T-that's impossible." Minato still smiles though, and it garners even more suspicion from Naruto. "Mina, how the hell can you lend me your chakra?"
"Simple. Hold out your hand." Minato invites, and it's almost shameful to Naruto how the action is automatic. He just, holds out his hand. Minato's two hands form a sort of dome over his, and they twitch slightly. Naruto starts when an almost painful prick from deep beneath his skin startles him, and gasps when his chakra swirls into a rasengan. It doesn't feel particularly comfortable, and he realizes that the dredges of chakra Minato is picking up chafes along his chakra pathways.
"Now for my part." Minato tells him cheerfully. In between the dome of Minato's hands, a green rasengan forms.
"Two differing, but complimentary colors." Kushina muses. "He has my chakra color though. Sorry, Minato."
"Heh, like I said he just has my hair and eyes . . . and your everything else." Minato replies, grinning.
Green? Then where the hell did 'yellow' come from? Naruto wonders idly. The wind whipping around them from the rasengans in close proximity is somehow humbling to him. Suddenly, the two orbs of chakra grow bigger.
"That's a good question, but a long answer." Minato laughs.
"What's going on?" Naruto looks to Minato, confused but excitement starting to grow.
"When similar types of chakra are close to one another, they resonate. What you see, is a physical manifestation of that resonance. Now we just . . ." Minato inches forward, and like magnets the two rasengans reach for one another and morph together. Green and blue twist around Minato and Naruto, enclosed within a vortex of their resonating chakra. The rasengan they both hold together is not the perfect little orb it once had been but a chaotic twist of energy that threatened to break loose at any time.
"Amazing." Jiraiya remarks, eyeing the chaotic rasengan.
"How does it feel to have been part of an Uzumaki adventure sensei?" Obito asks.
"Marvelous." Minato decides, eyes hungrily watching Naruto's brave actions.
"How . . . What is this?" Naruto whispers. He didn't expect to be heard, but Minato smiles at him.
"This? Why, it's our own Super Rasengan." Minato teases, warm and gentle.
Anrokuzan doesn't understand exactly what it is, but he will not allow a potential threat to continue existing. "I will kill you before I kill Sara!" he growls. "Ryuumyaku Super Dragon Fire no jutsu!"
An even bigger, hotter blast of purple chakra blasts forward to Minato and Naruto, both seemingly too entranced by their creation to notice the danger coming for them. Sara, finally at the seal does notice and, praying she's not too late, shuts down the power of the Ryuumyaku. She turns around and her jaw drops when she sees a smoking crater where Naruto and Minato used to be.
Anrokuzan looks as well, snarling furiously when the crater shows no broken bodies. Turning around, he is shocked to see them actually behind them. How did they move so fast?! Minato leaves the rasengan vortex and palms a few shuriken, calling on a successfully tested jutsu. "Shuriken kage bushin no jutsu!"
The few become a few hundred, but this time they are all centered on the right side of Anrokuzan's chest, his weakness now fully bared. The now fully shown weakness of Mukade makes Naruto grin in delight.
"The original puppet— that's his weakness!" Naruto howls in triumph, prompting an indulgent smile from Minato.
"You definitely need to handle discipline. Just look at that face Minato makes!" Tsunade laughs.
"No!" Anrokuzan screams, trying to push his regeneration to its max, but with no more power from the Ryuumyaku coming, there was no power to heal his wounds.
"I'll leave it to you then!" Minato cheers, jumping away to a secure location. He has a feeling that the backlash from the Super Rasengan would be . . . extraordinary.
"Heh!" Naruto snickers, running forward with an almost reckless energy, blue eyes trained on Anrokuzan's "heart."
"No! No!" Anrokuzan howls, his claws detaching to try and spear Naruto. But the power of Minato's and Naruto's combined chakra acts as a force field, knocking away those that Naruto cannot dodge. Unwilling to give up, Anrokuzan rises and from his chest a beam of purple energy shoots forward. Naruto leaps to meet it, thrusting the Super Rasengan forward and letting the two jutsu duke it out. He was confident that he would win.
When the beam dissipates Anorkuzan's last desperate hope is to put his arm out, with the palm of his wooden hand meeting the Rasengan. His hand doesn't even become wood chippings, instead seemingly melting away into nothing as the Rasengan plows through his arm and then straight to his chest. When the Rasengan hits Anrokuzan, it blazes in a final glory, not just spearing through the very heart of Anrokuzan but blasting away the entire half of his body form face to the beginning of his spiked tail.
"YEAH!" The group cheers, whistling and clapping.
"Wow that was amazing!" Rin and Obito crow, starry eyes trained on the television.
Naruto lands nimbly upon his feet, the momentum carrying him a couple of feet before he spins around and looks at his masterpiece. Minato runs to him and they look at each other, back at the puppet, and then at each other. Like identical twins their faces split with smug grins and they high-five each other. "Awesome!" they crow, laughing.
"You two. My everything else huh? I'm seeing a lot of Minato in your son too, -ttebane." Kushina informs Naruto softly, reaching for Minato's hand. Smiling at each other, their fingers intertwine and they return to the movie.
"Oh, hey! I don't feel like I'm going to die anymore." Naruto observes, looking at his steady hand. "That resonance thing you were talking about . . ."
"A possible side effect? Maybe you absorbed some of my chakra, just a little from the attack and it gave you enough juice to start healing? It's just a theory though." Minato warns, shrugging as he smiles at Naruto.
Naruto chuckles nervously, noting the amused stare Minato pins him with. "Yeah well—"
A groan from what should be a dead puppet makes them jump, looking over to Anrokuzan's body that weaves and bobs drunkenly.
"I should . . . have been the holder of history!" Anrokuzan wheezes, voice unimpeded even with half his jaw missing. "I can't die like . . . this!" His body convulses, falling to the floor as it writhes and finally falls over into the Ryuumyaku. His body creates a splash . . . a splash that becomes a sudden upheaval in the Ryuumyaku as it froths dangerously and turns into a deep, roiling red.
Naruto and Minato look over it, and without even realizing it bite their lower lips in unison. Despite the similarity to Kurama's chakra, Naruto knows very well that this isn't a good sign.
"This isn't good . . . the Ryuumyaku will explode if we don't seal it completely." Minato mutters.
Naruto's eyes flash towards Minato, then Sara. "Sara! Run Sara!"
Sara, noting the now dangerous dark red of the Ryuumyaku that fills the cavern with a bloody light tries to run, but the moment she steps on the bridge the entire building starts to shake, and the bridge starts to crumble.
"Sara, hold on!" Naruto shouts, using chakra to leap from whichever stone looks safe, Minato following. Sara stumbles forward, nervous and frightened, but a single slip has he falling from the bridge with a startled scream.
"Ooh, hurry!" Kushina urges under her breath.
Just as she's resigned herself to death, a tanned hand grasps her small wrist and she dangles in the air, Naruto grinning at her reassuringly as he pulls her up. "Don't look down and don't let go." He chirps, bringing her up. He holds out his second arm to take her up, when the bridge underneath him collapses and they both go down.
"Naruto!" Minato barks, but the bridge collapses underneath him as well.
"Wah! Of all time for you to be mortal Minato!" Kushina cries, shaking Minato's shoulder.
"Honestly, how do you people see me?!" Minato barks.
"Mokuton!" The cry predates a sudden darkness surrounding all three, as wooden beams gather them together and then safely deposit them at the sealing dais. They look up from the wood that held them and see two figures attached to the beams slowly getting closer as the wood shrinks.
"Wah! Yamato-taichou!" Naruto cheers, smiling at the jounin as he finally lands on the dais and his arm returns to normal.
Kushina's eyes widen as she takes in the second shinobi. "Hey wait a minute isn't that—"
"Kakashi!" Obito and Rin trill together, slapping Kakashi on the back.
"Naruto," Naruto turns and sees Minato with his hand out. "The tri-pronged kunai I gave you. I need it to completely seal off the Ryuumyaku."
"Ah." Naruto digs out the kunai from his weapons pouch, pouting slightly as he returns it to Minato. Minato chuckles and ruffles his hair as he turns to jog up to the seal. Sinking the tri-pronged kunai in, Minato completes the sealing of the Ryuumyaku with a glow of green and kanji before it all sinks in.
Immediately after the sealing, Yamato and Naruto's bodies are surrounded by a dim white glow. "What?" Naruto utters, looking at himself.
"It was time for them to go." Minato murmurs, almost sad. "I was sad, but I knew I'd see him again. I was so sure . . ."
"You will Minato." Jiraiya assures his student, smiling as the younger man is slightly cheered.
"With the defeat of Mukade, or Anrokuzan, you two are able to go back as time is now righting itself." Minato explains calmly, walking down the dais and taking a step closer to Naruto. Looking over to the second, smaller figure next to Yamato he grins. "Looks like you did your mission well Kakashi."
The name makes Naruto do a double take. Of course! How could I miss it, the hair and the attitude—
"What attitude damn it! You barely knew me!" Kakashi protests.
"Kakashi, it's not hard to see how big of an asshole you are." Obito laughs.
"No way, Kashi?!" he takes a couple steps and bends down slightly to look at a child Kakashi. The silver-haired boy gives him a weird glance and puts his arms behind his head in an arrogant fashion, looking away with a sniff. Naruto grins. "So strong and aloof even as a kid huh?"
"To think, I met him!" Kakashi grumbles under his breath.
"Now, don't be mad Kakashi," Minato cajoles the boy. "You should understand why I had to erase the memory right?"
"Yeah I saved this Konoha guy too," Kakashi gestures to Yamato who balks. "He was just loitering around the Rouran gate and—" Apparently the injustice is too much for Yamato who gives Kakashi a hard hit on top of his head, making the boy flinch from the pain.
"Oh sweet justice!" Obito guffaws.
"What was that for?" Kakashi snaps petulantly.
"Well, I remember you used to bully me all the time." Yamato grumbles through gritted teeth. Naruto on the other hand, laughs and drags Kakashi up into a bone crushing hug.
"Heh! I didn't realize you were socute as a kid Kashi!" Naruto yips joyfully ruffling the silver locks much to Kakashi's protest. With a sly grin, Naruto drops Kakashi abruptly and ignores the following protests as he trots back to Minato.
"Such a . . ." Kakashi trails off, both embarrassed by Naruto's obvious affection and irritated with the careless treatment of his body!
"Hey, hold still for a second." Naruto orders. Minato, bemused, obliges Naruto and watches the younger blonde fish something out from under his collar and pull it over his head, revealing a long black leather cord with a pendant of the sun hanging off of it, glowing dim white just as Naruto is.
Naruto smiles and slips the pendant over Minato's head, brushing it past the long blonde locks and then letting it rest against Minato's chest. Once he pulls his hands away, the white glow fades from the pendant and Naruto makes a noise of triumph. "So, anything not in my hands doesn't go back with me huh? Good." Here he become stern and glares at Minato, poking him in the chest. "That's only on loan to you! I want it back okay?"
"He gave you a gift." Kushina murmurs, tears forming in her eyes.
"He gave us both a gift." Minato murmurs, pulling out the pendant and flipping it over. "Just brush your chakra against the seal."
Kushina does, her chakra the softest touch against the seal. Something brushes back and Kushina lets out a half sob, half laugh as she feels Naruto. He's so much sunshine, laughter, fizzy and sparkling, like a firecracker, like . . . like . . .
"That's my baby." Kushina whispers, smiling.
"He gave you a necklace with his chakra in it?" Tsunade surmises from the reactions and Naruto's insistence. "So all this time, you've felt him . . ."
"I hardly ever used it." Minato protests. "Just having the necklace is enough for me . . . I feel guilty thinking of feeling Naruto without Kushina. I just, didn't exactly know how to explain the situation either."
"Well thank you, but . . . why are you giving me this?" Minato asks, holding up the pendant. It is rather nice, he must admit, and is something he might wear if he were a person that cared for accessories. Considering it's something given to him by his son, however, means he would never take it off.
"Flip it over." Naruto suggests with a grin. Minato does just that, and his sharp eyes look closely at the back of the pendant, widening when he finds a seal.
"If your theory is right, and I bet it is— wipe that smug look off your face— then this might come in handy." Naruto explains with a shrug. The hug Minato pulls him into shocks him greatly, but he eventually softens and returns the hug just as fiercely.
"So, so jealous. I won't even let you feed him when he wakes at night, meanie!" Kushina jokes, pushing Minato's shoulder.
"Sorry, but it looks like it's time for farewell." Minato suddenly announces, pulling away from Naruto and addressing the group.
"No way, it's already time to part?" Sara asks, disheartened.
Naruto looks at Sara, smiling. "Yeah, but you did what you have to do. If you keep that up, you'll be a great Queen, and you're already pretty good in my opinion."
Sara nods. "I'll never forget you Naruto."
"Actually, it's safer for the timeline if we forget this memory." Minato counters.
Naruto is about to protest, when Kurama shushes him and says, Don't worry, I know a little something about seals to counteract this.
Minato kneels to perform the seal, and Naruto does too on Kurama's instructions. "Hey . . . just how many memories have you erased like this, creep?"
"I couldn't have asked it any better myself!" Tsunade laughs.
Minato jerks, a light scowl on his face as he mutters, "So much like your mother it's not even funny."
"Mhm." Naruto chuckles, pulling out his own scrolling seal and taking out an ink brush, ink, and two pieces of paper.
"And what are you doing?" Minato asks suspiciously, eyeing Naruto as he too starts to write down a seal.
"Copying. Who knows when this could come in handy? I might have to hide a few things from certain people, -ttebayo." Naruto lies cheerfully, writing out a portion of Minato's seal and then tweaking it, with a few tips from Kurama. How fortunate that Kurama had nothing to do but listen to Kushina's and Mito's sealing lessons!
Catching the stars that appear in Kushina's and Minato's eyes Kurama holds up a hand to stall them. "Later." He orders shortly.
"Maybe Kushina just cloned herself. That's the only possible explanation." Minato muses to himself, lips twitching as he fought off a grin. Taking a quick glance at Naruto, whose glow steadily brightens, the grin fades off naturally.
Naruto notices Minato's sudden blank face, and on impulse blurts out, "Don't get kaa-chan pregnant as soon as you get home for your own selfish reasons jerk."
"Hmph! Yes, that conversation suddenly does make a lot more sense." Kushina realizes, smiling ruefully.
"What conversation?" Jiraiya asks eagerly.
"Knowing my luck it'll be in this chapter." Minato tells them man, smiling guiltily.
"Hey!" Minato protests, a trifle guilty as he had to shove the thought of asking Kushina aside.
"Alright. Done." Minato finishes, dusting off his hand.
"Me too." Naruto announces, slapping one of the papers to Minato's forehead just under his hitai-ate and muttering under his breath, the seal bleeding off the paper and into Minato's skin to disappear.
"Naruto!" Minato scolds, but the boy is unrepentant as he slaps on his own seal and lets it bleed through. Rather, Naruto sticks out his tongue and Minato has to let it go as the glow brightens.
It brightens until they can't see.
It brightens until they don't know.
Minato swirls his spoon around in his melting ice cream, eyes hazy and faraway as he gazes out the window into the color streaked sky of Konoha at sunset. Behind him, Kushina hums as she completes whatever crazy ice cream Sunday concoction she so likes to indulge in whenever Minato buys ice cream.
Minato looks down and with a spark of interest notes the Uzumaki swirl he made out of the melting ice cream. He'd been having dreams for the past two weeks . . . dreams relating to the mission in Rouran. At first he dismisses them as nonsense, for there was no other blonde haired male in his team, yet he dreams of him.
He dreams of the sun, and the ocean locked in two orbs. He dreams of fields of orange and something so precious it makes his heart beat a little harder. There's other things too. Adorable anger, and a scarlet man that makes him irritated to think about for some strange reason.
Who is that boy I've been dreaming of? Minato asks himself.
The only thing he knows concretely is a word— a name— maybe an event?
"Naruto." He mouths to himself, spooning some mint ice cream into his mouth and licking the spoon clean. A tap on his head makes him start back into reality, to see a quizzical Kushina sliding into the kitchen seat across from him.
"Ack." Kakashi looks away, blushing beet red along with Obito. Kushina was only wearing a t-shirt, their sensei's shirt, in the shot.
"Oh you naughty~" Jiraiya giggles perversely, hands reaching for his notebook and then quickly rerouting to his aching head after a hit from Tsunade.
"What are you daydreaming about?" Kushina asks, scooping out a big chunk of strawberry ice cream and downing it with a pleased hum.
Minato's lips quirk up into a smile. "The dreams I've been having. And this . . ." he pulls out the sun pendant from under his shirt and observes it once again. He suddenly acquired this at the Rouran mission, without ever knowing how he got it. Something had told him however, not to throw it away, and he had kept it close to him.
"Oh." Kushina looks at the necklace, grinning. "It's pretty." Without prompting she reaches over and pulls it up a little higher to see, making Minato's chin go up just a fraction. Turning it over she notes, "Oh hey, there's a seal on it."
"Is there?" Minato asks, surprised. He hadn't thought to check the back of the pendant. Taking it from her he flips the sun over and does see a seal.
"It looks like an Uzumaki seal . . ." Kushina hums, her brow furrowing. "Where did you say you got it from?"
"A local vendor." Minato replies, and for all he knows it might be the truth so it isn't so much a lie as a guess of the whole story. A guess he knows is wrong but, whatever. Minato's thumb rubs over the seal and he slips a tiny shard of chakra into it. He stifles a gasp as chakra responds back.
The seal holds chakra! A chakra signature so close to my own yet so very, very different. Sunshine, sparks, something like lightning in his veins and a thrum of something deep like fireworks or thunder inside and—
"Jeez you felt all that too?" Kushina giggles.
"He has strong chakra." Minato explains to everyone else, grinning.
"Ah." Minato lets the pendant fall back under his shirt and goes back to eating his ice cream as if he hadn't just unlocked a significant portion of his memories. "Well, that's not a bad idea. It could be like Tsunade's diamond seal."
"You never liked jewelry before." Kushina mutters suspiciously, nose scrunching up.
Minato grins at her, and a sudden impulse comes over him that's to wicked it's right makes him blurt out, "Kushina-chan, since the war is ending why don't you and I catch up to Mikoto?"
"Naruto warned you sensei!" Obito laughs.
Kakashi frowns. "Since when is Obito the first to get the joke? I'm lost here."
"Mikoto?" Kushina repeats, even more confused by Minato's sudden turn to teasing. She's also extremely wary, so precedes with caution. "What are we catching up to her with?"
"Baby of course!" Minato chirps like he hadn't just indirectly asked Kushina to carry his child. Kushina splutters, choking on ice cream while Minato calmly licks up another spoonful.
"Sensei, you're so blunt." Rin scolds.
"Oh, nice." Tsunade snickers at Kushina's face, as red as her hair.
"Wha— Wha?!" Kushina nearly screeches. Minato just nods as if he understands.
"Oh, don't worry I think you'll like having my child." Minato reassures her, smiling happily even as Kushina bolts up and grabs the back of her kitchen chair. "You said you were thinking of teaching at the Academy right? Having experience with a child is pretty much require—"
"Don't use convenient logic to smooth over that idiot!" Kushina screams, swinging the chair at him as if he were an escaped animal from the circus. Minato smiles still as he dodges her frenzied attacks.
"Jeez, is it really so bad thinking of having my kid?" Minato pouts. "I bet he's awesome, if it's something we do together~"
"Die!" Kushina roars, embarrassed beyond belief at Minato's casual explanation of it.
Well, it looks like Naruto was right to warn me off. He should have known though, I just couldn't resist! Minato laughs to himself, ducking again under the heavy swing of the kitchen table Kushina used to replace the so far ineffective chair.
"So tsundere." Kakashi teases, ducking the pillow Kushina throws.
Naruto sighs gustily, looking up at the hot noon sun. "Hime, I'm going home now!"
"Right, thanks for your help Naruto!" Katsu waves him goodbye as he walks out of the Tea House. Katsu called him in a few hours ago to help repair the roof after several rounds of fireworks had gone off inside the place, and he of course obliged her. Now, sweaty and a little hungry, Naruto returns home for a long soak in the bath and a cool jug of iced tea.
Naruto does just that, soaking for half an hour in the tub in bliss and thankfulness. After pouring himself a glass of iced tea he returns up to the bedroom and pulls out a book.
"Hm. Tales of a Gutsy Ninja." Naruto murmurs, fondly trailing a finger down the cover of the dog-eared book. "That's right." Naruto murmurs suddenly, setting the book down on the nightstand.
Naruto remembers now, the loss of one of his pendants. The sun pendant he had given to Minato on loan. "Hm." Naruto groans. "I guess I'll have to ask Ero-sennin where Mi— ah, tou-chan might have hidden anything important to him."
"He's gotten stuck on Mina." Tsunade chuckles.
You really think Minato was the type of person to make time capsules and bury them around the village? Kurama asks, amused.
"No." Naruto sighs, put out. "But where else could he have put—" Naruto stiffens, standing straight up. With an excited grin he rushes to the closet and opens it, hands feeling around for a box he had put in the back. Finding it's corners he tugs it forward until it's close enough to pull down and sits on the floor with the box at his feet. Naruto opens the box, revealing Minato's Hokage Cloak. Naruto picks it up and runs his hands over the back of the cloak, chakra slipping into the threads and spreading around the cloak. When his chakra responds to something just on the kanji for Yondaime Naruto grins triumphantly. Moving his hand to the exact spot, he pushes more chakra in and a seal glows on the cloak.
A puff of smoke erupts and quickly disappears, revealing the sun pendant in the palm of Naruto's hand.
The movie fade into black and the TV turns off amid claps, whistles, and cheers from the thoroughly satisfied audience. "Ah, I'm glad I was able to return it to him." Minato laughs.
"This was such a wonderful chapter, movie, whatever!" Kushina squeals, launching herself at Minato, laughing when they nearly fell off the couch.
"Man, seeing those two side by side . . . it was really fun." Rin cheers.
"Man, how can this chapter possibly be topped?" Obito asks, collapsing back onto the couch.
So, happy birthday to the all the people with birthdays today, yesterday (Keyser S, I got this out as fast as I could!) and for the rest of january!
I hope you guys like my portrayal of Minato. I've always loved the characters who were sweet on the outside but Lucifer on the inside, you know? Makes for such fun interactions. Poor Kushina realizes her father was right all along, Minato is the devil, and that the fight for Naruto's heart is filled with fierce competiton! Get your game face on Uzumaki! See you guys in summer!
Love,
Bloody-Mad~3
