Hi team!
Here is the new chapter.
Chapter-specific warning : it's gonna get emotional again. Hopefully, not too bad, but at least, you know to brace yourselves.
Hope you enjoy this chapter. Do let me know ;)
Chapter 15
Minato signaled for his ANBU guards to stand down as he arrived at the compound entrance. The team dispersed behind him and he felt them settle in the shadows overlooking the gates, where they'd be able to see him come back out. He repressed a sigh. Even though they knew he'd be gone for hours, the team systematically refused their dismissal and stayed to keep watch. For years, Minato had tried to make them understand that there was absolutely no risk to his person where he was going. It was pointless: his guards were way too stubborn.
The Hokage felt the accepting tingle of the wards surrounding the clan estate as he walked though the gate. On his way to the main house he saluted the few clan members who were out, enjoying the quiet evening. He arrived at his destination and knocked on the sculpted wooden door. It opened a minute later to reveal a casually dressed Shikaku Nara.
Shikaku nodded to Minato and was about to invite him in when he took notice of his friends' weary expression. He turned his head and yelled through the hallway.
"-Yoshino! We'll be at the cabin. Don't wait up."
He didn't wait for an answer and put his shoes on before exiting the house. Both men started walking further into the compound, and out into the clan's forest. When they were completely surrounded by trees, Shikaku broke the silence:
"-Sake?
-You still have you old man's stuff, don't you?
-Ah, one of those."
Silence resumed as the men approached an old but well-taken care of wooden cabin. They removed their shoes and got inside. The single room was only furnished with a small low table with two hemp cushions on either side of it, and a sculpted wooden chest in one corner. On the table were a drinking set for two and a beautiful shogi board. The room smelled of herbs and the ever present forest.
Shikaku lit the pair of candles he found by the door, bringing them in to chase the darkness away. He went to retrieve an old bottle from the chest. Minato walked to the table, the sound of old wood creaking under each of his barefoot steps.
The cabin had been built by Shikaku's great-grandfather, the second generation of Nara to be born in the village. It was a simple thing, built with timber from the surrounding forest. It had been used by each clan head as their personal getaway. No one else ever came here, except for those invited in. The cabin was not meant to hold any other comfort but those of quiet and simplicity.
Shikaku's grandfather had brought in the chest at his own father's death. He had spent many hours slowly sculpting the beautiful landscapes adorning it in this peaceful heaven. After him, Shikaku's father had found solace here by drying the herbs he used to make his fermented wine. The smell of the herbs still clung to the little cabin, even more fragrant in the summer, when the sun would warm the walls and release the oils trapped in them. Shikaku had gifted him the drinking set now sitting on the table at his own older brother's death in a war ambush. The shogi board was Shikaku's own addition to the place when he had inherited the cabin and the title of clan head.
Minato had spent many hours here in his friend's company. After he had become Hokage, the peace and quiet here had been his only escape from his duties and his own memories of the war. Through the years, he'd come here whenever he had needed to step out of his own life for a few hours.
Shikaku himself had mostly used this cabin during his own son's first year at the Academy and then again during his first year as a shinobi of the Leaf. In those moments, both fathers often joked that Shikamaru's contribution to the cabin's furniture would no doubt be a hammock.
Finally seated on the hemp cushion, Shikaku wordlessly poured them each a cup of his father's fragrant brew. In the quiet they both took a sip, savoring the drink's strong burn down their throat and its lingering herbaceous aftertaste. They took their time emptying their cup, sip by sip, letting the tranquility of the moment bring them peace.
They started a silent game of shogi. An hour passed with nothing but the noise of the tiles on the board to mark the time. When they had mostly forgotten about the world outside, Shikaku broke the silence.
"-Naruto's clearance..."
Minato moved a tile, taking his time to answer the non-question. Shikaku didn't press him: that was the way of the cabin.
"-He had the clearance, I only made it official."
Silence. Three more moves, a few more sips.
"-Kyuubi?"
A half shrug. No, the clearance was not about the Fox.
"-Is apparently just a title."
Shikaku moved his tile in response.
"-Ah, I was wondering about that 'Kurama' name. Your son?
-Friendly enough apparently. All of them.
-Do I wanna know?
-It's troublesome.
-Tell me something I don't already know."
Minato genuinely laughed, lifting his head from the game.
"-Oh, Shikaku, you have no idea!"
Was that a note of resignation in the Hokage's voice?
"-We're talking about Naruto," Shikaku answered in a tone that clearly suggested nothing would surprise him coming from his friend's son.
Minato snorted and reported his attention back to the board. Shikaku hadn't moved his head.
Long minutes of silence passed before Minato started talking again in a flat voice.
"-During his last mission, Naruto somehow managed to become a transient for Ashura Hotsutsuki's soul – that's the son of the Rikudo Sennin, by the way – and was able to transfer his conscience from one of his soul paths to this one. On this other soul path, he's lived the life of an orphan, hated by the very village he was protecting by guarding the Kyuubi. He, the Kyuubi, was the target of a very much alive Madara Uchiha. Naruto fought for his life for several years. He watched the world burn while loosing all of his friends and family, and through all that became Hokage at nineteen."
Clack.
Minato finished his move, the sound of the tile of the lacquered board resonating in the stunned silence. He lifted his head and raised an eyebrow in a silent challenge to Shikaku.
How is that for a surprise?
Shikaku's face, in a very uncharacteristic moment, was almost comical in his shock.
His expression morphed as he seemed to be debating whether Minato was pulling a prank on him. He decided against it as the blonde man suddenly emptied his cup in one long gulp. Shikaku followed his example and emptied his just as fast. He refilled both cups again and drank half of his for good measure.
"-I did not see that coming."
Minato raised him his cup in a sarcastic, silent toast. He relaxed back on of his hands, taking a break from the game.
"-That's not even the craziest part."
Shikaku groaned. Of course it wasn't.
"-Incident F16SU2?"
Shikaku studied his blond friend for a couple seconds.
"-Why do I feel like I know where this is going?
-That was him.
-That was twenty five years ago.
-I know."
Shikaku groaned again. This was not how he had planned his evening. No wonder Minato had bypassed the sake altogether!
"-Well, this sheds some light on that weird-ass conversation the other day. Since when have you known?
-Which part?
-All of it.
-The soul thing, when he came back from his mission.
-That when he made the jump?
-You noticed, uh?"
Shikaku looked at his friend with a very unimpressed expression.
"-Right.
-Kakashi?
-Knows.
-Everything?
-Almost.
-The other unknown?
-Yes.
-Why?"
Minato just looked at Shikaku. The man quickly thought back on everything he knew about the Field 16 security breach, about Kakashi, and what he could extrapolate from the conversation at the Namikaze's house in light of what he'd just learnt.
He swore a couple minutes later.
"-Fuck.
-Yeah.
-Are you ok?"
Minato clenched his jaw. He definitely was not okay about it but there was nothing to be done. What happened was in the past. Sometimes in his nightmares he could still see the masked head fly, black hair tainted with blood. Would it have changed anything if he'd known who was behind the mask? If Naruto had told him, twenty five years ago?
"-How does Naruto know?
-I don't know for sure.
-He'll 'debrief you later'?"
The soft noises of the forest permeated the air as both men thought back on the conversation they'd had with Naruto just a few days before.
"-He certainly thinks like a Kage," noted Shikaku after some time.
"-He was a field Hokage.
-Shit. Minato, I'm sorry.
-I am too.
-How is he?"
Minato shrugged.
"-I don't know. He was still on the battlefield six weeks ago."
Shikaku glared at his friend, eyes blazing with protectiveness. He snarled his next words.
"-You said he became Hokage at nineteen.
-I did.
-He is twenty two!
-He is."
Three years on the front, unable to go home.
"-Fuck, Minato! This is bad!
-It is.
-How long?
-Six and a half years."
Shikaku sprang to his feet and started pacing in the small room, stream of curses tumbling from his pinched lips, furry uncharacteristically lining his frame.
He looked at his friend. Minato sat rigidly, shoulders tense and jaws clenched. He was on edge. There was no mistaking the pain in his blue eyes, warring with anger.
Shikaku's heart gave a pang in his chest: he couldn't imagine how he'd feel if Shikamaru had to go through all of that. It was bad enough that Naruto had to. At least three years on a war front without being able to go home. Six and a half year in total, fighting. That was more that a third of Naruto's life!
Shikaku very rarely got worked up, but right now he wanted nothing more than to hurt whoever had put Naruto through so much suffering. He had no idea how Minato managed to remain so calm.
Shikaku inhaled deeply. Minato was calm. He had sought Shikaku out because he needed an outlet. So far, he hadn't let go of his tight control yet.
Shikaku frowned.
They hadn't reached the problem yet.
With the realization, Shikaku stopped pacing.
"-Twenty five years ago, how did you know?
-I didn't. Not until he was born. When I saw him, I just knew."
Something clicked in Shikaku's mind.
"-He's the one the Hounds were after."
Minato nodded.
"-No wonder they never found anything."
The Hounds. The unofficial name of one of the Hunter Units. Named after their most vicious commander: ANBU Dog. Kakashi, at his lowest.
A nose sharper than any Inuzuka's, a talent unmatched in a generation, and an unhealthy disregard for his own well-being. Barely surviving his teammates' death during the war and completely drowning in grief and self-hatred, the teenager had been thrown into the black ops barely a few months after Minato had been appointed Hokage. This had been the only way for the young leader to keep a close eye on his last student. The only way to make sure he didn't go over the edge.
In another life, Minato would have had been able to pull him back onto a healthier mindset. In another life, Kakashi would have had been able to grieve.
But in this life, the incident in Field 16 had sent six members into early retirement, weakening the elite force. This had resulted in Dog being transferred into the Hunter Unit.
They had two unknowns to find and Dog was relentless. The Hound nickname had come later, when he was promoted to captain, but the trend had been set and their unit took their new name like a badge of honor.
Minato had been about to finally pull Kakashi out of the circuit when the Academy Attack had occurred. The ANBU had been crippled by the loss of their commander and several of their best fighters. He had had no choice but to keep Kakashi in the masked elite force.
Shikaku had never known until now who had been the target of the most aggressive search campaign in Konoha's recent history.
"-I assume Jiraiya knows.
-He was briefed together with Kakashi."
Once more, silence reigned in the cabin. Neither men paid attention to how much time passed before Shikaku's voice raised in the room again.
"-You're my friend, Minato, and you know that. But why are you here? Why are you not talking about this with Jiraiya?
-He never understood my trust in Naruto. Naruto from the breach, I mean, not my son. Besides, he's glued to Tsunade.
-Nothing new there.
-She died. On the other path. They both did. Orochimaru outlived them both. Died helping Konoha.
-You're kidding, right?"
Shikaku sat back down and reached for his cup.
"-He must have taken that pretty hard.
-Sensei never quite recovered from killing him all those years ago. Always thought he shouldn't have, that there was a way for him to save Orochimaru. Naruto basically just confirmed it for him, told him he could have redeemed himself.
-You believe that?
-No. Not after everything he did. I believe the Orochimaru in that world was desperate enough that helping us was his only option. There was no helping him. He didn't want any help. He may have died helping Konoha, but the things he did in order to do it… Naruto wouldn't tell me all the details, but from what I do know, even there, I believe there was no good in him. Not anymore."
Shikaku nodded. Orochimaru had been a genius, but there was no excuse for the things he had done.
After a while, the dark hair man resumed studying his friend.
"-How are you really doing, Minato?"
Minato sighed and seemed to deflate. He suddenly looked years older, exhaustion obvious on his traits.
"-I have no clue how I'm doing. Twenty two years ago, on the absolute worst day of my life, I discovered that an enemy - an enemy that I've been looking for, for the last three years, thinking he was my long lost brother or cousin - is actually my son. And I discover that while he's dying in my arms. My son! My son was barely born a few seconds and he was already dying."
The blond man's voice was steadily rising, getting sharper and rougher as he kept talking.
"-I could feel it, you know. I could sense it, like I had never been able to sense anyone or anything before. In my hands, his chakra fading away. I can remember how it felt on my skin. How it felt between my fingers, to feel his life less and less."
Minato was looking at his hands like they were not part of his body. He then clenched them in fists.
"But we saved him. And how did we do that? By sealing a damn Tailed Beast inside him, killing his mother in the process."
It took a lot for Minato Namikaze to lose his calm. A lot more effort than Shikaku was willing to extend at any given point in his life. The guy just had way too much control over himself, to the point of being scary. Getting Minato to relinquish his control was a slow process.
When Minato swore Shikaku knew that they were getting somewhere.
"-A month ago, I learnt that that son, whom I've raised as best I could, has become a reincarnation of the Sage's own son, and that his soul has lived a different life – because apparently, that's possible! And because things would be too simple otherwise, that other life is every parent's absolute worst nightmare," Minato's voice was still rising. "Everything that you could ever wish for your child, taken away by the shittiest circumstances ever."
"-Now that same son," his voice cracked with something unidentifiable, "– whose reflex almost killed his own brother while he was freaking asleep by the way – is now a war veteran, a Kage and the seal master I worked with during a goddam security breach twenty five years ago! How the fuck am I supposed to feel, uh?!"
Minato ended his tirade in an angry shout.
There we go.
The blonde man stood up and started pacing furiously, blue eyes burning with a storm of emotions.
As much as Shikaku hated to see his friend in that state, there was something fascinating about seeing the normally composed man acting so openly.
Shikaku repressed a shiver. Minato Namikaze could be a very scary man.
"-As if we, he, hadn't suffered enough! But no! In some fucked up twist of things, the most gentle soul I have ever encountered has lived through the bloodiest, the harshest, the most goddamned, fucked up war I have ever heard of. And there is nothing I can do! How am I supposed to deal with that?!"
The furious, scorching tornado that was Minato suddenly stopped pacing.
"-Shikaku..." Minato's voice lost all its anger, all its heat. Only pain remained. "How do I help my son?"
His voice was soft and broken, barely above a whisper, and shaking with gut-wrenching anguish. His blue eyes were a well of agony too deep to bring any tears.
Wasn't that the question of the year?
How does one parent help their child in such a situation?
Shikaku had no answer. Helping their children through their first mission gone wrong had been bad enough. But a war? The thought of a war to come would often keep Shikaku up at night, when the tensions were high. He couldn't imagine what it would be like to see his son go through the horrors of war. But not to be there for him at all and only seeing the aftermath of a war he knew nothing about? He shuddered to think about it.
"-I don't know."
Shikaku's tone was just as broken as Minato's. The soft words held in the cabin for an infinite moment.
For a very long time both men were silent. Minato slowly calmed down, visibly exhausted by his outburst and the situation. The pain remained in his eyes. He was still standing when Shikaku started talking.
"-He came here the other day, a couple days before going to Tsunade's.
-Did he?
-Hm. I'm guessing that him going to see her had something to do with Kakashi's visit to the hospital the day of his departure.
-Not directly, but yeah. Kakashi tried to wake him up."
Minato didn't add anything. He didn't need to, Shikaku would fill in the blanks. He slowly sat back down, sighing deeply.
"-He looked well upset when he was here. Called me 'commander'. I knew something was up but I didn't realize it was that bad.
-He didn't mention it but I don't think he ever knew you as anything else."
Shikaku grimaced at that. Whatever the reasons behind that possibility, the implications were rather unpleasant.
"-Did he mention anything else? Beside the obvious," Shikaku asked, already trying to assess the situation.
"-Not much. He was teammate with Sasuke Uchiha."
Shikaku lifted an eyebrow.
"-You don't say.
-Got the title of Sannin together."
The clan head stroke his goatee, his calculating eyes on his friend. There was doubt in the blue eyes for the briefest moment, before being swept away by certainty. He'd done the right thing. But it had been one of the hardest decisions Minato had had to take during his tenure.
"-Does he know?
-He hasn't said."
Shikaku resumed playing the long forgotten shogi game between them.
"-How old was he, twenty five years ago?
-Twenty two. His last battle. Somehow he ended up twenty five years in the past during the fight.
-Was it intentional?
-No. But he knew what was happening.
-How so?
-He knew me.
-I thought he was an orphan?
-He was. He knew me because we had fought together. Or rather, he fought alongside my Edo Tensei."
A shiver went up Shikaku's spine. The Nidaime had been a brilliant mind. But there was something to be said about the fine line between brilliance and madness. The Edo Tensei had been the first technique the Third had sealed into the Forbidden Scroll, and for good reasons.
"-Shit. Talk about trauma. No wonder he was on edge.
-I just don't know what to make of it. How do you come back from that?"
Shikaku stayed silent. The message was clear in the air: you don't.
"-Kushina?
-We've told her some but you know him.
-He's still protective of her?
-And then some. He doesn't want her to know how bad it was.
-She'll know.
-Of course she will. She'll figure things out eventually if she hasn't already. I will need to tell her at some point. She deserves to know.
-What about Sayora?
-He's avoiding her. Truth be told, he's pretty much avoiding all of us. Even Kakashi, to some extend. Not that it would be surprising.
-Bad memories?"
Minato sighed.
"-He lost Kakashi the day of the fight. His Kakashi was pretty different from Kashi, apparently, but there is no getting over that loss. He was his teacher." Minato let a few seconds go by. "Naruto lost many people in his life. And he basically lost everyone he's ever known when he got here. It's a wonder he hasn't gone over the edge yet.
-He is strong.
-I know he is but he shouldn't have to be that strong. No one should. Hell, I don't even know how he manages to function around anyone! I swear, half the time it feels like he doesn't know how to behave around us. And I can't say I blame him! I'm probably the only person he is really talking to but you saw how that goes.
-He talks to you like a soldier.
-Exactly. We were on the battlefield together. It's probably the only way he has ever spoken to me. He's been on the field for so long he probably hasn't talked to anyone differently in years!
-Do you want to send him to Inoichi? He would see him if you asked him."
Minato sighed again, dragging his hand through his hair.
"-Somehow I don't think he'll agree to that. You know how stubborn he can be.
-Like his mother.
-I've got a feeling he's even more stubborn now.
-He would be. If he was a Kage during war time, he's not about to let himself get shrinked by anyone.
-It has been better since he came back with Tsunade. She told me he meditated a lot while he was there. I'll just keep an eye on him for now. I know she will too."
"-Minato, I hate to ask this but you know I have to: do you trust him?"
Minato's eyes glowed with absolute certainty.
"-I've trusted him since I met him. Not because he is my son. I didn't know that twenty five years ago. But because he is trustworthy. I trusted him then and I trust him now.
-His clearance.
-Yes. I don't know what he's planning or even if he is planning anything at all. But he was Hokage and he has my trust regardless.
-You're supporting him.
-I am. He is my son, I'll always support him. But he has made a life without me and he'll do it again if needed. In this, I will support him because he doesn't need or ask for my support.
-I see," Shikaku paused for a few seconds, "How strong is he?
-I truly do not know."
A predatory grin stretched Shikaku's lips.
"-Should we find out?"