Minato felt like vomiting.
He was used to the aggressive pulling sensation that occurred when he used his signature technique, the Hiraishin, but nothing could have prepared him for the feeling of being torn into tiny pieces during using this new seal of his. For a passing moment, he honestly thought it would be the end of him, but his knees suddenly collided against the hard ground. And as he was there, trembling pathetically on all fours, he just felt like vomiting.
When Minato first started experimenting with the Hiraishin, he could endure the sensations it caused in his body quite well. He had always imagined using the technique would have some effects on the body, but he never expected it to be as if someone were mercilessly squeezing his internal organs just to later catapult them into his throat. After his first successful attempt, he had to lay down to be able to breathe again and to give himself some time to regain his composure. His stomach was rather angry with him at that time, too, but right now, it was his worst enemy.
After practicing the space-time technique for weeks and later using it practically on a daily basis, Minato just got used to the phenomena of his convulsing insides. Nowadays he considered the whole thing nothing more than mere discomfort. One could say that one of his greatest virtues was the ability to cope with an intense amount of pain quite easily, but currently, Minato didn't think he actually possessed that power.
Kneeling in the dirt, he felt like vomiting, but his stomach stubbornly held back its content. He wished he could just let it all out, but right now he was paralyzed by the agony flashing through even the tiniest part of his body. He wasn't sure how much time had passed until the violent shaking in his bones finally died down and he felt his lungs being filled with air again, but he was just glad it happened.
When he once again was able to order his body to move at least a little, he rolled over to his back. Waiting patiently for his inner torment to be over, he was looking at the bright blue sky spreading above his head. The corners of his mouth curled up in a relieved smile. It worked, it really did. The seal worked and he was back in time. At least going through all this suffering was worth it and he didn't just end up dead in the process.
He was watching the lazy wandering of the clouds above his head while thinking about Kushina. Minato wondered what exactly she had witnessed after he used the seal. He stuck with his theory about his original time being frozen without moving forward, but he couldn't wait to go back and ask Kushina everything about her experience. He chuckled as an image crawled into his mind about her, staring at him wide-eyed with those beautiful, violet eyes of hers, realizing Minato had already completed his time travel in what felt like a meager second for her.
He forced himself to lift his head a little and glanced at himself. Everything seemed to be in place, thankfully he didn't lose a limb or anything like that, even though his arms and legs were kind of numb. He was also wearing his usual attire sans the Hokage cloak which he had left in Kushina's care.
Everything went as they had planned. Almost everything at least because they didn't consider he would be paralyzed for such a long time after arriving. He hoped the numbness would leave his body soon and he wouldn't end up crippled for the rest of his life. That wouldn't be too practical for the Hokage.
He finally gained enough strength and willpower to push himself up into a sitting position. He was leaning onto his hands behind himself as he looked around to screen his surroundings. He landed somewhere in the outskirts of Konoha. He couldn't pinpoint the exact location, but he guessed he was somewhere in a clearing between training ground 8 and training ground 9. A relaxed moan escaped his lips as he became convinced nobody was around him, meaning nobody could witness him materializing out of the blue.
He stayed still for a little longer to let every part of his body get accustomed to this new era he was suddenly part of. When he judged he would be able to stand without fainting, he slowly raised his weight from the ground. At first, he felt as though he was a toddler learning to walk since he had to balance himself with his hands not to trip over. After the first few clumsy minutes, however, he was slowly getting used to feeling his feet again. A brief thought flashed through his mind about how derisively would Kushina laugh at him if she was here, witnessing the famous Yellow Flash of Konoha trying to avoid falling on his butt.
God knows how much time passed until he finally concluded he won back control over his own body and could stand without being dizzy, but ultimately, he was still Konoha's Fourth Hokage, and even traveling through time wouldn't overcome him that easily.
An abrupt thought burst onto his brain and he jerked his left hand in front of his face, inspecting his palm. He glared at it with eyes narrowed in concentration, but it didn't matter how hard he focused, the seal didn't resurface. His palm was free of even the faintest smudge of black ink as if he had never drawn anything on it. He clenched his fist to refrain from further analyzing the unexpected void. He would need to recreate the seal from memory to be able to go back, but it was only a small inconvenience, there was nothing to worry about.
He leaned against a trunk of a tree behind him with folded arms, ruminating the plan in his head. The first step had been completed, but the hardest part would come afterward. He had to locate the Nidaime, preferably without being seen by too many people. He and Kushina mutually agreed on a rule: while tracking down the Second Hokage, Minato would come in contact with only the absolutely necessary amount of people since neither of them wanted to gamble with changing the future. Minato would erase everyone's memory, but still, it would be needlessly hazardous to just interact with people so carelessly.
He touched his pouch to check if he also had managed to bring over all his ninja tools and gladly noted he still had everything on himself. He wouldn't want to, but he might need to use them to protect himself, after all, this era he had arrived in had an ongoing war, the First Shinobi War to be precise. Although, a disturbing thought was tingling in his brain about everything being too calm and quiet for a time of war, but he hushed the nonsense away.
Minato pushed himself away from the tree trunk and picked the direction he guessed would lead to the main gates of Konoha. He walked slowly but confidently, not leaving the safety of the shadows even for a second. He cautiously kept looking around, trying to catch any sounds that would indicate someone or something was near, but the woods around him seemed awfully silent.
Just when he thought he could emerge from the forest to search for a signpost or anything like that to pinpoint where he was exactly, he heard muffled voices coming from his right. He swiftly hid behind a tree and stayed still until he could locate the exact position of the voices. They came from his right as he had already noted, but he now could determine they weren't moving toward him. With this knowledge, he noiselessly leaped onto a large branch of the tree and moved from one bough to another until he found himself on a huge tree on the edge of a clearing.
He immediately recognized the place as training ground 8. He had been right about his approximate location then. He squatted down to observe the two figures standing a few meters in front of him. As his gaze lingered on their backs, his eyes settled on the familiar family crest on the young girl's back. An Uchiha crest, without a doubt.
Even though he wasn't dangerously close to them, Minato slowed down his breathing as much as he could so the two children wouldn't notice his presence. He aimed to be the one to decide if he wanted to approach them, not the other way around. It didn't matter that they were mere children, Minato had to be vigilant if he intended to survive this war-torn past. In the shinobi world, the most innocent faces hid the deadliest powers. His mouth twitched up in a small smile as he thought of Kushina.
"Boruto, if you don't concentrate, you can come and train alone next time. I don't have time for your silly games," the girl with the Uchiha crest placed her hands on her hips, scolding the blond boy standing next to her. He had completely missed the target with his shuriken and Minato guessed it wasn't the first time.
"Hey, I'm concentrating!" the boy sputtered as he threw another shuriken, trying to bend it perfectly to hit the bullseye, but failing miserably once again.
"Then you just really suck at this," she sighed.
"Why do you think I asked you? You're the specialist in shurikenjutsu, aren't you?" he folded his arms and looked away as though he was embarrassed for not being good in something. Or that he had to turn for help to the girl, Minato wasn't sure which one was the case.
The girl adjusted her glasses with two of her fingers and snatched the last remaining shuriken out of the boy's hand. She threw it effortlessly, one could even call her movement elegant, bending the shuriken in such a way that even Minato nodded in acknowledgment. The tool was etched into the perfect middle of the wooden target on the training log.
"Like this," she motioned casually toward the shuriken.
"It doesn't help at all if you just show off. You should explain how to do it or something, you know," the boy scoffed. Minato didn't miss his verbal tic and squinted his eyes at him, pondering on his possible connection to Kushina, although judging from his appearance any kind of connection seemed very unlikely.
"I already did, I don't know what else I can say. I know it's hard for you to grasp the concept of practicing, but that's what you need to do. Practice. Maybe you should ask your dad to train with you."
"As if he has any time to spare for his family," he waved dismissively.
The girl tilted her head to the side, shaping a smug smile with her lips. "You and your hard life, eh?"
"Shut up," he rolled his eyes at her and went to gather his shurikens, now scattered all over the training ground.
Minato was shifting his eyes back and forth between them. A pesky voice in his head whispered to him that something was off. He was determined to ignore it, but he couldn't shrug off his gut feeling easily.
First of all, these kids were way too careless and inattentive considering it should be wartime. If Minato was the enemy, he could finish them off in a second. Second of all, the clothing they wore was somewhat strange. Minato happened to know a lot about history as he was the Hokage and he saw enough sketches of old ninja clothing to notice that what the children were wearing weren't similar at all to those drawings.
A new idea popped into his mind. Perhaps the seal didn't work and he just transported himself outside of his house. He closed his eyes for a minute to concentrate on locating his Hiraishin markings that he had placed all over Konoha during the years, but he found none, thus this theory seemed to be debunked.
As he opened his eyes again, he caught sight of the headband placed proudly over the forehead of the blond boy. Minato narrowed his eyes to see it more clearly and dispel his doubts. He was absolutely sure the engraving on the forehead protector showed a leaf, meaning they must be Konoha shinobi. His theory about traveling through only space but not time got debunked once again. Besides, these children seemed to be around the age of his old team, he should know them if he was still in his own time. And for goodness sake, he was the Hokage, he knew every one of his shinobi, but he sure as hell didn't recognize these kids.
"Watch this," the blond boy returned with a cocky grin on his face and threw one of his shurikens in conjunction with releasing Gale Palm to increase its speed. This time it hit the edge of the target, but it seemed more like sheer luck than actual skill. "Why?" he whined.
The girl pressed two fingers against her temple in irritation. "Sometimes I can't believe you're really the son of the Hokage."
Minato had to grab a stronger twig not to fall from the tree upon hearing the girl's casual statement. What she just said was impossible, the Second Hokage didn't have any children, did he?
Suddenly, a kunai flew past his face, only missing scratching his cheek by a mere inch. He watched the girl spinning around her heels, yelling in his direction. "Who's there? Show yourself!"
The blond boy formed a hand-sign and with two puffs two shadow clones appeared next to him. A passing thought flew through Minato's brain about that the boy might really be the Nidaime's son if he could use shadow clones at such a young age. He pushed himself away from the branch to get away from the children. The Second's son or not, they seemed to turn rather hostile after they had noticed his presence, thus he figured he wouldn't interact with them as of yet.
Minato jumped from one tree to another without any difficulty. With his speed, outrunning the two kids wasn't too challenging. He arrived on the ground in a crouching down position and stayed still for a bit to verify they indeed weren't following him anymore, but no sound indicated they could keep up with his pace.
He straightened up with a tired sigh. This little accident with those kids now forced him to take a wayward route to the main gate and on top of that, they might alarm their comrades about a possible threat lurking in the woods. Great, just great.
He let his legs move on their own as he was internalizing the information he had gathered from eavesdropping on the Uchiha girl and her companion. Something was fishy about this time period, but Minato couldn't quite put his finger on what exactly wasn't right. Honestly, nothing seemed quite right.
After wandering in the woods for long minutes, he finally came across a road he knew for sure would lead to the main gates. Looking around one last time, he emerged from the shadows. The sun was shining brightly into his blue eyes and he felt his stomach tingling with excitement as he realized that he was truly here. He would soon meet the Second Hokage whom he idolized ever since he had learned his technique.
He took a deep breath of the fresh air and was about to stroll down the road toward the main gate when two kunais pointing at his neck held him back. Moving only his eyes, he identified his two masked attackers as members of the ANBU. Those masks were truly unmistakable. He had already messed up this whole time travel thing, this menacing realization popped into his mind as he was standing there motionlessly, just like a lifeless statue.
Unexpectedly, another figure landed in front of him. The newcomer stood there with his arms folded, staring at Minato as if he was some kind of an insect, some filth that shouldn't even exist. However, it wasn't the disgusted expression of the man that caused Minato to finally draw in a sharp breath but the uncanny resemblance between the two of them. Blond hair, blue eyes, it felt like looking into a mirror.
"If you drop the Henge right now, I might give you an opportunity to explain yourself instead of just simply handing you over to our Interrogation and Torture Unit," he spat out so viciously it gave goosebumps to Minato. "You have 10 seconds."
Minato, for the first time in his entire life, couldn't articulate any words. He slowly raised his hands with his palms facing the man in an attempt to show him that he wasn't a threat, but the man didn't seem to be content. "5 seconds," he stated coldly.
"Wait," was the only word Minato finally could force out between his clenched teeth, but he was a second too late.
The last thing he saw before his world went black was the light swinging of the man's cloak as a warm breeze lifted it slightly from his back.
A cloak, so similar to Minato's own which he had left with Kushina.
Author's Note: I just want to thank you all for all the favs, follows, and reviews, it means a lot to me!