Wow, new chapter up already! It's short, but soon finals will be over and spring break will have arrived! Then I can get ahead so that if I get slammed again, I'll still update. Yeah.
Just hang in there. 3 days. That's how long until I can take a break from life. 3 days.
And just hang in there for this fic. I know some of you don't like this part, but it is necessary for the story. I'll wrap it up as soon as possible so we can get out and figure out 1) why Kyuubi attacked Konoha 2) how Minato's going to handle life and 3) where Tama and Meara have been.
Interlude III
They came after him, long, long after him, though they had come before him in reality. He came across the first when fighting. They defeated the monster together, but he didn't trust. He couldn't trust.
He ran.
He met the second while running. The second reached out to him, but again he refused. It was a trick, it had to be. It was the darkness, the void, trying to trick him.
He hid.
He met the third while hiding. When the third opened his arms, his familiar, wrinkled, strong arms, he returned the gesture. And he cried, he cried for the first human touch he'd felt in too long.
But he wept that it would soon no longer be quite so human, so warm, or so accepting.
Then, as the third spoke, he smiled.
Some of the void retreated at his name. The third said that he was brave, and stubborn. He had her spirit, but his heart. He painted the Hokage monument. He had given his stone face long, feminine eyelashes, swirly cheek decorations, and a runny nose.
He laughed.
He wanted to stay, to hear more of him. He was human when he thought of him, of his little baby boy.
Not a baby anymore, the third had said. A shinobi.
How long had it been? He wondered. How long since he'd left her to raise their child? Had she forgiven him? It seemed an eternity, forever. The memories were fading every moment.
He wanted to stay, but the ground rumbled beneath him. The third didn't feel it, hadn't been here long enough.
They were coming for him. If they found him, they would find the third. He left again, for the same reason he refused the third's help in sealing. He knew it was futile, the third would eventually succumb. All things did.
Still, he could postpone the inevitable.
When he met the arms, he didn't know quite what to do.
He recognized the chakra. It was his sensei's old teammate, a man who'd trained him as well as the young girl. As he approached the arms—where was the rest of his soul?—he realized the chakra was not quite the same. It felt slightly different.
Darker, twisted.
As he defended himself against the arms, he realized they had multiple chakras in them. It had merged with other chakras, other souls. At first he thought the merging was the reason for the depravation, but as the hands wrapped around his neck, he thought perhaps the soul was perverse to begin with.
He thought perhaps he should not have listened to this man.
The hands tightened, crushing his windpipe.
He should not have trusted him.
The Realm laughed.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So? There are Minato's reasons for not staying with the other humans. We'll get back to the story, and find out what's happening with the priests, Tsunade, Sasuke and Jiraya a little bit in the next chapter, moving the story along. :)
Oh, and I know the manga indicates that Orochimaru left before the Kyuubi attack, but for the purposes of the plot, in this series, his departure will be after it. This story is already decidedly AU.