Final in the trilogy-or-more, depending on how this goes. I don't know how often it'll get updated. Unlike the previous one, I don't have every chapter planned out to the last detail, just a basic plot I'm following, like with most of my stories. :P
Disclaimer, that word says it all. ;)
Road To Redemption
Chapter One
It had been five years since Minato had met Sakura, four since she'd left the village with his daughter, and one since his sensei had brought his daughter home to him, without her mother.
Now, his long time student had been promoted to jounin. Kakashi had taken the one on one exam to qualify, and had passed with flying colours. Minato was immensely proud of him, and quite worried for him at the same time. Kakashi was so young for the promotion, but so proud of himself for his achievement. So he treated him to his favourite food for a celebratory dinner, and kept his worries to himself.
Kakashi would be annoyed if he knew.
At this moment, he was standing in the Hokage's office. He and several others, including Kakashi, were being debriefed on a mission, one that had several parts to it, and required several teams. And it seemed, one of the missions was going to put the newly minted jounin that was his beloved student to the test. Destroy Kannabi Bridge. Minato himself had a different mission, though he was to see Kakashi, Obito, and Rin so far, before joining others on a front-line mission.
"Everyone is clear on what they have to do?" Sarutobi asked, and they all nodded. "Dismissed. Oh, but Minato, stay a moment, would you?"
Once everyone was gone, Minato stood alone in the room, bar the Hokage. The old man regarded him thoughtfully, before asking, "What are your thoughts on Kakashi's capability of leading his mission?"
Minato raised a brow. "I have confidence in him," he said, wondering where this was going.
The Hokage sighed. "I honestly wanted a more experienced team on this," he confessed a moment later. "The mission requires going behind enemy lines, something that really should have been assigned to a more experienced jounin. But I simply do not have the current resources to do so. All of my ANBU are busy, and the best of the jounin are either already on missions, or are going on this mission in other forms."
Minato nodded understandingly, even though he agreed with the Hokage on his points. A more experienced team would be a better choice, but as he said, his options were limited. Sarutobi sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose.
"He's not going to be happy with me," he muttered, and Minato said nothing despite his curiosity, because he figured he wasn't supposed to hear that. Then Sarutobi looked up at him. "Make sure you're ready tomorrow morning. And make sure that Kakashi and the others understand the importance of their mission. You're dismissed."
Minato left the Hokage office, a little confused, a little concerned, and more than a little hyper-aware of everything that could go wrong on the mission. He headed home, intent on getting ready. Once there, he opened the door, only to have a small body crash into him.
"Papa! You're home!"
Minato laughed and picked his daughter up, hugging her tight. "Hey munchkin," he greeted. "What have you been up to today?"
Naru started to prattle on and on about what she'd been doing, from colouring, to reading, to doing stretches with one of the gennin that had been assigned as babysitters for the day. She babbled incessantly even as said gennin came up to them. Apparently, she had a very good time with this lot.
"She was a very good girl," the kunoichi of the team, an Akimichi, told him. "No trouble at all."
"That's good, thank you," Minato said. "You can head up to the mission desk and collect your pay."
The gennin bowed, then filed out.
Minato spent the rest of the afternoon getting Naru to help him prepare his mission pack, subtly teaching her at the same time. Then they prepared her own bag that she would take over to the Inuzuka compound, where she'd be staying with her "bestest friend in the world" Suzu, Takeo's daughter. Takeo and his wife Hiromi often looked after Naru when Minato had a mission.
Dinner was a 'grand affair', with Obito and Rin joining them. Minato told them a little about the mission, saying that they'd be briefed more fully on it on the way tomorrow. They left after a few hours, with Rin calling out to Obito, "Don't forget your present for Kakashi's promotion to jounin tomorrow!"
Obito muttered under his breath before kissing Naru noisily on the cheek (causing the girl to giggle madly) then waving to them both as he left. Then Minato and Naru grabbed her bags, and walked over to the Inuzuka compound. Hiromi met them at the door, with Suzu running through their house to come greet her friend.
"Be a good girl, alright?" Minato said as he knelt to hug his daughter. "Make sure you do what Hiromi tells you, and don't pull on Kaji's tail."
Naru let out a sigh. "Yes, daddy," she said, then kissed his cheek. "See you when you get back."
Then she and Suzu ran off, no doubt going to the latter's room.
"Be safe, Minato," Hiromi said. "And make sure my lout of a husband doesn't screw your mission up too badly."
"I heard that woman!" came the loud voice through the house, and Minato and Hiromi grinned.
Going back to an empty house was rather depressing, but he needed to sleep. He was getting a very early start in the morning, just one of the reasons why Naru went to the Inuzuka tonight, instead of at breakfast. So he got ready for bed, and as his head hit the pillow, he found himself wishing, not for the first time, that his daughter could have had both of her parents with her.
OoOoO
Jiraiya and Sakura were tracking Black Zetsu through Grass country this time. Naru was with a trusted contact of Jiraiya's so there was nothing to hold either of them back if they managed to finally track him. For the last three years, they'd been working on a seal that would actually contain the will of Kaguya, and they'd embedded a tanto with a variation of several different Uzumaki seals that Jiraiya had access to.
"Can you sense anything?" Jiraiya asked.
Sakura's brow was furrowed in concentration. Finally, she shook her head. "This damned thing's too unreliable," she complained, rubbing at a seal that Naruto'd given her before she'd come back. "I've got the feeling I'll have to be practically right on top of that bastard before it actually works. Dammit! Why couldn't you have taught sealing to Naruto properly!?"
"Hey! Don't blame me for that!" Jiraiya said, hands up defensively.
Sakura sighed. "Right, sorry," she said.
OoOoO
The next morning, Team Minato headed off. The air of anticipation was broken only by the occasional glower that Obito sent Kakashi's way. As they travelled, Minato filled them all in properly on the mission, which turned their mood even more sombre. They camped overnight (with Minato explaining a few things about Kakashi to Obito) then were off again the next morning.
The time came finally for them to separate, and after one last check through on the mission specs, Minato left his team behind. He tried hard to ignore the bad feeling he had, and utilised the hiraishin sealed kunai he'd given Takeo to catch up with his comrades. The Inuzuka almost leapt out of his skin when Minato suddenly appeared next to him.
"Dammit, Minato!" he barked. "Can't you have like a… a… I don't know! Something so you're not so close when you show up? You almost stepped on my foot!"
"Aw, you poor baby!" one of the others snarked, and they all chuckled even as a sulky Takeo handed Minato's kunai back to him.
"Alright," drawled an impatient Nara. "Now that we're all here, how about we get started? The main front is half a day from here. Ready? Good. Let's move out."
OoOoO
They were still no closer, even though it had been several days. Yet, Sakura could feel it in her gut that they were almost there.
"He's got to be here somewhere," Jiraiya muttered. "Where's that damned tree that guy talked about?"
Sakura just shrugged as she scanned the landscape. "I wonder what Zetsu's got planned, now that he doesn't have Madara?"
Jiraiya shrugged. "Beats me," he said. "Ah-ha! There's the kami forsaken tree! Come on, lets go see if we beat him here or not."
They rushed over to the tree, and Sakura used Naruto's seal to check for Black Zetsu's chakra. But then she pulled back and shook her head. "There's nothing," she said.
"That means we're ahead of him for once," Jiraiya noted.
They stared at one another with a growing sense of triumph.
OoOoO
Rin had been kidnapped.
Obito had run off, determined to rescue her, and now Kakashi was catching up on his team mate, Obito's words finally getting through his skull. He didn't need to summon Pakkun to track his team mate, the idiot had left a discernible trail behind, obviously too worried about Rin to hide his tracks better.
When he caught up, Obito was already fighting. Kakashi jumped into the fray without a second thought, helping his… friend.
"That's the last for now," he said, then turned to Obito, only to do his best not to gape.
"What?" Obito demanded.
Kakashi pointed to his eyes. "Your sharingan," he said. "You've got your sharingan."
Obito's eyes widened as he brought his hand up to stare at it, then he turned his head to look around them. "I have my sharingan," he said, almost in awe, then grinned. "Perfect! Now nothing can stop us from rescuing Rin!"
He took off then, and Kakashi sighed as he leapt after him. "Wait up! Idiot…"
They had to fight two more times, and once, Kakashi almost lost an eye, but Obito was there, kicking the enemy out of the way. "Thanks," he said, his voice in a pant.
But then, right in front of the cave that Kakashi could smell and sense that Rin was in, they were ambushed by more than they could handle. Yet, before they could even raise a kunai or tanto, a blur shot across, taking the Iwa ninja out with ease. For a moment, Kakashi thought perhaps it was sensei, they were so fast! But a second look and he saw that it was an ANBU, and a woman at that. Definitely not sensei then.
She whirled on them once the enemy were down. "What the hell are you two doing here?" she demanded.
Obito was busy gaping at her, so Kakashi said, "We're on a mission. But one of our comrades was kidnapped, she's being held in that cave."
He pointed to the cave, and the ANBU sighed. She turned sharply toward it, her long, loose, brown hair flipping expertly in a way that reminded him of a Hyuuga (is that who she was? she didn't smell like one). "You two wait here, I'll go get her," she said, unsheathing a tanto and vanishing into the cave.
They heard the sound of fighting, then a low rumble in the earth. A mere half a second before the cave collapsed, and the ANBU shunshined out, Rin slumped over her shoulder.
"She's under a genjutsu," the ANBU said as she lowered her to the ground and against a tree.
She held up her fingers in a hand sign, then tapped Rin's temple lightly. Rin stirred, opened her eyes, stared up at the ANBU, and then belatedly started in fright.
"Relax," the ANBU said as Rin glanced over and saw Kakashi and Obit were there, and only relaxed because of that.
The ANBU then got to her feet. "Well, you three have a mission to complete, I suppose," she said. "Kannabi Bridge is that way," she pointed in the direction of the bridge. "Good luck, you'll need it."
She took off in the opposite direction and Obito breathed, "She was so cool."
Kakashi couldn't help but agree.
OoOoO
He was right there. Jiraiya activated the seals they'd placed around the area, even as Sakura leapt out, tanto at the ready. Black Zetsu barely dodged her strike, pulling back from where he'd been about to sink into the earth in an attempt to escape, but she pressed on, relentless. Jiraiya joined the fray, and soon, they had Zetsu on the defensive.
Sakura sliced off his right arm, then stabbed it with the tanto, absorbing the limb. Zetsu hissed at her, even as he regrew the missing limb.
"You can't beat me!" he hissed, then shot past them to attack one of the seals that was preventing him from escaping.
"No!" Sakura yelled, rushing forward.
Zetsu impaled her then with his arm, straight through her spine. He grinned maniacally at her as she fell to the ground, eyes wide and staring down at her mortal wound.
"That's one worm back in the dirt where it belongs," he hissed as she fell lifeless to the ground, then turned his leering yellow eyes to Jiraiya. "You're next if you pursue me, Sage."
He broke the barrier then, and escaped.
OoOoO
The battleground was cleared when he felt it. Kakashi had used his kunai. Minato quickly excused himself and used his hiraishin to flash to his student's location. He arrived expecting to find them in some trouble, but it seemed that he'd somehow missed the show. A few dozen dead Iwa-nin lay around him, and his kids…
"Sensei!" Kakashi exclaimed, and Minato saw that his kunai was embedded in a tree, possibly thrown out of frustration.
"What happened?" Minato asked. "Why aren't you already at Kannabi?"
"Rin got kidnapped!" Obito pipped up, Rin nodding next to him. "We went after her, and there were all these Iwa-nin along the way, more than expected. Then an ANBU turned up and killed this lot, and got Rin out of the cave for us! Then she told us to get back to our mission and left!"
Obito was gesticulating as he spoke, pointing to Rin, to a nearby collapsed cave, then off in a direction that he assumed the ANBU had gone. It was strange, the Hokage had mentioned that there were no high level shinobi available to do this mission instead of his students, and he frowned in the direction Obito had indicated. He reached out with his chakra to see if he could find this mysterious ANBU, and when he located their chakra signature, rapidly heading north east, he lost the ability to breathe.
He knew that chakra.
Sakura.
But…! That was impossible! She was dead! Minato swore he was about to hyperventilate, alongside not being able to breathe. He felt the overwhelming urge to follow after her, to demand to know why…
"Sensei?" Rin asked, interrupting his thoughts. "Are… are you okay?"
"I'm fine," Minato somehow managed to get out, and he reluctantly turned his attention back to his team. "But there's still a mission to complete. Let's go."
When he got back to Konoha, he and sensei were going to have words.
OoOoO
Jiraiya carried her back to their encampment. He laid her out on a sleeping bag, then sat back and waited. Eventually she startled awake, coughing and clutching at her stomach. Her yin seal burned past the jutsu that had been hiding it these past years. Sakura sat up abruptly, coughing up a little blood, even as her stomach, throat, and mouth all glowed green with her healing chakra.
"Hime, how are you doing?" Jiraiya asked.
She glared at him. "I just got skewered by a malevolent creature of chakra, how do you think I feel?" she growled at him.
Jiraiya sighed in relief at her tone and attitude, and he grinned. "You're fine," he said. "But now, Black Zetsu thinks you're dead. He has no idea of your history, your medical capabilities."
Sakura nodded, her expression thoughtful. "Plan C then?" she suggested.
"Plan C," Jiraiya agreed. "Fake it 'til you make it!"
He grinned, and she punched him.
…
…
Just to note, Obito activated his sharingan in that initial fight, because he was a little overwhelmed, and the stress of the fight caused it. That's my head canon for this. There were more Iwa ninja there than in canon, and it's all because someone saw a Konoha ANBU lurking in the area. ;)
Thanks for reading!