Minato took a sip of the drink in his glass, his elbow propped up on a bench in his garden as his eyes roved over the gathered people, occasionally smiling at Obito's silliness.
He looked very different from months ago, much better and almost exactly the same as his self before Rin rebelled. He and Kakashi were in a kind of heavy depression, they became more serious, far less motivated to even leave the house.
If it wasn't for Guy and his spontaneous way, Kakashi would still be that way. In Obito's case, Itachi who helped him.
As he thought about his students, he arched an eyebrow when he saw Obito and Guy sitting facing each other, with Kakashi standing right in the center of the table.
- I won't even break a sweat. Get ready, mister eyebrow.
- Not even ice will put out the fire that burns in my chest, come at me bro!
Both of them leaned their elbows on the table and held their hands. Kakashi put his hand on top of both of them, and faced them.
- Start!
They began to push on their arms in a friendly arm-break that cracked the table and destroyed the area on which their feet stepped.
A wave of energy began to emanate from the small dispute, where the guests were forced to move away from the dispute area, while Kakashi just stood there with a silly smile on his face.
Not happy or smiling at the dispute itself, but rather, at seeing a being even more powerful than those two big men approaching.
A being that was not at all happy to have its garden destroyed.
Even Minato decided to take a step back... just to make sure.
- You two... seem to have stopped fearing death.
Her dangerously cold voice put an end to the dispute, and the men looked at the short but dangerous woman who had her hair floating in the air and a bloodthirsty aura around her body.
A chill ran through their bodies, and the two turned to ask Kakashi for help. However, the gray one was long gone.
- You have destroyed my garden...
Minato prepared to calm his wife, but unfortunately for the two men being brutally beaten, the sound of the door opening caught the man's attention.
And as he turned around, he immediately smiled warmly as he saw the people approaching.
- Hiruzen I understand, but what are you doing here, dad?
He approached excitedly, his eyes shining and hugging the man tightly, it had been a few months since he had seen his father. He had stayed with him and Kushina for some time, as a sort of pillar to help them through their difficult situation.
The man was not so different from Minato. They were about the same height, although Minato seemed to be an inch or two taller. He was also blond, but a more muted color, which at a glance could resemble a faint white. Blue eyes, even more intense than Minato's. In fact, Naruto pulled his grandfather's eyes.
He already had a few wrinkles spread across his face, but, he didn't look that old. Although he was over fifty years old, some could say that he was in his late 30s/early 40s.
- No way am I going to wait a whole week for you to finally visit the clan. I want to see my granddaughter soon.
He said with a smile. He and Minato were quite similar.
- Right, and you met Hiruzen by pure chance?
Minato turned to the Kage, greeting him with a smile.
- No, he heard that I bought one of the limited editions of Icha Icha.
- That's for sure! And I'll tell you, it was worth it. By the way, is Jiraya here?
Minato sighed. Why wasn't he surprised?
- Yes, he is.
When he finished saying, Kushina approached, also smiling at the older man.
- Hiruzen, Hiroshi. One we already expected, the other is a surprise.
She greeted Hiruzen, and received a hug from Hiroshi.
- Kushina, my dear, as beautiful as ever. I still wonder what you saw in my son.
He laughed, while Minato snorted.
- I wonder the same thing, hahaha.
The senin appeared right behind Minato, also smiling at Hiroshi.
- Jiraya-san, it's a pleasure to see you again. Your last book was amazing.
They shook hands, and Jiraya shook his head proudly.
- I tried hard.
- Huh... didn't you guys have a fight over Tsunade a while back?
The redhead alternated her gaze between the two, who smiled slightly.
- I don't blame him, who wouldn't fight over a woman like that?
- Not to mention that even if I won, she wouldn't have eyes for me. Besides, a real man doesn't pick from someone else's garden, I'll keep my distance.
Jiraya laughed as he patted Hiroshi on the shoulder.
- See, see, that's why we're great friends! He knows things. Today is a special day, and since I am feeling generous, I will give you both a copy of my next book. You will be the first in the world to read it.
Both Hiruzen and Hiroshi had their eyes shining as they followed Jiraya, who was finding all this jostling incredible.
He could get used to that... noooo problem.
Minato hugged Kushina's waist as he watched Kakashi run excitedly over to Jiraya. It didn't even take a genius to figure out that Jiraya felt like a king with all that attention.
- The house is very lively.
Kushina's voice brought him out of his thoughts, and he shook his head slowly.
- Really.
A rather awkward silence permeated between the two of them, until it was broken by Kushina's sigh.
- Is it weird that I feel guilty and afraid to move on?
The man stared at her.
-... Argh, I wish I had an exact answer for that. Well, I feel the same way, but... at some point we have to move on. This party, these people, doesn't mean that we have abandoned Naruto. After all, that is impossible when you see him all the time.
He said with a humorless smile. Kushina sighed again, a melancholy sigh.
She turned and hugged him for a while, sinking her face into his chest.
Minato bowed his head, and she faced him. They both came closer and joined their lips in a lingering, somewhat sentimental kiss.
A gasp caught both of their attention, and they parted, bumping into Obito, who had his arms crossed and a rather... silly expression.
- Look, this is your house, I understand, but before you start making a brother for Naomy, Hiroshi wants to say a few words.
He ran outside before Kushina decided to throw something at him. Last time it was the fridge.
However, the redhead just laughed lightly, taking Minato's hand and walking with him back to the garden.
They stood next to Jiraya and Tsunade, their turn being to hold Naomy, who was unconsciously pulling at Jiraya's hair. It was like an instinct.
- It's great to see so many people gathered like this. Familiar faces, and some not so familiar, but you all have my gratitude for taking the time to come here.
He said while lightly shaking a glass of wine... or something similar.
- You are all important people to my son and daughter-in-law, people they trust and count on to be with them in good times and bad. In the celebration of the birth of a life, my granddaughter, Naomy, and... well... in death, the loss of my grandson, Naruto.
Minato felt Kushina squeeze his hand lightly, and hugged her from behind.
- Something that... I doubt there are words that can explain what this family felt. It was... months of pain and agony. I know, I saw it. And I know some of you saw it too. But today officially ends those dark times, which certainly left a mark, and will not be forgotten... but will serve to help guide this little girl who doesn't even speak yet, but who I know, will be special.
He took a sip of his drink and raised his cup.
- To Naomy, may she have a long and prosperous life, surrounded by people she loves... and to Naruto, may he have the childhood, nurturing, and love he deserves.
They shouted, and those who had cups also raised them, drinking at the same time from Hiroshi.
Minato did the same, and his blue eyes focused on the darkened sky.
"May he be well...wherever he is."
Another cry of agony and pain echoed through those dimly lit, closed corridors. The dark and precarious ambiance gave a somber air to the place.
Bodies lying on the floor, already in a state of putrefaction, along with bodies still alive, but in such a deplorable state that death sounded like paradise.
At the end of one of these corridors was a door to a room where some people were gathering.
Some women in one corner, some dubious-looking men in another. One of them, a tall man with orange hair, was pacing back and forth while observing the scene in front of him.
A slightly hunchbacked man of short stature had a pair of pliers in his hand. And with these pliers, he brutally cut off the toes of the little blond boy chained to a chair with a chakra-sucking mechanism.
Specially built for torture.
- I'm losing patience with you, kid. Where did you find the sword?
The orange-haired man asked, his deep, threatening voice showing clear anger and impatience.
The little boy was crying a mixture of tears and blood after having his only eye gouged out of his face. An eye that was slowly regenerating itself.
- I told you... I told you... in that beast's lair!
Naruto screamed at the top of his lungs, his voice hoarse and broken from screaming. He had no idea how long he had been there, how long he had been through it. All he knew was that when his leg regenerated, as well as his more serious injuries, he was forced to sit in that chair and having parts of his body ripped off with pliers while being forced to answer the questions of a lunatic.
- Dosu.
The hunchbacked man nodded, and soon, plunged a knife into Naruto's thigh, at the same time tearing off another of his toes with the pliers.
The boy screamed once more, a scream louder than that of a normal person. He wriggled and struggled to get out of the chair.
The pain and anger being the only thing keeping him from passing out.
- The situation is very simple, I told you. You tell me what I want to know, and the pain stops. Simple, no? Stop saying things like "a Behemoth killed him," these creatures are fairy tales.
The man sighed, and Naruto bit his lower lip as he controlled another scream at having a knife stabbed into the side of his abdomen. It didn't hit any vital organs, it was purposely meant to cause pain, and only that.
- I'll try again... where did you get the sword?
Naruto was silent for a while, his head lowered and his body, as well as his breathing, trembling.
-... A dead body... in the fucking lair of a huge creature... son of a bitch...
The boy said again, this time in a different voice than before. Deeper, too deep for such a young child. A red energy, imperceptible to non-sensory ninjas began to emanate from his body.
The physical pain, along with the mental pain, was weighing on him... weighing on him too much.
The man named Dosu stood up slightly and broke Naruto's arm, continuing to destroy the bones in his arm continuously.
The boy gritted his teeth as he held back a scream, straining even harder against the chains that bound him.
- I'm tired of playing with me-
- Fuck you!
The pain increased, this time Dosu began to tear the skin fromhis torso, and he gritted his teeth again.
- Fuck you!
The pain increased, this time Dosu began to tear the skin from his torso, and he gritted his teeth again.
- If you want to know what happened to him, go find out for yourself, asshole!
Red energy spread throughout his body, and his wounds began to regenerate even faster.
A vein formed from the beginning of his chin to the base of his now regenerated right eye.
The crimson red in his irises glowed brightly as he stared into the face of the man in front of him. This was the first time he had been angry since he had made the blood contract with Kurama, the first time that his ever-so-blue chakra with slowly progressing red pigmentations had turned to a blood-like red.
The orange-haired man punched him in the face, a punch so hard that it knocked out some teeth, and deformed his cheek. But despite the pain, Naruto didn't scream or moan, he just stared coldly back at his face.
The man then bent down and pulled Naruto's hair, forcing him to face him.
As he did so, Dosu began stabbing the boy several times in his abdomen.
Slowly, Dosu's drawn out voice began to get louder, until a laugh was heard by everyone in mixture with Naruto's cries of pain.
- That's incredible! He won't die! No matter how much I rip off his fingers, no matter how much I stab him! A rare specimen!
Naruto gritted his teeth, and slowly, his pained expression faded away, and the knife began to pierce his abdomen less and less, until the blade broke.
The man, seeing this, began to beat the boy, who moaned with each punch, in a mixture of paused screams.
- Kill me!
One punch.
- You better kill me!
One more.
- Cheer for him to kill me!
One more.
- Don't let him release me!
One more punch.
- Don't let him!
One more. But this time, the man grabbed him by the hair again, looking deep into his red eye.
- Or what?
- Or I'll kill you.
They both stared at each other for a while. Both not looking away. A dispute took place there. Experienced, indomitable looking brown eyes against extremely dangerous intense red eyes.
After a while, it was clear who was the winner of that little dispute... but the loser, the prey, couldn't look away.
- Juugo, I think that's enough.
A female voice made itself present, and a red-haired girl gently pulled the man back. Only then did the dispute end, and that "Juugo" could breathe again.
-... Come on... I won't find out anything here... tomorrow I will decide what to do.
They started to leave, one by one, but Naruto didn't care about the others. His gaze focused solely and exclusively on Juugo, who was the last to leave.
When the door closed, it was as if the world fell on his back all at once. The red energy dissipated, and his regeneration became slow again.
Naruto bowed his head, heavy tears dripping down his thighs, and small moans escaping his throat.
He was scared.
How scared he was.
That cold, damp, dark cell scared him much more than that forest full of monsters in which he had survived for months.
He stayed in that position for a few minutes. Minutes passed, and then hours went by.
The cell became even colder, but that didn't bother the boy, his senses were inhibited, his mind wandered far away, and although he was still alive, he couldn't even hear the sound of his own heart beating.
"I take a nap and you already get into trouble, Naruto, I thought you were more responsible"
Naruto's eye widened as he heard that sentence, and soon, tears again streamed down his face. He shrinks his body as a laugh mixed with a sob escaped his lips.
"Wow... you took your time, Kurama"