Published: 7/27/2018


"Niichan!"

My call was answered by silence, so after a moment of waiting at the front door I ran around the side of the house and unlatched the gate. From there I circled into the backyard and clambered up onto the veranda. I felt a presence just inside, so I let my armload of scrolls and brushes clatter onto the floor.

"Niichan!" I exclaimed.

Except it wasn't Minato sitting there by the storm shutters. It was an enormous bear of a man with red markings on his face and a ponytail of shockingly bright white hair. He looked very at ease sitting barefoot there on the tatami. Or he would have, anyway, had he not been staring at me with his eyebrows in his hairline.

I looked at him, dumbfounded. I was so surprised that I froze halfway on my hands and knees, sandals still hanging off the tips of my toes. One of the scrolls rolled lazily across the floor until it bounced against his knee and came to a gentle halt.

"Um," I said.

"Yeah?" he asked, still staring.

"Is… is Minato-nii… um, home?"

"No," Jiraiya of the Sannin replied. "He stepped out to grab some booze. I ran out."

"Then… Kushina-nee—"

"She's visiting one of her old genin teammates at the hospital."

Slowly, I pulled the rest of my body onto the veranda. Then I sat upright.

"He'll be back in a few," Jiraiya offered.

"Oh… okay," I said.

We lapsed into an awkward silence. Jiraiya sat back against his hands and regarded me with a curious look.

"Oh!" I started. Though I knew who he was and that was obvious, Jiraiya didn't know me or how I had entered Minato's extensively warded backyard. I shifted myself into seiza and set my shoulders with formality.

"Hello, Jiraiya-sama. It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Suzu Namikaze. I used to live with Minato at the House and I'm keyed into the seals here so that's how I got in."

"Oh, so you're one of Souhei's brats, hey?" Jiraiya's face did a strange thing, twitching as if he wanted to grin and to grimace at the same time. I tilted my head at him.

"Might be that he won't want you talking to me on your own," Jiraiya cautioned. He brought up his hands as if he could ward me—and the responsibility of meeting me—away. "Your uncle and I don't get along."

This time I was the one with my eyebrows in my hairline. What an unexpected piece of information. What reason did Souhei Namikaze have to be at odds with a famous Sannin? Especially one who was the jounin sensei of his foster son Minato. Lately Uncle seemed to be becoming more and more of a mystery.

I gave Jiraiya a hard look; Jiraiya shifted uncomfortably. At any other time I would have found that remarkable—me, making the Toad Sage fidget!—but I found I was suddenly too determined to pay it mind.

"Jiraiya-sama!" I exclaimed.

"What? What do you want?" he asked uneasily.

"Please tell me about my uncle!"

"Why the hell would I do that?" Jiraiya made an incredulous gesture. "Can you imagine how much more the bastard would want to kill me if he found out that I of all people was airing dirty laundry out to his kids? He hates me enough already. Ask him yourself!"

I opened my mouth to insist, but at that moment Jiraiya put his arm down on his knee and looked me in the eye. A moment passed in silence. Then I found myself deflating.

"I'm sorry," I mumbled, lowering my head into a bow. "Forgive my rudeness."

Jiraiya let out a huff of a sigh. But then his gaze softened.

"He's at it again, I take it? Bad enough that his kid would ask a total stranger about him without knowing a thing."

I looked away, unwilling to say it. Jiraiya rolled his eyes.

"How did I guess?" he asked the ceiling exasperatedly. "He never changes."

"Has he always been like this?" I asked quietly, clenching my hands in my lap.

"Always? I couldn't say. But for as long as I've known him, yeah."

A certain distaste simmered in Jiraiya's words as he spoke them. I hadn't been outright doubting him earlier, but in that moment it occurred to me that there really was a history between him and Uncle Souhei. No one spoke with that kind of disdain without a concrete dislike. I lowered my head again, though in a moment I found that I couldn't help but peer up at him through my lashes. Jiraiya took another look at me and sighed.

"Suzu, was it? Your uncle and I—well, I guess you could say that we just have incompatible life philosophies. But that's life and some people just don't get along. So let's just leave it at that, okay?"

The dismissal in his words were clear. I nodded my head once and looked back down at my hands. The storm of unease about Uncle Souhei, though, lingered. It had been over a week now since we'd had our talk about the traitor he loathed and I had thought it had settled down, but his unexpected mention seemed to make everything come flying back up into the surface. I began to chew my lip, troubled.

"Hey," Jiraiya interrupted with surprising firmness. "Enough of that depressing talk, kiddo. You look like you need a distraction. Tell me, what'd you come here for? You need Minato for something?"

"Oh," I said. I looked over the scrolls and brushes scattered across the floor in front of me. "I wanted his help with a technique. He made the seals for me and they performed flawlessly, but in a real-life combat situation there were pretty significant problems. I was going to ask him if there was something in the fuuinjutsu we should change."

"Well how about that," Jiraiya commented as a grin began to spread across his face. "Wanna know something, kid?"

I gave him an inquisitive look. Jiraiya leaned forward and gave me a toothy smile.

"I'm a fuuinjutsu master," he whispered as if confiding a dire secret to me. "I'm no Minato, but I just so happen to know a thing or two about sealing myself. How about I take a look at these seals of yours while we wait for him, eh?"

I clapped my hands together with a gasp. How could I have forgotten? Jiraiya of the Sannin had become Konoha's foremost authority on sealing after the death of the Yondaime. He would be more than capable of providing feedback on the wire jutsu. In fact, he might be able to give a much-needed outsider's perspective on the mechanism of the technique. I sprang forward onto my knees.

"Would you do that for me, Jiraiya-sama?" I asked eagerly, already reaching for the scroll that contained the seals. All stray thoughts of Uncle Souhei flew from mind. Jiraiya let out a hearty laugh.

"Kid, I already offered. Besides, it's not like I've got anything to do while we wait for him to get back. Heavens knows what's taking the Yellow Flash so long on simple beer run, though…"

And Minato continued to take a long time. By the time he made it back home, sighing with his lukewarm case of beer in hand, Jiraiya and I were already well-engrossed in a discussion about the wire technique.

"Here, do it again," he said, holding out his arm. I put my hand on his wrist and pasted a seal. He began to mime a punch; I activated the seal and yanked on it as hard as I could.

Just as Hayanari's had when we'd fought in Death Valley, Jiraya's arm jerked downward, interrupted. But then his other hand lashed out lightning-quick and snagged the wires. In a second he had them pinned to the floor with a kunai, just like Iwao had. His tug was so strong I was pulled onto my elbows.

"Yeah, that is a problem," he muttered, rubbing his chin thoughtfully after he'd released me. "No wonder you almost got killed. The physical connection is this technique's number one strong point, I agree, but it's exploitable to a fatal degree once your opponent figures out the trick is a contact-based seal."

"What?" Minato immediately looked at me in concern. "Who almost killed you, Suzu?"

"Oh, niichan!" I started, having been too absorbed to notice his coming. Jiraiya began jeering at his student.

"You took forever, you good-for-nothing brat," he complained. "I've been stuck talking to this little girl for an entire hour."

Minato flashed an apologetic smile at his former teacher.

"Sorry, Jiraiya-sensei. Something came up; I'll tell you about it in a second. But Suzu, what's this about nearly dying? Did something in the sealwork go wrong?"

"It was way back when I went to Earth Country," I dismissed as cavalierly as I could, making an effort not to think on the relevant moment too deeply. "I've been meaning to figure out a fix for a while now so I came over. When you weren't here Jiraiya-sama offered to help me."

Minato set the case of beer on the veranda and squatted behind me.

"So the problem is a countermeasure for being pinned?" he murmured as he looked at the open scroll speculatively. "Is there something that can be done to the sealwork to circumvent such a thing…?"

We three spent a moment in thoughtful silence. But then Jiraiya suddenly hit his fist into his palm and pointed.

"Maybe the problem's not the seals," he said. "Maybe the technique is just incomplete."

Minato and I looked at him quizzically. Jiraiya fixed me with an eager look.

"Kid, do you know how to use chakra flow?"

"Eh? Oh, um—yeah, actually. Uncle taught me a little while ago."

"And is your affinity wind? Or is it water?"

"Wind. But why—? Oh!"

Jiraiya quickly stuck out his kunai. I reached over, applied my seal to it, and activated it. Once again he reached out for the wires, but when he touched them I pulsed wind chakra through the threads. His fingers came back red.

"Oh no!" I gasped, jerking back. The movement made the kunai in Jiraya's hand slice in half, right where the wires had wrapped around it, and the blade sprang up into the air. Minato's eyes widened.

With unbelievable reflexes he jumped. Rotating his body in a high kick, he deflected the metal into the wall with the side of his sandal before it could fly into my forehead. The whole affair was over in a second.

There was a weighty pause as the three of us stared at the embedded fragment, breathing heavily. Jiraiya dropped the bladeless handle of his kunai. Minato slowly reached out and put his hands on my shoulders.

"I didn't think that would happen," Jiraiya said after a long moment. He looked at me and Minato both, fingers still dripping with blood. "That… was my fault."

"No, no…" I replied quickly. I shook the wires off my fingers. "I shouldn't have jumped like that."

"I didn't know your chakra flow was strong enough to cut metal, Suzu," Minato said faintly. "Your control must have grown again."

Had it? It must have. Was that unusual? I paused. No, maybe not. I had been learning a lot of sensory enhancement jutsu for my I&E training and those techniques required very minute manipulations to be used in an effective and unobtrusive manner.

"Well then." Jiraiya rose to his feet. "Minato, I'll borrow your bathroom for a sec. Is your first aid kit still behind the mirror?"

Minato nodded. "Yes."

I hastily jumped up and threw myself into a deep bow. "I am so sorry, Jiraiya-sama! Because of me, you—"

"Oh, stop it, kid." Jiraiya waved his uninjured hand at me. "I knew it would be sharp when I suggested it. I just underestimated how sharp. Serves me right—shinobi who underestimate their opponents get hurt. You're a better kunoichi than I gave you credit for." He grinned in a friendly way, as if trying to assure me there were no hard feelings.

"You're a talented ninja, Suzu," Minato told me as Jiraiya disappeared into the interior of the house. He wrapped his arms around my shoulders and pulled me against his midsection in a backwards hug. "I had no idea you could do that."

"I didn't either," I bewilderedly, putting a hand on his arms.

"I'd better add in a quick-release mechanism to your seals. If you ever train that technique with an opponent, we might be facing some serious dismemberment."

"And I'll have to learn how to adjust the cutting power," I added. "That was… really close."

We both fell silent. Minato and I stood together, quietly calming ourselves, until Jiraiya returned.


That was the last time in a long time Minato and I stood together without anything between us. If I had known about the mission assignment that had delayed his beer run, that wouldn't have been the case, but Minato only told Jiraiya that his team was being deployed to Kannabi Pass after I left.


I had been apprenticed at I&E for about nine months, just long enough to celebrate my eleventh birthday with them, when Minato came home from a mission. Team 7 had been dispatched about two weeks ago, so as far as assignments went, it hadn't been a long absence. There had been no indication whatsoever that anything had gone wrong.

Minato usually went straight home to see Kushina after missions, but today the House was his first destination. Still covered in the dirt and grime of travel, heavy pack still hanging from his back, he stepped inside quietly and left his sandals askew in the genkan. Having heard him with chakra sense from the sitting room, I put down the scrolls I was studying—Oyuki had just started me on a unit about codes, signals, and ciphering—and peered into the hallway.

Auntie was also there. As she stepped out of the kitchen, beating her hands against her apron, she took a calculating glance at my cousin. Then she said softly, "Just put your things down here in the hall. Souhei shouldn't have drained the bath yet."

"Suu-nee?" Haruka called as she toddled out of the sitting room after me. She caught sight of Minato in the doorway and squealed. "Mina-nii!"

Feeling suddenly fearful, I bent down and scooped her up before she could charge at him. I looked at Auntie for guidance and she nodded at me; Minato set down his pack and silently climbed the stairs.

"It's about bedtime, Suzu," Auntie told me. "Why don't you bring the kids up?"

My palms felt clammy but I nodded and turned back to my baby cousins scattered across the sitting room. Haruka was with me, but Kouji was still slamming blocks together and Masami and Kaneko were crawling all over the dozing Nodoka.

"Bedtime, guys," I called softly. Masami and Kaneko came easily enough—I suspected they were bored—but Kouji was completely absorbed. "Kouji, bedtime!"

It was no small task to put four young children to bed. By the time Kouji could be pried from his blocks the others were antsy. Kaneko decided that, in absence of Nodoka, climbing on me would be the next best thing. Suddenly all four of them decided to latch onto me like little sloths—or leeches—and suddenly I found myself trying to waddle up the stairs with a child on each limb.

"Kane-chan, please!" I shook my leg while simultaneously trying to pry Masami's fingers from my forearm. Kaneko just giggled and readjusted her grip; Kouji and Haruka seemed to find this hilarious and began laughing with the kind of joy that could only be derived from an elder sister's suffering. I groaned. "Cut it out, you four. Auntie's going to get mad."

It was a process, but after some cajoling and two more invocations of the wrath of Reiko, the four eventually made it through the nighttime ritual of changing, brushing, and washing before finally getting into bed. By the time we were finished Minato had long since finished his bath and stolen back to the kitchen.

They were sitting at the table silently holding tea when I returned. I caught sight of Minato's face from the hall and halted.

"You lost one of them, didn't you?" Auntie asked after another minute or so of silence had passed.

Mechanically, Minato nodded. There was a long silence as he stared down into the depths of his tea. Then he whispered, "Obito. We lost Obito."

My heart leapt into my throat, and I held my breath.

"I see." Auntie put her chin on her fist and sighed. "What happened?"

"We split the team. I went to reinforce the group pinned down south of Kannabi Pass while Kakashi led the rest of the team to sabotage the Kannabi Bridge. But they encountered the enemy while we were separated, and…" Minato swallowed. "...and there was a cave-in. They were Iwa ninja. I made it back in time to save Kakashi and Rin, but… but Obito…"

Auntie made a quiet, knowing noise. "But Obito-kun was gone. And you couldn't find his body?"

Minato let out a little gasp. It was not crying, not exactly, but his breath hitched and his voice came out with a violent waver.

"I know it's—it's nothing new. It… it happens all the time. And obviously… obviously in the Second War, obasan, your comrades…"

"I never a lost a student," Auntie replied. "And I never lost the body of anyone close to me. Squad mates, but squads were always changing. Never the body of any of my true friends."

Minato put his tea down on the table.

"It's my fault. If I had only come sooner…"

I brought my hands to my cheeks. A hiccup caught in my throat.

"Did you delay overlong when you resolved the conflict south of the Pass?" Auntie asked.

"I—" Minato swallowed. "No, I… I left as soon as the captain had the situation under control."

"Did you construct plans to reunite with the sabotage team immediately after the battle in the south was resolved?"

"No, we didn't know how long the skirmish would last, so Kakashi said they'd handle it on their own. But it was too soon for them. I'm their sensei, I shouldn't have—"

"Did you drag out the fight with the enemy ninja at all?"

Minato swallowed again. "I could have killed them faster. I played it too safe. I didn't have to use so many physical anchors. I—I wasted too much time on setup."

Auntie let out a sigh and picked up her tea again. She was quiet for a while. Then she said, "Minato, you're being unrealistic. You're grieving and trying to assign blame. But this sounds like a situation where no blame can be laid. You're not at fault. Don't you agree, Suzu?"

Minato turned and saw me in the doorway. Automatically he reached out a hand at made to pull me under his arm. But I found that a weight like an anvil was dropping through my chest. I flinched away from his fingers as though they were aflame. I knew without a doubt that I would be on fire the the moment he touched me. The guilt had already soaked me through like gasoline.

Minato instantly withdrew his hand. Auntie Reiko furrowed her brow at me as my brother swallowed and tangled his fingers in the hem of his shirt. A sudden strange terror seemed to take over his face. Quickly he twitched his lips as though trying to twist them into his usual warm smile, but the effect was impossible to achieve with such a terrible fear lurking in his eyes.

"I'm sorry!" I squeaked, squeezing my own eyes shut so I wouldn't have to look at him. "I eavesdropped! I shouldn't have! It wasn't my business!"

"Suzu?" Auntie asked slowly. "What's wrong?"

"I did a bad thing!" I clutched the hemline of my blouse, hands shaking. "I'm sorry! I—I'll go to my room!"

I turned on my heel and fled, racing down the hall and up the stairs. They tried to meet my gaze, but I looked away. If they saw my eyes, they would know for certain that Auntie was wrong. There was someone to blame, and it was me.


Who people are in the dark is a reflection of their true character. As I stared up at the blackened ceiling, that was the thought that was running through my head.

He had information about the enemy that could have saved lives but he refused to report it. Uncle Souhei's face, pale with disgust, appeared in my mind.

He was a coward. He was a traitor. They might still be alive today.

Suppressing the sudden need to let out a disturbed half-laugh, I rolled over in my futon and stared at my darkened image in a nearby mirror. What had Uncle Souhei's traitor looked like, I wondered. Like me? My reflection was all my usual self. Blue eyes. Blond hair. Round face. Pointed chin.

A part of me still thought it was a story. I was living with my real family and friends every day but it seemed it never occurred to me that Obito was a real person, too. And it never occurred to me that Minato would suffer and blame himself if Obito was gone. Obito had always been Kakashi's background story—that's what my stupid fake memories told me—but obviously that wasn't the case. Obito wasn't just a background story. He was a person.

I buried my face in my hands. It wasn't a story, but I hadn't wanted to believe, and now Obito was gone. No, it wasn't even that—I had just been scared to say something and risk people thinking I was crazy. I thought that maybe if I didn't think about the impending problems of my foreknowledge, it would all just go away. And now, all because of that meaningless fear, Madara Uchiha had Obito. And Obito was going to lay waste to everything Minato held dear. How could I ever look my brother in the eye again? The Academy instructors were right after all. I was a coward.

"Suzu-chan, you look awful," Fuyuji said when I arrived in I&E a few days later.

I glanced down at my clothes and then put a hand on my hair. I had worn this outfit before so something had probably gone wrong while I was braiding this morning. I hadn't had Auntie Reiko's help today, so that probably wasn't a surprise…

"No, no, not your hair," Fuyuji waved a hand. "Your hair's fine. I mean your face. You look like you haven't slept in a year. What's wrong?"

I touched a finger to my lower eyelid and frowned at him. What a thing to say to a girl first thing in the morning. Fuyuji gave me an abashed look.

"Suzu-chan, there you are! You're late." Oyuki appeared behind me.

I immediately cringed. "My sincerest apologies. Please pardon me."

Oyuki gave me a look but seemed to show leniency for my extreme keigo. She flicked a finger at me. "Come with me. Naoto-buchou wants to see you. Don't worry," she added. "I don't think it's trouble or anything. You're about due for an Imasaki info session. It's probably going to be something like when he taught you the eavesdropping techniques."

When we entered his office Naoto was intently working away on what was this universe's equivalent of a braille typewriter. Apparently, his was one of three machines in existence in the whole village; it had been developed by one of the apprentices in R&D. With that said, though, it didn't often see a lot of action. Since braille notes were useless to most everyone outside of I&E, he usually dictated to Anzu instead. Failing that, he would often just take a chance and write freehand. Even seven years blind his muscle memory could write most characters.

"Thank you, Oyuki-san." Naoto nodded in her direction.

"Anytime, buchou."

Naoto left me standing for a few moments before he sat back from the typewriter and pulled the paper out. He took a cursory scan of it with his fingertips before nodding to himself and setting it aside.

"Sorry about that," Naoto addressed me. "Oyuki-san said you were delayed so I thought I'd have enough time to finish up before you came."

I found myself cringing into keigo again. "My sincerest apologies."

Naoto tilted his head at me curiously. "Are you feeling well, Misuzu-san? If you're ill you shouldn't come to work, you know."

I felt my shoulders hunch defensively. Was I really that much of a wreck? Was it really at the point that a blind man could tell just by hearing my voice? I blew out a sigh. "No, I'm all right. I'm just a little tired today."

"I understand," the I&E head replied graciously even though it was clear he didn't believe me in the least. He motioned me closer. "Have a seat. I've been meaning to ask you about this for a little while now—how much do you know about chakra sensitivity?"

I blinked, surprised. "Chakra sensitivity?" That wasn't the direction I had been expecting this conversation to go at all.

"Yes." Naoto smiled at me. "This has been my suspicion for a little while now, but… are you perhaps chakra sensitive, Misuzu-san?"

"I…" I fumbled. "I mean, I never was formally classified, but…?"

"But you hear things? I assume you're an auditory sensor."

"How did you know?" I asked, surprised again. It seemed Naoto would never stop startling me with his untraceable leaps of logic.

"No particular reason beyond the fact that auditory sensors are the most common type." Naoto chuckled. "I'm an auditory sensor myself."

That explained his prescience around hallway corners. He was making up for his blindness with extra sensory skills.

"Auditory sensors are common?" I asked, weariness temporarily suspended by a nascent curiosity.

"I'd say they make up the majority of most sensitives. The other four sensing types are visual, olfactory, tactile, and gustatory. One for each of the five classical senses. Konoha has a large population, so I think we have a few of each kind here (1)."

Despite my hard efforts not to think of him, the image of Minato appeared in my mind. He was a sensor. Was he an auditory type too? He often heard us coming even when we were ages away. But there were also times when he would press his finger to the ground… (2)

"Oh, if that's the case, he might be both," Naoto replied when I asked. "It's not impossible to train oneself in multiple types of sensing. Or he may have been born with both abilities. Some people are like that. You could liken it to being ambidextrous."

I swallowed. Minato really was a born prodigy. And to a brother like that, I…

"It's a good combination. Auditory sense is excellent for identifying personal chakra signatures as well as reserve intensity and jutsu use, but tactile sensors far surpass auditory sensors in ability to determine the location and number of individuals. And unlike us hearing-types, their sensing accuracy isn't as hampered across long distances."

As was his way, Naoto continued to inform me about the particulars of chakra sensors in a mild, unpretentious voice. In a way it reminded me of the college lecturers the girl from Earth had known while she had been in school. It was helpful to know more about the nature of sensing abilities. But then some minutes later the urgent clamor of a shunshin at the door caused Naoto and me to pause. An anxious knock soon followed.

"Anzu, what is it?" Naoto asked as his younger half-sister burst in through the door. Though he couldn't see, she held up a scroll.

"It's here," she said heavily. "It's a notice from Missions Administration."

"Missions Administration?" I asked blankly. Naoto immediately brought up a hand and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"You probably haven't heard yet, Misuzu-san, but Missions Administration is going through all the noncombat divisions and snatching away members to bolster military operations," he explained to me. "Apparently casualties were unprecedented this rotation. Anzu, please go ahead and read it for me. It's a list of transfers, isn't it?"

Anzu broke the seal on the scroll and pulled it open. I watched in anticipatory silence as she scanned the missive furiously. Then she sighed.

"It's a list of transfers. Names and new positions," she announced despondently.

"How bad?"

"Thirteen in total," she informed.

Naoto's brow furrowed harshly and I did a wild calculation in my head. At present there were about twenty-two active members in I&E. Subtracting thirteen shinobi from that would leave Infiltration and Espionage operating with a skeleton crew of nine people. They were taking away over half the unit.

"That's absurd," Naoto replied with shock. "Do they intend on gutting all of Intel? I was expecting to lose people as well, but thirteen of us... Cryptography and Domestic Affairs lost thirty combined yesterday. At this rate Konoha will become completely unable to gather internal intelligence."

"Do you want to know who's leaving?" Anzu asked quietly.

Naoto let out a forceful exhale. "I'll have to sooner or later," he said. "Go ahead."

I sat by quietly as she began to read off the names. Fuyuji was leaving. Narumi and Sayo were also leaving. A great deal seemed to be moving into positions in the Ordnance Corps, but it looked like some were also being used to plug holes in the general platoons. Naoto's expression darkened with each name listed until he was perilously close to scowling.

"And Misuzu Namikaze," Anzu finished, looking at me with upset plain on her face. I started.

"And to whom are we losing our first apprentice in over half a decade?" Naoto asked with barely-concealed scorn. Anzu looked down at the scroll again.

"Transfer to fill an open position in the general platoons," she read. "Hereby reassigned to Team 7, commanded by the jounin Minato Namikaze."


A/N: Things might start to look a little more familiar from here. Don't worry, though; this is far from the last we'll see of Suzu's adventures in I&E.

As always, thanks for your patience and support! When I reread it, the chapter felt jarring, but I didn't quite know how to fix the flow. Please leave a review if you have any constructive feedback you'd like to offer.

Cheers,

Eiruiel


Notes:

1. "Konoha has a large population, so I think we have a few of each kind here."

Auditory sensors are a dime-a-dozen; many clanless shinobi are hearing-type sensors. Tactile sensors are similar in frequency to auditory sensors, but are slightly less common. Olfactory sensors exist primarily in the Inuzuka clan; the same goes for visual sensors in the Uchiha and the Hyuuga clans. I do not think there are any natural-born taste-type sensors in Konoha, but there are a few shinobi in ANBU and T&I who have trained themselves in gustatory chakra sensing.

2. ...there were also times when he would press his finger to the ground…

You can actually see Minato detecting both the presence and number of enemy shinobi with this method in the first part of the Kakashi Chronicles ~ Boys' Life on the Battlefield ~ episodes.

As a side note, Minato really likes people to believe that he was born "ambidextrous" (as Suzu automatically assumes he is). He feels it adds to his image of excellence. In reality, though, he's only a common hearing-type, just like 50% of all other chakra sensitives. He learned tactile sensing on his own in private and began passing himself off as a natural touch-type sensor around the age of twelve. You can get a sense of the young age his distorted self-image issues began, huh?