The Third Shinobi War
"Aww, that's sweet" a voice cooed to my right and a pair of arms wrapped around me from behind. "I didn't know you considered me a friend that early."
I blushed red and quickly took my hand away, allowing the scroll to roll up.
"Kushina! You're not supposed to read this!" I complained and shifted to look at my girlfriend. She hopped on my lap and reached for the scroll but I managed to snatch it away and hold it out of her reach in time.
"But Mina-chaaaan~! You were writing about me, I saw it! So that means I get to read it. What is it anyway, a journal or something?" She continued to try and reach for the scroll and I continued to hold it out of her reach. We must make a rather peculiar pair.
"How much of it did you read?" I asked nervously. Inwardly I cursed the day I taught her to read English. I never did teach her this particular code though – I only made it up last week. I would have to change it to something stronger if she could figure it out with just a glance.
"Just the last bit about how you let me punch you." She stopped trying to grab the scroll and settled for hugging me from behind. "Why are you writing about stuff like that anyway?"
I tried to shrug it off and evaded her curious eyes. "I just thought… People have their own opinions about me but aside from you, very few actually know what kind of person I am. Maybe it's silly but I just wanted to put my own thoughts on paper. It's important to know who you are and where you came from. Maybe in a hundred years someone will dig out this scroll and it will tell them the true story of Namikaze Minato." I gave her my winning smile that I knew always distracted her. "And of course you're a part of me now too so you belong in my story."
Kushina went bright red and I could feel her chakra humming in joy and embarrassment.
"You… You big bunny you!" she cooed and gave me deep kiss that ended up toppling over the chair we both sat on.
We ended up in a tangle of limbs on the ground. I gasped as the air was knocked out of my lungs but I recovered quickly, wrapped my arms around Kushina and rolled us around until I was straddling her.
"No peaking though my dear, you've got to promise me. It's not done yet and I don't want anyone to read it until it is."
Kushina was still red and I don't think she heard a word of what I just said but she nodded along anyway.
"I'll show it to you later, maybe, when I'm sixty or something. Or maybe I'll just stash it somewhere and it'll be forgotten until my children or grandchildren stumble over it one day. But I wouldn't go and read your diary so you don't go and read mine, alright?"
"O-Okay" she made and I took pity on her and stood, drawing her to her feet as I did. She was so cute when she was flustered like that. I pushed a rebellious strand of hair behind her ear and smiled softly at her before giving her another kiss. She leaned into it, wrapping her arms around me as I held her and we enjoyed the moment together.
I couldn't help but feel a bit guilty about keeping the journal from her though. I knew it was for the best. I knew I couldn't saddle her with the same knowledge that was weighting me down more often than not but I also suspected that there would be a time when I had to tell her.
"Did you come just to surprise me, my dear?" I asked once we came up for breath.
"What? Oh! No" she remembered suddenly and let go of me. Her expression became serious. "I came to let you know there's a falcon on the balcony. It won't let me anywhere near it so it's probably a message for you."
"Ah, that's too bad. I better see what this is about then" I mused. I stepped out of my office, or, as Kushina called it, my 'creative jungle'. I had no idea where she got that expression from – tacking sheets of paper with prototypes on them on the wall was the best way to keep track of my progress and the various ideas I had for new jutsus and seals, that was all!
The falcon sitting on the balcony had a tiny scroll with a little red seal on it bound to its back. It didn't resist to me opening it and afterwards promptly flew away. The scroll contained a short message – I was to come to the Hokage's office for a new mission assignment for my team. Pack for a long journey.
My heart sank at that. I knew that my time was almost up but I thought I would at least get a day or two off to recover from the weeks of sleepless nights I pulled lately.
Kushina stepped out on the balcony behind me.
"What is it?" she asked worried.
"Another mission" I answered tonelessly. "Looks like they're sending me back out."
I turned to see Kushina biting her lip and looking to the ground. I thought at first that she was just worried until I noticed the thrum in her chakra and her hands that were balled to fists. She was angry.
"I wish I could come with you" she all but spat. "It's so unfair! I would long since be a jonin if it weren't for-"
"Shh" I made and gently wrapped my arms around her. "Don't be so upset. Even if you were a jonin, that still wouldn't be a guarantee that we'd be send to the same place. I do have my own team, you know?"
"I know" she grumbled. "I just…. I wish you didn't have to go." She laid her head on my shoulder and sighed. "The house is going to be so empty without you."
"I wish I didn't have to leave either. But I have to. Our comrades need me." I gave her one last kiss. "Come on, Red. Help me back, alright?"
She smiled a bit at the nickname, her sorrow squashed for the moment.
I gathered what I needed for a trip to the front and back as well as enough rations sealed up in storage scrolls to last me for at least two months. Then I closed my eyes, concentrated, tiger, monkey, boar, dog, boar, horse, dog, dragon, ram -
I vanished in a bright flash of light. For a moment it felt as if I was being squeezed through a thin tube. Everything was black. The next moment though a myriad of sensations replaced the nothingness of all. I felt a blade at my throat a second later while still blinking away the brightness that surrounded me.
"Ah, Minato-kun. It looks like your new technique works, I see. And just in time too."
My eyes adjusted and I was able to see Sarutobi more clearly, smoking his tobacco behind his desk. Whatever ninjas he had stationed in his office withdrew as they realized I was not here to assassinate their leader and vanished back into the shadows.
"It still needs a lot of work" I admitted. "It takes a lot of concentration and chakra without the use of seals and even then Konoha is the only place I managed to warp to as of yet. My chakra is already half depleted just from that single jump from my home to this office." I looked at the Hokage seriously. "If you give me more time, I know I can make it even better and more versatile."
Sarutobi drew on his pipe and a ring of smoke wavered off to the distance. He regarded me for a long moment.
"Hm" he said at last. "But both the problem of chakra consumption as well as versatility are taken care of if you use it together with your seals, isn't that right?"
"Well yes but-"
"You shouldn't sell yourself short, Minato-kun. I don't expect you to go off and assassinate the Tsuchikage in his own home. In fact, I think that might cause more problems than it would solve. From what I've observed from your progress, you already surpassed my highest expectations. And unfortunately, even if you could improve further given time, time is something we're running out of."
That sounded pretty serious.
"What is my mission then?" I asked.
"I'm sending a contingent out to liberate Kusa" the Hokage said and pulled out a scroll, unwrapping it to reveal a map. "My intelligence says that the village is held by only a handful of Iwa-nin as most of them moved to our west front. There is a base camp in between the front and Kusa though, here at this river." He pointed towards the stop and my heart sank.
"I need you to act as a distraction at the front to draw the enemy towards you and out of the base camp so that the ninja stationed in Kusa can't call for backup. Once the troops have been pulled out of base camp, a sabotage team will deal with whatever guards are left behind and destroy the camp to make sure no messages reach Kusa."
He stared at me seriously from under the rim of his red and white hat. "I really do hope your new jutsu holds what it promised. You're going to face a pretty large force and our last report from that front was not very optimistic. Morale will be low as it is. But we can't draw this war out any longer. We need a victory and retaking Kusa would break the stalemate."
My fingers traced the positions on the map and my breath quickened. There were two tiny words written by the red dot that marked the enemy base camp.
"Kanabi bridge" I whispered. I felt as if my heart got enveloped in ice water. I knew that it was around this time but…
"Which sabotage team will you send?" I asked even though I already knew the answer.
Sarutobi regarded me closely, as if sensing that something was wrong.
"I was thinking of your students. Now that Kakashi-kun has reached jonin rank, they are more than qualified for this mission, I should think. Besides, you wanted to keep them close, did you not?"
"I won't be close though, not like this" I all but spat out. "I'll be miles away and in the middle of battle!"
"With your new jutsu, you are wherever you want to be within a second" Sarutobi said. "You aren't their sensei any longer, Minato-kun. I know it's hard but you've got to let the children go at some point."
This wasn't about that, this didn't have anything to do with that. But I couldn't very well tell him that.
"I need more time" I tried, "They need more time, as you said Kakashi-kun only recently got promoted. For such a crucial mission, shouldn't you select someone more experienced?"
The Hokage gazed at me again with that soul-searching look in his eyes. At last, he sighed and refilled his pipe.
"Every jonin with enough experience is needed either at the north front, guarding our border to the land of rivers in case Suna gets any ideas or for the home defense. I'm already sending out code-breakers and trackers to run patrols because I'm running out of combat specialists. There are a few that are still on medical leave. They will be part of a second team, send in after you to clean up what remains of Iwa once they spread out if your mission succeeds. Your team is one of few still intact and used to working with each other that I would trust them with a difficult task such as this. I know it's not ideal. But this is war and a leader sometimes has to make hard decisions in war." He blew out some more smoke as he regarded me. "Would you rather I send in a jonin who is already hurt? Or whose specialty is intelligence gathering? Maybe I should send your team with you to the front and have one of the no doubt exhausted men stationed there complete this mission for them? Would you prefer that?"
My shoulders slumped. "Of course not, Hokage-sama."
"Then my decision is final." He pushed a sealed scroll over to me.
"You came in a bit faster than expected so I haven't notified your team yet. If you want to, you can take over their briefing."
"Thank you, Hokage-sama" I replied sadly and took the scroll.
I took the unusual way out of the Hokage's office – the door. When I was outside I pulled out one of my sealing slips, those small rectangular pieces of paper that were pre-painted with seals. I wrote a message to my students on three of them, telling them to pack for a long mission and meet me at the gates in three ours. (On Obito's, I wrote to meet me there in two hours, just in case.) Then I folded the slips into tiny paper planes and send them on their way.
I pulled one of my three-pronged kunai out of my holster. The chakra embedded in the seal work wrapped around its handle thrummed against my skin and I focused on the connection I felt it build towards its counter parts.
A moment later, I was gone in a flash. It was time to say goodbye to my girlfriend.