Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto
Minato's POV
When I had arrived at our usual meeting place and found Kushina missing I hadn't been overtly worried, she could on occasion show up late, on closer inspection though the area held some minor signs of struggle. A patch of scorched earth on one side of the forest clearing, some broken branches nearby. It was the hair that tipped me off that something was very wrong though, at the sight of her crimson hair lying on the ground something inside me squeezed painfully and I quickly set to action. Jumping through the trees, following by feel of Kushina's chakra that still lingered on her hair she had left behind more than through sight of the hair itself on the forest floor. When I realised they had already gotten beyond the village walls I stopped only to write a brief message and summon a messenger toad to deliver it to the Hokage.
"Kosuke, I need you to take this scroll to the hokage, it's urgent" I said trying to impress the gravity of the situation into the young toad
"Understood" the summon replied grabbing the scroll and leaping away.
I sighed in relief as I jumped away back in pursuit, Kosuke was still young but he was one of the few toads Jiraiya had introduced me to, he usually wanted to play when he was summoned so I was relieved that he had taken to the job so quickly.
Judging by the amount of chakra that still lingered on Kushina's hair she could not be more than an hour ahead but who ever the kidnappers were they wouldn't linger, to have been strong enough to subdue Kushina and escape the village with her undetected was indication enough that these were professionals, the direction they were going was the Kumo border and I doubt they would stop to break before then, I could only hope I was faster than them or that they were waylaid enough that I could make ground.
It wasn't until 2 days later that I finally caught up to the kidnappers, even travelling through the night I had made little ground, in the end what slowed them down was Kushina, the scrapes and cuts evidence of her resistance. It wasn't a moment too soon for we were getting pretty close to the Kumo border, tracking perpendicular to them through the trees I saw them pause for something and I saw one of them subconsciously turn their heads in my direction, I thought for a second I had somehow been detected but then I saw below me in the dim light the night granted a small child desperately clinging to a lower branch, unfortunately that left me with no more time to observe.
Deftly unsheathing a kunai I intercepted the first of the Kumo ninjas before they could escape, I heard a crash as this happened and some part of me realised the child had fallen from the tree but my attention was on Kushina whom one of the Kumo nin had taken hold of and made his escape, I made to go after them but realised I would be leaving that child to the last of the kidnappers who appeared to think that the child was with me. I took a moment to glance back at the child realising I could do nothing to save him since I had to save Kushina and we were too close to the border already. I left him.
Kushina luckily wasn't altogether helpless and was causing her captor a lot of trouble in carrying her, this gave me plenty of opportunity to catch up and he soon realised he wouldn't be able to get away without first dealing with me, he stopped just short of a clearing with a large wooden building in it and knocked out Kushina, throwing her to the roots of a tree before turning to me.
"You'd go this far for one of them? I heard Konoha was soft hearted but this is something else" He spat.
I didn't give any response, except to continue circling until I could hopefully stand between him and the innocent bystanders in the wooden building, I would not endanger others if I could help it. To my chagrin he started forming hand signs when I was in front of Kushina, quickly responding I used one of my stronger wind jutsu which only made the situation worse, I had been expecting an earth attack but this Kumo nin seemed to know fire jutsu.
The attacks collided and combined in the worst way, a conflagration of flames whipped there way into the clearing and engulfed fully half of the building. From that moment I tried to attack him with less destructive means, getting up close and engaging him with my kunai seemed to surprise him and I quickly realised through our next few encounters that close combat was not his strong suit, after a few minutes he was looking worse for wear with shallow cuts criss-crossing his upper arms and a particularly nasty one down his right cheek, he took this opportunity to flee into the trees where I followed, luckily it seemed the building had been fully evacuated during this and at least a few dozen children were stood just at the edge of the clearing.
When I caught up with the enemy again it was in a small clearing, when I landed behind him he didn't turn around and I approached warily. When he still didn't react when I had my kunai at the back of his neck I was about to incapacitate him when he turned around and grabbed me. With horror I realised he had an explosive tag wrapped around a kunai between his teeth, one look in his eyes and I realised his plan, the man was at his end and he planned to take me down with him, I couldn't form hand signs because of his hold on me so I did the only thing I could, my newly invented technique the Rasengan. Drilling it into his back he released me with a grunt of pain and I backflipped away as the tag exploded eviscerating him.
With no corpse to take care of and no evidence remaining to show the ninja's origins I headed back to Kushina to check she was OK, luckily with the exception of some quickly healing scratches and a bruise on her head she seemed to be fine, I picked her up and set her down by the roots of a nearby tree noting that she appeared to be coming around whilst I went back to the first ninja I had taken out and stored him in a scroll, a part of me wondered where the 3rd had gone and what had happened to that poor child. Eventually I made my way back to the now collapsed building where children were still amassed and learnt from them that it was an orphanage. I could not deny I felt some measure of responsibility for their plight having literally fanned the flames and with no adult around it seemed like there would be noone to take care of them, I summoned Kosuke again to advise the Hokage of what had occured and that I would be sending Kushina back with a large group of orphans.
When the wreckage of the building had cooled somewhat I picked through what I could for any information about the children that lived there, we were still at war after all and an orphanage was an almost perfect plant for a spy. Eventually I found some cabinets toppled over and whilst the documents inside were certainly singed they had been mercifully saved from damage that would render them unreadable, I stored these away in a scroll and as I did a team of ninja flickered into the clearing wearing Konoha headbands.
"We were sent by the Hokage to help escort the children and Kushina back to Konoha" Their leader explained. At my subtle hand gesture he returned the correct standard wartime sign for ninja sent to assist.
"Well Kushina is just resting by a tree over there" I pointed off in her direction as I walked over to hand them the scroll with the childrens records "These are the records for the children you'll be escorting, deliver them to the hokage"
The team nodded at my instructions, not even waiting for Kushina to fully wake up before rounding up the children and making their way back to Konoha, one of them carrying Kushina as they went. On the wind 20 or so minutes later I thought I could hear the sound of Kushina's wrath at being carried.
I spent the next few hours looking for where the 3rd ninja could have gone, but with it being dark the night before and with no knowledge of the layout of the land it was looking unlikely I would find anything. It was then I heard something back towards the orphanage, heading back to check out the noise I saw a kid sat at the base of a tree. 'Was he one of the orphans?' I thought to myself, I couldn't remember seeing him in the crowd earlier in the day and they should have all been sent back to Konoha. I decided to approach him to see what he was doing here.
My first impression of Ko was that he was a somewhat precocious child, probably no older than 4 or 5. I had left him to get cleaned up whilst I followed the main road back to a nearby village where I'd hopefully be able to find him replacement clothes. To think he had taken out another Ninja of at least chunin rank, at his age… I shook my head, certainly there would have been an element of luck involved but he was still a lone child. Then there was how he looked when he had first cleaned his face in that river - I almost thought I was seeing someone else. Too close to be a coincidence. Ko was quickly turning into a person of significant interest.
What I knew already almost deserved another message to the Hokage, but I wanted to speak to Ko more, behind his eyes it sounds odd to say but its like someone much older is staring back, his gaze held a weight that ill fit his otherwise miniature frame.
It took me almost an hour to get to the village and between my journey there and my journey back I decided I was going to take my time heading back to Konoha, Ko warranted some further study.
When night fell I took up watch on the camp we had made on our way to Konoha considering my small companion. Honestly when I sent him looking for something to eat I didn't expect anything, that he came back with what he did was… intriguing. His interest in being a ninja worried me, I would defend Konoha as being the premier village but when it came to pushing promising young ninja, especially in war time, we did not have the best approach, though it was certainly better than some of the other villages.
Still if it was what he wanted I wouldn't stop him, tomorrow I decided I would show him the sealing scroll, if he was really interested in being a ninja learning about some of the smaller things like the tools we use would probably be a good place to start.
I had set up watch again the next night and it seemed this night had brought its own surprises as well. This kid. I had completely forgotten about showing him the sealing scroll. Ko couldn't be more than 3/4 years old and he already had access to his chakra and had the control to complete the leaf exercise… I took a few hours and I was much older when I tried it. And his chakra, I don't think he has realised but he has huge reserves for a child his age, even if he felt like he should be able to keep going. After seeing all that he had shown me a complete fighting style he had apparently invented as well! The only question was; was this too good to be true? That, I decided, would be up to the hokage.
I will show him the sealing scroll tomorrow as well as inspect his other skills before we reached Konoha, with the possible ramifications this child brings I wanted to make my observations as complete as possible.
As I set up for my 3rd night on watch I realised I couldn't be relied on to be objective in this. I had accidentally befriended Ko when I only intended to make observations. Had anybody else his age been able to generate that amount of killing intent I would have assumed they had been born into a broken home and abused their entire life, Ko being able to generate that amount was disconcerting and didn't bode well for his mental health. I didn't want to say so but I think the hokage would consider it suspicious if he wasn't mentally disturbed as it pointed to something more sinister - prior training. And with everything else he has displayed so far it wouldn't be a far fetched idea. But still. Watching Ko from the tree I was in I didn't want to believe it. His form in the spar following that had been good enough though, even managed to get the bandage from me. He had wrapped the bandage around his wrist despite it just being a cotton bandage so he was obviously proud of the feat, the same wrist was wrapped around the scroll which was half open even as he slept. I did not think he would take such an interest in the scroll, he's far too young to read or write so divining what the seal elements do will be far beyond him. His borderline obsession was endearing though.
I decided I didn't want to get any closer to Ko until the hokage made his decision, I felt too close already. Tomorrow I will carry him the rest of the way to Konoha.
Finally meeting up with Kushina made me feel like a weight I did not know I was holding had been cut suddenly away, she noticed the same things I did about Ko immediately but some quick sign language let her know not to discuss it here, anybody could be listening and even if they were not enemies knowledge freely given can easily become a sword with no grip, a weapon that you cannot use without also hurting yourself. I longed to tell Kushina about Ko's abilities. About the alacrity with which he approached fuinjutsu, rare in itself, but also his genius to decipher a seal, even a simple one, without help. Kushina had told me of relatives from her home village who were talented enough to take apart a seal on sight from a young age but I had never truly believed her, Ko himself didn't have any of the Uzumaki traits such as the red hair and he definitely wasn't hot tempered but for his abilities with seals even without training it would not surprise me to learn he had some ancestry from Uzushiogakure.
Upon entering the Hokage's office the hokage immediately marked Ko for the same reason I did, I signalled to the Hokage that I would explain before introducing Ko who seemed kind of overwhelmed by the hokage. I couldn't blame him, he wasn't called the god of shinobi for nothing, when he eventually made his escape from the room I stood up from my knelt position to report.
The hokage reached for his pipe, knocking it against the table before refilling it with tobacco, lighting it with a deft application of chakra he took a deep inhale from his pipe before turning to me and saying "Report"
"Hokage, as you already know I recovered Kushina near the Kumo border, after subduing her captors I sent the children from the orphanage that was destroyed back to konoha to be relocated to orphanages here. The next day I discovered Ko, full name Keiko, nearby. He is apparently a member of the same orphanage but wasn't around when the other group were dispatched." here MInato grimaced "Part of that was my fault, when I first made contact with the kidnappers I chased after the one holding Kushina and left the final enemy behind, he seemed to think Ko was a Konoha shinobi. By chance Ko actually managed to subdue the Kumo nin and make it back to the orphanage. I finished collecting all the bodies once Ko showed me where the last one was and placed them all in body scrolls" Minato stepped forward and placed the scrolls on the Hokage's desk "After that Ko and I began to make our way back to Konoha"
Sarutobi nodded, considering. At length he asked "You have been some days coming back, I did not hear any reports of you being waylaid?"
"No. I thought it prudent, considering the situation, to spend some time monitoring Ko on the way back to Konoha, I spent that time testing him in various ways which I'll include in my written report but… to make a long story short he appears to show knowledge beyond his years in chakra application, taijutsu and especially fuinjustu. I would like to suggest that he begin training in the area of fuinjutsu immediately with that in mind. Apart from that all I discerned from Ko is that it is his desire to be a ninja and also that he has a maturity of a much older man. Considering it is his desire to be a ninja I don't think we can ignore his education considering his apparent lineage"
The hokage nodded but seemed strangely distracted. "I was concerned before with this Ko. you were right about his maturity I saw it in his eyes when he walked in - he had eyes I would expect to see in someone my age. After what you have told me I am only more concerned."
Minato frowned concerned "May I ask why?"
The hokage cast an arm to a box of files beside his desk "These were the files you sent back with the orphans records, we have luckily been able to recover all of them and all of the children were accounted for before you arrived." Minato started in realisation of what the hokage was saying but the hokage continued "This means that Keiko could be lying about his origins at the orphanage, indeed it is not unlikely considering we are at war it is very possible he is in fact a spy. Considering what you have told me about his advanced knowledge and maturity… I cannot discount the possibility."
"But that can't be, Ko does not seem the type to lie and I couldn't detect any subterfuge in the days I have travelled with him!" Minato exclaimed
"Be that as it may the danger is too high, I would send him straight to T&I" Minato looked ready to interrupt but the Hokage held up his hand for him to wait "but… I cannot in good conscience send a child who we have nothing but suspicions of to be tortured. Even in war we must have limits. That being said I cannot allow him among the civilian populace either. So let's confirm what we can for now and observe Ko for the moment. I am going to place you and Kushina on a permanent B grade mission to observe Ko and not allow him to enter the village proper, at least for now he must kept away from the civilians until any malicious intentions can be ruled out."
"Hokage, there is an empty apartment just next door to Kushina and I, perhaps he could stay there."
"In the ninja district?" the hokage considered before nodding to himself "Yes that might be for the best. I want weekly reports on Ko, you may train him in fuinjutsu and if he is not judged a spy within the next few months he may enter the this year's roster of academy students. You need not be watching him all the time but I want either yourself or Kushina to be watching to make sure he doesn't leave. You may still go on missions but only one of you at any time. I'd offer other ninja to take part in this mission but considering who he appears to be I can't allow the wrong ears to hear about this" Hiruzen pinched his nose as he lowered his head "It seems my students habits have caught up with him"
"It's hard to miss isn't it" Minato said
The hokage nodded "For a moment when he walked in I felt as though I had gone back in time. Still we have to be sure. Confirm what we suspect. Your first task is to get a DNA sample and have it checked against the sample we have on record from Jiraiya."
AN: Seems I'm on a roll today, it won't always be anywhere near this frequent. See you in the next chapter.