Time Flows Like Ink
Summary: After a fuinjutsu experiment gone wrong, Minato is yanked into a future where his family is dead, his team fell apart and the Uchiha were slaughtered. With the defective seal burning in his palm, Minato struggles to stay afloat in a Konoha that isn't his.
Chapter 12
Somebody started following him after Minato exited the Uchiha compound. If his instincts hadn't been as good as they were, he might have written the foreboding feeling off as the aftereffects of the ghost story he had heard from the survivors of Mikoto's clan.
He knew better than to let rumors and stories impact his efficiency as a shinobi and took the hunch as seriously as he would have a kunai aimed at his turned back.
He needn't have bothered. Whoever it was, they did not care about keeping themselves hidden.
"You told the truth," the stranger said – going by their voice, Minato suspected a man – his voice quiet and muffled through an ANBU mask. In contrast to most ANBU Minato knew, he wore long sleeves that covered his tattoo.
Minato weighed his options and decided to stay. For now. "The truth about what?" He wondered if this was yet another shinobi sent to keep an eye on him – and why, if that was the case, he had decided to reveal himself so easily.
The ANBU shifted from foot to foot and fidgeted with his hands. "No, not truth," he mumbled, his voice almost too quiet to hear. "Not all. Lie. Excuse. Hurt... Hurts."
Minato deliberately didn't let his confusion show. He wasn't sure if the ANBU – rather the stranger, as Minato's suspicion grew that he was no ANBU at all – was talking to himself or simply struggling to express himself.
"Who are you?"
The stranger's posture relaxed but his voice remained agitated. "Not him."
"... Okay," Minato said carefully.
"Not him," the stranger repeated, more urgently. "Not... Never. Never him."
"Okay," Minato agreed, more firmly this time.
He paused, taking the time to take in his counterpart more thoroughly. None of his social cues made any sense.
He wore an ANBU mask, but held none of the confidence or subtlety that an ANBU operative carried. He made no effort to hide his body language, or else did not know how. Even with his body language on full display, Minato could read nothing from him. Everything the stranger did felt disjointed and odd.
His feet stood apart confidently while his upper body was hunched over. His voice showed agitation when his hands rested calmly at his sides.
His chakra had a dampened, fickle feeling to it, as though he didn't have good control over it. Despite his unpredictability, Minato didn't sense danger coming from the stranger.
Before Minato had the chance to speak, the stranger's body language changed yet again. Tension bled out of his shoulders and left him in a calm, almost lazy posture. It didn't fit his voice, nor the tone that came with it. "You're not supposed to be... I... I'm not... Not here."
Minato latched onto the statement before the stranger could get distracted again. "Why not here?"
"Don't want to."
Minato blinked at the childish answer. "What don't you want?"
The stranger hunched in on himself, his voice taking on an agitated quality. "No. Can't. Won't." He tugged at his hair as though he wanted to comb out knots with his hand. His fingers brushed against the rim of his mask and he let his hand drop, clenching it into a fist. "I won't!"
Changing tactics, Minato matched his own demeanor to the one of the stranger. He took on a softer, kinder tone. Almost as though talking to a child. "You don't have to do anything," he said, his voice careful and soothing. "Can you tell me who you are?"
The stranger went still. "There are no orders."
Minato stopped himself from flinching. The body language that had him so confused was gone. There was no stutter. Minato was no longer able to estimate how dangerous he was.
"No orders," Minato repeated, rethinking his decision of not having signaled for backup. "You weren't ordered to be here?"
The stranger didn't move out of his confident stance. His voice came as a hoarse whisper. "Soon. Will be. Soon." The stranger's head jerked around.
Despite knowing better, Minato followed his gaze. When he turned back, the stranger had moved closer.
"Meet. Outside village. Answers."
Minato hesitated. He subconsciously reached for a Hiraishin seal. "You want me to...?"
"Answers," the stranger repeated, looked at something past Minato and disappeared in a blur.
"Wait–" Minato tried, too late.
When Minato turned and saw Kushina, he didn't know whether to be relieved or disappointed.
"Kushina," he greeted, trying not to let his frustration show. The feeling vanished as soon as he realized her solemn expression. "What's wrong?"
She hesitated, which was enough to make alarm bells go off in Minato's head. "I'll tell you when we're home. It's about Rin." Upon seeing his alarmed expression, she added, "She's fine! Just... There's something you need to know."
Kushina jerked her head in the direction the stranger had disappeared to. "Who was that? Their chakra was all over the place."
"I don't know," Minato admitted, fighting the belated urge to run after the stranger. "He said to meet him outside of Konoha. He promised me answers. I think."
"Meet him? When?" Kushina's frown deepened, following his gaze.
"I don't know," Minato said, feeling like a broken record. "He didn't say. He just told me to meet him."
"Well, you're obviously not going to do that."
Minato didn't answer.
"... You're kidding."
"He wanted to tell me something," Minato said, feeling defensive. "It just... seemed like he didn't know how. Or like he thought he wasn't allowed to."
"Because that doesn't sound shady at all." Kushina opened her mouth to say more, but sighed. "Let's talk about this later." When she looked up, her eyes were heavy. "Who knows when your mystery guy will be back. If it's really important, he'll come look for you."
Minato didn't want to let the matter rest that easily. He wanted to find out more.
But he didn't like the look in Kushina's eyes.
"Let's go home," he decided, pushing the stranger to the back of his mind.
Kushina and Minato lay curled up on the tiny couch in Naruto's apartment, empty cups of ramen next to them and Minato's hands in Kushina's hair, combing through it lazily. She didn't peek, but she was fairly certain she could feel the beginning of a braid coming together.
Rin and Kakashi had left to keep the Hokage up-to-date while Naruto was on his way to look for his teammates. The two of them had taken the opportunity to let themselves breathe and digest all the new information they'd learned.
"You don't know if she was like this from the start, do you?" Kushina asked, thinking of Rin.
Minato paused. He tugged a strand of her hair free from her ear and pulled it back. He was definitely making a braid. "No. I'm sorry, it didn't occur to me. She might not have thought to tell me either, with everything else that's been going on."
There was no way for them to find out whether Rin had been a jinchūriki the last time Minato had come back or whether it was a new development. Rin might not have told him, Minato hadn't thought to ask, and Rin wouldn't remember whether it had changed, now.
"We'll have to ask her for details of how it happened," Minato said. "Otherwise we won't know what we need to change."
Kushina's brow twitched. "Why do we need to change it? There's nothing wrong with her."
"There's nothing wrong with her being a jinchūriki," Minato agreed, his hands faltering momentarily. "It is wrong that she didn't have a choice in becoming one. She was kidnapped and sealed by force, Kushina. Nobody deserves that."
Kushina didn't answer. The thought of having another jinchūriki in Konoha – other than her son, who would one day take over hosting Kurama from her – was a temptation she had never really considered before. She liked the thought of having someone to relate to. She liked the thought of not being alone with her burden.
But was she selfish enough to condemn Rin to that fate when there was a way to prevent it?
Kushina squirmed in discomfort when it took her longer to come up with an answer than it probably should have.
There was a knock on the window, and before either of them could do more than look over, Rin had slipped through. "You shouldn't talk about people behind their back," she said quietly.
"I'm sorry," Minato easily amended. "We were just collecting our thoughts. We weren't going to make any decisions without you."
"Good." Rin sat down in front of the couch, rubbing the hem of her shirt. "I've had enough of that to last me a lifetime."
Kushina craned her neck to share a glance with Minato. His brows were knit in an unhappy frown.
"We might be able to prevent it from happening," he said, his voice cautious. "If that's something you want."
"It can't have been easy," Kushina forced herself to say. "Especially not with me – with us – gone."
Konoha would have lost a valuable player in Kushina, so the pressure for Rin to take her place would have been massive.
Kushina had grown up with the Nine-Tails since she was a child. Rin had been a teenager. She would have had a far more difficult time learning to control her powers. Had there been anybody to teach her? Or had she had to learn everything by herself?
"You might not have to go through all of that," she added, feeling less reluctant about the offer. If there was a chance to make Rin's life easier for her, what kind of person would Kushina be to deny her?
"I already did," Rin said, still not meeting their eyes. She hesitated. "I don't want you to change it."
"Are you sure?" Minato asked, his voice gentle but insistent. "Your life might look completely differently."
"Exactly."
Kushina wasn't certain how easily they'd be able to change such a huge aspect of her life, anyway. Even if they managed it, would Rin be reminded of the experience in her nightmares for the rest of her life? Would she ever be able to forget the feeling of carrying a demon inside her? Would she forget the pain it had caused her? Or the burden it had placed on her shoulders?
Rin chewed her lip, picking at her shoulder where her ANBU symbol was tattooed. "Maybe this is for the best. It's better now, that you two are back." Before either of them could remind her that their presence was temporary, she added, "Now that I know Naruto, maybe I can help him. Make it a bit easier for him."
Rin had just given her another reason to feel selfishly glad for her burden. Even if Kushina wasn't there for him, Naruto would have another jinchūriki to guide him.
The grave atmosphere was broken by someone knocking on the front door. Rin pushed herself to her feet to open it.
"Oh, hello, Rin-sensei," a girl with bright pink hair said. "I was looking for Kakashi-sensei. Is he–" Her voice trailed off as she caught sight of Kushina and Minato. Her eyes widened.
"He's not here." Rin pretended as though the girl wasn't blatantly staring at the other two occupants of the room. "You'll have to look elsewhere."
The girl didn't move. And kept staring. Just when Kushina felt the urge to drop an unflattering comment, she stuttered, "Rin-sensei. Is that... Are, are those..."
"Why's she calling you 'sensei'?" Kushina interrupted, raising an eyebrow at Rin. Considering how utterly opposed she'd been to the idea – according to Minato – Kushina found this detail somewhat puzzling.
Kushina had to squash the urge to rub her eyes in disbelief as Rin's cheeks turned pink. "This is Sakura. She was assigned the same genin team as Naruto and Sasuke."
While confirming her suspicions, Rin had not actually answered Kushina's question.
"And?" Minato arched a brow. "How does that translate to her calling you 'sensei'?"
"Because she is!" Sakura piped up, an eagerness in her voice that suggested she was ridiculously pleased to be able to answer their questions. "Kind of. She's actually Sasuke's instructor. But we train together a lot, so I get to call her sensei, too."
The color of Rin's face deepened as both Minato and Kushina turned to look at her. "It's... not like that. I'm not actually– I mean–" She sighed, caving to the urge to bury her face in her hands.
Kushina decided to have mercy and kept her overly excited grin at bay. "I want to hear all the details. Kakashi and Rin, both jōnin instructors. Oh, I can't wait to see what you taught these two."
"Have you been sharing the responsibility?" Minato asked, sporting a smile himself. He made no secret out of his own joy at the revelation.
Rin raised her head, her cheeks still flushed a soft pink. Her expression took on a more serious note. "You took Naruto with you. Kakashi couldn't keep his genin team once it was incomplete."
Kushina's grin slid off her face. "Kakashi lost his team?"
Rin opened her mouth as though her first impulse was to reassure her. She paused. "Yes. This is the alternative we found so he could keep teaching them."
Kushina shared a dismayed look with Minato. Bringing Naruto with him had been an accident, but she could still see guilt reflected in his eyes. His throat wobbled as though he had trouble swallowing past it.
"So," he said, his voice oddly subdued, "You took Sakura and Sasuke as your apprentices?"
"They would have gone back to the academy, otherwise," Rin said, confirming Minato's words indirectly.
"It's alright." Sakura's voice had lost some of its thrill. "It all worked out in the end, didn't it? Kakashi-sensei's a great teacher. I know that Sasuke's happy with Rin-sensei, too."
Kushina's brows rose at their choice in students, and she made a mental note to ask about it, later. She'd thought that Kakashi would have been the first choice to train a clan member like Sasuke, especially considering that in this version of the future he had kept the Sharingan.
"Besides, we're training together so often that we might as well be a full team," Sakura added. "If Naruto's back and Rin-sensei and Kakashi-sensei teach all three of us, hardly anything will have changed."
Rin looked ready to protest this conclusion. "That's– That's not how it–"
"That sounds like a wonderful plan," Minato agreed, his smile covering up his prior dismay. "Kushina and I would be happy to join and give some pointers ourselves, as long as we're here."
Sakura's face lit up. Kushina was certain that if she was slightly more of a civilian than a shinobi, she would have fainted on the spot. "Will you tell us stories about you? You're famous, both of you!"
Kushina felt a pleased smirk settle on her lips. "Oh, I've got tons of stories. I'm sure the history books haven't got even half of them."
Going by Minato's wary expression, he knew exactly which kind of stories Kushina was talking about. Oh well. He would just have to live with the fact that the longer Kushina spent in the future, the less people would remember him as their wondrous, awe-inspiring Yellow Flash. How they had ever managed to get that wildly inaccurate image of him in the first place, Kushina would never know.
"By the way, Rin," Minato said, changing the topic before Kushina could give Sakura a first taste. That coward. "Did you see Naruto on your way here? Or you, Sakura?"
Sakura shook her head as Rin said, "He wanted to look for his team, right? Sakura's here, so chances are he's with Sasuke."
Kushina shared a glance with Minato. They had yet to talk to either of Mikoto's sons.
"Let's see if we can find them," Minato decided, standing up from his seat on the couch.
Kushina supposed that her hair would have to wait. She bundled up the half-braided mess and tied a hair band around it without bothering to untangle it first.
"Alright, let's do this," she said, flashing Sakura a grin that almost made her swoon. "Lead the way, you two. It's about time to reunite your team."
A/N: My betas are Igornerd, To Mockingbird and PyrothTenka! Go check them out, they're all wonderful writers!
Please take the time to leave a review!
~Gwen