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 15
Minato officially stripped Danzō of his rank only shortly before he revealed his time-travel abilities to his most trusted advisers.
Danzō wasn't stupid. He could have easily crossed several village borders by now (although Minato doubted he would stray far from Konoha), and there was no guarantee they'd manage to find and apprehend him before Minato was dragged back into the future. The least Minato could do was leave him with as little influence as possible.
If Danzō was truly responsible for the Uchiha massacre like they suspected, Minato was confident that he no longer had the power to go through with his plans.
If he wasn't responsible, Minato would know by the time he returned to the future. Even then, Danzō's actions had proven that he was guilty of something, even if it was something other than what they currently suspected.
"Of all the people to discover the secret to time travel," Shikaku said after a brief run down of their situation, "it doesn't surprise me that you did it by accident."
"Fuinjutsu accident indeed," Inoichi muttered, shaking his head mildly. "I suppose it was only a matter of time until you got tired of regular explosions."
Minato mustered a smile.
"Why didn't you share this information sooner?" Fugaku's brows furrowed, his expression sporting his typical scowl. Minato knew not to take it too seriously.
The others kept shooting both of them looks that weren't half as subtle as they probably thought they were. Minato didn't know if most of them were surprised or outright wary that he'd invited the Uchiha.
"I felt it safer to keep as few people involved as possible," Minato replied. Mildly defensive, he added, "There weren't any protocols telling me what to do in a situation like this."
"You did involve Uchiha-san." Ibiki's comment wasn't quite an accusation, but it was close.
Mikoto raised an eyebrow before Minato had the chance to answer. "It was somewhat inevitable seeing as he crash-landed in his own living room while Kushina and I were having tea."
Kushina snorted at the memory. She leaned back in her seat, sporting none of the tension almost everybody else around the table did. "You were always terrible at keeping secrets."
"It's too late to change anything," Shikaku said. "We know now. That's got to be enough for the moment."
Fugaku's lips twisted in displeasure. His eyes flickered towards Mikoto and he gave a brief nod.
"Alright," Minato said, trying to collect his thoughts. "Let's keep going."
"I believe we'd all be interested in learning why exactly Danzō is currently on the run and being pursued by ANBU." Shikaku's statement was followed by unanimous nods of agreement and hushed muttering.
Minato supposed Danzō was as good a place to start as any.
"We have reason to believe that Danzō's had plans to splinter Konoha's clans and divide the village for years." Minato hesitated and realized that his accusations wouldn't make sense without the whole picture. He suppressed a sigh, preparing to tell them most – if not all – of what had transpired on his various trips to the future.
The knowledge of what had happened to the Uchiha gained him a mixture of shock and stoicism. Fugaku in particular didn't move a muscle – although Minato thought his expression looked too rigid to be natural.
The massacre led into the question of its culprit – Minato decided not to mention Itachi for the sole reason of not wanting to derail the conversation entirely – which led into the trap they'd used to discover whoever had been pulling the strings in the background.
"So that's what the briefing was about," Shikaku murmured.
A couple people around the table looked disgruntled at having been put to the test. None of them voiced their thoughts.
"You used my clan as bait," Fugaku said, glowering at Minato. His eyes twitched towards Mikoto and he added, "Our clan."
"Yes. Our clan." Mikoto didn't shy away from Fugaku's gaze. "It was my idea. I made the decision."
Minato didn't correct her, even though her words weren't entirely true. Mikoto may have supported – and helped come up with – their plan, but it had been Minato's idea initially.
"It was the most efficient way of tempting the perpetrator to reveal themselves," she continued. "Every additional person aware of the plan would have posed the threat of revealing it – intentionally or unintentionally." She paused. "We decided not to take the chance."
Fugaku clearly didn't appreciate being kept in the dark, but he couldn't deny the logic in her words.
"So, just to make this clear," Inoichi said, letting guarded eyes wander around the table as though he wasn't sure which of them to address. "Danzō swallowed your bait, so now you think he's responsible for the... the massacre. Or will be."
Minato hesitated. "Maybe not quite," he allowed. "The massacre wouldn't have happened until several years from now. It would be premature to say he must have been planning it this far in advance."
"But he's clearly guilty of something." Kushina crossed her arms, a grim look on her face. "He wouldn't have had a reason to make a run for it otherwise."
"Danzō has never made a secret of his animosity towards our clan," Mikoto added. "He may not have acted on it thus far – as far as we know – but would you be truly surprised to find him capable of it?"
Inoichi let his eyes stray off uncomfortably. "Perhaps not," he muttered.
"We've established his guilt," Shikaku said, "though perhaps not – yet – his crime. What comes next?"
"We find him," Kushina said. "We interrogate him. We punish him." She shrugged. "Sounds easy enough to me."
"Try not to underestimate him." Minato pursed his lips. "He may have no more power in the village officially, but some people remain loyal to him."
"If he knows what's best for him, he'll have crossed several country borders by now," Inoichi muttered.
"I doubt it." Minato shook his head. "I may not know everything Danzō's been up to the last few years, but I'm certain he's loyal to Konoha. At least he thinks he is. He won't flee if it means being too far from the village."
"We'll spread out, then," Ibiki said. "We'll comb the forests, search the nearest villages. We need to apprehend him before he has the chance to regroup."
"Agreed." Minato allowed himself to feel pleased with the subordinates he'd picked to carry out his orders. None of them wasted time doubting his assessment of Danzō. "I want to make it clear that these orders are to be carried out, regardless of whether or not I – or Kushina – are in the village. Even if both of us are pulled back into the future, you are to keep looking for Danzō and hold him until the time we return. Is that understood?"
There were general sounds of agreements and no protest. Minato settled back, momentarily content with his shinobi's cooperation.
It didn't take long until the conversation took an unpleasant turn.
"You haven't told us much about the future," Inoichi noted, curiosity underlying his words.
Chōza's expression brightened up. "What are we like? Our older selves?"
There was a pause.
"There's not much to tell," Minato said. "I, uh... I didn't spend much time with you."
Inoichi's brows shot upwards. "Are we dead?"
"... No. No, you're not dead."
Inoichi shared a puzzled look with his old teammate. "Wouldn't you have needed us to tell you about the future? You were stranded there, weren't you? Who explained everything to you?"
Minato felt his answers becoming curt. Something prickled at the back of his throat, something unpleasant trying to worm its way out. "My students did, mostly."
Minato made the mistake of catching Shikaku's gaze. He made another, tearing his eyes away too forcefully.
"I see." Shikaku's brow twitched. "What did we do?"
Shikaku's mind was an immeasurable asset on most days. It was somewhat regrettable that Minato couldn't shut off his perceptiveness at will. "Something unrelated. It is of no consequence."
"If it's bad enough to make you avoid our future selves," Shikaku insisted, "I believe we'd be better off knowing about it."
Minato saw in Inoichi and Chōza's faces that they wouldn't let it go. He set his mouth in a firm line and decided to make it quick. "Our son grew up on his own after Kushina and I died. I have yet to meet anybody capable of giving me an adequate answer as to how something like that could have happened."
Kushina squirmed in the seat next to him.
"Wait." Inoichi's expression had taken on an alarmed shade. "Are you saying that–"
"I'd really prefer not to go into details. This isn't the time."
It became more difficult to draw the line between the people who'd let him down and those that had yet to do so. Would knowing about their mistakes make them change them in the future?
"There are more time-sensitive issues to take care of," Mikoto added quietly.
Kushina said nothing. It was probably for the better. Minato wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of Kushina's wrath.
"... If you're sure." Shikaku's lips pressed into a thin line. "For what it's worth, I think we should talk about this properly. Later, after everything else is taken care of."
Minato had trouble concentrating on what was being said afterwards. Once he'd started thinking about Naruto, it was difficult to pull his attention away.
Their goal was to fix all of the issues they'd thus far encountered in the future, one of them being that both Minato and Kushina would survive to see their son grow up. They wouldn't be shinobi if they didn't consider the possibility of one – or even both – of them failing to make it out of this mess. They needed to take precautions.
Jiraiya had been named Naruto's godfather once, and as much as he meant to Minato, he'd failed to step up to the responsibility spectacularly. Minato wouldn't be making the same mistake twice.
He told Kushina as much after everything was said and done, and the two of them were on their way home.
"You want to pick someone else," Kushina said after Minato had finished catching her up on what he was thinking.
"Jiraiya is important to me," Minato said, frowning down at his feet. "I'll always be thankful for everything he's done for me."
"But you don't want to make him Naruto's godfather anymore."
"He left him behind, Kushina." Minato's frown deepened. "He left the village and got wrapped up in his spy work, and he... he didn't even introduce himself to Naruto. He didn't tell him anything about us, either."
Kushina hummed. "He was in the village when you brought me back," she pointed out.
"True. But I didn't exactly give him a choice that time."
Kushina came to a halt and forced Minato to do the same. She caught his gaze. "I agree. I just wanted to make sure you'd thought this through."
Minato gave a humorless laugh. "Feels like I haven't been doing anything but."
Her lips pulled into a wry smile. "Fair enough."
The two of them always agreed on the things that mattered.
"So," Kushina continued, "you've got someone else in mind?" She turned her head to the side. Mikoto seemed to have finished whatever it was she'd needed to discuss with Fugaku, and was now steering towards them.
Kushina looked back at Minato and smiled. "Because I do."
Days passed without any progress being made in their hunt for Danzō. Despite Minato and Kushina turning all of their attention towards the manhunt, they came up empty.
Minato's next jump to the future came closer with every day, and he worried.
"We don't even know what he was planning before he got suspicious," Minato said, his brows pinched. "We can only assume how he was involved in the massacre."
"We'll catch him," Kushina assured him easily.
"What if we don't?" If Danzō remained free, who knew what kind of damage he could cause with years to spread chaos?
Minato hesitated, knowing that his next sentence wouldn't be well received. "I'd feel better if I went alone this time."
Kushina's expression scrunched up in protest, and Minato hurried along before she could get in a word.
"If I had a choice, I wouldn't be going, either. Not until we manage to catch Danzō." He opened his hand and frowned down at his seal. "I don't have a choice in the matter. You do."
"It's a risk either way," Mikoto agreed. "It would be foolish to put more of us in danger when we're needed right here."
Kushina's frown didn't lessen, but she didn't outright reject Minato's request. She sighed, carting through the pile of sealing paper she went nowhere without. "I'll keep experimenting in between our search parties. We need to get some sort of control over that thing."
Minato wholeheartedly agreed. Being dragged through time unwillingly wasn't an experience he'd like to continue for the rest of his life.
If nothing else, they needed to find a way to deactivate it once they managed to build their ideal future.
And they would. It didn't matter how many attempts they needed to make if it eventually led them to their perfect, happy ending.
"Look on the bright side," Minato said. "If I'm lucky, I'll see one of you in the future. Maybe you'll both be there." Minato beamed as another thought crossed his mind, and he turned towards Mikoto. "I'm looking forward to seeing our sons being closer."
Mikoto returned his smile in that soft, composed way of hers. "I'd be surprised if they weren't, considering."
Mikoto had been taken aback at their request to make her Naruto's godmother. She'd agreed after Minato and Kushina had assured her that it wasn't a spur of the moment sort of decision.
It was true that as things were now, Mikoto wouldn't be alive to see past Naruto's seventh birthday. This, as one of many developments of the future that Minato and Kushina simply would not accept, wouldn't be the case for much longer.
(Besides, seven years of growing up loved and cared for was still better than none. Minato didn't say it out loud because it didn't matter. They'd save Mikoto. They'd save themselves, too.)
"There are more people who know about the time travel now," Kushina said. "Even if the same thing happens as last time," meaning even if Kushina and Mikoto still died, "there are people who will be expecting you to come. Maybe they'll be able to help."
"Danzō might be one of those people," Minato pointed out. He may have missed out on Minato's debrief due to his impromptu escape from the village, but there was no telling how many spies of his remained in Konoha.
Kushina's brows furrowed. "Worst case, he'll have years to prepare a trap for you."
"We can't afford to not expect the worst," Minato muttered. The thought was sobering, to say the least.
"Even if Danzō manages to evade capture and uses the time to prepare," Mikoto said, "we've got time as well."
"Exactly," Kushina said. "So what if he makes plans to get revenge on you? He'll be far too busy dealing with us, first."
"Most villagers with influence are on our side," Mikoto added. "He'll have a hard time trying to go against all of them."
Minato wouldn't be surprised if Danzō had connections outside of the village as well as within it.
Sarutobi remained inactive even after everything that had occurred between Danzō and the rest of them. Minato hadn't invited him to the debriefing for a reason. He'd had a private, subdued meeting with him beforehand, one that had proven to him that while Sarutobi didn't know any of what Danzō was planning, he didn't particularly want to know, either.
If he'd wanted to, Sarutobi could have proven a serious hurdle for them despite his retirement. He'd chosen to remain uninvolved, and Minato was glad for it.
"There's nobody else I'd trust more to have my back," Minato told his wife and his friend, sharing a smile Kushina would have deemed 'dopey', if asked.
Kushina scooted closer to the two of them, a look of determination on her face. "Doesn't matter what he's trying to do, cause he won't succeed," she said, leaving no room to believe otherwise. "We won't let him."
Minato believed her. It was difficult to look towards his next trip with dread, knowing the people who were looking out for him.
A/N: My betas are Igornerd, To Mockingbird and PyrothTenka! Go check them out, they're all wonderful writers!
Last chapter for 2019! :D Hope you'll all have a lovely start into the new year!
Please take the time to leave a review!
~Gwen