Word Count - About 1,000

Chapter 4 ~ Secrets

Minato's peaceful nap was interrupted when he felt an ANBU's Chakra.

"Hokage-sama, there were some problems that occurred when the ROOT members were questioned about Danzo."

"What… were these problems?"

"When they spoke of Danzo or ROOT, they became paralyzed, and unable to answer. They were taken to the medics, and they found a seal on the back of their tongues. The seal is most likely put there to avoid any valuable information being stolen."

"I see. You are dismissed." The ANBU leaves.

Minato sighs. Why… why would he put a seal on their tongue? What kind of information about ROOT do they not want us to know about? Well, whatever the reason is, Minato is going to find out.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO TEN~ZO" Tenzo makes a wooden dome and hides in it.

"-PY BIRTHDAY TO Y-"

"CAN YOU PLEASE SHUT UP!"

"Maa, but Tenzo-kun, it's your birthday today! Be happy!" Tenzo stays in his little shelter.

"How would you know when my birthday is? I don't even know when it is!"

"It's August tenth, Tenzo!"

"But how do you know?"

Kakashi smirks. "Resources."

Tenzo creates another layer of wood to cover his dome.

After studying the seal on one of the ROOT member's tongue, Minato finds a way to break it. To ROOT member was takes to T&I right after the procedure. Minato continued to remove a few of the other member's seals. He was now waiting for the results of T&I. Danzo was taken there too, but in a completely guarded cell.

The ANBU came back a while later.

"Danzo has been performing illegal activity involving ROOT members." He continues to go in depth about some of the things Danzo did. (AN - Sorry I'm being so vague, but I actually know literally nothing about ROOT or Danzo) Minato dismisses the ANBU. He then continues to remove more of the curse seals.

After this, he returns to his house.

He walks in on Kakashi knocking on a wooden dome that Tenzo must have made.

"Uhh, hello?"

"Sensei, it's Tenzo's birthday today!"

"Uhh, how can you be sure?"

"Tenzo told me himself, of course!"

Tenzo rolls his eyes but doesnt correct him as he releases both wooden domes.

"Tenzo, can you come here?" Tenzo walks over to him, "Okay, I need you to open your mouth."

He hesitantly opens his mouth. Minato removes the seal.

"There." Tenzo blinks at him. Kakashi blinks at him.

"That wasn't disturbing at all." Kakashi ever-so-helpfully comments.

"Danzo put curse seals on the back of all ROOT member's tongues. They prevent them from saying anything about ROOT or himself by paralyzing them when they do. I thought Tenzo would like his removed, so I did," he defended himself.

Kakashi gasps, "What a shock!" Minato raises an eyebrow at him questioningly.

Kakashi laughs nervously. Then chokes on his laugh. And starts coughing.

"Are… you okay?"

Choke. Cough cough. Choke again. Cough cough cough. "Yeah I'm done now."

Tenzo face plants. (HahaseewhatIdidtherehaha)

"So anyways. Wow. Cursed seals?"

"... Yeah… "

"... So… I can't believe Danzo was just running a hidden organization that does illegal stuff without anyone knowing…"

"And how… did you happen to find that out, Kakashi?"

"... Resources." Tenzo rolls his eyes at him.

"So… it's your birthday, right Tenzo?" He asks the now 11 year old.

Tenzo nods, while looking at Kakashi with narrowed eyes.

"Well, let's go get Ramen! You probably haven't had any before, have you?"

"N-no, sir."

"No need to call me sir, but anyways let's go get ramen!" He grins and grabs both of them before running to Ichiraku's (Did I spell that correctly?) Ramen Stand.

Tenzo stares at the Ramen in awe. It was the most delicious stuff he had ever had. He couldn't believe people made food that was this good.

"Thank you for the delicious meal, Ichiraku-san." He says while bowing down. Minato and Kakashi blink at him. Kakashi leans over to him and whispers.

"His name isn't actually Ichiraku, Tenzo-kun. It's Teuchi." Tenzo blushes in embarrassment.

"S-sorry, I meant Teuchi-san!"

The Ramen owner laughs and gives him another bowl of ramen. Tenzo stares at it in delight.

"On the house!"

"W-what does that mean?" He whisper-asks Kakashi.

"It's free, you don't need to pay for it." Kakashi whisper-answers.

Tenzo looks at Kakashi two empty bowls and wonders how he never saw his face. He then turns to Minato, who is currently eating his seventh bowl of ramen. He stares at him in amazement. He must be… the Almighty Ramen God…

After Minato and Tenzo finish, they all walk home silently.

"Ah, Tenzo. I got your new room ready!" He grins at Tenzo.

"Does that mean I go back to sleeping in my own bed rather than in yours, Sensei?" Kakashi cheekily asks.

"Well, you always could've slept on the couch…"

"You know how uncomfortable the couch is for sleeping on."

"But you slept on it the other day." Tenzo pointedly adds.

"Yeah, and my back and neck are still sore." Kakashi complains.

Minato and Tenzo roll their eyes in sync.

They arrive at the house a few minutes later. Tenzo watches Kakashi go straight to his bed to sleep like the lazy ass Tenzo knows he is. Tenzo runs to his room. He knows this is going to be so choldish of him but he doesnt even care. He grabs a pillow. He hides his Chakra and sneaks to Kakashi's room.

He throws the pillow at him.

Kakashi, Shinobi to the bone, quickly grabs a kunai and slices open the offending object. Feathers fall all over the place. Tenzo and Kakashi blink at the pillow, then at eachother, then back at the pillow. They stare at eachother. Tenzo runs away screaming. Kakashi runs after him with stray pillow feathers covering him.

He runs to his room and tried to keep his door shut with his Mokuton but Kakashi then slices through it like it's butter with his lightning. Eh? Tenzo distantly thinks, I never knew that could happen…

Then he's on the floor with a pillow repeatedly whacking him. Tenzo gets up, grabs a blanket and starts to whip Kakashi with it. Then suddenly Kakashi grabs it, and Tenzo face plants into the ground still holding the blanket.

Minato watches in confusion as his student lifts Tenzo out of the air by the blanket by spinning him around and around.

He quickly Hiraishined over here when he heard Kakashi's Chidori activate. He feared for the worst.

Then a blanket-holding Tenzo rams into his stomach.

"Heh. Sorry about that Sensei. Didn't see you there."

He hauls the horrified Tenzo off him and asks the two what happened. Tenzo nervously shuffles his feet. He notices the feathers on Kakashi. Ah, so that's what happened.

He suddenly grins. Tenzo looks confused at the grin. Kakashi is scared by the grin.

Minato picks up a pillow left on the ground, and Hiraishins over to Kakashi and proceeds to attack him with said pillow.

Half an hour later, Minato wins the Pillow Fight.

AN - Yeah sorry for the short chappy. Anyways…

To a Guest Review on Chappy 3 -

Yeah heheh… I kinda forgot about Kakashi's cooking skills, and I just really wanted that scenario to happen. And about the ROOT, I didn't include in the last chapter because I just didn't know how to make it work, ya know?

To Loopholes47 -

Haha yeah, Tenzo is just like O.o my life is a lie… XD