Tag-Team Part 5
Seven hours later
Ino-Shika-Cho team: Their role as a team was never greatly explained. I turned them into an investigation, capture, and interrogation team. Inoichi is in the interrogation department and his skills in interrogation are said to be exemplary. Chōza is their power aspect, defending his teammates while they interrogate and attacking as their front line. Even though he is the power behind the team, he is much more sensitive and understanding to others, which aligns with his character. Shikaku's shadows make up the capture aspect of the team and his intelligence makes everything else work.
(-)
"Why don't we use the compass as a base instead? The spiral makes us a part of the seal but the compass will only use our chakra to make it."
"That would work, but it will mean entirely rewriting the seal. We could do that in time if we take out the part that keeps sound from coming in."
"Then we can put a second isolation seal outside of it and connect it to the silence seal. When the silence seal comes down, the isolation will too, but we can take the isolation seal down without dismantling the silence seal."
"Let's turn the matrix into a spiral and then we will be able circulate the sound. It might sound a little eerie inside but it'll take less chakra and we will be able to maintain it for longer."
"We'll be able to maintain it for at least a month even without that, but let's include it anyways."
"Great, let's draw it on paper then activate it." Kushina used a simple wind jutsu to blow the sand with their sketches off the table and replaced it with a large scroll held down by two inkwells. "We'll use ink so it won't be connected to us at all."
Minato pulled a quill out of his kunai pouch and began drawing the seal. Three minutes later, they finished.
"It's simple and a little crude but it'll work!" Kushina pumped her fist in the air, accidentally flinging drops of ink on Minato's face.
He wiped them off impassively before flinging twice as much at Kushina.
"You're gonna pay for that!" Kushina spat, one of the droplets landing on her tongue.
"That was payback!" Minato retorted, dodging Kushina's retaliation.
"Hey! You're going to mess up the seal!" Chōza protested, snatching Minato's quill while Inoichi did the same with Kushina's.
"We're not going to mess it up. The paper only takes ink if a pen is touching it at the same time. Why do you think no one cares if a sealing room is a total mess?" Minato explained, taking his quill back faster than anyone's eyes could follow. Kushina held out her hand expectantly to Inoichi.
"Troublesome, have you finished the seal?" Shikaku demanded, seeming incredibly displeased with the bantering.
"Of course we finished the seal!" Kushina snapped, grabbing for her quill, which Inoichi moved out of her reach.
"Does it work?" Shikaku asked, eyes flickering between the Jōnin.
"Of course it works! We connected the seal to you so only you can activate and deactivate it." Minato snapped. Shikaku stepped forward to look at it. "It doesn't matter how much you know about sealing, you won't be able to decipher it."
"Why not?" Shikaku challenged.
"It's not standard sealing, it's a style Kushina and I made up."
"You can't make up styles."
Kushina stepped in front of him, beginning to get angry. "Who is the best at sealing in this room, possibly in the world?"
"I would guess Minato," Inoichi volunteered. Kushina turned towards him, arm raised. Minato caught her around the waist as she lunged, sending her face first towards the ground. She spun in midair, ninja reflexes taking over and grabbed Minato, dragging him down with her. A quick scuffle ended with Minato sitting on Kushina's stomach and pinning her arms while her heels dug into his neck.
"No knocking allies out on missions, remember?" Minato wheezed.
"He deserved it!"
"Probably, but you still agreed to follow the rule." Minato bent backwards and kicked himself into a handstand before landing on his feet.
"He deserved it," Kushina maintained, allowing Minato to pull her back to her feet.
"Then you're free to punish him however you see fit, but only once the mission is over."
"Hey!" Inoichi protested. Minato looked at him and shrugged.
"And you shouldn't be picking fights."
"You know, I'm pretty sure there's some law about sending couples out on the same mission," Inoichi noted, smirking when they jerked their hands away from each other as though burned.
"Do you have a death wish?" Shikaku asked curiously.
Kushina stepped forward and seemed to measure Inoichi's head. "He'll fit nicely in that box of funny kunai you have under your bed," she observed to Minato.
"I hope that was the only box you went through," he responded darkly.
"No, I read the scrolls," her tone turned deadly serious.
Minato turned towards the three older ninja. "The seal will work. Kushina and I will set up an isolation barrier so you can't sense anything outside of this room. When you're done, take down the seal and our barrier will come down with it. If we have a problem, we'll take down the isolation barrier." Minato pulled Kushina out of the room by the wrist, leaving them speechless.
"Onto our job," Shikaku recovered first and activated the seal while Minato and Kushina activated their seal outside of the boundaries, cutting off everything else.
"How and when did you read them?" Minato demanded, activating a copy of the seal he left with Shikaku in his pocket so their voices would not carry.
"First, why would you steal village records?" Kushina retorted.
"I couldn't let them just destroy them like it all never existed!"
"You should've told—"
"Told who? I was nine. How many people gave you any attention at that age? You may be the last of your clan with a talent for seals, but I was an orphan kid with more blood on my hands than most Genin."
"Minato—"
"Why did you read them?"
"I've told you everything about when I was little, but the most you tell me are little snippets: someone said this or someone else did that. There are giant blank spots in your history that no one knows about, -ttebane! I asked Sakumo-san about where you were and what you did while you were supposed to be in the Academy, but he didn't know anything! I saw you and him walking down the street all the time during those years, but he didn't remember any of it. I even asked Jiji, and he told me to stay out of it, he even threatened me if I didn't, -ttebane!" Throughout her rant, her voice steadily rose until Kushina found herself shrieking in Minato's face. He just stood there, trembling with unnamable emotions.
"You didn't even stop to think I didn't want anyone to know," he accused softly.
"That's bullshit," she snapped back. "If you really didn't want anyone to know, you would have hidden them better and given them at least a little protection."
Minato's anger surfaced like ash blown off live coals. "I trusted you to leave them be!"
"Minato—"
"Don't talk to me like that, like you still care—" Minato shouted.
"Then what do you expect me to do?" Kushina stomped her foot, hair whipping furiously behind her.
"You're not the monster. Do you know why I'm so sure of that? It's because I know what a monster is, I'm what a monster really is! I killed two people before I was five years old. I killed nearly twenty, before I even graduated the Academy! I didn't want you to know because that's who I am. I'm not the kind, honest, innocent person you think I am."
She slapped him, her hand whipping forward too fast to see. "That's not true –ttebane." Minato reeled from the unexpected blow, falling to his hands and knees, jaw clearly broken.
You broke my jaw! Minato signed before he tried to probe the extent of the damage.
"You damn well deserved it –ttebane!" She kicked him in the side, much harder than necessary. The sound of his ribs snapping made Kushina pause in worry before her anger returned, redoubled. She tried to kick him again, but he grabbed her foot and used the momentum of the strike to roll back to his feet, dislocating his elbow in the process. She marched towards him as he retreated, explaining exactly how wrong he was with a crippling lack of eloquence. Her pupils narrowing into vertical slits, she moved to hit him again, but Jiraiya caught her wrist before it could land.
"Enough, Kushina," Jiraiya said as she yelped and jerked away from him, eyes returning to normal.
How did you get past the seal? Minato demanded. It took Jiraiya a second to recognize the ANBU signs the two were not supposed to know. Minato repeated himself.
"That's for me to know and you to wonder, same for how I snuck up on you."
"You aren't supposed to be here for another day and a half," Kushina snapped.
"You really underestimate me," Jiraiya pouted.
Minato leaned back against the wall Kushina against which Kushina cornered him. Jiraiya caught the blond before he could pitch sideways and land on his hurt side.
"You're not mad at us," Kushina observed as he lowered the boy to the ground.
"I am a little bit, but not for the reasons you're thinking," he responded, realigning Minato's broken jaw with a disgusting snap. Minato yelped and knocked Jiraiya's hands away. "Easy does it, gaki, I know you're upset but you don't have to take it out on me." Minato glared at him and touched the back of his neck, having already figured out most of what Jiraiya had done. A puff of smoke rose from the collar of his jacket. "Fine, you have every right to be mad at me, but not to take it out on me when I'm finally going to help you."
Leave me alone; I can heal myself. Minato stood up and marched away, hunched over his injuries.
Kushina opened her mouth to continue scolding him, but Jiraiya grabbed her wrist. "Let him go," he ordered, not even flinching under her withering gaze. "You know better than to bring personal issues on a mission."
"You accused us of being traitors, what changed?" Kushina demanded.
"You're still referring to the two of you as one when he's obviously betrayed you."
"Don't change the subject, what changed?"
Jiraiya pulled out the S-ranked mission scroll. "I was just making sure you knew what you were doing. I now know that I have no reason to be worried."
"You were spying on us –ttebane!"
"I'm an espionage specialist. If an upstart like you had a chance at hiding something from me, I wouldn't bother."
"Really?"
"Look who's changing the subject."
"I thought you were going to kill us before. What changed your mind?" She demanded, crossing her arms.
"I was a little frustrated you didn't think I was worth sharing your plans with but I wasn't mad at you for it. I just wanted to make sure you knew what you were doing. Minato didn't miss a beat when he told me to meet you here so I figured he already had something worked out. Then I remembered that Minato has a habit of unintentionally attracting trouble so I hurried to get here, if only to assure you didn't step on my own mission."
"Which is?"
"To make sure you don't kill your prisoner and you bring him back to stand trial. Now, keep watch while I go make sure Minato doesn't get himself into any trouble walking off during a mission."
"He better not—"
"I don't like assigning blame, but that was all on you Kushina. This time I'm not just fishing for information when I tell you this. You're the first person he's trusted and really cared for since his parents died. He doesn't care that you read the scrolls, he probably knew exactly when you did. What upsets him is that you waited until now to talk about it."
"What?"
"He wants to talk about what happened and he chose you. If he didn't want those scrolls found, they wouldn't be, trust me. He can figure almost anything out on his own, given enough time. For some reason he can't figure this out. He picked you to help him Kushina, and instead of helping, you chewed him out and beat him bloody. He didn't see that as punishment for his messed-up perspective, he chalked it down as punishment for his past. You can thrash him within an inch of his life, he deserves it for thinking like that, but it won't change anything. Think on that and keep watch for your friends." He turned away and marched after Minato. Kushina stared after him, numb after Jiraiya's dressing-down.