Plans Part 1

Second year of the Third Shinobi War

At this point, Sakumo's suicide was only two years before. Minato saw the man as a surrogate father and did not take his death very well. To a certain extent, he still blames the Sandaime for Sakumo's death and has ignored the Sandaime's attempts to repair their relationship, addressing the Hokage just as every other shinobi would, but while he speaks the respect due to the Hokage, it is not sincere. Minato interacts with him on a civil and professional manner, even though the Sandaime is attempting to rekindle the uncle-nephew relationship they had before.

The Kannabi Bridge mission is still nearly a year away.

Minato is 20

(-)

"It's nice to see you back in the village, Minato-kun," the Hokage greeted as the addressed yawned a greeting. "I have another mission for you."

"I've been back from a three-month mission for only a few hours, my Genin, sorry, my team is too inexperienced to take a mission for the next few days."

"Did you push them on the way back?"

"They were too tired to be any help keeping watch or in a fight, so I ran them as hard as I could nonstop as soon as we made it past the border. I'll be fine for anything below a B-rank tomorrow, but it's going to be at least three days before my team is ready."

"Your team will have plenty of time to rest before their role in the mission must be played. Your part begins tomorrow morning. It's B-ranked for importance but a C-rank in difficulty."

"I'm not doing Jōnin assessments again."

"You'll be doing Academy assessments."

"I've been hanging out with those kids between missions."

"Please let me explain the mission before you interrupt me."

Minato stopped shifting from foot to foot and waited for the Sandaime to begin.

"The village morale is unacceptably low right now. Due to their international recognition, I cannot recall the Sannin to boost village morale. You, on the other hand, are extremely popular in the village, and unlike my students, you have the patience to interact with the villagers. That is your primary mission. During that time, you will be in charge of the Academy, prepping them for their graduation test in two weeks. Get as close to the children as you possibly can. The day before their graduation test, your assassination is going to be staged—"

"That's cruel!"

"—in front of them. This is the most promising batch of graduates I've ever seen, we need more Genin right now and all of the children in the Academy will be attempting to graduate. I don't have anyone in the village who is qualified to evaluate them for psychological preparedness so I'm attempting a harsher approach. They pass or fail primarily on their reactions, so make it as real as you possibly can without actually dying."

"It's still cruel."

The Hokage pinched the bridge of his nose. "I can't afford sending these children out as Genin until I know they won't get themselves killed the second they step out of the village like your Genin teammate."

Minato's protests died. "Understood."

"You'll meet the instructors you will be working with in the Academy's teachers' lounge in two days at six in the morning. The details of your mission are in this scroll. Your Genin team is going to be behind the 'assassination' so I hope they are up to scratch."

"They're all Chuunin now, so they better be."

"Kushina's back in the village so you can recruit her to help," the Sandaime informed Minato.

"Isn't she supposed to be terrorizing the Kumo forces at the border?"

"Yes, but she inadvertently traumatized aa significant number of our own troops in the process so I thought it would be best for her to return to Konoha for a little while."

"Kushina isn't that scary."

The Sandaime raised his eyebrows for a moment before dismissing the comment. "There is something more important I need to ask you about, Minato-kun."

Feeling the more serious turn of the conversation, Minato straightened.

"If you had a way to end this war, but the plan had a legitimate possibility of causing more destruction than it was intended to stop, would you attempt it?"

Minato opened his mouth to respond with an emphatic affirmative, when the Hokage's expression stopped him. "It would depend on what the plan entailed."

"On the moral compass of the average ninja, it would be within the bounds of an acceptable course of action."

Minato studied the Sandaime thoughtfully. "This isn't a rhetorical question."

"No, it is not."

"You have plenty of people older and wiser than me who can…" Minato trailed off, realizing the true reason for the original question.

"The plan you have to end the war has something to do with me."

The Sandaime nodded, gazing at a spot behind Minato.

The younger man instinctively followed his elder's gaze before refocusing on the Hokage. "I don't like playing games, Hokage-san."

With an imperceptible flinch, the Sandaime refocused on Minato. "Your friend, Shikaku-kun, is one of the handful tasked with finding a way to end this war alongside his duties of compiling and utilizing information sent in from spy networks."

"He found a way to prematurely end the war."

"Yes."

"How?"

"It's dangerous, brutal and depends entirely on one person."

"Me."

"Correct. While it is well within my rights to order you to carry out this plan; however, I cannot do so, in good conscience, without asking you if you are willing to carry it out, including dealing with the consequences."

"Just tell me the plan," Minato stood stiffly.

"Seven months ago, you defeated five Iwa squads almost singlehandedly. How did you do so?"

"That was a report I actually wrote and turned in. My team was severely outnumbered so we set a trap. They walked into it and I used the Hiraishin to stop them."

"The key to this plan is a large-scale use of your Hiraishin to destroy a branch of Iwa's army. Directly afterwards, you will appear in Iwagakure itself, announce what happened to the entire village, and declare it will happen again if the fighting doesn't stop."

"The Tsuchikage won't listen."

"Not the first time, and probably not the second either. Most likely, you will have destroyed a majority of the Iwa army before a truce is called. Before I begin incorporating this plan into the war strategy, I need you to be in agreement to it."

"You'll go ahead with the plan no matter how I respond, so why are you discussing this with me? I don't have the security clearance for the war strategy."

"I want to know what you think about this."

"What I think has nothing to do with this."

"Do you understand that this will make you both a military and political target?"

"Whether I understand or not, you still have to follow through with this plan. I appreciate you telling me what is required of me in the future, but it doesn't give me the security clearance, nor have you answered why you are discussing this with me."

"Sit down, Minato-kun," the Sandaime sighed.

Minato obeyed warily.

"I've already mentioned this, but you and the Sannin are the heroes of this war."

Minato waited patiently as the Hokage packed his pipe and lit it. He took a few long draws. When Minato's jaw began to twitch in annoyance, he continued.

"My prime and my reputation faded long ago, and my ability to fulfil my duties as Hokage continues to diminish. Simply put, I want to retire."

Minato's eyes narrowed. "Where is this going?"

"Fear, doubt, pride, and intimidation often lead people into holding back much-needed words and actions or saying and doing things which should stay buried."

The confusion on Minato's face put a small smile on the Hokage's visage.

"Righteous anger strips all these away. I'll admit I've made plenty of mistakes. Many have had dire and far-reaching consequences. I've had people tell me I was wrong and I've often ignored them, feeling I was somehow smarter, that I could see every outcome. My sensei, the Nidaime, was, regrettably, the only person I truly listened to, until recently."

Minato's hands tightened on his knees as the Sandaime's words brought up memories and emotions better left in the back of his mind.

"Even with your best efforts at hiding it, your prowess is well-known around the village. Civilians and shinobi alike look up to you."

"I don't care what they think of me. Get to the point."

"I'll give you a choice in this rather than an order. Will you accept the position as my successor for Hokage?"

Minato gaped. "With all due respect, I'm not even of age yet. No one would respect a teenager as Hokage, no matter how powerful."

"I'm not so foolish as to ask you to take my place as of now, but when this war ends and the treaties have been signed, I plan to leave the hat to you. Do you accept?"

Minato felt his knees go weak and knew he would have fallen if he were standing. "I accept," he heard himself say automatically.

"Here is your next mission," the Sandaime tossed him the scroll, which he caught reflexively. "You have four months to prepare for your other mission," the Sandaime tossed a second scroll, which Minato also caught. "And finally, your copy of the scroll which makes you officially my successor."

With a surprising amount of dexterity, Minato caught the last scroll while pulling out a sealing pen from his weapons pouch. The blond pushed up his sleeve, nicked his wrist with the tip of the pen and used his blood to draw a simple storage seal on the inside of his forearm. Still numb, Minato wished the Sandaime a good night while he stored the scrolls and walked out of the room. On the walk back, Iwa could have invaded and Minato would not have noticed, his shock at the Sandaime's offer ran so deep.

Only his redheaded wife strangling him in congratulations broke him out of his trance with a desperate need to breathe.

"I'm sure the kids would be excited to hear that as soon as they wake up. Honestly, how hard did you work them? They collapsed on the front lawn, -ttebane! I got a picture to enjoy later. Your midnight snack is almost ready, go sit down." She turned back towards the kitchen.

"There's something else," Minato spat out as he fell into one of the chairs.

"What else?"

"It's the way he wants to put me into the position."

Kushina stiffened. "That doesn't sound good." She set a half-filled bowl in front of him and sat down with her own, uncharacteristically restraining from eating.

"He wants me to use the Hiraishin to kill most of the Iwa army."

"We both knew he would ask sooner or later. You know why he asked you. To the village, you'll be a hero."

"To the village, maybe, but in reality I will be as bad as the enemies I'm supposed to eradicate."

Kushina quickly finished her soup and stood up. "You need to rest before you attempt to work anything out. Are you hurt at all? Your team took quite the beating and I would have taken Kakashi to the hospital if it wasn't so overtaxed."

Minato left his food untouched as Kushina guided him to the bathroom. With practiced movements, Kushina sat him down on one of the low stools in front of the short table piled with first aid supplies.

"Did someone try and gut you?" She asked as Minato pulled off his shirt to reveal bloodstained bandages wrapped around his abdomen.

"No, they tried to behead Rin. They forgot I was in the way." After a second of thought, Minato pressed his hand against the storage seal on his arm and the three scrolls appeared. "Can you put these in the sealing room for me, please? It's the most secure."

Kushina took the scrolls without comment and returned as Minato started unwrapping soiled bandages.

"Rin should have at least stitched most of these up, what happened?"

"I told her to take care of the other two and by the time she finished, there was too little chakra to go around."

"Then hold still so I can patch it up." Kushina knelt beside him with the needle and thread in her hands.

"I am holding still, your hands are shaking."

"I know, blood makes me nauseous."

"You eviscerate anyone who annoys you," Minato deadpanned.

"Yes, but that's their blood, not yours. You've lost more blood than most of them do and I'm frankly constantly amazed you're still alive."

"I'm barely bleeding!"

"Maybe now, but if you add up all of the bleeding you've done since I met you, I'm pretty sure it total up to the amount of blood it takes to stay alive. Do you have some fancy way of putting it back or something?"

Minato sighed in exasperation. "Blood grows back."

"What?" Kushina shrieked in surprise.

Wincing at the volume, Minato groaned. "Remember when I almost bled out on that undercover mission?"

"Which time?"

"Hey! It only happened once and you were worse off than me by the end of it!"

"I'm not the one who takes ridiculous risks!" After a pointed glare from Minato, she amended, "Okay fine, I take crazy risks and you end up taking even crazier risks to one-up me." Another pointed glare. "Fine! I screw up and you have to stick your neck out to fix it."

"See? That wasn't so bad, your stitches are getting a lot neater!"

"You did that to distract me! I should make you take those painkillers that make you say the funniest things."

Minato let his head fall onto her shoulder, exhausted. "Can you indefinitely postpone messing with me, pretty please?"

Kushina poked a shallow cut on his knee, at which Minato yelped with unexpected pain. "If you're going to fall asleep on me, at least get out of those nasty clothes."

"We really have to figure out a way to keep the Kyuubi's seal tight, if only to get someone else for you to play dress-up with instead of me, I'm perfectly fine with sleeping in mission clothes—"

"I'm not sleeping in the same room as your nasty mission clothes, -ttebane! Now you have to shower too before I let you go to sleep!" She snapped triumphantly. Too tired to argue, Minato stood up and turned on the shower. "I was going to take a bath and finish my mission report, but I guess I have to make sure you don't drown instead. Not that I'm complaining, watching you trying to hold a bar of soap while exhausted is something I'd pay to see and enjoy even more when its free."

"Have I ever mentioned you sometimes talk too much?"

"A few times, but I just ignore you since I know you really don't mind my voice."