Sorry it's so short!

Chapter 16: Challenges

"Come on!" Naruto yelled out into the new scenery. Minato, as soon as they had somehow arrived in this new place, had jumped off of his back and shielded his eyes. "I figured out how to get out of that damn place and now I'm stuck in some other place! When am I gonna get back?!" he yelled again to absolutely nobody.

Naruto, luckily, had not been suffering in consuming darkness for the past sixteen years. That of course helped his eyes adjust to the new light. Instead of not being able to see anything, he could see nearly everything. There was no longer consuming darkness going on forever, but rather a bright white expanse.

The blonde jinchuuriki shielded his eyes for a minute, but they adjusted quickly. Even if they hadn't adjusted, there was nothing to see. He glanced around again, seeing nothing but his father's figure. Minato was still covering his face with his hands, every so often lifting a finger or two. Once the light reached his eyes he clamped his hands shut again.

"What's wrong with you?" Naruto asked, walking up to him. So far, it looked like the only thing they had similar was the hair color and shape.

Minato turned sharply to face where Naruto's voice had come from. "My eyes aren't exactly used to light," Minato said matter-of-factly.

"Whatever," Naruto scoffed before turning away. "Where are we anyway?" Minato shrugged and finally took his shielding hands away from his eyes. He did, however, keep his eyes closed. He shrugged lightly and sighed.

"I don't think the Shinigami is just going to let people escape from here. One would think that there would be challenges and other things to defy the wish of getting out of here," Minato said clearly. He realized something and laughed lightly. "You thought you were just going to get out of here like that, didn't you?" Naruto pouted a muttered a quick yes before turning his head away. Minato was nearly sent into hysterics from the small joke.

"What's so funny?" Naruto snapped after a moment. Minato had to take a moment before he was settled down enough to talk.

"You really thought that you were going to get out of here that easily. Just being that naïve… It's something I've missed," he muttered the last part. Naruto muttered something under his breath quickly but then turned to start wandering around.

"You coming?" Minato's head whipped over to where the noise had come from; he still hadn't opened his eyes. "Well, first open your eyes. You'll trip or something." Minato laughed and cracked open one eye. Naruto was stunned by Minato's face—it did look exactly like his—and hair.

Reluctantly, Minato managed to open both eyes. After a few moments, the bleariness faded to a lower extreme and he glanced around. The moment his eyes landed on Naruto's figure, he knew it was his son. Minato could clearly remember looking almost exactly like that when he was younger, but he did see a few of Kushina's features. Naruto raised an eyebrow and waved his hand in front of Minato's face. "I'm fine, just surprised," Minato answered. Naruto gave him a questioning look but shrugged and turned the other direction. Minato, whose vision had completely cleared, took the lead silently and Naruto trailed behind quietly.

"Where are we going?" Naruto asked after a while.

"I don't know. I've never been here before," Minato answered quietly. As they walked further, Minato noted small objects showing up. He couldn't clearly identify them, but it almost looked like stone or clay, maybe dirt. "Don't touch anything, will you?" Minato asked harshly when he saw Naruto about to grab one of the small objects. Naruto muttered something that couldn't be deciphered. Minato sighed loudly and continued forward.

"That was easy, Hinata! We didn't run into anybody!" Kiba exclaimed, showing his canines in a wide smile. He walked along almost effortlessly and Hinata trudged behind him, graceful but not as carefree. Akamaru had disappeared into the forest somewhere. Kiba had shrugged it off, simply saying, "He knows his way around. He'll come back."

"Y-yeah," she nodded in agreement. It had been an easy mission. Her thoughts were already drifting back to Konoha. She had already promised Kiba that he could take her to Ichiraku.

"Why do you think that Shino and Kurenai didn't want to come on the mission? It would have been relaxing for both of them," Kiba said stubbornly. Hinata found herself laughing lightly.

"Maybe they just wanted a day off, Kiba." Kiba looked over and a smile crossed his features.

"Shino has never wanted a day off, Hinata," he answered. Hinata smiled lightly and pretended she never heard Kiba. Instead, she busied herself with looking at the scenery around them. Kiba sighed and gave up any idea of conversation.

"Tsunade-sama, are you sure he'll be okay?" Sakura asked after having witness yet another of Naruto's vitals fail. Tsunade nodded wearily; she had worked hard and had managed to stabilize Naruto but it took a lot out of her.

"Hopefully he'll wake up soon enough and we won't have to worry about it." After a few moments, she added, "You and I both know that he's not one to give up easily." Sakura nodded quietly and watched as Tsunade stood up out of the chair she had been resting in. "Now then, your break is almost over. Hurry and get back to work," she said sternly. Then, with a softer tone she added, "It'll get your mind out of here." With that, Tsunade quietly left the room.

Sakura reluctantly followed, but not before turning around and staring at each and every screen of the monitors individually. Eventually her gaze passed to Naruto's face, where it stayed for a very long moment. She let out a reluctant sigh and left, oblivious to the heart monitor increasing just slightly in speed.

Minato stopped in his tracks and glanced back at Naruto. "What are you doing?" he hissed, trying not to be loud. He didn't know why, but he knew he should be careful now. Naruto, however, was oblivious as usual.

"My arm isn't listening to me," he answered. He poked his left arm again and it swayed from the force. Minato sighed and shook his head. "What are you doing anyway?" Naruto asked Minato. He was carefully stepping around every dip or mound in the ground, along with every object. It was getting increasingly harder.

"Look, just step where I step and don't touch anything," Minato said for at least the fourth time.

"Again, my arm isn't responding! It'll flap around!" Naruto retorted. Minato forced himself not to laugh. Naruto looked generally worried and Minato was being as serious as possible. He found the contrast hilarious.

"I know what to do," Minato said loudly, trying to talk over Naruto's worried yells. Minato tore off a sleeve of the gown—he just now realized that he was wearing it—and tore it a few more times to make it long enough to circle Naruto's body. He carefully walked over to Naruto and tied Naruto's left arm to his body. "There." Naruto stopped yelling and instead looked down at his arm, which was bound to his side.

After a few moments, Naruto's thinking process kicked in. "Ne, Yondaime-sama?" Minato turned around and was about to correct Naruto, his name was Minato, not Yondaime, but he stopped when Naruto continued. "Why isn't my arm moving?"

"You keep asking me all these questions. I don't know everything," Minato said. "I can only guess why. Maybe your body is somehow reaching your soul. Maybe we're getting closer to getting out."

"Oh. If that's true, then I might be in a coma before I get out of here," Naruto joked to himself.

Several moments of silence ensued and it nearly drove Naruto mad. There was nothing to hear other than their footsteps and the rustling of the gowns they were both wearing. "Naruto, come look at this," Minato told him quickly. Naruto walked over and looked down. Minato was pointing at the ground, where a few rocks and the dirt had been moved to spell something. Naruto sighed exasperatedly as Minato read it out loud. "It says 'Three Challenges'."

Naruto looked over and his father and said, "'Three challenges'? What?" Minato stared at it longer and laughed.

"It seems as if someone is warning us that there are going to be three challenges. Maybe they wrote something more further along this path," he explained. Naruto didn't understand why the situation was funny so he asked Minato why he had been laughing. "It's the clichéd three challenges." Naruto still didn't understand. "In most old stories, there are three challenges that the heroes or heroines have to overcome before they reach their goal."

"Oh. I don't think that's funny. How am I supposed to get through these things with a dead arm?" Minato sweatdropped and decided to just start walking again. Naruto followed, poking at his arm.

"Dammit," Tsunade muttered to her pile of paperwork. "Go away," she ordered it. Shizune walked in to see Tsunade glaring intensely at the stack of paperwork.

"Tsunade-sama?" she asked quietly. She didn't want to ask too loudly or Tsunade could very well injure her or the wall.

"What is it, Shizune?" Tsunade asked with a lighter tone than Shizune thought she would have.

"Uhm… well, there's a bit of a problem at the hospital," she admitted. Tsunade perked an eyebrow questioningly.

"What problem is there?" she asked harshly. She was staring daggers at the paperwork but Shizune felt the glare go through the paperwork to her. Shizune was silent and Tsunade demanded answers. "Is there an outbreak of something? Too many academy students injured?" Shizune shook her head no to each question, and eventually Tsunade was nearly out of questions. "Then what is it, Shizune?!"

"It's Naruto." Tsunade's eyes widened, fearing the worst. "He's gone."

"W-what?" Tsunade asked nearly terrified. That kid wouldn't die so easily.

"There's no trace of him in the room. His bed's empty and all but one pair of his clothes are still there." Tsunade was at first relieved that Naruto wasn't dead, but then realization hit.

"He shouldn't even be awake! And even if he is, he's in no condition to get up and walk around freely like that. Shizune! Inform Hinata, Ino, Sakura, and Kakashi of this information and have every one of them search for Naruto. Remind them to do it subtly; we can't let word of this spread." Shizune nodded and ran out the door. Tsunade placed her hands in her hands and sighed. "You're too much, Naruto."

"So, basically, we don't know what the challenges are, but we know that there's three and that we have to pass them to get out of here," Naruto summed up.

"That's the gist of it," Minato agreed looking up at the large object. "I've got a feeling that's the first one." Naruto nodded in agreement.

"It makes sense. A giant mountain in the middle of nowhere. Plus the terrain around it is too rugged to maneuver. Still, climbing a mountain?" Naruto asked, unsure of whether it would be possible.

"Not climbing it. We have to go through it," Minato decided confidently.

"Huh?" Naruto asked. He didn't know what Minato was trying to say.

"There's got to be a cave somewhere that we can travel through. No doubt there'll be traps and other things to stop us, but we've got to try." Naruto nodded and decided to lead this time around.

AN: Sorry it's so short! I know I already said that, but I am sorry. Since it's summer, friends have started planning things for just about every single day and yeah. I've gotten a little behind with my writing. Also, sorry it's late. Now that the apologies are over, don't you love the cliched three challenges? xD Uh... I think that's all I have to say. I promise next chapter will be longer and hopefully better! Till next time.

Nebula1701: Yes, this is going to get very interesting. I had a random idea strike me! And I doubt Naruto will ever loose that mask, but maybe he'll try. And that was a great idea. It's definately helping. I don't know why I couldn't think of that. Haha. Thanks for your review!

Elizabet639

P.S. I forgot to say, please R&R! Now I'm done. xD