Chapter 20: The Cliffs of Insanity

Kakashi busied himself by multitasking. It wasn't really that hard. One hand shoved down as low as it could go in his pocket without pulling the rest of his outfit down and the other holding his favorite book up to reading level. Moving his legs to walk was easy enough. He did this enough that it was second nature to him. He could even see people coming and going. Needless to say, anyone else would have had to practice such a maneuver. His depth perception wasn't that great either. Keeping one eye covered might make him look cool, but that doesn't mean he didn't run into walls and people when he first started doing such a thing.

"Kakashi!" a familiar voice yelled.

A quiet 'dammit' escaped his lips as he turned around. "Hello, Gai," Kakashi muttered coolly.

"Ready for another fight?" he asked eagerly.

"Do we really have to?" Kakashi sighed, placing his book back in his bag. He had just gotten to a good part, too.

"Of course Kakashi! We're tied for wins, and I can't stand for that!" Kakashi sighed and shrugged.

"What do you have in mind?"

"A manly brawl!" Kakashi sweatdropped and stared at his self-proclaimed archenemy.

"A… manly brawl?"

"Yes!" Gai yelled exuberantly, thrusting his hands up into the air.

"And what sort of 'brawl' do you propose?"

"As of late, I've heard that Naruto's gone missing! I propose that whoever finds him first wins!" Kakashi shrugged, knowing that his opinion wouldn't matter anyway.

"Fine, fine. But first I have a question I want you to answer. Where exactly did you hear that Naruto's gone missing?"

"Well," Gai started to explain, "I was taking a midday walk, and who else should I see but Hinata and Kiba walking up to the gates? I decided to wait for them and see if they wanted to participate in my stroll. However, before I could reach them, Shizune ran up to them! I overheard her and Hinata talking a bit later about finding Naruto." Kakashi stared blankly at Gai but ended up just shaking his head slightly and giving a defeated shrug.

"Alright. Whoever finds Naruto first wins, is that it?" Gai nodded enthusiastically. "Alright, well I think I may know where…" Kakashi droned off, already noticing that Gai had leapt off. Kakashi pulled his book back out and resumed his multitasking, chuckling lightly to himself. Now then, where had he been?

"I believe we've found the second challenge, don't you?" Minato asked, looking over the edge.

"I wouldn't doubt it. Why don't we just go back to where the ocean wasn't at least half a mile below us?"

"Because we have no idea where that is, remember? You decided to take the lead and randomly lead us somewhere. This is where you brought us. Besides, there's a boat down there!"

"Still, it's an awfully long way down. Do we have to climb down the cliffs to get to it?"

"Unfortunately, we do," Minato nodded. "Although, you'd have to be insane to climb down these cliffs."

"Let's call them The Cliffs of Insanity then." Minato raised an eyebrow and glanced over at his son.

"And why does it need a name?" Naruto shrugged and grabbed the nearest handhold, swinging the rest of his body down. "What are you doing?"

"We've got to climb down, don't we? I figure just going is the fastest way," Naruto grunted, slowly making his way down the cliffs. Minato sighed out and followed.

"You know that something bad is going to happen, right?" Minato asked while searching for a foothold a few meters from the top of the cliff.

"Nope," Naruto grunted and he pulled himself back up. The foothold he had found hadn't been strong enough.

"Well, it is," Minato said matter-of-factly before letting himself hang from his hands. He couldn't find a foothold.

"How do you know?" Naruto asked, taking a moment to rest.

"It's a feeling," Minato confirmed before climbing back up a foot or two to find another way down. Naruto grunted a response, although it wasn't coherent. His hands were getting sweaty and that in turn made it harder to hold on to the rocks. "This wasn't the best idea, was it?"

"Why don't we just jump down?"

"If you feel like possibly missing the boat and killing yourself on the rocks in the shallow water, be my guest. I, however, am going to climb down," Minato said, keeping an eye on Naruto, just in case he did decide he wanted to possibly miss the boat and get killed.

"I get your point," Naruto murmured, looking down for the first time. The boat was quite small compared to the rocks at the bottom. The water wouldn't be able to break his fall, either. He could see the murky ground just a few inches beneath the surface. "I think I'll climb." Minato nodded, already further down past Naruto.

"You doing alright up there?" Minato asked a few minutes later. Naruto hadn't moved but an inch, taking his sweet time. Unfortunately, Naruto was quite nervous for his own life now, which effectively made his hands shake and seem even sweatier. Not only was that, but the strain from holding himself there making his muscles quake.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Naruto lied. He managed to climb down to where Minato had been waiting patiently.

"Calm down, we'll be fine. And if you start to fall, I promise I'll catch you," Minato reassured Naruto, who just nodded dumbly. Minato took that as a yes and started back down. Naruto busied himself with trying to calm down and he wasn't paying as much attention to what he was doing as he should have. The foothold he had chosen broke out from the side of the cliff under his weight. He scrambled to get his foot back onto a ledge, but he only managed to lose the other foothold he had found. Now both of his feet were dangling in the air.

With a quick gulp he let himself dangle loosely by his hands. Naruto took a few deep, calming breaths and searched around with his feet for another foothold. He could feel his hands slowly slipping but he had to grip his handholds tightly. He couldn't support his whole weight with just one hand for too long. While searching desperately for a foothold, he managed to kick quite a few good-sized rocks down.

"Naruto!" Minato yelled sternly, tired of being pummeled by rocks. "Quit hitting all these rocks down, will you?"

"Sorry, I'm a little busy at the moment!" Naruto yelled back, still searching for a foothold.

"Well, quit knocking rocks onto my head!" Minato yelled, quite fed up with the rocks.

"Can't really do that!" Minato, even though he was afraid that rocks would hit him in the eye and he'd go blind, looked up.

"Naruto!" Minato yelled in surprise at what he saw. He was hanging there, trying to find a foothold. Minato could easily see that there wasn't one.

"What?!" Naruto asked loudly. He was getting agitated. There really wasn't much he could do about the rocks hitting Minato in the head.

"Don't fall!" Minato yelled.

"Trying!" Naruto yelled back.

"You've got to climb back up!" Minato decided.

"That's not an option at the moment!" Naruto yelled, starting to panic.

"Well don't panic!" he advised, moving to where he could easily reach out and grab Naruto if he did fall.

"That's not helping!" he yelled, noticing that his hands were slipping even more. He could only hold on for another minute or two at most.

"Let go!" Minato yelled after a quick pause.

"WHAT?!" Naruto yelled, incredulous.

"Let go! I'll catch you!" he yelled, reassurance in his voice.

"You're insane!" he accused.

"I'm climbing down 'The Cliffs of Insanity', aren't I?" Minato pointed out.

"Well yes, but that's got nothing to do with you not grabbing me and then me plunging to my death!" he yelled. Sure, he trusted Minato, but not that much.

"I'm going to catch you!" Minato promised.

"But what if you don—Ah!" Naruto yelled as his fingers finally slipped. Minato, reacting on pure instinct, reached out and grabbed Naruto's falling form before it got past him. The extra weight and suddenness of his movements nearly caused Minato to fall, but he managed to hold on.

"You okay?" Minato asked, holding on tightly to the back of his son's shirt. Naruto nodded dumbly, staring straight down at what he could have hit. "Well then hurry up and get a hold of yourself. I can't hold your weight and mine forever." Naruto nodded dumbly, reaching out and grabbing the nearest handhold. He eventually had gotten a good grip for both hands and both feet. He hugged himself to the cliff, still panting and quivering a little.

"That was scary as hell," Naruto muttered, unaware that Minato had heard him until he heard a light chuckle and felt Minato's reassuring grip on his shoulder.

"You bet it was," Minato confirmed.

"You weren't the one falling though," he muttered, gripping his handholds even tighter.

"Nah, but it's not everyday I have to catch someone from falling to their death," Minato pointed out, chuckling a little. "How about I stay father down than you, just in case it happens again?" Minato suggested with a small squeeze to Naruto's shoulder. Naruto nodded enthusiastically and waited a few minutes to start down again.

Eventually, after a few more close calls, the two collapsed into the boat. "I will never, and I mean NEVER, go climbing down cliffs again," Naruto breathed out. Minato laughed lightly and nodded.

"You shouldn't. Especially not alone. You'd die," he joked.

"What now?" Naruto asked.

"You know, you ask that a lot. I say we row this thing to the other side of whatever kind of body of water we're on. I'd say it's probably a big lake," Minato concluded.

"Hey," Naruto started, averting his gaze to the water, "I don't think I said thanks." Minato raised an eyebrow, but didn't speak. Instead, he searched the boat for an oar and whatever was keeping it tied down.

"For what?" Minato asked after a few minutes of silence.

"For saving my sorry ass from dying," Naruto mumbled.

"You don't have to say thanks for that," Minato answered, "but you're welcome." Minato found and pulled up a small anchor that consisted of a rock tied tightly around a big rock. "Now all we need is an oar."

"You mean this?" Naruto asked, holding one up.

"Where'd you find it?" he asked.

"Oh, I was sitting on it," Naruto replied with a sheepish smile.

"Give me that. Let's get out of here," Minato stated boldly before rowing off. Naruto plunged a hand into the water, enjoying its warmth.

"So that was the second challenge, was it?" Naruto asked after a while.

"It might've been the first part. Who knows what's in the lake?" Minato asked, rowing determinedly. Naruto pulled his hand out quickly and shook the water off.

"So what's next?" Naruto asked after a few minutes.

"If I knew that, we wouldn't be here right now, would we?" Minato countered. Naruto crossed his arms and glared at the back of Minato's head, sulking quietly.

AN: This chapter is quite a bit shorter than most others in word count, and the words don't flow as easily as normal. Sorry 'bout that. I've had quite a bad case of Writer's Block, that evil disease, but I forced myself to write. Now then, an IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT. There will be no update next week unless you are extremely lucky. I've got band camp. After that, I'll try to find time to write, but school will start and I'll be busy with that and marching band. I don't plan to have this go on much longer anyway. It's almost done. I'm thinking it'll end around 25 if not 30 chapters. That's the important announcement.

On another, nonrelated note, I got the idea for the Cliffs of Insanity from a movie I saw lately. If you can guess which movie, you'll earn am internet cookie!

00Midnight Siren00: :3 Yay for father/son fluff. Thanks for reviewing!

Till next week, Elizabet639