A/N: I am so sorry. I've been procrastinating. A lot. I couldn't find the time to write and I'm making excuses again. I'm so sorry, but I promise I AM going to continue the story. The updates are just probably going to be erratic. On a much nicer note, answers to reviews. XD
Erydanes: Very belated merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you too, nyan!
saturday101: Oh my gosh! You read 1/2 Prince too?! *spazzes* Uh... sorry... It's just, I really like it. Meatbun is awesome! XD
Ivyfeather319: He most definitely will have to. :)
Peninsula Rin: Thank you. I'll take that to heart. Thank you for the advice. I've re-read my story. I am not sure if I managed to find what I need, but I hope that it is. Thank you again. :)
Rokudaime 2000: I know this was a PM, but thanks for the awesome name! If only I knew what it meant... Ehehe... But you're right, technique names sound more dramatic in Japanese. XD
To everyone else (even flamers, though I don't think there are any and for that I thank you), thank you for your continued support. I'll try to equal it with enthusiasm for my story. Ok! I'll try my best here! Please note that I may have changed the day of the invasion to suit minor plot points... Oh, and names for Minato's technique would be greatly appreciated, though I'm not sure if anyone will deign to... suggest any... *cries* I'm just no good with names. *cries some more*
etErnal: Hi. I'm probably going to post after CAs. Marshmallows~ *Byakuran-ness and burning up from Mako fever*
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. :) It's been a while since I did a disclaimer, but... Well... *flounders*
Chapter 23: Nothing but 'The Bingo Book Guy'
"You've changed, Minato. You're really different," Jiraiya made exaggerated gestures with his arms.
"What do you mean, sensei?" Minato stared blankly at the old sennin.
"You're louder, more reckless, more Kushina-like," Jiraiya listed almost factually.
Minato merely raised an eyebrow in acceptance of the fact, "That's not odd, if not expected. This is Naruto's body after all. It's only natural that I would obtain some of his personality."
"But using that experimental jutsu..." Jiraiya flapped his arms in distress.
"You're right. I shouldn't have done that, that night. I wasn't thinking straight," Minato turned away, guilt intent on choking him. He hated seeing Jiraiya worried. It looked out of place on the carefree, perverted man's face.
"Damn right," the look of consternation on the man's face softened. "I'm just glad you're alive," the older of the two sighed, thinking, 'I can't afford to lose you again.'
Minato remained silent, his eyes fixed on the white wall in front of him, only turning to stare at the door when he sensed the man leave through there. Not long after, he allowed himself to embrace the comforting sensation of drifting between the dream world and the waking one. His eyes snapped open when he sensed Haku's chakra signal enter the room. As she stood over him, his hand shot out and grabbed her wrist, his eyes jerking open. Sitting up, he was greeted by Haku's calm, smiling face and he let go of her.
'This isn't Kushina. Her chakra feels... off. It's too stable, too cold. It isn't burning with the same volatility and fiery passion that made Kushina so unique,' Minato thought, a melancholic smile appearing on his face in answer to hers. 'It isn't anywhere near as loud or blazing as it was when I tried to escape the hospital,' his smile faded into a neutral line on his face as he averted his eyes and stared into the near abyss-like white of the ceiling.
'Just to be sure,' the blond's head snapped up and he stared determinedly at Haku, causing the latter to retreat slightly.
"Remember, Tomato?" a shimmer of mischief sparked in Minato's eyes as his lips formed the words.
Haku merely tilted her head curiously to the side and asked, "What tomato?"
The hope in Minato's eyes faded, slowly analysing the room as he searched for a follow-up to his seemingly random outburst.
"I'm on my break, and you're discharged as of now so if you get dressed quickly, we could go eat at Ichiraku's together," Minato turned his eyes on Haku, who had solved his dilemma for him by moving away from the subject.
"Sure," the blond quickly slipped into the clothes that had been laid out for him while Haku waited outside. He recognised the raiment as his own, the copious amount of orange being a dead giveaway.
The two walked towards Ichiraku Ramen, silence reigning between.
"So how's Lee's condition?" the blond attempted to strike up a conversation.
"Not good. He might have to quit being a ninja," Haku replied tonelessly.
"Oh. That's... bad," Minato made a mental note to go search for Tsunade. If anyone could heal Lee, it was her.
"Yes. Yes it is."
"Have you always had that choker?"
"Ever since I was born. I've tried taking it off but it never works. Why do you ask?"
"Just curious," Minato's crystal orbs drifted to the cloth wrapped around her pale neck. A pendant hung at the front. It glinted fiercely in the sun, a fiery fox with nine tails.
"Nice pendant," the young male commented good-naturedly.
"What?!" Haku jolted, startled.
"Oh, I'm sorry if you hate it. It just looks so beautiful, even if it is a bit ironic."
"It's not that. It's just that no one has been able to see it before, not even Zabuza-sama."
'That's odd,' Minato mused inwardly. 'People can see mine perfectly well. Even tried to kill me with it in anger because it looks like one of my old weapons.'
They soon arrived at Ichiraku Ramen and the duo sat down to eat.
"How is it in the hospital?" the blond one of the two asked through a mouthful of noodles.
"It's not as hectic now as it was immediately after the Suna-Oto invasion. I like it there. No fighting, just injured comrades waiting to be healed," Haku replied.
Their lunch ended in silence and they went their separate ways, the blond using his newfound freedom to take a walk around the slightly damaged village. He took a turn, his head in the clouds, and had to twist his body to the side sharply to avoid colliding with Sasuke.
"Hey, Naruto," he raised a hand in greeting.
"Hi," the blond replied, a smile spreading across his face.
"Have you seen Kakashi-sensei? He told me to meet him four hours ago, and he's later than usual," Sasuke confided in his teammate. The blond gave a half-hearted shrug. He hadn't seen Kakashi since the invasion, but he had a theory on where the grey haired man would be.
"I'll go look around the village one more time. See ya," Sasuke ran off to look for his mentor.
Shrugging again, Minato let his feet carry him to Training Ground 7. Kakashi's presence immediately appeared on his radar. The Jounin was standing before the memorial stone, staring down at it with unfocused eyes.
"Sensei... Was it you I saw? Or was it an illusion? Are you really... alive?' Kakashi mumbled. "We were all sure you'd died. If... if you're really alive, give me a sign. Show me that my father figure is still alive."
The ex-Hokage stood at the edge of the clearing, chakra suppressed to its lowest levels, watching his student from a lifetime ago.
'I should leave. He'll need some time,' Minato thought, feeling a slight twinge of regret for burdening his old student with the knowledge of his existence. At least Iruka knew who he was masquerading as and how he was doing. Kakashi didn't know anything other than that he thought he saw his sensei during the invasion. He was about to turn and leave when a tear slipped down the man's cheek.
'Please Kakashi, I'm not worth all that,' the blond silently begged of the usually emotionally lacking Jounin.
The silver haired man gave a melancholic bark of laughter," If you could only see me now, Minato-sensei. I'm sure you would think I'm pathetic."
The blond sighed, shaking his head. The years had not been kind to the man's mental health. 'I nearly forgot! It's Kakashi's birthday today isn't it?' Minato realised rather belatedly. He withdrew a tri-pronged kunai from his weapons pouch and hastily tied a sash to the ring at the end. He painted 'Happy Birthday Kakashi' onto the white cloth in ink and ended the message by painting on a simple storage seal. Sealing a second present inside, he grimaced at his improvised present.
'Oh well,' Minato thought, and launched the kunai at Kakashi at terrifying speeds, charging it with wind chakra for extra measure moments before it left his hand. Kakashi's one eye narrowed and he caught the kunai expertly, a small cut forming on one of his fingers courtesy of the wind chakra. 'Looks like he's still got it even when he's grieving,' Minato felt proud of his ex-student for not letting sadness hamper his abilities. Not too much anyways.
Kakashi stared at the kunai in his hands in shock. His eyes roamed over the projectile and he noticed the sash. Reading it, suspicion began to flash in his eyes. He carefully activated the seal at the end of the sash, preparing for a barrage of -weapons, jutsu, anything. Anything except for a relatively new looking piece of paper flitting on the wind and laying face down in the dirt. There was a message on the side facing upwards and it read, 'You're far from pathetic, Kakashi. You have a team to lead, so keep calm and read Icha Icha. I'll be there when you need me.'
"My... team?" Kakashi muttered, as if the term were foreign to him. He flipped the piece of paper over and saw his team 7. Sakura, Sasuke and Naruto stared up at him from the photograph, two smiling, one grinning like an idiot. He himself stood behind them with an eye smile, like a pillar of support. 'That's right. I have to stop living in the past. I have a team to lead,' a flame of resolve ignited in Kakashi's eyes.
Upon seeing that, Minato turned to leave, but stopped mid-step as he felt his sensei's chakra spike and materialise behind him, a strike flying at his neck, aiming to knock him out. The ex-Hokage caught the offending hand, eyes an icy blue as he turned around to face his sensei. The Jounin caught the battle-hardened look in the boy's eyes, as if he had been through war and seen things a child should never have to witness. The copy ninja blinked in shock, and that cold look had disappeared as if it had never been there in the first place. Warm, innocent eyes blinked up at him, their owner laughing sheepishly, "Looks like you caught me, sensei."
"Who instructed you to throw that kunai at me?" Kakashi urged, his one eye exuding worry.
"A Kitsune Anbu asked me to. I just assumed they had an important message but was busy," the Genin shrugged.
"It doesn't work that way at all," the Jounin said exasperatedly. 'Did Naruto even pay attention in class? I am completely sure that they touched on Minato-sensei and his signature weapon. How did he miss that?' Kakashi sighed inwardly.
"Really? Oh... oops. Well, at least no one got hurt. Ehehe..." Minato scratched the back of his head in mock embarrassment.
"That aside, are you sure he was a Kitsune Anbu?" Kakashi asked, seemingly light heartedly.
"How did you know the Anbu was a guy?" Minato asked, holding onto his 'clueless Naruto' persona.
"Well... He was blond wasn't he?" the question sounded more like a statement, but all the same, the Genin nodded. "Let's just say I know him personally," Kakashi eye-smiled. 'Naruto saw him too. I wasn't hallucinating. Sensei is alive,' stirred at the back of his mind. "Would you look at the time? I'm sure Sasuke burst a vein or two waiting for me. Bye, Naruto," Kakashi gave a lackadaisical wave and left the training ground in a swirl of leaves.
Minato sighed and left the training ground in a manner similar to Kakashi's, heading for the Forest of Death. Once there, he switched out his orange jumpsuit for more appropriate clothing. He donned a black sleeveless shirt the left his back exposed and a pair of black pants that stopped at his shins and were bound the rest of the way, down to his ankles. He had come to the forest to practise the destructive technique he had shown Jiraiya not too long ago.
Having trained with the technique before the Chunin exams, he had found that by concentrating lightning and wind chakra in the small of his back, he would not have to spend time re-moulding the chakra around his arms and legs with their respective elements each time he hit someone. He could simply channel it from his back a split second faster and in their world, a split second determined if one lived or died. Unfortunately, due to the destructive nature of the chakra he had to focus on his back, the cloth there was blown off too. He simply decided to leave it bare.
His chakra control was now good enough to allow him to compress wind and lightning chakra around his limbs without it leaking out and rapidly draining his reserves. That was what had happened the first time he had shown it to Jiraiya. The amount of chakra sloughing off and being wasted had been appallingly large. He had, however, rectified the mistake and had tested it out the night he had saved Hanabi.
He had increased his chakra control to reign in the violent energies and shape manipulation to keep them moulded around his arms, legs and back. Taming the violent tendencies of the two elements was something he had yet to perfect, though, but he was determined to do so to ensure that they would not lash around loosely and injure himself. Or worse, a team mate.
Inhaling deeply, the blond let loose a wave of chakra. Not long after, he could sense the beasts in the forest respond by charging towards his location. He fell into a standard fighting stance and attempted the technique. Wind chakra whispered across his limbs, streaked through with ribbons of lightning chakra. It remained solely around his body. No dramatic, completely unnecessary and draining, howling and sparking of wind and lightning around him. Just quiet destruction lacing his appendages and back with the occasional crackle of harnessed lightning.
Just as he executed the technique, monstrous animals came into view, thundering towards him, mowing down the surrounding trees to get a shot at their 'prey'. Minato leapt into the air and brought his heel down on the head of one of the beasts in a vicious drop kick. His leg sliced through the beast with minimal resistance, gruesome crunches joining the medley of roars and grunts of the creatures. He jumped away and inspected his leg. It only took him a fraction of a second to channel chakra back to his leg after the strike but what fascinated him was that not a single drop of blood had been spilled. The lightning had cauterised the flesh immediately.
He launched himself back in the battle, adrenaline singing in his veins as he executed each move with deadly accuracy, tremendous strength and, most of all, speed. Somehow, the boost in speed that the technique gave him was exponential. Though it was nowhere near the Hiraishin, it was still good enough to give most low ranked Jounin a run for their money. After decimating the surrounding area and liquidating the mass of beasts, the blond stood in the middle of the forest, meditating. He simply focused on his breathing as sweat slid down his temples and his chest heaved from exertion.
After about twenty minutes of rest, he decided to test out the extent of his accuracy and speed while using the jutsu. He performed the technique again and punched a tree, a fist sized hole now present in the bark. Leaves began to flutter towards the ground, like green birds at the mercy of the wind. The blond moved to intercept the leaves, striking at them before they touched the ground and incinerating them. Soon, the leaves stopped falling and Minato deactivated the technique, leaning against the tree for support.
'It looks like I can only hold it for about half an hour or so,' Minato thought, panting as he slowly slid to a sitting position on the forest floor. The blond scratched a small barrier seal into the bark of the disfigured tree and activated it. He then fell asleep, the wind in the trees whistling a serene lullaby overhead.
The sun was touching the horizon, ready to give way to the night when Minato finally woke up, refreshed and slightly depressed that the day had passed him by so fast. He deactivated the seal, carved it out and burned it, scattering the ashes to the wind before pulling his orange jumpsuit over his training clothes. He had a quick dinner at Ichiraku's, Ayame and Teuchi being as friendly as ever, then headed home to talk to Haku.
He found her staring at the old Oi-nin mask that she used to wear while she was in the service of Zabuza. "Hey. Is now a bad time?" Minato asked, his voice soft and comforting.
"No. It's okay. I was just remembering how Zabuza always seemed to hate my tendency of sparing my opponents. And you were the first one to best me in speed," Haku ran her index finger over the smooth porcelain of the mask. "I know it's silly, but I've always been drawn to Anbu related masks," Haku laughed pleasantly.
"It's not silly. I think it's unique. I mean, I go around doing ninja missions in an orange jumpsuit," Minato joined in the laughter.
"And you're really flaky looking," Haku teased.
Minato stared at her for a while, stunned. Those were the exact same words Kushina had said to him, and there was a small spark of Kushina's chakra in Haku's. He knew what she was going to say next, though it still surprised him how bold she could be at times.
"But I'd sooner have you be Hokage than that snake geezer with no balls, ttebane!" they said in unison. Haku stared at the blond for a while, her face starting to contort comically and finally, she let out an un-ladylike laugh at the look on the ex-Hokage's face.
Minato smiled pleasantly at the warm chakra that had replaced her originally cold energy. She seemed so much like Kushina at that moment that he was sure that she had ended up in a state similar to his. She had also been terrible at staring games. Either way, all he had to do was get her to remember who she was. Easier said than done, though, because the nostalgic chakra was fading fast.
"I've always been meaning to ask you, Naruto, but how old are you?" Haku questioned pleasantly, no trace of Kushina's personality left.
"Thirteen this year. What about you?" the Genin returned the question.
"I guess we're of the same age then," Haku smiled her fake-yet-real smile and stowing the mask away.
"I suppose so. Though I always thought you were at least fifteen because you act so mature," Minato proclaimed, slightly astonished.
"Are you saying I look old?" the male ninja paled when he sensed Kushina's persona surface and he knew how touchy she was about her age. He also knew that she could get extremely violent, and that might have been putting it lightly. 'It' being her temper and violent tendencies.
"Uh, no. I should get going. Meeting with the team tomorrow. Night," the blond legged it out of the house, leaving nothing behind except for his stunted excuse.
"What am I going to do with you, Minato...?" Haku sighed tiredly. "Hmm? The bingo book guy?" Haku gave a mental shrug at the statement that had unintentionally slipped from her lips and turned in for the night, not letting the stranger's name bother her at all. After all, he was just some dead, but maybe still alive, person in an old bingo book.
A/N: I'm really really really sorry that this chapter is so short! But I've decided to try to update more often now. It's just that I'm really scared that this chapter will turn out badly... Umm... Well... please, leave a review. I would really appreciate any advice that would help my wayward story. Thank you for your support! Really! Thank you!