AN: One thing is absolutely certain. I am so cruel. And I'm very sorry for taking so long (5-6 months?!) to update! I promise it won't take quite that long again.
Extra chapter notes: The name Yutaka, which is used in this chapter, means "abundant, plentiful, and rich."
Nobu means "delay" and Yamaguchi means "mountain mouth."
-This chapter is dedicated to xXJeanetteXx who wrote a very inspiring private message to me about this story and further pushing me into writing more. Also to my friend, DryBonesKing, for pestering me.-
Chapter Three:
Rock Rain
"The strongest of this earth are not those who have fought and come out alive, but are those who have fought and endured and still remained as human as the day they were born."
He shivered violently in the corner of his earthen prison, rapid breaths releasing from his mouth in a fast succession. The hard stone that surrounded him was shaped like a cage and he was too weak to even attempt to escape from it. Naruto's fists clenched and he brought them closer to his chest, wheezing out as he did so.
His skin was drenched in cold sweat, somehow kind of tingly, and he could feel beads of it forming directly about his pores. Though the young Namikaze had been sick before, he had never quite felt this badly. His joints ached, especially his lower back. If he could describe everything in one confusing word however, the blond would say he was numb.
How long had it been since the Iwa nins had taken him? He couldn't be so sure. How long had it been since he had a decent and warm meal that actually satisfied his appetite? Days, maybe. The enemy shinobi had made it a point to barely feed him. They needed him alive for some odd reason, but only just, and feeding him a small bowl of brown, stale rice, and a pitiful canteen of funny smelling water at what seemed like spontaneous and extremely spaced-out intervals were included in "keeping the Namikaze shit alive." Whatever that meant.
But what was worse was the horrible psychological torture they decided would be hilarious to play on him. In fact, the Iwa nins had only started playing the little trick on him the previous morning and the four-year-old child was so hopeful that it would cause him to fall for it every single time.
The stone door creaked open as a shinobi with an earth affinity used a technique to temporarily push it down and in stepped in a very familiar man with blond hair and blue eyes, a pure white cloak with orange-red flames decorated the bottom edges, and a kind, painfully placid and endearing expression upon his face.
"…Naruto," the man said tenderly as the blond boy set a watery gaze to look at him, "I'm here. I'm sorry it took so long. I promise that nothing will happen to you ever again."
The blond, older man calmly walked up to the trembling child. He cautiously crouched down and placed comforting palms on the boy's shaking shoulders. But Naruto flinched away, afraid of the tentative touch. "I won't hurt you, Naruto. I promise. I care about you. I'll bring you back home to Konoha and then you'll be safe again. Don't you trust me?" The man smiled that incredibly startling and kindly smile and whispered, "It's me. Remember?"
And Naruto did. He did remember. But maybe that's why it hurt to high heaven so much. "Yes. I 'member," the little kid mumbled out, words quiet and a bit slurred from exhaustion. "It's you…daddy? Daddy…daddy…" And he cried, soft sobs and sniffles rocking him slightly. "Daddy…I missed you…daddy…I wanna go home…daddy…where's mommy? I'm scared…daddy…"
Then, just as Naruto easily slid into his father's soft embrace and just as he turned his head so that he could hear the reassuring heartbeat in his father's chest, a hard slap burned at his sensitive cheek's skin and a cold, vile form of laughter could be heard echoing throughout the cell. His father had dropped him effortlessly and without remorse upon the ground and stood up, effectively forming hand seals as he towered over the small form.
"Release," the imposter said and there stood another man who clearly was not his father. His kind, loving, gentle, and warm father. In his place stood a burly man with a biting leer, his false façade vanished, and that distinctive scar running across his chin.
A boot found its way to Naruto's face and he sobbed uncontrollably now when he realized the trick had gotten him once again. He felt like a squeamish and helpless fool.
"How's that you pasty brat? Accurate enough? Gave you enough artificial hope? And what about that will of fire of yours? Is that thing still supposedly burning within you? You seemed desperate enough. Would Konoha's Yellow Flash really stoop that low to even think twice about a worthless little child like you?" Unexpectedly, his stare only grew more frigid and if Naruto hadn't been so busy crying into the dirt, he would have noticed a slim drop in temperature.
"Why would he even bother to be that gentle with anyone? He's a murderer. Don't ever forget that kid. Your father isn't who he claims to be, what your insignificant village marks him up to be. He's strong; I'll give him that, a legend even. But in the hearts of men he is a beast waiting to pounce, a monster, a demon waiting for the next kill. He'll never come to save you. He doesn't care. He never will. You'll stay here to rot." And a significant footprint shone red on Naruto's forehead and nose, a nice purpling bruise as well, as the Iwa ninja walked out of the prison cell with a careless wave, his back to him.
As Riku walked out, the door slid shut and he noticed, yet again, the emerald irises of his trusted comrade.
"That was undoubtedly cruel, Riku," Midori stated nonchalantly and the muscular man nodded towards her, smirking as they sauntered away, the feeble and defenseless cries of the Yellow Flash's only son rumbling and muffled across the closed stone entrance and through the earthen hallways of their hideout, and they laughed at the falseness of their cold-hearted warmth.
ooo
The Fourth Hokage did not receive a wink of sleep the previous night, and neither did his wife. The sun was already high up and the day was approaching early afternoon. As his sleepy azure eyes stared blankly at the glass fishbowl sitting proudly on his paper-and-scroll-riddled desk, the orange scales of the goldfish his son had given him that evening two days and a half ago swam in never ending circles, sparkling with water and natural shine.
Of course, he had wanted to set out on a mission immediately, but however, the Council of Elders had adamantly refused. Though they all knew the gravity of the situation, and knew not just of the fact that this was the Hokage's son that went missing, but also the Kyuubi's jinchuuriki, the predicament called for careful planning and rational decision making. Under normal circumstances, (if you call the world of the ninja normal), Minato would have easily seen this logic, but his demeanor at the moment was nowhere near rational.
His only son was missing, his only little boy, his wife was distraught with unbearable worry, and the village was in an uproar with parents refusing to let their children out of sight. For the first time in four years since the Nine-Tails had attacked his beloved village, Minato felt like an utter failure as father, a leader, and a human being in general.
A slight flicker in the Hokage's peripheral vision disturbed his thoughts and into view came the face of his only remaining student, save for his ANBU mask, and only dressed in the standard Konoha green flak jacket of a Jounin.
"Sensei," the Hatake said with an emotionless tone, "Jiraya-sama has arrived and is here to see you. The Third also has requested the Council of Elders to convene at three o'clock this afternoon. You have a few hours." The teenager sighed, his only visible eye crinkling in worry.
"And," the silver-haired teen continued, "If there's anything I can…"
Minato blinked and his stare was ice cold as he completely ignored his student's concern. "Please allow Jiraya-sensei into my office. Kakashi, resume your post and await orders. I will call you when the Council decides to meet. I expect you to be there on time."
Eyebrows furrowing in resignation, his student lowered his head, nodded, and opened the office's door to reveal a tall man with a mane of white hair, a rigid jaw, and crimson eye makeup running from the ends of his lower eyelids to his chin. Kakashi poof-ed away simultaneously.
The man identified as Jiraya sauntered into the room, careful to make sure the entrance was shut tightly, and set his gaze upon the village leader before him. Jiraya's eyes were dark and deliberating; not at all like the lecherous streak he had earned himself in the local women's bathhouses. His façade was serious and his lips formed a frown as he observed the blond before him, watching as the younger man's hands propped up his head and his stare remained icy.
"Well," the taller man's voice boomed. He did not bother to take a seat, but instead stood defiantly in front of the mahogany desk. "If it isn't my promising student. Care to explain all this to me; why you haven't made a move yet? Or rather, why you're letting the Council of fools hold you back? "
He was only met with an even more frigid stare.
The self-proclaimed lecher sighed deeply. "Minato, I know you better than this. What are you doing here, sitting on your thumbs while Kakashi worries himself to no end, trying to figure out how to find your son, and you could have easily ordered a search team? I'm sure the Hatake brat would be more than willing to take the job."
It was then that the stillness snapped. Wood screeched upon tile as the Hokage's chair backed into the wall, its owner standing away from it. Minato's eyes were downcast and his expression unreadable. A pregnant pause passed until suddenly, both his palms pounded once in a decisive gesture on his writing desk. Seemingly unfazed, Jirarya did not bother to flinch. He stayed quiet and still as the reverberating sound echoed for a few seconds in the room and the hallways behind the door.
Nothing moved. Nothing stirred. All was deathly hushed.
"You think…you think this isn't difficult?" Minato murmured, breaking the silence. "You think that I…that I want it to be this way?"
Jiraya listened warily. Minato never allowed himself to be this emotional, especially when acting as the Hokage. He was kind, yes, had human emotions, yes. But he had never seen his student acting so…vulnerable. It was like viewing an entirely different person. The whole display was wholly uncharacteristic of his personality. The man wasn't himself at all and that worried the teacher.
"It wasn't as if I allowed them to take my son," the Fourth went on in a bitter whisper, "Perhaps the village wasn't diligent enough with the festivities going on. Perhaps I was too lax. But that does not change the fact that they took him.
"That does not change the fact that the Council will not let me make a move because they're too caught up in the idea of fear of instigating another war with Iwa, or that the ransom note those shinobi left behind all point to having an exchange involving my life for my son's. You know that if it is for my son, I would gladly give up my life, sensei."
Jiraya, one of the renowned and legendary Sannin, could no longer take what he deemed as nonsense. The older man's dark orbs narrowed dangerously and his scowl only deepened. Without so much as a warning, he had lashed out with an angry snarl to his most talented and favorite student.
One of the Sannin's fingers pointed accusingly at the blond. "Then what are you doing here? This isn't the Third Shinobi War anymore, Minato! You don't have to put this off any longer! Look at yourself! This is destroying you!"
"I don't—"
"Don't bother hiding it from me! Don't you think I know you better? This isn't like you at all! It's almost been three days since the incident from what I've heard, and yet, here you are, standing still." The white-haired main glowered. "You never stand still. I know you want to try and think rationally, but sometimes the irrational solution is the better choice in a situation like this."
Another short silence stretched in the room and Minato blinked, gaze focused somewhere downward. He could not bear to look at his teacher directly. Somehow, somewhere in his gut, he knew the man was right. He knew it, but yet he could not swallow the truth whole. He and his wife had been worried sick for their son, getting sleepless nights and eating speechless meals with each other. They had both wordlessly agreed that they needed to try to at least be a little reasonable. It was not smart to simply jump into the fray and retrieve their son without proper planning and coordination, least of all when it was a ransom for the Land of Fire's Hokage.
And yet…
They had waited too long indeed.
The Namikaze locked eyes with the whitewashed tiles on his office floor. "I know," he softly said, "You're right."
ooo
"Hokage-sama, if I may," the Elder Koharu stated a little forcefully, her old and wrinkled forehead crinkling with visible displeasure. "But the rationale behind Iwa's attack was to force you to act and to seek vengeance for the Leaf's superior performance in the Third Shinobi War. Wouldn't it be more prudent for the village and for our Hokage—you—if we simply leave this matter to unfold on its own? Perhaps we should let them take their bait and give them nothing to exchange."
The Fourth narrowed his gaze at the old woman, an icy stare boring into her person. He frowned and was about to come up with a reply when the white-haired Sannin interrupted.
Jiraya stood to the right hand side of his favorite student, arms crossed defiantly on his chest while Minato sat on the Hokage's chair on an elevated portion of the Council room. His predecessor and the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, sat nearby with an expressionless façade. Standing without his dog mask in the far former nearest to the door was Kakashi Hatake. All around them, multiple clan heads and other influential shinobi of Konoha sat seemingly patiently, waiting to give their input.
The meeting had been called by the Third himself at three o'clock sharp, yet they had been arguing for the past few hours. Minato was not sure whether evening had fully set in or not.
"Are you saying we should leave the boy to die, Koharu?" The Sannin asked with barely hidden venom.
The Elder gripped the armrests tightly and raised her voice ever so slightly. "I'm saying that this village has no need for that boy! Why should we be forced to choose between the lives of our leader and a weak child? The answer is obvious isn't it? Konoha needs our Fourth Hokage more than the life of a four-year-old toddler! Not to mention that toddler holds the Nine Tails! If Iwa kills the boy, they kill the demon for decades until it returns."
Another man with dark, medium length hair and coal-black eyes stood immediately after her comment, showing a hint of cold ferocity and emotionless irritation. He was Fugaku Uchiha, the head of the acclaimed Uchiha Clan and Police Force.
"If not then for the life of an innocent little boy who is not only a member of this village, but the son of our Hokage, then for the fact that Naruto is the Nine Tails' jinchuuriki…Elder Koharu," Fugaku stated venomously. "Since obviously an older woman such as yourself lacks a moral conscience—"
"Conscience," Homura, the male elder sitting with poise near the aged woman, snarled. "Conscience? Any Uchiha like you with morals is enough of a surprise!"
A screeching noise reverberated through the Council Room, wood against ceramic scratched up tile. Another member had stood up in justified fury. Hiashi Hyuuga , the head of the prominent Hyuuga Clan, had also stood tall while directing his pupil-less eyes at the elders who seemed to be sitting with cold logic spread across their features.
The Hyuuga and the Uchiha were not traditionally known to get along quite well as they both had an elusive Bloodline Limit, but they were united in at least one respect as most in their generation were: they were passionately loyal to their Fourth Hokage.
Minato had changed many things in Konoha and became the leader that the village desperately needed, especially after the Third Great War. He had pressed Hiashi to realize that his clan's Caged Bird Seal would end up detrimental one day and was, quite frankly, rather harsh. He had pushed for the Uchiha's innocence when they were accused of unleashing the Kyuubi four years previously, and even fought for them when angry shinobi attempted to attack their compound when many still thought they needed to blame someone for the death of their friends and families in the Kyuubi attack. Of course, the majority of the village saw Naruto as a hero for keeping the demon at bay at such a young age and even respected him, but there were a few others, such as the Elders, who saw the boy as a threat, which brought up a fierce battle of words.
"I agree with the Uchiha," the Hyuuga leader stated firmly, which brought about a good amount of wide eyed stares and gasps of shock directed towards his intimidating form. "If not for the blameless child himself, then for the Leaf. If Iwa gets a hold of our jinchuuriki, whether they are aware of it or not, the balance of power would be greatly damaged and obviously not tip in our favor. If the situation is left alone, Iwa will eventually discover that Naruto Namikaze holds the Nine-Tails, and if they do, it would not be difficult to force a child who is not strong enough to defend himself to unleash his tenant upon their enemies, including us."
Koharu scoffed at the comment. "Preposterous! The Hidden Stone would sooner dispose of the son of the bane of their existence than to keep him as a reminder of their most tragic loss."
"And if they do?" The Hyuuga continued, unfazed. "The Kyuubi would be temporarily subdued, but only just. We do not know for sure if it would take decades or even months for the beast to return full force. You know as well as I do that one cannot simply 'kill a tailed-beast.' Then what? The balance of power would be tipped on an even larger scale and there would be no immediate host to keep it under control. More lives will be lost."
"You can't possibly—"
Minato had just about enough. Realizing that any emotional outburst would not benefit him in the Council Room, he had made sure to shape his face into something that remained stoic after his uncharacteristic behavior in front of his teacher back at the Hokage Tower. But now, after hours of constant arguing and badgering and running in circles that went absolutely nowhere, the Yellow Flash was more than ready to make an appearance and settle his authority once and for all.
"That's enough," the blond said in an eerily calm voice. The members of the Council shifted their attention to the leader immediately and the Uchiha and Hyuuga lowered themselves into their respective chairs without another word.
He went on, "Elder Koharu, while I deeply respect your opinion on the matter, I have to say that I disagree." The woman looked as if she was about to interrupt him, but he cut her off with a glare. "Personal feelings aside, I'm sure you all know where I stand. I agree with the Uchiha and the Hyuuga…
He paused and subsequently took a deep, confident breath. "…And therefore would like to propose the mission that I'm sure you all could also see coming."
From that point onward, the meeting was concluded within the next thirty minutes. In fact, the entire group of Clan Heads including the Uchiha, Hyuuga, Nara, Yamanaka, Akimichi, and so on, all stood up for their Hokage. Astonishingly, the old war hawk, Danzo Shimura, had also put in his vote in the Hokage's favor. Though, it could be said that it was for personal reasons. A very small minority, including the Elders but minus the Third Hokage, voted otherwise.
With well over a two-thirds vote in place, the proposed mission was a go. The Third was to retake his position as active Hokage for the duration of the event, and Jiraya of the Sannin and Kakashi Hatake would accompany the Fourth to retrieve his son and "negotiate" with Iwa. If this was a mission ordered by the Tsuchikage, tensions would arise, but that was something that was already unavoidable, ordered or not.
Of course, there were conditions. Kushina was not to go with her husband, even as much as many knew she wanted. Minato reluctantly agreed, but knew, however, that if he did not agree to the terms, then the mission would face rejection. The Elders were afraid that if Kushina went there were chances of the Hidden Stone capturing her and using her for her special Uzumaki chakra. At that moment, there were numerous in the room that desired to point out that Naruto had that "special Uzumaki chakra" as well.
However many tries it took, the mission was finally signed for approval. They would depart in the premature hours of the morning the following day.
ooo
"Is this the right thing to do, sensei?"
Jiraya chuckled. "Of course. Naruto needs an example and that example is you. 'A son watching his father's back will eventually get better.' Right, Hokage?"
"You're getting sentimental again. You know that's not what I mean."
A sigh, and then the Sannin replied, "Right, right. You want to know if this mission was the right choice…"
"Right," said Minato softly. "So is it?"
Kakashi Hatake, a fairly newly minted legal adult in his own right, listened to the banter of his teacher and his teacher's teacher as he leaned against the village gates with a book held up to cover his masked face. Their voices were rising in loudness, so he supposed that that two were approaching him and would arrive at his side soon enough. He heard footsteps and a startled intake of breath as Kushina, the red-haired beauty that was his teacher's wife, appeared to be dumbfounded.
"Kakashi? You're…early?" she spat out, clearly dumbfounded.
The eighteen-year-old blinked; lowering the novel he was reading and replied, "It was too important to be late for. Naru has been waiting long enough. Obito would understand."
The three older shinobi had arrived at that point and were staring pointedly at Kakashi with raised eyebrows. The teenager simply responded in a similar fashion and they exchanged statements of well-meaning and good luck to each other, Kushina especially. She was noticeably upset that she was barred from assisting with the rescue of her son, but in the end she had to agree with Minato, albeit quite unenthusiastically. It was a deal or no deal predicament.
The sun was starting to rise, signaling the beginnings of daybreak. It would soon be time to depart. The gate keepers nodded their consent at their Hokage who had abandoned his trademark white coat for a more traditional jounin attire. Kushina waved at her husband, whispering to be careful and to bring back Naruto safely, and the trio was about to exit the village when they heard a light shuffling behind them. In a second little nine-year-old Itachi Uchiha and his younger four-year-old brother, Sasuke appeared from behind one of the enormous gates.
Sasuke, who was grasping his brother's hand timidly, looked up with wide eyes to Minato, who could not help but stare back.
"Um," the youngest Uchiha mumbled in a childish voice, "Bring my friend back, m'kay?"
The father smiled down at the boy, his heart touched without letting it be known. "Of course. It's a promise."
"Really, really promise?" the raven haired boy questioned with a touch more confidence as he held out his tiny, miniature pinky to the elder blond adult. "Pinky promise?"
"Now, little brother…" Itachi tried to reprimand him for being so informal to their village leader, but Minato waved him off, instead holding out his right hand's pinky to the boy and replied with a soft smile and a statement of, "Pinky promise."
Satisfied, the two hooked their fingers, making an air of hope fill the surrounding areas and the people around them suddenly felt as if Naruto would come back to them after all. A man never went back on his word and a child would never, never allow a broken promise.
Subsequently the three man squad was off and out of the Village Hidden in the Leaves, on their way out of the Land of Fire and into enemy territory in the Land of Earth as the rays of the early morning had barely begun to make cracks in the slowly lightening sky above them. They had left behind a waiting village, but most of all a waiting mother, brother, and best friend. Yet there was a great deal of hardship on the road ahead…
Soon day had transformed into night. With the rate the Leaf ninja were travelling and with the added bonus of the fastest shinobi known to be alive on their team, they would arrive at the border of the Land of Earth by early noontime even if they did take a few hours to rest in the middle of Grass Country, the direct northwestern nation bordering Fire Country.
According to their source (the Iwa shinobi that stupidly attempted to attack the Hokage on the night of Naruto's abduction), the hideout where the child would be hidden was nestled just past the border of Grass and Earth in the narrow Yutaka Mountain. The base was concealed by a great number of seals, but with two seal masters including the Hokage and his teacher, and a Sharingan Eye user, they most likely would be of no consequence. However, that did not deter from the fact that danger would surely present itself.
Darkness trickled down the horizon, covering the rustling leaves in a blanket of purples, grays, and blacks. The swaying grass of the nation's namesake tickled the three travelers' ankles and brushed against their sandals, alerting them to the incoming later hours of the evening. Crickets chirped dissonantly in the background until Kakashi's sensitive hearing caused his eardrums to ring uncomfortably.
They had set up a temporary camp in the middle of a grass plain, the plants tall enough that they were even enough to cover up to the imposing height of Jiraya, albeit just barely. Minato volunteered to keep watch; they would only rest for a maximum of five hours anyway. It was imperative that they continue moving as quickly as possible. Who knew what the enemy could be doing to his son?
Kakashi had leaned against a comfortable stone near their portion of the clearing and had subsequently closed his eyes in obvious sleep when the Sannin had dared to break the silence and speak with his former student who was no doubt brooding silently, his back facing their camp and his body crouched in a sitting position with one knee tucked near his chest.
"You know if you keep your face like that it will eventually stay that way," the older man said as he stood with his arms crossed defiantly across his broad chest. "And if you keep sitting like that you might get arthritis at a premature age."
He sunk down adjacent to the Namikaze, finally noticing that he had been staring without purpose at the nighttime's starless sky. It was a new moon that darkened the usually twinkling skies and he supposed it did not help that there were numerous shadows of gloomy clouds flitting by. The breeze was virtually nonexistent while, somehow, the biting and progressively colder weather of autumn seeped through the fabrics of their clothing. Journeying north proved to be somewhat of a miserable experience not only because of the circumstances, but because it was an obvious transition from the Fire Country's warm climate to a harsher one.
Silently and quite suddenly, a red looking star flickered into existence.
Jiraya pointed to the light and stated, "Look at that. Correct me if I'm wrong but I'd say that's the planet Mars. Strange it's the only one showing tonight."
"I can't say I noticed, sensei," Minato murmured back.
The white-haired man huffed and pouted his lips, looking quite like an odd, complaining toad. "Ah you're just being a killjoy," he responded. "But you know what they say about that planet?"
The Hokage glanced at his teacher with a questioning gaze and Jiraya went on. "It's the planet that means war, named after some god from some distant land none of us have ever heard of. I'm no astronomy specialist, but they also call it the Red Planet, something about the gases and the volcanoes people say they think are on it. I suppose that's fitting, war…
"If you think about our situation now, war makes a lot of sense, but if you think about it further, it would make less sense that Mars doesn't show up every day. We're shinobi. We live for battle and conflict, don't we? "
Minato sighed, closing his azure eyes. "And that's the problem with our world. When one person thinks they are rebuilding the world, another believes it is being destroyed, and when one person thinks the world is being collapsed into the dust, it's the opposite for someone else. It is a vicious cycle, this hatred, and the reason Naruto is gone."
For a while, there was nothing but silence and the sound of the continuous chirping of crickets. Neither could deny the ultimate truth. Warfare breeds warfare and hatred breeds hatred. When one loves, he or she is also bound to hate. It is the result of human nature, the result of an imperfect humanity and the human heart. In order to compensate for what one person may believe to be a previous wrongdoing, vengeance is called upon, and then again, and again, and again…
Because Minato loved his country, he fought bravely and loyally in the Third Shinobi War. Because the Iwa ninja loved their families and friends, they grew to despise the man that killed them just because he was following his heart to protect his own nation. Because that same man that killed so many in the war loved his son, they exacted their revenge by threatening his life.
And again the cycle continued without restraint.
And through the night they dreamed of these things, seeing weapons fly and flashes of yellow zip rapidly across whole battalions and wads of resilient earth rising up to strike and maim those that stood in their path. They dreamed of falling rocks and comrades, of a brave Uchiha who had chosen to see the future through his left eye by giving it to his friend. In their dreams somewhere, a strange man with an orange swirled mask appeared in the shadows of their mind like a faded memory; he was a constant reminder of the hatred of the world poised on one person, one point. But by the time they had woken up and Kakashi had finished his shift, both men had already forgotten about the masked man and Kakashi was unconsciously rubbing his covered left eye.
ooo
The phenomenon of "rock rain" was a bizarre one. And, as the title suggested, that was exactly what was happening at that very moment.
Minuscule rocks and pebbles were raining from the sky on the northwestern edge of Grass Country. The impressive summit of the Earth Country's bordering mountain range towered magnificently above the land, casting long and stretched shadows that extended for miles behind the travelling ninja, and one pebble in particular ker-plunk 'ed onto the Hatake's gravity defying hair.
It was early afternoon, judging by the positioning of the sun and the not-quite-warm-enough weather. They had made it to their destination in record time and so far, all was going according to the plan.
"Judging from the landscape and our intelligence reports, Yutaka mountain is only just under six kilometers from here. With our speed, we should be able to reach the hideout within an hour," Minato stated as they raided their head to look up at the beginnings of the mountain range bordering Grass and Earth. "From there we should be able to formulate a plan and attack on the onset of evening."
They did not want to wait too long to break Naruto out of the hold. There was no telling what the Iwa shinobi would do, but they did want to attack as close to the afternoon hours as possible when the enemy would least expect it. The problem was the enemy did expect them. A ransom note was not left for nothing. It was Konoha's Fourth Hokage for Naruto Namikaze, a deal which was clearly unacceptable even to most of the village who valued both lives to be as precious to them as gold was to the greedy man.
"Kakashi, save up your chakra for Obito's Sharingan. I'm sure you will need his help," the Fourth said sternly, glancing at his student who nodded in confirmation while he tightened his forehead protector that encircled his head and covered his secret weapon.
"Let's go."
And so they were off, using the cover of the stones and ever daunting mountain range as cover, taking advantage of how lucky they were that Earth Country had become lenient in guarding its borders immediately after the end of the war effort. The three man squad crossed into the rival nation quite easily.
Their lack of a fourth member was also forgotten and ignored. With two kage-level shinobi and one that was more than capable of becoming that level in the near future, there was simply no need. Nrauto would join them soon anyway. He had to.
Naruto, Minato thought to himself as his blue eyes finally locked onto their target, I promise that I will get you out of there and then you'll be safe again. I promise…!
Slightly less than an hour had passed and Yutaka Mountain was clear in their line of sight. The sun had only just barely dipped further down in the sky, the afternoon still fairly early. The climb had not been as difficult as one would first imagine, but then again, all three members were highly trained ninja. Their packs contained mountain climbing gear, but it was hardly even needed, and so the trio crouched silently on a rocky cliff directly adjacent to the target.
Yutaka was narrow, as the reports said. Because it was such an important mountain to the Earth Country in that it was a major source of income and riches, namely the precious minerals that were mined from its stony confines, the name was carved rather crudely on a few sides of it. Numerous entrances to either in-use or too-used mines littered the base and even were built nearer to the peak. A cave entrance to an abandoned mine shaft stood tauntingly out to them, but Kakashi immediately took the opportunity to observe it.
When the silver-haired teenager activated his red, kaleidoscope-like eye, the cave blurred and swirled out of existence, the littered wood that served to look like some sort of makeshift door rippled out of sight and he saw the true entrance; it was a large boulder completely blocking out an opening and a single, circular, complex seal with no clear pattern was inked with black solidly in the middle. When he told his teacher and the Sannin this, both nodded and sank into their thoughts to think.
Minato sighed and pulled out a sheet of scrap paper from his gear pack, retrieving a pen as well.
"Kakashi, can you copy the seal exactly as you see it onto this? We need to see what we're dealing with," he suggested and the one addressed took the tools with a determined look, aware that the Sharingan would allow him to copy things exactly as they were.
As the pen scratched hurriedly across the white, both Minato and Jiraya gasped in surprise. The blond stared wide-eyed at the paper, and they were both somehow amazed at the complexity of the seal and its outright dangerous nature. They were in for some problems.
"Minato," the Sannin said with a pointed look to his student, and the Fourth understood right away.
Not only was a powerful genjutsu cast on the entrance to the perpetrators' hideout (for clearly this was the hideout) that only those with either the Byakugan or the Sharingan could hope to notice it, but they were so diverse in nature that they could possibly have a skilled sealing master on their side. As it was, they would be lucky if they could break the seal before daybreak.
The Hatake was growing worried with the looks and glances both older men were giving each other. "What kind of seal is it, sensei?"
Minato's eyes narrowed considerably. "It's a specific summoning seal that activates if it detects even a hint of shinobi chakra touching it," he took a deep breath then continued, "According to the seal you wrote out, it is also responsible for casting the genjutsu over the entrance and, if provoked, it will summon an Iwa jinchuuriki to fight us. If the seal is to fail, it will release an unnamed poison if not properly disabled and tampered with, which would seem virtually impossible without breaking the genjutsu which the seal itself is already casting."
Jiraya continued the thought for him, saying, "The seal isn't impossible to break. Both Minato and I can handle it with your guidance on what we might not be able to see." He gestured over to the Namikaze with his thumb and said, "After all this guy has dealt with far more complex seals like the Shiki Fujin.
"However, even with our skill, it's more likely that the seal would take well up to two days to break and we don't have that kind of time. We need a new plan, and fast. Naruto's waiting for us and I'm not about to let my godson wait any longer."
Minato gazed at the supposed mine shaft entrance, seeing his four-year-old son's smiling face in his mind's eye. An unwavering resolve burned through his chest and suddenly he was hit with a reckless plan, a plan as irrational as his Kushina was on a daily basis, a plan that the Yellow Flash of Konoha would surely never suggest in stride.
He clenched his fists, ignoring the curious glimpses he was undoubtedly receiving from both teacher and student. He saw Naruto again, giggling and grinning as he offered his father the plastic bag which contained the happily swimming goldfish, begging him to please let him ride on his back to the Hokage Tower just this once, running around with Sasuke while Itachi chased them in a rough-and-ready game of tag…
Caught in the middle of a father's unfaltering desire to protect his child, Minato Namikaze gathered the blazing Will of Fire he carried within the deepest depths of his heart and said with a commanding tone that anyone would be forced to obey, "I have a plan…"
And Kakashi and Jiraya made no move to contradict the rashness of it as the strategy began to flow into motion.
So they found themselves separated forty-five minutes later after formulating and perfecting the wild-card plan. Minato stood before the entrance of the hideout without his billowing white and flame-trimmed Hokage cloak he usually donned nowadays. He was alone, his arms seemingly relaxed by his sides and though he was dressed as a normal jounin, he still held that unforgiving and powerful countenance of a leader who witnessed warmongering times, eyes icy cold as the winter season he was born into.
Kakashi and Jiraya hid skillfully a good distance away behind a clump of rocks, carefully hiding their chakra and more than one-hundred percent sure that the enemy would not be able to detect them. They were too skillful in their craft, age differences a moot point.
Calmly, Minato stepped another foot or so forward nearer to the entranceway and stopped just before the estimated place the boulder began, not daring to brush against the seal and he gently fingered the ransom note he kept in his pocket. Then abruptly, he used his commanding voice again, the baritone reflecting and bouncing off the mountains in the background in refracting sound waves like an unnerving echo.
"Iwa, Konoha has received your message. I, Minato Namikaze and Fourth Hokage from the Land of Fire am here to negotiate your terms." After a few seconds of no response, he added in an impossibly more intimidating tone, "Show yourselves!"
A terse breeze zipped by, cutting into the three Leaf ninjas' skin, and the silence ceased to exist. A strange rumbling noise reverberated in the mountain pass, causing the bizarre phenomenon of the rock rain to tilt sharply in the air as if commanded by some higher being to do so, and puffs of smoke lifted soundlessly on random edges of Yutaka Mountain.
A middle-aged man appeared standing on a ledge a few meters away from the ground that Minato stood confidently upon. He looked as if he could have been handsome some years ago if it weren't for the ugly red scar the slanted across from his right temple, through his eye, across his nose bridge, and finally curling awkwardly to the left edge of his lower lip, looking almost as if he had two bottom lips instead of one. His hair was a dark purplish brown and was cut in a ragged fashion to curve just below his jaw line. He was dirty, rugged, an Iwa jounin's vest strapped carelessly on his chest which was clearly not taken care of often as it had obtained holes and scratches that any seasoned shinobi would have patched up when given the chance. His left calf appeared disfigured and bumpy and his eyes were black with cunning and hate, but what stood out the most was the man's wicked smile.
"I am Nobu Yamaguchi," the foul presence snarled, "leader of the Stone's fiercest avengers. And you—Yellow Flash—are not here to negotiate, but to agree. If we sense that you resist, your little Namikaze shit will be silenced—right in front of his father."
The Hokage almost scowled in hot-blooded anger. How dare he talk about Naruto like that? How dare he even suggest or even imply an inkling of an idea of hurting his little boy? But he forced himself to keep his head leveled. If Minato let his emotions show now, they would not doubt use his weakness to their advantage. It was not as if he had not been significantly weakened by the mere fact that they had his son in the first place, and that thought was held over him like a noose. If they hurt Naruto, they ultimately hurt him. These men knew how to play their cards quite well.
Unfortunately for them, they had no idea of what kind of game they were playing.
He almost demanded that Yamaguchi take him to Naruto, but Minato had to suppress the father in him. If he asked so soon, he would appear desperate. He needed to keep his political air.
Calm. Cool. Confident, he thought before saying that he was alone just as they had requested out loud. "We will negotiate your terms, shinobi," Minato continued with the same intimidating tone, "Don't forget who you're speaking to."
The enemy jounin snarled and replied, "Very well," without the countenance to fight back. It was obvious, however, that the reply was made to appease the Yellow Flash if only for the time being. Even the strongest of foes abhorrently refused to fight with the man.
Yamaguchi jumped in front of Minato who still appeared totally unfazed. His hands created and formed a series of strange hand seals in a rapid combination that if Kakashi was not prepared with his Sharingan eye, he would not have memorized them quickly enough. After his hands finished moving, the man clapped three times and said in a whisper, "The rock's rain eliminates our enemies under the solid rule of the stone's great shadow." Jiraya smirked as he made note of the password.
A black swirl began to form in the middle of the boulder formation from the very center. It started small and circular, than it seemed to melt away into a circle portal that only looked dark and obscure from afar; not a trace of light had shone through. Just as the duo was about to go through the entrance, Kakashi observed the quiet and unnoticed gesture his teacher had given him: two fingers as if pointing downward at his side as a Hirashin seal stealthily slid down to the very spot he was standing on, and then they watched as their village's fourth and respected leader stepped through after following the Iwa jounin and with a distinctive pop the hole dissolved in on itself as speedily as it came and the two figures vanished from sight.
Jiraya and Kakashi waited ten minutes, eyeing their surroundings to make sure that no one was watching, and when they were sure that they were completely alone, the two set out to begin the reckless mission they had set out to do, aware that even if they succeeded, it would guarantee a small army of Iwa shinobi chasing them in an irregular trail.
"The rock's rain eliminates our enemies under the solid rule of the stone's great shadow," Kakashi murmured after the Legendary Sannin told him what to say after he performed the memorized hand seals, and like just minutes before, the portal opened for them and they followed the Hokage inside.
ooo
Minato and the enemy walked the halls in silence on abandoned train tracks in a cool and semi-dank feeling tunnel, but the air was mostly dry. Off to their side was an overturned metal cart that once was used on the tracks to bring around piles of stone out of the mine. The walls were covered in strips and planks of rotting wood and torches that were secured tightly against the wall lined the hallways. Minato supposed (and was entirely grateful) that this fact signified that there was a lack of bad air in this particular old mine that many seemed to have buildup of.
The fire danced and flickered on the surface of the rugged tracks they were stepping over and the rocks casted interesting shapes upon the floor. Poking through the ceiling planks were tiny stalactites, some looking brittle and as if they were about to collapse.
They made multiple turns and Minato hoped that the tracking seal he had placed on his person would be enough for his teacher and his student to keep an eye out for his movements. Radio communication would not be effective in a mountain as enclosed spaces such as this one had the annoying tendency to interfere with the signal.
After a few minutes of silence Yamaguchi stopped in front of a cut-out looking door that was surely placed there after the mine was abandoned. His dirty hand grasped the rusty knob and he turned it, revealing a barren room with a few metal stools and a low, dusty wooden table near the center. Around the room was a group of ragtag shinobi, both male and female, but all clearly from Iwa.
A muscular man with a scar marring his firm chin scowled immediately when Minato entered and subsequently spat at his feet, staining the ground Minato was about to step on with saliva.
"It's you," the man stated bitterly while raising a fist, "You. Yellow Flash!" His fist unclenched and he grabbed a fistful of Minato's jounin vest, dragging the blond closer to him in an attempt to intimidate. The Hokage's face remained expressionless and utterly unafraid in the entire ordeal, not in the slightest bit worried that his life was supposedly being threatened.
"You bastard! It's because of you that my mother died of heartache, that my father couldn't bear to look at me without thinking of my twin brother! Murderer! Scum! I'll—" and he was about to bring back his other fist when a green eyed woman swiftly held the arm back.
"Riku," the woman ninja said calm. "Remember what I said before. Stay calm. You're making a fool out of yourself in front of a powerful adversary that even many other kages cannot hope to defeat." In response, he roughly dropped Minato, who did not even stumble as he stood up straight again, his gaze piercing like an icepick striking through the thin layers of hoarfrost.
The female nodded and bowed to him, saying, "I am sorry for my colleague's incompetence, Lord Hokage." But with slightly more narrowed eyes and a colder voice she further elaborated, "However, I cannot blame him. You did kill my mother and her entire squad."
"We live in the world of the shinobi," Minato responded coolly. "Surely you haven't been forced to kill before, and in turn their loved ones see you as the murderer?"
It was a rhetorical question, one that was not meant for an answer, but if possible, the emerald gaze of the woman only hardened and she seemed to have absolutely lost the air of composure that had resonated around her like an aura before.
The tension was so thick in the air that it could be cut clean through like a stick of butter with a blunt knife and the remaining bystanders glared at their common enemy with pure hatred and contempt. Riku's lip curled over his teeth, forming a nasty glower. The room was simmering with utter malice, none of them unwavering in their outright abhorrence for each other. Not even Minato, who was known throughout the nations as a coldhearted killer that could instill fear within a person from just looking at them could seem to intimidate any of these ninja enough.
Yamaguchi cleared his throat and suddenly many of the shinobi were brought back to reality from their dark thoughts.
"The Hokage," he said with malevolence laced in his tenor as he gestured his arm toward the blond, "wishes to…ah…negotiate our terms." Laughter resounded in the dark room at that comment.
"How interesting and humorous of him to suggest such a lovely little thing," the self-proclaimed leader of the Stone's avengers persisted, "Such an amusing request of yours, Namikaze. I would have never expected a well-rounded shinobi such as yourself to have a talent in the area of comedy.
"I'm laughing. I really am," he added at last with an expressionless façade. If one stood in the disfigured man's presence, they would have felt a shiver travel down their spine and a frosty prickling at the edges of their fingertips as the hairs on their arms rose.
The Fourth did not say a word, only choosing to stare down Nobu Yamaguchi as he clearly refused to take his offer. It was no matter of consequence however. He did not expect that part of the plan to work out in the ideal fashion in the first place. If there was one thing a ninja learned right off the bat and even as a green genin, it was that if an enemy really did despise you, there was no such thing as a "negotiation." There were only things like "kill or be killed" that truly existed.
But at a time like this one, his nerves were frayed and somehow he couldn't hold all of his emotions in any longer. Minato took one look at one particular snickering shinobi—a chuunin—and forcibly pressed him hard up against the wall, startling the young man and angering many fellows.
"Where is he?!" he shouted in an uncharacteristic manner. His fist tightened on the man's clothing and the Iwa ninja's vest was brutally being crumpled. His blue eyes were twinkling in an unnamed emotion. "Where is Naruto? What have you done with him?"
A flying punch came whizzing towards the Hokage's head, but he quickly ducked and shoved the vulnerable body of the poor chuunin he was gripping onto in front of the poised knuckles and the boy grunted as the punch made contact with his lower back rather than its intended target. Minato then swiped out one of his legs and tripped the man who made an attempt to attack him off of his feet, and then subsequently he pushed the body of the chuunin upon the wall again, eyes flashing once more with a strange emotion as the other shinobi did not dare to assault him afterwards. Instead the offender struggled with wobbling arms to stand back up while the others observed. Yamaguchi had whipped out a kunai in retaliation.
"Tell me where he is and I'll spare your lives," Minato went on as he stared deeply into the Stone chuunin's eyes, the undertones of desperation licking at his irises that few would take the moment to notice.
As if on cue, the young shinobi's eyes widened with a look of realization and he turned away from him, his face twisting into something akin to shock and horror. No one else seemed to take note of the unusual motion.
"H—He's here," the young man began much to the surprise of some of the witnesses, "In a cell. Just down the—"
And then a shuriken embedded itself in his neck and the man was gurgling blood. Minato had let him slide alongside the wall he was pressed upon with a grim expression. "Why?" the youth whispered and Yamaguchi sauntered up to the man with a scowl upon his features saying, "Because you were about to betray our cause," and he stepped his sandal onto the shuriken already stuck near his jugular and it sank further in until the chuunin's eyes rolled up to the back of his head and then he stopped moving altogether, one last choking noise rising from his throat and a splutter of red shooting out in gruesome splatters onto the front of his vest.
No one dared to speak a word until Yamaguchi turned to look at the Fourth Hokage.
"How troublesome," he said to the Namikaze, "I suppose now you know that your brat is here." Then he looked to the green-eyed woman known as Midori and told her to fetch the "fucking demon," to which Minato narrowed his eyes.
Minutes passed that seemed like an eternity and still no one uttered anything. Then, as if an echo vibrated through a cave, the sound of the battered door creaking open filled their ears. At the moment it opened, a blond and small boy tumbled through it, his cheeks dirty with grime and his tiny wrists were tied roughly with a thick rope behind his back. His left ankle was noticeably swollen and even as he tried to step onto the other side without hurting it further, his attempts were completely ignored as Midori thrust him onto the ground while he made an alarmed "oof" noise.
Minato, not caring that he was certainly breaking about fifty shinobi rules, made to help him up, but was stopped when Yamaguchi placed his arm in front of him and the Iwa woman grabbed the four-year-old by the hair and pointed a shiny and sharp kunai beneath his neck, his body all the while trembling in anxiety.
"If you make one move, Minato Namikaze," spat Yamaguchi, "Midori has orders to kill the boy in front of your eyes. Shall we allow that to happen?" Another kunai was being twirled on one of the leader's fingers.
"Let him go," the father responded with barely hidden anger.
Naruto was shivering as his face was pressed against the dirt and innocently he opened his azure eyes, eyes that were so much like his father's, and stared back at Minato as if peering directly into his soul. The older blond felt his heart clench painfully in his chest. The boy whimpered and his gaze seemed slightly off and glazed. He appeared feverish and Minato wanted nothing more than to save him from that agonizing-looking grip at that moment in time.
"Give us your life," Yamaguchi suggested cruelly, "and we'll let your son live."
In a moment of near-blind hesitation, Minato asked if they were doing this on the Tsuchikage's orders.
"We work for our own desires," the adversary replied. "Now, give us your answer."
A trickle of blood rolled down Naruto's exposed and pallid neckline as the kunai had made a threatening nick on the child's throat. At the sight, the Hokage's head started to throb. All he could see was coated in a hue of red. Minato had never been so furious in his life. In fact, just simply seeing his son this way made him feel and reveal so many emotions that he would have normally easily hid in the midst of battle. He felt weak, drained. He did not feel nearly as legendary as Konoha and the rest of the world thought him to be.
A dry sob escaped in the form of a deafening and haunting sound from his son. "I want …home…" he cried out desperately with such a deep sadness and distress that it could rip at heartstrings easily.
That did it for the Yellow Flash. He knew he could not die. His village needed him. His wife and his son needed him. If he died, Naruto was sure to live a harsh half-life in the Village Hidden in the Stones where he would be hated and looked down upon like the filth on the bottom of a man's boot, like trash, like a monster, like the very demon sealed away inside him. He couldn't have that. Not Naruto.
And so, he disappeared in a flash of light.
Less than a second later his form appeared just behind Midori as he honed his skills by using the Flying Thunder God Technique, the technique that earned him his nickname in the shinobi world. The seal that he had integrated upon his son's Eight Trigrams Seal called to him like a beacon, a thunder rod, and before anyone could so much as twitch, the woman ninja's kunai had gracefully flown out of her hand and away from Naruto's susceptible throat, and she was immediately breathless and blacked out on the floor. The younger blond collapsed forward but Minato caught him and laid him out gently before flickering away once again.
The next victim was Yamaguchi. He was out before he could throw another shuriken. The Hokage needed at least this man alive, as much as it probably physically pained him to do so. There were interrogations that had to be done, and so the seal that he had placed on the ground near the enemy's foot activated.
Then in another shower of gold, Riku found himself slumped in a corner, unconscious. Some tried to fight back, futilely flinging weapons about, but not one of them hit their rapidly moving target. Minato did not even need to use his signature move for the rest of them. His skills were so far superior to these men and women that he appeared to look like his moniker whenever he moved.
The older blond roundhouse kicked a middle-aged man in the head, then swiveled around to tiger palm another on his unsuspecting chest. A teenaged girl tried to stab him with some form of earth style technique, but he had already jumped forward and pickaxed her on her shoulder blade, the force knocking her back and onto the wooden table in the room, causing her to instantly lose consciousness.
Only a moment into the apparently one-sided battle, the door burst forth and out of it came Kakashi and Jiraya who had followed Minato via the tracking seal.
"Ah," the toad summon master smirked, "I suppose this is the reckless and unpredictable part of the plan." Then he flipped into the fray, grabbing a faceless shinobi by forcing a callused palm onto the man's forehead and propelling his head onto the seat of a nearby metal chair. Kakashi had elbowed another in the stomach close by.
In less than two minutes the enclosed room was silent again. No one spoke a word because every opponent that they knew of was either unconscious or dead. Only three shinobi were left standing and each took a moment to catch their breath. Then, just as they thought everything was over for that moment, Minato's senses caused him to react. There were two more hiding crouched in a dark corner behind them. How had he not noticed?
One of them, a brunette young female chuunin with a bob cut tried to rush to the side of the heavily breathing Naruto with a young man who was wearing horn-rimmed glasses close by her heels. Kakashi instantaneously stood in their way, protectively standing between them and the prone boy lying on the floor.
"Not another move," the Hatake growled threateningly.
The girl blinked, halting in her tracks. She raised her hands into the air in an act of surrender and as did her companion behind her.
"Please," she begged softly, "I promise we only want to help. I have bandages in my pack."
"How do I know we can trust you?"
The man behind her almost twitched in slight fear, but did not dare to move a muscle. Then he bowed his head and closed his eyes. "Yamaguchi killed our best friend," he alleged. "He's a cruel man and he won't stop at anything to get his way, no matter what. I admit that we originally thought that his cause was a good one in the beginning, but then he started to kill our comrades left and right if he so much as thought that they were going to betray us, even without valid proof."
The girl had tears in her eyes. "Yes," she added to that statement, "Kazehaya was our childhood friend. We were thinking of leaving the group already all together, but…" A strangled sob left her mouth then, "…please. His death was the last straw. If Kazehaya wanted to help the Yellow Flash, he must have had a good reason for it," and her gaze turned meaningfully upon Minato.
Though Jiraya and Kakashi had no idea what she was alluding to, the Namikaze did. He had thought that the coldhearted murder of a comrade like that was beyond a crime. Even an enemy should never commit something as grisly as that. You were to always trust and respect your comrades.
"He saw something in you," she told them. "I know he did. And I…I see something I never thought I could see in the eyes of who I thought was my enemy before too."
Minato shut his eyelids and breathed in. "Very well," he muttered in a quiet yet commanding tone.
The silver-haired jounin reluctantly allowed them to pass, all the while keeping a steady onyx eye on their backs.
The girl had bent over little Naruto while the male stood behind her in observance. She took off her small pack that was standard for all shinobi off of her lower back and unhooked it. She clicked it open and took out a roll of pristine white bandages. As she did so, one of her hands started to glow green with chakra and Kakashi jumped, but Minato held him back. She was a medical ninja it seemed.
The four-year-old who was sprawled uncomfortably upon the ground whimpered and murmured something along the lines of, "Miss Mai," pointing to the fact that she had helped the boy before. She had placed her hands on his swollen ankle and a tingling sensation travelled up his leg as she attempted to heal some of it.
"I'm sorry," the female apologized. "I'm not quite a skilled medic yet, so this is the best I could do." The swelling had only gone down slightly and the ankle was a light pink as opposed to the angry red it was before. She gently wrapped the bandage tightly around it in order to keep the broken appendage still as he healed before it was placed into proper care. Naruto gasped out in pain and "Miss Mai" grimaced.
Minato took note of the fact that the Kyuubi was probably weak also, as it seemed to not be healing Naruto at the expected rapid rate as a consequence for being the host. It was probably because of the fact that the boy looked gaunt and slightly malnourished.
"It's alright, Naru-chan," she said in a soothing voice as he calmed down. She turned to look at the Hokage who was observing with a glazed expression in his eyes from mere feet away. "Take him home. He's innocent in all this. I'm sorry for all the trouble we have caused you. Take Yamaguchi back to Konoha and whoever else you need. I promise we won't resist and if some of them do, my partner and I will try to hold them back as long as possible. I won't go back on my word."
Minato nodded and lowered himself to where Naruto was. The child looked up with widened orbs.
"Not daddy…not daddy…not daddy," he mumbled as if in a daze. "You're not daddy…you hate me…daddy is home…daddy is home…not daddy…"
Minato touched the boy's arm and he flinched away, a haunted look in his eye. Tears leaked from the corners of his eyelids and he began to sniffle.
"No, no," he rambled out, his eyebrows knit together in fretfulness. "You're the mean man. Not daddy…"
Minato's fingers began to shake slightly. How could his own son not believe him? How could he not recognize him? Had they done this to him? Had they warped his mind in the past week to the point where he was terrified of his own father's form? Then it hit him like a ton of bricks. Of course. How cruel. How insensitive and hellish. What a repulsive type of torture, especially to the too-believing mind of a young child.
The Fourth took a deep breath, letting out a half-gasp in despondency. "I promise, Naruto. I'm not an illusion. I'm not a genjutsu. It's me," he said softly and he let his hand caress the boy's cherubic cheek, "It is daddy. I'm going to take you home to mom and Sasuke and Itachi, Kakashi, Jiraya, and even some ramen. You'd like that, wouldn't you?"
Cerulean met cerulean and for a moment the world seemed to stop on its tilted axis.
"I'll even carry you all the way to the Hokage Tower. How would you like that?"
Naruto shuddered and Minato pulled him close. Warmth filled the boy's heart. This man felt different. The warmth felt genuine. There was no immediate slap to his face afterwards. After all, the mean man never once mentioned his friends or his mom from the Leaf Village. He had never mentioned anything about the Hokage Tower, and for once in seven days, Naruto felt loved and safe and sound.
"Really daddy," he shakily slurred into his father's chest and he started to tremble uncontrollably. His breaths came in short gasps and Minato felt his jounin flak jacket grow damp and wet. Naruto's tiny fists clenched securely onto the fabric and as much as he attempted to hold back his relieved wails, he could hardly suppress them. His face pressed more deeply into his father's chest and Minato placed his chin directly on top of his son's soft, downy hair.
"Let's go home," the father said and he felt the child nod as he held him tighter.
He stood up, Naruto sobbing in a miserable childish manner in his arms. Kakashi and Jiraya both stood at attention on either side of their leader. Jiraya held a thoroughly tied up Nobu Yamaguchi over his shoulders, multiple paper seals strewn across his body, his eyes, and his mouth. The man would not be moving for a while. A light shuffling could be heard behind them and they noticed that Midori had begun to regain consciousness. A sense of urgency filled their minds and they glanced back at "Miss Mai" and her partner, who stood with their backs to them, kunai out and in a defensive position, ready to stall for the four Konoha shinobi.
"Thank you," Minato softly whispered and the three plus Naruto sprinted out of the door to get to a closer shot at the Hiraishin seal that was planted outside of the boulder entrance of the hideout.
Just as the men left, Mai faced her partner. "Maybe it was us that were wrong. All of us, including the Yellow Flash, were forced into a war that we had to fight. And for what? We lost lives, families, friends, people, and maybe there were some mad men out there that wanted nothing else but to kill. I used to think that the Yellow Flash was one of those mad men, until I saw his face just now. Did you see his eyes?"
The male shinobi sighed at the comment. "He wanted his kid back. Nothing more, nothing less. Maybe…maybe a guy like him is human too."
And the two Iwa nins prepared to fight.
Outside as the Konoha shinobi were meters away and had already turned a few corners, the ceiling shook and pebbles fell along with miniscule stalactites. An explosion had occurred somewhere behind them. They heard a grunt and numerous voices yelling in the hallways.
Then, a distinct bellow of "Mai! No!" was heard and then the voice was consequently cut off with a surprised sloshing noise and the sound of a short sword being forcibly yanked out of someone's midriff echoed on the rock walls. There was an odd and eerie slash and a slice and a thud. It sounded as if a head had just rolled in a splotchy mess upon the earth.
Minato's face was forbidding and Naruto was sobbing harder now, panic clamping his insides. The father gripped onto his son like a lifeline and the latter did so as well.
They turned one more corner and the torches flickered darkly around them. Finally, the Fourth told his teacher and student to hold onto his shoulders tightly and told Naruto not to let go no matter what, and then they vanished in a single flash in less than a second just as the abandoned mine began to quake in a more pronounced fashion. It was as if they were never there.
The four of them appeared just outside the hideout and near the illusionary boulder. Without bothering to look to see what was going on behind them, the group rushed down the sides of Yutaka Mountain using their chakra to hold them on for meters down sloping sides and rocks in a hurry until they were able to slip down into a valley in minutes, not even realizing that their mad dash would have been suicide to anyone else less skilled then they. Luckily, their destination to leave the mountain range was not horribly far away as Yutaka Mountain was just at the edge of Grass and Stone.
They ran adjacent to a coursing and thin river, rocks spewing forth from the mountains as they once again experienced the "rock rain" phenomena. Dead and once-green shrubbery scratched at their thighs and night had fully settled in. The air was dry and dusty and it caused Naruto to cough through his stress induced slumber. He had passed out because of sheer exhaustion and extreme stress mere minutes preciously.
They head people running down the side of the mountains, frantically trying to find them. Minato nodded at Kakashi, who lifted his forehead protector to reveal his Sharingan. Then he murmured, "Hidden Forest Technique," and to those affected by the genjutsu, the scenery rippled and warped into a valley forest. The shinobi chasing them would be lost for days.
For hours they ran and they ran so fast that they had effortlessly made it out into the plains of Grass Country within a seemingly impossible timeframe. Then it was the early hours of the morning and the sun was just beginning to break through the horizon, the sky transforming from an ink black into a stormy gray.
At that point, Naruto was breathing more heavily than before. Minato frowned worriedly as he felt the heat radiating from his son who he had transferred to ride on his back hours ago. He was shaking slightly and the Hokage observed that his skin appeared flushed and pale.
He unexpectedly stood still in the middle of a grass clearing at the edge of a forest full of oak trees. Noticing his lack of movement, Jiraya was next to stop and then Kakashi.
"Let's camp here in the woods for a while," he suggested.
When Kakashi was about to protest, the Sannin gave him a look that stopped the teen from uttering another word. "Your teacher's right," the taller man agreed. "We may be able to run for three days straight all the way back to the village but this little guy," and he pointed a thumb in the direction of Naruto while his other arm still somehow held onto the body of Yamaguchi, "won't be able to survive nonstop travel. Not in his state."
Kakashi grunted in resignation.
The three began to move around to the edge of the forest, trying to set up a temporary camp for the sake of their prone charge. Jiraya had carelessly dropped off his prisoner under a nearby oak and the man made absolutely no sound whatsoever, the seals on his figure performing their task quite well.
Minato had leaned his son gently against a fallen log. His usually confident and careful gaze was troubled. He knew he really should have been helping his teacher and student with the distribution of the rations and refilling their water canteens, but he sat there anyway, cross-legged and staring at the feverish face of Naruto who was shivering as if it was freezing outside in the middle of winter.
The Namikaze felt a hand grip one of his shoulders. It was Jiraya.
"Don't worry about anything else until we arrive back in the village," the Sannin told his former student. "The brat and I will take care of everything. We'll both take watch."
Minato looked back with an appalled countenance on his face and was about to say something about his opinion on the matter when Jiraya instantly silenced him with a slashing gesture of his arm.
The white-haired man sighed. "Look, I understand that you want to help Minato. I know you all too well. But your help is needed elsewhere right now. Take this time to act solely as a father and not as a shinobi or a kage. When we get back to Konoha, then you can worry about everything else." His gaze softened. "Naruto needs you."
With that lingering thought Jiraya tossed him a filled water canteen and turned back to Kakashi, who was trying (but failing) to discreetly observe their conversation. The silver-haired jounin nodded once at his approaching companion and they continued their work, whispering in coarse voices.
Meanwhile, the Hokage took all if the advice in. He blinked a couple of times and went back to looking at his son. He seemed so cold and scared, so suddenly defenseless, so unlike the fiery ball of energy he usually was when he was joyful and happy. Minato wanted that happiness to return so badly it hurt. He sifted through his memories just to remember that brilliant smile that always made him swell up with pride to see. He wanted that. He wanted Naruto to smile again, if only just for a second. He did not want to see his son like this, when he was crying and so dearly afraid and heartbroken.
With a bittersweet smirk, Minato took off his flak jacket, revealing his dark blue turtleneck shirt underneath. He folded the vest in half, attempting to fluff it out, and placed it on the ground. He gently replaced Naruto into a more comfortable laying down position and shifted the child's head so that it rested on the makeshift pillow. Nonetheless, Naruto still shivered violently.
"You're cold, aren't you, Naruto?" he questioned, but the boy did not answer. Instead he curled up into a ball, trying to contain what little heat he felt in his body.
"You have a fever," said Minato even though he knew he would receive no response from his sleeping son and he brushed his fingers on the fringes of the youngest Namikaze's bangs.
With his head bowed, the father thought of a single idea that he hoped would help his son. He tilted the head of the four-year-old up to let him drink some water out of the canteen. Then he bent over and lay right next to the jinchuuriki and hugged the little boy close to his person, in hopes of transferring some of his body heat to him with the obvious lack of a blanket or a proper bed for that matter.
The boy instinctively shifted closer to the source of warmth and buried his head into Minato's chest like he did hours ago.
"That's a little better, isn't it?" he whispered down to the child but the evening only echoed on.
Behind them and watching from a not-too-far-away area, Jiraya grinned and glanced over at the Hatake sitting next to him.
"You've never seen your sensei like that before, have you?" he asked the teenager, who only resolved to stare intensely at the scene. "Well, I can't say I have either."
Kakashi narrowed his uncovered onyx eye in contemplation. "Why would someone do that, Jiraya-sama? Do something like that to an innocent kid, I mean."
The breeze withered by them and the grass and leaves rustled in the wind. The night seemed to grow colder somehow, a noticeable drop in temperature that could only be impossible because it happened so precipitously. A lizard crawled out from under a rock and rapidly switched its positions so that it would climb on top of it instead of hiding below its confines for that time. An owl hooted in the distance.
Jiraya sighed. "Like I said before to Minato, 'We're shinobi. We live for battle and conflict, don't we?' But like your teacher said to me in admittedly even more wise words, 'When one person thinks they are rebuilding the world, another believes it is being destroyed…'" He clenched a fist and nodded his head toward the still prisoner of Yamaguchi. "Take that guy over there. He thought the world did him wrong because of a certain man that the rest of Konoha sees as a hero, and he became what he thinks is a noble avenger."
Kakashi frowned. "That doesn't seem right."
"Of course it's not," the man continued unfazed. "To everyone else that is. To him, it's completely right. Don't tell me you didn't want nothing more than to slaughter that Iwa shinobi that killed your teammate?"
The teen turned away without a response hanging in the air.
The Sannin smirked bitterly. "Don't get me wrong. I've felt it too, this uncontrollable hatred and a desire to have revenge. But what makes it difficult is that we live this kind of life. We are shinobi. Look at your teacher for a moment," and he pointed to Minato for a second before replacing his arm at his side. "A Hokage, and a damn good one too. He's talented; he's intelligent, a genius like you even. But even the strongest have a weakness, brat."
They left the clearing in the daytime in the hours before noon bound for Konoha. It took them another day and a half to arrive back into the village and by the time they had reached their destination it was at another ungodly hour in the morning.
They were greeted at the gate by the guards and Naruto was brought to the hospital, a frantic Kushina arriving soon afterwards.
It was still the early hours right before dawn and the sun had not quite risen yet, though the sky was graying from its previous pitch black while Kakashi and Minato sat. The waiting room of the Konoha hospital was jarringly quiet and two men, master and student, sat seemingly serene on the same four-person couch. Not a sound resounded, not a whisper, nor a wisp of wind hushed; it was so silent that if one could listen carefully you could hear the flutter of a dragonfly's wings just outside the windowpane.
"I always knew it was a risk," the Fourth Hokage spoke softly, tentatively breaking the silence.
"I'm afraid I don't understand what you mean, sensei," Kakashi replied solemnly.
A bittersweet smile graced his lips as the blond man continued, "Having a family. It's a shinobi's greatest weakness. I knew that then, I know that now, and so do you and everyone else in this village." He sighed, appearing much older than he truly was, "But, I would never take it back…and I suppose, that's the greatest weakness of them all…"
The silver-haired jounin chose not to say a word. After all, what could he say to something like that? It was an unthinkable answer, practically impossible. He may have been considered a genius alongside his teacher, but he was never above par when it came to profoundness. Speechlessness came on instinct more often than not and so the Hatake kept his mouth shut.
But he had to admit, understanding burst inside him. The words Jiraya had shared with him a few nights ago rang in his mind.
The older man breathed out again, feeling the weight of the previous day's happenings come to crush his shoulders. "…It's ironic, really. Having a family, although it's a shinobi's greatest weakness, it's also his greatest strength. You can't have one without the other, and in the end, a shinobi's code is once again rendered null and void."
A shuffling noise sounded and the door leading to room 605 opened to reveal a tired and baggy-eyed Kushina. "Our son wants you, Minato," she said tiredly, "He said he wants his mom and dad together with him."
Then, with pained and concerned eyes, the Uzumaki woman added, "He's scared. I think he wants to be reassured that we won't disappear again."
With a deep sigh and crinkled eyebrows, Minato glanced over at his student, a meaningful look shining in his irises, and gazed back to the red-headed woman with a reply resting on his lips, "Yes. We should be there. Together."
And he rose up from his place on the lumpy hospital couch and both parents walked side-by-side whilst closing the door behind them. With Kakashi's superior hearing skills, he swore he could hear the distinct sound of muffled giggling coming from a very happy four-year-old boy, and faintly, as if in the back of his mind, he felt as though Naruto's parents did leave him behind once so that they could never come back…
AN: Extra-long chapter just for you guys. It's about 27 pages. This was a long story arc for one chapter. However, this story is not over. I know exactly how I want Upside-Down Hourglass to end.
Coming up next…
Chapter Four: Friends and Enemies
Naruto's first days at the Academy.