波風ミナト

He reached out, grasping for any trace of his Flash Markers and found none.

"That's not possible." He muttered in the dim darkness. His voice echoed, giving him the general dimensions of the room. There wasn't any visible source of light, but there was a low visibility which allowed him to make out the forms of many statues, symbols of buddhism he recognized. It was in this way that he managed to guess where he was. While it was true that many temples existed on the continent, very few enjoyed such a calibre of splendor.

He was in a temple, and, being born a citizen of the Land of Fire, the first temple that came to his mind was naturally the Temple of Fire. The first cracks began to form on the feeling of hope that he was holding. If Kushina had put his body in a scroll, odds were she would have kept him by her side or at least somewhere close. While the Temple of Fire was safe, there were many ways he could envision himself being kept safe without having to resort to having his body be placed in such a remote, isolated place.

Right?

The crack in his hope widened, splintering down along the seams. There was no guarantee that she was alive. In fact, there was no guarantee that he wasn't in another era altogether. It was entirely possible that everyone he knew had already died, that the times were no longer what they were when he'd been alive.

Of course she was dead. No one had ever survived the extraction of a Tailed Beast, and to expect Kushina to have survived the extraction of the most powerful of all the Tailed Beasts was like expecting the Sun to rise in the west. It was simply something that never happened. Even Uzumaki Mito, the first vessel of the Nine-tails and wife of the First Hokage, had met her end when the Nine-tails had been taken out of her body, when Kushina had been made the Demons' new vessel.

But Uzumaki Mito had been old. Kushina had been young, an Uzumaki whose blood ran strong in her veins. If anyone had had a chance of surviving an extraction, Kushina would have been the most likely candidate.

The surrounding buddha-esque statues stood solemnly, looking down with kind compassion, with pity, and Minato collapsed to his knees. He was deluding himself and he knew it. He'd known the moment he'd laid hands on her. The breaking of the seal had torn her Chakra coils beyond repair. She had been so pale, so cold. He almost hadn't been able to look her straight in the eyes, hadn't been able to let himself see how frail the vibrant woman had become. Naruto had been a difficult baby to birth, and the extraction of the Nine tails had been the nail, hammer and coffin to that difficult procedure.

Uzumaki Kushina was almost certainly dead.

His will lost, Minato let himself fall forward. The twelve years he had spent preserved inside a scroll had provided him no true rest, and the toll of having been awake for nearly forty hours finally caught up to him. He was unconscious before he even hit the floor.

The sound of the forest, the rustling and swaying of the trees in the wind, whispered soothingly into his ears. It was the sound of home, a place of rest. There was a smell of incense, mingled with the pristine smell of the morning, the scent of a clean forest air. There was also the smell of wood, of polished surfaces.

It was in this gentle peace that he woke. Life surged through his veins, and his heartbeat was as consistent as it was ever going to be.

Time.

He opened his eyes and sat up. It was dark. A blanket slid away and collected at the foot of the small bed where he'd been placed. The familiar, loose touch of the Hokage's cloak that he had been wearing was gone. Someone had found him, washed him, and dressed him in clean clothing. Letting his bare foot fall onto the floor, he instinctively felt for a flash marker to transport himself home, and, as had happened earlier, he found none.

Where was he? When was he? Had all his markers been erased by the passage of time?

He would worry about that later. For now, there was the problem of the utter lack of visibility.

Minato opened his palm upward, and a blue spherical ball of Chakra flickered into life.

He looked around, and by the glow of his Rasengan, he saw a pair of dark eyes looking straight at him from just within the light's periphery.

Stumbling backwards with a yelp, he fell back into the bed. His Rasengan vanished and the darkness returned.

A voice spoke out of the darkness. "My apologies." It said. The voice was deep, soothing, and Minato relaxed. "I will be with you shortly." The voice spoke again before he could ask it any questions. And then there was a silence, and Minato found himself to be distinctly alone. A clone? A projection?

He made another Rasengan, expanding it as large as he dared. He didn't want to hit or break anything. The room was tiny and spartan, almost a prison. The ceiling was relatively low, and the ball of concentrated Chakra that he was holding above his head had drilled a smooth dome on its surface.

Woops.

He quickly extinguished his light. At the same time, a door was opened and another light flooded in.

A tall, bald man walked in. His forehead was wide and his eyes were the eyes that Minato had seen from the darkness. "I see you have awakened." The man's voice was pleasant.

Minato posed the first question that was on his mind. "What year is it? What era?"

The man smiled, his serious expression straining itself into humor. "Do you not recognize me, Lord Fourth Hokage of the Hidden Leaf Village?"

Minato examined the man carefully for a moment. The features were indeed familiar, a serious, heavy-cast face and a strong, trained body. All that had changed was the man's age. He knew who this was. "You're-" He hesitated. "You're Chiriku of the Twelve Guardians and head of the Temple of Fire."

The man smiled. "I've aged haven't I?"

"By how much?" Minato plied.

"By about thirteen years since you last saw me, Namikaze Minato."

They considered each other silently for a short moment.

"I'm alive." Minato stated, the question implicit in his tone.

"Very much so. It seemed you were never dead. Your soul had been taken by the Dead Demon, but your body was still healthy as if nothing had happened to it. You were lucky. If your wife had been late to preserve your body by even a minute, the cells in your brain and your heart would have asphyxiated and died, and at that point, there would have been no bringing you back to life."

"The Dead Demon released my soul." Minato mused. All that he had just been told he had already guessed when he'd first seen the special storage scroll from which he'd been released, the one that had been drawn up by Kushina. "Kushina. My wife. Is she…?" He gulped, afraid to ask, to have his conclusions verified.

"Uzumaki Kushina died shortly after she made her attempt to save you."

Minato felt a tingling numbness paralyze his chest. He felt cynical. He needed proof, something to give him plausible deniability. "How do you know?"

Chiriku saw the stubborn, hungry look in the formerly-dead man's face and sighed. "The Lord Third came here about twelve years ago. He came and entrusted me with everything." Chiriku laughed humorlessly. "I'd thought it a fool's hope. Both he and your wife, the ones who had attempted to cheat death. I pitied them. Yet here you are." Chiriku shook his head as if in self rebuke. "I promised to keep your body safe from the outside world and that is what I have done. Now that you are alive, you are no longer my burden. I have no obligation to keep you and you may leave freely."

Minato nodded. He could feel tears making their way out his eyes and down his cheeks. "I see."

"All who live die." Chiriku said, noting his ward's grief. "I will not tell you to not mourn. Death is invariably sad. I do ask, however, that you think on those who are alive now."

"I didn't ask to be brought back to life." Minato said bitterly.

"I did not say that you did. I was speaking of your son."

"Naruto." Minato said, his voice suddenly taking up life of its own. "How is he?"

"Alive and well, last I heard." Chiriku answered. "Though I do not hear much about what goes on outside these walls."

"Is he- is he happy? Is he living well? Who takes care of him?"

Chiriku smiled and shook his head. "I do not know. You'll have to see for yourself."

The burst of interest waned, and Minato sunk back into apathy. "If he's happy, if he's doing well without his parents, then there's no reason for me to go back and complicate things. I don't want to cause problems, to force him to adapt to a stranger trying to force himself into his life."

"You do not wish to see him?"

"He's done without me for thirteen years. He doesn't need me. Who is the Hokage now?"

Chiriku did not answer the question, and an uncomfortable silence lulled into the conversation. Minato waited, knowing that the monk felt disapproval at his dismissive words.

"Would you throw away this life that so few would have had the chance to be given once more?"

"That is for me to decide." Minato replied quietly.

Chiriku stepped forward, the light of his lamp invading the room. "Would you spit on the grave of your wife? Would you desecrate the final wish of Uzumaki Kushina by trampling on the fruits of her last moments? Do you not understand the sacrifices made for you?"

"I did not ask for any of it." Minato said firmly and then paused in thought.

"It sounds as if you wish to put an end to this life you've been given."

"No." Minato denied. "You are right. Even if I desire to do so, I cannot dishonor this gift nor can I ignore Kushina's dying wish."

"Then," Chiriku's aggressiveness fell back into normalcy. "What will you do now?"

Minato fell silent for a long time, and Chiriku, head monk of the Temple of Fire, waited patiently for the man to sort out his thoughts. After a long silence, Minato finally spoke, and when he did, his voice and demeanor had become subdued. "The monks of the Temple of Fire live to atone for their sins and to find enlightenment. We have all been Shinobi in some period in our lives. We have killed, and we have wrought death and grief to many whether or not they deserved it. As I am now, the world believes me dead, correct?"

"That is correct." Chiriku confirmed.

"Then let it stay so. I have done my part, as a human being, as a Shinobi, as a husband, as a soldier to my village, and as the Fourth Hokage to the Hidden Leaf. I have already lived my life to its conclusion." Minato paused as he felt the weight of his resolution settle on his shoulders. "I am no longer bound by worldly desires. Let me remain here to follow the path of atonement and, in the process, find my own enlightenment. Let me become a monk of the Temple."

Chiriku looked Minato over critically. "Is that what you truly desire?"

"It is."

"Then come. If it is your wish, you shall be baptized one of us."

Minato bowed his head as Chiriku left the room and beckoned for him to follow. "Thank you, Head Monk Chiriku."

"No need for thanks, Namikaze Minato. The choice is yours to make. The Temple of Fire accepts all in the line of Shinobi who seek the path that is provided here. It has done so ever since its founding."

Minato smiled. "I must still thank you. It is you who have kept me safe these thirteen years, and it is you who have given me your hospitality and patience so far."

"Hm." Chiriku made an amused noise and yawned. "Formalities. Come. Let us not waste time. You will be shaved, and a new name will be selected for you. We will cleanse you of your past. What you have done, the sins you have committed and the life you have lived shall be no more."

They left the room into the open night air where the stars shone brilliantly alongside a waning moon. Minato could now see that the room had been but a singular hut, separated from the main temple altogether. He would later learn that it served as a sort of penitentiary for those who commit common infractions in their daily life at the Temple.

"What happened to my cloak?" He asked out of curiosity.

"I have it in the main hallway." The monk answered. "If you are to follow the life of a monk, however, all the worldly possessions that you brought with you and all material traces of your past life must be disposed of. If you do not have a change of heart between now and the next month, we will have it burned. Will that be all?"

"Yes." Minato said softly.

"Then come."

And he did.