Chapter 5.

AN: I promise there's going to be a plot someday.

September rolled in on the wings of a thunderstorm, echoing off the Hokage statue and back across the village. Deep underneath the mountain, a torrent of water curled up on itself before jetting towards a wooden dummy. It fell apart into a fine vapor a few feet into its rapid course.

Rin let out a hissing breath from between her teeth, and glared at the glowing red chakra that started to envelop her hand. "It's happening again!" She cried out.

As she watched, the red chakra bubbled up to her wrist at a sluggish, almost leisurely pace. Underneath it, her skin seemed to burn hot and cold all at once.

" Please hurry up."

"Yes, yes, it's just about done," Minato sensei said, scribbling a final line of ink on a piece of chakra paper. "There. This should work."

With that, he crossed the distance between himself and Rin in a flash, and pressed the piece of paper to her bare forehead.

Sanbi growled in protest, but his chakra receded and pulled back into the void it had come from.

Minato gave her a satisfied nod. "This seal should have fewer side effects than the one I used last time, Rin-chan."

Rin let out a shaky breath. Her skin was ruddy and sore where the demonic chakra had touched it. "The chakra got further than it did last time," she said softly. She didn't feel nauseous this time, which she attributed to the new and improved seal.

Minato's eyes went warm and compassionate as he pushed down the more scientific part of his mind and allowed the empathic one to come to the forefront. "You're more tired now than you were two days ago. We've been drilling you all day all week."

"Do you feel aggravated? Annoyed, aggressive ?" Fukagu asked, less kindly. "It is known bijuu respond to emotion."

"Not really," Rin replied.

"I'm feeling pretty aggravated," Kushina muttered. "Boys, she's tired and hurt. Is it very bad, Rin-chan?"

Minato sensei pulled a face. "I'm sorry. Let me see." He took Rin's hand between his own, carefully avoiding the painful skin. He hissed. "It's starting to blister."

Rin nodded. Normally, she would have just used a simple mystic palm healing technique to repair the broken skin, but… That would require chakra again. She wasn't sure that would be safe, and Minato and Fugaku hadn't yet allowed her to try it out when her reserves were full.

"Every time you use your chakra, you also draw on Sanbi's," The Uchiha had explained. "Imagine using demonic chakra to try and heal someone. You would probably do them more harm than good."

So they made her try out her newfound water affinity instead, over and over again until she could no longer stand the sight of water.

Rin was a medic, and had been since her Academy teacher had recognized her precise chakra control and apprenticed her to one of the hospital medics. She had become a full-fledged field medic upon reaching the rank of chunin when she was eleven.

And now, they were telling her she could no longer do the one thing she had loved most about being a shinobi.

Rin pulled her hand back from Minato's grasp. "I'll bandage it when I get home," she said shortly.

Minato sighed. "Please just let one of us do it for you."

Rin shook her head. "I know how to do it, and you and Fugaku-san have other things to worry about."

Like the war, for example. The two of them always rushed off right after Rin's practice to return to their usual daily schedule. Just because they weren't required at the frontlines anymore didn't mean they had all the time in the world to sit around and train jinchuuriki.

Still, Minato gave her one of those smiles that pulled a little at the edges, like he used when he was fondly exasperated. "We have you to worry about as well. One does not exclude the other."

From the corner of her eye, Rin could see Fugaku give her teacher a slightly skeptical look. "Her bandaging skills are probably better than yours, Minato," the older man said. "Let her take care of it. I would like to have a word with you about different matters."

Minato pulled a rather comical face, but he agreed to Fugaku's proposal and quickly moved the four of them to his office. Much to Rin's surprise, it was already occupied; a pair of tall ANBU stood near the door, and a third man was looking out of the window at the storm outside, hands folded on his back. The strange man turned around and looked at them with a single hawkish eye. He had to be in his fifties and leaned on a cane, but nothing about his posture suggested weakness.

Uchiha Fugaku stiffened at the sight of the strange man. "I see you already have company, Minato. If you don't mind, I will speak to you later." He gave Minato a quick half-bow, which was more acknowledgment than he usually showed his Hokage, and left the room, glaring at the two ANBU by the door.

Minato sighed. "Danzou-san. I didn't realize you would come by today."

The strange man bowed. "I assure you I would not have done so if I didn't think it was important." His single eye ran across the small company, lingering briefly on Kushina before finding Rin. Although his eye was a warm brown color, it seemed cold and uncaring. "But I see you were already busy."

Minato made a dismissive gesture with his hand. "We just finished. Kushina, would you mind taking care of Rin?" He added, giving his wife a pleading look. "I'll try to make it in time for dinner tonight."

Kushina didn't seem annoyed or angry – instead, she looked back at the old man with an uncharacteristically scrutinizing expression. She'd put a hand on Rin's shoulder the moment they saw Danzou, and now Rin could feel her fingers tightening. "Of course. I'll order takeout."

Minato smiled briefly but brilliantly, and then Kushina steered Rin out of the small office. Once outside, the older woman let out a long breath. "Come on, we'll go to our place. I have bandages there, and we can talk about what happened."

Rin was quiet during their walk. Her hand had started to throb painfully with every heartbeat, so she distracted herself by thinking of the strange man in Minato's office. She was sure she had seen him before at some point, before sensei became Hokage, but she wasn't really sure of his position. A Council member of Sandaime's perhaps?

Fugaku-san had certainly left very quickly after seeing the man, and he wasn't exactly the kind of guy to hide his dislike of someone. Plus, he had suddenly bowed to Minato where usually he would treat him much the same way he would treat any junior shinobi.

Whoever this Danzou person is, he just set a whole room of high-ranking shinobi on edge, Rin thought.

Back at the apartment, she sank down on the couch with her hand tucked into a small bowl of water. Kushina seemed a little distracted as she rummaged through her medicine cabinet to get the correct items. Rin didn't mind – she had to cool her hand in water for a few more minutes, anyway.

Besides, there were other things to think of. Like the fact that just practicing water jutsu didn't seem like a particularly productive way of dealing with her… Problem. Sensei's argument was that it would help her recognize her own limits so that Sanbi would never be able to take over, but...

There was still so much she didn't know. Like what it would be like to fight someone outside of a protected environment. Or what would happen if she were to get angry, or sad, or… What she would do if Sanbi woke up properly and somehow found a flaw in one of the seals.

It wouldn't matter how many jutsu she could fire off safely.

She looked at Kushina's back and briefly envied her for whatever special quality it was she had that allowed her to be a perfect jinchuuriki. Would she know how to handle the Kyuubi if it escaped? Would she need chakra repressing seals like the one Minato sensei made at all? Or was she self-sufficient?

She was so caught up in her thoughts that she didn't notice Kushina until the older woman sat down next to her on the couch. "Does it hurt very much?" Kushina asked.

Rin shrugged. "The water helps."

Kushina sighed. "We should get a medic in on your training for situations like these. Burn wounds can be very serious."

Rin's head dipped. "I'm a medic," she said sullenly.

"Oh, Rin-chan. I'm so sorry." Kushina wrapped an arm around Rin's shoulders. "I don't think we asked you how you feel about that at all, did we?"

"What's the point? No matter how I feel, I can't change it."

Kushina looked thoughtful for a moment. "Well… It's true no Konoha jinchuuriki before you has ever been a medic. But then none of them ever tried, either. Just because the process sounds dangerous on paper…"

Rin wiped at her eyes. "It's too dangerous."

"It certainly is, right now. Maybe later, when you know how to handle yourself a little bit better… Maybe you can just try it out. On a clone, or something."

"Do you really think so?" Rin looked up. "I… Would like that. I don't know if I'd be very good at killing people. But that's what they want me to do, isn't it? As jinchuuriki?"

Kushina frowned. "That's because some people will look at us and see only how they can use us. But Minato isn't like that. He won't make you do anything you don't want to do."

"It's war. Konoha needs everyone who can help. Having a jinchuuriki could be a morale boost, but not if you only keep her at home," Rin said fiercely. "Besides, I can't just sit back and do nothing while Kakashi and Kurenai and you and all my friends go off to war. But when I was a medic I could help the village in a way I could… I could do."

Kushina was quiet for a moment. She looked up at the ceiling at the sound of a particularly loud thunderclap. "Have you? Ever killed someone?"

Now it was Rin's turn to go quiet. "Yes," she said eventually. "A boy. He snuck up on my and Obito's camp when sensei and Kakashi were on patrol. He was a little bit older than me. Obito didn't wake up in time."

"What did you feel, back then?"

"Relieved that I could protect Obito. But also... He was just a boy. Even if he was Iwa." Rin looked down at her hands. She'd caught him with a lucky strike of her kunai, straight into his throat. It had been messy and horrible, and she hadn't been able to get the sound of his choking out of her mind for weeks.

But she had saved Obito and herself from that same fate.

"Kushina-nee, I do want to fight for this village, even as jinchuuriki. But I'm not sure what kind of person it will turn me into," she finally said.

Kushina's hold on her tightened. "None of us do. But I can tell you something Mito-sama once taught me, which is that the most important thing to a jinchuuriki is love..."

Minato looked out across the village from another window set in another room, a few miles away. He wasn't smiling. He didn't have any reason to. "And you're absolutely sure about this?" He said again.

"There's no doubt in my mind, Hokage-sama," Shimura Danzou replied. "Kirigakure intends to ally with Iwagakure. All signs are pointing towards it."

"That would be serious indeed," Utatane Koharu said, exchanging a nervous glance with her husband. The two councilmembers had arrived shortly after the others have left. "There hasn't been an alliance between two of the great shinobi villages for decades."

Really, it was just like Danzou to reinforce information like this by bringing along the two councilmembers. It was blatant manipulation, but there was nothing Minato could do about it. He would have to tolerate being ganged up on by Danzou and the more easily led councilmembers, who trusted his every word.

If it wasn't for the fact that his own ANBU were bringing back similar reports, Minato might not have believed him.

He turned back towards the table standing in the center of the room. It held a large map of the world, littered with small wooden figures that symbolized troops and strongholds. Kirigakure lay to the south-east, across the sea, and Iwagakure to the north-west, with only the land of Grass separating their borders. If the two of them were to work together, they could attack Konoha from both sides.

Honestly, Shodaime... Did you have to take such a central location to build Konoha?

Of course any attacking force still have to brave volcanic mountain ranges and dizzyingly large forests, but still.

The third great shinobi war was a war of attrition. It had been going on for nigh on five years by now, and there wasn't a single shinobi village that was not exhausted. Minato did his best to divide his forces and keep the younger generations further away from the front lines than Sandaime had, but if this went on he wouldn't be able to protect anyone from going where the fighting was thickest.

And he would have to send them there. Possibly to their deaths. Men, women, even the children. He was already sending out veterans he would rather have kept at home to nurse their psychological and physiological trauma.

He let out a deep breath. He really, really didn't want to lower the Academy graduation ages any further. He thought of his students and his unborn son, and clenched his fist.

"What of their communication lines? The land of Fire lies between Kirigakure and Iwa. It cannot be easy for them to communicate," he wearily asked.

"We believe they're passing their messages through the land of Steam, to our north. Yugakure, the resident shinobi village, has been utterly crippled by Kumogakure's latest attack, so they don't present much of a threat," Danzou said, pointing it out on the map.

"Risky," Minato murmured. "Very risky. Why?"

"Perhaps they are planning a large-scale attack," Koharu said uneasily.

"A successful joint attack would certainly be worth risking a handful of shinobi in the land of Steam…" Minato agreed.

"We should strike quickly," Danzou said, unnecessarily. "If we infiltrate the land of Steam quickly –"

"We would be breaking our truce with Kumo," Homura interjected, the first thing he had said that evening.

"Hence why I said infiltrate."

"Please, gentlemen. This is all just speculation," Koharu said. "They might be going through the land of Sound, which doesn't have a shinobi village at all, or the land of Tea. We should get better intelligence first, and then decide on a course of action."

"And risk being too late to stop an attack?" Danzou snapped.

"That's enough, all of you! I will not have you bickering like children in the war room," Minato said sharply.

The others turned wide eyes on him, and for a moment Minato was awfully aware of his own youth – then he shook it off. "I need you all to stay calm and rational. There is nothing to be gained by rushing into action without thinking. We cannot break our truce with Kumogakure by blundering into territories under their protection, nor can we ignore our own Intel and not act at all."

"Then what do we do?" Koharu said, her eyes narrowed.

Minato hesitated. Then, resolve won over. "We send in a small unit with great experience at both intelligence gathering and subterfuge. One or two people will not be noticed, whereas a full complement might."

Danzou narrowed his one good eye. "And this unit… Let me guess: your old teacher."

He said it as though he was speaking of something particularly distasteful sticking to the bottom of his shoe. Koharu and Homura didn't seem to share his sentiment, fortunately; the look they exchanged was a hopeful one.

"Yes, my teacher. Jiraiya sensei has been an invaluable asset in Rain Country. He knows the work, and should trouble arise he is powerful enough to fight his way out and cover his tracks," Minato said, exasperated.

Danzou's upper lip twitched. His expression told Minato exactly how much faith he had in Jiraiya's abilities to remain undiscovered, but he didn't protest. Good. Let the old goat keep his mouth shut for once.

"Jiraiya has become a reliable shinobi," Homura nodded. "Hiruzen will approve."

Minato resisted the urge to give the table a good smack. One of his main advisers countered everything he said, and the other two only accepted his plans if they thought his successor would have agreed. They were too set in their ways. He would have killed to have Jiraiya and Kushina be there instead of them, but that would smack of nepotism. He couldn't just remove the old guard from the office without risking the wrath of the more traditional clan heads, who already disliked him for his youth and progressiveness.

If only he'd had some more time in office during peacetime, instead of being launched straight into war.

"Very well. I will inform him myself. Meanwhile, Danzou-san – keep your men away from the conflict area. That is an order." Minato looked the older man straight in the eye, challenging. "If I should so much as hear a rumor of on unauthorized ANBU showing himself, I will know who is responsible."

The small office fell eerily quiet. Officially, Minato didn't know about ANBU ROOT. Unofficially, he couldn't wait to blast the whole operation out of the sky. The only thing still missing was proper evidence.

Danzou had an excellent poker face. "I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about," he said calmly, and that seemed to be that.

When the council had finally left, Minato turned back to the window and let out a deep sigh. There hadn't been a thunder strike in several minutes now, and the clouds were starting to clear up. It wouldn't be long before the heat of summer once again reclaimed the air of Konohagakure. Kakashi would probably go out and train again, as he was wont to do as of late, and perhaps Rin and Kushina would go to the riverside to collect shells.

Minato, on the other hand, would be summoning his former teacher and telling him he would have to risk his life again for the sake of the village.

But that was what he had dreamt of, for all those years. To be Hokage. And if it meant being able to make a change, he would have to take the good with the bad.

Kakashi lost his grip on the stone wall before him and, with a startled cry, found himself losing the battle against gravity. He had gotten about three quarters of the way up the rock cliff in the last hour, and was about to discover that going down was a hell of a lot quicker.

Kakashi also found out that the grassy floor down below was a lot harder than it looked. He groaned. Not for the first time, he had the first Hokage to thank for sharing a simple jutsu with his people that allowed one to reinforce their bones with chakra – or he would probably have snapped his neck on the way down. As Kakashi sat up his neck gave an audible pop and one of his shoulders felt stiff, but he would take that over imminent death anytime.

"A most valiant attempt!" A young voice cried out beside him, pitching awkwardly halfway through.

Kakashi turned around, recognizing not just a fellow member of the male sex undergoing the hell that was puberty, but also just who exactly that voice belonged to. "Gai. What are you doing here?"

Gai gave him a wide grin and a thumbs up. "I'm going to climb the cliff, of course! Although I haven't done it without chakra before, like you. What an excellent idea! That should boost my stamina as well as my muscular development –"

"Please don't explain my own training methods to me," Kakashi cut him off, pinching the bridge of his nose.

Gai paused in his litany. "Why, were you hurt on the way down? Do I need to call a medic?"

Kakashi wasn't sure whether it was the owlishly blinking eyes or the green jumpsuit that did it, but he suddenly felt the overwhelming urge to get up, ignore his pain, and start to climb again. He growled, and struggled his way back to his feet to do just that.

This time, he would try it with bare feet. Perhaps he would have more grip that way.

Gai was still watching him curiously by the time he had finished taking his boots off. Then, the other boy grinned. "Another excellent idea!" Gai said, and took off his own boots.

Kakashi groaned again.

As a rule, he tried to avoid meeting Maito Gai. There wasn't necessarily anything wrong with the older boy, aside from his fashion sense, obliviousness and general personality, but Kakashi preferred to spend his trainings in silence.

Gai preferred to narrate his own exercises.

Focusing on finding handholds was a lot tougher when there was a green copycat about two meters away from you doing the exact same thing but cheering every time he succeeded.

It was even worse when said green disaster seemed to grasp the whole thing a lot quicker than Kakashi himself did.

Kakashi blinked. Somehow, Gai was overtaking him. It wasn't that Gai's technique was better, necessarily, but he needed less time to recover in between actions – as if he had some invisible engine driving him on.

"Hey, I said no chakra!"

Gai looked down. "I'm not using any," he said, tilting his head curiously.

Kakashi growled. He wasn't going to let Gai of all people beat him here, was he? He looked up at the rock face, identified some of the holds he had used earlier, and pushed himself to scale the wall quicker. His shoulders and fingers burned in no time at all, but it was worth it just to be able to keep up with Gai. The other boy only grinned and picked up his own pace as well.

It really shouldn't have surprised Kakashi that the increased pace only led to them making more mistakes. Gai was the first to drop, and then Kakashi made the mistake of looking over his shoulder and barking out a laugh – losing his balance in the process.

"Oww," Gai complained, just as Kakashi, still flat on his back, said, "Well. That was stupid."

Gai leapt up like a spring, completely ignoring Kakashi's comment. "Let's go again until we manage to reach the top!"

Kakashi groaned, because despite himself, that was exactly what he had been thinking. This was going to be a long afternoon.

It took them another adrenaline-filled fifteen minutes to finally reach the top, but as Kakashi allowed his exhausted body to sprawl on top of the rock he could at least satisfy himself with the fact that they had reached it simultaneously. Which, while still terrifying, was better than losing altogether.

"I think I can see my house from up here!" Gai said, shielding his eyes with one tan hand. A courier bird high up above briefly clipped her wings and fell some ten feet in a salute. Gai spread his arms wide and whooped loudly.

Kakashi lay spread eagle beside him, still panting. Every inch of his body felt like it was on fire. "How… are you still moving?"

True, his body had already been exhausted before he had started to climb; Mikoto drilled him ruthlessly at every opportunity they got (which for some reason, always seemed to coincide with Rin's training days), and he would usually finish the day with more exercises of his own. He was starting to notice his arms were getting stronger, and the muscles more toned, but otherwise progress seemed slow.

Gai, on the other hand, was subjected to daily hand-to-hand combat training with his jounin instructor, Akimichi Chouza, an absolute giant of a man. He had to be every bit as tired as Kakashi was, but somehow… Somehow, he was ready to go for another round.

Gai shrugged. "I just keep going. There's not much to it."

"It can't be as simple as that."

"Hmm, yes it can. My father used to say there is nothing quite like positive thought to keep exhaustion away!"

Your father the eternal genin, Kakashi wanted to say, but swallowed it. Gai's father had died a year ago. Kakashi didn't make jokes about people's dead fathers. He knew how it felt to be on the receiving end. "Your dad… He specialized in taijutsu, right?"

"Yeah. He was the most powerful taijutsu user I've known! And the only reason he was able to obtain his secret technique is because he never gave up. So I just keep going, even when I feel tired," Gai said, and another grin appeared on his face. "But you're the genius. Surely you know."

Kakashi snorted. What a joke. He pulled his knees up and let his elbows rest on them. "I don't know an awful lot, actually."

Gai's grin faded. "Sure you do. Don't you?"

Kakashi avoided his worried eyes. "No, I don't. My stamina is crap," he forced out. Because, well, it was. If he had had better stamina and more chakra, perhaps Minato sensei wouldn't have had to help at all when he saved Rin. Well, not until she needed new seals. Which reminded Kakashi to ask Minato to teach him about those. He buried his face in his hands. So much to learn, and so little time.

Dammit. What was it about Gai's caterpillar eyebrows and honest face that made him admit any of this?

Gai was being uncharacteristically silent. He frowned as he looked out over the forest below. "Kakashi, you are the strongest person in our generation right now. You shouldn't insult yourself, because when you do, you insult all of us as well."

Kakashi blinked, then snorted. Much to his surprise, he felt the urge to laugh. "Maybe I've got the strongest techniques, but that's not going to be enough to stay ahead forever."

Gai gave him a quizzical look. There was grass stuck behind his ear somehow.

Ah, damn it. Now he'd have to tell him the whole thing. "A long time ago, my father told me you would… You'd – ugh. You'd become strong. 'Cause you don't give up," he forced out.

Something very odd happened to Gai's face. First, his eyes started to shine. Then, as large globs of liquid turned them even shinier, he broke into a wide grin. "Did he really say that?"

"Oh, geez. Yes. Relax!"

"T-the White Fang thought I would become strong!"

"Don't let it go to your head."

"But it's great! It's great when people have faith in you! Say, Kakashi – do you know what this means?"

Kakashi sighed. "No, but you're probably going to tell me."

"It means we should keep trying hard together to get stronger! So we can live up to our fathers' names!"

Damn it. That made Obito's eye sting. Kakashi looked away. In the distance, he could see the Hokage Mountain, the yellow rock bright in the sunlight. "Yeah," he said softly. "But how?"

Gai unexpectedly grabbed his shoulder and turned him so they were face-to-face. "By fighting together, of course. We can become training partners."

A beat. "No."

Gai's substantial eyebrows drew together in a frown. "If you will not fight with me willingly, I will just keep challenging you until you do."

"I'm going to ignore you if you keep challenging me."

Gai gave him a rather keen-eyed look. "I never give up on anything. If you will not be my training partner, you'll have to be my rival!"

Kakashi made a sound somewhere in between groan, sigh, and the sound a much put-upon mother makes when her brief time alone is interrupted by one of her children running past carrying scissors. He stood up. "No."

"Yes!"

"No," Kakashi said, and began his descent.

"We can work on our stamina together, rival!"

"That sounds like something Jiraiya sensei would say."

A brief pause. "I do not understand that comment, but I'll take it as a compliment!"

As Kakashi climbed down, he had a sneaking suspicion he had just created a monster.

AN:

I could really use some encouragement. Let me know if you liked it or, hell, read it.

Gai is a treasure but he's so hard to write, honestly. His dialogue is really tricky because it really only works when you have that beautiful bombastic voice saying it. So… Apologies if he sounds stilted.