Updated: May 24 2014

4. A Day Off

Five years later

Minato fell on his bed, tired but restless and displeased with being alone in the dorm tent. He needed to get some frustration off his chest. The war had reached a point where it made his whole life an impractical struggle; first of all, he never had time to get serious with his training and work out his brilliant ideas, so he had to try things out on the battlefield and see how it went, which was far more dangerous. Second, it delayed his journey home. As long as there was war, he was stuck far away from the village. Third, he was under constant pressure. He worked almost daily, while his comrades were being sent to the front lines to ambush or meet the enemy face-to-face. He never doubted his comrades, but to get the message you were sent to the front lines was close to a death sentence. As the general's private assassin, Minato had little to do with the front lines himself, but he was the one who made sure everything behind the front lines was sabotaged, making things easier for his comrades, and the responsibility he carried was huge.

He still had to keep his head cold, and he was good at that. His comrades had their jobs, he had his own to do. To be sent out daily to sabotage or murder mostly S-ranked enemies was more dangerous than anything in the war, especially since he worked alone. And especially since he had a fortune of a bounty on his head.

He considered himself lucky who had at least grown twenty centimetres after his arrival at the border. He had seemed less authoritative when he was small and skinny and thirteen years old. Now, after five years at border post number eighteen, he was amongst the tallest and most muscular of those who lived there.

"Hey, kid," general Hiromu said as he entered the dorm tent. Minato had received the nickname upon his arrival at the border, and age had not been enough to be called something else. "Good work today. You're not considering going to bed like that, are you?"

Minato made a drowsy noise and turned on his back. "Of course not," he said. He had needed sleep more than anything after forty-eight hours of running, spying and fighting. For a moment, it didn't really matter if he went to bed wearing the blood of Hanzou's bodyguard or not.

"You've got another mission," Hiromu began, and Minato sat up. "You can rest 'til Friday. The latest information tells us that Hanzou's experts are finally on the move, but we still have some time. The first to be sent out is a trap expert by the name Fukuda, who will be waiting for our reinforcements. He's got a few complicated traps, so watch your steps."

Minato nodded shortly.

"I'll give you the rest of the details tomorrow, so get some rest."

Finally, Minato could undress, pull on a pair of grey, knee-length sweat pants and lie back down on his bed. He removed a Hiraishin kunai from his pocket (they weren't comfortable to sleep on) and let it glide towards the floor, where it stood straight up and made a crack in the wood. A minute later, he was asleep.

People were still afraid of it. They hadn't seen much of it, but the Hiraishin kunai was normally shown to people who were going to die when they lay eyes on it, anyway. Minato found an advantage in this; few knew what to do when the kunai showed up in front of them, so most backed off and held it on distance. That way, the kunai became a safety zone for Minato's comrades whenever they were in a pinch. He could use it to split groups, and save comrades. And not just the enemy could recognise the weapon. He had met several villagers from Konoha throughout the years, some he hadn't seen for a long time, who had asked him about the kunai to confirm the rumours they had heard.

The Hiraishin kunai was one thing Minato was never seen without. Another thing that had remained closed to him ever since he left Konoha was a dark brown leather bracelet. Once, it had been whole and clean; now it was worn out, bits threatened to fall off, and he was afraid it was going to fall off. But he didn't take it off. He couldn't, he wouldn't, because he felt that something bad was going to happen if he did. Maybe the bracelet worked as a lucky charm, or maybe he was being paranoid.

Or maybe he just missed his childhood best friend.

He hadn't met Kushina during the five years of war, but he had heard talk of her. It wasn't much; her name showed up now and then when he checked the general's list of completed missions the Hokage had distributed himself, and since her name appeared on missions taken outside the country as well, it had to mean she had gained somewhat control of the Kyuubi. Her team never seemed to be involved directly with the war; if the enemy found out she held a monstrous weapon, she was doomed to be kidnapped and possibly killed for it.

He had also woken up one day to the news about Whirlpool falling, and had shortly after found out that Kushina's last living relative, her older brother, had fallen with it. He was contemplating whether or not he should go home, but even if he had decided to see her, he would have been ordered to stay; as one of the jounin of the border squad, his role was important, and especially since his promotion four years ago had resulted in the general hiring him as his personal assassin. Eventually, Minato had ensured himself that Kushina was going to be all right; she had her whole life worked to protect the phrase 'home', and at the moment, Konoha was the place she wanted to protect. She had told Minato this. And even though her home had originally been somewhere else, she still had a job to do, and she wasn't a person who gave up easily.

The past few days, Ino-Shika-Chou had stayed at the border post for their own mission, and during this time Shikaku could inform Minato of something highly interesting, despite the subject – Inoichi's love life – normally being quite boring. This time, Minato had to stare speechlessly at Shikaku when he told him that Inoichi's new choice in fact was Kushina. Inoichi usually went after pretty girls, and the last time Minato checked, Inoichi had never thought of Kushina as pretty.

After this, Minato had been especially curious about his childhood best friend.

To take a day off from war was rare, and Minato knew he should enjoy every minute he could. But he was restless. The border post was emptier than usual – or maybe it always had been, he hadn't been at the post for more than a day at the time for a while – and he didn't have anyone to keep him company. Kiraku stopped by once to say hello before he left, and Minato was close to going to his usual watch post to ask if they needed any assistance. Everyone else were busy doing their own hard work; planning missions, or fulfilling them. The war had subsided lately, but there was still the one last effort to make the enemy extra tired.

But this was the only day off Minato had for several weeks, and he knew he needed it, yet it felt like a waste of time strolling down the camp, so in the end he had cleaned all his weapons, washed all his clothes and walked at least fifty walks around the area. So he decided to try something new: sit down and relax.

Not that he had never done it before, but he had adapted to a lifestyle where something always happened, often something unexpected. He had mostly read all of his books, so he found a place in the outskirts of the camp and read through some of Jiraiya's old scribblings he had brought with him, but not read for a few years. They were entertaining to read; he recognised himself several times, and since he hadn't seen his sensei ever since he was just a usual border guard, he had to smile even more of the silly stories.

"Hey, what's up?"

Minato turned and saw a familiar face. "Shikaku," he smiled. "You're back already?"

"Yeah, the mission proved to be rather easy in the end," Shikaku said and lay down next to Minato to watch the clouds. "You know, I think Iwa's running out of good shinobi. I'm sure they sent us a squad of genin."

"Can't complain," Minato said and received an agreeing nod from Shikaku. "How long are you staying?"

"As long as you need us. Ever since those chuunin were sent head first into the Rain you've been short on men, haven't you?"

"Kind of … I don't think I've noticed, to be honest, I'm barely around. But it makes my day off pretty boring."

"Well, Inoichi can entertain you now."

Minato snorted. "New girl?"

"Two, actually."

Minato raised an eyebrow.

"The first was a spy," Shikaku grinned, and Minato couldn't help but laugh. "So he says she doesn't count, but feel free to remind him. He needs to slow down."

"I'll remember. Who's the other one?"

"Well, since he never succeeded with Kushina, he tried to make her jealous," Shikaku said and rolled his eyes. "As if that'll work. She was a local girl, I never got her name."

The blonde boy caught himself smiling. Kushina had always had more pride than a rhino and wasn't easily defeated, and definitely not for another girl. That was at least how she had been when they were young; he couldn't say he knew her very well any more, but he doubted she would get rid of her old traits so easily. He could still remember her signature snort and the look she would give anyone who acted stupid.

"What about you?" Shikaku asked with mild interest. "You don't really have time for girls, though, do you?"

"I spend more time with people I dislike."

That was the sad truth. He mostly met enemies, the general, enemies, Kiraku, enemies, Kousuke and more enemies. He had been at the post three days altogether for the past four weeks where he could enjoy the company of allies, and none of the border guards were girls.

"That's true," Shikaku said. "Well, then, it might interest you to hear that Mikoto is pregnant."

"What?" Minato said and turned his head so quickly it felt like needles pierced his neck. "Already?"

"Yep," Shikaku said and chuckled of a sky who looked like Inoichi's head with the ponytail. "Been so for a while, apparently."

"She was always the house wife type, wasn't she."

"Yeah, couldn't wait to get out of duty."

"Wow," Minato said, rubbing his sore neck. "That's not bad news."

"Not at all," Shikaku agreed. "Imagine when that happens to us."

Minato smiled.

"Few more years to that, don't you think?"

Here's a list of names to keep you updated:

General Yuuhi Hiromu is Kurenai's father (I have no idea what his real name is, but he doesn't seem to have one. So I gave him one.)

Nara Kiraku is Shikaku's cousin, fictionally.

Inuzuka Kousuke is Tsume's older brother. Fictionally. He has a dog named Kemaru.

Akimichi Shiho is just an Akimichi.

I also invented Hanzou's bodyguard, but he's dead, so it doesn't really matter.