24. Contagious Tragic
The sun was rising, peeking through the leaves surrounding the porch house in the outskirts of the village centre of Konoha. A light breeze hit the walls around the corners, but it wasn't cold; the winter in Konoha reached its coldest at fifteen degrees, making the mornings a good time to cool down. One villager in particular had always been a morning person, getting up earlier than most and spending the mornings reading outside (as long as the weather provided good conditions for books), making early training sessions on the deserted training fields or simply taking a walk.
The first streaks of red sunlight hit Minato in the face as his eyes wandered the page of a book he had found in Jiraiya's old bookshelf. He enjoyed it so far, but it wasn't the same as reading Jiraiya's idiotic novels; in those, he could relate both himself and his sensei to the characters, making it more of an interesting read.
He heard footsteps enter through the front door, but was already aware of who it was, having sensed her as she approached the house. He expected her to disappear upstairs to take a shower and then dump straight down on his unmade bed, locking him outside his own bedroom, but as the footsteps shuffled closer, he turned around and found a tired, yawning girl with stained clothes and red strands of mess on top of her head.
She had been kicked out of her own apartment because the landlady needed it back, and was currently joining Minato in free-loading on Jiraiya's house. Having only been dating for about a month, it sounded far too early to live together, but the truth was that they barely saw each other in that house at the same time; Minato had at first only offered her his bed because he had gone for a few days' worth of missions, and had to spend one night on the couch before Kushina headed off to the Wind for a week.
Minato would usually protest on the kiss Kushina gave him due to her stained, muddy attire, but was far too happy to see her to do so.
"You're up early," Kushina said and stifled a yawn while dumping down on the lawn chair opposite him.
"Meeting the Hokage in a bit," Minato said, turning a page and only paying half his attention to it. "How was the mission?"
"A big mess," Kushina said, pointing at herself for reference. Minato grinned. "It was raining the whole time. Made it impossible to track anyone, so we had to change the whole plan. Made it in the end, though."
"'Course you did," Minato smiled; Kushina had a habit of refusing to give up. She smiled drowsily back and leaned back in the chair, making herself comfortable; half a minute later, her eyes were closed and her breath sounded deeper.
Minato enjoyed the presence of the red-haired sleeping girl in the morning sun.
After having carried his impossible-to-wake-up girlfriend to the bed, Minato transported himself to the Hokage Tower. He had quite secretly placed a seal on one of the trees nearby recently, seeing as he went there frequently and not always with his team. A minute later he knocked on the Hokage's office door, hearing a clear "come in," and entered.
"Morning, Hokage-sama," Minato said as he approached the third.
"Minato," the third nodded; he looked serious. "I'm glad you're in the village. Konoha has been experiencing terrible happenings lately, and I need a few men on the case."
Minato nodded.
"It seems that the kidnapper in the Earth that you told us about has reached Konoha," the third continued, and Minato felt a cold sting in his stomach. "So far we have five victims."
"Are there any clues?" Minato asked.
"None. That's the worst part, we have no idea who did it and there's no telling where the culprit went with the children."
Minato closed his eyes for two seconds. They were only children ...
"I want you to place that excellent seal of yours several places around the village; the hospital, my office door, the village gates, the interrogation tower. All the places you find clues."
Minato nodded again. The reassuringly calm morning on the porch seemed ages away.
"I'm afraid I don't have much information to pass on to you, Minato. I have information about the children, but other than that, we start from scratch. I've put you, Tsunade, Orochimaru and Shikaku on the case so far. Try to speak to them while you're searching, they might have some clues. You're exempt from any other missions and missions with team nine. We need this kidnapper sorted out as soon as possible."
Minutes later, Minato left the Hokage Tower with files of the missing children in his hand. Four boys, one girl. All of them ten years old or less.
Minato had often felt sad, confused, worried and scared – at least for others' sake. But never had he felt as uneasy as now.