25. Dignity

A day had passed, in which Minato had gone through conversations with the families of the missing children. Minato had promised each of them he'd do whatever he could to catch the kidnapper and bring the children home – though he had been careful about promising what state they would be in.

Not because he didn't care, but because he'd be almost as torn apart as the victims' families if he couldn't keep a promise of bringing them back alive.

It was late, and he was examining every inch of the missing girl's crime scene for the tenth time. He had done the same with the places where the boys had been kidnapped, and had found little clues; mostly a chaos of footsteps, a few strands of hairs he had sent for DNA testing, but other than that, there was not much to find. The footsteps eventually led down a road and disappeared amongst footsteps of the other villagers, making it about impossible to make out the way the kidnapper had taken. He had hired Kakashi, who had recently discovered and trained his excellent sense of smelling, and although he had managed to separate the kidnapper, the children and other smells, he didn't have the nose to get much further than into the centre of the town.

Minato had been surprised when Kakashi had led him to the town square, having been prepared to find a track that led to the forest or another rarely busy path towards the walls around Konoha. The fact that the kidnapper had managed to take the children – each of them – through the town square unnoticed only told Minato how skilled the culprit was.

"Try that path," Minato told Kakashi, pointing towards a dark alley. It was unlikely, seeing as it made a dead-end, but it was worth a try anyway.

Kakashi walked towards the alley, concentration clear on his face, but had to stop, turn around and shake his head.

Minato sighed.

"That's all the paths covered ..." he said thoughtfully, more to himself than to Kakashi. "I can see a few possibilities – some more likely than others – he may have done a space-time technique from here, confusing us and making it harder to see what his destination was, or he could have changed scents …"

"Or, he's just that good at covering his tracks," Kakashi shot in. Minato looked at him, having almost forgotten that he was there during his moment of contemplation.

"Also a possibility," he replied. "I should find the others, maybe they have clues that I don't."

While Kakashi headed off to do whatever, Minato started searching out Shikaku, Tsunade and Orochimaru. As he passed the barbecue, he met Shikaku on his way out.

"Shikaku, I was looking for you."

"Ah, Minato," Shikaku said. "How's the mission going?"

"Not too well," Minato admitted. "I tracked down the path the kidnapper had taken with each of the children. All of them led to the town square, but that's where the path ends."

"I see," Shikaku said. "Seems like a clever man. He probably went there to send us in the wrong direction and covered his path from there."

"That's what I thought," Minato said. "I just can't see how he's done it without being seen dragging a child along. The town square is usually pretty busy."

"Exactly. I've searched the walls, but I couldn't find anything there. Have you talked to Tsunade and Orochimaru?"

"Not yet, I was about to look for them."

"I'll join in."

They went to the hospital, hoping to see Tsunade somewhere nearby – after all, the hospital was quite low on staff and needed as much people as possible – but weren't surprised to find that Tsunade had been released from her duties at the hospital while the mission was still ongoing.

"She was here a few hours ago," a medic-nin told them. "She went out of Konoha with Orochimaru to search the Grass village for something."

"Probably for clues," Minato told Shikaku as they left the hospital. "We passed there on our way home from the North, they seemed to have the same problem."

"I guess the best thing we can do is to keep watch in the village," Shikaku said. "Since searching for clues haven't gotten us many places, we should keep to pacing around, keeping an eye up for anything strange and talk to people. Especially the regular visitors and inhabitants of the town square. Until Tsunade and Orochimaru come back, we can at least make sure nothing goes unnoticed here."

"Good idea," Minato replied. "We'll take it in turns. I can keep watch tonight."

They had both been awake since before sunrise, but Minato had often spent long hours on watch on the border and was trained in keeping himself awake during an important task. Though he did start off his watch by following Shikaku home.

"I'd hoped there was mood for more talking," Shikaku sighed as he stared casually at the stars above them. "It was entertaining to discuss Inoichi's life of women, but he's drying up. I'm kinda more interested in hearing about you and Kushina, believe it or not."

Minato grinned. "There'll be time."

"Yeah," Shikaku replied and entered the small gate to his house. "Well, good luck on your watch."

"Thanks."

And for three whole days, they walked the village, spoke to the inhabitants.

Nothing happened.

"Oi, Minato."

"Hm?"

Minato was driven from his very longed-for nap earlier than he had hoped, but wasn't disappointed as he saw who had woken him up.

"Shikaku's looking for you," Kushina said and pulled him up. "C'mon, he said it was urgent."

"'Said what?" Minato mumbled, letting himself being dragged up from the bench on Jirayia's porch but not quite awake yet.

"He said something about Tsunade and Orochimaru being back," Kushina said, leading him down a road.

Minato's heart skipped a beat. Maybe they had found something important, or even caught the kidnapper …

He found them in the Hokage's office – Shikaku, Orochimaru and Tsunade – and the third didn't hesitate to address him as he entered.

"Minato, good of you to join us so soon," he said, nodding shortly to Kushina as she slipped out of the doorway and closed the door behind her to not interrupt the conversation. Though Minato had a funny feeling she had no intentions of leaving the Hokage Tower yet.

He would've smiled of the fact that he could sense her pressed up against the door behind him, trying to eavesdrop, if the atmosphere in the room hadn't been so serious.

"Did you find any clues?" Minato asked, looking from Tsunade to Orochimaru.

"We found tracks," Tsunade said. "We followed them for a while. They led to the border between the Earth and the Grass. But as soon as we had found a potential hiding spot, we found clear tracks leading back to where we came from. We can't be at several places at once, so we need you to search a building we discovered."

The third pointed at an unnamed position on a map that was spread out on his office table.

"The building is located here," the third said. "They say the tracks were slightly more diffused here compared to the other paths, but we should still check it out. It's just on the other side of the border, on the Earth's side."

"I'll leave at once," Minato said, at which the third nodded. He turned, and as he closed in on the door, he heard hurried footsteps from the hall; leaving the office, he saw Kushina looking highly innocent a few steps away from the office.

"Sneak."

"You'd do the same," Kushina said, following him out of the tower.

"Nah," Minato smirked. "I have dignity."

Kushina raised an eyebrow. "And since when was eavesdropping not an option for shinobi?"

"Ever since the people you were eavesdropping on were not your enemies."

Kushina grabbed his arm to stop him. "I want to be useful too, you know."

Minato could hear just how sincerely she meant that, and knew the frustration she felt; her condition had kept her from doing missions she was otherwise skilled enough and had the rank to do.

"All right," Minato said, sneaking an arm around her waist and looking at her. "You can do something for me. You can take my watches with Shikaku while I'm gone and report anything you'd find to the Hokage. Deal?"

"Deal," Kushina smiled, stretched up and gave him a long, soft kiss. It was the first in what seemed weeks; the past few days he had spent on the lookout for kidnappers hadn't given them any time together.

Minato drew her close and kissed her below the ear.

"But first," he whispered, one hand firmly around her and another disappearing between silky strands of hair. "You can help me pack my bag."