- Hans Zimmer: "On Thin Ice" (The Dark Knight Rises)
- Ramin Djawadi: "I Paid the Iron Price" (Game of Thrones)
30. Intentions
The view was unclear as smoke rose from the smashed side of the concrete building, and the sky, usually full of stars and moonshine falling to the ground, was disappearing behind clouds. None of this improved Minato's situation; there was no telling if and when the pieces of the building would move any more, and he couldn't see any incoming enemies.
Plus, he had difficulties keeping his leg up, so the way out of the ruins took longer than Minato felt safe with.
Kushina still hadn't made any sign of waking up. When she did, she could stop the bleeding on Minato's leg – he had no experience with medical issues, but knew Kushina had some – and as soon as he could get some rest, he could work up the strength and stamina to get them out of there. Knowing Kushina, she would be full of energy the moment she woke up, she could keep watch …
For now, he just had to walk until they entered the Land of Fire, and with this speed, that would take days.
Minato stepped from one piece of concrete to another, trying to select the ones that looked fairly stable. He pushed the dizziness away, but his head felt heavy. As he walked towards solid ground, he found himself unfocused several times, thinking how dangerous this could be had there been enemies lurking around; he couldn't sense anyone else than himself and her, but for all he knew, they could be on their way.
He could still feel Kushina's breath against his chest, her head resting steadily against his shoulder. He remembered how scared she had been the day he had figured out her secret, believing he would think of her as something else, or a monster – now, he was more sure than ever that the girl and the monster were two completely different things. He would probably have to remind her as soon as she woke up.
The pile of concrete pieces grew steeper, putting more pressure on Minato's injured leg; every step was a shot of pain, and he fastened his grip around Kushina, terrified to lose her. But he was nearly there, the ground was only feet away -
He had taken two steps on the cold, dusty grass before his leg gave in. He fell to his knees, but had seen it coming; by keeping Kushina close, he didn't lose his grip around her as he hit the ground. Carefully, he placed her legs down to free his injured arm. One glance at it was enough to see that the bleeding had not stopped there either. If this continued, he'd have no chance of getting anywhere near the border or the back-up that was coming after him.
He was going through the possibilities he had when the air revealed they were not alone. The wind carried the sounds of hurried footsteps and he could distantly see the shadows of four people running towards him.
He had no choice but to try to get past them as quickly as he could. With his free and injured hand he grabbed a Hiraishin kunai from his pocket, ready to throw it and channel his chakra. It would be painful, and not the most elegant attempt of this technique, but staying to fight was not an option -
Relief ran through him as the four persons closed in and he could see the symbol of Konoha on the forehead of the closest one.
It seemed that instead of waiting for the back-up to catch up with them, the general had decided to set off immediately with the three chuunin.
"Minato!" the general said. "What the hell happened here? We sensed a large mass of chakra and – what the hell happened to you?"
The general's face paled as he noticed the burnt arm and Minato's worn, beaten attire. Juukai hurried forwards to take a look at it, but Minato only shook his head and made to grab Kushina's legs again.
"We have to get out of here," he said hoarsely. "Someone must have heard this."
"Was it her?" the general asked, nodding at the mass of the building behind Minato. Minato nodded.
The general looked back down at them, from the injuries Minato had gained to the apparently unharmed, unconscious girl resting against him.
"All right," the general said. "Kiri, carry the girl, I'll support Minato -"
"No, it's fine, I can walk," Minato said, bracing himself to stand up again. When the general did not look convinced, he added, "It's fine, really. Besides, I can't fight in this condition, the rest of you can if you're not carrying me and Kushina."
"Good point, but you won't last all the way to Konoha," the general said, giving Minato a sharp look. Minato felt the first sting of bad conscience – despite his injuries, the general hadn't forgotten Minato's behaviour - but pushed it away.
They headed back, the general in the lead, Juukai the medic-nin behind him and the other two chuunin behind Minato. Meanwhile, the general updated Minato on the reinforcements he was hoping to receive.
"We sent a note to the closest border squad at once," he said. "They should be able to send a good back-up. We also sent a note to the Hokage, it's probably not delivered yet, but we decided we couldn't wait for someone to back us up. If the border squad received the note when they should, the back-up should be here soon, but I suggest we stop once we're a little way off the road to get you healed, Minato, at least enough to get you to the border post."
Minato nodded. He wasn't going to say it out loud any time soon, but he feared that talking would spend too much of his energy, so instead of asking the questions he wanted to ask and report the happenings to the general, he kept quiet, focusing on taking one step at a time and keeping Kushina in his arms.
Though after a while, when the general felt safe enough to keep an eye up for a good spot to take a break, about ten people showed up, surrounding them.
"Minato, get away from the girl."
Minato was surprised of the order he was given, but was more surprised to see who was giving it. Danzou stood in front of them on the path they had chosen, masked men standing in a circle around them. However, even though the masked men resembled ANBU, Minato had spent enough time with those members to see there was something different about these …
Some of the masked men had stepped forward to drag the general and the Chuunin away from him.
"I repeat," Danzou said, looking firmly at Minato and speaking calmly. "Get away from the girl."
"I'm not going to dump her on the ground, if that's what you want," Minato replied, his voice as equally calm.
Danzou's glare grew darker, but before he had the chance to say anything, someone more familiar emerged from behind the circle. It was Tsume.
"I'll take her," she said as she approached Minato. There was something very relieving about seeing someone else than Danzou and the strange, masked men, and her voice wasn't accusing. Trusting that Kushina would be in safe hands with her team-mate, Minato handed her to Tsume, who kept a firm hold on her and backed off, not back to where Danzou stood, but towards general Hiromu.
Minato opened his mouth to ask what Danzou's intentions were, but was cut off by Danzou giving orders to the masked men. He told them to step into formations – five placed around Minato alone, the rest protecting the general, the chuunin and Kushina.
"What's this all about?" general Hiromu asked, clearly disliking the fact that Danzou had stepped in and taken all the authority.
"The girl is not safe with him," Danzou said, nodding towards Minato. "We're taking them both back to Konoha."
"Since when was she not safe with Minato?" the general asked incredulously.
"As I remember," Danzou said coldly. "It was you yourself who sent me the details. Minato disobeyed your own orders to make his own mission. Has it not occurred to you that Minato's intentions could be false?"
"False?" the general repeated. "No. I refuse to believe Minato has other intentions than good ones. He was not directly under my command, and as I remember, I didn't demand an arrest."
"This is not your area, general," Danzou said. "It is my job to retrieve these people to the Hokage."
"And since when did you get orders by the Hokage?" the general said. "The bird we sent can't have arrived Konoha yet -"
"We collected the note," Danzou said.
"You what?" the general said, face angry. "And you didn't pass it on, despite knowing the letter was to the Hokage himself?"
"The Hokage wouldn't be able to do anything by the time we had taken action," Danzou said. "We might as well deliver the message ourselves. Besides, it's a waste of effort to send another reinforcement team from Konoha when I had my subordinates with me to the border. This will do to escort both the girl and the boy back to Konoha separately."
The general glared.
"Minato is not a missing-nin, Danzou."
"He made his choice," Danzou said. "And the case needs inspection."
At that, Danzou turned and signalled for the masked men to move.
"Let me at least heal him," Juukai suddenly said, voice uncertain. "His bleedings must be stopped."
Danzou grumbled.
"All right," he spat. "But make it quick."
Juukai ran forwards, gestured for Minato to sit down on the ground and knelt next to him. He had managed to stop the bleeding on Minato's leg and arm, but before he had the chance to clean up any of the wounds, Danzou lost patience and hushed him back to the general. Minato had no choice but to stand up and follow the cold man, surrounded by animal-masked men, his leg and arm still aching.
"Danzou, you have to stop this. This is madness."
The general's voice was angry. The sky was lighter, the sun was about to rise, but Minato's sight was growing darker. The hours they had walked without stop had worn him out, and the wound behind his knee had started to bleed again. His leg and arm was growing numb, but the wound behind his knee was aching worse than ever. Breathing felt painful as his ribs proved with every breath that some had broken. General Hiromu had commented earlier that they had to stop to see to Minato's wounds soon, but Danzou had only ignored it, waved it off or snapped back that they had to get back to the village as soon as possible, and that every unnecessary delay should be avoided.
Though it seemed that in the end, Minato's wounds had caught up with him, and he had to stop and lean against a tree to not fall as black dots appeared before his eyes once more.
"We can stop at the border," Danzou repeated. "The jinchuuriki is the priority now."
"The jinchuuriki wouldn't have been a priority if he hadn't stopped her," the general said, unable to conceal the anger in his voice. Minato had been treated like a villain ever since Danzou and his strange subordinates had shown up, and even though the general was angry with Minato's behaviour and the fact that he probably had gotten the general himself into trouble too, the general seemed to move more and more onto Minato's side.
"The wounds are infected," Juukai said worriedly. "He won't be able to walk if you push him any longer."
"He will walk if I order him to walk," Danzou said coldly.
The general growled and moved towards Minato. He lifted Minato's uninjured arm over his shoulder, supporting him.
He glared at Danzou's piercing look without blinking, as if daring him to tell him to leave Minato. Minato himself would have glared as well, but his head was so heavy with fever that all he could do was look at the ground.
"Very well," Danzou said, and signalled for them to move on. They did.
The path had grown wide as they neared the border between the Land of Fire and the Grass, and the masked men spread, giving Minato a chance to get a look back at Kushina. She was still unconscious.
Minato had feared he would faint long before they reached the border post, but the fever didn't get the chance to knock him out before they stepped over the border and headed towards the small huts placed around the open area. Medic-nin came rushing forwards, but Danzou cut them off, telling them to see to Kushina and ordering one of them to show them to an empty, secure hut. As he saw Kushina disappear inside the large emergency hut, one of the masked men grabbed him by the shoulder and pushed him into a smaller one, the other four masked men never leaving the circle around him.
He was pushed down on a chair in the middle of the single room in the hut, Danzou standing against the inner wall. Danzou looked at the general and opened his mouth to talk, but the general refused to be dismissed.
"I'm staying, Danzou," the general said firmly. "It was I who ordered a back-up, you're not the only authority here."
"Very well," Danzou said coldly. He turned to Minato, who did his best to keep his head up and glare back. "Let's begin with hearing the story of how you left on your own little mission."
"Isn't this something the Hokage should ask himself?" Minato said, trying to keep his voice clear. "Last time I checked, you need to be in an interrogation squad or have the orders to interrogate."
"Plus," the general added in. "The note making it possible for the Hokage to give such orders is in your possession."
"I operate under a sub-branch of ANBU," Danzou said. "And have the opportunity to make such orders my own."
This was completely new to Minato; since when had Danzou anything to do with ANBU?
"So," Danzou continued. "Tell me. Why did you disobey orders and leave an important mission; for your own sake?"
"First of all," Minato said bitterly, finding it hard to make his eyes focus. "The mission I was doing at that moment wasn't giving any results. No, I hadn't been released from the mission, but it wouldn't have been any more use for me to continue. I disobeyed orders because I had the chance to do something before it was too late."
"Too late for what?"
"Too late to save the Kyuubi," Minato said. "And too late to keep it out of the Earth's possession."
"Whether or not the girl would have lost the Kyuubi was always uncertain," Danzou said. "As far as I know the kidnappers didn't know of her identity."
"They do now."
Danzou tried and failed to not look questioningly at him, so Minato raised his arm slightly to show the burn marks.
"What's this all about?" Danzou asked.
"She lost control and the Kyuubi took over," Minato said. His breathing became sharper and heavier. "She had turned into a four-tailed Kyuubi when I showed up at the location. Some of the men escaped the building before the Kyuubi destroyed most of it, so ... they can have passed the information on."
Danzou frowned.
"And you want me to believe that you stopped the Kyuubi by yourself, do you?"
Minato rummaged in a pocket and picked up another copy of the compression seal he had made. He held it out to Danzou, who approached carefully and took it.
"It compresses chakra, trapping it inside the container. Once I placed it on the Kyuubi, the chakra was locked inside Kushina, and she turned back."
Danzou examined the piece of paper for a moment, before he turned a suspicious look back at Minato.
"Where did you meet Minato, general?" Danzou asked.
"Right outside the destroyed headquarters they were in," the general said. "Minato had only gotten out of it, carrying the girl. We left immediately."
"So there's no proof of Minato's intentions being actually taking the girl back to Konoha," Danzou said. "He could have come along simply because he wanted to hide it. There could be many reasons to go after the girl."
"What are you insinuating?" Minato said, momentarily distracted from the fever. He was beginning to suspect if Danzou's intentions were real as much as Danzou himself was suspecting him. Danzou had trusted Minato with missions before; the suspicion in the man seemed so sudden and ... fake.
"You have the strength and the skill to take the Kyuubi for yourself," Danzou said. "Or you could have cooperated under another name, someone outside this country, perhaps?"
"Are you kidding me?" the general said.
"I'm taking this seriously, general," Danzou said, voice raised. "Every action of this kind should be questioned, interrogated and inspected thoroughly; this sort of behaviour is exactly the kind showed on reported missing-nin!"
"I thought we were through this," the general said. "Minato is not a missing-nin. No one has reported him yet, and no one will. He was prepared to face the worst and he did; how many people do you think would run after someone who could have turned into a monster if it wasn't for protection? No one would face a monster without hesitation if the intentions were to secure it for yourself without getting hurt!"
"There are people in this world who would," Danzou said clearly. "I didn't say they were in their right minds."
Minato glared, though his sight flickered.
"I'm placing my subordinates on watch," Danzou said, pocketing the compression seal. "Until the Hokage gives different orders, Minato should be watched at all times."
"And if that's all," the general said through gritted teeth. "I'm taking this boy to the emergency hut."
Without waiting for Danzou's approval, the general grabbed Minato's arm again and led him out of the hut and towards the same hut they had carried Kushina to.
As they entered, masked men sticking to them like flies, the first thing Minato looked at was the violet eyes of an astonished Kushina, currently on her way out of the tent.
"Minato, what -"
She had meant to ask what the fuzz was all about, but one of the masked men had pushed her away from him, telling her to keep away.
"Tsume, what's going on?" Minato heard Kushina ask as the rest of the masked men grouped around him and led him to a separate room.
The door was shut behind him, two of the masked men standing outside, a medic-nin following them inside the small, dark room. The light was weak, flickering slightly, and there was no window. He sat carefully down on the bed placed in the corner, swung both legs on – the other one with help from his healthy arm – and let the medic-nin carefully take of his hooded jacket and cut the mesh top off so he wouldn't have to move his ribs any more than he already had. The bandages he wore around his leg was taken off, showing blood-stained skin, and the leg of the pants pushed up to reveal the whole cut. Minato was unable to sit straight as the strength he had used to keep himself up all the way to the border was fading, so he leaned forwards on his healthy hand, injured arm resting on injured leg. The medic-nin begun by healing his ribs, making sure none of them punctured his lungs.
They had only gotten so far when Minato felt the need to lean against the wall, black dots coming up and never disappearing; he felt himself slide forwards but was stopped by the medic-nin's gentle hands; at the same time as a loud chaos was heard outside and the door was opened, and the last thing Minato managed to see before a black wall surrounded him was a person standing in the doorway, silhouetted black against the light outside. He had tried to hear if the person spoke to find out who it was, but the person who had appeared was apparently at a loss for words.