34. Five Hours of Sleep

They had woken up next morning in the same bed they had left before Minato's mission; Kushina still dressed in the T-shirt and shorts, Minato dressed in a pair of sweat pants only. It had taken them some time to move from the porch to the bed – at least an hour – but not before Minato had made an attempt in shifting his hand further down on Kushina's back. To this, Kushina had simply given him something of a smirk and called him a perve.

To which Minato had nothing to counter with.

Minato had naturally woken up earlier than Kushina. He usually woke up earlier than most; it was the same for the other comrades he had shared tents with at the border for five years. Being so close to where the conflicts at war happened usually ended up with few hours sleep each night, and it had become a sad habit of his to wake up five hours after he went to bed, automatically alert and his first thought being to grab the kunai he had kept on his night stand.

It was annoying, having to reassure himself every time he woke up that nothing was wrong. But the nagging feeling was hard to shake off, and he rarely got more sleep. So while Kushina continued to breathe deeply and steadily in her sleep next to him, he lay quite still, listening.

Minato was sitting on the railings following the river he usually met his team by, scratching the back of his head with a sigh. In front of him stood a young boy, whose silver hair was shining impressively in the sun.

The rest of the boy were in no such mood.

After Minato had explained the situation he had been in, Kakashi had refused to say a single thing. Instead, he had looked sideways at the road with a gloomy expression that could have given childhood Kushina a good run for her money.

"Come on, Kakashi," Minato said, tired of trying to get the boy to listen. "You're a smart kid. You would've done the same thing."

The boy continued to stare at anything but him, now finding the spot where one of the two ANBU who trailed Minato had hidden. It made Minato slightly frustrated. This boy was more difficult to talk to than any of the girlfriends he had heard others complain about; in fact, at some point, something had gone wrong and given Kakashi the traits of what Minato had originally learned would belong to a displeased, stubborn girl.

Whatever Jiraiya had taught him about angry women, he was sure Kushina was a lot more reasonable and easier to deal with than this boy.

"Kakashi, if I hadn't done what I did we might've been at war by now," Minato explained.

"I thought we were going to war either way," Kakashi replied sourly, finally chancing a look at his sensei.

"Not this soon," Minato said, trying to keep his voice calm. "We need all the time we can get to prepare, because we're a lot weaker than our enemies."

Minato kept his posture, but something inside him stung at the word enemies. Ever since the woman from Earth had tried to get revenge on him, it had dawned on Minato more and more that if they kept going like this, Konoha would always be at war and never get out of the weak state they were in.

"The Kyuubi could have fallen into the wrong hands," Minato continued. "And would have become a dangerous weapon against us. That's the last thing we need. And no, Kakashi -" he interrupted when Kakashi opened his mouth, "- I wasn't disobeying orders from the Hokage himself. I was given advice that under the circumstances were disguised as orders due to pressure. There were no official orders given and I was free to decide. My rank and loyalty to the Hokage gives me the privileges to do what I think best. Had the mission failed or had my intentions been wrong, then of course I would have been reported and thrown in jail."

"I thought you were reported?" Kakashi said, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes, but there hasn't been any bigger investigations. I was free to go as soon as I got back."

Kakashi eyed him for a moment, but they had gone somewhat milder, as though he was reconsidering something; Minato decided to take advantage of that moment, thinking Kakashi could have a bigger chance of agreeing.

"Which means," Minato said carefully. "I did something right."

Kakashi considered what he had heard.

"So the Hokage is not mad at you?" he asked.

"Nope," Minato replied. "I'm still taking the same missions as before."

Something shined in Kakashi's eyes, like he had just seen an opportunity. "Can I join?"

Minato was not sure if he wanted to sigh or laugh. Kakashi had been bored with the missions their team had been hired for ever since they returned from the North, and had apparently figured out Minato was willing to do quite a list to get back on his good side.

"We'll see."

"I helped you out tracking."

"Yes, Kakashi, but think about Rin and Obito."

"They'll be fine with us."

"It's more complicated than that."

"But you know I can do it."

Minato looked sternly at the boy. "We'll see, all right?"

Kakashi looked grumpy again. Unfortunately, Minato knew just how Kakashi felt. He too had been more skilled than his team-mates, and therefore been forced to do missions too easy for him.

"I'll talk to the Hokage, but I can't promise anything," he sighed, and watched how Kakashi's eyes lit up. "But don't tell Rin and Obito anything before we know what's going to happen. I need your word on it."

"All right," Kakashi said, cowering slightly under the suddenly stern and somewhat cold look Minato gave him. "I won't tell them."

"Good," Minato said, softening up. "Let's go meet the other two."

He jumped down from the railings, and in silence, they walked down the path towards a bridge they had agreed upon meeting by. Minato could feel Kakashi's eyes on his back as they walked; he knew he had behaved differently than he used to. He had always been authoritative with his team, but had never acted so cold towards any of them before.

But even though he had his reasons for being sceptical of letting his two genin on an A-ranked mission, he decided not to share them with Kakashi just yet.

The end of the day had come quicker than Minato had hoped for. The last streaks of the red sunlight broke through the leaves and passed the house walls, making him squint every time he stepped out of shaded grounds.

He and his team had spent hours on the training field, perfecting everything Minato could think of before they would start learning techniques of higher levels. Kakashi had – though Minato had thought it impossible at first – tried harder than ever to show Minato just how good he had become. Minato did not complain on Kakashi's sudden urge to show off, though, 'cause somehow, it made Obito try even harder. All in all, the day had turned out great, and his mood had raised significantly.

The rest of the day had gone to a quick shower, a quicker dinner and a hasty run to the Hokage's office. He was glad he met Kushina at the door on his way out; a very tired, soiled and grumpy Kushina, who he had at the last second given a rushed, yet intense kiss, told her he loved her with a wide smile and ran off, leaving her slightly dumbfounded in the hallway.

Though now, with a map in his hands and four sets of speaking devices in his pocket, he found himself standing in front of a gaping, black hole, not sure if he should jump over it or walk around it. He cursed himself for giving in to Kakashi's wish to join the search of the missing children along with the rest of the team, but knew there was no turning back. He had promised Kakashi he'd speak to the Hokage, and he'd been granted his permission.

Due to the lack of time, he had asked one of the ANBU who trailed him to find his team and tell them to meet up; at which the bear-masked ANBU had actually nodded and set off, and the Hokage had given him a discreet wink with a sly smirk and shooed him out of the office so he could get the day's paperwork done before dinner.

Minato met his little team of soldiers by the same bridge as always after having changed into his regular attire whenever he was on missions. Rin and Obito looked quite puzzled, while Kakashi was having a hard time not looking too eager. It was clear that they had figured out that Kakashi knew something; Obito and Kakashi was having a highly audible argument.

"Break it down, you two," Minato said as he approached the noisy kids.

"Hey, sensei," Obito said, ignoring the scolding look Minato was giving them. "What's going on?"

"You're signed up for a mission," Minato said, trying not to let the bitterness inside him show. "You begin tomorrow. It's a long-term mission where you'll be sent in and out of the village, mainly for searching and gathering information."

He crouched on the ground and spread out the large map. The three kids sat down as well.

"Your task is regarding the missing children," Minato continued as he handed out speaking devices. "For now limited to the missing children of our country."

"But, sensei," Rin began while she grabbed the device held out for her. "Isn't this an A-ranked mission?"

"Yep," Minato nodded. "Which is why you two -" he pointed at Obito and Rin, "- will be following a jounin at every time, not necessarily me."

"Why not you?" Obito asked.

"Because I'll be out of the country sometimes," he replied. "And I'm not letting any of you three out of the Fire Country until you've all become chuunin."

He found a red marker in his pocket and drew a large circle on the map.

"This is the area you'll be stationed at tomorrow," Minato said. "We've detected barriers there, so there might be information to gather from there. We'll be going together and report back to the Hokage when we've cleared the whole area. We'll then receive new orders for the next day once all the reports are handed in, and that's basically how it goes."

He placed the lid back on the marker, and looked at the three of them with the most serious expression he could muster.

"Once it's limited to this country, the mission becomes more B-ranked than A-ranked, even though the official rank is A," he explained. "But listen, you three. In a mission like this, things can turn around sooner than we think. I appreciate that you'll be getting this experience, especially since you'll be training for the chuunin exams, but this is dangerous. I want you to take this seriously and do what you're told. And I need you all to focus, Obito – I need you to keep your guard up at all times." He looked at Obito, who swallowed; he was the one in the team who lost his concentration the quickest. "You have no idea how hard it is for me to let the three of you out there."

The three went silent. They had had a growing eagerness inside them, but now, they looked more uncertain.

"But, sensei," Kakashi said hesitatingly. "If we're only in this country, and they're with jounin … I mean, I know this is serious -"

"Nothing's gonna happen, right?" Obito finished for him. He too had noticed the way Minato had turned colder. "You wouldn't have signed us up for this if we couldn't do it, right?"

"I don't doubt you, Obito," Minato said genuinely. "I don't doubt any of you. But remember what I'm about to tell you, all right?"

He leaned against the railings separating him from the silent, cold river. He wasn't sure why, but he felt anxious. He hadn't talked about this for many, many years.

"When I was only a year older than you are now, I was in a different team," he began. "I had my own sensei and two team-mates. It was a team quite similar to our team nine. We had a sensei who wanted to make us the best, and the three of us had worked hard for over a year. Though I had started training under Jiraiya earlier than them, before I graduated, because my skills – I'm not going to be modest – improved a lot faster than the other kids' at the Academy. So when we all graduated and became a team, I was already ahead of them with what Jiraiya called several years. But I too joined the D-ranked missions, and every now and then I was allowed to join Jiraiya on more difficult ones. I couldn't take the chuunin exam without them, so I had to wait, but that was fine by me, since I had already taken a few B-ranked missions as a genin. But the other two eventually became frustrated that they didn't get to do the same missions as I sometimes did. And in the end, that resulted in a team that was about to break in half. So Jiraiya talked to the Hokage and was assigned a light B-ranked mission with his team. We headed out to find information in the Wind. Though when we were about to turn and head back to Konoha, an ambush hit us."

Minato sighed, drew a hand through his hair and started tampering with the marker.

"Had they been few, everything would have turned out fine. But earlier that day, several shinobi of Suna had gathered near the border to go back to their village in a large group because they were carrying a lot of things." His voice was turning more bitter, but he forced himself to sit calmly. "They were too many to keep the situation under control. I hadn't learned the Hiraishin technique yet, so I couldn't move as fast as I'm able to now."

He tossed the marker lightly onto the map, still spread out on the ground between them, and supported his arms on his knees.

"The Hokage knows this, right?" Rin asked quietly.

Minato nodded.

"Then why's he allowing us to go?"

Minato could suddenly not help but feel a sting of pride in his chest. "Because he knows how good you are."

The three – Kakashi as well – were surprised by this.

"And I do, too," Minato continued. "Otherwise I wouldn't have agreed to sign you up for this. But remember what I told you -" he looked seriously at them again, "- and don't take this lightly. I know you have a knack of getting on each others' nerves, so I'm ordering you to cooperate better than ever. Is that clear?"

The three of them nodded determinedly. Obito even added by saying, "We won't disappoint you, sensei."

"Good, that's what I wanted to hear," Minato said and got up. "Now hurry off, you'll need all the sleep you can get."

And so they parted, Minato heading off to get another five hours worth of sleep.