I find it so amusing how the second seems to have less and less faith in Minato's skills.
(Naruto ch. 642)
37. Trouble
He had almost escaped it.
Sometimes, Minato wondered where Kushina had such good reflects from. He was proud to say he was faster than most people, but in the early hours of morning, tables had turned. It seemed that a sleeping Kushina had a much quicker fist than a half-awake Minato could handle.
So he had spent the morning with an ice bag on his cheek and a girlfriend who seemed unable to stop apologising. He had mostly wanted to tell her to shut up, but in fear for another fist to his face, he had shut up himself and allowed her to get the ice bag and make coffee and a huge (and delicious) breakfast.
Kushina was going away for three weeks, working as a guard for the Land of Waves while they got some negotiation work done. And even though Minato would have preferred to be alone the first hour of the morning to ease up after the bad start of the day, he was already beginning to notice how he'd miss her presence in the house once he got home.
He spent the first part of the day trying to get anywhere with his new technique. He had at first thought he had found a challenge, but was now beginning to think he had signed himself up for something near-impossible; when he in the end could no longer afford to spend any more chakra, all he had managed to do was to form a smoky shade of blue in his palm without letting it escape. He had to admit it had a cool effect, though it was useless. But it was a small comfort that he had made any progress at all; he figured the speed of the chakra stream that needed to be gathered was too fast for him yet. He just needed some more practice.
The DNA samples were not ready for another few weeks, and while they had no more clues to investigate further, Minato decided to spend the precious time they had by introducing new techniques and skills to his team. While Kakashi had completed his chakra manipulation training, Obito had managed to create a large enough fire ball to threaten a man like Minato, had they only been enemies; and Rin, despite her astoundingly good control of chakra, had barely done any superior techniques of the same level, as she was often training at her medical skills.
"It's time to think about the two of you taking the chuunin exam soon," Minato said to Obito and Rin as they sat down to take a break.
"Really?" Obito asked, a wide smile appearing on his face.
"You've already worked on missions most genin haven't," Minato said. "And you've done well, too. And from what I've seen so far, with a little more training, you'll be ready."
"So we can take it this year?" Rin asked.
"We'll see," Minato smiled. "You're still young. It's just a thought, and a goal to train for."
"Kakashi's already a chuunin," Obito complained; Minato was starting to sense a dangerous mood between the two, and was not in the mood for more fights.
"Kakashi became a chuunin on special conditions," Minato said, keeping his voice calm, but looked warningly at Obito. "You know this, Obito."
Obito grumbled something. Minato decided not to ask.
"Anyway," he continued. "There's one exam this summer, and we'll see if you're ready for it when the time comes. The next will be held in a year."
"A year is a long way off," Obito pouted.
"And in a year, you're still much younger than most people are when they become chuunin," Minato sighed, suddenly regretting mentioning the chuunin exams at all. "I was twelve, and I was a year ahead of my classmates. The reason why I'm mentioning it to you now is because I believe you have skill enough to go through an exam, whether you pass it or not; and if you keep training like you do now, you might have a chance to be promoted. I know how fast you've progressed in only one year, and I think it's a waste of talent to keep you from doing things you're able to go through just because you're somewhat younger than expected."
Obito had gone silent, but looked a bit embarrassed for his childish pouting before being called talented.
"Don't worry," Minato smiled, patting Obito's head and trying to encourage him. "You'll be chuunin one day. And after that, you'll be jounin."
"And maybe ANBU," Kakashi said; Minato was a little startled to hear Kakashi express a sign for having actual ambitions other than following orders, but had barely opened his mouth before he heard something entirely more surprising.
"And then Hokage!" Obito exclaimed, straightening up. "If we're ready to become chuunin before everyone else, doesn't that mean something?"
"I didn't say anything about anyone else," Minato said perplexed, but was interrupted.
"If we can get through this chuunin exam this summer, we're bound to be noticed, right, Rin?" Obito asked Rin eagerly, who blinked in confusion.
"I never said you were one hundred percent ready either -"
But whatever he had of counter-arguments, nothing could stop the Uchiha from expressing his new dream.
Minato sighed and kept a cold bottle of water against his warm forehead. It was barely three o'clock, and he was already missing his bed.
At the end of the week, Minato cursed himself for mentioning the chuunin exams. It seemed like Obito had found new things to rant about – chuunin, jounin, Hokage – without stopping, and while this seemed too big for Rin to fully understand, Kakashi spent every moment he could trying to get on Obito's nerves.
Minato had declared Sunday as a day off for his whole team, and sat tiredly down at the barbecue with Kousuke.
"You look like you've been through hell," Kousuke commented as he offered Minato a glass of sake and Minato most insistently said no.
"I may have," he replied, taking a large gulp from his glass of water instead. "Kakashi and Obito have been getting on each others' nerves the whole week. I'm telling you, nothing I do stops them."
"They should meet one of mine," Kousuke chuckled. "I'll bet he'd get them back on the right track. If not speechless, if you want."
"What d'you mean?" Minato asked with a frown.
"Remember when we were assigned teams, and the third told me that one of mine would be of good help to the other two, who were troublemakers?"
Minato shook his head.
"Anyway, he was right. His name is Gai, and he's ridiculously energetic. In a good way, you know. He spends most of his time challenging people, exclaiming how wonderful everything is, especially about their youth …"
Kousuke adopted a dreamy look, and Minato frowned.
"But," Kousuke said, pointing at him with his chopsticks and cheeks becoming redder with sake. "He could give your Kakashi a good run for his money."
"Seriously?"
"Yep. He became genin when he was 7, and I'm thinking about signing them up for this year's exam."
Kousuke threw a piece of pork in his mouth and grabbed a napkin, and suddenly noticed something.
"What happened to your face?" he asked, gesturing towards the still-bluish bruise on Minato's cheek.
"Oh, uh, Kushina hit me," Minato mumbled.
"Why, what happened?" Kousuke asked, leaning back with a grin. "Tried to do the nasty with her or something?"
Minato choked on the pork he was eating, completely unprepared for a question like that.
"You did, didn't you?" Kousuke grinned while Minato hastily drank some water.
"What? It wasn't that – no, I –"
"Seriously?" Kousuke said, now looking more astounded than sly. "You should know better than to set her off, you know, especially like that."
"She didn't hit me because of that," Minato said gloomily. "I tried to wake her up."
"Oh," Kousuke said, looking a bit disappointed; then, considering Minato's odd behaviour, he asked, "But you still did it, didn't you?"
Minato, due to of a lack of intelligent things to reply with, lifted the water glass to his lips and looked away.
"All right, I won't ask any more," Kousuke said, hands in the air to show defeat. "But I'll take that as a yes."
"'Course you will," Minato said, grabbing his jacket and throwing a few coins on the table. "But not a word to Inoichi."
"Wasn't going to," Kousuke said, getting up. "I know he never shuts up about other people's business. Kushina would be highly unpopular among the girls if they ever found out. Not that she cares, but you know."
"She'd care about you spreading the word around."
"Hey, you're the one who told me first."
"You forced it out of me."
"All right, all right," Kousuke said with a mischievous smile, leading the way out of the barbecue.
If there was one thing Minato was going to do better, it was to appreciate Kushina's encouraging talk and frequent head massages. After three weeks of hard work, Minato's head was pounding; he was used to long training sessions, food rations and little sleep, but never had his team been such a mess as now. Obito and Kakashi seemed unable to stop their verbal fighting, while Rin and Minato tried hopelessly to break them up.
He was beginning to wonder when Kushina was coming home and if she had mentioned any time and date the morning she had punched him, but found his head too filled with annoyance to be able to remember a detail like that.
Though as he was walking towards the town square to meet Shikaku, he had his question answered.
"Minato!"
He turned around at the so delightfully familiar voice, and found Kushina walking towards him. So relieved to find someone he knew wouldn't bother him more than necessary, he held his arms out and drew her into a tight hug.
"What's up with you?" Kushina said, managing to press out a small, squeezed chuckle.
"I've missed you," Minato mumbled. "And I'm tired."
He released her from the hug, about to ask her how the mission went, when he noticed the troubled expression on her face.
"What's the matter?" he asked.
"Look, we need to talk," she said quietly. "This might be a bad time, but –"
"Hey, Minato! Over here."
They both turned at the voice speaking, and saw Shikaku approaching them with Inoichi and Chouza following.
Kushina let out an impatient sigh, but couldn't say anything else before the trio had appeared next to them.
"Welcome back, Kushina," Shikaku said, at which Kushina smiled as well as she could. "How was the mission?"
"It was fine, I –"
Minato had been about to interrupt them, asking the trio to give them a moment, when they found another person standing next to them; an ANBU, wearing a bear mask.
"Minato-san, Kushina-san," he said. "The Hokage needs your attention immediately. It's an emergency."
Minato looked at Kushina, but she seemed just as perplexed as him.
"Come on," she mumbled, grabbing his arm and following Bear.
With a last apologetic wave to the trio, they ran towards the Hokage Tower.
"Kushina, is everything all right?" Minato asked worriedly.
"I'm fine," she said, and gave him a reassuring smile. "We'll talk about it later."
They arrived at the tower, and without knocking, Bear opened the door to the third's office and announced that he had fetched the last two. Inside the office, in front of the third's desk, stood Kakashi, Obito, Rin, Rabi, Tsume, Kuromaru and Allen, their drowsy-looking, dark-haired sensei, who looked even more tired after the journey to the Waves.
"Good," the third said. "I've just received a message from one of the border squads and I need all of you for this mission. Bear, you can leave."
Bear nodded and left the office, while Minato and Kushina joined the others.
"The daughter of the feudal lord of the Wind was kidnapped by what we've so far assumed are Rain shinobi. They're clueless, but we might be able to help. Now, I know this is an unusual event, seeing as we don't have the best relationship with the Sand, but the thing is, the Rain have, instead of bringing her back to their own country, sneaked her into our forests. They were revealed by one of the border squads yesterday, and the information I've received tells us they plan on keeping her hidden in the Fire Country. The kidnappers killed three of the men who caught them, while the last managed to get back to safety and pass the information on."
"Why would they hide her here?" Obito asked.
"We're not sure yet," the third replied, handing Allen the information sheets.
"Are they trying to put the blame on us?" Minato asked, receiving a few looks from his companions.
"That's our suspicions so far," the third nodded. "The information says they tried to find a good spot to hide her, and that they were planning on making some sort of track. We believe they are trying to lure the Sand into our country to start a conflict, and should they find the feudal lord's daughter, they would naturally believe we had kidnapped her and intended to harm her or use her for negotiation purposes. I have a team who's currently dealing with the Sand, trying to cooperate with them. They would probably just tell us to keep to our own business, but when the Rain have decided to enter our land for criminal activities, it becomes our problem as well. So what I need you to do, is to use whatever tracks we have, find the feudal lord's daughter and the Rain shinobi, bring them to the border nearest the Wind and report back to me. I'll have a back-up team waiting for you there, so you can get in contact with the Sand with the least possibility to start a conflict."
The eight of them nodded.
"Minato, you're responsible for the Rain shinobi," the third said. "Allen, your team goes after the daughter. Cooperate to find the best way to approach and attack."
Minato and Allen nodded.
"Go."