I think one challenge of writing is to not mix 'him' and 'her' by mistake. Sometimes I won't notice I used the wrong phrase, and Minato is suddenly a woman.

- Gary Jules: "Mad World" (Donnie Darko)

40. Dark Rain

Their clothes clung to their skin like glue. Mud and water splashed from the ground as they ran, leaving their black shoes brown. Minato had black bandages covering his legs and right arm again, and they had so far been repelling any form of dirt, but the medical bandages covering the still healing burn mark on his left arm had gone from pure white to dirty grey.

Rin would have told him to change them.

"I can sense them," Minato informed as a familiar signature disturbed the air around them. "We're catching up. Get ready."

He could see Kakashi and Obito draw one kunai each; both with determinedly set faces, but Obito with a nervousness uncovered by his eyes. Minato drew a Hiraishin kunai himself and picked up the pace. His two accomplices followed his lead; they were closing in and the three men had probably heard them through the rain, or more likely sensed them in the air –

Minato quickly measured the distance between them and threw the kunai.

"Charge immediately," he said as the kunai flew, closing in, closing in. "Avoid heart and head regions."

"Roger," Kakashi said, and Obito managed a nod with a strangled 'uh-huh'.

Minato disappeared from their side, an echo left behind, and appeared before the red man, aiming his foot towards the stomach region and kicking the air out of him. He caught Rin before she could hit the ground and backed off as both the green and the blue men turned to attack him; a large fire ball separated them and Minato had for a moment no record of what was happening on the other side before the flames quickly died out due to the furiously falling rain, and he could see Kakashi and Obito in full battle with green and blue.

He knew immediately that a chuunin and a genin were an easy match for two seemingly high-levelled jounin, but in a matter of seconds, he was impressed with the two boys' battle skills.

As Minato placed Rin carefully against a tree and conjured a Kage Bunshin, he saw the green man barely able to avoid a sharp stroke of lightning coming from Kakashi's hands. In the meantime, Obito had foreseen green's move and flung a kunai towards him; it hit him in the shoulder painfully. The blue man charged, but failed to see the heavier, three-pronged kunai flying right behind him; just as Kakashi knocked green out, Minato placed his palm on blue's back and inflicted a short, sharp pain on him. The two men fell to the muddy ground, unconscious.

Obito was already running towards Rin and the Kage Bunshin. Minato and Kakashi tied the hands of the robed men with one long rope.

"Something's wrong with her," Obito shouted, worry clear in his voice. "She's not responding."

Minato picked up the Hiraishin kunai he had used and hurried over. Something was definitely not right; Rin's eyes were slightly open, but her face looked completely defeated, and her body didn't even flinch.

"What's going on?" Obito asked as Minato lifted her chin up, and her faced looked just as motionless as before.

"She's been put under some sort of paralysing technique," Minato said and dismissed his Kage Bunshin. "We'll have to take her to the border."

"Ready to go," Kakashi shouted, red, green and blue bundled together.

"It's not permanent, is it?" Obito asked, getting up.

"Probably not," Minato said, keeping the same confident voice as earlier as he picked the girl up. "Nothing I can decide, but these men wouldn't have gained anything by permanently paralysing her. The techniques for that are quite complicated and take longer time than what they had."

Obito seemed half-convinced and walked silently towards Kakashi and the bundled men. Minato crouched, reached out and grabbed the rope tying the three men together. With Rin over his shoulder and Kakashi and Obito grabbing his out-reached arm, he channelled his chakra and made one quick single-hand seal, and when he opened his eyes, he looked straight at a large man who was about to wake up.

"We have to hurry," he said. "Obito, take Rin."

Obito did as he was told, keeping an extra careful grip around her while Minato walked over to the large twin, did a number of hand seals and placed one palm on his head. A moment later, the eyes of the twin were closed and he lay motionless.

"This will take some effort …" Minato mumbled, pulling the three tied-up men towards him and connecting the two twins and the guard to the same rope. There were several people to transport – more than he was used to - nine people, along with himself.

"You could take two trips," Obito suggested.

Minato shook his head. "It would take just about the same amount of chakra. I'll just have to concentrate one level higher."

He made a firm grip around the single rope connecting their six enemies. Kakashi grabbed the arm, and Obito made a number out of carefully and securely placing Rin's hand on Minato's arm with his own before using his other hand to connect himself. Once again, Minato channelled chakra into the ropes and made the single-hand seal. The blood on the ground reached his nose, and he was reminded of whose blood it was. He was suddenly very aware of what was waiting for him at the border post.

"We need you to focus."

Right. Focus …

He opened his eyes and felt drained. He filled his lungs with fresh, cold air and it came out again as steam. People were running towards them, and he could see the old, white sheets of the border post's prison tent.

"Obito, Kakashi, take Rin to the emergency tent," he ordered, and they didn't hesitate.

"Are there more coming?" a chuunin who had approached them asked, counting the men in the bundle.

"Of enemies, no," Minato replied. "Are Allen and Rabi back with the girl yet?"

"Not yet, no," the chuunin said. "But we detected someone crossing the barrier of our area not long ago. I sent men to investigate."

"Let's hope it's them. Where do you want these?"

"Cells five to ten."

"Right."

Minato grabbed the rope again, and was gone within a second and a half. He appeared within the sheets of the tent that were covering large iron cells, and heard a yelp behind him and what sounded unmistakably as a spilled cup of coffee.

"My bad," he said and tried to smile, turning to face the young woman who was guarding the cells. "I take it most people use the entrance."

"Mostly," the woman breathed in a bemused way, absently reaching for a napkin. Minato recognised her as one of the girls who had once spent annoying amounts of time and effort on asking him out, but decided to not show any sign of recognising. Instead, he started to remove the rope from the six men, and asked if he could throw each of them in whichever cell he liked.

He felt tired. He kept his mind empty, using his remaining strength on carrying four rather average men and two rather large, spreading them across the six cells. In the corners of his eyes he could see the two other prisoners gaze at him with mild interest. The woman – Naiki, wasn't it? – locked the cells one after the other, and Minato gave her a polite nod and left the tent.

He knew his task was to inform the general of the squad about the mission, but his personal feelings distracted him just enough to carry him towards a white tent with a large, red cross above its entrance. The emergency tent was similar to the one at the border post he had been stationed at during the war; a long, white hallway of sheets with rooms of fabric and various sizes on each side. A medic-nin sat by a small table, noting something on a list.

"Here to see someone?" she asked, not looking up from her list.

"Nohara Rin," he said. "And Uzumaki Kushina."

The medic-nin sighed, took her glasses off and looked up at him. It had no reassuring effect on him.

"You won't be able to see them right away, I'm afraid," she said. Minato forced himself to swallow the lump in his throat. "The little girl has, as far as I know, not received any permanent damage, but it was more complicated than we thought. She's being watched over, she'll be all right. But she's still not responding."

Minato nodded curtly.

"And …?"

"The older girl is still in for treatment at the surgery room."

Minato blinked.

"Wh … Surgery?"

"I'm sorry, I'm not allowed in there so I don't know anything else," the medic-nin sighed, giving him a sympathetic look.

Minato looked down the hall. Only then did he see the trail of spilled blood on the dirty-white floor.

"But …" he started, but didn't know what he had planned to ask.

"Minato."

He turned around, finding the face of a tired Tsume. Before he could respond, she nodded towards the entrance of the tent.

"Allen and Rabi are back with the girl," she said, starting on her way out. Minato had no choice but to follow, and soon felt the heavy rain that fell from the dark sky and onto his head. "They're all fine. We're heading to see the Sand's feudal lord in a moment. The general of the squad is looking for you, you have to report to him."

"Okay," Minato said. "Do you have full manning?"

"A team was sent ahead to explain the situation," Tsume replied, looking ahead of her. "And we have a back-up team with us. Should be fine."

"Right," he said, as Tsume pointed out where the general of the squad was currently at and they were about to part ways. "Good luck."

"Thanks."

"Tsume, wait."

She turned. "Minato," she said, her face expressing apology. "I'm so sorry, I didn't know."

He looked confused at her. She looked as though she realised something, closed her eyes for a few seconds and sighed.

"And neither did you."

"What're you talking about?"

"Kushina. The attack inflicted internal bleedings on her. They'll be healed, she's stabilised."

"And …?" Minato continued for her when he saw she wasn't done explaining.

"I'm sorry, Minato. The major part of the injury was centred at her stomach. She had a miscarriage."

It was not what Minato had expected. He could for a moment do nothing but stare back at Tsume, whose face was showing all the sympathy she could offer, and his mind was about as blank as earlier. He couldn't think how it had happened in the first place, but realised it was simply his carelessness. Yet he couldn't bring himself to say anything. No words were formed in his head, the lump in his throat seemed even bigger and even though he was staring at the girl who had recently explained something so unforeseen and could probably say much more, he found himself unable to do anything.

He didn't know where to place himself.

He had given his report. The words coming out of his mouth seemed distant to him, as though he had acted automatically; the moment he had been given permission to leave, he had stopped right outside the tent's entrance and just stood there, not even noticing the cold rain. It was as though the closer he came to the emergency tent, the more real everything would become.

The only thing that made him move was the fact that both Rin and Kushina could still be in danger.

Inside the tent, he found everything to be surreal. The chair and table at the entrance was empty and the blood trails had been washed away, and it seemed like a lie.

Rin was alive. She had her eyes closed and was breathing peacefully as though she was only taking a nap. She was warm, but not dangerously.

"She has some sort of strange substance inside her," a medic-nin had explained as Minato had quietly seated himself on a chair next to her, Obito and Kakashi. "We thought it was poison at first. But it seems to have spread to her brain cells, taking away her ability to function properly. We have records of the same substance used during the second war, and we can assure you it's not permanent, but the treatment takes a long time. Depending on the dose she was given, she won't be fully functioning for at least two months."

Only when a second medic-nin – a chief physician, it seemed - entered the room did he feel his heart beating again.

"Namikaze-san," he had said, at which Minato had looked up and felt as though a bucket of ice cold water had been poured over him. The medic-nin's cloak was red with blood.

They sat in a small room, dim light over a table with papers and white, empty chairs.

"I'm not sure if you're aware of Kushina's situation," the medic-nin said.

Minato only nodded shortly, and for no reason at all found it irritating and offensive that the medic-nin had called what had happened 'her situation'.

"We just moved her to rest," the medic-nin continued, oblivious to Minato's annoyance. "You can see her in a bit, but I would like to explain a few things first. " He placed a few documents on the table. "The internal bleedings were astoundingly quickly stopped, and she stabilised quickly. I'm aware of her classification, and it may have saved her life. Unfortunately, the secondary chakra will only allow her to heal cuts and minor fractures. It even prevents scars. But when it comes to large injuries, like poisoning, cell damage and torn organs, the damage is too permanent for automatic chakra responses to work properly. She will be fine, I can promise you that, but the damage was mainly taken by her uterine. It was torn severely enough to cause a miscarriage –" Minato felt nauseous as he spoke, "- and to probably cause a life-long damage. The chances of her carrying a child again are near zero."

Minato leaned back in the chair, looked at the wall in front of him and slightly pulled his hair with both hands. He could feel his heart beating harder against his chest, and his hands were trembling. He kept his mouth closed, feeling that if he opened it he would have no control of the words that could come out, and frowned. He couldn't remember the last time he felt this way.

"You can go see her now," the chief physician said. "She's probably asleep, but she said she wanted to see you."

The chief physician got up and left Minato in the dimmed room. Minato tried to take a deep breath. It was shaky and cold. He pushed himself up from the wooden chair, and was suddenly not sure if the coldness he felt on his skin came from the wet clothes he was wearing.

The hallway felt much longer than before. After what seemed ages, he pushed the fabric separating him from Kushina's room away and stepped inside. She was lying underneath thick blankets on a sterile bed with her back facing him, breathing steadily. And he just stood there, his blank mind leading him nowhere.

She had noticed him, and turned her head slowly. He found himself moving again towards her bed as she was sitting up, eyes so full of emotion and still so lost, and about to speak. He just shook his head – she didn't have to say anything – and tried to smile, tried to be reassuring and calm and safe, but he couldn't force the sad frown on his face away, and the smile felt out of place. He was shaking; she gently pulled him towards her, forcing him to sit down on the bed, and noticed how cold he was.

She probably thought he was shaking because of the wet clothes. She removed his soaked jacket, helped him take off the straps carrying his two swords. He reached out a hand, placing it behind her head in the midst of her tangled hair. He wanted to say something, anything at all; he could have asked her how she felt, if she needed something, if there was anything he could do for her. And yet the only thing he managed to do was to lean in, rest his forehead against hers and close his eyes in a pained expression.

She drew him close to her, wrapping her arms around him and letting him rest his head on her shoulder. And then she realised.

He was crying for the first time in his life.