- Hans Zimmer: "I'm Not a Hero" (The Dark Knight)

51. Sneak and Steal

Minato had expected to be called to the Hokage tower shortly after the infiltration of the five Kumo-nin. To be called the day after and receive three missions at once, however, was not something he had prepared for. The third had given him the task of one, making sure border posts sixteen to eighteen were clear from trouble, two, proceed to the countries of Hot Water and Frost to make sure they had nothing to do with the sudden interference of the country of Lightning, and three, to gather as much information as possible from Kumogakure. He understood the Hokage's wish to send him to the border posts due to his familiarity with the area, but had to ask why the third hadn't given anyone else the other missions to save time.

"Naturally, you've been given the last two missions at once because the locations are close to each other," the third said. "But I'm afraid many of these missions are high-ranked, so I can't risk to send chuunin. Your first mission won't be completed by you, though."

Minato opened the scroll containing information about his first mission to see for himself what the third meant.

"Basically, you're only sending me halfway there," Minato concluded.

"Correct," the third nodded. "You'll be travelling shortly with your team before you send them to the borders. Give them as much information about the areas if you can find anything of relevance to tell them. Other than that, the squads will take care of handing out the information, so the mission is not too demanding."

Minato nodded.

"Now, for the last two missions," the third continued. "I expect it to take some time. A couple of weeks, perhaps. I've gathered a team of jounin to go with you, but you're the only one who'll enter Kumogakure. The others will be searching a quite large terrain around the village."

"And who's that?"

"Two from the Inuzuka clan I'm sure you're familiar with, Tsume and Kousuke. And in addition, Kushina." Minato couldn't help but look surprised, and the third smiled. "I know it sounds odd to send Kushina, given her condition, out on a mission like this. What keeps us safe, though, is that Kumo has no idea where the Kyuubi is currently being hosted, and has little interest in it as well. I also kept an eye up during her training and can see for myself that she's grown stronger. I have no doubt she will succeed in completing this mission."

"Neither do I," Minato said, and meant it. "I just can't remember the last time she was sent very far from the Fire country, besides the technically safe trip to the North."

"It's a terrible waste of talent to keep her locked up," the third said. Minato smiled; he had never doubted in Kushina's talent, but had more than often witnessed the frustration that came with being awarded simple, safe missions that demanded less of what she wanted to give.

"When do we leave?" Minato asked.

"Tomorrow morning," the third replied. "That gives you one day to prepare. Gather your chuunin team, and I'll make sure the other three receives the message."

With a final nod, Minato left the office to find Kakashi, Obito and Rin. It took him half the morning to find them at their various locations and discuss the mission in detail – he wanted to make sure they understood their responsibility – and he spent the remains of the day preparing for the mission himself. He packed his bag with clothes, rations, weapons and anything essential for a trip that was going to last for unknown amounts of weeks, and sometime during late afternoon, Kushina came home.

"Hey," Minato said as he pulled a scroll of tools out of a kitchen drawer. "Did you speak to the Hokage?"

"Yeah," Kushina said, grinning. Minato had to smile of her obvious eagerness.

They didn't discuss the mission until the morning after. They met at the front gate of Konoha, and it was chilly, misty and four in the morning. Not even the birds had considered getting up. Minato was fairly content while Kushina was cranky after having slept for only a few hours (she claimed she had been looking so forward to the mission that sleep was unheard of), though with Tsume and Kousuke, it seemed to be the opposite. They were waiting at the gates, Kousuke sitting on a bench, leaning against his dog, as Tsume got up and cheerfully greeted them.

"Who's left?" Tsume asked.

"My team," Minato said and turned just as Kakashi arrived. Soon after, Rin showed up. Ten minutes later, Kousuke checked his wristwatch, and Minato was automatically thinking out possible excuses Obito would come up with as soon as he appeared. He had been through black cats crossing the street, not finding his house key, helping out old ladies grocery shopping – even at four in the morning, excuses like these were probable – and as half an hour passed and Kakashi could no longer suppress the sigh he had been holding in, they heard hurried footsteps.

"Took you long enough," Kakashi said exasperatedly as Obito stopped before them, panting.

"Shut up," Obito hissed back.

"Come on, let's go," Minato said, having already given up on changing Obito's habit of showing up late and deciding it was a better idea to prevent an argument before it flamed up. The group of seven picked up their bags and walked past the large, red gates.

At six, they were splitting up. They had walked in silence, mostly, and Kushina and Kousuke seemed just a little more awake as they neared the roads that were separated by signs.

"All right, you three," Minato said and crouched by his chuunin soldiers. "You're on your own now. Remember what I said to you yesterday, and if you do as well as I know you can, you'll be fine. Don't cross any border unless you're ordered by the squad leader, and don't cross any border if another chuunin or jounin tells you to. Remember, you're three equals, and you're still following my orders and the third's, so listen to each other and share the responsibility."

His eyes lingered on Obito and Kakashi long enough for them to wince a little, before he patted Rin on the head. "Take good care of them, Rin."

Minato got up and followed Kousuke, Tsume and Kushina down the path with the sign saying 'North-East Fire'.

"Worried?" Kousuke asked and lit himself a cigarette.

"Not about their safety," Minato said. "More about … well, their teamwork. It's been failing lately."

"Maybe this'll do them good," Kousuke said, drowsily blowing smoke out through his lips, receiving a disapproving look from his dog.

Minato shrugged, and they kept walking, sometimes glancing around them for any signs of abnormalities. They were walking through a darker part of the large forest the Fire country had grown, and the temperature rose the further they walked. Eventually, they broke into a light run to get to the border faster.

Naturally, they didn't stop, neither did they reach the border before nightfall. The Fire country was huge, and after limiting their breaks and trying to keep a reasonable speed, they had to admit defeat and found a place to stay the night. Kushina lit a fire with the little burnable wood they could find, and they spread their sleeping bags around it and sat on them as they waited for the food Kousuke had brought to heat.

"Any strategies in mind?" Tsume asked as she hungrily waited for the sausage soup to boil.

"I was thinking we should check our resources at the nearest border post," Kousuke said, stirring the soup. "And that you, Minato, should place some of those fancy marks of yours there and around the other countries."

Minato nodded, having already planned on that. "I brought these," he said, taking out four pairs of microphone devices he usually used with his team. "I'll probably be too far away at times for you to reach me, but they're pretty handy otherwise."

He threw his three companions one each, who all agreed to use them as soon as they left the Fire country. Minato listened only out of curiosity as they kept discussing strategies for the third mission, since he wouldn't be with them for that.

Early the morning after, when the sun rose, Kushina jumped down from the branch she had been sitting on while on watch and woke the three others. In a matter of ten minutes, they had packed up and eaten tasteless rations for breakfast, and ran the last miles to the border.

Border post number twenty-three was not different from the border post Minato had been stationed at, except that it was a lot smaller. Because the Hot Water village was no longer functioning as a shinobi village, the threat was minimal, and the post only served to maintain the peace between the two countries and make sure travellers passed by safely for everyone's sake. There were small tents scattered strategically around the camp, the trees were thick and gave more shade than necessary and despite its' similarity to border post eighteen, there was a very lazy atmosphere that had been missing during the war. Seemingly, few issues happened.

A tall man with a square face, black hair and red eyes came walking towards them as they entered the camp.

"He looks like the general," Kousuke pointed out in a discreet tone.

"It's his brother," Minato explained.

"Aah. I get it."

They stopped as the squad leader approached them.

"You must be the team the Hokage sent, right?" the Yuuhi brother asked, and the four of them nodded. "Nice to meet you all. My name is Yuuhi Morikawa. I'm the squad leader on this post."

Despite the friendly greeting, his face was as serious as the other Yuuhi brother's tended to be. He asked them to follow him, and led them around the camp to show them the essential facilities.

"How long do you plan on staying?" Morikawa asked after showing them the direction of the dorm and shower tent.

"Just the night," Kousuke replied. "We're spending a few weeks in Hot Water, Frost and Lightning, but we'll be back at some point."

"Then I'll make sure we're ready for your return," Morikawa said, at which Minato couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. Morikawa saw his expression, and explained. "There have been a few skirmishes lately, though not around this camp. It seems that Kumo are preparing some kind of plans, maybe for attacks, we don't know yet. I was hoping you could figure that out. Just don't expect it to be easy, they've been strengthening their forces and tightened their defence, so I think they're preparing for some kind of impact."

"And I guess you've tried to investigate?" Minato asked.

"Once. Our spy came back in without arms."

A part of Minato froze, and he could feel the same tension around his companions. He thanked the gods none of his chuunin were around.

"Is there anyone we should look out for?" Kousuke asked.

"There are many skilled shinobi of Kumo, but there's one in particular you should avoid at any cost," Morikawa said seriously. "The Raikage's son, A. He's damn quick, and the only reason he didn't erase our spy completely was to warn us. I'm sure he won't hesitate in killing if he discovers any of you. But then again, you won't be entering the village, I assume?"

"Uh, actually ..." Minato said, and the squad leader stopped and turned to look at him. At first it was with an incredulous look (as much as a Yuuhi brother could change his expression), but then it seemed mildly observational.

"You're not Namikaze Minato, by any chance?" he asked.

Minato nodded, and the Yuuhi brother seemed to come to some sort of understanding with himself.

"I see," he said, and turned to walk again. "My brother has told me quite a bit about you. Nevertheless, if you see A, keep yourself out of his way, no matter how good I hear you are. He's estimated to be the fourth Raikage, so you can guess his strength."

Minato thanked for the advice, but didn't say much else. He wasn't sure who this A person was, but was not going to admit that he was curious.

Minato heard a slow, lasting sigh next to him, and the owner of the sigh stretched.

"This mission turns out to be a lot easier than I expected," Kousuke said and suppressed a yawn. They had been in the Hot Water village for four days, and had so far done quite a lot; they had sneaked around for any chance of overhearing interesting conversations, been to five different villages, met the mayors, talked to the villagers and come to the conclusion that the Hot Water country had no part in any plans. After some thorough observation, they had also learned that the Hot Water were on much friendlier paths with Fire than Lightning. For now, they had taken refuge in a hot spring.

"Just a warm-up," Minato replied drowsily, leaning against a warm rock with his eyes closed. He had heard Kushina and Tsume chatting from the other side of the fence, but their voices had dropped to whispers, and the few reasons why he didn't eavesdrop (because he was sure there was a high chance they were talking about something related to him) was because he liked to keep all parts of his body healthy and intact, and because he refused to take after Jiraiya.

"Even so," Kousuke said and stared intently back at a curious audience from the other side of the hot spring. "I can't remember anyone saying we're on friendly terms with the Hot Water people, but maybe no one gave a damn."

"If they oppose us, they don't really have anything to defend themselves with, though," Minato pointed out, and Kousuke nodded.

"True."

To leave the Hot Water country was a disappointment, after they had got to know several hospitable villagers and thoroughly enjoyed the past few days. They had a feeling the Frost country was slightly more friendly with the Lightning than with them, seeing as they were bordering, and decided to lie low in the beginning.

Eventually, they learned there was really no threat against them, but decided to keep themselves unnoticed.

"They might have spies," Kousuke suggested. "I would like to enter the Lightning country without A waiting for us at the door."

They all agreed it was best to keep themselves hidden, and strategically took turns in searching villages and keeping watch. They had forgotten the communication devices when they were in the Hot Water country, but had quickly figured out it was wise to use them now. They were searching the last village for any clues; the village bordered to the Lightning country, and was therefore tightly secured, but Kushina swept inside the village as easily as ever while the rest positioned themselves at different spots around the village and prepared to head in.

"Can you find anything?" Kousuke asked through his microphone a little while after Kushina had entered some kind of service building.

"Nothing," she replied, and Minato could hear the noises of papers being rummaged through. "I think we can check the Frost country out of the list."

"Agreed," Tsume replied through the microphone. "Get out through the East wall, I'll meet you there."

Minato waited for Kousuke to catch up before they as discreetly as they could crossed the border at a quiet, empty place and hurried to find the girls. Thirty minutes later, they met them by a small, quiet path, and were silent for the remaining journey.

Kushina was normally not worried. She had several times seen Minato disappear out the front door to take missions of both minimal risk and a certain chance of death – but then again, the normal chance of death wasn't relevant for Minato.

While Kushina, Tsume and Kousuke had spread to different areas West of Kumogakure, Minato had slowly proceeded closer to the village to find a way inside. Despite Kushina's normally relaxed stance whenever Minato had his dangerous missions, she had difficulties keeping out one particular warning the squad leader had given them upon their arrival at the camp; the Raikage's son, A, who had not hesitated in sending their scout back without arms, and would probably not hesitate in killing the next Konoha-nin he saw entering the village.

She shook her head of frustration and kept her focus on the path ahead of her. Minato had the highest chance of escaping difficult situations than anyone she knew. Pressing a little button on the microphone device they had put on, she tried to see if Minato was still within their range.

"Minato?" she asked.

"Yep," she heard from the little speaker in her ear.

"Any progress?"

He was quiet for a moment. "Not really."

"Is the security that tight?" Kushina heard Kousuke ask through the microphone from another path somewhere to her left.

"They've put up quite a lot of guards around the wall," Minato replied, and the sound of his voice through the microphone failed a little. "I think I'll have to find a way to Hiraishin myself inside."

"Hey, guys," Tsume said. "I suggest we leave the mics on at all times. If any of us end up in trouble, we'll hear at once."

"Good idea," Kushina said, and found the small button she had to push to leave her microphone continuously on.

She walked for another fifteen minutes and found a small, dark house. It looked moldy and abandoned, and she was reminded of a certain, old house outside Konoha she and Minato had once started to clean up, but forgotten. She remembered how certain she had been, for only a moment, that Minato was going to kiss her in that house, and had realized with both frustration and shock after he had left that she was deeply disappointed. Which had, naturally, made her avoid him for weeks after.

Pushing the memories out of her head, she approached the house cautiously, and making a quick inspection of possible living objects, she pushed the creaking door open. It wasn't so different from the house they had planned to make into a weapon storage. The furniture didn't match, the windows were broken, and thick layers of dust covered the floors and tables. There was, however, one difference; someone had recently been there. The dust that had probably spent years on covering the floor had been disturbed by footsteps, and someone had placed something on a now empty table, moving the dusty flakes around. Otherwise, the small hut was empty and uneventful.

"I found a small, abandoned hut of some sort," she spoke discreetly in the microphone. "There's nothing here. Don't bother if you find it."

"Right," she heard from Tsume and Kousuke, while Minato said nothing. She wasn't sure if he didn't find it necessary to reply, or if he was within range to hear her at all. Kushina turned and pulled the creaking door open again, and halted. In front of the door stood five strangers.

She was quick with shutting the door again, jump back and draw a kunai. Moments later, the house shook with an incredibly loud explosion, and the roof was giving in – she ran to a broken window, smashed it even more and jumped out, cutting her leg open in the attempt -

The wound wasn't fatal, she was just bleeding a little. Nothing the chakra of a monster couldn't fix. She defied the temporary pain and began running away from the crumbling hut in the hope of shaking off whoever it was who had tried to bury her alive. Though when a kunai came flying towards her from somewhere in front of her, she realised that the possibility she had been cornered was quite large.

"Konoha walking around in the Lightning country," one of the five strangers who had placed explosive tags on the hut said, stopping a distance away from her as several other Kumo-nin surrounded her. "What're you doing here? Looking for a place to rent?"

Kushina didn't reply, but kept her kunai tightly clenched in her hand.

"Don't think this one's going to talk," the man next to the stranger said upon seeing Kushina's determinedly stubborn face.

"We don't know that," a woman said. "Maybe she can help us out?"

"You think a regular shinobi would sit on information like this?" another woman said. "If we ask her anything, we might fuck up, you know -"

"There's a bigger chance a Konoha-nin knows what we're looking for than we do," the woman said impatiently. Kushina looked back and forth between the discussing Kumo-nin with a frown and slight curiosity. Not that she preferred to stay to hear what they wanted to know.

"Besides, we can keep one Konoha-nin captive without problems," the first stranger said. "We don't exactly have to release her even if she tells us everything, you know."

"We should have planned this better," a man said with a sigh.

"Did you expect to find a Konoha-nin before we even left the country?" the first woman asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Kushina," Kousuke whispered in the microphone. "Trouble?"

Kushina snorted. She couldn't exactly make a decent reply without making it look suspicious.

"Never mind," Kousuke whispered quickly. "I'm coming your way."

"All right," the stranger said. "I say we ask. We're ten against one, it's not like she can escape and tell on us or something."

Several of the ten agreed, and the woman sighed and gave in.

"So," the other woman said, and Kushina met her green eyes. "We're looking for a person, a shinobi from your village. We don't know who this person is, we just know what he or she is. If you tell us, we will treat you well. If not ..."

"He was right, you know," Kushina said, nodding towards one of the men. "I'm not going to talk."

"You know what'll happen if you don't," the woman said, sounding impatient and frustrated again. Kushina was suddenly grateful that Minato had given Kousuke and Tsume the compression seal before they split up.

"So, tell us," one of the men said. "Where can we find the Nine-Tails?"

Minato had lost the connection to the other three as soon as he had managed to infiltrate the village. He wasn't particularly worried about not being able to communicate, but was now wondering how on earth he was going to roam the village without being seen. There was the henge, of course, but it wasn't fool proof. If the village had tightened the security, the disturbance of his chakra changing his outer appearance could be enough to alert any skilled chakra tracing shinobi. In one way, it was safest to not do a henge. In many other ways, that made everything so much more complicated.

It was late, and the streets were dark. Minato had tried to memorise the map of Kumogakure when they had stayed the night at the border camp, and could with difficulties recognise the mountain where the village ended. He knew that near the mountains were the village centre, and right behind the village centre was the place to look; the Raikage's office, the interrogation building, probably some sort of archive where he could find useful information. Keeping to the darkness of the wall and the trees, he sneaked his way to the village centre and made sure none of the guards on patrol saw him.

He stopped behind one of the last rows of trees before the busier part of the village, and decided that if he was to cross the village unseen, he had two options: to go through and hope no one recognised him, or climb the roofs. After a quick evaluation, he decided to take the roofs. As a precaution, he took his forehead protector off and stuffed it in his pocket. It was one thing to be discovered, but Kumo didn't have to know which village he was from just yet.

Climbing a particularly blooming tree, he got a good view of his opportunities. Apparently, Kumo had decided roof security was unimportant. Minato walked out on a thick branch and silently jumped down on the roof of a regular apartment building. He was bound to be heard, but if he kept his footsteps light people may mistake him for a large bird – nevertheless, he hurried as he tiptoed and jumped his way across the roofs. The structure of the buildings became thicker and thicker the further towards the mountain he came, and the alleys between them thinner and less occupied. He was quite certain there was some sort of security centred near the mountain as well, and decided to find a deserted alley and drop down to the ground.

The alley was perfect. There was a thickening mist which kept him out of sight for guards on a long distance, while he could check every now and then the positions of the guards using a simple finger trick; should he end up in a fight, the alleys were so narrow that only one could charge at a time. Besides, he had placed several of his marks on the roofs, trees and the wall on his way there, so leaving the alleys wouldn't be much of a problem.

As he quietly sneaked around the dark paths he placed his mark on the walls of the building around him if he ever needed a change of direction. Though finding out exactly which buildings he should search was difficult, as they were plain and isolated, and the windows were high up from the ground.

He looked up to check out a dark window, and saw with wonder that the roofs had grown together.

He looked back where he came from. Everything looked the same, except that a few of the buildings were longer than the others. Which turns had he taken? Left, right, left again, another left … then turned when he hit a dead-end ... but which roof had he climbed up? He didn't know when the roofs had started melting together, or how long he had walked. The corridors seemed endless, and he had only walked according to the guards' positions, not according to destination … and now that he tested it out, he could barely feel the marks he had placed outside the village centre. He realised he had dropped himself down in a clever labyrinth.

He felt adrenaline rush to his head when he heard breathing behind him, and as quickly as he could without making a noise, he walked to the next corner and turned. Placing a finger on the wall, he could sense that the guard that had almost caught him had stopped a little near where Minato had stood moments ago, but was suddenly walking in his direction -

Minato took off again, faster this time, and turned down a new path. A window ahead of him caught his interest; it was barely visible through the mist, but the closer he came, the clearer it got, and he could hear voices coming out from one of the two floors that had an open window. He pressed his hand against the wall and marked it, but as he was about to contemplate the examination of his new target, he heard breathing again causing him to leave. Turning down another path, he found himself face to face with a tall guard.

The guard had barely realised his vision when the intruder was gone. Minato had taken the risk of transporting himself to one of the nearby marks without knowing if there were any guards present, but was lucky. After a quick mapping of the guard's positions and directions, he found a few paths he could take safely. It was hard to keep track of all his marks and where he had already been, but after a few sorry detours, he found himself underneath the window again and sensed that the speed of one of the guards nearby had hastened.

Minato jumped up near the second floor windows and pressed himself against the wall. Slowly, he leaned in to peek inside the window. There were four people inside, looking through a small bunch of documents and discussing something in hushed voices. He couldn't hear what they said through the closed window, and decided to check out the upper floor when he heard voices from the alley below.

"But Mei said she saw someone, too."

Silently, he climbed the wall to get further up in the thick mist. The guard he had bumped into had brought another guard to the location, and Minato cursed; they were now aware of his existence. He peeked inside the window to see a barely lit and empty room; he pushed a flower pot away from the outer window sill and tried to hide. He made himself as small as he could, pressed himself against the cold window and kept his breath minimal.

"Are you sure you didn't see a ghost?" one of the guards asked with a sigh.

"I'm serious," the other guard replied impatiently. "I saw a person turning the corner right before me, and then he just disappeared in some kind of yellow flash -"

"But there's no one here," the other guard insisted. "No one can find their way through these corridors if they haven't grown up in them. D'you think some weird stranger could escape on the first try?"

"I'm not saying he escaped, I just think we should report to the Raikage."

The other guard didn't say anything for a moment.

"I don't know. You know how he hates to be bothered unnecessarily. No one's ever walked these corridors and disappeared like … what did you say?"

"A yellow flash," the guard repeated. "And I think that's reason enough, don't you think? If someone's actually able to get out of here ..."

"Maybe ..." the other guard mumbled. "We could address the other guards and hear what they think."

They agreed that talking to the other guards was the safest, so they walked away. Minato was happy the Raikage wasn't immediately alerted by his appearance, but didn't like the fact that every guard in the labyrinth knew he was there, either. With a clever wind technique, the window silently cracked open, and he could push most of the window away and climb inside. His leg was cut open in the attempt of entering the room, and he silently cursed when a drop of blood sailed down his ankle and landed on the floor.

He could worry about his DNA resting in a highly isolated enemy building later; the room was full of potentially useful information. He walked over to a table filled with seemingly new documents, and picked up a small bunch. Mission reports, a requirement of washing the facade of the village, newly promoted chuunin, and … huh. How convenient that the first sort of relevant information Minato should find, was a file on himself.

It didn't say anything on specific missions related to him, but it did say that he was 'an interesting target whose secrets should be examined'. They had managed to cover quite a lot of information about him, though not a picture; they had described his looks, what he usually wore, estimated his height and weight, noted people he was acquainted with and written a novel about his abilities and techniques. Many things were only speculations, other things were wrong, but most of it seemed to be correct. He skimmed through the file, and contemplated whether he should steal it or copy it – if he stole it, he erased what seemed to be years of work and could delay them in whatever they wanted to do to him, but there was no saying if they had saved the information elsewhere and the fact that these files in particular were missing would only alert them, and they could discover the fact that he had been in that room. In the end, he found it safest to copy the information, and took out a scroll and placed the documents over it. After a few hand seals, he placed both hands on the files, and saw the ink spread and form into words on the scroll.

It took time. Minato looked up when he heard footsteps outside in the hallway, but no one entered. The scroll ended, so he had to start on a new.

The ink spread slowly. It was reaching the end of page fifteen – just one more page …

The door burst open, and Minato could only for a moment allow himself to curse out loud. He had been discovered.