- Hans Zimmer: "Imagine the Fire" (The Dark Knight Rises)

- Rudimental feat. Emeli Sandé: "Free" (Home)

56. The Yellow Flash

Seven months away from Konoha. And Minato knew, regretfully, that he wouldn't stay for long.

It wasn't that Minato hadn't enjoyed meeting new people and doing his job, but the closer to the war they got, the worse the missions became. There had been many disruptions, especially in the villages near the border, but finally, he could pass the gates of Konoha with the last reports in his bag. He felt almost as eager to come home and see the village now as when he had come home after the last war, when he had been away for five years; it had been seven pretty long months, after all. He was prepared to be sent out again, immediately or in a day or two, but just to be home made his shoulders feel significantly lighter.

Kousuke had been his partner for the last village visit, which had lasted for three whole weeks. He seemed pleased with being done with the missions as well; the further down on the village list they came, the more became the tasks a pain in the ass, which Kousuke usually had little patience with.

The first stop, even though their wishes were to go straight home and rest, was the Hokage tower to hand in the last reports and get new orders. Minato knocked on the third's office door, heard the usual 'Come in' and opened the door.

"Ah, you're back," the third smiled. He seemed to be busier than ever with twice as much paperwork filling up his desk than usual, and despite his normal smile upon seeing Minato whenever he had been out of the village, he had a frown on his face that revealed a major scratch to his inner peace.

Minato handed him the reports while Kousuke stood with the most patient face he could muster, but luckily for him, the third didn't start off by reading the long papers.

"Now that you're back, I have new tasks for all of you," he began. "Chuunin, genin, your leaders will give you the details, they already know. Team three and nine, since your leaders just got back, you may go home and wait."

Minato's and Kousuke's teams nodded and followed the other chuunin and genin out of the office.

"Kousuke, I need you at border post sixteen as soon as possible, tomorrow morning would be best. Take your team and join the departure at seven in the morning."

Kousuke nodded as well, and as the third nodded back as a sign of 'that's all', he, too, left.

"How were the missions, altogether?" the third asked the only person left.

"They started off quiet and easy enough," Minato replied. "But they got worse near the end. Kumo seems to be taking this war seriously."

"While the other countries, us included, were weakened during the last war, Lightning was never involved," the third said. "And they're probably the country with the most resources. They seem to have quite a few intentions and I think they believe they have a good chance to win this war. Tell me, those seals you placed in Kumo when you infiltrated the village, are there any chance they're still there?"

"The Distinction seal doesn't wear off unless someone uses a counter-seal," Minato explained. "And the last time I checked, Kumo wasn't known for their seal masters. With a little luck, they haven't even discovered the seals."

"Good," the third said. "If that's so, I need you to go back and see if you can get anything else out of them. Plus, if everything goes well ..." a smile played at the corner of his lips, "... you might let them get a glimpse of you. They think they have the upper hand in this war, but we need to show them that we are stronger than they think. Unless we want to risk them coming at our village with full force."

Minato nodded. "Can I ask you something?"

"Fire away."

"I couldn't help but wonder," Minato began. "But why did you assign me to all the communication missions you set up? I can understand why you chose to send me to the Boat village, but there are plenty of competent jounin who have relations in other villages I don't?"

"You're right in asking," the third said. "I was hoping you would. It's true that I wanted to give you the opportunity to see your relatives and that you were the most suitable due to the Namikaze family living in the Boat village."

"Yet you said two would be enough for each village, and all three of us went."

"I sent the three of you because it would give you more time to spend with relatives without neglecting the mission. There are many important values to consider in life, but I get the impression that family is not something you come across every day."

Minato smiled, and the third gave him a curious look.

"Something tells me I'm wrong in saying so?" the third asked.

"I won't deny that not being around relatives of my own haven't bothered me," Minato said. "But I'm used to that. More than anything, I consider this village as my closest family."

The third looked like he had just received the answer for something he had wondered a long time, and he got up. "Which is why I thought you were the one who would get the most out of these missions."

Minato looked a little confused back.

"Walk with me," the third said.

They walked to the roof of the Hokage tower. Minato leaned against the rails and looked over the village; he had never been to the roof of the Hokage tower before, but had often stood anywhere else with a good view and observed the village. The third was facing the other way, looking up at the Hokage monument.

"I sent you out mostly to get experience to lead a larger amount of people through a set amount of time, but also so you could get valuable experience from something other than enemy huntings or watch posts. But I understand that you already cherish the values I wanted you to experience."

"And what do you want me to use my experience for?" Minato asked.

"Minato, for years I've been discussing with my council," the third said, looking up at his own, giant stone face. "I'm getting old, and I want to spend the last years until I'm too old to recognize wisely. I haven't relaxed for a long, long time. My council as well consists of people as old as me. Now, as far as I know, you quite enjoyed these last missions, am I right?"

"Despite everything going on with the war, yes," Minato smiled.

"I wanted to give you this experience now, when you're unaware of your own future and only think about the presence. In many ways you can cherish the current much better when you're unaware of what you're heading for."

Minato frowned a little. "I'm not sure I'm following."

"It could have been different, the way you approached your missions and acted towards people, had you known what lies ahead of you." The third gave him a serious look. "See, people look up to you, yet you don't really know why. People look up to me because I'm the Hokage, which sometimes, somehow, limits me when I talk to strangers. I cannot always feel as free as a normal person to make friends the same way."

Minato was beginning to wonder why the Hokage was telling him this and was about to ask when the third turned around and continued to talk.

"I don't doubt that with your naturally good heart and kindness, you'll always find a place for people in your life. I can see that by the way you're looking at the village right now. You don't just see one large network of streets and buildings, you see each person inside. I've caught you watching over the village more than once, often on top of my own head."

Minato laughed rather nervously. "Sorry about that."

"No need to apologise," the third smiled. "The view is quite formidable, isn't it?"

The third continued to gaze over the various buildings and streets, and let out a small sigh. "There's a war coming, and I have no desire to leave my chair until it's over, no matter how much the council insists. I'm not about to put the responsibility of the village on someone else just before a war breaks out. At least, that is what I've told my council."

Minato gave the third another confused look, and waited for him to continue.

"The truth is, Minato, that your role in the upcoming war is far too important for you to sit in front of a desk."

Only then did Minato catch up with what the third was talking about, and he felt his heart hammer harder against his chest. Of course, he could be wrong in his assumptions, so he decided to ask the second question that came to his mind.

"What do you mean with 'my role'?"

"I don't doubt you could've controlled the war perfectly well, but your skills are inevitable to make this war efficient," the third replied. "Only you can switch between team leader and captain as I've planned -"

"Wait, captain?"

"Oh, I forgot," the third smiled. "You've been promoted. Anyway," the third continued as if this news weren't as exciting as Minato found them. "You will have a great influence on the generals if a greater fight breaks out, because there are more people in this country who looks up to you than you might think. I've spent years working this out, and I've made up my mind. Somehow, I think I always knew."

What, the third always knew Minato would be captain? He couldn't believe the Hokage had actually been sitting in his office every day for years and decided who to promote to captain for a war that was far away.

"But as you might know, the council is not always easy to defeat," the third smiled sadly. "Ultimately, I've got the final word, so whether the council agrees with me or not won't actually matter. I've decided to announce my successor, and I have chosen you."

Oh.

The first thing Minato could think, was that he had been stupid enough not to keep entirely track on what the third had been saying from the beginning, when there had been plenty of hints. His second thought was non-existent, as he became speechless.

"I won't step aside until this war is over," the third repeated. "After that, Konoha will need a fresh beginning, with a new Hokage. The council has disagreed because they think you're still too young, and there have been other candidates, but I think Konoha could do well with a younger perspective, given that it has been run by geezers for quite some time."

Minato couldn't hold back the chuckle.

"Not that I'm complaining," Minato said. "But I had the impression Orochimaru was to be made the fourth? I know the villagers have spoken about him ever since he came home from the battle against Hanzou."

The third suddenly looked troubled. "I have my doubts, Minato," he said. "Orochimaru is one of them. He has the construction to rule a village, but I also know what else he's capable of, and I don't know if he would be able to put the people of the village before himself and his own goals. Also, Danzou has for a long time had great ambitions to become Hokage, but as myself, he's getting older, and I want young eyes to watch over the village in the future." He smiled again, and looked at Minato. "Which always led me back to you."

Minato could only smile widely back, and felt a weird tingling in his shoulders, as though he had an urge to jump up and run across the village, just to take in everything there was.

"But first, Kumo," the third said a little more seriously, and Minato nodded. "I'll plan a meeting with my jounin for a quick update on the war and announce the news. A short meeting, since I can't keep my jounin locked up for more than a moment. But I won't mention I've already picked my successor, so I ask you to keep it to yourself and tell as few as possible until this war is over. I don't expect you to be able to hide it from everyone." The third thought for a moment. "Kushina in particular."

"Of course," Minato smiled.

Eventually, Minato had decided not to rush home, nor to jump up and run across the village. He took the longest way home, crossing the red bridge he had usually met Kushina by before she had been kicked out of her apartment, and walked with ease down the road. He met Inoichi, who was on the way to the town square, and found it hard not to be completely truthful when he was asked why he was in such a good mood.

He felt, as he took a turn down Oak street, that the village was more a home to him than ever, even though he had spent so much time outside, and even though his future role in it was still years away.

When he came home, Kushina was sitting on the grass in the last warm breeze October could make, reading an old book she had probably picked at random from Jiraiya's bookshelf.

"Oh, hey," she smiled as she saw him emerge from the porch door. "How was the last mission?"

"Long," was the first word Minato came up with to describe it. "A small chaos, but everything went fine."

"Met Kousuke earlier, he said the same," Kushina said, and looked curiously at him. "But you must've been here for a while, what've you been up to?"

"Spoke to the Hokage," Minato said, and had a hard time trying to keep his usual, content and not-too-excited expression as he sat down next to her. "I've been promoted captain. What're you reading?"

"Wow, really?" Kushina said, ignoring his question. "That's great! But what about your team?"

"I'll be switching a lot, but they'll always be around."

"Right," she said, turning a page without really reading it. "So you've been planning more war stuff, then?"

"Not exactly," he replied. "I mean, I'm infiltrating Kumo again, but other than that, we were just talking, really."

Kushina snorted. "It still amazes me that you're on such good speaking terms with the third. What were you talking about, anyway?"

"He's resigning after the war."

Kushina's book shut with a large snap. "Whoa, whoa. So he's going to let someone else rule this village right after a war?"

Minato nodded.

"Who?"

Minato had so far done a good job in keeping a straight face, but it broke just a fraction, and as Kushina clapped her hands in front of her mouth of shock, the book fell mercilessly to the grass.

"Oh my god, Minato. He chose you."

Minato nodded and was no longer able to keep the grin off his face, but Kushina barely got a glimpse of it before she had tackled him to the ground in joyful laughter and was squeezing him with bear hugs and kisses. After what seemed like a wonderful age, she lifted her head from his neck, and resting her arm on his chest, she asked, "When are you going to Kumo?"

"Dunno, I'm waiting for the call."

"Then we're going now," she said, stood up and reached out a hand to help Minato up.

"Where?" Minato asked and grabbed it.

"To celebrate, you big idiot."

There had only been a few hours to savour before a bird landed on Minato's window sill, announcing his time to leave. Kushina's type of celebrating had been as he had expected - and hoped - with take-away from Ichiraku's, a complete interrogation about what the Hokage had said to Minato, and an additional after-party upstairs. Minato regretted not being able to stay longer in her company, but got up from the bed to get dressed, gave her a final, lasting kiss and left.

It was weird to be out on his own again and Minato thought it would certainly have been more pleasant in someone else's company as he sneaked through the forests of the Lightning country a week later. It had been a long and tiresome trip, and he couldn't sleep as long as he usually would had he been with a team; he had no one to keep watch, and he relied on the safest places he could, short naps and the Hiraishin seals. On the positive side, he had spent much of his time the past half year improving the range of the Hiraishin seal, and could travel much further than before for the prize of just a little more chakra. Though he had restricted his Hiraishin use the closer to his destination he got, to save as much chakra he could for Kumo.

He hadn't slept for the past twenty-four hours, but after spending much of the last war like this, he was somewhat used to it and could still find more than enough energy to fulfil his task. He neared the village and was prepared to find a wall of guards; the last time he was there, there had been enough guards outside the village to make infiltration difficult for him. He was surprised to see that there didn't seem to be more guards than before, and could get inside the same way he had last time – even easier, now that he had a seal inside.

It was night, probably two in the morning, and the sky was dark and offered pleasant amounts of shadow for Minato to sneak in. He wondered if the labyrinth guards remembered him and his yellow flash, and if they were prepared he'd come back or had begun to relax since it had been so long without a trace of him ever since. He transported himself from seal to seal, and lay flat against the roof of a building he knew was right beside the beginning of the labyrinth, in case there were roof guards. He spotted a few, but they were far away and didn't seem to notice him. He crawled carefully to the edge of the roof and dropped himself down the alley once he had concluded that no one were there, and checked with the touch of a finger towards the ground where the guards were.

They had improved the security around the labyrinth, and Minato was pretty certain he'd get into a fight or two in order to get inside some of the buildings. He tested out where he had placed the Hiraishin seals compared to the amount of people, and he had small chances to get by unnoticed; prepared to knock out a guard or two (because he and the Hokage had agreed not to shed any blood), he transported himself to one of the seals where no guards where immediately alarmed, and was disappointed to see that he hadn't placed one of his Distinction seals at the wall. He tried the next.

Not until his third transportation did he get into a fight. Two guards had stared right in his direction when he appeared, but he was better prepared than they were; it seemed they had indeed started to relax after his last infiltration, but were unable to alert anyone else as Minato, with his gifted and well-trained speed, managed to paralyse them moments after. He looked up at the wall and was delighted to see the small, red Distinction seal in the darkest shadows of the melted roofs.

Next problem: how to get in.

There were few windows, but enough for Minato to get a pretty certain assumption of what was hiding inside. The amount of people was easy enough to locate, and as he tried to mute his chakra as much as possible while still using it, he peered through the glass to find something that looked like hallways containing interrogation rooms. He couldn't trace anyone inside the rooms – they had, of course, created tough barriers around – and came to the conclusion that he wouldn't get much out of staying, so he decided to check the next building, and transported himself to the wall where two more guards barely had the time to get surprised before they were asleep.

Again, he had found a marked building, but without any windows, and he knew he had appeared at an important place. There were several people inside, and most rooms seemed to be occupied. It was probably the most difficult building he could enter, and probably the building he should search last. He made a mental map of all of his Hiraishin seals, and memorised the one he was standing by.

When he appeared by another building, unfortunately an unmarked one, he ended up in a small pinch. There were to begin with three guards, one of whom were able to see Minato for long enough to actually make a surprised sound, alerting nearby guards; soon, several more had appeared in the alley to get a glimpse of him, and one managed to get away before Minato had knocked out the rest.

On the positive side, the Hokage had wanted Minato to be seen. He would've just preferred to be seen on the way out, not in.

He decided to spend his opportunity on the windowless building instead of searching for other, possibly less important locations, now that the guards had been alerted. Soon, the alarm would go off, and another chaos would commence if he wasn't quick. He left the dark alley and the ten knocked-out guards, tried to remember which seal he was supposed to go to and made it on the first attempt; quickly, he scanned the building, tried to find somewhere he could enter, but there were no doors.

Whatever trick the Raikage had done to put up a building without doors and windows, wasn't going to keep him from entering. He found a tiny room on the third floor without people, and decided that his best choice was to blast through the door. But how?

The walls were thick and dense, and he needed power to get through it. Power he knew he possessed, but which would make so much noise it would alert the whole village. He needed something that was quieter … He released his left hand from the wall and stared at it. It was true that his swirling ball of chakra was not yet complete, but he hadn't tested it on something so strong yet … He gathered chakra in his palm, made it spin, and concentrated. It should be denser … as dense as the wall …

He suddenly found a lot more power in it than he had before, and without giving it another thought, he smashed the chakra ball into the wall. The results were astounding; not perfect, seeing as he hadn't pierced entirely through the wall, but more than he had been able to do since he had begun developing it nearly two years earlier. But as the alarm went off in the labyrinth, Minato saw no other option than to make the chaos he had wanted to avoid; he jumped to the building wall on the opposite side of the alley, and gathering as much force in his fist as he could, he took off in high speed, concentrated his chakra so he wouldn't create a mess out of the whole building, and collided. The forceful punch á Kushina was enough to get him through the wall he had already damaged, but also sent a shock wave too loud for his taste. He climbed inside the hole in the wall and ended up standing in the middle of a cupboard; he could hear people in the hallway, running towards the noise they had heard, and he prepared himself; the first person to reach the cupboard was hit with full force by the door, and Minato shot out, counted his enemies quickly and relied on his speed to get through them.

Speed was ultimately what he needed at all to survive the infiltration in the building. He barely had time to analyse and identify which rooms he should check out and why people where running towards the different locations; most should be after him, but fewer than he had expected. Without any more time to contemplate his choices, he grabbed two Hiraishin kunai and travelled through them to avoid being beheaded, and made a greater chaos when he flashed through the different rooms than he had the first time he had infiltrated the village.

He had no choice but to steal. He got hold on and sealed documents he assumed were informative, although his assumptions were merely based on the expressions on the Kumo-nin's faces. Without a scratch, he fled to the second floor, throwing his Hiraishin kunai wherever he wanted to search -

Only when he was crouching on top of a desk and he realised he was suddenly accompanied by the Raikage did he seriously consider getting the hell out of there. The Raikage was incredibly fast – not only did Minato already know this, but it was proved when he appeared before his face a split second after he had entered the room – but Minato still felt the confidence to stay just a fraction before it would be too late; within the short moment it lasted, his eyes were firmly set on the Raikage's, and with a huge, angry fist inches from his face, he disappeared with the sound of a single pulse and a yellow flash.

The Raikage was furious. Not only had someone managed to sneak inside his village and steal important files, he had gotten away as well. And to top it all, the thief had escaped his punch. He had never found anyone who could challenge the speed of himself and his son, and had therefore considered themselves the fastest men alive. Despite Minato being well known for his speed and mission success rate, the Raikage had never expected him, or anyone else for that matter, to be so quick that he could escape his lethal punch. What had angered him the most, though, was that Minato had seemed to be the one in control of the situation. Lethal punch or not, he had still had time to give the Raikage a look that clearly told him to stop messing with Konoha and watch his own back.

At least this was what civilians could tell him. While Minato was still on his way back to Konoha – currently hiding in a hot spring inside the Hot Water country – this seemed to be well-known news wherever he went. Getting out of the Lightning country had not been easy with a company of Kumo-nin on his tail, and as soon as he had lost them somewhere within the Frost country, the border guards had been quick with spreading the word across the borders about the man who had stared right in the Raikage's furious eyes and survived. It was also no secret that this man was Minato, except that people had stopped referring to him by his name; when he had wandered the Hot Water country, slightly concealed underneath his hood to avoid being recognised too much to delay him, he had begun hearing rumours about a yellow flash. He had ended up in a conversation with an old man at a bar who clearly had no idea who Minato was, but who had heard the rumours and was exceptionally eager to tell Minato about them. Minato himself found it both amusing and weird to be part of a conversation about himself from a quite different perspective (even though it was mostly the old man who talked, while Minato replied with nods, 'yes'-es and 'who knows?' whenever asked who the yellow flash might be), and decided not to reveal himself in order to get going before nightfall.

Though he wondered most how far the rumours had gotten, if they had gotten as far as to the Fire country, and maybe even Konoha – and he wondered what people were saying. And as he woke up the next morning, finished the last distance to the Fire country and crossed the border, and all the faces of border post number twenty-three turned towards him in that shamelessly staring manner, whispering the words he had heard ever since he escaped Kumo, he wondered if people had used his actual name for the very last time.