Sasuke sighed in relief. He sank into the hot water, brushing his wet bangs out of his eyes as he resurfaced. This was nice.
"It's good, isn't it? I deserve this," Minato spoke, seeming to be in utter bliss.
"It's great," Sasuke responded, "The water could be a bit hotter though."
"What?!" Minato exclaimed, shocked. "If it was any hotter, we'd be boiled alive."
"Speak for yourself. I'd be fine," Sasuke sunk back into the water. Minato stared at the spot where he sank. He didn't come up for an uncomfortably long time. Just as Minato began to get worried, Sasuke resurfaced, not seeming out of breath at all.
"Such a weird kid..." Minato whispered to himself. Sasuke truly was an oddity.
They sat there in the onsen for another ten minutes in a comfortable silence.
"Hey," Minato spoke up quietly, "Tell me about the future. Just trivial things. I'm curious." Minato looked over at Sasuke, who had his eyes closed peacefully. He wasn't asleep, but Minato was afraid he wouldn't answer.
"Fine," Sasuke replied, his tone soft. He began talking about small, insignificant things in the future, such as the food, new clothing styles, trends etc. Minato listened attentively to what Sasuke said.
"What was the Academy like?" Minato inquired. Sasuke took a deep breath before he started telling him.
"It bored me," Sasuke admitted, "It was too easy. Most of my classmates were pathetic. They didn't have anything better to do except gossip obsessively," Sasuke didn't feel bad bashing his former peers - most of them didn't even graduate properly anyway. And some of the ones that did had to rely on their team excessively.
"They didn't move you up?" Minato seemed slightly surprised at that. Sasuke shook his head.
He always wondered why he had graduated alongside peers his age. In retrospect, no matter how smart he was, they wouldn't let him skip a year. It was probably because nobody wanted him to turn out like Itachi. Unfortunately, Sasuke was pretty sure he turned out worse.
"Who were your teammates?" Minato asked casually, sipping a mojito.
"That's..." Sasuke trailed off. He wasn't sure if he should mention either of them. Well, nothing would happen if he mentioned Sakura, but just knowing who Naruto was would tell Minato a great deal about the future. Even mentioning Naruto's name would give a lot away.
"Well, who were your teammates?" Sasuke skillfully changed the subject, deflecting the question onto Minato, who didn't seem to mind, understanding that he asked a personal question.
"Oh, I don't remember much about my teammates, but I suppose I can tell you about my current team. I'm their sensei," Minato spoke with a slight hint of pride in his voice. He started telling Sasuke about his team, about Obito, Rin, and Kakashi. It almost warmed Sasuke's cold, dead heart to see Minato smiling so fondly.
"You don't have to tell me, but can you tell me what ends up happening to them?" Minato inquired, a tinge of hope gleaming in his eyes. Sasuke figured that even though he said he didn't have to tell, he really wanted an answer.
Sasuke bit his lip, feeling conflicted. He recalled both Rin and Obito's names on the memorial in Konoha, but telling Minato that would destroy him. Besides, there was no reason to tell Minato when it might not even happen, now that Sasuke was here.
"I don't know about Rin and Obito," he lied, watching Minato's expression begin to crumble, "But I know Kakashi pretty well. He's quite different in the future. As in, reads porn in public kind of different," Sasuke admitted.
He hated shoving Kakashi under the bus like this, but he needed to distract Minato from thoughts of Rin and Obito dying - or otherwise, the man would start crying, and then Sasuke would have to deal with a crying adult. It worked. Minato's face lit up in a mixture of joy and shock.
"No way!" he exclaimed, albeit he seemed very happy, "Well, you sure are from a different world. All Kakashi reads right now is the damn rulebook," Minato sighed in frustration, rubbing his temples.
Sasuke sighed as well. He wasn't sure if he should be telling Minato this.
"I think you should consider it lucky," Sasuke spoke, regarding Minato, who caught the sombre expression in Sasuke's pitch black eyes. Minato seemed slightly shocked, but he listened to what Sasuke said patiently.
"Konoha drove his father to commit suicide," he continued, catching Minato's interest. "Kakashi, in that moment, could have directed his hatred towards two things." He held up two fingers to illustrate his point.
"One: he could have started to hate his father for committing suicide and leaving him alone. Or two: he could start to despise Konoha for what Konoha did to his father." He looked at Minato, hoping he understood that Kakashi's current reclusiveness wasn't the worst case scenario.
"You're speaking from experience, aren't you?" Minato crossed his arms, looking at him sagely. Sasuke shrugged. He might as well admit it.
"Well, what did you do? Maybe I can help Kakashi if I know what you did to get through your hatred." Minato seemed uneasy, yet he hopefully looked at Sasuke.
You think I got through it? All I did was kill people, Sasuke thought.
"You don't want to know," Sasuke admitted. He wasn't ashamed of what he did - abandoning Konoha was still, in his opinion, one of the best decisions he had ever made.
Minato shrugged, deciding to not pry into Sasuke's personal life, which he appreciated. The conversation ended at that.
Minato suddenly rose from out of the water, buck naked. Sasuke wasn't quick enough to cover his eyes. He had already seen things that he didn't want to see, much to his annoyance.
Ugh. So that's why he's called the Flash, Sasuke groaned. Fucking nudists.
"Eh? What's the matter?" Minato asked, genuinely concerned. Sasuke quickly snapped his eyes shut. Finally, he heard the rustling of fabric. At least he put on a towel.
Sasuke looked at his fingers, which were starting to get wrinkly. He grabbed a nearby towel, also rising out of the water.
"Unfortunately, we have to head back to Konoha," Minato said.
They went to their hotel room, packing up. They had delayed long enough. It was time to head back.
Omake
"In the name of Jashin, our Lord and saviour!" The priest - a haggard old man named Danzo - yelled out, holding a wooden cross that he had dipped in some sort of holy liquid called Coca Cola.
Sasuke sighed in annoyance as Danzo began vigorously wiping the wet cross on his forehead. Danzo was perplexed when nothing happened. He expected Sasuke to implode, as a sign that the demon inside him had escaped.
This idiotic cult thought that Sasuke had demonic powers, so they kidnapped him and were currently trying to exorcise the demon within Sasuke.
The whole ordeal had annoyed Sasuke greatly. They said that he exhibited demonic energy, that his mannerisms were antisocial and reclusive. Their explanation was mediocre, causing insurmountable anger in Sasuke. He wasn't a demon; this was just his personality!
"May the wicked perish in the presence of Jashin!" Danzo began sprinkling Sasuke's head with droplets of holy Coca Cola, "We repulse you, unclean spirit! We drive your satanic powers away from us!"
"I told you that won't work," Sasuke told off Danzo, trying to stop Danzo from wasting his time. "I'm not a demon," he insisted.
"The demon lies," Danzo nodded sagely, addressing his fellow cult members. They nodded along with him.
Sasuke picked at his bindings. What kind of a cult would tie him up with cheap duct tape from the hardware store? Just as he was about to scream out another insult, one of the cult members quickly slapped another short piece of duct tape on him - this time taping his mouth shut. His muffled curses went unheard.
"What are you doing, Sakura? You useless moron!" Danzo intervened, ripping the duct tape off Sasuke's mouth. Thankfully, he didn't have a moustache, because that would've hurt like a bitch.
"The demon exits through the mouth! You can't seal the mouth!" Danzo began shrieking at the top of his lungs, "Oh my Jashin, you can't do anything right!" He threw a crochet doll at a woman, presumably Sakura. Sakura became enraged, and so, she walked up to Danzo and kicked him in the nuts. Ouch.
"You've kicked our holy leader in the balls!" Another cult member, wearing the nametag 'Iruka', yelled in outrage.
"Oh please," another member, this time with the nametag 'Deidara', piped up. "His balls are like, 90 years old. They're probably numb or something."
As Danzo and the other cult members began bickering, Sasuke sneakily slipped off the duct tape from his wrist. He cut through the tape on his arms and legs.
He tiptoed towards the exit, escaping the cult once and for all.