AN: Another new chapter.


"Dad…did something happen to Jade-chan?" Naruto asked the question Minato had, for a while now, been dreading.

He didn't have an answer for his son, not one that he knew was right.

Jade had simply vanished from his office, had taken the news of her Shadowkhan stopping the kidnapping of Hinata Hyuga with a mess of emotions, something he could feel even without a link to her, before she had simply been gone. She hadn't made an appearance since then and neither had her Shadowkhan.

Not to pick up Naruto from the Academy.

Not to help him with his homework.

She hadn't even shown up to say good night. In the end, Naruto had fallen asleep waiting up for her, had been trying to stubbornly push aside his growing desire to sleep for hours. Minato had tried to get him to go to bed on time, had tried to promise him that she would be back to no avail.

All he could do last night was keep checking up on him, had seen the boy dozing off time and time again only to snap himself back awake.

For as long as he could, he had stayed up waiting for Jade to appear.

The same had happened for the past two days since, going on three with this morning only showing Jade's sudden absence would continue. The woman was still gone without a trace as to where she had went off to or how long she would be gone. Minato could only guess it had to be somewhere only she could go, the Shadow Realm he had been taken to a handful of times. It was a place inaccessible to anyone but Jade, not even the Flying Thunder God technique letting him teleport to the marker he had left on her in case of emergencies.

If she was in there, he had no way to reach her short of teleporting to Kushina and having her summon Jade out of it.

For now, he would hold off on that option. Things hadn't gotten that bad.

"I'm sure Jade's fine Naruto…She just had to go away for a while." He did his best to not exactly lie to his son.

"Oh…" The way the normally bright and cheerful boy all but deflated made Minato frown. He had been like this ever since he had woken up after the first night with Jade gone, once he had realized she wouldn't be there to take him to the Academy, to spend time with him. He wished he could reassure his son, tell him anything that would brighten his day, but there wasn't much he could do. He had no idea where Jade had gone, just guesses, and couldn't exactly contact her if she didn't want to be.

Kushina was the only one who could demand Jade show herself no matter the time or place, if she wanted to appear or not. It was the nature of their contract with one another that she could exercise absolute authority over her, give her undeniable commands. As rare as it was for her to give her an outright order, it had been necessary to do so in the past.

Like during the war.

All he could do right now was drop Naruto off at the Academy, the sight of the Fourth Hokage of course drawing eyes, ranging from awe-struck to frightened, and a multitude of whispers. It was part of the reason he was happy to have Jade take on this task most days, didn't want Naruto exposed to this first thing every morning he went to class.

He had tried to shield him from the reality of being the son of the Fourth Hokage as often as he could.

He had managed to get Rin to pick him up and drop him off yesterday, had managed to get Obito to do the same the day before, but all three of his once students were too busy for today.

Today, there was little he could do but smile, try to cheer him up.

But the normal bright ball of sunshine that was Naruto simply wasn't there, not when he had no idea what was going on, when all he had was his imagination to fill in the gaps.

At his side, Naruto simply shrank in on himself.

'I-I don't know what to do here.' There was no guidebook to being a parent but he wasn't going to let Naruto go like this. 'What would Kushina do right now?'

The answer came to him almost instantly.

"Let's go home."

In the blink of an eye, the Yellow Flash vanished with his son. In that same blink of an eye he was walking through the halls of their home, an absolutely shocked Naruto only able to stare from where Minato had pulled the eight year old up in his arms.

A Shadow Clone went off to spread the word, would let certain people know he wouldn't be in his office today, would handle the meetings he didn't have the time for today.

Being the Hidden Leaf's Fourth Hokage came second today.

Right now, his son needed him.


AN: Minato is a Dad before he's Hokage. That is all.