AN: This one also didn't take a while.


Despite it being such short notice (and blowing off his expected duties two days in a row), Hiruzen had agreed to step in for him for the day.

This meeting took precedent over the day to day running of the village.

"You know, getting the whole story, I can understand why you wanted some backup for this." Jiraiya was at his side now at least. His old teacher could only shake his head, worry clear on his face. "I don't know why Nagato would come all the way out here by himself but he did take to wandering these last five years. He may know a few things we don't about Jade."

"I doubt it." Minato was only humoring this meeting because of who Nagato was, the fact that Jiraiya would unquestionably vouch for the Uzumaki.

He didn't believe this would amount to anything.

No, he knew this wouldn't amount to anything.

"I've got a few. All of them about that babysitter of yours."

Nagato had pure and baseless suspicions. All of it directed at Jade.

If Nagato, if anyone, had seen what he had, they would know to trust Jade in the same way he did…

Nineteen Years Ago…

"This is where the trail ends." It had been a pain to pick up a new trail once it had become clear that Kushina had escaped from her kidnappers, had been harder than before without her leaving any of her hair as a clue. But he had found it nonetheless, followed it all the way here of all places.

Minato stood at the edge of a clearing now, knew he couldn't advance any further.

The sheer amount of Chakra that formed the barrier in place, the barrier that hadn't been there before, was enough to make his hair stand on end. Whatever was happening on the other side of the barrier, whatever Kushina was doing, she wanted to make sure no one interfered.

Somewhere on the other side of the opaque barrier, Kushina was at least alive.

If nothing else, he could take comfort in that.

"But, if she's here, for how long?" Minato wished he didn't give voice to his fears but there could be only one reason Kushina would come here instead of trying to meet up with any number of the Shinobi sent to rescue her: The seal for the Kyubi. "Those Hidden Cloud bastards…would they really tamper with the seal?"

Just the thought of it made Minato want to head back to where he had found the three tied up, finish them off like he now wished he had done.

The barrier would make any attempt to bypass it useless. Kushina may be the only Uzumaki in the village now but her predecessor, Mito Uzumaki, had once demonstrated the same power she was using now. The barrier created by the Uzumaki Clan's Adamantine Sealing Chains was, for all intents and purposes, unbreakable.

Not even someone as powerful as the Third Hokage could manage to get through.

'Is there really nothing I can do?' As useless as he knew it was, Minato felt like punching the barrier in front of him. Just out of the drive to do something, anything. 'Kushina…please...Don't do something you can't come back from.'

Until Kushina finished on the other side of the barrier, whatever she intended to do, all he could do was wait for her here.

Wait and hope she would be okay when she came out of that old temple alive.

Present…

"You alright Minato?" Jiraiya's voice brought the blonde out of the past.

Minato noticed his clenched fist, the tenseness that had invaded his body even remembering the day Kushina had been kidnapped by the Hidden Cloud.

"I could be better." He relaxed his body, crossed his arms over his Flak Jacket. "This latest mess with the Hidden Cloud just has me…anxious." Blue eyes met the worried gaze of his once teacher. He offered a fake smile only Kushina could see through. "I've just got a lot on my plate these days." He glanced the door of his safehouse, waited for the moment it would open.

Jiraiya only nodded, settled his own eyes on the door in front of the two of them.

The barrier around his warehouse hadn't been triggered but someone was outside.

Nagato Uzumaki stepped through the door a moment later.

For the second time in less than 48-hours, he locked eyes with the Rinnegan.

"Minato." The Hidden Rain Shinobi approached the two without a hint of fear. "Jiraiya." If the situation was different, he would've smiled at his old teacher. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. His gaze swiftly turned back to the Fourth Hokage of the Hidden Leaf. "Have you thought more on what I told you?"

"I have." Minato truly had. Even if he didn't believe Nagato, he had examined it all with a critical eye. "And I still trust Jade. Demon or not, she hasn't done anything to lose it." He shouldn't mention it but he didn't want to stop himself. "You and I both know, the only reason you're still alive is because of her."

Nagato didn't react to the clear barb.

"It's exactly because of what it did in the Hidden Rain Village that I'm here now." Nagato's eyes briefly flashed to his teacher, the man having taken a step back to observe the two Shinobi. He rose an eyebrow. "It singlehandedly took down Hanzo the Salamander and his allies."

"I ordered her to put an end to ROOT activity." Minato hadn't but it was the lie he, Jade, and Kushina had come up with afterwards.

"No you didn't." Nagato saw through the obvious lie. He was one of the few who did. He was one of the few people who had been there for Jade's battle against Hanzo after all. "It despises Danzo so it tore apart his organization piece by piece. And it only stopped when Kushina ordered it to. In less than a week, it crippled Shimura's ROOT." The Uzumaki didn't break eye contact with the Hokage again. "Minato, you fail to understand the type of creature you're dealing with. It's not like the Tailed Beast the First Hokage could defeat, not one of the monsters the Uzumaki Clan could seal. That thing plays at being human, at caring for the people Kushina cares for. It is a monster. A demon who's only interested in destruction. The moment it can escape, it will and it'll cover this world in darkness. Unless we stop it. Banish it back to wherever it came from before it's too late."

"'It' has a name Nagato. Jade is no threat to the world. I understand she's an unknown, that she's powerful, that she may have terrified you when she defeated Hanzo, but she's not the monster you're painting her as. She cares because she's human enough too, feels things the same way we do. She may be strange, can be terrifying, but she isn't evil."

Nagato scoffed at Minato's words.

"She's tricked you then." He dismissed speaking with the Hokage. He turned to Jiraiya. "What about you, sensei: Do you believe me?"

He was looking to hear an answer from the elderly Shinobi. From the way Minato turned his head, he was much the same.

Under the stares of his two students, Jiraiya didn't know what to say.

'What a position to be in…' The irony of the situation wasn't lost on him. The words of the Great Toad Sage, the weight they truly were, echoed in his thoughts even now. He had, at separate points, declared both of the men before him to be the Child of Prophecy, that they had an immense destiny before them.

And now he may be at the crossroads of that very destiny.

'Is this really it? Is my answer here really going to change the world for the better…or the worse?'


AN: Things may have gotten a bit serious.

Review/PM if you want.

Peace.