"I was very impressed by your use of seals in your preliminary match, " Minato says as he sidles up to Naruto who is inhaling a bowl of ramen at Ichiraku's.
Minato is grateful that Kami-sama seems to be favoring him. This hadn't been part of his plan to approach the boy. But when he'd shown up at Ichiraku's for lunch and had seen the peek of the boy's red and black jumpsuit on a stool behind the curtain, his heart had started thumping in excitement. Maybe they were meant to meet.
The kid looks at him sideways as he's slurping his broth, and his eyes widen with surprise. Without responding, he returns to sipping as if it's a task that requires unwavering concentration.
Confused, Minato turns his attention to Teuchi. He orders a miso ramen and tries to act like he's waiting patiently for his meal. But he can't help but watch as the broth disappears from Naruto's bowl, and he worries that the kid will scurry away the moment he finishes.
He feels pulled to Naruto, like he just wants to get closer and closer until he's wrapped the boy in his arms. Yes, he's aware that's weird, but he can't help it. Naruto has monstrous chakra reserves, even bigger than Kushina's had been. But his chakra is warm—like the sun on the first warm day of spring or a crackling fire in the dead of winter—and familiar. It's how Kushina's chakra felt.
"What's your name?" He tries again.
The boy seems to contemplate the question extensively. He face scrunches up adorably, and Minato wonders how difficult the question is that he just asked. While he waits for an answer, he can't help but search the kid's face for any sign of Kushina. This is the first time he's been so close, and now it seems so obvious. He sees her in Naruto's jawline and cheekbones. She's there in the shape of his eyes and the curve of his nose.
Finally, the kid says, "You already know my name, right? You were at the preliminaries."
For a moment, Minato can't bring himself to respond. He is shocked. But then he chuckles, and his chuckles turn into laughs until he can't control himself. All the while, Naruto waits, looking uncomfortable.
"I'm sorry, you're right," Minato finally says. "Naruto, right?"
Naruto nods slowly without taking his big eyes from Minato's face. He looks like he wants to say something, but he's holding it in.
"It's a nice name," Minato continues as Teuchi sets his bowl in front of him. He breaks his chopsticks and stirs the ramen twice before taking a bite. "Do you know why you were named Naruto?"
Naruto shakes his head, just as hesitantly.
"I always thought if I were ever to have a son, I would name him Naruto. It's the name of the hero in my favorite book."
Minato takes another bite of ramen while he waits with bated breath to hear whether the boy responds. As much as he wants to keep talking, he forces himself to focus on his food. The poor kid looked terrified to be talking with him, and he doesn't want to scare him away more.
When an answer doesn't come, he turns around to see an empty chair beside him.
He sighs.
"Poor kid was too starstruck," Teuchi says as he grabs the empty bowl and the coins that Naruto had left on the counter.
"More like terrified."
"You can't blame him. He's from a small village. You're a legend."
"Or a monster." Minato throws his head onto the table, sighing again. "I just wanted to get to know him."
"Its not too late. He's here every day, sometimes for both lunch and dinner. Keep stopping by, and you might get through to him."
"Thank you, Teuchi," Minato says with a tired but genuine smile.
"For what it's worth, Minato, it was very nice to hear you laughing again."
Naruto dashes through the streets of Konoha trying to calm his racing heart.
The Hokage was talking to him! No, he wasn't just talking to him, he was interrogating him, just like Tobi-nii and Sharkface had warned him! He even mentioned that he wanted a son named Naruto! It was a genius act of manipulation, and Naruto is proud he didn't fall for it. But he wonders if maybe he should give up on the exams before the Hokage has another chance to try to kidnap him.
"Fuu! Fuuuuu!" he shouts as he approaches the training field that the Taki team has reserved for the month to see her practicing her taijutsu against a dummy.
"Hey Naruto! Wanna spar?"
"Fuu, I gotta go home."
"What?!" Fuu takes on a defensive stance. There is a crazed, desperate look in her eyes. "You can't do that. We've gotten so far!"
"But Fuu, the Hokage was trying to talk to me today. I'm worried he's finally making his move."
"The Hokage isn't going to try to steal you. How many times do I have to tell you?"
"But Tobi-nii—"
"I don't care what this Tobi-nii said. He sounds crazy, and I'm not gonna drop out of the exams just because you're scared of the Hokage. Stealing a genin from another village would be an international disaster, especially during the Chuunin exams. If anything, he'll come find you after we get home."
Naruto's gulps at the thought of the Hokage showing up at his apartment window. There's a big windowsill, so the Hokage could comfortably sit there all night and watch him sleep. "Do you really think he'll do that?"
"No, but I think it's more likely than him kidnapping you now. Plus don't you go thinking you're all special and stuff. You and I are in equal danger."
"Has he tried interrogating you?" Naruto counters, sticking his tongue out at her.
"Fuu's right," Yooroo says, approaching them from across the field where she and Kegon-sensei were watching Fuu spar. "I can promise you, Naruto, that whatever this Tobi-nii told you, it's not true. Shibuki wouldn't have sent you here if you were in any danger. If the Hokage captures you during the Chuunin exams, it will start a war. He's a smart man who recognizes that isn't possible for Konoha right now. Just focus on the exams."
"So he's playing the long game then! I'll just have to get way stronger so that when he shows up at my apartment, I can fight him off!"
Fuu rolls her eyes, but she doesn't protest. "Good, now that you're not running away, come spar with me."
"No, you two," Kegon-sensei says. "If you haven't seen, I brought you a snack, and we'll be enjoying it together."
Fuu and Naruto groan, but halfheartedly. Naruto is always excited to eat, and he always gets super happy when someone is so nice that they want to share their food with them. He always had to work for his food when he lived with Akari baa-chan. And Tobi-nii never ate. Probably because he forgot to put a mouthhole in his mask. Besides Fuu, Kegon-sensei is the first person to ever buy him stuff without asking for anything in return, and Naruto wants him to know that he's super appreciative. That way he'll definitely protect Naruto if the Hokage does come to kidnap him.
As they eat, the fear from his encounter with the Hokage slips away. His team is right. The Hokage wouldn't dare capture him here. If anything, he'll just try to get information, and there's no way Naruto will give him that!
"Jiraiya-sensei."
"Minato what is it this time?" Jiraiya asks, not taking his eyes off of the onsen in front of him. He makes a mental note that since his student can now predict that he'll be in this spot, he should find a new one. If Minato can find him here, then it's only a matter of time before the women catch on, and he can't afford to have another onsen ban him. "This better be important. You're distracting me from some very important research. One of a kind if I do say so."
Minato grunts in disapproval. "You'll get another chance, sensei. I have a mission for you."
Jiraiya raises an eyebrow. It's not often that he's summoned for a mission that he doesn't already have wind of, considering that, as head of Konoha's spy network, he is usually the one to determine what spying needs to be done. But he still doesn't take his eyes off of the baths. A rather busty woman has just entered and is about to unwrap her towel. "Well what is this very important mission of yours?"
"I want you to train one of the candidates for the chuunin exams."
"I will not waste precious research time training a brat. Find someone else."
"Sensei, It's really important. I- I think I might've found a trace of Kushina."
Suddenly, Jiraiya is intrigued, intrigued enough to pull his eyes away from the woman in the onsen.
His student spent a lot of his resources during the years following Kushina's disappearance trying to find her. Of course, they'd had no luck, and they had both been baffled that someone with such a massive chakra signature and personality could disappear without a trace. They eventually concluded that either something terrible had happened or that she really didn't want to be found.
"Oh?"
"I think her son is participating in the exams."
"And how do you know this?"
Minato runs his hands through his hair, but his eyes have a far-off look to them. There's a soft quality about him that Jiraiya hasn't seen since Kushina disappeared. "He looks so much like her. His face has the same shape, his eyes have the same expressiveness. And he's fiery and stubborn just like her."
Jiraiya wonders if Minato has finally lost it and should abdicate the position of Hokage. He's seen Minato come up with a host of wild theories over the years, but seeing Kushina's child takes the cake. "Well, this evidence is certainly compelling," he says, if only to avoid infuriating his student. "But, no offense, Minato, I know Kushina was one of a kind, but a lot of people have these traits."
"He has an immense amount of chakra," Minato continues defiantly. "I've felt it, and- and it feels like I'm with Kushina again. Also, he knows Uzumaki sealing techniques. Who else could have taught him that?"
Jiraiya has to admit that he is being convinced. As far as he knows—and he knows a lot—he's talking to the only person besides Kushina with extensive knowledge of Uzumaki sealing techniques. "That knowledge doesn't necessarily mean he's her son."
"Sensei, his name is Naruto."
"Oh?"
"You know we were going to name our son Naruto."
"Oh, so he's your son too?"
"Well, no..."
Jiraiya eyes Minato skeptically. "Why would she give a son that she had with someone else the name that you picked?"
"Well he can't be mine! She wasn't pregnant when she left."
"Are you sure she wasn't?"
Minato shrugs, and Jiraiya can see the helpless desperation in the act. "Even if she was, why would she have our child and then hide him from me?"
Of course, Jiraiya realizes. Minato can't consider the possibility of Naruto being his child.Kushina is either dead or hiding. If Kushina is alive, and Naruto is Minato's son, it would mean that Kushina actively kept Naruto from meeting his father for some reason. Neither Minato nor Jiraiya think her to be so cruel, which means that she…
Minato had never been willing to accept that possibility.
"Please, sensei? It's not like I haven't considered this. But isn't that all the more reason to figure out who Naruto is?" Minato's big, blue eyes have always been difficult to ignore, especially when they look as lost as a stray puppy. Jiraiya will regret his softness later.
"I will admit that it's intriguing. Any kid with a name from my book is worth investigating. Where's he from? What's his family name?"
"His family name is Kyuuryuu. He's part of the Taki team."
"Taki? I searched all over Taki for her. I refuse to believe she's been there all these years."
"I'm not suggesting she was, but this is why I need you sensei. Please train him. It will give you the opportunity to find out as much about him as you can."
"Why can't you do it?" Jiraiya isn't necessarily against the idea. He's admittedly getting excited to start untangling this mystery, but it seems odd for Minato to ask him to do it when his student so clearly wants to spend time with the kid.
"Because he's terrified of me."
"What?"
"He's terrified." Minato describes the lunch he had with Naruto, how uncomfortable the kid had been. And then the moment Minato tried to bond with him, the kid had run.
"And what makes you think he won't be terrified of me? If he's starstruck by you, then he'll certainly be starstruck by me. There's no greater hero than Jiraiya the Gallant!"
"Something tells me it's just me, but honestly, if he's scared of you too, that's valuable information."
After watching Minato grow up, Jiraiya can read his face like a raunchy book, and he sees the anguish there. Minato has probably come up with a variety of reasons that might explain why Naruto would be afraid of him. Of course, the most benign is that Naruto is from Taki, which hasn't had the best relationship with Konoha since the Third Shinobi War. But the worst could be that Kushina had raised Naruto to fear Minato so that he'd never catch wind of her and the apparently happy life she's been leading without him.
"And you don't want to use a henge to do it yourself? You're one of the greatest ninja in the world, you know, and he's just a brat. You can easily trick him."
Minato's hand goes to his head and clenches his hair, and a sheepish sort of sadness overcomes him. "I know I could, but I don't really want to build a relationship with him that's based on lies."
Minato has always been a kind soul with too much love in him for his own good. If this child is the closest he'll ever get to Kushina, of course he would want to approach him honestly.
Jiraiya groans. He really does love his brat. "Fine, I'll do it. When do I start?"
"As soon as you can. Maybe give him some time to cool down after our encounter and then go find him tomorrow."
"Is that all you wanted?"
"Yes."
"Then go away and leave me to my research. Unless you want to join me?" Jiraiya waggles his eyebrows at Minato suggestively.
Minato rolls his eyes. "Bye sensei."
"It'll do you some good to consider other women!" Jiraiya shouts at Minato's retreating back. His student simply lifts a hand in farewell and teleports away.
"Who are you?" Naruto asks, squinting up at Jiraiya, a skeptical look on his face.
Jiraiya's jaw drops to the ground in shock. "Didn't you hear my introduction? I just told you, you, brat! I'm Jiraiya the Gallant! Everyone across all of the elemental nations has heard of me."
"You don't look very gallant to me."
"Why you! Don't you tell me what gallant is! You wouldn't know it if it was a beautiful woman right in front of you!"
"Ew!" Naruto screeches. "I don't like women!"
"Come on, every man loves a beautiful woman."
"Not me! And why are you thinking about women so much, huh? Are you a perve?" Something must cross the kid's mind, because realization flashes on Naruto's face, and he points an accusing finger at Jiraiya and jumps away. "You are a perve! Get away from me you creep!"
Jiraiya wipes his face in exasperation. "Kid, I'm not going anywhere. I want to train you for the final exam."
Immediately, Naruto's boisterous confrontation disappears, and he armors himself with a layer of suspicion. "Why do you want to train me?" he asks.
"Because I heard you were pretty good at seals, and I happen to be a seal master myself. I'd like to see what you can do, and maybe you'll learn something along the way."
"But I'm from Taki and you're from Konoha. Why would you want to help me?"
"I already told you! I'm a seal master! Maybe if you're good enough, we'll recruit you to Konoha's forces!"
Jiraiya had expected a burst of exuberance from the energetic kid. He hadn't expected Naruto to pull away even further to the point where he was actually running away.
"Kid! Hey kid!" Jiraiya calls after him before using a kawarimi to appear right in front of the brat. At the sudden obstruction, Naruto stumbles but quickly rights himself and begins dashing in a different direction. Jiraiya catches him by the collar before he can get out of arm's reach. "Relax kid, I'm not actually going to recruit you to Konoha. Haven't you heard a joke before? I just want to see what you can do."
"I don't believe you, ttebayo!" Naruto screeches as he flails his limbs in every direction.
"Kami, how terrible is Konoha that you're so determined not to learn from the greatest ninja to ever live? Let me tell you the truth then."
Naruto points a triumphant finger at him. "I knew you were lying!"
"Shut up, kid. I wasn't lying. There's another reason I want to train you, but if you want to hear it, you have to come sit down with me somewhere where people won't be walking by." Naruto looks like he wants to say yes, but he hesitates. Jiraiya is getting fed up with this coaxing. "Come on, kid. I promise I'm not going to abduct you or recruit you or whatever it is that you're scared of. Just hear me out."
"Fine," Naruto growls. "But we're going somewhere public. Baa-chan never let me go to private places with strangers."
"Okay, okay," Jiraiya concedes, barely hiding his frustration. "Somewhere that's still very public."
He takes Naruto to sit alongside the stream that runs past Training Ground 3, all the while telling lighthearted stories in an attempt to calm the kid down.
"So what's this secret?" Naruto asks as soon as they sit down.
"It's not a secret," Jiraiya says indignantly. "It's just something I want to tell you."
"Fine, what's this thing you want to tell me?"
"Your name's Naruto."
"That's what you wanted to tell me? I know that already! Sheesh, what is it with you people and my name?"
"Shut up, kid. In the first book that I wrote about fourteen years ago, I named my main character Naruto—"
Naruto is up again, backing away with unbridled fear in his eyes. But Jiraiya has to give him credit that he's maintained a ready shinobi stance. "You're the one that wrote that book that that Hokage guy was going on about?!" He makes a hand sign, and two Narutos appear behind him, also backing away but ready to fight. "I knew that old man sent you! I knew it! I never should've come here with you. You're going to kidnap me and give me over to him!"
Jiraiya sighs and rests his forehead in his palm. What on earth had happened to this kid that made him so terrified of the Hokage? Sure, Taki isn't an ally, but in most parts of the world Minato's reputation is one of a smart and kind man who cares about the citizens he protects.
Jiraiya wants to just grab the brat, take him to the Hokage, and force them to sit down together. But Naruto would probably consider that kidnapping. Instead, Jiraiya takes a deep breath and decides that if he can't bribe the brat with promises of cool sealing knowledge or sentimental factors, he'll have to get him with promises of fame and glory.
As if Naruto never interrupted him, he continues, "The book was called The Tale of the Gutsy Ninja."
Naruto pauses, obviously confused that Jiraiya isn't attacking him. "You think I'm a gutsy ninja?"
"I think you could be. See, a few years before I wrote that book, I got a prophecy saying that I would train a student who would either destroy or save the world."
"Hey! I'm gonna save the world someday" Naruto shouts. Finally, he can't seem to contain his exuberance, and he jumps up and bounces on his feet in excitement.
Jiraiya quirks an eyebrow at the unexpected declaration and change in attitude. "Are you now?"
"Yeah! Tobi-nii told me that I'm gonna save the world, but I have to become an amazing ninja first."
"Who's this Tobi-nii?"
Remarkably quickly, Naurto's excitement switches back to suspicion. "None of your business." He sticks his tongue out at Jiraiya. "But I'm gonna save the world someday, so that prophecy must be about me."
Jiraiya swallows his instinct to fight back against the kid. Instead he says, "That's what I'm saying. Between your name, your knowledge of seals, and the fact that you're in Konoha right now, it all seems like far too much of a coincidence."
Naruto takes his time contemplating Jiraiya's offer. His face scrunches up as if thinking is physically painful, and he moves about as he talks to himself, too quietly for Jiraiya to understand. Finally, he turns back to Jiraiya with a look of resignation on his face. "Fine, I'll let you train me," Naruto says, returning to sit facing Jiraiya. "If we've both got prophecies that line up, then there's no way you're a bad buy. Besides you're too goofy and pervy to be evil."
"Imagine that,"Jiraiya mutters. "Jiraiya the Gallant getting permission to take on a student. Ridiculous."
"Hey! Don't you underestimate me! I'm already a super great ninja! I don't even need you to teach me, but I'm gonna let you so you can have your prophecy and stuff!"
"I'm not underestimating you. But it sure feels like you're underestimating me."
"I'll stop underestimating you when you show me that you're not actually just a pervy, wrinkly old man."
Jiraiya nearly chokes on his own spit. Pervy, wrinkly old man? As he desperately coughs to clear his throat, he gasps, "You better watch it, brat. I'm a sage. I can flatten you anytime."
"But you won't because you need me for your prophecy!" Naruto chirps. He is standing again and already walking away from Jiraiya towards the training fields. "Now hurry up, Ero-sennin, and come show me what you can do!"
Jiraiya growls at the kid's retreating back, regretting his deal with Minato. Otherwise, this brat would already be dead.
"He's terrified of you."
Minato leans back in his chair and covers his eyes, blocking out the image of his sensei standing before his would triumphantly gloat, I told you so, if he wasn't so upset. Instead he groans. "Any idea why?"
"None. But I can say that it's deeper than a regular fear of an enemy village's Hokage. It's almost as if he's been brainwashed to fear you. He kept claiming I was conspiring with you to kidnap him."
"I don't have a reputation for kidnapping children, do I?"
Jiraiya shrugs, "Maybe it's something parents in Taki tell their children so they don't go wandering off alone. I've never heard it, though."
Minato freezes at the word 'parents'. The information seems to confirm that someone, likely Naruto's parents, raised him to fear Minato or at least the Hokage. He tries his best to ask as nonchalantly as possible, "Did you find out anything about his parents?" And he tries not to flinch under the knowing look Jiraiya sends him.
"No, he was not very open about his family. Every time I asked him something personal, he shut up. But he did let slip a few tidbits."
"And what were those?" Minato leans against his desk with interest, desperate to learn something of this kid's life, a kid that might be the only connection to the only woman he had ever loved.
"He mentioned a 'Baa-chan' who told him never to go to private places with strangers, and he told me about a 'Tobi-nii' who told him that he was going to save the world someday."
"So he has a grandmother and an older brother. That's interesting," Minato mutters. "The grandmother, of course, is probably his father's mother. His father must be from Taki, and Naruto lived with or near her. The older brother makes things confusing, though. Unless Naruto is younger than he seems, Kushina hasn't been gone long enough for Naruto to have an older brother. Maybe he could be a half-brother from his father's previous marriage? Maybe—"
Minato throws his hands out to catches himself before he faceplants into the floor. His cheek is throbbing. "What was that for?" he groans.
Jiraiya stands over him, hands on his hips, looking livid. "The fact that I even managed to hit you so easily should speak for itself. You're not acting logically! You're talking about divorces and half-brothers for people who may not even exist! Come on, Minato, if there was ever a time to use that exceptional brain of yours, this is it! Don't fall back into wallowing in self-pity."
Minato is about to protest that he does not wallow in self-pity, but a knock on the door pulls him back towards reality. He sighs. "One moment!" he shouts to the newcomer.
Then he turns to his master and says quietly, "You're right. I'm not acting logically. But I can't help it. I feel like there's a fire in my stomach, and I can't put it out until I figure out what the hell happened all those years ago. This is my chance."
"And you're not going to figure it out if you don't approach this logically," Jiraiya says, leaning against the wall with beneath the picture of his sensei and crossing his arms. He observes his student critically as Minato pulls himself to his feet and begins to pace. He's touching his lips with his thumb as he does when he's deep in thought. "Kami, no wonder the kid ran from you. You're a terrifying mess."
Minato ignores him. "Okay, I need to think about this logically. What does this information tell us?"
"That Naruto either has a biological grandmother or is close enough to an old woman to call her Baa-chan. And that he has a brother or someone he looks up to as a brother."
"No mention of a mother or father?"
"None. But, of course that doesn't mean that he doesn't have them."
"Did you find out anything about his fuuinjutsu skills?"
"That I did," Jiraiya says as he pulls out a scroll from a pocket within his robes. "After the brat was convinced that I was a good enough ninja to be worthy to teach him, I had him show me what he could do on this. And Minato, it's fascinating."
Minato can't help but lean forward with interest as Jiraiya approaches his desk once again and unrolls the scroll tantalizingly slowly just to mess with Minato. The scroll reveals a number of seals. There are several different exploding tags. Minato sees the seal that had trapped Rock Lee during the spar, and he must force himself to refrain from examining it more closely. There are several silencing seals as well as a few others that limit perception in some capacity. There is one that automatically seals away objects that touch it. Finally, there are several different storage seals, each one modified slightly. One has more space than an average storage seal. Another is specialized for sealing fragile objects. Another slowly releases whatever is stored inside in a steady stream. The last can seal non-physical items.
But what's fascinating to Minato even beyond the diversity and skill required to make these seals is that they're all done using Uzumaki techniques.
"Now this is extremely interesting," Minato observes.
"I'm starting to think you're on to something," Jiraiya admits. "It's not just that he knows an Uzumaki seal. The kid was trained in Uzumaki sealing techniques."
"And there's only one person in this world who could have taught him that, aside from the two of us."
"As far as we know," Jiraya hedges his student's excitement.
"Look, this is fascinating," says Minato, pointing to the sealing seal. "This is his own creation. In fact, most of of them are, but this last one is a pretty powerful seal for sealing away chakra. So not only is he trained in Uzumaki techniques, but he's also so well-trained that he's at a point where he can create his own seals. The kid's a veritable genius."
Jiraiya laughs. "He certainly has no idea if he is. He grumbled and groaned the whole time he was writing them, bitching about how annoying it was that everything had to be perfect. This one," Jiraiya points to a seal meant to automatically seal away objects that touch it, "he developed because he hates fishing. So he would put it on rocks in places where fish tend to gather and it would seal them away when they bumped it."
"Genius," Minato murmurs.
"And this one," Jiraiya points to the storage seal meant for fragile objects, "was made because he was sick of breaking eggs when he was carrying them home."
"So the kid developed these impressive new seals to get out of chores?"
"Certainly seems like it."
A bubble of laughter escapes from Minato's throat, and it quickly morphs into something uncontrollable as he laughs and laughs. Jiraiya himself smiles as he watches his student laugh for the first time in thirteen years..
The door bursts open to reveal a distressed Itachi, "Hokage-sama! Is everything oka—"
"Yes, Itachi," Minato says, wiping his eyes.
"You just—" Itachi shakes his head to dispel his thoughts, "I was just checking to make sure you'd be at dinner this week."
"Yes, yes! I'll be right there!."
As Itachi leaves, Minato jumps up to pack his belongings. "If you'll excuse me, sensei, I don't want to be late. Sasuke might have more information on Naruto. You'll be training him again tomorrow?"
Jiraiya rolls his eyes but says nothing to critique his student. "Of course, brat."
Over dinner, Mikoto and Itachi are eager to share Sasuke's experiences in the exam. They rave about the clever tactics he used to defeat his opponent during the preliminaries, Yamanaka Ino. Itachi swells with pride as he describes how Sasuke fought off several opponents in the Forest of Death, but Sasuke sits through all of it quietly.
Minato is surprised. He had expected Sasuke to be excited to share. The boy has always been eager to prove that he is just as skilled as his brother, and his excellent performance in the exams provides the perfect opportunity. The only downside is that his parents weren't able to observe him perform so admirably. That's why Minato is so eager to add to the praise. He even sees a glimmer of pride in Fugaku's eyes, one that he's never seen before directed towards Sasuke. But Sasuke seems so preoccupied, he doesn't notice.
After dinner, Minato asks Sasuke if he'd like to go outside and demonstrate a particular technique he used during the preliminaries. Minato suggests he might be able to give him some tips.
Sasuke nods, and thankfully, if his family members see through the lie, they don't say anything.
When the two step outside, Minato walks away from the house and sits on a bench in one of the far corners of the garden. The place is beside a small koi pond, and bushes obscure it from view of the house. Sasuke sits beside him, but he doesn't look at Minato. His eyes are on a piece of grass that he twists between his fingers.
"What's going on, Sasuke? I thought you'd be proud of your performance in the exams."
"There's nothing to be proud of," Sasuke replies curtly.
"Of course there is. Your mother and brother may have been boasting, but they weren't lying."
"I shouldn't even be alive."
That shuts Minato up.
"You what?"
"I shouldn't be alive. I got attacked by this creepy lady from Sound in the Forest of Death. She was at least a jounin, maybe stronger. She managed to overpower my whole team pretty easily, and she put this mark on me."
Minato's mind is whirring. There was someone who wasn't a genin in the Forest of Death? The only person who fits that description that he's aware of is the jounin from Taki, but Sasuke said that this was a woman from Sound. Perhaps the Taki nin had disguised himself? If not, Minato has the case of an intruder on his hands. He's horrified at his security level if someone managed to slip through without alerting any Konoha shinobi.
Sasuke pulls the collar of his shirt aside to reveal a strange, black mark. There are three tomoe in the same pattern as the sharingan. Surrounding them are two thick lines of script that spiral outward. Minato leans closer. The tomoe seem to be a copy-and-paste type curse mark, one that can be planted on anyone and influence their chakra system. The script surrounding it, however, seems to have been made specifically to contain the power of the mark.
"These were made by two different people," he says.
"Yes," Sasuke confirms. "There was a kid on the Taki team who found me just after it happened. He knew fuuinjutsu and wrote up that container seal."
"Did it remove the effects of the original seal?"
"Yes. Before he put it on, I was in a lot of pain. I could feel whatever chakra was in the mark trying to take over my system. It made me…angry. And I couldn't think straight. Now, if I wasn't so worried that someone in my family would see it, I'd forget it's there. I don't feel anything"
Minato is impressed with Naruto's work. He didn't solve the problem the way Minato would have—Naruto's seal is more of a brute force solution to the problem than Minato prefers—but it's equally as effective.
"Can you remove it?" Sasuke asks, a small, nearly indistinguishable waver to his voice the only sign that this experience has truly shaken him.
Minato observes the seal again. Yes, it seems like he could remove it. One of the advantages to being the foremost fuuinjutsu expert in the world is that there are few seals he can't deal with. Even others who could consider themselves seal experts often can't foresee the many ways that their seal can be tampered with.
Except it seems that Minato will soon have competition.
"Yes, I should be able to remove it. I will have to track down this Naruto, though. It'll be easier for him to remove his seal himself." I'm not sure I know enough about Uzumaki techniques to remove it myself, goes unsaid.
"When can we do it?"
Minato thinks back to Naruto's sheer terror of him and grimaces. He may need to take some time to gain the kid's trust.
"I'll need some time to prepare. At the earliest, we could do it in a few days. At the latest, a few weeks. Certainly before the final round of the exams."
Sasuke almost sighs in relief. It's evident in the way his shoulders relax and his breath hitches. But, ever so much like his father, he hides it behind an emotionless mask. "Thank you."
"Until then, keep wearing that high collar, even around the house."
"You don't have to tell me twice," Sasuke grumbles.
