Chapter Three: Let's not Forget Kushina

'MINATO!' his wife exclaimed with that mix of anger/relief/fear/worry that women had managed to perfect over the history of the world. 'What happened?! You just disappeared on me without a word and now you're back and... Where the hell did you go?!'

'Uh, Kushina, right... I probably should have warned you, but it just happened so fast...'

'What happened, Namikaze?' If she had had a physical body, she probably would have snatched the front of his shirt to shake some sense into him.

'I may have found out I could possess Naruto's shadow using Hiraishin and then did it without thinking. On that note, I think it's entirely possible to send you out, and I'll probably send you out first next time. I take back all those times I defended Hatake Kakashi, you can punish him all you want,' Minato muttered in annoyance.

'Details, Husband, you are bad at them.'

Minato sighed (bah, no lungs again) as he went into mission debriefing mode, something he'd learned to do in order to keep his mission reports from being hopelessly useless, and related the whole adventure to his wife. While he spoke, Kakashi had returned to resume the bell test (by ambushing the Uchiha kid in a brief taijutsu spar that ended with the kid buried up to his head in the ground) as if nothing had happened.

By the time Minato was finished, Kushina had already begun plotting new ways to get even with the one-eyed shinobi for stabbing her husband. Minato added a few of his own suggestions, while reminding her they didn't actually want to permanently disfigure or maim the man.

The bell test ended about as they had expected it to. Naruto was the one tied to the log, of course, and the instant his son had decided to sneak around behind Kakashi's back to get to the food, Minato had known he'd sealed the deal. So while Kushina fumed about the jounin's 'you should all quit being ninja' speech, Minato was sulking for an entirely different reason. Kakashi was no longer carrying the Hiraishin blade.

Or at least he hadn't been when he'd ambushed Naruto and tied him to the log. Not that Naruto had thought to use clones in that very quick and very one-sided fight. Still, Minato was hurt that Kakashi didn't trust him. Though he supposed if their situations were reversed, he probably wouldn't believe Kakashi's son's kage bunshin was possessed by Kakashi either.

No, wait, that was a lie. He probably would believe that. Everyone had always called him naively trusting. Well, he may not have outright believed him, but he would have at least given him a chance to prove it. Could Minato prove he was who he was? There weren't many parts of his life that weren't known to just about everyone, at least nothing Kakashi would know.

Aha! He did have something, though! The safe-houses! All of his most important possessions were in those, and no one would have been able to get into them to clear them out because the only way in was through Minato's Hiraishin, or being a Namikaze by blood, or being Kushina. So the only living person capable of entering those places was Naruto. Who, Minato knew for a fact, had not even come close to their locations.

So, all of his stuff should still be there! Including his keepsakes from back when he'd been Kakashi's old sensei. All he had to do was Hiraishin Kakashi to one of them and show him. You know, if Kakashi ever let one of Naruto's clones near one of Minato's seals ever again. He supposed there was always the possibility Naruto's clones could stumble across one of his seals all on their own.

He didn't like those chances; but there wasn't anything he could do about it, so he reluctantly resigned himself to his indefinitely imprisoned fate.

At least there was a silver lining to all of this, Naruto's teammates had pulled through and managed to show some modicum of teamwork. Kakashi passed them. Which was good for the silver-haired jounin, because Minato would not be held responsible for the ideas he'd have given Kushina on how to properly 'punish' Kakashi for failing their son.

'He did it! He's officially a genin now!' Kushina cheered, bubbling over with pride and happiness. Outside Naruto was cheering too, and Minato cheered with them. He would worry about Kakashi later, for now they celebrated.

They were not at all surprised when their son decided Ichiraku Ramen was the place to celebrate, even going so far as to invite his teammates in his joy. The Uchiha didn't bother to give a reply as he walked away, but the kunoichi at least bothered to give Naruto the excuse that she was on a diet and that ramen was bad for the body before scurrying off. Naruto, and his two unknown companions, tried to not let that dampen their mood as Naruto made his way to his favorite ramen stand alone.

The next day, Naruto was awoken by a knock at his door at some why-does-it-even-exist-o'clock in the morning. Their son stumbled out of bed, bleary up until he realized the odd hour and suspicious action of someone being at his apartment at this hour. He slipped his weapon pouch on before going to answer it. He rarely ever received friendly visitors, and almost never before the sun was up.

Minato and Kushina echoed his unease, and it didn't help much when the blonde opened the door to see his silver-haired jounin instructor. Naruto relaxed though. "Kakashi-sensei?"

"Hn, good morning," the jounin replied, closing his book and tucking it away into a pocket. Minato could feel the anger radiating from his wife at the icha icha cover.

"What time is it...?"

Kakashi shrugged casually, "Early. There's something I wanted to test with one of your bunshin, and now is the best time. Could I borrow one of your clones?"

"Sure," the blonde replied, forming the seal.

Minato did not like where this was going. Kakashi wasn't carrying one of his three pronged Hiraishin kunai on him, but the yondaime was pretty sure this had something to do with what had happened the other day.

About fifteen minutes after Kakashi had left with the bunshin, Minato felt his senses light up with the Hiraishin seal. He didn't need to be a hokage to see it for what it was.

'That boy is planning to trap me.'

'Good thing it's my turn, then, now isn't it?' Kushina replied without skipping a beat.

'I'm not going to send you into a trap!' Minato protested.

He could sense her raised eyebrow in challenge. 'You said you would send me out first next time. Trap or not, I've been stuck in this place for twelve years, if there's a chance for a breather outside, I'll take it.'

'I'm not sending you into a trap,' he repeated stubbornly.

She snorted, 'Think about it, Namikaze. It's a trap for you, or at least someone pretending to be you. They're going to expect the yellow flash, Hiraishin, Rasengan, the whole deal. They won't be expecting me.'

Minato would have scowled if he'd had a face for it but it didn't take much for his wife to pick up on his discontent.

'Husband, if you were trying to catch a spirit, how would you do it?'

That was a good question, actually. 'Probably with a seal tha-'

'Right! With a seal. Fuinjutsu. And who's the fuinjutsu prodigy of the famous Uzumaki fuinjutsu clan?'

'... you are...'

'And what happened to the last poor sap that tried to use fuinjutsu on me?'

'No one really knows because they never found him?'

'Exactly. Give it up, I'm the best woman for the job.'

She made a good argument. That didn't mean he had to like it. 'Alright, just... promise you'll be careful?'

'I'm going to bash some heads in, Minato. Careful will have nothing to do with it.'

'I meant be sure to come back to me,' he muttered as he reached out his chakra to hers. 'Just a warning, you'll have to fight the spirit in Naruto's bunshin, but they're not hard. On top of that, mingling a different physical chakra with your own spiritual chakra is... unsettling. I was almost sick.'

'Can bunshin even be sick?' Kushina wondered briefly. 'Doesn't matter. Can't be any worse than molding chakra while pregnant. I'm ready, let's do this.'

'Alright, be safe,' Minato said, activating the seal and sending his wife off to the unknown.

A/N - As you can imagine, the next chapter is going to be very Kushina-centric. Which means it's gonna be awesome.

A quick note on Hiraishin: After careful reading of the wiki, I've come to the conclusion that it is well within it's abilities for Minato to send others along without going himself. Also, it's so very very over-powered.

To my lovely reviewers: Thanks so much, I'm glad so many of you are enjoying this story. XD I just wish the anon ones would log in so I could give them a review reply. D: I reply to all of my signed reviews, though you probably won't get them until 1-2 in the morning. Yay, swing-shift? Heh.

To my followers/favorite-ers: You guys are awesome too, I like looking at my email during break and seeing my inbox full of alerts. :3 Makes me feel loved.

Anyway, I gotta go get ready for work. Chapter four will be up when chapter six is finished. Whenever that is as my weekend is going to be pretty tied up and that's where all my free time is. :S Sorry.

-Py