Chapter Five: Here, Naruto, Have a Knife

Naruto jolted awake with a start at the sound of his window shattering and the dull thunk of something sharp embedding itself into his bedroom wall. He looked up in bewilderment at the odd three pronged kunai with it's white hilt and strange lettering. Cautiously he crept out of bed and to the window, making sure to grab his weapon pouch from his bedside. Was someone attacking him? It wouldn't be the first time...

He peered outside and stared in fascination at the blue glowing tendrils of... something... thrashing against the dawning sky on the roof across from his. There were shinobi up there fighting, and he wondered if he should help them against that chakra monster thing they were fighting.

He had his leg up on the sill, about to climb out, when the creature suddenly shrieked in outrage before disappearing in a burst of white smoke. Disappointed, he considered the benefits of going out to see what had happened anyway. Though he had been woken up twice that night and his bed was looking mighty tempting...

"Naruto."

"Wah-!" The blonde tumbled backwards off the window when Kakashi appeared out of nowhere in front of him. He looked... haggard. His clothes were messy and torn in some places, he had cuts all over him, and, most noticeably, was the way his left arm hung uselessly at his side. It didn't look obviously injured, but there were strange strings of black markings that wrapped around it like some sort of binding. When he looked closely, the marks seemed to glow faintly with chakra.

Naruto's mind was still processing all of this when his sensei brushed past him, plucked the strange knife from his wall, and left as quickly as he'd come.

The blonde was left staring after the man in consternation. What the hell?

Minato was an anxious wreck as he waited impatiently for any news of what he'd sent his wife off too. It was the longest forty minutes of his life (and afterlife?) after he'd first activated Hiraishin. Seriously, if he'd had a body, Minato would have been pacing. At least it was semi-promising that he could kind of feel Kushina's presence through the Hiraishin seal and sense her coming closer.

When Naruto jerked awake at the commotion of the Hiraishin blade being thrown through his window, Minato cheered. Yes! He had the bestest most brilliant wife in the world! Now grab the knife, Naruto... grab it- What, no! Where was he going? The knife! Or maybe just make a kage bunshin?

Or go look out the window. He supposed he couldn't fault his son for his caution, but still, the kunai was right there! Where was Kushina to explain everything?

Oh. That's where she was. He grimaced at what Naruto saw out the window. That was... a bit more conspicuous than he was hoping to be. Kushina didn't exactly do subtle; not that she had much of a choice with what she was up against. C'mon, Naruto, just a little kage bunshin? Then he could go help-

He was expecting it when he saw the puff of smoke, but it still made him cringe as Kushina suddenly returned shrieking in outrage. 'No, no, NO!'

'I was SO close, Minato!' she hissed. 'I almost had Kakashi trapped, but then Asuma and Inoichi showed up... and then all those ANBU... ARGH!'

'Shhh, it's alright, you did amazing. No one expects you to be able to take on a squad of ANBU and three jounin as a twelve year old kage bunshin,' he soothed. 'Now Naruto just has to- Kakashi? What- NO!'

'DON'T YOU DARE, HATAKE!'

The both of them could only watch helplessly as the silver-haired jounin snatched up the three-pronged kunai Kushina had just fought tooth and nail to get to their son. Then he just left, leaving the two to sulk while their confused son crawled back into bed.

'Please tell me that seal on his arm is going to last at least a week?' Minato muttered, feeling vindictive.

'Ha! That sucker's permanent, It ain't comin' off without a seal master's help. Even then, they better be darn good to crack my seal.'

'Good. Maybe it'll force them to let us out again to remove it.'

'Oh, I didn't even think of that,' Kushina replied, then cackled gleefully. 'I'm gonna make him beg for it!'

Minato chuckled. 'Well, since we have more time to kill, how did you manage to survive so long in that fight?'

'Fuinjutsu,' Kushina replied simply, and Minato would have rolled his eyes if he'd had any. Kushina had a habit of using the sealing arts as a magical cure-all for just about everything. It only made it more irritating that it actually worked for her more often than not.

'Why don't you just start from the beginning and tell me what happened?' Minato suggested. It wasn't like they didn't have hours, or maybe even days (he refused to think it might be years), together to talk about it.

Giving a spiritual version of a shrug, Kushina launched into a telling of her escape from the T&I department.

A/N- Yeeeah... this chapter is a lot shorter than I thought it was going to be. :S Also, I'm gonna go run and hide now before people kill me for this... Aha.. ha...

Man, I wish I had more time write so my chapter weren't so short. XS

Next chapter is longer, also wave arc! I promise! Should be posted sooner too, since the weekend is coming up and I don't have things planned through it. Yay!

Love you all! (Please don't kill me. I can't write more if I'm dead. D:)

-Py

P.S. - Kushina's chakra is normally red, but because she no longer holds the nine-tails, it's turned a normal blue color. She doesn't have the access to the kyuubi's chakra like Naruto does. Kushina misses the blood red chakra because she thinks she's less intimidating without it. Everyone else begs to differ.