Chapter 10: Embarrassment
When Naruto pried his eyes open, he saw.
He saw a span of brown beneath his eyes which focused into sharp edges, then shaped into jagged rocks.
Then, Naruto felt.
He felt those jagged rocks under his cheek, under his chest, under his arms, under his legs, his flesh throbbing where they jabbed.
Suddenly, he was.
He hurt all over. His body, his mind, his heart. It hurt, like he had been crushed, and the impossible weight was still grinding down on his entire being. It overwhelmed him.
Little by little, millimeter by millimeter, he shifted onto his side. It must have taken forever to finally see more than just out of the corner of his eyes. With one final twitch, his body flumped over onto its back, and he moaned as he became the definition of pain. He didn't realize he was crying between closed lids until numbness set in after another long, long forever. The ache made it so hard to think.
Naruto forced his eyes open once more. He could now see, if barely, that he was at the bottom of some deep, dark chasm. The smell of smoke faintly touched his nose but too subtle to be real.
Where was he?
Better yet, who was he?
Right then, he merely existed, a blank person, alive and detached. Regardless of the physical discomforts, his wooly mind was comfortable drifting and leisurely taking in the minimal surroundings. It was…therapeutic. It was all about the senses – the sights, the sounds, the smells, the textures, the tastes. He absorbed his surroundings to fill his identity.
But no mind is ever satisfied by merely absorbing information. It wanted to think and analyze and reorganize. It was curious.
Soon, Naruto's mind bored with the outside and turned inwards, only to find the state of wooliness saturating everything. He barely picked out his name, his origins, how he'd grown up, how he'd ended up in the past – all the basic facts ingrained deep within him. He knew enough to be content with himself, but the human mind always wanted more. It wanted its unasked questions answered.
How did he get here, wherever this was?
That was when he stumbled into fog. The answers just weren't there. He knew they had existed, but it was like a forgotten dream, always just out of reach, taunting him with the knowledge that he had once known and showing him a ghost of a memory before snatching it away again. It was a fight with an invisible jokester – one that no one could ever hope to win against.
But he wanted to know. He fought for every little piece of himself, wrestling them away from those greedy hands. Each faint sliver brought answers but with it, more curiosity. When he'd dug up enough pieces for a simple outline of what happened, a chill went down his spine.
Rain. Hanzou. Blood. Minato.
He lost sight of his identity again. Was he Uzumaki Naruto? What happened to Akashiori? Had he truly lost his sanity? He felt sane… He rolled his eyes. Any insane person would consider himself sane. He would just label himself as 'perfectly sane' for the time being.
That left the question of where he was and why. The questions of how had he come to lie at the bottom of a deep, deep trench and why he was alone ran circles in his lethargic head, but none of the memories he recovered gave him any clue to his current situation, nor did he receive any hints on how to get out. A giggle escaped.
Naruto groaned.
He hated giggling. He never giggled. The fact that he had just giggled meant he wasn't 'perfectly sane.'
He gave up thinking and took the obvious approach by looking up to the grey sky which seemed farther away than he had ever seen it. He took a couple deep breaths and propped himself up onto his elbows, then clenched his trembling stomach muscles to struggle to sit up. With success, Naruto raised his eyes from his knees to look ahead. He moaned softly, shoulders sagging at the dark, jagged path which continued with no end and the crack in the ground to his right which dropped even farther downwards. He didn't know whether to thank the heavens for landing him in the only flat surface amongst the miles of cliffs or to curse them for giving him no way up except to climb that sheer cliff with his bare hands.
A puff to his side made him flinch.
'Naru-chan, so this is where you were,' a soft touch rubbed at a cheek.
'Shiro?'
'You had everyone worried. We couldn't sense you anywhere.'
'Where am I?' He giggled again and cringed.
'You've fallen into the crack in your mindscape,' a hand gently landed on his shoulder. 'Let's get you out of here.' He was scooped up into strong arms and engulfed by a puff of cloud.
When the cloud dissipated, he was placed gingerly onto the ground to sit back into Shiro's larger form which leaned onto thick red fur.
'Kit, I'm angry with you,' a low rumble behind them caused subtle vibrations to run through his exhausted body. 'Look around you.'
His dreary, grey mindscape was half in ashes and shattered while the other half was wilting. The rift in the ground where he had fallen was split even wider, and a half crumbled waterfall had become a weary flow of innocuous memories. There was barely any surface undamaged, except the very beginnings of a pre-sunrise glow and, curiously, the untidy purple lilacs which had spread a just little more.
'Kyuu, did I really do that?' He wailed in despair.
'This is not as terrible as several hours ago, while you were rampaging. At that time, much of this was an inferno of your wish to tear everything but your 'home' apart.'
'It was perfectly justified, dear foxy. They were in the way of 'home.'' Naruto scoffed in a sudden change of mood. He rubbed his nose, itchy from the smoky, dusty air, then let out a mad giggle. 'Why am I okay now?'
Kyuubi swatted him with a tail. 'You are nowhere near 'okay,' but your small victory against Hanzou, as well as Namikaze's presence, were able to calm your fire. You were able to bury much of your memories underground,' he paused, 'but I fear their return.'
'Ohhhh, so I'm still messed up…' Naruto snickered at his own plight as he leaned his head back onto Shiro's chest and nervously fiddled with the man's fingers. The ache within his body had subsided with his close proximity to both demon foxes, leaving only his wooly mind as a distraction from their conversation.
'What'll happen if I go outside?' He asked and sneezed. A fragment of the sky fell just as another piece put itself back in place.
'It is best if you remain here for now. Without our protection, you will lose yourself again when outside factors trigger offensive memories. However, bring back Akashiori; he will be able to handle the outside.'
'He'll be furious, won't he…?' Naruto rubbed his face with his palms as he formed the Hunter-nin's image in his mindscape. Akashiori popped into existence with a piercing look shooting straight at Naruto. He stormed over and slammed a fist onto Naruto's head with almost as much strength as Tsunade-babaa and Sakura's.
'You great idiot! Look what you did to our mind,' he raged and gestured furiously. 'This is going to take ages to fix. I don't know how we're going to close that ridiculous trench. We're going to trip over it every time we visit Kyuubi! It's also going to take forever to regrow the grass. We might have previously had weeds, but do you know how much mental fertilizer went into making it so lush? Of course you do. You're me!'
'You wanted revenge too…' Naruto replied meekly, wringing both his and Shiro's hands.
'Cold revenge! 'Revenge is a dish best served cold.' Have you not heard of that before? Of course you have. You're me!' He threw his hands up into the air.
'But I got us out! You would have just hung on that stupid wall and waited for another round of experimentation while planning and plotting for nothing,' Naruto rebuked.
Akashiori pressed his arms firmly to his sides to keep them from bashing Naruto's head once more.
'You can't deny that, can you,' Naruto stuck out his tongue in smug triumph.
'At least I wouldn't have broken us or gotten us almost killed by Hanzou, idiot! And do you remember what happened with Minato? What a disgrace…'
A vivid image of Hanzou's finger on his neck appeared for an instant before being wiped away hastily by one of Kyuubi's tails. 'Hey! Not fair! I want to see it too!' Naruto waved his arms in an attempt to retrieve the image, almost hitting Shiro in the face.
'You know you are not ready,' the giant fox reprimanded.
'But stupid Akashiori got to see it, and he was the bastard that messed up everything.'
'Naru-chan, be nice,' Shiro interrupted. 'You are equally at fault, so don't put all the blame on Shio-chan. He saved you back there, too.'
Naruto snapped his jaw and growled but looked down in reluctant repentance, knowing Shiro was right.
Akashiori turned his back to them with a sigh. 'I must head out. We first need to fix things outside,' he said, beginning to fade out.
'Aka…!' Naruto called after him with overflowing tears. 'I'm sorry…'
The Hunter-nin waved a careless hand of forgiveness before disappearing altogether.
'Good boy,' Shiro nuzzled Naruto's hair in approval as the blonde giggled insanely in appreciation, thinking maybe the giggling was pretty attracti–
NO. Stop that thought right there.
The second time Naruto woke, this time as Akashiori, he cursed at the ache in his physical body. He tightened his arm around what he was holding and buried his face into it to distract himself from the pain.
"Naruto?"
Akashiori flinched. "Minato." So, that was what/who he was holding on to: Minato's neck.
"How are you feeling?" The ANBU Captain asked, tightening his arms around the Hunter-nin's legs.
The smaller blonde was being carried on Minato's back as he sprinted over branches of a forest. Despite the discomfort he was feeling, his front was warm against the strong back. He pressed his face into the fabric of the ANBU uniform covering Minato's neck.
"I am in pain," he answered simply.
The arms hooked under his legs tightened even more. "Where does it hurt, Naruto?"
"Everywhere, and my brain… I-it's best if you don't use Naruto's name right now,' he informed the man. 'He is not yet ready to come out."
Team 9 shot him bewildered looks from under their masks at the comment, but their leader understood the warning.
"What should we call you?"
"Call me Aka."
He felt Minato nod next to his own head, but his teammate was not so tactful.
"Why–"
The man was cut off by a sharp jerk of his Captain's masked chin. Akashiori held back a sigh of relief at the intervention until Kyuubi spoke up.
'Kit, this may be a good opportunity to test how the ANBU may react to your occupation as a Hunter-nin. You need to prepare for the possibility of exposure.'
Akashiori tensed. 'No! They just accepted me into their ranks. I live with them! What if they turn against me?'
'These are Namikaze's teammates. He is a good judge of character. They must hold some respectable qualities for him to trust them.'
'What if I cause a rift within the team…?'
'That is their problem,' Kyuubi answered callously.
'Kyuubi!'
'Just do it.'
Akashiori sent over a mental blast of irritated wind but complied, seeing the logic while wishing it wasn't so.
"What if I told you it is because of my occupation?" He addressed the man coolly.
Minato tensed. "What are you playing at?" he hissed in a whisper.
"I am conducting a test," Akashiori whispered a nonchalant reply.
All four teammates glanced over with curiosity reflecting in their eyes.
"What do you mean by your occupation?"
"Just as I said. Aka is from my occupation. It is my codename."
"But ANBU have anim–"
"You are Hunter-nin," another man interrupted with a statement rather than a question.
"That's right, ANBU-san," Akashiori smirked. "I am of the Hunter-nin Corps."
"What?" The first man exclaimed. "But you live with us in ANBU Headquarters."
"It was an order from Sandaime-sama."
"You've been lying to us the entire time, Hunter!" The man accused, emphasizing the title as an insult.
"I never lied. I only confirmed I am a part of Black Ops, which is the truth," he said as doubt and disappointment began to fill him.
"But you've been pretending to be ANBU."
"Not at all. I have taken Hunter-nin missions during my stay, and I never initiated contact with ANBU shinobi at Headquarters."
"What about Captain? You've been deceiving him."
"I knew, Tiger," Minato cut in, to Akashiori's surprise. "I knew from the beginning."
Tiger stumbled on a branch before righting himself. "…but Captain, he's Hunter-nin. You know what they're like."
"Pray tell, what are we like, ANBU-san?" He asked in a hard voice.
"You guys are heartless monsters that kill mercilessly," the ANBU-nin spat out disdainfully.
Akashiori flinched unexpectedly after so long of not being called that term. "Oh? We are monsters that kill without mercy, are we? But we are merely carrying out our mission just as how ANBU kill on their missions."
"We aren't monsters like you," Akashiori flinched once more as Tiger continued. "You guys slaughter your mission targets!"
'Kyuubi, you were wrong about them. ANBU will always be ANBU.'
"Hmph, as I expected from ANBU," the Hunter-nin muttered aloud to them, satisfied that he had been proven right but disappointed by the derisive reaction. "Minato, please let me down."
"Aka…" he reluctantly slowed on a branch. The smaller blonde climbed off with difficulty, swaying on his tired legs before straightening his back proudly.
"Minato, what is our current position?" He asked, impassive.
"…around eighty miles west and twenty degrees south of Konoha. Why are you asking? You aren't going to…"
"I apologize for the inconvenience I have caused you and your team," Akashiori said flatly. "I have a final mission to carry out nearby before returning to the village. I will make the remaining trip alone. Thank you for the trouble you have gone through to retrieve me from captivity."
Without another word, the Hunter-nin zipped ahead in a blur and disappeared into the trees.
No one spoke for several moments, watching the direction Akashiori had left.
"Tiger, you are an imbecile," Jaguar growled softly.
"What, it's the truth," Tiger defended. "You saw what he did to those Rain-nin."
"Would you not have done the same to escape? To escape two weeks of torture? You saw his injuries," the normally stoic man raised his voice. "If your enemies were attacking you, would you not have done the same? Especially when consumed by fury against those responsible for your hell?" Jaguar paused for effect. "I would."
Tiger opened his mouth to argue another point but was cut off by his Captain.
"Tiger! Discuss this later," Cheetah commanded firmly. "We need to get him back. He's still injured," He took off without waiting for the rest of his team.
Throwing his teammate a scornful glare, Jaguar followed silently, after which Lion and Leopard exchanged an awkward glance and also ran after them, leaving Tiger with his ANBU self-righteousness in the empty forest.
As Minato blurred past another tree, he cursed his teammate for his narrow-mindedness and cursed Naruto for exposing his affiliation. Then he cursed himself for allowing the argument happen. He didn't know what had prompted the Hunter-nin to give himself away when he had previously expressed his adamant refusal to do so.
'It was a test,' his mind supplied. 'It was a test to see how much danger he would face if he was found out. And he was right about us…'
He knew it was true. They were a bunch of prejudiced hypocrites who jumped to conclusions without looking into just who these Hunter-nin were. They had been at this for decades, and although the Hunter-nin had never once retaliated, the ANBU still kept going. In hindsight, they had been childish, for decades! He was shamed by himself and on behalf his fellow shinobi; they were supposed to be elite ninja of Konohagakure, but they couldn't get over a petty little quarrel that they had started without reason. How stupid.
Minato followed Naruto's trail swiftly, worry increasing as the trail became more and more obvious. With his skills, sloppy meant he was losing control of himself, in this case, because of his injuries. When he saw an obvious mark of the Hunter-nin's foot slipping during a landing on a tree branch, he sped up in hopes of catching up with him before he fell to his death.
Up ahead, he noticed a figure sitting on a branch and sagged against the tree trunk.
"Naruto!"
The smaller blonde's head dropped forward, but he visibly struggled to look up.
"I told you not to call me that. If he comes out, we'll fall apart," he slurred, losing his usual formal manner of speech. "Fuck, my stupid head. I am finally physically healed, but I can't even stand long enough to climb down this tree."
Minato landed on the same branch and squatted down to look into Aka's dilated blue eyes.
"Aka, please, we need to get you back to Konoha. Didn't you want to go home?"
Akashiori snorted weakly. "That was Naruto's insanity. Do not confuse me with him. I'm out here so we can figure out how to put enough of him back together to allow him out. Right now, he's barely functioning properly in mindscape and only because we've repressed our memories."
"That bad?" Minato looked at him in shock. "I'm taking you back now."
Akashiori sighed in defeat. "Very well, let's get going," he made to stand and barely managed, leaning all his weight against the tree. He grit his teeth and jumped but immediately lost his footing, plummeting to the ground. Minato dove right after him without thought, completely focused on catching the Hunter-nin before he smashed into the ground with what he could imagine to be a sickening crunch.
The ANBU Captain caught up halfway down and flipped them over so he was on the bottom. He saw Aka's eyes widen in surprise at the unexpected appearance as Minato applied as much chakra as he could on his back to cushion the blow.
Thud.
Minato groaned at the impact and the Hunter-nin's considerable weight settling heavily on top of him, but even as he struggled to breathe, he didn't let go of the smaller body.
"Minato! I-I'm sorry. I'm so sorry!" Naruto chanted. "I'm sorry. Are you alright? I'm sorry." Minato could see tears forming in his friend's still-dilated eyes.
"I'm fine. Don't worry," he whispered words of reassurance and tightened his arms.
"Minato," Naruto sniffled, "I'm sorry," he said for the last time and pressed his face into Minato's neck.
"I'm fine. I cushioned my back with chakra. Naruto, I'm fine."
Naruto stiffened, then began to tremble. "Minato, d-don't call me that. Some of him has already slipped out, and more is… Hurry, say my Hunter-nin name. Quickly!"
Minato needed no further prompting. "Aka, Aka. You are Aka. Hunter-nin of Konoha. Aka," he loosened his arms, using one hand to remove his mask and the other to lift the other blonde's head off his shoulder to press their foreheads firmly together.
"Aka, look into my eyes. That's right. Don't look away. I'm talking to Aka. I believe you're Aka. Can't you see? Believe me," he combed his fingers through Akashiori's hair.
After minutes of scattered assurances of Akashiori's identity, the trembling subsided slowly. Still, the man on top continued to assess Minato's unwavering gaze for any sign of doubt.
He nodded slowly, accidentally bumping noses before whispering solidly despite his glazed eyes, "I am Aka, Hunter-nin of Konoha…" Akashiori smiled absently and rubbed noses again, intentionally this time. "Thank you," he raised a shaky hand to brush an eartail, but before the hand reached its intended target, his head lolled back down onto the ANBU Captain's shoulder.
"Aka? Hey, Aka?"
Getting no response, Minato realized he had passed out from exhaustion. He looked helplessly to his four teammates watching from the side. 'What do I do now?' he mouthed to them.
Jaguar gave a sigh and a slight smile. "Let's get him home, Captain."
When Naruto woke a third time, again as Akashiori, he palmed his face.
Kami, how shameful!
With no little mortification, he remembered what he had done before falling unconscious. He had nuzzled Minato's neck and rubbed noses.
#$&%!
He rubbed angrily at his nose as if to scrub away the incident.
First the hair tugging, the hug, kissing Minato's hand, and finally rubbing noses. It was all stupid Naruto's fault! Akashiori hadn't been this embarrassed since…he couldn't remember… Whether it was because he, Akashiori, had never before humiliated himself or because of the suppressed memories, he didn't know, but that didn't change the fact that he had done those embarrassing things.
"Nar…Aka?"
The Hunter-nin flushed as the receiving end of those embarrassing things reached out a hand to brush hair away from the smaller blonde's eyes. Was there no end to his embarrassment?
Ugh, he hated that word.
"You're awake," Minato exclaimed with relief coloring his voice. "But you look a bit red," the hand settled on his forehead. "Maybe we should take your temperature."
He flushed an even deeper shade even as he flinched from the touch, but he couldn't help thinking the hand felt so nice and warm…how infuriatingly Uzumaki Naruto-like.
"I'm going to get a nurse," Minato rose but stopped when a hand grabbed his retreating hand.
"I'm fine. Merely…uh…embarrassed to have passed out on you," Akashiori lied, snatching his hand back and blushed a bit more.
Minato turned back around and looked at him uncertainly. "If you're sure," the hand returned to his forehead, then shifted to his cheek and back to his forehead again. "I guess you don't feel feverish."
The smaller blonde sighed happily at the pleasant touch, then snapped his eyes wide open. The mortification returned. If Minato's hand hadn't been in its (pleasant) position, he would have turned on his stomach and smothered his face with his pillow. How was this man doing this…whatever 'this' was?
Speaking of pillow, where was he?
"Minato," he rasped through the dry throat he hadn't noticed in his preoccupation, "Where am I?" The corners of Akashiori's lips twitched downwards when the hand was pulled away.
"You're at the ANBU infirmary in Headquarters," Minato answered as he sat back down in the chair next to the bed. "You've been asleep for two weeks."
"Two weeks?" The Hunter-nin relaxed as his fist was pried away from where it had suddenly clenched the bed sheets and cradled gently in Minato's larger hands. At the same time, he wanted to bang his head on a wall but, instead, continued the conversation. "Has anything happened along the borders during that time?"
Minato frowned at the sudden shift to a serious topic. "Well, there have been an increase in merchants passing over Fire Country borders, and the frequency of skirmishes has decreased slightly."
Akashiori nodded. "Good, good. Is there any news on relations between Grass and Earth Country?"
"No, we haven't heard anything," Minato narrowed his eyes as Akashiori's forehead wrinkled slightly. "Were you responsible for those?"
"I might have been," the Hunter-nin smirked, mood improving drastically. "I can tell you're not pleased with talk about work right now, so we shall discuss something else. What has been happening with you?"
As Minato gladly shared his two weeks, Akashiori let the soothing voice wash over him and calloused fingers, which were now gently kneading his palm, ease his thoughts of the war. This time, he swallowed the shame to just enjoy the sensations. He could feel Naruto in their mindscape relaxing as well and whisper 'home.' Another handful of fallen sky fragments piece themselves together before floating up to fit into the sky which had survived their breakdown. This time, no new fragments fell.
As the conversation lulled, Akashiori squashed his pride and made a request.
"Minato," he began uneasily and averted his eyes, "Would it be possible for you to spend some time with us each day you are off duty until Naruto has recovered to functional capacity? Your presence seems to…have a positive effect."
Minato grinned and ruffled Aka's hair at the request. "Of course. I did promise that I'd fix you…him."
That led Akashiori to consider an intriguing idea. "It may speed the recovery if you spoke with him directly. Otherwise, it will take months if not several years."
"How? Didn't you say he can't come out?"
"I may– it may be possible to pull you into our mindscape."
'Kyuubi, can it be done?'
'Possibly,' the fox answered. 'It may work because of the blood you share.'
Both Akashiori and Naruto winced at the word 'blood.' It brought up malicious images which came too close to reaching the surfaced, and it also reminded them that Minato and they were related.
'Oooo, do I get to pull him in?' Naruto gushed in their mindscape.
'No, I will be the one to take care of that. Until then, reflect upon the possible consequences of control loss,' Akashiori shot him down. 'Kyuubi, prepare to hide.'
"Minato, hold my hand tightly and look into my eyes. I cannot guarantee success."
Staring into Minato's intense eyes, Akashiori reached out his chakra through their connected hands to cocoon the other blonde. He found Minato's own chakra source and invited it towards him, directing it into his mind. The chakra was warm, soothing, and strong like the person himself and made both Akashiori and Naruto sigh and smile.
Minato also smiled as he felt the Hunter-nin's mind relax at his chakra's touch, pleased that he could bring out such a reaction. His chakra followed the beckoning chakra, wild as usual, but met some sort of barrier. It was like soft clay, not really blocking him from sinking into the dense material but making it difficult to find any foothold. Relief filled him as he felt Aka's chakra return to him to guide him through.
Suddenly, he was on the other side. He had a body – his body – which stood in a dilapidated hall. Was his Naruto's current mind? Concern shot through him as he noticed more signs of damage and violence.
'Don't worry Miiiiinato-saaan,' said a cheerful voice behind him. 'This ain't Naruto's head anymore. It's only his past.'
Minato whirled around and saw a much younger version of Naruto wearing a muddy, orange jumpsuit. 'This is Naruto's past?' He asked with growing horror.
'Yup yup, 't was our apartment til half a year ago,' the boy gave a blinding smile which looked terribly out of place under the flickering light. 'We finally saved enough money to buy a bit of land and build our own house! The Hunter-nin missions helped a bunch.'
'H-how long did you live here?' Minato ignored Aka's chakra trying to tug him out of the apartment.
'Hmmm, I don' wanna count so you can do that part. From when we were five,' the smile stayed strong.
'Around twelve years? Did you live alone?'
Little Naruto's smile slipped for an instant before returning even brighter. He pumped his arms enthusiastically and answered, 'Yup, cool right? We got to do whatever we wanted. No bedtime like all the other kids complained about, an' nobody got mad at us for being messy!'
Immediately following the comment, the creaking floorboards were littered with empty cups of instant ramen and pieces of plaster.
'Why is the place so…damaged?' He ignored another tug, stronger than the last.
'Psh, that's not our fault!' Little Naruto defended, crossing his arms over his chest. The smile now looked strained. 'It was the…it was the villagers. They always broke in and broke our stuff. An' even worse, they smashed our ramen!'
'Naruto, stop blabbing!' A deeper voice snapped behind them.
'I'm just tellin' the truth!' Little Naruto retorted.
'That is referred to as 'blabbing.' Did we not agree to tell no one about this?'
'But this is Minato-san! I think it's okay if we tell him. He's on our side,' Little Naruto emphasized the last point by pressing his hand to his chest as if to claim the ANBU-nin's friendship. 'And why are you even here, Aka-baka? This is my space.'
'Ugh, nevermind. Minato, follow me.'
The oldest of the three blondes remained frozen with a dropped jaw and wide eyes still sweeping across his surroundings, shocked at how Konoha could deliberately cause a child to live like this. A firm grasp on his arm broke him out of his trance as it forcefully dragged him away from the boy who had another smile pasted on his face.
'At least I didn't lose or break my own home, stupidhead!' Little Naruto shouted after them.
'Don't listen to him,' Aka huffed. 'I used to be a hopeless idiot.'
'You're still a hopeless idiot!' The childish voice shouted again.
'No I am not,' Aka returned, yanking open the door angrily and pulled them through.
As they stepped through the doorway, Minato entered a space just as depressing, if not more, as the one he had just walked out of, but in a different way. It was destruction of the very foundation of the mind. He recognized signs of the beauty Yamanaka Inokazu had described, but only because he had been told of the true beauty which had once existed in this aftermath of what looked like multiple natural disasters.
Then he saw a quick glance of Naruto sitting with Shiro before he fizzed out of the mindscape.
When he came to, the first thing that entered his vision was a scowling Naruto – no, Aka.
"Well, it worked for a moment," the Hunter-nin mumbled to himself. Pursing his lips, he focused on Minato. "I apologize for failing. I doubt we can try again today, though. It took quite a toll on Naruto. I believe the length of your stay depends on how strong he is, therefore we will have to build up his stamina."
Minato nodded his agreement with a frown he couldn't hide.
"Could you tell me more about your childhood?" He asked apprehensively, wanting to know more about Naruto, as well as his first glimpse of the darkness which resided within his beloved village.
The scowl returned to Akashiori's face. "That blabbing brat," he muttered, annoyed. Then he looked up apologetically. "I-I…well…perhaps someday, but certainly not now. Neither of us is mentally or emotionally strong enough to handle it. Make the request once we have been fixed some more, and once Naruto becomes less of a lunatic," he answered. "Your presence in our mindscape, no matter how short, helped quite a bit. In just ten seconds, you probably fixed around one percent."
Smiling gratefully, Akashiori raised his arms above his head to stretch his spine, but his expression dropped at his next question.
"Do you know when I am to be discharged?"
When Minato shook his head, the Hunter-nin shot the opposite wall a glare which could burn and grumbled unintelligibly.
It was a week later that Akashiori was finally discharged. Sandaime-Jijii had originally wanted to keep him in the infirmary for another week until he discovered the rebellious blonde had been secretly training in his private room. Sarutobi had already received complaints from medic-nin about death threats, damaged equipment, and escape attempts, and finally he decided it just wasn't worth the effort.
Akashiori grinned triumphantly as he sauntered out of the room to Minato who was waiting outside with a bemused smile.
Glancing dubiously at the irritated Hokage taking a deep drag from his pipe, Minato leaned down to whisper, "You look very proud of yourself. I heard you've been a terror whenever I wasn't here."
"Of course, it's always satisfying to annoy Sandaime-Jijii."
"You still call him so informally even when you're Aka?"
Akashiori grimaced. "It's been too deeply ingrained for me to overwrite."
Minato slung an arm over Aka's shoulders, noting the slight flinch he still suffered at unexpected touch.
"Someday, you're going to push him too far, and he's going to hand you an outrageous punishment," he chuckled.
"He already has, multiple times," Aka answered wryly. "Once he made Naruto scrub the entire Hokage Mountain."
Minato laughed aloud and ruffled Aka's hair, wishing he had seen it happen. He wondered again, as he had many times over the months he had known Uzuhara Naruto, when such an event had occurred and why no one knew about it. He'd noticed that many of Naruto's past didn't seem to fit what he knew of Konoha's past, such as the deaths of many shinobi. There hadn't been any great losses of ninja over the last several years since the Second Shinobi World War ended, but Naruto's grief was genuine.
Seeing Aka with a rare, carefree grin, he brushed the thought aside for now.
A month later, Akashiori and Naruto were proud to say they were twenty percent healed. A fifth of the way there. And most of it was thanks to Minato who spent much of his free time with them, whether it was by studying new jutsu together, training, taking meals, or just talking lazily in the ANBU Captain's room.
Naruto had never been this comfortable with anyone before – not even Sasuke. There was a deep stab of guilt whenever he thought of the Past and how he was becoming increasingly accustomed to this Konoha. It felt like he was throwing away his precious people and dreams for a cheap, meager replacement. Aside from Minato, Sandaime-Jijii, and his pledge, there was nothing he could or wanted to claim, and even Minato and the Sandaime were on shaky grounds.
He knew he was just going to hurt in the end.
But he couldn't get out of interacting with them either. His sanity and Konoha's peace were dependent on him, and therefore he couldn't let his own problems get in the way. There was also a part of him that desperately wanted to get close to them. The dilemma often dredged up the urge to cry, and he only let himself do so in the Forest of Death after Minato had gone to sleep.
As another month passed, his recovery slowed. They gave up on the ridiculous trench for now and moved into the stage of fixing details which both Akashiori and Naruto were terrified to venture into. The only reason they could walk around town without breaking down was because their memories had been suppressed. Each time a memory returned to the surface, they braced themselves for the possibility of triggering further insanity.
To his further annoyance, his work as Haikage was progressing slowly as well. The Sandaime wouldn't let him out of the village 'for his health' so he could only work through his informants. He was impatient, dammit! He had just received news of money moving suspiciously in Kusa, and he wanted to investigate so badly, but the old man threatened to keep him off active duty for another half year if he didn't behave. He was tempted to send shadow clones, but if he was found out…
Both Akashiori and Naruto in mindscape shuddered at the possible consequences; like he told Minato on his evaluation mission, the Sandaime could be a very sadistic man. The Hunter-nin was stuck with honing his skills and only plotting Stone's demise until Sandaime-Jijii gave him the green light.
So today, they ate ramen leisurely like shinobi during peacetime.
"I plan to shave his precious beard if the old fart doesn't put me on active duty within one week," Akashiori growled between slurps. "I'm sick of training. I've trained so much these past two months, I'm probably as good as all three Sannin put together."
Tsunade-babaa would kill him if she heard him say that.
"I know for a fact that he takes twenty minutes to groom that ugly thing every morning," he smirked.
Minato could see his prankster side emerging and shrunk back.
"And you're going to help me with it."
"Oh, no no no no. You're not including me in that," Minato felt his heart sink at the innocent smile on Aka's face. If that smile turned even more innocent, he was going to request a long-term mission – screw his pride.
"Think of it as part of Naruto's rehab. He's much more of a prankster than I am. If it were up to him, he would dye all of Sandaime-Jijii's hair, and I mean ALL, in permanent pink."
Minato began to inch away, hoping Aka wouldn't notice he had Hiraishin-ed out of the stand until he was long gone.
No, too late, he groaned as a hand clamped down on his wrist.
"You're not scar–"
The older blonde looked over curiously as Aka suddenly cut off. He was staring at two jounin sitting several seats away. Minato jumped when the Hunter-nin tossed down coins without counting and dragged them out of the stand.
"Hey, Aka? What's wrong?"
"Minato, Hiraishin us to the Hokage's office," the Hunter-nin commanded full of authority. "I know you have a kunai in there."
"What–"
"Do it now!"
In a flash of yellow they disappeared and appeared in front of the Hokage's desk.
Before anyone could react, Akashiori barked at the leader of Konoha, "Hokage-sama! I just heard you dispatched Hatake Sakumo on a mission yesterday. Where did he go?"
Sarutobi's eyes flickered over to Minato. "Aka-kun, I cannot disclo–"
"Tell me!" The Hunter-nin raised his arm to touch his Fire tattoo.
Sarutobi's eyes widened as he understood the message
"The mission sent his team to Sand."
"I need to go after him. It slipped my mind to include the incident in my report," Akashiori tore at his hair in frustration. He glanced discreetly at Minato and switched to Hunter-nin code. "Boxes fill with venomous frogs. The apple withers as it jumps on ship. Scrolls dye green with the falling spring."
Sarutobi's pipe fell from his hand. "Thirty-two hours out, direct path."
Akashiori nodded. "I'll be taking Minato with me."
Turning to the baffled ANBU Captain, Akashiori demanded, "Take us to the West Gate. Hiraishin."
Seeing the urgency, Minato grabbed Aka by the waist and flashed to the gate. They barely touched down before Aka was running. Minato followed at once, perplexed by the mystery that was Uzuhara Naruto.
Several miles away from the village, Akashiori stopped them and ordered him to change into his ANBU uniform. He himself changed into the Hunter-nin gear sealed within his pack. Minato barely had the time to blush at Aka's lack of care for modesty while hastily shrugging on the clothes before they were running again.
"How many times can you safely shunshin each hour?"
"Three," Minato answered.
"Then we will be taking advantage of that. We have to catch up before they reach Sand."
Akashiori said nothing more except to command him for shunshin each hour, putting forth all of his energy in traveling his fastest. Several hours ago, he had affixed a blood-red mask on his face which he had prepared two months prior after his test on Team 9 and gestured Minato to do the same. They were on a mission, and he was going to put himself in complete mission-mode.
Minato was shocked at Aka's speed. No, shocked was an understatement. He was astounded. The Hunter-nin was traveling faster than he himself did and still kept going after twelve hours. That had given him twelve hours to study the other man who had covered his hair with a red cloth. The way he moved was strangely similar to Akahiori's movements – slightly animalistic and wild and efficient. Yet, Aka's movements were much stiffer and lacked the fluidity which Akashiori exhibited in abundance, making it seem like this Hunter-nin was suppressing himself. But otherwise, Aka and Akashiori carried the same basic style, and Minato couldn't help but overlap the two. Were Aka and Akashiori related in some way? Maybe the Hunter-nin Corps trained their shinobi in this style. But he had no evidence to back up the theory; they were the only two Hunter-nin he had ever met. This made him realize how little the ANBU actually knew about their rival organization.
Two days after leaving Konoha, Aka informed him they were an estimated nine hours away, which meant they were going to make the four day trip in less than three days. Minato had never heard of such a feat, or it was most likely that no one had even thought to attempt such an implausible challenge. He was surprised he had been able to keep up.
During their last break, he had asked the Hunter-nin how he was handling the strain and received four words in return: Two months of training. When he had asked about their self-assigned mission Aka explained the situation just as curtly.
"Hatake Sakumo's team is on a critical mission to Sand. He will be ambushed several miles outside the village. We must help him complete the mission."
That was it.
Minato shook his head, frustrated at the lack of information and thrown off balance by Aka's drastic transformation in attitude and behavior. He had wondered previously what Naruto was like on missions, but this was not what he expected. At all.
When the duo finally reached the team, Aka oddly didn't approach them and instead followed close, dodging behind sand dunes, while masking his chakra signature. The blood-masked face looked over at him, looked to the team, then looked back at him. Minato could tell he was frowning from his body posture.
"We must identify our enemies before showing ourselves," Aka elaborated. "I will be hiding both of our signatures. Travel close."
Minato was miffed at the subtle insult to his chakra control, which was excellent, thank you very much!
"Do not take offense. Our enemy is of high caliber," the Hunter-nin added apologetically. It appeared he had loosened up since they caught up to Team Sakumo.
Half a day later, only three miles from Sunagakure, Akashiori sensed chakra approaching the team from under the sand. Who was their attacker? In the Past, Sakumo and his team had escaped before finding out, but this time, Ahashiori was determined to flush them out.
Sakumo seemed to have sensed the hostile presence as well and had halted his team on alert. Then a strangled yelp came from one of the teammates who was yanked into the sand, disappearing completely out of sight. Aka swore.
"I'm going to get him. Watch over them and take out any enemy shinobi you cross. But do not show yourself to the team or the attackers. We cannot give them a chance to increase their forces to accommodate for us," he said before sinking underground.
The enemy finally showed themselves as Suna ANBU – possibly twenty, maybe more – attacking from all sides. Hidden from sight, Minato took out several who were unfortunate enough to pass him, but Sakumo's team was suffering under the barrage of attacks. No matter how good Team Sakumo was, there were too many elite Sand-nin for five shinobi.
Soon, the desert was littered with Suna shinobi, but all five teammates were staggering from grave injuries. The fifth member of the team had reappeared earlier from underground, a little confused at how he had escaped the sand but joined the fight immediately, yet the addition helped little, as more enemy shinobi joined the mess. When one dropped, another two took their place, overwhelming the Konoha-nin.
Minato had seen nothing of Aka, but he guessed the Hunter-nin was taking care of the enemies underground since there were no further attacks from beneath.
Without warning, Aka resurfaced to Sakumo's left and killed two Suna-nin who had been about to attack his blind spot.
Sakumo whipped around in surprise at the stranger who had saved him.
"Hatake, stay focused on your enemies," Aka growled as he gutted the attacker Sakumo had turned his back on. "I am your backup." Then turning to a dune to his far left, he called out, "Cheetah, join us now!"
With barely any warning, three Suna ANBU fell and a Konoha ANBU took their place, who added two more corpses right after he touched down.
"I know who our enemies are," Aka said to the man fighting behind him. "You killed her son and daughter-in-law many years ago."
"Who–?" Sakumo panted from exhaustion after killing another four.
"Think puppets."
"…puppeteer Chiyo of Sand…"
"These shinobi are controlled by her," the Hunter-nin explained as he decapitated a kunoichi. "She has prepared well for your arrival."
He was getting pissed off. The fallen puppets were reviving and now throwing themselves at the team.
"Fuuton: Kazekiri no Jutsu (Wind Cutter)!"
"Raiton: Kuropansa (Black Panther)!"
Both Akashiori and Sakumo shouted their attacks at the same time. A blade of wind from Akashiori and a large black panther of lightening from Sakumo razed through the enemy forces.
"That's amazing… You will have to teach me that when we return to Konoha," Akashiori remarked in dumbfounded awe. He heard a pained grunt from behind which he took as a yes.
After Minato and Akashiori joined the fight, the tide turned in their favor. As the best of Konoha were gathered here and fighting back to back, the time traveler remembered his battles with comrades from what seemed like a lifetime ago. He expected someone – Chouji, Temari, Lee, Kiba, anyone – to show up at any second and toss him a quick grin before moving on to their next opponent. Where are they, and why haven't they shown up yet?
He could feel his mindscape trembling and knew he needed to finish this quickly or else both he and Naruto would mentally regress. His hands had started twitching five minutes ago, and his moves were getting increasingly chaotic. Akashiori and Naruto whimpered together when several shards of his mindscape sky fell loose in reaction to a head exploding in front of him, splattering his face with fleshy chunks. Oh god, he was going to lose control.
From behind, Sakumo sensed something wrong with his impromptu partner. Taking a glance, he was alarmed to see jerky movements and red chakra seeping out from the red-masked ally who had previously fought fluidly and steadily. He was about to address him when the Hunter-nin abruptly stopped and shouted in obvious agitation.
"Chiyo! Are you singlehandedly trying to initiate war between Sand and Leaf?"
The puppets around them faltered but picked right back up, fighting more ferociously than before. Akashiori wanted so badly to kill her off. Kill her. No, don't kill her. Kill her. No, don't kill her.
No, he couldn't kill her. He needed her for the antidote she developed to Hanzou's salamanders, and he couldn't risk losing track of Sasori.
"Hatake, Cheetah, cover me. I need to find her," he commanded before closing his eyes and opening his mind and chakra to search the surrounding dessert. At first, there were too many distractions from both his own diminishing control and the mass of puppets, but slowly, he picked out the chakra threads connecting each body and followed them back to a dune a hundred feet to his right.
He snapped his eyes open and took off in a blur, carving through ANBU puppets along the way. In seconds, he had engaged the woman in a taijutsu battle. His sanity splintered a bit more when he saw her face, over two decades younger, but at the same time wondered how his taijutsu skills would fare against hers now that she was healthier and he much better trained than two years prior. Last time, he stood no chance, but now both were improved by movement of time.
Akashiori grinned impishly at his upper hand as he landed another blow, but his mind was in danger of crumbling. He leapt back a distance away and cursed the sand making physical fuuinjutsu almost impossible. He whipped out a blank tag and a brush, drew a seal with his chakra as ink and threw it into her stomach with speed too fast to dodge. It hit the central tenketsu point of her chakra coils and activated with a sharp jerk, wrapping the puppeteer in invisible symbols lined by his chakra and powered by her own.
Yes! It was risky – seventy-five percent chance of failing– but it was the only way he knew to stop a seal expert who could negate any confinement seals with their own seals.
"Chiyo, call them off. You've lost."
"Not until Hatake dies," she snarled.
"And what if you die?" A kunai pressed against her neck. "What will happen to Sasori if you die?"
"He will thank me."
"But you are why his heart has not yet frozen. Stop the attack and return to his side. Killing Hatake will only teach your grandson that murder is the solution to any problem."
Tears filled her eyes and flowed down her cheeks. "The scum ruined our lives. He deserves to die."
"Then what of his son? His son will grow cold as well, and just as you saw with Sasori, no child should lose their beloved parents."
The puppets faltered, launched again, and then crumbled. Silence blanketed the sand.
Sakumo staggered over to them, trailing blood, and fell to his knees, kneeling with his hands and forehead pressed to the sand.
"Chiyo-sama," he gasped out with strength and sincerity behind his voice. "I offer my deepest apologies and beg your forgiveness. I have regretted their deaths every day since I saw your grandson's eyes. I cannot apologize for completing my mission, but I beg your forgiveness for the pain I have caused you and the boy." He didn't move from his position even as blood pooled under him.
The hatred didn't die, but it dulled as she slumped in her restraints. "Stand up, boy. Come here and let me see your face."
Clutching his bleeding chest, he hauled himself over. Chiyo swept her eyes over his wounds and up to his eyes which were bright with unshed tears as well. She hung her head in defeat but made one more request.
"My actions so far were for my grandson, but allow me one hit for myself."
With only slight hesitation, Sakumo nodded his acceptance and closed his eyes, hoping he would live to see his son again but knowing this was the right thing to do. He sensed something approaching from behind but remained unmoving, ready to receive the physical manifestation of her hatred.
But the blow never came.
He carefully opened his eyes when he heard sobbing from the woman and saw a shadow cast from behind him. Turning around he saw a blade – his own sabre – millimeters from his neck. Whirling back around, he engulfed the Chiyo in a tight hug, crying silently with her, repeating apologies and his gratitude over and over and over.
Akashiori watched the scene silently with a small smile, but as an image of a droopy-eyed Kakashi-sensei appeared in his mind, he screamed and collapsed, burying his head under his arms to suppress the memories bubbling up from the new cracks in his mindscape.
Both Sakumo and Chiyo, whose containment seal had snapped as soon as Akashiori fell, rushed over in a panic. Sakumo raised the whimpering man to a sitting position, trying to see what was wrong, but neither he nor Chiyo could find anything other than superficial injuries.
"Hunter-san, Hunter-san!" Sakumo shook his shoulders gently.
Suddenly, the older man was thrown violently aside, and Akashiori was pulled into a warm embrace.
"Aka," Minato murmured softly into the Hunter-nin's ear as he maneuvered the smaller blonde into his lap, removing both their masks. "Aka, listen to me. Your name is Aka, and I'm Minato. Listen to my voice. Come back to me."
At the familiar voice, Akashiori's trembling and keening lessened. He sagged into the strong support and buried his face into Minato's neck.
"Aka, who are you?"
"I-I'm…Aka."
"Who am I?"
"Mi…M-Mi-na-to."
"Where are you now?"
Akashiori's shuddered, but the arms around him held tighter, lending him strength.
"Suna…" he said with more confidence.
"Yes, we are both at Suna, so come back to me."
Slowly, very slowly, the Hunter-nin calmed, and many minutes later, he shakily raised his face to look at Minato's.
"Thank you," he breathed.
He looked around to regain his bearings and froze at the shocked expressions from Chiyo, Sakumo, and his teammates. Akashiori blushed and dropped his face back onto Minato's shoulder with a frustrated groan.
"There is no end to my embarrassment, is there, Oinari-sama?"
Kami, he hated that word.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone