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Minato sighed as he slowly made his way through the mountain of paperwork on his desk in the Hokage’s office. Another late night, another few hours away from Kushina. Minato groaned. Why did the Chunin Exams come with so much paperwork? He swore he signed the document he was currently working on three times already. Honestly, he couldn’t remember why he ever wanted to be the Hokage. Maybe he should just give his wife the hat. She was always teasing him about how she would make a better Hokage anyway.
He latched onto the image of her face as he returned his focus to the piece of paper before him. Just a little more for tonight, and then he could be with his lovely wife again. The thought gave him the energy to power through another dozen pages before he slowed down again.
A yawn escaped him. Maybe just a few more pages, then he’d be done for today. Yeah, that sounded good.
The blonde laid his head in his hand as he tried to focus enough on whatever he was supposed to be signing to avoid blankly rereading the same paragraph for the fourth time.
It was only the years of experience fighting in the war that allowed Minato to avoid the kunai whistling through the air where his head was a moment ago. His previously drifting attention returned, razor-sharp, as his Anbu guard materialized around him. A figure in what appeared to be a heavily modified Anbu outfit appeared in the window, kunai in hand. From what Minato could see of the figure, he would guess the perpetrator was a male. An Anbu-style wolf mask covered his face, and a single red cloud adorned his chestplate.
Minato narrowed his eyes. If the man thought that he had a chance of taking on the Hokage and his guard at the same time, he was either incredibly skilled or incredibly stupid. Given the fact that Minato had a hard time sensing his chakra even now, when he stood right before him, he was inclined to believe the former.
Minato adjusted his stance, drew one of his kunai into his hand, and braced himself for a fight.
Kushina was lazing on the couch, watching mindless television and bored out of her mind as she waited for Minato to return. Too late to go out, too early to go to bed, and nothing to do. She really just wanted to pounce on her husband, but alas, the idiot was nowhere to be found. She wondered if Mikoto had to wait for Fugaku to return late from the police force every night. Probably not. After all, only Minato had to deal with preparation for the exams.
She growled at the TV, frustrated that the kunoichi once again missed the fact that her partner was head over heels for her. It was cheesy, and sappy, but at least it was something to hold her attention. With a sigh, she pulled her knees up to her chest and pulled the blankets further up to just below her eyes. She idly flipped through the channels again. Still nothing better on. “At least Mikoto has Itachi to keep her company,” she grumbled.
A cheery voice from beside her answered. “Tobi can keep you company!”
Kushina’s eyes widened as she whirled. “Wha-?”
She saw an orange mask, felt a hand on her shoulder, and the whole world spun .
“Hokage-sama! Hokage-sama! It’s Kushina-san, she’s...” Anbu Mouse landed on the window sill of the Hokage’s office, already speaking with barely controlled panic before her brain caught up with what her eyes were seeing. Her eyes widened behind her mask
The Hokage’s office was a mess. Scattered paper covered the floor, the desk was cracked in two, ripped paintings laid against the walls, the bookshelf had fallen to the floor, and a half dozen unresponsive( please only be unconscious oh please ) Anbu agents were sprawled across the room in various states of injury. The Hokage himself was locked in vicious combat with an apparently rogue Anbu member- no, Mouse realized, noticing the differences in armor. An unknown .
The Hokage spared her brief glance out of the corner of his eyes before a wind jutsu forced him back to the battle at hand. A deep grimace marred his features. “What, Mouse? What happened to Kushina?”
Mouse blanched for a moment, trying to process the fact that the Hokage was under attack and somehow nobody outside the room noticed. Now that she thought about it, she couldn’t feel any chakra at all from the room until she crossed the threshold into it, although she could now feel the massive spikes the two were giving off frighteningly clearly. Some sort of chakra suppressing seal, perhaps?
“MOUSE!” She was snapped out of her thoughts just in time to avoid a stray fire jutsu, which added another scorch mark to the ever-growing collection the room now sported. What was the question again? Oh, Kushina, right. “Hokage-sama, Kushina-san disappeared from her residence about 5 minutes ago. Her chakra signature just... vanished.”
The Hokage looked fearful for the briefest of moments, before a snarl appeared on his face. It was the angriest Mouse had ever seen him- scratch that, the only time she had ever seen him truly angry, and it was terrifying . The next time the Hokage locked blades with the unknown assailant, he kicked away with a roar and vanished.
The Anbu impersonator was completely still for all of a second, seemingly confused before groaning in an overly dramatic way. “You have got to be kidding me ,” the man complained, and yup, he was definitely male , “that still works ? She’s in a friggin alternate dimension, how? ” With his voice muffled by the cloth and porcelain of his mask, the man sounded oddly whiny and childish. He turned to Mouse, who startled with the realization of oh, I’m supposed to be fighting him .
She lunged forward, katana drawn, covering her approach with a genjutsu of her throwing a handful of shuriken. The man shouldn’t see the real her until it was far too late. Just another second and her blade would pierce right through him. Just a moment more, and-
He knocked her away with an almost lazy kick, ignoring the phantom shuriken racing through his throat, all the while still muttering to himself about stupid Kages and their overpowered jutsus. Mouse felt the breath get knocked out of her as she slammed into the wall. A shuddering gasp escaped her, and as she tried to gather herself enough to draw another breath, she realized with some detachment that this is where she was going to die. Fighting in the heart of her village, surrounded by felled comrades, against a man who could challenge her Kage and in a room where no emergency chakra signal would escape.
She shoved down the panic that fought to build as she pulled herself up against the wall. No major injuries. If she could just make it to the window, she could signal for backup. She still had a chance. She just needed to get to the window. The window directly opposite a Kage-level shinobi. Yeah, no problem.
Just as she braced herself to make a dash past her opponent however, he gave her what even through his mask she could just tell was a commiserating look, and… disappeared? It was like someone had pulled a drain plug in reality, the figure just spinning away until he was just… gone. No trace of him left but the carnage he had reaped. She stayed perfectly still for a moment, not daring to believe her good fortune. When it sank in that the man really was gone, that this wasn't just some sort of trick, she didn't know what to think. Mouse slowly let out one shuddering, hysterical laugh, before she jumped to the window, pulsed an emergency signal, and made her way back to begin administering first aid to the Anbu lying around the room. Thankfully, she could now tell, they were all still breathing. As she began bandaging Cat, who had the greatest obvious wound, she heard a little sarcastic voice in the back of her head. Accept the Hokage’s offer, Kurenai. Join Anbu, Kurenai. It’s an honor, Kurenai.
She huffed a small laugh as she felt herself go into shock. Yeah, right. You next, Asuma.
When Minato left the office( And oops, he just left Mouse alone with an S-ranked shinobi, didn’t he? He’ll make sure she gets a bonus if she’s still alive, ) to teleport to Kushina’s marker, he thought he was ready for anything. Another S-ranked shinobi? An army? A traitor? He was ready. Even being in the middle of Iwa, he would be prepared for, even though he didn’t see how it would be possible. But this? The middle of nowhere, with weird cubes making up the ground in what appeared to be an endless void? He was a little shocked, and understandably so, he thought.
Still, when he saw Kushina chained down to one of the cubes, shirt pulled up, with two figures dressed similarly to his recent opponent leaning over her, his mind immediately leapt to action. He had the element of surprise. He would make a plan, think logically. He was standing above Kushina’s hitai-ate, where the seal was actually placed, since no seals could be placed on Kushina herself due to the risk of them interfering with the Kyuubi. It apparently has been tossed a little ways away. Now, how to best take out the two shinobi...
“Let me go, you psychos! Hey, what are you- HEY! STOP!”
Kushina’s fearful cry drew Minato’s thoughts to a halt. Forget planning. Kill.
“Don’t worry, Kushina-san! Iso here is the very best medic in all the Elemental Nations! She’ll make sure tha- OOPH!”
Minato slammed into the orange-masked one first. A flying kick sent the man soaring away from his wife, which allowed Minato to turn his focus to the turtle-masked medic. The kunoichi had taken a half-step back and held her hands up in a defensive stance. Clearly she wasn’t as confident in her combat abilities as the wolf-masked one. The orange-masked one’s abilities were still to be determined.
“The orange one has some sort of teleporting or warping power! He brought us here!” Kushina was still struggling against her chains.
Minato took a quick glance to where his wife was bound, and felt the blood drain out of his face at the sight of her exposed seal and the inkwell next to her. The fear was quickly replaced once again by anger though. He turned and leveled his killing intent towards the medic. He could see her swallow, and she took a careful step back, but her stance never wavered.
He made it exactly one step towards her before he was sent flying by a kick in much the same manner that the apparent-warper was, he turned mid-air to see the wolf-masked one glaring in his direction. That was offset, however, by the supporting hand he laid on the medic’s shoulder. Iso, the orange one called her. It was a weird effect. Minato registered all of this before landing perfectly on his feet. A little further away he could see the orange one getting back up.
Iso laughed when the wolf-masked asked if she was alright. She brushed his hand off playfully. “Really, Raiju, he didn’t even touch me. I’m fine. And you two say I worry.”
The newly-named Raiju threw his head back and sighed, but Minato thought he could hear a smile in the noise. He drew several of his kunai warily. This Raiju had matched him in single combat. Granted, it was in an enclosed space, which wasn’t his specialty, but still. Raiju wasn’t an opponent he wanted to face when his opponent had backup.
“Hold on Kushina, I’m coming to get you!” he called.
“Be careful!” she shouted back. If it wasn’t for the situation, Minato would be touched that even in her situation Kushina was still thinking of him first. Given the situation though, he had more important things to worry about. Kushina was still thrashing against her restraints, but they didn’t seem any closer to breaking than they had been when he first arrived, a whole… thirteen seconds ago. Sometimes even he forgot how fast he was.
The orange one had made his back to his feet, and was now facing Minato in an offensive stance. His voice was a little raspier through the pain, less childlike than before. “Oh yeah? How are you going to do that?”
Minato was surprised to hear that it sounded even a little sardonic.
The man took a deep breath, and stood a little straighter. His stance was still just as deadly. “Tobi thinks that you will have trouble against the both of us, and no one can access this place to help you.” The childlike speech was back. “Speaking of that…” He turned glare at Raiju. “Bakashi! Why is he even here? You were supposed to distract him!”
Raiju glared right back at his ally. “ Codenames, Tengu. And it’s not my fault that you brought the jinchuriki’s Raijin marker here with you! What were you thinking?”
All of the annoyance flew out of… Tobi? Tengu? Orange? Screw it , Minato thought, Tengu sounds the coolest . Minato didn’t want to believe that he could be challenged by someone named Tobi , or worse, Bakashi . Tengu dropped his stance to flail his arms wildly. “ Whaa-? How was Tengu supposed to know that she had one on her?”
Raiju’s glare intensified. “ Because I told you before the mission! Honestly, why do we put up with you?”
Tobi singsonged in reply. “Because you and Iso loooovvvve meee - Iso!”
Without hesitation the medic ducked from where she was about to start working on Kushina’s seal. Minato cursed as he flew over her. There went his opening. He needed to incapacitate this Iso first. He couldn’t let whatever modification the three wanted to make occur, and it seemed as though Iso was the only one who could make it.
Tengu leapt forward so that he and Raiju were now both standing guard between Minato and the two kunoichi. Still, Minato was glad that the two were too busy arguing to press their advantage when they had him surrounded. What a strange dynamic their little team seemed to have.
He heard Kushina’s growling suddenly stop, before soft giggles took its place. Soon full, howling laughter was being torn from her, and as much as Minato thought that his wife’s laugh was beautiful, he was horrified to see the cause.
“MINATOHOHO! H-HAHA-HURRY!” Kushina shouted between laughs, as Iso’s inkbrush deftly slid its way across Kushina’s bare stomach, tracing seals and runes that lit up and shifted as they joined the larger matrix of the Kyuubi’s seal.
Minato launched himself forward with a grimace, kunai poised to tear out the throat of anyone who tried to stop him. It looked like his victim would be Tengu, who jumped in front of him with an arm outstretched to try to catch Minato’s wrist. Minato could see that the angle was all wrong, though. Clearly the man wasn’t as skilled as his partner. Perhaps he was only brought on for his warping ability? No use wondering now, as he was soon to be dead. Minato shifted his weight as he slashed to tear through Tengu’s windpipe so that he would be ready to once again race towards Kushina. Only, however, to be horribly unbalanced when instead of the impact he was expecting, he flew right through the man, directly into Raiju’s waiting kick. Minato landed on his back hard a ways away. He shot back up with a grunt, compartmentalizing the pain from what he knew to be a bruised rib.
Kushina’s laughter trail off. “The seal is done,” Iso stated, setting the inkbrush down and unfurling a huge scroll next to the two of them. “Beginning extraction. Kushina-san, I’m sorry, but this will hurt. Breathe with me. One, two, three...”
Minato agonized at the scream he heard torn from Kushina’s throat. Of course they were extracting the Kyuubi, why wouldn’t they be? He had to end this immediately . With a few throws, he scattered his marked kunai around the area, something he didn’t have room for in his office. As he warped between them, trying to get around far enough to reach Kushina’s side, Raiju continued to harass him. Quickly shunshining to whichever kunai Minato warped to, screaming lightning wreathing his hand. That’s a new one , Minato thought bitterly as he barely avoided being skewered by the jutsu. Raiju stayed carefully away from any kunai that Minato wasn’t currently at, which nullified any chance of Minato getting the drop on him from close range.
Before, he mentioned to Tengu that he had told him what Kushina’s marker was , Minato thought. Clearly he knows of the Flying Raijin and thought about how to counter it . It was quickly becoming apparent that Tengu was in on the plan, too, as he kept grabbing the kunai closest to Kushina and Iso and throwing them back in an ever growing pile of them. When Tobi took a quick break to douse them with a water jutsu, Minato knew they were off limits. A quick tap anywhere near the pile with Raiju’s lightning and it would be the end.
Minato’s first thought to get closer to Kushina was to teleport to whichever kunai Tengu was holding and then throw another one, but every time he tried it Tengu would use that trick of his to become invulnerable as a fire jutsu from Raiju crashed into the spot where they were, forcing Minato to retreat to a different kunai before he was burnt to a crisp.
Minato could hear Iso talking to Kushina, though her mumbles were nearly impossible to hear over Kushina’s shrieks of pain. He had already decided he hated Iso more than the other two, despised her for being the one to put Kushina through this pain. When he looked over to see red chakra from Kushina fly into the truly dizzying sealing array on the scroll, he realized he needed to pay more attention to what was actually being done to his wife so that he would have the chance to reverse it. Even still, it sounded like Iso was trying to... help Kushina?
“I’m so sorry, Kushina-san, I know it hurts, but this was the only way to extract the Kyuubi without killing you. Now come on, don’t focus on the pain. Think about sitting at home with Minato-kun, watching a movie, now breathe…”
It didn’t matter. It didn’t remotely matter, since Iso was the reason that Kushina was in so much pain in the first place. The extraction looked like it was nearly complete. Minato was running out of time and kunai. He only had three left in his pouch, and the number that remained scattered around was quickly dropping. He had one last chance, one last bid, just, how to get past Tengu and Raiju…?
Minato’s eyes widened as the idea hit him. That would work .
He threw a kunai directly at Iso, waited a split second, and threw another. He had to time this perfectly. He warped to the first one he threw right as Tengu intercepted it. Tengu growled as he realized what he had done. If he went invulnerable for the fireball trick, then the second kunai would go right through him. If he caught the second, then Minato would have time to throw his third all the way to Iso.
Raiju had apparently realized as well, as no fireball came. Minato threw his last kunai as Tengu caught his second, and Minato prepared to teleport as his kunai soared through the air at the perfect angle…
...Only to be deflected off to the side by Iso’s hastily thrown shuriken. Minato teleported anyway, as it still landed closer than he was at Tengu’s side, but it was still far enough away for Raiju to intercept him at the last moment before he reached Kushina. Their taijutsu exchange was brief, but it was enough. With one last choked scream, Kushina fell quiet.
“Kushina!” Minato shouted, pleaded, begged. No answer.
Iso laughed. “Really, I know I’m a medic, but do you think that means I’m incompetent? I can still deflect a single kunai.”
Yeah, Minato absolutely despised Iso. He distantly noted that she had a pretty laugh, but it didn’t hold a candle to Kushina’s, to the life she took away. Because Minato knew, knew in the same way that he knew the sun rises in the east and that the sky was blue, that a bijuu extraction meant the death of the jinchuriki.
He was confused when he saw Iso put a chakra pill in Kushina’s mouth because the dead don’t need chakra . He saw but did not register when the trio continued to speak to him. They seemed to realize this, though, because they soon trailed off. He didn’t register when Iso rolled up the scroll and handed it to Raiju, nor when the chains keeping Kushina down disintegrated into the air in flakes of golden chakra, nor when Iso used iryou-jutsu to heal Kushina’s raw wrists and ankles and wrists or put a note in her pocket. He was too enthralled in his grief, standing perfectly frozen, to notice any of this. He did, however, notice, Tengu’s cheerful “Well, time to go!” because they killed Kushina and they needed to die.
He made one final, desperate lunge towards the trio, with all of his killing intent behind it, but it was futile. With a distorted swirl of colors and space, the three vanished into thin air. Alone in an unknown dimension, Minato fell to his knees, let out a single pained wail of grief, and passed out.
Minato woke up a few days later in the S-rank ward of Konoha’s hospital with a groan. As soon as he sat up, Tsunade and his Anbu Commander entered the room. Tsunade might have asked him some questions, but he really wasn’t paying attention.
“Kushina,” he moaned.
Tsunade stopped talking, and gave him a reassuring, if not shaky, smile. “Intensive care, extreme chakra depletion. She’s alive, Minato. I don’t know how they did it, but she’s alive.”
“Let me see her,” he gasped, trying not to choke on the words coming out of his dry throat.
He made a pathetic attempt to get up, nearly ripping out his IVs in the process. Tsunade stopped him, but seemed to realize that he wasn’t going to give up, so without a word she helped guide him into a wheelchair.
Minato didn’t remember much of halls, chakra exhaustion and trauma will do that to you, but when he finally realized that he was looking through a viewing window at Kushina, an extremely weak, vulnerable, but very much alive Kushina, something that he hadn’t even realized had been clawing around inside him settled. He heard his Anbu Commander say things like “... Exams canceled...dropped off in front of the hospital...S-rank...left a note...call themselves the Akatsuki… ” and he distantly filed the information away, but it was nothing that couldn’t wait until tomorrow.
He choked on a laugh, and his eyes watered just the tiniest bit. For now, Kushina was alive, and that was good enough for him.