Chapter Text
“Edo Tensei no jutsu!”
The chant echoed at the walls of the cave as the leaves rustled, the moon was a white balloon floating over konohagakure. Even if a mere chunin or even a genin was nearby at this night, they would have definitely noticed a large amount of chakra being used – anyone a mile away from the cave would have noticed.
Meekly five humans were sacrificed, someone either with a dead brain, cut off limbs, or simple orphans who had a nasty fate to die on this very night. Someone had to make these sacrifices in the dead of night-so that no one could know— isn’t it?
The jutsu caster wore a mask with two holes to see and a cape that framed his body, and in a blink of an eye, the five shinobis who were supposed to be reanimated— revived from the dead, now practically immortal as the rule of the jutsu tells – Namikaze Minato, Uzumaki Kushina, Uchiha Fugaku, Uchiha Mikoto and………. Uchiha Itachi
The caster of the jutsu quickly made the sign for a shunshin— half tiger, Ram – in a whirl of wind, the jutsu caster had been replaced by a scroll, not letting the reanimated guests a get a glimpse of the shinobi, a trace of chakra was not felt too—
As soon as the reanimated guests were back to life, an expression of shock was implanted on their faces and their eyes twitched, trying to adjust their eyes to the dark cave around them
“Wait, does this mean…… a war is going on? I’m back to the living—who casted this?” The fourth hokage exclaimed, worry etched on his face until he heard a familiar voice.
“It sure does feel weird being brought back to the living, isn’t it?” Kushina—?
“You too…Kushina?” The yondaime turned back and hugged his wife as she slowly put an arm around him “I’m glad”.
As the Minato was releasing himself from the hug to ask his wife ‘what they could do further?’ a toneless voice with a hint of surprise was heard.
“Isn’t this forbidden?”
Wait? That— fugaku?! Minato’s voice in his head whirled with explanation as he heard the familiar sound.
“We really are…brought back to life, aren’t we?” another soft voice was heard, this time Kushina turned around to meet her friend.
“Mikoto, fugaku- San” Kushina acknowledged with a smile on his face while Minato stood there, surprised to meet his friend.
“Kushina! It’s been a really long time, isn’t it? And at the same time, it’s so confusing” Mikoto greeted kushina with a smile and a nod to Minato.
“It’s the Edo Tensei Mikoto, we are back to life, the four of us, or five if I can say” fugaku eyes shot to the back of the cave, his three Tomoe sharingan on, meeting another pair of sharingan eyes.
“…. Itachi” Mikoto blurted out with surprise
“I—I knew I felt a familiar chakra!” her voice was brittle and soft
“Mother, Father” his irises were still read, but by the stance he stood, It was normal, not killing intent radiating from his body, as if he was ready to take a hit from anyone at this point
“It’s been quite a while, hasn’t it?” Mikoto smiled at her eldest son genuinely.
“It has been a while, mother, father” Itachi replied.
“I-“
“I’m sorry”
“Itachi……we, we know” mother smiled, and his father nodded.
“Don’t apologize Itachi, we—I was a coward myself” Fugaku finished as Itachi eyes widened as he left out a breath that he never realised he had held it.
Thank goodness it wasn’t an awkward situation for Itachi. He had already planned out what would he say, explain to his family members if he ever met them. (For a fact he thought he would never meet them in the afterlife for his sins). But as he saw his mother, father, his mind was blank, he remembered no word that he gone through, over and over again every day. But here he was, in front of his parents. Smiling, responding with a small nod, he stepped front, joining his mother and father.
“Wait, but who reanimated us?” Minato tried to put in as he felt the awkward tension in air clear up with the late Uchiha family.
“Minato! Let them have their moment” Kushina whispered, but loudly as she elbowed her husband’s stomach.
“It’s alright kushina, we’re done.” Mikoto turned back and replied.
“We need to find the root cause of why we were reanimated, and who reanimated us” Fugaku said in a commanding voice, He was the late Uchiha head after all.
“scroll” Itachi pointed on the ground and everyone’s attention was shifted.
Minato carefully walked to the place where the scroll was kept, picking it up carefully, and making sure no chakra was being used, just in case it was a chakra activating scroll. Unravelling it, his eyes widened, being the hokage made him practise reading fast, but attentively, absorbing all the details and processing every information, his eyes widened.
“Minato, what is it?” fugaku asked, seeing the surprised look on his friend’s face
“You read it” he carefully tossed it into his hands “You handle things well”
Fugaku raised a brow, but the scroll caught his attention as his eyebrows narrowed.
“You were reanimated for no other reason but as a joke, you are free to roam around, do whatever you want but I wont control you. Try to find me, and you’ll be forced to hurt your loved ones”
Kushina got goose bumps, joke? What timeline are we in?
“Loved ones? What timeline are we in” Mikoto asked, voicing out her friend’s thoughts.
“Let’s carefully head out, conceal your chakras” Minato said as everyone nodded, concealing their chakra signature to the size of a squirrel.
They carefully walked; chakras still concealed. The moon’s light showed them the path, until they were met with a familiar gate. Itachi signalled them to hid in the trees as the guards were well and awake, and if he was right, ANBU patrols would be taking their rounds at around this time.
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“4:35 am, and I’m not even done yet!”
Naruto groaned as he fell back on his office chair. His fingers were like icicles in the cold night, refusing to go home without making sure to read the ANBU patrol reports, or finishing of signing several documents that need his approval. At this time, the only thing that was keeping him awake was coffee.
“5:10 am! It took me this long to finish?” he said to himself, thinking he could at least get 2 hours of sleep maximum. Sighing, he went to the extra room which had a spare bed so that the hokage could sleep on the all-nighters. At this point, he would even fall asleep on his office chair, but he'd have to hear a earful from shikamaru in the morning, which would be quite a drag.
As soon as his head hit the pillow, a voice called out in his head
“Naruto, are you wake? There’s...quite an emergency”