Chapter 18 -> Part 18

When I wasn't working, I realized that the hospital was boring.

I had no qualms about abusing my abilities in medical Ninjutsu, and instead of shifting when my arm fell asleep from the weight of Kushina's head, I used a bit to restore circulation and ease the stiffness of remaining in one position for an extended period of time. That quickly turned into a chakra control exercise when I realized how hard it was to alleviate stiffness without movement. Not only did I have to maximize blood flow, but I also had to manipulate lymphatic fluids without turning my body into a giant cramp, which was damn near impossible considering lymph was everywhere while blood stayed on specific paths. While I practiced, the hospital lights gradually dimmed for the night.

Minato's sedative wore off a few hours after midnight. Sometime before then and after our conversation, Jiraiya had fallen asleep, leaving me in my silent, selfish vigil. I waited until Minato finally opened his eyes in the dim light before sliding out from beneath Kushina. She stirred slightly as I propped her against the back of the chair, but I was glad she was still a heavy sleeper.

"Nii-san?" Minato asked as I leaned over him, sliding my hand into his.

"It's me, Minato-kun, how're you feeling?"

"Throat hurts."

"Do you want me to get some pain medication for you?"

"Conscious?"

"No, you won't stay conscious."

"Ninjutsu?"

"Sorry, kiddo, you're healing the long way this time."

"Kushina?"

"She's right here. She's just fine, I'm fine, everyone's fine."

"Time?"

"Middle of the night. You've been out for a bit more than a day, and a portion of that was spent in surgery."

He relaxed.

"Can you wiggle your fingers and toes for me?" When I saw his toes move under the blanket and his hand squeeze mine, I relaxed as well. "Good job. Are you sure you don't want me to get some anesthetic?"

"No medicine."

"For now." I felt his forehead, which was still feverish. "Think you can eat and drink something?"

"Just water."

"It's both or I put you back under, Minato-kun."

"Chest hurts."

"I'm sure it does. A kunai through the heart will do that to you. Sit tight for a few minutes and I'll be back, don't move or I knock you out and you'll wake up strapped down." I didn't mean the threat, but he probably shouldn't have been awake for another day at least.

I hurried to the small kitchen open during the night and grabbed a small package of the first thing my hand landed on. It was a bit difficult to blindly fish out a spoon and straw as well as fill a glass of water without making a mess or a bunch of noise, but I managed. When I returned, Jiraiya was somehow still asleep, as was Kushina. As gently as I could, I inclined the bed just enough so Minato could eat with some kind of normalcy and not choke on his water.

"Thank you," he murmured as I folded his weakly trembling hands around the glass and guided it to his mouth.

I turned away to straighten Kushina's neck so she wouldn't wake up with a cramp. When I looked back at Minato, he had finished the glass.

"Take it easy, Minato-kun, you haven't had anything in your stomach for a while. I brought you some kind of food. It was dark so I'm not exactly sure if its mashed bananas or applesauce."

Minato made a face.

"I'm pretty sure it's applesauce. The bananas are generally kept on the top shelf." I opened the half-cup container and placed it in Minato's hand and the spoon in the other.

He clumsily took a bite. "Definitely applesauce," he informed me.

"See? I always grab the good stuff."

"The good stuff would have been ramen."

I didn't bother arguing with him, he never had the joys of pizza. My infrequent attempts to make it hadn't been very successful, considering half of the ingredients just didn't seem to exist and I couldn't remember the exact recipe. Word to the wise: garlic and ginger were certainly not the same thing and could not be substituted for each other.

I did make pancakes on a semi-regular basis, but without thick, maple syrup, they never tasted right. At least eggs were a thing.

While Minato ate, I refilled his glass with water. When he finished the small meal and the second glass of water, I left to quickly wash them. When I returned, Jiraiya was finally waking up, albeit slowly. Tipping Minato's chart at an awkward angle to catch enough light to write by, I scribbled down the pertinent information.

"Is there someone else here?" Minato asked when I returned to his side.

"Yes, Jiraiya is on your other side while Inoichi-san and Shikaku-san are both injured and unconscious behind me."

"I can't sense."

"You're barely lucid enough to communicate, take it easy. Your sensing is going to be shot until you're taken off the pain meds."

"I don't want—"

"Trust me, enjoy being a Genin. There is almost no pain control on the lines."

Jiraiya finally sat up and put a hand on Minato's shoulder. The boy flinched away before he recognized his teacher and his face lit up. "Sensei! You're back!"

"Yeah, gaki. How are you feeling?"

"Nii-san just asked me that."

"I was asleep, so I missed it."

While they started to argue, I went to wake up Kushina. I thought she was happy to interact with Minato, but it was difficult to tell while she looked like she was about to burst into tears at any provocation, even though she sat on the bed beside him and fussed over him. I sat in the chair and hovered in a state between sleep and meditation, monitoring the conversation just enough to stop any stressors if need be.

"Kichiro says that all the time," Kushina murmured and I heard her lay down.

"Quiet! He'll hear you!" Minato answered.

Their voices lowered to the point I could barely make out who was speaking, much less what they were saying. I wondered what about me could be so interesting that they would need to be so secretive. It made me slightly paranoid, but I shoved away the feeling and resisted the urge to eavesdrop, eventually landing in my own mindscape, a few inches from the Kyuubi's snout. I swore and jerked backwards.

Go away.

"It's my head."

What do you want?

"Pizza."

Bless you.

"Pizza is food."

Why are you here?

"Because I enjoy your company."

I'm flattered. You got my company, now go away.

"You need to learn to be polite."

I have no need to abide by your human customs.

I rolled my eyes. "Then I'll call you 'Muffin' and you can't get mad at me."

The Kyuubi growled in warning.

"Right, you need to learn to be polite."

As much as they are unnecessary, I do know the proper conduct of you humans.

"Really?" I rolled my eyes. "Show me." I bowed. "Hello, my name is Kichiro."

Nice to meet you, Kichiro-chan. My name is Kurama.

"Nice to meet you, Kurama-sama," I responded by pure reflex, stunned. I never expected him to share his name with me.

Do not share that name with anyone.

"Understood."

There are humans attempting to get your attention. Leave.

Instead of unceremoniously throwing me out like he did the last time, Kurama let me wake myself up from my meditation.

I came back to my body to find Jiraiya shaking my shoulder.

"You alright, gaki?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, what's wrong?" I asked.

"You weren't paying attention," he deadpanned.

"I was meditating, isn't that the point?"

Jiraiya pointed towards the window where a messenger hawk was perched on the windowsill and his hand was bleeding. I stood up and held out my arm to the bird. I was more than a little disturbed by the hawk's gaze.

It held still while I detached the tightly furled page from its leg. As soon as the message was free, the hawk took off, circled the room, and flew out the window.

Shaking out my arm, I sat back down and opened the black paper, confused. Only Jōnin and team leaders generally received messages via hawk. I was neither of those.

(-_-)

WARTIME MISSION SUMMONS

Rank: S

Issued to: Uzumaki Kichiro 007309

Reporting time: 10 minutes from reception of orders

Briefing place: Hokage Tower

Type: Infiltration, Village Services, Combat

Teammate(s): Katō Dan, Orochimaru

Please arrive prepared for departure.

Authorized by: Sarutobi Hiruzen, Sandaime Hokage

(-_-)

I'd never even seen summons before, much less received an S-ranked one, though Sakumo had taught me how to determine if they were legitimate. I did know one thing: there would be absolutely no way I'd be working with Orochimaru. The paper slipped from my hands and landed between my feet.

"Nii-san?" Kushina asked. A moment later, she stumbled off the bed and fell to her knees beside me, snatching up the page. Before she could look at it, Jiraiya plucked it out of her hand and incinerated it while Kushina leapt up, her protest dying on her lips.

"They're mission summons," he explained. "They should only be seen by the recipient. You have nine minutes to report, Kichiro-kun."

Minato stumbled off the bed and clung tightly to Kushina's arm for support. Thankfully, I was one of the few people in the hospital who regularly used IVs in patients, Minato was stable enough not to be attached to oxygen, and heart monitors didn't exist yet, so he wasn't attached to anything that would cause problems. I stood up and faced them. This world didn't have treatments for PTSD, no one but me could do anything for them. Every second I was gone left them suffering from something they didn't understand. I was completely willing to ignore the orders, to take them and hide if I had to, damn the consequences, but I knew if I did, my absence on the mission I knew was waiting for me would set Kumo up to continue the war or declare war on Konoha in the future, causing far more harm to far more people than just the two children in front of me. I didn't even have time to tell them why.

When I glanced between them, I could see they knew I had to abandon them, I could see the hurt, pain, and fear in their faces.

"God help me," I pleaded, but no one else could understand English. I chose my next words to the two of them carefully. "I'm so sorry," my voice begging. "I'm sorry, I don't have any excuse, I don't have any justification, I'm so sorry." My words failed. Slowly and deliberately, I sank to into a traditional seiza and bowed, pressing my forehead against the ground. Kushina started to reach for me, but without her support Minato would have fallen. I completed the bow and stood up. "I-I'll come b-back, I promise."

(-_-)

Before they could recover from their stunned silence, I leapt onto the windowsill and dashed away across the rooftops. I had six minutes left to replace all my mission supplies, excepting my weapons, and make it to the Hokage tower.

"Urgent mission!" I exclaimed as I swung into the first shinobi shop I laid eyes on. It was still too early for the normal pre-mission preparations to begin for the day. I started to rattle off the things I needed. It would have taken ten minutes for a civilian to have gotten the things together, but since the shop owner was a former kunoichi, she managed to haphazardly toss everything in a pack small enough for me to easily fight while carrying in half that time.

"Come back alive, Uzumaki-san," she said while pushing it over the counter. She'd get payment from my account using the village credit system.

"I will," I promised and took off with a minute left to reach the Hokage tower. When I landed in front of the tower exactly a minute later, an ANBU materialized in front of me, and I barely managed to stick enough chakra into my feet to come to a dead stop.

"Basement, one minute," The ANBU stated without inflection then stepped out of my way. I was glad I chose to run to the Hokage tower instead of attempting a shunshin, my shunshin was extremely uncontrolled and not worth the ensuing collisions or the reprimands for using a jutsu forbidden so close to the Hokage tower. I took a deep breath and stepped inside the tower, walking quickly. Once I reached the stairs down, I decided on going down the stairs the shinobi way, since it would take me a good five minutes otherwise. The first three flights were like normal stairs, zig-zagging back and forth. Beyond that, it was a spiral staircase. Angling myself just right, I bounced off the walls and made it down the regular flights before pausing at the top of the spiral staircase.

After a few seconds of deliberation, I jumped up and attached my hands to the ceiling and swung down like I would play on monkey bars. A full-size adult wouldn't have enough room to generate the force necessary to zip down the stairs faster than terminal velocity, at least not without getting their knees scraped off by the stone wall. If it was under any other circumstances, I would have whooped. The adrenaline rush of such a fall was amazing.

Unfortunately, like all falls, controlled or not, they didn't last forever. When I was suddenly flying straight, I swore an alarm and collided with someone. Hard.

Luckily, whomever it was knew I was coming and neither of us went splat.

"I knew you were mad about that sleeping jutsu, but I didn't expect attempted murder, smart-aleck," someone wheezed as I took a shaky step back.

"Sorry, Danny Boy," I muttered, looking up at the man in front of me. Pale blue hair obscured his face as he doubled over, but I recognized Katō Dan anyways. He made a face at the name

"Well, you're on time at least, so head on into the office, the Hokage is waiting for you." I glanced around the hall to see a much younger and less-creepy looking, though obviously irritated, Orochimaru watching me.

"What? Did one of your experiments go bad or something?" I snapped at him, probably a bit more aggressive than was strictly necessary, though the way his face went completely blank on the turn of a dime made me a little nervous. It was enough proof for me the he was at least partially behind the disappearance of the Uzumaki child from the orphanage, not that I had any way to pursue the lead.

"Kichiro," Dan snapped. "The Hokage wants to see you."

He steered me into a bare room where the Hokage paced impatiently. "You're late!" The man barked and closed the door behind me, leaving Orochimaru and Dan in the hall.

"My little sister is showing obvious signs of PTSD so you can go screw your complaints because I'm pretty sure Minato has the exact same thing and no one else can help them. You're lucky I'm here at all."

"You're needed most on this mission."

"If it wasn't for the fact that people would die if the Hachibi isn't sealed securely, I wouldn't be."

He decided to ignore my disrespect. "I've worked out the details with the Raikage. Since you will be the main component of this mission and the primary operative, I'm putting you in joint leadership of a team. You are to respect their input—"

"I will not, under any circumstances, work with Orochimaru."

The Hokage's gaze sharpened as I crossed my arms defiantly. "Why?"

"You won't believe me or even hear me out if I tell you, nor do I have evidence. Still, I will not work with Orochimaru."

"You and a single Jōnin are not strong enough to control a Jinchuuriki."

"I don't care. I will not work with Orochimaru."

"There are no other Jōnin available with the skill set necessary—"

"I don't care."

The Hokage huffed in frustration. "If not Orochimaru, then name another."

"Sakumo."

"He's out of the village on a mission."

"Kagami."

"Also out of the village."

"Tsunade."

"You're one of our best medics, I can't risk another on this mission as well."

I wracked my brain for names of people I knew from this time. "Um, Uchiha Fugaku."

"That boy is barely a Chuunin, he would be a liability at best considering Kumo's interest in Dōjutsus."

"Inuzuka Jiro."

"Out of the village."

"Shimizu Arata."

"Left the village last night."

"Katō-san's shadow clone."

"Please take this seriously."

"Um, the Nara clan specializes in long-range jutsu like Katō-san, what about one of their Jōnin?"

"Only one of the Nara currently in the village is a ninja and he is currently incapacitated and still a Genin."

"What about one of the other Uchiha?"

"The Uchiha are a clan of frontline fighters, the average time their Jōnin spend in the village during wartime is about ten hours, again, Kumo has invested an interest in Dōjutsus."

"If all of these Jōnin are fighting then who's protecting the village?"

"The ANBU are guarding the walls alongside several Chuunin. Genin conduct patrols, most without a Jōnin leader."

"So you're saying that this village is practically begging to be attacked! No wonder Suna managed to get inside and conduct a torture session!"

"Will you stop rubbing that failure in my face!" He shouted.

"Kushina, and probably Minato as well, are mentally ill because of that failure. I can help them, I can fix them, and instead, I'm here ending a war and helping to prevent another one from beginning!" I shouted right back. "I could tell anyone with a basic understanding of Fūinjutsu how to use the seal and be back where I should be in less than an hour. If the village is in such a dire strait that every single Jōnin is needed on the lines, then Jiraiya won't be able to stay with them and those two children are going to be forced to deal with problems that reduce the strongest of adults to paranoid, homeless, beggars who can't even take care of themselves!"

"Do you think I want to let them suffer? My own child is in his third surgery right now after being caught in the crossfire of one of my fights! If the comfort of three children are the price, I have to pay it to ensure thousands more children stay alive and healthy and out of another war!" He responded, pacing.

"Minato is a once-in-a-century genius who will probably make full Jōnin before he turns sixteen. Kushina is one of the last Uzumaki in the world, not some spare to replace me if I screw up and die. Your child is your child! Just because we're at war doesn't mean that lives stop to watch!"

He stopped and sat down against the wall opposite me, rubbing his face. "Kichiro-kun, the only person in your generation this village absolutely cannot afford to lose is you. At the same time, you are not a Kage, you are not a leader, and you don't understand the sacrifices that have to be made. As mature, intelligent, and skilled as you are, you are still one of the children you so ardently defend. Inside the village, my son, Minato, and Kushina are safer than they could ever be outside of it, you're leaving the relative security here and refusing the best protection I can offer you."

"The Raikage will honor his agreement."

"No one can promise that."

"If you're looking for reassurance, you won't get it from me," I said kneeling down in the center of the room. "My stance will not change. If there is no other suitable Jōnin, then I will go alone or with Katō-san and trust the Raikage to honor his agreement."

We both stood back up. I kept my eyes focused on the ground as he stopped in front of me. "I hope your trust is well-placed," he murmured, a hand on my head. After a moment, he walked past and opened the door.

"Orochimaru left, he wouldn't explain why," Dan murmured as he entered. "You alright, smart-aleck?" He asked as he caught sight of me and draped an arm around my shoulders.

"I'm fine," I answered, distracted as to why Orochimaru would just leave. Had my comment made him that paranoid?

I quickly refocused my attention as the Hokage explained the mission. Twenty minutes later we stood at the village gates facing the Raikage.

"This is going to be an awkward trip," I muttered, kicking a stone down the path in front of me.

"Then let's start this out right!" Dan chirped, then started to sing while I stared at him incredulously. "O Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling."

What. The. Hell. That was certainly not any Japanese tune and the words were certainly English.