Chapter-14

Chapter-14

Year 52, February, land of hot water

The sky was dark and the sun had still not risen but there was light enough to see inside the hotel room Minato and Orochimaru were staying Orochimaru returned from his training the whole night through the room's window and his earth clone, which was in the room the whole night being vigilant for any danger dispelled itself after Orochimaru entered the room.

"Wake up Minato"

Orochimaru immediately went near the sleeping Minato and shook his body to wake him up, Minato quickly got up and rubbed his eyes while stretching his body,

"Morning sensei, what time is it?"

"It's 5:12 am, The other team just arrived and took over this mission, Get ready, we'll leave immediately."

Minato quickly got off the bed and removed all the seals and barriers he put in the room and checked if he had all the stuff he needed in his scrolls and bag.

They departed very quickly and were running towards Konoha at a moderate phase, jumping from tree to tree it will take them half a day to reach Konoha at their current speed. They traveled for a few hours while stopping to eat breakfast which was just a few food pills Orochimaru prepared, The whole way they talked about some of their ideas and theories related to many stuff.

"So… Minato I have to ask"

"Yes, sensei?"

"Why didn't you use [Shadow Clone] to test if [Flying Raijin] was safe? Don't tell me you forgot about it"

Minato's face after hearing that was comical, his eyes widened at shock and his cheeks flushed red, to reduce the embarrassment he tried his best to bullshit his way out,

"Ah… yes I didn't want to rely on [Shadow Clone] all the time… so I didn't use it."

The rest of the way Orochimaru was looking at Minato with amusement as he was explaining why he thinks fish is better than ramen, a debate which he often loses with Kushina.

"What's your favorite food sensei?"

"I don't have any favorites in food"

"That's probably don't have more than 2 friends right?"

"That's one more than you."

Orochimaru's reply caused Minato to have a gloomy and depressed mood around him. His only friend was Kushina but remembering that she too was not far better than him made him feel slightly better, slightly.

They traveled for the rest of the way while talking about many of their research-related stuff like how kekki genkai and totas work and their difference from dojutsu. Minato told him about Mangekyou Sharingan and the details about it which he learnt from Tobirama's notes.

"It's fascinating how they get the power they deeply desire, It will be a good topic to research on… but I don't think that is achievable using chakra alone, some higher form of energy like senjutsu is in play. We can study it later if we get any samples. And temporary powers are not worth it, they will definitely help in various ways but it is still temporary."

They reached Konoha at 2:30 pm and entered the gate after showing their ninja IDs which was a small scroll, They didn't stop anywhere and entered the Hokage tower.

They made their way to Hiruzen's office and knocked on the door,

"May we come in, Hiruzen-sensei?"

"Come in!" A stern and imposing voice which was Hiruzen's.

They opened the door and went in, They saw Hiruzen who was looking at them, his table was surprisingly without any paperwork. Even Minto could feel the slight sadness in Hiruzen and Orochimaru already guessed what happened and sighed while patting Minato's shoulder.

Minato started having a bad feeling in his chest and the silence didn't make this any better,

"Umm… Hokage-sama, why are you so quiet? Did something happen?"

Hiruzen remained silent for a moment before he replied in a cracked voice,

"Mit-... Kushina became the jinchuriki of the nine tails yesterday."

Minato was surprised at this news, he expected that she would become a jinchuriki a few years later but it didn't explain why Hiruzen was sad,

"Oh.. guess I should train harder to still be stronger than her. I'm surprised but why are you sad?"

This time Orochimaru replied while Hiruzen seemed reluctant to reply,

"So you don't know what will happen when a jinchuriki is separated from a tailed beast Minato?"

"What will happen?"

Minato could already guess what happened but his heart refused to believe it,

'Mito-sensei's the strongest woman I've seen… It couldn't be right?"

He looked at Orochimaru for answers, he knew Orochimaru wouldn't lie to him

Orochimaru looked at the desperate and hopeful eyes of his student and hesitated to answer for a moment, knowing it would cause his student sadness, a thing that he despised. But he answered anyway knowing it was too late to change anything.

"They die, their body is so adapted to having a tailed beast inside them that it will fail to sustain itself if the tailed beast is taken out."

Minato's eyes widened, his body started shaking slightly and tears were gathering in his eyes, he choked out,

"Di- Did you know?"

He asked while looking at Orochimaru, wanting to know if his sensei too knew what was happening,

"Sigh.. I had a hunch, but I honestly didn't think this would happen this soon."

"Where's Kushina?"

[Minato's POV]

I am currently heading toward the Senju compounds, more specifically Kushina's house. Hokage-sama is where she is now.

Now that I think about it, it makes sense. Us going on a long mission without Jiraiya who was coincidentally on 'another mission', it's obvious that he was assigned to guard the process of transfer of tailed-beast.

'I should have known! Going on a mission that is easy considering our level sounds suspicious as hell!"

I quickly entered Kushina's house after arriving and immediately felt a high number of barriers and seals in the place. The house was oddly too silent and the lights were turned off and I heard a slight sobbing sound from Kushina's room.

I hesitated to enter the room after standing in front of the door, I didn't know what to do at this moment,

'Should I console her?'

'Will she even talk to me?'

'What if she hates me for leaving her alone?'

'Should I walk off?'

Many negative thoughts started bombarding my already nervous mind which further increased my shivering, I felt tears running down my face and my fingers felt numb. I started backing off from the door unconsciously when I heard the door open,

"Minato?!"

I saw the tearful face of Kushina, her eyes were fuff and red, she looked very tired and she lacked her usual enthusiastic vibe.

"Minato!"

She rushed towards me and hugged me tightly,

"WAAA! I killed Oba-san! AHHH!"

She hugged me tightly and started crying loudly. I was too surprised to react, I thought she would blame and hate me for not being there. It seems like I have become an idiot at that moment.

"Shhh! It's not your fault."

I tried to console her and rubbed her back while hiding my pain for the loss of my first sensei and mother figure.

[A while later]

I am currently sitting in Kushina's bed while she's sleeping in my arms, guess she was tired from all that crying. She was a little unstable and kept on blaming herself for Mito-sensei's death.

I slowly got her off me while making sure not to wake her up,

"Hmp"

She suddenly moved and I thought she was about to wake up but her body relaxed and she was back to sleep again.

I searched and found her green blanket and was about to cover her up when I saw a seal drawn on her abdomen when her shirt was slightly revealing her skin.

I slowly spread her shirt to see a [Tetragram Seal] drawn on her abdomen.

'So that's the seal used to seal Nine-tails huh… It's slightly disappointing to see it. It could be even more efficient if some changes in the chakra pathway are made and adding her [Adamantine Sealing Chains] would make it even easier for her to control the beast's chakra.'

I decided to discuss it later with Kushina to know her preference. I made my way out and saw Tsunade Nee-san's room was empty, probably out there in some bar, washing down her sorrows after the loss of her grandmother.

'Sigh.. the only constant in this world is suffering.'

I looked at Kushina's room and started feeling angry at the world,

' Why should we suffer?'

'We didn't do anything wrong

'Does good or bad even matter'

'Should I kill them all?'

'Huh? What's with that last thought?'

I shook my head and started making my way toward my home, I unlocked the door and landed on my bed with a plop

'Today is officially the worst day of my life

I didn't even want to wash myself or eat, I started thinking about myself,

'I've recently noticed, I'm not feeling as much sadness as I felt when I first heard about Mito-sama's death. It's always like this after I first killed someone… At first, I thought it was me getting used to killing but it's like my negative emotions are disappearing after some time.'

I looked at my ceiling and saw a seal on its surface and sensed it was Mito-sensei's chakra. I immediately jumped on the top and placed my hand on the seal and as soon as I did that a scroll was summoned and I quickly caught the scroll before it fell.