15 Chapter 15

(4 years later)

Rubbing his temples, Minato signed another document, barely reading its content. His old age was starting to wear him down after all these years. Adding the drama of the constant arguments he was involved in, he was more than exhausted. Four years was all it took to both amaze him and disappoint him all at the same time. Amazement coming from his two youngest children as they climbed the ranks bit by bit, owning up to their titles and respect within the village.

They turned eighteen a few months ago which really made him realize how fast time was going by. It was like he blinked and they were fully grown and moving on with their lives. Years of fighting for their brother's freedom alongside their mother had eaten up the remainder of their youth. Oh yes, Naruto was still locked within the Asylum, now with no possible way of getting out. A bitter pill that they all had to swallow.

Two years ago, they were just nearing a breaking point in which the council members were considering releasing the blonde, but with the world working against them, the veteran psychologist Inoichi entrusted with Naruto's sessions in his absence committed suicide within his home after a conversation with him. The man's suicide note expressed in extreme urgency that Naruto was the most insane man he had ever worked on and if he were to ever be released, it would only cause more destruction than it was worth. That was all it took for the members of the council to put their foot down at the wife of the Hokage and explain to her that under no circumstances was he ever going to be released as he was too dangerous to ever step foot in civilized society.

The entire Namikaze family was of course unhappy with the news, but the one who took it the hardest was Kushina. Mainly due to the events that happened after the council gave her that ultimatum. She agreed she would not bring the trial up again if she got to see him one last time. They agreed to her request and she went the next morning. When she got there and signed in, giddy and heartbroken about seeing her son for the first time in years, but the last time forever. What broke her hear completely, was when Inoichi told her he wasn't taking visitors. When she demanded that it was an order from the council to let her see him, Inoichi clarified he knew as he was there too. Restating his previous statement, he told her Naruto refused to see her.

Kushina at that moment knew without a doubt she was a failure as a mother. She linked his reasoning to the neglect they put him through all those years ago. Convincing herself that he was just suppressing his emotions all along and that he truly hated them. She spiraled into a very deep depression that consumed her life for over a year. It was only the previous year that she was finally able to pull herself back up and stand on her own two feet, in part due to their growing family.

Menma, now an ANBU operative, realized somewhere along the line how precious life was. After losing people close to him, he understood how short it could be, so he and his girlfriend, Sakura Haruno, decided that they wanted to be together forever, for as long as that forever was at least. So, they married at the age of seventeen. It was the needed bit of joy that was finally able to pull Kushina out of her rut even just a little. Then even further with the news of her pregnancy.

Adding to that, the official relationship of Mito Namikaze and Sasuke Uchiha brought her joy as well. She couldn't be involved in one of her children's life, but she still had two that were moving on and doing wonderful things. Her heart stung every time she thought of Naruto, but she knew he was as good as gone now and she had no one to blame but herself. But, if she dwelled on the past, then she'd miss out on the present, and she'd be blind to the future.

Minato was glad to see his wife back to her old self at last. He felt happy to see a sliver of things looking up for them after four long years. His heart still ached every day with the thought of his oldest son though. As a father, he felt that he failed him. Had he been there to guide Naruto from the beginning, maybe his progress would have been a bit slower, but he would have had the chance to be a kid. If that happened, maybe he never would have had that run in with the snake Sanin and maybe, they'd still be a perfect family.

At this point, he was living off of those so called what if fantasies. Dreaming of them as hard as he could as if that would be enough to fix his wrong doings. Unlike Kushina, Minato was much better at hiding his pain. Of course, he had continuous piles of work to distract him as well. But, the issue with that is that, when you appear strong, no one tries to help you. No one cared to ask him how he felt about losing a son. During Naruto's trials, he was told he could have no say during the actual session as his word carried too much weight.

Minato, more than once, had the thought of saying 'fuck it' and just demanding his release, but as a Hokage in times of peace, he knew doing that would result in problems for the village. When most of the clan heads and the entire civilian council were against Naruto's freedom, he knew their response would have been as drastic as his thought of the Uchiha clan packing their things and leaving the village. He knew it would cripple the village immensely. As a father, he didn't care, but as a Kage, he had to. He had the rest of his family to think about as well. Konoha's enemies would jump at the opportunity to destroy them at any moment of weakness, so he had to sit by, watch the trial, and pray for the best.

The best never came of course, so now, he was fulfilling his duties as a Hokage, a husband, a father for his remaining two, and a future grandfather. Naruto would just be another painful memory he had every time he shut his eyes. His greatest regret in life, and his most heartbreaking failure. In time, he hoped he would be able to see him once more before his time was up, but he doubted it. With his status as Hokage, of course he had special clearance to visit him as he wished and he had tried before, but Inoichi said Naruto adamantly refused to see him, threatening violence is he was forced.

It was a slap to the face of course, and he couldn't understand why, but he didn't have to. If Naruto was happier living in solitude, then he was not going to force him to do anything. It still hurt like hell though. Signing off on the last document for the day, he leaned back into his chair with a sigh. Rolling out his neck, he turned his seat around to look out at the night sky, losing himself in thought. Thoughts of finally retiring so that he could finally spend some time with his family. It seemed all of his peers were doing so nowadays. Shikaku, Inoichi, and hell even Fugaku was getting ready to pass the strings over to Sasuke.

But, he wasn't ready to hand the hat down to his son just yet. In other words, Menma wasn't ready. He had just made it into ANBU last year so he was still learning how to follow orders. He was a long ways away from giving them though. 'Maybe Kakashi…' he thought with a chuckle mentally imagining the silver haired Jonin's protests. Sighing in content one last time, he got to his feet and left his office for the night. Ready to get home to his wife, and put his worried mind at ease.

The Asylum, still drenched in its white interior design was seeing the most excitement it had all day as Ino Yamanaka, the eighteen year old doctor, a chip off the old block from her father stood at the front desk requesting another patient. The skinny man behind it adamantly trying to tell her there were no more as they were all booked. "There is no freaking way!" she yelled out incredulously.

The man shook his head somberly. "I am truly sorry Dr. Yamanaka, but they were all cleaned out this morning. Ibiki-san made sure they were all dealt with for the coming month." He said.

"Yeah, he said he'd save one for me." She said in anger. The man just shrugged his shoulders looking around. There were no more clipboards left.

This was her second week and it was already off to a bad start. Last week was her first time stepping foot in this place but it got cut short thanks to an impromptu mission that required her abilities. This had been her goal for years. Her father would never let her come with him to even scout the place as he said it wasn't her time to be there. He wouldn't even talk about the cases as that would 'violate the doctor patient confidentiality rule'. Now that she was here, she was determined to prove herself an adequate psychologist.

Inoichi had tried to keep her from the profession by telling her she was just too delicate to deal with those crazy people within. At first she was inclined to agree with him, until he accented his statement by telling her she'd be 'better off working in the flower shop, picking daisies and what not.' That was not something you said to Ino Yamanaka. How dare he demean her prowess as a kunoichi like that!? She told him she was going to a psychologist whether he helped her or not.

So, she took off in her pursuit to prove him wrong for what he said and after a few weeks, her rage filled journey to attest his belittling statement slowly turned into her new passion. She wanted to help these people that were in there for varying reasons. That's all she wanted to do was help them. It's been two weeks since she received her official status as a psychiatric doctor, and she had yet to have a true case. She had two last week that were laughably easy, so much so that she'd have believed the men were faking the entire time. She wanted something that would test her skill and prove her father wrong at the same time. That's when her eyes landed on one more clipboard, in the far back of the administrative office, her trained eyes locked onto it.

The man turned towards it, unsure of whose it was as well. He walked back over to it and pulled it from the basket it was in. He read its content over, unsure why it was put in the back room like that. Reading the date it was last filled out, he gave a low 'whoa' upon impulse.

Ino waited patiently for him to tell her what it was until she ran out. "What is it?"

"It's an older case… man, look at this rap sheet." He said looking at the list of highly respected doctors that had worked on it. "Hey, I think your father worked on this one." He said walking back over to her. "Guess he had no luck either."

Ino snatched the clipboard from his hands and looked at the section he was talking about, not even glancing at the top. There were a ton of people she knew from her father to even Anko. The name that caught her eye immediately however was the very last one. 'Dr. Unayo Yager' the man who committed suicide two years back… meaning, this was his last case. The case that pushed him over the edge. Her heart dropped almost immediately when she read the name 'Naruto Namikaze' plastered at the top of the form.

"Maybe it was in the back for a reason…" the man said looking at the reactions play out on her face. When he didn't receive a reply, he tried to reach out and grab it from her. "Here, I'll ju-.."

"No!" she yelled a little louder than she meant to. Seeing his weird expression, she shook her head a bit before calming down. "i-I mean, no, I'll… I'll take the case…" she said as she placed it down on the counter and scribbled her signature beneath Dr. Yager's.