23 Matches

The sun was sinking below the horizon signaling the end of the fifth day of Team Seven's travels. They were mostly all tired and somewhat sore from sleeping on the ground all those nights.

"Let's make camp here for the night and tomorrow we should reach the village." Minato informed. He folded his map and tucked it into the pocket of his green jounin vest while inspecting the ground and clearing away a patch of ground with his foot to make place for a fire.

"Finally! My feet can't take much more. I thought I would die before we made it." Obito whined dramatically. He plopped down with a yawn and, using his bag as a pillow, he lay down and almost instantly fell asleep. He hadn't even bothered with his sleeping bag. Spring had just ended and the fresh heat of a new summer kept the chill of night from becoming uncomfortable.

"Tch." Kakashi kicked his side lightly, the brunette moaned and rolled over but didn't wake up. He sighed and started unraveling his sleeping bag and got set up across the small camp, throwing more than one spiteful glance at his lazy teammate.

Minato pealed back a layer of the forest ground revealing the dirt underneath and sending the sweet scent of soil wafting through towards them. "Kakashi why don't you and Rin go collect some fire wood?" He 'suggested' with a smile as he discarded the patch of grass and old leaves, but carefully, so they might replace it if need be.

Kakashi looked like he wanted nothing more than to curl up and sleep like Obito. His eyes had begun to droop and his feet practically dragged him forwards; but he nodded regardless and began to walk away into the woods with Rin following close behind. Naruto looked after them as he waited for Minato to speak, sensing without asking that the man had something to say.

Minato dusted off his hands and rocked back on his heals, dropping his bag from his shoulders. "I've been meaning to talk to you about Lord Danzo." He finally said after a moment. His electric eyes locked onto Obito to make sure he was asleep. Only when he heard a soft, reassuring snore come from the boy did he continued. "I must admit I have never had much trust for the man myself, though I would have a hard time to tell you why." He confessed. Naruto remained impassive as he turned his gaze on him.

All things considered, it was an impressive confession to make even if at face value there was nothing wrong with it. Every jounin in the Hidden Leaf worth their money knew what kind of influence Danzo had. Not just over his subordinates, but many on the council as well. If word were to reach him that Minato, who was held in such high regard, did not view him in confidence, he might feel it necessary to take measures to ensure such word wouldn't spread of this, should other shinobi start to doubt him as well. And while Danzo couldn't touch him directly, Minato had more than just himself to consider. Though, Naruto thought, he himself had been quite clear on his stance with Danzo in his confrontation with him a week prior, so perhaps it's only really surprising Minato hadn't brought it up sooner.

Naruto pursed his lips. "You want to know about his ANBU." It wasn't really a question. Minato nodded seriously. Naruto sat down in his sleeping bag that was set next to Kakashi's. Minato noticed how his student's presence could make the man both at ease and on edge at times, he always walked fractionally closer to Kakashi than the others, not noticeable to anyone that wasn't trained to study human behavior as second nature as he was. He acted like Kakashi was someone he needed to protect. Like he was someone precious to Naruto. Someone he didn't want to see hurt. But yet, he also noticed how he could never quite look him in the eyes, and when he thought no one was looking, Naruto's would look at him with such intense regret. Minato thought he vaguely knew those looks; it was almost like he was trying to apologize. He thought that maybe Naruto had known the boy's father Sakumo Hatake. How old would he have been at the time of Sakumo's death? Maybe around the age Kakashi is now? Did Sakumo ever take on a student? Minato didn't remember ever hearing anything of the sort, however it was possible.

Naruto cleared his throat to gain the jounin's wandering attention. "If you want me to tell you, you have to actually listen ya know." Naruto said with amusement in his voice. Minato scratched the back of his blonde head sheepishly and muttered an apology. Naruto smiled slightly, but it quickly faded as other thoughts invaded his busy mind.

"Where to begin. . . well as you know Danzo is a high ranked Leaf elder." Minato nodded, settling into a more comfortable sitting position. "From what I understand he and the Hokage were close friends before the Second passed his position to Sarutobi instead of Danzo. This caused bitterness and resentment to grow, and as a way to try and defuse that as well as a show of trust, the Hokage allowed Danzo to have authority over his own branch of ANBU which he calls '𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘙𝘰𝘰𝘵'." Naruto was telling him this mostly because he felt like this was something Minato should be aware of since he would be the next Hokage. Also, he knew that at some point he may need Minato's help in altering the timeline so it was best that he knew as many of the current happenings as possible. "The Root is a classified project of Danzo's that few know about. The members of the Root are very skilled in almost every field, as well as most possessing a unique ability like a kekkai genkai. Their missions mostly consist of assassinations and their success rate is almost a hundred percent. However, to make them so efficient, Danzo takes certain measures to ensure their personal convictions won't interfere. That is, he raises them from childhood to be completely emotionless and create absolute loyalty to him only. They only take orders from Danzo and live their lives for no other purpose than to carry out his wishes."

Minato's eyes went wide and he looked disturbed. How could the Hokage allow this? Raising children to be emotionless, how can that even be done. That's like removing the human factor of a person and leaving an empty shell. They're like robots or something. How can that even be allowed?

"I know what you're thinking. The Hokage is a good man, he doesn't know the full extent of it." Naruto assured. Minato fixed him with an unwavering gaze that most wouldn't be able to hold, but Naruto held it without the slightest sign of intimidation.

"If not even the Hokage knows this, then how do you?" Minato's eyes narrowed in suspicion making him look all the more dangerous, and still the Uzumaki didn't flinch.

Naruto looked back at him as he thought over how to answer that without revealing the whole truth. Maybe just pieces though; Naruto hadn't ever picked up a talent for direct lies, so it was better for him to at least relate it to truth. "I had a team mate that was an ex-root member." He answered, it was vague enough that it wouldn't reveal anything but allowed him to be somewhat honest. Minato couldn't detect any lies but still held him in his piercing gaze.

"Do you not trust me?" Naruto asked sadly, though with no surprise. "I understand, I suppose in your position I wouldn't trust me either."

Minato's eyes softened at the hurt he saw. "It's not that. Actually, it is quite the opposite, I find it alarming just how 𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘩 I trust you when I've only known you a week." He confessed. Naruto felt an almost explosive joy when he heard that his father trusted him, he smiled so brightly that it was contagious.

"Thank you. I can't express how much that means to me." No, he couldn't express it with words, but Minato could see it in his eyes and a fond feeling spread through him.

"We're back!" Called Rin as she approached them, unknowingly spoiling the beautiful moment. Kakashi came not far behind. They set the wood down and Kakashi dug out a make-shift fire pit while Rin stacked the wood. When he was done and the wood was set in the pit, he reached in his pack for something, he shuffled his hand through all the little pockets but didn't seem to find what he was looking for. With an irritated scowl set in place - and somehow showing even with his mask covering the majority of his face - he took his bag in his lap and went through it more thoroughly, his eyes scanning its contents carefully, but still came up with the same result.

"Where are my matches?" He asked sharply as his head snapped up to glare at each of them accusingly in turn. Naruto rose his matchless hands in surrender and shrugged his shoulders, Minato and Rin also proved to be empty handed.

A strange high pitch series of yips that almost resembled laughing sounded to the east side of their little camp. They all looked around and spotted an orange little fox with the box of matches set proudly between his sharp teeth. Kakashi glared daggers at the creature.

"Hey, give those back." He commanded sternly as he stuck out a hand. The fox made the sound again and hopped around the edge of the camp while looking tauntingly at Kakashi. Kakashi reached for a kunai and threw it, but the small orange animal gracefully hopped out of the way and was unfazed as he continued his little game.

After he got over the shock, Naruto laughed loudly at the unexpected scene. It surprised them all how warm and humorous it was, like if you could make happiness into a sound this is what it would be. The fox seemed to enjoy it because it yipped happily in response.

"Come here little guy." Naruto said gently to the fox. Kakashi scoffed, '𝘓𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵'𝘴 𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬.', he thought. It did, the little creature bounded up to Naruto and dropped the matches in his open palm. Naruto softly patted the fox's head and smiled.

"Good girl." He praised.

"How do you know it's a girl?" Asked Rin curiously. Naruto shrugged.

"I don't know, I just do." He responded and when she reached out a hand of her own the fox ran off back into the woods. Naruto gave her a pitying look as he handed Kakashi his matches.

"I hate foxes." The chunnin muttered as he somehow lit the fire in an aggressive manner.

"𝘐'𝘮 𝘰𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘥." Kurama grumbled in Naruto's mind sounding not at all offended. Naruto laughed again.

"I'll take first watch." He offered, still chuckling. Neither Kakashi nor Rin objected as they cuddled in their sleeping bags and fell asleep as easily as Obito had. Minato stayed awake with the blonde.

"You can sleep too, ya know. I'll wake you when it's your turn." Naruto said to the other blonde. Minato scowled at him.

"You said that last night too, but you never did, you may have good stamina, but you've got to sleep sometime." Minato pointed, he looked at the dark circles under Naruto's contrasting bright eyes.

"I have trouble falling asleep anyway." Naruto confessed.

Minato was having none of it. "Just try for tonight. You will only drag the team down if you are too tired to function." Naruto still hesitated, he sighed in defeat and curled up in his sleeping bag like the others.

"Fine, but wake me if you get sleepy." He insisted before rolling over and closing his eyes.

Contrary to what he said Naruto was asleep in less than ten minutes. Minato snorted. 𝘛𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘧𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘴𝘭𝘦𝘦𝘱? 𝘙𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵. He noted. Then he remembered something. After he had visited with Inoichi he had gone to the library to read up on PTSD so he could better understand, he remembered distinctly that most people who suffer from it would often have vivid nightmares of their trauma.

Minato couldn't help but glance at the teen who was now shifting in his bed. He turned to face Kakashi, stayed that way for a few minutes, then would roll to face the trees. Naruto repeated this countless times through the night and Minato struggled with whether or not to wake him, it was obvious he was having one of these nightmares, but on the other hand he had barely slept a wink since the mission had started. In the end he opted to leave him be. He needed his rest if he was going to be helpful.

One other thing Minato couldn't help but wonder as Naruto was muttering and turning restlessly - 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘚𝘢𝘴𝘶𝘬𝘦?