38

Chapter 38: loathe the way they light candlesChapter Text

He ends up at the shores of Uzushio once again, like a ghost returning to haunt the house where it died.

There are no answers waiting for him here. No comfort or strength or great cosmic revelations. But Uzushio is hidden. It is safe. Abandoned. There are no people or judgement or expectations. No reason for him to be Namikaze Raijin or Uzumaki Naruto or anyone in between.

Here, he is allowed to simply…be.

Kurama is worried, he can tell. The old fox bullies his way to the front of his mind, filling it with his presence and pressing close to his skin as if to remind him that he is not alone. Never alone. They are closer than skin and bone and blood. Nothing he faces he will ever face by himself. He clings to the comfort, receding into the safety of his friend's presence a little and allowing himself to disappear into the confines of his own mind. Kurama will watch to make sure nothing bad happens to them. Kurama will keep him safe.

All he has to do is exist.

He floats away.

Shimura Danzou's posthumous trial marks a historically public affair for Konohagakure; a spectacle the likes of which Shikaku has never seen for himself.

It's almost like something out of a play the way things unfold one after the other. Shimura Danzou is revealed to have been assassinated in the heart of his own shadowy organisation. Namikaze Raijin is the killer and is apparently on the run. The Councilman then turns out have a long, long list of crimes under his belt, bloodline theft being just one among the several counts of murder, sabotage, abduction, etc.

The man falls from grace seemingly overnight with massive public outcry against him as the people demand the blood of a dead man who wronged them over and over again for the sake of his own perfect utopia.

Judgement on Namikaze Raijin is far more divided, however. Since the proceedings of the trial are extensively reported on due to the high-profile nature of the case, the court of public opinion unfortunately does hold quite a bit of weight. Whether it is fair or not, there is a large amount of politics at play here.

On one hand, Raijin saved thirty-four children and killed a traitor to the village. He did stage a semi-hostile takeover of ROOT's headquarters to do so, but he employed tactics to clearly minimise collateral damage as much as possible, using relatively harmless pranks to inconvenience or incapacitate. While a fair few ROOT agents are injured, only three of them died during the whole affair—two under a structural collapse, and one by Raijin's hand during a confrontation in Danzou's office.

On the other hand, he also decided to take matters into his own hands instead of approaching the proper channels despite his brother literally being the highest authority in the village and essentially assassinated a village elder while holding over three hundred shinobi hostage for almost two hours. For a shinobi with his strength and influence to go rogue despite how famously Minato dotes on his brother, it would set a dangerous precedent and raise all sorts of unwanted questions that could threaten the stability of Minato's office.

The boy is simultaneously being hailed as a hero and a criminal. A messiah and someone to regard with caution all at once.

There are some who are questioning the Hokage's trustworthiness seeing how his own brother refused to approach him for help. A part of the civilian faction is trying to turn the issue into one of ethics and spark enough controversy to possibly wrestle some of the power away from the shinobi stronghold. The Sandaime's public image has taken a steep nosedive as he is brought under immense scrutiny for giving Danzou all his power in the first place. He has made a public apology, but given the sheer scale of his negligence, no one seems too inclined to grant him forgiveness. It is expected that he will be forced into an unofficial exile for his own safety.

And here Shikaku is now, called to the stand at the trial to throw in his own ryo's worth opinion since he's the one who shadowed Raijin on his qualifying missions what feels like a lifetime ago.

"Your report states that you considered Namikaze Raijin to be a valuable asset to the village's forces, Nara-dono," Yamanaka Tooru—Raijin's court appointed lawyer even in the Namikaze's absence says. "Can you elaborate on what made you think so?"

"He's a good shinobi," Shikaku states simply, shrugging. "He's a powerhouse with a well-rounded offensive skillset and a charismatic leader to boot. We were at war and in need of all the help we could get, especially from powerful young people like Raijin. It was a logical conclusion."

Tooru hums. "And was there anything that stood out to you as strange at the time? I understand part of your job was to scope him out as a potential threat or spy."

Shikaku pauses and considers. "It is my belief that Raijin has received the training of a Konoha shinobi despite his previous unaffiliated status."

Pale eyes gleaming, Tooru presses, "Why do you believe that?"

"A couple of reasons." Shikaku leans back in his chair and wishes he could light his pipe. "For one, his taijutsu uses Konoha's traditional style as a foundation. He also knew our handsigns and codes without needing to be taught. Raijin had extensive knowledge of clan techniques and bloodline limits since he utilised his teammates' abilities with high efficiency, again without receiving the information beforehand."

"Namikaze is said to have excellent information gathering skills. Could these be the source for all the discrepancies you mentioned?"

He shakes his head. "It wouldn't explain the instinctive use. You don't get that without years of experience."

Tooru dips his head. "Thank you, Nara-dono. That will be all." While Shikaku vacates the witness stand, the lawyer turns to the overseeing judge and requests, "May I please call Uchiha Kokomi as my next witness, your honour?"

The judge—retired kunoichi, Sawamura Yumi—gives her approval. Shikaku glances at the Uchiha inspector as she passes him on her way to the stand, eyebrow rising in interest. He has to admit, the court proceedings have certainly been far from dull as he'd feared when he'd been informed that he was invited to participate as an important witness.

Uchiha Kokomi settles in the seat he just vacated, face impassive and posture immaculate as the Uchiha are known for. Looking at them, you'd never think this is the clan that is pretty much clamouring to adopt Namikaze Raijin as one of their own for killing Shimura, leading the faction that supports bringing Raijin back to the village without any consequences for the assassination.

Rather notably, Minato himself has remained tight-lipped about his own thoughts on the matter, dodging all the demand for a statement and only concerning himself with the police investigation as a witness. He even abstained from presiding over the trial as the judge which is the usual protocol for a case of this importance, only saying that it wouldn't be fair as he could not be objective and appointing Yumi in his stead.

"Uchiha-san, please inform the court of your role in the investigation process for this case."

"I am the deputy lead detective," Kokomi answers evenly. "Fugaku-dono could not be here himself due to a family emergency."

Family emergency being his wife going into labour. Not like anyone here doesn't already know.

Tooru nods. "You are the one who confirmed that the chakra signature and DNA found at the scene belonged to Namikaze, yes?"

"Correct."

"And it was you who found an anomaly in the accused's signature too?" Tooru waits for Kokomi to nod before continuing, "Could you please explain for the jury the nature of this anomaly, Uchiha-san?"

Kokomi turns her gaze to the jury in question, composed of the clan heads not directly involved in the matter and elected civilian representatives. "Namikaze Raijin's chakra signature readings are similar to our recorded readings of the jinchuurikis' signatures," she states bluntly. Unfazed by how the court immediately explodes into a flurry of whispers at the reveal, she continues, "His chakra undoubtedly resonates with that of the Kyuubi's. It isn't identical, of course. His is too yang-dominant. Almost entirely composed of it, actually. And the blend is far more seamless than observed in any of our jinchuuriki. Like someone isolated the yang chakra from the Kyuubi and sealed it into him at birth."

From the jury, Chouza and Inoichi glance at Shikaku with thinly veiled shock. Helplessly, Shikaku shrugs back at them. He doesn't have any more idea than they do. All of this is news to him, after all, with how tightly the Uchiha are monitoring their case information to prevent any leaks. Honestly, this case just gets crazier every day the proceedings continue.

Tooru passes copies of the forensic report to the judge and jury for their perusal before turning back to Kokomi. "Of course, unfortunately, we cannot ask the accused himself for the reason his chakra signature reads as such. Do the Police Force have any idea though?"

From the shrewd way Kokomi's eyes narrow at Tooru, it's obvious the police have something in mind. Shikaku leans forward in his seat. Another revelation?

"We uncovered entries in the journal of Danzou's scientific pursuits regarding the jinchuuriki and how the Kyuubi's chakra merges with theirs," she admits at last. "There is some record of attempting to artificially synthesise a jinchuuriki of his own, though the experiment has very little coverage and there is no note on whether it was a success or failure. We do know that Uzumaki DNA was desired in an attempt to recreate their vitality and resilience to the Kyuubi's chakra that is too corrosive for most other shinobi, but again, whether the experiment succeeded or not is inconclusive."

Holy shit.

"The Police Force tested Raijin's DNA to try and find for themselves whether he could possibly be linked to these experiments," Tooru announces, handing the file of the results to the judge and jury. "As you can see, though the blood samples are not ideal due to age, possible contamination and insufficient quantity, they did receive enough of a positive match when tested against the DNA of Uzumaki Kushina that there is no question of some sort of relation between the two."

Holy shit.

Chouza discretely signs '58% match' for his benefit in the Ino-Shika-Cho code their families have used for generations of the alliance. That's basically second or third generation relatives based on a dodgy blood sample.

Looking smug as the cat that got the canary, Tooru turns back to the judge. "I would have liked my next witness to be Namikaze Minato, but unfortunately, the honourable Hokage has declined from making a court appearance due to personal reasons. He has, however, kindly allowed us to reveal the transcript of his interview with the Police Force."

Oh, what's this now? How is Minato's interview relevant to this angle that Raijin's lawyer is chasing?

As it turns out, it is in fact relevant due to their Hokage's recorded testimony that, in their final confrontation, his brother essentially confirmed that he had been personally familiar with Shimura Danzou even prior to his immigration to Konoha.

So suddenly, they are being confronted with the possibility that Raijin has in fact been some tragic victim of unethical experimentation at the hands of the village's newest boogey man right from the start, and this was him snapping and killing off his abuser in response to the stress of his sabotaged mission and Uchiha Shisui's poisoning.

Shikaku kind of wants to laugh. The evidence they have been presented with is pretty much circumstantial since there is no real confirming or denying it in Raijin's absence, and in Shikaku's personal experience, Raijin has never reacted to Danzou or ROOT in a way that would suggest such a personal connection. It's an interesting theory that explains some things pretty neatly, but he isn't sure he buys it just yet.

It doesn't matter though. Perhaps it wouldn't have been enough if it had been a closed trial with only a judge overseeing it. As it is, however, Raijin's fate is in the hands of a jury that is more easily influenced by emotional personal tragedies even if they are hypothetical at best. The jury in question is also composed rather heavily of shinobi clan heads who are pretty much all silently banded together against everything Shimura Danzou stands for even if it means standing with the man's killer. Together, it makes all the difference in the world.

Once this hits the papers in the evening, there will be even more public support for the young man who chose to act and kill a traitor instead of waste any more time for 'politics'. It certainly helps that Raijin was famously so happy-go-lucky that no one can truly see him as a murderer despite his impressive military record from the war. As far as most of the village is concerned, he will be a hero.

Shikaku doesn't think that there will be true forgiveness for Raijin, not after how blatantly and successfully he managed to contest Konoha's authority, but it doesn't seem like Yamanaka Tooru is going for that anyway. He didn't plead as not guilty; he's simply going for as much of a reduced sentence as he can get out of the jury by playing at their emotions and political alignment.

With the Uchiha being in charge of airing out all of Shimura Danzou's dirty laundry and being the biggest victims of the bloodline theft, they've been thrust back under the public eye like they haven't since right after the village's founding. Since they're garnering so much sympathy and support, and with Minato actually handing over all the responsibility for the investigation to them, thereby cementing his own silent support, the clans don't want to speak out against Raijin and risk having it be taken as a slight against the Uchiha and the crimes they suffered. Not only would it result in an immediate character assassination in the papers, but it would also piss off the Uchiha and the Hokage.

So, they can't let the boy get off scot-free, but punishing him too harshly wasn't much of an option either. Now, at least, they have an excuse for taking pity on the poor young man who returned to a village he might have been thrown out of or escaped from just to find the man responsible for his misfortune healthy, whole and still in power.

From her seat next to Shikaku, Uzumaki Kushina snorts and leans back in her seat. "We're going to have Rai-kun back here in no time at this rate."

He hums. "I'd wager some community service at the very least," he disagrees. "Of course, they'd have to find and bring him back for that first." He glances at her sideways as he says this.

Kushina's jaw twitches and she crosses her arms. "Minato's working on it," she responds evenly. For someone notorious for her exuberant personality, she certainly knows how to exercise impressive control over herself when she thinks she needs to. Quite like her future brother-in-law in that regard. Makes sense they'd turn out to potentially be related too. "Rai-kun is just freakishly good at hiding."

"He did evade Jiraiya-san for months too," Shikaku comments thoughtfully. "Makes you wonder if he had other reasons for doing that now, doesn't it?"

Violet eyes regard him for a moment of contemplation. "Rai-kun has always been reticent about his past. Even I can't tell what he might have been thinking back then." Pursing her lips, she adds, "Or when he decided to leave the village for that matter."

Shikaku hums, admitting, "I didn't really anticipate that either."

"We knew he wasn't as okay as he seemed," she says softly, "but none of us imagined this. I've never seen Minato so heartbroken."

Softening, Shikaku says, "Understandably. I wonder what he'll think of these new developments."

"I can't say," she shrugs, "but it's not like any of this will change how desperately Minato is trying to find Rai-kun. As far as he's concerned, I think, the one in need of convincing isn't a jury. It's Raijin."

Shikaku frowns, thinking this over. "Well, let's hope it all works out then."

Kakashi is straight up just not having a good time.

Namikaze Raijin assassinated Shimura Danzou and apparently decided to fuck off instead of facing the consequences of his actions. This has the deeply unfortunate side effect of depressing the hell out of both Obito and Minato, who mope around like miserable wraiths without their emotional support fox summoner and resort to clinging to Kakashi more than ever before.

Speaking of Shimura Danzou; it turns out the stupid old horse looking face rag orchestrated the sabotage of the mission that marked Sakumo's fall from grace, and then as if that wasn't enough, exacerbated the rumours flying around the village that ultimately led Kakashi's father to committing suicide. Kakashi might have tried to destroy a training field or two when he found out until Obito came along to trap him in a cuddle pile including all his dogs and Rin's inescapable octopus arms. He still hasn't really finished processing it. It's a can of flesh-eating worms he's just not going to touch for a while. Or ever. Maybe.

Needless to say, Kakashi pretty staunchly joins the campaign voting to bring Raijin back to the village for extremely valid reasons other than it would get Minato to stop looking like he wants to drown in a puddle of his own tears at the earliest given opportunity.

It's not like their sensei really shows it when he's going about his duties as per usual. Minato has a solid poker face and he's freakishly good at avoiding questions from the press or the opposition. In fact, he has chosen to refrain from addressing the situation publicly at all aside from announcing his full cooperation with the investigation process. Privately, however, Minato has clearly taken Raijin's departure hard.

Kakashi knows his sensei blames himself. Minato thinks he should have done more to keep his brother in the village, should have tried to be more reliable or trustworthy or whatever. Kakashi also knows from experience that, sometimes, it doesn't matter how hard you try if the other person simply does not want to be reached. You can love someone as much as you are able, but sometimes, they do not know how to be loved.

Minato could have been the most trustworthy person on the planet but, right from the very start, Raijin never had any intention of telling anyone his secrets.

Which for some fucking reason has resulted in literal divine intervention, and the universe has chosen Kakashi of all people to divulge all of the man's precious secrets to.

Kakashi would appreciate if the universe could work on its mode of communication though. In his opinion, the dreams that make it feel like his soul is quite literally trying to eject itself out of his body are getting really old. Why can't the gods just possess his television or something instead? Hell, Kakashi would accept a carrier pigeon too. The dreams are seriously starting to test his hold on sanity with how immersive and emotionally wrenching they are.

Every time he sleeps, Kakashi feels like he has simply possessed someone else's body and is forced to live their life with them instead of actually getting any useful rest.

Hopefully, his family's wolf summons have useful information for him regarding the dreams though. Kakashi has a feeling that if he solves the mystery behind how his dreams are connected to Raijin, he'll break his curse or whatever it is.

"This Raijin-san of yours," Masumi starts, golden eyes piercing, "he is the one who shifted the balance of your world."

Kakashi stares. "I beg your pardon."

Masumi tilts her head. "There is no need to beg. This information will cost you a vow to me and mine, and a year of offerings to Inari Okami."

"That's not—" Kakashi stops, sighing. "Right. Okay. I'll do that. Will you please explain what you meant by Raijin-san changing the balance of the world or something?"

"Exactly that," Masumi says simply. "You remember I told you that the fate of this realm was forcibly changed and it has affected the other realms too? It was his doing. The kitsune have been bragging to anyone who will listen that their relatives are contracted to The Traveller as the kudan called him before it died."

Man, his head already hurts. Kakashi needs to sit down. He does so, plopping right down on his kitchen floor. "How did he change my world? And why is he The Traveller? What does he have to do with my dreams?"

Masumi blinks her narrow eyes at him. "His existence alone has borne affects you will never grasp, cub," she says finally. "No mortal has ever attempted to do what he has successfully managed. It is no simple thing to intend to change fate and then to actually do so. I myself do not know how, but they are saying that he traversed distances mortals have yet to find a way to cover, all to outwit the Moon Goddess and her hunger for revenge. That he has trapped her in her prison forevermore."

Raijin defeated some sort of Moon Goddess and stuck her in a jail? Just what was that guy up to when no one was looking? When the fuck did he change the world? Where did he come from? Why did he travel? How did he travel? What did he travel? 

Kakashi kind of wants to stick his own head in the freezer. He thinks his brain might actually be smoking.

"Okay," he says, taking a deep breath and raking a hand through his hair. "Okay. You said my dreams are about what the fate of my world could have been, right? So, my instincts have been calling to Raijin-san to warn me that he's the one who caused the change. Is that all it is?"

"I cannot tell you for sure, cub," Masumi answers thoughtfully. "Have you seen The Traveller in your dreams, yet?"

Kakashi frowns. He hasn't actually. He hasn't even heard anyone mention Raijin so far. Not even as a missing nin or something. "Not really."

Masumi's eyes flash but she only rumbles and huffs into his hair. "Well, I'm sure it is only a matter of time before you figure it out. Now, do not forget the offerings to Inari-sama. I had to strike quite the bargain with those pesky foxes to cost you only a year, child."

Sighing, he lets himself to fall face first into Masumi's fur. "I'm going to stay like this forever."

The old wolf snorts, rumbling with laughter as she noses at him fondly. "Very well, cub. Do as you please."

He comes to when Kurama gently prods his consciousness out of their shared haven and coaxes him back into awareness. His friend does not leave, still pressed close to the confine of his skin, holding him together from within, but it is enough to remind him that he is real. That he exists. That he is someone, though he doesn't know how to do that right now.

It isn't something he wants to figure out just yet either. No. He is only going to do the things he wants to do now. Kurama seems to approve of this endeavour too. He thinks he'd like to go for a swim instead actually, so he does. And then he feels hungry, so he fishes. Then he sleeps.

When he wakes, he is itching with the need to move, so he goes for a walk.

Uzushio is as haunted as he feels. The island is under veritable stasis seals so there is no rot, but it doesn't change that everything inside is dead and gone. It…doesn't sit right with him. Everyone here used to be someone just like him. They had names and hopes and dreams. Now they're just dead, on their way to becoming dust. Forgotten. Abandoned. Like they never lived a life before becoming ghosts.

He decides that the least he can do is make sure they can finally rest well in the Pure Lands. Their blood runs through his veins. He is all they have right now. He wants to do this, so he decides he will.

It takes him a while, but with the multiple shadow clone jutsu at his disposal, it is little more than a minor inconvenience at best for him to build as many boats as he is able. Then he spends quite a while hauling all the corpses of his ancestors into said boats before finally pushing each one out to sea personally, murmuring a prayer for their safe arrival to the afterlife.

Uzushio was born of the sea. It makes sense to him to give the island's children back to it too. It doesn't matter that it feels like he has sent off the ghost of who he used to be right alongside all those corpses.

'You did good, kit,' Kurama tells him when they are seeing off the final boat, watching it slowly drift out to sea to join the rest of its fleet. 'You did real good. Let's get some rest now, okay?'

He hums and sits down in the white sand. The sun sets. The tide rises. He floats again.

Minato is trying.

He's trying to forget. To remember. To search and ignore. To keep his head and work and feel his grief. To hold onto a brother that has left him. To let him go in case he never wants to come back.

He doesn't think he's succeeding at any of these things, but—he's trying.

Kushina helps. She holds him together with loving hands and soft words and a softer heart. He knows she must miss him too. Raijin had been hers almost as much as he had been Minato's. But Kushina has always been the stronger of the two.

"Sometimes the people we love cannot stay with us even if they want to, Minato," she tells him, letting him hide in the safety of her embrace. "But that doesn't mean we have to forget. That we have to cut out the space they used to take up. Rai-kun sounds like he needs to be a little lost right now, but that doesn't mean he won't ever find his way back home. And when he does, we'll be right here, waiting for him."

He keeps her words in his mind as he pushes through day after day of no word from his brother or those who have been sent out to look for him.

Shimura Danzou's trial gets wrapped up with ruthless efficiency, his crimes listed publicly so there is no redemption for the man. All his achievements and accolades are revoked. He is branded a traitor of the highest order. His name is smirched from their history books so he may only ever be remembered for how he wronged the village and its people.

Raijin's trial takes longer, but eventually, it too ends. They say that it is highly likely he was an experiment abandoned in childhood by ROOT. That there might have been others like him. If Danzou managed to successfully synthesise Mokuton in a child even after Orochimaru confirms he gave up on the undertaking, there is no telling what else the man might have managed to achieve. They take this into account when deciding on Raijin's sentence and eventually settle on 400 hours of community service to be served with the Uchiha and Akimichi clans.

The debates regarding the fairness of such a sentence are soon lost to the buzz generated by Tsunade announcing the official launch of her programme, and then her decision to adopt Kinoe—the child ROOT managed to give Mokuton to—as a ward of the Senju clan.

Minato…doesn't know what to think about the possibility of Raijin being the victim of one of ROOT's experiments. On one hand, it explains so much about his brother's reticence, his knowledge of the village and its clans, and all his strange abilities. On the other hand, wouldn't Raijin tell Minato something like that? Is this the secret that drove him away? Did Raijin think Minato would somehow not believe or be ashamed of him?

He hates that he can't tell anymore. Once, Minato had been certain Raijin knew how much Minato loves him. How much he'd give just to make his brother happy. These days, he's not so sure.

Minato is terrified that he will love Raijin forever and they won't ever even be in the same room together again. Terrified that he is suffocating under the weight of all this grief, all this love, and somehow it still won't be enough to make Raijin come back. To make him want to stay.

"Minato-sensei!" The door to his home office is thrown open to reveal a red-faced and panting Kakashi, hair mussed from sleep and face twisted into a scowl of determination.

Blinking at his student, Minato sets down the papers he'd been reviewing despite the late hour of the night. "Kakashi-kun? What's wrong?"

"Raijin-san," Kakashi blurts out, all but rocketing to Minato's side. "I think I know where he might have gone!"

His heart stops. Minato stares at Kakashi, refusing to feel even an ounce of the traitorous hope that rears its ugly head within him. "Where?" he tries to ask evenly. It comes out far too full of breath, trembling like his hands. "How do you know?"

"These crazy not-prophetic dreams. Apparently, there's some yokai blood in me or something," Kakashi answers, waving his hand impatiently. "That's all unimportant though. What matters is I think I got the final dream today and everything makes a lot of sense right now but I can't tell you because I'm a little bit yokai so it might cost you something and I don't know how any of that works yet, so you just have to trust me when I say I know where he might have gone."

Minato blinks. He doesn't think he has ever heard Kakashi speak so much in one go. Yokai? Prophetic dreams? "You—How long—?" Minato shakes his head. It doesn't matter right now. They can come back to it later. Right now, there's something bigger to address. "Where?"

"Uzushiogakure," Kakashi answers, clasping his hands together as if to hold them still by force. "That's where it all ends in my dream. I suspect that, for Raijin, it's where all this began."

"What began?"

Kakashi shakes his head. "Worry about that later. I'm almost certain he had to have gone back there after leaving Konoha."

Minato takes a deep breath. His head feel like it has been stuffed full of cotton and left underwater. "Okay," he exhales. "I can have a team dispatched by the morning to go investigate."

"I'm going," Kakashi announces.

"What?"

"I'm going to look for him too," the boy repeats. "It was my dream to begin with. And my ninken can help me with tracking."

"I can go with him."

Minato's head snaps back to the doorway where Kushina has apparently been standing for some time, her face unreadable.

Kakashi turns to her with a frown. "I can go by myself," he argues.

Rolling her eyes exaggeratedly, she pushes off the doorway and strolls in leisurely. "You won't even be able to get past the barrier around the island, half-pint," she drawls. "You're going to need an Uzumaki if you want to have any shot at looking for Rai-kun there."

Minato rises to her feet, drawing closer to take her by the hand, searching her face. "Are you sure, Kushina?" His eyes drift down to where her pregnancy is making itself known rather obviously. "Will you be alright?"

Kushina smiles reassuringly at him, gently patting his cheek. "Don't you worry about me, Minato," she says, her chakra twining around his with all its vastness and familiar velvety texture. "I can handle a bit of travelling just fine. Jinchuuriki are resilient, you know. Besides, I know you're always only a summon away."

"You mean I'm going to be stuck with a crazy pregnant lady for however long this takes?" Kakashi scowls.

Kushina's smile becomes frozen on her face even as Minato sighs and shakes his head. "Keep that up and the only thing you're going to be stuck in is your coffin, you little shit."

"Whatever," Kakashi huffs, obviously making a face. "I was going to leave by sunrise."

"I'll be there," Kushina promises. "Let's go make sure Rai-kun knows he still has people waiting for him to come back."

'What is your favourite colour?' Kurama asks out of the blue as they sit on the roof of Uzushio's city hall to watch the sunrise together.

"Orange," he answers slowly.

'What do you value most?'

He pauses. "Peace."

'Would you ever marry someone for their money?'

"No....?"

Kurama presses on. 'What was the best phase of your life?'

"Training with Team 7."

'What are words you will always live by?'

Automatically, "Those who abandon their friends are worse than trash." He frowns. "Is there a point to all this?"

Kurama mentally swats at him. 'I'm trying to make you see that you're someone with likes and dislikes and beliefs and a past. You're still a person, kit. Just as annoyingly human as the rest of your insufferable species.'

He swallows. "I don't even truly have a name anymore, Kurama."

'You are not your name. It isn't something you become. It's yours only if you want it to be and you can choose whether it sticks or not,' Kurama argues. 'Whether you are Naruto or Raijin isn't ever going to change that you are you. The kid who loves orange and his friends and gave everything for peace. You can't set aside the sum of your life's experiences just like that; not when they've literally shaped who you are.'

He exhales sharply. "But what's the point if no one will truly know those things about me?"

'I know these things about you. Even more importantly, you know these things about you. Isn't that what matters?' Kurama says, far gentler than he has ever been with his jinchuuriki. 'No one else gets to choose who you are and who you will become.'

Sullenly, the blond wraps his arms around himself. "I don't know who I will become either," he admits, whispering.

Just as quietly, Kurama says, 'Then let's go find out.'

He thinks about it for a long moment, listening to the silence of the island. Finally, he asks, "How?"

'What is one thing you have always wanted to do? Something meant just for you and your own joy?'

He considers this. Then sheepishly, "I've always wanted to try the different kinds of ramen around the continent."

Kurama lets out a bark of startled laughter, his amusement leaking over to his partner through their emotional link. 'Let's start with that then. It's not like anything is keeping you anymore.'

Humming, the blond inclines his head. "True," he murmurs. "I have nothing but time."