Ch58. Number nine

Tsunade left Rei and Konan in the closest town to Konoha and they decided to fly the remainder of the way. As they were getting ready to set off, Rei flashed his nature sensing in order to be sure nobody would spot them and quickly put his hand on Konan's shoulder, stopping her.

"There is a group of veeery suspicious people north of us." He told her.

"Okay?" Konan raised her eyebrow, not knowing why should that bother them but Rei had other plans.

"Come, Konan! This is once in a lifetime opportunity!" Rei exclaimed enthusiastically as he grabbed Konan's hand. He didn't think his luck would be this good! To casually stroll on a mission and even stumble on this event!

They both hopped through the trees until they were almost near the group of 'suspicious people.' Crouching down, they watched from foliage as a group of ninja dragged a small exhausted girl. The girl had her hands tied together and under her eyes were big black circles.

"I am going to get her out, you finish the ninjas." He whispered to Konan and gave her a kiss on her cheek before disappearing. Rei appeared in the middle of the ninjas and grabbed the red-haired girl by her waist as he cut the rope. He instantly jumped back, away from them.

"Who are yo-" One of them screamed but didn't manage to finish.

Konan completely surprised the group as it was dark. She enhanced her papers with doton but didn't make them stay white. The paper changed to brown and in the dark, it was almost invisible. As it flew at the group of five ninjas, three were hit whereas the other two actually could use other senses than sight to locate the papers. These three people were hit with the paper...

One's ribcage completely caved in as the paper impacted him, killing him instantly,

Another had a crushed head as the paper hit him in the forehead and unfortunately for the guy, a tree was behind him so his head exploded due to the pressure the paper put it through as it pushed it against the tree trunk before completely felling the tree with a loud 'thud'. It was a quick death.

The third was the unlucky one. He managed to jump away slightly but in mid-air, his foot was hit, snapping it due to the force. He howled in pain as it shattered the bones in his foot and half of his shin. The guy couldn't fight anymore and just rolled on the ground from pain.

The two who survived started to become afraid as they saw their comrades felled almost instantly and looked around. Neither Rei nor Konan could be seen anymore.

Rei landed on the branch Konan was sitting at and put the girl down. Konan noted, the girl looked at the screaming man with sullen anger, enjoying his misery while pouting at her still bound hands. It was almost cute, she thought.

"Well, let's end it then."

Rei shrugged and pointed his finger at one man who was looking for them.

"Raiton: Chain Lightning."

From his finger blue, sparkling lightning connected his finger with the man as the Jutsu colored the dark forest with a blue hue while lightning cracks reverberated through it.

The man was also a raiton user. He was actually very good at raiton and quickly countered the lightning with his own raiton chakra... only strengthening the Jutsu as it rebounded behind him... to his unsuspecting comrade, frying him completely before snapping in the direction of the last man in the clearing. The one with a shattered foot, also killing him.

The man snapped back as the shouts of his fellow jonin filled the clearing and saw that the Jutsu he 'deflected' hit his friend! His eyes widened. He thought the enemy appeared behind him! Shit...

Alas, his back and momentary distraction were too big of an invitation as a suiton bullet drilled through his chest.

"Well, that would be a job-well-done." He sighed and looked at the redhead who timidly watched him with caution in her exhausted eyes.

Before the girl managed to blink, Rei grabbed her by the collar and leaped down from the tree branch followed by Konan.

The girl's heart started beating like crazy but it took time for her mind to reboot and when it did, she found her feet on the ground, the man who saved her smiling at her gently.

She tried to smile back but she was too exhausted and her body collapsed, falling asleep.

Rei caught the falling body of the girl and put her onto the ground.

"So... what's the point of saving her?" Konan asked, coldly staring at the red-head. "She is not some kind of replacement for Ringo, is she?"

Rei rolled his eyes.

"Nope. This girl is special." He took the hem of the girl's shirt and raised it.

"Hmm, are you going to molest the Miss Special then?" Konan asked with an amused voice.

"Of course not!" Rei exasperatedly answered as he put his palm on the girl's bare stomach.

A seal appeared.

"Here we go, Kyuubi jinchuuriki." Rei giddily smiled and half-turned to Konan who was hit with a realization. "Watch the surroundings and wake me up when somebody approaches us. I would loathe anyone seeing what I am gonna do."

Konan understandingly nodded and Rei turned back to the girl, putting a paper with a seal on her belly directly above her seal as he put his hand on the paper and closed his eyes.

...

He appeared before a big golden cage and smirked.

"Heh, so this is Kushina's mindscape? Kinda like Naruto's." He looked around and saw Kushina's form floating on the water surface a few meters away, out cold.

His gaze turned back to the cage, making him smirk.

"Wow. Mito definitely nailed it." He exclaimed as he saw the big boulder and the fox literally nailed by massive spikes to it, chained with chakra chains with many seal tags. As a seal master he knew. This seal would not weaken. It was a masterpiece, to be honest. Created solely to keep the fox in captivity.

Rei walked behind the bars as if he owned the place, approaching the fox that was curiously looking at him.

"Hello, foxie." He smiled.

"Heh, human... I am going to kill you."

Kurama's chakra lunged at Rei, intent to kill clearly visible in it while Rei only smiled as the chakra vanished the second it came close to him. Kurama's eyes widened but then threateningly narrowed. He roared and sent blast after blast at Rei, violently struggling against its bindings in the impotent, mind-numbing rage it felt.

"Noppe." He pleasantly told the fox as he was finished with his objective. He took hold of the seal functions and tightened the 'leash'. Kurama was completely bound to the builder, unable to even exert his massive chakra.

"Well, here I thought this would be an intellectual debacle, ahem, I mean debate. Alas, I gotta go."

And with that, he disappeared from the seal.

"How long was I gone?" He asked Konan as he swiped the paper from Kushina's belly, a smug smile on his face.

"Half an hour. What did you do? Her seal flared with red chakra as your seal absorbed it." Konan asked.

"I am storing some of our nine-tailed friend's chakra for future references. I would do it with sanbi and rokubi back in Kiri but they always have at least one ANBU around. I know I will have the best opportunity later but finding this girl so far from her village... without guards... Hehehe." He let out a creepy laugh which made Konan deadpan.

"Well, a kid is getting closer while some man is being hidden but follows the kid." She stated.

"Ah... already?" Rei nodded and sat near Kushina as he dragged her shirt down. No need to give these two ideas, right? Rei was sure at least one of them would like that.

...

Another twenty minutes when a blond teenager burst from the foliage, flying directly at Rei only to... find his face pressed into the ground as Rei's hand kept it there.

"Punk, nobody ever taught you it is impolite to just jump at people? Who is your teacher? Some sexual offender?" Rei passively asked and could hear someone stumble in the foliage.

This was not yet the Minato Namikaze, the Fourth Hokage. This was a teenager. A hasty one at that.

"I am going to loosen my grip, be a good boy, and don't perv at me too much, kay?"

He could hear a muffled muttering as the boy's head was pressed to the ground and chuckled. The second he let the boy go, he jumped back, landing in a crouch as he unsheathed his tanto.

"Who are you!" The boy asked but Rei ignored him.

"Will the pervy-sage come down alone or is such a strenuous activity too much for you, Jiraiya?"

"Sensei!" Minato was startled as his sensei appeared next to him, his eyes narrowed at Rei. He thought he was hidden well... How did this kid.

Jiraiya was about to jump at the kid when he saw something very disturbing. Thousands of futon papers came floating from all around, felling trees in their path. He stopped in his tracks, knowing this was a very dangerous situation as his eyes trailed to Konan while narrowing. He wasn't afraid for himself. But the two teenagers of Konoha? They would not survive it.

"What do you want..." He sighed.

"I just wanted to know... Minato-kun, is this a mission, or did you really run from the village for her?" Rei jabbed his finger at Kushina.

This was all fishy. If it was a proper mission for reclaiming a jinchuuriki, they would send an entire team of jonin. Not a... genin? Chunin? Whatever he with his lonesome self was.

Just the fact that the losers who kidnapped the girl were supposed to be 'jonin' from Kumo yet fell like flies... Something was fishy here. The idiots were WALKING. Not running away. Not rushing to deliver an important package. They were having a goddamn STROLL.

"That is classified." Jiraiya bit out and Rei laughed.

"Yes, that is clearly a positive answer if I ever heard one." He slapped his knee happily.

"Kid... just don't go out with your 'I didn't help you in the academy because I thought you are a strong tripe', kay? It is a pathetic excuse." Rei snorted, making Minato blush and open his mouth only to close it.

Oh, Rei had no doubt the kid loved Kushina. The fervor he put into his attack as he saw her body lying in front of Rei... He loved the girl, alright. But it was also obviously a recent thing as his hormones started working and she started to look less like a tomboy. During academy, he most likely just didn't care.

"Well, I just wanted to know if Konoha would stoop so low as to manipulate a lonely girl into marrying a ninja who wanted her... well, you being here completely ALONE is a clear answer. If you really rushed out of the village to save her, it would be grounds for defection."

It would fuck up his career somewhat fierce as the kid was an orphan. Sure, Jiraiya could mitigate it but becoming Hokage would be hard if not impossible after that. There was too much politics involved to pick someone who had 'reckless' in his records.

Before they could answer, the chakra ran out and Rei dissolved into the water while Konan into papers, leaving two gaping men and one unconscious tomato lying on the floor.

---

Sooo, you probably noticed I am not going for Kushina.

Reason 1: Plot. Yup. It's that simple.

Reason 2: I just do not like her character. Her adult character looks... dunno, never really liked it. And that's not talking about her personality...

Reason 3: Had no inspiration as to what to do with her. I wasn't about to write about MC and another woman... Too much work.

Now: It might look like MC left her in the clutches of manipulative people and he did. He owed the girl nothing. But in this story (even if it is not important) Minato loves Kushina and Kushina will fall in love with him regardless of him saving her. Period.