Seal Shatter – Chapter 27: Shades of the Past

The sun had set and the stars and the moon ruled the sky.  The night was still young and most villagers were eating dinner or just going out for the night.  The bars were starting to fill up with all kinds of patrons from the day laborers to the shop keepers to the ninja.

The infamous Ino-Shika-Cho trio drifted into their favorite tavern and monopolized a table set into the back in the shadows.  They each ordered a drink and Chouza ordered some food.  When their orders were delivered, each of them savored a few sips of their drinks before leaping into discussion.

“That was insane!” Inoichi sputtered.

“Yes, it was a little strange,” Chouza agreed.

“A little?!”

“Troublesome,” Shikaku grunted.  “You’re just worked up over that can of prank snakes.”

“Shut up!” Inoichi huffed.  “Don’t tell me that you two didn’t flinch when those things popped out.”

Shikaku rolled his eyes.  “If you didn’t notice, that whole meeting was off.”

“I noticed,” Inoichi grumbled.  “I was paying attention the same as you.  What do you make of it, Mr. Brainiac?”

“Hard to say,” Shikaku shrugged.  “I haven’t seen enough to do more than make stabs in the dark—”

“Hey there!” a brash voice interrupted.  The three men looked up to find the feral grin of Inuzuka Tsume glittering at them.  “Mind if I join ya?”

Inoichi squirmed.  “Uh—”

“Thanks!” she cackled and pulled up a chair to their table.

“…What brings you here, Tsume?” Chouza asked politely.

“Talking to Aburame gives me a headache, Hyuuga’s too prickly, and Uchiha…I don’t know her that well.”  She flashed them a toothy grin.  “But you guys are fun and smart!  You’d know what’s going on with our dear Hokage-sama.  And you stayed behind, didn’t ya?  You know just a little bit more…”

“He pranked Inoichi,” Shikaku muttered into his beer.  “He found out some things that he told Ino, he scared the crap out of him, and then he sent him off with a warning.”

“Fake snakes popped out of a can that looked like it had peanuts in it,” Chouza added cheerfully.

Tsume guffawed.  “Ha, wish I’d seen that!”

“Shut up!” Inoichi hissed.  “It wasn’t that funny!”

“Yes it was,” Shikaku and Chouza countered.

“Heh, okay kids, no fighting now,” the Inuzuka woman snickered.

Inoichi slumped in his chair.  “Whatever, can we get back to the important stuff?”

“Fine,” Shikaku yawned.  “As I was saying, I’m only making stabs in the dark here, but it’s obvious that something is different.”

The Yondaime they were familiar with wouldn’t have cut Homura off when he tried to give his summary before the meeting; he would’ve sat and patiently listened even though he didn’t need to hear it.  The Yondaime they knew would’ve seemed unhappy, on edge, restless; not cool, calm, and confident.  Their Yondaime wouldn’t have pulled a prank on anyone for any reason.

“Well, duh!” Tsume scoffed.  “Even Kuromaru noticed he was different.  The question is why?”

Shikaku stared into his drink.  “Something happened to him, somewhere between the Sand-Sound strike and his return to office, that’s led to a shift in personality.  Tsunade-sama likely had nothing to do with it as she’s only recently arrived.  That leaves whatever Orochimaru did to him, and what the Uzumaki boy was rumored to have done to him.”

“Do you think…” Chouza began hesitantly.  “Do you think that…that had any effect on Hokage-sama?  There were all kinds of rumors that that Naruto boy…unleashed some of it on him.”

“I doubt it,” Shikaku snorted.  “It either would’ve killed him outright, or changed him a lot, and for the worse.  You can’t say that he’s changed for the worse…”

“Not yet anyway,” Tsume grunted.  “I can’t complain with what I saw today.  We need someone who isn’t afraid to kick a little ass and not worry about stepping on toes.”

“What if he steps on your toes, Tsume-san?” Chouza wondered.

“I’ll get over it,” she shrugged and waved a server over to order a drink.

“Troublesome,” Shikaku muttered.  “The only way to do more than guess at what’s going on is to gather more information, and the least troublesome way to go about it is to ask Hokage-sama himself.  The worst that can happen is that he won’t tell us anything.”

“Yeah,” Tsume nodded.  “So who’s gonna ask?”

“…I’ll do it,” Inoichi grumbled.  “I should let him know that I’ve had a little talk with Ino-chan…and I’d like to know who she told to get it to him so damn fast.”

“While you’re there, could you…find out more about the Hokage’s assistant?” Chouza asked hesitantly.

The three others stared at him.

“You’re married Chouza, why do you want to know about a single woman?” Inoichi frowned.

The Akimichi’s round cheeks flushed in embarrassment.  “It’s not—that’s not what I—”

“Relax,” Shikaku groaned.  “Inoichi’s just being stupid…again.”  He punctuated that statement by smacking the Yamanaka upside the head.

“Ow!” Inoichi whined.

“Why the curiosity?” Tsume asked bluntly.

“It’s just…I’m sure that I know her from somewhere else, but I can’t remember where,” Chouza sighed.

“Not this again,” the Yamanaka complained.  “It’s always ‘I know her from somewhere…’ but he never remembers where.  She’s been his assistant since forever.  You’re probably just remembering her from the first few years she started working for him…or something.”

“I’m sure that’s not it,” Chouza insisted.

“Whatever, whatever,” Inoichi mumbled into his glass.  “I’ll ask if I remember to.”

Tsume smirked as her drink arrived and glanced at Inoichi.  “…So, did you scream like a girl when Hokage-sama got ya?”

Inoichi laid his head on the table and moaned.  “God, I need to get drunk…”

***

The village streets were deserted as the sun set and stained everything an unnerving red.  A strong but brief tremor rumbled through the ground, making windows rattle and a few things break.  He shuddered at the eerie atmosphere and hurried into the hospital, the one place in the entire village that remained occupied and thoroughly busy.

Doctors and nurses rushed every which way, their faces grim and their eyes wide with fear.  Any patient who could be moved from the hospital was evacuated to leave room for the flood of wounded that was sure to arrive.  The only thing that interrupted the panicked bustle of preparation was the infrequent shudders of the ground underneath their feet.

A monster was coming.

All the villagers had fled into the caves and tunnels to escape it.  The hospital was bracing for the death that it would bring.  And every ninja who could be gathered was trying to stop it…

We’re going to die, he thought bleakly as he wormed his way through the hospital hallways.  We’re all going to die.

It was little comfort that the Hokage had a plan to stop it.  The old man’s idea was so dangerous and cruel that it was a move of last desperation.  But with every passing moment, it became ever clearer that this option of last resort was the only option.

He reached a private waiting room and bowed to the elderly man who sat there, worn and weary and puffing dejectedly at his pipe.

“Hokage-sama,” he murmured.

“Minato,” the Hokage sighed.  “How goes things?”

“No better than my last report,” he answered unhappily.

With his Hiraishin ability, he could warp back and forth from the village to the battlefront with the demon to ferry news and orders from the village leader.  With all the other details worked out for the suicidal jutsu, like the complex knot of seals, Jiraiya took over commanding the front.  This allowed the old man to rest and search for the last ingredient necessary for his “last resort” option.  

“It’s still advancing,” he continued grimly.  “And our losses continue to climb.”

The aging Hokage nodded sadly and took another drag on his pipe.

“Sandaime-sama,” he inquired hesitantly.  “How goes your search?”

“Nowhere,” the old man muttered with a sad shake of his head.  “Every family that I’ve spoken with has flatly refused.  I still have a few walking-wounded making inquiries, but…I’m afraid we’ll have to start searching records of orphanages to see if there are any children young enough—”

“Hokage-sama!” a young ninja with his arm in a sling gasped as he skidded into the room.  “I think–I think I found a volunteer!  She wants to talk to you.”

“Alright,” the Sandaime nodded, not at all relieved that he might have found the vessel that they needed.  “I shall see her momentarily.  Minato, return to Jiraiya, but don’t get his hopes up over this.”

He nodded and left the room.  He could’ve used his special teleporting jutsu to leave, but he hated it as he always feared that he’d rematerialize half-way in a wall or a tree so he tried to wait until the last possible moment to use it.  And in this case, he worried about reappearing too close to the demon fox every time he flitted back to the battlefront.

Well, I wanted to be useful again, he reminded himself bitterly as he leapt onto the hospital roof and stared off at the horizon that hid the raging nine-tailed fox.  Now I have my wish…

The idea of willingly returning to the vicinity of a giant, nine-tailed, fire-breathing fox was insane.  Its rage and blood lust was a tangible thing in the air that made it hard to breathe, hard to think.  But ninja were fighting it and dying and the least he could do to help was be a seal designer and play messenger boy.

Sucking in a deep breath, he visualized a seal marker and gathered his chakra—

***

—And hit the floor.

“Ow,” Minato grunted, his legs still on the bed and tangled with the sheets.  “Urgh.”

Scrubbing a hand over his face, he slid the rest of the way off his bed and extracted himself from his bed sheets.  He laid on his back for a minute before struggling up the will to get to his feet and get his day started.  His “dream” lingered in his mind as he trudged into the shower.

I was a coward, he frowned.  But at least I did something.  I didn’t just sit and hide, or just write the seal and then sit back and do nothing.

His frown deepened as a greater source of guilt seeped through him.

I wasn’t there for her at all.  She was pregnant all by herself, she had Naruto all by herself, and she raised him for the first few years all by herself regardless of the added burden of the Kyuubi.  It’s a miracle that she wanted anything to do with me after all of that…

Uzumaki Kushina was a strong woman to do all that and then go and forgive him.

I love her so much…  I wonder if there’s any way to make all those years of loneliness up to her.  …I don’t think there’s enough chocolate and ramen in the world to cover that.

It was a pity that Itachi had already killed Orochimaru, because Minato ached to snap the snake’s neck…

And speaking of Itachi, he needed to decide what he was going to do with the Uchiha.  When interviewed, Itachi freely gave up damning information on the secret organization known as “Akatsuki”.  He gave detailed profiles on all the active members, what demons had been collected so far and how it had been done, and the individual responsible for loosing the Kyuubi on the village years ago.

To think that that man is still alive and still able to bend a beast like the demon fox to his will…  Minato shivered and stepped out of the shower.  I hope that the chaos that Itachi left in his wake will buy us a lot more time.

Itachi was one of the most powerful and skilled ninja he had.  Killing him for his “crimes” would be a waste.  But should he just release Itachi and leave him in exile again?  Or was there a way to allow him to remain in the village?

When I dreamed of this position, I never dreamed I’d have to make such choices…

***

Tsunade glowered as she marched to the Tower.  She could be hiding out in a bar getting drunk right now, but Minato had requested a meeting with her.  Shizune had found out about it and bullied the blonde woman into staying sober and keeping her appointment.

I shouldn’t even still be in this village! she groused.  Minato isn’t a brain-damaged vegetable so there’s no reason for me to be here.  I’ve fulfilled my end of the bet so I should just leave…

But she would meet with Minato, the Hokage, before she left.  It would be like a good-bye.  And then she would leave before something—the patients at the hospital or that sneaky brat who’d run off with her necklace—found a way to tie her down.

She shook her head at one patient in particular.  Out of a morbid sense of curiosity, she’d gone and consulted on the patients that the doctors had wanted her to and found the most frustrating to be Rock Lee.  She’d been blunt about what he should do, yet he—and Maito Gai, damn him!—insisted on finding some way to remain a ninja.  The boy shouldn’t even be a ninja in the first place with how malformed his chakra coils were.

Stupid, stupid, stupid!

Still fuming, she strode into the Hokage’s office, brown eyes spitting sparks.

To his credit, Minato only flinched a little when he met her eyes.

“Good morning, Tsunade-sama,” he nodded politely.  “Would you like something to drink?  Tea?  Coffee?”

“If you’re not offering sake I’m not interested,” she growled.  “Get to the point, please.”

“Alright,” he sighed and set aside the papers that he’d been reviewing.  “I’ve seen various estimates of the debts that you’ve accrued and even the most conservative calculations are terrifying.  What do you plan to do about those?”

“I think since my usual strategy has worked pretty well all these years I’d just stick with that.”

Minato gave her a sad look, a mixture of pity and disappointment.  It reminded her of the look the Sandaime, her former teacher, had worn when he’d let her leave the village.  Tsunade wanted to punch that look off Minato’s face.

“What do you suggest I do then?” she snapped.

“Well, unfortunately the village can’t absorb all your debt, and your clan’s resources are all but gone, but there remains one possibility.  I’ve arranged to meet with the Daimyo in a few weeks to update him on the status of the village…and I could ask him to cover the parts of your debts that the village can’t.”

Her eyes narrowed.  “You would persuade the Daimyo of Hi no Kuni to pay off my debts?”

“I’m certain he’ll have some requests of you if he agrees, such as being his personal physician for a set number of years and the like.”  He flashed her a confident grin.  “I’m sure that he’ll at least consider helping.  You are a woman of great renown…and I think that he’ll like bragging to his friends that he has you at his command.”

“And what would you demand of me if I were to agree to your plan?” Tsunade frowned.

“No more gambling with money you don’t have,” he replied.  “That’s the most important thing.  Gaining new debts undoes any work done to remove the old debts.”

It wasn’t an unexpected order, but that couldn’t be all.  “And what else?”

“You’ll work in the hospital for half pay to make up for all the money that’ll be needed to cover your debts,” he continued.  And then he pulled out an older-looking report.  “In fact, I went over your old proposal for a new medic-training program and dedicated medic corp. and I like it.  If you’re still interested, I’d like to give you the chance to put it into practice.”

Tsunade’s breath caught in her throat.  One of the things she’d argued and fought for, something she’d dreamed to do for years, and he was going to let her do it?  It was hard to believe.

“You’d let me?” she breathed.  “When that old fool wouldn’t?”

“Name calling isn’t very nice,” Minato frowned slightly.  “Hiruzen-sama liked your idea, it just wasn’t the time to try and implement it.  When you first made your proposal, the village was in the middle of a war.”  He smiled.  “Now, on the other hand, while things are a bit tense, we are not at war.”

“But…”  Her mind spun in several different directions.  “I’m not much of a medic anymore.  Blood makes me freeze up.”

“Shizune-san can help you when real blood comes up, can’t she?” Minato suggested.

“I suppose she could…” she muttered.  And Shizune certainly would love a chance to stay here.  She’s been gone so long.  She’s been having trouble finding many of her old friends.

But what about the ghosts—Nawaki, Dan, all the souls that she couldn’t save?  They’d still haunt her.  And all the happy villagers that hadn’t a care in the world while ninja fought and died for them.  It pissed her off.  That led her to drink and gamble—but if she stayed, she couldn’t gamble—and blood, it—

“You don’t have to decide today,” Minato reassured her, resting a comforting hand on her shoulder (When did he get up from behind his desk?).  “My meeting with the Daimyo is two weeks away.”

“You’d like me to stay, wouldn’t you?” she sighed, glancing away from him and out of the many office windows at the village skyline.

“Of course!  You’re the best doctor I’ve ever had; I missed you when you left.  And,” he added with an innocent look, “you’re the only woman who can keep Jiraiya-sensei in line.”

She had to laugh at that.  Minato was just as she remembered him.  He’d grown into a fine man, but was still as sweet and adorable as the boy she’d first met years ago.

He doesn’t have to take the candy from the baby; he can talk the baby into giving him the candy.

“…I’ll think about it,” she agreed.

“Thank you,” he smiled gratefully.

And the Iwa-nin thought his special kunai were his most effective weapon…