Chapter Text
… or at least that was what he hoped. It was evening when the group made it to the village. The moment they made it through the gates they were running to the hospital. Minato hurried through the streets with a team of Anbu tailing after him. (They made quite the spectacle; what with Minato carrying an unknown man covered in blood and grime through the streets of Konoha.) He danced around the civilians whilst trying not to jostle Naruto too badly. Upon his arrival at the hospital Minato announced to the nearest nurse, a young woman with brown hair and a kind face, that his friend was in desperate need of care. Before Minato knew it Naruto was being carted off into the nearest operation room.
He sat down in the lobby with a tired sigh. He ran a hand down his face. Everyone except the Anbu were giving him a wide berth. Now that Minato had a moment of peace he realized that he was quite dirty. There were twigs in his hair and his back was drenched in sweat along with some blood from carrying Naruto. He stunk to high heaven and could honestly understand why no one was willing to be near him.
Yak spoke up, “Minato, we should head to the Hokage’s office as soon as possible.” He paused and took in Minato’s appearance, “You might want to change soon too,” he said with a slight chuckle.
Minato shot Yak an annoyed glance and sent a twig flying towards his face. He dodged it of course, furthering Minato’s annoyance.
“Fine, fine,” Minato got to his feet and started walking. The group fell into friendly banter as they traveled through the village via the rooftops. When they were near enough to the tower they launched themselves through the open window of the Hokage’s office.
Hiruzen Sarutobi rubbed his temples as the group of five landed in his office, already feeling the oncoming headache they were sure to bring him. He muttered something about Shinobi needing to learn how to knock before looking towards the open window. Acknowledging their presence.
Minato stood at attention, “Lord Third, please excuse my tardiness. I ran into a little bit of trouble during my mission.”
Hiruzen sighed, “Care to enlighten me as to what happened?”
“Well, I had no problems arise during the mission itself. In fact, it was probably one of the best I’ve ever had.” Minato admitted with a smile before continuing with a slight scowl on his face, “Of course, life never works out how you want it to, so that didn’t last much longer. Shortly after I contacted you last I ran into a team of Shinobi in Kusagakure. We engaged in a short battle ending in my favor. After I traveled two-ish more miles, the air changed.” Minato became more and more serious with each word. “Lord Third, I’d never felt anything like it before. It went deadly silent and the air was gone. It felt like my lungs were on fire. The forest I was in changed into a bleak blue landscape, and I was floating. I don’t know how much time passed before everything went back to normal. Then the sky above me opened up, revealing an intricate white seal. The next thing I knew I was tied up with a stranger in an Iwagakure base.”
Sarutobi wore a puzzled and slightly concerned expression, he had heard and experienced many things in life, but he had never learned of anything like this before.
“The stranger, Naruto Uzumaki, got me out.” He gave the Hokage a meaningful look, “I thought all of the Uzumaki were dead. Kushina thinks all of the Uzumaki are dead. Imagine how happy she’ll be to learn that she might have family out there?”
“Minato? Where is this ‘Naruto Uzumaki’?” The Hokage asked.
Minato released a tired sigh, “Naruto is currently in our hospital. I dropped him off before I came here. He wasn't in very good condition. He looked like he came straight from a horrible battle. I couldn’t just leave him after he helped me escape the Iwa-ninja.”
The Hokage leveled Minato with a thoughtful look, “Do you think that Naruto could have anything to do with what happened while you were in Kusagakure?”
“…”
Hiruzen took that as answer enough. He looked towards Panda, “Tell Inoichi and Shikaku to meet me at the hospital in the morning.” He looked back towards Minato, "Hold off on telling Kushina anything. Go ahead and go home to get some rest. You're all dismissed." He announced to the rest of the group.
Minato turned and jumped out of the window and onto the nearest rooftop. He thought about what Sarutobi had said while he ran home (he couldn't wait to be clean again!) He hadn't thought about Naruto having something to do with the blue space and seal. Naruto did show up at a rather coincidental time, and Minato hadn't sensed anything that would hint towards a fight deadly enough to leave Naruto with wounds like his- he walked through the door; Kushina wasn't home. Although, Naruto didn't seem to bear any ill intent towards him. Quite the opposite in fact. Naruto had gotten them both out of the cave even though he was injured.
Minato rubbed his head. There was so much to think about, and he was too tired to do the thinking. Once he finished cleaning up and eating he wrote a small note letting Kushina know that he would be at the hospital and left it on the table. He grabbed a quick change of clothes and left. He quickly checked in at the visitor's center and went to Naruto's room. He fell fast asleep as soon as he sat down.
Little did Minato know, he had a whirlwind of children coming his way.
***
Meanwhile-
Obito was in a complete panic as he ran through the village looking for Kakashi and Rin.
He had been helping an old lady bring her groceries home from the market when he heard someone talking about Minato's arrival in Konoha. He was ecstatic his sensei was back from his mission! ...That was until he heard whispers of Minato arriving half dead and drenched in blood being carried to the hospital by a team of Anbu! (Ah, the Konoha rumor mill...) He of course finished helping the old lady before running around in a crazed frenzy looking for his teammates.
He threw himself around a corner and crashed into a young girl whose potatoes and onions went flying.
"Sorry! Sorry about that," he yelped as he quickly gathered the scattered vegetables.
"Obito? Obito! What's wrong?" Rin asked with wide eyes as she watched Obito crawl on the floor picking up what was supposed to be her dinner.
Obito froze and proceeded to drop everything he had picked up. "It's you!" He exclaimed as he scrambled to his feet. Obito grabbed Rin's wrist and started running again. Rin yelped in surprise.
"Rin! We have to find Kakashi!" He cried out as he pushed his way through the crowds.
"Obito, what's going on?" Rin asked, her voice filled with fear. Don't get her wrong, she was plenty used to Obito's antics, but he didn't normally act like this. Something must be horribly wrong!
Obito looked back at her with unshed tears in his eyes, "It's sensei! He's in the hospital half dead! We have to find Kakashi!"
Rin's eyes widened even more, "Sensei's dead?!" She asked in complete distress. Obito didn't correct her. Rin took the lead, "Kakashi will be at the training ground! Let's hurry!"
As the training ground came into view Obito released Rin's wrist and threw himself at an unsuspecting Kakashi, his tears began to fall as a Kunai found its way to his throat.
"Kakashi! Oh, Kakashi!" Obito sobbed, holding onto said boy's leg. Kakashi gave him what had to be the most annoyed look of the century and put his Kunai back in his pouch.
"What the hell is your problem Obito?" He bit out as he tried to pry the sobbing boy off of his leg.
"Kakashi! It's sensei!" Rin cried as she ran towards the pair of boys. Kakashi visibly paled, fear flowing through his veins. He quit fighting Obito.
"W-what about sensei?" He quickly asked, and if Kakashi's voice shook no one commented on it.
Rin's voice cracked as she said, "He's… he's dead!" She broke into tears. "We need to go to the hospital!"
Obito stood up and grabbed their hands as they all ran to the hospital in search of their Sensei.
***
Minato awoke from his peaceful and much needed rest, violently sneezing. Someone was talking about him. A lot of someone's.
He looked towards Naruto making sure that he hadn't woken him up. When Minato saw Naruto cleaned up after leaving the OR he had been surprised to see a head of sunshine yellow hair. He knew that the Uzumaki genes were extremely strong and most if not all of them had red hair. He stood up from the chair he was sleeping in and sent Naruto one more look before leaving the room.
Minato was walking around the lobby drinking a juice box from the vending machines. A group of kids were pestering the receptionist asking for their sensei, and Minato was trying to stay out of the way. He knew from experience with his own team how scary kids could be when they had their minds set on something. He continued walking around avoiding looking at the group.
"Please! You have to let us see him!" A boy asked as big alligator tears ran down his face.
"I'm sorry kid, but our visiting hours are over." The receptionist bit out with a fake smile on her face. "You'll have to come back in the morning."
"Please? He's dead!" A young girl cried to the woman.
"He's dead? Then why aren't you at the morgue?" The lady asked in a clipped tone. She was losing her temper. Fast.
One of the boys sighed and turned around only to cry out, "Sensei?" It was Kakashi.
'Shit' Minato thought 'Those are my students aren't they.' He sighed and looked towards the front desk. He met eyes with Obito. The boy's tears increased ten fold as he launched himself at Minato. The group was receiving dirty looks from everyone in the lobby. It was night time, must they be so loud?
"It's Minato Sensei's ghost! I'm so sorry sensei! I should have been there to save you!" Obito wailed while Minato patted his back. There was only so much he could do when Obito got like this. Although he wondered what led them to believe that he was dead. Oh how he loved Konoha's rumor mill.
Kakashi's face reddened slightly as his anger grew. "Obito! You idiot, you said sensei was dead!" The two boys fell into familiar bickering as Rin ran up to Minato and gave him a hug.
"Sensei! I thought you died." She told him. All he could do was sigh in defeat. His team would never cease to surprise him.
After everyone calmed down Minato and team sat around a small coffee table.
"So Sensei, why are you in the hospital?" Kakashi asked. All eyes were suddenly on Minato.
Minato rubbed the back of his neck as he answered, "While I was coming home I ran into an injured man, so I brought him here." Obito looked slightly disappointed with the answer. They talked for another half hour or so before Minato decided he was too tired to continue.
"Alright, you three need to go home and go to sleep." He instructed the group as he herded them out the main door. "I'll see you guys tomorrow afternoon."
"Ah!" Rin exclaimed as she turned to face Minato. "Kushina was sent on a short mission out of the village. She should be back the day after next." And with that the group of Shinobi were gone.
Minato gave a quick apology to everyone in the room and went back upstairs to go to sleep
He opened his eyes and breathed in a breath of fresh air. When was the last time he had done that? Morning light entered his room through the window perpendicular to his bed. There were four painfully familiar figures in the room with him.
"You're awake?" Hiruzen Sarutobi asked with surprise evident in his voice. Naruto sat up and crossed his legs, his body protesting as he did so. He looked around the room, he seemed to be in the Konohagakure hospital. His gaze settled on each person individually, Hiruzen, Shikaku, Inoichi, and Minato. His chest ached, oh how he had missed these people.
"I'll let you guess," he chuckled and greeted the third Hokage with a tilt of his head. He wouldn't bow to anyone anymore. "How long have I been asleep?" All eyes turned to Minato.
"Two days." He stated simply. "Although, we expected you to be asleep for much longer given how many injuries you have." Minato eyed Naruto's chest.
"Well, you aren't the only one surprised. Normally I'd sleep for a week or two." He admitted and rubbed the back of his neck, a nervous habit.
"A normal man wouldn't have woken up at all." Shikaku pointed out. A painfully awkward silence settled in the room. The four men were each watching Naruto with varying emotions playing in their gazes. Curiosity being the most common.
"We might as well get this over with. No ninja worth their rank wouldn't know what having a Yamanaka in their hospital room meant." Naruto said. The third Hokage looked at the previously mentioned man and shrugged.
"Well, I guess if you don't mind we'll get started. Inoichi? Shikaku?" The Hokage made a "go ahead" gesture with his hand and took a step back. Shikaku and Inoichi approached the hospital bed pulling chairs along with them.
"Naruto, this is the Third Hokage, Shikaku Nara, and I'm Inoichi Yamanaka." They all gave Naruto a small wave. He gestured towards Minato as he said, "Minato here, who I assume you already know, ran into something curious on his mission and we were hoping that you could help provide us with some answers. Before we get to that though we would like to ask you some information about yourself, the five basic questions to be exact. I'll have to touch you to verify your answers. Will you be alright with this?"
"Of course Inoichi. I'm ready whenever you are." Naruto answered. Inoichi leaned forward and placed his hand on Naruto's shoulder.
"Okay, what is your name?" The Yamanaka asked.
"Naruto Uzumaki." True.
"An Uzumaki with blonde hair?" Shikaku asked incredulously.
Naruto shrugged and answered simply, "My dad."
"Age?"
"19." True.
"He's three years younger than us!" Minato exclaimed quietly.
"Rank?" Inoichi asked, choosing to ignore Minato's comment while Shikaku tucked each new piece of information away for later investigation.
Naruto made a funny face, "Well technically I'm a genin. I think? I might be wrong." He shrugged. True.
"A genin!?" Minato barked out, aghast. "You got us out of the cave so easily though!"
Naruto rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment, "I wish I was kidding. It's kind of embarrassing."
"Alright, where do your loyalties lie?" Inoichi continued to question.
A forlorn look appeared on Naruto's face as he said, "I hope to create new loyalties here in Konoha and to protect the people here, and I recall you," he looked at the Hokage, "Saying that you would welcome any Uzumaki into your village. I'm tired of wandering around after the destruction of my village. I have seen too much loss in my life and would like to prevent it here in my sister village." True.
"I guess that covers your intentions as well unless you have anything else to add?" Everyone's gaze sharpened as they watched Naruto.
"By coming here I would like to become a part of the Konoha ranks" He said confidently. True.
Inoichi looked at his fellow comrades and announced, "Everything he said is true. He didn't try to lie to us once."
"I'm fine letting you into the village, but why should I let you become one of my Shinobi?" The third Hokage asked.
"Why wouldn't you?" Naruto countered. "You, along with every other person in this room, know that Konoha is on the brink of war. You need as many loyal Shinobi as you can get. I can be the most loyal one you have." He kept eye contact with Hiruzen as he replied. The third Hokage was quiet as he considered Naruto's offer.
"I'll bite. You can become one of my ninja. I take it you'd like to be a jonin?" He asked Naruto.
"Hell yeah I do!" Naruto exclaimed eagerly.
"I'll personally work out what your assessment will be after you have recovered. In the meantime you will be monitored until you have proven not to be a threat."
"Now that we have that covered, we'd like to ask you some things about Minato's mission." Shikaku interjected. He gestured to Minato.
"Might as well cut to the chase. I had just finished a two week long mission. While I was running home the world seemed to freeze. All sounds were gone and the air disappeared from my lungs. The forest I was in turned into a barren world of blue without gravity. I'm not sure how long it was like that but shortly after the world went back to normal an intricate seal appeared above my head. The next thing I knew I was in an Iwa hideout tied up next to you."
Naruto rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, "Ah, if it was me that caused the air thing I am really sorry. I do have to admit that I was experimenting with some seals I found. I guess it could have been a result of me activating one? It would explain why I woke up in the Iwa hideout as well." True.
"What he said was true." Inoichi informed the group. Naruto jumped slightly.
"I forgot that you were doing that." He said
Hiruzen sighed, "Thank you for your corporation Naruto. We'll be out of your hair now. I'll be back tomorrow with your living arrangements. Minato will be staying here with you for the time being." With that Inoichi, Shikaku, and the Third Hokage left the room. Each with more questions than he arrived with.