The Sleeping God

Canceling plans is like Heroin.

Minato Namikaze nearly had it, just a few more strokes and-

"Ah ha." He grinned at the formula, looking for any mistakes or flaws and finding none. Well, none yet. 

The Nidaime had used this technique, inspired by seeing the three dragon's shortly after the founding of Konoha, and although Minato had never seen, much less met, a dragon (unlike his girlfriend, who had met two in her youth) he was still working to transport himself as fast as they could. 

Perhaps it was hubris, using the World dragon's gift to try to equalize himself with the gods, but it wasn't his intention to elevate himself, only to have a powerful technique to protect the genin team he knew he would soon receive, with the rest of Konoha. 

So with that bit of hope he placed his hands on either side of the seal and envisioned the one he had placed on the other side of the room. 

Then he was falling, the sounds of hundreds, no, thousands of people filling his ears in a blur of color and noise, as he spun through a void, faster, and faster, and faster, like a kite in a storm, whipped around by forced greater than it, string snapped and torn apart by the wind. 

And then there was something, a solid object in this insubstantial world. Minato latched on to it, praying it was his anchor and pulled.

The noise stopped, replaced by bird song and the knickering of horses. Then his fall was over, the 16 year old slamming hard into the ground, the breath knocked out of him.  

The last thing he heard was the sound of horses crying out in fright and a shout of surprise before he blacked out. 

--------
When Minato came to, his injuries had been healed and his headband removed, although his weapons remained where they were. He was also wearing a cloak, the hood pulled up to cover his hair. 

"Are you okay?" A voice asked, and the familiar sensation of healing chakra, but...warmer, bigger maybe, he wasn't sure how to describe it, fluttered over Minato's skin, searching for injuries but finding none. 

Minato looked around, seeing where he was for the first time. He was sitting on a horse drawn cart, pulled by a pair of horses, the left as black as night and the right as white as snow.

Next to him was an older man, with piercing green eyes and a similar hood. "Where am I?"

"Northern Land of Earth, about 5 miles from Himashika. We were 50 out when I found you. Figured it best you didn't look like a konoha nin when the shinobi swung by." 

"How did I get to Iwa?" 

 "Well, I may be wrong, but your botched space-time technique may be to blame." 

Minato blushed crimson. "I thought I had it." 

The man laughed. "You'll find it takes something a little extra to successfully navigate the Other." 

Minato looked suspiciously at his impromptu travel partner. "Other?" 

"It's the place souls travel through, passing from here, to Other, to the Purelands. It is both everywhere, and nowhere. Consider yourself lucky." 

Minato blinked, processing the information. He had read a theory about a void space in Kushina's fuinjutsu textbooks, and most Fuinjutsu masters agreed that void was where objects in storage scrolls actually resided but he had never heard a name that fit as much as "Other" did. "How do you know this? Are you a shinobi?" The Teen asked. 

The man laughed. "No, no. I'm no ninja. I've just been around them a lot. Merchants get around after all." He chuckled, as if the thought of him being shinobi was hilarious. "As it is, I have plans to travel south towards Hi no Kuni. I'm offering to get you out of Iwa and back to Konoha, or we can part ways once we are past the border. Either decision, you'll need help getting back. The Tsuchikage has the border on lock down. No one has gotten through without trickery." 
"I'll stay until we pass the border." Minato decided. "I'm Minato Namikaze."