The Whisper || FullbusterFic » vonlane

Chapter 4: Challenge

Minato began walking back towards his tent realizing one thing: his legs were slightly trembling. He couldn't help but feel fear; the one who was there hanging, the one who had been brutally tortured could've been him and surely... at some moment he would be because the rest of the other ninjas wouldn't beat around the bush to win the competition. They would do anything to obtain that contract.

For a second, he raised his face towards the sky, letting the faint drops of rain fall over him. He needed to relax, calm the nerves that had been provoked by that sinister assassination... it was then that he felt Hiro Uzumaki's hand lower from his shoulders down to his back, almost as if trying to calm him. At first, he gave it no importance, until the man's hand was about to reach his ass; at that moment, Minato turned around quickly, stopping Hiro's hand with a challenging glare.

"What are you doing?" Minato asked in a whisper.

Minato thought that nobody had seen that, but he was wrong. Madara, who had been looking around every single millimeter of each corner of the camp with his Sharingan, had caught the blond's sudden move and had instantly taken an interest as he focused on Hiro's smile.

"Don't get so alarmed, Minato, I was just trying to calm you a bit."

"Don't ever put your hands on me again," Minato clarified. "Respect the engagement I have with your sister."

"You could marry whoever you want for all I care," Hiro said with a grin. "That doesn't mean you can't have lovers on the side and I'd be willing to be a very good one. I'd give you all the pleasure you desire."

"I'm no one's lover nor do I need one, you hear me? Keep these words very well engraved in your head: I'm going to be your brother-in-law, your sister's husband, and only with her will I lay in bed with. Nobody else will have me." He said dryly, letting go of a smiling Hiro's hand.

"We'll soon see about that," Hiro said, observing how Minato walked away towards his tent, notably bothered.

Very few times did Minato get angry. Everyone had always said that he was a smart and patient guy; very diplomatic, but this situation was beyond him. He was tired of everyone insinuating themselves onto him, that they treat him not like a ninja, but as some trash whom they could take to bed. It was very clear that the Namikaze clan had fallen in its darkest days— nobody ever took them seriously anymore, not even the elders had hope. They sold their youngest to the highest bidder. The rest of the clans no longer sought alliances with them— they weren't considered strong, they were only the morb for the most powerful clans to take blond boys from and have them in their beds.

A terrible sound came to a hidden Madara's ears from behind the tree Minato had punched with his fist. He thought the blond had discovered him, but immediately realized it wasn't so; the boy hadn't noticed his presence. If he had... he wouldn't be shedding the bitter tears that now fell from his eyes, letting a silent whimper escape from his lips.

Madara observed with his Sharingan how his entire body trembled, surely imprisoned from all the frustration and fear he felt; perhaps even due to the anger he had contained. Upon hearing a sob from the boy whose legs failed him and brought him down on the ground in front of a tree, Madara had felt tempted to go out and help him, but a neigh made him contain himself.

Minato's horse, tied to one of the posts near his tent, observed him from a distance. That horse of strange hair, so golden that it almost compared to the blond of that mysterious and desired Namikaze.

To Madara's surprise, the horse bit at the reins with mastery, loosening the knot and walking slowly towards its owner. Once at Minato's back, it moved its head over the man's shoulder a few times until Minato's bloodied hand moved towards the animal's head, softly caressing him from where he still laid.