"Alright, this is where we split off." Minato said as he came to a halt. All of Team Seven stopped with him. Even though he knew his assigned mission, and his loyalty to the Leaf was absolute, Naruto still hesitated to do as he was ordered to.
He watched silently as Minato said his goodbyes to his students. "Alright. After the battle we will all meet up here in case any of us get lost." he instucted, receiving two nods and a grunt of probably agreement(time to guess again), in return. "I believe in you. You come back alive, all of you." Minato demanded sternly.
If only Naruto could find the words to tell him that one of them wouldn't, but again he felt as if his secret was one that couldn't be told outright with words, the future Kage would have to figure it out himself. As for Obito. . . .
He knew what would happen, or what was supposed to. It made his belly crawl with creatures of uncertainty and guilt. He couldn't part from them without saying goodbye.
He first said bye to Rin because somehow, she was the easiest. "I need you do something for me okay?" he asked. She bobbed her head in agreement of whatever it was. "Keep these knuckle-headed teammates of yours in check, make sure they don't end up killing eachother instead of the enemy." he gave the most genuine smile he could muster. Rin giggled and agreed whole heartedly. He gave her an affectionate pat on the head. He didn't worry for her as he did for the others, the time for that would come, and Naruto would face it with a certainty that he lacked now.
Now he closed his eyes to harden his face and further pull up his mask as he turned to Obito. A sickening feeling filled him and he only hoped it didn't show in his expressive eyes. "Obito. You're stronger than you think, don't let the enemy get the upper hand. Kick their ass for me alright?" he was just able to keep his voice from wavering.
Obito beamed at the blonde jounin. "Will do!" he said determinedly, giving an enthusiastic thumbs up and a smile that must have hurt his cheeks because it spread so wide across his face. Naruto almost winced.
Just one left. Somehow, though he wasn't the one in peril, Kakashi was the hardest to say goodbye to.
"And you." he barely managed to turn his gaze on Kakashi. He almost couldn't speak to him, knowing how much this mission would haunt the Hatake until the day he died. "You're the Captain of this mission now." he reminded. "The mission is important, you know that. But so are they." he motioned to the two chunnin Kakashi would be left in charge of. "Be wise Little Man." he ruffled his hair, not bothering to offer a smile he knew would be ingenuine. Maybe if Kakashi would just listen, Naruto wouldn't have to decide at all. Naruto knew that was only an excuse though, a way to delay having to make the choice.
All too soon the younger shinobi were leaving one way and Minato was going another, beckoning him to follow. Time slid by, stretched from a second to a minute and everything was slow. Naruto's body followed Minato while his mind raced else where. The calm he normally felt while in battle eluded him now when he needed it most. His breath quickened and his heart gave heavy beats, like it was trying to break a whole in his chest. He wanted to save Obito Uchiha but he almost felt as if he couldn't. Doubt gripped him and held him back. What if he couldn't? What if he got there and stopped one disaster, only to have another take it's place?
No. He was Naruto Uzumaki, the Seventh Hokage and Commander of the Allied Shinobi Forces. After all that had happened, all that he had lost, he couldn't forget that, or what that meant. He couldn't forget all the people who put their trust in him because of what he stood for. He never went back on his word and he promised himself that he would protect them, all of them, even Obito Uchiha.
He stumbled to a stop in the middle of an open meadow. They had traveling for close to an hour, all the while he was trapped in his own head.
Minato stopped with him a few meters ahead. "Why are you stopping?" he wondered. "We're almost there." Naruto didn't respond as he thought of what to tell him. He wasn't going to lie to him when he was already abandoning him on such a risky mission. But he also couldn't think of a way to tell the man without revealing the whole truth, so he was left to stand there in his hesitation. "Are you nervous?" Minato doubted it but he had to ask, though Naruto didn't seem one to scare at the prospect of battle.
"I - um. . ." Naruto took a deep breath to prepare himself before looking Minato in the eyes, the teens intense blue orbs held purpose and determination. "I'm sorry Minato." he said. "But I have to go." he offered no explanation but the Yellow Flash nodded. He didn't ask why but he knew it had something to do with the blonde being so withdrawn during their travels, he trusted the Uzumaki enough to believe he really had good reason to abandon his assigned mission.
Naruto gave him a light-hearted grin that could light someones day like the sun would light the sky. "Besides, you don't even need me, those Stone ninja won't know what hit them. I won't be long, I'll meet you there before the real fighting starts."
Minato couldn't keep a small smile of his own from gracing his lips. "Alright, I'll hold you to it."
In a sudden action he couldn't explain, Naruto embraced his father. All the feelings he had been suppressing in regards to his father, came forth in a daunting wave, making it hard to speak in a steady voice. "Stay alive for me would ya? I won't lose you too." his voice wobbled, heart break saturated his every word.
Minato - who had been completely immobile - unfroze and wrapped his arms around the teen in an unspoken promise that he would never leave him like that. "You too."
Naruto pulled back reluctantly and before he could change his mind, he was gone.
As he watched the blonde Uzumaki leave, Minato Namikaze felt. . . well the best way he could explain it was when he was a child he had a dog who ran away and he couldn't sleep at night, being sick with worry until she had come back, - except this was like, times infinity. He took one more moment to watch after him before he went on to complete their mission.
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He didn't exactly know where he was he going. He need to reach them where ever they were, but he couldn't do that if he couldn't find them, and he couldn't find them in this state with his sensory range uncomfortably limited.
He took a moment to go still. He felt nature's energy flow through the air around him and drew it in to be balanced with his own. In record time his eyes gave up their beautiful blue in favor of a golden yellow. He reached out as far as he could, he strained to reach further and further still, but they remained out of the reach of his enhanced senses. He frowned and deepened his concentration but the chakras he searched for alluded him still.
He growled in frustration, he hardly had time for this. He didn't have any options left.
"Kurama!" he called urgently. "I need your chakra!" The tailed beast required no prompting as he gladly gave all he had to his jinchuuriki host and friend.
Like fire, the yellow chakra licked up his body and consumed him until he was glowing yellow with it's power, tendrils of the chakra flicking off of him like flames and affected the shrubs around him, making them grow thicker and greener.
It was no sweat to find the little shinobi now, and since he was in this state he could push his body to go even faster than before. During his war, there was no one - not even Madara - who could match his speed in Tailed Beast Mode.
He was going to save him. Obito Uchiha wasn't going to 'die', and Kakashi wasn't going to suffer the pain is loosing his comrade and - though Kakashi would never admit it - his friend. This was the right thing to do, Naruto was had no doubt of that now.
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"Obito, don't go after them!" Kakashi shouted at the chunnin who was about to pursue the Stone shinobi that had just kidnapped Rin not moments ago. He had of course, assumed that Kakashi would be right on his heels, but the fact that the new jounin called him to stop made him freeze in shock. He turned to his teammate with betrayal evident in his obsidian eyes.
"What?! Are you crazy?!" he shouted, almost unable to comprehend the words that had left his mouth. "Do you have any idea what you're saying Kakashi?!"
Kakashi looked back at him with a placid look. "Yes. The two of us must complete this mission alone." his voice was unbelievably cold and emotionless.
Obito was absolutely outraged. Of course Kakashi wouldn't save her, why would he when all he ever cared about was rules and regulations?! Even after all those lectures from Naruto the boy was still set in his ways. "And Rin? What about Rin huh?!"
"We'll have to come back for her later. Look, the enemy will want to find out what we're up to, so they won't kill her right away." Kakashi explained. "Luckily Rin is a medic, so even if she ends up a prisoner of war she'll be treated well. As long as she cares for their wounded she'll be safe, but we'll be in serious trouble if the enemy has time to learn what our strategy is. If they do learn that info they will no doubt increase security on the bridge right away. That was would make our mission much more difficult." Kakashi tried to make the angry Uchiha see his reason, but from the look on his face it was already clear he wasn't going to change his mind.
"But you're only assuming Rin will be safe based on these guesses of yours!" Obito argued back, trying to make Kakashi see his reason. "What if those guys who just captured her are just nobodies who don't know any better?!" he raises an arm to point accusingly at him. "Look, saving Rin takes priority over the mission and that's that!!!"
Kakashi contemplated his words in silence for a few moments that seemed like hours to an anxious Obito. His eyes that refused to give anything away only made it worse. Finally he spoke. "We are shinobi, we must carry out our mission, even at the cost of our comrades, that is the law. If we fail, the war will drag on and more lives that just Rin's will be lost."
Obito growled in frustration. They didn't have the time for this! Who knows what the enemy were doing to Rin at this very moment. "That's just another one of your guesses! Are you willing to desert her for a mere hypothesis? How can you be willing to abandon someone who's been through life and death with you? When we were wounded Rin saved our lives with her medical ninjutsu. With out her the two of us would have died in the field a ling time ago!!"
Despite knowing he was right the Hatake looked coldly back at the Uchiha. "Rin was just doing her job, like we must." he said. But did he really mean it? Did he really want to prioritize the mission over his friend's life? But in his mind it didn't matter what he wanted, even if his gut was telling him to save her, he had seen what the consequences of abandoning your mission held.
He was taken from his thoughts by a well deserved punch to the face that sent him flying into the dirt. He rubbed his cheek were the pain blossomed. "I don't like you, I never will!" Obito shouted.
Kakashi glared back at him. "I don't care if you do or not, I'm the captain right now. You will obey my decisions Obito. Whatever the circumstances, one person alone make the decisions to keep the team together, that's why we have the rule that says 'all team members must obey the Captain without question'. Obito, you have no power, that's why I'm the captain of this team and you aren't." during the whole speech Obito shook with barely contained rage. He marched up to the boy and grabbed him by the straps that held his blade in place on his back, drawing him up and out of the dirt.
"Then why won't you try to save Rin yourself?" he questioned. "It means you have the power to rescue your teammate, isn't that right Kakashi!?!" he shouted.
Still, Kakashi refused to outwardly react to the accusation the Uchiha didn't hide from his voice. "If you give into your emotions even for a moment and fail your mission, you'll regret it sooner than you know. That's why shinobi have rules. That's why we are taught that we must suppress our emotions, you should already know that."
Obito looked away in utter disgust as he processed those words. "But Rin, she was so concerned for your well-being that she put together that special medkit for you. She even sewed a protective amulet inside it!"
"The medkit and medical ninjutsu are great systems that the Leaf Village developed to increase the success rate of our missions. But like I told you earlier Obito, better nothing at all than a useless burden." Kakashi said coldly.
Obito's eyes finally shot back to Kakashi, offense shining deeply in them. "Useless burden?" he repeated.
Kakashi nodded his head slowly.
"To carry out a mission a ninja should only have tools necessary to the task at hand. Useless things like emotions only get in the way."
Obito pulled harder on Kakashi's straps bringing their faces closer as his glaring eyes burned into Kakashi's own, his face contorting in anger. "Do you really mean that?" he asks. "Do you really believe that stuff Kakashi?"
Did he? Kakashi wondered. Or maybe he was just saying it to make himself feel better? But then an image of his father came to mind, a hero, then a disgrace, then dead on the floor with the blade he now wore on his back, laying bloodied beside him. He looks back at Obito with hard eyes. "Yes." he said. "I do."
Obito shoves the straps back to Kakashi's chest and turned away from him. "Just forget it, you'll never agree." he concluded. "We're like oil and water. . . I'm going to rescue Rin." he then stated to walk away in the direction he saw the Stone shinobi run off in.
Kakashi took an almost desperate step forward. "You don't understand Obito. You don't know what happens to people who break the rules." he pleaded.
Obito stopped walking but didn't turn around. He remembered what Minato had told him about Kakashi's father and that that is the reason the boy was the way he was. The thing is, he could understand where he was coming from. But just because he could understand didn't mean that he agreed. "I believe that the White Fang was a true hero." he confessed leaving Kakashi with wide eyes. "You're right. In the ninja world, those who break the rules are regarded as scum. . . but," he turns his head to look Kakashi dead in the eyes. "Those who would abandon even one of their comrades are worse than scum." he started to walk away again and Kakashi could only watch him go.
'Those break the rules are scum, but those who would abandon even one of their comrades is worse than scum.'
Kakashi remembered Naruto saying the same thing all that time ago in the forest. And not just that.
'Sakumo Hatake. I don't believe his fault lies with when he chose his comrades over his mission - I would have the same thing.'
And. . .
'You're the captain of this mission now. The mission is important, you know that. But so are they.'
He had said. Almost like he expected something like this to happen.
'Be wise Little Man.'
***
(A/n) I just finished watching Infinity War for the third time. . . why I thought that was a good idea, I couldn't tell you.
Warning : spoilers
Everytime I watch Peter Parker die, and Loki too, I loose a piece of my heart that won't come back until they do. My precious cinnamon rolls.😭😭😭 Bucky as well. Poor Bucky Barnes. Why must Marvel torture him so much? Just let the man be!!
Okay, that's all. Have a good week!!