Pre-Chapter A/N: Here we go with another chapter, coming a bit later than promised but here all the same. Next three chapters on my patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga)— same username as here and link in bio.
XXXX- MINATO NAMIKAZE
He almost could not believe his luck. She had survived. She had actually managed it. From what he could tell from the mess that surrounded her, she had clad herself in some sort of ice armour. It must have been a chakra armour in much the same vein as his wind armour, except that she must have been much worse at it than he was. Probably the same way he was adequate but not great with the lightning armour. Still, it had been enough to turn what would have been a fatal attack, into a merely life threatening one.
She would die if he left her here, but that was not his plan. He took out the prisoner movement scroll and spread it out. He made a few alterations to account for her situation with six quick strokes of his brush, and it was ready for her. He opened the scroll again, face down over the body and with a single gesture sealed it away. He was just about tying the scroll back up when he felt Kushina's chakra spike. Gyuki.
Her opponent was pushing her then. He locked on to her chakra signature and began to approach the tower, only for his movement to come to a stop as someone rose from the ground in front of him. Even standing in front of him, Minato could not sense his chakra at all.
"Minato Namikaze, student of Shorirama Senju" the man said. Minato was not surprised at being recognised. He and his teammates had had some of the largest bounties ever seen on the bingo book since they were teenagers. Of course, those bounties almost always used to call for their capture. These days, it seemed those willing to pay had been getting less picky about how it happened.
"You have me at a disadvantage, shinobi-san" he said, referring to the fact that he did not know the man.
"I don't matter. I am nothing but a mere thief" he said.
"I have nothing that would be of value to you then" Minato said, wanting to get this done with already.
"I know you do not. But I do have something of value to you. Something of value to your sensei as well" he said.
"Really? And what is that? What do you, a mere thief if your words are to be believed, have that would matter to the Hokage of the village hidden in the Leaves?" he asked sarcastically.
"Information, of course." he said, and then nothing. He wanted Minato to ask again.
"If you won't speak, then I will just be taking my leave" this could be a distraction of some sort, a stalling tactic. Only his faith in his teammates and his curiosity kept him here.
"Fine. I'll be plain about it. I stole something. Something your Sensei wanted"
"If you want to sell something to my Sensei, then you would be better served going to the village gates" Minato said flatly, walking now.
"The chalice of healing" he said, and Minato froze, his foot raised from the ground.
"Where did you learn about that?" he asked, narrowing his eyes at the man before him.
"I've been chasing them for longer than you, fly boy. Remember the lightning rod? I took that before you got to that old man's place in the Land of Earth." he said, and now Minato's guard was up. The man could be lying, of course, but even if he was lying, that still made him better informed than anyone outside a very select group had any right to be, and information was dangerous in this world.
"What do you want?" he asked.
"I told you already. I have information for you and that Kage of yours. The butcher" He said.
"So why approach me? You've had to come into an active war zone to pass this information. I assure you that if you had gone to the village gates, you would have been attended to with haste." as well as captured and interrogated by a Yamanaka for every scrap of information you have, Minato thought but did not say.
"Indeed. But you see I had no interest in meeting the Butcher. Maybe I could manage to escape him, maybe I couldn't. I know what happens to those who bet and get it wrong, so I'll stay here instead. You're less willing to engage in wanton bloodshed from what I've seen" he said.
"Just say your piece. I have things to do" he said, knowing full well that the scope of the mission had changed. This man needed to be taken back to Konoha. The tools of the Sage mattered more to their Sensei than all of Ame did.
"The chalice of healing. I stole it from the Kazekage, and I gave it to someone. Someone with a bone to pick against your Kage. I just want to give him a heads-up. A warning, if you would. And you ask why meet you here and now, it is because the warning is for you too"
"I assure you that the chalice of healing, while powerful, will not be anything for my sensei to worry about, no matter whose hands they are in." he said, but his guard remained up.
"Even if those hands are Madara Uchiha's?" Minato knew that name. Everyone who grew up in Konoha knew the name of the boogeyman. The Ghost of the Uchiha. Eat your vegetables or Madara Uchiha will come for you, the orphanage matron had told him so many times as a child. But Minato was no longer a child. He knew better now.
"Madara Uchiha is dead" he said.
"And yet your heart jumped just now, did it not? Your heart can feel the truth of my words even if your brain denies it. Madara Uchiha lives, and Ame is his. Your Kage has overstepped. My warning is for you more than it is for him. Run. Run, Minato Namikaze. Flee until there is no longer ground beneath your feet, and even then keep running. Madara is coming. And he comes for what is his" he said, and the man was gone. Just gone. No movement, nothing. There one second and then gone the next. Minato burned his features into his mind best he could though: short, spiky orange hair, pale skin, and sharp blue eyes, all on a face that looked perpetually amused.
But beyond that, he could not do anything about it. Searching for the man would be a waste of time. Even standing right in front of him, he had been unable to sense the man's chakra; what were going to be his chances of finding him in the middle of a war zone like what Ame was becoming? Even so deep in the city, Minato could hear the explosions and the sounds of combat coming from the distance— spread out in nearly all directions. Yaga's people were going to push for victory with all the air in their lungs and blood in their bodies, and the shinobi belonging to the rival factions would do the same. The city would stink of death when this was all over.
He body flickered forwards, stopping when he reached the entrance of the tower. For the first time, he went in, finding it to be utilitarian through and through. Little in wasted design with everything serving a function. Two sets of stairs on either side. He took the one to his left, feeling for Kushina's disturbed chakra. He could sense Mikoto in combat as well, but she knew how to call for help if she needed it, and Kushina being pushed to pull on Gyuki's power so soon after a full transformation was a worrying sign.
He raced up the stairs until he heard the sound of fighting, and when he found the source, he was forced to stop and marvel at what he found. Gakuganji the noble fought with a scythe in each hand, each attached to a chain wrapped around his wrist and then his waist. A veteran of the unifying wars under the army of Hanzo, the Salamander, his face showed every single one of those years with wrinkles that were drawn across it almost like lines on a page. They told a story, but not the same one as his body told. Because while his face showed the years, his body seemed to call that face a liar.
He weaved in and out of the engagements, dancing while Kushina, already sprouting two tails from her back, fought. Minato in seconds could already tell the man was better than him. Not stronger, but a better fighter with weapons in hand. He was better even than Toshiro-san was with his sword. The scythes danced under his direction, as he used them both as long and short range weapons. Kushina was forced to stay close because if she moved a distance, he would toss the scythes, and use the chains to guide them. Both the scythes and the chains were then empowered with wind release chakra flow, making them unusually dangerous weapons.
Beautiful weapons to watch as well. But not so beautiful that he would forget his mission. They had both noticed his presence now, and the tide of the fight was already beginning to shift.
XXXX- GAKUGANJI
Gakuganji had two choices. He could either turn his attention towards the boy now and address the both of them at the same time or he could respect the boy's seeming decision to not involve himself so far and keep his focus on the jinchuriki. The foolish samurai Yaga would do the latter. Gakuganji was a shinobi, though. He had been one all his life. It did not matter where he had trained or learned his trade. Or who had put the first weapon in his hand. All that mattered was who he was within, how he thought. He thought as a shinobi. Lived as a shinobi, and now would die as a shinobi.
Death was certain. He would face it head on. None would say that Gakuganji the noble had died fleeing from his fate. He wrestled his chakra into the required shape, that old stubborn force obeying his will like a wolf obeyed its master. Deathdealer sailed from his left hand, the wind release that he so long ago mastered allowing it to cut through the air like nothing else could. The boy moved, jumping to the side. And he was fast. But Gakuganji had fought The Salamander, and fought by his side. He knew fast.
His will was done. The chain attached to Deathdealer lurched and the motion of the weapon changed, turning to follow the jumping shinobi. He twisted out of the way, but the chain just twisted again, moving to wrap itself around him and tear him to shreds. He jumped straight upwards, landing on the ceiling, and avoiding the encirclement, only for Orphanmaker to meet him there. He jumped now, down and to the side. Deathdealer was already turning to get him as he landed. Orphanmaker moved back for the jinchuriki, but she had managed to call on even more of the foul beast's chakra in the moments since.
Four tails of caustic red chakra now swung behind her. Orphanmaker sliced through two of them. Knowing the chakra would return in no time, he wrestled the weapon back for the main prize. The beast in the skin of a woman. But she would not sit and wait. She was running in his direction now, but Orphanmaker was faster. Would always be faster. It spun and was seconds away from burying itself in her back when she turned to meet it head on. The rasengan, the Butcher's famous technique, lived up to everything he had heard about it when she called it into being.
The ball of chakra spun with a grinding menace that she shoved into his weapon's path. He could have avoided the confrontation, but it was an age old rule to never interrupt one's enemy when they were making a mistake. Orphanmaker had never failed to cut through a target, and this time was no different. The rasengan, for all its fame and notoriety, was just another target. Orphanmaker met it, and the ball was gone. The scythe buried itself to the end of its blade in the Jinchuriki's arm, causing it to scream.
It was a shrill womanly cry that made Gakuganji want to block his ears, but he did not. This was his chance. He formed the ram seal, holding it as he wrestled his chakra into the required shape. From his body to the chain, and then to the blade, before into the woman herself. She had so much chakra. More than he did. More than The Salamander. More than everyone he had ever tried this with. But that was no reason to fail. His dignity would not have it of him.
He did not dominate its chakra. He could never. So he did not try. Instead, like the brown snake in the mud water of a rainy day, he wormed his way inside. He twisted through her cores, searching for it. All the while, he commanded Deathdealer to force the blonde one to keep moving. Not to interfere. He needed mere seconds. He found it, the connection between her and the beast, and then he did what no other man before him had done. He stepped between tailed beast and host.
Her scream this time was no womanly cry. It loudened, deepened, and then shifted even further, becoming a guttural roar more than anything else. But despite that, she did not shift. The tailed beast was trying to funnel its chakra to her, to give her even more power, but Gakuganji was in the way of that. Frozen as she was, he made a gamble. Deathdealer abandoned its chase of the blonde one and stabbed straight into the woman from behind, through the back and into her stomach where he could feel the center of the seal's power lay. The blonde came for him, and Gakuganji had no choice in the matter.
He gagged as the blade went through his neck, but it did not matter. The chakra was his now.
His eyes met the boy's as he ran the kunai over the front of his neck, carving a second smile into his body.
"Too late boy" he growled, his voice darker and deeper than it had ever been as his hand reached out and latched on to the one that held the blade in his neck. The tailed beast chakra burned something fierce as his chains brought it into his body, filling it with the terrible power of a beast whose very existence was an affront to the natural order of things. That affront brought with it a new kind of pain. Gakuganji was no stranger to pain. He had learned to become a shinobi with pain as his only teacher for years, but this was new.
It was insidious, poisonous, and several other words that he could not find. It was pain. But he would not bend. And he had never met a suffering that he could not learn to bear with enough time in its throes, so he bore it. And then he weaponised it.
Minato Namikaze's body was suffused with chakra as he tried to pull his arm away. Some form of chakra cloak. But Gakuganji had the terrible power of a tailed beast and he would not be denied. He squeezed the hand so hard that he could feel the boy's desire to scream in his bones. And then he shoved his hand into the boy's chest. At least he tried to. As his hand met the boy's skin, the power disappeared.
He was mortal again.
The strength that had been flowing from his chains and into him was gone. The girl stood there, his weapons piercing her on two ends, but she did not look to be suffering. Or rather, her suffering was not what she was concerned about. It was that of the boy in his grasp.
In a moment of spite, he wished he could kill the boy. Let that grief in her have a reason for being. But his body was already losing strength. He tried to remain on his feet. He tried. He willed his body to obey. He would not die on his knees. Never.
Still he fell to the ground all the same.
XXXX- MINATO NAMIKAZE
When Gakuganji the noble fell to the ground dead, Minato breathed a sigh of relief. The pain from his shattered wrist would not be going away anytime soon, but at least that was now his major problem. Rather than the man who somehow proved stronger than all their reports had said. Those scythes. The bingo book said nothing about them and the internal briefing reports Minato had read had depicted a skilled bukijutsu user, but nothing on this level. Nothing about chains that carried wind release and could shred to pieces anything they so much as got within kissing distance of.
His relief was his alone, however, as somehow, instead of Kushina to celebrate their victory, she raced over to the man, sliding on to the ground beside him and holding his head in her lap. The chains that connected the weapons that now sat on the ground to his body disappeared in wisps of light.
"Don't die, don't die, don't die" Kushina whispered as she tried to check for signs of life.
"What are you doing?" Minato asked, not stopping her, but also not sure that he should be helping either.
"He's an Uzumaki" She said. Minato gave the man an assessing look. That did explain it somewhat. The man had massive chakra reserves, and those chains were clearly some sort of version of Kushina's adamantine chains. No wonder he was able to control them so seamlessly. Them coming out of his body made sense.
"And so? He's also an enemy. He almost killed us" he pointed out, just in case she had forgotten what had just happened. In case the wound that still wept blood in her stomach did not make it clear that this man deserved no special pity.
"He couldn't have known. How could he even have gotten all the way to the Land of Rain? He must be old enough to have been around before the villages were a thing" She said.
"We'll never know, it seems. Because he's surely dead" Minato said. The man's chakra had gone quiet to his senses some time ago.
"Yes he is, and isn't that just a shame?" another voice said, cutting into their conversation. It was a woman with bright blue hair that fell to her shoulders and then down to her back. She wore a cloak that covered much of her body, black with red clouds.
A/N: Yup, AU stuff happens. In case it's not clear, I aged up the Ame orphans to be about 4-5 years older than Minato when they were actually 4-5 years younger in canon. The ages are a bit suspect in canon either way with how messy the timeline is so I took author fiat and did what I could to make it make sense for my story. And yes, we've actually met all three of the orphans. Just in different ways. Discount on patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga) for those interested (should be expired by Saturday so do hurry up if you are).Next chapter comes on here by Monday Night at the latest.. Next three chapters up on patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga) (same username as here and link in bio), support me there and read them early.