-8.18 pm-
By the time his work was finally over, the sun had all but set.
Leaving the office behind, Minato began to make his way back home. He met several villagers who had the same idea as him on the way and many greeted him a good night which he returned in response. A strong chilling wind blew past him and the Yondaime brought his haori closer, taking note that tonight was unusually colder than normal, probably due to the storm. It had been a terrible night for the ninjas and military police who were responsible for last night's patrol if the reports were anything to go by. So fierce was last night's downpour that many of the village's night activities were disrupted and at one point, a few of the villagers needed help to get back to their homes. The storm had only died off by early morning and even then, it had continued to shower lightly for almost the entire day.
Thankfully, no one who had been injured and Minato doubted that a storm as fierce as last night's was likely to ever occur again.
He had spent the entire morning going through various reports of the day before going around the village to check on the ninjas who had to endure the storm and commend them on their work. Then came the meeting with the council where the main focus of the discussion had been on the civil war in the Land of Water. The recent action taken by Kirigakure was threatening the livelihoods of the merchants and traders at the port city and many were voicing their discontent at the situation. There were also fears that the war might escalate and engulf the eastern region of the Fire Country and considering the belligerent reputation of the Hidden Mist Village and its Mizukage, such a scenario was possible. [1] With the growing pressure from the east, the fire daimyo had seen fit to task his village with the mission of resolving these issues and guarding the country's interests.
After bearing through the arguments and talks that had went back and forth in circles, everyone had finally agreed to send a ninja team to Kirigakure to see if some sort of a diplomatic solution or compromise could be achieved before taking any further action. If that failed, the team can act as observers and assess the situation at the island nation and provide information that will help them plan the village's next move. And so he was then left alone to think of the right people to assemble for the mission and deal with the paper work that had double in size, no doubt due to the mess that was being created by the war. Completing them all had taken him hours and he was now exhausted from all the reading and writing. His house coming into sight at last, Minato smiled at the thought of being able to rest and spend the night with his family. Reaching the entrance, he opened the door and was greeted with a blast warm air accompanied by a strong delicious aroma of food. Taking in the smell, he recognized the aroma to be that of several of his favorite foods which prompted him to raise his eyebrows.
Was today a special day or something?
Strange, he did not remember any important events or incidents taking place on this date. Was it all just a coincidence?
Closing the door behind him, he was about to remove his shoes when Natsuki suddenly came charging out from the living room and lunged at him.
"Humph!" Minato grunted as he lowered himself and caught his daughter in his arms.
"Welcome home dad!"
"Hello Natsuki," Minato said as he embraced his daughter in a hug before gently letting go of her. "How was your day?"
"Great tou-chan! Both mom and I had went out to do some shopping. We also went to visit a few of my friends. It was fun!"
Minato chuckled lightly. "I'm sure it was. By the way, I'm sorry but I did not bring anything back for you today."
"It's okay tou-chan. What's more important is that both mom and I have cooked a few of your favorite food tou-chan."
"Really now?" Minato asked, curious to know why that was the case.
"Yeah. Kaa-chan said that you were going to be very busy today," his daughter answered. "She said that you were going to return home late and was going to be very tired. So I asked her if we could try cooking some of the food that you liked. I also managed to help her with a lot of things."
"Welcome home," a voice which Minato knew was his wife's said and he looked up to see her walking towards him. The two adults hugged each other before kissing, earning a disgusted noise from Natsuki who looked away. "So how did it all went?" Kushina asked.
"Well, there were a lot of problems throughout the day but I would say that it all worked out in the end."
"That's good to know. Anyways, you must be hungry and eager for some rest. Come, we better get started with dinner before the food gets cold."
Minutes later, the three were all seated at the table, ready to feast on the food that were laid out on the table and were still warm. Minato was about to get started when he became aware that something or rather someone was missing at the table. It took a while for him to understand that the missing person was his son Naruto. "Say, where is Naruto?" he asked. Kushina frowned when she realized that her husband was right; their son was not with them. This was the first time Naruto was not here for dinner which was unusual seeing that it was already late. And now that she had noticed it, she also remembered having not seen her son or heard from him the entire day although she was not really worried about that for it had happened several times before.
"You're right," she said to herself before asking her daughter. "Natsuki, do you happen to know what your brother is doing?"
Natsuki shook her head. "No mom."
The red-haired jinchuriki had been with her mother all the time and never did the thought of her brother came into her mind at all until now.
"Well, he must be in his room. Why don't you go upstairs and call your brother downstairs for dinner?"
"Yes kaa-chan."
The ten year old girl got off her seat and ran upstairs. When she got to Naruto's room, she knocked on the door.
"Nii-san, it's time for dinner," she called out and waited for her brother to come out from his room. He did not.
"Nii-san, it's dinner time," she said once more, knocking slightly harder on the door. There was still no reply.
"Nii-san, can you hear me? It's dinner time. Tou-chan and kaa-chan are already downstairs. We're all waiting for you."
When nothing happened, the girl gave an annoyed look. Just what was her brother doing in his room? Believing that she had waited long enough, she decided that the next best course of action would be to enter the room and see what was going on. And if Naruto wasn't doing anything important, boy was she going to give him scolding. Their father had just returned home and everyone were exhausted from the work they had done today. Tou-chan and kaa-chan were hungry, SHE was hungry and here her brother was in his room keeping them all waiting!
"That's it, I'm coming in!," she declared before opening the door and walking in.
To her astonishment, Naruto's room was pitch black and she wondered what was going on. "Nii-san, if this some kind of a joke, it isn't fu-" she said before flipping the light switch on. "... nii-san?" There was no sign of her brother. His room was neat and tidy with all his belongings arranged in an orderly manner. There were several stacks books arranged neatly at the side of the bed and her eyes widened at the sight of them. She knew that her brother was an avid reader but that amount of books was truly overdoing things. Not even Sakura read that many. She tried to remember when was the last time she had last entered her brother's room as she did not recall seeing those books being there before. Definitely for a long time. There was also a book on her brother's bed and being inquisitive, she walked over to the bed and picked it up, flipping the book over to look at the cover.
It was a book about the people of Earth Country and their culture.
Natsuki frowned; even if it was about jutsus, anything that involved a lot of words was something that she was never exactly good in. The only people who were really into that sort of thing was Sakura and her brother Naruto.
'Did nii-san do anything else than studying and reading?" she thought.
Back at the academy, her brother had always been a bit quiet and distant. He was always reading a book or listening to their instructor in class and when that was over, he would chat with their fellow classmates for some time before heading off somewhere which Natsuki assumed was the library. Like the rest of her friends, she saw him to be weird at times though she realized that he was not like that when the two of them were younger. A part of her wondered if there had been something that had caused him to be like that. She barely talked to him these days so she did not know what was going on in his mind.
Placing the book back at its original position, she looked around the room again for Naruto, the feeling of worry slowly taking hold in her.
Where was her brother if he wasn't here at all? It was already past eight and close to nine!
Something did not felt right here and unsure of what to do, she quickly went back downstairs to the dining room.
"What's wrong Natsuki?" Kushina asked, seeing the look on her daughter when she returned. "And where is your brother?"
"Nii-san isn't in his room," the girl stated.
"What do you mean?"
"I've looked everywhere in his room but I couldn't find him kaa-chan."
The two adults at the table exchanged worried looks. If their son was not in his room, where could the boy possibly be at this hour? Minato decided to ask his wife. "Kushina, when was the last time you saw him? I know that he was here for dinner yesterday but other than that, I have yet to see him today."
Kushina shook her head. "I'm afraid that I am the same with you Minato. When Natsuki woke up, I had thought that I should bring her out for some shopping and to see some of her friends. When we got back, we were so busy trying to prepare dinner that the thought of our son did not really came into my mind." Minato nodded. He had to admit that there were several times when the same happened for him. Naruto can be so quiet at times that it was easy to forget about him when Natsuki was around. It was never a problem though for either one of them would always end up finding their son to be at home doing just fine. They had never really put much thought to it after a while as they had started to assume that Naruto would be alright and each time proved to be true.
Except this time. Knowing that it was fruitless to think about it, Minato stood up and went to get his ninja vest and haori.
"Dad, what are you doing?"
"Don't worry Natsuki, I'm just going to look for your brother."
His wife gave a concerned look. "Minato, I'm also going with you."
"It's alright dear. I'm sure that I'll find him," Minato answered as he put on his haori. "I'm sure that it won't be long so the two of you should go ahead and have your dinner without me. I'll be back as soon as I find him. If anything important comes up, I'll be sure to let you know." What that, the Yondaime vanished as he used his famous jutsu - the Hiraishin no Jutsu.
"Kaa-chan, could something have happened to nii-san?" the red-haired girl asked her mother.
"Don't worry, I'm sure he is fine," Kushina assured her daughter although she did not sound so sure of herself. "And I'm sure that your father will be able to find him soon enough."
Minato watched as the entire village came into view; he was now standing on one of the statues of the Hokage Monument.
Without wasting anymore time, he placed his fingers on the statue and focused his chakra on it. One of the greatest skills that he had ever developed was the ability to detect others within a certain area. By the end of the third war, he was also able to differentiate between friend and foe by identifying the chakra signature of those whom he had sensed. But it wasn't enough for him. Over time, he had managed to gradually improve the area of detection several times over. Should another war break out, he could use it to detect enemies from extreme distances or to get a quick understanding of both the enemy's and allies' positions on the battlefield.
With this, it won't take long for him to pinpoint his son's location.
He closed his eyes and waited as the entire village was scanned and its people were revealed to him. It should be easy for him to locate his son since he knew the chakra signatures of his family. But to his shock, Naruto was nowhere to be found. He could sense his daughter and wife who were back at home but there was no sign of Naruto. 'No, this can't be right.' [2]
He attempted the detection again and once more after that but the result was the same. Now he was really worried. If someone did not turned up in his sensor, there were only three possible reasons. One, that the person was beyond the area of detection, two that the person was in an area that blocked his detection or three, that he or she was-
Getting up, the Hokage made a quick survey of the village, locating the areas where the clans were situated. Naruto must be in one of the clan compounds. A notable amount of clan compounds were normally heavily sealed or had a powerful barrier against sensors especially the Uchiha and Hyuuga clans.
Though what could the boy possibly be doing there at this time? No, knowing why was not salient right now. What's more important was that he find his son, the questions can come when that was accomplished. He tried to think of the child that Naruto was likely to spend his time with so that he knew where to begin his search but his mind came out blank. Thinking hard, he suddenly realized that there was barely anything that he knew about his son's activities - about what his boy usually did, who he was mixing with, the things that he preferred to talk about. Heck, the only thing he could only say about his son was that Naruto seemed to read a lot and visited the library often. The Hokage figured that he would spend more time working on knowing what his son was up to every day after tonight.
Maybe he should first pay a visit to the librarians whom he had taken the effort of knowing when Naruto had asked him and Kushina for the permission to use the library. Considering that Naruto was a regular visitor of the place, it was impossible for them to have not noticed his son. Even if they had not seen him today, they could provide him with something on his son's activities which can be a clue on his son's current whereabouts.
-9.23 pm-
Kushina was troubled.
It has already been more than half an hour since Minato had left to look for their son and he had yet to return. With that detection ability of his, he should have been back by now with their son. She glanced at her daughter who was sitting next to her on the sofa. The both of them had lost their appetite and had chose to wait for Minato to return with Naruto. She pondered at the thought of leaving Natsuki in her room under the protection of several seals while she went to check on the situation. It was unbearable for her to be waiting here doing nothing while her husband was out there looking for their boy.
Just as she was about to come to a decision, Minato suddenly appeared in front of her and Natsuki. For a moment, she felt relieved but that was when she noticed the look on Minato's face and that Naruto was not with him. "What happened? Where's Naruto?" A spike of uneasiness twisted in her stomach. It took a while before he spoke and his expression was uncomfortable as he explained everything that had transpired from the time he had left to now.
Minato was unable to find Naruto using his detection skill. He had proceeded to visit a few of the librarians who were in charge of the Konoha library. What he had learned from them was troubling; they had not seen Naruto at the library for the entire day. But that was not bad news. It turned out that there were actually several days where Naruto did not came to the library at all. Minato knew this because he had inquired about his son's activities at the library for the past few days to see if he could find something that would hint on where his son could be. Instead, the librarians had informed him that they had never seen the boy during any of those days. They had even kept a record of the people who had visited the library and true enough their son's name was not found on any of those days. And while the boy did come visit the library more than any child of his age had, it was not at the regular rate that the Yondaime had described to them.
"But Naruto had told us that he had been to the library for the past few days during his free time on those days," Kushina recalled aloud.
Does this mean that their son had been lying to them about what he was doing the whole time?
But for what reason?
And if he was not at the library, where had he been then and what was he actually doing on those days?
Something was terribly wrong here.
"I know Kushina and I don't know why he's doing this. We better split up and go looking for him. But before that ..."
The Yondaime looked at his daughter. "Natsuki, can you tell us who your brother normally play with or what he does?" [3] Naruto may not be going to the library all the time but the same could never be said for the academy. Someone would have noticed if he had done that. And why would he do so when he could spend his time with his friends there?
"I don't know ..." Natsuki mumbled. "I'm not sure if nii-san has anyone he usually spends his time with."
The two adults blinked their eyes. "Why do you say so?" Kushina questioned.
So Natsuki told her parents about her brother's behaviour - about how he never really hanged out with her and the other kids after class was over though he did join in their conversations and on how he had the tendency to head off without anyone knowing where. Needless to say, Natsuki's explanation was a surprise for her parents. Not only was Naruto going out doing something no one knew was, it seemed that he did not exactly socialize much with anyone of his age. He was a quiet person but they had always believed that he still mixed with the others as much as any other normal child of his age.
"So you don't think that your brother spends his time with anyone? Or that no one knows what he does?"
Natsuki nodded. "Yes kaa-chan, I'm sure of it. I don't remember ever seeing him spend a lot of time with anyone and my friends and I never really thought about what he was doing. We had always thought that he was at the library if we did not see him anywhere."
Minato shook his head as he turned away. There was just so many things about Naruto that they were not aware of and he had a sinking feeling that they had only scratched the surface. Had they truly been that oblivious about their son's life? "In any case, it looks like we're going to have to check with the other clans and their children to see if they have our son or know anything about him," he finally spoke. "I'll start with the Hyuuga clan," he added before teleporting once more.
Kushina proceeded with her earlier plan, bringing Natsuki to her room before activating the seals. It should be more than enough protection for her daughter while she and Minato looked for Naruto. Getting out of the estate, she listed all the kids that were in the same class with her two children and their instructor in her head. They were still the best chance she had to finding her son and she decided that she would start with the chunin Iruka instead before going from clan to clan, hoping that he knew something that the other kids may not.
It mattered little to her now if Naruto had been lying to them and was doing something behind their backs. All she cared was that she find her son safe and well.
-Hokage's office-
"I'm sorry Hokage-sama but I was unable to find anything."
"I see. Keep trying."
"Hai," the Anbu acknowledged before shunshining away. Rubbing his face wearily, Minato took a look at Kushina was recounting everything that had happened yesterday when their son was still around to her friend Mikoto Uchiha. It was truly kind of Fugaku's wife to offer her help in the search for Naruto when she could be back at home sleeping but he doubted that it would make any difference.
His head spun with the countless possibilities that could have occurred to Naruto and he resisted the urge to slam his fist on the desk in frustration.
It was hard not to feel despair.
They had checked every clan and household, gone through every area and compound that had blocked his sensor and had found nothing. Their children's classmates and instructor had gave the same answer as Natsuki. That Naruto did not spend much of his time with any of them, that they had not seen or heard from him today and that they did not know where he normally went. With their worst fears realized, he had immediately summoned the military police and Anbu to conduct a sweep of the entire village. But progress was slow. It was past midnight which meant that the majority of the villagers were asleep and it was complicating the search efforts. The Anbu who had just left was in fact the first to report back from his search of district assigned to him after an hour.
Numerous tracking teams had been deployed around the village but Minato knew that it was a futile effort. With all that rain, Naruto's scent or his footprints were guaranteed to be gone for good if they did exist. His son had vanished without a single trace and there was nothing that he could do about it.
The Hokage paced around in an agony of discomfiture, trying to narrow the events that could have occurred to Naruto.
The first thought that came to mind was that someone had abducted his boy.
It was a highly plausible. Kushina herself had been the victim of one, kidnapped by the ninjas of Kumogakure whom he had managed to stop. And they had many enemies and parties out there who were prepared to do such a thing. The rain could cover their tracks and avoid being tracked down. But how were they able to get past the security seals? No, it was impossible for them to have kidnapped Naruto at home. He had just checked the seals at the estate not too long ago to confirm that and had found nothing wrong. No sign of anyone trespassing or tampering with the security system. He had also went to his son's room and would have noticed something if that had been the case.
Minato stopped his pacing suddenly. Unless they had targeted his son when the boy was outside the estate. They could have observed him for some time and knew his timetable. Due to everyone being used to Naruto's lack of presence including him and Kushina, no one would have noticed if his boy was gone until was too late. They had always assumed that he was fine and the kidnappers would have surely taken advantage of that. But that did not explain how they were then able to leave the village without the patrols and guards spotting them.
The Yondaime mentally slapped himself.
How could he assumed these things when there was no evidence that suggested so?
He was allowing his desperation and worries to dictate his thinking.
He mustn't be like this or he was going to end up making mistakes that would have dire consequences for him and the entire village.
He just needed something ... anything that could lead him to his son.
It was then that an Anbu with a bird mask came into the office. "Hokage-sama, I believe that I may have found something."
That had immediately caught his attention. "Report."
"I was searching the southwestern district that you have assigned me to, looking and asking about your son. It was close to an hour when I came across a shop that was closed down and empty. By asking the people around, I discovered that the owner of the shop was an old man by the name of Rikuto Arikato who had left the village yesterday by the northern gate. What had caught my attention was that those who had known the man said it was strange that he was swiftly left without saying why. According to them, the man had lost his wife and a friend during the Kyuubi invasion and had chose to stay here in Konoha because of that."
"I found his actions suspicious so I decided to investigate further. Apparently, Rikuto had a grandnephew living with him whose name is Minori Arikato. While Minori's appearances did not match Naruto's, the description of his height and age were close. The boy's behavior can be considered dubious as he was not seen during most of the days, did not mix with anyone but his granduncle and the time period when he was seen around coincides with your son's absence. During the last few days, Minori was no longer seen or heard from. Attempts by Rikuto's neighbours to ask about the boy were responded with hostility by Rikuto. When Rikuto had left, Minori was not seen with him."
"I went to check the shop to see if I could learn more. It was completely empty and the rooms were cleaned thoroughly which suggested Rikuto was trying to hide something. There were traces of concentrated alcohol found which is effective in erasing any prints, scent or any of that sort. Hokage-sama, if I may say, I don't know how your son had went missing but I have reason to suspect that this Rikuto had something to do with it." the Anbu concluded.
Minato carefully considered everything that Bird had said and realized that this was what he could be looking for.
There were a lot of unknown variables but it was a lead that he could follow.
Then he remembered that the man had left by the northern gate and froze.
It did not went unnoticed by Kushina who had also been listening to the Anbu's report. "What is it Minato?"
Minato did not heard her. His mind was working out that piece of information that had came into his mind. If you were to leave by the gate at the north, it meant that you were heading for either one of the northern nations and most of them were unfriendly to Konoha and the Fire Country. But what's worse was that one could head for either of the two major countries by the northern route which were the Earth country and Lightning Country. That's where Iwagakure and Kumogakure were respectively. [4]
He came to a decision. "Bird, I want you to call everyone back here now. Once done, I need you to work together with the police and see if there's anything else that you can learn about Rikuto and his grandnephew."
The Anbu nodded and left.
The Yondaime went to his desk and prepared to summon a messenger toad. Jiraiya had been out of the village for several months keeping an eye out for any activities by Orochimaru. He needed to tell his sensei about the development here and put his spy network on high alert for his son. He would also send a message to the border guards to do the same. When the ninjas get back, he would send them out to track down this Rikuto. The man may had around two days of a head start but there was still time to get to him (if he was indeed guilty).
There was a chance for him to find his son and he was determined to see that that was the case.
Minato Namikaze had never failed his village before and he would be damned if he could not do the same for his family.