Title: A Deal with the Devil
Author:
ofphenwaRating: R - NC17
Warnings: Violence
Summary: Dying was easy but living is the hardest thing to do as Namikaze Minato discovers for himself after making a deal with Shinigami - with literally deadly consequences, should he fail.
Notes: It helps if you know japanese mythology because in this chapter, there's a big chunk involving it. Here's the link for your reference -
Izanagi and Izanami Master Post 1 2 3
I'm not afraid of death. It's the stake one puts up in order to play the game of life.
Jean Giraudoux, Amphitryon, 1929
Chapter 3: Games
Naruto was now performing his routine morning exercises down at the beach. His movements were stiffer than usual because he was nervous due to Minato watching him from the sidelines. He still couldn’t get over the fact that his long-time idol was actually his real father. Even calling him “Dad” felt strange so he usually called him by his name instead. He even occasionally lapsed into calling him, “Yondaime-sama”. Fortunately, Minato didn’t mind, aware of his son’s awkwardness around him. He understood where Naruto was coming from and even though it pained him that Naruto didn’t see him as his father, he decided to give his son some breathing space and as much time as he needed. He was quite happily contented to simply watch Naruto train. He committed every single detail to memory, treasuring the miraculous time he had with his child. It was such a shame that Kushina was not here with them.
Naruto felt really self-conscious and he could practically feel Minato’s eyes on him like a heavy weight. Water-walking was harder than usual as his mental focus wavered. It didn’t help that the constantly moving seawater required a different flow of chakra from the still waters he was used to.
“I’ll like to teach you. Are you be willing to be my student?” Minato suddenly asked. Surprised by the sudden question, Naruto almost lost control of his chakra and nearly sank into the sea. Facing Minato with a wide-eyed look, he incredulously said, “…Really?”
“Yes. I want you to be my student. It’s what I’ve always wanted to do when I learned that I would be having a son… I thought I had lost the chance thirteen years ago but now…” Minato looked so awkward that Naruto felt second hand embarrassment. It was just so strange to see the Yellow Flash look so flustered when all pictures and records of him usually depicted him as a cool-headed and serious man. But it made him much more approachable and human… Wait, he was getting the chance to be taught by the Yondaime?! Eat that, Sasuke!
“Hell yes! I’ll do my best to learn everything from you. Please teach me!” Naruto eagerly agreed, his eyes burning with determination. Minato chuckled at Naruto’s enthusiastic response, remembering his mother Kushina who had been much the same way.
“Very well. We’ll start right now.”
He stood up and dusted off the sand from his pants before tucking in his hands into his pockets. With a challenging smile, Minato said, “Do your best to hit me.”
“Bring it on!”
Naruto grinned as he lunged towards Minato, kicking up sand and water behind him. Within moments, he was already in arm’s reach and he swung his fist. But before Naruto could even touch him, Minato had already stepped out of his reach and sent him sprawling to the ground with a simple leg sweep. It all happened so fast that he almost wondered how he ended up in the sand.
“Want to try again?” Minato asked with a gleeful glint in his eye. Spitting out sand from his mouth, Naruto narrowed his eyes and attacked again.
“Don’t underestimate me!”
Hours later, Naruto groaned as he pushed himself up from the sand for the umpteenth time. He had lost count of the number of times he had been knocked into the sand ages ago and he was so freaking sore all over from his sparring with Minato. He knew that if not the sand cushioning the impact, he would have been in greater pain. He grimaced as he gingerly prodded at one of the bruises on his torso. Minato still looked fresh as though he hadn’t been engaged in sparring just moments ago, much to his annoyance. Rolling to his feet and curiously eyeing the ocean, he asked, “That reminds me… Where are we anyway?”
Minato’s smile faded slightly. He faced Naruto and answered soberly, “We’re in Wave Country - this used to be known as Whirlpool Country, your mother’s homeland.”
Naruto was surprised by the fact that he was in Wave Country - this didn’t look like the part he had been to before with his team. He replied, “Weird. This doesn’t look like the part of Wave Country I went to with my team… Wait, you said this used to be my mother’s homeland? Whirlpool Country? How come I’ve never heard of it?”
Minato sat down on the sand beside Naruto and was silent for a few thoughtful moments. He finally said, “I’m not surprised you wouldn’t know of Whirlpool Country. It was destroyed long before I was born. But in its heyday, Whirlpool Country used to be quite powerful and it also had a village of ninja called Uzushiogakure or Uzushio for short. Konoha and Uzushio were strong allies and this can be still seen in the uniforms we Konoha nin wear.”
Minato drew a spiral symbol in the sand and pointed at Naruto’s red spiral symbol on his jacket. He continued, “This symbol is Uzushio’s just as the leaf swirl belongs to Konoha.”
“Okay…” Naruto nodded in understanding. He looked at Minato and peppered him with questions, “So my mother… She was from Uzushio right? Was she also a ninja? What did she look like? What was she like?”
Minato held up a hand and chuckled, “One question at a time. Yes, your mother was originally from Uzushio and she was an excellent ninja.”
With a wistful smile, he looked at Naruto and ruffled his hair; “She was also the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen. There was no one quite like her with her distinctive long red hair and violet eyes. But oh, her temper was legendary! She was nicknamed “Bloody Habanero” and she was quite fearsome in the battlefield. I actually was quite intimidated by her when we were both in Academy.”
Naruto’s eyes were wide and he was eagerly hanging on to every word he said. He pressed him, “And…? What was her name?”
“Her name was Uzumaki Kushina. You have her surname and her looks. In fact, you are very much her son all the way down to your personality though you’ve inherited my colouring, judging from your first reaction when you saw me…”, Minato answered with a rueful grin.
“How did she…die?” Naruto hesitantly asked, desperately wanting to know what happened to his mother. Minato sighed deeply, feeling a wave of sadness come over him as he remembered his wife’s last moments. He took a moment to gaze at the sea to recollect himself and find the best way to break it to his son.
“She…died giving birth to you. She loved you so much that she willingly sacrificed her life for yours.”
“So, I…killed her?” Naruto’s voice was so quiet that it was almost lost beneath the sound of the waves. Minato frowned and swiftly pulled Naruto to his side, refusing to let go when the boy immediately tried to escape, “Don’t. Don’t ever think like that! You’re not responsible for your mother’s death. If Kushina were here, she would smack you silly and tell you to get on with your life and be happy. That’s the kind of person she was. She loved you.”
Naruto stiffened and his eyes grew wide. He quickly ducked his head, not wanting Minato to see his face. His father wouldn’t have any of it and hugged his son, pulling him even closer to reassure him. Thankfully, Naruto didn’t resist as he tentatively leaned into the embrace. Minato faintly smiled when he felt his son’s arms hug him tightly and his shirt grow wet. Naruto was really Kushina’s son…he even cried the same way she did. Minato gave his son a comforting squeeze and dropped an affectionate kiss on top of his head as he hummed, looking out to the sea.
Bloodcurdling roars echoed through the dark tunnels of Otogakure. Yakushi Kabuto, the grey-haired bespectacled medic-nin wasn't perturbed by the loud noise that had sent many other Sound nin scuttling in fear away from Orochimaru's quarters. After all, he was Orochimaru's right-hand man and in charge of his health as the chief medic. Clucking his tongue in mild irritation, he knocked politely on the door and after a length of time; he entered the dim room and was hit with the revolting humid stench of blood and decay.
Orochimaru was seated in his throne in the centre of the room, sweating with exertion. His mouth was flecked with blood and his bandages on his arms were brown. The flesh that peaked out from under the bandages was black with gangrene. Kabuto methodically changed the bandages for the crippled Orochimaru, unperturbed by the sight of the decaying arms that were practically falling apart. He neutrally commented, "Whatever the Hokage did to you, there seems to be no cure. The rate of disintegration is increasing beyond my ability to control. Should we retrieve the Uchiha from Konoha now?"
Orochimaru hissed sibilantly, his golden eyes alit with fury and pain. Damn that old monkey! He had taken away his ability to perform jutsu by stealing his arms! His plans were set back by at least three years and he had failed to invade Konoha. Now Suna was Konoha's ally ever since it found out that Oto was behind the Kazekage's murder. Orochimaru sharply ordered, "Send the Sound Four to retrieve the Uchiha boy! I want him here within a week! I want to transfer to his body."
"Understood, Orochimaru-sama."
"…Kabuto. In the meantime, I want us to go to Otafuku Gai. Word has it that a certain legendary medic is there."
"Senju Tsunade the Slug Sannin. How are you going to convince her to heal you?"
Kabuto was intrigued. To get such an opportunity to meet a legend in the field of healing… Orochimaru smirked and he replied, "I'm going to make her an offer she can't refuse."
Namikaze Minato tossed and turned in his bed, his brows drawn into a frown. He was unable to sleep, his dreams filled with disturbing images and his body felt too cold. Hissing through his teeth, he finally sat up, shivering violently despite it being a warm summer night. He felt deathly cold like he had been buried in ice. In contrast, his eyes felt as though they were burning and he quickly pressed the palms of his cold hands to them in an attempt to soothe the uncomfortable sensation. Minato also felt a deep ravening hunger; it was so acute that it ached.
Gritting his teeth and squeezing his eyes shut, Minato forced himself to tolerate the Hunger and the burn in his eyes with the help of meditation techniques taught to him by the Toad Sages. Admittedly, they were rather rusty, partly because he had been, well, dead for over a decade and he’d given up on them long before that in his youth when he realised that no amount of practice was going to give him the ability to attain Sage mode when he possessed zero ability to sense Nature Chakra, much less manipulate it. So realistically speaking, he was out of practice for almost two decades.
His failure to achieve Sage mode would, however, lead him to create his masterpiece Hiraishin. He had become rather frustrated and developed the Hiraishin in drunken pique - a crazy concept that miraculously worked solely for him and an inventively gory end for others (an Iwa nin had splattered his individual atoms in randomly artistic ways across the landscape and him when he tried using his sealed kunai - it had been quite a traumatising sight and both friend and foe learnt very quickly never to mess with Minato’s sealed kunais.) Even to this day, he still wasn’t quite sure how he managed to devise the seal array whilst completely inebriated on unhealthy amounts of potent alcohol without blowing himself to Yomi come.
After what seemed like a painful eternity, the hunger and burn in his eyes finally ebbed away much to his grateful relief. Cautiously removing his hands from his watery eyes, Minato blinked furiously, distractedly noting that he didn’t feel cold anymore. Suddenly feeling extremely exhausted and woozy, he felt his grip on consciousness slipping through his fingers. As his eyes drifted shut, he faintly wondered what was happening to him.
In the middle of white nothingness, a bamboo mat floated and on top of the mat, two divine beings sat across a go board. The divine entity on the right did not look anything but divine, with its monstrous hannya mask with bulging eyes, long horns jutting from its forehead and sharp fangs set in a cruel and leering mouth. The god’s white hair was long and wild. Her (yes, her) flesh was the pallid grey of corpses and her hands that peeked out from her long billowing sleeves of her white funereal kimono were skeletal and tipped with claw-like fingers. Her name was Izanami, goddess of death.
On the left sat another god, whose face was handsome and proud, his features aristocratic. His black hair was neatly combed and he wore a kanmuri. He wore the finest robes that were richly embroidered and shimmered with the heavenly glow of the moon and sun. He held a fan in his right hand made from lightning and thunder. His name was Izanagi, god of creation. He questioned, “What have you done, Izanami?”
Izanami seemed to smile behind her mask as she lifted a black stone from her stone bowl and placed it down on the board with a soft ’pachi’. Her voice was low and rasping, reminiscent of rustling leaves and scraping metal, “I’m playing a game.” Why else?
“Izanami. You’re not referring to our game, are you? What are you thinking? Bringing a mortal back alive from Yomi?” Izanagi rapped his fan on the mat in consternation. Izanami laughed throatily, “He’s an interesting mortal. Besides, your children have been having too much fun in the mortal world and it’s time to do a bit of… how did the mortals put it? Ah yes, ‘cleaning house’.”
“…Cleaning house?” Izanagi parroted, unfamiliar with the odd phrase. Izanami tilted her head and mockingly said, “Oh really now, for someone who’s part of the above, you should be more familiar with the mortals’ ways than someone like me who’s from Yomi. They have such lovely and creative ways of swearing like these Uzumaki people for example. But I digress.”
“But you weren’t from Yomi originally.” Izanagi said and he immediately regretted his words, as Izanami grew stonily quiet. The deep silence rang through out the whole space as Izanami glared icily at Izanagi.
“Yes, brother-husband, I wasn’t from Yomi originally. You know the whole story of how and why I’m now part of Yomi. You know why I wear this mask. Do not anger me any further.”
Izanagi was red with shame and Izanami derived great pleasure in seeing him so flustered. She gazed over the board and said, “In any case, I have made a deal with this mortal. He will be my agent on the mortal world and get rid of the mess your children have made. It’s also a game to see if he can beat that bitch, Destiny. And well, his situation is certainly unique enough…”
“But you can’t interfere!” Izanagi protested.
“Shut up, Izanagi. Your policy of non-interference has created a huge mess on the mortal world and by proxy, my world. I grow tired of mortals persistently escaping from my realm and mortals abusing the boons your children gave them. It’s awful how much paperwork they’ve caused. Do I have to remind you of the Jyuubi incident? You’re lucky that the Rikudo Sennin was stupidly heroic enough to stop your pet from rampaging and creating a flood of paperwork in the process. You know that I hate paperwork more than your guts. So keep me happy and I won’t send shikome after you.” Izanami sardonically replied.
Izanagi shuddered at the mention of shikome and he meekly conceded, “Alright, you can do whatever it is you have in mind. But please whatever you do, don’t destroy the time-space continuum! The Fate sisters charge astronomical sums for repairing it!”
Izanami chuckled and only said; “It’s your move now.”