Ficlet: Broken
Summary: Minato survives the sealing of the Fox, at a cost.
Disclaimer: Naruto (c) Kishimoto! I'm making no material profits here.
Theme: 071. Broken ( fanfic100)
It occurred to Minato that, in some twisted volte-face of destiny, the heavy numbness caused by the half of the Nine-Tailed Fox's chakra now sealed inside him was working to his advantage. After all, as the Third's late wife had said not two hours ago, men could not handle pain and he had to be able to focus if he wanted to complete his son's new seal before he ran out of time. With one of the Fox's giant claws through his chest, drowning him in his own fluids, and the Death God sucking the remainder of his energy as payment, he was already dead twice over.
He was glad he could not feel it. One of the members of his original genin team had been stabbed through the chest during a skirmish and Minato had watched his friend cough and choke and suffocate on their teacher's back before they could get to a medic. He had held out long enough on their rudimentary first-aid, though, to beg with tears on his eyes that his teammates put him out of his misery. Like him, he had seen too many of his Leaf comrades die during the Second and Third Ninja World War.
As for the Death God's punishment, the light sizzling he felt around the edges of the dark seal on his stomach was only the prelude to the fiery hell awaiting him in the afterlife on the God's stomach, he was sure.
He looked down on his newly-born son Naruto, lying so peaceful on the sealing pedestal without any clue as to what was happening around him. His dear wife Kushina was giving him her final pieces of advice. She apologised to Minato for leaving him no time to say his goodbyes to their son, but he did not mind. She was the wiser of the two; he would do anything to give Naruto but a few seconds more of Kushina.
When his vision started greying, he knew he would not be able to hold out much longer. He sluggishly moved his hands to form the handseals that would complete the technique and felt the sizzling on his stomach intensify until it was burning. The Fox screamed behind him and in front of him Kushina reached the limit of her endurance.
"It worked," were her last words before her body went limp. Minato felt his heart lurch and broke the handseals to hold on to her. It was done anyway, the containment seal had already materialised on Naruto's skin. The only sounds left in the forest were of his own heavy breathing and a baby's crying.
He lost all feeling then and was about to join Kushina when a pair of arms kept them both from hitting the ground. His loyal ANBU had caught up and so had Sarutobi. Minato did not know how they had found him so soon, but he had to take the opportunity to warn his predecessor of the danger, about the masked man who had manipulated all of them to take the Fox for himself.
He tried to talk, but only blood came out. Someone shifted him on to his side and screamed for a medic, but Minato knew it would be pointless. He could see a ghostly extension come out of his chest linking him to the Death God. His spirit was inching closer to its fanged mouth - how many had the privilege of seeing the gods at work taking their lives back, Minato wondered. Slowly it went, until a pointy mass started forming at his image's shoulder and unsettled the stream. It resolved into a snout, then a pair of ears and the beginning of a paw. The Fox was pushing to disentangle itself from Minato and he froze when he realised that the damned beast just might succeed in its escape.
It struggled to break itself free in a frenzy, Minato now not only saw it, but felt it inside him, shredding what was left of his body. He closed his eyes and pulled together the last of his strength to keep that from happening. His body was convulsing to the rhythm of the Fox's yanking and he had the impression that Sarutobi and the ANBU around him were doing something to try to help him, but it was not having much effect. He held on to the Nine-Tails's chakra with all he had and if at first it seemed like it was a futile attempt, the yanks stopped being as strong and then as frequent, until he finally had it under his control.
Minato opened his eyes then to reassure the Third, but jerked back when he found the Fox's ghostly face inches away, scrutinising him. Its eyes glowed in a malevolent red before it disappeared into his body. He was also surprised that the string connecting him to the Death God had broken and the ghostly images were fading.
"Minato... your chest..." Sarutobi whispered. Minato realised that the burning in his stomach had stopped, but when he looked down - he could move again - he saw that the hole left by the Nine-Tailed Fox's claw was smoking, somehow closed and cauterised. The mix of emotions that flooded his overtaxed system were powerful - surprise, relief, confusion, dread - and added to that, his body had seen fit to recover its full sense of feeling then.
He fainted at once from the pain and the shock that he would survive.
*
Minato wasn't sure what woke him next. He felt like he still had plenty of hours' need of rest in him. Perhaps the painkillers were wearing off or he was starting to feel hungry, because something was bothering him around his stomach.
A woman wearing an ANBU mask was immediately next to him, running a diagnostic. He let her do her job and looked at his surroundings. It was still dark and the tan tarp of the tent matched the standard issue from any ANBU's survival gear. He could see the shadows of three more ninja surrounding it in a protective circle on the outside. Wrapped in a bundle of soft blankets next to him, a small baby slept.
"How long have I been out?" he asked the medic. "What happened?"
"About five hours. The sun is about to rise, Lord Hokage," was her prompt response. "Your condition was too critical for us to move you back to the village. It still is, so you should try not to move."
"The village?" He was almost afraid to ask.
"It sustained heavy damage. Estimations point to a high number of casualties, but I don't know anything for sure. Lord Sarutobi went back as soon as we knew you were stable to organise the salvage operations, sir."
The news were grim, but Minato was relieved that at least his predecessor was around to keep things under control. As much as he wanted to get up and join the effort, the blond knew the medic was being polite by only suggesting that he rest. He could tell he was not well. He was having difficulty in breathing and his chest felt like it had been excavated by a ball of kunai and and then stitched together with barbed wire. The bandages wrapped around his torso, brown with blood, were evidence enough.
"I need to look under your bandages to make sure it's not getting infected," the woman said. Minato sighed and nodded his acceptance. As she helped him sit up, he did his best not to think about how much it would would hurt to have the cloth pull on the fresh scabbing, but keeping control over his thought processes had never been his forte. Drawbacks of being a genius, as Kushina would say.
Just thinking of the name brought tears to his eyes, or maybe that was the pain caused by the medic pulling at the pads glued to the gaping hole on his torso. What he knew for sure was that something very unexpected happened then that had nothing to do with either one or the other. Something surged in his stomach, like a spike was trying to pierce him from the inside out. He could not control the jolt that threw him sideways and the medic's reflexes were not fast enough to let go of the bandages before the damage was done: the wound had been torn open. She cursed freely and set about staunching the abundant blood flow.
"Tiger! Get your ass in here, I need help!" she yelled. Within moments, the second ANBU was kneeling on Minato's other side. The fuss woke up Naruto and chaos reigned inside the tent until the two had successfully rewrapped Minato's chest.
"Lord Hokage, are you all right?" the female ANBU asked over the baby's wailing.
"Great," he hissed through gritted teeth. "Take care of Naruto..."
"Tiger," the medic pointed. The man got the hint and picked up the baby, hoping to hell he would not break the small human being and that it was too young to be scared by faceless men wearing intimidating masks. "Lord Hokage, what happened just now?"
As his son's cries subsided, so did Minato's pain, to the point that he could speak more freely. "I don't know what it was. I just felt something near my stomach..."
The medic did not wait another moment before throwing Minato's blanket aside and starting another diagnostic technique over the indicated area. "There's definitely something wrong, but..." she murmured as she tried to make out what she was reading. "You have only minor wounds in this area, nothing that would cause such a... AAH!"
The two other ANBU rushed inside in time to see a tendril of hot red chakra surge up from the Hokage's stomach and attach itself to the medic's hands. Minato looked on in horror as the strange chakra then darted to the side, to where Tiger knelt with baby Naruto on his arms.
"Get him out of here!" Minato shouted at once, focusing on the seal on his stomach and willing it to hold back the Fox. Tiger quickly followed his orders and left the tent.
The medic stood by, her hands burnt from coming into contact with the Nine-Tails's chakra and unsure of how she could help her patient. Minato had no such doubts. "You should leave too. As long as I can't control the monster, it's not safe to be around me. Go and get Sarutobi, quick! I'll be fine."
"Right," she said and hurried out, leaving Minato alone with his demon.
Disclaimer: Naruto (c) Kishimoto! I'm making no material profits here.
Theme: 071. Broken ( fanfic100)
It occurred to Minato that, in some twisted volte-face of destiny, the heavy numbness caused by the half of the Nine-Tailed Fox's chakra now sealed inside him was working to his advantage. After all, as the Third's late wife had said not two hours ago, men could not handle pain and he had to be able to focus if he wanted to complete his son's new seal before he ran out of time. With one of the Fox's giant claws through his chest, drowning him in his own fluids, and the Death God sucking the remainder of his energy as payment, he was already dead twice over.
He was glad he could not feel it. One of the members of his original genin team had been stabbed through the chest during a skirmish and Minato had watched his friend cough and choke and suffocate on their teacher's back before they could get to a medic. He had held out long enough on their rudimentary first-aid, though, to beg with tears on his eyes that his teammates put him out of his misery. Like him, he had seen too many of his Leaf comrades die during the Second and Third Ninja World War.
As for the Death God's punishment, the light sizzling he felt around the edges of the dark seal on his stomach was only the prelude to the fiery hell awaiting him in the afterlife on the God's stomach, he was sure.
He looked down on his newly-born son Naruto, lying so peaceful on the sealing pedestal without any clue as to what was happening around him. His dear wife Kushina was giving him her final pieces of advice. She apologised to Minato for leaving him no time to say his goodbyes to their son, but he did not mind. She was the wiser of the two; he would do anything to give Naruto but a few seconds more of Kushina.
When his vision started greying, he knew he would not be able to hold out much longer. He sluggishly moved his hands to form the handseals that would complete the technique and felt the sizzling on his stomach intensify until it was burning. The Fox screamed behind him and in front of him Kushina reached the limit of her endurance.
"It worked," were her last words before her body went limp. Minato felt his heart lurch and broke the handseals to hold on to her. It was done anyway, the containment seal had already materialised on Naruto's skin. The only sounds left in the forest were of his own heavy breathing and a baby's crying.
He lost all feeling then and was about to join Kushina when a pair of arms kept them both from hitting the ground. His loyal ANBU had caught up and so had Sarutobi. Minato did not know how they had found him so soon, but he had to take the opportunity to warn his predecessor of the danger, about the masked man who had manipulated all of them to take the Fox for himself.
He tried to talk, but only blood came out. Someone shifted him on to his side and screamed for a medic, but Minato knew it would be pointless. He could see a ghostly extension come out of his chest linking him to the Death God. His spirit was inching closer to its fanged mouth - how many had the privilege of seeing the gods at work taking their lives back, Minato wondered. Slowly it went, until a pointy mass started forming at his image's shoulder and unsettled the stream. It resolved into a snout, then a pair of ears and the beginning of a paw. The Fox was pushing to disentangle itself from Minato and he froze when he realised that the damned beast just might succeed in its escape.
It struggled to break itself free in a frenzy, Minato now not only saw it, but felt it inside him, shredding what was left of his body. He closed his eyes and pulled together the last of his strength to keep that from happening. His body was convulsing to the rhythm of the Fox's yanking and he had the impression that Sarutobi and the ANBU around him were doing something to try to help him, but it was not having much effect. He held on to the Nine-Tails's chakra with all he had and if at first it seemed like it was a futile attempt, the yanks stopped being as strong and then as frequent, until he finally had it under his control.
Minato opened his eyes then to reassure the Third, but jerked back when he found the Fox's ghostly face inches away, scrutinising him. Its eyes glowed in a malevolent red before it disappeared into his body. He was also surprised that the string connecting him to the Death God had broken and the ghostly images were fading.
"Minato... your chest..." Sarutobi whispered. Minato realised that the burning in his stomach had stopped, but when he looked down - he could move again - he saw that the hole left by the Nine-Tailed Fox's claw was smoking, somehow closed and cauterised. The mix of emotions that flooded his overtaxed system were powerful - surprise, relief, confusion, dread - and added to that, his body had seen fit to recover its full sense of feeling then.
He fainted at once from the pain and the shock that he would survive.
*
Minato wasn't sure what woke him next. He felt like he still had plenty of hours' need of rest in him. Perhaps the painkillers were wearing off or he was starting to feel hungry, because something was bothering him around his stomach.
A woman wearing an ANBU mask was immediately next to him, running a diagnostic. He let her do her job and looked at his surroundings. It was still dark and the tan tarp of the tent matched the standard issue from any ANBU's survival gear. He could see the shadows of three more ninja surrounding it in a protective circle on the outside. Wrapped in a bundle of soft blankets next to him, a small baby slept.
"How long have I been out?" he asked the medic. "What happened?"
"About five hours. The sun is about to rise, Lord Hokage," was her prompt response. "Your condition was too critical for us to move you back to the village. It still is, so you should try not to move."
"The village?" He was almost afraid to ask.
"It sustained heavy damage. Estimations point to a high number of casualties, but I don't know anything for sure. Lord Sarutobi went back as soon as we knew you were stable to organise the salvage operations, sir."
The news were grim, but Minato was relieved that at least his predecessor was around to keep things under control. As much as he wanted to get up and join the effort, the blond knew the medic was being polite by only suggesting that he rest. He could tell he was not well. He was having difficulty in breathing and his chest felt like it had been excavated by a ball of kunai and and then stitched together with barbed wire. The bandages wrapped around his torso, brown with blood, were evidence enough.
"I need to look under your bandages to make sure it's not getting infected," the woman said. Minato sighed and nodded his acceptance. As she helped him sit up, he did his best not to think about how much it would would hurt to have the cloth pull on the fresh scabbing, but keeping control over his thought processes had never been his forte. Drawbacks of being a genius, as Kushina would say.
Just thinking of the name brought tears to his eyes, or maybe that was the pain caused by the medic pulling at the pads glued to the gaping hole on his torso. What he knew for sure was that something very unexpected happened then that had nothing to do with either one or the other. Something surged in his stomach, like a spike was trying to pierce him from the inside out. He could not control the jolt that threw him sideways and the medic's reflexes were not fast enough to let go of the bandages before the damage was done: the wound had been torn open. She cursed freely and set about staunching the abundant blood flow.
"Tiger! Get your ass in here, I need help!" she yelled. Within moments, the second ANBU was kneeling on Minato's other side. The fuss woke up Naruto and chaos reigned inside the tent until the two had successfully rewrapped Minato's chest.
"Lord Hokage, are you all right?" the female ANBU asked over the baby's wailing.
"Great," he hissed through gritted teeth. "Take care of Naruto..."
"Tiger," the medic pointed. The man got the hint and picked up the baby, hoping to hell he would not break the small human being and that it was too young to be scared by faceless men wearing intimidating masks. "Lord Hokage, what happened just now?"
As his son's cries subsided, so did Minato's pain, to the point that he could speak more freely. "I don't know what it was. I just felt something near my stomach..."
The medic did not wait another moment before throwing Minato's blanket aside and starting another diagnostic technique over the indicated area. "There's definitely something wrong, but..." she murmured as she tried to make out what she was reading. "You have only minor wounds in this area, nothing that would cause such a... AAH!"
The two other ANBU rushed inside in time to see a tendril of hot red chakra surge up from the Hokage's stomach and attach itself to the medic's hands. Minato looked on in horror as the strange chakra then darted to the side, to where Tiger knelt with baby Naruto on his arms.
"Get him out of here!" Minato shouted at once, focusing on the seal on his stomach and willing it to hold back the Fox. Tiger quickly followed his orders and left the tent.
The medic stood by, her hands burnt from coming into contact with the Nine-Tails's chakra and unsure of how she could help her patient. Minato had no such doubts. "You should leave too. As long as I can't control the monster, it's not safe to be around me. Go and get Sarutobi, quick! I'll be fine."
"Right," she said and hurried out, leaving Minato alone with his demon.