Minato had finally woken up. He didn't bother to face the ANBU/ROOT ninja suddenly surrounding him.
Where was his son? What happened to the Kyuubi? Did someone capture the masked man? What day was it? How long had it passed by? How old was his son? Where was his teacher? What happened to Kushina? Did she also somehow survive? What about Saki? Naruto-
He seemed to snap out of his trance at the name. He could panic later. He would ask his questions later. For now, he needed to find his son. He had pushed a very big responsibility on his son. He didn't even have his parents to guide him.
He tried to comfort himself by reminding him that Naruto still had Jiraiya and the third to act as his guardians even if the village shunned him like they did to Kushina once.
He tried to get up, stumbling, and he finally saw the situation he was in. There were traitors even within the ANBU.
The blank masked shinobi before him had their weapons raised as some of them fought with out the ANBU who were probably guarding him all this time. Just what had the village come to for there to have been traitors at such a level? Who had the hat for it to be this bad?
Gritting his teeth, he pushed his still recovering chakra to spread and feel the emergency seals in the room. There was only one. He hadn't felt this annoyed in a while now. Perhaps it was because he had just woken up and still hadn't mourned. Why was the Hokage's security so lax now? He remembered putting at least 20 ANBU guards and making Hiruzen protection seals himself for his mansion, when the man retired and the old man's clan was filled with ninja to protect either way.
He quickly sounded the alarms from the seal as more ANBU flooded in. Surprise flickering in all of their chakra, however, they were quick to mask it and get to work. It was even more of a surprise to find traitors, however, once again they pushed aside their emotions to protect their Hokage.
Minato, finally relaxing a bit, made his way out of the suffocating room. He needed to find his son. He wondered how old he was? Did he know about him? Probably not, considering how Naruto could become a bigger target with that information revealed to the world, and he was a jinchuuriki now so it was better for Minato to be a secret. He wondered if Jiraiya had taught him some of the Uzumaki customs Kushina had always done. He wondered whether Naruto hated him for not being there for him.
Pushing these thoughts out of his head, he scowled at the ANBU blocking his way.
"Move."-Minato
His voice was rough. Maybe it was because he hadn't been able to speak for so long. It almost hurt.
The ANBU hesitated. He knew they were just doing their job, to escort him back to the room and have him be checked by a medic and report to the current Hokage, and him about the changes in the village, that he had woken up. But, he needed to get to his son.
He needed to see his child.
Running past the ANBU, he carefully made his way out of the VIP unit of the hospital. Konoha was different. There were hardly any traces left of the Kyuubi's attack. The streets had changed a bit, probably from reconstructing them, but the main layout was still the same.
He ran across the streets in a hurry, trying to run to where he felt the faint spark of the kyuubi's chakra. Some people stopping and whispering about seeing the ghost of the fourth hokage.
He didn't notice the ROOT agents gathering in one small place to grab a girl, barely a genin. He didn't notice that there were no Uchiha walking the streets anymore.
Naruto.
He had found Naruto.
His child had grown so much. He looked a small copy of him and Kushina. He had three whiskers, probably the Kyuubi's influence, Kushina's face structure and personality, judging by the yelling. He had his yellow hair and blue eyes. He also had a Konoha head band wrapped on his head.
He thought of how he had probably missed his first day at the academy, he even missed his graduation day. He had missed so many birthdays of his child. He didn't even know what his favorite color was or what foods he liked to eat.
He didn't notice that Kakashi was nearby, watching him see his son for the first time in years, eye widened in shock as his body was completely frozen.
Naruto finally noticed the yellow haired man looking at him. He looked so much like him. There was shock in the man's eyes.
Love.
Why did this man have so much love and sadness on his face?
He gulped a bit before he glared at the man. Why was he staring at him so intensely? That was a bit creepy. He remembered Veronica telling him to stay away from creepy people like that.
Minato snapped out of his trance at the sudden glare. It didn't contain much hostility but it still hurt to see it. It reminded him a bit of Kushina when she was still new to the academy and would glare at anyone.
He pushed away the memories of her dying that night.
He needed to focus on Naruto right now.
--- --- --- --- ---
!!!WARNING: The rest of the content contains graphic description of torture. Please proceed with caution!!!
She was trying to distract herself from the situation at hand. Even if she was trying to stay calm like she normally does but, even for her, this was something she couldn't help but panic about. Memories of those days had come flooding back.
She took in a shaking breath as she tried to focus on Matatabi's presence.
'Matatabi...'
[I'm here.]-Matatabi
Just her presence alone was comforting to Veronica. She was lucky to have someone by her side at such a moment. She would always be grateful for that. She knew that with just one word Matatabi would destroy this place. That thought comforted her for some reason. Maybe she really was going crazy, being comforted by someone committing mass destruction for her.
Taking a deep breath, she noticed three people coming in. They were covered from head to toe. She couldn't even speculate what their genders might have been. Although, she guessed, it didn't matter what or who they were.
One of them tried to grab her. She noticed another one had shunshin-ed behind her.
Tch-ing, she easily dodged the one beside her, however, her arms were easily caught by whoever was behind her. She could've used this moment to stab him however, she had no weapons. Her chakra was also going haywire, maybe it was the seals placed around the room.
'Then again... I'll die if I try to escape now, without Matatabi's chakra to support me.'
She heard the chilling voice again. It seemed much more closer to her this time, and much crazier.
{Kill them...! You know what they'll do if you don't... Are you just going to let it happen again?}-???
She didn't want to let it happen again. No. She would never relive that nightmare. Yet, she would also not loose control of her emotions. She could not. If she lost control then all of which she's worked for will come tumbling down.
Besides, she knew she couldn't kill them all even if she tried. The worst-case scenario, Matatabi gets revealed to the whole village and because of her own weakness, she would get captured. She couldn't let Matatabi be sealed in a cage just because she couldn't control her emotions. She was better than that.
Her right arm was dislocated with a sharp pain filling her senses. She could feel the tears starting to form in her eyes.
However, she couldn't scream.
She couldn't let him have that satisfaction.
{Tear it apart with your hands!}-???
She could practically feel that suffocating chakra of his stabbing her. She wondered just how many had he killed that she could feel the dead souls surround him even without using her dojutsu.
Gritting her teeth, she tried to avoid thinking about the people who were slowly dislocating her right leg. Her hand had been popped back in place and it would be a lie to say that she hadn't cried from the pain of them just touching it.
She hated it.
She couldn't tell how much time had passed.
She'd been in the same dark room for... Hours now? She didn't know anymore. She guessed Matatabi would know.
[… It's been... 20 minutes.]-Matatabi
She could tell that Matatabi was trying to stay strong and not let out her ferocious chakra. She wanted to tear them apart. She wanted to use her claws to tear their weak bodies apart.
It didn't matter if they were once broken like her too.
She wanted to kill them.
She panted when her 'torturers' stopped for a minute. This was at least better than the last time. She knew they couldn't leave a mark on her skin, for she was staying with Kakashi.
"You will learn to see the correct way to serve this village."-???
She almost scoffed.
"Are you sure the old fart wouldn't die of a fucking heart attack first?"-Veronica