one_long_mission | intro post: ghosts in the fog

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intro post: ghosts in the fog

He comes in as dusk settles, walking through the thin fog that clings around his legs and the tails of his coat, seeming to solidify as he walks. Even the sound seems to remember itself slowly, for at first he's a silent ghost and it's only as he nears the faint golden ponds of light from the outlying village windows and the flicker of their bonfires that the sounds of soft footsteps in the frost begins. Blond hair moves a little in the night wind, smoke and crisp autumn chill, and it takes the blue eyes under that fringe a long time to focus in the calmly neutral face.

He's not sure where he's going, just that there's a path in front of him that seems to lead somewhere and he supposes he will follow it for the moment. When his chakra dissipated from his son's life, he hadn't expected to find himself anywhere - yet here he apparently is. Lost so long in the mists of his child's life, drifting and unsubstantial, it's hard, now, to think of what's before him as any more real. He's a dead man's chakra, released from its mission, a ghost from the past as sure as some of the old furniture and unwanted love letters being tossed away to the flames tonight and it's a strange relief that his hand doesn't pass through the tree he comes to stand near on the edge of someone's bonfire, pausing in his journey onward because the road can wait and even ghosts seem able to appreciate the heat from a stranger's fire in the falling night.

ooc: just a note - Minato's actually very solid but it's going to be a bit before he gets past the idea that he's a lost ghost. Or that what's in front of him is really there either. He's been unable to touch anything for a very long time. Head-canon says a part of him is still trapped with Nine-Tails Yin inside the death god so there's a part of him missing but he'll solidify despite that as he goes. And I apologize in advance that I am a very slow tagger. Life is busy right now but I couldn't resist.

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"This has happened often then? Always from Konoha or from different villages each time?" He doesn't remember anything in the history of Konoha about a mass disappearance but that doesn't mean it didn't happen. "Is there a pattern to the arrivals? How many come and how quickly? Do the shinobi remain or vanish again?"

She paused and squeezed his hand in a bit to slow the flow of questions. "It happens at least one a generation for them, and lasts anywhere from days or until the next one. We apparently came after one of the 'days' ones. It's not only Konoha shinobi here. My youngest son mentioned to me that he'd met Hoshigaki Kisame, who I am fairly sure had a reputation even when you were alive still. I haven't managed to pick up a pattern, and thus far no one I've met has left."

"Hm." He had come to a stop next to her when she did, attuned to the subtle pressure of her grip on his. Nin communicated in many ways and touch was one of the most basic so she had his entire attention as she spoke, absorbing what she told him. If the feared Monster of the Hidden Mist was here as well, it was no small trap and chances were not focused entirely on Konoha. He found that both reassuring and distracting. His village was not under specific attack but that meant there was a different commonality binding the ones that were taken and without something at simple as village loyalty as the reason it would be harder to find.

He had also not forgotten that several of them at least should by rights be dead and there were apparently others that, in his own world, had never lived and yet did here as well.

"Then we will solve it together," he didn't doubt there was a solution, it was simply a matter of being persistent enough to find it. His fingers shift in her hand then to link with hers. Silent communication that matched his words. Raising his head again to look around, he then looked back at her and his eyes were softer. Less Hokage and more simply Minato. "Your sons must be glad to see you again, Mikoto."

She stared at him, stunned a moment by the warmth in his expression. In the years since the man died, just how much had she -forgotten- about this man? She tightened her fingers on his and smiled, finally hitting the bottom of the cliff part of the trail. "They are. Sasuke nearly knocked me to the ground when he saw me. He jumped out of a tree to hug me."

She shook her head, letting out a breath. "But it's Itachi really... He was in horrible shape when I first saw him. So -worn-..."

Lost children isn't exactly unknown to Minato and while he doesn't know exactly what happened to Mikoto and the rest of the Uchiha - being inside his son's soul limited severely what he could be aware of and what had managed to filter though - he knows, deep in his gut that it was a horror. Enough did get through and he could piece together a great deal too but not the details. Not the sharp definition of it. So he knew that Mikoto's children had grown up without her and he though no child should grow up without their mother. So his voice is soft and his eyes are calm as he simply says:

"Tell me."

Her steps slowed on the path as she sighed softly. "After the night of the Kyuubi, suspicion was cast on the Uchiha." It was a murmur and she lifted her chin. "So the elders, under pretext of our homes having been too badly damaged in the assault, rounded us all up and stuck us in a quartered off compound."

She looked over at him. "It just... got worse from there. My baby ended up being the one to kill me when he was just thirteen."

His eyes closed at her final words and he stopped walking entirely. His village. His people. The Uchiha had been his to guard and protect as Hokage just as surely as any other clan in the village. And so while he understood the need to protect the village as a whole at any cost, even the loss of part of it... the tragedy, the unnecessary tragedy, echoed hollow down the inside of his soul and beat in the empty parts.

His people. His Uchiha.

He exhaled and it was long and silent. So much lost the night of Kyuubi and so much more of it than he'd even realized. Shinobi knew they would die for their village and yet -

With a soft tug to her hand, he hoped to draw her back toward him and his free hand reached out to touch her cheek lightly.

"I am sorry, Mikoto. For you, your clan... and for your sons."

She didn't fight the motion, but it was clear it surprised her. "I have them, here." It was a murmur. "I... I have two versions of Itachi living with me, and I've had to soothe so many hurts of his, forgive him for things he shouldn't feel he needs forgiven -for-. He's... such a contrast to the little one it -hurts- Minato. There may have been a point where I was reluctant to give up being a shinobi to be a mother, but they're my babies and I love them."

Edited 2012-12-04 16:04 (UTC)

"Second chances," it's a murmur of his own and he raises his eyes to look past her shoulder at the buildings they're headed toward. Somewhere in there he has a daughter at least. Part of his family, albeit not quite the version of it that he's used to, that's waiting for him as well.

He won't make judgement calls on what the Sandaime did in the past. He was Hokage once himself. Sometimes the sacrifices are necessary no matter how much they break your soul apart.

Sometimes they aren't. But he wasn't in the other man's place and he can't judge.

All he can do is mourn it and do what he can to set things straight again. As the woman in front of him is so obviously doing already. The hand that had touched her cheek falls to rest on her shoulder lightly and he gives it a gentle squeeze.

"Mothers are the fiercest shinobi of them all, Mikoto. I thought you knew that." The smile is small, fleeting. He's still absorbing the sorrow. But it's there for a brief moment. He understands seeing your child hurting and being unable to do anything about it. He knows that hurt as well. "You'll introduce me to them. All of your boys?"

She laughed and gave him a soft smile, letting the sorrow be pushed away. "Of course Minato, after all, you'll be living there too, won't you?"

It makes him pause. How proper is it for them to house together and yet how sensible is it considering this village may seem innocuous but could easily be a danger? Better to keep them all nearby where he could keep a watch over them than have them scattered in a time of need. There's only one true deciding factor really though and his eyes lift to look at the woman near him.

"Where is my daughter staying?"

"She lives with me." Her tone was firm and she flashed him a little smile. "Her and Sasuke.... bicker. They still haven't realized that I'm going to double headlock them every time they start up."

He hears the tone and for a second the edge of his lips hook upward. He recognizes that tone. He wasn't going to try to take his daughter away though. He will be new to her. Even if she were the son he remembered, he would still be new and unknown. Better to let his child keep what stability they'd already found and find a way to fit himself to their life than assume they should drop everything to be a part of his. So his smile is quick but relaxed.

"Then I suppose I will be staying in your house, Mikoto. Seeing you put our children in a headlock alone would have been the deciding factor."

She laughed and inclined her head. "Thank you."

Her tone turned rather wry then. "Just... promise not to make snap judgements about anyone who comes around? My youngest is in the habit of making friends with... worrying figures." She huffed a breath. "But I've been checking everyone I can get my hands on for danger to the kids, even if not all the kids I've taken to keeping an eye on are willing to move in."

His smile is a bit wry in answer. He hasn't seen much but he has seen some of the people his own son has befriended and he's certainly not going to make a judgement call. More to the point though, he is much more familiar with shades of gray as Hokage than he is with black and white. His voice stays calm.

"Mikoto, I judge people as their actions merit." And then, softer, looking at her, he adds: "Besides, I cannot even promise to still be here once the sun rises."

She laughed and shook her head. "I only thought to warn you as my son has on more than one occasion gone on about 'his blue friend Kisame'. Considering the man is our age, I'm sure you're fully aware of his reputation."

It has him pausing, thoughtful and then he nods with a soft hum. He's most certainly aware of the other nin's reputation, or rather, at least what it was from his own time. What may or may not have changed between then is the question. The important question is:

"You trust him with your son?"

"I trust that he is protective of my son. If nothing else I realized very quickly that he took care of my boy after I died." She let out a soft sigh. "And he seems fully amenable to my child declaring that blue men cannot be scary."

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intro post: ghosts in the fog

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