Reborn in the Mist

 “Alright, he’s gone. Where’s the rest of the message?” Jiraiya-sensei asked the moment Danzo’s chakra signature exited caution range.

Minato allowed himself to smile at his teacher, “How are you so certain there’s more?”

Jiraiya exchanged a glance with the Sandaime who wore a little smirk of his own. He shook his head and allowed the tension of Danzo’s presence to wane away, “Because you asked that instead of simply denying.”

Hiruzen pursed his lips before he spoke, “And you’re holding back more than a little information on Amegakure, there is a danger there, isn’t there?”

Jiraiya-sensei nodded and fell into the seat Danzo occupied a moment ago, his shoulders heaved and rigid as he recalled, “The Rinnegan.”

““What?!”” Both Minato and Hiruzen exclaimed. Hiruzen sat up straight and faced his student, “You mean the Sage of Six-”

“Yes.” Jiraiya said firmly, his eyes looked straight ahead but were glazed over by memory, “The legendary power of the Sage, I found it in Amegakure.”

Minato frowned at his teacher, “You’ve known about this for years.”

Jiraiya didn’t look away, “I have, since the aftermath of the Second Shinobi war or maybe even during.”

At this Hiruzen shifted again, “And you didn’t think to inform me that-”

“That what? There was a power Konoha could exploit? A tool to destroy our enemies?” Jiraiya shook his head, “My student was no such tool, just a boy looking for peace in his land.”

“Your student? You taught the wielder of the Rinnegan ninjutsu!?”

Minato raised a hand, “Wait…was?”

Jiraiya inhaled, “Since the end of the Second War I haven’t seen anyone of them. They could all be dead, I assume as such because…well, they are all so stubborn and their ambition is…well, Rinnegan or chasing peace during war has a history of getting you killed.”

Hiruzen looked conflicted but mostly disappointed, “Them? You took up a whole team of students and yet when I ask you do the same for Konoha’s next generation you scoff.”

Jiraiya groaned, “I trained Team Six didn’t I?”

The Third Hokage rolled his eyes at that, “Don’t act like you didn’t take up that team solely for Minato-kun.”

Now that Minato was at Konoha’s helm he understood the value of powerful shinobi even more than when he stood at the frontlines. In both the Second and Third shinobi wars a shinobi trained by Jiraiya and wielding a power as legendary as the Rinnegan would have been a boon that could’ve prevented the Third shinobi war outright.

But just as Minato understood Hiruzen as his successor, he understood his teacher even more. If there was such a child wielding power as great as the Rinnegan, that child was still just that; a child. And if he were in Jiraiya’s shoes he’d want to spare the youth any further horror of war.

If only I could have done the same for my students. Even more than that, Minato could guess why he’d hazard training a child with the Rinnegan, “You believed he would be the child of prophecy, didn’t you?” Just like he believes of me.

Jiraiya nodded without a word and Hiruzen sighed deeply, “If this student of yours is happens to be the threat the Mizukage speaks of…well.” For once Minato saw deep confusion strewn across his predecessors features, he felt himself in the same boat, what were they to do if it turned out to be so.

Minato shook himself of those thoughts and retrieved a blank scroll from his drawer. He tossed it at Jiraiya, “Yagura’s second message was written there, seals allowing it to be read only once. Maybe you can reverse it but fortunately I was paying attention. Yagura gave a specific time for our meeting to occur, a very odd one too.”

“Why is that?” Jiraiya asked, a little shrunk in his seat but grateful the conversation on his student had passed, at least for now.

Minato crossed his fingers, his eyes steeled as he said, “Because he’s using Kushina’s pregnancy as a measurement stick.”

Both Hiruzen and Jiraiya’s mouths fell open. Minato had been the only person to read Yagura’s second, intimately written message. He wasn’t sure how much the Mizukage knew about himself, Kushina or Konoha but the instructions for when to meet were specific enough to know Yagura knew more about this enemy than Minato himself.

“He insists any personal meeting we have should occur before Kushina’s birth, he also warned that his precautions in delivering his message were absolutely necessary and that I might want to do the same.”

Hiruzen frowned deeply, “You mean…”

“Yes, it’s possible even the privy seals on this office may have been compromised, but I ensured to touch them up before this meeting.” Minato reassured the Third.

“Huh, I wondered what was different.” Jiraiya mused. “But this…I want to say it could be a trap or a trick but…it feels too elaborate to be so. Especially after what Kinoto reported.”

“The attack on one of Yagura’s councillors? Kinoto said he couldn’t verify that information himself, it could be a deception.” Hiruzen said.

Minato sighed, “Perhaps, but then we’re not the only one’s Kinoto is reporting to. Danzo will investigate Amegakure and he will surely find your student if he is alive and the threat Yagura is warning us of.”

Jiraiya shrugged, “The Rinnegan is a powerful Dojutsu, even without my student ever setting foot in Kirigakure or slighting them, it makes sense why Kirigakure would feel threatened or why we would.”

Hiruzen sighed but didn’t say anything, seeming to have given up on convincing Jiraiya of the worldly perspective of things Minato was beginning to understand more intimately.

“We haven’t been threatened, Jiraiya-sensei, we’ve only been warned. A fair warning is warrant enough to investigate closely, especially when there might be some truth to it. If I knew the Rinnegan was in Amegakure I wouldn’t have pushed Danzo into investigating it, I’d have kept him close and far from that power because…well, you know.”

Minato massaged his temples as he continued, “This changes things now, drastically. You have to find this student of yours before Danzo does and I have to meet with the Mizukage before he acts on his own again.”

Hiya!