Chapter Text
…Mist and rain, flooding Minato’s nostrils. Thick, heavy darkness on all sides, even when he relented to the pleas around him and blinked his eyes back open, just for a moment…
Past the pounding rain, scattered sounds of rather extreme agitation met his ears. Gasping. Crying. Sobbing. Weeping. None of it his own, in spite of the excruciating agony in his chest, the sensation that a huge, fiery, fist-sized arrow had been shot right through his heart.
…Why would you do this, whispered fourteen-year-old Kakashi, his voice barely audible over the plodding rain. Why, why, why would you do this, Sensei…
I refuse to accept this!! Obito screamed, jagged mokuton trees sprouting like black lightning from the ground around him. I won’t let you get out of it like this, Sensei! You’re just being a weak, useless, big-headed coward…!
I never meant to make myself into your burden, Minato-Sensei, Rin apologized while openly weeping, clutching at the rushed but sturdy seal Minato had just finished tracing over her stomach. And Kakashi-kun, I never meant to make you feel so guilty…
Minato let both his eyes and his focus drift, lying limply in place as his once-again-young set of former students discussed and raged and yelled and pleaded and screamed. At him, and at each other, and at themselves. He let his eyelids drift closed. These would be some of the last sounds he ever heard. In spite of all the bitterness and anger and sorrow and blame in their voices, Minato tilted his head back and let them all soak through him the way the rain and the blood had soaked into the damp earth below them.
Even if I COULD get them to stop arguing, I don’t think I would want to, anymore… he thought to himself.
“Rin, you can stop now,” Minato made himself tell the young woman crouched at his side, who was still pushing green healing chakra into his body, keeping him just barely alive, although not for much longer…
“Sensei, just please, explain how… how…”
Either she couldn't finish the question, or he could no longer hear her, but in any case, he had neither time nor energy left to explain to them how he had altered the conditions of the time-seal in order to jump himself back through space and time to the very moment when Kakashi had been about to plunge his chidori-wreathed fist through Rin’s heart. It was the only moment and location in their shared history that Minato had been sure he would be able to pinpoint with perfect accuracy in order to prevent what was otherwise fated to happen, especially given the constraints imposed by the very narrow window of time he would have before his body collapsed from using up all his chakra to activate the seal.
Even though it meant that only three members of Team Minato would walk away from this event, he would still, at least, be fulfilling the promise he'd made earlier, to Tobi…
Will this be enough…? I need them to know… I need them to… to…
In his dying moments, Minato had already sealed the Sanbi safely into Rin, and called out to a bedraggled and mud-speckled Obito, who was lurking in the shadows nearby. As the other two sent Obito perplexed and astonished glances, Minato had collapsed onto his knees, weakened as much from Kakashi's Chidori cutting a hole in his chest as he was from using so much of his chakra to jump himself through space and time. Rin had laughed hysterically for about half a minute after Obito had emerged, and then quickly dissolved into non-stop tears. Kakashi was shaking head to toe the whole time, just like before, that time in the graveyard, back when…
…I failed you, Sensei, Kakashi was mumbling, crying into Minato’s bloody chest, his free fingers wrapped around Minato’s palm and clenching so tight, so tight. For a moment, it had almost taken Minato’s mind off of the fist-sized hole underneath, the skin still sizzling from where it had been cauterized by the lightning from Kakashi’s slowly-retracted wrist. I swear I will never forget this, I promise…
Through one last press of effort, Minato called them in close, made his lips form the words. Spoke carefully to Kakashi about how he bore no responsibility for this event, and about how even when times were dark, how important it was for him to find reasons to continue to live, not just for his friends’ sake, but for his own. Spoke gently to Rin about how she had done well and should take pride in her mednin abilities, and how his death was not her fault either. Spoke as firmly as he could to Obito about how it would be his job to lead the team now, and how powerful he would become, and how important it was that they all stay together. That this event had to bring the three of them closer together than ever…
And then, after a while, there was just rain. Falling on his face. Puddling around their knees. Either rain, or blood, or tears.
Maybe it no longer mattered which, anyway.
“Sensei, please don’t close your eyes, just keep talking, stay with us…”
Minato blinked up, screening to see their faces, even as rain poured down into his own.
Obito, Kakashi, and Rin.
“I h-had so much more I wanted to teach you…” Minato chuckled very weakly, his voice barely audible to his own ears.
“Sensei…”
Don’t splinter apart, you three. We only win if you stick together.
“Promise me you’ll help Kushina look after Naruto sometimes. And I… I need you to…”
“Sensei, don’t strain yourself…”
“…need you to take care of each other. I need you three to take care of each other. Make a solemn promise to me now, and never break it, no matter what. Never forget. Okay?”
“Sensei… ”
“…promise…promise me…?”
Three voices answered him, so soft and distant, he wasn't sure he hadn't imagined them. As Minato faded out into the strange sudden warmth of the cold gray-black flowers that had begun blooming all around him, their tendrils pulling him up and out of the tight hold of the three small bodies leaning in around him, the petals carrying him up skyward, carrying him very far away, he thought he just barely… just maybe heard them, the three quiet answers he strained to hear just before the end…
I promise, Sensei…