[Chapter Size: 2200 Words.]
Third Person POV
Konoha, 43.
...
...
The cat they were chasing at that moment had been Team 7's greatest challenge during the past week, as it was extremely fast and intelligent. Even with Obito, Rin, and Kakashi working together, they could barely get close to that feline, and they had been at it the entire day.
Minato watched from atop one of the houses, far away from his team, observing the cat that moved as fast as a genin.
What the children didn't know was that he was there, holding the real mission cat in his arms, unlike the 'cat' they were chasing.
Minato was gently petting the little animal, which purred happily at the friendly touch of the blond ninja.
He was basically deceiving his students, who didn't know that the cat they were chasing wasn't the original, but rather a cat from the Cat Clan using the Transformation Technique to look like the mission's cat, the one they were trying to capture in the capital of the Land of Fire.
That mission was different from the others of the past week, because that cat belonged to the wife of the current Daimyō. Minato had no intention of leaving the village in the first week, but since they had been doing many cat rescue missions, Sakumo thought it wouldn't be bad for Minato to go do one in the capital of the Land of Fire.
Seeing no results with the usual tricks, the children began to opt for something heavier than the traps they had been trying to set, so they started executing plans with stronger jutsu than the simple ones.
Obito created a Shadow Clone, Kakashi began making adjustments to his Earth Style, while Rin used water to scare the cat, which ran to the opposite side, hating water.
It ended up falling into an area where a hole was beginning to form with Kakashi's jutsu, but it was smart enough to jump into the air before being placed inside the hole.
However, a kunai advanced toward it. The cat used its claw to deflect it, and while it spun in the air without force, the kunai simply turned into a cloud of smoke and, before the cat could react, Obito appeared and grabbed it, holding its arms tightly.
A trick Minato had taught Obito, imitating how Naruto fought when he didn't have much strength at the beginning.
Before falling beside the hole that had been created, the cat merely sighed, seeming bored, while Obito began jumping with joy.
"I got it! I got it!", said the clone, to the point of tossing the cat into the air.
That immediately made Rin worried, while Kakashi became irritated. "Stop doing that, you idiot! He's going to escape!"
"That's true...", Obito's clone murmured awkwardly.
Then the original Obito appeared, grabbed the cat, and punched his own clone.
"You fool! Did you want to let him escape again?", the original snarled at the clone.
"Argh... I was just celebrating," the clone said apologetically, before disappearing.
"Now then, shoo, shoo, shoo...", Obito began petting the cat, which didn't seem very important.
Unlike the cat in Minato's arms.
Minato found that satisfying. He simply made the cat in Obito's arms switch places with the cat he had in his own hands through the Hiraishin seals that were on the felines, while the cat with Obito suddenly became affectionate.
None of the children noticed the exchange of cats, not even Kakashi at first.
"Look, he likes my touch now!", Obito shouted, thinking it was cute.
On top of the roof, the cat in Minato's arms was set down on the ground. It gave a shake and transformed into a red-furred cat.
"Can I go back now?", the cat asked in a bored tone.
"Of course. I appreciate you helping me with this," Minato said.
"Sure, sure...", the cat replied, still not looking the least bit enthusiastic. "Anyway, tell Mikoto-sama to bring treats. I'll be expecting that as payment."
With that, it exploded into smoke and disappeared completely, returning to the Cat Clan, with which Minato had a contract. This wasn't the first time a member of the Uchiha clan had contact with that clan; in fact, it was normal throughout history for the Uchihas to have ties with the Cat Clan.
In any case, Minato turned toward the three students and teleported to them with a silent flash. None of them noticed the cat swap yet, although Kakashi did notice that the cat seemed a little different, but he didn't comment on it.
After all, the cat they had struggled to catch today had humiliated them, while looking bored at everything they tried to do. It was almost as if they were facing a jōnin ninja playing around and even lowering his own abilities so that the three of them could handle the task.
The cat now in Obito's hands, while he squeezed it in a hug, seemed much lazier and happier, purring the entire time.
"It seems you managed it. Let's return it to the castle," Minato said.
All three of them moved toward the large Japanese castle of the Daimyō.
As they entered the place, they were quickly approached by a ninja. In fact, there were several Konoha ninjas there providing security for the family that controlled the feudal region of the Land of Fire and also financed Konoha.
"You finally caught him, Lord Minato," the jōnin said with a smile.
Minato nodded.
"Where is my little darling?", a voice echoed through the place.
A woman appeared at the entrance. "Ah, you caught him!", she said excitedly, approaching with the guards.
Obito barely had time to react before the woman took the cat from his hands. She squeezed it against her face, pressing it tightly.
The cat looked a little desperate at that moment, while the children finally understood why it had run away.
The woman simply squeezed the cat like it was a teddy bear, and the cat was entering despair.
"Thank you very much for bringing my little sweetheart back. Anyway, come along. I'm sure my husband will want to speak with you." She addressed Minato, who nodded as they all entered the castle.
"Minato!", said the Daimyō himself, in a room while they were being served with small Japanese cups filled with very expensive sake.
Meanwhile, the children were in a room behind Minato, sitting and unable to hear the conversation between their sensei and the man who controlled the entire financial system of the Land of Fire.
"Hey...", Obito whispered.
"I wonder how much that bottle is worth?" he murmured, remembering very well that the Daimyō himself had taken an expensive bottle from a safe.
"I don't know, it can't be cheap," Rin murmured.
"That's worth at least about two years of work for a jōnin," Kakashi replied, making the three of them freeze.
"What? So, man, like... then it would take about a hundred years for a genin to buy a drink like that!"
"That's very likely," Kakashi said.
Kakashi knew the value of that bottle. It was one of the most expensive sakes in the world.
"He's drinking it just like that with sensei...", Rin murmured. "You can tell they're friends. Did you see how he treated him as soon as he showed up at the castle?"
"They really do seem like friends...", Obito said, whispering.
"I heard the Daimyō was a child when Minato saved him along with his father at the beginning of the Second War," Kakashi replied, while the two seemed to understand.
Already inside the room, the conversation became more serious...
"So you mentioned the Land of Iron earlier...", the Daimyō's voice suddenly became serious, replacing his smile with a worried look.
"Yes. The time has come. We must see how the nations will react," Minato said quietly.
"I see...", he murmured.
While they began talking, Minato was careful not to let any information slip to either the guards or his team about what they were discussing there.
"Well, in any case, I'll leave that with you, Minato," the Daimyō said.
"Yes," Minato replied as he stood up.
He said goodbye with a handshake from the Daimyō and began leaving the room, meeting the children in the other room waiting for him after his private conversation.
"Let's go," Minato said. They left the castle.
"So are we going back to Konoha the same way we came here?" Obito asked, since they had arrived by teleporting. Minato didn't want to waste time traveling to the capital.
"Not this time. I want us to follow the traditional route back. Besides, I want to meet someone who just arrived in the city," Minato said.
The three, despite being curious, followed him without asking questions.
Minato passed through the streets of the capital. There were merchants, locals, foreign traders, and even mercenaries looking for work. The place was even busier than Konoha.
Even so, he kept ignoring everything until he found a tea shop. He entered the place, pushing aside the curtain. The children simply followed him while watching Minato walk to one of the tables, where a woman was drinking tea with three red-haired girls.
It was Hanabi Namikaze, Minato's Hyuga wife.
"Minato," she said with a smile when she saw him approach, while the three children stood up.
All three of Hanabi's students were the same age as Minato's students. They bowed to Minato. It was customary among the Uzumaki to behave this way when seeing Minato Namikaze, recognizing him as their savior when the clan had been on the brink of destruction.
"Hello everyone," Minato said as he sat beside Hanabi.
"Join us," Minato said to his children, who sat beside the Uzumaki girls, while they greeted each other today with slight nods of their heads.
"I was surprised when I sensed your chakra here in the capital. We were returning to Konoha," Hanabi said as she sipped her tea.
Minato ordered tea for himself, along with his students.
"Sakumo gave me this mission today. It would be good for my students to see the capital, and I also needed to speak with the Daimyō about that matter...", Minato said, while Hanabi nodded slowly.
That matter. She knew very well what he was talking about.
"And how did it go?" Minato asked with a serious look.
"I managed to get a little more this time. They're moving. They're surveying the area, but the new Mizukage and the Fourth Raikage will be moving on the eastern side... Jiraiya-sensei is handling the western countries...", Hanabi replied.
"The new Mizukage...", Minato pondered over that.
Hanabi now had an enhanced eye, able to see from afar what was happening even in another country. It wasn't difficult for her to enter the border and directly check on the Kage thanks to the Byakugan.
"Well, it seems we'll have to act soon," Minato said.
The children looked curious. All three Uzumaki were carrying out reconnaissance missions at the border with their sensei, always making reports. After Hanabi looked for a while in each direction, they would see Hanabi's eyes always shining, but they didn't know exactly what she was seeing.
But upon hearing about the Mizukage and the Third Raikage, they couldn't help but be surprised. Hanabi never gave that many details.
Minato drank his tea while thinking about what Hanabi had said.
Certainly, Kiri was in Madara's hands at this moment. Who would he place as Mizukage... Minato still couldn't imagine. But there was certainly some plan behind it. However, Madara was no longer someone who would remain hidden underground after everything that had been happening in the ninja world.
With the power that Konoha now displayed, the balance of the world leaned to one side, and that threatened Madara's plans.
Minato, of course, had been dealing with the White Zetsu. Some of them appeared in Konoha from time to time. At least they appeared frequently when he had returned to Konoha and killed them one by one.
Until they stopped coming, since they couldn't obtain any information about him or his family.
Even Hanabi had become an expert at killing them, since her eye could now detect them. In the same way, Kushina could detect a Zetsu's emotions, and even Tsunade could sense their wood element as a form of life.
Minato later taught Mikoto's Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan to detect them as well.
Minato made sure his wives could deal with this too; he would not feel safe with those creatures, which could enter most places in the world without being detected.
At least his family would be safe now, with his women able to protect the children from any assassination or kidnapping attempt by those Zetsu.
"Did you see anything in the Land of Waterfalls?" Minato asked.
"Everything I saw before... disappeared," she said carefully.
Minato nodded slowly. Madara had left the hideout, which meant he was truly going to act and come from the Land of Water.
"Well, I think it's better for us to return to Konoha. We need to prepare," Minato said quietly, only for her.
Mikoto nodded. No more reconnaissance missions for her, and no more cat-capturing missions for Minato and his team.
They would now go to the Land of Iron to spy on the Kage meeting.
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