The next day
Minato heard the good news from Tsunade. Kakashi finally regained consciousness, and this made Minato and his family visit the hospital as soon as they could.
Kushina hurriedly slammed the door open, almost giving Kakashi a heart attack as he stared at the door of the room in shock.
Tsunade and Shizune, who are slightly behind Minato and the three teenagers, shake their heads after seeing Kushina's reckless action.
Minato only gives a helpless smile after seeing the action of his wife.
Minato and others swiftly enter the room and close the door as they look at Kakashi dying, unable to breathe due to Kushina's tight hug.
"Kakashi! You scared us so much!" Kushina said, tightly hugging Kakashi further.
Kakashi looks at Minato, Tsunade, and Shizune for help while his face slowly turns pale.
"C-Can't... breathe..." Kakashi whispers, but Kushina didn't hear him.
"Kushina! That's enough! He just woke up," Tsunade said in a slightly raised voice before staring at Kushina. "Do you plan to send him unconscious once again?"
"A-Air..." Kakashi muttered hoarsely as he greedily took breaths.
Kushina froze seeing Kakashi's reaction. Her face quickly turned red afterwards.
"Ah—! I'm sorry, Kakashi!" Kushina said, waving her hands nervously. "I didn't mean to! I was just really happy!"
"...I thought I was going to die," Kakashi whispers dryly, and the others couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat while looking at Kushina.
Kushina feels the eyes staring at her, and she can only chuckle nervously as she scratches her face with an apologetic expression on her face.
"Next time be more careful with the patient," Tsunade said while staring at Kushina.
"...I will," Kushina responds.
"It's good to see you finally awake, Kakashi," Minato said gently. "How are you feeling?"
"Better than I look," Kakashi responds.
"He still needs to rest for some time before he fully recovers," Tsunade calmly interjects.
"That's good to hear," Kushina said.
Tsunade then looks at Kakashi with a serious expression. "You better take a rest and don't do any funny business if you don't want to stay in this place far longer than you should."
'I'm not Might Guy.' Sweat on Kakashi's face slowly falls from his face.
"...I will," Kakashi said.
Kakashi and others started talking at each other with small topics. Along the way, a few Jonin enter the room to congratulate Kakashi on his recovery.
This is especially true for Might Guy's explosive congratulations, much to the three teenagers' chagrin.
Kakashi's students didn't come since they haven't yet learned the news from their Jonin sensei and focus on training on their own.
This was especially true for Sasuke, who had been beaten so badly by Keimei yesterday that he returned with injuries, shocking Mikoto in the process.
After talking for what feels like an eternity, out of nowhere everyone's attention focuses on Minato.
"I would like everyone to leave the room for a moment. I would like to ask Kakashi some questions," Minato calmly said with a smile on his face.
Everyone nodded in understanding, as they already had guessed the reason behind this action, and slowly left the room, leaving both Kakashi and Minato alone.
After they left, Minato immediately placed down a sound barrier to prevent anyone from secretly hearing their conversation as well as a barrier that prevented anyone from forcefully entering the room.
Seeing the serious atmosphere around the room, Kakashi turns serious and looks at his sensei, patiently waiting for the latter to ask.
"Kakashi, tell me what happened that day, and who are the people responsible behind it?" Minato asks, and at the end, one can feel chills in their bones due to the coldness of Minato's tone.
Kakashi was silent for a few moments, and after thinking it through, he decided to tell the truth about what happened that day.
Minato listened throughout the entire time without even disrupting Kakashi for even a second and slowly digested the information he just received.
Still, he was shocked to learn the fact that Naruto had already bought his own apartment when he was just a child. This also made him realize the reason why the ANBU were unable to find any clue where Naruto left since they all assumed the fact that with his current financial situation, he can only live in the forest.
This assumption might work on others, but it wouldn't on Naruto.
The question about this was how Naruto managed to gain that money when he was just a kid. It was clear after Kakashi investigated Naruto that the money he uses to buy the apartment he currently lives in is a clean one, but how he acquired the money still remains unknown.
"...Naruto did it..." Minato whispers to himself, but it still filled the entire room thanks to the silence filling the room.
"Yes," Kakashi nodded.
Minato was unable to believe that Naruto did that to Kakashi, especially how Naruto injured Kakashi so badly that it almost killed the latter.
Minato started to realize what Fugaku mentioned about Naruto's strength is true; no, in fact, it wasn't the full picture of his strength.
Minato accepted the fact that Naruto was strong despite the fact that both he and Kushina didn't help Naruto cultivate it, but what's troubling Minato right now is the fact that they don't have full knowledge of his capabilities, which is certainly problematic, especially with the action he shows.
Minato knows that Naruto is a great flight risk and will definitely bring trouble for the village.
'How the hell did this happen?! Minato thought while clenching his fists tightly that blood started to flow from his fist.
Minato knows the answer but is unable to accept it.
This was the consequence of both his and Kushina's actions towards their eldest son. There are high chances it wouldn't have happened if the two of them didn't focus much of their attention on the other three children they had but instead provided the four equal attention from the start.
Minato can only hope that it is still not too late to change.
While Minato is currently deep within his thoughts, Kakashi doesn't disturb his sensei, as he himself is still unable to fully accept the strength behind Naruto despite the fact he has already experienced it himself.
Even though back then he couldn't fight back, as he found himself frozen in place and became nothing but a punching bag for Naruto, even if he could move, Kakashi felt the result would be the same.
He reaches this conclusion after seeing Naruto heal him after he was first about to step into the afterlife. The healing he received back then was incredibly fast, even compared to Tsunade.
Kakashi suspects, though, that Naruto uses a different method thanks to the fact that he is unable to sense chakra from Naruto at that time, but one could also respond that it is because he is fully focused on the pain he receives from that torture, but his gut told him that Naruto uses a different technique.
After being silent for a few minutes, Minato slightly raises his head and stares at Kakashi, which the latter quickly notices and snaps back from reality.
"Kakashi, don't tell anyone what happened that day," Minato said in a serious tone. "If anyone asks, just tell them I'm working on it."
Kakashi nods as he understands the reason behind it. It was clear to begin with that Minato wanted to at least protect Naruto from the ramification of his action of what he did to Kakashi, even though the latter was the first one to break the law, but that's beside the point.
Minato also wanted to build the relationship between them, so informing everyone about what he did wouldn't only alienate Naruto, but the chance of rebuilding their relationship would be gone as well.
While Minato and Kakashi continue to talk more specifically about the limit of Naruto's strength, Fugaku, on the other hand, is currently in the Police Force office to finish the work that piled up after he went to the Land of Wave and completed the mission.
Of course, just like Minato, in order to finish this work, he didn't hesitate to use Shadow Clone. While working on the papers on his table, he couldn't help but think about Naruto and the action he had so far.
It was clear that Naruto is a flight risk, but unlike other ninjas who are designated to be a flight risk, Naruto's actions weren't shown to be dangerous towards the village, at least.
Even despite the terrible actions that the villagers did through Naruto, which he learned after his investigation.
Learning what the villagers did really made Fugaku wonder why Naruto even endured it; despite clearly having the power to shut them down, it was beyond him.
Fugaku will try his best to at least remove the suspicion of Naruto being a flight risk, not only because he wanted his team to be formed much longer than he initially wanted but also because he wanted to help Minato with his troublesome situation with Naruto.
But also the fact that what he was currently doing to Naruto was some kind of redemption in Fugaku's eyes.
Fugaku sees Naruto as somewhat similar to Itachi, and what happened to Itachi is a scar in his heart that will never heal since he believes he was the one who caused it.
This is also the main reason why his attitude towards Satsuki and Sasuke slowly changes throughout these years since he believes that the way he raised Itachi was the cause behind Itachi's actions back then.