The Yellow Flash and The Village of Mokugakure

[Minato Namikaze]

Minato watched himself, as if having an out-of-body experience. But only, it wasn’t, it felt more like a lucid dream more than anything. He watched himself fight the masked man, His kunai traveling through the man’s face and out the other side, as if fighting a ghost. Then, just as he was about to finish the fight, everything stopped as if it had been frozen in place. Minato walked up to the scene, everything was just as it had been in the past. The Masked Man, himself, the way they fought, only now he could find out who it was. Minato walked up to the man, inspecting his face, the mask revealing only his right eye.

‘Sharingan. . .’ Minato sighed as he went over everything he knew already. It was disappointing, maybe if he’d aimed for the face, he’d have found out who this man was. Surely Madara Uchiha was already dead. So he couldn’t be who he said he was. Minato reached forward and grabbed at the bottom edge of the mask, only to find that his fingers phased right through the man’s entire head. Minato soon found the world around him passing by like a blur, and then to a sudden halt as he noticed his infant son on the ground in front of himself. Kushina, his wife, standing in front of him.

‘Naruto!’ Minato called out as he desperately tried to reach for his son. Minato dropped his head as he realized where he was. This was when he and Kushina sealed part of the Kyuubi and the last of their own chakra within Naruto. Minato clenched his fist as he screamed internally, it wasn’t fair. Why was his own mind torturing him? Why was he so close yet so far away from his son? Minato felt a lump in his throat as tears began to stream down his face. He didn’t understand why he was here, why he was being tortured. He just didn’t understand.

‘Minato, Minato wake up!’ Kushina said as her almost frozen body seemed to come to life. Minato couldn’t speak, not because the dream had decided that he couldn’t, but because of the emotions that he felt.

‘Minato. Wake up!’ Kushina exclaimed as the world around them shook violently. ‘WAKE UP, YA KNOW!’ Kushana’s voice echoed as the world around him collapsed, as if made from paper. He welcomed the darkness, anything to take him away from that nightmare of his. Minato looked down at the dark ground, something about this new scene seemed familiar.

‘Why am I not awake yet?’ Minato asked himself as he caught a glimpse of a white figure in the corner of his eye. He spun around to find himself presented with one, final, scene. It was Omni, speaking to him, but it wasn’t him as he was now. It was him from when he first arrived in this world. He couldn’t hear a single word coming out of Omni’s mouth. It was as if Omni himself was muted. The only thing he could hear was the sound of his own breath. Minato watched with a building irritation as he tried to make sense of this. First the Masked Man, then They Kyuubi and his son, and now himself and Omni. Why was he experiencing such an odd dream?

Minato’s train of thought was broken by the white silhouette’s sudden attention switch. From his past self, to his current self. The words it spoke were almost indistinguishable. It’s wide grin stretching across it’s face as if it had no bounds. The being looked at him for an uncomfortable amount of time before speaking up again.

‘Wake. Up.’ Omni’s child-like voice, yet fierce words shook him to the core. Minato wasn’t afraid, but he was definitely unnerved by the being. Minato watched as both Omni and himself disappeared from sight, leaving only darkness and the strange sound of footsteps.

‘Minato, wake up.’ Tsunade’s voice said as he opened his eyes. The fluorescent light hurt his eyes slightly as he saw Tsunade sitting next to his bed. It seemed as though she’d been watching over him.

‘Tsunade?’ Minato asked, his confusion getting the better of him. ‘Where am I?’

‘You’re in the Village.’ Tsunade said as she looked down at him and smiled. The fact that they were still in the Omniverse had slipped her mind, she was just happy that he was okay. Minato looked around the hospital room, it looked looked exactly like the hospital rooms back in the Hidden Leaf. His look of confusion prompted Tsunade to realize her mistake.

‘We’re still in the Omniverse.’ Tsunade corrected herself as Minato sat up slowly, a light pain spreading through his abdomen. ‘I’ve managed to build up a somewhat stable village…’

‘So... what’s the problem with it then?’ Minato coughed, his throat was rather dry and his voice was raspy. Tsunade looked at him with a frown on her face.

‘Politics.’ The Sannin replied. Minato knew what she meant, politics always got in the way of a perfectly stable village.

Tsunade rested her chin on the palm of her hand looked at Minato from the corner of her eyes. ‘Do you want my job?’ Tsunade asked playfully. Minato laughed and shook his head in response.

‘No thank you.’ Minato responded before taking a slight pause, he was trying to come up with a believable excuse. ‘You know this place better than I do.’ Minato laughed as Tsunade looked away from him.

‘You’re right.’ Tsunade responded as she let out a large sigh and then sat back in her chair. ‘What are you doing here Anyway?’

‘I... don’t know.’ Minato began, he was still trying to make sense of it himself. ‘One minute I was sealing the Nine Tails inside of Naruto. The next, I was here.’

‘In the forest?’ Tsunade asked as she turned to him, her chin still in her hand.

‘No.’ Minato shook his head. ‘I was in a dark room, in front of a being that called itself Omni.’ Minato clarified. His description of the event matched what Tsunade had been presented with when she first arrived here.

‘So you’re a Prime then.’ Tsunade mumbled as she thought to herself.

‘Prime?’ Minato asked, he knew that we was different than some of the other people he’d met so far. He could feel it. But he didn’t know why or how.

‘It’s a term used for people brought here by Omni.’ Tsunade began. It was true after all, he really was green when it came to this world. ‘Unlike other inhabitants of this world, Primes seem to passively absorb Omnillium. This makes us stronger.’ Tsunade’s explanation seemed to make sense to Minato, he had felt something similar to this. He had felt himself getting stronger as he was fighting against the five ninja that had been pursuing Izanami.

‘Yeah. I've noticed.’ Minato replied as Tsunade stood from her chair and walked over to the hospital room door.

‘Get up, I want to show you something.’ Tsunade said as she left the room. Minato moved his legs slowly, hoisting them over the side of the mattress and planting his feet on the tiles below the bed. The cool tiles were refreshing on his feet, he’d been somewhat overheated under the hospital blanket. Minato stood up, almost falling forwards and flat on his face. The hospital gown he had on wasn’t really comfortable. In all honesty, he just wanted his own clothes back.

‘I guess I should follow her then.’ Minato muttered as he left the room behind, following Tsunade through the small hallway. He didn’t know where she was taking him, or what she wanted to show him. But he would follow her nonetheless.