Silent Lips Are Dry

The News

When Minato finally found her, she was lying on the bathroom floor with scissors in her hands and for a terrible moment he thought she had given into her pain and done harm to that precious skin of hers. But upon closer inspection, the red train at her feet was just a big chuck of hair she had decided to cut off. That alarmed him. He knew that she never really liked her hair that much, but never in their years of friendship had he know her to cut it off so carelessly. There had been a few times when she had cut it short of enough that made him beg her to let it grow again, but it had never been like this. Her hair was her pride, the symbol that she was part of a hidden village, the reason why she was next in line to be leader of her clan. Only, that was no longer true.

The news that Uzushiogakure had been obliterated had reached him not long ago. He'd been traveling south; near the Kiri border when the rumors hit them. He'd heard a few fishermen talking about how 'The Village of Longetivity' was no more, but he had chose to ignore it for obvious reasons. The war was against Konoha, not Whirlpool, a nation that until very recently had maintained a peaceful front. When the attacks against the village had started directly, the Hokage had asked the Uzu's elders if they could send some refugees their way, not having the man power to keep them safe and defend the village at the same time. Due to their neutrality they had obviously hesitated about the matter, even if being one of Konoha's allies, deciding not to participate in the war had been a decision that'd been respected by the Tsuchikage, deciding to waist his forces on Konoha, rather than turning half the world around and giving Uzugakure a blow he knew they were not ready for. Besides, they would have to march right through Konoha to reach the small island. But now that Kiri had sniffed blood in the water, they had decided that the last war treaty about them keeping four islands that once belonged to Konoha was not ransom enough. So they had decided to attack the first thing island they could reach. The land of Eddies.

Only a few days earlier they had received the news about Kiri's sudden attack in the islands smallest bay. There had been a few burned housed and one or two injured, nothing too serious to be passed out as an accident, but when the attacks became more frequent and more efficacious, Uzu's elders had no choice but to call every shinobi outside the country back to help defend the village from vicious and bloodthirsty Kiri ninja. Only those employed elsewhere had had the option of staying. And Kushina had been one of those people. But the small argument they had just before she'd left had changed her mind. She'd been shipped out the same day he had.

So now, with Konoha's army separated in three fronts, things didn't look quite so optimistic that was until Minato had developed a new technique that allowed him move at the speed of light. That had given hope for village. Maybe this war against the Red-Black Army (a name Kumo and Iwa had decided upon) and Kiri didn't look so unpromising after all. That was until the Fourth Mizukage launched an all out attack against the Land of Eddies as if to warn Konoha of what they were capable of.

Minato only really got the news a few minutes after arriving at the village. His mission of espionage and sabotage had gone better than the last one and he'd decided to head for the Hokage personally rather than write a report to the administration offices, since there had been something eerie about the place he'd visited that had caught his attention. But upon arriving at the dark office, he noticed that the grim air about it was caused to something much more calamitous than the news that they might be at war with yet another great nation.

"Sit down Minato," the Hokage told him, his pipe on his lips.

Minato did as he was told, knowing that interruption was not to be permitted.

"I think I'll start from the beginning," the Hokage said, looking grimly at some papers on his desk. "The land of Whirlpool, the village of Eddies, Uzushiogakure as we know it, no longer exists."

Minato didn't grasp the gravity of the situation at that moment.

"Oh," he said, looking past the Hokage toward the village.

"Kirigakure attacked the village last night," the older man informed him, measuring him with his eyes. "Apparently they got word that one of their bloodline limit targets was hiding there under the pretense of being a Whirlpool civilian. The Mizukage order a full out attack that last proximately four days and three nights. There is nothing left there, besides the few survivors."

"Oh," Minato said again, his mind still not comprehending the situation.

"Kushina fortunately is safe. I send for her as soon as our intelligence division intercepted the message."

"Oh – wait Kushina is here?" Minato asked, his mind finally stopping for a second to grasp around that small thought.

"Yes," the Hokage exhaled from his pipe, "but she is not well Minato, she's–"

"Where is she?"

"This is not the time–"

"Where is she?"

"Home."

So deciding that anything else the Hokage might say was just filling in for the whole picture, Minato raced towards her apartment. It had been over a year since they had last seen each other and their farewell had not been the warmest they'd had, so he was more than eager to get to her apartment, knock and then kiss her senseless until she decided to forgive him. If that didn't work out, he would just have to think of a plan B.

'It's going to be alright,' Minato thought, not bothering to apologize for the disturbance he had caused at the market, because only one thought registered on his mind. Find Kushina and then beg for forgiveness.

But when Minato finally found her, lying on her bathroom floor with her hair cut off and blue color to her usual creamy skin, he rushed to her side, wondering just how long ago had the water gone from cold to freezing.

"Kushina!" he yelled, hoping she would react to his voice. She didn't. "Kushina, we need to get you out of here. You are going to die from pneumonia."

But she didn't react. She just stared into space. Cursing under his breath, Minato scooped Kushina out of a freezing tub careful not to stare too much at her figure and trying to keep his thoughts as clean as he could. Using his foot to scoop a fresh towel from the floor, Minato wrapped her shivering form, rubbing his hands against her to create warmth. Warming her bath would take too long and he couldn't really take her to the hospital when she was half naked, so he opted for the third most immediate option. He turned her shower full blast, earning a soft hiss on his part when the water proved to be a little too hot, but he laid her near the door while he adjusted the temperature. Once he was sure it was safe enough to lay her underneath the water, Minato made sure that her towel was well adjusted to her body. He knew that Kushina wouldn't take too kindly if he started to pry on her, even if it was not intentional.

"You are freezing," he told her, rubbing her arms to create warmth. "How long were you in there?"

But like before he didn't get a reply. It was very unlike Kushina to be so quiet about something. If she were her old self, she would have already slashed him for prying her while she was taking a bath, but right now, any response he was getting were the small shivers her body gave, telling him that it would be a while before she was back to normal body temperature. He was glad that he arrived when he did, any more time and she would have suffered a stroke. Well the warm water would get her back to her normal self in no time. Or so he hoped.

"Y-your cold," he heard Kushina whisper, cupping his face in her hands. They were freezing cold.

"Hey," he smiled at her gently, taking her hands in his. "How are you feeling?"

"C-cold," she stuttered, grasping his face a little too forcefully.

Minato nodded, pulling her hands away from his face so he could intertwine their fingers. "You will be fine in a few minutes. The hot water should start working its magic by now."

Kushina just nodded, obviously too tired to say anything. "W-wet," she tried once again, not helping another stutter.

"What?" Minato asked, looking at her face, but she was no longer looking at him, instead she was looking down, at his clothes.

"W-wet," she tried once more, "Y-you…wet…"

"Oh," Minato blinked, finally understand what she was trying to say. He hadn't bother of taking off his uniform so it was obviously soaking wet, but that was the last of his worries. "Don't worry about it," he shrugged, kissing her warming cheek. "I'll wash it later."

She tried a smile at his lips contact and raised her eyes to look at him. What he saw surprised him. He had always thought that the thousand yard stare was just an old wife's tale to scare, something old people made up to force young people into behaving, like not eating your vegetables will make you one eventually, but right now, what he saw in those violet eyes of his, he couldn't even believe it himself. He'd faced as many hardships as any shinobi his age would. He'd seen comrades die in the heat of battle, innocent get hurt, injustices being held, small civilian villages being destroyed, but nothing like this. It was like, looking into her eyes gave him a first row seat to what had happened in Whirlpool and it was nothing like anything he'd seen before. It was worse. He could actually feel the pain of all those people who had been brutally murdered, women being raped, children taken away to become slaves. She had seem all that. And she had survived long enough to be here. How she was managing he had no idea.

Kushina closed her eyes, liberating him from such torture. "This feels good," she said, moving her head to her side to let the warm water fall more freely against her skin.

And at that moment, before he could hold himself back, he leaned forward and enveloped her in a bone breaking hug.