To Be Lost On The Road Of Life (Continuation)

Chapter 31 - To Find The Way

Chapter 31 - To Find the Way

Three figures stood in the midst of the destruction.

A cave, or what was left of it, was before them—looking to be little more than a pile of rubble on the mountainside.

"He's in here," Kakashi intoned, his voice cold but tremulous. Beside him, Pakkun's head was bowed low. "His scent, it's faint, but here. He's—he's definitely in here."

Both Rin and Kakashi looked towards their sensei, waiting for direction. It was simple to see that they already knew what they wanted to do, but didn't fully trust themselves to make the judgement. If the entrance of the cave looked to be in such a state of disrepair, what of its contents? The inner corridors? If Obito was in there, the chances he was trapped were high, and neither of the teens wanted to chance a mistake that would make the situation even worse. Kakashi inwardly wondered why Obito couldn't just use his Kamui, but then he remembered that it was Obito's decision to leave them to begin with.

Minato, seeing his students' trepidation, placed his hands on their shoulders. "Don't worry," he stated calmly, his azure eyes riveted to the entrance of the cave. "We'll need to find a way in, obviously, but I'm sure Obito is fine."

"How do you know?" Rin blurted, glancing between Minato and the cave's entrance with wide eyes. "Can—can you sense his chakra?"

Minato narrowed his eyes and nodded. It was faint, and he was more than certain that it was the lingering sense of expelled chakra he could detect, but he could give his students the hope they needed for the task. "… Yes, but that isn't the reason why I think he is still alive. Look around yourselves," he said, gesturing around the area. Both Rin and Kakashi, however confused by the command, did as he said. "Do you notice anything strange?"

Kakashi's eyes narrowed as he observed the landscape. He observed the contours of the land, the destruction surrounding them. His eyes widened as he noticed a peculiar detail. "… The damage here is less than in the other areas," he murmured, eyes darting from the cave to the edge of the destruction. "I can see it. Where we were before, the destruction was immense, causing the trees to uproot and the land to shift. But here… Considering what we felt from a distance, the cave is surprisingly intact. And there's still grass and shrubbery in the vicinity. For whatever reason, in a reversed kind of reasoning, the destruction at the epicenter of the explosion was the least while elsewhere it increased." He turned to Minato with a furrowed brow. "… But why?"

Minato grimaced at the question. "Kushina and I… We had made a seal at Obito's request. An explosion seal. The finished product was what he requested, in essence, but we added our own touches, knowing how reckless the boy could be at the worst of times." Rin and Kakashi exchanged a worried look. "It seems, that… Obito used the seal that we gave him. I have never been more thankful for a last minute change to one of my seals."

Both students turned back to the blond. "… Did he know?" Kakashi's voice was a near whisper.

Minato paused, thinking. He had told Obito, but both he and Kushina had known that the boy wasn't paying attention to them when they told him of the seal's properties. It was obvious what he was after, in this instance. And for once, Minato was glad for his student's inattentiveness.

He shook his head, gaze distant. "No," he stated, and both of his students tensed at the word. The blond closed his eyes and sighed before shaking himself from the gloomier thoughts. "… But that doesn't matter. We can deal with those issues later, because we came here for a different reason."