Naruto Shippuden: girl from whirlpools

Ten Hometown Glory

Chapter Ten: Hometown Glory

The same blue sky was hanging over Konoha as when he'd left. It seemed unusually bright, but that was most likely because he'd spent the last three years living on the mist covered shores of the continent where the sun only broke through the clouds a couple of hours for a few days at the height of summer. Minato had never realised how dry and warm the climate was in his native village. He felt like woodlouse who'd crawled out from beneath a rock.

"Sign in, please," said the bored looking guard at the gate.

Minato didn't remember this procedure, but he hefted his backpack onto one shoulder and accepted the clipboard he was handed. There were at least thirty other names signed under today's date, and he scanned them briefly, recognising a few and making a mental note to check up on them. As he signed his own name at the bottom, the gatekeeper's attitude suddenly changed.

"Namikaze Minato?" he read out, evidently very good at reading upside down. "We just got the news the other day – everyone'll be so excited to see you back. It's an honour!"

Minato looked at him stolidly. "What is?"

"Uh... to... meet the one who took down General Akuze. They say you won the war pretty much single-handedly."

"Not really," Minato said, because that was a horrible exaggeration. If he'd fought this war alone he would have died three years ago and Konoha would have been overrun by now. Akuze's death may have been a monumental victory, but the fighting in the following weeks had been more vicious and frantic than ever before, and it was only through daily waves of endless assaults that Kiri had been driven back into the water country. By no means did Minato want to take credit for something dozens of his friends had died fighting for.

It had been fun when he'd returned with Akuze's sword, to be toasted and cheered, but he hadn't really thought the hero worship would last. He hadn't thought he would have to endure it on the other side of the country.

"I heard you're being promoted – is that why you're back?"

"No," Minato said simply. "My father died."

"Oh... I'm sorry."

Minato smiled vaguely, always left bemused by people's immediate reaction to apologise to him as if his loss was their fault. He handed back the clipboard and went on his way, deciding to head home and drop off his supplies and equipment before even beginning to think about what to do next.

The first person he bumped into along the way was Ai's mother. She gave a cry of delight and hurried over to pinch his cheeks and remark about how tall and handsome he'd grown. She asked why her favourite customer hadn't stopped by the ice-cream parlour since his return, and he informed her that he hadn't even unpacked yet, to which she asked him how long he planned to stay. Minato told her he supposed it would be until after the funeral.

"Funeral?" she echoed, dismayed.

"My father," he said.

"Oh, Minato, I didn't know," she said, looking pitying. "I'm so sorry."

There it was again.

After promising he would stop by her parlour as soon as possible, he continued on his way home. On his street, his neighbours recognised him. Like Ai's mother they made exclamations about his height and then gave him sad smiles as they apologised about his father. They had all heard about it, perhaps well before he had, and they were past the stage of surprise and onto the stage of morbid curiosity. They asked him how it had happened. Minato didn't know.

He shook them off eventually and made it to his front door. It seemed smaller than he remembered. In fact everything looked smaller, except for the plants and the trees which had grown about as much as he had.