Naruto Shippuden: girl from whirlpools

Cut

Chapter Fourteen: Cut

"Ok, here's the plan," said Shikaku. "Once we go in, we'll be outnumbered, but if we keep our eyes on the target and keep moving, we'll be ok. Make the drop off and get out as fast as you can."

Minato just looked at him and laughed.

"You're not going to take this seriously?" Shikaku quirked a judgemental eyebrow at him.

Still laughing, Minato shook his head. "I think I'll be ok."

"That's what you think. But when you've do this for as long as I have, you stop underestimating these guys pretty quickly. They're not human, Minato. They're monsters."

And on that note, he opened the gate and ushered them both into the academy playground.

It seemed like such a long time since he'd last set foot in this place, and it was almost exactly as he remembered it. Different faces perhaps, but here were the same games, and the same squeals and the same shrieks of laughter that he was once a part of. How was it that something could be so unchanged and yet now was alien to him? Just six years had passed since he'd left this school, and the only reason he was back today was because Shikaku - who had decided to waste some time as an academy teacher - had enlisted his help to transport some heavy boxes. The one Shikaku carried bore brand new exercise books. Minato's held apples.

"You might want to watch your backside too," Shikaku called over his shoulder as they navigated their way through swarms of tiny people.

"Why?" Minato asked hesitantly.

"Oh... no reason. It's just that there was some dumb cartoon on a few weeks ago where a character shoved his fingers up the ass of another character, and, well, it seems to have caught on. They think it's hilarious."

"Kids seem so much more advanced these days," Minato mused. "All I cared about when I was eight was-"

"Embarrassing the rest of us by hanging out with the sannin and inventing jutsu for fun. Yeah. I was there. Put the boxes down over here."

They dumped the boxes by the school entrance and moved to stand against the wall. "What are the apples for?" Minato asked, picking up the roundest, reddest one he could see.

"Eating," said Shikaku bluntly.

"We never got apples."

"We grew up during the war," was the retort. "The war's over now, man. It's a time of plenty and good nutrition. More importantly, money was cut from the military budget and got dumped in the academy. You should see some of the shit these ungrateful kids get. TVs in every classroom. Can you imagine that? No wonder they're all being influenced by violent cartoons - they watch them during algebra."

Bouncing the apple in his hand, Minato let his gaze rove the playground and caught sight of a group of small girls staring at him. The moment they realised they'd been sussed, they huddled together in a flurry of giggles and continued to peek at him over each other's shoulders.

Shikaku noticed this was a scoff. "Still ridiculously popular here, huh?"

"So much more advanced," Minato murmured, refocusing his attention on the apple that was bouncing higher and higher thanks to little pushes of wind chakra.

"Not really. Times change, but the kids and their cliques are always the same," Shikaku said sagely. "There's the popular girls who think of nothing but boys and hair," he pointed to the giggling girls, "then there's the loser kid no one talks to," he pointed to the swing beneath the tree, once so often occupied by Kushina, and was now occupied by a small dark-haired boy in oversized goggles. "Then of course, there's the insufferable genius who everyone loves."