Something Precious

Chapter Twenty Three

The sun was sinking below the horizon signaling the end of the fifth day of Team Seven's travels. They were mostly all tired and somewhat sore form sleeping on the ground all those nights.

"Let's make camp here for the night and tomorrow we should reach the village." Minato informed. He folded his map and tucked it into the pocket of his green jounin vest while inspecting the ground and clearing away a patch of ground with his foot to make place for a fire.

"Finally! My feet can't take much more. I thought I would die before we made it." Obito whined dramatically. He plopped down with a yawn and, using his bag as a pillow, he lay down and almost instantly instantly fell asleep. He hadn't even bothered with his sleeping bag. Spring had just ended and the fresh heat of a new summer kept the chill of night from becoming uncomfortable.

"Tch." Kakashi kicked his side lightly, the brunette moaned and rolled over but didn't wake up. He sighed and started unraveling his sleeping bag and got set up across the small camp, throwing more than one spiteful glance at his lazy teammate.

Minato pealed back a layer of the forest ground revealing the dirt underneath and sending the sweet scent of soil wafting through towards them. "Kakashi why don't you and Rin go collect some fire wood?" he 'suggested' with a smile as he discarded the patch of grass and old leaves, but carefully, so they might replace it if need be.

Kakashi looked like he wanted nothing more than to curl up and sleep like Obito. His eyes had begun to droop and his feet practically dragged him forwards; but he nodded regardless and began to walk away into the woods with Rin following close behind. Naruto looked after them as he waited for Minato to speak, sensing without asking that the man had something to say.

Minato dusted off his hands and rocked back on his heals, dropping his bag from his shoulders. "I've been meaning to talk to you about Lord Danzo." he finally said after a moment. His electric eyes looked to Obito to make sure he was asleep. Only when he heard a soft, reassuring snore come from the boy did he continued. "I must admit I have never had much trust for the man myself, though I would have a hard time to tell you why." he confessed. Naruto remained impassive as he turned his gaze on him.

All things considered, it was an impressive confession to make even if at face value there was nothing wrong with it. Every jounin in the Hidden Leaf worth his money knew what kind of influence Danzo had. Not just over his subordinates, but many on the council as well. If word were to reach him that Minato, who was held in such high regard, did not view him in confidence, he might feel it necessary to take measures to insure such word wouldn't be spread of this, should other shinobi start to doubt him as well. And while Danzo couldn't touch him directly, Minato had more than just himself to consider. Though, Naruto thought, he himself had been quite clear on his stance with Danzo in his confrontation with him a week prior, so perhaps it's only really surprising Minato hadn't brought it up sooner.

Naruto pursed his lips. "You want to know about his ANBU." it wasn't really a question. Minato nodded seriously. Naruto sat down in his sleeping bag that was set next to Kakashi's. Minato noticed how his student's presence could make the man both at ease and on edge at times, he always walked fractionally closer to Kakashi than the others, not noticable to anyone that wasn't trained to study human behavior as second nature as he was. He acted like Kakashi was someone he needed to protect. Like he was someone precious to Naruto. Someone he didn't want to see hurt. But yet he also noticed how he could never quite look him in the eyes, and when he thought no one was looking, Naruto's would look at him with such intense regret. Minato thought he vaguely knew those looks; it was almost like he was trying to apologize. He thought that maybe Naruto had known the boy's father Sakumo Hatake. How old would he have been at the time of Sakumo's death? Maybe around the age Kakashi is now? Did Sakumo ever take on a student? Minato didn't remember ever hearing anything of the sort, however it was possible.