Devils in the Background

Connecting Dots

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Naruto hid the tattoos in his sketchpad as someone came in his shop ... it was Minato!

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Minato smiled sheepishly, "Sorry for just dropping in, but I finally had some time to spare. Is this a bad time?"

"It's never a bad time for you, hokage-sama." (Merely slightly awkward.) Naruto thought nervously, "Come this way." The tattoo artist set his sketchpad down on the table in his drawing room and guided the hokage to an empty room. As Minato sat down he snapped his fingers. "Right, I left my sketchpad, one sec." He casually stepped back into the drawing room and sighed in relief as he noticed his tattoos were gone. He gave them enough time to bolt and he hoped they find Haru before Sara is in trouble. At least, Boar isn't in trouble and out of the way now so no need to worry about that.

The hokage took the sketchpad for the younger blonde's hands and looked at the picture. His eyes widened in awe, "It's perfect." A smile found its way to his lips. The sketch was of a full grown toad perched on the shore and was watching three little tadpoles play happily, two red and one gold with whiskers ...

Naruto smiled at the look the hokage gave the picture. It made him relax. He didn't even realize he was so worried until now. "Good, well then shall we get started?"

"Yeah, sure." Minato grinned as he pulled off his shirt and watched Naruto apply the outline, "I hope Kushina won't be too mad. She hates tattoos." Minato couldn't stop himself from bursting out into laughter at the look of pure terror on Naruto's face as the tattoo artist actually recoiled as if his skin was on fire.

"Hold the phone! Your wife hates tattoos? ... should I be expecting an assassin any minute?" asked Naruto as he glanced around nervously.

"No, nothing like that!" Minato exclaimed as he calmed down. It has been so long since he laughed like that. "If anything she'll be mad at me not you."

"Phew, that's good to know." Naruto gasped dramatically and wiped his forehead in mock relief, "but just in case I'll spend a few nights with Hiashi and Hizashi." The artist smirked with a suggestive wink making Minato chuckle.

"Speaking of Hiashi, I hear his daughter Hinata came to thank you for playing a part in getting rid of the council. She must've been grateful since the arranged marriage was destroyed, but Hiashi didn't go into detail ... which is kind of strange for him." A baffled Minato commented, his friends never held back with details before. Hell, he's usually trying to get them to shut up.

Naruto smirked as he put on fresh gloves and disinfected the area where the tattoo outline was, "That might have something to do with Hinata's poor timing. She came to my house and caught me, Hizashi and Hiashi ... in the middle of something."

"Oh ... I see." Minato blushed lightly and dropped the subject much to Naruto's amusement.

Minato laid back in the chair and Naruto started the tattooing process. The buzz of the needle did little to distract the hokage from his thoughts. What no one realized is that the hokage was concerned about several things that happened surrounding his son's death. He was no fool. Too much happened that day to not be strange. The death of an anbu, the orphanage burning down, and, finally, Naruto.

Then there was his own change in behavior in the last few months. It was odd really. Minato is one of those people would listen to his friends banter about their sex lives without a single flinch or blushing in any way, but when Naruto came into it he blushes and tried not to listen as much. At the same time, however, he wanted to get to know the other blonde more. He always had good instincts so he knew something was strange and he wanted to find a way talk to Naruto about it without sounding like  man seeking a replacement for his dead son.