The Silver Shadow

The mystery man

Just as I feel as though I’m going to pass out a mystery mad shows up and my team gets in his way. Wait… that’s not a mystery man, that’s THE mystery man.
“Let him pass,” my voice is so weak, the other look uneasy but let him pass anyway. He silently kneels beside me and takes out a piece of cloth and a bottle. He pours the liquid from the bottle onto the cloth and lightly removes my hand. He puts a gentle hand on the back of my wound and I flinch from pain. Then he uses his other hand to hold the cloth on the front of my wound. As soon as that cloth hit my skin the liquid makes its way into my wound. It feels like my whole inside has been covered in bleach and set on fire. I scream in agony, my team go to remove the man from me but he sternly says something to them. I can’t hear him over my screaming but whatever he said got them to back away slightly. I can feel the liquid burning my wound from front to back, I scream and I scream but the pain just carries on to intensify. After what seems like years the pain suddenly goes away and I stop my screams as it does. I just realise that I’m covered in sweat as I look at the man and then follow his gaze to my injury. He slowly removes the cloth to revile that my injury is fully healed. The man stands up and the boys sit one on each side of me, with Sakura in front of me. Naruto puts his coat back around me and they all constantly ask if I’m okay and ‘what happened’ but I pay no attention as I stare at the man in awe.
 
The man turns around and starts to walk away. Right away I stand up and run, when I’m close enough I grab onto the cape that keeps him hidden. He feels me pull and turns around to face me.
“D-do you remember me?” I ask, referring to my first S rank mission.
“Of course, I can never forget you. I’m always looking out for you.” That makes my eyes go wide.
“Always looking out for me?” I repeat.
“Yes, I’ve been looking after you your whole life; I’ve always been there for you.” Once he’s said this I go to punch him in the stomach, he looks shocked at this but is still able to dodge. I go for another hit and he dodges again, it carries on like this until he finally decides to catch my fists. By this time I’m silently crying and it’s getting harder and harder to not cry like a baby.
“LIRE! You dare say you’ve always been there for me! You weren’t there for Sh*t! If you were always there then why was I alone when my brother died?! Why did I suffer beatings?! Why did I cry myself to sleep almost every night wondering what it would be like to have a family?! Why did I always suffer alone? Hiding what I felt from others because I was alone! Always in the shadows with no one to rely on! If you were always there then why? WHY?” By this time I was crying and I can’t breathe properly. He kneels down to my height and brings me into a hug. “Why?” I whisper into his shoulder as I hold on to him tightly, afraid to lose anyone I have.
“Because you’re strong.” His voice is soft, “I never got close enough to see you were in pain because you’re strong enough to hide it from everybody. If I had ever known you were in so much pain… I swear I would’ve been by your side in a second… I’m sorry, I didn’t know.” His voice got quiet at the end and he sounded really disappointed. I pull away as my crying calm down to a stop.
 
Everything is quiet as I remember something. I get my bag off of Sakura and take out his kunai.
“I believe this is yours.” I see a smile on his face as he takes it out my hands.
“Thank you so much, I’ve been looking for this, I must have dropped it near you.”  Kakashi’s eyes go wide and he takes a shaky step forward.
“M-Minato? Minato Namikaze!” Does Kakashi know him? We kids look between the adults and the mystery man laughs.
“I thought you would never recognise me Kakashi.” We all look shocked as the mystery man pulls his hood down to show us his blonde, spiky hair and bright, blue eyes. He looks a bit like Naruto but mostly like the…
“Fourth Hokage!” We all scream in shock.
“B-But you’re dead! There’s no way!” Kakashi is struggling to speak, as always Naruto can find something to say.
“AWESOME! The fourth Hokage! Back from the dead!” (Venturiantales reference.)
“Naruto,” Minato calls to his younger look alike. “I don’t want you to call me the fourth Hokage.” Naruto looks a little upset by this, “… I want you to call me dad.” He smiles as the kids, including me, look shocked but Kakashi joins Minato in smiling.
“You- you’re my…dad?” Minato nods at his son and I can tell that this has a chance of being really nasty. Naruto takes shaky steps towards Minato and like me; he aims for a shaky punch. Naruto and Minato re-an-act what Minato and I did not long ago. However, this time Naruto talks as he aims for a punch.
“Why? All this time! I was alone! I had no friends! I nearly flunked the academy! All the time! I could’ve had a dad there for me! Where were you! All the times I needed someone! Anyone! I was alone! Laughing it all off! Like it didn’t matter! When really! It was the thing that mattered most! Why! WHY!” Naruto… he was as lonely as me… he just took it a different way… I isolated myself from others… but… he was isolated by others. On the last punch Minato caught Naruto’s punch and pulled him into a hug as Naruto quietly cried.
 
After Naruto and I had our crying session we forgave him and accepted the fact that we have him now. We’ve introduced him to Sakura and Sasuke and now we’re on our way back to Tazunas’ house. Everyone is surrounding Minato, catching up and learning new thing about his travel while he was ‘dead’. However I stay in the back, trying to think how my life used to be quiet and now… I have a group I call my friends and a man that has been silently looking over me and a new feeling… I never felt it before. As soon as Sasuke smiles I feel light and my stomach hurts a little. When Naruto put his coat over me I felt hot enough to melt, even though he put it over me when I’m cold. It’s confusing… but it can be added to the list of new and amazing things that’s happened since I joined team 7.