Blonding

Chapter 26 : Grateful

Minato paused and pursed his lips, the small grimace betraying his otherwise airtight composure.

To a lesser shinobi, it would have gone unnoticed. But this was Jiraiya - one of the only people that had spent enough time around the blond to grow accustomed to his small physical quirks. "Wait, Minato..." he narrowed his eyes. "They are at T&I, are they not?"

Minato sighed, admitting defeat. "No, they're not, sensei."

Jiraiya sputtered in poorly-veiled anger, his eyes wide and disbelieving. "What?! Min-Minato, what the hell were you thin...king..."

As his eyes fixed on Minato's, Jiraiya saw something that he knew all too well; a gleam in his student's eye.

That look.

He had it immediately prior to tweaking the Hiraishin for the final time, when it finally sent him careening across the village in a blast of bright yellow light on its inaugural test run. He had it just before he leapt into battle during the Third Great Shinobi War, which sent him into the history books with the terrifying moniker of the "Yellow Flash." He had it for the many days leading up to his complicated, and ultimately flawless marriage proposal.

It was the Fourth's thinking face.

The kind of face that would stop anyone dead in their tracks, for no reason other than an inherent desire to not interrupt whatever slew of complex planning was going on within that blond-framed head of his. It wasn't Minato's proficiency with the Hiraishin that was so deadly, nor was it the reason - the true reason - he was awarded with a foreboding call sign of his own: one that would send enemy ninja running at just the hint of a gold crop of hair on the horizon.

No. It was all in his wit. And Jiraiya could see the gears moving within the Fourth Hokage's head; twisting, turning, revolving around one another like a well lubricated clock.

Jiraiya paused, a small smile burgeoning across his face. "Oh, I see now. You planned all of this from the start, didn't you?"

Minato's lip turned upwards slightly, his eyebrows narrowed. "Yes, I did." His thumbs danced with one another across the desk as he began to ponder how to put his plans into words, before he sighed and leaned back into his chair slightly.

But Jiraiya beat him to it. "Well then," the man began, throwing an arm over the back of his chair, "Where did you send them?"

"Oh, I didn't send them anywhere. They sent themselves."

Jiraiya raised his eyebrow. He sensed where this was going, but neglected to say anything in favor of his student explaining things himself.

Nodding, Minato continued. "You see, I had a sneaking suspicion that the events that occurred in the Mist in regards to their Mizukage and Kushina were linked somehow. Rumors have been circulating for some time, you know."

"What, of Yagura's jinchuuriki status?" Jiraiya scoffed. "Of course. That's old hat. Have you forgotten already that I was the one that got ahold of that information?"

"Not at all," Minato stated calmly. "However, the fact that the Mizukage is a jinchuuriki, just as Kushina is, set off quite a few alarm bells."