Chapter 4
Only the initial four remain in the room.
The child seems comfortable if a bit fidgety and the Shinigami looks just fine.
Minato is a mess, blood all over his clothes, pale and dizzy, hurting all over. Right now he wishes he had taken those medic classes with Tsunade-sama. Well, what he really wishes for is Kushina but it doesn't look like that will ever happen.
A little voice in his head tells him to beg the Shinigami to bring her back but a bigger part knows it would never work like that.
Have they recovered her body yet? Have they washed the blood off and seen her beautiful face immortalized in paleness and bruises? Have they touched her body with care?
His knees shake and collapse. Hiruzen helps him maneuver to a chair, more like puts him on a chair, but whatever.
Hiruzen keeps his senses open for hostility but does not feel any at all, like he hasn't felt even once from the two. The Shinigami told them to only call for clan heads but he didn't seem to mind the anbu a few minutes ago, Hiruzen gambles on it. Without looking at the Shinigami, or child, he signals for a medic and an anbu appears out of the shadows.
Since Hiruzen first heard the Shinigami calling the child Master, somethings has been nagging at him. He knows it's important but he could not remember it for the life of him. Until they entered the room, that is.
He has been on this room before, of course he has, he had been the Hokage for a long time and, even before that, his sensei had been a Hokage, brother to another Hokage. And so, him and his genin team have spent many hours at the tower doing this or that, in fact one of him first D-ranks was to organize and clean a ridiculous amount of unclassified documents held in the tower.
When he entered the room tonight, he remembers Tobirama-sensei drilling his first team on the importance of honest discussion and feedback.
At the time they were still young and used to platitudes and social niceties. Tobirama-sensei was, maybe, the most honest human to have ever been. Don't misunderstand that statement, Tobirama was capable of being polite and giving out white lies but he believed in being brutally honest with his genin and fellow ninja, especially when it came to their current abilities, their failures, their good points, style, performance and etc.
One day their sensei brought them to this room, sat them around the table and told them to discuss their past missions, what they thought of each other's abilities, their values, even their personalities and family. They had tried to be polite and not say anything too harsh at first but eventually their sensei would manipulate them until they ended up being one hundred per cent honest. Their teamwork suffered for a while, just until they realized every single one of them had worked harder than ever on the things commented on. After that they worked in leveling out this teamwork again.
On that day his teammates told him they were absolutely appalled with how disorganized he was, such as when he could never find things in his long mission's pack, because it got so messy. Since that day he made a bigger effort to keep, at least his pack, neat.
Not too long after that, it was that fated mission that sensei died. At the end of that week Hiruzen had been home again, even being so very tired. Like it had become routine, he started cleaning out his pack. There he found a scroll.
He made sure it was not a trap and opened it. It had been a message and some techniques by his mentor to him.
Basically it told him that his sensei had thought of and created some techniques that would maybe be useful and suited him. At the end was a ominous message. It said: ' If the Master of Death ever comes, use this technique and call for my help. Only if that happens use this technique, this is an unfinished jutsu and very untested. It is my wish for it to never be used, I entrust this to you Saru, take care of it. Remember: Only for the Master of Death.' -Senju Tobirama.
After the messages was a seal containing the full process and explanation of the Impure World Reincarnation summoning, six flask of blood and a sealed pottery piece filled with, well it was sealed, how would he know what the fuck was in there? The container was labeled 'ingredients'.
At first he was a little shocked and disgusted, then tempted, he felt lost and in mourning. At the end he vowed to not use if the 'Master of Detah' did not show up.
When his eldest reached chunnin Hiruzen entrusted the knowledge in the scroll to him, and latter when his youngest made chunnin he did the same. Telling them to decide if they would pass it on to their children or not.
After so many years he had even started to forget about it. And so it came as shock when he realized little Uchiha Tsuyoshi was being called Master by a Shinigami. Did that count? He waited until the anbu had departed and finally, when Minato started falling, he decided and he felt that yes, it did.
When he calls the medic he carefully helps maneuvering Minato to the floor, turning his back to the Shinigami. He carefully summons a little red haired monkey, timed with the smoke of the unsealing of the medics med-pouch, and signals it to take a message to his son, Azuma.
The monkey runs to the inside of the medic's med-pouch and hides.
The Sarutobi is glad he told Azuma about that secret years ago, he hopes Azuma will be able to perform the technique.
Some times it's funny what will jar a memory loose.