There's no real logistics in this guys, just plot devices dajklsjdla

Third person pov

There's fear that's as soft and slow as the faint patter of rain. It's more background noise than anything, so light you hardly feel it until it's soaked you through and left you weighed down. It is harmless at first, but without shelter, eventually you'll begin to shiver. It'll nip at your skin, make you ache all over. Until you're too cold to move at all. Until you're frozen solid.

Some fear is sharp. It can be one needle, a quick prick that makes you jump. Or it can be hundreds, all jabbing at you, drawing dots of blood and sending you springing forward. It can be a frenzy, a scramble to get away. Something chasing you at your back, points honed to stab if you slow down for even a second.

Fear can be a creeping sort of dread. One that wraps around you like a blanket and leaves you gritting your teeth. It can be the precursor to an inevitability. Something inescapable. It can be hopelessness, something you've resigned yourself to, something you don't even try to brush off-- all because you know that no matter what you do, it'll be there waiting either way.

The fear that Kurama is most acquainted with is the kind he has embodied for much of his existence. His is fiery and angry, and it sinks into the very bones of those who quiver before him. He inspires an awing sort of fear, for as terrifying as his gargantuan size and near limitless power is, it is somewhat amazing as well. 

What do you know about fear? Because Kurama, for all that he brings it... he's beginning to think he never truly knew anything about it at all.

Fear precedes him. It is something that already existed when he came into this world, and it will be something that exists if he ever goes out of it somehow. Fear is constant. It is something felt by all, for can something really be considered alive if it does not feel something so fundamental? Fear is a protection against stupidity, an alarm the body sets off when something is perceived to be wrong or detrimental.

It is a warning. It is one Kurama heeds. 

Kurama has felt fear despite what some may think. It's something he would never admit, but he has thoughts and feelings too, and he is not immune to the concept of being afraid. The thought of an eternity jailed, tucked away, had always loomed over him with an intensity that made him gulp and flood with trepidation. Trepidation he'd become so used to, he'd only noticed it was gone when Naruto took it away from him.

Naruto is bright. He is young and foolish, by far one of the stupidest humans Kurama has ever met, but he is... well, he is a child. Not quite naive, but needlessly hopeful enough to make up for it. He throws himself into life with reckless abandon. Fear is not something he feels enough, perhaps because he'd felt so much of it for so long that it had lost all meaning. 

Fear is something Kurama has seldom ever felt from the boy since their unconventional friendship first began, with a murky sewer and endless insults quipped back and forth up until the point where Naruto wore Kurama down out of his lethal rage and into a rounded, soft fondness. Naruto is brave almost to a fault. 

It's why the attack is so much starker. It's why the alarm bells doing just ring in Kurama's head, but scream. It why when Naruto grows afraid, Kurama is helpless to do much but do the same.

The fear that shoots through the boy is overwhelming. It's a shock to the system, a shot of adrenaline that has Kurama rousing and peering out through the boy's eyes in that strange, roundabout sense that allows him to see and hear what happens in the outside world. Not an open window, but rather one with slatted wooden shutters over it. Shutters that have been cracked just so-- to allow in a faint amount of light, fresh air, and noise from the outside.

Naruto in distress does not seem possible. The boy gets irritated, gets exasperated, even gets angry at times. But distress, no, it doesn't fit. Kurama can feel it. He can feel the blade that pierces the leg of his container, of his first real friend in centuries. His chakra bubbles piping hot, pushing out as far as he can get it to go. But it's not enough. Sometimes, it feels like nothing Kurama does will ever be enough.

Naruto's fear is there, but it feels like very little compared to the tidal wave that courses through Kurama. He's stuck behind bars. He is useless, unable to do much more than slow the poison he can feel entering the bloodstream of the boy as he scrambles fruitlessly away from enemies that are older and more skilled than he is. Kurama pushes as hard as he can, but the seal holds strong even as he throws himself against the bars with all his weight.

He knows his unforgiving chakra would be a stun to Naruto's system. It could hurt him. It could permanently damage his pathways, and could prevent him from doing jutsu if it were severe enough. Kurama could ruin his future as a ninja, could dash the boy's dreams and truly backlist himself from Naruto's mental 'friendship' list.

But the boy is dying. And the sheer terror Kurama feels is unlike anything he's ever felt before.

It's crushing. This frantic sort of push that urges him to do something, this screaming in the back of his head because he can't. He can't do anything! They are killing him. They've hit something vital, and nobody is there to help. Naruto needs help. He needs to be saved but he's alone, and Kurama can't-- 

He can't do anything but watch and listen. It is the worst kind of torture.

The sewer is awash with putrid orange that mingles red. A sea of heat so sweltering it makes his fur stick down and his maw drip. His fear mingles with fury, because how dare they. How dare they touch what Kurama has deemed as his. 

How dare they mess with the one thing he's had to claim in centuries, the one thing he's gotten for himself. His only friend. Someone who has accepted him and his poor attitude. The only thing, only person, he has to love anymore.

The only person that has ever loved him in a very, very long time.

He taught Naruto how to recognize the feeling of being loved, once. He had never expected the brat to give it back to him tenfold. To want to give Kurama that feeling. Kurama is no good. He doesn't think he ever has been, and if he once was-- that time has long since passed. 

Naruto makes him better, though. Naruto makes him want to at least try. Kurama does not have to live a life of anger. If Naruto can smile despite the hand the village has dealt him-- the called names, the attempts on his life, the isolation-- then... maybe Kurama can smile too. Because all Naruto has ever known has been harsh edges and lines, and he still manages to show softness despite it.

 The thought of losing that so soon after he's gotten it makes him claw at himself. He howls his agony out, panic soaring through him. The flowers are swallowed in the crashing waves of his terror. Kurama's unease is as destructive as his anger, perhaps even more so. And it rises tenfold when Naruto is picked up by his scruff and has something vile injected into his neck.

Perhaps the fear is partially Naruto's, and perhaps it feeds his own. It matters very little. The window to the outside goes dark when Naruto does, but he knows without a shadow of a doubt that the boy is still in danger and has been taken. They'd gotten him. And it's probably all Kurama's fault.

He is valuable. He knows he did not exactly seal himself in here, but this-- this never would've happened were he not in here. Now Naruto is dying. Kurama can feel the way his heartbeat starts to fade. The blood loss and the poison is too much for a body as small and young as his, and he feels sick. Genuinely and truly sick.

Naruto is human. He's so little, so vulnerable. Still just a kit, and he could die at any time. His container's mortality hadn't occurred to him before. But Naruto could-- he could leave and Kurama would be left behind with nothing. No flowers, no nighttime chats, no endless jabbering, no one to teach, no best friend. No one to love, and no one to love him.

It seems like a simple thing to lose. It seems like it should be below Kurama to hold such things dear.

(It is not.)

Naruto appears in the sea of red in the same place he always does, though it takes him hours past his fall into unconsciousness to for reasons that terrify him. Kurama spots his head of shock yellow hair and something in his throat catches. There's no smile to greet him, no immediate launch into half a million questions and things to say and tell Kurama all about. 

Instead Naruto is still as a corpse, his face slack and an unusual, pale shade that looks almost blue in contrast to Kurama's raging chakra. He's not sure how long he gazes out at him. He's never looked further away before.

The chakra does not burn the boy like he feared it may. It ever so carefully carries him closer instead, slow and taking its time. It seems wrong to see him like this. There is an uncanniness that comes with Naruto looking so ill and so hurt. Kurama stares with big eyes at the morbid sight. There is no visible injury-- not here in the dreamscape-- but the effects are obvious.

It is terrible. The most terrible thing Kurama thinks he has ever had the displeasure of experiencing. The emotion he feels comes in huge, arching weights that crash down on him with force enough to break bones. His thoughts scurry. He searches for a solution. He can't just let this happen. Kurama can't. 

He doesn't realize he's crying until the boy is right in front of him, hovering just beyond the bars. He's tiny. Kurama stares at him, memorizes the planes of his face and the spiking of his hair. Someone has taken him. Naruto's life is hanging by a thread, his heart struggling to keep up, his organs fighting against whatever they put in him. Kurama's chakra slashes at it furiously, but it's not enough.

He's supposed to be all-powerful. The demonic nine-tailed fox, revered by all. He is the strongest of all the tailed beasts, the oldest. Naruto has trusted him with so much. It feels agonizing to let him down in such a way. To sit here and watch more and more color fade from a child who is supposed to be so vivid he's blinding.

Kurama wants to see him smile. He wants to hear Naruto gush about his day, about the inconsequential details of his time at school and his interactions with his peers. He wants Naruto to hug him in that stupid way of his, where he plasters himself to Kurama's nose any time he deems to stick it out and within reach. He wants to hear the boy blabber about friendship, and love, and road trips, and clubs, and fields of endless flowers.

He wants fields of endless flowers. Kurama wants a home. But not if Naruto isn't going to share it with him. Not if he cannot have his only friend. He doesn't care if it's weak of him. He doesn't care that this is taking reign over him, controlling him. It doesn't matter anymore. Not when Naruto is... when he's--

Kurama can't heal him like this. He can't keep his life in stasis, can't shroud him in a protective layer of chakra that will hold until someone can save him. Not with these bars in the way.

The chakra brings Naruto closer. It's a bad idea. But he's right there, and Kurama just wants... he just wants to hold him. Even if he's tiny, Kurama has to save him. He has to save him. Naruto has given his life meaning. He's given him unconditional friendship. He's ignored every one of his jabs and has praised him. Has felt sympathy for a monster no one has ever considered the feelings of, and he has committed himself to saving him. 

Kurama will save him too.

The seal flashes blindingly as his chakra carefully carries the boy through the bars. It is meant to keep things inside, not keep them out. It sparks at the intrusion but does not seem to do much else, and Kurama blinks away the spots in his vision. The burst of energy that had come from it hadn't negatively effected him, and it hadn't negatively effected Naruto either.

Kurama backs up. He sits back on his haunches, shaking rather pathetically all over. Naruto was a speck in his paw, but Kurama cradled him gently in it nonetheless. He curled himself into the furthermost corner, taking deep breaths, keeping his chakra gentle and soft as it slowly surrounded the boy. 

There was no seal inside the cage to stop the gentle orange from entering through the boy's pathways. The chakra Kurama gave was nothing like the red storm raging beyond the bars. This chakra was light. It was love, was fear of a different kind, was grief. Naruto's expression scrunched briefly as it surrounded him, and Kurama's breath hitched, tears still bubbling from his eyes.

It was deafeningly quiet. There was no way to know what was going on outside. Kurama was in the dark, no idea if Naruto was still captive, if someone had come to get him, if there was a fight, if there wasn't one. Without Naruto's chatter to fill up the darkness, the world felt empty. No connection to... anything. 

There was a brief moment of stillness before Naruto's expression smoothed out. Kurama felt a lump form in his throat, relief crashing into him all at once. Because on Naruto's face, faint as it was, was a smile. And that... that was something. His chakra couldn't leave the seal to go to Naruto, but Naruto could enter the seal to come to the chakra. 

Kurama could feel Naruto's heart begin to beat a little stronger. His lungs expanded and released in full, and the breath he let out was small but seemed so relieved. Kurama drew him in closer, curling over him and keeping his chakra a steady stream as it did what it was meant to. He choked a little on his tears, bowing his head. He felt like laughing, almost. 

Kurama could protect him. His chakra-- he hadn't thought it possible for him to shield something like this, but it was working. Nothing would touch Naruto while he was here. Kurama's chakra could do more than just destroy, it seemed. Kurama had forgotten that. He feared he might burn straight through the boy, but had been willing to risk it if it meant saving him. 

This was better than he could've hoped. This was a chance. And Kurama? He was going to take it, and he was going to hold onto it for as long as he could.

~~~

It's rather simple when you think about it.

ROOT as it is will not stand up under the steady leadership Minato Namikaze provides. It is still too small, too insufficient to be called anything of worth. Danzo needs more forces to combat him. More loyal men and women, more powerful ones. Ones that know their place.

The ones he has in training are not enough. Not only are they not ready for the field, but many are still young-- unconditioned and likely to break under the strain. Their abilities are underdeveloped. Hiruzen was an old fool who couldn't see what was going on right in front of him, but the Fourth is already suspicious of his plots. Danzo refuses to let it be his downfall.

There are a lot of things that can break a man. He'd already lost his wife, and surveillance suggested he wasn't as over this as he acted. He presented a fortified front to Konoha. He took the mantle back up with gusto! It was those quiet moments in his office alone, according to his active ROOT members, that the man spent gazing longingly at a photo of his long-dead wife.

Danzo does not know how he came back. It's unnatural, a complete freak accident he wishes he had answers to. One day the man is dead, a legend very few speak of barring the anniversary of the attack. And the next suddenly he's-- what? Coming back from the dead, unaged, unchanged?

It simply won't do. Namikaze has to go. The man really should've stayed dead-- he's thrown a wrench in all his plans, moving the Uchiha the way he's been, disrupting the unrest Danzo has purposely caused towards them. The whole coup has been put on complete hold whilst the policing clan of Konoha positively moons over that blonde idiot. Them and every other clan in the village.

There will be no taking over the village. No Sharingan, no elimination of the Uchiha clan, no Danzo taking his rightful place as the next Hokage, no nothing. Not with that buffoon running things. He thinks he's fixing things, but he has been dead for six years. He has no idea the depth of the problems Konoha faces. Problems that only Danzo can fix.

The solution falls into his lap rather suddenly, in the form of Orochimaru and the very experiments that got the man kicked out of the village to begin with. Experimentation is uncouth, but it does breed loyalty. Artificial, or borne out of fear, or perhaps trauma-- but loyalty all the same.

He needs more ROOT members. He needs a bigger faction at his back. Similarly, he needs to take Minato Namikaze down. And how better to do it than to kill two birds with one stone? Orochimaru is a man Danzo has kept in some loose contact with since his rebellion. Though slimy and not to be trusted, a deal with him is not so remiss. Danzo has something he wants, and it's something he is willing to give for a price.

Orochimaru wants a Sharingan. The Akatsuki wants the nine tails. These are two things Danzo can work with.

The nine tails is a balance. A failsafe Danzo never would've considered letting fall into the hands of anyone else in the past. Desperate times call for desperate measures, however. Whatever they want the nine tails for, they are not ready to enact the plan. That means Danzo will have more than enough time to retrieve it once the Leaf has stabilized again. And if not? It's no matter. Under Danzo's rule, Konoha will be stronger than ever, tailed beast or no.

Orochimaru offers the bulk of his little lab rats to ROOT. With Namikaze out of the village, the time to strike is crucial. He's vulnerable, and so is his son. With a sedative and poison synthesized by the snake sannin specifically to stop them in their tracks, killing him and taking the boy should've been a cut and dry case. In one fail swoop, they could take out Jiraiya the Sannin, the Hokage, and his little lapdog-- Hatake. If they were lucky, they could even get that borrowed eye of his.

They were... not very lucky. Unfortunately. 

Sure, they get the boy with little to no hitch. One of the ROOT members makes chase through the woods. Foolishly, they use one of their poisoned kunai instead of just the provided syringe, meant specifically to put the boy into a deep sleep from which he would be unable to wake. It would presumably keep the nine tails from seeping out, help contain it should its chakra start to lash out in defense and attempt to escape.

The kunai the boy is stabbed with has poison designed to take out a full grown adult, not a brat who's forty pounds soaking wet. It's a miracle he does not die on the journey back. He, in all likelihood, should have. It is only thanks to the monster inside him that his heart and organs do not give out. When he arrives, his breathing is unusually even. Though pale and sickly, his heart beats strong.

Danzo supposes he forgot what Namikaze was capable of. He'd been named kage for a reason, so perhaps it's not surprising he survived. Enraging, yes, but an outcome that should've been expected. What he finds himself less content with is the fact that Jiraiya and the Hatake boy survived as well. The fact that all three of their main targets made it out alive is rather unacceptable.

The disappearance of his son will at least break him. Danzo wagers that's better than nothing at all. He's seen how the man acts with the boy. He adores him. Naruto Uzumaki is his world, one that has been snatched away and will be destroyed at some point in the future. With no way to track them, Danzo is confident that Namikaze will crumble like a house of cards.

 The enemy is hurt. With no leads, Danzo's victory is secured. He sees no real problems along the road ahead. He has won. Watching Namikaze fall this way will be far more satisfying than just killing him would've been. Orochimaru seems to agree, inspecting the jinchuuriki, administering the antidote to the poison to help secure his health.

He didn't account for the fact that maybe, just maybe, the boy might cause problems. He's unconscious. The demon in him is sealed away tight. Orochimaru is confident he will not wake. And technically speaking, the boy does not. 

Something else does. Something that blinds them with a flash of fiery, orange light.

~~~

Waiting for Jiraiya's summon to report back is agony.

There's fear that maybe the toad has been caught and killed. It's a possibility, one that has Minato pacing like a lion in a cage despite the healer's insistence he sit down and rest. Rest does not seem possible at a time like this. Naruto is out there somewhere, hurt and alone, and Minato can hardly stand the thought.

The summon can't leave until whoever took Naruto gets to where they're going. It can't give them updates, can't do anything. Once it leaves-- it'll be gone. It has to be sure Naruto isn't going to be moved. Because if it wasn't... they could lose Naruto forever. And that wasn't something Minato was ready to face.

The tension was insane. Everyone was subdued from the hefty loss, and antsier than ever with their Hokage as angry as he was. Minato had never been quick to rage, but this was... this was different. This was his son. His and Kushina's baby, and he'd been taken. Minato wanted to rip his own hair out and scream. Wanted to throw things, wanted to destroy who'd dared do this.

The healers focus greatly on his hand. They're able to find and reattach his ring finger, but his left pinky will forever be half gone unless he finds a way to construct a new one. Minato wasn't sure if it would impair his ability to cast jutsu or not. He was fairly proficient in one-handed signs, and his right was his dominant anyway.

What were a couple fingers compared to his son? Minato would give his whole damn arm just to know he was okay. He'd give anything. His time getting to know Naruto had been some of the happiest weeks of his life. This second chance he'd gotten was a blessing, but what was the point of having another chance to live if his son wasn't there to live with him?

Kushina was hard. Her absence hit him at the strangest of times. Sometimes it was easy not to think about it, or to pretend she was just out on a mission somewhere. She'd been a blazing flame in his heart that had kept him going for a long time, and the embers of her still remained strong. They likely always would. 

She'd been it for him. Losing her was like losing a piece of himself. There was a gaping hole in him that only she could fill, and sometimes that wound festered or burned. It would be easy to break down over her death and let it take him over. A few times Minato had almost let it, in the quiet moments he got alone in his office to gaze at her photo. 

But Kushina would never, ever forgive him if he let her death negatively impact their son in any way. He knew this. Had known this-- had repeated it to himself several times. From the moment she learned she was pregnant, Naruto had become the center of their universe. He was everything. He was the future, their child. The most important thing to both of them.

If anything happened to him, Minato wasn't sure what he'd do. He wouldn't be able to keep going. He knew that much. Kushina was probably screaming at him from beyond the grave. She was probably screaming at everyone, actually. He had no doubt she was out there watching out for him and Naruto still.

He had to stay strong. It was just hard to. He wasn't alone-- he knew that. He was surrounded by people who wanted Naruto back just as badly as he did. The guilt in Kakashi that was quickly beginning to solidify into cold determination. The grimness in Ayumu, who'd sustained a massive gash to the back, the leg, and a punctured lung. The quiet faith of Jiraiya, who hadn't been there for Naruto when it counted but was trying to do right by him now.

If they wanted the nine tails, they needed Naruto alive. The seal wasn't easy to break from the outside. Minato just had to keep hope that Naruto was still okay. If he was alive, that's what mattered most. That meant he was obtainable. It meant Minato could get him back.

There's no telling just how long it is. The sun rises. The nurses force them to eat, but it all tastes like cardboard. Minato's chakra simmers almost visibly in the air around him. He's quick to snap, agitated and uncouth. He know he should be level-headed now more than ever, but...

The sun sets again. They're all healed more. It's not nearly enough time to get them all back in total working order, but it's enough that Minato thinks he could stand up decently in a fight. Any attempts to get him to sleep are fruitless. And, in his defense, it's much the same for everyone else. Kakashi stands still as a sentry and doesn't doze, and Ayumu and Jiraiya remain wide awake as well.

It's unbearable. Minato has been tortured before. He's been injured in many number of ways, has come close to death more often than most. He knows pain. This is something else entirely. A new kind of beast that he's never felt with this intensity before. It threatens to choke and drag him down. It would be so easy to let it.

In the silence of their hospital room, Ayumu writes. His pen scratching against paper is a constant sound. Nobody knows what it is he's writing down and they're not going to ask. Once this is all over, they're all going to need daily sessions with the man.

It helps to think about after, because it implies Naruto will be around. Though, Minato has no idea how Naruto will take the whole thing. Will he bounce back from it with the same tenacity he does everything? Surely not. This was-- this was a whole other ballpark. This was more than harsh words from the civilians and thrown stones. This was the type of trauma that would likely follow him into adulthood.

The thought made Minato's jaw clench. He doesn't know whose done this, but he'll kill them for it. He will. Even in the war, he'd been merciful whenever he could. Sure, he never left any unnecessary threats behind, but he didn't take lives he didn't absolutely have to. 

He didn't care if they surrendered. He was going to destroy them. Leaving them alive meant risking this happening again, and fuck if Minato was willing to take that chance. They'd pay the highest price for this. And if Naruto wasn't okay? If he was-- if they took him from Minato? 

He'd do a lot worse than just kill them.

The sun is just beginning to rise when there's a pop. The smallest puff of smoke appears at the end of Jiraiya's hospital bed and has them all flying out of their seats to attention. Minato, who'd still been pacing, whirls on his heel so fast you'd have thought he used one of his three pronged kunai to do it. The toad looked utterly exhausted, but unhurt. 

"Did you find him?!" Minato burst out before Jiraiya could speak. Whatever poison they'd used on the sannin had caused his throat to swell up, and it was still hard for him to talk. Maybe that was for the best. Minato's feelings on him were still so mixed-- but there was no time or place for grudges now. Any issues he had could wait.

The toad really was a tiny thing. Young, probably. Minato couldn't feel any chakra coming from it. It probably specialized in hiding itself. He refrained from the urge to grab the thing as Kakashi materialized at his side. He'd hardly said a word even now, but his gaze held terrifying focus that would make anyone wither. 

"I-I did. I-- I'm sorry it took so long. I was sure they were going to move him again, but... it seems not. At least not for now." The toad's voice was squeaky and high pitched. She looked pallid, tone coming out a little hysterical and frantic. "He's-- he's here, Hokage-sama, Jiraiya-sama. He's in the village! They have him in--"

Before the toad could finish, the door to the hospital room slammed open. Minato bared his teeth in a snarl at the interruption but Shikaku hardly flinched. The man's face was drained of color entirely. He looked like he'd run the whole way here, which was odd considering the laziness his clan was characterized by.

Ayumu straightened as Inoichi appeared behind the man, looking just as winded. Minato felt his heartrate begin to speed up at the panic in their expressions. The way they were looking at him-- this had something to do with Naruto, didn't it? If he was in the village... then someone inside had taken him.

Minato had a feeling he knew who.

"Hokage-sama." Shikaku choked out. "The forest to the west, it's-- it's on fire. It's burning. There's a fight ensuing and Orochimaru has been spotted at the scene. We also have word that-- we think... we think someone saw your son. Unconscious, but--"

The toad gave a squeak, but Minato was already gone, nothing more than a flash of yellow.

~~~

Read up to chapter 30 on Patreon! As well as some drafts for possible upcoming Naruto stories. There's even a poll going on right now for what's written next!

sneak peek of chapter 30: 

Kurama's resounding growl is bone-rattling and will probably haunt Minato's nightmares for the next several months, but you know what?