Minato sat at his desk, holding a bottle of Shochu. He pulled his hair in frustration, looking out his window to see the rising sun, "Fuck me." Minato whispered, standing up to open said window. Taking in a deep breath, Minato slumped over the edge, falling to his knees mumbling to himself.

"Please let them come back, please let them come back, please let them come back..." he mumbled over and over again. But that soon stopped when he heard knocking.

"Sensei? Can I talk with you?" Kakashi asked from the other side.

"Yeah, let yourself in," Minato stated, "I don't feel like opening the door."

Kakashi opened the door and stepped into the room, recoiling at the sight of his sensei. Walking over to the man, Kakashi could smell the alcohol coming off him.

"How ya doing, sensei?" Kakashi asked, bending over to grab the bottle from Minato's hand

"Not good, Kakashi, not good at all," Minato replied, bringing up the bottle to his lips, only to be disappointed when nothing came out. So, he chucked the bottle across the room, bouncing off the floor and the wall and into a garbage can.

"At least you're honest about the situation at hand," Kakashi pulled out his orange book and sat next to Minato, who was still hung out of the window, "so, you wanna hear about Tenzo and his plus one?"

"Sure." Minato's voice was filled with sadness and was somber.

"Well, the ANBU that he brought back won't be working for a while. One of his lungs was punctured as well as two of his ribs were broken. Then there's his spin, as he was carried back with one of the disks popped. Tenzo was safe and sound... and speaking of, about Naruto-"

When Kakashi mentioned his son's name, Minato perked up, pulling himself out of the window and looking at him

"What about my son? Is he okay? What happened? Why didn't he bring my son back with him?!" Minato asked question after question, much to Kakashi's annoyance.

"Well, sensei, Tenzo could've only brought back the ANBU. But, Naruto was in the safe capable hands of Tsume and the ANBU Captain that was sent." Kakashi explained.

"Oh..."

"We also sent out a search party a few hours ago." Kakashi stated, putting his book away, "They haven't returned since last night and some of the higher-ups, specifically the other clan heads, were getting worried."

"Why would they be worried? Wouldn't they've seen this as an opportunity to gain power and expand the clans?"

"Well, the ones that expressed their worry were the Nara and Hyuga, as the Nara Clan found themselves the idea of something like this to be 'troublesome' and the Hyuga as 'something like this would disgrace Konoha, and by extension, the Hyuga Clan.'." Kakashi stated, imitating the voice of Hisashi Hyuga, making Minato chuckle

"Yeah, I guess so... have they found anything?"

"No, not yet, but I am expecting them to show up sometime s-"

"LORD HOKAGE! WE'VE FOUND THE RETRIEVAL TEAM IN INJURED CONDITION! THEY'VE BEEN RUSHED TO THE HOSPITAL THE MOMENT WE'VE RETURNED!" an ANBU appeared in the room on his knees. Minato jumped up, hitting his head on the top of the window sill, and turned back to the ANBU.

"WHAT ROOMS MAN?!"

"Lady Tsume was placed in room 213-B and-" but before the ANBU could say anymore, Minato had vanished in a yellow flash.

Tsume sat in her bed, covered in bandages, with Kuromaru on her lap, also with bandages. They sat in silence before Tsume said: "I wonder if there's anything good on TV?" as she reached for the remote and turned on the TV.

As she did so, the door burst open, revealing Minato and startling Kuromaru, who fell off the bed.

"Ow," Kuromaru said, sitting up to peek over the bed and stare at Minato.

"L-Lord Hokage! W-What are you doing here?" Tsume asked before Minato ran over and grabbed the collar of her shirt

"WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?! WHERE'S MY SON?! WHO DID THIS?!" Minato shook her violently, causing her to reach out and grab his arms.

"LORD HOKAGE! I CAN'T SPEAK IF YOUR GONNA KILL ME!" Tsume shouted, causing Minato to stop. He released her from his grasp as he took a couple of steps back and bowed.

"Forgive me, Lady Tsume... I'm just... stressed," Minato stated as Tsume sighed.

"It's understandable, Lord Hokage... I guess you want that report now, huh?"

"Please." Minato bowed, even more, pulling up a chair.

"Alright... where to start?" Tsume muttered before she sighed again and looked at Minato, "First off, I believe Danzo was involved."

"Excuse you?" Minato's eyes widened as Tsumne explained everything that happened. From Naruto being flung at them to the appearance of Baku and their apparent black-out. Minato gritted his teeth, closed his eyes, and stood up.

"I hope you recover to your peak condition, Last Inuzuka. Kuromaru." Minato bowed and walked away. When he was gone, Tsume looked at her partner and asked: "You think he took it well?"

"No, he didn't. And I can understand why." the large dog replied, getting back up on the bed and turning to face the TV, "but for now, let's just rest before they get here."

"They?" Tsume asked, drawing a blank as the door burst open again with Kiba, Hana, and Akamaru in tow.

"MOM!/BARK!!" the three said/barked as they fell to the floor.

"There goes the peace."

Minato stood in front of his house and looked up at the door. Sighing in frustration, he opened the door and walked in to see Naruko, Menma, and Kushina all in the hallway, scrambling for their things.

"Minato? Where have you been?! You were supposed to be home last night!" Kushina reprimanded her husband, but stopped when she saw the condition he was in, "Minato? Sweetheart?"

"Kushina... kids... we need to talk."

Gathering what was left of his family, Minato sat them all down in the living room as he dragged his chair to face them all.

"Kushina. Menma. Naruko. Do you remember when Naruto went over to have a sleep-over with Sasuke?"

"Yeah, what of it?" Menma asked, looking at his father.

"Minato? What happened?" Kushina looked Minato in the eye as her husband slumped over in distress and anguish

"Last night... Naruto, Sasuke, and 'Aunt' Mikoto, were-something bad happened. And the mission to get them back failed. We-" Minato started to choke and tear up, struggling to finish the sentence, "W-We won't be seeing them for a while."

"No, no, not my baby." Kushina stuttered as she too began to cry

"I-I don't get it, what's wrong?! Where's Naruto?! Where's my brother?!" Naruko asked as she looked to her mother for answers

"You better start making sense, old man! What happened?!" Menma shouted, hopping off the couch

"Menma... Naruko... your brother... y-your brother was," Minato began to shake as tears rolled down his face, "y-your brother was kidnapped."

"N-no, you're lying. You're lying!"

"I-I'm sorry." Minato stuttered as Menma shook his head, tears threatening to fall from his face. Balling his fists, Menma ran to the front door and continued running. Minato tried to stop him as he too ran out the front door, but was stopped when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Let him go, kid. He needs some time to himself," Jiraiya said, taking a few steps to get closer to his own student

"What am I going to do, sensei?" Minato asked, "I don't know what to do."

"Me neither kid... me neither." Jiraiya said, looking up at the sky, making a fist, 'Danzo... when I find you, I'm gonna take my time killing you.'

Naruto woke up with a headache, and to the smell of slow-roasted pork chops.

"Where did you get the knives to butcher this thing?" Naruto heard Shizune ask as he also heard the sound of sizzling.

"Knives?" Garou questioned.

Sitting up, Naruto saw Shizune and Garou huddling around a fire, with Shizune holding a large pan and a very large pig, gutted and butchered behind Garou.

"About time you woke up, kid. Now get over here and eat some pan-fried pork belly," Garou said as he picked up a plate of the said food product.