Disclaimer: I own nothing... Sad isn't it?

Warnings

Near Rape (Well I think it is)

Shounen-Ai (I can't write Yaoi yet)

Incest- NaruMina (UkeMina SemeNaru)

Times Are Strange

Chapter One

"This cannot be happening." Namikaze Minato thought as he found himself perfectly immobile by what seemed to be poison.

The young ANBU Captain and his team were returning after a S-rank mission. It had consisted of an assassination of some high powered businessmen that had managed to somehow get some information on Konoha's defence. The mission was successful until they were ambushed by some missing nin. They wore no headbands, so he could not tell which hidden village they originated from and they hid their faces by some masks.

Due to chakra exhaustion and the element of surprise, his team were killed, but they took most of their enemies with them. Soon only Minato remained and two other missing nin. He was about to move for the final strike when he found his entire body not listening to his commands. Thus, he fell to the floor paralysed.

This was when he felt the pinch of a senbon on his neck. He tried to assess the situation. He could feel but he couldn't move a single muscle. He thought he was going to die, but it seemed that fate was too cruel and wouldn't even allow that.

"Such a waste to just kill you now, let's have some fun." One nin said, taking off his ANBU mask.

Minato could feel his heart hammering against his chest as the two nin tore at his already ripped clothes. He knew the protocol to follow upon sexual assault, but no training had ever mentioned or prepared them for the humiliation that one would experience in the situation.

'Rule number twenty five,' he chanted in his head. He was not going to give them the pleasure of reacting.

He could feel everything. He could hear everything. He could see everything.

'Rule number twenty five'

Those rough hands, they tugged, pulled, pinched. They burnt against his skin.

'Rule number twenty five'

The two tongues as they licked, bit, sucked. He felt dirty

'Rule number twenty five'

Those two faces burned themselves into his memory. He could hear the moans and groans that made his stomach churn. If he wasn't paralysed he would have thrown up. He could feel the tears prickling his eyes. That was odd… he had tear ducts?

'Rule number twenty five!'

He closed his eyes. He will not break here. Not now, not ever.

But there is a limit for everyone. He felt himself being roughly placed into another sexual position. This one was more embarrassing than the last. Earlier he was placed in a sitting down position with his legs spread open. Now he was kneeling with his ass up and face firmly placed on the floor like some common submissive whore.

"Now isn't that a sight!"

Minato let out a silent scream.

"Now it's rude Konoha-kun, that you aren't hard, after all the attention we gave you."

'Gave to me? You forced it on me'

"Well that doesn't matter, by the time we finish with you, you'll be cumming and still be rock hard."

And that's when the prodding began. Minato winced inwardly as he felt a finger shoved into him. His heart was ramming into his chest. Maybe, he thought, it'll burst and I'll die and escape this torture. Then he felt the now fingers leave him and something much larger poke at his opening. He panicked. He tried to move but he couldn't, he couldn't even scream. He couldn't do anything, but squeeze his eyes shut as he felt tears leak out.

He waited, but the pain didn't come.

'Was this some new form of torture that fate had given him? Slowing everything down, making it much worse?'

Then suddenly, he felt warm liquid on his bare body. He thought it was a release of one of his attackers when the scent hit him - the familiar coppery odour that had been his constant companion since the day he became chunin.

When he opened his eyes, he saw the head of one of his attackers separated from his body, his blood staining the forest grass. His body was drenched in blood, hinting that the other nin was dead too. Minato strained his eyes trying to search for the new arrival, but he couldn't feel any chakra or hear anything.

Then a black cloth fell onto the floor spread out, and he felt himself being lifted and carried out of the embarrassing position gently, then placed on the cloth.

After the blood rush, his eyes were still focusing and he drew a sharp breath.

"Easy, I will not harm you." A low warm baritone greeted him, the voice making him relax. It reminded him of the Sandaime and had the quality of a Hokage - calm and soothing.

When his eyes focused, he was greeted by the sight of a man. He must have been his age or older. He had tan skin and spiky blonde hair very much like his own, but it was longer and brushed the joint of his neck and his shoulders. He was heavily built and seemed the heavy combat type. But then again, he had stealth and could hide his chakra extremely well.

He looked at the shinobi's face and took in the well-defined cheek bones and strong jaw. He was clean shaven and was sporting three strange pairs of whisker-like scars on either side of his cheeks. But what really caught his attention, was the shinobi's eyes. They were the colour of his own, but more intense. They had a richer colouring that seemed to glow, and held a hint of purple.

"I will not harm you." The shinobi repeated, locking his intense gaze with his.

Suddenly Minato felt warm, protected like nothing in the world could harm him. But he blinked away those feelings and forced himself to feel caution.

While holding the gaze, he felt the cloth being wrapped tightly around his body covering him.

Warily, Minato felt around for the nin's chakra. It was different - free, alive and powerful. He could feel it pulsing and flowing. Minato had never come across anything like this in his short life in Konoha or anywhere else before. Even the Hokage's chakra wasn't like this - powerful, yes, but not alive.

That was when he realised that the ninja was bathing him in his chakra. This was used by jounin-sensei's on their genin teams to wash away the after effect of their first time exposure to killing intent. The shinobi was using it to wash away the feeling of shock and to remove the effects of chakra exhaustion. It was effective, save for the fact that the technique cost a lot of chakra, but by judging by the look of the shinobi he didn't seem to notice.

"There are more shinobi arriving from Iwa and heading this way."

He spoke slowly and looked directly at Minato, before picking him up and jumping away from the area.

Minato looked at the blonde again, they were travelling at high speed and the man didn't seem to be showing any signs of fatigue or slowing down. Looking at the sun, they seemed to be travelling towards Konoha, and it was evening.

It was night when the shinobi stopped at a small stream that ran by a cliff. He was placed down near the stream and the shinobi spoke,

"The poisons effect should be over by now."

'How did he know?' Minato thought looking at him, as his plan to fake paralysis so he could let the shinobi underestimate him, went out of the window. By doing so he could easily overwhelm him using the element of surprise and find out what he wanted that way.

The shinobi smiled at his confused look, which he cursed for letting appear on his face. He saw him take out a scroll and release something. It was a pile of shinobi clothes.

"Sorry if they are a little too loose," the shinobi said, before he bowed and turned away towards the cliff wall.

Minato felt a surge of panic flood his system at the thought of this shinobi leaving him. Why? Why was he feeling like this? Shouldn't he be relived? He didn't understand. But those thoughts and feeling were calmed down at the words,

"I'm going to set up camp; I won't be far, just in there." And he pointed to a random section of the cliff wall.

Minato watched him walk towards it and then disappear behind it. That's when he realised that the rock walls overlapped each other creating a natural hideout and defence.

'How did he know about it not us?' They were now in fire country and half a day's trip from Konoha.

Shaking his head, he classified those thoughts as 'ask later' and did a chakra scan of the area. Satisfied that no one was around, began to strip, wrinkling his nose in disgust at the smell. The other blonde was awfully polite not to comment on it and just subtly hint to have a wash.

He was covered in dried blood, saliva and who knows what other fluids. The wounds from his 'attack' were now inflamed and swollen. There were hand prints on his chest and hips. He must look like Jiraiya-sensei after being dealt with Tsunade-sama.

Smiling slightly at the thought, he got into the stream. The blood came off, but not the grime or the feeling that he was filthy. Sighing, he reached for the pile of clothes the shinobi had left him. When he pulled out the shirt, a small travel bar of scentless shinobi soap fell onto the grass. Letting a grateful smile appear on his face at the thoughtfulness of the other blonde shinobi, he returned to his washing.

Once he was satisfied he was clean, Minato dressed in the borrowed clothes. They were a size or two big like the shinobi had said, but not baggy. They also held the same scent of the other blonde. He couldn't describe it, but it was similar to the wind on top of the Hokage monument.

'Where had that come from?' He blushed at that thought and shook his head. Unbelievable -the Hokage's most trusted ANBU acting like a Genin rank Kunoichi was just… unbelievable.

Still disturbed at his own thoughts he walked towards the section of the cliff that he saw the other blonde disappear behind. In his arms he carried the now damp cloak which he had washed in the stream with the remaining soap. Treading cautiously and expecting an attack, he entered the cave though the hidden entrance. One could not be too careful after all.

The sheer size of the cave took him aback. The cave was larger than what he had imagined it to be - much larger. The inner walls had a glossy surface which reflected the light from the small fire, lighting the entire cave dimly. There were two sleeping bags by the fire and he spotted the blonde sitting on a flat rock prodding the fire lazily.

"Thank you," Minato said handing the damp cloak to the blonde, "But it still needs to dry."

"Leave it on one of those flat rocks." he said gesturing to the one near the fire. Then getting up "I'm gonna have a wash." and walked towards the exit.

Minato sat near the fire, warming himself. The shinobi hadn't left anything around to investigate, save for the sleeping bags and he check those for traps, seals and poisons. He searched the cave for anything that could lead to any harm. Only a genjutsu to hide them and some seals that would alert them if anyone other than them stepped within ten feet of them.

Minato did an assessment on the ninja. Skill wise, he was a strong shinobi, definitely above jounin. He was very skilled in sealing and had high chakra reserves but possibly only moderate chakra control due to the genjutsu which was not powerful. Personality wise he seemed friendly, but one never knows.

Minato's musing was cut short when he saw the other blonde arrive. He was dressed in new attire and his hair was still damp - or at least he assumed so as it was less spiky.

Sitting across from each other, they ate ration bars in silence, watching the flames dance lazily. Then Minato broke the silence,

"What do you want from me or Konoha?" No better way of asking than straight.

The shinobi looked at him in surprise and then amusement before replying, "Nothing."

Minato shot him a look of 'I don't believe you'.

The shinobi laughed, "Yeah, it's pretty hard to believe."

"Then why did you help me, do all of this and head towards Konoha?"

"You seemed to be in a tight spot and I have hero complex. I also want to join Konoha."

"Why?"

The shinobi smiled, but this time it was sad, tired as if he had seen the endless fighting and was sick of it "That I cannot tell you, it's something only the Hokage should know."

Minato stared at him, to see if there were any hints to his secret, "May I know your name?"

The shinobi snapped out of his depression and slapped his forehead "Ahhh, sorry about that, I completely forgot, my name is Naruto." He grinned. Minato couldn't help but smile back.

"Yours?" Naruto asked, Minato sent him a questioning glance. Most shinobi's knew who he was due to his reputation in the bingo books. So he carefully answered,

"Minato."

"Namikaze Minato?" Minato nodded, so the blonde knew or at least had heard of him.

"So you're the bastard that everyone keeps mistaking me for!"

Minato was stumped. He didn't expect that. He was ready for awe, fear, hostility, worshipping or no reaction at all… even a smug reply on how the great Namikaze Minato got into such a humiliating position and had to get rescued like some damsel in distress. But instead he got good natured laughing and calling him a bastard.

"Do you know how much of trouble I got into because of you?" Naruto continued chuckling, "Now I know why Iwa nins attacked me on sight and rabid women tried to jump me... a lot."

Minato couldn't help it, he broke out chuckling the mental image was too funny to resist and the infectious laughter from the other end didn't help either.

But he did notice the similarity between him and the other blonde - the same colouring for one. The main difference was that Naruto was heavier built and taller, while he was leaner. He would never admit it, but Minato had a more effeminate look in comparison to Naruto.

"I'm sorry for the inconveniences you had to face." Minato said in an amused tone.

"Naah, I don't mind it much. Just there is a limit and women don't understand that." Minato chuckled.

"Do you have family name, Naruto-san?"

Minato could practically feel the mood drop. "Yeah, I do but I choose not to use it anymore."

"Why?" He had to get some information.

He got no answer but the same sad smile. Naruto didn't even look at him. He seemed to be gazing off into the fire but Minato knew that Naruto wasn't even here. He knew that look. He had seen in it upon so many fellow shinobis' faces when they were looking at the memorial stone.

To Minato that look told him enough. This was a shinobi who had lost everything and wanted nothing but to start a new life. The want to join a village and choice of not using the family name were the hints he needed. Minato secretly admired the blonde for the mental and emotional strength to pick oneself up and move on after everything you knew, believed in and lived for had been taken away from you.

"You've lost your village." It sounded so blunt.

Naruto's eyes widened for a fraction of a second and his head snapped towards Minato in surprise. Then he let out an uncharacteristically sad sigh of defeat and went back to poking the fire. That was Minato's answer.

He watched as the shinobi poked the flames. His grip was so tight that his entire hand was white, and his jaw was clenched so hard Minato could practically hear the teeth being grounded. His eyes seemed narrowed to slits and his other hand was clenched into a fist and his entire body seemed be trembling with anger… but he was still sad.

Minato blinked at the realisation.

Naruto was feeling guilty.

Only one person in an entire village would feel guilt of that level, at the destruction of their village.

"You're a Kage."

"Okay! Enough talk for one night, see you in the morning. Don't bother with the shift taking the seals are enough. Good night!" And he picked the nearest sleeping bag and fell asleep with his back facing the fire and Minato.

The obvious attempt at changing the subject and abrupt ending told him two things. One, he hit the nail on the head and two, he seemed to have inherited Jiraiya's lack of tact at stating something bad. Severely regretting ignoring the other blondes wishes to not speak about the matter, he stood up, bowed and said,

"Forgive me, I shouldn't have-" He was cut off before he could finish.

"It's fine. Just go to bed." Minato winced at the tone. It wasn't cold but it wasn't warm either. He knew that he had crossed the line. Cursing his stupidity and big mouth, he crawled into his sleeping bag and gave one last look at the other figure before falling asleep.

A/N: So what ya think? Good? Bad? or Unclassified?... Well I'm still in the green area with this entire concept, specially romance sector... so give me some advice and constructive criticism please...

15th June 2011, I would like to thank DreamsOfStories for her hard work in betaing this chapter.