Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

Rating T (I guess)

Mini author note:

"Konoha" –talking

'Konoha'–thinking

A/N: Sorry everyone! It took me forever to get down and write this. A huge thanks to choco-rose, Kubani14, RaawrImaDinosaur, shinn55, sasusaku4freakinEver and NarutoSPsyren for reviewing. Sorry for this chapter being so short.

O-O-O

Chapter four – Last day of innocence

O-O-O

"Come 'ere, ya little…" Minato said, as he ran after a revoltingly ugly dog, with equally disturbing red ribbon tied around its neck. The mutt escaped into a small alley, but the blond gave chase. Seconds later, curses of various levels of profanity could be heard from his direction, along the racket of metal trash cans. Lying on the ground, Minato removed the smelly banana peel off his head, as a shadow blurred above him.

As his feet touched the ground, Noriaki turned around glancing at his rival.

"Don't worry! That little sack of ugly is as good as caught…" He trailed off, realizing that his other teammate walked into the alley carrying the little bugger in her hands. A conceited grin was on her face.

"Did I beat you to it? Sorry boys, more luck next time." She said, sticking out her tongue.

"Beginner's luck." The duo muttered out in unison.

"You're both beginners too, how do you explain that?"

"…"

Noriaki walked up to her, scratching the critter behind the ears.

"Let's take this poor excuse for a mutt back to Jiraiya-sensei. You know, this just occurred to me, but" he pointed his finger at the dog's face, "does this rat have fleas?" The result was instantaneous, as Kushina basically tossed the dog in Noriaki's arms with a disgusted yell.

"Ha! I caught 'im!" He quickly ducked to avoid Kushina's fist.

"That's cheating, you jerk!"

"Hey, all's fair in love and wa-!" He was cut off from finishing when Minato's palm smacked him on the back of the head.

"Just walk, butt monkey."

"No fair! You're ganging up on me!"

Kushina flicked his nose.

"What was it you said mere seconds ago? All's fair in love and war, right?"

As they walked out of the alley, they were greeted by a team of chunin, returning home from a successful mission. The men, noticing the animal in Noriaki's hands, began to point and laugh.

"Well would you look at that! Feels like an eternity that we had to do something so boooring! Hope it didn't take you too long to catch that pup, kids." He turned to smack one of his friends on the shoulder. "We had to chase after it a full seven times during our time as genin. Can you imagine that? Can't believe someone didn't put a leash on it yet." One of the other men leaned and whispered something to the speaker, upon which the chunin gave each kid a frowning glance, eyes finally setting on Kushina. Whatever was on his mind, he didn't say. He simply turned around, waving a hand to the others to follow him.

"Good luck on your next mission!" he simply added before he and the others left.

The trio looked in silence at the chunins until the unit turned around a corner and disappeared from their view. Finally, the calm was disrupted when Noriaki shouted, pulling his hand out of the dog's mouth. The dog barked triumphantly as it fell to the ground, then ran as if it has seen death itself.

"HE BITE ME! HE BITE ME!" Noriaki gritted his teeth, as his friends laughed at his wounded pride.

Minato slapped him on the shoulder.

"Let's go get that ugly bastard."

O-O-O

Drip.

Drip.

Drip.

The sounds of water droplets hitting the floor was the only sound that filled the dark hallway, as a single figure moved silently through it. Despite there being no light, neither natural nor manmade, the figure moved confidently, as if it had walked this path times beyond counting.

'Fifty… Fifty one, fifty two, fifty three…' The figure made one more step, then stopped. 'Fifty four steps.' Reaching for the intangible doorknob he knew was there, he grabbed it, and pushed. The sudden burst of light blinded the man, for he was a man, but he knew very well not to be foolish and move – the sound of kunai being drawn was something unmistakable.

"At ease." He heard the voice of the Hokage. The man blinked several times, as his sight adjusted.

"Hokage-sama."

The elderly leader of Konoha sat at a large table. Surrounding the table his students stood, observing the huge map of the land of fire. On it, there were multiple wooden figures. Some represented Shinobi villages, other civilian towns, and then again, there were the third type that was the regular military and forth that marked the approximate location of shinobi movement. Just on a quick glance, the man could see that the pale blue figures that represented the village of Hidden Cloud shinobi positioned too close to the Land of Fire's border. Pointing his finger at them, he muttered: "That can't be good."

"No, it most certainly is not." The Hokage replied, stroking his beard. "But for the moment, tolerable."

"You have summoned me, Hokage-sama?" There was no way it could be something good. Not when the meeting was in that room. It was one of Konoha's best kept secrets, known only to the Hokage and his top three ANBU operatives… and apparently the Sannin too, since all three were looking at him.

And he was one of those top ANBU. The room was a secret of the first Hokage, and was passed down along with the cowl. The weight of the hard porcelain mask on his face suddenly filled him with pride. While he watched the Hokage go through a set of notes, he tried to remember all he knew of the place. It had powerful ninjutsu and genjutsu weaved into its walls, hidden in a maze of tunnels deep beneath the village. No one who didn't possess the exact knowledge of its location could see it. To them, the entrance would appear to be no more than a piece of wall. It looked that way even to those that knew. Ninjustsu to blind the Byakugan. Genjustsu strong enough to confuse the Sharingan. Both lost to the past. Only the Hokage seemed immune. But the man knew very well that that was not all the room had to offer. The walls of the place were heavily fortified by Doton ninjutsu, making it one of Konoha's sturdiest bunkers. And that staff hanging on the wall behind the Hokage…

"Ah!" Sarutobi Hiruzen exclaimed triumphantly, as he pulled a sheath of paper from the stack he was examining. "Here, take a look."

The man took the paper. The trench between his eyes deepened as he recognized the picture of the demon on the paper.

"So it falls down to me, then? Is the girl prepared?" The man was surprised when he saw the Hokage look away in shame.

"No. But we already explored other options. Mito-san's heart is failing, and Tsunade can delay the inevitable no longer."

The man stood silently, as conflicting emotions waged war within his soul, all hidden behind the ANBU mask.

The Hokage seemed to have guessed what was on his mind.

"You don't have to hide behind it here, Sora."

The man understood that as a permission to remove the porcelain mask, which he immediately did. He could hear Orochimaru smirk.

"Good to see you still have a face under that mask, Namikaze." Namikaze Sora grinned as he shook his friend's hand. "Good to see you too, Orochimaru. How's Konoha's number one scientist faring these days?" Just as Orochimaru opened his mouth to respond, the Hokage coughed dramatically.

"Shall we continue?"

Orochimaru and Namikaze muttered out their apologies.

"Sir, permission to speak freely?" Hokage nodded in response. Namikaze shook his head. "I don't like this. I don't like this at all. Sir, why is it so important to restrain the Biju within a small child? Why not me? Why not you? Why not Orochimaru, Jiraiya, or Tsunade, or… or… heck, anyone other than that girl?" The Hokage held his glare for a few moments, and then looked away in shame.

"We cannot. Like I already said, we tried other options. But only an Uzumaki can hold the beast in place without becoming a monster."

"Sir, I could-" But the Hokage immediately interrupted him.

"No, you could not. And neither could I."

Namikaze looked to the ground, not allowing his eyes to betray his emotions. "When?" He asked, simply.

"Twelve hours. That's how long we need to prepare everything." 'And may heaven forgive us for the sin we are about to commit.'

O-O-O

(Later in the afternoon…)

"Run for it guys!"

With all the skill and might, young Minato did his best to keep the distance between himself and the pursuers. Rushing through the thick crowd of people in Konoha's market. Realizing that he wasn't gonna make it, he dived head-first through a fruit stand, much to the dismay of the vendor. He readily landed on his palms and propelled himself high up into the air. With the corner of his eye, he saw their pursuer closing the gap to Choza.

"Behind you big guy!"

Choza tossed a quick glance behind him, and picked up the pace, while sweat flowed like torrents down his red cheeks, as he struggled to catch a breath. Suddenly, a manhole in front opened, and Inoichi raised his head out of it and waved his hand. Without hesitation, Choza jumped down the manhole, disappearing in the sewer tunnels beneath.

That meant Minato got the bullseye painted on him again.

'Damn it.'

As he ran across the rooftops, a flash of red startled him, and he quickly leaped down into an alley, hiding himself from view inside a large trash container. Hearing footsteps, he pulled the remains of a large torn up cardboard box on top of himself.

That's when he heard voices.

"Damn!" he heard a girl swear. "I'm sure I saw him jump down here."

'Mikoto.' The young Namikaze recognized her.

"Let's keep looking." And that would be his teammate, Kushina. "He couldn't have gotten far. Let's go!" There was a sudden sound of shunshin, and Minato assumed the girls were gone. Not that he would move for at least another ten minutes or so. That's how they got him the last time. He took the time off to catch his breath and do a quick recap.

'Choza and Inoichi are still on the run, as far as I can tell… Shikaku is at our home base… Inoichi got him… The girls are out looking for me… I caught that kid whose name I can't remember, so that's 2:1 for us.' So, who's the one on his team that got busted?

O-O-O

Sitting on the bench at the opposite team, Noriaki sneezed.

'Some beautiful girl must be thinking about me right now…'

O-O-O

Time to move. Tossing the cardboard off himself, Minato jumped out of the container, frowning at several smelly stains of questionable origin on his clothes. He quickly went through his hand seals. "Henge." And in an instant, he was meter-eighty-four, with short cut blond hair, wearing the white trench coat with the red symbol of fire on his back. The shinobi forehead protector turned black, and its ends doubled in length. All a spitting image of his father dressed in civilian clothes. There was no way his disguise would fool most chunin, and jonins were out of the question entirely.

But then again, neither Kushina nor Mikoto ever really met his father.

O-O-O

The redhead kicked the trashcan, knocking it over. "This bites."

"Ease off, Kushina-chan." The black haired Uchiha girl said, with her arms crossed."We'll get them, we just gotta outsmart them, that's all."

"Yeah… outsmart them. We had them on the ropes! Why didn't you go after them when they jumped down that sewer?"

"You're kidding, right?"

"I would have!"

"…no you wouldn't." Mikoto said with a smirk. She pulled her hair behind her ear as she watched her friend get uncomfortable.

"Okay, probably not." Kushina confessed after a short pause.

"See? My point exactly." This caused the redhead to sigh.

O-O-O

"Bored." Noriaki bounced a small ball against the wall. "Still bored." Where the hell was everybody? "Dying of boredom here…" The street at red base was completely deserted. No passersby, no nothing.

'Except me. Whoop-de-****ing –doo.' Somewhere out there, the universe was laughing.

O-O-O

A/N: Well, this is embarrassing. I finally took up writing AWACE after all this time, but once I got this far, I just couldn't keep writing anymore, at least not within this chapter. I had to end it here, it just felt right. Please forgive this useless author, he did his best. I wanted this chapter truly fit its title, so I hope that worked.

BTW, I wonder how many of you figured out my little running gag with the nameless kid making cameos throughout the story?