Warnings: Still just language.

Summary: Naruto has always wanted to follow in his father's footsteps and become Hokage, but this wasn't exactly how it was supposed to happen. Now, the only thing he wants is to have his father back...and his own body.

Setting: Canonverse - AU timeline, Yondaime survived Kyuubi sealing, Sasuke never left. Team 7 are roughly nineteen years old.

Pairings/Characters: NaruSasu, YonKaka (plus other Rookie 9, Jiraiya, Tsunade throughout series; also, name order is irrelevant)

Forget the Sun, pt. 5
by vernajast

yondaime x kakashi, naruto x sasuke, others

~*~

Eventually, Tsunade was forced to eject Sasuke and Kakashi from the hospital room and into the sterile corridor. They both spent the next hour alternately glaring at the walls and thinking too much.

Occasionally, Sasuke would mutter something about Naruto not needing to be involved, and how dare they, and what the hell were they doing. He would stomp his foot like a petulant child and huff and then go back to glaring.

Kakashi was quieter, but then that had always been the case. Minato used to complain when he was younger and tease him into conversation, but they had grown to enjoy the companionable silences that sometimes hung between them, comfortable just being together. Now he damned himself for not being able to make proper small talk to distract Sasuke from what he half-suspected was happening on the other side of the door. He had a feeling he knew exactly what they were doing, and while he was almost sure Naruto would take it well enough once he understood, he was just as sure Minato would not. Assuming Minato ever regained enough presence of mind to care.

Sakura came out at some point to sit on one of the cushioned benches, and she watched her teammates with equal parts sympathy and worry while trying to offer some kind of support.

Inside, Tsunade checked the vital signs of the four unconscious shinobi and paced.

Looked out the window.

Paced.

There was little else to be done until the Yamanakas awoke and proclaimed the 'operation' a success, and she didn't want to think about what success entailed just yet. One problem at a time.

~*~

The inside of Naruto's head was a lot emptier than the last time Ino had tried to enter it. Once before, she had glimpsed the inner tunnels that housed the Kyuubi, and, coupled with Sasuke and Naruto's past descriptions, she had thought she had a rough idea of what to expect. However, instead of a watery sewer-like dungeon, Naruto's mind was as empty as Minato-sama's had been.

She didn't have time to think about why; they were cutting it close. The soul she held clasped to her chest began to shiver and pulse, and she released it as it slowly began to push back the darkness, growing and stretching to fill up the space, the emptiness. She smiled because it really wasn't very different from the man himself, a bright light, a beacon.

Then suddenly there was only blackness, and Ino was completely unprepared for the sudden sensation of being hurled from out of his body like the slamming of a door.

~*~

"Ino, hey..."

...someone...

"Ino, wake up now, baby." Her father's voice was extra stern, and like a tow rope, it dragged her back to consciousness. "Don't scare me like that!" He yanked her up to his chest and kissed her head, and only when he'd stopped mumbling soothing words did she notice the silence that surrounded them.

She leaned back to look at her father, trying to remain professional. "What happened? Did it work?"

"Did what work? The fuck...my head hurts, baa-chan." Minato sat up in bed, rubbing his eyes. "Hey, Ino-chan, where's Sasuke? If that bastard got bored and left, I'll--what?"

Ino was staring at him, wide eyed and frozen in place. "Marks..."

"Yo, what's wrong? And why am I in bed now? Hey, Dad?"

"Naruto, no!" But it was too late. Minato...Naruto crawled to the end of the bed, straining his IV leash to peer down at the body lying on the floor. A jounin vest was rolled up and shoved under the man's head and Tsunade sat on the ground beside him, holding his hand. His hand.

That was his own body lying there, except obviously it wasn't. Right?

It took a long moment of scrutiny to figure out why his face looked so weird, and when he finally pinned down the difference, he brought slender fingers up to brush his cheek. The whisker-like marks that proclaimed his jinchuuriki status were there, so that couldn't be his body lying on the floor.

"Give me a mirror." No one moved. "Give me a fucking mirror!"

Ino's hands fumbled for her compact, and she tossed it onto the bed within Naruto's reach.

Shaking hands opened it, but Naruto nearly dropped it when he caught sight of his face. His dad's face. "What the HELL?" It was Minato's voice with Naruto's unique inflection, something new altogether. He slapped a hand over his mouth.

"The village needs you," Tsunade said, cold and professional, as if that explained everything. "It was the only way to--"

Naruto dropped his hand—his dad's hand??—and shook his head. "No. Just..." He could feel panic closing in. His soul and its new container were not yet synchronized, and he could feel the fox moving around in there as if trying to get comfortable. Or testing for weak points. He thought he might throw up. "Where's Sasuke?"

As if summoned by his name, Sasuke rushed through the door, immediately dropping to Naruto's side. On the floor.

Kakashi followed, but hesitated, his Sharingan scrutinizing the two bodies when something seemed very wrong. Calmly, he walked over to Sasuke, who seemed to just be staring at Naruto's unconscious face, and tapped him on the shoulder.

"What?!"

"Sasuke, stand up." It was an order; it required immediate compliance.

"What the hell, Kakashi. I--" A glare thrown at the man on the bed stole the retort from his lips as he eyed the whisker-marked cheeks and familiar expression situated on the wrong face. Silently, Sasuke rose from the floor, his Sharingan slipping out at the last minute as he tentatively moved over to the Hokage's bedside. "Naruto...?"

"Yeah, it's me in here." He reached out for Sasuke's hand. The moment of hesitation before Sasuke took it felt like a lifetime.

Across the room, a painfully familiar voice asked, "Where am I? I seem to have forgotten...again..."

TBC