32 A simple Crush! part-1

{5 days later, Konohagakure}

Minato walked out of the R&D department with a frown on his face, the method of applying seals directly with chakra depends on the mastery of the seal itself. He needed to memorize every characteristic of the seal itself and its function to use this technique mid-combat.

After creating a lot more seals than his quota required, Minato was given the opportunity by Konoha to learn a jutsu from the chunin library. Due to his low chakra reserves, Minato was drawn to Fuinjutsu, and he learned the technique of applying seals on chakra conductive surfaces with just his chakra.

'I might not be able to apply the explosive seals directly on someone's body but it could be applied on their armor or clothes,' Minato thought, he was devising ways to use the jutsu offensively with his current fighting style when he walked into the training ground.

He had mastered the Shadow Fist to a high degree of proficiency, for some reason, the characteristics of the taijutsu perfectly fit his fighting style. He went through a couple of katas on the wood block and noticed the difference in his speed.

'It's just a tiny bit faster again, I should go through the readjustment training.' Minato thought as he walked over to the hurdle course.

'Hmm, something different...' Minato thought as he looked around the training ground, he looked carefully but he didn't find anything peculiar for a while.

'Red...Kushina's not here.' Minato thought and then he frowned, it didn't make sense, they both shared the same goal of becoming Hokage, and although they didn't interact with each other, he was aware of her presence.

'She wouldn't miss extra training. She never has... maybe she's ill.' Minato thought the concern over Kushina distracted him a little as it was a nagging thought at the back of his mind.

After going through the obstacle course and getting hit only once he walked out of the training ground. His progress speed was entirely reliant on his concentration and with the thought of Kushina's wellbeing distracting him, the training wasn't as effective.

'I'll just check up on her and if she's sick maybe bring her a bowl of chicken soup.' Minato smiled as he went out of training mode. 

He had always been able to switch focuses very quickly so with his mind made up he jumped on top of a nearby house and used chakra to hop all the way to the Uzumaki compound.

His thoughts went back to the day Hikaru Uchiha talked about the Uzumaki clan and their proficiency in fuinjutsu. His thoughts wandered as he thought about Kushina sitting in a chair and concentrating on making fuinjutsu.

'Pfft- as if, she would start throwing around stuff in boredom,' Minato chuckled, it was so easy to imagine her annoyed face.

He arrived at the Uzumaki clan compound and his smile vanished, it was quiet. Too quiet for several people living there, he crouched lower and shifted his weight as he got ready for battle. 

'Something's wrong, knowing Kushina if she was sick she would be screaming for the world right now... and it is too quiet.' Minato quickly analyzed as he jumped on a tree and dashed into the compound. 

There were several doors that were closed, but Minato didn't open them as he walked around the compound to find any irregularities. He quickly found one, a door that looked semi-closed, as if it was forgotten about.

He pooled some chakra into his legs and softly landed just outside the doors, he leaned in and placed his ear by the door to listen in but there was no sound coming from in there.

He opened the door and peered in, the room was a small tea room with a table and some sitting arrangements around it. The mug on the table was perfectly placed in the middle, Minato stared at it for a moment and he could see signs of it being knocked over during a struggle.

He knelt down and started scanning the floor for any hints, he quickly found a few strands of broken red hair that were most likely broken in a struggle.

Minato cleared the unnecessary thoughts from his mind as he focused on taking in all the signs, he needed to see just the information right now. There were no signs of chakra usage so no chakra signature was left behind, even when he used chakra to enhance his senses he couldn't hear or smell anything different.

'Kushina's scent is also not in the room even though her hair is...' Minato thought, the conclusion was obvious, he rushed out of the room and jumped to the highest vantage point he could see. For some bizarre reason, the Uzumaki clan compound was at the very edge of the village.

'If someone kidnaped Kushina with the intention of taking her away, with this secluded space no way they would take any other route other than away from the village... I should check if I should find anything before reporting this to Hokage-sama.' Minato thought as he jumped from the rooftop onto the trees and dashed away from Konoha. 

...

The sun was beginning to go down as he kept his eyes peeled on the ground and the trees for any signs left behind. Just when he was about to give up something caught his eye, he saw a lock of red hair lying beside a tree.

'That's Kushina's... so they stopped using tree hopping somewhere around here, that direction is toward the Land of Lightning.' Minato thought as he used chakra to enhance his leg muscles and jumped. He followed along for another couple of kilometers and he saw more locks of hair along the way.

After a while, he couldn't see any more hair at the base of the tree so he stopped and searched, after a while he found another trail but this time it was on the road. Along with that, he found a few traces of blood. He bent down and used chakra to feel around the blood lightly trying to determine how long it had been by feeling its warmth.

'I'm almost 20 minutes behind, I should hurry up.' Minato frowned as he looked at the hair on the ground and the blood. Maybe for the first time, his concern overloaded his logical thinking as he dashed forward.

His thoughts simplified once again as he rushed ahead, first, he needed to find her.

...

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AN- I'm trying to nail down Minato's personality but everyone had so many different answers! Finally, I decided to go with the calm, logical, mission-focused. And a nerd when he was not focusing on a task!

What do you guys think?

P.S- 15 chapters ahead on P.atreon- p.atreon.com/DesMark