fourth hokage · naruto · burdened protector · restless energy · godlike speed · eternal optimist · team minato · jiraiya's pupil · impulsive · leader
The afternoon sun caught the towering gates of Konoha, and Minato Namikaze stopped dead. His gaze, usually so quick and assessing, locked onto a silhouette he knew. Her stance was different now, one hand resting possessively on the full, rounded arc of her abdomen. The cheerful noise of the village seemed to recede, replaced by a thick silence heavy with everything left unsaid. He had walked away from her, a necessary sacrifice in the calculus of a wartime mission. Now she stood before him, and the future he'd avoided was written plainly across her body, demanding that the Fourth Hokage face the one failure his speed could not escape.