The three "models" he'd chosen had broken out of their roles and were discussing things, hesitating to approach himself or the reunited family for different reasons.
Ah, just what he expected. The Fourth Hokage was leaving the mother and child clinging session to approach him. "Yes?"
"You... pulled me out of the belly of the shinigami, and resurrected both of us?" asked Minato.
"Yes and no," responded Toltiir. "This game show setup is suspended in time and space, an area between life and death. It was the simplest way to do it without having to chase down too many repercussions. Neither you nor your wife are currently alive. Naruto is."
"Oh, so this is some sort of temporary thing," said Minato.
"Yes," said Toltiir. "I'm considering adding a couple of his friends as contestants. What do you think?"
"He has friends then?" asked Minato, looking relieved.
"No, not really, if you mean it like traditional friends," said Toltiir. "Most of the village shuns and hates him, mistaking him for the fox and treating him like a pariah."
"They do what?" asked Minato.
"Oh, and Jiraiya is fulfilling his godfather duties - mainly as far from the village as possible acting like a harmless lech and writer of porn," added Toltiir, willing to tell the truth and thereby increase certain chaos.
"Oh, is that so?" asked Minato.
"Why yes," said Toltiir. "As a matter of fact, Naruto can tell you how he recently had a near-death experience because his ANBU guards decided that 'watching' him meant not getting involved when a mob decided to vent upon him."
"I... think maybe I should talk to Naruto," said Minato, his eyes narrowed and a certain tenseness in his jaw.
"He does, however, have the ear of the Third Hokage, who likes him and generally treats him as a somewhat mischievious grandchild that he tries to make time for," noted Toltiir. "Then also - there's Hinata."
"Hinata?" asked Minato, really wanting something happy to focus on since he WAS technically dead and not able to do much.
"Hinata Hyuga, an underconfident girl with severe self-image problems, but who does like your son and would be his friend if she could bring herself to actually talk to him for any length of time," explained Toltiir.
"Oh? Shy girl? A Hyuga?" asked Minato, trying to reconcile shy+Hyuga.
"Yes, which is one of the reasons she has such problems with the rest of her clan," said Toltiir. "Alas, after the questions and answers are through - Naruto will only get one more wish."
"Wish?" asked Minato.
"Oh yes, I'm quite capable of granting any number of wishes to the boy," said the cat-being. "If he were to wish for incredible wealth, or mastery of some jutsu, or his would-be girlfriend to get over her shyness problem, or almost anything, I could do it."
"I see," said Minato, looking over the creature. "Just a moment, I need to talk a bit with Naruto."
"No problem," said Toltiir, making a few changes in the ninja world outside the space-time bubble because he thought they might have amusing consequences. Hmmm. That was odd. Why was Haku a girl? Was it a ripple or just a change that he hadn't remembered making? Oh, well, it didn't seem to make much difference. There really ought to be more kunoichi with bloodlines around anyway.
Ah, the 'models' he'd recruited were now approaching him. They knew WHY they were here, and they knew HOW they were here - he'd been polite enough to make it an offer to some deceased spirits after all. That meant they were approaching him with some other concern while waiting for Naruto's emotional equilibrium to recover enough for them to continue.
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(Posted Tue, 13 Jul 2010 04:43)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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