Minato was sitting in his office trying to go over all of the new information in his head. He wanted to get Naruto out, but he also knew that he couldn't let Danzo just do whatever he wanted. This is so frustrating! He was thinking to himself as he ended up throwing the papers he was holding off of his desk. Putting his head in his hands he started muttering to himself. "This whole situation is crazy. What could Danzo be planning? Is Naruto actually okay? Man, I am so stressed out right now..."

Just as he was starting to get into a small argument with himself, Minato suddenly heard a hard knock on his door. He quickly cleaned up the mess he had made before focusing himself and calling in the visitor.

"Lord Fourth Hokage." Danzo spoke up with a pretentious tone to his voice.

"Lord Danzo, what can I do for you?" Minato narrowed his eyes slightly at the man standing in front of him. He knew that he didn't trust this man at all, but for the sake of appearances, he had to speak as he normally would.

"I have been informed that you went to visit the boy in prison, Lord Hokage." Danzo was about to continue before he was interrupted by Minato.

"I did. I went to find out what had happened while he was missing." He had a hint of venom in his voice, but was trying hard to hold it back. "As Hokage I will not blindly accuse someone of a crime. I will work to ascertain any facet of the truth."

"I see." Danzo was trying to act impartial as he spoke. "And what, may I ask, did he mention? I assume you questioned him thoroughly."

Minato knew that he had to be extremely cautious with what he disclosed to Danzo. In order to seem as though he was releasing tension in the air, Minato released a heavy sigh before continuing. "All he remembered was Madara mind-controlling him." As he said this, he noticed Danzo relax ever so slightly; something he would have missed had it not been for his already cautious state.

"I assume you are going to interrogate him some more? It may just be a trick in order to get out. We can't risk the lives of everyone in the village over our own emotions."

"I have already taken that into account, Lord Danzo. I will have Inoichi take a look into his mind to see if what he said was true."

"Are you confident in Inoichi's ability, Lord Hokage? I know many that would do a fine job."

Minato knew that he had gotten under Danzo's skin. He wants one of his own men to do the interrogation so that he can either put false blame on Naruto, or to make sure that his name isn't brought up at all. Probably both at the same time. Minato was inwardly smirking at himself, knowing that he wasn't fooled by the man in front of him. "No need to worry. I have total trust in Inoichi and in his abilities." I also trust that he won't lie to me.

"Very well." Danzo gave a curt nod to Minato. "I will take my leave then, Lord Hokage. I expect we will talk again shortly."

Minato didn't say anything as he watched Danzo walk out of the door. It wasn't until he was absolutely sure that Danzo had left the building that he decided to call Inoichi. He wasn't about to waste anymore time when he knew that time was already short.

* * * * * *

"So what do you plan on doing once you get out of here, Naruto?" Naruto was sitting in his mindscape talking to Kurama to pass the time. He would never admit it, but he was bored out of his mind.

"I'm going after Madara, that's what I'm doing." Naruto held a fist in front of him with a determined look on his face. "I know from when Obito talked about him, that he is getting to the last of his strength now, and after that 'stunt' he pulled with me, he is going to be weak. It should be easy to take him out now."

Kurama was just shaking his head at Naruto. He didn't know how this kid had so much energy in him. "Listen you brat, just because he may be weaker, doesn't mean it will be easy. Are you forgetting about that Zetsu guy? You need to take him out as well, or else this mess will never truly be over."

Naruto suddenly stopped after he heard what Kurama had said. "Crap! Yeah I did totally forget about him!"

"Well then before charging in halfcocked like you always do; sit down and make a plan. We have the time."

Naruto just ignored Kurama's slight insult as he laid down in the grass. Yeah well we tried to make a plan last time and look how that turned out... He was thinking to himself as he laid there. And Madara is nearly dead anyways, and Zetsu isn't much of a fighter, and they don't have the numbers now... Naruto suddenly shot up from where he was, startling Kurama. "Screw it, Kura! That bastard is going down NOW!"

Naruto was now awake and was sitting inside of his cell again when he heard Kurama's voice in his head. "What's the plan, Kit?"

"There isn't one, Kura. He's already weak, so I'm just going to beat the crap out of him." Before Naruto could do anything else, he heard footsteps walking towards his cell. When he looked up to see who was there he was greeted with an impassive face. "Oh, hey Inoichi."

Inoichi wasted no time in entering the cell to speak with Naruto. But after being informed by Minato somewhat about Danzo, he knew he had to be careful about the men that were close and obviously listening in on them. "Hello Naruto. I assume you already know why I'm here?"

Naruto just simply nodded as Inoichi walked up to him and placed his hand on his forehead; the next thing he knew, he was back in his own mind with Inoichi standing right next to him. "Inoichi, I'm so sorry for what I did..."

"Don't worry about it, kid." Inoichi's lips tilted slightly in a small smile. "I know it wasn't your fault."

"So then, what are we doing then?" He was so confused as to what was going on.

"Minato wanted me to take a look at your memories from when you were taken. He suspects that there are going to be missing pieces; it's my job to confirm that theory. Plus we can have this conversation without being listened in on."

Naruto nodded along with Inoichi's explanation. "Alright, sounds good to me. Let's get going!"

Inoichi nodded and then both he and Naruto began to make their way through his memories until they reached the point where Madara had taken him. They watched as Naruto passed out and was carried down hallways and eventually taken deep below where they had originally been and then was dropped onto a hard stone table.

"Ouch..." Inoichi commented on how hard Naruto was dropped. "That's gotta hurt."

"HAHA!" Naruto started laughing at the spontaneity of his comment. "Probably did. Good thing I was out of it!" The two of them continued to laugh for a little bit before settling back down to watch the memory play out.

They continued to watch all of the events play out, up until Madara sent Naruto out on his "missions."

After a long time of silence, Inoichi finally spoke up. "I'm sorry you had to go through all of this Naruto."

Naruto just shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly. "Don't worry about it. Lots of people have a rough life. I'll gladly carry all the hate and problems in order to make everyone's future better."

Inoichi stared at Naruto, shocked at his answer. "You're strong for your age. Most people wouldn't think like that, you know."

"Yeah, I know." Naruto's voice turned sad as he continued to speak. "But I've seen too many deaths and lost too many people. People's hate for each other and their refusal to try and understand people different from themselves is the reason for all of these useless wars. So I will gladly have my life be painful if it means everyone else can be happy and safe."

"You think like a Hokage. You are very smart for someone your age." Inoichi continued to be shocked by Naruto and his view on things.

"Well it is my dream to be Hokage one day!" Naruto had a big smile on his face at the praise. "But I only know this because of people I have known in the past. Experience is all I have."

Inoichi nodded along to all that he said, really taking it all in before he responded. "Minato was right to trust you. Though he was always good at judging people's characters."

"Thanks!"

The memories were starting to slow down now, and they were getting to when Naruto woke up in the cell after the fight and talking to Kushina. As they watched though, everything seemed to turn black, as if the memory was taken away, but the imprint of it was still there. That's weird... Inoichi was thinking this to himself. There were other moments like this in the cave too; where parts were blacked out, but definitely not this noticeable.

Suddenly the memory came back, but it was of Minato coming in, so once they knew that they were done looking, the memories stopped playing all together and they were left in silence within Naruto's mind.

"What was that weird black memory? It feels like I should remember what was there; like it was really important." Naruto stared at Inoichi waiting for a response.

"It's because something should be there, but it looks like it was removed. There were other smaller moments like this in the cave with Madara, but it was only a slight change."

"What does it all mean?"

"Well, considering Minato told me to watch out for this, I have a feeling he knows a lot more about it then either of us could hope to know. So we'll just have to wait and ask him. For now, let's get back to reality."

"Yeah, alright." Naruto just nodded in agreement and before he knew it, they were back in the dark cell.

"Alright Naruto, I can easily see that you were indeed being controlled, and that it wasn't your fault you attacked any of the villages. I'll talk to the Hokage about getting you out of here soon." Inoichi spoke up, making sure that the guards could easily hear him.

Naruto was able to catch on to what he was doing, and trying to suppress a snicker he replied. "Yeah, alright. No problem."

Inoichi was standing up getting ready to leave when he heard Naruto whisper quietly to him so only he could hear.

"Tell Minato not to worry about me, and that I'll be back before he knows it."

Not really knowing what he meant, he just nodded his head, silently letting Naruto know that he had heard him and he made his way out of the cell and headed directly over to speak with Minato about what he had seen.

Naruto watched Inoichi walk away, and once the sound of footsteps stopped he spoke to Kurama. "Alright Kura, let's get the hell out of here and stop Madara. I hope you're ready."

"You brat, I'm always ready!"

"Let's go!" They both shouted together as they gathered their chakra. They were ready to get of that stupid cell.

* * * * * *

Minato was sitting back in his chair as he waited for Inoichi to come back from seeing Naruto. He knew that Inoichi wouldn't let him down, but he was still anxious to know any information. It had been close to an hour now and Inoichi still hadn't come back yet. Minato was getting more and more worried and was about to head over to see what was going on when he suddenly heard a knock on his door. After signaling that whoever it was could come in, he was relieved to see who it was in the doorway. "Inoichi, it's good to see that you are done."

"Yes, well, I've got a lot to tell you." Inoichi hinted slightly that he needed to have a private conversation with him, and so, the two of them began to put seals around the room until they knew nobody would overhear them.

"Now, what did you find out?" Minato was eager to get straight to the point.

Inoichi began to tell him everything that he saw, and bits of Naruto's memory did in fact seem to be erased, just like Minato said. He even told them about the small conversation they had and Minato smiled thinking about how strong Naruto was, physically, mentally and emotionally.

"Thank you for doing that for me Inoichi. I wouldn't trust anyone but you."

"Don't worry about it, but you owe me a drink now."

Minato chuckled and was about to respond when Inoichi spoke up once more.

"Oh, before I forget. Naruto wanted me to pass a message on to you."

Minato was shocked to hear that Naruto had sent a message, but he was pleased, and he nodded his head, motioning for him to continue.

"He said not to worry about him and that he'll be back before you know it."

Minato was confused about what the message could mean. He was about to ask Inoichi if he knew when all of a sudden they heard an explosion. "What was that?!" Minato ran to his window to see that a trail of smoke was trailing up into the air from where the prison was. "That came from where Naruto is!"

"Well at least we know what his message meant now." Inoichi was amused at what was happening. He was about to say more when they suddenly heard someone pounding on the door.

Both Minato and Inoichi quickly broke the seal around the room and opened the door, revealing a frazzled looking guard. Minato was the first to jump in, questioning the guard. "What happened?!"

"L-lord Hokage! I'm s-sorry, but... Naruto has escaped sir!"