Disclaimer: I do not own anything. Naruto and all its rights are owned Masashi Kishimoto.
'I have made a mistake' thought Minato Namikaze, the Yondaime Hokage as he awoke in his hospital bed a cold feeling in his chest.
'I had meant to die with half the Kyubi's chakra sealed within me. What had gone wrong?'
That was the dominant question that pervaded Minato's mind as he tried to gauge what had exactly happened. He had remembered summoning the altar in preparation to seal the Kyuubi still trapped by his beloved wife's chakra. He had made the seals to summon the Shinigami and then what?
He did not know
He should have been gripped by fear, uncertainty, and terror; however he only felt cold. It mattered little now as he needed to find out what had occurred during the sealing. What had went wrong and why was he still alive? These were the questions that needed answering first. Minato felt through his charka all the hirashin seals and immediately sent himself to the one he had placed on Naruto. He appeared in a flash and was surprised at what he saw. Three babies were laying in Naruto's crib.
Three children
It was also at this startling revelation that he took notice of his surroundings. He was in a secret hideout within the village created and utilized by the Sandaime. The room was bare of all things, except Naruto's crib, the room completely plain though he knew there was a lot more to this hideout than what he saw as even from within its depths he keep feel the strength of the seals hiding them from the outside world. He also noticed a rather solemn Hiruzen Sarutobi,the previous hokage, dressed in his white robes, though it should be expected that he would be solemn after the recent deaths of both their wives.
"Minato-kun what have you done?" asked the Hiruzen, breaking Minato out of his reverie. That wasn't a good sign. If the Hiruzen was asking him then there was little hope of either of them finding out the answers they needed. "Minato what did you do?" repeated the Hiruzen.
"I do not know. I was trying to summon the Shinigami to seal the Kyuubi but after I formed the last seal my memory ends." states Minato. The Hiruzen looks unsurprised by this and with a sigh asks Minato another question.
"What were you thinking at the moment you formed the last seal?" Minato was surprised by the question. Shouldn't it be obvious? He had been thinking of sealing the Kyuubi by summoning the Shinigami of course. Hiruzen sees the surprise that flashes across Minato's face and reiterates his question. "Minato, what was the desire you held in your heart when you attempted the summoning?" This question led Minato into even more confusion; however he knew the answer before he even had to think.
"I had wanted to save my son and make him strong enough to defeat the enemies I could not." Not the best answer for a parent to have as a wish for their child, but it was true nonetheless. Hiruzen took a moment to absorb his answer and masked his emotions carefully.
"Minato-kun, the summoning jutsu for the Shinigami is a fickle thing. To be more precise it summons beings of god-like power to this world in exchange for your life the god will provide a service. Just. One. Service. If you summon the Shinigami it will take the soul, or souls, of your opponent given enough chakra, however you must give up your own soul as compensation. If your desire was to give your son strength, by sealing the Kyuubi into him then…" Hiruzen trailed off as he braced himself. "You would have had to summon something greater than the Shinigami itself. A being that could provide more than one service and who would have demanded a different compensation." Before Minato could even absorb this new information Hiruzen pulled out a mirror from within his robes and showed him his own reflection. What he saw was not his face.
It was not him. This face was not the same as Minato Namikaze.
It was a handsome face no doubt. Very similar to the one he used to have; however there were minor differences in the structure that only he would see however this was not what disturbed him. His tan skin was shock white, his sunlight hair now an abyssal black, his normal cerulean eyes had been changed into a piercing gold, and his face was gaunt to an absurd degree, he could see all the bones in face shifting as he moved. This was not the face of a human, and if this is what his face looked like then his body…
"Whatever you summoned has changed you from a human into something… else. I do not know the details. When you finished the jutsu the area within Kushina-chan's barrier flashed a brilliant light and the next thing I knew you were laying there already changed with three children in your arms and Kushina's body lying nearby. I did check and it seems that you were successful in sealing half the Kyuubi into Naruto; however where the other half went and the details of your compensation for summoning this being are things I do not know as well." Minato looked at the children and saw his own son, softly crying, and the seal on his stomach slowly fading away, and started at the appearance of the other two children. One had eyes as red as the Kyuubi's without the slit and hair like fire, and the other having eyes and hair the color a mix of liquid metal the silver of the moon. Their names appeared in his mind Kentorom and Landon respectively, though from where he knew this he did not know.
"The other two children, where did they come from?" Minato asked Hiruzen and was met with silence. To be expected no last name and no origin, though children do not appear from thin air their presence, though unexpected, was not unsurprising compared to everything else. When Minato finally looks at Hiruzen, Hiruzen had regained his composure.
"Minato-kun, though I know this is a lot to take in; the village is in need of their leader. They need you Minato. Your son needs you. Now more than ever to get through this tragedy and to make sure our enemies do not try and pounce on this opportunity. You are their Hokage an-"
"No" Minato nearly gasped as he felt a presence over take him.
"What do you mean 'no' Minato?" Hiruzen asks, shocked by the sudden reply. Minato took a moment. He stared as the children contemplatively. He then attempted to place his hand on his son and was stopped by…something. A single thought as if written into his mind appeared.
'You are now bound by the power of this contract for all eternity'
"I must leave Sarutobi-sama. I can no longer be the Hokage of this village, nor can I be a father to any of these children. Give Naruto his mother's name to protect him. The children's names are", he pointed to the red haired child," Kentorom and Landon", he finished pointing at the silver-haired child. "Give them any surname you deem fit. Farewell" Minato stated as he prepared his chakra to teleport away.
"Minato, why are you doing this? Why are you running away so hastily?" Yelled Hiruzen, shocked and outraged by this reply.
"It's simple," said Minato with a blank look, "I am bound to the contract." With these last words Minato Namikzae disappeared, before the rage and despair of the Sandaime, without a single trace.
Hiruzen waited in silence for a while collecting himself, quickly forming a plan. Then, he set out, for he needed to contact Danzo and Root as he needed them for this single instance. Minato Namikaze, the Yondaime Hokage, had died during the sealing of the Kyuubi, and anyone who knew otherwise needed to be silenced. He silently mourned for the loss of the medics, ANBU, and their families who were unfortunate enough to know information that no longer existed; however Konoha must survive at any cost, and the information of the Yondaime's survival needed to be nonexistent. It would be easy, in the wake of the Kyuubi attack many would die of the demonic chakra poisoning in the coming days; a few more will go unnoticed. He was, after all a true Hokage, a shadow touched by light but steeped in darkness.