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Prologue
A Father's Influence
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Namikaze Minato, the Yellow Flash as named for his amazing technique to walk through time and space, was running late.
The chuunin in front of him—Tsutomu Motoyuki—was currently reiterating what exactly had happened in their B turned A rank mission. His report was to the point but excruciatingly exhaustive. It had been immediately obvious that everyone was alright and the enemies had been taken care of. All that was needed now was to finalize the details and for the Hokage to decide how to deal with the aftermath of the situation.
In fifteen minutes, his son would be graduating from the Academy. Tsutomu's account, on the other hand, didn't seem to be coming to a close any time soon.
Minato honestly wished that the man would just hurry it up. And, as soon as he had that thought, Minato regretted it.
His son's graduation ceremony was not more important than what this chuunin was reporting, especially so considering that he was Hokage now and his interests had to be towards Konoha first. Plus, the chuunin was trying his best. Minato had no right to stomp on his efforts.
He waited it out patiently, though near the end he was increasingly finding his teeth grinding firmly together. He relaxed his jaw with supreme effort.
Finally—finally!—the chuunin finished. As much as he wanted to leave with a quick 'thank you for your report' and a flash to the Academy, Minato instead stayed and praised Tsutomu for the quick thinking which allowed him to save his squad.
Tsutomu, ever professional, only bowed. But Minato could see the beaming pleasure in the lower ranked nin's eyes as he exited.
Minato waited a second for any more last minute appointments. When none came, he raced out of the office. Fortunately, he had the Academy tagged and it only took one Flying Thunder God technique for him to land at the gates.
Unfortunately, he'd arrived in his Hokage robes.
"It's the Yondaime!"
"What seriously? Hokage-sama's here?!"
"Yondaime-sama!"
A crowd of parents, who had previously been chatting enthusiastically with the Academy teachers, were now turning with the proclamations of the the Hokage's appearance. Even the students, young and rowdy as they were, hastily pulled off bows. Minato's eyes found Naruto immediately, who beamed at him. It was then that shinobi and civilian alike swarmed up to their Yondaime, preventing Minato from running off.
When he had sealed the Kyuubi, it had left him in a condition which did not allow him to much affect the world. It was only about a year ago that he had regained his full strength. By then he had mostly moved on from the allure of the office and had simply wanted to raise his child in peace. The Sandaime was only growing older however, and in the end Minato could not ignore the village. Having almost lost their Yondaime once, the villagers seemed to practically cling to him now—or perhaps he had simply grown more sensitive to it.
"Are you here to make a speech, Hokage-sama?" somebody asked.
The idea gained traction. It was decided that it was utterly brilliant and gracious that the Hokage would come himself to encourage the new graduates and inspire them. They all cheered.
Minato smiled awkwardly back at them.
There had been a time where he'd lived for moments like this. The cries of enthusiasm always sounded like music to his ears, because it was from the people of a village that he could call his. As a child and beyond it showed him a village united that he could be a part of, a village alive with the will of fire. When he'd become Hokage, cheers also took on the meaning that he was doing well in his post, that he was doing something right and hopefully not tarnishing the name of his predecessors.
He still did feel that way.
He loved Konoha with all his heart and felt deeply that they might feel the same towards him. He desperately did want to be that man that could keep the village in its era of prominence.
He just didn't want it right at this moment.
In the midst of the cheering crowds, Minato found his eyes straying to his son, who although looked proud at the fans his father gathered, also looked far too sad for the wonderful day this was. Minato's heart went out to him. It wasn't fair, this.
Today was supposed to be Naruto's graduation day. It was not supposed to be about his idiot father.
"Ah… well."
Still, he could not refuse the citizens when they had so sincerely asked him for an address. Minato cleared his throat, and motioned for everyone to take a step back. They did so, eyes brimming with enthusiasm. Minato couldn't help but smile.
He gave an impromptu speech. Despite the fact he had not prepared, he was fortunately able to weave his words together into something that wasn't an embarrassment. I think, he thought with some amusement and an inward roll of his eyes, that Sarutobi-san would have a heart attack if he knew how much I actually winged my addresses to the public.
After the speech was given, the interest in him thankfully died down. Minato saw quite a few shinobi parents who had quietly pulled the civilian ones aside, and mentally thanked them for their consideration.
Smiling brightly, he turned towards the direction he had last seen Naruto.
A few girls had gathered around Naruto to discuss something or another with him. One even leaned down to tug on his cheek. From Naruto's rapidly reddening face, Minato cheerfully decided it was something he should leave his son to finish first.
He went to find one of Naruto's Academy instructors instead.
Umino Iruka's eyes widened in utter surprise when he spotted Minato coming his way. Discreetly the shinobi teacher looked around, as if trying to figure out whom the Yondaime could possibly be interested in.
Minato smiled. Iruka was one of the few instructors that Minato liked. Although the homeroom chuunin did not treat Naruto with warmth exactly, he was fair and not out to get Naruto.
When Iruka had realized that Naruto was ahead of his peers, he reacted accordingly and left Naruto to his own devices and only really called on him when it was necessary to demonstrate for the rest of the class. Naruto had a bad relationship with most of his teachers, a fault of which was solely Minato's to shoulder, but to Umino-sensei at least, Naruto held genuine respect.
There were some others that Naruto mentioned liking, but Iruka was his homeroom teacher, and thus Minato reasoned, the one likely to have the most accurate assessment on Naruto's last year in the Academy.
"Hello," Minato said merrily as he stopped a few feet away from the harried looking instructor.
There was one last frantic look around. Seeing no one else, Iruka bowed deeply, his voice a murmur of respect, "Hokage-sama."
"None of that, since I'm just here as a parent. Minato's fine," the blond said with an easy grin on his face. It was half amused, and half melancholic. Nobody ever took him up on that offer. "I wanted to know, since you were the primary instructor for his class, how has my son been doing?"
The smile that spread across the chuunin's face was genuine. Iruka straightened then, and seemed to relax.
"He's very impressive," the scarred man said with an exasperated glance in Naruto's direction. One of the girls had latched onto Naruto's arm and he was trying discreetly to pull away. "But I'm sure you already know that. Not everybody graduates at age nine, and I don't think I'd be wrong in assuming that he could have graduated even earlier if he wanted?"
Minato shook his head wryly, not altogether surprised by the man's insight. Minato hadn't exactly encouraged Naruto not to show off during his time in the Academy, although he did warn against anything excessive.
"I didn't want him to become shinobi so early," Minato explained. There wasn't really a need to. He was Hokage and nobody could really question him, and besides which he was sure that Iruka had already guessed. But there was something that was gratifying about acting this role of a normal parent clearing up their actions to the teacher.
"And why now?" Iruka asked curiously. "This is hardly much later than when he was say, seven."
Minato grimaced.
A few months ago he had been reinstated as Hokage, not able to put it off any longer, and the years of transactions had caught up with him. It was only a day in before he remembered how much work it'd all been, and although the Sandaime had been prepping him, Minato still found himself overwhelmed.
He did somewhat catch the hang of it again, but the work was still so much that he often did not arrive home until very late at night. It'd been hard on Naruto especially, who'd grown up with Minato always being around. Quite suddenly, his father just wasn't there anymore. Naruto didn't say anything of course, because he was a good kid like that, but Minato could tell it made him sad.
It was almost enough for Minato to give up the whole Hokage thing. Achieving the title had been his childhood dream, but it hadn't felt the same ever since Kushina died. The only thing stopping him from leaving was that he knew Konoha needed him now more than ever.
So he'd done the next best thing. Naruto had been asking if he could graduate because the Academy was honestly boring for him, and Minato had finally let it happen.
He was as leery as any other parent about letting their child out into the real world, but Naruto had proven himself with that travel trip to the Land of Flowers. Mostly Minato hoped that by giving Naruto something to do with his spare time and teammates that would become the best of friends, Naruto wouldn't feel like he was being left behind.
"Naruto wants to become shinobi," Minato gave instead. He shrugged, and a helpless little smile spread across his features. "I can't refuse him. But, there were a few things I wanted him to learn first."
It wasn't a lie. After that disastrous trip to the Land of Flowers, where Naruto nearly died on what should have been a vacation, Minato wasn't taking any chances. He wanted to be sure that his son had at least mastered Summoning and the Body Flicker before venturing outside of Konoha again. It should at allow Naruto to escape should he encounter any S-class missing nin again.
"I see," Iruka smiled. Minato smiled back. Maybe the Academy teacher did see. He was a pretty astute one.
They talked about a few more things: Naruto's behaviour in class ("Stellar really. He's of great assistance to me, always mediating and helping the other students. Well, except when he gets into fights with Sasuke-kun."), his grades ("Sometimes I end up learning things from his tests. Other times… well, he can be a bit careless."), and his relationships ("Ah, well, I'm afraid he doesn't seem to have any close friends—yes, he speaks about Kabuto-kun all the time. I haven't taught him personally, but I've heard great things about him from my friends at the hospital."). Finally Naruto seemed to extract himself from the clutches of the pre-teen girls and Minato said goodbye to the well mannered Academy instructor.
"Dad!" Naruto greeted happily. Minato wisely decided that the relief on his son's features existed solely because he missed his father that much. It had nothing to do with now having an excuse to avoid more girls.
"Hey, Naruto," Minato grinned, placing a hand on Naruto's hair and giving it a fierce ruffle. "Congratulations on passing!"
Naruto rolled his eyes, "As if that was ever in question."
The bright smile on his face told Minato otherwise. His son was pleased.
"Let's go home, shall we?" Minato offered, his grin turning into something more gentle.
"Yeah," Naruto nodded. Together, they walked out of the Academy grounds. Just before they hit the village proper however, Minato paused.
"Oh, almost forgot," he muttered to himself, putting his fingers together in a quick seal. He layered a quick genjutsu which subtly encouraged people not to pay attention to him or his companion. "Transform!"
A few poofs of smoke later and the Hokage of Konoha was sporting a blue cap and some indistinguishable clothes. He even had a large scarf wrapped around the lower part of his face to hide his features. Minato glanced at the nearest reflective surface and frowned at the fact that he looked like a complete creeper— but small sacrifices.
Naruto actually stopped and stared. "You… look like Jiraiya-jiji. When he's staking out the bathhouses."
Minato actually grimaced at that. They began walking again. "Well, at least it means people are less likely to approach me."
Naruto's hand reached out. He grabbed hold of Minato's own, who returned it with a squeeze. The smaller blond's voice was a little choked, "Dad…"
The villagers never failed to greet Minato when he entered the streets of Konoha. Minato never failed to greet them back and ask after their welfare. It made what should have been five minute long journeys into half hour ones. It made Minato the most beloved Hokage that Konoha ever had.
It also made it incredibly difficult for whoever happened to be with him at the time. His son always met those situations with grace, and was sometimes pulled into the conversations, but Minato didn't think he should have to today. He smiled. "It's your day, Naruto."
Naruto flushed, looking down. "I haven't really become genin yet, you know."
Minato gave his son a look of fond exasperation. The second exam after graduating from the academy was supposed to be a secret. But between Kakashi's complaints about all the teams he had to fail and Jiraiya's rambling stories about his old teammates, it was hard for Naruto not to figure it out.
"I'm sure you'll pass," Minato said without a hint of doubt in his voice.
And then he considered it, because jounin were often… eccentric, for lack of a better term. Even so, they all respected the Yondaime, and he knew that all would feel the pressure of passing the Yondaime's son. It wasn't to say that they would purposefully flub their tests, but there would definitely be a subconscious bias in favour of Naruto. As such, Minato had decided on a sensei who really didn't care about social obligations and rank. Naruto's abilities were not in question, but the genin tests were not always about ability alone.
"Well," Minato amended as they stepped into the busy streets of Konoha and nobody gave them more than a confounded glance, "even if you don't pass, I'll still celebrate your early graduation. It's not everyone who's able to do that, you know."
It was true. Graduating before the age of twelve was strongly discouraged during peace times, and only truly exceptional geniuses were allowed the attempt. Clan pressures and the Hokage's recommendation could influence the decision, but Minato hadn't done any of that for Naruto.
Naruto's shoulders slumped. They passed by the fruit stands, where merchants were chatting happily with those who frequented their wares. "That sounds like a consolation prize."
"It isn't really," Minato insisted. "Even I didn't graduate early. I'm very proud of you."
Naruto heaved a great sigh, "You've taught me so much I can't not see myself doing alright, but the genin tests are team based, aren't they? Let me have it, who's on my team? With my luck it'll be a Nara and a Shimura."
Minato parted his lips to answer automatically, before snapping his mouth shut. He blinked down at the smaller blond incredulously. The devious little—
Minato crossed his arms and shook his head in bemusement, "Your team, Naru-chan? The last I checked you weren't the jounin-sensei."
Naruto peeked up from behind blond bangs. When he saw that the jig was up, he huffed, shedding the cloak of insecurity with ease. He raised his chin, meeting Minato's amused gaze with his entertained one. Off to the side, a child started crying, but his mother quickly shushed him.
"It might as well be," Naruto teased, "since I'll be the one who'll bring the team any fame. They'll be nothing without me!"
Minato didn't bother holding back this time. He threw back his head and laughed.
"Sooo," Naruto prodded, inserting just the slightest hint of a whine in his voice. "Who'd you choose? Who? I'm going to find out tomorrow anyway, so all you're doing in persisting to hide this non-vital information from me is prolonging how long I'll bother you for."
Naruto knew how shinobi team placements worked. Clan members and especially promising students were usually grouped together, and despite the proclamations of fairness, they were the ones who were expected to pass. In some ways it couldn't be helped, because they would always have a resource the civilians simply didn't, and that extended to their shinobi lives as well.
That was not to say that those teams were sure to pass, because the jounin sensei chosen could potentially be a wild one and decide that the academy students simply weren't ready to become genin, but with the statistical probability and pressure from the clans made that possibility very low. Kakashi was one such example, giving an unorthodox assessment of teamwork instead of measuring by actual skill.
And of course, it wasn't impossible for civilians to become ninja. They just had to be very, very lucky. If there was an odd number of clan members, a civilian could be placed on a team that was almost slated to pass. Or, a very surprising and unexpected genin squad which managed to impress their sensei and pass even though they had been arranged to fail.
The taller blond mock frowned at his son, "I never should have taught you the art of negotiation."
"But you did," Naruto chirped, glancing at a kebobs stand they just walked by and licking his lips, "and I'm rocking it. So shouldn't you give me a reward?"
"Alright then," Minato laughed. "I'll give you a hint. You only took the test to certify that you were ready to become a ninja, but you didn't actually complete any of the assignments the graduating class did over the year."
Naruto's attention snapped back to his father. He patiently waited for more. Minato watched him with a smile and twinkling eyes. Naruto groaned aloud. "What does that mean?"
"Nah-uh," Minato said cheerily, tilting his head, "that level of negotiation only gets that kind of answer."
"Stingy," Naruto groused. "I bet if any other kid was the Hokage's son, they'd get an answer."
"Even if some other kid was the Hokage's son," Minato pointed out placidly, "I'd still be Hokage."
"Phhft. Logic. Who even uses that anymore?"
"I wonder if I should be worried about the new generation of ninja," Minato mused. They passed by one of the Uchiha Military Police. His red gaze skimmed over them briefly before it snapped back, identifying Minato's genjutsu as harmless.
Naruto huffed, affronted. "Didn't I say I'd lead them? So it'll be fine. More than fine. We'll conquer all the countries and erect ramen stands everywhere, and make Konoha the Ramen Capital of the world."
"Oh gods," Minato laughed, "that's horrifying."
"It's delicious is what it is," Naruto's right hand lifted to his stomach, just as it let out a growl. And ah, that explained his increasing attention to the food they saw. His hand fell, and he turned a sly grin on Minato then, "Ne, ne, since we're celebrating, you'll treat me to ramen right?"
Minato froze. "Er."
"What? Why can't we have ramen? Pleeeeease?"
"Um." Hurriedly, Minato tried to think of a topic to distract his son. "Well, what did you think about the book I assigned you this week?"
"Huh?" For a moment Naruto looked confused, before what Minato actually said seemed to dawn on him. He pouted, crossing his arms over his chest and blowing out his cheeks. "I can't believe you're asking me that on my graduation day."
Naruto was miles ahead of his peers at the academy, and as such Minato took it upon himself to entertain his son's intelligence. Each week Naruto was given a book to read about any subject which caught Minato's attention, ranging from history to advanced math problems. At the end of it Minato would probe his son for how deep his understanding was, and go over everything in detail. This week it had been about sealing.
Minato simply smiled. "Rewards are best enjoyed when one has worked hard to earn them."
"In other words you're holding ramen hostage," Naruto said, aghast.
"Indeed," Minato said, nodding seriously. "And I am a most terrible jailer."
Naruto thought for a moment, and sighed. "It was interesting. The part about applying a time portion to storage scrolls was pretty cool. But the author's conclusion about using quantum mechanics seems over complicated. Relativity is easier to calculate."
"Do you really think so? For relativity you would have to pinpoint the position of the object as it travels through the storage dimension at a speed that you and I can't begin to see," Minato pointed out.
"Sure," Naruto shrugged, "but it seems more doable than freezing the position of every atom in an object to stop the natural entropy. Also, you wouldn't need to find a way to convert heat into usable energy due to the power needed to form and break bonds."
Minato smiled brightly, "You have thought about this. But how would you overcome the acceleration problem?"
Naruto froze, "Acceleration problem?"
"Sure." Minato's smile was unchanging. "If you pluck an object from a different time current, especially one that is so different it essentially freezes the object in time, there must be a great amount of acceleration wouldn't there? Assuming we could find a way not to destroy the object through the stress of its change in velocity, there's still the question of how we could prevent the object from experiencing all the time that it's lost during that period."
Naruto groaned aloud, "This is why I wanted to avoid the discussion period. You always ask trick questions."
"Hmm," Minato smiled. They had finally reached the end of the street. "I'm afraid you weren't good enough. No ramen for tonight."
Naruto's mouth dropped open, "Seriously?"
The blond child grumbled, but did not push his case further. They walked the remaining stretch to the Namikaze complex, and Minato shed his genjutsu. Grinning, he also cast another quick jutsu behind his hand as a signal.
"…still can't believe it," Naruto was complaining as he opened the door.
"SURPRISE!"
Naruto jumped about a foot in the air. His first instinct wasn't to go for his kunai. He wasn't quite a trained shinobi yet after all, despite how prodigious he was. Naruto gaped.
Inside the walls of the Namikaze house, balloons and streamers replaced order and the peaceful decorations Minato preferred. Shirou, Kaoru, and Yuuta, Naruto's friends from the academy, stood grinning at the doorway. Kabuto, who was Naruto's very best friend, stood a bit further off. When he saw them, he raised his hand in greeting and smiled.
"Guys." Naruto's words were reprimanding, but his beam was anything but. "I haven't actually passed yet, you know."
They had a ball of it. The children all greeted their Hokage with low bows and a murmured name, to which Naruto rolled his eyes at but allowed due to convention. Dinner was a warm affair. They all chatted easily about their lives and everyone had funny anecdotes to give. Cake was even better.
Afterwards, Minato went to work on some seals and allowed the kids free reign. When Minato came back to the living room, Shirou had dumped a bag of ice down his female teammate's shirt. Kabuto subtly ushered them out of the living room and into the gardens, where their antics could run wild without any damage to the Hokage's furniture. Yuuta was thanking Kabuto frantically as Naruto was dragged into a tug of war match with Shirou and Kaoru.
Cackling, Naruto pulled his two bespectacled friends to join him as well. They ended up playing an out of the world game of ninja, where everyone made up a bunch of rules and nobody was exempt from betrayal. Halfway through Kakashi arrived, giving some excuse about a cat, and everyone unanimously decided to team up against him instead.
Kakashi came back with his hair dripping with eggs and sparkles. Kabuto packed surprising things. Minato had taken one look at all of them and collapsed in laughter.
When everyone left, Minato had one last surprise for Naruto.
After cleaning up, Minato took a step back. He gave the smaller blond a long, considering look, before nodding gravely, "Alright then, since you graduated, there's no point in holding this back any longer. Because now you are going to be a shinobi of Konoha, I will impart onto you a personal technique of mine. You must use it wisely."
Naruto, who had been glowing at the freshly polished table, whipped around so quickly it was a wonder his neck didn't snap. Blue eyes went wide, "You don't mean—"
The grave expression cracked and slipped from Minato's face as he smiled brightly at his son, "Yep, I'm going to teach you the rasengan."
"Yatta!" Naruto whooped as he leapt up in excitement. He had been begging his father to teach him the move in forever, ever since Minato had showed it to him as an example of shape manipulation. The smaller blond rushed forward in one motion, flinging his arms around his father's waist and burying his face in the other's chest, muffling his voice. "You won't regret it."
Minato's heart ached for his son as he returned the hug. Reaching out a hand to twine his fingers through golden locks, he ruffled the small boy's hair. "I know I won't. You always make me proud, Naru-chan."
Tomorrow Naruto would become a shinobi of his own right in Konoha. Tomorrow Naruto would have new teammates and a new sensei to teach him things. Minato had no doubt that Naruto would be the greatest ninja Konoha had ever seen.
But tonight—well, for tonight they could simply spend some time together, father and son.
