Minato looked at himself in the mirror of the bathroom in NE headquarters. He had been told to dye his hair blond so he wouldn't draw too much attention to himself when he was out in the village because, if you looked close enough, you could just make out the red lines that started to form at the corner of his eyes, much like his father. When he had been told that, it caught his interest because his mother had never told him who his father was, only the he was a perverted ninja, and his grandfather was once the leader of Konoha.
He didn't know much about the place before he came to Konoha, only that his father and grandfather were from here. He had stayed with his mother in a small town on the border of fire country all his life. Of course he knew what a ninja was, he had been secretly learning to become one before his mother died. In hindsight, maybe that wasn't such a good idea. His mother was dead because of him. NO! not him it was those damn Iwa ninja. His fists tightened in anger as he thought of her death.
FLASHBACK
Minato had been practicing the tricks he had seen done by the people with the blank masks. He had observed them a few times running up and down trees around his house. He had asked them how to do it, and they had showed him only after promised not to tell anyone. They would come back once a week to teach him. Minato was told that he could be a powerful ninja with the right training, but his mother didn't want him to become a ninja, so he trained in secret. He had been practicing on his own or with the ninja that passed by his house. He was always curious why they were so close and when he asked them they merely said it was because of a mission. Under their tutelage he had mastered the tree walking, water walking, and a few Fuuton and Katon jutsus. He had been quick to learn and they said that most kids couldn't do the jutsu that he knew at his age and he was only 6. They had also taught him to fight with and throw kunai and shuriken.
He had been out training waiting for his sensei's to return. They said they would be back today but didn't say what time. He was practicing his Katon jutsu when he had sensed a group of people approaching him from the direction of his house. They were fast; these weren't the normal ninja that would come, he knew what they felt like. The people that were approaching now were unfamiliar, and when they surrounded him he was really confused, but he was also immediately on guard. It was four of them, a guy with a white jacket over his shoulder and three kids. When they saw him they smirked and he was quick to look for a way out of the situation. He could tell they were from Iwa by the headband. He would try to play this like he didn't know them or he wasn't a ninja. And with that he put on a smile and waved.
"Hey um... can I help you guys?"
"Yeah you can kid, want to come with us?" the man said. He assumed he was their teacher and was proven right when the kid in the middle spoke.
"Hey sensei why are you asking? He's a shrimp we can just take him with us. He might know about who's been entering Earth country."
Minato looked confused, why would he know who'd been entering Earth country as he never went over there. Maybe it was the ninja's that were always on missions by his house?
"Sorry, but I'm not sure who's been going there. I have to go now my Mom is probably worried about me I've been gone since breakfast. See ya." Before Minato could leave the other 2 kids spoke.
"You don't have to worry about her brat because she won't be worrying about anything anymore."
"Yeah kid, so just tell us what we want to know before we hurt you too. We can see the kunai marks on the tree that you've had some ninja training."
The lead genin, seeing he wasn't going to say anything likely too much in shock about his mother being dead to even speak, took the initiative.
"Look brat, you either tell us what we want to know, or we'll simply make you tell us then kill you too." he finished with a smirk. The genin on his left and right chuckled.
Their sensei grinned; while they were just genin they were also the strongest to have graduated the academy since the Second Shinobi War.
Minato took everything in, from when they implied his mother was dead, to when the lead genin spoke. He was running through different scenarios in his head on how to get out of the situation alive.
While he was sad his mother was dead, he knew crying about it or showing any emotion now wouldn't do him any good. He knew the NE ninja were on their way. They said they would be there a little afternoon, so they would be arriving shortly. Minato wasn't great at sensing yet, but when he pushed his senses out as far as he could he didn't feel them. He had to buy some time, and with a plan in mind he acted.
Minato adopted an impassive expression that caught the jonin off guard. That wasn't the look a kid should have when he finds out his mother was killed. Meanwhile, the three young genin mistakenly thought that he was finally about to cry.
"OK, I'll tell you everything. Please follow me, i will show you to where they are." Minato said, surprising the genin. He turned around, going through hand seals as fast as he could, and in a blink of an eye was five feet away.
"Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu" Minato unleashed the jutsu pointblank. The jonin had sensed the build up of chakra and while he was shocked that the kid could put so much in a single attack, he quickly put up an earth wall that exploded inward as the two attacks met.
The genin didn't know what happened; the only thing they had seen was the brat turning around then he was suddenly in front of them. Their sensei was quick to put up a defense but they were still blow back from the explosion of the jutsus meeting.
As soon as Minato had released the jutsu he was gone, running in the direction the NE ninja always came from. He only hoped he would meet them before the Iwa ninja showed up. He already had his sensing abilities stretched as far as he could and he could tell they had just got back up and was sprinting after him.
At the pace they were going they would be on him in a few minutes. He was trying to work out a plan on how he would get out of this mess when he sensed at the edge of his abilities the NE ninja heading his way.
When the Iwa ninja finally caught up to him they were livid. The brat had attacked them and thought he was going to get away. when they landed around him he was standing there looking in the opposite direction. The leader wasn't stupid enough to believe that he hadn't noticed them, they had landed loud enough he was sure anyone would have heard them. The jonin turned towards the direction the kid was looking and tried to sense what it was but he was never good at that. His team was slightly out of breath from the pace he had set and the kid looked like he was perfectly fine. He had to have had some serious training, the jonin looked towards his students and spoke.
"I'll handle this from here, just stand back and observe." He turn back towards Minato, about to go through hand seals but stopped at the expression on the child's face.
Minato smiled viciously. "I wouldn't do that if I were you. You're in fire country, attacking a citizen will start a war."
"Shut up! You will die for what you did!" the team leader snarled, leaking killing intent.
Minato merely gave him an impassive look before responding. "You're one to talk, you started this and you will die for what you've done."
The Iwa team leader finally realized why Minato hadn't looked their way when they landed. He had sensed people coming and now the man could see them as well. Two ANBU level ninja headed their way.
"RUN! we must get out of here!" he shouted. The lead genin started to protest, but stopped when he saw the look in his sensei's eyes. This could cause a war if they were found in fire country territory with no valid reason for being there.
"Kitsuchi take them and hurry, I'll catch up. If you do not see me inform the Tsuchikage of what happened." Kitsuchi nodded and took off with his teammates right on his heels. (The Iwa nin turned back to Minato, took out a kunai, and scratched his forehead protector marking him a missing nin so if he did get captured he would say he acted alone.) As soon as he was finished two NE agents dropped next to Minato with their tantos drawn pointing towards him.
()-This sentence is questionable because NE should have been able to see and sense more than one enemy signature, so scratching his protector makes noe sense because wouldn't Minato report everything that happened?
END FLASHBACK
Minato finished strapping on his gear then using chakra, set in mask into place on his hip. He traveled slowly through the NE base toward his meeting with Danzo. It had been 2 years now since he's been in Konoha and learned about his grandfather and father and he had sworn to himself to surpass them both.
There were a lot of other shinobi in the underground base and they all respected him, he was unsure why until he asked Danzo one day. He had simply said that Minato's grandfather had started the NE program in defense of the village. That's also why he always had two NE agents keeping an eye on him when he lived with his mother just in case someone was to find out who his father and grandfather were.
He was only 8 now but with the training from Danzo-sensei and the five NE captain's he was making good progress. He didn't officially join NE he was just trained by them and went on a few mission to give him experience. He had been making progress in learning his grandfather's techniques. He wasn't the best at fuinjutsu yet but he had all the notes from his grandfather's scrolls. Danzo had given him everything when he said he would surpass them. He didn't have anything of his father's but that was only because his father didn't know that he was his son. Danzo knew because the agents had been keeping an eye on his mother on order of the Second Hokage. He didn't want anything to happen to his daughter and when he was born they just keep watching after them.
Minato learned much about NE, they operated like the ANBU corps but also differed in some ways. They both had five Divisions with a Captain for each Division, there was a Commander in charge, they were the village elite shinobi, you could only do five years in either unless you were a captain then you could do eight, both took high level mission, and they both had a Tracking and Interrogation division. That's where the similarities ended.
NE's five Divisions were Tracking/Hunter nin, Spy/Espionage, Assassination, War Front/Battle Division and Torture/Interrogation.
ANBU divisions consisted of Protection/Investigation, Security of Fire Country, Medical and Emergency, Tracking/Hunter nin and Torture/Interrogation.
ANBU and NE both worked for the security of Konoha and Fire country, but NE did missions that were seen as underhanded and dirty. They did whatever needed to be done to complete the mission. When ANBU was formed by the 1st Hokage he didn't have ANBU do missions that would jeopardize other villages. Because he wanted peace, the ANBU was created to protect the village and do high level missions. That's why his grandfather created NE with the help of Danzo. NE would do what needed to be done to protect the village.
When Minato finally made it to Danzo office, he was sitting there going over a scroll from one of his spies; he could tell because of the seal that was on the scroll. When Danzo finally looked at Minato he told him to sit.
" You'll be starting the academy tomorrow. If you wish to become Hokage you'll have to be familiar with the clan heirs. This will put you on the right path to become Hokage. You should not have any problems with the curriculum, you are stronger than most and you rank low level jounin. I don't have to tell you to keep your skills a secret or the scrolls I've given you. Any questions?"
" I would like to keep my mother's last name. I don't want anyone to know I'm the grandson of the Second Hokage yet," Minato tilted his head curiously. "Where will I be staying?"
"That is fine I didn't expect you to take the Senju clan name so soon, but when the time comes I'll give you the scrolls from Tobirama Sensei to make your claim and also be there to back you. I am the only person Sensei told everything to so it would not be a problem. I will also arrange for you to have Jiraiya as your sensei, I know you've been having trouble with the seals concerning the Hiraishin. He should be able to teach you more about sealing and hopefully you'll be able to master it in time. "
"Thanks Sensei!" Minato said with a smile on his face as he got up to leave.
"Before you go. It's up to you if you want to tell him that he's your father or not. You know your way around the village but one of my men will escort you to the Hokage's office so you can get a place to stay. As a precaution, leave all of your NE equipment here."
5 YEARS LATER
It was eight in the morning and Minato sat at the training ground waiting for his sensei. Jiraiya had said to meet him here at nine because there was something important he had to talk to him about.
Minato got there with Kushina earlier to work on some of the jutsus he was still having trouble with. He quickly made a Kage Bunshin and sent him off to work on jutsu, while he sat with Kushina and worked on the Hiraishin Seals.
He was getting closer to finishing it with her help. She was a lot better at seals then he was. He learned why he couldn't figure it out before when Kushina had seen him working on it. She said it had some Uzumaki seals secrets which she knew and told him that she would help him after everything he had done for her. When he asked Danzo about it he had confirmed that Mito had helped Tobirama work out the kinks of the Hiraishin. Kushina had also noticed that they laid a blood and chakra seal in the foundation of the technique, so no one but Tobirama's descendant would be able to work out the jutsu.
Jiraiya sat by in a tree not far away suppressing his chakra and cloaked in his genjutsu. He knew Minato was a sensor but he was prepared for that. He wouldn't make the same mistake after the first time when he tried to spy on them. Kushina had nearly killed him with her Chakra Chains. Minato and Kushina had been getting very close after he had saved her from the four Kumo Jonin. When he had heard that, he went to his sensei saying Minato should be promoted to Chunin. His sensei denied him at first, saying Minato wasn't ready, but had relented and agreed to it after Jiraiya brought up the Kumo incident.
FLASHBACK
Minato was on his way from his training grounds to his apartment when he sensed the chakra of one of Kushina heading away from the village far faster than she should be able to. Then he sensed four foreign chakras, three close and one trailing behind and sped up to cut them off.
Once he was in front of them he got high enough so they couldn't see him, and he could finally figure out what was going on. When they were close enough he noticed it was three Kumo jonin. The guy in the middle had Kushina over his shoulder and the fourth guy was not far behind most likely acting as a decoy. He created a Kage Bunshin to wait for the fourth guy before following the other three.
When they were a good way outside of the village, the leader slowed down to give the other two time to catch their breaths. They couldn't keep up that pace all the way to Kumo, they would be to exhausted to fight if someone showed up.
When the fourth member of the team took longer than usual to arrive, the leader knew something was up.
"Our backup hasn't made it here yet so he must have ran into trouble. I'm going to finish the mission catch up to me when you're done. If you get captured you know what to do." He sped off towards Kumo.
Minato landed in a tree above the two Kumo nin and put one under a genjutsu while dropping on top of the other with a kunai in hand that went straight through his heart. He quickly jumped back up with the same kunai in hand and smashed it into the other nin's temple just as he got out of the genjutsu a second too late. His job done he created another Kage Bushin that immediately dispelled notifying its creator, and taking the unconscious one back to NE for interrogation.
The original Minato got the information from his Kage Bushin that all of the jonins had been taking care of except the leader. He launched a kunai at the tree branch the leader was about to land on, and watched as it exploded.
Minato jumped in front of the enemy nin who was holding a hand seal with Kushina over his shoulder.
The Kumo nin looked shocked that a single boy could have taken out Jonin level nin and they even had a sensor following them just in case. He wouldn't take it easy on him because, boy or not, he was clearly skilled.
"Alright kid if you want to die to save your girlfriend I'll be more than happy to do the job."
Then he noticed the package was suddenly heavier than it should have been. He looked at his shoulder to see, instead of a slender girl, his comrade, draped on his shoulder,dead with an explosive seal and another seal he could make out on his back. He quickly tried to drop him but fell to his knees.
Minato sat Kushina down and walked closer to the downed Kumo nin still holding the same hand sign.
"There are two seals on your comrade, one is an explosive seal, the other a gravity seal. The gravity seal increases the weight exponentially on the person wearing the seal. But the tricky part is applying it to someone that's dead. Since he doesn't have chakra anymore I have to continuously feed chakra to that seal and it takes quite a bit. But the more chakra I give the heavier it becomes, and since I can't just stop the chakra flow, it's going to keep getting worse. "
The Kumo shinobi was on his stomach now and having trouble breathing. His entire body was getting crushed. "You're probably having trouble breathing now am I right?" Minato could see his face getting redder from the force. "Don't worry you'll black out from lack of oxygen right about now, which is a mercy because you wouldn't want to be crushed to death while conscious, right?" With those last words following him, the Kumo shinobi was out.
END FLASHBACK
Jiraiya was there to give him his chunin vest and let him sign the toad contract. Today he would take him on as an apprentice. His other two students would have to take the chunin exams with an extra member. He looked up when he heard a shout and grinned pervertedly at the sight of Minato hugging Kushina. Maybe he would get some research done. With that he took out his notepad and starting writing.
Minato was beyond ecstatic, he had just performed the Hiraishin when he figured out that you had to put the chakra into the seal in the correct order, much like how a key needs to have the correct edges to unlock a door. He now knew the key for the Hiraishin, you had to mark the scroll with your blood and chakra for the first use otherwise it wouldn't work, much like a summoning jutsu. Kushina had told him he wouldn't need to use his blood every time just for the first use, then he could use the seal key pushing his chakra in the correct order.
When Minato had gotten over his shock and dizziness he rushed to Kushina and gave her a hug. Kushina looked at Minato and blushed their faces were so close she could feel his breath. She stared into his blue eyes and couldn't help but redden further. She thought they were much like Hashirama and Mito, she was an Uzumaki and he was a Senju. They told each about their secrets shortly after he saved her. She didn't care if he was a Senju or Namikaze as long as he was her Minato.
Minato stared down at Kushina and could only think of how beautiful she was. The blush on her face stood out to him now and he noticed how close they were. She was looking up at him and he looking down at her. Their lips were close to touching now and Minato took the plunge and captured her lips.
Kushina was shocked that they were kissing, this was her first kiss and it was with the boy she loved. She realized she wasn't kissing and quickly responded to the kiss. She wished this moment could last forever. Then she heard giggling and her eye started to twitch. She pulled away from the kiss and a scowl appeared on her face. She turned around and lashed out with her Chakra Chains catching the pervert peeping on them.
Kushina pulled Jiraiya from his hiding place wrapped up tight in her Chains. Minato looked at his sensei with a frown. Then noticed it was twenty minutes past nine. Kushina still had Jiraiya wrapped up and squeezing him tighter. Minato had sensed the real Jiraiya when he used a replacement so he knew it wasn't his real sensei. Jiraiya tried speaking but nothing came out.
"YOU PERVERT I TOLD YOU I'D KILL YOU IF YOU DID IT AGAIN! DIE!" Kushina squeezed her chains as hard as she could and Jiraiya exploded in a cloud of smoke.
Kushina started looking around for the real Jiraiya when he jumped out of the tree.
"My own student would have let me die. You didn't even tell her to let me go. What a great student you are." Jiraiya cried anime tears on the ground.
"I felt you replace with the clone sensei" Minato dead panned.
Jiraiya jumped up and away from the chains that were about to burst from the ground with a smile. "Hey Kushina-chan sorry about that but I had to get your attention some how. You were kissing for so long minutes I thought you might have died from lack of oxygen." Kushina blushed at that and looked away her chains disappearing as well. Minato had picked up on what he said but he was sure Kushina hadn't yet.
"Well next time say something!" Kushina yelled. She froze for a second then turned around her hair waving in the air forming nine different parts. "YOU WERE WATCHING FOR 20 MINS?!" Her chains exploded again toward Jiraiya.
Minato stopped her before she could actually kill him this time. "Kushina can you kill him later? He wanted me to meet him here at nine and we're twenty minutes past that and we'll be late to get a mission if you do. I'll meet you at my place after I'm done with the mission."
Kushina huffed and started towards him."Ok Minato-kun" she gave him another quick kiss and walked away. An evil grin on her face, Kushina left with a parting remark. "I'll be sure to tell Tsunade when I see her you pervert!" Jiraiya paled and looked to Minato for help.
Minato looked to Jiraiya puzzled. "Where is everyone else sensei, I thought you had something to tell us as a team"
Jiraiya jumped up and unrolled a scroll.
"Congrats on the Hiraishin by the way you finally got it down."
"Yeah but I'll need more training to be able to surpass the Second"
"You have a long way to go kid but I'll admit you're making progress. If not I wouldn't be here right now, catch."
Minato opened the scroll and out came a chunin vest along with the papers he would need to sign and the time to meet with the Hokage to learn of his new duties. Minato was shocked he was about to speak when Jiraiya put his hand up.
"Not yet. All questions can wait until I'm done. From today on you'll be my apprentice so no more team missions, just you and me. First you'll need to sign the toad contract." Jiraiya motioned to the scroll at his feet.
Minato couldn't help but smile as he walked over to the scroll. He was getting stronger and stronger.