Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto
English is not my mother tongue
In his shadow
I always was in his shadow from everyone no matter the time or if I knew what they were doing or not.
To those who knew I was the Yondaime Hokage's son even if they didn't say it saw me as his legacy someone who had to hold up his name and legend and they were kind of right after all the children are the ones who hold up their parent's legacies and the name they create in life. It's their job to make that name proud and to not ruin it. I didn't understand it when I was younger how that went. Now I didn't know if it was because I didn't know who my father was or because I didn't know that I had a father's legacy to uphold. When the thoughts of my father crossed my mind I always imagined he was a civilian or an unnamed shinobi, not the men I admired all my life, not the man whom half of the shinobi world admired and the other half feared. When I learned the truth, I tried to make him proud not to shame him but it was hard to do that with people breathing down your neck and yelling for every mistake you make that can offend your father's name.
To those that didn't know who my father was but did not see me as a monster but actually as the person their beloved Yondaime put his trust in to keep the Kyuubi in bay were hard on me because they did not want the trust, he had put on me to go to waste and for me to disappoint him. I didn't know what was worse the first or the second one but at least this one I knew since I was young since I was told about the Kyuubi and I had come to the decision that I would make my hero proud because I never really blame him for sealing the beast in me, after all, it was other he did that or the distraction of the village. That was the reason I went to train with Jiraiya he was my hero's sensei and if he could have helped me with the Kyuubi hell even better.
I did not blame him for his decision when he was my hero and I certainly did not blame him for that when I learned he was my father because he was at the moment between a rock and a hard place and did the best, he could with what he had. When I grew older and had children of my own I realized how bad he would had felt having to do that and how strong he was I would have never had the strength to do the same thing.
There was a third group of people those who hated not me but the beast there were the ones that could not tell the difference between me and the beast himself. When I was younger, I thought that they hated me but no they hated the beast inside because it was the same beast that had killed their beloved Hokage. In any other village, they would have killed me long ago because of said beast but in my village they would have killed me long ago to avenge their Hokage but they would never do that because they knew that he did not approve of such things and that they trusted him to had done a good job in sealing. They still were the ones that blamed me for their beloved Hogake death as they say me as a recantation of the nine tail they saw my protection by the Third as a betrayal, they just never acted on those thoughts.
I never knew what was worse because no matter how they saw me was and would always be in his shadow because he was the best there was that was until I grew up and realized that he had given me the best gift ever He believed in me before anyone else before even I believed in myself.
That made that I was not in his shadow but I was his legacy the one to do what he died too young to do and to achieve the dreams he never could.
After all, it was my job as his son.
Yeah I liked that much better.