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Mako knew that something was wrong when he sensed a cluster of shinobi fighting one another in the next clearing. Deciding quickly, he altered his course to intercept the battling shinobi and drew his sword while in flight. He looked at the sword that his sensei given it to him as his final birthday gift. He felt tears start to form in his eyes just thinking about the man that he had seen as the closest thing he had ever had to a father.

He looked up and saw that half of the shinobi where from the hidden leaf village and the other half seemed to be rogue ninja. All of the sudden Mako saw a yellow flash and looked in that direction just in time to see a blond leaf shinobi in a white and red trench coat drive a sphere of chakra into a rogue ninja. Then he saw a rogue ninja charge the man from behind.

"Am I going to regret this later?" Mako thought to himself

Mako dashed out of the trees and put himself between the rogue ninja and the blond leaf shinobi. The rogue ninja never saw the sword as he impaled himself onto the sword. Suddenly, the hole clearing went silent. Mako wondered what was going on until he glanced around, and realized that all the rogue ninja that weren't dead had fled the clearing. Now all the leaf shinobi turned to him with weapons drawn. Mako pulled his sword out of the man and got ready for a fight.

"Stand down!" the blond leaf shinobi ordered the other leaf shinobi

"We will camp here for tonight and tomorrow finish our trek back to the leaf village." The blond shinobi said.

The other leaf shinobi began to open up sealing scrolls and set up tents.

The blond shinobi turned to Mako. "Will you join us tonight it is the least I could do for you" he asked?

"Sure, just so long as they don't try to kill me." Mako stated as he glanced towards the other leaf shinobi.

"They won't try anything I promise." He paused, then turned and motioned for Mako to follow him into the massive tent that had popped up out of nowhere.

That's when Mako saw some words on the back of the trench coat. 'Fourth Hokage' he read silently.

"Wait you're the fourth hokage!" Mako asked in surprise.

"Yes I am but you can call me Minato." The blond shinobi responded.

"Ok... Minato it is then" Mako stammerd.

"If you don't mind me asking, what might your name be?" Minato asked.

"My name is Mako." Mako responded bluntly.

"Don't you have a last name?" Minato asked.

A dark shadow crept across Mako's face "No, I don't." He grunted.

"Well then Mako, it's nice to meet you." Minato stated as he extended his hand in welcome.

"It's nice to meet you as well." Mako stated as he began to grin.

A few hours later after dinner: Minato POV

Minato had been lookingfor some time at the boy as he ate his meal. He wondered who the boy was and where he came from. Minato tried to glean as much from the boy as he could from his equipment and appearance. The boy wore a black trench coat similar to his own with no sleeves and a red sign on the back that Minato didn't recognize. Underneath that he wore a black sleeveless tee shirt. Minato also had seen a necklace hidden underneath the tee shirt. For pants, he wore pants nearly identical to what his shinobi wore. The boy had spiked blond hair and bright blue eyes. In fact, if it wasn't for the sword on his back the boy could have been mistaken for Minato himeself.

3rd person:

Minato and Mako walked back to Minato's tent in silence. When they got to the tent Minato watched Mako sit down and open up a storage scroll. He watched as Mako pulled out a paint brush and some high quality ink. Mako pulled out his sword and drew a mark on each side. He laid the sword down to put the paint brush and ink back into the storage scroll. This was the first time Minato had gotten a good look at the sword. It was about three inches longer than your standard katana and was straight rather than curved. It was also sharp on both sides rather than one.

"Why did you put that mark on your sword?" Minato queried.

"That mark represents the man I killed with this sword today. Each mark represents a man I killed with this sword since I got it, but fortunately I won't have to mark anymore because that was my twenty-fifth kill." Mako replied.

Minato sat for a minute absolutely stunned at what he had just heard. "How old are you?" Minato asked incredulously.

"Eleven." Mako responded.

"I am really going to need to have a talk with your parents." Minato stated with a low growl of displeasure.

"Don't bother. My real parents abandoned me when I was only three weeks old and my sensei was the closest thing I had to a father. But he is dead now." Mako uttered as tears began to come to his eyes.

"You don't have any family or friends, do you?" Minato asked gently.

"Never had any family and all my friends were killed about a year ago." Mako murmured as tears began to stream down his cheeks.

"How would you like to come live with me in the leaf village?" Minato inquired.

Mako stopped crying for a minute "Are you serious?" He questioned.

"Yes I am." Minato replied calmly.

"I would like that." Mako sniffed, ridding his eyes of the tears.

It was at this moment that Minato noticed that the boy's necklace had slipped out from underneath his shirt. He noticed that at the end of the necklace was the insignia of the hidden leaf village.

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