A Different Sacrifice
Chapter One- The Attack and The Choice
Author's Note: Well this is my first story, and my first attempt at putting up a story on Fan Fiction net, so I hope that this will be well received by my readers. Some basic facts about me, I am 14, and a tall skinny white boy. And my name is Nick too, by the way. I hope to be updating maybe three or four times a week, if not daily if that is possible for me. My average chapters should be around one or two thousand words each hopefully. And the reason that they will be this short is so that I can hopefully get a new chapter out at least every two days, if not every day. That will be to keep all of the readers reading something new all the time, instead of like most stories where it only gets updated every week or maybe two times a week, with 5 thousand word chapters, and readers get disinterested in the story while waiting for a new chapter. And I know how much it sucks to have to wait so long for a new chapter, because I have been reading fan fiction for about two years. The story is rated T, for mild language, and romantic themes in the story. "Constructive criticism will be used to build the foundation of a wonderful story, but flames will be used to feed the construction workers." –Myself. END Author's Note
Summary: On the day of the attack of the Kyuubi No Kitsune, when the Yondaime Hokage was forced to make a deal with the Shinigami (Death God), and sell his soul in exchange for sealing the Kyuubi No Kitsune in his son Naruto, a different sacrifice was made, when the Sandaime Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi sacrificed himself in Minato's place and died to seal the Kyuubi No Kitsune. This is the story of A Different Sacrifice.
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The wailing cry of a new born baby boy seemed to drown out all of the sounds of the battle going on outside of the village, not even three hundred yards away from the walls protecting the village. Minato stared down at his son, tears dripping down his face, dripping off his face down onto the blanket wrapped around his son.
'Oh my son how I am going to regret what I am about to do.' His thoughts aside, Minato walked up to an elderly man, and handed him his son. "Sarutobi-sama, will you please reconsider, it is my duty as the current Hokage to-"
Sarutobi cut off Minato with a wave of his hand. "You are young Minato, and with what you have told me about your Shiki Fuijin, I believe that I may perform the summoning and stop you from wasting your life when I, an old man, can do it in your place." His words said, Sarutobi walked out of the gigantic gates of the village wall.
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Minato smiled down at his son, lying in his crib, fast asleep. They were in a room, plainly decorated with a table off to the side on one wall, and a chest and a dresser off in another corner. Suddenly the door opened, revealing a young man around the age of fourteen, with spiky gray hair, sticking straight up. Minato turned to greet the new arrival.
"Hello Sensei. How is little baby Naruto doing?" The young man inquired.
"He is doing just great. Sarutobi was right, he could do the Shiki Fuijin, and the seal is working perfectly fine. I still just can't help but feeling that I should have been the one to give their life, not Sarutobi. But I also can't even imagine not seeing the sight I see now, my son sleeping soundly in his crib. Oh Kakashi the guilt weighs on me, even though I know that maybe things will be better this way."
"Sensei, Sarutobi-sama made the choice that he did, to keep you alive, and let you be with and raise your son, would you prefer that he grew up as an orphan with no family? We both know that since Kushina-san was killed when someone pulled the Kyuubi out of her, there was going to be no one else but you for the poor boy to look to for love, affection and a father."
"Oh but Kakashi, I wished for you to be that person for Naruto with me dead. Jiraiya was going to be his grandfather figure too. I knew that with both of you he would have grown up to be a fine boy."
"Yes Sensei, but now you can raise him to be a better man than both me and Jiraiya-sama could have hoped to make him. You will be there to train him when he wishes to become a great ninja like his father, and we will help guide him too."
"Thank you Kakashi, when Kushina died, and then I knew that the Kyuubi would have to be sealed inside of Naruto, I wished to die, if only to get away from the pain that I feel in my heart." Minato confided.
"I know Sensei, I know that you feel terrible, and wish to grieve for Kushina, but in less than an hour you need to be giving a speech to bring up the spirits of the people of Konoha, about the brave sacrifices of many, and how your son is holding the burden of holding the Kyuubi."
"Alright Kakashi, can you stay here with Naruto? He should be waking up soon, and I need you to feed him when he wakes, and keep him occupied while I prepare and give this speech."
"Okay Sensei, I will. And so that you know, you can always count on me to be there to help you in raising Naruto." Kakashi stated with sincerity and conviction.
"Thank you Kakashi." Minato wrapped Kakashi in a hug, as Minato began to cry, before they pulled apart, and Minato left the room.
Less than ten minutes after Minato left the room, Naruto began to stir, crying loudly as he woke, thoroughly startling Kakashi out of the book that he was reading. Rushing over to the table over in the corner of the room, Kakashi swiped his hand across a seal in the table, and a baby bottle with seemingly freshly warmed up milk inside popped onto the table in a poof of smoke. Kakashi grabbed the bottle, and walked back to Naruto, and picked him up and held him while he ate.
"Oh how this reminds me how much that I really hate babysitting. I am going to regret being there for Sensei wont I? Man this is going to be so much work." Kakashi ruefully thought to himself.
Minato stood, watching over his son as Naruto punched and kicked at a training post, trying so hard to master the Hummingbird Taijutsu Style, working himself to exhaustion. At the very young age of only five years of age, the young Naruto had been forced to start to train to become a ninja. But he took to training very well, and he seemed to love learning new things, with a determination to work at everything until he had it mastered.
But it wasn't only in his taijutsu, and his attempts to learn to throw kunai and shurukin, it was also in his studies of history, math, and he was already attempting to learn jutsu, going as far as sneaking into Minato's personal library to read and study, which he thought that he did unnoticeably.
Standing next to Minato, was Kakashi. In five years, he had grown to his full height, now easily 6' 1". He had also taken his training very seriously in the past five years, and had grown tremendously as a ninja, almost at a level where he would soon be an S Rank Shinobi, much to Minato's pride.
With all his training and dedication, it had been Minato's and Kakashi's proudest moments when Minato named Kakashi his successor as Hokage before the village, much to the Uchiha's disappointment, as they had tried to push for Itachi to be the next Hokage. The Hyuuga were likewise upset, as they had pushed in the council for a young Hyuuga prodigy of the name Heike to become Hokage.
The decision had been building tension as the Uchiha and Hyuuga's pride made all of them very arrogant, and led them to believe that it was Itachi's or Heike's right to be Hokage, coming from one of the founding clans of Konoha, not the son of a man who failed a mission and got his teammates killed in action.
As they both stood watching Naruto, Kakashi spoke, just loud enough for just the two of them to hear "I still don't believe that it is right that Naruto has to be training at a young age like this, and I fear he will turn into an Itachi, a human weapon for someone else to wield."
"Now you know Kakashi, that I don't like him having to train like this so early either, but there have been four separate attempts at his life! We have no choice but to train him so early. The last attempt scared us both; the assassin killed three people, and almost made it to Naruto's room. It was by pure luck that Naruto had made you sleep in his room because he had a nightmare, and that you had to use the bathroom as the assassin was in front of the door when you opened it to go."
"Yeah, and I know that you are right, and that training him so soon is the only option, but I just don't like it at all Sensei."
"I know Kakashi, believe me, I know. Now let's get Naruto inside, he looks like he is so tired that he will pass out soon." Minato raised his voice, and called out to Naruto, "Okay son, that's enough for today, let's go inside and dinner."
"Okay Dad, I will be inside in a minute, is that okay?" Naruto asked.
"Alright, but if you aren't inside and at the dinner table ready to eat in five minutes, then I will come back out here, and drag you inside by your ear, got it?" Kakashi answered teasingly.
Minato and Kakashi went inside their house, both of them living in the Namikaze clan compound, as Kakashi could barely stand to be inside of the house where his father had committed Seppuku (Spelling?).
Minato and Kakashi quickly made fried vegetable rice, with barbequed teriyaki as the main meal. They both sat at the table, and when nearly ten minutes had gone by after Naruto was supposed to have some inside, they went back to the backyard behind the main building in the compound where training took place, and where they had left Naruto.
Upon reaching the training post where Naruto had been practicing, they saw Naruto laying on the ground, face down in the grass, a kunai sticking out of his back, imbedded deeply into his left shoulder blade. The wound was bleeding profoundly.
Both of them rushed over to Naruto, Minato lifting Naruto up off the ground, and quickly putting his fingers on Naruto's wrist veins, checking for a pulse. The tension and fear in the air was palpable as Kakashi stood and waited for Minato's word.
Minato looked up at Kakashi, tears glistening in his eyes.
"There's no pulse."
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Author's Note: So how was that? I am hoping for some positive reviews from readers, but as my first try at posting something on the site, who knows how this can go right? Well so far in the story, I already have three more chapters written and ready to be posted, and I will be posting them, plus the new chapters that I write hopefully daily for the next two weeks, and then things will start to get really hectic as I study and prepare for my Geometry Final and CBA test. But anyway, thank you to anyone who reads this and favorites, alerts and reviews.