Too Late

It was supposed to have been a perfect day. He woke up feeling good, and kissed his sleeping wife's cheek. He went about with his morning and afternoon duties, just like any other day.

At the strike of 7:11pm, the rumblings began. The screams of terror had brought him to the window with haste. He had seen nothing at first, but jumped out nonetheless.

At the strike of 7:19, he came upon the fox and the bloody corpses of his comrades.

At the strike of 8:46, his student, Rin, had been killed right next to him. He had bent backwards to avoid the tip of a flaming tail. She hadn't been there a second ago. And now she was dead.

At the strike of 9:03, he had ordered Kakashi, his last remaining student, to go and protect his wife at all costs.

At the strike of 9:22, Kakashi had brought Kushina to him and he would have been angry with the boy if his wife didn't look so pale and so weak. He didn't know what to do. She was going to have the baby, and he didn't have a single hand or person to spare to deliver it. He had to keep the Kyuubi at bay, so he left her, in labor and alone.

At the strike of 11:09, his wife died after giving birth to their son by herself. By the time he returned to the tent, she was already gone. He would have cried if he hadn't been beaten to it. A wailing, naked, bloody baby lay between her legs, screaming at the tops of his little lungs and Minato was startled by the size of the pool of blood his newborn child was lying in. He picked the baby up and took it to the center of the room. He swept the crystal ball off of its cushioned perch and laid his son down. He didn't have time to stare at the boy, he didn't have time to let the tears track down his cheeks at the child's beauty, but he made time.

At the strike of 11:13, he rushed back outside to aid his dying people and was horrified to see how close the fox had gotten in his absence. It was not lost to him what he had to do. He summoned Gamabunta and blurred through the hands signs as fast and as accurately as he could and the pain instantly came. The demon's body swirled and sunk into him quickly and he hoped he would be able to contain it all in time.

At the strike of 11:40, he fell to his knees and his hands faltered. A hellish vertigo overcame him and the fox was out again. He simply didn't have enough chakra to contain the demon and failed. He had failed his people. Cries were heard in the distance and he weakly looked down at all of his people, fighting and perishing for the village. For the second time that day, he didn't know what to do. The cries in his head got louder, until he realized they were coming from within the tent. His son. He had left his three-pronged kunai in the tent and was able to transport to the wailing infant. He looked into the baby's mouth and just stared for what felt like eternity. His entire village was likely too maxed out to hold the Kyuubi, but Naruto….

At the strike of 11:47, he tried the sealing jutsu again. To his mortification, it worked. His son screamed far past the capacity of his lungs and he knew the little one was in agony. He fell to the ground on his back and watched the soul reaper take his essence away from him. It was the only way. There was nobody else that could do it but him. He didn't want to, but he had to. His son would have to be the savoir to Konoha that he couldn't be. His son would have to live with the demon inside of him and he hoped the boy would never know what he had done.

He closed his eyes, and at the strike of 11:55pm, Minato died wishing he could take it back.

END.

I read two stories about the last day of Minato Namikaze's life and got so sad that I just had to write one for myself. This was done in about fifteen minutes. I hope you like it! Please review!