I do not own Naruto Shippuden or any of the characters. I know you need a special mask from Uzushiogakure to free anything from the Shinigami but for this story, Hiruzen didn't need it.
Thank You
Minato stepped in front of Kushina and glared at the man behind the mask. Something about him seemed so familiar but at the same time, he was nothing like Minato had ever seen.
"Fourth Hokage Minato," the man began. "Step away from the Jinchuriki. If you don't, this child's life will end in one minute."
How did he get past the barrier? Minato wondered. Who is this guy?
Just then, Kushina cried out in pain as her seal, which was practically open, stretched a little further open and the Nine-tails began to force its way out.
Kushina! Minato thought turning back to her. The seal is still...
"Get away from the Jinchuriki!" the man ordered drawing a kunai and holding it to Minato's son's throat. "Don't you care about your son?"
"Please wait!" Minato begged holding his hand up. "Please calm down!"
"Speak for yourself," the man sneered. "I'm as calm as can be."
The man suddenly hurled Naruto skyward and Kushina screamed. The man leapt at Naruto, thrusting his kunai but Minato teleported to Naruto then the ceiling, rescuing him from the man.
"I must hand it to the Yellow Flash," the man commended. "But how about this?"
He made the Seal of Confrontation as he landed and several explosive tags on Naruto's blanket caught fire, about to explode. Kushina screamed again but Minato had already reacted. He teleported to his and Kushina's house, throwing the blanket off just before leaping out through the front door seconds before the tags exploded, destroying the house.
"Too close," Minato sighed then winced and looked down at his ankle to see a chunk of wood sticking out of it.
He pulled it out and through it into the air, being gone by the time it fell. He appeared in his second house, setting Naruto in his crib then teleporting to Kushina just in time to pick her up and teleport out of the way of the Nine-tail's hand, landing in a tree top a ways away.
"I must say," the man commented. "You're as quick as your nickname. But you are too late."
"Minato," Kushina struggled to say, barely able to make a sound. "Is Naruto safe?"
"He's fine," Minato smiled. "Don't worry."
"Good," Kushina smiled. "Minato, you must stop that man and the Nine-tails. He's heading for the Leaf Village."
Minato looked back at the man then teleported to Naruto and set Kushina beside their son.
"Why?" Kushina asked weakly.
"Nevermind that," Minato ordered. "Just stay with Naruto for now."
Kushina held Naruto close to herself and Minato retrieved his cloak from the closet and pulled it on.
"I'll be right back," Minato promised before teleporting away.
He landed on top of his face on the Hokage Monument but saw that the Nine-tails had already laid waste to a massive section of the village. Minato silently vowed to protect everything he could just as the Nine-tails turned toward him.
"So you notice me huh?" Minato said aloud as the Nine-tails began to form a Tailed Beast Ball. "You won't get your own way."
He made several hand seals and held out his signature kunai as the Tailed Beast Ball shot toward him. Then, it hit the barrier he had formed and was transported a couple miles away where it exploded safely. Just then, a hand began to rise behind Minato. he spun, swinging his kunai but instead of killing the man that had control over the Nine-tails, his kunai and hand passed harmlessly through the man's head. Then, the man caught his arm after it had exited his body.
"You face me now," the man stated. "It's over."
Suddenly, Minato's body began to swirl. He felt himself being dragged somewhere but knew he didn't want to go. At the last second, he teleported away, narrowly escaping. He reappeared at his destroyed house and began to push himself up, still disoriented from the man's jutsu.
My attack passed right through him but then he materialized to pull me in, Minato thought. What is that jutsu?
Just then, the man appeared in front of him and said, "I won't let you get away."
Is that the Teleportation Jutsu? Minato thought. Is that how he took Kushina and got away so quickly? A ninja who evaded the Third Hokage's hand-picked ANBU, slipped past a top secret barrier, and knew about the Nine-tails' seal being weak during child birth. Plus he was able to release the Nine-tails, tame it, and slip in and out of Konoha's barrier without being detected. There is only one person who could do that.
"Are you Madara Uchiha?" Minato questioned as the man lowered the hood on his black robes. "No, that's impossible. He's dead."
"I wonder about that," the man commented vaguely.
"At this point, it doesn't matter who you are," Minato decided. "Why are you targeting the Hidden Leaf?"
"I could say that I did it on a whim, or that I planned it," the man stated cryptically. "Or that it's war, or that it's for peace."
He raised his left arm and two chains fell out of the sleeve.
Minato readied himself and the man attached the chains to his wrists with the shackles on one end.
"Now that I've freed the Nine-tails, your people have no hope left!" the man stated as both charged.
Minato moved in to stab the man but this time, his entire body passed through the man before the chain, which Minato could now see was only one attached to both so that it was behind the man, wrapped around Minato's chest and bound stopped him. He teleported to one of his kunai as the man turned then turned toward the man.
I can't hurt him, Minato thought. But he has to materialize to hurt me. That is when I must strike.
Minato turned and charged at the man, throwing his kunai at the man's head with one hand and forming a Rasengan in the other. The man reached for his throat as the kunai passed through his head and the moment it was clear, Minato teleported to it, barely dodging the man's hand. He caught his kunai then slammed the Rasengan into the man's back, slamming him into the ground and placing a seal for his Teleportation Jutsu where the Rasengan hit. The man jumped out of the crater the blast made and gripped his shoulder, breathing heavily as his arm began to melt into a goo and fall out of his sleeve.
"Impressive," the man stated. "I can see now why-"
Minato teleported to the man and placed a contract seal on his chest.
"A contract seal?" the man raged, more surprised than angry, but only just. He intends to separate the Nine-tails from me?
"With this, the Nine-tails no longer belongs to you," Minato stated as the man's control over the Nine-tails broke.
The man jumped away, landing on a piece of rock and looked down at Minato.
"I must hand it to you," the man stated. "You managed to injure me and free the Nine-tails. However, the Nine-tails will be mine eventually."
With that, the man teleported away, his body swirling around the single eye hole and disappearing as it did. Just before he was gone, he spoke one last time.
"I am going to rule the world, and there are many ways to go about doing that," the man commented, then was gone.
Minato teleported back to his monument and saw the Nine-tails preparing another Tailed Beast ball, this one aimed at the Shinobi trying to fight it. Minato thought fast and began making hand seals.
"Summoning Jutsu!" he shouted before teleporting to the seal on top of the giant toad that appeared above the Nine-tails.
The toad fell fast and crashed down on top of the Nine-tails, pinning it to the ground but failing to stop it from preparing the attack.
"Hold it down for me," Minato commanded.
"That won't be easy, even for me," the Toad replied but did as instructed.
Minato then teleported himself, the Nine-tails, and the Tailed Beast Ball to his second house, grabbing Kushina and Naruto before teleporting outside as the Nine-tails fired its attack away from the village.
"I need to put up a barrier immediately," Minato stated but winced. My chakra is...
"I can still do it Minato," Kushina stated.
Then, she bit her lip against the pain of using her chakra as Chakra Chains shot out of her back and into the ground. Then, they shot out of the ground around the Nine-tails and bound it in place. Kushina bent forward, coughing up blood and Naruto began to cry loudly.
"Did I wake you up?" Kushina asked smiling. "I'm sorry Naruto."
"Kushina," Minato began but couldn't form any words.
"I'm going to draw the Nine-tails with me to my death," Kushina stated. "I can still save all of you and we can delay the revival of the Nine-tails."
"Kushina," Minato tried again this time managing to find the words. "It's because of you that I'm the Fourth Hokage. You made me a man. And you made me the father of our baby...And yet..."
"Minato, don't give me that look," Kushina smiled. "I'm happy to have had the chance to be with you. And today...is our son's birthday. If I were to imagine myself alive, and our future together...the three of us as a family...I can't imagine us having anything but a happy life. If I had just one regret, it's that I won't see Naruto grow up. I wish I could have seen that."
"You don't need to die with the Nine-tails," Minato said deciding on how to end the Nine-tails' attack. "Save what chakra you have left for the next time you see Naruto. I'll seal all of your remaining Chakra inside of Naruto, it will be part of an Eight Sign Seal. Then I'll take the Nine-tails with me, with the only sealing jutsu I can do since I'm not a Jinchuriki. The Reaper Death Seal."
"But the person that uses that seal..." Kushina trailed off knowing that he already knew the cost of the jutsu.
"One more thing," Minato began. "I can only seal half of the Nine-tails. It's impossible to seal something that powerful fully. It's also strategically unwise. If you seal the entire thing and you die, there will be no Jinchuriki for him, and it will upset the balance of power between the Tailed Beasts. I will seal half of it with me forever. As for the other half, I will seal it inside Naruto with the Eight Sign Seal. I know what you want to say. But remember what Master Jiraiya said about the world upheaval and the calamities that would follow. I learned two things today. First is that the man in the mask that attacked you today is a harbinger of disaster. And the one who will stop him is this child. This infant whose godfather is Master Jiraiya. He will open up the future as a Jinchuriki. I don't know why, but I'm convinced of this."
Just as Minato placed Naruto down to begin the jutsu, the Third Hokage arrived and stopped him.
"Don't," the Third Hokage commanded. "You intend to seal half of the Nine-tails inside the boy and drag the other half along with you while also sealing Kushina's remaining chakra inside Naruto's seal, do you not?"
"How did you..." Minato began but stopped and pulled away. "I have to do this."
"No you don't," the Third Hokage stated. "Allow me to use the jutsu while you command the Shinigami. I will seal the Nine-tails inside Naruto and myself. I will also have the Shinigami save Kushina using the lives it has collected over the years. You will be able to raise your son together with your wife and be a family, as you should be."
"I..." Minato began wanting to refuse but decided that, for once, the selfish option was truly the best option. "Alright. And Thank you."
The Third Hokage nodded and began making hand seals before clapping.
"Reaper Death Seal!" the Third Hokage shouted as the spectral entity that was the Shinigami formed behind him, visible only to himself and Minato, and the latter only because the Third Hokage wished it so.
"Stop!" Kushina shouted. "Please! He's our son, please don't put such a terrible burden on him!"
"He can handle it," Minato assured her. "He'll have the both of us. And he is your son, after all."
The Shinigami suddenly thrust its left hand down through the Third Hokage's chest, also putting it through the chakra silhouette of him that had formed before the Shinigami with its arms out to its sides. The arm extended from the Third Hokage's chest, tearing a round hole in his shirt then stopping. Minato willed it to retrieve the Nine-tails' chakra and it shot forward latching on instantly at the Demon Fox's left foreleg.
"Seal!" the Third Hokage shouted.
The Nine-tails roared in pain as half of its chakra was pulled out of it and toward the Third Hokage, being sealed inside him and leaving an Eight Sign Seal in the hole where the Shinigami's arm had been.
"Alright," Minato stated placing his hand on the ground and summoning an alter. "Next is Naruto."
He set his son on the alter and returned to the Third Hokage who nodded to him to show he was ready. Just then, some of the chains, which now hung loosely off of the now smaller Nine-tails, fell to the ground as Kushina began to cough up more blood. The Nine-tails roared in rage and swung at Naruto, meaning to kill him with one of his claws but just before he could, the Third Hokage jumped in the way and the claw pierced his stomach, stopping just short of Naruto when it embedded itself in the Adamantine Staff the Third had used to get the Nine-tails out of the Hidden Leaf.
"Damn," the Third Hokage groaned but smiled. "That was close."
He looked over at Kushina and Minato, both of which he had tripped to keep from doing the exact same thing.
"Sorry about that," the Third Hokage smiled. "Couldn't have you making this plan pointless. Now, shall we finish? I'm almost out of time."
"Do it," Minato nodded standing.
"Eight Sign Seal!" the Third Hokage said as the Shinigami extended its arm from his chest once again, this time dragging what was left of the Nine-tails' chakra into Naruto's stomach where the seal formed, trapping the Nine-tails. "Alright. Now for Kushina. Minato, take care of the Hidden Leaf. And tell Asuma, to hurry up and give me a grandchild."
"I will," Minato smiled. "Thank you again, Lord Third."
"You're welcome, my friend," the Third Hokage smiled. "Release!"
The Shinigami drew the dagger it had clamped in its mouth and in one movement cut its stomach open the same wound opening on the Third Hokage. Then, the Shinigami reached through the Third Hokage's chest one last time, its arm stretching around and pulling chakra out of its stomach and passing it into Kushina. The chakra fused with her own, rather than being sealed inside her and she was healed instantly. Then, the Shinigami's arm retracted from the Third Hokage and its knife severed the link between the Third Hokage and his chakra. The chakra flew into the Shinigami's mouth and the Shinigami faded. Then, the Third Hokage fell forward. Minato caught him and set him down gently before helping his wife up. The two of them then walked over to their son and smiled.
"I'm sorry Naruto," Minato smiled. "But it looks like you're stuck with us."
Read and review. Naruto's personality will be fairly different but still somewhat the same. He will be a lot smarter but will still be rash and impulsive however will be a lot more disciplined. Obviously this is an AU story, so it will probably not follow the cannon story line too well.