A/n: After a failed attempt at writing fanfics three years ago I have come back trying to catch the interest of readers. Please R&R and do tell me how my second attempt is.
Disclaimer: I do not claim to own any part of the Naruto franchise. All rights and ownership belongs to Masashi Kishimoto and Shonen Jump.
Nope. Not gonna do that again.
*Warning*: May contain spoilers (I highly doubt that) for those who don't know the history of Kirigakure and have not read after the Naruto bijuu training arc.
Chapter 1: The Plot
"Hey Ma?" called Akihito meekly. He wriggled under the sheets uneasily. His mother came back into the dim lit room.
"What is it dear?" she asked, standing at the bedside waiting for a reply. The kid squirmed under the sheets and tried to bring up some courage.
"I'm not that sleepy now. Can I stay up like you and Dad?" he finally pleaded flinching when his mother made the stern expression he had hoped she wouldn't make.
"Now now, how many times have I told you? You are still only four years old. You can sleep late after you grow up to be an adult like us." She reprimanded. As soft as she was Mrs. Uzumaki knew where and where not her children needed pampering. And this was one of the strong 'where not' regions.
"Fine. But at least tell me a story to put me to sleep. Please" he asked dragging the last word a little. She seemed satisfied with the compromise and drew a stool closer to the bed.
"Do you want to hear an old one or should I tell you a new one?" she asked seating herself. Akihito thought for a moment
"Tell me the one about you and Dad. I like that story" he said. Mrs. Uzumaki smiled. She brushed the little boys red hair off his forehead and began
"Long ago in a beautiful place called Uzushiogakure the lived a young noble called Taro Uzumaki. Even though Taro was a very big noble he didn't act like one. He was kind silly and mischievous just like a little naughty boy that I know" she started playfully tickling her son making him erupt into a fit of giggles.
"One day he ate some sweet bread at one of his relative's house. It was very tasty! The young man decided he had to find the person who made the wonderful sweet bread and compliment him or her. Thus after searching for a long time he found and met the man who had baked the bread."
"That's Ojji-san right? The breadman?"Exclaimed Akihito excitedly with sparkling eyes.
"Very good hito-kun! You remember!" she said softly ruffling his hair. He smiled at the praise. "The young man decided to learn to bake bread. He wanted to try and make the delicious sweet bread himself. So he sneaked away from his house every evening to go to the bakery and spend his time with the baker and his daughter learning to bake bread"
"Daddy was a naughty boy. You shouldn't sneak away, right Ma?" he interjected once again, smiling proudly when his mother nodded.
"After failing many times, finally the young man had baked some sweet bread that was almost as good as the baker's own sweet bread. The baker congratulated him and said' Give it to someone special son. Because the love and effort that you put in the bread will show in the taste'. The young man handed the bread to the baker's daughter. He told the baker that they had fallen in love and asked him for her hand in marriage. The baker happily approved and gave them both his blessings. The man and the baker's daughter lived happily ever after. The End"
Akihito was barely awake by the time the story ended. Mrs. Uzumaki smiled and kissed him on the forehead.
"Sleep tight my little angel" she whispered tucking him in properly and turning off the lamp in his room before leaving.
"Is he asleep?" asked Mr. Uzumaki. She took the empty rice bowl in his hand and filled it with another serving.
"Yes. Like an angel. You know, he wanted to hear our story again." She replied smiling warmly. "He is growing up. Daddy would have wanted to see him grow. He would have spoiled the boy, smothering him with grandfatherly love"
"Yes. He would have." He agreed solemnly
In what seemed like a cave sat a tall man wearing an orange spiral mask. He shuffled the nine differently colored pieces in his hand and peered at the map of the elemental countries that lay on the table before him.
"I have procured intelligence on two of the nine jinchuriki" he told the orange haired man seated in front of him
"The kyuubi jinchuriki resides in Konoha. The seal is a complex one and the bijuu cannot be extracted easily. However it is slowly weakening" he said twirling the red piece and placing it on Konohagakure. "I will deal with the extraction myself"
"I doubt there is a need for you to personally oversee the extraction Madara-san. I shall send some of my bodies to do that" objected the orange haired man
"Don't be so arrogant Pein! You underestimate the power of the Kyuubi. There is no doubt you will not be able to overpower it with 'a few bodies'. Besides, you forget I have a 'history' with the vile beast." Retorted Madara sharply. Pein hated to agree with him but he was right.
"And what of the second one?" he questioned trying to change the subject.
"Ah yes" he said placing the white one on Kirigakure "The famous prodigy, Jinchuriki of sanbi, Yondaime Mizukage Yagura"
"Kiri is known as the field of bloodlines. It will not be easy to capture the mizukage and evade his forces."
"Worry not, I have planned for this discrepancy. A civil war will be waged against the bloodline clans. There is nothing that weakens a nation more than internal bloodshed. Kiri shall witness the so called 'pain' you speak of. The nation will cripple and fall. This shall make our mission progress smoothly"
"An excellent plan indeed. But how do you plan to instigate the war"
"Who says I will instigate the war? I will give nothing more than a nudge."
"If not you then who will do it?" questioned pein truly curious.
"It is simple. The war will be instigated by the Mizukage himself" he replied his voice getting colder.
"Nonsense! The Mizukage is not foolish enough to weaken his own country! You are over your head!" Pein cried aggravated
"Why don't you leave the details to me? I shall decide whether it is possible or not." Madara said sharply. Pein could feel a strong killing intent directed towards him.
"Hmph! Do as you desire! I will leave both of them to you for now" Pein replied before leaving the room. Madara watched his retreating back and relaxed into his chair. He picked up both the markers and gripped them tightly.
"Soon, the onslaught will begin" He said, his voice echoing throughout the empty room.
"Minato-kun. I asked for miso ramen. This isn't miso ramen. I can't smell any miso in it. It looks more like beef ramen!" glowered a redhead.
'Damn it! I told Teuchi to cut up the beef like miso! It should look the same! How can she differentiate them only by smell?!' thought Minato
"Well you see Kushina…um…Teuchi ran out of miso. So I thought you wouldn't mind beef ramen. Ramen is ramen right?" he replied nervously. However famous and powerful he was he knew better. To further infuriate Kushina Uzumaki-Namikaze would be the same as giving a certain pedophilic snake bastard a scalpel and asking him to experiment with your body to his heart's content.
"I would have been satisfied with beef ramen. But why did you try to mask it as miso ramen. Do you think I would be fooled so easily? Are you underestimating me just because I'm pregnant Minato-kun?" she asked saying the last word a little too sweetly pronouncing each of the syllables separately. Shivers ran down his spine.
You see, an angry Kushina was a dangerous but an angry pregnant Kushina with crazy hormones and mood swings who was deprived of the ramen of her choice was outright deadly.
'There is nothing that can save me now! Sensei, I hope you can take care of the village as its Godaime hokage!' freaked poor Minato.
-Far away somewhere-
"Achoo!"Sneezed Jiraiya.'Why do I feel like someone is trying to put me up with a responsibility I don't want. Also I am feeling very sad for Minato for some reason. Oh well, can't let that disturb my research!' "Show me the goods ladies!" he giggled perversely peering through his telescope from on top of a tree.
-Back to Konoha-
"Minato!" thundered Kushina raising her fist. Minato closed his eyes ready to feel the powerful punch and repeatedly chanted 'Please not the jewels'. After a few second when the hit didn't come he stopped chanting and opened his eyes. Kushina was clutching her stomach with a surprised expression. Minato hurried to her side.
"Is everything alright Kushina-chan?" he asked clearly worried about her. She muttered something slowly. "I didn't get you. Is everything alright?" he asked once again
"He kicked…" she said a little louder. Minato tried to comprehend what his wife was saying.
"Wha?" he said before understanding what she meant "Are you serious Kushina-chan?" he asked happiness overwhelming him
"Yes, yes I am sure! I felt him! Here Minato-kun feel it!" she exclaimed happily placing his hand on the swell of her stomach. "Naru-chan, Do it again! Please, for Daddy this time" she said. The room was totally quiet for a few moments
"I…I felt it!" cried Minato. Both of the parents smiled happily. Kushina could feel tears of joy flowing down her face.
"Oh My God! I just realized! We haven't done anything yet! What kind of a father am I? We haven't painted the walls, we haven't bought all the toys yet, we haven't bought any baby clothes, we haven't…." Minato rambled
"Minato" called Kushina trying to call him down. "Minato….MINATO!" she cried plunging a spoonful of hot ramen into his blabbering mouth. He stopped and looked at Kushina, his eyes watering due to the heat of the ramen. His taste buds might be out of commission for a week or so.
"Calm down. There are still three months left. We will do all of those things. I'm sure you will be a great father" she said. Minato gulped down the hot ramen. "Thank you Kushina-chan. I needed that" he said
"We will be ready for him then. When he is born we will shower him with so much love, so much love that even words cannot describe how much we will love him" she said. "We will have so much fun together. I will scold him if he doesn't eat all his vegetables. We all will sleep in the same bed snuggling together. He will go out with his Tou-san on the weekends. Both of us will train him well. He might, no he will become stronger than both of us"
"Yes Kushina, we will do all that" replied Minato hugging her. "Thank you for giving me this wonderful gift." He said tears of joy flowing down his face too.
And that's Chapter 1 folks. Yeah, it is kinda short. I don't think I can do long chapters yet. Also I feel that I have done a lot of grammatical mistakes. Please do tell me if you find any. Now, on to explaining some of the instances in the chapter:
*The vocabulary and the usage of appropriate words in the bedtime story was kinda poor. That was done on purpose. You can't expect a four year old to understand some words. Though they may appear easy to us it is not to them. I tried it on my cousin brother. Oh, and what Akihito meant by breadman was a baker
*Taro Uzumaki is not a direct relative of Kushina. They are more of cousins, though they know each other personally
*Though the story mainly concerns Akihito and Kirigakure, I feel the need to insert certain sections about our favourite blonde shinobi. It will be mainly canon based until a certain limit but since the history of Kirigakure is not explained in detail most of it would be made up
*I reckoned that even though Madara and Pein work together there will be some amount of dispute and mistrust between them. Also we know who is actually behind the mask. I plan to use 'Madara' until I feel like revealing the actual identity so bear with me
*Updates might be a little slow. I prefer writing it down on paper before typing it and it takes a lot to motivate me to type.
That's all folks. Thanks for reading! Be sure to leave a review! Ciao!