Sealed Within

Oh, and another important thing. Well, two things actually. First, ENGLISH is NOT my first language. Second, I am reading lots of good fics and I am also heavily inspired by them. There is a high possibility; no I am certain, that I will have very similar events or ideas of some stories. Please stick with me on that. And if you think that I have gone too far taking ideas from other stories and/or of you are an author who has used them, feel free to contact me and I will see if I can change the particular section.

Whoever finds spelling or grammar errors can keep them. Seriously, they're yours. My Christmas gift to all of you. But if you do find some major mistakes tell me in a REVIEW or PM. Thank you!

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Prologue.

The Fourth Hokage sat in the Hokage's office, head hanging down, eyes fixed onto the ground. The office was crowded with several prominent people, such as the leaders of various clans, or important ninja. They would have used the council meeting room which would have provided sufficient space, wouldn't it already be in ruins due to a large boulder flying through the air, as the Nine-Tailed Fox had the great idea of throwing boulders at the village. A large bowl of beef ramen stood on the Hokage's desk. It was still hot and steaming when the sad looking Hokage decided to continue eating it. Even his famous hair seemed sad, the tips seemingly bending downwards. He slowly raised his head, lifting his eyes to look at the gathered people. Nobody said a word, the silence was overwhelming and the tension was so thick; everyone felt affected by it. If anyone thought about saying a word, they wouldn't dare. Because this would most likely be the last bowl of ramen that Konoha's Yellow Flash would ever eat. After a few minutes of intense eating and slurping, the bowl was as empty as Tsunade's piggy bank. The Hogake looked up again. Sorrow filled his eyes. Sadness. Even the cold blooded Uchiha Fugaku, head of the Uchiha clan, father of Uchiha Itachi and the newly born Uchiha Sasuke, had to look away.

"I thank you all for coming here, in one of the darkest hours Konoha has ever seen," The Fourth said, finally breaking the silence, "and I am sure that there will be even darker ones to follow within the next hours."

No response. Complete silence.

"I have made up my mind. Kyuubi is unstoppable and the only way to defeat it is to seal its soul into a newborn. As I told you yesterday, I will not ask any of you to sacrifice their child, for that would be against every sense of humanity and my pride as the Hokage."

Again, complete silence.

"Therefore, I shall seal Kyuubi no Kitsune inside my own son."

A few gasps in the crowd. "Y-you have a son, Hokage-sama?" somebody managed to ask.

"Yes... I do. He was born last night, 1:59 in the morning," he replied while clapping his hands twice, "and he shall be the hero of our village." He said finishing the sentence as a rather large pillow was brought into the room. Inside the large pillow was a small baby, tucked under a small blanket, sleeping peacefully, totally oblivious to the surrounding crowd.

The baby had golden hair, already spiky, sticking into all possible directions and easily rivalling the hair of his father in that aspect. His eyes were shut and he was peacefully sucking on this right thumb.

"Take a good look people. This will be the person to save you from total destruction." Then he clapped his hands again and the nurse who brought the small baby into the room left, bringing him now to the sealing chamber. Jiraiya, who stood behind his student the whole time, put a comforting on Minato's shoulder. Feeling the hand on his shoulder, Minato turned to his right and smiled at his sensei. He then turned back to the crowd and started speaking again.

"To all those of you gathered, young and old, listen closely." The Hokage now had full attention. "As you know, there is a 99 per cent chance of me dying while performing the sealing. These will be my final instructions as a Hokage. These will also be classified as laws of the village and my friends here," he pointed at Jiraiya, Tsunade and the Third, "will make sure that you will obey these laws. Is that clear?"

Everybody nodded.

"I said, is that CLEAR?" He asked again, raising his voice. With a result.

"Hai, Hokage-sama!" The gathered people answered in union.

"Good, now listen. My son's name will be Uzumaki Naruto. Nobody, except Jiraiya-sensei and Sarutobi-sensei are to inform Naruto OR any other ninja or villager of his lineage. My wife... she is in a deep coma and has been brought away from the village. She is in the company of my two most trusted ANBU members who are the most skilled medic nins and exceptional fighters. I have instructed them to leave Konoha and escape to a city, far away from here. This scroll," the Fourth pulled out a scroll from his robes and handed it to the Third, "contains the exact location of that village and will be handed to my son when Jiraiya or the Third think he is old enough to travel there without getting himself killed."

The crowd nodded, most of them with a sympathizing glint in their eyes.

"And... one more thing." The Hokage's voice now changed into a low whispered growl, "if any of you EVER dare to hurt my son, I will make sure that you will pay and live through his pain tenfold in the afterlife... That's my last promise."

Those words were full of power and authority, even the cold Hyuuga and Uchiha had shivers going down their spines.

"Now... come and say your final goodbyes, my dear friends."

Some people left without a word, only deeply bowing into the Hokage's direction. Their heads hanging low and you could see their emotions across their faces.

As the Hokage stood up and moved in front of his desk, those who wished to bid farewell to their beloved leader lined up. The first ones were the two village council elders, who said nothing but deeply bowed to the Hokage. If they had any emotions, they hid them perfectly well.

Next was Hyuuga Hiashi who had recently been announced head of the Hyuuga clan. He looked the Hokage straight into the eyes and said

"Our relationship may not always been the best, Hokage-sama, but I deeply respect your decisions and the love for our home village. You shall always be rememberd as one of the greatest leaders in history and will always be respected by the Hyuuga clan. May your next life be a joyful one." After bowing and saying that, all the Hyuuga's left.

Next one was Uchiha Fugaku. He too bowed deeply and then spoke, "Hokage-sama... I don't know what to say. Except that you shall be remembered among the Uchiha's as the strongest leader Konoha has ever had and the first person to be fast enough to make my Sharingan useless."

The Hokage grinned at that statement. "And I could do it again. But hey, I still think that you're a bastard with a stick up his ass who took over a year to realize that she," he pointed behind the man, at his wife, "was so crazy in love with you that she would even go up against me in a ramen eating competition if it would make you show some reaction."

This statement lead to light laughter among the remaining people and two blushing Uchiha.

Next in the line was a young Uchiha. He had black hair and wore a black shirt with a large Uchiha fan printed on the back. He normally wore his Jonin vest but he took it off for this occasion. He was none other than Uchiha Itachi. He got down on one knee, and bowed his head in respect. His voice was quiet but the room was in complete silence due to his rather strange behavior. Even though he was one of the male Uchiha's who was blessed with the ability to show a tiny bit of emotion in public, it was still a rare sight to see.

"Hokage-sama, I swear on my eyes that I will do my best to protect your son as good as I can."

A lot of eyebrows rose. An Uchiha swearing on his Sharingan eyes was the highest form of promise that an Uchiha could give. And the fact that such a young Uchiha who, by the way, had received Jonin status at such an age did such a vow was even more unique.

The Hokage gave one of his genuine smiles. One of those smiles which would make girls chase him all over Konoha. If it hadn't been for his famous Flying Thunder God jutsu, nobody would even want to think of what his fan girls would have done to him.

"Thank you Itachi. You don't know how much that means to me."

Itachi raised his head and smiled back. The Hokage patted him on his head and had to fight back a tear.

The next ones to approach him were the remaining two members of his team. Kakashi and Rin. Both of them had tears running down their cheeks.

Several goodbyes and hours later...

Minato, the Fourth Hokage, Konoha's Yellow Flash, stood on Gamabunta's head. Next to him on Gamabunta's head was a small table with the pillow on top of it. Naruto was still asleep. Minato looked at the sleeping form of his son and ran a hand through his spiked blonde hair on his small head. He sighed. Minato did not dare to look behind him. All of the remaining shinobi were standing on top of Konoha's walls, along with two of the Sannin and the Third who would ironically be his successor. All eyes on him. All lives relying on him. If he didn't succeed in sealing the Fox into his own son, who knows what Kyuubi would do to the village. Minato's eyes wandered to the woods where the Fox made his way towards him and the ridiculously large toad he was standing upon.

'Am I doing the right thing? Sealing the fox into... Naruto. Naruto. My Naruto. My son. Kushina said that I should. That I'd have to. Yes, I have to. The lifes of everyone rely upon my young boy. But... Even if he is their savoir, they will still treat him a way... in a way they would treat an actual monster. Then is easy to predict... The villagers who lost loved ones will need an outlet for their rage and sadness.'

Minato bend down and kissed his still sleeping son on the forehead, while his hand trailed down to his kunai holster and pulled out one of his famous three-pronged kunai. He used the kunai to make a small cut on his thumb and smeared the blood onto Naruto's stomach. Kyuubi was dangerously close now. Tears started forming in Minato Namikaze's eyes as he started performing the series of hand seals. Kyuubi noticed him doing something and came to halt, only a few meters away from Gamabunta.

"So. You are facing me now, aren't you?"

Minato didn't bother to reply, as he held a mental conversation with the Death God.

"Human! I will kill you. Devour you. You death shall be my purest enjoyment."

Minato finished his conversation with the Death God who was now preparing himself to feast on Kyuubi's devil part of soul so that Minato could seal the rest into the newborn. Minato couldn't seal the entire soul of the Fox, it would be way to large for Naruto to hold inside. That's why the Death God would eat the 'bad' part of Kyuubi's soul which would result in the 'good' part being able to be sealed inside Naruto.

"Oh, hi Mr. Fox. Yeah, you see, this is the end."

"HOW DARE YOU. I will RIP YOU APART, HEAL YOU and DO IT AGAIN."

"Really? Wow. But in case you haven't noticed, you won't ever have the chance to do that."

Kyuubi let out a feral growl and started to swing one of his tails at Gamabunta who was bracing himself for impact, but the impact never came. Instead, Kyuubi's tail froze dead in its tracks.

"W-what i-is h-h-happening?"

Minato was too weak to answer. He could feel his life energy leaving him. Images flashed in front of his eyes. His old team. Kakashi, Rin and Obito. His sensei, Ero-sennin. All the fun he had back then. Then images of him and Kushina entered his mind. Their wedding, the first time they've met and all the ups and downs they went through together.

He somehow found the energy to turn his head and to look at Naruto. To his surprise, Naruto's eyes were open. Those blue orbs looked right back at him. And he smiled. Naruto's first smile and Minato was still alive and able to see it. The smile burned its way into Minato's brain. The smile which said everything. A genuine smile. Maybe even a smile of forgiveness. The images of Naruto flushed into Minato's brain. The first time he had held him in his arms, and Naruto's tiny hands tightly holding onto his Hokage robes.

The will to protect Naruto surged thorough Minato. All he wanted at that moment was to protect Naruto with everything he had. Guiding Naruto through his life and being there for him when he needed a father to be there for him.

That was the moment he noticed that something was wrong. Something had changed during the sealing process. Minato could feel something else being sucked out of him. But it wasn't being sucked in by the Death God, no, by something else.

Then everything went black.

The last thing he could hear was, "Oh shit, not agai-"

End of Prologue.