Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or its franchize.
"I want to travel somewhere."
The statement caught the two adults in the room off guard, causing the two to look at their eldest child.
"What do you mean travel somewhere?" the father decided to ask since his wife seemed to be at a loss for words.
The eldest child stared into his father's eyes and repeated his statement, "It means I want to travel somewhere father. Outside of the village, see what lies beyond the huge gates."
"But... why?" the boy's mother asked, finally getting over the initial shock of her son saying something so out of his usual reserved personality.
His mother's question caused the boy to sigh deeply and glance at his two siblings across the lawn.
"Because I have nothing here," the boy explained, "You two refuse to train me or let anyone else do it for you. As for my education, I've already graduated from the civilian school seven years in advance."
"But there are plenty more things to learn then just school stuff!" his mother exclaimed, trying to dissuade her son from his 'traveling' thoughts.
Another sigh escaped the boy's mouth at the sight of his mother's desperate expression and her apparent lack of knowledge of the restrictions placed upon the civilians.
"Father, this is a shinobi village correct?" the boy asked his father.
"Yes, I should know since I lead it," his father replied, knowing where his boy was going with.
"As such most of the information in the village is related to shinobi matters. You can see this when you go to the library since nearly 80% of the books there are restricted to shinobi only."
The boy looked at his mother and saw that she was still not getting what he was saying.
"But what about the other 20%, you can read those can't you?" she asked.
"That's the thing mother, I already have," the boy responded and once he told her that fact, she finally got what he was trying to convey.
There was nothing left in the village for him to learn.
"You two recorded me as a civilian years ago and my siblings as shinobi-in-training. Even father, the leader of the village, can't alter village documents on a whim with no valid explanation," the boy continued.
His father had known what he was saying since the beginning and had sported a look of sadness the entire time, while his mother had only just gotten the message.
"You wouldn't would you, Naruto?" his father asked him.
"Can you give me a reason not to father?" Naruto asked back.
"What are you two talking about?" his mother asked, confused at the unspoken topic of the two male's conversation.
"Naruto, as a civilian, is allowed to freely leave and enter the village as long as he isn't registered at a merchant or a trader. As shinobi the only thing we can do is revoke his Hidden Leaf citizenship if he leaves or try to falsely accuse him of a crime in order to detain him and place him in jail, but even then the accusation was false so he would be released quickly and he'll be able to leave," his father explained to his wife. He was the village leader after all; the man knew the ins and outs of the village laws like it was the back of his hand.
That left the redheaded woman speechless and her mouth gaping like a fish.
Naruto watched as she slowly turned to look at him and tears slowly springing from the corners of her eyes.
"You wouldn't would you Naruto?" she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
"I'm not a shinobi mother," Naruto said, "I've wanted to be a shinobi for a long time but you two denied me of that future by refusing to train me or anyone who wanted to train me. I cannot access the other 80% of the documents in the library and no one can check them out for me either as that is against the law. Heck, you two even put chakra suppression seals on me to prevent me from training on my own. I've always wondered why I was refused and stunted while my siblings got all the glory, but I never questioned you two. Somewhere deep inside my mind, I knew that you two had a reason to do it so I stayed inside the bounds that you two set for me. However, I have learned everything that I am able to inside those bounds so I wish to leave the village so that I can learn what else is out there in the world."
At this point, his mother was weeping silently while his father comforted her with a knowing look, a look that told Naruto that everything he said was true and the only people that his father could blame was himself and his wife.
"I'll let Jiraiya-sensei know tonight," the blonde leader told his son, "He should be able to guide you to your first destination but from there you're on your own."
This made the redheaded woman in his arms gasp loudly and rip herself away from his embrace.
"WHAT?!" Kushina screamed, "You're letting him go?!"
"He would leave anyway, this way he'll at least be safe as he leaves the Hidden Leaf's boundaries since there've been a few disturbances in the area," Minato explained.
"But..." his mother trailed off.
"We only have ourselves to blame for this and this way he'll be happy and not bitter as he leaves. Plus, he doesn't have much international presence since we've kept him out of the shinobi world so he'll be safe from our enemies," Minato soothed his wife and turned to face his son.
"I'm sorry Naruto, for everything we didn't do as your parents and for retraining you for this long."
"Don't apologize, father, I stopped caring about it some time ago. All I want is to travel the world and you're granting me that wish, so thank you," Naruto replied before heading back inside the house to pack.
Minato followed his son's example and sighed deeply as he held Kushina and watched his remaining two children struggle to master water walking on the pond that cut into their backyard.
"Is it right of me to be sad?" Minato heard his wife ask quietly.
"I... I don't know," he replied, "We didn't have to retrain him as much as we did but we did anyway."
"I just feel like we neglected him in favor for his sisters and make him think that we love them more than we love him," Kushina told her husband.
"Looking back at the past nine years ever since the three of them turned four... we kind of did push him aside for the girls. He has the full right to think that," Minato said in a hushed tone.
"What about the girls? What are we going to tell them?" she asked.
"I don't know how close they are with Naruto since they've been living a completely different life than Naruto. Have you seen them hanging out with Naruto?"
"No, the only time I see the three of them all together is during breakfast and dinner. Granted I haven't been paying that much attention in the first place."
"Well, the girls go to the Academy until three and hang out with their friends from the Academy afterward usually, then they come home and train with you or one of my shadow clones."
"So no, they haven't been hanging out with Naruto," Kushina concluded.
"Yeah," Minato agreed with a heavy heart, "We'll just have to make the most of the time we have with him and prepare some presents and equipment's that he can take with him."
"Oh! Some heavy-duty sealing scrolls would come in handy for him," Kushina exclaimed which made Minato wince.
"Kushina... he can't use them, he doesn't have the chakra required to open them," Minato informed her.
"Oh yeah... the suppression seals," Kushina said quietly, her mood sinking once again, "Can't we just remove them?"
"Even if we did, he would just blow up the scrolls since he won't know how to control it and it would also make him a target for enemy shinobi. He already had more chakra than an average chunin when he was four. So with his red hair and large chakra pool, Kumo would target him," Minato told her, shooting her idea down.
The two adults fell silent at Kushina didn't have the mental energy to continue the conversation and Minato understood that.
*SPLASH*
"FUCK!"
"LANGUAGE!"
Minato couldn't help but let out a small chuckle at his two daughters' antics.
He watched as Narumi pulled herself out of the water with the help of Mito. He then pictured what it would look like if Naruto was there as well, practicing alongside his sisters and laughing with them. Minato saw Naruto holding Narumi's other hand as he and Mito pulled their sister out of the water only for Narumi to yank the two into the water with her.
"Only if right?" Kushina asked her husband, knowing what he was thinking about since she was doing the same thing.
"Yeah, only if," Minato replied and watched as his fantasy faded to reality. Naruto disappeared and it was just Mito and Narumi in the water, Mito yelling at her sister while Narumi laughed wholeheartedly.
"I should get started on dinner," Kushina said as she got up and headed inside, "Can you get the girls?"
Minato nodded in response and got up as well.
"MITO, NARUMI!" Minato yelled across the lawn.
"YEAH DAD?!" Narumi yelled back.
"DINNER!" he yelled back and that was all he needed to say before the two girls shot out of the water and across the backyard.
"What's for dinner?" Mito asked while Minato used his wind chakra to dry off the girls.
"You'll find out as soon as you two clean up," Minato told his daughters and smiled as the two-headed disappeared into the house.
Their laughter rang throughout his head but now it didn't sound right anymore, because it was missing one more voice.