Disclaimer: If I owned Naruto, would I be writing fan fiction? – I obviously don't own Naruto.
AN: I have not abandoned my other stories. I'm halfway through the next chapter of The Meaning of Dreams; I'm also almost halfway done with the next chapter of The Lost Son. I'm not really sure where I'm going with Memories of a Lifetime, but I'm sure I'll figure it out soon. This is a story idea I've had and decided to see what I can do with it and where it takes me. I apologize for any spelling or grammar mistakes that I may have made.
Chapter One: Who are you?
"Mommy! Daddy! Watch this!" said the four year old boy as he tried to climb a tree.
"Be careful, Naruto. I don't want you to fall and get hurt," said the boy's father as he walked over to the tree his son was attempting to climb.
"You worry too much. You're such a mother hen at times, Minato-kun. Sometimes I wonder, with the way you act, if you were the one who carried him for nine months," said a young woman with long red hair.
"I believe I worry just enough, Kushina-chan."
"I think that becoming the Hokage has made you overly paranoid."
"Help me up!" Naruto said, realizing he couldn't make it up the tree on his own.
"What do you need to say?" Kushina asked.
"Please! Please help me up!"
"Alright," Minato said, picking up his son and placing him on a low branch while not letting go of him.
"Thank you, daddy. Let me go… please?" Naruto asked as he tried to squirm out of his father's hold.
"No, I don't want you to fall."
The little boy pouted before looking around. "Wow! I'm so far up!"
Kushina gave her son a smile before responding, "Yeah, I think you're taller than me now."
Naruto gasped before turning to his father. "Am I really taller than mommy?" he asked.
"Right now you are," Minato said with a small smile.
"Cool!"
"-shi!…Arashi!…ARASHI!"
"Err… yeah? What do ya want, Iruka-sensei?" asked a boy with brown spiky hair.
"I want for you to not fall asleep when I am teaching."
"I'll try, Sensei," the boy known as Arashi said.
Iruka sighed and turned back to the board to continue the lesson. When Iruka had his back turned, Arashi turned to the boy he was sitting next to.
"Hey, Shikamaru… How come he rarely catches you when you're sleeping?" whispered Arashi.
"It's too troublesome to explain," responds Shikamaru.
"Aww! Come on!"
Shikamaru gives a small sigh before saying, "I try to sleep sitting up or with a book in front of my face… Also, I don't snore."
"I do not snore!"
"It's too troublesome to start arguing with you."
"And what's that suppo-"
"Shikamaru! Arashi! Do you boys have something to share?" Iruka asked as he turned back around to face the boys.
"Nope," Arashi responded.
"Then quit talking and listen."
"Okay."
"Now, as I was saying before…"
"Stupid Iruka-sensei… giving us all that homework… 'The graduation exam is coming up. You need to be sure that you're well prepared.'… Bah! I hate homework!" Arashi mumbled as he walked into his one room apartment.
The kitchen was on the right when you walked into the apartment. Arashi's kitchen was made up of a mini refrigerator, a sink and countertop, two cabinets, a small stove, a table, and a chair. On the left of the apartment was his bed, which was next to a window, and a nightstand with an alarm clock. At the far end of the apartment were two doors; one led to a small bathroom and the other led into a closet that stored copies of his usual outfit – orange pants, black shirt, and an orange jacket. A small sofa was pushed up against the wall between the two doors. The décor of the room consisted of pale green walls with scattered posters tacked on them.
"I'm just not gonna do the homework. I already know what I need to know. I'll pass the exam for sure!" Arashi said to himself as he walked to the kitchen area. He opened the refrigerator and looked around in it before going over to one of the two cabinets and rummaging through it.
'Looks like I need to get some more food. All I have left to eat is some instant ramen, celery, some close-to-being-expired milk, and an unidentifiable greenish-blue thing that's growing in the corner of the refrigerator... I should probably clean out the refrigerator before that thing starts to move or grow eyes or something,' Arashi thought as he pulled the ramen out of the cabinet and started to prepare it. 'I'll have to get some more hair dye while I'm out getting groceries. I think I'm almost out of that too.'
After about three minutes, Arashi sat down at the table and began to eat his meal. 'It's not that late. After I'm done eating, I'll go do my shopping. I think have enough money left over from this month's allowance to get some of what I need now instead waiting for the beginning of next month.'
As soon as he finished eating, Arashi grabbed his wallet and headed out the door.
'All right, I've got some apples, some fish, and some bread. Now all I need to do is get the hair dye. I'll wait to get some milk since I don't have that much money left,' Arashi thought as he left a grocery store with two bags in his arms. It was getting late and the sun was starting to set.
"Umm…" 'Damn. I forgot where I got the dye from last time.' Arashi made it a habit to get his hair dye from a different store than the one he went to last time when he needed some more. He didn't want any one to find out or get suspicious about it.
'I haven't been to the store near the Hokage Tower in a while. I'll just go there. I hope it's still open for the day.'
Arashi rushed down the street, hoping that the store wasn't already closed. As he began to turn a corner he thought, 'If it's closed, I guess I can just get some tomor-'
BAM!
"Oww!…" 'What ran into me… or what did I run into?' Arashi was on the ground with his groceries spread out around him.
"Are you okay?"
As Arashi looked up to see what, or who, he ran into, the color drained from his face. 'Oh no!'
"You know you didn't have to come here to get me," said the Fourth Hokage.
"I know, but I was already out of the house and I knew that since you weren't already home, we wouldn't be eating until the moon was out if I let you try to finish up all this paperwork," Kushina said to her husband.
"Sorry, Kushina-chan. I get flooded with all this paperwork and-"
"You lose track of time. It's fine. Comes with the job, right?"
"Yeah. Come on, let's go get something to eat," Minato said as he got up out of his chair and walked around his desk.
"Are you sure you don't want to finish up here? I can wait."
"Yeah, I'm sure, let's go."
Both Minato and Kushina walked out of the Hokage office and down the hall. The Fourth Hokage nodded to the various ninjas they passed as the walked. Once they left the building, they made a right and walked side by side.
"Do you want to go to a restaurant or eat at home tonight?" Minato asked.
"Hmm… Do you feel like eating at that one barbeque place?"
"Sounds good," Minato said as they started to turn down a different street.
"I heard they had a ne-Oof!" Kushina said as someone ran into her.
"Are you-?" Minato began but Kushina waved him off and nodded her head. They both turned their attention to the young boy who ran into Kushina. He was on the ground and whatever he was carrying – groceries, it looked like – was also on the ground around him.
"Are you okay?" Kushina asked him.
The brown haired boy looked up and the color drained from his face. The boy immediately looked back at the ground.
"Y-yondaime-sama, Kushina-sama... I-I'm sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going," the boy said as he began to quickly gather his groceries and put them back in the bags.
'The kid seems nervous,' Minato thought.
"It's fine," Kushina said as she bent down to help the boy with his belongings.
"Ah! No, it's all right. You don't have to help," said the boy in a shaky voice when he saw Kushina getting ready to help him. He rushed to get the rest of his things. "I really should get going."
'Normally children take to Minato like a fish to water. Why does this boy seem scared?'
"Are you all right?" Minato asked as he put a hand on the boy's shoulder and Kushina crouched down near of the boy. The boy flinched at the contact and his eyes flashed back and forth between the two of them. 'He has blue eyes,' Minato noted. 'Almost like…'
--"Mommy! Daddy! Watch this!"--
"What's your name?" Kushina asked softly, catching Minato attention.
"…Arashi."
They saw the boy's eyes dart from the ground to Kushina then to Minato and then back to the ground again.
"Well, umm… I gotta go. Bye," the boy said as turned and rushed away. Instead of stopping him, Minato let the blue-eyed boy go.
"I wonder what was bothering him?" Minato asked as he held out his hand to help his wife stand back up.
"You're the Hokage and I'm the Hokage's wife. He was probably intimidated by us, especially since he ran into us, well, he ran into me," Kushina answered.
"Hmm… I don't think we are that intimidating."
"We aren't… at least, other people don't act that way. Whenever you go visit the Academy, you've said the kids are all over you and asking you questions. I think the boy was embarrassed about running into me."
"He might just be shy, like Hiashi's girl, Hinata."
"Hmm…I don't know."
'I've got to leave. Now!' Arashi thought after he gave his name. 'Let's hope they let me go… Preferably without further questioning.'
"Well, umm… I gotta go. Bye," Arashi said as he quickly turned and jogged back the way he came from, leaving the Fourth Hokage and his wife behind.
'I haven't ran into them in years. I've always been careful to avoid them. Why did I have to run into them?' Arashi thought as he made his way back to his apartment, turning his head to check behind him, making sure that he wasn't being followed.
Once he got inside his apartment and shut the door, he put the bags on his table and made his way to his bed. He sat down and put his head in his hands, hiding his face. 'Why? If they find out who I am… If they find out that I'm not who I say I am, that my name really isn't Arashi…' The boy brought his head out of his hands and looked out the window.
'What would happen if they find out that I'm not dead? What would happen if they find out that I'm the son they lost? What would happen if they find out that I'm Naruto?'
AN: So, what do you think? Should I continue? The thing about "this month's allowance" is that since he's an "orphan" the village pays him an allowance each month to help him get by. Though I may not update as often as I would like – I get swamped with homework – I will try to update at least one of my stories every week.