Cruel Summer
By: Kibou32
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Summary: AU The Fourth Hokage doesn't die due to the fact that he didn't do the sealing. So the Kyuubi comes two months before Naruto is born and Kushina decides that the seal her husband is about to do on her still unborn son, should be done by her. If she's an ANBU Captain, and her duty is to her Hokage; then it stands to reason that she should leave the strongest of the two to care for their only child.
Author's Note: This scenario has been bugging me awhile. I've read stories in which Naruto is so ukeish it's not even funny sometimes. So… here's my take on a seemingly uke-looking Naruto.
Pairings: Undecided
Ratings: 18 and Above.
Prologue'I HAD TO DO IT'
Thus said the heading of the letter directed to one Namikaze Minato that he had received a month after the date of said letter and the incident to which Minato felt was the end of all things great.
A month and a half ago, he had been the proud expecting father of a son and husband to a most incredible woman that was his wife. And then word had gotten out that a great monster known as the 'Kyuubi' was on a warpath and its next target was Konoha. His precious village! So he decided to research on everything under the sun and even over it, to find a way to defeat it. Nothing. So he tossed and turned in his sleep not knowing what to do until he came up with the idea. Seal it into a few days born baby. Therein lay the first sign of problem. No such baby existed. And the only one seemingly available, needed two months more in the baby – oven for it to be ready. He resigned himself to loosing that precious one in exchange for his village's peace.
He didn't think his wife would turn against him and do the sealing technique herself.
He felt like he was still on free-fall mode.
'I had to do it. There was no other way. Only a mother is able to know what she can or can't do to her unborn baby. You are my husband now and always, but first you were my hokage and I could not let you do this. I could not let you sacrifice yourself for the village with death as the possible outcome. And if you died and then I died… what would become of our only child. A child with the burden of a bijuu holder. Who was going to protect it from the civilian's insane wrath? Even by chance Sandaime-sama managed to take care of our little one, who was to know if he could contain everything at once. I know you believe in the good of every person, but I don't. I didn't want that to happen to our child.
Which is why, I had to do this.
Our son… I know we had agreed to call him Naruto – on behalf of your sensei's book – but I want you to name him Kazuki Naru Uzumaki Namikaze. I want him to uphold the last of my clan until he himself has his own children. I don't think taking the Kyuubi down completely is possible, but I'll give it my best. I've designed the seal to act as you created it to do so, but I've tweaked it a bit so that I'm able to do the sealing without any other external help.
Know that I have loved you from the bottom of my soul.
Your wife;
Kushina Uzumaki – Namikaze.'
Namikaze Minato had no idea on what to say, how to feel. How does a loving husband reacts to the fact that his beloved wife sacrificed herself for the village's wellbeing when in fact it was he who was supposed to be doing just that. Instead he wasn't there due to a coma induced blow to the head due to his lovely wife's doing. He was the leader of this village and yet he was out of the loop due to a change of destiny he could have never foreseen in a million of years. It made him feel pathetic and sick.
He ached to get up and get moving, but he still felt numb. He sighed and didn't notice that someone had already come into his room while he pondered silently about his bad luck.
"If it were me, I'm not sure what I wouldn't be doing at the moment." – he heard his sensei, the Legendary Toad Sannin say.
"For all your idiosyncrasies, I'm pretty sure you would've bounced right up instead of brooding like me." – Minato said while releasing a sigh on monumental proportions.
"You have the right to brood, however not for long. Don't forget that you have a son that needs you." – he heard Jiraiya say.
In that moment, his sensei's voice came off like he was far away from him, his voice coming over as if he were in a tunnel and he was at one side and his sensei at the other. Only when he actually understood what his sensei had said, 'don't forget that you have a son' did he realize that he hadn't even seen the baby! And he had promised to take care of his baby. It was a subconscious promise at best, but it was reiterated by his wife's petition in her letter.
"Where's Naruto? My son?" – Minato asked forcefully and then reiterated the question by adding the 'son' part so that his sensei would understand who was it that he were talking about.
"Naruto, eh? So that's how you're going to call him?" – Jiraiya grinned knowing it was from one of the character's name that came from his first book ever. Although it didn't get the popularity that his Icha Icha Books did, it was one of his first babies and he was – privately at least – proud of it.
Before he could say anything else, he was pushed from behind by his ex-teammate pushing the room door's, the great medic-nin Tsunade.
"You crazy man, let me through!" – she grouched and Jiraiya slipped aside to let her in. her apprentice Shizune – a young woman of at least 18 years of age followed, pushing an incubator in. The third Hokage following her into the room as well.
Apparently he had been taking care of over everything that happened during the Kyuubi attack and its aftermath until Minato woke up and was ready to take over the job again.
"Yes… well… now that I see you're awake Minato-no-baka, I'm hoping you…" – Tsunade stopped for a second knowing her insult towards the blond haired male had no effect whatsoever on him or anyone else inside the hospital room, she exhaled and took another deep breath before moving on to say: "I brought you your baby so you can see him. Unfortunately due to the conditions of his premature birth and the Kyuubi… he still needs to be inside the egg for another month or so. So you can't carry him in your arms just yet." – and here she smiled. Jiraiya and the Third Hokage were surprised to see a smile like that from the usually tough medic-nin. Minato paid no attention to her. His sole attention was on the little baby nestled inside the incubator otherwise known as the egg.
Minato eagerly looked at his son and was surprised by how small he looked. He counted the five fingers on each of his son's diminutive hands and the five toes on the two little kicking feet and was happy to see that it was okay. At least on the surface. His son looked like a normal baby, for the exception that he had three mark-like whiskers on each side of his face. He knew this was due to the possession of the Kyuubi. What could he do about that? Nothing. But that didn't stop him for falling in love with this tiny creature that was his. His own son! How precious a life can be! He smiled and knew things would be alright.
:-:
They decided to tell the general populace about the Kyuubi being killed in action by one of its ANBU finest, Kushina Uzumaki. The way she did it… a technique created by the Yondaime himself. This caused the village to admire the heroism of the already dead and buried and of the still very much alive Hokage. They decided that he was a hero and pretty much forgot all about the rest of issues that they didn't like the Hokage's way of thinking.
:-:
Two months after the Kyuubi's defeat, Tsunade was able to take Uzumaki Namikaze Kazuki Naru – affectionately called by his father, Naruto – out of the egg otherwise known as an incubator deeming him as grown as he could be in two mere months. Except… even having grown what he was missing due to the premature birth, he was still smaller than a normal baby. This worried her a bit, she didn't think the Hokage would manage the hurt of loosing not only his wife but also his son if he didn't manage to survive the first year.
So it wasn't surprising that she grew to be so motherly with the boy and was so happy to throw him a first happy birthday party. Due to her love for him, she didn't realize that something was different in the boy. It was Jiraiya who noticed but he didn't do or say anything until later.
:-:
"Don't you think it's strange Tsunade?" – she was reading some material inside the Hokage's private library and he heard her sigh.
"I know something's not right. He looks too small to be a boy. It's usually girls who look like that. He doesn't look like the son of a shinobi but a civilian. Worst is, Minato's superstition is really getting on my nerves!" – she exclaimed when she was reminded of the Young Hokage's superstition in having the baby boy dressed in pretty pink kimonos like he was warding off the gods from a healthy young girl instead of a boy.
Jiraiya was unruffled by her short show of temper. Even if he did find it funny and cute how the Hokage's heir was being dressed up currently, he figured that one day it'd come back to bite the Hokage's ass.
"You've been testing him haven't you?" – she asked as if suddenly realizing that she wasn't the only one taking care of the boy in question.
"Among other things. Kazuki-kun is highly intellectual. He's even smarter than the Uchiha Itachi brat was at four and that's saying a lot." – he said evasively knowing that even there, the walls had ears.
"Yet he utters not one word despite our desperate attempts to make him do so?" – she asked with a quirked eyebrow.
"Perhaps he has nothing to say. Honestly, with the way all shinobi take to him and get him what he wants without a peep from him, is it no wonder he doesn't want to speak up?" – he stopped for a minute looking to the side and then while scratching his chin he said: "I was actually doing a check on the seal Kushina did and discovered something extremely fascinating."
"What is it?" – she said whilst turning a page from the book to one side not bothering to raise her head to look at him directly, despite wanting desperately to do so.
"Despite being at a great disadvantage, she performed the seal admirably. She used a hybrid nin-fuin-jutsu that allowed her to rope two of the Kyuubi's tails to call the shinigami to help with the sealing. In doing so – instead of using her own chakra like Minato was going to do so – not only did she sped up the assimilation of the fox's chakra into her unborn child but also gave Kazuki a chance to survive the premature birthing process."
"So? Is that all you have to say? The first part I had no idea of, but I get it. That still doesn't say about any of the foreseeable side – effects!" – she said frustrated.
"By the time Kazuki-kun is ten, he'd have – at least – assimilated four of the seven tails remaining the Kyuubi has completely."
There was a big silence. After a while Tsunade closed the book and decided to look at the man and say something.
"Isn't that dangerous?" Tsunade exclaimed worried.
"Normally yes. But, in looping two tails to use it to call the shinigami, make an unborn child survive the sealing process and the premature labor while the mother was dying… I suspect that a mother's will, her fervent hope that her child survives against all odds was what made everything work. Even when her soul left her body, Kazuki survived… it was a very risky situation, but she managed." – Jiraiya said.
"Hn. In the end, a woman's love for her child was much stronger than the will of a man to protect." – Tsunade stated matter of factly.
"Yes, and for that my respects go to her."
"It won't stop you from wanting to 'appreciate the female form at the onsen', would it?" – Tsunade dryly stated.
Jiraiya just grinned lecherously.
:-:
Since human sacrifices – jinchuuriki – were a variable none understood very well, both Legendary Shinobi started to work on the young toddler into basic chakra manipulation techniques since the boy was two. What they found was that the child had a lot of chakra. In turn, he also had a lot of excess energy. And though his visage and his demeanor demonstrated otherwise, Kazuki Naruto had a lot of stamina.
The question that assailed the Slug Sannin and the Toad Sannin was what did he do with all that pent-up energy? He ran even them ragged! He read. He played games.
They gave him written tests and discovered that he didn't lack language skills. In fact, short of not speaking, he showed an in depth knowledge and comprehension of it that even their sensei – the former Hokage – was astonished to find out.
By his fourth year, he showed – finally! – great improvements in his physical strength. Jiraiya had been worried he was going to show a deficiency in that due to his feminine looks and weak visage.
Of course… in the end his father had to be told of his son's clandestine training to which many believe by the end of the day that the apocalypse was coming.
Naruto, who was nearing his fifth birthday said nothing to his father when told that he was going to go to work with his father every single day after that. To comfort his father, Kazuki began to go over to his father's bed every night to sleep in.
:-:
Naruto's first meeting with the outside world was two days after his fifth birthday. The Ino-Cho-Shika trio were told that they had a mission. Yamanaka Inoichi agreed to it quickly having had just a fight with his wife about the flower shop's – one he had created from the ground up – finances. Akimichi Chouza agreed due to force of habit. But Nara Shikaku was face with a dilemma. His wife had left the village for a long overdue visit to her family outside of Konoha and wouldn't be back for another two weeks.
Sadly… his seven year old son was relegated to stay home with him. He immediately thought to talk to the Hokage about it privately only to find this interesting sight… the Hokage writing some type of scroll whilst his own brat sat on the floor next to his desk doing some sort of writing as well. They looked pretty cool like that.
"Hokage-sama…" – he said quietly whilst his own son stood lazily next to him.
"Yes Shikaku?" – the Yondaime said not even once turning his head to look at him.
By now, Shikamaru had edged more towards the Hokage's son curious beyond his usual laziness to stay put.
"It's about the mission." – he stated.
"Do you have any questions?" – Minato replied, this time stopping his work for a minute to look at the older male before him.
"Not exactly. The truth is that my wife is away on a trip and I've no one to leave my son with."
Minato dissected the words correctly and understood what was said underneath all of that. And while the Yondaime had never been anything but Hokage to the Nara, both were sure the other understood each other pretty well.
"He could stay with Naruto and me if you wish…"
Shikaku sagged with relief and only said: "Arigatou."
:-:
So… Shikamaru said goodbye to his father at the village's gates totting a huge backpack on his thin shoulders and a shogi board on one of his arms. Hatake Kakashi – special jounin and only surviving member of the Yondaime's cell of genin Team 6 – took the Nara boy to the Hokage's mansion where Kazuki-kun was having his own breakfast sans the Hokage.
The cook – a lively and cheery brunette that went by the name of Megumi – served the young Nara some breakfast despite the hour. Shikamaru didn't know what the seemingly fragile kid did all day, but he hoped that he'd be able to find a new shogi player in the younger boy.
He observed the Hokage's heir all through the day and was face with the possibility that the boy was lonely. So the next day, whilst watching the clouds while the young Kazuki tended to an extensive garden all by himself – he considered the possibility of asking Kazuki to play shogi with him.
The day after that Chouji came over to the Namikaze Estate to find his friend watching the clouds go by while a short blond boy sat tending to a colorful garden.
"Shikamaru?" – he queried a bit softly and found a penetrating blue gazing back at him, the stare left him breathless.
"Ah? Chouji? Hey!" – Shikamaru then proceeded to invite the other boy to watch clouds with him.
:-:
It was hours later when the Akimichi boy decided it was time to go home. He stood up, dusted his pants off and received a bunch of flowers. Looking carefully he found that it was medicinal flowers and he gave a shy smile in thanks. It rivaled any other grin he had ever given anyone else in. Kazuki grinned back and Shikamaru thought that the two boys next to him were exceptionally good people.
:-:
Kazuki's first word came at the age of nine and a half when he saw something that caught his eye – even from a distance. He tugged hard Kakashi's sleeve to get his attention a few days before the Uchiha massacre by the hands of a long ago supposedly dead Uchiha Madara, and then said: "Fire".
It was no surprise that due to his no-speaking phase had gone on longer than usual, Kakashi was so shocked that he had spoken out loud that he had forgotten what the boy had said in the end. By the time the Hokage was told the exact word the boy had said then, the ones involved in the 'fire' had either fled or covered up any evidence left behind.
Two days before the incident found Itachi at the Hokage's office telling him of his suspicions on his clan. So the Hokage trying to avert the possibility that Itachi's youngest brother – the only child so young – might get killed or some other situation, he called on the boy's mother and invited the boy to a play date with Naruto. Even though Sasuke was eleven by then, he knew it wasn't that bad an idea. Naruto was sheltered all through his childhood and it was a fine time that the boy sought out the outer world. Except the woman – stubborn as she were due to past grievances with the Hokage – said that her son was busy and denied the invitation. He then began to wonder what on earth was going on.
:-:
The night of the massacre, Kazuki ran away from his usual ANBU babysitters to hide on top of the Hokage mountain. Said ANBU officials didn't know he was capable of doing so and sent the whole shinobi village into an uproar thinking the boy had been kidnapped by Iwa Nin like the young Hyuuga Heir had been three years before. It was on one of these searches that Jiraiya noticed something strange around the edges of the Uchiha district. He went over there and found several dead bodies littering everywhere. After a second researching and calling up someone else to come and help him up with it, he found Uchiha Madara and Orochimaru – the man who had once been his most trusted ally, friend and teammate – standing in the main plaza seeming to be discussing something. Said Uchiha looked a lot like Itachi and knowing that said brat was with the Hokage at the minute, he knew then that this was Uchiha Madara in the flesh. He signaled to the other ANBU and engaged.
By that time, the whole village was awake and still Kazuki wasn't being found.
In the end, the whole Uchiha compound was in shambles due to the fight between Orochimaru and Jiraiya and with the exception of Itachi and his otouto Sasuke, the whole clan was dead. Minato then recognized his son's wisdom. By running away, he raised the alarm before anything else happened. If it weren't for him, they wouldn't have been able to realize the danger Itachi and Sasuke were in.