A/N: This was loosely inspired by a picture of Naruto and Minato that I looked at online. This is a one-shot, but if the plot bunny stays where it is, then I may base a story a little loosely off of this one. I'm not sure yet, but we'll see.
Disclaimer: I own NOTHING that you recognize belonging to the anime Naruto. Its characters and locations belong to someone else entirely. I make no money off of this, I'm just playing with characters in my own little way is all.
Warnings: OOC characters, A little bit of Sakura-bashing, maybe one swear word... I think... Other than that... if you see anything that should be added to the warnings.. plase let me know and i will add it.
Summary: Naruto's been a little emo lately, and certain people have noticed. Just why is he acting this way? Will they find out?
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It was a gorgeous afternoon in the village hidden in the leaves. One unlike any they'd had in a while. The skies were so clear that Shikamaru refused to spend time lazing about when there were no clouds to laze about watching. Sakura and Sai were actually trying to get Naruto out of his little apartment, but to no avail. They knew there was something upsetting the blonde and had been for the past week, but they couldn't pry the secrets of what the problem was out of the stubborn blonde.
Sakura, at her wit's (and temper's) end, smacks him hard over the head. "Naruto you moron! We come all the way over here to get you out of the house for a while so you don't go stir crazy with boredom and this is all we get!?!? You won't even tell us what's going on with you!"
Sai, studying his only actual friend, smiles his usual fake smile. "Naruto, you know you can tell us anything. We won't gossip about something that upsets you so much that you're more silent than Shino is. Is it Sasuke?"
Naruto, tired of their now constant nagging (they'd been there for two full hours already), looks up and glowers at them as his eyes start bleeding red. His already deepened voice turns into a low, annoyed growl as he bites out his words.
"Right now, my only problem has to do with the both of you nagging me without a good reason other than you're curious and want to know what it is that I know that you don't! You don't want to know what's going on to help soothe my pain, you only want to know so the cause of my behavior will be clear to you. Don't you dare call me stupid or foolish or selfish Sakura! After all I've done for you since before we even became teammates.... all of the love and care I'd shown you... I treated you like a princess when you weren't even worth it! You're nothing but a self-centered kunoichi whose only goal from the beginning was to ensnare your precious Uchiha."
He snarls. "You didn't think thick, annoying little Naruto would notice that all you cared about was Sasuke, did you? It's taken you how many years to learn to care for me as a friend? Even now you smack me around like I'm your personal punching bag and I swear Sakura, the next time you hit me, I'm going to hit you in return and you won't like it one little bit. You'd been such a bitch to me until you finally sort of mellowed out. Yet, you still yell at me, call me moron and stupid, and you still look down on me like I'll never be good enough no matter what I do. You even charged me with the impossible task of dragging Sasuke's traitorous ass back home, knowing that we are evenly matched and that by bringing him back, I could very well die... but who cares about the container of the nine tailed fox, right? Who cares to notice that I'm the only one keeping its blood-thirsty soul in check? I could release it easily and let it destroy all of Konoha, but I won't. You never cared when I was younger, so why do you care now Sakura?"
Jade eyes widen impossibly as Naruto ignores the kunoichi to look at Sai. His smile is small and sad. "As for you, Sai... I would tell you if I thought you'd be able to understand what I'm feeling, but you barely understand the happiness it takes to smile like you mean it. that is why I do not tell you know. If you send Kakashi-sensei and Iruka-sensei to me, then maybe I'll have some one worth telling who would listen and actually care enough to know how to respond to me... and maybe I'll be able to fake happiness again. I give you no promises on that though."
Sai smiles calmly. "I understand Naruto. I will not intrude upon your solitude any longer."
Naruto watches the young man leave and turns cold, uncaring eyes on Sakura. "You have something to say?"
Sakura, shaken by the memories of how she'd always treated Naruto, swallows thickly. "Only that... I will try to learn how to be a better friend to you, Naruto. You deserve that much from me. I will speak with Iruka and Kakashi now.. excuse me.."
Deep cerulean eyes, shadowed with years of pain and suffering, along with new pain, watches her as she leaves, closing the door behind her. Naruto lets out a soft, weary sigh and takes a picture of the yondaime hokage out of its hiding spot--- the pillow he'd stuffed it under when he'd sensed his team mates. He looks at it with a heartbreakingly lost expression.
"Why did you do this to me dad? How could you think that they'd see me as the hero I am for caging this beast, instead of the monster locked within my body? You couldn't have honestly been so blind. Was it... the only choice you had left? You were the only family I had left and yet you sacrificed, not only yourself, but the future I could've had being raised by you. For what? People so angry and upset and afraid of the kyuubi that they ostracize a small, innocent child who has done nothing to them to deserve it!? I-I don't understand."
"You couldn't understand my desperation, Naruto."
Gasping at the sudden chill in the room and the ghostly voice, Naruto turns sharply and comes face to face with none other than Namikaze Minato, his long-dead father. Noting the sadness in his father's expression, Naruto pleads. "Then help me understand why you did this father. Please, I need to know."
"We were just recovering from the war with Iwa when the beast attacked our village. many good shinobi were lost in trying to keep the beast out of our village. Your mother... died in childbirth, but I was still so happy to have you in my arms. You smiled at me and helped healed the hurt left by her death. Anyway. I knew I couldn't kill the fox and that Sarutobi and Jiraiya-sensei dodn't have the chakra reserves needed at the time to seal the beast, so I had to because I was the only one who could."
Their eyes meet, one pair wide, the other pleading for understanding. "I chose you, Naruto, because of your strength of Spirit, and your strong will. You are fire incarnate, son. You are at the heart of what makes konoha a great and powerful village. I knew that only you could survive and not be overtaken by the spirit of the fox. Had it been any other child, the parents would've cursed my name and my efforts would've been in vain because that other child wouldn't have been able to handle it, so it had to be you and I could only pray for your safety and happiness as I was forced to place this curse upon you for the sake of a village that refused to understand. The soul reaper tells me that I am to be given life again soon. I do not understand how or why, but I hope that you will be willing to let me be in your life when that happens."
Naruto sighs softly, then smiles warmly at the ghost. "I think I understand now, father. You did it because you knew you could entrust the safety of Konoha to me someday. You knew that I would never turn my back on this village no matter what.... Thank you for trusting me with this.. I am honored, Now that I understand it.. You'd better come back to me in one piece, old man, cuz we have a lot of catching up to do."
Minato's warm laugh and sunny smile as he disappears into thin air, makes Naruto's lips curve into a bright smile. It is this Naruto that Kakashi and Iruka walk in on. It is Naruto's warm laughter that echoes along the alleys and streets of Konoha that alerts the village that their number one surprizing knuckle-headed ninja will be back to his happy, prank-pulling self soon, and it is laughter brought on by the expressions on his ex-senseis' faces when he asks one simple little question....
"Ne.... Kakashi-sensei, Iruka-sensei, did you know that my father was the fourth hokage?"
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A/N: I'm hoping this one makes some kind of sense, but if it doesn't you can blame it on it being three am. I know there's definitely a rampage of characters that are OCC, but that's kinda what I do best, so maybe it'll be okay. Constructive criticism is welcome, as are reviews of the regular sort, but if I get flamed for this.... I will use it to make a bonfire out of those unused logs in the backyard.
In other words, I will just end up ignoring it, so don't bother flaming as it will be a waste anyways.