A/N: I shouldn't be starting this, I know I shouldn't be starting this but this idea just won't get out of my head and it's driving me crazy! So my insanity shall bring you all happiness with this fic. So this was orginally supposed to be a series of one-shots but the farther I got into planning the story it sort of developed a plot so instead of a series of one-shots it's gonna be a story with an actual plot. Yay? Anyway I hope you guys enjoy this first chapter even if it is a little sad.
Disclaimer:If I owned Naruto he would've had a family member to raise him because seriously, who took care of him when he was a baby? Does anyone actually know?
Chapter 1:First Laugh
Minato gave a shaky sigh, running his hands through light tresses of shocking yellowish blond hair. He stared into a pair of bright, ocean blue eyes that seemed to be bottomless. He traced his fingers over the six whisker marks on his face, smiling slightly as the boy in his grasp flinched lightly at his touch while looking at him with questioning eyes. The Yondaime continued to run his hands through the soft hair upon his son's head with a fond smile. He attempted to keep the tears out of his eyes as he continued to watch the boy, trying to forget how much he looked like her. It was hard though, nearly impossible for him since she was still so fresh in his mind.
"Hey there." Minato said, trying to keep his voice from shaking too much as he spoke to the boy.
His son seemed to sense his father's sadness, his mouth pulling down into a confused frown as he held a hand out to the man. Minato smiled, taking the boy's hand and running his thumb over the boy's palm while reflecting on how small his hand was.
"I'm your Daddy," Minato continued to explain to his son, who cocked his head to the side as if confused by the man's statement.
"Y-your Mommy would be here if she could b-but-" he cut himself, choking on his words as hot tears streamed down at his face. Why was this so hard to get out? Why couldn't he just say it? He was pulled from his thoughts as he felt his son reach up and touch his cheek with his hand, brushing away one of his tears. Minato looked down at the gurgling boy, unsure if his actions were intentional or not but he simply wrote it off as coincedence as he continued.
"But she did something very brave. Something that made it possible for me to be here with you right now." The boy looked at him curiously, blinking in confusion as something wet fell onto his face. Minato wiped the tear that had fallen onto his face away with his thumb, rubbing the boy's cheek fondly.
"She would have loved you." The blond man stated truthfully, wiping his eyes in ernest.
"You were going to be her litlle Naruto." He ran his hand through his son's hair again lovingly before he heard someone clear their throat behind him.
Minato snapped his head towards the door to his office at the Hokage Tower, pulling a kunai from his weapons pouch and growling at the intruder while pulling his son closer to his chest. He wasn't going to let anyone take Naruto away from him, he wasn't loosing another person he cared about. Not again.
The Yondaime stared at the man before him, taking in his long, thick mane of white hair, his dark eyes staring back at Minato with concern and the two red lines running down his face. The blond man relaxed a bit at the sight of his old master but kept a firm grip on his son, just in case.
"Minato. It's time." Jiraiya said with a grim tone, taking a step into the room. Minato tensed at the man's movement, fighting to keep the glare off his face. This was Jiraiya. The man who had been like a father to him after he had lost his own, the man who trained him and taught him, Naruto's godfather. Jiraiya noticed the younger man's unease and took a step back to appease the Yondaime who sighed at the man's action.
"No, it's okay. I- I just..." He trailed off, sighing as he ran a hand through his hair as he let go his blade. Jiraiya smiled in understanding, looking at his former student with sadness.
"I understand Minato." The younger man nodded, thankful for the Sage's understanding. He looked back at his son who yawned widely, blinking his eyes in a tired manner. He smiled at his son, he felt the weariness of the day slowly descending on him as well and all he wanted to do was go home and curl up with his son in his arms. But that wasn't possible at the moment, there was still something he needed to take care of.
He stood up from his spot on the floor while keeping Naruto in a posistion that was still comfortable for the boy and dusted the dirt from his tattered clothes. He walked towards the door, his son held firmly in his arms until he reached his old teacher. He smiled warmly at the old man, holding out his son to the old sage. Jiraiya blinked his eyes in shock and confusion, looking between the boy and his father.
"Hold him for me until I return?" Minato asked with a smile, holding out his son in a sign of trust. If he knew there was one person who wouldn't disappoint him at a moment like this it was Jiraiya. He trusted Jiraiya, even with his own son.
The toad sage looked at the younger man in shock, before looking at the baby with awe.
"Are you sure?" He asked Minato with a look of concern, making sure the Yondaime was okay with this choice. Jiraiya wasn't the most responsible person around.
"Of course." Minato assured the older man and before he had a chance to change his mind and snatch his son back into his grasp he placed Naruto into Jiraiya's hold and walked out of the room as fast as possible.
Jiraiya stared after his student for a moment before looking down at the bundle in his arms. The boy blinked his eyes at the old man, staring at him in slight bewilderment. Jiraiya smiled nervously at the child in his arms, patting the boy's head awkwardly. He didn't really know much about kids.
"You know kid, you should consider youself lucky. Not every kid gets to have the great toad sage as their godfather." The white haired man stated arrogantly to the boy.
Naruto looked up at the man unimpressed, reaching up to tug at the man's unruly mane. Jiraiya winced in slight pain at the small boy's death grip. This kid sure was gonna be a handful.
0-0-0
Minato stood with his back straight, his arms held behind his back as he stared straight ahead. He didn't want to be here, he didn't want to speak about what happened so soon but he had no choice. He wanted to ignore all of the faces staring at him expectantly, waiting for him to speak and explain himself. He kept his mouth firmly shut, not speaking until he was addressed.
Sarutobi looked at the young man from his posistion in between his old teammates, Koharu and Homura. The young man looked emotionless and professional, all traces of his personality or pain that the Sandaime knew he was going through nonexistant. Hiruzen furrowed his brow at the boy in comtemplation and concern. He shouldn't be bottling up his emotions, but then again he was a ninja and emotions could be considered a weakness, which is probably why he covered his distraught from the council. One sign of weakness and they'd be ready to pounce on the young Hokage.
"Hokage-sama, the council is very curious as to how you mangaed to...subdue the Kyuubi." Koharu stated, taking a short pause as if trying to find the right word for the situation.
Minato rolled his head to the side, sending the old woman a bored expression. Why was she still on the council, he wondered to himself. She wasn't as young as she used to be, she must be tired of all this diplomacy. Homura as well. He decided to further investigate the issue at a later date. The blond Hokage heaved a sigh worthy of a Nara before turning his gaze away from the old woman.
"I didn't subdue the Kyuubi." This statement was met with many reactions from the council. Some merely gasped, while others yelled at him for telling lies, while others still just kept their calm demeanors as they waited for Minato to continue. These calm faces were mostly the heads of the various clans in Konoha.
"Silence!" Hiruzen yelled, effectively getting the council under control. No one dared to challenge the god of shinobi to his face. He turned a curious glance onto Minato.
"What do you mean Minato?"
"I mean that I didn't defeat the fox."
"Liar! We all saw the demon disappear from the village without a trace. You expect us to believe that it simply walked off and decided to go off on its merry way?!" A member of the civilian council yelled at Minato, slamming his hands on the table for emphasis. The Yondaime turned to the man with a fierce glare, releasing a massive wave of killing intent that nearly buckled the man's knees and caused his anger to waver.
"I didn't say that. I simply meant that I wasn't the one to defeat the Nine-Tailed Fox." He spoke slowly, as if to make sure the man caught every word that left his mouth.
"Then who did?" Hiashi Hyuuga inquired, looking at the Hokage with a curious glint in his lavender tinted white eyes.
Minato tore his gaze away from the civilian councilmember(much to the man's relief) to look at the Hyuuga clan head.
"Kushina Uzumaki."
"How?" Tsume Inuzuka asked, leaning forward in anticipation.
"Kushina was from a family of master seal makers, she was a fuinjutsu master from a young age. When she learned she was pregnant with our son Naruto-" This earned a gasp from the council which Minato ignored as he continued,"she knew there was a possibility of the Fox escaping during childbirth. So she prepared a seal that would be able to reseal the Kyuubi if need be. It turns out she was right. The Kyuubi was indeed released from her body but she was still weak from the birth of our son to reseal the Fox immediately and the Fox attacked the village. She told me she had a plan and that she needed me to lure the Kyuubi away from the village so that it could work."
'If she told me what the plan was beforehand I never would have let her go through it.' He thought, but he kept it to himself.
"So when I was finally able to draw the Fox away from the village Kushina put her plan into action. She was going to use of rest of her already depleated chakra reserves to reseal the Kyuubi back into her own body, knowing that the transfer would kill herself and the Nine-Tailed Fox in the process. But she didn't count on not having enough chakra for the transfer, so the Kyuubi would have rejected the transfer and killed her while leaving the village to the demon. She had to use a different option. Sealing the demon into a newborn baby, our son, Nauto. She died after the seal's completion."
The council stared wide eyed at Minato as he finished his tale, keeping all emotion off his face. Many members bowed their at the woman's sacrifice, some even with tears in their eyes.
"Kushina was a true hero. I'm sorry for your loss Minato." The Sandaime said, looking at the man with understanding. He'd lost many people over his career as a ninja and Sarutobi knew this wasn't going to be the last person the blond was going to lose. Minato nodded his thanks but said nothing, he didn't trust his voice not to crack with despair.
"We can all agree that Kushina Uzumaki is a hero for her sacrifice but what of the boy?" Another civilian councilmember asked. Minato glared at the man who flinched under the man's stare.
"What about the boy?" The blond man growled, releasing enough killing intent to smother every person in the room, even the most seasoned of ninja. Another brave councilmember spoke up, albeit quite nervously.
"Well he is the jinchuuriki to the Nine-Tailed Fox, killing him would kill-" the man didn't get the chance to finish his sentence as he windpipe was slowly being crushed by Minato's deathgrip around his throat. The Yondaime's eyes flashed with malice and pure rage as he slowly stared to squeeze the man's throat until his eyes started to bug out of his eyes in fear.
"No one is going to lay a hand on my son." Minato growled, grip tightening until the man's face turned red then blue due to lack of air. He wasn't going to let anyone take his son away from him, he was the only thing he had left of her.
Many of the shinobi councilmembers go to their feet, getting ready to pull the Hokage from the civilian before he was killed but they were stopped by a wave from the Sandaime. They stared at him in confusion but obeyed out of respect.
"Minato let him go." Sarutobi urged, trying to coax the angry blond away from the civilian before he did something he regretted.
Minato growled in reponse, keeping his gaze focused on the man turning purple in his grasp.
"What would Kushina think? She wouldn't want you to do this."
Minato froze for a moment, his grip slackening enough so that the male before him was allowed to gasp for air. The Yondaime glared at the pathetic man before throwing him away like a used ragdoll.
"Tch." He grunted, turning his back on the man who was now being attented to by two different councilmembers and looked at Sarutobi. The old man could see the genuine fear in his eyes at the thought of someone taking his son away from him and he tried to smile reassuringly at the young man.
"No one is going to take Naruto away from you Minato. I promise. Why don't you go home and get some rest, we'll finish this meeting some other time." The Yondaime nodded his head, turning on his heel and leaving the room in one fluid motion.
Sarutobi stared after the young man, feeling sadness settle into his chest. He wondered if the young Hokage would ever be able to return to the way he once was.
0-0-0
When Minato reentered his office he saw Jiraiya sitting on the ground with Naruto in his lap.
"And when you're old enough I'll take on as my apprentice. I'll teach all sorts of things. About toads and seals, even girls. I'll even take you with me when I go for research." At this statement the old man gave a perverted giggle, much to Minato's disgust.
"That will be our female anatomy portion." He giggled again.
"Jiraiya." Minato spoke in a deadly quiet voice, releasing enough killing intent to bring a jounin to his knees. Jiraiya looked to his old student with a grin, not noticing the cloud of death and suffering surronding the blond.
"Oh hey Minato. You got a great kid here, if a bit grabby." As if to reinforce his godfather's claim Naruto reached up and tugged at Jiraiya's white hair.
"Jiraiya, what kind of perverted things are you teaching my newborn son?" Minato growled, slowly advancing on the old sage.
Jiraiya gave him a confused look,"What? None! What kind of person do you think I am? Minato put down that kunai. Seriously, I didn't do anything!"
Naruto watched with wide round eyes as he father started to pummel the white haired man with anything possible. A smile curled on Naruto's lips at the humorous display, an adorable gurgled laugh erupting from his mouth. His daddy sure was funny.
A/N: There you have it. The first chapter of Life of Firsts! Oh and as for what happened to Kushina I just made it up on the spot so please don't make fun of me for it okay? Anyway nexy chapter: First Night! Until next time!
-Watson