status complete
background after the kyuubi's attack, minato somehow survived and raised naruto by himself
warnings language
pairings tiny hint of kakashi/anko
disclaimer i do not own naruto

NARUTO'S FIRST PTA

The blazing sun promised a wonderful day for the citizens of the beautiful Leaf Village. Some merchants have already started setting up their stalls and waited for customers. The birds sang lauding the beautiful wonders of nature. Shinobi hopped from roof to roof heading to their destination and the civilians started leaving their houses walking towards their desired place. A warm breeze wandered through the streets signalling that today would be a pleasurable day.

However, a certain individual carrying the noble title of the Fourth Hokage, shifted on his bed, trying to get some more sleep because he knew he eventually had to get out of bed and head to work. Sure, being the Hokage was a honourable rank that any shinobi envied and the ultimate goal of every ambitious ninja, but it was a hard job to do and sometimes Minato had to wonder why he accepted the job in the first place. But since he never had a proper answer to give himself, he let it go.

It seemed as if even the sun hated him. The stupid beams of light slid through the closed curtains and landed gracefully on the face of a very vexed at the moment young Hokage. He buried himself under the cover and prayed that the sun could go away. No such luck. As the sun remained there, without any intention of going away, Minato uncovered himself and sighed audibly. What day was it today? As he sat up on the bed, he glanced sideways at the calendar on the wall; it read November 16th. Wait a sec, that meant... Shit! Today was probably going to be the worst day in his young life. Because today was the day for his son's first Parent-Teacher Association or shortly, PTA.

His body instantly fell back on the bed and cupped his face with his bare hands, as if to calm down and convince himself that it wouldn't be that bad. It was just another day. Another completely normal day. He would walk to his office, get attacked by a giant pile of papers -each Hokage's eternal enemy-, work his ass out, maybe take a little nap on his desk, eat lunch, go to the academy, talk with Iruka, go back home, have dinner, read a tale to Naruto and go to sleep. Yep, it would be a perfectly normal day. And of course he could be a little late. He had kind of espoused his former student's habit of being constantly late. The latter he left the house, the latter he would have to face the reality. And reality was far worse from what he dreamt of.

This day would be worse than when he'd die.

He didn't even have the chance to breathe when a blond demon stormed into his room and popped on the bed, landing happily on Minato's chest. Said demon grinned joyfully and his grin reminded Minato of a fox. A fox, he thought. With the whiskers he had on his young face he resembled the fox he had sealed inside of him. Oops, time to stop thinking. He knew his son was not even close to a demon. He was a true hero for being the vessel of the Nine-Tailed Fox and Minato was proud of his son for doing such a great job until now.

Minato smiled. "Good morning, my little ramen."

Naruto's grin grew. "Hey, daddy! Guess what day is today?"

Minato pretended to think for a moment. "Hm... ramen day?"

"Dad! Every day is a ramen day! And no! Guess again!"

"I don't know, Naru. The only thing that I can think of in the morning is ramen."

Naruto pouted. "Dad today is my first PTA!"

Minato copied his son's grin and patted his hair gently. "Sure it is, isn't it?" Naruto chuckled because even though he's only six years old, he could tell when his father was teasing him. Deciding not to let him get off the hook for teasing him, he starter tickling his extremely ticklish dad. Minato's azure eyes widened and he burst out laughing hysterically. Damn, his son knew his only weakness. No one in earth's face was as ticklish as him. After some minutes of unstoppable tickling and laughing, Minato was out of breath and Naruto was tired. Tickling was sure a tiring thing to do. The older blond spoke up after catching his breath at last. "Time to get up, Naruto."

"Hai, Yondaime-sama," Naruto said, respect clear in his voice as well as some sarcasm. Minato hated it when people called him 'sama'.

The duo dragged themselves out of the bed after some time of nestling in the warmth of Minato's bed and prepared themselves for the new day. Naruto rushed on the bathroom first and Minato struggle himself not to yell at his son as Naruto hasn't flushed the toilet, drew with toothpaste on the sink and didn't clean it up and messed up the towels. The man knew that being a father could be a pain, but being Naruto's father surely took difficulty of parentship to a whole new level. But he loved his son too much to get angry at him, at least with something as trivial as this.

When they were done with breakfast and fully dressed, they finally left the house. Minato always dropped Naruto to the Academy and would pick him up sometimes, too. Naruto would always babble about one thing or another, such as the new kids he met in the Academy, the friends he had made and the pranks they did together.

Minato was proud of his son, hell he was even proud of his pranks. Naruto was one extremely hyperactive kid and he was glad that it was this way. It was like having a little tornado living with you. However, today Naruto was abnormally quiet; awfully quiet. Minato knew exactly what was going on through the child's head. As they reached the Academy, Minato lowered himself and was now on Naruto's level and looked into his son's sky blue troubled eyes.

"Are you worried for the PTA?"

Naruto stared at his feet nervously. "Sort of..."

Minato smiled. "You shouldn't be."

"What if Iruka-sensei tells you that he's disappointed with me?"

Minato blinked, did he really thought about this? "As I said, you shouldn't be worried, Naruto. I don't care whether he tells me you're the worst student he'd ever had. I am proud of you and that's not going to change no matter what Iruka tells me. Okay?"

Naruto's eyes sparkled and he grinned foxily. "Thanks, daddy."

"Now that we made this clear, I think you should go to class. Don't upset Iruka on your PTA day."

The blond boy chuckled and hugged his father. "Okay! Come by at 12pm! And don't be late, dad!" Minato nodded and his son ran off towards the Academy building. Minato rose to his feet and watched his son leave. He indeed was proud of his boy. He turned around and walked towards the Hokage Tower. He got a pile of papers to deal with, after all.

Knock. Knock.

A silver-haired Jonin walked into the office of the Hokage to give his report for the last mission he went to. It was an easy mission. Steal three scrolls, assassinate anyone who gets in the way, clear the evidence and get back to the village. Such missions were a piece of cake for Kakashi Hatake. He had recently quitted ANBU for unknown reasons to the public and was back to Jonin rank. As he walked into the office he was greeted by a terrifying scene: Minato was fighting with a pile of papers, trying to keep the little mountain of files balanced on the desk and he didn't seem to be doing a good job with it. Kakashi walked towards the office and cleared his voice to get the attention of his former sensei. A blond head shot up to look at the young man before him.

"Hey, Kakashi. What brings you here?"

Kakashi shrugged. "I came to give you the report of my mission. Successful."

"As always. Oh, damn it! No more papers! I swear if I knew that being the Hokage would have to face this everyday I wouldn't have accepted!" Minato exclaimed and leaned back on his chair.

Kakashi smirked and placed the report on the wooden table. he turned to leave when he stopped as Minato called him. "Kakashi?"

"What is it, Yondaime-sama?"

Minato frowned. "Don't call me like that. You know it makes me feel old. I might be the Hokage but I am not much older than you. Call me Minato."

"Fine, Minato. What is it?"

The blond grinned. "That's better. You know what day is today?"

"Monday?"

"No! I mean... Do you know what's going on today?"

Kakashi raised his eyebrow. "I don't understand."

"Today is Naruto's first PTA!" Naruto explained throwing his hands in the air.

Oh... "Hard day, I guess."

"Yeah. And when you have to deal with that and these demons it's even tougher." Minato pointed to the mountain of papers that had formed on his bed.

"Life is hard, sensei." Kakashi smirked.

Minato shook his head. "You have no idea. I have a mission for you."

Kakashi looked surprised and annoyed. "That soon? I just got back yesterday."

"Well, it's just some guarding job that only you can handle."

Kakashi sighed. "You want me to baby-sit Naruto again?"

The Fourth's face lit up with a smile. "Exactly! You will do it right?"

"I don't have much of a choice."

"Okay, pick him up at 12pm. And I'll go to the PTA."

"Good luck, sensei. Seems you're gonna need it." Kakashi left the room.

You have no idea, thought the blond man as he turned to his eternal enemy.

And now, the two of us.

Minato was known to be many things. He was caring, smart, noble, subtle, modest, optimistic, understanding, sympathetic… However, he was not a patient person. He could stand everything but waiting. Minato was the kind of person who wanted to have a certain time settled for everything and got really annoyed when he was being stood up. He maybe was sometimes a little late himself (Kakashi made sure to rub his lateness on his former teacher) but other than that he was a person who appreciated punctuality.

Tapping his foot nervously on the wooden floor of the academy hall, he waited for his turn to face his worst nightmare. This actually meant to face Iruka for Naruto's PTA. A nightmare none the less. He had been having terrifying images of Iruka telling him that Naruto is an idiot and unsuited for the ninja world. Sure, Minato had faith in Naruto but what if his thoughts came to life?

"Well, Namikaze-sama. Naruto... is an IDIOT."

He shook his head. The steady ticking of the wall-clock reminded him constantly that his time was running out. Soon the doors would open and his turn to go in would come. Hell, he was in the verge of chewing his nails. For the Hokage, he sure acted weirdly. Seconds, minutes, hours passed by… Who knew? Maybe he was in there for hours.

A pair of sea blue eyes looked at the clock; 12:04pm. The same pair of eyes widened in disbelief. He was there only four minutes! Well, crap. Time seemed to go by reeeeally slowly. He got up and started pacing nervously in the hall; the Hokage robes swaying as he moved. Luckily, he was the only person there. Figures that Iruka must have set him an appointment for the PTA after the other parents because he knew that being the Hokage, Minato had a lot of work to do. Nope, not helping at all.

The blond man stopped dead in his tracks upon hearing the door opening. He didn't turn around; he waited for them to call his name. Maybe he still had time to run away and never come back. What the hell, Minato? You're the Hokage! You can't be scared of something like the PTA! Wake up finally, his mind screamed. With a regretful gulp he turned around and forced a smile. The scarred Chunin known as Iruka, smiled back.

"Welcome, Yondaime-sama. Come in."

Iruka stepped to the side, letting Minato step into the room. The Yondaime had a bad feeling about getting in there but suppressed it and walked in hesitantly. Here we go, he thought as Iruka closed the door behind him.

Minato walked towards his house with a frown. For the fright he got, the results were none the less satisfying. He earned some comments about Naruto's lack of concentration and his never-ending tendency to pull pranks all the time but besides that Iruka informed him that Naruto could make a great ninja if he dedicated his time in something else that pranks. Minato though was kind of angry about one comment of Iruka, to which he couldn't quite protest.

"Well, Namikaze-sama. Naruto... is an IDIOT."

"Uh, tell me about it."

He tried to be nice but when you earn such comments about your child, you can't help but get a little out of hand. Actually, Minato got a lot out of hand.

"-and he lacks skills."

"Wait a sec Iruka! Naruto has skills!"

"He doesn't show them in class though."

"He is one of the most talented kids I have ever seen in my life!"

"Yes but-"

"No buts, scar-boy! Naruto is a genius, just like myself!"

"He acts like and idiot."

"Take that back!"

"What the-?"

Maybe he was just overreacting. Or maybe he had just gotten out of hand. Or even maybe he was having a bad day but seriously; he didn't have to punch Iruka. He might have been a little harsh while describing Naruto's actions but Minato knew better that more than half of Iruka's words were truth. Still, he couldn't tolerate having his child being mocked in front of him. Every parent would do the same in his place.

The night had thrown her dark veil over Konoha. Minato decided to go back to his work after the eventful PTA and he drowned himself in his papers. For the first time in his life, he appreciated the existence of the paperwork. He got his mind off the PTA and Naruto for a while and before he knew it, it was already dark outside. Finishing the filing of some reports he left the Hokage Tower.

His sandaled foot kicked a small pebble. Minato glanced forward as his house came into view. The lights were on, which meant that Kakashi was still in the house with Naruto. The last thing the Yondaime needed was to talk about this afternoon with Kakashi. The silver-haired man could tell whether his ex-sensei had a problem and would always try to get it out of him.

He opened his home's door and right after he placed his foot into the house, a blond bomb hit him. Naruto hugged his father's legs and grinned up at him. Minato let out a sigh and smiled warmly and the blond boy.

"How are you, Naru?" Minato patted gently his son's head.

Naruto unhooked his small arms from his father and grabbed his hand, leading him towards the kitchen quickly enough that Minato was barely able to close the door behind him. Naruto made him sit down and sat opposite of him. He grinned his fox-like grin.

"So how was it?" he asked, not willing to wait.

"Where is Kakashi? I thought he would be here," Minato said, ignoring his son's question. The sooner isn't always the better.

"I'm here, Minato." Kakashi stepped into the kitchen.

"Glad to see you again, Kakashi! Will you join us in dinner?"

"No, thanks; Anko's waiting for me. She gets really pissed when I'm late," Kakashi said and proceeded to walk out of the room. Minato smiled slyly.

"Okay! Don't make her wait and give her my greetings!" he exclaimed happily. He could be such an actor when he had to. He heard Kakashi mumble a 'yeah, right, bye' and then the 'click' of the door, signaling that the only ones in the house was him and his six-year old son.

"Come on, dad! What did Iruka-sensei tell you?" Naruto asked again.

"Perhaps you'll like to eat some ramen first? I can make some if you want!" Minato said.

"Dad," Naruto pouted. "Was it that bad?"

The older Namikaze sighed and said, "No, Naruto. It wasn't that bad but still he was quite disappointed in you."

Naruto stared at his lap. "I knew it."

Minato's heart ached. He was hurting his son with his words and he knew it. What kind of father was he? How could he tell such harsh words to him? He could have told him some lie or partly the truth but… this is Minato we're talking about. And he believed that truth should be revealed even though sometimes it hurt.

He took his boy's hand into his own. "Naruto, look at me."

Naruto didn't move.

"Naruto, please. Look at me."

The blond boy slowly raised his head and look into his father's azure eyes. Minato was shocked after seeing the teary face of his son. He had fucked up and he god damn knew it. Without any further thoughts, he enveloped his son in his grip and hugged him tightly. After a few moments of silence, he broke the embrace and wiped the tears from Naruto's flawless cheeks.

"Naru, I don't care what Iruka thinks. To me, you are an amazing person who will become a great ninja. You will inherit my place as the Hokage one day and nothing, I repeat, nothing is going to change my mind. You are going to become a great ninja, Naruto. Don't give that much weight to whatever people think about you. You're a hero in your own special way."

Naruto's childish face lit up with happiness. His father was for sure a smooth talker. The kid buried himself into his father's chest and smiled heartily. "Thanks, daddy."

The rest of the day went by smoothly. The two identical blonds ate dinner and had pillow fight in which Naruto, of course, beat Minato into a pulp. Minato tucked his son into his bed and plopped down on his own bed. Naruto was happy because his father believed in him and made a promise to himself, that he would try hard and become a great ninja, to be able to help his father when he needed him.

Minato knew. As he lied down on his bed, he instantly knew that what he said to his son earlier wasn't smooth talking just to stop his crying. He believed in Naruto. He indeed had faith in him. And he knew that one day he would be famous around the five shinobi nations for his ninja skills. His son would become an excellent ninja and person.

And this was something no PTA could change.