Kushina Uzumaki looked at her newborn son's sleeping form, cradled protectively in the crook of her arm, and couldn't help but feel a deep overbearing sadness. The love of her life and husband Minato Namakazie, the yellow flash and fourth hokage of konoha had just teleported them into a clearing some ways from the village. She looked up into his eyes and saw in there a mixture of fear, concern, and the same sorrow she knew resided in her own violet eyes. Above all; however, shone a fierce determination. Kushina only had to look beyond her beloved's figure into the surrounding forest to understand the emotions his eyes betrayed. In the background just behind him, in stark contrast to the night sky, was the Nine-tailed demon fox: the Kyuubi, who was until a short time ago sealed within her. It appeared disoriented and angry its malice permeated the air around them, manifesting itself as a physical pressure, weighing down both body and soul with terror. she was amazed how her little Naruto could sleep so soundly with such a vile presence pressing down so heavily upon them.
"Please, I have to do this alone my love. One of us must live to raise our son."
"but-"
"Kushina, you know how the village will treat him, no matter what I ask. Too many lives have been lost this night, and as much as I love the village, there will be many who will hate him for what he will hold. You have to be there for him. Promise me."
"..."
"Promise me!" he pleaded.
All her life, Kushina had been stubborn and willful. It was just not in her nature to submit to anything or anyone, but the look in her husbands eyes and his desperate plea made her realize the truth. In a rare moment of crystal clear clarity she saw the life of her precious newborn son flash before her eyes. She saw before her a life of pain, strife, and a profound loneliness she was all too familiar with. It was a life that had almost claimed her itself, and she knew if it had not been for Minato and a few close friends it would have. It was in that instant that she knew what her decision had to be, must be.
"I promise." she said, and even as she said it she began to do something she had not done in years: she began to cry.
oOoOoOoOoOo
Minato Namikaze took his son from his wife and placed him in the center of a hastily summoned alter-like stand and began writing a complex sealing formula that only he and his sensei could hope to duplicate. once he had finished he turned to the form of the kyuubi, who had finally seemed to notice him. As he began running swiftly through various hand signs the beast let out a roar of defiance.
"I shall not let you seal me up again!" the kyuubi roared as it brought its full power to bear, striking out with all of its nine tails. Minato realized that there was no way to stop them, there were too many and moving too fast, and even if he could he was too far into the jutsu to stop now. just as the tails were about to reach him and Naruto a deep blue iridescent wall of chakra seemed to form between them. for the span of a few heartbeats the shield held before the kyuubi's massive power broke through, but it was long enough. the first tail pierced Minato through the chest, missing the heart only by inches, but nicking an artery. The other eight speed straight toward the infant child, but stopped short. Minato had finished his jutsu and the nine tails was absorbed into the seal on Naruto's stomach. Once the fox was gone Minato fell to his knees, having only remained standing because of the tail holding him aloft. Kushina rushed to her beloved's side, tears cascading down her face.
"Minato! don't leave me!" she sobbed as she gently held him in her arms
"My love, listen closely. You must tell Hiruzen about the masked man. he has to know what happened. the masked man has a sharingan eye. I fought him, and he is powerful. he wants to destroy the leaf. I don't know why, but tell him he should be careful."
"I will my love."
"I love you, kushina"
"I love you, too, Minato"
And so died Minato Namikaze, fourth hokage of the hidden leaf, and one of its greatest heroes. It was at this time that little Naruto began to cry.
OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo
Hiruzen Sarutobi, former third Hokage, walked into the clearing in which Minato had Hirashined the kyuubi to and from which it had abruptly disappeared from. The scene that met his eyes was horrifying: there in the center of the clearing sat Kushina Uzumaki holding her newborn son gently to her chest as both mother and son wailed to the heavens their mutual despair. There at the feet of Kushina lay the reason for such anguish. There lay the body of Minato Namikaze. Somberly Hiruzen walked toward this scene, his face a wooden mask, no emotion displayed there to hint at the grief he felt inside. He simply laid a single gentle hand upon her shoulder and as she looked up to him, it seemed as if a switch had been flipped, and her crying ceased. As her child continued his mournful knell, Kushina began to rock him back and forth as she told the Sarutobi patriarch the events that lead to this woeful night and of what she knew of the masked man. As she began telling of how Minato had sealed the Kyuubi into her newborn son, a realization dawned on her that had escaped her notice before.
"Sarutobi-sama, someone was here, they helped us, but I saw no one, please see if anyone is in the surrounding forest, I wish to thank whoever saved my son."
OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo
Not far from the clearing, a mysterious figure sat slumped against a tree. Not much could be seen of the man in the shadows of the forest, and as he sat there, weak from exhaustion, he let out a sigh. It had almost been too late, he noted in the quiet of his mind, had he been but a second slower he knew that the ultimate disaster would have struck. A part of him, a very large part, was filled with anguish that he had not arrived sooner. As he sat in the shade of the tree, contemplating his near total failure, he heard the sounds of someone approaching him. Having thrown all he could of his chakra into the barrier that without dying, the mysterious man knew he could only wait to be found and hope it was not an enemy. As Hiruzen came into view of the figure, the cloud that had left the man in shadow rolled away, revealing his appearance in the moonlight. he had a lean build that spoke of speed rather than power, and was slightly taller than average height. His face had a rounded shape that gave a sense of openness to it, and his emerald-green eyes seemed to sparkle with hidden mirth. His most notable feature was his mess of bright blue hair. His clothing consisted of a sleeveless shirt that was a dark blue with a stripe of red running vertically down the center, a pair of black pants that were bound to his ankles with bandages, a pair of fingerless gloves that extended up to his elbows that were the same color as his shirt and the same red stripe running up the center, and a pair of black shinobi tabi. The man looked to be in his early twenties to Hiruzen, and he could tell the man was suffering from severe chakra exhaustion.
"Are you a leaf shinobi?" the young man asked, his voice, which sounded light and airy, was steeped in weariness.
"Yes, though I suppose after today's events I will be taking up my previous post as Hokage. You are the one that helped the fourth." he said without the slightest hint of doubt.
"I am, though I wish I had come sooner, maybe he would still be alive if I had"
"What is your name, young man?"
"Amatsu Otakebi."
"Well, Amatsu, things would be a lot worse if you never came at all and from the state you're in, I'd say that the most you could have done is have gotten yourself killed, and it may have made no difference either way. Now let's get you up, there is a mother who wants to thank you for saving her child tonight, and she's not the only one. You have my thanks as well."
OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo
Amatsu limped into the clearing, supported by the Third Hokage. Kushina noticed how heavily the young man's reliance on the older one was and felt sympathy for him. She herself was feeling weak from the Kyuubi's extraction from her and knew this man had risked his life to try to protect her loved ones. As Hiruzen helped the man into a sitting position, other shinobi that had some interest in what had happened began to appear, including Kakashi Hatake, Minato's former student.
After the Third made the introductions the first thing the Amatsu said was "I'm sorry I couldn't save your husband, I got here too late."
The anguish in his eyes surprised Kushina "did you know Minato?" she queried.
"Unfortunately, no, but I have heard about him in my travels, and it pains me to think I could have saved his life if I had been faster."
"That brings up an interesting question," Kakashi pointed out, "as much as I am grateful for your attempt to save my Sensei's life, it begs the question, how you knew to come here, and why you are even here to begin with."
Amatsu nodded "I understand your concern, but understand what I have to say will seem strange and unbelievable. I am the last of a clan of ninja that have what you might consider a peculiar Kekki Genkai, as well as an unreliable one. Members of my family have long been able to tell the future through dreams that we have. The problem is that we can't control what we see, and what we see is never clear and concise, needing to be deciphered so we can understand what we have seen. Until recently, I had believed that the power had skipped over me, because I have not had any of these dreams. However, nine months ago I had a dream that was so strong, I did not wake up for three days. It took me up until just a week ago to understand even part of what I saw, and I realized I did not have long to act. My clan has had no village to call its own, and as such we have been travelers. At the time I was in the land of birds, and I made all due haste here. What I had been able to decipher from my dream was that a great crisis would befall the hidden leaf, and that in this clearing the fate of the entire world rested on the shoulders of the fourth hokage. I am mostly a sensory type ninja, and so when I was close enough, I began to follow the fourth's chakra. I had trouble at first, but when I felt it settle here, I ran as fast as I could. When I saw the Kyuubi attack I knew I was out of time, so I focused all on his chakra and used the strongest barrier jutsu I knew and erected it just in front of his signature. If I had been just a little closer or a little stronger the barrier would have been stronger, and I would have been able to hold longer."
The sad look in his eyes said everything. In his mind, his inability to save Minato had made him a failure. Kushina locked eyes with him and very firmly said "Now listen here, young man, you did as much as you could for my husband, and in the end you saved my son's life. If it hadn't been for you, I'm certain my little Naruto here would be an orphan now. You have no reason to be sorry, and I am very much in your debt for the help you have given me. No matter what your dreams showed you, you didn't have to do anything, and yet you went to such lengths to help people you didn't even know. I know for a fact my husband would have liked you for that reason alone, and I feel that way myself. I would be honored to call you my friend, and I promise you any reward that is in my power as head of the Uzumaki clan. Is there anything you want?"
Amatsu sat there for only the briefest of moments before he replied "well, I've never had a place to call home, so would it be okay if I lived here in Konoha?"
Kushina looked toward Hiruzen, the old man smiled and said "I'm sure we can see about some thing. We will have to ask you a few questions, and you'll have to pass the genin test if you want to be a ninja, but I'm sure that we can settle you here in the village. Welcome to the hidden leaf, Amatsu."
Author's Note: Hello readers, and thank you for reading the first chapter in my story. I, myself have been a fan of this site for over eight years now, and now that I have finally acquired a working laptop, I can begin to add my own story ideas for my favorite shows, books, ect. to this wonderful site. Now I would like to give you readers a sort of idea about where this fic is going. During the years of reading Naruto fan fictions I have come across many good ideas that other people have started to write, but that were either abandoned and never finished, or the potential for these ideas seemed to be wasted. As such, this fic is my attempt to take these ideas that I found so tantalizing and integrate them into a story that has floated around in my head for some time now. One of those, and to me the one that seemed the one whose potential was most wasted, is that instead of Naruto's three-year training trip with Jiriaya, I will have him join the fire Diayamo's guardian squad. There is a very good fic that does this, but immediately skips forward the three years, and only uses a few light-hearted omake's to give us any insight into what happened, and I just felt that was a wasted potential for new and exciting material. Also, I will be loosely sticking to canon, which is to say I'll only be using what I thought Kishimoto got right and throwing the rest of it out for some widely used alternatives here on fanfiction, including femHaku (I will never accept Haku was a boy, ever.). Also this story will either go one of two ways romantically: either I will go good ol' Naru/Hina, or I'll be going Naru/Harem with Hinata as the head girl. If I go the harem route, the max number I'll add is three, and they will not include Sakura, Ino, Temari, Or Tenten as I will be pairing them with Sasuke, Chouji, Shikamaru, and Lee respectively. As such, this limits my number of choices somewhat, but I do know of a few that I could use. As far as lemons go, I can't promise I will add any, but I might add them. If I do, then there will be of course ample warning, and they will be much farther into the story. I am also looking for any beta's, not so much for spelling errors as for grammatical errors and help keeping the characters from becoming too OOC. One final note, this is my first fanfic, and as such I don't know how often I will be able to update. I will try to post as often as once every week to at least once a month, but if that doesn't happen please understand I am doing my best and will not abandon this story ever. Please leave comments, ideas, and reviews and I promise to read and respond to as many as I possibly can. Sketch out!