Rough winds whipped along the barren earth. Two lone figures stood across from each other, panting. The battle field was strewn with the corpses of friend and foe, and tears streamed down the face of one of the figures, a young man with blonde hair sticking up in every direction. The man and his adversary charged each other in one final clash, determined to win. The young man was blown back, his strength leaving him. He coughed blood as he lay on the ground, staring at all his precious friends whom he had sworn to protect, all of whom had died protecting him. As he lay dying, Naruto thought of all the things he regretted in his life, of all the people he couldn't save. In the end, he couldn't save anyone. He turned to his opponent.
"Sasu…ke…what do you want… with a world in which… there is no one else?" He asked his adversary. The other man did not answer his question, merely stepped toward him, hand cloaked in lightning.
"I see… Goodbye… Sasuke… I hope… you find… what you are… looking for," he breathed out as the man shoved his lightning-covered hand through Naruto's chest, blood-red eye spinning wildly.
Panicked shouts resounded through the air. Tangible fear radiated off the shinobi standing before a large orange fox. Many ninja frantically threw kunai and shuriken at the demon, while others blasted jutsu. Nothing worked.
"We can't hold it back much longer! We need to seal it!" shouted one towards the front.
"When is Yondaime-sama going to be here?" questioned another.
Just as the question was asked, a gigantic red toad dropped from the sky. On its head stood a blonde man with an infant in his arms, his white cloak billowing behind him. He told the toad something and the toad jumped at the large fox and held it down. The blonde man moved through hands seals and immediately he and the fox disappeared.
The man and the fox reappeared outside of the village walls, the man still clutching the infant as he ran towards a small shack. Inside, he grabbed a young, red-haired woman and was back outside with a flash of yellow, just before the shack exploded, hit by an attack from the Kyuubi.
"Alright, Kyuubi," the man addressed the fox, while handing the infant to the young woman, "I'm sealing you away again. I won't let you harm this village as long as I live!" With that, he began to run through a new set of hand seals.
"NO!" the woman shouted, "don't do it, Minato!" She ran forward and grabbed his arm, turning him to face her. "There has to be another way!" Minato shook his head and gave her a sad smile. He turned back towards Kyuubi, starting his seal sequence over, but stopped in his tracks. The great Kyuubi no Kitsune was… giggling?
"Hehe, Oh but there is another way! Minato… are you really going to waste your life by using your Shiki Fuin when there's a much simpler solution? And they called you a genius… hahaha," the fox laughed, pointing a claw at the blonde man. Minato raised an eyebrow.
"And this simpler solution is?" He asked, barely hiding his interest.
"Well, you want half of me sealed in your son and half of me sealed in you, right?" Minato nodded. Kyuubi turned to the red-haired woman. "Then have Kushina here separate my Yin and Yang halves and perform the Hakke Fuin on one half to seal it in you. Then you can use the same seal on my other half and Naruto."
"Why are you helping me?" Minato asked.
"That's simple. Your son Naruto is going to change the world, I can feel it. I don't wan't you to die, because he needs parents to guide him on his path so he doesn't turn to the darkness of the hatred infused in my chakra."
"And why do you care?"
"I was created by the Rikudo Sennin to protect this world, and I'll do that, by protecting Naruto."
"If you think like that, why were you attacking my village?"
"Have you already forgotten the masked man who was controlling me? He manipulated the hatred in me born of the way humans treated me. Humans treat Bijuu as tools for them to use how they please, and we eventually grew bitter. But I have a feeling your young Naruto will change the way people see us." Minato nodded.
"I'll do it. Kushina, do you have enough chakra?"
"Yes, I can do it, dattebane." She smiled and performed her hand seals. She then placed one hand on the giant fox's paw and one on her husband's chest.
"Hakke Fuin," she whispered. Minato felt the Kyuubi's potent chakra surging into his chakra pathways and buckled over. The Kyuubi spoke in his head, 'I will slowly channel small amounts of my chakra into your system for you to get used to it, meanwhile you should use most of it to seal my other half in Naruto.' Minato nodded while standing up and going through the same hand seals Kushina had. He placed one hand on Naruto's stomach and the other on the noticeably smaller Kyuubi.
"Hakke Fuin," he said. The Kyuubi started to be pulled toward Naruto, turning into a ball of red chakra, which was absorbed by the infant. White light surrounded Naruto and a seal formed on his belly. The baby wailed and curled up into himself, but was quickly picked up by Kushina. The young mother held her son to her and sobbed into his hair.
"Oh, Naruto, you're already so strong…," Minato placed his hand on her shoulder and pulled her and the baby into a hug. Tired but happy, Kushina and Minato smiled as they leaned against each other, cradling their newborn son.
Meanwhile, inside Naruto's mindscape, he was panicking.
'Kurama? Kurama! Hey, Kurama, where am I? What's going on? Am I dead already? Answer me, dammit! Kurama!'
He looked around, finding the same sewer pipes he always had. It was all too weird. He had died. Sasuke had killed him, along with everyone else. So why was he here? Why wasn't he seeing his parents, or Sakura-chan, or Hokage-jiji? He then felt a familiar chakra presence fill the air.
'Kurama! You are here! What happened?'
'Ah, Gaki. It's good to be back.'
'What do you mean? Where were you?'
'I brought us back in time, to the day you were born.'
Silence. Then Naruto shouted, 'YOU WHAT?!'
'I said I brought our souls back to the day you were born. I just got sealed into you in this timeline. That's why you couldn't find me earlier.'
'Does that mean I have to live my whole childhood alone all over again?'
'Actually, I have a little surprise for you. Open your eyes.'
'Okay, if you say so, but I'll want my answers later, Kurama.'
Naruto opened his eyes back in the physical world and blinked. Everything was blurry, but he could see red and yellow. The more he blinked, the clearer the image became, until he could clearly see both his parents holding him, looking tired but otherwise fine, and very much alive. He smiled like he hadn't in years, a true smile from the bottom of his heart. He then grabbed on to them and clung to them.
'I'll have to do something for Kurama some time. This is the best birthday present in the world.'
Naruto once again smiled at his parents then allowed himself to sleep. He was oh so… tired…
Kushina and Minato smiled at their son as he smiled back, clutching their clothes. He then closed his eyes and fell asleep and the two new parents shared a look, then began laughing.
'Thank you, Kyuubi.' Minato thought.
Minato leaned towards Kushina and said, "I suppose we'll be able to see our son grow up after all."
"Yeah, I can't wait, 'ttebane!"
The two then collapsed from exhaustion just as the Sandaime Hokage found them.
"Minato! Kushina!" he shouted. The medical team he had brought ran forward towards the couple, fearing the worst. The head medic knelt to check their pulses and gasped in surprise, then smiled.
"Yondaime-sama and Kushina-sama are going to be fine. They just fainted from both physical and chakra exhaustion and should be fine after a few days of rest," the medic stated. Sandaime sighed from relief.
"But how?"
"Look here," the medic lifted Minato's shirt and pointed to Naruto's belly, showing the fading seal markings on both of them. Sandaime gaped.
"B… but… an adult's chakra pathways can't adjust to that much new chakra… It's impossible… How could Minato become a Jinchuuriki?"
"I guess it's not impossible. It seems that only small amounts of chakra are leaking out while the rest is contained, allowing him to adjust. It's a masterful seal," said the medic, "we should get them to the hospital, though, and let them rest."
"Yes, that would be best. I'll step in as Hokage until Minato is ready to come back."
The medic nodded. "We'll take them immediately, Sandaime-sama." The medics picked up the new family and rushed off, while the Sandaime walked toward his temporary office at a slower pace.
'How did they do it? Those two… always more surprises… I wonder if that's how young Naruto will be…'
A/N: The first chapter of my second story. Hope you enjoy!