AN: This is probably going to update hardly ever, because my life is a (dis)honest mess and this fic is awkwardly written, mopey wish-fulfillment at the very best. I don't own Naruto.
-1-
He didn't make a mistake. The seal was as close to perfect as something of its nature could be.
A prison with a door is always fragile—
Like an orphan girl's love for her nameless father, when she's met with a monster that knows the truth can be as dangerous a weapon as any well-intentioned lie.
-x-
The mother, before she even knew she was with child, wanted to name her firstborn after her first home. As long as Uzushiogakure lived on in memory, beyond its bloated corpse by the coast, then perhaps—
The father, newly appointed Hokage, is briefed by the Konoha Council on covert actions the village's black ops took during the two most recent Shinobi Wars. As the Yellow Flash, he's known his share of bloodshed; he's infamous throughout the continent for singlehandedly taking hundreds of lives over the course of single battles. One councilmember, in particular, thinks little of disclosing Konohagakure's dirtiest secrets to a war veteran with the Yondaime's body count, regardless of his dalliance with the Uzumaki girl.
When the parents pick out names for their future child, the husband steers his wife away from mementoes of storms and whirlpools. "Konoha is the only home she'll ever know," he says. "I want her to look forward to peace, not back to war."
(Uzumaki Kushina never wondered why Konoha failed to come to Uzushio's defence; the Sandaime himself had taken her aside to give her the village's regrets. The nations were preparing for conflict, and Konoha could not leave itself short of soldiers for as long as it would have taken to keep a constant watch on their strongest ally. News of Uzushio's destruction came before they could send troops to prevent its destruction. For this crime against their sister-village—and for their failure to protect it—Konoha would go to war.)
They decide to name their daughter Moriko, after the Hashirama trees that surround their home.
Namikaze Minato takes his secrets to the grave.