"If a man hasn't discovered something that he will die for, he isn't fit to live." - Namikaze Minato

The pull that he's feeling right now is not something strange. He experienced it so many times while using Hiraishin no Jutsu. But the pit of his stomach says otherwise. He tried to take a lungful of air, but his heart felt like falling to his feet and the sensation of being pulled is still there. He tried to open his eyes but greeted by a warp of blinding light so he shut it again and desperately tried to catch air on his mouth until he could feel his lungs burn from the lack of oxygen and getting dizzy from his spinning visions of light.

When the pull finally stopped, the man knew he was lying on a cold, hard ground. He still has his eyes closed and feasting his lungs of cold air with a huff like he was running a mile and suffering from chakra exhaustion. He tried to feel the ground with his fingers and met by a smooth piece of paper. 'No, it's a scroll'. He thought. And moved his fingers further and felt the dry soil. He tried to open his eyes again and this time, he was met by darkness. The man analyzed the surroundings and his situation. And like a river, his memories came flushing forward like an untamable water.

'Kushina.'

'Kyuubi.'

'The village.'

'NARUTO!'

He tried to shout the last memory, but it came out like a pathetic groan while he attempted to sit and leaned on his back. Nevertheless, he rolled up to his side and fought the nausea he was feeling to get up.

When he finally settled up and fix his gaze on the surroundings, it's not that dark anymore. There's a very dim light coming from the sole lamp in the room above an altar. 'Or am I in cave?'. The man had never seen it, but he recognizes the place. No. It's the eerie feel in the air around him that seem familiar. When a whoosh of cold air came from the tunnel-like direction, he shivered and give a moment of thought of his condition.

He's on his birth suit with only a piece of white sheet that now covered his lower abdomen down to his toe. The urge to sputter curses died on his throat when he saw the scroll he was laying at. He recognized the large scroll for Fūnyū no Jutsu that Konoha-nin uses for preserving dead bodies of ninjas who were killed in battle/action if they got the chance and not the drastic choice of burning it to preserve the knowledge of the dead body. Shinobi knew too many secrets that could be extracted if one dies just by using a proper jutsu. Even a good medical-nin could read history by assessing scars and battle wounds of a dead body. That's why it's either of the two that the survivor ninja could choose from if ever sit on a tight situation. Sealing is a choice too. But not many shinobi actually know strong fūinjutsu that could barrier a complex seal to a dead body.

And now, the man who-knew-that-he-came-from-the-dead question this situation. Because how on all elemental nation that his supposed-to-be-dead-body, scratch that! The Yondaime-Hokage-of-Hidden-Village-of-Leaf-supposed-to-be-corpse were in a mere scroll hiding in a cave?

He heaved a sigh and closed his eyes again to feel the area. 'So, I died, huh?' Came a thought after several minutes. He knew he was in the Namikaze Compound. His once home before it was destroyed by the Kyuubi. Maybe the Sandaime thought it was a good idea to preserve his body here. He tried to flare a his now recovered chakra and realized that the whole place was sealed inside and out it was almost impossible to get in without causing a commotion because that little life of chakra he activated in his body triggered a whole mess of sensor seal-traps inside the cave and a loud ringing that he bet could be heard all over the village.

With a little struggle, the now came from the dead Yondaime Hokage Namikaze Minato walk towards the altar. Near it, on the left side, standing a glass-box were his possessions of clothing. From his blue shirt, pants, and sandals with his flak jacket and even the sealed kunais he used for Flying Thunder God technique were displayed like someone is actually wearing it. 'They didn't even try to destroy or at least conceal it, huh? What was the Sandaime thinking? And Jiraiya-sensei?' He thought again.

The ringing is getting louder and louder, and Minato tried to quick his movements. Now, in front of the altar, hanging above is his most prized haori. The red-flame like motifs on the edges looked alive contrasting the dim lights of the cave. It held memories he'd rather forget but the look of love from his wife with that warm smile while she knitted the kanji for "Yondaime Hokage" on one of the corners of their home is the memory he would forever treasure.

The cloak feels soft and comfortable just like the first time. Even if the writings said otherwise, he didn't feel the weight of responsibilities until he wore the hitae-ate on his head. He tried to feel his heart above his flak jacket with closed eyes.

'Leaf, you've brought anguish and burden to me. But why? Why do I still feel the need to protect you?'

He could continue questioning himself later and how is he still alive and how long has it been and where his precious son at? But now, the pooling presences outside the wall of the cave were getting nearer. He needs to be out.

Outskirts of the ruins of Uzushiogakure:

Standing in a ruined ground of the shinobi village is a woman staring at the edges of the now battleground-like and destroyed place. She woke up in the middle of the forest and tried to search a town but found a demised village drowned in water which is out of life and living things. With her battle armor and sword in hand she screamed from the top of her lungs.

Somewhere on the boarders of Sunagakure:

Uchiha Itachi is not someone to lose on a fight quickly unless there's a miscalculation which could be count with just one hand and still rose from battle with victory way back when he still was a part of Konoha AN-BU team. Now, the person cloaked with his features who's fighting Kakashi and his team near one of the Akatsuki's hideout fall from their leader's Shapeshifting Technique. This technique allocates a certain amount of chakra from him to a living human sacrifice to become his identical copy with perfect imitations of his power like his kekkei genkai, while he, Itachi, whose chakra had been used to complete the jutsu has the control over the imitation remotely, thus making its movement and knowledge indistinguishable as well. But the sacrifice is limited by how much of his chakra could be given, for at least 30%, so chakra-taxing jutsu cannot be used, particularly. And once he loses or runs out of chakra, the sacrifice reverts from their original form and die. Itachi is even sure that Kakashi didn't even realize that it was a fake copy of him until he lose his focus and the Shapeshifting Technique ended while an 'Oomf' heard when something unexpectedly falls on his back.

Or someone.

And a little one at that.

Itachi stared at the little thing which bounced quite a few distances away from the rocks where he and his companion, Hoshigaki Kisame, were sitting above.

"What the fuck, Itachi? And here I was starting to have fun with the man in green spandex!" Kisame growled.

"Don't include my name with the obscenities of your language Kisame." Replied Itachi with emotionless face but a serious warning with his voice. He never left staring at the little body that trying to stand up from the ground. Both were on guard when a little childish voice broke from the said body.

"Itai! That hurts! Why did it hurt? I shouldn't be hurting! Damn it!"

The two-man team continue to watch the boy who's now running like a headless chicken. He's wearing a blue short and a red open cardigan with a yellow sash on his hip. They look foreign and not at the same time. Kisame took it up to himself to scare the boy when he kept on shouting with something about hat and meat.

"Oi, little shit!" Kisame called and release a small amount of killing intent directly at the boy which surprisingly answer it with his childish angry face.

"You! Ugly green fish! Where is my hat?" The boy pointed accusingly at Kisame and the said man sputter profanities and held Samehada on his hand ready to strike the little boy.

"Why you little piece of shit! What did you just say!? And I'm not green! I'm blue!" Kisame shout angrily.

"Oh, I didn't know that! Still, you're butt-ugly and smell like one too!" The boy shouted back with a pout and crossed arms showing his reluctance.

Itachi watched them as Kisame tried to strike the boy that looked six or five years old and said boy continuously avoided Kisame with an unfamiliar trick which includes growing limbs and inflated stomach. For some reason, Kisame couldn't catch the boy that still insulted him and shouting about his hat at the same time.

"Kisame," Itachi called calmly. Both man and boy looked to him. Itachi held up a tattered straw-hat that he found besides the rock he was sitting up. "Are you looking for this?"

"HAT!" The boy shouted and grew his arms longer and latched on Itachi like a rope then flew straight on his chest. "You saved it! Thank you!" The boy yelled with joyous and victorious grin which Itachi replied with a small smile unconsciously.

"Itachi! Give me that little fucker! Let Samehada eat him!" Kisame strode back. The boy clung to him tightly like a monkey when Kisame showed his sentient sword's mouth untangling the white bandages that covered it.

"NO! I'm not a meat! I don't taste good! Shank's said I will smell bad when cooked because I'm a rubber you idiotic-green-butt-smelly-fish!" The boy that hide behind him looked on Kisame from his shoulder. "If you come near me, I'll eat you!" He shouted with conviction.

"Why you-" Kisame's ferocity was cut off when a chuckle left hanging on the air coming from the most stoic man he'd ever known. Kisame stared at him wide eye while the boy still clung to him with a big grin.

"Ne, ne, who are you? Are you gonna eat that fish? Do you have meat? I need meat! Meat is the best thing in the world! Makino's gonna give me lots of meat before Ji-chan comes and trains me again! I don't like training but Ji-chan always bring lots of meat so it's an okay! But he always let me fight those monkeys! It doesn't hurt but Ji-chan's Fist of Love is scary! Ne, ne, do you know my Ji-chan? Don't tell him I said it, okay!?" The unknown boy rumbled on. Kisame found it offending and Itachi doesn't feel a threat, so he decided to take it to himself and chat with him.

"You should tell your name first, boy, before you ask someone about it. And where did you come from?" Itachi asked. Voice laced with the common Uchiha stoicism that Kisame's now used of.

The boy moved his head on the side and stared at Itachi. He removed his latched limbs with a snap and stood before him placing his a little too big straw hat on his head and showed his big grin again and arms crossed above his chest. "I'm Monkey D. Luffy! The man who will become the Pirate King! I don't know where we are, but I need to hide because Ji-chan's coming. He punched me really hard and I should be at Makino's bar, but I think Ji-chan's wrong this time. Nice to meet `ya!"

Little did the boy know, he'd become the Pirate King already and the toothy and sunny smile he's showing is contrast to a broken man he once was whose grief is deeper than the Fisherman's Island.