Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. He would be permanently mentally scarred if I did. Thank goodness Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. If someone else ever got a hold of Naruto, Bad Things would happen.

The Truth of the Fire

They had never deserved him… but he loved them all the same. And that amazing love was passed on… though they didn't deserve this one, either.

Naruto's fingers gently brushed the cool, smooth stone of the memorial. He ran his fingers along the many carved names, imagining the people they might have been and how they might have died. This might have been a girl with hair as red as fire… and this might have been a man that died to distract the enemy so his comrades could escape…But there were a few names whose identities he knew and he knew how they had died…

Namikaze Minato… 'They never did deserve you, did they?' Naruto thought sadly. On this, his birthday…it had never been a happy occasion. For him, anyway. Sure, Iruka-sensei or the Hokage had tried to get him to celebrate his birthday with them before—small things, like taking him out for ramen—but he just couldn't really stay in the village on this day. He couldn't really stand to be out among the people, the ninja, trying to enjoy the festival to celebrate the Kyuubi's defeat and honor those who had died fighting against it. He didn't want to take that away from them. Not to mention they probably wouldn't exactly greet him warmly…but that was not the reason he chose to isolate himself on this day. He did not want to disrespect the people who had lost their lives fighting the Kyuubi, even if it was no fault of his own. Especially this person…Namikaze Minato…the Yondaime that had sacrificed his own soul to seal the Kyuubi away. Naruto, though he would sacrifice himself a thousand times over to save his precious people, even he might hesitate to damn his own soul to eternal suffering.

But the Hokage…he was the truest hero there had ever been. His village was unworthy of him. No matter how much Naruto loved Konoha, and his precious people, the Yondaime had been a greater hero than any of them deserved. Maybe Naruto might deem Konoha worthy of the Yondaime if they hadn't so blatantly ignored his dying wish. Naruto didn't hate the village for their malice against him…for their coldness or their burning hate. Naruto understood that it was human nature; people fear what's different from themselves, and the people of Konoha had just suffered an enormous blow. They had lost over half of their shinobi population, over a third of their civilian population, and their beloved Hokage. Naruto had merely been their scapegoat, their dumping ground for the pain, loss, fear, and hate they felt.

And he understood. He didn't hold a grudge against the people for it. But that they had ignored the Yondaime's dying wish—that they hadn't even tried—made him deem them unworthy of his sacrifice.

He chuckled darkly, looking up at the grey sky filled with clouds. He started to cry silent tears even as tiny droplets of rain fell on his upturned face. 'Are you crying, too, father?' Naruto silently asked the heavens. 'Are you crying for their blindness, or mine? Are you crying because I don't have the heart to totally forgive them?' He closed his brilliant blue eyes, the rain darkening his hair and his clothes as he stood and let it fall. He offered no resistance as the sky emptied itself onto him. 'I wonder what they're doing in the village about the rain?' he wondered idly.

He stood there, eyes closed and face turned up to the sky as rain drenched him and his hand was resting on the memorial stone lingering on the name Namikaze Minato even though his hand had become numb to it from his focus on his thoughts and he cried for his dead father and his nameless, faceless mother that was undoubtedly dead too… and he couldn't do anything else. He stood there for what seemed like an eternity, tears mixed with rainwater sliding down his cheeks and falling onto his already soaked clothes. At last, he opened his eyes. "You would want me to forgive them, wouldn't you?" he asked the world. "You would want me to help them, wouldn't you?" Then, as if in reply, lighting streaked across the sky followed by the boom of thunder. "I thought so."

Naruto smiled. It was just barely there, but it seemed to convey more happiness and determination than any of his wide, jaw-breaking grins. "I will become Hokage." His words were soft, serious, and held so much more meaning and determination than any of his loud-spoken promises. "I will be a greater hokage even than you. It will be the hardest training I've ever had, but I will open my heart to them all. I will forgive them all, and love them all like my own family. A true hokage…I won't do it for power, or recognition, or respect, or acknowledgement. I will do it for Konoha. For that…is the way of a true hokage." And with that, he walked away.