CROSSROADS


Disclamer: I do not own Naruto.


I am Minato. That was the name given to me by my adoptive parents. My last name is Namikaze, also given to me by my adoptive parents. I have many other names. Some will say I have more names than anyone has a right to.

I have been called Yellow Flash, Iwa's bane and many other names as such. I have earned and paid for all these names. These are mine.

You may know of me.

But you do not know one thing. I am a Time Traveler.

I know how I became one.

It all started when I first unknowingly created my trademark technique by mistake. I was studying time-space seals back then. The Hiraishin, as people call it. It earned me the name, 'Yellow Flash'. It was a time-space jutsu, and allowed me to travel through large distances in seconds.

Little did I know it would be the beginning of my end.

I used the jutsu for killing, killing and more killing. I was rewarded for my actions in the war against Iwa, which I ended singlehandedly by myself. I still see their faces when I close my eyes. I ask myself, again and again, was it worth it? And the same answer comes back.

No.

I was made the Yondaime Hokage for this. I cherished the village and protected it from all enemies. My wife was the holder of the Kyuubi- she was a Jinchuriki. From my actions in the past, I have been called the greatest Hokage that ever lived, comparable to even the Shodaime, who created the village in one day using his Mokuton.

My fate was sealed when the Kyuubi escaped from my wife while she was in childbirth. It was controlled by Madara Uchiha, and he used it to lay waste to the village.

Perhaps I had some presentiment for the future even back then, as, in my mind, I knew I was going to die this day. And I did die. I died sealing the Kyuubi into my only son, born on the same day the Kyuubi attacked. I died knowing that my son's life would be spent in misery. But it was worth it, I thought back then. How naïve I was.

I was left to rot inside the Shinigami's stomach after the sealing. I could see everything that passed.

How they treated my son, my only living legacy. I saw how he took it all in stride, and brushed other peoples remarks away as if it was nothing. They called him Demon, and he laughed. My son had a stronger will than me, I realized. I saw it all. How his only friend betrayed him, and left him for dead. How my student, Kakashi, never taught him anything. But my will was broken, when I saw him being defeated by Madara.

Madara. How I hate that man. His presence had destroyed my entire family in the span of only one day.

Using my hatred as a catalyst, I began tirelessly working to escape from the Shinigami. I was a sealmaster, after all. The greatest to have ever lived.

Somehow, I constructed another time-space seal, and used it to escape.

It was the beginning of my travels through the sea of time. I do not know if it was a consequence of a mistake in my sealing or if it was due to me escaping from the Shinigami.

They say that once in a life, there comes a crossroad where one must make a decision.

I still do not know why I keep writing this again and again. Every time I fail, I keep coming back to the same point. The point where it all started. The crossroads, where I must make a decision.

And yet whichever path I take, leads to the same conclusion. Madara winning in the end, and the world burning around me. His eye projected on the moon. The sky is scorching, red, and the land is burning. I have this vision burned on to my eyes, as since my birth, I have a curse. Some may call it a gift, but for what I have seen, it is a curse. I am cursed to never forget what I have seen.

My story always begins where my life ended.

The day the Kyuubi attacked the village.


A/N: Oneshot, but this could develop into a multi-chapter if I get a good response. So please, R&R! (Also, the first, introductory bit is a shoutout to "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss. An amazing book, recommended to every lover of the fantasy genre.)