So, this idea just kind of came to me as I was studying physics one day. In the flashback to the Day of the Kyūbi, Kushina talks with Mikoto briefly, revealing she's going to give birth. Therefore, Mikoto would probably know Naruto is her son. So, being a kind and caring woman, would she not take him in? Also, wouldn't the Third Hokage let her? He knows that people hate Naruto, and the best way to protect him would be with arguably the most powerful clan still in existence, right? Just a random train of thought I had that I am now basing a story off of.

Disclaimer: I do not currently nor have I ever owned Naruto.

Chapter 1: The Day of the Kyūbi

Kushina Uzumaki sat bolt upright, drenched in a cold sweat. At first, she couldn't figure out why, until she remembered her nightmare. After talking with the Third Hokage a few days ago, she had only been growing more and more worried. Her nightmares had seemed to get more vivid as the days passed; perhaps the fox was the cause of them. The first night, she had seen Konoha crushed, with its citizens lying about the streets as bloody mangled corpses. The second night, she was forced to watch the attack take place, as the fox decimated the Leaf Village's shinobi and massacred its people. On the third night, the nightmare had taken place in full color, with sound. Last night, she was able to smell everything, from the blood splattered across the Leaf Village to the fox as it finished crushing the last stone face, the face of Minato.

She had realized that the fox was probably trying to unnerve her, as some sort of punishment for trapping him inside of her, to prevent him from doing what he now threatened to do if he broke free. Of course, he would probably be resealed quickly if he did, since Jiraiya and Minato would both be waiting for him.

Regardless, she was determined to not let it get that far. She had no idea how the Nine-Tails breaking loose would affect her unborn son, but she was guessing it wouldn't be terrific. Mind you, just being developed next to the fox probably altered him already. Maybe he'd be… foxy. Kushina chastised herself for such a terrible joke. At least she knew she wasn't too affected by images that were nothing more than dreams, if she could still make her bad puns.

About an hour later, after trying and failing to go back to sleep, the redhead decided to just get up for the day. Standing up, she felt slightly nauseas. She stumbled for a moment, before catching herself and shaking her head to try and clear the feeling.

She looked around a bit, wondering where Minato could be. Surely it wasn't so late he'd be at the Hokage Mansion.

'I really hate you sometimes, old man,'

Minato looked at the stack of papers on his desk, wondering how they built up so fast. He had only left the room for a few minutes, but now he couldn't see the surface of his desk at all. He sighed, imagining the Third Hokage laughing at him right about now.

Of course, paperwork didn't take him long. However, every second he had to spend on it was another second he couldn't be with his wife. She had told him that she was having nightmares about the fox, but she wouldn't tell him any details beyond that. He wanted to try and comfort her, but for one thing he wasn't sure how, and for another he was incredibly busy with his paperwork... for a few minutes at a time.

If Hiruzen really was laughing at him, at least he could laugh back.

Later that evening, most of Konoha were going about their business as if everything was perfectly normal. Nothing of note had happened all day, even with the Hidden Cloud supposedly advancing through the Land of Fire. No one even noticed when the Fourth Hokage had returned to the village covered in the blood of over a thousand ninja, all of whom had made a fatal error.

They had attacked Konohagakure

For the third and, thankfully, final time, the Yellow Flash of the Leaf demonstrated why exactly both Iwagakure and Kirigakure had active orders to retreat the instant any blond hair was spotted in a battle against the Hidden Leaf Village. He had been timing the battle in his head, slightly disgusted at himself for the fact that he could kill so many so quickly.

4 seconds. It had taken him four measly seconds to kill over a thousand ninja, including over a hundred ANBU from Kumogakure.

At five seconds, he encountered the Fourth Raikage and his 'brother', two ninja who he felt would probably be more of a challenge to defeat. He ordered his comrades to retreat, before littering the area with his special kunai. The Raikage had nearly immediately attacked, followed by the jinjūriki of the Hachibi, the Eight-Tails. Unnoticed by the Kumo ninja, Minato placed a seal on the tentacle Killer B had attacked him with. The next time the Raikage attacked, he let him get as close as possible before appearing behind B. As he did, he noted B had a blade pointes right back at him. He smiled, glad to see that there those who cooperated perfectly with their Bijuu (Tailed Beast). It meant that the First Hokage was right; people could live in peace with them.

Though, no other tailed beast was as hateful and chaotic as the Kyūbi. After all, it wasn't called the embodiment of hatred for nothing. Regardless, Minato felt he needed to prepare himself for the evening, seeing as how that was when Kushina was expected to go into labor.

"Very interesting…" muttered a masked man, cloaked in the shadows. He had overheard an exchange between a silver-haired ANBU and the grave of a close friend. The ANBU had briefly talked about the woman he was protecting, the Nine-Tails jinjūriki, going into labor, and the fact that the seal would be weakened by it. The masked man had only come to the village to see the grave for himself, still trying to deny it had happened. But, thanks to the same ANBU who spoke to her grave, Rin was dead, despite Kakashi's promise to protect her. Not only that, but he had killed her himself.

Thanks to Kakashi, the ANBU, Obito had a new reason for staying in the village: controlling the Nine-Tails. Madara had taught him long ago that he could control any tailed beast with his Sharingan eye, and he was intent on testing the theory.

'So, tonight, hm? A secure location? Easily found, thanks to Kakashi. You silver-haired dumbass,' Obito would have thought that ANBU would be smarter than to announce such sensitive plans to a grave of all things. Sentimentality seemed like nothing but a weakness to the one-eyed Uchiha, especially now. It was because of sentimentality he had only one eye. It was because of sentimentality that he was so broken over Rin's death. It was because of sentimentality that the Leaf Village would be destroyed by the Demon Fox.

On the way to the location where Kushina would give birth to Naruto, Biwako Sarutobi and Kushina ran across Mikoto Uchiha holding her baby son.

Kushina gushed over the newborn in her friend's arms, "You had a girl?"

Mikoto seemed amused at the statement, "Heh. No, he's a boy," she said to the redhead.

"What a little cutie! Hi there, little guy. What's your name, handsome?" said Kushina with a small giggle.

"It's Sasuke," breathed out her friend.

"Ohhh. He was named after the father of Lord Third's then, was he?" asked Biwako, walking back to where Kushina had stopped.

"Yes. So he'll grow up to be a strong, splendid shinobi," Mikoto looked up. "You're due pretty soon to, aren't you Kushina? Might want to start thinking about baby names as well."

The redhead answered excitedly, "Actually, I've already decided." She paused, putting a hand on little Sasuke's head. "We're going to call him Naruto. He'll be classmates with little Sasuke here." Talking now to Sasuke she said, "I hope you two get along." Looking back up at her friend, she whispered, nervously "By the way… does it really hurt like they say?"

Mikoto seemed a little surprised and slightly amused at her friend. "Wow, so there's actually something that scares you? Shocking."

It was then that Kushina was pulled away by Biwako, who scolded her for holding them up. Mikoto watched her friend walk away, and looked down at her newborn son.

"I hope you two become friends someday, Sasuke. Just like his mother and me."

This was one of the more amusing assignments he had received, the ANBU known as Yōko. He knew he shouldn't find it funny, but he had never heard a childbirth as… loud as this one was.

"GAAAAH! I-IT HURTS, 'TTEBANE!"

As far as he knew, the other ANBU here were just as humored as he was by the shouts. The verbal tic of the soon to be mother made for a number of strange endings to sentences.

Coming out of his thoughts for a moment, Yōko thought he saw movement down by the water. He reached for his sword and a kunai, before realizing they were just ripples.

In the…air?

All of a sudden, he realized he was the only ANBU still in position. He glanced around, and saw that the other three were dead. He hadn't even seen anyone attack them; they were simply dead one moment. He leaped backwards, trying to figure out what in the world was taking place, when something grabbed him around the throat. He was pulled down to the surface of the water by a strange man in a black robe and orange mask bearing strange patterns on it. He tried to stab the man, but his sword went through him. As it did, his grip suddenly stopped. The next second however, when Yōko pulled his blade back in shock, the masked man knocked it away and continued to strangle the ANBU member to death.

Obito had to admit, nothing was much more satisfying than choking an opponent to death with your bare hands. Swordplay was well and good, but he found that death came too quickly. When strangling someone, he could see all sorts of emotions in their eyes, from anger and hate to, on one occasion, sadistic glee. It made him feel like he had some much power, to be able to cause someone to cease existing without any sort of help from a tool.

Refocusing himself on the task at hand, he looked up at the entrance to the cave. Not about to try and sneak in through the wide-open mouth of the cave, he walked towards the stone wall, passing straight through it with ease. Strangely, and conveniently, the solid stone walls did little to muffle noise from the room above, allowing him to hear everything. He elected to wait for the child to be born, since it would give him an object to attack that everyone in the room would rush to help.

He heard crying start from above, and deduced that the birthing was finished. He began to make for the wall, to pass into the room beyond it. As he did, he saw that the midwives were carrying the baby to the opposite side of the room to the new parents, making his job much easier. He saw the small bundle in the arms of one of the midwives, and made to attack her. She let out a scream as she and the other died, attracting the attentions of both the Fourth Hokage and the Red Hot Habanero. He held the child in one arm, with the other poised over the boy's face, ready to maul it to death. Or possibly strangle it, like the ANBU outside.

When Minato looked back to Kushina, Obito pulled a kunai out of his sleeve, and held it to the boy's face.

"Get away from the jinjūriki! Don't you care what happens to the brat?" he taunted. Minato attempted to get him to stop, unsuccessfully. He tossed the boy into the air, drawing Minato to the other side of the room as the Yellow Flash caught his son. Obito activated the explosive tags on the bottom of the bundle, forcing Minato to teleport away to save the newborn, leaving Kushina trapped with the masked man.

All the more reason that sentimentality was only a weakness.

There weren't many occasions one could call 'normal' in a village inhabited by both normal people and people who could shoot fire from their mouths and lighting from their hands, but this night certainly qualified. There were the usual antics going on between friends and families, drunks being thrown out of bars, Guy trying to get Kakashi to battle him, and some genin showing off to their friends here and there. Nothing was terrifically out of the ordinary about any of this. No one knew the kind of horror they'd be facing in only an hour. Nay, only 15 minutes. Those closest to the proverbial 'ground zero' could hear a man yell out something about a jutsu involving summoning, though only the two ninja in the vicinity knew what it was. Even those two thought nothing of it. After all, nothing eventful had happened all day. Why would this be any different?

Half a second later, all those who had heard the jutsu being cast were dead, crushed underneath of a large fox possessing nine tails, with each one waving about behind it, causing massive damage to the village and it's people. All those who could either see or hear immediately panicked, seeing such a huge creature appear from nowhere. As it roared, it sent a shockwave through the entire village, rupturing the eardrums of many different people. Though it meant very little, since they wouldn't last much longer anyways, all those who heard that roar knew it would be imprinted into their memories until the end of their days. When the fox roared again, the shockwave seemed to be directed in front of it, toppling buildings and killing hundreds. Suddenly, the fox glared at the stone face of the Fourth Hokage, and began to create some kind of purple sphere, which it launched through the village at the cliff side. The sphere seemed to shrink, actually being transferred by a seal the Fourth was using. The night sky was lit up the next moment by a huge explosion in the distance, large enough to have destroyed the entire Leaf Village and some of the surrounding lands. The ninja in the village continued to assault the gargantuan fox, hoping to damage it in some way.

It seemed as though the fox didn't realize it was being attacked. It kept destroying the Leaf as it did before, killing by the thousands for almost 10 minutes. The Inuzukas, Hyūgas, Akimichis, Naras, Yamanakas, Aburames, Uchihas, and every other clan in Konoha lost several hundred members in total to the attack by the time the Fourth Hokage teleported the fox outside the village, to a 'safe' distance. Almost immediately, the streets were flooded with survivors looking for anyone they might be able to save.

Performing two advanced seals was tiring enough, but with the strain of his battle with the masked man and teleporting the Kyūbi, as well as protecting Naruto from it's desperate attack, Minato was certain he would be dying soon. Partially because of the severity of his wounds, but mostly because of one of the seals he had used. He tried to tell Hiruzen everything, but could only get out something he felt was important above all else.

"Hiruzen," he said. "Please, let Naruto be known as a hero. Don't let the people make him a villain to the Leaf Village, just because he contains the fox."

Kushina picked up when he stopped talking. She was coughing profusely, but still managed to get one thing out, "Mikoto U-Uchiha. Give him… a home w-with her." The Third affirmed he would, realizing they were giving him their last wishes. Minato Namikaze, the Fourth Hokage and Legendary Yellow Flash of the Leaf, made one last sign and put the last of his and Kushina's chakra into the Eight Trigrams Seal, ensuring the fox would never, ever, take control of Naruto. Without any chakra left, both of them died on the spot, leaving behind a boy forced to contain the Kyūbi no Kitsune.

When Mikoto heard of Kushina's death, she was overcome with grief. Kushina had been her friend since she had first met her, back when they were both still in the Academy and Kushina punched some guy through a wall for calling her a tomato.

When Mikoto heard that her son had survived, she was overjoyed, even if he did have to contain a demon.

When Mikoto was given the choice to adopt the boy as per his mother's last wish, she accepted instantly, to do her friend one last favor.

She would have elected to have the boy keep his mother's maiden name, a name the Third had given him to hide him from his father's enemies. Namely, the three ninja villages who sent armies that he had decimated. The only problem with the boy keeping his mother's name was that she had her fair share of enemies, from Kirigakure and Kumogakure. Also, when a Hokage marries someone it tends to be big news. Anyone with a brain who had known about the Fourth would assume Naruto Uzumaki to be the same as Naruto Namikaze. Hell, the Third Hokage was the one who told her he shouldn't keep his mother's name. The boy was renamed upon his off-the-record adoption into the Uchiha Clan.

And thus, Naruto Uchiha was born.

Wow, does that name sound bad. Naruto Uchiha. It really doesn't seem natural at all. Ah, well.

I never did get why no one had ever realized who Naruto's parents were. As far as I know, Kushina was the only Uzumaki alive in the Leaf Village by then, and her relationship with Minato didn't seem all that secret. Anyone else see my point?

Anyways, let me know what you think, be it positive or negative.

I should probably start writing longer first chapters for stories though. This one's better than my first story, but I find it to still be too quick of a read.

You'll be able to see this on my profile page, but each story will now be updated on a biweekly basis. Next week will be A Lack of Faith, the week after will be this one, and so on.

Until Chapter 2: The Two Boys!