Preface
"Dad! Please, Dad!" Naruto screamed as he flew down the hallway. He tripped several times, receiving plenty of angry bruises and a bloodied nose before reaching the god-forsaken wood standing in his way. His legs throbbed from climbing the fleet of stairs and soon collapsed underneath him.
He clawed frantically at the door blackened by smoke and began pounding the oak with shaking fists. Naruto's coughs and choked sobs fell death against the roar of the brilliant red flames.
"Dad! Dad where are you? Please." Tears wore at his eyes as his speech became less than understandable. He reached for the searing hot door handle in desperation, then immediately pulled back to cradle his newly burnt, fleshy hand with an anguished whimper. "Dad.." He pleaded but to no avail, his vision grew dark and his senses weakened. He was too late, flames licked the bottom of the door and glass could be heard shattering around their small home. He couldn't save him.
A gust of wind blew ashes around Naruto's ankles into a sick dance. A taunting fox trot that he could merely sit and observe. Ashes from the settee they had bought only last month, no doubt. Maybe ashes from the pumpkin orange carpet Naruto had insist they purchase. Not to Minato's taste of course.
"Naruto!" His father's voice erupted from the room inches away. Naruto instinctively jumped impossibly closer to the door separating him from his father. "Dad!" Naruto battered himself against the door until screams could be heard on the other side. "Naruto! Get out!." His voice was hardly recognizable now from the fumes, but clear. Naruto's heart skipped several beats. Fear, anger, pain, exasperation, self hatred, guilt.. They all took good stabs at what was left of him. He couldn't move.
Thick arms wrapped around his waist, Naruto momentarily stiffened. The arms clasped tight around him and started to move him away from the door. Away from his only family. "No! Please Dad! I don't want to leave you!" Terrorized noises tore from his throat as the arms restrained him. He struggled like a fish in a net. Limp; he couldn't feel anything. All control for his body faded to black, his mind was in complete utter turmoil; a catastrophe of vivid sounds, twisted shapes and malice colours. That's when he heard it. All noise of the house silenced in a fleeting heartbeat. The symphony of stillness was interrupted by the dead fud next door.