Minato Namikaze liked to think that he had lived a very fulfilling life. He was content with how he died.

Sure, dying at such a young and unexpected age sucked; sure, having his wife dying alongside him sucked; sure, leaving his son alone with a legacy heavier than Tsunade of the Three Sannin's emotional baggage and- most likely -the wariness and distaste of the entire village (What? He was optimistic, not stupid) sucked; sure-

And then it was with a startled Minato that realized, no, he was not content, and that he did not actually want to die yet. It was disgraceful, surely, for a Hokage to be as afraid of something as common to a shinobi such as death.

He had always envisioned himself dying in a blaze of glory, no regrets, and with only the thoughts of his village and his family- which were basically one and the same in his opinion -on his mind; or perhaps dying in bed of old age, with his friends and loved ones crowding around his bed as he gave them one final weak smile, an even weaker thumbs up, and a cocky proclamation for them to wipe the tears off of their faces. Not through an unknown attack by a lunatic claiming to be another long-dead lunatic.

He felt the cold fingers of the Shinigami touching his soul in a way that felt neither particularly wrong nor uncomfortable; in fact, in felt really nice...maybe, just maybe, he could close his eyes, just for a few seconds...fighting a tailed beast - not to mention the strongest of them really took the fight out of a shinobi...

NO!

His eyes snapped to an empty void of colors incomprehensible to his mortal eyes, a canvas of endless dark, being carelessly painted upon by an entity with a brush dyed with even more dark.

"MORTAL."

A voice filled with power in its purest form. A figure wreathed in white, endlessly shifting form; to the most beautiful of maidens to the most hideous of demons: the thought came to his mind almost instinctively, and it slipped from his lips with the same flowing ease. Why did it feel so hard to hold onto his thoughts?

"Shinigami."

Here was a figure worshiped by his people since the dawn of civilization, here was a (and no matter how his allies and enemies likened him to one. He would never compare) a god. People fought and died and lived for this figure. Its eyes- ever shifting -like the rest of its eerie form stared at him with no emotion that he could comprehend. It twirled a single finger (and he felt the motion was more towards his benefit than any actual necessity) and he suddenly floated closer to the god, enough to smell its breath, it smelt of...Kushina's hair?

"YOU STILL CLING TO LIFE. EVEN WHILE FACED WITH THE COMFORT OF DEATH. TELL ME WHY."

It was not spoken as a demand; but then again Minato doubted anyone would be fool enough to refuse the freaking Shinigami.

"I-" he hesitated, how did one even speak to a deity? Respectfully was the safest bet, he figured, "I still have so much to do. I still have - well had so much life left to live."

He struggled to come up with something else to say, but he found that he could not, for the Shinigami's clawed fingers were suddenly at his throat. He tried to flail around, but his body did not respond.

"CALM YOURSELF. MORTAL," commanded the god; and despite himself, Minato found that he was doing just as the god had said; in a moment of utter hysteria, he thought of how useful such ability would've been had he had in his arsenal when he was still teaching a Genin team.

"YOU ARE ALREADY DEAD; YOU HAVE NOTHING TO FEAR," The Shinigami was many things, found Minato: terrifying, powerful beyond his comprehension, surreal in its strangeness. Reassuring was not one of its qualities.

"AS FOR YOUR ANSWER..." The Shinigami hummed thoughtfully; tapping a finger to its chin in a mockery of human expression with the hand not currently holding him up by his throat, "IT IS COMMON, BUT THE REASON IS NOT IMPORTANT. IT IS THE WILL BEHIND IT. IT WILL SUFFICE."

Suffice for what? He wanted to ask, and he would have if not for his position, currently being hoisted up by his throat. The Shinigami regarded him as if he had actually spoken (Minato would not even surprised anymore if it could read his thoughts at this point).

"IT WILL SUFFICE FOR ANOTHER CHANCE."

If Minato's thoughts were scrambling to make sense of the situation before, then he didn't even know how to describe the jumbled mess that the death god's words made of his thoughts. But it could be summarized rather accurately with a single word.

'What?'

Power coalesced, breaking him out of his shocked stupor, and he watched as a rusted tanto formed from thin air. He could feel the sheer power and history radiating off of the decrepit blade. Orochimaru's Kusanagi had nothing on this.

The Shinigami, still holding him by his throat grasped at the blade with his other hand, and slashed at the air, cutting into the endless dark like a hot knife through butter; the dark gave way to white...just white, the same shade of white as paper, whiter in fact.

"I AM NOT DOING THIS OUT OF THE KINDNESS OF MY HEART, MORTAL. IN FACT, WHAT I AM, DOING COULD BE CONSIDERED A CRUELTY. YOUR SOUL WILL BE TORN ASUNDER, IT WILL PIECE ITSELF BACK TOGETHER, BUT THAT WILL TAKE YEARS. YOUR BODY WOULD NOT SURVIVE THE JOURNEY; SO YOUR SOUL ALONE WILL HAVE TO EMBARK. YOU WILL BE ATTRACTED TO A DYING BODY, AND YOU SHALL ASSIMILATE YOUR SOUL INTO IT'S. WHAT WILL OCCUR IS SOMETHING NOT EVEN I COULD SAY. FARE THEE WELL, MORTAL, AND REMEMBER. FIND THE UCHIHA."

And with those unbelievable words: the Shinigami flung Minato into the portal.

AN

Minato is a character that I find the Naruto fandom likes to bash; very unfairly, I might add. He's a badass that had to make a crappy choice: let thousands die, or condemn his son to a crappy life. So when I was brainstorming story ideas, I thought, "Why not make a story that has Minato as the protagonist?"

My favorite part of this was the Shinigami, hands down. I never knew that writing a deity could be so fun.

A common pitfall that these 'reincarnation' stories have is that the characters that are being reincarnated upon are just, sort of overwritten. I will endeavor to make Jaune have a personality that is a mixture of his canon self and Minato.

I'm not sure about the pairings yet.

Anyway. Enough if my pointless ramblings. Remember to leave a review.