After the Kyuubi calmed down, he decided to show Minato a trick. "Minato, I gotta show you something I learned from being trapped in Jinchuuriki all the time." He said, trying to be friendly. They were going to be roommates until he either broke free, or the kid died. The Kyuubi hoped for the first one.
"What?" Minato said from his corner of the room, hugging his knees. What had he done to his son? He was just beginning to realize the torture he would inadvertently put Naruto through. The Kyuubi rolled his bright red eyes.
"I found that you can look out at the world using the Jinchuuriki's eyes, " He said, smirking as he saw Minato's eyes widen. Heh. Humans are too curious for their own good. "Just look at the wall behind you." Minato turned around, and was surprised by what he saw.
It looked like a glass wall now, and it showed the masked face of… Kakashi? "Hey there, Naruto," Minato heard Kakashi's voice coo. Kakashi then looked away. "Where's his mother?" Minato ran forward to the glass, eager for this news. He hadn't known whether Kushina had survived childbirth, let alone the Kyuubi attack.
"Her placenta wouldn't detach," A voice that sounded like Tsunade's said. "I tried to get there to help Rin, but it was too late. Kushina died from the hemorrhaging." Minato slammed his hand against the glass, tears rolling down his face.
"Now Naruto is all alone," He sobbed. "I never wanted this. Why? Why did we both have to die?" He turned around to face the Kyuubi. "You." He said vehemently, scaring even the Kyuubi. "THIS IS YOUR FAULT! IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT I'M NOT ALIVE RIGHT NOW!" Before the Kyuubi could defend himself, Minato had gone back into his refuge of sadness. "If only I could have… really seen him. Now I'll never get that chance. He doesn't even know I'm his father," He moaned miserably, kneeling in front of the glass. "What a damn good father I've been." He hid his head in his knees.
"Seriously, will you stop with the angst? Ya did the best you could do. Don't mope about it forever." The Kyuubi said, annoyed. Foolish angsty humans. Minato raised his head to give the Kyuubi a death glare. Before he could open his mouth, the Kyuubi said his words for him. "Yeah, yeah, I know. 'Why should I listen to a demon?' 'You caused this!' Yada, yada, yada. Just trust me on this one, 'mmmkay?" Minato raised one of his eyebrows and sighed.
"I guess there's nothing good to do except watch, then." Minato mumbled.
Minato fully immersed himself into his son's infantile mind. He saw Tsunade (who Naruto liked to refer to as Boob Lady, much to Minato's chagrin) play patticake with his son, and watched her eternally young face peek in and out of sight for Naruto's enjoyment. He smiled when Kakashi handed Naruto a small fox plushie, which Minato stared at for hours along with Naruto. (Naruto referred to the fox as Kit, much to the Kyuubi's amusement.) He clapped happily when he first heard Naruto speak ('Boob Lady, give me Kit!') and when Naruto first began to walk.
Truthfully, it was a strange experience when Naruto walked. Minato could only see from the viewpoint of Naruto, who happened to be stumbling around like a drunk Jiraiya. This made Minato very motion sick at times.
After a while, Minato finally got to experience Naruto's first birthday. When the day finally came, the Kyuubi (Who Minato now referred to simply as Kyuubi) sat grumpily in his cage. "Ugh, I always hate sealing anniversaries," He grumbled. Minato was too distracted by the outside world to notice. He saw Tsunade's face, brought close to the glass.
"Guess what, Naru-kun?" She cooed. "Someone special is coming! Can you guess?" As Naruto giggled at hearing Tsunade's voice, Minato pondered. Kakashi hadn't visited in a long time… Could it be him? Maybe it was Iruka, who had taken some kind of liking to the young baby. Or maybe it was Sasuke Uchiha, whom Naruto had met at the park. "It's your godfather, Jiraiya!" Minato was overjoyed, seeing as Naruto had never met his godfather. Just then, Jiraiya burst into the room.
"DID SOMEONE ORDER A LARGE HAM?" He said, crashing into the small apartment. His attention was then given to the birthday boy. Jiraiya walked over, hands outstretched. "Hey there, kid. I'm Grampa Jiraiya!" Naruto giggled and clapped his chubby hands at the loud man. He had already established a nickname in his head: Loud Man. Naruto picked up Kit and waved him at Loud Man, grunting. "Oh, is this your friend?" Jiraiya said, shaking the fox's hand.
"Kit, Kit," Naruto said eagerly, waving the poor stuffed animal even more. Jiraiya raised an eyebrow and turned to Tsunade.
"You let him call it Kit?"
"He won't call it anything else," Tsunade said, shrugging. "He calls me 'Boob Lady'." Jiraiya chuckled.
"B-boob Lady?" He said, holding back laughter. He then broke out into said laughter. "HAHA! BOOB LADY! OH! THAT'S GOLDEN!" He roared. Tsunade furrowed her brow at him, rendering the pervert silent. Minato shook his head at his foolish teacher.
"You just dodged a bullet there, Sensei," Minato said, shaking his head scoldingly. He acted as if Jiraiya could actually hear him, which made the Kyuubi scoff. It wasn't loud enough for Minato to hear, but it was still a scoff.
Loud Man held Naruto at arm's length, making him giggle. It had been a really long time since someone had held him like that. Loud Man tickled Naruto's armpits, which made the little boy giggle. He was set back down on the ground again, and Loud Man crouched to his level. "Happy birthday, Naruto," Loud Man said, producing a stuffed frog from his knapsack. Naruto happily grabbed it with little hands and chewed on one of the toes.
When it finally came the time to blow out candles, Jiraiya helped Naruto blow them out. This made Minato feel a heavy sense of longing. Longing for a normal life. Longing for a family. For a chance to help him blow out his son's candles, instead of just watching. "Am I gonna feel this type of longing every year?" He asked nobody in particular, sounding slightly depressed. "Isn't it good enough that I'm dead?" Minato swallowed hard after he said that. He had finally said that he was actually dead. Admitting that was like giving up, even though he knew he was dead. He knew that his real body was buried deep underground, being decomposed by bacteria and fungi. The thought unnerved him. The Kyuubi gave a dark chuckle, as if he understood Minato's problem.
"Humans have always been fearful of death, for some reason." The Kyuubi said simply, as if death was no big deal. "Honestly, it's not that big a whoop. You die, you wait a little, and then ya get what you deserve. Simple as that," The Kyuubi continued. Minato turned to the fox.
"The problem is that we don't know," Minato said. "You don't exactly see dead people telling you what it's like." The Kyuubi scoffed.
" You get what you believe in when it comes to death," The Kyuubi said, showing a surprising amount of wisdom. Minato's expression morphed into one of disbelief.
"I'm pretty sure I didn't believe I was gonna be roommates with the Kyuubi post-humously," Minato said.
"Ah, touché."
How did you like it? Please review, or IMMA GONNA FIRE MAH LAZUR!
