So, I'm powering through the updates today. ;) This is the third one I've updated now. Yay for me!

In any case, there's a bit of a time skip here. The prologue had a nine year old Minato, now he's recently turned twelve. Minato's birthday is apparently January twenty five, and this chapter starts roughly mid February.

Anyway, disclaimer that I don't own and enjoy! :)

Chapter One

The village was alive with activity as the sun shone brilliantly down upon them. Shinobi traversed the rooftops, or the streets, going about their daily routines and training. Civilians strolled peacefully along the streets, hawkers crying their wares in the markets, children running freely along, enjoying the freedom to be children. Businesses thrived, whether shinobi or civilian, schools were filled with happy children, even if they did groan about being inside all day.

One of those children was Minato. Well, he wasn't in a classroom, but he was indoors, cooped up and learning from his tutor. Ichiyo-sensei had him scheduled to run through his meditation techniques today, so the house was quiet but for the ticking of a clock and the chirping of a bird outside a window.

Minato breathed in steadily, listening to the chakra inside of him. It flared, eased back, then flared again. He did this every day, it was a part of his training schedule, and since he'd started years ago, his reserves were up to about above average for a gennin level ninja. His control was really good, up in the eighty fifth percentile. His ability to sense chakra was also strong. Ichiyo-sensei had told him that he was a natural at it.

At this particular point, Minato could sense and identify everyone in the Sarutobi complex. Well, the latter part was mostly because he knew quite a few of them. Further out into the village, Minato could sense people's individual chakra, though he naturally couldn't identify them all without having met them. He felt the Sandaime's chakra, all the way over at the Hokage tower. And Toru's over at the Academy, along with a lot of other signatures that were clearly children who were ninja-in-training as well.

There was one particular signature he'd found a couple of years ago, back when he'd first been able to differentiate the chakra signatures of the village into individuals. He'd been nine at the time, and expanding his senses had been exhilarating. It had been dark, heavy, and he'd pulled back at the terrible feeling that had welled up in him. He'd almost been too afraid to extend his senses again, not wanting to feel such hate and anger again.

But he'd done it, and had soon discovered there was a kind of duality to the signature. Yes, there was the dark hatred and malice, but it was being kept in check by a chakra so bright and cheery, that Minato hardly needed to search for it to find it. Whomever this person was, they seemed to be a living representative of the dichotomy of light and dark. At least, that was how it seemed to his senses.

Right now, that signature was running all over the village, and Minato, who felt an almost insatiable curiosity well inside him, opened his eyes and looked out the nearby window. They weren't far from the complex… Maybe he could go get a peek at whomever it was with this odd chakra signature?

Ichiyo-sensei wasn't here right now… Making a snap decision, Minato stood and headed for the window, jumping out onto the tree that was right outside, suppressing his chakra the way Ichiyo-sensei had shown him, and heading off to where the person was.

Slipping past the complex guards, Minato soon found himself out in the village and on his own for the first time ever. Normally someone was with him. It was such a novel experience that he got distracted by it a few times and lost track of the chakra. But it was easy to find again, and he'd follow. Soon, it became apparent that someone was chasing them, though he had no idea why. Eventually Minato reached the street the person was in, though he couldn't see them anywhere.

A few chuunin and jounin ran by in a search pattern, and once they passed, Minato got to see the person they were chasing. A camouflage was dropped, and a grinning child stood there, cheering that he'd eluded them. Minato was so shocked that the person with all that chakra was only a child about the same age as him, that it took a moment to realise that the boy looked a lot like him. Blond hair, blue eyes from what he could see when the boy briefly opened them once. Their facial features were different, the boy's face was rounder than Minato's, for one, his skin tone a tad darker, and there were three strange whisker marks on each cheek…

"Ha ha ha!" the kid laughed. "They'll never catch me, the great Uzumaki Naruto!"

Uzumaki?

"Oh really?" a voice said, and Minato startled a little at it (though not as much as 'Naruto' did).

"Aah! Iruka-sensei!" Naruto yelled. "I-I uh… I can explain!"

"Oh really?" Iruka asked. "You're going to explain to me why you're out here in the village, instead of in class where you're supposed to be?"

"I-er-uh…"

The Academy? So he was a student there, like Toru, then? Minato wondered if his friend knew the kid, and made a mental note to ask him.

"I really don't have time to spare to keep chasing you down, Naruto," Iruka was saying as he grabbed Naruto practically by the scruff. "Come on, back to class then."

The Academy teacher (that was Minato's guess, it was most likely correct) then took off with a loudly complaining Naruto, leaving Minato there to think about what he'd learned. So. The insane chakra belonged to an Academy student, about the same age as he was, maybe a little younger. He was an Uzumaki, which kind of fit with what he'd learned of their massive chakra reserves and vitality. He still didn't have an answer about what the malignant chakra was, but he was glad to have a face and name to go with it.

Suddenly Minato sensed another chakra, one that seemed familiar, but he could swear he'd never felt it before. Not counting when he'd just let his sense roam over the village, of course. Turning, he saw a jounin standing in the shadows. He was slightly taller than Hakuku-oji, though not as well-built as him, slender and lean, with silver hair that seemed to defy gravity with how it stuck up. He looked as familiar as his chakra had felt. One dark grey eye stared over at the spot Naruto had previously occupied. That sense of familiarity was strong, strong enough to keep Minato rooted to the spot.

The shinobi hadn't sensed him, that was good. He was currently hidden, his chakra still repressed. But even as he thought that, the man looked his way, eye narrowed like he was trying to see something hidden. See Minato hiding there. He took a step forward, Minato took a step back, then cursed himself for doing that as the man's eye trained directly on the spot where he was.

"Who's there?" he demanded in an authoritative tone. "Show yourself."

Instinctively Minato obeyed that order and stepped forward, out of the shadows and into the light. The man's sole visible eye widened at the sight of him, shock evident in that dark grey orb.

"Impossible," the man breathed. "You look just like… But it can't be! He's dead… Tell me, what's your name?"

"Uh, Minato," the boy in question told him. "My name's Minato, shinobi-san. Um… May I ask, who is it that I look like?"

The man shook his head. "Impossible," he repeated. "You can't be… Sensei's gone, there's no way…"

Sensei? Did this shinobi have a sensei once that looked like him? Was there family out there, biological family? No, he said whoever it was, was dead… Minato stared into the man's still shocked eye, then winced when a sharp pain shot through his skull. His vision blurred and he saw something vision-like before his eyes…

"So, when am I going to meet this new student of mine?" he asked.

The Sandaime smiled serenely before him, puffing on his pipe. "Naoto, bring Kakashi-kun in, would you?"

The Hokage's aide bowed and left the room briefly, returning with the child that Minato had seen waiting outside the office. "Minato, this is Hatake Kakashi, your new student. Treat him well."

What the heck was that? Minato looked up at the man before him, seeing the similarities between him and that strange boy in the 'vision' and couldn't stop himself from speaking that name.

"…Kakashi?"

So what did you think? Review please!