Chapter 2: Storm Brewing
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Hidden Leaf Village
October 10, 1000 AS (After Sage)
Minato Namikaze was not having a good day. Sure it started out fantastically, with his secret wife, Kushina Uzumaki, finally going into labor to give birth to his daughter, but then everything went downhill from there. Granted, everything that followed was completely out of his control, he still felt he did something to piss off a deity. Maybe it was karma for all the people he killed during the Third Great Ninja War.
It started when the Nine-Tailed Fox Spirit sealed within Kushina started to break out, which was expected of course, but no less difficult to deal with. So while his wife was giving birth, he was making sure the demon of mass destruction didn't break free to wreak havoc and destroy them all. After his daughter, who they named Naruko, after a character in Minato's sensei's book, was born, a man in a mask appeared and killed both the nurse and Biwako Sarutobi, the aged wife of the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, and demanded that Minato 'step away from the Jinchuuriki, or else your daughter dies at the ripe old age of one minute.'
He told the man to calm down, to which he responded with 'I'm perfectly calm.' He then proceeded to throw his newborn daughter into the air. Minato's far superior speed, they didn't call him the Yellow Flash for nothing, allowed him to catch his daughter midflight. That's when the explosive tags on the bottom of the swaddling blanket went off.
He threw the blanket off and teleported himself and his daughter to a safe house at a different location just before the explosion destroyed said safe house. This also allowed the Masked Man to unseal the Nine-Tails and place it under his control. Something only two people in recorded history were able to do, and they had both passed a long time ago. Just before the angry fox spirit could crush his severely weakened wife, only still alive due to her clan heritage as an Uzumaki, he teleported himself to and from the unsealing location with Kushina in his arms, in less than a second.
After leaving her with their newborn baby girl, he dawned his Hokage cloak just in time to see the Nine-Tails begin its devastating rampage on his village. The carnage was unbelievable. Buildings demolished like ant-hills, ninja swatted away like insects, people sent flying into the air like ragdolls. After giving a few parting words to Kushina, he teleported to the top of his face statue on the Hokage Monument. The Nine-Tails took notice of this and began preparing his brethren's signature move, the Tailed Beast Ball. A ball of super condensed, super potent chakra, capable of leveling mountain ranges, flattening forests, and destroying Hidden Villages with one shot. And it was fired point blank.
Acting quickly, he set up a Transportation Barrier, sending the lethal chakra bomb far away from the village. It still didn't stop the massive explosion that appeared, lighting up the night sky with the force of the sun. Then he had another brief confrontation with the Masked Man, whom deduced was Madara Uchiha…anyway, he beat the man, placed his Flying Raijin Jutsu formula on him, separatedhim from the Nine-Tails with a Contract Seal, and heard some very forboading parting words from him as he vanished in a swirling vortex centered around his right eye, 'I shall rule this world, there are plenty of ways to do it…'
Moving on, after the Nine-Tails was released from Madara's control, and forced out of the village by the Third Hokage's adamantine staff, and said fox preparing to fire another Tailed Beast Bomb, Minato summoned the Toad Boss, Gamabunta, to restrain the Tailed Beast, the Bomb dissipating without any chakra being fed into it.
Minato then used up a massive amount of his remaining chakra to teleport him, the Nine-Tails, his wife, and his daughter to a location far away from the Hidden Leaf Village. After exchanging tearful words with each other about how they wished things could've been different, Minato told Kushina about how he was going to use the Reaper Death Seal, a sealing jutsu that calls forth the Death God to seal something at the cost of the user's life, to seal the Nine-Tail's Yin Chakra within himself and then an Eight-Signs Seal to seal what left of his, Kushina's, and the Yang chakra of the fox within Naruko.
Of course Kushina protested this, not wishing her daughter the lonely life of a Jinchuuriki. Minato countered by saying that without the Nine-Tails, the power balance between the Hidden Villages would be tipped, and the Leaf would be without its protector. Kushina asked why it had to be their daughter that had to be sacrificed, Minato responded that it was his belief that their daughter would be the Child of Prophecy, the one to bring peace to this world, and end the Cycle of Hatred that had plagued it for centuries. Without further delay, Minato ran through the appropriate hand signs and shouted out, "Reaper Death Seal!"
Behind him, a ghostly figure manifested, and an unnatural cold settled over the land. The figure couldn't be described as human. Purple skin, clawed hands, extravagant snow white hair that was afro like in appearance, wild, wide eyes with black sclera and yellow irises, red horns jutted out its hair, and a tanto held in between jagged teeth. Rosary beads were held in its left hand, and a white robe covered all but its hands, face, and emaciated chest.
Just beyond the barrier, Hiruzen and few ninja froze at the sight of the Death God. Farther away, in the village, the shinobi and civilians stopped whatever they were doing, as they felt…nothing, like all life was taken from. They couldn't even find the will to mourn for their recently deceased loved ones. Just the overwhelming desire to sleep…for the rest of their lives.
The Death God held a chakra outline of Minato within his hair. He knew why the mortal had summoned him. The Death God gazed at the Nine-Tails, with nothing held in his piercing, unnatural eyes. Wishing to get this over with, as he had other things to do and didn't feel like listening to a speech he had heard hundreds of times before, he held his hand up, about to plunge it into Minato's soul and seal the Yin chakra of the Nine-Tails...but a massive lightning bolt, colored gold, streaked across the sky, from west to the east, its high pitched whine and the giant boom of thunder that appeared with it drawing the attention of every man, woman, and child on the continent.
Spamming from the main bolt that never seemed to end, smaller tendrils danced about, adding the cacophony of screeching lightning and booming thunder. Animals howled, children wailed, adults covered their ears, windows shattered, and the earth shook under the massive power of the lightning bolt.
"Impossible…" the Death God's voice echoed in the minds of everyone in the Leaf. It sounded like a whisper, yet held a cool, calm, powerful undertone, and held unimaginable rage. "Susanoo, you blasted idiot, why did you bring a demigod to this plane!?" While everyone was extremely shocked that not only had they just received proof that gods were real, and just learned that a child of said gods was now somewhere in their world, the Death God turned his attention back to Minato and Kushina, "Consider yourselves fortunate that I have far more pressing matters that require my attention." Without any hesitation, the physical manifestation of Death plunged both of his hands through Minato's soul. The ghostly appendages streaked forward toward to the restrained fox. The hands grabbed the Nine-Tails' fur, and ripped the fox in two. The fox's chakra was separated into its two parts. The darker red chakra was sucked in to Minato, and the brighter colored orange chakra was sucked into Naruko, a strange spiral like pattern appearing on both of their stomachs. Minato fell to his knees, his soul returning to his, and he turned and looked at the Death Go in shock.
With the sealing of the Nine-Tails, Kushina's chakra chains dispersed into nothingness and the barrier holding back the ninja also disappeared. The Death God looked at the approaching ninja, then to the sky, the lightning bolt having faded.
The Death God was about to return to the Pure World, when Kushina's voice was heard, "Wait," he turned to look at her, her eyes brimming with tears and unfathomable gratitude, "thank you." Death just gave a curt nod toward the woman, then faded out of existence.
"Minato! Kushina!" Sarutobi called out to them. "All you two alright?" his group finally reached the disheveled family, the baby sleeping soundly. "We'll be fine," Minato sounded like he was about to pass out, "get us to the hospital, and get me a damage report." Sarutobi gave a light smile at the weak attempt at a joke. Without any delay, the ninja that followed the retired Hokage grabbed the weakened legends and vanished, reappearing moments later at the fortunately untouched hospital building.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Aftermath
The Hidden Leaf Village stood strong in the afternoon light. Following the Nine Tails attack five years ago, many things had happened. First, the Daimyo pf the Land of Fire had offered his full support in the rebuilding of the Leaf. Second, after three days of digging and cleaning, they finally had all the bodies accounted for, and had a mass funeral for the deceased. It was without a doubt the saddest day in the Hidden Leaf Village. Thirdly, when Minato gave his speech to boost the morale of the people, he introduced the new Jinchuuriki of the Nine Tails, Naruko Uzumaki-Namikaze. Predictably, the masses went into an uproar over that tid-bit of info, but quickly silenced them with two more bombshells: one, Kushina Uzumaki was his lawfully wedded wife, having been married by the Third Hokage himself, and two, he was also the Jinchuuriki of the Nine-Tails. The people didn't know what to make of that, but a quick explanation and a metaphor about water in a glass, and the glass becoming the water, and the Village was already in love with its new Golden Child.
That was also a political move as well. Minato knew that his enemies in the Stone and the Cloud would be making plans to take advantage of the Leaf's weakened state, so what better way to deter them by making it public knowledge that he was not only married to the Red Death, but he and his daughter were both Jinchuuriki. The Tsuchikage and Raikage weren't stupid. This man had single-handedly turned the war in his nation's favor, and now not only was he a married man with a family to protect, he was also the Jinchuuriki of one half of the most powerful creature on the planet. A bluff maybe, but no-one was willing to call him out on it. Besides, the Hidden Leaf's Will of Fire was flowing strongly with the desire to protect their village at all costs. They had gladly run head-first at a Tailed Beast, enemy shinobi were nothing compared to a monster of that caliber.
Following that, the survivors of the attack had a new mindset. They had fought against the strongest Tailed Beast and lived. If they could do that, what else could they do? The Leaf Village suddenly had a lot of shinobi throwing themselves in to training, becoming far stronger than what they were before.
There was also a council meeting held to discuss in detail the events of October tenth. The first thing brought up was how the Nine-Tails was released in the first place. Minato then launched into the tale of the Masked Man, Madara Uchiha and his unknown transportation technique. Everyone had turned to look at the head of the Uchiha Clan, Fugaku Uchiha, for an explanation as to how the most notorious traitor in the history of the Leaf could still be alive, but Fugaku was just as befuddled as the rest of them. Danzo Shimura, the child-hood friend of Sarutobi and well known war-hawk, had suggested a full investigation of the Uchiha Clan, so as to find evidence of the true identity of the Masked Man. Fugaku and Minato agreed to the notion, so long as it didn't get out of hand. With the full support of the Uchiha to find the perpetrator of the attack, relations with the clan and the village improved drastically. It helped that Fugaku and Minato were on the same genin squad and were best friends.
The last topic discussed was what the Death God meant by 'demigod.' Danzo, unsurprisingly, wanted to launch a world-wide search party for 'an asset that will undoubtedly aid the Leaf for years to come.' Minato promptly shot that idea out of the water with the logic of 'we don't have the time, money, or man-power to do that now or ever.' Danzo was sufficiently cowed…on the outside. On the inside he was already making plans where and how to find the 'child of a divine being.'
By order of the Hokage, both Jiraiya and Tsunade of the Legendary Sannin returned to the village. Jiraiya came of his own volition, but Tsunade had to be forced back. Forced being that Minato and Jiraiya both found her, asked nicely, and when she refused, fought her and dragged her back, her apprentice Shizune in tow. She was furious at first, but when she first laid eyes on Naruko, her fury melted and was replaced by a burning desire to protect her goddaughter.
With Minato surviving the attack, Rasa, the Fourth Kazekage of the Hidden Sand Village, reached out to the world renowned seal master for help with his own Jinchuuriki son. As a father himself, Minato agreed without hesitation. So, Gaara's ridiculously unstable seal was fixed, and he was able to bond with his father and older siblings, subsequently following a path similar to Naruko's. Also, after taking note of the Sand's economic crisis, Minato struck a new deal with Rasa. The Sand Village's economic crisis became a thing of the past when the Hidden Leaf offered them substantial financial aid. Aid which the Fire and Wind Daimyos were happy to give and receive, respectably.
Lastly, with Tsunade in the village, and her Shadow Clones aiding the hospital staff, the birth of Hanabi Hyuuga went off without a hitch, and Hitomi Hyuuga, the wife of Hyuuga clan head Hiashi, was cleared to leave the hospital a few days later as a proud mother of two.
But not everything in the world was perfect. With the light being cast on the Leaf, darkness was beginning to spread to the east.
In the Hidden Mist Village of the Land of Water, the bone manipulating clan, the Kaguya, launched a surprise attack against the Mist. They were slaughtered after a few minutes of battle with there being only one survivor of the Kaguya, a young boy named Kimmimaro. This was enough for the 'Fourth Mizukage' to start the Bloodline Purges, the extermination of any man, woman, or child with a kekkei genkai.
It is also in the Land of Water where our story truly begins…an orphan boy with black hair, sea-green eyes, and no name.