Kitsune's Fresh Start
Chapter 2
Flight ruined
Naruto refused to stop. He refused to listen to the two men closing in on him in his flight to escape what his mind was telling him. In his mind, if he didn't talk to the one person he knew to be dead, then he wouldn't have to admit to himself that he himself was dead. As Naruto kept his flight from the black robed men, he didn't pay attention to where he was going. After fifteen minutes, the blond stopped in a clearing surrounded by trees that had never recovered from the last winter they experienced. Quickly glancing around, the small blond flinches as he heard two thumps on the ground behind him.
Slowly turning around, he looked up to a curious blond haired captain and a furious red head. A soft "eek" escaped his throat as he tried to back away from them both. Too bad that attempt was useless. A quick shunpo from the kinder shinigami stopped the blond in his tracks. Minato smiled kindly down to the small boy before ruffling his hair slightly. Slowly, Minato stooped down so he can look Naruto in the eyes. "Hey kiddo, why'd you run? Renji and I aren't gonna hurt you."
Naruto looked up slowly at the one person he admired all his life. "Yo-Yondaime ho-hokage...I-I can't be dead...Aniki c-couldn't have killed me! An-Anyways I-I can't be in the same place as you I-I always thought that with Kyuubi...I-I'd go to hell."
"Naruto, just because you two are fused, doesn't mean you'll be dragged to hell. Usually you'd be separated and go to your designated areas; you would go to heaven and Kyuubi to hell, but for some reason that didn't happen and it just took you here to the Soul Society. Anyways, I don't know who you're calling aniki, but I do know you are here, and that someone did end your life, even if you died too soon, in my opinion."
Naruto looked at the man with confused eyes, as he nodded slowly. "What's going to happen to me now...Yo-Yondaime-sama?" The smaller blond slowly stood up fully and his kitsune features became apparent to the two full-fledged shinigami standing in front of him. Renji raised a red eyebrow at the preteen.
'What the hell is he?' Minato was now two feet away from the blond after rising to his full height before he stopped. "You'll come with us for now. I'll talk to Yamamoto-sama to see if you can stay here. And I'm no longer the hokage so you don't have to call me that, Naruto. It's Minato."
Naruto looked up and nodded slowly. He scratched his ears roughly, not used to such appendages on his skull. The blond appeared little confused before pulling out a blue rose in his tresses, tilting his head in obvious confusion. 'Kyuubi...where'd this come from?' The great beast present in the boy's own mind tilted his head in his own confusion as well. 'I have no idea...since you died you can no longer use chakra, the energy you now use is reiatsu, which was the power pouring off of you a moment ago. With new energy comes new abilities, so this rose might be significant later. Don't lose it.'
"Naruto?" Minato's voice broke through Naruto's thoughts as he looked at him, the blond man beckoning him to follow them. The smaller blond glanced around. He was quite scared of what could happen to him in this new strange place. Naruto looked up to Minato before instantly latching onto the former kage's cloak. Minato blinked in surprise as he felt the blonde cling to him, feeling the preteen shaking slightly. Obviously being put in such a predicament, the blond was scared, especially of the other people. He tucked the rose in his kitsune ears.
'He must still be afraid.' Renji, meanwhile, is trying to stifle a laugh as he saw the predicament Minato was in. "Naruto, there in nothing to be afraid of. This is a friend of mine, Renji Abarai, a lieutenant of the 13 court guards. Renji, this is Naruto Uzumaki, the kid I told you about earlier."
Naruto looked up to the red head with confusion before focusing and he makes his ears and tails disappear. "Does that make you feel better Abarai-san?" The blonde kept a death grip hold of the man's haori, obviously a little unsure of this place.
The red head shrugged, "It doesn't matter to me what ya look like kid, in Soul Society you meet plenty of weirdos around here."
Minato snorted. "Did you put yourself in that category by any chance, Renji?" Renji glared at him and turned away, obviously not really hurt by Minato's teasing. The duo did it all the time anyway. "Anyway Naruto, hang on tight." Minato and Renji jumped into the trees, landing on branches as they went. Naruto let go of the older's cloak and easily kept up even though he is wearing a kimono that limited his mobility.