Prayer of the Jinchūriki
Chapter 3: Reinstating a Legend
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. If I did, each character that makes a regular appearance in the manga would have a back story (Tenten, Shino, Kankuro, et cetera).
Naruto had been having a nice dream. He dreamt that his biological parents were the Fourth Hokage and his wife, and that they had come back from the dead just so that they could be a family again. He could almost feel the warmth that had been provided by the double embrace of his mother and father as he had felt so secure. It was like he was in a dream – the kind that give you hope for a better tomorrow, even when everything else seems to fall apart. Of course, he knew that once he woke up it would all disappear because dreams don't come true, because they never did for him. He would wake up back in the orphanage, in his attic with only his usual thoughts of despair and anguish to give him any semblance of consistency. With that in mind, he finally opened his eyes to begin another day of his dreary existence.
The first thing that Naruto noticed when he woke up was that he was not in his room in the attic. In fact, he didn't recognize any of the interior of the room he was in. He was covered up in some fine cotton bed sheets and blankets that felt like they were made for a king. The room was rather plain, all things considered; a simple bed with these sheets and bedding obviously made for luxury and comfort, a lamp stand, and a dresser for clothing was all that filled the interior. The walls appeared to be made of oak wood, and the curtains were colored a forest green. A mat on the floor held the kanji for fire in red on a grey background.
Just as Naruto was getting over his awe in what he could describe as a room for kings, the door opened revealing the people from his dream: the Fourth Hokage and his wife, carrying in some tea and rice bowls. Kushina was wearing a Jōnin uniform, much like Minato's except that the shirt underneath was red instead of blue; Minato was in the same uniform he was in the night before. Naruto pinched himself to make sure that he really was awake. Once it was established that he was, he practically shoved himself out from the bed and went to hug his parents, as if he thought that they would disappear if he didn't physically reassure himself of their existence. Unfortunately, being a child, he underestimated his speed, and managed to knock over Kushina, along with the plate of food that she was carrying. The bowls and tea hit the floor with a resounding crash. Naruto, having previous experience with angry adults in situations like these, did what came naturally; he quickly got off of Kushina's form, bowed in a submissive position with his forehead on the floor, and waited until he was spoken to.
'Why did I have to screw this up? What kind of people would want a kid that would ruin perfectly good food like that? That was probably their breakfast too. I hope they will still want me after I beg for forgiveness.' Naruto was extremely nervous; he didn't want to lose his chance at a family because of his blunder. If he had been looking up, he would have seen his father's minute scowl and his mother's befuddled expression.
"Naruto, what are you doing?" His father asked. He didn't sound upset with Naruto at least as far as the young boy could figure out, which confused him since what Naruto did usually was rewarded with yelling and screaming or being shoved into his room with no meals. Naruto, realizing that he hadn't answered the man known to be one of the greatest ninja to ever live, spat out an excuse hoping to pacify the two adults in the room.
"I-I'm awaiting my punishment, Yondaime-sama, Kushina-sama. I ruined your meal, and broke your bowls and things." Naruto kept his head down, waiting to have his meal privileges revoked, or to be locked back into his room at the orphanage for the day.
Kushina, realizing what he was implying, had to keep herself from going down and bringing the whole building that was the Konoha Orphanage down upon the head of whoever was responsible for Naruto's well-being. He had somehow been conditioned to think that he would be punished for something that was an accident. Maternal instincts kicked in and, with some effort on her part, she managed to pull Naruto into her kneeling lap, and held him close.
"It's OK, sochi. It was an accident; no one got hurt, and we have plenty more bowls and cups where those came from. Besides, obviously my awesome ninja skills are a little rusty if I got knocked over and let everything break like that, 'ttebane. We're not mad; we're just glad you're OK…" Kushina trailed off, reassuring Naruto that he did nothing wrong.
Minato, meanwhile, was looking on the scene with concern. It looked like Naruto would need a lot of love and care, which made Minato a little worried. He was worried if he could give Naruto the attention he deserved if he was Hokage; between the paperwork, running the village, and other aspects that came with the title, he knew he would be busy. He shook his head of that line of thought; he would make time to be with his son. Naruto deserved nothing less. He knelt down and embraced both Kushina and Naruto.
"Your mom's right, Naruto. What happened was just an accident, nothing more and nothing less. We don't punish kids for accidents, sochi. Now, why don't we all go and get something to eat? I think I know of some people that might be willing to feed a small family of three. Also, it's otou-san and kaa-san, not Yondaime-sama and Kushina-sama; when we are alone like this as a family, you don't need to be so formal. Only when you become a ninja and have to deal with the council or foreign dignitaries do you need to be so formal."
Naruto looked up into his parent's eyes and saw the truth conveyed in them. They were truly not upset with Naruto, which while confusing him since every other experience he had with adults made situations like what just happened his fault. All he could do was continue to cling to his parents and absorb the love that radiated off of them.
Before they could continue to bond further, a knock came on the door. Minato reluctantly left the embrace to open the door, revealing Hiruzen and Kakashi in his ANBU garb.
"I am sorry to bother you Minato, but the meeting will start in a few hours, and I thought it best to get you ready for that. Knowing you, you would want to make an entrance."
Minato looked sadly at his family. He had been looking forward to his first meal as a family, but knew that he needed to take care of this sooner rather than later. He held a silent conversation with Kushina, who seemed to agree that he needed to go with Hiruzen. Minato bent down and looked into his son's confused eyes.
"Don't worry, Naruto. The old man here just wants me to go meet some people to let them know about me and your mom. I promise I will be back for dinner tonight, and we will go and have a meal as a family. I really am sorry about this, buddy. When we get back, we will have a great dinner, just the three of us, OK?"
Naruto nodded his head. He was sad, but he realized that he wasn't being abandoned; his dad just needed to let everyone know he was alive. Minato bid his family farewell and used a transformation technique in order for him to move freely with Hiruzen without being recognized. As the trio left, Minato pulled the two shinobi aside. He whispered a plan into the waiting ears of the aged Sandaime Hokage and ANBU captain for his grand entrance. "Hiruzen, I want the two of us to find where my space-time kunai ended up. Once we find them, I want Kakashi to go in ahead of us with a team, preferably of the same ANBU that saw me last night, and place those kunai underneath the seats in the room. I want to make it undeniable that I am who I say I am, and what better way than to use my signature jutsu?"
Sufficient to say, Kakashi and Hiruzen had smirks on their faces that would do a Cheshire cat proud.
The meeting hall for the Konoha Council was packed. Ordinarily, the council was made up of the two councilors of the village, Homura Mitokado and Koharu Utatane. In addition, when there were high priority meetings, there would be representatives of each clan in Konoha – usually the clan head would attend, but the clan head's spouse, heir or heiress of the clan could fill in for a meeting if necessary - as well as the village elders, headed by Danzō Shimura. The ultimate goal of the Konoha Council was to assist the Hokage in making decisions for the good of the village. Sometimes, the views of the Council clash with the views of the Hokage, which lead to some tension between the Council and the Hokage. Mostly, the council would advise in making decisions that would benefit Konoha in the end, but would use any means necessary to meet that goal, even if the solution to a problem was extreme.
Aside from Danzō, Koharu, and Homura, there were representatives of each major clan: Shibi Aburame for the Aburame clan, Chōza Akimichi for the Akimichi clan since his uncle Torifu Akimichi retired, Shikaku Nara, for the Nara clan, Hiashi Hyūga for his clan, Tsume Inuzuka for her clan, Asuma Sarutobi for his father's clan, Fugaku Uchiha for the Uchiha and Inoichi Yamanaka for the Yamanaka clan. There were no representatives for the Senju, the other founding clan of Konoha, since the last living member of the clan had left the village before the Kyūbi attack. Other ninja from various departments, including the head of the Torture and Interrogation Department, who was currently with an apprentice, as well as various other organizations like the Nijū Shōtai.
The doors of the room opened to reveal Hiruzen Sarutobi and ANBU captain Kakashi Hatake and three other ANBU in tow. Hiruzen was in his full Hokage attire. He seemed to have a mischievous glint in his eyes; the look was similar to what a child might have when they are planning on surprising their parents. He sat in his chair with Homura and Koharu flanking him and Kakashi taking his standard ANBU position on the roof. The room was silent for a moment. Clearing his throat, Hiruzen called the meeting to order.
"Esteemed councilors, proud shinobi, and clan representatives, I call this meeting of the Konoha Council to order. That is, I would like to say that, but there are two problems with that. First, we are missing one important member of this council-"
"Excuse me," Danzō asked. "But who are you referring to, Hokage-sama? Everyone is already here."
"I was getting to that, Danzō-san. As I was saying, first we are missing one individual, and second I no longer hold the power to call these meetings to order."
Everyone gave Hiruzen a confused look. "Hokage-sama, unless I am mistaken, the Hokage always calls these meetings to order. Why are you saying that you no longer have that authority?" Inoichi inquired.
"That is a good question, Inoichi-san. I am saying that I no longer have authority because, as of this morning when I signed it as my last official act as Hokage, I am no longer of the title. The title of Hokage no longer rests with me."
"That is impossible, Hiruzen. Only the Council can elect a new Hokage; you can name a successor, but we must approve of the individual. You do not have the authority."
"True, Homura-san, but I do have the authority to reinstate a former Hokage."
Everyone was about to question the Professor's sanity, until he pulled out a space-time kunai and flung it in the air, channeling chakra into the seal on the handle. In a spectacular and familiar yellow flash, a figure in a white robe caught the kunai in mid-air, spun around, and planted his feet firmly on the ground. The figure stood up, revealing the Yellow Flash of Konoha, Minato Namikaze. The room was quiet enough to hear the minute buzzing of Shibi's insects.
Hiashi and Fugaku immediately activated their dōjutsu to check for any form of transformation or illusion. When none was detected, jaws began to drop. Somehow, standing before some of the most outstanding figures in Konohagakure no Sato was Minato Namikaze! Cheers, crying, and overall outbursts of disbelief and joy flooded the room. Minato couldn't help but smirk; he had expected such a reaction, despite knowing that there were others that exceeded his skills. Minato was aware of his strength, but he also knew there were other individuals that could still beat him, after all he was mortal. In fact, Hiruzen would have given him a run for Minato's money if Hiruzen was in his prime. His musings were interrupted when one loudmouth in charge of Konoha's education system decided to make the mistake of pointing out why Minato was there to begin with.
"Finally! The Yondaime Hokage has come to tell us how to properly dispose of the Nine-Tailed Fox child, so we can be rid of the Fox forever!"
The tension in the air was able to be cut with a katana. Combined with Minato's killing intent, it was enough to silence the room fairly quickly. Someone could have dropped a sebon and it would have been heard. Before Minato could properly inform the man of his mistake, Danzō scolded the man who spoke up.
"You fool. Obviously, Minato-sama has come back to properly show us how to utilize the weapon he created for us."
Several people began nodding their heads and murmuring in agreement; even Minato seemed to agree on the surface. That was, before he disappeared in a yellow flash and reappeared with a kunai stabbing straight through Danzō's trachea from the left-hand side; a look of horror appeared on his face as Minato's scowl was present when he looked to his left. Minato leaned in closer to Danzō to whisper in his ear.
"Rot. In. Hell." With that, Minato kicked over Danzō's lifeless body, blood beginning to pool around him and Minato's space-time kunai in his now bloody hand. "It's ironic that a man so afraid of death died so quickly. ANBU, get this piece of garbage out of my sight."
As the ANBU took Danzō's body, quite a few of the occupants in the room were shocked. Minato may have been a kind individual, but he was also shrewd and could kill in cold blood, something that most people had forgotten after the Third Great Shinobi World War. As Minato took his seat in the Hokage's chair – Hiruzen promptly allowed him into the Hokage's seat after his display– he sat down and faced the rest of the room, pure anger marring his features.
"Let me make one thing abundantly clear; anyone who refers to Naruto Uzumaki as a demon, weapon, or any variation in my presence again will receive the same treatment, village status be damned!" Minato accented his statement by ramming the blade of his space-time kunai into the wooden desk. Everyone had the good sense to keep that in mind. If there was one mistake that a person never wanted to make, it was to upset the Hokage. With someone as dangerous as Minato was, it would be the last mistake you would ever make.
In the minute or two that had passed, Shikaku Nara had been analyzing the way Minato talked about the blond jinchūriki with some interest. He was no fool; there was only one reason Minato would act the way he did where Naruto was concerned. He supposed it should have been obvious from the beginning, but like many men in his clan, he thought at the time it was too troublesome to do anything about it. He smirked as he decided to end the suffocating silence.
"If I may be so bold, Minato-sama, is there a particular reason you are acting particularly defensive over Naruto Uzumaki?"
Minato grinned. He could tell that Shikaku figured things out, and it looked like some others were catching on as well. He figured now was as good a time as any to drop the bomb shell.
"Of course I am defensive, Shikaku-san. After all, what father doesn't want to protect his son?"
If silence was golden, Minato would have been a billionaire by now. The absolute gob-smacked look on each and every face, save for Hiruzen, Shikaku and Kakashi, was priceless. If anyone had already assumed what Minato said was the gospel, they did not show it. The very idea of Minato having a living heir was, to say the least, shocking. They knew that he was in a relationship with Kushina Uzumaki before the attack, as well as her former status as a jinchūriki, but no one apparently wondered if she had conceived or not. Aside from the looks of downright shock, there were some that appeared thoughtful and confused.
One shinobi decided to voice his confusion. "But, Hokage-sama, I thought that the power of the Fox would have destroyed his soul…How can he still be your son if his soul has been corrupted by the Kyūbi?"
Minato gave an incredulous look. Surely, people understood how seals worked, right? Would they honestly believe that Naruto was nothing more than a shell for the Fox? When he saw that some of the shinobi in the room looking around in a similar fashion, Minato realized that no one had considered how the seal worked. Of course it would be too easy to simply explain what was going on, as most people would not be willing to listen. So, being the clever individual that he was, Minato decided a demonstration was in order.
"Neko, would you mind handing me your katana for a moment?" Yūgao appeared next to Minato and promptly handed over her katana. "Kakashi-san, hand me a scroll if you would, please?" Kakashi appeared next with a blank scroll in his hand. Minato then pulled out a brush and ink and began writing on the paper. Those in the room that were beginning to catch on realized he was making a storage seal using the Generic Sealing Technique. Finishing his work, Minato then sealed the katana into the scroll.
"Hiruzen-sama, would you be willing to volunteer yourself for a little demonstration?"
"I would be honored, Hokage-sama." Hiruzen could see what was going on, but he thought that Minato needed to lighten the mood slightly anyway. Hiruzen stood next to Minato, who proceeded to poke and prod the Professor with the scroll. Holding a faux expression of frustration, Minato proceeded to prod harder and even bopped the aged Sarutobi on the head. This rather amusing display proceeded for about five minutes until a few of the shinobi present, namely Fugaku Uchiha, became irritated.
"Is there a point to this obnoxious and childish display, Minato-sama?" Fugaku finally asked. "What exactly is this accomplishing, other than making you look like a fool?"
Minato smiled. "Well, it just seemed odd that this scroll hasn't killed Hiruzen-sama yet. I mean, I sealed the blade into the scroll, but I don't see any cuts or punctures consistent with a blade. "
Realization began to dawn on those who had not figured out the meaning behind Minato's behavior. The answer was staring then straight in the face, and yet no one was willing to acknowledge it before now. Naruto was no more the Kyūbi no Yōko than the scroll was a katana. Mentally, those that thought of Naruto as the shell for the Fox were ashamed, even more so by the revelation that Naruto was their precious leader's son. Of course there were still others who didn't care one way or the other anyway, and those that now had a new reason to hate Naruto, but at least now people were beginning to entertain the idea of Naruto as a person.
"Now that I seem to have cleared up some confusion surrounding my son," Minato began, "I will need to make some things abundantly clear now. How we choose to raise Naruto will be Kushina's and my prerogative as parents; I will only train Naruto to be a ninja if that is what he wants. We will also not be accepting marriage offers right now, so don't bother. Naruto up until now has not had the ability to make his own decisions, and he has a lot to have fixed due to his life in the orphanage. The last thing I need for him right now is to arrange a political marriage with someone he doesn't even know simply because someone wants more power in the village by marrying my son. Finally, I would like to see each and every one of the clan heads tomorrow afternoon. I wish to speak with each and every one of you. Mostly, I want to catch up with my friends, but I also have some private business to discuss. Now, if there is nothing else, I have a family to attend to. Ja ne." And with that, Minato left in a yellow flash.
Inoichi summed up the main thought on everyone's mind. "Well, that will make things fairly interesting around here now."
After the meeting adjourned, Hiruzen tuned towards his contemporary with an amused look as they took a walk. "I appreciate you taking out that pain in the ass, but was killing Danzō really necessary? I am sure that people would appreciate you coming back without having to put the fear of Kami into them."
"Perhaps, Hiruzen, but I wanted to make a point. When I gave my life for this village five years ago, I wanted the people here to do one thing and one thing only: to respect my dying wish. They chose to ignore that. Therefore, if people are not going to respect my wishes as Hokage, then they will respect my wishes as the Yellow Flash if nessessary."
Minato returned to the tower to see his family. Hiruzen earlier suggested waiting until after the meeting to officially reveal Minato to the public as Hokage, to which Minato agreed to do on the condition that he also introduce Naruto as his son. The public reveal was an interesting affair; a mixture of outrage and shame from the public was evident. Outrage both at the claim that Naruto was Minato's child and that the fact had been hidden from everyone, and shame from some groups at how they treated Naruto. Minato had then gone to retrieve his family for their first meal as a whole. Naruto, not being used to so much attention, clung to his parent's side like a magnet. Kushina and Minato knew it would be difficult for Naruto to get used to the attention, but they would be with him every step of the way.
Lying underneath the shade of a tree was a forty-three year old man. He was using a gigantic scroll as a pillow and had on a green suit and red vest. His wild white hair, which grew down his back into a long ponytail, was kept out of his eyes by a headband with the kanji for "Oil" on it. This man was none other than Jiraiya the Toad Sage. He was resting on his journey back to report to the Hokage about the recent information he had gathered from his spy network, which was essentially squat as there was nothing to report; hence, why he wasn't returning in a hurry.
His slumber was interrupted when a poof of smoke appeared. The smoke cleared to reveal a green toad with yellow eyes, a cane, white hair complete with a goatee and eyebrows, and a black robe. He was immediately recognized as one of the two Great Toad Sages of Mount Myōboku, Fukasaku.
"Jiraiya-chan, we have a problem."
Jiraiya opened one of his eyes. "I'll say we have a problem, Fukasaku-sensei; you're interrupting my nap…"
Fukasaku, irritated that the Toad Sage was blatantly ignoring him, wacked Jiraiya over the head with his cane. "This is no laughing matter, Jiraiya! Something has happened with the summoning scroll!"
That caught Jiraiya's attention. The Toad Summoning Contract was not something that could easily be manipulated. Unlike other scrolls which could be altered or broken into, the Summoning contract was a document that could only be accessed by someone who already signed the contract. Jiraiya opened up the large scroll he was carrying to assess the situation. Not immediately seeing anything wrong, he turned back to Fukasaku.
"Sensei, if this is some kind of joke-"
"Look at the signatures, boy!"
Jiraiya looked back at the signatures. Most of the names in the scroll were of people who had been able to summon toads in the past. Red signatures indicated a living member of the contract, and black indicated a deceased member. Upon closer inspection, Jiraiya found one name on the contract that was in red that should have been in black.
Minato Namikaze.
Jiraiya was taken aback. "There's no way that could be right. Minato died five years ago! How could his name still be in red? Unless…"
"Sensei, hadn't Minato's name been written in black?"
"That's the problem. We found the name had changed to red rather suddenly, Jiraiya-chan! Someone has either tampered with the scroll, or someone has brought him back to life."
Jiraiya was seeing red. He knew that there were ways to bring back the dead, and if someone had brought Minato back to use against the village, they were in for a rude awakening. Jiraiya thanked Fukasaku, summoned Gamahiro – one of Jiraiya's many toad allies – and made a bee-line for Konoha, intending on bringing down his wrath on whoever dared insult his student's memory.
Author's Notes: Here's another chapter of Prayer of the Jinchūriki. I wish to thank everyone that has reviewed thus far and for the input and support you continue to show me. I know this has been a long update coming, but frankly writer's block sucks and I seem to be extremely susceptible. Thank you for being understanding.
I have received a lot of comments about the pairings for this story, and frankly as of right now I am not solidified on any one idea. I have ideas for what I want to do, but this fic is mostly focused on Naruto's family, so I don't foresee any basis of romance anytime soon. This may also be the first time I experiment with the idea of possibly having more than one girl, but I haven't even decided on what two as of yet. Just be patient and trust that I will come up with something. Also, I am willing to compromise on this to an extent. I mostly like using Hinata in my fics because I am intrigued by her character, hence why I spend most of my time reading NaruHina fics. But, to be fair, most people have indicated that he would be different, so this is my tentative plan: Hinata will be one of the two girls he will end up with if I decide to go with two girls instead of one – sorry Harem fans – but Hinata won't be the main girl. Hopefully, that will keep people placated.
As for skills, he will have some ability in sealing, but as that is a rather unusual art and only has so many uses in the field outside of storage, exploding tags, and the like; it won't be a primary skill. He will have a weapon other than kunai and shuriken, but I will reveal that later. He will kinda evolve as he goes along.
I will probably receive some flak for killing Danzō so early, but frankly he would be too much of a pain in the ass to get rid of later when he has all those Sharingans in his possession, so I got rid of him. There will be repercussions to his, but he is dead and staying dead. Live with it.
As for canon events, I will mostly be following my own path on this one. Especially where stuff like the Uchiha Massacre and other such events are concerned, I will deal with them in a way that I have either never seen before, or there will be some sort of deviation from canon. I will just do what I will think work best. After all, with Minato being alive, I have a feeling that he would handle things differently.
Finally, I want to address something that I want to point out right now: Naruto will be different, but that doesn't mean he will stay the way he is personality-wise indefinitely. He will be a hell of a lot more calm than he is in canon, and there will be times where he is a little more insecure, but he will have some confidence in himself – not as much as he does in canon but still a bit – by the time he graduates. Frankly, I don't want him to be like he is now if his family is trying to support him; it just wouldn't make sense to me. You will see how that works next time.
I will try to update my stories when I can, but I am also going to be undertaking a challenge for thymisticles, and I will simply write when I am able. Until then, Ja ne!
Definitions:
Nijū Shōtai: Twenty Platoons
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