Disclaimer: Not mine, Kishimoto's.
Note: Edited 9/1/07. The Yondaime's name from here on out is going to be changed from Kazama Arashi to the recently revealed one, Namikaze Minato.
Key (quote marks ARE important)
thoughts
'Naruto speaking'
'Kakashi speaking'
'Kyuubi speaking'
Chapter 3: Discoveries
Narashi was lying on a hospital bad, arms crossed behind his head, seemingly deep in thought as he stared at the ceiling above him. For the past ten minutes, Narashi has been trying to figure out any arguments against using the Kyuubi's idea or trying to find out anything else that they might be able to do. So far, though, they haven't had much luck in either.
'Maybe we could use the Rasen Shuriken. With enough power behind it, it's bound to put even the nine-tails out of commission long enough that we could seal it without killing ourselves, or actually becoming a demon to do it.'
'That plan could probably work, but you seem to be forgetting something, Naruto. That jutsu is just as dangerous to the user as the victim. Yes, with enough power, the Rasen Shuriken could do a lot of damage to even the Kyuubi; but it could also destroy our arm in the process, and most likely kill or seriously wound anyone with the blast radius, as well. Remember how big that crater was when you hit Kakuzu? Not to mention, while your own healing rate is fast, the Kyuubi's at full strength was even faster. We'd have maybe a minute or two tops to do anything before the fox demon would be completely healed again.'
'Well, I don't see you coming up with anything! If you're going to shoot down everything I come up with, why don't you think of a plan?'
'I'm merely pointing out the flaws I see in your ideas. And it's not that I'm not thinking of anything, it's just that so many things can go wrong with everything I've thought of that I'm not going to bother saying them. We only really get one chance at this; we screw up and it's over.'
'Well, what's one idea you have? You never know, we could make it work.'
I'm going to regret this, I just know it. Kakashi thought, before saying, 'If you want to know so badly, here's a recent one I thought up. Instead of having one person sealing Kyuubi, have multiple ninja do so; the combined power might be enough.'
'But what if that isn't enough? Rather than one person dying, it would be more.'
'I know. That's why I didn't want to say it, cause I knew it would be pointless.'
'Oh...'
Narashi frowned up at the ceiling above him. Everything he could think up has so many problems, he could never consider doing them. His frown deepened. It all comes back to what the Kyuubi offered. Narashi really didn't like it, but he's right. Out of everything, it has the highest possibility of getting the results he wanted; Yondaime living, Kyuubi defeated/sealed, and Narashi surviving the fight to see the results.
But it also means being treated like a demon. Again. He's already gone through that once, he didn't want to repeat the experience. It'd be even worse this time, cause the villagers would be right. Narashi would be a demon. Maybe not a bad one like the Kyuubi, but a demon nonetheless.
Then again, he continued thinking as he turned on his side, looking out the window at the Hokage mountain. Maybe the villagers wouldn't think like that. If he went with Kyuubi's suggestion, he'd be doing it to defeat the demon fox that'll be attacking in a year. Maybe if that happens, the villagers would actually see past the demon and see him as the hero the Yondaime meant for Naruto to be in the original time line.
"Or maybe," Narashi muttered, scoffing slightly, "I should stop worrying about all the 'maybes' and think about something else for awhile." He turned back onto his back, arm over his eyes. "I can probably come up with better ideas tomorrow when my head is clearer, anyway."
He laid there in complete silence, both physical and mental. After a while, he sighed, somewhat sadly. Now's as good a time as any.
'Naruto?'
'Hm...yeah? What is it, Kakashi-sensei?'
'There's something important I need to tell you. Technically, you aren't supposed to know yet; but considering where, or rather, when we are, you'll find out sooner or later. Might as well be now.'
'What do you mean?'
Another sigh. 'There's no other way to say this, so I'm just going to be blunt. The Yondaime Hokage, other wise known as Namikaze Minato, was your father.'
Naruto was shocked speechless. He didn't know how to react to that piece of news. How was he supposed to react after finding out that the man who sealed the Kyuubi no Kitsune in you, essentially ruining his life, was also his father?
'Naruto..?' Kakashi said slowly, worried about his student's reaction, or lack thereof.
That got Naruto out of his shocked state. Immediately, he started asking questions, getting louder and angrier with each question. 'But, how can that be possible? Why didn't anyone ever tell me? Who else knows? Does everyone know except me, like it was with the Kyuubi a few years ago? And if he was my father, then why did he-?'
Naruto stopped his line of questioning suddenly, unable to finish the last one because of the implications behind it. Kakashi ended up finishing for him. 'Why did he seal the demon fox into his only newborn son?'
Narashi sat up, arms loosely around his knees, head bowed. He took a deep breath before continuing with his mental explanation.
'I'll answer any questions you have Naruto, the best that I can. But let me explain completely first before you ask any more questions, ok?' Getting an affirmative from Naruto, Kakashi started.
'To answer you question of who knows, it's not that many people, like with the kyuubi. The only ones who know, or knew, are myself, Jiraiya, Tsunade, and the Sandaime. If anyone else know, they figured it out on their own and kept quiet about it. Nobody else was supposed to know that the Yondaime's child hadn't died in childbirth with his wife. Not until you were either eighteen years old, or promoted to jounin, whichever came first. That's when you would have been told originally.
'As for why, it was for your protection. Minato-sensei made a lot of enemies when he was alive; enemies that would try to kill you for revenge in a heartbeat if the knew of your heritage. Kakashi made a slight scoffing noise. 'I've lost count of the number of times someone has attacked me, before I made a name for myself, to get revenge on Konoha's 'White Fang'. Chiyo-baasama being the most recent.'
Narashi chuckled softly, remembering the little, old woman, who had actually been stronger then her age had originally implied.
'And for your last question, I think you already understand you father's, Yondaime's choice, at least in part. Being Hokage has been your dream for as long as I've known you. Surely you know what that means?' Sensing Naruto's confusion, Kakashi kept speaking. 'How can any Hokage ask someone else to sacrifice their own child, when they are unwilling to do the same themselves?'
Narashi's eyes widened in shock as the realisation hit Naruto. He'd never really thought of it like that. But it did make perfect sense. Anybody who had claimed to become Hokage someday since before joining the ninja academy should be able to understand that. True, it still hurt a little (ok, a lot) to know that his own father had sealed his fate with the sealing of the Kyuubi no Yokai. But Naruto knew that had he been in his father's place, he would've done the same thing if he could. Kakashi, sensing Naruto's understanding, mentally smiled and breathed a sigh of relief.
'Now do you understand? Why he did what he did?'
'Yeah. Better than I did before at least. Ever since I found out about the fox, I've always wondered why the Yondaime chose me out of all the kids born that day. Now I know.' Naruto suddenly realized something rather important. 'Hey, Kakashi-sensei? I just realised, but what exactly are we going to tell the Yondaime anyway? I mean, we want to change how that attack ended, right? And the best way to do that would be to make sure that the village had a proper warning about the Kyuubi so everyone can be ready when the time comes. We'd probably need to explain about how we know as well. So, how much are we going to tell?'
'Hmm...well, I've been thinking about that and I figured it would be best if we kept what we told to the bare minimum at the moment. For now, we can just tell them about the kyuubi attack and a brief explanation of where we come from and how. Maybe even that 'Hazaki Narashi' is actually two people. But we should keep our actual identities a secret for as long as possible.'
'Really? Why? I mean, I understand that it could be dangerous if anyone found out, but wouldn't it make them trust us a bit more though if they knew? They're obviously going to wonder, especially if we use justus that we shouldn't know.'
'I know that. But bad things generally seem to happen when someone goes back in time and meets themselves, especially if the younger version finds out. I don't want to know what could happen if thirteen year old Hatake Kakashi found out that his thirty year old self somehow ended up seventeen years in the past with his sensei's sixteen year old son, fused into one body.'
Narashi stopped, blinking, thinking about that sentence for a minute. Shaking his head, he said, "And put in that way, that just increased the weirdness of the situation. Definitely."
'Moving on. While it would be bad if younger Kakashi (feels strange speaking about myself in third person) found out about me, it'd be even worse if anyone found out about you. Like I said earlier, you don't even exist yet, Naruto. And you won't for at least another three months.'
'Okay, useful though that information might be, I REALLY don't want to continue down that line of conversation anymore.'
'What?' Naruto could easily imagine the wide smirk on Kakashi's masked face. 'Embarrassed at the thought of your parents having-'
'KAKASHI-SENSEI!'
Narashi started laughing from Naruto's reaction, a slight blush spreading across his whiskered cheeks. He was careful to keep his laughter quiet, not wanting any of the medics outside to hear him and come into the room to see him laughing at apparently nothing. After he stopped, he sat cross-legged on the bed with his chin in his palm, looking out the window toward the monument.
But before he could restart with the mental conversation, Narashi heard someone just outside the door of his hospital room. Stiffening slightly, Narashi looked toward the door just as it opened. Seeing the blond, spiky hair and blue eyes of this visitor, Narashi's own mismatched eyes widened and he barely managed to stop himself from saying something that he would've later regretted.
OOOOOOOOOOOO
Namikaze Minato has definitely had a stressful few weeks lately. Everything was just one headache on top of another. Many of which were caused by his recent promotion to Yondaime Hokage. Fourth Generation Fire Shadow. Yes, it was a great honor to be even considered for the position of Hokage, let alone actually achieving it. But...
Being Hokage isn't what I'd originally though it would be like. Yeah, I'm acknowlegde as the best in the village, but if I'd known just how much damn paperwork was involved in the job, I'd have declined. I swear, every time I sit behind that desk, I can hear Sarutobi-sama cackling evilly in the background somewhere at my misfortune.
Minato heaved a heavy sigh. Of course, the old man just had to leave his successor to deal with the new peace treaty between Leaf and Stone. And it's such a big help that Minato, as the Yellow Flash, was the main reason Iwagakure surrendered in the first place. I suppose killing three-hundred of their shinobi in one battle, essentially single-handedly, would put one's enemies off a bit.
It didn't help that Minato was still getting over the grief caused by the death of one of his students, Uchiha Obito.
Arashi sighed sadly, thinking about his student and the effect his death has had on the remaining members of the team. Rin had hardly stopped crying since returning to the village. She tried to put on a happy face while in public, but those who knew her could easily see through it. Kakashi was even more closed off from people than ever before. And that was saying something. If he wasn't locked up his apartment, he was sitting in front of the memorial stone, continually rubbing his new eye.
The sharingan was the cause of another one of the many headaches that plagued Minato lately. To say the Uchiha clan had been happy that someone outside the clan had received their precious doujustu would be like saying that Jiraiya was just a little perverted. Minato grimaced, remembering their reactions. It was only Minato's reputation as the Yellow Flash, as well as being one the prime candidates for Hokage that kept the Uchiha head and council members from demanding that the eye be taken out and Kakashi stripped of his shinobi licence for murdering a teammate in order to steal the sharingan.
Not that they hadn't tried, of course. The fact that Obito was killed by an enemies justu and that the eye was a gift to Kakashi was completely ignored by Uchiha Fugaku. But just because the clan head refused to believe it didn't mean that the young jounin deserved to be punished for something he didn't do.
Kami knows he's punishing himself enough for what happened. Even though he couldn't have done anything to change what happened. If anyone was at fault, it's me. If I hadn't left or only arrived sooner, I could've stopped it.
Minato scoffed, a humorless smile curling on his lips, while shaking his head. Well wasn't he sounding hypocritical now. Saying that what happened wasn't Kakashi's fault, yet putting the blame on himself. Everyone involved with the mission was probably blaming themselves in some way. Heck, if Konoha's mysterious guest found out, he'll probably feel guilty as well about showing up unconscious after the fact; maybe think that if he'd shown up earlier and awake, he could've done something to help.
Thinking about the 'mysterious guest' reminded Minato why he was walking down Konoha's streets towards the hospital in the first place. He had to admit, it was a miracle that the guy had survived. Even with his limited medical knowledge, he could easily figure it out from the condition he was in when Minato, Kakashi, and Rin had been coming back to Konoha after the mission gone wrong.
Just from the sheer chakra output that all three felt before finding him, it seemed like he had opened nearly all eight Celestial Gates. The severity of the chakra burns covering the man's body supported the theory. The damage to his chakra coils and tenketsu was extremely large as well. From what Hyuuga Hizashi had said after looking at him with the Byakugan, it was like half a dozen powerful Hyuugas had done the Hakke Rokujuuyon Shoo (Eight Trigrams Sixty-four Palms) simultaneously, then for him to use the Celestial Gates to reopen his tenketsu, blasting them open so forcefully, that they were visible to even a non-Hyuuga. It'll be amazing if the anonymous ninja well ever be able to use his chakra without feeling pain, if he is able to use it at all.
If the damages to his chakra system weren't enough, the man had had multiple cuts, bruises, and cracked or broken bones to add to his list of injuries. Frankly, the damage to his body was so great that if Tsunade hadn't been in the village at the time they returned, he probably wouldn't have survived. (Admittedly, Minato was a little surprised to see her there and that she'd been willing to help, considering her phobia, but figured that her medic-instinct had demanded that she help, fear or not.)
Minato honestly didn't know why he and his remaining students had helped him. True, nobody should be left in that terrible condition, but for all they knew, he could be an Iwa-nin/spy that will betray his rescuers the first chance he gets. But there was no actual proof of his origins. Minato couldn't recognise his face from any bingo book he'd seen (and with those whisker-like marks, it'd be hard to forget). Also, despite the fact that he had a leaf hitae-ate on his forehead, neither of the leaf ninjas recognized him, making the possibility that he was a spy even greater.
But so soon after Obito's death, no one on Team Minato had been willing to just let someone who hadn't done anything wrong (to their knowlegde) die and not do something about it. So, deciding to give the man the benefit of the doubt, Rin had done what she could to stabilize the man and the three of them had raced back to Konoha with the unconscious ninja in tow.
Over the past two weeks, Minato hadn't had much time to come see the mysterious nin after he came out of critical care. He had told the hospital staff to notify him the instant he woke up, though.
But today, he had been desperate for any excuse to get out of the Hokage tower and away from the mountain of paperwork he already had. So he had decided to come visit, even if the guy was still dead to the world. Besides, Minato might bet lucky and he'll wake up while he was there.
I just hope that he doesn't cause my recent headache to return with a vengeance. I have enough to deal with, without having more.
So that was what brought Minato to stand in front of the door of the man's hospital room. He'd been told by the medics that he had healed surprisingly quickly considering what had happened to him. Apparently, all that was left was for him to wake up and he'd be able to leave so long as he took it easy for another week or two afterwards. Of course, that only pertained to his physical health. Whether or not he was mentally able to do so was undecided, and that could only be proven after the man woke up. And the last time the medics had checked that morning, he wasn't.
So it was quite understandable that Minato was shocked when he entered the room that the mystery man was not only awake but sitting up and completely alert as well.
Stopping suddenly, the two stared at each other, shock evident on both their faces. Minato couldn't be sure in the present lighting, but looking in the other man's eyes (which were one of the stranger pairs he had seen in a while), he could see a myriad of emotions, ranging from pure joy to sadness to anger before becoming the slightly emotionless, but still a little surprised with a hint of excitement, mask that shinobi were known for.
Minato smiled, hoping to break the slightly awkward silence that had formed between them. "Ah, I see you've finally woken up. You've been unconscious for two weeks. Considering the condition you were in when my team and I found you, it's amazing that you're still breathing, let alone wide awake now." Closing the door behind him, Minato pulled up a chair and sat down beside the bed. "I suppose introductions are in order." Still smiling, he held out his hand, saying, "Namikaze Minato, Yondaime Hokage of Konohagakure."
Smiling as well, causing his eyes to curve inn a strangely familiar way that Minato couldn't place, he returned the handshake. "Hazaki Narashi. Pleasure to meet you, Hokage-sama."
Minato grimaced slightly at the title, still not used to it. "Please, just Minato is fine. I've only just recently become the Hokage, and I'm still not used to the title." Not to mention, it make me fell really old when someone calls me that.
The man, Narashi, replied with a faint smirk. "As you wish, Hokage-sama."
Minato mentally groaned. And her I was hoping that Jiraiya-sensei, Kakashi, and Rin would be the only ones to get actual enjoyment out of calling me that.
Narashi, seeing the irritated look on Minato's face, started laughing a little. "Sorry, sorry," he said, not sounding sorry at all. "But joking aside, could you tell me what you meant when you said it was amazing that I was still alive? How did I get her, exactly?"
Nodding, having expected these questions at some point, Minato started explaining how Narashi was found, the condition he was in, and how he'd gotten here. For some reason that he couldn't understand, Narashi had flinched slightly and his eyes had filled with pained sadness when he told him when and where his team had found him. After he had finished, Minato waited for Narashi to absorb all that he'd been told before asking his own question.
"If you don't mind me asking, how did you get into that state in the first place? What happened?"
Seeing the suddenly serious expression on Narashi's face, the Yondaime Hokage suddenly realised that his earlier hope that the appearance of Hazaki Narashi wouldn't bring any more stress than he already had just wasn't going to happen.
Damn.
A/N: Sorry about the 3 week wait. I just couldn't figure out how I wanted Naruto to react to the bombshell. Left me stumped for a while. I'm still not satisfied with it though. Oh well, I can revise when I finish.
Thanks again to all reviewers. Really appreciate it.
