Chapter Two

A Father's Pain

"Is that really Naruto?"

Naruto frowned and crossed his arms. "You know, Kakashi-nii-chan, I know that the slits in my eyes are quite creepy, but there's no need to look at me as if I were a dog that has rolled in something smelly."

Kakashi blinked. "I wasn't looking at you as if you had sprouted another head," he retorted defensively yet still 'hip', thank you very much. "Last time I saw you, you were this cute wide-eyed midget," he drawled, his eyes crinkling merrily at seeing Naruto fuming at the description of his younger self. "And look at you now!" he added dramatically, and then frowned, drawing his face close to Naruto's to get a better look. "Actually… What do you look like now?"

Naruto blew a raspberry at him. "I begged you time and time again to take that mask off when I was a kid, and you never did. Must be annoying to get a taste of your own medicine."

Kakashi narrowed his eyes at him. "I'll show you mine if you show me yours," he tried to bargain, but the moment those words left his mouth he instantly regretted it. Naruto had been spooked so badly that in his haste to get away from Kakashi, his hood fell and was now pressing his back against the wall furthest from him with such vigour the poor wall was starting to crack. "Er, that's not what I meant."

Naruto sweatdropped. "You need to broaden your literature tastes, you perv."

"They do really act like bickering siblings, eh, Minato?" said Jiraiya quietly in the background, amused at both Naruto and Kakashi's antics. Hearing no response from his old student, the Toad Sage turned to look at him, only to see Minato sitting behind his desk staring at his son with an unbridled, ferocious intensity, like a lion watching its prey's every move.

Jiraiya smiled in understanding.

"Tell me, Sensei," the Hokage said in a barely audible whisper, his eyes still fixed on his son, "Is he happy?"

The Toad Sage snorted. "Don't worry yourself about that, Pops. Nothing can keep the brat down," he retorted, grinning. "The kid's uncannily resilient."

"That is not what I meant, Sensei," Minato replied, in the same muffled tone. "I know he's resilient beyond imagination; he has to be, what with all the burdens placed on him," Yondaime murmured, an edge of self-loathing in his voice. Balling his fists, he continued, "What I needto know is whether despite that - despite the pressure and horrors he alone has to deal with - he finds it in his heart to feel happiness."

Jiraiya sighed. "There have been some black spots and difficult times in the past, Minato; there's no point in denying that – however… How to put this in words?" Jiraiya asked himself, bringing his hand to cup his chin. "However, Naruto is not the sort of person who allows bad things get to him. That means that instead of getting too antsy over something, he fuels his most negative emotions into determination and hope for the future," Jiraiya frowned. He really wasn't making a good job at soothing his former student's fears. "In looks, he is almost your carbon copy. Conversely, personality-wise, he most resembles his mother. He has her indomitable spirit."

That did the trick. Minato's hands instantly relaxed.

"Yeah, don't be too happy about that. Need I remind you that Kushina brought an epidemic of migraines to Konoha? Old Sarutobi-sensei never fully recovered from them."

Minato immediately paled at that and Jiraiya chuckled. "All right, you two," he addressed Naruto and Kakashi in a commanding tone, "Sit down. We've much to discuss."

Both of them obliged and sat down in front of the Hokage quietly, although Naruto was still sulking behind his mask in mock displeasure, his arms folded over his chest. Kakashi grinned and ruffled his hair. This of course only irritated Naruto further. "Why you -!"

Kakashi blocked Naruto's punch. "You know, I've been wondering," he started, drawing his face closer to Naruto's, effectively creeping him out. "You seem to have taken some of our most characteristic features," he pointed out. Pressing a finger against Naruto's covered nose, he proceeded, "That's my clothing style," he remarked and then moved his hand swiftly to the top of Naruto's head. "And that's your father's hairstyle; well, sorta – you do look like a mangy mutt, you know?" Kakashi had to block another punch. "So what have you taken from Master Jiraiya?"

Naruto huffed as he grasped one of the long locks that framed the sides of his face. "It's not as if I chose to look like this," he said quietly as he then moved to point a finger at the top of his impossibly spiky head, where two of his blond locks stood up longer and defying gravity, almost resembling the pointed ears of a canine. "I used to have much shorter hair. But after – that – both my eyes and hair changed."

Kakashi tilted his head to the left. "After what, exactly?"

Naruto sighed in weariness and scratched his eyebrow. "I faced the Kyūbi within me, and defeated it," he stated, ignoring the two surprised gasps. "It's not one of my fondest memories. I nearly lost my life and I did something… something unforgivable -"

"You had no choice, Naruto. The Kyūbi -"

"We will never agree on this point, Ero-Sennin," Naruto asserted, ending Jiraiya's interruption as he shook his head, a sad smile on his face. "After that, my appearance changed and I started resembling the Nine-Tails. My hair grew out like this, my pupils turned to slits and my canines grew sharper," he lowered his mask, only to expose a secondary mask that had a zipper that went from one jaw to the other. He unzipped it and revealed his mouth, opening it wide so they could see the razor-sharp, beast-like, a bit longer than usual canines. "As for this mask," he continued, zipping his fastener and raising his outer ninja mask, "Well, even with my fox-like looks, I do look too much like Yondaime Hokage."

Jiraiya grinned. "Personally, I think the feral look suits you. Minato here looks too much like a girl."

Naruto smiled as he watched his father narrowing his eyes threateningly at his old sensei, his stare promising torture. "As for Ero-Sennin," he pressed on, "As if I'd ever take anything from that degenerate. I can't and furthermore, I have no interest in copying his kekkei genkai."

Two pairs of eyebrows rose at that. "A kekkei genkai? I wasn't aware you had a bloodline limit, Sensei," Minato said, surprised.

Jiraya gritted his teeth. "I do not. The insolent brat calls my exquisitely inquisitive and scientific tendencies a bloodline limit."

Naruto huffed and waved his hand dismissively. "Call it whatever you like, you fiend. But it's impossible to be such a perverted freak unless it's a genetic condition."

Minato laughed in mirth.

"One of these days I'm going to make you appreciate my art," hissed Jiraya in annoyance.

Naruto smirked. "I told you, that crap won't work on me. I'm gay." *

Both Kakashi and Minato gawked at him, and Naruto couldn't help the blush that crept up his cheeks. Perhaps he shouldn't have pulled that joke in front of his father and Kakashi. He'd clear things up later with the other two and explain to them it was just a long-running thing between him and Ero-Sennin.

Minato cleared his voice, trying to dispel the awkwardness. "All right, let us discuss the matter at hand – the Kyūbi sealed within you," he said as he narrowed his eyes at Naruto. "The fact that you have come out of hiding means that both you and Jiraiya-sensei think you are ready enough. You both know that the rogue group called 'Akatsuki' is after the ones who contain the Tailed-Beasts," a dangerous flash crossed his eyes and he leaned over his paper-crammed desk. "I need to know everything."

Jiraiya and Naruto shared a look and the former nodded gravely. "This is of the utmost confidential nature. I'm going to seal the room. We cannot risk even the smallest possibility of someone overhearing this."

Naruto stood up and walked towards the window behind Minato and stared out at the village, angst and fatigue bearing down on him. Such a beautiful village, he thought, as he took in the sight of the snow-covered rooftops, shining brightly in the approaching darkness. He pressed his hand against the window as he felt the privacy and containment seals surround the Hokage's office. Gathering his courage, he turned around and leaned against the wall. Reviving the worst episodes of his life was not going to be easy.

Jiraiya walked up to him and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. "I know you don't like talking about this, Naruto. But it is time."

Naruto nodded grimly and went back to his chair. Shifting in his seat, he tried to reorganise his thoughts. "I guess there's no easy way to say this, so I'll just bite the bullet. The Nine-Tailed Fox is mostly dead."

Minato and Kakashi blinked. "Come again?"

Naruto sighed. "It all started a few years back, when Ero-Sennin and I were training so that I could control the Kyūbi's power. It goes without saying that was no simple task. At first, Ero-Sennin thought that by weakening the Eight Trigrams Seal slightly -"

"Sensei!" the elder blond cried in outrage, "What on earth were you thinking?"

Jiraiya pinched the bridge of his nose in weariness. "I admit, it was not the best idea I've ever had; but Minato, we always believed that Naruto could master the power of the Nine-Tails. Not only he is your son, but he also carries within him the unconceivable strength of the Uzumaki Clan. He is Kushina's son."

Minato's anger was not abated. "Be that as it may, the Nine-Tailed Fox -"

"Oyaji," Naruto cut in softly, "It's all right. Once was enough, we never tried that approach again," he stated and then stopped, turning to look out through the window again. He lifted an arm and placed it on the glass, leaning on his forearm. "That time, as soon as the fourth tail appeared, I lost my mind and nearly killed Ero-Sennin. After that episode, I basically gave up on the power of the Fox and decided to rely on my own strength. I chose to become powerful on my own.

"That incident happened when I was ten. Years later, Ero-Sennin and I found ourselves in the Land of Iron, where we found a man being attacked by what appeared to be an Akatsuki -"

"An Akatsuki?" Kakashi interrupted, aghast.

Jiraiya shook his head. "It wasn't really an Akatsuki. It was some sort of jutsu where the original Akatsuki possessed the body of someone else and made that person fight in his stead. It's unlike anything I've ever witnessed, which is saying something, considering I was friends with Orochimaru."

"Who was it?" asked Minato.

"Hoshigaki Kisame at first," answered Jiraiya, frowning. "But when we took him down, there was a dead man we had never seen."

"Were you recognised?" enquired Minato warily.

The Gama-Sennin shook his head again. "No, we've been beyond careful all these years, and Naruto did not even show the slightest glimmer of demonic chakra. Nor did we use any characteristic justsus that could identify us."

The village leader sighed in relief and rubbed his chest, leaning back on his chair. "Well, that's one good thing."

Naruto crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes, deep in thought as his shishō opened his mouth to continue with their tale. "We then spent a few days with the man we rescued, Sabu-san, helping him heal and wanting to know why he had been attacked by the pseudo-Akatsuki. Sabu-san was friends with the Eight-Tails Jinchūriki, so the Akatsuki look-alike wanted to fish out information on the Hachibi."

Minato gasped, nearly falling off his chair. "The Eight-Tails Jinchūriki? Killer Bee?"

Naruto raised an eyebrow, his interest piqued. "You know him?"

The Hokage snorted. "I know him all right. Third Shinobi War," he added in response to the curious glance his son was sending him. "We were enemies, but I liked him."

Naruto beamed at him. "Good, because Konoha and I owe him," he stated matter-of-factly, ignoring the bewildered look coming from Kakashi and the gobsmacked expression on his father's face as comprehension began to dawn upon him. "Anyway, we stayed with Sabu-san and Ponta."

"Ponta?"

The white-haired man groaned loudly. "Sabu's companion. A massive raccoon that overdosed on steroids."

"You just say that because Ponta didn't like you," Naruto retorted gleefully. "Smart raccoon. Knows a filthy pervert when he sees one." Jiraiya sported a popping vein on his forehead, and Naruto then deemed that was enough teasing for the day. "So anyway," he continued, oblivious to the amused looks he was receiving from both Kakashi and his father. "After a couple of days, Uncle Bee turned up; he wanted to improve his musical skills."

Naruto shook his head, remembering Killer Bee's peculiar musical abilities, if you could call them that. Anyone else with an ounce of sanity would call that a most terrifying brand of torture. "When Uncle Bee learnt that his friend had been attacked and saved by us, and then when we warned him of the existence of the Akatsuki and their plan to possess the power of all the Tailed Beasts, we began to form a sort of friendship."

Minato's eyes opened up like saucers. "Did Killer Bee teach you how to control the Nine-Tails?" he asked shakily, not daring to believe it.

Naruto grinned. "Sure did. He smuggled us into some bizarre island – well, it really wasn't an island, more like a massive turtle that served as an island -"

Kakashi raised his hand. "You've lost me," he admitted, the only visible eye rolling to the back of his head.

The elder blue-eyed shinobi scratched his scalp. "Killer Bee is the younger brother of the current Raikage and the host for the Hachibi. Not only that, but he's what you would call the 'ultimate jinchūriki'. He is in complete control of the monster sealed within him," he explained, remembering the time when he fought him. "What I find completely mind-blowing is that he would be willing to help someone who is not from his village control a Tailed-Beast, a massive source of war power," turning to Naruto, he asked, "How on Kami-sama's green earth did you manage to do that?"

Naruto looked at his father as if he had sprouted another head. "I told you, we are friends."

Jiraiya chose to be merciful on Minato and stepped in. "What you cannot possibly know, Minato, is that jinchūriki are not common people. Most of them have a deep loathing for human nature as they have been despised and vilified from the moment the beast was sealed within them," he said grimly as he pulled up a chair and sat down. "However, both Naruto and Killer Bee have had people who have supported them no matter what," he tried to clarify, even though such personalities still baffled him from time to time. "To deal with the massive amounts of hatred of the beast, they must in turn be extremely good people."

Neither Minato nor Kakashi looked convinced, as the concept was pretty beyond them.

"Killer Bee was able to separate the mind of the Hachibi from its chakra, making it his own. By doing that, the beast eventually gained the intelligence it lacked before and the both of them established some sort of rapport. Killer Bee is able to utilise its chakra at will without harming himself, and take it to the highest level by transforming into the Hachibi without losing his mind."

Even Kakashi looked impressed. Minato turned to look at his son shrewdly. "And you gained the same power?"

Naruto lowered his head, a flash of sadness crossing his eyes. "Not exactly. While I was able to take its chakra for myself and trap the mind of the Fox in a tighter, stronger seal, I could never transform into the body of the Fox," he told them and then stopped. He tucked his hands into his pockets dejectedly. "No matter what I did, the Nine-Tails absolutely loathed me."

It was obvious to Jiraiya that neither Minato nor Kakashi understood why Naruto sounded so downtrodden. If he was honest with himself, he couldn't totally grasp it either.

The slit-eyed blond raised his head and tilted it sideways, absent-mindedly looking around the Hokage's office. "I tried time and time again to do something about the hatred that the Fox bore, but nothing seemed to work. The Nine-Tails kept on raging inside my soul. The more time he spent without its chakra, the more infuriated it became. The more enraged it became, the weaker and more decimated iy got," he added softly, more to himself than to the others. "Hatred consumed it to the point where just a skeleton remained."

Minato frowned. "That does sound like the Nine-Tails met its end, but it is supposed to be impossible for any mortal to kill a Tailed-Beast."

His son nodded gravely. "That is why I said that it is mostly dead. If I die or if it's taken from me, then it will eventually come back, although severely crippled."

"What do you mean by that?" Kakashi asked, thinning his eye.

Naruto rubbed his forehead. "I tried to destroy the skeleton, but I couldn't. I just kept harming myself by doing that. So I took out its front and hinder legs and sealed them away."

"You did what?"

"There's no place safe enough to store those things!"

"There is," Naruto retorted, ignoring the disbelieving faces in front of him. "Mount Myōbokuzan. Separate secret locations and under the strongest seals imaginable."

Kakashi had to admit, that was a safe location. It still seemed idiotically foolhardy to him, though. "Are you positive that was a good idea?"

Naruto nodded. "The Nine-Tails as it used to be won't ever resurface again. And on top of that, I have a plan so that it won't ever come back again in any shape of form." Suddenly, the teenager glared as he growled out a firm, "Don't."

Minato was perplexed by the harsh tone his son's voice had unexpectedly taken, as well as the defiant expression in his eyes. He turned to look at the target of his son's unexpected attitude, only to see a very miserable Jiraiya. He got the feeling that he was not going to like whatever Naruto had in mind.

That feeling was confirmed the moment his son opened his mouth. "The second I sense my death is close, be that by natural means or at the hand of someone else, I will call forth the Shinigami and seal my soul away with the Nine-Tails forever."

"YOU WILL ABSOLUTELY DO NO SUCH THING!"

There had been few times in his life when Namikaze Minato had raised his voice. He was a firm believer in self-control, as he used to say that the moment you lost it, it could only lead to forfeiting reason. However, to hear from his own son, his flesh and blood, that he intended to sacrifice his life and submit his soul to eternal torture was more than he could take. No father should have to hear such a thing from his child.

Naruto smiled sadly at him. "I must, Tō-chan. The Tailed-Beasts do not belong in this world," he said gently, grasping the hands that were clawing into his shoulders. He took them away carefully but did not instantly release them as he silently tried to soothe the father that was currently standing in front of him, grief etched on every inch of his face.

Minato sunk his fingers into his messy locks, pulling at them forcefully, not noticing the golden hairs that were starting to fall down. Like a deadly snake, utter despair slithered up his face and crushed his windpipe, threatening to suffocate him.

"What have I done?"

Naruto approached his distressed father and placed a hand on his shoulder. "It's all right, Tō-chan. I'm not planning on doing that any time soon."

BAM.

Minato didn't even feel a single thing after his fist punched a hole through his desk. Swiftly, he turned to his son and stared at his kind, young – much too young, he thought - face with wild eyes, unshed tears threatening to roll down his cheeks. His chest was hurting so painfully he thought he'd feel relief his heart was ripped out. His hands were shaking, and his throat had gone completely dry.

In a low raspy and broken voice, heart pounding erratically and eyes blazing he swore, "I will find a better way, if it's the last thing I do. I promise."

-OoOoOoOoO-

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Naruto.

A/N: Naruto is not gay. It's a joke. It's difficult enough as it is to place my mind in the head of a teenaged ninja – it would be beyond impossible to try and think like a homosexual teenaged ninja. If I did that, it'd end up being a complete farce and I'd probably end up disrespecting any homosexual reader that might come across this story.

Well, I guess that this chapter is starting to show why I put "AU" (stands for Alternate Universe, for those of you who may not know it) in the summary. I have the annoying tendency of coming up with wild theories that very much deviate from canon, and I squash my brains to make them follow a logic path in my head. Can't say that I always success at this, but I do try.

Some of you might not agree with the idea I had of "almost" killing the Nine-Tails, as it may sound very far-fetched. I can understand that. However, wait until next chapter as there are still some very important details about it. Naruto will tell Minato about the Kyūbi's "last" words and "last" actions. That fox is a little bastard.

Like I said, I do have a knack for coming up with wild theories, but I'm trying my damn best to create an original story.

Another complaint I thought might come up is the fact that Naruto said that he planned to call forth the Shinigami the moment he sensed his death drawing close. In canon, it says that not even the Shinigami could take up all the Nine-Tails chakra, which is why Minato sealed half of it within him. All right, I get that. However, the Shinigami is still able to chomp on more souls that contain varying amounts of chakra, so my guess is that either Kishimoto may have meant that it cannot take that much chakra in one go; or there is more than one Shinigami. Pick whichever you like.

In case you are wondering, yes, I'm making Naruto a powerhouse, but I'm not making him unbeatable. Not by a long shot. I'm not very fond of plots that have a supposedly omnipotent main character that somehow doesn't manage to wipe the floor with medium-skilled bad guys. Another reason is that I want to deviate from canon as much as possible. Next chapter, "A Shinobi of the Leaf", will show you some of the skills this Naruto has.

Well, that is all for now. I'm going to shut up already as I believe that long author notes are tedious and – dare I say it – troublesome.

Until next time,

Vermouth