A/N: As you can see, the rant that was previously in this charming chapter is gone. It serves no purpose anymore (though it did make me laugh) and perhaps I can refrain from doing that again.

Disclaimer: See Chapter One

Live or let Die

Once Naruto reached his apartment, he got some bags and packed his things up. After he killed him, he didn't think he'd come back to this old rundown place.

Naruto sighed and slung his bags over his shoulders. On his way out he picked up some weapons and placed them in his weapons pouch.

'It would be stupid to think I could kill him with nothing but my bare hands. He didn't become Hokage by being a weakling.'

Naruto opened the door to what had been his home for many long years for what would be the last time. Some strange feeling overtook him as he exited the door, making him turn around. The dirty one-room apartment looked emptier without all the things that were usually thrown in various places around it. For some reason, Naruto felt reluctant to leave…it was almost as if he would be homesick. Naruto shook his head dispelling the thought. 'You can't be homesick for a place you never considered home.'

Naruto turned his back to the apartment and swiftly left the room. He heard the door click shut with a sort of aching finality, but he was glad: with this stage of his mission over, he could now begin the truly hard part: finding his father and killing him.

……………………………….

It was early morning in the Forest of Konoha. The night creatures had just settled down to sleep until the next dark morning, and the sleeping day animals had just woken to brilliant rays from the sun. It was a day like any other, and a feeling of great peace had overtaken the birds and squirrels and other various animals of the forest. This sense of safety was slightly unusual for animals in a forest, but these knew that, should trouble come to threaten their home, the 4th Hokage would come to their aid.

……………………………

Minato Namikaze opened his eyes and rolled lightly out of bed. Glancing at the clock on his bedside table, he groaned. It was early. Too early for him anyway, but he couldn't get back to sleep. He could feel it, even while sleeping: something important was going to happen today. This annoying feeling was what woke him up so early when he would have usually have slept until noon.

'Maybe it'll just be a forest fire or something.' He thought while stretching. Well while he was awake he might as well do his routine. Going over to his favored spot by the river, he began his training. About 2 hours into it, he hears a pain filled yell. His eyes widen as he realizes that that's no animal yell but a human yell. Quickly forgetting his training he goes in search of the source of the yell.

His worry for the safety of this person and the excitement of seeing another person after 14 years of self-imposed exile gave Minato speed he hadn't reached in a long time. Before he knew it, he was at the source of the fight. He saw the creature, bearlike in appearance, and blood. He saw a lot of that. Calmly keeping his composure, a habit from his days as an active ninja for Konoha, he began to search for the body of the person that screamed.

Soon though, as he picked his cautious way through the scene of the battle, he began to despair. ' I'm beginning to think that maybe whoever it was is dead. Surely it wouldn't hurt to look under this fallen treed trunk though.'

Rolling the trunk over, he uncovered the body of the creature's opponent. He frowned.

'It's just a kid.'

Sorrow filled Minato as he picked up the teenager.

'This boy looks to be about 14…my own son will be about 14 now too.'

Minato was about to place the boy gently back on the ground and dig a grave for him when he heard a groan tear it's way out of the boy's chest. Hurriedly picking him up, he used his Body Flicker technique, something he hadn't used in 14 years, to get the boy to his home before it was too late.

As soon as he laid the boy down on his bed, he got to work. So into his work of healing the boy, he didn't not notice how alike they looked. His only concern was seeing the boy return to health. For hours he worked over the boy, cleaning his wounds, setting his broken bones and cleaning his face. Once he was done, he was exhausted. Pillowing his head on his forearms close to the boy's body so that he would know the instant the boy moved, he slipped in to a tired slumber.

His last thought before sleep overtook him was, 'Well…at least it wasn't a forest fire.'

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-- We're (that is Minato and I) still aren't morning people, but luckily I seem to be full of ideas today.