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A New Dawn
Chapter 2: The Dead Are Among Us
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When Naruto first wakes, it is to a world filled with light. But now, his awareness expands on a world cloaked in darkness, a world that reeks of death.
The voices are outside the door again.
"How is he now? Any progress?"
They've been there for weeks now.
"Nothing so far. He just sits and stares at the wall all day. Doesn't so much as try to move."
Always watching, always observing.
"So nothing has changed since the . . . incident. Does he at least eat?"
Poking and prodding at him like he's an animal.
"He eats, enough to keep himself healthy anyway." There's a snort accompanying this statement.
They pause for a moment, as if lost in thought. Then one set of feet walk away, boots echoing through the long hallway. A metal door slams shut moments later.
Outside the door, the guard sighs in boredom, "Looks like it's just you and me again."
Uzumaki Naruto doesn't reply. What's the point of talking to fake people anyway?
Namikaze Minato doesn't know what to do when, despite his best efforts, the entire village knows about his blond look-alike that he's been keeping under lock and key. Apparently, one of the Academy students had seen the entire incident from a distance and had told his classmates who told their parents, and it was all over once any information was released to the civilian parents.
Minato sighs.
Gossiping circles can just go to hell.
Just as he leans back in his chair to try and take a break from the abomination known as paperwork, his door slams open. Minato groans as none of the ANBU bother to intercept the intruder. There are only two people they were absolutely not allowed to touch: the first being his wife, Uzumaki Kushina, and the second being their daughter, newly minted jōnin Uzumaki Naruko. Minato doesn't particularly care that his daughter took her mother's name. To him, a name is just a name. Naruko will be his daughter no matter what.
He just wishes that at times she wouldn't be so loud. Honestly, just like her mother. The only thing she got from him was her hair and eyes. The rest of her was all Kushina, right down to the quality of her chakra.
"Tou-saaan," she whines, her blonde pigtails bouncing at the sides of her head. "I don't want a genin team! Ino doesn't have one, and neither does Sakura!" Naruko proceeds to list every reason why she shouldn't be entrusted with living breathing humans, including the fact that she'd inherited her mother's sense of personal hygiene and the fact that she mainly survived on ramen.
Minato is surprised that she doesn't bring up her pranking habits.
But the deal-breaker is something about how she will probably take her relatively financially-secure children out to gamble with Tsunade whenever she has the chance.
Minato has to resist the urge to slap a palm across his own face.
Three days later, the Yondaime decides to visit Konoha's newest and potentially most dangerous prisoner. He is kept in a compound deep underground, a place built in a rare joint effort between Danzō and the Yondaime. The man is a bit archaic at times in his methods, but there is no denying the use he has for Konoha despite his aggressive tendencies.
Footsteps echo as the Yondaime makes his way down a bleached hallway, the only lighting unnatural and flat. Guards nod to him as he passes, some wearing the standard flack jacket issued to every shinobi chūnin and above, others donned in ANBU gear, mask and all. High level prisoners need higher level guards, and only the worst ever make it in here.
After all, this was where he had personally dumped Orochimaru.
Minato comes to a stop before Room 266. He looks expectantly at the bearded guard who merely nods in compliance and opens the door. The air is brisk as he steps in.
Messy yellow hair that stands up like flames, piercing blue eyes that stare into his soul. It really is like looking at a younger version of himself.
The Yondaime smiles, his teeth bright in the fluorescent lighting. "Hello, prisoner 1265."
Naruto eyes widen as he flinches back and snarls, "Go away! I won't talk!"
Minato nods to the guard who closes the door behind him, leaving him in the room with the other blond. Turning to face the younger man, Minato's face loses all sense of kindness and warmth. His eyes are ice and his voice an arctic front. Everything about him is glacial and ruthless.
"We have much to discuss, you and I."
Author's Note: As a bit of a warning to all readers, sorry, many of the chapters are ridiculously short. However, the update speeds will be much faster by consequence. I don't know, the two kind of even each other out? :P
Anyway, if you have any questions, feel free to contact me via PM.