Idiot! After three years of solid persona work, ruined because you couldn't dodge a katon jutsu! Now Sasuke knows and baa-chan and my so-called father...Naruto barely had enough thought to cover his changed appearance with his normal illusion as he stalked out of Konoha Stadium. Glancing around the bustling streets, he wondered where he could get away- the training grounds were probably filled with teams, and he doubted that his apartment was study enough to stand up to his destructive tendencies… Letting out a small growl, the kitsune started off towards the one place that was usually empty at this time of day and always managed to soothe his temper.


Minato barely spared a glance for Jiraiya, instead running after Kits- no, Naruto, his son. Skidding to a halt at the stadium door, he raked his eyes over the busy city, searching for a hint of familiar hair or anything Naruto. When he failed to locate any clue he sagged briefly before mentally hitting himself. Baka, just look for his chakra!

Taking a deep a breath, the blonde man calmed himself and started to extend to his chakra, feeling out the unique chakra that identified Naruto and Naruto alone. After a few moments, he found him making his way up to the top of Hokage Monument. He followed the chakra to a small stand of trees. When he heard sounds of fighting, his pace quickened till he came to the edge of the clearing he stopped in surprise.

A huge mass of human Narutos and wolf sized nine-tailed foxes filled the clearing, the humans viscously fighting in an animalistic style that more resembled the Inuzuka style of taijutsu than anything else- and even then the style seemed even more brutal than that. Minato watched in amazement as one Naruto tore out the throat of another with his fangs before leaping to claw the fox to nearest him. Both "slain" opponents disappeared with poofs of smoke. The brutal fighting continued until only one human Naruto was left, fighting a fox.

They circled each other warily, baring their fangs and snarling, snapping growls echoed from their chests as they balanced on their feet, all muscles tensed and ready. Finally, Naruto leapt forward in a powerful leap with claws outstretched. The fox dodged neatly and whirled as Naruto stumbled, quickly pressing his advantage by making a leap of his own that bowled the stumbling Naruto over. Naruto slashed angrily with his claws, managing to land a strike on the fox's chest before two tails pinned his wrists. The fox paused for a moment, as if savoring his victory before his muzzle darted down in a savage bite that spattered blood everyone.

Minato let out an inadvertent gasp, feeling slightly relieved when Naruto on the ground dispersed with a small poof of smoke. His gasp caught the attention of the fox who instantly tensed into a battle-ready crouch, looking up with molten eyes of crimson that seemed to lack any human intelligence at all…Minato's hand twitched for his kunai pouch but stopped when Naruto's pose relaxed somewhat and he saw a wary intelligence enter his eyes. The fox- Naruto- stood shifting his weight from paw to paw as he watched the blonde man.

After a few minutes of silence, Naruto broke it with an angry snarl. "What do you want, Yon. Dai. Me. Sama?" Minato flinched at the formaility and tried to think of a response. Somehow, "I wanted to see you", just didn't quite cut it. And judging from Naruto's tense and angry pose, "Hey son!" would be a dangerous thing to do. So he attempted something of a compromise.

"I wanted to talk to you. It's been sixteen years…" He shrugged, praying that this approach would work.

Naruto growled softly, claws flexing slightly as he glared at the forest floor. "Sixteen years since you condemned me to the cursed life of a Jinchuuriki you mean. Fourteen years since the first assassination attempt. Eleven years since the villagers started beating me on my birthday. Seven years since someone finally acknowledged me. Four years since I became a genin. And three years since I left this damn village!"

With every sentence, Naruto advanced a step on the last; he reared onto his hind paws and planted his front paws on Minato's shoulders, pushing the older man against a nearby tree. When the blonde made a move as if to escape, a muzzle filled with sharp fangs latched onto the skin lightly covering his jugular artery. Naruto's jaws tightened dangerously as Naruto glared straight up into Minato's eyes. Kyuubi was chuckling with delight as he scented the fear that was rolling off the trapped blonde in waves, but Naruto ignored him.

"I swear…give me one fucking reason why I shouldn't tear out your throat…" Naruto snarled under his breath. Minato's eyes seemed to widen, though that could've been due to the fact that he could feel the hot, panting breath of his own son on his neck, as the same son prepared to kill him.

"Would it…help at all…if I said I was…sorry?" He managed to breathe out, his face paling. Naruto stopped for a moment considering the idea. His eyes seemed to glaze over briefly, but he twitched his ears while shaking his head from side to side, growling under his breath. Minato waited patiently for the kitsune to make up his mind, trying not to think about the teeth which had pierced his skin and the blood trickling down his neck.

He got his answer when Naruto sucked in a growling breath before releasing the bite hold on his throat and dropped down to all fours and backing up. A swirl of fire and wind surrounded Naruto and when the flames had cleared, a….mostly human Naruto stood up. Red eyes that had held a murderous glare a minute ago, now glanced warily at him.

Minato stood silently, taking the chance to observe his grown son. The blonde stood straight and proud, hands curled loosely into fists by his sides. Blonde hair, much like his own, framed a sharper, leaner face; the tips matching Naruto's eyes. Some of the hair trailed behind him, gathered in a low ponytail with a strip of bandaging. For some reason, the sixteen year old had abandoned shirts and stood; clad only in an open vest and a loose pair of pants with a sash acting as a belt.

Minato's could feel his heart constrict into a painful lump as he observed the blood sliding down Naruto's chest from the slashes on his chest; crisscrossing a few of the visible scars.

Trying to distract himself from what the scarring implied, Minato observed the nine tails that waved through the air behind Naruto before swirling into a single larger, fluffier tail.

A restless growl distracted him from his thoughts as Naruto twitched his head to one side. The teen spotted Minato's concerned look and bared his teeth- fangs more like- and jutted out his jaw belligerently. "What," Naruto growled.

Minato shook his head silently before asking one question. "What…what happened? The seal…."

"The seal changed." Naruto said in a flat tone of voice. Minato's eyes widened silently- that little piece of information had been left out of his debriefing with Tsunade and Jiraiya. Naruto sucked on his teeth for a sec, eyes narrowing. "Didn't get mentioned?" Silent nod. Naruto raised his lip in a silent sneer before moving to leave the clearing. "Ask Ero-sennin about it," he said flatly when Minato stepped towards him. "He'll have the most technical version since he helped when Minako-shisou analyzed the changes."

Minato opened his mouth to object but Naruto was gone, a swirl of scorched leaves the only sign of his passing. The former Hokage's eyebrow quirked- Most shinobi were able to use the Shunshin jutsu without a trace, but preferred not to, when in their home villages. It also wasn't uncommon for shinobi to…personalize their Shunshin, with the materials they left in their wake. Most Konoha Jounin just used fresh leaves, though Minato had known of a couple who used specific leaves or other plant matter as a mark. Kakashi for instance, only used maple leaves while Jiraiya liked to use leaves from rosebushes.

Crouching next to the remains of Naruto's Shunshin, Minato absently chewed on the inside of his upper lip as he sorted out the plants. In a few minutes, he was left with three small piles of leaves, all from various regions of Fire Country. The first pile, nine leaves in total, were from Konoha, plain oak leaves. The second piles, also numbered nine, were from the Fire-Wave border, from a white ash tree. The last piles, numbering nine leaves in an obvious pattern, were from the Rice- or rather Sound- border and from a birch tree.

All the leaves were scorched as if someone had take matches to them, but three leaves from each pile were also sliced neatly around the edges. Tapping a birch leaf to his lips, Minato smiled slightly. Fuuton users were so used to imbuing things with wind-natured chakra that it sometimes bled over into their Shunshin- Jiraiya had commented it briefly when Minato had gained jounin status and had been flitting about Konoha to find his friends.


Jiraiya turned away from the window, frowning slightly. Tsunade glanced up from the paperwork Naruto's win had caused her- she had forms to fill out regarding the research Minato mentioned he'd be doing on the curse and the fact that Minato and probably Jiraiya and maybe even Naruto would need constant access to Sasuke. Minato's revival had caused a mountain of paperwork on its own...

"What're you frowning at, you old pervert," she muttered, still scribbling on a research grant.

Jiraiya sighed, tilting his head towards the window. "Minato's heading back here at a rather fast clip, but Naruto's still missing." He frowned as he peered at Minato's approaching figure. "…Shit."

Tsunade looked up to see Jiraiya rub his temple- an unspoken signal from their team days of injuries spotted. Putting down her pen, Tsunade groaned silently but stood up to peer down at Konoha's streets beside Jiraiya who silently pointed out the henged form of Minato, leaping across roofs towards Hokage Tower. She let out an audible hiss as she spotted the tell tale spatters of blood down the man's front. "Who in hell would be able to get close enough to actually get at his neck?"

Jiraiya shook his head and closed his eyes in defeat. "Naruto," was all the sennin said but it was enough for Tsunade to suck in her breath and fold her arms and regard her teammate with a neutral expression as he opened the window for Minato as the man landed easily on the ledge outside, dispelling his civilian henge. She would get the details she wanted later, but for now….She moved forward and shoved the bleeding blonde into the nearest chair and inspected the bite marks marring the delicate neck skin before letting healing chakra wreathe her fingers as she set to healing the marks.

Minato put up with the treatment, his gaze unfocused for a few moments before he almost glared up at his teacher. "You cover every major happening in Konoha, from the Cloud-Hyuuga incident to the Uchiha Clan massacre to the activities of Akatsuki and yet you fail to mention that the Kyuubi seal- my greatest, most singularly important, creation; the only thing standing between this village and the strongest bijuu in existence- has changed. Oh, and most of my son's early life was apparently a living hell."

Jiraiya winced and opened his mouth before closing it again and sinking into the only other free chair. Tsunade kept one eye on the toad-user while frowning at the mostly healed marks marking the irate Minato's neck- they were almost rejecting treatment and would leave scars. Movement recaptured her interest as Jiraiya shifted so that he was staring up at the ceiling. His silence was not helping; Tsunade could feel the muscles in Minato's neck tightening as the man waited impatiently for an answer. Finally, when she thought Minato was going to snap out, Jiraiya spoke.

"Naruto was subject to almost complete social isolation until he was eleven. The villagers were…irrationally upset after your death. With Kushina gone, and I out on missions, they were free to treat him as they wanted. It never went beyond verbal abuse and refusing to serve him, except for the first week and a half of October. Various groups would attack him, beating him until the ANBU- led by Kakashi- would save him. Most of the doctors would refuse to heal him so, scarring was inevitable and intensive." Jiraiya's voice was almost completely detached, but the lack of emotion, as well as his refusal to look at Minato told a thousand stories within itself.

"According to his academic transcript, Naruto showed incredible talent for his first year at the Academy- years two through four showed almost the exact opposite. His teachers sabotaged his efforts until he simply stopped trying. For the last year, a chuunin named Umino Iruka tried to help him as much as possible.

"To make a long story shorter, Naruto graduated and was placed in Kakashi's care. Bonds developed and took root enough for the team to survive their first Chuunin Exam and the Sand-Sound invasion. That September, Naruto requested a travel pass and left with the intention to visit the Shukaku jinchuuriki in Suna for a week and a half before returning. According to Tsunade, he didn't mention anything to his teammates and they set out after him. They failed to catch him and Naruto made tracks for Nami to stay with friends."

"Not that I'm not interested in my son's early life, what happened to the seal?" Minato could feel his molars grinding as he glared at his teacher.

Jiraiya risked a glance at the former Hokage and flinched. "I was getting to that Minato-baka. Now calm down before Tsunade sedates you." The older man straightened his spine and looked straight at his student who reluctantly forced himself to relax. "Now. The seals you used on the Kyuubi are undoubtedly some of the best ever created but you were in a hurry. Even with us both looking over the designs for bugs, we missed two. You allowed for Naruto to be able to draw on some of the Kyuubi's chakra, but only a limited amount. We forgot that Naruto might draw on more than the allotted amount, thus straining and weakening the seal- bug one."

Minato frowned at the thought of messing up on a seal like that. "Still," he muttered, "that alone, shouldn't have weakened the seal enough for Naruto to-" he stopped, not wanting to say it. To lose his humanity.

Jiraiya nodded, black eyes narrowed and focused. "You also designed the seal so that Naruto would slowly convert the fox's chakra to his own, then human, chakra. This time we didn't think that Naruto's access to the fox's chakra would ever be blocked, and therefore, didn't create an inner storage space for the blocked chakra- bug two."

Minato twitched his chin in a slight nod as Tsunade finished healing his throat and pulled away to settled behind her desk, frowning as she waited for Jiraiya to continue his explanation. "During the Chuunin Exam, Orochimaru blocked Naruto's access to Kyuubi when Naruto tried to stop him from attacking his teammates. The build and eventual release of the Kyuubi's chakra, combined with Naruto's slight overuse of the fox's chakra allowed for the damn stuff to leak into Naruto's chakra coils at an accelerated rate- Naruto's own chakra was overwhelmed and absorbed until all that was left was youki.

"Naruto found this out shortly after leaving Konoha and got scared. He ran to Wave so that he could think and decide what he wanted to do. I tracked him down and, after warning him about Akatsuki and their plans, helped him plan out a new persona- Kitsune. He's wandered around the continent for the past three years, gaining control of his tails and the power they implied. We kept in touch and saw each on occasion but-"

"I think I get the point, Ero-sensei." Minato cracked a slight grin, rubbing at his throat and nodding his thanks to Tsunade.

She inclined her head slightly before frowning at the scars left on the blonde's throat. "I did the best I could, but those marks practically refused to heal at all- I suspect the scars are there to stay."

Jiraiya coughed slightly and both Hokages turned to look at him curiously. He had an apologetic look on his face as he explained, "It's a side effect of youki- any wounds inflicted are hard to heal and scar. Tsunade hasn't seen it because she'd already left the village when the Kyuubi attacked."

Minato nodded thoughtfully, his hand brushing over the rough skin. "Makes sense," he murmured softly before standing up. "I'd better get something to eat while thinking about how to tackle the curse seal. And I should probably looking into getting a hotel room or something-"

"That's….actually not necessary," Jiraiya interrupted hastily. Seeing Minato's confused look, he explained. "Your house actually survived the attack. I know you may not want to stay there for long, but it's better than paying for some hotel room."

Minato's face fell slightly as his eyes darkened in thought. "Yes, well….I'll take a look after getting some ramen."

Both Jiraiya and Tsunade nodded, and the Fifth suddenly remembered. "Oh…Minato. If you happen to see Naru-ah, Kitsune, could you tell him I need him here for something?"

Minato nodded absently, mentally grimacing- he doubted Naruto would like seeing him but still…Orders were orders, he thought wryly as he reapplied his henge and leapt out into the city.


AN: And we finally hit the first major change in the story! I feel like I should write something more but I have my debate team over and they would shoot me if they knew what I was doing right now...