AUTHOR'S NOTE: This was the prologue of a planned story where both Naruto and Hinata were Jinchurikis of the Nine-Tailed Fox and raised by Minato and Kushina, but not as siblings. Hope you enjoy... :)
Destruction.
Death.
Chaos.
Pain.
Loss.
Grief.
Tragedy.
Twice had it happened, and both times it was caused by the same person. A masked man who went by the name "Madara Uchiha," He sought the power of the Nine-Tailed Fox spirit that had been sealed away inside of a young woman who called her home in the Hidden Leaf Village, Kushina Uzumaki. Well, that was the case, until a certain tenth of October...
For female Jinchuriki, childbirth was their most vulnerable time of life, as that's when the seal holding in a Tailed Beast was at its weakest. And, of course like with all people seeking such tremendous power, there were those...like the masked man...who would exploit that weakness.
On the tenth of October, twelve years ago, Kushina Uzumaki had been giving birth to her and Fourth Hokage Minato Namikaze's firstborn son, Naruto, when the masked man calling himself "Madara Uchiha" appeared. He forced the already weakened seal to break, unleashing the Nine-Tailed Fox, and prepared to use it to destroy the Village Hidden in the Leaves.
However, Minato wasn't about to let that happen. Instead of dealing with "Madara Uchiha," Minato went after the Nine-Tailed Fox, taking it on with the help of the Chief Toad of Mount Myoboku, Gamabunta. Before "Madara" could see what was going on, Minato sealed half of it into his newborn son, Naruto Namikaze, making him the new Jinchuriki of the Nine-Tails.
Minato then began to perform the Reaper Death Sealing jutsu, but was interrupted by "Madara" before he could complete it. His plan was to seal the other half of the Nine-Tailed Fox, while summoning the Shinigami and destroying the unsealed half of the Nine-Tails inside of the stomach of the Shinigami, sacrificing himself in the process. Unfortunately, or fortunately...
...this did not get to happen, as "Madara Uchiha" took the chance, once he had of course realized what the Fourth Hokage was trying to do, and teleported away with the Nine-Tailed Fox. With the battle both won and loss, Minato, Kushina, the Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi and his wife Biwako, both who had been in attendance that night, returned to the village after making sure that both little Naruto and Kushina were doing alright, confused and frustrated.
The events that had transpired that night were kept secret, and only those who the Hokage and his wife trusted were told about "Madara Uchiha" and little Naruto becoming the new Jinchuriki of the Nine-Tails. The only ones who weren't there that night who had been told were Fugaku Uchiha, Mikoto Uchiha, Hiashi Hyuga and Hitomi Hyuga, the former teammates of Minato and Kushina, as well as their former senseis, Tsunade Senju and Jiraiya of the Sannin.
Why keep it a secret when the village could have celebrated escaping the chance at being attacked by the Nine-Tailed Fox and effectively being saved by the Hokage and his son?
Well...that was because of a few different risks. One, the former war-hawk Danzo Shimura and leader of the Root Divison of the Anbu could try and use little Naruto as a weapon against the Hidden Leaf's enemies. Two, the Hidden Stone Village was still rather angry with Minato the Yellow Flash of the Leaf for what he did against them, and learning that Minato not only had a son, but one who was a Jinchuriki, could try and kidnap the little boy and use him as a weapon.
The list of possibilities went on and on. What was to be known publicly was that Naruto was born without any complications and that the seal holding in the Nine-Tailed Fox held fast. The loss of Anbu members, however, would be unfortunately a little harder to explain. When the time was right, Minato decided, he would tell the Leaf about the new Nine-Tails' Jinchuriki.
However, there were some who didn't exactly want to go along with this plan...
Namely, the mysterious man who claimed to be the second coming of "Madara Uchiha."
Tobi, the mysterious Sharingan wielder with a swirling orange mask.
A little over two months later, Tobi returned to the Hidden Leaf Village with the second half of the Nine-Tailed Fox in tow, now prepared to strike and destroy the Hidden Leaf. Nobody was expecting the attack when it came...especially not the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze...
On the twenty-seventh of December, two months and seventeen days after the birth of Naruto Namikaze, there was another birth that was causing excitement. It was the birth of the new heiress of the Hyuga clan, the daughter to the current Clan Head, Hiashi, and his wife Hitomi.
The birth of an heir or heiress in the Hyuga Clan was always something to celebrate, and something that always brought all of the members of the Hyuga Clan into the compound to witness the naming and presentation of the new heir or heiress. It was one of the few times per generation that the entire Hyuga Clan was vulnerable of being potentially wiped out.
However, the Hyuga Clan knew this, and with Tobi and the Nine-Tailed Fox still on the loose, Hiashi Hyuga had requested Minato Namikaze attend. Since they were old friends, Minato gladly accepted the invitation, and brought his wife and young son, as well. They Hyugas and Namikazes suspected that Naruto and Hinata would become great friends one day, so having Naruto be there with Hinata in the first hours of her life would hopefully cement their friendship.
At the moment, Kushina was with Hitomi and a few Hyuga attendants in the birthing room of the Hyuga Compound Main House, as Hitomi was in the process of going through labor. As there was no risk of a Tailed Beast getting loose, there was no stress now and everything was much calmer.
Hiashi, meanwhile, waited outside with Minato, the latter of which was holding his two-month-old son in his arms. Hiashi wanted to be in the room with Hitomi when she gave birth, but it was recommended against. Minato had had to be in the room with Kushina as she gave birth to ensure the seal held, but, being in the same room as a Hyuga giving birth was...quite risky.
"They shouldn't be too mucg longer, should they," Hiashi asked his old teammate. "I'm anxious to meet my new daughter...and see if Hitomi is doing alright."
"I'm sure they'll be fine," Minato assured the Hyuga Clan Head, smiling as he held his sleeping son in his arms. "If I know anything, it's that Kushina and Hitomi are perfect at keeping each other calm, as well as...getting each other through...stressful situations."
"Right...of course...I shouldn't doubt them," Hiashi agreed with a nod, right as a silver-haired young boy in an Anbu outfit wearing a wolf mask suddenly ran up to the two men.
"Minato-sensei...sorry, I mean...Lord Hokage," Kakashi Hatake started, after giving a nod of acknowledgment and respect to the Hyuga Clan Head. "There's...a situation outside...at the village gates. That guy...from two months ago...Madara...he's back. With the Nine-Tails!"
"What!? You're not serious, are you," Minato exclaimed, his eyes going wide. At the sudden increase in volume, little Naruto began to stir and groan, the seal on his stomach briefly pulsing as red chakra flared up around him. "And he's just sitting there...and not attacking at all...?"
"That is correct, sensei," Kakashi confirmed. "And...and he seems interested in facing you, sir. He gave me and Tenzo a message to deliver to you that he wishes to fight you at the village gates."
"I see...this is troubling," Minato said, gently rocking little Naruto as the baby began to wake up and whimper. He had his eyes half-way open, and they were beginning to flicker between their regular cerulean blue and red with slitted pupils, like that of the Nine-Tails. "The half of the Nine-Tails that's inside of Naruto seems to be responding to the other half. This isn't good. Hiashi, Kakashi, please look after Naruto for me...I will go and deal with Madara and the Nine-Tails."
"Of course, Lord Hokage," Kakashi agreed as Minato handed his son off to the Anbu.
"You have nothing to worry about, Minato," Hiashi agreed. Minato nodded, and then quickly left.
Minato Namikaze, the Legendary Yellow Flash of the Hidden Leaf Village, had a Flying Raijin formula tag over near the village gates, so it was more than simple enough for him to simply activate his Flying Raijin jutsu and pretty much teleport to the village gates. There was already a massing of Anbu and Jonins there, including Kurenai Yuhi, Might Guy and Asuma Sarutobi.
And sure enough...there was Tobi, standing there in his orange mask and dark cloak. However, the Nine-Tails was mysteriously absent. Minato felt slightly nervous, curious of where the other half of the Nine-Tails could have been. Had Tobi quickly sealed the thing inside of him? No, that was unlikely. So, where could it have been?
"Madara Uchiha, I came as you requested," Minato shouted at Tobi, stepping forward. "Now, what do you want and where is the Nine-Tailed Fox!?"
"The Fox? I sent it away...not wanting it to get in the way of my fun," Tobi replied, laughing in a sinister manner. "It's just you and me, Fourth Hokage. Now...why don't we begin our fun...?"
And with that, a battle ensued between the Fourth Hokage and the masked man who claimed to be the great Madara Uchiha of the Elder Days. Madara was strong, like Minato expected, but there was something off about the fight. It was as if Madara was toying with Minato, not really interested in fighting him, but also fully committed to killing the Hokage if he had to.
It was maybe a few minutes into the fight when it happened. The Nine-Tailed Fox seemingly appeared from nowhere and attacked the Hidden Leaf Village. Occupied by Tobi, there was nothing that he could do. So, he called off the Anbu and Jonins he had told not to interfere, telling them to go and assist in the fight against the Nine-Tailed Fox.
Finally, maybe ten or twenty minutes into the fight, Minato delivered a strong Rasengan to Tobi's face, smashing the orange mask he wore and causing the mystery man to fall back onto the ground. Minato stepped forward to deliver the killing blow, when he stopped and gasped.
The mask had fallen away from his opponent's face...revealing...the scarred face of Obito Uchiha. Obito, a happy and energetic little shinobi who had been one of his students right up until the Third Shinobi World War, when had unfortunately died. But...he was right here.
And alive.
"O-obito...? B-but...but how," Minato stammered, shocked and surprised by the revelation.
"G-guess...y-you...finally found out...huh, M-minato-sensei," Obito laughed as he sat back up, brushing the broken mask off of his face to show that his left eye was entirely gone. "Well done, didn't think...you'd ever...figure it out. But, oh well, it's entirely too late."
"What do you mean by that," Minato demanded, but Obito just laughed...and then vanished, teleporting away before his former sensei could get any answers out of him. "Damn..."
Breathing a little heavily, Minato turned around to survey the destruction that was currently being caused by the Nine-Tailed Fox. However, what he saw, greatly disturbed him. The Nine-Tails was at the Hyuga Compound, which was now nothing more than smoking ruins. He couldn't tell from where he was if everyone was alright.
"Oh, no...oh, please no..." Minato cursed, taking out a three-pronged kunai and chucking it as far as he could towards the Hyuga Compound. He zipped towards it with Flying Raijin, getting maybe a third of the way there, and then had to it again.
By that time, he began to notice something else. The Tailed Beast had giant, golden glowing chains wrapping around it, and it was being pulled down and seemed to be almost shrinking...as if being sucked into something. Minato's eyes went wide when he realized what was happening. Kushina was attempting to seal it into something...or someone.
Sealing a Tailed Beast into a person older than infancy was extremely difficult...so this could only mean one thing: either Kushina was sealing the other half into one of three people...into little Naruto...into Hiashi's nephew, Neji...or into Hiashi's newborn daughter, Hinata. Minato had a really bad feeling that it was the latter, and rushed faster towards the Hyuga Compound.
When Minato finally arrived, it was too late. He couldn't see anyone alive at first, bodies scattered everywhere. It had looked like some attempted to flee, but were caught up in the Nine-Tails' attack anyways. All of the houses were leveled, nothing left to salvage from any of them, by the looks of it. However, in the ruins of the Main House, he could see Kushina and Kakashi.
"Kushina, Kakashi, are the two of you alright," Minato called out to them as he rushed over them. When he did, he nearly tripped over the body of Hiashi, and even Hizashi! Had Hiashi's brother come and try to help defend the Main Family? It looked like it...but...it didn't seem to yield positive results. When he got closer, he could see Hitomi's body and the bodies of the attendants who had been there in the birthing room, were littered nearby.
"M-minato..." Kushina said when she saw her husband, tears spilling from her eyes. In her arms were two small bundles. The larger one of course was their son, Naruto, while the smaller one, was the little Hyuga Clan heiress. "I...I tried everything...b-but...but I...couldn't save them..."
"I know, I know," Minato said, coming over to his wife and putting an arm around her, glancing down at the two infants she held in her arms. "It's the effort that counts, at least. I'm so sorry that this had to happen. That Madara...I can't believe...he seriously went this far. Anyways, Kushina, what happened to the Nine-Tails? Did you...did you have to...?"
Kushina gave a sad sigh, and nodded. Minato pulled back the small blanket around little Hinata's body just a bit, revealing the Eight Trigrams Seal still glowing a little on her tiny stomach. Minato sighed as well, pulling the blanket back over Hinata's sleeping body.
"Lord Hokage, Lady Kushina...what should be our next course of action," Kakashi asked his sensei, coming closer to the pair.
"I'll escort Kushina and the children back home," Minato started. "We'll be raising Hinata from now on, I doubt the council will have any objections. I am the Hokage, and her parents were close friends of ours, so I see no problem with that. Tomorrow, I'll address the attack on the village and let them know that the problem has been taken care of."
"Alright, that sounds satisfying," Kakashi said, nodding and then using the Body Flicker jutsu to quickly leave. Then, Minato, with his arm still around Kushina, silently activated the Flying Raijin jutsu to teleport himself, his wife and the two infants back to the Namikaze residence.
The fate of the Hyuga Clan was, quite literally, in the hands of the Fourth Hokage now. And he wasn't planning on letting his and his wife's old friends down. Life as a Jinchuriki would be hard for both Naruto and Hinata, Minato and Kushina both knew this, but they both believed in their potential to become great people and great shinobi. Besides, isn't being a shinobi to endure...?
