-'The Changes of a Being'
A NARUTO Story
Disclaimer- I do not own Naruto, that liberty is of none other than Masashi Kishimoto.

CHAPTER NINE

In the place that the women had fallen was a bright light accompanied by the sounds of bones breaking, popping and healing. The light dissipated leaving behind a blond man sitting in its wake. The man was currently on his hands and knees with his head down.

Even though his head was down and back was turned the three ninjas instantly recognised him. Sakura took the opportunity to ask anyway in a whisper. In return she was met by three funny looks. One from Sasuke who glared, one from their sensei who just simply looked at her and lastly from the strange man who appeared to be one of the most respected men in all of Konoha.

The man took his time to stand up and turn around. Before their gaze stood a tall, fair-skinned man. He had bright blue eyes and spikey blonde hair, he also had jaw-length bangs framing either side of his face and hitai-ate on his forehead. The mans attire was a standard Konoha-nin uniform with two bands each on both of his sleeves, a leaf green flak jacket, and blue sandals. Over that, and what grabbed their attention the most, was a short-sleeved long white haori decorated by orange flames on the edges, with the kanji for "Fourth Hokage" written vertically down the back, it was closed on the front by a thin, orange rope.

Everyone in Konoha knew who he was. Standing in front of Team 7 was the Yondaime Hokage, Namikaze Minato.

Just to be on the safe side Kakashi checked who the chakra belonged to with his sharingan eye, even though when it had first appeared he knew then, he wanted to be on the safe side now. "Sensei..?" As soon as the words escaped his lips the man looked towards them again.

"Hello Kashi-kun, I'd love to talk but I'm not here for you." He moved his gaze towards the boy on the ground.

Naruto was still covered in a layer of chakra but it was gradually thinning out. What concerned them the most was that his body was twitching and changing. As they continued to watch the scene the boy opened his mouth in a silent scream. Just as it had with Minato the sounds of breaking bones became clear causing them all to wince. Before their eyes his figure stretched and thinned out making him taller. His hair also grew. Once it stopped growing it was equal to the length of the Yondaimes, at that point it also started changing colour. It went from bright blonde to half blonde and half red with black roots.

These were not the only changes. His face started to become more defined and what grabbed their attention was that the bone and tissue around his eyes was healing at an alarming rate. Once it was all back Naruto let out an ear piercing scream as his eyes started to reform, his eye sockets were bleeding. Gone was all the dead tissue and in its place was brand new eyes, the only trace of his previous injury was a thin scar running right across his face from one temple, over his now red eyes and fine angled nose, finishing at the other temple. The last of the chakra started to seep into his skin as Minato stepped forwards.

"Naruto, Naruto can you hear me..?" The boy on the ground let out a gasp as he nodded. "Do you know who I am?" Another nod. "You probably just thought that I was the Yondaime... well yes I am but that's not what I meant. Naruto you hold a place in my heart that nobody could ever replace. I'm not really here right now I'm just a memory in loan of a body... I guess you could say I'm using your nee-sans body, but Naruto I wanted to say that I'm proud of you and that you should never forget that." He let out a small chuckle. "You know when your name was chosen your mother insisted it was after the ramen ingredient. I told her that I wanted it to be after the hero in Jiriaya sensei's novel 'The Tale of Gutsy Ninja' in the end we agreed to disagree, but either way it's Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze." The boys eyes widened and tried to move his arm towards who was now identified as his father. Minato moved to Naruto's side and knelt down next to him, grabbing his hand he continued. "Naruto I assume that you already know what happened twelve years ago? Well I need to tell you that the Kyuubi didn't die but was instead sealed away, into you. And I know you already know that I'm just verifying I guess... Naruto you don't have all of Kurama. You are not the only jinchuriki for Kurama, you have the Yang half and I have the Yin..."

"Dad..."

"Naruto I want you to work along side the Kyuubi. I know you already have made a brotherly and sisterly relationship between you but please, I want you to become-"

"Dad I know... I know you don't have to tell me."

"Naruto... My boy, when you return to the Leaf you tell the old man Hokage that you want your heritage. You now know who your father is... Your mother was the last jinchuriki for the Kyuubi. She was a beautiful women, as funny as it is to say this but you have her eye shape... and you had my colour... Your mother was told that love was the only way to tame the nine-tails and overcome its hate. She was told that by the jinchuriki before her Mito Uzumaki. Your mother was well known in the village and it surprises me no one made the connection between the three of us. Kushina Uzumaki, the Red Hot-Blooded Harbanero, or Tomato for short. I'm sorry for not being there for you Naru... I'm sure your mother looks down upon you as your guardian angel as well. We both loved you dearly..."

They fell into a comfortable silence for a moment before the Yondaime felt himself weakening. "Naruto I don't have much time left-"

"I always looked up to you. I still do, even more so now that I know you're my father. Mum sounds beautiful as well... I will definitely look m-more into her and pester Jiji more then I do now about you both. I want you to know that I love you and forgive you for not being there. I wasn't alone... I had Jiji and Inu-nii over there, I also had Teuchi and Ayame at Ramen Ichiraku, I also had Ruka-sensei... And the Fire Daimyo and Madam Shijimi... I also had Rama-nee. I don't plan on letting any of them go." As Naruto was talking his father started crying. He moved forward and pulled his son into a hug.

"Naruto I will never leave your side. I love you my son and I'm so proud of you. You have a big heart... and an even bigger soul." He pulled back starring into his sons eyes before smiling.

The four people standing off to the side had seen and heard everything. The bridge builder had woken up not too long after feinting and had seen most of what happened. Sakura was silently crying. Despite what everyone thought she didn't hate Naruto as much as what she let on, and her heart was tugged by this. Although deep inside a part of her didn't want to believe it and wanted to only take note of the Kyuubi being inside him Sasuke on the other hand was shocked, he would never have thought that the dobe would have such well known intelligent parents, although as a fellow orphan he felt troubled for the boy to find out who his parents were to only have them gone again.

Kakashi took the whole scene straight to heart. Seeing his sensei and father figure standing there he couldn't help but feel ashamed of himself. He should have been there more for Naruto but after an incident on the boys birthday he had pushed himself away from the boy. It was almost as if Minato knew what he was thinking because just before the memory was out of chakra he looked towards Kakashi and smiled. "Also Naruto, make sure you look after your older brother... he needs you more then he likes to admit."

Minato then leant forward and left a small kiss on Naruto's forehead before completely vanishing body and all leaving no trace of being there.

Omake (2)

The date was October tenth and everyone was outside celebrating. Today was the day marking the 5th year anniversary of the day that the Yondaime Hokage, Namikaze Minato, had defeated the Kyuubi no Yoko. All the civilians had closed their shops and moved their vendors to the open grounds near the Hokage monument where most of the celebration took place.

Civilians and ninja alike had the opportunity to celebrate. Many kinds of sake had been stocked over the past month by many and many varieties of foods were available in large quantities. Buntings and streamers were hanging all over the buildings and the whole town was colourful.

Kids were running around playing while everyone was laughing and smiling. The academy and civilian schools had been let off for the day early with the words 'to go and enjoy themselves with friends and family'. Parents allowed their children to roam free.

During the day civilians were allowed to leave the village for an annual fox hunting expedition. There were even ninja that joined in.

All ninja off active duty were in casuals. Even the ninja that were on duty had the liberty of kicking back. Missions had been paused for the day meaning that genin didn't have to go on D-ranks and the only people on active work were ANBU guards and the gate keepers. There was also people in the hospital, and Hokage tower.

When night time hit children had been put to bed and many of the adults had been drunk for hours already with no plan to sober up until they had to.

When the clock struck 11pm people managed to sober up to the point of knowing what they were doing. As it had been every year there was a group of civilians and ninja of every rank that gathered together with a plan. Their plan was always the same but they never accomplished it. They believed they were doing the correct thing. All they wanted to do was finish off the Yondaime's job and kill the demon instead of just defeating it.

It was always by the action of the Sandaime Hokage, who had been reinstated after the Yondaime's death. The old Hokage always made sure of removing the victim from the village for the span of three days; the 9th through to the 11th. Which also meant the Hokage left the village for a while during the celebration.

This year was no different; Naruto left the village on the ninth to stay away from the village only to be visited on the 10th by the Hokage and a very select few for his birthday, just to return on the 11th when the all the fuss was over.

At least that was the plan.

"Inu-san... can I see the town?" Bright blue eyes started at the ANBU. They were currently standing in the garden of the Fire Daimyo and his wife Madam Shijimi's estate. In the distance a glow could be seen giving away the location of Konoha.

"Naruto, don't you want to stay here and celebrate your birthday with everyone?" Behind the dog mask was a young man. He wore the standard ANBU uniform which consisted of a simple blue suit with a grey flack jacket, strapped up sandals, and arm guards. Along with this he wore plated gloves that went all the way up to his arms with a bandage wrapped around the right one with his ANBU tattoo on his left bicep. Along with this he carried a sword strapped to his back and his mask was fashioned to resemble a dog's face with red and black markings around the eyes, sides and mouth, hence his name being 'Inu'. "Why don't we go join the Daimyo in this celebration."

The young blond sighed before following the ANBU over to the group of people. He was happy around them, they didn't look at him funny, but he wanted to go back to the village. Just this once he wanted to see how they celebrated.

He got what he wanted. While his ANBU guard was talking to Madam Shijimi Naruto slipped away from the group unnoticed.

The boy ran off as fast as he could after leaving his scent everywhere back at the estate. He knew that he only had a certain amount of time before the ANBU tracked him down. He knew it had taken half an hour to travel on the back of the ANBU so he would make it home in an hour. It wasn't much time but he knew he could do it.

After all Inu-san was lazy.

The muffled sobs of a young child were carried through the narrow alleyway erupting as an eco at the open end.

He wished he hadn't come.

The alleyway smelt, and was filled with rats living of the rubbish and scraps from the nearby shops.

He wished he knew why the villagers looked at him like that.

Along one wall was a line of skip bins and at the very end was a small hunched over figure; the source of the sounds.

Why hadn't those at the Daimyo's looked at him like that?

As the sobs continued the rats were silenced, their beady eyes all staring at the same thing.

Where was Jiji?

The creatures all became fascinated in it... they wanted to know what it was and why it was there.

Where was Inu?

Since it was among what they had claimed as theirs was this thing theirs too?

Thankyou all for reading! This chapter is definitely the longest one I've put up... Don't get use to it though haha! Hopefully I wrote it okay, I haven't actually read the manga or watched the anime sooo I'm a poop brain when it comes to anything past Shippuden (and even before)... So I don't know what Minato actually says to Naruto when he appears in his mindscape but I spiced it up for the sake of this story.
Also hope you liked the omake; it's linked back to the prologue in case you didn't catch that! The incident is also mention in this chapter so links are everywhere!
Please tell me what you all think!