Chapter 11 – Secret's Out: Part Three

He looked down at his hands, balling them into fists. He could feel his body shimmering in and out, but he ignored it. He knew his anchor is still connected, and until he completes the condition, his powers will remain under his control. Trying to calm himself down, he fought the tears that were coming as his heart clenched with every word he said.

"Can you imagine the power that we hold, princess?"

He wasn't looking at her as he spoke, so he didn't see her flinch at the way he addressed her. When the silence continued, he took a deep breath.

"That's right. It's hard to believe that our powers allow us to bend time and space, but it's all true. The thing is, the next amazing thing that comes to mind is how strong our kind are to be able to control such a power."

He raised his head and tried his best to focus on her, but no matter how hard he tried, his vision would always blur and he would find himself staring at the darkness off in the distance.

"The thing is, there is a limit to our control. At birth, we're given only one aspect of our powers, either power over time or space. There has been only person that has had both aspects from birth."

He gave a sideways look at Naruto, staring at him for a few seconds before looking off into the distance again.

"For the rest of us, we gain more of our powers as we grow. The more experiences in the world we collect, the more our powers strengthen. For a while, we have complete control of these powers. But once we reach a certain age, that power starts to take control. It starts off as small tugs every now and then, until it becomes a strong pull on our existence.

From something we can deal with, it turns into something that we can no longer resist. Our powers take over, turning us timeless and forces us to 'Drift'."

"Th-then…N-Naruto-kun as w-well?"

He gave a tired smile before answering.

"If he lives long enough, then it'll eventually happen. But with the way he's now with three different youki, it may either be sooner or much later than usual."

"O-oh n-n-no…"

He heard her sniffing, but he couldn't call on the energy to try and comfort her. Instead, he continued on with his story.

"The world works in strange ways, really…or God or the gods, or whatever. Our kind was made and born, blessed with powers that could potentially shape and mold the future any way we want. But we were also made so that our powers would take over once it grows enough. And then, we were given a way to stabilize that power, through our own 'Anchor'."

"Dad…"

"It's okay, Naruto. It seems like this talk can help extend my anchor here."

He looked at his son and gave him a small smile and a nod. He looked at Hinata who yet again had a confused look on her face, making his smile grow wider.

"She's really cute. Too bad my boy's too dense to notice."

He gave her a small nod and handed her a piece of clean cloth he had in his supply pack to wipe her tears with. Naruto, who had looked at his father with worry, nodded back and resumed his watching the skies.

"An Anchor is someone who helps stabilize our powers, effectively binding us to this time and dimension as long as they live. We don't know if Anchors are made for each Anomaly, or if it's something like destiny or fate."

He paused in his story, and let out a long sigh. During this time that he was quiet, Naruto voiced out a question he's had since he learned about an Anomaly's Anchor.

"Hey, dad? Mom's your Anchor, right? How did you find her? I mean, how did you know she was your Anchor?"

He smiled at his boy before looking at the darkness of the forest. He slowly smiled, and though it was a natural smile with some hint of happiness, to Hinata it looked a bit sad. Naruto knew though that it wasn't just sadness in that smile of his, but a longing.

"Have I ever told you that she's the reason why I was forced to become a ninja?"

Hinata looked at Naruto and was surprised that he had a shocked expression.

"What do you mean forced to become a ninja?"

He let out a small chuckle before answering.

"Well, let's put it this way. Have you ever heard of an Anomaly ninja?"

Both Naruto and Hinata tried to think of any ninja listed in history that possessed the same powers that the Fourth described, but they couldn't think of anyone. They tried thinking about just a person that was written to have done things like bending time and space or as close to it as they could, and even then they couldn't think of anyone.

"Exactly. Anomalies have been doing their best to keep a low profile, passing themselves off as normal people or simply isolating themselves from society. Even when the world was torn apart by wars and disasters, there were never any sightings of Anomalies recorded ever."

"Until you."

"That's right. There were never any sightings of Anomalies recorded in history, until I came along."

"And you're telling me that that was mom's fault?"

His smile grew as he looked at his son's incredulous face.

"How about I tell you how I met your mother, okay?"

"Please tell me this isn't a sappy love story or an over glorified version of your 'conquest for mom's heart' or something like that."

He couldn't help his laughter as his son voiced his discomfort with a blank stare.

"No, none of that. It was just a normal day for a normal orphan roaming the village."

"O-orphan?"

"Yes. Like I said, Anomalies try to keep a low profile. And the only way for me to pass as a normal kid in society was to pretend that I was orphaned."

Flashback

A small child was roaming the busy village streets, moving through the loud crowd of the market district. Ducking into a street that he knew would be less busy. He saw a familiar person standing next to an apple cart and called out to him.

"Hey uncle Fuu!"

The man looked at him, gave him a big smile and waved for him to come over.

"Why hello, young Minato-kun. Fancy an apple?"

The blond boy nodded and was handed a shiny red apple. Giving the man a small thanks, the child bit into the fruit with a crunch. They talked for a while as Minato ate his apple when they were interrupted by a cart falling over followed by a sudden shout.

"My cabbages!"

"I'm sorry!"

At the sound of the voice, Minato's world suddenly shifted. He didn't know what it meant so he tried to look towards the voice. By the time he turned towards the direction of the disturbance, someone had bumped into him, causing him to lose his balance and drop his apple. He didn't see who bumped into him though as his vision was drowned in a sea of long and flowing red hair. When the red disappeared, he could feel himself still off-balance and trying to catch himself. He looked around him with his eyes and found that people were staring at him in confused looks.

He moved his foot to prevent himself from falling on his back, and he realized why people were staring at him. His time has been warped to a slow crawl.

He looked at his apple, still in the air but clearly falling at a very slow pace. He closed his eyes and took a breath, and when he felt his time was starting to return to normal, he moved to catch his apple. In a sudden burst of speed, he caught his apple faster than the spectators' eyes could see that surprised even him. He stared at his apple and at his hands in wonder, trying to figure out what happened.

"I'm sorry, but I'm late!"

Upon hearing the voice, he looked up and tried to find the owner of the voice. Looking around, he managed to catch a glimpse of red hair disappearing around the corner. Running as fast as he could while still passing off as a normal boy, he reached the corner only to catch yet again a glimpse of red hair disappearing into a different alley. He ran and tried to follow the person, but no matter how fast he ran without drawing attention to himself, he could only always catch glimpses.

Panting lightly, he continued to run. When he heard another ruckus in the street just around the corner, he looked around him and upon seeing no one, used a bit of his power to boost his speed. In a blink of an eye, he reached the corner and turned right.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry, but I'm really late! I'm really sorry!"

He ran towards the voice, leaping over fallen boxes and ducking under stalls. When he reached the gates of the Academy, he saw yet again a glimpse of the red hair disappearing into the building. He tried to run after her, but a chuunin stopped him by blocking his way.

"What do you want kid? You don't look like a student here."

He looked up at the chuunin and then back at the Academy. He was panting and he tried to catch his breath for a reply, but it was taking too much time so he just shook his head and waved goodbye. Walking away, he bit into his apple and sucked on the juice. Turning back for one last look, he decided to figure out the strange events that happened to him today, starting with one question. Who was that red-haired kid?

End Flashback

"I went to the Hokage after that, asking if I could get into the Academy. The good news was, it was easy convincing him to allow me in. The bad news was that I had to let him know about some of my abilities and where I got them."

"S-so you r-revealed that y-you were an Anomaly?"

"Not exactly. See, I was still trying to keep a low profile, so I just told him that I received a Blessing that just recently manifested. I told him about the incident of my time slowing down, and thanks to all the witnesses, they bought it. Once I was in, well, let's just say that the rest is history."

"You mean you fell in love while trying to figure out what happened and then won her heart and blah blah?"

While Naruto was questioning the story, Hinata had a dreamy expression and let out a sigh.

"How romantic…"

Scratching the back of his neck, Minato tried to choose words to better explain the situation.

"Well, not exactly. You see, there were no Anomalies before me that passed on their essence to me, so the only idea I had about Anchors was from the few small talks with my mom, just like how we are right now. She told me that my father wasn't her Anchor, but her best guy friend was. Going with that explanation, I concluded that your Anchor doesn't necessarily need to be your lover, just someone important in your life."

He looked at the both of them and they had a blank expression, clearly showing how they didn't see where he was going with his explanation.

"Look, I'm not going to sugarcoat things and say that your mother was the most perfect woman in all dimensions. In fact, she was the exact type of person that I wouldn't be good with. She was talented in seals and ninjutsu, I can give her that. But she was also very reckless, uncontrollable, stubborn and rebellious. With her attitude, I decided to just keep her at a comfortable distance. It started out as sparring partners, and then as a mentor-pupil thing in sealwork. Later on, she became the one I would discuss some of my ninjutsu and seal theories with. After that, I did my best to keep our relationship to just that, but something happened that put us together."

He finished his story, and only then did he notice that he was out of breath. He was so focused on letting them know of his intentions and situation that he didn't realize until he finished that his emotions had spilled into his words. His voice had risen when he described Naruto's mother's behavior and started softening when he explained how their relationship progressed. He looked at the two once more and noted that they had different reactions to his outburst.

Naruto was trying hard not to smile, and Hinata had yet again a dreamy look. Sighing in defeat, he threw his hands up in surrender. He decided to just let them think of whatever it was that happened that put them together, but he underestimated Hinata's maiden heart.

"Th-the kidnapping…th-that's what b-brought you t-together?"

He looked at her for a while, a smile slowly creeping across his face. He let out a hearty laugh, before allowing himself to have a dreamy expression of his own.

"Yeah. That's what put us together. Despite her tomboyish tendencies, deep inside she was still a woman, especially in her heart. She believed in destiny and fate, only in terms of love. Once she got that in her head, there was no way to convince her otherwise. She started acting more feminine around me, even going so far as seducing me."

He let out another sigh, and this time his smile had turned into a goofy one, which when paired with his dreamy expression, made him look like a lovesick loon in Naruto's opinion.

"Your mother's crazy, but she was quite a woman. I ended up falling for her, and falling real hard."

He shook his head to clear his mind from the happy memories as he focused on a sobering thought. He looked at his son with a sad and apologetic expression on his face.

"And that's why you weren't able to transfer the anchor to me, right?"

"But that doesn't mean I don't love you son, because I do. I really do…"

Naruto shook his head and Minato felt his heart starting to break again, but the pain quickly disappeared when the boy smiled.

"It's okay dad. I used to think that you didn't care about me, that you chose not to anchor to me. But seeing you with that idiotic lovesick look on your face, I can at least sort of understand why you weren't able to let go of mom's anchor, so we're cool. Just one thing though…"

"What is it?"

"Don't you ever make that lovesick face again. It's weird enough that I've seen it, and embarrassing that Hinata-chan had to see it. Come on old man, you're not young anymore!"

He stared blankly at Naruto and couldn't believe how he forgot whose child he was. He grabbed his neck and pulled him into a headlock, ruffling his hair as roughly as he could.

"I'll have you know, since I'm now timeless, I'm still technically young. Not to mention I wasn't that old when it happened."

"Okay, okay! Just don't do it when I'm around people, it's embarrassing."

He let his son go and they both smiled at each other before laughing. Watching their father-son interaction, Hinata was amazed at the strength of the two blonds. She couldn't believe how they make light of such dark and depressing topics in their life, but at the same time, she was thankful for Naruto's sake. At that moment, as she stared at him laughing along with his father, she realized just how bright a sun Naruto was in her life, and she couldn't help her smile.

Seeing Hinata's gentle smile, Naruto couldn't help but smile back at her. Neither of them noticed that in that short time where their eyes locked and they smiled at each other, time around them bending in a way that Minato recognized.

A/N: Sooooo, did you like this one or no? Let me know, okay? :D