Chapter posted 03/19/2008.
As I told, this week's chapter is posted in the middle of the week instead of the weekend.
This chapter is a filler I pictured recently but I didn't know where put it.
Because today is Father's day, this is the perfect occasion.
It happens between chapter 1 and 2, after the omake of chapter 9; it describes the end of the meeting between Minato and Sarutobi and tells more things about the past of the main characters.
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After a beaten Kakashi left the office looking for a doctor, the Sandaime headed to Minato.
"Minato, I think I must give you back this...", said Sarutobi handing Minato a big envelope.
"What is this?... Oh... I see...", said Minato when he opened it.
Inside the envelope there were two little boxes, a keyring with some keys, a hairclip and two smaller envelopes.
Minato opened the boxes, there was a platinum ring in each of them.
"Our wedding rings...", he looked at the one that one daywas in Kushina's finger, "...I will store you... for a girl... a girl who will love Naruto and he will love back..."
SOMEWHERE IN KONOHA
"A-Atchooo!"
"Are you all right Nee-chan?", asked a little girl.
"Y-Yes Hanabi-chan...", responded a girl who obviously was her big sister, "...I-Ih-hope I-I'm not getting a cold..."
BACK IN THE HOKAGE'S OFFICE
Minato took the keyring.
"Our house's keys...", said Minato putting them in his pocket, "... as soon as I finish next week's test we will move there, Naruto...", said looking at his son.
He looked at the hairclip and his face saddened.
"You took this from Kushina before her burial...", said to the Kage.
"Yes, I thought Naruto would like to have something that belonged to his mother", responded Sarutobi.
"Thank you, Sarutobi-sama, I think it will go with the ring..."
SOMEWHERE IN KONOHA
"A-Atchooo!"
This time a girl sneezed over her cousin with the misfortune of letting his perfect hair soaked with mucus.
"I-Im s-so s-sorry N-Neji-nisan!", said the embarrassed girl.
"NOOOOOO! WHY FATE HATES ME SO MUCH?", thought the boy.
BACK IN THE HOKAGE'S OFFICE
Minato took one of the envelopes.
"The letter I wrote to Naruto before the sealing...", said taking one of the envelopes.
Minato remembered that letter with pain, in it Minato explained to Naruto why he was chose for being the jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi, why a Kage can't demand to his subordinates something he wouldn't do; it also told him how he was desired by both his parents, how they wanted to start a family... that part of the letter was blotted by the tears he couldn't contain while writting it. The worst part was the farewell asking Naruto to look after Kushina and telling them to forgive him...
"...but things got worse than we expected, we lost her minutes before you lost me, my kid...", thought Minato.
Minato started to tear apart the letter to Sarutobi's disbelief.
"What are you doing? This letter was for Naruto!", yelled.
"What I told him in that letter, now I can tell it to him personally...", said Minato with a smile that faded in a second, "...I'll be the one who will tell him about the burden... I don't know how to tell him... DAMM, it terrifies me more than when I thought I was going to spend the rest of eternity in an eternal digestion in the stomach of the God of Death..."
"Don't worry...", said Sarutobi putting a hand in Minato's shoulder, "...Naruto is the most forgivable person I know, I bet that he won't hate you..."
Minato took the other envelope.
"What is this?... it's a letter?... for who?", asked Minato puzzled.
"I never dreamed that this letter would reach to one of the persons it was assigned... Minato, this is a letter that Naruto wrote to you and Kushina...", said Sarutobi smiling.
"W-WHAT?"
Sarutobi started his explanation.
"One day Naruto came to me asking why his parents abandoned him..."
Suddenly all Konoha felt again the killer intent of a scorned Hokage.
"WE DIDN'T ABANDON HIM! WHO TOLD THAT? I'LL CHOP THEM TO PIECES!"
"It was an old lady who loved to spread false rumors, I ordered Ibiki to cut her tongue and then I asked her politely to leave Konoha and never return if she didn't want to be Enma's next meal", responded Sarutobi without losing his fatherly smile.
Minato gave him thumbs up and let him continue.
"As I was saying, Naruto asked me why his parents abandoned him; obviously I told that he was not abandoned, that he was an orphan whose parents died in the Kyuubi attack, instead of feeling relieved he felt sad..."
"Why?", interrupted Minato.
"... because he used to think that someday his parents would come back with him...", Sarutobi smiled, "... now I see thathe was right"
Minato smiled back, looking at the sleeping Naruto, Sarutobi resumed his story.
"Then I told him that he should write somewhere what he felt to feel better... next day he came back with a letter he said he wrote to his parents telling what he felt about them, he asked me to take it to the other world and give it to them because I was the oldest person he knew so I was the one with more probabilities to meet them soon ...", said smiling.
The two kages laughed for a while by the kid's ocurrence.
"So... Naruto tells in this letter what he feels about Kushina and me...", said Minato looking at the letter with anxiety.
Sarutobi nodded.
"Yes, I don't know what it says, you should read as soon as you come back to Naruto's apartment", said.
"W-Where does he live?", asked Minato a little concerned.
"He lives in Kushina's old apartment, I warn you that he cleans it as often as his mother so expect a war zone", said Sarutobi.
Minato nodded, said good bye to the Sandaime and left to the apartment with the still sleeping Naruto
He arrived and created some clones to gather some of his belongings from the Hokage's warehouse.
When he got into the house he almost expected to see Kushina greeting him, he took breath and create some demi-bunshins to clean the place while he took Naruto to his room.
He changed is son into his hippo pajamas, put him in the bed.
"Sleep well my Naruto, tomorrow we'll have a lot of things to talk", whispered Minato to his kid, kissing his forehead.
Minato then opened the envelope with the letter that was not expected to be opened.
To Mom and Dad
Hi, my name is Naruto Uzumaki, oh well you must know it because you are my parents he, he.
I live in the village of Konoha, it's a great place to live (although it's the only place I know). I don't remember many things when I was little; I lived all my life in my apartment, with a different person looking for me each day, much of them were polite while others were waiting to get out of the place as soon as posible ignoring me.
Sometimes I heard someone giggling and I thought a saw a guy with a strange mask reading a book, but he disapears as soon as I got near.
"Kakashi in his ANBU suit, obviously taking a break...", thought Minato smiling
As soon as I was six years old nobody else came anymore for look after me. The Hokage told me that I was ready to look after myself, then I got into the Ninja Academy, I thought it would be fun, but everybody still ignored me, I don't know why. One day I dropped a thumbtack by accident and Iruka-sensei step on it, he used his scary big-head jutsu to warn me to don't do pranks but everybody laughed, so I started to do pranks so everybody would stop ignoring me.
Minato had a sad smile.
I like ramen, the color orange and ninja stuff. I hate the three minutes it takes the ramen to be done and when people ignores me.
Now I'm nine years old and I'm studying to be a ninja. Jii-san (the Hokage) told me that you both were ninja who fought with the Yondaime against the Kyuubi years ago, that guy was soo cool! Everybody praises him, some people smile at me sometimes when they talk about him while others look at me with hate, when I ask them why they are angry with me they simply left mumbling curses.
I made a decision: I will become Hokage so everybody will acknowledge me! Then I won't be alone, I will have friends, even a family like the rest of people...
Then the letter turned more dark.
WHY DID YOU HAVE TO DIE? WHY YOU BOTH?
"I'm sorry, Naruto..."
Most evenings I don't want to go back to a home without anybody waiting for me...
I hate when the parents come to take back their children home, the happy they are and the way they look at the orphan...
I don't even know your faces or your names... Did you love me?
Minato couldn't contain the tears.
I think the answer is yes: Iruka-sensei says that those who sacrificed themselves for the village did it because they wanted to protect their loved ones, their sacrifices are a sign of love...
I don't know what happened to you, sometimes when I'm very sad I feel like a voice encouraging me not to give up, I think it's you...
Mom, Dad whoever you are... I love you.
Naruto.
PD: Take a look at the back of the letter.
Minato's hearth melted.
In the back of the letter there was a child-made drawing of a family, a blond child with whiskers marks who was holding hands with a man and a woman who were dressed in ninja attire. The man looked like an older version of the kid with beard while the woman was a redhead with long hair which reached the shoulders and had an orange ribbon.
That night the Fourth Hokage, who was know as themost powerful of all, cried for hours.
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I hope you are not angry by this interruption of the story but I needed to made it.
Remember to review.
