Disclaimer: I only do these for the spacing. The chapter bar to the right causes the first line of every story to be truncated, making it shorter than the rest. So I write disclaimers to offset that. Call it OCD or whatever. And I have to put "I don't own Naruto" or it wouldn't be a disclaimer otherwise.


The trip to retrieve Konoha's newest Hokage had taken a mere eleven days, but to Naruto, it felt like a lifetime. In those eleven days, he'd come to know a father and what it was like to be loved by one.

His Dad had taught him an amazing new technique, started him on the basics of creating seals, and a whole lot of other cool stuff. They even had the same summoning contract together. The toads had been absolutely ecstatic to learn that one of their greatest friends who they'd thought long dead was back alive and kicking. They celebrated the occasion the way they always did: with lots and lots of alcohol.

I have the best Dad in the world. Naruto smiled as he closed his eyes against the darkness. I'm gonna wake up early tomorrow morning to make him breakfast!

The question was, what did his Dad like to eat?

Naruto's thoughts wandered. They'd just stocked the fridge today so they had a lot of food to work with. I could just buy take-out.. Naruto frowned. Nah. It wouldn't be the same.

Maybe I should just ask him. He sat up. It was already an hour past his bedtime, but he couldn't sleep anyway. Standing, Naruto stretched. He fixed his nightcap and shuffled toward his father's room.

The house was eerily quiet.
What if he's already asleep? Naruto paused at the door and hesitated. With a shake of his head, the boy strengthened his resolve and quietly inched the door open. His eyes fell upon the figure of a man sitting up on the edge of the bed. His head hung low and his elbows rested on his knees.

Naruto furrowed his eyes. "Dad?"

Minato looked up, wiped his eyes with an arm and made a bad attempt at a cheery smile. "Hey Naruto. Shouldn't you be sleeping?"

Ignoring the question, Naruto shuffled closer and peered into his Dad's eyes. "Dad. Why are you crying?"

"What are you talking about? I'm not-"

Naruto put his arms around his father and patted him gently on the back. The man choked, his breath hitching in a sob.

"It's OK to cry, Dad. Isn't that what you said?" Suddenly, he felt arms on his back.

Minato squeezed his son close in a tight hug, burying his face and sobbing into the starry-blue nightcap. "Naruto. I miss her - I miss her so much. When I close my eyes, I start to feel her laying next to me, but when I open them to look, she's not there. So I close my eyes and she's by my side again, but when I turn to hold her, there's nothing but empty air. I can't sleep. I can't stand this anymore." His voice broke. "It hurts so much."

Naruto's eyes widened as he realized what was going on. "Are you talking about mom?"

Receiving no response, Naruto continued patting the man's back in what he hoped was a comforting gesture.

After several minutes, his dad's voice croaked quietly into his ears. "Your mother, Uzumaki Kushina.. before she died, she wished with all her heart that she could stay with you longer. Even though you were just born, she loved you.. probably more than she loved me." Detaching from his desperate embrace, Minato held his son at arm's length and examined him with a smile. "I would've died just to let her see you again, even if it's only for a few minutes."

Naruto frowned at the thought of his father's death. "Dad don't say that."

"I'm sorry. First Jiraiya-sensei, now you. I never wanted you to see this. I wanted to be the perfect father, but-"

"You are perfect." Naruto cut in. "You're the best dad in the world."

"Naruto." Minato smiled and allowed his son to comfort him. "Thank you."

-Intermission-

"I don't get why you're bringing him dango. He doesn't even eat those. I mean, he'd have to take off his face mask to even eat those. Oh!" Naruto slapped a fist into his other hand in ashow of epiphany. "You're trying to get him to take off his face mask! I see. Heheh dad. You're so smart."

Minato smiled. "That's a good guess, but no. He's the one who asked me to bring them."

Naruto ducked his head in thought. "Dad, you've seen Kakashi without his face-mask right?"

They rounded an avenue and approached the hospital complex.

"Of course." Minato replied. "He can't eat with that thing on. You don't really think he wears that all the time do you?"

Naruto jumped around and began walking backwards. "No. Ok. Here's what happened. Me, Sasuke and Sakura spent a whole day trying to get him to take off his mask, but it never worked. We bought him ramen and he tricked us to look away and then the ramen was gone. And here's the thing. He never took off his facemask. And then! And then when we asked him to show us what he had under his facemask, he pulled it off and there was another facemask under it. I swear. I just gotta see what he's hiding. What's he look like?"

"He looks exactly like what you'd expect." His dad replied with a chuckle

Naruto's eyes widened in surprise. "So.. he does have buckteeth?"

Minato laughed at the image. "No. He doesn't. He's not hiding anything."

Naruto furrowed his brows. "Then why does he wear that mask all the time?"

Minato shook his head. "We're here."

They entered the building. The man at the desk stood up and bowed. "Yondaime Hokage."

Minato nodded back in greeting. "We're just here to visit."

"Of course. Go right on ahead."

As they passed by the desk, Naruto stared the man over slowly. "I still remember what you did to me, Registration-desk-person-san. I bet you didn't think my dad was the Fourth Hokage did you?

He stuck his tongue out.

"What did he do to you?" Minato raised an eyebrow before turning to the flustered man. "What'd you do to my son?"

"What, I, but-" The man bowed deeply. "I'm so very sorry, Yondaime-sama! I-I didn't know any better. Please forgive me!"

The Fourth raised his voice. "I put the Nine-tails in him to allow Konoha to both survive and prosper. And you abused him for it. Have you ever considered that my son was the only thing keeping that monster from destroying the village?!"

"I'm so incredibly sorry!" The man grovelled.

People stopped at the sound of his outburst. Minato turned, sweeping his eyes out to the staff and visitors moving in from behind and around the hospital lobby. Many ducked their heads in shame under his withering gaze.

He abruptly recalled his first meeting with his son. Naruto had been crying, his voice filled with pain: 'Everyone hated me.. like I was some criminal.'

Minato felt an ugly fire bubble up in his chest. Their expressions of shame - their guilt - were evidence of the stark truth of his son's words. With extreme effort, Minato quelled the worst of his rage. "Every single one of you.." He growled, his self-control failing to keep the bite from his voice. "I gave you my life so that you'd survive. My wife is dead so that our son could live among you in peace."

A few people began walking away, shaking their heads at the former Kage's lack of emotional control. Some Shinobi of the Leaf he turned out to be.

The ones who stayed noticed, to their further shame, that their beloved Fourth Hokage was crying as he chided them, his voice bitter and angry.

"My wife. Kushina.." Tears welled into the Kage's eyes and began trailing down his face. "We could have had so many years together.." the droplets fell unbidden onto the lobby's marble floor. "I didn't even get to watch my son walk his first step or say his first word. And you just trampled all over our sacrifice." The man paused to collect himself before he continued. "You shame me. You shame my village."

Naruto stared up at the Kage in wonder. He'd been dreaming of having someone speak like this his entire life. To have it actually happen was comforting. The boy's heart filled to the brim with love as he watched his father do him justice.

The Fourth shook his head and turned toward the stairs. He hefted his grip on a box of dango with one hand and gently took of his son's hand with the other. "Come on Naruto. Let's go."

"Ok." Naruto replied quietly.

The small group of Konoha citizens were left stunned in their wake.

After they were gone, the man at the desk straightened and cleared his throat. "Well. We can't stand here forever. We've a hospital to run."

The lobby moved into action. Many banded together to discuss the Fourth's recent outburst as they resumed doing whatever they were doing before the interruption.

-Intermission-

Kakashi was bored. He'd been lying in the same damned hospital in the same damned room in the same damned bed for nearly a week now. He'd already read the copy of Icha-icha that Minato-sensei brought him the day before over a hundred times. He was tired of that damned book. The girl, 'Akemi-chan', would get together with her 'Doraimon-sama' and they would spend a very detailed afternoon together. Alone. He'd read it so many times he'd memorized the scene word for word.

When was Jiraiya going to release the next damned book?

Kakashi stared wistfully at the book's cover. It was green. The thing brought to mind images of a much-less-appealing person of the same color.

The Jounin frowned. Akemi-chan wore green too.

His mind continued playing out the scene in his head: Maito Gai wearing a green dress with his Doraimon-sama. In a bedroom. Alone.

The Jounin shivered. "Fuck-fuck-fuck-fuck-fuck! Get the fuck out of my head!"

To his great relief, his thoughts were loudly interrupted. Naruto burst in through the door with his father not far behind.

"Yo, my cute little student.." Kakashi smiled. "and my cute little sensei. How nice of you both to visit."

Minato twitched.

Naruto ambled over excitedly. "Kakashi sensei! We brought you a box of dango!"

"Thanks." The Jounin nodded. "Could you put it over there on that table?"

Naruto complied, placing the box carefully before running back to the edge of the bed. "Kakashi-sensei. Can I see what you look like when you're not wearing a mask?"

Kakashi turned a discerning eye onto the hyperactive blonde. "Do you really want to see it that badly?"
Naruto nodded excitedly.

"No."

"But why?!" The boy whined.

"Because it's more fun making you guess." The Jounin replied with a smile.

Naruto groaned and sat with a pout.

Minato grabbed a chair and sat next to him. The Kage put on a serious face. "Kakashi. Did you know that Naruto was widely abused by the villagers while I was gone?"

The Jounin sighed. Here it comes.

"What were you doing while that was happening?" Minato asked.
Naruto crossed his arms and nodded.

"Minato-sensei.. I was a fourteen year old emotional wreck. What did you expect me to do? Drop everything and adopt your kid?"

"No." Minato replied. "But you weren't fourteen forever. You could've at least stood up for him. You knew he was my son."

Kakashi shrugged. "I applied to be his Jounin-sensei when he came of age."

"You couldn't even teach him something as simple as Chakra sprinting." The former Kage bit back accusingly.

"He wasn't ready for it." Kakashi replied. "He has a lot of Chakra, but that doesn't mean he should get into the habit of using it wastefully. If I taught him at that stage, he'd never learn to be able to Chakra sprint at full speed.

"I don't agree." The Fourth stated implacably.

Kakashi sat up. "Look, you're just going to have to trust that I had a good reason for the decisions I've made. I was your son's Jounin-sensei. You were not. Naruto's grown a lot. Seriously. You should've seen him before he graduated. Annoying kid."

"Kakashi."
"Minato-sensei." Kakashi drawled, brusquely interrupting. "I know you're unhappy about Naruto's childhood. He didn't deserve what the village did to him, but if you weren't so hung up on getting angry about it, you'd realize that your son turned out just fine. You only got here in time to see the results. The past six months since he's graduated from the academy have been the most productive in his life. Jiraiya and I made sure of that. He's strong. He's adapting well to the life of a Shinobi. He has people who care for him. What more could you ask for?"

Minato shook his head angrily as he tried to think of something to contradict his student with. Kakashi was right. Naruto did turn out alright. He sighed. "I still can't just forget that you let the villagers treat my son like trash."

The silver-haired Jounin frowned inwardly. Over the years, he had been trying to help his mentor's son.. in his own way. He'd taken to secretly leaving 'gifts' to the boy every time he'd gotten his mission pay. He'd bought Naruto a set of blue pyjamas, a nightcap, a teddy, and various other things.

Still, his mentor was absolutely right. He hadn't really provided the kid with the social support he'd needed. Kakashi sighed. "You're right."
Minato nodded. "I will forgive you only on one condition."

Kakashi paused in thought. His sensei wasn't an unreasonable person. "Name it. I'll do it."

Naruto snickered.

"From now on, you're going to stop masking your face." Minato replied.

"No."

"Kakashi. There's no practical reason for you to-"
"No."

Minato sighed. "I'll think of something else, but for right now, my son wants to see what you look like so you're going to at least show him."

"I can do that." The Jounin replied jovially.

"Yes!" Naruto jumped excitedly and moved to remove the mask. He gaped. "You look.. normal."

"What did you expect?"

"But.. but if you look normal, why do you even wear this thing?" Naruto fidgeted with the mask.

Kakashi smiled, showing a set of straight, white teeth. "That would be telling."


-A/N-

I found a real bunny while I was taking a stroll through the park yesterday. It was an escaped pet rabbit, and it was super adorable. It let me pet it and pick it up and everything. I really liked it, and it cheered me up for awhile. I didn't have the funds to take care of it though, so I let it go. I hope it found its way to a better home.

Anywho, thanks everyone for following up to this point. It warms my heart.

De-hiatus.