Prologue: The Boy Named Uzumaki Nagato
"We will be naming our child Uzumaki Nagato," Minato said, standing next to his very pregnant wife, Kushina.
Jiraiya stood there, frozen in shock. "Guys, are you sure? I mean, not like I don't appreciate the sentiment, but…."
Kushina giggled. "Nagato is a beautiful name. One that we chose for our child," she said, smiling sweetly.
The toad sage was now in tears. With a huge grin, he flung himself at his blonde student and his wife and shared a big hug, where they stayed for a little while, comforting their crying sensei. It was almost ten minutes until Jiraiya finally calmed down and promptly fell asleep, exhausted from crying too hard.
"Nagato it is," Kushina whispered, her husband put the man on the couch, before giving him a blanket and shutting the lights out, also tired and ready for bed.
Two months later, the married couple were found inside a cave outside the village, Kushina now in labor.
"This hurts, dattebane," she yelled as another painful contraction crashed upon her.
"Alright," Biwako said, looking straight into Kushina's eyes. "Kushina, I want you to push at your next contraction. Ready, 1..2...3."
With a warcry, she pushed down, feeling her vagina and cervix pushing the baby out, and with a final push, filling the cave with the echoes of the baby's crying.
Nagato was quickly cleaned up and brought to his mother. He immediately halted in his crying and opened his eyes, the aquamarine orbs observing every inch of his mother's face.
"Baby Nagato looks so much like you," Minato cooed. "He has your beautiful hair and skin color."
"True, but he has your pretty blue eyes and intellectual personality," Kushina remarked while rocking Nagato, getting the baby to giggle cutely.
"No, no. That's not what I'm saying," Minato said sheepishly. "What I am saying is that I want him to have your looks. He is an Uzumaki after all. Plus, they are very beautiful."
Kushina blushed brightly. Caught off guard from her husband's comment, she did not notice the black flash that swiped the baby from her lap until she heard Nagato's cries at the opposite side of the room.
She turned to the direction of the baby's voice and saw the newest addition to the cave, a masked man with a black cloak, the collapsing of the dead bodies following his entrance.
"Step away from the jinchuriki or the baby's going to die. Which are you going to choose, oh great Yondaime? Your baby? Or your precious wife?" he said maniacally, raising his kunai to Nagato's neck.
"Calm down. We can talk this through," he said, making a move towards his wife to fix her seal.
"Calm? I'm perfectly calm, but I don't know about you," the Masked Man said threateningly.
He threw Nagato up in the air, and jumped after the baby redhead, ready to slash his neck with a kunai, but was caught by Minato first.
Hearing multiple sounds of sizzling, Minato looked down at the bottom of his son's blanket. Seeing multiple explosive tags ready to explode, he quickly threw his blanket off of him and flashed away from the cave, leaving his wife alone with the Masked Man.
He landed in a field surrounded by trees.
"Thank goodness Nagato isn't hurt," he said, checking his son for any injuries.
He took a moment to scope out the situation. The Masked Man had forced him to use his and Nidaime-sama's Flying Raijin no Jutsu, which means that his target Kushina. His eyes narrowed and he flashed away, reappearing in a small room.
He walked to the crib near the wall and placed baby Nagato inside.
"It's ok, Nagato. Don't cry. Your father is going to protect your beautiful mother, ok?" he said softly to his baby boy. Seeing Nagato calm down at the mention of his mother, he smiled and flashed away, going to do exactly what he had promised his son.
Protect his beloved wife and the mother of his child.
A few hours later, we find the Yondaime Hokage and his wife standing above their son, the Kyuubi's claw protruding from their stomachs, the tip of it dangerously close to Nagato's face.
'I failed.' Minato thought to his son, a lone tear trickling down his cheek. 'I failed to protect you and your mother, and now I am to forsake you to the worst fate imaginable. I'm sorry, Nagato. You have every right to hate and detest me.'
He made the hand seals necessary to summon Gerotora.
"Gerotora, I'm giving you the key to the seal. Take it to Jiraiya-sensei immediately and store it within him!"
The toad nodded and poofed away.
Right then, Kushina started speaking. "Nagato, don't be picky about your food. Eat lots so you can grow big. And don't stay up late at night, you'll need your sleep. Make friends. I'm not one to talk but do your best in school and ninjutsu. Respect your teachers and seniors at the Academy. Don't drink any alcohol until you are twenty, so it's okay if you become interested in a woman, or a man, but don't go after bad ones. Find someone just like your mom! Speaking of vices, watch out for Jiraiya-sensei, 'ttebane. Believe in your dreams, and believe your dreams will come true! I love you."
"Nagato, my message to you as your father is to be strong. Never let what hurtful things people say get to you. Protect who and what you hold dear with all you have, for true strength comes from the need to protect those whom you love, and also what your chatty mother just said to you. I love you, Nagato."
Hakke Fuuin!
The fates of the legendary Yondaime Hokage and Uzumaki Kushina were sealed in death and their legacy will rise from the ashes like a phoenix, a beacon of hope for all.