Chapter 2: The Mistake that will Save the World
It has been a year and half since the incident in the Fire Nations border, its been that long since Minato had sentenced himself to becoming a jinchuuriki.
Three days after he arrived from to Konoha, Kumo had forfeited the war. The loss of their beloved perfect jinchuuriki had killed the moral of Kumo in the war. Without their jinchuuriki, they are no match to Konoha. Ever since the founding of villages, Konoha had produced very high caliber ninjas not really relying too much on the power of their bijuu even if they have the strongest. Only the fact that they have their perfect jinchuuriki have dissuade Konoha to attacking Kumo directly.
After all they still have their numerous S-rank ninjas and even the SS yellow devil. The long duration of the war had given rise to many names in Konoha, those that climbed the ranks include the White Fang and his son Sharingan no Kakashi, Shunshin no Shisui, the Red Hot Blooded Habanero AKA the Kyuubi jinchuuriki and of course the Yellow Flash himself. This is not even counting the legendary Sannins and the Professor himself, the current God of Shinobi.
It is only out of their philosophy of preserving peace which other villages find foolish that these 9 ninjas of the highest caliber is not released to overcome a whole village on their own. After all, it only takes one ninja like Minato to kill thousands of theirs.
Minato sighed, all this thinking made his head hurt.
"Here's your first bowl of Miso Ramen Hokage-sama" Teuchi the Ramen chef announced. Today marked the anniversary of Minato becoming the Yondaime Hokage of Konoha, he decided to celebrate with Ichiraku, ever since young he had been a patronizing their ramen.
"Thank you Ichiraku-san!" beside her is the greater patron of Ichiraku than himself, Kushina Uzumaki, her best friend and one true love.
Kushina is the famous Red Hot Blooded Habanero. She has the kyuubi to win the skirmishes on her side of the war, even taking down few high ranking Iwa nins. Although she cannot do full transformation like Killer Bee before he died. She is one of the last remnants of the great Uzumaki clan and is the last true Uzumaki, having trained in the vast field of Uzumaki fuinjutsu and kenjutsu. She also has the rare Uzumaki chakra that is known to have the strength to hold even a bijuu, on par with the Shodaime Hokage's mokuton.
But beyond all that, the red head was only a simple yet amazing woman to Minato. She had been in love with her for a long time. Sure seeing her inhale all her ramen in one go would seem disgusting to anybody, then again, Minato is not anybody. Even when she inhales her ramen Minato found it cute how her cheeks bloat for a second before swallowing all in one go.
"What are you looking at?" the innocent red head looked at her curiously.
Minato smiled in response 'she really is so beautiful. '
"Nothing, cant I look at my girlfriend?" he replied playfully.
Kushina huffed in annoyance "Well Namikaze, if you wanna keep looking at me like that you better pay my ramen tonight."
Minato chuckled turning to his food 'nope, bad idea' he thought with visible shake of his head.
"Why are you shaking your head like that? Its not like you don't have money, I'm pretty sure being Hokage pays well " Kushina told him in a mild tone of taunt.
"If only you know its not"
"Oh! Is the great Namikaze complaining? Maybe I should have taken the hat from you" she said incredulously causing Minato to smile.
"maybe " he responded in absently.
Kushina looked at her curiously, her purple eyes slanting "What is it Minato-kun?"
Taking sometime to swallow his food wallowing in his thoughts "Its just that, it has been peaceful for sometime Kushina-chan" he sighed. Kushina could sense the reluctance in the voice of the man.
"and?"
"Do you remember that time before the war, after I just saved you from those ninja years ago and Tsunade-obaasan said something about fate when I described how I followed you using your beautiful red hair?"
Kushina nod in response "of course, the red thread of fate? Its famous among my clan. I guess being cousins of Senju made our folklores known to them "
Minato smiled in response, she always seemed so sure of herself. This is one of the reasons why she love her so much, that character of her is so contagious and makes him keep wanting to be with her even if she is such a numb skull sometimes, but of course he would'nt let her know. 'I don't wanna die yet.' he internally sweat dropped.
"Look Kushina, if it's only a folklore then why are we together? Is that not a proof that fate as we make it is like the red thread of fate that connects us? No matter what we decide, people around us is always affected" he looked at her with a triumph smile.
"What's your point?"
Minato took sometime pulling something from his pocket "Kushina…" Minato revealed what he took is a silver ring that shines but in dark color, on top is a red gem that reflects light in so many angles but if one takes a closer look the reflected lights form the nine tailed fox in a more serene form. He put the finger in front of her coincidentally on top of Kushina's ramen.
"Will you marry me?" Kushina took her bowl of ramen and swallowed huge one, a really HUGE one all the while looking at him.
She choked…
~~BREAK~~
Mikoto Uchiha is a very beautiful woman in her middle twenties. She has a fair skin that looks perfect with her jet black long hair and deep back eyes. Her body will make anyone would be willing to kill, and that is without using the sharingan. Add to that, her kind calm nature made her the perfect woman for any man that he likes.
That was why it was very frustrating for her that the only man that she loves only have his eyes set to her best friend and and they have been together now for 2 years. Well, its not like she's not happy for them. As a matter of fact, it was her own fault for telling her feelings to him, but even then she is pretty sure it would end they way she wants. Mikoto internally smiled to her thoughts.
"MIKOTO-CHAAAAAAAAANN!" and there she was, her rambunctious best friend running towards her in glee.
"Kushina-chan, it's 5:00 AM in the morning, what got you so worked up?" Kushina run at her hugging her tightly making Mikoto blue before looking at her.
"I'm getting married" Kushina voiced happily.
~~BREAK~~
It has been a week since the Hokage proposed to the only jinchuuriki of Konoha, the news spread fast. For one silver haired cycloptic ninja, he is very happy that at last his sensei will get that happiness that he deserves with Kushina.
It's not like he is clueless when it comes to romance, far from it. Reading those smuts authored by the toad sannin, had him in depth ideas of how two people in love could be the happiest in the world. The only thing that he lacks is experience.
'Who would want to date a depressed, openly pervert anyways?' Kakashi thought while reading his book and walking to Kami knows where. "Still reading Jiraiya-sensei's book in public Kakashi?" he looked up to see the blond leader of Konoha.
"Sensei" he acknowledge and returned to reading the book, Minato sync his steps with him "You know it will do you no good being deppresed like this right?" there was visible reaction from Kakashi but Minato knows better. "Kakashi it's not your fault" he tried again.
"I know sensei, you have said that before, but it does'nt change how I feel. To this day I still feel the flesh Rin and that look of her when she took my raikiri to her heart. I could still hear Obito's excuses whenever he was late, and the hand that pushed me away when that boulder fell…" Kakashi finds it hard to finish his words.
Minato just looked at him silently, he did know what to say, nothing he said took Kakashi's deppresion away completely. Only time will do. "Come on, join us instead of reading that smut. We're gonna party, your sensei is gonna be a married man in a week" he smiled encouragingly.
"I'm happy for you sensei " they started walking towards Minato's house.
"You humans have always been so trivial, simple words can easily lift your spirits and that should be good. Except for the fact that simple death easily crushes your spirit too." Minato heard his bijuu talk.
'That is true I wont deny. This emotions of us sometimes makes us vulnerable, but you know eight tails? This is what makes us different with animals. And I know deep down you have this emotions too' Minato replied.
"Dont mock me human, you might have been better fighter than my previous container but he is greater being than you for at least being able to hide his emotion through those annoying raps of his"
'You really miss him don't you?' the great bijuu did not reply as Minato and his remaining student arrived to their destination.
~~BREAK~~
After the party, everyone left except for Kushina, Minato and Mikoto. Kushina wanted to stay the night but at Minato's insistence saying 'I really want to reserve sleeping with you after we're married' she did not. She was annoyed of course but seeing as they'll be married in a week, she let the blond off the hook with a simple smack kiss. "Come on I'll accompany you home and then I'll drop Mikoto by to her house." Kushina nodded.
Minato saddled Mikoto on her back while holding Kushina's hand. The couple was enjoying the night and does'nt even feel like Mikoto is around because she was too drank to even remember a thing. They reached Kushina's house in a while "I'll see you in the morning" she looked expectantly to him. "Hai" and he got a loving kiss from his soon to be wife.
~~Break~~
After another while Minato reached Mikoto's house, the said woman still saddled on his back. Minato knew that Mikoto has no relative right now. His brother Shisui was sent yesterday on a mission to Suna in order to finalize the alliance and he wont be back for another week. He proceeded to get inside and put Mikoto to her room. "Mikoto-chan, lay down" he said laying the woman down gently.
"Minato-kun" the woman replied drowsily, her hand latched to his neck tightly making Minato chuckle "I did not know you're like this when drank" he took her hand away with a little bit more force.
"Why cant you choose me Minato-kun?" she absently said through her sleep, Minato raised an eyebrow. He did not know what Mikoto was talking about "I've always been in love with you" now he knows.
"I was there first before Kushina when she came from Uzu" Mikoto have been Minato's childhood crush back then, and it was obvious he was her's but over time his feelings for her was overridden when Kushina arrived. That was the day when the red headed tomboy made his heart skip a beat. "I love you Minato" Mikoto continued through her sleep.
Minato took a deep breath "I-I'm so sorry Mikoto-chan" he said.
Mikoto instantly pulled him to another tight hug sniffling through her sleep like she was actually talking to Minato through her dream "Then please… just for tonight, be with me."
"huh?" Minato raised his head confusingly looking at her. In an instant Mikoto's blood red sharingan stared back to his ocean blue eyes. A mistake had been made, one that will save the world.
~~BREAK~~
Minato awoke with a head ache. 'Weird' he thought. He felt limbs weighing him down when he tried to get up and look to his side only to see a naked Mikoto 'what have I done!?' his eyes widened in surprise. 'I have to get out of here.' he thought and put his clothes on in a hurry.
"Its a surprise that a genjutsu like that took you, I would have guessed you'ld escape but I guess you enjoy human flesh the same as anyone" he heard his bijuu starting a conversation.
'I didn't know an Uchiha could still cast sharingan genjutsu unconciously, why did'nt you break it?' he responded. ""Don't kid yourself Yondaime, we might be in talking terms but we're definitely not friends." the loyal bijuu felt like betraying his loyalty to his previous container and friend if he go softy softy to his container now. Minato nodded 'I understand.' in a flash he vanished from Mikoto's house not noticing the black set of eyes that opened a second later, an Uchiha cannot cast genjutsu unconciously.
~~BREAK~~
10 months later, a screaming Kushina was heard from a distant cave in Konoha. Today she was giving birth to her and Minato's baby. However a jinchuuriki giving birth is a delicate situation and Minato as Hokage and father did his best to seal the cave.
A few minutes later, the baby came out. A red haired baby with blue eyes and tan skin gave his first cry to the world. It would be one of the best moments in the couples life, a step above the day when they got married.
"Kushina, you have a son" said the midwife giving the baby bundled in cloth.
Kushina through her exhaustion is a glimpse of happiness shown by her eyes "Nagato" the name she and Minato had decided upon was the name of his sensei's once student that he thought will save the world, sadly he died before his prime. Minato arrived with his heartwarming eyes looking at Kushina gratefully "I'm a father now, thank you my love."
"Now then, try to relax Kushina-chan, I'll do my best to reseal kyuubi"
"Step away from the kyuubi Yondaime" a monotonous voice of intruder said. A masked nin wearing all black cloak has a kunai threatening to end the minute life of his new born son.
"Biwako-sama!" Minato shouted in concern to the third Hokage's wife and the midwife to her wife's pregnancy.
"Minato my baby!" Kushina shouted in concern.
"Calm down" Minato told the intruder raising both his hands cursing inside his head. Kushina's seal is weakening by the second, if this continues she'll die.
"Speak for yourself, I am as calm as I can be" the mask man said throwing the baby up in the air with his kunai waiting to stab the baby. In a quick succession, Minato teleported to the baby using the seal he implanted to the cloth earlier and stick to the ceiling. However the intruder positioned himself beside the weary Kushina. "Impressive speed as always Yondaime" he said before using the ram seal.
Minato noticed the ram seal and in another quick succession threw the cloth before teleporting far from the cave. 'He manage to separate me from Kushina, who is he?' he said not having felt challenged in a long time. He teleported to his own hideout where his various weapons lay. He put the baby Nagato on the blanket layed nearby "You'll safe here for now Nagato, don't worry I'll get mama in a flash" he rhetorically said.
~~BREAK~~
The masked man had managed to tie Kushina with seals which she could have removed easily if she have the time to recover her strength. "Who are you? Why are you doing this?" Kushina asked in a weakened voice. "Who I am is of no consequences, but if you must know I am Uchiha Madara" he said showing his sharingan for the first time. "Why I am doing this is for me to know, now then it is time" he funneled a huge chunk of chakra through his eyes transforming it into a new form ' A mangekyou' Kushina thought. The masked Uchiha undid Kushina's seal and the kyuubi came out with a loud roar. Using the mangkeyou the Uchiha took control of the raging bijuu making the sharingan appear in its eyes.
"Now then, it is only proper that the contained kills its container" he said before wordlessly commanding the bijuu to squash the heavily breathing Kushina. It would have happened if not for the Yondaime appearing to take her and teleporting on top of the trees 'this is bad, if he release that in the village it will be catastrophic' he thought before teleporting back to his hide out.
"As always, late when needed the most, sensei" the mask man said to no one.
~~BREAK~~
"Stay with our son" he said putting down his beloved wife before his newborn son. The kyuubi had appeared mindlessly rampaging in front of the village 'but that couldn't be, I know for one that bijuus arent mindless, who can manipulate a bijuu' he contemplated.
"Nagato… Minato… Thank you" Kushina's voice was weak as she from his son to his beloved husband taking his haori and showing Fourth Hokage insignia towards her. "I'll be back."
~~BREAK~~
"Where are you Minato?" an old man, the third Hokage to be exact said to himself even as he watched the kyuubi swatting away a bunch of ANBU who tried to launch at it in front. He put his staff towards kyuubi's direction "We need to prolong until the Hokage arrives" he said to his summon who earlier transformed into the staff he is holding " elongate Enma" the grew several meters pushing the greatest bijuu away outside of the village.
Minato appeared on one of his image's hair strand on top of the hokage mountain "As a Hokage, I will protect the village, my family right now" he took note of the kyuubi looking at him but with sharingan eyes "so you notice me…" it was not a question as he calmly wait the bijuu to shoot the bijuudama it is prepairing. As soon as the bijuu fired his projectile he raced through hand signs "You wont get your way here" a large teleportation barrier appeared in front of the hokage mountain absorbing the whole bijuudama. ' I'll have to be careful where I send it' he thought even as his instincts are kicking while the bijuudama explosion occured from a distance.
He whirled instantly with his special kunai in horizontal stabbing motion as it pass through his current nemesis catching the Hokage's hand as soon as it passes "I'll be your opponent and its all over" he said. The Hokage felt weird when his body was starting to be absorbed but before he was completely absorbed he manage to teleport away again.
He appeared on a field littered with his kunais 'what is that jutsu' he thought even as the enemy appeared in front of him " Are you Uchiha Madara? No thats impossible, he is dead" he was calmly analyzing the cloaked ninja.
He carefully noticed the chains appearing in his enemies hand and readied his kunai and rasengan " it doesnt matter."
The two ninja rushed towards each other intent on killing the other. Minato threw his kunai that pass through his enemies head and went into position that would allow him to grab Minato's heart with bare hand. "You're mine" when Minato vanished appearing on top of him ready to slam his rasengan on him in less than a second. 'damn it he teleported to that kunai earlier!' he thought in panic.
The rasengan descended on his shoulder eliciting a shout of pain before Minato allowed the rasengan to dissipate knowing he will just turn intangible and put a hiraishin mark on him. "That was my hiraishin level 2."
"You got me" the mask ninja said. "Im not done yet" Minato appeared in front of him again 'hiraishin no jutsu!' slamming his hand to the black cloaked ninjas stomach he said "with this the kyuubi is no longer yours" and teleported away showing the Contract Seal: Release where his hand was earlier. The masked man teleported away in defeat before Minato could kill him.
"That left the kyuubi to deal with"
He teleported near the rampaging kyuubi racing through another set of hand seals "Kuchiyose no Jutsu" he slammed his hand to the ground.
"Please keep him occupied while I prepare Gamabunta-sama" he calmly said to his summon chief. "Are you serious Minato? That's kyuubi the strongest bijuu" he noticed Minato's serious facade "I'll give you five minutes tops" he said before jumping to the kyuubi without another word, this could be the man that is supposed to save the world, he will put all his trust to him. Minato teleported farther from Konoha and started racing through long sequence of hand seals preparing the altar of sealing.
"Forgive me Kushina-chan" he said to no one, throwing one of his kunai far away he teleported the kyuubi right where the kunai stopped. Afterwards he took Kushina and Nagato from his hideout.
Kushina's chakra chain instantly came to life chaining the bijuu and restricting its movement if only for a bit.
"Minato-kun, thank you for being there with me. I love you and I would love to let you know that you have always been my happiness *cough Please seal the kyuubi *cough *cough with me. I will take it with me to death and allow you to live a happy life with Nagato" the red head said through her tearful purple eyes.
"No Kushina-chan, you've made me a man and the father of this child. I am thankful for that. But I have realized something, this child is the real child of the prophecy. He will save the world from darkness, and I'd like to give him the gift that will let him survive" the fatherly pride was oozing from every word Minato was directing towards his child while Kushina's eyes grew in realization.
"But Minato the life of a jinchuuriki is hard, he will be ostracized" she said in disbelief to his husband's plan. The lose of the honorific was noticed by Minato but he only responded with a thin smile "Lets put our faith in him Kushina, after all, it is the parents job" he eye smiled. "I will use the Shiki Fujin to seal the kyuubi in him. I truly believe that one day, he will be the one to erase the hate from kyuubi" he explained.
Unknown to them, the bijuu inside Minato was also listening 'the might of Uzumaki clans vitality, the people that inherited Ashura and by extension my father's life force is slowly being forgotten. This woman will survive, if only the Kurama will be sealed inside her again. But I'm not about to help my own kind be condemned again, no matter how interesting you are Fourth Hokage' Gyuki the eight tails thought inside Minato's stomach. If Minato's choice was to be sealed inside the Shinigami's stomach, he won't be able to revive even though he is a bijuu. Theres just no going back once the God of Death captures you but even still, no matter how prideful bastard Kurama is, he is still his brother.
"If the circumstances have been different, we might have been friend" Gyuki ignored the blond conciousness that appeared inside the seal "I'm sorry I am about to sacrifice you too, and I am sorry I took your best friend's life. I just want you to know that not every human is power hungry, some of us just want to live a secured peaceful life. Sorry if you have been dealt in wrong hands before. "
"You are such an honorable man" the bijuu grumbled in acceptance " I believe I would come to accept you if we would have been given time too" the giant said looking towards Minato. Minato smiled thinly " That was nice to hear, after learning your character and hearing a lot of stories from you. No matter how hateful you are, I just really want to be your friend" he smiled. "Alas its not meant to be."
"Eight tails, before I die. If I release you, would you promise not to hurt Konoha?" the bijuu looked at the man in surprise. In all his life, only Killer Bee has accepted him and that was only because as a child he was a stupid one. And here before him is a grown up man, the strongest shinobi in the world offering him freedom. The bijuu nodded albeit reluctantly.
"I promise" the bijuu replied. Minato smiled "I left a message for Konoha to leave you be, it will be one of my last decree. But if another village tries to seal you, my people will try their hand to prevent that, please understand." the bijuu nodded.
"Hai, goodbye… my friend" he said as the blond had his back towards him hiding his smile as the bij- no! Friend inside him acknowledge him at last. His right hand glow with burning white chakra, putting it on his bijuu seal, he rotated counter clockwise 'Fuin: Kai.'
~~BREAK~~
What happened inside his head took no more than a second, but that whole second lifter a weight on his shoulder he had been carrying for almost 3 years now.
"Eight tails p-"
"Gyuki" the bijuu cut in making Minato adapt a look of confusion. "Gyuki is my name… and for the first time, I will allow you to use my chakra, use as much as needed."
Minato smiled "thank you" Kushina look at her in confusion. Looking back at her "I made a friend" he said serenely in the face of death, even as the Death God is behind him. Earning more confusion in Minato's eyes.
'As soon as I die you can leave my body Gyuki' the bijuu internally nodded. Suddenly a huge amount of chakra was emitted from him rejuvenating him. Large tentacles came out behind him strangled the kyuubi in place. "This wont last Kushina if you have words for Nagato say it now…"
"Minato, if you seal Ku-kyuubi inside her, she will survive. Her life force is inherited from my father" Gyuki interrupted earning a confusion from Minato. Kyuubi roared in defiance "Eight Tails! You traitor to your own kind!" Minato felt a pull to his conciousness and allowed it knowing it was Gyuki "One day Kyuubi, you will understand what it meant to have a bond. Just like me, after all youre no greater than me" the bijuu said using Minato's body but without shred of contempt.
Using the last of its strength, kyuubis long claw rushed towards the family, hoping to kill them before he got sealed. But the unexpected happened, Mikoto, who had been missing the day the unfated day happened appeared in front of the claw using her body to protect the family.
"Ares she called and a mark appeared on the claw before it stilled in place."
Another loud cry of baby was heard in the clearing as a baby with yellow hair and blue eyes has the Yondaime's look but has Mikoto's skin cried beside the baby Nagato. Minato and Kushina could only look on with wide eyes as their missing best friend is now dying in front of them.
"D-do it… Minato" she weakly said. Getting over his shock for now and remembering he is a shinobi of the leaf first he continued with resolute "Shiki Fujin" and the kyuubi was resealed inside Kushina with the new seal even as Minato's soul was pulled by the God of Death. But before the God of Death vanish, Mikoto look at Minato resolutely "Izanagi" the last of her chakra left her and just like that Minato came back to the living as the God of Death vanished.
Looking towards her red headed best friend "K-Kushina…" she smiled "Goodbye" her body fell as the kyuubi's claw that was holding her in place vanished.
All Kushina could do was allow a tear to fall looking at the self sacrifice of her best friend. Never noticing anyone or anything as a piece of crumpled paper fell from the hand of the now dead Mikoto Uchiha.
Thor94: Good guess but no :). I plan to develop Sumire in a unique way. and yes about Naruto, I'll make him smarter but not overly or Godlike.