Author Notes:

Dark and Alive Minato, Minato fans beware.

Alive Kushina.

Darker Naruto.

Original Characters x Established Characters

Not sure what everyone's big beef is with a background coupling but it's not going to change, might as well stop reading now.

Chapter 7: A Rift Forms?

Asuma walked outside of the Uzumaki compound with Kushina, internally debating on what he would say to her. He knew that he needed to tell her but how was he going to tell her, should he be direct or beat around the bush. As they stood there he let out a long sigh and looked at his redheaded girlfriend, "Kushina-chan... there is something that I have to tell you."

Looking over at him with a smile it slowly faded away as she saw how serious his face was, "What is it Asuma-kun?"

Staring at her he felt a wave of guilt overtake him, knowing that this was going to hurt her to hear, "It's about Naruto... there is something that you should know. When I spoke to him about accepting the training as you requested he said something, something that I think is going to hurt you to hear. Since he is your son I want you to know, I don't want to keep something from you. I know that it is going to hurt you to hear though..."

Now Kushina had a serious look on her face, though there were clearly traces of panic and concern in her eyes, "What was it Asuma?"

Not wanting to prolong this any longer he let out a breath he didn't know he was holding in, "He said that he had reasons as to why he chose me. One was that he feels guilty that he is why men had stopped approaching and courting you. Another was that the knows the Yondaime won't be able to scare me away from you, that his threats of intimidation mean very little to me. The most important thing though, the troubling part that is, is what he said after that. For a second, just a split second, he did what we always wanted him to do, he opened up to someone..."

Rubbing the back of his head he looked into her eyes, seeing the small bit of hope there and knowing that it was about to be extinguished, "... he said that he costs you more then he can ever give you. That he wants me to watch over you when the time comes and he confronts Minato. The part that will really hurt you though is that he doesn't think he can ever be someone you will be proud of. He thinks the only way you will have a child you can be proud of is if we have one eventually."

With wide eyes and in shock Kushina just stood there, absorbing the words and information as her Sarutobi boyfriend told her. They both looked up at his windows as he sat there on his windowsill looking at them. He knew that Asuma would tell her before he left and he knew that she would be hurt, if not devastated by this. He could see it in her eyes as she looked at him, the pain and betrayal she was feeling. It made him feel even worse for what he was doing to her. She was the one person he cared about n this world but all he ever did was hurt her it seemed...

At the Inuzuka Compound...

When the brown haired woman came back to her clan's compound she immediately went to find her mother. Sure her mom may be a pain, actually there was no doubt in her mind that her mother was a giant pain. After the events with that strange man earlier though, she needed some answers and her mother was very intelligent, just frustrating. When she found her mother she was sitting at the table drinking some water, a bored look on her face, "How was work Hana?"

Said woman sat down at the table with her mother and rubbed her hands, "Kaa-san, I have some questions for you."

Tsume put down the cup then nodded her head at her daughter showing that she was listening. Knowing that it was okay for her to continue Hana asked her questions, "Well... this guy kinda did some weird things. I wanted to know if you know anything about these kinda things."

That made it so that her eyebrow rose, "What kinda things?"

Hana sighed, "Well... he said I was giving off some sort of weird scent. Something along the lines of it was alluring to him."

Narrowing her eyes Tsume got really interested, "Really... someone who picked up on your scent like that?"

The Inuzuka heiress nodded her head then Tsume leaned back in her chair with a smirk. That was something that caught Hana's attention, something that honestly made her a bit fearful inside, "Why are you smirking like that?"

The Inuzuka heads smirk turned into a full blown smile, "Someone picking up on your scent means your mate is here."

Her eyes going wide at that revelation Hana just screamed, "MY WHAT!?"

Starting to laugh at her daughter's reaction Tsume revealed more information on the matter, "If someone picks up your scent like that it means that said person was destined to be your mate."

Shaking her head no Hana quickly retorted back to her mother, "No, I can smell men all the time. If that was the way it was then I am suppose to be mated to all of the men in Konohagakure."

The Inuzuka matriarch shook her head with a sigh, "Not like that, you said he found it alluring. He probably said something along the lines that it was driving him crazy right?"

Nodding her head in agreement Hana continued to listen as her mother spoke, "That is because he is locking onto your heat scent. Your next heat is what, a couple months away? Even when you do go into heat not many can pick up your scent, just other Inuzukas. The only man who was ever able to do such a thing with me was your father, my mate."

The heiress continued to just stare at her mother in disbelief while Tsume smiled at her. Her mother then leaned forward with a knowing smirk, "He will come back eventually, he can't deny his urge to see you or be by you. I am sure he said that he would stay away from you and he will try but he will not be able to."

Shaking her head no Hana looked at her mother again, "I am pretty sure that he will stay away. He said he would since he figured out what the scent was."

Not able to help but smirk at the comment Tsume shook her head in the negative as well, "He won't be able to, it will draw him back to you."

Hana squinted at her mother then let out a long, annoyed sigh. Honestly she wasn't very interested in seeing him again. He was extremely weird the first time that she met him. She rubbed her forehead with another long sigh then stood and went to think on her own.

In Minatos Office...

The Yondaime had just gotten out of a meeting with the council. They were putting more pressure on him to try and strengthen their military forces. He knew that there were two people out there that he could try and persuade to come home. One of them was his estranged sensei, a man who had all but abandoned him after giving Kushina that mission. The other was Tsunade, someone who hated the village and said that it stole everything and everyone she had ever loved from her.

He knew that his sensei would never come home for him, maybe for Kushina, but never for him. Tsunade would also be a very difficult person to try and get to agree to come back to the village. There was also the fact that the third and final Sannin was also looking for Tsunade. Orochimaru wanted her expertise to help him with those Kami forsaken experiments. He wanted her help with grasping immortality as well, that was something that Minato was absolutely positive on. She was all but impossible to track, all but being the key part there. There was possibly one person that could track her down but again that was his sensei.

With a long sigh Minato grabbed a piece of paper and wrote out a note for Jiraiya. In an ideal situation he would be able to get them both to come back to the village. He may be able to get Tsunade back with an offer as head of the Konohagakure Hospital. Also, if he told her that Kushina still lived here with a son she may be more inclined to return, seeing as they were distant relatives. When Minato finished writing his note he summoned a toad and sent it to Jiraiya. Though he and his sensei did not speak anymore, the toad would make it so that he would get the message basically instantaneously.

With Jiraiya...

The white haired man was sitting in a bar with an irritated look on his face. His latest lead on what Orochimaru was truly up to was a bust, AGAIN! He hadn't heard anything from either of his students lately either. From Kiro it was usual but Darious was usually good about checking in. That was when suddenly a small toad appeared in front of him and extended its tongue to show a letter.

Jiraiya rose his eyebrow at this, thinking that maybe it could be news from Darious he took the letter before the toad dispelled. Jiraiya recognized the seal on the letter, it wasn't from Darious, that was the seal of the Yondaime. He almost didn't want to read the letter but there were things there he needed to keep an eye on. With a groan he broke the seal and read what was there...

'Jiraiya-sensei,

I know that we have drifted apart but I have an urgent mission for you for Konohagakure. We need you to track down Tsunade-san and bring her home. The council wants her to become the head of Konohagakure Hospital. I know she has no interest in coming back here so I thought that saying that Kushina and my bastard are here may persuade her otherwise. They also want you to come back but I told them that was unlikely. If you would please do this for me I would highly appreciate it, if you do then I will never ask you for anything else.

Thank you,

Minato Namikaze

Yondaime Hokage.'

Leaning back in his chair again Jiraiya looked at the letter for a moment then pulled out his famous paper and pen. He wrote two different notes and then summoned two different toads. The first one went to the Yondaime saying, 'I will take care of it.' The other was sent to the other Toad Summoner in Konohagakure.

At the Uzumaki Compound...

Darious sat there with a irritated look while rubbing his temples, trying to massage away the migraine that was developing. Naruto was being a pain in the ass about convincing to train still. Kiro had been staring into space with a depressed look since this Hana Inuzuka woman told him to hit the trail. The only person in the house he could talk to was Kushina who had her own life she was piecing back together with Asuma. With a long sigh he looked up to see a toad sitting there with a letter. He was assuming it was his chew out for not giving an update, but what was there to report other then the child was an enormous pain?

Taking the letter from the toad he read it before his eyes squinted at the letter with a groan, another irritation. Darious leaned back in the chair with a sigh as he rubbed his head before the front door opened and slammed shut. He opened his eyes and they darted towards the door to see a pissed off looking red head heading up the stairs. The door opened again this time it was the Sarutobi walking into the room and sat down next to him. The men looked at one another before Darious looked at the note then back at Asuma, "Hey I need you to do me a favor. Request time for you team to take a training trip, about a month. You and Kushina will be staying in a town just outside of Konohagakure while I take the Team on a mission I just received from Jiraiya-sensei. Might be the opportunity that we have been waiting for to convince Naruto to let us train him."

Looking at the man with a bit of a suspicious look Asuma responded, "You realize if I do this he will know you two are here now? Even if I do leave you two out of it then when they come back Naruko will throw you two under the bus."

Darious nodded his head, "I know but I can't pass up this opportunity to convince Naruto to let us train him. The more time that goes by the more it seems that he is not going to allow us to train him without a show of force. To be fair, that is what Kushina-san recommended when we first got here."

The man sighed and nodded his head, "I will request it but I make no guarantees. In case you did not know it, the Yondaime doesn't care for me since I am dating Kushina-chan."

He nodded his head as he looked over at Kiro who was sitting on the couch still. Asuma was staring at the stairs still while he wondered how things were going upstairs between the two Uzumakis.

In Naruto's room...

When Kushina arrived at the door her anger was still at its highest and kicked open the door. The boy didn't even glance over in her direction, he was unfortunately expecting this. Kushina glared at him then looked at the picture in front of him. It looked like a picture of when they were celebrating his sixth birthday. It was the last day he let someone take a picture of him smiling. She was in the picture with him with her arms around his neck and her chin resting on the top of his head.

In the original picture they were both smiling at the camera. It looked as if he had taken one of his kunai to the picture and cut himself out of it. She looked at him as he finally looked over at her, "I assume you're here to yell at me."

Standing there silently for a moment before she started to tear up. The red headed woman opened her arms towards him, "Naruto..."

He looked at her for a moment, thinking that it wasn't the reaction that he had been expecting. Sliding off of windowsill he continued to look at her as he walked over to her slowly. When he got closer though her shoulder twitched and he got a hard smack across the face. The blond teen stumbled a bit before he put his hand to his cheek, rubbing it as he and looked at his mother, "HOW DARE YOU!"

The boy didn't reply to her angry comment, he didn't really have an answer for her to begin with anyways. She just shook a bit but he wasn't able to tell if it was from anger or sadness. Kushina just looked at him through angry but tear filled eyes, "HOW COULD YOU THINK THAT NARUTO!?"

Standing up straight he rubbed his cheek some more before he responded to his mother, "Because it's true... I know what I am and what I do to your life."

Pulling her hand back as if she was going to smack him again Kushina glared at him a bit, but seeing as he didn't move so she slowly lowered her hand. He just stared at her with his blue eyes before he continued, "I see how even your friends avoid you because of me. If I wasn't around then maybe that Mikoto woman would still be around. You probably would have been remarried by now. You would have something to be proud of... someone to be proud of... I know I don't give you much. All I am is pent up fury waiting to be released."

Pulling him into a tight hug and holding her son close Kushina had tears forming in her eyes, "That isn't true... you were once always smiling and happy. I know you're not just anger."

The teen wrapped his arms around his mother with a small sigh, "Sorry to disappoint you further but the son you remember died 6 years ago Kaa-san. The only person that I have in my life that's important is you but all I am is a disappointment and burden."

Kushina separated from him and stared at him, "How can I make you see differently?"

The boy stared at her for a moment, "You can't... I don't see it happening at least."

The red head just stared at him with her violet eyes and gave him a kind motherly smile, "Tell me sweetie."

He stared at her then sighed again, "If you have another child while I am still around and are the same with them as you are with me I would maybe believe it. The bad thing is if the other is anything like me then they will think you're holding out on life for them as well. I am tired of being what holds you back, if I could I would confront him now so you would be free."

Kushina felt her eyes start to tear up again as she looked at him, "So... after 6 years you want to leave me now..."

His eyes widened as his mother looked at him and then kissed his forehead, "Goodnight Naruto... sweet dreams."

She looked at him then closed the door as he kept standing there with wide eyes for a moment. He didn't know what to say to that, he didn't know how to react to that. The only thing he was able to do was freeze apparently. When he snapped out of it he hung his head and looked down to the ground, "I'm sorry Kaa-san..."