As Minato stood there in the woods outside Konoha, his baby son in his arms and his wife nearby holding the Kyuubi down with her chakra chains, he realized something. He couldn't do it. He couldn't make his son into a jinchuriki, couldn't force such a burden on his son, couldn't lose the chance to be a father, to hold his son in his arms and cradle him to sleep, to see him take his first steps, say his first words, to give his son the life he always wanted.

Minato was an orphan, he understood what it was like to grow up alone, wanting for a mother to hold him when he was scared, a father to be proud of him when he achieved something, to have have someone, anyone, care for him like all those families he used to watch cared for their children. He understood what it was like to live without a family and he just couldn't do it to his son.

He had sacrificed a lot for the village, he watched his friends die in the war for the sake of the village and still he continued fighting for it, he killed people, man, women and even children, all for the village and still he served it. When he became Hokage he swore he would protect the village no matter what it took, no matter what he had to sacrifice, no matter if it killed him. This he swore he would do no matter what.

Lies, all of it! The moment he knew Kushina was pregnant he knew it was all for his family. When he married Kushina he loved her dearly but if came to it he would still do what it took for the village, but when he first learned of the child, his child, when he first put his hand on her stomach and felt the life he helped create inside he knew he would do whatever it took to protect and cherish that life no matter what.

He would give the baby all the fatherly love he always wanted but never got, the loving family he always craved but never had. Kushina was over the moon with the thought that she would be a mother, she too spent most of her life as an orphan, tough she did know her family before they passed when Uzushio was destroyed, and spent the entire pregnancy planing everything so the baby would have the perfect childhood, so the baby would be loved and would have everything he wanted and would have lots of friends.

Today was supposed to be the best day of their lives, their son would be born, they would finally be parents! But unfortunately this was not how it happend. They were attacked, the Kyuubi set free, and now Minato had an impossible choice to village or his family, his duty or the child in his arms, Konoha or the family he always dreamed of having?

A roar from the beast brought him back to reality and he prepared to create the seal in his son's stomach. Just as he placed the brush in the baby's belly he froze, his entire life flashed before his eyes, he remembered every time he felt lonely, the happiness he and his wife shared, all the horrors he inflicted for the sake of the village, one memory shined brighter than the others, one of just earlier that night, one of the bright, almost blinding, feeling he felt when he held his son for the first time and the decision couldn't have been clearer.

He was already moving before the brush even hit the grass bellow."M-Minato, what are you doing? I can't hold this much longer!"Kushina said, struggling to keep the beast down, nearly out of chakra and weak from childbirth.

"I-I know, it's just..."Minato shook his head. "I can't do it Kushina, not to you, not to our son, not to myself. I can't give up being a family, being a father."

"B-But what about the village? You're Hokage!?"Kushina said.

"I-I...I just can't, I can't lose this, I can't lose both of you." Minato answered. He then extended his hand to her and said"Come with me, please, forget this place and run away with me,l-lets be a family together p-please"

Kushina looked at him for a moment before a tear drooped from her left eye, she reached out to grab him while saying "I'm with you to the end, let's be a family"

As they vanished in a flash of light the chakra chains holding the Kyuubi down faded. Without anything restraining it and enraged, it would go back to Konoha to finish what it started, it would cause massive damage, killing hundreds of ninja and thousands of civilians before being sealed by the Third Hokage at the cost of his own soul, without a proper vessel to be sealed in, all the Third could do was seal it inside himself and take it along to the shinigami's stomach.

The other nations would take advantage of the weakend state of the village to launch an attack that would finish what the Kyuubi started, that only didn't cause a great shinobi war because Konoha was so damaged that it was incapable of fighting back and all the survivors, led by the new Fifth Hokage Jiraya, could do was escape and roam the land, hidding from their enemies and hopping for asylum in another nation as they gathered their strength and tried to start again.

Years Latter

It was a small town, far away from any of the great nations. It was quiet, peacefull. Adults walked the markets buying fresh produce as children ran between them, laughing and playing, naive and innocent, with no worries besides what game they would play next and how much they could play before their mothers called them back for dinner.

He was standing in his yard, watching the fields his clones tended, relaxed and calm, happy. That did not mean he was oblivious to his surrounding, he felt the man that was watching him from the trees and said"Come out, I know you're there."

The man did, a white mane of hair dropping from his head to his back, missing an arm and with a scar on his face. "So this is were you where" The man said.

"It is my home" Minato said.

The man's expression shifted to rage for a moment before he looked at Minato with disappointment. "Why?"The man asked.

"I couldn't do it" Minato answered.

"You were Hokage, you should have protected the village!" The man shouted.

"Not at the cost of my family"

"And what about the families inside the village, all those that died that day and all those that died in the years to follow"

"I will not apologize, Jiraya-sens-"

"Do not call me that, I am ashamed to be your sensei"Jiraya hissed.

Minato shook his head before saying "I sacrificed a lot for the village, I suffered a lot for it, lost friends for it, killed people whose only crime was going against it's wishes, I did it all for the sake the village but asking me to sacrifice my family, the one thing I wanted above all, that was too much. The village wasn't worth it"

"You're a disappointment Minato, a disappointment to every ninja to ever wear the Konoha headband, to every citizen that trusted you to protect them, and to every person to ever wear the Hokage hat and swear to uphold the will of fire"

"I know that" Minato said."I knew that the moment I made the choice"

"Then why?" Jiraya hissed.

"Because it was worth it" Minato said with a smile.

"What could possibly be worth it to abandon everything you ever known and swore to protect?"

"Family, I know I made the right choice every time I see my son smile, every time I put him to bed, every time I see the love and happiness in his eyes, the same eyes I saw in all those families children when I was a child, the same eyes I wanted to have but never could, I know I made the right choice when I look at my family and feel glad I'm able to be a part of it." Minato said with a smile.

Jiraya shook his head and said"Your happines cost a lot of people theirs"

"I know and I wish it was different but it was my choice and I was selfish. My family's happines came first"

"I was going to invite you back, so you could atone for what you've done, they need you, but I see now that you don't regret a thing, you wouldn't go back."

Minato looked back at the house, his wife looking worried by the door, his little daughter in her arms and his son running to him and without even turning he said "I wouldn't. I wouldn't trade this for anything"

He didn't need to look to see that Jiraya was gone. He picked his son up and held him as he went to his wife. He hugged his family with a smile and said to himself "I wouldn't change a thing"