You - Glimpse of Another Path part 2

by celohei

[sequel to Glimpse, pls read it first] Seated at his desk, Minato is vaguely aware that this is where it all started. The pull, the fight, the mysterious blonde man who looked so much like him. Under Jiraiya's questioning gaze, he remembers it all. Try as he might, he just can't explain it. Can't explain the hole left in his chest when Naruto flashed away. [complete] [2/3]

Welcome, y'all!

I present to you 'You', the sequel to my other story 'Glimpse'.

I'm so excited to finally have finished it. I wrote this story in parallel with 'Glimpse'. The two always went hand in hand in my mind, as they were mutual sources of inspiration.

This will be a one-shot. You do need to have read 'Glimpse' in order to understand it.

I want to thank White-Witch-Sakura, who's helped me as an awesome beta reader. It was a lot of fun to bounce ideas with you, and I'm looking forward to keep doing it for the next one!

Enjoy!

---

You

Minato was seated behind his desk, empty of any paperwork. He had finished all he had to do the day before and had insisted on not being disturbed the whole day. Being Hokage was a lot of work, but honestly, nothing dreadful. He could understand why the Sandaime, after all these years, was growing tired of the everyday hassle of the task. But frankly speaking, the work load was nothing unreasonable.

On top of his desk sat two scrolls. One was a deep green, the other a deep red. Both were identical in size. Both looked like perfectly regular and innocent scrolls. The reality was of course much more complex. Sure, the scrolls were innocent enough for those who didn't know their history, but Minato knew what they were and what they represented.

The simple truth was that the red scroll was a copy of the green one. Simple, really. The intense way Minato had been staring at them in deep thoughts for the last couple of hours was proof that it was anything but.

Minato didn't lift his gaze from the scrolls even as the door of his office opened and closed.

"-Minato?

-Sensei.

-You needed me?" Jiraiya's voice was as gruff as always, but serious, as rarely the case.

"-I do." Minato finally looked at his sensei, face and eyes set in a serious and determined expression. "Tell me what you make of this," he said as he pushed the green scroll towards the tall man walking to the desk.

The Sannin sat down in one of the chairs on his side of the desk and took the offered scroll. He turned it in his hands a few times without opening it.

"-It's not recent… Not old either. A few years maybe?"

Minato didn't answer: it wasn't really a question.

"-Security?

-I've disabled it. It's safe to open."

As Jiraiya opened the scroll, Minato could see his eyes widen at first, then jump from one side of the scroll to another. After a few minutes of silence, Jiraiya looked up to Minato, eyes utterly serious.

"-What is this?

-A seal.

-I can see that, brat," The words were spoken slowly, indicating the decreasing amount of patience the Sannin had when confronted with serious topics. "What kind of seal?"

"-Look closer."

Silence reigned again in the room for a few more minutes. Jiraiya frowned.

"-It's not the Hiraishin." It wasn't really a question.

"-No, it is not.

-This is one of the most complex seals I've ever seen… There's the time-space matrix of the Hiraishin but it's barely recognizable. A stability matrix… Always good to have. Confinement… Are those some kind of blood pillars? How many of them?"

By this point, Minato wasn't sure if his sensei was still talking to him or just thinking out loud. He answered his question regardless.

"-Twelve."

At this Jiraiya snapped his head back up to look at Minato, surprise clear in his eyes.

Ah, thinking out loud, then.

"-Don't fuck with me, kid.

-I'm not. Look at it."

The Sannin did. And he frowned further.

"-Twelve?

-Yes.

-That's one hell of a safety net. That explains the stability components though… What is the Earth for?"

The legendary ninja was clearly already running theories in his head. He was a very good seal master, although not on Minato's level. But sealing was a fickle art for a reason. One element by itself didn't say anything about the seal. Earth, like all other nature-based elements, was as volatile as nature itself, changing depending on every other element of the seal. This was why seal mastery was so hard to achieve. Each and every element, each and every stroke, had an effect on the overall seal. Even the order in which elements were incorporated resulted in drastically different results.

"-For a barrier.

-Are you kidding?"

Jiraiya looked back down at the seal and all the main elements he could identify. He whistled.

"-How did you manage to make it stable? It shouldn't be."

Jiraiya was right. Logically speaking there was no way this barrier could have been implemented within the seal without shattering the rest of the arrays, even with the stability matrix thrown in. Seals were volatile and virtually limitless. Reality was, as always, more complicated.

Seals were, in essence, incredibly simple. They were made of elements representing the world, whether physical or spiritual and everything in between. The difficulty laid in the fact that because these elements were intrinsically simple, combining them was a logistical nightmare. For a seal to function properly its creator had to incorporate in it every single aspect of every element he or she wanted to use, represent or affect. In other words, what seals could do was only limited by creativity as long as the person creating the seal could take into account every aspect of reality involved in the seal. A seal with an Earth-based barrier and twelve blood pillars, no matter which stability matrix was used, implied a truly mind-blowing number of elements to be crafted together in a cohesive whole. And that was without including the other elements Jiraiya had already identified in the seal in front of him.

"-I didn't.

-It's not stable?

-It is. I'm just not the one who managed it.

-Kushina?

-No, she's never even seen this seal."

Jiraiya's eyes were searching Minato's face, calculating. The blond Hokage was a true seal master. He wasn't particularly creative in his use of the sealing art, but he had achieved true mastery over the complicated art of balancing elements.

Minato had always paid attention to details, from his very first days as an academy student. He had always needed to understand how things worked at their core level. Jiraiya had always admired his student's capacity to dissect everything down to its every component. Information, people, ninjutsu. Truly, this was Minato's genius: understanding things, taking them apart, and rearranging them in the most efficient way possible. Jiraiya had often wondered if the Namikaze had any tie to the Nara clan. He would probably never know, as the small family was virtually extinct. In any case, Minato had naturally stumbled into sealing early in his formative years, easily transitioning from ninjutsu to fuuinjutsu when he realized the two disciplines shared a lot of building blocks.

This was partly how Kushina and him got to know each other after the Academy. As a true Uzumaki born in Uzushiokagure as well as the apprentice of Uzumaki Mito, Kushina was an expert on seals too. Her technique was very different from Minato's, as she knew many of the secrets from her village of origin. That knowledge had unfortunately been almost entirely lost when the village fell years ago. Kushina was currently the only living person who had a good understanding of her clan's specific techniques, most of that knowledge having been passed onto her by the Shodaime's wife. Jiraiya himself had some notions. Tsunade too, as she had learnt from her grandmother too. Kushina had also taught Minato a few things during their time in the very secretive Sealing Corp of Konoha.

Clan secrets were not so easily given away, though, even between lovers. When the couple had gotten married, Kushina had vowed to teach their potential children everything she knew about sealing. But not to Minato. She couldn't betray her clan. Uzumaki secrets were meant for Uzumaki clan members, blood members. Minato had accepted it with a smile on his face and a few skipped heartbeats at the mention of children.

Jiraiya knew his old student was a true seal master. He knew his student's wife was one as well. He himself was far from bad at the art. And he knew that he would never have been able to come up with such a seal. If Minato hadn't, his bet was on Kushina. So if not her, who else?

"-Where did you get that seal, Minato?"

His voice was low, serious, almost menacing in its intensity, surprise swept away under the need to know.

"-I made it.

-You just said-

-I wasn't the one who wrote it down, but I helped create it. I made the Hiraishin part of it. Well, the real version, obviously, not this small scale copy."

This answer prompted so many questions in Jiraiya's mind.

"-That's the work of a seal master, Minato. And I'm not talking your average Seal Corp shinobi. Even I would not be able to make it work with twelve blood pillars. Whoever helped you with this is nothing to laugh at.

-He wasn't helping me, I was helping him.

-Who was it?"

Someone that good with seals was either an incredible asset, or an incredible threat.

"-I don't know for sure.

-You don't know. You handed the Hiraishin formula to probably the best seal master I've ever seen the work of, and you don't know who that person is." The tone was laced with barely suppressed incredulity, surprise and frustration. "Where did you get this, Minato? And stop with the half answer bullshit you've been serving me since I arrived."

Minato turned his chair around, now facing his window and Konoha behind it. His eyes were turned towards the clearing where it all started, invisible from where he sat, but always on his mind. He was silent for a few minutes but started to talk just as Jiraiya was reaching the end of his patience. The man could wait out for ages when he wanted, but gruff as he looked, Minato knew his sensei was a man who lived for the thrill of uncovering secrets and information.

"-The breach.

-What breach?" Minato didn't answer. "Oh, that breach. Are you finally gonna tell me what that breach of security was about? How long ago was it again?

-Three years.

-Right. You never told me about it. You did an outstanding job of keeping this thing quiet, by the way. Even I couldn't dig up much. Is this why you called me back?

-In a way, yes.

-Get to it, Minato!"

The younger man sighed, turning his chair back around to face his sensei, face utterly serious.

"-Three years ago we had a breach of security. That, you know. What you don't know is that the breach was two unknowns, fighting just outside of Konoha, in sector 16. They came out of nowhere.

-I gathered there had been one or several uninvited guests. Why wasn't I informed of the details?

-I didn't want it to spread. I had enough trouble keeping in under wraps within the village as it was happening. In fact, it's an absolute miracle it didn't get out, really.

-How did they manage to get this close without alerting anyone?

-That is the main reason word could not get out. One of the unknown Hiraishined in.

-What?!

-He Hiraishined his way in.

-I thought you were the only one able to use the Nidaime's technique. Was it Iwa?

-No, it wasn't anyone we know of."

Jiraiya took note of the absence of denial about another person using the Nidaime's finished technique. Another of Minato's prowesses: understanding the raw materials the Nidaime had left behind, refining and finalizing the technique to the point of making it, and himself, one of the deadliest things in the world.

"-What about the second?

-The first hiraishined him in too.

-You have a lot to explain.

-I won't explain everything, this is not why you're here."

Minato then proceeded to explain what happened to Jiraiya, as briefly as possible. The men, the seal, the fight, the barrier, the blood pillars who had been forced into retirement, their body barely functioning.

He could still remember that day like it was yesterday. He could remember the feeling of being sucked into the Hiraishin, completely unaware, and unable to control the pull. The surprise he had felt as the blond man had stood before him; how lost he'd felt about what to do when the masked man had mentioned names of people he knew and loved, hurting and suffering, talked about in the past tense. He could remember the strange mix of feelings the blond man with the blue eyes had provoked in him.

Minato didn't mention to Jiraiya how close he'd come to stop protecting the village, just for a fraction of a second. He didn't mention the fear he'd been able to feel nagging and eating at his resolve, that fear he didn't know the source of. He didn't mention how his body had instinctively responded to the commands he had been given. How he knew he would never be able to raise a hand against Naruto. He didn't mention how utterly lost and alone he had felt as the blond man disappeared in a last flash of brilliant light.

He didn't mention the black skies and scorched earth, the voice that rang through the air with a name that changed his life.

No, Minato didn't mention any of that. Instead, he explained the pull, the request for help, the seal, the barrier, the fight. The other things, the things that were kept silent, were not relevant.

"-So you've never heard of him again?

-Not a word, not a trace. Have you?

-Heard of a blond seal master other than you? No. Why didn't you go after him?

-I did. Despite his wishes I sent three teams of hunters out. They didn't find anything. At all.

-What do you mean, despite his wishes? Did he think you wouldn't investigate him? Cocky brat!

-Not cocky, trusting. I think he was genuinely trusting me not to come after him."

Minato could remember the confidence in the man's posture, in his voice. Confident, yes; cocky, not once. And so so surprisingly trusting. Often Minato would see those eyes in his mind; those blue eyes. Those eyes so similar to those he saw in the mirror, those eyes that said 'Don't come after me; don't look for me… Please find me' before disappearing in a blinding flash. So many unsaid things had passed in the blonde's eyes in the brief seconds before his disappearance. So many things that Minato hadn't been able to decipher or understand, and that would sometimes keep him awake at night.

Naruto, who are you?

"-You couldn't find anything on either of them?

-Not that I didn't already know. I have their names and they did mention a few others but I have not been able to bring myself to look into it yet.

-It's been three years. And it is a very worrying breach.

-I know. Trust me, I do. But I have this feeling that I won't find him, them, anyways.

-Of course not, not after so long. Any lead is long cold, Minato. What were you thinking?!"

Minato frowned, unable to find a good enough answer. The truth was that he should have looked into it. He should have thrown every resource he had into it. This was what he should have done. Hell, it was his duty, as Hokage, to protect the village. But knowing all this, he just could not bring himself to look into Naruto. He had sent teams out to search for the two unknown fighters. Naruto and Tobi. Nothing had come up. As much as Minato kept reminding his men to keep feelers out for the elusive masked man, he stopped all search for Naruto. Minato knew that this could potentially turn out to be his biggest mistake as Hokage ever. As a shinobi even. Jiraiya's anger was justified.

Yet.

Minato was absolutely certain that nothing would have come up about him. He was betting his career on it. Even more, he was absolutely, utterly certain that Naruto, despite his power, was not a threat to Konoha. Minato knew it in his bones. Not one to easily accept gut feelings as a source of reliable information, he reasoned that had Naruto wanted to hurt the Leaf, he would have done so three years ago. He'd had the opportunity and the power to do it.

Jiraiya shot him a frustrated glare. One that promised that this was not over and that they would talk about this. But his sensei knew him well enough to know when Minato would keep his mouth shut.

"-What are their names?

-Naruto and Tobi."

Minato's voice was completely flat and devoid of emotion. Jiraiya immediately registered that as something to dig into.

"-Naruto, you say?

-Yes. Have you heard of him?"

Could Jiraiya-sensei know of him? Minato briefly wondered if he should have told his sensei long ago, and maybe, he would have been able to find the man.

"-Not exactly. I've got something to show you. I thought I'd give it to you over dinner, but now seems like a good time."

Jiraiya reached into one of his pockets and retrieved a small book.

"-A book?

-Remember I told you about a new one? The one that keeps being delayed. It should have been published a few months ago, before the others, but the publisher keeps having problem with his press. That's why Icha was published first, with another editor. This is the book I wanted you to have. It is just one of the few copies he managed to print out before the damn thing broke again. I thought you might enjoy it.

-What does this have to do with Naruto?

-It's the name of the main character.

-And you think it's related? Did you meet him?

-I picked the name up while eating! I have never met anyone with that name, or anyone who could match the description you just gave me, except for you. But I've seen too much to believe in coincidences. Naruto isn't exactly a common name, is it?

-I suppose not."

The room fell silent as each shinobi tried to process everything.

"-Why did you call me back, Minato? I'm always happy to see you, and I appreciate the debrief over that security breach you managed to pretend never happened. But why am I here?"

Once more, Minato answered with silence. Jiraiya bit back a sigh. His students had always been a quiet man, thoroughly thinking things through before acting. He would sometimes act as a goof ball when he was surrounded by people he trusted completely, but more often than not, Minato was a serious person. That being said, this was unusually quiet even for him. Clearly, something was bothering the young Hokage.

"-Open the red one."

Jiraiya obeyed.

"-You copied it.

-One could say that.

-You modified it. The blood pillars and stability matrix are different. Just one pillar. The stability is grounded differently.

-I've linked it closer to Earth.

-With only one pillar and stability grounded with Earth, the whole thing would be so much more stable. This makes a lot more sense than the way it was before. Why did you change it?"

Jiraiya's voice was suddenly suspicious. Minato chuckled before answering, the tension that had been in his shoulders decreasing slightly with the dry laugh.

"-His idea. He would have had you powering the thing.

-He would have had me powering it?" Jiraiya fell silent for a few seconds, eyes scanning the seal he still had in his hands. His eyes widened slightly before refocusing on Minato. "With the Earth grounding it… He would have me powering it in Sage mode, wouldn't he?

-Yes.

-I see. Was he the one who told you how to modify the seal to have Sage mode fit in to it?

-No. I did that myself. But I suspect he designed the whole thing so it could be modified quite easily in that particular way. You said so yourself: the seal makes more sense this way. He knew what he was doing."

Shock and surprise flashed in Jiraiya's eyes.

"-He was a Sage, wasn't he?

-A better one than you and me, I think."

That revelation was a hard thing to digest. Jiraiya knew his own mastery over Sage chakra was incomplete. He still needed the toads' help to achieve it. His status as a Sage, however, was not common knowledge. Very few people in this world knew about it. And fewer still had come close to his level with the art. To hear of someone better than him was worrying enough as it was, but for that person to be as good a seal master as he suspected, and unheard of as well…! Jiraiya wasn't sure he could fathom that kind of power remaining unchecked. No wonder Minato was being so tight-lipped about the whole thing.

"-What do you need this barrier for, Minato? You didn't call on me to just look at it, however interesting this seal is. You called me back to power it, didn't you? What kind of things do you need to keep in?"

There were only so many things in the world that needed that kind of contingency, none of them good news.

"-In? I know what I have to keep in. So do you.

-Kyuubi.

-Yes. Kushina is due anytime now.

-You want to make sure the fox doesn't get out. I thought you had already worked something with her for that?

-There's that. And we did. This is a supplementary measure.

-It's not about keeping something in, is it? You need to keep something out. What do you need to keep out so badly that you would only call me for that over the Kyuubi getting out?

-I'm not sure.

-Then how do you know there even is something to keep out?

-… A feeling… and something he said." Minato fell silent, reminiscing the blonde's prophetic words. "Something is coming. I don't know what it is, but it's not something I'm willing to take lightly.

-Do you think it's him? That he could hurt Kushina?

-No, I'm sure he would never hurt her or Konoha. I have a feeling I will see him soon, though.

-How can you know that for sure? That he means us no harm, I mean? For all you know, he could be gunning for the fox."

Minato snorted.

"-I bloody hope not.

-I'm as much an optimistic as your next fellow, Minato, but hope doesn't turn people nice. Surely you realize that hoping he doesn't come for her doesn't make it real. You can't just hope he's not gonna try anything."

The Sannin was getting frustrated. He had no clue what was going on. Why was Minato so reluctant to see this Naruto as anything but the threat he so clearly was? His student had never acted so recklessly.

"-You need to protect the village from him, Minato, You have to~

-I can't!" The two words had been shouted, Minato briskly standing up in a rare show of emotions. He glared at his old teacher for a few heartbeats then sighed, breathing out his anger. "I can't, ok? I just can't.

-You can't what?

-I can't protect Konoha from him.

-Between the two of us, I'm sure we'll find something.

-That's not what I mean. I can't beat him.

-You don't know that.

-But I do. I can't fight him.

-You're scared.

-I'm not. I can't fight him. I don't know how to explain it, ok? All I know is that the whole time he was there, I couldn't do anything against him." Minato's voice was slowly rising in volume, ending in a tremor that spoke of uncertainty and doubt.

There. He had said it. Damn it. He hadn't meant to reveal that to Jiraiya. Minato clamped his mouth shut, unwilling to let anything else pass his lips. The last thing he needed was for Jiraiya to understand how deeply the encounter had affected him.

There he was, loosing control again, all because of that man. Years had passed and still, the mysterious ninja managed to get under his skin and wrench Minato's control, tossing it to the side. And the guy wasn't even there!

Jiraiya was right: Minato was scared. But not of Naruto. He was scared of himself. He was scared of his lack of mistrust in the blonde. He was scared of how thoroughly convinced he was that the man didn't mean them harm. He was scared of how deeply this encountered had changed him.

Minato sighed once again, sitting back down in his chair.

"-I don't how to explain it. I know he is not after Kushina. Can we please leave it at that?

-You tell me. You're the one asking me to trust the seal of someone I've never even heard about because you think you might need it, because of a feeling? Am I forgetting something here, Minato?

-Look, I know how it sounds. It's just… It's something he said before leaving. I don't know… There was just something in his eyes when he said it. I can't forget it."

Jiraiya groaned, unwilling to leave things unexplained. But they needed to finish this conversation. Minato would not have called him back if he wasn't absolutely sure he could trust him. Closing his eyes for a few seconds and opening them slowly, the Toad Sage decided to push aside the frustration he still felt about the lack of explanation. He would bring the topic back up when Minato would be ready to talk more about it. Now was not the time.

"-What did he say?

-That one day I would need to protect my loved ones, and to do so, I should use this barrier we created. I think this is it. I think this is the situation he meant.

-You do realize this could be a trap, right? That he could have been planning for you to use it, to rely on it when you're most vulnerable, and strike?

-Of course I realize it! I've thought about it. I'm not the fool you seem to think I am. But… You didn't see him, sensei. It was..." Minato sighed. "I don't know what it was but I trust him. In my guts. The way he talked about loved ones. Sensei, he meant it."

Jiraiya studied Minato for a long moment. He hadn't seen Minato this emotional in a very long time. Not when shinobi matters were being discussed.

"-He touched you, didn't he?"

It was Minato's turn to study Jiraiya for a while, deciding how much to reveal.

"-He reached deeper in me than I realized, and deeper than I like to admit."

After a few tense seconds, Jiraiya chuckled genuinely, lifting the heavy atmosphere of the private office.

"-I would have liked to meet him. He sounds like an interesting fellow. You really have no idea who he might be? I'm starting to think he popped out of my book."

Minato's gaze became distant as he pondered Jiraiya's question. It wasn't entirely true. Minato did have a few clues regarding Naruto's identity. He had pieced a few things together in the long hours he had spent thinking about that day, whenever he looked into the seal, or at night, when Kushina was sleeping soundly next to him.

Naruto had been strong, determined and authoritative. Minato was sure he was a leader, used to commanding troops. That was something fairly common so soon after the end of the Third War. The blond man, despite his youth, was focussed and relentless. Minato had no doubt in his mind that he was a war veteran through and through. The Third Shinobi War was still very recent, but somehow, Minato doubted this was what had forged such a man. After all, Minato had been deeply involved in the war, on several fronts. Surely, he would have heard of a man with as much commanding power as Naruto had yielded. And if not him, Jiraiya would have.

Then, there was the man's chakra. This was the biggest mystery of all. It had been slightly different from Kushina's but Minato was now sure of it: it had been the Kyuubi's chakra he had felt on that day. How could he forget it? The absolute ice-cold terror he had felt when the chakra had brushed him, reminding him of his beautiful jinchuuriki of a wife, far away on a mission that suddenly became the focus of Minato's deepest fear. The days waiting for her had been a nightmare of uncertainty, clouding his mind in a haze of questions and fear and doubt. The moment he had felt her chakra pass the Barrier around Konoha, he had hiraishined to her, scaring her team out of their wits.

Minato almost chuckled now remembering it. It wasn't everyday one was faced with a deadly focused and slightly panicked Yellow Flash in full mother hen mode. Truly, had he not been so focused on Kushina and her well-being, he would have remembered his men's faces as one of the most hilarious blackmail materials ever. As it was, he simply ordered them to the Hokage tower to debrief with the mission department while he hiraishined Kushina away to their house, to thoroughly inspect her seal.

It had taken her a grand total of fifty two seconds of being poked by examining chakra for her to snap and slap him away, yelling at his overbearing ass and whatthehelliswrongwithyou! Undeterred, Minato had powered through, asking pointed questions about the seal, the Kyuubi, and the mission. He must have used his Kage voice, or something in his demeanor must have clued her in that something was very wrong because she had stopped struggling and calmly answered all his questions, careful to keep her temper in check. As much as she used to be a hot headed firecracker, she had learnt the value of proper shinobi conduct when faced with a commanding officer. Not that this usually applied to Minato, but he clearly was shaken about something involving the seal, which was a topic that always brought her more serious side to the surface. No matter how much she wanted to punch him out of her personal space.

After a thorough debrief of her mission and any encounter she had made over the last few weeks, an in-depth examination of her seal, and a reflexive check of her chakra network, Minato had been forced to accept the answer he had been praying for but that left him with even more questions: Kushina and the Kyuubi were as fine as they'd ever been.

When he had reluctantly told her why he had been so panicked ('worried, Kushina, I don't panic.'), she had brushed the topic aside: 'Well, I'm here and the furball is still where it oughts to be! That's all you need to worry about!'

There was one thing, though. One thing that made Minato unable to let it all go.

"-Namikaze!"

He could still hear the gruff voice of the man who had looked so much like A and yet so different. Older, tired, battered. Maybe his father? He had never met the Sandaime Raikage. Whoever it was, the man had not been addressing Minato, he was sure of it. He had been calling the other man, Naruto. And he had reacted. Naruto had reacted to being called Namikaze.

Minato would often lay awake in his bed at night, replaying the scene in his mind again and again. The scene would melt into the blonde's last words.

Protect them. Take care of yourself, Minato.

Always hearing but never understanding the undertones of that voice he heard in his sleep.

Somehow Minato felt, knew he would see Naruto again soon. He didn't know when or how, but he could feel it in his guts. And maybe, part of him hoped that the blonde enigma would show up when Minato would use the barrier, as if conjured by it.

"-So, boy or girl?"

Minato jumped at Jiraiya's amused voice cutting through his musings, trying to lighten up the mood. Minato smiled.

"-We don't know. We decided to wait!

-Aren't you curious?

-Of course we are! But we decided to let the shrimp surprise us."

Jiraiya burst out laughing. Minato looked at him and allowed a quiet laugh to escape his lips. He smiled as Jiraiya then spent the next few hours narrating his adventures, glad to have his mind taken off the stressful matters of the approaching birth. He silently thanked Jiraiya for his silent support and for allowing him to relax.

The older man had been ecstatic when he told him about Kushina's pregnancy. The beautiful red head had worked her way into the Sannin's heart just as solidly as she had Minato's, if in a completely different way. The two were absolute terrors when put together, their dry sense of humor often bringing them together against Minato's and, more often than not, Kakashi's serious attitude.

Minato himself was beyond happy about the child growing in his beloved's belly. As an orphan, creating his own family had always been a dream of his. Doing so with the most beautiful person on the planet, inside and out, was better than anything he ever imagined. Obviously, the news had come with its lot of doubts and worries, all the more so because of who he was. But that was just any soon-to-be parent's lot.

As he lay awake in his bed that night, next to a sleeping Kushina, Minato was once more thinking about that fateful day. He had analyzed every move, every instant of the fight in his mind, a hundred times over. He hadn't told everything to Jiraiya. Nor to Kushina. He had mentioned the strange encounter to her, but he had kept his thoughts, fears and maybe hopes silent.

The more Minato had thought about it, the more convinced he had become of one thing: Naruto and he were related. The physical resemblance was impossible to disregard. Minato had dismissed it as a coincidence when he had laid his eyes on the man the first time. After the fight, however, when things had settled down and the risk to Konoha was gone, he had quite literally faced the truth in his bathroom mirror: they were the spitting image of one another.

When Minato contemplated this fact in addition to the doubtless trust in the blonde he had felt deep in his guts and what he later identified as the strange fear for Naruto during his fight, he had come to the conclusion that they likely were brothers, or at least cousins.

"-Namikaze!"

That name, shouted without a trace of hesitation, only served to confirm Minato's suspicions… and hopes? But then, Kushina argued the day he had mentioned it to her after she had managed to make him confide in her, he did not exactly know how, how could that be possible? It was a valid question. Indeed, Minato had always been an orphan. He had always thought his parents to be dead. Could it be that they had not been and that they'd had another child? One who had seem to be younger by two or three years, at the most? If that was the case, why hadn't they looked for Minato when the war was over?

Minato had been a war orphan, brought into Konoha as a young child by a teenager Hatake Sakumo. The future White Fang had found him in a destroyed village he was passing through on his way back from a mission. It had been quite a while after the end of the Second War, but many smaller countries had still been fighting amongst themselves. Sakumo had found him under a pile of bricks from a collapsed wall, barely alive, his chakra like a beacon, instinctually preventing the wall from crushing him completely, sole survivor in the hamlet. The house had the Namikaze name on it. Sakumo had always assumed Minato's parents had died under the rocks and bricks, an hypothesis that was more or less confirmed when later, in his teenage years, Minato had asked Jiraiya to look into his family without any result.

Could his parents have survived and thought him dead? Had they abandoned him? Naruto had said his parents had died the day he was born. Did he have other family members somewhere? Naruto was in the Raikage's company. Could there be a Namikaze clan in Kumo? Surely, if that were the case, they would have tried to contact him when he became famous. Or someone would have heard of them. Did Naruto know he had a brother? Did the person who raised him know anything about him, about Minato? If so, why hadn't Naruto looked for him? Or was Naruto his cousin? Hadn't his parents known they had a nephew growing up alone in Konoha? Why hadn't they looked for him? Minato's fame went far beyond Konoha's borders. Surely, they would have heard about him.

Despite being an adult, a shinobi, a Hokage, a happy husband and soon a father, these doubts, questions and insecurities would keep the lonely orphan he would never truly cease to be awake at night. Even more often now that he was himself going to be a father. His reason told him to let it go, to focus on the future, not the past. He would never know what happened in that remote hamlet so many years ago. Maybe his parents had died, maybe they'd left. Maybe they had family that they themselves were not aware existed, or maybe they were not on speaking terms. Wars had torn families apart for years and years. Maybe they found themselves on opposite sides of a conflict, unable to look into his name for fear for their own safety. He should let it go, leave it to rest. He had his own family to take care of now.

But that was just the thing. That was why he couldn't let it go: Naruto was family. He was sure of it. And that meant Minato wasn't alone anymore.

In her sleep, Kushina snuggled closer to him. Minato, eyes used to the darkness, could still distinguish her silhouette in the obscurity. As her naturally higher warmth enveloped him, he smiled, looking at her beautifully round belly.

His smile broadened as a thought crossed his mind: he hadn't been alone for a long time now. And he already had a family. A family that was right here. He was married to a wonderful woman who made him the happiest man alive. And in this beautiful woman grew another beautiful person: their child.

They had decided that they would wait for that small wonder to reveal itself to them when it was ready. Boy or girl, it didn't matter. They already loved the child, regardless of its gender. They had thought of a few names, both for a girl and a boy, but they hadn't taken any final decision yet, although two names stood out of the lot. Obito for a boy, Mito for a girl.

As he laid in his bed, enveloped in his beloved wife's warmth, Minato was happy and at peace. Finally falling asleep, he couldn't help but feel like he would soon meet Naruto again, perhaps bringing one more person into their family. Maybe, he would finally have his questions answered.

"-Ugh! Minato!… Minato!"

Kushina's pained voice woke Minato up. It was still dark but pre-dawn had started to lighten up the sky. He mustn't have been asleep for more than a few hours.

"-Kushina?

-It's time! The baby is coming!"

The young Hokage snapped to full awareness. He flared his chakra, alerting his ANBU guard even as he got dressed. It wasn't more than a few seconds after that his captain appeared in the room.

"-Alert Jiraiya. He knows what to do. Get Platoons Alpha and Beta in position."

The Captain disappeared, following his orders. The ANBU knew what had to be done, the Hokage had ruthlessly drilled it into them to the point where they would be able to operate in their sleep.

Minato picked Kushina up and, surrounded by the remaining ANBU guards, Hiraishined to one of the designated locations for the birth. When they arrived on site, he channeled his chakra into a specially designed one-use seal. The Owl mask wearing ANBU Captain reappeared in a flash, together with Platoon Alpha. Jiraiya and the team of medics appeared a few seconds later, Hiraishined in by Platoon Beta.

After a few seconds to catch their footing again and shake off the disorienting effects of the time-space jutsu, everyone quickly started to make their preparation for the birth. The medics started asking questions to Kushina, Jiraiya was painting the seal arrays on the Alpha and Beta team members Minato had decided would act as secondary blood pillars. As soon as he was done, the Sannin sat down and prepared himself to enter Sage Mode, summoning the Toad Elders. The older man grinned happily at Minato before closing his eyes in meditation.

The rest of the preparations took a few minutes to be completed. The barrier went up with a thrum of energy, centered around Jiraiya, and the other three secondary blood pillars who were standing guard around the legendary ninja. Minato had made a point to modify that aspect of the seal, encompassing the blood pillars within the barrier's protective walls. Satisfied with the result, the bond leader looked at his wife, now lying on the birthing table. She smiled at him.

"-It's time, Minato. We're going to be parents, dattebane!"

Minato could do nothing but smile in return, his face completely overtaken by the pure joy he was feeling. He knew it would still be a few hours before he would be able to see his child. The birth would be long and difficult. Kushina had just entered into labor, she would still have to work for a few hours. The birth would weaken her seal as her chakra would be diverted towards preserving the life her body was trying to expel. Minato would have to keep reinforcing her seal to prevent the Kyuubi from escaping. The coming hours would indeed be long, difficult and tiring.

"-Hnn!"

Kushina's pained moan rang in the cave, cutting through her labored breaths. Sweat was running down her face and her knuckles were white from clutching Minato's vest so tightly. He tried to smile reassuringly at her but most of his focus was on the seal under his palms. He could feel Kyuubi's power pulsing through, in rhythm with Kushina's heartbeats, fast and strong. Kushina had been in labor for almost four hours now. The last hour had seen a drastic change in pace as the contractions grew so close together they were starting to merge into constant pain. Minato had both of his hands flat on her belly, closely monitoring and strengthening her seal. His palms were unnaturally hot with concentrated chakra.

"-Minato."

Jiraiya's deep voice called for his attention. The tall man was still seated in the center of the seal, powering the barrier with the help of the Elder Toads, who had their eyes closed in concentration.

"-Something just brushed against the barrier."

Minato frowned.

So, something or someone was after Kushina in the end.

"-Stand by." Minato ordered his sensei and his guards.

He could feel the bijuu trashing against the seal, trying to take advantage of Minato's shift in focus. The soon-to-be father focused back on his task. A few minutes passed before Jiraiya talked again.

"-Again."

The ANBU shifted around, inspecting what they could distinguish from the outside of the barrier.

"-Nothing here, sir.

-Again! He's getting insistent."

Minato tensed. Now was the moment of truth. Would the barrier hold?

Less than a minute later, Jiraiya shifted slightly.

"-He just rammed into it.

-Are you ok, sensei?

-Come on, brat, where's the faith? The barrier is holding solid, don't worry. He'll get tired soon enough."

When a few more minutes passed without anything else happening, Minato wondered if it had been that easy. Then the ground shook and the muffled noise of an explosion reached them through the barrier. Two ANBU of Platoon Alpha went to the barrier wall closest to the entrance.

"-Sir, there is smoke coming from the village, eastern sector."

Owl had barely finished his sentence when another explosion was heard.

"-Sir! A secondary explosion, same vicinity.

-Aaargh!

-Shit," the cursed was barely audible over Kushina's low pained cry as the Kyuubi lashed out, "Stand down. There's nothing we can do from here, and the Sandaime with Squad Dragon will take care of things."

Minato clenched his jaws, trying to suppress the fox's chakra. He should have anticipated that! By locking the threat out, he had put his village at risk. Despite his feeling that he might need the barrier during the birth, he had been convinced the biggest threat had been the bijuu breaking out. He truly hadn't really thought someone would have attacked them during the birth! How could someone even know when and where that would happen? He had had several locations prepared beforehand, all likely safe locations. He had randomly picked one earlier today when Kushina's water had broken and she'd woken him up.

The Sandaime and Squad Dragon had been briefed about the plan for the birth. They were to stay on standby, ready to take over the defense of the village should anything happen. This plan had mainly been designed with the Kyuubi in mind, not so much an external threat. Nevertheless, Minato was confident the old Hokage and Dragon's platoon, one of the best in ANBU, would be able to defend Konoha from this unknown threat.

A third explosion rocked the ground. Owl reported the glow of flame coming from the other side of the village, at an odd angle with the cave's entrance, preventing him from assessing the damages more accurately. The silence that reigned in the barrier after that was only broken by Kushina's heavy breathing.

Suddenly the sound of sizzling rose up from the barrier. All heads except Kushina's turned to the direction of the sound. Against the barrier was half a porcelain mask in the shape of a dragon, barely covering a blackening face as smoke rose from the flesh burning against the solid energy construct. The opacity of the barrier prevented them from distinguishing clearly the traits of the dark figure holding up what they all clearly understood was Dragon's bodiless head. The head was held against the barrier a few more seconds before being thrown to the side and disappearing from their view.

Shit!

"-Sensei!" Minato's voice snapped out like a whip.

"-It's holding, no damage."

This wasn't good. The barrier was holding, that was excellent news. But the message had been crystal clear. Whoever was attacking them was thoroughly unhappy. And he had eliminated one of the village's lines of defense. As the ANBU commander Dragon was the first in line to step up should the Hokage be incapacitated before another could be chosen. The fact that he had been killed within minutes of the first attack was a terrible loss and even worse news. Minato briefly wondered how strong this unknown opponent was to have dispatched of Dragon so quickly. What could have possibly taken the strong ANBU by surprise?

Minato could feel the chakra of his ANBU guards stirring beneath a layer of tightly controlled calm. His guards, men and women, were as dedicated to Konoha as he was, and he knew it was hard for them not to be able to help. Worse, they knew nothing of what was happening. Minato considered going out of the barrier and assess the situation. He had designed a back door into the seal. It hadn't been difficult, with the main components being based off the Hiraishin formula. The barrier would let him pass through.

But could he really risk leaving Kushina? The Kyuubi remained his highest priority at the moment. The tailed beast was the biggest risk to the village's safety. He could feel it fighting the seal, trying to force its way out as more and more of Kushina's chakra was diverted to the baby. They were reaching a critical threshold: the baby would be there any moment now. The seal keeping the fox in would be at its weakest during the actual birth, the elimination of the placenta, and the few minutes after that, when Kushina would be completely exhausted and entirely focused on the new life she would finally be able to hold.

Minato could not leave her now. The risk was too high.

Another explosion made the ground rumble. Owl's voice rose, an edge of something making it razor sharp.

"-Sir, it's the Academy."

Minato's body went cold, awash with disgusted anger. The children! Classes had started a couple hours ago. Even if the Sandaime had started evacuating it, only a few minutes had passed since the start of the attack. Not many students would have already made it to safety, if at all. The Academy chuunin instructors were trained to secure the children at the first sign of an attack on the village. They would have reacted at the first explosion. But rounding up young children took time, no matter how fast the instructors reacted. Minato knew the Academy could be secured within seven minutes. It had been less time than that since the first explosion.

"-Gazelle, Badger, Otter, step in. Jiraiya, tag me. Owl and the rest, protect Jiraiya. Kushina must not be left unattended."

His voice left no room for argument. The transition between Jiraiya and the three secondary blood pillars was quick and smooth. The Sannin immediately joined Minato, face utterly serious and focussed. He breezed through the hand seals necessary to lock his chakra onto Kushina's seal, relieving Minato in a matter of seconds.

When his chakra connected, the older man grunted and flinched.

"-Hurry up, brat, my Sage mode won't hold long against the Kyuubi. It's trashing too much. I don't have your control.

-I'll be quick."

Jiraira's mouth turned into a half grin that was gone instantly. If anything, his old student was fast.

Minato focused on his chakra and the barrier. He needed a few seconds to prepare to pass through the barrier. It acted as a beacon he needed to go through. It was imperative he controlled his Hiraishin very precisely or he would just bounce off the barrier. Just as he was ready to disappear, two tiny hands connected with the barrier, instantly burning at the contact. A gut-wrenching wail pierced the air.

The next instant, Minato was outside of the barrier, his arm held protectively around a child who was too stunned to react to the situation, barely processing the pain radiating from her bleeding hands. He looked around him but no one was there in the shimmering air. He looked at the young girl. Her body was starting to shake, going into shock. She was young. He could not recognize her but she had the typical physique of the Nara clan. Her black hair was held in a loose braid, showing a reddening hand print on her neck.

Minato held onto her tightly as he zeroed in on the Hiraishin beacon he had placed at the Academy. When he appeared, he noticed that half of the building had collapsed on itself, flames licking the wooden beams of the structure. Chuunin instructors were shepherding crying children out and towards the nearby shelter, helped by the older students. One of the instructors spotted Minato and immediately came to him.

"-Sir!

-Report.

-The east side of the building exploded, sir, and collapsed. One class was empty, one class was out practicing, but," the chuunin looked down and swallowed, "we lost eight civilian-born attending remedial classes. Jounin Yuuhi is supervising evacuation at the shelter. He has sent for a tracker to help recover possible survivors from the collapsed structure.

-Very well. Please carry on with your duties, Umino-san. Have whoever comes for search and rescue report to you and the Sandaime." Minato handed over the little Nara to the instructor. "Please make sure Jounin Yuuhi looks at her hands. Chakra burns. He is not a full-medic, but his field knowledge should do for now." Minato looked at the chuunin as the man nodded his understanding. Minato's gaze softened a little bit. "Umino-san, your son is a student… Do you know if he is all right?"

The Academy instructor flinched, unable to repress the brief flash of pain on his face.

"-He is, sir. He was helping an… an instructor moving supplies between rooms. They were closest to the blast. My… My wife shielded him. He will be ok, eventually."

The chuunin clenched his jaws and his grip on the young shaking Nara tightened slightly.

"-I'm sorry for your loss.

-Hokage-sama."

The chuunin bowed and jumped out, towards the evacuation shelter. Minato squatted down and put a finger on the ground. He briefly felt flickers of dimming chakra from underneath the rubble. Some students were still alive. He could feel a member of the Inuzuka clan on his way to the Academy. The tracker would be there in a minute. Would he be able to find the students in time? Minato dismissed the question. Worrying was pointless at the moment. Either the Inuzuka would, or he wouldn't. As soon as the evacuation was complete, reinforcements would come to help him out.

Minato widened his search. He pinpointed the Sandaime's chakra, relieved to sense the man was still alive. He flashed towards the beacon closest to the old Hokage. The older man immediately straightened. The Professor was in full armor and exuded power, bo staff in hand.

"-Hiruzen.

-Minato! Evac and response teams are on their way. Dragon's location is unknown.

-KIA."

The old Hokage nodded gravely. Minato was about to start talking again when he felt a wave of the Kyuubi's chakra through his link with the barrier. He tensed. Hiruzen immediately told him to go. The air shimmered at the edge of Minato's vision as he disappeared in a flash. He felt a tug.

As he reappeared inside the barrier, many things happened at once. He noticed a black figure darting away from him, Jiraiya on the floor, cradling his bleeding and smoking hand, a red tentacle of burning chakra lashing out of Kushina, who was groaning in pain, breath fast and shallow.

The black figure suddenly appeared behind the medics attending her and a second later, both mednins were on the floor, arterial blood spraying from their neck. In the next second, the hooded figure had his hand on Kushina's belly. In a flash Minato kicked him away. The movement lowered the man's hood, revealing a black and orange mask.

Owl and Lynx blurred into motion and attacked the masked man. Their blows seemed to pass right through him as if he wasn't there.

Minato's eyes widened. How was this possible? The man had the same powers as Tobi! Could he be from the same clan as the man Naruto had killed three years ago?

Jiraiya slowly got back to his feet, hissing in pain. The masked man was immediately on him, firing a small but powerful fire attack at the Sannin, who managed to dodge.

"-Minato, go."

Minato spared a half second to look at his old sensei. The tall man was getting ready to retaliate and take care of the masked man together with Owl and Lynx. Crane remained close to Gazelle, Otter and Badger, who were still powering the barrier up. Minato rushed back to Kushina, weaving seals with his hands and slamming his right palm onto her seal.

The red angry chakra of the tailed beast warmed his hand as he tried to push it back into the seal. Kushina grunted in pain, a soft broken keen lost in the rush of things.

"-Step away from her."

The voice was deep and snarling. Minato turned to see Lynx held in a chokehold and a kunai at his throat. Owl and Jiraiya stopped moving.

"-Step away from your wife, Hokage-sama." The tone was mocking, dragging each syllable out.

Minato didn't move. The figure signed one-handed seals and breathed white-hot flames down the ANBU's arm. The Konoha man grunted and repressed a cry as his other arm spasmed. Minato's eyes sharpened. When the flamed died out, the skin on the arm was covered in black and red angry blisters.

The mysterious masked man dragged the kunai down Lynx's arm.

"-Step. Away. Or. He. Suffers."

At each word, the kunai's end slid under a burnt piece of flesh and cut it out. At the second word, Lynx's control shattered and the man screamed. His voice soon broke from the pain.

Minato disappeared. A flash, Lynx on the grass-covered floor outside of the barrier.

A flash. Jiraiya's hair rushing towards the black-wearing masked man. Minato's hand on Owl. A flash. Owl out, ordered to take care of Lynx. A flash. Jiraiya turning, Gazelle on the ground, a kunai in her belly. A flash. Gazelle out and Owl rushing to her.

Flash. Otter and Badger crying out at the weight of the chakra output of the barrier slamming into them.

Kushina's groan rising as she pushed with all her might. Crane rushing to help her with the birth.

A shimmer, and Crane pushed out of the way.

A cry. Minato's name dragged out of Kushina's throat as a gloved hand reached for her belly and a new life pushed its way out of her body.

A flash. A light weight of warmth and blood and life falls in Minato's outreached arm. He doesn't look at the tiny body now cradled against his chest. His kunai slices through the umbilical cord easily. He hears the sound of a first breath, air sucked into tiny lungs. And then the most beautiful cry Minato has ever heard mixes with the worst sound he will ever hear. His child is born and his wife is being torn apart.

Burning red chakra lashes out. The barrier shakes. Minato flashes and the tiny weight of his child is pushed into Jiraiya's arms. A flash and his hand passes through the masked man's chest. A flash, Jiraiya and the baby are out of the barrier.

Minato barely feels the approaching chakra of the Sandaime before he flashes back into the vibrating barrier. Like every time, he struggles to get through. His chakra feels sluggish for the few fractions of a second it takes him to adjust to the wavering chakra construct. Right now, he hates this delay in his technique more than he has ever hated anything in the world.

He can feel the two ANBU powering the barrier struggling to keep it up. He rushes to Kushina's side, intent on slamming the Kyuubi back into its seal. A chain wrapping around his ankle pulls him back. He flashes out of it and turns around, locating the attacker.

A wooden spear sprouts out of the ground, aimed at his stomach. Minato dodges and retaliates.

He knows this power. Has seen it at work. Has seen how much damage it can do. He can't let the man use it.

Minato moves and unleashes everything he has secretly trained for in the last three years. He doesn't give a second for the masked man to recover.

There!

There is a pattern. Five seconds.

That's all he needs.

The man dodges and the air shimmers. There is a frustrated growl as the barrier blocks him, traps him in.

This is what it was designed for.

A rage-filled snarl and the resounding sound of wood spearing out from the ground. Crane's chest is pierced right through. His body is held up by the killing branch in a morbid imitation of a broken puppet.

Minato flashes in a silent, unyielding lightening storm. Seconds are ticking.

One.

His hand passes through.

Two.

His foot encounters no resistance.

Three.

Nothing blocks his kunai.

Four.

His leg goes through the other's thigh.

Five.

A hand touches an arm with the softest lick of a seal that binds.

A pulse of red and burning hatred at his back.

The noise of thunder cracking as the purple walls of the barrier shatter.

An orb of blue light in a hand that comes flat against a breastbone and lets go.

Red mist as a heart is shredded by a hand-size tornado of razor-sharp wind. The briefest flicker of utter surprise before the flame of chakra at the end of Minato's hand flickers and dies. Minato twirls on himself, blade held high in a reverse grip. Condensed wind is coating the steel.

A masked head with black hair flies into the air. A headless body crumbles.

Minato exhales as sounds rush around him. He hears none of it. Only the roar that comes from Kushina's battered body. A sound deep and guttural, shaking his very core with malice and satisfaction.

Minato reaches out. He feels his beloved's chakra pathways being torn to shreds and the pain is unimaginable.

"-MINATO!"

Minato needs to get to Kushina. But there is something in his sensei's voice that terrifies him. Something that shatters his heart and freezes his blood in his veins.

Minato turns and his eyes automatically find his sensei's over the small battle field.

There is panic in the dark eyes. Panic and sadness and ImsorryImsosorry and Dosomethingplease and Minato has never been more afraid.

He doesn't even realize he is moving until he is next to Jiraya, arms reaching for a tiny bundle that should be moving in the large coat it's been wrapped in.

Minato's brain is not processing anything being said to him. His unblinking eyes are locked onto the tiny face of his unmoving child. Why isn't it moving?

Somehow he is now looking at Jiraiya. The man's mouth is moving but Minato can't hear anything. He can barely recognize his sensei's face. He has never seen fear take hold of his traits before. Big hands grab his shoulders and squeeze. Hard. Enough to make Minato's bones creak.

"-Minato! Snap out of it! Your son is dying!"

He has a son.

Minato's brain latches onto the meaning of Jiraiya's yells. His child is dying! He snaps back to reality and Jiraiya is explaining that the baby is dying of chakra exhaustion.

Minato reaches deep into the baby and he feels it. The flicker of chakra. It's barely there. He reaches out to Kushina, and her chakra too is barely there and growing thinner and thinner. The Kyuubi's chakra is overwhelming the seal.

Then Minato feels it. It's there, a flicker of chakra that doesn't belong to the beast.

Minato's heart lurches in his chest. He knows that chakra. He has a son. His son's chakra is mixing with the Kyuubi's.

He knows that chakra.

He looks down and for some reason his newborn son's eyes are open (why are they open, it's too early). And piercing Minato's soul are two bright blue eyes. Eyes he has seen every night in his dreams for the past three years. Eyes that said 'Don't come after me; don't look for me… Please find me'.

The blue eyes flutter closed and all the air leaves Minato's lungs in a sound stuck halfway between a sob and a laugh.

"-It's you. It's you. I found you... I found you. You're here."

Strong arms tighten around the small body and tears spill from his eyes. And Minato's heart shatters because Naruto is dying.

The chakra. Naruto's chakra, chakra that was so similar to Kushina's. Naruto dying of chakra exhaustion just after birth.

Naruto needed the fox's chakra to survive. His body had developed surrounded by the beast's chakra, even if it never mixed with his. His chakra coils were larger than anything Minato had ever felt before. Kushina had used all her remaining chakra trying to keep the fox in, unknowingly ripping some away from Naruto, exhausting his reserves, already diminished by the birth. His tiny body was not strong enough yet to replenish such large reservoirs.

"-I'm sorry, my son."

Minato delicately placed his most precious person on the ground at his feet, careful to keep him well wrapped in Jiraiya's large coat. He lifted his gaze to the form of his beloved wife, unconscious on the birthing table, body a sickening shade of white.

"-I'm sorry, my love."

Minato lifted his arms to chest level, about to start weaving signs with arms that hurt from repressing his shaking when a wrinkled hand stopped him.

"-Let me." Blue eyes connected with determined brown. "I will not watch you sacrifice yourself, Minato. This is my duty.

-Hiruzen..." The old Hokage didn't give him time to protest.

"-Take care of them for me, my boy."

Minato's throat was tight. He swallowed once before he started speaking.

"-Sandaime, you can't~"

But it was too late. The Sandaime Hokage's old hands were already blurring through seals. The wrinkled face of his predecessor turned towards Kushina, a breathtakingly sad yet happy smile stretching his mouth.

"-It is my duty, Minato. And my honor."

Minato bowed deeply as the Third clasped his hands in the last seal. Minato felt the heat of the red chakra fighting the pull.

For seconds that seemed like eternity, the malevolent chakra coated the area. Then the Third shuddered and the chakra slammed into Naruto with a roar. The armored body started crumbling before Jiraiya held him up and slowly laid him back onto the ground, closing the vacant eyes.

Hiruzen Sarutobi, Third Hokage of Konohagakure, God of Shinobi, survivor of two of the Great Wars, student of the Nidaime Hokage and teacher to legends, was no more.

The surrounding ANBU still standing all took a knee on the ground, right fist clenched tight and on their heart, eyes unwavering as they saluted their departed leader.

Minato's ears ring with the eery silence following. He hears the sound of air sucked into tiny lungs before exploding in high pitch wailing. In a daze, Minato picks Naruto up and opens the coat. His belly is covered with the deep black lines of the seal. Minato closes his eyes and tightens his hold on him.

He had found him.

In the midst of chaos and surrounded by dimming chakras, Minato cries, his crying son held dearly against his aching chest.