Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any other references within this story.
Key:
"Summons and other Biju speaking"
'Summons and other Biju thinking'
"Human Speech"
'Human Thought'
Justu
The Other Side of the Coin
Chapter 1: Special
Time Skip: 5 years later
Sapphire eyes flickered open. Minato groaned as he sat up, his eyes quickly gazing about his room. Getting out from under the covers, he quickly got dressed and went downstairs for breakfast.
It was about 8 in the morning, if the sun was any indication. He could already hear his family downstairs: Kushina frying eggs, and the incessant whining of his daughter, complaining about not eating ramen for breakfast.
Frowning slightly, he made his way to the bottom of the staircase, arriving just in time to see Kushina set out a plate of eggs for everyone. Sitting down at the table, he began to eat rather slowly, as he watched Minami devour the eggs at high speed.
"Kaa-san, tou-san, will we start training with the Kyuubi's chakra today? You said we would, you said!" whined the ever excitable Minami.
"That we did Minami, did you remember to read up on your schedule?" he smiled lightly at her.
"Yeah! We're going to be running around the village, and then we're going to go through katas, and then we're going to unlock my chakra, so we can start tree-climbing, and then–"
"Minami, be quiet and eat your breakfast!" shouted Kushina as she tapped Minami on the head with her spatula.
Finishing his breakfast, he watched as Kushina and Minami headed out the door. Minato headed into the living room, and began packing up everything he would need for that day: a few training kunai and shuriken, a scroll on the Uzumaki Whirlwind Fist Style, and a few other training supplements.
"Er, tou-san?" a quiet voice rang through the room.
Jumping slightly at the unexpected noise he turned and saw Naruto peeking over the railing on the staircase, his blue eyes staring at him.
Flinching slightly at not realizing his son didn't eat his breakfast he quickly tried to ascertain what his son wanted.
"Yes, Naruto?"
"Can… Can I come train with you too?"
Minato's eyes widened a little before settling on his normal expression.
"Sorry Naru-chan, but right now we need to train Minami for her to use the Kyuubi's chakra. It's very dangerous if she doesn't know how to control it if it starts going haywire."
Flinching slightly at his son's dull eyes, barely sparkling in the corners with unshed tears, he quickly opened his pack and took out a scroll. Tossing it in the air once, he walked to the railing and handed it to Naruto.
"This scroll contains chakra control for beginners, if you truly want to be a ninja like your tou-san and kaa-chan, you can try reading this."
His mouth twitched upwards as a small excited gleam entered his son's eyes.
"Tell you what, I wasn't planning on telling you this until later, but your kaa-chan and I will train you when you enter the academy. I promise."
The small amount of guilt weighing on his mind intensified as he saw Naruto nod his head furiously before taking his scroll and running out the door.
Guiltily staring at his son's back as he ran across the doorway, he wondered back to when he first understood that Minami needed to come first…
Flashback
"Minato!"
Minato looked up from his paperwork in the Hokage office and watched as his mentor opened a window and climbed through.
"Jiraiya-sensei, why don't you ever use the door like a normal person?"
"Bah, being normal is boring!" muttered the now identified Jiraiya. "But that's not what I came here to discuss. I was just on Mount Myoboku, sparring with Pa, when I was called by a messenger toad to come see the Toad Sage on the top of the mountain. I apologized to Pa and quickly made my way up. When I got there, the Toad Sage gave me a prophecy!"
"What!?" exclaimed Minato. "If you're here telling me, I'm assuming that it has something to do with me."
"Not you, you egoist!" laughed Jiraiya. "I believe it concerns your daughter."
"Minami? What did she do?"
"Ah! The question is what will she do," Jiraiya smiled. "From what I understood, the prophecy told of a young ninja, the prison of a great destructive force, but keeping at bay only half of it. This ninja shall face many challenges and in the end, when the eye of the moon is opened, this ninja will decide the fate of the world."
"The eye of the moon? What does that mean?" Minato questioned.
"I don't know, we will just have to wait and see. But this prophecy is clearly pointing towards Minami! She has already told us she wants to be a ninja when she grows up and she keeps at bay the Yin part of the Kyuubi, a literal half of a biju, and if a biju isn't a great destructive force, I don't know what is."
"I… I guess we will have to start her training early," muttered Minato. "She will need to be prepared to face the challenges ahead."
"Yup! You'll need to give her a head start on her education as a ninja."
"But what about Naruto?" frowned Minato. "He needs to be trained as well!"
"It's alright. You can train him once he starts the academy."
"I… I suppose…" muttered Minato.
"Don't worry," Jiraiya assured his student. "It will all turn out great in the end. Naruto will understand."
Flashback End
Frowning slightly at the memory, he walked out the door and followed his wife and daughter.
Running across the busy marketplace of the village, Naruto made his way to his favorite spot in the village, a small shaded area, underneath a tree in the park.
His smile faltered as he thought back to breakfast. Naruto wasn't as child-like as everyone believed. He fully understood that his parents needed to train his sister in the use of Kyuubi's chakra so that she could better protect the village, but he still didn't see why his tou-san couldn't just make a shadow clone to help him out.
'I guess if he doesn't get that he can solve his paperwork problem that he often complains about with shadow clones, he probably won't think of making them to teach me.'
Making his way across the park, he reached his favorite tree, a small cedar, and sat down in the grass, relaxing in the shade for all of two seconds before sitting up and opening the book on chakra.
While he knew how to read, learning at an astounding age of 3 years, the terms used in the book were a bit too complex for him to understand.
Naruto attempted to read the book for a good 15 minutes, before angrily throwing the book a few feet from him.
'If I can't even learn to use chakra correctly, how can I be a good ninja?'
Looking across the park, he watched as parents played with their children. A small frown made its way across his face before brightening when he heard a familiar voice call him from behind.
Turning around he saw his tou-san's students, a young brunette named Rin waving and walking towards him.
"Rin nee-chan!" he yelled as he quickly ran on his short little legs and hugged his favorite person. His parents, while favored, began to drop down on his list as they began to pay less attention to him.
"Hi Naru-chan! What's a little guy like you doing out here by yourself?"
"I'm not little!" Naruto crossed his arms indigently, pouting slightly. Rin thought it made him all the more cuter.
"And I'm not by myself, the 2 ANBU on the playground are watching me."
Rin frowned and looked up. From what she could see, there were no ANBU on the playground, just kids and their parents.
"What do you mean Naru-chan? Where are they?"
"Over there," Naruto turned and pointed at a kid spinning on the playground's merry-go-round, while his parent sat on a bench and supervised. "They are 2 ANBU under that poofy smoke thingy that ninja use to look like someone else."
Rin was wide-eyed. "And how do you know that Naru-chan?"
"They have a warm feeling coming off them, if I close my eyes I can kind of see it, it's like a warm blue hug, but there's ice underneath it, just like tou-san's."
'Amazing, he's able to sense the ANBU under a transformation, just from the chakra the transformation gave off.' Rin thought to herself.
"Well then, if you're sure you're not alone, could you tell me what you were doing?"
"I was trying to be a better ninja," He held up his small book. "I was trying to learn how to use chakakra."
"I think you mean chakra Naru-chan," corrected Rin. "Why don't I just help you read it?"
"Really?" exclaimed Naruto, his eyes shining brightly. "Thanks nee-chan!"
Smiling to herself, she hefted Naruto up onto her neck and walked over to his favorite tree. Sitting down, she put Naruto in her lap and opened the book for him.
Chakra is the mixture of physical and spiritual energy, contained within the Human Body. Chakra is the energy that shinobi and kunoichi use to perform jutsu. By forming handseals, they can control the flow of the chakra to make it do what they want, from breathing fire, to creating copies of themselves. You can train your physical energy by doing exercises such as sit-ups and jumping jacks. Your spiritual energy is trained by listening to music and solving complex problems as well as learning. All of this is done to increase your chakra reserves. A shortcut to increase your chakra reserves is to simply expend it all, and let it refill. Your body will believe that you require more chakra for whatever it is you're doing, and will compensate as required. Chakra is channeled through the tenketsu, a system of points connected by tubes spanning across the human body. There are a total of 361 tenketsu. Tenketsu help regulate the flow of chakra, without them, your chakra cannot flow. Your chakra will increase naturally as you age, levelling off at your prime. The following are the names of the hand seals used to control chakra:
Bird, Dragon, Boar, Dog, Hare, Tiger, Ox, Serpent, Dragon, Monkey, Rat, and Ram.
Rin helped Naruto read the book for several minutes, explaining several of the long words that he didn't understand.
"Okay, the first step towards controlling your chakra is to actually access it. Can you access your chakra Naru-chan?"
"No, not yet." Was the down-trodden reply that escaped from Naruto's lips.
"Well then, the first step is to close your eyes and form the Ram handseal."
Naruto quickly got off his comfortable seat and stood up. Closing his eyes, he made the Ram seal, with Rin correcting his hand posture and fingers.
"Ok, now what?"
"Now focus. Look deep inside of yourself for that warm feeling, that blue hug you felt coming from those 2 ANBU and grab it. Grab it and pull!" Rin smiled as she watched Naruto strain his facial features in concentration.
Within his mind, Naruto felt it. Just on the edges of his senses were a few loose strands of something blue. Mentally reaching out to them, he focused and pulled.
Rin quickly rose her arm to cover her eyes. A strong wind was blowing across the park, at the center of it was Naruto. Several rocks were blasted back, and grass was torn up. Blue flames erupted from Naruto, licking the air hungrily.
The 2 ANBU were staring in shock at the amount of chakra coming off the young boy. If this was the amount of chakra that the boy had at his young age, just imagine what it would be like as he would grow older!
Rin quickly lowered her sleeve. "Naru-chan! That's enough!"
Naruto quickly opened his eyes and let go of his chakra. The blue flames went out and he fell forward. Rin quickly ran and caught him before he hit the ground.
"That was impressive Naru-chan! Not many kids have that much chakra at your age!" exclaimed Rin.
Naruto smiled sleepily. "So… So did I do good?"
"You did great Naru-chan. I think that's enough for today, let's get you home."
Picking Naruto up and hefting him on her shoulder, she began the journey back to the Namikaze home.
About half-way home, Naruto murmured sleepily. "Rin nee-chan? Tou-san once said that there were many different kinds of ninja, which one is the strongest?"
"Well Naru-chan," Rin began. "There are many different kinds of ninja. I don't think that ninja are measured by their speed, or how many jutsu they know; I believe that the strongest ninja is the one that sticks up for others, and protects the people that he loves."
Naruto smiled, no longer sleepy. "Then that's the kind of ninja I want to be! The one that protects others, and keeps them from getting hurt! I will fight so that the ones I love don't have to!"
Rin giggled. "That's a very good choice Naru-chan. I believe that you can make it. I think that you can be the strongest ninja in the whole village, even stronger than the Hokage!"
"Yeah…" Naruto murmured. "I will be the strongest, stronger than my tou-san, stronger than all the previous Hokage…"
It was night time, the moon was high up in the sky, Naruto was tucked in his bed, covers tightly wound around him. He was saddened that his tou-san never read him bed time stories anymore. He would always overhear his tou-san's voice coming through the thin wall between his and Minami's room.
"…Tell me a story tou-san! The one about how you saved the village and stopped the Kyuubi!" came the excited, yet sleepy voice of Minami.
"Well, when the Kyuubi attacked, your tou-san stopped it by sealing half of it in you and half of it in the Shinigami." Came the tone of Minato, his baritone slightly high-pitched.
At this, he heard Minami giggle. He could just imagine his tou-san making a silly, yet slightly spooky face when talking about the Shinigami.
"That's what makes you so special Minami. You're a hero for keeping the big fuzzball all locked up in your tummy." Minami's incessant giggling came again as Minato poked her in her stomach.
After he finished his story, Minato stood up from the chair in Minami's room. Minami had long since fallen asleep and he was just watching her sleep.
"Goodnight my little angel, sleep well." Came Minato's voice, as the light outside Naruto's door flickered out. Naruto heard the creaking of the floorboards as Minato made his way across the hall to his room. The creaking stopped for a minute in front of his open door, before continuing further down the hall, ending with a door creaking shut.
'Is that why tou-san and kaa-san seem to love her more than me? Because she's special? If that's what it takes to earn their love, then I'll become special! Just like her!' Naruto thought.
This was a rather childish declaration, full of that bright innocence that only kids could have, but with it, came the determination that would fuel Naruto for the next 7 years, his dream to become special, just like his sister.
Far within the stomach of the Shinigami, darkness swirled without form. There was no light, no sound, no rest for those shut within.
'I'll become special! Just like her!' rang throughout the darkness, echoing across the deep entrenching prison.
Deep within the void, within the everlasting night, a single blood red eye, with a slitted pupil opened. A great vulpine grin widened.
'Interesting…'
AN: Well that's a wrap for the first chapter of The Other Side of the Coin. I would like to tell any readers that this will be updated once, maybe twice a week. I am quite busy with college and other projects. Once again, any constructive criticism is welcomed. Please review.
One last thing of note: I have put up a poll for whether or not Haku and Zabuza live. I am currently leaning towards both of them living. If what you truly want is for them to perish, merely say the word, this story is still within development, so it's easily subjected to change.
I would also like to note that yes, some of this story is inspired by The Prodigy Namikaze, but most of this content is original.