Minato's stomach felt like it had been weighted down with lead the closer he got to the room that held the little boy. He had managed to convince himself that he had indeed created a jinchuriki, but how could he have condemned a boy, a mere child, to such a fate. It made him sick just to think about it, what had happened to force his hand into this?

He tore himself from his thoughts as the Third finally reached a door and opened it. How emotionally scarred was this kid? Did he hate the entire village; did he want to kill them all? What did his parents think, did they hate him, and did they protect him? There were so many questions and as he followed the Third in through the door he shut his eyes and took a deep breath.

"Ah Naruto, feeling better already I see." The third said with a chuckle causing Minato's eyes to snap open.

There on the hospital bed sat the little boy who had run through him earlier with the biggest damn smile he had ever seen on a child.

"Believe it Old Man!" he shouted and pumped his fist in the air. Minato couldn't stop a smirk from forming on his mouth at that, since when did the third allow anyone to call him Old Man? "I'm gonna be Hokage one day; a cookie can't keep me down!"

"Speaking of cookies, what have I told you about taking things from strangers?" he asked in a fatherly tone.

The blinding smile diminished to be replaced by a sheepish grin as the boy, Naruto, looked away and scratched the back of his neck. "To not to." he said. But then he looked back up. "It was just a cookie! You should really tell the baker that he used some bad eggs or something!" he insisted.

The Hokage gave him a sad smile as he humored Naruto. "I'll see that he's told."

And that's when he realized it, Naruto didn't know about the demon. But how, unless, unless the Third had created a law that forbid anyone from talking about it. That sounded exactly like something he would do and silently he thanked him for protecting the boy from his mistakes.

"So when can I get out of here? I've got training to do Old Man!" they kid practically yelled.

Minato winced slightly at the volume and was immediately reminded of Kushina who was equally as loud. Kushina? Where was she now? Had he ever asked her to marry him like he had planned on? Was she even alive? Did he even want to know if she had moved on?

The sick feeling returned with full force as he tried to think of something else, anything else. The Third had walked back to the door to talk with a medical ninja so Minato followed.

"Permission to speak freely Lord Hokage?" she asked politely while clutching the clipboard to her chest.

"Permission granted but don't over step your bounds." He warned before glancing back at Naruto who had climbed up into the window seal with his face pressed against the window looking out.

"We did even have to give him an antidote; the poison had already been purged from his system. I thought that was odd, so while I waited for you to come I took the liberty of looking over his medical records and discovered something. This is the second time he's been poisoned, the last one was much stronger but he recovered again in record time. I think that maybe the fox's chakra may be healing him." She said.

The fox? The nine-tailed fox? But that's impossible; Kushina was the container for the nine-tails. There was only one way that this boy had come into possession of the Kyuubi, Kushina was dead. It had broken his heart when Obito died; he had felt sick when he learned of his own death. This was so much worse; his world was shattered with no hope of repair. The physical ache in his chest nearly crippled him.

Minato decided he needed air, not that ghosts needed to breath anyway, but he just needed to get out and away. Maybe he should leave the village and travel, it's not like he didn't have time. Yeah that was perfect, maybe he'd even come across Jiraiya-sensei. The more he thought about it the faster he forced his legs to move to the front gate. He just needed to get out of this village for a while.

The front gates were in sight, it wouldn't be long now. He was at the gates and about to cross over when an invisible wall stopped him rather violently, causing him to be thrown back into the village. He was trapped. Panic began to overwhelm him, what was going on, what had he done to deserve this? Was he supposed to do something here? Why hadn't he been told what he was supposed to do?

XxX

Naruto was excited as the Old man walked him home, after leaving the hospital he had gone grocery shopping with him. He wasn't allowed to fill the shopping cart up with ramen as he usually did but the old man had treated him to some ice cream which was awesome.

They kept walking as Naruto told him about his day and vice versa. The only time he paused was when they passed the front gates. Naruto could have sworn he saw a man pitching a tantrum, but he blinked and he was gone. It must have been a figment of his imagination; according to the old man grownups don't do that. He turned his attention back to the old man and continued to chat away merrily.