It had been nearly six months since the Uchiha Massacre and the trials of the traitorous council. A vague and mostly untrue explanation had been given to the village while only the remaining council, a few select ANBU and of course Sasuke Uchiha, knew the truth. Minato had been rather impressed with the Thirds quick thinking, but then he remembered you didn't get to be Hokage on knowledge of jutsu alone.
He had been so wrapped up in the trials and getting himself reacquainted with the village that he had forgotten all about Naruto. As it turned out no one else in the village could hear him like the little boy could. Minato even suspected that he might be able to see him occasionally. So now the question was, what would he do with this information? He wanted to try to help the kid out because he was obviously being ignored when people weren't trying to kill him. But what if he freaked the kid out, even the thought of disembodied voices creeped him out. He'd have to be careful with the way he tried this, especially with the ANBU always watching over him.
But before he could do anything, he had to find the kid.
He had looked all over the village for Naruto and had been unsuccessful so far. Well that was until he had come across a chunin dragging the now older looking Naruto in the direction of the Academy. Now kids skipped classes all the time, he hadn't but plenty of his friends had, what was so odd was that Naruto had been tied up with rope.
"Naruto you can't keep sneaking out of class just because you're bored." The man said. "And especially not so you can booby trap the jonin lounge."
Naruto booby trapped the jonin lounge? Minato didn't feel the least bit childish for wondering if it worked or not.
"But Iruka-sensei you know I can't do genjutsu, I can't even detect it so why bother?" the little blonde whined.
Minato snorted, he couldn't detect a genjutsu either until after he had made jonin and even then he had been terrible at it.
"What do I keep telling you? You have to practice if you want to learn." Minato decided that he liked Iruka; he seemed to be one of the few in his generation that didn't hate Naruto.
"Ah, you keep saying that." Naruto grumbled under his breath.
Minato smiled as he decided not to follow the kid back to the academy; instead he would go back to the kids' apartment and wait for him as he decided how he was going to do this. It's hard to train a kid especially when you're dead, but he wasn't called a genius for nothing so it was time to put his over-sized brain to work.
When he reached Naruto's apartment he was surprised to see an unmasked Kakashi there in jonin garb instead of his ANBU attire. What was even more surprising was that he was filling Naruto's fridge with fruits and vegetables. Minato remembered the last time he had been here to see that the only thing the kid bothered stocking was ramen. He silently thanked his former student for being one of the few who actually cared for the boy he had cursed. Minato waited patiently as Kakashi did Naruto's dishes and cleaned the tiny room.
After he had finished tidying up the copy ninja walked to the door but before opening he pulled out a kunai, a very distinct kunai. Minato recognized it instantly as the one that he had given Kakashi when he became a jonin. He hadn't realized that he would still carry it around with him and he didn't know why he would pull it out now of all times. For a moment, Minato thought he was going to say something, but he watched as Kakashi shook his head and left the apartment.
Minato was kind of disheartened to know that Kakashi was the only one of Team Minato still alive. He had had hopes that Rin had survived but that had been crushed when he found her name upon the Memorial Stone a few weeks back. He found quite a few names of his friends and peers on the stone, but still, even though he knew she was dead, Kushina's name had been the hardest to swallow.
Minato shook his head to rid him of the depressing thoughts, he needed to concentrate. Naruto would probably be back in a few hours and Minato wanted to have a game plan by then. He wandered around the tiny apartment, trying to familiarize himself with the few possessions the boy owned. He didn't have much in the way of training, maybe if the Hokage had kept his stuff he could attempt to sneak a few scrolls here. He had discovered he could move stuff by accident once when he brushed by the Thirds desk and knocked some papers to the floor.
He added ninja supply and gear to the list of things he needed to acquire for Naruto. Minato walked over to the wall opposite the bathroom where the closet was and poked his head in and grimaced. Orange. Lots and lots of orange. He had seen the kid wearing orange shorts and a vest earlier but hadn't realized how obsessed the kid was with the color till now. This could be a problem, he wouldn't last long as a ninja if he could be spotted a mile off.
He was reminded of the time when Kushina had come across this aweful shirt with bright orange sleeves and then bought eight of it. After five months of the damned piece of cloth her friends had thankfully had an intervention for her and burned them. He had secretly thanked them all so that Kushina wouldn't know how much he had hated the dreaded shirts as well. But he couldn't hold an intervention for the kid, maybe subliminal messaging? It had worked on Jiraiya maybe it would work on him too. He mentally added that to the list of things that needed to be accomplished.
The sound of someone on the other side of the door jerked Minato out of his thoughts as he turned to watch Naruto walk in. Minato frowned when he saw the little boy with his head down. This was the first time he had seen the kid so down. He watched as Naruto locked his door and trudged over to his bed to look out the window. He sighed as he put his arms on the window seal and laid his head on them. He looked absolutely miserable. What could have happened to him between the two hours he had last seen the kid?
"Why am I so different?" he mumbled so low that Minato almost didn't hear him.
He walked closer to the boy to hear him better.
"Why don't I have a family, did I ever have a family?" there were angry tears welling up in his eyes and Minato resisted the urge to say anything, Naruto couldn't know he was here yet.
He had wondered about Naruto's lack of family too, had they died or had they given him up when he had become the jinchuriki. he really hoped the latter wasn't the case, it would just be one more thing to add to the list of things he had done wrong to this boy.
The little boy gave a sniff as he jerked away from the window and crossed his arms over his chest with his chin tucked down. Once again Minato was reminded of Kushina. It was such a weird feeling to see so much of his girlfriend in this little boy. It was weird.
"Okay, no time for crying!" Naruto said with determination. "I'm gonna be Hokage and Hakage's don't cry, they train! Me Naruto Uzumaki, the next Hokage!" he shouted out as he pulled out a weapons pack and ran out the door.
Minato was left in the cramped apartment with his mouth hanging open. Naruto Uzumaki? Was he a relative of Kushina? It would explain why he had been chosen as the nine-tails container, the two before him were also Uzumaki's. But wasn't Kushina the last of the entire clan? She had to have been her home country had been completely wiped out, so did that mean that she had had a child and with who?
Minato racked his brain trying to think who it was. He brought a mental picture of the kid to his mind he was short (but then again what eight year old wasn't?), had blue eyes and spiky bright blonde hair. If Minato had had blood it would probably be draining from his face as realization hit him like a freight train.
"I have a kid." He said out loud.
It made perfect sense, why hadn't he connected the dots before? Naruto had his looks and Kushina's personality, oh God he did this to his own kid? Why hadn't anyone taken care of his son, did they even know he was his son? What the hell was going on here! How had he screwed up this badly? He really felt like beating his head against the wall but knew it would be in vain.
It was then he made a resolve that his son was going to be the best damn ninja this village ever had!