Minato followed Naruto out to a small clearing in the woods close to the edge of town. Minato wasn't sure what to think as he gazed down upon the little boy, his son. It was almost like he was a completely different little boy then the one he had seen only a few minutes ago. He had a son, a son he had sealed a monster in and left to the hate of the village. The guilt he was feeling nearly brought him to his knees; everything this child would go through was completely his fault.
Minato looked back up to see that his son was standing before a tree that had bark beaten away on one side. Naruto had taken a very weak stance before beginning to kick the tree. Minato winced as Naruto had to keep regaining his balance. Most likely someone had purposefully taught him the wrong stance in hopes that he would flunk out of the academy all together. Well he would be damned if he would let that happen, his son was going to be Hokage damnit.
The only real obstacle now was how he was going to teach him. There were really only two options, he could either whisper advice and hope he followed or show himself. Revealing himself as a dead long lost father might be a little too much for an eight year old to take. As much as he would love to tell Naruto how sorry he was and how everything bad that happened to him was all his fault, but he knew that now wasn't the right time. For now he would just have to whisper advice. Minato walked closer to his miniature self to get a better feel for where he needed work.
As it turned out working on his fighting stance was only scratching the surface. Someone had clearly gone out of their way to sabotage any chance Naruto had at becoming a shinobi. He really had his work cut out for him. He shook his head as Naruto collapsed on his back and breathing hard. No wonder he was tired, he was spending too much energy on his taijutsu and too much chakra and not enough control on his ninjutsu.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw an ANBU land silently on a high branch just out of Naruto's sight. He had known of the ANBU's presence and hadn't been surprised when he had remained hidden in the trees. He was thankful that whoever was wearing the lizard mask was at least concerned enough to risk a closer look to make sure Naruto was okay. When Naruto sat back up the ANBU melted back into the tree branch beneath him.
Minato watched as Naruto stood back up and gathered his discarded kunai and shrikin and with a sigh he tucked them all back into his weapons pouch. He gave one last glance around to make sure he hadn't left anything out before leaving the clearing and heading back to his apartment.
On the way back Minato observed his son and the way the villagers acted around him. Most would ignore him while others would furiously whisper to those next to them while still others would openly glare and sneer at him. Naruto, to his credit, ignored them completely. But there was this one instance when a father and his son passed him laughing at some inside joke. Naruto stopped and turned to watch them for a moment with a longing look on his face before shaking his head and continuing on his walk.
Minato's heart clenched painfully, why couldn't he be there for his son where it really counted? He could only hope that the few who did see past the demon could make up for his failures. He wished he could remember Kushina being pregnant. He wished he could have held Naruto and rocked him to sleep as a baby. There were so many things he wished for that could never be, why was fate so cruel?
XxX
Naruto wasn't sure what to do. For the past few weeks he had noticed a man following him around, he had seen the guy before around the village but had never talked to him and vice versa. But what was really weird was that no one else seemed to notice that this weird man was following him around. For the most part Naruto had been completely ignored by the village except for a few people, a very few, so this new attention was making him uneasy. And what was worse, every time Naruto caught sight of this strange man he would disappear.
Naruto didn't want to seem like a baby, tattling on the strange man, he was training to be a ninja after all. But he knew he had to say something before something bad could happen. So after Academy that day, instead of going straight to training, he went to the Old Man's office. He weaved in and out of the villagers; he was unsurprised to see the strange man with blonde hair following him. He narrowed his eyes at the man as he disappeared from sight.
He ran past the ninja in the tower without a second look and into the Hokage's office, not even bothering to knock. Belatedly he remembered he was supposed to knock incase the old man was in a meeting. Luckily he wasn't otherwise Naruto would have been subjected to another long winded lecture and truthfully he just didn't have the attention span for it.
"Naruto, what brings you here today?" he asked in his grandfatherly voice.
Naruto looked around him to make sure that the strange man wasn't anywhere nearby. "There's been this weird man following me around." He said. "Do you know who he is?"
The Old Man looked back up from his paper work to look Naruto over. "Does this man wear a white animal mask?" he asked calmly.
"No it's not one of the ANBU that are always watching me, it's someone else." He insisted.
Naruto watched as the Hokage's broke into a violent cough. It took a minute or two for him to stop and catch his breath. "How long have you known about your ANBU watchers?" he asked incredulously.
"Hmm," Naruto hummed as he squinted his eyes and scratched the back of his head in concentration. "Since I was little I guess." He said offhandedly.
The Hokage closed his eyes and shook his head. "Okay, so tell me about this man that's been following you."
"Well he has tall blonde hair, and I think he's a ninja 'cause he dresses like Iruka-sensei but he wears a white coat. And every time I see him he's looking at me but then he disappears!" he finished. Naruto frowned as he realized he had never gotten a good look at the man's face, he was supposed to be a ninja and notice these things.
When he looked back up to the Old Man he was surprised to see that he was very pale with his mouth hanging open slightly. "Are you okay Old Man, you look sick?" he said. The Hokage was not a young man maybe he was dying. "Should I go get a doctor?"
"No! No, I'm fine." He said a little bit distractedly and nervously glanced around. He pulled open a desk drawer and rifled through it before finding what he needed.
From what Naruto could tell it seemed to be a picture but why he had pulled out a picture was beyond him. He sighed and held out the picture for Naruto to see. It was a picture of the blonde man with three kids who looked to be older than him; there were two boys and a girl who had purple markings on her cheeks.
"Is that the man Naruto?" he asked.
"It looks like him, but I never really got close enough to see his face." He admitted and vowed to work on his prowess of observation.
"Hmm, do you know who this man is?" The Old Man asked after a few moments of silence.
Naruto looked back to the picture trying to think where he had seen the man before. The earliest memory he could recall of a guy similar to him was when a man had been pitching a fit by the front gates of the village but he had only seen him distantly then.
"No, who is he?" Naruto asked sheepishly.
The Hokage took the picture back and gave a sad smile. "This is the Fourth Hokage."
The Fourth Hokage? They had studied him in class, but hadn't he died? "Are you saying there's a g-g-g-ghost stalking me?" he asked in horror.
"Don't fret Naruto, ghosts can't hurt you. If anything I'd say that his spirit is watching over you." His sad smile growing fonder.
"But why me?" he asked.
"You'll know when you're older." He said, that was officially Naruto's least favorite answer. "Now don't you have some training or studying to do?" he asked changing the subject before Naruto could object.
Naruto crossed his arms over his chest in a pout. "Yeah, yeah. I'll see you later Old Man." He said before racing out of the door.
XxX
He watched Naruto leave before glancing back to the picture in his hand. Could Naruto really see the spirit of Minato? Maybe it was his imagination or something. After he had sealed the fox in Naruto he was sent to battle in the Shinigami's stomach for the rest of eternity. But just to be safe he would talk with the ANBU, not only about a suspicious blonde man but also about how Naruto has been aware of their presence.