Here is the next chapter. I hope you have patience with me, since I am trying to build up an epic story. There won't be much action for the next chapters either, so incase you are of the sort who enjoy bloodshed and violence you'll have to wait for that. I'd like to thank those of you who have written reviews. It is nice of you to take the time and some are helpful. I'll try not to let anyone down.

"Sure kid. What's your name again?" he asked, and put away the kunai. He wouldn't need it, and a five year old wasn't much of a threat anyway, even if he could hunt rabbits. Minato took a deep breath. This was it. From here on out, there was no going back.

"Namikaze Minato."

2.

The wall of Konoha had never been as appealing as when the small group of ragged refugees reached it. It might be large, grey and pose an intimidating barrier, but it was the goal of their journey.

If Minato hadn't been so tired he would have done a victory dance, reputations be damned. Any thoughts of that were quickly squashed when they were promptly surrounded by a group of chuunin on guard duty. Minato could see metal flash briefly in the light as they arrived, but the weapons were out of sight when the young ninja landed around them.

Their leader was a slender and tall teenager with five jagged scars running from his left eye to the right side of his mouth. It looked almost as if someone had dragged a clawed hand over his face. Besides that, Minato noted how young they all were. The scared teenager was the oldest, but he couldn't be older than eighteen. His eyes were cool however, as he took in the spiral on Kinuto's forehead protector.

"What brings you here?" he asked and tilted his head to the left. His voice was smooth, but sounded as tired as the group felt. Some of the other chuunin were squatting down to rest, and Minato wondered what was going on for a patrol to look as if they hadn't slept for a week. Kinuto gazed over the small ragtag group of children and shook his head reluctantly.

"We're from Whilrpool. It's been overrun by Water. I was ordered by my superiors to bring these children to Konoha."

His tone was clipped and worn. It wasn't surprising. He had been carrying the youngest child, Kana, most of the way and kept an eye out for the others. Minato suspected he used caffeine pills liberally. The way he said children irked him, though, but it wasn't as if he could protest. He regarded the Konoha ninja, who looked genuinely shocked at what they heard.

"Are you sure? I mean, you are probably sure, you look like shit, no offence, but why haven't we heard anything?" one of the others asked, and the scarred teenager leading them gave the children a quick overall look and made a grimace. Probably because the next thing he did was to pick up a smelly, dirty six year old Kushina and motioning for the rest to follow suit. He turned to Kinuto, who handed the small Kana over when a female chuunin cooed over the sleeping girl.

"Report to the Sandaime Hokage at the Hokage Tower. You can't miss it; it is big with fire written on it. We'll bring the children to the hospital."

Minato was scoped up by a boy he vaguely recognized. He had black hair and black eyes, and a looked about as talkative as a clam. It took him a moment to realize he didn't recognize the person but the expression. The ninja had to be one of the Uchiha, and one closely related to Sasuke and Itachi, because he looked like them. He was taken back, however, when the young Uchiha smiled briefly and reassuringly. That was too foreign on the familiar facial structures to be anything close to their intent.

"Calm down kid, I'm not going to eat you," he teenager said as Minato squirmed. He couldn't help but feel intimidated by the proximity to a person with the same bloodline as the masked freak. He settled unwillingly, but wiped his face clean of any and all emotions and stared blankly at the Uchiha.

"Minato," he said glancing around. They were not running, but walking briskly. Perhaps the squad leader thought they would scare the children if they ran full speed to the village and the hospital. Kinuto was conversing quietly with the scarred leader. It was too quiet for anyone else to make out, but Minato could guess it was a summarized version of what had happened.

"What?" the Uchiha asked and blinked at the blond boy. Minato gave him a disarming smile.

"My name is Minato, it is nice to meet you mister," he said politely and tried a small bow. It wasn't easy when he was being held as tightly as he was. Again he was granted the small smile, and he had to wonder what was wrong with this Uchiha. He certainly smiled more than any he had known from that clan, but then again, he had only known three members. Two of them he had known as enemies and the third had tried to kill him more than once, so he was probably biased in his opinion.

"It is a pleasure to meet you too, Minato. How are you feeling?" The young man smiled amiably at the child, and hefted him a little so Minato could see his face better.

"I am fine I think, thank you for asking," Minato said with a small frown. He felt fine. Tired and sore, but that was to be expected. He had to start training this less than useful body as soon as possible. This didn't cut it. Being five years old was a drag. He still felt as if he was a dwarf and everything else was gigantic. It grated on his nerves. He teenager chuckled.

"I see. Well, they can tell for sure at the hospital. We have some of the best medics in Konoha. They can cure nearly anything."

Minato perked up. If his current means of transport was willing to talk, he might was well try to get some information from him. Enough to cover eventually slip ups on his part.

"Have you been there often?" he asked innocently, and the blue eyes looked curiously into black. The Uchiha smirked. Finally an expression Minato could relate to.

"A couple of times. I had to stay for a month once, when my left leg got stuck in an earth jutsu. It nearly squashed my entire leg bone," he said and Minato blinked.

"That sounds painful…. What is an earth jutsu?"

The wonders of inquisitive children. No one ever suspected them to have the brains to remember and understand everything they were told, but they asked anyway, and people answered. If they could be trained, and if it wasn't totally immoral, small children would have made the perfect spies. The Uchiha chuunin raised an eyebrow at the sudden question, but put it down to the fickleness of children.

"It is a ninja technique where the ninja manipulates the earth element," he answered, almost perfectly from the textbook. Minato nodded in understanding and regarded the ground they were walking on for a moment, as if in thought.

"So…. You can manipulate the air and the water as well? And fire?" he questioned, and the chuunin seemed to be pleased with his understanding.

"Yes, but there is also the lightning element. It isn't as common as the fire element in Konoha, though, but other countries have many lightning based techniques. All the five elements have their weaknesses and strengths, so it is smartest to learn some of all even if it might be difficult."

"Can I learn how to do it?" Minato continued and bit his lower lip for emphasis. The chuunin laughed heartily.

"If you want to be a ninja you can do it eventually, but it takes a lot of training to utilize any of the elemental techniques."

"Can you tell me how to be a ninja then?" he asked with large, blue eyes directed at the poor chuunin. The young man looked mildly uncomfortable with the pleading look.

"I don't think so, but you could attend the ninja Academy, and when you graduate you may become a ninja of Konoha. Why would you want to become a ninja anyway? It is dangerous and not nice at all…." He trailed off, and Minato had a distinct feeling that the Uchiha spoke from the heart this time. He was a bit touched that the unknown Uchiha felt somewhat protective of him even if they barely had met. Perhaps it was because he was a small child who looked too innocent for his own good.

"I want to have new friends, and I don't want them to die like mama. If I learnt to be a ninja, then I can look after them so they don't get killed, right?"

Again, the chuunin looked taken back, but he nodded all the same with a sad smile.

"I am sorry to hear about your mother. There are a lot of children in Konoha too who have lost their parents in the war, so you might some friends who will understand how it is. Even so, you seem older than you look…. How old are you?"

Minato smiled to cover up the dread he felt.

"Five, but I am a big boy. I can read and do math, and mama said I am really good at it."

The Uchina simply gave a solemn nod, and hid his amused smile. Minato put his easy acceptance down to the fact that he came from a clan who produced amazing child prodigies at random intervals. If the Uchiha clan could do it, why shouldn't others be able to do it as well? It was something they had spent hours pondering over in the future, but eventually Shikamaru had come up with a possible solution.

Some of it was thanks to their eyes. To copy techniques with a glance wad useful no matter how irritating it was to anyone else. Some, he suspected, was breeding. They bred ninja like the Inuzukas bred their dogs and trained their offspring from an early age. It was in their blood, so to speak, and meaning more than their special eyes. The last, and the part that had them howling with laughter, was the theory of the one tracked mind. Sakura had theorized that their mind was too one tracked to focus on more than one goal at the time, resulting in them spending all their time reaching for that one goal. It led them to wonder if they could 'cure' the Uchihas with confusion. Shikamaru said it was a bad idea; their brain might suffer from a complete meltdown as a consequence.

Minato didn't ask more about the ninjas after that. He looked around them at the life in Konoha during the second great ninja war. There were a lot more ninja's outside. He could see the black shadows of the ANBU leaping over their heads sometimes, making him believe they patrolled during daytime as well, and the constant reminder of the ninjas presence through the Uchiha police corps. He also saw the serious looks on everyone's faces, and one crowed where the people talked in hushed tones and were too immersed in their gossip to see the patrol coming back with a group of tattered young children. He could only guess that someone had died. It reminded him of how they had gathered together in the future whenever someone didn't make it.

Other than that, the streets and the houses looked almost identical to what he remembered. It was the same bright colors and wooden structures, the same smell of trees, earth and fresh air, mixed with the smells of fruit, spices and herbs from the marketplace, and food from the stands and restaurants. It made his stomach twist uncomfortably. He hadn't eaten anything but rabbit and the few berries and nuts he could find in the forest for ages. He really wanted something else, something he didn't have to hunt, slay and gut before preparing it.

The people buzzing around were tauntingly similar to how he had known it in his future life. They went on with their daily lives as best they could, and pretended not to live in a ninja village involved in a war. He wasn't sure if he should be impressed by their ability to ignore what they didn't like to think about, or disgusted because they obviously gossiped about the war and its happenings. At least they preserved, he muse in silence.

"What do you think of Konoha so far?" the chuunin asked and gave him another of his small smiles. Minato hummed.

"It seems…. Happy. People try to be happy here, even if they are sad, tired or afraid. I like that."

"We do. If we let the war get to us, we have already lost," he Uchiha said with conviction. He looked at the child again, and Minato was unsure of what to make of the penetrating gaze upon him. The Uchiha was clearly thinking about something, and he was wondering if it was something to do with him. He hoped not.

"What will happen to us?" Minato asked as they neared the hospital. He could see some nurses helping wounded ninja outside in the park, making sure they didn't overexert themselves or escape from the hospital before they were completely patched together again. There were more of them than he remembered from his other lifetime, but this was during a war, and he knew he hadn't seen the wounded in the civil war. He had spent most of his time in the forest, far away from their hide out.

The chuunin didn't react to his question at first, opting to watch what his team leader was doing, but as the man simply exchanged a few words with a nurse and waved at the children, he turned back to the child in his arms.

"The doctors are going to make sure you are healthy. You might have to spend the night here, but it isn't bad, whatever the ninja will tell you. We don't like it because it reminds us we are still only human and not invincible."

"What will we do tomorrow when we have spent the night here?" Minato persisted, much to the amusement of the chuunin.

"Tomorrow someone will come to ask you what happened to you, and then they will ask you what you want to do now. Maybe, if you are very lucky, the Hokage himself will come by to say hello to you and wish you welcome to Konoha."

"We can stay here and become ninja?" Minato asked with a spreading smile. The Uchiha nodded and smiled back, while ruffling his hair for good measure.

Minato was well aware that the 'ask you what happened to you' was a psychological evaluation to determine if they were traumatized or otherwise mentally unstable. Too bad for them he was, at the moment, a genius child wanting to prove something to them. A possible evil little Minato jumped up and down in his mind while rubbing his hands and letting out a sinister laugh.

The room they were let down in was the worst decorated room Minato had seen. Two lives combined. It was the children's waiting room at the hospital and thus suitably decorated with painted domestic animals at the walls, painted clouds on the roof, and an abundance of stuffed animals. The colors were bright and too cheery, the animals were smiling merrily in a way animals would never do and the other children were too loud. Minato sat down in a corner to play with a ball.

First he bounced it up and down just to be left alone. Then he remembered the rasengan and placed the ball in the palm of his small hand. It was too big and threatened to roll down, but after some juggling it stayed put. Minato tried to channel chakra like he remembered, but nothing happened. He tried again with the same depressing outcome. His chakra flared, true, but it didn't shape up the way he wanted it to. It didn't do anything like he wanted it to. He let out a sigh and glared at the ball. Stupid thing.

He tried again and again, but all which happened was that he gained the attention of the remaining chuunin. The girl raised an eyebrow at the boy who was currently glaring daggers at the ball, and chuckled.

"What are you trying to do?" she asked and sat down on her hunches in front of him. Minato hadn't anticipated anyone coming over to him, and lost his concentration. The ball fell from his hand and landed with a soft thud beside him before rolling to a stop in front of the girl. She smiled and picked it up.

"I wanted it to spin," he lied easily and was surprised at how easy the lie came to him. It wasn't a complete lie, so it might be that. It was a half lie, so it was partly true as well.

The girl smiled at his childish antiques and handed the ball back to him.

"How can you use chakra? You are only, what five or six years old?" she questioned, and Minato looked at her with the blankest expression he could muster.

"This?" he asked and summoned his chakra so he felt it swirl within him.

"Yes, that is chakra," he girl said and tilted her head while regarding him like a puzzle. Minato shrugged.

"I've done it for a long time, it is easy to do. Shouldn't I do it?" he asked and laced his voice with concern.

"Oh no! It is impressive, that is all. Most children your age isn't able to unlock their chakra. I just wondered how you could do it that is all."

She was quick to reassure him, and with that done she went back to watching the other children as well. Minato kept to his corner, cursing foxes and life in general before he cursed his lot in life specifically. If it wasn't for that, he would have lived his life and died like any other human being. But nooo, he had to have an age old, selfish demon sealed in him who simply refused to die and found some bizarre way to break every law of physics he could think of. Thanks to that, he was left in as a five year old with no ninja training and couldn't even mold his chakra outside of his body. Freaking wonderful.

Brooding in the small corner, and doing an amazing impression of his former best friend if he had known it, Minato didn't notice the girl sitting beside him. When he did, he wondered how long she had been there, and what she wanted.

He hadn't talked much with the other children as they traveled. It hadn't exactly been a picnic, and Kinuto had made sure they were as silent as it was humanly possible to be. Considering the age they were, they had been very silent.

When he first had heard their names, he regretted saying his name was Namikaze. After a while, however, he knew it was the right decision. He couldn't make himself remove Minato from history. The man had done incredible things, and he wanted to see if he could live up to that. If he would be able to make that name famed all over the Elemental countries again. Since he had taken the chance to do it from the real Minato, he would do it for him, wherever that adventure took him.

Kushina, he had noticed, was a though girl. She didn't complain like the others, she didn't cry at night, she didn't look disgusted when Kinuto hunted and returned with dead animals, but she did complain loudly about not being allowed to go with him, not being allowed to go as she liked and had to stay back no matter what, wouldn't understand that she was only six years old and wasn't as unbeatable as she thought she was, pouted when she didn't get her will and reminded him overall of himself the last time he was a child. Minato wondered why no one had strung him up in a lamp post and had him hang there until he matured somewhat. Could be because he would have been a ridiculously easy target for Akatsuki that way….

Oh, well, it was a good thing to know his spirit had been inherited and wasn't a subconscious suppressing reaction to the less then optimal environment he grew up in.

"Minato, what are you going to do?" she asked him out of the blue. He broke off his musings and furrowed his brow.

"I will become a ninja, so I'll stay here no matter what."

"Hey! We can become ninja together and be the most amazing team!" she said and jumped to her feet.

"We'll be like the legendary ninja! I heard they are the best ninja from Konoha!"

Minato did not want to be like the legendary ninja. Partly because he knew their destiny, at least from his time, and partly because he felt like that would be to copy his former life. He didn't feel like doing that. He had already walked down that path once, and it didn't turn out too well. He wasn't dead, but being sent back in time to his father's body wasn't what he'd classify as a success either.

"Uhm, well, we can be friends," he offered carefully. He was pretty sure he'd graduate sooner than her, and he had every intention of doing just that. Five year old body or not, his mind was that of an eighteen year old ninja. The girl didn't seem to care.

"I bet I'll be a better ninja then you!" Kushina gushed, and Minato almost saw a ghost of his former self over her. Oh good gods, it was going to be some long, long months until he could graduate.

I have tried to make an 'human' Uchiha. I don't think all of them were loners, Obito seemed like a great guy and while many makes him out to be a sort of outcast of his clan, I'd like to think they were mostly normal. My family is large, and none of us are similar in the least. One of my younger brothers is a real catastrophe and, as I use to say, a genetic experiment gone wrong. He is the sole reason I won't give Minato the toad contract in this story. He'll have another one. Don't worry, it won't be anything usual like the tiger or dragon contract. I was thinking either ibexes, leopards, scorpions or lynxes. As for what my brother did.... Well, he put frog spawn in my drink at a family gathering. Two of my cousins and I were slightly drunk (okay, we'd just come back from a party with friends from college, we were wasted) and we didn't notice. I've never sobered up faster, and I have never trusted anyone at a garden party after that. If you want to know what the animals over symbolises, you can check out my profile. I have a different development for each animal, based on what they stand for.