Yo everyone! I'm back, and giving you another chapter of Regret and Redemption. But first, I just want to point something out that an anonymous guest pointed out. While Naruto doesn't fully trust his mother, he and Kushina are still have their mother-son bond, which is strong. And another thing, if I ever make this a Naruhina pairing, which I haven't decided yet, please don't try to flame me, or hunt me down, kill me, rip open my guts and other unspeakable you may do unto me.

Now, if we're done...on with the show!

Chapter 4

A Painful Reminder

Minato stood in the doorway as he saw his son's expression, a mixture of shock, fear, and anger. The current Hokage knew, full well, what that look meant.

"Naruto-," he began only to be cut off as said blonde Jinchuriki slammed into him, and knocked to the floor, a snarl of anger on his face.

"YOU BASTARD!" he shouted, and then proceeded to punch him in the face. Minato didn't do anything, knowing Naruto needed this, and that he deserved it. Kushina watched in shock as her son began beating her husband. She wanted to stop her prodigal son, but noticed that Minato didn't make a move to protect himself, as Naruto continued to land punch, after punch, after punch.

"You piece of shit! How dare you show your face in front of me! I hate you! I HATE YOU!" he shouted, as with each word he delivered a punch.

He was so focused on beating the daylights out of his father, he didn't notice two people coming into the house.

Five minutes before

Yuugao, and Kairi had arrived at the gate to the Uzumaki/Namikaze household. As Kairi opened the gates which were locked via fuinjutsu, they proceeded to walk up the stone path, before Kairi stopped a few feet from the door.

Yuugao took notice of this, and turned her head.

"What is it?" she asked.

Kairi held the package to herself, as she began to think of the many possible reactions Naruto would make after she gives her birthday gift to him. One of them being him screaming at her, and then throwing the gift into the trash, or taking it outside and setting it on fire. All of this possible outcomes in her mind not pleasant.

"I'm...I'm afraid what would happen if I hand Naruto's gift personally to him, and what his reaction would be," she said, "I can see many outcomes, and not all of them good,"

Yuugao looked at her sensei's daughter, and understood what she was thinking. If Kairi tried to give her present to Naruto in his current mental state, things were bound to get ugly. She then thought of what could be done, until a realization hit her.

"Did you sign the present was from you?" the ANBU captain asked, and Kairi shook her head.

"No, I didn't," she said, and then raised a brow, "What are you planning Neko-san?"

Yuugao smiled behind her mask, "Let me see the present," she said, with a serious tone, and Kairi, with slight hesitation, gave the purple haired woman the present.

"I'll place this on the living room table," Yuugao said, "When Naruto finds it, I'll tell him that it was from a secret friend who still cared about him. When he's calmed down, and forgives you, then you can tell him it's from you,"

Kairi nodded at that idea, thinking it was better for Naruto to think it was from an anonymous stranger, then from a sibling he was currently on bad terms with.

"Good idea, thanks Neko-san," she said, and the older woman nodded.

The two then proceeded to the door, and just after turning the knob, and opening the door, they heard sounds of shouting and fists meeting flesh.

Reacting immediately, Yuugao headed for the source, after putting the parcel down in the living room table, with Kairi not far behind. With quick speed, the ANBU raced up the stairs, and her eyes widened at seeing her surrogate little brother beating his father's face.

Not missing a beat, she rushed over and grabbed the enraged Jinchuriki.

"Naruto! Stop!" she yelled, as the young boy struggled in her arms, "That's enough Otouto! You're going to kill him!"

Her shouts snapped Kushina out of her stupor and she immediately went to help calm her son down.

"Naru-chan! Please calm down!" She pleaded with him, "I know you're angry with your father, but please understand! He regretted everything he did in the past, and he just wants to make amends!"

Naruto, after hearing his mother's and the Neko-masked ANBU's voice, began to calm down, as the two women took him over to the bed, with the former running her fingers through his hair.

"Easy Naruto, just calm down," Kushina said softly as Naruto's anger simmered down, and his eyes began to water as years of pain began to break out. Yugao sat on the other side of the Jinchuriki rubbing the boy's back, her own eyes holding a dash of sadness for the young man.

As the two women calmed Naruto down. Minato, who was being helped by Kairi, managed to sit up against the wall. His face was bruised, he had one black eye, and his nose was bleeding.

'Ouch! That actually hurt!' he thought as he looked as his wife and Yugao as they finally calmed his son, 'But, that's what I deserved,'

Kairi brought a wet towel after leaving her father, and used it to stop his father's bleeding nose.

'Wow, Aniki really did a number on Tou-san,' she thought, and then turned towards her brother, who was being comforted by Neko and her mother, and knew that things were going to be hectic on the road to redemption. She could only sigh at that.

'Nobody said it was going to be easy,'

Meanwhile

At an undisclosed location

In the secret ROOT Base, all was dark and quiet as Danzo Shimura, former friend and rival of the Sandaime Hokage, and the Shinobi Elders, along with a few of the civilian council were in one of the meeting rooms discussing the Yondaime's current decisions. And all of them were not happy about it.

"I can't believe the nerve of that brat!" Ozama said in anger, "He banned us not only from the council meetings, but from all shinobi related affairs!"

"It's worse! He cut all the funding to the projects we were building to Retired Shinobi benefits, the Ninja Academy, and to the orphanage!" said another, "Who cares about all that shit! They're useless to this village!"

Abi was glaring at the table as she thought about what happened when she told her brother what had happened.

"My foolish brother is in complete agreement with Minato," she said, "And that whore Mebuki isn't helping things either," she then gave an evil smirk, "Luckily for me, I still managed to get Sakura on my side. And I have you to thank for that, Danzo-sama,"

Said Warhawk nodded at that, knowing he helped the tone-death woman corrupt the young girl to their side with the help of Genjutsu and mind-control seals.

"What can we do? Minato has the demon-brat protected by ANBU squads, and starting next week, he'll be in the Academy! Our plans to rule the village are in jepoardy!" another council member panicked.

"Enough! This is only a minor setback," said Koharu, "We may have lost most of our control of the shinobi side, but the civilians are still on our side,"

Homura looked at his former teammate with a frown, "What about Fugaku and the Uchiha Clan. It's true he still has a grudge against the Jinchuriki, but he won't side with us considering we placed them on the outskirts of the village," he said, "And there's still the rumor of the coup,"

It was then Danzo spoke, "I will deal with the Uchiha Clan. You all just don't anything to draw attention to yourselves,"

The others looked at him mostly with scrutiny.

"And how are you planning on doing that?" said the last civilian.

Danzo, said nothing at first before he stood up.

"How else? By using my ROOT ANBU I will eliminate over two thirds of the clan," he said, causing the others to gape in shock at this.

"Are you out of your mind, Danzo!?" said Ozama, "Two thirds of the Uchiha Clan make up the entire Military Police force! And wiping out two thirds means that it cripples our Shinobi Forces!"

Danzo's uncovered eye looked at the squawking civilian with contempt.

"An organization within our village can be rebuilt," he said confidently, "But with non-Uchiha clansmen. The Second Hokage was a fool to entrust them with that honor,"

The others weren't too sure about that.

"If you do this Danzo, you would be forced to leave the village and go underground," Homura said, and the crippled elder man's face kept stoic.

"Even if I'm in exile, I will one day return and take what is rightfully mine," he said, "And under my banner, Konoha will grow strong and conquer it's enemies. Now if you will all excuse, I have preparations to attend to,"

With that he left the still gaping Elders and Civilians.

"Is he out of his mind? By nearly wiping out the Uchiha, we will lose our only support among the Ninja Clans," said Tamaki Omaeda, clearly not supportive of this.

The Shinobi Elders sighed at this.

"It's pointless. Whenever Danzo makes a plan, he sticks with it, no matter the protest," Homura said.

Unbeknownst to the group however, a shadowy figure that was watching the whole spectacle take place disappeared.

As Danzo was walking through the halls of his headquarters, he stopped as he sensed a presence.

"So, you show yourself to me again," he said, "After all these years, your skills have not dwindled...Tobi,"

With that said, a figure came out of the shadows, dressed in a black hooded cloak, and wearing a orange spiraled mask.

"I see you're planning on initiating your Plan B after your first plan failed," he said, causing said Elder to narrow his eye at the Masked Man.

"Watch your mouth. If you had done your mission, right, that despicable excuse of a Yondaime and his jinchuriki whore of a wife would be dead, and I would've had the perfect weapon while having their daughter sent far away from Konoha," Danzo growled, and he could see the eye in the hole of the mask narrow at that.

"I underestimated, Minato. And you shouldn't either," Tobi said, "Even with Shisui's eye that I handed personally to you, as well as the other Sharingan eyes, Minato will counter the effects of the Koatsumaki and the Izanagi. If you rely too much on them, your downfall will be swift,"

Danzo didn't say anything, but inside he was furious that this whelp was advising him how to use his power.

"Now if you excuse me. I have an organization to manipulate," he said as he began to melt into the shadows, "Oh. And good luck with massacring the Uchiha, I'm sure you will have fun collecting more Sharingan Eyes for your arm,"

With a chuckle, Tobi fully disappeared.

Danzo silently glared at the spot where Tobi disappeared to and continued on in order to prepare his plan.

'Just you wait, Minato. Your child will be my weapon, and I will be Hokage. Since you made the mistake of neglecting your only son, he will deny everything you offer him, because he only sees you as the one who caused him pain,' he thought, as the slightest hint of a smirk appeared, 'And when he attempts to run away again, I will be there,'

3 Blocks from the Uzumaki/Namikaze House

An orange blur zipped from one place to another, hiding so as to keep itself undetected. Shippo had managed to wait until the guard shift changed, and snuck inside sticking to the shadows and bushes to remain hidden. He hadn't expected Konoha to be so big, many of the other human villages he and Naruto had been to were small compared to Konoha.

'Then again,' Shippo thought, 'We always stayed away from big cities and larger villages,'

As he continued on he caught his best friend's scent and began to follow it, being careful to avoid villagers and ninja alike. He followed the scent toward the east, where there were more trees than anywhere else in the village. He followed the path, until it came upon a two story house, with a stone fence around it. He saw the gate was open, and without moved and trotted up the stone path toward the door, which curiously was also left open.

This time being cautious the Fox Yoko crept throught the house, and looking around for any sign of an ambush. He also noticed how nice the was. His ears then twitched as he heard a familiar sound.

Crying.

And it's voice was Naruto's.

Following the sound up the stairs, he stopped as he saw a man who looked a older version of Naruto whose face was bruised, and blood was leaking from his nose, as a girl helped him with his injuries. He then slowly moved toward th open door and looked inside, and his eyes widen seeing Naruto, with two women beside him.

"Naruto," he said, but then his instincts kicked in as he slowly turned around and saw the red headed girl, looking at him like a confused owl.

'Oh crap! What do I do!? What do I do!?' he thought panickedly.

Kairi was looking at the fox kit, that somehow got into the house, and could only do one thing.

"KYAA!" she screamed, catching everyone's attention.

Shippo could only do one thing and ran in the room and jump into Naruto's lap. Said boy blinked in confusion, but they widened at who it was.

"Shippo?" he said, as thefox looked up and blinked before smiling.

"He-," he said before Naruto clamped down on the little fox's snout, giving him a look that clearly said, 'no talking' before Naruto brought the yoko into a hug.

"Hey buddy. What took ya so long?" he said said, happy that his friend who had been with him for two years, finally found him.

And another chapter down! I assume many of you are getting tired of these short chapters, but unfortunately, I prefer to write this kind of story in short but detailed chapters. Hopefully as I go along, I'll be beyon the 3,000 marker. But in the meantime, as Master Yoda would say: size matters not.

Until next time!