The next few days of Naruto's two week hospital stay dragged on. And on. AND ON. Seriously, when you're literally a few days old, there really isn't much you can do. Mostly, Naruto just slept and visited Kyuubi whenever his mom wasn't holding him, or when his dad dropped in for a general max of two minutes to say hello.

From what the nurses, his mother, and various other visitors were saying, the reconstruction of the village was going very well. As to be expected, Minato had created about a hundred bunshin who were helping out wherever possible. Naruto knew that the fox hadn't breached the main wall, but the surrounding towns and dwellings had been razed to the ground. Not to mention the clearing of the gory battlefield was the biggest task. Despite families holding funerary services and grieving over their loved ones as they struggled to rebuild their livelihoods and happiness, Konoha was slowly regaining its former glory. His mother predicted that the village would be back on its feet in about six months.

"Hey little guy, guess what?" asked Kushina as she picked Naruto out of the crib. "We're going home tomorrow! You get to see the house, and your very own room! I'm sure you're very excited right?"

Naruto smiled and giggled, eliciting Kushina to make some funny faces at him... he couldn't help himself but to roar with laughter. It didn't help that tickling got involved... and defending himself against the terrible onslaught of laughter was nigh impossible with stubby legs and feet...

His kaasan was true to her word, and the next day, Minato came in with a few warm blankets to keep the baby warm against the pre-November chill.

Relieved to be finally getting out of the hospital, Naruto made sure to laugh and giggle a lot when they were leaving, though he found that keeping up the charade of 'the happy baby' wasn't as hard as he thought. By nature Naruto was a fun-loving hyperactive person... so add the fact that for the first time he actually had parents whose lives now centered around him... and you get the picture.

"You know," started Kushina, speaking to Minato, as they walked down the boulevard outside the hospital, "he hasn't cried at all during our stay. The nurses and I can't tell if he's hungry or not, because he's so quiet."

"Really? Is that normal? I always thought that babies cried all the time. Should we get that checked?" wondered a curious Minato, who peered at his son with a scrutinizing eye.

"Hey Kyuub's is this gonna be a problem? Do you think they're always going to wonder like this... because if they are... my life isn't going to be very easy convincing them of what I'm supposed to be..."Naruto trailed off... realizing that the fox wasn't listening to him. "Damn kitsune... takin' a nap..."

"Nah, I think he's just a happy baby, aren't you Naru-chan?" smiled Kushina, lifting Naruto up into the air and bouncing him around.

She was given a response with a happy shriek.

"See?"

"Yeah, but he's also really responsive! Is that normal? He seems really alert..."

"What do you mean?" asked Kushina, intrigued.

"Hey Naru-chan," said Minato, looking at Naruto mischievously, "are you going to be the best ninja in the world?"

"It's showtime!" thought Naruto. "So what if they suspect... they'll be thrilled I'm a GENIUS!!! BAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHHAHAHAHAH~!"

He nodded his head and grinned. Both his parents stopped dead in their tracks.

"Do you love tousan and kaasan?" inquired Kushina. Another, more vigorous, nod and grin from Naru-chan.

"Do you like sleeping in the hospital?" asked the elder blonde. A very vigorous and deliberate shake of the head, indicating a 'no'.

"Can you understand everything we're saying?" asked an excited kaasan.

Naruto cocked his head in his best impression of a confused expression. He figured that was enough show for today. He didn't want his parents to know much about the possibility of a prodigy child. Not yet, anyway. They could just pass off the other answers as random. His parents looked at each other, smiled and debated how he could be doing that. Minato seemed wary... but undeniably happy. Kushina didn't think too much of it.

After another three minutes of leisurely walking and mild chat about village goings-on, they came to the edge of a wooded area Naruto had never been before... but was surprised he hadn't; the trees were enormous here! They veered left onto a wide, well-used path. The beginning of the path had a marker stone engraved with "Namikaze" in kanji with a whirl seal at the bottom.

Another minute and they entered into a small, one-acre field with a two-story house next to a large lake; a canopy of the titanic trees shadowing all but the centermost part of the lake. The dark green house wasn't overly large, but was fairly well-sized, with a wrap-around porch and balcony looking over the water, tucked inconspicuously on the edge of the forest. The Hokage tower was only a few miles away, but the location of the house was well planned for defense; the natural features of the trees and flat surface of the lake allowed for a solid barrier, and an easy place to see your enemies as they approached. An impressive tactical plan in Naruto's opinion, realizing that the hokage was must have this kind of protection as default. Naruto remembered all too clearly the urgency associated with naming a Godaime Hokage after the Oto-Suna attack on the main village under the ruse of the Chuunin exams.

The path narrowed as it inclined upwards towards the house's perch, and soon the family lept lightly up the short steps to the front door. Naruto watched with interest and awe as Minato took out a slip of paper with a seal and pressed it to door's center. Seal markings appeared all over the exterior of the house and glowed blue for a few seconds before a deadbolt unlocked.

There was a pause as the Yellow Flash rummaged around in his coat for some object, giving Naruto the opportunity to marvel at what was going on.

"This is where I should have grown up... instead of that dingy apartment. I should have had the parents I deserved," Naruto thought glumly. But with a shock of the nature of the situation around him, Naruto sucked in a ragged and involuntary gasp. It felt like his eyes were opening for the first time. This place was where his real childhood would begin, unhampered by the evils of the angry villagers. This wwould be his the place he would come home to after missions. Even though he was technically seventeen, with no need for emotional comforts, this new experience... new place... "This is... home."

Minato found the object he was looking for, pulling out a small, ordinary house key and opened another lock, and slid the door on its tracks to the left, literally opening the door to a new chapter in Naruto's restarted life.

But before he could try to drink in the homey-feel of the house he was about to step into for the first time, an immense dark red blur shot out from the doorway, tackling his mother to the ground with a thump onto the cedar porch deck.

"Oof! Akira, what's up?" grunted Kushina in greeting, to watever it was that had caught her off guard.

"'Shina-taichou, where were you? Where's the baby? What happened to Kyuubi? TELL ME! That damn ANBU-brat won't tell me anything! C'mon! C'mon!" said a rough female voice, whose demanding impatience grated on Naruto's nerves. How dare this intruder mess with his long awaited home-coming? Ironic really, Naruto remembered himself being a rambunctious kid when he was younger... did he used to sound like that? Surely not.

"In order," Naruto heard Kushina say as she pushed the thing off and stood up, "I was in the hospital, Minato's holding the baby, and Minato sealed the bastard, all like we discussed. Where is Tiger anyway?"

"I don't know probably double checking on some seal that's already fine— let me see the baby!!!" demanded the supposed 'Akira'.

"Okay, okay! Calm down and I'll explain everything later," said Kushina, taking Naruto from Minato (who rolled his eyes as if this happened everyday). "This is Naruto."

Kushina gingerly placed him into two large furry... paws?

Curiosity overwhelming his irritation, Naruto twisted around in his blanket to stare a red, five foot tall fox sitting on its haunches. Naruto's eyes widened in surprise when he saw the red Uzumaki clan symbol on the back of a giant, dark blue cloth band covering his torso and midsection. Mentally arching an eyebrow, Naruto pondered this significance. This Akira was either a summon animal, or something like an Inuzuka fighting partner, but Naruto had never heard of something like that for an Uzumaki... so much as he knew, it wasn't even a real clan, just a last name and a crest of the swirl adopted from the old Uzu village. But it seemed like this fox was taking up residence here... and hadn't been summoned. He eyed the Konoha hiate tied under the foxes ears curiously. Naruto supposed he would find out eventually.

"OOO! He's so cute! He looks just like Minato! And," Akira smiled a foxy grin (oh the irony), "he's got fully developed chakra! So special at such a young age! You know that's pretty rare among fox kits!"

At this last comment, both Minato and Kushina's jaws dropped to the floor.

"He WHAT?" asked a very bewildered Kushina.

"I've got fully developed chakra?" thought Naruto. "Does this have something to do with the time-conversion from the seal?"

"MHMM. Chakra is the mixing of physical and spiritual bodies. You have a seventeen year old soul. You have a body. You have chakra."

"Thanks Kyuub's,"

"Oh yes, he definitely has very well-developed chakra, he must be a soul that's been around the reincarnation cycle awhile. I can tell. Here see for yourself! He'll be a perfect ninja one day," Akira said happily, as she handed Naruto back to Kushina.

"You have no idea," thought Naruto, thinking of the seal and how old he technically was.

Kushina formed an awkward hand sign and put three fingers on his bare stomach.

"HOLY SHIT! Minato, tell me, is THAT normal?" asked a very bewildered and nervous Kushina. Her eyes were wide and upset, as she looked over Naruto, locking gazes and peering into his (posed) innocent eyes with worry. Naruto shifted uncomforably around, running through scenarios for what might happen with this new information... plus what his father had said earlier about his alertness...

"I'll ask Jiraiya. I'm certain it doesn't have to do with … uh… the seal," Minato reassured Kushina, sounding very confident in his opinion. He did make the seal after all. "Besides, he is a Namikaze... but I'm not sure about the complete part..."

"Oh great. They might think I'm Kyuubi… just great."

The two humans and one fox walked over to a few plastic chairs on the porch and sat down. It wasn't a nice day outside, a little chilly and overcast, but Naruto was still bursting with happiness and excitement... he wanted to get inside so that he could see the house he was destined to live in... previous life or no. Instead, Naruto had to be patient as his parents filled the attentive fox in on everything that had happened while they were away from the house for, apparently, awhile. Naruto wondered why Akira, who seemed to focus most of her attention on Kushina hadn't been a part of fighting the Kyuubi.

"So pretty much, we've got a happy ending, or beginning," said the fox, thinking of Naruto.

"Yeah I guess! Hey, let's go show Naru-chan his room!" Kushina said, excitedly.

"FINALLY!"

They all stood up and traipsed across the threshold and into a little reception parlor, with a curved staircase in the right hand corner dissappearing upwards to another level set into the wall. A simple rug covered a fraction of the hardwooded floor area preluding an open entrance into a spacious dojo. There were plants everywhere. Hanging ferns in windows, tidy potted plants stuffed onto every available surface, even a rectangular-shaped drop off in the middle of the room filled with soil for an indoor garden. Naruto glanced up at the ceiling, which was apparently made of glass; perfect for providing all the photosynthesizing plants with a light source.

Naruto was carried up the stairs onto the second floor, where he could look over the landing and see the front entrance, the entire parlor, and all the many plants creeping up towards the light. The hallway they passed into had lots of other doors, but they turned left and soon ended up in the coolest room Naruto had ever seen. It really didn't look like a baby's room at all, probably his mother's influence, who didn't seem like the person to go all goo-goo-gaga. In fact, it looked more like a teenager's room, which suited Naruto just fine. The walls were painted a soft orange, with a light blue carpet. In one corner was a white, wooden crib with lots of orange blankets. In the other corner was a queen-sized bed with the Namikaze swirl on the light blue comforter. Naruto thought that the orange and yellow shams were an excellent touch.

"Perfect!" he thought as he smiled and gurgled with his baby voice box. "I can't believe this is finally happening! I can't think of all the times I've sat on the old man's head at the tower and dreamed about this..."

"I guess he likes it!" said Minato.


For the next four years, Minato and Kushina were continually surprised by their son's remarkable progress. They quickly learned that their Naru-chan was not to be classified as normal. And every time something out of the ordinary happened, their amazement in their son increased tenfold.

Three days after Naruto's arrival at the Namikaze household, unidentifiable enemy ninjas decided to take advantage of the weakened village border defenses, and while Minato was away one night working late at the office, they had breeched the seal and infiltrated the Namikaze residence with the intent to murder Naruto. They were swiftly killed by a very, VERY, pissed off Minato, who had Hiraishin'ed to the scene when he felt the seal breaking, but they were already under a form of genjutsu when he arrived. Following the incident, Naruto's crib was moved into Minato and Kushina's room until he was older. The parental unit still had their suspicions, but a young Itachi Uchiha had done something similar when he was younger, so they didn't let it worry them overmuch.

As time went on by, more and more interesting occurences involving Naruto confounded all that the little blondie came into contact with. Eventually, everyone who had a part in taking care of Naruto had a story to tell... all of them having some kind of fantastic event to make friends laugh... mostly at their own expense.

Whenever Kushina needed to go into town and Minato couldn't babysit, they had Kakashi or Jiraiya come over, although the former more often because Kushina didn't really trust the influence Minato's old teacher might have on her perfect son. On one particular occasion, when the house's ANBU guardian Tiger was away on a mission and Kakashi was babysitting, Minato had come home before Kushina to find a pink-haired Hatake. Literally. When asked what had transpired, Kakashi said nothing, but instead glared at a wet, stark naked blonde baby crawling around on the ceiling.

"Baby. Bath. Paint can. Door. Figure it out."

"How the hell is he doing that?" Minato wondered aloud, his head thrown back to get a better look at his son's progress across the glass skylight.

"Beats me. You know how his chakra's fully developed? Did you teach him to do that?" fumed Kakashi.

"No that's not what I meant, where did he get the paint... ?"

Afterwards, Naruto's caretakers learned that when looking for a certain yellow-haired baby (especially around the hated bathtime), you'd do well to look on the ceilings, walls, behind cabinets, inside jackets, under comforters, under the sofa, and in Akira's nest.

To this day, Kakashi's hair has dark pink roots if you look carefully. The stuff never really quite washed out...


In a later instance of Naruto's 'genius', when he was about seven months old, Jiraiya was graced with the honor of hearing Naruto's first word.

"Wervwert."

Jiraiya looked up from his newest porno—erm... romance novel that he was reading while Naruto was eating.

"What did you say Naruto?"

"I swaid pwervert."

Jiraiya, still looking confused, asked the little blondie again to repeat it one more time.

Naruto scrunched up his face in concentration.

"Pervwert!"

This time, Jiraiya got the message, and he picked up the giggling blonde and whisked him off to the Hokage's office at top speed.

"Your. Son just. First said. Word his?" tried Jiraiya who was still shocked and bewildered.

It seemed that Minato took the words and reformed them in a correct grammatical structure on his own, because he looked at Naruto eagerly.

"Can you repeat what you just said to Jiraiya for tousan?"

Naruto promptly turned around and blurted into Jiraiya's face:

"Pervert!"

Thus, Naruto's first word was not 'mama' or 'dada' it was: Pervert.

Needless to say, there was some howling with laughter on Minato's part.


Minato started to notice disappearing shurikken and kunai that would miraculously end up stuffed in plants, under Naruto's bed, or inside the china cabinet. Minato also learned first hand that any object smaller than Naruto's little fist could and would be thrown with deadly accuracy. All sharp, pointy objects were henceforth banned from Naruto's line of sight.

One day when Naruto was three, with no available babysitter around, Minato had no choice but to bring him to the office. Unfortunately, he was having a big, important, formal meeting with the Mizukage from Kirigakure, so Minato had to dress Naruto up in a formal kimono. Naruto rolled his eyes at the garment, but wore it all the same because it meant he would be able to get out of the house for a glimmer of what a hokage had to do. It was black with an orange print of embroidered daffodils his mother had bought for him. As they walked around Konoha later in the day, a few of the villagers who knew who he was and weren't fox-haters squealed at his cuteness. When they arrived at the meeting place, his tousan told him to sit in the far corner next to the elders and not say anything, with his back straight and absolutely no fidgeting. When the Mizukage, recognizing Naruto immediately as the Leaf's Jinchuuriki from his black whisker marks, commented how well-behaved he was, the elders decided that the blondie would be in attendance to key diplomatic meetings because of this influence.

One time, in December, Minato and the Yondaime Kazekage were trying to set up security around a new, key section of a Konoha/Suna border, but couldn't figure out a way to do it within the limited budget of the two hidden villages. Rolling his eyes, Naruto remembered the plan that he helped make so long ago for Konoha for this exact area when the old hag and Gaara were trying to fix the same spot.

Before anyone could say anything, Naruto stood and moved to the table with the small strategy pieces that represented platoons. He rearranged the pieces into the simplest and most effective plan, ignoring the glare he was getting from his father.

"Hokage-sama, is this your child?" asked the Kazekage in monotone. The Yondaime Kazekage looked over at Naruto with mild interest, recognition flashing in his eyes as he too, like the Mizukage, realized who and what Naruto was.

Naruto returned the look with blank stare. He was all too aware that unlike the Yondaime Hokage, this Kazekage had intentionally sought out to turn his third son into a Jinchuuriki. Deeply, Naruto didn't care if it was for the protection of the village or for jealousy of the power of Naruto's bijuu that drove him to make Gaara into a vessel. All he saw was a strategian with a ruthless heart.

"Gaara... just hold on... I'll think of something to save you from the pain they're causing you! Now that's a promise!" thought Naruto bitterly.

"Yes, he is," Minato replied. "NARUTO! No ramen for a we—"

"Absolutely genius," stated the Kazekage, breaking Minato's thought.

Sure enough, Minato looked down and studied the pieces, astounded to find them in a formation that fit all the criteria he had set out to meet... really the new plan was flawless.

Minato glanced at Naruto, who had resumed his position next to his father on a cushion, and smiled at him. He received a bright, toothy smile back, from the adorable three-year-old.

The council amped up their demand that Naruto go with Minato wherever there was any kind of foreign diplomacy mission, in or out of Konohagakure.

Unfortunately, this little stunt earned Naruto a boost on his already growing reputation in and out of the village.

"Did you know that the Hokage's son, Namikaze Naruto, is three and he can already read and speak? He's also got fully developed chakra!"

"Yeah! Didn't you hear though? He helped with some strategy when two Kage couldn't!"

"NO WAY!"


Kushina learned that little Haruno Sakura loved messing with her son's hair. Whenever she and Mrs. Haruno would visit, they would bring their respective child over for a play date while they chatted about missions and village happenings. Naruto would sit on the floor, immobile, while Sakura stood and flittered around the blondie, putting little bows and ribbons in the yellow mess, especially on his little side-bangs that he seemed to have inherited from his father. She didn't know how he put up with the constant brushing or pulling.

Naruto loved playing with little Hyuuga Hinata, who was quite small for being only two months younger. Hinata also seemed to have a thing for Naruto. Whenever someone would come in through the front door to report to Minato (which happened all the time), she would scamper behind Naruto, who would sit up and smile at the newcomer. Naruto always gave his little "'Nata-chan" a hug before she left with her mom. Kushina was already having devious thoughts.

"Namikaze Hinata, huh? Or even Namikaze Sakura? Ooo… maybe even Inoichi's little girl… Namikaze Ino?" chuckled the maniac mama fox.

But, the cutest thing by far was when Naruto's 'best friend evar' came over. Kushina learned that little Uchiha Sasuke and Uchiha Itachi, like the other children loved playing with her son. When her good friend Mikoto would come over for tea, she would bring both boys. While Naruto seemed a little wary of Itachi, he played random games with both boys for the duration of the visit. Mostly with Sasuke though, because Itachi, even at five, stood a good distance and observed them, despite Naruto's inclusion of everyone. Naruto brought out the best in Sasuke, with his rambunctious and ever-active behavior, he started to leave a mark on the little Sasuke, who (according to Mikoto) smiled and even laughed the most around Naruto. Which reassured Mikoto about her childrens' happiness... unlike most Uchiha, she was not the cold bastard type.

There was one particular day when Nara Shikamaru, Inuzuka Kiba, Naruto and Sasuke were all put together in one room. When the parents came back two hours later, they found Naruto sprawled in Sasuke's lap, Shikamaru lying closely by his other side, Kiba's head on Shikamaru, and tiny Akamaru draped across Shikamaru's nose. All completely knocked out in slumber.

All parental units dropped what they were carrying and scrambled for a camera. Shouts of "OMG KAWAII!" were heard all over the village. When a similar incident happened with Naruto, Hinata, and Sakura—Kushina nearly died from all the cuteness.


Akira, the wily fox, learned more than anyone about our hyperactive protagonist. Now that he thought about it, Naruto figured that the fox had more suspicions than anyone... she was of course the first one to notice his abnormal chakra patterns. Naruto's worry that the ever-so-sly kitsune would find out more than was completely necessary was confirmed the night of his fourth birthday.

He had gone to sleep just like any other night, but instead of dreaming normally, he appeared in his mindscape. With a visitor.

"Akira?" asked Naruto, fully aware that he could see his true form.

"Yeah. So… care to explain why your soul is seventeen years older?" she asked with an eyebrow raised. "I'm sure this has something to do with the Sealate Warpein am I right?"

"AND WHO THE BLOODY HELL ARE YOU?" growled Kyuubi, his red eyes narrowed.

"My name is Akira Uzukitsune. I am the partner fox of Uzumaki Kushina," replied Akira as she glared at the great demon, "and I assume you are the Nine-tailed fox, Kyuubi-sama?"

"Damn straight." retorted the giant demon, clearly pleased that his subordinate species knew people to be respected when she saw one.

"I thought something like this might have happened when your father told me about an indefinite period of time that the seal went on before activating. I had my suspicions when you started doing things no ordinary child could do... like clinging to walls and ceilings for hours on end... with reasonable chakra control. Your chakra reserves are immense, and I can see in your eyes that you are a lot more that what your parents see. Probably a pretty powerful shinobi in your day I reckon, am I right? Tell me, who was your fox blood partner, Uzumaki Naruto?"

Naruto raised an eyebrow at the use of his former surname. "It's Namikaze. And I never had one."

Akira nodded in approval. "Good. Eventually, your mother will want you to bond with one of us... she is already thinking about it, because the little Inuzuka child recieved his dog blood partner awhile ago. If you had already bonded to a fox in your old world, we would have had a problem. Your soul can only bond once." intoned the smaller fox. Her words had a weight of foreboding in them. "But it's pointless to mull it over now... I shall keep your secret for you. Too many troublesome questions will rob your poor parents of the peace of mind they sorely need."

"I vaguely remember saying something similar to my kit here..." drawled Kyuubi.


Five-year-old Naruto opened his eyes again and stretched where he lay in the grass. He found it amusing to reminisce about his happy life with his parents. To him, all these changes of being loved and adored unconditionally by so many people was still like a waking dream... at times it seemed all too unreal, though he knew it was perfectly complete. As if to prove his theory, he rolled over in the turf and sunk his hand into the water at the edge of the lake; a small tadpole swimming up and sampling his finger with a little sucker.

Naruto's attention wandered to more recent memories. Like the war with Cloud. Even before the Kyuubi had attacked, Kumogakure and their allies were hell bent on the destruction of Konoha, for some trivial reason. For a long time, skirmishes between Cloud and Fire shinobi had been going on for a long time, but in more recent months, whole armies of clound nins were being sent to the Fire borders. After much reluctance on what was going to happen, Naruto's tousan had no choice but to enter the fighting himself when at least seventy Konoha shinobi were lost in a single battle. Angered, the Yondaime Hokage somberly reminded the world of why he was named Konoha no Kiiroi Senkō or Konoha's Yellow Flash. After decimating more than half of the cloud, Kumo surrendered, sending their own hero to Konoha to sign peace treaties. But Naruto knew better about this hero and knew full well what the real target of the armstice was aiming for. He had snuck out of the house and kept watch at the Hyuuga compound for a night, when sure enough, the idiot came and tried to kidnap poor Hinata-chan.

As it happened, Narutoonly had to observe, as Hizashi, just as how it had been in the old world, came to his niece's rescue, killing the intruder with a quick Gentle Fist technique. Naruto had gone back home, and here he was, lying on the grass in his black and orange kimono, waiting for his dad to call him for the up and coming meeting. Now that he thought back on the whole incident, Naruto had considered intervening, and keeping Hizashi from killing the hero... but that would have risked exposing himself.

"Ready to go, Naru-chan?"

Naruto rolled over and sprang to his feet. Even for all his previous skill and senses, his dad always managed to sneak up on him. Grinning warily at his dad, he nodded the affirmative. Minato could only watch in happiness as his son grinned back at him. Naruto took his father's outstretched hand, and they shunshin'ed to the ornate meeting room. As always, it was furnished to impress and intimidate. The hokage sitting on a cushion behind a screen, with the council members around him, and his adorable son in his cross-legged lap.

At a silent nod from Minato, the ANBU pulled back the sliding screen door to allow in the Kumo embassy, who were also dressed in the formal kimonos this kind of situation demanded. Naruto watched as all but the leader looked at his dad with poorly concealed fear. The leader, a tall and thin man, however, stared directly at Naruto with a malice trumped only by the Kyuubi himself. Not that this affected Naruto. He cocked his head to the side and sniffed the air, allowing the leader to fully see his whisker marks and scrutinizing gaze. The gesture only seemed to bolster the leader's inspection of the small blonde.

"I suggest you stop looking at me like that before my tousan here gets fed up with your insolence," thought Naruto, regarding the leader with a little more respect than the others because of his gall. This person was not a kage, Kumo didn't have an official one, but Naruto figured this one would be theirs. He had a normal chakra supply, but probably wouldn't last too long against the Yellow Flash if it came to blows.

As the embassy settled themselves, Naruto noticed that the other members were shaking not only in fear, but in anger. The leader stopped staring at Naruto and repositioned his gaze at Minato, who was unflinchingly returning the gesture with an equal aura of his own. After a minute of silence, a cloud subordinate blurted, "This is an OUTRAGE!"

Immediately, the others, save the leader, joined him in berating the Konoha ninja for their insolence. After several more minutes, Naruto felt his father shift in exasperation, waiting for the leader to make the first real political move. Naruto could only admire his father's patience.

"ALL your responsible shinobi should be executed! How dare you break our peace treaties!" shouted the apparently second-in-command shinobi. Something broke in the leader's eyes, and for a split second, he broke eye contact with Minato to silence his subordinates with a slight gesture of his hand. In that minor slip, Minato took the initiative.

"Are you instigating another war?" asked a very calm Minato, whose aura grew to be the most menacing. With a start, Naruto could see his father's trademark yellow chakra flit across his skin.

"ARE YOU?" demanded the second-in-command, defying the look given too him by the Konoha ANBU. Out of the corner of his eye, Naruto saw Kakashi, or 'Wolf' at the moment, casually rest his hand on the hilt of his sword.

"No, we are not."

"Then we demand proper replacement for this heinous deed! If you give us what we want, we will not attack your pathetic village."

Naruto rolled his eyes, but he had to respect the bravery, albeit quite rash, of these cloud shinobi. If he wanted too, Minato could easily kill all these men, but Naruto knew he wouldn't. The thing that everyone in Konoha; everyone who believed in the will of fire knew... was that Minato would only use his technique unless the cloud attacked first, and even then he would try to negotiate peace diplomatically, not on the tip of his kunai. Perhaps the cloud shinobi already knew, or guessed this from Konoha's reputation, but then again they could just be incredibly stupid.

All the fire council members started to laugh.

"Calling our village weak shows me that you are weak to underestimate us. We are one the strongest of the five great Shinobi nations. We will, however, seek to resolve this problem peacefully. What are your terms?" intoned Minato, perfectly executing a bored, yet only slightly interested look towards the leader, who paled slightly. In a flash, Naruto lost all respect for the man, but didn't blame him. He could feel the edge of his tousan's killer intent directed at the leader, and probably would have done the same thing in his shoes... but still.

"We want one of your weapons," the leader spoke for the first time. "As much as my collegues would let on, we do not wish for this to end in conflict. But the situation still stands. Our best shinobi is dead, slaughtered by some of your most powerful shinobi. At first we thought that the bodies of his killers would suffice, meaning Hyuuga Hiashi's death, but his potential and power does not equal the one of our lost shinobi. We want the power of another to restore our forces to their former glory."

"Let's make a bet Naru-kit. I say they want the purple-haired Hyuuga child alive anyway, so they could breed her, isn't that ever-pleasant?" said the fox in Naruto's head. "Though I wonder if they perhaps want someone from another clan, like the Uchiha-brat. That weakling leader said they wanted an equal potential, am I right?"

"There are plenty of other things that they might want instead, like the death of tousan over here," Naruto tilted his head up to look into his father's face. "Of course, the chance of that happening is slim to none, the council would declare war. Let's watch these blithering idiots demand something they can't have."

"To be a Kumo shinobi requires loyalty and discipline, two qualities already displayed by the tool of our choice," the leader continued, seeming to grow in confidence with every word. Naruto felt that perhaps the fellow thought that if he demanded the most outrageous compensation, he would get it without question. Oh how naiive, no wonder Kumo wasn't a kage factor.

"Way to drag it out…"

"Please stop there. There are several Shinobi of the village more powerful than Hyuuga Hiashi, and none of them will be handed over as compensation. I suggest you rethink your demands before you anger my fellow council into seriously declaring war this time. We take great pride in being a great family. No one member of Konoha with the kind of power I assume you think is justified in your 'predicament' will be allowed to leave peacefully."

"That's my dad!"

There were nods of agreement amongst the fire members.

"You assume incorrectly, then," smiled a cloud member. "We do not want a leaf shinobi, instead, we'd rather the son of a foreign one that does not wear a hiate for any village as of yet."

There were looks of confusion all around.

"You're probably right," thought Naruto, thinking about Sasuke, who, if you stretch it might be considered foreign because the Uchiha clan was established with Konoha...

"No, I'm not, though I'm surprised you don't already see what they're really after."

"We demand your son, Namikaze Naruto, the container of the Nine-Tails, Hokage-sama," the council member sneered.