Something snapped.
Naruto, admittedly, was a little surprised himself, but not unduly so. With a sinking feeling, he realized that this all really did make a lot of sense. He mused that his father, on the other hand, was about to dismiss these trespassers, maybe even scare them a little with a little killing intent. Looking around for the source of the snapping sound, Naruto glanced at his father's clenched fist. It had broken the delicate paintbrush into little fragments of wood and horse hair; staining the pale hand and hardwood floor with droplets of oily ink. Surely the Yondaime had some kind of idea about what would be demanded. But Minato was never a very self-centered person. Naruto guessed that his tousan's reaction was the product of meditating other kekkei genkai candidates rather than his own son. Now, without the Hokage able to mentally prepare himself and reason out the obvious incredulity, Naruto supposed his father growing angrier and angrier as the palpable silence stretched on.
That leader, or rather, the second-in-command speaker, was destined for a short life in Naruto's opinion, but Minato, once again showing ample quantities of forbearance, restrained himself.
For now.
A fire council member spoke in a dangerous tone, "This is ridiculous. Your demands restart this war. We declare it against your insolence, and your ignorance of our ability." Cloud ANBU platoons burst through the door, overwhelming the Leaf ANBU and capturing them with ease. The council members sprang to their feet, angrily stooping into their stances as they formed around the civilian representatives.
Startled, Naruto looked up into his father's face. The long blonde bangs trademark of the Namikaze family concealed Minato's eyes, but the killing intent previously directed at the leader now oozed out with rage equal to the demon fox's chakra. Indiscriminantly drowning everyone in the room, including Naruto.
He shuddered under the weight of the power and anguish as it froze him in place. Impossibly, the power increased again clawing at Naruto's insides. If Minato was trying to direct the flow of his anger at all, and Naruto was feeling the byproduct of his anger, he could only imagine the kind of terror the cloud embassy was entreating. Involuntarily, Naruto heaved a huge breath, trying to escape upwards towards the surface, as the evil hatred threatened to consume his very soul. Naruto shuddered again, but this time, tears spilled over his cheeks, perpendicular to the pale triple lines on either side.
"I'm going to die... I can't fight this... I CAN'T ESCAPE! DAD STOP YOU'RE HURTING ME!" Naruto mentally cried out as he slumped against his father's torso, eyes wide, chest gasping for oxygen. Fear. Through his own fear, Naruto smelt the fear around him, assaulting his nostrils as he tried to breathe 'underwater'. Images and sensations of the past flashed before his eyes, making him weak. Sasuke, running his hand through his shoulder. The fox's chakra ripping open his skin. Sakura swatted by Shukaku. Gaara dead. Hinata beaten by Pein as his lay immobile. Countless others unnamed slaughtered before him in the Fourth War. Tsunade twice dying at his feet. Lee broken. His father, falling from a great toad... lifeless.
"This is a genjutsu!" exclaimed Naruto, but to no avail. The images that brought out his failures and shortcomings of the past chipped away... drowning in sorrow...
After a minute, a Konoha council member weakly made gesture with his hand at the cloud shinobi. Minato took this as his cue, and the world exploded.
One thing about this meeting would forever burn in Naruto's memory. Supressing the memory was difficult, if impossible.
A fire council member, a woman who must be a mother, picked Naruto up off the cushion and covered his eyes in the split second before the carnage erupted.
But she was too late.
In the slightest sliver of time, Naruto saw his father disappear in a shroud of bright, swirling, yellow light and chakra before it abruptly ended. It appeared and disappeared in a flash. So fast, it was difficult to ascertain that it had happened at all. An unseen force slit the throats of the council men, seemingly all at once, blood spraying in every direction. Thick, splashes of blood stained every formal kimono in the room.
They never saw it coming. Then again, they wouldn't have even if they were looking.
In the time span of a second, Naruto had seen the power of the Hiraishin. It was truly fearsome. Sickness swept through Naruto, and he successfully repressed the urge to retch over. Blinded from the disaster now, Naruto was granted only slight reprieve of what he had seen. Usually, his experiences of the past would shield him from any kind of killing intent. He himself had been through a war, and had a demon living in him for goodness sake. But whatever genjutsu his father had used to intimidate those around him had brought out the horrid things of Naruto's past, turning them against him and multiplying their effects.
"Ironic, isn't it?" said Hikaru to Naruto, who was still covering his eyes, "the Hiraishin they desired was ultimately their downfall." She looked down at the little blonde boy in her lap. "When your father was fighting those ninja in the war before the treaty, he was holding back," she said, "those ninja were so weak, he could've taken out their entire force in ten seconds. They were fools."
Somehow, Naruto felt that Minato would've killed the Cloudies even if they had wanted Hiashi's body.
The aftermath of the bloodshed occurred rather quickly. Minato had rushed over and checked to see if Naruto was okay, before asking Hikaru to take home the younger blonde while he alerted the village of the war's resumption. When a silent Naruto and worried Hikaru arrived at the Namikaze clan ground, covered in blood, Kushina freaked. Once they were cleaned up, Hikaru explained what had happened. She told Kushina of the genjutsu and the Hiraishin, before departing back to the council office, leaving the small, shivering child in his mother's arms.
The remainder of the war literally lasted a week. Needless to say, cloud surrendered before Minato could get his hands on them. Darn.
By late January, things had resumed their normal routine in the Namikaze household. Well, just about as normal as it could be. Although he had seen (and committed) many assassinations before, Naruto had become a little wary of his father. He had to continuously tell himself that it was only a genjutsu... Only a genjustsu! His father's technique purposefully took the most painful memories of a person's soul and amplified them. The more atrocities the person had seen, the more of an effect it had. Naruto told himself that his father wouldn't have known the true nature of Naruto's experiences. But even so, it lingered on his conscience like an unwanted itch. No matter how hard he tried to scrub it away, it still held fast.
Minato was always the first up, followed by a disheveled Akira crawling out of his room/nest/den. Then Kushina would come down the stairs and into the kitchen with a half-asleep Naruto on one shoulder.
"Yo, Naruto," said Akira, "are you alive?"
"Barely…" the younger blonde replied, as he slumped his head on the table.
"Hey kiddo, I get out of work early today, so how about you and I do some ninja stuff?" said Minato, innocent to his son's involuntary flinch at his ever-wonderful voice...
"Like what?" Naruto piped up.
"Hmm… how about I show you the basics? Like… throwing shurikken and kunai?"
"Naw, Kakashi-nii already showed me how to do that!" exclaimed the little blonde, a little accusatorily.
"Oh really? Then how about you show me later?"
"Uhh…okay."
"Oh no he isn't," said Kushina, as she pulled a cereal box out of a cabinet. "He needs to go with Akira and I today."
"For what?" Minato demanded, disappointed.
"We have an important visit to the Hyuuga residence. I promised Hinata-chan's mother I'd come over with Naruto. Apparently, little Hinata is still rather upset about… what happened," said Kushina, sadly.
Naruto thought of the cloud attempt again... but thinking about cloud members reminded him of their gory remains littered about the meeting room. He shuddered and tried to think happy thoughts instead.
Minato frowned. Somehow, he felt a little left out. Sure, he and Naruto interacted, but being Hokage of Konohagakure meant that duty came first. Now that he thought about it, Kushina had spent triple the amount that he had with Naruto. They very rarely interacted at all. Sure, Minato would send over a bunshin to the house to get things and say hello to his favorite (and only) son, but most of the time he was just so wrapped up in the evils of paperwork and international affairs. What was more, even Kushina wasn't around all the time to keep the small one occupied. She herself was a well-rounded jounin and had to do missions of her own, no matter how many times Minato put off giving her the A-rank duties she and Akira were entitled too... Plus, after the whole incident with the cloud, Naruto seemed a little more reclusive towards him. When Minato came home, Naruto wouldn't run and give him a hug at the front door like he normally did, just smiled at him or mumbled some greeting or other, then went back to whatever he was getting into.
"Was it because of the cloud meeting?" Minato wondered, as Naruto slid off his chair and ran up the stairs to 'get 'Nata-chan a flower from mommy's vase'. "Is he afraid of me now?"
Surely not. Minato shook off an icy chill. Naruto was just an innocent little kid, right? And hadn't Hikaru covered his eyes?
He shuddered.
He did not want to deal with a four year old who had seen that technique. Perhaps he would talk to Naruto later. If and when he found the time.
Naruto, Kushina, and Akira left after Minato had rushed out of the house with a shunshin, mumbling about missing a mission briefing, and were presently walking down the flat, winding road that lead to the Hyuuga estate and mansion. It was snowing again... Naruto wearing a heavy orange snowcoat. The little blonde pushed his nose skyward and gazed at the thick, snow-laden clouds above... clouds...
"BRR!" thought Naruto, as he pulled up his orange hood, warming his ears in the soft white fur. "It's cold today... but time to keep up the act for Hinata. Poor thing. I feel so protective of them all, knowing who they will (or I supposed could) become in the future. I just wish the whole ninja system wasn't necessary. That way... jutsu like... that... wouldn't be necessary. But the Rasengan looks really cool when I use it..."
Naruto blushed at his own childish thoughts. Well, he was technically a child again anyway. Not that it was any excuse...
"Naruto, when we get there, I want you to just act normally around Hina-chan. She's very flustered and scared with the whole thing going on, so be happy around her and encourage her to play games, okay? I'm pretty sure I didn't have to tell you that, but just so you remember," Kushina said to her son as he skipped to keep pace with the large fox and the red headed adult.
"Okay! 'Nata-chan is one of my best friends! I won't let her down!" Naruto replied, flashing his signature grin that looked ever-so reminiscent of his father's.
"And his little side-bangs really do make him a Minato reincarnation, minus the whiskers," Akira said under her breath to Kushina as Naruto bounded ahead at the sight of the looming Hyuuga estate. "Have you noticed? The little one's more serious about things. His eyes betray him. You think he's been scared by that jutsu?"
"I don't know, Akira, I can only trust that Hikaru-san was able to close his eyes."
Akira knew, though, that Naruto would have seen it. She knew who Naruto really was, but even so... from what he understood about Naruto's previous life, nothing should have scared him like that. Maybe something was wrong.
Little Naruto bounced on top of a stone lion's head by the entrance, and rung the little oriental bell that would alert the Hyuuga ANBU to their presence.
"O-ohayo, Narut-to-kun," squeaked little Hinata as the trio entered the Main House after being given a twice-over by the ANBU.
She was wearing a little purple house yukata with a pink obi decorated with delicately embroidered swirls. Naruto thought that she looked super cute, and when he voiced this opinion aloud, Hinata's previously nervous and jumpy demeanor broke in giggles before she informed him that he looked cool. Naruto looked at himself. He had unzipped his thick jacket (it was much warmer on the inside of the compound) to expose his plain white shirt, with a big red swirl in the center. In addition he was wearing a smaller version of the standard-issue black ninja sweatpants. All in all he thought he looked pretty informal... maybe she had just said it to match his own compliment to her attire.
"Naruto-kun! Look, Sasuke-kun, Naruto-kun came to play with us!"
"Hn, hello 'Ruto," muttered Sasuke, looking bored as ever. And he probably was, having to entertain Hinata, who wasn't so sociable with the Uchiha. Not that it was a problem. The two got along incredibly well, generally content with the other's quiet, undisturbed nature. But usually, Sasuke wouldn't look so irritated...
Naruto heard footsteps from behind Hinata and before he could look around her, a pink blur glomped him.
"Bingo. Poor Sasuke had to deal with both Hinata AND Sakura!" thought Naruto, mentally busting a gut with how this would have really happened back in the old world.
"Ohayo, 'Akura-chan!" exclaimed Naruto after he prized the exuberant rosette off of him.
Sakura was wearing a pink little yukata with an emerald obi, and her short, pink hair was pulled into a high ponytail, tied with a long, green ribbon, while Sasuke was wearing his customary Uchiha-outfit, but more suited to the cold weather: long sleeves.
Akira and Kushina laughed as they went off towards the east wing of the house where they could find the rest of the parents, who were undoubtedly as far away from this part of the wing as would allow. (Hyuugas are more suited to meditative silence... and the arrival of Naruto AND Sakura was surely not unnoticed to the all seeing eyes of the Hyuuga.)
"You four play nice, and don't let Naruto do anything stupid, Sasuke-kun," Kushina called, chuckling when she heard her son huff indignantly.
The four younglings made their way outside to go play ninja, where Sasuke showed off his aiming skills by chucking some wooden shuriken his brother had made for him at a training dummy.
"W-Wow, Sasuk-ke-kun…" squeaked Hinata, impressed.
"Bach! You just got lucky!" blurted Naruto, who crossed his arms in mock idignance.
"Yawn... I wish this false pretense wasn't so strict... I could thrash this little Uchiha in my sleep!"
"Go Sasuke-kun! You're awesome!" hurrahed Sakura, leaping into the air with admiration.
Sasuke put his hands in his pockets and smirked at the ground. He felt great that his three friends thought all the moves Itachi taught him were pretty cool, even Naruto was pressed to grudgingly admit it was great, albeit his methods of congratulations were more roundabout. He couldn't wait to show them what he could do with practice kunai if they thought that was sweet...
Naruto flopped down on the ground next to Sakura, who was lying on her stomach watching Sasuke scratch some splinters out of his precious shurikken.
As the other three talked, Naruto closed his eyes to think.
"Time for some planning. I'm going to have to wait about Neji. He already has the curse-seal from a few days ago... and that wasn't preventable. I'll have to become hokage to change anything like that. And the clan leader at the time would have to decide most of the traditions for that. It is clan buisness. But what else can I do right now?" he wondered.
Most of his plans would have to wait until he was six to begin at the academy, and that would allow him to begin using Jutsu without being suspected, making his job ultimately a lot easier. Being in the academy under the tutelage of other ninja made it easier to keep things in check. And being in the academy also warranted a greater freedom for the students, who didn't have to go around everywhere with a chaperone... being older as they were, and able to reasonably defend themselves. With that ease of movement, Naruto would be able to flit about Konoha as he pleased and no one would be the wiser. This was critical in eavesdropping and making sure things like the slaughter of the Uchiha clan wouldn't happen. Once the time came around, Naruto mused, he would have to have a permanent bunshin stationed at the Uchiha compound to keep vigil. Keeping Itachi from destroying the Uchiha clan was his first priority. Making Sasuke's life better in this world depended on it, but even then, preventing Itachi from going about his buisness had some drawbacks.
In the old world, while Naruto was pilfering through some documents in the Hokage tower, he found some very interesting things hidden away as classified not-to-be-opened-on-pain-of-death kind of records. (Not that it mattered, Naruto was a Jinchuuriki and wouldn't have been executed for treason) Naruto knew the Uchiha clan was, according to Danzou, whose word he didn't really trust anyway, plotting an overthrow of Konoha via their civilian police force. Apparently, the Uchiha clan had taken a major role in the foundation of Konoha, and even though Madara had betrayed the Senjuu clan and his own best friend, the Uchiha were still very proud people about things like power.
But something about that whole... 'overthrow Konoha' buisness didn't sit well with Naruto. In the old world, Danzou had advised the hokage, and had Itachi, who was their only loyal Uchiha ninja, to kill his whole clan save Sasuke. But something about that didn't sit correctly. Sasuke and Itachi's parents, Fugaku and Mikoto, were exceedingly good friends with both Kushina and Minato. And Fugaku was the clan head. BUT Uchihas had a thing for killing their best friends to gain power. And besides Danzou only had limited, if close to NO influence with his tousan, who ran the village. As a last resort, Naruto decided, he would interfere and make sure neither side would so much as disturb the peace. Regardless of who the information came from, information was still information. Naruto knew that he couldn't ignore any kind of accusation, even if it was one he himself didn't like. He would stay wary of both sides; both Danzou AND the Uchiha. This was all really a very delicate situation.
But Naruto had forgotten something.
The only way to unseat the hokage would be to kill him. But Minato was close to invincible with his Hiraishin and the only way to seriously blackmail him into submission would be through Naruto. And even then that would also be close to impossible, because Naruto himself had technically already surpassed the Yondaime anyway.
"If Danzou tries to convince and comes up with evidence to make Minato go with the original plan the third had gone with, I doubt Minato will listen, and would investigate himself before ordering such a thing. The Sandaime... bless his retired old soul, had always been more influenced by his council, but not so with tousan," thought Naruto. "I'll still keep watch, but if either party tries something, they will have to go through both Dad and I! But speaking of Itachi, what of the Akatsuki in general?"
The weasel must have been contacted by the organization prior to his staged defection, because, knowing Itachi, when he left Konoha he probably wanted a ready, backdoor reason to set up any of the 'fake' retrevial missions after him with plausible information. Itachi had already become quite powerful, having activated the Sharingan and blowing the curve on the academy graduation exams. It was really only a matter of time before he would be contacted by the organization that would mutilate and threaten to destroy every other Jinchuuriki's life.
Jinchuuriki.
Naruto absolutely hated that word. It labeled all bijuu containers as the demons themselves. Luckily, in this world, Naruto was only hated by a select group of villagers in Konoha, unlike Gaara, who was…
"I forgot Gaara!" Naruto mentally screamed, berating himself for his negligence.
How was he going to save him? They were all four or five right now, so that meant that the Ichibi Jinchuuriki was still being pampered and spoiled by his Kazekage father.
"Not for long…" Naruto thought, bitterly. "If only Gaara went to meetings like I do, then we could meet, and maybe I could change everything."
Naruto briefly contemplated sneaking out to infiltrate Suna, but that wouldn't do any good. Suna was farther away than Kumo, nearly two days with Naruto's speed on a nonstop journey, and what would he do when he got there? It wasn't like he could steal a scroll that could change anything. He would need a long time to foster a friendship with Gaara to make any impact at all on his life.
"Maybe I could touch on the subject of Jinchuuriki with dad, and see if it rings a nerve... it probably will. Then if I can trick him into telling me about the Kyuubi, I can demand to want to meet other Jinchuuriki... and the closest one would be Nibi in cloud... but after that... errr... fiasco, I doubt he would take me there... so then that would leave SUNA! Or that Fire Temple Jinchuuriki... but I'm not sure. Maybe I'll go about it: "Are there other Jinchuuriki from different countries" sort of thing..."
Putting aside Gaara's redemption for now, Naruto focused on Konoha's up-and-coming young ninja in training.
Sakura didn't really fangirl Sasuke all the time, but instead seemed eager to begin at the academy, which Naruto found to be a good sign. The future world would seriously need Haruno Sakura to be a medic specialist. Somehow, Naruto needed to figure out how to get Tsunade to come back to the village to train her.
Naruto found that Hinata seemed very determined to join the academy as well, another very good sign, but he wasn't sure if it was because of the pressure of being the Byakugan heiress or not.
In their later years in the old world, Hinata had become an excellent clan head and even went around seriously changing the Main/Cadet Branch house ways (which Naruto was banking on for doing the same in this world). Naruto had admired her for finally getting rid of the impeding stutter and abolishing the placing of the caged-bird seal on Branch house members simply because they were born later. She had also gained respect in her own house by perfecting a technique that countered the 64-Trigrams attack... but this was all the maximum of her potential...
"Baby steps, Naruto. Baby steps and I mean that LITERALLY. We're what FOUR?!? Except me... I'm technically... WOAH! Twenty-one! I'm mature enough to drink in civilian territories! YAAAY!" Naruto sarcastically whooped to himself. Most villages let Ninja drink based on rank... because that would mean alchohol was more necessary to wash away the troubles of the kinds of missions they were expected to do. Chuunin was generally a requirement. And a simple flash of an ID card got you into most bars if you wanted.
As for Sasuke, Naruto expected great things, especially if his father and mother were going to be alive to train him, and his brother to motivate him.
Naruto laughed inwardly at himself for the brilliant idea that had just popped into his brain.
Sasuke had certainly shown an interest in snakes. Even now, the four-year-old was clutching a purple and blue stuffed baby cobra plushie with the Uchiha symbol on its hood. Then there was that one mission in the old world where Team 7 had to eradicate a snake infestation in someone's home. Sasuke, not being one to slack on a mission, reluctantly "took care of" the problem. Afterward, Kakashi, Naruto and Sakura could've sworn they saw his abnormally stuffed bag wriggle slightly. If Sasuke had an affinity with snakes, then why not get Mitarashi Anko to train him?
That is, if she came back.
Orochimaru had left long before Naruto was born with a young Anko to wherever the hell the snake-bastard killed time. If he could remember correctly, she was only a few years younger than Kakashi, who was seventeen now.
Speaking of Kakashi, he had been picked up with ANBU when Naruto was two, and frequently came around to see his old sensei with his teammate, Yamato. Naruto briefly remembered having the luck of witnessing Yamato's reaction to Kakashi's new hair doo. It entailed a lot of guffaws, angry masked people, and a chase of a certain blonde-haired baby.
Naruto shuddered; Kakashi was scary when he was angry. Now he knew where Yamato had learned that face trick.
Naruto sighed. With all of that waiting to do before attending the academy he felt a little frustrated. He was itching to ditch the guise and show the world his true self, it would certainly be easier to train (half his strength was gone with this puny child body! This time around, Naruto promised himself, he would be top of the class in everything. Instead of struggling and slogging through his academy days like the slacker he used to be. He had sworn to himself that he would pay rapt attention to Iruka-sensei's lectures and finally learn how to do that god damn bunshin. It wasn't like he needed it, what with his more superior Kage Bunshin in his main arsenal, but he had always wanted to master that simple little technique, instead of finding a shortcut.
Hah. Jutsu. It used to be all Naruto could think about. Mastering, creating, using, training with, and pranking with Jutsu. Sure, he still wanted to learn more, but the first source anyone would expect him to get any kind of new knowledge would be his father.
And his father meant the Hiraishin.
He really wasn't sure if he wanted to learn it. It was just plain scary. After seeing his father use it; seeing the menacing, godlike aura around the Yellow Flash, was like watching the scariest movie ever, only ten times worse and feeling like you were next. No screen that divided reality from the imagination of a director. Minato's face had been murderous. Nothing would ever stand in the Yondaime's way. Not even Naruto. That was probably why he didn't want to learn it. It just seemed so inhuman; alien.
He knew that because it was a Kekkei Genkai, he would eventually have to, but he hadn't had access to it in the old world, so why was this world any different?
Oh yeah, Minato was his father.
And his father meant the Hiraishin. Duh.
"I suppose ignorance is truly bliss," thought Naruto. It didn't really matter anyway, that time was a long, long ways off. And kekkei genkai didn't always manifest themselves without question in the next generation. Plenty clan offspring didn't inherit their traits, especially when two clans of different kekkei genkai tried to breed themselves.
"NARUTO!"
His eyes snapped open at Sakura's berating screech, and he sat up just as fast.
"What? What happened?"
"You didn't answer Hina-chan, stupid. We thought you died."
"I a-asked whether or n-not you were looking f-forward t-to going to th-the acad-demy," Hinata repeated softly with a coy smile.
"Oh yeah! I can't wait! I'm gonna show up my dad and become the next Hokage! Dattebayo!"
"You want to become Hokage?" Sakura asked, intrigued. "But isn't your dad the strongest ninja alive?"
"You bet he is, but I'm going to surpass him! Everyone expects me to be just as good as him because I'm his son, but when I get better than him, I'll show everyone! Believe it!" said Naruto, smiling. Oh how much these little children didn't know about him... poor little things wouldn't know what hit them! Let alone all the
Sakura and Hinata smiled, while Sasuke just looked at him like he was crazy.
"You're just talk, you probably couldn't be Hokage. There are only four Hokage, what makes you think you'll be the next?" Sasuke said confidently.
Naruto's smirk widened. "Hey Sasuke, wanna keep a secret?"
Sasuke arched an eyebrow, imitating his brother.
Naruto, still grinning picked up four of Sasuke's wooden shurikken and methodically, in one flick of an arm, shot them at the practice dummy with three targets on it. All four of the projectiles deftly sunk dead center, splitting the soft straw and breaching the cover cloth from a quadruple impact.
Sasuke's jaw dropped to the floor, as did Sakura's and Hinata's.
"H-how'd you d-do that?" squeaked Hinata, the first of the fledglings to recover.
"You better not have broken my brother's shurikken! I'll beat you to a pulp NARUTO!" asserted Sasuke as he hobbled over to the dummy to inspect the damage.
Naruto grinned again and spent the rest of the day showing Sasuke, Hinata, and Sakura how to aim and accurately throw shurikken, just like 'Kashi-nii had 'showed him'.
Minato was walking along the Namikaze path-road, on his way back from the daily grind at the office. True to his earlier word, he had come home much earlier. Usually he arrived at the house around 9:00-9:30ish. Today he was home at 3:00. It was Sunday after all. This kind of break in monotonous paperwork usually had Minato jumping for joy and sprinting to the nearest ramen stand, but today he felt odd.
There really wasn't a word to describe how he felt, but it was somewhere between worry, nerves, and anxiety. Why?
The Hiraishin.
It was truly a fearsome jutsu that he had designed. It gave the user the ability to transport anywhere at extremely high velocity wherever a seal marker was placed. To ensure that the jutsu couldn't be copied by the Uchiha or Kakashi (for it would be a formidable weapon in the hands of those who might use it unwisely), Minato practiced and molded the technique to the point where the bi-product yellow chakra genetically altered his DNA. Fitting really; the Namikaze were acclaimed for their sealing abilities. If the Shikki Fuujin and Sealate Warpein weren't already a testament to it. Now the only two people in the world who could ever hope to use the Hiraishin: Flying Thunder God Technique included himself, and Naruto.
Minato looked at the ground and sighed, stopping his pace to dig the tip of his sandal into the compact earth, cold to the touch of his toes in the abysmal January chill. "Maybe I shouldn't have used the Hiraishin in the meeting… I really over did it… I couldn't help myself, but kunai would've proved just as effective… Now my only son thinks I'm a demon. Ironic really, considering he harbors one…"
Minato wanted to rip out his hair and destroy a forest in frustration and aguish. Surely he was the worst father in the world? Naruto wasn't privvy to his time any more than a genin would be, though surely it was more than normal in reality. His choice of career would be one excuse... but his shortcomings as a parent went beyond simple negligence. From the very moment of Naruto's birth- the beginning of his existence -he had condemned his pride and joy to two very horrible and powerful weapons he would have to face as an adult in certainty: The Hiraishin and the Kyuubi no Yoko. The Hiraishin was bad enough... but the double edged sword of being a jinchuuriki made the situation all the more difficult to digest. Minato was only comforted in the assurance that his son's ill-fated kekkei genkai would probably save his life more than a few times in his future, as it had with Minato's past.
A bird fluttered past overhead, and Minato halted again to watch its progress across the ever-darkening, gray sky. It was so lucky and so free to do what it would, not having a care in the world…
He sighed again as he reached his front door. Opening it with his seal key, he stepped over the threshold, took his shoes, overcoat, and vest off; placing them on the coat rack.
Hearing the rapid patter of footsteps, he looked around to see his son sprint out of the kitchen and up the stairs.
"Whatcha' doing?" Minato asked casually. His little son had a habit of filching things while his parents were not paying attention, and sure enough, Naruto's grubby little plams fisted a kunai... probably stolen from a neglected weapons pouch. Minato surmised, as he shunshin'd in front of his son to block his progress, that several of his missing exploding tags had dissappeared in this way as well...
Naruto froze with a strange look in his eyes.
Fear.
So it was true, Naruto was afraid of him, if only a little. Because of the Hiraishin? Most likely.
Inwardly, the Yellow Flash sighed to himself again for the umpteenth time today, solemnly deciding that jutsu had occupied quite enough of his mind, thankyou verymuch. Minato's face softened before saying, "Naruto, let me show you something."
Naruto didn't say anything, but followed his father along the corridor, brushing past a large, potted palm tree from the coastal regions Kushina used to frequent. Minato stopped at a door Naruto had never been inside, but continuously wondered at because of the visibly complex seals lining it. Minato bit his thumb and swiped it along the crown molding at the top of the door, making it jump and slide open instantaneously.
They walked inside, and Naruto was presented with what looked like a mini storage room, with lots of dusty boxes and important-looking crates. There was a scroll rack, books full of information and such about different countries, ninja history, maps, charts, economic status reports, pretty much everything you ever wanted to know about… anything... printed and then left here. All copies not in the larger library of the house. Regardless, a few racks looked more recently disturbed, like they had been purused often enough to keep them clear of most of the dust and cob-webbing.
Still not speaking, Naruto looked up at his father, who was rummaging around on a shelf labeled simply enough, "Stuff". And, searching around for what he wanted, Minato looked at his son and smiled, saying, "The Namikaze clan was founded a few centuries after the time of the Uchiha clan, but we are most noted for perfecting sealing and inventing the Shunshin," Minato said to Naruto, still pushing scrolls aside, "more recently, on the other hand, we, and the rest of Konoha have become known around the globe for something else. Do you know what that is?"
Naruto shuffled on his feet before whispering something, inaudible to Minato. Realizing his tousan hadn't heard him, he whispered, a little louder, "Your Flying Thunder God Technique?"
"Nope," Minato said, finally extracting a scroll from the mass of papers, painfully noticing, that his son was uncomfortable with the word 'Hiraishin'.
Naruto, confused, met his father's identical blue gaze and asked, "Then what?"
"The Namikaze clan now has the Hiraishin as a Kekkei Genkai, but most people don't know that. I'm just the first generation anyway," said Minato, sitting cross-legged on the floor and opening the scroll for Naruto to see. "We are famous for protecting our precious people. Konohagakure's generations all possess something we call the Will of Fire. Meaning we will do anything to protect our country and ensure the safety of all our comrades, even if it means sacrificing our own lives."
Naruto looked at the scroll, which seemed to be a list of around twenty names, all with the surname Namikaze written in blocky, red and green kanji.
"These are our predecessors. They all had varied abilities that set them apart from the rest, but they were united in one, unanimous goal and belief: the Will of Fire."
Minato placed his fingers on a few names that were written in red ink. So few had the Namikazes been... the last remaining distant relative had been killed in the Kyuubi attack, and the only blood-Namikaze left were both gazing at the short list. The clan itself hadn't been much of a clan. No prestige, no clan compound in the appropriate section of Konoha to claim. Though it had been honored, it was never on the scale of interwoven distant relations like the Uchiha, Hyuuga, Aburame, Nara, or even Inuzuka. The last time more than four or five were alive at the same time was hundreds of years ago.
"These are your ancestors that gave their lives to allow the rest of us to lead, better, and ultimately more peaceful lives," Minato said, once again meeting his son's meridian blue orbs. "And one day, my name will be on there, and, eventually, so will yours."
"You know I saw it," Naruto said, his eyes stinging and stomach twisting uncharacteristically. He would not cry in front of the Hokage, dad or not.
Minato's face fell slightly, seeing his son's distraught emotions. "And… what did you think of it?" Minato said, softly.
"I-It's…" Naruto shuddered, tears threatening to spill from his eyes. All at once, Naruto saw again the crumpled bodies it had slain. The anguish of the moment, genjutsu-induced though it might have been, racked his insides again. His four-year-old self was demanding he bawl his eyes out for hours and then sleep off the unhappy thoughts, but the twenty-one year old side of him was able to squish the emotion back for his younger self. Again he reexamined how it wasn't all that bad. It was used for greater intentions wasn't it? It WOULD be used to protect Konoha! And everyone who lived there! But even still... the anger and malice... the unbroken cycle of hate it caused...
Was the price of safety by violence truly a just bargain?
Sigh-sobbing to himself, Naruto tried to again banish the philosophy and reality of everything weighing down on him to the recesses of his mind. Questioning the existence of shinobi now, while he couldn't physically do anything about it was infuriating, but pointless at the time being.
A lone tear escaped, running down across all three whisker marks, painfully reminding Minato of what he had sealed inside Naruto. He reached over and hugged his son, who hugged back silently, clutching his father's dark blue ninja-issue turtle neck like a lifeline.
Minato pulled Naruto onto his lap, still embracing, and whispered, "I will only ever use it to protect my precious people. I will never, ever let anything happen to you, or kaasan, it's a promise of a lifetime."
And those words calmed Naruto's plaguing fear in an instant. How could something so good a person as Minato ever truly mean to hate and destroy? The smallest part of his seventeen/twenty-one-year-old conscious vehemently screeched in protest, but quieted as the rest of him felt that this moment was a lifetime overdue.
