Naruto: A Different Beginning

By Smithjohn2020

Chapter 2: The Portrait of Namikaze Minato

A/N: Those who also read my other story, Naruto: Swordsman of 9 Lonesome Stances, are already aware of my recent loss of a family member. Gramps passed away last month, a few hours after I posted Chapter 7 of my other story. This chapter is dedicated to him. Rest in peace, Old Man.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the words typed here and the original ideas they convey. I make no profit writing this.

…o.0.O.0.o…

Last Chapter: Jor-El and his wife Lara sent their baby boy to Earth in a spaceship while they remained behind to see if they could save Krypton. While Minato battled the Kyuubi, Sarutobi brought Naruto for the sealing and knocked out Minato and sent him to the safety of the Battle Stadium. The Nine Tails thwarted many of the Sandaime's attempts to complete the sealing jutsu, but Sarutobi eventually succeeded, though by then, the meteorites struck Konoha, Iwa, Kumo, Suna, and the land that would become Oto. Kyuubi escaped, and Kal-El got sealed in Naruto instead. The spaceship went missing.

…o.0.O.0.o…

Minato's first year as the Hokage was a breeze, compared to how he had it since the death of Sandaime five years ago. Sarutobi was not only his mentor, but he was also a very dear friend, a confidant, and someone whom he had gone to anytime about anything.

To have lost Sarutobi so early in Minato's appointment to office made it even harder to get over his grief. Everyday that he served his term in office was as a painful reminder of that tragic sacrifice of the sealing technique. That pain was even more acute when he encountered difficult or unfamiliar cases and wished that his predecessor was there to assist like he had been before.

Currently the young man with the untamable, spiky strawberry-blond hair stood in front of the opening behind his office, looking over the village he was charged to protect with his life.

It should have been me sealed away in Shinigami, not you, Old Man.

Sometimes the grief was so overwhelming that he felt guilty enjoying the simple pleasures of life, such as eating his favorite ramen at Ichiraku's or holding Naruto's hand when they go for a walk in the park.

So, to keep his mind off thinking about the "what-ifs," he buried himself in work.

Which was not difficult to do, especially when Jiraiya's spy network kept reporting strange activities in areas near the meteorite crash sites that were located in four other countries.

Those reports ranged from odd but plausible to stranger than fiction.

Minato usually sent two teams to investigate each incident; sometimes if the reports sounded really odd, he would go with the investigative teams to see for himself.

In Earth Country, where Konoha was still considered Enemy Number One, the investigative teams were able to confirm the reports of rock giant sightings – moving giants made completely of rock wreaking havoc in small villages near Iwa. Minato went along just in case Iwa chose not to honor the peace agreement and turned violent against the leaf-nins. According to the locals, these stone-giants could be appeased only by offering a firstborn child as sacrifice. Once the firstborn had been offered, the rock giants would remain dormant for six months.

In Suna, another investigative team, this one headed by Kakashi, confirmed that a small fragment of the meteorite was purposefully sealed in the oldest of the Kazekage's children – his daughter. So far nothing remarkable was observed in her. However, while he was in Suna, the Copy-nin overheard that another of the Kazekage's children received a sealing of another type, though he did not hear what was sealed, or in which of the remaining children.

Meanwhile, the reports from two other meteorite crash sites were conflicting and had yet to be verified.

Yesterday, he was about to volunteer himself again, but Jiraiya his mentor volunteered to go in his stead.

He remembered their conversation in his office.

"Minato, you need to stay more in the village. Konoha needs her leader, Kushina needs her husband, and Naruto needs his father."

"But Jiraiya-sensei, I…."

"I know you're still feeling guilty for what happened. Remember, the Old Man knew what he was doing when he made that sacrifice. He did it so that Konoha could have a youthful and capable leader, so that Kushina and Naruto could have their husband and father, and so that you could reach your full potential because there's still so much for you to accomplish. Don't make his sacrifice meaningless."

"But…."

"Minato, no more BUTs. This has gone on long enough! If you don't listen to me, if I see that you disrespect my sensei's sacrifice again like how you've been doing, I will personally beat some sense into you, Hokage or not … and don't think that I can't do it either."

After Jiraiya left his office yesterday, he decided that carrying on the legacy of Sarutobi and of the others that died during the Kyuubi Attack would now become his raison d'êtres.

He learned that locking himself behind the door of grief or burying himself in busy work away from those still living did not bring honor to the dead or to the legacy they had left behind. The dead died not for their survivors to suffer, but for them to live, to celebrate their shared memories, and to carry on their legacy.

Even as the Hokage, Minato was still learning from his sensei. Jiraiya had essentially showed him what it meant to cherish the memories of the dead.

A soft smile appeared on Minato's face as he finished reminiscing about that meeting.

"Hokage-sama."

Minato had long sensed the newcomer's entry, but chose to enjoy his rare moment of peace in lieu of acknowledging the new presence. Now that he was addressed, he had no choice but to turn around to the familiar voice coming behind him.

He wished that this impromptu meeting would be short since he had planned to take the rest of the day off to spend time at home.

"Kakashi, have you finally taken my advice to ask Rin out and are here to accept my offer to chaperone?"

Minato's attempt to get a reaction out of his former student failed.

Hatake Kakashi was one of Minato's students and one of his most trusted men. He was given the mission to spy on the Uchihas. It was a mission where his loyalty to Konoha must be absolute.

Ever since the death of Obito, the silver-haired ANBU developed an even more serious nature than the one he had before. He distanced himself from the surviving members of his team – his sensei Minato and his other teammate Rin, one who made known her feelings for him.

The death of Obito had also scarred Rin deeply. Since then, she retired from active duty and went on the reserves. Currently she worked as one of the lead medic-nins at the Konoha Hospital.

Once Minato made eye contact, Kakashi bowed and continued.

"Hokage-sama, mission accomplished."

Not 'Minato-sensei' or 'Minato-sama,' but the cold and distant 'Hokage-sama.'

Kakashi became even more stoic after he got appointed as the ANBU captain.

Have I really been blinded by my own grieving that I was this neglectful and oblivious to the needs of my subordinates?

The strawberry-blond retreated into the commander's chair behind his desk as if he was shielding himself from the evidence of guilt as exemplified by the emotionless foot soldier before him. Behind the security of his desk, he waited for the rest of the Kakashi's report.

"It's just as the Sandaime suspected. The Uchihas have been planning a coup to overthrow the Konoha Council, and there seems to be someone in the background they answer to."

Since his predecessor's death, Minato revised ANBU captain's mission to not only spy on the Uchihas, but also to steal the scrolls on clan history, which would include the origin of the Sharingan, and on the various doujutsus of the Sharingan.

The mission itself had always been on-going since Kakashi's appointment. Sometimes Minato received a weekly report from him, and other times he had to wait months before Kakashi made contact. Just like the one they were conducting now, every meeting they had regarding the Uchihas had been secretive, protected behind a triple privacy barrier.

Though he was eager to learn about the content of those scrolls, Minato did not let his eagerness show. There was a more pressing matter that must be addressed first – something very disturbing that his subordinate just reported.

"I see. How did you find out that there was another person, perhaps a mastermind, behind the Uchiha's yet-to-be-carried-out betrayal?"

What happened next was one of those few moments where Kakashi put away his Icha-Icha book. This action alerted Minato to become more attentive than usual. Normally he would have made a light joke about Kakashi and his porn addiction, but he let the rare opportunity pass because of the seriousness of the subject at hand.

"I'm sorry to inform you that this information did not come about without a price."

Minato leaned forward on his desk and, with a hand, motioned his former student to continue.

"I found a note in Fugaku's study room that linked him to someone in Kiri."

"Fugaku, as in Uchiha Fugaku, the father of the young and promising Itachi?"

Kakashi nodded. He could hear the disbelief in his leader's voice. Fugaku was someone Minato regarded highly and had not suspected him to be a part of this conspiracy. Evidently this treason ran deeper than they originally realized.

"How is he connected to the Hidden Village of the Mist? What does the note say exactly?"

The Copy-nin could tell that his commander wanted a word-for-word recounting of its content, which was simple to do since reciting from memory was one of the basic skills taught to all ANBU recruits.

"It's too early to tell what, if any, connection could be established between him and Kiri. The note did not say whom it was addressed to or offer any help in this. It simply said, 'Mizukage has been installed.'"

Minato sat there with his chin resting on his left hand pondering over his subordinate's revelation.

Mizukage has been installed. Why … why would anyone care?

Minato was chosen as Sarutobi's successor for more than his leadership skills and combat prowess. He was also chosen because he has also one of the, if not the, most brilliant minds in Konoha.

Unless … unless the Uchihas' treason is only a part of a greater scheme of things. Could someone in Kiri be the mastermind behind all of this … whatever they are trying to accomplish? Then that means ….

"Kakashi, well done. You have just saved Konoha from a civil war and possibly averted our world from another Great Shinobi War."

Kakashi's lone visible eyebrow was clearly raised.

"Actually, I think my mistake might have cost Konoha's peace."

Those words reminded Minato what he had wanted to ask earlier.

"So what went wrong during the mission?"

"As I was taking my leave with the scrolls, I chanced upon that note in Fugaku's study room. I committed it to memory, but a seal was placed on it to cause it to self-destruct upon reading. It poofed into a cloud of smoke. Evidently no one else had seen it before me, and now, no one else will. Such an important note gone missing will not go unnoticed for long."

Why this? Why now?

Today was the one day that Minato wanted to take the afternoon off, and Fate had to dump a major headache into his lap.

"Don't beat yourself up over this. You had no idea that the note was self-destructive. Besides, the writer taking the extra precaution means that it was likely that the note was genuine and contained a bona fide message, which means that we are in a better position to prepare for what's to come than we would be had it not been for your accidental discovery. Plus nothing can be done to remedy it now."

Kakashi was still too occupied, worrying about what would happen next, than to resume reading his porn.

"So, what's next?"

"What's important now is for us to prepare for the worst case scenario. To do so, I need Tsunade and Jiraiya to return to the village as soon as possible. I'm assigning you one week to find Jiraiya and bring back from him whatever reports he compiled from his spy network. You are also to relay to him the mission to find Tsunade and her back to Konoha. Tell my sensei that he has a two-week deadline to complete his mission."

"Hai!"

"Dismissed."

…o.0.O.0.o…

Whoever said "children are an inheritance from Kami" was an idiot.

That, or the person had obviously never met a child like Naruto.

At the moment, "children are a curse from the Devil" was more apt to describe the sentiments of the Namikazes.

A distressed voice came from the upstairs bathroom added to Minato's predicament of feeling extremely overwhelmed. This was even more so when compounded by his already long and intensive morning.

"Mina-kun!"

After letting out a heavy sigh, he reluctantly answered to his wife's cry for help.

"I'm coming up, Shina-chan."

Unbelievable. Two Kage-level ninjas worn down by a five-year-old, and it's only noon.

Climbing up the spiraling stairs, he saw the scene that made his wife, a generally collected and autonomous person, cried out for help.

On the wall of the hallway that led from the bedrooms came Naruto running to his father with a hand holding onto his soiled bed sheet, dragging it on the wall, while making the most innocent of giggles and laughter.

A simple Suiton jutsu should be able to remove the brownish smear that resulted from the menacing child's trajectory, but what to do with a rambunctious kid was another matter.

Hitting him would have been the easy way to vent the two grownups of their frustration, but doing so would never teach their son to listen out of love and understanding. However, reasoning with their hyperactive child was easier said than done.

Minato had read in some parenting books that a child acting up was a child seeking attention.

Have I been neglecting spending time with my son and my wife this badly?

Hiding his inner musings with a big smile, he bent down, caught the running child, and picked him up.

"Naruto, what do you say that Dad spend the rest of the day with you?"

The five-year-old boy was unsure how to react. He had never been given this offer before. Unknowingly, his mouth hanged open, and his whole face frozen in his mischievous expression when he heard his father's words. Naruto remained motionless for a while, perhaps fearing that if he were to speak, he would be awaken from this dream-like scenario, that of his father spending the day with him.

Finally, the spiky-haired Kage saw life returned to his son's dazed eyes and the shocked face softened into a smile.

"Dad, do you mean it?"

Minato could see that Naruto really wanted him to stay, but his voice carried a tone of doubt, which saddened the young father greatly, though he chose not to let his face show it.

With the same unchanged smile, albeit forced this time, he tried his best reassure his son as he shot a quick glance to his wife who was standing not too far from them.

She looked exhausted.

"Of course, but first, I want you to apologize to your mother for causing her all this trouble."

"But Dad, …."

One thing that Minato and Kushina did when they had time to spend together after a long day was to share how their day went. Minato's recount had always been a generic variation of "it was busy" or of some other non-classified mundane village requests. Kushina's, on the other hand, would be filled with vivid play-by-play of things Naruto did. Hers was mostly about Naruto, rarely anything about herself.

Deep down, the busy husband had always been envious of how much time his wife was able to spend with their son. Kushina knew what prevented Minato from doing so was his inability to let go of his guilt over Sarutobi's death. Therefore, she made extra effort to remember every little detail about Naruto so that she could share it with her husband, making it felt like he had been there with them.

From what his wife had told him, Minato knew of certain traits developing in Naruto that he did not like. But there was little to nothing he could do about it when he was unhealthily grieving for his predecessor's death, purposely denying himself of what Sarutobi had lost – his family.

However, after yesterday, after Jiraiya's conversation, things were about to change.

The first undesirable trait of Naruto – his untruthful tongue – was about to be addressed.

"Naruto, what comes out next from your mouth better not be a lie. We Namikazes will not have a liar in our midst."

His father's stern voice stopped him from making up an excuse for his behavior. With his lenient mother, he was able to get away with almost everything. He would make a mess; she would clean it up. He would cry and fuss; she would make ramen for him. It had been a game to him, a sort of fun chaos, where he was the master conductor in midst of it all.

Since his father had not been there for him the past five years, this sternness, this seriousness was new.

Still, which five-year-old listened the first time?

"Dad, I really …"

With a swift shuffling of her feet, Kushina got to her son and covered his mouth in time.

Her husband was in love with more than just her looks and her brain. She was a formidable Kunoichi in her own right.

"Naru-chan, don't you dare test your father."

At hearing his mother's soft words with unequivocal meaning, his eyes swelled with tears of remorse. He turned around and hugged his mother and uttered a mumbled, but sincere apology as tears flowed freely from his eyes.

"I'm sorry … I'm sorry."

He had only wanted their attention.

Now that he got it, he could not bear to hurt them anymore.

Minato's arms wrapped around them both, sandwiching Naruto from behind. His heart was moved with pride and joy by the scene before him. At the same time, his conscience guilted him into making his own apology. Though he addressed it to his son, it was really meant for his wife.

"Naruto, I'm sorry too. From now on, I'm not going to bury myself in my duties as the Hokage anymore. We'll be spending more time together as a family."

Kushina put a squeeze into her hug to let Minato know that she accepted his apology. She too addressed her words to Minato through Naruto.

"Naru-chan, that's okay. Mommy loves you; she always will."

Though Minato was happy for this touching moment, there was a lot he wanted to do with Naruto today that he never had taken the opportunity to. He slowly let go of his embrace.

"Alright, Naruto. Before we play together, let's help Mom clean up the mess you've made on the wall, okay? Go get a towel from the bathroom while I wash the smear on the wall off with a Suiton jutsu."

While Minato gave the assignment to his son, his hands made three hand seals for a D-ranked water technique.

"Suiton: Ryuusui no Jutsu." Water Release: Running Water Technique.

Out of his mouth came a small gush of water aimed at the smear. Normally, Suiton jutsus drew water from the atmosphere or from a collection of water elsewhere, but using those more powerful jutsus would have been an overkill for the simple task at hand.

Instead of doing as he was told, Naruto remained by his father's side and paid attention to the hand seals his father made. Feeling confident, having just received both of his parents love and reassurance, he wanted to try his hand at what his father was doing. Like all the children in the village, he too hero-worshipped the Yondaime. It just so happened that the Yondaime was his father.

Naruto's hands moved slowly and carefully as he duplicated his father's hand seals.

Kushina stood by the side and watched her son with fascination. Though her husband's hands moved at light-blink speed, the young child was still able to follow them.

It had always amazed Kushina how her son had such keen eyesight and superb hand dexterity. Starting at a very young age, she noticed how developed the boy was in hand-eye coordination. A little after he turned six-month old, Naruto was able to use a spoon and a fork to self-feed. Once her son turned two, he was able to dress himself – buttons, zippers, and all.

As far back as Naruto could remember, whenever he focused his attention on something, things would appeared to move in slow motion. In the case of his father and the three hand seals, Naruto's eyes took in everything down to the minutest of details, from the number of wrinkles on his father's hands to the lengths of nails on his fingers.

Her son's Suiton jutsu came out just like her husbands … at least that was what Kushina thought at first. However, she soon saw that the water resulting from Naruto's execution freezing the wall and the water from Minato's upon contact. A spectacular-looking water sculpture resulted.

"Naru-chan!?"

Kushina had always chalked it up to 'Naruto was just an exceptional child,' but what Naruto just did was beyond exceptional, so much so that it could only be classified as alarming and unnatural.

Minato, too, turned his head towards Naruto, shock clearly displaying on his face.

What shocked the Namikaze parents was not that their five-year-old son was able to mold chakra, copy hand seals perfectly, and successfully executed a technique, all on his first attempt. What shocked them was the fact that despite their son's flawless execution, his water spout froze.

What worried them was WHY. At the moment, both of the adults were trying their best to conceal their worries.

They had always been on the watch for something abnormal since they discovered a completed Death God seal on their son's navel after finding him next to Sarutobi's lifeless body. This was the first time they noticed something decidedly abnormal about their son. Sure their son was smarter and more advanced developmentally than other children, but they had always thought, albeit arrogantly, that Naruto benefited from parents with really good genes.

"Mom, Dad, what is it? Did I not do it correctly?"

Minato could tell by looking at his son that their stares were scaring him. Quickly he bent down and, with one hand, gently lifted Naruto's chin. He looked into the pair of cerulean blue eyes that were like his own and did his best to sooth the child.

"No, actually you did great, even better than Dad's. See," pointing his finger at Naruto's water sculpture, "yours even froze."

Minato's commendation did wonders. Naruto's face beamed with an enormous and proud grin.

"Really!? That was my first jutsu. Thanks for teaching it to me, Dad!"

Minato and Kushina looked at each other and smiled, their thoughts the same.

Freakish or not, he's still our son. We love him just the same.

Still, as the Hokage responsible for the safety of countless people in Konoha, Minato had to find out more.

For the past five years, Minato had been wishing that the foreign design on Naruto's belly was a result of an empty sealing, a failure of that forbidden Shinigami technique, though he was not naïve to actually believe his own nonsense.

Another and a more likely possibility was that something else got sealed into Naruto.

What though? That's the question.

"Naruto, I want you to show Daddy one more time, this time without your shirt on. I want to see that design on your belly as you do it."

Minato detected hesitance in his son. Perhaps Naruto was afraid that he was going to mess up and humiliate himself.

"Naruto, if you do it, Daddy promise you to teach you another jutsu."

Kushina, who had sensed concern in her husband's voice, came around from behind Naruto to get a better view of the seal on their son's belly as well.

Despite the grave implications of what was happening before her, Kushina could not help but smile at Naruto's positive response to the her husband's jutsu bribe.

Like father, like son.

The young child did as he was told.

As he molded chakra to execute the Suiton jutsu, Minato and Kushina saw something materialized over the design that was already on their son's belly.

A red glowing letter "S."

…o.0.O.0.o…

In an undisclosed location underground stood two men and a child.

In front of them hovered an egg-shaped object, suspended in air, unsupported by fathomable means.

Everyday since the day they had it, they stared at it for hours in silence. And everyday, approximately three hours into their staring, they re-enact the same dialogues.

"Orochimaru-san, do you really think this is Kyuubi's egg?"

Orochimaru turned to his longtime friend and responded with his typical ever-present smirk on his face.

"Of course, Yakushi-san. Why else would it be found near the Kyuubi when it fled the sealing scene? Besides if it's not an egg, why does it keep growing bigger everyday?"

Yakushi, the head of the Medical Association of Konoha, was the one who retrieved the unusually large oblong object from the battle scene. Next to him stood an observant twelve-year-old silver-haired adopted son of his, named Kabuto.

The medic-nin had been Orochimaru's assistant in many of his so-called "research" on human subjects and a stanch supporter of the Snake-Sannin's nomination as the Yondaime of Konoha, which did not work out for them both.

Yakushi had always thought their treasure find was an object alien to this world, one that had to travel a long distance to get to Earth. Furthermore, there was a flaw in his friend's conclusion.

"If it's really Kyuubi's egg, why does it keep itself off the ground, like it's flying? Besides, I don't believe Kyuubi has a gender or can reproduce."

Those too were things that had been bothering Orochimaru since day one, but he would never admit it to Yakushi, or to anyone for that matter. He felt that doing so would show weakness on his part; and the ambitious jutsu-seeker, who had broken every law imaginable to seek more power, would never allow for that.

He hated having the fallacy of his logic thrown into his face, though he knew that his friend was correct.

"It doesn't matter. I'll find out soon enough, and when I do, Konoha will be mine, and Akatsuki will be sorry for betraying me." Never mind that it was he who betrayed the nuke-nin organization. "Meanwhile, were you able to get anything off of it for us to experiment with?"

Yakushi now switched on his scientist mode. A glee that was not there before appeared in his eyes.

"Yes. Though I wasn't able to crack into its outer layer, I was able to collect some greenish crystal powder from the surface of the object" – for he refused to call it an 'egg' – "and, get this, the powder glows in the dark!"

"Um … interesting … I wonder how our test subjects will turn out when we experiment the crystal powder on them."

…o.0.O.0.o…

A/N: Thanks to Amael the Chosen for beta'ing.

This chapter is named after Oscar Wilde's The Portrait of Dorian Gray.

Thanks for reading. Don't forget to leave a review to let me know what you think.

Also, please check out my other story, Naruto: Swordsman of Nine Lonesome Stances. Thanks!