Mood music: Vermilion pt.2 by Slipknot.

Live or Let Die

Naruto woke to searing pain. Gasping, he blindly attempted to fight off his attacker.

"Whoa! Calm down, Naruto. It's just me." Naruto almost instantly recognized the Fourth's voice and opened his eyes to find that the Fourth had the lower half of his body resting on his lap and had been slowly moving his upper half when Naruto'd woken up.

Glaring at the other blonde for causing him unnecessary pain, Naruto asked, "What the hell are you doing, Yondaime?"

The expression on the Fourth's face was unreadable which unnerved Naruto because experience told him that, whenever he couldn't read the Fourth's expression, something relatively unpleasant was about to happen.

Yondaime locked eyes with Naruto. As always, the intense electric blue stare of the Hokage was a little hard to hold. Naruto always felt as if Minato could see right through him and was busy dissecting every mistake he'd ever made. Naruto fidgeted.

"Well?" His slightly nervous tone had a smirk appear upon the Fourth's handsome features. Breaking the gaze, Yondaime carefully set Naruto's feet on the floor. He pushed himself from his seat and got down on all fours and stuck his body under the bed until only his feet stuck out, looking for the Jounin outfit he hadn't worn in a little over 14 years.

"We're going to Konoha today, Naruto. I'm looking for something that'd be more…appropriate to wear." Naruto frowned and stood only to gasp and fall forward. As soon as he'd put weight on his right thigh, the injured flesh began to bleed, and his knees gave under the pain. Naruto caught himself on the bedside chair and, doing a complex and painful twist, managed to sit down in it.

"Appropriate?" Naruto's voice was slightly hoarse from pain. He watched, somewhat amused, while as Fourth wriggled out from under the bed.

When he finally broke free of the underside of the bed clutching his prize, he nodded and ruffled his hair, only to sneeze when a cloud of dust arose from the messy blonde locks.

Wiping his watering eyes, Yondaime set his burden on the bed and sat down next to it. Gesturing at what he was currently wearing, the Fourth calmly replied, "Well I can hardly take you back to Hidden Leaf looking like this."

Naruto took in the barefeet, black slacks and black fish-netted shirt the Fourth was wearing and nodded.

"Yeah, you're right. You'd look like a criminal."

The unreadable expression was back on Yondaime's face in full force and he lowly said, "Yes, and we wouldn't want that, would we?"

Before Naruto could ask what the hell he meant by that, Yondaime began to shake the pile of clothes free of dust. Naruto's eyes wandered to the window.

THUNK.

Naruto's head whipped around to find the source of the noise. It was a forehead protector. It had fallen to the floor and landed on a white cloak. Naruto's eyes widened as he made out the red flames on the bottom half along with what looked like old bloodstains around the hem. Ignoring his ribs, arm and thigh, Naruto bent down and gingerly picked up the headband and cloak. Straightening, Naruto set the headband on his lap and shook out the cloak.

A lump formed in his throat as he made out the symbols that proudly the wearer of it the Fourth Generation Hokage. Shaking vaguely, from emotion or pain Naruto couldn't tell, he raised his own blue eyes to the Fourth who had frozen midway between changing clothes and was now staring at the cloak held in Naruto's trembling fingers with a definite expression of extreme melancholy on his face.

"Is…is this what I think it is?" Yondaime grimaced internally at the startled awe he heard in his son's voice. It was indeed the very same Hokage cloak that he'd worn when he'd sealed Kyuubi in his son, and the awe he heard in Naruto's voice disgusted him. There was a reason he'd stuffed it under his bed.

Refraining from letting any emotion show or give in to the urge to snatch the thing from Naruto and rip it to shreds like he'd always wanted to, he impassively shrugged.

"It is. Does it matter, though? It couldn't save you from what happened any more than it can come to life and strangle me for doing it to you." Naruto flinched at the deadpan tone the Fourth used and growled at his words.

Once the Yondaime had finished dressing and had stood to get ready, Naruto grabbed his forearm and nodded at the headband still resting on his lap. Yondaime frowned at it.

"What?" Naruto scowled at him.

"Aren't you gonna put it on?" Minato stared at the Leaf Village headband.

"No." Naruto released him, surprise at the cold answer running through his body.

Naruto stared at the back of his father's head as he moved about the cottage preparing it for what would be a long time spent uninhabited.

"Why?" The unexpected question had Yondaime turning to look at Naruto, eyebrow raised in query.

Naruto swallowed the lump in his throat.

"Why don't you want to wear it? Why…do you know how long it took me to earn mine?" The last question surprised Naruto a little, but he couldn't believe that someone would so carelessly throw it away.

Yondaime snorted softly.

"'Earn'?" He shook his head and turned. As he closed the window, Yondaime quietly asked over his shoulder, "Do you honestly think I still belong there?"

His answer kept Naruto quiet while Yondaime made ready to leave his self-made prison, son in tow.

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--Well that's part one done.