I do not own Naruto.
The sun was just peeking over the horizon when Minato left the Hokage Residence for the third training ground. While he did have a private training ground reserved for the Hokage, Minato was feeling nostalgic and decided to visit Obito before beginning his exercises. Luckily the training ground was deserted when he arrived, so he had the freedom to train without worrying about prying eyes.
"Obito…." he murmured, gently tracing his student's name. "If you were still here, I'm sure you would be proud of Naruto. He takes after you a lot, you know," he smiled fondly. "He's even befriended some of your clan mates, and I'm sure that when he grows up, he'll become an excellent ninja."
"Come to visit Obito, Minato-sensei?" a voice asked. "I thought you would be in the office by now." Minato smiled as he turned to greet his remaining student.
"I have the day off to train and relax, so I thought I'd come and see Obito while I'm at it. What about you, Kakashi? Giving your daily report to Obito?" Minato asked in amusement.
"Of course." Minato stepped back from the memorial stone to give Kakashi some privacy and began going through some stretches. Once stretched and limber, he ran through his usual morning regimen, which included plenty of physical conditioning in addition to his usual practice katas. He was finishing up with a chakra meditation exercise when he sensed Kakashi draw near him.
"Were you hoping to catch me off guard?" he joked as he looked up.
"Nope, just wondering if you'd like a spar," Kakashi smirked. "I've improved a lot since the last time we fought and I want to see how well I can do now."
"Well let me warn you, Kakashi, I haven't fought a good battle in a long time so I'm going to go all out," Minato said seriously. "Come at me with everything you've got."
"I wasn't planning on you holding back, Minato-sensei," Kakashi replied as he pushed up his forehead protector to reveal a spinning sharingan. "I've been waiting for this battle for a very long time."
Naruto woke to the smell of delicious ramen. He jumped to his feet, ready to dash downstairs and chow down on some serious ramen when he remembered he still had to face his punishment. He bit his lip, torn between the lure of ramen and the lure of temporary escape. Escape sounded a lot better at the moment and besides, Ichiraku had delicious ramen he could eat too. He quickly got dressed as quietly as he could and grabbed a handful of cash and his new book before sliding open his bedroom window.
After one quick glance around his room to make sure he wasn't missing anything, he jumped out of the window to freedom and Ichiraku ramen….until glowing chains wrapped around him and dragged him back to earth.
"Now where do you think you're going?" Naruto turned around and gulped nervously. A ticked off Kushina stood behind him, tapping a wooden spoon against her hand menacingly as she stared him down.
"Um….training?" he asked hopefully. The spoon smacked down on his head and he winced in pain.
"Wrong! You're coming back inside to have breakfast, and then you'll be getting your punishment from Minato!" Kushina scowled, dragging Naruto inside as she muttered angrily underneath her breath. She forced Naruto into a chair and slammed a bowl of ramen in front of him which he happily began devouring.
"Hey mom, I thought you weren't supposed to use ninjutsu anymore," Naruto commented through a mouthful of noodles. "Or cook ramen all the time." Kushina flushed red as she quickly checked the house for Minato. No sign of his chakra, so she should be safe.
"Just….just eat your ramen, dattebane!" she quickly said. Naruto smirked and quickly finished the rest of his ramen, gulping down the soup with a sigh of contentment. Vengeance was so sweet….
"Oh yes, Minato left you a note," Kushina said as Naruto got up from his seat. "It's over there on the wall." He handed her his empty bowl and chopsticks before going over to inspect the note.
Naruto: I'll be waiting for you at the Third Training Ground. Wear some clothes you can run in and make sure you bring your book. Tell your mom we'll be at Ichiraku's for lunch. Hope you had a good night's sleep. Love, Dad.
Naruto grinned and tossed the note out before returning back to the kitchen table to grab his book. "I'm going out, Mom!" he called as he left the house. "We're having lunch at Ichiraku's!"
"Okay!" she called back. "Be careful!"
"I will!" he promised even as he dashed out of the building and into the streets. Now, which way would be the fastest to the Third Training Ground? he wondered absently.
"Dead," Minato said as he held a kunai to Kakashi's throat.
"Not quite," said a voice from behind him. Minato tensed as the steel blade of a kunai kissed his own throat. He glanced back to see a pokerfaced Kakashi holding the kunai. The Kakashi he was threatening disappeared in a poof of smoke.
"Good use of shadow clones," Minato acknowledged. "However…." He vanished with a flash and reappeared behind the original. "It's still not good enough to beat me."
Kakashi smirked and stabbed himself with the kunai. Minato had barely enough time to register that his only living student had just committed suicide when Kakashi began glowing with an eerily familiar light. Minato's eyes widened in shock as he realized exactly what was about to happen. Shoot…. Just as the clone detonated in a burst of electricity, Minato flashed away to a kunai several metres away.
"That was one heck of an attack," he winced as he examined the burn marks on the ground. "Hmm…. A shadow clone infused with lightning chakra, eh? Clever, but it must take a lot out of you," Minato surmised as he turned to see an exhausted Kakashi surface from the ground via a handy doton jutsu.
"As you guessed," Kakashi replied weakly. "It was a good trial run though. At least I got to see the effects of my jutsu firsthand."
Minato narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "You decided to test your jutsu for the first time on your sensei?"
Kakashi shrugged casually. "Well, you are the only one fast enough to evade it, and I wanted to see it in action."
Minato sighed and rapped his knuckles sharply on Kakashi's head, eliciting an 'ow!' of shock and a resentful look. "Restraint, Kakashi! I thought you already learned that particular lesson." Minato paused as he scrutinized his young student, an idea occurring to him.
"Are you planning on doing anything today?" he asked abruptly.
"Hm? No….just training," Kakashi answered. "Why?"
"In that case, I'm sure you wouldn't mind helping me out for the day," Minato beamed before assuming his Hokage face. "Hatake Kakashi, your mission is to obtain a brush, an ink set, a notebook, a pencil, and a sealing scroll and deliver them to me here. This is a D-ranked mission. Do not fail." Kakashi suppressed an eye-roll and mock saluted before dashing away.
After a quick look to the sun to gauge the time, Minato held his palm up and focused as a whirling ball of condensed chakra formed in his palm. Once the ball stabilized, he brought his other palm forward and focused his chakra into the countless razor blades that characterized fuuton chakra. Beads of sweat slid down his face as he struggled to combine the unruly chakras. With a sudden bang, the chakras collided and reversed, exploding violently in his face.
Minato lay back on the ground, panting from the effort as he examined the extent of the damage. His left hand was covered with tiny nicks while his right seemed to have escaped the majority of the damage.
"Naruto, you can come out now," he called as he wrapped a bandage around his hand. A sheepish Naruto walked out from behind the tree he was hiding in.
"Are you okay?" he asked worriedly as he gently took Minato's hand. Minato stifled a chuckle at the serious look on his son's face and ruffled his hair.
"I'll be fine, but now you see why it's too dangerous for you to learn jutsu on your own while you're still young," Minato explained, capitalizing on the situation. Naruto nodded solemnly.
"I understand. What were you trying to do, anyways?"
"Hm? Well, the rasengan is still an incomplete jutsu. As you know, I spent three years developing it until it became what it is now. My plan for the rasengan was to take the shape transformation of chakra to the highest possible point and combine it with my wind chakra, but as you can see, I've been having some trouble adding my wind chakra into the mix. If I still haven't figured it out by the time you master the rasengan, maybe you can help me out," Minato smiled.
"Alright!" Naruto cheered. "And if you do finish it before me, then I'll make a new version of it that will be even awesomer than yours!"
Minato chuckled amusedly. "I'm sure you will, son. But first, you'll have to learn to observe the rules, which brings me to your punishment." Naruto's face fell for a moment, but after a deep breath, he squared himself up to take it bravely.
"Uzumaki Naruto, for sneaking into my office and attempting to learn jutsu without permission, you are to run five laps around the training ground and perform ten push-ups and fifteen sit-ups. Begin!" With a grim nod of understanding, Naruto dropped to the ground to begin his punishment.
"Remember," Minato said as Naruto raced through a set of push ups, "if you want to control your chakra better, you need to build up both your mental and physical energies." Naruto paused in his exercise, momentarily puzzled before he realized what his father was saying. An immense grin spread across his face.
"Yes, sir!" he cried before returning to his workout with renewed passion.
Kakashi was surprised, to say the least, when an orange-clad Naruto crashed into him the moment he set foot into the Third Training Ground and after a rushed apology, dashed out of sight. Shaking his head in bewilderment, Kakashi located his sensei with a sniff and headed towards him.
"Here you go, Minato-sensei," Kakashi said as he handed over the shopping bag. "Everything as ordered."
"Thank you, Kakashi. I would have gone to get the supplies myself, but as you can see, I have to oversee Naruto," Minato commented. Kakashi nodded and stuck his hands in his pockets nonchalantly.
"What did he do this time?" he asked curiously.
"He sneaked into my study and started reading one of my more advanced sealing books," Minato explained. "He's far too eager to learn jutsu for his own good, so Kushina and I have decided to start him on some sealing basics, which should occupy him until he enters the Academy. And if he masters enough basics before then, then he's more than ready to learn how to use chakra."
"If he's inherited any skills at all from either of you, you'll be teaching him chakra before the current year even finishes," Kakashi chuckled. "I assume the physical conditioning is doubling as his punishment and a start to his physical training?"
"Correct. By the way, seeing as you're free for the day and will be eventually leading a jounin team of your own, why don't you help me start Naruto off on the basics? After all, you've learned enough from me to be able to at least introduce him to the subject."
"Alright," he relented. "But you owe me!"
"Kakashi!" Naruto yelled as he came in from his last lap and tackled the teen. "Guess what? Dad's gonna teach me sealing!"
What incredible stamina…. Kakashi thought in amazement, seeing the five-year old had just finished a fairly strenuous workout and still had the energy to tackle him.
"Actually, Naruto, Kakashi here will be my teaching assistant today," Minato chuckled. "So if you would let him up, we can begin." Naruto flushed and got off, scratching his head sheepishly as he muttered an apology to Kakashi. Kakashi waved it off casually and sat up, smoothing down his rumpled hair as he did so. He gestured for the two to join him on the ground as he mentally ran over everything he knew about seals and how he was going to go about introducing the complex subject to Naruto.
"First of all, fuinjutsu, or sealing as it is more commonly known, is a type of jutsu that has the ability to seal almost anything into another object. It can also be used to unseal objects from within something or someone. Activating and deactivating them requires certain conditions to be met, with the simplest being a small amount of the user's chakra. Writing them, on the other hand, is very complicated and difficult, as a single mistake can cause the seal to blow up in your face. Are you following so far?" Kakashi asked.
"Yeah….I think so," he answered slowly. Kakashi gave him a dubious look before continuing with his explanation.
"Look," he said, opening the scroll. "You see this circle here? To activate this seal, all I have to do is channel a little chakra and the object will appear. See?" he explained as he summoned a fuma shuriken.
"What's the scribble around the circle?" Naruto asked, leaning in to get a closer look.
"That's the formula for the seal. Basically, it's the blueprint for the seal. As to how to write seals, you'll have to ask your father, I'm about as lost as you are in that aspect," he explained with a meaningful look towards his teacher.
"Yes, and that's exactly what we'll be starting on, now that Kakashi has kindly explained the basics," Minato smiled. He pulled out the sheets of paper and ink set Kakashi had purchased and picked up the brush. He bent over the paper and was pleased to note that Naruto was eagerly looking over his shoulder.
"Now, this is how you write in seal script…."
Naruto yawned as squinted down at the figures that danced across the page. He wasn't used to waking up before lunchtime, but if it helped him become an amazing ninja, he was willing to sacrifice a few hours of sleep. He slapped himself and forced himself to focus. He picked up his brush again and continued copying down the list of symbols used in seal writing. Ever since his dad had explained the basics of seal writing and importance of it, he had spent every spare moment holed up in his room, striving to commit every symbol to his memory and be able to copy them perfectly.
"Naruto!" his mom called. "Itachi's here to see you!"
"Okay!" Naruto called back. "Tell him to come up!"
"Naruto?" Itachi asked as he entered. His eyes landed on the pile of books and papers on Naruto's desk. "What are you studying?"
"My dad's teaching me fuinjutsu!" Naruto beamed. "I have to finish reading through these books and learn how to write the symbols properly and everything!"
"I see. So that's why you haven't been around lately." Itachi flipped open the nearest textbook and skimmed it. "It looks rather complex. How far have you gotten?" Naruto chuckled sheepishly.
"Not too far, I've just started memorizing the first few symbols and ideas, but just you watch, I'll have mastered it in three weeks, and then I'll start making my own seals!" he grinned. Itachi nodded as he continued to look through the book, sitting down on the floor as he did so.
"Chakra transferral seals….basis for more advanced seals such as transcription seals…..sounds interesting….." he muttered as he stopped partway through the book and began reading the explanation.
"So why're you here?" Naruto asked. "I thought you weren't gonna come here anymore 'cause your clan didn't like it."
"Mother and Father are going on a short trip, and since you're going to be alone tonight, they suggested Sasuke and I come over and stay with you for the night and then spend the rest of the time at Shisui's," Itachi explained.
"Oh yeah, Mom said they're going to be out tonight 'cause Kunami's coming out," Naruto nodded sagely. He quickly copied down a few more signs before packing away his ink set. "Okay, finished! Now we can go and play!" Itachi nodded and set aside the book before following Naruto as he raced downstairs.
"Hold it, boys!" Kushina cried as they dashed past the kitchen. "You're not going anywhere until you get a decent lunch inside you!" Sheepishly the two boys entered the kitchen and sat down at the table. Kushina was already sitting in one of the chairs, bottle-feeding a gurgling Sasuke.
"I'm back!" Minato called as he entered the house carrying two takeout bags. "I finished tidying up and handed the seat over to the Third earlier than I expected, so I picked up some lunch on the way home."
"Yay, Dad's back!" Naruto cheered, bouncing in his seat. "Now you can play with us after lunch!" Minato shot a quick glance towards his wife, who rolled her eyes and nodded.
"Go on, you big baby," she chuckled. "Don't worry about me, I'll just take a nap on the couch after I'm done with Sasuke. If anything happens I can easily call you."
"All right," Minato agreed. "I can spare a few hours. But first, I want to see you finish eating lunch, and that means the vegetables too, Naruto." Naruto pouted but nodded in agreement as Minato set the food before them.
"Ah, Itachi, I haven't seen you around here in awhile," Minato smiled. "How are you doing?"
"I'm doing well, Hokage-sama," Itachi said politely. "Thank you for allowing Sasuke and I to stay here tonight."
"Now, now, Itachi, we've had this conversation before," Minato said playfully. "You can drop all the Hokage business when you're in my house. Just Minato-san or Uncle Minato is fine."
"Very well, Minato-san," Itachi agreed, if somewhat reluctantly.
"Okay Dad, I'm done!" Naruto mumbled through a mouthful of food. "Let's go!" Minato chuckled and ruffled his son's hair.
"If Itachi is finished, then we can go," he said with a glance towards Itachi, who nodded an affirmative and got up.
"Hey Dad, let's play Hide-and-Go-Seek!" Naruto cheered as the three tossed out the take-out boxes and went to the backyard.
"Alright, but you're it!" Minato teased. Naruto pouted by obliged, covering his eyes and slowly counting down from thirty. Itachi and Minato exchanged glances before vanishing into the brush that filled the grounds behind the Hokage Mansion.
"Five….four….three….two….one….Ready or not, here I come!" Naruto yelled as he uncovered his eyes. His eyes darted left and right before he dived into the nearest bush, barreling heedlessly through the scratchy undergrowth in his eagerness.
Panting, Naruto and Itachi scrambled through the bushes, pursued by a laughing Minato. As they neared a fork in the path, they exchanged looks before nodding and splitting up, with Itachi darting down the right path and Naruto taking the left.
"Shadow clone jutsu!" a voice called from behind and the two boys groaned; their plan was botched. Sighing, the two surrendered as two smug Minatos caught up with them and picked the boys up.
"It's not fair!" Naruto protested, pouting. "You used ninjutsu, and that's not allowed!"
"You never said I couldn't use ninjutsu," Minato chuckled as he ruffled his son's hair.
"Even so, the odds of us winning the game were practically nonexistent," Itachi pointed out. "Considering we're not even in the Academy yet and Minato-san is the Hokage, the chances of us even surprising him are practically zero."
"Pfft, who cares about that?" Naruto scoffed. "We could totally take Dad on, if we worked hard enough! All you need is guts!" he proclaimed. Minato smiled broadly at their antics; despite being nearly polar opposites, they were the best of friends. Ah, the joys of childhood.
"Well, you're both right," he said before the argument could escalate. "While it is true that determination to see something through to the end is important, it is equally important that we calculate the likelihood of success and work with this in mind. So if you two work together, I'm sure you'll both become splendid shinobi." Placated, Naruto grinned widely up at his father, basking in the praise. Itachi smiled softly; he wasn't used to lavish compliments as his father was rather demanding and had high expectations of him, so being praised by the Hokage was something he didn't take lightly.
"Hey Dad, let's play Protect the Hokage now!" Naruto suggested. Minato frowned, glancing up at the darkening sky.
"Sorry, Naruto, but it's getting late and we need to head back. Maybe next time, okay?" he smiled gently. Naruto sighed but nodded glumly. Itachi placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.
"Come on Naruto, let's race back while it's still light," he smiled. Naruto brightened up and with shouts and yells, the two boys raced back to the house, each doing their best to outrun the other. Smiling fondly, Minato strolled at a sedate pace behind them, thoughts dwelling on another child of his for whom they had anticipated for ten long months….
Minato watched absently as Naruto and Itachi bent over the table, both staring intensely at the various shogi pieces scattered across the board. Even with one eye on the food he was cooking and the other on the boys, his mind was somewhere else, worrying over the upcoming birth. The doorbell rang loudly, startling him from his thoughts.
"Naruto, Itachi, could you two get the door?" he asked, hastily scraping the vegetables onto a dish while he added seasoning to the pan of frying meat. The two boys got up from their game and scuttled off to answer the door, returning with a smiling Sarutobi Hiruzen and his wife Biwako.
"Hokage-sama, Biwako-sama," Minato greeted with a short bow. Although he now held the title of Hokage and could address the two on equal terms, old habits died hard and he still found it much easier to simply refer to him as he always had.
"Minato," Hiruzen returned with a smile. "I see you've got your hands full here. We'll go to the living room and wait for you there."
"Oh no, that's fine," Minato said hurriedly. "The meal's already prepared; I was just touching up the meat as you got here. Sit down, please, and dinner will be served in a minute. Itachi, could you set the table? And Naruto, go and tell your mother it's time to eat." Naruto nodded and dashed off while Itachi quickly brought out the bowls and utensils.
"Thank you, Itachi," the Third smiled kindly. "Incidentally, I'm surprised to see you here. Are you having a play day with Naruto-kun?" Itachi flushed slightly, embarrassed by the amount of attention the Third was giving him.
"Yes, Hokage-sama. Usually Naruto comes over to my place, but my parents are out today, so they dropped me off here instead."
"I see," the Hokage nodded sagely. Before he could say any more, however, Naruto entered the kitchen with Sasuke in his arms, with Kushina a few steps behind him.
"Oh, who is this?" the Third asked as he spied the sleeping Sasuke in Naruto's arms.
"This is Sasuke, Itachi's younger brother," Kushina said as Naruto gently rocked the boy. "Mikoto and Fugaku are away for a couple of days, and Naruto is going to be alone tonight, so we thought it best if the two brothers came over."
"Ah, I see…." the Third nodded. "Sasuke, hm? Just like my father…." he ruminated nostalgically.
"Indeed," Kushina smiled. "Itachi, would you like to feed Sasuke or would you rather I do it?"
"I can do it," Itachi said quietly. Kushina nodded and moved to prepare the bottle while Naruto transferred Sasuke into Itachi's arms. Sasuke stirred and blinked at the bright light. Before he could start crying, Itachi gently rocked him back and forth, lulling the child into a languid mood.
The meal passed by quickly, with the adults talking in quiet tones while the children fussed over Sasuke. At last, Minato rose and cleared the dishes, cleaning and drying them with practiced ease. Naruto and Itachi took Sasuke off to his crib before heading up to Naruto's room to finish their game of shogi, leaving the four adults sat down to discuss the details of Kushina's birth.
"I'll be there for the birth….We have to take care of the seal and everything," Minato smiled reassuringly. "I'll get everything prepared beforehand."
"This is what we did for your predecessor Mito-sama as well. The seal nearly failed when she gave birth," the Third rumbled. "I'm afraid we'll need to prepare for the worst….We'll set a place up outside the village and erect a barrier to protect it. Only Minato, my wife Biwako, and Taji from the ANBU will be inside. This must be kept top-secret. Of course there will be reinforcements outside, ANBU under my direct command."
"I'll tell you where the place is, so get your things ready!" Biwako said.
"Yes….Thank you both," Kushina bowed respectfully.
"Naruto?" Kushina said gently as she knocked on Naruto's door. The two boys looked up from their game to see Naruto's parents standing in the doorway.
"Mom? Dad?" Naruto asked in surprise. "What's up?"
"We're heading out soon and we just wanted to drop in to say good-bye," Kushina explained as she knelt down to give Naruto a warm hug. He squeezed her back before giving one to Minato too.
"I love you Mom, Dad," he said softly.
"We love you too," they murmured back.
"I…." he hesitated. "Stay safe."
"We will," Kushina promised. "You stay safe too, Naruto. Listen to Itachi, and look after Sasuke, okay?"
"Okay. Bye Mom, bye Dad," he said, returning to Itachi as a feeling of unease settled on him. When Itachi gave him a strange look, he shook it off and focused on their game.
"Check."
"Say, Itachi?"
"Hn?" Itachi grunted as he shuffled the deck of cards.
"What do you think Kunami will look like?" Naruto asked curiously. Itachi thought about it as he dealt the reshuffled deck.
"Well," he said slowly. "Blue eyes are a definite, unless your grandparents have some recessive gene…. Other than that, I would say the odds of her resembling either of your parents are pretty even." Itachi picked up his pile of cards and shuffled through them. He paused, contemplating one with a mischievous look in his eye.
"Wouldn't it be funny if she turns out the exact opposite of you?" he smirked. Naruto shot him a confused look, so Itachi elaborated. "You inherited your dad's hair and eye colour, but your mom's face and personality, right? Well what if Kunami gets your mom's hair and eyes and your dad's face and personality?"
"That would be horrible!" Naruto gasped, dropping his cards. Itachi forced his eyes to look away from the exposed cards in attempt to play the game fairly.
"Why is that?"
"I'm already surrounded by geniuses 24/7; I don't need another one, especially not one younger than me!" Naruto pouted. "There's you, the child prodigy of the Uchiha clan, Kakashi, the prodigy who set the current record for graduating the Academy, and my dad, who's the Hokage and is referred to as the kind of prodigy you only see once every decade."
"Well, prodigy or not, she'll be five years younger than you, so you'll have the advantage of experience," Itachi pointed out. "Besides, as her older brother, she'll respect you and love you even if your decisions aren't the best." Naruto sighed and acceded to his friend's logic.
"I guess you're right," he said grudgingly as his picked up his cards. He ran a bored eye over the cards and tossed a random one onto the floor. "Your tur-ahh!" Naruto screamed as searing pain lanced through his entire body, emanating from his stomach. He dropped to the floor, writhing as the pain assaulted his senses. His vision wove in and out, before blanking into darkness, which was abruptly replaced by blinding light.
Images flashed before him: a masked and hooded man with a sharingan blazing in his right eye, several stone pillars marked with sealing formulae, and a full moon shining through the inky darkness of the night sky. Then nothing but darkness.
"….ruto! Naruto! Wake up!" Slowly Naruto struggled through the pain-induced blackness to find himself blinking up into Itachi's worried face. His body still tingled from the pain, but even that was quickly fading, probably because of the healing factor provided by his Uzumaki blood.
"Itachi?" Naruto mumbled hazily. Relief flooded across his friend's face, but the worry remained in his eyes.
"What's wrong Naruto?" he asked urgently. "What happened?"
"Chakra resonance…." Naruto muttered. "Whenever Mom uses the kyuubi's chakra, my chakra responds and burns….but it's never been this bad before…." Suddenly he shot up, eyes bright and aware. "The kyuubi! Something must have happened!" He jumped to his feet and raced downstairs, scattering the remnants of their game as he did so. Itachi followed, his mind racing through all the possibilities Naruto's revelation posed.
"What are you going to do?" Itachi panted as he chased after Naruto. "We can't go and help; we'd only be a hindrance. The only viable option is to contact the Hokage, and doubtlessly he already knows." He caught up just as Naruto ripped aside the calendar in the kitchen, revealing a small spiral inscribed into the wall.
"The emergency transporter?" Itachi asked in surprise. Naruto bit his thumb and swiped the blood across the spiral, which glowed before accepting his offering and expanding into the seal formula that would transport Naruto to their family safe house upon touch.
"I need to know. My family….my precious people….they're in danger. This way, I'll know what happens as soon as possible. Itachi….stay safe." After one last glance towards the solemn Uchiha, Naruto pressed his hand to the swirling seal and vanished with a flash.