Chapter 6

"Normal Conversation"

"Kyuubi or Summon Talking"

: Naruto Mentally Conversing with Kyuubi :

: Kyuubi Mentally Conversing with Naruto :

'Normal thoughts'

'Kyuubi's thoughts'

'Jutsu'

Disclaimer!

ASNDA

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Minutes of walking later, Minato arrived at one of his favorite stops in the village. Ichiraku Ramen Bar. Ramen, was, is and will forever be his favorite food in the whole world, seconded by his wife's cooking.

Ordering two bowls of Miso ramen, he waited patiently. His first bowl was placed in front of him almost immediately and when he was about to dig in, a pair walked in. And he nearly dropped his chopsticks and leapt for joy if it weren't for his self discipline keeping him in place.

One of the pair was a man who had brown hair, tied up in a pony tail and a scar across his nose. He concluded that the man was around his late twenties or early thirties. The next person of the duo was the very person he had been looking for.

'Naruto! He's grown so much! He should be around eighteen by now…' Minato frowned as Naruto and the other man sat down a couple of seat away from him. 'I've missed too much of his life and upbringing…'

The owner of the stand, who had been working on something earlier, blinked and looked up at the pair. He cocked his head to the side while he asked, "Naruto?"

"'Morning, gramps! Thanks for the clothes! They're perfect for what I've planned for today." Naruto smirked as he said this, replaying his plan in the back of his mind.

"And what, pray tell, would that be?" The owner asked although he already had a hunch on what it was.

A mischievous glint appeared in the blonde's eyes. "I'm going to shock that indolent pervert of a sensei of mine, the emo prick and the pink poltergeist." Naruto snickered as he listened to the nicknames he had given his teammates come out of his own mouth.

Teuchi, on the other hand, laughed loudly and ruffled the boy's hair. "You're serious, huh? I guess there's no more holding back, huh?"

Naruto shook his head and looked at Teuchi with the glint in his eyes still present. "I won't go all out. All I'm gonna do is shock the hell out of them." Teuchi raised a brow at the teen. "Youfu and I had a small talk earlier. If I'm going to get somewhere, it's time that I stop this act and for Naruto to come out into the open."

'Youfu?' Minato thought as he deflated in his seat. He had begun eating earlier, at the same time listening to their conversation. Now, he ate without actually tasting his ramen.

Teuchi chuckled as Ayame came to bring their food. Setting them down, she headed back to the kitchen as Teuchi spoke again, this time to Iruka. "So, you finally managed to convince him after years of argument, huh?"

Teuchi's eyes twinkled in mirth as he continued to speak. "Well, it's about time anyway. I can hardly wait to see their reactions when they meet the real Uzumaki Naruto."

Iruka nodded as he separated his chopsticks. "I know. I mean, after all, Naruto's brash… not dumb. And there's a big difference between those two words. How can they not see that?"

Naruto, who was currently listening on the sidelines while eating, decided to give his opinion. "Firstly, I'm right here and I can hear everything you're saying. Second, to answer that question of yours, people see what they expect to see or what they want to see, regardless of what is really present."

Teuchi nodded as he recalled events that he would be able to relate to Naruto's comment. "…And in a Shinobi village, that's quite dangerous." Iruka commented as he, too, ate his ramen.

Naruto smirked as he recalled a saying that he's teacher was so proud of. "Look underneath the underneath." He mimicked the way Kakashi spoke making them all laugh.

Iruka was the first one to recover from that. "Kakashi's the worst of them all. The man can't see beyond the past and feels like he's living in the past. He needs a good kick in the head to bring him back to the present." He shook his head in disappointment. "For someone who's a genius, he sure is dumb."

The other two nodded in agreement. Minutes flew by quickly and before any of them knew it, Naruto had to go for his 'team meeting.'

"Well, it seems that I have to take my leave. I should be late enough and in time to arrive before 'Kakashi-sensei' arrives at the meeting place." He told Iruka and Teuchi with air-quotes, the former just about to finish his ramen. "Thanks for the meal! It was great,"

Naruto bounded out of the ramen stand with Iruka and Teuchi biding him luck. However, neither of the two noticed that the other patron in the restaurant had slapped his money on the table and hurried after his splitting image.

Said person was currently fuming silently his face sporting a red tint on it. If he ever, ever got his hands on Hatake Kakashi, the boy would experience having a Rasengan shoved up his behind.

'That idiot! If I don't kill him immediately when I see him, he'll be damn lucky. How dare he neglect my son after everything I did for him? I treated him like my own flesh and blood and this is how he repays me?! That ingrate!' Needless to say, since he rarely makes idol threats , Kakashi should be shivering by now.

'After I've dealt with Hatake, I'm going hunting to find out who had, is and will hurt my son and make them wish they had never, ever been born!'

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Minato had been fuming for the past seven minutes that he was following his son towards his team's meeting place. Needless to say, he was quite shocked to find that the place was the bridge where many of his memories with his team lay and where he had been earlier.

What came as a bigger shock for him was the fact that his son was teamed up with two of the worst people he'd seen and interacted with within the village of Konoha. To make matters worse, he saw Kakashi reading a porn book in front of his students!

He began cursing as he realized that they may have been included in the whatever-abuse his son received. That was when he made a decision. He was going to talk to Tsunade about this and have Naruto placed on a different team or on his own since he, Minato, can practically see the potential oozing off of Naruto.

Still, that will have to wait 'til later since he'd have to deal with Naruto and Kakashi first. Lucky for him, he didn't have to search the whole village since he was already there. He would watch for a while and when things get worse, he'd step in, grab Naruto, do whatever he feels like with the other three and run to Tsunade's office for that unscheduled chit-chat.

As for causing riot in the village for merely appearing, to hell with that! Everyone, save for a few, needed a serious wake up call anyway.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Naruto calmly walked over to where his teammates were waiting. What he saw was no surprise. Sasuke was as emo as he always was, Kakashi had his face buried in his 'novel' and was giggling and blushing here and there while Sakura was ready to kill someone at a moment's notice.

'Yep,' Naruto thought as he neared his team. 'Same ol' routine like any other day…'

"'Morning," Naruto greeted loud enough for them to hear yet not enough for the volume of his 'usual self.'

No one looked up, however. Naruto shrugged and parked himself in front of Kakashi and waited, and waited, and waited some more and did I say waited? If it wasn't for the fact that Naruto didn't have much patience, he would have waited until Kakashi noticed that he was right in front of him.

Up in the tree, Minato was trying so very hard not to laugh out loud or bang his head on the tree he was on.

'Where did I possibly go wrong?' He asked himself as he recalled almost all of the things that he had taught the boy before he left. 'Surely I taught him better than that,'

He sighed indistinctly and observed the panorama in front of him once again. That was when he remembered something else. 'Where's Rin?'

-------

It had already been several minutes since Naruto had been standing in front of Kakashi and the masked Jounin had yet to sense his presence. And thus, Naruto decided that he didn't like the fact the he was innocently being ignored.

"Good morning, Sensei!" He emphasized every word and finally, Kakashi decided to pay attention to him. Kakashi, however, was not used to the not-so-loud greeting of the blonde boy and merely blinked at said boy.

"Naruto," The Jounin asked as though he was seeing him for the first time in years.

"Sorry I'm late." Naruto 'apologized' as he sheepishly scratched the back of his head. "Iruka-sensei decided to visit me this morning and he and I lost track of the time talking."

Naruto expected someone to answer, be it an insult or a smack on the head. However, he got none as Kakashi, Sasuke, and Sakura settled on staring at him as if he had grown two more heads. Naruto, on the other hand, knew why they were stunned but decided to play dumb.

"Sensei," Naruto started. "Is something wrong?" Kakashi said nothing nor moved and was still staring at him.

Naruto sighed, tired of their staring. "Sensei, are we going to train or not? 'Cause if we aren't training then I'm going to find Jiraiya-sensei and have him help me with something." If not for the fact that he was a boy, his hand would have found its way to his hip.

Noting that he would not get a single response from his sensei or even a twitch from him, Naruto turned to the other male of the team – if he was a male at all. : He's gay. He hasn't had any interest in any girl, in whatever form, at all since I've 'known' him. : Kyuubi commented within the depths of Naruto's mind while the latter mentally snickered at that.

"Sasuke, d' you wanna spar?" He asked as he motioned with his hand. Sasuke, however, did not even blink and continued to stare in silence.

"Sakura," Naruto asked as he inclined his head in her direction. "How about you," She merely blinked and responded with deathly silence.

'Okay…' Naruto trailed off in his mind as he looked at each one of them. They were still staring and as much as he loved the attention being given, he really didn't like being stared at.

"Well, since none of you are going to talk to me-" Naruto began walking away from his teammates with their heads following him. "-I supposed I'll go and look for Jiraiya." And thus, he walked away.

That was it for the remaining members of Team Kakashi. Naruto wore no orange. He did not challenge Sasuke. He had not yelled or asked Sakura for a date. There was simply nothing Naruto about the boy that was in front of them just then. And with that, they snapped out of their stupor and headed for the Hokage tower.

Minato, on the other hand, smirked and chuckled lightly. Naruto is his mother's son alright. He loves messing with people's mind, just like Kushina. And from what he had heard from the conversation in the ramen shop, this was merely the beginning.

As he had always enjoyed Kushina's pranks, he would surely enjoy his son's pranks unless he was going to stop anytime soon although there was only a point five percent chance in that.

Speaking of his son, he ran in the shadows to keep up with Naruto all the while concealing his presence. Apparently, Naruto was extremely fast. Imagine how fast he would be if the boy learned how to use his ultimate technique? Just thinking about it made him want to kidnap his son and teach him immediately!

Minutes later, they stopped at the women's hot spring and looked around until both blondes heard some screeching, yelling and soon enough, Jiraiya literally sailed through the air and landed in a clearing not too far away, Naruto following him on foot.

As soon as Naruto arrived at Jiraiya's landing spot, he immediately discussed something with his perverted sensei while Minato continued to hide his presence so even Jiraiya couldn't sense anything coming from him. He wasn't the Hokage for nothing, after all.

The clock ticked as sensei and student talked with easy familiarity. They discussed some past events, what had happened with his team earlier and somehow, Jiraiya found it pretty weird although amusing nonetheless. Then, their expressions changed as they got down to business.

"So, brat… What d' you wanna show me?" Jiraiya asked as he stood up from his seating position and looked at Naruto with a half serious expression.

Minato watched and listened on as his son's eyes lit up in excitement while Naruto too, stood up.

"I finally did it," He told the frog hermit although the aging Sannin seemed confused and thus, asked the boy. "Finally did what?"

Naruto mumbled a soft "This," before going through exactly twelve hand signs and mumbling something that even Jiraiya had a hard time hearing. Soon enough, both were engulfed in a whirlwind of sorts as Naruto smirked and extended his had palm up as if holding something , his face a mask of consintration.

Merely seconds later, Naruto had managed to create his completed version of Rasengan. The Rasen-Shuriken to be exact… However, instead of looking proud, Jiraiya looked as if he had been caught peeping at the women's onsen.

"Naruto! Have you forgotten what Tsunade told you about using that jutsu?!" Jiraiya shrieked in panic. Yes people, shrieked.

Minato, on the other hand, barely heard what his former sensei had screamed and was too busy admiring his son's accomplishment since he had never thought that Naruto would be the one to create a different version of his original, seal-less technique.

Naruto smirked as he heard his sensei and simply shrugged his shoulders before throwing the massive amount of condensed chakra towards the forest, much like how he would throw a normal shuriken. Said jutsu flew through and though the trees like they were butter and took out more or less twenty trees before completely dissipating.

"I did it. I completed the Rasen-Shuriken through and through," Naruto announced once again, however, all he earned was deathly silence.

Naruto was thinking that he had upset his teacher when Jiraiya's face broke into a grin that threatened to split his face in half. "You…" He couldn't quite grasp the fact that his student had finally surpassed him in the control of Rasengan although it had already clicked. "You did it!"

He embraced the blonde awkwardly although it didn't really matter since he had immediately let go and shouted "You did it!" at the top of his lungs for the whole world to hear. Naruto, on the other hand, was laughing at his mentor's reaction and at his achievement.

Back up in the tree, tears threatened to run down Minato's face as he watched the exchange and as he marveled at how Naruto had managed to not only master his own technique but take it to a whole new level. And better yet, he had been there to see him accomplish this even though he was hiding.

He just wanted to give his son a hug and endlessly apologize and congratulate him. He wanted to go down there and lock his son in a bear hug that should have been given to him a long time ago. And he did just that, except for the bear hug part.

"Naruto? Jiraiya-sensei?" He called as he got down from the tree he had been on and released the Henge that he had forgotten he was using/wearing.

Both Naruto and Jiraiya spun to look at the new comer and immediately tensed. Jiraiya released Naruto from the hug that he had once again given and stared before he dropped into a defensive stance.

"Who are you?" Jiraiya growled as Minato looked at them with a confused expression.

"Sensei," Minato began as he looked at him directly into the eyes. "It's me, Namikaze Minato."

It was Naruto's turn to speak although it held more meaning to him than to the two other. "No," His eyes were blazing with emotions and his fists were clenched at his sides. "You're not him. He's dead and I'm going to kill you if you don't tell us who you are!"'

"Naruto," Minato took a step towards the boy as he stepped back before dropping into a stance next to Jiraiya.

Minato had to think, and fast. He knew better than to take his son's threat lightly and if he were to do that, it may just cause his downfall. Suddenly, an idea hit him and he could almost see the light bulb lighting above his head.

'I should still be able to use the toad contract,' He though before looking at the two. "Let me prove who I am before you do anything," His eyes were so pleading that Naruto and Jiraiya had no choice but to allow him to at least try.

Thus, Minato bit his thumb before performing the necessary hand seals for a summoning technique. He slammed his palm on the ground and soon enough, after a large puff of smoke, Gamabunta stood in all his toad glory.

"Jiraiya! Brat! " The toad boss exclaimed as he looked for the white haired Sannin and his apprentice. "What is it now?!"

Minato sweat dropped before clearing his throat. "Ah, Gamabunta,"

Gamabunta looked up on his head before his eyes nearly bugged out of their sockets. "Minato?! I thought you were dead!" Apparently, he had yet to believe that he was real as well, unless of course he could give a proper explanation.

"Uh, yeah… About that…" Minato sheepishly scratched the back of his head while laughing nervously. "I didn't exactly die, per se. I merely got stuck at the void."

Gamabunta let out a hearty laugh before he slightly nodded his head. "You're a lucky brat, you know that?" Minato grinned at the toad boss. "I want to hear the whole story over a drink later on. I still have a few things to do and I think you do as well."

Gamabunta waved and was about to leave but not before he gave a parting message. "Good luck with Naruto. He's a handful, I tell you." Gamabunta grinned before he disappeared in a puff of smoke, ignoring Naruto's protest and Jiraiya's hearty laugh.

Minato landed softly on the ground and as soon as he did so, he was attacked by a golden blur with a cry of "'Tou-san!" [1] Minato laughed as he held his son and right then and there, he knew that he was finally home.

Glossary:

'Tou-san – dad, father [Informal version]

Beta-reader's comment: Is Minato PMS-ing or something? He's had a lot of mood swings in this chapter. Seriously!

Star: Ok so this time it seems like it but there is a lot of emotional stuff going on here.