Chapter 8

"Normal Conversation"

"Kyuubi or Summon Talking"

: Naruto Mentally Conversing with Kyuubi :

: Kyuubi Mentally Conversing with Naruto :

'Normal thoughts'

'Kyuubi's thoughts'

'Jutsu'

Disclaimer!

ASNDA

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Humans were not meant to understand the subtle balance of the plane of existence. The spiritual, mental, and physical and all the sub-planes within them is meant to be hidden from the conception of mortals. However, despite its forbidden boundaries, mortals tried to understand everything within the aspects of living, dying and those related to it.

Having known very little of it, regardless ofthe fact that humans were not dumb, they tried and tried to discover, uncover and understand what they do not know. Especially one blonde, who, with every fiber of his being, wanted to know why his biological father had missed so much of his life…

"So, you're saying," He began, brows furrowed, as he attempted to simply the complicated explanation his father had given all of them. "That the Shiki Fuujin merely took all of your chakra and locked your soul in a world between life and death, called The Void, forever. Up until you managed to recover your physical strength and your chakra did you attempt to escape,"

Minato nodded his head as Naruto continued once again. "And when you did manage to escape The Void, you somehow ended up back in your body at the Namikaze House?"

Minato nodded once again. "In a nutshell,"

"But," Naruto still didn't quite understand. "If you were supposed to be locked in The Void for eternity, how did you escape and why on earth did they let you land at the Namikaze House of all places?"

Minato blinked and seemed to realize that indeed, Naruto had a point. However, before the older blonde could even utter a reply, a voice interrupted Naruto's thoughts.

: Kit, : The ever booming voice of the nine-tailed fox disrupted the currently calculating mind of the Jinchuuriki. : Let me out. I know the answer to that. :

'You've got to be kidding me,' Naruto inwardly frowned upon Kyuubi's suggestion. ''Tou-san would freak out. I won't summon a large fox just to get some answers,'

: Human form, kit. : Kyuubi sighed. Sometimes, she truly wondered if the boy had an IQ rivaling that of Shikamaru or an IQ worse than that of an insect. : Explanations will be given later when we finish solving your father's return. :

Naruto mentally shrugged and replied an 'Ok' before performing a set of hand signs in a flash. And in a haze of red chakra, Kyuubi appeared in all her human glory. Minato immediately jumped up and almost got into a defensive stance had Jiraiya not put a hand out to stop him.

"Kyuu knows the answer, she says," Naruto explained before the rest of them could even question the emergence of the demon queen. And thus, the group, including Minato, turned to the red head expectantly.

"Jiraiya, you should know at least a part of this," Kyuubi looked at the Toad Sannin including the rest of the occupants of the room. "The reason this… man was even allowed to return to the world of living is because of who Naruto truly is,"

Now, despite the answer to Naruto's earlier question , they still didn't understand it. After all, Kyuubi had merely given them another reason to be confused. However, after a moment, it had finally clicked in Jiraiya's mind.

"Of course," He whispered loud enough for the rest of them to hear. They all looked at him as though he had just sprouted two more head and five pairs of arms. "The Chosen Child,"

This confused the rest even more. Tsunade, having had her patience wane absolutely thin since earlier this morning, had had enough of this riddles. "What?" A slight edge in Tsunade's voice gave away that her tolerance was at its limit.

"When I was young," Jiraiya began as he leaned back on his chair. "Back when I was training with the toads, the great sage called me and told me something that I never thought I would hear."

Jiraiya's eyes took on a glazed look, as if he was reliving his memory. "He told me a prophecy. He told me that I would journey the elemental countries and I would name and even train the Chosen Child. The child who would chose the fate of the whole world."

Minato stiffened a little as he let out a sigh of disbelief. "Naruto," He whispered although it was enough for the occupants to hear. "You named Naruto. Heck, you're even training him now,"

"Yeah," Jiraiya looked at Naruto who had his eyes as wide as saucers. Iruka, who had been temporarily forgotten, had not, however, forgotten to listen to the conversation that took place. He also had a question about the prophecy Jiraiya spoke of.

"Decide the fate of the world," He asked as he furrowed his brows his confusion. "How exactly,"

Kyuubi spoke as she looked at Naruto. "He would decide if the world is worth saving or if this place should be destroyed instead,"

Naruto took a sharp intake of air. "No way," He breathed out, earning him a few curious glances. "There's no way I'll be the destroyer,"

"The savior it is, then," Kyuubi looked at him again, in pure seriousness. "That will require hard work. It's a good thing that you've decided to stop playing around and get serious,"

The rest of the group nodded; however, Minato was now the one at a loss. He also had a pretty simple question that happened to have a very complicated explanation. "Why exactly did you have to pretend to begin with?"

They all paused and the room was engulfed in an awkward silence before Jiraiya broke the spell with a sigh. Tsunade took out a few sake bottles and some saucers [1]. "You might as well get comfortable and take a drink. I'm telling you now… You're not going to like anything that we reveal."

The rest of the afternoon was spent relaying to Minato what had happened after Kyuubi's attack. They each took turns in retelling the story and unfortunately for the second oldest blonde present in the room, they had decided to tell the story of Naruto's life in full detail resulting in a not so happy Minato. By the time they finished, the sun had begun to set and Minato was now located at the wall, his fists balled, and in front of him was a new hole, courtesy of his fist, obviously.

"'Tou-san,"

"Namikaze-sama,"

"You're going to pay for that, Minato."

"Minato, just calm down for a while,"

"Calm down?" Apparently, that happened to be the wrong thing to say as Minato's anger increased. "Calm down?! You expect me to calm down after listening to what has happened to my son during the past eighteen years?! Don't play with me!" Minato's face contorted in anger and became red. Now, even Tsunade was slightly terrified of the blonde father standing in front of her.

Minato tightened his fists, his knuckles turning white due to lack of blood. "I nearly loose everything for these idiots and this is how they repay me?! My wife is dead; my son is abused, what's next?! They're going to turn against me too?! And you!" He looked at his sensei who, in turn, looked away in shame. "Where the hell have you been during those times?! You're supposed to be his godfather, Jiraiya!"

Jiraiya decided to remain silent, fearing that if he spoke, he might say the wrong thing and only add to the man's anger. He was already guilty enough, damn it! Minato was about to continue his rant when Naruto decided that enough was enough. "'Tou-chan, stop it," Minato looked at Naruto in disbelief. "What's done is done. It's useless getting angry over it now."

Minato was about to retort when a loud grumble was heard throughout the room. Everyone else looked at the father and son who looked sheepish for a moment. Tsunade sighed. "I'll order us some lunch. What do you guys want?"

"Ramen!"

Jiraiya laughed before he shook his head. "Ramen for the idiots," Tsunade commented offhandedly.

"Hey!"

"And sushi for me," Tsunade finished her previous statement.

"The same goes for me," Jiraiya added.

"I'll just have some dango," Iruka told the current Hokage who nodded in acknowledgement.

"You're beginning to spend too much time with that snake lady, youfu," Naruto commented offhandedly. Iruka, on the other hand, blushed crimson red. "Why didn't you tell me?" Naruto made a fake expression of pain and placed his hand over his heart. "I'm hurt, youfu,"

Iruka resisted the urge to roll his eyes at Naruto's dramatic expression and actions. "I just didn't know if you'd like her,"

Naruto raised a brow before he thought about the pros and cons. The other three looked at them with either blank or curious stares. "I'm okay with it," Iruka tilted his head in confusion. "As long as you promise to keep watch over her and as long as she treats you properly and you're happy with her. I don't like the idea of having to dodge a kunai early in the morning."

Iruka gave a laugh at that but nevertheless, nodded his head. "I will, I will,"

"Uh, so," Minato spoke as soon as Iruka stopped speaking and laughing. "Who's going to get the food?"

Jiraiya and Tsunade shook their heads at his eagerness to eat before the latter called in for Shizune. Minato immediately hid as soon as the door opened and cursed Tsunade for forgetting that his presence was yet to be revealed. "Tsunade-sama? Is there something you need?"

"Yes, well, can you bring us two sets of feast size ramen, two orders of sushi and an order of dango? You may as well get some for yourself too."

Shizune nodded before bowing and leaving the room to carry out her orders. Merely a few minutes later, Minato had to hide again as the door opened, revealing Shizune and their food. She also informed the Godaime that she was going out to eat instead.

As soon as they were sure that Shizune was out of earshot, they decided to plan while eating.

"So," Jiraiya began as he munched on some sushi. "How are we going to do this?"

Tsunade took a gulp of sake before answering. "Well," She looked at the father and son who were devouring the huge bowls of ramen . "We can go with one of two ways and which ever way we pick will decide a lot of things for us. We can go with the subtle way and let the people in on it easy or we can just blurt the news as though we were talking about the weather and shock all of them."

Naruto shook his head in disagreement and the other four immediately looked at him. He slurped his ramen before speaking. "I think I can get some fun out of this."

They all raised a brow and Iruka was brave enough to ask. "What are you thinking, Naruto?" He asked as he took a bite from his food.

Drinking the broth from the bowl, he wiped his mouth of excess liquid before smirking devilishly. "'Tou-chan and I--" Minato twitched at his new title, '-chan.' He just noticed now, after all. "--can move back to the Namikaze House. We all go about our daily lives and our normal routines but, 'Tou-chan shows up around the village at random times, alone and/or with me."

"As soon as that becomes common, people will eventually think that they're all seeing a ghost and soon enough, rumors will spread like wild fire all over Konoha. Then, boom, we make the big announcement." The four of them gave him slightly disbelieving looks. He sighed before he continued. "Trust me, this'll work. I'll be training with Ero-sennin--" A twitch from Jiraiya and a chuckle from the rest. "-- from now on, so I won't have to worry about team meetings too much unless you make me do teamwork drills." Naruto rolled his eyes, his voice, perfectly laced with sarcasm.

"And missions too. And besides, when Ero-sennin won't be here, 'Tou-chan and Youfu can oversee my training. That way, there'll be more chances of me being seen with 'Tou-chan along with Youfu."

As soon as they understood what he was trying to explain, they agreed to Naruto's plan. 'He simply wants to see the looks on their faces.' Minato smiled at the thought. 'Definitely takes after Kushina-chan,'

They soon talked about what they would tell the crowd when they wanted answers. Naruto proposed that they tell the truth with a few twists in the story, here and there since they can't exactly tell that Minato had been trapped in The Void all this time. And apparently, the truth that Naruto was talking about was that Minato had used too much of his chakra during the sealing and that he needed to be hidden from the public to protect him from his enemies outside of the country and to protect Naruto as well.

They all agreed to the idea and, since Tsunade wasn't exactly fully willing when she took up the Hokage position, she had asked if Minato would be taking back the position. He had merely shrugged and told her that he wanted to spend time with his child first before anything else. Besides, he hasn't forgiven the village for how they treated his son just yet.

Tsunade, of course, was disappointed with his answer. 'I guess I'm still stuck with the paperwork,' Tsunade sighed before looking at the stacked paperwork on her desk and sighed again. Naruto raised a brow at this, sensing Tsunade's disappointment and snapped his fingers, the attention of those present was soon directed to him.

Minato raised a brow as his son began to speak. "Ne, you do know that a Kage Bunshin passes its memories to the user once destroyed, right?" He asked with a raised eyebrow. Tsunade nodded, not knowing the point of the question. "Then, I've got one word for you: Paperwork!"

He grinned as he saw Tsunade, Minato and even Iruka,s eyes bulge out as though they had seen a ghost. A few more seconds of silence and soon, a collective cry of 'What?!' was heard throughout the whole Hokage Tower.

Glossary:

Sorry! I do not know what you call those saucer thingies that they use when they drink sake, so I just used the word saucer. If anyone knows, I'm sure me and starlight would be happy if you were to tell us. Thanks!''

Star: YUP.....hey anyone post any really interesting stories lately?