Growing up in an orphanage for a second time, Minato's life was defined by the word solitude once again. The first time around he was only ever another faceless figure in a crowd of others, but this time he was singled out and made a pariah.

Minato knew that to successfully pull off an act as a child he could not display habits of his past life. All attention was on him he had quickly realized. His every action was scrutinized and critics were everywhere, judging his every step for demonic attributes. Developing a list of habits to train himself out of was a must. He couldn't have too many distinctive tics that corresponded with a deadman, just in case people took it the wrong way.

Other children in the orphanage were discouraged from playing with the small whiskered child and the Minato was often told to sit in a corner quietly. Whenever food was served the caretakers made sure that Naruto was served last, with as little food as possible. All the dirtiest and hardest chores around the orphanage were also given to him. Generally, around? It was a terrible experience. Though he was never beaten since there was a regular ANBU patrol that he could feel pass by occasionally, he was just neglected as much as possible.

Somehow Minato made it work. As soon as he could walk minato took to opportunity to potty train himself; the matron took the opportunity to neglect the child further. None of the neglect bothered Minato who was an adult in a child's body, but it did disturb him greatly when he considered what could have happened to his son. And so, Minato took care of himself as best he could in place of his son. He made sure that he was clean and brushed his teeth regularly even though no one taught him how to do these things. He would also get up at night and raid the kitchen for extra food to make sure he was properly fed.

It was when other children were starting to learn how to read and write that Minato truly started to get angry at his situation. During the times that caretakers would read to the children, Naruto was forced out into the backyard to wander on his own. Of course, this wasn't really a problem for Minato since he already knew how to read and write, but the treatment infuriated and saddened him. Minato knew the importance of having someone to blame after a disaster but he didn't wish the role upon anyone. Especially not his own son.

Like this month's slowly passed, and then years went by. Konoha slowly recovered from the devastation left behind by the Kyuubi. Minato missed his own funeral and the mass funeral that followed on account of being neglected in a crib but the following years where the day of mourning had become replaced by a festival of remembrance saw Minato sitting isolated in his room staring forlornly out the window. His birthday had become a festival that all were welcomed to except for him. The caretakers at the orphanage made sure that he was as miserable as possible on that day.

Minato's first experience shopping as himself went a little something like this: boy walks into a store. Boy buys items. Boy walks out of the store. Minato's first experience shopping for himself as Naruto went something like this.

It was a hot day out and Minato was sent out of the orphanage for the first time as an errand boy for some groceries.

A friendly looking woman greeted him as he walked into the small corner shop

"Hi welcome to- What are you doing here you filthy demon?!" Instantly that friendly looking face was contorted into an ugly looking grimace.

"Ah… I-I just wanted to buy a few groceries…" Minato hesitantly replied

"Get out of my shop demon scum! I refuse to serve the likes of you here!" She roared in response, picking up a broom and brandishing it violently in his direction.

Not wanting to cause a further scene Minato quickly hightailed it out of the store followed by a few thrown vegetables.

'A demon? Is the general opinion of Jinchuurikis really that low? How do so many people know who the Jinchuuriki is anyways?

Minato had encountered a few glares along the way to the store but he had assumed that it was due to his appearance as an impoverished child.

'If I return without the groceries things might escalate inn a bad direction, I'll have to try a different store I guess…'

Minato trotted off in the opposite direction of the store he'd just run out, hoping that the other stalls wouldn't know of his status.

It was not to be. Now that he was paying attention, the stares that he received while walking were entirely hostile in nature. His sensing abilities which he hadn't been using before were now active, detecting high levels of resentment, anger, and fear. He could hear People whispering to each other nastily as he passed by,

"Did you see those whiskers? They say he's the demon reborn!"

"Shhh! Be careful with what you say!"

"That boy! That's the one that the Yondaime trapped the demon in!"

"Those marks! It's him! The weakened demon!"

"So, it's true! The demon is a child now!"

"Honey, you see that child? Remember his face. Don't go near him he's very dangerous."

Minato wanted to hang his head in shame. The people of his beloved Konoha acting in such a manner brought him a nameless grief. The Konoha he knew and loved was filled with people who always had a smile ready for any outsider, yet now it was a village filled with pain and hate.

By the time Minato had arrived at the next closest grocery store, his self-confidence had dropped several levels. He could only hope that things would get better with time. This time he was able to enter the store without problems and find all the things he needed to buy. But by the time he arrived at the counter to pay for his items the cashier had started giving him a very nasty look.

"1250 Ryo please."

"What? But that's twice the price that's listed!"

"1250 Ryo or get out."

"But– "

"1250 Ryo or out, boy."

Minato huffed in frustration, he dug out his money and paid with his own meager savings when the allowance the matron gave him didn't cover the costs. By this point Minato had more than enough, except the world wasn't quite done with him yet. As he was walking back to the orphanage, contemplating how best to hide the whisker marks on his cheeks, he was suddenly bumped roughly off his feet by a civilian walking by, spilling his groceries all over the road. He quickly turned, hoping to catch the person who did it but whoever they were, they were long gone. Minato was just barely holding onto his rage and sadness at the point, he angrily picked up his dirty vegetables and hurried the rest of the way to the orphanage.

Kurama was confused. Minato was the most confusing human he'd ever met. Not that he'd met many mind you, but his previous containers had been pretty eccentric. Minato was just on a whole other level. First the human treats him politely and with respect, then he willingly negotiates with him, he willingly degrades the seal holding Kurama's massive power away, and then he lets Kurama rummage through his memories? Madness. Sheer human stupidity? And yet in Minato's memories he is often called a genius? The fine line between genius and insanity?

Kurama was confused. He had seen such dark depths of humanity from Minato's memories he could barely understand why Minato would sacrifice himself for Konoha. It was shocking how much blood Minato had spilled, even more shocking still how many he had saved. Minato seemed like the ultimate paradox. The savior and yet the demon. Kurama couldn't understand how Minato came out of the third shinobi war with hope for humanity even after slaughtering one thousand Iwa shinobi like pigs. The trauma he encountered while trawling Minato's memories was no joke at all. Some of it made Kurama want to hurl his chakra-based guts out.

Still, Kurama wondered. Could this vessel be the one that the sage spoke of? Minato valued family, his entire life was based around searching for and protecting a family. Kurama understood Minato's loneliness and need for a family, after all he had been created with siblings who were always connected no matter what. It was only until Hashirama started sealing away the biju that he understood what loneliness was truly like. So, Kurama could respect Minato for dealing with the hand that life had dealt him.

It was interesting seeing his previous vessel from another point of view though, he still found her obnoxious and too aggressive but Kurama could admit that Kushina could grow on you like a weed.

"Hey, Human."

'What the- Kyuubi?' Minato thought in surprise. The Kyuubi's voice had just come out of nowhere, startling him from his contemplations. He had returned to the orphanage and received a scolding for the dirty produce and was sent to his room with no dinner. He'd begun to brood, mulling over past mistakes wondering where it all went wrong.

"Yes, it is me Human. Get down here. We will discuss the seal situation."

'Fascinating! I didn't know that the Jinchuuriki could communicate with the Biju like this! Did you ever do this with Kushina?'

"Just get down here already."

Minato frowned at the non-response but shrugged, letting his eyes fall shut crossing his legs and dropping into a meditative state. Opening his eyes to a familiar dank sewer.

"Before you ask. No. I did not find your son in the seal, I do not know about the rest of your mindscape just yet."

Minato deflated a bit, "I see... thank you very much for your efforts Kyuubi-sama." He perked up again, "The rest of my mindscape huh? Mind waiting a while Kyuubi-sama? I'll be right back." Minato flashed away to the rest of his mind in a hurry. Leaving the Kyuubi with no chance to respond.

The Kyuubi was left to think in silence as Minato's hurried footsteps echoed through the dark away from him. 'Should I…? No, if he knows then I will be left without my other half. Who knows it may work yet…'

Left thinking Kurama could admit that he respected the man he was sealed by. Minato had displayed many admirable qualities and was a paragon of what a Shinobi should be. Minato had sacrificed his own happiness for the sake of his perceived greater good and now he was continuing through life with little resentment from what Kurama could see.

"Hey Kyuubi-sama? I couldn't find Naruto either…" said Minato, interrupting the Kyuubi's musings. "I found an area where I could revisit my memories which was helpful, but no manifestation of my son anywhere to be found."

"I see. Then we must rely on your knowledge of how to remove something from the Shinigami's stomach."

"I suppose so" Minato said solemnly, "I will need time to prepare for the Shinigami ritual, perhaps several years. My body isn't old enough to gain access to the information that I need to perform the ritual."

"You are a Shinobi are you not? What is to stop you from sneaking in?"

"I will need to train to avoid detection, this body is not ready for any Shinobi skills aside from sensing. Speaking of which." Minato paused in thought, "Are you the one I should be thanking for my new sensing capabilities?"

"What do you speak of Human?"

"I mean that recently I've been able to sense the emotions of people surrounding me. I was never able to do such a thing in my past life after all."

"Humph. Of course you are. I am the Great Kyuubi no Yoko, such a thing is well within my capabilities!"

"I see. Well then, thank you very much, it has been very useful so far."

"Hmph. As if I need your thanks."

'He's a bit of a tsundere isn't he?' Was Minato's amusing revelation.

"Thank you either way Kyuubi-sama, I will be leaving now, is there anything else you needed?"

"Just leave."

"Alright then, thank you very much for your assistance."

Opening his eyes again Minato was filled with a renewed sense of hope over his situation. He would train his skills and then return his sons body to its rightful owner, hopefully there wouldn't have been too many consequences for his son.

Minato quickly resorted to stealing from the matron's office at night to procure supplies for sealing. He spent long hours working on his calligraphy skills, honing his handwriting and muscle memory so that he could regain his skill with Fūinjutsu. Minato wished he had access to his rightful inheritance as it would be priceless at this point to have his old notes so he could study what went wrong with the sealing process. In fact, he wished that any of his friends could have taken him in. It was bound to be much better than his current situation after all.

He wished he could remain up to date on the news regarding Konoha's Shinobi forces, but as a child it was extremely difficult to acquire any accurate rumors of the going ons in a Shinobi village. Aside from actively staking out the Jounin lounge, there wasn't very much that Minato could do to stay updated. He'd heard rumors of a conflict between Kumo and Konoha over an ambassador but he was never sure of the full details behind the situation. It caused Minato no end of grief to be so thoroughly out of the loop when previously he'd been informed on every little matter that occurred in the village.

On Naruto's/Minato's fifth/29th birthday he was promptly evicted from the orphanage.

The Matron had taken him by the arm roughly dragging him out of his dingy room and tossed him on the street roaring,

"You're old enough now brat! You can live on your own now! Never come back!"

Minato took this new development rather well in his opinion. He didn't throw a tantrum nor did he break down crying in the middle of the street like any other child might have. Instead, he approached the situation with a cold calculated mindset.

Being thrown out of the orphanage brought several key problems that he could solve simply due to his experience. He would need shelter which he could find in the forest surrounding the village and food which he could hunt or grow.

This development would allow for greater freedoms in regards to his training. He could easily survive on his own with his extensive survival training from another lifetime.

And thus, Minato's second life as a street rat/forest hermit began.

He carefully suppressed his chakra to sneak past the lazy Nara chunnins.

Suppressing chakra was like turning your chakra into a flat blanket and then tightly rolling it up into a ball. It worked as both a meditation method and chakra control exercise. Though the true trick to suppressing chakra and hiding your signature was to change your inner chakra element to resonate with nature or whatever element was most abundant in an made sages much more adept at hiding since they could completely resonate with nature and remove all signs of human presence.

It wasn't all bad, mainly because of his prior experience acting as a buffer. Minato took full advantage of the signature laziness of the Nara clan and eked out a living in one of the caves in their compound forest. Sneaking past Nara clansmen everyday was not very hard but still helped Minato polish his stealth skills that he'd let decline after the development of his signature Hiraishin.

The cave that he discovered was roughly the size of a small house with a small brook running past it, Minato took it upon himself to turn it into his secret base, and proceeded to plaster the it and the surrounding clearing with various security seals. With his new base complete, Minato was free to train to his heart's content.

After exhausting himself thoroughly with various exercises and stretches to keep his childhood flexibility, Minato decided to train Justus next. He would slowly work his way up from the academy trio to his old beloved Hiraishin.

Running through the hand seals for the basic henge technique multiple times, Minato trained his seal speed and finger dexterity. He ran the Jutsu signs with ought chakra until his fingers felt warmed up but just as he was about to perform the technique a leaf floated by, brushing his nose and causing him to sneeze.

"ACHOO!"

- Poof- a cloud of smoke erupted from his body revealing his original body complete with Jounin vest and Kage cloak.

'Well damn, I'm just glad I didn't blow up by accident… that would have been an embarrassing way to go… Young boy discovered dead in the forest after overloading the henge… Perhaps this is why it's an academy Jutsu… Oh well might as well make the best of it.'

Deciding to return to his cave while practicing his chakra control by maintaining the henge; he walked face first into a branch he would have easily walked under with his naruto height.

'Wait what?' He thought holding his painfully throbbing nose 'Overloading a henge with chakra produces a solid transformation? Solid transformations are any infiltrators wet dream and I've just discovered it by accident?! Why has no one else discovered this? Or is it that my chakra density has changed due to being a Jinchuuriki? Or is the chakra requirement just too high for normal ninjas?'

Testing his old body and running through his old katas felt like a dream. It was amazing having his old body and strength back and it was almost too good to be true. After testing the technique several times by overloading the Jutsu on purpose with the same amount of chakra as the first accidental transformation, Minato had a flash of inspiration.

Combining the henge with shadow clones and the shadow clone kunai Jutsu would be devastating. Now that he had the reserves to pull off more than ten shadow clones, he would be an absolute monster to face with solid transformations into kunai or shuriken.

Unfortunately, he came to a separate realization along with his elation at increased combat potential. He could hypothetically return to the village and live under a henge. Except… Explaining how he was back from the dead was a long shot, and did he really want to return to the hokage position? Did Konoha really deserve him as Hokage again? But if he was hokage he could change what he had seen. His one year in office hadn't been enough time to really solve any of Konoha's problems, there were many issues he had wanted to tackle but his term had ended before he could even touch them.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU CAN'T FIND HIM?" the Hokage shouted, slamming his hands on his desk. "How long has it been since he went missing?!"

"H-Hokage-sama, it's been five m-months we checked the orphanage and everywhere in the surrounding area" said the trembling ANBU agent. "We can't find him but villagers report to seeing him every once in a while, on the outskirts of the village wandering around…"

The Hokage leaned back in his chair, rubbing his forehead incredulously, "My most highly trained ANBU can't even locate a five-year-old child? Why was I not told sooner?"

"Hokage-sama we have tried tailing him but he slips our senses no matter what we do. We suspect he's a natural born sensor. Danzo-sama said he would take care of it as well."

"Danzo? He never told me a thing! And perhaps we need to overhaul the ANBU training programs if even a five-year-old child can shake off our ANBU" he bit out harshly. The Sandaime sighed and stood, ignoring the shivers of fear coming from the ANBU hidden in the room, "I shall go to him myself. Dismissed"

"Hai!"

Minato waited with thinly veiled patience for the fish to finish cooking. His stomach was absolutely roaring in hunger. Biting into his roasted fish he started as he realized there was suddenly a figure sitting across from him in front of his small fire.

Several emotions quickly ripped through him, only just barely hidden by his shock at being snuck up on.

It was the Sandaime himself. The Sandaime was not dressed in his usual hokage robes but a regular brown haori that had the kanji for fire stitched on the back, a beige scarf, and plain tan shirt and pants.

Minato's thoughts flashed quickly, indignant anger at his treatment and the old fondness he held for the man battled it out in his mind.

"W-who are you?" He asked swiftly to deflect any suspicion.

"Just an old man passing through" Was the kind response

Minato stared in confusion at the man as his mind raced to figure out what the game here was, until a strange sound rippled across the clearing.

Growl

The young boy burst out in laughter with the old man at the sound and decided to see what the hokage wanted, offering the old man one of his grilled fish.

"Here, Gramps, eat this"

"Oh, thank you" said the old man taking the fish in hand gratefully.

The duo ate in peace for a while. Minato did his best to figure out exactly what the old man's ploy was while crunching noisily on his grilled fish. It had been five years and this was the first time the man had appeared in front of him in person.

Knowing the old man he probably kept track of Naruto through his crystal ball but got worried after Minato started training in his warded training area and thus could no longer find him.

Closely examining the wizened figure in front of him, Minato noted the hokages tightly controlled and disciplined chakra as well as the lack of any obvious tells as to what the man was feeling in front of him.

Suddenly the Sandaime spoke, looking up at the darkened star filled sky, "Look at all those stars. Each one of those stars is like our world's sun. Yes. this world is boundless."

Remembering similar introspective talks with his wise predecessor Minato played along.

"Ehhh? You sure know a lot old man!"

Spreading his arms out and drawing them back in the old man said, "Compared to the vastness of the world, man's existence is very insignificant!"

Both men paused in eating for a bit to appreciate the beauty of the night sky splayed above them. The deep moment was ruined by another stomach growl and the two burst out laughing together. Only calming down after much of the tension had drained out of Minato's shoulders.

"So, my boy what are you doing out here all on your own?"

And the tension was back full force, not that Sarutobi noticed though.

"Eating!" Was the glib response.

"Hahaha! I see! Where are your parents? Are you sure you should be out so late on your own?"

A surge of rage went through Minato's body at the act that was being put on in front of him but he didn't let any of his thoughts show in his body or chakra, it was time to guilt trip the Sandaime into next week.

He looked down despondently and let his eyes fill up with tears before bouncing back up 'cheerfully' "I haven't got any! I've always been on my own old man!" He chirped.

The old man coughed awkwardly and rubbed the back of his neck,

"...I see… Still, it's not very safe out here, isn't it? Why aren't you at the orphanage my boy?"

At this question Minato let a few tears slip out before roughly scrubbing them away

"They kicked me out a while ago! But it's okay! I'm fine on my own!"

"Child…."

"My names Uzumaki Naruto!"

"Ah…. it's very nice to meet you, my name is Sarutobi Hiruzen."

"I think that old man is a better name for you!"

"Hahahaha! Very well then old man it is!"

"So, what do you need old man?"

"How long have you been living on your own out here my child?"

"Hmm… Five months!"

"I see… it's very impressive that you've managed so well on your own. Say my boy, what if I could give you a place to live?"

"Ehhhhh? You can do that? But I can't give you anything in return!"

"No no… you wouldn't need to worry about that orphans get a stipend that they can depend on…"

"What's a stipend? "

"Ah. It's a certain amount of money given to those who can't work just yet."

"Oh. Okay!"

"Now come with me for a while my child I'll get you set up."

"Sure! But I want to finish my fish first!"

"Ahahah! Of course, my child."

Minato's affairs were quickly sorted out at the Hokage tower. He was offered a new place to live, complete with amenities and various other daily necessities like clothes and what not. It was interesting to note that the old building that was offered to him was one he had lived in during his poor Genin days. He wondered if the Sandaime knew what he was doing offering him this apartment or if it was just a sick coincidence. He (not so) fondly remembered moldy walls and a dripping roof when he was living here. He doubted it had improved much during his time away.

Moving into his new apartment was a strange experience; there was a bit of deja vu from seeing the same building but having a different room. It was comforting in a strange way. To have something familiar when everything was so different.