Leaving his new/old apartment Minato decided to visit an old training grounds that was nearby. He had frequently visited the small enclosed training ground #41 as a genin with Kushina and there were many precious memories associated with the small forest clearing.
The day was bright and cheerful at training ground 41, birds were chirping happily and the small brook babbled peacefully. Minato used the peace to meditate, calmly immersing himself in the sounds and peace of nature. He felt a surge of joy when he felt a certain familiar presence pop up near his location.
"Minato!" A cheerful voice called out, disturbing the tranquility of the training ground.
"Kushina!" He jumped to his feet excitedly, running over to the red headed Chuunin.
She hugged him happily, "So what's this I heard about a Jounin promotion huh? Congratulations dattebane!" She cheered.
"Haha thanks!" Minato scratched his head sheepishly as Kushina hung off him like a koala "Oh I had something I wanted to ask you!" He said, tucking his hands in his pockets to hide his nervous twitching.
"Huh? Well, what is it then?" Kushina asked, tilting her head cutely to the side.
Blushing with nerves overtaking him he managed to stutter out a question, "Uh w-well that is... Um… W-will you… would you... go out with me?"
"Eh?" Kushina blanked. Letting go of Minato in her confusion.
"Ah… um that is… I would l-like to take you out on a date?" Minato crossed his fingers hopefully.
"Of course, dattebane!" Kushina cried, launching herself at him with a big crushing hug sending him crashing to the ground in a heap. "What took you so long? You silly!"
Minato let out a relieved laugh and hugged her back enthusiastically.
"Let's go get some ramen, ne?"
"Hey! what's a kid doing here?" A smooth voice questioned.
Minato whipped around; he had been so lost in thought that he hadn't noticed the faint chakra signature of the new speaker.
The new arrival appeared to be a freshly minted Chuunin with short black curly hair, long girly eyelashes, and coal dark eyes. They were also wearing the standard navy Uchiha shirt and tan shorts with the customary fan crest stitched on the back of the shirt.
"Uh! Nothing!" Minato squeaked still slightly out of it.
The stranger tilted his head to the side and smirked, "Sure, kid. What are you doing here? Don't you know training grounds are off limits for civilians?"
"I was just exploring! I'm going to be a Shinobi too!"
"Hoh… A little pipsqueak like you wants to be a Shinobi too huh? Don't you know that Shinobi follow rules?"
"Ah, but even the best Shinobi know that some rules are made to be broken, at times."
"Hahahah! I like you kid! I'm Uchiha Shisui! What's your name?"
"I'm Uzumaki Naruto! It's nice to meet you Shisui-San."
"Oh, ho respectful little brat, aren't you? Since you're here might as well make the most of it and spar with me hm?"
"Spar? With you? Are you sure?"
"Sure, pipsqueak let's see what you've got!"
"Alright! But you better take me seriously!"
"Hahah! We'll see!" With those words Shisui settled into the basic Uchiha Interceptor stance. Minato himself decided to settle on the basic academy stance even though he knew of many other taijutsu styles.
"Taijutsu only?" Minato asked.
"Of course, pipsqueak!"
"I'm going to make you take that name back you know?"
"Bring it. Pipsqueak."
And so, Minato brought it. Making the seal of confrontation which Shisui returned, he quickly rushed Shisui in a burst of speed. Minato threw a quick jab to Shisui's chest. The jab was simply sidestepped and Shisui retaliated with a leg sweep. Minato jumped over the sweep while Shisui capitalized on the fact that he couldn't dodge with a spinning back hand. Minato narrowly blocked the blow but was sent flying towards a tree. Flipping around mid-air and pushing off the tree Minato rushed at Shisui with a flying kick. Shisui dodged again, letting Minato fly by. Taking the opportunity to aim a jab towards Minato's ribs. Minato took the hit intentionally, remaining cautious in showing what he could do.
Both fighters had similar thoughts racing through their minds
'He's fast! / Really fast!' Minato sprung up again and snapped his right leg out in a high kick aimed for Shisui's face, Shisui caught Minato's leg and threw him to the side using his superior strength.
'Strong! It seems I can take this a little seriously.' Minato thought.
Picking himself off the ground Minato was determined to at least get rid of the annoying nickname, he sent a flurry of blows towards Shisui, increasing his speed subtly as he went. Shisui narrowly dodged around each punch, sweat dropping as he went.
'Did this kid just get even faster? Looks like I must up my game! He might just give me a workout!' Shisui let himself be pressed backwards until his back hit a tree.
Minato saw this and struck out with his left leg in a roundhouse kick 'Chance!'
Shisui ducked beneath Minato's leg under his guard and lashed out at Minato's supporting leg, sending Minato tumbling to the ground again.
"You're not taking this seriously, are you?" Shisui asked incredulously.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean you can obviously go much faster right?"
"Hmm… Well maybe…"
"Gotcha, I'll just have to force you to show me then."
For the first time in the spar Shisui rushed at Minato with a blazing fast punch, Minato swiftly ducking into Shisui's guard with a sharp jab to his gut and darted away.
"Oof! Now that's what I'm talking about pipsqueak!"
Minato grinned, "I'm going to make you regret that."
"Oh? How so?"
Shisui shot forwards again with a wide sweep of his arm, only to yelp when Minato darted to the side and punched him in the kidney. Minato gave Shisui a bit of time to recover before going at him again with a high kick. Shisui saw the kick coming and blocked the kick, launching himself in a tackle at Minato. The two wrestles on the ground for a bit before Shisui rolled over Minato with his greater build and sat on top of him.
"Hah! Gotcha, Pipsqueak!"
"Damn it! That's not fair maybe you're just fat!"
"Oi oi that's kinda rude dontcha know? I'll have you know I'm not fat!"
"Yeah yeah, get off of me you're heavy."
Slowly crawling off Minato and dusting himself off Shisui remarked, "Say pipsqueak that wasn't a bad spar, where'd you learn the academy style? Someone teaching you?"
Minato sat up and awkwardly rubbed the back of his head, laughing nervously "Nah, I watched some students practicing and copied them." He said truthfully.
"Woah really? You learned Taijutsu by copying what you saw? No teachers?" Shisui didn't bother to hide his gaping.
"Hahah yeah…."
"Damn pipsqueak imagine what you could do with a teacher! That's it! I've decided! I'll teach you."
"Eh. Is that really alright? Won't you be busy with missions?"
"Don't worry about it shorty! I've got this!" Shisui confidently replied.
"Well, if you say so…" Minato said unsurely "And I'm not that short dattebayo!"
"Compared to me you are hahahah!"
"That's not a fair comparison!" Pouted Minato, puffing his cheeks
"It is to me!" Came the cheeky response as Shisui jokingly poked Minato's puffy cheeks.
Batting Shisui's hands away Minato huffed and turned away in thought. Training with Shisui would be a good cover for any Shinobi skills he might show off as Naruto, it would give him an excuse to use the henge without suspicion at the very least. Making up his mind Minato turned back to Shisui with a wide smile on his face.
"You know what? Sure, I'll train with you! But you better be able to keep up!"
"Hey! I should be saying that to you!" Shisui said indignantly.
"Blehhhh" A childish impulse took over Minato making him stick out his tongue in retaliation.
"You brat! What happened to the respect from earlier? Get over here!" Shisui laughed as he promptly leapt up chasing after Naruto who had yelped and scrambled away, laughing as he went.
Minato couldn't remember the last time he felt so light hearted as the chase quickly devolved into a game of ninja tag. He cackled as he tripped Shisui who had lunged for him into a tumbling heap.
"Oh, that's it! I'm going to get you now!" Shisui declared jumping to his feet with a determined gleam in his eyes.
Minato's eyes narrowed. "Catch me if you can!" He yelled, sticking out his tongue for the second time. And so, the chase was on. The game encompassed the entire training grounds, Minato leading Shisui on a wild goose chase all over the place. Several times Minato had led Shisui into a few old and abandoned traps just for giggles, while Shisui dodged and around projectiles and pitfalls he cursed Naruto under his breath, leading to even more giggles from the child.
When Shisui had finally had enough of entertaining the little blond devil, he quickly used the most flawless Shunshin jutsu that Minato had ever seen, placing himself in front of Naruto. Who then promptly crashed into Shisui sending both boys tumbling to the ground for the nth time that day.
"Hey! No fair you cheated!" Minato shouted in jest.
"Ninjas don't cheat. They win." Shisui smugly replied, "You're one slippery kid you know that?"
Minato laughed, slippery was rather tame for one called 'The Yellow Flash' "Hahah I do my best!" Minato dusted himself off before he considered what he had seen. "Say, that was the Shunshin jutsu, right?"
"Huh? Oh yeah! It's my specialty! They'll be calling me Shunshin no Shisui in no time!" Shisui crowed.
"Hahaha I'd like to see that! Can you teach me that?"
"Of course, little pipsqueak! You're my student and it's my signature technique after all!"
"Wow really?"
"Yeah! I'll be as fast as the Yellow Flash one day! You'll see!"
"Cooooool!" And it was cool. From what Minato could tell, Shisui had spent countless hours perfecting the jutsu and could use it in high-speed combat. Most Shinobi were unable to do so as the Shunshin would leave a distinctive chakra marker at the destination just before the Shinobi performed the jutsu, making it easily countered. Shisui was fast enough that the marker was basically nonexistent, which was why Minato had crashed into him when he used it so suddenly.
It was amazing that this young Chuunin already had a technique that would put him on the same levels of speed as the Hiraishin. Minato's own Shunshin had been just a step away from Shisui's, which had prompted him to create the Hiraishin as he was dissatisfied with the speed of his own Shunshin. Minato fondly remembered crashing into various objects while trying to perfect his own Shunshin. Shisui must have suffered equal amounts of pain to achieve such a polished Shunshin.
After making further plans with Shisui and waving their goodbyes, Minato returned to his apartment under a sneaky henge to hide his whisker marks. He detachedly observed the stark difference in treatment he received from the civilians. It was like the whiskers painted a sign that said "Please glare here!", and now that they were gone, he was just another regular dirty kid returning home after playing too much. Except the problem was that Minato didn't want to live life under a henge. He wanted his son to be proud of who and what he was without fear of vengeance. Only time could tell if things would ever change Minato mused.
Sarutobi Hiruzen was a tired man. He had served Konoha faithfully for many years, surviving the second and third Shinobi wars. Just when he thought he could retire in peace his successor had to go pull the ultimate heroic act and sacrifice himself for Konoha. Hiruzen reminisced sadly, Minato was a brilliant young man whose time hadn't even really begun yet, it was a true pity that the Kyuubi incident had happened.
Hiruzen regretted not taking care of Naruto more in the place of Minato, but the boy seemed to be doing okay. He had survived on his own for five months for heaven's sake! Talk about resourceful! Hiruzen really should have kept a closer eye on that orphanage rather than just checking in on Naruto with his crystal ball occasionally.
Speaking of which, the whole orphanage debacle was giving him a headache, he couldn't tell what Danzo's intentions were towards Naruto. Perhaps the old fool had thought to make Naruto desperate for help and then lend a helping hand, making Naruto indebted to him? Hiruzen was just simply thankful that he had decided to ask the ANBU about the young boy that day. He needed to establish that his ANBU reported to him and only him now. Ahhh so much work to do on top of all his ever-blasted paperwork. Hiruzen sighed.
At the very least, Minato's son seemed to be happy. Hiruzen had visited the young boy at his apartment with an offer of dinner the other day. The boy had seemed cheerful enough despite the animosity that Hiruzen could see him encounter. It saddened Hiruzen that he could not make Naruto the hero his father had wanted him to be without endangering the boy. He'd done his best to keep rumors of the Jinchuuriki quiet but it was not to be. The information leak still hadn't been discovered even after two years of investigations. He sighed again.
The boy was much like his father in both appearance and calculating moves. During the encounter at the river, Hiruzen observed many times where the boy had subtly hidden some sort of reaction whenever Hiruzen spoke. There was a cool calculating mind behind the sunny smiles that the child offered him. There had to be with the way he had skillfully caught the fish and prepared them.
Honestly Naruto reminded him so much of both Kushina and Minato that it wasn't even funny. The first time that Hiruzen heard the word 'dattebayo' come out of Naruto's mouth he felt a lump well up in his throat at the ghost of a red headed woman that he saw superimpose itself over her son. Hiruzen was simply grateful the boy was so canny and that he hadn't died out on the streets before Hiruzen could do anything about him. Reconstruction efforts had taken up too much of his time and left no time to worry about Konoha's newest Jinchuuriki.
Minato finished his new gravity seals with a flourish. He had trained his muscle memory enough to finally hold a brush without his hands shaking and was able to draw seals again. The repetitive calligraphy practice without shadow clones had been mind numbing but sadly necessary.
Another interesting thing he'd discovered about Naruto's body was the nearly endless reserves of energy that seemed to almost overflow from him. Minato had a hard time concentrating on sealing when all he wanted to do was bounce his leg around wildly. For Minato, applying his old combination of gravity and resistance seals for training, felt like a step back into his old body. Another bit of familiarity when nothing seemed to be going right for him.
Minato still didn't know how to feel about inhabiting his son's body, but so far it had been an interesting experience. On his worst days he would feel like a disgusting body snatcher who sacrificed his son for another life. The self-berating was incomparable to his worst critics as he outstripped them in harshness by far. On his better days he simply existed and enjoyed the experience of being alive and without the pains he'd accumulated from the third war.
Reminded of his situation, Minato sank into another bout of depression, spiralling deeper and deeper into negative thoughts.
'Oh, dear god was I truly wrong to seal the kyuubi in my child? Was I just running away from my responsibilities as a father? No, I can't think like that. Who knows when the masked man will be back for the fox? Or even the 'Akatsuki' as a matter of fact! The fox would have reformed if I had sealed it into Kushina, and I wouldn't have been able to seal so much chakra into Naruto without the Shiki Fuin. And who knows what. If—'
Suddenly his depression was interrupted by a low growling coming from the back of his mind.
"Human. When are you going to return my Yin half to me?"
"Huh? Oh, Kyuubi-sama," Minato paused in his brooding and closed his eyes, entering his mindscape. He could see that the brooding had done no good to the state of his mindscape. The old sewer's waters had become murky and dark, there were more cracks along the walls, and mold had started to grow from the corners. The water level had encroached on the Kyuubi's cage and was slowly rising. Minato eyed the Kyuubi nervously, glancing between the water and the giant fox several times.
"I'm sorry I've been busy I haven't been able to gain access to the Shinobi library just yet. Please give me a little more time"
"Why is this taking so long? I saw the Henge you should be able to simply walk in and research."
"Yes. That is the plan… except… No, you are correct. I should do as you say, I will visit the Shinobi library tomorrow."
"Good. Hurry it up."
"Hai, Hai." Minato aquiceised, "Oh and Kyuubi-sama?"
"Hmph, what?"
"Thank you"
The Kyuubi huffed and turned around, pointedly ignoring Minato's vague smile. Simply shooing him away again with a wave of his tails.
The next day Minato set out from his apartment with a renewed purpose. He had thoroughly planned out what he needed to do as well as what exactly he needed to research. Minato entered an abandoned alleyway and formed a shadow clone. He was thankful that shadow clones didn't need much chakra control as he wouldn't even be able to manage a single normal clone in his current state with his growing chakra levels.
Sending the clone off to do some menial chores, Minato himself henged into a generic Nara Jounin complete with olive skin, spiky hair, and clan symbol. Minato left the alley way from the rooftops, roof hopping like he'd done all his life towards the Shinobi archives. He stumbled a few times, mildly unused to the height of his henge before really getting into the swing of things. He observed the library from a distance, casting his senses out to probe the entire building, ensuring there were no actual members of the Nara clan inside. It wouldn't do for him to be caught so easily after all.
Once Minato had made sure that the coast was clear, he hopped off the roofs and set towards the library at a casual lope. Entering the archives he was greeted by the Chuunin running the desk.
"Ah, hello Nara-san can I help you with anything today?"
"Hello, I'm fine, thank you very much"
"Very well if you need any help looking for something I'll be here."
"Aah, thanks."
Minato casually slouched towards the Jounin restricted section of the archive, knowing it wouldn't be out of the norm of Nara clansmen to be seen in the section researching. He was glad that his transformation jutsu was solid now as the desk Chuunin were often trained to detect the illusory henge that regular shinobi often used. Minato quickly made a beeline towards the records salvaged from Uzushio, preparing genjutsu and silence it seals in his pockets as he went. He set up in a small reading nook and prepped the area with his basic privacy seals so that others would overlook his presence.
Paying undivided attention to old and musty scrolls was duller than he remembered it to be. Minato couldn't concentrate correctly on the words and it was a frustrating experience, the scrolls he was investigating were long and dull but he persevered out of necessity.
'I'm doing this for my son! I can't be this easily bored!' He reminded himself harshly. Seems like the endless stamina he now had during training had a downside to it as well.
Hours were spent in the little reading nook, the table in front of Minato slowly filling up with more and more scrolls as he went through them with a barely concealed distaste. He could already tell that his son would not be a paper ninja if he ever returned to his body.
It was when he was reading what he thought to be an unrelated scroll to his research out of boredom that he finally discovered what he was looking for. Minato had taken a small break after starting to lose focus and picked up a scroll on Uzumaki shrines in Konoha when there was finally a mention of a Shinigami mask capable of connecting the wearer to the Shinigami. Jolting upright Minato hurriedly jotted down the text. Finally! A breakthrough.