"Waaah! Wahhhh! Wahhhhh!"
"Shut up you filthy demon!" Came a harsh rebuke.
Stunned into silence the baby appeared to stare in shock at the Matron, as if asking why she would shout at an infant.
"Annoying beast! Stay quiet!"
'How does she know? Isn't the Jinchuuriki status supposed to be secret?' Minato thought, he'd been crying out of hope that someone would feed him but this was some truly unexpected treatment.
This wasn't good, enemies looking to kidnap a new Jinchuuriki would easily find him and there was no telling how citizens would react if this matron was any indication. Unless the orphanage had been told specifically? Somehow Minato doubted that that was the case.
It seemed that the matron had lost someone important during the Kyuubi attack and was taking it out on him. This was quickly picked up on and perpetuated by the rest of the caretakers in the orphanage. As an infant he was regularly neglected and left to rot in a crib and cold damp room by himself, his feedings were irregular and far in between. Any cries for help were ignored or rebuffed with violent shouts.
And so, time passed slowwly with increasign monotony. Months flew by and Minato progressed through the various stages of being an infant. Driven by nerves and fear at being a potential father, minato had purchased all the books in the parenting section at konoha's bookstores. He was well versed with the developmental rate of an infant. All he had to do was follow the general benchmarks and how could pass himself off as a normal baby. Or so he thought.
The matron of Konohagakure orphanage was disturbed by the Kyuubi child. This was an understatement to say the least. The fox brat was unnerving on the best of days and demonic on the worst. It was too observant. Too quiet. Too judging.
It was a lot harder to pretend to be a baby when you were a fully grown adult. Contact with other babies was minimal since his caretakers had the tendency to isolate him and leave him to his own devices, but his caretakers took notice of his abnormal growth rate due to taking care of many other children.
It was the subtle things that made him different. At first it was dismissed as mental tricks. That baby isn't tracking you around the room! They can't even see properly yet! That baby didn't just sit up! They can't do that yet!
Eventually it was chalked up to an elevated development rate; but the way he had no interest in his toys, the way he would knowingly follow words as if he could read already, and the way he could already recognize faces and track people around a room. Was simply unnatural.
Of course, every little suspicion that the caretakers had eventually made it out to the public in some form of rumor. The Hokage hoped that the rumors would die down as the boy grew. The citizens of the village became more and more nervous with the quick development of the demon baby. Somehow, despite it being an S-rank secret, Naruto's status as a demon container had slipped out to the general civilian populace.
Minato himself was unaware of the whispers surrounding his infant son, he was just aware of how deathly bored he was. It was slow going but he made the most of it and every minute spent as a baby was a minute subtly expanding on his Shinobi skills.
As a baby there really wasn't much to do aside from eating and sleeping. The routine of eat sleep wake eat sleep wake quickly grew dull for a twenty-four-year-old genius stuck as a baby.
After the first few uncomfortable days spent slowly adapting and mourning his situation Minato quickly ran out of ways to fret. And so, he slowly whittled away time by practicing chakra control exercises, meditating, expelling all his chakra to stretch his chakra coils or honing his sensing abilities.
As an infant his new body already had chakra levels comparable to an average Genin, and his reserves would only continue to grow; indicating he would be ninjutsu powerhouse in the near future.
During this period of slow development that several notable things happened. He discovered a new aspect of his sensory abilities, survived his first assassination attempt and made contact with the Kyuubi himself.
His first assassination was rather tame so to speak. It had been swiftly dealt with by the watching ANBU agent assigned to him, but it did set a precedent for future attempts.
Prior to the assassination attempt Minato had discovered that he was able to finely sense the emotions of the people surrounding him. It was a strange feeling compared to before when he was only able to sense presences. Now it felt as if each presence had an emotional echo behind it that he could feel. From the regular ANBU guard that was assigned to him he learned that finely honed chakra control would hide someone's true emotions somewhat but there would still be telltale quivers that could seep through. But honestly? What disturbed Minato the most was when there would be an extra presence outside his window aside from the regular ANBU, it would feel like a void of emotions. Just utter emptiness, barely human. Could this be what Danzo's ROOT nin felt like? They were keeping tabs on the Jinchuuriki already?
One dark and stormy night Minato woke up to a presence oozing pain and anger. It was an ominous feeling of hate and grief that deeply concerned him. He noticed a dark shape that was giving off the sensation slip into his room. Minato had watched from his crib in trepidation as the shadowed figure he sensed slowly crept across the floor towards him. As the figure looked over him, he noticed it was a rather young woman with angry tears trailing down her cheeks. She lifted the pillow in his crib and placed it over his face to smother him to death.
"This is for my family you foul demon!" She hissed under her breath.
She didn't even have time to really start pressing down before there was a surge of protective anger from outside the window. She was quickly tackled and knocked out by a masked figure with bright silver hair.
'Kakashi?! His stealth skills and chakra control have really improved! I really need to improve my sensing abilities… I didn't even know it was him there until he reacted…'
The woman was dragged from the room rather harshly by the young Anbu agent and Minato was left once more to stew in his thoughts. He worried for his former student, knowing Kakashi, the boy must have thrown himself into mission after mission to cope with yet another grave loss.
Minato grieved for Kakashi's lost youth.
Somewhere in konoha, rebuilding a wall with exuberance, a young man dressed in a tight green bodysuit sneezed.
Due to this incident Minato ended up moved to another recently rebuilt orphanage near the outskirts of Konoha. Not that the treatment there was much better though…
As for his meeting with the nine tailed fox? Well, it went a little something like this.
One day while meditating Minato decided to visit his mindscape to see if there was any evidence as to what happened to Naruto. He couldn't accept that this was his new reality. Replacing his son wasn't something he wanted. What kind of father would sacrifice his own son after all?
Drip. Drip. Drip.
'Strange... is something leaking?'
Opening his eyes Minato was greeted by the sight of a dark sewer. The walls were damp and lined with pipes and a thin layer of dirty water covered the floor. Guttering torches were placed sporadically along the walls and the dark tunnels led off far into the distance.
'Is this my mindscape? Is what happened during the sealing so traumatic that it reverted my golden plain to this mess? I know this is what my mindscape looked like before I learned how to fix it ... but still… Or is this because I'm in a different body?'
Minato glanced down as he realized that his point of view was rather familiar. 'Huh. I'm in my old body again? But then does that mean Naruto is here?'
A spark of hope lit up in Minato's heart. 'If I can find Naruto here maybe I can fix this and give him his body back!'
Walking down the dimly lit tunnel in front of him Minato soon came upon a massive cage which was held shut with a large piece of paper with the word 'seal' upon it.
"YONDAIME!"
The shout was followed by a claw hurtling out of the darkness which came flying at Minato only for him to swiftly dodge to the side.
"COME HERE I'LL RIP YOU TO SHREDS!" The Kyuubi roared from behind the bars.
"Ah… No thank you…" Minato awkwardly responded, a bead of sweat rolling down his temple.
"COME HERE TO GLOAT OVER YOUR PRISONER? HUH?"
Bowing deeply Minato apologized, "Ah. Actually no, I deeply apologize for your situation."
"SO, PITY IS IT? I DON'T NEED YOUR FILTHY HUMAN EMOTIONS! RELEASE ME!"
"I'm sorry I had to seal you away but I can't do that without dire consequences."
"OF COURSE. YOU SELFISH HUMANS ALWAYS PLACE YOURSELVES FIRST" The Kyuubi humphed crossing his arms.
"I am sorry Kyuubi-sama but if I were to release you it would result in the death of my son and eventually someone else would seal you away again. You are too powerful and humanity has no other way of protecting themselves."
"YOU THINK THAT MAKES IT OKAY?"
"No of course not Kyuubi-Sama, I know you didn't intentionally attack Konoha but I cannot allow my home to come to harm, my precious people live here after all. I sacrificed myself so that I could protect this village. But if it's not too presumptions, if I could ask for your assistance, I would be deeply grateful."
"YOU CANNOT FOOL ME. I SEE NOW YOU REVEAL YOUR TRUE COLORS HUMAN." The Kyuubi growled and laid back down "YOU ONLY DESIRE MY POWER, CORRECT? THAT'S ALL YOU HUMANS EVER WANT FROM ME ASIDE FROM KEEPING ME LOCKED AWAY."
"Ah, actually no, though I do apologize for the misunderstanding, I need help looking for my son he should be in here somewhere…"
"WHAT."
"Eheh…" Minato scratched his head awkwardly, "Something went wrong during the sealing and I somehow ended up in your vessel's body or well, my son's body… I'm hoping I can fix this."
The Kyuubi sat back in thought, contemplating this strange new occurrence that had distracted him from his rage. The human was strange, addressing him with respect and apologizing for his unfortunate circumstances. He looked at the seal holding him in his cage, noticing a strange blot on one of the prongs of the eight signed seal. He pointed accusingly at it.
"Human. What is this blot on the seal."
"Oh that. I think that's what caused this problem in the first place. When you ah, impaled us." He choked for a bit, thinking of Kushina, his next words coming out rather strained, "some blood dripped off your claw onto the seal."
"Humph. I see. Perhaps this defect on the soul separation matrix swapped the subject of the sacrifice to the Shinigami."
"Oh, so you do have some sealing knowledge?"
"Do not patronize me filthy human. I was sealed into two Uzumakis, and what prisoner wouldn't learn everything they could about the thing jailing them?"
"Ah yes of course I apologize. I wasn't aware you had access to their knowledge. I studied Kushina's seal but the mind separation sequence wasn't specific enough in detailing what could be shared between Jinchuuriki and Biju. Kushina also didn't tell me much about her interactions with you."
"Humph, of course not. She barely even 'interacted' with me as you say. I was left to rot. Chained to a giant moon with stakes driven through me. She foolishly believed that love was what could hold me back. Some nonsense no doubt Mito filled her mind with."
Bowing his head in thought Minato mused, "Hypothetically speaking… If I shared my memories with you… Could you help me find my son?"
"What? Are you a fool? You would hand the memories of the seal over to its prisoner?"
"No, not at all." Minato calmly stated, "The seal requires a key that I have given to a summon you cannot access. The seal I have placed my trust in and the key cannot be used from inside the seal."
"THEN WHY SHOULD I HELP YOU SELFISH HUMAN? THIS WHOLE SITUATION IS YOUR FAULT, WHY SHOULD I EVEN CONSIDER HELPING MY JAILOR? WHAT DOES IS MATTER TO ME IF THE ONE JAILING ME CHANGES? I WILL STILL BE CONTAINED HERE AFTER ALL!"
"Because if what you think happened to Naruto is true, then I can return your Yin half to you."
The Kyuubi paused in thought, being half a creature was a very uncomfortable experience "And how would you accomplish this feat you speak of?"
"There is a way that someone can release what is trapped in the Shinigami's stomach through a ritual but I am unsure of what requirements there are to perform it."
"I see…." the Kyuubi scratched his chin musing. 'It would be much easier trying to escape if I had my Yin half… and it doesn't really matter if my jailor changes...'
"Human. I will assist you in returning my Yin half. I will not help you with other matters. Now. Show me your memories."
"Ah sorry. How do I do that?"
"...Just lift up the corner of the seal… The natural deterioration of the seal would have leaked your memories over to me so we just need to speed it up a bit."
"Oh. So that's how the memory leakage works, I see. How much of the seal do I need to remove?"
"Preferably all of it."
".."
Minato stared blankly at the Kyuubi for a bit.
"Fine. Just about as much as your fingernail."
"Understood."
Minato closed his eyes and imagined himself rising to the level of the seal that was high above him. Opening his eyes again, he was right in front of the seal. He picked at the corner of the paper, carefully tearing just enough of it away.
"Good. now leave me be. We will discuss this at a later time after I have finished sorting through your filthy human memories."
"Haha, well you don't have to put it like that, but okay. I'll leave you to it Kyuubi. Thank you very much for your assistance."
"Just get out already."
"I'm leaving I'm leaving."