A/N: So so sorry for the late update. Things happened and I don't have an excuse. I can't promise the next chapter to come faster than this. My family is going to move to the province on Monday and sadly, there's no internet connection there so I can't promise an update soon. I hope this is enough to compensate.

Before going to the chapter, of course, I want to thank my awesome betas! Without them, this story would be a pile of junks.

o0CrimsonsDragon0o

Kuroi raion

NeatStuff

Nedoko-maki

hakon2feb

13talos

Vynush

ProngIsABadger

Go18

The Fourth Hokage's Son

Chapter Four

Five months had passed since Kushina had found out she was pregnant.

Surprisingly enough, the medics and attendants were compliant with all of her demands when it came to matters of food and drink. Even her coveted tonkatsu ramen wasn't out of the question, though it always arrived on the hot side of lukewarm.

It was after a month that she decided she would not resent the people that were oblivious to her plight. Those who only knew she was pregnant were just that, bystanders on the wrong side of the fence. In any case, her status earned her more than enough glances of pity from the female staff and a few smuggled treats that she enjoyed reluctantly with her sister.

She was also given a much better place to sleep, the floor no longer reminiscent of moss and stone, a change she was more than happy welcoming. Moreover, her captors had allowed her a futon, a pillow, and a blanket. Truly, luxury, she thought with more than a bit of scathing sarcasm.

To her dismay, the burdensome chains stayed firmly attached to both of her wrists, a constant reminder of her captivity. But those chains had only served to cause Kushina to redouble her efforts to devise a way to escape the prison she had been placed in.

During those five months, Kushina and Kaoru had thought of numerous ways to escape. However, their main problem was the chains wrapped around both sisters' wrists.

Simply put, Iwa had got them good. Real good.

When Kushina had been abducted, the drugs that sedated her rendered her chakra control utterly useless. She was shortly after cuffed, denying any possibility of escape within the short timeframe.

Of course, once she had come to, she quickly realized that the cuffs had been of Uzumaki make and effortlessly broke down the core principles and values of the seals engraved on the ornate metal links. She became greatly disheartened once she realized that a considerable amount of chakra would be required for a keyed seal that would release her restraints; the cuffs themselves had been intended to suppress chakra almost completely regardless of it being a tailed beast's perfectly suppressing both of a jinchuriki's chakra sources, themselves and their little tenant.

Kushina could have removed it on her own had she possessed enough chakra to use her blood as a medium to deactivate the seals, but the infant in her stomach was constantly draining her reserves. Pure-blooded seals were notoriously hard to create and required even more chakra than an average inked seal to function.

To make matters worse, she still needed to free her sister from her own chains entirely as well if they were to make an escape, She would not be leaving her sister behind, and even if she had to, Kushina would not be able to make it very far on her own with her strength slowly abandoning her.

She couldn't simply snap the chains on her own, no matter how much she struggled against the interlocked links. If only she could regain a fraction of her former strength, she and her sister might be able to escape this.

Aside from that problem, Kushina was worried.

She was pregnant.

Pregnant with Minato's child while being held captive in the dungeon in Iwagakure. She couldn't imagine what these people would do to her poor baby just to have their, meaningless revenge on her husband.

No.

She couldn't let them touch her baby. She needed to do something. She wanted to scream. She wanted to destroy this place by rampaging, but it was useless. The fact remained:

Kushina couldn't do anything at the moment.

She was powerless. She despised it with a burning hatred. She hated feeling so powerless, useless. A mirthless chuckle escaped her lips, her emotions welling up and tears were gently flowing down her face.

"Minato…please find us…"

The prayer went unheard that night.

The Third Tsuchikage sat on his stone seat, fingers pressed together and staring thoughtfully over his village. It was after a short period of silence following another batch of dreaded paperwork that he addressed his quiet secretary.

"How old does the child need to be for us to be able to start his training with the Kyuubi's chakra?"

"Four years old is enough, Tsuchikage-sama."

A smirk bloomed on Onoki's face as he thought of the many ways he could exact revenge on the Yellow Flash.

"To have your village destroyed at the hands of your own child. How fitting, Minato."

The hidden shinobi guards inside the Tsuchikage's office gave their own sinister grin at the thought of the Yellow Flash's face when he realized the truth.

A blank-masked shinobi sped through numerous zigzagging tunnels, turning left and right so many times it would look almost random to an outsider. Finally, the shinobi stopped suddenly, in the middle of an enormous dome and in front of a jagged, cold throne. And on that throne, sat an equally cold person.

"Danzo-sama. It is confirmed that the Fourth's wife is carrying a child."

The man who was sitting so still that he could be mistaken for a statue opened his single visible eye as a smirk ghosted over his wrinkled lips at the news that was just delivered.

"After Onoki kills the Fourth, we will take over Konoha and transform his son into Konoha's strongest weapon," the bandaged man murmured, a hand idly rubbing the wooden cane he carried everywhere.

'Soon, Konoha will be mine.'

"Keep an eye on the child, especially after Onoki successfully transfers the Kyuubi into its new vessel. We will snatch him at the right time."

"As you command Danzo-sama."

Danzo flicked his hand once and the nondescript ANBU vanished, leaving him to his numerous insidious plots.

"Your reign will not last long Minato."

With a malicious glint in his eyes, Danzo stood up and trudged with his cane in hand towards the darkest part of his lair.

The date of birth to her child came too fast for Kushina's liking.

It wasn't that she didn't want to see her baby, she was just afraid of what the Tsuchikage would do to her as soon as she brought her child to the world. And even then, she was more concerned about her child's safety than her own.

So as Kushina pushed and screamed her lungs out, yanking the chain at her wrists so hard that they were soaked with blood; she couldn't help but let the tears roll down her cheeks, born from the agony of childbirth.

Her sister's hands were laid flat on her stomach as the younger redhead tried her best to repress the Kyuubi inside Kushina's seal. Sweat poured down the side of her face as she grimaced with concentration, struggling to not focus on her sister's wails and screams of distress.

"Kushina-neesama, hang in there!" Kaoru encouraged; voice strained, as she darted her eyes from the seal to her sister's agonized face.

"It hurts! It hurts, dattebane! Kaoru-chaaaan!" Kushina let out a low moan as another wave of pain engulfed her being. She felt like she was a boat in a far too big of a sea, getting torn up from all sides and pulled apart in the relentless storm.

Kaoru bit her lip hard as the Kyuubi thrashed inside Kushina, sensing that his freedom was close, if not just out of reach.

A Jinchuriki's seal weakens during childbirth; this was a jealously guarded secret only known to a few people in the Shinobi Nation. Thankfully, the Tsuchikage knew that much, and so Kaoru had been unbounded to help with repressing the Kyuubi inside Kushina.

The Tsuchikage couldn't afford the strongest Bijuu to let loose in his village. Unfortunately, that fact alone wasn't enough to stop his greed of gaining the power of the said Bijuu.

Kushina, on the other hand, had more pressing matters than the Kyuubi to worry about. The redhead was in a world of pain as the screams she uttered stretched her vocal cords more than they had since arriving in this hellhole.

When labor began, the pain was more intense than anything Kushina had ever imagined. Nothing could be more brutal, not whips or chains, not even the nonstop torture she had endured at the hands of those ruthless Iwa Shinobi.

It was so overwhelming that the Iwa Shinobi, her sister, and the medic-nin had melted into the background as if they weren't even there. The redhead huffed and let out another long cry and pushed with all her might, her throat raw and overused from all the cries she had been making. Was it going to end anytime soon? Was there anything more isolating than this intense pain?

This agony she was feeling was so intense that it had locked her in as effectively as any prison, and yet nothing would be worth it except for her unending love for her unborn child.

All of a sudden, the world came abruptly back into focus. Lights far too bright for her liking and voices muffled by a high-pitched ringing noise. Kushina felt sore all over, but she knew that if she had come to her senses then that meant only one thing.

Her baby was finally born.

The medic-nin cleaned up the baby and wrapped him in a white cloth as she laid the infant beside his exhausted mother. Kushina blinked her blurry eyes as she stared at the baby beside her, the agony she had experienced like no other soon forgotten as the new mother gazed in wonder at the bawling baby.

It was as if only sunshine existed in the world and the Earth had been ushered into a serene tranquillity, with just her and the baby. As the baby opened his eyes, the mother was greeted by a pair of familiar cerulean eyes watching innocently into her own, perfect and reaching out for her love. Kushina was overwhelmed. In that instant, she knew she would do anything to protect her child, that her love was as vast as the ocean and as solid as mountains. She was now a mother and would always be by his side in every phase of his life.

The cry of the newborn infant resonated throughout the prison cell as he screamed with the might of an Uzumaki.

Kushina rubbed her tearful eyes to look at him, her son.

"Kushina-neesama…" Kaoru whispered in awe as she borrowed the infant from his mother and stared at him with affectionate eyes.

"He's beautiful," she softly whispered as tears streamed down her cheeks.

While the incomplete family basked in short-lived happiness, the medics proceeded to tend to Kushina and the two redheads let them work as they focused on the little bundle of joy who was still unnamed.

"So, what are you going to name him?" Kaoru asked her sister as she handed the baby back to the tired mother.

Kushina looked at her newly born son and nuzzled him softly with her cheeks. Tears were rolling down her cheeks as she wrapped her baby tenderly in her trembling arms. She vaguely remembered a conversation she once had with Minato and Jiraiya in Ichiraku's ramen stand.

"I like the name Sensei. If Kushina and I have a son, I'll name him Naruto." Minato grinned widely after reading the name of the protagonist in his Sensei's first published book.

"Eh! But I just came up with that name while eating ramen!" Jiraiya exclaimed in shock.

"Naruto, I like it," Kushina said. Smiling wide at the shocked Sannin. The name lingered in her memory for the next following week.

Kushina couldn't help but smile fondly at the memory as tears rolled down her cheeks. She had finally decided.

"Naruto. His name is Naruto."

And thus Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze was born.

The Tsuchikage didn't waste any time. As soon as the news reached him that the child was successfully delivered, he immediately went down to the prison cell to start the transfer.

'Soon, I'll have a new Jinchuriki, one that I could mold as Iwa's most powerful weapon.'

Kushina's face radiated with so much happiness it seemed to fill the room as she smiled affectionately at her son. Minato's son.

She was now embracing her new-born baby as tears of joy rolled down her cheeks. She and Minato had a son now.

'Oh Minato, if only you could see him now. He looks just like you.'

"He has your face Nee-sama," Kaoru said as she smiled tenderly at the mother and son.

"Oh Ru-chan, if you saw his father, I doubt you'd say that. He's his father's carbon copy."

The two sisters giggled as baby Naruto suckled quietly on his mother. Cerulean eyes that were identical to his father was for now hidden behind closed eyelids.

Kushina kissed his head lovingly.

The moment was ruined; however, when they heard heavy footsteps advancing towards their cell room.

Kushina and Kaoru stared at each other with dawning horror.

Kushina immediately hid baby Naruto underneath her blanket, although it was an entirely futile attempt to hide him from the Tsuchikage.

The new mother could feel the erratic beating of her heart as fear slowly swallowed her whole. Kaoru tried her best to shield her sister and baby Naruto from the uninvited guests as she glared with all the hate she could muster at the opening cell in front of her.

There was a clicking of metal as the guards unlocked their secluded cell and let the Tsuchikage and his guards in.

Onoki raised an eyebrow at the two women, their pathetic attempt at intimidation not impressing him in the slightest.

"Grab the infant."

His old voice grated as two of his Shinobi moved according to his command. One shoved Kaoru away roughly and re-tied her binding as she tried to struggle against her captor.

"You goddamn bastard, once I get out of here-!"

Onoki mockingly laughed at the struggling woman and stared into the furious eyes of Kushina Uzumaki.

"Scary eyes. Too bad you can't do anything, my dear Kushina. Just relax and watch as we transfer the Kyuubi into your newly born son."

"Don't you fucking dare!"

There was a deafening crack as Akatsuchi, one of the most loyal guards of the Tsuchikage, slapped her. Kushina spit out blood as she fought with all her might for her son as Akatsuchi tried prying her from baby Naruto.

In the end, a kick to the stomach caused Kushina to let go of her son. She doubled over and vomited, her body shaking with adrenaline. Her body was still very weak from giving birth and past tortures; it was a miracle she hadn't passed out yet considering her condition.

"You stay right there and be a silent dog," Onoki rasped as he signaled for his shinobi to start the transfer.

Kushina trashed and thrashed, trying to fight the two Iwa-nin who was holding her, but when she felt a prick on her arm, she couldn't do anything but glare as wave after wave of hatred poured out of her, greatly surpassing the anger she had felt when she knew of her sister's kidnapping.

And yet, she could do nothing towards the smirking Tsuchikage as her vision slowly clouded and exhaustion took over her body.

"N-no…Naruto…My baby…" Her words came out no more than whispers, darkness quickly narrowing her vision.

Another needle pierced the skin on her arm and Kushina lost consciousness.

Four Years Later

Kushina blinked her blurry eyes open as she felt someone hugging her. Her eyes roamed around her until it landed on the sleeping boy beside her.

It was her son, Naruto.

Kushina couldn't help the pained expression to appear on her face whenever she saw a glimpse of her son. Her innocent son.

"Oh, Naruto."

Kushina silently wept as she hugged her sleeping boy.

Four years ago, after she gave birth, the Kyuubi was forcefully extracted from her and was transferred into her newly born son.

Kushina wasn't awake when the extraction started, the bastard Tsuchikage had drugged her to hell and back to prevent her from struggling.

The next time Kushina opened her eyes, it was to the sorrowful face of her sister who explained to her what happened.

She almost died back then.

She had just given birth and the sudden extraction of the Kyuubi from her frail body didn't help her case at all.

The fact that the Tsuchikage couldn't care less whether she died or not made matters worse; since she had already served her purpose, Onoki didn't need her anymore. It was only because of her sister's miraculous interference did Kushina even manage to survive.

Kaoru had inherited one of the special bloodline abilities of the Uzumaki clan; the healing chakra that could be transferred through biting.

Kushina was so out of it, but as it turned out, her sister managed to wake her up long enough despite the drug in her system for her to bite onto her sister's arm to help her survive.

She did survive, if only barely. Due to how weak she was though, she needed her sister's healing chakra to maintain her health.

Thankfully, Onoki returned baby Naruto to Kushina after the extraction so she still managed to breastfeed him.

The only reason why she was being kept alive was because of her role in ensuring Naruto's survival until Onoki deemed Naruto ready for his Jinchuriki training.

They were planning to turn Naruto into their village's most powerful weapon, and according to what Kushina had heard, they would only wait four years before they began their plans.

Three days from now, Naruto would turn four. Before that, they sorely needed to escape. Kushina was trying her best to recuperate and secretly storing her chakra bit by bit into a tiny seal that she had drawn on her leg using her own blood.

This seal she had devised let out little to no chakra at all and was very hard to detect, perfect for something like an infiltration, or in this case, exfiltration.

She and Kaoru had been quietly discussing their escape plan since Naruto was born, and the time to execute it was today.

Kushina locked eyes with Kaoru and nodded.

Kaoru smiled and took a deep breath before opening her mouth. Out came a delicate, melodic song, so soft and natural you wouldn't even hear it unless you were told that it was there. The notes drifted in and out of the cell and the cell's surroundings, and before long the two guards stationed outside of the cell were caught under its influence, lulled to sleep by the almost siren-esque song.

The younger redhead carefully removed the keys from a holster in one of the guard's clothes and started leafing through numerous odd keys on the keychain.

The two idiots had been drinking and playing cards when Kaoru used a very special technique that she had devised all by herself.

Thankfully, in order to activate this technique, she only needed to draw a seal used to perform a powerful genjutsu. To do that though, she needed to deactivate the pitiful seal in her wrist using her blood. There was a secret way to deactivate a seal created by the Uzumaki clan: the blood of a pure Uzumaki.

Of course, Onoki didn't know about this. The Tsuchikage had completely forgotten about her, deeming her worthless and weak, and disregarded the possibility of her escaping, too focused on her sister's situation and greed.

He didn't know that Kaoru wasn't named a Seal Master for nothing. Her personal invented technique derived from her own hobby of singing could be used as a deadly weapon.

The Serene Voice of Seduction, she calls it, though Kushina had never stopped teasing her about the name to this day. It is a genjutsu fixed in using a blood seal that has been meticulously interlaced with songs that she projected using chakra and her voice.

It has the power to seduce or make a person drowsy and lose consciousness. It was quite the chakra-heavy technique so Kaoru could only use it once a day so they needed to move fast.

For the past years that she was held captive, she had lost her will to live. She had never bothered trying to escape, too sick to live another day. But she lived, the heavens took pity on her, and she met her sister again who she had thought had been dead for years. Now, finally, after four years of watching her sister suffer and this day had finally come.

She now had her sister and a nephew to live for. She couldn't afford to be weak-minded. With her loved ones in mind, Kaoru gained her strength to fight again and successfully deactivated the seal on her wrist with the ease of an Uzumaki Seal Master.

It took her a while to gain her strength after sustaining Kushina's life for a year and a half. Once she was sure that Kushina was capable of sustaining her own life, she started recuperating herself. When she regained enough strength, she drew a small blood seal on her inner thigh and used it to store chakra little by little.

She had successfully deactivated the seal after storing enough chakra and was not trying to set themselves free.

Kushina activated the hidden seal on her right leg and flicked her wrists once. Using fresh blood that was coated on her wrist, Kushina quickly and efficiently deactivated the seals on the chain that bound her.

That idiot Onoki was getting cocky. Leaving only two guards on them? What, did he think that he had completely broken their will four years ago?

Kushina summoned her Uzumaki chains to destroy the now useless cuffs on her wrists. She gently wrapped a cloth around her wounds as she looked at her sister's work.

There was a faint 'click' as Kaoru successfully unlocked the door.

Kushina carefully gathered her sleeping son in her arms as Kaoru slowly pushed the cell doors until there was enough opening for them to escape. It was a good thing that their cell was located at the deepest part of the dungeon. The guards were only situated at the entrance of the small hallway and in front of their cell. Apparently, this cell was supposed to be a secret cell. But this cell had walls, walls that could be easily destroyed with some quick seal work.

The two women made haste around the sleeping guards and silently into the depths of the prison.

Kaoru had told her that their prison was located underground; near the small and only forest of Iwagakure. It looked a lot more like a patch of green moss amidst the gigantic mountains of rocks. And so they decided that the safest way to escape was not towards the same exit and entrance that the Iwa-nin used to go to their cell, but to create a backdoor of sorts and escape from there. Thankfully, they were the only prisoners located underground. She suspected that the Tsuchikage purposely isolated them from the rest of the prisoners. They took it as an advantage.

Kaoru carefully slit her arm and drew an intricate seal using her blood on the wall while Kushina activated it using her chakra.

The wall came apart in a sea of dust, reaching their feet in small waves of what looked like a small tsunami that covered their feet, the light from the moon lighting up a bit the rows of dark, empty cells behind them. The sun hadn't risen yet and dawn was probably a few hours from now. A perfect hour to make an escape.

The two women didn't waste a second and immediately sprinted towards the small forest. Behind them, an alarm flared up loudly, alerting the whole area of their escape.

Both women were still quite weak no matter how hard they had been trying to build up their strength throughout the years in captivity. The unhealthy food and on occasion the lack of thereof had made the task unnecessarily difficult, but they kicked their legs as they pushed their strength-sapped bodies to run.

Soon, they were out of the small forest and were now surrounded by extensive mountains of rocks. Definitely, the village hidden by rocks.

Not too long after, they heard the fast-approaching footsteps from behind them. Kushina narrowed her eyes as she passed the sleeping Naruto to her sister and, barely skipping a beat; halted and drew another seal on the ground. With a swift formation of a hand seal with her experienced fingers, the seal was immediately activated.

Kushina left a Shadow Clone to draw more seals and cause havoc and confusion as the two women carried on running. She would soon run out of the chakra that she had stored up for so long in her legs; they didn't have much time left, and there was only so much they could buy for themselves. They needed to get out of there – fast.

Kushina unconsciously tightened her fist as worry coursed through her system.

'Just let us get to Konoha, please Kami-sama.'

In truth, Kushina didn't know if her body would be able to handle sprinting all the way to Konoha from Iwa. Both she and her sister were too drained, especially Kaoru since she was absorbing her sister's chakra to survive, and so Kaoru couldn't store as much chakra as Kushina did.

Kushina bit her lower lip as she worriedly glanced at her sister who looked exhausted but just as determined. They nodded at each other as if knowing what the other was thinking and continued rushing for their lives.

Naruto, back in her mother's embrace, stirred awake.

"Mommy?"

Kushina looked down on her son and saw him rubbing away the sleep in his eyes.

"Shh, Naruto. Stay still, horrible guys are chasing us – we need to get out of here."

Suddenly wide awake, Naruto tightened his hold around his mother's neck as he looked in fear at the explosions erupting from the direction where they had come from.

Naruto didn't understand much of their situation, but he knew that the people in that place were not friendly. He knew that they had hurt his mother and auntie, but for what reason, he still didn't know.

He vaguely remembered meeting a short old man who liked to examine him from time to time. He didn't like him much. That old man was using his mother to threaten Naruto to follow through with the man's desires.

Naruto still didn't know what he wanted from him. All he knew was that he was supposed to meet that old man three days from now. Though it looked like he didn't need to worry about it anymore.

There was an explosion behind them, and the blast was powerful enough to hurl the two women to the ground. Kushina cushioned Naruto's fall and ignored the stinging wounds on her skin that scraped on the ground.

The sisters jumped back up and glared at the three Iwa shinobi now surrounding them, with more of them on the way, no doubt.

"You think you can run away from us?" the Iwa shinobi in the middle taunted with a sneer, grinning maliciously as they drew their kunai to stab and maul…

*END OF CHAPTER FOUR*

DON'T FORGET TO LEAVE YOUR REVIEWS

I only accept CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM, If you hate my story, please just stop reading it. This is my first Naruto fanfic, and I love Naruto. I don't want to leave the fandom because of many toxic fans so those who love it, enjoy reading!

SyrinxSilenus