A SIREN'S CALL
Minato woke up to the sound of his parents conversing. It was not loud or outrageous, or even spirited. They both sounded defeated. Minato sat up off his futon and wiped his bleary eyes as he tried to hear what they were saying.
"...how long do we have?" his father's voice rumbled. They were both speaking quietly, so he had to get up and press his ear to the door to hear them. The coolness of the wood on the side of his face helped him wake up.
"He will start the Academy when approved at five years old. The counselor told me that unless war began, he would graduate at twelve," she said. Minato remembered her going to the meeting the day before. It had been a week since they got the news about his chakra.
A week since he has seen Baba-san.
"I can start to watch him." his father said. Minato stilled at the words. What did his father mean by that? Is that why he has not been allowed to go to Baba-san's?
"Yuuto-"
"Well, if we no longer need to save money for his education so he can attend regular school, I can watch him more."
Did shinobi not have to pay for the Academy? That had never crossed his mind before, or well never had the chance to because he had been unaware of the true state of his world until a week ago. How did the Academy function, who funded it? Was it fully funded by the government-
The sound of his mother's voice cut him out of his wonderings, and he felt foolish for thinking in interest about the thing causing his parents' pain. "What if he ends up at civilian school?"
"That will not happen, Yuzuki." There was a quiet tone to his voice—a moment of hesitation. "You and I both know that. Minato is smart. They will not let him go. He will end up in some division if he does pass the academy."
Shuffling noises sounded as his mother finally got up. She started to speak. "We do not know that. Just because Minato is smarter than most children his age does not mean anything! It does not change the fact that he is a child."
The sound of her pacing was cut off. He heard his father sigh. "It does to shinobi. Now come here Yuzuki, I wish to hold you."
That was the end of their discussion. When Minato ate breakfast, his father had gone for an hour at that point, he wondered how many conversations he had missed at the dawn of early morning before the sun ever rose.
There was also the realization that Minato had no idea what to do.
He never watched Naruto. The only 'knowledge' he had was of memes from websites he used to scroll randomly. The names were lost on him, but he could think of certain aspects rather well.
One, he only knew scattered and specific information about this 'universe', which could not mimic the 'cannon' at all. How could a child's show or manga match a reality?
So he was useless.
Two, what he did know was that the two main characters of Naruto were extremely homoerotic. Which was insane to think about, because his son, or would be his son, or-- it hurt to think about. Anyway, Naruto was his biological son in some... universe. The implications of that were too much to think about.
The other things he knew were that he died and his character was, and this had Minato pressing his hands to his forehead, that his character was a malewife. That was the only thing he knew about Minato. That he was a malewife and he fumbled by sealing a demon into his son and died with his wife. And he remembered at the bottom of the meme there was a snippet about how he could stop armies with an edit of a bow over a manga panel.
So yeah, he knew that he was in the body of someone who was going to go through war, strife, and loss all from a fucking malewife meme. The other thing he knew was that the Uchiha were mentally ill, there was some freak named Oromaru, and there were somehow aliens involved in all this.
He also knew that shinobi were killers, he could infer that. From a couple of minutes of thinking about that concept, it was easy to assume that this whole village was built on that culture. That this world was not only lacking in technology, but structured around the ideals of violence, and he was a small, small child with a seemingly large fate.
Minato was so fucked.
Minato's breakfast was interrupted by a siren. The loud noise cut through the building, swirling up and up until it consumed all the sound in the room.
"Oh, fuck, I forgot that was today."
What was happening, were they under attack?
"It is a drill, Minato. That means it is practice. I need you to be on your best behavior, okay? Grab your plushie while I pack a bag." Mother said quickly. She wasted no time packing the small emergency bag they had in the corner of the front room.
Then she helped him put his shoes on in a hurry and swooped him into her arms with the bag on her other side.
His mother practically flew down the stairs with the others who were being ushered into lines, the lines of people being pushed into a specific direction.
Minato blinked at the man at the bottom of the stairs. He nodded at his mother before speaking. "Namikaze-san, we are the shinobi escorting this district of civilians to the bunker, please follow the line and follow further instructions."
It was only until his mother fell into the lines like all the other swarming people lost in the crowd that he realized that it was the same pretty man who had saved him from falling down the stairs.
The siren did not stop, in fact, it only got louder. Until it was some screeching storm in his ears. His small hands covered his ears to try and stop it, but it was so loud that it did little to deter it at all. At least they succeeded in making it unavoidable.
Minato saw people running across the rooftops and that was when he realized that they were shinobi.
Would he be that fast one day?
They walked for a good five minutes before they were all guided into a large building that towered over the roads and other buildings. It reminded him of a building with brutalist intents.
Then, they were separated further. Children and their mothers were in certain groups. It was by age, and then when Minato looked closer which was hard to do in the chaos, it also seemed to be slightly by class. Families with clothes that were dripping in wealth and layers were ushered into a different part of the large room.
The thought was not a pleasant thing to consider. Then he also noticed that specific families with no specific signs of wealth were being guided in at the same time as the families with wealth.
He watched the women and children with crests on their shirts being encouraged after that. Was there an order to this? All Minato could do was watch and try not to get overwhelmed by all the noise around him.
There was no enjoyment here, just children screaming and hurried whispers as groups of people were eventually worked into different parts of that dark space. It put him off that even though he and his mother were ushered after the first two groups, they were still the last of the women and children to be given space.
They were led downwards into a spiraling mass of stone. It was terrifying because all the faces around him glowed orange and yellow from the lanterns guiding their way were full of discomfort and fear. Orders were barked in a hurry to mimic the stress of the situation they were imitating, and some more kids started crying because of that.
Minato knew that there would have to be order to this. Because if there was an attack of massive proportions on a village such as this, if there was no order in the disorder or attack, the civilians would get swallowed up in the disorder of the fighting.
However, Minato had no idea of the expanse of that fighting.
There were multiple rooms, but Minato and his mother were sent past them. Minato watched them activate a paper on the wall and a glow encased the room. There must have been a hundred women and children in that room, all under the age of five.
How many rooms were in this bunker? What did the paper and shield do, Minato could not get over how the glow looked like magic. It was even weirder than watching the shinobi run.
Then came the agony of waiting. They waited for hours for the simulation to be over, and Minato had the unfortunate experience of being stuck in a room with about fifty scared toddlers and babies.
Sniffles, the bleary darkness only being cut by the flicker of ten total lights. He counted them over and over again.
Eventually, his mother started to whisper bones to him. This game was familiar enough to calm him down and he pointed to each one she said.
Talus. Femur. Temporal. Hamate.
This was his life now. In a village dictated by the military with the presence of war always on the horizon. His life was now defined by test sirens and bones.
After all the commotion, Minato was exhausted. He made it through the walk back and even ate lunch. However, by the time his mother dropped him off at Baba-san's for the beginning of her night shift- he was desperately in need for a nap. He did not even think to reflect on why he had not been at Baba-san's for a week.
Honestly, it was Baba-san's fault. She rocked him as soon as she saw him. She was at her little shrine, humming, and she slowly rubbed his back. He would have to be demented to resist sleeping at that moment. So he did fall asleep to a song he did not know and the scent of Baba-san's incense.
He woke up to the harsh feeling of someone shaking him awake. Tiny hands gripped his shirt and pushed him. Minato blinked awake and pushed back, and his face met the dark eyes of a child who looked at him with disappointment and disgust.
Black shining hair, porcelain skin, and eyes so dark he barely saw the difference between the kid's pupils and irises. He looked so petulant like Minato was scum on the earth.
"You idiot, you will die sleeping like that." the boy said. By the sound of his voice, he had to be around the age of five. Also, by the look of his cute little face.
Wait, what the hell did he just say?
"Fugaku-kun, let Minato go. The boy has not started Academy training, and you are acting like a fool. He is too young." she demanded in a monotone voice.
The other boy looked like he wanted to protest but thought better of it. He let Minato go and the other boy scrambled to his feet.
"Now, apologize." the woman continued.
"But he is-" Fugaku protested.
"Apologize."
The little kid glared, actually glared at him as he said sorry. Minato was at a loss for words for how a small child could look so vicious. Little did Minato know, that was only the beginning.