Blame Game
Help him. Now." Minato growled out, cradling Naruto in his arms. The hospital receptionist looked seconds away from wetting his pants, but Minato could not care less.
He was angry. Angry, and disturbed, feeling like his heart was just ripped out of his chest, and being trampled and stomped on right in front of him, which to be fair was similar to what was happening.
Naruto was Minato's whole heart and soul, now that he had Naruto back. Minato had been planning to just bury himself in work until he could pass off the role of hokage when the village became stable and join his family in the pure lands. But now, Minato had a reason to live. He had someone who needed him, someone he needed and by the God's if he was going let Naruto suffer even the slightest bit now that he was here.
Minato could feel his body tense and shoulders shake. He wanted so badly to just murder anyone who dared to even touch a hair on his head, let alone those kids that caused such harm to his boy. But what gutted him was the distrust Naruto stared up at him with, those blue eyes gazing into his own, filled with nothing but fear and suspicion.
His heart ached. The receptionist shakily directed him to a doctor, and Minato proceeded to yell at the doctor, urging her to tell him what was wrong with Naruto. Hiruzen and Shikaku, who were finding him, burst into the hospital room, and Minato turned to chew them out next.
"... You're the hokage! My mentor! How is Naruto, the son of the Yondaime, getting bullied this badly? How have you done your job? You promised-!" Minato took a breath to calm himself.
"You promised Kushina and I that you would look after him like he was one of your own…" Minato turned away from Hiruzen, no, the Sandaime, his eyes welling with tears, hands clenching tightly at his sides.
He had believed Hiruzen would protect the boy, would let him grow up without any worries, being treated as a hero.
Instead, he was being bullied, attacked and discriminated against. No wonder Naruto had looked at him with such fear, he had probably been treated far worse. Minato could not excuse this. He had a reason to not be here. His hiraishin went wrong, he time traveled. What reason did Hiruzen have to neglect this child?
"Uhm…" Minato heard the doctor turn and clear his throat. "So, which one of you is his guardian?" He asked nervously. "I am!" "I am." Minato and Hiruzen said at the same time.
Minato turned to give Hiruzen a scathing glare, one he saw Hiruzen flinch away from. "I am." Minato repeated, feeling a giddy sense of happiness at those words. "I'm his father." Minato hid a grin.
"Uh… okay. So this boy has had several wounds which healed up very quickly, almost like there's some force putting him back together." Kurama, Minato bitterly thought. Although he was glad it helped Naruto heal, he knew that if it weren't for Kurama being sealed into Naruto, Naruto wouldn't have to face this bullies anyways.
"He's had a lot of internal injuries, although mostly cleared up. Has he had a history of wounds I could refer to? It seems there's a lot of physical trauma although they all have seemingly healed up…" The doctor sounded curious, treating Naruto as if he was some circus freak. Hiruzen and Shikaku frowned. However, Minato's mind was reeling from the words "physical trauma" .
His baby. His precious Naruto had to face multiple situations like this? Minato whipped his head towards Hiruzen and Shikaku so fast Minato was honestly surprised his head was still on. "Explain…" he threatened both, smiling one of his famous ingenuine, angry types of smiles.
"Minato, listen…" Shikaku started. "No, not you. Sandaime-sama, please explain. Why is Naruto, my child, having a history of physical trauma?" Minato's voice reached an all time high pitch. Hysterical. Namikaze Minato, the Yellow Flash of Konoha, was hysterical.
"...In order to protect Naruto, the council decided it would be better for him to not be aware of his connections…. To his birth parents. Minato, you have many enemies, and if word were to get out, he would be a walking target. We've also made it clear that the fact he is a jinchuuriki is not to be known, to be passed down from one generation to another. However, this has not stopped parents from telling their children to stay away from Naruto, and causing him to be isolated. The wounds were caused by rowdy children, of which we have given stern talking tos." Hiruzen told Minato calmly.
Minato stared at Hiruzen blanky, weighing the pros and cons of becoming a missing nin in his head. “Protect him…” Minato repeated matter-of-factly, as if he were talking about the weather. “Yes, protect him. That’s why my son has a history of physical trauma…” Hiruzen flinched at that. Minato turned to his son, ignoring the doctor who looked like he would rather be anywhere else in the world than in a room with the kages spitting fire – rather one spitting fire and the other desperately trying to make excuses. Because that was what those were. Excuses. Minato caressed Naruto’s cheek, gaze turning as soft as butter. “Naruto…” he breathed out, as if that name were giving him life. Hiruzen and Shikaku looked away uncomfortably, feeling as if they had intruded on a private meeting.
“Wake up soon and meet your dad, kay?” Minato’s gentle voice rang out, but the only recipient of this gentleness was asleep. Turning to the doctor, Minato threatened with a smile, “You will tell me immediately when he wakes, won’t you?” The doctor bobbed his head up and down continuously as if that would make Minato take his attention away from him. “Thank you, sir.” Minato’s smile held no warmth.
Placing a hiraishin seal on Naruto’s bright orange jacket – honestly, where do these Uzumakis get their love of such bright colours – he stalked off out of the room, past Hiruzen and Shikaku, muttering “Hokage’s tower” before disappearing in a yellow flash. Thank god Minato still had his hiraishin marking on that building.
____________________________________________________________________________________
At the Hokage’s tower
“What should we do about this?” Shikaku wearily asked the council. Cue uncomfortable shifting.
Hiruzen cleared his throat. “I believe that after a few lessons about how Konohagakure is functioning now, we should give Minato-san here back his post as Hokage.” Choruses of agreement rang out among the elders. “Any objections?”
Minato smiled as he eyed the room, elders avoiding his gaze as he stared at them. All except one, Shimura Danzo. He open his mouth, seemingly wanting to object, but decided against it.
“Minato-san,” Danzo smiled at him, though looking like he wished to tear Minato apart with his teeth instead. “Could we ask about what happened during the fight with the Kyuubi?” Fugaku Uchiha’s head shot up.
“There have been…” Danzo purposefully paused, glancing at Fugaku, “rumours that the Uchiha clan were the ones behind the attack, as many had seen the Kyuubi been placed under a genjutsu with the sharingan.” Some other elders, probably part of Danzo’s faction, Minato presumed, immediately sat back up excitedly, like Danzo’s words had given them some kind of hope. Minato felt Fugaku’s gaze on him turn from curiosity to pleading.
“These kinds of traitorous actions!” One elder sounded out, nervous at first, but gained courage as other elders supported him. “Will never be tolerated in our Hidden Leaf Village!” He called out self-righteously. Immediately, the elders seemed to glare at Fugaku with accusatory glances and scoffs, Fugaku’s brows crinkling. “Hokage-sama,” A quick glance towards Danzo, Minato noted. “Allow us to maintain our pride and dignity as members of the Konoha council, and-”
“And get rid of the Uchiha?” Minato continued. “Don’t you think that you should allow me to give my version of events before making such a hasty decision?” He smiled outwardly, inwardly trying to decide how quickly he should end this meeting before he could go back to the hospital and see his cute little baby again. God, even while sleeping Naruto looked like a little angel. Maybe Minato should buy him little wigs to stick on his back, then everyone could also see what a good kid Naruto was. His pride and joy. What wouldn’t Minato give-
“But you’ve been gone for 7 years! Perhaps, perhaps your memory has faded!” One elder had the nerve to interrupt Minato’s train of thought of how cute Naruto was. Irritated, Minato snapped, “To you, it may have been 7 years. To me, it happened just yesterday. I am the only witness of the Kyuubi’s attack. Are you really going to ignore such first-hand, primary evidence? It really makes one wonder what kind of agenda you might be pushing in order to want to ignore this.” The elder sat back down and gulped.
“Well, in my version of events,” Minato didn’t forget to shoot Danzo a dirty look before continuing. It was obviously him that incited the rest of the elders, taking away time from Minato that he could be spending next to Naruto. Minato proceeded to tell the council about how he tried to use the Death Reaper Seal to seal Kyuubi into Naruto, and how Kushina had beaten him to it. He talked about the main battles, leaving out his emotions and gave a flat delivery, acting as if it had happened to someone else and not him. If he revealed any weaknesses here, the elders would go for it like hyenas to a carcass, Minato being the carcass here. He had to absolutely make them unable to doubt his story.
“A masked man?” Hiruzen wondered out loud. “Yes, surely you can see how ridiculous this story is!” Danzo tried to interject, but Hiruzen ignored him. “Are you sure of this? He was completely and totally unrelated to the Uchiha Clan?” Hiruzen directed that question to Minato. MInato nodded, “I swear on my name as Namikaze Minato.” That satisfied most of the elders, they all nodded and starting whispering amongst themselves.
“Very well.” Danzo spoke up after a while. “Hokage classes to catch you up will be conducted shortly. In the meantime, we will make an announcement to the village that the Yondaime has come back from the dead.” Even now Danzo was trying to take shots at him, to establish the power hierarchy. Minato sighed inwardly
"Well, I suppose that would be a must. After I'm reinstated as Hokage, I'm looking forward to be making some changes as I see fit, mainly the Uchiha compound." Minato smirked at Danzo's slight shift in body language. Minato was sure Danzo wanted the Uchihas out of the village central in order to secure more power for himself. Hell would sooner freeze over than Minato letting Danzo continue his plans.
"Thank you all for coming to this council meeting." Minato flashed everyone a smile. "I must be going now, I have a lot to do now that I'm back." Mainly mother-hen Naruto. "I hope to see you all gathered here again soon." Minato finished, before forming hand seals to activate his hiraishin jutsu.