Naruto's family
Blurry eyes opened to see blonde hair moving around his bed. Naruto moved his hands to feel around himself, noting the softness of a bed that definitely did not belong to him. It was too… not rough, too not itchy. Naruto felt himself melt into the bed, before startling when a voice squealed his name at such a high pitch he couldn’t believe his ears were still working.
A messy blonde head came into view first. Blonde hair, the same shade as his. Naruto couldn’t stop hope from blossoming in his chest. Could they be related? As fast as that thought came, Naruto stamped it out. NO way.
Naruto could not handle having this kind of hope. Hope would be trampled upon. He had learnt this from years of experience. He had people act kind to him, and had whole-heartedly believed their sugared words that he was in fact not a monster, too blindsided by the feeling of hope to realise their snickers behind his back. He had brought them to his secret hideout, a rackety little wooden hut Naruto had taken months to put together with what little materials he found laying around Konoha. The minute they entered his hut, they left with promises to come back, and dropped an explosion tag, burning his little establishment to the ground.
They laughed maniacally as they ran from Naruto’s house, crying out that the monster would eat them alive. Naruto, just barely managing to leave the hut, watched as it burned down, along with all his hard work in building it, and his hopes of having anyone being kind to him. It hurt as he watched it burn down. He felt that his heart was aching horribly, that it was heart rather than the hut being burnt down. Naruto bit his lip as he recalled. Did he blame those kids? No, of course not. Where did a monster get the courage to blame a human? He blamed himself for allowing them to enter his hut, he blamed himself for not being good enough to make them want to burn down his hut, but mostly he blamed himself for holding out hope that he could ever be accepted. It was stupid, and he was stupid. How could someone like him ever be accepted? He was a monster that took away people’s lives and their families, he deserved this treatment. But if only, if only someone could just look at him, say his name rather than “monster”, Naruto thinks he could die happily.
The blonde man happily, eagerly almost, wraps his arms around Naruto. “Naruto…” whispered out. Hiding his complicated emotions away – after all, who liked to see a monster cry? – he said with a big grin, “Hey mister! You're that guy from that time aren't you? At the watermelon shop! Thanks for that! Uh, but do you have the wrong person? I’m Naruto Uzumaki, and probably not the Naruto that you’re looking for!” How could he be the correct recipient of this man’s strong albeit strange affections? He was the monster fox. Naruto’s eyes dimmed at that thought but he shook it away fast enough.
The blonde man suddenly held Naruto further away, intensely studying his face. He suddenly frowned, and Naruto flinched. He knew it. Of course, this man’s unreserved affections weren’t meant for him. He must be disgusted knowing he just touched and hugged the monster fox. Naruto felt himself slightly wither under the man’s glare. The man, seemingly noticing this, immediately lightened his face to a smile, and asked in a casual manner, “Hey Naruto, look at me. See anything familiar?”
Minato waited with bated breath as to what Naruto would say. His poor son, thinking he wasn’t enough to receive anyone’s, much less Minato’s, affections. What kind of childhood had his precious Naruto went through in order to have such self-deprecating thoughts. Naruto obviously had no self-esteem, and Minato would definitely fix this. He frowned at the thought of his baby having to go through such troubles at his young age. But, once Naruto knew that Minato was his father, they would be on the right track to having a good father-son relationship, where Naruto could come back everyday from the Academy and find Minato in his apron, cooking a good meal for him, Minato would see Naruto bring back little drawings of their family he did during lessons, and Minato could talk about Kushina to Naruto, telling him all about her. Yes, that would be how it goes…
“YONDAIME!” Naruto’s sudden shout pierced Minato’s heart harder and more painful than Minato thinks anything has, and he's had his fair share of being stabbed in the heart, courtesy of Kyuubi and fighting in the 3rd Great Shinobi War. It was true, but… Minato had been hoping for a different answer, maybe something about how they looked so much alike, and the oh wow the fourth hokage is my dad would come later.
Naruto is sweating bullets at this point. A strange man was hovering over him, hugged him and it turns out this man is the Yondaime? When the word left Naruto’s mouth, the strange ma- Yondaime, Naruto corrected himself - looked as if he had been gutted. Naruto, seeing him look as if his world had ended, started to feel guilty. They did look alike, Naruto thought to himself, more and more seeing the resemblance.
“Did you come back to life as a ghost to haunt me cuz I spray-painted a moustache on your face?” Naruto cried out, suddenly getting afraid of this man turning against him. “Cuz I spray-painted a monocle on Jiji’s face and he forgave me, believe it!” Naruto tried to make excuses. “I wasn’t targeting you!”
A slight chuckle drew Naruto out of his fear. The chuckle was followed by a laugh, and soon the Yondaime had tears streaming down his face, crying his heart out but laughing hard too. “Naruto…” he sputtered out. “You spray-painted the heads of the previous hokages?”
“...Yeah! So what! I’m going to be the next Hokage, so it doesn’t matter anyway, believe it!” Naruto let his guard down after seeing the man laugh so hard. So what if he did? Jiji made him clean everything off anyways!
“Yes, I’m the fourth Hokage, but who cares about that!” The Yondaime carried on. Who cared? Naruto gaped at his words, indignant. If the Yondaime didn’t want that position, he could give it up to someone more qualified, like him, believe it! “What else do you see, Naruto?” The man’s words belayed a hopeful tone, like he was waiting to hear a certain set of words.
Now, Naruto always had a talent for saying what others wanted to hear, but now he was drawing at a blank. More closely scrutinising the Yondaime’s face, he offered a weak, “You have blonde hair?” It was the first and most obvious thing about the man, but Naruto didn’t know what else to say. Thankfully, the Yondaime’s face lit up in the most excited way, and he prompted Naruto, “And what’s your hair colour?”
“Blonde too…” Naruto fingered a strand of hair as he mumbled. He didn’t like where this was going. “And my eyes are blue, y’know” The Yondaime continued, oblivious to Naruto’s changing emotions. “So are yours!” He said excitedly. “... We look really alike.” Naruto continued, eyes narrowing at the man. He nodded happily, expecting the next words out of Naruto’s mouth.
Naruto broke out into as large a grin he could muster. “What a weird coincidence!” He blurted out. The Yondaime’s face fell. It fell so fast, from such a happy grin that Naruto felt a little whiplash. Was it talent to be able to change his face so fast? Was this what was needed to become Hokage? Naruto thought a bit more about his goals, before deciding again that he did in fact still want to become Hokage, even though his predecessor were all a little weird.
“No, Naruto, I was trying to say that we are related.” The Yondaime said. “I’m your dad.” The blonde man looked so hopeful, but those three words immediately crushed Naruto’s spirit. Yes, he had wanted a dad, wanted a family, but…. Naruto felt his heart sink yet soar at the same time. The tears he was desperately fighting had finally won, and started to slowly make their way out of his eyes. Naruto sniffed angrily. Why was he upset? He finally had what he wanted, didn’t he?
“Naruto….” The Yondaime, apparently his dad, reached down to try to touch him, but Naruto jumped back hastily. His voice came out as shaky as a leaf in the wind, not at all like the strong, calm image he wanted to portray. “Don’t come into my life now and pretend to act as my dad! He- he died in the Kyuubi attack! That’s why he doesn’t come see me!” Naruto shrieked. “I don’t need your false pity! It was the Yondaime that sealed the fox into me anyways! I hate you! I hate you!” Naruto slapped away an outstretched hand. “I hate you! Get away from me! Or else, my real dad will… will” Naruto couldn’t find the words to finish his sentence. He knew he didn’t actually have a ‘real dad’ and that this man was probably his actual, biological one. But blood didn’t matter to him. If this was his dad, alive and kicking, then why did he have to suffer alone for all those years? Every waking minute of his 7 year long life had been finding a way to run from his pain, run away from his loneliness, and every minute spent asleep was a place for Naruto to construct his own made-up family,
“I really, really hate you…How could you...” Naruto hiccupped. Sure he wasn’t the one that had let Naruto suffer, but he was damn well the main cause for it. Naruto turned and ran from the hospital room, letting his legs push him forward, back to his apartment, back to safety.
He blindly pushed past people as he ran, doing his best to ignore the shouts, the looks and the stares, but it was so much harder today. He felt so raw today, after hearing what the Yondaime said. Like his outer layer was scrubbed clean off, and his inner, tender skin was subject to everything now. He ran faster, and when he reached his apartment, he locked it shut quickly, before collapsing heavily on his bed.
Itchy, Naruto thought. And rough. But it felt like home to him. Naruto closed his eyes, and allowed his mind to drift, back to those big gates where he could see his bestest friend in the world – Kurama – again.
Minato slumped down on his chair, staring blanking at the door his son had just run out from. What was he expecting, that he could waltz into that child’s life, without even letting his child know anything other than the fact that he was the jinchuuriki? And by the Gods, how did Naruto even know he was the jinchuuriki? Could Hiruzen really do nothing right at all? Minato groaned into his hands. This was not going at all like he had planned. He had though that, after telling Naruto that, he would sit with Naruto and they would both cling to each other and cry their hearts out, then maybe bond over Ichiraku Ramen with Minato sharing about Kushina. After that, they would both go to Minato’s home, and he would pat Naruto to sleep and fall asleep cuddling with his son.
Instead, he got this mess. Not that he could blame Naruto for this, no. Naruto was Minato’s sun, and he the planet that just rotated around Naruto. If Naruto said east, Minato would never go west. Minato groaned again. Why was nothing going his way ever since that damned Kyuubi? He felt his palms getting wet. This was all his fault. If only he had someone Naruto was close to to help him navigate this new relationship. How was he supposed to make this right with Naruto?