Another Chance

“Well, you know that I’m the Yondaime, right?” Minato started out, trying his best to look past the blond hair covering Naruto’s eyes to see his expression. “And you learnt in the Academy that the Yondaime died while fighting the Kyuubi, right?” Minato watched as Naruto slowly nodded his head, silently cooing at his cuteness in his heart

‘Humph’ Kurama sounded off in Naruto’s head. “I thought I had killed him, but then why is he still here?” Kurama pointed out snootily. In Naruto’s opinion at least. Could a fox be snooty? Naruto wasn’t sure, but if they could be, Kurama would definitely be the snootiest fox ever. “Shuddup, kit. Focus on the matter at hand.” Kurama yet again snapped at Naruto, voice laced with a tinge of exasperation. Or annoyance. Naruto wasn’t sure of the difference, he was only 7 after all.

“So, if you’re dead-or supposed to be dead, then why are you here?” Naruto asked, knowing that it was the question Minato was looking for. Like he expected, Minato seemed to light up like a light bulb when he heard it. Excited, Minato started rambling, “Well, do you fuuinjutsu? Of course you do, Sandaime should have gone over it with you like I and Kushina had asked him to. We left a lot of our own seals, you know, in the box we left for you. I’m sure you’ve seen it, maybe you just didn’t know what it was! Or who left it for you, though I’m sure Sandaime has told you about it?” Minato gushed, his love for fuuinjutsu showing. “Some of the seals inside are for…” Minato stopped himself, seeing Naruto’s confused, almost teary look.

“You… left something for me?” It came out barely above a whisper. “You didn’t just a-abandon me?” Naruto’s voice was soaked in hope, almost tangible in the way it was dripping in longing and want. Minato could just reached his hands out, to cup Naruto’s face and reassure him that of course he wouldn’t abandon Naruto, that Minato loved him far too much for that. “Wait… what do you mean by that? Did you never receive that box? It was… it was covered in uzumaki spirals (courtesy of Kushina) and had a seal that would open when you dripped some blood on it! Do you- do you have any recollection of that?” Minato hurriedly asked Naruto, his heart clenching. He couldn’t stop himself from balling up his fist so tight his nails dug into his skin. Hiruzen… they would have some talking to do after this.

“Ree-collect-shion?” Naruto stuttered out, trying to copy Minato’s pronunciation of the word. “It means memory. Do you remember seeing such a box, Naruto?” The softness in Kakashi’s voice could not be hidden. It was the first time Kakashi had spoken since they entered. Seeing the tenderness in the way Kakashi treated Naruto, Minato smiled.

Minato watched as the laboured breaths turned to softer, more relaxed puffs of air. Naruto looked like an angel sleeping so gently on the bed, so calm and so receptive to Minato, it was hard to connect this behaviour to the boisterous and impulsiveness of his hits from before. Minato knew he would have to do more, to be a more permanent presence in Naruto’s life for the boy to truly and finally accept him into his small world. And he would. But today, he would just lie down with his son wrapped in his arms, and mourn his wife while celebrating a new-found family.

“No,” Naruto replied, feeling like he had done something wrong. Was he supposed to know about this mysterious box? Although slightly afraid, he was filled with hope, the idea that his parents had actually planned for him and cared for him enough to leave him something, making him feel that just maybe he wasn’t just an abandoned child no one wanted.

“Well, anyway…” Minato tried to steer the topic back to what he intended it to be, before the whole ‘box’ thing ruined the atmosphere he had painstakingly created. “Aren’t you curious how I’ve come back from the dead?” Minato tried to make a light hearted joke. Did it work? Minato glanced at Naruto, seeing him carefully consider the question before gingerly nodding his head. Sort of worked. Good enough.

“Well, as you know, I’m a powerful shinobi, but Kyuubi was a powerful entity. When we fought, we were both knocked down real hard, and when it was over, I slept for a really really long time before waking up.” It wasn’t a lie, Minato mourning from Kushina was a state where he could hardly be considered conscious or anything. The story he told was a highly embellished version of the actual events, dumbed down for a kid Naruto’s age to understand. Minato felt Naruto’s gaze towards him shift, starting to seem more admiring. Minato let out a small smile at that, proud. He had never wanted to boast his strength before, but feeling his son's admiration made him want to start to. “And I only came back very, very soon, to see someone very, very important that I left behind. And can you imagine when I saw him, all grown up and with blonde hair so similar to mine?” Minato chuckled, half apprehensive and half excited. He had finally told Naruto his version of events, one that truly came from him without any word of mouth. Now, he would just hope that Naruto would accept this.

Naruto carefully tossed the idea over in his mind. So his dad was actually sleeping and had no idea that Naruto existed? Did that make it all the better then, everything that Naruto had faced would be all gone and he could finally live a normal life like all his classmates in the academy who had parents coming to fetch them everyday after school? Naruto was hopeful, more hopeful than he had ever been before. But… he knew there was a part missing from this story. “Kyuubi… he’s sealed in me right?” Naruto questioned Minato, voice surprisingly devoid of emotions. His walls were about to come crumbling down, and Naruto knew that he would have to hear this first before being able to fully trust the man. “Why would you seal Kyuubi in your own son?”

Minato drew in a shaky breath at that question. Of course, he knew that question would be coming eventually, it was just a different thing practising answering the question in the mirror everyday for a week than saying it straight in front of his son. His son that he wronged, hugely. Tremendously. When he sealed Kyuubi in Naruto that night, he had thought Kyuubi would be a great asset to Naruto, a power that he could draw from when he became a shinobi. Knowing Kushina was the jinchuuriki, and seeing that the village never really mistreated her, Minato had falsely assumed that it would be the same for Naruto as well. It was only that when Kushina had Kyuubi sealed in her, it was before the Kyuubi had killed multiple people in the Hidden Leaf including the Hokage himself and also razed down their village. Naruto didn't have that privilege, and Minato could sort of understand the difference in treatment. Sort of understand, but not empathise. Naruto was a hero, who stopped the Kyuubi attack by sacrificing himself, against his will. It wasn’t fair to Naruto that he not only had to save the entirety of the Hidden Leaf, but also be mistreated so badly because of it.

“Naruto, do you love our village?” Minato made a gesture to the town outside Naruto’s open window, wind causing the curtains to billow slightly, framing the view of the Hidden Leaf. “Of course, dattebayo. Why wouldn’t I, it's my home!” Naruto answered quickly, like he didn't even have to think about it. Naruto supposed he hadn’t had to, unlike him. “Would you sacrifice yourself to save the village?” Minato continued asking. Naruto nodded at him passionately, fervent in his desire to protect his home. “Well, Naruto, I’m the same. We love our village, and I wanted to sacrifice myself to protect this place that day. But I didn’t have the chance to. The Kyuubi needed to be sealed into a baby, someone that could accept its chakra more easily. But there were no children left in the village.” Naruto nodded, hanging off of Minato’s every word.

“I have no explanation for why I sealed Kyuubi into you, other than the desperation I had to protect our village. It was a sacrifice I had to make. Not a sacrifice of my own life, but my child’s.” MInato hung his head, not wanting to see Naruto’s face, afraid that anger and hatred would be all that was written on it. “From the moment that you were born, you had no choice but to become the vessel for the Kyuubi. This was mine and your mother’s choice. I’m sorry, Naruto. If I were stronger… if I had…” Minato let out a small hiccup. Kakashi took over for him. “Naruto, by being our village’s jinchuuriki, you saved many people, you saved the Hidden Leaf. But, by becoming the jinchuuriki, you also had to face a lot of undue hatred and mistreatment. Minato-sensei had asked Sandaime to protect you from the brunt of it knowing that most jinchuuriki are not treated very well by their village, but not a lot could be done.”

Naruto understood. He was the only child available that they could seal the Kyuubi into, to stop Kyuubi from destroying the village. Rationally, he could understand that it was something that needed to be done. But he was 7. He could understand, but he could not accept that his father, the one that was meant to protect, had instead practically sent him to his death. Social death, but still death. “I hate that…” Naruto said under his breath. It was an outburst that he could not stop. Years of mistreatment and abuse had caused him to bottle up any emotions, any feelings of unfairness that he felt because those feelings would just make it hurt all the more. But now that someone was listening to him, someone was caring about him, but that someone was the one who caused all of this, Naruto didn’t know how to feel. His emotions were bubbling up in him, layer by layer tearing down his walls. Naruto felt stripped like an onion, so vulnerable in front of this man. “Why did I… why me…?” Naruto felt those pesky tears once again prick his eyes, the stinging pain a good distraction from the pulsating ache in his chest. He could not falter here. If he did, he would not be able to go back. Naruto knew this. But he couldn’t contain himself, not when those blue eyes looked at him so tenderly, like he was being carefully protected in the depths of those eyes..

“I also…! I also wanted to be able to walk down the streets peacefully, and buy things without people yelling at me! I wanted to be able to make friends too! It’s… it’s not fair! I wanted to be able to… to…” Naruto was dissolving into hysterics, feeling everything just spill out of him. Like someone had dumped a fistful of mentos into pepsi (yes ninjas have that too- i think), like a volcano had been filled to the brim with magma. It was explosive, illogical, and uncontrollable as the tears spilled out of Naruto’s eyes. Naruto couldn’t concentrate on anything other than how betrayed he felt, but at the same time how comforted he felt by the same person.

Slowly, Minato knelt down by Naruto, rubbing comforting circles on Naruto’s back as he cried with his son. Naruto turned into Minato’s embrace, inviting the older blonde to wrap two steady arms around his shaking figure, instinctively seeking comfort from someone he had subconsciously deemed safe. “I’m sorry, Naruto. I’m sorry.” Minato kept repeating the words as the tightly curled Naruto into himself, trying to make up for lost time where he couldn’t be beside his son. He was so small, so fragile, and Minato could finally hold him. Albeit sad, Minato was more ecstatic that Naruto was so close to him, that he could finally hug his son. That was before the punches started.

“!!” Minato barely avoid a clumsily thrown fist towards his face, too preoccupied trying to burn the feeling of Naruto in his arms into his mind. It didn't stop with the first failure, more barrages of attacks came crashing into Minato, that he could easily avoid if he put Naruto down. Minato was unwilling. Continuing to hold Naruto closely, he manoeuvred his hand to avoid the punches in between hurried hiccups, and the glares between furious wiping of eyes. Minato couldn’t help but laugh. Though Naruto had meant to look scary and menacing, he came off as exactly the opposite to Minato. “Naruto…” Minato breathed, giving up on evading the attacks and just letting them hit his face. It wasn’t like they could do much damage anyway, with the boy so much smaller than himself and so distraught. “I love you”

The punches stopped all of a sudden. Minato’s eyes sprung open at that, and heard the silent sobbing continue. Except this time it wasn’t silent anymore, but loud wails that each felt like a kunai straight through Minato’s heart. He would have fathered Naruto continued trying to attack him, this kind of emotional damage was much worse. As he fretted over Naruto’s curled up form, he shot desperate glances to Kakashi, seeing the younger Nin look on in amusement. “Kakashi! It’s not funny, come and help me! Naruto’s crying!” Minato voice went up a few pitches, mother-henning over Naruto. “Relax, Sensei, children at this age cry a lot.” Kakashi walked over to the pair, still languid, though Minato could recognise the slight crease of his one visible eye. “Give him some time, and Naruto will -“ The crying stopped. “Fall asleep.” Kakashi finished. Both looked down to the child sleeping peacefully in Minato’s arms, eyes puffed up and tear streaks littering his face. Kakashi swept a stray strand of hair away from Naruto’s face, admiring his younger brother. Younger brother. It felt good to call him that. Minato smiled at Kakashi’s small actions, causing Kakashi to tense and whip his head around, but Minato could still see his burning ears. “Either way, I should tuck Naruto in…” Minato stood up, one hand holding on to Naruto tightly, the other rubbing his puffy eyes that so matched Naruto’s own. To Kakashi, they both seemed like a pair of yellow goldfish, one slightly bigger than the other.

Kakashi stretched out his arms, reaching to take Naruto from Minato. “I’ll do it-“ But Minato shook his head. “I want to, Kakashi.” He told the copy Nin, smiling brightly. Walking slowly over to Naruto’s bedroom (there were only 2 doors in the apartment, one door having a shaky uzumaki spiral etched into the door. It wasn’t hard to tell which was the bedroom) Minato set Naruto onto the bed gently, and looked around. It was a small room, empty except for a bed, cabinet and bookshelf. The bookshelf was sparingly filled with Academy books, and when Minato opened the cabinet, all he saw where a few orange and white jumpers and T-shirts. There were a few pair of worn out blue shorts, standard issue for an academy student. Sparse. Incredibly sparse. Minato frowned heavily. Naruto was the child of the Hokage, and was the last of the Uzumaki clan— a prestigious clan that was involved with the founding of Konohagakure. Why… would Naruto ever be lacking in material things if someone had actually treated him fairly and cared about him? Minato would be that person, ensure that Naruto lacked nothing in material and emotional aspects.

Minato watched as the laboured breaths turned to softer, more relaxed puffs of air. Naruto looked like an angel sleeping so gently on the bed, so calm and so receptive to Minato, it was hard to connect this behaviour to the boisterous and impulsiveness of his hits from before. Minato knew he would have to do more, to be a more permanent presence in Naruto’s life for the boy to truly and finally accept him into his small world. And he would. But today, he would just lie down with his son wrapped in his arms, and mourn his wife while celebrating a new-found family.